Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
Mark 1: 20-28
A distinctive characteristic of Mark's Gospel is the drumbeat of the word “Immediately.” To improve grammar and readability, to heighten interest, translators routinely change this to “And Then,” or “Next,” but the evangelist intentionally repeated the word “immediately” matching our heartbeat with the Gospel's rhythm, to emphasize the Gospel is not theoretical philosophy, and the Gospel is not at our pace, when we are prepared and ready, but alive and active.
One of the first lessons we learn in any position, be that employment, volunteer, or relationship is the difference between responsibilities and authority. Responsibilities are all the many specific things we are accountable for, whether in a Job Description or that catch all of “Other duties as may arise.” Authority, is whether we have the right, whether we have been given credibility, to carry them out.
What I find especially striking this morning, is that regarding most aspects of our lives, there are responsibilities which we immediately take on, whereas authority comes over time and must be earned.
When I first came to this call, there was someone in the hospital. I went to visit them and introduced myself, and she opened her eyes and looked at me, and said “You are not Dr. Eastman.” And I said “No.” And she said, “And you are not Dr. Dobson, I loved him, but he's dead.” Unsure how to respond, I offered to take her hand and pray, and after only saying “Merciful God” she said “That'll do.” I thought this was her cue that I should leave, when suddenly the nurse came in and looking rather surprised said “She's gone, Father.”
As Deacons, we learn how to fill the candles, how to pass offering and communion plates, how to adjust the sound system, to care for the flowers and visit those who cannot attend worship. We bring our capability and our personality to bear, but feel intimidated when asked to pray for someone.When the Officiant proclaims the couple husband and wife, there are immediate responsibilities, some shared some delegated most renegotiated over time: Who will be responsible for banking, who will shop, who will cook, who does dishes, who takes out the garbage, which side of the bed we sleep on. When we become parents, we learn to feed them, and bathe them, pamper and hold, comfort and put to sleep. But being husband and wife to one another, being parents, and caring for our parents graciously, all must come with time. Yet in the Bible, Moses and Jesus, and those who come after, are given Authority to address the responsibilities they encounter.
In the Old Testament we have a variety of leaders. There are Priests who are Levites, who like Aaron lead the people through Prayer and Offerings and Sacrifices. There are Judges, like Samson, Gideon and Deborah, who are great warriors leading the people in battle. There are Kings, Saul, David, Solomon and all who would come after in the lineage of David, sitting upon the throne of Israel. Priests and Kings lead because they inherited the responsibility, because the Nation, the people needed to have a King, or a Priest to confess their sins and offer forgiveness. But Judges, Priests and Kings each became stuck in their institution. Prophets are a different kind of leaders. Prophets arise whenever needed. Prophets challenge the status quo. Prophets offer a different way of looking at life; rather than through our eyes, through the eyes of the marginalized, the poor, those most in need.
What is unique about the Prophets is their authority. The authority of a Prophet comes not from their office, not by blood, but from God and from compassion for those in need. “Authority” is not so much about power, as about recognizing one's self as being a vehicle through which the Spirit is able to speak and as a vehicle knowing we are not in control, not directing or determining where we are going. The wonderful part about prophets is that they address what the institution is least willing to see. The problem with prophets is that they are unreliable and cannot be counted upon to show up when you need.
According to Mark, Jesus had Authority, not as the Scribes, who parsed their words and justified everything they did. What is wonderful about this teaching, is that in demonstration of the authority of Jesus, a man comes into the synagogue, and the man is troubled by an evil spirit. In Modern times, we would prescribe that he needs Medication. In Medieval times they would have prescribed Magic, an incantation. But instead of either, Jesus provides a Miracle. Rather than a potion, or incantation, Jesus responds to the man who is suffering and has compassion on him.
Years ago, my brother got married in Florida. While ministers tend to have a file of wedding stories, often the stories from their own family are the worst. Everything about the occasion was a disaster. The best man missed his flight. Every member of the Bridal party except the Bride and Groom came down with the flu. While we had all travelled to Florida for the occasion, it rained the entire time. We ordered roses and champagne to be delivered to the Bride and Groom and the bellhop pocketed the money. During the evening's festivities instead of sitting and talking with the 97 year old grandmother, people got her one vodka tonic after another. Later that night, in their room, the grandmother fell and cut her arm. Smelling the alcohol on her, my aunt who had become a charismatic preacher began trying to exorcise the demons out of the grandmother. When the ambulance had taken them to the hospital, I went and spent the night holding the grandmother's hand as she waited to be stitched up. While her skin was paper thin, the cut was not deep or in any way dirty. While she had had far too much to drink, that too would pass. What she needed and wanted most was simply to hold the hand of someone who cared.
While we want to affirm that Jesus' authority comes from God, and that his authority is demonstrated in caring for the man, we cannot avoid what is identified in this story, that there is evil. We tend to dismiss such things today, but the presence of evil is real and destructive, especially to those who try the hardest and are most alone. What I have come to experience is not so much that one person is holy and another evil, as there are times when we allow ourselves to be conduits for one or the other. Times when it is not we who are speaking, as saying things we wish we had not, or that somehow we were in the right place at the right time to say what otherwise would not have been said. The only thing I know to have been different at those times, has been that when speaking evil, it often comes in the heat of the moment without thinking, and there is a feeling like watching yourself, hearing yourself say what you know you should not. And when speaking prophetically, often there has been a moment, just a moment when you try to collect yourself and all you can think is “Lord may the words of my mouth be acceptable to You.”
As often as we celebrate the Sacraments in the life of the Church, when in Baptism we come to the words of Institution, I am humbled and shudder at saying “All Authority is upon me and has been given that you should go forth and baptize.”
The question this morning, as we consider what responsibilities we each shall take on, how differently we might be led than the stayed institutions, is whether we have been given authority? And Immediately, what we will do.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
"Arrogance and Repentance" January 22, 2012
Jonah 3:1-10
Mark 1:14-22
There is a mistake in this morning's bulletin. There was no fixing it, no avoiding it or covering it up. For the last many years our Session have been trying to find a way of opening up issues related to Christian Education and Spiritual Nurture. We have been cognizant that for this congregation this is heavily laden, with shadows of the failed co-pastorate, and Christian educators, and abuses that happened 50 years ago. We have known that any way we address it is going to cost money that was not in our projections of a Budget. At the same time recognizing that what we have done over the last many years, what every church and synagogue has done, has not been working. And that we had a staff member with unique gifts, who if given opportunity, could do very creative things. All of this came to a head this week, as our Session proposed a solution, which we will be able to announce next week at the Annual meeting, and then we learned our son was in danger. Knowing that the Prayer had a level of redundancy and repetition, and that it might pinch most of us a little too close, when the challenge came that there might be an error, I looked it over too quickly and missed what was right before my eyes. I had been arrogant. Only after the bulletins were printed and folded and stuffed and the staff had gone home, did I realize my own mistake, not only in repeating a line, but in arrogance.
The last many years, the problem of arrogance has come up again and again, and this underlies our morning's Scriptures. The Prophet Jonah was commanded by God to get up, and to go north to Israel's enemies at Ninevah, preaching their need to repent and follow God. But Jonah was arrogant. Where God told Jonah to get up and go up, Jonah instead went in his own direction, down to the harbor, down into the hold of the ship, going south, down into sleep, in depression, in avoidance of the world. When calamity struck, when the chaos of the sea erupted, Jonah had himself thrown down into the sea, where he was swallowed by a fish, and carried down, three days journey, to the place of the dead. When he could sink no lower, Jonah turned to God and prayed. There are times for us all, when we realize we have been caught and we confess. Tragically, what we confess is not arrogance, not our responsibility, what we ordinarily confess is that we got caught. Jonah's prayer is “Okay God, I can sink no lower. You caught me with this stinking fish and took me to a place without life, without hope. I beg of you to let me go, and I will do what you commanded.”
Grace is an amazing thing. Where Jonah had gone south instead of North, where it took three nights for the fish to reach the place of the dead, immediately when Jonah prays, God puts him on the shores of where God wants Jonah to be at Ninevah.
However, Jonah's prayer had not been a confession of arrogance. Jonah's prayer had not been an acceptance of responsibility, or a reversal of commitments. Jonah's prayer had been, “You win God. You are a God and I am a mortal, so who am I to compete with you, I lose.” There is no contrition here, no responsibility, only realization that I got caught, I did not win. The word of God again comes to Jonah, saying Get Up and Go and Call the people to faith in God. Jonah Got up, and Jonah Went, but Jonah preached the word he wanted to preach, rather than the word of God. There was no mention of God in Jonah's Word. What is striking is that Ninevah this foreign city, this place of Israel's enemies, is considered by God to be a Great City. There is a point of humility, even for God, to recognize the accomplishments of one who is different, who is totally other. Ninevah is described as being a three days' journey across, if a person walks at a steady pace, we could walk 20 miles in a day, so Ninevah was 60 miles across! With all the anger and venom and arrogance within him, in vindication that I got caught by God and forced to prophesy but I am still going to do it my own way, Jonah offered the shortest, most brief prophecy in the Bible... “In 40 days, you will all be destroyed.” No mention of “Because”, no allowance for “Unless”, not even acknowledgement of God being behind this. “In 40 days, destruction.”
A preacher's greatest fear is not that they will be like Jonah. A preacher's fear is that like Ninevah the people will hear what the people were ready to hear not what the preacher had intended. This Foreign people, this City Great in the eyes of God, this totally other enemy, had humility to hear not only the words of the prophet Jonah but the word of God underneath. Ninevah recognized their arrogance and not only confessed, but repented. Talk about a total and complete conversion! All the people of Ninevah from the King to the poor, everyone acknowledged their sin, they even rubbed ashes on their cows and donkeys and refused them food in this fast as well. And the text describes, that God witnessed the humility of Ninevah, and God was humble enough to let go God's arrogance and forgive. The difficulty of the Book of the Prophecy of Jonah is recognizing who is this message for? The prophet of God is sent to Ninevah. And all Ninevah responds and repents. Even God repents and reverses from what God was going to do. What will it take for the nation, for Israel, personally for Jonah, for us to repent, to reverse from what we had been doing, to confess arrogance and follow God?
The Call of the first Disciples in Mark, is like the Book of Jonah.
Mark does not include the Christmas stories of Matthew or Luke. Mark does not describe what the temptation in the wilderness was. Mark describes that John came preaching Repentance as Preparing the Way of God. Mark describes Jesus' Baptism as the separation between heaven and earth permanently and irreversibly ripped open. Mark describes Jesus was driven into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan, and when John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus immediately came preaching Repentance, declaring the Time is at Hand. Jesus goes into the Synagogue on the sabbath and preaches with authority, not like the scribes. There is a sarcasm about the beginning of Mark, challenging us to witness the arrogance of our lives.
But the challenge of Jesus' Call is not “Follow me and I will teach you how to Fish!” Andrew, Peter, John and James were commercial fishermen. Like us, they might have responded to lessons of learning a new way, a better way, as I could have time on Thursday... How about three times a week, can anybody do Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 2:30pm? Instead, of learning yet another responsibility, following Jesus was learning a new way of being. The text is explicit, that Andrew and Simon Peter left their nets; James and John left their father Zebedee. They left their careers, their livelihood, their families, all that they knew for a different way of life, a different way of being, instead of being fishermen, to be fishers of women and men.
What if Christian Education were not a curriculum that children go to learn, not a program that we master, but instead the nurturing of one another in every faith and circumstance? Challenging and being challenged “What are you looking for?” When we marry, are we committing to sharing our bed and checking account, children and finances, or is there a spiritual union? When we baptize our children, are we giving them a name and celebrating their presence, or questioning all our commitments of life and death as being in the hand of God? When we retire are we changing our routine, giving up our identity, or choosing to enter into a time of mentoring and volunteerism, or what?
A monumental shift has taken place in this church, a response to Christ's call like that of Peter and Andrew, James and John. There was a time, when the membership of the church and membership of the Country Club were virtually indistinguishable. We were a Pillar church, where membership meant something. In recent years, I cannot recall a circumstance in this community, that has not affected this congregation. Domestic Violence, Alcohol abuse, Embezzlement, Divorce, Cancer, our Schools, our Investments and Economy, War, Health care, Political unrest. Rather than trying to take on relevant issues, we have become relevant, and the faith and spirit of every person has become something vital. Personally, I struggle whenever I hear reference to our Village or Town because of property values or affluence, because every individual struggles with their faith, with their own arrogance. Human life would be better if instead of admitting getting caught, we could confess our arrogance and repent, but that might mean acceptance that the Kingdom of God really is at hand. It is far easier to deceive ourselves with our arrogance that we are in control.
Mark 1:14-22
There is a mistake in this morning's bulletin. There was no fixing it, no avoiding it or covering it up. For the last many years our Session have been trying to find a way of opening up issues related to Christian Education and Spiritual Nurture. We have been cognizant that for this congregation this is heavily laden, with shadows of the failed co-pastorate, and Christian educators, and abuses that happened 50 years ago. We have known that any way we address it is going to cost money that was not in our projections of a Budget. At the same time recognizing that what we have done over the last many years, what every church and synagogue has done, has not been working. And that we had a staff member with unique gifts, who if given opportunity, could do very creative things. All of this came to a head this week, as our Session proposed a solution, which we will be able to announce next week at the Annual meeting, and then we learned our son was in danger. Knowing that the Prayer had a level of redundancy and repetition, and that it might pinch most of us a little too close, when the challenge came that there might be an error, I looked it over too quickly and missed what was right before my eyes. I had been arrogant. Only after the bulletins were printed and folded and stuffed and the staff had gone home, did I realize my own mistake, not only in repeating a line, but in arrogance.
The last many years, the problem of arrogance has come up again and again, and this underlies our morning's Scriptures. The Prophet Jonah was commanded by God to get up, and to go north to Israel's enemies at Ninevah, preaching their need to repent and follow God. But Jonah was arrogant. Where God told Jonah to get up and go up, Jonah instead went in his own direction, down to the harbor, down into the hold of the ship, going south, down into sleep, in depression, in avoidance of the world. When calamity struck, when the chaos of the sea erupted, Jonah had himself thrown down into the sea, where he was swallowed by a fish, and carried down, three days journey, to the place of the dead. When he could sink no lower, Jonah turned to God and prayed. There are times for us all, when we realize we have been caught and we confess. Tragically, what we confess is not arrogance, not our responsibility, what we ordinarily confess is that we got caught. Jonah's prayer is “Okay God, I can sink no lower. You caught me with this stinking fish and took me to a place without life, without hope. I beg of you to let me go, and I will do what you commanded.”
Grace is an amazing thing. Where Jonah had gone south instead of North, where it took three nights for the fish to reach the place of the dead, immediately when Jonah prays, God puts him on the shores of where God wants Jonah to be at Ninevah.
However, Jonah's prayer had not been a confession of arrogance. Jonah's prayer had not been an acceptance of responsibility, or a reversal of commitments. Jonah's prayer had been, “You win God. You are a God and I am a mortal, so who am I to compete with you, I lose.” There is no contrition here, no responsibility, only realization that I got caught, I did not win. The word of God again comes to Jonah, saying Get Up and Go and Call the people to faith in God. Jonah Got up, and Jonah Went, but Jonah preached the word he wanted to preach, rather than the word of God. There was no mention of God in Jonah's Word. What is striking is that Ninevah this foreign city, this place of Israel's enemies, is considered by God to be a Great City. There is a point of humility, even for God, to recognize the accomplishments of one who is different, who is totally other. Ninevah is described as being a three days' journey across, if a person walks at a steady pace, we could walk 20 miles in a day, so Ninevah was 60 miles across! With all the anger and venom and arrogance within him, in vindication that I got caught by God and forced to prophesy but I am still going to do it my own way, Jonah offered the shortest, most brief prophecy in the Bible... “In 40 days, you will all be destroyed.” No mention of “Because”, no allowance for “Unless”, not even acknowledgement of God being behind this. “In 40 days, destruction.”
A preacher's greatest fear is not that they will be like Jonah. A preacher's fear is that like Ninevah the people will hear what the people were ready to hear not what the preacher had intended. This Foreign people, this City Great in the eyes of God, this totally other enemy, had humility to hear not only the words of the prophet Jonah but the word of God underneath. Ninevah recognized their arrogance and not only confessed, but repented. Talk about a total and complete conversion! All the people of Ninevah from the King to the poor, everyone acknowledged their sin, they even rubbed ashes on their cows and donkeys and refused them food in this fast as well. And the text describes, that God witnessed the humility of Ninevah, and God was humble enough to let go God's arrogance and forgive. The difficulty of the Book of the Prophecy of Jonah is recognizing who is this message for? The prophet of God is sent to Ninevah. And all Ninevah responds and repents. Even God repents and reverses from what God was going to do. What will it take for the nation, for Israel, personally for Jonah, for us to repent, to reverse from what we had been doing, to confess arrogance and follow God?
The Call of the first Disciples in Mark, is like the Book of Jonah.
Mark does not include the Christmas stories of Matthew or Luke. Mark does not describe what the temptation in the wilderness was. Mark describes that John came preaching Repentance as Preparing the Way of God. Mark describes Jesus' Baptism as the separation between heaven and earth permanently and irreversibly ripped open. Mark describes Jesus was driven into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan, and when John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus immediately came preaching Repentance, declaring the Time is at Hand. Jesus goes into the Synagogue on the sabbath and preaches with authority, not like the scribes. There is a sarcasm about the beginning of Mark, challenging us to witness the arrogance of our lives.
But the challenge of Jesus' Call is not “Follow me and I will teach you how to Fish!” Andrew, Peter, John and James were commercial fishermen. Like us, they might have responded to lessons of learning a new way, a better way, as I could have time on Thursday... How about three times a week, can anybody do Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 2:30pm? Instead, of learning yet another responsibility, following Jesus was learning a new way of being. The text is explicit, that Andrew and Simon Peter left their nets; James and John left their father Zebedee. They left their careers, their livelihood, their families, all that they knew for a different way of life, a different way of being, instead of being fishermen, to be fishers of women and men.
What if Christian Education were not a curriculum that children go to learn, not a program that we master, but instead the nurturing of one another in every faith and circumstance? Challenging and being challenged “What are you looking for?” When we marry, are we committing to sharing our bed and checking account, children and finances, or is there a spiritual union? When we baptize our children, are we giving them a name and celebrating their presence, or questioning all our commitments of life and death as being in the hand of God? When we retire are we changing our routine, giving up our identity, or choosing to enter into a time of mentoring and volunteerism, or what?
A monumental shift has taken place in this church, a response to Christ's call like that of Peter and Andrew, James and John. There was a time, when the membership of the church and membership of the Country Club were virtually indistinguishable. We were a Pillar church, where membership meant something. In recent years, I cannot recall a circumstance in this community, that has not affected this congregation. Domestic Violence, Alcohol abuse, Embezzlement, Divorce, Cancer, our Schools, our Investments and Economy, War, Health care, Political unrest. Rather than trying to take on relevant issues, we have become relevant, and the faith and spirit of every person has become something vital. Personally, I struggle whenever I hear reference to our Village or Town because of property values or affluence, because every individual struggles with their faith, with their own arrogance. Human life would be better if instead of admitting getting caught, we could confess our arrogance and repent, but that might mean acceptance that the Kingdom of God really is at hand. It is far easier to deceive ourselves with our arrogance that we are in control.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
January 15, 2012 "Tingling Anticipation"
I Samuel 3:1-20
John 1: 43-51
We come into every relationship, every circumstance, with expectations and preconceptions. When going into a meeting, we do not ponder what shall we do, there are anticipated motions with a Yes or No answer, in fact we would not have placed the item for discussion if we did not expect: Yes. In the Courtroom, a lawyer does not ask a question that they do not know the answer to. In education, business, in politics, in investing, expectations are valid, even critical, and we pay for the expertise of professional expectations, but in faith/life our ears need to tingle with anticipation for what we might encounter.
Adopting these Scriptures for our lives, we need to hear the inscription that undercuts these stories... The WORD of the LORD was rare in those days, visions had ceased to be seen and miracles ceased to be heard. According to fossil evidence, Millions of years ago, Dinosaurs roamed this earth. Thousands of years ago, Miracles were so common as to be the hallmark of faith experiences. If you want to know if a faith encounter is real, look for a burning bush! There was a Pillar of Fire that led Israel and a Column of Smoke that hid the nation from the rear. Great Seas opened up, fish swallowed prophets and spew them where God needed them to be. But that was long ago, and I Samuel describes that the eye of the Priest Eli had grown blind and dim, though the flame of the lamp in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was stored and where the child Samuel slept had not yet gone out.
This morning's Scriptures are not about Manna from Heaven, or the Dead coming back to life, not about the fingers of a leper being restored, or walking on water. Instead of expecting miracles, the invitation this morning is to listen, to allow your ears to tingle, your heart to beat with anticipation.
I Samuel comes after the time of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Joshua and the Judges. When the people of Israel had settled in the land of Canaan, the Promised land of milk and honey. But life was not all promise and blessings. There were long years of war and fear of terrorism, there were hard economic times, times when peoples' dreams and expectations became dull. Samuel is the last of the Judges, the last of the Priests (for God had determined to end leadership by Priests), and Samuel becomes Kingmaker who would ordain Saul and David, setting up the Monarchy of Israel. This generation had lived with reality so long, that even the Priests of God had given up believing; the sons of the priests had perverted everything sacred in the Temple. As a Preacher's Kid, who married a Preacher's Kid, and as a Pastor who had kids of our own, I know the trouble Theological Offspring can get into, trying to prove you are more human than holy. But Eli's sons went far beyond this and Eli callously allowed it, for he no longer anticipated anything, Eli no longer cared.
This is not a Miracle Story. This is not a cute bedtime story. In order to hear this experience, we have to understand that Hebrew names have Meaning. ELI was the old Priest, the name Eli means “MY God.” Recall the dying words of Jesus on the Cross “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani” My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me. Eli represents a self-righteous faith that we know who God is and can call on our God when we want. So in the telling of the story, every time you hear the name Eli, we are to respond “My God.” Whereas the name Samuel means “God has heard.” “Samuel” is assurance that God lives, and listens and God cares, so when you hear “Samu-el” we are to respond “God has heard.” In biting commentary, the Bible describes that no one expected to hear the word of God in the Temple, it had become like a museum, a place out of the past. When in the night, the boy heard “Samuel” (Congregation responds “God has Heard”). And the boy comes running saying “Eli, Eli” (My God), but Eli says “No, close your eyes.” And a second time the child hears “Samu-el” “God has heard” and replies “Eli”My God, but is again told “No, close your eyes and lay down.” Finally a third time, the child hears “Samu-el” God has heard, and is told to respond “Speak, for Your servant listens.” The Word of God comes to him vowing that God will no longer offer blessings through Eli's line, but instead God will provide a new form of leadership through Kings. As a figure of transition, the horrible tragedy of Samuel's own life, is that his children were no better, no more faithful than Eli's had been. It was only after Samuel has failed at being a father that he was able to ordain a righteous and good king.
Anticipation is vital. Our preconceptions and expectations can set us up for believing there is nothing new, nothing to believe in, nothing to live for; or anticipation can make us tingle with excitement. This Christmas we prepared for all the worship services, as well as having all the family at our home, where everyone would sleep, when and what we would eat. When suddenly the telephone rang. I had not seen my cousin's daughter in 25 years. She had been the first grandchild and was adored, and the last I saw her she was about 8or 9. The reality of today, is that families lose touch, we go our separate directions, not out of animosity or anger, but simply a lack of caring because life is too busy. This prodigal daughter described living in Manhattan, that she had a 2 year old child, and no where to go for Christmas. I think I was more excited at seeing this child and her child, than about anything at Christmas. Now remember this year, in the Lindsey household, we have two puppies. When the two year old saw the puppies, he began to shake and tingle with anticipation, you could see the giggles and screams begin at his toes and erupt through his head, which in addition to puddles on the floor created a similar reaction from the puppies at seeing a two year old. After trying to settle both down for half an hour or more, we would take the puppies to their kennels in another room, and for 20 minutes or an hour he would be fine. Then the 2 year old would realize the puppies were gone and let out with a blood curdling wail, until we took him in to peek at the puppies, which would cause them and him to squirm and wriggle and giggle all over again. How different that experience is, from our experience of worship, of prayer, of starting any day let alone the week or this first month of the year!
John's Gospel is different in describing the Call of the disciples. Mark, tells of the Call of Fishermen. But John's Gospel witnesses to the many names people have in anticipation for who Jesus is. Joseph's Son, Mary's boy, the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Carpenter from Nazareth, Son of Man, Son of God, Fulfillment of Everything of Moses & the Prophets, Son of David, The Ladder on which People and Angels would descend and ascend to God.
Several of you have commented that the description I prefer for Jacob in the Old Testament, Jacob who deceived his Brother and his Father, and his Uncle Laban, is The Trickster. There is a nuance to Scripture, that Jacob is that Deceiver, that Trickster, always trying to win at someone's expense. But on the way to reconcile with his brother Esau, Jacob encounters a stranger at night wrestles with this one hand to hand and cheek and jowl without relenting all night long. For having wrestled with God face to face, Jacob is changed, no longer is he the Trickster, the Deceiver, who will do anything to win. Jacob is renamed as Israel, meaning one who wrestles with God face to face. When Jesus greets Nathaniel, his description is “Here at least is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit, no guile.”
But I think the most fitting words for today are those spoken by Nathaniel at hearing from Phillip that they had found the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth... Nathaniel responded, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Prophecy and past experience had identified great cities... Alexandria, Cairo, Bethlehem the bread basket, and Jerusalem the City of David. There were cities of great business, cities known for education, others known for reverence and faith, some for terrible battles. Nazareth was an old city that everyone took for granted. No longer do we live in an age of Miracles, beginning in the 1960s we came to understand that the age of Christendom when the Church would conquer all the world and through great missionary enterprises evangelize everyone to be members was Over. Christianity became marginalized, much as we were in the early Church before Emperor Constantine. Seeking to resolve the problems of the world, we look to Wall Street, we look to Washington, we look to the re-emergence of Detroit, Texas and Florida, we even look across the oceans to Stabilizing the Euro, to new governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, a new Africa, Japan rebuilt after the Tsunami. Updating Nathaniel's question: “Can anything Good come out of the Church?” Does anyone in the world anticipate that the Church could be the source of World Peace, of Economic Stability and Growth, of New Dreams? In the Age of Christendom, the Church did make social pronouncements, about war, about power, about the economy. Today, when the Word of God has been rare, we need to question, whether what we are looking for is the Old Priest: ELI justifying ourselves (MY GOD), or whether like the child, we respond to life “Speak Lord for your servant listens” as God calls us SAMUEL “God has heard!”
John 1: 43-51
We come into every relationship, every circumstance, with expectations and preconceptions. When going into a meeting, we do not ponder what shall we do, there are anticipated motions with a Yes or No answer, in fact we would not have placed the item for discussion if we did not expect: Yes. In the Courtroom, a lawyer does not ask a question that they do not know the answer to. In education, business, in politics, in investing, expectations are valid, even critical, and we pay for the expertise of professional expectations, but in faith/life our ears need to tingle with anticipation for what we might encounter.
Adopting these Scriptures for our lives, we need to hear the inscription that undercuts these stories... The WORD of the LORD was rare in those days, visions had ceased to be seen and miracles ceased to be heard. According to fossil evidence, Millions of years ago, Dinosaurs roamed this earth. Thousands of years ago, Miracles were so common as to be the hallmark of faith experiences. If you want to know if a faith encounter is real, look for a burning bush! There was a Pillar of Fire that led Israel and a Column of Smoke that hid the nation from the rear. Great Seas opened up, fish swallowed prophets and spew them where God needed them to be. But that was long ago, and I Samuel describes that the eye of the Priest Eli had grown blind and dim, though the flame of the lamp in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was stored and where the child Samuel slept had not yet gone out.
This morning's Scriptures are not about Manna from Heaven, or the Dead coming back to life, not about the fingers of a leper being restored, or walking on water. Instead of expecting miracles, the invitation this morning is to listen, to allow your ears to tingle, your heart to beat with anticipation.
I Samuel comes after the time of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Joshua and the Judges. When the people of Israel had settled in the land of Canaan, the Promised land of milk and honey. But life was not all promise and blessings. There were long years of war and fear of terrorism, there were hard economic times, times when peoples' dreams and expectations became dull. Samuel is the last of the Judges, the last of the Priests (for God had determined to end leadership by Priests), and Samuel becomes Kingmaker who would ordain Saul and David, setting up the Monarchy of Israel. This generation had lived with reality so long, that even the Priests of God had given up believing; the sons of the priests had perverted everything sacred in the Temple. As a Preacher's Kid, who married a Preacher's Kid, and as a Pastor who had kids of our own, I know the trouble Theological Offspring can get into, trying to prove you are more human than holy. But Eli's sons went far beyond this and Eli callously allowed it, for he no longer anticipated anything, Eli no longer cared.
This is not a Miracle Story. This is not a cute bedtime story. In order to hear this experience, we have to understand that Hebrew names have Meaning. ELI was the old Priest, the name Eli means “MY God.” Recall the dying words of Jesus on the Cross “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani” My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me. Eli represents a self-righteous faith that we know who God is and can call on our God when we want. So in the telling of the story, every time you hear the name Eli, we are to respond “My God.” Whereas the name Samuel means “God has heard.” “Samuel” is assurance that God lives, and listens and God cares, so when you hear “Samu-el” we are to respond “God has heard.” In biting commentary, the Bible describes that no one expected to hear the word of God in the Temple, it had become like a museum, a place out of the past. When in the night, the boy heard “Samuel” (Congregation responds “God has Heard”). And the boy comes running saying “Eli, Eli” (My God), but Eli says “No, close your eyes.” And a second time the child hears “Samu-el” “God has heard” and replies “Eli”My God, but is again told “No, close your eyes and lay down.” Finally a third time, the child hears “Samu-el” God has heard, and is told to respond “Speak, for Your servant listens.” The Word of God comes to him vowing that God will no longer offer blessings through Eli's line, but instead God will provide a new form of leadership through Kings. As a figure of transition, the horrible tragedy of Samuel's own life, is that his children were no better, no more faithful than Eli's had been. It was only after Samuel has failed at being a father that he was able to ordain a righteous and good king.
Anticipation is vital. Our preconceptions and expectations can set us up for believing there is nothing new, nothing to believe in, nothing to live for; or anticipation can make us tingle with excitement. This Christmas we prepared for all the worship services, as well as having all the family at our home, where everyone would sleep, when and what we would eat. When suddenly the telephone rang. I had not seen my cousin's daughter in 25 years. She had been the first grandchild and was adored, and the last I saw her she was about 8or 9. The reality of today, is that families lose touch, we go our separate directions, not out of animosity or anger, but simply a lack of caring because life is too busy. This prodigal daughter described living in Manhattan, that she had a 2 year old child, and no where to go for Christmas. I think I was more excited at seeing this child and her child, than about anything at Christmas. Now remember this year, in the Lindsey household, we have two puppies. When the two year old saw the puppies, he began to shake and tingle with anticipation, you could see the giggles and screams begin at his toes and erupt through his head, which in addition to puddles on the floor created a similar reaction from the puppies at seeing a two year old. After trying to settle both down for half an hour or more, we would take the puppies to their kennels in another room, and for 20 minutes or an hour he would be fine. Then the 2 year old would realize the puppies were gone and let out with a blood curdling wail, until we took him in to peek at the puppies, which would cause them and him to squirm and wriggle and giggle all over again. How different that experience is, from our experience of worship, of prayer, of starting any day let alone the week or this first month of the year!
John's Gospel is different in describing the Call of the disciples. Mark, tells of the Call of Fishermen. But John's Gospel witnesses to the many names people have in anticipation for who Jesus is. Joseph's Son, Mary's boy, the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Carpenter from Nazareth, Son of Man, Son of God, Fulfillment of Everything of Moses & the Prophets, Son of David, The Ladder on which People and Angels would descend and ascend to God.
Several of you have commented that the description I prefer for Jacob in the Old Testament, Jacob who deceived his Brother and his Father, and his Uncle Laban, is The Trickster. There is a nuance to Scripture, that Jacob is that Deceiver, that Trickster, always trying to win at someone's expense. But on the way to reconcile with his brother Esau, Jacob encounters a stranger at night wrestles with this one hand to hand and cheek and jowl without relenting all night long. For having wrestled with God face to face, Jacob is changed, no longer is he the Trickster, the Deceiver, who will do anything to win. Jacob is renamed as Israel, meaning one who wrestles with God face to face. When Jesus greets Nathaniel, his description is “Here at least is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit, no guile.”
But I think the most fitting words for today are those spoken by Nathaniel at hearing from Phillip that they had found the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth... Nathaniel responded, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Prophecy and past experience had identified great cities... Alexandria, Cairo, Bethlehem the bread basket, and Jerusalem the City of David. There were cities of great business, cities known for education, others known for reverence and faith, some for terrible battles. Nazareth was an old city that everyone took for granted. No longer do we live in an age of Miracles, beginning in the 1960s we came to understand that the age of Christendom when the Church would conquer all the world and through great missionary enterprises evangelize everyone to be members was Over. Christianity became marginalized, much as we were in the early Church before Emperor Constantine. Seeking to resolve the problems of the world, we look to Wall Street, we look to Washington, we look to the re-emergence of Detroit, Texas and Florida, we even look across the oceans to Stabilizing the Euro, to new governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, a new Africa, Japan rebuilt after the Tsunami. Updating Nathaniel's question: “Can anything Good come out of the Church?” Does anyone in the world anticipate that the Church could be the source of World Peace, of Economic Stability and Growth, of New Dreams? In the Age of Christendom, the Church did make social pronouncements, about war, about power, about the economy. Today, when the Word of God has been rare, we need to question, whether what we are looking for is the Old Priest: ELI justifying ourselves (MY GOD), or whether like the child, we respond to life “Speak Lord for your servant listens” as God calls us SAMUEL “God has heard!”
Sunday, January 8, 2012
"The Cosmic in the Mundane" January 8, 2012
Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1: 4-8
A good and faithful friend advised this week, that we need to be careful when reading the Hebrew Bible of the Old Testament beside the Gospel of the New Testament, that we not become SUPERSESSIONISTS and as Christians take over the faith, but allow room for the faith of Israel, alongside the redemption of Jesus Christ, preserving the integrity of each.
Reflecting upon these passages, I suddenly recalled the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3. Not only the familiar “To everything there is a season and time for every purpose under heaven...” but the explication of that:
I have seen the busyness that God has given to the Children of Man to be busy with. God creating everything beautiful in its own time; AND ALSO putting eternity into the mind of humanity!
Because what each of our passages describe, is: the need for MYSTERY, the need for REVERENCE in Human Life. Just as there is balance in God's Acts of Creation, that there be Light over against Darkness; a firmament in the heavens to separate Heaven and Earth; and that there be Land in the midst of Waters; there is need for constant balance between the Mundane and the Cosmic. To live life, with the believe that that we are witnessing more than what we can know, what is Spiritual, Divine, Holy.
The ancient Nation of Israel knew from history, that the earliest event of their origin had been as slaves in Egypt. Human Chattel, who were bought and sold as property, without rights, without identity, as if without soul; whom God set free. To enter in and interrupt human history God must have loved them. From this witness, came the giving of the 10 Commandments, instruction for creation of the Ark of the Covenant, the Tent of Meeting, which over generations became the Great Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon. Yet as the people became preoccupied with their buying and selling stuff, accumulating possessions, Times to be born and to die, times to plant and time to reap, times of War and of Peace, Israel forgot about REVERENCE, they forgot about God. And when in human imagination we believe there is No God, we attempt to fill that void ourselves, acting as if we had not only power but also authority over Right & Wrong, Life & Death. REVERENCE is the learned wisdom, that comes from having been brought low, that God does exist, that God is God and we are but foolish mortals.
The remnants of faith began telling a PREQUEL to their Earliest Slavery, that just as there was then and the more recent now, there would be a future, because there was an earlier past. SO it is that Scripture begins “IN THE BEGINNING GOD.” Rather than focusing upon Humanity, rather than beginning with our calling upon God and God responding to us; Genesis begins with God in Creation, before humanity. As acts of Divine Perfection, fullness and completion, God created Light out of Darkness, Order out of Chaos, the fullness of the Oceans, and the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Surely God is God because no Human being would have created such beauty and simplicity as life. The point is not that God loved us, as if God needed us, but that humanity perpetually needs God, to CREATE, to REDEEM and to SUSTAIN LIFE.
Each of the Gospels is unique, the Gospel of Mark is different in that there is no Narrative of the Birth of the Savior, the origins of the Messiah who is both Fully Human and Fully Divine. Instead, the Evangelist of Mark emphasized that Jesus was a human being like all of us, who did not know his role in life, who was unaware of his spiritual identity.
Baptism by John was not the presentation of a baby, and gifting of a name. Mark plainly records that throughout history there have been those PREPARING THE WAY for what God would do. John the Baptizer, but also the Prophets, Solomon, David, Moses, Sarah and Abraham, Adam and Eve, ALL had lived their lives preparing the way for what was to come. John is recorded as the Baptizer, but what John did amazingly well was to Preach. He called the World to REPENTANCE, to Confess faith in God. AND most amazingly, the world did. Whether business owners, property owners, learned teachers of the universities, Pharisees of the LAW, or common country peasants, ALL came to John. BAPTISM was a claiming of our most primordial essence. Before birth we were in the waters of life in our mother's womb; before humanity was created we were formed in the primordial waters of Creation; and before anything else in all Creation there was God, so we all kneel down and are baptized.
In recent years I have heard several colleagues adopt cute phrases about “RENEW YOUR BAPTISM” or “REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM”... the difficulty if that for many of us we were baptized as infants. I am told I was Baptized at three months of age, that I picked at my father's collar and hick-upped throughout. Having been a Father, I recall my own children having urped up and been very odiphorous. But as infants none of us remember our baptism. And as Sacrament, Baptism needs no repetition, no ratification, we are claimed by God, complete. Instead, I would put forward, that especially on this Baptism of the LORD Day, that we RECLAIM OUR BAPTISM, that we REPENT and embrace REVERENCE that God is God, that we came up out of the waters of Creation, that emerging from the birthing waters of our mothers we are mortal and human and creaturely.
But the Gospel of Mark does not simply state Jesus was Baptized. Rather that being Baptized, Heaven itself was ripped open. According to the 20th century Theologian Karl Barth: That Firmament in the Heavens which separated the waters from the waters and kept Chaos safe, was re-created as Open through Jesus. Throughout Church History, we have placed great emphasis on the Birth of the Savior, and The Crucifixion and Death and Resurrection, but what a cosmic event, that the firmament established by God at Creation should be opened?! With Heaven Open, the Heavenly Spirit came down and came upon Jesus. No longer, could Heaven and Earth be declared as separate, because according to Mark's testimony Jesus Baptism had opened the way between the Cosmic and the Mundane, between Humanity and God. CS Lewis is recalled as having described that matter has weight, substance, is tangible. So which do you imagine is heavier, Created matter or Spirit? And Lewis claimed that SPIRIT is the heavier, because it is always descending to brood upon the face of the waters, to come upon Jesus, and that Spirit is always united with tangible signs. So as heavy as a rock, the weight of remorse, or the depth of sorrow, or the burden of a lifetime, are far heavier.
The point of all of this, is that in the midst of the mundane, the ordinary, the most human events of life, we need to be humble enough to search for God. As Deacons, visiting shut ins to know that you bring hope and love and faith to those who often feel isolated and forgot. As Deacons, to understand that in Worship you are doing everything possible, all that is needed so that the Preacher can Preach, and the Communion can be served, and worshippers can hear. As Elders, to understand that while we approve Budgets, and move dollars between hear and there to install necessary rooms or provide staffing, what you are actually doing is PREPARING THE WAY for what God may do through others appointed by God.
Mark 1: 4-8
A good and faithful friend advised this week, that we need to be careful when reading the Hebrew Bible of the Old Testament beside the Gospel of the New Testament, that we not become SUPERSESSIONISTS and as Christians take over the faith, but allow room for the faith of Israel, alongside the redemption of Jesus Christ, preserving the integrity of each.
Reflecting upon these passages, I suddenly recalled the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3. Not only the familiar “To everything there is a season and time for every purpose under heaven...” but the explication of that:
I have seen the busyness that God has given to the Children of Man to be busy with. God creating everything beautiful in its own time; AND ALSO putting eternity into the mind of humanity!
Because what each of our passages describe, is: the need for MYSTERY, the need for REVERENCE in Human Life. Just as there is balance in God's Acts of Creation, that there be Light over against Darkness; a firmament in the heavens to separate Heaven and Earth; and that there be Land in the midst of Waters; there is need for constant balance between the Mundane and the Cosmic. To live life, with the believe that that we are witnessing more than what we can know, what is Spiritual, Divine, Holy.
The ancient Nation of Israel knew from history, that the earliest event of their origin had been as slaves in Egypt. Human Chattel, who were bought and sold as property, without rights, without identity, as if without soul; whom God set free. To enter in and interrupt human history God must have loved them. From this witness, came the giving of the 10 Commandments, instruction for creation of the Ark of the Covenant, the Tent of Meeting, which over generations became the Great Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon. Yet as the people became preoccupied with their buying and selling stuff, accumulating possessions, Times to be born and to die, times to plant and time to reap, times of War and of Peace, Israel forgot about REVERENCE, they forgot about God. And when in human imagination we believe there is No God, we attempt to fill that void ourselves, acting as if we had not only power but also authority over Right & Wrong, Life & Death. REVERENCE is the learned wisdom, that comes from having been brought low, that God does exist, that God is God and we are but foolish mortals.
The remnants of faith began telling a PREQUEL to their Earliest Slavery, that just as there was then and the more recent now, there would be a future, because there was an earlier past. SO it is that Scripture begins “IN THE BEGINNING GOD.” Rather than focusing upon Humanity, rather than beginning with our calling upon God and God responding to us; Genesis begins with God in Creation, before humanity. As acts of Divine Perfection, fullness and completion, God created Light out of Darkness, Order out of Chaos, the fullness of the Oceans, and the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Surely God is God because no Human being would have created such beauty and simplicity as life. The point is not that God loved us, as if God needed us, but that humanity perpetually needs God, to CREATE, to REDEEM and to SUSTAIN LIFE.
Each of the Gospels is unique, the Gospel of Mark is different in that there is no Narrative of the Birth of the Savior, the origins of the Messiah who is both Fully Human and Fully Divine. Instead, the Evangelist of Mark emphasized that Jesus was a human being like all of us, who did not know his role in life, who was unaware of his spiritual identity.
Baptism by John was not the presentation of a baby, and gifting of a name. Mark plainly records that throughout history there have been those PREPARING THE WAY for what God would do. John the Baptizer, but also the Prophets, Solomon, David, Moses, Sarah and Abraham, Adam and Eve, ALL had lived their lives preparing the way for what was to come. John is recorded as the Baptizer, but what John did amazingly well was to Preach. He called the World to REPENTANCE, to Confess faith in God. AND most amazingly, the world did. Whether business owners, property owners, learned teachers of the universities, Pharisees of the LAW, or common country peasants, ALL came to John. BAPTISM was a claiming of our most primordial essence. Before birth we were in the waters of life in our mother's womb; before humanity was created we were formed in the primordial waters of Creation; and before anything else in all Creation there was God, so we all kneel down and are baptized.
In recent years I have heard several colleagues adopt cute phrases about “RENEW YOUR BAPTISM” or “REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM”... the difficulty if that for many of us we were baptized as infants. I am told I was Baptized at three months of age, that I picked at my father's collar and hick-upped throughout. Having been a Father, I recall my own children having urped up and been very odiphorous. But as infants none of us remember our baptism. And as Sacrament, Baptism needs no repetition, no ratification, we are claimed by God, complete. Instead, I would put forward, that especially on this Baptism of the LORD Day, that we RECLAIM OUR BAPTISM, that we REPENT and embrace REVERENCE that God is God, that we came up out of the waters of Creation, that emerging from the birthing waters of our mothers we are mortal and human and creaturely.
But the Gospel of Mark does not simply state Jesus was Baptized. Rather that being Baptized, Heaven itself was ripped open. According to the 20th century Theologian Karl Barth: That Firmament in the Heavens which separated the waters from the waters and kept Chaos safe, was re-created as Open through Jesus. Throughout Church History, we have placed great emphasis on the Birth of the Savior, and The Crucifixion and Death and Resurrection, but what a cosmic event, that the firmament established by God at Creation should be opened?! With Heaven Open, the Heavenly Spirit came down and came upon Jesus. No longer, could Heaven and Earth be declared as separate, because according to Mark's testimony Jesus Baptism had opened the way between the Cosmic and the Mundane, between Humanity and God. CS Lewis is recalled as having described that matter has weight, substance, is tangible. So which do you imagine is heavier, Created matter or Spirit? And Lewis claimed that SPIRIT is the heavier, because it is always descending to brood upon the face of the waters, to come upon Jesus, and that Spirit is always united with tangible signs. So as heavy as a rock, the weight of remorse, or the depth of sorrow, or the burden of a lifetime, are far heavier.
The point of all of this, is that in the midst of the mundane, the ordinary, the most human events of life, we need to be humble enough to search for God. As Deacons, visiting shut ins to know that you bring hope and love and faith to those who often feel isolated and forgot. As Deacons, to understand that in Worship you are doing everything possible, all that is needed so that the Preacher can Preach, and the Communion can be served, and worshippers can hear. As Elders, to understand that while we approve Budgets, and move dollars between hear and there to install necessary rooms or provide staffing, what you are actually doing is PREPARING THE WAY for what God may do through others appointed by God.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
January 01, 2012 "New-Ness"
Isaiah 61:10-62-4
Luke 2:22-40
Christmas Eve found us, surrounded by worshippers, many in pajamas ready for dreams of sugarplums, others with a diamond or a new gold band on their finger. Christmas morn our homes were lit with trees the floor covered in discarded paper. The morning after Christmas the guests who had stayed too long had left, when the phone rang with report of a friend who had died early on this day after. Returning from time with the family, the funeral home called with news of another member from the 1970s who had died, and their family wanted to come home for the burial. Then the mother of a bride called, for one of the weddings this May. She was inconsolable, as it appeared the 25 year old groom had suddenly and unexplainedly died. As much as we try to make preparations for Christmas, as much as we shop and decorate and bake cookies, Christmas belongs to God... Christmas is so much more than Christmas Eve and Morn, it is all the most-ordinary of life juxtaposed by God miraculously entering in. As great as our expectations are for Christmas, our human means are limited, and the birth of Jesus is not only about the Shepherds and Manger, but about Simeon who has been waiting decade upon decade for the coming of the Christ. Christmas is about Anna, whose life of nearly 90 years was very ordinary, yet she had been promised that before she died she would see the coming of the Savior!
The post-Modern theologian Miroslav Volf has described that there is a difference between Optimism and Hope. Optimism is living life, believing based on all we have ever known of life, that there is possibility. Hope is grounded in the reality of God, hope is belief in what has seemed unreal. In 1945, in Poland, a Jewish woman named Ruth Krauss wrote a children's book, titled The Carrot Seed. In the story, a child plants a carrot seed, and waits, watering the ground, watching for something green to appear. His parents know that the earth has been bombed, the soil saturated in the blood of death. For their child's sake, they want to believe the carrot could grow and they satisfy themselves that he is busy. Yet, the child who planted the seed, who waits day after day, nurturing hope, believes against reality, and when finally the carrot greens are pulled from the earth, not only is there a carrot, but the carrot is bigger than the child.
If All we do is live in the moment, working hard, and playing hard, we have no expectation of what could be or what is, only memories of what has been. We long for the economy to turn around. We wait for the next election, without expecting anything other than a shift of power the other way. We long for peace as the absence of war, without righteousness or justice, or respect for the humanity and dignity of the other. We make resolutions to live life differently, without the willingness to wait, even more the dedication to change.
Across Africa across the world, Doctors Without Borders and CARE International have built thousands of Clinic buildings, that stand as eroding shells, lifeless husks, because after the building was built, after optimism of what could be was established, a new clinic needed to be built, a new crisis grabbed attention. After 7 long years of dedicated work, where we set out to build a clinic for $30,000 over $3M of donations have been raised and spent, and out of Civil War there is a new Nation in South Sudan. We have been responsible for changing the infant mortality rate from 8 out of 10 dying before age 5 and the maternal mortality rate from 50% dying in child-birth; the possibility is before us that the clinic will continue self-sustaining without our involvement. The question is not about numbers or dollars, not about lives saved, but about what this mission, about what this 7 years, has meant to those who gave support, to witness that we can make a difference in the world.
Sometimes, that difference is about offering life out of death, about changing the world. At other times, it is about what Emerson described “To laugh often and much... To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... To earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends... to appreciate beauty... to find the best in others... to leave the world a little bit better... whether in the life of a child, the planting of a garden, or the redemption of a social condition... to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived... This is to have succeeded.”
Our Biblical passages this morning, in the week following Christmas, are less about celebrating another year as “The Birthday for Time,” than about the realization of hope against our grounding in the past. In Ancient Israel, the great Monarchy was destroyed. Babylon rose to power, and all previous cultures were brought down. The Great Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, was laid waste, not one stone left upon another. For decades, those who had been kept alive from what once was Israel watched and waited, as the empire of Babylon rose and fell. Persia rose and fell. Greece with Alexander and Aristotle and Plato rose and fell. The whole history of human culture, of the building of dynasties and power is about rising, only to be destroyed. Isaiah's witness is counter-cultural, that out of what was crushed will come new-ness. Out of the rubble of the past, will come something as yet unknown. Where the world knows only the rise and fall of time, faith believes that only after the seed has fallen into the ground can the husk be let go for new life to sprout.
Martin Luther described that God became small for us, showing us God's heart and vulnerability, that our hearts might be converted. A child has immense power over us. The most burley calloused hands of a man, cradle a newborn as if pillows of down. The most powerful and resounding of voices is changed to a falsetto cooing, by the touch of a baby.
These stories from the Bible remind us that Birth is dangerous. We have come to believe in the hope of expectation, that months before birth, we know the sex and the name, Grandparents schedule supersavers to be present when the baby is born. But Birth is dangerous. In America, where the amount we spend per birth is higher than anywhere else in the world, our Maternal Mortality rate is the 11th highest among developed Nations; and from 2009 to 2010 doubled from 7 per 100,000 to 13 per 100,000 with serious life-threatening complications for the mothers in 65 out of 10,000 births; and while the Infant Mortality rate has declined in the last decade, in America we still bury 24 babies per 1,000. Birth is dangerous, Life is dangerous! The point of the birth stories in the Bible is not so we would have creches on the mantle, but to bear witness that God did not come from Heaven as a Warrior invincible, untouchable, but instead embraced everything of life as we live life. There was reason why the Law of Moses required a sacrifice be offered for the birth of a child, ...to thank God! For most of us, we cannot imagine a sacrifice for a birth... the required sacrifice was an unblemished lamb, for a poor couple a pair of turtledoves.
For centuries, Church teaching has wrestled with the strict adherence to the Law regarding Jesus. He was the Messiah, God in human form, so without sin... why then did he suffer on the cross? Why did he need to be Baptized? The answer being that on the cross he suffered for the sins of all humanity. In his baptism, all the world was forgiven. So in the sacrifice for his birth, there was sacrifice for all the mothers and babies of all the world.
In the Christmas story, we have come to expect the Donkey and Ox, the Shepherds and Sheep, the Wisemen and Camels, none of which does the Bible name. What we never expect is Simeon and Anna. Anna, whose whole life had been so ordinary. She had married and been widowed and devoted herself to the care of others... could there be a more ordinary life, yet Anna was promised that she would see Salvation! And Simeon, whose whole life had been waiting for the Lord, not only for a few moments, or for a week or month or years, but for decade upon decade waiting for the Lord before he could die. In this New Year, there will be deaths and births, there will be the fall and rising of Nations, in the midst of all that is new, may there also be what has meaning, may there be sacrifices which are given in sincere thanks to God for the living of Life.
Luke 2:22-40
Christmas Eve found us, surrounded by worshippers, many in pajamas ready for dreams of sugarplums, others with a diamond or a new gold band on their finger. Christmas morn our homes were lit with trees the floor covered in discarded paper. The morning after Christmas the guests who had stayed too long had left, when the phone rang with report of a friend who had died early on this day after. Returning from time with the family, the funeral home called with news of another member from the 1970s who had died, and their family wanted to come home for the burial. Then the mother of a bride called, for one of the weddings this May. She was inconsolable, as it appeared the 25 year old groom had suddenly and unexplainedly died. As much as we try to make preparations for Christmas, as much as we shop and decorate and bake cookies, Christmas belongs to God... Christmas is so much more than Christmas Eve and Morn, it is all the most-ordinary of life juxtaposed by God miraculously entering in. As great as our expectations are for Christmas, our human means are limited, and the birth of Jesus is not only about the Shepherds and Manger, but about Simeon who has been waiting decade upon decade for the coming of the Christ. Christmas is about Anna, whose life of nearly 90 years was very ordinary, yet she had been promised that before she died she would see the coming of the Savior!
The post-Modern theologian Miroslav Volf has described that there is a difference between Optimism and Hope. Optimism is living life, believing based on all we have ever known of life, that there is possibility. Hope is grounded in the reality of God, hope is belief in what has seemed unreal. In 1945, in Poland, a Jewish woman named Ruth Krauss wrote a children's book, titled The Carrot Seed. In the story, a child plants a carrot seed, and waits, watering the ground, watching for something green to appear. His parents know that the earth has been bombed, the soil saturated in the blood of death. For their child's sake, they want to believe the carrot could grow and they satisfy themselves that he is busy. Yet, the child who planted the seed, who waits day after day, nurturing hope, believes against reality, and when finally the carrot greens are pulled from the earth, not only is there a carrot, but the carrot is bigger than the child.
If All we do is live in the moment, working hard, and playing hard, we have no expectation of what could be or what is, only memories of what has been. We long for the economy to turn around. We wait for the next election, without expecting anything other than a shift of power the other way. We long for peace as the absence of war, without righteousness or justice, or respect for the humanity and dignity of the other. We make resolutions to live life differently, without the willingness to wait, even more the dedication to change.
Across Africa across the world, Doctors Without Borders and CARE International have built thousands of Clinic buildings, that stand as eroding shells, lifeless husks, because after the building was built, after optimism of what could be was established, a new clinic needed to be built, a new crisis grabbed attention. After 7 long years of dedicated work, where we set out to build a clinic for $30,000 over $3M of donations have been raised and spent, and out of Civil War there is a new Nation in South Sudan. We have been responsible for changing the infant mortality rate from 8 out of 10 dying before age 5 and the maternal mortality rate from 50% dying in child-birth; the possibility is before us that the clinic will continue self-sustaining without our involvement. The question is not about numbers or dollars, not about lives saved, but about what this mission, about what this 7 years, has meant to those who gave support, to witness that we can make a difference in the world.
Sometimes, that difference is about offering life out of death, about changing the world. At other times, it is about what Emerson described “To laugh often and much... To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... To earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends... to appreciate beauty... to find the best in others... to leave the world a little bit better... whether in the life of a child, the planting of a garden, or the redemption of a social condition... to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived... This is to have succeeded.”
Our Biblical passages this morning, in the week following Christmas, are less about celebrating another year as “The Birthday for Time,” than about the realization of hope against our grounding in the past. In Ancient Israel, the great Monarchy was destroyed. Babylon rose to power, and all previous cultures were brought down. The Great Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, was laid waste, not one stone left upon another. For decades, those who had been kept alive from what once was Israel watched and waited, as the empire of Babylon rose and fell. Persia rose and fell. Greece with Alexander and Aristotle and Plato rose and fell. The whole history of human culture, of the building of dynasties and power is about rising, only to be destroyed. Isaiah's witness is counter-cultural, that out of what was crushed will come new-ness. Out of the rubble of the past, will come something as yet unknown. Where the world knows only the rise and fall of time, faith believes that only after the seed has fallen into the ground can the husk be let go for new life to sprout.
Martin Luther described that God became small for us, showing us God's heart and vulnerability, that our hearts might be converted. A child has immense power over us. The most burley calloused hands of a man, cradle a newborn as if pillows of down. The most powerful and resounding of voices is changed to a falsetto cooing, by the touch of a baby.
These stories from the Bible remind us that Birth is dangerous. We have come to believe in the hope of expectation, that months before birth, we know the sex and the name, Grandparents schedule supersavers to be present when the baby is born. But Birth is dangerous. In America, where the amount we spend per birth is higher than anywhere else in the world, our Maternal Mortality rate is the 11th highest among developed Nations; and from 2009 to 2010 doubled from 7 per 100,000 to 13 per 100,000 with serious life-threatening complications for the mothers in 65 out of 10,000 births; and while the Infant Mortality rate has declined in the last decade, in America we still bury 24 babies per 1,000. Birth is dangerous, Life is dangerous! The point of the birth stories in the Bible is not so we would have creches on the mantle, but to bear witness that God did not come from Heaven as a Warrior invincible, untouchable, but instead embraced everything of life as we live life. There was reason why the Law of Moses required a sacrifice be offered for the birth of a child, ...to thank God! For most of us, we cannot imagine a sacrifice for a birth... the required sacrifice was an unblemished lamb, for a poor couple a pair of turtledoves.
For centuries, Church teaching has wrestled with the strict adherence to the Law regarding Jesus. He was the Messiah, God in human form, so without sin... why then did he suffer on the cross? Why did he need to be Baptized? The answer being that on the cross he suffered for the sins of all humanity. In his baptism, all the world was forgiven. So in the sacrifice for his birth, there was sacrifice for all the mothers and babies of all the world.
In the Christmas story, we have come to expect the Donkey and Ox, the Shepherds and Sheep, the Wisemen and Camels, none of which does the Bible name. What we never expect is Simeon and Anna. Anna, whose whole life had been so ordinary. She had married and been widowed and devoted herself to the care of others... could there be a more ordinary life, yet Anna was promised that she would see Salvation! And Simeon, whose whole life had been waiting for the Lord, not only for a few moments, or for a week or month or years, but for decade upon decade waiting for the Lord before he could die. In this New Year, there will be deaths and births, there will be the fall and rising of Nations, in the midst of all that is new, may there also be what has meaning, may there be sacrifices which are given in sincere thanks to God for the living of Life.
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