Luke 19:1-27
Luke 19:28-40
A few years ago, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in a film titled THE BUCKET LIST.
The story of two men who meet as patients with Cancer sharing a hospital room. As they come to know each other Nicholson's character sees Morgan Freeman's creating a list, and Freeman describes that different from the HONEY DO List on the Refrigerator, these were all the things he planned to do, that had never been done, before he kicked the Bucket, ie The Bucket List. Parachuting out of an Airplane, Walking the Great Wall of China, climbing Mount Everest, driving a car at the Indianapolis 500 Full Out. But as they work through their lists, harder than climbing the Himalayas, is TELLING YOUR SPOUSE, You Love Them; or in the case of Jack Nicholson's character asking for forgiveness/ reconciling with his daughter and meeting his grandchild. These are the things we want and need to do before we die.
The 19th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, is JESUS' OWN BUCKET LIST. Not scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, or betting on a horse named Fu Manchu at the Kentucky Derby, but knowing that the Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, is a Processional to his death on the Cross.
The parable contained here is confusing, because it is as if there were more than one parables told simultaneously, where it is difficult to determine where one leaves off and the other begins. This is a parable about what John Calvin described as DOUBLE PREDESTINATION.
To understand the starting parable one needs to now the Context, that in the 4th Century BC, Herod the Great, the last King of Israel died. It was the beginning of the Roman Empire's domination, and Herod's Son Archaeleus, went to Rome to be recognized as King. Archeleus was so feared and hated, that 50 leaders of Israel went to Rome to protest. Instead of being crowned King of all Israel, Archeleus was made Vassal King of Judea, and upon his return the families of the 50 who had protested were put to death. Throughout the Gospel, Pharisees and Scribes have protested against Jesus' authority, challenged the claims about his being the Messiah. We also need to know that the beginning of the writing down of the Gospels coincides with the year 70 AD, 70 of the Common Era, when the Empire of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, crucifying and persecuting hundreds of thousands, destroying temples and homes until one stone did not rest upon another. The first parable is Luke foreshadowing what is to come. Jesus goes to Jerusalem to be recognized as King, many protested his authority, all died. Are there any here present, who do not believe we will eventually all die?
That is PREDESTINATION: We protest against the way God has planned for the world, we try to control life ourselves, but ultimately, we as Mortals all die.
Yet, the parable does not leave us there, for within that context, before leaving, the Nobleman gives all he has to various specific people, to use, to trade, to share. There is a wordplay here that the word translated in Matthew as TALENTS and in Luke POUNDS representing the measure of a person, their gifts, their abilities, the weight of their authority, ALSO designates a coin equal to 30 days labor, so 10 POUNDS was the equivalent of a Year's Work. One risks everything and for every Pound makes 10 times more, so returns to the King 10 Years' Labors. A second uses their gifts and relationships and knowledge, and trading makes for every pound 5 times more. Each, who has been trusted with gifts, who use them with all their knowledge and skill and who risk for what they believe in, are rewarded. But as the Parable describes, many of us refuse to risk, refuse to try. If anything, I believe this is a parable addressed to Nations, to Churches and Families and Believers, who are worried about their own comforts, who serve themselves and their own needs. We were Baptized so do not need to be concerned with faith in God. We did grand and glorious things in the past, we have this treasure hidden away, we have kept our possession safe and not risked it. BUT we were supposed to risk, supposed to help others with what we were given. I have often wondered, what if there were a fourth, who had been given pounds and talents, who had risked everything, had tried, but had lost everything? What would have been the response of the King when he returned? In Luke's version of Jesus' telling, the one who risked nothing has everything taken away; and those who protested that they did not want him to be King all died. So having risked everything, having tried and lost, there is nothing worse that could happen than that we die, which eventually comes to all. But I believe, having risked everything, even losing it all, still having tried, the LORD would have known the attempt, the desire, and the commitment.
Yet, the parable does not leave us there, because like ripples in a pool emanating from a spot, there is a story before and one after, these parables.
Zaccheus was a rich and powerful man, The Chief Tax Collector. This was a man who operated on the basis of fear and intimidation. All the power of the Roman Empire to collect Taxes, to collect from an subjugated people to pay for the Military Legion who oppressed them, was concentrated in this solitary man. Zacceus liked to go about in long robes and to have people bow down to him, everything about this man spoke of his power. Yet, as powerful and intimidating as was Zaccheus, he was a man, a man who knew he had stolen, knew he had been rewarded for keeping others in poverty. Zaccheus had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth, had wanted to see him and hear him, no matter what the cost. SO hearing that Jesus was coming, Zaccheus left his shop to see him. But there was a crowd, and being small, Zaccheus could not see. Imagine this man whose life is consumed by his reputation of power, scurrying about with his robes flapping, as he shinnied up a Sycamore tree, scraping and bloodying his knuckles, catching and tearing his robes, he got to a place where he would be hidden by the branches while he could see Jesus coming, yet Jesus stopped at the foot of the tree and invited Zaccheus to come down and let us share a meal together. This man of Power and Intimidation, had humbled himself to catch a glimpse of Jesus. We know, that before the week is out, Jesus would be stripped of robes, and nailed to a tree lifted up. Zaccheus came down and brought Jesus into his own home, where he gave half of all he had to the poor, and pledged to return to any who had had stolen from them 4 times as much. Suggesting that the return of the Pounds does not have to be paid to the King, but could be given to those in need.
On the opposite side of the Parable, Jesus rides into the Royal City of King David, comes to the Temple of Solomon, and there weeps over the ways they have made faith in God into a commodity to be bought and sold.
Prior to Zaccheus, there was a blind beggar at Jericho, who cried out “Have Mercy on Me Son of David” known better by the phrase “Hosanna, Son of David, Hosanna!” It is an obscure little story. I believe the remnant of a piece before. Recall that there was a Rich Young Ruler, who came to Jesus asking about Eternal Life. When he said he had loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, Jesus had told him he must do one thing more: “Go sell all you have, give to the poor, and come follow me.” And the Rich Young Ruler went away sorrowful. While it is not recorded here, I believe, that rich young ruler came to himself, and did as he was commanded, he sold all he had and gave to those in need, but still he knew, he was blind to the truth. So he sat on the curb as one who was blind. When Jesus passed he cried out, “HOSANNA, Have Mercy Upon Me, Son of David!” And Jesus healed him.
This is not simply a complex parable in Luke, not simply a parable within a parable, but a parable within a parable, within a parable, within a parable. This is JESUS' BUCKET LIST, as he attempts to do all the things on his list before he dies. There was healing the blindness of a Rich Young Ruler, Having The Chief Tax Collector of the Capital City of Jerusalem restored as a child of Israel, finding the Lost Sheep and redeeming those in need. Are these parables of great Risk, ABSOLUTELY, risking everything, knowing that the worst that is going to happen is that we will die, so regardless of how silly we may appear, how great the cost, we must try.
In the film, The Bucket List, Morgan Freeman's Character describes to Jack Nicholson's that all of life comes down to the answer to TWO QUESTIONS:
1. HAVE YOU FOUND JOY IN YOUR LIFE? and
2. HAS YOUR LIFE BROUGHT JOY TO OTHERS?
Jack Nicholson responds to the first absolutely, and to the second “You'll have to ask them” and the voice says, “But I am asking you, What have you done that has brought Joy to the lives of others?”
In 1977, the leader of the Central African Republic declared himself Emperor and held his own Processional. He rode in a carriage encrusted in gold, led by ten pure-bred stallions. The First of his ten wives entered before him, adorned in jewels, as orchestras played selections commissioned just for the coronation, she sat on a golden footstool. Each of his children were carried in on palettes carried by soldiers. He entered the palace and sat on a solid gold throne. His coronation of himself as Emperor nearly bankrupted the Nation. How different, Jesus who rode upon a borrowed donkey, as those who had been deaf and blind beggars, fishermen and prostitutes, took off their their cloaks to make a carpet for him.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Salvation or Satisfaction, March 21, 2010
Isaiah 43:16-21
John 12:1-8
What sets Christianity apart from all other faith traditions is trust& belief in REDEMPTION. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed the Gods were cruel and manipulative, inflicting suffering upon humanity for their own amusement. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, the Hindu faith and Tao all rely on fundamental Laws, instruction that has been given by God through a trusted Prophet. In the Old Testament, we received the Covenant of God with Abraham, to walk along beside following where God would lead, and we would be assured of a future for generations long after us, we received the Ten Commandments from Moses, but along beside the COVENANT and the LAW was description of the love of God, a God who hears our tears and enters in to save us.
We do not talk much about SALVATION anymore. In times of Invading Armies and Black Plague, humanity sought to know that there was hope beyond the grave, to have assurance that after death there was eternal life. Today, the world seems more concerned with SATISFACTION than Salvation. We have evolved to a time of having anything and everything at our disposal, and if not, that there is an electronic application for that. Do you desire to see your favorite photos? To carry a library with you of books to read? There is an APP for that. Would you like to listen to music? Would you like to read your mail? There is an APP. Did you forget to lock the front door? Did you leave the Iron plugged in, did you not turn off the lights? Did you want to be notified when your child came home from school? Do you want to transfer money at the bank to pay bills or to have bills automatically paid? Do you need directions, or to conjugate verbs in Mandarin Chinese? All these desires are available, such that we seem to have WANTS for SATISFACTION, and no need of SALVATION.
But as many devices as we can manage, as human beings: we are human. We become lonely and hurt, we carelessly harm others by our words and actions and choosing not to speak, we struggle with life and death and life and death decisions. We are surrounded by stories of infidelity, of scams and betrayal, even of trying to do the right thing for all the right reasons, having it come out wrong. The faith described in the Old Testament, demonstrated in the New, is that at great personal cost, God enters in to save us from ourselves. Imagine an Artist, painting a masterpiece, then seeing a figure in that painting whom they formed and love is in trouble, the artist cuts the canvas and steps through into that alternative reality. Far more than Alice in Wonderland, the cost of our redemption is Jesus' own life, Jesus' death on the cross.
The challenge posed by Isaiah, is: knowing God is doing a new thing, how shall we respond? God is changing the whole world by entering in, making rivers in the desert, and sanctuaries in the wilderness. Do we continue unaffected, unmoved, unchanged? Or can we respond to God, can we, and all creation fight against our own predispositions, to act differently, can we choose to be saved? Can we choose to live as if our lives are changed by our faith?
If we have been the children of divorced parents, does that mean we will divorce? If we have been divorced before, does that mean we are unable ever to love again? If we are the children of alcoholics will we be alcoholic? These are only predispositions, and we can choose to follow or to reframe and change, the question is up to us.
In the early 1960s, researchers had come out with a test to determine Sickle Cell Anemia, and every child in our elementary school in St. Louis was tested. The irony is that Sickle Cell most commonly occurs in those descended from Sub-Saharan Africa and affects life after age 42. So testing the whole population in 1st Grade, might identify a Genetic Predisposition, but unnecessarily raised the fears of all the families of all the first graders.
We know that first born children tend to be self-starters, that Middle Children tend to be peacemakers and pleasers, and younger children tend to be more artistic and creative with fewer perceived boundaries. But do these tendencies determine who we will be? There is always another way.
In John's Gospel, Judas is described as being a thief, who routinely stole from the common purse for the poor. If his history of stealing were known, why had Jesus trusted Judas with the purse? Was Jesus intentionally raising the anxiety of all the disciples, challenging us all to confront one another and care about what each person does as a community, so the betrayal of Judas was a failure of all the disciples in having allowed him to fail? I think John's reason for naming this is that all of us, like Judas have a tendency for corruption when it concerns money, but Mary chose to respond differently. Mary had sat at Jesus' feet listening as a disciple while Martha had been busy cooking and entertaining. Mary had seen her brother Lazarus raised from the dead. Mary took an expensive possession, worth a year's wages, that she had saved for herself, and instead chose to use it to serve Jesus, by washing his feet, rubbing his feet, wiping them with her own hair. It was an act of intense intimacy, it was an act of sacrifice, it was an act while they were at table together. Six days later, at the next Sabbath meal when they were at table together, Jesus knelt down to wash the feet of the disciples before serving them. Do you think the similarity would have been lost on the disciples?
Throughout time, many have struggled with what appears to be a flip remark of dismissal from Jesus, that “The Poor, you will always have with you.” Actually, this is a quote from Deuteronomy which challenges every believer that because the poor will always be with us, we each have responsibility to do more than keep a private purse for charitable gifts when we go to worship, we are challenged to open our hands completely to try to make a difference in their lives.
John 12:1-8
What sets Christianity apart from all other faith traditions is trust& belief in REDEMPTION. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed the Gods were cruel and manipulative, inflicting suffering upon humanity for their own amusement. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, the Hindu faith and Tao all rely on fundamental Laws, instruction that has been given by God through a trusted Prophet. In the Old Testament, we received the Covenant of God with Abraham, to walk along beside following where God would lead, and we would be assured of a future for generations long after us, we received the Ten Commandments from Moses, but along beside the COVENANT and the LAW was description of the love of God, a God who hears our tears and enters in to save us.
We do not talk much about SALVATION anymore. In times of Invading Armies and Black Plague, humanity sought to know that there was hope beyond the grave, to have assurance that after death there was eternal life. Today, the world seems more concerned with SATISFACTION than Salvation. We have evolved to a time of having anything and everything at our disposal, and if not, that there is an electronic application for that. Do you desire to see your favorite photos? To carry a library with you of books to read? There is an APP for that. Would you like to listen to music? Would you like to read your mail? There is an APP. Did you forget to lock the front door? Did you leave the Iron plugged in, did you not turn off the lights? Did you want to be notified when your child came home from school? Do you want to transfer money at the bank to pay bills or to have bills automatically paid? Do you need directions, or to conjugate verbs in Mandarin Chinese? All these desires are available, such that we seem to have WANTS for SATISFACTION, and no need of SALVATION.
But as many devices as we can manage, as human beings: we are human. We become lonely and hurt, we carelessly harm others by our words and actions and choosing not to speak, we struggle with life and death and life and death decisions. We are surrounded by stories of infidelity, of scams and betrayal, even of trying to do the right thing for all the right reasons, having it come out wrong. The faith described in the Old Testament, demonstrated in the New, is that at great personal cost, God enters in to save us from ourselves. Imagine an Artist, painting a masterpiece, then seeing a figure in that painting whom they formed and love is in trouble, the artist cuts the canvas and steps through into that alternative reality. Far more than Alice in Wonderland, the cost of our redemption is Jesus' own life, Jesus' death on the cross.
The challenge posed by Isaiah, is: knowing God is doing a new thing, how shall we respond? God is changing the whole world by entering in, making rivers in the desert, and sanctuaries in the wilderness. Do we continue unaffected, unmoved, unchanged? Or can we respond to God, can we, and all creation fight against our own predispositions, to act differently, can we choose to be saved? Can we choose to live as if our lives are changed by our faith?
If we have been the children of divorced parents, does that mean we will divorce? If we have been divorced before, does that mean we are unable ever to love again? If we are the children of alcoholics will we be alcoholic? These are only predispositions, and we can choose to follow or to reframe and change, the question is up to us.
In the early 1960s, researchers had come out with a test to determine Sickle Cell Anemia, and every child in our elementary school in St. Louis was tested. The irony is that Sickle Cell most commonly occurs in those descended from Sub-Saharan Africa and affects life after age 42. So testing the whole population in 1st Grade, might identify a Genetic Predisposition, but unnecessarily raised the fears of all the families of all the first graders.
We know that first born children tend to be self-starters, that Middle Children tend to be peacemakers and pleasers, and younger children tend to be more artistic and creative with fewer perceived boundaries. But do these tendencies determine who we will be? There is always another way.
In John's Gospel, Judas is described as being a thief, who routinely stole from the common purse for the poor. If his history of stealing were known, why had Jesus trusted Judas with the purse? Was Jesus intentionally raising the anxiety of all the disciples, challenging us all to confront one another and care about what each person does as a community, so the betrayal of Judas was a failure of all the disciples in having allowed him to fail? I think John's reason for naming this is that all of us, like Judas have a tendency for corruption when it concerns money, but Mary chose to respond differently. Mary had sat at Jesus' feet listening as a disciple while Martha had been busy cooking and entertaining. Mary had seen her brother Lazarus raised from the dead. Mary took an expensive possession, worth a year's wages, that she had saved for herself, and instead chose to use it to serve Jesus, by washing his feet, rubbing his feet, wiping them with her own hair. It was an act of intense intimacy, it was an act of sacrifice, it was an act while they were at table together. Six days later, at the next Sabbath meal when they were at table together, Jesus knelt down to wash the feet of the disciples before serving them. Do you think the similarity would have been lost on the disciples?
Throughout time, many have struggled with what appears to be a flip remark of dismissal from Jesus, that “The Poor, you will always have with you.” Actually, this is a quote from Deuteronomy which challenges every believer that because the poor will always be with us, we each have responsibility to do more than keep a private purse for charitable gifts when we go to worship, we are challenged to open our hands completely to try to make a difference in their lives.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Growth in Wisdom, March 14, 2010
Joshua 5:9-12
Luke 15: 11-32
There is a miraculous event each year in Confirmation, which happens, though there is no specific lesson in the curriculum to teach it. Baptism is a presentation of the individual, as an infant or as a brand new believer, declaring their HOPES and relationships with God and the Faith Community, before they have it all figured out or understood. Confirmation Class teaches the stories of the Bible, the history of the Church and Western Culture developed in response to the Church, as well as what we believe, and the experience of this congregation in mission in this community. All that is teaching. But having the foundation, being given the building blocks of understanding and knowing, believers begin to play with the idea of faith, developing a sense of their self and their relationship to the community and to God, developing experience of Hope, and with this GROW in WISDOM.
GROWTH in WISDOM is what both our Biblical witnesses are about this morning.
The Hebrews had been slaves of Pharaoh for as long as any could recall. They had prayed and God heard their prayer, setting them free to leave slavery and enter the wilderness. For generations, for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, totally and completely dependent upon God, yet like a two year old continually testing the limits of God's love with their wants and desires. The People of Israel cross over Jordan from the Wilderness into the Promised Land. GROWING WISDOM is not simply a matter of endurance, or of age, or experience. God leads them across, reminding them to be a HOLY PEOPLE. The Community recall being Slaves and the Passover, and they eat the Manna of the Wilderness the food of God's providing for the last time. The Community recall their ancestors being set apart, so they too are Circumcised. Then the People build a Cairn, a Miniature Stone Mountain, a marker to remember: We once were slaves; We once were Nomadic Wanderers in the Wilderness; we have entered into the land of the Canaanites to take possession. We should imagine 4 Things with our every monument, that this is a Marker of our past, this is a reminder of what we have come through, this is a gateway into what we are entering into, but also that we are a people of God.
Joshua led the people after Moses had died. Joshua knew the history from whence they had come. Joshua remembered wandering in the wilderness for generations. Joshua was circumcised to lead this army against all they would encounter. All these things he had learned and knew and understood. When suddenly he was confronted with a Warrior he did not recognize, asking the stranger, “Are you for us, or for our enemy?” At one point in the Gospels, Jesus is recorded as saying “All who are not against us, ARE for us!” And in recent years, when Our Nation was attacked, when we suffered terrorism, our leaders decried the opposite: “All who are not For us, are Against us!” And the Stranger, the Commander of the Army of the LORD , said “NO! But on the side of God!” With the assumed question: “So Joshua, whose side are you on?” GROWTH in WISDOM is not about what we have learned, not about what we have experienced and endured, but whether we have put the pieces together in order that we can HOPE for more than we know. We are the most informed populace ever to have inhabited this creation. Between all the different News Services, Broadcasters, Bloggers, Commentators, the Internet, and Cell Phone Cameras, we are witnesses to all that goes on. So it is, that the question of the STRANGER is all the more important. When we know all the different factions and enemies, when we know what we want, and how we intend to merit and fulfill our desires, we find ourselves asking “Are you for us, or against us?” “When do I get what I want?” When the question we need to hear is “Can you see God in your midst?” “Are you on the side of Hope” “Is this for Redeeming the Lost and challenging others to believe, or for some other purpose because no other matter.”
This parable from Luke, I fear saying anything at all.
First because it is a gem, so perfect, so multi-faceted and complete, it only needs to be shown, like explaining a joke, or explaining why the struggle of the Church throughout time has been how to fulfill the wants of members, while caring for the needs of those outside, the point is lost in explanation.
Second, we need to fear saying anything more about this parable, because it has been explained and interpreted so many different times, as if to make the parable defend the position of each listener.
So this morning, we would hear the parable from two other perspectives, rarely heard from.
Instead of the Parable of the Prodigal Son who wanted the world instead of valuing what he was a part of at home; instead of the Parable of the Elder who wants the world to be Merit-Driven, with reward for accomplishment and payment for what is due, who is challenged by God's GRACE, insulted by God's Compassion. Recognize that throughout time, this parable has been told and retold in the Community of Faith, and even more than the wants of the Sinning Prodigal, more than the justifications of the Righteous Pharisees, the parable is told in the witness of the Community, about the love of God.
In 21st Century America, we perceive everything through the SELF. Individually we project ourselves into the position of each player, to know how they felt. But in other cultures, in other places, and other times, the PRIMARY FOCUS was always on the Community not the individual.
When the Prodigal demands his share, and takes what he knows to be his, to spend as he desires, the Community, the neighbors, those who have been present all his life, are insulted for the Father. When word returns to the community, that the Prodigal has wasted everything and is in trouble, the community would pass the word, “See what happens!” “A fool and his money are soon parted.” One of the descriptions of Northeastern Small Villages, is that when the Great Frontier opened up for Western Expansion beyond the Hudson River let alone the California Gold Rush, our ancestors stood back saying “You go seek your fortune, we'll be waiting right here, when you come back, penniless and in need!”
The conversation that the Prodigal has with himself, when he is in need, so in trouble that he is living with and associating with Pigs, when even the pigs have not shared with him food pods that no human being would ever eat, is GROWTH IN WISDOM, Wisdom that comes from taking a step back to FACE HIMSELF. There is no expectation here, that his Father would redeem him, would take him back, would repay all that was lost, not even an expectation that his father would/could forgive. But only the confession to himself, that he would be better off, going back to being as a slave of his father's house, than being all alone and lost in this wilderness, among these people and pigs.
Realizing the importance of Community, and Community perception, in other times and other places, when word would have come to the Village, the whole town would have turned out, not to give him a ticker-tape parade, as the Native Son whom we are proud of, but that the whole town would have turned out to hiss and to boo and to throw things at him, not only for insulting his father, but for insulting their community, for having gone his way.
Now knowing what that Community was like, we can understand the desperation of the son at having to come passed that marker, back into slavery, back from the foreign land. Which makes the reaction of the Father all the more dramatic. This was not a time when Father's were known for being in touch with their Feminine-side, being in touch with their feelings, but rather the expectation was that Father's were STOIC, unmoved, even to accept this one who had embarrassed him back would be seen as a sign of weakness. And yet, so deep is the LOVE and COMPASSION of GOD as our Father, that God would run through the streets, would run the gauntlet for his son, so as to bear the shame, and receive the insults for his son, that he has come home. Yet, not only for the younger son, but with exactly the same SHAME, the elder son when all the community are gathered at their home for a party calls his father out, before the community to say “I Cannot Celebrate, I cannot have Hope.” This is not a parable like the Good Samaritan where Jesus asks “which one acted as Neighbor, which acted on the side of God?” But rather both the Prodigal and the Elder, the Sinners and the Righteous, and also the Community of Faith have been wrong, because the side of God is to accept the indignation of others for the redemption of the lost in order to bring them inside.
Whenever we hear this story, we wonder, the Father accepted the scorn of neighbors and friends in seeking the Prodigal and in going out on the Porch to redeem the Elder, did the Elder enter in to celebrate and have hope, or did he stay outside, or go his way. Are you on our side or for our enemy... And the answer is Neither, but on the side of God who is ever willing to redeem the lost.
How do we teach Growth in Wisdom?
Luke 15: 11-32
There is a miraculous event each year in Confirmation, which happens, though there is no specific lesson in the curriculum to teach it. Baptism is a presentation of the individual, as an infant or as a brand new believer, declaring their HOPES and relationships with God and the Faith Community, before they have it all figured out or understood. Confirmation Class teaches the stories of the Bible, the history of the Church and Western Culture developed in response to the Church, as well as what we believe, and the experience of this congregation in mission in this community. All that is teaching. But having the foundation, being given the building blocks of understanding and knowing, believers begin to play with the idea of faith, developing a sense of their self and their relationship to the community and to God, developing experience of Hope, and with this GROW in WISDOM.
GROWTH in WISDOM is what both our Biblical witnesses are about this morning.
The Hebrews had been slaves of Pharaoh for as long as any could recall. They had prayed and God heard their prayer, setting them free to leave slavery and enter the wilderness. For generations, for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, totally and completely dependent upon God, yet like a two year old continually testing the limits of God's love with their wants and desires. The People of Israel cross over Jordan from the Wilderness into the Promised Land. GROWING WISDOM is not simply a matter of endurance, or of age, or experience. God leads them across, reminding them to be a HOLY PEOPLE. The Community recall being Slaves and the Passover, and they eat the Manna of the Wilderness the food of God's providing for the last time. The Community recall their ancestors being set apart, so they too are Circumcised. Then the People build a Cairn, a Miniature Stone Mountain, a marker to remember: We once were slaves; We once were Nomadic Wanderers in the Wilderness; we have entered into the land of the Canaanites to take possession. We should imagine 4 Things with our every monument, that this is a Marker of our past, this is a reminder of what we have come through, this is a gateway into what we are entering into, but also that we are a people of God.
Joshua led the people after Moses had died. Joshua knew the history from whence they had come. Joshua remembered wandering in the wilderness for generations. Joshua was circumcised to lead this army against all they would encounter. All these things he had learned and knew and understood. When suddenly he was confronted with a Warrior he did not recognize, asking the stranger, “Are you for us, or for our enemy?” At one point in the Gospels, Jesus is recorded as saying “All who are not against us, ARE for us!” And in recent years, when Our Nation was attacked, when we suffered terrorism, our leaders decried the opposite: “All who are not For us, are Against us!” And the Stranger, the Commander of the Army of the LORD , said “NO! But on the side of God!” With the assumed question: “So Joshua, whose side are you on?” GROWTH in WISDOM is not about what we have learned, not about what we have experienced and endured, but whether we have put the pieces together in order that we can HOPE for more than we know. We are the most informed populace ever to have inhabited this creation. Between all the different News Services, Broadcasters, Bloggers, Commentators, the Internet, and Cell Phone Cameras, we are witnesses to all that goes on. So it is, that the question of the STRANGER is all the more important. When we know all the different factions and enemies, when we know what we want, and how we intend to merit and fulfill our desires, we find ourselves asking “Are you for us, or against us?” “When do I get what I want?” When the question we need to hear is “Can you see God in your midst?” “Are you on the side of Hope” “Is this for Redeeming the Lost and challenging others to believe, or for some other purpose because no other matter.”
This parable from Luke, I fear saying anything at all.
First because it is a gem, so perfect, so multi-faceted and complete, it only needs to be shown, like explaining a joke, or explaining why the struggle of the Church throughout time has been how to fulfill the wants of members, while caring for the needs of those outside, the point is lost in explanation.
Second, we need to fear saying anything more about this parable, because it has been explained and interpreted so many different times, as if to make the parable defend the position of each listener.
So this morning, we would hear the parable from two other perspectives, rarely heard from.
Instead of the Parable of the Prodigal Son who wanted the world instead of valuing what he was a part of at home; instead of the Parable of the Elder who wants the world to be Merit-Driven, with reward for accomplishment and payment for what is due, who is challenged by God's GRACE, insulted by God's Compassion. Recognize that throughout time, this parable has been told and retold in the Community of Faith, and even more than the wants of the Sinning Prodigal, more than the justifications of the Righteous Pharisees, the parable is told in the witness of the Community, about the love of God.
In 21st Century America, we perceive everything through the SELF. Individually we project ourselves into the position of each player, to know how they felt. But in other cultures, in other places, and other times, the PRIMARY FOCUS was always on the Community not the individual.
When the Prodigal demands his share, and takes what he knows to be his, to spend as he desires, the Community, the neighbors, those who have been present all his life, are insulted for the Father. When word returns to the community, that the Prodigal has wasted everything and is in trouble, the community would pass the word, “See what happens!” “A fool and his money are soon parted.” One of the descriptions of Northeastern Small Villages, is that when the Great Frontier opened up for Western Expansion beyond the Hudson River let alone the California Gold Rush, our ancestors stood back saying “You go seek your fortune, we'll be waiting right here, when you come back, penniless and in need!”
The conversation that the Prodigal has with himself, when he is in need, so in trouble that he is living with and associating with Pigs, when even the pigs have not shared with him food pods that no human being would ever eat, is GROWTH IN WISDOM, Wisdom that comes from taking a step back to FACE HIMSELF. There is no expectation here, that his Father would redeem him, would take him back, would repay all that was lost, not even an expectation that his father would/could forgive. But only the confession to himself, that he would be better off, going back to being as a slave of his father's house, than being all alone and lost in this wilderness, among these people and pigs.
Realizing the importance of Community, and Community perception, in other times and other places, when word would have come to the Village, the whole town would have turned out, not to give him a ticker-tape parade, as the Native Son whom we are proud of, but that the whole town would have turned out to hiss and to boo and to throw things at him, not only for insulting his father, but for insulting their community, for having gone his way.
Now knowing what that Community was like, we can understand the desperation of the son at having to come passed that marker, back into slavery, back from the foreign land. Which makes the reaction of the Father all the more dramatic. This was not a time when Father's were known for being in touch with their Feminine-side, being in touch with their feelings, but rather the expectation was that Father's were STOIC, unmoved, even to accept this one who had embarrassed him back would be seen as a sign of weakness. And yet, so deep is the LOVE and COMPASSION of GOD as our Father, that God would run through the streets, would run the gauntlet for his son, so as to bear the shame, and receive the insults for his son, that he has come home. Yet, not only for the younger son, but with exactly the same SHAME, the elder son when all the community are gathered at their home for a party calls his father out, before the community to say “I Cannot Celebrate, I cannot have Hope.” This is not a parable like the Good Samaritan where Jesus asks “which one acted as Neighbor, which acted on the side of God?” But rather both the Prodigal and the Elder, the Sinners and the Righteous, and also the Community of Faith have been wrong, because the side of God is to accept the indignation of others for the redemption of the lost in order to bring them inside.
Whenever we hear this story, we wonder, the Father accepted the scorn of neighbors and friends in seeking the Prodigal and in going out on the Porch to redeem the Elder, did the Elder enter in to celebrate and have hope, or did he stay outside, or go his way. Are you on our side or for our enemy... And the answer is Neither, but on the side of God who is ever willing to redeem the lost.
How do we teach Growth in Wisdom?
Monday, March 1, 2010
February 28, 2010 "400 Years From Now"
Genesis 15
Luke 13: 1-9 &31-35
This has been a difficult week for the people of our village, of our church. Not like the devastation of Haiti, 6 weeks after an earthquake still searching for the bodies buried beneath the rubble. Not like Chile, still feeling the aftershocks of an earthquake several times larger than that which struck Haiti. Not like the devastation to Coastal and Island communities throughout the Pacific submerged and others waiting to see what will still happen from Tsunamis. But still, when so many wives and husbands, brothers and sisters and Mothers and Fathers pass in a week, even from natural aging regardless of their accumulated age in years, it shakes our faith. Death makes us question God, asking about fairness, consolation, eternity. The difference of death by age rather than a catastrophic death from an accident or disaster, is that “natural causes” is a thousand goodbyes of little things, then accommodating to a new sense of normal, where disaster does not allow us to say goodbye...
In moments of weakness, we wish for simplistic faiths that could blame circumstance on immoral behavior, or some other individual, on a coach who told us to get into the wrong lane. We long to be distracted by the Olympic spectacle, by the winning of Gold and Silver, or by a night's win over Villanova. We long for the questions and doubts of faith to be answered. But like Abram, we stare up at the heavens asking “How long, O Lord?” How long is life? How long must we wait for You? As the Adult Forum last week on the Changes to our Culture from a Virtual Reality brought up, we have become an instantaneous society. Where we become more anxious by waiting, having our needs unfulfilled.
In an Old Testament culture, dependent for survival on having multiple children, who would be heirs and provide for their parents and grandparents when they settled, Abram and Sarai were childless. Having known that community and people all their lives, Abram and Sarai dared to venture out and risk following where God might lead, in hopes of finding what they desired to be fulfilled. When we have a problem, when we are filled with anxiety, when we must wait, we often seek to control, to have a static relationship that enables us to fulfill our needs.
Abram had taken with them the son of his brother, his nephew Lot, but Lot had separated from them at Sodom, and Lot had been taken captive in battle. Longing for an heir, Abram had all but accepted the cultural norm that as a slave was property belonging to the master, the eldest child of a slave, Eleazar of Damascus could be made his heir and therefore become like a child to the couple. In much the same way, but even more explicit, Sarai would use Hagar, her slave-girl, her property, to conceive a child by Abram, Ishmael. According to the text, Abram was 75 years of age, when he and Sarai began this journey with God. Over ten years later, they still are childless, unfulfilled. But God speaks to Abram in a vision, saying “Fear Not!... None of these shall be your heir, your own son by Sarai shall be.” Life, and therefore Faith, because our faith is set in the context of our lives, is real and growing and changing, is not a Static thing, to be controlled or made to happen. Faith is a reciprocal symbiotic relationship of trust.
In our anxiety, we seek after control, I can determine when to turn off life-sustaining machines; I can choose what I want for my family for my life, and what I do not. If no one else is going to be in charge, I can take responsibility and I can and will lead. Except, doing so, we over-function, we over-step our identity and our relationships, taking away from the responsibility of others. They may allow us in the short-term, but afterwards will resent our invading their autonomy. Despite what the myths and movies about Greek Titans, or the self-serving televangelists might suggest, the earthquakes and tsunamis cannot be attributed to anyone and the victims are no more to be pitied than all humanity.
Most often, we are not able to choose, but can act in faith. What we cannot control, we seek to prove, so as to be certain, a different kind of control. Abram looks for proof from God, but faith is not able to be proven. God invites Abram to look at the heavens, invites Abram to have an Epiphany, about the power of God, an Epiphany to trust that God has always been here, has guided us through difficult times in the past, and in faith can be trusted. We Need Not Fear... even if it takes 400 years.
That is what Jesus was saying to Herod and the Pharisees, as well. Remember that according to Luke it was a Herod who killed all the babies, searching for him at his birth. It was a Herod who had John the Baptist Beheaded, and the same Herod who now is seeking after Jesus to kill him.
It does no good to worry or to be anxious. Faith is a relationship, much like a traveling companion, who is going to walk along beside, helping us to see what is taking place and to know what otherwise might be missed. Faith is also a security, that what others might have missed, will be gathered and cared for.
This week in the papers was a headline that The Syracuse Assessors' Office was seeking to tax abandoned church buildings. Instantly the internet lit up, how long before they tax our church, how long before they take away tax deduction for donations, how long before the government begins taxing the receipts of churches? We cannot waste time with these fears. The society is based on the FOR PROFIT sector doing what it chooses, for profit. The GOVERNMENT doing what it chooses, as Social Program, Public Schools, Courts, Services. And THE CHURCH doing what we must to do, what no one else has done.
One of the most significant and fulfilling questions for every human being, as well as for the church, is “what are we doing that no one else does?” We do not need to compete with our sisters and brothers, we do not need to compete with other churches... Our purpose in life is to do what no one else does.
The fact of the matter is that when loved ones die, we have been filled with caring for them, making decisions. The Health Care Reports describe that 90% of our Medical Costs come in the last 10% of life, I would go further to suggest that 90% of our worry about one another, of our trying to control a good life and relationship comes in death. Which is why there is such a void when they are gone. How painfully hard it is to switch from going about daily life for 80 or 90 years, to suddenly sifting through the memories. FAITH is not about reliving the past, or even worrying about the future that may or may not come. Faith is to be lived in the present, accompanying one another to the best of our abilities, not worrying about the past or the future, but living faith with one another as companions on the journey.
Luke 13: 1-9 &31-35
This has been a difficult week for the people of our village, of our church. Not like the devastation of Haiti, 6 weeks after an earthquake still searching for the bodies buried beneath the rubble. Not like Chile, still feeling the aftershocks of an earthquake several times larger than that which struck Haiti. Not like the devastation to Coastal and Island communities throughout the Pacific submerged and others waiting to see what will still happen from Tsunamis. But still, when so many wives and husbands, brothers and sisters and Mothers and Fathers pass in a week, even from natural aging regardless of their accumulated age in years, it shakes our faith. Death makes us question God, asking about fairness, consolation, eternity. The difference of death by age rather than a catastrophic death from an accident or disaster, is that “natural causes” is a thousand goodbyes of little things, then accommodating to a new sense of normal, where disaster does not allow us to say goodbye...
In moments of weakness, we wish for simplistic faiths that could blame circumstance on immoral behavior, or some other individual, on a coach who told us to get into the wrong lane. We long to be distracted by the Olympic spectacle, by the winning of Gold and Silver, or by a night's win over Villanova. We long for the questions and doubts of faith to be answered. But like Abram, we stare up at the heavens asking “How long, O Lord?” How long is life? How long must we wait for You? As the Adult Forum last week on the Changes to our Culture from a Virtual Reality brought up, we have become an instantaneous society. Where we become more anxious by waiting, having our needs unfulfilled.
In an Old Testament culture, dependent for survival on having multiple children, who would be heirs and provide for their parents and grandparents when they settled, Abram and Sarai were childless. Having known that community and people all their lives, Abram and Sarai dared to venture out and risk following where God might lead, in hopes of finding what they desired to be fulfilled. When we have a problem, when we are filled with anxiety, when we must wait, we often seek to control, to have a static relationship that enables us to fulfill our needs.
Abram had taken with them the son of his brother, his nephew Lot, but Lot had separated from them at Sodom, and Lot had been taken captive in battle. Longing for an heir, Abram had all but accepted the cultural norm that as a slave was property belonging to the master, the eldest child of a slave, Eleazar of Damascus could be made his heir and therefore become like a child to the couple. In much the same way, but even more explicit, Sarai would use Hagar, her slave-girl, her property, to conceive a child by Abram, Ishmael. According to the text, Abram was 75 years of age, when he and Sarai began this journey with God. Over ten years later, they still are childless, unfulfilled. But God speaks to Abram in a vision, saying “Fear Not!... None of these shall be your heir, your own son by Sarai shall be.” Life, and therefore Faith, because our faith is set in the context of our lives, is real and growing and changing, is not a Static thing, to be controlled or made to happen. Faith is a reciprocal symbiotic relationship of trust.
In our anxiety, we seek after control, I can determine when to turn off life-sustaining machines; I can choose what I want for my family for my life, and what I do not. If no one else is going to be in charge, I can take responsibility and I can and will lead. Except, doing so, we over-function, we over-step our identity and our relationships, taking away from the responsibility of others. They may allow us in the short-term, but afterwards will resent our invading their autonomy. Despite what the myths and movies about Greek Titans, or the self-serving televangelists might suggest, the earthquakes and tsunamis cannot be attributed to anyone and the victims are no more to be pitied than all humanity.
Most often, we are not able to choose, but can act in faith. What we cannot control, we seek to prove, so as to be certain, a different kind of control. Abram looks for proof from God, but faith is not able to be proven. God invites Abram to look at the heavens, invites Abram to have an Epiphany, about the power of God, an Epiphany to trust that God has always been here, has guided us through difficult times in the past, and in faith can be trusted. We Need Not Fear... even if it takes 400 years.
That is what Jesus was saying to Herod and the Pharisees, as well. Remember that according to Luke it was a Herod who killed all the babies, searching for him at his birth. It was a Herod who had John the Baptist Beheaded, and the same Herod who now is seeking after Jesus to kill him.
It does no good to worry or to be anxious. Faith is a relationship, much like a traveling companion, who is going to walk along beside, helping us to see what is taking place and to know what otherwise might be missed. Faith is also a security, that what others might have missed, will be gathered and cared for.
This week in the papers was a headline that The Syracuse Assessors' Office was seeking to tax abandoned church buildings. Instantly the internet lit up, how long before they tax our church, how long before they take away tax deduction for donations, how long before the government begins taxing the receipts of churches? We cannot waste time with these fears. The society is based on the FOR PROFIT sector doing what it chooses, for profit. The GOVERNMENT doing what it chooses, as Social Program, Public Schools, Courts, Services. And THE CHURCH doing what we must to do, what no one else has done.
One of the most significant and fulfilling questions for every human being, as well as for the church, is “what are we doing that no one else does?” We do not need to compete with our sisters and brothers, we do not need to compete with other churches... Our purpose in life is to do what no one else does.
The fact of the matter is that when loved ones die, we have been filled with caring for them, making decisions. The Health Care Reports describe that 90% of our Medical Costs come in the last 10% of life, I would go further to suggest that 90% of our worry about one another, of our trying to control a good life and relationship comes in death. Which is why there is such a void when they are gone. How painfully hard it is to switch from going about daily life for 80 or 90 years, to suddenly sifting through the memories. FAITH is not about reliving the past, or even worrying about the future that may or may not come. Faith is to be lived in the present, accompanying one another to the best of our abilities, not worrying about the past or the future, but living faith with one another as companions on the journey.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Identity, 02 21, 2010
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Luke 4:1-13
JASPER THOMAS RYAN! How is it that parents choose a name for a child? Ancestors? Close friends and loved ones? Great Leaders of the common era? How many children were named Jack in memory of Kennedy, how many named Martin in honor and love of Martin Luther King, who himself was named after his father, who was named for the great Reformer. My Great Grandfather was named Ovid Ware, WARE, who often went by the Nickname Warrie. His son, had the same name, but the middle initial A. so he claimed the identity A.WARE. His son was Bert Ware, who of course went by BEWARE! In gifting to a child: a name, we give identity.
In their own selection of friends, and of a career, even breed of dog, we choose for ourselves: Identity. I have been intrigued and amazed watching the Olympics, not only for the prowess and athleticism of these individuals, but for the number who have been born in one place and have chosen to immigrate, to abdicate that identity to become citizens, to have identity as Being of another Nation. Our passages this day, at the beginning of Lent, at the beginning of Karen's second year with us, are passages of claiming an Identity. IDENTITY is involved in a Name and Title, but more than just a NAME.
Immediately upon being Baptized, Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and goes into the wilderness, to fast and to pray, and to seek God's guidance for the living of life. Here, he was tested, tempted by the Devil, with all he could do, how he could be known, tempted by POWER.
One of the earliest controversies within Christianity was over “Docetism”. The Docetists believed Jesus was not actually human, because humans are sinners. They believed Jesus was God masquerading as a human being, was only a spirit, that was not actually human, did not actually live and therefore did not actually die. One interpretation of The Temptations is that these are proof of Jesus being human, proof because Jesus was Tempted. Human life would be so much simpler, would be perfection without sin, if only we did not have a FREE WILL, Temptation to choose something other than God. The Docetists believed that as God, Christ could choose no other... but that would have been a denial of freedom and temptation, both as God and as a Man. NO, the point of Luke affirming that the Temptations did take place, are that Jesus was tempted, these are very real opportunities.
Both humanity and God could choose, would want to choose to eradicate hunger and poverty, to have all power and riches and access to do whatever you chose, to be able to perform miracles that would cause people to believe in Him. But Jesus, as God and as Human, though tempted, chose instead to trust and to live life. This is what has consistently been described as the identity of a person of faith. The SHEMA, the Affirmation as basic to the Hebrew faith as the Lord's Prayer is to Christianity, declares: “The Lord our God is ONE, and God only shall we serve, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.” IDENTITY is CHOSEN by FREE WILL in the midst of real Temptations.
A thousands years before Jesus, before the Roman Empire, before Alexander the Great and Greek Empire, before the Deportation to Babylon, before King Solomon, before King David, before the Judges, before they had entered in with Joshua and taken possession of the Land, while still in the Wilderness, Moses gave to the people a command. When you come into the land, and have taken possession of it, and live in it, you shall stop from all you do, stop in Sabbath, and take of the first-fruits, a tythe, as an offering of thanksgiving. You shall place that offering into a basket; Remembering the basket that carries the Tablets of the Covenant; Remembering the basket of reeds lined with pitch and bitumen that Moses' parents had placed him in to keep him safe in the River of Life, when Pharaoh had commanded all parents to put their children into the River Nile; Remembering the Ark of Gopherwood, bitumen and pitch, that Noah built for God to begin anew after the flood. IDENTITY is REMEMBERING all that has gone before us.
You are commanded by Moses to bring that basket of first fruits to the Temple of the Lord, and to make an Offering. From earliest memory, we have been a people who WORSHIP, it may be every day, it may be each week, or each year, or every three years, but routinely we will stop from our labor to give thanks to God. There is in Worship a Liturgy, an ORDER that allows us to make sense of life. A piece of our IDENITY is in Worshipping God.
As we do, we are to claim the vulnerability of our ancestors. The ones we are descended from, who have entrusted our identities to us, these were not Kings and Queens and Presidents. These were not great heroes, though they may have been our Patriarchs, they are remembered in our IDENTITY as having been homeless nomads, wandering Arameans.
What is amazing about this passage from Deuteronomy, the Book where Moses, gives the people the 10 Commandments, there is NO mention here of that identity. Instead of being THE PEOPLE OF THE LAW or the PEOPLE OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL, our identity as a Nation began when we were wandering nomads, individuals without a home, whom God made Numerous and God made Strong. A people whom God listened to and cared about. Our Identity is not only in Circumstances that have happened along the way, but in our basic DNA from our earliest beginnings.
There is a remarkable difference here, in claiming an Identity as our Nation has won 23 medals in this year's Olympics, and an identity of vulnerability for having been nomads and slaves. By claiming vulnerability we are called upon to be empathetic and compassionate to those in need. I remember my mother regularly describing to us what it was to grow up in the Great Depression, they had no food left, nothing, when a cousin stopped by with grocery bag of potatoes. They had never been to see a doctor or dentist, and a neighbor was in Dental school, who came home and went through all the neighbor kids examining their teeth and pulling the rotten ones on their kitchen table.
This week, I spent some time on the Holiday and evenings creating a partnership agreement for the Clinic in Sudan, so as to be able to test and treat for AIDs. At this point, we will be the only place in S.Sudan able to test and treat for AIDs. When someone commented about my working on this, I remembered working with Haitian refugees who were Migrant Farm Workers, and in 1980 they had these spots, these lesions that no one could explain and no doctor wanted to touch.
Three years later, I was a chaplain at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Harlem, where there were patients who had what at that time was described as GRID, a disease without a name, identified because it fit a number of different symptoms on a grid. As a Chaplain, we were ordered to have no physical contact, to wear gloves and masks and gowns and booties, so as to be able to enter their room and sit, unable to hold their hand.
And several years later, my wife led a conference for the Junior League, of Community Awareness on AIDs for Women and Children. We had Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speak about her work with children with AIDs. And she asked every person to imagine adopting a child who has AIDs, having to be careful about soiled diapers, having to go to the doctor weekly for tests, having to give this child so many medications every day. Then she asked the question, NOW, having chosen to adopt a child who is ill, whom you know you may have to bury, how will you feel when they create tests and drugs to control and cure this disease?
In this Sacrament, we claim and affirm a sacred IDENTITY, of being vulnerable, of having done harm to ourselves, to one another, to God. We are the Body of Christ, and we are a BROKEN PEOPLE. We claim the cup, as an IDENTITY of HOPE, of FORGIVENESS, an identity of GRACE fro God.
Luke 4:1-13
JASPER THOMAS RYAN! How is it that parents choose a name for a child? Ancestors? Close friends and loved ones? Great Leaders of the common era? How many children were named Jack in memory of Kennedy, how many named Martin in honor and love of Martin Luther King, who himself was named after his father, who was named for the great Reformer. My Great Grandfather was named Ovid Ware, WARE, who often went by the Nickname Warrie. His son, had the same name, but the middle initial A. so he claimed the identity A.WARE. His son was Bert Ware, who of course went by BEWARE! In gifting to a child: a name, we give identity.
In their own selection of friends, and of a career, even breed of dog, we choose for ourselves: Identity. I have been intrigued and amazed watching the Olympics, not only for the prowess and athleticism of these individuals, but for the number who have been born in one place and have chosen to immigrate, to abdicate that identity to become citizens, to have identity as Being of another Nation. Our passages this day, at the beginning of Lent, at the beginning of Karen's second year with us, are passages of claiming an Identity. IDENTITY is involved in a Name and Title, but more than just a NAME.
Immediately upon being Baptized, Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and goes into the wilderness, to fast and to pray, and to seek God's guidance for the living of life. Here, he was tested, tempted by the Devil, with all he could do, how he could be known, tempted by POWER.
One of the earliest controversies within Christianity was over “Docetism”. The Docetists believed Jesus was not actually human, because humans are sinners. They believed Jesus was God masquerading as a human being, was only a spirit, that was not actually human, did not actually live and therefore did not actually die. One interpretation of The Temptations is that these are proof of Jesus being human, proof because Jesus was Tempted. Human life would be so much simpler, would be perfection without sin, if only we did not have a FREE WILL, Temptation to choose something other than God. The Docetists believed that as God, Christ could choose no other... but that would have been a denial of freedom and temptation, both as God and as a Man. NO, the point of Luke affirming that the Temptations did take place, are that Jesus was tempted, these are very real opportunities.
Both humanity and God could choose, would want to choose to eradicate hunger and poverty, to have all power and riches and access to do whatever you chose, to be able to perform miracles that would cause people to believe in Him. But Jesus, as God and as Human, though tempted, chose instead to trust and to live life. This is what has consistently been described as the identity of a person of faith. The SHEMA, the Affirmation as basic to the Hebrew faith as the Lord's Prayer is to Christianity, declares: “The Lord our God is ONE, and God only shall we serve, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.” IDENTITY is CHOSEN by FREE WILL in the midst of real Temptations.
A thousands years before Jesus, before the Roman Empire, before Alexander the Great and Greek Empire, before the Deportation to Babylon, before King Solomon, before King David, before the Judges, before they had entered in with Joshua and taken possession of the Land, while still in the Wilderness, Moses gave to the people a command. When you come into the land, and have taken possession of it, and live in it, you shall stop from all you do, stop in Sabbath, and take of the first-fruits, a tythe, as an offering of thanksgiving. You shall place that offering into a basket; Remembering the basket that carries the Tablets of the Covenant; Remembering the basket of reeds lined with pitch and bitumen that Moses' parents had placed him in to keep him safe in the River of Life, when Pharaoh had commanded all parents to put their children into the River Nile; Remembering the Ark of Gopherwood, bitumen and pitch, that Noah built for God to begin anew after the flood. IDENTITY is REMEMBERING all that has gone before us.
You are commanded by Moses to bring that basket of first fruits to the Temple of the Lord, and to make an Offering. From earliest memory, we have been a people who WORSHIP, it may be every day, it may be each week, or each year, or every three years, but routinely we will stop from our labor to give thanks to God. There is in Worship a Liturgy, an ORDER that allows us to make sense of life. A piece of our IDENITY is in Worshipping God.
As we do, we are to claim the vulnerability of our ancestors. The ones we are descended from, who have entrusted our identities to us, these were not Kings and Queens and Presidents. These were not great heroes, though they may have been our Patriarchs, they are remembered in our IDENTITY as having been homeless nomads, wandering Arameans.
What is amazing about this passage from Deuteronomy, the Book where Moses, gives the people the 10 Commandments, there is NO mention here of that identity. Instead of being THE PEOPLE OF THE LAW or the PEOPLE OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL, our identity as a Nation began when we were wandering nomads, individuals without a home, whom God made Numerous and God made Strong. A people whom God listened to and cared about. Our Identity is not only in Circumstances that have happened along the way, but in our basic DNA from our earliest beginnings.
There is a remarkable difference here, in claiming an Identity as our Nation has won 23 medals in this year's Olympics, and an identity of vulnerability for having been nomads and slaves. By claiming vulnerability we are called upon to be empathetic and compassionate to those in need. I remember my mother regularly describing to us what it was to grow up in the Great Depression, they had no food left, nothing, when a cousin stopped by with grocery bag of potatoes. They had never been to see a doctor or dentist, and a neighbor was in Dental school, who came home and went through all the neighbor kids examining their teeth and pulling the rotten ones on their kitchen table.
This week, I spent some time on the Holiday and evenings creating a partnership agreement for the Clinic in Sudan, so as to be able to test and treat for AIDs. At this point, we will be the only place in S.Sudan able to test and treat for AIDs. When someone commented about my working on this, I remembered working with Haitian refugees who were Migrant Farm Workers, and in 1980 they had these spots, these lesions that no one could explain and no doctor wanted to touch.
Three years later, I was a chaplain at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Harlem, where there were patients who had what at that time was described as GRID, a disease without a name, identified because it fit a number of different symptoms on a grid. As a Chaplain, we were ordered to have no physical contact, to wear gloves and masks and gowns and booties, so as to be able to enter their room and sit, unable to hold their hand.
And several years later, my wife led a conference for the Junior League, of Community Awareness on AIDs for Women and Children. We had Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speak about her work with children with AIDs. And she asked every person to imagine adopting a child who has AIDs, having to be careful about soiled diapers, having to go to the doctor weekly for tests, having to give this child so many medications every day. Then she asked the question, NOW, having chosen to adopt a child who is ill, whom you know you may have to bury, how will you feel when they create tests and drugs to control and cure this disease?
In this Sacrament, we claim and affirm a sacred IDENTITY, of being vulnerable, of having done harm to ourselves, to one another, to God. We are the Body of Christ, and we are a BROKEN PEOPLE. We claim the cup, as an IDENTITY of HOPE, of FORGIVENESS, an identity of GRACE fro God.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Avoiding Mystery, Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Isaiah 58
Matthew 6
The Bulletin's description of this passage from Matthew, was limited by how many letters you can fit across a page, so instead of saying “Beware of Practicing Your Piety Before Others SO as To be Noticed” it read “Beware of Practicing Piety”, which actually is more like what we do. We are so afraid of being perceived to be different, of being thought to be overly zealous, that we AVOID MYSTERY, we refrain from practicing faith at all. We equate faith in God with Worship Sunday morning, ignoring that the Early Christian Church and the time of the Reformation also practiced Prayer and Bible Study, and Fasting and doing Mission, and Pilgrimages or the Walking of the Labyrinth, as equal to Worship.
Within our lifetimes, churches around the world have lost membership and decreased in worship attendance. Actually, our church, this church has increased in membership each year for the last 15, in spite of periodically cleaning roles; though our definitions of membership and our attendance patterns have decreased dramatically from the 1950s. In the 1950s Maime and Dwight Eisenhower were Presbyterians, who made a point every week of being seen going to worship at a Presbyterian Church, and wanting be like Ike, everyone went to Worship on Sunday morning. We as human beings tend to follow a herd mentality, that wherever is popular must be the best, rather than questioning and thinking for ourselves: What brings us joy? What fills us? Where are we needed?
Speaking with retired colleagues, they describe Sunday mornings when there was nothing else to do, and everyone went to church. In truth, I would rather be in this time, when people are in worship because they are concerned about their children, and their parents, and their spouse, and their marriage and their cancer, in short because our faith questions and fears are real, not because church is popular.
I would also confess to a certain joy and challenge of serving this congregation, for we do have members who were the inventors of CocoaPuffs, and Underoo Training Pants with Superheroes, who were responsible for making the ethical decision to pull Tylenol from the shelves when it was discovered there had been tampering (that for thirty years became the standard for businesses making moral and ethical decisions), we do have the grandchildren of the Neibuhrs, and of Karl Barth. Barth in the 1920s wrote the dogmatics of what we as Christians believe. Among these was a phrase he enjoyed using that our Theology (our faith in What we believe) is our Prayers, and our Prayers are our Theology.
We live in a world of soundbytes, as if it is assumed we cannot remember ideas, we cannot follow an argument, we only recall phrases taken out of context, which is why commercials bombard us with the same words over and over. “It's HUGE!”, “Mmm Good”, “Just Do It”, “The Real Thing”, “This is Jeopardy”.
We recall each separate phrase of the Lord's Prayer individually, rather than hearing the whole, within the context of the Gospel. Luke's Gospel and Matthew's report the setting of the Lord's Prayer differently. Not the distinction between Debts and Trespasses, not whether to end Forever or Forever and ever, but the setting.
Luke was preaching to first generation non-believer Gentiles who had become Christian converts, and the Lord's Prayer comes in response to the disciples asking Jesus How to Pray? We know how to fish, we know how to cook, in order to believe in God teach us to pray.
Matthew's Gospel is different. Matthew was preaching to those who like the first Disciples had been Jewish, those like ourselves who were trying to figure out what it meant not simply to be born in a culture that claims to believe, but personally, sincerely to believe.
LENT is an experiment for us. For less than two months to try something different. Not to go through the motions of each day, following routine of what is expected, but intentionally choosing each day to do something because of your faith.
Last evening for many of us, gave us a challenge: What would it be to live a day without electricity? What would it be for a day, to fast, that is avoiding all food, so that when we eat we do so because we want and desire, rather than out of the routine of the clock.
What would it be for a day to stop and pray seven times throughout the day, not to be distracted, not to be listening to music, but to pray naming to ourselves and God what is important, what we need, what we fear, what are our temptations, what are we thankful for having in our lives.
Rather than seeing how long you can go without food, or without chocolate, or creating a resolution for the new year, each and every day resolve to live faithfully, resolve to live differently.
Go for a walk in the woods in the snow.
Walk out on the Lake, realizing you are able to walk on water.
Instead of avoiding the Mystery, instead of Being wary of Practicing Piety, intentionally acting in Faith, but not so others will see, do it because it matters to you.
While we each do, consider these three questions:
What is there in what I do that brings Joy, to myself or to others?
Does it Fill us and Feed our soul, or does it simply satisfy for the moment, occupy time, or even suck the joy from others?
Where Are we Needed? Years ago, I remember listening to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Catholic Bishop Rembert Weakland, as they described where we are needed. They described, trying to help others to fulfill their calling, trying to work in partnership to include others, but when no one else is willing, when there is a Calling that must be done, realize you are needed and do it.
Matthew 6
The Bulletin's description of this passage from Matthew, was limited by how many letters you can fit across a page, so instead of saying “Beware of Practicing Your Piety Before Others SO as To be Noticed” it read “Beware of Practicing Piety”, which actually is more like what we do. We are so afraid of being perceived to be different, of being thought to be overly zealous, that we AVOID MYSTERY, we refrain from practicing faith at all. We equate faith in God with Worship Sunday morning, ignoring that the Early Christian Church and the time of the Reformation also practiced Prayer and Bible Study, and Fasting and doing Mission, and Pilgrimages or the Walking of the Labyrinth, as equal to Worship.
Within our lifetimes, churches around the world have lost membership and decreased in worship attendance. Actually, our church, this church has increased in membership each year for the last 15, in spite of periodically cleaning roles; though our definitions of membership and our attendance patterns have decreased dramatically from the 1950s. In the 1950s Maime and Dwight Eisenhower were Presbyterians, who made a point every week of being seen going to worship at a Presbyterian Church, and wanting be like Ike, everyone went to Worship on Sunday morning. We as human beings tend to follow a herd mentality, that wherever is popular must be the best, rather than questioning and thinking for ourselves: What brings us joy? What fills us? Where are we needed?
Speaking with retired colleagues, they describe Sunday mornings when there was nothing else to do, and everyone went to church. In truth, I would rather be in this time, when people are in worship because they are concerned about their children, and their parents, and their spouse, and their marriage and their cancer, in short because our faith questions and fears are real, not because church is popular.
I would also confess to a certain joy and challenge of serving this congregation, for we do have members who were the inventors of CocoaPuffs, and Underoo Training Pants with Superheroes, who were responsible for making the ethical decision to pull Tylenol from the shelves when it was discovered there had been tampering (that for thirty years became the standard for businesses making moral and ethical decisions), we do have the grandchildren of the Neibuhrs, and of Karl Barth. Barth in the 1920s wrote the dogmatics of what we as Christians believe. Among these was a phrase he enjoyed using that our Theology (our faith in What we believe) is our Prayers, and our Prayers are our Theology.
We live in a world of soundbytes, as if it is assumed we cannot remember ideas, we cannot follow an argument, we only recall phrases taken out of context, which is why commercials bombard us with the same words over and over. “It's HUGE!”, “Mmm Good”, “Just Do It”, “The Real Thing”, “This is Jeopardy”.
We recall each separate phrase of the Lord's Prayer individually, rather than hearing the whole, within the context of the Gospel. Luke's Gospel and Matthew's report the setting of the Lord's Prayer differently. Not the distinction between Debts and Trespasses, not whether to end Forever or Forever and ever, but the setting.
Luke was preaching to first generation non-believer Gentiles who had become Christian converts, and the Lord's Prayer comes in response to the disciples asking Jesus How to Pray? We know how to fish, we know how to cook, in order to believe in God teach us to pray.
Matthew's Gospel is different. Matthew was preaching to those who like the first Disciples had been Jewish, those like ourselves who were trying to figure out what it meant not simply to be born in a culture that claims to believe, but personally, sincerely to believe.
LENT is an experiment for us. For less than two months to try something different. Not to go through the motions of each day, following routine of what is expected, but intentionally choosing each day to do something because of your faith.
Last evening for many of us, gave us a challenge: What would it be to live a day without electricity? What would it be for a day, to fast, that is avoiding all food, so that when we eat we do so because we want and desire, rather than out of the routine of the clock.
What would it be for a day to stop and pray seven times throughout the day, not to be distracted, not to be listening to music, but to pray naming to ourselves and God what is important, what we need, what we fear, what are our temptations, what are we thankful for having in our lives.
Rather than seeing how long you can go without food, or without chocolate, or creating a resolution for the new year, each and every day resolve to live faithfully, resolve to live differently.
Go for a walk in the woods in the snow.
Walk out on the Lake, realizing you are able to walk on water.
Instead of avoiding the Mystery, instead of Being wary of Practicing Piety, intentionally acting in Faith, but not so others will see, do it because it matters to you.
While we each do, consider these three questions:
What is there in what I do that brings Joy, to myself or to others?
Does it Fill us and Feed our soul, or does it simply satisfy for the moment, occupy time, or even suck the joy from others?
Where Are we Needed? Years ago, I remember listening to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Catholic Bishop Rembert Weakland, as they described where we are needed. They described, trying to help others to fulfill their calling, trying to work in partnership to include others, but when no one else is willing, when there is a Calling that must be done, realize you are needed and do it.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Cash for Anxieties, February 14, 2010
Exodus 34
Luke 9
Following the Exodus from Slavery, from Egypt, from Pharaoh, across the Red Sea, God spoke to the people from Mount Sinai with Lightning and Thunder, Clouds and Smoke, and they were filled with fear. Moses went up the mountain and was gone for too long a time, the people became anxious, filled with anxiety and fears. So Aaron directed the people to take off all their gold and jewels and he would melt it down, making for them a calf of gold, and they could put all their fears and doubts and worries on this thing as an offering. For a very short time, it appeared to work, as they had bound their anxiety to the price of this thing, giving their gold of great value and their worries to someone else. For all of us, when we are anxious, when we are lonely or afraid, we have a tendency to buy stuff, in hopes of being full, in expectation that this jewelry, this painting, this car, this house will quench and satisfy our emptiness. But only for a very short time. Our anxiety and fears and doubts and life are still with us.
Due to the economy, the recession, the wars, due to cancers and earthquakes that strike without warning and hundreds of thousands are killed, we are a people filled with fears, with anxieties. We worry about our success and doubt our future, we worry about our survival, the future of our children and grandchildren and what life will be like for them. So it is that companies have again been created, that guarantee if you take all your anxieties and old, worn out, useless gold and jewelry and place it in this bag, placing the bag in this envelope and the envelope in the US Mail, sending it away to this address, you will in return receive a check of MONEY, money for your worthless gold and anxieties, money that you can use for whatever you desire.
But recently, people have questioned, that when melted down the ring loses the artist's craftsmanship. If a painting were valued at the cost of materials: paint and canvas, a wooden frame, it would have far less value than a Cessane, or Rembrandt or Picasso. If a valentine is only pieces of paper glued together, we lose the value of the five year old's affection. If a ring is only a ring, the engagement and marriage are just stuff. The atrocities of Auschwitz and Hiroshimo and the Soviet gulag's were possible because humanity lost our humanity, as a people of God we lost faith in the divine. Human life became cheap, human subjects to be experimented upon and used, rather than seeing in one another a glimpse of the glory of God. Medical Ethics was fostered out of the Neuremberg trials, that there are limits to what can and should be done in the name of Science and research. Among these limits are that the persons involved be fully informed and consent to what is going to take place, but even more that we preserve the God given humanity of all persons. Regardless of race, or poverty, or sex, or intellectual capacity, whether orphan or lame, all people, all life is sacred.
After the people had sent their gold and fears to Aaron to make the Golden Calf, Moses came down the mountain with the Tablets of the 10 Commandments, witnessing that the people had already worshipped other gods, had made idols to worship, had profaned the name of God, and profaned the Sabbath, Moses broke the tablets of stone as well as the Calf of gold calling the people to repent. Moses spent time with the people holding them accountable for what they had done. Then Moses went back up the mountain to be one with God, Moses witnessed where God had been and what God had done. GOD FORGAVE THE PEOPLE AS AN ACT OF GRACE. God made for Moses new tablets of the commandments to take to the people, and Moses came down the mountain. Having witnessed the glory of God, having been present with God, receiving God's grace for the people, Moses' face glowed with the glory of God, glowed so much that people were distracted by the glow rather than the power of their relationship with God.
The Reformation was an essential corrective event. The Church had become identified with numerous practices that denied people faith in God. The Reformation was a pivotal event in affirming that all people, royal and common, rich and poor need access to education, to be able to read the Bible for themselves. But in the Reformation a great divide was formed, between the Protestant Churches which placed greater emphasis on the Sermon, on understanding and applying the Word of God; versus the Orthodox Churches that placed greater emphasis on the Mystery of experiencing Life as a gift of God. There are often times, when as a preacher, I am afraid people hear and better remember what I said in the Sermon, than what the Scriptures themselves revealed. There are times in which we recall the pairing of lessons, like Moses' face shone coming down the mountain and on top of the mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus was transfigured his raiment glowing whiter than any fuller's soap, and we recall the pairing of shiny faces better than the individual stories or their meaning.
The context of this mountaintop experience of Jesus' Transfiguration, is that Jesus had called his disciples, they had fed 5000, he had healed people who were blind and deaf and lame. They had been walking together, when Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was. Some said Moses, some Elijah, some John the Baptist raised from the dead, and Simon Peter named for the first time: “You are the Christ, the Messiah, God with us”. And Jesus had responded, “And being God with us means, I must be sacrificed by God, and suffer and die, for the redemption of the world.” And according to the text, Eight Days later they went up the mountain.
The Baptism of Jesus we remember, in part because we are all baptized. In his being Washed clean of Sin, we are; in his receiving of the Holy Spirit as a Dove, we do.
The Last Supper of Jesus with the Disciples we remember, because we gather at the Table and claim our brokenness as well as our hope of forgiveness.
The TRANSFIGURATION is hard for us, because it requires that we identify with the Glory of God. Jesus went up the Mountain, and was seen to be talking with Moses and Elijah about that which is holy his being used by God as a sacrifice for us, his suffering and dying, at which point he is God among us.
How odd, that in recent decades, there has been great effort at trying to identify the Historical Jesus, whether as a common man, the son of a Jewish Carpenter of Galilee who was one among the hundreds of thousands executed by crucifixion by the Empire of Rome, he could have actually been. Research as to which among all that is written in the Gospels and Church records are the historic words of Jesus. Rather than trying to experience that glory, the holiness of knowing you have come for a purpose, and that Divine purpose is to redeem and forgive.
The point of TRANSFIGURATION is not the afterglow, that Moses' Face shone, or Jesus was Transfigured, but that on the Mountaintop Moses became so close with God as to have that glory, that Jesus identifying with having come to give his life for all the world would embody that glory. Surely, there would have been temptation for Moses NEVER to come down, to remain on that Mountain with God, but doing so, the people of God would never have known we are forgiven, would never have received the 10 Commandments. Simon Peter immediately in the stupor of sleep suggests, we should build three resting places here, to stay up on top of the mountain. But if they had, no one would have ever known the glory of God in Christ who did come to forgive us.
The way we cope with our anxiety and fears, is NOT to put them in a bag, inside and envelope and sell them for money... because rightly, everything in life would lose value and be reduced to stuff. But the Valentine from a five year old does have meaning, because of the child's affection. The painting is far more valuable than the paint and canvas. The ring is priceless, not because it is made with precious metals, but because it is encrusted with all our hopes and dreams, the love and commitment of one for another.
Luke 9
Following the Exodus from Slavery, from Egypt, from Pharaoh, across the Red Sea, God spoke to the people from Mount Sinai with Lightning and Thunder, Clouds and Smoke, and they were filled with fear. Moses went up the mountain and was gone for too long a time, the people became anxious, filled with anxiety and fears. So Aaron directed the people to take off all their gold and jewels and he would melt it down, making for them a calf of gold, and they could put all their fears and doubts and worries on this thing as an offering. For a very short time, it appeared to work, as they had bound their anxiety to the price of this thing, giving their gold of great value and their worries to someone else. For all of us, when we are anxious, when we are lonely or afraid, we have a tendency to buy stuff, in hopes of being full, in expectation that this jewelry, this painting, this car, this house will quench and satisfy our emptiness. But only for a very short time. Our anxiety and fears and doubts and life are still with us.
Due to the economy, the recession, the wars, due to cancers and earthquakes that strike without warning and hundreds of thousands are killed, we are a people filled with fears, with anxieties. We worry about our success and doubt our future, we worry about our survival, the future of our children and grandchildren and what life will be like for them. So it is that companies have again been created, that guarantee if you take all your anxieties and old, worn out, useless gold and jewelry and place it in this bag, placing the bag in this envelope and the envelope in the US Mail, sending it away to this address, you will in return receive a check of MONEY, money for your worthless gold and anxieties, money that you can use for whatever you desire.
But recently, people have questioned, that when melted down the ring loses the artist's craftsmanship. If a painting were valued at the cost of materials: paint and canvas, a wooden frame, it would have far less value than a Cessane, or Rembrandt or Picasso. If a valentine is only pieces of paper glued together, we lose the value of the five year old's affection. If a ring is only a ring, the engagement and marriage are just stuff. The atrocities of Auschwitz and Hiroshimo and the Soviet gulag's were possible because humanity lost our humanity, as a people of God we lost faith in the divine. Human life became cheap, human subjects to be experimented upon and used, rather than seeing in one another a glimpse of the glory of God. Medical Ethics was fostered out of the Neuremberg trials, that there are limits to what can and should be done in the name of Science and research. Among these limits are that the persons involved be fully informed and consent to what is going to take place, but even more that we preserve the God given humanity of all persons. Regardless of race, or poverty, or sex, or intellectual capacity, whether orphan or lame, all people, all life is sacred.
After the people had sent their gold and fears to Aaron to make the Golden Calf, Moses came down the mountain with the Tablets of the 10 Commandments, witnessing that the people had already worshipped other gods, had made idols to worship, had profaned the name of God, and profaned the Sabbath, Moses broke the tablets of stone as well as the Calf of gold calling the people to repent. Moses spent time with the people holding them accountable for what they had done. Then Moses went back up the mountain to be one with God, Moses witnessed where God had been and what God had done. GOD FORGAVE THE PEOPLE AS AN ACT OF GRACE. God made for Moses new tablets of the commandments to take to the people, and Moses came down the mountain. Having witnessed the glory of God, having been present with God, receiving God's grace for the people, Moses' face glowed with the glory of God, glowed so much that people were distracted by the glow rather than the power of their relationship with God.
The Reformation was an essential corrective event. The Church had become identified with numerous practices that denied people faith in God. The Reformation was a pivotal event in affirming that all people, royal and common, rich and poor need access to education, to be able to read the Bible for themselves. But in the Reformation a great divide was formed, between the Protestant Churches which placed greater emphasis on the Sermon, on understanding and applying the Word of God; versus the Orthodox Churches that placed greater emphasis on the Mystery of experiencing Life as a gift of God. There are often times, when as a preacher, I am afraid people hear and better remember what I said in the Sermon, than what the Scriptures themselves revealed. There are times in which we recall the pairing of lessons, like Moses' face shone coming down the mountain and on top of the mountain with Peter, James and John, Jesus was transfigured his raiment glowing whiter than any fuller's soap, and we recall the pairing of shiny faces better than the individual stories or their meaning.
The context of this mountaintop experience of Jesus' Transfiguration, is that Jesus had called his disciples, they had fed 5000, he had healed people who were blind and deaf and lame. They had been walking together, when Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was. Some said Moses, some Elijah, some John the Baptist raised from the dead, and Simon Peter named for the first time: “You are the Christ, the Messiah, God with us”. And Jesus had responded, “And being God with us means, I must be sacrificed by God, and suffer and die, for the redemption of the world.” And according to the text, Eight Days later they went up the mountain.
The Baptism of Jesus we remember, in part because we are all baptized. In his being Washed clean of Sin, we are; in his receiving of the Holy Spirit as a Dove, we do.
The Last Supper of Jesus with the Disciples we remember, because we gather at the Table and claim our brokenness as well as our hope of forgiveness.
The TRANSFIGURATION is hard for us, because it requires that we identify with the Glory of God. Jesus went up the Mountain, and was seen to be talking with Moses and Elijah about that which is holy his being used by God as a sacrifice for us, his suffering and dying, at which point he is God among us.
How odd, that in recent decades, there has been great effort at trying to identify the Historical Jesus, whether as a common man, the son of a Jewish Carpenter of Galilee who was one among the hundreds of thousands executed by crucifixion by the Empire of Rome, he could have actually been. Research as to which among all that is written in the Gospels and Church records are the historic words of Jesus. Rather than trying to experience that glory, the holiness of knowing you have come for a purpose, and that Divine purpose is to redeem and forgive.
The point of TRANSFIGURATION is not the afterglow, that Moses' Face shone, or Jesus was Transfigured, but that on the Mountaintop Moses became so close with God as to have that glory, that Jesus identifying with having come to give his life for all the world would embody that glory. Surely, there would have been temptation for Moses NEVER to come down, to remain on that Mountain with God, but doing so, the people of God would never have known we are forgiven, would never have received the 10 Commandments. Simon Peter immediately in the stupor of sleep suggests, we should build three resting places here, to stay up on top of the mountain. But if they had, no one would have ever known the glory of God in Christ who did come to forgive us.
The way we cope with our anxiety and fears, is NOT to put them in a bag, inside and envelope and sell them for money... because rightly, everything in life would lose value and be reduced to stuff. But the Valentine from a five year old does have meaning, because of the child's affection. The painting is far more valuable than the paint and canvas. The ring is priceless, not because it is made with precious metals, but because it is encrusted with all our hopes and dreams, the love and commitment of one for another.
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