Isaiah 49:1-7
John 1:29-42
We each bear many different identities, roles and responsibilities. There was a bit of chaos in the delivery room when I was born, so my Birth Certificate bears the identity BABY BOY. I know a woman in her late seventies who being the only child, born late in life, was given the Legal name “BABY”, at which point her parents became Mummy and Daddy, that identity changed and consumed who they were for all of life. Many of us are also, someone's little brother or sister, another's Older brother or sister. A High school graduate, which I had begun to wonder if it still had any merit, when this Christmas I met a couple new to our community, and as it turned out we had been part of the same graduating class, despite the fact we hardly known each other, and that was over 30 years ago, having a common origin became an identity of trust and affiliation. A College Graduation Diploma reads “With all the Rights, Responsibilities and Obligations Implied Unto by this Title”. Being someone's lover, partner, spouse, we live life differently. Being a Parent changes us not once, but over and over as they mature. I also have a Masters and Doctorate, and like any Elder or Deacon am Ordained , and am a Member of the Presbytery, Installed and accountable to you the people of this church, and to this community as a Pastor. The first time going to Africa three years ago, John's Father described his father had brought NEW IDEAS to their Tribe, so like him, I would not be named after a COW, but be named after a FRUIT BEARING TREE: DENGACHOL. Returning as a Christian Missionary, I was given identification as ABUNA (PRIEST, FATHER) and serving as Western Medical Personnel as DOCTOR, so in some cases DR.ABUNA.
The GOSPEL OF JOHN wrestles with the Question WHO IS JESUS, WHO IS THE MESSIAH, and in order to answer that question, the Disciples, each of us must question WHO ARE YOU, and WHAT DO WE SEEK?
Different from the other Gospels which Identify John as being the Baptizer, and narrate his Baptism of Jesus, the Gospel of John identifies him only as THE FORERUNNER OF JESUS, The Prophet who had declared he was unworthy to stoop to untie the sandal of the Christ, and who after the fact reflects upon what he was able to be part of doing.
In Baptism, not only is our sinful nature washed away, but we receive a new identity. John greets Jesus in the Marketplace “BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD”. What exactly John meant by this, we do not know. A Southern Lady, often describes her students and those she mentors as her LITTLE LAMBS. It was a term of affection and identification of Jesus' INNOCENCE BEFORE GOD. As a Prophet of God, John may have been granted incite to know that this one would be the SACRIFICE for all Humanity's Sins, possibly not to know the full implication of that, but he does Name Jesus as, THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD. And as HE WHO RANKS BEFORE ME. As well as , THE ONE ON WHOM I SAW THE SPIRIT DESCEND AS A DOVE. I did not know him, but the ONE WHO SENT ME REVEALED HIM.
John's Disciples who follow Jesus to see who Jesus is, call him RABBI: TEACHER. One of these, Andrew seeks out his brother Simon to say “WE HAVE FOUND THE MESSIAH, THE ANNOINTED ONE FROM GOD, THE CHRIST.”
In these 25 verses, John relates 10 different Identities, the two yet to come from Phillip and Nathaniel are SON OF GOD and SON OF MAN. Not only do these titles describe different relationships each has with him, but different expectations we each have. Some perceive GOD as CREATOR, some as JUDGE, some as REDEEMER, some as PURE INNOCENCE, others as SACRIFICE, some as SPIRIT, others as TEACHER, some as HOLY, others as ETERNAL.
In all of Scripture, there are few more HUMAN descriptions than Andrew and the Beloved Disciple sneaking after and following Jesus to find out who he is, only to run into him face to face, and have him ask point blank: “WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING?” Underneath all the other questions of life,
What do I want to be when I grow up,
What is worth dieing for,
Can I love and be loved, if so by whom,
Who am I,
is the question WHAT AE YOU SEEKING?
In Oh so very human avoidance, they respond, SO WHERE ARE YOU STAYING?
In fairness the question can also mean, “I want to be like you, in fellowship with you, will you take me in?” And without question, Jesus offers the Invitation “COME AND SEE” because Faith is only something you can know by living.
All too often, we take for granted our identities and responsibilities.
The couple who have been married along time, and begin not only taking each other for granted, but their romance and their relationship, as well.
The career you entered into, with gusto and exuberance. You were going to save humanity, and set the world on fire with your passion.
The child, who changed your life forever, who now you hardly speak to, calling on holidays and birthdays.
In the Old Testament time of Isaiah, the people had come to believe,
“We used to be a Superpower, a great Nation that others knew and revered. But our economy is failing, we have been at war so long the people tire of bloodshed. Rather than motivating allegiance, the election of our leaders dissuades people.” And the Nation of Israel, came to claim the identity of being a people of faith. No longer a Great Nation, now only a people who praise God and are scattered and hidden across the face of the earth.
But we need to be careful with identifications like ONLY a PEOPLE WHO PRAISE GOD.
Isaiah reminds us that God raised up Israel from slaves. Abraham was as old as dirt and as fertile as a rock, Sarah beyond the age of giving birth had never conceived, yet with God all things are possible.
God could form a new nation from the corners of the earth. God could use those dispersed as a light to other nations.
Returning home this week from doing surgery at a Clinic we had built in Sudan, I would admit to feeling a little full of myself. There are moments of pride, when you are overwhelmed by what we have all done together. Like when your child graduates College, or gets married, or returns from a tour of military duty. Listening as Chiefs and Governments spoke of how they had begged for assistance for years and NO ONE responded until we offered this promise and built this Clinic and now were providing Health Care with possibilities of TB Testing and Treatment, and a Blood Bank, and HIV testing, Physical Therapy, and the only site in all Africa for Hook Work Vaccine. When someone brought me back to earth with the question: “Don't you think there are problems here at home, we should pay attention to?”
That afternoon Chaz Parker was here from the Rescue Mission, where many of us have volunteered, and some have written grants for expansion of their services. That afternoon, we counseled with colleagues questioning how pointless it seems to fight against frustrations, counseled ministers who struggled with their own faith in God, and who struggle with the human temptations we all face. Yesterday morning, every Local Government leader and Police and Fire and Saves member donated their blood motivated by a police officer in the hospital.
And the point of Isaiah, as well as Jesus' response to those seeking to know him asking “What do you seek” is that the answer is YES, BOTH. It is too little a thing, for us to be community of praise, our doors open only of Sunday. It is too little a thing for us to imagine ourselves ONLY as an agent of Mission in Africa. For just as we each h individually have identities and responsibilities in our lives, so also as the Church. It is TOO LITTLE A THING for us to remain as we have been, God is using us, ALMIGHTY GOD is using US as a LIGHT TO THE NATIONS.
But if we do so, ONLY as our wanting to do our thing, for my child to have a Nursery School, for my child to go to Confirmation, to build a Clinic, IT IS TOO LITLE A THING. The point is not doing MORE STUFF, Ministering to Problems and Programs Locally and around the World, but doing so IN RESPONSE to where God LEADS US. Riding on the plane home to you, I suddenly realized all the circumstances of life have not been my intent or desire. Having spent summers in FULTON and Syracuse as A CHILD, I never knew where Skaneateles was, or that I would your pastor. My older brother and my wife each went to AFRICA I had no desire or imagination of going, let alone twice. Preparing to leave, my family had chided that I get sick at the sight of blood. But this is where God sent us and how God has used us for God's Plan.
I do not imagine God causes people suffering. This one to have Cancer. This place to burn in riot and war. But I DO BELIEVE God uses the experiences of our lives for us to know more and more of what we are capable of, and to challenge us to love, acting in faith. WHAT DO YOU SEEK IN LIFE? It is too little, COME AND SEE WHAT GOD OFFERS.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Immanuel, December 23, 2007
Isaiah 7:10-16
Matthew 1:18-25
There are those moments, precious and brief in this season, when everything we imagine is done.
All the cards have been sent, the packages delivered, every box is wrapped and bow is tied, Carols sung, cookies baked and frosted, children tucked into bed dreaming of Christmas and mystical flying rheindeer;
We know that in an instant, there will be screams of joy, tearing of paper, consumption of everything new.
But, what no photo can capture, no Video, or recording, are those moments when everything glitters, when all is done. All the hours of searching for a parking space, waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap, the wish lists mailed, the shopping, efforts to try to be especially good, all hang in the balance in those moments, as we wait in expectant joy and REACT to the WRAPPINGS.
There is difference, between the reality of wishes fulfilled and expectant joy; and seeing, hoping, wonder.
But what occurred to me in the wrapping of gifts, is the filling out of the card.
We always write TO and FROM. There are so many childhood memories of sorting and stacking piles with YOUR NAME, and recognizing which are from Mom and Dad, which are from your brother or sister, aunt and uncle and searching for which might be from that special someone. BUT the point of our Scriptures this day, is also to know, appreciate and understand WHAT IS GIVEN, the Meaning Behind the Gift.
FOR COMFORT, FOR JOY, FOR WONDER, WITH LOVE, IN MEMORY, SHARING A PERSONAL DREAM, FOR A FRIEND, TO ENCOURAGE YOU, FOR A RAINY DAY, or in the case of these passages “JESUS”, “IMMANUEL”, “THE VIRGIN BIRTH”.
Written in an archaic language, taken out of context, accepted and incorporated into our culture, we perceive these as PERSONAL NAMES, Wrappings, as if the identification MADE the person inside.
Especially with names as steeped in Tradition and NEW TESTAMENT Interpretation as these, we need to appreciate the original setting and meaning, otherwise the whole Old Testament becomes only a one dimensional reflection setting up the New, and we deny thousands of years of history, the faith and culture of our ancestors and of other relious people.
In recent weeks a story grabbed International attention, because a teacher in a Muslim Nation encouraged her children to name a stuffed teddy bear Mohammed. In Western Culture to have a pet or stuffed animal named after you is considered a great honor, the Teddy Bear is named in honor of Pres.Teddy Roosevelt. But according to the Koran of the Muslim People, the name of “Mohammed” refers to “Prophet of God”, as such many children are named Mohammed, but it is against their religious laws, a violation of all that is sacred, to give that name to an inanimate object that cannot feel, or to an animal that is not human. Not understanding the identity of the gift, the reason for the Name, she violated what was sacred what was holy.
According to the Old Testament, King Ahaz grandson of King Uzziah, stood at the brink of WAR on TWO FRONTS. Either side outnumbered them, and they were to be attacked by both simultaneously. When suddenly up walks ISAIAH the Priest and Prophet, who declares that neither of these armies can destroy the People of God. Isaiah asks the King, if the King needs a sign of assurance, a word, something to let him know this not a war of armies, a battle of soldiers, but a demonstration of faith, of the power of God. Ahaz arrogantly dismisses faith as irrellevant to politics, to war. What a marvelous retorte from Isaiah, “IS IT SO LITTLE A THING THAT YOU WEARY HUMANITY, THAT YOU CANNOT WEARY GOD A LITTLE?” Then Isaiah offers a prophecy about time, when certain events will take place. The King's newest, youngest bride is still a child, not yet able to conceive, when she does, she will bear a son, and call his name “IMMANU” = “WITH US”, “EL” “God”. The child will grow up, in the Land of Milk and Honey, learning righteousness, so as to be able to choose right from wrong. Because before this child, not yet conceived as a son of this young bride not yet able to conceive, before he is grown to be able to choose right from wrong, both of the lands of the kings you fear will be deserted. How long do you suppose?
Over and over again the Prophet tried in vain to say, “We are blessed by God.” “We live in a Promised land of Milk and Honey” “God IS WITH US”, “Fear NOT”. But the ing could not listen, could not hear. He saw only the WRAPPINGS OF WAR, Counting the Numbers, rather than the meaning or relationship.
In a later time, Matthew takes up these identifications, once again prophesying FEAR NOT, GOD WITH US, Our LIVES ARE BLESSED.
Matthew begins his telling of who the Messiah is, and what difference CHRIST makes, by starting in the MOST HUMAN WAY. Beginning with our children at holidays, and again when we become adults researching historic genealogies, we search for IDENTITY in our relationships. This is your Mother and your Father, your Grandmother and Great great Grandfather. You are descended from kings, from King David and from Abraham.
Then Matthew tries yet again, by telling of the VERY HUMAN way Jesus was born.
The morning of my birth, during labor my mother threw a blood clot and died.
When my eldest was born on the morning of the 4th of July, there were fireworks outside the window, and tapes of Favorite Music (Vivaldi, and the Beach Boys, Beatles and Jazz) playing.
I shared in the delivery of each of our children, hugging my wife as they were born.
So the idea of going to Sudan immediately at Christmas to learn and to teach how to perform C-Sections and care for Mothers and Infants so that more will live and be healthy seems very much in keeping.
Matthew tells the story of Jesus birth emphasizing that Joseph was a RIGHTEOUS MAN.
Our concept of Being Righteous has been wrapped up in SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
There is a subtle distinction between ETHICS and MORALS and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
MORALITY is REFUSING WHAT IS EVIL and CHOOSING TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT & GOOD.
ETHICS is about the DEBATE between the merits of RIGHT & WRONG. Choosing among Gray shades.
The ETHICAL PERSON considers both sides of an argument, weighing the implications and meanings.
Whereas the MORAL PERSON, knows what is right and wrong and chooses the right.
The RIGHTEOUS follows Religious LAW. The Ancient Books of LEVITICUS and DEUTERONOMY named what was KOSHER and what was NOT, how to HOLY, and what it is to be SET APART FOR GOD.
JOSEPH was a RIGHTEOUS MAN.
The question before him was not whether he loved Mary or not, whether he would stay with her or not.
THE LAW dictated that if a woman were found to be with child from someone other than her husband, she would be stoned to death. So the question before Joseph is whether he loves God and will remain faithful to the Law and WILL PUT HER TO DEATH, MORE than he loves Mary whom he wanted to spend his life with as Husband and Wife. Reminiscent of Abraham sarificing Isaac, this is a test of JOSEPH's Faith in God.
No matter how righteous, or right a descision, ending a relationship is hard. And in a DREAM Joseph hears the words FEAR NOT, He shall be called Immanuel (GOD WITH US) and You are to Name him Jesus. Now Jesus is also an ancient Name, the root of which is JOSHUA meaning GOD SAVES, so before birth, this Child of RIGHTEOUSNESS, through JOSEPH a Decendent of King David, is identified as SAVIOR. If there were a GIFT TAG on this PRECIOUS GIFT it would be TO: THE WORLD, FROM: GOD, FOR SALVATION.
Ironically, as much as history and culture have elevated the VIRGIN BIRTH of MARY, in that culture at that time the role of NAMING ordinarily came through the Mother. FOR JOSEPH to name the Child is an act of ADOPTION as His son. SO whether born of Mary and Joseph, Adopted by God; or born of Mary and the Holy Spirit adopted by Joseph, becaomes one and the same. The difference between LUKE's GOSPEL and MATTHEW's is not only a difference of SHEPHERDS versus KINGS ROM THE EAST, ANGELS versus a STAR. According to LUKE, Mary's response is LET IT BE TO ME AS ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD. Where, Luke's Gospel demands ACTION from Believers. “Joseph, Fear Not, Take Mary as Your Wife, Take this Child and Name Him SAVIOR.
Matthew 1:18-25
There are those moments, precious and brief in this season, when everything we imagine is done.
All the cards have been sent, the packages delivered, every box is wrapped and bow is tied, Carols sung, cookies baked and frosted, children tucked into bed dreaming of Christmas and mystical flying rheindeer;
We know that in an instant, there will be screams of joy, tearing of paper, consumption of everything new.
But, what no photo can capture, no Video, or recording, are those moments when everything glitters, when all is done. All the hours of searching for a parking space, waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap, the wish lists mailed, the shopping, efforts to try to be especially good, all hang in the balance in those moments, as we wait in expectant joy and REACT to the WRAPPINGS.
There is difference, between the reality of wishes fulfilled and expectant joy; and seeing, hoping, wonder.
But what occurred to me in the wrapping of gifts, is the filling out of the card.
We always write TO and FROM. There are so many childhood memories of sorting and stacking piles with YOUR NAME, and recognizing which are from Mom and Dad, which are from your brother or sister, aunt and uncle and searching for which might be from that special someone. BUT the point of our Scriptures this day, is also to know, appreciate and understand WHAT IS GIVEN, the Meaning Behind the Gift.
FOR COMFORT, FOR JOY, FOR WONDER, WITH LOVE, IN MEMORY, SHARING A PERSONAL DREAM, FOR A FRIEND, TO ENCOURAGE YOU, FOR A RAINY DAY, or in the case of these passages “JESUS”, “IMMANUEL”, “THE VIRGIN BIRTH”.
Written in an archaic language, taken out of context, accepted and incorporated into our culture, we perceive these as PERSONAL NAMES, Wrappings, as if the identification MADE the person inside.
Especially with names as steeped in Tradition and NEW TESTAMENT Interpretation as these, we need to appreciate the original setting and meaning, otherwise the whole Old Testament becomes only a one dimensional reflection setting up the New, and we deny thousands of years of history, the faith and culture of our ancestors and of other relious people.
In recent weeks a story grabbed International attention, because a teacher in a Muslim Nation encouraged her children to name a stuffed teddy bear Mohammed. In Western Culture to have a pet or stuffed animal named after you is considered a great honor, the Teddy Bear is named in honor of Pres.Teddy Roosevelt. But according to the Koran of the Muslim People, the name of “Mohammed” refers to “Prophet of God”, as such many children are named Mohammed, but it is against their religious laws, a violation of all that is sacred, to give that name to an inanimate object that cannot feel, or to an animal that is not human. Not understanding the identity of the gift, the reason for the Name, she violated what was sacred what was holy.
According to the Old Testament, King Ahaz grandson of King Uzziah, stood at the brink of WAR on TWO FRONTS. Either side outnumbered them, and they were to be attacked by both simultaneously. When suddenly up walks ISAIAH the Priest and Prophet, who declares that neither of these armies can destroy the People of God. Isaiah asks the King, if the King needs a sign of assurance, a word, something to let him know this not a war of armies, a battle of soldiers, but a demonstration of faith, of the power of God. Ahaz arrogantly dismisses faith as irrellevant to politics, to war. What a marvelous retorte from Isaiah, “IS IT SO LITTLE A THING THAT YOU WEARY HUMANITY, THAT YOU CANNOT WEARY GOD A LITTLE?” Then Isaiah offers a prophecy about time, when certain events will take place. The King's newest, youngest bride is still a child, not yet able to conceive, when she does, she will bear a son, and call his name “IMMANU” = “WITH US”, “EL” “God”. The child will grow up, in the Land of Milk and Honey, learning righteousness, so as to be able to choose right from wrong. Because before this child, not yet conceived as a son of this young bride not yet able to conceive, before he is grown to be able to choose right from wrong, both of the lands of the kings you fear will be deserted. How long do you suppose?
Over and over again the Prophet tried in vain to say, “We are blessed by God.” “We live in a Promised land of Milk and Honey” “God IS WITH US”, “Fear NOT”. But the ing could not listen, could not hear. He saw only the WRAPPINGS OF WAR, Counting the Numbers, rather than the meaning or relationship.
In a later time, Matthew takes up these identifications, once again prophesying FEAR NOT, GOD WITH US, Our LIVES ARE BLESSED.
Matthew begins his telling of who the Messiah is, and what difference CHRIST makes, by starting in the MOST HUMAN WAY. Beginning with our children at holidays, and again when we become adults researching historic genealogies, we search for IDENTITY in our relationships. This is your Mother and your Father, your Grandmother and Great great Grandfather. You are descended from kings, from King David and from Abraham.
Then Matthew tries yet again, by telling of the VERY HUMAN way Jesus was born.
The morning of my birth, during labor my mother threw a blood clot and died.
When my eldest was born on the morning of the 4th of July, there were fireworks outside the window, and tapes of Favorite Music (Vivaldi, and the Beach Boys, Beatles and Jazz) playing.
I shared in the delivery of each of our children, hugging my wife as they were born.
So the idea of going to Sudan immediately at Christmas to learn and to teach how to perform C-Sections and care for Mothers and Infants so that more will live and be healthy seems very much in keeping.
Matthew tells the story of Jesus birth emphasizing that Joseph was a RIGHTEOUS MAN.
Our concept of Being Righteous has been wrapped up in SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
There is a subtle distinction between ETHICS and MORALS and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
MORALITY is REFUSING WHAT IS EVIL and CHOOSING TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT & GOOD.
ETHICS is about the DEBATE between the merits of RIGHT & WRONG. Choosing among Gray shades.
The ETHICAL PERSON considers both sides of an argument, weighing the implications and meanings.
Whereas the MORAL PERSON, knows what is right and wrong and chooses the right.
The RIGHTEOUS follows Religious LAW. The Ancient Books of LEVITICUS and DEUTERONOMY named what was KOSHER and what was NOT, how to HOLY, and what it is to be SET APART FOR GOD.
JOSEPH was a RIGHTEOUS MAN.
The question before him was not whether he loved Mary or not, whether he would stay with her or not.
THE LAW dictated that if a woman were found to be with child from someone other than her husband, she would be stoned to death. So the question before Joseph is whether he loves God and will remain faithful to the Law and WILL PUT HER TO DEATH, MORE than he loves Mary whom he wanted to spend his life with as Husband and Wife. Reminiscent of Abraham sarificing Isaac, this is a test of JOSEPH's Faith in God.
No matter how righteous, or right a descision, ending a relationship is hard. And in a DREAM Joseph hears the words FEAR NOT, He shall be called Immanuel (GOD WITH US) and You are to Name him Jesus. Now Jesus is also an ancient Name, the root of which is JOSHUA meaning GOD SAVES, so before birth, this Child of RIGHTEOUSNESS, through JOSEPH a Decendent of King David, is identified as SAVIOR. If there were a GIFT TAG on this PRECIOUS GIFT it would be TO: THE WORLD, FROM: GOD, FOR SALVATION.
Ironically, as much as history and culture have elevated the VIRGIN BIRTH of MARY, in that culture at that time the role of NAMING ordinarily came through the Mother. FOR JOSEPH to name the Child is an act of ADOPTION as His son. SO whether born of Mary and Joseph, Adopted by God; or born of Mary and the Holy Spirit adopted by Joseph, becaomes one and the same. The difference between LUKE's GOSPEL and MATTHEW's is not only a difference of SHEPHERDS versus KINGS ROM THE EAST, ANGELS versus a STAR. According to LUKE, Mary's response is LET IT BE TO ME AS ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD. Where, Luke's Gospel demands ACTION from Believers. “Joseph, Fear Not, Take Mary as Your Wife, Take this Child and Name Him SAVIOR.
Preparations December 9, 2007
ISAIAH 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12
At the Wednesday Watchnight we went round introducing ourselves and naming what we like best about Christmas, there was mention of presents and singing, carols, cookies, Christmas cards and letters from friends you have not seen all year, and the children in pajamas as well as those home from college and the newly engaged.
Afterwards it occurred to me that one of the things we have done ever since being a child, was going out in the evening to see the lights and decorations. For some reason, we each had to put on our best then cuddle up under blankets in the Station wagon, as Dad drove from one village to the next, and after ooohing at the 132nd house we would doze off to sleep, hours later to be carried up and tucked into bed.
I think there is something about that glow that reminds me of that brief moment Christmas Eve when singing Silent Night and everyone lifts their candle.
With lights in our windows or along the eves, we bring that glow of Silent Night and the glow of our childhood memories home night after night throughout the Advent season.
In this age of organization and technology, I have put cup hooks up and within 30 minutes can have everything plugged in and sparkling, give or take the hour of untangling wires and testing bulbs. We can electronically send out our Christmas letter, saving the time of addressing envelopes, licking stamps. Christmas cookies even come in a tube, all you need do is slice and heat until done. Where we used to sing carols, you can now find them on every radio station, or to be played on cd with full orchestral accompanient.
But if that is the extent of our “preparations for Christmas”, we have lost the point.
LIFE IS NOT A RACE TO SEE WHO CAN GET DONE FIRST, OR WHO WILL WIN. We are not in competition with one another, in fact no one can play unless we truly cooperate.
It is like the couple who get married and after the wedding is over, she has worn the gown, danced with her father, lit the candles, taken the photos, cut the cake, opened the presents, and the following morning suddenly they realize, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
What if all our PREPARATIONS were really acquiring the tools and resources to be able to work at PREPARING for LIFE. The question that comes to a couple who have been married for 41 years, is not What is the key to Marriage, or WOULD YOU DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, or Would you recite your vows anew, but rather, with all that you have shared in 41 years together are you now prepared for the next?
There is a DISILLUSIONMENT that we owe to the parents of Toddlers suffering the TERRIBLE TWOs, all of this is preparation for the THREEs, and fours and Kidergarten, and High School and College. Every year, every day, is precious, we too quickly attempt to get them over, to get on to the next, all the while making certain our child has everything every other child possesses. As much enjoyment as we each had on Christmases growing up, there is a far greater joy, in having had those experiences and now witnessing life anew.
Edward Hicks, the American Quaker artist of the early 1800s, painted a famous illustration of this text from Isaiah 11, which he titled THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM. So often looking at the painting, we are mesmerized by the Wolf and Lamb laying together, the Bear and the Calf, the Lion and Fattling, the vulnerable toddlers and children playing, BUT intgral to the painting are the human characters of Miles Standish and Leaders of the Plymouth Colony trading with the Iroquois and Souix.
The great juxtaposition within the Painting, as well as in the Prophecy are that the two are related, completely inter-dependent so that one cannot be without the other, PEACE in the WORLD if there is not Peace AMONG US.
At such a time as we are experiencing, the Nation was seeking a new leader. According to Isaiah, they were not seeking the most popular, the most Presidential, the one with Oprah or the one with Bill, the Mormon, the Catholic, the One Divorced and Remarried.
The HOPE OF THE NATION, the Hope of All Creation, was that FUTURE LEADERS would have the Spirit of the Lord upon them.
That Spirit of WISDOM, Common Sense, Intelligence and Understanding.
The Spirit of Seeking COUNSEL, Diplomacy, Compromise & Military Resolve.
The Spirit of Knowing God and Trusting God, ACTING IN FAITH.
Not Managers who make policy, because our vision can be clouded,
Not on the basis of the speeches and contracts signed,
But who will lead with CONCERN for the POOR, with EQUITY for the Meek.
John the Baptist was not so SUBTLE. John did not come to the Church and with a cheerful lilt call out: Good Morning! Good Morning! Good Morning!
Instead, John confronted the existent world in ways they/ we could not ignore.
He would not allow people to claim we are above reproach, we are the inheritors of faith from Abraham, because Abraham and Sarah were BARREN, as unproductive as Rocks. And God created life.
So often we do justify ourselves and our half-hearted motions, I hung the lights, bought the tree, even made sure I got something for every person. BUT What if, we took John the Baptist' words to heart? REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE STRAIGHT THE PATHS. This is not a command to fix Genesee Street as it comes through Auburn, but the bigger potholes we are accustomed to; the potholes with our families, with our neighbors, with behaviors no one should have to endure.
There is HOPE. I have heard from several of the College Students, as well as on the news this week, that the SECOND ITEM on nearly everyone's Christmas List this year is PEACE ON EARTH. Would not that be amazing. If instead of giving out awards for films documenting Global Warming, we each tried to give one another PEACE ON EARTH. Maybe it would not be a shiny as the flat screen television under the tree, but how different our lives might be, if there were PEACE?
More than ever before, I find myself this year living in Advent.
Filled with faith, hope, expectation, that everything that has happened, is preparation for what God will do.
Filled with love and compassion for family AND others who are not my family, not my responsibility, but whose lives will be changed by what is to come.
Expectant for peace, in a world so full of war, hate, inhumanity and disposability.
Filled with the Joy of Mary and Elizabeth, that God would use even us for such a time as this.
Matthew 3:1-12
At the Wednesday Watchnight we went round introducing ourselves and naming what we like best about Christmas, there was mention of presents and singing, carols, cookies, Christmas cards and letters from friends you have not seen all year, and the children in pajamas as well as those home from college and the newly engaged.
Afterwards it occurred to me that one of the things we have done ever since being a child, was going out in the evening to see the lights and decorations. For some reason, we each had to put on our best then cuddle up under blankets in the Station wagon, as Dad drove from one village to the next, and after ooohing at the 132nd house we would doze off to sleep, hours later to be carried up and tucked into bed.
I think there is something about that glow that reminds me of that brief moment Christmas Eve when singing Silent Night and everyone lifts their candle.
With lights in our windows or along the eves, we bring that glow of Silent Night and the glow of our childhood memories home night after night throughout the Advent season.
In this age of organization and technology, I have put cup hooks up and within 30 minutes can have everything plugged in and sparkling, give or take the hour of untangling wires and testing bulbs. We can electronically send out our Christmas letter, saving the time of addressing envelopes, licking stamps. Christmas cookies even come in a tube, all you need do is slice and heat until done. Where we used to sing carols, you can now find them on every radio station, or to be played on cd with full orchestral accompanient.
But if that is the extent of our “preparations for Christmas”, we have lost the point.
LIFE IS NOT A RACE TO SEE WHO CAN GET DONE FIRST, OR WHO WILL WIN. We are not in competition with one another, in fact no one can play unless we truly cooperate.
It is like the couple who get married and after the wedding is over, she has worn the gown, danced with her father, lit the candles, taken the photos, cut the cake, opened the presents, and the following morning suddenly they realize, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
What if all our PREPARATIONS were really acquiring the tools and resources to be able to work at PREPARING for LIFE. The question that comes to a couple who have been married for 41 years, is not What is the key to Marriage, or WOULD YOU DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, or Would you recite your vows anew, but rather, with all that you have shared in 41 years together are you now prepared for the next?
There is a DISILLUSIONMENT that we owe to the parents of Toddlers suffering the TERRIBLE TWOs, all of this is preparation for the THREEs, and fours and Kidergarten, and High School and College. Every year, every day, is precious, we too quickly attempt to get them over, to get on to the next, all the while making certain our child has everything every other child possesses. As much enjoyment as we each had on Christmases growing up, there is a far greater joy, in having had those experiences and now witnessing life anew.
Edward Hicks, the American Quaker artist of the early 1800s, painted a famous illustration of this text from Isaiah 11, which he titled THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM. So often looking at the painting, we are mesmerized by the Wolf and Lamb laying together, the Bear and the Calf, the Lion and Fattling, the vulnerable toddlers and children playing, BUT intgral to the painting are the human characters of Miles Standish and Leaders of the Plymouth Colony trading with the Iroquois and Souix.
The great juxtaposition within the Painting, as well as in the Prophecy are that the two are related, completely inter-dependent so that one cannot be without the other, PEACE in the WORLD if there is not Peace AMONG US.
At such a time as we are experiencing, the Nation was seeking a new leader. According to Isaiah, they were not seeking the most popular, the most Presidential, the one with Oprah or the one with Bill, the Mormon, the Catholic, the One Divorced and Remarried.
The HOPE OF THE NATION, the Hope of All Creation, was that FUTURE LEADERS would have the Spirit of the Lord upon them.
That Spirit of WISDOM, Common Sense, Intelligence and Understanding.
The Spirit of Seeking COUNSEL, Diplomacy, Compromise & Military Resolve.
The Spirit of Knowing God and Trusting God, ACTING IN FAITH.
Not Managers who make policy, because our vision can be clouded,
Not on the basis of the speeches and contracts signed,
But who will lead with CONCERN for the POOR, with EQUITY for the Meek.
John the Baptist was not so SUBTLE. John did not come to the Church and with a cheerful lilt call out: Good Morning! Good Morning! Good Morning!
Instead, John confronted the existent world in ways they/ we could not ignore.
He would not allow people to claim we are above reproach, we are the inheritors of faith from Abraham, because Abraham and Sarah were BARREN, as unproductive as Rocks. And God created life.
So often we do justify ourselves and our half-hearted motions, I hung the lights, bought the tree, even made sure I got something for every person. BUT What if, we took John the Baptist' words to heart? REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE STRAIGHT THE PATHS. This is not a command to fix Genesee Street as it comes through Auburn, but the bigger potholes we are accustomed to; the potholes with our families, with our neighbors, with behaviors no one should have to endure.
There is HOPE. I have heard from several of the College Students, as well as on the news this week, that the SECOND ITEM on nearly everyone's Christmas List this year is PEACE ON EARTH. Would not that be amazing. If instead of giving out awards for films documenting Global Warming, we each tried to give one another PEACE ON EARTH. Maybe it would not be a shiny as the flat screen television under the tree, but how different our lives might be, if there were PEACE?
More than ever before, I find myself this year living in Advent.
Filled with faith, hope, expectation, that everything that has happened, is preparation for what God will do.
Filled with love and compassion for family AND others who are not my family, not my responsibility, but whose lives will be changed by what is to come.
Expectant for peace, in a world so full of war, hate, inhumanity and disposability.
Filled with the Joy of Mary and Elizabeth, that God would use even us for such a time as this.
Recapitulate September 18, 2007
What if,
instead of going through the motions of life, planning to meet deadlines, responding to circumstance,
WE RECAPITULATE that this is a Spiritual world, a world of Divine Imagination.
What differences might there be, if instead of following conclusions of the reality we know, we perceived that God was continually reconciling the world in and around and through even us?
As a child of the 1960s, there was a marvelous toy called a SpiroGraph, with interlocking plastic wheels, that turned and worked off of one another. You placed a pen in the whole of a gear and as the teeth meshed and gears worked a beautiful design appeared. But choosing a different gear, beginning from the perspective of another starting point, the design was completely unique.
That is the point of Isaiah.
STOP where we are in this moment in time. Imagine all the circumstances and relationships and responsibilities we have. Because “the different” is only appreciated as different when compared to what we know.
Now imagine what life would be like, if Adam and we, had never broken Covenant with God?
If the child, baptized this day were not the third of this family, but truly known as a Child of God?
Like a parent waiting for the Prodigal to return, like Jesus walking up to the tree of Zachaeus, surely God desires for us to RECAPITULATE and Start afresh from a new perspective.
In a reality where lion and lamb do lay together, where ox and predator both eat straw. Imagine a reality without war, or hostility of prejudice. Imagine a reality without FEAR.
Such a simple, tiny change. To imagine life, not as we have come to fear, but as a gift from God.
A message was recently sent out from the Comedian George Carlin upon the death of his partner.
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings and shorter tempers.
Wider freeways and narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but continually have less, we buy more but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses for smaller families,
Greater conveniences, yet less time.
We have more degrees of education, but less common sense, more knowledge and less judgment.
We have more experts and greater problems, more medicine and less well-being.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read far too little, watch too much TV and pray seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, while reducing our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too easily.
We have learned how to make a living, without living life.
We have added years to life, but not life to our years.
We have been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing our own backyard to meet a new neighbor. We have done larger things, but not better.
We have tried to clean the air and water, while polluting our souls.
We have split the atom, but failed to unite across prejudice.
We write more, communicating less. We plan more, accomplishing less.
We have learned to rush and multi-task, rather than to wait and to do one thing well.
We build more computers, to hold more information, to produce more copies, we text in acronyms, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast food and slow digestion,
big men with small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes and McMansions, but more divorce and more broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morals, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills to do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is so much in the showroom and nothing in stock.
These are days where we attend LAUGH THERAPY because Laughter makes us feel good, and we have so little to laugh or feel good about.
A time when technology can bring you these ideas, and the ability to save them or delete.
This week when you are gathered in Thanksgiving with loved ones, remember to give thanks, because they will not always be around forever.
Remember to say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person will soon grow up and leave your side.
Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart that doesn't cost a cent.
Remember to say “I love you” to your partner and loved ones, but more importantly to mean it.
A kiss and an embrace can mend hurt, when it comes from deep inside, or be a betrayal when not.
Remember to hold hands, and cherish the moment.
Give time for love to grow and take time, make time to speak!
Give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
The Gospel of Luke records Jesus saying that,
In the world we have made there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be persecutions, and fires and floods. But this in not how God intended life to be.
He offers three instructions: DO NOT BE LED ASTRAY,
DO NOT CHASE AFTER THEM,
DO NOT TRY TO PLAN OUT WHAT TO SAY, But trust God.
ULTIMATELY we have one power, one ability.
We may not be able to stop a war, or prevent the Earth from Quaking.
We may not be able to preserve buildings from becoming ruins, but...
We can make our minds to Believe,
We can choose to live our differently because we believe, or we can react and respond to every wind that blows, defensively trying to fight against life.
BAPTISM is making up your mind to believe, that NO MATTER what happens, this child is a gift from God, and we will pray for her. MARRIAGE is making up your mind, right now, before the moment, that you want to love and be loved, to put their needs first.
COMMUNION is a willingness to share and receive, not knowing what is in the heart of another, but committing to be there with them.
instead of going through the motions of life, planning to meet deadlines, responding to circumstance,
WE RECAPITULATE that this is a Spiritual world, a world of Divine Imagination.
What differences might there be, if instead of following conclusions of the reality we know, we perceived that God was continually reconciling the world in and around and through even us?
As a child of the 1960s, there was a marvelous toy called a SpiroGraph, with interlocking plastic wheels, that turned and worked off of one another. You placed a pen in the whole of a gear and as the teeth meshed and gears worked a beautiful design appeared. But choosing a different gear, beginning from the perspective of another starting point, the design was completely unique.
That is the point of Isaiah.
STOP where we are in this moment in time. Imagine all the circumstances and relationships and responsibilities we have. Because “the different” is only appreciated as different when compared to what we know.
Now imagine what life would be like, if Adam and we, had never broken Covenant with God?
If the child, baptized this day were not the third of this family, but truly known as a Child of God?
Like a parent waiting for the Prodigal to return, like Jesus walking up to the tree of Zachaeus, surely God desires for us to RECAPITULATE and Start afresh from a new perspective.
In a reality where lion and lamb do lay together, where ox and predator both eat straw. Imagine a reality without war, or hostility of prejudice. Imagine a reality without FEAR.
Such a simple, tiny change. To imagine life, not as we have come to fear, but as a gift from God.
A message was recently sent out from the Comedian George Carlin upon the death of his partner.
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings and shorter tempers.
Wider freeways and narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but continually have less, we buy more but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses for smaller families,
Greater conveniences, yet less time.
We have more degrees of education, but less common sense, more knowledge and less judgment.
We have more experts and greater problems, more medicine and less well-being.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read far too little, watch too much TV and pray seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, while reducing our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too easily.
We have learned how to make a living, without living life.
We have added years to life, but not life to our years.
We have been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing our own backyard to meet a new neighbor. We have done larger things, but not better.
We have tried to clean the air and water, while polluting our souls.
We have split the atom, but failed to unite across prejudice.
We write more, communicating less. We plan more, accomplishing less.
We have learned to rush and multi-task, rather than to wait and to do one thing well.
We build more computers, to hold more information, to produce more copies, we text in acronyms, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast food and slow digestion,
big men with small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes and McMansions, but more divorce and more broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morals, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills to do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is so much in the showroom and nothing in stock.
These are days where we attend LAUGH THERAPY because Laughter makes us feel good, and we have so little to laugh or feel good about.
A time when technology can bring you these ideas, and the ability to save them or delete.
This week when you are gathered in Thanksgiving with loved ones, remember to give thanks, because they will not always be around forever.
Remember to say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person will soon grow up and leave your side.
Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart that doesn't cost a cent.
Remember to say “I love you” to your partner and loved ones, but more importantly to mean it.
A kiss and an embrace can mend hurt, when it comes from deep inside, or be a betrayal when not.
Remember to hold hands, and cherish the moment.
Give time for love to grow and take time, make time to speak!
Give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
The Gospel of Luke records Jesus saying that,
In the world we have made there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be persecutions, and fires and floods. But this in not how God intended life to be.
He offers three instructions: DO NOT BE LED ASTRAY,
DO NOT CHASE AFTER THEM,
DO NOT TRY TO PLAN OUT WHAT TO SAY, But trust God.
ULTIMATELY we have one power, one ability.
We may not be able to stop a war, or prevent the Earth from Quaking.
We may not be able to preserve buildings from becoming ruins, but...
We can make our minds to Believe,
We can choose to live our differently because we believe, or we can react and respond to every wind that blows, defensively trying to fight against life.
BAPTISM is making up your mind to believe, that NO MATTER what happens, this child is a gift from God, and we will pray for her. MARRIAGE is making up your mind, right now, before the moment, that you want to love and be loved, to put their needs first.
COMMUNION is a willingness to share and receive, not knowing what is in the heart of another, but committing to be there with them.
Living Faith, November 11, 2007
Haggai 1:15-2:9
Luke 20: 27-38
This morning's pasages call us to question and discern what do we believe about life and death, what is important, and what is real. Not simply to accept a philosophy, to claim membership, but rather to live our lives differently because of who we are and what we believe.
Dan Wlliams was a member of this church, sang in the choir, was an elected, ordained, installed Elder, who served on the Organ Task Force ad came to Bible Study, who now travels extensively for work. He stopped in a week ago, wanting to know what was new and what was going on.
It took about 2 minutes to review that the Organ was built, all Debt from all the Campaigns has been repaid, and the Cinic not only was built, but built by volunteers from this church and now staffed and operational for 6 months; at which point we paused and said “The rest of this is not something the Session or I or the Church can claim any responsibility for, only that we have been blessed to be a part of... but folks with Cancer are prayed for and listened to and SURVIVING. A Baby born with a serious problem with her heart has had the doctors and nurses and medical care and prayer to HEAL. No one of us made these things go away, or disappear, the lives of each and of all of us have been changed.” And he said, “The church is not just talking about faith any more, not simply teaching it, or believing in it, you are LIVING FAITH.”
As Children of the Enlightenment, product of times, we know two realities, SURVIVAL & FACT
A Living Faith calls us to go beyond Survival at life, beyond what we know and can prove exists; to what gives life meaning, what beliefs can change lives?
From the time of Moses' Brother Aaron forming the Golden Calf, through the Early Monarchy of Kings David and Solomon, there was a constant tension between RELIGION & FAITH.
Aaron gave the people the Idol they wanted to worship a GOD of Gold made by Human Hands. Moses brought the people the 10 Comandments not as Tablets to worship, not as possessing some Indiana Jones type of mysticism or magic, but as a different way of life, Covenant Commitments of who we would be to God and one another.
The Prophet Nathan challenged King David he could not build a SANCTUARY to contain God, but instead God would build out of David a house and lineage and monarchy.
All of the Old Testament Prophets: Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos agonize and struggle with the people to NOT simply go through the motions of WORSHIP, but to live the Covenant and believe.
The nation did not understand, could only comprehend SURVIVAL (working at our jobs, caring for our family, making ends meet and getting by from day to day) or LAWS as dictated by the King (We will have a feast, we will pay taxes, make an offering, go to war). Believing in Nothing, having no real Covenant, the people were carried off destroyed.
70 YEARS went by, and the people were allowed to return, finding everything in ruins.
THE PROPHET HAGGAI calls the Nation, NOT simply to SURVIVE, NOT to see with their Eyes, but to REBUILD their Covenant Commitment to God.
HAGGAI preached in a time of devastation when the people literally were trying to SURVIVE and HAGGAI challenged them to question their COMMITMENT TO THE COVENANT w/God.
Like the Old Testament People, we have tendency to hear
the story of ADAM = eating the APPLE from the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE,
instead the Covenant is about TRUSTING and OBEYING GOD.
We hear about NOAH and think that THE COVENANT is about RAINBOW, when it is promise
God will never again destroy life and we will be stewards of God's Creation.
We hear the story of ABRAHAM, the covenant becomes CIRCUMCISION/KOSHER FOODS,
when the COVENANT was to BE HOLY, To be Different, To be Set Apart for God.
Living in COVENANT COMMITMENT is not simply going through the motions, doing what we are supposed to do, or avoiding what we should not touch... COVENANT be it BAPTISM, or MARRIAGE, ORDINATION, or any of these NAMED, is a CONSTANTLY CHANGING IDENTITY and RELATIONSHIP, To LIVE FAITH, No Matter What!
My PARENTS are aging, none too gracefully, do we abandon the relationship because Dad NO LONGER pays my allowance? Or because they now need us more than we need them to do for us?
When your spouse has CANCER, and they have to have a hystrectomy, or their prostate removed, or their hair falls out, do they need you any less? When one is crisis, does the other love them any less? Should we, can we stop loving them? Lunacy!
Recently, an old friend stopped by. When we first became friends as married ministers, the four of us would share dinner, play bridge, share vacations and projects. In the intervening decade, they had gotten divorced and remarried others. We had maintained contact, though not seen eachother in fifteen years. He said, DIVORCE is something people don't know how to deal with, there is a sense of brokenness, violation, and you are left isolated and alone, as if because you are no longer part of that relationship you cannot be part of any of the relationships you had had. BUT Instead, you never gave up on me, on our trust and relationship though our CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGED.
That was the critical piece of Jesus' response to the SADUCEES. The Epytians, Greeks and Romans had all developed PHILOSOPHIES about the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL as a DOCTRINE OF HUMAN NATURE THAT DENIED THE REALITY OF DEATH. Mummification and pyramids, Grecco-Roman understandings of Heaven and Hell, were all developed around the SOUL'S CONTINUATION UNCHANGED after Death.
We need to realize that Judaism in that time and today, and Islam, are as diverse as Christian denominations. The Saducees were the Educated Ruling Class. While the Rabbis and Pharisees accepted as a whole the Old Testament as Scripture, the Saducees accepted the Pentateuach, but not all the Prophets and Writings and Oral Tradition of Rabbis. The Saducees knew that there was life and death, and because one could not prove life after death or the immortality of the soul, they believed faith was PHILOSOPHICAL, that after death there was nothing, and they bated Jesus and others about Resurrection and Immortality.
One of the Laws of Moses, recorded in the book of Leviticus deals with the care of widows and perpetuation of inheritance to future generations after death. SO, if a man is married, and they have no child, and he dies, his next of kin was responsible to marry her and provide children through her to continue the lineage for the man who had died.
Jesus response is that the question is not about the IMMORTALITY OF THE PERSON or SOUL, but INSTEAD about the Eternal Covenant Commitment of God, and the power of God that EVEN THOUGH WE DIE, God could resurrect the dead. Marriage and Inheritance are necessary for this mortal life, because as human creatures we do have children and assets, and we do die. BUT RESURRECTION is not about the dead coming back to life, or continuing on the same or as something reincarnated different.
First, and foremost, GOD'S DESIRE according to Genesis has always been that we would LIVE IN TRUST, IN FULL COMMUNION WITH GOD & ONE ANOTHER.
Resurrection then is Answer to the COVENANT of ADAM, that for their sin, for the betrayal of the trust of Adam and Eve, there is DEATH. If God suddenly made humanity immortal, that first COVENANT would be invalidated, and if that one, then all the rest.
INSTEAD for having Maintained COVENANT COMMITMENT through Death JESUS WAS RESURRECTED BY GOD making possible the choice of FREE WILL anew. Do we sin and break trusts, like Adam, believing nothing but ourselves, and Die?
OR, knowing that we do sin and trying to follow the example of Jesus, do we HOPE for resurrection?
But Second, the Gods of Egypt, of Babylon, of the Greeks and Romans, had all been NATIONALISTIC GODS. If this had been our hope, then it would be in the IMMORTALITY OF THE NATION, the Empire. HOWEVER,The Saducees themselves, describe God, as being the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, so clearly God CARES about COVENANT Relationship with individual persons. If individuals, we, each of us matter to God, as described elsewhere “YOU ARE PRECIOUS UNTO GOD”, then our hope is in GOD, not in ourselves.
Luke 20: 27-38
This morning's pasages call us to question and discern what do we believe about life and death, what is important, and what is real. Not simply to accept a philosophy, to claim membership, but rather to live our lives differently because of who we are and what we believe.
Dan Wlliams was a member of this church, sang in the choir, was an elected, ordained, installed Elder, who served on the Organ Task Force ad came to Bible Study, who now travels extensively for work. He stopped in a week ago, wanting to know what was new and what was going on.
It took about 2 minutes to review that the Organ was built, all Debt from all the Campaigns has been repaid, and the Cinic not only was built, but built by volunteers from this church and now staffed and operational for 6 months; at which point we paused and said “The rest of this is not something the Session or I or the Church can claim any responsibility for, only that we have been blessed to be a part of... but folks with Cancer are prayed for and listened to and SURVIVING. A Baby born with a serious problem with her heart has had the doctors and nurses and medical care and prayer to HEAL. No one of us made these things go away, or disappear, the lives of each and of all of us have been changed.” And he said, “The church is not just talking about faith any more, not simply teaching it, or believing in it, you are LIVING FAITH.”
As Children of the Enlightenment, product of times, we know two realities, SURVIVAL & FACT
A Living Faith calls us to go beyond Survival at life, beyond what we know and can prove exists; to what gives life meaning, what beliefs can change lives?
From the time of Moses' Brother Aaron forming the Golden Calf, through the Early Monarchy of Kings David and Solomon, there was a constant tension between RELIGION & FAITH.
Aaron gave the people the Idol they wanted to worship a GOD of Gold made by Human Hands. Moses brought the people the 10 Comandments not as Tablets to worship, not as possessing some Indiana Jones type of mysticism or magic, but as a different way of life, Covenant Commitments of who we would be to God and one another.
The Prophet Nathan challenged King David he could not build a SANCTUARY to contain God, but instead God would build out of David a house and lineage and monarchy.
All of the Old Testament Prophets: Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos agonize and struggle with the people to NOT simply go through the motions of WORSHIP, but to live the Covenant and believe.
The nation did not understand, could only comprehend SURVIVAL (working at our jobs, caring for our family, making ends meet and getting by from day to day) or LAWS as dictated by the King (We will have a feast, we will pay taxes, make an offering, go to war). Believing in Nothing, having no real Covenant, the people were carried off destroyed.
70 YEARS went by, and the people were allowed to return, finding everything in ruins.
THE PROPHET HAGGAI calls the Nation, NOT simply to SURVIVE, NOT to see with their Eyes, but to REBUILD their Covenant Commitment to God.
HAGGAI preached in a time of devastation when the people literally were trying to SURVIVE and HAGGAI challenged them to question their COMMITMENT TO THE COVENANT w/God.
Like the Old Testament People, we have tendency to hear
the story of ADAM = eating the APPLE from the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE,
instead the Covenant is about TRUSTING and OBEYING GOD.
We hear about NOAH and think that THE COVENANT is about RAINBOW, when it is promise
God will never again destroy life and we will be stewards of God's Creation.
We hear the story of ABRAHAM, the covenant becomes CIRCUMCISION/KOSHER FOODS,
when the COVENANT was to BE HOLY, To be Different, To be Set Apart for God.
Living in COVENANT COMMITMENT is not simply going through the motions, doing what we are supposed to do, or avoiding what we should not touch... COVENANT be it BAPTISM, or MARRIAGE, ORDINATION, or any of these NAMED, is a CONSTANTLY CHANGING IDENTITY and RELATIONSHIP, To LIVE FAITH, No Matter What!
My PARENTS are aging, none too gracefully, do we abandon the relationship because Dad NO LONGER pays my allowance? Or because they now need us more than we need them to do for us?
When your spouse has CANCER, and they have to have a hystrectomy, or their prostate removed, or their hair falls out, do they need you any less? When one is crisis, does the other love them any less? Should we, can we stop loving them? Lunacy!
Recently, an old friend stopped by. When we first became friends as married ministers, the four of us would share dinner, play bridge, share vacations and projects. In the intervening decade, they had gotten divorced and remarried others. We had maintained contact, though not seen eachother in fifteen years. He said, DIVORCE is something people don't know how to deal with, there is a sense of brokenness, violation, and you are left isolated and alone, as if because you are no longer part of that relationship you cannot be part of any of the relationships you had had. BUT Instead, you never gave up on me, on our trust and relationship though our CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGED.
That was the critical piece of Jesus' response to the SADUCEES. The Epytians, Greeks and Romans had all developed PHILOSOPHIES about the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL as a DOCTRINE OF HUMAN NATURE THAT DENIED THE REALITY OF DEATH. Mummification and pyramids, Grecco-Roman understandings of Heaven and Hell, were all developed around the SOUL'S CONTINUATION UNCHANGED after Death.
We need to realize that Judaism in that time and today, and Islam, are as diverse as Christian denominations. The Saducees were the Educated Ruling Class. While the Rabbis and Pharisees accepted as a whole the Old Testament as Scripture, the Saducees accepted the Pentateuach, but not all the Prophets and Writings and Oral Tradition of Rabbis. The Saducees knew that there was life and death, and because one could not prove life after death or the immortality of the soul, they believed faith was PHILOSOPHICAL, that after death there was nothing, and they bated Jesus and others about Resurrection and Immortality.
One of the Laws of Moses, recorded in the book of Leviticus deals with the care of widows and perpetuation of inheritance to future generations after death. SO, if a man is married, and they have no child, and he dies, his next of kin was responsible to marry her and provide children through her to continue the lineage for the man who had died.
Jesus response is that the question is not about the IMMORTALITY OF THE PERSON or SOUL, but INSTEAD about the Eternal Covenant Commitment of God, and the power of God that EVEN THOUGH WE DIE, God could resurrect the dead. Marriage and Inheritance are necessary for this mortal life, because as human creatures we do have children and assets, and we do die. BUT RESURRECTION is not about the dead coming back to life, or continuing on the same or as something reincarnated different.
First, and foremost, GOD'S DESIRE according to Genesis has always been that we would LIVE IN TRUST, IN FULL COMMUNION WITH GOD & ONE ANOTHER.
Resurrection then is Answer to the COVENANT of ADAM, that for their sin, for the betrayal of the trust of Adam and Eve, there is DEATH. If God suddenly made humanity immortal, that first COVENANT would be invalidated, and if that one, then all the rest.
INSTEAD for having Maintained COVENANT COMMITMENT through Death JESUS WAS RESURRECTED BY GOD making possible the choice of FREE WILL anew. Do we sin and break trusts, like Adam, believing nothing but ourselves, and Die?
OR, knowing that we do sin and trying to follow the example of Jesus, do we HOPE for resurrection?
But Second, the Gods of Egypt, of Babylon, of the Greeks and Romans, had all been NATIONALISTIC GODS. If this had been our hope, then it would be in the IMMORTALITY OF THE NATION, the Empire. HOWEVER,The Saducees themselves, describe God, as being the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, so clearly God CARES about COVENANT Relationship with individual persons. If individuals, we, each of us matter to God, as described elsewhere “YOU ARE PRECIOUS UNTO GOD”, then our hope is in GOD, not in ourselves.
Zaccheus Nov 4, 2008
Habakkuk 1:1-4
Luke 19:1-10
The difficulty with reading the Bible is that this is NOT a Novel that you can read from beginning to end, like other books. While someone in the Middle Ages ascribed Chapters and Verses, and in an earlier time they determined the order of books, little of this makes sense in our time. And TOO OFTEN we read a verse here, a parable there, without seeing the larger context. The Prophet Habakkuk laments that taking each circumstance alone, living each day, all we see is VIOLENCE and HATRED, we wonder why we are meant to see human strife and people fighting with one another, without hope. Where is salvation? If God is God why is life not good? God tells Habakkuk to climb up a watchtower and wait, seeing not only what is close, but witnessing what is larger, then writing it down to carry to others to share with the whole world. And finally the vision comes: the soul of the unrighteous will fail, the rightous live by faith.
Like life itself, we are to read each day's experience living in faith, and occasionally to stop to reflect, to witness a larger perspective, a more grand realization, to see bigger, than we ever anticipated.
Suddenly to open your eyes to the fact that we have been married for 3 or 25 or 35 or 50 years; that this child of ours, we thought was a pretty nice kid has changed the world, changed us!
To open our eyes to the realization that while trying to keep up, while living each day, we have truly been blessed.
The individual circumstances of life have not gone as we wanted them too, but God used them and God used us, and our lives have had meaning, we are free of Cancer, we are still together, our son or daughter came home from war from harsh experiences or from seeing the whole world and still wants to come home to us.
The last several weeks we have been reading through the Gospel of Luke. After the Christmas stories, THE GOSPEL OF LUKE began When John the Baptist was Arrested Jesus Came Preaching that all the world should REPENT and BELIEVE.
More recently Jesus described two men who went up to the Temple to Pray, One who prayed “Thank God I am not like other people” and the other who beat his breast and tore his shirt wanting to pray and not daring to open his mouth. And we recognize that very few would ever say those words, But what we do offer is “Hey, forgive us the stuff everybody asks to have forgiven, the things we forget, that don't really matter.” Rather than any os us ever confronting, “GOD, I have sinned. Betraying myself, betraying all those I love, betraying YOU. I cannot make it up, I cannot fix what I broke, as much as I try, and still I ask, I beg, forgive me.”
Luke described, Jesus was often challenged and ridiculed for befriending and for forgiving, and eating with Tax Collectors and Prostitutes and those kind of people.
Then, that a rich young ruler came to Jesus wanting eternal life, and Jesus said three things:
A. Give what you have to the poor and follow me.
B. It's easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven.
C. With humanity everything is always impossible, but with God all things are possible.
We hear these as three separate stories, of the two men who prayed, of Jesus and the Sinners, of the Camel through the Eye of a Needle. But then Luke, draws a line beneath and underscores all this as if larger in the context of a Faith Story, by telling of Zachaeus.
To hear this story, we need to appreciate that culture, not a culture that watches Reality Television where people routinely do absurd things, but a time and place in the world where DIGNITY MATTERED. Where a Man who was any kind of a Man would do anything rather than appear ruffled. A Public Official, a Gentleman, never ever RAN, never admitted WEAKNESS or HUMILITY, where his whole identity, HIS CONSTRUCT OF REALITY was bound up in his Control.
Zachaeus was not only an Oppressive Official of the Roman Empire, he was a TAX COLLECTOR, worse, He was the Chief Tax Collector. If Money and Power corrupt, this was the Most Corrupt of all, the kind of man no one looked up to, and everyone hated for what he represented. There was NO MAN here, only a tiny little insignificant corrupt evil power that everyone wants to avoid.
Zachaeus had heard about Jesus.
He had heard Jesus pardoned sins.
Zachaeus had taxed people for what they had, for what they did and owned and wanted, Zachaeus was known to enter people's homes handling their personal belongings to decide what to tax them, and often was believed to tax people extra so as to increase his profits.
Yet, JESUS FORGAVE people not only what they had, but their sins and debts.
Where Zachaeus was all alone in the world, without a single friend. Jesus even was a friend to Tax Collectors. Imagine Zachaeus overhearing whispers that Jesus was passing through the Village. There is talk of when he enters Jerusalem people will even climb Palm trees to cut the branches to make a carpet for him to walk on and children, little cildren will sing Hosanna.
Zachaeus would have tried to leave his desk to go out to the street to see around people, but was too small to see over them. No one would acknowledge knowing him, giving him room, they would shunned him and blocked him out. While the text does not menion it, I have to believe that that day, it was dark, cloudy and pouring rain, the people were covering themselves with whatever they could find, making even a greater barrier to see through, and the street was full of puddles and mud.And Zachaeus, the Official Chief Tax Collector of the Roman Empire would have run on up ahead, slipping, falling, sliding in mud, his robes flapping around him, and he climbed up in a huge Sycamore tree (You recall that the PROPHET AMOS had described being a herdsman and dresser of Sycamore trees, that Old Testament Prophet caring for the poor and abused of society). It is one of those poignant moments when you know just how ridiculous you appear and hope no one else sees you.
I recall years ago, when the Cliniton's first visited Skaneateles, people were wanting to get a photo, to greet them. The opening Day of State Fair when they had come to CNY, a long line of black limosines came down Jordan Road, flashing lights on the first car and flags flying on each of the others. People came running out of their shops to line the streets and wave, taking photos, only then to realize it was the Funeral Home and a very different kind of processional.
As Jesus and the crowds came up the street to where Zachaeus hung in the branches, I imagine the rain stopped and a ray of sunlight pierced the clouds shining right upon the dripping wet, tree climbing Chief Tax Collector Zachaeus, showing everyone how foolish he could be. But where everyone else may have been laughing and pointing him out, Jesus stopped. Where everyone else had always ignored him, Jesus looked up at Zachaeus and called him by name. Where in the past, Zachaeus had invaded others' homes at night to take, Jesus announced to Zachaeus and to everyone else, Jesus was going to Zachaeus' House for that day's meal. And Zachaeus came down, and invited Jesus in. At that moment Zachaeus repented. He knew he could never atone for all the wrongs he had done, done to society, to every single person, to himself and to his dignity, how he had even wounded God. So in that moment, he decided to give half of everything he had to the poor, and beyond that, if he has cheated anyone anything, and he knows he has, he will repay them 400%.
On that day, as Jesus called Zachaeus by name, as they shared a meal together, and Zachaeus repented, a rich ruler gave what he had to the poor, and with the guidance of Jesus, with God, even that which seemed impossible, a rich man no one liked was received into the Kingdom of God.
Luke 19:1-10
The difficulty with reading the Bible is that this is NOT a Novel that you can read from beginning to end, like other books. While someone in the Middle Ages ascribed Chapters and Verses, and in an earlier time they determined the order of books, little of this makes sense in our time. And TOO OFTEN we read a verse here, a parable there, without seeing the larger context. The Prophet Habakkuk laments that taking each circumstance alone, living each day, all we see is VIOLENCE and HATRED, we wonder why we are meant to see human strife and people fighting with one another, without hope. Where is salvation? If God is God why is life not good? God tells Habakkuk to climb up a watchtower and wait, seeing not only what is close, but witnessing what is larger, then writing it down to carry to others to share with the whole world. And finally the vision comes: the soul of the unrighteous will fail, the rightous live by faith.
Like life itself, we are to read each day's experience living in faith, and occasionally to stop to reflect, to witness a larger perspective, a more grand realization, to see bigger, than we ever anticipated.
Suddenly to open your eyes to the fact that we have been married for 3 or 25 or 35 or 50 years; that this child of ours, we thought was a pretty nice kid has changed the world, changed us!
To open our eyes to the realization that while trying to keep up, while living each day, we have truly been blessed.
The individual circumstances of life have not gone as we wanted them too, but God used them and God used us, and our lives have had meaning, we are free of Cancer, we are still together, our son or daughter came home from war from harsh experiences or from seeing the whole world and still wants to come home to us.
The last several weeks we have been reading through the Gospel of Luke. After the Christmas stories, THE GOSPEL OF LUKE began When John the Baptist was Arrested Jesus Came Preaching that all the world should REPENT and BELIEVE.
More recently Jesus described two men who went up to the Temple to Pray, One who prayed “Thank God I am not like other people” and the other who beat his breast and tore his shirt wanting to pray and not daring to open his mouth. And we recognize that very few would ever say those words, But what we do offer is “Hey, forgive us the stuff everybody asks to have forgiven, the things we forget, that don't really matter.” Rather than any os us ever confronting, “GOD, I have sinned. Betraying myself, betraying all those I love, betraying YOU. I cannot make it up, I cannot fix what I broke, as much as I try, and still I ask, I beg, forgive me.”
Luke described, Jesus was often challenged and ridiculed for befriending and for forgiving, and eating with Tax Collectors and Prostitutes and those kind of people.
Then, that a rich young ruler came to Jesus wanting eternal life, and Jesus said three things:
A. Give what you have to the poor and follow me.
B. It's easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven.
C. With humanity everything is always impossible, but with God all things are possible.
We hear these as three separate stories, of the two men who prayed, of Jesus and the Sinners, of the Camel through the Eye of a Needle. But then Luke, draws a line beneath and underscores all this as if larger in the context of a Faith Story, by telling of Zachaeus.
To hear this story, we need to appreciate that culture, not a culture that watches Reality Television where people routinely do absurd things, but a time and place in the world where DIGNITY MATTERED. Where a Man who was any kind of a Man would do anything rather than appear ruffled. A Public Official, a Gentleman, never ever RAN, never admitted WEAKNESS or HUMILITY, where his whole identity, HIS CONSTRUCT OF REALITY was bound up in his Control.
Zachaeus was not only an Oppressive Official of the Roman Empire, he was a TAX COLLECTOR, worse, He was the Chief Tax Collector. If Money and Power corrupt, this was the Most Corrupt of all, the kind of man no one looked up to, and everyone hated for what he represented. There was NO MAN here, only a tiny little insignificant corrupt evil power that everyone wants to avoid.
Zachaeus had heard about Jesus.
He had heard Jesus pardoned sins.
Zachaeus had taxed people for what they had, for what they did and owned and wanted, Zachaeus was known to enter people's homes handling their personal belongings to decide what to tax them, and often was believed to tax people extra so as to increase his profits.
Yet, JESUS FORGAVE people not only what they had, but their sins and debts.
Where Zachaeus was all alone in the world, without a single friend. Jesus even was a friend to Tax Collectors. Imagine Zachaeus overhearing whispers that Jesus was passing through the Village. There is talk of when he enters Jerusalem people will even climb Palm trees to cut the branches to make a carpet for him to walk on and children, little cildren will sing Hosanna.
Zachaeus would have tried to leave his desk to go out to the street to see around people, but was too small to see over them. No one would acknowledge knowing him, giving him room, they would shunned him and blocked him out. While the text does not menion it, I have to believe that that day, it was dark, cloudy and pouring rain, the people were covering themselves with whatever they could find, making even a greater barrier to see through, and the street was full of puddles and mud.And Zachaeus, the Official Chief Tax Collector of the Roman Empire would have run on up ahead, slipping, falling, sliding in mud, his robes flapping around him, and he climbed up in a huge Sycamore tree (You recall that the PROPHET AMOS had described being a herdsman and dresser of Sycamore trees, that Old Testament Prophet caring for the poor and abused of society). It is one of those poignant moments when you know just how ridiculous you appear and hope no one else sees you.
I recall years ago, when the Cliniton's first visited Skaneateles, people were wanting to get a photo, to greet them. The opening Day of State Fair when they had come to CNY, a long line of black limosines came down Jordan Road, flashing lights on the first car and flags flying on each of the others. People came running out of their shops to line the streets and wave, taking photos, only then to realize it was the Funeral Home and a very different kind of processional.
As Jesus and the crowds came up the street to where Zachaeus hung in the branches, I imagine the rain stopped and a ray of sunlight pierced the clouds shining right upon the dripping wet, tree climbing Chief Tax Collector Zachaeus, showing everyone how foolish he could be. But where everyone else may have been laughing and pointing him out, Jesus stopped. Where everyone else had always ignored him, Jesus looked up at Zachaeus and called him by name. Where in the past, Zachaeus had invaded others' homes at night to take, Jesus announced to Zachaeus and to everyone else, Jesus was going to Zachaeus' House for that day's meal. And Zachaeus came down, and invited Jesus in. At that moment Zachaeus repented. He knew he could never atone for all the wrongs he had done, done to society, to every single person, to himself and to his dignity, how he had even wounded God. So in that moment, he decided to give half of everything he had to the poor, and beyond that, if he has cheated anyone anything, and he knows he has, he will repay them 400%.
On that day, as Jesus called Zachaeus by name, as they shared a meal together, and Zachaeus repented, a rich ruler gave what he had to the poor, and with the guidance of Jesus, with God, even that which seemed impossible, a rich man no one liked was received into the Kingdom of God.
Like A Child Oct.28, 2008
Luke 18: 9-14
I Corinthians 13
How do we reconcile Paul's “When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, I acted like a child, when I became a Man, I gave up childish ways” with Jesus'
“Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God”, and “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it”?
Was Paul correcting Jesus? Was Jesus correcting Paul? Neither of these make any sense.
The word we have translated as “little children” does not mean, 8 year old, or 5 and ¾ by September, not 3, or Toddler, but rather “INFANT, NEW BORN” One who cannot reason, who doesn't understand, who has no list of accomplishments. One for whom all life is a gift new and unknown an “inheritance” given simply for being in life.
We have this perverse sense about inheritances, that these are about distributing accumulated wealth, and if we endured without complaint, we are entitled to family reward. Like Halloween, we expect Candy, we expect Costumes, we even expect a little perfumed shaving cream when talking about life and death and eternal life. But all of that is foolish nonsense.
As highly advanced and intellectual as we are, HUMANITY is no different, no better or worse than the LAND, the BEASTS of the field, the TREES and VINES described by the Prophet Joel. As far as God is concerned, we are God's Creatures. The whole of the Scriptures is a faith response to Eve and Adam.
Science has reasoned that we are evolved from the Great Ages. That tells us WHEN and HOW, even WHERE, WHO and WHAT, but cannot answer WHY? Like an Autopsy, we can determine the cause of death, but those answers do not address WHY?
Why the friend we have known since 2nd Grade,
the Grandmother who always understood and made us Chocolate Chip Cookies,
our Father, our Mother, our Child betrayed life, why they were taken from us, why they died?
Christian Faith describes: We were created for a purpose, to be in covenant relationship with God caring for Creation. But our prototype malfunctioned as have we all. Created in the Image of the Creator, Humanity has continually attempted to make ourselves GOD and to recreate our world. The Scriptures are evidence of God's continual effort to reCreate that original relationship of absolute trust.
The Old Testament Prophet describes, God was going to punish, to provide locusts and grasshoppers that will devour everything, until humanity is hungry, until we get down low enough that we have no choice but to be dependent upon God. The problem with the LAW is that as Human Beings we have evolved an intense desire for competition, so intense we are willing to cheat. For many of us, the issue is not about right and wrong, but only getting caught, being found out, paying the penalty so we can continue. Having cheated ourselves, cheated life, cheated God, God did what only God could do. Having created reality, God could not take it away, with a Freedom of Will God could not make us follow, but neither could God tollerate the suffering of the world. God did what only God could do, the Creator stepped into Creation, humbled Divinity, and sacrificed even life itself for us. Still, we amass more and more stuff, more accomplishments and degrees and responsibilities, but are never satisfied. Just when we imagine we have it all, that we have won at life, there is death.
In these three distinct conversations Jesus comes back to the same point. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and who ever humbles themselves will be exalted. Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter.
We are almost too familiar with these parables. We hear a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, and we know the Pharisee will be the bad guy and the Tax Collector, forgiven. Instead, hear the parable as CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, holding more patents than they could carry, a self-made individual, a leader in the community. Fill in the blank ENRON's Kenneth Lay, MARTHA STEWART, PARIS HILTON... The error was not wealth or accomplishments, but pride, self-reliance so large they had no need for God. Even now, after each has been caught and tried and paid, still each has not yet confronted the question of everlasting life.
We have heard this ananlogy of a Camel and the eye of the Needle, and so many reasoned explanations. There was a Gate in the walled City of Jerusalem, so small it was called The Needle's Eye, and travellers had to unpack and pass bundles through, then have camels crawl on their knees to enter. Perhaps symbolizing that we, like the Ruler, have to unburden ourselves of all our responsibilities and burdens before entering the Kingdom of God.
One of my favorites is that rather than trying to force life through the eye of the needle, if we take a step back and gain perspective, looking through the eye, we can reach a point where we could see the rope or the camel fitting trough the eye of the needle.
Or times, that this story is linked to what comes later, at the end of Chapter 18:35-43, the young ruler became sad for he was very rich. And later, as they drew near Jericho, a bind man was sitting by the roadside as Jesus came near. The man cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus did. Could the rich young ruler have actually given away all he had, and still recognized because of birth, education, relationships and responsibilities, he was still blind to the innocence of being a newborn, a creature of God? And this was the man who asked for Jesus healing, and received it.
Ultimately, all we can know, beyond all the reasoning and explanations, is that with us on our own, there are still things that are impossible. But with God nothing is impossible.
This week circumstances happened that we wound up with a Funeral and a Wedding both the same afternoon, and while able to be accomplished, I found myself RUSHING between the two, and with Marriage and Death that is the one thing we cannot do.
We tend to imagine, Grandpa was in his 90s, he had this disease and this ailment, he had been in the hospital, he died, so we had the funeral and graveside, now we get over it...and get on with life. But no. According to Old Testament tradition, only if we actively name the person as precious to us for at least two years, can we be ready to move on. If we do not, we bottle up our unresolved feelings and fears of death, until they manfest in another way.
We imagine getting dressed to the nines, tuxedoes and gowns, flowers and rings, and music making a wedding. There were NINE Bridesmaids and nine Groomsmen, Roses and Autumn Leaves, the Maid of HONOR regularly wore four rings and was given by her sister the Engagement Ring, as well as the Wedding Ring. At the appointed moment, she became confused as to which was the wedding ring, so took off all six and handed them to the minister. It's not about having rings on your fingers and bells on your toes, not even about the License, or the Saying the Vows RIGHT, marriage is developed over a lifetime with sacrifices and shared experiences and sometimes forgiveness.
The wonder of this feast, at this Harvest Season, is that COMMUNION is not only between each of us and God, and Each of us with each other, but also withh all those who have gone before, the Communion of Saints in Everlasting Life.
I Corinthians 13
How do we reconcile Paul's “When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, I acted like a child, when I became a Man, I gave up childish ways” with Jesus'
“Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God”, and “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it”?
Was Paul correcting Jesus? Was Jesus correcting Paul? Neither of these make any sense.
The word we have translated as “little children” does not mean, 8 year old, or 5 and ¾ by September, not 3, or Toddler, but rather “INFANT, NEW BORN” One who cannot reason, who doesn't understand, who has no list of accomplishments. One for whom all life is a gift new and unknown an “inheritance” given simply for being in life.
We have this perverse sense about inheritances, that these are about distributing accumulated wealth, and if we endured without complaint, we are entitled to family reward. Like Halloween, we expect Candy, we expect Costumes, we even expect a little perfumed shaving cream when talking about life and death and eternal life. But all of that is foolish nonsense.
As highly advanced and intellectual as we are, HUMANITY is no different, no better or worse than the LAND, the BEASTS of the field, the TREES and VINES described by the Prophet Joel. As far as God is concerned, we are God's Creatures. The whole of the Scriptures is a faith response to Eve and Adam.
Science has reasoned that we are evolved from the Great Ages. That tells us WHEN and HOW, even WHERE, WHO and WHAT, but cannot answer WHY? Like an Autopsy, we can determine the cause of death, but those answers do not address WHY?
Why the friend we have known since 2nd Grade,
the Grandmother who always understood and made us Chocolate Chip Cookies,
our Father, our Mother, our Child betrayed life, why they were taken from us, why they died?
Christian Faith describes: We were created for a purpose, to be in covenant relationship with God caring for Creation. But our prototype malfunctioned as have we all. Created in the Image of the Creator, Humanity has continually attempted to make ourselves GOD and to recreate our world. The Scriptures are evidence of God's continual effort to reCreate that original relationship of absolute trust.
The Old Testament Prophet describes, God was going to punish, to provide locusts and grasshoppers that will devour everything, until humanity is hungry, until we get down low enough that we have no choice but to be dependent upon God. The problem with the LAW is that as Human Beings we have evolved an intense desire for competition, so intense we are willing to cheat. For many of us, the issue is not about right and wrong, but only getting caught, being found out, paying the penalty so we can continue. Having cheated ourselves, cheated life, cheated God, God did what only God could do. Having created reality, God could not take it away, with a Freedom of Will God could not make us follow, but neither could God tollerate the suffering of the world. God did what only God could do, the Creator stepped into Creation, humbled Divinity, and sacrificed even life itself for us. Still, we amass more and more stuff, more accomplishments and degrees and responsibilities, but are never satisfied. Just when we imagine we have it all, that we have won at life, there is death.
In these three distinct conversations Jesus comes back to the same point. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and who ever humbles themselves will be exalted. Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter.
We are almost too familiar with these parables. We hear a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, and we know the Pharisee will be the bad guy and the Tax Collector, forgiven. Instead, hear the parable as CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, holding more patents than they could carry, a self-made individual, a leader in the community. Fill in the blank ENRON's Kenneth Lay, MARTHA STEWART, PARIS HILTON... The error was not wealth or accomplishments, but pride, self-reliance so large they had no need for God. Even now, after each has been caught and tried and paid, still each has not yet confronted the question of everlasting life.
We have heard this ananlogy of a Camel and the eye of the Needle, and so many reasoned explanations. There was a Gate in the walled City of Jerusalem, so small it was called The Needle's Eye, and travellers had to unpack and pass bundles through, then have camels crawl on their knees to enter. Perhaps symbolizing that we, like the Ruler, have to unburden ourselves of all our responsibilities and burdens before entering the Kingdom of God.
One of my favorites is that rather than trying to force life through the eye of the needle, if we take a step back and gain perspective, looking through the eye, we can reach a point where we could see the rope or the camel fitting trough the eye of the needle.
Or times, that this story is linked to what comes later, at the end of Chapter 18:35-43, the young ruler became sad for he was very rich. And later, as they drew near Jericho, a bind man was sitting by the roadside as Jesus came near. The man cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus did. Could the rich young ruler have actually given away all he had, and still recognized because of birth, education, relationships and responsibilities, he was still blind to the innocence of being a newborn, a creature of God? And this was the man who asked for Jesus healing, and received it.
Ultimately, all we can know, beyond all the reasoning and explanations, is that with us on our own, there are still things that are impossible. But with God nothing is impossible.
This week circumstances happened that we wound up with a Funeral and a Wedding both the same afternoon, and while able to be accomplished, I found myself RUSHING between the two, and with Marriage and Death that is the one thing we cannot do.
We tend to imagine, Grandpa was in his 90s, he had this disease and this ailment, he had been in the hospital, he died, so we had the funeral and graveside, now we get over it...and get on with life. But no. According to Old Testament tradition, only if we actively name the person as precious to us for at least two years, can we be ready to move on. If we do not, we bottle up our unresolved feelings and fears of death, until they manfest in another way.
We imagine getting dressed to the nines, tuxedoes and gowns, flowers and rings, and music making a wedding. There were NINE Bridesmaids and nine Groomsmen, Roses and Autumn Leaves, the Maid of HONOR regularly wore four rings and was given by her sister the Engagement Ring, as well as the Wedding Ring. At the appointed moment, she became confused as to which was the wedding ring, so took off all six and handed them to the minister. It's not about having rings on your fingers and bells on your toes, not even about the License, or the Saying the Vows RIGHT, marriage is developed over a lifetime with sacrifices and shared experiences and sometimes forgiveness.
The wonder of this feast, at this Harvest Season, is that COMMUNION is not only between each of us and God, and Each of us with each other, but also withh all those who have gone before, the Communion of Saints in Everlasting Life.
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