Jonah 3:1-5 & 10
Mark 1:14-20
In the weeks since Christmas the commercials have announced the closing of Circuit City, that everything in this chain of Electronic Superstores must go at unheard of prices. So a week ago, I went to the store. Against the side wall were the flat screen televisions, each professing to be better than the one beside. At the center was a 54” High Definition with 380 pixels. There were sales signs reporting “Unheard of Prices, Drastically reduced 60% Markdown”. In front of this technological wonder stood a group of men, and two twelve year old boys, all looking transfixed. I quickly took out my cell phone to ask if my wife if we had enough, and was told no, when one of the 12 year olds spoke to the other saying: “You know, it looks more real than reality.”
Just then two of our members appeared behind me as one said “Come to pray upon the economic misfortune of others Pastor?” Which cut me to the quick, the humor of which was that they were in the same store, looking at the same thing, and saying we can't afford the sale either.
That's the story of Ninevah.
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were the Gardens of the Assyrians, no where more splendid than the city of Ninevah. In the midst of a wasteland, there was this oasis, suddenly seven story high walls, carved and painted with idols and fertility gods, with columns and arches, balconies lush with hanging gardens and exotic animals. By saying it took Jonah three days journey to walk through, Ninevah was not a little Village, it was some sixty miles in diameter! Ninevah embodied everything foreign, everything opposing the Hebrews of Ancient Israel, living a Kosher circumcised life with a monotheistic God of Law, Covenant and Commandment. What could one person of faith, from a far off Jewish Village, say to a people so satisfied and full of everything they desired?
The other day, I was speaking with a young man who had been through a horrific series of cancers. He asked, so what do you say to a 40 year old who has been diagnosed with six months to live? There are no pat phrases, no colloquialisms that can make everything seem right. You take the person seriously, because what they are dealing with is deadly serious. You listen, because most of us do not need to be told, we need to speak, to process ideas, to test possibilities, to confess what we believe and what we doubt. You offer hope not that the diagnosis is wrong, nut that using the diagnosis, what do you want to change. In the ancient story of PANDORA's BOX, temptation causes her to open what had been kept locked. As she does everything in the world pours out, the last thing in Pandora's box, after all the other emotions and possibilities are taken out, is HOPE, and underneath the hope is the possibility of change. Finally, you make a commitment, which are very rare in the world today because if you are going to say the words you have to be able to live them out, that no matter the future, they will never be left alone.
The story of Jonah is one of the only books of Prophecy that is told as a Narrative, yet was not an Historic record of fact. Jonah is itself a Parable, the Parable of an Arrogant Man, representing a Chosen people, sent to an Arrogant enemy, a Rejected people. In his self-righteous arrogance, Jonah tries to go his own way, to reject God's Call, the result of which is that he is tossed out even by a group of sailors, swallowed up by the watery chaos of the sea, swallowed up by a monster of the deep. In his isolation and depression, Jonah repents of doing things his own way. Jonah does not repent of his arrogance, he is not humble, not contrite, he still thinks he was right, though he recognizes he was caught, caught disobeying God. Suddenly, the fish can take no more of Jonah and vomits him out at the very place he had tried to avoid. Having been Caught, the Prophet resolves to do what God had commanded, but to do it on his own terms. Where in the story God had told Jonah to prophesy that if Ninevah did not repent they would be destroyed, Jonah attempted to remove the opportunity for repentance. “In 40 days, you will be destroyed.” The humor of every preacher, is that regardless of what is said, the people respond to the word of God. There are times when I would be willing to stand on my head, to bark like a dog to get people to respond in faith, yet often people will come back three, four, ten years later saying “You remember the sermon you preached” and they have reworked and head the word of God in ways the preacher never yet imagined.
Faith is not about people getting what they deserve. This world is not fair. Enemies can turn and repent. If life were fair, all any of us would have to do is follow the rules. But in this life, there are cancers, there is job loss, the 401k we thought we had saved by investing we actually put at risk, divorces happen, airplanes hit buildings, people we do not know can perceive us to be enemies. There are times when it seems hard to believe in happily ever after. Yet, we take one another seriously, we listen to one another, we never give up hope of change, and we never give up on one another.
Faith is perceiving life differently. More Real than Reality. Not seeing things as they are, not as perfect because nothing that has been or is has ever yet been perfect, but different. As we review the work of the Church today and commit leaders for the near tomorrow, we recognize there are many ideas we have tried out, exploring, only to determine that the time is not yet ready, part of leadership is assessing the time and the means, and the possibility of considering reality differently, not only what is right, but what is faithful.
According to the Gospels, Jesus was walking along the shore when he saw a group of successful fishermen. Fishermen take what is natural, what God has given, and fishermen use all their skills, their experience and their relationships to gather what God has created for different purpose, as food for hungry people. Jesus called the fishermen, to use their gifts differently, instead of being fishermen to become fishers of men and women gathering people for new purposes.
What we routinely ignore is that the Disciples had another life before this. They had to choose to let go what they had known, to leave their hooks and nets and gigs and snares, to trust where God would lead, to trust that they were called. We like to add to our resumes, to add to our experiences, without acknowledging that at times we are called to repent, to let go the way we always have done, in order to consider faith differently.
Throughout Christian History, we have recalled that Jesus was asked for A SIGN, some proof that what he was doing was right. According to the Gospels, Jesus said, the sign I give you is the Sign of Jonah. Which superficially has always been taken as for three days Jonah was in the belly of the whale taken to the depths of Sheol in order to be brought back to do what God intended. The problem with that allegory is that Jonah was not truly changed, not humbled in doing God's work as Jesus was. The point of the Sign of Jonah is not that Jesus was Jonah, but that we are. There are times when we can be a pretty arrogant people; a people who believe we have the sole ownership of the Truth of what is Right. What Jonah was asked to question is whether he could allow himself to be used by God, whether the whole nation of Israel and the Great City of Ninevah, and WE could allow ourselves to be used by God? What if life, and faith, are not about all we can have? What if it is not about possessing the 54” HD 360pixel flat screen at the expense of others' losses, but instead seeing life as more real than reality, by perceiving ourselves as being part of the lives of others. NOT that you are God's Gift to your Family, or that you were sent by God to fix your brother. But to stop and recognize that what you do for others,... visiting the person who is shut in,... shoveling the walk of someone else,... offering an idea for someone else's advancement,... giving away what you have that others need,... this is what matters, what helps us perceive life differently.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
January 18, 2009 "Being Called to?"
I Samuel 3: 1-20
John 1:43-51
Last evening, watching as the train passed through Delaware and Baltimore, symbolically bringing the President-elect to Union Station in Washington, DC, a woman was interviewed, who said a strange thing. With tears in her voice, running down her cheeks, she said, “I am so proud to be an American.” It has been a long time since that was said publicly. With acts of terrorism against our Nation, economic crises, scandals, wars and political embarrassments, being proud to be an American seem like words we have not heard in 50 years, except in commercials to buy a car. For very different reasons, the last time so many people came to Washington, was to march from Mobile, with Dr. Martin Luther King, when he preached from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, of a dream. But that dream was not simply of electing a person of color as President, but of Justice, of cashing a check for Equal Rights for All, a future day when all God's children, black, brown, yellow, red and white, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant would play together and sing together “Free at Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last.”
The problem with the passages we read this morning, is our familiarity with the ways we have always heard them, and continually interpreted. We have heard this passage from Samuel, and in a stage whisper we want to say, “Go back to bed Samuel, If you do you will find out it's God Calling You”, believing we know all about being Called. Next Sunday is our Annual Meeting and we will elect Deacons and Elders, and approve Terms of Call, we have read this passage year after year and know all about “The Call”. But to grasp this passage, we need to remember the opening verses, that not only was The Call was exceedingly rare in those days, ANY Word from God, any Vision of Hope was not frequent. And Samuel, this little orphaned child, who cleaned up around the Temple, neither Eli nor his sons ever expected much of him. And what child among us would stand up to installed entrenched leaders to declare the Call he received, the end of the era of Eli and his sons, letting go of the past, in order to embrace a new and different future? It is hard enough for adults to be whistle blowers, to confess and own family secrets, imagine a child challenging power. Imagine this little child, not lying awake in his bed waiting for the Call of God, but hearing that Call and all the rest of the night being afraid of what it means to carry it out.
When I was first ordained, I was asked a question, I have struggled with for 25 years.
In the Presbyterian Church, after you have earned a Bachelors and Masters degrees, after you have sat for the Ordination exams (the Church's version of the Bar Exam or Medical Boards), you write a statement of what you believe, and then you are presented to the Presbytery, for all the Elders and Ministers to quiz. In my case, this went on for two hours, at which point a man stood up and said “Sir, what is your Call to?” I directed him back to the Written Statement of Faith, and he said “No I do not want to know who God is, who Jesus Christ is, what you want to do in ministry. What are you called to?”
The point is not Being Called. How many of us this morning have been elected, ordained and installed at some point as Elders, Deacons or Ministers? Please stand up.
But you were called to what? Not to Usher. Not to serve Communion.
Not to teach or to sing in the choir, as much as we need each of these.
Not to be a Board of Directors making administrative decisions for the institution of the Church.
For some it was to a time of challenging the way things have been.
For some it has been to transform the church from a decaying structure hidden behind trees to a community resource.
For some it has been to lead the church to pray, as warriors in a fight against Cancer.
For some it has been to serve as Missionaries, going where no one like you had ever gone before, building hospitals and ministering the the sick in the name of Jesus Christ.
For some the call has been to inspire, to ask questions and wonder.
For some, the Call has been to innocently challenge, what else.
For Samuel the Call was “to transform the People of Israel from the Nomadic period of Judges, to a Monarchy,” personally ordaining Saul and later David as Kings.
For our Nation today, it is not simply to take the Oath of Office, to fulfill the responsibilities of being Commander in Chief, but to restore pride and trust, and hope in this nation. To end wars in Iraq and the Holy Lands, to resolve fears with Al Quedda and N. Korea, before they become World Wars. To find a solution to our dependence on oil, and the crises of unemployment and credit, and the stock market, Poverty and Social Security and Health Care. All while representing the hopes and fears of a nation about the color of a person's skin and the cultural values of their family.
We have been so effected by the Disciples' Call stories in Matthew, Mark and Luke, we anticipate Jesus saying “You have been fishermen, follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men.” But John's Gospel is different, the evangelist's point is different. Matthew's emphasis is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and Prophets. Mark's witness is that the Suffering on the Cross, dying for all the world, Atoned for all Human Sin, and this changes everything. Luke's concern is that Christ came, and both before and after death he commissioned Disciples, Apostles to be the Church to carry on the ministry to all the world. John's intent is to make known that Jesus is the Christ, but that to every person that means something different. In this very first Chapter, Jesus is named as being: The Incarnate Word of God, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Messiah, the Christ, the Rabbi, One who as much as you love me ranks before me, One whom I did not know but was the reason for my faith and life, the King of Israel, the Son of Man, Heaven Opened and angels of God ascending and descending on Jacob's Ladder.
We anticipate nearly all of these, except the last one, Jacob's Ladder. The fresh revelation of John is that throughout the Old Testament, and these early days, there were Priests who served as intermediaries, who carried the sacrifices of people to the altar and atoned for them, then carried the forgiveness of God and blessings of God back to the people waiting outside. Rabbis and Scribes who were schooled to be able to read the Scriptures and interpret them. By Jesus being one with us, we no longer need a separate intermediary, we each have direct access to God. He is the ladder for us with God.
The question is the one already being asked in many circles. Our new President is one man, he cannot change the world by himself. The White House often does pretty well with a singular issue. But eight are overwhelming, unless we all make changes, in the way we relate to others, in the ways we live. This is not a time for New Year's Resolutions, but for commitment. Where is your passion? What are you called to?
John 1:43-51
Last evening, watching as the train passed through Delaware and Baltimore, symbolically bringing the President-elect to Union Station in Washington, DC, a woman was interviewed, who said a strange thing. With tears in her voice, running down her cheeks, she said, “I am so proud to be an American.” It has been a long time since that was said publicly. With acts of terrorism against our Nation, economic crises, scandals, wars and political embarrassments, being proud to be an American seem like words we have not heard in 50 years, except in commercials to buy a car. For very different reasons, the last time so many people came to Washington, was to march from Mobile, with Dr. Martin Luther King, when he preached from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, of a dream. But that dream was not simply of electing a person of color as President, but of Justice, of cashing a check for Equal Rights for All, a future day when all God's children, black, brown, yellow, red and white, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant would play together and sing together “Free at Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last.”
The problem with the passages we read this morning, is our familiarity with the ways we have always heard them, and continually interpreted. We have heard this passage from Samuel, and in a stage whisper we want to say, “Go back to bed Samuel, If you do you will find out it's God Calling You”, believing we know all about being Called. Next Sunday is our Annual Meeting and we will elect Deacons and Elders, and approve Terms of Call, we have read this passage year after year and know all about “The Call”. But to grasp this passage, we need to remember the opening verses, that not only was The Call was exceedingly rare in those days, ANY Word from God, any Vision of Hope was not frequent. And Samuel, this little orphaned child, who cleaned up around the Temple, neither Eli nor his sons ever expected much of him. And what child among us would stand up to installed entrenched leaders to declare the Call he received, the end of the era of Eli and his sons, letting go of the past, in order to embrace a new and different future? It is hard enough for adults to be whistle blowers, to confess and own family secrets, imagine a child challenging power. Imagine this little child, not lying awake in his bed waiting for the Call of God, but hearing that Call and all the rest of the night being afraid of what it means to carry it out.
When I was first ordained, I was asked a question, I have struggled with for 25 years.
In the Presbyterian Church, after you have earned a Bachelors and Masters degrees, after you have sat for the Ordination exams (the Church's version of the Bar Exam or Medical Boards), you write a statement of what you believe, and then you are presented to the Presbytery, for all the Elders and Ministers to quiz. In my case, this went on for two hours, at which point a man stood up and said “Sir, what is your Call to?” I directed him back to the Written Statement of Faith, and he said “No I do not want to know who God is, who Jesus Christ is, what you want to do in ministry. What are you called to?”
The point is not Being Called. How many of us this morning have been elected, ordained and installed at some point as Elders, Deacons or Ministers? Please stand up.
But you were called to what? Not to Usher. Not to serve Communion.
Not to teach or to sing in the choir, as much as we need each of these.
Not to be a Board of Directors making administrative decisions for the institution of the Church.
For some it was to a time of challenging the way things have been.
For some it has been to transform the church from a decaying structure hidden behind trees to a community resource.
For some it has been to lead the church to pray, as warriors in a fight against Cancer.
For some it has been to serve as Missionaries, going where no one like you had ever gone before, building hospitals and ministering the the sick in the name of Jesus Christ.
For some the call has been to inspire, to ask questions and wonder.
For some, the Call has been to innocently challenge, what else.
For Samuel the Call was “to transform the People of Israel from the Nomadic period of Judges, to a Monarchy,” personally ordaining Saul and later David as Kings.
For our Nation today, it is not simply to take the Oath of Office, to fulfill the responsibilities of being Commander in Chief, but to restore pride and trust, and hope in this nation. To end wars in Iraq and the Holy Lands, to resolve fears with Al Quedda and N. Korea, before they become World Wars. To find a solution to our dependence on oil, and the crises of unemployment and credit, and the stock market, Poverty and Social Security and Health Care. All while representing the hopes and fears of a nation about the color of a person's skin and the cultural values of their family.
We have been so effected by the Disciples' Call stories in Matthew, Mark and Luke, we anticipate Jesus saying “You have been fishermen, follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men.” But John's Gospel is different, the evangelist's point is different. Matthew's emphasis is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and Prophets. Mark's witness is that the Suffering on the Cross, dying for all the world, Atoned for all Human Sin, and this changes everything. Luke's concern is that Christ came, and both before and after death he commissioned Disciples, Apostles to be the Church to carry on the ministry to all the world. John's intent is to make known that Jesus is the Christ, but that to every person that means something different. In this very first Chapter, Jesus is named as being: The Incarnate Word of God, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Messiah, the Christ, the Rabbi, One who as much as you love me ranks before me, One whom I did not know but was the reason for my faith and life, the King of Israel, the Son of Man, Heaven Opened and angels of God ascending and descending on Jacob's Ladder.
We anticipate nearly all of these, except the last one, Jacob's Ladder. The fresh revelation of John is that throughout the Old Testament, and these early days, there were Priests who served as intermediaries, who carried the sacrifices of people to the altar and atoned for them, then carried the forgiveness of God and blessings of God back to the people waiting outside. Rabbis and Scribes who were schooled to be able to read the Scriptures and interpret them. By Jesus being one with us, we no longer need a separate intermediary, we each have direct access to God. He is the ladder for us with God.
The question is the one already being asked in many circles. Our new President is one man, he cannot change the world by himself. The White House often does pretty well with a singular issue. But eight are overwhelming, unless we all make changes, in the way we relate to others, in the ways we live. This is not a time for New Year's Resolutions, but for commitment. Where is your passion? What are you called to?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
January 11, 2009 Voice From Heaven
Genesis 1:1-4
Mark 1:4-11
There are times, when we wish the skies would open up, and a voice from heaven would answer.
All too often the sky is overcast and dark, blanketed by our worries, doubts and clouds of snow. When the heavens do open, it is for rain or snow, or too infrequently in CNY a ray of sunshine. But, these testimonies from Genesis and Mark are not historic weather forecasts or accounts of astronomic climactic change. In each account, the VOICE FROM HEAVEN is a statement of identity, of conviction and of blessing.
In the beginning, when the world was without shape and a lifeless void of waste and darkness, there was not an historian documenting how God created. HOW is not the purpose of Genesis. The Bible is a statement of faith. When a person dies, a coroner performs an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but that determination, that causation does not define who that person has been, what it means to have lived a lifetime, to have fought wars, to have studied and known, to have loved and lost, and given birth to children, to have read stories to grandchildren. An Autopsy only defines HOW the person died. Faith is a statement, perhaps a voice from heaven, that identifies this life lived, intentionally, spiritually, and blessed.
Rather than a cataclysm of gases, the explosion of a star, or the act of extra-terrestrial visitors, the Bible's audastic claim is that Creation was INTENTIONAL. Life was not an accident, not fate, nor even a natural development. In natural form, the world was an uninhabitable waste, a life-less void in time and space. GOD the CREATOR CREATES CREATION.
To Create is not simply to Make, or to Build, to Copy, to Assemble or to Perform. To Create is an act of will, an act of the imagination, to create is to risk putting yourself into life. The act of Creation is the distinction between building a house and creating a home; between going through a wedding and being married; between having a baby and being a family. The act of Creation is an investment of life, and a willingness to back-off, to trust, in order to allow the other to have a freedom of will, a life.
That act of Creation formed IDENTITY, GOD is the Creator and we are the Creation. But more than an inventor, an uninvolved watchmaker, who once long long ago set life into motion, the Creator continues to create. The record of Scripture is that God brooded over and agonized over the pains and frustrations of life, such that God entered in to create new possibilities. When life profaned itself, corrupted itself into something living against life, God created a flood to wash the world clean, to intentionally begin again. When creation settled, was so complacent in a place and time as to attempt to build towers into the heavens to demonstrate power, God created differing languages and alternative possibilities. When life was enslaved and oppressed, God entered in and created a new people no longer enslaved but set free to choose to believe.
The tension of faith, is that act of Creation. The CONVICTION that creation is a personal investment and identification with something outside yourself, in this case outside of God, and yet as invested and involved and in love as the Creator is with Life, there is also the trust to not dominate, to not force, to not control, but to allow the creation to live. Therefore God BLESSES the creation as Good.
We live in an era of REDUCTIONISM. Parts of our culture are developing a language of text, that communicates in seemingly random letters. Parts of our culture choose to do without meat, to live without a car, or television. The irony in all of this is that we have the power to make choices. The difference between poverty and luxury is access to choices. In Poverty there is not a choice between meat and fish, between being vegetarian or not; in poverty the question is whether there is anything to eat or not.
Part of our REDUCTIONISM is knowing there is one God, known to us in three persons, so instead we describe belief in only one nature of God, that is Jesus. This week, the rains fell in a torrent, saturating the ground, running down the street like a river. The next day, the temperatures dropped and snow fell at times so thick all we could see was white. When the bitter winds blew over the face of the water, steam would rise and dance in the air. These are three separate ways in which we perceive water around us, each distinct, yet all basically the same. I treasure this passage from the Evangelist of Mark because it is one of the rare glimpses of the VOICE of HEAVEN speaking to the MESSIAH, and the Spirit visibly descending upon him as a dove. In that moment, all three personas of God are witnessed.
Many years ago, I named the REFORMED CONVICTION that Jesus is fully Human and Fully God, and that at that time we as a culture had become so accustomed to Jesus being the Christ Son of God we needed to emphasize the humanity of his being the Son of MAN. In these last dozen years, we have spoken a great deal about human relationships, we have named the love of God demonstrated in Jesus as son of Mary and teacher and friend. We have reflected upon his compassion and healing of others. We have interpreted his teachings and parables. Going as small groups to watch the Film “The Passion” we witnessed the suffering death of the man for all humanity. Recounting the Last Supper we have sat at Table with him.
But we then cannot ignore or lose sight of the other nature, that he is the Beloved, the Son, God in human life. Christian Baptism as transformed in Christ, as experienced in each of our lives, is not only a claim to wash away sin; not only a claiming of this individual by the Church. Baptism is an identification of GOD in each Person; an identification of this person (of each other) as changing our lives; an identification of this person as BLESSED.
Part of the beauty of this passage, is the realization that with the Baptism of Jesus, the Heavens were ripped and torn, setting God free in our lives, in our reality. According to the Evangelist Heaven was opened not in the Birth of Christ, not in miraculous feeding of 5000 not even at the Sermon on the Mount, or the Crucifixion when like the Egyptian Plagues the Sun was eclipsed. HEAVEN was opened at the Baptism of Jesus, for GOD to be identified as pat of our lives; and as invited by John the Baptizer, for all the world to REPENT, to name what we have done to God and to live differently with God.
I am not sure why we so rarely hear voices from heaven anymore. Perhaps it is because we are listening for BOOMING VOICES in our little controversies. Perhaps we have so filled our world with our own voices and our wars, we do not allow silence to be heard. Perhaps it is because we are waiting to hear a tinkling of bells, or heavenly host singing Alleluia rather than listening for God's Sigh! Perhaps it is because we are not listening.
Mark 1:4-11
There are times, when we wish the skies would open up, and a voice from heaven would answer.
All too often the sky is overcast and dark, blanketed by our worries, doubts and clouds of snow. When the heavens do open, it is for rain or snow, or too infrequently in CNY a ray of sunshine. But, these testimonies from Genesis and Mark are not historic weather forecasts or accounts of astronomic climactic change. In each account, the VOICE FROM HEAVEN is a statement of identity, of conviction and of blessing.
In the beginning, when the world was without shape and a lifeless void of waste and darkness, there was not an historian documenting how God created. HOW is not the purpose of Genesis. The Bible is a statement of faith. When a person dies, a coroner performs an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but that determination, that causation does not define who that person has been, what it means to have lived a lifetime, to have fought wars, to have studied and known, to have loved and lost, and given birth to children, to have read stories to grandchildren. An Autopsy only defines HOW the person died. Faith is a statement, perhaps a voice from heaven, that identifies this life lived, intentionally, spiritually, and blessed.
Rather than a cataclysm of gases, the explosion of a star, or the act of extra-terrestrial visitors, the Bible's audastic claim is that Creation was INTENTIONAL. Life was not an accident, not fate, nor even a natural development. In natural form, the world was an uninhabitable waste, a life-less void in time and space. GOD the CREATOR CREATES CREATION.
To Create is not simply to Make, or to Build, to Copy, to Assemble or to Perform. To Create is an act of will, an act of the imagination, to create is to risk putting yourself into life. The act of Creation is the distinction between building a house and creating a home; between going through a wedding and being married; between having a baby and being a family. The act of Creation is an investment of life, and a willingness to back-off, to trust, in order to allow the other to have a freedom of will, a life.
That act of Creation formed IDENTITY, GOD is the Creator and we are the Creation. But more than an inventor, an uninvolved watchmaker, who once long long ago set life into motion, the Creator continues to create. The record of Scripture is that God brooded over and agonized over the pains and frustrations of life, such that God entered in to create new possibilities. When life profaned itself, corrupted itself into something living against life, God created a flood to wash the world clean, to intentionally begin again. When creation settled, was so complacent in a place and time as to attempt to build towers into the heavens to demonstrate power, God created differing languages and alternative possibilities. When life was enslaved and oppressed, God entered in and created a new people no longer enslaved but set free to choose to believe.
The tension of faith, is that act of Creation. The CONVICTION that creation is a personal investment and identification with something outside yourself, in this case outside of God, and yet as invested and involved and in love as the Creator is with Life, there is also the trust to not dominate, to not force, to not control, but to allow the creation to live. Therefore God BLESSES the creation as Good.
We live in an era of REDUCTIONISM. Parts of our culture are developing a language of text, that communicates in seemingly random letters. Parts of our culture choose to do without meat, to live without a car, or television. The irony in all of this is that we have the power to make choices. The difference between poverty and luxury is access to choices. In Poverty there is not a choice between meat and fish, between being vegetarian or not; in poverty the question is whether there is anything to eat or not.
Part of our REDUCTIONISM is knowing there is one God, known to us in three persons, so instead we describe belief in only one nature of God, that is Jesus. This week, the rains fell in a torrent, saturating the ground, running down the street like a river. The next day, the temperatures dropped and snow fell at times so thick all we could see was white. When the bitter winds blew over the face of the water, steam would rise and dance in the air. These are three separate ways in which we perceive water around us, each distinct, yet all basically the same. I treasure this passage from the Evangelist of Mark because it is one of the rare glimpses of the VOICE of HEAVEN speaking to the MESSIAH, and the Spirit visibly descending upon him as a dove. In that moment, all three personas of God are witnessed.
Many years ago, I named the REFORMED CONVICTION that Jesus is fully Human and Fully God, and that at that time we as a culture had become so accustomed to Jesus being the Christ Son of God we needed to emphasize the humanity of his being the Son of MAN. In these last dozen years, we have spoken a great deal about human relationships, we have named the love of God demonstrated in Jesus as son of Mary and teacher and friend. We have reflected upon his compassion and healing of others. We have interpreted his teachings and parables. Going as small groups to watch the Film “The Passion” we witnessed the suffering death of the man for all humanity. Recounting the Last Supper we have sat at Table with him.
But we then cannot ignore or lose sight of the other nature, that he is the Beloved, the Son, God in human life. Christian Baptism as transformed in Christ, as experienced in each of our lives, is not only a claim to wash away sin; not only a claiming of this individual by the Church. Baptism is an identification of GOD in each Person; an identification of this person (of each other) as changing our lives; an identification of this person as BLESSED.
Part of the beauty of this passage, is the realization that with the Baptism of Jesus, the Heavens were ripped and torn, setting God free in our lives, in our reality. According to the Evangelist Heaven was opened not in the Birth of Christ, not in miraculous feeding of 5000 not even at the Sermon on the Mount, or the Crucifixion when like the Egyptian Plagues the Sun was eclipsed. HEAVEN was opened at the Baptism of Jesus, for GOD to be identified as pat of our lives; and as invited by John the Baptizer, for all the world to REPENT, to name what we have done to God and to live differently with God.
I am not sure why we so rarely hear voices from heaven anymore. Perhaps it is because we are listening for BOOMING VOICES in our little controversies. Perhaps we have so filled our world with our own voices and our wars, we do not allow silence to be heard. Perhaps it is because we are waiting to hear a tinkling of bells, or heavenly host singing Alleluia rather than listening for God's Sigh! Perhaps it is because we are not listening.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
January 04, 2009 Why Believe?
Isaiah 60:1-7
Ephesians 3
If we asked a group of lawyers, why practice Law, their answers might range from the idealistic intent to change the world, to fight for what is right and just, protecting the innocent, to the candid desire for all that money/ influence can buy. Asking a group of doctors, why Medicine, we might hear of the desire to heal, to push back death, disease and decay, or interest in specialization, perhaps an anecdote of a relative or childhood friends who were afflicted with a chronic or terminal disease. Inquiring of Teachers, why Teach, we can imagine the joy of students learning, discovering, mastering that which they did not know. Asking a group of engineers, Why Engineering, they might describe the satisfaction of problem-solving, making life better, easier, more attainable, more sustainable. The Biblical Lessons for this week of Epiphany, name for us what it is to identify ourselves differently, not as Doctors, Lawyers, HomeMakers, Bankers, Administrators, Realtors, Students, Husbands/ Wives, Partners, Parents, Adult Children, but instead as Believers.
Rarely are we asked, Why Believe? We listen for what the Church tells us to believe. We wonder what the Bible says about a particular issue. We search for a pastor, a preacher/ a congregation who are friendly and believe something close to what we do, where we can fit in and feel cared for. A church where it does not cost too much either in practice or in other people's expectations, or in compromising our politics.
The Apostle Paul names, I BELIEVE because of you! I struggle and face hardships, am a prisoner in life for Jesus Christ and for you. Christian Faith is personal. Not a set of laws, rules and beliefs to memorize. Not a philosophy you must come to understand and be able to teach. Truly it all comes down to one basic truth, God loves You! We believe in response, created in the image of God we love. That often means struggle, facing hardships, making sense out of what is painful and costly, taking risks: NOT to tempt fate, NOT to be foolish, but because of that other. At times choosing to not act, to withhold because we love, because we want and need to trust, to act in covenant commitment.
We have a tendency to try to name, to compartmentalize and define, so as to know. As described in our Call to Worship, we come up with all these names for God, the many identities we want God to have, which speaks less about God and more about us in our need. The point of EPIPHANY is not one day thousands of years ago when three kings (whom we have named Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, one Young, one Old, one Middle Aged; one European, one Asian, one African, one with Gold, one Frankincense, one Myrrh) who followed a star; but that God is continually providing EPIPHANIES, glimpses of reality, when our circumstances and awareness are ratched up to a new gear a different witness. We describe one another as Liberal or Conservative, Extroverted or Shy. Many of us have developed a shorthand of believing what we have been about as a ministry, what I preach, is all about relationships. In truth, Relationships is safer, easier, more politically correct, than questioning why our community has so many secrets. Why intimacy and happiness, and trust are so hard.
I serve on a committee with a group of doctors and lawyers, who describe the difference in their fields, is that Doctors think in terms of Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days, whereas Lawyers and Judges think in terms of Weeks and Months and Years. Faith is about Lifetimes, Generations, a Future beyond our imagination.
The beauty and pain of Isaiah 60 is that the Prophet was lifting up a vision of what might one day be. Over a period of 70 years, their Nation had been under attack, their economy destroyed, their holiest places desecrated. The brain drain that they knew, was not their children being attracted to jobs elsewhere, but their brightest and best being carried off as prisoners of war, taken to far distant countries, where they lived for another 70 years. But still the prophet believed, that one day their children's children's children's children would come home, and through their experience dispersed across the world, instead of having been lost, they would have lived their lives so others would believe as well.
This holiday season, there has been a silent Epiphany, a Witness to the Love of God, all around us. Over the last several years we as a church have made a commitment that we would be here for others welcoming them when they needed. As such, we have done many funerals and weddings for those who were not members of this congregation, not even Presbyterian, sometimes not Christian, but wanting to be married in the presence of God. Many of these have left their Unity Candle at the end of the Wedding, which has allowed us to be encircled throughout Advent and Christmas with the LIGHT in the midst of darkness kindled in their love.
What Isaiah and Paul also describe is that Christian Faith has CONTINUITY and therefore Integrity. I did not suddenly wake up this morning believing in something, making up a God that had never been before. Paul never claimed to have created a new and different faith for Non-Jews, that is for all the rest of the world. Paul claimed and gave his life for the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, for the Law of Moses, the love of Ruth, the faith of King David and Wisdom of King Solomon, which had all been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, who was known and remembered, who had been one with them, had taught and fed and healed, who also was abandoned, suffered and died for that same covenant of love, and even death could not stop that loving compassion.
Why Believe? As a Christian I respond because I am loved. Because before the man asks her father, before the woman asks her friends to be bridesmaids they ask us to be part of their marriage. Before the child of Anna has a name, we know him and pray for him before God. When the stranger is in need we respond. When the 98 year old has not a friend left in all the world, when they have buried their spouse and their colleagues and friends, we are able to sit at their bedside and hold their hand and pray. Why believe, because the Holy Spirit of God has taken us by the shorthairs on the back of our necks and allowed us to see where we could make a difference and planted in our minds the question: Who knows but that all of life was created, all the circumstances aligned so that you could act, so that you could make a difference in someone else's life. Can you forgive? Can you be forgiven? Can you hold accountability? Can you trust?
Ephesians 3
If we asked a group of lawyers, why practice Law, their answers might range from the idealistic intent to change the world, to fight for what is right and just, protecting the innocent, to the candid desire for all that money/ influence can buy. Asking a group of doctors, why Medicine, we might hear of the desire to heal, to push back death, disease and decay, or interest in specialization, perhaps an anecdote of a relative or childhood friends who were afflicted with a chronic or terminal disease. Inquiring of Teachers, why Teach, we can imagine the joy of students learning, discovering, mastering that which they did not know. Asking a group of engineers, Why Engineering, they might describe the satisfaction of problem-solving, making life better, easier, more attainable, more sustainable. The Biblical Lessons for this week of Epiphany, name for us what it is to identify ourselves differently, not as Doctors, Lawyers, HomeMakers, Bankers, Administrators, Realtors, Students, Husbands/ Wives, Partners, Parents, Adult Children, but instead as Believers.
Rarely are we asked, Why Believe? We listen for what the Church tells us to believe. We wonder what the Bible says about a particular issue. We search for a pastor, a preacher/ a congregation who are friendly and believe something close to what we do, where we can fit in and feel cared for. A church where it does not cost too much either in practice or in other people's expectations, or in compromising our politics.
The Apostle Paul names, I BELIEVE because of you! I struggle and face hardships, am a prisoner in life for Jesus Christ and for you. Christian Faith is personal. Not a set of laws, rules and beliefs to memorize. Not a philosophy you must come to understand and be able to teach. Truly it all comes down to one basic truth, God loves You! We believe in response, created in the image of God we love. That often means struggle, facing hardships, making sense out of what is painful and costly, taking risks: NOT to tempt fate, NOT to be foolish, but because of that other. At times choosing to not act, to withhold because we love, because we want and need to trust, to act in covenant commitment.
We have a tendency to try to name, to compartmentalize and define, so as to know. As described in our Call to Worship, we come up with all these names for God, the many identities we want God to have, which speaks less about God and more about us in our need. The point of EPIPHANY is not one day thousands of years ago when three kings (whom we have named Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, one Young, one Old, one Middle Aged; one European, one Asian, one African, one with Gold, one Frankincense, one Myrrh) who followed a star; but that God is continually providing EPIPHANIES, glimpses of reality, when our circumstances and awareness are ratched up to a new gear a different witness. We describe one another as Liberal or Conservative, Extroverted or Shy. Many of us have developed a shorthand of believing what we have been about as a ministry, what I preach, is all about relationships. In truth, Relationships is safer, easier, more politically correct, than questioning why our community has so many secrets. Why intimacy and happiness, and trust are so hard.
I serve on a committee with a group of doctors and lawyers, who describe the difference in their fields, is that Doctors think in terms of Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days, whereas Lawyers and Judges think in terms of Weeks and Months and Years. Faith is about Lifetimes, Generations, a Future beyond our imagination.
The beauty and pain of Isaiah 60 is that the Prophet was lifting up a vision of what might one day be. Over a period of 70 years, their Nation had been under attack, their economy destroyed, their holiest places desecrated. The brain drain that they knew, was not their children being attracted to jobs elsewhere, but their brightest and best being carried off as prisoners of war, taken to far distant countries, where they lived for another 70 years. But still the prophet believed, that one day their children's children's children's children would come home, and through their experience dispersed across the world, instead of having been lost, they would have lived their lives so others would believe as well.
This holiday season, there has been a silent Epiphany, a Witness to the Love of God, all around us. Over the last several years we as a church have made a commitment that we would be here for others welcoming them when they needed. As such, we have done many funerals and weddings for those who were not members of this congregation, not even Presbyterian, sometimes not Christian, but wanting to be married in the presence of God. Many of these have left their Unity Candle at the end of the Wedding, which has allowed us to be encircled throughout Advent and Christmas with the LIGHT in the midst of darkness kindled in their love.
What Isaiah and Paul also describe is that Christian Faith has CONTINUITY and therefore Integrity. I did not suddenly wake up this morning believing in something, making up a God that had never been before. Paul never claimed to have created a new and different faith for Non-Jews, that is for all the rest of the world. Paul claimed and gave his life for the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, for the Law of Moses, the love of Ruth, the faith of King David and Wisdom of King Solomon, which had all been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, who was known and remembered, who had been one with them, had taught and fed and healed, who also was abandoned, suffered and died for that same covenant of love, and even death could not stop that loving compassion.
Why Believe? As a Christian I respond because I am loved. Because before the man asks her father, before the woman asks her friends to be bridesmaids they ask us to be part of their marriage. Before the child of Anna has a name, we know him and pray for him before God. When the stranger is in need we respond. When the 98 year old has not a friend left in all the world, when they have buried their spouse and their colleagues and friends, we are able to sit at their bedside and hold their hand and pray. Why believe, because the Holy Spirit of God has taken us by the shorthairs on the back of our necks and allowed us to see where we could make a difference and planted in our minds the question: Who knows but that all of life was created, all the circumstances aligned so that you could act, so that you could make a difference in someone else's life. Can you forgive? Can you be forgiven? Can you hold accountability? Can you trust?
Sunday, December 28, 2008
What Will You Be When Grown Up? December 28, 2008
Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3
Luke 2:22-40
What will you be when you grow up?
It is a question we ask children the moment they begin school, and one we never fully answer. Visiting with a couple who had been married the better part of 55 years, she reported , and I am not done with him yet! It is a burden so severe, that a fifteen year old was heard tearfully explaining, but I don't know what I want to be, so how will I know what College to apply to.
To ease that burden, I would affirm that there are many days when I am not certain what I want to be when ever I finally grow up. The concept behind New Year's Resolutions, is that a whole new year is about to begin, rather than continuing bad habits, continuing for another year as we have been, consciously choose to start life differently. The point is not that New Year's Resolutions are easily broken, even if you fail ten times the first day; the point is that you have a fresh outlook a new goal and hope.
The great tragedy of Christmas, is how quickly we move back to our routine unchanged. As soon as the children came downstairs, we began taking down stockings, as gifts were unwrapped we gathered up the paper, and before kick-off the tree was undecorated, stripped bare and lying beside the road as rubbish. For over four weeks, in the longest darkest nights of the year, we waited and hoped for God to enter in, for Salvation, for God to change the world. And the miracle of Christmas is that God did! Almighty God, who taught spiders to crochet webs, planted the Red Woods, and furrowed the Grand Canyon, whose Finger prints upon Creation are known to us by the lakes right outside our door, and in the beauty of a newborn, God chose to be one with us, to live this life, vulnerable and humble, taking all of life in.
On Christmas Eve, we read the ancient story and imagined how the shepherds felt, having witnessed the Heavenly Host, an entire choir of Angels sharing good news, who then went to Bethlehem and saw what was described as the greatest miracle ever given, in a babe wrapped in swaddling rags, lying in a humble feed trough. ALL of which God did, the question of faith is what do you imagine was the response of people in the days that followed, what did they grow up to be? As shepherds who had seen this awesome wonderful sight, the gift of the Savior, the coming of the Messiah, would you go back to life unchanged? The Christmas story waiting to be told, is not how the Animals at the manger began to talk; not what rhythm and tune the Drummer boy would play for him; not even whether Joseph and the Shepherds built a snowman; or Santa and his reindeer visited the Christ-child; but rather what happened to those Shepherds, and to the Wise-men, after witnessing the birth of the Savior, what did they grow up to be?
From that day forward, all the most common of things, would not seem common to them. If a baby born in a stable of dung, and laid in the trough of cows and donkeys, could be the Anointed Messiah of God, then a Thunder storm and rain would be both God's washing the earth clean of soot and debry as well as planting the Creation with water. Winds that blow throughout the night, would be the Holy Spirit of God brooding over us, deciding how next to motivate and challenge and inspire. The death of loved ones would be seen as something natural and holy, helping us to realize how much we loved them, took them for granted, the true gifts they gave us in inspiration and kindness never boxed.
According to Luke, Mary and Joseph took the Baby to the Temple at Jerusalem that he might be circumcised. Luke serves a wonderful record that otherwise we might have lost, for no other evangelist names what took place. Ironically, parts of the Church, overtime, particularly in the last three decades has been identified with politics and moral conservative-ism; yet what the community rarely addresses are harder topics to discuss of sexual taboos and intimacy, of money and death. This brief section of Luke names all three, though we might easily have missed it. My mother describes that things are far more blatant today; in years gone by, Paul Henried lit two cigarettes and gave one to Betty Davis, and you knew what had taken place. Heathcliff came into the Bridal Chamber, the curtains blew apart with a storm and below the waves crashed upon the rocks, and your mind filled in the rest.
According to the Covenant of Abraham and the Law of Moses, as a male 8 days old, Jesus would be circumcised, to be set apart. And the parents were to offer two sacrifices. First, the sacrifice of a turtle dove, a love bird, for Mary's virginity, that no longer was she a child, having given birth regardless of her age, she was a woman. What a powerful teaching moment. Christmas is far more than a holiday for very little children. Christmas is a time for all of us as families, to talk about life's changes and our family's customs. To talk with Adolescents, as well as Aging Parents, and to mark the changes in this family relationship with a Sacrifice, as something holy. I am not talking about sacrificing Parakeets on the second of the 12 days of Christmas! But giving a gift to Vera House for protection against Domestic Violence. Making a commitment to serve as an adult advisor on Youth Mission Trips, or the Collective's Open Mic Nights, or visiting at the VA Hospital or Van Duyn.
Second in this story from Luke, is recalling the sacrifice of Isaac, as well as the sacrifice of Moses for all the firstborn of Egypt, there was to be lamb, yet if the mother were poor a second turtle dove could be offered. According to Jerome in the Early Church, it was a powerful symbol to the world, that the Mother of Jesus, who was to be called The Lamb of God, was as poor as any common person, and as she offered the offering of the poor for the firstborn so could everyone. When a child is born in our families, life changes, and we need to begin even as young as 8 days old with College Savings Plans, and reading to our children, and changing our schedules/our very lives for their needs.
Third, that we would listen to the voices of our elders. Simeon and Anna each offer wisdom, of what they have been waiting for in life, what the birth of a child, this child means, not only to Simeon and Anna, but to the whole human race and especially to the child's parents. Recently, my father phoned, which inspired what I think is one of our finest Christmas presents. He said, “You know, I have been thinking, and the thing I hope I am remembered for, more than anything else, is having read to your children when they were very small.” At one time, 20 years ago, he had read into a tape recorder Kipling's “The Just So Stories” and Dr. Suess's “Bartholomew and the Ooblick”, which they treasured because different from Mom and Dad, tis was their grandfather reading to them. So we sent him a new Tape recorder and several blank tapes, asking that as he had learned as a child to memorize poems of Browning, Dickinson, Cummings and Longfellow, that he might recite these anew for us.
Salvation comes in many ways, perhaps different for us as children imagining being all grown up, than for adults imagining what may yet be. But the vital element of faith, is not only knowing God and what God might do in our lives, but imagining what we might become because we have seen and believed.
Luke 2:22-40
What will you be when you grow up?
It is a question we ask children the moment they begin school, and one we never fully answer. Visiting with a couple who had been married the better part of 55 years, she reported , and I am not done with him yet! It is a burden so severe, that a fifteen year old was heard tearfully explaining, but I don't know what I want to be, so how will I know what College to apply to.
To ease that burden, I would affirm that there are many days when I am not certain what I want to be when ever I finally grow up. The concept behind New Year's Resolutions, is that a whole new year is about to begin, rather than continuing bad habits, continuing for another year as we have been, consciously choose to start life differently. The point is not that New Year's Resolutions are easily broken, even if you fail ten times the first day; the point is that you have a fresh outlook a new goal and hope.
The great tragedy of Christmas, is how quickly we move back to our routine unchanged. As soon as the children came downstairs, we began taking down stockings, as gifts were unwrapped we gathered up the paper, and before kick-off the tree was undecorated, stripped bare and lying beside the road as rubbish. For over four weeks, in the longest darkest nights of the year, we waited and hoped for God to enter in, for Salvation, for God to change the world. And the miracle of Christmas is that God did! Almighty God, who taught spiders to crochet webs, planted the Red Woods, and furrowed the Grand Canyon, whose Finger prints upon Creation are known to us by the lakes right outside our door, and in the beauty of a newborn, God chose to be one with us, to live this life, vulnerable and humble, taking all of life in.
On Christmas Eve, we read the ancient story and imagined how the shepherds felt, having witnessed the Heavenly Host, an entire choir of Angels sharing good news, who then went to Bethlehem and saw what was described as the greatest miracle ever given, in a babe wrapped in swaddling rags, lying in a humble feed trough. ALL of which God did, the question of faith is what do you imagine was the response of people in the days that followed, what did they grow up to be? As shepherds who had seen this awesome wonderful sight, the gift of the Savior, the coming of the Messiah, would you go back to life unchanged? The Christmas story waiting to be told, is not how the Animals at the manger began to talk; not what rhythm and tune the Drummer boy would play for him; not even whether Joseph and the Shepherds built a snowman; or Santa and his reindeer visited the Christ-child; but rather what happened to those Shepherds, and to the Wise-men, after witnessing the birth of the Savior, what did they grow up to be?
From that day forward, all the most common of things, would not seem common to them. If a baby born in a stable of dung, and laid in the trough of cows and donkeys, could be the Anointed Messiah of God, then a Thunder storm and rain would be both God's washing the earth clean of soot and debry as well as planting the Creation with water. Winds that blow throughout the night, would be the Holy Spirit of God brooding over us, deciding how next to motivate and challenge and inspire. The death of loved ones would be seen as something natural and holy, helping us to realize how much we loved them, took them for granted, the true gifts they gave us in inspiration and kindness never boxed.
According to Luke, Mary and Joseph took the Baby to the Temple at Jerusalem that he might be circumcised. Luke serves a wonderful record that otherwise we might have lost, for no other evangelist names what took place. Ironically, parts of the Church, overtime, particularly in the last three decades has been identified with politics and moral conservative-ism; yet what the community rarely addresses are harder topics to discuss of sexual taboos and intimacy, of money and death. This brief section of Luke names all three, though we might easily have missed it. My mother describes that things are far more blatant today; in years gone by, Paul Henried lit two cigarettes and gave one to Betty Davis, and you knew what had taken place. Heathcliff came into the Bridal Chamber, the curtains blew apart with a storm and below the waves crashed upon the rocks, and your mind filled in the rest.
According to the Covenant of Abraham and the Law of Moses, as a male 8 days old, Jesus would be circumcised, to be set apart. And the parents were to offer two sacrifices. First, the sacrifice of a turtle dove, a love bird, for Mary's virginity, that no longer was she a child, having given birth regardless of her age, she was a woman. What a powerful teaching moment. Christmas is far more than a holiday for very little children. Christmas is a time for all of us as families, to talk about life's changes and our family's customs. To talk with Adolescents, as well as Aging Parents, and to mark the changes in this family relationship with a Sacrifice, as something holy. I am not talking about sacrificing Parakeets on the second of the 12 days of Christmas! But giving a gift to Vera House for protection against Domestic Violence. Making a commitment to serve as an adult advisor on Youth Mission Trips, or the Collective's Open Mic Nights, or visiting at the VA Hospital or Van Duyn.
Second in this story from Luke, is recalling the sacrifice of Isaac, as well as the sacrifice of Moses for all the firstborn of Egypt, there was to be lamb, yet if the mother were poor a second turtle dove could be offered. According to Jerome in the Early Church, it was a powerful symbol to the world, that the Mother of Jesus, who was to be called The Lamb of God, was as poor as any common person, and as she offered the offering of the poor for the firstborn so could everyone. When a child is born in our families, life changes, and we need to begin even as young as 8 days old with College Savings Plans, and reading to our children, and changing our schedules/our very lives for their needs.
Third, that we would listen to the voices of our elders. Simeon and Anna each offer wisdom, of what they have been waiting for in life, what the birth of a child, this child means, not only to Simeon and Anna, but to the whole human race and especially to the child's parents. Recently, my father phoned, which inspired what I think is one of our finest Christmas presents. He said, “You know, I have been thinking, and the thing I hope I am remembered for, more than anything else, is having read to your children when they were very small.” At one time, 20 years ago, he had read into a tape recorder Kipling's “The Just So Stories” and Dr. Suess's “Bartholomew and the Ooblick”, which they treasured because different from Mom and Dad, tis was their grandfather reading to them. So we sent him a new Tape recorder and several blank tapes, asking that as he had learned as a child to memorize poems of Browning, Dickinson, Cummings and Longfellow, that he might recite these anew for us.
Salvation comes in many ways, perhaps different for us as children imagining being all grown up, than for adults imagining what may yet be. But the vital element of faith, is not only knowing God and what God might do in our lives, but imagining what we might become because we have seen and believed.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Dec 21, 2008 Not What the Country Can Do, But What Can Make of You
This week waiting outside the Montessori Nursery School an older brother was heard complaining to his mother, “But why should we go to the Mall to see a Store Santa, when we could go upstairs to the Church and tell God what we want, and God could tell the Real Santa for us?” Our traditions and customs fulfill what we want to do, and occasionally point up what God might being doing with and trough us.
Forty-eight years ago, in January 1961 a young President-elect was sworn into office promising the end of one era and the beginning of a new, pledging renewal and change. He ended that Inaugural Address, with the immortal charge “Think Not what the country can do for you, but what you can do.” Rereading these words, half a century later, we cannot ignore the planting of seeds of the Cold-War, and those of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Hopes for a United Nations and for the end of All war. In so many ways, that time resonates with our own, as well as with the time centuries before, when David sat on the throne of Israel, an era at the end of many bloody wars and terrorist acts, when the nation had known affluence and dared dream of something more. Different in the time of King David and Mary and JFK from our own, there once was a parity, an intrinsic bond between the individual and Nation, the individual and all humanity. As Mary receives the gift and responsibility of being the Mother to God, she does not dwell on what she will accomplish, how she will be immortalized, but on what God is using her to do for all humanity.
Recorded in 2nd Samuel is a Bold statement of Covenant Commitment.
To Abraham and Sarah, God had pledged that IF they were faithful, God would provide them a land, a name and future generations. To Moses, God had committed that IF the people would keep God's Commandments, God would continue to save and to protect. Consistently, there was this IF/THEN clause; and God's covenant had been to each as individuals. Suddenly with David there is a change, a commitment still awaited to this day, that NEVERTHELESS God would be faithful, humanity would sin and God would rebuke but the IF/THEN is changed to a never-ending statement that God would be present. The first word to Mary from the Angel is FEAR NOT GOD IS WITH YOU.
Faith is not the guarantee of a life without pain and suffering. Faith is not permission that you will always be forgiven, as if sin and harm we do did not matter. Faith is the covenant that NO MATTER what we do, no matter where we go, we are never alone, God is with us. We cannot pray that Grandma's hip will miraculously heal, that would be magic or at least wish fulfillment. Too often people have heaped guilt on themselves and one another, that if only they had believed more or better, or been part of the right church, they could change the outcome. We cannot pray that our Mother will never die. But we can believe that even when hips are broken, when strokes occur, our loved ones, are not alone, and neither are those who sit in the hospital and wait.
There are times when our celebrations and traditions are misappropriated. This weekend, we celebrated two weddings. In the one a teen-aged granddaughter left the reception and came into the Sanctuary quietly crying. She described that she felt more comfortable dressed as a man, acting like a man, than as a woman. Yet hearing these vows of marriage, in her grandmother's second marriage, she wondered if she would ever find anyone, if she were to be all alone. Why had God made her like this?
In the other wedding, a Bridesmaid sought me out afterward to confess that while only married three years, she and her husband were in the midst of divorce, and hearing the vows was painful.
More even than a statement of commitment, the passages we read this morning are sacred vows, that God will USE us for God's purposes. What a different orientation that would be for us.
As described in the Call to Prayer, instead of Reacting: It is time for this, do it. Instead of following directions and being assured of the outcome.
Instead of searching for what we want, or what will please others.
If we prayed for an absence of distraction, not needing to please authorities or our own desires. Rather than questioning what do you want for Christmas, what would make you happy, how much will it cost, even the noble prayer that what we want for Christmas is Peace on Earth, what if God were to re-orient our lives to What are we doing to bring peace on earth? the question How is God using you? How can we work to fulfill God's design? What are you being transformed to be?
What if, instead of questioning What we wanted the Government to do for us, what we wanted bailed out, or what we wanted to do; if we questioned, how is God using us?
There is a beautiful symmetry to the Annunciation of Mary and her singing the Magnificat, to all that has gone before in Scripture. Elizabeth and Mary are unlikely mothers, one beyond the age, and one far too young. Pregnant at the same time, the infants within them are like twins, reminiscent of an earlier set of twins in the Old Testament. But instead of wrestling in the womb for dominance, this elder one leaps for joy at the coming of the younger.
Different from philosophies or theories of the reason for our existence, Christianity is historically bound in the life and death and resurrection of a very real family. This is not a set of laws to follow, or beliefs to memorize, even to understand. This is an historic reality. That God demonstrated for us a Complete Revelation, throughout one human life, of what it is to live as we believe, to live our commitments, to struggle to follow the covenant.
Forty-eight years ago, in January 1961 a young President-elect was sworn into office promising the end of one era and the beginning of a new, pledging renewal and change. He ended that Inaugural Address, with the immortal charge “Think Not what the country can do for you, but what you can do.” Rereading these words, half a century later, we cannot ignore the planting of seeds of the Cold-War, and those of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Hopes for a United Nations and for the end of All war. In so many ways, that time resonates with our own, as well as with the time centuries before, when David sat on the throne of Israel, an era at the end of many bloody wars and terrorist acts, when the nation had known affluence and dared dream of something more. Different in the time of King David and Mary and JFK from our own, there once was a parity, an intrinsic bond between the individual and Nation, the individual and all humanity. As Mary receives the gift and responsibility of being the Mother to God, she does not dwell on what she will accomplish, how she will be immortalized, but on what God is using her to do for all humanity.
Recorded in 2nd Samuel is a Bold statement of Covenant Commitment.
To Abraham and Sarah, God had pledged that IF they were faithful, God would provide them a land, a name and future generations. To Moses, God had committed that IF the people would keep God's Commandments, God would continue to save and to protect. Consistently, there was this IF/THEN clause; and God's covenant had been to each as individuals. Suddenly with David there is a change, a commitment still awaited to this day, that NEVERTHELESS God would be faithful, humanity would sin and God would rebuke but the IF/THEN is changed to a never-ending statement that God would be present. The first word to Mary from the Angel is FEAR NOT GOD IS WITH YOU.
Faith is not the guarantee of a life without pain and suffering. Faith is not permission that you will always be forgiven, as if sin and harm we do did not matter. Faith is the covenant that NO MATTER what we do, no matter where we go, we are never alone, God is with us. We cannot pray that Grandma's hip will miraculously heal, that would be magic or at least wish fulfillment. Too often people have heaped guilt on themselves and one another, that if only they had believed more or better, or been part of the right church, they could change the outcome. We cannot pray that our Mother will never die. But we can believe that even when hips are broken, when strokes occur, our loved ones, are not alone, and neither are those who sit in the hospital and wait.
There are times when our celebrations and traditions are misappropriated. This weekend, we celebrated two weddings. In the one a teen-aged granddaughter left the reception and came into the Sanctuary quietly crying. She described that she felt more comfortable dressed as a man, acting like a man, than as a woman. Yet hearing these vows of marriage, in her grandmother's second marriage, she wondered if she would ever find anyone, if she were to be all alone. Why had God made her like this?
In the other wedding, a Bridesmaid sought me out afterward to confess that while only married three years, she and her husband were in the midst of divorce, and hearing the vows was painful.
More even than a statement of commitment, the passages we read this morning are sacred vows, that God will USE us for God's purposes. What a different orientation that would be for us.
As described in the Call to Prayer, instead of Reacting: It is time for this, do it. Instead of following directions and being assured of the outcome.
Instead of searching for what we want, or what will please others.
If we prayed for an absence of distraction, not needing to please authorities or our own desires. Rather than questioning what do you want for Christmas, what would make you happy, how much will it cost, even the noble prayer that what we want for Christmas is Peace on Earth, what if God were to re-orient our lives to What are we doing to bring peace on earth? the question How is God using you? How can we work to fulfill God's design? What are you being transformed to be?
What if, instead of questioning What we wanted the Government to do for us, what we wanted bailed out, or what we wanted to do; if we questioned, how is God using us?
There is a beautiful symmetry to the Annunciation of Mary and her singing the Magnificat, to all that has gone before in Scripture. Elizabeth and Mary are unlikely mothers, one beyond the age, and one far too young. Pregnant at the same time, the infants within them are like twins, reminiscent of an earlier set of twins in the Old Testament. But instead of wrestling in the womb for dominance, this elder one leaps for joy at the coming of the younger.
Different from philosophies or theories of the reason for our existence, Christianity is historically bound in the life and death and resurrection of a very real family. This is not a set of laws to follow, or beliefs to memorize, even to understand. This is an historic reality. That God demonstrated for us a Complete Revelation, throughout one human life, of what it is to live as we believe, to live our commitments, to struggle to follow the covenant.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Comforting the Challenged and Challenging our Comfort
Isaiah 40: 1-11
Mark 1:1-11
This morning, we focus on Advent in a different way, a new beginning, a new center.
A Century and a half ago, America went through radical change. There was a rapid increase in the number of new settlers, there had been famine, draught, economic collapse across the developed world and the Midwestern Frontier was opened for expansion. Settlers raced across the face of the countryside, as if devouring the unspoiled wilderness, they had never seen such natural resources. They fished indiscriminately, they chopped down trees for being the closest rather than being deadwood. They killed what they did not know. They shot buffalo for sport. They herded the indigenous people, as if animals, to be bought and sold, abused. A Great Cheyenne Chief was asked by his Tribe “Why are they doing this?” He is recorded as saying, “This is a people who have lost their way, lost Center, they no longer know what provides balance, meaning, what is needed or what is evil. They kill and hurt and destroy, because they are off-center.”
Advent is a time of “Preparing the Way of the Lord”. Different from the Season of LENT which is 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer and Reflection; Advent is the wisdom of knowing God is sending “Innocence into the world”, God is offering Grace. Lent is sacrificial because we know we crucified him, humanity made the Son of God suffer and die. Humanity was wrong, in Lent we pray for forgiveness. But Christmas, Christmas is God's choice to enter in, not based on anything we have done, or have avoided doing, but simply because God loves us. Advent then, is our attempt to re-Center, to confess brokenness and hope to begin afresh. We prepare so we do not miss Christ's coming.
Friday evening at the Community-wide blessing of the Creche, we described that each of the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John begin differently, telling a different story. John begins at Creation itself, poetically, symbolically reading back into the Creation. Matthew begins at the Genealogy fulfilling each of the Covenants of Abraham, David, the return from Exile in the reality of Jesus. Matthew and Luke both begin with the Birth, the infancy of this most human child. Mark begins differently.
Friday night we had a Biblical Storyteller, who recited The Gospel of Mark. This is NOT a history of Jesus, or the meaning of that history, or the meaning of all history, this is, this is the Beginning of the Gospel, the Salvation of the world, not as an abstract theoretical event to be taught and learned. His presentation was avant-gar-de, this ordained minister was stepping over the pews, getting in our face, allowing us to hear the Gospel not as a 2000 year old text, but as real words of real people encountering Christ in their lives.
Salvation is experienced, lived and felt as something far more than going through the motions of life. As the Poet Laureate Billy Collins described in this morning's Call to Worship, Salvation is more than SEEING where a fictional character tells you to LOOK, Salvation is pointed to in the Word: BEHOLD! So often we see and respond, we recognize and react. Life has become a Race, where the quickest to the answer regardless of the MEANS, wins; and everything seems to be about winning, having the most, the fastest, the biggest and flatest, the most miniaturized.
We have routinely confused Theology with Politics, pushing one agenda, liberal or conservative to declare our intent as God's Will. The Gospel is different because this is not about Theology, but about Christology, recognizing and seeing more than the Created Order, Choosing to enter in, because of Justice responding to Evil; or Love for the Lost. Christology is The Centering of humanity, more than a reactionary response of Fight of Flight, to stand with those who are impoverished, alone, victimized, because Communion with one another is Righteous. To Love and act with Compassion for those who are lost.
Years ago, there was a woman who came as a visitor and sat among us. By the second week we had learned her name. By the third we were inviting her to consider claiming this church as her own. She declined but continued to participate, to be part of the communion, to listen, to pray, and to sing. One morning she looked horrible, and she named she had had a recurrence of Cancer. We would go and sit together while she had her treatments, driving slowly on the way home, so we could pull off when she needed to. Then one day she decided she did not want the treatments anymore. She continued to worship, then because of her body's schedule she shifted from Sunday morning to taking a Bulletin and sitting in the Sanctuary whenever she was able. We tried to call, but she did not answer. After a few months, someone called the Church one afternoon. They identified themselves as her sister. She had had a falling out with the family several years before, and they had lost all contact. Then, a call her sister had died. She was cleaning the apartment, and found a whole stack of Church Bulletins, worn from being held tightly, read over several times, tied with a ribbon to a Bible. The sister was in shock, saying “I didn't think my sister believed in God, and here after she is dead and buried, I learn she has been part of a church?” We shared what we knew, and her sister said “Thank you. Thank you for being there when/and/as my sister needed. You helped her find peace, when we were at war with each other. You helped her find God.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in Mark, begins with this private conversation between God and Christ: BEHOLD! See, I am sending my messenger before your face, to prepare a way for you. Like John the Baptist, our role at Advent is to Prepare The Way for Christ in the World by Challenging our Comforts and Comforting those who are Challenged.
These words from the Prophet often called II Isaiah, are strange to us. Seeming to have come from a different time and place. “Comfort, O Comfort my People says your God” is dissonant with a people who have so much. In 2005, when I went to South Sudan for the first time, Isaiah 40 is the passage we read in worship on Sunday morning. The 25 year long civil war had just barely ended. As people gathered at the church, from out of mud huts and steel box cars, they lay their rifles near but outside the place of worship. And we named that universally, they described themselves as the Suffering People of God, yet for their sons and daughters who were refugees in America, this place infested with flies and mosquitos, malaria heat of 120 degrees and rain for nine months was Home, with all that Home means. But whether to that people or our own, the centering-gospel comes through: All Flesh is grass, the grass withers the flower fades, but the Love of God endures for ever.
Mark 1:1-11
This morning, we focus on Advent in a different way, a new beginning, a new center.
A Century and a half ago, America went through radical change. There was a rapid increase in the number of new settlers, there had been famine, draught, economic collapse across the developed world and the Midwestern Frontier was opened for expansion. Settlers raced across the face of the countryside, as if devouring the unspoiled wilderness, they had never seen such natural resources. They fished indiscriminately, they chopped down trees for being the closest rather than being deadwood. They killed what they did not know. They shot buffalo for sport. They herded the indigenous people, as if animals, to be bought and sold, abused. A Great Cheyenne Chief was asked by his Tribe “Why are they doing this?” He is recorded as saying, “This is a people who have lost their way, lost Center, they no longer know what provides balance, meaning, what is needed or what is evil. They kill and hurt and destroy, because they are off-center.”
Advent is a time of “Preparing the Way of the Lord”. Different from the Season of LENT which is 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer and Reflection; Advent is the wisdom of knowing God is sending “Innocence into the world”, God is offering Grace. Lent is sacrificial because we know we crucified him, humanity made the Son of God suffer and die. Humanity was wrong, in Lent we pray for forgiveness. But Christmas, Christmas is God's choice to enter in, not based on anything we have done, or have avoided doing, but simply because God loves us. Advent then, is our attempt to re-Center, to confess brokenness and hope to begin afresh. We prepare so we do not miss Christ's coming.
Friday evening at the Community-wide blessing of the Creche, we described that each of the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John begin differently, telling a different story. John begins at Creation itself, poetically, symbolically reading back into the Creation. Matthew begins at the Genealogy fulfilling each of the Covenants of Abraham, David, the return from Exile in the reality of Jesus. Matthew and Luke both begin with the Birth, the infancy of this most human child. Mark begins differently.
Friday night we had a Biblical Storyteller, who recited The Gospel of Mark. This is NOT a history of Jesus, or the meaning of that history, or the meaning of all history, this is, this is the Beginning of the Gospel, the Salvation of the world, not as an abstract theoretical event to be taught and learned. His presentation was avant-gar-de, this ordained minister was stepping over the pews, getting in our face, allowing us to hear the Gospel not as a 2000 year old text, but as real words of real people encountering Christ in their lives.
Salvation is experienced, lived and felt as something far more than going through the motions of life. As the Poet Laureate Billy Collins described in this morning's Call to Worship, Salvation is more than SEEING where a fictional character tells you to LOOK, Salvation is pointed to in the Word: BEHOLD! So often we see and respond, we recognize and react. Life has become a Race, where the quickest to the answer regardless of the MEANS, wins; and everything seems to be about winning, having the most, the fastest, the biggest and flatest, the most miniaturized.
We have routinely confused Theology with Politics, pushing one agenda, liberal or conservative to declare our intent as God's Will. The Gospel is different because this is not about Theology, but about Christology, recognizing and seeing more than the Created Order, Choosing to enter in, because of Justice responding to Evil; or Love for the Lost. Christology is The Centering of humanity, more than a reactionary response of Fight of Flight, to stand with those who are impoverished, alone, victimized, because Communion with one another is Righteous. To Love and act with Compassion for those who are lost.
Years ago, there was a woman who came as a visitor and sat among us. By the second week we had learned her name. By the third we were inviting her to consider claiming this church as her own. She declined but continued to participate, to be part of the communion, to listen, to pray, and to sing. One morning she looked horrible, and she named she had had a recurrence of Cancer. We would go and sit together while she had her treatments, driving slowly on the way home, so we could pull off when she needed to. Then one day she decided she did not want the treatments anymore. She continued to worship, then because of her body's schedule she shifted from Sunday morning to taking a Bulletin and sitting in the Sanctuary whenever she was able. We tried to call, but she did not answer. After a few months, someone called the Church one afternoon. They identified themselves as her sister. She had had a falling out with the family several years before, and they had lost all contact. Then, a call her sister had died. She was cleaning the apartment, and found a whole stack of Church Bulletins, worn from being held tightly, read over several times, tied with a ribbon to a Bible. The sister was in shock, saying “I didn't think my sister believed in God, and here after she is dead and buried, I learn she has been part of a church?” We shared what we knew, and her sister said “Thank you. Thank you for being there when/and/as my sister needed. You helped her find peace, when we were at war with each other. You helped her find God.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in Mark, begins with this private conversation between God and Christ: BEHOLD! See, I am sending my messenger before your face, to prepare a way for you. Like John the Baptist, our role at Advent is to Prepare The Way for Christ in the World by Challenging our Comforts and Comforting those who are Challenged.
These words from the Prophet often called II Isaiah, are strange to us. Seeming to have come from a different time and place. “Comfort, O Comfort my People says your God” is dissonant with a people who have so much. In 2005, when I went to South Sudan for the first time, Isaiah 40 is the passage we read in worship on Sunday morning. The 25 year long civil war had just barely ended. As people gathered at the church, from out of mud huts and steel box cars, they lay their rifles near but outside the place of worship. And we named that universally, they described themselves as the Suffering People of God, yet for their sons and daughters who were refugees in America, this place infested with flies and mosquitos, malaria heat of 120 degrees and rain for nine months was Home, with all that Home means. But whether to that people or our own, the centering-gospel comes through: All Flesh is grass, the grass withers the flower fades, but the Love of God endures for ever.
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