tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144726522024-03-23T15:50:13.650-04:00MarginaliaReflections and sermons from Alex Joyner, pastor of Franktown United Methodist Church on Virginia's Eastern ShoreAlex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-37274560598899645832014-04-20T13:30:00.000-04:002014-04-20T13:30:47.533-04:00Don't Get Distracted - An Easter SermonI have always been enamored with empty spaces.<br />
A stretch of prairie that opens up<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>so that you can see a rolling thunderhead<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>many leagues away across the grass<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and wonder if the storm will come to threaten you.<br />
A subterranean cave that only yields its secrets<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when the hopelessly small beacon on your hard hat<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>shines across a cavernous room.<br />
That last stretch of marsh behind a barrier island<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>through which you paddle silently<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>while breakers roar just above the spartina<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and great blue herons take to wing<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>like ancient beasts of the prehistoric skies.<br />
I do love empty spaces.<br />
<br />
My roommates<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when I was in college<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>always suspected that I would end up in a cabin<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in some mountain hollow<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>where I could spend my evenings in a rocker on the front porch<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>occasionally pulling Yoo Hoo sodas out of a rusty frig beside me.<br />
They thought I’d shuffle off to some out-of-the-way place<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>where the horizon is not a fanciful thing to imagine<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but something you see every day.<br />
Guess I showed them.<br />
<br />
But it takes good eyes to see the beauty of the empty.<br />
<br />
Which is why,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when Matthew shares with us his gospel tale of Easter,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>he’s really giving us a test.<br />
Because Easter,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>though it is for everybody,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is only seen by some bodies.<br />
Peter shared the news with Cornelius and his household,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>his report of impossible doings on the third day,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and what he said was that God raised him up<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God lifted Jesus from the dead<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>on the third day he brought him up out of that tomb<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and allowed him to be seen<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but then he adds<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“allowed him to be seen,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>not by everybody<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but by us.”<br />
<br />
So here’s the test:<br />
There will be marvels<br />
There will be wonders<br />
There will be intrigue, fear, and death<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to rival any thing you’d see at the Multiplex.<br />
In a world<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>where everything is falling apart<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>one man comes to redeem God’s people<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>can you see him?<br />
<br />
It was early on a Sunday morning<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>dawn, they say<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>on the first day of the week, they say<br />
A flock of soldiers sits idly by the tomb<br />
Not often they are asked to guard the dead<br />
“What a pointless task!” they must be saying.<br />
“Hasn’t Jesus caused enough trouble?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>even three days dead<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>he’s got us assigned to the graveyard shift!”<br />
But they were taking no chances<br />
The reports were thick that Jesus had claimed<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>an after-death surprise<br />
A stolen body might be more trouble<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>than a living prophet<br />
Best to seal the deal<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and seal the stone<br />
Post a guard and let him rot.<br />
<br />
Two women come to take a look<br />
Mary and Mary<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to take a look<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to observe the tomb<br />
No more to the plan than that<br />
Might as well watch paint dry<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>as expect a show from that rock<br />
<br />
So what will kill the tedium of a Sunday by the graves?<br />
What will get this place shaking?<br />
Who will liven things up?<br />
<br />
Right on cue, there is the trembling of a tremor<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a thrill runs through the garden<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the crowd goes wild<br />
From up above an angel comes<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with face like lightning<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and robe like snow<br />
And rolls that rock away from Jesus’ grave<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>as if it weren’t nothing but a thing<br />
And saucily he sits<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>on top that stone<br />
<br />
It’s too much for the rent-a-cops<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>hired to watch for grave robbers<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and certainly not for lightning-faced angels<br />
They shake and flail and fall and faint<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>dying, it seems, of fright<br />
So now the only guards of the dead<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>have fallen dead themselves<br />
<br />
“Don’t be afraid,” the angel says from his perch<br />
It’s how you know that angels are legit -<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>they tell you not to be fear.<br />
“Never fear<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I know the reason why you’re here.<br />
To look at the tomb - ha!<br />
You came to see Jesus.<br />
You came because even though his promises didn’t make a lick of sense<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and you suspected that he was kind of off his rocker<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with his resurrection talk<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>you thought<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>‘Just maybe’<br />
It’s the reason people will go to church for centuries more<br />
They’ll put on bonnets and ties and pastel blouses<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and make the trek they made with Grandma<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for O! so many years<br />
And they’ll not expect to be converted by the choir<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>or moved by the fantastical story<br />
Because what modern person could believe?<br />
And yet -<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>just maybe -<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>just<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>perhaps”<br />
<br />
I may be adding a little bit to what the angel said.<br />
But it’s surely what he meant.<br />
<br />
Now we have the test.<br />
Have you noticed?<br />
Have you seen?<br />
It’s all well and good to have the fireworks<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but where’s the substance of the show?<br />
At what point do we get to see the broken body restored?<br />
At what point does the music swell?<br />
When will it be that a figure appears<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in the shadows of the tomb's entrance<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the darkness just barely concealing his face<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but we know who it is<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>we know what it’s about<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>this is the extra special special effect<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the climax of the whole crazy pageant<br />
<br />
Did you get distracted?<br />
Did you fail to see what couldn’t be seen?<br />
It wasn’t the rock that kept Jesus in the ground<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>it certainly wasn’t the guard grumbling by the grave<br />
When that stone rolled back<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>what was done was already done<br />
“Take a gander,” the saucy angel says.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“He’s long gone.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What’s left here now is empty space.”<br />
<br />
Darn!<br />
We missed it!<br />
So what was the point of all that sound and fury<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>if it signifieth nothing?<br />
And just when I was beginning to hope<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that earthquakes and angels<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>might actually put the fear of God back in the world!<br />
But now all that grave is<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is empty space<br />
<br />
And the one in whom we placed our hopes<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>has slipped away<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>again<br />
<br />
So let me call upon the wind<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the breath that Ezekiel preached to<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to conjure life in dry, dry bones<br />
Let me call upon the wind that blows<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in prairies and back bays<br />
<br />
The poet Kimberly Johnson asks:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And what is wind<br />
but a dialect of longing? —: the high<br />
pressure rushing to fill the low, the sky</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
trying to slake its heats against the earth’s<br />
asymptotic cool, its somersaulting cools<br />
against the earth’s radiance. All weather</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
springs from currents of failed desire. No wonder<br />
the wind, when it says anything at all,<br />
howls.*</blockquote>
<br />
Let me call on the winds, the breath, the Spirit<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that hovered over waters<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>which parted to reveal the empty space<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in which God worked before ever having a witness<br />
<br />
Let me call on the wind because it echoes my deep desire<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that springs from the empty space<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I feel so often in my deepest heart<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the space that longs and howls from failed desire<br />
<br />
Or maybe the space is not empty at all<br />
<br />
Is it only a lack that the angel points to?<br />
Is the only thing to say about the tomb is that a body has gone missing?<br />
Or is it not empty<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>open?<br />
<br />
Openness is not an absence<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but a presence of the possible<br />
If the tomb is open we have a choice<br />
Ignore it.<br />
Walk away.<br />
Will it really make much nevermind if we simply let it be?<br />
The world will keep on turning<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with its brokenness and pain<br />
The wind will keep on blowing from there to who knows where<br />
<br />
But come into this open space<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and what could happen then?<br />
Just like at the dawning of creation<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God has opened up space<br />
In the very place where the world marks death<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God opens up space<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in which our lives can be redefined and reoriented<br />
and angels can tell us to go where have never been before.<br />
<br />
The tomb in Jerusalem,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>wherever it really lies,<br />
hardly gives you space to change your mind<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>it’s<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>small<br />
Pilgrims wait for hours to duck into the dark<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and feel the stone<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and imagine themselves as Mary or Peter or John<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and to offer up prayers for that that they can see<br />
The miracle is not that that small cell<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>contains a universe of possibility and hope<br />
The miracle now<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>is that we do.<br />
<br />
I do love open spaces.<br />
And so<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(it must be so)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>does God.<br />
<br />
*"[ ]." Kimberly Johnson, <i>a metaphorical god</i>, [Persea Books: New York, 2008], p. 58.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-61782920771305570112013-11-24T21:04:00.000-05:002013-11-26T21:10:50.628-05:00shepherd, king, future<br />
Perhaps you've heard the story of the preacher who was a golf fanatic. One Sunday morning, he woke up and the weather outside was just beautiful - just the sort of day that he would have loved to spend out on the greens. So he made a rash decision. He decided that he was going to skip church.<br />
<br />
The preacher called up his lay leader and said, "I'm so sorry but I'm very sick. Can you cover for me today?" Then he put on his golf duds and headed out to the golf course in the next town.<br />
<br />
Of course, God is watching all of this from the heavenly precincts and says to the angels gathered around, "I'm going to let him have a hole-in-one." The angels object. The man is skipping church to play golf.<br />
<br />
But sure enough, on the next green, a 400-yard hole with a wicked dogleg, the pastor tees it up and hits the ball right into the hole. Hole in one. First one in his life. And he starts to celebrate and jump up and down, making a fool of himself.<br />
<br />
The angels are still indignant. "God, how could you allow that to happen? You're only feeding his addiction."<br />
<br />
God responds, "And who's he going to tell?"<br />
<br />
Let me tell you a little about the secret life of pastors. And I'm giving away one of our biggest secrets here. Part of what it means to be a pastor is to feel that everything is your fault. When things go wrong, (and there are always plenty of things going wrong in a church, it's a human place), it's very easy to go looking for flaws in yourself. Of course, there are usually other people around who will help you to do that, too. But we go look for a cause in us. Attendance is down this week. What did I say last week? That program flopped. What didn't I do to make it work?<br />
<br />
Part of the reason for this is the high standards for leaders that the Bible sets. You remember that the scriptures say, "Not many of you should be teachers for we will be judged more harshly." Jesus warns the disciples that if they lead anyone astray it would be better for them if there were a millstone around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.<br />
<br />
So when I get to this passage from Jeremiah, I take it personally. "Watch out, you shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture...You are the ones who have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven't attended to their needs, so I will take revenge on you for the terrible things you have done to them, declares the Lord." Ouch. <br />
<br />
Now I know that Jeremiah was speaking to the kings of Judah. I know that what he is castigating them for is their failure to live up to the duties of the king, which include making sure that justice is carried out on behalf of all the people, especially the poor and the widow. They had not been caring for them. Just as Samuel had warned years before when the people were clamoring for a king, the kings were deaf to the suffering of the people and the whole nation was suffering as a result.<br />
<br />
So Jeremiah makes a promise. The promise is that God will raise up a new king - a righteous descendent from David's line who will rule as a wise king. And this king will restore the nation.<br />
<br />
It will be such a momentous event when this new king comes to reign that even God will get a new name. If you read on to verse 7 in this passage it says that the time is coming when people will no longer call God the One who brought up Israel from the land of Egypt. Instead God will be known as the one who brought the scattered people back from the lands of exile to live once more in their own land.<br />
<br />
John Holbert, who is a retired professor at that great school of learning, Perkins School of Theology, says that "what is important...is that God is the God of the new and the now. God is not stuck in the past, living off past deeds, no matter how wondrous. Jeremiah, who witnessed the demise of his people, his land, his kings, his temple, his priests, still found in his God one who cared for and loved the people, one who acted the part of shepherd for the scattered and wayward sheep. It is hardly an accident that when later Christian believers tried to name the actions of the one they called Christ, they often chose the image of the shepherd."*<br />
<br />
A shepherd. That's what they call us. Pastor is a word that means shepherd. It's even clearer in Spanish and other languages where it literally is the same word - pastor. Christ is the Great Shepherd, the Great Pastor, yes, and thank God for that. And we are supposed to take that name as well. You can see how it's hard not to hear the challenge in these words about the bad shepherds.<br />
<br />
This week perhaps you heard about a church trial that we had within our United Methodist connection. About six years ago a pastor in Pennsylvania, Frank Schaefer, was asked by his son to preside at his wedding. Nothing unusual in that. What an honor. But what was difficult was that his son is gay and the ceremony was a same-sex marriage to be performed in Massachusetts where it is legal.<br />
<br />
Frank Schaefer was left with a difficult choice. The teaching of the United Methodist Church in its official statements is that all people are people of sacred worth. We are called to welcome and be in ministry with all people regardless of their sexual orientation. We support the civil rights of all people in the society at large. Jesus calls us to love all people and all means all.<br />
<br />
But in the long history of the Church and in the history of the Bible's interpretation, the majority position has been that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. That's our official language on the subject in the United Methodist Church. <br />
<br />
But it's an area of teaching that we have been divided about. At our last General Conference we saw how conflicted we are as we debated whether or not to introduce language that simply acknowledges that we are divided, that faithful Christians are looking at the same Bible and seeing different imperatives, some to maintaining old mores and others to hearing a new witness. In the meantime, we have retained our old language and we have added new language forbidding our clergy from presiding at same sex unions or marriages.<br />
<br />
What's a pastor to do? What's a father to do? Frank Schaefer chose to preside at the wedding. Not in his church. Not in his state. And eventually a complaint was brought against him, which led to a church trial, which led to his suspension from ministry for 30 days with the expectation that within those 30 days he will either pledge not to conduct any more same sex weddings or that he will turn in his orders. <br />
<br />
For a certain kind of unity of the church, that makes sense. The Book of Discipline is very clear. We clergy are asked to uphold the Discipline. But Frank Schaefer is not the first and he won't be the last. We are facing a wave of church trials and we will meet each other over this issue in front of how many juries as we struggle with this question.<br />
<br />
In a sermon about this passage from Jeremiah, John Wesley says:<br />
"How dreadful and how innumerable are the contests which have arisen about religion! And not only among the children of this world, among those who knew not what true religion was, but even among the children of God; those who had experienced "the kingdom of God within them;" who had tasted of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." How many of these, in all ages, instead of joining together against the common enemy, have turned their weapons against each other, and so not only wasted their precious time, but hurt one another's spirits, weakened each other's hands, and so hindered the great work of their common Master! How many of the weak have hereby been offended! -- How many of the lame turned out of the way! How many sinners confirmed in their disregard of all religion, and their contempt of those that profess it! And how many of "the excellent ones upon earth" have been constrained to "weep in secret places!"**<br />
<br />
Here's where I feel convicted this morning as your pastor. Not that I have not "upheld the Discipline." But that I have not led you to listen for those who weep in secret places. The problem Wesley saw was not that church people weren't being vigilant enough in maintaining a standard. The problem was that the way they were vigilant meant that wounded people weren't finding their way to Jesus. Lost people were not hearing a call to come home. How many people will look at a church trial and say, "Now that's the way to run a church"?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The problem Wesley saw was not that church people weren't being vigilant enough in maintaining a standard. The problem was that the way they were vigilant meant that wounded people weren't finding their way to Jesus.</span></blockquote>
<br />
I know that there are those who will say - but there must be order in the church. People can't just pick and choose what to believe. There are means for changing our order and it's not to just flout what's there. Frank Schaefer told the court last week, "I thought about the severity of what I had done...but I couldn't pass on the other side of the road like a Levite to preserve a rule. All I saw was love for my son."*** But it affected his church as well. These are no small issues for the church as a whole. In the absence of agreement among us there must be a means to determine what's right, and I suppose a trial gives us that clarity. But why does it not feel settled?<br />
<br />
When I was in seminary, lo, these many years ago, I had a classmate named Bill. Bill was a tremendously gifted person. Vibrant, smart, charismatic, a great preacher and singer. When we did the seminary talent show at the end of the year it was Bill who wrote several of the skits. My favorite was his send-up of the Board of Ordained Ministry that we were all going to have to face for interviews. He had a kickline of seminarians dressed as the board in white robes singing, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Stole." Bill was the kind of colleague I would love to have had.<br />
<br />
We both lived on campus and one night he asked if he we could take a walk. So we walked to the top of the hill at the SMU campus and as we were walking around the fountain there he told me the least surprising thing he could have told me. He was gay. It was really not news to me but he took a risk to share that with me. He had grown up in the United Methodist Church and at the time was pursuing ministry in our denomination. Appearing before that Board of Ordained Ministry was going to be much different for him than it was for me. <br />
<br />
So what did I do? I assured him I still considered him a friend, that I sympathized with his plight, that it really didn't change anything between us. Except that he and I were never going to be colleagues. Except that, even though both of us had grown up in Methodist churches and both had memories of sitting with our families in the light of the same kind of stained-glass windows and getting an inkling that God might be calling us to pastor churches, for me it was an entirely different process than for him.<br />
<br />
What I'm saying is that Bill was inviting me to walk with him on a different kind of journey when he asked me to walk with him that night and I don't think I took him on it. He was inviting me to be part of his family. And the ways that families make decisions is different. Families, good families, are not held together by political processes and position statements. They are held together by love. <br />
<br />
This family is held together by Christ the King -- The Lord our Righteousness, as Jeremiah would have it. Because it is God's righteousness, and not our own, we are all equal before the cross. As Wesley put it in that same sermon, we are all of us "humbled as repenting criminals at Christ's feet, and rely as devoted pensioners on his merits."**** So when we come to this table we say, "Welcome. You've earned it." We say, "He ate with sinners, so you are welcome here."<br />
<br />
That's our hope. And it's what we all share. I pray that we can find some way beyond church trials -- other than church trials -- to serve our King together. Because we have too much work to do for a hurting world that needs Jesus. And we dare not do that work at the expense of the excellent ones of the earth who weep in secret places.<br />
<br />
I know this is a difficult question and I hope that you hear that I am committed to being the pastor to this whole church, even though I'm going to fail you at times. I will keep us mindful of our call to be faithful to the witness of the Bible and the church. And I will remind us of the call to be open to all. And I will struggle with where we are on this issue. And we'll do this together.<br />
<br />
One last story. Last December I was in Israel and I went to a village that is literally in no-man's land between Israel proper and the West Bank. Neve Shalom, or Wahat-al-Salam, is a village where Israeli Arabs and Jews have committed to living together. It's on the grounds of an old Christian monastery and there are about 300 people living there.<br />
<br />
This may not sound unusual but it is very unusual in Israel. I was talking to a man named Howard Shippin, who lives in the community and he talked about how important it was that they had decided, not to join a political program, but to actually live together. "You put down roots in a place and even if things come up which can be divisive between Arabs and Jews," he said, "there's an undercurrent of community feeling which overcomes those differences and there's kind of a maturing process...In the beginning maybe you come in with your own ideas, radical ideas or whatever, but then there's a test of living with the other people. So you may find yourself changing. There are things which can be surprising. Most people who come to such a society think of themselves as liberal, as not racist or whatever. But then that's on the level of declaration. You haven't tested it. So you discover things about yourself. You discover where your fears are. So there's a kind of acclimatization."<br />
<br />
When you live together, you leave yourself open to the possibility of surprise. Like maybe the way forward is not in your best proclamations or refined judgements. Maybe the way forward is to discover where your fears are and keep living together anyway. At the end of this road is not the best position statement ever. At the end of this road is the King. Thanks be to God.<br />
<br />
*John Holbert, "God of the New and the Now," patheos.com, http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/God-of-the-New-and-the-Now?offset=1&max=1<br />
**John Wesley, Sermon 20 "The Lord our Righteousness," http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/20/. Referred to hereafter as Wesley.<br />
***Michelle Boorstein, "For Methodists, a rift close to home," The Washington Post, 19 Nov 2013.<br />
****Wesley.<br />
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Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-50700756503004611262013-03-17T16:52:00.000-04:002013-03-17T16:52:00.034-04:00Scandal at Bethany<br />
I usually leave it to Peter to cover the Catholic beat, but since he's not preaching today, I think I'd like to spend a minute or two at the beginning of the sermon today going over the news from Rome since I'm assuming you probably know what happened there. We got a new pope.<br />
<br />
Now I say, "We got a new pope," but let me be clear. We don't have popes in the United Methodist Church. We have bishops, but we don't even have a bishop above all other bishops. We're pretty egalitarian. It's part of our Protestant heritage. One of the reasons there was a Reformation in the 1500s was that many European Christians had come to suspect that something rotten was corrupting the church and part of the corruption was the extravagance of the popes. Even as St. Peter's, that great cathedral that we saw in the news in the Vatican...even as it was being built there were many ordinary Christians grumbling about how all their tithes were going to fund that kind of opulence, even as so many were suffering. "Couldn't that money have been given to the poor?" you can just hear them saying with Judas.<br />
<br />
But we live in a new day. Catholics and Protestants don't regard each other with the same sort of suspicion that we used to. Especially after Vatican 2, that great council in the 1960s, Catholics have been more open to talks with Protestant churches, including Methodists. We have come to see that the things that divided us in the 16th century no longer need to divide us and, in fact, we share a lot of basic beliefs. So when we hear that the Catholic Church is suffering, as it has, because of clergy sexual abuse scandals, we grieve with Catholics. And when they celebrate the installation of a new bishop of Rome, a new Pope, we celebrate with them.<br />
<br />
Pope Francis is already proving to be a very different kind of pope. First, because of who he is. Of Italian origin, but an Argentinian - the first Latin American to be elected pope. He represents a region in which there are far more Catholics than there are in Europe. A shy man who does not like to speak in public. And he comes from the Jesuit order which is known for its missionary history and disciplined spirituality, but he takes the name of Francis.<br />
<br />
You've heard Peter talk about Francis of Assisi many times. Francis was a medieval reformer in the church who reformed through the example of his life. He, too, thought that the church had become too comfortable and so he sought to live a life of poverty and charity. Legend has it that, as a child, he was selling cloth and velvet for his father one day when a beggar came by. He abandoned his wares and chased the beggar down, giving him all that he had in his pockets, much to the dismay of his friends and his father.<br />
<br />
This new Pope Francis has a history of seeking a path of humility, too. When he became Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he refused to move into the Archbishop's apartment with its luxuries, but instead moved into a plain room with a desk, a bed, a chair, and a radio. He cooked his own meals, which usually ran to things like skinless chicken and salads. He rode public buses around the city. And he stopped to talk to street vendors and beggars. He washed the feet of AIDS patients and the poor.<br />
<br />
We won't make a saint out of him yet. There's a lot to do in the Catholic Church. Even he, when he heard that he was elected, said, "I am a sinner, but since this has been given to me, I will accept." But I talked to so many people this week who felt inspired by this new pope. Even people who who were not religious felt that there was something Jesus-like about a pope who paid his own hotel bill.<br />
<br />
Humility and extravagance. These are important words for us in today's gospel reading, too. We often think of extravagance as meaning squandering or wasting, but in creation it is a sign of God's overflowing love. All you have to do is to look at the daffodils and camellia to know that spring is an extravagant season. All you have to do is look at the cross to understand how extravagantly God poured out love on creation.<br />
<br />
So we have an extravagant Lover in God and God calls us to be children. How do we respond to that? Our gospel lesson today gives us a hint in the story of Mary's anointing of Jesus at Bethany and in Jesus' defense of her.<br />
<br />
Judas often gets all of the attention in this story. He is the disciple who asks the question, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" But Judas is a hidden character in this story. The narrator, John, must tell us who he really is, and we are told that he is a thief, a hypocrite and a betrayer. So his question is really a reflection of his own sin and he points ahead in the story to the time when he will show himself by betraying Jesus.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
We could also make a lot out of Jesus in this story, particularly in his final statement where he tells Judas, "You will always have the poor with you, but you won't always have me." Some people have tried to distort that saying to make Jesus say, "You're wasting your time with the poor," but everything in Jesus' life suggests that he calls to be in service with the poor as a way of following him, so he was definitely NOT saying that serving the poor was useless. He was himself materially poor.<br />
<br />
It's Mary who seems really central to this story. Now you may remember Mary and her sister, Martha, from other stories in the Bible. Luke tells about a time when Jesus comes to their house and Martha busies herself in the kitchen while Mary sits as Jesus' feet listening to him. In that story Martha gets bent out of shape because Mary doesn't help her and doesn't do the things she was expected to do and in that case Jesus defends Mary saying she had chosen the better part. Already in that story you can see the difference between proper and correct Martha and spontaneous and independent Mary.<br />
<br />
You might also remember the story that comes one chapter before this story we read today when Jesus meets Martha and Mary on the road just before he raises their brother, Lazarus, from the dead. Martha went out first and never really believed that Jesus could raise her brother from the dead. She's the one who said, when Jesus gave the order to roll away the stone from the tomb, "Lord, think of the smell - he's been dead four days!"<br />
<br />
Mary, on the other hand, came late to see Jesus, fell at his feet in an act of spontaneous emotion, and wept, moving Jesus so deeply that he shared in her tears. And so here we are again in this story, in the week before the Passover celebration, and Jesus again comes to Bethany to be with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.<br />
<br />
In this story we are told very little about Lazarus. He sits at the table with Jesus to eat and then he disappears from the scene. And we're not told much about Martha either, though she appears in a very familiar role - she's serving the dinner. Proper, rational Martha is playing the perfect hostess as we would expect.<br />
<br />
Then Mary makes a dramatic appearance into the story. As in every other story we find her at the feet of Jesus and this time she is anointing his feet - as one might anoint a king - or someone about to be buried.<br />
<br />
The ointment she uses is a pound of costly perfume of pure nard. Judas values it at about 300 denarii, or very near the yearly wage of a laborer. The smell of this wonderful ointment rises and fills the whole house with the fragrance of perfume. Mary remains at the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair - a symbol of the servanthood Jesus came to proclaim and a foreshadowing of what Jesus would later do as he washed the feet of his disciples.<br />
<br />
Now think how extravagant this is! This is a costly, loving gift given in an act of spontaneous emotion, which is just what we've come to expect of Mary. Mary is not trapped by expectations and social graces. She's not trying to trap Jesus in her own plans and expectations the way Judas certainly is. Mary takes the unexpected route, giving extravagantly and humbly to the one who lived his life in fellowship and solidarity with the humble of the world - the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the outcast.<br />
<br />
John slows the story down at this point to give us rich detail about the costliness and the preciousness of her gift. John tells of the way she gave of herself in offering it, holding nothing back. John talks about the wonderful aroma which touches everyone in the house as a result.<br />
<br />
What would it mean for us to give extravagantly to God? As Jesus lived in community with those on the underside of society - those who are truly humble - what would it mean for us to give our best to those in need? We're so aware of what we don't have, but what if we gave extravagantly from what what we do have? What would we look like if we gave ourselves completely to God, holding nothing back as we fall before Christ's feet, and living our lives as he did in solidarity with the humble?<br />
<br />
There's so much in a vital life that doesn't make much economic sense. Looked at from a pragmatic view, what is the value of a Little League baseball game? What is the value of the hours spent preparing for a performance of a Beethoven concert? What is the value of an artist's canvas slathered with paint?<br />
<br />
Extravagance is the stuff of life. And there is an exchange of extravagance going on here that Judas, and perhaps the others in the room, fail to understand. Extravagance is what God is and it is what God asks of us. <br />
<br />
The Japanese artist MF connects Jesus' tears to Mary's anointing. He says, "Jesus’ tears led to Mary’s act of sacrifice, of nard being spread in a closed room in Bethany, where a transgression by a woman opened up a new paradigm of the aroma of Christ, of the reality of the gospel breathing into our broken world, filling the cracks of suffering. When Jesus hung on the cross, the only earthly possession Jesus wore was Mary’s nard."*<br />
<br />
It's not an easy thing to abandon ourselves to God with the spontaneity and independence of Mary. Maybe you think its too much a burden to simply sustain life without thinking extravagantly. But Mary calls us to a newness of life that doesn't merely sustain us but invites us to live abundantly as Jesus promised, "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly." That involves freedom and risk and trust that the best way to understand who God is and who we are is through the one who gave his life in service and solidarity with the sufferer - Jesus Christ. At the feet of the Christ who lives among us, offering everything we have in service, there is the sweet fragrance of the coming Kingdom.<br />
<br />
Most of us are where we are because of someone's extravagant gift. It began at your birth when a mother gave space within herself for life to begin. People nurtured us, cared for us, told us who we could be. And behind it all is the gift Christ offered on the cross.<br />
<br />
My favorite part of this story is the detail that John includes that says "the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment." Mary's gift became a blessing to the whole household. What do you have to give that will be a blessing? What do you have to give? Thanks be to God.<br />
<br />
*Makato Fujimura, "The BeautifulTears," Tabletalk magazine, 11 Oct 2010, http://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/the-beautiful-tears/<br />
Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-21323796677759613722013-03-10T12:02:00.000-04:002013-03-13T12:03:12.867-04:00Journey to the Far Country...and Back<br />
Preaching about the Prodigal Son doesn't work. I've tried. This is about the 5th or 6th time in my ministerial career that I have taken up this story and, on any human scale, this parable that Jesus tells in the gospel of Luke (and only in the gospel of Luke) does not work.<br />
<br />
I mean, weren't you convicted by Bishop Cho's sermon last week? Those of you who were here for either the morning or the evening service heard our new resident bishop challenge us to change our behavior. He talked about hard things. He talked about tithing. He talked about living our lives in the world as people who really believe that Jesus is Lord. He talked about giving an hour a day to prayer and Bible reading. He really believes that our behavior makes a difference. He really believes that there will be no vital congregations until there is a vital spirituality moving through our churches and through us. I told him last week after his sermon, "You have such a gracious presence but you say really hard things." It's what I most appreciate about him.<br />
<br />
So now we come to this story that most people call the parable of the Prodigal Son but which, if we're being honest with ourselves, most of us would call the parable of Bad Parenting. I mean, can you imagine:<br />
<br />
T: Hello, and welcome to today's class on Biblical Parenting. I'm glad to see so many people here. And some of you brought your children with you today. That's wonderful. There's plenty of sticky food and noisy toys in the back so feel free to let your kids run wild while we're talking today.<br />
<br />
K: (from back) Hey, they've got a saxophone back here!<br />
<br />
K2: (from back) And fingerpaints!<br />
<br />
T: Today I want to look at a story from Jesus about a man who had two sons. Now back in the day, when the father died in a situation like this, the oldest son would get the majority of the property and wealth and the younger son would get a smaller share. So one day, the younger son comes and says to the father, "I can't wait til you die. I want my share of the inheritance now." Let's playact this a little bit. What are some responses that the father might have?<br />
<br />
1: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....you want...ha, ha....you want what? Ha, ha, ha...that's a good one, son.<br />
<br />
T: Alright, anybody else?<br />
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2: You know, Old Yehuda wants to be chief priest, too, but it's not happening. You just get back to work.<br />
<br />
T: Um, hm. One more?<br />
<br />
3: I'm sorry, son. I thought you said you wanted your share of the inheritance, but I know I didn't hear that, did I?<br />
<br />
T: O.K. Interesting. Well, here's what the father actually says: "O.K." And he divides up the estate.<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What?<br />
<br />
T: He divided up the estate.<br />
<br />
2: What kind of parenting is that?<br />
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3: He gives the kid the money? He's just going to blow it on extravagant living.<br />
<br />
T: Interesting you should say that. Because the boy goes to a far country and blows it all on extravagant living.<br />
<br />
3: Told you.<br />
<br />
1: Show off.<br />
<br />
T: O.K., so the son is broke. He's hungry. He ends up slopping pigs and what the pigs eat starts to look good to him.<br />
<br />
3: A good Jewish boy slopping hogs? That's wrong.<br />
<br />
T: Then he comes to his senses. He remembers that even his father's servants at least have food to eat. So he decides to go home.<br />
<br />
1: Well, I hope he's ready to do some groveling.<br />
<br />
T: He is. He gets a whole speech together in his head. He's going to confess to his dad that he had sinned against heaven and against him. He going to say, "I don't deserve to be called your son." He's going to beg to get hired on as a servant.<br />
<br />
1: Sounds about right.<br />
<br />
T: But when he's on the way home and while he's still way off in the distance, the father sees him and has compassion on him. He hikes up his robe and the old man runs out to meet his son. He hugs him and kisses him.<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What?<br />
<br />
T: The boy tries to get his speech out. He confesses that he has sinned. He says, "I don't deserve to be called your son." But before he can get it all out, the father stops him and orders up a party.<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What?<br />
<br />
1: A party? For the younger son? The one that blew all that money?<br />
<br />
3: That's just wrong.<br />
<br />
T: So what kind of lessons for parenting can we see here?<br />
<br />
[crickets]<br />
<br />
You can't see any lessons for parenting?<br />
<br />
1: A party? Really?<br />
<br />
3: That's just wrong.<br />
<br />
2: How's this boy going to learn anything if he goes off and blows his dad's money and then gets a party when he comes back?<br />
<br />
T: Well, from the father's perspective, it's all about celebrating that the boy has come home. The boy was dead...<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What?<br />
<br />
T: Well, I don't mean literally dead. It was like he was dead and now he's alive. He was lost but now he's found. So they have a party.<br />
<br />
3: [after a pause] That's just wrong.<br />
<br />
1: So how does the older brother feel about all this?<br />
<br />
T: He's not happy. He comes in from the fields and hears this party going on.<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What? They didn't invite him to the party?<br />
<br />
T: Well, they do when he gets back. But the older brother won't go in. He's too mad. The dad comes out to see him, just like he did with the other brother. He begs the older brother to come in. But he refuses. Says, "Look, I've been here working all this time and I never even got a goat for a party."<br />
<br />
2: Wait. What? He wants a goat for his party?<br />
<br />
T: Well, the younger son got a fatted calf.<br />
<br />
2: What kind of party is this?<br />
<br />
T: A good one. At least back in the day it was. Anyway, the son is furious. He can't understand why the father would throw a party for the son that didn't play by the rules and went off and blew his money on who knows what all.<br />
<br />
1: Well, now he sounds like a sensible guy. The first sensible guy in this whole story.<br />
<br />
2: What would you even do with a goat at a party? Hitch it to a cart and give rides?<br />
<br />
3: No, you eat it.<br />
<br />
2: Now that's just wrong.<br />
<br />
T: But the father doesn't think it's wrong to have a party. He knows the older son is close to him. He is just grateful to have the younger son back. Because he was dead...not literally...and now he's alive. He was lost and now he's found.<br />
<br />
3: That is the craziest story I have ever heard.<br />
<br />
1: [to back] Come on kids, we're leaving.<br />
<br />
K: But I just found the sandbox!<br />
<br />
People would leave a session on parenting if we took the father in this story as the model. It doesn't fit any kind of parenting we know about. But what if this is not a story about human parenting so much as it is a story about God's love and the way THAT love works?<br />
<br />
This week I rediscovered Rembrandt's painting of the Prodigal Son. It was one of his last major works and it is among his best. In the painting we see the three major figures in this story, the father and the two sons, all in relationship to one another. The older brother gets our attention because he's looking down on his brother's homecoming with a great deal of judgment. Who knows what he sees? Perhaps he sees that the son has come back with a shaved head like a penitent and we wonder, with the older brother, how much the younger son has changed. It's easy to be remorseful when you've lost everything.<br />
<br />
The older brother probably notices, too, that the younger son is still wearing the fine clothes that he left home with, even if they are kind of tattered now. He probably sees that the younger son still carries a small sword on his belt, a vestige of his old life and who he once was. We are suspicious of how genuine this repentance is.<br />
<br />
But look at the father. The father is entirely unconcerned with what's going on around him. He has no look of judgment on his face. There is no trace of disgust or anger. He is embracing this child. He is accepting this child. He was dead. Not literally dead. But dead enough. And now he is alive. How can he not celebrate?<br />
<br />
The interesting thing is that the scene that Rembrandt depicts never happens in the story itself. The three characters are never together in the parable. The message is carried in two major confrontations - one between the younger son and the father, and the other between the older son and the father. In both cases the father has come out of the house to meet the son. In both cases he expresses his love for the son. <br />
<br />
We can see that love in the one-on-one exchanges. It's only when we put the brothers side-by-side that we start to get nervous about this story. That's when we start to worry about whether this story is fair.<br />
<br />
But God's love is incredibly personal. It comes to each of us in our need. Gerard Manley Hopkins, the priest and poet, said once "Searching nature I taste self but at one tankard, that of my own being."* When it comes to our particular need before God, we can't look to someone else. We taste self but at one tankard. I know the pains and failures that have come to my particular life. I know what the far country looks like in my particular life. I know the terrain very, very well. And what it means for God to meet me on the way back from that particular country is not what it means for you. I may be the younger brother or I may be the older brother, but I can still be dead. Not literally dead. But dead enough. And need to be made alive again.<br />
<br />
For that to happen I need a God who loves me like this crazy father and not like this older brother. I need a God who knows that my repentance could never be enough to change my life entire. I need a God who knows that even when I think I'm being sincere, I have an incredible capacity for fooling myself. There are places where I still hold on to the sword and still wear the pretentious clothes even though I have no right to them. There is still a bit of pride in me. There can never be enough humility. What I am is unforgivable and yet that is exactly what God gives to me despite myself - forgiveness. The older brother will always peer at me with judgement, but God will always look at me with love.<br />
<br />
This God who sees me while I am still far off. Who abandons all his dignity to run and meet me on the road. This God who has been to the far country himself and who knows exactly what he is doing when he welcomes me back and throws a party...this God sees through the judgement because he has taken it on himself.<br />
<br />
Have you been heartbroken by love, too? Has love ever failed you? Did your parent's love fail you? Your spouse's love? Your friend's love? Every human love has its failures. Because every human love is tied up in our anxieties about whether we are worthy of the love we receive. We never know quite how the other person sees us. Never quite sure what's being asked of us when we receive love.<br />
<br />
But there is no anxiety in God's love. God knows our every weakness and loves us anyway. God knows our deepest secrets and loves us anyway. God knows our shame and loves us anyway. God knows our sins and loves us anyway. God knows our pride and our sloth and our pretense and our worry and our wayward ways. God knows that tankard from which we drink. And loves us anyway - not because God needs to love us, but because God wants to.<br />
<br />
And all the other stuff - the new behavior, the prayer, the scripture reading, the missions, the tithing, the church community -- it's all there because God loves us and wants us to love God, too. And so we give. And so we are ambassadors for God. And so we live as agents of God's reconciling love - not because we have to be acceptable to God - but because God met us on the road and called us in. Thanks be to God. Amen.<br />
<br />
*Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. Comments on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953).Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-27439841636278601882013-01-13T10:34:00.000-05:002013-01-13T10:34:22.437-05:00Marriage & Modern America<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">A little while back Rachel and I took a field trip to Custis Tomb. Have you ever stopped by there? There’s a sign out on 13 just before you get to Stingray’s and if you follow it out to the end of the road you will wind up at the site of the old Arlington mansion. Here’s your trivia for the day – did you know that Arlington, for a brief period during Bacon’s Rebellion in the 1670’s – was the capital of Virginia? It’s true. This is where the royal governor fled when Nathaniel Bacon and his men were burning down Jamestown. Another fact to amaze your friends with.</span><br />
<br />
But the family that owned Arlington was the Custises and sure enough there are two tombs there for two of the Custis men. John Custis the 4th has the larger of the two tombs and on his tomb is inscribed this epitaph:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Liv’d but Seven years<br />which was the space of time<br />He Kept a Bachelor’s house<br />At Arlington.</i></blockquote>
Now here’s the thing: John Custis IV did not live 7 years, he lived about 70 years. And he’s not saying that he only lived at Arlington on the Eastern Shore for 7 years and that he loved it so much that he only considers his time on the Eastern Shore as really living. He lived on the Eastern Shore much longer than that. But he only lived as a single man on the Eastern Shore for 7 years.<br />
<br />
So what he’s saying, on his epitaph, is that his marriage was so bad that only considers his bachelor years to be really living. It’s kind of like the guy who tells a stranger, “I’ve been married to my wife for 20 wonderful years.”<br />
<br />
And she says, “Honey, we’ve been married for 30 years.”<br />
<br />
And he says, “I know what I said.”<br />
<br />
But let me tell you how bad John & Frances Custis’ marriage was. As Kirk Mariner tells the story in his Off 13 book, things went south really quickly after the couple got married in 1706. They soon weren’t talking to each other and their poor butler had to act as the go-between. “Pompey, would you ask Mr. Custis if he would like tea or coffee.” “Pompey, would you tell Mrs. Custis that I will take coffee with sugar.” That kind of thing. Poor Pompey.<br />
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One time, when they were in horse-drawn carriage driven by Mr. Custis, he rode her right into the creek. Sadly, the marriage ended in a legal separation, Frances Custis went back to live in Williamsburg and died soon after. John Custis went back to Williamsburg, too, and never remarried. But they did have a son named Daniel Parke Custis and he married a woman named Martha. And when he died Martha remarried a man by the name of George Washington. And now you know…the rest of the story.<br />
<br />
So why am I telling you this interesting tidbit of Eastern Shore history? Because I want to make the point that marriage has never been an easy thing, not even on the Eastern Shore. And why would I want to make that point? Because we’re about to get a humdinger of a statement on marriage from Jesus.<br />
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Now when we read Mark chapter 10 we might ask why it should make us uncomfortable. I mean, after all, Jesus does something in this passage that we are always hoping he will do – he makes a clear, direct, unmistakable statement about an issue that is very contemporary. There is no parable, no cryptic, Zen-like question like when they asked him about paying taxes. No, is this passage lays it all out in the open – “Marriage is intended to be permanent between two people, divorce is contrary to God’s intentions, and any relationships outside this understanding are adultery.” That’s pretty clear, right? No amount of fancy interpretation is going to change that, right?<br />
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So, if we’ve finally got Jesus on record saying something like this, why does it make us so uncomfortable? Well, because we know that the world around us, people we know, we ourselves, stand indicted by Jesus’ words. I’d venture to say that there isn’t a person in this room whose lives have not been impacted in some way by divorce or adultery. If they haven’t touched our individual lives, they’ve touched the lives of someone close to us. And we feel the pain that these broken relationships caused. We’re feeling the pain. Jesus says this and we want to say back, “But….but, Jesus, it’s complicated.”<br />
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For once Jesus lays it all out cut and dried and that’s when we get nervous. Jesus doesn’t seem to take into account the pain behind the situations he so easily reels off and categorizes. Broken marriages don’t happen in the abstract, they happen to real people who have real hurts.<br />
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We find ourselves questions. Would Jesus really condemn those whose marriage is broken by abuse? Isn’t there grace for people who find their marriage irrevocable wounded by mistrust or neglect. Can we have a little more than 11 verses to help us out here, Jesus?<br />
<br />
And you might say, well, we really do have more than 11 verses to help us out. There are other stories where Jesus leads with compassion. Do you remember the story of the woman caught in adultery who is about to be stoned. She’s condemned by the men of the community, but specifically NOT by Jesus. In that situation Jesus is far more compassionate than judgmental and he challenges the clear, direct statements of law with the counter-act of grace.<br />
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Here, however, he isn’t dealing with hurting people; he’s dealing with his favorite foils in the gospel of Mark – the Pharisees, those religious leaders who are always presented as scheming to catch Jesus in his own words. They are the ones who try to trick him with the tax question. And here they are again, trying to test him with a question on marriage. That’s what it says in the first verse of the chapter. They are trying to test him.<br />
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So the Pharisees ask him whether it is permissible for a man to divorce his wife. (Notice that the Jewish law of the day was pretty one-sided – women could not divorce their husbands.) Jesus knows this is not a pastoral question. He knows they’re not asking this out of concern for the people. They want to catch him and kill him. John the Baptist, you might remember, lost his head because he ventured to challenge King Herod on this very issue of the permissibility of remarriage after divorce.<br />
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Jesus first turns them back on their authority. “What did Moses say?” Well, Moses permitted a man to sign a legal document to dissolve his relationship with his wife. That’s what they tell Jesus.<br />
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That’s when Jesus begins his riff. He challenges the old tradition…says that Moses had to give this command because they were such a recalcitrant people. What Jesus says instead is, on the one hand more liberal, and on the other, much more strict. He abolishes the double standard that would allow a man to end a marriage but not a woman. But he also reaches back to Genesis and quotes it. “A man leaves behind his father and mother and clings to his wife, and two become one flesh, so no longer are they two but one flesh.” Then he adds the emphasis that it is God who does this joining together and “therefore, what God has joined together let no one put asunder.” Sound familiar?<br />
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What Jesus does here is to take the legal framework that the Pharisees are operating out of and to place that in a theological framework. They refer to Moses as the authority and to a document that is only a legal formality. Jesus points to God as the one who makes the marriage and he makes the marriage into a relationship that is far from a legal contract that can be whisked away at the stroke of a pen and the turn of a whim. Jesus points to a covenant that is not meant to be broken.<br />
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That’s the setting for this saying – not in a pastoral setting where Jesus is counseling real couples with real issues – but in a debate with political, life-threatening overtones. That’s not to say that we can ignore what Jesus says when it comes to dealing with our own relationships. But it does make a difference.<br />
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Now here’s the reality. Marriage is in trouble in modern America. I did some research this week and there is no shortage of studies dealing with the challenges. For one thing, people are just not getting married like they used to. Divorce rates are down from what they were in the 1970s, but cohabiting couples are up. A new study by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project (yes, UVA does have a National Marriage Project) says that “children are now more likely to be exposed to a cohabiting union than to a parental divorce.” 24% of kids born to married parents will see their parents divorce or separate by the time they are 12. 42% of kids will experience their parents cohabiting without getting married. That doesn’t mean these relationships are any more stable, though. The breakup rate for children born to cohabiting couples is 170% higher than for married couples up to age 12.<br />
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So people are not getting married like they used to, but they still have some very romantic notions about marriage. A recent survey by the Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults “found that 86 percent of people—single and married—aged 18 to 29 expect their marriages to last a lifetime.” One of the research professors on the project, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, says that 90% of emerging adults expect to find their soul mate as their marriage partner. And these are people who have seen so many marriages end in divorce. Arnett doesn’t feel that most people are very realistic about what marriage will involve.<br />
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On the other hand, many of the people in that same age group are saying that they think marriage is becoming obsolete. A 2010 Pew Survey found that 44 percent of young adults said marriage was becoming an obsolete institution. Maybe that’s part of the reason that almost half of the adults in our country are unmarried.<br />
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I found out other interesting things in my research. For instance I found out about a new study that showed that women tend to drink more heavily when they get married. Not sure what that’s all about. But what I did get clear about is that, at the very time same sex couples are asking for marriage, many people are abandoning it.<br />
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So here’s the place where it would be easy for the preacher to go on a rant. “Look what’s happening to marriage. Like every other institution it’s suffering. Government is suffering from confusion and lack of commitment to it. Community groups are closing up shop. Schools are struggling. And so is marriage.”<br />
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But I don’t want to rant. I want to say, with Jesus, that marriage is something we should hold up and support and treasure even if we are not married ourselves or even if the marriage that you are in is in trouble. Jesus refused to think of marriage in merely legal terms. For him it was a way of experiencing God. Marriage, every marriage, has the potential to show us something of how God operates in the world.<br />
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We have some champion marriage partners in this congregation, people who have lived in marriage for many years and who still inspire us. And I know it hasn’t been easy. I know there are trials and I know you don’t feel like you’re on your honeymoon every day. But I give thanks to God for these couples who show us through their lives what God can do.<br />
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And I know we have some deep pains from broken relationships in this congregation. When marriages end, when there is divorce, it is a painful thing. But whether you have had a marriage end or you have not been married, or you never intend to get married, you are not a stranger to God’s grace.<br />
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We also have some people in this congregation who have gone through that experience of divorce and found grace and hope on the other side and they have a story to tell as well - a story of how God gave them what they needed. We have hope on the other side of broken marriages because there is the possibility of experiencing the reconciling, healing work of Jesus. It doesn’t come easily and it certainly doesn’t come without consequences. But it does happen.<br />
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So squirm a little when you hear these words from Mark because they are hard words, but they are not meant to condemn hurting people but to ground marriage in something more than a contract. But as we squirm, recognize that Jesus’ hard sayings come with a promise – that in God’s love, all things will be made new – even broken people with broken hearts.<br />
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Thanks be to God.<br />
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Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-13851314585671384172013-01-13T10:28:00.001-05:002013-01-13T10:28:49.414-05:00Strange Lifestrange life: being red-letter christians in a post-christian world<br />
13 january 2013<br />
franktown united methodist church<br />
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Once I was kayaking. I can tell you just where I was. It was a sunny day, a few wispy clouds on a spring afternoon, and I was heading south in the Great Channel behind Cedar Island. I had just turned the bend to head back towards Burton's Bay.<br />
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I stopped paddling because I realized that I was floating on glass. It was the slickest of slick cam. I knew I would never see water this still again. It was stretched like a skin across the channel. When I looked down into the water it was a perfect mirror of the sky above.<br />
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So there I was looking down at my reflection. I could see the lines in my face. I forgot I was looking at water. I really forgot. And I know I forgot because, as I was looking at my face in the water I suddenly realized that another face was looking up at me. A fish had darted up towards the surface and its scales glistened behind my reflection. I had forgotten that beneath me was the deep, a whole other world below the surface.<br />
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The Irish priest and poet, John O'Donohue, begins his book on Celtic wisdom, Anam Cara, with the words, "It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, beneath your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you."*<br />
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It is strange to be here. Do you ever feel that way? Does the world as it really is ever catch you by surprise, like a fish rising from the murky depths? I mean, it is easy to get caught up in the world. It's easy to think that all there is to life is the surface of things. The job. The bills. The routine. The homework. Honey Boo Boo. Fighting politicians. Wars and rumors of wars. But every so often you catch a glimpse of God and the vastness and the wonder of creation and you realize that John O'Donohue is right. It is strange to be here.<br />
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Philip the apostle went down to Samaria. The good news of Jesus had hit Jerusalem like a thunderbolt. The new Christian community was living out Jesus' promise that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. They would be his witnesses in Jerusalem. They would be his witnesses in Judea. Now, Philip was going to live out of the next promise - that they would be his witnesses in Samaria. (Acts 1:8)<br />
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He preached Christ to them. He performed signs and wonders. They brought him paralyzed and crippled people and he healed them. With loud shrieks, unclean spirits came out of them. The people rejoiced.<br />
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They were so caught up in what Philip was doing that they forgot about the man who had entranced them before. There had been a man performing signs and sorcery before Philip arrived. Simon, by name. Simon the Great. But even Simon was caught up by what Philip was doing. He believed what Philip said about Jesus. He was baptized into the way of Jesus.<br />
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Word got back to Jerusalem. Samaria was accepting God's word. Peter and John were sent. But something strange was going on. The people, like Simon, were baptized in the name of Jesus, but they had not received the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts never really explains what this means. The Holy Spirit elsewhere seems to accompany the gift of baptism, but here, for some reason, the power had not yet come. It takes Peter and John laying their hands on these baptized Christians for them to realize the power of the descending Holy Spirit. Now they become Christians not only in name but in deed.<br />
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Simon the magician sees this power that comes through the laying on of hands and he thinks it's some surface trick. He thinks the power is somehow resident in the apostles. He thinks he can buy his way into it and continue to be known as Simon the Great. So he offers the apostles money. "Give me this authority, too, so that I can lay hands on others."<br />
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Peter rebukes him. "May your money be condemned to hell along with you because you believed you could buy God's gift with money!" Because you see, Peter knows that it's not about him. It's not about what he can do. It's not about his hands. It's about God. And no amount of money can buy this gift. Like every true gift, it has to be received.<br />
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What is it that Simon the Great doesn't get? He doesn't get that it's not about the trappings or the show. It's not about the signs and wonders. It's not about the charisma or the authority. If it was, then the apostles would be like every other traveling sideshow that rolled through town. They would be like every other flash-in-the-pan celebrity who shoots up the charts today and is gone tomorrow. If it were all about the display, they would be just like...Simon - great as long he can keep producing the goods.<br />
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But what's strange is that these Christians who are experiencing such power are not using it for gain. What's strange is that they are persecuted and killed. What's strange is that they give up their possessions and live in community. What's strange is that they give all the credit to a God who was crucified. What's even stranger is that that is what makes them powerful.<br />
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Here we are some 2000 years later and there are many who wonder if we are on the other end of this story. If Acts shows the church as powerful and in its ascendency, maybe 21st Century America shows the church as losing that power. Sociologists looking at the Western world sometimes refer to it as post-Christian. If the Christian message is evaluated solely on cultural prestige, they might be right.<br />
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But the power of the Church was never in how big an institution it became. The power of the Church is not in how large our footprint is. The power of the Church is not in how many buildings we can build or how many politicians we can influence. The power of the Church is in the Holy Spirit. And if we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit then we are in touch with a power to transform that has not been diminished. The same Holy Spirit that sent unclean spirits shrieking away in Samaria is the same Holy Spirit that you can experience here today.<br />
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And what does that mean? It means that we have been baptized into a strange life - a life that is in touch with that deep mystery that John O'Donohue talks about - that deep life within us that is awakened by our encounter with the living Christ. And when we know that life - we are called to a strange life in the world - a life that will seem out of step, unusual, peculiar.<br />
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In her new book, The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier follows Honor Bright, a Quaker, on her journey from England in 1850 to Ohio. As a Quaker, she is part of a community that lives a simple life with qualities that make her distinct. Part of that is her commitment to a community that finds slavery abhorrent - something not all Christians felt in 1850. It also means that she lives life differently day to day. <br />
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She spends a few days with a rough-hewn seamstress who chides her about her lifestyle:<br />
"I'm glad I'm not a Quaker," [she says.] "No whiskey, no color, no feathers, no lies. What is there left?"<br />
"No swearing either," Honor added..."We do call ourselves 'the peculiar people,' for we know we must seem so to others."**<br />
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Do you ever feel like you are a part of a 'peculiar people'? If you don't, then maybe we've got our finger on part of the problem. We are not coming into conflict with the evil powers that rule in our day. If there are no shrieking spirits, perhaps we have yet to claim the power of the Holy Spirit.<br />
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The evangelical writer and speaker, Tony Compolo, has started talking about being a Red Letter Christian. The goal, he says, is simple: "To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and especially the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount...By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we refer to the fact that in many Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in red. What we are asserting, therefore, is that we have committed ourselves first and foremost to doing what Jesus said."***<br />
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What would it mean for you to be a red letter Christian? Would it mean showing mercy when you feel like being vengeful? Would it mean loving your enemies? Would it mean forgiving? Would it mean spending time in spiritual practices to root out those places that are resisting the spirit? The strongholds of lust and anger and self-loathing and pride?<br />
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Over the next few weeks I want to challenge you to accept this strange life that we are given in Christ. I want to invite you to a journey that is not easy but which can give you back your soul. I want to invite you to a path that will put you in the company of others who are struggling to be holy, too. Sinners who know that their redemption is only in Christ.<br />
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It is a strange life. But you know that the world we think we live in is only paper thin. You know because there have been moments when you, too, have been surprised by some glint behind your eyes, like that fish that stared up at me through my reflection. You suspect that there is a world much richer, much deeper - a world filled with the glory of God. And our brother Jesus has shown us the way. Our brother Jesus is the Way. Thanks be to God.<br />
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*John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, Harper Perennial: New York, 1997, p. xv.<br />
**Tracy Chevalier, The Last Runaway, Dutton: New York, 2013, e-book loc. 632.<br />
***Tony Compolo, Red Letter Christians blog, www.redletterchristians.org/start/.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-42944906552549694952012-09-09T23:56:00.001-04:002012-09-09T23:57:30.169-04:00The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Unto a Knuckleball<br />
I know it's the beginning of football season, but it's almost time for the major league baseball playoffs, too, and you know what that means. I'm watching my Texas Rangers very carefully as they make their way back to the World Series and I'm going to give you an positive, uplifting story about a baseball player. And today I want to introduce you to R.A. Dickey.<br />
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Now Dickey doesn't play for the Rangers, although he started out with them. He's not going to the World Series or the playoffs because his team, the New York Mets, is not going to make it this year. But R.A. Dickey is having one of the best seasons a major league pitcher has ever had. He's never had more than 11 wins in a season but he's already got 18. He's got the lowest Earned Run Average of his career. Almost to 200 strikeouts. And he is a likely candidate for the National League Cy Young Award, given to the best pitcher in the league.<br />
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But why am I telling you about R.A. Dickey? Because he throws a knuckleball. Nobody else who is active in the major leagues throws a knuckleball. Most pitchers rely on a mixture of fastballs, where they try to blow the ball past the hitter, and breaking balls, which can look like a fastball when they come out of a pitcher's hand, but move and curve and break away from the middle of the strike zone. <br />
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Knuckleballs don't do that. Knuckleballs are not fast pitches. The pitcher grips the ball with his knuckles and kind of floats it to the plate. When the knuckleball is working it can make hitters look ridiculous as they swing at the air. Dickey describes it as trying to hit a butterfly in a typhoon.* But because the knuckleball is usually so unpredictable, when it's not working the pitcher can give up all kinds of walks and runs. The amazing thing about Dickey this season, and it's something no one else has really ever been able to do so successfully, is that he has been able to throw the knuckleball consistently well without all the walks. At 37 years of age, after knocking around the league for more than a decade, R.A. Dickey has found his pitch.<br />
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Now here's something else to know about Dickey - he's a Christian and his faith is a big part of his story. He's even got a baptism story, though it's not what you think. One time, when he was down in the minor leagues thinking that he wasn't going to make it back to the bigs because his pitching just stunk, he was traveling with the team to Omaha. He looked out at the Missouri River from his hotel room, and he was a good swimmer, and he said to himself, "I'm going to swim to Iowa," which was 250 yards across this big, turbulent, muddy, dirty river.<br />
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Some teammates went out with him to watch this event from the shoreline. Dickey stripped down to his boxer shorts and went down into the water and started swimming. But he quickly discovered that this was not like any other swimming he had ever done. About 60 yards out he was being pulled hard by a strong undertow and he felt like he was just treading water. He looked back at the shore and he could see that the current had already carried him about a quarter mile down from where his teammates had been standing. He looked across at the far shore and had to decide whether to keep going or to turn back. And he turned back. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <br />
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But by this point he was so tired and the current was so strong that he was convinced he was going to make it. He said he started to weep underwater as he sank down. "I was praying that God...would protect my family and all that. I had come to grips with dying...and right as I was about to open my mouth and take in all this water...just end it quickly...my feet hit the bottom of the river and it kind of renewed my adrenaline."** He pushed off the river bottom and came up to a place where one of his teammates had run. And he pulled him out.<br />
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That's the moment, Dickey looks back on as the turning point - a baptism he calls it, when he stopped living out of his anxieties about who he was and what was going to happen to himself and his career, and started living in the present. He started some therapy to deal with problems in his marriage and in overcoming childhood sexual abuse. And he started throwing the knuckleball. Dickey says, "I feel like that there was something very divine about that...I began throwing the knuckleball exactly when I really started working on my life and trying to become...who God had authentically created me to be. And I think those things parallel each other."***<br />
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A knuckleball cannot really be controlled. You have to just take the ball and get your fingers in just the right place and let it go. It's not about power. It's about working with the ball with patience and attention. And in pitching that way - one pitch at a time - in living that way - with patience and attention - R.A. Dickey has found God had created him to be.<br />
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OK, there's your uplifting story. But here's the thing that speaks a gospel message to me: good living, like good knuckleball pitching, is about practice. It's about giving yourself over to practices that will help you grow in the faith.<br />
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The book of James is all about practices and it is pretty fierce about them. James made the Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther nervous because the book is emphatic about works. "Faith without works is dead," James says and Luther saw how that kind of theology could lead people to go off the rails. He grew up with an understanding of faith that was so works oriented that he was always anxious about his salvation, believing that he had not done enough to earn God's grace and mercy. He believed that he could never do enough to satisfy God's demands for righteousness. He eventually realized that, even though that was true, his faith in what Jesus had done on the cross was sufficient to grant him salvation. And he never wanted to stop living out of that freedom, so when he read James, it made him nervous. People might think that the only way to heaven is to earn it. People might think that they can do it without any reference to Jesus.<br />
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James, however, is not talking about earning salvation. He's talking about what happens in the Christian community because we have faith in Christ. Because we have faith, we will do. And if we don't do, what kind of Christian witness are we giving? What are we doing to our souls?<br />
<br />
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book not too long ago called Outliers and in it he examines the lives of extraordinarily gifted people. Who are these people that so excel in their fields that we call them outliers? In business, music, sports, the arts there are people who are extremely gifted. What's going on with these people?<br />
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Well, one of the things that Gladwell found is that a common thread for them is that they devote hours to their craft. He even identifies something called the 10,000 Hour Rule. Truly phenomenal people become phenomenal, not just by having natural gifts, but by giving hours to what they do. He looks at violinists who we recognize as being outliers and says, "in fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice."**** "To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what's ten years? Well, it's roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness."*****<br />
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That's a lot of hours. And most of us are not going to dedicate that kind of time to a craft. But what if we tried? What if we gave ourselves over to something that would form us and guide us? R.A. Dickey was late in his career before he took up the knuckleball. What is our calling to which we would give real time and practice and life?<br />
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How much are we giving to growing in the Christian life? An hour a week - let's say 50 weeks a year - 200 years you'll have the chops to be a phenomenal Christian. Throw in Sunday School and you've got it down to a century. But what if we gave more? What do you think you would discover about yourself and God if you gave yourself to growing in holiness - sanctification as John Wesley called it? And I'm not just talking about in-church time. I mean living it in the world.<br />
That is where James calls us to live it. He knows that God is often found in the poor and we live out of an authentic faith when discover God among the poor and refuse to show favoritism. God loves people in T-shirts. God loves people with dirty hands from hard work. God loves people who love their neighbors - all their neighbors. God shows mercy on those who show mercy.<br />
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The church becomes the church when it lives out the gospel message of Jesus who made a point of living among the poor. He ate with sinners. He hung out with lepers. He gave hungry people food. He healed the sick. He comforted the grieving. And he commanded - not asked - commanded us to do the same. "You will do greater things than this," he said. "How will we do greater things if we don't ever encounter those in need?"<br />
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In her song about God's upheaval of the world as we know it, Hannah in 1 Samuel sings that "the Lord will judge the ends of the earth" (I Sam. 2:10). It's a statement of God's sovereignty, right? There's no place on earth where God's reign isn't accomplished. But it's also a statement that on the margins, at the edge, at the places where you might think God has overlooked what's going on, the kingdom is coming.<br />
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Let me let you in on a little secret - you are living at the end of the earth. The Eastern Shore of Virginia - how many times have people told you that this is the end of the earth? Around us there is poverty and need and economic impoverishment and scarcity and racial tensions - but the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. You can do greater things than this. Faith, if it has no works, is dead. All ways of saying - the kingdom of heaven is at hand - in your hands.<br />
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So put your hand to the work of the kingdom. You're not gripping it and burning it into the catcher's mitt like a fastball. It's not your power that's going to bring the kingdom home. You're not cutting it or sliding it or curving it so that it sneaks across. It's not your finnesse or style that's going to bring the kingdom home. Hold it lightly, this kingdom which is God's gift to us. Give it your patience and your attention. Live for this moment, this time. Give all of your life to this work. Don't hold anything back. And then let it go. Let it go. Do what you can. Do all that you can and let God do the rest. Thanks be to God.<br />
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*R.A. Dickey, interviewed by Dave Davies, "R.A. Dickey on 'Winding Up' as a Knuckleballer," KERA News, 10 April 2012, http://keranews.org/post/ra-dickey-winding-knuckleballer. Accessed 8 Sept 2012.<br />
**ibid.<br />
***ibid.<br />
****Malcolm Gladwell, quoted in Erik Deckers, "What Malcolm Gladwell REALLY Said About The 10,000 Hour Rule," Professional Blog Service, 15 March 2012, http://problogservice.com/2012/03/15/what-malcolm-gladwell-really-said-about-the-10000-hour-rule/. Accessed 8 Sept 2012.<br />
*****ibid. Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-74791838300980291902012-09-02T17:23:00.001-04:002012-09-02T17:23:47.140-04:00Worshipping God with Unclean HandsOK, kids, my first message this morning is for you. Did you hear that Gospel lesson that we just read? The one about the Pharisees complaining to Jesus that about his disciples eating food with unclean hands? The first thing I want to say is - this is not a lesson on how it is OK to eat with dirty hands. I don't want you going home and saying to your folks, "I don't have to wash my hands because Jesus said it was OK to have dirty hands." Uh-uh. Not the message for today.<br />
<br />
The message for today is - having dirty hands is the best kind of unclean to have. But that's not the same thing as saying, "Hey, I'm going to eat my sandwich with dirty hands." Jesus wants you to be healthy. And he wants you to listen to your mom.<br />
<br />
So, what is going on in this gospel story? It's a little hard for us to get into because the world it comes out of is so far gone. The Pharisees who were sitting there watching Jesus' disciples eat were not worried about germs; they were trying to get Jesus caught up in a controversy over legalism. <br />
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I've been watching the political campaign and I see some of the same things going on. There's a kind of "gotcha" game and the sad part is that the political campaigns think that you and I are dull enough to go along with it. You know, every ad takes some little phrase from a candidate, takes it out of context, and then blows it up so that the candidate looks as bad as they can possibly look. As if Romney really believes that poor people are not important. Or as if Obama really believes that business owners didn't build anything. [Some of you are probably shaking your head right now and saying, "O, no. He really believes that." But don't do that. We're smarter than that. Don't let the ads tell you what to believe.]<br />
<br />
But we'll have plenty of time for politics this fall. What I'm trying to get at here is that the Pharisees were playing a game in which they were trying to catch Jesus out for not towing their line. The rules they were worried about were the ones they had outlined. They had taken the old Mosaic laws and particularly the laws about what made something clean or unclean and they had turned them into straitjackets. It wasn't about germs - they didn't know about germs then. It was about doing the right thing in the right way.<br />
<br />
Mark outlines all of their concerns in this passage. They were trying to maintain the traditions of their elders. You had to wash your hands in a particular way. You had to ritually wash food from the market. You had to ritually wash the pottery you ate from and the pitchers you drank from and the copper kettles you cooked with and even the dinner couches where you sat down to eat. A taco stand would have sent these guys right over the edge.<br />
<br />
But they know that Jesus is a radical kind of guy. They know his disciples are doing things differently. So they know they're going to catch them and when they see the disciples eating without washing exactly the way they washed, they say to Jesus, "Aha! You're not upholding the traditions of the elders." And beyond that what they're saying is, "You're not one of us. You don't believe like we believe. You are a threat. You are not a good Jew. Let's see your birth certificate."<br />
<br />
That's when Jesus turns it around on them. And he goes back to Isaiah the prophet, to the scriptures that he shared with the Pharisees. And he quotes a verse (Isaiah 29:13) that says, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." What he's saying is - you have made worship and obedience an external act. But if you only do the act and your heart is not close to God then you have made religion all about you instead of about God.<br />
<br />
He spells it out to the disciples later after he tells the crowd a parable. He says, "Listen. Nothing is outside of a person going in can make then unclean. It's what comes out a person that is unclean. And then later, with the disciples, he gets graphic. He talks about what comes out of a person and goes into the sewer. You want to talk unclean - that's unclean. But you know this is not really about food and digestion. Jesus is after something more. And what he wants is not just your diet. Jesus wants your heart.<br />
<br />
Not too long ago I ran across a great book called All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly. OK, OK, yes, they are philosophers, but their book was really interesting. They set out to read through all the Western classics of literature from the Odyssey to Moby Dick and to look at how our understanding of who we are as human beings changes through those works. They spend some time with Jesus and they say that one of the most important things about Jesus was that he created the notion that we have an inner life. We might want to say that there are other important things about Jesus, but stay with them here.<br />
<br />
It's not that people before Jesus didn't have inner thoughts and desires. It's just that they didn't think they were all that important. As the authors point out, of the Ten Commandments only one has to do with an internal act - the command against coveting. The rest were external - take care of your parents, observe the sabbath, don't commit murder, don't commit adultery - things you could see.<br />
<br />
Jesus turns all of that inside out - or outside in. He says, "Where do you think murder comes from? It's not just something that happens out there. It begins in your heart. Adultery begins in your heart. Theft begins in your heart. And what is it that Jesus wants? Not just your good behavior, but your heart. Dreyfus and Kelly say, "Jesus thus brings the purity of one's desires from the margins of the Hebrew sense of what counts as a worthy life to the center of his Christian sensibility."* The purity of our desires.<br />
<br />
That's just what he tells the disciples. If you are so caught up in washing the dishes that you can't see what's going on between you and God in your heart, you're doing it wrong.<br />
So hear what he's saying. Jesus says, "It's not about the externals. You have an inner life. And that inner life is messed up. It's disordered. It's like a wild, overgrown garden. And for you to get it under control, you've got to give it over to God."<br />
<br />
But listen to what Jesus is not saying here. He is not saying that the externals don't matter. He's not saying that our actions don't matter. What he's saying is that obedience to God is the first step.<br />
<br />
Now that's not a popular thing to say in our culture. We don't like that word obedience. We don't like the notion that we have to give ourselves over to an authority. Because we have seen enough flawed authority figures to know how that can be abused. Obedience is a slavemaster's word. Obedience is a soviet politburo word. Obedience is something you send dogs to school for. Obedience feels unAmerican.<br />
<br />
But here's the sad truth. Sin has made such a mess of things that the only way to find freedom is through obedience. The only way you are going to discover who you are and what the world ought to be is to give up yourself to God.<br />
<br />
Because the world doesn't know. The world will tell you that you are a bundle of desires and subconscious motivations and that you might as well just give them free rein because they're there and we're free. But what if you are meant for something more? What if there is something greater waiting for you if you tend the garden of your soul? What if God means for you to do more than you're doing?<br />
<br />
That's where James comes in, because James knows that dirty hands are part of what the Christian life is all about. James was writing to the early Christian community and he could already see the divide happening. There were hearers and there were doers and the hearers were falling into a trap. They believed that because they heard the Word...because they trusted Jesus...because they had made that movement toward God...they were done. <br />
<br />
But James says, no. If that's how you act it's just like somebody looking into a mirror and then walking away and forgetting what they look like. Hearing without doing is a great way to lose your identity as a Christian.<br />
<br />
Doers look into the law, the things that God has given us to get our inner life in order, and they know who they are. And they will live out of that. They will watch their tongue for harmful language. They will care for orphans and widows - those who are living on the edge. And they will keep themselves unstained by the world. Not because they live above it, but because they know that the world is not sufficient to tell them who they are.<br />
<br />
This week I was on a mission trip with some of our members down in North Carolina. We were repairing a roof that had been damaged by Hurricane Irene last year. And I learned a lot. I learned that construction workers are worth every penny they are paid. Watching Will Brown and Jack Smith and Glenn Ballon - the Beast - on the roof doing their thing was inspiring. And they taught me just enough to eventually get me up on the roof, too. And that's why I've got abrasions all over me. It was hot, dirty work but very satisfying. Especially when the family came to dinner with us on Wednesday night and thanked us for taking care of a roof that had been leaking for a year.<br />
<br />
We stayed at an old school that now houses a lot of county offices in Hyde County. But the gym and cafeteria had been taken over the United Methodist Church and it was also inspiring to see the cross and flame up on the side of the wall there. We are there in Hyde County. We are the only relief agency that is still there. And we are there because we are worshipping God with our dirty hands - living out the gospel one roof at a time.<br />
<br />
If we make a numbers game out of this or say that if we do so many roofs it will get us to heaven - we're back in the company of the Pharisees. But if our hearts guide our hands - if God is moving within us - Jesus is here. Thanks be to God.<br />
<br />
*Hubert Dreyfus & Sean Dorrance Kelly, All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age, Free Press: New York, 2011, electronic version, p. 534.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-74128471706113675702012-08-19T08:00:00.000-04:002012-08-19T08:00:01.464-04:00YOLO - Seeking Wisdom<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">You know that I'm a hip guy. I'm always on top of the latest trends. I know that 8-track players are no longer cool. I stopped saying "Gag with me a spoon" several months ago. And just this week I learned about voice-activated T-shirts, which light up when you talk to them. I also know what YOLO means.</span><br />
<br />
YOLO is a trendy acronym that is showing up on T-shirts and on Twitter accounts and it stands for "You Only Live Once." It usually appears when someone is texting you or tweeting about their latest poor decision or, more likely, a hypothetical poor decision. So you might see a report that has "Filling my mouth with whipped cream and running down the street saying, 'I have rabies.' #YOLO." It's silly stuff, although if some of the things that get reported actually are happening I'm thinking YOLO ought to stand for "Youth Overlooking Lasting Outcomes."<br />
<br />
But it's not just youth. We older folks talk about our "bucket list" of things we want to do before we die, some of which involves a certain amount of irresponsibility. And major ad campaigns encourage us to forget the consequences of our actions - just do it. Pepsi's slogan of the moment is "Live for Now." I saw an ad this week, I think it was for doughnuts, that said, "Indulge Now!" I had never been commanded to eat doughnuts before so that was a strange moment. Maybe I'm overthinking this trend but do you see a pattern here? We are living in a YOLO world and I'm wondering what it all means. And what does it mean to be a Christian in a YOLO world? Do we really believe that You Only Live Once?<br />
<br />
Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament scholar, has a new book out called Remember You are Dust and in it he talks about the culture clash that we are involved in. It's not just a clash, he says, it's a crisis, and it's not the fault of liberals or conservatives, the 1960s or Wall Street. What's happened is that we are now experiencing the fruit of 400 years of living in the modern world. For about 400 years we have had a world developing that has relied on human reason as it's principle guide to knowledge. Why do I trace that back 400 years, because that's when Rene Descartes, a French soldier, was sitting in a hut by a fire and started to doubt. He said to himself, "What if I can't trust anything around me to tell me who I am and what the world is like? What if this is all a dream? What is reliable? What can I build a foundation on?" People before Descartes might have said that God was that foundation, and Descartes believed in God, but he wanted something else to build on and the most trustworthy thing he could find for that was reason. Do you remember what he said? "I think, therefore I am."<br />
<br />
So for 400 years thinkers, Christian and otherwise, have been building a world based on the best that human knowledge can achieve. And we have achieved a lot. We've got medicines that have cured diseases that plagued humanity for centuries. We can navigate the oceans and fly in the air. We've put human beings on the moon and a golf cart on Mars that's appropriately named Curiosity because we are a curious race. I don't think many of us would give up the benefits of the modern world. The quality of human life is immeasurably better because of it. And yet, Walter Brueggemann says, we are facing a crisis.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"For many people," he says, "the deep threat and pain of this crisis is the awareness that their children can no longer relate to the great claims of faith, not because they are rebellious, but because they do not care, or caring, cannot understand or see the point. They no longer know where responsible social passion comes from, why caring is important, or how the disciplines of faith matter, or why. There is, between parents and children, a common yearning...[that] arises not because anyone is 'bad,' but because an alien perception of reality makes engagement with the tradition of 'fear of Yahweh' unconvincing and without credibility."*</blockquote>
What Brueggemann is saying there with that phrase 'fear of Yahweh' is that the whole biblical worldview and the whole biblical understanding of wisdom is at risk because the 'fear of Yahweh,' the 'fear of the Lord' is receding into the background in the modern world. And the Bible tells us, in places like Proverbs 9:10 is that the "fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." Is it human reason that gives us wisdom? Or is it the 'fear of the Lord'?<br />
<br />
Now let's don't beat the modern world over the head with a stick. That's the temptation, right? To say that is a godless, heedless world that has forgotten its roots and if it would just turn back to God it would find itself. Well, perhaps. And yes, the world often lives as if it is godless and heedless. But I don't believe that people want to live that way. I believe people yearn for something more. They yearn for something to live for. They yearn for something to die for.<br />
<br />
A little over a week ago I had the opportunity to have a lunch with some of the staff and the superintendent of Northampton County Schools. I listened as they talked about the testing numbers that were needed to declare our schools successful or even adequate. "We need a 70 and we've got a 69." It was only when they started to talk about the children that I realized what I needed to hear, what we all long to hear - that success is not measured in test scores. It's measured in human lives. And I believe that our children, our parents, our teachers, even our administrators, are yearning for a mission that they can give their whole lives to. We want to believe...we have to believe that we are meant for something more and our schools will not be transformed until we do believe that something radically important is going on there.<br />
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So when we talk about 'putting the fear of God' back into folks, I don't think it's as simple as browbeating people back into submission. The fear of God is not like the fear of some great and terrible thing where we all get in line because if we don't, well, look out! The fear of the Lord is not a trembling fear, it is as Bruggemann says, "to take God with utmost seriousness as the premise and perspective from which life is to be lived."** To take God with utmost seriousness. That is a countercultural act.<br />
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Which brings me to Solomon and the text we read for today. When we think of wisdom we almost always end up talking about Solomon, because Solomon asks for wisdom.<br />
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The Bible seems to look at Solomon with a certain amount of ambivalence. On the one hand Solomon is revered as being at the highpoint of Israel's history as a nation. Solomon picked up where his father David left off and built Jerusalem into one of the finest capital cities in the world. Solomon imported cedars from Lebanon to furnish the new Temple he built for Yahweh, the God of Israel. Solomon began many building projects, enlarged the army and even began a navy for Israel. People came from far and wide to admire the wonders of King Solomon. He developed a reputation for wisdom and later generations would attribute the books of Proverbs and Song of Songs to him.<br />
<br />
That’s not all there is to the story of Solomon, though. He is also remembered as the end of the glorious united kingdom of Israel. The riches and wealth and honor he attained were short-lived and the kingdom divided after his death thanks to the heavy taxes and forced labor he imposed to build up Jerusalem. <br />
<br />
He also seems to have had some issues with women. Solomon was said to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. That by itself would have been problem enough - imagine being beholden to 1000 relationships! But the real problem was that each of these wives brought with them their own cultures and their own religions, since many of them were not Israelite. Each time a marriage with a foreign woman took place, the custom was to build a shrine in Jerusalem to her nation's god. So Solomon bore the blame for bringing in all of these idols and foreign gods.<br />
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When we get to verse 3 of chapter 3 in 1 Kings we're told that Solomon was a great king who loved Yahweh, the God of Israel, and who followed in the footsteps of David, his father, EXCEPT...and this is a pretty big except...except that he had a habit of offering sacrifices and incense on the high places - and not just in Jerusalem where all worship was supposed to take place.<br />
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In fact, Solomon is out making a sacrifice at one of these high places when God finds him in a dream. God appears to Solomon in a dream and doesn't chastise him for being in this strange place, God merely says, "What can I give you, Solomon?" This is a great dream, huh?<br />
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Many of us would be ticking off the new boat, the vacation home in Maui, the extreme makeover, the chance to have dinner with St. Augustine. (Hey, you have your dreams and I have mine.) But Solomon is very wise in his response, which makes us wonder if he really needed to be given the gift God gives him. Solomon remembers God's relationship with his father, David and then says, "You know, God, I'm really like a small child when I think about the shoes I'm trying to fill. I've got all these people to take care of and they look to me for justice. I'm going to need help, God."<br />
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God says to Solomon in this dream, "You didn't seek long life for yourself, you didn't seek riches for yourself, and you didn't ask for the life of your enemies. Instead, you asked for wisdom, and because of this I will also give you what you didn’t ask for – riches and honor and long life.”<br />
<br />
Then Solomon wakes up and realizes that it’s all been a dream. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Solomon is not a model citizen – just as all of Israel’s kings were flawed and broken people. But he did have this insight that the world and our responsibilities in it are far more complex than we can handle relying just on our own abilities. We need humility. We need a heart that's open to God. We need wisdom.</span><br />
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Where we will find wisdom in this world? We have become the masters of knowledge. Our technologies for sharing information are the best that human history has ever produced. But we have not become wise. What we long for is something that can't be zipped along in a tweet or an e-mail. We long for something that will speak to our souls and we wonder if there is anything that can give it to us.<br />
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I can't use reason to give you an answer here. There is no piece of information I can share with you in this sermon that will meet that longing. There is nothing new under the sun that's going to speak to that place in your soul that wants to hear a new word. What I can give you is not knowledge but bread. Because God's wisdom comes to us through the living bread which is Jesus. And you attain this wisdom, not in an instant, but in a continual process of coming back to the living Word, coming back to the bread of life, coming back to Jesus over and over again until your famished soul begins to feel alive once more. Wisdom happens one prayer at a time, one meditation at a time, one meal at a time.<br />
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Hans Urs Von Balthasar, who has one of the greatest names for a theologian I can imagine, says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We think that God's word has been heard on earth for so long that by now it is almost used up, that it is about time for some new word, as if we had the right to demand one. We fail to see that is is we ourselves who are used up and alienated, whereas the word resounds with the same vitality and freshness as ever; it is just as near to us as it always was. 'The word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart' (Rom. 10:8)."***</blockquote>
It is just as near to you as it always was. Despite the fact that we talk about being born again, I think it is true that you only truly live once. It is a deep, bone-deep kind of living that doesn't give itself over to the superficial comforts of the passing world. The world doesn't remember where it has come from and it doesn't know where it is going. It has become disconnected from the promises of God and the story of Christ. It does not know that it is being longed for by God and therefore redeemed by God's love. Imagine that. God is longing for you. Thanks be to God.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">*Walter Brueggemann, Remember That You are Dust [Cascade: Eugene, OR, 2012], pp. 22-23.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">**ibid., pp. 13-14.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">***Hans Urs von Balthasar, Prayer [Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 1986], p. 16</span>Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-9731664204726066972012-08-12T10:40:00.000-04:002012-08-13T10:40:53.776-04:00Absalom, AbsalomToday's story of David and Absalom is a story of how David's chickens came home to roost. Now, actually, I don't know if David had any chickens. I rather doubt it. And why chickens coming home to roost should be a dark omen is not clear to me. That's what chickens do at the end of the day. They come home to roost. There's nothing menacing about it. It's not like the movie The Birds where ordinary sweet-looking birds start pecking poor Tippi Hedren. Chickens are just not that scary a creature. But that's the phrase we use to describe what happens when things you have done in the past come back to haunt you. And if I were doing one of those modern paraphrases of the Bible I would headline this section from 2 Samuel that we read "David's Chickens Come Home to Roost."<br />
<br />
Now that I've got that off my chest - I think it is remarkable that we have this story at all - at least in the form that we have it. We are used to having stories of heroes with clay feet in our day. Not that our heroes literally have clay feet. That's another one of those phrases that...well, never mind. You know what I mean. If David MacCulloch, the historian, were going to write a history of Thomas Jefferson, we would expect that he would include all sorts of things about Jefferson, from the great things (Declaration of Independence!) to the not-so-great (Sally Hemmings!). But in the ancient world what we usually get are stories that are so cleaned up that great men (and they are almost always men) are described as moving from one great and historic victory to another without ever stumbling or getting so much as hangnail.<br />
<br />
David, however, gets the full treatment. King David, the greatest king the nation of Israel ever had, the uniter of the nation, the establisher of Jerusalem, the man after God's own heart, the most interesting man in the world - THAT David had some issues. We saw some of them on display last week in the story of Bathsheba where David takes a man's wife, tries to cover it up, orders the man's murder and then pretends like nothing has happened. And when Nathan the prophet confronts him about it, we hear Nathan's ominous prophecy: "David, thus says the Lord: beware the chickens. Beware the chickens that will come home to roost." You know, it's a little bit different in other translations. This is kind of my paraphrase. But basically the idea is that because of his sins, David will suffer terrible consequences. Besides the death of the child that Bathsheba will bear, God tells David that one day trouble will come from within his own house. Someone in his own house will take his own wives...(yes, wives, plural - it was different back in the day)...someone from his own household will take his own wives and lie with them within full view of the nation.<br />
<br />
Well, today's story from 2 Samuel gives us a fulfillment of that prophecy. Absalom, David's own son, is the trouble from within his own household. Absalom rebels against his father. Absalom takes over the Jerusalem as David runs away. Absalom takes his father's wives to the rooftop of the palace. Absalom brings all the achievements to the king to nothing.<br />
<br />
The piece of the story that we read, though, doesn't give you everything. It gives you the ending. The last scene of the story is David mourning over the death of his son, Absalom, after his soldiers, under the command of the general, Joab, find Absalom, caught by his hair in a tree, (I used to get my hair caught in the trees), hanging, the Bible says, between heaven and earth, and they pierce him with spears...kill him, despite David's orders not to harm him. When the word comes back, David cries out, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" And you would think that what we have is a story about grief and loss and the pain that comes when families are torn apart by rebellion and trauma.<br />
<br />
Except the story is even more complex than that. We have been here before with David. He has played this scene out before. Do you remember how he and his renegade army fought against the old King Saul? How David had men out trying to take over the kingdom and how they did that, finally surrounding Saul and his son, Jonathan, whom David loved like a brother, on a mountain? And when David hears that they have died he cries out, "How the mighty have fallen!...Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!" [2 Sam. 1: 19, 23]. He does not seem to make the connection that going to war will entail death and loss. Just like he doesn't seem to realize how sending men into battle against Absalom might lead to Absalom's death.<br />
<br />
The relationship between David and Absalom is complicated, too. This rebellion is not the only trouble that had arisen in his household. Another son, Amnon, had attacked his sister, Tamar, and David had taken no action to rein in the son. He gets angry but leaves the son alone because, the Bible says, "he loved Amnon" [2 Sam. 13:21]. Family trauma was no different then than it is now. You and I know that the scars family members inflict on each other can be some of the deepest scars there are. And you don't have to be a Freudian to know that trauma that is not dealt with - that does not get dealt with on the surface - will come out in other ways - in new cycles of violence and abuse.<br />
<br />
So two years passed. Absalom knows what his brother Amnon did to his sister Tamar. Two full years pass and Absalom plans a feast for all the sons. He begs the king to make sure that Amnon can come. And after he gets Amnon good and drunk at the feast, he gives the command to his servants and they kill Amnon in front of all the brothers. The chickens come home to roost. Those chickens.<br />
<br />
Absalom flees. He stays away for 3 years until Joab - yes, that Joab, the general who will kill him - arranges for another prophet to come and tell David a story. Just like Nathan told David a story. This time the prophet is woman who tells a story about a man who has only two sons. The sons get into a fight in the field one day. It's a tragic fight. It probably would not have ended badly except that there was no one to separate them and the one son kills the other. The remaining son now faces the required punishment of death. But the father will now lose both sons and the possibility of having any heir, which was very important in that society. You have no name if you have no heir. <br />
<br />
The woman prophet says that she is the mother. She begs for the life of the remaining son. David is moved. He declares that not one hair of the son's head will be harmed. And you remember how Nathan stopped the show with the words, "You are the man"? Well, now the woman says to the king, in effect, "You have convicted yourself. How can keep your son as an outcast banished from your presence? You know good and evil, king. God will help you discern. Bring your son home."<br />
<br />
So David relents and allows Absalom to come home, but there is no true reconciliation. David refuses to see him for two years until Absalom forces the question by setting the general Joab's field on fire and demanding an audience with the king. That just paves the way for the rebellion that follows.<br />
<br />
That is the tortured history of David's relationship with his son. So when he stands there grieving and crying out, "Absalom, Absalom," we know that David may be feeling real emotions, but he has been here before and the situation is complicated by his refusal to deal with the troubles he has caused. David has shown that he can overlook injustice, that he can not see the consequences of his actions, that he can allow his emotions to overrule his judgment. And people suffer all around him.<br />
<br />
Even now, as he weeps over his son, people are suffering. His soldiers sneak back into town, having risked their lives for David and the kingdom, but ashamed because the king does not seem to care about their sacrifice or about them. He only sees Absalom. It takes Joab to convince him that unless he goes out to see the troops he will lose them and lose the kingdom and very likely lose his life. So he forces himself to go and sit on the seat at the gates of Jerusalem and to observe the troops filing past him into the city. Sitting there like a chicken come home to roost.<br />
<br />
There are so many things going on in this story. Some of it goes all the way back to the prophet Samuel's warning that Israel will regret having asked for a king, because the king will take the attention that ought to be devoted to God. The king will cause misery and suffering. The king will fail them. So, in addition to the family drama of David and Absalom, there is the national drama of Israel and Yahweh, Israel's God.<br />
<br />
But the perspective we want here is the theological drama. What does God think of all this? Surely, yes, God is disappointed by David's actions. God demands justice and the king fails to deliver. God expects things that David is incapable of giving sometimes. And yet, God gives us this story. We are the heirs of this story. This story is our story.<br />
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We recognize ourselves in this story, don't we? David's family could be our family because every family, even the best of families, has experienced times when there is undeserved suffering. Parents victimize children. Children wound their parents. Siblings fall out. The people who are closest to us fail us sometimes. That's our story. And we know it. We journey with it. We live through it. It shapes who we are.<br />
<br />
But we are baptized into another story. You can live your whole life shaped by the twisted narrative of the broken world. You can live your whole life armed with the sense of injustice that comes from being abandoned. Being hurt. Being rejected. Being wronged. Being the one who has wronged. And that can be your reality.<br />
<br />
Or...you can recognize that what happens in the Bible is the rejection of that reality. Being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit means that you are branded with a new name and you become part of a new story that has a new ending. And in this narrative you are the child who has been wounded by sin who is redeemed by a love that is most clearly visible on a cross. OK, you're a victim. What of it? You are a victim whose identity is redeemed by Jesus. OK, you were abandoned. What of it? Christ was abandoned, too. He went to that cross alone and he did it to show that God has never abandoned you. OK, the monarchs and rulers of this world will fail us, our politics will disappoint us, our systems will not work like they're supposed to. What of it? God comes to establish a new kingdom and chooses you to be the agents of its proclamation.<br />
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I've been very distressed this week by the story of the accident up the road in which a woman struck a child who went into the road after chasing a balloon. The death was tragic. But the confrontation that followed was disturbing, too. Xavier Hill, the child was African-American. The woman in the car was white. And in an instant the accident was caught up in all kinds of narratives that had to do with a whole lot more than a child wandering into the road. People surrounded the car. Racial epithets and bottles were thrown. Friends who came to get the driver were assaulted. <br />
<br />
The grief was compounded by grievances related to race and beliefs about each other that go back hundreds of years. We live with those stories all the time, even if we never acknowledge them. The legacy of racial tensions is all around us and it will continue to cause suffering until it is brought to the cross. Until it is brought into the light of God's love. Until we acknowledge that the best place to look for healing is not to our own conflicted hearts, but to the heart of God. And until we talk to one another out of a deep sense of humility in the face of the wounds that are all around us.<br />
<br />
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem, not about chickens coming home to roost, but about an albatross. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner he talks about how he was forced to wear a dead albatross around his neck as a reminder of his crime for killing it. The dead bird becomes a symbol of all of his guilt, all of his regret, all of his sins. One stanza of the poem talks about how he looked to his fellow mariners. It says:<br />
<br />
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks<br />
had I from old and young!<br />
Instead of the cross, the Albatross<br />
about my neck was hung.<br />
<br />
What things have you done, have we done, that would be hung around our necks? What would be the symbol of our pain and our shame? And what would it mean if, instead of an albatross, the cross was hung? The cross on which we find the possibility of new life and new beginnings?<br />
<br />
Whatever the burden is around your neck today, I pray that you will lay it down. I pray that you will let it go. Cling to Jesus. Cling to the old wooden cross. Cling to the promise of the God who loves you, who hates what sin has done to you, and who wants to make us whole. This is the God whose son was hung to a tree, suspended between heaven and earth, who was pierced by a spear, who wept for the world, and who knows that the last word is not death but resurrection and life. May that God give us the courage to fully embrace life and to confront those things that keep us from it. Thanks be to God.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-91336999480714705412012-08-05T09:00:00.000-04:002012-08-05T09:00:01.225-04:00Calling Out the King<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">One of the things that I do when I'm in Dallas teaching is to try and catch up on current movies. Ever since the Monoplex closed in Belle Haven I haven't had a place to go. But there are lots of places to see movies in Dallas. Unfortunately, unless you like spandex superheroes, there aren't a whole lot of good movies to see.</span><br />
<br />
But I did see a film called Safety Not Guaranteed. It stars Aubrey Plaza from the TV show Parks and Rec. She plays an intern at a Seattle magazine who gets sent with a reporter and another intern to track down a man who has put a strange classified in the newspaper. The classified ad says:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91, Ocean View, WA 99393. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.</blockquote>
<br />
So the three of them go off to a small coastal town to track down this guy who is promising time travel.<br />
<br />
Only the reporter is going for an entirely different reason. He wants to catch up with an old flame that he hasn't seen in twenty years, so he's doing his own kind of time travel. But the intern, named Darius, discovers that the guy who placed the ad may really be on to something. And she begins to believe that maybe she can go really go back in time to the moment before her mother died in a car accident. Darius' last conversation with her mom had been a phone call when she had kind of rudely asked her mom to pick up something on her way home. We realize that she has been living with oceans of regret ever since.<br />
<br />
Kenneth, the man building the time machine, has regrets of his own. He has lost a girl and, in a sense, has lost his mind and is trying to find his way back. I won't spoil the ending but what struck me is the deep personal work these characters are doing. It's not about the machine. It's about the healing. And the movie title gets at what needs to be said - when you try to heal the past, safety is not guaranteed. It will take confrontation with the pain. All that said - it is a comedy.<br />
<br />
Our Bible story says much the same thing - safety, when dealing with past sins, is not guaranteed. Last week Peter told you that King David did a bad, bad thing. The man after God's own heart did a bad, bad thing. Neglected his duties to lead his armies, coveted and slept with his neighbor's wife, tried to cover up his misdeed when she becomes pregnant, and then murders her husband when that fails. Yeah, I think that qualifies as several bad, bad things. The scripture even says that what David did was "evil in God's sight."<br />
<br />
David, however, is able to ignore the pain that he has caused. He goes on as if nothing as happened. So God sends Nathan to call out the king. Not an easy position to be in. But that's why the prophets get paid the big bucks. Or they would have if they'd been paid at all.<br />
<br />
Nathan is a good storyteller, just like Jesus. He has a great parable to tell the king. Of course, he doesn't tell David that it's a parable. Nathan presents it to him as if it's a real problem going on in another part of the kingdom and he tells it as if he wants David's advice.<br />
<br />
"There is this rich man," Nathan says, "and this poor man living in the same neighborhood. The rich man has all kinds of sheep and cattle, but the poor man only has one little ewe lamb which he had to scrape up money to buy. He's not going to make a meal out of this lamb, either. He raises it up as a pet - more like a member of the family, really. He lets it eat at the table with him and lets it drink from his cup - even let's it sleep with him. The poor man really loves this lamb.<br />
<br />
"Now one day a traveler comes to stay with the rich man," Nathan continues. Now hospitality is a big thing, even today, in the Middle East. When you have a guest you go all out, sparing no expense. So you would always have a huge meal and slaughter an animal for a feast. It's such a big deal, and such a big responsibility, that it's even legal for you to take a neighbor's animal to use for the feast. But there are two big restrictions - you can't take your neighbor's sheep if you have some of your own, which of course the rich man does. And you can't take your neighbor's sheep if it is a pet, and, of course, the poor man's ewe is a pet.<br />
<br />
So there is no justifiable reason for the rich man to take the poor man's lamb. But he does it anyway. He takes that lamb which the poor man loved so much and fixes it up as a barbecue for his guest.<br />
<br />
Well, when David hears this story he is livid. David has a strong sense of justice. He knows how hard it is for the poor to get an even break in Israel. He swears by God and says, "As Yahweh lives, the guy who did this ought to die! I'll make him pay four times over for that sheep and for his lowdown attitude!"<br />
<br />
David doesn't know what he's saying. He's so caught up in the story that he can't see through it to what Nathan is really trying to say. So Nathan spells it out for him with four of the most powerful words in the Bible: You are the man.<br />
<br />
Nathan then proceeds to tell David how much God is displeased with him. David, of course, is the rich man, and God accuses him of theft and murder in his sins with Bathsheba and Uriah. Worse still, David is exposed as a hypocrite since his sense of justice doesn't extend to himself and his actions. <br />
<br />
In the end Nathan pronounces God's curse which is that David himself will know the tragedy of death and murder in his family. David himself will know the pain of having his wives taken from him. And all of this comes true in the rebellion of his son, Absalom, which we'll talk about next week.<br />
<br />
David is led to confession as he admits to Nathan, "I have sinned against God."<br />
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Have you ever been there where David was? Oh, maybe you never went on a Ten Commandment-breaking spree like David did, but have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and realized that there are things there you don't like. Things you have done. Things you regret. Things you know have warped you. Deep, deep wounds that continue to cause you pain. Things that you don't know how to get rid of. Maybe there's nobody like Nathan standing there pointing the finger at you and saying, "You are the man" or "You are the woman," but you don't really need one when you get in touch with the sin that has distorted your life, twisting you up in knots. And what do you do with that pain when you acknowledge it? What do you do with it?<br />
<br />
Well, confession, they say, is good for the soul. And confession of sins is always a step in the right direction. It's David's first step. "I have sinned against God," he says. But confession is not a mechanical act. It's not something that you and then it's over. That's why in the medieval church there was such an emphasis on works of satisfaction. You would go confess to the priest, you would receive some things to do or prayers to say to satisfy the punishment, and then you would receive absolution.<br />
<br />
The writer Peter De Vries said, "Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is good for dandruff - it is a palliative rather than a remedy."* If we just do it to conceal the pain or to vaccinate ourselves against really dealing with sin, it is not enough.<br />
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Confession needs to do things: First, it needs to open us up so that we can see who we are and offer who we are to God. Secondly, it needs to connect us to the God who knows the remedy and who knows how costly it is.<br />
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Safety is not guaranteed when God deals with sin. It requires vulnerability and openness to the possibility that there won't be a happy ending. David, as we'll see next week, knew all sorts of heartbreak in the wake of his sin. Jesus deals with sin through suffering and death, baring his body and the heart of God to the worst that could be done to him. But on that cross, God deals with sin. Safety is not guaranteed but forgiveness is.<br />
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It doesn't mean that God deals with sin so that you don't have to. The cross is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not meant to keep you from growing. And the only way to keep growing is to do the work of dealing with your soul. But it gives us the ground to walk on. We can face the pain because Jesus faced the pain. We can have confidence that our efforts to be open and brave in dealing with the roots of sin and the consequences of sin will be fruitful because Christ has gone there first. <br />
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The book of Hebrews, in chapter 4 beginning with verse 12, says, "God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer.<br />
<br />
"Yet, let’s hold on to the confession [of our faith] since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son; because we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin. So at last, let’s draw near to the throne of favor with boldness so that we can receive mercy and find grace when we need help."<br />
<br />
Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, when he finally had his moment of clarity, drew strength from this vision of Christ. He was able to say, "“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: 'I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!'”**<br />
<br />
At the end, where else would we go? When I know that "I am the man" or "I am the woman" to whom else shall we turn except the one who knows that safety is not guaranteed, but God's love is. Thanks be to God.<br />
<br />
*http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Peter_De_Vries/<br />
**http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/29874.Martin_LutherAlex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-56558287883125122022012-01-29T10:30:00.000-05:002012-01-29T10:30:00.577-05:00Branded: Doing Our Part in CommunionBranded: Doing Our Part in Communion<br />
January 29, 2012<br />
Franktown United Methodist Church<br />
<br />
Jesus was sitting down at a table at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. Now there's something you don't see every day. Does it surprise you to hear that about Jesus? Jesus was sitting at a table to eat a meal with some Pharisees. That's a little disturbing, isn't it? I mean Jesus had some pretty harsh things to say about Pharisees. You remember that he's the one who said, "Woe unto you Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of heaven against people. Woe unto you, Pharisees, you devour the houses of widows! Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27 KJV) You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? (Matthew 23:33 KJV)" Other than that, I don't see any reason why this scene seems strange.<br />
<br />
But there he is. Jesus and the Pharisees. Sitting around the table sharing a meal. And somebody gets a little too exuberant in the crowd. Somebody is overcome by the sight of these two parties together. This person thinks its a sign that bipartisanship is going to break out. Maybe he's had a little too much wine. At any rate, this guy yells out, "How happy are those who will sit down to feast at the kingdom of God!"<br />
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Jesus hears the man. Who couldn't? He yelled it out. But he doesn't say, "Yeah, it's going to be great." And he doesn't call him out by saying, "Hey, don't get your hopes up just because I'm breaking bread with these whited sepulchres." No, he responds with a parable, the point of which seems to be that the table is open, but you've got to want to come.<br />
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A man had a feast, a great feast. And he invited people to come. But everyone had an excuse for why they couldn't come. "Oh, you know I just bought some property and I've got to go look after it." Oh, you know, I just got married." "Oh, you know, I just bought some cows." They wouldn't come. So the man sends his servants out in the streets of the town to invite the poor, the lame, the outcasts. And they come, but there is still more room. So he sends them out into the countryside to gather whomever they can. But he is most disturbed with those who wouldn't come. Those who were invited initially will not taste the meal.<br />
<br />
Today we're continuing our Branded series. We've been looking at things that mark us as Christians and we spent two weeks looking at baptism. Next week we'll begin to talk about ministry and the various forms of ministry God's people get involved in. But last week and this week we are talking about communion, the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist.<br />
<br />
Last week I spent a lot of time interacting with John Wesley's sermon, "The Duty of Constant Communion." Wesley laid out the case for why we ought to come to the table. Why we ought not to neglect Jesus' command to 'do this to remember me." But today I want to talk about what our part in communion is. The meal is God's gift. But what we do with it is something else. And Jesus' story about the feast makes it clear that we can accept the invitation or not.<br />
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I mentioned last week that I had put out a question on Facebook asking for people to give me their reflections on communion and I shared one last week. Other people wrote about the great appreciation they have for the meal. Margaret Holland wrote to say that "It reminds me that God is the host of the party and all are invited to eat, reflect, and pray." It remind me of that guy at the feast. It's a party. Everyone is invited.<br />
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Skeeter Armstrong said, "For me it is a means of grace that allows us to put aside our differences and gather around the tables as the family of God knowing that, no matter how sinful we are or feel, that all is forgiven and we can begin again to become more Christ-like." It's a time to begin again. To confess our sins. To reconcile with one another. To become more Christ-like.<br />
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Debbie Bridges said something similar. She said, God's "grace and calming is transmitted to my body and soul telling me yet again - try to be, to do, to work harder and you will be a better Christian." Grace that leads to action.<br />
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There is an ethical side to communion. It is a party and it frees us and then it moves us be something for the world. Last week we talked about coming to the table, but today I want to talk about what it means to leave the table.<br />
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The other scripture that we have for today is from Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Christians. Some people will talk about this passage as the place where Paul lays out a 'theology' of communion. But really Paul is not doing that. Paul assumes that the Corinthians know what communion is. He's just trying to straighten out their practice of it. Because...as we mentioned last week...the Corinthians were taking communion unworthily.<br />
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Last week we talked about how some people will use this passage as an excuse not to receive communion because they are afraid they are not worthy to receive it. Wesley responded in his sermon that the problem for the Corinthians is not that they were unworthy. Wesley takes that as a given. We're all unworthy. The problem was the manner in which they received communion. The Corinthians, he said, were "taking the holy Sacrament in such a rude and disorderly way that one was 'hungry, and another drunken.'"* <br />
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But it was more than just a rowdy party. The community was neglecting its form, what it was supposed to look like. One New Testament scholar, Peter Lampe, says that the early Christian practice of communion was probably something akin to a potluck dinner. People would bring food and share what they had. But the problem was that the richer Corinthians, who had more food to bring, were not waiting for others before breaking into the food. So people were going hungry while others were getting out of hand.** What kind of community was this?<br />
<br />
So Paul reminds them what the dinner is all about. He reminds them that the origin of the meal was in Christ's last meal with the disciples. Jesus was thinking about his death on the cross when he told them, "This is my body." He was thinking about his death when he said, "This is my blood." So now, Paul says, "This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26 GNT)<br />
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You proclaim the Lord's death. Now there is an undeniable joy when we come to this table. We are tasting heaven. We are experiencing communion with the saints. We are entering the kingdom of heaven. We should be shouting, with that guy in the Pharisee's house, "Happy are those who feast in the kingdom of God!" But we are proclaiming Jesus' death. Our connection is not only with the risen Christ who will bring all things to final victory, but also with the Christ who knew the suffering of this world and who stood by the weak. As Paul says at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, "I proclaim Christ, and him crucified."<br />
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So the way that we eat this meal says something about what Christ is doing in the world. And how we live as people who share this meal says something about what Christ is doing in the world. As Lampe says:<br />
"In the Eucharist, the death of Jesus Christ is not made present and 'proclaimed' (11:26) only by the sacramental acts of breaking bread and of drinking wine from one cup. In the Eucharist, Christ's death is not proclaimed only by the liturgical words that accompany the sacramental acts. No, in the Eucharist, Christ's death is also proclaimed and made present by means of our giving ourselves up to others. Our love for others represents Christ's death to other human beings. Only by actively loving and caring for others does the participant in the Eucharist 'proclaim' Christ's death as something that happened for others."***<br />
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That's why I say that perhaps the most important part of communion is what happens when you leave this table. If we only come to this table to be reminded of what God has done for us...if I only come to be reminded of what God has done for me...then I have not gone far enough. This is where the Branded series takes a very important turn. While we receive God's claim on our lives...while we respond and accept God's claim on our lives...our journey does not end there. Unless we then turn out to the world and express with our own lives the other-directed love of God, then we have turned the gospel into a pat on the back, a massage at the spa, and a cozy spot by the fire. The gospel took Jesus to fishing boats and sick people. The gospel led him to sit at the table and to eat meals with Pharisees.<br />
<br />
It's not wrong that its our neediness that leads us to church or to God. We all have deep needs. We may come to find that they're not needs worth having, as Will Willimon said, but we do have them and they open us up to God. But if the only reason we keep coming to church is to have our own needs cradled and cuddled, then we have not truly been broken open by God. We are not proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. We are simply proclaiming our continuing need to be at the center.<br />
<br />
The first step in gospel healing is to know that we are loved. That is absolutely true. For many of us, this is the greatest breakthrough we have to make. But that healing is only effective if we learn how to love ourselves. To have the opportunity to love another person and to love God is to become truly human. Communion opens us up so that we can go on to love.<br />
<br />
Yesterday we celebrated the life of a remarkable woman in this sanctuary. Laura Dennis was a huge part of the life of this congregation. She was a giant, even though she only stood so high. She was a leader because she knew how to love. She loved her family. She loved her church. And she loved the world. As I mentioned in the service yesterday, she was pushing UNICEF boxes just a few years ago. She was making a list of needs for residents at Heritage Hall even when she was one of those residents.<br />
<br />
Laura Dennis is at this table. She is able to shout today, "How happy are those who feast at the table in the kingdom of God!" But she can do that because she ate at this table in the not-quite kingdom of God and was nourished on the food that Jesus provides. <br />
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So come to the table. Let it remind you who you are. Let it form you into a servant of Christ. So that you can proclaim Christ's death and Christ's power and Christ's love. Thanks be to God.<br />
<br />
*John Wesley, "The Duty of Constant Communion," in This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion by Gayle Carlton Felton, [Discipleship Resources: Nashville, 2006], pp. 67-68.<br />
**Peter Lampe, "The Eucharist: Identifying with Christ on the Cross," Interpretation magazine, Vol. XLVIII, No. 1, Jan. 1994, p. 41. I am grateful to Brooke Willson for putting me onto this investigation with his observations on 1 Corinthians 11.<br />
***ibid., p. 45Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-3329880403980160222012-01-22T11:27:00.000-05:002012-01-24T11:29:36.288-05:00Branded: The Duty of Constant CommunionSo here we are in week 3 of our new worship series - entitled "Branded." In this series we are talking about the things that brand Christians as a distinctive people. Things that Christians do that nobody else does and that Christians all do - whether we are United Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Catholics.<br />
<br />
We spent the last two weeks talking about baptism - what it means that God claims us from before we are born. What it means that we claim the God who claims us. What it means that "You will die" to sin when you go through the waters of baptism. And what it means to walk with Christ as a baptized sinner.<br />
<br />
Today, though, I want to turn for two weeks to something we spent a lot of time on last year as we came out of Lent. I want to talk about communion. Now I realize that we are walking on some sensitive ground here because last year we moved from a practice of having communion on first Sundays and special Sundays to having communion just about every Sunday. And it may have been one of the biggest changes to worship that has happened here in a long, long time.<br />
<br />
Last May, after we had been having communion for about 6 months, I asked for some responses. Many of those responses were very appreciative. “It has changed my experience of worship,” one person said. I guess that could go either way!<br />
<br />
“I realized that it didn’t become less special but more special when we had communion every week,” said another.<br />
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Somebody else said, “For all the doctrines, dogmas, liturgies and allegories associated with Christianity, only communion is a true connection to the presence of Jesus.”<br />
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And then there's this one - “Surprisingly it has made communion more precious and helps me to remember every day we should be thankful for God’s grace – noticing the ordinary and not taking anything or anyone for granted. I love it!”<br />
<br />
But it wasn't all this way. Some folks said that they didn't like having it every Sunday. For some it just didn't feel right. It felt less special. They worried that other parts of the service, like the sermon, might get less attention because of time concerns. They liked the rhythm of communion once a month and felt like the words of the ritual might become too familiar, too rote, too mechanical. For some it dredged up old questions about what the clergy are here for. What exactly is Alex doing up there at the table? Why are he and Peter the only ones who break the bread? And what kind of innovation was this? Were we becoming Episcopalian? Or Catholic? How many other United Methodist churches are doing this?<br />
<br />
I'll be honest - not a whole lot, even though our denomination as a whole has encouraged the practice of weekly communion. In 2004 we adopted an official study as United Methodists entitled This Holy Mystery which, for the first time, set down our understanding of communion. It encourages churches to move in this direction.<br />
<br />
But we are not doing this because the United Methodist Church says to. We are not doing this because I say we have to. I want to revisit this because our feelings and questions about communion are very important. And I don't want to discount any negative feelings about the way we are doing communion because they say that something significant is going on. Something we value is being touched on. And I don't want to use fancy theology to convince you that you shouldn't feel the way that you do - or that you should. I do want you, however, to pay attention to those feelings and questions and give them serious examination.<br />
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And who better to do serious examination of our souls than John Wesley?<br />
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Now John Wesley is an important figure for Methodists because he was really the first one of us. He was a preacher, a writer, a campus minister, and a world-class organizer. When people threw the slur at him that he had a method for everything, he took it as a compliment, and when they went on to call him a Methodist, he took that as the name for his new movement.<br />
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It was a movement, not a church. Wesley was an Anglican priest in 18th century England. His father was an Anglican priest. He saw what he was doing as a renewal movement for his church, which was spiritually dead and morally bankrupt. But he gave his blessing to the American Methodists forming their own church after the American Revolution. And after he died, the British Methodists formed their own denomination, too.<br />
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O.K., O.K. - but what did John Wesley believe about communion? Well, he believed that we have a duty of constant communion. Not frequent communion. Not once a month communion. Not high holy days communion. He was a stickler for constant communion. And why did he believe that? Because Jesus said, in the gospel reading which we had from Luke for today, as he celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples, that his followers should "do this in remembrance of me." Do we have some hand motions for this?<br />
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Now remember this, because what I'm going to do now is to give you some pieces from John Wesley's sermon entitled, "The Duty of Constant Communion," and let you see how he thought about this question, because you will see that the issues have not really changed. But the theme that runs through the whole sermon is "Do this in remembrance of me."<br />
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The sermon starts with this paragraph and it's a bad opening paragraph because it's the best paragraph in the whole sermon. You really shouldn't show off your best stuff in the first paragraph. But that's what he does and what he says is:<br />
"'Do this in remembrance of me.' It is no wonder that men who have no fear of God should never think of doing this. But it is strange that it should be neglected by any that do fear God and desire to save their souls; yet nothing is more common. One reason why many neglect it is, they are so much afraid of 'eating and drinking unworthily,' that they never think how much greater the danger is when they do not eat or drink it at all.'*<br />
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There are two scripture references here. One is Jesus' command from the gospel. The other is a quote from 1 Corinthians in which Paul warned the Corinthians about their conduct at the communion table. That command about "eating and drinking unworthily" gets used sometimes as a reason for not taking communion. But we'll get to that.<br />
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Harry Kennon, who is a retired pastor in our conference, quoted this on Facebook this week when I asked for some responses about communion and he said, "Ironically, some seem afraid of grace and forgiveness more than sin." Wow.<br />
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So John Wesley goes on to look at what this command to "Do this in remembrance of me" looks like. First he looks at why we should do this. And his first reason is a good one - because Jesus commands it. And secondly, he says, the mercy we experience in communion is good for us. That mercy is forgiveness of our sins and nourishment and strengthening of our souls. Why would we not want that?<br />
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Thirdly, it lets us leave our sins behind so that we are free to move on to perfection. Fourthly, the ancient Christians did it and the whole Church did it for many centuries - four times a week at least plus holy days. In fact the early church had a rule against coming to prayers and not taking communion. Fifthly, the Gospels and Paul's letters show that the practice was not just a show, but an outward sign of an invisible grace. Something really happens in communion. Something inside us.<br />
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So there are all sorts of good reasons to receive communion, not least of which is the command to "do this in remembrance of me."<br />
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<br />
Then Wesley gets into the objections to constant communion. In the first objection he imagines a person saying, "Yeah, but where does it say that I should do this constantly?" Wesley thinks this is a slippery slope. If we get into the business of determining when to selectively apply the commands of God we will have all sorts of excuses. We can say, for instance, "Well, yes, God commands me to take care of my parents but I did that once." If we have the opportunity to obey God's commands we should do that whenever we have the opportunity.<br />
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So there is the duty aspect of this thing. But there is also the mercy aspect of this thing. If God is handing out grace and mercy, why would you take advantage of it? God wants us to be happy, God knows that we can't be truly happy using our own means, so God gives us these means. Why would you refuse that offer of grace? And then Wesley goes back to his main theme - But even if you didn't get anything from it, it's still a command from God.<br />
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"O.K., O.K., but let's go back to that passage in 1 Corinthians where it says, 'whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation upon themselves.' I'm not worthy so I won't go forward." <br />
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Wesley, in effect, says to this objection, "You are always going to be unworthy, so if you are never going to reach out and receive God's mercy because you are unworthy, how will you ever be saved? Unworthiness goes with the territory when you are human beings. And on top of that - the command is to "Do this in remembrance of me" and so what you are saying is that you are going to disobey God's command because of your unworthiness which only makes you more unworthy. And on top of all this, Paul is not saying that unworthy people shouldn't go to communion. He is saying that when people go to communion they should not eat and drink unworthily. The problem was that the early Christians were getting rowdy and drunk at the communion meal. That is not an issue in most churches today.<br />
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"O.K., O.K., well, what if I have fallen into some sin lately or committed some crime?"" Well, you should repent, but don't add to your sin by failing to come to receive grace.<br />
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"O.K., O.K., well, what if I'm too busy to properly prepare to come to communion. What if my business prevents me from doing the self-examination and soul-searching I ought to do?" Wesley says, if you're too busy to do the work of your soul you are "unpreparing" yourself for heaven. Don't act like it takes an act of congress to get ready for communion. This is the way he puts it: "No business can hinder you from this, unless it be such as hinders you from being in a state of salvation. If you resolve and design to follow Christ, you are fit to approach the Lord's table. If you do not design this, you are only fit for the table and company of devils."<br />
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Now we get to the big objection - "Well, I don't want to take communication too often because it may 'abate my reverence' for it." 'Abate my reverence' for it is 18th century language for 'it will get to be rote and I may not get that feeling I like to get.<br />
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Wesley goes back to his theme - The command says, "Do this is in remembrance of me," not "Do this in remembrance of me unless it abates your reverence."<br />
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"But I've been going to communion constantly and I'm not experiencing the benefits I expected." I bet you can guess Wesley's response. Even if you don't experience any benefits, God commands it. And even if you don't feel it, on some unfelt level you are receiving the benefits of grace even if your don't yet see the effects. God may yet give you eyes to see what all this constant communion will bring.<br />
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Now, I admit that Wesley can be a little rigid. You can come out of a sermon like this and think that the one line summary of it is something like, "What part of 'Do this in remembrance of me' don't you understand?"<br />
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But here's why I think Wesley and Jesus ought to be heard: Because like every good mystery they have to be lived to be understood. You can't explain what parenthood is all about until you've gone through childbirth or colic or nightmares or potty training or adolescence or graduation. You can't explain what love is after the first kiss or the wedding vows or the many years of companionship and trials. You can't explain what a calling is like or a profession. You can throw words at it, but you just have to give yourself to it.<br />
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I get the nervousness about communion. I really do. I feel it myself. When I stand here I want to feel the immense mystery of it all. I don't want to let it just pass by. And does my mind sometimes wander as come back to the old familiar words that I can say in my sleep? It does. Do I sometimes feel unworthy to stand here in this place and say these words? Often. But one of the most powerful things I have even done as a pastor is to take a loaf of bread and to break it and to see your faces through the broken halves of bread. To share that bread with you. To receive that bread from you. To know that the life of Christ which was poured out for you and for me is present in some way that goes far beyond me and what's going on with me that day.<br />
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In my sermons on communion last year I said this, but I'll close with these words again today. I preside at this table so that you can preside at every other table in this whole, blessed, God-hungry world. I preside here to remind you that you dare not neglect God's presence out there. You come here because Jesus' commands you, but you go there because Jesus' commands you, too.<br />
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Your behavior out there is a testimony to what this bread here means. Don't forget that people are hungry for bread, hungry for grace, hungry for love, hungry for justice, hungry for a new day and they don't know where to find it, but you have been to the table. You know where the bread is. And you know how to give it. Don't you forget that this bread is a promise of what God is doing in this world.<br />
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You don't need an advanced degree or the bishop's hands on your head to break a loaf of bread. But unless you're feeding regularly at a table where you are reminded that the bread you hold is heaven on earth, then you will start to lose the ability to see that every other morsel of food you take in your hands is a sign of grace. My calling tells me to feed people in the name of Jesus, so that you can feed people in the name of Jesus until the kingdom comes. And the duty we respond in eating here is constant. Just like the love that brought us here. Constant. Thanks be to God.<br />
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*All quotations from Wesley's sermon are from the reprint in This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion, Gayle Carlton Felton, [Discipleship Resources: Nashville, 2005], pp. 65-70.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-13637517112340647872012-01-15T00:30:00.000-05:002012-01-14T20:51:17.749-05:00Branded: So You're Baptized. Now What?Branded: So You're Baptized. Now What?<br />
Franktown UMC<br />
January 15, 2011<br />
<br />
Last weekend I was with the youth in Ocean City for a big retreat. It was great fun. The Renners were very gracious in offering us their condo. The weather was great. We saw some great bands. And we learned some sign language.<br />
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Reggie Kapps was the main speaker. Very dynamic. Very funny. Very powerful. And in one of his sessions he was telling the story of Genesis chapter 3 - the Adam and Eve story in which God tells them - "If you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die." Reggie really wanted to emphasize this point, so he kept saying, "You will die." He got us to say it with him. "You will die."<br />
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After repeating it a few times he looked over at the sign language interpreter who was up on the stage for the whole session and he saw that she had been repeating it right along with us - "You will die." So he got us to do the sign language with her. "You will die." Try it with me - "You...will...die." We've been doing it around the house all week. Somebody does something we don't like - "You will die."<br />
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It's a good place for us to start this morning because today we're going to continue our "Branded" series and we're going to talk about baptism again and the first thing that I have to say is - "You will die." Wow. Really?<br />
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Now just a refresher on what this series is all about and why we're calling it "Branded." I talked about wearing my cowboy boots as I was praying about this and some of you were singing the theme song to the old Chuck Connors TV show last week when you heard the title: "Branded. Scorned as the one who ran. What do you do when you're branded and you know you're a man?" In the TV show Connors plays a disgraced cavalry soldier who is branded with the label of being a coward. His saber is broken in two and he carries that broken saber as a symbol of what others have come to think of him.<br />
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Some of you know what it's like to be marked like that. To have other people label you and to treat you as that label instead of as a person. Maybe you've been through a divorce and you've felt like that has marked you. After the sermon last week, somebody told me that that's how she had felt following her divorce - like some scarlet 'D' was marked on her for all to see.<br />
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What we talked about last week, however, was how the brand of our baptism marks us in the most important way. It shows us how God claims us. How God reveals to us the reality of who we are. How it gives us our identity. I showed the clip from the movie Toy Story in which Buzz Lightyear discovers that he is not a space ranger but a toy and how that was a crushing blow to his self-image. Then he looked at his foot and there was his owner's name - Andy - written right there on his boot. Then last Sunday night, Lena Gonzalez came to Bible Study and showed us that she had written 'God' on the bottom of her boot. Baptism reminds us that God has a claim on us and the love of God in baptism is a gift that gives us our identity.<br />
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Today, though, I want to talk about what it means for us to claim that gift. Why is it important that we accept the gift of baptism and what do we do with it? And the reason it is important is because - "You will die."<br />
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Let's start with another movie, though. In thinking about branding, I started to think about the ways that we brand ourselves. So I asked for some tattoo stories...<br />
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[Video clip]<br />
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Tattoos are not really about putting something on our skin. Tattoos are really about something going on inside of us. They are about an inward journey. Sometimes those journeys are about remembrance and desire and a reaching for something more. Sometimes, though, those journeys are just about pain. They're about drawing blood and letting the world see what is going on. When young people cut themselves it is often about a sense that they are not right...that the world is not right...that there is so much brokenness and hurt that they have to give it some kind of physical expression. When all we see is pain, the voice we hear is the one that says, "You will die."<br />
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So let us hear a new word from Paul. We read from Paul's letter to the Romans this morning. And Paul has a hopeful word. Did you hear it? Paul does not say, "You will die." No, what Paul says is, "You are dead." Doesn't that sound hopeful?<br />
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Paul is writing to the new Christian churches because they are all trying to get their minds wrapped around what believing in Jesus means. They didn't have youth rallies and a lot of hymns or even a New Testament to tell them about Jesus. So they often got it wrong. Especially the grace side of things. Surely we have to do something to earn God's love. Surely there is a step we have to take to get God's grace.<br />
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Paul says, 'No.' What we have, on our side of the equation, is nothing like merit. Nothing like faithfulness. Nothing we can show that gives us a claim on God's love. What we have...what is ours to offer...is brokenness and sin. And what is the fruit of sin? What does sin merit from God? Condemnation. Rejection. Repudiation. God is great. God is good. God is righteous. God is holy. God doesn't have any truck with sin. God doesn't fool around with ungodliness. That's why it's called ungodliness. And we live in an ungodly world and we lead ungodly lives. So what should we expect from God? "You will die." And what does God give us? "Jesus loves you." God gives us grace.<br />
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So when Paul says this, the immediate response is - O.K. We sin and God gives us grace. And God's grace is sufficient to cover every sin. So that means the more sin there is the more opportunity God has to offer grace. So why don't we sin more so God has more opportunity to be God? Makes sense doesn't it?<br />
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That's how Paul begins this sixth chapter of Romans - with this question hanging in the air. And his response is "Me genoito!," which is Greek for "Are you crazy?" Once you know that sin equals death you can't go back to believing that it's a harmless thing. I mean, you can. There are plenty of baptized Christians who have gone astray. Some of them are named you and me. But when we do that we are not in our right minds. Being baptized in Christ, we have been exposed to the news about who we really are and what the world really is. We have been immersed in grace. When we sin we're just being stupid - putting our fingers in our ears and pretending that God doesn't care. <br />
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We can make God out to be the big, bad authority figure when we do that. We can say, "God doesn't want us to have any fun. God is just sitting there with a willow switch waiting to whack us when we do something God doesn't like." But the reality is God is standing there watching us beat ourselves with willow switches when we sin. We can blame God, but it's always been the case that we do the greatest damage to ourselves. <br />
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Stephen Dobyns wrote a poem on the Garden of Eden story that ends with the line: "Kicked out, kicked out. Who could believe that lie? We'd begged him for a chance to make it on our own."* Dobyns is playing with the notion that perhaps being kicked out of the garden is not the best explanation for what happened. We can push the blame off on God, but it's really we who want to try to make it own, apart from God's grace.<br />
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But here's the thing that's most amusing. Dead people don't have the power to harm God and when we sin we are dead. Do you remember that this was the good news? It's not that "You will die." The truth is "You are dead." <br />
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Romans chapter 6 verse 1 - "What then should we say? Are we to persist in sin in order that grace may increase? Me genoito! Are you crazy? We are dead to sin - how can we still live in it? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized to death?" You were baptized to death. You gave your life to Jesus, he sucked you under the waters of baptism, you drowned, you died. I know it seems all sweetness and light when we take a baby in those beautiful white gowns and douse him with water...when we lay hands on her head...but when we give that baby to Jesus...we are baptizing her to death.<br />
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Jesus did not come to walk the earth so that we could keep on playing our pretend games. Jesus did not go to the cross so that we could mess around like life doesn't matter. Jesus didn't put on a crown of thorns so that we could fritter away our potential on things that do not last. Jesus came to baptize broken people to death.<br />
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The poet Franz Wright was baptized as an adult after facing down many demons in his life. In his poem "Baptism," he writes about how the broken person he was is dead:<br />
I drowned him<br />
and he's not coming back. Look<br />
he has a new life<br />
a new name<br />
now<br />
which no one knows except <br />
the one who gave it.**<br />
This is the good news - that we are dead, but, look, "he has a new life, a new name now, which no one knows except the one who gave it."<br />
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Paul's way of putting this is that we were buried with Christ through baptism into his death so that we also might walk in newness of life, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. You were baptized to death so that you can walk in newness of life. You were baptized to death so that you can live. <br />
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Then Paul says in verse 5, "If, being united with him, we are dead"...that word 'united' there is an agricultural term. "Sumphutoi" is the word. It's what you say when you're planting seeds together in the ground. They are "sumphutoi." That are united in death. The seeds go down into the earth and you cover them up and you think that they're gone for good. But something happens down there in the earth. Some mysterious power brings something forth from those dead, inert seeds. Some new life raises up from the grave. Some new shoots begin to spring up. Some new growth breaks through the earth. Something green is growing. <br />
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And it doesn't happen all at once. It's not a full grown plant. It's got a lot of growth ahead of it. It will have to brave the wind and the heat. It will have good days and bad days. It will still have to depend on having the nutrients it needs. The water it needs. The sun it needs. But those seeds that were dead. They are alive. And there is no more miraculous thing on earth than when dead things come back alive.<br />
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If you are baptized into Jesus, you are dead. Maybe you forgot that. Maybe you're acting like a zombie and wandering around in some sort of half-life where you forgot that you are dead and then all of your actions have the character of sin. But you have been baptized to death so that you can truly live. The grace that claimed you is yours for the having. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and the Love that made you is waiting for you to claim it. The evil of this world...the sin in your life...has no power over this Love.<br />
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Every day that you are alive you have this Love - not because you earned it, but because God gives it. But every day you have this Love, you have the opportunity to live it. You are branded. Thanks be to God.<br />
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*from a Facebook post by Mary Karr, 14 Dec 2011. She goes on to say, "Talk about hubris. The human arrogance of projecting onto the place where we imagine God sits all our own fear, malice, dread and loathing."<br />
**"Baptism," Franz Wright, in Walking to Martha's Vineyard [Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2003], pp. 44-45.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-41682267006223761572012-01-08T22:48:00.001-05:002012-01-08T22:48:20.254-05:00Branded - The Side Effects of Baptism<br />
Today we begin a new worship series and I want to spend a minute explaining what it's all about. One of my favorite questions for Bible study is: If I took this Bible passage seriously, what would I have to change about the way I'm living? I use the question with groups, too, and I used it last month in the Advent Bible Study. We were talking about what it meant to live intentionally as a Christian and I asked, "If we took this seriously what would we have to change?" And someone asked, "Does that mean you don't think we are taking it seriously?"<br />
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The answer to that question is, "Yes. I don't think we have the least interest in taking God seriously." If we took God and the Bible seriously things would look different. People would behave differently. We would not be disconnected from the poor. We would not let ideologies or political stances or media narratives prevent us from seeing what is really going on around us. There would be more humility and less hostility. There would be more compassion and less callousness to life around us - human, animal and plants. We would embrace joyfully the life we know through Jesus instead of living anxiously the lives we try to create for ourselves. No, we don't take this God thing seriously.<br />
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So what keeps us connected to this story? What is it that Christians can do to re-form their lives, to re-connect their stories to the biblical story? So I started praying about that. I was wearing my cowboy boots when I was praying about this and I started thinking about this Sunday. Baptism of the Lord Sunday. What do our baptisms mean? And I looked down at my cowboy boots and started one of my periodic day dreams. Every so often I like to imagine that I could head out to West Texas and ride the ranges with a big herd of Longhorns. There I am under that great big Texas sky riding my trusty horse, Augustine. (Hey, you have your dreams and I have mine.) I pull out my harmonica and start playing and stop long enough to yodel and then sing, "Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam..." That's when I look down and see the brand on my cattle - the Rocking J. And that's how this series was born.<br />
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Branded! That's what we are brothers and sisters. If you have been baptized in Christ you are branded. And that brand is unique to us in the church. Nobody else goes out there claiming to be baptized. When you join the military they give you dog tags and uniforms and specialized training. When you go to college they give you school colors to wear and a silly school song to sing. When you become a Christian you are branded by being baptized. And your distinctive act is the meal of communion. And you become a minister. Those are the things that make Christians unique and that bind them together. So we're going to spend these weeks between Epiphany and Lent looking at Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry to see why they even make a difference and what it would mean to take them seriously.<br />
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To get into baptism today though, I want to introduce you to Naama Margolese. Naama is an 8-year-old girl, born in Chicago but who has immigrated to Israel. She is an Orthodox Jew and you can see from her picture that she is dressed in long sleeves and in a long skirt, the kind of modest dress that Orthodox Jews have long promoted.<br />
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Naama made the news last week because when she was on the way to her Orthodox Jewish school a group of people began to spit on her. They called her a prostitute, only they used much more vulgar language than that. And cameras caught her crying as she ran from the bullies who were attacking her just because she was going to school.<br />
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Now let me tell you who the bullies were. They were grown men. They were members of an even more conservative Jewish group who believed that the dress code for the school where Naama attends was too liberal. This group, guided by their religious beliefs, goes out every day to yell at little girls and to tell them that they are worthless, sinful, and faithless. They call 8-year-old girls prostitutes.<br />
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I'm not singling this faith group out. There are people in every world religion who do terrible things in the name of God. We hear stories in Afghanistan about the abuse of women and Christians that makes our blood boil. Within Christianity it happens and it's why, for many people who have not grown up in the church, the first word that comes to mind when you ask them about who Christians are is 'judgmental.'<br />
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But here's what this story reveals - religion becomes dangerous when it obscures the reality right in front of us. When we can no longer see the people right in front of us for who they really are because we have some misguided interpretation of what God demands, we can do monstrous things. And there have been major protests in Israel this week because of this incident.<br />
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Here is what I want to say - and really this is the whole point of this sermon. If you don't get anything else, this is it - God is fed up with our lies about the world and about ourselves. God is all about reality and telling the truth about who we are and and what the world is. And the way God shows us that truth is through baptism.<br />
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Baptism is where the gospel of Mark starts. We spent a lot of time in the weeks leading up to Christmas talking about John the Baptizer. Mark tells us that people went to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. There were rituals of cleansing and washing with Judaism, but John seemed to offer something more democratic. It wasn't just the priests being washed before they went into the holy precincts of the Temple. Everyone was coming to him. "The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem." That's a pretty successful ministry for a guy who wore camel skins and ate grasshoppers.<br />
<br />
Jesus' baptism seems different again, though. John had said that he was coming. He said he was a servant to Jesus. Said he wasn't even worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He also said, "I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Water was good for getting off the dirt that was already on you. But transformation required something more. The Holy Spirit was about fire and combustibility. And fire is about chemical reactions - reducing things to their simplest elements. Jesus' baptism was not just about forgiveness. It was about identity - about who we are when you get right down to the core. About reality.<br />
<br />
That's clear even in Jesus' own baptism. He comes down from Galilee to begin his public ministry and John sends him under the waters of the Jordan River just like he had done with all those Jerusalemites and Judeans. But when Jesus came up out of those waters something different happened. John looked up and he saw the skies split wide open and a dove descending from heaven - it was the Spirit! And a voice came from heaven and said, "You are my Son, whom I love. I am pleased, well-pleased with you."<br />
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Now, we don't know for whose benefit this voice came forth. Did Jesus really need to know that he was God's Son? Since Jesus was God and therefore didn't haven't the problem of sin that we all have, did he really need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins? We're not even sure that anybody else but Jesus heard this. Other gospels suggest that they did. But Mark reports this as a proclamation to Jesus. "You are my Son. I love you. I am well-pleased with you." Even if nobody else heard it, Jesus could not have been under any illusions about who he was after this. God, in this baptism, is all about reality. And Jesus goes off from here to the wilderness to face down the devil.<br />
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You might be saying at this point - OK. Jesus was baptized. I was baptized, too. Maybe your folks got you the font when you were a baby because Grandma Jean insisted. Maybe you had a powerful experience at a revival and a visiting evangelist dunked you in the river. Maybe you've never been baptized. I don't know what your experience was. But the question you may be asking is: What difference does it make? Maybe you don't stay up late thinking about your baptism. Maybe it hardly ever crosses your mind. Is baptism even really necessary? I mean, after all, it's just water isn't it?<br />
<br />
Now your preacher is on dangerous ground. Because what if I say, "Oh, no. It's not just water. It is a means of grace instituted by God and commanded by Jesus. If there is anything that is necessary for salvation, it is baptism. And if you have not been up here to get yourself wet then you are bound for hell." What if I said that?<br />
<br />
Well, you know the consequence of that. You immediately start thinking of exceptional circumstances. I know of a woman who was a nurse in the maternity ward of a hospital. And if she knew that a child had parents who weren't religious, and especially if the baby had life-threatening symptoms, she would go around in the dark of night baptizing babies in the nursery because she did not want those children to end up in limbo or worse.<br />
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Or maybe you think - what if I'm out in the desert and I'm crawling along dying of thirst. There's no water for a hundred miles. And I'm not a Christian but I think I'm going to die and I'm converted by a talking cactus and but there is no way for me to be baptized with water. What then, huh? Huh? [I have got to stop wearing cowboy boots when I do my sermon prep.]<br />
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These are ridiculous scenarios - even though theologians through the ages have tried to deal with just these situations. When the whole baptismal thing gets reduced to some physical mechanism where the right minister says the right words with the right water - then we have made baptism into something it is not.<br />
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But, OK, let's go back to your question. "It's just water, isn't it?" What if I say, "Yes. You're right. It's just water. It's really just kind of a traditional thing that we do but really the important thing is that you change your life and live better for God." What a travesty! Do you realize what we've done then? If I say that, then what I'm saying is that there is no grace in your salvation. I'm saying that it's all about you and what you do and how well you do it and how sincerely you mean it. If you get it right then we can say that this baptism with water thing was effective.<br />
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But that is a lie. The whole problem with this messed up world that we live in is that we believe it's all about us. When we get moralistic and judgmental it's because we think we've got it and the other guy or gal doesn't. We can feel superior because we did it and they didn't. When we get depressed and self-loathing because we know we have messed up we fall into the trap the other way and we still think it's all about us and what we didn't do.<br />
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The whole point of baptism, though, is to show us that our salvation, our identity, our reality is not something we create. Did you hear where we began the scripture reading this morning? That first reading. From Genesis. There's water. It's dark. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There are way too many days when I wake up and say, in the beginning I created every good and and every bad thing that I associate with myself. And those are the days when I am an arrogant unbeliever who may give lip service to God but who really believes that he is the source of all life.<br />
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Do you hear where I am going with all this? Baptism matters because we are a forgetful people. Baptism is necessary because we need a God who can save us from ourselves. Baptism is necessary because God wants to give it to us. Laurence Stookey, a professor at Wesley Seminary says, "In short, we are oblivious to the identity we have been given by our Creator. God, aware of our malady and of our inability to effect a cure (or even recognize the impairment), acts to reveal our true identity to us."* And how does this happen? Through baptism.<br />
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Is it necessary? Well, how well do you think we do at remembering our identity without it? The theologian Gerhard Forde says, "To use the analogy of love, one might say that baptism has about the same necessity as that of a lover's kiss. That is certainly not a legal necessity! If it is, love has already flown. But if the lover were asked, 'Is this really necessary?' what could the answer possibly be? Most likely one would reply that the question was ridiculous! What sort of necessity is behind an unconditional gift?"**<br />
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One of the hardest things for us to accept is that baptism is a gift. It is given because God wants to give it. Jesus told his disciples in the Great Commission to "Go into all the world making disciples and baptizing them." Baptism exists, not because we need a mechanism to express our faithfulness to God, but because God wants a way to bless the world.<br />
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O.K., but if God is letting me know who I really am...if God is able to tell me through baptism what I'm really like...then how can that be a good thing? Because who I am is a pretty broken thing.<br />
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Someone posted this picture on Facebook this week. It's a picture of a girl with her dog and it's such a wholesome picture. But the words say, "Wishing your pets could talk is fun until you remember all the things you've ever done in front of your pets." That's the danger, isn't it? My cat Whiskers knows me better than any person because I am totally unguarded in front of her. And if she could talk...<br />
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So if God knows us as we are - how can God still offer us grace in baptism? What do we do about the problem of sin?<br />
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Isaiah 49:16 talks about a branding. Speaking to the people of God in exile, God says, "Look, I have inscribed your name on the palms of my hands." Think about that for a minute. Your name is inscribed, branded into the palms of God's hands. It's a metaphor, of course. God doesn't look like a human being. God doesn't have features like a human being. God doesn't have hands to be branded.<br />
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Except God does. God's hands gripped Mary's finger in a Bethlehem stable. God's hands rubbed the wood in Joseph's carpenter shop. God's hands touched lepers and little children. God's hands broke bread. God's hands were pierced by nails. And in the piercing of those hands, God took on the sins of the world. God accepted the brokenness of the world. And when they pierced his side, it was not just blood, but water that flowed forth. Water that reminds us that we may be sinners, but that is not all that we are. Born through water, born again through the Spirit, we are free to be who we really are - children of God.<br />
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In the movie Avatar there are these ridiculous blue creatures called Na'Vi. But they greet each other with the phrase, "I see you." It's not just a visual thing like, "Hey, I see you over there." It's a recognition of the real essence of the person. "I see you. I know you. I encounter something holy in you. I am with you." It's just what God says to Moses from the burning bush. "I know the suffering of my people in Egypt," he told Moses. And that Hebrew word for 'know' has the character of experience. "I see the suffering of my people. I know the suffering of my people. I experience the suffering of my people."<br />
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Do you think the world sees Naama Margolese? Do you think the religious people who shout epithets at her and cause her tears can see who she is? <br />
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Do you think the world sees you? Do you think the sin and the hurt and the grief and shame and the burdens of your life are all that others see? Is it all that you see?<br />
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Because the God who moves across the face of the waters sees Naama and loves her. The God who descended in the form of a dove sees you and this whole sin-blasted world. And what does God say when God sees you? "You are my child, whom I love. With you I am well-pleased." How do you respond to a gift like that? Thanks be to God.<br />
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*Baptism: Christ's Act in the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey [Abingdon: Nashville, 1982], p. 13.<br />
**"Something to Believe: A Theological Perspective on Infant Baptism," Gerhard O. Forde, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Vol. XLVII No. 3, July 1993, pp. 231.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-47932541076521552742011-12-04T09:30:00.000-05:002011-12-04T09:30:00.590-05:00The Waiting GameThe Waiting Game
December 4, 2011
Franktown United Methodist Church
Have I ever told you the story of Big Jake? Victor Pentz, pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, tells the story kind of like this:
Imagine an old West Texas town. One day a horse wanders in carrying a battered cowboy slumped over his saddle. The townsfolk rush toward the man just in time to hear him utter his final words: "Big Jake is comin'." With that his body went limp.
Needless to say the townspeople started to get ready. They locked up the children in their houses. They barred the doors to their businesses and covered the windows in their homes. They crawled behind tables as their lips moved in inaudible prayer. And before long they heard the clap, clap of a horse’s hooves.
They peered out the window and out on Main Street here came the biggest, meanest-looking cowboy they'd ever seen in their lives. The guy was seven feet tall, riding a black horse, with a rifle, two six guns and bandoleers criss-crossing his chest. He has an ugly scar along his jaw, one glass eye, and lips curled into a cruel sneer.
He stopped in front of the saloon and tied up his horse and as he walked through the swinging doors, he tore them off at their hinges. He brought his fist down on the bar and yelled, “Whiskey!” With that he grabbed a bottle from the bartender’s hand and polished it off in a single gulp. The bartender said, "Well, h-h-how ‘bout another one?" to which the big cowpoke said, "You crazy? I’ve got to get out of here. Big Jake is comin’.”*
You might imagine John the Baptist a little like that cowboy. Not that he was a whiskey-drinking, gun-toting giant. He wasn't any of those things. But he was somebody he caught your attention. Like the Old Testament prophets we read about - Jeremiah, Elijah, and Ezekiel and others - John was known for disturbing the peace.
He wandered around the desert places, wearing clothes made out of camel skin with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. And, you know, none of these things would make him a fashion icon in our time, but they wouldn't have been all that strange to people who grew up with stories of Jeremiah and his ilk. You expect your prophets to look a little strange. What was remarkable was that people went out to see him. They went to the deserts to see John. They thought maybe he was the one they had been waiting for. But like the cowboy in the story, John said, "No. It's not me. Somebody more powerful than I am is coming. I'm not worthy to even untie the thong of his sandal" - the lowliest role that a servant could have.
The people were waiting for a Messiah, but what they expected was someone seven-feet-tall and armed to the teeth. What they expected was a cataclysmic confrontation. But what John wanted to prepare them for was a savior who was not just going to challenge the enemies of God's people, but also challenge God's people themselves.
In the Disciple Bible Study that meets on Sunday evenings we have been studying those Old Testament prophets and what we have discovered week after week is a really consistent message. The people of Israel and Judah are facing threats from foreign powers - Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt. They are hopelessly outmatched by these greater powers. It looks like the end is near. They are praying for God to deliver them. They look to the prophets and what do they say?
Invariably the prophets say, "You have brought this on yourself. God has told you how to live and you ignored what God said. God said to care for the poor and you holed up in ivory palaces and ignored them. God told you to love only God - the one, true God of Israel and you worshipped other gods. God told you to give justice to the people in the gate where the legal cases are decided and you tipped the balance in favor of the well-connected. Why are you now surprised that things are going badly?"
That's not all the prophets say, though. They talk about doom but they also talk about hope. They talk about a day of restoration that will come. It's almost like God is saying that even the worst thing that could happen to the people, and which will happen to the people, is not powerful enough to end the story of God's presence with the people. Big Jake is coming. Something greater than destruction is coming.
Last week we saw how Jesus warned his followers about the things that would accompany his return to earth. We talked about the destruction and the division and the persecutions that would come and we wondered about Jesus' saying that that generation would not pass away before all these things happened. We wondered because that generation did pass away and we are still here. Still waiting.
We're not the first to wonder. When Peter was writing his epistles to a group of Christians late in the first century AD, they were wondering, too. Why had Jesus not come yet? They had been looking forward to his return. When was it going to happen?
In the passage we read this morning from 2 Peter, just before that section it says that people were beginning to ask, "Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4 NET) But the writer goes on to say, "The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because [God] does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NET)
Our time doesn't work like God's time. We get moment after moment in a sequence so there is a sense of space between this moment and some time down the road. But God, who dwells outside of time, in eternity, doesn't experience things like that. "A thousand ages in God's sight are like an evening past," to quote an old hymn. But it's not even like that. No evenings pass for God. Everything is eternally present for God. And this passage from 2 Peter tells us that in the eternal present of God there is something more powerful than punishment and destruction. God is not just sitting around waiting to zap us for our misdeeds. "God is patient not wanting any to perish." And that shows us that along with God's justice we also get God's love.
Now if love is the thing that really matters. If love is the engine that the universe runs on, then some extraordinary things happen. There can be destruction and fire and all the heavens may melt away. That's what 2 Peter says and that's what science tells us earth's final destiny is - it will be swallowed up by the sun some billions of years in the future. But that's not the last word over us.
If love is the most powerful thing in the universe then the consequence of our sin is not to make us forever unacceptable to God. Jesus came into the world so that our sin would not have the power to end our relationship with God. When we repent God is quick to forgive, because Jesus lays bare our lives before God, lays bare our every weakness, every failure, every blemish and God says through Jesus, "Come to me. I love you even in your broken condition. I love you just as you are because I know who you can be."
If love is the thing we are waiting for, then it is a sign that God will not accept our despair and our hopelessness. These are consequences of not being able to see as God sees. God knows what our destiny is - we are meant for God - every one is meant for God. And God waits on us to accept that we have been accepted by God and to repent, to turn around, to let go of our junk and to walk with Jesus.
If love is what God is really all about, and it is, then it is also a sign that God will not ultimately accept even God's own despair over this broken world. God weeps at the tragedies of war and poverty and neglect. God weeps when children die of AIDS. God weeps when people turn to hate-filled philosophies instead of towards life. God weeps when religion is perverted to be an instrument for death. But God's weeping is not the last word.
What's the last word? It's born in a manger. It's been whispering in the wind since the dawn of creation. It's been spoken through the prophets. But at Christmas the last word became flesh. The curtain was drawn back on the greatest mystery of creation. And suddenly what God has been up to all along was laid bare before all who had eyes to see. Some got angels in a neighboring field to tell them the news. Some got a star to call them across eastern deserts to let them know. And what we get is the story.
John the Baptist would say that your sin is unacceptable. Your despair is unacceptable. Your belief that you are eternally unacceptable is unacceptable. Because no matter what you have done or what has been done to you, you cannot escape the God whose name is love.
Psalm 139 has a section where the psalmist talks about fleeing from God and finding that no place he could go would take him from God's pursuing love. "If I were to say, 'Certainly the darkness will cover me,
and the light will turn to night all around me,' even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, and the night is as bright as day; darkness and light are the same to you." (Psalm 139:11, 12 NET)
"Darkness and light are the same to you." God sees in the darkness. God knows who we are. And God loves us anyway. Thanks be to God.
*Dr. Victor Pentz, "The Baby that Rocked the World," Peachtree Presbyterian Church website, 30 Nov 2008, http://www.peachtreepres.org/downloads/sermons/20081130sermon.pdf. Accessed 3 Dec 2011.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-79911042231768640502011-11-27T11:44:00.000-05:002011-11-27T11:44:00.154-05:00An Advent of Biblical ProportionsI had been in Jerusalem for two days. The adrenaline that had been powering me through the jet lag was beginning to wear off. But I was determined to keep up my schedule. Just before I went to bed at the hotel I looked at the map to plan a morning run. Our hotel was on the west side of the Old City and I saw that if I ran around to the east side of the city and crossed the bridge across the Kidron Valley I would find myself in Gethsemane - the place where Jesus prayed on the night of his betrayal.
Our schedule was full so if I was going to do this I had to get up at 5 am for a 5:30 run. But when the alarm went off at 5 am I groaned. I hit the button and briefly considered skipping the run and going to sleep. But then I heard Jesus' voice.
That happened a lot in Jerusalem. I kept hearing Jesus say things. Like when I was running up the Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus had taken to the cross, and it was steeper than anything I had run on the Eastern Shore, and I was considering walking a little bit, and I heard a voice saying, "What would Jesus do?"
But this was not the Via Dolorosa; it was the Garden of Gethsemane I wanted to go to. And what did Jesus say to Peter, James & John when he came back from praying there and found them sleeping? "Why are you sleeping? Could you not stay awake with me for one hour?" That's what I heard. So I got my lazy self out of bed and went running.
It was dark at 5:30. The street lamps put splotches of fluorescent light on the sidewalks and pavement. Dogs barked. A rooster crowed down in the valley. Along the street in front of the south walls of the Old City Hassidic Jews lined up to catch buses to work. Around the east side Muslim workers did the same thing. Bells rang in the Christian quarter to call people to prayer. A recorded voice sang out the call to prayer from the minarets. In some ways it was like every other city in the world. In other ways it was like no other place.
When I got to southeast corner of the walls the sun was just starting to peek over the Mount of Olives. The first morning I went running it shocked me to get to this point because I suddenly realized that I was surrounded by graves. Along the walls was a large Arab cemetery with graves right up to the walls below the Temple of the Rock. They even covered the entrance to the Golden Gate - an ancient gate that has been closed up for centuries now. Down below me in the Kidron Valley was a Christian cemetery and across the valley, all along the southern base of the Mount of Olives was a huge Jewish cemetery.
Now why are all these people buried in the same area? The prophet Zechariah, in chapter 14, tells of a time when the Lord would come to vindicate the people against all their enemies. And Zechariah clearly says that God's feet will be on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split in half to create a valley through which the people besieged in Jerusalem will escape (Zech 14:4). So the Jewish Messianic belief has centered on this notion that when the Messiah comes he will appear first on the Mount of Olives and that closed up gate, the Golden Gate, will open. To be buried on the Mount of Olives is to be in the front row for the day of the Lord's salvation.
Muslim beliefs about the end of times also have a role for Jerusalem as a place of judgment. But as I heard the story, there is a defensive reason for the graves. No Jewish messiah would dare to touch dead bodies and to risk becoming unclean, so the graves are meant to block the Golden Gate. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but there are lots of stories in Jerusalem.
Then there are the Christians. And what is it that we expect? Christians have traditionally looked to the east as the direction from which Jesus will return in the clouds to claim the chosen people. Most old churches are oriented toward the east. And if you're in Jerusalem, the sun comes up in the east over the Mount of Olives. So to be buried near the Mount of Olives, again, is to be in the front rows for the return of our Messiah.
Why am I telling you this story on the first day of Advent? Because this is that strange season of the year. Time gets muddled. Expectations are all mixed up. Music in the malls has been proclaiming a baby in a manger since the day after Halloween. Thanksgiving disappeared in a Black Friday avalanche. The ABC Family TV network is proclaiming the 25 days of Christmas ending on December 25 instead of the traditional 12 days of Christmas beginning on Christmas Day. Santa Claus is already getting overexposed. Our credit cards are already maxed out. Cats living with dogs. It's all mixed up.
Even in our scripture readings it's all mixed up. We come expecting angel choirs and shepherds in the fields and Isaiah tells us about dried up leaves and broken pottery. We want to sing 'joy to the world' and 'peace on earth,' but Jesus tells us to stay awake because the heavens are going to shake and the earth is going to quake and something dreadful is going to happen before the coming Day of the Lord. There will be wars and rumors of wars, famines, persecutions, family divisions. Happy holidays!
Advent must be something we didn't expect. Advent must be more than just a rehearsal of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Advent must be about a day we didn't expect, but maybe we should. Advent on the Mount of Olives is about a time yet to come when even death is not the end of the story. There are thousands of dead people waiting at the Golden Gate for one more chapter in this story. So maybe we ought to be looking for more than just a good deal during this season. Maybe we ought to expect an advent of biblical proportions.
The 13th chapter of Mark's gospel, which we read from this morning, has always troubled Christians. It comes near the end of the gospel as Jesus is preparing for his arrest and crucifixion. His disciples are trying to get a handle on how this all going to go down. They're in awe of Jerusalem and the Temple. In the opening verses of this chapter they sound like tourists. "Teacher, look at these buildings! Look at these stones!"
Jesus is not impressed. "These will all be torn down," he tells the disciples. "Not one stone will be left upon another." Then he goes on to describe for them the tribulations that are to come. Disturbances of the earth and of the heavens. Persecutions for his followers. Conflicts that will lead to death and destruction. Horrible things. "Pray that it may not come in the winter," he said.
Then Jesus concludes his warnings with this line that we have been puzzling over ever since. After saying that no one, not even Jesus, knows when the end will come, when he will appear over the Mount of Olives with his angels to gather the chosen from the ends of the earth, he says, "This generation will not pass away before these things come to pass."
Now to hear this in 33 AD is one thing. And that generation did not pass away before many of those things did take place. The city was destroyed. The holy site of the Temple was desecrated with pagan worship. There were wars and rumors of wars. There was death and destruction and persecution. By 70 AD Jerusalem was a wasteland. But that generation did pass away and still Christians waited. And each new generation has waited. Maybe it will come when Rome falls. Maybe it will happen when we get to the year 1000. Maybe the year 2000. Maybe on in May of 2011. No, we miscalculated. Maybe it's October. Everyone who has ever made a prediction about the end of time in their lifetime has been wrong. Unless we missed something dramatic.
So what could that mean? Well, maybe "this generation" doesn't mean a specific strata of time, but a kind of people. A kind of people who are less than holy, but who need a savior. A kind of people who know struggles and trials. A kind of people who thirst for a word from God. In God's time, maybe we are of the same generation of those disciples because we are the same kind of people.
And what does Jesus tell such a people? To stay awake. To be ready. To be alert. How hard is that? Well, in chapter 13 Jesus tells the disciples to be alert and in chapter 14 he asks three of them, "Why are you sleeping? Could you not stay awake with me for one hour?" It's harder than it looks to stay awake.
Staying awake means living your life in expectation. It's an active expectation. We don't wait for Jesus by putting our lives on hold and neglecting the world around us because, really, what does it matter if Jesus is coming again? No, to have an Advent of biblical proportions means to be know that everything we do every day, every moment is invested with meaning and importance.
You think you're living your life and yours alone? You think nobody else should care what you are doing because really, it's nobody's business? Your business is my business. I can't live your life for you, but I can tell you that it matters how you treat other people. It matters how you manage the resources that have been given to you - your time, your money, your talents and gifts. It matters how you direct your life and what you give yourself to. It matters because there is a time at the end of time when our lives are exposed for what they are - a day of judgment. But it also matters because if the message of Jesus has transformed our lives and we are expecting the coming kingdom, our lives in the here and now ought to be infused with glimpses of that kingdom - "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."
This season is a hard one. It's hard to keep. It's hard to hold yourself in a creative tension between what is now and what is to come. It's also hard because so many of us have so many things going on within us during the holidays. It's not always soft lights and warm memories. In our minds and our hearts are memories of past hurts that grow more painful at the holidays. Ways we have been wronged or slighted or neglected or abused. Loved ones that we have lost and that we miss more acutely at the holidays. Rough places that feel rougher. Hard times that feel harder.
But keep alert. Keep watch. Don't hit the snooze bar until Christmas. Because you are not alone in this season. God has things for you to do and things for you to receive. And we have things to do together as a people waiting for Christ to come. Thanks be to God.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-86392799532008038692011-11-20T12:16:00.000-05:002011-11-20T12:16:00.644-05:00When the King Has Got Your BackPaul was a pain in the rear end. Yes, I'm talking about the Apostle Paul. Yes, I'm talking about the Paul who is credited as the author of the book of Ephesians which we read this morning. Yes, I'm talking about the Paul who was knocked off his donkey by a blinding revelation of Jesus, who started churches all over Asia Minor and Greece, who wrote the letters that formed the nucleus of our New Testament. That Paul was a pain in the rear end.
If you don't believe me just ask the other disciples. I mean, they had been with Jesus. They had travelled with Jesus. They had seen the arrest and the trial and the death and the resurrection. If anybody knew Jesus, they knew Jesus.
Paul had not been there. In fact, Paul had been trained as a Pharisee. Paul had been standing by when Stephen, a deacon in the new Church, was stoned to death. Paul was holding the cloaks of the people throwing the stones. He was a coat clerk at the first Christian martyrdom. He persecuted Christians.
Then he got converted and you know that there is nothing more annoying than a new convert. They think they know it all. They think nobody ever had an experience like theirs. And they want to tell you how you've got it wrong. Even if you're one of the original twelve disciples!
That's what it was like with Paul. He was not from Jerusalem. He had been born up in what is now Turkey. A tentmaker by trade, but trained in the traditions of the Jewish law. Then he had that conversion experience on the Damascus Road and he suddenly saw something that the original group of disciples was having difficulty acknowledging. Paul could see that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a Jewish Messiah but the Savior of the whole world. If it was good news for the Jews it was also good news for the Greeks, the Romans, the Cretes, and the Gauls. It was a hard thing for good Jews to hear. Peter had to have a vision from heaven to tell him that it was OK to go baptize a Roman centurian named Cornelius and his family. But it was just obvious to Paul.
So they finally had a conference in Jerusalem somewhere around 50 AD, some 17 years after Jesus' crucifixion. Paul met with Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, who had become a leader of the Jerusalem church. You can read about it in Acts chapter 15. The Jerusalem Council was tense. There were many Christians in Jerusalem who still believed that Jewish rites like circumcision would be required even for new converts. But Paul was convinced that God would not burden new Christians with unnecessary rules. In the end they agreed to endorse Paul's mission and they sent him out with some representatives from their group.
Things were still tense though and about 8 years later Paul had to come back. Simon Montefiore describes the scene in his new book, Jerusalem: A Biography:
By now James and the elders in Jerusalem disapproved of Paul. They had known the real Jesus, yet Paul insisted: "I have been crucified with Christ. The life I live now is not my life but the life Christ lives in me." He claimed, "I bear the marks of Jesus branded on my body." James, that respected holy man, accused him of rejecting Judaism. Even Paul could not ignore Jesus' own brother.*
So he came back to Jerusalem and went to the Temple with James to pray as a Jew. In the process he created such an uproar that he was arrested. When he demanded a trial as a Roman citizen he was shipped off to Rome. There, according to tradition, he was executed. But what he did before dying was to open the door for all of us to follow. The Church that was born at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon all those Jews gathered from all those nations would now go to all those nations with good news for everyone.
I think it's kind of comforting to know that the early Church had its fights and conflicts, too. And I think it's kind of comforting to know that God can work through people like Paul, who was a pain in the rear end for the people around him. Paul could see what others had a hard time seeing - that Jesus was the King and that changed everything.
We live with so many flawed kings and queens these days. We have always lived with so many flawed rulers. They are vulnerable to corruption, hopelessly weak or dangerously dictatorial, too enslaved to public opinion or too unmoved by it. We need our leaders to be the best we have to offer but they always turn out to be...human.
So what was so compelling about Paul's vision of Jesus that made him such a pain? The passage from Ephesians gives us a glimpse. Verse 15 of chapter 1 says, and I'm reading from the New English translation here, "For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers." Paul is writing to a community that has caught the vision, that has seen Jesus for who he was. Paul is giving thanks as he starts and he is encouraging this community.
The next verse he starts laying out what he is praying for on behalf of these new Christians, "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, – since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength."
So what is he saying here? He wants them to burn like he is burning. He wants them to get the big picture because it is so easy to get swallowed up in the day to day. He wants them to see with the "eyes of their heart" and not just with their physical eyes. Because you know what you see when you just look with your physical eyes? You see a world that is falling apart. You see life as a slow progression of loss and disintegration. You see disease winning. You see poverty winning. You see injustice winning. You see the powers and principalities getting a chokehold on our institutions. You see your bad habits and your addictions and your wounds and your failures and your sin beginning to define your life. And that is not the truth. What do we sing in that praise song, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you." That's the prayer Paul has here for the Ephesians. He wants them to see a greater reality breaking into this one.
There's more though. He goes on...and I hate to say it but Paul, in addition to being a pain is also a difficult writer to comprehend...he gets too excited and just starts piling on the clauses...but he goes on to say that he wants them to know "the hope of Jesus' calling" - that he wants them to know that their reality starts in Jesus' calling them to be a set apart people. They have a particular mission on earth and that is to be witnesses to hope. They are to be hope. So that's one thing he wants to remind them of.
Secondly, he wants them to know "the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints." Christians aren't known for their great wealth in this world. Joel Osteen not withstanding, the primary witness to Christ is the message of sacrifice and service. Right living is the mark of the Christian. The wealth Paul is talking about is in the people - the saints - who have responded to Jesus' call and who are now living in the wealth of God's kingdom.
The Crystal Cathedral in California, this great marvel of glass and architecture, was sold this week because the ministry that built it failed. This week we sent 127 shoeboxes with the good news of Jesus around the world and we distributed 267 bags of food to people in our community. I believe God appreciates beauty but when it is disconnected from the needs of the world, where is our true wealth. Paul wants us to see it ahead of us.
Finally, Paul wants the Ephesians to know "the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe." They may be poor and persecuted. They may be on the margins of the society. But the Christians Paul was talking to, like us, should never believe that they have no power. If God could raise Jesus from the dead in this world, God can do greater things yet.
So when we believe that all our good efforts have come to naught. When we believe that bad things will always happen to good people. When we believe that we can't make a difference or that things have always been this way and always will be. When we believe these things we make the mistake of believing we have no power. But God knows that King has got our back.
Paul has talked about the past, present and future. He has talked about our calling in the past that has set us on a different journey. He has talked about the riches of the saints in glory who tell us about our destiny. And he has talked about the power that God exhibits in the here and now to be what God knows we can be.
One thing great kings and queens can do is to inspire us to be like them. How else do you explain the thousands of Elvis impersonators in this world? Everybody wants to be the King. But King Jesus came to us in a very particular way. His life revealed that the way of kingship was through humility. The way of glory came through suffering. The way of community was through love. And only through death with a crown made of thorns on his head could he then take his place at the right hand of God.
We are getting ready to enter a very special season of the year. In a lot of ways it's our season. The world is putting on bright lights and its shiny best because we have a message of light and life. The world is celebrating because we have told the world there is a reason to celebrate.
But we will also be challenged. We will be challenged by the messages we hear to spend too much, to do too much, to eat too much, and to listen for God too little. Don't forget who you are. You were called by the King. You are meant for the King. And the King has got your back. Thanks be to God.
*Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography, [Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2011], p. 212 (electronic edition)Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-86964126704744872502011-11-06T21:15:00.000-05:002011-11-08T21:23:24.648-05:00What We Shall Be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week was Halloween and if you came out to our Harvest Party at the church last Monday night you would have seen a great collection of costumes. I saw people dressed up as pirates and cowboys, a flower in a pot, Mario from the video games, and Sawyer came as a Northampton County Sheriff's Deputy. It was really great. But what I have been trying to figure out is why we are so fascinated these days with zombies.<br />
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In Norfolk they had a huge zombie night in Ghent where people came dressed as zombies and, I don't know, I guess they chased each other slowly around the city. It seems like everywhere you look these days there are movies and TV shows and events where zombies are the star of the show. <br />
I'm sure there's some great cultural point to be made about all this. What is it about where we are as a society right now that makes zombies our favorite scary creatures? Is it because the economy is in such bad shape that we like to envision our fears as a slumping, lumbering zombie? Is it a sign of our guilt over things we have done in the past - a symbol for the debt crisis where the things we thought were long gone are coming back to haunt us because we still haven't paid for them? I don't know. Maybe some of us just like gory movies and there's plenty of gore in zombie movies.<br />
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Or maybe there's some image of us in those zombies. Maybe we feel like zombies. Maybe we're feeling a little disconnected from life. Not quite dead but not fully alive either. Maybe we're hungry for life, hungry for something we can't even name. And because we are so bad at imagining that that hunger could lead us to something beautiful and life-giving we imagine that the only future for us is ugly and disturbing. Maybe we're the zombies. Or maybe that's just me.<br />
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The first letter of John in the New Testament is a short little book. It was written to Christians near the end of the first century and it imagines a world of conflict - the children of light versus...zombies...no, actually the antichrists. Now, I need to be clear about who the antichrists were. These are not some strange, supernatural creatures. Antichrist is the term the letter-writer was using to describe the false teachers who had taken the gospel message and perverted it - teaching things that were contrary to what Christ taught - antichristian teachings. Chapter 2 verse 19 tells us that, "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us." (NET). And who is an antichrist? Verse 22 tells us that the antichrist is "the person who denies the Father and the Son."<br />
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The letter-writer reminds us that we should expect false teachings, especially as the second coming of Christ comes near. We should expect that there will be some who will try to present some other picture of God and Jesus. But what is the promise that we have been given that the antichrists want to deny? Verse 25 says: "Now this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life." (NET) It is eternal life that sets Christians apart. <br />
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And how do we hold on that promise? By remaining in Christ, remaining in the light, and by doing the things that Jesus told us to do. "The one who says he or she resides in God ought to walk just as Jesus walked" - verse 6 - loving their fellow Christians, trusting in the forgiveness of our sins, and expecting Christ's coming again.<br />
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When we talk about saints, as we do today on this All Saints Day, one of the things that marks them is the way that they are able to focus on exactly these things when it seems that all the world is coming apart around them. I think about my colleague in ministry, Kathleen Baskin-Ball, who I talk about in my new Advent book. Kathleen went into West Dallas, which was a difficult place, to begin a difficult ministry as pastor of a new church in an old, abandoned United Methodist Church. She was a single woman and she was determined to live in the neighborhood even though everybody around her told her that the toll would be too great. And it was hard but Kathleen said, “When it’s not convenient, when it costs us and we still take the time to listen to another’s heart and we love deeply, hope emerges.” So she did. And her church grew, mostly with young kids and poor folks.<br />
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Then she got a diagnosis of cancer at a very young age. Three years ago she died. But until her last week she was preaching at her new church, welcoming people at her home and asking them how they were.<br />
People like Kathleen are remarkable because, when the world closes in on them and they are experiencing pain and discouragement, they keep their eyes focused on another place. The natural things, when we are experiencing illness or grief or loss is to let the horizon of our world shrink to the limits of our pain. We become captive to the thing that is happening to us. We define ourselves by what we can't do. But saints have a bigger vision.<br />
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The verses from 1 John that we actually read today tell us that the thing that defines Christians is not that they are better than the rest of the world. Not that they are immune from the pains of this world. The thing that defines them is that they know they are children of God. Their identity is secure. It doesn't flap around in the wind. It is secure. So as a Christian I know that whatever label others want to put on me - victim, outcast, old, weak, ugly, fat, scrawny, sick, loser, incapable, unable, unwanted - whatever label others want to put on me - none of those things define who I am. Because I am a child of God whose life is in Christ. And because of that I can love and look at the world with new eyes.<br />
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"See what sort of love the Father has given to us," 1 John chapter 3 says, "that we should be called God’s children – and indeed we are!...The world does not know us: because it did not know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is." What we will be has not yet been revealed - but we know this - that we will not be zombies - we will be like Jesus. Seeing Jesus, just as he is, we will be like Jesus.<br />
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We've got a lot of things to celebrate as we remember today the names of those who have gone before us. The moments when grace pervaded the space between us and that other person. The hands we held. The prayers they prayed. The witness they gave in confronting the evil powers of this world. The tears they shed and the laughter. These things don't die because they grow out of love and, as Song of Songs tells us, "Love is stronger than death; passion fierce as the grave. Many waters cannot quench love."<br />
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But the saints don't die because they now have their eyes fixed on Jesus. Even in this life our eyes can be fixed on Jesus. It's one of the reasons Paul could call the Christians he wrote to "the saints assembled" in Rome or Ephesus or wherever they were. We are saints, not because we are holy in ourselves, but because we have our hope in the one who is holy and who can make us whole.<br />
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So what are you doing to get ready for the banquet table that God has prepared for us in heaven? Have you put your confidence in the one who shines in light? Or you lumbering and shuffling along in darkness and death? Are you focused on all that you have lost or are you trusting in the promise that what lies ahead makes all that we are going through now look like a dim shadow?<br />
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I don't put down this life. It is where we get a foretaste of what love is all about. It's where we get to live in love and fellowship with others. It's where we know the touch of our mother's lips on our forehead. It's where we know the smell of a meal at our grandmother's table. It's where we feel the strength of our fathers, the wisdom of our grandfathers, the thrill of a lover's kiss. It's where we experience the deep, warm rumble of a cat's purr, the eager, panting energy of a dog, and the soaring wonder of an eagle high above us. There is a lot that is good about this world. And the promise is better. It only gets better from here. <br />
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What shall we be? I don't know for sure, but we have a glimpse when we see what the saints see. So go out to love. Thanks be to God.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-74286934674559098972011-10-23T22:47:00.001-04:002011-10-23T22:47:08.597-04:00Moses, the Mountain & the LandWhat was it like up on that mountain? Old Moses at 120 climbing up to the top of Mount Nebo, 4,000 feet above the Dead Sea that lay at the foot of the mountain. But Moses was used to climbing mountains. He was on a mountain when God came and spoke to him from the burning bush. He was on a mountain when God came in clouds and delivered the Ten Commandments and the Law to him. And the scripture says that even now, at 120, his eyes were not dim and his vigor was not gone. Like the 100-year-old marathoner who finished that race in Canada a few weeks ago, Moses was fit right to the end.
But this was the end. He was climbing his last mountain. He knew it was the end. The whole book of Deuteronomy is the record of his farewell addresses to the people of Israel because he knew he was going. After resisting the call to go back to Egypt to liberate these people from slavery, after confronting Pharaoh with signs and wonders on behalf of these people, after enduring the grumblings and hostility of these people through forty years in the desert, after interceding on behalf of these people before God -- after all this the people were going on into the Promised Land and Moses was staying behind.
He climbed up Mount Nebo, across the Jordan River from the land of Canaan. It's a high spot. A great spot from which to see the whole of the Jordan River valley and the hill country of Canaan. You can't see all the way to the Mediterranean from there, but God gives Moses a special vision and allows him to see that far and from the northern extent of the future Israel to the southern deserts. It's a little like another scene in the Bible when God gives Abraham a vision from a high place after her has split from his nephew Lot. In Genesis chapter 13 it tells us that God told Abraham to raise his eyes and look to the north and the south, the east and the west. "All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever," God says. When Moses comes along, it is still an unfulfilled promise but God repeats it: "This is the land I sore to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over to it."
Moses knew the moment was coming. Knew, somehow, that he would not be going over the Jordan into the land. But it is still a hard thing for us to hear. Even Moses, who surely did more than anyone to work on behalf of his people, to bring this about, couldn't cross over to the other side.
You know the first five books of the Bible are looked at as a special section of the Bible by Jews and Christians. It's called the Pentateuch - the Five Books and they are the foundational story for everything else that comes in the Hebrew Scriptures. But the Pentateuch doesn't end with Israel in the Promised Land. It ends with a vision that is incomplete.
For Israel it will always be a little incomplete. O, there will be high moments. David and Solomon will build a great city out of Jerusalem and the united kingdom will briefly shine as the great fulfillment of Israel's dream of being a nation like other nations. But that kingdom will split into two. Other powers will threaten. The people will forget the law and the words of Moses. They will turn to other gods. They will forget where they came from. The kingdoms will fall. The land will be occupied by other powers. And to this day, even though there is once again an independent Israel in the land, the promise seems incomplete.
So maybe it's not so strange that Deuteronomy ends here. It's where we still live - with a vision of promise and yet, 'not yet.'
Moses, the servant of God, dies there in Moab. Moses is buried there in an unmarked grave. The Bible is even unclear about who buried him. The Hebrew text says that is was God. God, who covered Moses with a hand in the cleft of a rock to prevent him from being killed by God's glory passing by, now covers him with earth in a place no one knows. And he will not appear again until Jesus is with him on another mountain at his transfiguration.
It's not the end of the story, though, because there is Joshua. God did not leave the people without a leader. Moses laid his hands on Joshua and he carried on and led the people into the land, into their future.
So here we are. And I wonder if Moses could see as far as Franktown - to see what God would do. Here we are 3000+ years later and who could have imagined that the name of Moses would still be on our lips? But I don't want you just to remember Moses - I want you to be Moses.
There are a lot of discouraging things in this world. This week I read about the closing of the last Christian church in Afghanistan. The last one. They're closing because to be a Christian in that country is to be marked for intimidation, bombings, and death. In Iran, a Christian pastor, Yosef Nadarkhani, was sentenced to death last month for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. In Bethlehem, the place of Jesus' birth, 86% of the population was Christian in 1915. Today, in the West Bank, Christians make up only 1.7% of the whole population. Again it is intimidation and violence from gangs and government policy and economic strangulation from the ongoing conflicts.
These things are to be expected. Jesus told us that suffering would come to the church. Jesus said that persecutions would happen because of him. These things are to be expected but they should not be accepted. I long for a renewed Christian witness in the Middle East. The Middle East needs Christians and the people of the land need Jesus.
I long for the same things here. Our disappointments may be different. People may not be dying because of their faith here. Thanks be to God. But churches are dying because we have lost the vision from the mountaintop. We have given in to our despair. We have forgotten the promises of God. We have forgotten who we are. And so we are formed by the morality of reality TV. We get our identity from brand name consumer items. We have such limited expectations of who we can be that we let advertisements and the illusion of the lottery fill the void.
Moses' eyes had not gone dim but ours have. Moses' vigor had not diminished but ours has. We tell ourselves the story of how the church has lost its way rather than the story of how the church reveals the Way. We lament the fact that there are no more Moseses and forget that all the wisdom given to Moses was passed on to Joshua and through others to us. What we need we have been given. And what the world needs is for us to give away what we have been given.
Let me tell you about another mountaintop. On the West Bank, the area loosely run by the Palestinian Authority, across the Jordan River from Moses' Mount Nebo, there is a mountain where I went on my recent trip. From the top of this mountain you get a feel for what a small place Israel is. When we looked north we could see all the way to the edge of the Galilee. When we looked south we could see the outskirts of Jerusalem. When we looked west we could see ships coming into the Mediterranean port of Ashdod and the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv.
What could you do with such a mountaintop? If you were committed to violence against Israel you could certainly put missiles on top of it and hit just about anywhere in the country. But I was there with a man named Bashar Masri and he wants to build a city on that mountain. Not just any city. He wants to build the biggest city on the West Bank - a place where 40,000 people can come to live and work.
It is the biggest development project in Palestinian history. It will create 8,000 to 10,000 jobs during construction. It will cost about $1 billion. All for a place that is modeled after Reston, Virginia. He wants to draw people looking for affordable housing and who are looking for a normal life when everything around them is not normal.
When he told his staff that, for his last project, he wanted to build a city, they immediately started to list out reasons why it couldn't be done. The Israeli government wouldn't cooperate. The Palestinian government wouldn't cooperate. How were they going to get water up on the mountain? How were they going to get access through the security zones? How would they keep militants out? How could they find investors? They listed 102 obstacles.
After three hours of this, Masri said, "O.K., let's call these challenges and get to work." And they did and now that list of 102 has come down to three. They have begun construction. They have advertised the first 2,000 units and they have already oversold them.
If somebody can stand on top of a mountain in the West Bank and see a city, why can't we see what God is doing in our land? Why can't we declare that a new day is coming? And why can't we believe that all the obstacles we can list are really challenges waiting to be overcome through the power of the Holy Spirit?
What is 'not yet' here that God has given you to see? How do you keep yourself close to that vision? God has not stopped helping the people dream dreams. So don't stop listening for that new day coming. Thanks be to God.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-45164658354940340212011-09-04T06:30:00.000-04:002011-09-04T06:30:02.221-04:00Plagues and Passover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When Israel was in Egypt’s land,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let my people go!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Oppressed so hard they could not stand,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let my people go!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Go down, Moses,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Way down in Egypt’s land;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tell old Pharaoh</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To let my people go!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moses was a reluctant savior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, once he had been a fiery young
radical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in the day when he wore
the robes of the Egyptian royalty he snapped at injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day when he was out among the Pharaoh’s
work projects watching the overseers…probably wondering to himself how he could
really be a Hebrew and stand by to watch his own people suffer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What did his mother whisper to him as he
nursed from her right under Pharaoh’s nose?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What did his sister say to him about his destiny?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At any rate, as I said, one day Moses
was out and about and he saw one of the Egyptians overseers beating a Hebrew
slave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he was not reluctant to act
then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was impulsive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He struck back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Killed that Egyptian and then worried about what he had done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hid the body in the sand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not such a great place to hide a dead
body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sure enough his crime doesn’t
stay covered up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s not the
Egyptians who know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the
Hebrews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they’re not grateful to
him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The next day he’s out and now he sees
two Hebrews fighting with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And he confronts one man, who was clearly in the wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hey, why are you hitting your companion?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The man turns on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Who made you a prince and judge over
us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you going to kill me like you
killed that Egyptian?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when Moses
knew the game was up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he fled to
Midian.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Years later he was out in the desert
tending sheep, long removed from Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was married now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had a new
life now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wandered the wilderness with
his sheep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the brave young
instrument of justice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An aging man with
different priorities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then he saw the bush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That bush that burned but which was not
consumed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That bush that spoke with God’s
voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Told him to go to Egypt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Told him that God had experienced the
suffering of God’s people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new day of
liberation was coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And who was going
to proclaim this new day?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Go down, Moses!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But Moses was now a reluctant savior. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought the people would not receive him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought the people would not receive
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought he didn’t have what it
took. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He couldn’t speak good. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally after God gave him God’s name, after
God gave him two nifty tricks to do in front of Pharaoh – the stick into snake
trick and the leprous hand trick, after God told him, “I will be with you,
Moses,” after God told him, “I will be with your mouth, Moses, and I’ll even
give you your brother, Aaron, as a mouthpiece”…finally Moses goes down to
Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A reluctant savior.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The showdown was wonderful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses & Aaron versus the most powerful
ruler in the most powerful nation on earth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aaron throws down the stick in front of
Pharaoh and his servants. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It becomes a
stick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the magicians of Egypt were
there and with their secret arts they can do the same thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They throw down their sticks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They become snakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Aaron’s snake eats up all the other
snakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pharaoh was unimpressed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So the plagues begin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First there was the plague of water turned to
blood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Pharaoh went out to the Nile,
that great river on which all life in Egypt depended, Moses struck the water
with that same staff that had turned to a serpent and the river turned to
blood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the fish in the river
died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The river stank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people couldn’t drink from the
river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some must have wondered what had
happened to the Egyptian gods. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Khnum,
the creator of water and life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Hapi,
the god of the Nile. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Osiris for whom
the Nile was his very bloodstream. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Pharaoh did not wonder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He turned his
back on Moses and went back to his palace and God hardened his heart.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Next there were frogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frogs in the beds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frogs in the houses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frogs in the ovens and the kneading bowls. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People must have pleaded to Heket, the
Egyptian goddess of childbirth whose symbol was the frog. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But still they came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These cursed frogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pharaoh calls in Moses and Aaron and pleads
for a respite. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses prays to God and
the frogs die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They pile up piles of stinking
dead frogs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Pharaoh hardened his
heart.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It kept on going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were gnats and flies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the livestock died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then boils broke out, even on the beasts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Locusts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the great Egyptian gods of the sun, Amon-Re, Atum and Horus, could
not prevent the darkness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each time the
plague would affect only the Egyptians, not the Hebrews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each time Moses proclaimed the victory of the
God of the Hebrews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually Pharaoh
pleaded for relief, even promised at times to let the people go, but each time
the plague lifted, his heart would harden and the people remained slaves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Through nine plagues this was the
pattern. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then came the tenth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the tenth was a horrible plague. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At midnight on a certain night, the angel of
death would come to the house of all who lived in the land. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this angel of death would kill the
firstborn of every house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Through all of this, God had had a
special message for the Egyptians. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now
God had a message for the Hebrews, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This night. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This horrible night
when so much death would come to Egypt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the night that was going to mark the
beginning of a new life for the Hebrew people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a night they would remember even in
their calendar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was now going to be
the first of all the months. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on the
tenth day of that month from now on they were going to remember what they did
on this night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What did they do on this night when the
angel of death was coming to every house in Egypt? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were to take a lamb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each household was to take a lamb. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lamb without blemish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A year-old male in the prime of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on the fourteenth day of the month, just
as the sun was setting in the west, the whole assembly would kill the lambs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Imagine the Egyptians watching this
scene. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All those Hebrew slaves
simultaneously slaughtering a lamb. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
they took blood from the slaughter and painted the doorposts of their houses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They dressed for travel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though it was night, they dressed as if
they were ready to leave. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their belts
fastened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their sandals on their
feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their walking sticks in their
hands. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they ate their roasted lambs
in haste as if they were going to be called out at any minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Later that night, at midnight, the
destroyer came. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the firstborn of
Egypt were struck down, from the captive in the dungeon to the palace of
Pharaoh. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when the destroyer came to
the houses of the Hebrews and saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, it
passed over their houses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The death that
came to all Egypt did not come to them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their firstborn were preserved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron in the
middle of that night. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Serve Yahweh, your god. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take your
flocks and go.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reluctant savior
went back to tell his people that God had set them free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">O, there was more to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pharaoh had a change of heart one more time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was the dramatic crossing of the Red
Sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The drowning of Pharaoh’s army. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The long journey in the wilderness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a new day had come. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Hebrews, who became the Israelites,
were to remember this day on the fourteenth day of the first month of every new
year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Why do we still tell this story? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Christians we don’t set aside the
fourteenth day of the first month for Passover. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t even use the Jewish calendar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What happened to this commandment from
Exodus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is still our story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And nowadays you hear it just about every
week in this service. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A least a hint of
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we come to the baptismal font
and give thanks over the water we remind God and ourselves that “when you saw
your people as slaves in Egypt, you led them to freedom through the sea.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we come to the table we often hear in
the Great Thanksgiving those words, “you set us free from slavery to sin and
death.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we say these things we
remember what God has done for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s
people and we count ourselves among those people that God has claimed and loved
and freed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remember the Passover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But as Christians we see it through new
eyes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We count time differently because
of one particular Passover when Jesus gathered with his disciples probably to
eat this meal that is described in Exodus 12. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only now Jesus says something different about
the meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t slaughter lambs
anymore because Jesus, who was the Lamb of God, laid down his life once for
all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sacrifice was made once for
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It was a perfect lamb in the prime of
his life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was sinless, in the
prime of his life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a bone of it was
to be broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At his crucifixion the
gospel writers are careful to note that not a bone of Jesus’ body was broken. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lamb’s blood was to be sprinkled on the
doorposts so that its benefits could protect the inhabitants from death. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’ blood is shed for us so that we can
find protection form wrath, forgiveness from our sins, and freedom from death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Christians look back at this story of
the Passover and they see Christ all over it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As First Corinthians 5:17 says, “Christ has become our Passover.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we see a much bigger exodus for us every
time we come to this table. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remember
God calling that reluctant savior Moses and leading a people to freedom from
slavery. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we also remember that
savior who went all the way to the cross to lead us to a freedom that cannot be
taken away from us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">All of life is wrapped up in this story.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is humor as we think about a land
overrun with frogs and Pharaoh playing his silly game of “You can go; no, wait,
I lied.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is wonder as we think
about the awesomeness of the plagues and the greatness of God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is trauma and death and blood – the tragedies
that are part of all of our lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is sacrifice where the strong and the innocent die and those who are unworthy
continue on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there is deep, deep
mystery as we think that something as simple as gathering around a table and
sharing a meal can somehow make real for us the kingdom of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yesterday Suzanne and Rachel and I made
a trip to Capron in Southampton County. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were picking up several pieces of furniture
that were part of Suzanne’s inheritance from her Aunt Augusta who died earlier
this year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Augusta was the last of her
generation and the house seemed very empty and lonely as we left it for the
last time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We stopped to eat in Franklin at the
Golden Skillet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rachel was not
impressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a fast food restaurant
that has seen many better days. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even I
wondered how many extra layers of grease had been added to the walls and
ceilings in recent years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were
flies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Why did we go there? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went there because that’s where my
grandparents went to eat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They knew it
had great North Carolina-style barbecue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it was one of my Grandma’s favorite places to go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when I sit down in that place and eat it is
a way for me to commune with the saints. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when I sat there with my wife and daughter
I felt that deep, deep mystery of life and death and life beyond life continuing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This table is where that happens for
this family. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this table we are
reminded that whatever has a hold on us, whatever Pharaoh is holding us in his
grip…his power is broken by the action of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever temptation we have to linger in
slavery is shown up for what it is – a failure to embrace life and the freedom
God gives us through God’s mighty works in Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So, let us all from bondage flee,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let my people go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And let us all in Christ be free,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let my people go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Go down, Moses,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Way down in Egypt’s land;</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tell old Pharaoh</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To let my people go!</span></div>
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Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-24206465347813250042011-08-14T10:31:00.000-04:002011-08-14T10:31:00.329-04:00Intending GoodAll of us love a good transformation story. The troubled teenager who turns her life around and makes good. The man who is destructive to himself and others who confronts his issues and builds a new life. The rundown neighborhood filled with crime and broken windows that is redone and renewed. We live for those kind of stories.
<br />
<br />So let me tell you the story of Joseph and his brothers, but let me warn you before we start that, if it's a story of transformation, it's an incomplete story. There is more reconciliation to be done.
<br />
<br />It's a great story, though. The last chapters of the book of Genesis form one big cycle of stories around the figure of Joseph and it is a heck of a story. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber recognizes that. He turned it into a musical called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But one thing you might ask as you watch that play or as you read this story is - where is God? What is God up to in this story? The people in the story will sometimes try to interpret for us what God is up to, but they're not always reliable. So we need to be asking, what is God doing?
<br />
<br />We're picking the story up in chapter 45 of Genesis, so if you want to follow along in your Bible or a pew Bible I invite you to turn there with me. But by the time we get to this chapter we're getting near the end of the story. So maybe we need a little recap on the characters in this story.
<br />
<br />The father who is mentioned in this story is Jacob, also known as Israel because of a little wrestling match he had one night with a man whom he took to be God and who gave him that name. And what do we know about Jacob? He began his life in a struggle with his twin brother Esau. Tricked his brother out of his birthright and his father's blessing. Ran for his life after Esau threatened to kill him. Was blessed by God in a dream where he saw a ladder reaching up to heaven. Travelled to his mother's far-off homeland where he fell in love with the beautiful Rachel. Worked seven years for her and was tricked by his father-in-law into marrying Rachel's sister, Leah. Worked seven more years so that he could marry Rachel as well. Tricked his father-in-law out of the best of his flocks. Scurried back to Canaan where he had a tearful reunion with Esau and then had a very large family.
<br />
<br />What do we know about Jacob's family? He had twelve sons and at least one daughter. He loved the children of his wife, Rachel, more than the sons of Leah, or the maidservants with whom he also had children. And he loved Joseph best of all. So much so that he gave Joseph a special coat to well - that fabled coat of many colors.
<br />
<br />The relationship between Joseph and his brothers? What do we know about that? Not that good, right? The ten brothers who were older than Joseph hated him. He was daddy's favorite. He was a tattletale. He was arrogant. He had these dreams. Once he was out in the fields and he said to his brothers, "Hey, guys, I had a dream. In my dream we were out binding sheaves in the field and then, all of a sudden, my bundle of grain stood up and all of your bundles came and bowed down to it. What do you think that means?"
<br />
<br />Another time he was out in the fields and he said to his eleven brothers, "Hey, guys, I had a dream. In my dream the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing to me. Weird, huh? What do you think it means?"
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<br />Well, what it meant was that the brothers were going to try to get rid of him. The next time he came out to the fields they made plans to do him in. They were going to kill him, but one of the brothers, Rueben, intervened and instead they stripped off his fancy coat and threw him in a pit. When some passing slave traders came by, they sold Joseph to them for twenty pieces of silver and went back home to Jacob with the sad tale of how Joseph had been eaten by wild animals.
<br />
<br />They thought it was the end of the story, but it wasn't. Joseph ended up in Egypt as the slave to a high Egyptian official. Eventually he ended up as the right hand man to the king of Egypt himself, the Pharaoh. It was his ability to interpret dreams that got him into this position. He knew that a famine was coming to the land following seven years of plenty and he was given charge of a grain storage and distribution program.
<br />
<br />It was the famine that brought the brothers back into Joseph's life. Jacob sends the brothers from Canaan to see if they can get some grain. He sends them all except Benjamin, who has now become the favorite since Joseph's loss.
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<br />The brothers go to Egypt and they appear before Joseph, but they don't recognize him because he is made up like a mighty Egyptian. Besides, they thought he was long gone. Joseph doesn't tell them it's him, either. He toys with them. Demands that one of them go back to Canaan and get Benjamin. Eventually settles for keeping one of them in prison while the rest go back.
<br />
<br />They come back with Benjamin and Joseph still doesn't let on who he is. He sends them off again and puts his silver cup in one of their sacks of grain. Joseph gives them a little headstart, then sends a servant after them and accuses them of theft. They deny it, but, wouldn't you know it, the silver cup is found in the bag of Benjamin.
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<br />Benjamin is arrested and brought back. The brothers plead for Benjamin's life. They know their father will never survive the loss of another favorite son. One of the brothers offers himself as a replacement.
<br />
<br />This is where we pick up the story today. Joseph has ratcheted up the anxiety so much that even he can't take it anymore. So verse one tells us that he could not restrain himself in front of all the people in the room. So he sends the other members of the court out. Joseph seems to be concerned with how this is going to look. He's concerned for his appearance. But he's not very successful because verse 2 tells us that the Egyptians could hear him wailing in the next room.
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<br />Now pay attention to a couple of things here as we read on. Pay attention to who cries and how many times Joseph refers to himself. Verse 3 is where he finally makes the big reveal. "I am Joseph," he says. "How is my father?"
<br />
<br />At this point, he hasn't offered a big reunion. He hasn't said, "All is forgiven. Come on over and give me a hug." He has just laid the bombshell on them that he is Joseph. So the brothers don't answer. They are scared. They don't know what Joseph might do to them.
<br />
<br />In verse 4 Joseph says, "Come over here." And they come. He's decreasing the distance between them. Not using his elevated status as a barrier. But he's still not telling them what he's going to do. In fact, he begins by reminding them that he is their brother and they sold him to the Egyptians. He's naming the wound. He's pointing to the act that has dominated all of their lives. The thing that needs to be healed.
<br />
<br />In verse 5 he says, "Don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me into slavery." Joseph thinks he knows how they're feeling. But do we know that's how these brothers feel? We've seen how they are kind of protective of their father but not a whole lot of grief and self-loathing.
<br />
<br />In verse 7 Joseph goes on to interpret the situation. "God sent me ahead to preserve our lives. God sent me to preserve your future." Verse 8: "You didn't sent me. God sent me and made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and a ruler over all Egypt." Three times he repeats it - God sent me. It's all about him. In fact, Joseph seems to deny that the brothers had any hand in this at all. The emphasis is on God and Joseph. Joseph is the object of God's favor. Joseph is the one who was the focus of those dreams he shared in the field with them so long ago. Now Joseph's dreams have come true. His brothers have come to bow down before him.
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<br />Then in verse 9 he uses his position to give the brothers a command. "Go back to my father and tell him that his son, Joseph, says, 'God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to live with me, you and your children and all of your possessions. I will support you through the famine.'" The brothers will be taken care of, but primarily because of Joseph's concern for his father.
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<br />Then by verse 14 he gets around to the hugs. He starts with Benjamin. No surprise. Then he turns to his brothers and weeps over them. But notice that the Bible never says whether they join in the weeping.
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<br />Now what do we say about a story like this. I love the stories from Genesis because they are so honest and they give us real people who act like the real people we know. They make big mistakes and they have big character flaws and despite all that they end up being claimed by God. That's hopeful for us.
<br />
<br />There is reconciliation in this story, too. A dark chapter in this family's history is beginning to be closed. And when we see it played out on the stage or in retellings, this scene is lifted up as the happy ending.
<br />
<br />But is there something missing here? It's an imperfect reunion, isn't it? Joseph gets a chance to be magnanimous and to embrace his brothers. He can find comfort in the dreams and visions that tell him that he stands within the realm of God's favor. But the brothers don't have that assurance. They can't be sure of any favor, not even their father's. What they desperately need is a blessing, a healing, a word, an act that will help them know that they too are recipients of grace.
<br />
<br />The brothers kind of disappear in Joseph's story. As he tells it they don't even get credit for their sin. God is working it all out and it's not their crime but God's plan that sends Joseph to Egypt. If they don't get a chance to confess their sin and to own it, they don't have the chance for absolution and healing. We rejoice when we see people who have been estranged from each other embracing, but what we want even more is transformation.
<br />
<br />You know from your own life how distorting sin can be. You know how it turns us in on ourselves...keeps us from living open, joyful lives...keeps us from experiencing the life God intends for us. Sin is the thing Jesus went to the cross for. Sin is the thing that God says 'No' to. Sin is the thing God did not create and the thing that God cannot tolerate in the restored creation. Sin is the one thing in the universe that is truly ours as human beings. It is an impossibility for God but it is all too real in our lives. How does God deal with sin?
<br />
<br />One time a professor was going to share with his class an image for the atonement. The atonement is the word we use for talking about how God reconciles us with God through the cross. God reconciles us through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. The professor held up a glass and it was a dirty glass. Smudged and covered with dirt. He said, "This glass is us and the dirt on the glass is the sin that has marred our lives. God hates the sin of our lives. God's justice demands that it be dealt with."
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<br />The professor set the glass down on the table and held up a hammer. "This hammer is God's justice which will come down with full force on the sin of the world." He raised the hammer up over the glass and began to bring it down and at the last minute he put a metal pan between the hammer and the glass so that the pan took the force of the blow with a mighty crash. "That pan," the professor said, "is the self-giving love of God which interposes itself on our behalf, preventing us from getting what we deserve for the sin in our lives. It is Jesus' death on the cross."*
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<br />It's a dramatic image, but something is wrong with the way that story is told. The glass remains unchanged. It's still dirty. To extend the analogy, Jesus' death may give us a different status with God, but we are still not transformed. And what we desperately want to know is that we can be changed.
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<br />This is where Methodists want to talk about the power of God's sanctifying grace. God's justifying grace is powerful...amazing. It opens the door for all people to come before God boldly...to know that because of the work of Jesus Christ we can have a place in the reign of God. But there is more. Now that we have come in, we want to be changed.
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<br />So we open our lives to fellow Christians in small groups. We know that we can't see all the problems in our lives on our own. None of us is that self-aware. We need others who will listen to our struggles, ask us about our spiritual journey, support us in our failures, and confront us in our stubbornness. If you are not in a small group that does these things you are not yet fully immersed in Christian community. Talk to me and we'll hook you up.
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<br />Where is God in this story of Joseph? What is God up to? Joseph says that God is taking evil intent and using it for good. God is doing that. But something more happens in real reconciliation. God is not just redirecting events, God is transforming people. God is taking us sinners and restoring us to health.
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<br />We know this because we have seen God in Jesus Christ. In Jesus God was reconciling all the world to God's own self. That's what 2 Corinthians tells us. God became incarnate, became human, became one of us, so that we could see what true humanity looks like. And ultimately so that we could be truly human ourselves.
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<br />Ask yourself - is Joseph really the pinnacle of what humans can be? Or is there something more? Don't we want a deeper experience of transformation for ourselves and for the world?
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<br />Do you remember the story of Allison Jolly? The district ministry to migrant peoples here on the Shore grew up in an old gas station in Wachapreague named the Allison Jolly Casa de Esperanza. Allison Jolly was a young woman who was killed by a Mexican migrant worker here on the Shore. It was a horrible crime. It could have led to a lifetime of bitterness and hatred.
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<br />Allison's father was devastated. Who would have asked him to seek reconciliation with the man who killed his daughter? If he never reached out to the migrant community, who would have batted an eye?
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<br />But he did reach out. He wrote the man in prison and offered his forgiveness for what the murderer had done. He gave the building in Wachapreague to Carmen Colona for use as a food and clothes pantry for migrant peoples in our midst. He took the evil that had been done and sought out God's intent to make it good.
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<br />Don't tell me that reconciliation isn't a powerful thing. In our stumbling, imperfect reunions there is a distant echo in heaven where the reconciling God is still reaching out to us. We live with imperfection and we long for something more. We see our world wounded and scarred. We see our lives imprisoned by old wounds and bad habits. We see huge divides and rifts between us and those we would love.
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<br />But God...God sees brothers and sisters reunited, long lost children, prodigals even, returning home, orphans given new homes, and communities where all share in God's abundance. God sees the world as it should be and as it will be and as it already is, if we will open our hearts and eyes and hands to do the sanctifying work of grace. How good and pleasant it is when we dwell together in unity. Thanks be to God!
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<br />*Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr., Christian Doctrine, [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1968], p. 242-3. Story adapted.
<br />Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-90709799243914312822011-07-17T11:07:00.002-04:002011-07-17T11:07:00.314-04:00Who's Going to Pull the Weeds?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKdrlPQ2zaAoXvbItMMkfgFFPD75jHA2OG6a_L9EqhyEPhlDZ3BUzZ4fKbiI6UECL5j9VihoNesfJOXS-_eCUNVIvnF1zxLpMcePBpWd4lRTcweRmTEI4Y9d3FVOUY3NbUryW8Q/s1600/Black+First+Baptist+Church+21+May+1961+Freedom+Riders.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 194px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630152907075093298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKdrlPQ2zaAoXvbItMMkfgFFPD75jHA2OG6a_L9EqhyEPhlDZ3BUzZ4fKbiI6UECL5j9VihoNesfJOXS-_eCUNVIvnF1zxLpMcePBpWd4lRTcweRmTEI4Y9d3FVOUY3NbUryW8Q/s200/Black+First+Baptist+Church+21+May+1961+Freedom+Riders.jpg" /></a><br />So last week we heard the story of the sower who went out to sow and who spread seed on every sort of soil – hard-packed soil, rocky soil, thorny soil and good soil. The sower, we decided, was a confident farmer, sure of a harvest. So confident that it didn’t matter where he threw those seeds, some of it was going to fall on good soil and produce a hundredfold.<br /><br /><br />What was that seed last week? The word of the kingdom. And what did we want to be? The fertile earth. Last week we were the soil. This week we are the seed.<br /><br /><br />It’s a little bit later in chapter 13 of Matthew now. Jesus is still telling parables – those confounding stories about everyday things that were clearly not about everyday things. And this time he is telling the story of the wheat and the tares.<br /><br /><br />Now, I call it that, the story of the wheat and the tares, but that’s because I grew up in a King James church where when you got to verse 25 it talked about tares. Does anyone have a King James Version? Verse 24 says: “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.” So Jesus is making a comparison here between the reign of God, which is unseen, and a man sowing good seed in his field, which you can see.<br /><br />Then we read verse 25: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” While men slept…(presumably women slept, too, but this is the King James Version and we’ll switch back in a minute)…while men slept, an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. Tares! Oh, my goodness, what are tares? They’re what you use when you want to go up to the second floor of a building, right? You go up the tares. Or maybe you call them teps. I don’t know.<br /><br />No, of course, I’m kidding. Tares are weeds. In fact, (I learned this yesterday), they are a specific kind of weed. They are probably darnel or vetches. And do you know what vetches are? They are people who don’t say ‘Thank you.’ Like when you hear someone called an ungrateful vetch. No, actually tares…vetches…are nitrogen-fixing leguminous plants that often appear in grain fields.*<br /><br />So that’s how this parable got the name of the wheat and the tares. Some people these days want to call it the parable of the wheat and the weeds. But really, if we want to be scientific and politically correct about this, we should call it the parable of the wheat and the nitrogen-fixing leguminous plants.<br /><br />Now this is a strange little story here. How many people remember hearing this parable before? Matthew is the only gospel that tells us this story. And, again, like in the other parable, the sower is a kind of strange farmer. He plants the field but he doesn’t want to de-vetch it. So what happens to your garden if you never go out and get rid of the tares? It gets overgrown in a hurry, right? So we weed our gardens, right?<br /><br />Not this farmer. And worse yet, this farmer’s got enemies. And this is an enemy who keeps a bunch of vetch seeds in his shed so that he can sneak over to the neighbor’s garden in the middle of the night to sow the vetch in with the good seeds. Today, this would be the guy who sneaks over and TP’s your house. But back in the day, they sowed weeds.<br /><br />So the servants see that there’s a problem in the fields. The farmer himself doesn’t seem to be too bothered about what’s going on out there. Hasn’t seen that there’s a vetch problem. But the slaves know and they go to the farmer and let’s see what they say. Look at verse 27. “Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? So where did the weeds come from?” Do you ever ask this question? I do. I go out and look at the tomatoes and I say, “Where did these weeds come from?” And right after that I ask, “Where did these mosquitoes come from?”<br /><br />What’s the answer? Where did these weeds come from? “An enemy did this.” The farmer knows. He may not be watching the fields too closely, but he knows an enemy is out there. The enemy planted the weeds. The enemy sent the mosquitoes, too, I’m sure.<br /><br />So what do the slaves want to do? They want to go pull them up. That’s a sensible thing. Get rid of the weeds that might be choking out the wheat. But what does the farmer say? In verse 30 he says, “No, let both grow together until the harvest and at the harvest time I will have the reapers collect the weeds first and burn them up while I gather the wheat into my storehouse.”<br /><br />Now a couple of things here. First, the farmer. Why would he want to try this method? The text says that he’s concerned that pulling up the weeds would also uproot the wheat. So there’s an agricultural reason. But I think he’s also got the same attitude as the sower in the first parable. He’s confident. He knows there’s going to be enough grain at the harvest to take to the storehouse. There’s a plan for the weeds. They’re going to be taken care of. But meanwhile the enemy is not going to take up a minute of his time. The farmer knows what the end of the story is.<br /><br />Secondly, the servants. What are they worried about? They want to know why the weeds are there and they want to know who’s going to get rid of it. So they are philosophers and then they’re pragmatists. Why is it here and who’s going to do something about it? But the farmer does not share their concern. He’s focused on the harvest which is, Jesus tells us, the kingdom of heaven.<br /><br />Now let me tell you another story. It’s a true story. It happened 50 years ago. 1961. If you went around the South 50 years ago you would have seen a lot of signs that it was still a segregated society. Water fountains for whites and coloreds. Bathrooms for whites and coloreds. And bus stations with separate waiting rooms for whites and coloreds. That was the language and the practice of the day. But in 1960 the Supreme Court ruled that this was unconstitutional, at least for interstate transportation. You couldn’t have separate waiting rooms based on race. But the ruling was not being enforced.<br /><br />So a group of 13 people – African-American and European-American – black and white – trained in non-violence -- decided to test the ruling by taking a bus ride from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. Together. They called them Freedom Riders.<br /><br />So they left on May 4 and they went to Richmond and Petersburg and Farmville and Lynchburg. No problems. Then they went through North Carolina to Charlotte. Into South Carolina and at Rock Hill they ran into the first resistance. A group of people met the bus at the station and beat up the riders as they got off the bus.<br /><br />They kept going. They went to Atlanta, Georgia and they got threats. They went to Anniston, Alabama and on the outskirts of town a mob attacked the bus. They slashed the tires. They threw a firebomb into the bus. They blocked the doors to keep them from getting out when the flames took hold. A gas tank exploded and the crowd moved back from the bus just long enough for the people to get out. The crowd moved back in to beat them up. An undercover police officer fired a gun into the air and the crowd dispersed.<br /><br />A second bus of Freedom Riders kept going. They came into Birmingham and another mob was waiting. They beat the riders again, paralyzing one of the riders for life. The police finally came and they arrested the riders, putting them in jail for what they said was their own safety. Then they took them over the border into Tennessee and dumped them off.<br /><br />Another group of Freedom Riders came. They took the bus to Montgomery and again they were met by a mob that beat them up. It looked like the rides were going have to end.<br /><br />On the night of May 21, a large crowd gathered at the Black First Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. came to speak. Over a thousand people were in the church. Outside a few federal marshals had come in to surround the church, but there weren’t enough. As Dr. King preached the mob overturned cars and through rocks through the windows of the church. Tear gas started to seep into the church from outside where the police were trying to disperse the crowd. Dr. King told them that it wasn’t safe to leave the church, so they stayed in the church.<br /><br />At 1 AM, Dr. King called Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General of the United States, from the basement of the church. Kennedy was upset with him for causing trouble. Kennedy thought the Freedom Riders were giving the country a bad image. King told Kennedy that the world was changing. That African-Americans were changing. “I am different from my father,” he said. “I feel the need of being free now.”**<br /><br />Now here’s why I’m telling this story. If the Freedom Riders had not been fired by their faith. If they had not been trained in nonviolence. If they had not been continually hearing the message that what they were about was the civil rights of black people. If they had not had a sense of justice. If they had not had their eyes on the prize. If they hadn’t known that God’s kingdom was coming. If they hadn’t believed that goodness was stronger than evil. If they hadn’t believed all these things, they might have gotten sidetracked.<br /><br />They might have started to become obsessed with the crowds outside. They might have returned violence for violence. They might have given up in despair. They might have gone back home. But no, they were going to New Orleans. The original group was gone, but new riders came to take their place.<br /><br />So two days later, another group of 27 riders – white and black – left Montgomery and they were singing as they rode out of town:<br />I’m taking a ride on the Greyhound bus line.<br />I’m riding the front seat to Jackson this time.<br />Hallelujah, I’m travelling:<br />Hallelujah, ain’t it fine?<br />Hallelujah, I’m traveling down Freedom’s main line.<br /><br /><br />When they reached the Greyhound bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, there were no mobs. They were not beaten. They were ushered into the white waiting room of the bus terminal. And then they were ushered into paddy wagons that took them to jail. At their trial the next day the judge turned around in his chair and faced the wall when their lawyer spoke in their defense. They were sentenced to sixty days in Parchman, the state penitentiary. Some of them were housed in death row.<br /><br /><br />It seems like another world now. It seems like far more than 50 years have passed. But the Freedom Riders saw the goal. And they rode the Greyhound bus into something a little more like the kingdom of heaven.<br /><br /><br />So what did Jesus say about this parable? When the crowds had left and they went back into the house, he explains the parable to the disciples. What do they call the parable? Look in verse 36. They call it the parable of the weeds in the field. They are just like the servants. They go straight to the weeds.<br /><br /><br />But Jesus goes through the whole parable and he says the sower is who? The Son of Humanity. Jesus himself. The field is what? The world. And the good seed are who? The children of the Kingdom. And the vetch – who are they? The children of the evil one.<br /><br /><br />Now immediately we get the message and what’s the first thing we want to ask? Am I a good seed or a weed? We want to know where we stand with God because we see where this is headed. The weeds end up on the fire. And later Jesus will say that those who don’t measure up will be thrown into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is a judgment on the way. And we want to know are we vetch who gnash or are we the wheat in the storehouse -- those who will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God?<br /><br /><br />Scholars will tell you that the community of early Christians that Matthew was writing for was under a great deal of persecution from Jewish groups. In the midst of the conflict they would have heard this story as a word of hope. It might be bad now, Matthew seems to be saying, but in the end God will bring you home. In the meantime we must bear up in the struggles.<br /><br /><br />In our therapeutic culture we might say that there is wheat and tares in all of us. That’s even biblical. We are created with the all the potential of the good seed. But sin has entered the world and our lives, distorting us from what God intends us to be. So within each of us the struggle is ongoing and God has come to deal with the evil of the world and in us and to redeem our tarnished promise.<br /><br /><br />But let’s not make this too easy. There is much that God says an emphatic ‘no’ to in the world. It’s not always as overt as the mobs around the First Baptist Church in Montgomery. Sometimes the evil in the world slips in under cover of darkness. We need a purging fire to put to death all that keeps us from God. We need to come face to face with some things. We need to look in the mirror and see the callous heart that won’t let us love our neighbors. We need to see the fear that keeps us from doing what we know is right. We need to see the apathy that tells us the lie that we can’t make a difference. There’s a lot of things God says ‘no’ to.<br /><br /><br />John Wesley told his Methodist preachers that they should commit themselves to a disciplined lifestyle. That they should work diligently, teach the word, and never spend time triflingly. They should attend to their spiritual lives. They should read the scriptures. And they should do all these things, not for wrath, but for conscience’s sake. Not for fear of the fire, but for the integrity of their souls.<br /><br /><br />In the end, God knows the harvest will come. And God is not consumed with worry over where the evil in this world comes from or how it meets its end. What God is concerned about is the kingdom and what God wants is children who will not live their lives in fear of the fires of hell, but shining in the light of the kingdom that is to come. Not for wrath, but for conscience’s sake.<br /><br /><br />Keep your eyes on the prize, brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes on the prize. Thanks be to God.<br /><br />*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tare_(leguminous_plant)<br />**Quoted in Harvard Sitkoff, King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop, [Hill & Wang: New York, 2008], p. 77.Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-82532139488416783112011-07-10T10:43:00.000-04:002011-07-10T10:43:00.389-04:00In Search of Fertile EarthThere is a scene in the movie A Bug's Life when Flik, the rebellious, free-thinking ant, is trying to explain an important concept to Dot, one of the smaller ants in the colony. He picks up a rock and says, "Here, pretend - pretend that that's a seed."<br /> <br />"It's a rock," says Dot.<br /><br />"Oh, I know it's a rock, I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, alright? We'll just use our imaginations. Now, now do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá!"<br /> <br />"This rock will be a tree?"<br /><br />"Seed to tree. You've gotta work with me, here. Alright? Okay. Now, y-you might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed."<br /> <br />"But it's a rock," Dot says.<br /><br />"I know it's a rock!" Flik shouts. "Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!"<br /> <br />Dot responds, "You're weird, but I like you."*<br /><br />Flik learned the dangers of using metaphors to explain deep philosophical concepts. But he stands in a long line of teachers. What you may not realize is that Flik was talking about Aristotle there in that conversation with Dot. He was trying to get Dot to see that the seed was a bundle of potential - that she was a bundle of potential. And even though she couldn't see it now, just like that seed, the makings of a great tree were right there inside her. I know, it was a rock.<br /><br />Aristotle said roughly the same thing. The great Greek philosopher said that we know the reality of things, not by what we can see at the moment, but by what will become of them. Things, events, people, have a purpose, an end and we are being drawn toward that end. The ultimate reality of a seed is the fully-formed tree that will emerge from it. The ultimate reality of a person is the unfolding of all that potential that we all contain.<br /><br />But you didn't come here today to hear about Aristotle. You came to hear about Jesus. And, lo, and behold, Jesus is telling a story about seeds.<br /><br />Now it's not just a story, it's a parable, which is a story-like way of getting at a spiritual truth. It's the kind of thing that frustrated Jesus' followers to no end. I can relate to this because, you know, I'm kind of a storytelling preacher myself and some people do not like that way of preaching. They want to hear a point.<br /><br />When I was growing up that was the dominant style of preaching - three points and poem. Just tick those points off. Maybe put a clever title on them. Make them rhyme or something. But I think I've successfully eliminated that style of preaching from my bag of tricks. No three point sermons here. Some people say I've got no points. I must be doing something right.<br /><br />But Jesus was not a 3-points and a poem preacher either. He spoke in stories, parables. And his disciples questioned him about it. In fact if you look at verse 10 in chapter 13 of Matthew, (this is in the section we left out of the reading today), if you look there you will see the disciples taking Jesus aside and asking, "Why do you talk to the crowds in parables?"<br /><br />Jesus answers in a kind of cryptic way, too. He talks about the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven and how they are not just revealed to anybody. But what he really seems to be doing is challenging the disciples and anybody else that might listen to work for a blessing - to work for the message. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah who had that great vision of God filling the Temple and then being called to serve a people with unclean lips and then receiving this cryptic saying - "Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!"<br /><br />In that passage it's almost like God is saying, "I don't want you to know what I'm saying. I don't know want you to understand what I'm doing." But Jesus is saying something a little bit different. In verse 15 he says, "This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand." What he has come to do is to open their ears and their eyes and their hearts. And Jesus appreciates a good student who will work to understand.<br /><br />But what's unusual about this parable that Jesus tells is that this is one of those rare stories where he interprets what has been said. Usually he leaves it to the listener and on the second hearing, the third hearing, the sixty-second hearing you are still seeing new things in the passage. Actually I think that's true here, too.<br /><br />A sower went out to sow. Who is this sower, by the way? Who do you think it is?<br /><br />What's unusual about the way this sower goes about his planting?<br /><br />He's broadcasting the seeds. He's throwing them here and there - on the path, on the rocks, in the weeds. Now what little I know about agriculture in Jesus' time tells me that it was not all that unusual for a farmer to just throw seeds on the ground. They did do some plowing. But they also would scatter seed. But I'm thinking that it would be pretty unusual not to try to get the seed at least onto the ground where it was likely to grow.<br /><br />This sower is either very careless or very confident that he will get the harvest he wants, even if he scatters seed like a prodigal. I'm guessing that he is confident. He knows this seed is powerful. He knows what it can do. <br /><br />By the way, what is this seed? What do we think it is? <br /><br />Verse 19 calls it the "word of the kingdom." This is what Jesus came to spread - the news of the kingdom. Now is the kingdom of God dependent on whether or not we are faithful? No, the kingdom is coming no matter what. The kingdom is promised. The kingdom is assured. When Jesus begins his ministry, what does he say? Somebody read Matthew 4:17. The first thing Jesus says in his public ministry is, "Repent, because the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand."<br /><br />So what this tells me is that God is not concerned that if the people don't respond the kingdom can't come. The kingdom is coming. What God wants is for people to respond and to live their lives differently because the kingdom of heaven is here.<br /><br />But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're still talking about seeds. So a sower, (who just might be God), goes out to sow seed, (which just might be the word of the kingdom), and where does the first batch of seed fall? On the edge of the path.<br /><br />What's that? What is the path? Why wouldn't we want seed to fall there?<br /><br />It's hard ground. It's unreceptive. It's a place where birds can come get it easily.<br /><br />What is the path in us? Ever been in such a state that you couldn't even begin to hear God talking to you? What's that like? You get so engrained in your habits, so engrossed in yourself that you can't even hear. Can't even respond to God. Or maybe you get so used to thinking about the world in categories that have no regard to God that you can't hear any other kind of truth. There's that path. And the word comes and it never has a chance to grow in you.<br /><br />But this sower is not concerned. The sower knows there's going to be a harvest. So he keeps sowing. And where does the seed fall next?<br /><br />On patches of rock. Now I know they don't have such things here, but in other parts of the world they do have these things called rocks and they are persistent. I used to follow my dad around the garden every spring in that orange clay soil around Orange, Virginia when he would till and all these big rocks would come out of the ground. We swore they grew a new crop every year.<br /><br />If you go up hiking in the mountains sometimes you'll come across a scraggly tree growing out of a big rock outcropping and if you look close there will be a little bit of soil - just enough for the tree to grow, but not enough for it grow big. Certainly not enough for a forest.<br /><br />So what are the rocky places in our lives?<br /><br />So when we don't have depth, when we don't ground ourselves in God. When we just live from moment to moment and never seek to do the work of prayer and listening for God. When we get excited on Sunday morning but forget about it all by Sunday afternoon. That's when the seed is falling in rocky ground.<br /><br />But the sower is confident. The sower knows that this seed is powerful. He knows there's going to be a harvest. So he keeps sowing and now where does the seed fall?<br /><br />In the thorns. In the weeds. In the place where it has to fight for what it needs to grow. What are the thorny patches in your life?<br /><br />I don't know about you but I often feel like I'm in a thorny patch. We live in such a culture of distraction that is very easy to find ourselves flitting from one thing to another, never focused on God, never focused on the thing that makes for life. What are some of the names of the thorns in our life?<br /><br />But the sower is confident. The sower knows there's going to be a harvest. And at last, where does the seed fall?<br /><br />On fertile ground. Eastern Shore land. And from the seed comes an incredible harvest. A hundredfold even. And who is the fertile earth?<br /><br />Jesus tells us in verse 23 of chapter 13 that it is the person who hears the word and understands. You are the fertile earth when you hear the word and let it grow in you.<br /><br />So what have we learned in this story? That the kingdom of heaven is a persistent thing. It does not depend on the health of our spiritual lives. It does not depend on our efforts on its behalf. It can be despised, ignored, competed with, or tuned out, but it will still yield a harvest. The good news of Jesus is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And God is so confident of this that God does not parcel out the word of the kingdom like a scarce commodity. God spends it out like a drunken sailor.<br /><br />But here's the question - the kingdom is at hand, but will you be its soil? Will you be receptive to the seed? Will you make space for it to take root in your life? Will you nurture that word within you? Will you repent and believe the good news of the kingdom?<br /><br />It may seem that the world is godforsaken. It may seem that the work of God is small and irrelevant and decreasing. But that is only our perception - and Lord knows we see through a glass darkly. There is a life of fullness and richness and fertility and abundance all around us. Don't be deceived by the evening news. We are present at a feast. So why do we persist in the things that bring us only death? Why don't we let go of our small-mindedness and receive what God has to give? Thanks be to God.<br /><br /><br />*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/quotesAlex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14472652.post-83093146137336662692011-07-03T10:07:00.000-04:002011-07-03T10:07:00.621-04:00Rebekah's Choice<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKdGQSMZ8Q8S5veDcKlm17B9zNs-W0wYpV7XIpc4v08iReer0mlAUPTt0v4Il3AN0Hpi0jB431QOceu6D49_XIv-qjWd1UsxJMVNojSN5W9Szq58bYgWQaf8kNTHYobNGZ0HLubQ/s1600/Tondo+Cross.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKdGQSMZ8Q8S5veDcKlm17B9zNs-W0wYpV7XIpc4v08iReer0mlAUPTt0v4Il3AN0Hpi0jB431QOceu6D49_XIv-qjWd1UsxJMVNojSN5W9Szq58bYgWQaf8kNTHYobNGZ0HLubQ/s200/Tondo+Cross.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624972989789658610" border="0" /></a><!--[if !mso]> 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman","serif""></span></b> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mary Karr was seven years old when her mother had “an episode.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She lived in a Gulf Coast oil town in Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was 1961.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At seven you don’t realize that things could be different than they are.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You’re still learning what this wide, wonderful world is all about.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But Mary Karr’s mother was having difficulties – a mental breakdown.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She was a smart woman.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>An artist.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But also a struggling woman.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So one night, while her daddy was out at a bar, Mary’s mama pulled her and her sister out onto the lawn of their small house and started piling up things.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Things like her artwork and Mary’s springy hobby horse that she had started to outgrow.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Things like their clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And she poured gasoline on the pile and it went up in flames.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Mary huddled next to her sister and watched her metal horse start to melt.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Then her mom took Mary and her sister inside and sat them in the bedroom while she overturned the kitchen, pouring cutlery onto the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She came back into the bedroom and held a knife in the air over her children as she wailed, “Noooo.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Finally, before she did any harm to them, she called for help.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mary Karr wrote about this episode in her memoir <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Liar’s Club</i> which won the National Book Award.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She says:</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">I did know from that night forward that things in my house were Not Right, this despite the fact that the events I have described so far had few outward results.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>No one ever mentioned the night again.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I don’t remember any subsequent home visits from any kind of social worker or concerned neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Dr. Boudreaux seemed sometimes to minister to my health with an uncharacteristic tenderness.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And neighbors dragged my sister and me to catechism classes and Vacation Bible School and to various hunting camps, never mentioning the fact that our family never reciprocated.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I frequently showed up on doorsteps at suppertime; foraging, Daddy called it….But no one ever failed to hand me a plate, though everybody knew that I had plenty to eat at home, which wasn’t always true for the families I popped in on.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The night’s major consequences for me were internal.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The fact that my house was Not Right metastasized into the notion that I myself was somehow Not Right, or that my survival in the world depended on my constant vigilance against various forms of Not-Rightness.<a style="mso-endnote-id: edn1" href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[i]</span></span></span></span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">You ever had that sense?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You know, that maybe your house is Not Right. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That maybe, somehow, because of that you are Not Right.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That maybe you will only be able to survive in the world because of your constant efforts to fight off the Not-Rightness. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s a lot that’s Not Right with the world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">But we don’t talk about such things at church, do we? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here it can seem that all families are perfect. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Or maybe it’s like Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor’s fictional village in Minnesota, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We may be guilty of giving the impression that there is no room for the Not-Rightness of our lives. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But when we speak truth we know that there is a lot that is Not Right.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Bible knows this.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Bible speaks this. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even in stories like today where Isaac meets Rebekah and it seems like all is right with the world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Isaac, however, has his own memories.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He was the child of promise, born to Abraham and Sarah when they were both in their later years. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>His name meant “laughter,” one of God’s little jokes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For, you see, when his birth was announced by three heavenly visitors to Abraham and Sarah’s tent, Sarah began to laugh behind the tent flap. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“How absurd!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A baby at my age?” she thought.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Abraham himself had fallen down on his face laughing at the news once before. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But God had the last laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The child was born and his name was Laughter – Isaac.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Isaac was the only son of Abraham, whose name meant “father of many nations.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Except he was not the only son.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He was certainly Sarah’s only son. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Certainly the one God had tapped as the inheritor of the promise. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But there was his half-brother Ishmael, born to Abraham’s servant, Hagar. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There were the fights between Sarah and Hagar.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There was the day when Abraham finally sent Hagar and the child, Ishmael, off into the wilderness. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If God had not intervened then, they both would have died.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Then there was the day that Abraham got Isaac up early in the morning for a trip. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>On the donkey they took with them Isaac saw split wood. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Signs that they might be making an offering.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Two servants came along. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For three days they traveled, Abraham looking always toward the mountains, like he was waiting for a sign.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Abraham taking the lead, looking forward, silent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The boy Isaac following behind. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The split wood rubbing together on the donkey’s flanks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Three days they traveled and then Abraham stopped. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He told the servants to stay. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Abraham took the wood from the donkey and put in Isaac’s arms to carry. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Abraham himself took a knife.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Isaac finally broke the silence.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Father?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Yes, my son.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We have flint and wood to make a fire. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Did Abraham take a long time in answering? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Or did he just tell it out? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the offering.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And they kept on walking.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Abraham finally came to stop and built an altar. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He took the wood from Isaac and laid it out on the altar. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then he took rope and he tied up his son Isaac and laid him out on the wood. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He raised an infirm hand to the sky and in it Isaac could see the knife flashing in the desert sun, ready to come down upon him. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Was it in his head?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Was it from his father’s lips? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Or was it from the very skies itself that the word came? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A long “Noooooo.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It could not be that Isaac should end his days this way. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>God must provide another way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And there in a thicket was a ram caught by its horns. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The ram became the sacrifice.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">But what must the journey home have been like?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Did Abraham tell his son about the command he heard from heaven? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The command to offer his son, his only son, as a sacrifice? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Did he tell the boy how he agonized over it?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How he resisted it?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How he argued with God like he had for the sake of the people of Sodom? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Did he tell him that he knew all along that God would provide? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That in the end, somehow, God would come through?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Or did they walk back down the mountain in a horrible silence? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Did Isaac know that from this moment on he had now inherited the promise from a wild and holy God who was always going to leave him unsettled and always at risk? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And how many nights did Isaac fall asleep with the vision of his father holding aloft a knife in his trembling hand over his trembling throat?</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Did they ever tell Sarah?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Bible doesn’t say.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Perhaps they did because the next thing that happens in the biblical story is that Sarah dies.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She was 127 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But if she heard the tale of the sacrifice on the mountain it might surely have hastened her demise.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The almost-sacrifice of Isaac is told to us as a lesson in faith. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Faith even when it doesn’t make sense.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even when it is affront to our reason and our heart. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Abraham is blessed because of his faith that God would provide. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But faith like this doesn’t lead to harmony or safety.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It doesn’t make the story of God’s people a Pollyanna tale of good things happening to good people. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In fact, from this point on in Genesis, God does not intervene nearly as much into the lives of Abraham’s family members. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are prayers and promises, dreams and blessings that all remind us that God is there – but faith from here to the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3 is not lived out as a drama between an intervening God and an obedient people. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Faith from here to the burning bush is ordinary people – even Not Right people – struggling to get by and to make sense of the world. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And meanwhile the promise of God to make of Abraham and his descendents a great people is coming true. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Which makes the time between the mountain of sacrifice and the mountain of the burning bush a good model for our times – as ordinary people like us – even Not Right people – struggle to get by and make sense of the world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">So where do we go from here? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What happens to a family after a trauma like this? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After Sarah dies, Abraham finds a suitable burial site for her. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But he knows that he will follow soon behind.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So he called his senior servant to his side and made him swear an oath. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Put your hand beneath my thigh and swear by God that you will get a wife for my son Isaac from our homeland.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They were living in a strange land.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Though God had promised this land to them, they were just sojourners. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So Abraham sent the servant back for a wife from his own people.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The servant gathered up ten camels for the long journey back to the old country. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When he came to a well in that far land he got down off of his camels. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He had them all kneel by the well.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And he prayed a prayer to the God of his master, Abraham. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He prayed that, when the young women of the town came out to get water, he would say to the right girl, “Lower your jug and give me a drink.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And she would answer, “Here is something for you and let me also water your camels.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A woman who would water your camels – now that would make a fitting wife for Isaac!</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Well, you can guess what happened next. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A girl came out to the well with a water jug on her shoulder. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She was a stunning beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You can almost hear the servant thinking, “Let her be the one!” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She lowered the jug into the well and drew up the water. The servant ran to he and said, “May I have a sip from your jug?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Yes, of course, drink,” she said. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“And…[wait for it!]…I’ll get water for your camels, too.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The man watched in awe as she dipped the jug ten more times for each of the thirsty camels. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Then he pulled out gifts – a gold nose ring and two arm bracelets. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He gave them to her.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And because he was from the Eastern Shore he started to ask about her family. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Whose daughter are you?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Is there room for us to come stay the night?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Then the “aha!” moment as he learns that she is of the family of Abraham’s brother. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Her brother, Laban, welcomes the servant in along with all of his camels and the other servants who were with him. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They bring food to eat, but the servant won’t eat until he tells the whole tale. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He ends by saying, “God has led me to your door to get a wife for my master’s son. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now, tell me what you are going to do.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They respond by saying, “Yes, yes. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This must be of God.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes, yes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Of course, you must take Rebekah to be married to Isaac. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But let her stay another ten days before you go.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The servant resisted.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He was ready to return. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So they bring in Rebekah and we finally hear her speak. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How she felt about the deal being made about her, we don’t know. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But at this moment when she can make some sort of statement she chooses to go. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“I’m ready to go,” she says.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">So off they go, back to the strange land and there’s a little Hollywood moment as they arrive. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Isaac is out in the field at the end of the day mediating. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He sees camels coming across in the fading light of day. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Rebekah looks up and sees Isaac, though she doesn’t know who he is. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She slips down off the side of her camel.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Who is that man out in the field coming toward us?” she asks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“That is my master,” says the servant.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She slips her veil over her face, according to the custom. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And though the text doesn’t tell us this, I’m sure they ran in slow motion across the field until they met as the music rose to a high crescendo. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Isaac took Rebekah as his wife and he loved her.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The text does say that.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The credits begin to roll.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Then there is the last line to the 24<sup>th</sup> chapter of Genesis. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The line that says, “So Isaac found comfort after his mother’s death.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And here’s the thing we need to hear in this passage: Love stories don’t take place in isolation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place in the midst of a hundred other things. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place in the wake of a traumatic death.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place as people move from their home.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place in the midst of conflicted families. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place with rich people and with servants. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They take place for men and for women.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The story of Isaac and Rebekah can seem like a quaint little biblical interlude. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But it happens in the shadow of so many things.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It happens in the shadow of God’s promise that the stars of the heavens and the sand of the sea can’t begin to describe the bounty of the future. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It happens in the shadow of children sent off into the desert to survive by their own wits and by the angel of God. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It happens in the shadow of a knife in a trembling hand that means faith and risk.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The stories of Genesis that the Jewish people and now we in the Christian Church look back on are stories of trauma and drama. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They remind us that we live on a knife’s edge.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>On one side of the cut is the danger of human choice – we always have this choice. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The choice to say “Yes” to life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To be engaged in the world. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To take on for ourselves the responsibility to act in this world as we believe God is calling us to act. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We can’t shirk our role in this world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the other side of the cut is the promise of God’s presence. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even when it is unseen.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even when we are shackled by the traumas of the past and the things that have been done to us. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even when we can’t see God’s new day, God is already there in it, bringing it to new life.</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">And where do we see that in this story? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In a girl with a water jug. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the receiving and giving of gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the hospitality of strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And in Rebekah’s choice to say, “I’m ready to go.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There’s a lot that’s Not Right about this world. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You may believe there’s a lot that’s Not Right about you. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You may believe that the only thing standing between you and damnation is an eternal struggle against the Not-Rightness of the world. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But you’d be wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s also something terribly, terribly right with the universe. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And God will not rest until all is made Right.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p> <div style="mso-element:endnote-list"><br /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <div style="mso-element:endnote" id="edn1"> <p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a style="mso-endnote-id:edn1" href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> Mary Karr, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Liar’s Club</i>, [Penguin: New York, 1995], pp. 9-10.</p> </div> </div>Alex Joynerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15340042492485801726noreply@blogger.com0