John 1:1-14
Funny, how much we have invested in Christmas being about Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem. While every Christmas pageant in every Christian Church for 800 years has portrayed it that way, only Luke's Gospel of the four has the couple going to Bethlehem, only Luke and Matthew even have the story of a birth. What we celebrate at Christmas is the incarnation of God becoming one with humanity. While the crucifixion and Resurrection of Easter are about the Atonement for our sins, Christmas is ALL about the grace of God, God's desire that we not be alone and broken; and in response, our desire for God
John's Gospel is a different Christmas reading.
Not about a Manger, or Shepherds or Kings, a Virgin, or a Star, not even about a birth of a baby. Instead, the Beloved Disciple identifies the birth of the Savior as having happened before time and space, before humanity, before Moses or Abraham, even before Noah and the flood.
“In the Beginning was the WORD.”
A strange identification for the Savior, the Messiah sent by God, and yet, going back to Genesis, what we hear is that “In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” In the Beginning in Genesis is about creation of Time and Space to fill the shapeless, formless void. And according to John, Creation is also about the Light of God and the Word of God (which already exist) coming into Creation. Human Thought, Reasoning, Language about God, stories of the Divine in Human life offer light in the darkness. Our language, our words, betray our allegiances, our convictions. When we speak of CREATION, what do we imagine? If “Life,” this planet and universe, and the balance between all things, by calling this Creation, are we not naming our predilection that there is a CREATOR?
Genesis 1 tells the Order of Creation, and identifies that before anything or anyone else, rather than hypothesizing a Big Bang (that all life as we know it was formed by the accidental cataclysm of gases), that instead, before anything else, the Creator was/is God.
Genesis 2 tells a different story of Creation, not in contradiction of the first, but emphasizing the role of humanity with God in Creation, having power to name all that exists.
Genesis 3 tells another story of Creation, again not in contradiction of the first two, but explaining the origin of Good and Evil...how it is that God could have formed all creation and Blessed Creation calling it very Good, when there was evil.
Genesis 4 tells yet another story of Creation, as to why there are generations of humanity, and anger and jealousy between us as family members, why as family systems we pass on behaviors.
After which Genesis tells the story of Noah and the flood...
But what about all the rest, all of human understanding and words, language about God...When, How and Why did our caring about who God is, about the possibility of changing our lot in life, come into being? The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ according to John, is not about the birth of a baby at Bethlehem, but another Genesis of how human thought, human desire to change, human want to know God, came to be.
How much we try to hide in life, how much darkness and gloom and control we try to exercise, how little of life is really creative and how much of all we do is killing? According to the Gospel of John, our darkness, our human control, death, could not extinguish the light that is the WORD from God. This is what the whole of the Good News from God will be about, This Cosmic struggle between the forces of Darkness and of Light. The Empire, Civilization, all Human Knowledge, Logic/Reason, Death and our Fears of Death, human understanding on one side, and a man sent from God on the other. Can one person make a difference? Can one individual change the nature of the whole human race, change the nature of history?
Written down in the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, when the Roman Military had been used as a weapon against Rome's own citizens and people, during the worst of human existence, John witnessed that humanity had another nature.
First, there was a man sent from God, whose name was John, who came calling people to “repent.”
He was not the Light, he was not the Word, but he came to bear witness to what was coming.
That John (John the Baptist) and the John who authored the Gospel are not the same individual, but the similarity of their names is not by accident... as John came to bear witness to the Light of God, so also John the author of the Gospel will witness to what he has seen and believes. This is one of the elements we have lost today. The ability to “Witness,” I am not necessarily talking about knocking on doors to ask if the person knows Jesus, but that at somepoint in our lives we speak to those we love, whose lives, whose existence are important to us, to whom our lives are important, naming what we believe and why.
I have a close friend, with whom I have worked on the Clinic for 7 years now, and suddenly yesterday, a woman I knew as a friend in college 30 years ago asked “Do you know my brother?” Until that moment, I never had put the two together, never had thought of other human connections for someone I work with. That is the power of a witness, not to accuse and name the culprit, but to make connections, to identify meaningful relationships without realizing they are meaningful.
Even with this witness testifying that this is the true light sent from God, no one received him, no one believed. People were caught up in their own lives, in their own existence and survival, in the struggles of power and control, good and evil, struggles of women and men, struggles of family systems. As much as humanity has developed, as great of civilizations as we had developed in Egypt, Israel, Babylon, Greece and Rome, as great as our Law, and our philosophy and reason, no one had considered whether we are born of the flesh as animals, or what it might mean to be born a child of God. The Great Philosophers debated whether humanity is basically Good or Evil? The Greeks and Romans theorized a whole civilization of Gods separate from and parallel to Humanity. But no one had considered whether God might care about Creation, or whether Creation might care about God. SO according to this story of Creation, God became human to dwell among us, full of grace and truth.
When did the relationship between God and Humanity begin? It is basic to human life, basic to our Created Order. As we accept the rotations of Night and Day, as we believe in a firmament an atmosphere we cannot see, so also there is a bond and tension between us and God. Is it any wonder then, that Jesus would refer to God as Father? Judaism identifies God as Law Giver. Islam as giver of Prophecy. Christianity claims relationship with God as Father, because the Word of God became Flesh as a Human Messiah.
Even so, while the bond between God and Humanity is intrinsic to who we are and who is our Creator, as Human Creatures one of our Creations is history, the orderly progression of developments in Time and Space. SO when did the Word of God become flesh? For as Poetic and Mystic as John's Gospel, he is also witnessing to the reality of Jesus Christ. According to John, FAITH is not simply thought, not only Philosophy, but that in TIME & SPACE, in our relationship to all the world around us, within the STRUGGLE OF GOOD & EVIL, in our FAMILY SYSTEMS the life and witness of Jesus Christ matters.
So we return to the earlier question, IF at a particular time (actually the most debauched corrupt, evil time in human history) the Word Became Flesh to dwell among us, when in our lives will we witness, will we share with one another not only a tie and perfume, not only a gift in your honor to this wonderful cause, but how precious it is to our lives that this other is part of who we are?
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
"You Shall Be CALLED: Sought Out" Midnight Christmas Eve 2011
Isaiah 62:6-12
Luke 2:1-20
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Skaneateles is an idyllic place, every season of the year, perhaps every home town is. But of all the moments of all the year, this is one of my favorites. After the Candle Glow, just before Midnight.
From January until September every year, we hear the High School Seniors anxious to get out of this tiny town, where there is nothing to do and no where to go, and whether we want to or not, we know every family's scandal, be it football, or divorce, saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing.
Yet, something happened in the last four months, or 16, or 4 years or however long it has been, by being gone, home has been missed. Even more, traveling the world with Rotary, going to college and discovering new ideas, falling in love, marrying, having children of our own, we have come home to question whether everything we knew and experienced growing up, is still true... or whether like leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer, our perspective of what is real changes as adults. Once you've been exposed to Bowen's Law of Thermodynamics; once you understand Pascal and Fortran; Plato and Aristotle, and Freud, Niebuhr and Tillich; can Silent Night still warm our hearts? Can we still believe?
The same is described in Isaiah, the Old Testament people had taken faith in God for granted. We had David and Solomon as our kings, we had the largest economy, the grandest palaces, the mightiest army, the world had ever known! Then, everything seemed to fall apart and everyone was dispersed, they called it the DIASPORA. The best and brightest, were sent to Babylon to be immersed in a new and different world, with different foods, languages, ideas and customs, as if being thrown into the deep end to see if you can swim. Others, for survival – escaped, to far distant places, seeing the world. Still others were made slaves, bought and sold by the very economy they once cherished.
Generations later, the word of prophecy, the call of faith is to return to God's Holy Mountain.
Come from the four corners of the earth! Go through the gates! Prepare the way for others! Say to one another: “Behold, Salvation Comes!” and you shall be called holy, redeemed, sought out, a city not forsaken!
Everything is different. That is the point of redemption, of being Holy and being sought out.
We have now been taught to know about micro-biology and plate-tectonics, and virtual worlds. Must there be an either or choice? Rather than leaving behind all we knew, we are now adults with minds that can think and debate. Dictators have been overthrown. Terrorists put to death. Can we recognize there is more to life than the stuff of survival?
Redemption is more than putting in your time, serving your sentence, working 40 years and retiring. Redemption requires reflection upon who we are and what we are doing and why.
The fact of the matter, is that as much as we thought, adolescents grinding on the dance floor, or divorces, or pregnancies, or our daughters and sons and peers being arrested, CHRISTMAS is redemption of the greatest scandal that could ever be. Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, the Force behind all that is, the Ancient God of Ishmael, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who gave the LAW to Moses, that God created humanity with Free Will, so as to be able to choose to love God; but instead because of our own vanity, our own desires, our own blindness to everything except our reflection, we turned away from God, seeking what shimmers and sparkles, but can never satisfy. For thousands of years, Almighty God watched helplessly, as we destroyed ourselves, as we built up for ourselves what rusts and rots in decay. Could there be any greater tragic lovestory? Could there be any greater scandal?
But God has done what seemed impossible. The Divine stripped off divinity. Could anything be more naked? The ruler of Heaven and Earth, left Heaven to be one with us. The Creator stepped into creation but rather than coming as a God, as all knowing, all powerful, invincible and immortal, God came to us in the most humble most vulnerable way of all, as a newborn baby.
Each of us is unique, individual. Imagine what you have wanted more than life itself... I am not talking about the red bike, or the third Lexus, or the house in St. Croix... Imagine the Father of the Prodigal Son, willing to accept the indignation of his child wishing he were dead, willing to face the embarrassment of the world by longing for his child to come home... Imagine you trained for a career and now have been without employment since 2007... Imagine, you want to be reconciled with your family, to be validated and respected... Recognize you have wanted this so long and so painfully that giving up the dream seems the only way out. When suddenly, there is hope, there is a way forward. Redemption, Being “Sought Out,” cannot be taught. There is no mathematic equation, no chemical formula, no technique or training of the voice, this is not linear thinking... But belief that life is HOLY.
In the time of Ancient Rome, not of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, but when the Empire was falling into ruin and decay; when the Legion the Army of Rome had attacked her own people; when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, and humanity was powerless to stop, one individual, one person came forward to make a difference in the world, one person can change the world and all human existence. Not the most powerful, not the most influential, not the wealthiest, or smartest, truly one possessing nothing out of the ordinary, who never gave in, never compromised being faithful.
SO which is the great scandal? That God formed humanity to love God, and humanity did not? Or that God so wanted to redeem the world, that God would cheat? God became human in order to redeem us, to love us. More than having a title, having an identity, a career, “You/we are Sought Out,” we have a Calling, to lead as Christ leads, to serve as Christ serves, to trust as God trusts, to love.
Luke 2:1-20
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Skaneateles is an idyllic place, every season of the year, perhaps every home town is. But of all the moments of all the year, this is one of my favorites. After the Candle Glow, just before Midnight.
From January until September every year, we hear the High School Seniors anxious to get out of this tiny town, where there is nothing to do and no where to go, and whether we want to or not, we know every family's scandal, be it football, or divorce, saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing.
Yet, something happened in the last four months, or 16, or 4 years or however long it has been, by being gone, home has been missed. Even more, traveling the world with Rotary, going to college and discovering new ideas, falling in love, marrying, having children of our own, we have come home to question whether everything we knew and experienced growing up, is still true... or whether like leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for reindeer, our perspective of what is real changes as adults. Once you've been exposed to Bowen's Law of Thermodynamics; once you understand Pascal and Fortran; Plato and Aristotle, and Freud, Niebuhr and Tillich; can Silent Night still warm our hearts? Can we still believe?
The same is described in Isaiah, the Old Testament people had taken faith in God for granted. We had David and Solomon as our kings, we had the largest economy, the grandest palaces, the mightiest army, the world had ever known! Then, everything seemed to fall apart and everyone was dispersed, they called it the DIASPORA. The best and brightest, were sent to Babylon to be immersed in a new and different world, with different foods, languages, ideas and customs, as if being thrown into the deep end to see if you can swim. Others, for survival – escaped, to far distant places, seeing the world. Still others were made slaves, bought and sold by the very economy they once cherished.
Generations later, the word of prophecy, the call of faith is to return to God's Holy Mountain.
Come from the four corners of the earth! Go through the gates! Prepare the way for others! Say to one another: “Behold, Salvation Comes!” and you shall be called holy, redeemed, sought out, a city not forsaken!
Everything is different. That is the point of redemption, of being Holy and being sought out.
We have now been taught to know about micro-biology and plate-tectonics, and virtual worlds. Must there be an either or choice? Rather than leaving behind all we knew, we are now adults with minds that can think and debate. Dictators have been overthrown. Terrorists put to death. Can we recognize there is more to life than the stuff of survival?
Redemption is more than putting in your time, serving your sentence, working 40 years and retiring. Redemption requires reflection upon who we are and what we are doing and why.
The fact of the matter, is that as much as we thought, adolescents grinding on the dance floor, or divorces, or pregnancies, or our daughters and sons and peers being arrested, CHRISTMAS is redemption of the greatest scandal that could ever be. Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, the Force behind all that is, the Ancient God of Ishmael, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who gave the LAW to Moses, that God created humanity with Free Will, so as to be able to choose to love God; but instead because of our own vanity, our own desires, our own blindness to everything except our reflection, we turned away from God, seeking what shimmers and sparkles, but can never satisfy. For thousands of years, Almighty God watched helplessly, as we destroyed ourselves, as we built up for ourselves what rusts and rots in decay. Could there be any greater tragic lovestory? Could there be any greater scandal?
But God has done what seemed impossible. The Divine stripped off divinity. Could anything be more naked? The ruler of Heaven and Earth, left Heaven to be one with us. The Creator stepped into creation but rather than coming as a God, as all knowing, all powerful, invincible and immortal, God came to us in the most humble most vulnerable way of all, as a newborn baby.
Each of us is unique, individual. Imagine what you have wanted more than life itself... I am not talking about the red bike, or the third Lexus, or the house in St. Croix... Imagine the Father of the Prodigal Son, willing to accept the indignation of his child wishing he were dead, willing to face the embarrassment of the world by longing for his child to come home... Imagine you trained for a career and now have been without employment since 2007... Imagine, you want to be reconciled with your family, to be validated and respected... Recognize you have wanted this so long and so painfully that giving up the dream seems the only way out. When suddenly, there is hope, there is a way forward. Redemption, Being “Sought Out,” cannot be taught. There is no mathematic equation, no chemical formula, no technique or training of the voice, this is not linear thinking... But belief that life is HOLY.
In the time of Ancient Rome, not of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, but when the Empire was falling into ruin and decay; when the Legion the Army of Rome had attacked her own people; when taxation for the sake of taxation was the norm, and humanity was powerless to stop, one individual, one person came forward to make a difference in the world, one person can change the world and all human existence. Not the most powerful, not the most influential, not the wealthiest, or smartest, truly one possessing nothing out of the ordinary, who never gave in, never compromised being faithful.
SO which is the great scandal? That God formed humanity to love God, and humanity did not? Or that God so wanted to redeem the world, that God would cheat? God became human in order to redeem us, to love us. More than having a title, having an identity, a career, “You/we are Sought Out,” we have a Calling, to lead as Christ leads, to serve as Christ serves, to trust as God trusts, to love.
"Believing in Christmas" Pajama Christmas Eve 2011
Luke 2:1-20
Grown ups do not "get" Christmas!
When you have seen Christmas 100 times, well okay 30 or 40 or 50 times, you begin to think this is all ordinary, that Christmas is Ordinary, as if Christmas is going to come every year.
If you ask me, the grown ups have seen Dr. Seuss' Grinch too many times, and they actually think that without all the Who-Presents and and Who-Carols and Who-Turkey and Who-Beast, that without Suzie-loo Who, still Christmas would be just the same.
The whole point of Believing in Christmas, is in believing in the Ordinary as Not Ordinary!
And believing that when we are uncomfortable, where we are disappointed, to see that life is not over, God is with us.
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Christmas is believing that God, the God we pray to at night, the God who made the whole Universe, the God who was with Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses, the God in Heaven who commands Angels, the God who does miracles, WOULD BECOME human!
That God, with all the divinity and holiness and power of being God could become a baby!
AND, that that event, that Baby, that ONE PERSON in all the world, in all the history of all the Nations, could make a difference!
What would happen, if suddenly one ordinary thing changed? If suddenly there was no gravity? What would happen if a second sun appeared in the sky? What would happen if flowers suddenly appeared in winter? What would happen if your greatest wish came true?
So what do you believe would happen, if God was born as a baby?
All the world would change, stars suddenly stop in the sky, we would be able to hear angels singing, wise-men would cross the world to see what had happened and bow down before what is truly great!
Joseph and Mary had had a comfortable life. He was a talented carpenter who worked hard and had a nice business, she lived with her parents, they were planning to get married, everything was comfortable. Then everything changed. A miracle happened and Mary was going to have a baby. Have you ever seen somebody when things do not go their way? They get kind of red in the face and their ears especially, and sometimes they scream and are angry at other stuff because what they planned and what they thought was going to happen in ordinary times, does not. But Mary does not cry. Mary does not get embarrassed, she says, OKAY, this is what I have to do.
Joseph could have made a terrible scene, he could have ruined Mary and her family. He had every right to walked away, in fact it probably would have been right for him to do so, not to stay with her when she was going to have a Baby and he was not the father. But Joseph loved Mary, for better and worse.
Then the Government, the Government announced new TAXES, and even more, everyone was told you had to move! You had to leave your business, your family and friends, and everything you have ever known to get to a different place, all so you could be counted, COUNTED as if you were sheep.
How many of us tonight, have travelled a long way from our homes and routine, what is ordinary, to be here? And we have to sleep in a strange bed, maybe on a couch, our routines have been changed.
Maybe we lost our job this year. Maybe someone we love died and Christmas is different. When things are not ordinary, we sometimes get afraid.
Mary and Joseph finally got to where they were told to go, and there was no room for them.
Having been treated like sheep, they were offered a place in the Stable and were thankful to have that.
When suddenly, it was time, and the baby was born. Could there be anything more common, more ordinary, a Stable, dark and dank, with the smell of animals and sweat, and diapers and a baby?
There are moments, when it seems time and space are full and ripe.
At the start of the worship, when the room was full of the warm glow of candlelight and all the voices sang “Silent Night,” Christmas morning when you wake up and realize what day it is and the tree glimmers and everyone is happy.
That was the mood of the Stable after the Baby was born.
Ordinary and yet for Mary the mother of Jesus, everything was suddenly different.
For Joseph, as ordinary as this was, as much expected, all of life was now different.
At that moment, you do not need anything, especially not visitors. But suddenly, there are people poking their heads in the door, and sheep, whole flocks of sheep. Do you know how smelly and loud a whole flock of sheep can be. Yet, these uncouth shepherds tell of having witnessed the most amazing thing. The whole sky lit up, and angels appeared, there was singing, and a voice from heaven telling them that the world had changed. Telling them that they needed to go see what seemed to be the most ordinary of things, a poor couple in a stable who had a baby, and the baby wrapped up as you would wrap a baby... but that this would not be ordinary, this would not be common, this would be Christmas!
Grown ups do not "get" Christmas!
When you have seen Christmas 100 times, well okay 30 or 40 or 50 times, you begin to think this is all ordinary, that Christmas is Ordinary, as if Christmas is going to come every year.
If you ask me, the grown ups have seen Dr. Seuss' Grinch too many times, and they actually think that without all the Who-Presents and and Who-Carols and Who-Turkey and Who-Beast, that without Suzie-loo Who, still Christmas would be just the same.
The whole point of Believing in Christmas, is in believing in the Ordinary as Not Ordinary!
And believing that when we are uncomfortable, where we are disappointed, to see that life is not over, God is with us.
The school was having their annual Winter Concert, so called because the public schools could no longer have a Christmas Concert, and the regular program included songs about snowmen, reindeer and Santa. One class at a time, from eldest to youngest, the classes stood up from their cross-legged position and marched to the stage. Finally, it was the Kindergarden class' turn, and daring to risk protocol the teacher had them singing a song “Christmas Love.” Each child held a large placard with a letter which they held up at the appropriate time. “C” is for Children, “H” is for Home, “R” for Ribbon, and so on. But a young girl about halfway down kept turning her card round and round uncertain at age 5 if the letter was supposed to be an M or a W, as it could have gone either way. When she held up the “W” everyone began to snicker, the older kids pointing... until the song was done, and suddenly everyone stopped laughing and each began pointing out for another, because by her flipping the M to a W, instead of spelling Christmas Love, the message spelled “Christ Was Love.”
Christmas is believing that God, the God we pray to at night, the God who made the whole Universe, the God who was with Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses, the God in Heaven who commands Angels, the God who does miracles, WOULD BECOME human!
That God, with all the divinity and holiness and power of being God could become a baby!
AND, that that event, that Baby, that ONE PERSON in all the world, in all the history of all the Nations, could make a difference!
What would happen, if suddenly one ordinary thing changed? If suddenly there was no gravity? What would happen if a second sun appeared in the sky? What would happen if flowers suddenly appeared in winter? What would happen if your greatest wish came true?
So what do you believe would happen, if God was born as a baby?
All the world would change, stars suddenly stop in the sky, we would be able to hear angels singing, wise-men would cross the world to see what had happened and bow down before what is truly great!
Joseph and Mary had had a comfortable life. He was a talented carpenter who worked hard and had a nice business, she lived with her parents, they were planning to get married, everything was comfortable. Then everything changed. A miracle happened and Mary was going to have a baby. Have you ever seen somebody when things do not go their way? They get kind of red in the face and their ears especially, and sometimes they scream and are angry at other stuff because what they planned and what they thought was going to happen in ordinary times, does not. But Mary does not cry. Mary does not get embarrassed, she says, OKAY, this is what I have to do.
Joseph could have made a terrible scene, he could have ruined Mary and her family. He had every right to walked away, in fact it probably would have been right for him to do so, not to stay with her when she was going to have a Baby and he was not the father. But Joseph loved Mary, for better and worse.
Then the Government, the Government announced new TAXES, and even more, everyone was told you had to move! You had to leave your business, your family and friends, and everything you have ever known to get to a different place, all so you could be counted, COUNTED as if you were sheep.
How many of us tonight, have travelled a long way from our homes and routine, what is ordinary, to be here? And we have to sleep in a strange bed, maybe on a couch, our routines have been changed.
Maybe we lost our job this year. Maybe someone we love died and Christmas is different. When things are not ordinary, we sometimes get afraid.
Mary and Joseph finally got to where they were told to go, and there was no room for them.
Having been treated like sheep, they were offered a place in the Stable and were thankful to have that.
When suddenly, it was time, and the baby was born. Could there be anything more common, more ordinary, a Stable, dark and dank, with the smell of animals and sweat, and diapers and a baby?
There are moments, when it seems time and space are full and ripe.
At the start of the worship, when the room was full of the warm glow of candlelight and all the voices sang “Silent Night,” Christmas morning when you wake up and realize what day it is and the tree glimmers and everyone is happy.
That was the mood of the Stable after the Baby was born.
Ordinary and yet for Mary the mother of Jesus, everything was suddenly different.
For Joseph, as ordinary as this was, as much expected, all of life was now different.
At that moment, you do not need anything, especially not visitors. But suddenly, there are people poking their heads in the door, and sheep, whole flocks of sheep. Do you know how smelly and loud a whole flock of sheep can be. Yet, these uncouth shepherds tell of having witnessed the most amazing thing. The whole sky lit up, and angels appeared, there was singing, and a voice from heaven telling them that the world had changed. Telling them that they needed to go see what seemed to be the most ordinary of things, a poor couple in a stable who had a baby, and the baby wrapped up as you would wrap a baby... but that this would not be ordinary, this would not be common, this would be Christmas!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
December 18, 2011 "Nothing is Impossible (For God with Us)"
2nd Samuel 7:1-11
Luke 1:26-38
Earlier this week, someone stopped me to say, “You better be planning something really spectacular for Christmas! We usually have a big family dinner with all the relatives, we sing carols, and tell stories as we eat Christmas cookies staying up late, then we go to bed and get up before dawn to open our presents to one another, before we have a huge breakfast. And you want us to change our tradition, by coming to Church both Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! All I can say is, you better be planning on doing something really different.”
The Word of God becoming Flesh and blood, the birth of God, the coming of the Savior of the World, somehow just does not stack up against our snicker-doodles and rum-balls.
This passage from 2 Samuel 7 is a wonderful word for us at this beginning of the 4th week of Advent. For this Word brings together all the dangling threads of promise that went before, and establishes everything that will come after. Since Genesis 12, we have followed stories of God's promise to a family, that Abraham's children would be a great Nation, would live in comfort and peace in a land flowing with milk and honey. Since the Exodus presentation of the Law and Commandments to Moses, we have followed the movements of the Ark leading in battle, resting only momentarily within the Tent of Meeting. And not since Cain and his brother Abel, have we had a Man who wanted to DO FOR God. In the case of Adam's sons, to each make offerings for God which led to Cain killing Abel; in this case, King David dwelling in peace, given rest from all his enemies, living in the luxury of palaces, wanting to build a house of cedar and gold for God, that will lead to his killing Bathsheba's husband. As Handel's Messiah described “The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, because the Mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Not, we are a people who have dwelt in peace and prosperity, wanting to experience greater and greater spectacles, so show us the glory of the Lord!
How curious that King David, ruler over the greatest most powerful nation on Earth, would seek advice from the prophet Nathan. In our Nation's Capital, there is a role for Chaplain of the Senate, who prays in the beginning of the meetings, but when it comes to decision making and policy, the Cabinet are composed of Political, Financial and Military advisors. I wonder what would have happened if in the course of these long years of wars in Muslim nations, our leadership had sought the advice and counsel of American Muslim Clerics, Jewish Rabbis, Priests and Pastors.
We have to question, what Nathan did not that day. Why does the Great King desire to build a palace for God? Is it purely out of faith, or is it to be seen as being devoted, that David would be remembered as having built The Palace for God? What God reminds Nathan in the night, is that God is the prime actor, and being created in the image of God, we respond and react to God. When we try to be the prime movers, when we define who God is and where God is allowed to be in our lives, we try to make ourselves God. Perhaps, part of the message of this passage is why we need to give the gifts we do this Christmas? Is it as response to the other being in our lives; or is it to be seen as being generous, as ignoring the reality of the economy?
I remember one Christmas long ago... after years of having a Lionel train circle round the tree and presents, neighbors with lights making their houses glow, my brothers and I thought it would be exciting and different if we created a tree-stand that would rotate. More even than the tree, we fashioned a plywood base on which the tree and presents could be placed. In this way, we could stay still and Christmas would spin round and round, showing all the beauty of all the ornaments, and bringing the presents to us. We wired the lights to the stand, and the stand was connected to a rheostat dimmer. When the tree was decorated, we flipped the switch and those large egg shaped colored electric lights began to glow, then we turned the dial and the tree and platform began to move. After three revolutions, we turned the dimmer down, confident all was prepared. Christmas morning, we returned from church, with snow on the ground and the smell of coffee in the air, we came into the living room as the sparkling tree and stacks of presents slowly spun in the middle of the room, but as the dimmer warmed up, the tree began spinning faster and faster and faster, ornaments began flying off the branches as Christmas was out of control. Quietly, calmly, Mother went to the wall outlet and unplugged the tree, which slowed and stopped, bringing Christmas to quiet.
Mothers have a way of quieting things, centering. Mary is described in Latin as THEO-TOKIS the one who bears God. Overtime, this became one of the great schisms between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic. Whether Mary was a simple common woman, as the God-Bearer,Theo-tokis or whether Mary was to be revered as being like-God? The point of the Magnificat, is not to venerate the Virgin, but to realize that Nothing is Impossible for God, not even that a common, simple girl could be the mother of the savior of the world, or that we like her could also present God to the world.
Mary gets what the Prophet Nathan, and David the Great King of Israel, both had forgotten. Mary did not volunteer, saying: “Hey God, I am financially secure and ready in my career to have a Baby!” or “I am going to have a baby, and I want him to be the Messiah!” No, but when God acted, when God sought out Mary, saying you have found favor, God has appointed that you bear God's son, who in this way will be fully Human and fully Divine, Mary responded “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to The Word of God.”
The wonder of these passages, is that no matter what, Nothing is Impossible for God...
not that God could make a Father, and lineage out of a man like David;
not that a virgin could give birth, nor even that God could become human through a common person, nor that any of us could be servants of God, Theo-tokis, bearers of God to the world!
The words of affirmation have become a colloquialism, so common to us that we forget the meaning: “You shall call his name Emmanuel,” this is the greatest impossibility of all, that God would be One with us! Rather than Pygmalian's myth of an Artist making a statue so lifelike that it comes to life and becomes real... that The Creator, the author of Life, the Almighty, the Artist of Reality, should choose to enter into Creation and become vulnerable, become human, even forgive the world for all our sins. But that is the real power of forgiveness... Forgiveness is not forgetting what took place, letting the other go. Forgiveness is the realization that the division between us is causing great pain and suffering. Hearing this word tis morning, that not of our own volition, not because we are so comfortable or powerful that we choose to, BUT instead, in response to God, we see ourselves in the role of bringing God to others by our forgiveness.
Luke 1:26-38
Earlier this week, someone stopped me to say, “You better be planning something really spectacular for Christmas! We usually have a big family dinner with all the relatives, we sing carols, and tell stories as we eat Christmas cookies staying up late, then we go to bed and get up before dawn to open our presents to one another, before we have a huge breakfast. And you want us to change our tradition, by coming to Church both Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! All I can say is, you better be planning on doing something really different.”
The Word of God becoming Flesh and blood, the birth of God, the coming of the Savior of the World, somehow just does not stack up against our snicker-doodles and rum-balls.
This passage from 2 Samuel 7 is a wonderful word for us at this beginning of the 4th week of Advent. For this Word brings together all the dangling threads of promise that went before, and establishes everything that will come after. Since Genesis 12, we have followed stories of God's promise to a family, that Abraham's children would be a great Nation, would live in comfort and peace in a land flowing with milk and honey. Since the Exodus presentation of the Law and Commandments to Moses, we have followed the movements of the Ark leading in battle, resting only momentarily within the Tent of Meeting. And not since Cain and his brother Abel, have we had a Man who wanted to DO FOR God. In the case of Adam's sons, to each make offerings for God which led to Cain killing Abel; in this case, King David dwelling in peace, given rest from all his enemies, living in the luxury of palaces, wanting to build a house of cedar and gold for God, that will lead to his killing Bathsheba's husband. As Handel's Messiah described “The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, because the Mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Not, we are a people who have dwelt in peace and prosperity, wanting to experience greater and greater spectacles, so show us the glory of the Lord!
How curious that King David, ruler over the greatest most powerful nation on Earth, would seek advice from the prophet Nathan. In our Nation's Capital, there is a role for Chaplain of the Senate, who prays in the beginning of the meetings, but when it comes to decision making and policy, the Cabinet are composed of Political, Financial and Military advisors. I wonder what would have happened if in the course of these long years of wars in Muslim nations, our leadership had sought the advice and counsel of American Muslim Clerics, Jewish Rabbis, Priests and Pastors.
We have to question, what Nathan did not that day. Why does the Great King desire to build a palace for God? Is it purely out of faith, or is it to be seen as being devoted, that David would be remembered as having built The Palace for God? What God reminds Nathan in the night, is that God is the prime actor, and being created in the image of God, we respond and react to God. When we try to be the prime movers, when we define who God is and where God is allowed to be in our lives, we try to make ourselves God. Perhaps, part of the message of this passage is why we need to give the gifts we do this Christmas? Is it as response to the other being in our lives; or is it to be seen as being generous, as ignoring the reality of the economy?
I remember one Christmas long ago... after years of having a Lionel train circle round the tree and presents, neighbors with lights making their houses glow, my brothers and I thought it would be exciting and different if we created a tree-stand that would rotate. More even than the tree, we fashioned a plywood base on which the tree and presents could be placed. In this way, we could stay still and Christmas would spin round and round, showing all the beauty of all the ornaments, and bringing the presents to us. We wired the lights to the stand, and the stand was connected to a rheostat dimmer. When the tree was decorated, we flipped the switch and those large egg shaped colored electric lights began to glow, then we turned the dial and the tree and platform began to move. After three revolutions, we turned the dimmer down, confident all was prepared. Christmas morning, we returned from church, with snow on the ground and the smell of coffee in the air, we came into the living room as the sparkling tree and stacks of presents slowly spun in the middle of the room, but as the dimmer warmed up, the tree began spinning faster and faster and faster, ornaments began flying off the branches as Christmas was out of control. Quietly, calmly, Mother went to the wall outlet and unplugged the tree, which slowed and stopped, bringing Christmas to quiet.
Mothers have a way of quieting things, centering. Mary is described in Latin as THEO-TOKIS the one who bears God. Overtime, this became one of the great schisms between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic. Whether Mary was a simple common woman, as the God-Bearer,Theo-tokis or whether Mary was to be revered as being like-God? The point of the Magnificat, is not to venerate the Virgin, but to realize that Nothing is Impossible for God, not even that a common, simple girl could be the mother of the savior of the world, or that we like her could also present God to the world.
Mary gets what the Prophet Nathan, and David the Great King of Israel, both had forgotten. Mary did not volunteer, saying: “Hey God, I am financially secure and ready in my career to have a Baby!” or “I am going to have a baby, and I want him to be the Messiah!” No, but when God acted, when God sought out Mary, saying you have found favor, God has appointed that you bear God's son, who in this way will be fully Human and fully Divine, Mary responded “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to The Word of God.”
The wonder of these passages, is that no matter what, Nothing is Impossible for God...
not that God could make a Father, and lineage out of a man like David;
not that a virgin could give birth, nor even that God could become human through a common person, nor that any of us could be servants of God, Theo-tokis, bearers of God to the world!
The words of affirmation have become a colloquialism, so common to us that we forget the meaning: “You shall call his name Emmanuel,” this is the greatest impossibility of all, that God would be One with us! Rather than Pygmalian's myth of an Artist making a statue so lifelike that it comes to life and becomes real... that The Creator, the author of Life, the Almighty, the Artist of Reality, should choose to enter into Creation and become vulnerable, become human, even forgive the world for all our sins. But that is the real power of forgiveness... Forgiveness is not forgetting what took place, letting the other go. Forgiveness is the realization that the division between us is causing great pain and suffering. Hearing this word tis morning, that not of our own volition, not because we are so comfortable or powerful that we choose to, BUT instead, in response to God, we see ourselves in the role of bringing God to others by our forgiveness.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
December 4, 2011, "Future Faith"
Isaiah 40:1-15
Mark: 1:1-8
When we cast ourselves in the Christmas story, we readily accept that few among us are kings let alone wise. Few in history have possessed the purity, innocence and humility of Mary. No, the role many of us quickly accept is of the sheep and shepherds, going about our regular routine, waiting for God to do something, waiting for a heavenly host of angels to appear and with Gloria In Excelsis Deo to tell us the miracle of God is ready. Following our routine, doing what we have done for generations, waiting for God to tell us God is ready.
Over and over, throughout the Bible, there is the recurrent phrase “THE WORD OF GOD WAS RARE in those days.” What if the role we have been assigned by God, is not as Shepherds or as sheep, and Lord knows we are no angels. What if we are to be the John the Baptists, of this time and place? John is an unforgettable figure, with an ill-temper, saying whatever occurs to him, a belly full of locusts, his beard, face and hands smeared with honey, clothed in camel skins. He is not the sort your mother wanted you to bring home. Yet, John the Baptizer does what no one else in history has done.
The people have been searching for a Messiah, a leader, a Savior sent from God to change the world, and John responds “Not Me. There is one coming, whom I am not worthy to kneel before, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie.” When is the last time we heard a leader, someone running for office, describe that anyone before or after them is better than they are? What if Steve Jobs last speech, instead of announcing the latest technological advancement, had proclaimed “Together we are creating the means for great ideas yet to come!” or if the College students who invented Social media had said “Thank you Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, because without having had electricity, the telephone, the personal computer, we never would have had the experience or desire to create this!” We look for Saviors, to ordain as Kings. We search for individuals with the ego and the charisma, the self-assurance to say “I am It!” John's word, in all sincerity and humility is “The world is not yet ready! We are not yet prepared to greet such a one. We are so many separate individuals in competition with ourselves/ let alone one another. I can only prepare the way for the coming Savior.”
The Gospel of Mark begins differently than the other Gospels. Not only in the absence of stories about the Virgin Birth and Manger, The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark begins with two monumental shifts in reality. In response to John, all the people across the countryside, from farmers, to soldiers, from prostitutes to parents, professors to lawyers, everyone who heard his word reflected upon their own lives, repented of something that had happened, repented of something they were doing, and confessed their desire to live their life differently. Everyone it seems has some story of repentance, everyone is searching for what we have not been. Without that realization, without the recognition that we are imperfect, incomplete, without naming to ourselves that we are in need, we are not ready to hear and receive the Good News. The Great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth, described that the Gospel reaches out and grabs you, the Words engage you not merely as history of people long ago, but as our story.
About a year ago, we asked this congregation repeatedly, if you were to describe this Church, this people of God, what we believe and represent, described either to someone who does not know what Church is, or as unique compared to other Churches, what would you say? Among the adjectives used, was Believing in REDEMPTION, no one is ever thrown away or abandoned. The Good News of Jesus Christ, according to John the Baptist, is that all of us have a past, all humanity are searching for God, searching for redemption. Confessing this need, bending our knee, to be baptized, bending down to serve, kneeling to untie the sandal and wash the feet of another, that confession is the only way to be prepared for the coming of the Savior.
We described that the Good News of Jesus Christ begins with two shifts in reality, according to Mark. First is that all humanity need to, want to, be redeemed to live life differently. BUT ALSO, reading on in the 9th and 10th verses of the Revised Standard Version of Mark, when Jesus did come to be Baptized Heaven opened. The Greek is more explicit: the perimeter between Heaven and Earth, the gulf between the divine and the mortal, the limitations of reality, were irreparably ripped open by God. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that all Humanity want to and can be redeemed, every person is worthwhile, no one is lost; BUT ALSO that God wants to redeem us, God does not want to see us damned, God's desire is to forgive, to see us whole, to love.
This same truth was declared Centuries before in the time of the Prophets Isaiah. There is this monumental shift at the end of the 39th Chapter, before the beginning of the 40th. The first 39 Chapters have dealt with the Fall of the nation of Israel. The Prophets preached and preached , and people's ears were thick and their vision cataracted. The people of God were conquered and destroyed, the Great Temple of Solomon was desecrated before their being carried off as slaves to Babylon, where they would labor for 150 years. George Steiner the great Literary critic and author of descriptions of the Holocaust at Cambridge University describes that a powerful thing happens when language and circumstance coincide, when our hopes of what is beyond reality and our belief in God agree. Steiner describes that in our minds, the PRESENT and the PAST are as One. Not only do we continue to live out the continuing effects of what has gone before, we also replay both in our minds, and in our experiences the events and relationships of the past, again and again. The power of language, that occurs in Chapter 40 of Isaiah, is that instead of continuing to describe the past, instead of present circumstances being a continuation of what is fact, what is dead and no longer living, God speaks of a future faith. God uses a Grammar of Creation, of WHAT SHALL BE, WHAT WILL COME, and IF. These are the passwords to a different reality. Instead of living according to what is and has been, what is fact but no longer alive, faith calls us into a different living future of what could be. Rather than a people who HAD needed to be punished, who HAD deserved retribution, who were Conquered and Abandoned and Enslaved, in Chapter 40 God commands Heavens Angels “Comfort, Comfort, My People says your God! Her Warfare will be ended, She will be Pardoned for the past. Every Valley shall be lifted up, every mountain hill shall be made low. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed as we prepare the way of the LORD.
Isaiah proclaims this double edged prophecy, that humbles the powerful, and provides hope to the oppressed. Quite simply, the Prophets asks: What should I Cry? And God 's Word is “All flesh is Grass, beauty is like the flower that fades and grass that withers, though the word of God stands for ever.” As we began this day, we search for what was before. Who created God? Who taught God? Who provided counsel and wisdom to set God up? And part of the nature of God is that God is older than time itself, and God shall always be.
In this season as we seek the latest, biggest, tiniest, fastest, the leaders of the next generation, we need to listen to the power of words. Whether we are stuck in the past, hiding only to relive our sins; or whether we can own our failures, name our brokenness and confessing faith live a future reality of being redeemed by God. There is a marvelous movie, just released, titled HUGO. While the critics will have many different story-lines, I think that what the film is about is a child who sees the world as a great machine. Machines are designed to work, perpetually to be wound up and run. Machines do not come with extra pieces, every part, every person has a purpose. The boy comes to realize that his function in life is to repair what is broken, to mend human lives, to comfort and to redeem. May we be like this, like John the Baptist, calling one another to claim our pasts as very real to our present and to claim faith as a means for embracing the future with God.
Mark: 1:1-8
When we cast ourselves in the Christmas story, we readily accept that few among us are kings let alone wise. Few in history have possessed the purity, innocence and humility of Mary. No, the role many of us quickly accept is of the sheep and shepherds, going about our regular routine, waiting for God to do something, waiting for a heavenly host of angels to appear and with Gloria In Excelsis Deo to tell us the miracle of God is ready. Following our routine, doing what we have done for generations, waiting for God to tell us God is ready.
Over and over, throughout the Bible, there is the recurrent phrase “THE WORD OF GOD WAS RARE in those days.” What if the role we have been assigned by God, is not as Shepherds or as sheep, and Lord knows we are no angels. What if we are to be the John the Baptists, of this time and place? John is an unforgettable figure, with an ill-temper, saying whatever occurs to him, a belly full of locusts, his beard, face and hands smeared with honey, clothed in camel skins. He is not the sort your mother wanted you to bring home. Yet, John the Baptizer does what no one else in history has done.
The people have been searching for a Messiah, a leader, a Savior sent from God to change the world, and John responds “Not Me. There is one coming, whom I am not worthy to kneel before, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie.” When is the last time we heard a leader, someone running for office, describe that anyone before or after them is better than they are? What if Steve Jobs last speech, instead of announcing the latest technological advancement, had proclaimed “Together we are creating the means for great ideas yet to come!” or if the College students who invented Social media had said “Thank you Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, because without having had electricity, the telephone, the personal computer, we never would have had the experience or desire to create this!” We look for Saviors, to ordain as Kings. We search for individuals with the ego and the charisma, the self-assurance to say “I am It!” John's word, in all sincerity and humility is “The world is not yet ready! We are not yet prepared to greet such a one. We are so many separate individuals in competition with ourselves/ let alone one another. I can only prepare the way for the coming Savior.”
The Gospel of Mark begins differently than the other Gospels. Not only in the absence of stories about the Virgin Birth and Manger, The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark begins with two monumental shifts in reality. In response to John, all the people across the countryside, from farmers, to soldiers, from prostitutes to parents, professors to lawyers, everyone who heard his word reflected upon their own lives, repented of something that had happened, repented of something they were doing, and confessed their desire to live their life differently. Everyone it seems has some story of repentance, everyone is searching for what we have not been. Without that realization, without the recognition that we are imperfect, incomplete, without naming to ourselves that we are in need, we are not ready to hear and receive the Good News. The Great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth, described that the Gospel reaches out and grabs you, the Words engage you not merely as history of people long ago, but as our story.
About a year ago, we asked this congregation repeatedly, if you were to describe this Church, this people of God, what we believe and represent, described either to someone who does not know what Church is, or as unique compared to other Churches, what would you say? Among the adjectives used, was Believing in REDEMPTION, no one is ever thrown away or abandoned. The Good News of Jesus Christ, according to John the Baptist, is that all of us have a past, all humanity are searching for God, searching for redemption. Confessing this need, bending our knee, to be baptized, bending down to serve, kneeling to untie the sandal and wash the feet of another, that confession is the only way to be prepared for the coming of the Savior.
We described that the Good News of Jesus Christ begins with two shifts in reality, according to Mark. First is that all humanity need to, want to, be redeemed to live life differently. BUT ALSO, reading on in the 9th and 10th verses of the Revised Standard Version of Mark, when Jesus did come to be Baptized Heaven opened. The Greek is more explicit: the perimeter between Heaven and Earth, the gulf between the divine and the mortal, the limitations of reality, were irreparably ripped open by God. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that all Humanity want to and can be redeemed, every person is worthwhile, no one is lost; BUT ALSO that God wants to redeem us, God does not want to see us damned, God's desire is to forgive, to see us whole, to love.
This same truth was declared Centuries before in the time of the Prophets Isaiah. There is this monumental shift at the end of the 39th Chapter, before the beginning of the 40th. The first 39 Chapters have dealt with the Fall of the nation of Israel. The Prophets preached and preached , and people's ears were thick and their vision cataracted. The people of God were conquered and destroyed, the Great Temple of Solomon was desecrated before their being carried off as slaves to Babylon, where they would labor for 150 years. George Steiner the great Literary critic and author of descriptions of the Holocaust at Cambridge University describes that a powerful thing happens when language and circumstance coincide, when our hopes of what is beyond reality and our belief in God agree. Steiner describes that in our minds, the PRESENT and the PAST are as One. Not only do we continue to live out the continuing effects of what has gone before, we also replay both in our minds, and in our experiences the events and relationships of the past, again and again. The power of language, that occurs in Chapter 40 of Isaiah, is that instead of continuing to describe the past, instead of present circumstances being a continuation of what is fact, what is dead and no longer living, God speaks of a future faith. God uses a Grammar of Creation, of WHAT SHALL BE, WHAT WILL COME, and IF. These are the passwords to a different reality. Instead of living according to what is and has been, what is fact but no longer alive, faith calls us into a different living future of what could be. Rather than a people who HAD needed to be punished, who HAD deserved retribution, who were Conquered and Abandoned and Enslaved, in Chapter 40 God commands Heavens Angels “Comfort, Comfort, My People says your God! Her Warfare will be ended, She will be Pardoned for the past. Every Valley shall be lifted up, every mountain hill shall be made low. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed as we prepare the way of the LORD.
Isaiah proclaims this double edged prophecy, that humbles the powerful, and provides hope to the oppressed. Quite simply, the Prophets asks: What should I Cry? And God 's Word is “All flesh is Grass, beauty is like the flower that fades and grass that withers, though the word of God stands for ever.” As we began this day, we search for what was before. Who created God? Who taught God? Who provided counsel and wisdom to set God up? And part of the nature of God is that God is older than time itself, and God shall always be.
In this season as we seek the latest, biggest, tiniest, fastest, the leaders of the next generation, we need to listen to the power of words. Whether we are stuck in the past, hiding only to relive our sins; or whether we can own our failures, name our brokenness and confessing faith live a future reality of being redeemed by God. There is a marvelous movie, just released, titled HUGO. While the critics will have many different story-lines, I think that what the film is about is a child who sees the world as a great machine. Machines are designed to work, perpetually to be wound up and run. Machines do not come with extra pieces, every part, every person has a purpose. The boy comes to realize that his function in life is to repair what is broken, to mend human lives, to comfort and to redeem. May we be like this, like John the Baptist, calling one another to claim our pasts as very real to our present and to claim faith as a means for embracing the future with God.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
November 27, 2011 "Awakening Hope"
I Corinthians 1:1-25
Mark 13: 24-37
Do we really need reminder at the beginning of Advent, to “Keep Awake!”?
Three months ago, Labor Day happened, and we began the rush of Back to School programs/activities, followed by Halloween, and this last week driving 6-10 hours, so we could defrost the butter to bake the pie crusts and chop the celery and onions for stuffing, to put in the defrosted bird, during the Macy's Parade, all perfectly timed so everything came out of the oven just as Green Bay beat the Lions, in order that we could begin shopping before Black Friday.
We are a hyper-vigilant people, always waiting for the shoe to drop.
Keep awake?
If anything, we want the Church as alternative to culture, to pass out Sleep-Ease, to pacify and calm.
We have over 17,000 Starbucks Coffeeshops in 55 different countries, 11,000 here in the United States.
Keep awake?
For a decade, we have lived with war, fearful of attack, fearful of what has happened to sons/ daughters far away, fearful of the economy. Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi all dead, each of the nations of the Middle East and North Africa changed, the axis of evil shifted, yet the genie is not back in the bottle, the dead have not been returned, prestige and honor feel tarnished. War and economics have not brought us a clear and decisive WIN.
Keep awake, not out of fear of the number of shopping days until Christmas, not because it is our turn to host the family and we have home repair projects to finish, not because we feel obligated to have the latest Zelda X Box game of Elmo Rockstar...
Keep awake, because as Christians, we know God loves the world, we know Christ has come and suffered and died and rose, to come again. We live expectantly waiting in HOPE for the redemption of the world. Keep awake, because Christ has come and will come again. Keep awake, spiritually, because there is so much around us to pacify our desires, to fill us with tryptophan, to comfort us with momentary wins and so much anxiety about loss.
Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel lived in fear, first of Egypt, then of the Canaanites, then the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Persians and Medes and Greeks, by the writing of the Gospels the Romans, the Pelipenicians, the Anglo-Saxons, the Europeans, … One empire after another, one invading army, one economy each built upon the failure of another.
The apocalyptic vision of Mark is not a specific warning about a specific end of the world on 11-11-11 or 12-12-12, but rather that basing our values and ethics on invading armies, the dominance of cultures, the power of economies, ultimately will bring loss.
Jesus begins with a different starting point, a different goal in mind.
Rather than our being focused on winning and losing and control, open your eyes to the broader vision, You witness stars falling from the sky and the sun and moon going black, open your mind to God's Cosmos.
One of my favorite moments as a pastor comes on Ash Wednesday. In the presence of all gathered, we burn the past, the palms of a year ago, our words of praise, our vain attempts to conquer, and one by one the people of God come forward to be marked with the ash and soot in the sign of the cross, and to be called by name as we hear the words: YOU ARE FORGIVEN.
At Advent, we each are blessed and given Hope.
YOU ARE LOVED. You are God's Little lambs, you are BLESSED;
and everything, all the world, everything of time and space and imagination, has been created for you. What will it take to open our eyes to see, there is no need to fight with one another?
No need for dominance. There is need for only one thing, to be responsible for what we are given.
The whole point of the coming Christmas is that we each and every one of us have the power to BLESS others. God loved the world so much, God entered in, God gave to us God's only begotten child, as Children of God can we not also enter in, into our own lives and relationships to bless one another?
This is an amazing community! Not because of Dickens. Not because of our schools. Not because of our businesses. Not even because of the wonderful churches and people. Truth be told, this is a community with great scandal and avoidance and suffering, with alcoholism and abuse. BUT this is also a community in which as a man, I have witnessed what I can only describe as miracles.
In a culture which demands, “WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME” one person after another has stepped up to say I do not want to be presumptuous but could I do this to help?
A few weeks ago, as the adults passed around a clipboard asking people to lead as Liturgist and Manor server, Chris said to his father: “I could do that, I would like to, can you help me do that.”
I have seen the pain of chronic illness, that we try to manage, that we chemically control, disease that escalates and symptoms become more frequent, knowing that this is what we will live with the rest of life and you have lived from crisis to crisis with fear of what is next, when suddenly there is HOPE, hope beyond anything you have ever experienced or believed was reasonable to expect.
At the start of Stewardship, we heard description of an ancient curse turned into a blessing and reality: MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES! For an oppressed people centuries ago, this named that we would go from one situation to another, from one conquerer to another. For a people who had experienced stability and consistency, INTERESTING TIMES is naming of Change all around us. The BLESSING that is here, is when we open our eyes and minds to possibilities.
I am hopeful that the housing market will pick up again soon. Not because of economic worry & fears.
I love the old historic homes of this community, but after living in a house for a generation we often begin to see the house only as it has been, with limited future possibilities. When the house turns over and someone new moves into the community, walls begin to move, windows and porches appear.
Corinth was city of transplants, educated, upper-middle class immigrants, brought to populate a place. Each began to identify their loyalties, their identities out of personal relationships and possessions. The Church was structured differently in those days. The Church described itself as a community of faith, a religious society, without a church building, without a Session or Pastor or Presbytery. When problems arose, they appealed to their founding pastor, the Apostle Paul. As a Pastor, he BLESSED them, simply for being the Church in this place and time. Then called them to live into being what the Church could be, as more than so many individuals.
This Church in Skaneateles, in our earliest days identified ourselves as a Religious Society, a Community of Faith. Two of the chief functions of the Church in those days were to act as the Courts before their were local judges and lawyers, and to acts as the Church. What I mean by this, is that rather than being focused on judgement, crime and punishment and fines and imprisonment, the focus of the Religious Society as Court was to bring about ATONEMENT, REDEMPTION and FORGIVENESS between people who had wounded one another. In an era when in other parts of our nation the Hatfields and McCoys began feuds, when our leaders were deciding whether our new nation would have its Capital in Philadelphia, Washington DC or New York City, Skaneateles sought to be a community of faith. But also, we have as a society, as a church neglected what it once meant to be the Church. The focus of the Church was upon the Sacraments, and the preparation of believers to receive. We did not simply consume communion because it was the first Sunday of a given month, but we each considered how we have lived our lives, what is beneath our pains and squabbles, and whether spiritually in the presence of God we were ready to be forgiven, blessed, in communion with God. KEEP AWAKE and AWAKE anew!
Mark 13: 24-37
Do we really need reminder at the beginning of Advent, to “Keep Awake!”?
Three months ago, Labor Day happened, and we began the rush of Back to School programs/activities, followed by Halloween, and this last week driving 6-10 hours, so we could defrost the butter to bake the pie crusts and chop the celery and onions for stuffing, to put in the defrosted bird, during the Macy's Parade, all perfectly timed so everything came out of the oven just as Green Bay beat the Lions, in order that we could begin shopping before Black Friday.
We are a hyper-vigilant people, always waiting for the shoe to drop.
Keep awake?
If anything, we want the Church as alternative to culture, to pass out Sleep-Ease, to pacify and calm.
We have over 17,000 Starbucks Coffeeshops in 55 different countries, 11,000 here in the United States.
Keep awake?
For a decade, we have lived with war, fearful of attack, fearful of what has happened to sons/ daughters far away, fearful of the economy. Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi all dead, each of the nations of the Middle East and North Africa changed, the axis of evil shifted, yet the genie is not back in the bottle, the dead have not been returned, prestige and honor feel tarnished. War and economics have not brought us a clear and decisive WIN.
Keep awake, not out of fear of the number of shopping days until Christmas, not because it is our turn to host the family and we have home repair projects to finish, not because we feel obligated to have the latest Zelda X Box game of Elmo Rockstar...
Keep awake, because as Christians, we know God loves the world, we know Christ has come and suffered and died and rose, to come again. We live expectantly waiting in HOPE for the redemption of the world. Keep awake, because Christ has come and will come again. Keep awake, spiritually, because there is so much around us to pacify our desires, to fill us with tryptophan, to comfort us with momentary wins and so much anxiety about loss.
Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel lived in fear, first of Egypt, then of the Canaanites, then the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Persians and Medes and Greeks, by the writing of the Gospels the Romans, the Pelipenicians, the Anglo-Saxons, the Europeans, … One empire after another, one invading army, one economy each built upon the failure of another.
The apocalyptic vision of Mark is not a specific warning about a specific end of the world on 11-11-11 or 12-12-12, but rather that basing our values and ethics on invading armies, the dominance of cultures, the power of economies, ultimately will bring loss.
Jesus begins with a different starting point, a different goal in mind.
Rather than our being focused on winning and losing and control, open your eyes to the broader vision, You witness stars falling from the sky and the sun and moon going black, open your mind to God's Cosmos.
One of my favorite moments as a pastor comes on Ash Wednesday. In the presence of all gathered, we burn the past, the palms of a year ago, our words of praise, our vain attempts to conquer, and one by one the people of God come forward to be marked with the ash and soot in the sign of the cross, and to be called by name as we hear the words: YOU ARE FORGIVEN.
At Advent, we each are blessed and given Hope.
YOU ARE LOVED. You are God's Little lambs, you are BLESSED;
and everything, all the world, everything of time and space and imagination, has been created for you. What will it take to open our eyes to see, there is no need to fight with one another?
No need for dominance. There is need for only one thing, to be responsible for what we are given.
The whole point of the coming Christmas is that we each and every one of us have the power to BLESS others. God loved the world so much, God entered in, God gave to us God's only begotten child, as Children of God can we not also enter in, into our own lives and relationships to bless one another?
This is an amazing community! Not because of Dickens. Not because of our schools. Not because of our businesses. Not even because of the wonderful churches and people. Truth be told, this is a community with great scandal and avoidance and suffering, with alcoholism and abuse. BUT this is also a community in which as a man, I have witnessed what I can only describe as miracles.
In a culture which demands, “WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME” one person after another has stepped up to say I do not want to be presumptuous but could I do this to help?
A few weeks ago, as the adults passed around a clipboard asking people to lead as Liturgist and Manor server, Chris said to his father: “I could do that, I would like to, can you help me do that.”
I have seen the pain of chronic illness, that we try to manage, that we chemically control, disease that escalates and symptoms become more frequent, knowing that this is what we will live with the rest of life and you have lived from crisis to crisis with fear of what is next, when suddenly there is HOPE, hope beyond anything you have ever experienced or believed was reasonable to expect.
At the start of Stewardship, we heard description of an ancient curse turned into a blessing and reality: MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES! For an oppressed people centuries ago, this named that we would go from one situation to another, from one conquerer to another. For a people who had experienced stability and consistency, INTERESTING TIMES is naming of Change all around us. The BLESSING that is here, is when we open our eyes and minds to possibilities.
I am hopeful that the housing market will pick up again soon. Not because of economic worry & fears.
I love the old historic homes of this community, but after living in a house for a generation we often begin to see the house only as it has been, with limited future possibilities. When the house turns over and someone new moves into the community, walls begin to move, windows and porches appear.
Corinth was city of transplants, educated, upper-middle class immigrants, brought to populate a place. Each began to identify their loyalties, their identities out of personal relationships and possessions. The Church was structured differently in those days. The Church described itself as a community of faith, a religious society, without a church building, without a Session or Pastor or Presbytery. When problems arose, they appealed to their founding pastor, the Apostle Paul. As a Pastor, he BLESSED them, simply for being the Church in this place and time. Then called them to live into being what the Church could be, as more than so many individuals.
This Church in Skaneateles, in our earliest days identified ourselves as a Religious Society, a Community of Faith. Two of the chief functions of the Church in those days were to act as the Courts before their were local judges and lawyers, and to acts as the Church. What I mean by this, is that rather than being focused on judgement, crime and punishment and fines and imprisonment, the focus of the Religious Society as Court was to bring about ATONEMENT, REDEMPTION and FORGIVENESS between people who had wounded one another. In an era when in other parts of our nation the Hatfields and McCoys began feuds, when our leaders were deciding whether our new nation would have its Capital in Philadelphia, Washington DC or New York City, Skaneateles sought to be a community of faith. But also, we have as a society, as a church neglected what it once meant to be the Church. The focus of the Church was upon the Sacraments, and the preparation of believers to receive. We did not simply consume communion because it was the first Sunday of a given month, but we each considered how we have lived our lives, what is beneath our pains and squabbles, and whether spiritually in the presence of God we were ready to be forgiven, blessed, in communion with God. KEEP AWAKE and AWAKE anew!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
November, 13, 2011 "The Rule of 72"
Judges 11: 29-32
Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the Talents is not about Stewardship! Just as the story of Jephthah's Vow is not that it would have been better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Both are descriptions of HUMAN FEAR, our desire through Knowledge, by the power of Knowing, to Control our Fears, to create Security and Safety, Protectionism.
In ancient Palestine, just as today, burying one's assets in the ground seemed better than leaving our livelihood exposed on the open market. Who among us, would not possess more today, if five years ago, before the Housing Bubble burst, before the Dot Com crash, we had taken out all we had and buried the value in the ground? This is not Biblical guidance about investing, or stewardship of assets, it is about a faithful response to Human FEAR.
If you asked an Investment Banker, one of those engaged on Wall-street in Wealth Management, how to double your investment, they would describe The Rule of 72. Assuming a guaranteed Interest rate of 5%, you divide that rate of interest by the number 72, and you have the number of years it will take to double it, 14-15 years. If you want that to be faster, you take on greater risk, with greater possibility of failure. In the world of Venture Capitalism, the norm used to be that 1 out of 5, some claimed only 1 out of 10 would make it, all the rest would lose everything. The reason why Preachers can describe this from the pulpit, is that today, no one can guarantee an Interest Rate of 5%.
Faith, we have been taught, is not about Venture Capitalism. For most of us, our Personal Faith is just the opposite of Risk. Our belief in God is a description of creating our Personal Comfort Zone in this life and the life to come. Faith is like theoretical acceptance of ideas about God and Jesus, a list of intellectual precepts and morals we accept as foundational. Faith becomes getting our personal theology right, then living a good life by avoiding what we know to be bad. Religion, is a pretty timid non-risky venture, if anything the salve and antithesis of our fears. That is NOT Biblical Faith.
Remember that according to Matthew, Jesus told this Parable in the midst of a string of parables about the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Fig Tree, Noah and the Ark, Daniel and signs of the End of Time. All of which are about the END coming, Christ and Judgement being delayed, and how believers are to act. We are to follow through on RESPONSIBILITY, especially when we do not know, when we are afraid.
A man was going a long journey so divided up what he had among three servants, giving each an enormous sum. To one, he gave 1 Talent = 15 years wages, to another 2 Talents 30 years wages, to a third 5 Talents the equivalent of 75 years of his wages. The one with the least, was the most afraid, claiming “to know” that the Lord was harsh, he hid what he had been given responsibility, so as to be able to give back exactly what he had been given. Does it change the story at all, to put dollar values to what was given? Imagine, the least was given $1,000,000. The second $2,000,000, the third $5,000,000. No longer is this about one being trusted with 5 times as much as the one with only 1, because that one is $1,000,000. Time goes by. When the LORD returns, the one with $5,000,000 risked everything and made $5,000,000 more, the one with $2,000,000 also doubled what she was responsible for, the rule of 72 is not about the dollar value but the risk of doubling. So following this rule, the one who actually risked the most was the one who risked nothing, and had nothing more. You have to wonder, it is not the way Jesus told the parable, but what would have happened if the one with $5,000,000 had lost everything? Given the telling of the parable, I have to believe, the LORD still would have greeted him saying “You risked everything you were responsible for, you tried, well done.”
Fear is a very present reality in our lives, we each know ourselves to be trustworthy, yet we live in a time of fear where everyone doubts the other. The first several days of the Occupy Wall-Street protests, no one seemed able to describe what they were protesting. For some it was a lack of jobs. For others, that they had lost everything. For others, that education had already put them over $100,000 in debt before ever starting out. We live perpetually on Orange Alert, waiting for the next terrorist attack, accepting as norm that we must remove out shoes and belts and be searched before flying. There has arisen a mood of helplessness and anomie. Nothing we do seems to effect our lot in life. There is unending war, that few are able to describe what we are fighting for. Our leaders seem detached concerned only with re-election and blaming the other. We are pre-occupied with entertainment and trivia. Because of all of this, we have become a polarized society of fear, each side blaming the other.
Jephthah is an odd hero. Rarely does the Lectionary have us read from the Book of Judges, yet in many ways this is an apt description of the times in which we live. There is a recurrent phrase throughout the Book of Judges, “The word of God was rare in those days, each person did what they judged to be right, what they knew to be right, in their own heart...” Jephthah was the son of Gilead, but whose mother had been a prostitute. Gilead had taken responsibility for Jephthah, but Jephthah's brothers feared and rejected him. Jephthah went to live with the most worthless kind and became a mercenary. His mother had sold her favors for money, so he sold his ability to kill for a price. And the people of Israel were afraid of the Canaanites, especially among them the tribe of the Amonites. They contracted with Jephthah to kill the Amonites. He went through Town after Village, killing everyone in his path, eleven cities were laid waste. But after all this, on the night before his final battle, Jephthah was afraid. Desperation and fear, do terrible things to us, and Jephthah made a solemn vow. Some of us might make a promise to turn over a new leaf and live life differently. Some before going into battle might make a sacrifice. Some this morning might instead of purchasing more stuff for Christmas, use our gifts for Alternative contributions, providing in a loved one's name a gift to the Food Pantry, or Health care, or Cancer research, or for care of our elders, or for purchase of a heifer to a village without milk. Jephthah makes a vow, that IF he could KNOW he would be victorious he would sacrifice anything, so if he wins, then he will make a sacrifice of the first thing he sees coming from his property... a lamb, a goat, a heifer, a field of grain, even a servant. Jephthah goes into battle and does win, he utterly and completely destroys his enemy, and knowing this, knows he must make a sacrifice, but when he come home his daughter, his only child comes running out to greet him. Fear does terrible things to us, more than anything else, fear makes us want to BIND our fear to something, to blame, to take our fear away.
Today, there is no guarantee of a 5% rate of interest. There is no guarantee of a rule of 72. We live in an eschatological time, an end time, where the world we knew, everything we assumed is changing. There is a great deal of fear all around us, fear of the unknown, fear of uncertainty, fear of a lack of control. This is not reason to sacrifice our what we believe in. Fear is not answered by protectionism, or a faith of abstract moral ideas. Faith is about risking everything for what you are responsible. When meeting with those presenting a child for Baptism, we tell them that you are claiming an identity for this individual, that they belong to God, they are known by God. When preparing couples for marriage, that in the same way, they are claiming a new identity of being responsible for one another, their identity is as wife or husband to the other for richer and poorer, better and worse, in sickness and in health.
I think there is a very creative commercial on television, that shows handing to someone a briefcase filled with $100,000 and describing that each of the persons who were asked to hold this, did not open it, did not take even a single dollar; though in our economy the banks, the investors, the government all take their share. Few of us are going to have someone hand us a $100,000, or $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 but simultaneously, the Social Media has created Facebook and Linked-in, and Tweeting, such that any of could between the people we know and those they know, could have 5,000,000 contacts, people we are responsible for. You possess a treasure, a pearl of great value that nations have gone to war for, a gift which people have given their lives for. Faith is taking responsibility for what has been given us. Will you use the faith given you? Will you pass your compassion, your charity, your ability to make a difference on to others? Or will you protect what yo have, live in fear, and bury your faith in the dirt?
Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the Talents is not about Stewardship! Just as the story of Jephthah's Vow is not that it would have been better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Both are descriptions of HUMAN FEAR, our desire through Knowledge, by the power of Knowing, to Control our Fears, to create Security and Safety, Protectionism.
In ancient Palestine, just as today, burying one's assets in the ground seemed better than leaving our livelihood exposed on the open market. Who among us, would not possess more today, if five years ago, before the Housing Bubble burst, before the Dot Com crash, we had taken out all we had and buried the value in the ground? This is not Biblical guidance about investing, or stewardship of assets, it is about a faithful response to Human FEAR.
If you asked an Investment Banker, one of those engaged on Wall-street in Wealth Management, how to double your investment, they would describe The Rule of 72. Assuming a guaranteed Interest rate of 5%, you divide that rate of interest by the number 72, and you have the number of years it will take to double it, 14-15 years. If you want that to be faster, you take on greater risk, with greater possibility of failure. In the world of Venture Capitalism, the norm used to be that 1 out of 5, some claimed only 1 out of 10 would make it, all the rest would lose everything. The reason why Preachers can describe this from the pulpit, is that today, no one can guarantee an Interest Rate of 5%.
Faith, we have been taught, is not about Venture Capitalism. For most of us, our Personal Faith is just the opposite of Risk. Our belief in God is a description of creating our Personal Comfort Zone in this life and the life to come. Faith is like theoretical acceptance of ideas about God and Jesus, a list of intellectual precepts and morals we accept as foundational. Faith becomes getting our personal theology right, then living a good life by avoiding what we know to be bad. Religion, is a pretty timid non-risky venture, if anything the salve and antithesis of our fears. That is NOT Biblical Faith.
Remember that according to Matthew, Jesus told this Parable in the midst of a string of parables about the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Fig Tree, Noah and the Ark, Daniel and signs of the End of Time. All of which are about the END coming, Christ and Judgement being delayed, and how believers are to act. We are to follow through on RESPONSIBILITY, especially when we do not know, when we are afraid.
A man was going a long journey so divided up what he had among three servants, giving each an enormous sum. To one, he gave 1 Talent = 15 years wages, to another 2 Talents 30 years wages, to a third 5 Talents the equivalent of 75 years of his wages. The one with the least, was the most afraid, claiming “to know” that the Lord was harsh, he hid what he had been given responsibility, so as to be able to give back exactly what he had been given. Does it change the story at all, to put dollar values to what was given? Imagine, the least was given $1,000,000. The second $2,000,000, the third $5,000,000. No longer is this about one being trusted with 5 times as much as the one with only 1, because that one is $1,000,000. Time goes by. When the LORD returns, the one with $5,000,000 risked everything and made $5,000,000 more, the one with $2,000,000 also doubled what she was responsible for, the rule of 72 is not about the dollar value but the risk of doubling. So following this rule, the one who actually risked the most was the one who risked nothing, and had nothing more. You have to wonder, it is not the way Jesus told the parable, but what would have happened if the one with $5,000,000 had lost everything? Given the telling of the parable, I have to believe, the LORD still would have greeted him saying “You risked everything you were responsible for, you tried, well done.”
Fear is a very present reality in our lives, we each know ourselves to be trustworthy, yet we live in a time of fear where everyone doubts the other. The first several days of the Occupy Wall-Street protests, no one seemed able to describe what they were protesting. For some it was a lack of jobs. For others, that they had lost everything. For others, that education had already put them over $100,000 in debt before ever starting out. We live perpetually on Orange Alert, waiting for the next terrorist attack, accepting as norm that we must remove out shoes and belts and be searched before flying. There has arisen a mood of helplessness and anomie. Nothing we do seems to effect our lot in life. There is unending war, that few are able to describe what we are fighting for. Our leaders seem detached concerned only with re-election and blaming the other. We are pre-occupied with entertainment and trivia. Because of all of this, we have become a polarized society of fear, each side blaming the other.
Jephthah is an odd hero. Rarely does the Lectionary have us read from the Book of Judges, yet in many ways this is an apt description of the times in which we live. There is a recurrent phrase throughout the Book of Judges, “The word of God was rare in those days, each person did what they judged to be right, what they knew to be right, in their own heart...” Jephthah was the son of Gilead, but whose mother had been a prostitute. Gilead had taken responsibility for Jephthah, but Jephthah's brothers feared and rejected him. Jephthah went to live with the most worthless kind and became a mercenary. His mother had sold her favors for money, so he sold his ability to kill for a price. And the people of Israel were afraid of the Canaanites, especially among them the tribe of the Amonites. They contracted with Jephthah to kill the Amonites. He went through Town after Village, killing everyone in his path, eleven cities were laid waste. But after all this, on the night before his final battle, Jephthah was afraid. Desperation and fear, do terrible things to us, and Jephthah made a solemn vow. Some of us might make a promise to turn over a new leaf and live life differently. Some before going into battle might make a sacrifice. Some this morning might instead of purchasing more stuff for Christmas, use our gifts for Alternative contributions, providing in a loved one's name a gift to the Food Pantry, or Health care, or Cancer research, or for care of our elders, or for purchase of a heifer to a village without milk. Jephthah makes a vow, that IF he could KNOW he would be victorious he would sacrifice anything, so if he wins, then he will make a sacrifice of the first thing he sees coming from his property... a lamb, a goat, a heifer, a field of grain, even a servant. Jephthah goes into battle and does win, he utterly and completely destroys his enemy, and knowing this, knows he must make a sacrifice, but when he come home his daughter, his only child comes running out to greet him. Fear does terrible things to us, more than anything else, fear makes us want to BIND our fear to something, to blame, to take our fear away.
Today, there is no guarantee of a 5% rate of interest. There is no guarantee of a rule of 72. We live in an eschatological time, an end time, where the world we knew, everything we assumed is changing. There is a great deal of fear all around us, fear of the unknown, fear of uncertainty, fear of a lack of control. This is not reason to sacrifice our what we believe in. Fear is not answered by protectionism, or a faith of abstract moral ideas. Faith is about risking everything for what you are responsible. When meeting with those presenting a child for Baptism, we tell them that you are claiming an identity for this individual, that they belong to God, they are known by God. When preparing couples for marriage, that in the same way, they are claiming a new identity of being responsible for one another, their identity is as wife or husband to the other for richer and poorer, better and worse, in sickness and in health.
I think there is a very creative commercial on television, that shows handing to someone a briefcase filled with $100,000 and describing that each of the persons who were asked to hold this, did not open it, did not take even a single dollar; though in our economy the banks, the investors, the government all take their share. Few of us are going to have someone hand us a $100,000, or $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 but simultaneously, the Social Media has created Facebook and Linked-in, and Tweeting, such that any of could between the people we know and those they know, could have 5,000,000 contacts, people we are responsible for. You possess a treasure, a pearl of great value that nations have gone to war for, a gift which people have given their lives for. Faith is taking responsibility for what has been given us. Will you use the faith given you? Will you pass your compassion, your charity, your ability to make a difference on to others? Or will you protect what yo have, live in fear, and bury your faith in the dirt?
Sunday, November 6, 2011
November 6, 2011 "Choose of Chosen"
Joshua 24:1-4 & 14-25
Matthew 25: 1-13
A scientist in Idaho recently put forwad the following undisputed facts: The chemical compound "dihydrogenated-monoxide has been implicated in the deaths of thousands of Americans every year, mainly through accidental ingestion. In gaseous form, it can cause severe burns. The chemical is so caustic that it accelerates the corrosion of many metals... is a major component of acid rain, ... has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients. Symptoms of ingestion include excessive sweating and urination, and humanity has become so dependent upon this chemical that complete withdrawal means certain death. The presence of dihydrogenated-monoxide has been confirmed in every river, stream, lake, and reservoir in America. " Judging from these facts, do you think dihydrogenated-monoxide should be banned?" 86% of those surveyed agreed it should be banned. Follow-up surveys at the University of Notre Dame, Glasgow, Scotland, Stockton, California, yielded similar results. However, dihydrogenated-monoxide is commonly called water (H2O)! The scientist, fourteen-year-old Nathan Zohner won the Idaho State Science Fair by proving his project's thesis: "How Gullible Are We?"
This morning I would like you to reflect with me, not only on answering questions right, but the levels of our commitment... the depths of our faith, whether we have thought through that the answers we give are what we believe... and whether our words, whether what we believe matters?
With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, God had freed the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh, by miracles God had brought them out of oppression through the Red Sea into the wilderness, through Moses God had given the people the 10 Commandments and Ark of the Covenant, God gave them Manna from Heaven and water out of solid rock, day in day out for forty years God had led and provided for the Chosen people. Moses died before entering the Promised land and Joshua had been appointed to lead after Moses. Israel had crossed the Jordan and conquered the city of Ai, then the great city of Jericho without a single weapon being fired. Now, after all of that, possessing the Law, possessing the Covenant, possessing the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, before Joshua dies without leaving a successor, he asks the people, the Chosen people of God “Choose again, whom will you serve?”
A simple comparison would be to ask the couple married for over forty years, after all that has happened, after worrying about the paying of bills, after putting one another through school, after the birth and raising of children, after building your home and paying down the mortgage, knowing that for many of us our life and death choices change in the last year of life, we spend 90% of the world's cost for Health care in the last 10% of our lives, will you choose to share your days with this partner?
Perhaps the more relevant question to the times we live in, after working a lifetime for a company, day in day out, in good economies and bad recessions, through world-wars, when you prepare for retirement, will the company still honor your pension?
This is an archaic story from a Biblical time far removed from our own. Our cultural values are not only of a manifest destiny, that every person can succeed and hard work results in profits, but that we so believe in democracy and individual rights we will go to war for other nations other people to have these rights. What Joshua was affirming this day, was not human rights, but loyalty to a Divine Power. Can we make the division, that economically, socially, politically people have the Human Right to vote, to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, changing our minds as we often do; while at the same time committing to a loyalty to God, that not only on the day we join a congregation, not only when we are baptized or on the day of confirmation but deeper and deeper every day we affirm “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, I trust and love the Lord”?
Many of us cannot. And if not, we need to be honest with ourselves, honest with our faith, that there is one God, and God only will we serve. Everything else will take care of itself. We do not need to be concerned with the latest electronic car, DROID or popular possession. Because to choose the LORD and not be faithful may be worse than never to have known God at all. We become a prostituted people who claim fidelity to God, while lusting after all the other idols.
To be a Believer AND to be in the world today requires a balancing, that as a citizen, as a human being, we have rights and responsibilities of freedom, to work hard and do our best; HOWEVER, always to remember that as much as the commercials are selling us on CHOOSING to possess the latest, hottest, sexiest thing, as much as we desire to choose to keep up with our neighbors, even that we would choose to lay down our lives defending the basic human rights of others, we are also a CHOSEN people of God, and all our lives are lived in response to God loving us. The most difficult part of which is that being a Chosen people may mean our being used by God to demonstrate that loyalty, that fidelity, that love.
The problem of the bridesmaids was not that they did not know they were bridesmaids, not that they had not brought the right wedding garment, or that they had forgotten their role as bearers of the light, but that they were distracted by worry their lamps would go out. A different wedding tradition than we are accustomed to, where the groom does not see the bride before the wedding and everyone tries to get the Groom's expression as the Sanctuary doors open and he says “Whoa!” At this time, all the bridesmaids and guests gathered at the Bride's parents home and when everything was ready at the Groom's home, when the dowry had been paid, when all was prepared, then the Bridegroom came to escort his bride to their wedding together. The parable of the Kingdom of Heaven, is that the bridegroom is delayed in returning. Christ died over 2000 years ago, yet we are still here... Some came prepared with extra flasks of oil for 2000 years of waiting. Some panic at the last moment that they will not have enough to light their way and the way for the guests. They abandon their identity as bridesmaids at a wedding, to go buy more at midnight. While some are prepared and some are not, the question not asked is what would have happened if the foolish bridesmaids had not run off to CVS to get more oil? The Scriptures are filled with stories of there being only a dram of oil for the feeding of the Widow and her son, yet it was enough to feed them and Elijah for 40 days and nights, the story of Chanukah is about the oil not running out.Surely as Bridesmaids on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven the oil would have lasted, or if not, they could have joined the other guests but they were pre-occupied by having their own supply, by buying the stuff that would satisfy their fears.
As a Chosen people, Choose this day whom you will serve, Choose Again.
Matthew 25: 1-13
A scientist in Idaho recently put forwad the following undisputed facts: The chemical compound "dihydrogenated-monoxide has been implicated in the deaths of thousands of Americans every year, mainly through accidental ingestion. In gaseous form, it can cause severe burns. The chemical is so caustic that it accelerates the corrosion of many metals... is a major component of acid rain, ... has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients. Symptoms of ingestion include excessive sweating and urination, and humanity has become so dependent upon this chemical that complete withdrawal means certain death. The presence of dihydrogenated-monoxide has been confirmed in every river, stream, lake, and reservoir in America. " Judging from these facts, do you think dihydrogenated-monoxide should be banned?" 86% of those surveyed agreed it should be banned. Follow-up surveys at the University of Notre Dame, Glasgow, Scotland, Stockton, California, yielded similar results. However, dihydrogenated-monoxide is commonly called water (H2O)! The scientist, fourteen-year-old Nathan Zohner won the Idaho State Science Fair by proving his project's thesis: "How Gullible Are We?"
This morning I would like you to reflect with me, not only on answering questions right, but the levels of our commitment... the depths of our faith, whether we have thought through that the answers we give are what we believe... and whether our words, whether what we believe matters?
With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, God had freed the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh, by miracles God had brought them out of oppression through the Red Sea into the wilderness, through Moses God had given the people the 10 Commandments and Ark of the Covenant, God gave them Manna from Heaven and water out of solid rock, day in day out for forty years God had led and provided for the Chosen people. Moses died before entering the Promised land and Joshua had been appointed to lead after Moses. Israel had crossed the Jordan and conquered the city of Ai, then the great city of Jericho without a single weapon being fired. Now, after all of that, possessing the Law, possessing the Covenant, possessing the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, before Joshua dies without leaving a successor, he asks the people, the Chosen people of God “Choose again, whom will you serve?”
A simple comparison would be to ask the couple married for over forty years, after all that has happened, after worrying about the paying of bills, after putting one another through school, after the birth and raising of children, after building your home and paying down the mortgage, knowing that for many of us our life and death choices change in the last year of life, we spend 90% of the world's cost for Health care in the last 10% of our lives, will you choose to share your days with this partner?
Perhaps the more relevant question to the times we live in, after working a lifetime for a company, day in day out, in good economies and bad recessions, through world-wars, when you prepare for retirement, will the company still honor your pension?
This is an archaic story from a Biblical time far removed from our own. Our cultural values are not only of a manifest destiny, that every person can succeed and hard work results in profits, but that we so believe in democracy and individual rights we will go to war for other nations other people to have these rights. What Joshua was affirming this day, was not human rights, but loyalty to a Divine Power. Can we make the division, that economically, socially, politically people have the Human Right to vote, to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, changing our minds as we often do; while at the same time committing to a loyalty to God, that not only on the day we join a congregation, not only when we are baptized or on the day of confirmation but deeper and deeper every day we affirm “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, I trust and love the Lord”?
Many of us cannot. And if not, we need to be honest with ourselves, honest with our faith, that there is one God, and God only will we serve. Everything else will take care of itself. We do not need to be concerned with the latest electronic car, DROID or popular possession. Because to choose the LORD and not be faithful may be worse than never to have known God at all. We become a prostituted people who claim fidelity to God, while lusting after all the other idols.
To be a Believer AND to be in the world today requires a balancing, that as a citizen, as a human being, we have rights and responsibilities of freedom, to work hard and do our best; HOWEVER, always to remember that as much as the commercials are selling us on CHOOSING to possess the latest, hottest, sexiest thing, as much as we desire to choose to keep up with our neighbors, even that we would choose to lay down our lives defending the basic human rights of others, we are also a CHOSEN people of God, and all our lives are lived in response to God loving us. The most difficult part of which is that being a Chosen people may mean our being used by God to demonstrate that loyalty, that fidelity, that love.
The problem of the bridesmaids was not that they did not know they were bridesmaids, not that they had not brought the right wedding garment, or that they had forgotten their role as bearers of the light, but that they were distracted by worry their lamps would go out. A different wedding tradition than we are accustomed to, where the groom does not see the bride before the wedding and everyone tries to get the Groom's expression as the Sanctuary doors open and he says “Whoa!” At this time, all the bridesmaids and guests gathered at the Bride's parents home and when everything was ready at the Groom's home, when the dowry had been paid, when all was prepared, then the Bridegroom came to escort his bride to their wedding together. The parable of the Kingdom of Heaven, is that the bridegroom is delayed in returning. Christ died over 2000 years ago, yet we are still here... Some came prepared with extra flasks of oil for 2000 years of waiting. Some panic at the last moment that they will not have enough to light their way and the way for the guests. They abandon their identity as bridesmaids at a wedding, to go buy more at midnight. While some are prepared and some are not, the question not asked is what would have happened if the foolish bridesmaids had not run off to CVS to get more oil? The Scriptures are filled with stories of there being only a dram of oil for the feeding of the Widow and her son, yet it was enough to feed them and Elijah for 40 days and nights, the story of Chanukah is about the oil not running out.Surely as Bridesmaids on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven the oil would have lasted, or if not, they could have joined the other guests but they were pre-occupied by having their own supply, by buying the stuff that would satisfy their fears.
As a Chosen people, Choose this day whom you will serve, Choose Again.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
October 30, 2011 "After the Tribulation"
Revelation 7:9-12
Matthew 5:1-12
When my father died, someone in the church gave me very sage advice: “People are going to insist on telling you all kinds of stuff. They have a need to say it, but you are in no place to receive it. So give yourself permission to not have answers right now, recognizing that the purpose of therapy is to spend years figuring out what is our stuff, and what stuff is projected from other people, and whether any stuff has meaning.”
Ancient Judaism had a tradition of sitting SHIVAH for two years after a loved one dies. Gathering at each Sabbath with those who know you, with those who will tell you the truth, gathering for a meal. Because at the times of death, we are so overwhelmed by emotions by disruption to our lives we are off balance, and with good friends, it takes a full two years to unpack and sort out, finding new balance so we can go on.
There are certain celebrations like Christmas Eve and Easter, in which you want to gather the whole tableau, hearing the shepherds filled with awe and wonder, the angels singing Glori in Excelses Deo, the wisemen on bended knee adoring mother and child. Or the witnesses of Easter's Resurrection with Mary being consoled, Peter and the beloved disciple breathlessly staring into the empty tomb, the visitors to Emmaus, the soldiers frozen in fear, the Roman Centurion having proclaimed “surely this was the Son of God.” We experience crescendo upon crescendo of majesty. There are other occasions, like All Saints, in which we proceed far more slowly, turning over everything we thought we knew, because the images are not the philosophical constructs of Paul, or the narratives of Abraham or Moses but VISIONS of Imagination.
Pidge and Marne Dowley each died earlier this year. Marne was blind and had been failing for some time, she seemed close to death's door, with Pidge waiting on her lovingly. Then suddenly he had a stroke and was gone. Suddenly, Marne rallied and had several months in which she cared for their estate and their children before she too passed. I recall stopping in one day, as she sat beside the fireplace. She inquired of her pastor, “What is Heaven like?
Trying to be a good counselor, I asked why she asked... And she retorted “Because I want to know if that's where I really want to go.” I recall describing that most of life seems a puzzle to me, and that I believe, when I die, God will reveal that the complex puzzle I thought I had been working to solve, really amounts to only one small piece in the puzzle of history and humanity. I also recalled a Robin Williams Film in which after he dies Heaven and Hell are like living inside a lush series of paintings, where anything we imagine can be tangible and real.
Tragically, we have been afraid of what to do with The Book of the Revelation in the 21st Century. Hollywood has grasped it's images, and in one film after another, from The Exorcist to The 7th Seal to Indiana Jones, we have made the images terrifying. In the last section there was guarantee that the Holy Number of 12 times 12000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel scattered as they once were to the Diaspora, all would be brought home. Everyone known and expected and counted upon. But just as our Choir's Anthem had this marvelous counterpoint between the dirge of numbering each who has died and the celebration at the resurrection for ever more, Revelation shifts to a vision of All the Saints that are beyond numbering. And while there robes had been filthy and saturated with blood at endurance of suffering life, they have made them white as snow. The text is specific here that while usually in reference to resurrection we identify a passive voice that “GOD raise up Jesus” here the emphasis is active, that the saints each had a role in their own salvation, in there making their robes/ our robes clean.
What would those white robes feel like, soft as silk, or freshly laundered and stiff with outdoor air? What would be the feel of the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb? How does it feel to stand in the presence of God, not alone like Dorothy before the Wizard of Oz, but standing with an entire population of people all of whom love the Lord? How awesome to imagine the one who was sacrificed for us, becoming our shepherd!
How quickly we bury our words... “All The Saints Had a Role In Their Own Salvation.” What do we mean by salvation anymore? There are certain words like Evangelism and Morals and Salvation, which in the mainline Church became passe for a time. We are a self-satisfied people who despite Inflation and Recession, and constant Wars, live a pretty good life. Are our values, the priorities of our lives based on account balances or on the salvation of our souls? DO we even worry about the immortality of our souls?
Whenever a person dies a chill runs up a preacher's spine and should, as we wonder what words to say. How do we encapsulate in a few moments all that this person represented to others and in their own salvation? Mary Soderberg, Ed Belinski, I read through the list of names and for each recall their identity as so and so's mother, their father, their wife, 2 year old Cameron. While others have had all kinds of interpretations about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, representing one like Moses bringing the Law to the People from the Mountain... what I hear in the Beatitudes this morning is discerning what is really of value. Would I want to be outed by Jesus looking out and saying “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit,” “Blessed are those who Mourn, Blessed are the Humble.” But regardless of whether I wanted to be identified or not, what he offers is clarification about what life and death is really all about. A searching for the Kingdom of God, a desire to be comforted, the promised land, righteousness being satisfied.
Matthew 5:1-12
When my father died, someone in the church gave me very sage advice: “People are going to insist on telling you all kinds of stuff. They have a need to say it, but you are in no place to receive it. So give yourself permission to not have answers right now, recognizing that the purpose of therapy is to spend years figuring out what is our stuff, and what stuff is projected from other people, and whether any stuff has meaning.”
Ancient Judaism had a tradition of sitting SHIVAH for two years after a loved one dies. Gathering at each Sabbath with those who know you, with those who will tell you the truth, gathering for a meal. Because at the times of death, we are so overwhelmed by emotions by disruption to our lives we are off balance, and with good friends, it takes a full two years to unpack and sort out, finding new balance so we can go on.
There are certain celebrations like Christmas Eve and Easter, in which you want to gather the whole tableau, hearing the shepherds filled with awe and wonder, the angels singing Glori in Excelses Deo, the wisemen on bended knee adoring mother and child. Or the witnesses of Easter's Resurrection with Mary being consoled, Peter and the beloved disciple breathlessly staring into the empty tomb, the visitors to Emmaus, the soldiers frozen in fear, the Roman Centurion having proclaimed “surely this was the Son of God.” We experience crescendo upon crescendo of majesty. There are other occasions, like All Saints, in which we proceed far more slowly, turning over everything we thought we knew, because the images are not the philosophical constructs of Paul, or the narratives of Abraham or Moses but VISIONS of Imagination.
Pidge and Marne Dowley each died earlier this year. Marne was blind and had been failing for some time, she seemed close to death's door, with Pidge waiting on her lovingly. Then suddenly he had a stroke and was gone. Suddenly, Marne rallied and had several months in which she cared for their estate and their children before she too passed. I recall stopping in one day, as she sat beside the fireplace. She inquired of her pastor, “What is Heaven like?
Trying to be a good counselor, I asked why she asked... And she retorted “Because I want to know if that's where I really want to go.” I recall describing that most of life seems a puzzle to me, and that I believe, when I die, God will reveal that the complex puzzle I thought I had been working to solve, really amounts to only one small piece in the puzzle of history and humanity. I also recalled a Robin Williams Film in which after he dies Heaven and Hell are like living inside a lush series of paintings, where anything we imagine can be tangible and real.
Tragically, we have been afraid of what to do with The Book of the Revelation in the 21st Century. Hollywood has grasped it's images, and in one film after another, from The Exorcist to The 7th Seal to Indiana Jones, we have made the images terrifying. In the last section there was guarantee that the Holy Number of 12 times 12000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel scattered as they once were to the Diaspora, all would be brought home. Everyone known and expected and counted upon. But just as our Choir's Anthem had this marvelous counterpoint between the dirge of numbering each who has died and the celebration at the resurrection for ever more, Revelation shifts to a vision of All the Saints that are beyond numbering. And while there robes had been filthy and saturated with blood at endurance of suffering life, they have made them white as snow. The text is specific here that while usually in reference to resurrection we identify a passive voice that “GOD raise up Jesus” here the emphasis is active, that the saints each had a role in their own salvation, in there making their robes/ our robes clean.
What would those white robes feel like, soft as silk, or freshly laundered and stiff with outdoor air? What would be the feel of the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb? How does it feel to stand in the presence of God, not alone like Dorothy before the Wizard of Oz, but standing with an entire population of people all of whom love the Lord? How awesome to imagine the one who was sacrificed for us, becoming our shepherd!
How quickly we bury our words... “All The Saints Had a Role In Their Own Salvation.” What do we mean by salvation anymore? There are certain words like Evangelism and Morals and Salvation, which in the mainline Church became passe for a time. We are a self-satisfied people who despite Inflation and Recession, and constant Wars, live a pretty good life. Are our values, the priorities of our lives based on account balances or on the salvation of our souls? DO we even worry about the immortality of our souls?
Whenever a person dies a chill runs up a preacher's spine and should, as we wonder what words to say. How do we encapsulate in a few moments all that this person represented to others and in their own salvation? Mary Soderberg, Ed Belinski, I read through the list of names and for each recall their identity as so and so's mother, their father, their wife, 2 year old Cameron. While others have had all kinds of interpretations about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, representing one like Moses bringing the Law to the People from the Mountain... what I hear in the Beatitudes this morning is discerning what is really of value. Would I want to be outed by Jesus looking out and saying “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit,” “Blessed are those who Mourn, Blessed are the Humble.” But regardless of whether I wanted to be identified or not, what he offers is clarification about what life and death is really all about. A searching for the Kingdom of God, a desire to be comforted, the promised land, righteousness being satisfied.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
October 23, 2011, Sing to the LORD a New Song
I Corinthians 13
John 2
The Choir just sang "Sing to the Lord a New Song!"
This is the first day of your life together as Husband and Wife.
When announcement was first shared about having a wedding on Sunday morning during Worship, there were those who responded, “You know you are starting a precedent, and soon everyone is going to want to get married on Sundays.” The truth is that up until the 20th Century, from the time of the Early Church, Weddings and Funerals often took place on Sunday mornings. Worship of God was not a 60 minute time-block, but an all day affair. Lately, we have had Saturday weddings, Friday, Thursday, even requests for Sunday afternoon weddings... not because these were a celebration of the Church as the Body of Christ, the Community of Faith, but because Restaurants for the Reception have a vacancy.
As a society, we need to rethink what we are expressing in Weddings. When everything is spectacle, how many bridesmaids, how lavish the flowers, how extravagant the reception, we have lost sight of marriage. My favorite comment, as guests come forward after a wedding to describe how beautiful it was, is to remind them that “YES and They are Married! That is the best part!” We have made marriage in America all about the Bride. Or how adorable the Flower-girls. In Sudanese weddings, because the wedding is negotiation of the Dowry, it is all about the Groom. When “The Wedding” is about “The Marriage, the covenant commitment” between these two.
At the height of the Reformation, Church leaders were concerned that in the Mass, worship seemed like a Magic Show, a performance, in which what was rehearsed was executed before the masses, the words were pronounced and miraculously, magically, the dead were raised up, the bread and wine became body and blood. Consequently, the Church began to emphasize fellowship and education rather than what was created during worship. But the fact of the mater is that by the stating of their Vows, Anna and David are changed, from being two individuals, to as happened in their baptisms claiming a new identity before God of living for one another.
We have taken marriage so much for granted!
How many of us had one or the other of these readings in our weddings?
Yet, neither of these was written for reading at weddings.
The Wedding at Cana, is evidence in John of Jesus' first miracle. And what that miracle demonstrates is the SUPER-ABUNDANCE of GOD's Love. When the limited wine has run out, there is now gallons and gallons to be shared. And the quality of the new wine, is far richer, far better than anything anyone had ever shared. We can try to recreate it. We can attempt to explain the miracle... but that makes this a trick. The miracle is that what once was impossible because of the limitations of each as individuals, even both working independently, now is possible because of joining together.
First Corinthians 13, so equated with weddings that it is often identified as The Wedding Passage, or The Poem about LOVE. The English language does not have the nuance of other languages. In English, we have only one word, to describe the bond between siblings, between grandparent and grandchild, for the parent walking their adult child down the aisle, or for a nursing mother, or as between neighbors and co-workers working as a team, who spend a lifetime helping one another; as well as romance and passion, and erotic desires between two; as well as for empathy and compassion and self-sacrifice motivated by faith, motivated by commitment. Love. But what the Founder of the Church was describing here is AGAPE, The Love originated by God, expressed by us as individuals for others that changes the lives of all the world. Paul was not writing about a wedding, but about the whole community of faith, the Church, and how we are to respect and live our lives for one another.
The Latin translation of AGAPE was CARITAS, which in English are where we derive the words CHARITY and COMPASSION. In the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible written 500 years ago this year, this passage was always translated as FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY abide these Three, but the greatest of these is CHARITY. What a different direction that provides for reading these words at a wedding! David and Anna, Faith and Hope are vitally important in a marriage, but more than all of this, is CHARITABLE COMPASSION. When the other is in need... When there is something you can do to care for others... something motivated by God, affecting the whole world, do so in love.
Often I hear couples describe, I did this and that and all the “honey-do” things on the Refrigerator, when do I get what I want? When is it my turn in marriage? There is no score keeping. There is no budget for the costs of love. Act out of living your life for that other person.
More than a few have raised an eyebrow that today we are celebrating both your Marriage and the Baptism of you child. But then again, there are many in the church, who had not been active for years, who by having children, by the children asking about God have been brought to faith. The question we need to be concerned with is have the couple made a covenant commitment to one another to act charitably, to act in devotion to the other's needs, and have the couple claimed an extension of their faith in God for this child, claiming this child as a Gift from God?
Faith, Hope, LOVE, abide these three, but the greatest of these is LOVE.
John 2
The Choir just sang "Sing to the Lord a New Song!"
This is the first day of your life together as Husband and Wife.
When announcement was first shared about having a wedding on Sunday morning during Worship, there were those who responded, “You know you are starting a precedent, and soon everyone is going to want to get married on Sundays.” The truth is that up until the 20th Century, from the time of the Early Church, Weddings and Funerals often took place on Sunday mornings. Worship of God was not a 60 minute time-block, but an all day affair. Lately, we have had Saturday weddings, Friday, Thursday, even requests for Sunday afternoon weddings... not because these were a celebration of the Church as the Body of Christ, the Community of Faith, but because Restaurants for the Reception have a vacancy.
As a society, we need to rethink what we are expressing in Weddings. When everything is spectacle, how many bridesmaids, how lavish the flowers, how extravagant the reception, we have lost sight of marriage. My favorite comment, as guests come forward after a wedding to describe how beautiful it was, is to remind them that “YES and They are Married! That is the best part!” We have made marriage in America all about the Bride. Or how adorable the Flower-girls. In Sudanese weddings, because the wedding is negotiation of the Dowry, it is all about the Groom. When “The Wedding” is about “The Marriage, the covenant commitment” between these two.
At the height of the Reformation, Church leaders were concerned that in the Mass, worship seemed like a Magic Show, a performance, in which what was rehearsed was executed before the masses, the words were pronounced and miraculously, magically, the dead were raised up, the bread and wine became body and blood. Consequently, the Church began to emphasize fellowship and education rather than what was created during worship. But the fact of the mater is that by the stating of their Vows, Anna and David are changed, from being two individuals, to as happened in their baptisms claiming a new identity before God of living for one another.
We have taken marriage so much for granted!
How many of us had one or the other of these readings in our weddings?
Yet, neither of these was written for reading at weddings.
The Wedding at Cana, is evidence in John of Jesus' first miracle. And what that miracle demonstrates is the SUPER-ABUNDANCE of GOD's Love. When the limited wine has run out, there is now gallons and gallons to be shared. And the quality of the new wine, is far richer, far better than anything anyone had ever shared. We can try to recreate it. We can attempt to explain the miracle... but that makes this a trick. The miracle is that what once was impossible because of the limitations of each as individuals, even both working independently, now is possible because of joining together.
First Corinthians 13, so equated with weddings that it is often identified as The Wedding Passage, or The Poem about LOVE. The English language does not have the nuance of other languages. In English, we have only one word, to describe the bond between siblings, between grandparent and grandchild, for the parent walking their adult child down the aisle, or for a nursing mother, or as between neighbors and co-workers working as a team, who spend a lifetime helping one another; as well as romance and passion, and erotic desires between two; as well as for empathy and compassion and self-sacrifice motivated by faith, motivated by commitment. Love. But what the Founder of the Church was describing here is AGAPE, The Love originated by God, expressed by us as individuals for others that changes the lives of all the world. Paul was not writing about a wedding, but about the whole community of faith, the Church, and how we are to respect and live our lives for one another.
The Latin translation of AGAPE was CARITAS, which in English are where we derive the words CHARITY and COMPASSION. In the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible written 500 years ago this year, this passage was always translated as FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY abide these Three, but the greatest of these is CHARITY. What a different direction that provides for reading these words at a wedding! David and Anna, Faith and Hope are vitally important in a marriage, but more than all of this, is CHARITABLE COMPASSION. When the other is in need... When there is something you can do to care for others... something motivated by God, affecting the whole world, do so in love.
Often I hear couples describe, I did this and that and all the “honey-do” things on the Refrigerator, when do I get what I want? When is it my turn in marriage? There is no score keeping. There is no budget for the costs of love. Act out of living your life for that other person.
More than a few have raised an eyebrow that today we are celebrating both your Marriage and the Baptism of you child. But then again, there are many in the church, who had not been active for years, who by having children, by the children asking about God have been brought to faith. The question we need to be concerned with is have the couple made a covenant commitment to one another to act charitably, to act in devotion to the other's needs, and have the couple claimed an extension of their faith in God for this child, claiming this child as a Gift from God?
Faith, Hope, LOVE, abide these three, but the greatest of these is LOVE.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Oct 16, 2011 "What Are We Going to Do"
Exodus 33: 12-23
Matthew 22:15-22
Last time, we spoke of the Golden Calf, how like Adam and Eve ate of the Apple when given the Law not to, that even before Moses could come down the Mountain with the 10 Commandments, the Nation had already violated at least three; more than breaking laws, both the eating of the Apple and worship of the idol, were violations of trust breaking the heart of God. For Adam and Eve, taking the apple did not mean death, but it was an end to life in the Garden of Eden and beginning to live with the curse of human actions. So also for this people who were not yet a people, what is to happen, who are they to be to God once they broke trust, violated the commandment to be God's people?
There is a tension in Scripture, between humanity being created good, very good and blessed to be; versus having sinned, being corrupt. How can we ever forgive broken trust? Forgiveness of trust broken is basic to all our circumstance. The act of redemption, the assurance of forgiveness are foundational to Christian faith. It is not that the SECULAR WORLD is SELFISH, and the SACRED is TRUSTING, there are times when the most sacred thing is to be private, to claim what is precious to you; and there are times when as a society we can act on behalf of others in need. There is a correlation between belief that God was Dead, that God Grew Tired of Us, and the “ME Generation” of the last several decades. Not causation, but correlation, that on Christmas and Easter, and at Funerals, Marriages and Births, people seek a relationship with something beyond themselves. But the reality that we are easily seduced, if given the chance we will choose for our desires rather than for commitment, the truth there are broken hopes and dreams and trusts, is foundational to human life. So what are going to do?
On the first day of Seminary, we had a class on Preaching. The professor read the story of the Golden Calf, then separated us into three groups, almost half the group as the Hebrew Nation, an equal number were to take the role of God, and three of us were to play the part of Moses.
Those who were the people, were admiring one another's clothes and earrings, their houses and cars, and worshipping the celebrities in the tabloids, they took great pride in being One Nation Under God. Over a loudspeaker came the voice of God, saying “I have given you all the Laws and the Prophets, everything needed to be faithful, Don't Mess up!” and they dropped the Bible on the floor.
And the professor turned to those of us who were taking the part of Moses and asked “Now, having heard the Word, and witnessed reality, what are you gonna do?”
Moses gathered the Nation and preached “So who do you want to be?” ...possessing a few moments of fame, having the largest pile of belongings of anyone you know, to claim to be a Nation under God ...or to be a people in relationship with the Creator, Judge, Redeemer and Sustainer of all that is and will ever be?
Moses left them to work on that and knelt down before God, preaching differently. How often we think “preaching” is only when the minister stands in the pulpit on Sunday morning and talks to us... But the other half of preaching is being in relationship with God. Can God be vengeful? Yes. Can God forgive? Yes. Can we act, seeking redemption, humbly sincerely asking God for hope, and believe God could change circumstance, either by expanding possibilities beyond our knowing, or by changing our hearts? Again the answer is YES.
But part of this passage in Exodus, is recognizing what WHIMPY BELIEVERS we have been.
Moses does not mumble, and mutter under his breath: I guess I should be sorry, I want You to fix things give me another chance God. NO. Moses stands toe to toe with God. Moses' prayer has CHUTZPAH! “Hey God, Just what do you think you are doing? You have said I have found favor in your sight. You have said you know me, you know my name and trust me. How do I know you are with me? Please do NOT destroy this people unnecessarily, because that would not look good on God or on me as a believer! If the people return and are faithful, forgive them, be their God. But also, if I have found favor, if you do know me and trust me, then I need to be able to know you and trust you, and see your presence with us.”
Moses is not giving a list of demands or frivolities. But his prayer takes God seriously... takes himself seriously ...takes faith seriously, as sincere, honest communication of what we believe and stand for. That is the greatest flaw of our world today... our word does not stand for anything. The news reports are filled with video of defendants, even world leaders lying, covering up the truth. There is a seeming assumption, that on our wedding day we repeat the words given us, and if something else comes along, if our lives change, we can divorce. Increasingly, I think that before a couple divorce, they need to gather those who were witnesses and explain to them, and explain to God, seeking not just to get out of the contract, but to redeem the relationship.
Evaluating the contract, parsing words, these are what the Herodians and Pharisees were trying to do. Just like in the political debates of our times, they posed a “Gotch Question.” A legal debate that either makes you for us or for them. Like the 18 yr old blonde MTV Reporter asking of the President: “Boxers or Briefs”, not only is it an affront to ask this kind of question of a person in this position; but it is not a question, it is a political trap. We pay Federal and State Income Taxes, County, Town and Village Property Taxes, School Taxes, Vice Taxes on Alcohol and Cigarettes, Child Care Taxes, Social Security taxes... There was Roman Law that the Taxes paid to the Empire had to be paid in Roman Currency with an image of Caesar and inscription “Our loyalty to our Emperor and Priest Caesar, son of the August Caesar.” Judaism being practiced at Jerusalem, was within a Roman province, so one of the few claims to religious loyalty was that animals bought for sacrifice at the Temple at Jerusalem had to be bought with Jewish currency, and just as we have a currency exchange at borders, it would be a profanity to bring Roman currency into the Jewish Temple. As King Herod was a political appointee of the Roman Emperor, the Herodians were in favor of paying Taxes to Caesar. Pharisees who spent their lives debating nuances of Jewish Law were against paying any tax to the Government, in favor of giving buying sacrifices at the Temple. So Jesus, are you a Republican or Democrat? Conservative or Liberal? But instead of being concerned about political parties, or which Tax loopholes to reform, Jesus speaks to the Faith of the issue saying I do not have on me any of the coins used to pay Roman taxes, show me whose image and inscription are upon what is given. And the Pharisees reach into their purse and take out Roman Coins... To which Jesus responds “RENDER to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Therefore, not only, give silver and gold to governments who manipulate and control the printing of currency, and as you are in the image of God give yourself and all you have to the service of God; but also, if you have come into the Sanctuary with currency of the Emperor in your purse, it would be profane to claim that you belong to God.
Interestingly, the word for the Roman Coin with the image of the Caesar was called an Eichon, which in English is where we acquire the word ICON. And Jesus word “RENDER” literally meant “Give what is obligated” so not as a free will offering or a pledge or tithe, but purchase for what you receive. And what Moses demanded of the People and God was that they Give to God what is Owed in being Faithful, and that God give to the people what is owed of one who knows them/us by name, knows our actions and has seen us.
Generations later, when Elijah was running away from Jezebel for having killed al the prophets of Baal, this is the cave that Elijah sought, where he might profess that he had been very Zealous for the LORD and he, he alone was left who was faithful, where Elijah saw Earthquake, Whirlwind, Fire and Flood, but God was in none of these, and a Still Small Voice asked what are you doing here? What Moses sought was to see God, but there was no description of Earthquake, Whirlwind, Fire or Flood, but that Moses was able to witness the GLORY of God with him, to witness where God's presence had been. We are a jaded people who have seen miraculous things. It is hard for us who have witnessed people walking on the moon, video links around the world, the ability to split the atom and splice genes, to look for the GLORY of God... but in the end what else are we going to do?
Matthew 22:15-22
Last time, we spoke of the Golden Calf, how like Adam and Eve ate of the Apple when given the Law not to, that even before Moses could come down the Mountain with the 10 Commandments, the Nation had already violated at least three; more than breaking laws, both the eating of the Apple and worship of the idol, were violations of trust breaking the heart of God. For Adam and Eve, taking the apple did not mean death, but it was an end to life in the Garden of Eden and beginning to live with the curse of human actions. So also for this people who were not yet a people, what is to happen, who are they to be to God once they broke trust, violated the commandment to be God's people?
There is a tension in Scripture, between humanity being created good, very good and blessed to be; versus having sinned, being corrupt. How can we ever forgive broken trust? Forgiveness of trust broken is basic to all our circumstance. The act of redemption, the assurance of forgiveness are foundational to Christian faith. It is not that the SECULAR WORLD is SELFISH, and the SACRED is TRUSTING, there are times when the most sacred thing is to be private, to claim what is precious to you; and there are times when as a society we can act on behalf of others in need. There is a correlation between belief that God was Dead, that God Grew Tired of Us, and the “ME Generation” of the last several decades. Not causation, but correlation, that on Christmas and Easter, and at Funerals, Marriages and Births, people seek a relationship with something beyond themselves. But the reality that we are easily seduced, if given the chance we will choose for our desires rather than for commitment, the truth there are broken hopes and dreams and trusts, is foundational to human life. So what are going to do?
On the first day of Seminary, we had a class on Preaching. The professor read the story of the Golden Calf, then separated us into three groups, almost half the group as the Hebrew Nation, an equal number were to take the role of God, and three of us were to play the part of Moses.
Those who were the people, were admiring one another's clothes and earrings, their houses and cars, and worshipping the celebrities in the tabloids, they took great pride in being One Nation Under God. Over a loudspeaker came the voice of God, saying “I have given you all the Laws and the Prophets, everything needed to be faithful, Don't Mess up!” and they dropped the Bible on the floor.
And the professor turned to those of us who were taking the part of Moses and asked “Now, having heard the Word, and witnessed reality, what are you gonna do?”
Moses gathered the Nation and preached “So who do you want to be?” ...possessing a few moments of fame, having the largest pile of belongings of anyone you know, to claim to be a Nation under God ...or to be a people in relationship with the Creator, Judge, Redeemer and Sustainer of all that is and will ever be?
Moses left them to work on that and knelt down before God, preaching differently. How often we think “preaching” is only when the minister stands in the pulpit on Sunday morning and talks to us... But the other half of preaching is being in relationship with God. Can God be vengeful? Yes. Can God forgive? Yes. Can we act, seeking redemption, humbly sincerely asking God for hope, and believe God could change circumstance, either by expanding possibilities beyond our knowing, or by changing our hearts? Again the answer is YES.
But part of this passage in Exodus, is recognizing what WHIMPY BELIEVERS we have been.
Moses does not mumble, and mutter under his breath: I guess I should be sorry, I want You to fix things give me another chance God. NO. Moses stands toe to toe with God. Moses' prayer has CHUTZPAH! “Hey God, Just what do you think you are doing? You have said I have found favor in your sight. You have said you know me, you know my name and trust me. How do I know you are with me? Please do NOT destroy this people unnecessarily, because that would not look good on God or on me as a believer! If the people return and are faithful, forgive them, be their God. But also, if I have found favor, if you do know me and trust me, then I need to be able to know you and trust you, and see your presence with us.”
Moses is not giving a list of demands or frivolities. But his prayer takes God seriously... takes himself seriously ...takes faith seriously, as sincere, honest communication of what we believe and stand for. That is the greatest flaw of our world today... our word does not stand for anything. The news reports are filled with video of defendants, even world leaders lying, covering up the truth. There is a seeming assumption, that on our wedding day we repeat the words given us, and if something else comes along, if our lives change, we can divorce. Increasingly, I think that before a couple divorce, they need to gather those who were witnesses and explain to them, and explain to God, seeking not just to get out of the contract, but to redeem the relationship.
Evaluating the contract, parsing words, these are what the Herodians and Pharisees were trying to do. Just like in the political debates of our times, they posed a “Gotch Question.” A legal debate that either makes you for us or for them. Like the 18 yr old blonde MTV Reporter asking of the President: “Boxers or Briefs”, not only is it an affront to ask this kind of question of a person in this position; but it is not a question, it is a political trap. We pay Federal and State Income Taxes, County, Town and Village Property Taxes, School Taxes, Vice Taxes on Alcohol and Cigarettes, Child Care Taxes, Social Security taxes... There was Roman Law that the Taxes paid to the Empire had to be paid in Roman Currency with an image of Caesar and inscription “Our loyalty to our Emperor and Priest Caesar, son of the August Caesar.” Judaism being practiced at Jerusalem, was within a Roman province, so one of the few claims to religious loyalty was that animals bought for sacrifice at the Temple at Jerusalem had to be bought with Jewish currency, and just as we have a currency exchange at borders, it would be a profanity to bring Roman currency into the Jewish Temple. As King Herod was a political appointee of the Roman Emperor, the Herodians were in favor of paying Taxes to Caesar. Pharisees who spent their lives debating nuances of Jewish Law were against paying any tax to the Government, in favor of giving buying sacrifices at the Temple. So Jesus, are you a Republican or Democrat? Conservative or Liberal? But instead of being concerned about political parties, or which Tax loopholes to reform, Jesus speaks to the Faith of the issue saying I do not have on me any of the coins used to pay Roman taxes, show me whose image and inscription are upon what is given. And the Pharisees reach into their purse and take out Roman Coins... To which Jesus responds “RENDER to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Therefore, not only, give silver and gold to governments who manipulate and control the printing of currency, and as you are in the image of God give yourself and all you have to the service of God; but also, if you have come into the Sanctuary with currency of the Emperor in your purse, it would be profane to claim that you belong to God.
Interestingly, the word for the Roman Coin with the image of the Caesar was called an Eichon, which in English is where we acquire the word ICON. And Jesus word “RENDER” literally meant “Give what is obligated” so not as a free will offering or a pledge or tithe, but purchase for what you receive. And what Moses demanded of the People and God was that they Give to God what is Owed in being Faithful, and that God give to the people what is owed of one who knows them/us by name, knows our actions and has seen us.
Generations later, when Elijah was running away from Jezebel for having killed al the prophets of Baal, this is the cave that Elijah sought, where he might profess that he had been very Zealous for the LORD and he, he alone was left who was faithful, where Elijah saw Earthquake, Whirlwind, Fire and Flood, but God was in none of these, and a Still Small Voice asked what are you doing here? What Moses sought was to see God, but there was no description of Earthquake, Whirlwind, Fire or Flood, but that Moses was able to witness the GLORY of God with him, to witness where God's presence had been. We are a jaded people who have seen miraculous things. It is hard for us who have witnessed people walking on the moon, video links around the world, the ability to split the atom and splice genes, to look for the GLORY of God... but in the end what else are we going to do?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
October 2, 2011, "Universal Faith"
Genesis 14:13 - 15:6
Hebrews 4:14 - 15:14
Many years ago, recognizing that this is World Communion Sunday, the one time in all the year when every church of every denomination break bread and pour the cup of reconciliation and pray for peace, that we sent a postcard to everyone related to the Church inviting them to “The Feast of God's Blessings.” The Sanctuary was filled, the music spectacular, but after worship at the door, several families asked “And where do we go for the Dinner?”
Another year, we emphasized that on this day, Catholic and Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist and Pentecostal, UCC and Presbyterian all would share communion. I am told, the following morning some of our parishioners greeted colleagues at work, describing “How wonderful that we could all celebrate communion on the same Sunday and maybe we were not so far apart after all.” To which they were told, by Catholic, Lutheran and Episcopal friends, “We celebrate Communion every week, where have you Presbyterians been?”
One year preaching at the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Worship; knowing that through the Lutherans there were now accords with the Roman Catholic Church, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian and Methodist; and knowing that the Latin word for Thanksgiving is Eucharist, I proposed that we all come together in this worship for the sharing of Communion, we set out the elements of Bread and the Cup on the Table, then realized that while there were accords for the future, in order for Presbyterians to participate we were required to have Elders serve, for Anglicans, the Cup needed to have fermented wine, for Methodists it had to be Non-Fermented Grape Juice preferable Welch's as Welch had been a Methodist, and for Catholics a priest needed to serve who could not serve Protestants.
We cannot simply declare that all shall be one, a universal faith, leapfrogging over the last 500 years of Church History, to resolve our differences. Instead what Genesis and Hebrews affirm is going back before the creation of separate religions, to our roots and core beliefs.
In Genesis, we follow the love of God for all Creation and after several failed attempts, God's Covenant commitment with one family for all the earth. Abram and Sarai take Abram's Nephew whose name was Lot, and follow where God leads. Not simply Nomads, but a people of Promise, who traverse through all of Canaan, for a new home. Abram and Sarai , as well as Lot, each grow in prosperity as they follow God's Promise. Yet the world can be a hostile place, and Lot and his neighbors in Sodom are kidnapped and taken prisoner as slaves. When Abram hears of Lot's captivity he leads his household and all the surrounding community as if a great army. Abram executes military strategy as he recognizes the strengths of each and divides their number to form companies, Not attacking from one side alone, but in the dark of night, attacking from every side. The Bible describes not only did they win, they “routed” their enemy, the opposing 5 kings and their armies running and falling down the hillsides.
Victorious Abram, Mamre, Aner and Eshcol, return home, with all the people and possessions that had been taken, as well as all the belongings of the 5 kings. And at the Valley of the Kings, 2 other Kings come out to greet them, the King of Sodom and the King of Salem. The King of Sodom is thankful for the victory against their enemy and wants to reward Abram with the booty of war. The King of Salem, brings out bread and wine, to bless Abram and to bless God for what has happened in these last hours. There is recorded evidence here in the 14th Chapter of Genesis, that long before the Sacrament of Jesus' Last Supper, before Moses and the Manna from Heaven, before the Passover while slaves in Egypt, even before the births of Isaac or Ishmael, there was a sacred meal of bread and wine, as we blessed one another and blessed God in thanksgiving for the events that happened.
We tend to overshadow this story with memory that Sodom and Gomorrah were places of sin and corruption. There was a time in which the Chosen People of God, lived as neighbors, acting in ways that benefitted both Israel and Sodom. While another neighbor, Salem was not Sodom. Salem is the ancient name for Jerusalem, “salem” having the same root as “Shalom” and in Arabic “Salem” meaning PEACE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. The King of Salem was also a Priest of God. We know the name of the King who also was a Priest, Melchizedek; but his faith in God had no name for God, only The God Most High, where Abram knew YHWH and spoke directly with God as trusted companion.
The Letter to the Hebrews, is a sermon to a Christian Community, a Church. This people have become Secular. They understand social behavior. They have all the right words and customs, but no longer remember the WHY of faith. Their prayers have become a shopping list of “O God, I Need and end to War, an end to Famine, give rain where there is drought, and dryness where there has been flooding, Also I need toothpaste, a loaf of bread, and why not a bottle of Grape Juice while we are at it.” For them, Prayer and Faith, had become rituals, meaningless routines. The Preacher here, reaches back into their faith history and affirms, before Christianity, our ancestors were the Jews of Ancient Israel, who under Solomon and King David had become a Great and powerful Nation, but long before even that, our ancestors of faith had wandered with Moses in the wilderness with the Tent of Meeting in which was the Ark of the Covenant containing the 10 Commandments. Once each year, on the holiest day of the year, the High Priest would take the Confessions and Prayers and Offerings of the People of God, entering into the Tent, passing through the Veil into the Inner Sanctum, the Holy of Holies, where the High Priest being a man, acknowledging his identification with the people, would offer his sacrifice and prayers, along with those of the people. The Preacher affirms, We Have A Great High Priest, able to fulfill all that those Priests of old did, but more because our Great High Priest is the Son of God Most High.
Can our High Priest identify with us, yes He was Fully Human, tempted as we all are, but he chose to be without sin! Could he enter the Holy Tent of Meeting God in the Wilderness, Passing through the Veil to the Holy of Holies? More than that he has passed through the veil between Life and Death, to sit at the Right hand of God! Can he carry our prayers and offerings, and make our sacrifice? More than that he can, he already has, with the personal sacrifice of his own life. Where other High Priests needed to repeat their sacrifice annually, his sacrifice is for all time and all people, for he is a Priest in the order of Melchizedek, he is both King and Priest.
So what is required of us? That our Confession be what we can HOLD FAST TO. Make your Confession of what you believe, what you believe! Jesus offered his sacrifice, with prayer and passion, blood, sweat and tears. May Our Faith not be something we recite like a Christmas list of wants, not weekly confessional making up what we could have done. But recognizing the moments in our lives that are holy and giving thanks to God with Tears and Laughter.
This week, the former Priest from our Village sent me a story from over 40 years ago. We all remember the 20th of July 1969. That was not the Summer of Love, which was the year before, it was the summer of landing on the Moon. We all remember watching and listening as Neil Armstrong stepped down the ladder from the Landing Module stating “One small step for Man, one Giant Leap for Mankind.” But do you remember the other guy? There were two in the Module, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, not Buzz Lightyear, but Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin in addition to being an Astronaut, was an Elder sitting on The Session of a Presbyterian Church in Texas. Weeks before the Mission, at their Session meeting he had asked, “So my job is going to allow me to do something that is a first for humanity. How shall we remember it?” And the Session celebrated Communion together, giving to him the Chalice, a vial of Wine and a Wafer of bread. After they set foot on the Moon, the words spoken by Buzz Aldrin were: “Wherever you are, whomever you are, I would like you to stop what you are doing and give thanks for the events of the last several hours.” Taking the wine, he poured it into the cup and at 1/6th the Gravity of Earth it floated out like balls of gelatinous mass, which entering the cup dissolved and washed up the sides. They held the Bread and the Wine blessing God and all Creation repeating the words of John “I am the Vine and You the Branches, all things are possible with God, cut off from me you can do nothing.”
Hebrews 4:14 - 15:14
Many years ago, recognizing that this is World Communion Sunday, the one time in all the year when every church of every denomination break bread and pour the cup of reconciliation and pray for peace, that we sent a postcard to everyone related to the Church inviting them to “The Feast of God's Blessings.” The Sanctuary was filled, the music spectacular, but after worship at the door, several families asked “And where do we go for the Dinner?”
Another year, we emphasized that on this day, Catholic and Lutheran, Episcopal, Baptist and Pentecostal, UCC and Presbyterian all would share communion. I am told, the following morning some of our parishioners greeted colleagues at work, describing “How wonderful that we could all celebrate communion on the same Sunday and maybe we were not so far apart after all.” To which they were told, by Catholic, Lutheran and Episcopal friends, “We celebrate Communion every week, where have you Presbyterians been?”
One year preaching at the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Worship; knowing that through the Lutherans there were now accords with the Roman Catholic Church, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian and Methodist; and knowing that the Latin word for Thanksgiving is Eucharist, I proposed that we all come together in this worship for the sharing of Communion, we set out the elements of Bread and the Cup on the Table, then realized that while there were accords for the future, in order for Presbyterians to participate we were required to have Elders serve, for Anglicans, the Cup needed to have fermented wine, for Methodists it had to be Non-Fermented Grape Juice preferable Welch's as Welch had been a Methodist, and for Catholics a priest needed to serve who could not serve Protestants.
We cannot simply declare that all shall be one, a universal faith, leapfrogging over the last 500 years of Church History, to resolve our differences. Instead what Genesis and Hebrews affirm is going back before the creation of separate religions, to our roots and core beliefs.
In Genesis, we follow the love of God for all Creation and after several failed attempts, God's Covenant commitment with one family for all the earth. Abram and Sarai take Abram's Nephew whose name was Lot, and follow where God leads. Not simply Nomads, but a people of Promise, who traverse through all of Canaan, for a new home. Abram and Sarai , as well as Lot, each grow in prosperity as they follow God's Promise. Yet the world can be a hostile place, and Lot and his neighbors in Sodom are kidnapped and taken prisoner as slaves. When Abram hears of Lot's captivity he leads his household and all the surrounding community as if a great army. Abram executes military strategy as he recognizes the strengths of each and divides their number to form companies, Not attacking from one side alone, but in the dark of night, attacking from every side. The Bible describes not only did they win, they “routed” their enemy, the opposing 5 kings and their armies running and falling down the hillsides.
Victorious Abram, Mamre, Aner and Eshcol, return home, with all the people and possessions that had been taken, as well as all the belongings of the 5 kings. And at the Valley of the Kings, 2 other Kings come out to greet them, the King of Sodom and the King of Salem. The King of Sodom is thankful for the victory against their enemy and wants to reward Abram with the booty of war. The King of Salem, brings out bread and wine, to bless Abram and to bless God for what has happened in these last hours. There is recorded evidence here in the 14th Chapter of Genesis, that long before the Sacrament of Jesus' Last Supper, before Moses and the Manna from Heaven, before the Passover while slaves in Egypt, even before the births of Isaac or Ishmael, there was a sacred meal of bread and wine, as we blessed one another and blessed God in thanksgiving for the events that happened.
We tend to overshadow this story with memory that Sodom and Gomorrah were places of sin and corruption. There was a time in which the Chosen People of God, lived as neighbors, acting in ways that benefitted both Israel and Sodom. While another neighbor, Salem was not Sodom. Salem is the ancient name for Jerusalem, “salem” having the same root as “Shalom” and in Arabic “Salem” meaning PEACE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. The King of Salem was also a Priest of God. We know the name of the King who also was a Priest, Melchizedek; but his faith in God had no name for God, only The God Most High, where Abram knew YHWH and spoke directly with God as trusted companion.
The Letter to the Hebrews, is a sermon to a Christian Community, a Church. This people have become Secular. They understand social behavior. They have all the right words and customs, but no longer remember the WHY of faith. Their prayers have become a shopping list of “O God, I Need and end to War, an end to Famine, give rain where there is drought, and dryness where there has been flooding, Also I need toothpaste, a loaf of bread, and why not a bottle of Grape Juice while we are at it.” For them, Prayer and Faith, had become rituals, meaningless routines. The Preacher here, reaches back into their faith history and affirms, before Christianity, our ancestors were the Jews of Ancient Israel, who under Solomon and King David had become a Great and powerful Nation, but long before even that, our ancestors of faith had wandered with Moses in the wilderness with the Tent of Meeting in which was the Ark of the Covenant containing the 10 Commandments. Once each year, on the holiest day of the year, the High Priest would take the Confessions and Prayers and Offerings of the People of God, entering into the Tent, passing through the Veil into the Inner Sanctum, the Holy of Holies, where the High Priest being a man, acknowledging his identification with the people, would offer his sacrifice and prayers, along with those of the people. The Preacher affirms, We Have A Great High Priest, able to fulfill all that those Priests of old did, but more because our Great High Priest is the Son of God Most High.
Can our High Priest identify with us, yes He was Fully Human, tempted as we all are, but he chose to be without sin! Could he enter the Holy Tent of Meeting God in the Wilderness, Passing through the Veil to the Holy of Holies? More than that he has passed through the veil between Life and Death, to sit at the Right hand of God! Can he carry our prayers and offerings, and make our sacrifice? More than that he can, he already has, with the personal sacrifice of his own life. Where other High Priests needed to repeat their sacrifice annually, his sacrifice is for all time and all people, for he is a Priest in the order of Melchizedek, he is both King and Priest.
So what is required of us? That our Confession be what we can HOLD FAST TO. Make your Confession of what you believe, what you believe! Jesus offered his sacrifice, with prayer and passion, blood, sweat and tears. May Our Faith not be something we recite like a Christmas list of wants, not weekly confessional making up what we could have done. But recognizing the moments in our lives that are holy and giving thanks to God with Tears and Laughter.
This week, the former Priest from our Village sent me a story from over 40 years ago. We all remember the 20th of July 1969. That was not the Summer of Love, which was the year before, it was the summer of landing on the Moon. We all remember watching and listening as Neil Armstrong stepped down the ladder from the Landing Module stating “One small step for Man, one Giant Leap for Mankind.” But do you remember the other guy? There were two in the Module, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, not Buzz Lightyear, but Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin in addition to being an Astronaut, was an Elder sitting on The Session of a Presbyterian Church in Texas. Weeks before the Mission, at their Session meeting he had asked, “So my job is going to allow me to do something that is a first for humanity. How shall we remember it?” And the Session celebrated Communion together, giving to him the Chalice, a vial of Wine and a Wafer of bread. After they set foot on the Moon, the words spoken by Buzz Aldrin were: “Wherever you are, whomever you are, I would like you to stop what you are doing and give thanks for the events of the last several hours.” Taking the wine, he poured it into the cup and at 1/6th the Gravity of Earth it floated out like balls of gelatinous mass, which entering the cup dissolved and washed up the sides. They held the Bread and the Wine blessing God and all Creation repeating the words of John “I am the Vine and You the Branches, all things are possible with God, cut off from me you can do nothing.”
Sunday, September 25, 2011
"The Reasons Behind", Sept 25,2011
Judges 9:1-26
Matthew 21:23-46
Last week, following the Worship Service a Coffee Clutch were looking for a place to meet, and asked if it is permissible to drink coffee in the Sanctuary? We are adults, there is no carpeting to be stained, I knew of one church that the walls of the Sanctuary were lined with mugs in order that listening to the sermon you could have a cup of coffee to hold and sip while listening. All of which refers, as do our Scripture lessons for this day, to the question of : “By Whose Authority and By What Evidence do we make important decisions?” What are the REASONS BEHIND OUR CHOICES?
How do you know, if the decisions of this day will be pleasing to God, or evil, benefiting you alone, or benefiting your family, our community, history, and does it matter which you try to please?
In the Book of Judges, the chorus that is repeated after every story is that at that time there was no legitimate monarch in Israel and each one judged what seemed right in their own mind. After Moses, Joshua, among the lineage of Judges was Gideon, who fought against the Midianites to claim the land. As a warrior leader, Gideon lived a long time, fathering over 70 children! But after Gideon died who would rule, who would make decisions, how do we know whom to trust? One of Gideon's illegitimate sons Abimelech, poses the question in the negative: “So which is less offensive, to be ruled over by one king or by 70?” Would you fear being ruled by Abimelech alone, or all 70 of his brothers squabbling?
In addition to having Gideon as a Father, Abimelech's mother was from the people of Shechem. Abimelech appealed to them out of a sense of race and culture, shared history, that we are bone of bone and flesh of flesh. Therefore, do not trust the other 70 brothers, instead trust the one who is like you. And the people of Shechem followed Abimelech in murder of all 70 of the Sons of Gideon, Abimelech's brothers
There are two rules given ministers in Seminary. That when you come into a new Call, do not make any changes for the first two years. And, while you could change anything in the church, do not change where people sit on Sunday morning. When we came to Skaneateles, Capital Campaign I was in debt, the architects were ready with Capital Campaign II, the Organ Task Force had been working for ten years, and past abuses of a pastor had recently been prosecuted. Not doing anything, was not an option. At the end of our second year together, we moved all the pews, maintaining roughly where seats had been before, but now with different aisles and clear focus on what we are doing in worship. However, among the first things we did, was to reread our history of this Church, coming to know each other, and claim that heritage as bone of Adam and Eve as bone and flesh of flesh, claiming that this was not the first or only time there had been controversy, and partnering to claim a shared identity in using the church's resources for mission in the community and world.
We sing the songs and wave the palms of Jesus' entry on Palm Sunday, but when Jesus entered Jerusalem, entered the Temple, the Temple Priests and Scribes and Pharisees asked: “By What Authority do you do these things?” To which Jesus replied, did John the Baptizer, whom you rejected, baptize on the authority of God, or not? It is easy enough to reply “History will Judge” but what do we do in the meantime? And how can we rebuild trust when we make a wrong decisions?
At times it seems as though the Bible is OBTUSE. Why, when a straight forward question is asked, does the Bible not give a straight forward answer, but instead parables. There are direct answers that we refuse to listen to. By addressing answers in metaphor, allegory and parable, we are required to mull over the answer, remembering the story and questioning if it applies to us.
There are great tragedies in Jotham's Parable, not only that the Thorny bramble represents Abimelech, but that among potential Kings of the Forest, the Olive Tree did not see itself as being governed by the Olive Branch of Peace, but only by having to give up the fatness that honors Gods and Men. The Fig Tree saw having to give up sweet pleasures and good fruit. The Vine is not the New Testament Vine that all branches are part of, where nutrients are pushed up from the roots, but only that it would need to give up wine and celebration, in order to govern. In short, according to Jotham's Parable because no one else was willing to risk giving up what they had, in order to make hard decisions, to lead, the Authority of the Forest was the least satisfied member. And in poetic twist, Jotham's Parable that if they truly trust the Bramble inviting all the other trees to gather in its shade, wherein they are consumed by fire, in the end, Abimelech leads his army to siege a city, burning their crops, pouring salt on their fields, which in the battle causes them all to die. Abimelech has his neck broken by a woman in the tower dropping a millstone upon him, and wanting to not be remembered as having been beaten by a woman, Abimelech begs one of his own to kill him. Questions of Authority are terrible awful stories.
A few weeks ago, when hurricanes showered the East Coast, and Earthquakes shook Washington DC, some of the Political candidates claimed authority for the destruction was from God. Then backed away from the rhetoric by claiming they were only joking. The point of such devastation is not that these were ACTS OF GOD, or even CHAOS being unleashed. But rather to claim and accept that LIFE IS FRAGILE, and far too short, therefore to wonder whether the business we have been about is pleasing to God, or inviting chaos. As we re-build DESTINY in Syracuse, are we only constructing a shopping mall, or creating buildings that not only leave no carbon footprint, but actually benefit the Earth?
Jesus replies to the Authorities of the Temple with a series of Parables. Among these is the Parable of the Vineyard, which has often been misconstrued by Anti-Semitism and Hate, that earlier authorities in the Church directly equated those who killed the Prophets and Killed the Son and Heir, as being the Jews. This is one of the passages that was used by Naziism to justify what they called the “Final Conclusion” the Gas Chambers of the Holocaust. The difficulty in imposing our perspectives on a parable as being a one dimensional Analogy, is that the interpreters ignored the reality that all the Prophets and the Son were also Jewish. To which, Albert Einstein made the claim that the only Social Organization that could stand up to Naziism was the Religious Community. The point of this parable is not Anti-Semitism, but that any time the Community of Faith rejects the authority of God, rejects the call of the Holy Spirit, ignores faith, we risk being like those tenants.
The parable of the Sons is not that the one was Judaism and the other Gentiles, but that real authority is not that which we immediately respond to, but rather that which rules our lives and decision making. What are our authorities? Do we act in response to God, or out of our own desires, or motivated by our lusts, our greed, evil? What are the reasons behind our choices and when questioned do we have authorities to believe in? Part of the beauty of the Parable of the Sons, is that we could always turn again and do what is right...
Matthew 21:23-46
Last week, following the Worship Service a Coffee Clutch were looking for a place to meet, and asked if it is permissible to drink coffee in the Sanctuary? We are adults, there is no carpeting to be stained, I knew of one church that the walls of the Sanctuary were lined with mugs in order that listening to the sermon you could have a cup of coffee to hold and sip while listening. All of which refers, as do our Scripture lessons for this day, to the question of : “By Whose Authority and By What Evidence do we make important decisions?” What are the REASONS BEHIND OUR CHOICES?
How do you know, if the decisions of this day will be pleasing to God, or evil, benefiting you alone, or benefiting your family, our community, history, and does it matter which you try to please?
In the Book of Judges, the chorus that is repeated after every story is that at that time there was no legitimate monarch in Israel and each one judged what seemed right in their own mind. After Moses, Joshua, among the lineage of Judges was Gideon, who fought against the Midianites to claim the land. As a warrior leader, Gideon lived a long time, fathering over 70 children! But after Gideon died who would rule, who would make decisions, how do we know whom to trust? One of Gideon's illegitimate sons Abimelech, poses the question in the negative: “So which is less offensive, to be ruled over by one king or by 70?” Would you fear being ruled by Abimelech alone, or all 70 of his brothers squabbling?
In addition to having Gideon as a Father, Abimelech's mother was from the people of Shechem. Abimelech appealed to them out of a sense of race and culture, shared history, that we are bone of bone and flesh of flesh. Therefore, do not trust the other 70 brothers, instead trust the one who is like you. And the people of Shechem followed Abimelech in murder of all 70 of the Sons of Gideon, Abimelech's brothers
There are two rules given ministers in Seminary. That when you come into a new Call, do not make any changes for the first two years. And, while you could change anything in the church, do not change where people sit on Sunday morning. When we came to Skaneateles, Capital Campaign I was in debt, the architects were ready with Capital Campaign II, the Organ Task Force had been working for ten years, and past abuses of a pastor had recently been prosecuted. Not doing anything, was not an option. At the end of our second year together, we moved all the pews, maintaining roughly where seats had been before, but now with different aisles and clear focus on what we are doing in worship. However, among the first things we did, was to reread our history of this Church, coming to know each other, and claim that heritage as bone of Adam and Eve as bone and flesh of flesh, claiming that this was not the first or only time there had been controversy, and partnering to claim a shared identity in using the church's resources for mission in the community and world.
We sing the songs and wave the palms of Jesus' entry on Palm Sunday, but when Jesus entered Jerusalem, entered the Temple, the Temple Priests and Scribes and Pharisees asked: “By What Authority do you do these things?” To which Jesus replied, did John the Baptizer, whom you rejected, baptize on the authority of God, or not? It is easy enough to reply “History will Judge” but what do we do in the meantime? And how can we rebuild trust when we make a wrong decisions?
At times it seems as though the Bible is OBTUSE. Why, when a straight forward question is asked, does the Bible not give a straight forward answer, but instead parables. There are direct answers that we refuse to listen to. By addressing answers in metaphor, allegory and parable, we are required to mull over the answer, remembering the story and questioning if it applies to us.
There are great tragedies in Jotham's Parable, not only that the Thorny bramble represents Abimelech, but that among potential Kings of the Forest, the Olive Tree did not see itself as being governed by the Olive Branch of Peace, but only by having to give up the fatness that honors Gods and Men. The Fig Tree saw having to give up sweet pleasures and good fruit. The Vine is not the New Testament Vine that all branches are part of, where nutrients are pushed up from the roots, but only that it would need to give up wine and celebration, in order to govern. In short, according to Jotham's Parable because no one else was willing to risk giving up what they had, in order to make hard decisions, to lead, the Authority of the Forest was the least satisfied member. And in poetic twist, Jotham's Parable that if they truly trust the Bramble inviting all the other trees to gather in its shade, wherein they are consumed by fire, in the end, Abimelech leads his army to siege a city, burning their crops, pouring salt on their fields, which in the battle causes them all to die. Abimelech has his neck broken by a woman in the tower dropping a millstone upon him, and wanting to not be remembered as having been beaten by a woman, Abimelech begs one of his own to kill him. Questions of Authority are terrible awful stories.
A few weeks ago, when hurricanes showered the East Coast, and Earthquakes shook Washington DC, some of the Political candidates claimed authority for the destruction was from God. Then backed away from the rhetoric by claiming they were only joking. The point of such devastation is not that these were ACTS OF GOD, or even CHAOS being unleashed. But rather to claim and accept that LIFE IS FRAGILE, and far too short, therefore to wonder whether the business we have been about is pleasing to God, or inviting chaos. As we re-build DESTINY in Syracuse, are we only constructing a shopping mall, or creating buildings that not only leave no carbon footprint, but actually benefit the Earth?
Jesus replies to the Authorities of the Temple with a series of Parables. Among these is the Parable of the Vineyard, which has often been misconstrued by Anti-Semitism and Hate, that earlier authorities in the Church directly equated those who killed the Prophets and Killed the Son and Heir, as being the Jews. This is one of the passages that was used by Naziism to justify what they called the “Final Conclusion” the Gas Chambers of the Holocaust. The difficulty in imposing our perspectives on a parable as being a one dimensional Analogy, is that the interpreters ignored the reality that all the Prophets and the Son were also Jewish. To which, Albert Einstein made the claim that the only Social Organization that could stand up to Naziism was the Religious Community. The point of this parable is not Anti-Semitism, but that any time the Community of Faith rejects the authority of God, rejects the call of the Holy Spirit, ignores faith, we risk being like those tenants.
The parable of the Sons is not that the one was Judaism and the other Gentiles, but that real authority is not that which we immediately respond to, but rather that which rules our lives and decision making. What are our authorities? Do we act in response to God, or out of our own desires, or motivated by our lusts, our greed, evil? What are the reasons behind our choices and when questioned do we have authorities to believe in? Part of the beauty of the Parable of the Sons, is that we could always turn again and do what is right...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
"Enough For This Day" September 18, 2011
Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20: 1-16
Years ago, I knew a man who had discovered what he thought was the secret to salvation.
His parents had made sacrifices for him to go to the best schools. Early on, he had learned that if you show up and listen, giving back what you are told you will at least get a C, for attendance /competency. However the harder you work, the more you apply yourself, the more you will succeed. He took this to College, and work, and family life, believing his success, his life, his salvation, were all in his control. Building success upon success, he quickly rose in authority and management, and affluence. He began searching for the gold ring, the last big contest, which would allow him to feel satisfied that whatever he put his mind to, whatever he attempted, he could win. Then one night, a long dark night of the soul, he encountered something he could not control. He could not fix. He could not win. All he could do, was watch and wait, hoping to have the strength to pick up the pieces. He turned to prayer, and at every crisis he sought answers from God, sought miracles, learning to cope. Having learned earlier lessons well, he applied himself to caregiving, that he could be the best caregiver in history. But this was a hollow victory, as their family went from crisis to crisis. Suddenly one day, a new treatment was offered, it was an all or nothing risk, as they would abandon all the therapies they had known for something else. For the first time in his life, this man knew what it was to “hope” against every reality, against every experience.He had discovered that what he had known was about “success” which is all in our own hands, versus “hope and salvation” which are daily gifts of God's grace.
God providing Manna in the wilderness, represents a different kind of miracle, a different faith reality! We have read story after story of Almighty God creating the universe by commanding it to be. There have been the stories of Abraham and Sarah, unable to conceive, far advanced in years, giving birth. The Great Pharaoh of Egypt, all his Armies and Chariots, pursuing Hebrew slaves, when the Red Sea opened up.
Humans want to believe in that kind of God. Above the Altar in the Ancient Roman Temples was an inscription of three words: Do Ut Des “I Give in order That You may Give,” there is a certain kind of fairness, that gods would respond to our demands, we paid our offerings, demonstrated our commitment, give us the winners' prize. We made a sacrifice, paid the offering, if you are really God, then give us victory. There is a basic human belief, that if we are “good,” if we obey the rules, if we are “kind,” if we are generous and faithful, we will receive blessings; whereas if we lie, if we cheat to get ahead, if we steal, if we are immoral, there ought to be some form of Karma: punishment.
But life in the wilderness represents a different reality for us and the God of the wilderness is different. Within human society there is a certain safety-net. It may not be attractive, the Hebrews complained to Moses, while we were slaves of Pharaoh we were always given bread to eat. The wilderness is a place of anxiety, a reality where food is not guaranteed, where food-stress and freedom-stress and faith-stress are somehow inextricably linked. The point is not One Great Miracle, one success where we have it all, but rather daily to turn to God. One of the lessons of the Manna in the Wilderness is how often, how tempting it is for us, to modify the Lord's Prayer from “Give US this day OUR daily bread” to “Give ME, MINE.” The 40 years in the Wilderness is about a change of culture, a change of humanity, from individualism and survival of the fittest, to the community and salvation of every soul.
Old Testament Scholar Terence Fretheim of Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota has demonstrated that actually in the Sinai Peninsula there is a form of lice, which bore into the fruit of the Tamarind tree, secreting a yellow white substance, which when it is cold congeals into balls, and when it is hot forms a flaky substance, the consistency of flour, high in carbohydrates and nutrients. The indigenous tribal people of this region still today, gather this substance to make into bread and call it MANNA. The odd nature of Manna, is that if you gather even a small amount, it is enough. If you gather all you can, to hoard a supply, it goes rancid, developing worms and flies and mold.
We as 21st Century Westerners have a hard time understanding the concept of “ENOUGH” and also that among our In-Alienable Rights as Americans is not a guarantee of HAPPINESS, but only a guarantee of the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. Since the Great Depression, and one could argue throughout all of American History, we have been bred to believe we could have everything our parents had and more.
Like the Wilderness Wandering, we are in a time of cultural change, change to the basic assumptions of humanity from how to put a Man on the Moon, to instead consider how do we end War on Earth?
Can we stop all the Saddam Husseins and Osama Bin Ladens and Molmar Ghaddafis, to live in peace?
Whereas earlier generations believed they could work to accumulate excess, eventually to retire, for many of us that will not be a possibility, at least not the same. That shift, that change, is unfair. Our problem as believers, is that the Bible does not claim FAIRNESS, but instead offers God's GRACE. Fairness is not about Justice or Righteousness. Fairness is an assumption that the rules will be the same for all of us, on the basis of which some can Win and others Lose. Again, that is about individual success not about Salvation of the Kingdom of God.
There is something about this parable of the Vineyard that strikes us as blatantly unfair. This parable comes from a section of the Gospel, we too often read in paragraphs. We read of Jesus' teachings about Marriage and Divorce, Celibacy, Children, Sex, Economics, Success, imagining each of these are each separate lessons for us as individuals, when all of this is about us as a community of faith. This parable is directly linked to the Successful Young Man asking what more he needs to do; to which Jesus replies it is not about doing, Eternal life, faith itself are not things you can win at; but only participate in. The story of the Successful Young Man and the Parable of the Vineyard are also then tied to the response of the Disciples “we left everything to follow you”, to which Jesus says “So What?” Faith is not about accomplishment, not about skills or abilities, or affluence, or success, but only about being thankful to be able to work!
What we, like the workers, tend to see, is that we reported early and tried our hardest. We negotiate a fair-wage for a day's work, believing their will be a Pension and Social Security. We work all day, giving of ourselves. Others came later, they were promised only work. At the end, those who came late and barely worked at all, receive the same as those who work all day long. If the point were SUCCESS and PROSPERITY, this would be an unfair parable. But instead the parable is about GOD's GRACE, and what is fair is that everyone whether they came to work generations ago, or for who knows what reason that is not even explained come to work late, ALL are able to work in God's Vineyard. In not that what we have trained our lives for? We ask our toddlers and High School students what they want to be when they grow up. The answer we want to hear is not I WANT TO RETIRED. The answer is to be an Engineer, and Architect, a Firefighter, a Soldier, a Police, an Artist, a Musician, a Teacher, one who gives their life for others.
SALVATION is not about WINNING, not about extravagant Miracles, not even about Success. Salvation is daily having ENOUGH FOR THIS DAY, enough to work and enough to provide others to be part of a community of faith. By daily witnessing God, in the little things, like having food for the table, and sharing with others, we reduce our anxiety, we build resources of faith against stress, and we can be confident that when extraordinary miracles are needed God will provide those too.
Matthew 20: 1-16
Years ago, I knew a man who had discovered what he thought was the secret to salvation.
His parents had made sacrifices for him to go to the best schools. Early on, he had learned that if you show up and listen, giving back what you are told you will at least get a C, for attendance /competency. However the harder you work, the more you apply yourself, the more you will succeed. He took this to College, and work, and family life, believing his success, his life, his salvation, were all in his control. Building success upon success, he quickly rose in authority and management, and affluence. He began searching for the gold ring, the last big contest, which would allow him to feel satisfied that whatever he put his mind to, whatever he attempted, he could win. Then one night, a long dark night of the soul, he encountered something he could not control. He could not fix. He could not win. All he could do, was watch and wait, hoping to have the strength to pick up the pieces. He turned to prayer, and at every crisis he sought answers from God, sought miracles, learning to cope. Having learned earlier lessons well, he applied himself to caregiving, that he could be the best caregiver in history. But this was a hollow victory, as their family went from crisis to crisis. Suddenly one day, a new treatment was offered, it was an all or nothing risk, as they would abandon all the therapies they had known for something else. For the first time in his life, this man knew what it was to “hope” against every reality, against every experience.He had discovered that what he had known was about “success” which is all in our own hands, versus “hope and salvation” which are daily gifts of God's grace.
God providing Manna in the wilderness, represents a different kind of miracle, a different faith reality! We have read story after story of Almighty God creating the universe by commanding it to be. There have been the stories of Abraham and Sarah, unable to conceive, far advanced in years, giving birth. The Great Pharaoh of Egypt, all his Armies and Chariots, pursuing Hebrew slaves, when the Red Sea opened up.
Humans want to believe in that kind of God. Above the Altar in the Ancient Roman Temples was an inscription of three words: Do Ut Des “I Give in order That You may Give,” there is a certain kind of fairness, that gods would respond to our demands, we paid our offerings, demonstrated our commitment, give us the winners' prize. We made a sacrifice, paid the offering, if you are really God, then give us victory. There is a basic human belief, that if we are “good,” if we obey the rules, if we are “kind,” if we are generous and faithful, we will receive blessings; whereas if we lie, if we cheat to get ahead, if we steal, if we are immoral, there ought to be some form of Karma: punishment.
But life in the wilderness represents a different reality for us and the God of the wilderness is different. Within human society there is a certain safety-net. It may not be attractive, the Hebrews complained to Moses, while we were slaves of Pharaoh we were always given bread to eat. The wilderness is a place of anxiety, a reality where food is not guaranteed, where food-stress and freedom-stress and faith-stress are somehow inextricably linked. The point is not One Great Miracle, one success where we have it all, but rather daily to turn to God. One of the lessons of the Manna in the Wilderness is how often, how tempting it is for us, to modify the Lord's Prayer from “Give US this day OUR daily bread” to “Give ME, MINE.” The 40 years in the Wilderness is about a change of culture, a change of humanity, from individualism and survival of the fittest, to the community and salvation of every soul.
Old Testament Scholar Terence Fretheim of Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota has demonstrated that actually in the Sinai Peninsula there is a form of lice, which bore into the fruit of the Tamarind tree, secreting a yellow white substance, which when it is cold congeals into balls, and when it is hot forms a flaky substance, the consistency of flour, high in carbohydrates and nutrients. The indigenous tribal people of this region still today, gather this substance to make into bread and call it MANNA. The odd nature of Manna, is that if you gather even a small amount, it is enough. If you gather all you can, to hoard a supply, it goes rancid, developing worms and flies and mold.
We as 21st Century Westerners have a hard time understanding the concept of “ENOUGH” and also that among our In-Alienable Rights as Americans is not a guarantee of HAPPINESS, but only a guarantee of the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. Since the Great Depression, and one could argue throughout all of American History, we have been bred to believe we could have everything our parents had and more.
Like the Wilderness Wandering, we are in a time of cultural change, change to the basic assumptions of humanity from how to put a Man on the Moon, to instead consider how do we end War on Earth?
Can we stop all the Saddam Husseins and Osama Bin Ladens and Molmar Ghaddafis, to live in peace?
Whereas earlier generations believed they could work to accumulate excess, eventually to retire, for many of us that will not be a possibility, at least not the same. That shift, that change, is unfair. Our problem as believers, is that the Bible does not claim FAIRNESS, but instead offers God's GRACE. Fairness is not about Justice or Righteousness. Fairness is an assumption that the rules will be the same for all of us, on the basis of which some can Win and others Lose. Again, that is about individual success not about Salvation of the Kingdom of God.
There is something about this parable of the Vineyard that strikes us as blatantly unfair. This parable comes from a section of the Gospel, we too often read in paragraphs. We read of Jesus' teachings about Marriage and Divorce, Celibacy, Children, Sex, Economics, Success, imagining each of these are each separate lessons for us as individuals, when all of this is about us as a community of faith. This parable is directly linked to the Successful Young Man asking what more he needs to do; to which Jesus replies it is not about doing, Eternal life, faith itself are not things you can win at; but only participate in. The story of the Successful Young Man and the Parable of the Vineyard are also then tied to the response of the Disciples “we left everything to follow you”, to which Jesus says “So What?” Faith is not about accomplishment, not about skills or abilities, or affluence, or success, but only about being thankful to be able to work!
What we, like the workers, tend to see, is that we reported early and tried our hardest. We negotiate a fair-wage for a day's work, believing their will be a Pension and Social Security. We work all day, giving of ourselves. Others came later, they were promised only work. At the end, those who came late and barely worked at all, receive the same as those who work all day long. If the point were SUCCESS and PROSPERITY, this would be an unfair parable. But instead the parable is about GOD's GRACE, and what is fair is that everyone whether they came to work generations ago, or for who knows what reason that is not even explained come to work late, ALL are able to work in God's Vineyard. In not that what we have trained our lives for? We ask our toddlers and High School students what they want to be when they grow up. The answer we want to hear is not I WANT TO RETIRED. The answer is to be an Engineer, and Architect, a Firefighter, a Soldier, a Police, an Artist, a Musician, a Teacher, one who gives their life for others.
SALVATION is not about WINNING, not about extravagant Miracles, not even about Success. Salvation is daily having ENOUGH FOR THIS DAY, enough to work and enough to provide others to be part of a community of faith. By daily witnessing God, in the little things, like having food for the table, and sharing with others, we reduce our anxiety, we build resources of faith against stress, and we can be confident that when extraordinary miracles are needed God will provide those too.
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