John 21:1-9
Acts 17:22-34
When Simon Peter heard that it was the LORD, he PUT ON SOME CLOTHES for he was NAKED, and jumped into the sea. There are portions of the Scriptures which make reason self-apparent, Noah saw that it had rained for 40 Nights and 40 Days, so prayed! Jesus looked out upon the crowds and saw that they were hungry so fed them. But this, this is idiotic! Any parent who has taken a toddler to Diaper-Dippers in the Pool knows that once cloth gets wet it sinks like a stone. High school swimmers shave their leg and arm hair, even their heads, to have less friction and absorbency in the water. So why What is the Scriptures trying to tell us, that Simon Peter heard that it was the LORD, he PUT ON SOME CLOTHES for he was NAKED, in order to swim to shore?
The other parts of this narrative seem to follow such clear logic and reason. Days after the resurrection, Simon Peter was feeling depressed and despondent, so wanted something familiar, a place to think, and he went fishing. Understanding that Peter was depressed and despondent, the other disciples did not allow him to go alone but said “We are going too.” How often, when someone dies, we all rally round, we are there for the burial and the weeks immediately after, but we cannot live in that hyper-vigilance forever, and it is at those times, when after the resurrection has happened that life and faith and all relationships become hard.
There was a family, whose husband/father died, and afterward the wife and her adult daughter were out to dinner, when the mother looked around and declared “I can tell every person in this restaurant, by whether they are married or dating!” The daughter was slightly embarrassed, but also curious, and asked “How?” To which her mother said, “Those who are dating are asking questions and talking together, the married couples are silent.” and after a pause, she said “I miss sharing the silence with your father.”
Being stripped down for work, catching nothing and having Jesus declare “Throw your nets on the other side”, even coming ashore to have Jesus walk along beside Peter saying “Feed my sheep”, all is reasonable and follows logic, so why, why when Simon Peter heard that it was the LORD, did he PUT ON SOME CLOTHES for he was NAKED to jump into the Sea? Why not Skinnydip, and swim to shore? There must be something about putting on clothes to swim we do not yet understand.
Leaving Peter naked in the boat, or clothed and swimming to shore,... We turn to Paul, who at this point in Acts has made his way to Athens, to the Areopagus, the center of Logic and Reason, of Socrates and Plato and Philosophy.Throughout human history, there has been a dichotomy, between thought and spirit, between philosophy and religion, between what can be proven by logic and reason, and by what defies logic and must be accepted on faith, adhered to as Covenant or LAW. Typical of discussions of Religion and Politics, Paul quickly gets into a series of arguments. Being a people who love debate, they have Paul come to the Square, where he can explain himself and this new means of knowing.
So often today, we begin as adversaries, with a binomial understanding that the answer must be either 1 or Zero, Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal. There is no middle ground, no grey area, all who are not for us, must surely be against us, we know one another's trigger and immediately go for the jugular. Yet this is not where Paul begins. In trying to meet people where they are, he starts out, “I perceive you are a people who are SEARCHING for MEANING, for UNDERSTANDING.” As I wandered about, I saw idols to everything in your creation, statues to the Greek Gods and statues to the Gods of Rome, to Music, to Love, to Art, to War, to Medicine, even a Statue to the Unknown. He identifies with the Athenians in their quest to understand, to believe and know with certainty and where that certainty is limited to believe in what is beyond our grasp. Are there any among us who have never stood in awe of what is beyond our ability to control? How a newborn infant has cuticles and eye lashes? How from the moment of their birth they know their mother's and father's voices, and how amidst of crowd, a parent can identify their own child's cry? Have you never sat in the presence of one who is dying, and known the peace and wonder of that acceptance. Not the warring struggle against entering into that long goodnight, but the peace of the ages, the comfort of knowing you are part of something far larger than yourself, part of all creation.
Paul's argument then shifts from Searching and Seeking after what is beyond our grasp, to what is known all around us. As powerful as are the greatest armies of war, there is a greater destructive force in Earthquake, Fire and Tornado. Have you ever waded into the waters and realized how small we are, how insignificant? How alive the water of moving creek-bed and lake, even the smell of living earth? Have you ever walked in the woods and in that absolute quiet, known you were not alone? Have you stared up at the heavens losing track of the sheer number of stars, each a universe unto itself? Have you seen a comet, or a storm of dying stars? Have you witnessed the divinity of a rainbow, or the aurora borealis dance in the northern sky?
Having met the philosophers of Greece in Seeking and Searching after what is beyond knowing; having shared in what we do know and the divinity of life all around us; Paul ratchets the argument one deeper. For while the three year old may be able to tell us the mystery that “God is in The Rainbow”; or the hunter may be able to identify with God's Sanctuary that is a mountaintop; Christian faith is about more than what we feel, see and hear and touch and taste; more than what human minds can ever know or reason to be unknowable; Christian Faith is grounded in the reality that the Creator and Judge, this unknowable GOD loves us, loves us so much as to become one with us in life and death, demonstrating that death does not part us from God, not ever. At this point, many scoffed, because faith is illogical and unreasonable. But where he did not convince all the world, Paul's witness, his own story of having been a thug, a gang member who terrorized and beat those who stood up to him, who one day was brought to his knees by the love of God, his blindness, his weakness, his vulnerability became Paul's greatest strength of faith, his story touched the lives of individual believers.
Maybe that is it! NOT that Simon Peter PUT ON SOME CLOTHES to jump into the Sea, but that finally Simon Peter who always leapt at having the answer who wanted to demonstrate his knowledge and his wisdom, and his control, in that morning after a long night of catching nothing, FINALLY saw what ADAM and EVE had first witnessed, that in their humanity, in their sin, they were NAKED before the LORD. Before he could stand before the Lord, before he could leap to swim to get to him, Peter KNEW HE WAS NAKED and put on some clothes.
Why the number 153 FISH? Some scholars claim there is relevance in abstract numerology. That if you multiply 15 times 10 and cube the number, numbers which added together equal 153, but given these mathematic formula you arrive at the number of days until the end of time. But then you would also need to add the 5 fish caught in Peter's clothing that represent another five months or else the date would be in error!
When Simon Peter reached the shore, Jesus had a charcoal fire burning. When we were younger, we would go swimming and afterward, chilled to the bone would stand beside a roaring fire to dry out the cold wetness. Have you ever? And the warmth of the fire, the crackling and popping of the flames, the smell of smoke reminds you of other fires. The last time, Simon Peter was recorded as being beside a fire was the night of Jesus' arrest, as first one, then another and finally a third asked: “Did you know him? Are you one of them? Are you one of his disciples because you are a Galilean?” and Peter had denied Jesus three times. Walking along the shore, clothed in heavy wet coverings, as Jesus asked of Peter three times “Do You LOVE Me?” is re-enactment of the worst sins of his life, but it is no longer the isolation and loneliness of night, it is the dawn and this time, three times, he gets it right!
Sometimes in order to witness a revelation, the truth must be naked right before our eyes. To some it will appear as non-sense, defying their binary sense of either you are a 1 or a Zero. To some the revelation will be illogical. Some will try to dress it up and hide the truth. But in our experiences, in our relationships of life, we know more than SEARCHING, and more even than the divinity of RAINBOWS, we know the FORGIVENESS and love of God.
There is a Post-Script in the Gospel of John, a PS. After covering himself, after swimming to shore, after standing beside the fire, after Jesus asking for his Confession of Faith Three Times, Simon Peter looks over his shoulder and asks “So what about him?” Peter, like Jesus, and Stephen, and so many others, died as Martyrs, dying for what they believed in. What about those who simply Love, and live their faith without dying for it? To which, Jesus responds “What is that to you? Follow me!” I have to believe that there are those who by their death witness what they believed. Soldiers on the battle field. Politicians who gave their life to public service. The women and men who brought down the plane in a field rather than allowing a fourth target to be taken by terrorists. Martin Luther King Jr. There are also among us, those who by the living of their lives have demonstrated what it is to live what we believe. I fondly recall my father describing the Ordained ministry, as a vocation where you work every holiday and weekend, and get phone calls at home, there is no such thing as a day-off. But that at weddings and births and deaths, we are privileged to be there. I would add to this, and to Paul's testimony to Illogic at the Areopagus, that faith can be standing alone when people call you all manner of different names, when they sue you, and when you have to stand alone even against those whom you have called friend; but that at times we are able to see the lost come home, the prodigal return, and we create a new relationship in the silence of being together, feeding the lambs.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
"Our Parents' House", May 22, 2011
John 14:1-14
Acts 6:8-7:6 & 7:35-60
Each of us have an image of our Parents' House, our ancestral home. For some, it was that place we longed to leave, to grow up/ away from. To get out on our own, to explore freedoms and diversity, without having to be responsible to sisters, brothers, parents, neighbors, and expectations. To others, our Parents' House was where we belonged and still long to return. As one of our earliest and most redundant set of memories, our Parent's House is hardwired into us with accompanying rooms, smells and music. Our Parents' Room, always neat with the bed made/the scent of Face Powder and Old Spice, the sound of Easy Listening Music. The Baby's room with the smells of Baby Powder and Diaper Pails, the sound of tinkling Lullabies. Sisters' room with Noxema and Chanel #5 and Blondie, or PINK. Older Brothers' with the smell of Sneakers and Right Guard, tripping over piles of clothes and Heavy Metal Music. And the Eldest sibling's room in the basement, that each of the others longed to possess; only as adults to revisit, wondering why a damp basement, with poor lighting, the neon light of a Fish tank, the constant squeek of a hamster wheel and the sounds of the Washer and Dryer, were so enticing? In our Parents' House there was a place for each of us, where we knew we had always belonged. Our Home.
Our family moved several times, so the lakefront home we lived in every summer was the House that stayed with us over time. There was no television, only One bathroom, so amongst all the swimming, one dip in the lake each day was with soap and shampoo. We played games and read books and talked beneath the stars. Family and friends would each come to our Parents' House for a week at a time. Older siblings' groups of friends loved visiting so much, that after the brother had gone to California, the group of friends still came without him. Often times, it seemed we entertained so many guests, that half the family waved goodbye to one group, while the other half greeted those arriving. Lots of family remembrances about living in our Parents' House with many rooms, one of which was our place. There was one rule, we all knew implicitly without it ever being spoken, that in front of guests, there could be No fighting. I do not know if it was the fear that without television, and only one bathroom, who knew what the parents might threaten to take away if we misbehaved; but there was understanding that shame would be brought on the whole family if we fought in front of others.
That is how this passage from Acts begins, with a dispute between family members, in front of Others. In these early years, the number of new disciples had grown with enthusiasm, both Greek and Hebrew speaking were part of the body of Christ, as Peter had described in his Sermon, no longer are their differences between Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free, Parthians, Medes, Cretans and residents of Mesopotamia. The Christian community had continued meeting at the Jewish places of worship and feasting, because the disciples had all been Jewish and had seen no reason to leave what was familiar. Explicit throughout Luke and Acts, is that being part of Christ requires different behavior from us, than is routine among Others in the world. Luke is the evangelist who gave us the story of the GOOD SAMARITAN. Throughout this continuation of the Gospel, when confronted with those we differ, when confronted with those we disagree, our responsibility is NOT to try to stone them to death, not to beat them into submission, not to try to win, not even to outlast their endurance, but rather to demonstrate the kindness of the Samaritan who though hated by others acts in compassion.
In this description, the Greek Speaking and the Hebrew Speaking Christians and all the Others, act as creatures do when concerned with their survival. The Greek speaking Christians were frustrated that the Disciples were not providing as much pastoral care to their widows and orphans, as to the Hebrew speaking Christians. In the world, in school, among neighbors, at work, affinity groups/cliques routinely form, that is natural. But when different groups are treated differently, it is a responsibility of leadership to make certain those in need, are cared for. Consequently, in this story, the leaders accept responsibility! We do need to be doing more in Pastoral Care, particularly for the widows and orphans, spreading the Word of God rather than waiting Tables.
The pain of the ministry is that we enter seminary and seek to be ordained in order to Nurture People's Faith, to do Ministry, and most often we are involved in administration and programs and meetings. I understand this and have learned to be quite adept at administration, programs, ministry and leadership, but if you ask a pastor what they long to do, it is to minister; if you ask a preacher, it is to preach. The conclusion of the disciples is to have the community elect additional leaders to serve as Deacons, to do what ever is necessary for the Disciples to fulfill the Word of God, which includes caring for all the community in pastoral care.
Luke's point is that this is “leadership”, this is taking responsibility for a problem and ensuring basic pastoral care occurs. But all that is prelude. For as soon as Stephen is ordained he is bated and accused as having blasphemed against God and the Law. When asked for a defense, Stephen provides one of the most eloquent and thorough recitations of the history of the people of God seeking to make themselves God, seeking to control God, and God seeking to love. But the people seeking to win, to dominate, the crowd took up stones to put him to death as a mob. Make no mistake about it, this is the Crucifixion being played out all over again in Acts, except that at the center is not Jesus, it is a follower of Jesus. Stephen acted as the Samaritan, who takes the abuse of others and offers healing and forgiveness.
There are probably no more problematic and divisive words spoken by Jesus than Jesus saying “No one comes to the FATHER EXCEPT BY ME”. Do we not believe in one, absolute and Sovereign God, Alpha and Omega? Had Jesus not only just stated that in my Father's House and many rooms. How do we put the two together? Pay attention to the particular words, Jesus used. He did not say “NO ONE COMES TO GOD EXCEPT BY ME”. Of all the different religions of the world, Judaism claims that we come to God by ADHERENCE TO THE LAW. Islam claims coming to God through STUDY OF THE KORAN. Buddhism one comes to God by SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT. Christianity, begins with the INCARNATION, that Jesus was God's ONLY begotten child, the only one who identified God as Father. Therefore, the only way to THE FATHER, is by Jesus. His words are not dismissive or blasphemous against other faiths, but rather that there is a place for us. Recognition that to each us, our room had no odor, and no mess, it was ours. While clothes and toys may have been in piles on the floor, everything was where we knew. It made sense to us, just as making the bed, shaving in a mirror and using Old Spice, or wearing gloves made sense to our fathers and mothers.
In our earlier description, every room had a different style of music. Music is unique to people. The question becomes how we judge, and whether we can admire and appreciate one another's choices.
The Romance Pianist: Franz Liszt was the 1800's version of a Rock Star! Liszt was flamboyant, for those over 40 he was the equivalent of Elvis and the Beatles rolled into one, for those under 40 Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, the Cast of Glee! Liszt thundered on the piano. Women would throw their silk gloves. Women and men would faint at the passion of his music. All across Europe, his concerts were sold out. Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, Liszt disappeared. It was said, he had had a break-down, his own description was that he had found God, or God had found him. His music changed radically, his lifestyle changed, he gave away all that he had. Rather than performing for sold-out amphitheaters, Franz Liszt delighted in offering piano lessons to the poor and to children. In Franz Liszt's last days he began work on a composition called “Out of the Depths”, and for days he pounded out these frenetic passages, each contrasting and tormenting the other, until gradually working themselves out in Shalom. Franz Liszt had a daughter who was married to the Anti-Semitic German Composer Wagner, who hearing his Father-in-law night after night going from frenzy and torment into calm and gentleness, is remembered as describing that Liszt had gone insane. The difficulty of any musician judging another, is which is the sane: Frenzy being resolved into Shalom; or the dominant, unrepentant , anti-Semitism of a Wagner?
Eric Clapton, arguably the greatest living rock guitarist, had a four year old son who fell from a 53 story window. Clapton took nine months off and when he returned his music had changed. The hardship had made his music softer, more powerful, and more reflective. You have perhaps heard the song he wrote about his son's death. It is a poignant song of hope:
Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on, 'Cause I know I don't belong, here in heaven.
Would you hold my hand, if I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand, if I saw you in heaven?
I'll find my way through night and day, 'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven.
Time can bring you down; time can bend your knees.
Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please.
Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure, And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.
Like Stephen, we seek to do more than provide leadership in the community.
We seek to LOVE GOD with our whole Heart and Mind and Soul and Strength, and
to BE NEIGHBOR to one another, like the SAMARITAN, even as it means suffering for others.
For we know that this life is not all there is, Christ has gone before us, to create a PLACE FOR US, a ROOM OF OUR OWN within OUR FATHER'S HOUSE.
Acts 6:8-7:6 & 7:35-60
Each of us have an image of our Parents' House, our ancestral home. For some, it was that place we longed to leave, to grow up/ away from. To get out on our own, to explore freedoms and diversity, without having to be responsible to sisters, brothers, parents, neighbors, and expectations. To others, our Parents' House was where we belonged and still long to return. As one of our earliest and most redundant set of memories, our Parent's House is hardwired into us with accompanying rooms, smells and music. Our Parents' Room, always neat with the bed made/the scent of Face Powder and Old Spice, the sound of Easy Listening Music. The Baby's room with the smells of Baby Powder and Diaper Pails, the sound of tinkling Lullabies. Sisters' room with Noxema and Chanel #5 and Blondie, or PINK. Older Brothers' with the smell of Sneakers and Right Guard, tripping over piles of clothes and Heavy Metal Music. And the Eldest sibling's room in the basement, that each of the others longed to possess; only as adults to revisit, wondering why a damp basement, with poor lighting, the neon light of a Fish tank, the constant squeek of a hamster wheel and the sounds of the Washer and Dryer, were so enticing? In our Parents' House there was a place for each of us, where we knew we had always belonged. Our Home.
Our family moved several times, so the lakefront home we lived in every summer was the House that stayed with us over time. There was no television, only One bathroom, so amongst all the swimming, one dip in the lake each day was with soap and shampoo. We played games and read books and talked beneath the stars. Family and friends would each come to our Parents' House for a week at a time. Older siblings' groups of friends loved visiting so much, that after the brother had gone to California, the group of friends still came without him. Often times, it seemed we entertained so many guests, that half the family waved goodbye to one group, while the other half greeted those arriving. Lots of family remembrances about living in our Parents' House with many rooms, one of which was our place. There was one rule, we all knew implicitly without it ever being spoken, that in front of guests, there could be No fighting. I do not know if it was the fear that without television, and only one bathroom, who knew what the parents might threaten to take away if we misbehaved; but there was understanding that shame would be brought on the whole family if we fought in front of others.
That is how this passage from Acts begins, with a dispute between family members, in front of Others. In these early years, the number of new disciples had grown with enthusiasm, both Greek and Hebrew speaking were part of the body of Christ, as Peter had described in his Sermon, no longer are their differences between Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free, Parthians, Medes, Cretans and residents of Mesopotamia. The Christian community had continued meeting at the Jewish places of worship and feasting, because the disciples had all been Jewish and had seen no reason to leave what was familiar. Explicit throughout Luke and Acts, is that being part of Christ requires different behavior from us, than is routine among Others in the world. Luke is the evangelist who gave us the story of the GOOD SAMARITAN. Throughout this continuation of the Gospel, when confronted with those we differ, when confronted with those we disagree, our responsibility is NOT to try to stone them to death, not to beat them into submission, not to try to win, not even to outlast their endurance, but rather to demonstrate the kindness of the Samaritan who though hated by others acts in compassion.
In this description, the Greek Speaking and the Hebrew Speaking Christians and all the Others, act as creatures do when concerned with their survival. The Greek speaking Christians were frustrated that the Disciples were not providing as much pastoral care to their widows and orphans, as to the Hebrew speaking Christians. In the world, in school, among neighbors, at work, affinity groups/cliques routinely form, that is natural. But when different groups are treated differently, it is a responsibility of leadership to make certain those in need, are cared for. Consequently, in this story, the leaders accept responsibility! We do need to be doing more in Pastoral Care, particularly for the widows and orphans, spreading the Word of God rather than waiting Tables.
The pain of the ministry is that we enter seminary and seek to be ordained in order to Nurture People's Faith, to do Ministry, and most often we are involved in administration and programs and meetings. I understand this and have learned to be quite adept at administration, programs, ministry and leadership, but if you ask a pastor what they long to do, it is to minister; if you ask a preacher, it is to preach. The conclusion of the disciples is to have the community elect additional leaders to serve as Deacons, to do what ever is necessary for the Disciples to fulfill the Word of God, which includes caring for all the community in pastoral care.
Luke's point is that this is “leadership”, this is taking responsibility for a problem and ensuring basic pastoral care occurs. But all that is prelude. For as soon as Stephen is ordained he is bated and accused as having blasphemed against God and the Law. When asked for a defense, Stephen provides one of the most eloquent and thorough recitations of the history of the people of God seeking to make themselves God, seeking to control God, and God seeking to love. But the people seeking to win, to dominate, the crowd took up stones to put him to death as a mob. Make no mistake about it, this is the Crucifixion being played out all over again in Acts, except that at the center is not Jesus, it is a follower of Jesus. Stephen acted as the Samaritan, who takes the abuse of others and offers healing and forgiveness.
There are probably no more problematic and divisive words spoken by Jesus than Jesus saying “No one comes to the FATHER EXCEPT BY ME”. Do we not believe in one, absolute and Sovereign God, Alpha and Omega? Had Jesus not only just stated that in my Father's House and many rooms. How do we put the two together? Pay attention to the particular words, Jesus used. He did not say “NO ONE COMES TO GOD EXCEPT BY ME”. Of all the different religions of the world, Judaism claims that we come to God by ADHERENCE TO THE LAW. Islam claims coming to God through STUDY OF THE KORAN. Buddhism one comes to God by SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT. Christianity, begins with the INCARNATION, that Jesus was God's ONLY begotten child, the only one who identified God as Father. Therefore, the only way to THE FATHER, is by Jesus. His words are not dismissive or blasphemous against other faiths, but rather that there is a place for us. Recognition that to each us, our room had no odor, and no mess, it was ours. While clothes and toys may have been in piles on the floor, everything was where we knew. It made sense to us, just as making the bed, shaving in a mirror and using Old Spice, or wearing gloves made sense to our fathers and mothers.
In our earlier description, every room had a different style of music. Music is unique to people. The question becomes how we judge, and whether we can admire and appreciate one another's choices.
The Romance Pianist: Franz Liszt was the 1800's version of a Rock Star! Liszt was flamboyant, for those over 40 he was the equivalent of Elvis and the Beatles rolled into one, for those under 40 Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, the Cast of Glee! Liszt thundered on the piano. Women would throw their silk gloves. Women and men would faint at the passion of his music. All across Europe, his concerts were sold out. Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, Liszt disappeared. It was said, he had had a break-down, his own description was that he had found God, or God had found him. His music changed radically, his lifestyle changed, he gave away all that he had. Rather than performing for sold-out amphitheaters, Franz Liszt delighted in offering piano lessons to the poor and to children. In Franz Liszt's last days he began work on a composition called “Out of the Depths”, and for days he pounded out these frenetic passages, each contrasting and tormenting the other, until gradually working themselves out in Shalom. Franz Liszt had a daughter who was married to the Anti-Semitic German Composer Wagner, who hearing his Father-in-law night after night going from frenzy and torment into calm and gentleness, is remembered as describing that Liszt had gone insane. The difficulty of any musician judging another, is which is the sane: Frenzy being resolved into Shalom; or the dominant, unrepentant , anti-Semitism of a Wagner?
Eric Clapton, arguably the greatest living rock guitarist, had a four year old son who fell from a 53 story window. Clapton took nine months off and when he returned his music had changed. The hardship had made his music softer, more powerful, and more reflective. You have perhaps heard the song he wrote about his son's death. It is a poignant song of hope:
Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on, 'Cause I know I don't belong, here in heaven.
Would you hold my hand, if I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand, if I saw you in heaven?
I'll find my way through night and day, 'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven.
Time can bring you down; time can bend your knees.
Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please.
Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure, And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.
Like Stephen, we seek to do more than provide leadership in the community.
We seek to LOVE GOD with our whole Heart and Mind and Soul and Strength, and
to BE NEIGHBOR to one another, like the SAMARITAN, even as it means suffering for others.
For we know that this life is not all there is, Christ has gone before us, to create a PLACE FOR US, a ROOM OF OUR OWN within OUR FATHER'S HOUSE.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
"Be Not Conformed to the Passions of Ignorance", May 8, 2011
I Peter 1:1-2 & 13-23
Luke 24:19-35
It is Mother's Day, and it is not snowing in Central New York!
It is Mothers' Day. A time to focus on joy and love and the ones who nurtured and cared for us, baking cookies and being there for us to sort out life's problems.
Ten years ago, on a Tuesday in September, a terrorist convinced others to fly fully gassed up planes into the Center of World Trade, into the Pentagon and into The Capital Building and 3,000 people died, beginning the longest war in our history. Two weeks ago, tornados blew over the face of the Midwest and another 3,500 people were killed. One week ago yesterday, NATO forces bombed the compound of Molmar Ghaddafi and while he was not there, his son and grandchildren were killed. A week ago today, Special Forces of the United States Military entered Pakistan, landed in the compound of the one who was behind the bombing of the World Trade Center and took him out. Since Adolph Hitler, there has not been one so filled with the evil of hate, with desire to kill Americans as Osama Bin Laden, and he is now dead and buried in an untraceable grave in the chaos of the ocean depths. Moments thereafter, flash mobs took to the streets to celebrate.
All throughout this time, I have prayed what to say this morning.
Routinely we follow the Lectionary, as means of preaching the variety of the Bible, as well as all Christian Churches preaching on the same passages so that when talking with your neighbors, or when your children phone this afternoon, we all had common points of reference from the Scriptures. There is no law dictating that we have to follow the Lectionary, and at times of National or International Circumstance, we often select passages fitting to the moment.
This week, I had contemplated, that while we tend to remember Charlton Heston raising his arms as the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were set free, the Book of Exodus describes that once the Israelites had escaped and Hard-hearted Pharaoh and his Chariots pursued them, Moses let down his arms and the enemy was killed. Then Moses' sister Miriam led the people in singing and dancing over the death and destruction of those who oppressed and hated the People of God.
And in the period of the Judges, in addition to Samson and Gideon, there was a General of the Canaanites named Sisera who had killed many, and being pursued by Deborah and her army, he hid himself in the bed of a woman, who herself drove a tent peg through his temple.
For a moment, I listened to the word that came through the Prophet Jonah, who hating the Ninevites, wanting to see them destroyed, sat down to watch their decimation, and the word of God came to Jonah asking “Do you do well to be angry?”
Often believers quote the Old Testament out of context, as if there were a Law demanding an Eye for an Eye and Tooth for a Tooth, justifying revenge. When what the Scriptures actually describe is that if your neighbor has blinded your one eye, the worst you are permitted to do to him is to blind his eye. At the imagination of this evil man, sons and daughters, wives and husbands, fathers and mothers were killed, and now he too is dead.
Returning to the passages appointed by the Lectionary for this day, Two of the disciples were walking to Emmaus. Where exactly Emmaus was, or what they needed there is unclear. Like us this morning, these disciples were trying to make sense of what happened and where do we go now. For the last several years, Jesus had been their Teacher and they his disciples, and now he was gone. How can you continue to be disciples, when there is no one of whom to be a disciple? They had lost their homes and families and businesses and careers over these years. They felt the sense of personal loss watching him die on the cross, burying his remains in the tomb. Just for an afternoon they wanted to get away from it all, just for an overnight to leave our responsibilities and problems in Jerusalem while we go to Emmaus. For 10 years, we have been at war, our mothers and fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters all have fought. At the same time, the economy has changed, and many have lost businesses, homes, dreams. Perhaps Emmaus, is not so much a particular place, as a get away. The opportunity to delve into a trashy novel, to get lost in an old movie, to wander through a garden, to go away without responsibilities for a brief moment. Yet along the way, to discover that we can never go back, and our thoughts continue to try to make sense. When suddenly, we realize there is another component to the equation.
Before September 11th, we took life for granted. One of the newscasters the other day made reference to PAX AMERICANA, playing off of the Ideal of the Roman Empire, that during the time Rome ruled a citizen of Rome could go anywhere in the world in safety and security, PAX ROMANA. But eventually their eyes were opened to the needs of people where they travelled. In addition to being at war, during the last decade we have built schools and hospitals and roads, where there were none. We have left the comfort and security of our homes, and made new relationships, friendships and commitments, we otherwise never would have made. In recent months we have learned that the schools and orphanages and hospitals built by the fortunes of Oprah and Greg Mortenson's 3 Cups of Tea, have not done all the good they set out to do. But, we were motivated to care, in ways never before; and oppressed people, who never before were given the hope of education, or healthcare, or clean water, have had hope.
I love the beginning of this Letter from Peter, TO THE EXILES OF THE DISPERSION. That is who we are as believers, is it not? Dispersed individuals who believe in God, living in a Man-made world? We are the humanity of God, those spreading compassion, in a world bent on a margin of profit, a stock portfolio, technological advancement. Gird your minds, set your hope upon the grace of Christ, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, instead be holy!
Be honest for a moment, how many have wished for, coveted, wanted one of the latest and greatest technological advancements, only to have it, and discover you have no clue how to work it? While it is helpful, it requires more time of us? While it allows us to be connected, we do not have anything important to say?
I remember when my family first moved to Skaneateles, we arrived the Friday before Christmas. Which in addition to all the expectations and turmoil of the holidays and family visiting before boxes were unpacked, meant that we had multiple worship services that Sunday morning, and Monday evening was Christmas eve. And somehow in the move, my computer had crashed, with all the sermons locked inside. I quickly recreated Sunday morning's, and the Family service. But for the life of me, I could not recall the Word that was to be preached at Midnight. Desperate, I grabbed a book, titled A Cup of Christmas Tea. It described going to visit a maiden aunt in the old part of the City. There were worries about the safety of the car on the street. Worries about taking time out of a busy life. Standing on the doorstep, waiting in the weather, as you heard shuffling inside. The door opened and there were the familiar smells, and the warmth and glow as those eyes looked up at us from behind thick glasses and suddenly recognized us for who we were. And the story went on to describe spending the late afternoon together with this one who had loved us into being, who had always accepted us, comforted us and helped us find meaning. Somehow the worries of time no longer mattered, we were ransomed from the futile ways of perishable things, like silver and gold, to consider what has been since before the foundations of kingdoms, Empires and Nations.
There is something wonderfully fitting about Mother's Day coming in the season of Easter, as our humanity and hope and faith are resurrected anew.
Luke 24:19-35
It is Mother's Day, and it is not snowing in Central New York!
It is Mothers' Day. A time to focus on joy and love and the ones who nurtured and cared for us, baking cookies and being there for us to sort out life's problems.
Ten years ago, on a Tuesday in September, a terrorist convinced others to fly fully gassed up planes into the Center of World Trade, into the Pentagon and into The Capital Building and 3,000 people died, beginning the longest war in our history. Two weeks ago, tornados blew over the face of the Midwest and another 3,500 people were killed. One week ago yesterday, NATO forces bombed the compound of Molmar Ghaddafi and while he was not there, his son and grandchildren were killed. A week ago today, Special Forces of the United States Military entered Pakistan, landed in the compound of the one who was behind the bombing of the World Trade Center and took him out. Since Adolph Hitler, there has not been one so filled with the evil of hate, with desire to kill Americans as Osama Bin Laden, and he is now dead and buried in an untraceable grave in the chaos of the ocean depths. Moments thereafter, flash mobs took to the streets to celebrate.
All throughout this time, I have prayed what to say this morning.
Routinely we follow the Lectionary, as means of preaching the variety of the Bible, as well as all Christian Churches preaching on the same passages so that when talking with your neighbors, or when your children phone this afternoon, we all had common points of reference from the Scriptures. There is no law dictating that we have to follow the Lectionary, and at times of National or International Circumstance, we often select passages fitting to the moment.
This week, I had contemplated, that while we tend to remember Charlton Heston raising his arms as the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were set free, the Book of Exodus describes that once the Israelites had escaped and Hard-hearted Pharaoh and his Chariots pursued them, Moses let down his arms and the enemy was killed. Then Moses' sister Miriam led the people in singing and dancing over the death and destruction of those who oppressed and hated the People of God.
And in the period of the Judges, in addition to Samson and Gideon, there was a General of the Canaanites named Sisera who had killed many, and being pursued by Deborah and her army, he hid himself in the bed of a woman, who herself drove a tent peg through his temple.
For a moment, I listened to the word that came through the Prophet Jonah, who hating the Ninevites, wanting to see them destroyed, sat down to watch their decimation, and the word of God came to Jonah asking “Do you do well to be angry?”
Often believers quote the Old Testament out of context, as if there were a Law demanding an Eye for an Eye and Tooth for a Tooth, justifying revenge. When what the Scriptures actually describe is that if your neighbor has blinded your one eye, the worst you are permitted to do to him is to blind his eye. At the imagination of this evil man, sons and daughters, wives and husbands, fathers and mothers were killed, and now he too is dead.
Returning to the passages appointed by the Lectionary for this day, Two of the disciples were walking to Emmaus. Where exactly Emmaus was, or what they needed there is unclear. Like us this morning, these disciples were trying to make sense of what happened and where do we go now. For the last several years, Jesus had been their Teacher and they his disciples, and now he was gone. How can you continue to be disciples, when there is no one of whom to be a disciple? They had lost their homes and families and businesses and careers over these years. They felt the sense of personal loss watching him die on the cross, burying his remains in the tomb. Just for an afternoon they wanted to get away from it all, just for an overnight to leave our responsibilities and problems in Jerusalem while we go to Emmaus. For 10 years, we have been at war, our mothers and fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters all have fought. At the same time, the economy has changed, and many have lost businesses, homes, dreams. Perhaps Emmaus, is not so much a particular place, as a get away. The opportunity to delve into a trashy novel, to get lost in an old movie, to wander through a garden, to go away without responsibilities for a brief moment. Yet along the way, to discover that we can never go back, and our thoughts continue to try to make sense. When suddenly, we realize there is another component to the equation.
Before September 11th, we took life for granted. One of the newscasters the other day made reference to PAX AMERICANA, playing off of the Ideal of the Roman Empire, that during the time Rome ruled a citizen of Rome could go anywhere in the world in safety and security, PAX ROMANA. But eventually their eyes were opened to the needs of people where they travelled. In addition to being at war, during the last decade we have built schools and hospitals and roads, where there were none. We have left the comfort and security of our homes, and made new relationships, friendships and commitments, we otherwise never would have made. In recent months we have learned that the schools and orphanages and hospitals built by the fortunes of Oprah and Greg Mortenson's 3 Cups of Tea, have not done all the good they set out to do. But, we were motivated to care, in ways never before; and oppressed people, who never before were given the hope of education, or healthcare, or clean water, have had hope.
I love the beginning of this Letter from Peter, TO THE EXILES OF THE DISPERSION. That is who we are as believers, is it not? Dispersed individuals who believe in God, living in a Man-made world? We are the humanity of God, those spreading compassion, in a world bent on a margin of profit, a stock portfolio, technological advancement. Gird your minds, set your hope upon the grace of Christ, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, instead be holy!
Be honest for a moment, how many have wished for, coveted, wanted one of the latest and greatest technological advancements, only to have it, and discover you have no clue how to work it? While it is helpful, it requires more time of us? While it allows us to be connected, we do not have anything important to say?
I remember when my family first moved to Skaneateles, we arrived the Friday before Christmas. Which in addition to all the expectations and turmoil of the holidays and family visiting before boxes were unpacked, meant that we had multiple worship services that Sunday morning, and Monday evening was Christmas eve. And somehow in the move, my computer had crashed, with all the sermons locked inside. I quickly recreated Sunday morning's, and the Family service. But for the life of me, I could not recall the Word that was to be preached at Midnight. Desperate, I grabbed a book, titled A Cup of Christmas Tea. It described going to visit a maiden aunt in the old part of the City. There were worries about the safety of the car on the street. Worries about taking time out of a busy life. Standing on the doorstep, waiting in the weather, as you heard shuffling inside. The door opened and there were the familiar smells, and the warmth and glow as those eyes looked up at us from behind thick glasses and suddenly recognized us for who we were. And the story went on to describe spending the late afternoon together with this one who had loved us into being, who had always accepted us, comforted us and helped us find meaning. Somehow the worries of time no longer mattered, we were ransomed from the futile ways of perishable things, like silver and gold, to consider what has been since before the foundations of kingdoms, Empires and Nations.
There is something wonderfully fitting about Mother's Day coming in the season of Easter, as our humanity and hope and faith are resurrected anew.
Monday, May 2, 2011
"God's Word in Common Language" May 1, 2011
James 1:1-9
John 20:19-31
According to a survey which has been repeated time and again, in every different denomination, ¼ of the Church believe the Bible to be the Literal Word of God, while another ¼ believe the Bible to be the Inerrant Word of God, another ¼ believe the Bible to be the Inspired Word of God, and the fourth ¼ believe the Bible to be the Word of an Inspired People of God. When asked “What are the Laws of the Covenant, some will respond The 10 Commandments, some will reply the Book of Leviticus, some will respond the Five Books of Torah, and others will reply the whole First Testament. It appears as though as Christians we have are hard time agreeing about anything!
With the excitement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, becoming Princess Catherine, to be wed this week, we remember an earlier time in the history of Great Britain, and the origins of the Church of England and Church of Scotland, from which arose the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches. In the 1500s, Martin Luther, called for Reforms within the Church, correcting the traditions that had grown over time, correcting the Sale of Indulgences, correcting that the preaching of the Worship service be in the language of the Nation rather than only in Latin or Greek. For which Luther was Excommunicated as a Priest, and over the next 100 years, an Orthodox Church and a Protesting Reformed Church began to arise. When Henry VIII was monarch, he broke with The Church at Rome, not over theology, faith in God or the Church, but over POWER, over SEX and the AUTHORITY of the Church versus that of the GOVERNMENT. Today, we have made it common, but when Henry wanted to be divorced and wanted to change from one denomination to another, this was monumental. His son Edward ruled a very brief time, then Henry's daughter Mary became Queen, taking the Church back to Catholicism and executing Protestants who were found, causing many to go to Scotland where John Calvin and John Knox developed the community of believers into the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. When Mary died, her sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn took the Church back to the Church of England. Decades later, when James I of Scotland became King, he sought to end this persecution of both sides against the other, by calling for a fresh translation of the Bible.
We know from history, that the Scriptures of the Jewish people were written in Hebrew. When conquered by the Greeks, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek as the Septuagint. When the Canon of the New Testament (Gospels and Epistles), originally written in Greek, were added to the Septuagint, the whole Bible was then translated from Greek into Latin as the Center of the Church was at Rome. What was once referred to as the Catholic Bible was actually an English translation of a Latin Translation, of a Greek Translation, which in Old Testament was written in Hebrew as the Scriptures. In establishing a new foundation for The Church, King James sought a fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments, without going through Latin, directly from Hebrew and Greek into English. But how do you go about translating the whole Bible? First you need scholars who can read Hebrew and Greek. But is there any competition between scholars and between Universities? Say between Penn State and Syracuse University? Or between Dartmouth and Harvard? SO on the 2 and 20th Day of July in 1604, King James commissioned 4 and 50 Scholars from Cambridge, Oxford and Westminster to each translate the whole of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English. Then once we had three translations the Oxford, the Cambridge and the Westminster, to sit down with these and their notes, to formulate one Holy Bible. The translations were completed in 1608, and on the 5th of May 1611 three years later, the King James Bible was created. None was paid for the task, all were given letters of reference that they should be given every honor for having committed to this task. For seven years, from 1604 to 1611, translating, interpreting, arguing for what the Bible says. Not about personal beliefs but literally about what the Bible, the Word of God says and means. Their wording, simple phrases and poetry and rhyme, became the foundation for Shakespeare, became the basis for our Declaration of Independence, for Lincoln. In the last 20 years, differing publishing houses selling Bibles have each put forward new translations and transliterations. How different this from the practice of the making of the King James' Version of the Bible.
More than a simple task of translation, Hebrew and Greek each are filled with words that can have multiple meanings. When Jacob fell in love with the younger sister Rachel instead of Leah, according to the King James Bible it was because Leah had “Weak eyes”, yet the same Hebrew phrase can also mean “Tender and Beautiful”. At the reading of the prophecy of Amos, we have described that Hebrew had no word for Plumb-line, that this was a Syro-Phoenician phrase, but that Hebrew had a word that sounded like “Anah” which meant a “Sigh”, so do you translate the prophecy as Hard and fast and straight and narrow as a Plumb-line, or God's Sigh? In the most familiar passage of I Corinthians 13, the King James Bible did not translate the verb as Love, but instead as COMPASSION. How different all of our marriages might be, if instead of believing in the power of LOVE, as being greater than Faith and Hope and Prophecy and Generosity, instead we had heard “Faith, Hope, Compassion, Abide these three, but the greatest of these is COMPASSION.” Imagine every passage of Scripture, having these multiple meanings, and your task as the King's Translators is to publish the Word of God without error in the language of the Common People.
Getting it wrong is our principle concern, isn't it? If this is the literal Word of God, then to change it, to corrupt the Word, would be blasphemy. Funny the way, familiarity effects us. Will Rogers once claimed that “Rumor spreads faster, but doesn't stay put as long as the Truth.” Today, we are effected by the rumors of the day, by believing what seems to be true, what is repeated the most often.
Universally, this passage from John is accepted as being about “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas did not want to get it wrong, having witnessed Jesus' death, having had his heart broken, Thomas claimed he needed proof in order to believe. Actually, what he voiced, was no different than the doubts of each of the disciples, and the doubts we all feel at times. This is not a passage about the Doubts of Thomas, so much as it is about the Commitment of Jesus to meet those reservations. Thomas claimed, UNLESS I PUT FORTH MY FINGER AND TOUCH AND FEEL, I SHALL NOT BELIEVE, and seven days later Jesus stood among them and said “Thomas put forth your finger and touch and feel.”
Thomas should have been able to believe the Resurrection stories of the Disciples,
the Disciples should have been able to believe the resurrection stories of Mary,
without God taking on human form to become one with us, we should have been able to believe... but knowing we were not able, God became Christ, Christ died for us and was buried, Mary was called by name and her heart turned, the disciples were locked away in anxiety and fear when Jesus stood among them and breathed upon them, Thomas touched the wounds and believed.
The challenge of faith is not that we will get it wrong, in all likelihood, we will, the challenge of faith is whether we then give up, or persevere and try? The Letter of James is about perseverance. Human hope is not to be spared love, or challenge, but instead, when persecuted, when our hearts are broken, when we are overwhelmed with anxiety, shall we give up or shall we reconsider and believe anew?
John 20:19-31
According to a survey which has been repeated time and again, in every different denomination, ¼ of the Church believe the Bible to be the Literal Word of God, while another ¼ believe the Bible to be the Inerrant Word of God, another ¼ believe the Bible to be the Inspired Word of God, and the fourth ¼ believe the Bible to be the Word of an Inspired People of God. When asked “What are the Laws of the Covenant, some will respond The 10 Commandments, some will reply the Book of Leviticus, some will respond the Five Books of Torah, and others will reply the whole First Testament. It appears as though as Christians we have are hard time agreeing about anything!
With the excitement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, becoming Princess Catherine, to be wed this week, we remember an earlier time in the history of Great Britain, and the origins of the Church of England and Church of Scotland, from which arose the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches. In the 1500s, Martin Luther, called for Reforms within the Church, correcting the traditions that had grown over time, correcting the Sale of Indulgences, correcting that the preaching of the Worship service be in the language of the Nation rather than only in Latin or Greek. For which Luther was Excommunicated as a Priest, and over the next 100 years, an Orthodox Church and a Protesting Reformed Church began to arise. When Henry VIII was monarch, he broke with The Church at Rome, not over theology, faith in God or the Church, but over POWER, over SEX and the AUTHORITY of the Church versus that of the GOVERNMENT. Today, we have made it common, but when Henry wanted to be divorced and wanted to change from one denomination to another, this was monumental. His son Edward ruled a very brief time, then Henry's daughter Mary became Queen, taking the Church back to Catholicism and executing Protestants who were found, causing many to go to Scotland where John Calvin and John Knox developed the community of believers into the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. When Mary died, her sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn took the Church back to the Church of England. Decades later, when James I of Scotland became King, he sought to end this persecution of both sides against the other, by calling for a fresh translation of the Bible.
We know from history, that the Scriptures of the Jewish people were written in Hebrew. When conquered by the Greeks, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek as the Septuagint. When the Canon of the New Testament (Gospels and Epistles), originally written in Greek, were added to the Septuagint, the whole Bible was then translated from Greek into Latin as the Center of the Church was at Rome. What was once referred to as the Catholic Bible was actually an English translation of a Latin Translation, of a Greek Translation, which in Old Testament was written in Hebrew as the Scriptures. In establishing a new foundation for The Church, King James sought a fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments, without going through Latin, directly from Hebrew and Greek into English. But how do you go about translating the whole Bible? First you need scholars who can read Hebrew and Greek. But is there any competition between scholars and between Universities? Say between Penn State and Syracuse University? Or between Dartmouth and Harvard? SO on the 2 and 20th Day of July in 1604, King James commissioned 4 and 50 Scholars from Cambridge, Oxford and Westminster to each translate the whole of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English. Then once we had three translations the Oxford, the Cambridge and the Westminster, to sit down with these and their notes, to formulate one Holy Bible. The translations were completed in 1608, and on the 5th of May 1611 three years later, the King James Bible was created. None was paid for the task, all were given letters of reference that they should be given every honor for having committed to this task. For seven years, from 1604 to 1611, translating, interpreting, arguing for what the Bible says. Not about personal beliefs but literally about what the Bible, the Word of God says and means. Their wording, simple phrases and poetry and rhyme, became the foundation for Shakespeare, became the basis for our Declaration of Independence, for Lincoln. In the last 20 years, differing publishing houses selling Bibles have each put forward new translations and transliterations. How different this from the practice of the making of the King James' Version of the Bible.
More than a simple task of translation, Hebrew and Greek each are filled with words that can have multiple meanings. When Jacob fell in love with the younger sister Rachel instead of Leah, according to the King James Bible it was because Leah had “Weak eyes”, yet the same Hebrew phrase can also mean “Tender and Beautiful”. At the reading of the prophecy of Amos, we have described that Hebrew had no word for Plumb-line, that this was a Syro-Phoenician phrase, but that Hebrew had a word that sounded like “Anah” which meant a “Sigh”, so do you translate the prophecy as Hard and fast and straight and narrow as a Plumb-line, or God's Sigh? In the most familiar passage of I Corinthians 13, the King James Bible did not translate the verb as Love, but instead as COMPASSION. How different all of our marriages might be, if instead of believing in the power of LOVE, as being greater than Faith and Hope and Prophecy and Generosity, instead we had heard “Faith, Hope, Compassion, Abide these three, but the greatest of these is COMPASSION.” Imagine every passage of Scripture, having these multiple meanings, and your task as the King's Translators is to publish the Word of God without error in the language of the Common People.
Getting it wrong is our principle concern, isn't it? If this is the literal Word of God, then to change it, to corrupt the Word, would be blasphemy. Funny the way, familiarity effects us. Will Rogers once claimed that “Rumor spreads faster, but doesn't stay put as long as the Truth.” Today, we are effected by the rumors of the day, by believing what seems to be true, what is repeated the most often.
Universally, this passage from John is accepted as being about “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas did not want to get it wrong, having witnessed Jesus' death, having had his heart broken, Thomas claimed he needed proof in order to believe. Actually, what he voiced, was no different than the doubts of each of the disciples, and the doubts we all feel at times. This is not a passage about the Doubts of Thomas, so much as it is about the Commitment of Jesus to meet those reservations. Thomas claimed, UNLESS I PUT FORTH MY FINGER AND TOUCH AND FEEL, I SHALL NOT BELIEVE, and seven days later Jesus stood among them and said “Thomas put forth your finger and touch and feel.”
Thomas should have been able to believe the Resurrection stories of the Disciples,
the Disciples should have been able to believe the resurrection stories of Mary,
without God taking on human form to become one with us, we should have been able to believe... but knowing we were not able, God became Christ, Christ died for us and was buried, Mary was called by name and her heart turned, the disciples were locked away in anxiety and fear when Jesus stood among them and breathed upon them, Thomas touched the wounds and believed.
The challenge of faith is not that we will get it wrong, in all likelihood, we will, the challenge of faith is whether we then give up, or persevere and try? The Letter of James is about perseverance. Human hope is not to be spared love, or challenge, but instead, when persecuted, when our hearts are broken, when we are overwhelmed with anxiety, shall we give up or shall we reconsider and believe anew?
Friday, April 22, 2011
"Creating A Memorial" Maundy Thursday 2011
Exodus 12:1-14
John 13:1-17 & 31-36
Humanity thrives on story, we make memories of stories, we create memorials. In a vacuum, we will create stories to explain. Recently, I was visiting a friend's church and on the walls were gorgeous old photos and art work, but no one seemed to know the origin, or the stories behind these images. I am told there are those today, who so want to have history, to create memory, that they go to Antique stores to buy other family's photos to hang ion their walls, to create a heritage a memorial.
Twenty years ago, I had the great opportunity of being part of a tour of the Soviet Union. Part of the heritage of Communism was that Stalin was asked what to do about the Churches, and his response was "Do not worry, those old grandmothers' will die out as will the memory of the Church. But what he did not expect, was that the grandmother's would bring infants in their arms, to describe to them using the artwork and icons on the walls the memorial story of faith. I recall a tour of the Summer Palace at what was then Leningrad, and a tour guide who was identified as being a member of the Communist Party showing a painting by Rembrandt of “The Prodigal Son”. From Art History classes in High School and College, with reference to the Bible, we had learned that the figure with long robes cradling the other in his lap was Rembrandt's image of God, and the emaciated faceless figure in rags who looked like a survivor of the refugee camp at Dachau was The Prodigal, who represented Humanity. But this member of The Party, had a vastly different interpretation, devoid of faith that there is a God. For her, the resplendent figure was "The State", and the kneeling figure was a self-portrait of Rembrandt renouncing all worldly goods and worldly desires, bowing down to serve the Father/State/Mother Russia. Honoring Memorials, we have to be extremely careful to appropriate art, music, ideas, values from a different time and culture, that in addition to whatever we may want the image to represent, that we honor what the creator of their time and place had meant.
In John's description of the Last Supper, Simon Peter who has previously been identified as the Foundation for the Church, one who would become the archetype for the Pope and therefore for all Christianity, is described as misunderstanding Jesus' motives in washing their feet. Again at the Table, Peter misunderstands and vows to never deny Jesus, yet does three times before the morning. There is caution here from the Evangelist, that the Church/ Christianity, will regularly get the meaning of this memorial wrong!
Often in recent history, churches/ we, have tried to reclaim the lost sacred act of washing the disciples' feet. But the point is not the act of foot washing. Peter assumes that the water has some special purpose or power, which it does not, it is water. Again it is assumed what Jesus is doing is an act of sacrifice, but according to John's Gospel it is not. The cataclysmic event that changed history, according to John, was God so loving the world as to send the only begotten son into the world, and that the incarnation is what has changed the world. The point is not the foods we eat, or how they are prepared, or the words we say, or what new interpretations we +2000 years later can find to bring to them.
The point of the Passover is that Almighty God, the Creator and Judge, cared so much God entered into creation to save the oppressed slaves and make of them a people, a nation, Israel. The point of the Last Supper, which is interrupted by the foot washing, is the intimate affection of Jesus serving as loving host, which then allows us to to participate in this meal as Jesus offering himself to us, all the while knowing that despite our protests we are self-absorbed humans. We need to describe this as “Jesus Offering Himself” and not as Jesus giving up his life, because he never ever gives up, if anything by this memorial he embraces life, our life and the importance of his life al the more.
We are a people attracted to the dramatic, to the symbolic. Throughout Lent we have had Elder Nichols blow the Shofar, because this is an ancient musical instrument of faith dating back at least to Joshua and the rams' horns being blown by the Levites as they marched around Jericho. The Shofar is sounded at Yom Kippur's Day of Atonement, as it is a mournful sound calling people to repent. There were special instructions as to who was allowed to blow the Shofar, it was not to be blown by children, or pregnant women, not by those with mental problems, not by the weak or the angry, but only by those who are resolute in faith. Some blow as one long blast, while others use a series of short breaths. The point was not so much how it was blown, but that the people would be able to hear it as a serious call to repent.
In the Passover, while there is description of every element as a symbol: on which night the Seder is to be eaten, the posture of how we sit, unleavened bread, the lamb-bone and charoseth, bitter herbs and saltwater, the open door and empty chair, and the questions asked by a child. I think the most powerful part of Passover is the Call to Create A Memorial, which describes take a sacrificial lamb for your family, and at the Haggidda recite:
“Lord, it would have been enough for You to create the world. It would have been enough for You to give us life. It would have been enough that You formed every element with seeds of its future. It would have been enough that when we sought our own way, when we abandoned You, You never gave up on us. It would have been enough that You appointed the Stars and sun and moon and seasons for our growth and development. It would have been enough that You brought us through illness and suffering. It would have been enough that You gave us hope and vision. But YOU LORD, God of the Universe, Maker of heaven and earth, You entered in to save us. You acted in Love and Grace. Thank you.”
In the Seder of Passover, we remember that “life is fragile and we are children marked with blood.” Time and again, circumstances could have gone a different way, but while the world has known great suffering, while there have been plagues and pandemics, fires and floods and wars, Almighty God, who also experienced all of this, chose to love each of us. There must be a purpose for us to take up in response, because God loves us and created us for this time and place.
Throughout all of human history, there have been WORSHIP WARS. Here, I am not referencing Holy Wars fought for the liberation of oppressed people, or between Gods and between cultures, even between good and evil. WORSHIP WARS are not even the Crusades between Christians, Muslims and Jews, or the wars that continue today over lands sacred to both indigenous people.
WORSHIP WARS are the little jibes that take place over the time of worship, or if someone is sitting in our place, which hymns we sing and with what instruments, whether the children leave early or later, whether Baptisms and Offerings take place in response to the Word Read and Preached or as an act of Confession. All of which come back to our human desire for control, to be found to be righteous and therefore to judge. This morning someone described their son who worships and teaches Bible Study at a Congregational Church then rushes to the Catholic church each week, so as to receive Communion. I would not have considered it except that a few moments later someone greeted me describing “I guess you have not had as many worship services this week as we have at the Catholic and Episcopal Churches,” as if the number of times per day or per week we worship were an issue rather than our faith and relationship to God.
Worship is a unique act in human culture. In some times and places Worship is Didactic and Moralistic, in others extremely Rational and Doctrinal, at times Worship has been considered entertainment, at other times evocative, at times political, and at others a celebration of art and poetry. The point emphasized by both our readings this night, is that WORSHIP needs to be done RIGHT. Not as ritual, not as routine, not misunderstood as magic or sacrifice. In Worship we recognize God offering us love, unconditionally hosting us in God's house, feeding us without reservation; and in worship we are allowed to respond as we choose to God.
What is striking in John's description of the Last Supper is his emphasis on Loving: One Another. Where Matthew, Mark and Luke have the Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes, articulating what it is to love, the need to love neighbor as ourselves, parables explaining what it is to love our enemies and to love neighbor; John's Gospel is demonstrated in this one discourse at dinner (by Jesus' overt intimacy, stripping before the disciples, washing their feet as a loving host, drying their feet with the towel wrapped around his loins), that we love those with whom we are at table. In so many ways it is easier for us to discuss and accept the need to love our enemies, or to love our neighbors, than it is to love those who are our family, to forgive ourselves, to love those at table with us.
John 13:1-17 & 31-36
Humanity thrives on story, we make memories of stories, we create memorials. In a vacuum, we will create stories to explain. Recently, I was visiting a friend's church and on the walls were gorgeous old photos and art work, but no one seemed to know the origin, or the stories behind these images. I am told there are those today, who so want to have history, to create memory, that they go to Antique stores to buy other family's photos to hang ion their walls, to create a heritage a memorial.
Twenty years ago, I had the great opportunity of being part of a tour of the Soviet Union. Part of the heritage of Communism was that Stalin was asked what to do about the Churches, and his response was "Do not worry, those old grandmothers' will die out as will the memory of the Church. But what he did not expect, was that the grandmother's would bring infants in their arms, to describe to them using the artwork and icons on the walls the memorial story of faith. I recall a tour of the Summer Palace at what was then Leningrad, and a tour guide who was identified as being a member of the Communist Party showing a painting by Rembrandt of “The Prodigal Son”. From Art History classes in High School and College, with reference to the Bible, we had learned that the figure with long robes cradling the other in his lap was Rembrandt's image of God, and the emaciated faceless figure in rags who looked like a survivor of the refugee camp at Dachau was The Prodigal, who represented Humanity. But this member of The Party, had a vastly different interpretation, devoid of faith that there is a God. For her, the resplendent figure was "The State", and the kneeling figure was a self-portrait of Rembrandt renouncing all worldly goods and worldly desires, bowing down to serve the Father/State/Mother Russia. Honoring Memorials, we have to be extremely careful to appropriate art, music, ideas, values from a different time and culture, that in addition to whatever we may want the image to represent, that we honor what the creator of their time and place had meant.
In John's description of the Last Supper, Simon Peter who has previously been identified as the Foundation for the Church, one who would become the archetype for the Pope and therefore for all Christianity, is described as misunderstanding Jesus' motives in washing their feet. Again at the Table, Peter misunderstands and vows to never deny Jesus, yet does three times before the morning. There is caution here from the Evangelist, that the Church/ Christianity, will regularly get the meaning of this memorial wrong!
Often in recent history, churches/ we, have tried to reclaim the lost sacred act of washing the disciples' feet. But the point is not the act of foot washing. Peter assumes that the water has some special purpose or power, which it does not, it is water. Again it is assumed what Jesus is doing is an act of sacrifice, but according to John's Gospel it is not. The cataclysmic event that changed history, according to John, was God so loving the world as to send the only begotten son into the world, and that the incarnation is what has changed the world. The point is not the foods we eat, or how they are prepared, or the words we say, or what new interpretations we +2000 years later can find to bring to them.
The point of the Passover is that Almighty God, the Creator and Judge, cared so much God entered into creation to save the oppressed slaves and make of them a people, a nation, Israel. The point of the Last Supper, which is interrupted by the foot washing, is the intimate affection of Jesus serving as loving host, which then allows us to to participate in this meal as Jesus offering himself to us, all the while knowing that despite our protests we are self-absorbed humans. We need to describe this as “Jesus Offering Himself” and not as Jesus giving up his life, because he never ever gives up, if anything by this memorial he embraces life, our life and the importance of his life al the more.
We are a people attracted to the dramatic, to the symbolic. Throughout Lent we have had Elder Nichols blow the Shofar, because this is an ancient musical instrument of faith dating back at least to Joshua and the rams' horns being blown by the Levites as they marched around Jericho. The Shofar is sounded at Yom Kippur's Day of Atonement, as it is a mournful sound calling people to repent. There were special instructions as to who was allowed to blow the Shofar, it was not to be blown by children, or pregnant women, not by those with mental problems, not by the weak or the angry, but only by those who are resolute in faith. Some blow as one long blast, while others use a series of short breaths. The point was not so much how it was blown, but that the people would be able to hear it as a serious call to repent.
In the Passover, while there is description of every element as a symbol: on which night the Seder is to be eaten, the posture of how we sit, unleavened bread, the lamb-bone and charoseth, bitter herbs and saltwater, the open door and empty chair, and the questions asked by a child. I think the most powerful part of Passover is the Call to Create A Memorial, which describes take a sacrificial lamb for your family, and at the Haggidda recite:
“Lord, it would have been enough for You to create the world. It would have been enough for You to give us life. It would have been enough that You formed every element with seeds of its future. It would have been enough that when we sought our own way, when we abandoned You, You never gave up on us. It would have been enough that You appointed the Stars and sun and moon and seasons for our growth and development. It would have been enough that You brought us through illness and suffering. It would have been enough that You gave us hope and vision. But YOU LORD, God of the Universe, Maker of heaven and earth, You entered in to save us. You acted in Love and Grace. Thank you.”
In the Seder of Passover, we remember that “life is fragile and we are children marked with blood.” Time and again, circumstances could have gone a different way, but while the world has known great suffering, while there have been plagues and pandemics, fires and floods and wars, Almighty God, who also experienced all of this, chose to love each of us. There must be a purpose for us to take up in response, because God loves us and created us for this time and place.
Throughout all of human history, there have been WORSHIP WARS. Here, I am not referencing Holy Wars fought for the liberation of oppressed people, or between Gods and between cultures, even between good and evil. WORSHIP WARS are not even the Crusades between Christians, Muslims and Jews, or the wars that continue today over lands sacred to both indigenous people.
WORSHIP WARS are the little jibes that take place over the time of worship, or if someone is sitting in our place, which hymns we sing and with what instruments, whether the children leave early or later, whether Baptisms and Offerings take place in response to the Word Read and Preached or as an act of Confession. All of which come back to our human desire for control, to be found to be righteous and therefore to judge. This morning someone described their son who worships and teaches Bible Study at a Congregational Church then rushes to the Catholic church each week, so as to receive Communion. I would not have considered it except that a few moments later someone greeted me describing “I guess you have not had as many worship services this week as we have at the Catholic and Episcopal Churches,” as if the number of times per day or per week we worship were an issue rather than our faith and relationship to God.
Worship is a unique act in human culture. In some times and places Worship is Didactic and Moralistic, in others extremely Rational and Doctrinal, at times Worship has been considered entertainment, at other times evocative, at times political, and at others a celebration of art and poetry. The point emphasized by both our readings this night, is that WORSHIP needs to be done RIGHT. Not as ritual, not as routine, not misunderstood as magic or sacrifice. In Worship we recognize God offering us love, unconditionally hosting us in God's house, feeding us without reservation; and in worship we are allowed to respond as we choose to God.
What is striking in John's description of the Last Supper is his emphasis on Loving: One Another. Where Matthew, Mark and Luke have the Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes, articulating what it is to love, the need to love neighbor as ourselves, parables explaining what it is to love our enemies and to love neighbor; John's Gospel is demonstrated in this one discourse at dinner (by Jesus' overt intimacy, stripping before the disciples, washing their feet as a loving host, drying their feet with the towel wrapped around his loins), that we love those with whom we are at table. In so many ways it is easier for us to discuss and accept the need to love our enemies, or to love our neighbors, than it is to love those who are our family, to forgive ourselves, to love those at table with us.
Monday, April 18, 2011
WikiChurch, April 17 Palm Sunday 2011
Isaiah 50
Matthew 20:29 - 21:19
This week a piece of information was sent to me over the internet, which shocked me.
75% of all the churches Catholic, Pentecostal and Protestant did not celebrate a single baptism last year There once was a time in which the identity of America and those of the Church were synonymous. For the last 50 years, churches have been losing members faster than they had been gaining, but still we comforted ourselves in the blanket that the world was “implicitly” Christian, that people do believe. Suddenly we awake to the realization that not only does the culture not worship as we had been doing, but in many parts of our world, there is a belief that those who claim belief in God are hypocritical, insincere and out of touch with reality.
Recently a good friend was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, he was over 40 and overweight, but as we talked together we came to realize that our families have a history of Diabetes and Heart Disease, we do not get enough exercise, we enjoy comfort foods and desserts and a glass of wine, and the result is self-fulfilling. The problem cannot be solved by a quick diet, instead there needs to be a change of life. Is not this the problem of the Church? We have become a people waiting for others to come and join us. We are a people known for our meals and our fellowship, for entertainment and programs that occupy our time rather than feeding the world, and serving others.
In 1966, an Issue of TIME magazine was published that shocked the world, the cover was completely black, with the words “GOD IS DEAD”. This should have been the climactic moment of Christianity professing faith in the Resurrection, that while Human Culture had killed God, God's compassion, love and sincerity could overcome even death's ability to destroy. But instead, we accepted the headline as truth and moved on. If anything the last 50 years have professed the reality that HUMANITY IS DEAD for we have become less and less concerned with the needs of others, and more and more preoccupied with our comforts, with our food, with entertainment and activities that fill our days. Nation upon nation are rising up in revolution, claiming that The Emperor has no clothes, all that we had trusted and believed in Religion, Science, Politics and Government, Education, the Economy cannot be trusted to provide for our needs.
Just as with Type 2 Diabetes, we need a change of life style. For Diabetes, it is as simple as two things, Diet and Exercise. For Christianity, the change is also in two things, from an Internal Focus to an External Focus, and from Program Development to Nurturing People. Christ's great Commission was not that we should sit back and wait for the believers to enter our church, not that we should do faith better, but rather that we were to go out into the world to serve and disciple as he had done for us. The point of faith is not what we get out of believing, but that our lives have different meaning, different priority. Time and again as Jesus is begged by the blind and lame and children “LORD HAVE MERCY, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY,” in Greek: HOSANNA. Jesus never stops to ask What's in it for me? And those who were healed are not described as going home satisfied, but rather that they each followed him him serving others. The point here is not a numbers game, of how many baptisms, or members or children, but instead focusing upon serving those who are in need without reservation or concern for limitations.
Having grown up during this time, I would share with you that the Church, and by that I do NOT mean the Presbyterian Church only, but all churches, had become so afraid of connotations related to EVANGELISM, that we were afraid to say the word, referring to Evangelism as The E Word and “SALVATION” had dropped out of the Church's vocabulary all together. The Gospels each tell a different story about the life and purpose of Jesus the Christ. But in every one of the the Gospels, those who cry out for need do not cry HEAL US! Or MAKE US COMFORTABLE! Or even MAKE US SAFE! But rather SAVE US, for the path each had been living, we each have been following only leads to death.
I am told that in California, there is a church in Bel Air, that recognizes the people who live in their community are involved in the entertainment industry, in making Movies and Television shows. And what they have begun doing is screening movies and watching television shows together, then talking about them. In conversation about the themes, in conversation about the characters, these who are producing and writing and acting in the shows are being effected by talking about their faith. What if we gathered together to talk about the real circumstances in our lives? Business decisions, our fears and frustrations over our kids and our parents, the very real temptations in marriage, what it means to retire. In recent years, in this community, we have created a series of non-profit corporations, for the Manor, the Food Pantry, the Clinic in Sudan, even short-term ecumenical activities, we have made into corporations. What if we put that same ingenuity into our faith?
One of the fastest growing parts of the Internet, is WIKIPEDIA. As a child, our family had an ENCYCLOPEDIA which contained all the information and knowledge at your fingers tips. One of the earliest versions of this was even referred to as THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. Wikipedia is an electronic version of the Encyclopedia. The added difference being that as INFORMATION is expanding so rapidly, instead of Britannica publishing Wikipedia, all those using the resource are able to add information to the discussion. 13,000,000 people are registered users of Wikipedia; making it the 7th most populated site in the world, in the last month alone 135,000 people have not only received information from Wikipedia, but contributed their own information to the database as well. WIKIPEDIA has become the source of All Knowledge, and has spawned specialized information sources about every topic, one of my favorites is WIKI-WOOOKIE which is knowledge about everything in Star Wars. There was of course an earlier version, before Wikipedia, called Nupedia, but Nupedia required that all information being added had to be screened and checked by a controller before being published, which slowed things down and gave the interpretation of the editors. The world today lives in a WIKI-WORLD where each is able to participate and to add to the sum of all, the world's knowledge. Rather than being pure, abstract fact, Wikipedia is very definitely influenced by the users, with the body as a whole interpreting, and redefining as information is amassed. What if the faith were to move from the comfort and stability of Committees, where we control what is appropriate and how to regulate spending, to a WIKI-CHURCH, where every person were able to add to the conversation?
For over a thousand years of the Church's history we were the authority of what is true and just and right. In a Wiki-World we give up control, we trust the amassed body as a community to self-regulate. Several years ago, this church began allowing others to use the church's resources. One of the users was the Public Schools in a program for kids who had gotten into trouble and been expelled from their regular classes. Early on in about the second year, we discovered one of the kids was trying to sell marijuana, by hiding it in the trash can underneath the liner and five other kids were the buyers. We had a member of the Church who was a NY State Trooper, who along with their Teachers and the Pastor sat down with the kids to let them know they had been caught. Six months went by when once again we found marijuana in the bathroom, that one of the students was trying to pass to another. I recall the feeling of embarrassment and fear for the future of the program, when meeting with the Session to explain what had happened. But the Session had two responses “These are kids who have had a history of getting into trouble, we have to expect things like this might happen, and they got caught, right?” and “The first time six kids were involved, this time just two, that's success!” In a Wiki-World of being the WIKI-CHURCH we give up control, of dictating how people will interact, how we will teach, and instead we learn from one another, we learn from the questions that are asked and the needs that are presented rather than trying to teacvh what we are comfortable with having known.
Matthew 20:29 - 21:19
This week a piece of information was sent to me over the internet, which shocked me.
75% of all the churches Catholic, Pentecostal and Protestant did not celebrate a single baptism last year There once was a time in which the identity of America and those of the Church were synonymous. For the last 50 years, churches have been losing members faster than they had been gaining, but still we comforted ourselves in the blanket that the world was “implicitly” Christian, that people do believe. Suddenly we awake to the realization that not only does the culture not worship as we had been doing, but in many parts of our world, there is a belief that those who claim belief in God are hypocritical, insincere and out of touch with reality.
Recently a good friend was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, he was over 40 and overweight, but as we talked together we came to realize that our families have a history of Diabetes and Heart Disease, we do not get enough exercise, we enjoy comfort foods and desserts and a glass of wine, and the result is self-fulfilling. The problem cannot be solved by a quick diet, instead there needs to be a change of life. Is not this the problem of the Church? We have become a people waiting for others to come and join us. We are a people known for our meals and our fellowship, for entertainment and programs that occupy our time rather than feeding the world, and serving others.
In 1966, an Issue of TIME magazine was published that shocked the world, the cover was completely black, with the words “GOD IS DEAD”. This should have been the climactic moment of Christianity professing faith in the Resurrection, that while Human Culture had killed God, God's compassion, love and sincerity could overcome even death's ability to destroy. But instead, we accepted the headline as truth and moved on. If anything the last 50 years have professed the reality that HUMANITY IS DEAD for we have become less and less concerned with the needs of others, and more and more preoccupied with our comforts, with our food, with entertainment and activities that fill our days. Nation upon nation are rising up in revolution, claiming that The Emperor has no clothes, all that we had trusted and believed in Religion, Science, Politics and Government, Education, the Economy cannot be trusted to provide for our needs.
Just as with Type 2 Diabetes, we need a change of life style. For Diabetes, it is as simple as two things, Diet and Exercise. For Christianity, the change is also in two things, from an Internal Focus to an External Focus, and from Program Development to Nurturing People. Christ's great Commission was not that we should sit back and wait for the believers to enter our church, not that we should do faith better, but rather that we were to go out into the world to serve and disciple as he had done for us. The point of faith is not what we get out of believing, but that our lives have different meaning, different priority. Time and again as Jesus is begged by the blind and lame and children “LORD HAVE MERCY, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY,” in Greek: HOSANNA. Jesus never stops to ask What's in it for me? And those who were healed are not described as going home satisfied, but rather that they each followed him him serving others. The point here is not a numbers game, of how many baptisms, or members or children, but instead focusing upon serving those who are in need without reservation or concern for limitations.
Having grown up during this time, I would share with you that the Church, and by that I do NOT mean the Presbyterian Church only, but all churches, had become so afraid of connotations related to EVANGELISM, that we were afraid to say the word, referring to Evangelism as The E Word and “SALVATION” had dropped out of the Church's vocabulary all together. The Gospels each tell a different story about the life and purpose of Jesus the Christ. But in every one of the the Gospels, those who cry out for need do not cry HEAL US! Or MAKE US COMFORTABLE! Or even MAKE US SAFE! But rather SAVE US, for the path each had been living, we each have been following only leads to death.
I am told that in California, there is a church in Bel Air, that recognizes the people who live in their community are involved in the entertainment industry, in making Movies and Television shows. And what they have begun doing is screening movies and watching television shows together, then talking about them. In conversation about the themes, in conversation about the characters, these who are producing and writing and acting in the shows are being effected by talking about their faith. What if we gathered together to talk about the real circumstances in our lives? Business decisions, our fears and frustrations over our kids and our parents, the very real temptations in marriage, what it means to retire. In recent years, in this community, we have created a series of non-profit corporations, for the Manor, the Food Pantry, the Clinic in Sudan, even short-term ecumenical activities, we have made into corporations. What if we put that same ingenuity into our faith?
One of the fastest growing parts of the Internet, is WIKIPEDIA. As a child, our family had an ENCYCLOPEDIA which contained all the information and knowledge at your fingers tips. One of the earliest versions of this was even referred to as THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. Wikipedia is an electronic version of the Encyclopedia. The added difference being that as INFORMATION is expanding so rapidly, instead of Britannica publishing Wikipedia, all those using the resource are able to add information to the discussion. 13,000,000 people are registered users of Wikipedia; making it the 7th most populated site in the world, in the last month alone 135,000 people have not only received information from Wikipedia, but contributed their own information to the database as well. WIKIPEDIA has become the source of All Knowledge, and has spawned specialized information sources about every topic, one of my favorites is WIKI-WOOOKIE which is knowledge about everything in Star Wars. There was of course an earlier version, before Wikipedia, called Nupedia, but Nupedia required that all information being added had to be screened and checked by a controller before being published, which slowed things down and gave the interpretation of the editors. The world today lives in a WIKI-WORLD where each is able to participate and to add to the sum of all, the world's knowledge. Rather than being pure, abstract fact, Wikipedia is very definitely influenced by the users, with the body as a whole interpreting, and redefining as information is amassed. What if the faith were to move from the comfort and stability of Committees, where we control what is appropriate and how to regulate spending, to a WIKI-CHURCH, where every person were able to add to the conversation?
For over a thousand years of the Church's history we were the authority of what is true and just and right. In a Wiki-World we give up control, we trust the amassed body as a community to self-regulate. Several years ago, this church began allowing others to use the church's resources. One of the users was the Public Schools in a program for kids who had gotten into trouble and been expelled from their regular classes. Early on in about the second year, we discovered one of the kids was trying to sell marijuana, by hiding it in the trash can underneath the liner and five other kids were the buyers. We had a member of the Church who was a NY State Trooper, who along with their Teachers and the Pastor sat down with the kids to let them know they had been caught. Six months went by when once again we found marijuana in the bathroom, that one of the students was trying to pass to another. I recall the feeling of embarrassment and fear for the future of the program, when meeting with the Session to explain what had happened. But the Session had two responses “These are kids who have had a history of getting into trouble, we have to expect things like this might happen, and they got caught, right?” and “The first time six kids were involved, this time just two, that's success!” In a Wiki-World of being the WIKI-CHURCH we give up control, of dictating how people will interact, how we will teach, and instead we learn from one another, we learn from the questions that are asked and the needs that are presented rather than trying to teacvh what we are comfortable with having known.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
"What We Believe", April 10, 2011
Ezekiel 37:1-14
John 11:1-45
This morning, we confront several questions, as we read our Bibles:
Did these things happen? Could these things really happen? What does it mean? And, So What?
A while back, I preached at the Installation of a new pastor in an inner-city Church. She had been working with latch-key and street kids, to get them to join the church instead of joining rival gangs; trying as much out of self-preservation as anything else to develop relationships with these young teens that would lead them off the street and into the community of faith. The whole Presbytery gathered, along with members of the church in the Sanctuary, as I began to preach, I saw the group standing at the door talking. SO I stopped what I was doing and invited them to come in, telling all that they were welcome. The whole herd began shuffling up the aisle, but instead of sitting in the pews, they came right up onto the chancel and made themselves comfortable. Meeting them where they were, I took off my robe and began telling the story. At which point one of the young men asked: DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? I looked around, in the eyes of all the ministers of the Presbytery, and the church members, and the faces of these searching for what to believe, and at that moment, whether it HAD HAPPENED or not, I WANTED TO BELIEVE IT HAD.
That is where we are with the Story of Lazarus. We, more than any generation before us, know the limitations of life and death: How fragile the globe with hydro-fracking, earth-quakes, Tsunamis and Oil Spills; How fragile our political systems with one nation after another in revolution, with our own government having postured over one program and another whether to shut-down the government; How fragile the economic structures; With the passing of an entire generation, what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” we know just how fragile and limited life is. In order to question whether Lazarus could be raised from Death to Life, whether Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley could happen, we must each question whether we believe Reality to be fixed and limited, hard fact, or whether Life is PERMEABLE, allowing hopes and dreams and commitments to at times empower the Impossible to be possible?
FAITH IS NOT ABOUT Correctly Answering a Formula of Questions. Eight years ago, when this couple stood before the Church, family and friends, they were asked if they wanted to married, and responded “I DO” just as this morning, they stood with us claiming the desire to believe and to have their children believe in “Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior”. But the point of Faith comes not when we have driven cross country to stand up in our best clothes, but when we are at our worst. When there are deadlines at work, and the bills are due, and the children all have the flu. Tragically, we tend to reserve passages like this one about Lazarus, for Funerals, for Easter or Pentecost, instead of reading it and questioning it in light of our lives. The climax of this passage is in verses 25 and 26, where Jesus professes: “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” This last week at the Lenten Soup Suppers, we named that as reticent as any of us are to discuss Sex or Money with our children, regardless of how old they are, what we most avoid discussing is Death. We hope and believe that in this life our Forgivenesses outnumber our Sins, and that we can live in communion with one another and God. But Death represents that Denial of Life, Denial of Relationship, the absolute End. The Question of this passage is whether God has power over Death, whether Jesus as the human manifestation of God, God present with us has control over life and death? If not, all of faith is moral and theoretical philosophy, and like those in Jesus' time who believed there was no resurrection, all there is is this life. But, if Jesus could raise Lazarus from death to life, if Jesus did call Lazarus out of the tomb, then faith is not only a theory a way of moral life, but everlasting communion with God, not only after life but in this life also!
What we know of Lazarus' Sister Martha from this passage and Luke, is that as much as she wants to believe, as much as she wants to have close relationships with Jesus and neighbors, she is a pragmatic realist. She was distracted by cleaning and cooking to host Jesus, rather than listening and taking in. Here, as much as she wants to believe, as much as she had hoped Jesus would have gotten there in time to stop Lazarus from dying, once dead and buried four days, she knows that when the tomb is opened there will be a Stench. Ironic, that for Martha and the Disciples, SALVATION seems to have been about STOPPING from Death, a Miracle Cure that would cause Lazarus not to die. How much more powerful that once in the grip of death, once pronounced dead and buried four days, Jesus had power to Call Lazarus from Death to Life!
The Vision of Ezekiel in the Valley is probably the best known passage of Ezekiel. This is now the fourth vision that the prophet has had. Different from Isaiah or Jeremiah, EXILE has begun. The Monarchy of David, the Kingdom of Solomon each are destroyed, a lack of hope, a lack of faith, long years of war have killed the people, and any life any hope they had was carried off in exile. Each of the other visions begin THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me saying... Whereas this vision starts out “THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS UPON ME and led me to a valley of dead dry bones”. This vision is unique, both in questioning whether those with no life left in them, no faith or hope left, can live and believe again; and also that for this to happen Ezekiel must call the dead to live. The SO WHAT of faith is that while God raised up Jesus from death to life; while Jesus Called Lazarus from the tomb; here Ezekiel, a person of faith like us, is used by God to call the dead to live.
This is a horrifying image. It is a forgotten battleground, where the bodies of the dead, hundreds of thousands were not buried, but left in the sun to decay and to rot, for scavengers to eat. The bodies and bones were scattered over time, and so much time has gone by that even the marrow within the bones has turned to dust and blown away. There is nothing resembling life here, nothing resembling humanity it a place of absolute death and abandonment.
Maybe, this passage was intended for Mitch Miller to write a song about the Foot bone being connected to the Ankle bone, the Ankle connected to the Shin, and so forth. But I believe, The Valley of Dead Dry Bones describes a world like we populate today. Where people are scattered. Where hope is no longer assured, people live from crisis to crisis feeling powerless over their futures, over what life will be like for their children, even if they will have a retirement. Where faith is no longer a simple matter of residency, and all our neighbors choose which church to walk to on Sunday morning. But rather that we make connections and call people to faith throughout the world.
This morning I overheard conversation between two co-workers: “Listen, I am doing the best I can. You are just asking more and more, and I am afraid it's never going to be enough for you.” Perhaps that crossed Ezekiel's mind, but what he affirmed in response to God was: Only God Knows! then he tried.
What would we say to call the dead to life?
Maybe it is as simple as “Can I help?”, or “We came to the church for our wedding and for our children's baptisms, for Christmas and Easter and family funerals, how could we share our faith in daily life?” Ezekiel has a dual role here, as do all of us. He prophesies to the dead dry bones to join together, he does his organizing and casting of a vision, but then he is also commended by God to prophesy to the Breath. Simply because we show up, because we choose a cause and get others to work with us, does not mean God will be in the place or in our hands. Ezekiel prophesies to the Breath of God, the Spirit. How often have we paused before we begin calling the Spirit of God to be with us? How different the day might be, if before we began we asked the Spirit of God to be with us. Possibly that is a prayer. Possibly, it is a devotion and Scripture reading. Maybe before we do anything else, we forgive those we believe have done wrong, and ask for forgiveness then set about doing God's work rather than doing what we routinely do.
John 11:1-45
This morning, we confront several questions, as we read our Bibles:
Did these things happen? Could these things really happen? What does it mean? And, So What?
A while back, I preached at the Installation of a new pastor in an inner-city Church. She had been working with latch-key and street kids, to get them to join the church instead of joining rival gangs; trying as much out of self-preservation as anything else to develop relationships with these young teens that would lead them off the street and into the community of faith. The whole Presbytery gathered, along with members of the church in the Sanctuary, as I began to preach, I saw the group standing at the door talking. SO I stopped what I was doing and invited them to come in, telling all that they were welcome. The whole herd began shuffling up the aisle, but instead of sitting in the pews, they came right up onto the chancel and made themselves comfortable. Meeting them where they were, I took off my robe and began telling the story. At which point one of the young men asked: DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? I looked around, in the eyes of all the ministers of the Presbytery, and the church members, and the faces of these searching for what to believe, and at that moment, whether it HAD HAPPENED or not, I WANTED TO BELIEVE IT HAD.
That is where we are with the Story of Lazarus. We, more than any generation before us, know the limitations of life and death: How fragile the globe with hydro-fracking, earth-quakes, Tsunamis and Oil Spills; How fragile our political systems with one nation after another in revolution, with our own government having postured over one program and another whether to shut-down the government; How fragile the economic structures; With the passing of an entire generation, what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” we know just how fragile and limited life is. In order to question whether Lazarus could be raised from Death to Life, whether Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley could happen, we must each question whether we believe Reality to be fixed and limited, hard fact, or whether Life is PERMEABLE, allowing hopes and dreams and commitments to at times empower the Impossible to be possible?
FAITH IS NOT ABOUT Correctly Answering a Formula of Questions. Eight years ago, when this couple stood before the Church, family and friends, they were asked if they wanted to married, and responded “I DO” just as this morning, they stood with us claiming the desire to believe and to have their children believe in “Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior”. But the point of Faith comes not when we have driven cross country to stand up in our best clothes, but when we are at our worst. When there are deadlines at work, and the bills are due, and the children all have the flu. Tragically, we tend to reserve passages like this one about Lazarus, for Funerals, for Easter or Pentecost, instead of reading it and questioning it in light of our lives. The climax of this passage is in verses 25 and 26, where Jesus professes: “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” This last week at the Lenten Soup Suppers, we named that as reticent as any of us are to discuss Sex or Money with our children, regardless of how old they are, what we most avoid discussing is Death. We hope and believe that in this life our Forgivenesses outnumber our Sins, and that we can live in communion with one another and God. But Death represents that Denial of Life, Denial of Relationship, the absolute End. The Question of this passage is whether God has power over Death, whether Jesus as the human manifestation of God, God present with us has control over life and death? If not, all of faith is moral and theoretical philosophy, and like those in Jesus' time who believed there was no resurrection, all there is is this life. But, if Jesus could raise Lazarus from death to life, if Jesus did call Lazarus out of the tomb, then faith is not only a theory a way of moral life, but everlasting communion with God, not only after life but in this life also!
What we know of Lazarus' Sister Martha from this passage and Luke, is that as much as she wants to believe, as much as she wants to have close relationships with Jesus and neighbors, she is a pragmatic realist. She was distracted by cleaning and cooking to host Jesus, rather than listening and taking in. Here, as much as she wants to believe, as much as she had hoped Jesus would have gotten there in time to stop Lazarus from dying, once dead and buried four days, she knows that when the tomb is opened there will be a Stench. Ironic, that for Martha and the Disciples, SALVATION seems to have been about STOPPING from Death, a Miracle Cure that would cause Lazarus not to die. How much more powerful that once in the grip of death, once pronounced dead and buried four days, Jesus had power to Call Lazarus from Death to Life!
The Vision of Ezekiel in the Valley is probably the best known passage of Ezekiel. This is now the fourth vision that the prophet has had. Different from Isaiah or Jeremiah, EXILE has begun. The Monarchy of David, the Kingdom of Solomon each are destroyed, a lack of hope, a lack of faith, long years of war have killed the people, and any life any hope they had was carried off in exile. Each of the other visions begin THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me saying... Whereas this vision starts out “THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS UPON ME and led me to a valley of dead dry bones”. This vision is unique, both in questioning whether those with no life left in them, no faith or hope left, can live and believe again; and also that for this to happen Ezekiel must call the dead to live. The SO WHAT of faith is that while God raised up Jesus from death to life; while Jesus Called Lazarus from the tomb; here Ezekiel, a person of faith like us, is used by God to call the dead to live.
This is a horrifying image. It is a forgotten battleground, where the bodies of the dead, hundreds of thousands were not buried, but left in the sun to decay and to rot, for scavengers to eat. The bodies and bones were scattered over time, and so much time has gone by that even the marrow within the bones has turned to dust and blown away. There is nothing resembling life here, nothing resembling humanity it a place of absolute death and abandonment.
Maybe, this passage was intended for Mitch Miller to write a song about the Foot bone being connected to the Ankle bone, the Ankle connected to the Shin, and so forth. But I believe, The Valley of Dead Dry Bones describes a world like we populate today. Where people are scattered. Where hope is no longer assured, people live from crisis to crisis feeling powerless over their futures, over what life will be like for their children, even if they will have a retirement. Where faith is no longer a simple matter of residency, and all our neighbors choose which church to walk to on Sunday morning. But rather that we make connections and call people to faith throughout the world.
This morning I overheard conversation between two co-workers: “Listen, I am doing the best I can. You are just asking more and more, and I am afraid it's never going to be enough for you.” Perhaps that crossed Ezekiel's mind, but what he affirmed in response to God was: Only God Knows! then he tried.
What would we say to call the dead to life?
Maybe it is as simple as “Can I help?”, or “We came to the church for our wedding and for our children's baptisms, for Christmas and Easter and family funerals, how could we share our faith in daily life?” Ezekiel has a dual role here, as do all of us. He prophesies to the dead dry bones to join together, he does his organizing and casting of a vision, but then he is also commended by God to prophesy to the Breath. Simply because we show up, because we choose a cause and get others to work with us, does not mean God will be in the place or in our hands. Ezekiel prophesies to the Breath of God, the Spirit. How often have we paused before we begin calling the Spirit of God to be with us? How different the day might be, if before we began we asked the Spirit of God to be with us. Possibly that is a prayer. Possibly, it is a devotion and Scripture reading. Maybe before we do anything else, we forgive those we believe have done wrong, and ask for forgiveness then set about doing God's work rather than doing what we routinely do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)