Joel 2:23-32
Luke 18: 9-14
Last Sunday, in the midst of the Sermon, one of our number passed out. I wish I could say it had something to do with the Preaching, but it seems it was simply a symptom of their Parkinson's disease, and in the midst of a sermon on having faith/caring/never giving up but praying constantly, we prayed.
Following worship, a visitor sought me out to say, “In the sermon you mentioned Predestination! When I was a child, it seemed that was the basis of every sermon in Presbyterian Churches, and yet, I cannot remember the last time I heard a preacher use the word?” There are topics that are in vogue, and times when ideas seem to go out of fashion. There have been times when the focus of preaching was on: The Survival of Churches, on Healing Conflicts, on Power and Abuse, on Rebuilding the Foundations, on Mission and sharing our blessings with those in need. Years ago, when asked by a Seminary Intern, I recall describing that every sermon is about Forgiveness and rebuilding Trust. There is a basic truth to this, in that the Biblical Witness is about RESTORING COVENANT COMMUNION, as described by The Prophet Joel: That the soil and animals and all humanity would be restored to Creation. But the question of discussing PEDESTINATION, of SALVATION, of What does it mean to be Saved, even the response to “Jesus Loves Me This I Know,” is not WHO is saved or HOW, or WHEN, but whether you care? Whether anyone cares? As stated at the end of the parable about the UnRighteous Judge and the Unrelenting Widow: When the Son of Man comes, Will God find faith on earth?
PreDestination for those who made not have heard it last Sunday, is an Acceptance that as Human Beings we are Sinners, when given half a Chance we will choose what is in our self-interest and not in the interest of God, Creation, the needs of others. Like Adam and Eve we will always seek what is forbidden fruit. But, like rain from heaven, grace falls upon us all, and some will take in faith, will listen to the conviction of Christ and choose to live differently. The difficulty of Predestination is that everyone will not absorb grace, to many faith does not seem profitable. It is not that some are damned and some are saved, but rather that all of us are, and some will allow compassion, truth, faith, hope to work upon them. What a world it would be, if with Grace falling upon the earth like early and middle and later rains and the ground becomes saturated, all the world would be so saturated with Grace, that our Elders would Dream Dreams and our Children would conceive of Visions we never before imagined. Predestination leaves open the possibility that all Creation could be restored, could turn to have faith.
The whole middle of the Gospel of Luke strikes me as not being a collection of Jesus' Parables, not a vindication of the poor and condemnation of the rich, but the Healing of 10 Lepers and 1Turned to Jesus, the Prodigal Son coming to himself and returning home, Forgiving our brothers 7 times a day and if they repent yet again forgiving them anew, Servants doing our duty and always being asked to do more, the Unrighteous Judge, the Pharisee and Tax Collector at Prayer, the Parents bringing infants to Jesus, and the Rich Young Ruler, All are stories of people recognizing their need to have faith, our need to repent, and turn from our needs and desires, to caring, to CALLING ON THE NAME OF GOD and acting in faith.
The Pharisee is described as a SELF-MADE Man, who trusted in himself, believing he knew better than anyone else. He went up to the Temple to pray, and stood the entire time, never kneeling, never bowing down, he stood isolated from others. The Gospel goes so far as to say “He prayed with himself.” The danger of being Self-Made, of being Self-Righteous, of being proud, is that this man has made himself into his own God, leaving no room for Salvation, no room for forgiveness. He is religious, even pious, but he does not have faith.
On the weekend of the 11th of September, one of our elders recalled that on that Day, and for months afterward the Nation had been more together than he had recalled in decades, and yet increasingly we have become so polarized, so isolated by our divisions. In the current political campaign even more so, as each blame the other, in order to win by saying “God, I thank thee that I am not like others, political insiders, career politicians, those who voted for this, that and the other. I stand alone.” Just once, I wish we had a leader, who would humbly stand before the Nation, before the world, saying “I have done what I have done, giving of myself in every way I could.” Who then did not campaign, but gave all the funds for campaigning to make a difference in the world. In this age of TWITTERS and TWEETS, these actions would spread good news, without robo-calls, without mailers, without commercials.
But this is not what we imagine our rulers to do.
Our rulers may honor their Fathers and Mothers, live moral lives without stealing or murdering or lying, but when it comes to giving away all you have, being humble and vulnerable, we have not made these a virtue any aspire to. The more I have read and reflected upon this passage over the years, I have come to believe that it is a gem for reflection, not a sign or phrase that we immediately recognize.
One does not immediately divest themselves of all the things of this life. Such a decision takes reflection, even repentance to say I DO NOT NEED TO POSSESS ALL THIS, and even more HERE IS ANOTHER WHO DOES NEED MORE THAN I.
Like getting a Camel through the eye of a Needle, faith is not a matter of opening the needle bigger, or shrinking the camel smaller, but of backing up, gaining perspective. When trying to thread a needle, the point is not to push harder, or twist the thread tighter, but looking through the other side, and gaining perspective, your eye can allow a whole camel even the whole world to be seen passing through the eye of the needle.
I have come to believe that the Gospel answers its own question. While Ruler went away, FOUR verses later, there is description of a blind man who recognized Jesus and called out to him Son of David have Mercy! Filling in the time frame of those four verses, I believe the rich ruler did give away all he possessed, but doing so, he now only saw himself as poor, he knew himself to still be blind to the truth. So when Jesus came by, he begged for mercy, and Jesus said “Receive Your Sight, Your Faith Has Made You Well!”
Monday, October 25, 2010
October 17, 2010, "DO NOT LOSE HEART"
Jeremiah 31: 27-34
Luke 18:1-8
We are surrounded by so much negativism, pessimism and fear. Each candidate no longer campaigning on what they can and will do, but casting aspersions on their opponents. Commercials selling us products, which are not designed to last, but only to be faster, smaller, more colorful, with more memorable commercials than their competitor. Projections of the economy are not for a robust recovery, but a slow and jerky series of starts, heaping greater and greater debt on our children's children's future. The Yankees, who raised hopes and expectations with the American Series Opener, suffered a miserable loss in game two. Syracuse was crushed by Pittsburgh 45-14. HOWEVER: The Word of The Lord which comes to us is FEAR NOT, DO NOT LOSE HEART, BELIEVE ANEW!
Western Culture has been heavily influenced by the Greeks and Romans, we have named our cities Syracuse, Marcellus, Utica, Albany and Rome, BUT we are a Biblical People, a People of Faith. The Greeks had an understanding of Comedy and Tragedy, in which FATE is an inescapable Personal Destiny assigned before birth by the whim of those with power. In Grimm's Fairytale Sleeping Beauty, the Witch is not invited to the Marriage of the King and Queen, and she vows that when they have a child and the child comes of age, she will prick her finger and the whole kingdom shall sleep for a thousand years. The Greek Hero stood out, because while everyone else complacently accepted “What is the use of trying, our ancestors have done wrong and we pay the price for their arrogance” the Hero challenged their Gods, challenged Systems and Norms and expectations, believing they could.
The Old Testament does not have the same precept, but rather that there is an inalienable human right to Freedom of Will, assured through the open relationship of humanity to God, making repentance a genuine possibility, redemption a reality, and the future a dynamic part of God's creative purpose.
The power of this oracle from Jeremiah, is that the Creator of the Universe, the author of life, pledges to create a new covenant. The last several books of the Old Testament (Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Isaiah) have assumed everyone knew what the covenant was, the relationship between God and Israel:
cut into the heavens as a Rainbow that God would not destroy all life;
cut into the foreskin of Abram, Isaac and Jacob that this would be a chosen people who in their most intimate ways, in their food, in their marriages and conception, in the patterns of life, would live dependent upon God;
cut into stone in the time of Moses, that we would follow God's 10 commandments as Law,
cut into the genealogy of David, that there would always be a King in Israel.
But what if, in the time of exile, when the people had been beaten down and lost hope, if the Creator began to create anew? Can God still do something new today?
So much of Biblical Study, of the Church's resources let alone human resources, are devoted to figuring why certain things happened, who is at fault, who is responsible, which came first, how an idea evolved. What if instead of trying to go backwards through history and thought, if we changed our perspective to imagine everything in life, in human history, were motivation for what is to come?
The prophecy of Jeremiah seems to suggest that people had come to believe the Law was static, you do Right and God blesses you, do Wrong and we will be punished, exiled, even for three and four generations. Humanity had nullified the Covenant, making the relationship as lifeless/hopeless as stone. But Covenant is not about following the Law, not about memorizing and adhering to fundamental principles... The Covenant is about our attitude toward everything about God. Toward God and God's Laws and Creation and other Human Beings, our attitude toward life itself. I had a Professor of the Old Testament who regarding this passage would remind us, and if you thought circumcision was intimate and brutal, God putting God's Covenant into our hearts is like the M&M Candy worrying about how they will put a Pretzel inside him.
In Jesus' Parable, the Judge believes in nothing and no one. He is a man without hope, who no longer believes in justice or righteousness, human kindness. In the parable, the Judge is cast as the Antithesis of God. God believes in people, God embodies justice and righteousness and kindness and grace. So if this Judge could be worn down by the Widow's Persistence, what do you imagine will be the reaction of God, the antithesis of the Judge, to our prayers. The Unfeeling, Immovable Judge is finally moved, by her legal argument, her contract and brief, but most of all by her unwillingness to ever give up! Surely a loving compassionate God will move heaven and earth for our prayers.
The irony of the Parable, comes as a question. All Jesus' listeners, then and now, seem to believe in and recognize that there are Judges like this. There are people who do not believe in anything, who are filled with doubt and negativity about God and humanity and life itself. BUT, when the Son of Man comes, will he find any with the commitment and perseverance of the Widow, any who have faith?
Do Not LOSE HEART, believe!
I find it intriguing, that both in this parable and the Jeremiah passage, the focus is upon the heart for faith. Faith is not located in our minds, not in our foreskin, not in stone buildings or stone tablets, but in our hearts. Years ago there was a couple who were successful, popular, had everything their hearts desired, but something happened and for her to survive he needed to wait on her and care for her, living his life in response to her needs. Friends and family shook their heads of what a loveless marriage, that everything was about her needs and she could not even perceive all he was doing for her. But one night he paused to explain that in marrying he had vowed “For better and worse and sickness and health”. Caring for her, embodied that commitment, this was not a burden, but a demonstration of his devotion. We see a soldier back from war, missing a limb. We shake our heads at the costs of war, at the devastation and senseless tragedy; yet the soldier sees only their devotion. Who among us, if our child were suddenly ill, would not do everything possible, take out mortgages, sit by their bedside, seek every opportunity possible to give them life, to make them well. What will it take for us to change our hearts, to believe that life is dynamic, that God cares, what will it take for us to have faith and believe?
IRONICALLY, during this worship service a gentleman in the second row of the congregation passed out. Three doctors in the congregation cared for him and could not find a pulse. At which point, the Preacher acknowledged what was going on in the Sanctuary and called the congregation to act in faith by praying for he and his wife, for their comfort and God's will. An hour later, at the hospital, with an IV and Oxygen, he was alert and stronger than he had been in weeks. Do Not Lose Heart but Believe?
Luke 18:1-8
We are surrounded by so much negativism, pessimism and fear. Each candidate no longer campaigning on what they can and will do, but casting aspersions on their opponents. Commercials selling us products, which are not designed to last, but only to be faster, smaller, more colorful, with more memorable commercials than their competitor. Projections of the economy are not for a robust recovery, but a slow and jerky series of starts, heaping greater and greater debt on our children's children's future. The Yankees, who raised hopes and expectations with the American Series Opener, suffered a miserable loss in game two. Syracuse was crushed by Pittsburgh 45-14. HOWEVER: The Word of The Lord which comes to us is FEAR NOT, DO NOT LOSE HEART, BELIEVE ANEW!
Western Culture has been heavily influenced by the Greeks and Romans, we have named our cities Syracuse, Marcellus, Utica, Albany and Rome, BUT we are a Biblical People, a People of Faith. The Greeks had an understanding of Comedy and Tragedy, in which FATE is an inescapable Personal Destiny assigned before birth by the whim of those with power. In Grimm's Fairytale Sleeping Beauty, the Witch is not invited to the Marriage of the King and Queen, and she vows that when they have a child and the child comes of age, she will prick her finger and the whole kingdom shall sleep for a thousand years. The Greek Hero stood out, because while everyone else complacently accepted “What is the use of trying, our ancestors have done wrong and we pay the price for their arrogance” the Hero challenged their Gods, challenged Systems and Norms and expectations, believing they could.
The Old Testament does not have the same precept, but rather that there is an inalienable human right to Freedom of Will, assured through the open relationship of humanity to God, making repentance a genuine possibility, redemption a reality, and the future a dynamic part of God's creative purpose.
The power of this oracle from Jeremiah, is that the Creator of the Universe, the author of life, pledges to create a new covenant. The last several books of the Old Testament (Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Isaiah) have assumed everyone knew what the covenant was, the relationship between God and Israel:
cut into the heavens as a Rainbow that God would not destroy all life;
cut into the foreskin of Abram, Isaac and Jacob that this would be a chosen people who in their most intimate ways, in their food, in their marriages and conception, in the patterns of life, would live dependent upon God;
cut into stone in the time of Moses, that we would follow God's 10 commandments as Law,
cut into the genealogy of David, that there would always be a King in Israel.
But what if, in the time of exile, when the people had been beaten down and lost hope, if the Creator began to create anew? Can God still do something new today?
So much of Biblical Study, of the Church's resources let alone human resources, are devoted to figuring why certain things happened, who is at fault, who is responsible, which came first, how an idea evolved. What if instead of trying to go backwards through history and thought, if we changed our perspective to imagine everything in life, in human history, were motivation for what is to come?
The prophecy of Jeremiah seems to suggest that people had come to believe the Law was static, you do Right and God blesses you, do Wrong and we will be punished, exiled, even for three and four generations. Humanity had nullified the Covenant, making the relationship as lifeless/hopeless as stone. But Covenant is not about following the Law, not about memorizing and adhering to fundamental principles... The Covenant is about our attitude toward everything about God. Toward God and God's Laws and Creation and other Human Beings, our attitude toward life itself. I had a Professor of the Old Testament who regarding this passage would remind us, and if you thought circumcision was intimate and brutal, God putting God's Covenant into our hearts is like the M&M Candy worrying about how they will put a Pretzel inside him.
In Jesus' Parable, the Judge believes in nothing and no one. He is a man without hope, who no longer believes in justice or righteousness, human kindness. In the parable, the Judge is cast as the Antithesis of God. God believes in people, God embodies justice and righteousness and kindness and grace. So if this Judge could be worn down by the Widow's Persistence, what do you imagine will be the reaction of God, the antithesis of the Judge, to our prayers. The Unfeeling, Immovable Judge is finally moved, by her legal argument, her contract and brief, but most of all by her unwillingness to ever give up! Surely a loving compassionate God will move heaven and earth for our prayers.
The irony of the Parable, comes as a question. All Jesus' listeners, then and now, seem to believe in and recognize that there are Judges like this. There are people who do not believe in anything, who are filled with doubt and negativity about God and humanity and life itself. BUT, when the Son of Man comes, will he find any with the commitment and perseverance of the Widow, any who have faith?
Do Not LOSE HEART, believe!
I find it intriguing, that both in this parable and the Jeremiah passage, the focus is upon the heart for faith. Faith is not located in our minds, not in our foreskin, not in stone buildings or stone tablets, but in our hearts. Years ago there was a couple who were successful, popular, had everything their hearts desired, but something happened and for her to survive he needed to wait on her and care for her, living his life in response to her needs. Friends and family shook their heads of what a loveless marriage, that everything was about her needs and she could not even perceive all he was doing for her. But one night he paused to explain that in marrying he had vowed “For better and worse and sickness and health”. Caring for her, embodied that commitment, this was not a burden, but a demonstration of his devotion. We see a soldier back from war, missing a limb. We shake our heads at the costs of war, at the devastation and senseless tragedy; yet the soldier sees only their devotion. Who among us, if our child were suddenly ill, would not do everything possible, take out mortgages, sit by their bedside, seek every opportunity possible to give them life, to make them well. What will it take for us to change our hearts, to believe that life is dynamic, that God cares, what will it take for us to have faith and believe?
IRONICALLY, during this worship service a gentleman in the second row of the congregation passed out. Three doctors in the congregation cared for him and could not find a pulse. At which point, the Preacher acknowledged what was going on in the Sanctuary and called the congregation to act in faith by praying for he and his wife, for their comfort and God's will. An hour later, at the hospital, with an IV and Oxygen, he was alert and stronger than he had been in weeks. Do Not Lose Heart but Believe?
Sunday, October 10, 2010
SEEKING VALIDATION, October 10, 2010
Jeremiah 29: 1-10
Luke 17: 11-21
Our readings this morning are about SEEing, LOOKing and WITNESSing what else may be occurring. For our lives are so busy, our routines so established, we rarely take time to ponder, to be grateful to validate that we have been blessed, and to Seek Validation for what God may be doing.
Years ago, there were commuter trains that connected every small town and village with major cities. So it was that a minister from the City was supposed to preach here in the village, and found on the rail schedule that he could take the train from Syracuse to Buffalo, stopping at Skaneateles arriving just in time for the leading of worship. But to his shock and horror, once he was on the Sunday morning train and had bought his ticket, he learned that on weekends the train did not stop at every station. The Conductor told him not to panic, that he would inform the Engineer that after cresting Marcellus hill they needed to slow down, though they could not stop. However, the Conductor cautioned, the last person to jump from this moving train had broken both ankles from the sudden impact of going from a moving train to a stationary landing. To compensate, the Conductor had him go to the end of the train car and run as fast as he could, being certain that as he leapt from the open door, he would pirouette onto the landing running in the same direction as the train. The train began to slow only slightly as the Conductor gave the preacher the signal and he began to run through the open car toward the waiting door, at the critical moment he leapt in a beautiful pirouette midair, landing in a run to slow his speed as the train pulled away, when suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled him back on board the train. Aghast and bewildered, he asked what happened, when a voice described “I saw you running after the train and knew you were going to miss it, so I reached out and gave you a hand. You're welcome!”
WITNESSing only from our own perspective, without Validating what we See, we can miss what God may be doing all around us. Do we read the paper and Internet as World News and Local News and Stories of Interest, or do we see through the circumstances looking for what God may be doing in our midst? Can we have the humility of the Prophet Jeremiah to see the possibility of God using circumstances for our benefit that seem against us?
No one would wish intentional harm upon another, and yet only in those times in which we are truly vulnerable, broken, do our shells crack enough for the spirit of God to enter in. Can we see one another? Not the facade that there are people down the pew, or so many cars in our way for when we want to get out. To see beyond the shell and husk of another to realize that the exchange student so bold and full of life to share their culture with us and experience our culture all around them, may be extremely homesick and alone.
Faith and gratitude are inextricably interwoven. When we see ourselves as Self-Sufficient, with no need to be thankful to anyone else, we have no room for God, let alone other people. We imagine ourselves as being self-made, having worked for everything we have received. But what if, we opened our perspective like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickins' Christmas Carol, witnessing that all through life there have been others who cared for us, that in fact our lives have been utterly dependent upon the goodwill and compassion of others. We went to class each day, but our mothers had made certain we had a good breakfast and cookies when we came home. A teacher, a coach, a neighbor, an employer, showed interest in us, perhaps it was a part of their job, but the right word at the right time validated and changed us, they were there when we needed.
After years of war, following the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the whole City of Jerusalem, the leaders, the strong and the educated, were taken into captivity by their enemy as Exiles in Babylon. The Nationalism and Patriotism of Ancient Israel was not far different from what we feel here in America. Can we imagine 20 years of war on our own soil, at the end of which everything building, roads, farms our culture is in ruins and shackled together as prisoners we have been taken away from our Nation to live out our days in a foreign land. When word comes from the Prophet Jeremiah, that God has appointed our enemies to care for us, to provide for us. How different the New Testament words of “Praying for One's Enemies” and “Having Compassion on those who persecute You” sound, if our survival depended upon their survival.
The Bible has identifications of people that we too often take for granted, without really seeing to understand. There are still cases of leprosy in the world today, 14 Million cured in the last 20 years, there are some 250,000 with this disease today, although mostly in tropical climates it does occur in America with an incubation period of 5 to 20 years it is often misdiagnosed as skin lesions. Leprosy is a Bacterial Infection that has been recorded since the year 600 BC as a Chronic Social disease, requiring people being ostracized. How many other Chronic Social Diseases are there? Diseases that are not like the flu, mumps or measles, but will remain with us all of life. Social Diseases that cause us as polite society to withdraw, to look past them and not see the person as a person, but only as a Leper.
According to cultural laws, Lepers were to live outside to community in leper colonies, covering themselves with a white sheet because the abrasion of clothing might gnaw at the skin, wearing a bell round their neck and forced to identify themselves by crying out Leper, so none would come into contact with them, none would see them and none would ever have to touch them. When Jesus encountered these ten along the road between Samaria and Galilee, they cried out for him to take notice of them and to have mercy. And he saw them, and he had compassion, and he healed them, instructing them to go to show themselves to the Priest who was the community authority on whether a person was clean or filthy, whether they were able to live in community or not. The priest was charged with protecting the culture from physical and spiritual illness.
It was not required that the person with leprosy return to be grateful to Jesus, but the Samaritan, and Jesus takes note that it was only the Samaritan, the outcast, the broken one. For which Jesus, as our Priest, describes “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Mother Theresa has become such a cultural icon, many have forgot that she ministered to a Leper Colony. When visited by an envoy of Religious Leaders, they were awed by all that she and the Sisters of Charity were doing and had done. The envoy offered to give them a gift of whatever they needed, perhaps washing machines and dryers to clean bed linens, mops and buckets, vacuums, and electric floor polishers to buff the floors, refrigerators or electric generators, and the sisters said “No, we can wash the floors and wash the clothes, but you can do for us what only you can. You can share Communion with the colony, offering forgiveness.”
This time of year we see the colors of trees all around us, and we respond “How beautiful the colors in Autumn!” When actually these are the true colors of the leaves from Creation, but during the year, the leaves are so filled with life, their true colors are hidden by green. Only at this time, as the trees prepare for winter does life get pulled away to reveal the true beauty of the leaves as God intended.
Seeing one another, we provide validation of the other as being a gift of God. Seeing one another we validate one another as being worthy. Seeing one another, we take the role of the priests for the cleansed extending forgiveness and welcome into our lives.
Occasionally when things seem to be going well preachers will ad lib about something from the morning's worship. This day, I am struck that thus far this summer we have celebrated 25 couples getting married, and we have two of those couples married this summer with us in worship, one of which married just yesterday. But the question is what happened to the other 23 couples? Do we stop in our marriages, in life, to recognize how blessed we are? Or are we among the other 23?
Some things are easy to see, miracles and cures, amazing world developments. Jesus described to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not coming as an apocalypse, not with signs and wonders, but the Kingdom of God is already in our midst. Can we see it? Can we validate the reality that this world is not of our making, but this creation, Life is a gift from God.
Luke 17: 11-21
Our readings this morning are about SEEing, LOOKing and WITNESSing what else may be occurring. For our lives are so busy, our routines so established, we rarely take time to ponder, to be grateful to validate that we have been blessed, and to Seek Validation for what God may be doing.
Years ago, there were commuter trains that connected every small town and village with major cities. So it was that a minister from the City was supposed to preach here in the village, and found on the rail schedule that he could take the train from Syracuse to Buffalo, stopping at Skaneateles arriving just in time for the leading of worship. But to his shock and horror, once he was on the Sunday morning train and had bought his ticket, he learned that on weekends the train did not stop at every station. The Conductor told him not to panic, that he would inform the Engineer that after cresting Marcellus hill they needed to slow down, though they could not stop. However, the Conductor cautioned, the last person to jump from this moving train had broken both ankles from the sudden impact of going from a moving train to a stationary landing. To compensate, the Conductor had him go to the end of the train car and run as fast as he could, being certain that as he leapt from the open door, he would pirouette onto the landing running in the same direction as the train. The train began to slow only slightly as the Conductor gave the preacher the signal and he began to run through the open car toward the waiting door, at the critical moment he leapt in a beautiful pirouette midair, landing in a run to slow his speed as the train pulled away, when suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled him back on board the train. Aghast and bewildered, he asked what happened, when a voice described “I saw you running after the train and knew you were going to miss it, so I reached out and gave you a hand. You're welcome!”
WITNESSing only from our own perspective, without Validating what we See, we can miss what God may be doing all around us. Do we read the paper and Internet as World News and Local News and Stories of Interest, or do we see through the circumstances looking for what God may be doing in our midst? Can we have the humility of the Prophet Jeremiah to see the possibility of God using circumstances for our benefit that seem against us?
No one would wish intentional harm upon another, and yet only in those times in which we are truly vulnerable, broken, do our shells crack enough for the spirit of God to enter in. Can we see one another? Not the facade that there are people down the pew, or so many cars in our way for when we want to get out. To see beyond the shell and husk of another to realize that the exchange student so bold and full of life to share their culture with us and experience our culture all around them, may be extremely homesick and alone.
Faith and gratitude are inextricably interwoven. When we see ourselves as Self-Sufficient, with no need to be thankful to anyone else, we have no room for God, let alone other people. We imagine ourselves as being self-made, having worked for everything we have received. But what if, we opened our perspective like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickins' Christmas Carol, witnessing that all through life there have been others who cared for us, that in fact our lives have been utterly dependent upon the goodwill and compassion of others. We went to class each day, but our mothers had made certain we had a good breakfast and cookies when we came home. A teacher, a coach, a neighbor, an employer, showed interest in us, perhaps it was a part of their job, but the right word at the right time validated and changed us, they were there when we needed.
After years of war, following the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the whole City of Jerusalem, the leaders, the strong and the educated, were taken into captivity by their enemy as Exiles in Babylon. The Nationalism and Patriotism of Ancient Israel was not far different from what we feel here in America. Can we imagine 20 years of war on our own soil, at the end of which everything building, roads, farms our culture is in ruins and shackled together as prisoners we have been taken away from our Nation to live out our days in a foreign land. When word comes from the Prophet Jeremiah, that God has appointed our enemies to care for us, to provide for us. How different the New Testament words of “Praying for One's Enemies” and “Having Compassion on those who persecute You” sound, if our survival depended upon their survival.
The Bible has identifications of people that we too often take for granted, without really seeing to understand. There are still cases of leprosy in the world today, 14 Million cured in the last 20 years, there are some 250,000 with this disease today, although mostly in tropical climates it does occur in America with an incubation period of 5 to 20 years it is often misdiagnosed as skin lesions. Leprosy is a Bacterial Infection that has been recorded since the year 600 BC as a Chronic Social disease, requiring people being ostracized. How many other Chronic Social Diseases are there? Diseases that are not like the flu, mumps or measles, but will remain with us all of life. Social Diseases that cause us as polite society to withdraw, to look past them and not see the person as a person, but only as a Leper.
According to cultural laws, Lepers were to live outside to community in leper colonies, covering themselves with a white sheet because the abrasion of clothing might gnaw at the skin, wearing a bell round their neck and forced to identify themselves by crying out Leper, so none would come into contact with them, none would see them and none would ever have to touch them. When Jesus encountered these ten along the road between Samaria and Galilee, they cried out for him to take notice of them and to have mercy. And he saw them, and he had compassion, and he healed them, instructing them to go to show themselves to the Priest who was the community authority on whether a person was clean or filthy, whether they were able to live in community or not. The priest was charged with protecting the culture from physical and spiritual illness.
It was not required that the person with leprosy return to be grateful to Jesus, but the Samaritan, and Jesus takes note that it was only the Samaritan, the outcast, the broken one. For which Jesus, as our Priest, describes “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Mother Theresa has become such a cultural icon, many have forgot that she ministered to a Leper Colony. When visited by an envoy of Religious Leaders, they were awed by all that she and the Sisters of Charity were doing and had done. The envoy offered to give them a gift of whatever they needed, perhaps washing machines and dryers to clean bed linens, mops and buckets, vacuums, and electric floor polishers to buff the floors, refrigerators or electric generators, and the sisters said “No, we can wash the floors and wash the clothes, but you can do for us what only you can. You can share Communion with the colony, offering forgiveness.”
This time of year we see the colors of trees all around us, and we respond “How beautiful the colors in Autumn!” When actually these are the true colors of the leaves from Creation, but during the year, the leaves are so filled with life, their true colors are hidden by green. Only at this time, as the trees prepare for winter does life get pulled away to reveal the true beauty of the leaves as God intended.
Seeing one another, we provide validation of the other as being a gift of God. Seeing one another we validate one another as being worthy. Seeing one another, we take the role of the priests for the cleansed extending forgiveness and welcome into our lives.
Occasionally when things seem to be going well preachers will ad lib about something from the morning's worship. This day, I am struck that thus far this summer we have celebrated 25 couples getting married, and we have two of those couples married this summer with us in worship, one of which married just yesterday. But the question is what happened to the other 23 couples? Do we stop in our marriages, in life, to recognize how blessed we are? Or are we among the other 23?
Some things are easy to see, miracles and cures, amazing world developments. Jesus described to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is not coming as an apocalypse, not with signs and wonders, but the Kingdom of God is already in our midst. Can we see it? Can we validate the reality that this world is not of our making, but this creation, Life is a gift from God.
Monday, October 4, 2010
"Increase Our Faith" October 3, 2010
Lamentations 3: 1-42
Luke 17:1-10
This morning we open our eyes to see, that the world is impacted by all we do, and we, by the world. Congregations in Asia, Africa, Alaska, Australia, Central America, Canada, Connecticut to California, Nova Scotia to New Orleans, ALL this day gather as One Church; East Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Reformed, Pentecostal, Conservative and New Age, as one Table; One Communion with our parents and grandparents, and great grandchildren yet to be, a living Communion of Saints.
We long to hear a message that resounds “Well done Good and Faithful Servants, Come into the Joy of your Master, For you have been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Well done!”
We look forward to times of retirement, after the kids graduate, once they are married, when we can live happily ever after.
Instead we are reminded that Almighty God is God, and we are servants. Life is hard. We slave all day long, in school, at Work, then cooking and cleaning, caring for others, we follow the rules and put away for the future, and when done, no one is going to serve us, there are no merits for having lived life.
However there is grace, by which we come to believe there is more to life than going through motions.
There needs to come a point in each of our lives in which we measure whether we have been an aid or a hindrance to others. When we question more than what we know, and what we believe:
“Do I, by my attitude, my faith, my character and conduct, make it easier for others who know me, to believe in God, or am I a stumbling block in the way of their redemption?”
From our earliest moments, we are conditioned to compete. As newborns, tested,
How highly did we score on our Apgar test, Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance and Respiration? How early did we learn to smile, to roll over, to stand, to speak? Did we catch the ball? Did we score the Goal? What was our GPA? What records did we set? What Accomplishments did we make? How did we, by our presence in life change the world? Have we won?
Along the way in life, we discern that what matters is not our accomplishments! Not only if we won.
Not how many cars, how large a salary, how beautiful our home (these are only what we are taxed on!) but what matters is that our lives are limited by our ability to forgive.
More than any generation before us, all things are possible to us. It is possible that we could climb Mt. Everest, visit the Space Station, Travel the World, win Nobel prizes, write books, invent new means of communication and social networking; but if in the end, we wronged someone along the way in order to do so, life is lesser. The Ends do NOT justify the Means. It is not up to us to show one another the error of their ways, forcing them to change. All that matters is that when one repents, we forgive.
On mornings like the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the destruction of the Twin Towers, weeks where we must follow through on hard decisions, laying off people we worry about, giving diagnoses we know are horrible, we desperately want to cry out in lament: “WHY GOD?” When there is a car accident and our child is taken from us, when our businesses are eroded to bankruptcy, when Cancers are discovered, when we have followed all the rules and done all that was expected, and life is not happily ever after, instead the economy has not improved, our children are unemployed, like the voice of Lamentation, we want to blame God. After all, we did not choose our birth. We did not choose this circumstance, we did not want to live in darkness.
At times it seems God is testing us, tempting and entrapping. If God is ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, If God is God, then Why? It seems that either God is a sadistic beast waiting to pounce upon us and rip us apart, or a puppet master who has orchestrated this stage of life with choices of good and bad to see what we will do.
But the point of the voice in Lamentation is that neither of these logical conclusions works.
Faith as small as a mustard seed can change the world. Believing in forgiveness, trusting God does make a difference.
One truth is that circumstances can rip us apart and devastate us; and there is Good and Bad in life. Another truth, is that God is All Powerful, and God's love is ever lasting.
Oddly, God loves us so much, God will not violate our free will, God will not take away our suffering. Humanity is free to choose all manner of things, and in this life we have many choices. At times our circumstances, do have results. At other times the circumstances of life are just awful.
But God is God, not a superhero who rescues us from ourselves, nor changes circumstance so we can ride off into the sunset. God who called life into being, who ordered the stars and planets, loves us so much as to be vulnerable to our creating out of creation. And God occasionally enters into life “to redeem,” to turn life on its head and make us wonder at what is possible.
Faith is Not a matter of how much. We do harm to one another, beating up victims by believing if they had just believed more, or as we do... NO, each one of us, every human creature is a gift of God. How hard it is for us to give up control? We have a natural predisposition of being self-centered. We make choices in life, our parents made us the center of their worlds, we imagine all things through our mind's eye. Out of love and devotion, we choose to live our lives around another's needs, first a partner, then our children's, but still as extensions of our self-centeredness. Faith is the realization that we are only neighbors in this life. As we each live life, occasionally, sometimes as many as seven times in a single day, we offend one another; when we do, in faith we are to forgive. We do our part in life, like every other creature, we teach, we feed, we care for others. What we are called to do in faith is three things
1.To love God
2.To forgive our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, and even selves, so as to begin again
3.To live our lives in ways that make it easier for others to choose what is right
Luke 17:1-10
This morning we open our eyes to see, that the world is impacted by all we do, and we, by the world. Congregations in Asia, Africa, Alaska, Australia, Central America, Canada, Connecticut to California, Nova Scotia to New Orleans, ALL this day gather as One Church; East Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Reformed, Pentecostal, Conservative and New Age, as one Table; One Communion with our parents and grandparents, and great grandchildren yet to be, a living Communion of Saints.
We long to hear a message that resounds “Well done Good and Faithful Servants, Come into the Joy of your Master, For you have been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Well done!”
We look forward to times of retirement, after the kids graduate, once they are married, when we can live happily ever after.
Instead we are reminded that Almighty God is God, and we are servants. Life is hard. We slave all day long, in school, at Work, then cooking and cleaning, caring for others, we follow the rules and put away for the future, and when done, no one is going to serve us, there are no merits for having lived life.
However there is grace, by which we come to believe there is more to life than going through motions.
There needs to come a point in each of our lives in which we measure whether we have been an aid or a hindrance to others. When we question more than what we know, and what we believe:
“Do I, by my attitude, my faith, my character and conduct, make it easier for others who know me, to believe in God, or am I a stumbling block in the way of their redemption?”
From our earliest moments, we are conditioned to compete. As newborns, tested,
How highly did we score on our Apgar test, Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance and Respiration? How early did we learn to smile, to roll over, to stand, to speak? Did we catch the ball? Did we score the Goal? What was our GPA? What records did we set? What Accomplishments did we make? How did we, by our presence in life change the world? Have we won?
Along the way in life, we discern that what matters is not our accomplishments! Not only if we won.
Not how many cars, how large a salary, how beautiful our home (these are only what we are taxed on!) but what matters is that our lives are limited by our ability to forgive.
More than any generation before us, all things are possible to us. It is possible that we could climb Mt. Everest, visit the Space Station, Travel the World, win Nobel prizes, write books, invent new means of communication and social networking; but if in the end, we wronged someone along the way in order to do so, life is lesser. The Ends do NOT justify the Means. It is not up to us to show one another the error of their ways, forcing them to change. All that matters is that when one repents, we forgive.
On mornings like the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the destruction of the Twin Towers, weeks where we must follow through on hard decisions, laying off people we worry about, giving diagnoses we know are horrible, we desperately want to cry out in lament: “WHY GOD?” When there is a car accident and our child is taken from us, when our businesses are eroded to bankruptcy, when Cancers are discovered, when we have followed all the rules and done all that was expected, and life is not happily ever after, instead the economy has not improved, our children are unemployed, like the voice of Lamentation, we want to blame God. After all, we did not choose our birth. We did not choose this circumstance, we did not want to live in darkness.
At times it seems God is testing us, tempting and entrapping. If God is ALL KNOWING, ALL POWERFUL, If God is God, then Why? It seems that either God is a sadistic beast waiting to pounce upon us and rip us apart, or a puppet master who has orchestrated this stage of life with choices of good and bad to see what we will do.
But the point of the voice in Lamentation is that neither of these logical conclusions works.
Faith as small as a mustard seed can change the world. Believing in forgiveness, trusting God does make a difference.
One truth is that circumstances can rip us apart and devastate us; and there is Good and Bad in life. Another truth, is that God is All Powerful, and God's love is ever lasting.
Oddly, God loves us so much, God will not violate our free will, God will not take away our suffering. Humanity is free to choose all manner of things, and in this life we have many choices. At times our circumstances, do have results. At other times the circumstances of life are just awful.
But God is God, not a superhero who rescues us from ourselves, nor changes circumstance so we can ride off into the sunset. God who called life into being, who ordered the stars and planets, loves us so much as to be vulnerable to our creating out of creation. And God occasionally enters into life “to redeem,” to turn life on its head and make us wonder at what is possible.
Faith is Not a matter of how much. We do harm to one another, beating up victims by believing if they had just believed more, or as we do... NO, each one of us, every human creature is a gift of God. How hard it is for us to give up control? We have a natural predisposition of being self-centered. We make choices in life, our parents made us the center of their worlds, we imagine all things through our mind's eye. Out of love and devotion, we choose to live our lives around another's needs, first a partner, then our children's, but still as extensions of our self-centeredness. Faith is the realization that we are only neighbors in this life. As we each live life, occasionally, sometimes as many as seven times in a single day, we offend one another; when we do, in faith we are to forgive. We do our part in life, like every other creature, we teach, we feed, we care for others. What we are called to do in faith is three things
1.To love God
2.To forgive our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, and even selves, so as to begin again
3.To live our lives in ways that make it easier for others to choose what is right
Monday, September 27, 2010
September 26 2010 WITNESSING REDEMPTION
Jeremiah 32: 1-15
Luke 16: 19-31
Baptism is not the Dedication of a Child. Not simply the giving of a Name and identity. Baptism is a Witness for Future Redemption!
Marriage is not about the Wedding, not a Contract, not a union between two, not joining of families...Marriage is a Radical Reversal of Selfishness.
Compassion is not about Generosity.
Sharing not about Pity.
Offerings, Philanthropy, Mission, Giving another a leg up, helping the less fortunate, are not what we do if we have enough left over.
Empathy, Compassion, Mission, Making a Difference are a RADICAL NEIGHBORLINESS! WINESSING REDEMPTION that is yet to come!
For it is the same Gospel, spoken by the same Jesus, in the same Bible, which records The LAST SHALL BE FIRST and First Last; who tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan; and Lazarus who after being dead three days was brought forth from the tomb from death to life.
The Biblical text is not something to be read on Sunday morning and carefully put away until the next week; not something we rehearse doing on Thursday evening so we can be ready to perform Sunday. The Ten Commandments were not intended to be a plaque on the wall.
The incarnation of God in Christ is not a Christmas story wrapped in tissue and stored in the attic. The Resurrection is not a one day occurrence.
Faith is Not righteous phrases that we can use as a club to beat one another into guilt and submission.
FAITH is a radically different way of life; when there is no hope, still believing in a glorious future.
In order to appreciate Jeremiah, we need to imagine that a foreign enemy has been attacking our Nation for Decades. Our economy is in ruins. We have been at War almost as long as any can remember. Food, Water, supplies, all have been blockaded against us. And as a person of faith, a prophet of God, you have been arrested for speaking out, put into prison as being a subversive. You are under guard, in your own city while it is being attacked. Suddenly there is word of a momentary lifting of the embargo. Nothing more can get in, but you could possibly get something out. Of everything you can imagine, what would you want to get to safety, what would you send to be preserved for the future? Jeremiah spends money on the land already being occupied by the enemy, seals the land contract in an earthen vessel and smuggles it out to be buried. This is not investing in the stock market, this is not a calculated risk, not even the foolishness of buying the Brooklyn Bridge or burying money in the ground, this is about giving everything you have everything you can borrow to buy land that is already hopeless, burned over and occupied by an enemy.
As an act of witness, Jeremiah is not pre-occupied with his guards and arrest; not influenced by the war and current devastation of his nation. Jeremiah believes in the future yet to come. Jeremiah believes there will be a time, whether soon or far distant when this land will again appear to be an unoccupied wilderness, and a Century or more in the future when people come to this land and dig in the earth to create foundations they will find the text that witnesses to Jeremiah laying claim to REDEEM this land. Time is irrelevant. Circumstances are irrelevant. The only thing that matters to Jeremiah is WITNESS that there will come a time for REDEMPTION.
Yesterday morning, we gathered to celebrate the life of one who had surpassed 102 years of living! Like every celebration of worship, when the Prelude ended, there was a heavy silence and the sound of Baptismal waters being poured out. Of all the words we say, and ceremonies we perform, I believe this is the most meaningful. Because at infancy, or as an innocent new believer, we receive the gift of Baptism. Not because of anything we have done, who our parents are or what they have done for us. In Baptism, we witness that Jesus died for all humanity. As he was baptized, we are baptized, as he died so did we all. As he emerged from the waters and was called to a life of faith and action, so are we. Therefore, in memoriam, we affirm that the spirit of this believer has not died, the old self was already drown, and as Christ is with God and forever with us, so now is this individual also, forever.
Yesterday afternoon, a couple devoted their lives to one another. Everything about our lives, our culture, the world we live in, claims that we should Life LIFE to the FULLEST, go for the gusto, seize the day, claim your portion, never be left out. In marriage, we claim the needs of the other first. Their happiness, their comforts are the only thing that matter and we live our lives for them. This is why Marriage is a Radical REVERSAL of SELFISHNESS.
No one can fully explain why marriages succeed, or why so many fail. In a time in humanity when more divorce than stay together, I have to believe that choosing to get married may be an act like Jeremiah, of hoping that there will be a time when what we have done can be a witness for future generations.
The Parable which Jesus told, is said in response to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on their faith and what they possessed. There have often been perverse equations suggesting that as Moses instructed the people in the 10 Commandments and the people received the Land of Milk and Honey, that having faith assures one of blessings. I am sorry to disillusion you, but faith does not translate into a pyramid scheme for prosperity. The point of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not about GREED, or POSSESSIONS, or WEALTH or POVERTY, but about Faith. The Rich Man, the Disciples and the Pharisees all had Abraham, Moses and the Prophets, the difficulty if what they represent to us. If we believe the First shall be last and the last first, then in the living of this life, we are challenged to question our responsibility for what we have been given.
Faith is not about making the right purchases, or shrewd investments, but about REDEMPTION. When life's choices result in circumstance, do we beat ourselves up about the circumstance, or work to redeem what has taken place.
A Prison sentence is only time away, paying restitution for what we have done, but time served does not necessarily change us for the better. REDEMPTION is about never letting go of the other, being there when they need us, no matter what.
Serving in a Warzone often does not feel like patriotism, or in any heroic. But valuing the service and commitment of those who give their lives for the values we live, is a redemption.
We live in a time of change, cultural change, technological change, change in expectations. There was a time, not so long ago, when Cancer was perceived to be a death sentence, the C word, not even spoken. But as surgery and radiation have progressed, our attitudes have changed. In recent years, there have been those, who seem to transition from the shock and horror of having a name for Death, to acceptance and following a regime of treatments, and often a period of remission in which we do not feel cured, but rather that we picked up and put away that one shoe and there is another hanging over us somewhere. And two or three or ten years later, claiming life differently. What is it to have escaped to a future you did not expect.
With the economy, the political divisions, war, hurricanes and earthquakes and oil spills, impending winter, we can be a depressed people without hope. The challenge is to live UNCONDITIONAL NEIGHBORLINESS, to live as a WITNESS to REDEMPTION, believing in a future beyond our time, where our simply having had hope makes a difference.
Luke 16: 19-31
Baptism is not the Dedication of a Child. Not simply the giving of a Name and identity. Baptism is a Witness for Future Redemption!
Marriage is not about the Wedding, not a Contract, not a union between two, not joining of families...Marriage is a Radical Reversal of Selfishness.
Compassion is not about Generosity.
Sharing not about Pity.
Offerings, Philanthropy, Mission, Giving another a leg up, helping the less fortunate, are not what we do if we have enough left over.
Empathy, Compassion, Mission, Making a Difference are a RADICAL NEIGHBORLINESS! WINESSING REDEMPTION that is yet to come!
For it is the same Gospel, spoken by the same Jesus, in the same Bible, which records The LAST SHALL BE FIRST and First Last; who tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan; and Lazarus who after being dead three days was brought forth from the tomb from death to life.
The Biblical text is not something to be read on Sunday morning and carefully put away until the next week; not something we rehearse doing on Thursday evening so we can be ready to perform Sunday. The Ten Commandments were not intended to be a plaque on the wall.
The incarnation of God in Christ is not a Christmas story wrapped in tissue and stored in the attic. The Resurrection is not a one day occurrence.
Faith is Not righteous phrases that we can use as a club to beat one another into guilt and submission.
FAITH is a radically different way of life; when there is no hope, still believing in a glorious future.
In order to appreciate Jeremiah, we need to imagine that a foreign enemy has been attacking our Nation for Decades. Our economy is in ruins. We have been at War almost as long as any can remember. Food, Water, supplies, all have been blockaded against us. And as a person of faith, a prophet of God, you have been arrested for speaking out, put into prison as being a subversive. You are under guard, in your own city while it is being attacked. Suddenly there is word of a momentary lifting of the embargo. Nothing more can get in, but you could possibly get something out. Of everything you can imagine, what would you want to get to safety, what would you send to be preserved for the future? Jeremiah spends money on the land already being occupied by the enemy, seals the land contract in an earthen vessel and smuggles it out to be buried. This is not investing in the stock market, this is not a calculated risk, not even the foolishness of buying the Brooklyn Bridge or burying money in the ground, this is about giving everything you have everything you can borrow to buy land that is already hopeless, burned over and occupied by an enemy.
As an act of witness, Jeremiah is not pre-occupied with his guards and arrest; not influenced by the war and current devastation of his nation. Jeremiah believes in the future yet to come. Jeremiah believes there will be a time, whether soon or far distant when this land will again appear to be an unoccupied wilderness, and a Century or more in the future when people come to this land and dig in the earth to create foundations they will find the text that witnesses to Jeremiah laying claim to REDEEM this land. Time is irrelevant. Circumstances are irrelevant. The only thing that matters to Jeremiah is WITNESS that there will come a time for REDEMPTION.
Yesterday morning, we gathered to celebrate the life of one who had surpassed 102 years of living! Like every celebration of worship, when the Prelude ended, there was a heavy silence and the sound of Baptismal waters being poured out. Of all the words we say, and ceremonies we perform, I believe this is the most meaningful. Because at infancy, or as an innocent new believer, we receive the gift of Baptism. Not because of anything we have done, who our parents are or what they have done for us. In Baptism, we witness that Jesus died for all humanity. As he was baptized, we are baptized, as he died so did we all. As he emerged from the waters and was called to a life of faith and action, so are we. Therefore, in memoriam, we affirm that the spirit of this believer has not died, the old self was already drown, and as Christ is with God and forever with us, so now is this individual also, forever.
Yesterday afternoon, a couple devoted their lives to one another. Everything about our lives, our culture, the world we live in, claims that we should Life LIFE to the FULLEST, go for the gusto, seize the day, claim your portion, never be left out. In marriage, we claim the needs of the other first. Their happiness, their comforts are the only thing that matter and we live our lives for them. This is why Marriage is a Radical REVERSAL of SELFISHNESS.
No one can fully explain why marriages succeed, or why so many fail. In a time in humanity when more divorce than stay together, I have to believe that choosing to get married may be an act like Jeremiah, of hoping that there will be a time when what we have done can be a witness for future generations.
The Parable which Jesus told, is said in response to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on their faith and what they possessed. There have often been perverse equations suggesting that as Moses instructed the people in the 10 Commandments and the people received the Land of Milk and Honey, that having faith assures one of blessings. I am sorry to disillusion you, but faith does not translate into a pyramid scheme for prosperity. The point of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not about GREED, or POSSESSIONS, or WEALTH or POVERTY, but about Faith. The Rich Man, the Disciples and the Pharisees all had Abraham, Moses and the Prophets, the difficulty if what they represent to us. If we believe the First shall be last and the last first, then in the living of this life, we are challenged to question our responsibility for what we have been given.
Faith is not about making the right purchases, or shrewd investments, but about REDEMPTION. When life's choices result in circumstance, do we beat ourselves up about the circumstance, or work to redeem what has taken place.
A Prison sentence is only time away, paying restitution for what we have done, but time served does not necessarily change us for the better. REDEMPTION is about never letting go of the other, being there when they need us, no matter what.
Serving in a Warzone often does not feel like patriotism, or in any heroic. But valuing the service and commitment of those who give their lives for the values we live, is a redemption.
We live in a time of change, cultural change, technological change, change in expectations. There was a time, not so long ago, when Cancer was perceived to be a death sentence, the C word, not even spoken. But as surgery and radiation have progressed, our attitudes have changed. In recent years, there have been those, who seem to transition from the shock and horror of having a name for Death, to acceptance and following a regime of treatments, and often a period of remission in which we do not feel cured, but rather that we picked up and put away that one shoe and there is another hanging over us somewhere. And two or three or ten years later, claiming life differently. What is it to have escaped to a future you did not expect.
With the economy, the political divisions, war, hurricanes and earthquakes and oil spills, impending winter, we can be a depressed people without hope. The challenge is to live UNCONDITIONAL NEIGHBORLINESS, to live as a WITNESS to REDEMPTION, believing in a future beyond our time, where our simply having had hope makes a difference.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
"Mastering Multi-Tasking" September 19, 2010
Jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1
Luke 16: 1-13
No One can truly Multi-task!
Years ago there was a comedy Western called “City-Slickers” with Billy Crystal and Jack Palance, the point of the movie being that we often try to have divided loyalties, to do just enough of one thing, then just enough of another. Billy Crystal's character reaches a mid-life crisis, because he is not sure what he believes in anymore, what he cares about. He has tried so hard to please his parents and his employers, his spouse and friends, he has lost himself.
Growing up, I recall the variety shows before “America's Got Talent” and “American Idol” with Jugglers who were able to spin multiple plates simultaneously. The Juggler had to allow each plate to spin, ignoring interfering, trusting that they would keep going, and only when absolutely necessary touching one to add speed. But where it is possible, and entertaining to juggle 10 things simultaneously, eventually all the plates begin to crash. The point of “City Slickers” is that all you need to focus on is Doing One Thing.
How easy it would be to sit, while this morning's passages are read. Enduring the time, catching only a word, without listening, without investing in what the Bible is about. There is a difference between accepting a decision and following through. Between acknowledging a disease, a disorder, a brokenness and actually living life differently. We live in a culture that has made money on Sound-bytes, snippets of information. But faith requires our listening, and applying the whole truth to our whole lives, not simply the words that are easy, or easy to repeat out of context.
Distracted by other things, we might hear the Prophet Jeremiah recite: THE LORD IS NOT IN ZION! THE HARVEST IS OVER, THE SUMMER IS ENDED, AND MY PEOPLE ARE NOT SAVED! THERE IS NO BALM IN GILEAD! When these are phrases repeated by God, the words of the People echoed by the Lord in ironic conversation with God's Prophet, of what the people have been saying. How overly simplistic to believe that God is in God's Heaven and we are here in this God-forsaken life. There is not a three tiered universe, of God being separate and removed from all life! What this passage decries is that Almighty God, the Lord who created Heaven and Earth, weeps for God's people.
I need to consult with our Medical colleagues, whether we still use BALMS. A Balm was a cure all, an ointment that soothes and protects and heals. Decades ago, when you got a bad burn, Mom would go to the ice-box and take a pat of butter to rub upon it as a balm. Like Snake-oil treatments, most balms of human creation were 90% Kerosene and caused greater infection than ever they cured. The point of Jeremiah, is that people have sought their own Man-made Balms to be purchased in human cities, rather than trusting that which can actually heal.
We have been carefully conditioned, throughout lifetimes, that what we need to satisfy, to cure, to heal, is: something to purchase. If we can buy that thing, be it a new car, a new outfit, investing in the latest gadget, acquiring a new relationship, we can bind our anxiety, believing that with these sneakers we truly can jump higher and run faster. The word of God to Jeremiah, is that God is not far distant and removed. God hears our anxiety. God knows our pain, and God weeps for God's people. Foolishly, we like Dorothy and her companions with the Wizard of Oz only need realize that the Scarecrow is brilliant though lacking a diploma; the Lion is courageous only missing the recognition of medals; the Tin Woodsman finally knows he has a heart but only when it is breaking; and the child knows how important HOME is, only when far far away. The real cure is allowing God in, who has been a part of our lives all along.
Not so long ago, I officiated at a wedding where the couple had each been married and divorced before. They tried in rewriting the wording of the wedding, to say that this union was different because this was a Spiritual Wedding, this was not only a legal marriage, but a spiritual union of two into one. The irony was that this wedding took place not in a church sanctuary, and each had uncles in attendance who were the priests who had married them before. A marriage is not more or less spiritual because of where it takes place, or who officiates, but our commitment in being married. While Hollywood claims that there is one moment, and only the most brief of moments, when love between two persons can happen; I believe that the brokenness, the anxiety, the fears and hurts and divisions are what only last a moment, and our love, our commitment to that one other, is what can carry us through, making a marriage a lifetime union.
According to Luke, after telling the Crowds, Scribes and Pharisees, who were complaining about sins and sinners and tax-collectors the Parables of the Lost Sheep, Coin, Prodigal & Elder Sons being Found Jesus told the Disciples this Parable of the Dishonest Steward.
Again, it is not an easy commitment, of accepting the Parable, and saying I know what it means! Because at the end of the Parable the Master commends the Steward for being Shrewd & Manipulative. Jesus seems to describe: Use any unscrupulous, unrighteous means possible in order to gain favors, so that when your money runs out, others will take you in.
This is not unlike the story of Drummond's Bar in Mt.Vernon, Texas. As the story goes, Mt. Vernon was a peaceful small town, until Drummond's Bar decided to build a new Bar right across the street from the Church. The Church people were outraged and began a campaign of praying against the Bar. Everything was ready for the Grand Opening when in a freak storm, lightning struck the Bar and burned it to the ground. Soon afterward there was a courtcase, and the Judge reviewing the papers filed described what an odd circumstance, that here was a Bar owner claiming to believe in the Power of Prayer and a Whole Congregation of people who dismissed the circumstance as an accident of nature.
Jesus follows up this parable with the explanation, that undercuts being unscrupulous, saying: He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. Fred Craddock has described that few among us this week will entertain a Head of State, or Christen a Ship, Invent a Cure for Cancer, Resolve the Financial issues of our Economy. Few will be able to bring warring parties to a Peace table. But among us are those who will care for a spouse or child struggling to make sense of reality. Among us are those who will tuck a child into bed.
The final difficulty of this parable is how we understand what actually happened.
One possibility is that the Dishonest Steward actually had the creditors rewrite their bills, knowing that the Rich man would not suffer public humiliation of challenging their records.
A Second is that he cut the Interest owed to Zero.
A Third, is that he took his own fees off, and allowed those who owed, simply to pay wholesale to the owner without his commission.
The first two are still dishonest, the third requires that the Steward find a different means of survival than overcharging others.
What is difficult in life, is not choosing between right and wrong, but following through on living life differently from all we have ever known. To make a decision and hold accountability, when we do not know what is truly right and wrong, only that this is a different means than we have tried, and having tried and tried what was normal and routine we have gotten worse and worse.
What we need is simply One Thing: To believe we are not alone.
Luke 16: 1-13
No One can truly Multi-task!
Years ago there was a comedy Western called “City-Slickers” with Billy Crystal and Jack Palance, the point of the movie being that we often try to have divided loyalties, to do just enough of one thing, then just enough of another. Billy Crystal's character reaches a mid-life crisis, because he is not sure what he believes in anymore, what he cares about. He has tried so hard to please his parents and his employers, his spouse and friends, he has lost himself.
Growing up, I recall the variety shows before “America's Got Talent” and “American Idol” with Jugglers who were able to spin multiple plates simultaneously. The Juggler had to allow each plate to spin, ignoring interfering, trusting that they would keep going, and only when absolutely necessary touching one to add speed. But where it is possible, and entertaining to juggle 10 things simultaneously, eventually all the plates begin to crash. The point of “City Slickers” is that all you need to focus on is Doing One Thing.
How easy it would be to sit, while this morning's passages are read. Enduring the time, catching only a word, without listening, without investing in what the Bible is about. There is a difference between accepting a decision and following through. Between acknowledging a disease, a disorder, a brokenness and actually living life differently. We live in a culture that has made money on Sound-bytes, snippets of information. But faith requires our listening, and applying the whole truth to our whole lives, not simply the words that are easy, or easy to repeat out of context.
Distracted by other things, we might hear the Prophet Jeremiah recite: THE LORD IS NOT IN ZION! THE HARVEST IS OVER, THE SUMMER IS ENDED, AND MY PEOPLE ARE NOT SAVED! THERE IS NO BALM IN GILEAD! When these are phrases repeated by God, the words of the People echoed by the Lord in ironic conversation with God's Prophet, of what the people have been saying. How overly simplistic to believe that God is in God's Heaven and we are here in this God-forsaken life. There is not a three tiered universe, of God being separate and removed from all life! What this passage decries is that Almighty God, the Lord who created Heaven and Earth, weeps for God's people.
I need to consult with our Medical colleagues, whether we still use BALMS. A Balm was a cure all, an ointment that soothes and protects and heals. Decades ago, when you got a bad burn, Mom would go to the ice-box and take a pat of butter to rub upon it as a balm. Like Snake-oil treatments, most balms of human creation were 90% Kerosene and caused greater infection than ever they cured. The point of Jeremiah, is that people have sought their own Man-made Balms to be purchased in human cities, rather than trusting that which can actually heal.
We have been carefully conditioned, throughout lifetimes, that what we need to satisfy, to cure, to heal, is: something to purchase. If we can buy that thing, be it a new car, a new outfit, investing in the latest gadget, acquiring a new relationship, we can bind our anxiety, believing that with these sneakers we truly can jump higher and run faster. The word of God to Jeremiah, is that God is not far distant and removed. God hears our anxiety. God knows our pain, and God weeps for God's people. Foolishly, we like Dorothy and her companions with the Wizard of Oz only need realize that the Scarecrow is brilliant though lacking a diploma; the Lion is courageous only missing the recognition of medals; the Tin Woodsman finally knows he has a heart but only when it is breaking; and the child knows how important HOME is, only when far far away. The real cure is allowing God in, who has been a part of our lives all along.
Not so long ago, I officiated at a wedding where the couple had each been married and divorced before. They tried in rewriting the wording of the wedding, to say that this union was different because this was a Spiritual Wedding, this was not only a legal marriage, but a spiritual union of two into one. The irony was that this wedding took place not in a church sanctuary, and each had uncles in attendance who were the priests who had married them before. A marriage is not more or less spiritual because of where it takes place, or who officiates, but our commitment in being married. While Hollywood claims that there is one moment, and only the most brief of moments, when love between two persons can happen; I believe that the brokenness, the anxiety, the fears and hurts and divisions are what only last a moment, and our love, our commitment to that one other, is what can carry us through, making a marriage a lifetime union.
According to Luke, after telling the Crowds, Scribes and Pharisees, who were complaining about sins and sinners and tax-collectors the Parables of the Lost Sheep, Coin, Prodigal & Elder Sons being Found Jesus told the Disciples this Parable of the Dishonest Steward.
Again, it is not an easy commitment, of accepting the Parable, and saying I know what it means! Because at the end of the Parable the Master commends the Steward for being Shrewd & Manipulative. Jesus seems to describe: Use any unscrupulous, unrighteous means possible in order to gain favors, so that when your money runs out, others will take you in.
This is not unlike the story of Drummond's Bar in Mt.Vernon, Texas. As the story goes, Mt. Vernon was a peaceful small town, until Drummond's Bar decided to build a new Bar right across the street from the Church. The Church people were outraged and began a campaign of praying against the Bar. Everything was ready for the Grand Opening when in a freak storm, lightning struck the Bar and burned it to the ground. Soon afterward there was a courtcase, and the Judge reviewing the papers filed described what an odd circumstance, that here was a Bar owner claiming to believe in the Power of Prayer and a Whole Congregation of people who dismissed the circumstance as an accident of nature.
Jesus follows up this parable with the explanation, that undercuts being unscrupulous, saying: He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. Fred Craddock has described that few among us this week will entertain a Head of State, or Christen a Ship, Invent a Cure for Cancer, Resolve the Financial issues of our Economy. Few will be able to bring warring parties to a Peace table. But among us are those who will care for a spouse or child struggling to make sense of reality. Among us are those who will tuck a child into bed.
The final difficulty of this parable is how we understand what actually happened.
One possibility is that the Dishonest Steward actually had the creditors rewrite their bills, knowing that the Rich man would not suffer public humiliation of challenging their records.
A Second is that he cut the Interest owed to Zero.
A Third, is that he took his own fees off, and allowed those who owed, simply to pay wholesale to the owner without his commission.
The first two are still dishonest, the third requires that the Steward find a different means of survival than overcharging others.
What is difficult in life, is not choosing between right and wrong, but following through on living life differently from all we have ever known. To make a decision and hold accountability, when we do not know what is truly right and wrong, only that this is a different means than we have tried, and having tried and tried what was normal and routine we have gotten worse and worse.
What we need is simply One Thing: To believe we are not alone.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
RENOUNCING AND REPENTING, September 5, 2010
Jeremiah 18:1-12
Luke 14: 25-35
Yesterday, in the midst of all the Labor Day Weekend Festivities, the Skinnyman Triathalon, we celebrated Two Weddings, doing everything possible to make the Bride and Groom feel as though this was their day. 20 minutes before the second wedding was to begin, my cell phone rang, and my brother bore the news that our Mom, who was 89 years, who had borne the death of her husband a year ago, had breathed her last. Do you suddenly cancel the wedding? Do you say to the Bride and Groom, I am sorry, I know this is the happiest day of your life, but as the pastor I cannot officiate, I cannot offer blessings, because I am filled with grief? No, this is what is meant by “hating your father and mother and brothers and sisters and even your own life compared to being a disciple.” Pastors are not hired. This is not a job. A Calling is intentional acceptance of responsibility, no matter what.
Of all the passages of Scripture, this is one which often is questioned. The Savior being born in a Stable and dying on a Cross, we get. The Parable of The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, we understand. But why would Jesus, who is the Divine embodiment, the incarnation of love, so emphatically state that we should HATE our Mothers and Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, even our own Life? Because that, is not what this is about. This is Hyperbole, contrasting one thing with another to emphasize just how great is to be our commitment to the cross. Over our years together, we have spoken a great deal about relationship, commitment and trust. Hyperbole is comparing one relationship, one commitment against another, and by comparison that which we know and have spent a lifetime working to build is as nothing compared to the relationship with God.
In some ways, I think we have made an artform of the many ways there are to Hate. There are what 50 Ways to leave your Lover? Increasingly, through the internet, we have created ways to be more anonymous in our attacks. All the Viruses and Worms on Computers are not naturally incurring events, each has been written and perfected by persons so filled with hate, they are trying to destroy others. These are not what Jesus meant. In Aramaic, to Hate as the opposite of Love, simply meant Apathy, to turn your back, to strive for something else, far more important, instead.
I remember a few years ago, there were two women who were very close friends in this village. Their commitment and friendship was closer than sisters. They had lived next door to one another for decades, had raised their children together, they read the same books, bought Halloween treats together and at Junior Prom and Graduation they had celebrated as part of one another's life. The daughter of the one had been planning her wedding, and the two had gone dress shopping together, they had thrown the Bridal Shower at the friend's house, everything was being planned for the afternoon of the wedding. But a few days before the wedding, the father of the friend, suddenly died. And on that Saturday morning, the two friends sat together in the family pew, holding hands and weeping tears of mourning; while that afternoon, the same two friends sat in the same pew for family, as they shared tears for their daughter walking up the aisle. Their commitment to one another was greater, even than the loss of the one, and the joy of the other.
By RENOUNCING, what we are describing is re-assessing our priorities. Naming everything that has a claim on us, and realizing where we are going the motions, what we are part of simply because it was expected, and what we are committed to be. The instantaneous nature of information in our culture has meant that we respond to “The Cause de Celeb”. Not to commitments that define us, but circumstances which touch our hearts for a moment. This last week on the Emmy Awards, George Clooney accepting the Humanitarian of the year award, described that we hear of earthquakes, fires and floods and we are moved, we respond. But who responds 6 months or 7 years later?When Jesus addressed the crowds, huge numbers were moved, hundreds began following to listen. This description in Luke is a challenge that Faith Cannot be Fickle, we cannot be a little bit committed, because people are in need. As serious as building a Watch Tower, or entering into War, is the commitment of faith.
We tend to remember The Prophet Jeremiah as a prophet of Doom, forecasting the Exile. The Calling he received before birth was to pluck up, and break down, to destroy and to overthrow, and only then to Build and to Plant. But compared to all the Apocalyptic ends, and the horrific judgements of evil we have conjured in our minds, the Potter's Shed is the Image of Judgement God gave to Jeremiah.
Before going to College, I worked for a Potter. Of all the Artforms and media, this is one of the most rhythmic and sensual. Before you can begin, the potter takes clay in their hands, to work it and knead it and by touch the clay becomes more elastic. Not simply a matter of touching, kneading clay is working it like the toughest most sticky bread dough. Folding over and over again, pushing the clay into itself where it would not have gone otherwise, working this substance from the earth until there are no differentiated parts more soft or more wet or more hard, but all one. Then, the potter sits down at the wheel. Before anything else, the potter center's themselves, taking a series of deep and cleansing breaths. You kick the wheel, your motion disturbing the inertia of the base, establishing an orbit a perpetual revolution, causing the table wheel to move and spin. You kick and kick, becoming one with the speed, then with hands moistened to allow the clay to flow, you lean against the lump of clay. The spinning revolution of the wheel coming into constant contact with your leaning against, moves the clay into center. If the clay is not thoroughly kneaded, if the clay is not centered, nothing good can come, you may as well stop, take everything off the wheel and go back to kneading again. But if the clay is prepared and centered and everything moving together. Then the slightest rubbing can open the mound, or raise walls up against gravity. But an imperfection, or a jerky movement and the pot is easily spoilt.
Yet, when the pot is spoilt, be it on the wheel, or days later after it has dried if it should crack, even after a pot has been fired in the long slow heat of the kiln, it is not thrown away. The potter takes the spoiled, and the broken, that have not been fired and puts them all in a waste can for another time, saturating the mess with a flood of water. The fired and brittle bisque pieces, the potter kneads with a rock, pulverizing into grit and powder. Days and Nights go by as the spoiled dissolves all the brokenness beneath the waters. Then one day, the potter scoops out all the liquified clay from the waste and places the muck in a plaster mold, dusting it with the grit from previous pots, sealing it beneath a skin of plastic. Days later, the potter uses their hands to take from the mound of clay and begin the work of kneading all over again.
Where in our minds we have conjured all kinds of images of Punishment and Judgement, of a day of Ending, according to the image given Jeremiah, The Judgement of God, the Punishment from God, is to be cut off as spoiled and set aside in order to be reworked, touched and kneaded by the potter, until we are able to be fashioned into something quite useful. It is intriguing that according to Scripture we Can change the mind of God, we can change God's Plan, when Jonah spoke the People of Ninevah repented and God forgave them; when Amos found God crafting Grasshoppers to destroy, and fire to scorch, the Son of Man asked for forgiveness and God in love relented. But while God is able to change, and move from punishment to forgiveness, there is no evidence of God acting in love suddenly going the opposite way.
The irony of Jesus' words about counting the cost of discipleship is that any who have have run away, as did all the disciples. The commitment God extends to us is more than we are prepared for. Yet, even those who ran away, were forgiven. Too casually do we claim “Bearing the Cross of Jesus” as Family Obligations, a Chronic Illness, and Difficult time in Marriage, or at work. These are not Bearing Jesus' Cross, but choosing intentionally to live your life to serve others, recognizing the costs and renouncing them, repenting of everything else save being there for others, for God.
Luke 14: 25-35
Yesterday, in the midst of all the Labor Day Weekend Festivities, the Skinnyman Triathalon, we celebrated Two Weddings, doing everything possible to make the Bride and Groom feel as though this was their day. 20 minutes before the second wedding was to begin, my cell phone rang, and my brother bore the news that our Mom, who was 89 years, who had borne the death of her husband a year ago, had breathed her last. Do you suddenly cancel the wedding? Do you say to the Bride and Groom, I am sorry, I know this is the happiest day of your life, but as the pastor I cannot officiate, I cannot offer blessings, because I am filled with grief? No, this is what is meant by “hating your father and mother and brothers and sisters and even your own life compared to being a disciple.” Pastors are not hired. This is not a job. A Calling is intentional acceptance of responsibility, no matter what.
Of all the passages of Scripture, this is one which often is questioned. The Savior being born in a Stable and dying on a Cross, we get. The Parable of The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, we understand. But why would Jesus, who is the Divine embodiment, the incarnation of love, so emphatically state that we should HATE our Mothers and Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, even our own Life? Because that, is not what this is about. This is Hyperbole, contrasting one thing with another to emphasize just how great is to be our commitment to the cross. Over our years together, we have spoken a great deal about relationship, commitment and trust. Hyperbole is comparing one relationship, one commitment against another, and by comparison that which we know and have spent a lifetime working to build is as nothing compared to the relationship with God.
In some ways, I think we have made an artform of the many ways there are to Hate. There are what 50 Ways to leave your Lover? Increasingly, through the internet, we have created ways to be more anonymous in our attacks. All the Viruses and Worms on Computers are not naturally incurring events, each has been written and perfected by persons so filled with hate, they are trying to destroy others. These are not what Jesus meant. In Aramaic, to Hate as the opposite of Love, simply meant Apathy, to turn your back, to strive for something else, far more important, instead.
I remember a few years ago, there were two women who were very close friends in this village. Their commitment and friendship was closer than sisters. They had lived next door to one another for decades, had raised their children together, they read the same books, bought Halloween treats together and at Junior Prom and Graduation they had celebrated as part of one another's life. The daughter of the one had been planning her wedding, and the two had gone dress shopping together, they had thrown the Bridal Shower at the friend's house, everything was being planned for the afternoon of the wedding. But a few days before the wedding, the father of the friend, suddenly died. And on that Saturday morning, the two friends sat together in the family pew, holding hands and weeping tears of mourning; while that afternoon, the same two friends sat in the same pew for family, as they shared tears for their daughter walking up the aisle. Their commitment to one another was greater, even than the loss of the one, and the joy of the other.
By RENOUNCING, what we are describing is re-assessing our priorities. Naming everything that has a claim on us, and realizing where we are going the motions, what we are part of simply because it was expected, and what we are committed to be. The instantaneous nature of information in our culture has meant that we respond to “The Cause de Celeb”. Not to commitments that define us, but circumstances which touch our hearts for a moment. This last week on the Emmy Awards, George Clooney accepting the Humanitarian of the year award, described that we hear of earthquakes, fires and floods and we are moved, we respond. But who responds 6 months or 7 years later?When Jesus addressed the crowds, huge numbers were moved, hundreds began following to listen. This description in Luke is a challenge that Faith Cannot be Fickle, we cannot be a little bit committed, because people are in need. As serious as building a Watch Tower, or entering into War, is the commitment of faith.
We tend to remember The Prophet Jeremiah as a prophet of Doom, forecasting the Exile. The Calling he received before birth was to pluck up, and break down, to destroy and to overthrow, and only then to Build and to Plant. But compared to all the Apocalyptic ends, and the horrific judgements of evil we have conjured in our minds, the Potter's Shed is the Image of Judgement God gave to Jeremiah.
Before going to College, I worked for a Potter. Of all the Artforms and media, this is one of the most rhythmic and sensual. Before you can begin, the potter takes clay in their hands, to work it and knead it and by touch the clay becomes more elastic. Not simply a matter of touching, kneading clay is working it like the toughest most sticky bread dough. Folding over and over again, pushing the clay into itself where it would not have gone otherwise, working this substance from the earth until there are no differentiated parts more soft or more wet or more hard, but all one. Then, the potter sits down at the wheel. Before anything else, the potter center's themselves, taking a series of deep and cleansing breaths. You kick the wheel, your motion disturbing the inertia of the base, establishing an orbit a perpetual revolution, causing the table wheel to move and spin. You kick and kick, becoming one with the speed, then with hands moistened to allow the clay to flow, you lean against the lump of clay. The spinning revolution of the wheel coming into constant contact with your leaning against, moves the clay into center. If the clay is not thoroughly kneaded, if the clay is not centered, nothing good can come, you may as well stop, take everything off the wheel and go back to kneading again. But if the clay is prepared and centered and everything moving together. Then the slightest rubbing can open the mound, or raise walls up against gravity. But an imperfection, or a jerky movement and the pot is easily spoilt.
Yet, when the pot is spoilt, be it on the wheel, or days later after it has dried if it should crack, even after a pot has been fired in the long slow heat of the kiln, it is not thrown away. The potter takes the spoiled, and the broken, that have not been fired and puts them all in a waste can for another time, saturating the mess with a flood of water. The fired and brittle bisque pieces, the potter kneads with a rock, pulverizing into grit and powder. Days and Nights go by as the spoiled dissolves all the brokenness beneath the waters. Then one day, the potter scoops out all the liquified clay from the waste and places the muck in a plaster mold, dusting it with the grit from previous pots, sealing it beneath a skin of plastic. Days later, the potter uses their hands to take from the mound of clay and begin the work of kneading all over again.
Where in our minds we have conjured all kinds of images of Punishment and Judgement, of a day of Ending, according to the image given Jeremiah, The Judgement of God, the Punishment from God, is to be cut off as spoiled and set aside in order to be reworked, touched and kneaded by the potter, until we are able to be fashioned into something quite useful. It is intriguing that according to Scripture we Can change the mind of God, we can change God's Plan, when Jonah spoke the People of Ninevah repented and God forgave them; when Amos found God crafting Grasshoppers to destroy, and fire to scorch, the Son of Man asked for forgiveness and God in love relented. But while God is able to change, and move from punishment to forgiveness, there is no evidence of God acting in love suddenly going the opposite way.
The irony of Jesus' words about counting the cost of discipleship is that any who have have run away, as did all the disciples. The commitment God extends to us is more than we are prepared for. Yet, even those who ran away, were forgiven. Too casually do we claim “Bearing the Cross of Jesus” as Family Obligations, a Chronic Illness, and Difficult time in Marriage, or at work. These are not Bearing Jesus' Cross, but choosing intentionally to live your life to serve others, recognizing the costs and renouncing them, repenting of everything else save being there for others, for God.
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