Joel 2:23-32
Luke 18: 9-14
Last Sunday, in the midst of the Sermon, one of our number passed out. I wish I could say it had something to do with the Preaching, but it seems it was simply a symptom of their Parkinson's disease, and in the midst of a sermon on having faith/caring/never giving up but praying constantly, we prayed.
Following worship, a visitor sought me out to say, “In the sermon you mentioned Predestination! When I was a child, it seemed that was the basis of every sermon in Presbyterian Churches, and yet, I cannot remember the last time I heard a preacher use the word?” There are topics that are in vogue, and times when ideas seem to go out of fashion. There have been times when the focus of preaching was on: The Survival of Churches, on Healing Conflicts, on Power and Abuse, on Rebuilding the Foundations, on Mission and sharing our blessings with those in need. Years ago, when asked by a Seminary Intern, I recall describing that every sermon is about Forgiveness and rebuilding Trust. There is a basic truth to this, in that the Biblical Witness is about RESTORING COVENANT COMMUNION, as described by The Prophet Joel: That the soil and animals and all humanity would be restored to Creation. But the question of discussing PEDESTINATION, of SALVATION, of What does it mean to be Saved, even the response to “Jesus Loves Me This I Know,” is not WHO is saved or HOW, or WHEN, but whether you care? Whether anyone cares? As stated at the end of the parable about the UnRighteous Judge and the Unrelenting Widow: When the Son of Man comes, Will God find faith on earth?
PreDestination for those who made not have heard it last Sunday, is an Acceptance that as Human Beings we are Sinners, when given half a Chance we will choose what is in our self-interest and not in the interest of God, Creation, the needs of others. Like Adam and Eve we will always seek what is forbidden fruit. But, like rain from heaven, grace falls upon us all, and some will take in faith, will listen to the conviction of Christ and choose to live differently. The difficulty of Predestination is that everyone will not absorb grace, to many faith does not seem profitable. It is not that some are damned and some are saved, but rather that all of us are, and some will allow compassion, truth, faith, hope to work upon them. What a world it would be, if with Grace falling upon the earth like early and middle and later rains and the ground becomes saturated, all the world would be so saturated with Grace, that our Elders would Dream Dreams and our Children would conceive of Visions we never before imagined. Predestination leaves open the possibility that all Creation could be restored, could turn to have faith.
The whole middle of the Gospel of Luke strikes me as not being a collection of Jesus' Parables, not a vindication of the poor and condemnation of the rich, but the Healing of 10 Lepers and 1Turned to Jesus, the Prodigal Son coming to himself and returning home, Forgiving our brothers 7 times a day and if they repent yet again forgiving them anew, Servants doing our duty and always being asked to do more, the Unrighteous Judge, the Pharisee and Tax Collector at Prayer, the Parents bringing infants to Jesus, and the Rich Young Ruler, All are stories of people recognizing their need to have faith, our need to repent, and turn from our needs and desires, to caring, to CALLING ON THE NAME OF GOD and acting in faith.
The Pharisee is described as a SELF-MADE Man, who trusted in himself, believing he knew better than anyone else. He went up to the Temple to pray, and stood the entire time, never kneeling, never bowing down, he stood isolated from others. The Gospel goes so far as to say “He prayed with himself.” The danger of being Self-Made, of being Self-Righteous, of being proud, is that this man has made himself into his own God, leaving no room for Salvation, no room for forgiveness. He is religious, even pious, but he does not have faith.
On the weekend of the 11th of September, one of our elders recalled that on that Day, and for months afterward the Nation had been more together than he had recalled in decades, and yet increasingly we have become so polarized, so isolated by our divisions. In the current political campaign even more so, as each blame the other, in order to win by saying “God, I thank thee that I am not like others, political insiders, career politicians, those who voted for this, that and the other. I stand alone.” Just once, I wish we had a leader, who would humbly stand before the Nation, before the world, saying “I have done what I have done, giving of myself in every way I could.” Who then did not campaign, but gave all the funds for campaigning to make a difference in the world. In this age of TWITTERS and TWEETS, these actions would spread good news, without robo-calls, without mailers, without commercials.
But this is not what we imagine our rulers to do.
Our rulers may honor their Fathers and Mothers, live moral lives without stealing or murdering or lying, but when it comes to giving away all you have, being humble and vulnerable, we have not made these a virtue any aspire to. The more I have read and reflected upon this passage over the years, I have come to believe that it is a gem for reflection, not a sign or phrase that we immediately recognize.
One does not immediately divest themselves of all the things of this life. Such a decision takes reflection, even repentance to say I DO NOT NEED TO POSSESS ALL THIS, and even more HERE IS ANOTHER WHO DOES NEED MORE THAN I.
Like getting a Camel through the eye of a Needle, faith is not a matter of opening the needle bigger, or shrinking the camel smaller, but of backing up, gaining perspective. When trying to thread a needle, the point is not to push harder, or twist the thread tighter, but looking through the other side, and gaining perspective, your eye can allow a whole camel even the whole world to be seen passing through the eye of the needle.
I have come to believe that the Gospel answers its own question. While Ruler went away, FOUR verses later, there is description of a blind man who recognized Jesus and called out to him Son of David have Mercy! Filling in the time frame of those four verses, I believe the rich ruler did give away all he possessed, but doing so, he now only saw himself as poor, he knew himself to still be blind to the truth. So when Jesus came by, he begged for mercy, and Jesus said “Receive Your Sight, Your Faith Has Made You Well!”
Monday, October 25, 2010
October 17, 2010, "DO NOT LOSE HEART"
Jeremiah 31: 27-34
Luke 18:1-8
We are surrounded by so much negativism, pessimism and fear. Each candidate no longer campaigning on what they can and will do, but casting aspersions on their opponents. Commercials selling us products, which are not designed to last, but only to be faster, smaller, more colorful, with more memorable commercials than their competitor. Projections of the economy are not for a robust recovery, but a slow and jerky series of starts, heaping greater and greater debt on our children's children's future. The Yankees, who raised hopes and expectations with the American Series Opener, suffered a miserable loss in game two. Syracuse was crushed by Pittsburgh 45-14. HOWEVER: The Word of The Lord which comes to us is FEAR NOT, DO NOT LOSE HEART, BELIEVE ANEW!
Western Culture has been heavily influenced by the Greeks and Romans, we have named our cities Syracuse, Marcellus, Utica, Albany and Rome, BUT we are a Biblical People, a People of Faith. The Greeks had an understanding of Comedy and Tragedy, in which FATE is an inescapable Personal Destiny assigned before birth by the whim of those with power. In Grimm's Fairytale Sleeping Beauty, the Witch is not invited to the Marriage of the King and Queen, and she vows that when they have a child and the child comes of age, she will prick her finger and the whole kingdom shall sleep for a thousand years. The Greek Hero stood out, because while everyone else complacently accepted “What is the use of trying, our ancestors have done wrong and we pay the price for their arrogance” the Hero challenged their Gods, challenged Systems and Norms and expectations, believing they could.
The Old Testament does not have the same precept, but rather that there is an inalienable human right to Freedom of Will, assured through the open relationship of humanity to God, making repentance a genuine possibility, redemption a reality, and the future a dynamic part of God's creative purpose.
The power of this oracle from Jeremiah, is that the Creator of the Universe, the author of life, pledges to create a new covenant. The last several books of the Old Testament (Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Isaiah) have assumed everyone knew what the covenant was, the relationship between God and Israel:
cut into the heavens as a Rainbow that God would not destroy all life;
cut into the foreskin of Abram, Isaac and Jacob that this would be a chosen people who in their most intimate ways, in their food, in their marriages and conception, in the patterns of life, would live dependent upon God;
cut into stone in the time of Moses, that we would follow God's 10 commandments as Law,
cut into the genealogy of David, that there would always be a King in Israel.
But what if, in the time of exile, when the people had been beaten down and lost hope, if the Creator began to create anew? Can God still do something new today?
So much of Biblical Study, of the Church's resources let alone human resources, are devoted to figuring why certain things happened, who is at fault, who is responsible, which came first, how an idea evolved. What if instead of trying to go backwards through history and thought, if we changed our perspective to imagine everything in life, in human history, were motivation for what is to come?
The prophecy of Jeremiah seems to suggest that people had come to believe the Law was static, you do Right and God blesses you, do Wrong and we will be punished, exiled, even for three and four generations. Humanity had nullified the Covenant, making the relationship as lifeless/hopeless as stone. But Covenant is not about following the Law, not about memorizing and adhering to fundamental principles... The Covenant is about our attitude toward everything about God. Toward God and God's Laws and Creation and other Human Beings, our attitude toward life itself. I had a Professor of the Old Testament who regarding this passage would remind us, and if you thought circumcision was intimate and brutal, God putting God's Covenant into our hearts is like the M&M Candy worrying about how they will put a Pretzel inside him.
In Jesus' Parable, the Judge believes in nothing and no one. He is a man without hope, who no longer believes in justice or righteousness, human kindness. In the parable, the Judge is cast as the Antithesis of God. God believes in people, God embodies justice and righteousness and kindness and grace. So if this Judge could be worn down by the Widow's Persistence, what do you imagine will be the reaction of God, the antithesis of the Judge, to our prayers. The Unfeeling, Immovable Judge is finally moved, by her legal argument, her contract and brief, but most of all by her unwillingness to ever give up! Surely a loving compassionate God will move heaven and earth for our prayers.
The irony of the Parable, comes as a question. All Jesus' listeners, then and now, seem to believe in and recognize that there are Judges like this. There are people who do not believe in anything, who are filled with doubt and negativity about God and humanity and life itself. BUT, when the Son of Man comes, will he find any with the commitment and perseverance of the Widow, any who have faith?
Do Not LOSE HEART, believe!
I find it intriguing, that both in this parable and the Jeremiah passage, the focus is upon the heart for faith. Faith is not located in our minds, not in our foreskin, not in stone buildings or stone tablets, but in our hearts. Years ago there was a couple who were successful, popular, had everything their hearts desired, but something happened and for her to survive he needed to wait on her and care for her, living his life in response to her needs. Friends and family shook their heads of what a loveless marriage, that everything was about her needs and she could not even perceive all he was doing for her. But one night he paused to explain that in marrying he had vowed “For better and worse and sickness and health”. Caring for her, embodied that commitment, this was not a burden, but a demonstration of his devotion. We see a soldier back from war, missing a limb. We shake our heads at the costs of war, at the devastation and senseless tragedy; yet the soldier sees only their devotion. Who among us, if our child were suddenly ill, would not do everything possible, take out mortgages, sit by their bedside, seek every opportunity possible to give them life, to make them well. What will it take for us to change our hearts, to believe that life is dynamic, that God cares, what will it take for us to have faith and believe?
IRONICALLY, during this worship service a gentleman in the second row of the congregation passed out. Three doctors in the congregation cared for him and could not find a pulse. At which point, the Preacher acknowledged what was going on in the Sanctuary and called the congregation to act in faith by praying for he and his wife, for their comfort and God's will. An hour later, at the hospital, with an IV and Oxygen, he was alert and stronger than he had been in weeks. Do Not Lose Heart but Believe?
Luke 18:1-8
We are surrounded by so much negativism, pessimism and fear. Each candidate no longer campaigning on what they can and will do, but casting aspersions on their opponents. Commercials selling us products, which are not designed to last, but only to be faster, smaller, more colorful, with more memorable commercials than their competitor. Projections of the economy are not for a robust recovery, but a slow and jerky series of starts, heaping greater and greater debt on our children's children's future. The Yankees, who raised hopes and expectations with the American Series Opener, suffered a miserable loss in game two. Syracuse was crushed by Pittsburgh 45-14. HOWEVER: The Word of The Lord which comes to us is FEAR NOT, DO NOT LOSE HEART, BELIEVE ANEW!
Western Culture has been heavily influenced by the Greeks and Romans, we have named our cities Syracuse, Marcellus, Utica, Albany and Rome, BUT we are a Biblical People, a People of Faith. The Greeks had an understanding of Comedy and Tragedy, in which FATE is an inescapable Personal Destiny assigned before birth by the whim of those with power. In Grimm's Fairytale Sleeping Beauty, the Witch is not invited to the Marriage of the King and Queen, and she vows that when they have a child and the child comes of age, she will prick her finger and the whole kingdom shall sleep for a thousand years. The Greek Hero stood out, because while everyone else complacently accepted “What is the use of trying, our ancestors have done wrong and we pay the price for their arrogance” the Hero challenged their Gods, challenged Systems and Norms and expectations, believing they could.
The Old Testament does not have the same precept, but rather that there is an inalienable human right to Freedom of Will, assured through the open relationship of humanity to God, making repentance a genuine possibility, redemption a reality, and the future a dynamic part of God's creative purpose.
The power of this oracle from Jeremiah, is that the Creator of the Universe, the author of life, pledges to create a new covenant. The last several books of the Old Testament (Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Isaiah) have assumed everyone knew what the covenant was, the relationship between God and Israel:
cut into the heavens as a Rainbow that God would not destroy all life;
cut into the foreskin of Abram, Isaac and Jacob that this would be a chosen people who in their most intimate ways, in their food, in their marriages and conception, in the patterns of life, would live dependent upon God;
cut into stone in the time of Moses, that we would follow God's 10 commandments as Law,
cut into the genealogy of David, that there would always be a King in Israel.
But what if, in the time of exile, when the people had been beaten down and lost hope, if the Creator began to create anew? Can God still do something new today?
So much of Biblical Study, of the Church's resources let alone human resources, are devoted to figuring why certain things happened, who is at fault, who is responsible, which came first, how an idea evolved. What if instead of trying to go backwards through history and thought, if we changed our perspective to imagine everything in life, in human history, were motivation for what is to come?
The prophecy of Jeremiah seems to suggest that people had come to believe the Law was static, you do Right and God blesses you, do Wrong and we will be punished, exiled, even for three and four generations. Humanity had nullified the Covenant, making the relationship as lifeless/hopeless as stone. But Covenant is not about following the Law, not about memorizing and adhering to fundamental principles... The Covenant is about our attitude toward everything about God. Toward God and God's Laws and Creation and other Human Beings, our attitude toward life itself. I had a Professor of the Old Testament who regarding this passage would remind us, and if you thought circumcision was intimate and brutal, God putting God's Covenant into our hearts is like the M&M Candy worrying about how they will put a Pretzel inside him.
In Jesus' Parable, the Judge believes in nothing and no one. He is a man without hope, who no longer believes in justice or righteousness, human kindness. In the parable, the Judge is cast as the Antithesis of God. God believes in people, God embodies justice and righteousness and kindness and grace. So if this Judge could be worn down by the Widow's Persistence, what do you imagine will be the reaction of God, the antithesis of the Judge, to our prayers. The Unfeeling, Immovable Judge is finally moved, by her legal argument, her contract and brief, but most of all by her unwillingness to ever give up! Surely a loving compassionate God will move heaven and earth for our prayers.
The irony of the Parable, comes as a question. All Jesus' listeners, then and now, seem to believe in and recognize that there are Judges like this. There are people who do not believe in anything, who are filled with doubt and negativity about God and humanity and life itself. BUT, when the Son of Man comes, will he find any with the commitment and perseverance of the Widow, any who have faith?
Do Not LOSE HEART, believe!
I find it intriguing, that both in this parable and the Jeremiah passage, the focus is upon the heart for faith. Faith is not located in our minds, not in our foreskin, not in stone buildings or stone tablets, but in our hearts. Years ago there was a couple who were successful, popular, had everything their hearts desired, but something happened and for her to survive he needed to wait on her and care for her, living his life in response to her needs. Friends and family shook their heads of what a loveless marriage, that everything was about her needs and she could not even perceive all he was doing for her. But one night he paused to explain that in marrying he had vowed “For better and worse and sickness and health”. Caring for her, embodied that commitment, this was not a burden, but a demonstration of his devotion. We see a soldier back from war, missing a limb. We shake our heads at the costs of war, at the devastation and senseless tragedy; yet the soldier sees only their devotion. Who among us, if our child were suddenly ill, would not do everything possible, take out mortgages, sit by their bedside, seek every opportunity possible to give them life, to make them well. What will it take for us to change our hearts, to believe that life is dynamic, that God cares, what will it take for us to have faith and believe?
IRONICALLY, during this worship service a gentleman in the second row of the congregation passed out. Three doctors in the congregation cared for him and could not find a pulse. At which point, the Preacher acknowledged what was going on in the Sanctuary and called the congregation to act in faith by praying for he and his wife, for their comfort and God's will. An hour later, at the hospital, with an IV and Oxygen, he was alert and stronger than he had been in weeks. Do Not Lose Heart but Believe?
Sunday, October 10, 2010
SEEKING VALIDATION, October 10, 2010
Jeremiah 29: 1-10
Luke 17: 11-21
Our readings this morning are about SEEing, LOOKing and WITNESSing what else may be occurring. For our lives are so busy, our routines so established, we rarely take time to ponder, to be grateful to validate that we have been blessed, and to Seek Validation for what God may be doing.
Years ago, there were commuter trains that connected every small town and village with major cities. So it was that a minister from the City was supposed to preach here in the village, and found on the rail schedule that he could take the train from Syracuse to Buffalo, stopping at Skaneateles arriving just in time for the leading of worship. But to his shock and horror, once he was on the Sunday morning train and had bought his ticket, he learned that on weekends the train did not stop at every station. The Conductor told him not to panic, that he would inform the Engineer that after cresting Marcellus hill they needed to slow down, though they could not stop. However, the Conductor cautioned, the last person to jump from this moving train had broken both ankles from the sudden impact of going from a moving train to a stationary landing. To compensate, the Conductor had him go to the end of the train car and run as fast as he could, being certain that as he leapt from the open door, he would pirouette onto the landing running in the same direction as the train. The train began to slow only slightly as the Conductor gave the preacher the signal and he began to run through the open car toward the waiting door, at the critical moment he leapt in a beautiful pirouette midair, landing in a run to slow his speed as the train pulled away, when suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled him back on board the train. Aghast and bewildered, he asked what happened, when a voice described “I saw you running after the train and knew you were going to miss it, so I reached out and gave you a hand. You're welcome!”
WITNESSing only from our own perspective, without Validating what we See, we can miss what God may be doing all around us. Do we read the paper and Internet as World News and Local News and Stories of Interest, or do we see through the circumstances looking for what God may be doing in our midst? Can we have the humility of the Prophet Jeremiah to see the possibility of God using circumstances for our benefit that seem against us?
No one would wish intentional harm upon another, and yet only in those times in which we are truly vulnerable, broken, do our shells crack enough for the spirit of God to enter in. Can we see one another? Not the facade that there are people down the pew, or so many cars in our way for when we want to get out. To see beyond the shell and husk of another to realize that the exchange student so bold and full of life to share their culture with us and experience our culture all around them, may be extremely homesick and alone.
Faith and gratitude are inextricably interwoven. When we see ourselves as Self-Sufficient, with no need to be thankful to anyone else, we have no room for God, let alone other people. We imagine ourselves as being self-made, having worked for everything we have received. But what if, we opened our perspective like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickins' Christmas Carol, witnessing that all through life there have been others who cared for us, that in fact our lives have been utterly dependent upon the goodwill and compassion of others. We went to class each day, but our mothers had made certain we had a good breakfast and cookies when we came home. A teacher, a coach, a neighbor, an employer, showed interest in us, perhaps it was a part of their job, but the right word at the right time validated and changed us, they were there when we needed.
After years of war, following the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the whole City of Jerusalem, the leaders, the strong and the educated, were taken into captivity by their enemy as Exiles in Babylon. The Nationalism and Patriotism of Ancient Israel was not far different from what we feel here in America. Can we imagine 20 years of war on our own soil, at the end of which everything building, roads, farms our culture is in ruins and shackled together as prisoners we have been taken away from our Nation to live out our days in a foreign land. When word comes from the Prophet Jeremiah, that God has appointed our enemies to care for us, to provide for us. How different the New Testament words of “Praying for One's Enemies” and “Having Compassion on those who persecute You” sound, if our survival depended upon their survival.
The Bible has identifications of people that we too often take for granted, without really seeing to understand. There are still cases of leprosy in the world today, 14 Million cured in the last 20 years, there are some 250,000 with this disease today, although mostly in tropical climates it does occur in America with an incubation period of 5 to 20 years it is often misdiagnosed as skin lesions. Leprosy is a Bacterial Infection that has been recorded since the year 600 BC as a Chronic Social disease, requiring people being ostracized. How many other Chronic Social Diseases are there? Diseases that are not like the flu, mumps or measles, but will remain with us all of life. Social Diseases that cause us as polite society to withdraw, to look past them and not see the person as a person, but only as a Leper.
According to cultural laws, Lepers were to live outside to community in leper colonies, covering themselves with a white sheet because the abrasion of clothing might gnaw at the skin, wearing a bell round their neck and forced to identify themselves by crying out Leper, so none would come into contact with them, none would see them and none would ever have to touch them. When Jesus encountered these ten along the road between Samaria and Galilee, they cried out for him to take notice of them and to have mercy. And he saw them, and he had compassion, and he healed them, instructing them to go to show themselves to the Priest who was the community authority on whether a person was clean or filthy, whether they were able to live in community or not. The priest was charged with protecting the culture from physical and spiritual illness.
It was not required that the person with leprosy return to be grateful to Jesus, but the Samaritan, and Jesus takes note that it was only the Samaritan, the outcast, the broken one. For which Jesus, as our Priest, describes “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Mother Theresa has become such a cultural icon, many have forgot that she ministered to a Leper Colony. When visited by an envoy of Religious Leaders, they were awed by all that she and the Sisters of Charity were doing and had done. The envoy offered to give them a gift of whatever they needed, perhaps washing machines and dryers to clean bed linens, mops and buckets, vacuums, and electric floor polishers to buff the floors, refrigerators or electric generators, and the sisters said “No, we can wash the floors and wash the clothes, but you can do for us what only you can. You can share Communion with the colony, offering forgiveness.”
This time of year we see the colors of trees all around us, and we respond “How beautiful the colors in Autumn!” When actually these are the true colors of the leaves from Creation, but during the year, the leaves are so filled with life, their true colors are hidden by green. Only at this time, as the trees prepare for winter does life get pulled away to reveal the true beauty of the leaves as God intended.
Seeing one another, we provide validation of the other as being a gift of God. Seeing one another we validate one another as being worthy. Seeing one another, we take the role of the priests for the cleansed extending forgiveness and welcome into our lives.
Occasionally when things seem to be going well preachers will ad lib about something from the morning's worship. This day, I am struck that thus far this summer we have celebrated 25 couples getting married, and we have two of those couples married this summer with us in worship, one of which married just yesterday. But the question is what happened to the other 23 couples? Do we stop in our marriages, in life, to recognize how blessed we are? Or are we among the other 23?
Some things are easy to see, miracles and cures, amazing world developments. Jesus described to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not coming as an apocalypse, not with signs and wonders, but the Kingdom of God is already in our midst. Can we see it? Can we validate the reality that this world is not of our making, but this creation, Life is a gift from God.
Luke 17: 11-21
Our readings this morning are about SEEing, LOOKing and WITNESSing what else may be occurring. For our lives are so busy, our routines so established, we rarely take time to ponder, to be grateful to validate that we have been blessed, and to Seek Validation for what God may be doing.
Years ago, there were commuter trains that connected every small town and village with major cities. So it was that a minister from the City was supposed to preach here in the village, and found on the rail schedule that he could take the train from Syracuse to Buffalo, stopping at Skaneateles arriving just in time for the leading of worship. But to his shock and horror, once he was on the Sunday morning train and had bought his ticket, he learned that on weekends the train did not stop at every station. The Conductor told him not to panic, that he would inform the Engineer that after cresting Marcellus hill they needed to slow down, though they could not stop. However, the Conductor cautioned, the last person to jump from this moving train had broken both ankles from the sudden impact of going from a moving train to a stationary landing. To compensate, the Conductor had him go to the end of the train car and run as fast as he could, being certain that as he leapt from the open door, he would pirouette onto the landing running in the same direction as the train. The train began to slow only slightly as the Conductor gave the preacher the signal and he began to run through the open car toward the waiting door, at the critical moment he leapt in a beautiful pirouette midair, landing in a run to slow his speed as the train pulled away, when suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled him back on board the train. Aghast and bewildered, he asked what happened, when a voice described “I saw you running after the train and knew you were going to miss it, so I reached out and gave you a hand. You're welcome!”
WITNESSing only from our own perspective, without Validating what we See, we can miss what God may be doing all around us. Do we read the paper and Internet as World News and Local News and Stories of Interest, or do we see through the circumstances looking for what God may be doing in our midst? Can we have the humility of the Prophet Jeremiah to see the possibility of God using circumstances for our benefit that seem against us?
No one would wish intentional harm upon another, and yet only in those times in which we are truly vulnerable, broken, do our shells crack enough for the spirit of God to enter in. Can we see one another? Not the facade that there are people down the pew, or so many cars in our way for when we want to get out. To see beyond the shell and husk of another to realize that the exchange student so bold and full of life to share their culture with us and experience our culture all around them, may be extremely homesick and alone.
Faith and gratitude are inextricably interwoven. When we see ourselves as Self-Sufficient, with no need to be thankful to anyone else, we have no room for God, let alone other people. We imagine ourselves as being self-made, having worked for everything we have received. But what if, we opened our perspective like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickins' Christmas Carol, witnessing that all through life there have been others who cared for us, that in fact our lives have been utterly dependent upon the goodwill and compassion of others. We went to class each day, but our mothers had made certain we had a good breakfast and cookies when we came home. A teacher, a coach, a neighbor, an employer, showed interest in us, perhaps it was a part of their job, but the right word at the right time validated and changed us, they were there when we needed.
After years of war, following the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the whole City of Jerusalem, the leaders, the strong and the educated, were taken into captivity by their enemy as Exiles in Babylon. The Nationalism and Patriotism of Ancient Israel was not far different from what we feel here in America. Can we imagine 20 years of war on our own soil, at the end of which everything building, roads, farms our culture is in ruins and shackled together as prisoners we have been taken away from our Nation to live out our days in a foreign land. When word comes from the Prophet Jeremiah, that God has appointed our enemies to care for us, to provide for us. How different the New Testament words of “Praying for One's Enemies” and “Having Compassion on those who persecute You” sound, if our survival depended upon their survival.
The Bible has identifications of people that we too often take for granted, without really seeing to understand. There are still cases of leprosy in the world today, 14 Million cured in the last 20 years, there are some 250,000 with this disease today, although mostly in tropical climates it does occur in America with an incubation period of 5 to 20 years it is often misdiagnosed as skin lesions. Leprosy is a Bacterial Infection that has been recorded since the year 600 BC as a Chronic Social disease, requiring people being ostracized. How many other Chronic Social Diseases are there? Diseases that are not like the flu, mumps or measles, but will remain with us all of life. Social Diseases that cause us as polite society to withdraw, to look past them and not see the person as a person, but only as a Leper.
According to cultural laws, Lepers were to live outside to community in leper colonies, covering themselves with a white sheet because the abrasion of clothing might gnaw at the skin, wearing a bell round their neck and forced to identify themselves by crying out Leper, so none would come into contact with them, none would see them and none would ever have to touch them. When Jesus encountered these ten along the road between Samaria and Galilee, they cried out for him to take notice of them and to have mercy. And he saw them, and he had compassion, and he healed them, instructing them to go to show themselves to the Priest who was the community authority on whether a person was clean or filthy, whether they were able to live in community or not. The priest was charged with protecting the culture from physical and spiritual illness.
It was not required that the person with leprosy return to be grateful to Jesus, but the Samaritan, and Jesus takes note that it was only the Samaritan, the outcast, the broken one. For which Jesus, as our Priest, describes “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Mother Theresa has become such a cultural icon, many have forgot that she ministered to a Leper Colony. When visited by an envoy of Religious Leaders, they were awed by all that she and the Sisters of Charity were doing and had done. The envoy offered to give them a gift of whatever they needed, perhaps washing machines and dryers to clean bed linens, mops and buckets, vacuums, and electric floor polishers to buff the floors, refrigerators or electric generators, and the sisters said “No, we can wash the floors and wash the clothes, but you can do for us what only you can. You can share Communion with the colony, offering forgiveness.”
This time of year we see the colors of trees all around us, and we respond “How beautiful the colors in Autumn!” When actually these are the true colors of the leaves from Creation, but during the year, the leaves are so filled with life, their true colors are hidden by green. Only at this time, as the trees prepare for winter does life get pulled away to reveal the true beauty of the leaves as God intended.
Seeing one another, we provide validation of the other as being a gift of God. Seeing one another we validate one another as being worthy. Seeing one another, we take the role of the priests for the cleansed extending forgiveness and welcome into our lives.
Occasionally when things seem to be going well preachers will ad lib about something from the morning's worship. This day, I am struck that thus far this summer we have celebrated 25 couples getting married, and we have two of those couples married this summer with us in worship, one of which married just yesterday. But the question is what happened to the other 23 couples? Do we stop in our marriages, in life, to recognize how blessed we are? Or are we among the other 23?
Some things are easy to see, miracles and cures, amazing world developments. Jesus described to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not coming as an apocalypse, not with signs and wonders, but the Kingdom of God is already in our midst. Can we see it? Can we validate the reality that this world is not of our making, but this creation, Life is a gift from God.
Monday, October 4, 2010
"Increase Our Faith" October 3, 2010
Lamentations 3: 1-42
Luke 17:1-10
This morning we open our eyes to see, that the world is impacted by all we do, and we, by the world. Congregations in Asia, Africa, Alaska, Australia, Central America, Canada, Connecticut to California, Nova Scotia to New Orleans, ALL this day gather as One Church; East Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Reformed, Pentecostal, Conservative and New Age, as one Table; One Communion with our parents and grandparents, and great grandchildren yet to be, a living Communion of Saints.
We long to hear a message that resounds “Well done Good and Faithful Servants, Come into the Joy of your Master, For you have been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Well done!”
We look forward to times of retirement, after the kids graduate, once they are married, when we can live happily ever after.
Instead we are reminded that Almighty God is God, and we are servants. Life is hard. We slave all day long, in school, at Work, then cooking and cleaning, caring for others, we follow the rules and put away for the future, and when done, no one is going to serve us, there are no merits for having lived life.
However there is grace, by which we come to believe there is more to life than going through motions.
There needs to come a point in each of our lives in which we measure whether we have been an aid or a hindrance to others. When we question more than what we know, and what we believe:
“Do I, by my attitude, my faith, my character and conduct, make it easier for others who know me, to believe in God, or am I a stumbling block in the way of their redemption?”
From our earliest moments, we are conditioned to compete. As newborns, tested,
How highly did we score on our Apgar test, Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance and Respiration? How early did we learn to smile, to roll over, to stand, to speak? Did we catch the ball? Did we score the Goal? What was our GPA? What records did we set? What Accomplishments did we make? How did we, by our presence in life change the world? Have we won?
Along the way in life, we discern that what matters is not our accomplishments! Not only if we won.
Not how many cars, how large a salary, how beautiful our home (these are only what we are taxed on!) but what matters is that our lives are limited by our ability to forgive.
More than any generation before us, all things are possible to us. It is possible that we could climb Mt. Everest, visit the Space Station, Travel the World, win Nobel prizes, write books, invent new means of communication and social networking; but if in the end, we wronged someone along the way in order to do so, life is lesser. The Ends do NOT justify the Means. It is not up to us to show one another the error of their ways, forcing them to change. All that matters is that when one repents, we forgive.
On mornings like the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the destruction of the Twin Towers, weeks where we must follow through on hard decisions, laying off people we worry about, giving diagnoses we know are horrible, we desperately want to cry out in lament: “WHY GOD?” When there is a car accident and our child is taken from us, when our businesses are eroded to bankruptcy, when Cancers are discovered, when we have followed all the rules and done all that was expected, and life is not happily ever after, instead the economy has not improved, our children are unemployed, like the voice of Lamentation, we want to blame God. After all, we did not choose our birth. We did not choose this circumstance, we did not want to live in darkness.
At times it seems God is testing us, tempting and entrapping. If God is ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, If God is God, then Why? It seems that either God is a sadistic beast waiting to pounce upon us and rip us apart, or a puppet master who has orchestrated this stage of life with choices of good and bad to see what we will do.
But the point of the voice in Lamentation is that neither of these logical conclusions works.
Faith as small as a mustard seed can change the world. Believing in forgiveness, trusting God does make a difference.
One truth is that circumstances can rip us apart and devastate us; and there is Good and Bad in life. Another truth, is that God is All Powerful, and God's love is ever lasting.
Oddly, God loves us so much, God will not violate our free will, God will not take away our suffering. Humanity is free to choose all manner of things, and in this life we have many choices. At times our circumstances, do have results. At other times the circumstances of life are just awful.
But God is God, not a superhero who rescues us from ourselves, nor changes circumstance so we can ride off into the sunset. God who called life into being, who ordered the stars and planets, loves us so much as to be vulnerable to our creating out of creation. And God occasionally enters into life “to redeem,” to turn life on its head and make us wonder at what is possible.
Faith is Not a matter of how much. We do harm to one another, beating up victims by believing if they had just believed more, or as we do... NO, each one of us, every human creature is a gift of God. How hard it is for us to give up control? We have a natural predisposition of being self-centered. We make choices in life, our parents made us the center of their worlds, we imagine all things through our mind's eye. Out of love and devotion, we choose to live our lives around another's needs, first a partner, then our children's, but still as extensions of our self-centeredness. Faith is the realization that we are only neighbors in this life. As we each live life, occasionally, sometimes as many as seven times in a single day, we offend one another; when we do, in faith we are to forgive. We do our part in life, like every other creature, we teach, we feed, we care for others. What we are called to do in faith is three things
1.To love God
2.To forgive our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, and even selves, so as to begin again
3.To live our lives in ways that make it easier for others to choose what is right
Luke 17:1-10
This morning we open our eyes to see, that the world is impacted by all we do, and we, by the world. Congregations in Asia, Africa, Alaska, Australia, Central America, Canada, Connecticut to California, Nova Scotia to New Orleans, ALL this day gather as One Church; East Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Reformed, Pentecostal, Conservative and New Age, as one Table; One Communion with our parents and grandparents, and great grandchildren yet to be, a living Communion of Saints.
We long to hear a message that resounds “Well done Good and Faithful Servants, Come into the Joy of your Master, For you have been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Well done!”
We look forward to times of retirement, after the kids graduate, once they are married, when we can live happily ever after.
Instead we are reminded that Almighty God is God, and we are servants. Life is hard. We slave all day long, in school, at Work, then cooking and cleaning, caring for others, we follow the rules and put away for the future, and when done, no one is going to serve us, there are no merits for having lived life.
However there is grace, by which we come to believe there is more to life than going through motions.
There needs to come a point in each of our lives in which we measure whether we have been an aid or a hindrance to others. When we question more than what we know, and what we believe:
“Do I, by my attitude, my faith, my character and conduct, make it easier for others who know me, to believe in God, or am I a stumbling block in the way of their redemption?”
From our earliest moments, we are conditioned to compete. As newborns, tested,
How highly did we score on our Apgar test, Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance and Respiration? How early did we learn to smile, to roll over, to stand, to speak? Did we catch the ball? Did we score the Goal? What was our GPA? What records did we set? What Accomplishments did we make? How did we, by our presence in life change the world? Have we won?
Along the way in life, we discern that what matters is not our accomplishments! Not only if we won.
Not how many cars, how large a salary, how beautiful our home (these are only what we are taxed on!) but what matters is that our lives are limited by our ability to forgive.
More than any generation before us, all things are possible to us. It is possible that we could climb Mt. Everest, visit the Space Station, Travel the World, win Nobel prizes, write books, invent new means of communication and social networking; but if in the end, we wronged someone along the way in order to do so, life is lesser. The Ends do NOT justify the Means. It is not up to us to show one another the error of their ways, forcing them to change. All that matters is that when one repents, we forgive.
On mornings like the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the destruction of the Twin Towers, weeks where we must follow through on hard decisions, laying off people we worry about, giving diagnoses we know are horrible, we desperately want to cry out in lament: “WHY GOD?” When there is a car accident and our child is taken from us, when our businesses are eroded to bankruptcy, when Cancers are discovered, when we have followed all the rules and done all that was expected, and life is not happily ever after, instead the economy has not improved, our children are unemployed, like the voice of Lamentation, we want to blame God. After all, we did not choose our birth. We did not choose this circumstance, we did not want to live in darkness.
At times it seems God is testing us, tempting and entrapping. If God is ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, If God is God, then Why? It seems that either God is a sadistic beast waiting to pounce upon us and rip us apart, or a puppet master who has orchestrated this stage of life with choices of good and bad to see what we will do.
But the point of the voice in Lamentation is that neither of these logical conclusions works.
Faith as small as a mustard seed can change the world. Believing in forgiveness, trusting God does make a difference.
One truth is that circumstances can rip us apart and devastate us; and there is Good and Bad in life. Another truth, is that God is All Powerful, and God's love is ever lasting.
Oddly, God loves us so much, God will not violate our free will, God will not take away our suffering. Humanity is free to choose all manner of things, and in this life we have many choices. At times our circumstances, do have results. At other times the circumstances of life are just awful.
But God is God, not a superhero who rescues us from ourselves, nor changes circumstance so we can ride off into the sunset. God who called life into being, who ordered the stars and planets, loves us so much as to be vulnerable to our creating out of creation. And God occasionally enters into life “to redeem,” to turn life on its head and make us wonder at what is possible.
Faith is Not a matter of how much. We do harm to one another, beating up victims by believing if they had just believed more, or as we do... NO, each one of us, every human creature is a gift of God. How hard it is for us to give up control? We have a natural predisposition of being self-centered. We make choices in life, our parents made us the center of their worlds, we imagine all things through our mind's eye. Out of love and devotion, we choose to live our lives around another's needs, first a partner, then our children's, but still as extensions of our self-centeredness. Faith is the realization that we are only neighbors in this life. As we each live life, occasionally, sometimes as many as seven times in a single day, we offend one another; when we do, in faith we are to forgive. We do our part in life, like every other creature, we teach, we feed, we care for others. What we are called to do in faith is three things
1.To love God
2.To forgive our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, and even selves, so as to begin again
3.To live our lives in ways that make it easier for others to choose what is right
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