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...
Sunday, September 25, 2011
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.
Monday, September 12, 2011
"In Honor of The LORD", September 11, 2011
Exodus 14:19-31
Romans 14: 1-12
What are we doing? What have we come here to do this day?
On September 11th 2001, we instinctively knew what we were to do. The clergy were gathered for our regular morning together, when word reached us, we prayed, then the Catholic priest and I went to Welch Allyn's factory to console and counsel; while the Lutheran and Methodist ministers went to the schools. That afternoon, we continued with Engineers and Technicians in the local business who had not left their desks all day because they were getting medical equipment to crisis areas. That evening at 7pm the whole community came together in this Sanctuary to worship and pray, to try to discern what faith and life meant now that our former reality had been shattered. In the week that followed, our doors stood open and a constant stream of persons came into the Sanctuary to pray to God.
As much as we retell the story of Crossing the Red Sea, with a Charleton Heston-like Moses raising his arms as the new Nation marched across from slavery to emancipation, from oppression to freedom, the reading of this story is too much like September 11th where we, none of us saw what was coming. God led them all the way around the Philistines, knowing that if this people encountered war, faced an enemy, they would rush back to the security of being slaves. Their human addiction to what they knew would would drive them from their fear to food and shelter even if in the long-run it meant their death. Such is the power of our addiction to what we know. All night-long the East wind blew upon the face of the water creating a dry riverbed like road, as the people of Israel fled, and the army of Pharaoh pursued, hidden by a cloud and pillar, they walked right passed each other. Then like a reversal of Genesis' Creation, God unleashed Chaos upon Pharaoh's army. In the words that follow, the angels began to sing of God's victory, and God stopped them, saying “But my Egyptian children are dead.” Increasingly, in the 21st Century, we need to question, no longer whether you are one of us, whether to fear one another, but rather why this people is any less worthy, any less human than our own.
What are we doing? What have we come here to do? On September 11th 2002, the High School Seniors and Fire Fighters led our community in an impromptu service in the middle of Genesee street, with a flag over the roadway and singing of Amazing Grace.
The last two years, there have been weddings on September 11th, because as the couples themselves described, we want to put that experience behind us and reclaim our future.
A Decade... Ten years... Ten years... is this a Celebration of that day? Is it to be a Memorial of Fear? There were hundreds of thousands of people who were so traumatized by the surreal nature of that morning, they have not flown on an airplane again. There are those who have saved the clothes they were wearing that day, unable to wash off, to wash away, what they remember.
By marking the tenth year, are we closing that chapter? Ten years of terrorism... Ten years of War... Ten years of Economic upheaval... Have we reached the time when we no longer have to take off our shoes at airports, not because the ground is holy but because of exploding soles? Have we reached a time when we can put aside our fear of persons in turbans, people who kneel down to pray to God?
What are we doing? What have we come here to do? This is not the first time, nor tragically will it the last that we have a day like today. From those who survived the brutal crossing of the Mayflower, and the first long year of crop failure, starvation and disease, we created a feast of giving thanks to God. There was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at Ford Theater, the attempted killing of his Secretary of State and Vice President. There was December 7th 1942, a day that will live in infamy. There was November 22nd 1963, where for a generation who were invited to consider not what was owed to us by the government, but what we could do to serve, who each remember where they were that day.
At that hour, on that day, every citizen became a hero. Every person responded to their neighbor. What I especially remember and want to lift up from that time forever, was that people stopped one another at work, on the street, in the post office and grocery, to listen to one another, to express concern and care. However, we found it hard to live that way, perpetually. For a few weeks, several months, there were occasions of sabbath when we stopped to name that life is now different.
In Christmases past, we thought about what we did not have, now we recognize what we do.
In Christmases past we placed wreaths on doors, now we place them on graves of heroes.
In Christmases past we counted the money in our 401K, now we count our blessings.
The worst tragedy of reflecting upon the last ten years, is that we have become increasingly divided.
Would that we could, live differently, would that we would live with concern for the weak. Writing to the Church at Rome, in these verses Paul never names Jewish Christian versus Gentile Christian, never names Circumcised versus UnCircumcised, Indigenous Greek versus Roman. Instead, Paul describes that in our midst are persons who are strong, and others who are weak.
The issue in ROMANS is not over whether to worship on this mountain or that, whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not, instead of VENUE Romans is a controversy over MENU. One part of the community of faith had been raised according to Kosher laws, not only that there were clean and unclean animals, cloven hoofed and uncloven, not only that in the cooking of foods you did not serve meat and dairy together, but that in the butchering did the butcher pray before taking the life of the animal? Did they pray to the Roman Statues and Caesar, or did the butcher sacrifice this animal to Almighty God. Here, we are not describing offerings sacrificed in Pagan Temples versus a Jewish or Chistian Altar, but something so offensive it was like the food we eat, that we buy in the market... Was that food prepared by one who washed their hands, or by one who had soiled them?
For the last many years our nation has been divided over prayer in school and practices of religion in public places, what if, instead of being concerned whether everyone else was praying, whether everyone else said Debts or Trespasses, we were concerned whether we prayed at the start of the day.
Several years ago, there was a delightful film and book under the title Like Water for Chocolate, in which the emotions, the passions and faith of the one preparing a meal were transferred in the cooking to those who ate of it. Would it matter whether in the preparing of Holy Communion, if the elders prayed before they began, or whether they fought over some divisive issue while breaking the bread and pouring the cups for us to receive the Sacrament?
Paul's response is that as a people of God we cannot condemn another, because they are a child of God and doing so we condemn God. We cannot condemn one another because we then set ourselves up as if we were God.
What we do this day, is not about fear, or celebration; while we pray for those who died, this is not even about their loss. This day, and every day forward we give honor to God. By what we choose to do and what we choose to refrain from doing. We intentionally choose to act as a people of God.
Romans 14: 1-12
What are we doing? What have we come here to do this day?
On September 11th 2001, we instinctively knew what we were to do. The clergy were gathered for our regular morning together, when word reached us, we prayed, then the Catholic priest and I went to Welch Allyn's factory to console and counsel; while the Lutheran and Methodist ministers went to the schools. That afternoon, we continued with Engineers and Technicians in the local business who had not left their desks all day because they were getting medical equipment to crisis areas. That evening at 7pm the whole community came together in this Sanctuary to worship and pray, to try to discern what faith and life meant now that our former reality had been shattered. In the week that followed, our doors stood open and a constant stream of persons came into the Sanctuary to pray to God.
As much as we retell the story of Crossing the Red Sea, with a Charleton Heston-like Moses raising his arms as the new Nation marched across from slavery to emancipation, from oppression to freedom, the reading of this story is too much like September 11th where we, none of us saw what was coming. God led them all the way around the Philistines, knowing that if this people encountered war, faced an enemy, they would rush back to the security of being slaves. Their human addiction to what they knew would would drive them from their fear to food and shelter even if in the long-run it meant their death. Such is the power of our addiction to what we know. All night-long the East wind blew upon the face of the water creating a dry riverbed like road, as the people of Israel fled, and the army of Pharaoh pursued, hidden by a cloud and pillar, they walked right passed each other. Then like a reversal of Genesis' Creation, God unleashed Chaos upon Pharaoh's army. In the words that follow, the angels began to sing of God's victory, and God stopped them, saying “But my Egyptian children are dead.” Increasingly, in the 21st Century, we need to question, no longer whether you are one of us, whether to fear one another, but rather why this people is any less worthy, any less human than our own.
What are we doing? What have we come here to do? On September 11th 2002, the High School Seniors and Fire Fighters led our community in an impromptu service in the middle of Genesee street, with a flag over the roadway and singing of Amazing Grace.
The last two years, there have been weddings on September 11th, because as the couples themselves described, we want to put that experience behind us and reclaim our future.
A Decade... Ten years... Ten years... is this a Celebration of that day? Is it to be a Memorial of Fear? There were hundreds of thousands of people who were so traumatized by the surreal nature of that morning, they have not flown on an airplane again. There are those who have saved the clothes they were wearing that day, unable to wash off, to wash away, what they remember.
By marking the tenth year, are we closing that chapter? Ten years of terrorism... Ten years of War... Ten years of Economic upheaval... Have we reached the time when we no longer have to take off our shoes at airports, not because the ground is holy but because of exploding soles? Have we reached a time when we can put aside our fear of persons in turbans, people who kneel down to pray to God?
What are we doing? What have we come here to do? This is not the first time, nor tragically will it the last that we have a day like today. From those who survived the brutal crossing of the Mayflower, and the first long year of crop failure, starvation and disease, we created a feast of giving thanks to God. There was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at Ford Theater, the attempted killing of his Secretary of State and Vice President. There was December 7th 1942, a day that will live in infamy. There was November 22nd 1963, where for a generation who were invited to consider not what was owed to us by the government, but what we could do to serve, who each remember where they were that day.
At that hour, on that day, every citizen became a hero. Every person responded to their neighbor. What I especially remember and want to lift up from that time forever, was that people stopped one another at work, on the street, in the post office and grocery, to listen to one another, to express concern and care. However, we found it hard to live that way, perpetually. For a few weeks, several months, there were occasions of sabbath when we stopped to name that life is now different.
In Christmases past, we thought about what we did not have, now we recognize what we do.
In Christmases past we placed wreaths on doors, now we place them on graves of heroes.
In Christmases past we counted the money in our 401K, now we count our blessings.
The worst tragedy of reflecting upon the last ten years, is that we have become increasingly divided.
Would that we could, live differently, would that we would live with concern for the weak. Writing to the Church at Rome, in these verses Paul never names Jewish Christian versus Gentile Christian, never names Circumcised versus UnCircumcised, Indigenous Greek versus Roman. Instead, Paul describes that in our midst are persons who are strong, and others who are weak.
The issue in ROMANS is not over whether to worship on this mountain or that, whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not, instead of VENUE Romans is a controversy over MENU. One part of the community of faith had been raised according to Kosher laws, not only that there were clean and unclean animals, cloven hoofed and uncloven, not only that in the cooking of foods you did not serve meat and dairy together, but that in the butchering did the butcher pray before taking the life of the animal? Did they pray to the Roman Statues and Caesar, or did the butcher sacrifice this animal to Almighty God. Here, we are not describing offerings sacrificed in Pagan Temples versus a Jewish or Chistian Altar, but something so offensive it was like the food we eat, that we buy in the market... Was that food prepared by one who washed their hands, or by one who had soiled them?
For the last many years our nation has been divided over prayer in school and practices of religion in public places, what if, instead of being concerned whether everyone else was praying, whether everyone else said Debts or Trespasses, we were concerned whether we prayed at the start of the day.
Several years ago, there was a delightful film and book under the title Like Water for Chocolate, in which the emotions, the passions and faith of the one preparing a meal were transferred in the cooking to those who ate of it. Would it matter whether in the preparing of Holy Communion, if the elders prayed before they began, or whether they fought over some divisive issue while breaking the bread and pouring the cups for us to receive the Sacrament?
Paul's response is that as a people of God we cannot condemn another, because they are a child of God and doing so we condemn God. We cannot condemn one another because we then set ourselves up as if we were God.
What we do this day, is not about fear, or celebration; while we pray for those who died, this is not even about their loss. This day, and every day forward we give honor to God. By what we choose to do and what we choose to refrain from doing. We intentionally choose to act as a people of God.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
"It's Personal" September 04, 2011
Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 18:15-34
Part of the beauty of Scripture is that it applies on so many levels, both globally, Nationally & most
of all personally. While this is Historical record of what took place between Egypt and Israel, verifying
the building of the Pyramids, authenticating the freedom of Slaves and origin of the Hebrew Feast of
Passover, this is also the personal story of those involved, and of us as the recipients. Faith is Personal.
Would that faith was theoretical, limited to Law, or to Philosophical ideas, that could be proven
and accepted or refuted and dismissed. Would that Scripture were reported as News stories by FOX or
CNN, the BBC, or even John Stewart or Michael Colbert, as we would have the story told by a
disinterested third party, or at least according to their identifiable bias.
But Faith is personal, personal to each of us and personal to God. As such, we need to identify, both
the abstract and the personal. The story of the Passover is the story of a plague befalling Egypt that
every first-born died, but Passover is also the personal story of a Sacrifice to God, a sacrifice by God.
Forgiveness according to Jesus, requires not only a naming of the wrong committed against us, but
our claiming of the other person as more important, and a claiming of our power to forgive.
Passover is the story of sacrificing of all first-born human and adult in a single night. Not only the
infants, but all the First-born. If you are the first-born in your family, would you rise. And if you are
the child of a first-born. What kind of sacrifice is it to God, that all these would die?
To appreciate the events leading up to Exodus, we must remember Pharaoh attempted Genocide.
Pharaoh ordered that all “God's people” would no longer be human, but slave; not of the same worth as
an Egyptian; that race, that class, were as animals, as property, inhuman stuff, to be bought and sold.
This is the story of Moses, this is our story, yours and mine as the community of faith, the people of
God.
Discontent that Slavery, denying these people their humanity did not destroy them, Pharaoh attempted
to have all male babies killed.
Still unhappy with the results, Pharaoh ordered all Non-Egyptian babies to be put to death. All of which
makes this story personal, personal to the people and personal to God.
Pharaoh did not perceive himself to have offended Moses, he was above the Law, “they” were not
people to him. Pharaoh had in his own mind, dismissed the reality of God and made himself God.
Having sent Moses to make the complaint, and Pharaoh refused, God gave Pharaoh opportunity after
opportunity. According to Exodus, this is not the story of the killing of the first-born; this is the Faith
Story of a Sacrifice to God. Every household of the people of God, were to make a sacrifice, and to
wipe the blood of the sacrifice on the doorposts and lintels. Every household made a sacrifice, either
the blood of a sacrificial lamb, or of the one who would inherit.
Marking of doorposts and lintels is an ancient rite. When Anon, the mother of Sudanese, was reunited
with her children, she fashioned baskets full of rice and beans and bound these together, to hang
above our door, as a blessing that our lives would always be bound together in plenty. When this
Sanctuary was created, above the door to the outside world, was placed a symbol that those who
believe in God's Plan and those who believe in Human Will are united here as one.
This reading from the Gospel according to Matthew is not the institution of a Sacrament; not the
Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explains “Blessed are the Poor, Blessed are you when Men revile
and persecute you;” or a miracle of healing, neither is this simply the story of interaction between
Jesus and his disciples. It is all of those, but more, Jesus takes the question from Peter about
forgiveness and makes the point personal and extravagant.
Peter's question seems legitimate. It is one we have all asked at different times. But it is not really about
forgiveness, because real forgiveness does not count how many times, even 490.
Oddly, we can compartmentalize disputes within our family, that we did not pick our family
members; he has always been like that; but as demonstrated in the Sacrament of Baptism, we have
chosen one another, voluntarily submitted to one another as our Church family of choice. So when
disputes arise among those we have chosen to be a part of, how do we forgive?
First, take time to take a step back to reflect and recognize, is this important enough to be concerned
about. Due to stress, lack of sleep, worry, fears, hormones, we all are prone at times to taking minor
debts and trespasses and making them into monumental sins against humanity, mountains that separate
us.
If so, go and share with the other how you feel. Counseling churches and mentoring pastors on how
to move forward, I have amazed not that there are problems, or by how small and petty an issue can get
blown up into a dispute, but over and over, of the simple need for one person to say to another, I am
sorry. I did not know you were in the hospital. I did not know, I was so busy I did not pay attention,
I should have and I am sorry.
If they listen, you have redeemed what was lost, you have saved your relation with your brother.
If not, you are no worse than before.
We said, personal and extravagant, because as Jesus told this parable everything is extreme. Matthew
has attempted to control the meaning of this story, as if an allegory, that the Master has to equal God,
the Debtor has to equal a Sinner, Debt equals sin, Forgiveness equals being made right with God. But a
Parable unlike an allegory, is not confined to mathematic equations, a parable like poetry can exist on
multiple levels.
A Talent was equal to several days work, exactly how many we do not know. A servant owed 10,000
Talents. So, if a Talent were worth even a Single day's work, then working 7 days a week, it would take
30 years for this one to repay his debt. It was impossible for him to ever make repayment. So as was his
due, the Master ordered the debtor and his spouse and children to be indentured servants to make
restitution. But the servant humbly asked for forgiveness, and just as absurd as the magnitude of debt,
the Master forgave everything. Imagine having a $500,000 debt cancelled as paid in full!
That is forgiveness. But forgiveness is not simply about saying what needs to be said to repay a debt,
forgiveness is a change of reality, a change of who we are.
The Forgiven Servant finds another who owed him a paltry sum, yet though this debtor recites exactly
the same words, he is grabbed by the neck and was put into prison.
Just as fast as he had been forgiven, the first servant is back before the Master, and rather than being
made an indentured servant, he is now made a prisoner of his debt.
The point is that the debt, the sin, the problem with our brother eats away at us. Like a secret, that
pain has a power over us. In all likelihood the brother is never going to offer an apology. The question
then becomes, whether to allow the debt to have power over you, or to forgive, naming the wrong
committed, naming the hurt and division, but intentionally claiming power over the division.
The piece of this I have always wondered about, is Jesus final charge regarding how to forgive. If your
scoundrel of a brother does not repent when you name the wrong, even when you do so before others
who can hold accountability, even the whole community of faith “Then let him be to you as a Gentile
or Tax Collector.” I think what this means, in the Gospels, is let them be as those you attempt to seek
out as needing forgiveness and needing faith.
Matthew 18:15-34
Part of the beauty of Scripture is that it applies on so many levels, both globally, Nationally & most
of all personally. While this is Historical record of what took place between Egypt and Israel, verifying
the building of the Pyramids, authenticating the freedom of Slaves and origin of the Hebrew Feast of
Passover, this is also the personal story of those involved, and of us as the recipients. Faith is Personal.
Would that faith was theoretical, limited to Law, or to Philosophical ideas, that could be proven
and accepted or refuted and dismissed. Would that Scripture were reported as News stories by FOX or
CNN, the BBC, or even John Stewart or Michael Colbert, as we would have the story told by a
disinterested third party, or at least according to their identifiable bias.
But Faith is personal, personal to each of us and personal to God. As such, we need to identify, both
the abstract and the personal. The story of the Passover is the story of a plague befalling Egypt that
every first-born died, but Passover is also the personal story of a Sacrifice to God, a sacrifice by God.
Forgiveness according to Jesus, requires not only a naming of the wrong committed against us, but
our claiming of the other person as more important, and a claiming of our power to forgive.
Passover is the story of sacrificing of all first-born human and adult in a single night. Not only the
infants, but all the First-born. If you are the first-born in your family, would you rise. And if you are
the child of a first-born. What kind of sacrifice is it to God, that all these would die?
To appreciate the events leading up to Exodus, we must remember Pharaoh attempted Genocide.
Pharaoh ordered that all “God's people” would no longer be human, but slave; not of the same worth as
an Egyptian; that race, that class, were as animals, as property, inhuman stuff, to be bought and sold.
This is the story of Moses, this is our story, yours and mine as the community of faith, the people of
God.
Discontent that Slavery, denying these people their humanity did not destroy them, Pharaoh attempted
to have all male babies killed.
Still unhappy with the results, Pharaoh ordered all Non-Egyptian babies to be put to death. All of which
makes this story personal, personal to the people and personal to God.
Pharaoh did not perceive himself to have offended Moses, he was above the Law, “they” were not
people to him. Pharaoh had in his own mind, dismissed the reality of God and made himself God.
Having sent Moses to make the complaint, and Pharaoh refused, God gave Pharaoh opportunity after
opportunity. According to Exodus, this is not the story of the killing of the first-born; this is the Faith
Story of a Sacrifice to God. Every household of the people of God, were to make a sacrifice, and to
wipe the blood of the sacrifice on the doorposts and lintels. Every household made a sacrifice, either
the blood of a sacrificial lamb, or of the one who would inherit.
Marking of doorposts and lintels is an ancient rite. When Anon, the mother of Sudanese, was reunited
with her children, she fashioned baskets full of rice and beans and bound these together, to hang
above our door, as a blessing that our lives would always be bound together in plenty. When this
Sanctuary was created, above the door to the outside world, was placed a symbol that those who
believe in God's Plan and those who believe in Human Will are united here as one.
This reading from the Gospel according to Matthew is not the institution of a Sacrament; not the
Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explains “Blessed are the Poor, Blessed are you when Men revile
and persecute you;” or a miracle of healing, neither is this simply the story of interaction between
Jesus and his disciples. It is all of those, but more, Jesus takes the question from Peter about
forgiveness and makes the point personal and extravagant.
Peter's question seems legitimate. It is one we have all asked at different times. But it is not really about
forgiveness, because real forgiveness does not count how many times, even 490.
Oddly, we can compartmentalize disputes within our family, that we did not pick our family
members; he has always been like that; but as demonstrated in the Sacrament of Baptism, we have
chosen one another, voluntarily submitted to one another as our Church family of choice. So when
disputes arise among those we have chosen to be a part of, how do we forgive?
First, take time to take a step back to reflect and recognize, is this important enough to be concerned
about. Due to stress, lack of sleep, worry, fears, hormones, we all are prone at times to taking minor
debts and trespasses and making them into monumental sins against humanity, mountains that separate
us.
If so, go and share with the other how you feel. Counseling churches and mentoring pastors on how
to move forward, I have amazed not that there are problems, or by how small and petty an issue can get
blown up into a dispute, but over and over, of the simple need for one person to say to another, I am
sorry. I did not know you were in the hospital. I did not know, I was so busy I did not pay attention,
I should have and I am sorry.
If they listen, you have redeemed what was lost, you have saved your relation with your brother.
If not, you are no worse than before.
We said, personal and extravagant, because as Jesus told this parable everything is extreme. Matthew
has attempted to control the meaning of this story, as if an allegory, that the Master has to equal God,
the Debtor has to equal a Sinner, Debt equals sin, Forgiveness equals being made right with God. But a
Parable unlike an allegory, is not confined to mathematic equations, a parable like poetry can exist on
multiple levels.
A Talent was equal to several days work, exactly how many we do not know. A servant owed 10,000
Talents. So, if a Talent were worth even a Single day's work, then working 7 days a week, it would take
30 years for this one to repay his debt. It was impossible for him to ever make repayment. So as was his
due, the Master ordered the debtor and his spouse and children to be indentured servants to make
restitution. But the servant humbly asked for forgiveness, and just as absurd as the magnitude of debt,
the Master forgave everything. Imagine having a $500,000 debt cancelled as paid in full!
That is forgiveness. But forgiveness is not simply about saying what needs to be said to repay a debt,
forgiveness is a change of reality, a change of who we are.
The Forgiven Servant finds another who owed him a paltry sum, yet though this debtor recites exactly
the same words, he is grabbed by the neck and was put into prison.
Just as fast as he had been forgiven, the first servant is back before the Master, and rather than being
made an indentured servant, he is now made a prisoner of his debt.
The point is that the debt, the sin, the problem with our brother eats away at us. Like a secret, that
pain has a power over us. In all likelihood the brother is never going to offer an apology. The question
then becomes, whether to allow the debt to have power over you, or to forgive, naming the wrong
committed, naming the hurt and division, but intentionally claiming power over the division.
The piece of this I have always wondered about, is Jesus final charge regarding how to forgive. If your
scoundrel of a brother does not repent when you name the wrong, even when you do so before others
who can hold accountability, even the whole community of faith “Then let him be to you as a Gentile
or Tax Collector.” I think what this means, in the Gospels, is let them be as those you attempt to seek
out as needing forgiveness and needing faith.
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