Exodus 20: 1-17
John 2: 1-22
One of my earliest memories of Sunday School, was in making a plaster of paris 10 Commandments. We carefully shaped something like two headstones, believing the shape holy, then were taught how to write Roman Numerals 1-10. At the time, none of us questioned the irony of writing Roman Numerals on Hebrew Stone tablets 2000 years before the Roman Empire.
When I first began Seminary, I came home on Spring break and my mentor a 40 year pastor asked: “Tell me what the latest thinking is about the 10 Commandments?” At 23 I tried to answer the test, “The 10 Commandments are The Covenant for us as a community of faith, as a holy people defined by God, defining our relationships with one another and with God. What is unique is that they are not set up as a Law Code unto themselves, as the Greeks and Romans and others have done down through America today. Instead the LAW is described in the midst of narrative about Exodus and Red Sea. The people came through crisis, and God, who had saved them gave them the Law, so God was understood as both LAW GIVER and LIFE GIVER and SAVIOR.”
Over time, I have returned to the question, “What is the 10 Commandments, the Covenant, about” many many times. What I've come to appreciate is that an Enslaved People had miraculously been set free. They had been out-numbered and overwhelmed by the whole of the Empire of Egypt, by Pharaoh and his Chariots. Moses had prayed to God, Moses had lifted his arm, and the Sea parted for them to be set free, then closed in to crush and destroy the Empire. This Slave People would have turned from serving Pharaoh, to serving Moses, making him a God, bowing down to him. Instead, MOSES RECEIVED and GAVE TO THE PEOPLE the 10 COMMANDMENTS as a New Covenant, THE LAW defining this community as a LOVED People.
In North America in the 21st Century, we don't really have a context for the idea of COVENANT. We understand LAW, and CONTRACT and BUDGET. These are hard and fast legal documents, which the nuance of words, the bottom line of accountability and personal responsibility on time, are all that really matter. Covenant is different. Covenant is not based on accountability, on payment or time, or even responsibility. COVENANT is a STATEMENT OF IDENTITY in RELATIONSHIP, that this PEOPLE IS LOVED by this One, not only for 90 days or 30 years, but beyond generations.
In the Covenant with NOAH after the Flood, God made a COVENANT to hang up the bow, to never again be a destroyer, but instead to seek REDEMPTION of God's Creation.
In the Covenant with ABRAHAM and SARAH, God made a Covenant with one Family, to SEEK LAUGHTER and the fulfillment of dreams, not by human schemes but God's Grace and Love even when/especially when, this defied human expectations.
What is different in the COVENANT of the 10 COMMANDMENTS, is that GOD HAS EXPECTATIONS for us as a Community of Faith, as a PEOPLE OF GOD. Rather than Laws or Taxes handed down for masses to obey, The Commandments are POLICY STATEMENTS which underscore and help define who we are and who God is. Humanity has a propensity to use everything at our disposal for our purposes, not necessarily as created or intended. Human beings are to treat God as God, to treat one another as Creatures of God, rather than as our Slaves. The question is not whether ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS, but rather that we maintain ENDS are ENDS UNTO THEMSELVES not to be used as the means to something else. Our PARENTS are to be HONORED literally to be treated as Weighty, to our NEIGHBOR we are to be NEIGHBORLY.
The people had just witnessed God exercising power over Pharaoh's army, and the temptation might be to try to use God as a Weapon, to use Faith as a Power at our Command, to make Moses/ Our leaders react to our fears and respond to our worries rather than leading the Nation.
The COMMUNITY OF FAITH are to be MONOTHEISTIC in a POLYTHEISTIC WORLD!
Then as well as today, we are so tempted by our desires for SAFETY as to worship MARS the God of War, tempted by our fears of DEATH to worship the ALTAR of POSSESSIONS and ESTATES; in our desire for fun for JOY we worship BACCHUS and SATYRS who SATIATE and Anesthetize our fears; in our desire for LOVE we worship at the altar of EROS. We have made IDOLS of Youth, of Fertility, of War, of Wealth, of Property. We have used these, as GODS of our our CREATION, rather than following the Commandment to have no other Gods, to make no idol, to not take the Lord's Name.
Our FEARS of the Economy stand in opposition to the Commandment for SABBATH. For ultimately, what drives the ECONOMY is belief in Scarcity, that there are limited resources, so we try to buy and own, and possess what will insure against shortage. SABBATH is God's assurance that there is plenty, that we can trust to feed one another and believe in the future.
JOHN's GOSPEL is different from MARK's. In Mark, there is a Divine Secret as Jesus and the Disciples, and we are all searching for WHO IS JESUS, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE MESSIAH? Decades later, when the Evangelist of John's Gospel is preaching the story, it is to convince all the world that Jesus is the Messiah. So after he has been baptized by John, and called disciples, he goes to a wedding. During the Feast there are fears that there will not be enough. Even Mary, the Mother of Jesus, becomes so concerned about being left out, not having enough, that she calls attention to Jesus, to perform miracles. But the power of what happens is not that he can miraculously change substances from water to wine, rather that what he gives is SO MUCH BETTER than anything they had ever had, better than they could ever provide. Not only an undercutting of fears of scarcity, but an assurance that the best is yet to come.
He goes from there to the TEMPLE, and in order to respond to people's fears and desires, worship has become a SHOPPING MALL. The point of worship at the TEMPLE was to make an OFFERING of ATONEMENT so as to be forgiven. But what if people forget to bring an offering? What if the doves fly away, or the calf or goat were to be stolen? So an entire industry is created that takes over the Temple, selling goods.
It is easy for us to become caught up in our fears.
In these ECONOMIC TIMES, I have been meeting with the Sessions of Churches and advising different Non-Profits which are panicked about their endowments. But the Bible never instructs us to protect our endowment, never suggests that we worship our 401K. Rather, the guidance of the Messiah is to consider the Lilies of the Field and the Sparrows and Butterflies, each of which enjoy life, do what God created them to do, trusting that as we provide for one another, there will always be enough.
Last night we received a phone call, that my father is terminal. All my life I have looked up to and admired my father. Not only as a Father, but as a role model, for he too is a Presbyterian minister and a learned and ethical man. But all of life, he has preached about faith, faith in God, faith in ever-lasting life. Yet he has reached a point where I am not certain if he is seeking additional surgery so as to avoid belief in his own death, or whether he believes death on the
operating table might be quick and painless.
The problem of faith in the 10 Commandments, and all of faith, is that as POLICY STATEMENTS as a PHILOSOPHY, faith is pretty good... But, there comes a point in time when we must question our fears, and whether we truly do believe? Do we celebrate Christmas and Easter simply because of the EQUINOX, or do we believe that God Loved the world so much as to give us God's only begotten child, and as afraid as we all are of scarcity, and of death, we can trust that there is something better yet to come?
Do we believe in the 10 COMMANDMENTS as LAWS or as a COVENANT of LOVE?
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Shock, Shame and Self-Sacrifice, March 8, 2008
Genesis 18
Mark 8:31-ff
A short time ago, some visitors came to worship and afterward described,
“We have been shopping around, listening to what people say, and your church has a reputation for SHOCKING People. We are told you bark like a dog, dress up like Elmo, and propose grand visions to change the world!”
And we laughed and said, “Well, not so much to shock people, as to do what ever is necessary to confront and challenge people to question their commitments and behaviors. We enjoy laughing together AND if we propose visions to change the world, we then set out to never give up.”
Sometimes, we have to simply preach the passages that are before us, and this morning's deal with SHOCK and Surprise, SHAME, Self-Sacrifice and SUFFERING.
Like Peter and the Disciples, we are SHOCKED to consider SUFFERING equated with FAITH.
We would far rather celebrate God's Gift of Grace at Christmas, Jesus Feeding the 5000, healing the Blind, and Deaf, teaching Parables and even Preaching, HOWEVER, when Peter risked naming that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus explained, “YES and the Son of Man MUST suffer for the sins of all humanity.”
There is a cost to faith, the shock being that that cost is not necessarily borne by the offender, at least not alone, but by the whole people of God. Taking up the cross, does not simply mean taking the stick out of your own eye, pulling yourself up, confronting your own dependence on Alcohol or other Pain-Killers. Taking up the Cross refers to fulfilling your Calling sacrificing what ever is necessary for others to be whole.
As a people of faith, SHAME has become a motivation. However, Jesus was willing to do what ever it took, bearing any indignation, and shame, to heal the world. Abraham laughed at the possibility of he and Sarah conceiving a child at 90 and 99 years of age. Laughter is one of the ways we cover our embarrassment, we scoff at our doubts by laughing them off. So it is, that God commands they name the child to be born, ISAAC which means LAUGHTER, as God's way of saying I am Not embarrassed, be not ashamed, for this is fulfillment of the promise.
The dis-connect of Christian Faith and our world, includes the expectation of instantaneous results and recovery. We buy a ticket and expect to be entertained, we take a pill and anticipate feeling less pain, we risk putting out money on the Stock Market anticipating both Dividends and Growth, we invest in our housing as real estate and expect a return on our investment. Abram was 75 years old when they set out from Haran with Sarai and his Brother's son Lot. More than journeying for five Chapters of Genesis, they have wandered where God led for almost 25 years, with the promise of a Name and Land and a Son. Yet, other than a number of adventures, the promise seems empty and unfulfilled. Even if at this point they should be given the Land, what would be the point without an heir to receive and pass it on. The problem being that if there is no fulfillment of the promise, no land, no birth of a miracle child, Abram must question if there is faith, if there is a God.
It is all well and good to come to worship every Sunday, singing the hymns, bowing in prayer, but when your parent or spouse is dying, if you cannot take away the pain; if your child runs away and you cannot bring them back; if you are laid off; we want to ask, what is the point of faith? If we believe in the promise, but the promise is not fulfilled, when we want, do we question the power of God, the reality of God, or do we try to fulfill the promise ourselves with our possessions? Sarai made it work-out for herself, she gave her husband another woman to have a child by, and they now possessed Ishmael, so why possessing what they wanted did their faith not feel fulfilled?
God responds, you have been faithful to the Promise, now I will make with you a Covenant.
For 25 years you have followed where God led, done what ever seemed appropriate to the Promise, and yet there was no Land, no Baby, will you still believe? If God said “Let us step it up a notch, take a sharp rock and cut your most intimate part off” Would you? The meaning of the Covenant with Abraham, was not about hygiene, not a purification rite, not determination of who is part of the community and who is not willing. Many cultures at that time practiced circumcision. But in this covenant, Abram and Sarai acquire new names, new identities for each other and before God. At the same time, circumcision demonstrated that Christian faith is not a Cerebral thing, not believing or understanding a theology, reciting sacred words. Faith must be acted out in our lives in personal acts of self-sacrifice.
As a culture, we have been seduced by money, losing sight of the transition from promise to covenant, such that when a couple promise themselves to one another, what is it stake is not their commitment, not his bowing down in humility on his knees, but the appraised value of the ring and the story of how he surprised her. When a couple marry, the focus has become less about the covenant of marriage, acquiring new identities before God, of being husband and wife to each other, and more about the reception and the flowers, how many bridesmaids and whether the band played something you could dance to. We expect that once PROMISED in engagement, everything is on a timetable of planning the wedding; rather than respecting the Promise as being A PROMISE and the COVENANT as being A COVENANT CUT INTO YOUR SPIRIT & FLESH.
SACRIFICE is not about how much a thing costs. A Sacrifice is taking something dear to you, something that is part of you, that represents who you are, and giving it to God.
But we are a culture focused on money. If So, then may we use our money to make a promise?
A few weeks ago, I suggested that we need to dream new dreams and build upon what has been accomplished. So it was that someone suggested we take out an Ad in the Post Standard or the Wall Street Journal, offering CHURCH SEEKS NEW CHALLENGES, No Idea, too large or too small.
Then this week, our Mission Committee met, and we began to listen for possibilities.
The last two winters we have bought coats and made mittens, hats and scarves for 20 children a year. Children who did not have coats or gloves, living in Central New York.
There are families in Auburn, Syracuse and here in Skaneateles, whose children need dental care and glasses and cannot afford them. What if we created a fund, so that when needed these children would have dentistry and vision care?
The spouse of the Episcopal Bishop has worked for several years to create a Medical Mission in El Salvador. Is there any reason why, we as Presbyterians could not give to support her work?
In Skaneateles the question for 95% of our students is not whether you will go to college, but where, and whether you will take a year to travel first. What if, we as a church made a commitment to a neighboring community, whose families have never gone to college, that if a class of 20 First Graders committed to have the grades to get into College, we as a church would invest for their education, paying for all 20 to graduate.
Regularly, we hear reports of schools making cut-backs, not only in playground equipment, and after school activities, but cutting the number of teachers as well. We also hear regular diatribes about the separation of Church and State. What if, as a Church we could donate $20,000 for paying one teacher's salary. We might not be able to match the Government's cuts, we may not be able to fulfill all the benefits, but we could make a statement of our commitment to the education and opportunity of every child.
What if our identities, were not simply as those who have attained degrees, but seeing these as a commitment to educate others?
There are things we can do, to help others, especially in these economic times. The real question of faith is not whether we can sacrifice pledging $3,000 – 10,000. But whether we would go to the Bank and take out that $10,000 in $1 bills and coins, giving 50 cents here, investing $1 of our time in another person's life.
Mark 8:31-ff
A short time ago, some visitors came to worship and afterward described,
“We have been shopping around, listening to what people say, and your church has a reputation for SHOCKING People. We are told you bark like a dog, dress up like Elmo, and propose grand visions to change the world!”
And we laughed and said, “Well, not so much to shock people, as to do what ever is necessary to confront and challenge people to question their commitments and behaviors. We enjoy laughing together AND if we propose visions to change the world, we then set out to never give up.”
Sometimes, we have to simply preach the passages that are before us, and this morning's deal with SHOCK and Surprise, SHAME, Self-Sacrifice and SUFFERING.
Like Peter and the Disciples, we are SHOCKED to consider SUFFERING equated with FAITH.
We would far rather celebrate God's Gift of Grace at Christmas, Jesus Feeding the 5000, healing the Blind, and Deaf, teaching Parables and even Preaching, HOWEVER, when Peter risked naming that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus explained, “YES and the Son of Man MUST suffer for the sins of all humanity.”
There is a cost to faith, the shock being that that cost is not necessarily borne by the offender, at least not alone, but by the whole people of God. Taking up the cross, does not simply mean taking the stick out of your own eye, pulling yourself up, confronting your own dependence on Alcohol or other Pain-Killers. Taking up the Cross refers to fulfilling your Calling sacrificing what ever is necessary for others to be whole.
As a people of faith, SHAME has become a motivation. However, Jesus was willing to do what ever it took, bearing any indignation, and shame, to heal the world. Abraham laughed at the possibility of he and Sarah conceiving a child at 90 and 99 years of age. Laughter is one of the ways we cover our embarrassment, we scoff at our doubts by laughing them off. So it is, that God commands they name the child to be born, ISAAC which means LAUGHTER, as God's way of saying I am Not embarrassed, be not ashamed, for this is fulfillment of the promise.
The dis-connect of Christian Faith and our world, includes the expectation of instantaneous results and recovery. We buy a ticket and expect to be entertained, we take a pill and anticipate feeling less pain, we risk putting out money on the Stock Market anticipating both Dividends and Growth, we invest in our housing as real estate and expect a return on our investment. Abram was 75 years old when they set out from Haran with Sarai and his Brother's son Lot. More than journeying for five Chapters of Genesis, they have wandered where God led for almost 25 years, with the promise of a Name and Land and a Son. Yet, other than a number of adventures, the promise seems empty and unfulfilled. Even if at this point they should be given the Land, what would be the point without an heir to receive and pass it on. The problem being that if there is no fulfillment of the promise, no land, no birth of a miracle child, Abram must question if there is faith, if there is a God.
It is all well and good to come to worship every Sunday, singing the hymns, bowing in prayer, but when your parent or spouse is dying, if you cannot take away the pain; if your child runs away and you cannot bring them back; if you are laid off; we want to ask, what is the point of faith? If we believe in the promise, but the promise is not fulfilled, when we want, do we question the power of God, the reality of God, or do we try to fulfill the promise ourselves with our possessions? Sarai made it work-out for herself, she gave her husband another woman to have a child by, and they now possessed Ishmael, so why possessing what they wanted did their faith not feel fulfilled?
God responds, you have been faithful to the Promise, now I will make with you a Covenant.
For 25 years you have followed where God led, done what ever seemed appropriate to the Promise, and yet there was no Land, no Baby, will you still believe? If God said “Let us step it up a notch, take a sharp rock and cut your most intimate part off” Would you? The meaning of the Covenant with Abraham, was not about hygiene, not a purification rite, not determination of who is part of the community and who is not willing. Many cultures at that time practiced circumcision. But in this covenant, Abram and Sarai acquire new names, new identities for each other and before God. At the same time, circumcision demonstrated that Christian faith is not a Cerebral thing, not believing or understanding a theology, reciting sacred words. Faith must be acted out in our lives in personal acts of self-sacrifice.
As a culture, we have been seduced by money, losing sight of the transition from promise to covenant, such that when a couple promise themselves to one another, what is it stake is not their commitment, not his bowing down in humility on his knees, but the appraised value of the ring and the story of how he surprised her. When a couple marry, the focus has become less about the covenant of marriage, acquiring new identities before God, of being husband and wife to each other, and more about the reception and the flowers, how many bridesmaids and whether the band played something you could dance to. We expect that once PROMISED in engagement, everything is on a timetable of planning the wedding; rather than respecting the Promise as being A PROMISE and the COVENANT as being A COVENANT CUT INTO YOUR SPIRIT & FLESH.
SACRIFICE is not about how much a thing costs. A Sacrifice is taking something dear to you, something that is part of you, that represents who you are, and giving it to God.
But we are a culture focused on money. If So, then may we use our money to make a promise?
A few weeks ago, I suggested that we need to dream new dreams and build upon what has been accomplished. So it was that someone suggested we take out an Ad in the Post Standard or the Wall Street Journal, offering CHURCH SEEKS NEW CHALLENGES, No Idea, too large or too small.
Then this week, our Mission Committee met, and we began to listen for possibilities.
The last two winters we have bought coats and made mittens, hats and scarves for 20 children a year. Children who did not have coats or gloves, living in Central New York.
There are families in Auburn, Syracuse and here in Skaneateles, whose children need dental care and glasses and cannot afford them. What if we created a fund, so that when needed these children would have dentistry and vision care?
The spouse of the Episcopal Bishop has worked for several years to create a Medical Mission in El Salvador. Is there any reason why, we as Presbyterians could not give to support her work?
In Skaneateles the question for 95% of our students is not whether you will go to college, but where, and whether you will take a year to travel first. What if, we as a church made a commitment to a neighboring community, whose families have never gone to college, that if a class of 20 First Graders committed to have the grades to get into College, we as a church would invest for their education, paying for all 20 to graduate.
Regularly, we hear reports of schools making cut-backs, not only in playground equipment, and after school activities, but cutting the number of teachers as well. We also hear regular diatribes about the separation of Church and State. What if, as a Church we could donate $20,000 for paying one teacher's salary. We might not be able to match the Government's cuts, we may not be able to fulfill all the benefits, but we could make a statement of our commitment to the education and opportunity of every child.
What if our identities, were not simply as those who have attained degrees, but seeing these as a commitment to educate others?
There are things we can do, to help others, especially in these economic times. The real question of faith is not whether we can sacrifice pledging $3,000 – 10,000. But whether we would go to the Bank and take out that $10,000 in $1 bills and coins, giving 50 cents here, investing $1 of our time in another person's life.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A Faith in Recovery, March 1, 2009
Genesis 9:8-17
Mark 1:9-15
On this first Sunday in the Season of Lent, we do not have the luxury of questioning whether life is basically good or evil? Whether life is a romance that is destined to all work out in the end, or if life is a divine tragedy where everyone dies? Instead, on the first Sabbath in the season of Lent, our vision of life, is like the opening of the Movie WALL-E.
In the whole of the cosmos, the blackness of empty space, there is this bright blue spot, this world , like a blue glassy marble swirled with white clouds, that is Earth. Coming ever closer, we see a spectacular Grand Canyon, mountains and hills, skyscrapers, but allowing our vision to focus, we realize this is not the pristine planet in balance. What we thought we saw as Canyons and cliffs, mountains, hills, and cityscapes of skyscrapers, were all piles of compacted garbage. Creation it seems has been reduced to a lifeless waste and void, where there is no humanity, no life, no bird in the sky, no sound. But then there is movement, and we recognize the one and only thing that has survived all our pollution, is a cockroach, and later that the companion of that roach is an automated robot trash-compactor called WALL-E. And WALL-E discovers, quite by accident, that as toxic and corrupt as the planet had been for two thousand years, life has begun again.
The Genesis story of the Flood, is not a Darwinian debate of Creation versus Evolution. Instead, Genesis 9 provides a basic GIVEN, that the 6 Day Created Order of Life and Sabbath has been destroyed by human chaos, then drowned for over 40 days and 40 nights by God's chaos. As human creatures, we had struggled against our created identity, we fought against God, against ourselves, we corrupted all of life, and GOD ALMIGHTY, our Creator, our Companion, our Parent, our Love, our Foil, our Adversary; the Warrior GOD in whose image we were formed, making us god-like, finally resolved in anger to destroy all life.
BUT, and this is the SURREAL POINT of Genesis 9, in the tumultuous battle for Control, in the Flood of Chaos, in every family intervention:
be it the parent who leaves their child at a detox center, or
the adult child who takes their parent's car keys and house, or
the spouse who cuts up the credit cards,
the broken-hearted lover, the divorce, or
the Nation addicted to consumption,... There is an AFTERWARD.
The Bible does not suggest FORGIVENESS. When relationships are raw, when we are wounded, we are not ready to FORGIVE. INSTEAD After the Flood, there is a new beginning, A new GENESIS. Not Adam and Eve in the Garden, Not the birth of Cain and Abel, or after killing one another the Birth of a New People; but a different and new Genesis our New Normal is FAITH IN RECOVERY.
After the 40 Nights, after The Flood, after the Detox, after the Divorce is final, after death, according to Genesis, the Partner had not changed, Earth had not changed, Humanity had not changed, the one who did change is God. Almighty Eternal God, the Creator and Judge, Alpha and Omega determines NEVER AGAIN, NEVER EVER AGAIN and hangs up the Warrior's Bow. The fighting, the flood, the 40 Nights, was more costly than being Right.
Like the Prophet HOSEA who put away spouse and children as harmful, hurtful, then reclaims them as more precious for having been missed; We are redeemed. Humanity is not perfect, None of us is perfect. BUT God has claimed and reclaimed us. Our FAITH is in the RECOVERY of an All Powerful God who cannot bear to end. We are Forgiven. We are Redeemed. We are LOVED, not because we are so beautiful. Not that we are so wise. Not because we WON the war, or got what we wanted in the divorce, or even because we were so weak. But because God loved us so much. The painful, very real question we struggle with, is whether we can forgive? Can we forgive the one who did not allow us to do what we wanted? Can we God? There are times when life is too close, when we are too much in the moment to see and make choices, when we need to step back and like a pot of tea we need faith and life to be allowed to STEAP.
The COVENANT OF THE RAINBOW is a Promise underlying all future promises. Circumcision and Kosher foods, the 10 Commandments, Jeremiah's Law Cut into our Hearts, Jesus at the Table and upon the Cross: ALL are founded on this Promise, the unConditional Grace of God, the Love of God to be in Relationship with us in Recovery.
The Gospel, is that at a specific time and place in history, that is not in an ancient oral legend of a time before history, but in a specific REAL time and place, that is in Galilee of Judea of the Roman Empire of the Caesars, when John called all the world to be BAPTIZED for the FORGIVENESS of Sins, Jesus knelt down and was Baptized for the sins of the world. And Heaven itself was irreversibly ripped open. What happens in Jesus' life & Ministry is a microcosm of the whole history of humanity in relation to God.
The first recorded memory of the people of Israel is that after they crossed the Red Sea they went into the wilderness for 40 years. After Baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 Nights and Days. But where the people had complained and doubted and feared whether God brought them out to kill them, Jesus trusted God and was provided for.
The people came into the Land of Milk & Honey to take Possession, to wage wars and create Monarchies, witnessing the rise and fall of their own Empire. Jesus came out when John had been arrested and proclaimed “REPENT AND BELIEVE for the Kingdom of God is at Hand”.
Neither OLD or NEW TESTAMENT describe a mythic utopia where everything is love. The Bible takes as GIVEN that life happens, real life is very real. The Call is whether we will continue as we always have, or the DUAL NATURE of REPENTANCE as described by John Calvin: to ACCEPT and Name the Broken Nature of what has been, Turning to CHOOSE something about to be. Will we continue to curse God and curse the RAINBOW for changing our definitions of our world, or will we embrace the possibility that as unloveable, broken and hurtful as we are, God loves us?
How awesome it would be, if instead of believing in Fairy-tales of Happily Ever After, we claimed the reality that we have lived broken lives. As righteous as we may have tried to be, we are not perfect. Even so we are loved, not by a Prince Charming, but by God and by one another!
Mark 1:9-15
On this first Sunday in the Season of Lent, we do not have the luxury of questioning whether life is basically good or evil? Whether life is a romance that is destined to all work out in the end, or if life is a divine tragedy where everyone dies? Instead, on the first Sabbath in the season of Lent, our vision of life, is like the opening of the Movie WALL-E.
In the whole of the cosmos, the blackness of empty space, there is this bright blue spot, this world , like a blue glassy marble swirled with white clouds, that is Earth. Coming ever closer, we see a spectacular Grand Canyon, mountains and hills, skyscrapers, but allowing our vision to focus, we realize this is not the pristine planet in balance. What we thought we saw as Canyons and cliffs, mountains, hills, and cityscapes of skyscrapers, were all piles of compacted garbage. Creation it seems has been reduced to a lifeless waste and void, where there is no humanity, no life, no bird in the sky, no sound. But then there is movement, and we recognize the one and only thing that has survived all our pollution, is a cockroach, and later that the companion of that roach is an automated robot trash-compactor called WALL-E. And WALL-E discovers, quite by accident, that as toxic and corrupt as the planet had been for two thousand years, life has begun again.
The Genesis story of the Flood, is not a Darwinian debate of Creation versus Evolution. Instead, Genesis 9 provides a basic GIVEN, that the 6 Day Created Order of Life and Sabbath has been destroyed by human chaos, then drowned for over 40 days and 40 nights by God's chaos. As human creatures, we had struggled against our created identity, we fought against God, against ourselves, we corrupted all of life, and GOD ALMIGHTY, our Creator, our Companion, our Parent, our Love, our Foil, our Adversary; the Warrior GOD in whose image we were formed, making us god-like, finally resolved in anger to destroy all life.
BUT, and this is the SURREAL POINT of Genesis 9, in the tumultuous battle for Control, in the Flood of Chaos, in every family intervention:
be it the parent who leaves their child at a detox center, or
the adult child who takes their parent's car keys and house, or
the spouse who cuts up the credit cards,
the broken-hearted lover, the divorce, or
the Nation addicted to consumption,... There is an AFTERWARD.
The Bible does not suggest FORGIVENESS. When relationships are raw, when we are wounded, we are not ready to FORGIVE. INSTEAD After the Flood, there is a new beginning, A new GENESIS. Not Adam and Eve in the Garden, Not the birth of Cain and Abel, or after killing one another the Birth of a New People; but a different and new Genesis our New Normal is FAITH IN RECOVERY.
After the 40 Nights, after The Flood, after the Detox, after the Divorce is final, after death, according to Genesis, the Partner had not changed, Earth had not changed, Humanity had not changed, the one who did change is God. Almighty Eternal God, the Creator and Judge, Alpha and Omega determines NEVER AGAIN, NEVER EVER AGAIN and hangs up the Warrior's Bow. The fighting, the flood, the 40 Nights, was more costly than being Right.
Like the Prophet HOSEA who put away spouse and children as harmful, hurtful, then reclaims them as more precious for having been missed; We are redeemed. Humanity is not perfect, None of us is perfect. BUT God has claimed and reclaimed us. Our FAITH is in the RECOVERY of an All Powerful God who cannot bear to end. We are Forgiven. We are Redeemed. We are LOVED, not because we are so beautiful. Not that we are so wise. Not because we WON the war, or got what we wanted in the divorce, or even because we were so weak. But because God loved us so much. The painful, very real question we struggle with, is whether we can forgive? Can we forgive the one who did not allow us to do what we wanted? Can we God? There are times when life is too close, when we are too much in the moment to see and make choices, when we need to step back and like a pot of tea we need faith and life to be allowed to STEAP.
The COVENANT OF THE RAINBOW is a Promise underlying all future promises. Circumcision and Kosher foods, the 10 Commandments, Jeremiah's Law Cut into our Hearts, Jesus at the Table and upon the Cross: ALL are founded on this Promise, the unConditional Grace of God, the Love of God to be in Relationship with us in Recovery.
The Gospel, is that at a specific time and place in history, that is not in an ancient oral legend of a time before history, but in a specific REAL time and place, that is in Galilee of Judea of the Roman Empire of the Caesars, when John called all the world to be BAPTIZED for the FORGIVENESS of Sins, Jesus knelt down and was Baptized for the sins of the world. And Heaven itself was irreversibly ripped open. What happens in Jesus' life & Ministry is a microcosm of the whole history of humanity in relation to God.
The first recorded memory of the people of Israel is that after they crossed the Red Sea they went into the wilderness for 40 years. After Baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 Nights and Days. But where the people had complained and doubted and feared whether God brought them out to kill them, Jesus trusted God and was provided for.
The people came into the Land of Milk & Honey to take Possession, to wage wars and create Monarchies, witnessing the rise and fall of their own Empire. Jesus came out when John had been arrested and proclaimed “REPENT AND BELIEVE for the Kingdom of God is at Hand”.
Neither OLD or NEW TESTAMENT describe a mythic utopia where everything is love. The Bible takes as GIVEN that life happens, real life is very real. The Call is whether we will continue as we always have, or the DUAL NATURE of REPENTANCE as described by John Calvin: to ACCEPT and Name the Broken Nature of what has been, Turning to CHOOSE something about to be. Will we continue to curse God and curse the RAINBOW for changing our definitions of our world, or will we embrace the possibility that as unloveable, broken and hurtful as we are, God loves us?
How awesome it would be, if instead of believing in Fairy-tales of Happily Ever After, we claimed the reality that we have lived broken lives. As righteous as we may have tried to be, we are not perfect. Even so we are loved, not by a Prince Charming, but by God and by one another!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)