Exodus 3:1-15
Matthew 16:21-28
The beauty of this morning's sermon, of our readings this day, are that as much as we try to live life on the surface, going through the motions, reading this as story, we are also CALLED. The Call forces us to question, what do I really believe in, what gives my life meaning, what is important. As much as we may long to remain on vacation, to cling to the lazy days of August, God has a use for us, a purpose, that has no glory, no accomplishment, no reward, but God will not let us go. In Seminary, hearing these passages read, we were so moved that the students would take off their shoes and leave them at the door, for these words touch what is HOLY, what is SACRED in life.
There is a difference, a significant difference and tension, between answering the question “What do you want to be?” and “What are you Called to give as your sacrifice?”
From the time of our infancy, parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends match our character traits, interests and skills, as if to spiritually discern who and what we were predestined to be. In the spirit of Shirley McLean and the REINCARNATIONALISTS, surmising that in a former life, I was the Queen of England, or the Queen of Sheba, a Teacher, or a Juggler or Chemist; and that our vocation, WHAT we are trained to do, determines who we will be. When my wife and I first got engaged, before we were married, family tried to imagine, based on who we are, what our children would be. Not simply in eye and hair color, height and disposition, but creating their resumes, anticipating their degrees and personalities based on the NATURE and NURTURE of family even before they were conceived. In Contrast, the Bible asserts that we are NOT What we do, or what we want, so much as BY OUR COMMITMENTS, what we most value, and even more by what we vow we believe we would SACRIFICE our lives for.
We do not dwell on SACRIFICE much in our culture. A sacrifice has become: NOT buying a car when we desire; passing the offering plate; a sacrifice is giving a pillow to students going to college; a box of macaroni to the Food Pantry; sacrifice is a trip to Africa; making a sacrifice is not being able to vote for the candidate we wanted. BIBLICALLY, Sacrifice is not concerned with our possessions, or our accomplishments, not our adjusting our calendars and timetables, or our doing without, not choosing to have a “STAYCATION” rather than a Vacation to Tuscany or Beijing, because the house needs a new roof. Sacrifice is a SPIRITUAL COMMITMENT a recognition that what I love most in this life, what I most desire, I give as my gift of my life to God.
We are a strange and wonderful Church. Where the majority of churches in our community and across the nation have a Median age of 70 and have FUNERALS on a very regular basis, we celebrate a WEDDINGS & BAPTISMS a minimum of twice a month. The wonderful part of this, is that not only do we assist the individuals and families these celebartions, but as a PEOPLE OF GOD we WITNESS and SEE and HEAR as God said to MOSES “TRULY HEAR” the COMMITMENTS of husband and wife who despite the world saying go for all you can get, fulfill your every personal desire, VOW to God and one another to live their lives for this other. They claim this child, their baby, is a GIFT OF GOD, whom they offer to GOD, and whom we VOW to pray for and to stand beside before we know what they believe of will do no matter what.
In order to read the story of MOSES at the BURNING BUSH, we need to remember what has gone before... We know and remember that GOD is the God of Abraham, and of Isaac and of Jacob, Jacob who wrestled with God to become the Nation of ISRAEL. And we recall that PHAROAH was so filled with ANXIETY, STRESS and FEAR, this KING who thought himself to be a GOD, ordered the death of every male child in the River Nile. A couple fell in love, they committed their lives to each other, then they had a baby, a boy baby. They hid the child as long they possibly could, then knowing what Pharoah had ruled, they placed their baby in a basket in the river, hoping and praying he would be SAVED, even setting his sister to watch over and witness what would happen. The boy-child MOSES was saved and brought into the family of the Pharoah, AS IF a HEBREW Child of Pharoah. As he grew up, one day he witnessed an injustice, an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. In the ensuing struggle Moses killed the Egyptian, and even if an adopted son of Pharoah, even if his cause was just, still he had broken the Law, he had blood on his hands from having killed, so he fled to hide in the hills. There he fell in love and married, and took up a quiet safe life as a Shepherd for his Father-in-law.
Moses was all alone on the hillside with the Sheep, when he saw the BUSH BURNING, which in Hebrew is the Phrase “SENEH” and is told you are going to lead God's People to SINAI.
We hear this story, and what clicks for us, is the BUSH, but the BUSH is NOT GOD, the Bush has no importance, except as a SIGN to get Moses' attention. Then Moses hears a Voice, not a still small voice talking to him, asking questions. But out of the Bush, Moses hears a VOICE CALLING HIM BY NAME. There is something personal, commanding importance when we are called by Name. No longer “HEY FOLKS, SOMEBODY, WOULD ONE OF YOU?” But rather claiming personal relationship to You,”MOSES”, “MARIE”, “RUTH”, “ANDY”, “BUNT”, “RICHARD”, “CASSONDRA”, “ELSIE”, “LUCY”, “STEVE”, “TIM”, “TODD”. And Moses responds “WHO ME?”
Over history, the Church has agrandized the idea of a CALL, that ala Cecil B. DeMille or Steven Spiellberg, the Clouds part, brilliant white sunlight pierces through to shine directly on the One, who unconditionally knows and accepts all that is said, while music plays softly in the background. Not so with Moses. FIVE TIMES he tries to get out of this, to get away. Moses asks: “WHO ME?” then “AND JUST WHO ARE YOU?” next though he is arguing with God Moses says “I AM NOT ABLE TO SPEAK PUBLIC LET ME GET MY OLDER BROTHER AARON”, then Give me a SIGN/PROOF that this is real, and God gives Moses three, his rod is changed into a SERPENT, is hand given LEPROSY then healed, finally WATER is turned to BLOOD. With all his objections, all the ways Moses tries to get away, God never says NO, nor does God placate or accept Moses' excuses. God responds, “Okay take your brother Aaron, and You go!”
By the way, how did Moses get an older Brother, I thought Pharoah ordered all the Boy Babies killed? This is one of those wuestions The Bible does not answer.
Like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, MOSES should have been satisfied with This is the God of our Ancestors, who has been faithful, but he presses for a NAME for GOD. God called me by name, so I want to have that intimate personal power over God, to be able to Call God, knowing I have the right one, the real one, knowing God will answer. Moses asked and God gives to Moses a NAME: YHWH, a name so holy, so revered that the people of faith for thousands of years never spoke the word, never pronounced the name YAHWEH, but instead would read the letters YHWH and instead name ADONAI. The Word Yahweh, actually is simply conjugating the Verb: TO BE. “I AM WHAT I AM; I HAVE BEEN WHO I HAVE BEEN; I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”. The sound of the name YAHWEH is like the sound of the wind on the water or through the trees. But the beauty of this name, is also that it is an affirmation, that EVERYTHING IN LIFE everything that has being, EVERYTHING IS/ WAS/ WILL BE because God is in it. As much as there is a tangible reality, there is also a spiritual.
The point here is not that OUR CHOOSING A VOCATION TO ACCEPT THE CALL TO MINISTRY, or the Call to Believe is anything more or different than the Call Decision to be a Stockbroker, or a Chemist, or a Doctor. The CALL OF MOSES is a CALL TO RISK, a Call to Sacrifice. Moses has a safe life. A Life of comfort and obscurity. He planned to live out his days on Mount Horeb, with his wife, inheriting the Sheep of his Father-in Law, Jethro. BUT GOD, called Moses, and Moses did not escape and hide.
For Jesus, to be the Messiah is to give up Divinity in order TO BE ONE with humanity, to be one with creation. And YET, to be the Messiah, means that he must sacrifice, that he must give up that vey life, to die for us.
So what do we most treasure? What is most dear and precious to us? And what are we willing to sacrifice that for? We are very blessed, with everything our minds can imagine, what then are we willing to give our lives for?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Be Transformed NOT Conformed August 24, 2008
Exodus 1:8 - 2:10
Matthew 16: 13-20
There is a certain symmetry about this morning. Michael Capron was a member of the Pastor Nominating Committee, and today he and his wife Meghan have presented their second child for baptism. A Dozen years ago, this morning, the last Sunday in August, the week before Labor Day, we read these very passages, sharing together in worship. When ever this comes up, people get a little hinky, for me it is just nostalgia, a good experience of reflection on the Transformations we have shared thus far.
One of the greatest joys for me as a pastor, is the distinction between ministry and teaching. A Teacher has a curriculum. Teachers know because they taught the lesson last year, that the Alphabet is ABC, and 2+2 will always equal 4. There are right and wrong answers. But faith is not a set curriculum, even reading the same passages, we have differing situations and relationships in our lives, so we hear differently. The joy for me as Pastor is not knowing where we are going to go, but that we travel this journey together, and challenge one another in Transformation, never letting the other or God go. Some of you will recall when we confronted whether to turn the Sanctuary, conforming to the Architect's directions, or listening to tthose who said NO, we have been this way since 1890, how can we change; and we came in on Sunday morning, to find the Pews facing where hey always had been, but now with different aisles.
With a Fund raiser for the Clinic this evening, some will recall when the Sudanese first came amng us as refugees. Others when John brought his mother. Others what it meant to have the pastor leave for Sudan right after the war had ended. Others what it represented in this community to have a wedding where the Sanctuary was bursting and half the people were white, and half had been born in Africa.
Some will recall, the Sunday the Covell's son was shipping out for Marine Special Forces and we had him carry an infant in his arms.
Sme will recall, when a child of the Church had been found guilty, and we trusted placing an infant in his arms, vowing to pray for both. And this day, that man has paid all his debts, and demonstrated his maturity, so as to go away to college.
Of all the ideas in all the world, the most exciting/ the most dangerous, are those we thought we knew, and accepted, which challenge us to reconsider other possibilities, to consider life and all we thought we believed differently. We celebrate a wedding, the birth of a child, the Sacraments of the Church, the life and death of a loved one; we listen as we are read the story of “Pharoah's daughter claiming the Sacrificed Infant Moses from out of the Bullrushes” and “Jesus asking his Disciples if they believe him to be the Christ/Messiah”. Could anything be greater acts of conformity, tradition and ritual? And yet it is in these acts, in these relationships, in these ancient stories, when rather than CONFORMING to ACCEPT, or REJECTING in REBELLION, that our LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED BY NEW IDEAS, by The Renewal of our MINDS.
Imagine all of life, not as ACTIONS, motivated by circumstance and fate, or profit and loss, or time; but that everything we do is based on A POLICY OF TRUSTING GOD. every relationship, all of our understandings are intentional acts of faith, as if our very lives were living sacrifices, acts of spiritual worship of God. Life is not composed of individual unrelated actions, but commitments and convictions, and a continuous lineage far beyond you and I. For each of us, there are momentary glimpses, spaces out of time: when,
Staring at a newborn sleeping, or their unconditional love, we are overcome with awe.
Cancer is diagnosed and we question the fairness, the choices not taken, priorities.
We stare into the eyes of our partner and realize we have found our purpose.
We are confronted by what others imagined routine questions, and we struggle.
We think we know what we believe about the death penalty, and a neighbor we have known all their life in post-partum depression kills her baby.
We believe in forgiveness, and the love of God, but is there not still right and wrong and sin? Personally, these are circumstances that make me believe in the reality of God, that I must trust God with what I cannot know, and leeting go that control can itself be a TRANSFORMATION.
Faith is not about living out our actions on the surface, taking things for granted, conforming to expectations, or immediately rejecting out of hand. Faith, is wrestling with our minds and hearts, to confess LORD I DO BELIEVE, But Help me with my unbeliefs. Faith is the Transforming of our Minds.
When by the circumstance of birth, we live in comfortable homes, with multiple cars, with the advantages of education and health care, and technology, and ample food, these stories are hard for us to claim with anything but a romanticised storybook aura. To hear EXODUS, we need to know the foundations of Genesis, that GOD BLESSED LIFE TO BE FRUITFUL; and GOD CHOSE ISRAEL to WRESTLE WITH GOD AND WITH THE WORLD.
The story opens with a new chapter of characters: A FRIGHTENED FEARFUL DICTATOR, a GROWING IMPOVERISHED CLASS, TWO DEFIANT MIDWIVES, and a COUPLE IN LOVE. The new Pharoah does not have carefully thought out foreign policies, domestic policies, blueprints for the first 100 days. Instead, his policies are confined to actions, reactions and fear. Imagine a ruthless fearful King, who instead of being motivated as Jesus describes “Anyone that is not against us, must be for us.” instead is so motivated by fear that he believes anyone who is not for us must surely be our nation's enemy. If our population becomes too large, they may overthrow us, so kill our people before they become our enemy.
There are juxtapositions of faith in this story that should leap off the page at us.
The Ruler/ The Leader, whose responsibility is to serve, instead is afraid of his people, so afraid he orders his nation's working people made into slaves, no longer human, no longer people, and put to death.
And the Great and Powerful Pharoah is so afraid, he demands an audience with the Midwives, Not with his Advisors, not with his Surgeons, not even with the OB/GYNs, but with the Midwives, whose role iand purpose s to help Life be born.
Throughout this story, the Pharoah is never named and yet we know the names of the Midwives Shiphra and Puah. And for all the Egyptians and all the Hebrews, there are only these two Midwives.
The Pharoah orders the baby boys killed before they can be given to their mothers, but SHIPHRA and PUAH fear God more than they fear Pharoah; and they defy the order of the Pharoah. SHIPHRA and PUAH Transform the order to the Pharoah by describing that Hebrew women are stronger (which plays into his fears) and they birth before te Midwives can come for the coming of the Baby.
The FEARFUL PHAROAH now FRUSTRATED, bypasses the Midwives, and goes directly to the Parents conceiving children, demanding that the Parents put their boy babies in the River. Yet, in addition to WATER being a SYMBOL for CHAOS, the River in Egypt is not simply a body of water, the NILE is believed to be the source of all life, the NILE is named as one of the tributaries from the Garden of Eden. So how could the parents put their children to death in the Source of all life?
The emphasis of the story shifts from the Power and Authority of PHAROAH to one of the sons of Levi, who's identity reminds us of GENESIS, and God's claiming a relationship with JACOB/ISRAEL. Rather than the Power and Auhority of a Dictator, This Son of LEVI is motivated by loving a Daughter of Levi, they marry and have a child, whom surprisingly they love.
Finally, when they can hide the child no more, they TRANSFORM Pharoah's orders. The parents place their boy child in the Nile River, but they do so, cradled in an ark, made of pitch and bitumen, and reed of gopher trees. This is the Genesis story of Noah all over again. And who rescues the baby from the water, but the very daughter of the Pharoah. And just to underscore for us, that this is a circumstance in the midst of a great reality, the Baby Boy known as Moses, has an Older Sister named Miriam, and an older Brother named Aaron.
Yesterday, we celebrated a wedding, but what was different for us, was that the bride's family were Spanish, so we included the tradition of the ARRAS. 13 gold coins that are presented by their families to the Groom, that he shares with his Bride, demonstrating their trust, describing that marriage is not only the union of a couple and their vows before God, but the creation of a home, where others are welcome. Such a simple symbol, yet often we imagine marriage as only the wedding, or the union of the couple, but this was also claiming of their home and families.
According to Mathew's Gospel, Jesus had called the disciples, had taught them, they had witnessed his accomplishing miracles. The disciples thought him a great teacher, a Rabbi, a Faith healer. We know where the story is going, so anticipate Jesus asking DO YOU KNOW I AM THE CHRIST? But instead Jesus asked them a question which TRANSFORMS their minds. THE SON OF MAN is a Sacred Identity in Scripture, WHO DO PEOPLE THINK IS SON OF MAN? Elijah has several references to Son of Man. Jeremiah does also. Those Old Testament Prophets, who lived their lives in a different time and different culture. Then he asked, AND WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? To which Peter lept to the conclusion, YOU ARE THE CHRIST!
So the question before us this morning, is what does it mean for us to have faith? In earlier generations it was to worship on the Sabbath, to pay a tythe, in the early history of this church “Having Faith” was to PRAY AND READ THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, and do so with your family or neighbor's family as well. Now having heard all these words, WHAT COMMITMENTS OF FAITH WILL YOU RISK TO TRANSFORM?
Matthew 16: 13-20
There is a certain symmetry about this morning. Michael Capron was a member of the Pastor Nominating Committee, and today he and his wife Meghan have presented their second child for baptism. A Dozen years ago, this morning, the last Sunday in August, the week before Labor Day, we read these very passages, sharing together in worship. When ever this comes up, people get a little hinky, for me it is just nostalgia, a good experience of reflection on the Transformations we have shared thus far.
One of the greatest joys for me as a pastor, is the distinction between ministry and teaching. A Teacher has a curriculum. Teachers know because they taught the lesson last year, that the Alphabet is ABC, and 2+2 will always equal 4. There are right and wrong answers. But faith is not a set curriculum, even reading the same passages, we have differing situations and relationships in our lives, so we hear differently. The joy for me as Pastor is not knowing where we are going to go, but that we travel this journey together, and challenge one another in Transformation, never letting the other or God go. Some of you will recall when we confronted whether to turn the Sanctuary, conforming to the Architect's directions, or listening to tthose who said NO, we have been this way since 1890, how can we change; and we came in on Sunday morning, to find the Pews facing where hey always had been, but now with different aisles.
With a Fund raiser for the Clinic this evening, some will recall when the Sudanese first came amng us as refugees. Others when John brought his mother. Others what it meant to have the pastor leave for Sudan right after the war had ended. Others what it represented in this community to have a wedding where the Sanctuary was bursting and half the people were white, and half had been born in Africa.
Some will recall, the Sunday the Covell's son was shipping out for Marine Special Forces and we had him carry an infant in his arms.
Sme will recall, when a child of the Church had been found guilty, and we trusted placing an infant in his arms, vowing to pray for both. And this day, that man has paid all his debts, and demonstrated his maturity, so as to go away to college.
Of all the ideas in all the world, the most exciting/ the most dangerous, are those we thought we knew, and accepted, which challenge us to reconsider other possibilities, to consider life and all we thought we believed differently. We celebrate a wedding, the birth of a child, the Sacraments of the Church, the life and death of a loved one; we listen as we are read the story of “Pharoah's daughter claiming the Sacrificed Infant Moses from out of the Bullrushes” and “Jesus asking his Disciples if they believe him to be the Christ/Messiah”. Could anything be greater acts of conformity, tradition and ritual? And yet it is in these acts, in these relationships, in these ancient stories, when rather than CONFORMING to ACCEPT, or REJECTING in REBELLION, that our LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED BY NEW IDEAS, by The Renewal of our MINDS.
Imagine all of life, not as ACTIONS, motivated by circumstance and fate, or profit and loss, or time; but that everything we do is based on A POLICY OF TRUSTING GOD. every relationship, all of our understandings are intentional acts of faith, as if our very lives were living sacrifices, acts of spiritual worship of God. Life is not composed of individual unrelated actions, but commitments and convictions, and a continuous lineage far beyond you and I. For each of us, there are momentary glimpses, spaces out of time: when,
Staring at a newborn sleeping, or their unconditional love, we are overcome with awe.
Cancer is diagnosed and we question the fairness, the choices not taken, priorities.
We stare into the eyes of our partner and realize we have found our purpose.
We are confronted by what others imagined routine questions, and we struggle.
We think we know what we believe about the death penalty, and a neighbor we have known all their life in post-partum depression kills her baby.
We believe in forgiveness, and the love of God, but is there not still right and wrong and sin? Personally, these are circumstances that make me believe in the reality of God, that I must trust God with what I cannot know, and leeting go that control can itself be a TRANSFORMATION.
Faith is not about living out our actions on the surface, taking things for granted, conforming to expectations, or immediately rejecting out of hand. Faith, is wrestling with our minds and hearts, to confess LORD I DO BELIEVE, But Help me with my unbeliefs. Faith is the Transforming of our Minds.
When by the circumstance of birth, we live in comfortable homes, with multiple cars, with the advantages of education and health care, and technology, and ample food, these stories are hard for us to claim with anything but a romanticised storybook aura. To hear EXODUS, we need to know the foundations of Genesis, that GOD BLESSED LIFE TO BE FRUITFUL; and GOD CHOSE ISRAEL to WRESTLE WITH GOD AND WITH THE WORLD.
The story opens with a new chapter of characters: A FRIGHTENED FEARFUL DICTATOR, a GROWING IMPOVERISHED CLASS, TWO DEFIANT MIDWIVES, and a COUPLE IN LOVE. The new Pharoah does not have carefully thought out foreign policies, domestic policies, blueprints for the first 100 days. Instead, his policies are confined to actions, reactions and fear. Imagine a ruthless fearful King, who instead of being motivated as Jesus describes “Anyone that is not against us, must be for us.” instead is so motivated by fear that he believes anyone who is not for us must surely be our nation's enemy. If our population becomes too large, they may overthrow us, so kill our people before they become our enemy.
There are juxtapositions of faith in this story that should leap off the page at us.
The Ruler/ The Leader, whose responsibility is to serve, instead is afraid of his people, so afraid he orders his nation's working people made into slaves, no longer human, no longer people, and put to death.
And the Great and Powerful Pharoah is so afraid, he demands an audience with the Midwives, Not with his Advisors, not with his Surgeons, not even with the OB/GYNs, but with the Midwives, whose role iand purpose s to help Life be born.
Throughout this story, the Pharoah is never named and yet we know the names of the Midwives Shiphra and Puah. And for all the Egyptians and all the Hebrews, there are only these two Midwives.
The Pharoah orders the baby boys killed before they can be given to their mothers, but SHIPHRA and PUAH fear God more than they fear Pharoah; and they defy the order of the Pharoah. SHIPHRA and PUAH Transform the order to the Pharoah by describing that Hebrew women are stronger (which plays into his fears) and they birth before te Midwives can come for the coming of the Baby.
The FEARFUL PHAROAH now FRUSTRATED, bypasses the Midwives, and goes directly to the Parents conceiving children, demanding that the Parents put their boy babies in the River. Yet, in addition to WATER being a SYMBOL for CHAOS, the River in Egypt is not simply a body of water, the NILE is believed to be the source of all life, the NILE is named as one of the tributaries from the Garden of Eden. So how could the parents put their children to death in the Source of all life?
The emphasis of the story shifts from the Power and Authority of PHAROAH to one of the sons of Levi, who's identity reminds us of GENESIS, and God's claiming a relationship with JACOB/ISRAEL. Rather than the Power and Auhority of a Dictator, This Son of LEVI is motivated by loving a Daughter of Levi, they marry and have a child, whom surprisingly they love.
Finally, when they can hide the child no more, they TRANSFORM Pharoah's orders. The parents place their boy child in the Nile River, but they do so, cradled in an ark, made of pitch and bitumen, and reed of gopher trees. This is the Genesis story of Noah all over again. And who rescues the baby from the water, but the very daughter of the Pharoah. And just to underscore for us, that this is a circumstance in the midst of a great reality, the Baby Boy known as Moses, has an Older Sister named Miriam, and an older Brother named Aaron.
Yesterday, we celebrated a wedding, but what was different for us, was that the bride's family were Spanish, so we included the tradition of the ARRAS. 13 gold coins that are presented by their families to the Groom, that he shares with his Bride, demonstrating their trust, describing that marriage is not only the union of a couple and their vows before God, but the creation of a home, where others are welcome. Such a simple symbol, yet often we imagine marriage as only the wedding, or the union of the couple, but this was also claiming of their home and families.
According to Mathew's Gospel, Jesus had called the disciples, had taught them, they had witnessed his accomplishing miracles. The disciples thought him a great teacher, a Rabbi, a Faith healer. We know where the story is going, so anticipate Jesus asking DO YOU KNOW I AM THE CHRIST? But instead Jesus asked them a question which TRANSFORMS their minds. THE SON OF MAN is a Sacred Identity in Scripture, WHO DO PEOPLE THINK IS SON OF MAN? Elijah has several references to Son of Man. Jeremiah does also. Those Old Testament Prophets, who lived their lives in a different time and different culture. Then he asked, AND WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? To which Peter lept to the conclusion, YOU ARE THE CHRIST!
So the question before us this morning, is what does it mean for us to have faith? In earlier generations it was to worship on the Sabbath, to pay a tythe, in the early history of this church “Having Faith” was to PRAY AND READ THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, and do so with your family or neighbor's family as well. Now having heard all these words, WHAT COMMITMENTS OF FAITH WILL YOU RISK TO TRANSFORM?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Wrestling with Reconciliation August 17, 2008
When last we were together, we had been reading the story of Jacob, the younger twin to Esau, the sons of Rebekkah and Isaac, the son of Abraham. In these intervening weeks, we have the stories of what happened to Jacob wrestling with Laban, acquiring Wives and children, servants, sheep, goats, camels and oxen. We had Rev. Anderson share communion and Don Cross preach about the meaning of mission. But now the story returns to Jacob & Esau.
When they had parted, Jacob ran away, with nothing tangible, yet with everything. He had all their family's blessings. Jacob's birthname had meant THE HEEL, not only because he had held the heel of his twin in birth, but because he had been a heel of a man, a scoundrel, only concerned with getting his share. Jacob had cheated his brother, decieved their father, and abandoned everyone. On his own, Jacob had grown up, he had found a relationship with God, he had been successful as a breeder, herder and trader, he had a large family who were healthy and strong. NOW, as he recognized he possessed all of this tangible wealth, Jacob recognized he would never be free, would never be happy, until he had reconciled with his brother.
There are those broken relationships that we never get over. Often, as has happened in nation after nation in recent years, are heanded down from generation to generation of hatred.
Reconciliation does not have a quick fix, popping in/ stopping by, to get forgiven.
Jacob sends messengers to explain to Esau, he is coming and why.
Recognizing he has done wrong, stolen from his brother, Jacob devises a gift to make amends, and not a triffling thing. Jacob chooses 200 Ewe sheep and 20 Rams, 200 Goats and 20 Males, 30 Female Camels, 40 Cows and 10 Bulls, 20 Donkeys and 10 males.
Then Jacob sends his wives and children and servants all to a safe place, while he spends the night alone, worrying and preparing to reconcile with his brother. The wrong he had done to his brother has gnawed away at him, and grown in proportion, until this confrontation seems insurmountable. And Jacob is alone.
Over the years, interpreters have had a lot of fun with the ambiguities of this passage.
In it's original form, we are uncertain who comes to Jacob at night...
Perhaps it is Esau, who followed the messengers back, and now comes to settle with his brother in the dark. This is the confrontation Jacob wanted, one on one, to settle the score, give away nothing. Coming at night to ambush is how Jacob would have greeted Esau if the sides were reversed.
Perhaps it is Jacob wrestling with himself, with his shadow, his conscience. Wrestling with all he has done over the course of his life, set in motion by cheating his brother.
Part of me has always wondered if the stranger was not a man at all, but was a woman, Jacob's unloved wife Leah, or one of her sons, who finally sees the opportunity to hold him accountable for all he has done without love.
But the natural conclusion, is that the Stranger, the One who comes during the dark night of the soul for Jacob, is God.
As much as we try to make this a Rational Emipical World, based only on the reality we see and know, there are other realities, Emotional, Psychological, Relational and Theological, as well. Everything we do, all of our relationships and decisions can be interpreted symbolically for what they might mean... When we rebuilt the Church, regardless of Historic Commissions and Planning Boards, theoretically we could have built the Church of wood, or of the latest space age polymer, or recycled biodegradable compost; but here, as well as with the clinic in Sudan, we built for permanence in brick and mortar and steel. We built the Church to be used, to be shared with others, and often that is inconvenient, but we recognize and claim our Church is not our possession, we are hosts in this house of God, welcoming others.
There are those who believe that all our relationships go back to the ones we had with our family of origin... As a third child, my role was to unsettle the ones who had gone before; in that my mother died in my infancy, I was the baby of the family, so could manipulate to get win; in that my father remarried, I became an elder brother; and these roles get replayed in business and marriage and community and the raising of next generations.
But what happened to Jacob that dark night was that, as much as he had been afraid of facing his brother, going home Jacob also had to face himself, and to face God. Not an intellectual reasoning, but a knock down grappling, wrestling, life and death struggle.
The point of the OLYMPIC GAMES, and the Political Conventions, are not that these make good television. In the case of Beijing, there are far too many characters, in the Presidential elections, it seems there are more plot twists than a soap opera. But rather, that competition, especially after you have qualified, so it is only the best among equals, calls forth something from the depths of the person, a greatness that otherwise might never be seen. Different from the Marathon runner, who suddenly drops out and quits half way through the race, this is the competitor who is the only person in his entire nation that swims, struggling to finish. This is what the Stranger wrestled Jacob for that night, a testing and tempering, to transform what had been into something else, something different and new. Jacob had lusted after blessings that had not been his, now what was demanded of him was to find the true limits of his character and faith.
Over this vacation, I came to realize much of what we do, is directlty opposite what we were taught decades ago in Seminary. Not only about Hebrew and Greek and Preaching, but 5 years ago we celebrated a marriage for a couple...This week we received a call from the bride's younger sister, asking if she too could be married. It was my vacation, but I was available and they were in need. This morning, we have a couple who were married here years ago, and now have a child, and asked that the child be baptized. In each of these cases, the couples had not been members of a church, we were here when they needed us. But being the Church when they needed, the couple presenting teir child for baptism also join this community of faith. The questions of membership and of baptism, even of marriage are simple and easy to accept. But living into these, being tested in the dark nights, that is where faith becomes real, and our priorities change.
That night, in his struggle, Jacob wrestled face to face with God. He could not win, but neither did he give up or lose. He wrestled with God all through the night. He wrestled until the stranger struck him in a place to cripple him and make him release, still he would not let go. As dawn was breaking, there is this brief exchange of words. The Stranger asks his name, and Jacob responds: “My name is Jacob, the one who has grasped for blessings that were outside his reach.” And the Stranger responds, “No more shall you be called Jacob. You wrestled at the shores of the Jabbok, You are ISRAEL, one who wrestled with God and with every person in your life. You have stayed faithful, but at a cost.” Always seeking the advantage, seeking to know the identity of the Stranger, Jacob/Israel asks “And what is your Name?”
There is a wonderful juxtaposition set up here, compared to generations later with Moses' struggle with God at the Burning Bush and Exodus, where God reveals a name to Moses, but will not allow Moses to see God's face.
The Stranger does not answer Jacob's request for a Name for God, but instead, offers him a blessing. Having struggled all night and remained faithful to the struggle with God, Jacob now called Israel, goes to reconcile with his brother, with far less anxiety, because he has already reconciled with God.
Genesis 32:22-31
Matthew 15:21-28
There is a great deal of similarity in the story of Jacob and Esau, to Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Elder Son, and the joy of that, is that it makes us rethink what we thought we knew. In the Prodigal Son parable, the Father comes running out to greet the returning one... In the story of Jacob, it is not Isaac who comes to receive his son, but Esau. Yet, in the Prodigal Son, the Parable began as description of Heaven and the love of God, so the father who rushed to greet the Prodigal was God. And the one who greeted Jacob in the night was God, empowering Jacob to come to his brother Esau not as one struggling to grasp blessings, but as one changed, who sees in the face of Compassion the sacrifice that is there, and in the face of Sacrifice, the compassion.
The story of the Canaanite Woman gives most of us great pause and frustration, not only, as in earlier generations that there would be such racism and prejudice, we accept that this has been the case between peoples, but we do more than give our dogs crumbs that fall from the table, some of us have trouble here because we treat our dogs better than our children. But, the point of the story is that if she had greeted Jesus, as Simon Peter had done, saying “If you are the Son of God, then heal my child” the child would have remained ill. Instead, she not only a Gentile but a Canaanite, greeted him as “LORD, Son of David”, and was willing to humble herself in order to struggle with him for the life of her child.
So we ask ourselves, are we willing to go only so far, only as long as it is convenient? Or are we willing to umble and degrade ourselves, abandon everything we were taught was true, because others are in need? In order to reconcile with One another, in order to be reconciled with God, how high will you go? To the point of sacrifice?
When they had parted, Jacob ran away, with nothing tangible, yet with everything. He had all their family's blessings. Jacob's birthname had meant THE HEEL, not only because he had held the heel of his twin in birth, but because he had been a heel of a man, a scoundrel, only concerned with getting his share. Jacob had cheated his brother, decieved their father, and abandoned everyone. On his own, Jacob had grown up, he had found a relationship with God, he had been successful as a breeder, herder and trader, he had a large family who were healthy and strong. NOW, as he recognized he possessed all of this tangible wealth, Jacob recognized he would never be free, would never be happy, until he had reconciled with his brother.
There are those broken relationships that we never get over. Often, as has happened in nation after nation in recent years, are heanded down from generation to generation of hatred.
Reconciliation does not have a quick fix, popping in/ stopping by, to get forgiven.
Jacob sends messengers to explain to Esau, he is coming and why.
Recognizing he has done wrong, stolen from his brother, Jacob devises a gift to make amends, and not a triffling thing. Jacob chooses 200 Ewe sheep and 20 Rams, 200 Goats and 20 Males, 30 Female Camels, 40 Cows and 10 Bulls, 20 Donkeys and 10 males.
Then Jacob sends his wives and children and servants all to a safe place, while he spends the night alone, worrying and preparing to reconcile with his brother. The wrong he had done to his brother has gnawed away at him, and grown in proportion, until this confrontation seems insurmountable. And Jacob is alone.
Over the years, interpreters have had a lot of fun with the ambiguities of this passage.
In it's original form, we are uncertain who comes to Jacob at night...
Perhaps it is Esau, who followed the messengers back, and now comes to settle with his brother in the dark. This is the confrontation Jacob wanted, one on one, to settle the score, give away nothing. Coming at night to ambush is how Jacob would have greeted Esau if the sides were reversed.
Perhaps it is Jacob wrestling with himself, with his shadow, his conscience. Wrestling with all he has done over the course of his life, set in motion by cheating his brother.
Part of me has always wondered if the stranger was not a man at all, but was a woman, Jacob's unloved wife Leah, or one of her sons, who finally sees the opportunity to hold him accountable for all he has done without love.
But the natural conclusion, is that the Stranger, the One who comes during the dark night of the soul for Jacob, is God.
As much as we try to make this a Rational Emipical World, based only on the reality we see and know, there are other realities, Emotional, Psychological, Relational and Theological, as well. Everything we do, all of our relationships and decisions can be interpreted symbolically for what they might mean... When we rebuilt the Church, regardless of Historic Commissions and Planning Boards, theoretically we could have built the Church of wood, or of the latest space age polymer, or recycled biodegradable compost; but here, as well as with the clinic in Sudan, we built for permanence in brick and mortar and steel. We built the Church to be used, to be shared with others, and often that is inconvenient, but we recognize and claim our Church is not our possession, we are hosts in this house of God, welcoming others.
There are those who believe that all our relationships go back to the ones we had with our family of origin... As a third child, my role was to unsettle the ones who had gone before; in that my mother died in my infancy, I was the baby of the family, so could manipulate to get win; in that my father remarried, I became an elder brother; and these roles get replayed in business and marriage and community and the raising of next generations.
But what happened to Jacob that dark night was that, as much as he had been afraid of facing his brother, going home Jacob also had to face himself, and to face God. Not an intellectual reasoning, but a knock down grappling, wrestling, life and death struggle.
The point of the OLYMPIC GAMES, and the Political Conventions, are not that these make good television. In the case of Beijing, there are far too many characters, in the Presidential elections, it seems there are more plot twists than a soap opera. But rather, that competition, especially after you have qualified, so it is only the best among equals, calls forth something from the depths of the person, a greatness that otherwise might never be seen. Different from the Marathon runner, who suddenly drops out and quits half way through the race, this is the competitor who is the only person in his entire nation that swims, struggling to finish. This is what the Stranger wrestled Jacob for that night, a testing and tempering, to transform what had been into something else, something different and new. Jacob had lusted after blessings that had not been his, now what was demanded of him was to find the true limits of his character and faith.
Over this vacation, I came to realize much of what we do, is directlty opposite what we were taught decades ago in Seminary. Not only about Hebrew and Greek and Preaching, but 5 years ago we celebrated a marriage for a couple...This week we received a call from the bride's younger sister, asking if she too could be married. It was my vacation, but I was available and they were in need. This morning, we have a couple who were married here years ago, and now have a child, and asked that the child be baptized. In each of these cases, the couples had not been members of a church, we were here when they needed us. But being the Church when they needed, the couple presenting teir child for baptism also join this community of faith. The questions of membership and of baptism, even of marriage are simple and easy to accept. But living into these, being tested in the dark nights, that is where faith becomes real, and our priorities change.
That night, in his struggle, Jacob wrestled face to face with God. He could not win, but neither did he give up or lose. He wrestled with God all through the night. He wrestled until the stranger struck him in a place to cripple him and make him release, still he would not let go. As dawn was breaking, there is this brief exchange of words. The Stranger asks his name, and Jacob responds: “My name is Jacob, the one who has grasped for blessings that were outside his reach.” And the Stranger responds, “No more shall you be called Jacob. You wrestled at the shores of the Jabbok, You are ISRAEL, one who wrestled with God and with every person in your life. You have stayed faithful, but at a cost.” Always seeking the advantage, seeking to know the identity of the Stranger, Jacob/Israel asks “And what is your Name?”
There is a wonderful juxtaposition set up here, compared to generations later with Moses' struggle with God at the Burning Bush and Exodus, where God reveals a name to Moses, but will not allow Moses to see God's face.
The Stranger does not answer Jacob's request for a Name for God, but instead, offers him a blessing. Having struggled all night and remained faithful to the struggle with God, Jacob now called Israel, goes to reconcile with his brother, with far less anxiety, because he has already reconciled with God.
Genesis 32:22-31
Matthew 15:21-28
There is a great deal of similarity in the story of Jacob and Esau, to Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Elder Son, and the joy of that, is that it makes us rethink what we thought we knew. In the Prodigal Son parable, the Father comes running out to greet the returning one... In the story of Jacob, it is not Isaac who comes to receive his son, but Esau. Yet, in the Prodigal Son, the Parable began as description of Heaven and the love of God, so the father who rushed to greet the Prodigal was God. And the one who greeted Jacob in the night was God, empowering Jacob to come to his brother Esau not as one struggling to grasp blessings, but as one changed, who sees in the face of Compassion the sacrifice that is there, and in the face of Sacrifice, the compassion.
The story of the Canaanite Woman gives most of us great pause and frustration, not only, as in earlier generations that there would be such racism and prejudice, we accept that this has been the case between peoples, but we do more than give our dogs crumbs that fall from the table, some of us have trouble here because we treat our dogs better than our children. But, the point of the story is that if she had greeted Jesus, as Simon Peter had done, saying “If you are the Son of God, then heal my child” the child would have remained ill. Instead, she not only a Gentile but a Canaanite, greeted him as “LORD, Son of David”, and was willing to humble herself in order to struggle with him for the life of her child.
So we ask ourselves, are we willing to go only so far, only as long as it is convenient? Or are we willing to umble and degrade ourselves, abandon everything we were taught was true, because others are in need? In order to reconcile with One another, in order to be reconciled with God, how high will you go? To the point of sacrifice?
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