You want me to love whom?!?

Scriptures for Sunday, July 8th 2012

Mark 5:21-43

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Chris Simpson is an intimidating man.  

“At 6 feet and 245 pounds, he fills out clothing with authority. He does not think his tattoos draw notice, but they are hard to miss.

"PURE HATE," is tattooed across his knuckles. His forearms read "BLOOD" and "HONOR." There are four battle-axes in the shape of a swastika on his left shoulder with the words "Supreme White Power" over them. There are several wolf's hooks, a Nazi symbol. The iconic lightning bolts associated with Nazi Germany's Schutzstaffel, the SS, are above his right wrist. There's a Nazi war bird on his chest. There are tattoos of a Valkyrie, a Viking, and Thor with swastikas drawn in his helmet. There are 42 in all, he thinks. 

Simpson was a member of Battalion 14, a white pride group with supporters in Michigan. His involvement in the white pride movement began in a place of pain, frustration, anger, and confusion. On April 28, 2000, Chris and Misty Simpson lost their first child, Alexis Nicole.

Born with open spina bifida, a buildup of fluid in the brain, clubbed feet, and no intestines or stomach, Alexis lived only two and a half hours.”

Recently married and struggling to scratch out a life in Danville, Va., Alexis' death sent Simpson reeling.

"I was feeling a lot of anger and hatred, and I was confused," Simpson said. "I just built up this hatred, or what I thought was hatred."

Hate consumes.  It burns like a wild fire- consuming the good and the bad, trash and treasures, mansions and mobile homes.  Its power is devastating- once unleashed, almost unquenchable.

And yet, hate seems like almost a natural reaction to things.  If we are wronged, does not society implicitly tell us that the righteous thing is to strike back?  Even as we are appalled at the manifestation of Chris Simpson’s hate, even as we object to his choosing to hate black people after the tragic death of his infant daughter, don’t we get at some level his desire to release himself in rage?  

Letting things go, on the other hand, is a mark for cowards and push-overs.  Hate.  Anger.  Never letting go.  These seem like the hallmarks for strength in our society.

So, here we have David.  He hears of the death of his rival- King Saul.  Saul tormented David.  Ruined his life really.  Drove him into exile.  Hunted him like a dog.  Tried to kill him numerous times.  And David morns his death.  He weeps and cries 

“How the mighty have fallen!..You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor bounteous fields!...Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”

This doesn’t seem fake.  This seems like real, legitimate grief.

But- how?  How does David mourn for the very man who tormented him?

In Eugene Peterson’s Leap over a Wall, he writes- “Saul hated David.  Saul chased David.  Saul defrauded David.  Al those wilderness years, David lived in a world sovereign with Saul’s hate.  Or so it seemed.  Danger, hardship, loneliness, loss- all because of Saul.  But there was something else going on that was more significant that Saul’s hatred of David, and that was God’s anointing of Saul.  What God did for Saul far outweighed anything that Saul did to David.  And that is what David chose to deal with.  David chose to be influenced by and shaped under that sovereignty.  God’s grace in Saul’s life, not Saul’s hate in David’s life, is what gave content to David’s prayers and decisions.  Saul made life difficult for David, but he didn’t destroy him.  If David had allowed Saul’s hate to determine his life, he would have been destroyed.  He maybe wouldn’t have been killed, but he certainly would have been damned- reduced, cramped, and constricted by vengeance.”

In other words, David chose to see the world through God’s grace instead of Saul’s hate.  He wouldn’t give up seeing Saul as one of God’s beloved creation.  He held on to that as a sort of antidote to allowing hatred and despair from overwhelming his life.

Did not give in to the temptation to take revenge

One day when Saul was chasing David in the desert, David and his men hid in a dark cave.  As Saul and his army passed, Saul entered into the cave alone to relieve himself.  The cave was so dark that he had no idea that David and his men were so close.  David crept up to Saul.  The temptation to finish it there, to kill Saul and end this conflict must have been so great.  In the story, David instead chooses to cut off a bit of Saul’s shirt.  After Saul leaves, David calls out, holds up the fabric to Saul, and demonstrates that he has chosen mercy over hate, peace over violence.  This is the path of the great King David.

But what happens if you don’t quite have the strength of David?  What happens if you have already given in to the hate?  Chris Simpson gave himself over to the white pride movement and yet was able to emerge out of it  What led Simpson to renounce this hate?  It was in finding a loving savior, and being nurtured by a church community, that gave him his release.  Six months after joining the church- he was baptized.

“In April, Simpson stood in the baptismal pool at New Horizons Community Church. He wore a white tank top and white shorts, tattoos on full display for the congregation.

Pastor Jerry Lyon placed his hand on Simpson.

"God I know that there are things from his past life that need to be buried. And God, today we enjoy the opportunity. We take glory in that opportunity to bury that old life and to say to you God, I am a new creation in Jesus Christ," Lyon prayed.

With Simpson holding his nose, Lyon lowered him back into the water. The congregation applauded. 

"Any kind of burdens I carried before, I let them go. There's no need to carry things that happen in the past," Simpson later said. "I forgave all those who have wronged me and asked for forgiveness from those that I have wronged."

The waters of baptism washed away his sin.  But that doesn’t mean it was suddenly easy.  There will still scars to deal with.

Chris Simpson’s hate was literally written on his body- it was in his tattoos.  Removing that hate was going to be a long process that was very painful.

“Tattoo removal takes years. A single tattoo can take several treatments to disappear. 

Simpson wanted Amy Sowers, a nurse with the clinic, to blast off all the tattoos from his arms. When she was done there, he wanted her to start on his stomach, his neck and his legs.

Sowers started on the "H" of "HATE" scrawled across the knuckles of Simpson left hand. Twenty-four seconds later, the first pass was done. The skin instantly swelled up pink.

Simpson said it felt like someone poured acid on his skin. 

"I don't care if you're a Marine, that right there will break you," he said.”

But, we believe in a God who is stronger than hate.  A savior who can heal that hurt in our heart.  Our Gospel lesson today proclaimed a Jesus who brings the dead back to life- surely that same Jesus can heal the deadness in our own hearts.

Chris Simpson saw the destructive influence hate was having on his life.  And he was led to Jesus to find healing and hope.  That same healing and hope is available to you no matter what has happened in your life.  The grace of God still shapes the world, even if your life has seemed to be surrounded with human hate and misery.  The bad news is that working on those issues- being healed of hate so you can honestly grieve the death of one of God’s children, will be painful.  But the good news is that with Christ, we can find our way through to healing and wholeness.  If we are faithful, we’ll find that it is not hate, but God’s love, that abounds.

Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows - Service

Scriptures for Sunday, November 20th.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Matthew 25:31-40

Sermon

Today is the liturgical version of New Years Eve.  We have journeyed together through scripture and through the Christian year and have reached the culminating point in the journey-  Christ the King Sunday.  This is a day in which we celebrate the majesty of our King Jesus, and one in which we recommit our entire lives to his authority.  In fact, there is probably no more appropriate day for us to have renewed our baptismal vows and to have given our commitments for the next year.  We are testifying in all ways possible that we intend to live in this world as if it is the kingdom of God.

However, I sometimes come to Christ the King Sunday with mixed feelings.  I tend to think our culture does not have any problem picturing Christ as this great and powerful King to whom we need to submit.  We often sing of God or Jesus with grandiose language and talk about how powerful the name of Jesus is.  And though we may struggle with some of the implications, and though I may resist strongly the idea that our loving Christ would cast anyone into eternal punishment, I think our culture also has no problem picturing Jesus sitting in a throne in judgment at the end of the ages.  In a way, it is the perfect Sunday to discuss our baptismal vow of service.

We tend to respect and idealize power.  Though not all respect the president, most respect the office of the presidency as it has always been the most powerful position in the world.  We often respect the titans of industry who have helped shape the world.  When the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, passed away, we as a nation reveled in just how this amazing man reshaped society because of his visionary image.  Our American dream often encompasses moving up the economic, corporate and social ladder to reach the optimum level of success.

In a vacuum, there is nothing wrong with the lauding of any of these displays of power.  In Christianity, however, we temper this idea of Christ as King, Christ as all powerful, with many other contradictory images.  Our great and powerful King enters the story not as a conqueror, but as a helpless babe.  Our mighty shepherd is himself protected early in life by those who would cause him arm.  Our Lord of life had no physical kingdom, eschewed all armies, and washed the feet of his closest servants.  This is a King unlike any we have ever known.  Someone whose power comes not from accumulating might, but by rejecting every opportunity to embrace power.  Thus, part of me wonders if Jesus would be a little embarrassed by devoting a day each and every year where we celebrate him as a grand king.

Kingly imagery has its place.  But when we think of Jesus on the thrown, I think we struggle to understand the implications of today’s scripture.  How can Jesus both be on a throne, but also declare “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Is Jesus in his palace, or in a cardboard box?  Is Jesus wearing an Armani suit, or a thread bare t-shirt that provides no warmth?  Should we seek an audience with the King, or figure out what time visiting hours are at the prison?  Frankly its kind of confusing.  How can Jesus be both?

Just because it is so confusing, I want us to supplement our kingly image of God with a different image.  One drawn from the very symbol of God’s love that we celebrated today-  that of water.  The water in baptism makes present God’s love for us in the here and now.  It allows us to touch and feel God’s presence when we touch and feel God.  But we know there is far more to water than just its use in baptism-  water is at the core of all life as we know it.  It is water that allows crops to go.  Water, whether in the ocean or the lake, teams with life.  When scientists search other planets for life, they begin their search by looking for water.  Where there is no water, there is no life.  

Do you know that we as humans are 60% water?  In fact, water is perhaps the largest ingredient in all life forms.  But the water does not stay trapped within us.  We take it in, we sweat it out.  It passes through the skin.  It is absolutely necessary, and cannot be contained.  I cannot prevent the water that is in me from being absorbed into the air and possibly flowing into one of you.  

What if Jesus is like that water?  What if it were impossible to have life if God through Jesus was not present.  And what if that water that is Jesus flows in and amongst every single living thing?

What would it look like if we really believed God was in and through everything?  If God were actually present in each one of us the way water is present in each one of us.  How would we live differently?

Once a great order, as a result of waves of anti-monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth, all its branch houses were lost and it had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying mother house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a hermitage. As the abbot agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to him to visit the hermitage and ask if by some possible chance the hermit could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

The hermit welcomed the abbot at his hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the hermit could only commiserate with him: “I know how it is,” he exclaimed. “The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in all the nearby towns. So the old abbot and the hermit commiserated together. The time came when the abbot had to leave. They embraced each other. “It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years,” the abbot said, “but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order?” “No, I am sorry,” the hermit responded. “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”

When the abbot returned to the monastery his fellow monks gathered around him to ask, “Well what did the hermit say?” “He couldn’t help,” the abbot answered. “We just commiserated and read the scriptures together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving — it was something cryptic — was that the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant.”

In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered these words and wondered whether there was any possible significance. The Messiah is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one?

Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation.

On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light.

Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in people’s sides, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right. Often very right. Maybe the hermit did mean Brother Elred.

But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. He just magically appears by your side. Maybe Phillip is the Messiah.

Of course the hermit didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? O God, not me. I couldn’t be that much for You, could I?

As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

Because the forest in which it was situated was beautiful, it so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of its paths, even now and then to go into the dilapidated chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the hermit’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm.

When the monks began to see the Messiah in one another, new life sprang forth where only death had existed.  What would happen if we embraced the hermits vision?  What if we really and truly believed that the Messiah is present in our lives and that we will interact with that same Messiah potentially every day of our lives.

Would your treat your neighbor differently?  Would you look at the beggar on the street in the same way?  Would you think the same about a person put before trial?  Would we act in the same way when we serve a community meal.

My friends, this is what our baptismal vow of service calls us to.  We are to submit to the kingly authority of Christ by assuming that Christ is in each and every person we meet.  When we act that way, and when we love in that fashion, God’s kingdom will be truly present.

Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows- Presence

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Have you ever been just off? Just a little late?

Maybe you were joking back and forth with a friend, were playfully insulted, and then no comeback comes to mind.  Its only a minute later, when the moment has passed, that the perfect thing pops into your mind.

Or perhaps you find yourself attracted to someone across the room at a party.  You sit and try to work the nerve up to approach them, figure out the right thing to say, and finally decide you are going to risk being foolish and open yourself up to a stranger.  In the moment you make to walk over, they get up and leave with their friends.  The moment has passed- your opportunity missed.

On the other side, have you ever been in the right place at just the right time?  A friend is in crisis, and you happen to pop in just when they needed you?  Or perhaps a child was about to run into the street in front of a car and you grab a hold of them just before they are about to be hit.  

In all these scenarios, the difference between experiencing utter joy and utter misery, the difference between a life changing experience and just another humdrum day, is mere seconds.  I know that in life, sometimes I am prepared to respond at a seconds notice when a situation occurs, but all too often I am  oblivious until it is too late.  The difference?  I am only ready to respond when my heart and mind are fully engaged in the moment.  Or, to put it in terms of the our second baptismal vows, I’m only ready when I’m actually present.

Now, of all the baptismal vows, of prayer, presence, gift and service, surely this seems like the easiest.  I mean, the other three require you to do something, whereas this one just asks-  are you there?

The parable Jesus tells today reveals the true complexity of being present.  All 10 of the bridesmaids were waiting for the groom to arrive.  Apparently, they were waiting so long that day turned into night and the groom had not yet arrived.  The story tells us that 5 of the women were prepared for that delay but 5 were not.  And who can blame them?  Who expects the groom to be late to his own wedding?  But, when suddenly, unexpectedly the groom arrives in the middle of the night, it is only those who have the presence of mind to be ready that get to enjoy the festivities of the wedding banquet.  The others can only morn another opportunity lost.

We are told in the parable that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.  In a way, this can seem harsh and scary.  If this is about the eternal fate of our souls, are we really all prepared for that moment to come?  But I think, at times, that Matthew’s choice of language might obscure the point here.  You see, Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” a lot in scripture- 31 times in his Gospel in fact.  This is a phrase, at least in the NRSV or NIV translations, that is unique to Matthew.  This is because Matthew has a particular quirk in his writing style-  he follows the Jewish practice of not using the Lord’s name so as not to take it in vain.  Thus, instead of saying Kingdom of God, he instead called it kingdom of heaven.  2,000 years later, we miss this nuance because we tend to use the word heaven to refer to a place of reward in the afterlife.

If you consider that Matthew is referring to the here and now instead of some unknown future time, I think this parable takes on a whole new dimension.  Rather than a pop quiz designed to separate out the good from the bad- rewarding one and damning the other, the text actually becomes a key revealing how we can experience the kingdom of God.  What separated out the 5 wise bridesmaid from the 5 foolish ones?  They were prepared for the moment?

How can we be prepared to be present for someone?  First, we have to learn to look beyond ourselves.  I am incredibly guilty at times of thinking the whole world revolves around me.  When a friend has a crisis at a bad time, I can at times coldly bemoan the timing of the crisis and its impact on me rather than focus on the person going through the crisis.  Thus, I become less present for that person, and I become a barrier, rather than a gateway, to the kingdom of God entering into that moment.

How can we move beyond ourselves?  One of the ways I’ve found is right here at the communion table.  I haven’t always appreciated communion in the past.  It seemed ritualized and ordinary.  It was only after I started seminary that I realized that this is the one regular moment when we all come together to experience God’s presence.  Too often, I as the pastor end up being the central point.  At communion, it is God’s presence, represented by the juice and bread, that is to take over our senses.

At times in our history, we Christians have missed the point.  Rather then being present at the table, and celebrating God’s presence there, we have fought over the specific nature of that presence.  Is Jesus really there, in body, or in spirit?  Or is it in memory?  Its not that these questions aren’t important, but when the debate distracts from the presence of Jesus in our midst, we are like foolish bridesmaids who miss the opportunity to experience the kingdom.

In a moment, I’ll be privileged to invite Rev. Bob Springer, a retired Lutheran pastor to lead us in communion.  I’ve grown to know Bob and appreciate his willingness to come do this.  A key aspect of Bob’s work in ministry has been working to overcome those things that divide us at the communion table and prevent us from fully experiencing God.  And, as a pastor, I’m especially privileged to have the opportunity to just come to the table this morning worried about nothing more then experiencing the love of God.  

Whether its communion, or church, or just life, the kingdom of heaven is waiting to burst forth into your life today.  And the kingdom of heaven is waiting for you to be the one to open up the kingdom of heaven to others.  If you are distracted, you may miss the opportunity to create a piece of the kingdom of God right here and now.  But if you are present, you’ll experience the joy that is the kingdom of God right here in your midst.

Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows- Prayer

Scriptures for Sunday, October 30th:

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Today we begin a four week journey where we explore baptism, the vows we take, the grace it provides, as a way to examine our own commitment as individual Christians and as a church.  We are at the time of year where we are called to lay out a vision for the future of our congregation.  We do this in several formats-  through our charge conference, through a strategic planning meeting this Thursday, and through our commitment campaign that will culminate on November 20.

The fullness of that commitment can be found in two vows that we take during the baptismal process.  The first is the vow we take as a congregation, and the second is the vow we take upon confirmation or upon joining the church.

Let's start with the congregational vow in baptism-

With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ.We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God, and be found faithful in their service to others.We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.

In other words, we make a significant commitment that should never be taken lightly-  we are declaring that we hold ourselves responsible for creating the environment in which Elaina (the child we baptized during the service) here will grow.  We are making a solemn vow to create the kind of loving atmosphere in our church, in our community, and in our world, that will enable Elaina to grow up trusting God so much that she too may seek to follow our Lord Jesus Christ in serving others.

Today’s scripture- of Joshua leading the Hebrew people across the Jordan, is one of the  most important pivot points in scripture.  The new generation of God’s chosen people are finally crossing into the promised land, but they can only do so because someone else has prepared the way.

I did not realize the significance of this story for today until I heard then Senator Obama speak in 2007 at the commemoration of the Selma Voting rights march.  In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led over 600 civil rights marchers to demand equal access to the ballot.  The marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas.

So, on the 42nd anniversary of this “Bloody Sunday” march, Senator Obama said 

“So I just want to talk a little about Moses and Aaron and Joshua, because we are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. We're in the presence today of giants whose shoulders we stand on, people who battled, not just on behalf of African Americans but on behalf of all of America; that battled for America’s soul, that shed blood , that endured taunts and formant and in some cases gave -- torment and in some cases gave the full measure of their devotion.Like Moses, they challenged Pharaoh, the princes, powers who said that some are atop and others are at the bottom, and that's how it's always going to be.  My very existence might not have been possible had it not been for some of the folks here today.”

That generation of civil rights workers endured considerable pain and even death to help to create the more just and kingdom centered world that we live in today.  While we may not yet be at the promised land, we are significantly closer today because of their work.

The people of Israel made a very similar sacrifice for future generations.  They dared to challenge Pharoah, to wander through the desert, to risk starvation to find a future in which their own children would be able to grow and blossom.  But, as is often the case, they create a more just world through their blood, sweat and tears and pass long before they can ever experience it.

When that generation, and when Moses, passed away, it would have been almost natural for them to shrink back in fear and return to the desert.  After all, who was this young upstart in Joshua, someone who had not paid his dues, to lead these people who had suffered so much?  It had only been 30 days since Moses had died-  how dare Joshua be so insensitive.

And really, was the desert so bad?  They had survived for 40 years after all!  And isn’t hanging on and surviving enough?  Shouldn’t we be happy with that?

Have you ever seen a church, a family, or a person who has adopted that desert mentality?  That all time, effort and energy is devoted to simply surviving?  Of course, that is completely appropriate at times!  If we cannot survive, how can we ever hope to be fruitful.  A survival first mentality can help to preserve a person or a church through its darkest days.  It ensures that there can be some vitality in the future when things improve.  

The problem can come when its time to leave the desert.  “Look- I survived this way for 40 years!  Now you want me to change?!?!  I know this works- I won’t die this way!”

That is sort of half true.  You see, the Israelites had arrived at the Jordan before.  And they got scared and turned back.  And though that generation survived, they would die without seeing the promised land.  Who knows what would have happened if they had refused to leave the desert once again.  Eventually, even in survival mode, we all must pass away.

So, the people come face to face with the Jordan.  And the river is raging.  Scripture says it was overflowing the banks.  Throughout the Hebrew Bible, water, especially raging water , stands in for chaos.  So, the people who have survived in the desert must confront this teaming chaos to move forward.  And they must do so led by this pip-squeek who has proved nothing!

And yet, they manage to shake their fears, to trust their new leader, to cross over!  How do they do it?  

They “Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.”  We have a word for hearing the words of God-  we call it prayer.  Now that might seem a little odd, because we usually think of prayer as us saying things to God.  But in its fullest sense, prayer is supposed to open us up to hear from God.  That can come in many forms.  For some, it might be a vision or an auditory message from God.  This is what happens to Joshua.  But, for most of us, this is not the form hearing from God takes.  It is more subtle, it is the way that we feel calm after we make the right decision, it is the way we get excited about new ideas, and it is when we look back and can see in retrospect that the decision we made led to new life and new creation.  For me, the most frequent way I feel like I can hear from God is in reading.  Sometimes its scripture and I’m trying to train myself to read in such a way that I am more open to hearing from God in scripture, but often it is the works of other Christians who are sharing their understanding of God.  That’s why we do the reading with the pastor series-  I hope you get something out of it, but even more, I hope it creates a discipline through which I can learn to hear God.

How do you hear God?  Is it with the Monday night prayer group?  With a daily scripture reading?  With a walk in the woods?  With singing a favorite hymn?  Its important, especially now, to try and determine how you best hear from God.  Because today, we have an important commitment to make.  We are declaring that we will listen to God to create the best place for Elaina here to grow and prosper.  Its crucial that we listen to God as we try to envision this future, because after we hear from God-  there is a second important step.

We need to get into the river and get muddy.  Its orderly to keep surviving.  Its messy to step into the chaos and seek new life.  We are afraid we might get swept away.  That we might sink into the mud.  That rather than being filled with new life, that we might perish.  But, my brothers and sisters, if we have truly listened to God, we can be assured that when we step forward in faith, we will find dry land.  When you joined this congregation, you committed to faithfully participate in its ministries through prayer, presence, gift and service.  As we remember our baptismal vows and as we commit to the future of the church, let us renew our commitment for listening to God through prayer.  When we do that, we will find the dry land; we will find that God’s grace allows us to be reborn.  And we will find that we are ready to nurture Elaina and all of the other members of her generation to create a world and a church in which they can prosper.

Passing the Test

Scripture Texts for Sunday, September 25th:

Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon


When is the last time you were given a pop quiz?

A completely unexpected test to determine what you know, or who you are, or what your values are?

Aren’t surprise tests terrible? Actually, why stop with a surprise. I don’t know anyone who likes to be tested, surprise or not. A friend of mine told me recently about her terrible experience of spending months reading and studying and cramming her head with information so that she might be able to let loose all that knowledge on the one day in which she had to take a bar exam. I like to see the good in everything, but when it comes to tests, I think they are just plain evil.

In today’s Gospel lesson, we see Jesus and the temple authorities engaged in a series of dueling pop quizzes. It doesn’t take long to see that the chief priests and elders have a singular motivation behind their questions to Jesus- they hope to trip him up; discredit him; to make a fool of him so that he might go away. But, if there is one thing we know about our savior, its that he always manages to reverse human expectations so that we can experience the last truly coming in first. And so Jesus turns the situation around and asks his own gotcha question- a question that puts the authorities in such a bind that they have to abandon their entire plan so they might retreat and regroup. When they are on the receiving end of a searing, off putting question, they do what we humans always do- they try to squirm their way out of it! They pull the Pharisee equivalent of –“Gotta go, I think my mom’s calling!”

So, if we can draw one thing from the Gospel lesson, its that tests can be used in all kinds of nefarious ways to trip people up. But when we turn to Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, we find what on the surface might be the announcement of the single largest test we could ever take- Phillipians 2:12 reads-

“Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”

Wait, is this an essay question?

I didn’t see this on the syllabus!

Did you get the company memo?

Since when are our performance reviews based on this?

Someone call the union- I thought my contract said that salvation was a gift, not something I had to work out. There must have been some kind of fine print on the contract- darn those lawyers!

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling? What on earth can Paul mean here. In theological circles, I though it was James who seemed to emphasize that we are saved by our works, not Paul! Is our salvation really a product of things we do; or of finding and being able to spit out a really good answer to some test at the pearly gates?

First, let’s affirm that salvation is indeed a gift of God. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley- explained it in this way: Long before we were ever conscious of God, God was working in our lives. That is what we recognize at baptism- that God is already at work in a little child even though that child has no way of understanding God or describing God. In fact, if we read Paul a bit further, he says “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you” And so, it is God that acts first (we call this prevenient grace), and it is through that grace that we might respond.

But, isn’t that still kind of scary? Well, yes, it is. If we have some input here, if we have free will, we do have some responsibility. That can be scary. But let me mitigate some of that fear- when we talk salvation, I think we tend to immediately think we are talking about heaven and hell. Now of course, the state of our eternal souls is part of this concept of salvation. However, if we affirm that God is good and faithful, and acknowledge that our understanding of the next life is limited while God’s knowledge is vast, we can trust that the God who is faithful in this life will take care of us in the next.

But salvation is about far, far more than heaven and hell. It is about something far more important then what might happen in the future- its about what is going on in your life now! Salvation is actually a much bigger concept than I think we realize. As always, when we translate Greek into English, we can lose things. The Greek word that is often translated as salvation is “soteria.” Though we translate it as saves, it can also be translated as to heal, to preserve, or to make whole.

I think that last translation of soteria- to make whole- is the crucial one. At some deep level, I think we all recognize that we are imperfect, incomplete people. We recognize that there is something missing in our lives. For some of us, that might be love. For others, its the need for some deep scar to be healed. For even others, its a struggle with addition to alcohol, drugs, pornography, greed, or any other sin we might name. Salvation is God’s way of helping us to fill in that gap in our lives so that we might indeed overcome the many hurts that eat away at our soul. Though Jesus Christ is the one who makes each and every one of us whole, the nature of that hole in our life varies according to the individual. In fact, in his notes on this passage, John Wesley comments that working out our own salvation is about letting each individual aim at their own things. In other words, we have to concentrate and work out our own salvation because what we need God to save us from is unique to each and every one of us. The nature of someone else’s salvation will necessarily look and feel different.

Confronting those holes in our lives, though, is a terrifying process. Indeed, in that sense, let us affirm the truth that confronting those imperfections, that sin, that emptiness that we try to keep under wraps, will always be done with fear and trembling.

I don’t believe in asking you to do anything that I won’t do. So before I ask you to confront your own salvation with fear and trembling, let me share with you a bit of testimony about the frightening way that I continue to ask God to help me work on mine. I’ve stated before that prayer is at times a struggle for me. But I’m not sure that I have always said why. I tend to be someone who operates out of my head. When confronted with a situation, my tendency is to analyze and try to respond logically to the problem at hand rather than responding emotionally. Thus, when someone approaches me with a crisis, in my mind I go into problem solving mode and think about how I can best help, rather than immediately respond emotionally to the person in crisis. Others would probably tend to the emotional needs first and problem solve later. One response is probably not fundamentally superior to the other so long as eventually, both needs are met.
The problem I often struggle with is that I get stuck in my head. I continue to respond to things logically because I’m not always sure how to respond to them emotionally. Part of this is just how God created me- God creates each one of us with strengths and weaknesses- this is part of the uniqueness of who we are. But when we can’t balance our dominant side with our shadow side, it can create a hole in our lives that is difficult to fill. For me, it can translate into a failure to develop authentic, emotionally engaged relationships.

Where this connects to prayer is that at a fundamental level, prayer is about relationship with God. It is less a logical connection than an emotional one. Through work with a spiritual director and several close friends, I have come to see that my problem with relationships in general leads to a problematic relationship with God. I have trouble loving and accepting God’s love, because I struggle with accepting and giving love in many aspects of my life. Again, through the work I’ve been doing on this issue, I’ve discovered that at the heart of this issue is a fear of being hurt; of being rejected; a fear of giving love without ever receiving it. Since this is my fear, opening myself up to that process of risking love, and there for risking rejection, is something that I indeed approach with fear and trembling.
That is, in part, the shape of the hole that is often persistent in my life. That is the salvation that God is indeed helping me to work out. Though it may always be a bit of a struggle for me, the spiritual direction I have received and the healing that God continues in my life has allowed me to see signs of a continued journey toward wholeness on this issue.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, what is the hole in your life?

Where is the place that God needs to bring healing?

What wounds are in need of healing?

What addiction must be tamed?

Our Lord Jesus Christ loves us enough to guide us and to be with us as we confront the issues that tear at our souls. Our creator God knows us intimately in all our glories and flaws, and divine grace enfolds us so that we might be steady as we confront the terror that is the empty spots in our lives. Know this my friends, should we be willing to confront our brokenness, should we seek God to bring us wholeness by helping us to fill the holes in our own lives, we can be assured that God will be present, and God will pass the test. Amen.

How much is enough?

Scripture Texts for Sunday, September 18th:

Exodus 16:1-8, 14-20

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

I love the stories of the Israelites wandering through the desert.  Though some of the stories are hard to believe at times and I don’t know if things happened exactly as they were recorded, I think that there is tremendous truth in the stories.  The motif of wandering through the desert is so apt I think for our modern day spiritual lives.  We feel like we are headed toward some promised thing, something we can’t envision; something that we have never seen but that we believe is beautiful beyond belief; some place we earnestly desire to be but haven’t a clue how to get there.  Is it just me, or do you all find some affinity with the idea that we are wandering through some spiritual desert?

Even better, I think, is the particular wilderness they are wandering through in this story.  Did anyone catch the name?  Sin!  Yes, they are wandering through the desert of Sin, seeking earnestly to follow God but not quite sure where to go.  That’s such an amazing image.  It certainly describes my life!!!!  Even in the midst of the wilderness of Sin, God is still there, still seeking to guide us, still seeking to form us.  In fact, I would argue that it is only through the wilderness of sin that we can become spiritual mature, strengthened to follow God into the promised land that has been proclaimed.  Remember, before Jesus even began his ministry, he spent 40 days wandering in the desert being tempted by Satan.  It is only after having experienced that hunger, thirst, and temptation, that Jesus is ready to begin his ministry.

Of all the desert stories, I think the story of God providing manna in the wilderness is among my favorites.  When we enter into the story, the Israelites realize they have a real problem here.  They have been in the desert for about a month and a half.  They took many provisions with them out of Egypt, but by now their shelves have to be getting pretty bare.  Even worse, they seem to be still wandering!  When they left Egypt, surely they thought it wouldn’t take so long to get to the promised land.  I mean, has any one seen a map of the middle East?  Isn’t Israel right next to Egypt?  Even on foot, I would have thought they’d be there by now.  I guess Moses didn’t have a Garmen.

Anyway, they are wandering in the desert of Sin and they are low on food and water.  So, they begin to complain.  “Hey Moses!  How is this plan working out?  Your promised us freedom, you are giving us death!”  

You have to picture this.  God, through Moses, has just freed the people from 400 years of slavery.  So, they are freed from the Egyptians, the Red Sea has been split, the world’s most powerful army defeated, they are led by a pillar of flame and a cloud of smoke, and yet they still complain that God doesn’t provide enough for them and doesn’t care!  It is literally at the end of chapter 15 when they are saved.  So they made it all the way to chapter 16 before complaining again.

Can you believe the nerve of these people?

Well, yea, duh.  Of course we can believe them, because we are them!  We live in such a prosperous society.  Compared to many people in the world, compared to people throughout the history of the world, we are near the top of the charts in wealth, food, technology, travel, etc.  You would think with the vast abundance and wealth that we have, that we would be tremendously grateful!  And yet, do we exhibit this as a society?  As a people?  Are we as Americans, or we as Christians, known as the most grateful people on earth?  I don’t think so.  Why not?  Let’s hold off on that question and get back to the story.

So, despite all that God has done, the people are grumbling and complaining.  Let’s be honest here-  we would be doing the same thing.  And they do have a real problem-  they face the acute prospect of starving to death in the wilderness.  Here is where God’s unbelievable grace comes in.  

The amazing, stunning thing in this story, is that despite the people’s grumbling, despite their lack of faith, despite their outright rejection of God, God provides.  Their divine liberator does not respond by striking them down, by abandoning them, by doing what might have seemed most natural for a god to do.  I mean, come on, if you were this very powerful being, how long would you put up with these peons?

God is literally giving them bread from heaven.  Even better than that, God provides a mandatory vacation day.  He enforces it by giving more than enough on the 6th day, and making the manna last an extra day, just because he cares so much about them that he wants to give them rest.  Imagine that, a God who leads them out of slavery, who provides food free of charge, and who even gives them paid vacation!  God’s one heck of a boss (or Moses is a really good union negotiator). Money is literally growing on trees here.  And so, when God says, I’m going to give you all this stuff out of thin air, but I need to put a few conditions on it, you’d think the people would be ok with that.  And yet,  the story ends with Moses being upset that the people have broken the few little rules that were set.

So, what was the condition that Moses announced? 

“Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ (Exo 16:16-19, NRSV)

So, no matter what they gathered, they always had just enough.  And the one real condition seems to be that they shouldn’t try to keep their leftovers.  I mean, is that so hard?  And yet, scripture tells us that “they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul.”

So, first let’s start, why would God put conditions on this bread?  Why produce something that spoils overnight?  Is God anti-leftover?  Did I miss the thou shalt not doggie bag commandment?

In verse 4, God says that he has put conditions as a test to see whether the people will follow his instructions or not.  So is this just some arbitrary test to see if people will comply?  I don’t think so.  I think God is concerned about a couple things.  God wants to make sure that they eat enough.  If they can store things away, they might be tempted to refrain from eating all they needed so that they can save it for a rainy day.  I think its also to prevent the problem of relative greed.  If the Jones’ begin to store up their manna, they become relatively more wealthy and disrupt this fragile society.  Finally, I think God wanted them to learn to trust.  When they emerged from the desert, they would experience tremendous wealth.  Could they learn to continue to be obedient, even when they had the means to disobey?

This is what I love most about the story-  what happens when they try to sock some away, in direct defiance of what God asked?  God does not strike them down for being insolent, instead the natural consequences of their own action to allowed to take place.  The food that they squirreled away, either because they were cheap, or because they were greedy, or they didn’t trust God, spoiled and became wormy.

What would our reaction to this be?  It would be do apply some American ingenuity, and to figure out how to preserve the manna, rather than accept that it is a fleeting thing that we only need so much of.  We would figure out a way to stockpile, to hoard, so that we wouldn’t have to be reliant on God.  I mean, isn’t that the absolute worst condition, to be reliant on someone else?

We operate and live sometimes like there is never enough.  Despite our relative affluence as a nation, we live in constant fear that there isn’t enough to go around or that others are getting something that they don’t really deserve.  If we thought we truly were overflowing with abundance, would we be so concerned about whether people deserve our help?  It is scarcity speaking when we worry whether someone deserves food stamps, deserves adequate shelter, deserves meaningful employment or meaningful pay.

I don’t think God is going to strike us down because of this propensity toward scarcity.  But, just like with the manna, I think there are some natural consequences coming from our desire to hold on tight to our possessions.  Just as the manna rotted, bread worms and became foul, I think our souls can do the same thing when left with unchecked wealth.  

In an article discussing “What not to do when inheriting wealth,” an financial advisor at ePricefinancial advised that “Inheriting wealth is not all that it’s cracked up to be.”  In fact, he advised that upon receiving inherited wealth, most people experience the following-  grief, guilt, anger, inadequacy, and conflict with their spouse in family.  Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  In talking specifically about anger, the writer comments that

 “anger can arise when someone doesn’t receive as much as they thought they would or that they thought they deserved. They may feel there is an unequal or inequitable distribution among multiple heirs, including siblings. Heirs sometimes measure the benefactor’s love by the size of the inheritance. Ironically, some heirs get angry because they received more than they thought they would, thus questioning why they had to live a financially “deprived” life all these years.”

Measuring their loved one based on the size of their inheritance?  What an awful prospect.  And yet, I can see how it comes to that.  The gift of wealth becomes a curse.  It eats at the soul of the individual and gnaws away at the bonds of family.

Don’t we see this in life?  We could all name our favorite celebrity or rich child whose wealthy life has been the seeds of their destruction.  Andrew Lloyd Webber, for one, acknowledged this problem and said he would not leave his $1.5 billion dollar estate to his children.  “I will give them a start in life but they ain’t going to end up owning [my company].'Instead of funding the high life for his children, Lloyd-Webber wants to put his millions back into the community to help struggling singers and composers.

And thus, the curse becomes a blessing.  Now, there are some who can argue that this type of charity, or welfare or other public aide has the same type of problems associated with it-  money given without necessarily being earned.  I will grant that there are certain risks here.  But note, when the Israelites were faced with starvation in the desert, our God wisely and compassionately fed them rather than insisted they learn their own way.  In some ways, the people were right to tell God you got us into this, help us out.  

Though I would never argue that the poor are all helpless victims that need out pity, the picture we have of the poor as simply being lazy or refusing to work is just as problematic. The reality is that so many people are poor because they are born into poverty.  Is it there fault they were born in a particular neighborhood, under particular circumstances?  Is it their fault they were born black when society had laws and strong social preferences for people born white?  Is it their fault they developed disabilities or medical conditions that prevented them from engaging in useful labor?  Is it this child’s fault that he identifies as gay and thus is turned out on the streets by his parents?

There is a famous statement that says-  Morality begins at 1,500 calories a day.  In other words, if someone can’t get enough food to sustain life, we can hardly expect them to make morally sound choices about how to survive.   God recognizes this- and provides the basics.  And God warns against the rot that happens when people take more than they need.

So, How much is enough?  Let’s acknowledge there are some that do not have enough.  Let us follow our God in seeking to provide sustenance to those who are starving in the desert.  We must of course provide charity, but we also need to work on empowerment programs; need to provide individuals better access to schools and the means to empower themselves.  We need to attack those systems that hold people back from getting enough.

But here’s the flipside to “How much is enough?”-  Too much corrupts us. It poisons our soul.  Too much can be the answer to providing others enough, or it can be the very thing that eats away at our soul.  I don’t think its a coincidence that the church is growing in areas we might call the third world while it declines here.  Let us regain the sense of just how blessed we are.  Let us become grateful for the manna provided.  Let us restore our trust in God so that we might see the true state of the world-  not one of scarcity, but one in which God’s abundance overflows.