Song of Solomon 2
Mark 7:1-7, 14-16, 21-23
This morning's is a sermon, about what scares and intimidates us more than anything else. Not H1N1, not AIDs. Not War. Not Hand washing. Not special diets for differing members of the family. Not even a new Nationalized Health Care Policy, or modification of Social Security, or frank discussions of S-E-X or even CHANGE. Because that is not what these passages from the Gospel of Mark and The Song of Solomon are about. This morning we speak of INTIMACY.
This is a sermon that could not have been preached a dozen years ago. Not because the times have changed, for we are just as Puritanical as humanity has ever been. Not because of some new wisdom or knowledge, for we are still naïve. But simply because of all that has gone on between us, I hope and pray that there is a depth of trust, a foundation of common understanding that allows us to risk being honest and real. In the beginning of any relationship there is a honeymoon, when we are coming to know one another to risk sharing our lives, there are the decades of giving birth and raising children. Then, there are years of working to build a home and community, to create a professional identity. In all of this there are traditions, some we create because they are helpful to us, most we perpetuate because they were handed down as important to parents to our families, and we continue what we know.
In all of Human Culture, there is no institution so steeped in tradition, so mired in formalism, than ours. We reserve a special day every week and holidays throughout the year for religion. We wear our very best. We approach the reading of Scripture as if something children cannot hear, when we must take a very adult tone and demeanor, as if chanting the reading liturgically.
But the Bible is a whole collection of what it is to live in faith, to struggle with God, to try to believe. Like a Library, the Bible contains Books of Law, Books of History, Proverbs and Prophecy, but also in the book of Jonah, HUMOR; in the book of Hosea, Metaphor and Satire; in the book of Ecclesiastes, Wisdom about life itself; And here in the Song of Solomon, Romance, Desire, Emotion, Love, Passion. If all the Bible were the Song of Solomon, Holy Writ would have been dismissed as bawdy eroticism. But all the Bible is not, nor is all of Scripture, Liturgy to be chanted. The Bible, as expression of our best faith in God, includes Law and Prophecy, and Psalms and Songs and Proverbs and Revelation, and also the intimacy of human love. For what could be a greater reflection of our faith in God than our most intimate love?
Throughout history, people have been so intimidated by the intimacy of these passages, as to try to read into this Old Testament Book, Christian metaphors. The Rose of Sharon and Lilly of the Valley is Jesus. The shadow of the Apple Tree represents the Church. The Bridegroom like a Stag leaping over the Mountains to come to us, is the Word of God seeking us out. NO! We need to take the Scripture in its own time, appreciating the beauty of the passage, without reading in things are not there. This is intimate poetry, of a depth of love a depth of faith, that gives life new meaning. As PASSIONATE and consuming as first love can be, so is the love of God for us. What is rare and wonderful about this passage is that the author describes God in the voice of the young woman, and we men and women are as tentative and shy as the one who peers through the wall trying to get a glimpse of the one they love.
According to Mark, Pharisees and Scribes came from Jerusalem and accosted Jesus, why his disciples did not follow “tradition”? And Jesus attempted to describe that there is a difference between what goes into a person as food for the belly, and what comes out of their heart and mind as their faith conviction. There is a difference between Guilt and Sincere REMORSE, between Desire and LOVE, between Ritual and FAITH. The question is not following tradition, but how do you change a person's heart? The tension is always between TRADITION and INTIMACY, between the LAW and PRACTICE, between what has been handed down to us as Normal and recognized, and what we know from our own personal experience, of what is real what is compassionate and caring in this time and place.
Baptism comes from the experience of John, who called people to recognize the sins in their lives, the sins of all humanity, the corruption of the earth, and to come to be washed clean. We have evidence Jesus was baptized, and that the Disciples in turn baptized others. Baptism is a claiming that we are loved by God. One of the problems that arose prior to the Reformation was that Children died having never been baptized. SO it was that the Sacrament was divided, with Baptism available to infants or adults, but occurring only once, and that an infant who had been baptized when they became an adult would study for themselves what they wanted to believe and Confirm or ReAffirm their faith.
Recall that our Pilgrim Ancestors came to this land for Religious Freedom. In those early days, in many colonies there were new experiences of faith, in a new world. Soon there began to be laws, that only if you had had a religious experience, that could be documented and judged as appropriate, could you be baptized. The difficulty came a generation later, when their children did not have the same experiences of faith, so new laws were written, that only if you were the child of one who had had a religious experience you could be baptized. In this way, Baptism is the parents committing their faith, that they will give to this child what they themselves believe.
I was speaking with a group of retired pastors who described they were just as happy being retired. Years ago, people came to worship because it was Sunday, they knew to rise on the 3rd Stanza, and to sing AMEN at the end of every hymn. Faith in God today is not simply about following the score.
In the 1940s and 1950s families would move into the Village and the Pastor would stop by their home, in the course of the conversation the pastor would inquire if their child had been baptized? If not, the kitchen sink would be filled and a prayer would be said, and children were baptized. According to the history of this church, for decades there was only one Session meeting per year, it took place on Christmas day, as the Pastor recounted for the Elders all that had occurred, and the Session ratified what had been done that year. The difficulty in many communities was that the pastor could not remember who had been baptized and who had not, so we began insisting on baptisms taking place before the whole church, as a community of faith. In this way, not only the parents committed their faith, but the neighbors and extended family did as well. In the 1970s and 80s and 90s many parents did not ask for their children to be baptized, and without the parents consent or involvement, grandparents brought their children for baptism, which the church said no to because the parents were not committed.
In recent years there have been several occasions that have given me pause about Baptism, stopping to question and to wonder and pray, because the circumstances were INTIMATE and real. Our tradition has been that as an extension of the baptism, the pastor carries the child around the Sanctuary to meet the Community of Faith close up and face to face. So it was that a few years ago, a son of the congregation was in worship leaving the next day for training in Special Forces, and in the course of the Baptism we placed the baby in his arms, that as he was defending the world, he should know what it is to hold a baby; as he was carrying weapons into battle, he should know what it is to hold a child of God; as we were committing to pray for this infant, we also re-affirmed we were praying for this child of God.
More recently, we have had couples who had been married in this church without being members, now wanting their child to be baptized. This has helped the Session struggle with the meaning of membership in the Body of Christ. The family presenting their child this day, were married here, and return from Canada each summer, first to have one child baptized, then another, now a third.
Then we had a couple who were married here, and had a child, and the couple decided they wanted to join the church and have the baby baptized. But the morning of the Baptism the mother called, saying that during the weekend they had had a final fight and her husband had left. Because she was unsure what would take place and how she would raise her child, she was not prepared to stand before the church in baptism. That morning we lifted up that void. That if we are to celebrate couples marrying, and infants being born, if we are to celebrate baptism, then we should also mourn when we cannot.
This summer, I have had an intimate experience of faith, that is real, and fitting for our time, though not actually part of religion, or our tradition. A couple were married and had a baby. The couple were going through divorce and they committed that they would not use this child as a weapon to hurt one another, but rather they committed their faith to love this child, to teach the child about faith in God and to learn from her. They invited family and friends to affirm their love for the parents and the child as gifts of God. It was not within the confines of the church, not named as a Sacrament, not using the formulaic questions. But in a world with so many divorces, so many occasions where families do harm to one another, it was opportunity to affirm the intimate love and faith of people for God, and the love and faith of God in humanity by gifting us a child.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Dwelling in Darkness, August 23, 2009
I Kings 8
Ephesians 6:10-20
Is the world basically Evil, or is the world basically Good? What is the Starting Point?
Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, Heggel all struggled with the starting point, because the original orientation of the world, determines who we are in response to the world, the purpose of Human society, of culture, of religion, art and music, of life itself is against what backdrop?
According to the Bible, specifically the Book of Genesis, concerning the origin of all things,
In the Beginning, the world was a shapeless, formless chaos, a void in time and space, intangible, darkness, the Antithesis of anything that would promote life. Knowledge of dwelling in that darkness, all origin being in a place and time without life, is critical to all that will come after.
Dwelling in Darkness, this shapeless formless chaos, living in the Void, Almighty God began to create. Against the backdrop of nothingness, God created something, light in the dark, order in the chaos, dry in the midst of mists, land in the waters, life/hope/faith/peace in the midst of nothingness. And God called this balance Good. That tension is elemental to who we are. We must understand that everything is in a continuing struggle against entropy, balancing life against death, against reverting to chaos and disorder, and nothingness. Perceiving that difference, that endless fight to make a mark on life, the desire for our lives to have had purpose and meaning and be remembered afterward is basic to humanity's struggle against entropy. As we live with depression. As we cope with Chemo therapies that attack and kill parts of our body in order that our bodies may again have balance and order, somehow this makes sense.
Life, humanity, all was created To Be Good, and according to the Catholic Theologian Matthew Fox was originally created as blessed. Therein is the basic human tension, we are Blessed and Good in a world that without life, without order and time and space, would be chaos. We perpetually fight for survival against the cosmologists, against the principalities and powers, which are the antithesis of life, we dwell in darkness.
Yet, our goal is slightly askew.
Trying to make a mark on life, trying to be remembered, we seek great accomplishments, to build fortunes and magnificent Temples, which are more a witness to our abilities as architects and engineers and builders than as a House for God, a House for Worship.
One thing is immediately recognized in reading the 8th Chapter of the Book of Kings, Dedication Ceremonies have not improved in 6000 years! Still there are the invitation of dignitaries, princes and priests, there are speeches describing the merits of those in attendance, there are prayers, then everyone returns to their daily lives. Solomon had labored for years to build this great Temple.
Imagine the Temple to be rectangular in shape, like this Sanctuary, with the Chancel representing the short side, but the Temple of Solomon, the short side would the equivalent of from here on the Eastside of the Village stretching all the way to the Food Pantry and Bus Garage behind the Hilltop Restaurant. Solomon's Temple to God was to have been like the Sphynx in Egypt and the Great Wall in China, one of the great wonders of the world. But as they came to make speeches, and to recognize their own accomplishment, the whole Temple was filled with God's Glory, a thick dark cloud that drove out everyone including the priests.
There is with God this tension, of “imminence” that God is always right here, available and caring, and God is “transcendent” unable to be put in a box like an idol, unable to be quantified. The very description of God dwells in deep darkness is a way of describing that God is unknowable, beyond our abilities of language, the limitation of words. God is holy, mysterious, all powerful, caring.
For a Temple is a place for God's Holiness, and not a testimony to human accomplishment. Instead the testimony to human life, the witness to our existence are Prayers of Supplication by the faithful. Prayers of Supplication are not Speeches of our accomplishments. Not Prayers of Petition, demanding our needs and desires. Prayers of Supplication are prayers said by others, when the Community of faith lifts us up before Almighty God as Witnessed and Remembered, as we did this morning for June, for Bard and Ruth, for Nankiir and Deng traveling to begin life anew with Andrew in the United States.
In 2005, when I first went to Sudan, it was a very tough place. There was no electricity, no clean water, for waste you dug a hole in the ground. In the time of that first visit, we re-united families that had been lost by 25 years of Civil War, we worshipped God together, we listened and provided pastoral care even to the pastors, we chose a location for the promise of the clinic, we offered gifts to change the way the people cultivated the earth, we gave gifts to redeem sons and daughters locked away in prisons. The morning we were to leave, our military guard asked if we had left anything. I said Yes, that I had left some cookies and juice for those who had provided care, those who had swept out the hut where I had stayed. He became quite infuriated, and went into the hut and brought out the cookies and juice and dropped them in my lap, saying in War you leave nothing behind, no evidence you were ever here, except we will know and remember. That is supplication. When the first American Medical Mission Group visited the Doctor in charge observed everything in awe, describing “Kings and Emperors built Palaces and Temples adorned with fountains, but a community of faith in a village in America, nearly all of whom will never set foot here or see this place, have built for posterity a place of healing and care.” That ability to do for others, is an act of grace, is also a prayer of supplication.
The Letter to the Ephesians does an amazing thing. For Paul describes himself as being a Prisoner for the Lord, he is literally stripped and chained and imprisoned in a hole in the ground for his faith in God. Outside, the cell, which was more like a sink hole, a cleft in between rocks, stood a Roman soldier. The Soldier wore the Uniform of the Empire, a Helmet, a belt, a sword, a shield, shoes, all distinctive to representing the Empire. And Paul describes that in the balance between chaos and order, good and evil, darkness and light, we have to continually question who we are and what we represent.
By being a member of the Roman Legion, this man gave up all identity, all ability to think and reason and act on his own. Everything about his life was a representation of the Roman Empire, it's principalities and powers.
By being a Prisoner of the Roman Empire for his Faith in God, Paul understood that actually he was like an Ambassador for God to the World. As an ambassador for God, he would be clothed in righteousness and peace, armed with justice, his feet would not be bare but would be shoed with the ability to go anywhere so as to preach.
It all makes us wonder, what is the true reality.
By turning on an electric light have we actually brought illumination, or have we simply shifted the shadows?
As we act as husband and wife to one another, do we put on love? Do we put on compassion, understanding.
As we care for our parents and our children, we float over and over between who is the parent and who the child, who is teaching whom, providing for whom?
Is what we do in all of life, done as Prisoners, or as Ambassadors?
Have we acquiesced to the powers and principalities, to the culture and cosmologists, or do we dwell with God in holiness, in faith, in compassion, attempting to provide light in the world?
Ephesians 6:10-20
Is the world basically Evil, or is the world basically Good? What is the Starting Point?
Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, Heggel all struggled with the starting point, because the original orientation of the world, determines who we are in response to the world, the purpose of Human society, of culture, of religion, art and music, of life itself is against what backdrop?
According to the Bible, specifically the Book of Genesis, concerning the origin of all things,
In the Beginning, the world was a shapeless, formless chaos, a void in time and space, intangible, darkness, the Antithesis of anything that would promote life. Knowledge of dwelling in that darkness, all origin being in a place and time without life, is critical to all that will come after.
Dwelling in Darkness, this shapeless formless chaos, living in the Void, Almighty God began to create. Against the backdrop of nothingness, God created something, light in the dark, order in the chaos, dry in the midst of mists, land in the waters, life/hope/faith/peace in the midst of nothingness. And God called this balance Good. That tension is elemental to who we are. We must understand that everything is in a continuing struggle against entropy, balancing life against death, against reverting to chaos and disorder, and nothingness. Perceiving that difference, that endless fight to make a mark on life, the desire for our lives to have had purpose and meaning and be remembered afterward is basic to humanity's struggle against entropy. As we live with depression. As we cope with Chemo therapies that attack and kill parts of our body in order that our bodies may again have balance and order, somehow this makes sense.
Life, humanity, all was created To Be Good, and according to the Catholic Theologian Matthew Fox was originally created as blessed. Therein is the basic human tension, we are Blessed and Good in a world that without life, without order and time and space, would be chaos. We perpetually fight for survival against the cosmologists, against the principalities and powers, which are the antithesis of life, we dwell in darkness.
Yet, our goal is slightly askew.
Trying to make a mark on life, trying to be remembered, we seek great accomplishments, to build fortunes and magnificent Temples, which are more a witness to our abilities as architects and engineers and builders than as a House for God, a House for Worship.
One thing is immediately recognized in reading the 8th Chapter of the Book of Kings, Dedication Ceremonies have not improved in 6000 years! Still there are the invitation of dignitaries, princes and priests, there are speeches describing the merits of those in attendance, there are prayers, then everyone returns to their daily lives. Solomon had labored for years to build this great Temple.
Imagine the Temple to be rectangular in shape, like this Sanctuary, with the Chancel representing the short side, but the Temple of Solomon, the short side would the equivalent of from here on the Eastside of the Village stretching all the way to the Food Pantry and Bus Garage behind the Hilltop Restaurant. Solomon's Temple to God was to have been like the Sphynx in Egypt and the Great Wall in China, one of the great wonders of the world. But as they came to make speeches, and to recognize their own accomplishment, the whole Temple was filled with God's Glory, a thick dark cloud that drove out everyone including the priests.
There is with God this tension, of “imminence” that God is always right here, available and caring, and God is “transcendent” unable to be put in a box like an idol, unable to be quantified. The very description of God dwells in deep darkness is a way of describing that God is unknowable, beyond our abilities of language, the limitation of words. God is holy, mysterious, all powerful, caring.
For a Temple is a place for God's Holiness, and not a testimony to human accomplishment. Instead the testimony to human life, the witness to our existence are Prayers of Supplication by the faithful. Prayers of Supplication are not Speeches of our accomplishments. Not Prayers of Petition, demanding our needs and desires. Prayers of Supplication are prayers said by others, when the Community of faith lifts us up before Almighty God as Witnessed and Remembered, as we did this morning for June, for Bard and Ruth, for Nankiir and Deng traveling to begin life anew with Andrew in the United States.
In 2005, when I first went to Sudan, it was a very tough place. There was no electricity, no clean water, for waste you dug a hole in the ground. In the time of that first visit, we re-united families that had been lost by 25 years of Civil War, we worshipped God together, we listened and provided pastoral care even to the pastors, we chose a location for the promise of the clinic, we offered gifts to change the way the people cultivated the earth, we gave gifts to redeem sons and daughters locked away in prisons. The morning we were to leave, our military guard asked if we had left anything. I said Yes, that I had left some cookies and juice for those who had provided care, those who had swept out the hut where I had stayed. He became quite infuriated, and went into the hut and brought out the cookies and juice and dropped them in my lap, saying in War you leave nothing behind, no evidence you were ever here, except we will know and remember. That is supplication. When the first American Medical Mission Group visited the Doctor in charge observed everything in awe, describing “Kings and Emperors built Palaces and Temples adorned with fountains, but a community of faith in a village in America, nearly all of whom will never set foot here or see this place, have built for posterity a place of healing and care.” That ability to do for others, is an act of grace, is also a prayer of supplication.
The Letter to the Ephesians does an amazing thing. For Paul describes himself as being a Prisoner for the Lord, he is literally stripped and chained and imprisoned in a hole in the ground for his faith in God. Outside, the cell, which was more like a sink hole, a cleft in between rocks, stood a Roman soldier. The Soldier wore the Uniform of the Empire, a Helmet, a belt, a sword, a shield, shoes, all distinctive to representing the Empire. And Paul describes that in the balance between chaos and order, good and evil, darkness and light, we have to continually question who we are and what we represent.
By being a member of the Roman Legion, this man gave up all identity, all ability to think and reason and act on his own. Everything about his life was a representation of the Roman Empire, it's principalities and powers.
By being a Prisoner of the Roman Empire for his Faith in God, Paul understood that actually he was like an Ambassador for God to the World. As an ambassador for God, he would be clothed in righteousness and peace, armed with justice, his feet would not be bare but would be shoed with the ability to go anywhere so as to preach.
It all makes us wonder, what is the true reality.
By turning on an electric light have we actually brought illumination, or have we simply shifted the shadows?
As we act as husband and wife to one another, do we put on love? Do we put on compassion, understanding.
As we care for our parents and our children, we float over and over between who is the parent and who the child, who is teaching whom, providing for whom?
Is what we do in all of life, done as Prisoners, or as Ambassadors?
Have we acquiesced to the powers and principalities, to the culture and cosmologists, or do we dwell with God in holiness, in faith, in compassion, attempting to provide light in the world?
Monday, August 17, 2009
What Do You Desire? August 16, 2009
I Samuel 2:10-12, 3: 1-14
John 6:446-66
What is your greatest wish and desire? A long and happy life?
That your child will be born healthy, that they will graduate from HS and College with a full life?
That you will have a loving home, 2.3 kids, a dog and cat, a fuel-efficient car? A career?
Peace on Earth? Understanding? Acceptance?
You have one wish for all of life, one dedication for your life. What would that be? What would satisfy.
Recently, I discovered a classic old movie from 1954 with William Holden: “Executive Suite”. The climax of which is a fight in the Board Room, over which you would rather take pride in: Creating for the Stock Holders a greater Dividend, or making a product that you and those who work beside you are honored to have been part of? On your tombstone, do you want written, “A 17% RETURN ON INVESTMENT” or “TOOK PRIDE IN WHAT WE CREATED TOGETHER”.
There are complex issues before the world today... The Economy, AIDs, Terrorism, War, Prejudice...
If you were President, or General Secretary of UN, if you were Brad Pitt or Bill Gates, what would be your greatest desire? Wealth, Power, Information, the ability to rebuild New Orleans, or the Ability to control the Weather so hurricanes like Katrina never happen again, or taking your own children to the Grand Canyon?
We know from Literature about The Wisdom Of Solomon, his Judgement between two Mothers to divide the Baby and his giving everything to the Mother who protected the child by giving him up.
But to describe THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON we need to hear and understand the nuance as well.
For the WISDOM OF SOLOMON is both what was described as “Hokma” and “Hesed”, what is Conditional and Unconditional.
Hokma is the word for wisdom, not only the specific knowledge of how to be King, but also understanding from Sailing, Fishing, Trapping, Knitting and Games. Hokma is what is taught in MBA Classes as “Games Theory”. Anticipating when one needs to approach an adversary as in a game of Chess sacrificing Pawns, protecting the Queen, so as to ultimately save and protect the King; and when by contrast one needs to think in terms of the team sport of Lacrosse or Wrestling, that an individual win or loss is not as important as that of the Team; and when one needs to follow a pattern of Knit 14 Purl 4 Knit 14, slip one, purl over, knit 2 together; and when one needs a Whisker-pole to be able to go Wing and Wing instead of using the more colorful spinnaker, because sometimes more is not better.
Solomon had learned well from David, how to be King, how to consolidate power and how to rule. In the intervening verses this morning, as soon as David died, young King Solomon sets out to eliminate each of David's and Saul's own Generals, as well as his own brother, and to marry the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, amassing the power and wealth of nations, with no one who could challenge him.
Solomon has become King, has a foreign Princess for a Bride, he has built for himself a great palace at Jerusalem before ever considering to begin to build the Temple for God, and Solomon worships at an Altar on the top of Mt. Gibeon rather than at the Holy City of Jerusalem. Each of these are symbols of Solomon's personal desires, his wishes for himself and his authority as Ruler, and according to the Book of Deuteronomy, according to the Law of Moses, All of these are SINS.
If this were simply the story of the Youngest Son of David, the would-be future King going up a mountain, where he was asked what he wished for, and rather than Health, Riches or the Death of Enemies, he wished for KNOWLEDGE, this would seem a banal fairy-tale of no greater import than the story of Aladin and the Lamp. But instead, this is a story of the love of God, because while Solomon had been doing all these things that were wrong, that each violated the Laws of Moses, still though having sinned, when asked what he most desired, Solomon named that David had had a COVENANT of EVERLASTING TRUST, THANKSGIVING TO GOD, what in Hebrew is called Hesed, an unconditional faith that all things come from God and all things are a blessing for God. This, HESED, rather than the ability to outwit or assassinate one's enemies, rather than the concept of marrying the daughters of one's rivals so as to amass power and allegiances, HESED is what made SOLOMON WISE. Solomon trusted God, and even as one who had murdered and stolen, married for power instead of love, still because he loved God and God loved Solomon.
Solomon had both the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE of Hesed being Thankful to God and the CONDITIONAL POWER of Hokma, Wisdom gleaned from all the pursuits of life, this was the true wisdom of Solomon.
There is a constant tension for us in reading and interpreting the Bible, because we know how the story turns out. We know Jesus is the Messiah; the Son of God, who died on the Cross and rose again for us. So as Jesus describes that HE is BREAD from Heaven, our point of reference is different from that of the Crowd, who saw Jesus as Mary's Boy, the Carpenter's Son, the Man they knew and trusted. AND the truth is He is both. But the moment we lose sight of his humanity, when Jesus becomes for us the Savior who died once for all, Son of God, begotten Not Made, One in Substance with the Father, our faith becomes only religion. We need that tension that comes from the wisdom of being assured of God's UNCONDITIONAL LOVE to die once for all, AND the CONDITIONAL HUMAN LIFE that was a person just like us.
The simplicity of Communion in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, are that Jesus creates the Sacrament as the Last Supper, and BREAD represents his suffering and brokenness Suffering fro all humanity on the Cross, the Cup represents “hesed” that everlasting covenant of trust and love. But John's Gospel allows us the tension that Jesus in all of life is the INCARNATION of God with us. So we cannot isolate one event and claim that this is when he died for us, because every parable is an identification of God's Love for us, and the Crucifixion and Resurrection themselves become a Parable for us.
A few years ago, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was here in Skaneateles. She told this powerful metaphor of having visited the Vatican, and in the Catacombs beneath, where the bones of the people who had suffered Persecution lay, there were drawings from the early Church. Rather than a picture of the Roman Galleon, the Slave ships that dominated the sea with slaves rowing, there were instead pictures of sailing, Boats with the power of the wind filling the sails. However, after her presentation, someone asked “Is the problem with the church today, that we are caught in irons, buffeted by winds from the right and from the left, and rather than trying to to sail across the wind we choose neither and we have been headed directly into the wind, blown backwards?” And the Church leader confessed that they had never been on a sailboat and really did not understand what was being described. Over dinner, the Moderator tried to recoup by suggesting that if we could all “Claim to be saved in the name of Jesus, we could be one”. But the problem is that Jesus was and is a human man. We need to identify with a very human one like us, with all our foibles and competing responsibilities, who points us to faith in God, whose spirit continues to trouble and challenge us today; who is also the Incarnate Messiah, the Son of God, the love of God for us, who dies on the cross and even death cannot kill.
Yesterday, was the 28th Wedding Anniversary for my wife and I, as well as the Wedding Day for Bill Rutan and His Bride. In celebration, we cancelled all the other possible things we could have done, and spent the afternoon and evening together, remembering the weekend of our wedding, and all that has come after. In truth, Marriage is not about that wedding day. Oh we had 500 guests, Trumpet Voluntaire and Paccabel, both of our families and our friends, A four tier cake with three layers in each, Sonya Roses and Helium Balloons; but that was only the day, and there have also been years together.
When asked what you most desire, it is to love God with an understanding heart, but also to be able to act inspired by that love, with wisdom to care for others.
John 6:446-66
What is your greatest wish and desire? A long and happy life?
That your child will be born healthy, that they will graduate from HS and College with a full life?
That you will have a loving home, 2.3 kids, a dog and cat, a fuel-efficient car? A career?
Peace on Earth? Understanding? Acceptance?
You have one wish for all of life, one dedication for your life. What would that be? What would satisfy.
Recently, I discovered a classic old movie from 1954 with William Holden: “Executive Suite”. The climax of which is a fight in the Board Room, over which you would rather take pride in: Creating for the Stock Holders a greater Dividend, or making a product that you and those who work beside you are honored to have been part of? On your tombstone, do you want written, “A 17% RETURN ON INVESTMENT” or “TOOK PRIDE IN WHAT WE CREATED TOGETHER”.
There are complex issues before the world today... The Economy, AIDs, Terrorism, War, Prejudice...
If you were President, or General Secretary of UN, if you were Brad Pitt or Bill Gates, what would be your greatest desire? Wealth, Power, Information, the ability to rebuild New Orleans, or the Ability to control the Weather so hurricanes like Katrina never happen again, or taking your own children to the Grand Canyon?
We know from Literature about The Wisdom Of Solomon, his Judgement between two Mothers to divide the Baby and his giving everything to the Mother who protected the child by giving him up.
But to describe THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON we need to hear and understand the nuance as well.
For the WISDOM OF SOLOMON is both what was described as “Hokma” and “Hesed”, what is Conditional and Unconditional.
Hokma is the word for wisdom, not only the specific knowledge of how to be King, but also understanding from Sailing, Fishing, Trapping, Knitting and Games. Hokma is what is taught in MBA Classes as “Games Theory”. Anticipating when one needs to approach an adversary as in a game of Chess sacrificing Pawns, protecting the Queen, so as to ultimately save and protect the King; and when by contrast one needs to think in terms of the team sport of Lacrosse or Wrestling, that an individual win or loss is not as important as that of the Team; and when one needs to follow a pattern of Knit 14 Purl 4 Knit 14, slip one, purl over, knit 2 together; and when one needs a Whisker-pole to be able to go Wing and Wing instead of using the more colorful spinnaker, because sometimes more is not better.
Solomon had learned well from David, how to be King, how to consolidate power and how to rule. In the intervening verses this morning, as soon as David died, young King Solomon sets out to eliminate each of David's and Saul's own Generals, as well as his own brother, and to marry the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, amassing the power and wealth of nations, with no one who could challenge him.
Solomon has become King, has a foreign Princess for a Bride, he has built for himself a great palace at Jerusalem before ever considering to begin to build the Temple for God, and Solomon worships at an Altar on the top of Mt. Gibeon rather than at the Holy City of Jerusalem. Each of these are symbols of Solomon's personal desires, his wishes for himself and his authority as Ruler, and according to the Book of Deuteronomy, according to the Law of Moses, All of these are SINS.
If this were simply the story of the Youngest Son of David, the would-be future King going up a mountain, where he was asked what he wished for, and rather than Health, Riches or the Death of Enemies, he wished for KNOWLEDGE, this would seem a banal fairy-tale of no greater import than the story of Aladin and the Lamp. But instead, this is a story of the love of God, because while Solomon had been doing all these things that were wrong, that each violated the Laws of Moses, still though having sinned, when asked what he most desired, Solomon named that David had had a COVENANT of EVERLASTING TRUST, THANKSGIVING TO GOD, what in Hebrew is called Hesed, an unconditional faith that all things come from God and all things are a blessing for God. This, HESED, rather than the ability to outwit or assassinate one's enemies, rather than the concept of marrying the daughters of one's rivals so as to amass power and allegiances, HESED is what made SOLOMON WISE. Solomon trusted God, and even as one who had murdered and stolen, married for power instead of love, still because he loved God and God loved Solomon.
Solomon had both the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE of Hesed being Thankful to God and the CONDITIONAL POWER of Hokma, Wisdom gleaned from all the pursuits of life, this was the true wisdom of Solomon.
There is a constant tension for us in reading and interpreting the Bible, because we know how the story turns out. We know Jesus is the Messiah; the Son of God, who died on the Cross and rose again for us. So as Jesus describes that HE is BREAD from Heaven, our point of reference is different from that of the Crowd, who saw Jesus as Mary's Boy, the Carpenter's Son, the Man they knew and trusted. AND the truth is He is both. But the moment we lose sight of his humanity, when Jesus becomes for us the Savior who died once for all, Son of God, begotten Not Made, One in Substance with the Father, our faith becomes only religion. We need that tension that comes from the wisdom of being assured of God's UNCONDITIONAL LOVE to die once for all, AND the CONDITIONAL HUMAN LIFE that was a person just like us.
The simplicity of Communion in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, are that Jesus creates the Sacrament as the Last Supper, and BREAD represents his suffering and brokenness Suffering fro all humanity on the Cross, the Cup represents “hesed” that everlasting covenant of trust and love. But John's Gospel allows us the tension that Jesus in all of life is the INCARNATION of God with us. So we cannot isolate one event and claim that this is when he died for us, because every parable is an identification of God's Love for us, and the Crucifixion and Resurrection themselves become a Parable for us.
A few years ago, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was here in Skaneateles. She told this powerful metaphor of having visited the Vatican, and in the Catacombs beneath, where the bones of the people who had suffered Persecution lay, there were drawings from the early Church. Rather than a picture of the Roman Galleon, the Slave ships that dominated the sea with slaves rowing, there were instead pictures of sailing, Boats with the power of the wind filling the sails. However, after her presentation, someone asked “Is the problem with the church today, that we are caught in irons, buffeted by winds from the right and from the left, and rather than trying to to sail across the wind we choose neither and we have been headed directly into the wind, blown backwards?” And the Church leader confessed that they had never been on a sailboat and really did not understand what was being described. Over dinner, the Moderator tried to recoup by suggesting that if we could all “Claim to be saved in the name of Jesus, we could be one”. But the problem is that Jesus was and is a human man. We need to identify with a very human one like us, with all our foibles and competing responsibilities, who points us to faith in God, whose spirit continues to trouble and challenge us today; who is also the Incarnate Messiah, the Son of God, the love of God for us, who dies on the cross and even death cannot kill.
Yesterday, was the 28th Wedding Anniversary for my wife and I, as well as the Wedding Day for Bill Rutan and His Bride. In celebration, we cancelled all the other possible things we could have done, and spent the afternoon and evening together, remembering the weekend of our wedding, and all that has come after. In truth, Marriage is not about that wedding day. Oh we had 500 guests, Trumpet Voluntaire and Paccabel, both of our families and our friends, A four tier cake with three layers in each, Sonya Roses and Helium Balloons; but that was only the day, and there have also been years together.
When asked what you most desire, it is to love God with an understanding heart, but also to be able to act inspired by that love, with wisdom to care for others.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Children of God, August 09, 2009
2 Samuel 8:1-9, 15, 31-33
Ephesians 4:25- 5:2
We want to be the Adopted-Claimed-Loved Children of God, yet we are also Children of Adam & Eve. The dilemma for us, different from earlier times, is that in a post-Modern world, all options become possible and held in tension. The Enlightenment = Modern era was focused on finding the one right true answer to every dilemma, but in the 1960s, 70s and 80s we began to realize that different cultures perceive what is right differently, and often have conflicting priorities. The Post-Modern era recognizes that there are differences, and for some of us old answers still work, and there can be other alternatives, but the challenge is to hold these in tension, acting in faith. It is not simply that we choose to create a different God, or give our God new priorities. God is God, we do not create God. But in different times, we do understand God's priorities differently... How in one time God can command to make swords into plowshares and in another to beat our plowshares into swords. Today, different from a Priest, I can be Ordained and Married, I can be involved in the life of the Church and in the Community, and be the Father of Children, but there are different responsibilities and new questions of faith.
Among my favorite Versions of the Bible, are those of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, for in those times, the believer made up a book of the passages they most loved. Just as in our lives, there are stories in the Bible we like to read, and passages we wish we could delete.
The Great Feast where all are welcome. The Feeding of the 5000. The Prodigal Son who returns home. Yet for these Banquets to have their meaning, they must be set against harsh reality that we do not like. When invited people made excuses. The masses came to be fed the word of God, but they had little or no food to eat. The Return of the Prodigal Son, is response to the reality of David's Son, Absalom.
The problem of faith is rarely the choice between good and evil, so much as between two, two rights, two sets of responsibilities, professional and personal, for David being King and David being a Father. How amazing that we have the stories of the implosion of David's family!
The Court Chronicler could have recorded only the stories of David being anointed, David and Goliath, David and the Jebusites; but they also recorded, that the most beloved King of Israel, the Shepherd who wrote the Psalms and united the Nation, committed adultery with the Wife of Uriah, committed murder, which as King he had power to do, but as a Man, as Child of God, he had sinned; then his son Absalom emulating the father also lusted after power, also lusted for what was not his, instead of seducing the wife of another seduced and raped his baby sister, killed his brothers and created a civil war that divided the Family, divided the Nation, divided the King against himself, such that David the Father waits forever at the Gate of the Kingdom for his Prodigal son to come home.
We hear snippets of this tale and immediately our heart goes out, for what could be more tragic, more painful for a parent than the death of a child. We dare not talk of such things, but as much as there are those who go off to college with the parting epitaph “Whatever you do, don't touch my room!” there are those who have lost a child, who for 40 and 50 years after, keep their room just as it was for them. There are those who were pregnant, never permitted to give birth, who grieve the life that never was.
I recall as the father of a 6 month old with an ear infection, feeling so helpless, as you sat up rocking, singing to them in a chair throughout the night, wishing, praying you could take the pain for them, you could suffer for them. Yet, with all the power at our disposal, we can have compassion, we can have empathy, but the power to truly suffer for others is not ours, not even David as King of all Israel could do that. The only one who was able to suffer for others, is God in Jesus Christ.
But there is more to this sad tale, than the death of a child. Recall the story of David and Bethsheba, when the Prophet Nathan told the parable of the Rich man who stole the lamb from the man with only one, King David had judged that the Rich man should die. But speaking for God, Nathan had said “No, but your own family will suffer.” David is a man suspended between two identities:
between being a Person of Faith and Man with Desires. Between being King and being a Father, Between being at War for your survival and the survival of the Nation, and the suffering of your Son.
SO, as great a Warrior and Strategist as King David had been, he also instructs his Generals, when you find Absalom “Deal Gently with the Young Man.” There is affection here but no statement of MY Son.
The part everyone always forgets in the Bible, in life, is that this is not simply a war between two, between father and son, between opposing armies. Remember at Adam and Eve being Judged, Noah and the Animals sent out, Moses at the Red Sea & receiving the 10 Commandments, ALL CREATION serves as Witnesses. So in this battle, what catches Absalom is not David or his Army, but the TREES of the Forest. As his father David is figuratively, so the Son is literally SUSPENDED BETWEEN Two Heaven and Earth, between Life and Death, between Victory and Defeat.
Though the King had publicly instructed them to “Deal Gently with the Young Man”, Joab David's General does what must be done to end the fighting. High and lifted up, the Son of the Anointed hangs until Joab and the Mob put him to death for the Nation, and for David.
Then comes, the dilemma of What Message to Send, how do we tell David.
Ahimaz the Son of a Member of David's Cabinet volunteers, but Joab knows sending the family of a Cabinet Minister will send A Message of Good News for the King, so he sends an unamed Cushite instead. What is to be a neutral voice, reporting.
Yet Ahimaz presses that he too wants to run. Ahimaz outruns the first and arriving tells Father David that he and the Nation are safe, because Absalom is suspended. But this news while important to a King, would not satisfy a parent. The second runner is spotted, who comes bearing news for the King, He and the Nation are Safe because Absalom is suspended... and when pressed tells that Absalom is dead. The events of this week in North Korea's release of two women journalists are fortunate indeed. But the spouse of the Secretary of State, former President of the Nation, volunteering to carry a message by his going to obtain release of those who were being held, is bizarre in similarity.
While the Coup and Civil war for the King is ended, David the Man is overwhelmed with Grief. The story of the Prodigal Son only makes sense, knowing that most often Prodigals never return, lost forever, we know not where they are or if they care.
We are in a strange and wonderful time. Earlier generations, other nations, have never known the choices before us. CHOICE is a matter of privilege, but choice is also a matter of responsibility & faith.
In EPHESIANS, Who among us if asked, would you rather be:
False, a Thief, a Fornicator, Covetous, filthy, silly, unfit OR
in the IMITATION of GOD, a BELOVED CHILD of GOD, Walking in Love as Christ himself did;
Of course we Choose to BE CHILDREN OF GOD.
The challenge for us today is all options have seemingly become equal. Now with all the choices, will we still choose to be a Child of God?
What are we saying by the ways in which we live?
In the last month U Tube has had a video of a Wedding in which the Bridal Party dance up the aisle. This is fresh and fun, even more because the Bride was a Dancer and Choreographer, and her Aunt was the minister. But doing so, the Bridal party emphasize this not about “Reverence” and “Contemplation” but is a Celebration.
If the Engagement is that extended period of reflection and contemplation, and the couple are now truly ready to celebrate, this seems a demonstration of their faith. IF like so much of the wedding, this is one more celebration without thought for why, we have lost our intent.
The challenge for us as Children of God, is less a matter of Sin versus Right, and more a mater of questioning the motivations and intent to be certain we are not headed into heresy, but are instead witnessing the further development of faith in God.
Ephesians 4:25- 5:2
We want to be the Adopted-Claimed-Loved Children of God, yet we are also Children of Adam & Eve. The dilemma for us, different from earlier times, is that in a post-Modern world, all options become possible and held in tension. The Enlightenment = Modern era was focused on finding the one right true answer to every dilemma, but in the 1960s, 70s and 80s we began to realize that different cultures perceive what is right differently, and often have conflicting priorities. The Post-Modern era recognizes that there are differences, and for some of us old answers still work, and there can be other alternatives, but the challenge is to hold these in tension, acting in faith. It is not simply that we choose to create a different God, or give our God new priorities. God is God, we do not create God. But in different times, we do understand God's priorities differently... How in one time God can command to make swords into plowshares and in another to beat our plowshares into swords. Today, different from a Priest, I can be Ordained and Married, I can be involved in the life of the Church and in the Community, and be the Father of Children, but there are different responsibilities and new questions of faith.
Among my favorite Versions of the Bible, are those of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, for in those times, the believer made up a book of the passages they most loved. Just as in our lives, there are stories in the Bible we like to read, and passages we wish we could delete.
The Great Feast where all are welcome. The Feeding of the 5000. The Prodigal Son who returns home. Yet for these Banquets to have their meaning, they must be set against harsh reality that we do not like. When invited people made excuses. The masses came to be fed the word of God, but they had little or no food to eat. The Return of the Prodigal Son, is response to the reality of David's Son, Absalom.
The problem of faith is rarely the choice between good and evil, so much as between two, two rights, two sets of responsibilities, professional and personal, for David being King and David being a Father. How amazing that we have the stories of the implosion of David's family!
The Court Chronicler could have recorded only the stories of David being anointed, David and Goliath, David and the Jebusites; but they also recorded, that the most beloved King of Israel, the Shepherd who wrote the Psalms and united the Nation, committed adultery with the Wife of Uriah, committed murder, which as King he had power to do, but as a Man, as Child of God, he had sinned; then his son Absalom emulating the father also lusted after power, also lusted for what was not his, instead of seducing the wife of another seduced and raped his baby sister, killed his brothers and created a civil war that divided the Family, divided the Nation, divided the King against himself, such that David the Father waits forever at the Gate of the Kingdom for his Prodigal son to come home.
We hear snippets of this tale and immediately our heart goes out, for what could be more tragic, more painful for a parent than the death of a child. We dare not talk of such things, but as much as there are those who go off to college with the parting epitaph “Whatever you do, don't touch my room!” there are those who have lost a child, who for 40 and 50 years after, keep their room just as it was for them. There are those who were pregnant, never permitted to give birth, who grieve the life that never was.
I recall as the father of a 6 month old with an ear infection, feeling so helpless, as you sat up rocking, singing to them in a chair throughout the night, wishing, praying you could take the pain for them, you could suffer for them. Yet, with all the power at our disposal, we can have compassion, we can have empathy, but the power to truly suffer for others is not ours, not even David as King of all Israel could do that. The only one who was able to suffer for others, is God in Jesus Christ.
But there is more to this sad tale, than the death of a child. Recall the story of David and Bethsheba, when the Prophet Nathan told the parable of the Rich man who stole the lamb from the man with only one, King David had judged that the Rich man should die. But speaking for God, Nathan had said “No, but your own family will suffer.” David is a man suspended between two identities:
between being a Person of Faith and Man with Desires. Between being King and being a Father, Between being at War for your survival and the survival of the Nation, and the suffering of your Son.
SO, as great a Warrior and Strategist as King David had been, he also instructs his Generals, when you find Absalom “Deal Gently with the Young Man.” There is affection here but no statement of MY Son.
The part everyone always forgets in the Bible, in life, is that this is not simply a war between two, between father and son, between opposing armies. Remember at Adam and Eve being Judged, Noah and the Animals sent out, Moses at the Red Sea & receiving the 10 Commandments, ALL CREATION serves as Witnesses. So in this battle, what catches Absalom is not David or his Army, but the TREES of the Forest. As his father David is figuratively, so the Son is literally SUSPENDED BETWEEN Two Heaven and Earth, between Life and Death, between Victory and Defeat.
Though the King had publicly instructed them to “Deal Gently with the Young Man”, Joab David's General does what must be done to end the fighting. High and lifted up, the Son of the Anointed hangs until Joab and the Mob put him to death for the Nation, and for David.
Then comes, the dilemma of What Message to Send, how do we tell David.
Ahimaz the Son of a Member of David's Cabinet volunteers, but Joab knows sending the family of a Cabinet Minister will send A Message of Good News for the King, so he sends an unamed Cushite instead. What is to be a neutral voice, reporting.
Yet Ahimaz presses that he too wants to run. Ahimaz outruns the first and arriving tells Father David that he and the Nation are safe, because Absalom is suspended. But this news while important to a King, would not satisfy a parent. The second runner is spotted, who comes bearing news for the King, He and the Nation are Safe because Absalom is suspended... and when pressed tells that Absalom is dead. The events of this week in North Korea's release of two women journalists are fortunate indeed. But the spouse of the Secretary of State, former President of the Nation, volunteering to carry a message by his going to obtain release of those who were being held, is bizarre in similarity.
While the Coup and Civil war for the King is ended, David the Man is overwhelmed with Grief. The story of the Prodigal Son only makes sense, knowing that most often Prodigals never return, lost forever, we know not where they are or if they care.
We are in a strange and wonderful time. Earlier generations, other nations, have never known the choices before us. CHOICE is a matter of privilege, but choice is also a matter of responsibility & faith.
In EPHESIANS, Who among us if asked, would you rather be:
False, a Thief, a Fornicator, Covetous, filthy, silly, unfit OR
in the IMITATION of GOD, a BELOVED CHILD of GOD, Walking in Love as Christ himself did;
Of course we Choose to BE CHILDREN OF GOD.
The challenge for us today is all options have seemingly become equal. Now with all the choices, will we still choose to be a Child of God?
What are we saying by the ways in which we live?
In the last month U Tube has had a video of a Wedding in which the Bridal Party dance up the aisle. This is fresh and fun, even more because the Bride was a Dancer and Choreographer, and her Aunt was the minister. But doing so, the Bridal party emphasize this not about “Reverence” and “Contemplation” but is a Celebration.
If the Engagement is that extended period of reflection and contemplation, and the couple are now truly ready to celebrate, this seems a demonstration of their faith. IF like so much of the wedding, this is one more celebration without thought for why, we have lost our intent.
The challenge for us as Children of God, is less a matter of Sin versus Right, and more a mater of questioning the motivations and intent to be certain we are not headed into heresy, but are instead witnessing the further development of faith in God.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Bread From Heaven, August 2, 2009
2 Samuel 11:26-12: 13
John 6:24-40
This morning our focus is on that which was Useless becoming Useful, Replenishing that which was Dried Out, LIFE being stronger than Death, Forgiveness overcoming Guilt, this life being but a clouded reflection of the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament passage before us speaks of a Child's death, of Guilt & Power, BUT ALSO of Repentance, Forgiveness and Life after Death.
King David was the embodiment of Power and Success, everything in his life, blessed.
The people wanted a strong warrior king, David was the 7th son of an obscure family.
Israel had been intimidated by the Philistines, David representing Israel went into battle against the Giant Goliath, without sword or shield or defense and was victorious.
David went into battle against Israel itself; against King Saul & Jonathan and David won. David led forces against the impregnable city of theJebusites making it the City of David.
David was promised by God that his descendants would sit on the throne forever.
This was a man who could have anything and everything.
And yet, even those with absolute power are human and need to be reminded to repent.
I remember one Sunday, years ago when our youngest son Nathan was about four, and hearing this passage read, listening to the Parable, the 4 year old climbed off the pew beside his mother walked up the aisle, and in a bold voice this 4 year old Nathan declared “You are the Man!” I do not recall having done anything, but I do recall thinking about it.
We hear this story, and like so many news broadcasts we hear “The Powerful are Guilty”.
But the story does not end there.
Instead of a reporter shoving a microphone in his face and asking Bernie Matoff or the CEO of Enron or One of the Big Three Auto makers, or Michael Jackson's Dermatologist to describe feelings of Guilt, David immediately repents and is forgiven. In the Centuries before the printing press, when this text was copied by hand in Hebrew, which has no punctuation, the Scribes would always leave a space in the middle of verse 13, after hearing the parable and seeing himself in it, King David declares “I have sinned against the Lord.” and before Nathan pronounced forgiveness, there was this pause, in which the reader would turn to Psalm 51 and recite the words of David which we sang in prayer this morning “I have sinned against the Lord, create in me a clean heart O God and put a right spirit within me.”
The Hebrew interpretation of “REPENT” is literally to TURN a DIFFERENT WAY” not to go Back, because the world has changed and we can never truly go back, but to choose a different way, that is not about ourselves and our abuses of power.
There is a poisonous side to this passage, that we do not like to hear, God kills this child. David had Uriah killed, and in judgement God kills the child. That is offensive. And yet, as much as this is a parable within a story of Judgement and Guilt, it is also a story of Forgiveness. According to his own decree, the King deserves to Die for having stolen the one love of the neighbor who had so little, but repenting he is forgiven.
I wonder, How different our lives, the World might be, if instead of focusing upon Guilt, upon Judgement and who did what wrong to whom, how big a settlement to pay for the guilt; if instead when we did wrong, we would repent and know forgiveness? If rather than identifying one another as accuser, or as enemy, even competitor, we could see the other as more than a thing, as part of the body of Christ?
One Sunday morning a little after 7am, a car pulled into the parking lot, and someone walked into the church weeping. I asked her what was wrong, and she identified that she had been working the last night as an Emergency Room Nurse. A family had brought in their daughter who had had a bad cold and had difficulty breathing. She had gone to the Medicine locker to get a vial of Codeine, and instead mistakenly grabbed a vial of Cocaine. Immediately the patient had gone into convulsions, and only then did she realize what she had done. She was wracked with guilt at the possibility the child might die, or have other serious problems. From somewhere the question came, “Would it make any difference if you recognized this family were part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” The nurse responded, “Perhaps then they could forgive what I have done.” She went home to change and come to worship. About 9 o'clock, a young couple came to my office, describing that they had had the worst night of their lives. They had taken their child to the emergency room, and a nurse had given her the wrong medication. Again the question was asked “Would it make any difference if you recognized her as part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” In a different setting from the hospital and courtroom, without uniforms and roles to play, the two families came into worship, and for two years of litigation, the families never recognized each other. The child appeared to have no long term effects. One Sunday morning we were celebrating Communion, and the Nurse who was an elder was holding the cup as the family came forward to receive, when suddenly they recognized one another and both began to cry.
This passage from John has been a point of argument and contention between the Churches for centuries. The question being “How Communion Takes Place?” The very definition of a Sacrament is that a Sacrament is a Mystery, beyond human explanation , that we receive as a SIGN and SEAL of God's love. Within the Catholic Church the elements are consecrated as Holy, so that which is eaten is not bread but mystically transubstantiated as being the literal Body of Christ. Raising questions of whether like some cure-all, it matters not what we believe or understand, only that you receive. In Protestant Churches there has been a similar confusion, that the Sacrament is only a remembrance of what Jesus did on the night he was arrested. The point being that there is no question about the elements being the Body of Christ, no real importance that we receive, only that we forgive. This fundamental issue has kept separate the Churches for 500 years.
The Gospel of John as a whole presents Jesus as being the incarnation, Immanuel = God With Us; as being God transubstantiated into human flesh and blood. The people come searching for Jesus to feed them, they demand of Jesus a sign, that they might worship him, like Moses had given to prove God is with them, by Moses providing Bread from Heaven, Manna in the Wilderness. Instead, according to John, Jesus explained that the Manna in the wilderness did not come from Moses, the Bread of Heaven came from God and He, Jesus came from God, as the incarnation for all to receive, repenting to find a different way, and recognizing one another, recognizing our guilt knowing forgiveness, we serve one another. We are the Body of Christ, God present with us.
John 6:24-40
This morning our focus is on that which was Useless becoming Useful, Replenishing that which was Dried Out, LIFE being stronger than Death, Forgiveness overcoming Guilt, this life being but a clouded reflection of the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament passage before us speaks of a Child's death, of Guilt & Power, BUT ALSO of Repentance, Forgiveness and Life after Death.
King David was the embodiment of Power and Success, everything in his life, blessed.
The people wanted a strong warrior king, David was the 7th son of an obscure family.
Israel had been intimidated by the Philistines, David representing Israel went into battle against the Giant Goliath, without sword or shield or defense and was victorious.
David went into battle against Israel itself; against King Saul & Jonathan and David won. David led forces against the impregnable city of theJebusites making it the City of David.
David was promised by God that his descendants would sit on the throne forever.
This was a man who could have anything and everything.
And yet, even those with absolute power are human and need to be reminded to repent.
I remember one Sunday, years ago when our youngest son Nathan was about four, and hearing this passage read, listening to the Parable, the 4 year old climbed off the pew beside his mother walked up the aisle, and in a bold voice this 4 year old Nathan declared “You are the Man!” I do not recall having done anything, but I do recall thinking about it.
We hear this story, and like so many news broadcasts we hear “The Powerful are Guilty”.
But the story does not end there.
Instead of a reporter shoving a microphone in his face and asking Bernie Matoff or the CEO of Enron or One of the Big Three Auto makers, or Michael Jackson's Dermatologist to describe feelings of Guilt, David immediately repents and is forgiven. In the Centuries before the printing press, when this text was copied by hand in Hebrew, which has no punctuation, the Scribes would always leave a space in the middle of verse 13, after hearing the parable and seeing himself in it, King David declares “I have sinned against the Lord.” and before Nathan pronounced forgiveness, there was this pause, in which the reader would turn to Psalm 51 and recite the words of David which we sang in prayer this morning “I have sinned against the Lord, create in me a clean heart O God and put a right spirit within me.”
The Hebrew interpretation of “REPENT” is literally to TURN a DIFFERENT WAY” not to go Back, because the world has changed and we can never truly go back, but to choose a different way, that is not about ourselves and our abuses of power.
There is a poisonous side to this passage, that we do not like to hear, God kills this child. David had Uriah killed, and in judgement God kills the child. That is offensive. And yet, as much as this is a parable within a story of Judgement and Guilt, it is also a story of Forgiveness. According to his own decree, the King deserves to Die for having stolen the one love of the neighbor who had so little, but repenting he is forgiven.
I wonder, How different our lives, the World might be, if instead of focusing upon Guilt, upon Judgement and who did what wrong to whom, how big a settlement to pay for the guilt; if instead when we did wrong, we would repent and know forgiveness? If rather than identifying one another as accuser, or as enemy, even competitor, we could see the other as more than a thing, as part of the body of Christ?
One Sunday morning a little after 7am, a car pulled into the parking lot, and someone walked into the church weeping. I asked her what was wrong, and she identified that she had been working the last night as an Emergency Room Nurse. A family had brought in their daughter who had had a bad cold and had difficulty breathing. She had gone to the Medicine locker to get a vial of Codeine, and instead mistakenly grabbed a vial of Cocaine. Immediately the patient had gone into convulsions, and only then did she realize what she had done. She was wracked with guilt at the possibility the child might die, or have other serious problems. From somewhere the question came, “Would it make any difference if you recognized this family were part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” The nurse responded, “Perhaps then they could forgive what I have done.” She went home to change and come to worship. About 9 o'clock, a young couple came to my office, describing that they had had the worst night of their lives. They had taken their child to the emergency room, and a nurse had given her the wrong medication. Again the question was asked “Would it make any difference if you recognized her as part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” In a different setting from the hospital and courtroom, without uniforms and roles to play, the two families came into worship, and for two years of litigation, the families never recognized each other. The child appeared to have no long term effects. One Sunday morning we were celebrating Communion, and the Nurse who was an elder was holding the cup as the family came forward to receive, when suddenly they recognized one another and both began to cry.
This passage from John has been a point of argument and contention between the Churches for centuries. The question being “How Communion Takes Place?” The very definition of a Sacrament is that a Sacrament is a Mystery, beyond human explanation , that we receive as a SIGN and SEAL of God's love. Within the Catholic Church the elements are consecrated as Holy, so that which is eaten is not bread but mystically transubstantiated as being the literal Body of Christ. Raising questions of whether like some cure-all, it matters not what we believe or understand, only that you receive. In Protestant Churches there has been a similar confusion, that the Sacrament is only a remembrance of what Jesus did on the night he was arrested. The point being that there is no question about the elements being the Body of Christ, no real importance that we receive, only that we forgive. This fundamental issue has kept separate the Churches for 500 years.
The Gospel of John as a whole presents Jesus as being the incarnation, Immanuel = God With Us; as being God transubstantiated into human flesh and blood. The people come searching for Jesus to feed them, they demand of Jesus a sign, that they might worship him, like Moses had given to prove God is with them, by Moses providing Bread from Heaven, Manna in the Wilderness. Instead, according to John, Jesus explained that the Manna in the wilderness did not come from Moses, the Bread of Heaven came from God and He, Jesus came from God, as the incarnation for all to receive, repenting to find a different way, and recognizing one another, recognizing our guilt knowing forgiveness, we serve one another. We are the Body of Christ, God present with us.
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