Showing posts with label Rev. Rick Carroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rev. Rick Carroll. Show all posts
Monday, April 8, 2013
07 April 2013 “Seeing is Believing” John 20:19-31
07 April 2013 “Seeing is Believing” John 20:19-31
We are, by nature, curious people. My good friend Daniel Everly taught me about our curious nature when he created such an interest in me I went with him a number of years ago on a field expedition with the Rock Art Foundation of Texas. The Foundation is dedicated to the rock art and historic sites throughout the lower Pecos region of West Texas.
Over five millennia, aboriginal artists recorded elaborate scenes on the limestone canvas of canyons and rock shelters in an area defined by the lower courses of the Pecos and Devil’s rivers and their confluences with the Rio Grande River.
That day we drove and drove and then hiked to the Pecos River and a remote rock overhang where I saw in vivid color the painted images of snakes, bear, deer, human like figures, panthers, and the coolest of all, shamans. I had seen pictures of these images in books. But I was so curious to see them first hand in their natural setting and to hear the stories of how and why folk would record such striking images of life long past that I had to see them for myself. They were spectacular.
In today’s gospel, Thomas was faithful to his nature too. He was faithful to his personal drive to know the truth about his life, his world, the experiences he was living and seeing unfold before him as a follower of Jesus. Given the recent turn of events, Thomas was not about to change from his curious ways. He had to see things for himself.
That Jesus had died, he was certain. What his friends were now telling him, he was not so sure. He struggled to believe that Jesus was no longer dead. That he was alive and had actually appeared to them and even spoken to them was beyond belief. He had to see for himself what common sense told him was impossible.
When I taught at Blinn College it was always a struggle to help my students understand the basis for knowing what was indeed true and real in life and what might be suspect. Often, I found, we confuse our own view of what we think is true for what everyone else actually knows to be otherwise.
Often, our personal view is just that, our personal view. Just as often, that view is not what right reasoning knows to be true. Being able to know the difference is a huge accomplishment and for some, why, we spend a lifetime searching for clarity and certainty.
Thomas shows us the right way to approach this dilemma. Ask, “Where is your proof?” Say, “Show me,” which is exactly what he did.
At some point in our lives we all have asked for more proof about God. At some point in our lives we all have realized that just because people we know, people we respect, or even people we love believe certain things about Jesus, they may be wrong.
Their faith claims stops being sufficient proof for us. So we do what Thomas did, we strike out on our own, we study, we read, we pray, we engage in discussion, we expose ourselves to new and different ideas. We begin to define limits for ourselves.
We first discover what we absolutely do not accept as the truth. The wacky sounding claims, the rhetorical clichés, the mainstream ideas. They help us turn to scripture, to respected teachers, to the church even and we discover bits of truth here and there. Bits we file away in our believe system.
Then we discover truths we hold to be absolute and foundational and solid as a rock. These solid truths become strongly held faith and belief certainties that define our Christian way of living.
When it was evening on that day, the disciples were huddled in the upper room. They were afraid of the religious authorities, afraid of the religious folk who resist the message of the Gospel and its light preferring instead to hide in the old ways of holy habit. Even with our rock solid beliefs we Christians can be like this some times. It is easier to hide in our old ways, our comfortable clothing of holy habit.
Jesus comes not to rebuke us or the disciples but, with a word of peace, spoken twice. Jesus has atoned for our sins, died on the cross to ensure our salvation, spoken first to Mary, calling her name, then calling ours.
We cannot avoid this relationship with Jesus. He has done too much for us to take him lightly. He has come back into the life of the living. He returned from the grave to be with his disciples again and he has returned from the grave to be with us, each of us. And like his disciples, we too are being sent out into the world, we too have been breathed upon, we too received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, we too have therefore become his apostles.
Thomas was not there when Jesus came, neither were we. He doesn’t believe until he sees the marks, neither do we – not because we lack faith, remember, we are curious by nature and our skepticism keeps us safe from foolish decisions.
Thomas was like us, he wasn’t different from the others, he wants to see the same thing they saw, he wants to see the same things we want to see, “show me the marks” he says. “Show me the marks,” we also say.
In the same room with the same group, in church, Jesus comes to Thomas and shows him the marks. Then, like John who had entered the tomb and believed, Thomas believes, he says, “My Lord and my God”.
This phrase becomes the later church’s confession and it becomes ours, “My Lord and my God.” This story, we realize, is not only about Thomas it is about us, the church. This is clear from Jesus’ insistence on blessing those who have not seen and yet believe – Jesus embraces us here, the church.
Our society has many like Thomas and they want evidence before they believe. They cannot see the marks of the body of Jesus, but they can see the marks on the body of Christ, on us, the church.
Society and non-believers and those from non-Christian faiths are quick to point this out. We see you church people! We see what you are doing!
Sadly, the marks of today’s Christians do not always convince the many like Thomas in society who want evidence before they believe.
Mahatma Ghandi famously said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Unless I see the marks, I will not believe.
In the history of Christianity there are marks that would help doubting folk like Thomas believe. The marks we have to show them are the historical stories we tell of our Christian witness. There are many we can tell, stories of people like John Calvin or John Knox or others responsible for the Presbyterian tradition finding its way to America. But, what about ordinary people?
We need look no further than this church to find ordinary people who are heroes in the faith. We need look no further than the marks left by the real life stories of people in our own church. We need look no further than the founding families and the ministers of Trinity and Wilshire Presbyterian Churches. We need look no further than the transformative folk that brought life to Genesis Presbyterian Church. These are the marks those who doubt long to see, our history, our tradition, our ministries. Once they see us, then they will believe.
People come into our church on a daily basis and we show a great deal to them, and much of what we show is good. Before they can believe, they want to see what it is that marks us as the body of Christ, they want to see what marks us as Christians who are like Christ, they want to see that we not only believe in a redeemer, that we act redeemed.
People come into our church on a daily basis and we act like Christ when help them by listening, giving them our love through a kind word or a helping hand. People come into our church on a daily basis and they call our name. They tell us, “Unless I see his mark on you, I will not believe!” They come to worship, we greet them during the passing of the peace, we invite them to our table to take communion with us, we invite them to break bread with us in fellowship at our congregational luncheons, we let them see Jesus’ mark on us when we open our church to them to give them a place of comfort and love when they grieve the loss of a loved one like we did yesterday when we filled this space with folks coming to celebrate the life of the Reverend Clarence Bassett.
These are a few of our marks, there are others, you know about them, you know about the wonderful ministry network we have for taking care of one another, for keeping up with one another, for visiting with one another, for loving one another. You know about our Christian marks.
Can we then feel good enough about these marks that we will open our arms to folk like Thomas, folks looking for what is true and real about God. Folks who come to see our marks so they may believe.
I believe we can and it is obvious we have because those who ask to be shown the marks of Jesus in us want to see the marks in a church, an ordinary church, a safe place, this church. And the greatest truth we show them is the boldly lived claim, “See how they love one another”. See how they love one another and us too.
May we bring them to this church? I think so, for through thick and thin, we love our savior and we love one another.
Jesus said, “Do not doubt, but believe” that through believing all who come this way may have life in his name and have it abundantly. For they will believe and come this way, to this church, knowing Jesus by our love.
What greater gift might we give than to give our love, that others may live.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
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Monday, January 16, 2012
15 January 2012 Glorify God John 1:43-51
15 January 2012 Glorify God John 1:43-51
This morning we will install two session elders, Jeff Woodruff and Duane Hiller for the class of 2015. These two have heard God’s call to serve the church and they have answered that call. I know you will join me in thanking them in advance for their service to God, to this church, and to our wider world.
A day like today may bring memories of those times God nudged you to service in God’s kingdom. God’s serving community has so many faces. Why, our joining with family to be family may have been our very first call. As we grew older God had a way of nudging us on beyond our first family to school, from school to work and perhaps another family, from another family to community and yes, church. So many times we have found ourselves on our knees trying to understand God’s call, trying to discern God’s will.
Often lost in our prayer for discernment is God’s affirmation, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” We do not choose God, but God choses us. God reminds us this morning through John’s gospel this call business is all God’s doings. It is God’s doing that we are found by God and sent into God’s kingdom. It is God who equips us and chooses us for kingdom building. The call of God is to all believers, not just to these two good folks this morning.
The evidence is before us. All in these pews this morning are gifted and equipped by God. Now do not try and deny it! We know it to be true here at Genesis for each of you have unique gifts, a special calling.
Being so gifted by God began with those early disciples whom he desired. God desired to have them and gifted them with three special assignments: to preach the gospel, to heal the sick and to be with him. The first two assignments are task specific, preach and heal. The third, to be with him, is often overlooked.
To always be close to Jesus can be risky. Being with him means we have to be so close that we know where he is going and what he will do next, and with whom. Knowing Jesus took risks with people, places, and events makes us uneasy when we hear God’s call to be with Jesus in his ministry. Knowing Jesus’s ways we may hesitate, we may stand motionless, before we commit to let God use us where God leads. For where God leads we may not want to go.
In our hesitation, our motionless, we may truthfully and honestly wonder. How could this be God calling me to this way? Where did God come to know me so well God can direct my life? We know God know us. God is God after all. But how do we know when it is God calling and not our own desire or that of the evil one?
In our Gospel story this morning Nathanael sounds like us. He asks Jesus, “How do you know me?” “Who have you been talking to about me?” “We’ve never met, have we?” Jesus answers, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” How does Jesus know Nathanael? Jesus knew him before anyone knew him, even before he was born.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. It begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” God knows us before we know ourselves!
Jesus saw Nathanael under a fig tree before Philip found him. Jesus saw Nathanael before he was born. Nathanael now understands who this Jesus is. Nathanael has experienced the revealing of a deeper truth than he could have ever imagined on a regular day hanging out under a fig tree waiting for his buddies to come by so they could go and do what guys do. No, this will not be that sort of day.
Jesus spoke and it was revealed to Nathanael that his invitation to come and see for himself the one about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth, came not from Phillip, but from the Messiah himself. Jesus invited Nathanael, calling him to come and see, and Nathanael realized Philip was right, they had found the one who was to be Messiah.
With this new found knowledge, Nathanael quickly confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” Nathanael’s response becomes for us a powerful confessional confirmation of who Jesus is, the one coming to save the world. It also speaks in a real sense of the mutual recognition possible through Jesus, one of knowing and being known, seeing and being seen.
In our Old Testament reading Samuel also has a strange encounter of sorts. He is awakened from his sleep by the Lord calling his name, “Samuel, Samuel,” and he said, “Here I am,” and then thinking Eli had called him he ran to him there in the room where he was asleep. But Eli said, I did not call you, lie down again. This happens two more times before Eli finally realizes that Samuel is hearing the Lord call to him. Eli tells Samuel to go, lie down; and if he calls you again, you shall say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” This response, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” becomes our biblical response when we sense God is calling; first be open to God’s speaking, then listen and respond.
Samuel, like our newly elected and soon to be installed elders, is to be established as the rightful bearer of God’s word and authority. He begins, and we begin the same way, by learning to listen and then learning to respond.
First, to listen and be sure it is God calling and not our own personal messenger and then, to respond, to reach out and attach ourselves to the ministry God has for us. We all belong to God. God uses each of us. God uses our mind, our body, and our spirit in ways that are nothing short of a miracle, in ways that are clearly God’s freely given grace.
I read in a recent Christian Century magazine article that on their own neither Samuel nor Nathanael are able to interpret these strange encounters. Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s voice, and Nathanael is puzzled by Jesus’ origins, and then by his extraordinary ability to know and see.
But both of them are portrayed as truthful, and the childlike innocence in Samuel is reflected in a description of Nathanael as an Israelite in whom there is “no deceit.” No cunning, no spin, no dishonesty, just a purity of heart that helps open their eyes to see God.
The good news for us this third Sunday of the New Year is that in our innocence and with Jesus’ help our eyes have been opened to see God. On our own we are not able to know about these strange encounters. On our own we don’t know if God is calling us or it is some telemarketer or our own driven egos. On our own the competing voices pull us further from God and we lose our authentic Christian selves.
Jeff and Duane have responded to God’s call. They have recognized a kindred spirit in our Lord. They have prayed and listened and heard and believed and realized the risk of accepting a call to serve God’s church as an officer and member of session. A risk they enter into freely, I trust!
The New Testament tells us that when the apostles started churches they appointed elders to govern the congregations in their absence. Although it is not certain what the elders’ responsibilities were in the early church, their position was clearly one of honor. We do know from scripture they were expected to exhibit the highest moral character. Elders were to be compassionate, humble, and eager to serve the congregation like a shepherd, following the example of Christ.
The responsibilities of those we elect as elders is clearly stated in the Book of Order. They are to encourage the congregation in the worship of God, they are to equip the church in mission in the world, they are to comfort and care for the sick with special attention to the poor and the oppressed, and they are to serve in the higher governing bodies of the church.
Our session, with the exception of certain rights and privileges granted to the congregation and pastor, has virtual oversight of all the spiritual, educational, and practical activities of this church.
As Presbyterians, we believe that the Holy Spirit works best in our church through the will of the people as represented by these good folk we install this morning. They are good and faithful shepherds who are concerned solely with the health of our church and the work of God’s kingdom.
I imagine they have been surprised by their encounter with the living God, calling them to a leadership position in this church. We’ve all been there. Surprised and frightened and humbled at the same time. Encounters when God calls us are like that.
For his part, Nathanael was surprised to be invited to come and see for himself that Jesus was the chosen one. What frightened him was the realization he was known so intimately by Jesus. For his part, Samuel thought Eli was calling his name. Instead, it was God calling him.
We are called to come and see this Jesus who knew us before we were born and knows us so intimately know. We may think it is this church or the Nominating Committee perhaps that calls our name. It is God calling us. And we celebrate all those who come and see.
For we see who has called us to servant discipleship. We hear his call every day and we come. We come so we may be authentically who we are called to be, followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever more. Amen
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This morning we will install two session elders, Jeff Woodruff and Duane Hiller for the class of 2015. These two have heard God’s call to serve the church and they have answered that call. I know you will join me in thanking them in advance for their service to God, to this church, and to our wider world.
A day like today may bring memories of those times God nudged you to service in God’s kingdom. God’s serving community has so many faces. Why, our joining with family to be family may have been our very first call. As we grew older God had a way of nudging us on beyond our first family to school, from school to work and perhaps another family, from another family to community and yes, church. So many times we have found ourselves on our knees trying to understand God’s call, trying to discern God’s will.
Often lost in our prayer for discernment is God’s affirmation, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” We do not choose God, but God choses us. God reminds us this morning through John’s gospel this call business is all God’s doings. It is God’s doing that we are found by God and sent into God’s kingdom. It is God who equips us and chooses us for kingdom building. The call of God is to all believers, not just to these two good folks this morning.
The evidence is before us. All in these pews this morning are gifted and equipped by God. Now do not try and deny it! We know it to be true here at Genesis for each of you have unique gifts, a special calling.
Being so gifted by God began with those early disciples whom he desired. God desired to have them and gifted them with three special assignments: to preach the gospel, to heal the sick and to be with him. The first two assignments are task specific, preach and heal. The third, to be with him, is often overlooked.
To always be close to Jesus can be risky. Being with him means we have to be so close that we know where he is going and what he will do next, and with whom. Knowing Jesus took risks with people, places, and events makes us uneasy when we hear God’s call to be with Jesus in his ministry. Knowing Jesus’s ways we may hesitate, we may stand motionless, before we commit to let God use us where God leads. For where God leads we may not want to go.
In our hesitation, our motionless, we may truthfully and honestly wonder. How could this be God calling me to this way? Where did God come to know me so well God can direct my life? We know God know us. God is God after all. But how do we know when it is God calling and not our own desire or that of the evil one?
In our Gospel story this morning Nathanael sounds like us. He asks Jesus, “How do you know me?” “Who have you been talking to about me?” “We’ve never met, have we?” Jesus answers, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” How does Jesus know Nathanael? Jesus knew him before anyone knew him, even before he was born.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. It begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” God knows us before we know ourselves!
Jesus saw Nathanael under a fig tree before Philip found him. Jesus saw Nathanael before he was born. Nathanael now understands who this Jesus is. Nathanael has experienced the revealing of a deeper truth than he could have ever imagined on a regular day hanging out under a fig tree waiting for his buddies to come by so they could go and do what guys do. No, this will not be that sort of day.
Jesus spoke and it was revealed to Nathanael that his invitation to come and see for himself the one about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth, came not from Phillip, but from the Messiah himself. Jesus invited Nathanael, calling him to come and see, and Nathanael realized Philip was right, they had found the one who was to be Messiah.
With this new found knowledge, Nathanael quickly confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” Nathanael’s response becomes for us a powerful confessional confirmation of who Jesus is, the one coming to save the world. It also speaks in a real sense of the mutual recognition possible through Jesus, one of knowing and being known, seeing and being seen.
In our Old Testament reading Samuel also has a strange encounter of sorts. He is awakened from his sleep by the Lord calling his name, “Samuel, Samuel,” and he said, “Here I am,” and then thinking Eli had called him he ran to him there in the room where he was asleep. But Eli said, I did not call you, lie down again. This happens two more times before Eli finally realizes that Samuel is hearing the Lord call to him. Eli tells Samuel to go, lie down; and if he calls you again, you shall say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” This response, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” becomes our biblical response when we sense God is calling; first be open to God’s speaking, then listen and respond.
Samuel, like our newly elected and soon to be installed elders, is to be established as the rightful bearer of God’s word and authority. He begins, and we begin the same way, by learning to listen and then learning to respond.
First, to listen and be sure it is God calling and not our own personal messenger and then, to respond, to reach out and attach ourselves to the ministry God has for us. We all belong to God. God uses each of us. God uses our mind, our body, and our spirit in ways that are nothing short of a miracle, in ways that are clearly God’s freely given grace.
I read in a recent Christian Century magazine article that on their own neither Samuel nor Nathanael are able to interpret these strange encounters. Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s voice, and Nathanael is puzzled by Jesus’ origins, and then by his extraordinary ability to know and see.
But both of them are portrayed as truthful, and the childlike innocence in Samuel is reflected in a description of Nathanael as an Israelite in whom there is “no deceit.” No cunning, no spin, no dishonesty, just a purity of heart that helps open their eyes to see God.
The good news for us this third Sunday of the New Year is that in our innocence and with Jesus’ help our eyes have been opened to see God. On our own we are not able to know about these strange encounters. On our own we don’t know if God is calling us or it is some telemarketer or our own driven egos. On our own the competing voices pull us further from God and we lose our authentic Christian selves.
Jeff and Duane have responded to God’s call. They have recognized a kindred spirit in our Lord. They have prayed and listened and heard and believed and realized the risk of accepting a call to serve God’s church as an officer and member of session. A risk they enter into freely, I trust!
The New Testament tells us that when the apostles started churches they appointed elders to govern the congregations in their absence. Although it is not certain what the elders’ responsibilities were in the early church, their position was clearly one of honor. We do know from scripture they were expected to exhibit the highest moral character. Elders were to be compassionate, humble, and eager to serve the congregation like a shepherd, following the example of Christ.
The responsibilities of those we elect as elders is clearly stated in the Book of Order. They are to encourage the congregation in the worship of God, they are to equip the church in mission in the world, they are to comfort and care for the sick with special attention to the poor and the oppressed, and they are to serve in the higher governing bodies of the church.
Our session, with the exception of certain rights and privileges granted to the congregation and pastor, has virtual oversight of all the spiritual, educational, and practical activities of this church.
As Presbyterians, we believe that the Holy Spirit works best in our church through the will of the people as represented by these good folk we install this morning. They are good and faithful shepherds who are concerned solely with the health of our church and the work of God’s kingdom.
I imagine they have been surprised by their encounter with the living God, calling them to a leadership position in this church. We’ve all been there. Surprised and frightened and humbled at the same time. Encounters when God calls us are like that.
For his part, Nathanael was surprised to be invited to come and see for himself that Jesus was the chosen one. What frightened him was the realization he was known so intimately by Jesus. For his part, Samuel thought Eli was calling his name. Instead, it was God calling him.
We are called to come and see this Jesus who knew us before we were born and knows us so intimately know. We may think it is this church or the Nominating Committee perhaps that calls our name. It is God calling us. And we celebrate all those who come and see.
For we see who has called us to servant discipleship. We hear his call every day and we come. We come so we may be authentically who we are called to be, followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever more. Amen
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
01 January 2012 “What’s up with this?” Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
01 January 2012 “What’s up with this?” Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
It may be the best question to ask this first Sunday of the New Year. What’s up with this? Was Jesus really born for us to treat him this way?
How far have we gone from worship to silly human distraction?
David Davis of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ tells the story of a Christmas pageant with significant issues. Mrs. Smith, the pageant director, was only in her first year as the volunteer in charge, and if David is honest, it would probably be her last.
As David tells it, “Nightmare” might be too strong a word to ever use for a Christmas pageant, but that years might qualify. After all, the term “perfect Christmas pageant” is an oxymoron. Christmas pageants are going to have rough edges. However, on this particular evening, as the pageant played on, Mrs. Smith was just a bit taken aback by the sharpness of those edges.
Mary had been sick all morning and the bucket next to the manger was for her. Joseph was thirteen now and decided about ten days ago that he wasn’t going to enjoy this pageant at all. When the animals arrived behind the shepherds, any hope of heavenly peace vanished. They took over the whole chancel and elevated “lowing” to a new, loud, hip-hop, rap sounding art form.
Right near the end, just before everyone was to sing “Joy to the World the Lord is come” and “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness,” the narrator, Jerod, literally fought his way to center stage for his last line. He stepped on and over sheep and cows. Mary was reaching for the bucket, and Joseph had rolled his eyes so many times they just about fell out of his head.
So Jerod had to shout over the barnyard noise. Finally, in desperation, he put his folder down and stretched out his arms and with no little amount of exasperation, yelled, “Christ was born for this?”
Mrs. Smith, now fully exhausted, said to no one in particular, “it was an exclamation point, not a question mark.”
However, some years it does feel more like a question mark, doesn’t’ it? Christ was born for this? Some years the pageantry of life seems to not be like a chancel drama, but a pageant of life itself.
That is how William Muehl once described it. “This rich pageant of life is often fouled up,” “Fouled up by our rigid moralism, and the cross is hidden beneath the flimsy fabric of our simple piety . . . Our flesh drives and afflicts us from birth to death.”
You and I, we find ourselves stepping on and over so much as we make our way across life’s stage. Every year in this family of faith, somebody heads to Bethlehem by way of the grave, because death has an unceasing part to play. Every year, for some it is Christmas carols and tears as the earthiness of the flesh has torn at relationships, or the brutality of disease has torn at the flesh. Christ was born for this?
This year, like every year, we come face to face with flesh not just torn but destroyed. There are places in our world destroyed by war, torn by economic distress or natural disaster and nations proving something other than the “glories of his righteousness.” Yet we sing “peace on earth and good will to all,” not just once or twice, but over and over again.
It was not too long ago that Jesus made the cover of both Time and Newsweek. When such an appearance happens to be around Christmas, we can expect some conversation about the birth narratives found in the gospels of Luke and Mark. The headlines tell the story, “Behind the First Noel: How the story of Christ’s birth came to be” and “The Birth of Jesus: from Mary to the manger, how the Gospels mix faith and history to tell the Christmas story and make the case for Christ.”
Writers in both magazines engaged scholarly opinions to raise critical issues surrounding the Virgin Birth, and the importance of Bethlehem, and the questions of numbers in terms of the Magi, and whether or not the star was Haley’s Comet.
When turning to the question of why this all makes a difference, both magazines looked to the message of the angel in Luke: “For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
“A simple, joyous proclamation of salvation,” one writer concluded. “On earth peace, good will toward all,” cited the other writer, calling it “a promise whose fulfillment is worth our prayers not only in this season, but always.” One concludes with a simple proclamation of salvation; the other a sweeping prayer for peace. As important as both may be we still find ourselves asking, Christ was born for this?
The reader of Time and Newsweek ought to be turning pages looking for more, looking for what is missing, looking for why this nativity of Christ would have anything to do with you or me.
Perhaps what they fail to consider is that Christ came that you and I might be justified by faith. “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,” the scriptures tell us. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
That is what is missing. If you “belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” These words come to us from the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians. It is his approach to the birth of Jesus. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” No angels; no shepherds; no Magi; no star. You and I, we are adopted as children of God. Christ was born for this!
We can remember growing up and as recently as this past Christmas Eve standing in our sanctuary to sing “Silent Night.” The candlelight would spread, and some would sing with tears streaming down their cheeks. The pew might even shake a bit. We might even say that was the night we learned it was safe to cry in church.
But we learned something far greater about faith and God’s promise. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” That is God’s promise, hear and now, in the very earthiness of life. Such fullness of time belongs to God in those moments when in that exact earthiness of our lives, we come face to face with the promise of God. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” The nativity of the Christ Child enters into our own mundane lives and there are additional truths that become self-evident.
God has promised us; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)
“I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
“My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn 14:27)
“Come unto me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11:28)
“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”(Jn 6:35)
“This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Lk 22:19)
Somewhere this rich pageant of life is unfolding. Somewhere a child of God is moving to center stage, stepping on and over more than an abundance of life’s joys and challenges clawing at her feet. Few will pay attention and she will have to shout over the world’s noise. But for her, it is the fullness of time, with a heart stretched out to God, she will proclaim, not with a question mark, but with an exclamation point: “Christ was born for this!”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever more. Amen
Additional sources:
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XVII, Number 1, 45-47.
010112.gpc
It may be the best question to ask this first Sunday of the New Year. What’s up with this? Was Jesus really born for us to treat him this way?
How far have we gone from worship to silly human distraction?
David Davis of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ tells the story of a Christmas pageant with significant issues. Mrs. Smith, the pageant director, was only in her first year as the volunteer in charge, and if David is honest, it would probably be her last.
As David tells it, “Nightmare” might be too strong a word to ever use for a Christmas pageant, but that years might qualify. After all, the term “perfect Christmas pageant” is an oxymoron. Christmas pageants are going to have rough edges. However, on this particular evening, as the pageant played on, Mrs. Smith was just a bit taken aback by the sharpness of those edges.
Mary had been sick all morning and the bucket next to the manger was for her. Joseph was thirteen now and decided about ten days ago that he wasn’t going to enjoy this pageant at all. When the animals arrived behind the shepherds, any hope of heavenly peace vanished. They took over the whole chancel and elevated “lowing” to a new, loud, hip-hop, rap sounding art form.
Right near the end, just before everyone was to sing “Joy to the World the Lord is come” and “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness,” the narrator, Jerod, literally fought his way to center stage for his last line. He stepped on and over sheep and cows. Mary was reaching for the bucket, and Joseph had rolled his eyes so many times they just about fell out of his head.
So Jerod had to shout over the barnyard noise. Finally, in desperation, he put his folder down and stretched out his arms and with no little amount of exasperation, yelled, “Christ was born for this?”
Mrs. Smith, now fully exhausted, said to no one in particular, “it was an exclamation point, not a question mark.”
However, some years it does feel more like a question mark, doesn’t’ it? Christ was born for this? Some years the pageantry of life seems to not be like a chancel drama, but a pageant of life itself.
That is how William Muehl once described it. “This rich pageant of life is often fouled up,” “Fouled up by our rigid moralism, and the cross is hidden beneath the flimsy fabric of our simple piety . . . Our flesh drives and afflicts us from birth to death.”
You and I, we find ourselves stepping on and over so much as we make our way across life’s stage. Every year in this family of faith, somebody heads to Bethlehem by way of the grave, because death has an unceasing part to play. Every year, for some it is Christmas carols and tears as the earthiness of the flesh has torn at relationships, or the brutality of disease has torn at the flesh. Christ was born for this?
This year, like every year, we come face to face with flesh not just torn but destroyed. There are places in our world destroyed by war, torn by economic distress or natural disaster and nations proving something other than the “glories of his righteousness.” Yet we sing “peace on earth and good will to all,” not just once or twice, but over and over again.
It was not too long ago that Jesus made the cover of both Time and Newsweek. When such an appearance happens to be around Christmas, we can expect some conversation about the birth narratives found in the gospels of Luke and Mark. The headlines tell the story, “Behind the First Noel: How the story of Christ’s birth came to be” and “The Birth of Jesus: from Mary to the manger, how the Gospels mix faith and history to tell the Christmas story and make the case for Christ.”
Writers in both magazines engaged scholarly opinions to raise critical issues surrounding the Virgin Birth, and the importance of Bethlehem, and the questions of numbers in terms of the Magi, and whether or not the star was Haley’s Comet.
When turning to the question of why this all makes a difference, both magazines looked to the message of the angel in Luke: “For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
“A simple, joyous proclamation of salvation,” one writer concluded. “On earth peace, good will toward all,” cited the other writer, calling it “a promise whose fulfillment is worth our prayers not only in this season, but always.” One concludes with a simple proclamation of salvation; the other a sweeping prayer for peace. As important as both may be we still find ourselves asking, Christ was born for this?
The reader of Time and Newsweek ought to be turning pages looking for more, looking for what is missing, looking for why this nativity of Christ would have anything to do with you or me.
Perhaps what they fail to consider is that Christ came that you and I might be justified by faith. “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,” the scriptures tell us. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
That is what is missing. If you “belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” These words come to us from the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians. It is his approach to the birth of Jesus. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” No angels; no shepherds; no Magi; no star. You and I, we are adopted as children of God. Christ was born for this!
We can remember growing up and as recently as this past Christmas Eve standing in our sanctuary to sing “Silent Night.” The candlelight would spread, and some would sing with tears streaming down their cheeks. The pew might even shake a bit. We might even say that was the night we learned it was safe to cry in church.
But we learned something far greater about faith and God’s promise. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” That is God’s promise, hear and now, in the very earthiness of life. Such fullness of time belongs to God in those moments when in that exact earthiness of our lives, we come face to face with the promise of God. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” The nativity of the Christ Child enters into our own mundane lives and there are additional truths that become self-evident.
God has promised us; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)
“I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
“My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn 14:27)
“Come unto me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11:28)
“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”(Jn 6:35)
“This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Lk 22:19)
Somewhere this rich pageant of life is unfolding. Somewhere a child of God is moving to center stage, stepping on and over more than an abundance of life’s joys and challenges clawing at her feet. Few will pay attention and she will have to shout over the world’s noise. But for her, it is the fullness of time, with a heart stretched out to God, she will proclaim, not with a question mark, but with an exclamation point: “Christ was born for this!”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever more. Amen
Additional sources:
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XVII, Number 1, 45-47.
010112.gpc
Sunday, December 11, 2011
11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28
11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28
Along with age, we would hope, should come wisdom. While wisdom is often elusive, I have come to the understanding, sometimes the hard way, learning patience in the meantime can be helpful.
When younger, I liked cars. I had a 1955 Chevrolet that I wanted to ‘fix up.’ I was not patient about it. I wanted it fixed up immediately. It was a costly lesson.
My next ‘schooling’ was when we had children. Being patient with children is like trying to mix oil with water. When babies, they need immediate attention to keep them dry and fed and not crying. They will not wait. When two, they want what they want when they want it, which is, as you know, immediately. Being patient is a foreign notion in the world of young children.
Despite the immediate nature of life and family and work and play we can learn about patience. We can learn it may help keep us out of trouble. That too we may have to learn the hard way. We may also learn being patient is instructive. How often have we hurriedly packed for a trip then patiently waited for others to finish their packing, only to remember something we had forgotten. Having a time of patient waiting is a good thing.
Today is the third Sunday of the advent season. We have learned these past two Sundays about being prepared, holding vigil, waiting and watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus. He is to come at first for his birth and then again for his second coming. We may be surprised how taking a moment, waiting, and being patient may help in our preparation.
The thought of Jesus’ coming at Christmas brings joy and excitement with thoughts of family and celebration . And we cannot wait! The though of Jesus’ coming to judge us, on the other hand, can bring a fair amount of anxiety. For that we could wait many life times.
Preparation for Christmas offers honest delight. Memories from before. Hope for the time to come. Preparation for the second coming offers a wholly different preparation. It is about living our lives as faithful covenant people, following God’s commandments, loving one another, praying and being penitent. Sometimes patience and waiting seem to have no place in either.
When in High School, our son Kevin, was in the play “West Side Story”. It is a musical about a New York street gang, the Jets, and the return of one of their former members, Tony. At first Tony doesn’t want to return to that old life, but then his enthusiasm builds. In his excitement about being back with his old friends and the new adventures they will have, he sings a song called “Something’s Coming.”
This could easily be our theme song for advent. Something’s coming, a messiah, Jesus, who will be our savior and our judge. But, we have to wait. We have to wait until the 25th for Christmas and we have to wait for a second coming we have no date for. With built in excitement for one and anxiety for the other, I wonder how patient we will be.
Tony sings on, “There is something due any day, it may come cannon balling down through the sky, gleam in its eye, bright as a rose! Who knows?”
In the gospel reading this morning we learn who knows. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Bright as a rose! Who knows?
Like Tony, our excitement for this season is building, but unlike Tony, we are not being asked to return to an old life, we are being called to an alternative life, a new one, to a new place, a place of hope and expectation. “Something’s coming,”
Last Sunday, John was identified for us in Mark’s gospel as a baptizer. This Sunday, in John’s gospel, his role has changed. Here John is to be a witness to Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of God in Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of the light to the world. The light in the ancient world was a symbol for recognizing God and life everlasting. In the New Testament, the light is Christ, the light of the world who calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The good news this Christmas season is this marvelous light has already entered into many of us. Here, in our heart and soul, we have received the light of Christ. Our entry point to this truth is our baptism.
Baptizing babies, all dressed in white, doesn’t appear to be so life changing on the surface. Without it, however, we are lost to a world of darkness. John warns us, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” Here is a clear and powerful critic of our lost world of darkness and sin. John’s voice is crying out to tell where he is and where we are also. It is from our wilderness of sin that we are to make straight the way of the Lord. Our baptism becomes our entry way to making our life straight, making an alternative lifestyle.
Our conversion to this new life will only be successful through the steady, patient, there is that word again, intentional, prayerful, and worship filled new life that we Christians testify will draw us closer to Jesus and indeed make us safe and joyous. That alternative life is one grounded by scripture and enacted through the tradition of the church. We have both at hand here with us this morning.
The preparation we face today is one of living and practicing this new life by remembering the baptismal light that is alive in our very soul, then living as if this truth makes a difference. Every step we take in our preparation for the coming of the babe is a step toward a life dedicated to our new life as an apostle, as a disciple, as one who loves Jesus more than life itself. Every step we take in our preparation, in our ministry, as beloved followers of Jesus Christ, is a step to improve our baptism by living with increasing singularity of purpose and commitment to honor our calling as children of God.
God’s Spirit will work where it will and accomplish its purposes. But often what stands in our way is our own impatience and our belief that the Spirit in us cannot be stirred and that we cannot be opened to new possibilities. When we cover over and deny our impatience, our faith grows hard and we find ourselves committed to the wilderness without the grace to rethink our position.
The Old Testament theologian, Walter Brueggemann, says, “The darkness in our life hides the source of the grace we need to live in the light.” Our darkness hides God’s grace, Jesus’ love and the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwelled us at our baptism is not a wall, it is like the wind. It is not coercion, it is possibility. It is not a threat, it is our opportunity, our guiding light, to this new life of hope and expectation.
It is vital and necessary that we have this advent season. It is our time to prepare ourselves for a life with Christ because, when we are honest with ourselves, we are simply not prepared. Who among us can truthfully say, take me today Lord, I am ready. This is truth telling about the shape we are in. And that truth telling makes us free. Free to live a life of new possibility.
“Who knows?” Tony sings in the musical, “I got a feeling there’s a miracle due.” The Christian writer, Vicki Lumpkin, agrees, “The Light of the world stands in our midst. In taking a human body, Jesus has blessed our humanity and given tangible form to God’s reconciling love.” Isaiah 61:9 also agrees, “We are truly the people whom the Lord has blessed. We are blessed by God’s presence, by God’s intervention in our lives, by God’s grace and love given to a people who often fail to recognize it.”
John tells us that the One for whom we wait often stands unrecognized. He often appears in unexpected places and acts in surprising, unexpected ways. What then are the things that prevent us from recognizing this miracle? Living in our public life perhaps. Needing to slow down. Being patient enough to open our eyes to see the miracle before us.
The Epistle reading for today calls us to live in a state of intimacy and communion with God, to do that which is good and avoid what is evil. We may have more straightening out to do than we realize. But there is hope filled good news!
The wilderness in our lives is also a place of holy encounter – holy ground. The ‘wild place’ we inhabit on a daily basis is also the dwelling place of one who is extraordinary. We have not been abandoned. We don’t have to wait until some future date to experience the miracle of God’s grace.
Tony sings, “And something great is coming!” Indeed, something great is coming, something beyond our wildest expectation is coming. It is right around the corner. God has spoken a Word of love, made it real, and set it in our lives. It is an incarnate, an en-fleshed Word of justice, mercy, and restoration. His name is Jesus.
“Who knows!” Tony sings, “Maybe tonight . . . ” The message of John is “maybe today!” And this is a message worth waiting patiently for; this is a message worth our preparation. Someone great is coming, his name is Jesus.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“The Christian Century,” November 29, 2005, pg. 22.
“Preaching and Worshiping in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany,” pg. 108.
121111.gpc
Along with age, we would hope, should come wisdom. While wisdom is often elusive, I have come to the understanding, sometimes the hard way, learning patience in the meantime can be helpful.
When younger, I liked cars. I had a 1955 Chevrolet that I wanted to ‘fix up.’ I was not patient about it. I wanted it fixed up immediately. It was a costly lesson.
My next ‘schooling’ was when we had children. Being patient with children is like trying to mix oil with water. When babies, they need immediate attention to keep them dry and fed and not crying. They will not wait. When two, they want what they want when they want it, which is, as you know, immediately. Being patient is a foreign notion in the world of young children.
Despite the immediate nature of life and family and work and play we can learn about patience. We can learn it may help keep us out of trouble. That too we may have to learn the hard way. We may also learn being patient is instructive. How often have we hurriedly packed for a trip then patiently waited for others to finish their packing, only to remember something we had forgotten. Having a time of patient waiting is a good thing.
Today is the third Sunday of the advent season. We have learned these past two Sundays about being prepared, holding vigil, waiting and watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus. He is to come at first for his birth and then again for his second coming. We may be surprised how taking a moment, waiting, and being patient may help in our preparation.
The thought of Jesus’ coming at Christmas brings joy and excitement with thoughts of family and celebration . And we cannot wait! The though of Jesus’ coming to judge us, on the other hand, can bring a fair amount of anxiety. For that we could wait many life times.
Preparation for Christmas offers honest delight. Memories from before. Hope for the time to come. Preparation for the second coming offers a wholly different preparation. It is about living our lives as faithful covenant people, following God’s commandments, loving one another, praying and being penitent. Sometimes patience and waiting seem to have no place in either.
When in High School, our son Kevin, was in the play “West Side Story”. It is a musical about a New York street gang, the Jets, and the return of one of their former members, Tony. At first Tony doesn’t want to return to that old life, but then his enthusiasm builds. In his excitement about being back with his old friends and the new adventures they will have, he sings a song called “Something’s Coming.”
This could easily be our theme song for advent. Something’s coming, a messiah, Jesus, who will be our savior and our judge. But, we have to wait. We have to wait until the 25th for Christmas and we have to wait for a second coming we have no date for. With built in excitement for one and anxiety for the other, I wonder how patient we will be.
Tony sings on, “There is something due any day, it may come cannon balling down through the sky, gleam in its eye, bright as a rose! Who knows?”
In the gospel reading this morning we learn who knows. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Bright as a rose! Who knows?
Like Tony, our excitement for this season is building, but unlike Tony, we are not being asked to return to an old life, we are being called to an alternative life, a new one, to a new place, a place of hope and expectation. “Something’s coming,”
Last Sunday, John was identified for us in Mark’s gospel as a baptizer. This Sunday, in John’s gospel, his role has changed. Here John is to be a witness to Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of God in Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of the light to the world. The light in the ancient world was a symbol for recognizing God and life everlasting. In the New Testament, the light is Christ, the light of the world who calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The good news this Christmas season is this marvelous light has already entered into many of us. Here, in our heart and soul, we have received the light of Christ. Our entry point to this truth is our baptism.
Baptizing babies, all dressed in white, doesn’t appear to be so life changing on the surface. Without it, however, we are lost to a world of darkness. John warns us, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” Here is a clear and powerful critic of our lost world of darkness and sin. John’s voice is crying out to tell where he is and where we are also. It is from our wilderness of sin that we are to make straight the way of the Lord. Our baptism becomes our entry way to making our life straight, making an alternative lifestyle.
Our conversion to this new life will only be successful through the steady, patient, there is that word again, intentional, prayerful, and worship filled new life that we Christians testify will draw us closer to Jesus and indeed make us safe and joyous. That alternative life is one grounded by scripture and enacted through the tradition of the church. We have both at hand here with us this morning.
The preparation we face today is one of living and practicing this new life by remembering the baptismal light that is alive in our very soul, then living as if this truth makes a difference. Every step we take in our preparation for the coming of the babe is a step toward a life dedicated to our new life as an apostle, as a disciple, as one who loves Jesus more than life itself. Every step we take in our preparation, in our ministry, as beloved followers of Jesus Christ, is a step to improve our baptism by living with increasing singularity of purpose and commitment to honor our calling as children of God.
God’s Spirit will work where it will and accomplish its purposes. But often what stands in our way is our own impatience and our belief that the Spirit in us cannot be stirred and that we cannot be opened to new possibilities. When we cover over and deny our impatience, our faith grows hard and we find ourselves committed to the wilderness without the grace to rethink our position.
The Old Testament theologian, Walter Brueggemann, says, “The darkness in our life hides the source of the grace we need to live in the light.” Our darkness hides God’s grace, Jesus’ love and the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwelled us at our baptism is not a wall, it is like the wind. It is not coercion, it is possibility. It is not a threat, it is our opportunity, our guiding light, to this new life of hope and expectation.
It is vital and necessary that we have this advent season. It is our time to prepare ourselves for a life with Christ because, when we are honest with ourselves, we are simply not prepared. Who among us can truthfully say, take me today Lord, I am ready. This is truth telling about the shape we are in. And that truth telling makes us free. Free to live a life of new possibility.
“Who knows?” Tony sings in the musical, “I got a feeling there’s a miracle due.” The Christian writer, Vicki Lumpkin, agrees, “The Light of the world stands in our midst. In taking a human body, Jesus has blessed our humanity and given tangible form to God’s reconciling love.” Isaiah 61:9 also agrees, “We are truly the people whom the Lord has blessed. We are blessed by God’s presence, by God’s intervention in our lives, by God’s grace and love given to a people who often fail to recognize it.”
John tells us that the One for whom we wait often stands unrecognized. He often appears in unexpected places and acts in surprising, unexpected ways. What then are the things that prevent us from recognizing this miracle? Living in our public life perhaps. Needing to slow down. Being patient enough to open our eyes to see the miracle before us.
The Epistle reading for today calls us to live in a state of intimacy and communion with God, to do that which is good and avoid what is evil. We may have more straightening out to do than we realize. But there is hope filled good news!
The wilderness in our lives is also a place of holy encounter – holy ground. The ‘wild place’ we inhabit on a daily basis is also the dwelling place of one who is extraordinary. We have not been abandoned. We don’t have to wait until some future date to experience the miracle of God’s grace.
Tony sings, “And something great is coming!” Indeed, something great is coming, something beyond our wildest expectation is coming. It is right around the corner. God has spoken a Word of love, made it real, and set it in our lives. It is an incarnate, an en-fleshed Word of justice, mercy, and restoration. His name is Jesus.
“Who knows!” Tony sings, “Maybe tonight . . . ” The message of John is “maybe today!” And this is a message worth waiting patiently for; this is a message worth our preparation. Someone great is coming, his name is Jesus.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“The Christian Century,” November 29, 2005, pg. 22.
“Preaching and Worshiping in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany,” pg. 108.
121111.gpc
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
27 November 2011 The Awakening Mark 13:24-37
Do you sense the irony of Advent? We are to begin our personal preparation for everything the coming of the Lord means, as somehow we recover from the season of Thanksgiving, only to be Black Friday-ed to Christmas.
We are preparing all right. We are trying to figure out how we will get the family together this year. We are needing to know what is on everyone’s Christmas list. We are worried how we will find time to clean the house and cook cinnamon breads and pecan tassies, or whatever it is we make just for Christmas. The sheer weight of the preparation directed at Thanksgiving and now to Christmas leaves little, if any, time for preparing for the coming of the Lord. Or, is it just me.
In the midst of our hectic holiday preparation Marks gospel message to us is this, ‘keep awake.’ Keep awake. Seriously. We are so tired we fall into bed and cannot will ourselves to fall asleep. So, here we are this morning. Tired and just a little bit cranky. Or, is it just me.
Mark really does paint a pretty harsh picture of our coming future. The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give us light, the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. The Son of Man comes in the clouds with great power and glory and the angels begin to gather his elect from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. I would say from these accounts creation is pretty well done and only our judgment awaits us.
It sounds like Mark is wedging into these holidays has story of the coming of the end of the world and of human history. The Greek word for this is apocalypse. It’s translated as an uncovering or revealing of the end of the world.
On the other hand, Mark’s gospel insists the message to us is one of comfort and hope. When we see these things, we need to know a rebirth is coming. A transformation is on the way. A change to fulfill the words of the Lord is upon us. This rebirth foretells the second coming of our Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.
We may wonder, why didn’t Mark just say so! Why all this end of the world as we know it stuff? We can breathe a little easier now. Better things are to come.
Of course, before we become too relaxed, Jesus tells us only the Father, God in heaven, knows the day or hour for Jesus’ return. And lest we forget, Jesus will return for the judgment and the gathering of his elect.
So, beware and keep alert is the gospel message this morning. Be aware and be alert. The doorkeeper for the Lord is commanded to be on watch. Therefore, keep awake, or we may be found asleep when Jesus comes. His coming will be sudden. And what is said to us is said to all: Keep awake.
We do sense there is more at play here. Jesus is calling us to be more than just awake. Being awake alone requires nothing more than just not being asleep. Instead, our state of wakefulness must be filled with living. Let us be careful, however, that the living we fill our life with is on the surface and in the depths more than rote, scripted meaningless formality. More than Thanksgiving gatherings and Black Fridays. If our joy is found only in the events, milestones, or miscellaneous trappings of our life, we may need this Advent season more than we realize.
We come into this world not knowing much. We spend our lifetime trying to figure out the facts of life, the meaning of life, trying to learn how to live in the real world. Early on, things are not too complicated for us. Food, clothing, shelter, a dry diaper, a full belly, a warm bed to sleep in.
Later, when we mature, we discover there are boundaries to what we call the facts, the truth, the world as it is. That is when complications arise. We discover our world view is limited. Limited to where and when and with whom we are raised.
This limit becomes obvious when we journey outside our boundaries. We no longer find ourselves to be like everyone we know. We discover a place or truth or awareness or person who could never fit in and be like everyone we know. This is when we have our first glimpse of the possibility of something else, something new, something different about life.
We should always wonder and never think we have known all there is to know. We should ask. What else is there? What is possible? What may be new and different about life? What other way is there to live?
If, like Jack, we climb up the beanstalk, and find a world ruled by a giant, good or evil, would we come down the beanstalk any different than when we went up? I dare say we would!
If we then wonder, why me Lord, consider instead, why NOT me Lord? Why do we think life can be filled with predictable and scripted living without regard for the possibility of something more?
The truth of this morning’s gospel is this, life cannot wait for us to discover or be discovered for something more. We know judgment is coming. During advent this message comes to us loud and clear. Someone new is coming into our lives.
In preparing us for the coming of God in human form, God calls out the major players to get our attention. And what a better, if unwelcome, wake-up call than Isaiah proclaiming in 64:6 that “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” And then God sends us Jesus.
Advent means preparing ourselves to celebrate not only the birth of Jesus but his second coming too. Life cannot wait for us to come to terms with our un-righteous righteous deeds. We know not the hour or the day!
Think, therefore, of Advent as a glorious ‘in between’ time. A time between one event that has already happened, the first coming, the birth of the Messiah, and another event yet to happen, a second coming. A time for possibilities understood and real change. It is a time for transformation. For cleansing our filthy cloth. Advent wakes us to a rebirth, a rebirth through a life of change brought about by the Holy Spirit and our entrance into the eternal family of God in the judgment of the second coming.
How then do we, as the church and as followers and friends of Jesus, wait during this in-between time? I’m not sure. Clearly life does go on despite our questioning, our anxiety, or lack of preparedness. Do we just take it easy, kick back biding our time until judgment day? I think not.
The truth is it is hard to wait. The expected end time begins to dim in our minds, we loose the motivation, we do not feel the expectant excitement or worry that the time is near. We do not know the day or time like we did for Thanksgiving and like we do for Christmas.
In our waiting malaise we may even forget what we are waiting for. When we’ve been waiting for something a long while, it can be difficult to continue living with expectancy.
Expectancy of what, we wonder. We certainly have experienced reliving Jesus’ birth through the centuries. How then do we go from this known event, Jesus’ birth celebrated at Christmas, to an unknown event, his second coming and judgment? Again, I’m not sure.
We do not have first-hand experience of such a coming. Yet, how we wait is important. How we wait becomes our link with expectancy. It does matter what we do during the ‘in-between’ time. If not to us, then to Jesus.
Ruth Patterson sees this in-between time as a threshold time, a thin time, as if the veil between what we see and touch and know and the unseen world of wonder, of spiritual reality, is very fine and at any moment could be lifted. Perhaps knowing this, that the veil will be lifted at any moment, is just the thread we need to keep us guessing how we should live right now.
Patterson suggests we consider one of two waiting ways. One passively the other passionately. Passive waiting seems safest but there is something to consider in passionate living.
It is easy to know what we are passionate about. If we simply look at our life and be honest with ourselves about those things we do again and again, those things we cannot leave alone, those things we spend most of our time with, we will know our passion. Do we have routines, habits, hobbies, or past times that keep our interest day after day, that keep us feeling alive? There lies our passion.
The expected passion for us Christians is to live passionately for Jesus Christ. In our routines, habits, hobbies and past times are we known to be in a relationship with Jesus? If we are waiting passionately, living in Christ, then we are going to stay alert and keep watch, ready to pick up any sign of what God is doing, and to join in, to cooperate with God. If we have a passion for God, then that passion must translate itself into a shared compassion for others, a yearning and an aching to see a world where justice and right relationships prevail, and a willingness to become makers rather than simply lovers of peace.
The title of Eugene Peterson’s book, “Christ plays in ten thousand places,” comes from a poem by Gerard Manly Hopkins called, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.” It ends with these words:
For Christ plays in ten thousand
Places,
Lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes
Not his
To the Father through the features
Of men’s faces.
In this poem we here that Christ plays through the limbs and the eyes of our faces. Christ plays through us. As we play, Christ plays. We have become Jesus’ passion.
Peterson’s book is about spiritual theology. Theology is the attention we give to God, knowing God is revealed in the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ. Spiritual is the insistence that everything that God reveals is capable of being lived by ordinary people passionately.
When we are living our Christian ‘in-between’ time we would benefit from joining our revealed knowledge of God with the practical knowledge that what God reveals is to be lived by each of us in Christ-like passion. For Peterson, spiritual theology is the attention we give to the details of living life in the way of Christ.
This is how we are to live during this time in-between Jesus’ first birth and his second coming. Living because of God, living in and with God, living to the glory of God.
Peterson says, “The end of all Christian belief and obedience, witness and teaching, marriage and family, leisure and work life, preaching and pastoral work is the living of everything we know about God.”
Christ, the God-revealing Christ, is always ‘playing’ in all of life. Christ plays in creation, in history, and in the continuing community of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ’s desire is for you and me and everything around us to get in on the playfulness of living in relationship with Christ.
With this truth before us, every day is Advent. We are on the threshold of so much. God is pointing to countless doors of opportunity to share his good news. God has equipped us for these opportunities with every spiritual gift we need as we live and wait for the return of Jesus. So, there are no excuses for our malaise, our forgetfulness, our falling asleep or for giving up any hope of Christ’s return.
Jesus entreats us this morning, in his absence, to be on the watch. To be on the watch filled all the while with passionate living. A passionate living that helps us to truly be Advent people, to live as we have been called to live, to make special preparations to welcome the Beloved, for maybe, just maybe, he will come earlier than we expect. Maybe, just maybe Jesus will come to us today and reveal his love for us, looking for our passionate love in return.
Be therefore awake, dear ones, be awake.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen 112711.gpc
We are preparing all right. We are trying to figure out how we will get the family together this year. We are needing to know what is on everyone’s Christmas list. We are worried how we will find time to clean the house and cook cinnamon breads and pecan tassies, or whatever it is we make just for Christmas. The sheer weight of the preparation directed at Thanksgiving and now to Christmas leaves little, if any, time for preparing for the coming of the Lord. Or, is it just me.
In the midst of our hectic holiday preparation Marks gospel message to us is this, ‘keep awake.’ Keep awake. Seriously. We are so tired we fall into bed and cannot will ourselves to fall asleep. So, here we are this morning. Tired and just a little bit cranky. Or, is it just me.
Mark really does paint a pretty harsh picture of our coming future. The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give us light, the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. The Son of Man comes in the clouds with great power and glory and the angels begin to gather his elect from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. I would say from these accounts creation is pretty well done and only our judgment awaits us.
It sounds like Mark is wedging into these holidays has story of the coming of the end of the world and of human history. The Greek word for this is apocalypse. It’s translated as an uncovering or revealing of the end of the world.
On the other hand, Mark’s gospel insists the message to us is one of comfort and hope. When we see these things, we need to know a rebirth is coming. A transformation is on the way. A change to fulfill the words of the Lord is upon us. This rebirth foretells the second coming of our Savior, Jesus of Nazareth.
We may wonder, why didn’t Mark just say so! Why all this end of the world as we know it stuff? We can breathe a little easier now. Better things are to come.
Of course, before we become too relaxed, Jesus tells us only the Father, God in heaven, knows the day or hour for Jesus’ return. And lest we forget, Jesus will return for the judgment and the gathering of his elect.
So, beware and keep alert is the gospel message this morning. Be aware and be alert. The doorkeeper for the Lord is commanded to be on watch. Therefore, keep awake, or we may be found asleep when Jesus comes. His coming will be sudden. And what is said to us is said to all: Keep awake.
We do sense there is more at play here. Jesus is calling us to be more than just awake. Being awake alone requires nothing more than just not being asleep. Instead, our state of wakefulness must be filled with living. Let us be careful, however, that the living we fill our life with is on the surface and in the depths more than rote, scripted meaningless formality. More than Thanksgiving gatherings and Black Fridays. If our joy is found only in the events, milestones, or miscellaneous trappings of our life, we may need this Advent season more than we realize.
We come into this world not knowing much. We spend our lifetime trying to figure out the facts of life, the meaning of life, trying to learn how to live in the real world. Early on, things are not too complicated for us. Food, clothing, shelter, a dry diaper, a full belly, a warm bed to sleep in.
Later, when we mature, we discover there are boundaries to what we call the facts, the truth, the world as it is. That is when complications arise. We discover our world view is limited. Limited to where and when and with whom we are raised.
This limit becomes obvious when we journey outside our boundaries. We no longer find ourselves to be like everyone we know. We discover a place or truth or awareness or person who could never fit in and be like everyone we know. This is when we have our first glimpse of the possibility of something else, something new, something different about life.
We should always wonder and never think we have known all there is to know. We should ask. What else is there? What is possible? What may be new and different about life? What other way is there to live?
If, like Jack, we climb up the beanstalk, and find a world ruled by a giant, good or evil, would we come down the beanstalk any different than when we went up? I dare say we would!
If we then wonder, why me Lord, consider instead, why NOT me Lord? Why do we think life can be filled with predictable and scripted living without regard for the possibility of something more?
The truth of this morning’s gospel is this, life cannot wait for us to discover or be discovered for something more. We know judgment is coming. During advent this message comes to us loud and clear. Someone new is coming into our lives.
In preparing us for the coming of God in human form, God calls out the major players to get our attention. And what a better, if unwelcome, wake-up call than Isaiah proclaiming in 64:6 that “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” And then God sends us Jesus.
Advent means preparing ourselves to celebrate not only the birth of Jesus but his second coming too. Life cannot wait for us to come to terms with our un-righteous righteous deeds. We know not the hour or the day!
Think, therefore, of Advent as a glorious ‘in between’ time. A time between one event that has already happened, the first coming, the birth of the Messiah, and another event yet to happen, a second coming. A time for possibilities understood and real change. It is a time for transformation. For cleansing our filthy cloth. Advent wakes us to a rebirth, a rebirth through a life of change brought about by the Holy Spirit and our entrance into the eternal family of God in the judgment of the second coming.
How then do we, as the church and as followers and friends of Jesus, wait during this in-between time? I’m not sure. Clearly life does go on despite our questioning, our anxiety, or lack of preparedness. Do we just take it easy, kick back biding our time until judgment day? I think not.
The truth is it is hard to wait. The expected end time begins to dim in our minds, we loose the motivation, we do not feel the expectant excitement or worry that the time is near. We do not know the day or time like we did for Thanksgiving and like we do for Christmas.
In our waiting malaise we may even forget what we are waiting for. When we’ve been waiting for something a long while, it can be difficult to continue living with expectancy.
Expectancy of what, we wonder. We certainly have experienced reliving Jesus’ birth through the centuries. How then do we go from this known event, Jesus’ birth celebrated at Christmas, to an unknown event, his second coming and judgment? Again, I’m not sure.
We do not have first-hand experience of such a coming. Yet, how we wait is important. How we wait becomes our link with expectancy. It does matter what we do during the ‘in-between’ time. If not to us, then to Jesus.
Ruth Patterson sees this in-between time as a threshold time, a thin time, as if the veil between what we see and touch and know and the unseen world of wonder, of spiritual reality, is very fine and at any moment could be lifted. Perhaps knowing this, that the veil will be lifted at any moment, is just the thread we need to keep us guessing how we should live right now.
Patterson suggests we consider one of two waiting ways. One passively the other passionately. Passive waiting seems safest but there is something to consider in passionate living.
It is easy to know what we are passionate about. If we simply look at our life and be honest with ourselves about those things we do again and again, those things we cannot leave alone, those things we spend most of our time with, we will know our passion. Do we have routines, habits, hobbies, or past times that keep our interest day after day, that keep us feeling alive? There lies our passion.
The expected passion for us Christians is to live passionately for Jesus Christ. In our routines, habits, hobbies and past times are we known to be in a relationship with Jesus? If we are waiting passionately, living in Christ, then we are going to stay alert and keep watch, ready to pick up any sign of what God is doing, and to join in, to cooperate with God. If we have a passion for God, then that passion must translate itself into a shared compassion for others, a yearning and an aching to see a world where justice and right relationships prevail, and a willingness to become makers rather than simply lovers of peace.
The title of Eugene Peterson’s book, “Christ plays in ten thousand places,” comes from a poem by Gerard Manly Hopkins called, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.” It ends with these words:
For Christ plays in ten thousand
Places,
Lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes
Not his
To the Father through the features
Of men’s faces.
In this poem we here that Christ plays through the limbs and the eyes of our faces. Christ plays through us. As we play, Christ plays. We have become Jesus’ passion.
Peterson’s book is about spiritual theology. Theology is the attention we give to God, knowing God is revealed in the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ. Spiritual is the insistence that everything that God reveals is capable of being lived by ordinary people passionately.
When we are living our Christian ‘in-between’ time we would benefit from joining our revealed knowledge of God with the practical knowledge that what God reveals is to be lived by each of us in Christ-like passion. For Peterson, spiritual theology is the attention we give to the details of living life in the way of Christ.
This is how we are to live during this time in-between Jesus’ first birth and his second coming. Living because of God, living in and with God, living to the glory of God.
Peterson says, “The end of all Christian belief and obedience, witness and teaching, marriage and family, leisure and work life, preaching and pastoral work is the living of everything we know about God.”
Christ, the God-revealing Christ, is always ‘playing’ in all of life. Christ plays in creation, in history, and in the continuing community of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ’s desire is for you and me and everything around us to get in on the playfulness of living in relationship with Christ.
With this truth before us, every day is Advent. We are on the threshold of so much. God is pointing to countless doors of opportunity to share his good news. God has equipped us for these opportunities with every spiritual gift we need as we live and wait for the return of Jesus. So, there are no excuses for our malaise, our forgetfulness, our falling asleep or for giving up any hope of Christ’s return.
Jesus entreats us this morning, in his absence, to be on the watch. To be on the watch filled all the while with passionate living. A passionate living that helps us to truly be Advent people, to live as we have been called to live, to make special preparations to welcome the Beloved, for maybe, just maybe, he will come earlier than we expect. Maybe, just maybe Jesus will come to us today and reveal his love for us, looking for our passionate love in return.
Be therefore awake, dear ones, be awake.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen 112711.gpc
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Tis a Gift to Be Humble
30 October 2011 Tis a Gift to Be Humble Matthew 23:1-12
My favorite modern version of the Cinderella story is told in the movie “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore. Even with its contemporary flair, Cinderella is still a principled young woman who, through no fault of her own, comes face to face with the harsh reality of a forced humility of sorts.
Finding herself living with a new step-mother and step-sisters Cinderella’s life goes from one of privilege to one of servitude. She becomes, for all practical purposes, a slave to her step-mother and step-sisters. Despite this, she humbles herself to her new status in a way I’m not sure many would. Her decision to live in obedience and humility is in response to her love for her father and her desire to honor him in her submission to her wicked step-mother.
She endures humiliation and physical suffering as she is repeatedly treated cruelly.
When it seems things cannot get any worse, they do. There is to be a royal ball where the young and handsome prince of the kingdom will choose his new bride. Her step-mother refuses to let her go and her step-sisters are particularly mean to Cinderella as they prepare to go to the ball with the hope of marrying the prince. They repeatedly taunt her about being unworthy.
But, this is a fairy tale! The story takes a magical turn when Cinderella not only goes to the ball, she is the one who marries the prince and is brought up from her humble station to become a princess. This is a love story that ends the way love stories are supposed to end, happily ever after.
Our gospel story this morning has the potential to have the same happy ending.
We hear Jesus warning us, if we do not change directions with our life we may wind up where we are headed. Never one to only tell part of a story, Jesus tells us the whole truth, opening for us the possibilities for a clear path to a better place.
Jesus lifts up several commandments or pronouncements along this new way.
First, we are to do what the scribes and Pharisees teach us. We are not, however, to do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. How often have we heard our parents, our teachers, our bosses say to us, do as I say not as I do. Perhaps we have said it too.
Is it obvious we humans can be so certain and clear about how we are to act, what we are to do to get along, what is good and what is bad, yet we have the most difficult time living our own message. I wonder why that is? Selfishness on our part, looking out for #1, taking happiness into our own hands, deciding for ourselves where our real pleasures lie, getting ours before someone else takes it all. It is pretty obvious where our allegiance lies when our actions do not match our words.
Secondly, in all things we are not to take on the character of these scribes and Pharisees. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others, yet are unwilling to lift a finger to move them themselves. They do all their deeds to be seen by others as if they are on a stage of respectability and play the part, acting it out in front of others, as if this in some way legitimizes their importance. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues.
If we are in doubt about their perceived importance we need only look for them at the power table in the local restaurant. For there they are holding court in the public arena. Their seat is always front row, center stage, on the 50 yard line. They love to be greeted with respect and have people call them by their title. They identify themselves with their social, political, or financial prowess and expect that we seek out their broad ranging opinion even in areas where they have no particular expertise. Simply by their reputation they expect to be recognized as an expert in all things great and small.
Thirdly, Jesus tells us the other things we are not to do. We are not to be called rabbi or teacher or father. We are not to be known by our title. We are to be known by what we do, not who we think we are. We are to call no one our father on earth in place of our Father in heaven. We are to make no gods from the stuff of status which takes the place of our God in heaven. Nor are we to be called teacher in place of our teacher, Jesus Christ. Rabbi, teacher and father are roles reserved for God and God’s anointed. To presume such titles becomes a matter of pride. Perhaps even idolatry and sin.
Fourth, and most powerfully, the greatest among us is to become our servant. Have we heard the echoes we are the greatest? Thinking and acting so we become the one who does not do what Jesus teaches to be right and true. Yet, despite our tendency to selfishness, we are the one who is to become servant. Servant to ourselves and to others. But, most importantly, servant to God.
How does that happen? Through grand titles, specialized training, unlimited resources. No, today’s scripture tells us, it happens when we humble ourselves. When we find ourselves in what seems to us an unjust world and like Cinderella we show our love for our eternal Father by honoring him in our obedience, not to ourselves, but to our Messiah, our Savior, our Lord. Then we will be exalted for all eternity.
Exalted not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us. God’s gift for us creates his appreciation for the humility lived by those of us who genuinely seek to serve God’s world and not our own. Can this be true? Does Jesus really expect our exaltation with God will come only through our humility? Yes, he does, and if we have any doubt we need look no further than scripture for our assurance.
In another list of clear commandments or pronouncements, the Beatitudes, Jesus declares, “Blessed are the meek,” and the “poor in spirit” and the “pure in heart.” It is they who shall “See God”, and be called “the children of God.” This is a contrary notion to be sure and begs the question. What good is servant hood to society and exactly how can it bring about our exaltation? We are looking for power and rank and status and a high public recognition of greatness aren’t we?
Well, perhaps once again we are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps we see ourselves as scribes and Pharisees and what God expects from us is something radically different. Perhaps it is time to stop listening to ourselves and our own ideas about worthiness and listen to what our true teacher has to say.
Servant hood is what Jesus teaches. If we would be great (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to be great) we must be a servant first. If we choose to exalt ourselves, to raise ourselves to great power, we will find ourselves brought to our knees. Yet, if we humble ourselves, becoming a servant to the Lord, we will be known as an heir to the kingdom of God.
Now, if this seems counter intuitive or unnatural you may be right. Humility is unnatural. As Mark Twain recognized, the moment a person seems to have achieved real humility, it is destroyed by the pride at having accomplished it. Truly, humility is not a natural thing. What scripture tells us repeatedly is it is a gift of God’s grace.
Humility is not in the order of creation, but it comes to us in the order of the new creation, it is our baptism gift. And, perhaps the greatest news of all, it is a renewable gift, for things lost in sin are regained in God’s ceaseless outpouring of love. A love for each of us despite what appears far too often, our faltering lack of humility.
But how might we realize when humility is Jesus’ desired response? There is much in our life that gives us a place at the head of the table. That realization may begin when we first understand to be selfless is in itself a dying to self, an act of faith. Often, as scripture teaches, humility takes the form of serving the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, and the imprisoned. Loving our neighbor and especially our enemy.
These active themes of what we are to do for servant humility should become clear this morning. When humility is genuine, it has a clear active quality to it. No one should say about us Christian’s, do as they say not as they do. For true humility requires that our actions do match our words. “The greatest among you will be your servant”, Jesus declares. The servant is a worker. It is for this active, effective servant humility that we should pray.
And could a servant come to be among the greatest?
Frederic Buechner thinks it is possible. He tells the story of the biblical slave, Onesimus, whom St. Paul once met in jail. Buechner tells how Paul writes a letter to Philemon as a request that the master take the runaway slave back and that he treat him as a brother in Christ.
He concludes, “It’s not known whether or not Philemon took the hint and let Onesimus return to be the old saint’s comfort for what time was left him, but there’s at least one good reason for believing that such was the case. Years later, when Paul was long since dead, another saint was in jail by the name of Ignatius. The Bishop of Ephesus had sent some friends to visit him, and Ignatius wrote asking if a couple of them could be allowed to stay. Ignatius in his letter used some of the same language that Paul had used in his to Philemon, almost as if he was trying to remind the Bishop of something. And what was the name of the Bishop he wrote to? It was Onesimus.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of Discipleship tells us:
“Our activity must be visible, but never be done for the sake of making it visible. ‘Let your light so shine before [others]’ . . . and yet: Take care that you hide it! That which is visible must also be hidden. The awareness on which Jesus insists is intended to prevent us from reflecting on our extraordinary position. We have to take heed that we do not take heed of our own righteousness. Otherwise the “extraordinary” which we achieve will not be that which comes from following Christ, but that which springs from our own will and desire.”
Cinderella had it right. Active humility for the sake of honoring only our Father leads us to life in the kingdom of God. And Jesus has it right too. When humility is genuine, it has an active quality to it. An active quality that mirrors as best as humanly possible what God expects we are to become, a humble servant. Our servant life is to be lived out of our love for God. Not for the purpose of any reward at all. Only that we might have the pleasure of doing something solely for God.
The glass slipper that awaits us is being held by our prince, our prince of peace, and when the shoe fits, we will amazingly live happily ever after.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen
103005.uvd
My favorite modern version of the Cinderella story is told in the movie “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore. Even with its contemporary flair, Cinderella is still a principled young woman who, through no fault of her own, comes face to face with the harsh reality of a forced humility of sorts.
Finding herself living with a new step-mother and step-sisters Cinderella’s life goes from one of privilege to one of servitude. She becomes, for all practical purposes, a slave to her step-mother and step-sisters. Despite this, she humbles herself to her new status in a way I’m not sure many would. Her decision to live in obedience and humility is in response to her love for her father and her desire to honor him in her submission to her wicked step-mother.
She endures humiliation and physical suffering as she is repeatedly treated cruelly.
When it seems things cannot get any worse, they do. There is to be a royal ball where the young and handsome prince of the kingdom will choose his new bride. Her step-mother refuses to let her go and her step-sisters are particularly mean to Cinderella as they prepare to go to the ball with the hope of marrying the prince. They repeatedly taunt her about being unworthy.
But, this is a fairy tale! The story takes a magical turn when Cinderella not only goes to the ball, she is the one who marries the prince and is brought up from her humble station to become a princess. This is a love story that ends the way love stories are supposed to end, happily ever after.
Our gospel story this morning has the potential to have the same happy ending.
We hear Jesus warning us, if we do not change directions with our life we may wind up where we are headed. Never one to only tell part of a story, Jesus tells us the whole truth, opening for us the possibilities for a clear path to a better place.
Jesus lifts up several commandments or pronouncements along this new way.
First, we are to do what the scribes and Pharisees teach us. We are not, however, to do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. How often have we heard our parents, our teachers, our bosses say to us, do as I say not as I do. Perhaps we have said it too.
Is it obvious we humans can be so certain and clear about how we are to act, what we are to do to get along, what is good and what is bad, yet we have the most difficult time living our own message. I wonder why that is? Selfishness on our part, looking out for #1, taking happiness into our own hands, deciding for ourselves where our real pleasures lie, getting ours before someone else takes it all. It is pretty obvious where our allegiance lies when our actions do not match our words.
Secondly, in all things we are not to take on the character of these scribes and Pharisees. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others, yet are unwilling to lift a finger to move them themselves. They do all their deeds to be seen by others as if they are on a stage of respectability and play the part, acting it out in front of others, as if this in some way legitimizes their importance. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues.
If we are in doubt about their perceived importance we need only look for them at the power table in the local restaurant. For there they are holding court in the public arena. Their seat is always front row, center stage, on the 50 yard line. They love to be greeted with respect and have people call them by their title. They identify themselves with their social, political, or financial prowess and expect that we seek out their broad ranging opinion even in areas where they have no particular expertise. Simply by their reputation they expect to be recognized as an expert in all things great and small.
Thirdly, Jesus tells us the other things we are not to do. We are not to be called rabbi or teacher or father. We are not to be known by our title. We are to be known by what we do, not who we think we are. We are to call no one our father on earth in place of our Father in heaven. We are to make no gods from the stuff of status which takes the place of our God in heaven. Nor are we to be called teacher in place of our teacher, Jesus Christ. Rabbi, teacher and father are roles reserved for God and God’s anointed. To presume such titles becomes a matter of pride. Perhaps even idolatry and sin.
Fourth, and most powerfully, the greatest among us is to become our servant. Have we heard the echoes we are the greatest? Thinking and acting so we become the one who does not do what Jesus teaches to be right and true. Yet, despite our tendency to selfishness, we are the one who is to become servant. Servant to ourselves and to others. But, most importantly, servant to God.
How does that happen? Through grand titles, specialized training, unlimited resources. No, today’s scripture tells us, it happens when we humble ourselves. When we find ourselves in what seems to us an unjust world and like Cinderella we show our love for our eternal Father by honoring him in our obedience, not to ourselves, but to our Messiah, our Savior, our Lord. Then we will be exalted for all eternity.
Exalted not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us. God’s gift for us creates his appreciation for the humility lived by those of us who genuinely seek to serve God’s world and not our own. Can this be true? Does Jesus really expect our exaltation with God will come only through our humility? Yes, he does, and if we have any doubt we need look no further than scripture for our assurance.
In another list of clear commandments or pronouncements, the Beatitudes, Jesus declares, “Blessed are the meek,” and the “poor in spirit” and the “pure in heart.” It is they who shall “See God”, and be called “the children of God.” This is a contrary notion to be sure and begs the question. What good is servant hood to society and exactly how can it bring about our exaltation? We are looking for power and rank and status and a high public recognition of greatness aren’t we?
Well, perhaps once again we are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps we see ourselves as scribes and Pharisees and what God expects from us is something radically different. Perhaps it is time to stop listening to ourselves and our own ideas about worthiness and listen to what our true teacher has to say.
Servant hood is what Jesus teaches. If we would be great (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to be great) we must be a servant first. If we choose to exalt ourselves, to raise ourselves to great power, we will find ourselves brought to our knees. Yet, if we humble ourselves, becoming a servant to the Lord, we will be known as an heir to the kingdom of God.
Now, if this seems counter intuitive or unnatural you may be right. Humility is unnatural. As Mark Twain recognized, the moment a person seems to have achieved real humility, it is destroyed by the pride at having accomplished it. Truly, humility is not a natural thing. What scripture tells us repeatedly is it is a gift of God’s grace.
Humility is not in the order of creation, but it comes to us in the order of the new creation, it is our baptism gift. And, perhaps the greatest news of all, it is a renewable gift, for things lost in sin are regained in God’s ceaseless outpouring of love. A love for each of us despite what appears far too often, our faltering lack of humility.
But how might we realize when humility is Jesus’ desired response? There is much in our life that gives us a place at the head of the table. That realization may begin when we first understand to be selfless is in itself a dying to self, an act of faith. Often, as scripture teaches, humility takes the form of serving the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, and the imprisoned. Loving our neighbor and especially our enemy.
These active themes of what we are to do for servant humility should become clear this morning. When humility is genuine, it has a clear active quality to it. No one should say about us Christian’s, do as they say not as they do. For true humility requires that our actions do match our words. “The greatest among you will be your servant”, Jesus declares. The servant is a worker. It is for this active, effective servant humility that we should pray.
And could a servant come to be among the greatest?
Frederic Buechner thinks it is possible. He tells the story of the biblical slave, Onesimus, whom St. Paul once met in jail. Buechner tells how Paul writes a letter to Philemon as a request that the master take the runaway slave back and that he treat him as a brother in Christ.
He concludes, “It’s not known whether or not Philemon took the hint and let Onesimus return to be the old saint’s comfort for what time was left him, but there’s at least one good reason for believing that such was the case. Years later, when Paul was long since dead, another saint was in jail by the name of Ignatius. The Bishop of Ephesus had sent some friends to visit him, and Ignatius wrote asking if a couple of them could be allowed to stay. Ignatius in his letter used some of the same language that Paul had used in his to Philemon, almost as if he was trying to remind the Bishop of something. And what was the name of the Bishop he wrote to? It was Onesimus.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of Discipleship tells us:
“Our activity must be visible, but never be done for the sake of making it visible. ‘Let your light so shine before [others]’ . . . and yet: Take care that you hide it! That which is visible must also be hidden. The awareness on which Jesus insists is intended to prevent us from reflecting on our extraordinary position. We have to take heed that we do not take heed of our own righteousness. Otherwise the “extraordinary” which we achieve will not be that which comes from following Christ, but that which springs from our own will and desire.”
Cinderella had it right. Active humility for the sake of honoring only our Father leads us to life in the kingdom of God. And Jesus has it right too. When humility is genuine, it has an active quality to it. An active quality that mirrors as best as humanly possible what God expects we are to become, a humble servant. Our servant life is to be lived out of our love for God. Not for the purpose of any reward at all. Only that we might have the pleasure of doing something solely for God.
The glass slipper that awaits us is being held by our prince, our prince of peace, and when the shoe fits, we will amazingly live happily ever after.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen
103005.uvd
Sunday, October 16, 2011
“Which Life”
16 October 2011 “Which Life” Matthew 22:15-22
It has been a tough past few weeks and months in the world. Disasters natural and man-made alike have filled our newspaper front pages and television and radio airwaves with acts of terror, shootings at work, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, draughts, and wildfires. People have lost their homes, their jobs, their communities and in some cases, their lives.
Ten years ago it was 9/11. Following 9/11, there was war. War still rages on. These past few weeks and months people have been killing one another with bombs and guns. There is great fear in the hearts of many this very moment.
Closer to home, when the hurricanes and the earthquakes and the fires stopped their carnage people turned first to one another for help and then to their governments. Largely the cry to the government was filled with judgment and criticism. In comparison, when we see what our fellow citizens have done, it is not hard to be overcome by their sincere generosity and, in many cases, self sacrifice as they have reached out and offered the only help they could, themselves.
When we hear about the human cost in those places of man made violence, we can only turn to the government for help. The armies are the first to respond during times of war or when insurgents strike innocent people or criminals take matters into their own hands.
In perhaps less obvious ways, we find we respond in similar ways in our day-to-day living. Be it our business at work, our business or interest in the community or our business when at leisure, we turn to the power systems in place for guidance, for help, or influence. How else do we get things done? How else do we know what to do to function safely in this world? There are simply a myriad of systems and processes in place that we must know about and know how to navigate in order to get things done.
If we doubt this, we need look no further than the recent wildfires to see how quickly many lives came to a dangerous stand still when these systems were slow to respond. Those first hours and days in some cases there were no safe shelters, there was no food, no water, people did not have access to medical care, to basic sanitation systems, and when night came all were left vulnerable to the forces that surrounded them.
These truths are real and very, very, frightening. Our sense of absolute vulnerability should be evident. We live on the edge of chaos and don’t realize it until our comfort is shaken by events like these past few weeks and months. Our safety is shaken and all too often we find our sadness is too close to home.
Quickly we recover though, we remember, at our birth we needed help at every level and we received it. But as adults we come to believe we actually have real power and security. It seems that once we have reached a certain age and status we think we can take care of ourselves. If this is our belief, Jesus warns us to be permanently uneasy.
Jesus, we find, was on to something life changing in this morning’s gospel story. After the Pharisees plotted once again to entrap him they asking him, ‘is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not’, Jesus’ answer surprised them, ‘show me the coin used for the tax.’ Being the master at these games of entrapment, Jesus asks, “Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered. “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.’
Oh how wise and clear. Jesus points to the obvious. Give only to the emperor what the emperor is due. It is implicit in this command that the emperor has been receiving more than the emperor is due. That is still true today.
Give to God the things that are God’s. It is implicit in this command that God has been receiving less than what God is due. Sadly, this too is still the case.
How can this be, that we could possibly be giving more to our real world power sources than they are due and less to what our God is due? There must be a permanent uneasiness in our lives.
We do live in the here and now and our decisions about how we live do affect our lives and the lives of those around us and perhaps even the entire world. We do care, we know there are problems, and we are concerned when people lose so much. It could be us next time, we know that is true. The question then becomes, from where does our help come? Do we turn to Caesar or to God?
Since I have become a pastor it is not uncommon for me to see folk react differently when they discover my vocation. Often one of the first things they will say is, “I grew up going to church and I know I should be better about going now, but I have several really good excuses.” Questioning how they live their lives is the farthest thing from my mind, but implicit in their response is an unspoken feeling of guilt. The other frequent response is silence. I’m not sure which is more unsettling.
You may have heard it yourself when you invite someone to church. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for church,’ they say, ‘we’ve committed to soccer and cheerleading for our kids, we travel a lot, Bob loves his golf and then there is the hunting season. We have a full plate. Maybe in a few years we will find time for church. Right now it’s the kids and our family time.”
We hear in this response that not only have choices been made, they have been justified. Our priority is with the kids and our family time. Choices are made that all too often give to Caesar what rightfully belongs to God.
Jesus’ admonition to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s is a clever response, perhaps one that is appropriate for those of us who have trouble deciding what goes to Caesar and what to God. And we can have that trouble, the lines are not always clear. It is so easy to get caught up in living and the next thing we know life is all about this world and ultimately ourselves.
If we look again at the coin in this story it is clear, the coin was stamped with the image of Caesar. You and I, we often forget, are not created in any human image; we are created in the image of God. It is no simple matter, is it; to yield to God the things that are God’s. Not simple, nor is the price we pay insignificant. Jesus makes it clear, it is our very selves he is asking for, and we are the ones God expects to be rendered.
As Christians we must never forget, we are accountable solely to God for all the gifts we have received. The greatest of course being the gift of love. It is ours and it has come to us from God and we are accountable to God for it. Not so much for how we live in love, but for the way we use the love that has been given to us.
Our permanent uneasiness is real. It is not easy to balance church activities, living the life of Christ day and night, with everything else. We want to do it all. We do not want to sacrifice ‘alone time’, family time, travel time or shopping time. I couldn’t just pick on golfers and hunters without remembering shoppers too!
All too often we give God the balance left over when everything else has been done. God does not deserve the balance left over. God deserves to take first place in our lives.
A few years back I attended a conference on “God in the Workplace.” One of the stated purposes of the conference was to challenge us to not let our Monday-Friday work be at odds with our Sunday call to life-long ministry. In the course of the discussion, there were several important points that stayed with me.
The best being this, a business leader was sharing his frustration with a noted business expert that he found it impossible to organize, let alone accomplish, the multiplicity of priorities in his life. The expert stopped him immediately and challenged his notion of having priorities in life. His message was clear; life is not about having priorities, plural, it is about having a priority, singular. And that priority should be God.
How would that change your Monday-Friday? If your work and home and play life were not about priorities but about priority. If God were your single priority, how then would you give to God what is Gods? Would God then take first place in your life?
Thomas R. Kelly was a Quaker missionary, educator, speaker, writer and scholar. In A Testament of Devotion, he wrote: “We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us. Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves…. And each of our selves is in turn a rank individualist, not cooperative but shouting out his vote loudly for himself when the voting time comes….It is as if we have a chairman of our committee of many selves within us who does not integrate the many into one but who merely counts the votes at each decision, and leaves disgruntled minorities….We are not integrated. We are distraught. We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all….Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center….Most of us, I fear, haven not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy within.”
I am the first to admit, it is not easy to surrender all, to give to God what is God’s. So often we find ourselves consumed by our perceived importance’s. How can we possibly have time for anything else?
Perhaps the worst sin is not to give to Caesar that which ought only to be given to God after all. Perhaps the greatest sin is not to recognize the difference. To fool ourselves into thinking all our busy work is somehow God’s work. Clearly there is a difference. Give to Caesar only what is Caesars, give to God only what is God’s.
I cannot tell you exactly where that line lies. I cannot in every case tell you what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. But God can, if we will only pay attention, God can. Powerfully, lovingly, with grace and a life long commitment, God is revealed to us by God. Especially these past few weeks and months when things have been so tough.
When rescuers came, God was there.
When shelters were opened. God was there.
When volunteers showed up with food, water, clothing and a helping hand and a kind word, God was there.
Wherever there are people who show up during tough times, God has shown up.
When their words are of comfort, and promise and healing, it is God who is speaking.
That is where the line is for those of us who believe. God brings it, God defines it and God reveals it to us, and often as not, through us. Through each of us God reveals God’s love to the world.
And because of this amazing truth, God deserves all we have in return, every bit of us, not just the balance left over.
What in the world is God doing with us here at Genesis Presbyterian Church? God is showing us that line between Caesar and between God. When we step out in ministry to our community, when we bring forth our resources for mission and outreach, when we gather for worship, and especially when we hold one another in our tears, God is here with us.
Let us give to God what is God’s, this church, and us with it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
101611.gpc
It has been a tough past few weeks and months in the world. Disasters natural and man-made alike have filled our newspaper front pages and television and radio airwaves with acts of terror, shootings at work, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, draughts, and wildfires. People have lost their homes, their jobs, their communities and in some cases, their lives.
Ten years ago it was 9/11. Following 9/11, there was war. War still rages on. These past few weeks and months people have been killing one another with bombs and guns. There is great fear in the hearts of many this very moment.
Closer to home, when the hurricanes and the earthquakes and the fires stopped their carnage people turned first to one another for help and then to their governments. Largely the cry to the government was filled with judgment and criticism. In comparison, when we see what our fellow citizens have done, it is not hard to be overcome by their sincere generosity and, in many cases, self sacrifice as they have reached out and offered the only help they could, themselves.
When we hear about the human cost in those places of man made violence, we can only turn to the government for help. The armies are the first to respond during times of war or when insurgents strike innocent people or criminals take matters into their own hands.
In perhaps less obvious ways, we find we respond in similar ways in our day-to-day living. Be it our business at work, our business or interest in the community or our business when at leisure, we turn to the power systems in place for guidance, for help, or influence. How else do we get things done? How else do we know what to do to function safely in this world? There are simply a myriad of systems and processes in place that we must know about and know how to navigate in order to get things done.
If we doubt this, we need look no further than the recent wildfires to see how quickly many lives came to a dangerous stand still when these systems were slow to respond. Those first hours and days in some cases there were no safe shelters, there was no food, no water, people did not have access to medical care, to basic sanitation systems, and when night came all were left vulnerable to the forces that surrounded them.
These truths are real and very, very, frightening. Our sense of absolute vulnerability should be evident. We live on the edge of chaos and don’t realize it until our comfort is shaken by events like these past few weeks and months. Our safety is shaken and all too often we find our sadness is too close to home.
Quickly we recover though, we remember, at our birth we needed help at every level and we received it. But as adults we come to believe we actually have real power and security. It seems that once we have reached a certain age and status we think we can take care of ourselves. If this is our belief, Jesus warns us to be permanently uneasy.
Jesus, we find, was on to something life changing in this morning’s gospel story. After the Pharisees plotted once again to entrap him they asking him, ‘is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not’, Jesus’ answer surprised them, ‘show me the coin used for the tax.’ Being the master at these games of entrapment, Jesus asks, “Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered. “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.’
Oh how wise and clear. Jesus points to the obvious. Give only to the emperor what the emperor is due. It is implicit in this command that the emperor has been receiving more than the emperor is due. That is still true today.
Give to God the things that are God’s. It is implicit in this command that God has been receiving less than what God is due. Sadly, this too is still the case.
How can this be, that we could possibly be giving more to our real world power sources than they are due and less to what our God is due? There must be a permanent uneasiness in our lives.
We do live in the here and now and our decisions about how we live do affect our lives and the lives of those around us and perhaps even the entire world. We do care, we know there are problems, and we are concerned when people lose so much. It could be us next time, we know that is true. The question then becomes, from where does our help come? Do we turn to Caesar or to God?
Since I have become a pastor it is not uncommon for me to see folk react differently when they discover my vocation. Often one of the first things they will say is, “I grew up going to church and I know I should be better about going now, but I have several really good excuses.” Questioning how they live their lives is the farthest thing from my mind, but implicit in their response is an unspoken feeling of guilt. The other frequent response is silence. I’m not sure which is more unsettling.
You may have heard it yourself when you invite someone to church. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for church,’ they say, ‘we’ve committed to soccer and cheerleading for our kids, we travel a lot, Bob loves his golf and then there is the hunting season. We have a full plate. Maybe in a few years we will find time for church. Right now it’s the kids and our family time.”
We hear in this response that not only have choices been made, they have been justified. Our priority is with the kids and our family time. Choices are made that all too often give to Caesar what rightfully belongs to God.
Jesus’ admonition to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s is a clever response, perhaps one that is appropriate for those of us who have trouble deciding what goes to Caesar and what to God. And we can have that trouble, the lines are not always clear. It is so easy to get caught up in living and the next thing we know life is all about this world and ultimately ourselves.
If we look again at the coin in this story it is clear, the coin was stamped with the image of Caesar. You and I, we often forget, are not created in any human image; we are created in the image of God. It is no simple matter, is it; to yield to God the things that are God’s. Not simple, nor is the price we pay insignificant. Jesus makes it clear, it is our very selves he is asking for, and we are the ones God expects to be rendered.
As Christians we must never forget, we are accountable solely to God for all the gifts we have received. The greatest of course being the gift of love. It is ours and it has come to us from God and we are accountable to God for it. Not so much for how we live in love, but for the way we use the love that has been given to us.
Our permanent uneasiness is real. It is not easy to balance church activities, living the life of Christ day and night, with everything else. We want to do it all. We do not want to sacrifice ‘alone time’, family time, travel time or shopping time. I couldn’t just pick on golfers and hunters without remembering shoppers too!
All too often we give God the balance left over when everything else has been done. God does not deserve the balance left over. God deserves to take first place in our lives.
A few years back I attended a conference on “God in the Workplace.” One of the stated purposes of the conference was to challenge us to not let our Monday-Friday work be at odds with our Sunday call to life-long ministry. In the course of the discussion, there were several important points that stayed with me.
The best being this, a business leader was sharing his frustration with a noted business expert that he found it impossible to organize, let alone accomplish, the multiplicity of priorities in his life. The expert stopped him immediately and challenged his notion of having priorities in life. His message was clear; life is not about having priorities, plural, it is about having a priority, singular. And that priority should be God.
How would that change your Monday-Friday? If your work and home and play life were not about priorities but about priority. If God were your single priority, how then would you give to God what is Gods? Would God then take first place in your life?
Thomas R. Kelly was a Quaker missionary, educator, speaker, writer and scholar. In A Testament of Devotion, he wrote: “We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us. Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves…. And each of our selves is in turn a rank individualist, not cooperative but shouting out his vote loudly for himself when the voting time comes….It is as if we have a chairman of our committee of many selves within us who does not integrate the many into one but who merely counts the votes at each decision, and leaves disgruntled minorities….We are not integrated. We are distraught. We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all….Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center….Most of us, I fear, haven not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy within.”
I am the first to admit, it is not easy to surrender all, to give to God what is God’s. So often we find ourselves consumed by our perceived importance’s. How can we possibly have time for anything else?
Perhaps the worst sin is not to give to Caesar that which ought only to be given to God after all. Perhaps the greatest sin is not to recognize the difference. To fool ourselves into thinking all our busy work is somehow God’s work. Clearly there is a difference. Give to Caesar only what is Caesars, give to God only what is God’s.
I cannot tell you exactly where that line lies. I cannot in every case tell you what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. But God can, if we will only pay attention, God can. Powerfully, lovingly, with grace and a life long commitment, God is revealed to us by God. Especially these past few weeks and months when things have been so tough.
When rescuers came, God was there.
When shelters were opened. God was there.
When volunteers showed up with food, water, clothing and a helping hand and a kind word, God was there.
Wherever there are people who show up during tough times, God has shown up.
When their words are of comfort, and promise and healing, it is God who is speaking.
That is where the line is for those of us who believe. God brings it, God defines it and God reveals it to us, and often as not, through us. Through each of us God reveals God’s love to the world.
And because of this amazing truth, God deserves all we have in return, every bit of us, not just the balance left over.
What in the world is God doing with us here at Genesis Presbyterian Church? God is showing us that line between Caesar and between God. When we step out in ministry to our community, when we bring forth our resources for mission and outreach, when we gather for worship, and especially when we hold one another in our tears, God is here with us.
Let us give to God what is God’s, this church, and us with it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
101611.gpc
Monday, October 3, 2011
02 October 2011 Matthew 21:33-46
02 October 2011 Matthew 21:33-46
The questions we hear and often ask ourselves are seldom as innocent as they seem. One pastor tells of a visit with a lifelong member of the church who had not attended for a long time. As they talked the parishioner was curious, ‘How are they doing down at the church?” What a great theological question, “How are they doing down at the church?” From that question our pastor had her sermon for the next Sunday. She called it, “We Are They.”
Her theme was woven around the truth that we are the “they” in this morning’s gospel. We are the tenants who were leased the vineyard. We are they and the not so innocent question that should concern us comes in verse 20, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
Throughout church history the church has pointed to a lot of “theys.” Sometimes the list pointed to the religious officials of that day like the Pharisees and the chief priests. But the theys also included Gentiles, women, the uncircumcised, eunuchs, Judaizers, sinners, and Barbarians. People in every age have had a tendency to put distance between themselves and the theys.
It’s like being back in school when some of our classmates would get caught doing something we might now consider casual and being sent to the principal’s office. What will he do to them? And when they get home. What will their parents do to them? It’s like listening to the terrible things people do to one another on the news? What will they do to them? We want to stay away from those theys.
According to Matthew’s gospel the owner had already done a lot of the heavy lifting. He had “planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower.” And then he left his vineyard in the hands of the tenants who at harvest time seize his slaves, beat one, kill one, and stone another. Finally he sent his son and they killed him too.
It is painful to consider we may be the tenants in this parable. We understand God has left the vineyard in our care. But we are faithful people and we work hard to bring about God’s kingdom.
Leaving the vineyard in our care might remind us of that first creation garden in the Genesis story where God first left God’s kingdom in our hands. Like Adam and Eve and these vineyard tenants we have made our mistakes.
The first involves the land. We thought the land belonged to us. We forgot we were to be stewards of someone else’s property. The tenants create a false sense of ownership in their efforts to secure their perceived inheritance. They think, we are the ones slaving over the land. How dare the owner send servant after servant and finally his own son to collect what we have worked very hard to cultivate and grow and harvest. They felt they were due the inheritance, the land and its bounty. How dare anyone threaten to take what is rightfully theirs?
Before we rush to condemn these tenants we might consider for a moment how well we have done with the vineyard we have been given. Have we considered the jungle we have overtly or covertly made or allowed to be made? War; terror; ecological disaster; families in disarray; confusion; fear and pessimism everywhere; values twisted and the old words given new and strange definitions.
We protest, of course, we are not they. It isn’t our fault. We blame it on someone else. Like in Genesis the man blames the woman. The woman blames the snake. I guess the snake had no one to blame, or did not care.
We blame it on the tenants before us or the tenants here now. We blame it on the government or the hypocritical religious institution. Some of the darkest chapters in the life of the church are the times we blamed then punished others using chapter and verse from this parable.
In our way of thinking the words they and we were poles apart. Jesus will not let us judge so easily. He brings the two words and the two different worlds of they and we closer together.
Human beings have spent a lot of time and energy arguing about judgment and we know well the justification, “An eye for an eye.” The scholars tell us, “An eye for an eye” was originally an attempt to keep the urge to retaliate in check. Given the human appetite for revenge even “an eye for an eye” is hard to enforce.
Jesus spends a lot of time talking about judgment. He tells story after story, parable after parable. This particular text has been noted as Matthew’s way of showing the end times: the fall of Jerusalem, the diaspora of the Jews, the rise of Christianity among the Gentiles.
But, as Professor Anna Carter Florence has suggested, what if this wildly outrageous story is simply that: a wildly outrageous story about a world we have yet to meet? What if this is a story that contrasts human judgment with the as-yet-unexperienced-and-unimagined divine judgment of a God who is so far beyond us, that we cannot even apply the same patterns of justice?
In the human realm, when wicked tenants behave like this, we know what happens. We have perfectly credible, reasonable, rational ways to judge those caught in the act, and this act is particularly foul. So, what would we do? Well, we would put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give the owner of the vineyard the produce at harvest time!
Notice that Jesus doesn’t exactly confirm us in our perfectly credible, reasonable, rational judgment. Instead, he offers a cryptic exegetical comment, “Have you never read in the scriptures, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
The church today is having a hard time. A new song book is coming out soon because we cannot decide what songs to sing, we cannot decide what instruments to play, we have tried other ways and still cannot all agree on what liturgy to use, if any, we cannot agree on what time to meet, or what is appropriate attire for the occasion or how the building should be configured. Perhaps our trouble may be the same as the Pharisees. We forget this is God’s thing we do here on Sunday morning’s. We forget we are tenants only. We forget the owner of the vineyard will one day come and ask us for an accounting.
Maybe our most important calling is to stop pointing fingers. Maybe it is not the liberals or the conservative we should blame. Maybe it is not the government or the immigrants or the extremists or the terrorists or even our wayward parents. We are they. We are to faithfully tend the garden we have been given. We are to receive those God sends our way. We are to make sure that when God walks down our street and stops at our house we do not miss God.
How much easier to point fingers at those other folk over there. It’s just too hard otherwise to consider our role and responsibility to the vineyard, to consider what it means to be a tenant in this year of 2011 here at Genesis church?
The call to fidelity, which means tending the vineyard, begins at home. It does not end here but it starts here. To participate in the church is to risk an encounter like that moment when the prophet Nathan confronted King David after he had taken another man’s wife and foretold the fateful words, “Thou are the man.”
Oh, if we could come to church assured that the enemy is not us, that we are not the man or the woman on whom God’s kingdom depends or on whom God’s judgment falls!
One of our greatest challenges in this matter of divine judgment may be that we live in a society that tends to fear judgment. The “problem’ is always somewhere else other than here. The “sin” is always with folks other than us.
A visitor recalled sitting in a small, rural church in the mountains of North Carolina during a particularly pointed sermon. The preacher, as the visitor recalled, was preaching a text from Jeremiah in which the prophet catalogs Israel’s multiple sins. And then the preacher, as preachers often do, began to talk about the sins of the congregation, condemning them for their assorted instances of their sin. Then, as if the preacher sensed that the attentiveness of his congregation was wandering the preacher blurted out, “I’m talking about you! And you, and you and you!”
This was a powerful moment. It is so easy to have a sermon bounce off our head and hit someone in the pew behind us. “I’m talking about you!” leaves no rebound.
I wonder if Jesus is reminding us that ‘what we would do’ is not what God would do. In the realms of God, judgment will not look like it does in the human realm. The vineyard will bear another kind of fruit. The old ways will be crushed beneath an open tombstone and death, where will thy sting be, then?
All we can say is what we know: God will forgive seventy times seven. God will welcome the prodigal home. God will open the banquet to tax collectors and prostitutes. God will raise the dead to new life. What we know about what God would do is that it is completely incredible, unreasonable, and irrational; not at all what we would do.
And we need not be reminded that many of us are lousy gardeners. Not all. Some of us can plant anything and make it grow. But Jesus said we all have been given this plot of land. It was in good shape when God gave it to us. Now our task is the same as those who came before us. It is to leave the garden better than we found it.
If this is true it will take all of us to make this garden lush and green and productive again. Hopefully we will work to reach out and join hands and hearts to our brothers and sisters and even strangers and enemies. Isn’t this the kind of world we want to leave for those who follow us?
Maybe it is about us after all.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“Pulpit Resource,” Volume 36, Number 4, 2008, pgs. 5-8.
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XIX, Number 6, pgs. 11-12.
100211.gpc
The questions we hear and often ask ourselves are seldom as innocent as they seem. One pastor tells of a visit with a lifelong member of the church who had not attended for a long time. As they talked the parishioner was curious, ‘How are they doing down at the church?” What a great theological question, “How are they doing down at the church?” From that question our pastor had her sermon for the next Sunday. She called it, “We Are They.”
Her theme was woven around the truth that we are the “they” in this morning’s gospel. We are the tenants who were leased the vineyard. We are they and the not so innocent question that should concern us comes in verse 20, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
Throughout church history the church has pointed to a lot of “theys.” Sometimes the list pointed to the religious officials of that day like the Pharisees and the chief priests. But the theys also included Gentiles, women, the uncircumcised, eunuchs, Judaizers, sinners, and Barbarians. People in every age have had a tendency to put distance between themselves and the theys.
It’s like being back in school when some of our classmates would get caught doing something we might now consider casual and being sent to the principal’s office. What will he do to them? And when they get home. What will their parents do to them? It’s like listening to the terrible things people do to one another on the news? What will they do to them? We want to stay away from those theys.
According to Matthew’s gospel the owner had already done a lot of the heavy lifting. He had “planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower.” And then he left his vineyard in the hands of the tenants who at harvest time seize his slaves, beat one, kill one, and stone another. Finally he sent his son and they killed him too.
It is painful to consider we may be the tenants in this parable. We understand God has left the vineyard in our care. But we are faithful people and we work hard to bring about God’s kingdom.
Leaving the vineyard in our care might remind us of that first creation garden in the Genesis story where God first left God’s kingdom in our hands. Like Adam and Eve and these vineyard tenants we have made our mistakes.
The first involves the land. We thought the land belonged to us. We forgot we were to be stewards of someone else’s property. The tenants create a false sense of ownership in their efforts to secure their perceived inheritance. They think, we are the ones slaving over the land. How dare the owner send servant after servant and finally his own son to collect what we have worked very hard to cultivate and grow and harvest. They felt they were due the inheritance, the land and its bounty. How dare anyone threaten to take what is rightfully theirs?
Before we rush to condemn these tenants we might consider for a moment how well we have done with the vineyard we have been given. Have we considered the jungle we have overtly or covertly made or allowed to be made? War; terror; ecological disaster; families in disarray; confusion; fear and pessimism everywhere; values twisted and the old words given new and strange definitions.
We protest, of course, we are not they. It isn’t our fault. We blame it on someone else. Like in Genesis the man blames the woman. The woman blames the snake. I guess the snake had no one to blame, or did not care.
We blame it on the tenants before us or the tenants here now. We blame it on the government or the hypocritical religious institution. Some of the darkest chapters in the life of the church are the times we blamed then punished others using chapter and verse from this parable.
In our way of thinking the words they and we were poles apart. Jesus will not let us judge so easily. He brings the two words and the two different worlds of they and we closer together.
Human beings have spent a lot of time and energy arguing about judgment and we know well the justification, “An eye for an eye.” The scholars tell us, “An eye for an eye” was originally an attempt to keep the urge to retaliate in check. Given the human appetite for revenge even “an eye for an eye” is hard to enforce.
Jesus spends a lot of time talking about judgment. He tells story after story, parable after parable. This particular text has been noted as Matthew’s way of showing the end times: the fall of Jerusalem, the diaspora of the Jews, the rise of Christianity among the Gentiles.
But, as Professor Anna Carter Florence has suggested, what if this wildly outrageous story is simply that: a wildly outrageous story about a world we have yet to meet? What if this is a story that contrasts human judgment with the as-yet-unexperienced-and-unimagined divine judgment of a God who is so far beyond us, that we cannot even apply the same patterns of justice?
In the human realm, when wicked tenants behave like this, we know what happens. We have perfectly credible, reasonable, rational ways to judge those caught in the act, and this act is particularly foul. So, what would we do? Well, we would put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give the owner of the vineyard the produce at harvest time!
Notice that Jesus doesn’t exactly confirm us in our perfectly credible, reasonable, rational judgment. Instead, he offers a cryptic exegetical comment, “Have you never read in the scriptures, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
The church today is having a hard time. A new song book is coming out soon because we cannot decide what songs to sing, we cannot decide what instruments to play, we have tried other ways and still cannot all agree on what liturgy to use, if any, we cannot agree on what time to meet, or what is appropriate attire for the occasion or how the building should be configured. Perhaps our trouble may be the same as the Pharisees. We forget this is God’s thing we do here on Sunday morning’s. We forget we are tenants only. We forget the owner of the vineyard will one day come and ask us for an accounting.
Maybe our most important calling is to stop pointing fingers. Maybe it is not the liberals or the conservative we should blame. Maybe it is not the government or the immigrants or the extremists or the terrorists or even our wayward parents. We are they. We are to faithfully tend the garden we have been given. We are to receive those God sends our way. We are to make sure that when God walks down our street and stops at our house we do not miss God.
How much easier to point fingers at those other folk over there. It’s just too hard otherwise to consider our role and responsibility to the vineyard, to consider what it means to be a tenant in this year of 2011 here at Genesis church?
The call to fidelity, which means tending the vineyard, begins at home. It does not end here but it starts here. To participate in the church is to risk an encounter like that moment when the prophet Nathan confronted King David after he had taken another man’s wife and foretold the fateful words, “Thou are the man.”
Oh, if we could come to church assured that the enemy is not us, that we are not the man or the woman on whom God’s kingdom depends or on whom God’s judgment falls!
One of our greatest challenges in this matter of divine judgment may be that we live in a society that tends to fear judgment. The “problem’ is always somewhere else other than here. The “sin” is always with folks other than us.
A visitor recalled sitting in a small, rural church in the mountains of North Carolina during a particularly pointed sermon. The preacher, as the visitor recalled, was preaching a text from Jeremiah in which the prophet catalogs Israel’s multiple sins. And then the preacher, as preachers often do, began to talk about the sins of the congregation, condemning them for their assorted instances of their sin. Then, as if the preacher sensed that the attentiveness of his congregation was wandering the preacher blurted out, “I’m talking about you! And you, and you and you!”
This was a powerful moment. It is so easy to have a sermon bounce off our head and hit someone in the pew behind us. “I’m talking about you!” leaves no rebound.
I wonder if Jesus is reminding us that ‘what we would do’ is not what God would do. In the realms of God, judgment will not look like it does in the human realm. The vineyard will bear another kind of fruit. The old ways will be crushed beneath an open tombstone and death, where will thy sting be, then?
All we can say is what we know: God will forgive seventy times seven. God will welcome the prodigal home. God will open the banquet to tax collectors and prostitutes. God will raise the dead to new life. What we know about what God would do is that it is completely incredible, unreasonable, and irrational; not at all what we would do.
And we need not be reminded that many of us are lousy gardeners. Not all. Some of us can plant anything and make it grow. But Jesus said we all have been given this plot of land. It was in good shape when God gave it to us. Now our task is the same as those who came before us. It is to leave the garden better than we found it.
If this is true it will take all of us to make this garden lush and green and productive again. Hopefully we will work to reach out and join hands and hearts to our brothers and sisters and even strangers and enemies. Isn’t this the kind of world we want to leave for those who follow us?
Maybe it is about us after all.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“Pulpit Resource,” Volume 36, Number 4, 2008, pgs. 5-8.
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XIX, Number 6, pgs. 11-12.
100211.gpc
Monday, September 12, 2011
11 September 2011 ‘Judgment Set Aside’ Matthew 18:21-35
It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite their shortcomings in mathematics. I know many of you are skilled in the areas of math. Many did just fine in high school algebra or college calculus or some other twisted mind numbing formulaic learning.
But there are some of us who just don’t understand beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. My first arithmetic nightmare was in elementary school. It stopped being fun when I tried to learn the multiplication tables? The nines just about did me in…
I shuddered with this memory, and others, when faced this morning with more math. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me? Seven times? No, he says, and then we have this really bad flashback as Jesus responds with a geometrically progressive figure, not seven times, but, seventy-seven times.
It is also not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite struggling to try and understand the moral to every story found in scripture. This mornings’ parable of the unforgiving servant is an example.
There is this king who wants to settle accounts with his slaves. One in particular owes so much he deserves to be sold to pay his debt. The king is ready to give him what he deserves then changes his mind when the slave talks the king into feeling pity for him. The king changes his mind and actually forgives the entire debt, clearly not what the servant deserves. Then, you guessed it, the king changes his mind again, becomes angry with the servant and turns him over to be tortured until he would repay his entire debt.
Wedged in the middle we read of this slaves’ refusal to return the same mercy he had just received to a fellow slave who owed him money. Once forgiven, his mistake was to not return the favor.
Next in the scripture we read this, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Brennan Manning has written an interesting book titled, “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” In it he tells a personal story, “On a blustery October night in a church outside Minneapolis, several hundred believers had gathered for a three-day seminar. I began with a one-hour presentation on the gospel of grace and the reality of salvation. Using Scripture, story, symbolism, and personal experience, I focused on the total sufficiency of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. The service ended with a song and a prayer. Leaving the church by a side door, the local pastor turned to his associate and fumed, “Humph, that airhead didn’t say one thing about what we have to do to earn our salvation!”
The author goes on to say, “I hear in his fuming the clear impression that the pastor believes salvation is something we earn. And if we ignore this truth, we will get exactly what we deserve.” It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives who would agree completely.
At the beginning of the gospel story, when the king initially decided to sell his slave to pay his debt, I didn’t want to see the servant go to jail. Like me, you may have felt sorry for him. Poor little slave being ruined by the big powerful king. But, by the end of the story, when this once forgiven servant socks it to his fellow slave, we are delighted to see him led off to get what he deserves. Where we once would have appealed for clemency, for generosity even, we now applaud with vengeance in our hearts when the slave is punished for his own injustices.
By the end of the story, there is actually no difference between the selfish little servant and the big forceful king. At least the king showed he had a soft side. The servant on the other hand had no nice side in him at all. In the end, they both are the sorts of person who repay injustice with punishment. Many of us would be ok with this story. We could easily explain, this is just the way the world works.
Perhaps this is the point the pastor was making in the story from the Ragamuffin Gospel. We know about grace and salvation, we just need to know what we have to do to earn them!
Then again, it seems obvious, to earn something we have to do something. And if we don’t do something, we won’t get paid. We will then get what we deserve, nothing. We know the slogans, “There is no free lunch”, “You want money, work for it”, You want mercy, show you deserve it”, “Do unto others before they do unto you”, “God loves good little boys and girls”. Oops, did I sneak that last one in?
If we must be a good little boy or girl before God will love us, well, we may be doomed. This may be a formula none of us will ever live up to. Clearly, if it is up to us, we will get what we deserve and it won’t be pretty.
Yet, we try. Even in this morning’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus for us about being a good little boy or girl. “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Jesus’ answer is clear. There is to be no magic formula, no limit to our forgiveness. Forgiveness is to become for us a way of life that never ends!
Ouch! I wonder, has Jesus gone too far with us this time? The world is a rough place. The news is not filled with stories of justice and forgiveness. This world is often a bloody, exceedingly dangerous, and revenge filled place. We remember 9/11. We know all too vividly, terrorism has no limits. Genocide has occurred during our lifetime, this very moment groups of people live in eternal cycles of vengeance and violence, Arab-Israeli, rich-poor, brown-white, have-have not.
The harsh truth of Jesus’ story this morning is that in our secret satisfaction as the servant is led to get what he deserves, we are probably no worse, but certainly no better than he. From this moment forth, however, we know the moral of the story. And that should make all the difference. It is clear from verse thirty -five, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” How many times? That’s right, the days of playing the “I don’t like math” card are over. Jesus is proposing a new response to a common place story of seemingly deserved judgment. Jesus is offering forgiveness as a new model, a new formula, one that has no limit.
Jesus is actually offering much more. Forgiveness is not the end all. Forgiveness is a small example of a much larger gift from God; Jesus is offering us hope, eternal grace, eternal salvation, and eternal joy.
These past few Sundays we have heard Jesus in the scriptures talking at length about what relationships in the Christian community are like. By now it should be obvious, Jesus is making the point over and over again, the most important thing in the world is the life of this community. In this community, if we want to be members of it, we are called to do everything in our power to nourish and strengthen the bonds of love within us, and between us.
We cannot do that if we are like the rest of the world, repaying injustice with punishment, being the ‘give them what they deserve” police. Scripture is clear, life is not about being a good little boy or girl to earn God’s love. God doesn’t keep score and we shouldn’t either.
Truth is, some times we have forgotten what it is like to be forgiven – from the heart, to have our record scrubbed clean, our name removed from the ledger with no chance of the score ever being kept again. We forever bury that feeling when we keep score with others or when we search for ways to earn our own forgiveness, our own salvation, our own love.
Truth is, it is just not up to us, it is just not of our own doing. All we have ever been able to do is ask for it, for forgiveness, for salvation, for God’s love – and when it has been given, it has come to us from outside ourselves, from another, from God alone, and most importantly it is, we forget, a free gift. A free gift from someone we have hurt, someone to whom we are in debt, but someone who has decided that what is more important than getting even, is to forgive us and stay always in relationship with us and give us hope beyond ourselves.
The story is told that when the Civil War ended a group gathered outside the White House and President Lincoln came out to say a few words to the crowd. It was a great time of celebration. A band was there. The President talked briefly about the horrors of war and then he joked a little because he had a great sense of humor. The people were delighted and exuberant that they had won the war that had been going on for four years. Lincoln talked about how important it was to get back together and heal the nation’s wounds and let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Then he said, “In a few moments, I want the band to play and I am going to tell them what I want them to play.”
The crowd thought he would get them to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that had become their theme song. But Mr. Lincoln said, “I wonder if we, in winning the war, have the right now to play that music again…if maybe that would not be appropriate”. That should have been a clue to what he was going to say. Because he turned to the band and said, “Now this is what I want you to play – I want you to play Dixie.” The band almost dropped their instruments. For a minute they just stood there with the crowd open mouthed. The looked at one another. They didn’t have the music to Dixie. They hadn’t played Dixie in quite a while.
Then after a long pause the band finally got together and they played Dixie. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.
With the wisdom and love of Jesus Christ as our example, having heard him say as he hung from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing”, we are in the unique position this morning to get back together with those we have been separated from, to heal all wounds needing forgiveness, and to let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Forgiving seventy times seven.
It is quite a unique position we are in this morning and what a rare and wonderful God who loves us. For our God never retaliates, our God is always forgiving and remembering our sins no more, and though our God has given us our cross to bear, especially on this anniversary of 9/11, God is praying, that despite ourselves, we too will live a life of forgiveness equal to his.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
091111.gpc
But there are some of us who just don’t understand beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. My first arithmetic nightmare was in elementary school. It stopped being fun when I tried to learn the multiplication tables? The nines just about did me in…
I shuddered with this memory, and others, when faced this morning with more math. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me? Seven times? No, he says, and then we have this really bad flashback as Jesus responds with a geometrically progressive figure, not seven times, but, seventy-seven times.
It is also not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite struggling to try and understand the moral to every story found in scripture. This mornings’ parable of the unforgiving servant is an example.
There is this king who wants to settle accounts with his slaves. One in particular owes so much he deserves to be sold to pay his debt. The king is ready to give him what he deserves then changes his mind when the slave talks the king into feeling pity for him. The king changes his mind and actually forgives the entire debt, clearly not what the servant deserves. Then, you guessed it, the king changes his mind again, becomes angry with the servant and turns him over to be tortured until he would repay his entire debt.
Wedged in the middle we read of this slaves’ refusal to return the same mercy he had just received to a fellow slave who owed him money. Once forgiven, his mistake was to not return the favor.
Next in the scripture we read this, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Brennan Manning has written an interesting book titled, “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” In it he tells a personal story, “On a blustery October night in a church outside Minneapolis, several hundred believers had gathered for a three-day seminar. I began with a one-hour presentation on the gospel of grace and the reality of salvation. Using Scripture, story, symbolism, and personal experience, I focused on the total sufficiency of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. The service ended with a song and a prayer. Leaving the church by a side door, the local pastor turned to his associate and fumed, “Humph, that airhead didn’t say one thing about what we have to do to earn our salvation!”
The author goes on to say, “I hear in his fuming the clear impression that the pastor believes salvation is something we earn. And if we ignore this truth, we will get exactly what we deserve.” It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives who would agree completely.
At the beginning of the gospel story, when the king initially decided to sell his slave to pay his debt, I didn’t want to see the servant go to jail. Like me, you may have felt sorry for him. Poor little slave being ruined by the big powerful king. But, by the end of the story, when this once forgiven servant socks it to his fellow slave, we are delighted to see him led off to get what he deserves. Where we once would have appealed for clemency, for generosity even, we now applaud with vengeance in our hearts when the slave is punished for his own injustices.
By the end of the story, there is actually no difference between the selfish little servant and the big forceful king. At least the king showed he had a soft side. The servant on the other hand had no nice side in him at all. In the end, they both are the sorts of person who repay injustice with punishment. Many of us would be ok with this story. We could easily explain, this is just the way the world works.
Perhaps this is the point the pastor was making in the story from the Ragamuffin Gospel. We know about grace and salvation, we just need to know what we have to do to earn them!
Then again, it seems obvious, to earn something we have to do something. And if we don’t do something, we won’t get paid. We will then get what we deserve, nothing. We know the slogans, “There is no free lunch”, “You want money, work for it”, You want mercy, show you deserve it”, “Do unto others before they do unto you”, “God loves good little boys and girls”. Oops, did I sneak that last one in?
If we must be a good little boy or girl before God will love us, well, we may be doomed. This may be a formula none of us will ever live up to. Clearly, if it is up to us, we will get what we deserve and it won’t be pretty.
Yet, we try. Even in this morning’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus for us about being a good little boy or girl. “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Jesus’ answer is clear. There is to be no magic formula, no limit to our forgiveness. Forgiveness is to become for us a way of life that never ends!
Ouch! I wonder, has Jesus gone too far with us this time? The world is a rough place. The news is not filled with stories of justice and forgiveness. This world is often a bloody, exceedingly dangerous, and revenge filled place. We remember 9/11. We know all too vividly, terrorism has no limits. Genocide has occurred during our lifetime, this very moment groups of people live in eternal cycles of vengeance and violence, Arab-Israeli, rich-poor, brown-white, have-have not.
The harsh truth of Jesus’ story this morning is that in our secret satisfaction as the servant is led to get what he deserves, we are probably no worse, but certainly no better than he. From this moment forth, however, we know the moral of the story. And that should make all the difference. It is clear from verse thirty -five, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” How many times? That’s right, the days of playing the “I don’t like math” card are over. Jesus is proposing a new response to a common place story of seemingly deserved judgment. Jesus is offering forgiveness as a new model, a new formula, one that has no limit.
Jesus is actually offering much more. Forgiveness is not the end all. Forgiveness is a small example of a much larger gift from God; Jesus is offering us hope, eternal grace, eternal salvation, and eternal joy.
These past few Sundays we have heard Jesus in the scriptures talking at length about what relationships in the Christian community are like. By now it should be obvious, Jesus is making the point over and over again, the most important thing in the world is the life of this community. In this community, if we want to be members of it, we are called to do everything in our power to nourish and strengthen the bonds of love within us, and between us.
We cannot do that if we are like the rest of the world, repaying injustice with punishment, being the ‘give them what they deserve” police. Scripture is clear, life is not about being a good little boy or girl to earn God’s love. God doesn’t keep score and we shouldn’t either.
Truth is, some times we have forgotten what it is like to be forgiven – from the heart, to have our record scrubbed clean, our name removed from the ledger with no chance of the score ever being kept again. We forever bury that feeling when we keep score with others or when we search for ways to earn our own forgiveness, our own salvation, our own love.
Truth is, it is just not up to us, it is just not of our own doing. All we have ever been able to do is ask for it, for forgiveness, for salvation, for God’s love – and when it has been given, it has come to us from outside ourselves, from another, from God alone, and most importantly it is, we forget, a free gift. A free gift from someone we have hurt, someone to whom we are in debt, but someone who has decided that what is more important than getting even, is to forgive us and stay always in relationship with us and give us hope beyond ourselves.
The story is told that when the Civil War ended a group gathered outside the White House and President Lincoln came out to say a few words to the crowd. It was a great time of celebration. A band was there. The President talked briefly about the horrors of war and then he joked a little because he had a great sense of humor. The people were delighted and exuberant that they had won the war that had been going on for four years. Lincoln talked about how important it was to get back together and heal the nation’s wounds and let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Then he said, “In a few moments, I want the band to play and I am going to tell them what I want them to play.”
The crowd thought he would get them to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that had become their theme song. But Mr. Lincoln said, “I wonder if we, in winning the war, have the right now to play that music again…if maybe that would not be appropriate”. That should have been a clue to what he was going to say. Because he turned to the band and said, “Now this is what I want you to play – I want you to play Dixie.” The band almost dropped their instruments. For a minute they just stood there with the crowd open mouthed. The looked at one another. They didn’t have the music to Dixie. They hadn’t played Dixie in quite a while.
Then after a long pause the band finally got together and they played Dixie. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.
With the wisdom and love of Jesus Christ as our example, having heard him say as he hung from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing”, we are in the unique position this morning to get back together with those we have been separated from, to heal all wounds needing forgiveness, and to let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Forgiving seventy times seven.
It is quite a unique position we are in this morning and what a rare and wonderful God who loves us. For our God never retaliates, our God is always forgiving and remembering our sins no more, and though our God has given us our cross to bear, especially on this anniversary of 9/11, God is praying, that despite ourselves, we too will live a life of forgiveness equal to his.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
091111.gpc
Sunday, August 28, 2011
28 August 2011 "Peter Again” Matthew 16:21-28
Most mornings while I eat breakfast I read in the One Year Bible. Recently I was reading in the Old Testament about Job. I’m usually at a loss about Job. He was doing just fine until God let the devil test his faith. That test, which he passed, costs him everything. Bad news is followed by more bad news which is followed by really bad news. I wish somehow Job could have been spared from his pain. It seems to me he had done nothing to deserve the devil!
Still feeling for Job I read Matthew’s gospel for this morning’s sermon. I wish someone would have warned me. Now the bad news is for Jesus. It begins when he says he must go to Jerusalem where he will undergo great suffering and be killed. Then, more bad news, Peter gets into trouble when he tries to intervene. He innocently tries to help so his friend won’t have to suffer and die. But his attempt backfires. Then the really bad news. We learn that to be a disciple of Jesus we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.
It’s not good news about Jesus. And Peter, well he’s been in trouble before. But deny ourselves! Take up our cross! Surely we have done nothing to deserve the devil! We’ve worked hard, we’ve been true and faithful. Are we to now consider our success and wealth come at the cost of our soul! Is the news so bad this Sunday we are to become like Job and lose our lives to the devil? Where is the good news, we scream!
When bad news overwhelms us we respond in different ways. Sometimes we become angry, sometimes we look for someone to blame, sometimes we cry, and sometimes we feel sorry for ourselves. One thing we all have in common is our desire that somehow bad news will just go away, that someone will protect us and make life right. Sometimes we discover we are to be that someone.
There are certain times when we feel a duty to protect those we love. Good parents especially seem to feel this way and that is a very good thing. Our caring parents worked really hard at keeping us safe and out of harm’s way.
Others protect us too, those in law enforcement, fire protection, medical care, people like that. Truth is, we all have a roll to play in protecting those we love. We keep a lookout for potentially dangerous situations and we help one another. That is what people who love one another do. We help. Especially when we see that someone may be taking a risk we feel they need not take.
I wonder if Peters response to Jesus’ shockingly bad news was a response rooted in a deep love for him, a cry to not take a risk he doesn’t have to take and the desire on his part to shield Jesus from what awaited him in Jerusalem - great suffering and death.
While this may have been Peters intention, Jesus did not take it that way, he did not turn to him and say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about me friend, I’ll be alright. God is watching after me.’ No, Jesus reacts quite unexpectedly. “Get behind me Satan,” he says. Then he tells all his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Or did Jesus think Peters’ response was rooted in his own fear? Fear of loosing the person he loved more than anyone, fear of being left to do God’s work alone, or fear of being abandoned forever. We don’t know.
Perhaps it had nothing to do with Peter and everything to do with Jesus. Jesus’ response seems harsh. It is as if he tells Peter, ‘Don’ tell me what to do you Satan.’ Doesn’t Jesus know Peters response could save his life?
Ah, perhaps that is exactly the point. For those who want to save their life will lose it. Jesus has drawn his life to the core focus of his being and his reason for living. To save his life and ours he will offer his all. He will lose his life so we may realize ours. Jerusalem is the necessary way.
First of all Jesus wasn’t ASKING about Jerusalem, he was TELLING about Jerusalem. He was telling his disciples “I must go.” Jesus makes it clear, he is not being forced to go. He realizes Jerusalem is the path he must take to be the person Peter has declared him to be, Messiah. He realizes to suffer and die on the cross is his destiny, for he must be what he really was meant to be.
He has been a great moral teacher, a great prophet, and he has healed many people. But there is something greater ahead. Who do you say that I am? And Peter said, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And because of who you are, there must be another way other than the road to Jerusalem. Jesus tells him, no, there is no other way and then the most painful truth, you are a stumbling block to me my friend!
As shocking as it is to Peter and to us, for Jesus to be Messiah ‘he must go’ to Jerusalem, suffer, and die. To find another way would radically change who he was.
It is also shocking to us that if we are to be Jesus’ disciple we too must go and take up our cross to follow him. For to find another way would radically change who we have been called to be. Beloved, there is no place for a limited and partial disciple in God’s kingdom. It is all or nothing for us.
All or nothing demands a high price. Jesus paid his and now we learn we must pay ours too. There is a road that awaits us. A road and a shadow. Suffering and a cross. Hard truths. We don’t save ourselves by holding on to ourselves. We don’t save ourselves at all.
When we give our life away we are living as a Christian disciple. We are living as Christ because to live only for comfort and safety is not living Jesus’ way. To be shielded from this way of denial and cross is to decide in favor of perceived comfort and safety and to decide against being who we are meant to be.
Living as we do in the near desert of central Texas we have discovered all too painfully this summer water is a valuable commodity. Life cannot be shut up and saved in comfort and safety any more than our waters from rain or rivers can be put in a mason jar to be kept in a kitchen cupboard only to be looked at. Water is not meant to be locked and stored away. It is to be drunk so that we may live, it is to water our earth so we will have food to eat, it is to enjoy in recreation and sport to give us quality in our life. It is to be poured out, to be moving, living water, rushing downstream to share its wealth without ever looking back.
Peter wanted to prevent Jesus’ life from being spilled and wasted, he wanted to save it, to preserve it, to find a safer, more comfortable way for Jesus to be Lord. What he did not see was that Jesus’ supply of life was never-ending.
In the midst of his angst Peter missed the good news. Jesus told him “…on the third day (he would) be raised.” Surely Peter missed that. Who Jesus was to be is woven into this first telling of what we call his passion prediction. Jesus was born to be God’s promised ‘anointed one’ who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. He was to be the anticipated king and deliverer who brings salvation to the world. You see, Jesus must go to Jerusalem and endure all the humiliation, suffering and death on that cross to be who WE need him to be. It is the only way we become who God needs us to be.
The disciples now know what Jesus had not told them before. They now know what he must do before he can truly be Messiah. And it must have scared the wits out of them. It must have scared them because this suffering and death was going to happen to one whom they dearly loved, one whom they had left everything for. One whom they desired to live like, loving their enemies, feeding the poor and the widow, forgiving sins, healing and curing the sick.
They had not bargained for the full deal. They had not realized the full cost of discipleship. Jesus was saying that where he goes, we must also go. Surely it cannot be that this is the cost disciples must pay. What kind of Messiah is this? The true Messiah wouldn’t let himself suffer and die such a humiliating death. And he certainly wouldn’t expect his followers to take the same path. Jesus cannot mean we are to take up our cross and follow him into death. Surely he must mean something else.
The minute we try to limit Jesus to something less than what he is meant to be we limit ourselves. For we are called to be full-time, all or nothing disciples. Not just when we are being like him as we teach and heal and make disciples. Not just when we are in our ‘Let’s fix the world’ mode. But even when we are called to pick up our cross and follow him to Calvary.
While Jesus’ cross was evident, ours are less so. We don’t take up a literal cross. We take up life and life is hard to pick up some days. We will suffer, evil lurks, we die and we are in the core of that storm. Yet, when we center our lives in Jesus’, when he becomes the core of our being, we have taken up the cross of life and we can only follow him for he is the light in our storm. True, living this way we lose our way. But living this way we are found by Jesus for whose sake our lives are found.
The stark reality of Jesus’ revealing his destiny to us in this mornings Gospel is that Jesus was about something bigger than the miracles he had performed, he was about something bigger than the fine moral life he was living as an example for us to follow. What Jesus was about was a love so deep he died that our sins would be forgiven and that we would realize God’s promise of eternal salvation for those who accept the invitation, “Come and follow me.”
Our challenge this morning is to follow that kind of savior. One who will not compromise on who he is called to be and who will not compromise on who he expects his disciples to be. Jesus was chosen by God to take up his cross and Jesus expects the same from us. This is the life to which we are called. This is the life that matters for Christ’ sake, not our own.
This just may be where we silence ourselves and slip into the shadows to go on to live a life that matter’s to us. Living Jesus’s way takes us beyond comfort and safety. We cannot deny the fear, it is real, but we need not let our fear stop us. It did not stop Jesus.
To become who God has called us to be means going beyond the limits we place on our lives with false securities. It means receiving our lives as gifts instead of guarding them as our own possessions. It means sharing the gifts we have been given instead of bottling them for our own consumption. It means giving up the notion that we can find another way to be a disciple of Christ that avoids giving our life, body and soul, to our Lord and Savior on his terms.
To be Jesus, our Christ took the road less traveled. His entire life was directed to that road and he took it. He took it and confronted the powers of evil. He was nailed to the cross, knew death first hand, breathed and bleed his last.
If we are to be his friends, his loved ones, and his disciples, where he goes we must go too. This is the way to the truth and the life. This is the way to the good news this world cannot give. There is no other way. If we doubt it we need only remember Job and then Jesus’ promise, “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done…”
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Additional helps:
Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Seeds of Heaven.”
082811.gpc
Still feeling for Job I read Matthew’s gospel for this morning’s sermon. I wish someone would have warned me. Now the bad news is for Jesus. It begins when he says he must go to Jerusalem where he will undergo great suffering and be killed. Then, more bad news, Peter gets into trouble when he tries to intervene. He innocently tries to help so his friend won’t have to suffer and die. But his attempt backfires. Then the really bad news. We learn that to be a disciple of Jesus we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.
It’s not good news about Jesus. And Peter, well he’s been in trouble before. But deny ourselves! Take up our cross! Surely we have done nothing to deserve the devil! We’ve worked hard, we’ve been true and faithful. Are we to now consider our success and wealth come at the cost of our soul! Is the news so bad this Sunday we are to become like Job and lose our lives to the devil? Where is the good news, we scream!
When bad news overwhelms us we respond in different ways. Sometimes we become angry, sometimes we look for someone to blame, sometimes we cry, and sometimes we feel sorry for ourselves. One thing we all have in common is our desire that somehow bad news will just go away, that someone will protect us and make life right. Sometimes we discover we are to be that someone.
There are certain times when we feel a duty to protect those we love. Good parents especially seem to feel this way and that is a very good thing. Our caring parents worked really hard at keeping us safe and out of harm’s way.
Others protect us too, those in law enforcement, fire protection, medical care, people like that. Truth is, we all have a roll to play in protecting those we love. We keep a lookout for potentially dangerous situations and we help one another. That is what people who love one another do. We help. Especially when we see that someone may be taking a risk we feel they need not take.
I wonder if Peters response to Jesus’ shockingly bad news was a response rooted in a deep love for him, a cry to not take a risk he doesn’t have to take and the desire on his part to shield Jesus from what awaited him in Jerusalem - great suffering and death.
While this may have been Peters intention, Jesus did not take it that way, he did not turn to him and say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about me friend, I’ll be alright. God is watching after me.’ No, Jesus reacts quite unexpectedly. “Get behind me Satan,” he says. Then he tells all his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Or did Jesus think Peters’ response was rooted in his own fear? Fear of loosing the person he loved more than anyone, fear of being left to do God’s work alone, or fear of being abandoned forever. We don’t know.
Perhaps it had nothing to do with Peter and everything to do with Jesus. Jesus’ response seems harsh. It is as if he tells Peter, ‘Don’ tell me what to do you Satan.’ Doesn’t Jesus know Peters response could save his life?
Ah, perhaps that is exactly the point. For those who want to save their life will lose it. Jesus has drawn his life to the core focus of his being and his reason for living. To save his life and ours he will offer his all. He will lose his life so we may realize ours. Jerusalem is the necessary way.
First of all Jesus wasn’t ASKING about Jerusalem, he was TELLING about Jerusalem. He was telling his disciples “I must go.” Jesus makes it clear, he is not being forced to go. He realizes Jerusalem is the path he must take to be the person Peter has declared him to be, Messiah. He realizes to suffer and die on the cross is his destiny, for he must be what he really was meant to be.
He has been a great moral teacher, a great prophet, and he has healed many people. But there is something greater ahead. Who do you say that I am? And Peter said, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And because of who you are, there must be another way other than the road to Jerusalem. Jesus tells him, no, there is no other way and then the most painful truth, you are a stumbling block to me my friend!
As shocking as it is to Peter and to us, for Jesus to be Messiah ‘he must go’ to Jerusalem, suffer, and die. To find another way would radically change who he was.
It is also shocking to us that if we are to be Jesus’ disciple we too must go and take up our cross to follow him. For to find another way would radically change who we have been called to be. Beloved, there is no place for a limited and partial disciple in God’s kingdom. It is all or nothing for us.
All or nothing demands a high price. Jesus paid his and now we learn we must pay ours too. There is a road that awaits us. A road and a shadow. Suffering and a cross. Hard truths. We don’t save ourselves by holding on to ourselves. We don’t save ourselves at all.
When we give our life away we are living as a Christian disciple. We are living as Christ because to live only for comfort and safety is not living Jesus’ way. To be shielded from this way of denial and cross is to decide in favor of perceived comfort and safety and to decide against being who we are meant to be.
Living as we do in the near desert of central Texas we have discovered all too painfully this summer water is a valuable commodity. Life cannot be shut up and saved in comfort and safety any more than our waters from rain or rivers can be put in a mason jar to be kept in a kitchen cupboard only to be looked at. Water is not meant to be locked and stored away. It is to be drunk so that we may live, it is to water our earth so we will have food to eat, it is to enjoy in recreation and sport to give us quality in our life. It is to be poured out, to be moving, living water, rushing downstream to share its wealth without ever looking back.
Peter wanted to prevent Jesus’ life from being spilled and wasted, he wanted to save it, to preserve it, to find a safer, more comfortable way for Jesus to be Lord. What he did not see was that Jesus’ supply of life was never-ending.
In the midst of his angst Peter missed the good news. Jesus told him “…on the third day (he would) be raised.” Surely Peter missed that. Who Jesus was to be is woven into this first telling of what we call his passion prediction. Jesus was born to be God’s promised ‘anointed one’ who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. He was to be the anticipated king and deliverer who brings salvation to the world. You see, Jesus must go to Jerusalem and endure all the humiliation, suffering and death on that cross to be who WE need him to be. It is the only way we become who God needs us to be.
The disciples now know what Jesus had not told them before. They now know what he must do before he can truly be Messiah. And it must have scared the wits out of them. It must have scared them because this suffering and death was going to happen to one whom they dearly loved, one whom they had left everything for. One whom they desired to live like, loving their enemies, feeding the poor and the widow, forgiving sins, healing and curing the sick.
They had not bargained for the full deal. They had not realized the full cost of discipleship. Jesus was saying that where he goes, we must also go. Surely it cannot be that this is the cost disciples must pay. What kind of Messiah is this? The true Messiah wouldn’t let himself suffer and die such a humiliating death. And he certainly wouldn’t expect his followers to take the same path. Jesus cannot mean we are to take up our cross and follow him into death. Surely he must mean something else.
The minute we try to limit Jesus to something less than what he is meant to be we limit ourselves. For we are called to be full-time, all or nothing disciples. Not just when we are being like him as we teach and heal and make disciples. Not just when we are in our ‘Let’s fix the world’ mode. But even when we are called to pick up our cross and follow him to Calvary.
While Jesus’ cross was evident, ours are less so. We don’t take up a literal cross. We take up life and life is hard to pick up some days. We will suffer, evil lurks, we die and we are in the core of that storm. Yet, when we center our lives in Jesus’, when he becomes the core of our being, we have taken up the cross of life and we can only follow him for he is the light in our storm. True, living this way we lose our way. But living this way we are found by Jesus for whose sake our lives are found.
The stark reality of Jesus’ revealing his destiny to us in this mornings Gospel is that Jesus was about something bigger than the miracles he had performed, he was about something bigger than the fine moral life he was living as an example for us to follow. What Jesus was about was a love so deep he died that our sins would be forgiven and that we would realize God’s promise of eternal salvation for those who accept the invitation, “Come and follow me.”
Our challenge this morning is to follow that kind of savior. One who will not compromise on who he is called to be and who will not compromise on who he expects his disciples to be. Jesus was chosen by God to take up his cross and Jesus expects the same from us. This is the life to which we are called. This is the life that matters for Christ’ sake, not our own.
This just may be where we silence ourselves and slip into the shadows to go on to live a life that matter’s to us. Living Jesus’s way takes us beyond comfort and safety. We cannot deny the fear, it is real, but we need not let our fear stop us. It did not stop Jesus.
To become who God has called us to be means going beyond the limits we place on our lives with false securities. It means receiving our lives as gifts instead of guarding them as our own possessions. It means sharing the gifts we have been given instead of bottling them for our own consumption. It means giving up the notion that we can find another way to be a disciple of Christ that avoids giving our life, body and soul, to our Lord and Savior on his terms.
To be Jesus, our Christ took the road less traveled. His entire life was directed to that road and he took it. He took it and confronted the powers of evil. He was nailed to the cross, knew death first hand, breathed and bleed his last.
If we are to be his friends, his loved ones, and his disciples, where he goes we must go too. This is the way to the truth and the life. This is the way to the good news this world cannot give. There is no other way. If we doubt it we need only remember Job and then Jesus’ promise, “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done…”
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Additional helps:
Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Seeds of Heaven.”
082811.gpc
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