FIRST READING: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
“I will search for my sheep…” My oldest son, David, is a big boy now; 22 years old, a 6’8” student and member of the Crew at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. But he was a little boy once; little and vulnerable and in need of protection. And we lost him once, in the Mall on I-85 in Concord, North Carolina.
We were in a shop, his mother and I. It was in late November or early December, a Christmas shopping expedition. There was a crowd. I don’t remember for sure, but it may have been a day when there was a concert by the High School Band and I came to see kids from the youth group at Church. Anyway, one minute he was there, the next minute neither his mother not I knew where he was.
We were frantic, up and down the mall, looking in stores, calling his name, trying to find security, focused on one thing and one thing only; finding our boy and taking him home. After what seemed like forever, he turned up. He too was scared, he knew he was lost, and he wanted his Mommy most of all.
Every time I wonder how God feels about me, or you, or anybody, I remember this text from Ezekiel, and the story of the 90 and 9 and the one lost sheep and the Prodigal Son, and I remember how I felt when my son slipped out of my grasp and my sight; and then I remember how I felt when he was found again, and I know, oh I know, how God feels about me, and about you and about all of us.
SECOND READING: Ephesians 1:15-23
“having the eyes of your heart enlightened . . .” I’ve always loved that phrase. I’ve never been real sure what it means, but I have always loved it.
I am pretty sure it has to do with changing the way one looks at things, with having a paradigm shift of the soul, like the one I had with the church back when I was in college.
I always had a love/hate (no make that a hate/love, I hated more than I loved) relationship with the church. Or as I put it then, I loved Jesus and hated so-called Christians. (I was 19-20 years old. Consistent theology is for old folks ;-) )
I hated them for being smug and bigoted and racist and middle-class and less than heroic in following the radical gospel. And, of course, I knew myself to be none of those things.
I took an Old Testament Course in my Junior Year at UNC, because it filled a Humanities requirement. The Professor was a Presbyterian Minister, Dr. Bernard Boyd. I had the eyes of my heart enlightened in that fall semester.
I’m not sure what happened, but I started the semester with no use for the church and I ended it ready to go to seminary. I had had the eyes of my heart enlightened about God’s love for all of us, about God’s love for “those people” in spite of their inadequacies and most especially, God’s love for me in spite of MY inadequacies.
GOSPEL: Matthew 25:31-46
“the least of these . . . “
Sometime in the early 90’s, I went to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in downtown Atlanta for a “Chrism Mass” with my Bishop and my fellow Lutheran Clergy from North Georgia. A Chrism Mass is a renewal of Ordination vows and is usually done in the Lenten season.
Lutherans in the US don’t have Cathedrals, but if we did, Redeemer would fit the bill for Atlanta. It is quite a place. Very traditional, dark, High Altar, stone, dark wood, Gothic accoutrements. At 7:00 Am, we Lutheran Clergy felt a bit like medieval monks gathered for Matins as we stumbled into the choir stalls, listened to the Bishop’s sermon, repeated our promises of faithfulness to the Scriptures, the Confessions and our appointed duties. We took Communion, we sang, we prayed, and then we retired to a Dining Room for breakfast.
This was no church basement “donuts on a napkin and coffee in Styrofoam cups”
Repast. This was a meal. A group of “Church Ladies” had set out a feast of eggs and grits and sausage balls and fruit cups and fruit juices and strong coffee on tables covered with starched and ironed table cloths, fine china and sterling silver knives and forks.
We lowly preachers were having a high old time.
I left early and tried to find my way to the back parking lot, but I got turned around and found myself on the sidewalk on the East side of the church. The door clicked shut and locked behind me as I looked down Fourth street toward Peachtree and saw a gathering of Atlanta’s homeless, huddled against the outside stone wall of the church, trying to block the early morning mist with newspapers and cardboard boxes. They were waiting for the soup kitchen in the basement to open.
I walked down the sidewalk, feeling conspicuous in my black suit and collar and gold cross around my neck. As I got to the corner and turned left, I glanced up and if I held my head just right, I could see into the dining room where the Lutheran Clergy, warm and well-fed, supped in luxury while also seeing the poor and homeless of Atlanta, stretched out in the cold and damp, waiting for a bowl of soup in a dank basement.
And I had to think? Which crowd would Jesus eat with? And what’s he going to say to me about all this? Remember, the least of these . . .
Peace,
Delmo
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
PENTECOST 26: RCL Texts for November 13, 2005
Note to readers: Sorry about the late post this week. I've been out rambling, doing my day job duties. Someone said they didn't know how to comment without setting up their own blog. I think all you do is click on the "0 comments" after my name at the end and it takes you to a response place. You do have to give a name and create a password.
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; I Thess. 5:1-11, Matthew 25: 14-30
Today's lessons deal with themes of judgement, particularly the coming Grand, Final, Apocalypic, Set Everything Straight kind of Judgement of God. Rather than comment on the texts themselves this week, I am going to share a couple of personal stories and one from Church History that might spark something for you.
Story 1: When I was a kid, we have week-long revivals in the Spring and the Fall at Slate Mountain Missionary Baptist Church where was Grandfather was Head Deacon and Treasurer for 10-20 years ( not a little power hoarding there). The "Evangelist" generally centered on
issues of Jesus coming again in judgement, spent a lot of time on the lake of fire, and most time on the rapture and how the Christians would be taken up to heaven and the evil people left behind (hence the title of the book series).
When I was 12 or 13, I was mighty shy and mighty scared of going to Hell. If there was any way to get saved and accept Christ and avoid Hellfire other than going down to the front of the church during the "invitation", I would have done it. But I was too shy. So I prayed each night in my bed for forgiveness and please, please Jesus, don't leave me behind.
One morning during the Fall Revival; I awaoke at down to a completely empty house. My parents and my 4 siblings weren't there. Even the dog was nowhere to be seen. The electricity wouldn't work. I immediately jumped to conclusions. Oh My God. Jesus came back, and took everybody else and left me behind. I'm going to Hell.
It sounds funny now, but I assure you, it wasn't funny then. Imagine a 12 year old boy, down on his knees in the frost covered backyard, in his underwear, tears streaming down his face, pleading with Jesus to spare him. It was an awful few minutes.
Then I heard a familiar sound, Putt, Putt, Putt. Our farm tractor. Then our dog burst over the hill behind the house followed by the tractor pulling a trailer load of cured tobacco, my family riding along. They had gone to get cured tobacco out of the barn and transfer it to the pack house, and decided since I had the sniffles to leave me in bed. And, the power had gone out, which happend once or twice a month, for no known reason. Instead of the Devil coming to devour me, it was just my parents coming to fuss at me for being outside in my underwear and my siblings to laugh at me for being afraid.
Story 2: I was in Canton Ohio this week. and got to go by the Pro Footbal Hall of fame late one afternoon, I barely had 45 minutes before closing time, but I was determined to get it in. It was a coll, overcast rainy Wednesday afternoon, there was almost no one there. I went from room to room alone, I had gotten used to my solitude when I rounded a corner into a room and there stood a familier face, At first I thought it was a manikin, but it had on a Blue Balzer and slacks, not a unifrom. Then it, he, moved, and I realized it really was Franco Harris, one of my heroes from years ago. (Pittsburg Steelers, running back, the Immaculate Reception, ask a football fan)
I couldn't believe it, walked away (still shy), then came up and said, "You're Franco Harris".
He said, "Yes, I know." I shook his hand and walked away.
Judgement will come like a thief in the night, unexpectedly, when you least expect it. When you're busy doing something else, the moment or moments of truth will sneak up on you.
That's why there are no small moments, no insignificant actions. Every moment and every action calls for behavior that is consistent with who we are as children of God.
Story 3: John A Broadus was the first Professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, back in 1850. He was a Classics and New Testament Scholar who had taught at the University of Va. and was well respected in all academic circles. When the Civil War erupted, the school closed and Broadus served as a military Chaplain. After the War, in the fall of 1865, the school reopened with one student, and he was blind. But Broadus soldiered on, lecturing on a regular schedule to this one student, on Theology and Bible and Preaching. He carefully prepared his lectures for his one student, and in 1870 those lectures became a book called A TREATISE ON THE PREPARATTION AND DELIVERY OF SERMONS.
It is still in print, it was THE standard preaching textbook in American seminaries well into the 1960's. And all because one man did not bury his talents, but decided to use what he had to the best of his ability and to leave the ultimate outcome up to God. Broadus did not prepare his lectures expecting to write a book. He prepared his lectures with an eye to teaching his one blind student to preach.
That's it for this week. Peace.
Delmo.
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; I Thess. 5:1-11, Matthew 25: 14-30
Today's lessons deal with themes of judgement, particularly the coming Grand, Final, Apocalypic, Set Everything Straight kind of Judgement of God. Rather than comment on the texts themselves this week, I am going to share a couple of personal stories and one from Church History that might spark something for you.
Story 1: When I was a kid, we have week-long revivals in the Spring and the Fall at Slate Mountain Missionary Baptist Church where was Grandfather was Head Deacon and Treasurer for 10-20 years ( not a little power hoarding there). The "Evangelist" generally centered on
issues of Jesus coming again in judgement, spent a lot of time on the lake of fire, and most time on the rapture and how the Christians would be taken up to heaven and the evil people left behind (hence the title of the book series).
When I was 12 or 13, I was mighty shy and mighty scared of going to Hell. If there was any way to get saved and accept Christ and avoid Hellfire other than going down to the front of the church during the "invitation", I would have done it. But I was too shy. So I prayed each night in my bed for forgiveness and please, please Jesus, don't leave me behind.
One morning during the Fall Revival; I awaoke at down to a completely empty house. My parents and my 4 siblings weren't there. Even the dog was nowhere to be seen. The electricity wouldn't work. I immediately jumped to conclusions. Oh My God. Jesus came back, and took everybody else and left me behind. I'm going to Hell.
It sounds funny now, but I assure you, it wasn't funny then. Imagine a 12 year old boy, down on his knees in the frost covered backyard, in his underwear, tears streaming down his face, pleading with Jesus to spare him. It was an awful few minutes.
Then I heard a familiar sound, Putt, Putt, Putt. Our farm tractor. Then our dog burst over the hill behind the house followed by the tractor pulling a trailer load of cured tobacco, my family riding along. They had gone to get cured tobacco out of the barn and transfer it to the pack house, and decided since I had the sniffles to leave me in bed. And, the power had gone out, which happend once or twice a month, for no known reason. Instead of the Devil coming to devour me, it was just my parents coming to fuss at me for being outside in my underwear and my siblings to laugh at me for being afraid.
Story 2: I was in Canton Ohio this week. and got to go by the Pro Footbal Hall of fame late one afternoon, I barely had 45 minutes before closing time, but I was determined to get it in. It was a coll, overcast rainy Wednesday afternoon, there was almost no one there. I went from room to room alone, I had gotten used to my solitude when I rounded a corner into a room and there stood a familier face, At first I thought it was a manikin, but it had on a Blue Balzer and slacks, not a unifrom. Then it, he, moved, and I realized it really was Franco Harris, one of my heroes from years ago. (Pittsburg Steelers, running back, the Immaculate Reception, ask a football fan)
I couldn't believe it, walked away (still shy), then came up and said, "You're Franco Harris".
He said, "Yes, I know." I shook his hand and walked away.
Judgement will come like a thief in the night, unexpectedly, when you least expect it. When you're busy doing something else, the moment or moments of truth will sneak up on you.
That's why there are no small moments, no insignificant actions. Every moment and every action calls for behavior that is consistent with who we are as children of God.
Story 3: John A Broadus was the first Professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, back in 1850. He was a Classics and New Testament Scholar who had taught at the University of Va. and was well respected in all academic circles. When the Civil War erupted, the school closed and Broadus served as a military Chaplain. After the War, in the fall of 1865, the school reopened with one student, and he was blind. But Broadus soldiered on, lecturing on a regular schedule to this one student, on Theology and Bible and Preaching. He carefully prepared his lectures for his one student, and in 1870 those lectures became a book called A TREATISE ON THE PREPARATTION AND DELIVERY OF SERMONS.
It is still in print, it was THE standard preaching textbook in American seminaries well into the 1960's. And all because one man did not bury his talents, but decided to use what he had to the best of his ability and to leave the ultimate outcome up to God. Broadus did not prepare his lectures expecting to write a book. He prepared his lectures with an eye to teaching his one blind student to preach.
That's it for this week. Peace.
Delmo.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
ALL SAINTS SUNDAY: Readings for Nov. 6, 2005
FIRST READING: Revelation 7:9-17.
I'm not much on the"Book of Revelations" as they call it here in Western NC. I'm with Luther on this one, who said that a Revelation ought to reveal something, and he had never been able to make head nor tails out of it. (Well, he said something in German that meant what I just said,
the peasant idioms being different).
But on All Saints Sunday, this text is a good place to begin in terms of the "faithful departed" part of the day's theme. I have to confess that the "robed in white, chanting around the throne of God image" leaves me cold. I can't sing and I get white stuff dirty immediately. But, then I remember it's poetic [thanks Bruggermann(?) ] and I relax and realize the message is intended as one of "hold on" in the midst of persecution and those suffering for God's Kingdom will triumph in the end.
Unfortunately, we have dropped the FAITHFUL part of "faithful departed" and replaced it with the undertakers oily "dear departed". That is to say, we have totally eliminiated any understanding that the suffering implied is "martyr" related, received as a result of being a "witness" in the world to the Gospel.
We have applied the text's language about those who have sufffered for the faith to those who have suffered at all. We have begun to define life as suffering, so all get rewarded. I don't think that's what was meant by this passage, and we, as preachers, need to reclaim the issue of suffering "for the faith", of being persecuted because one is a Christian, because one takes a stand and acts on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the neglected, "the least of these".
To do anything else cheapens God's Grace to the point that it is, well, pointless.
SECOND READING: I John 3:1-3
"Beloved, we are God's Children now; ..." What does it mean to be a child of God?
When I was a kid, I couldn't say my L's and W's, I got them backwards. My mother still laughs at my early attempts to say Pillow and Pickle.
There was a man at church who liked to ask me who I was, because he knew I would sputter and say "Im Woleww Chiwton's boy! (Lowell Chilton's boy) He did it every Sunday, and laughed every Sunday. The main thing I remember about that is I knew who I was, and who I was was related directly to family and parentage.
Most people in the modern American world do not thinkof their identity as being a "Child of God". This is an image which has been culturally lost. We are independent, individual, adult, mature, makers of our own destiny, creators of our own future, we are "self-made," we are children of no one. If we have any thought of our relation to God, it is as Co-creators, or as
partners, God is my CO-pilot, which of course puts us in the driver's seat and God along for the ride.
Recovery of the image of ourselves as "children of God" is important to our spiritual health. It is a key to a restoration of wonder and awe and mystery as a vital part of the way we look at the world. We have told ourselves that we are in charge of our fate; Katrina and Rita and Wilma and Tsunamis and Earthquakes have reminded us just how far from the truth that is.
To have a healthy relationship with the world and with the Holy, we must return to the place of wide-eyed observors and learners, ready to learn and relate, not subdue and conquer.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 5:1-12 (the Beatitudes)
I think the low point for the Beatitudes came when Robert Schuller reduced tham to Pop Psychology with his early 80's book on the "BE HAPPY ATTITUDES". I bet his New Testament Professor at the Reformed Church seminary was rolling over in his grave at that one!
They have been accused of being a sop to the underclass, along the lines of Marx's Religion As the OPIATE of the People, of the "pie in the sky, by and by" variety. They have been read as part of an eschatological ethic, imposssible for real people in the real world to achieve.
The really interesting thing is not that Jesus talks about the coming rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven. This was pretty standard stuff in those days of Messianic Hope.
The surprising thing is to whom Jesus says these rewards will come: the blessed, the sainted are not the Good, the Devout, those obviously favored by God because of their wealth and their position. No, Jesus says that God favors the poor, the sad, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted and suffer for doing the right thing and for caring for those in need.
I was thinking about a line from Flannery O'Connors novel "Wise Blood". There, her anti-hero,
the very strange Hazel Motes, replies to a question of his salvation, "Any man with a good car don't need redemption." And most of us agree with him. Anyone with a good job, a good marriage, good health, and good insurance don't need redemption. Which is why the church has stopped preaching the Gospel and started preaching self-help, relationship guidelines and politics from left to right. We're going to get a "good car" and to heck with redemption.
at least that's what I think.
Peace,
Delmo.
I'm not much on the"Book of Revelations" as they call it here in Western NC. I'm with Luther on this one, who said that a Revelation ought to reveal something, and he had never been able to make head nor tails out of it. (Well, he said something in German that meant what I just said,
the peasant idioms being different).
But on All Saints Sunday, this text is a good place to begin in terms of the "faithful departed" part of the day's theme. I have to confess that the "robed in white, chanting around the throne of God image" leaves me cold. I can't sing and I get white stuff dirty immediately. But, then I remember it's poetic [thanks Bruggermann(?) ] and I relax and realize the message is intended as one of "hold on" in the midst of persecution and those suffering for God's Kingdom will triumph in the end.
Unfortunately, we have dropped the FAITHFUL part of "faithful departed" and replaced it with the undertakers oily "dear departed". That is to say, we have totally eliminiated any understanding that the suffering implied is "martyr" related, received as a result of being a "witness" in the world to the Gospel.
We have applied the text's language about those who have sufffered for the faith to those who have suffered at all. We have begun to define life as suffering, so all get rewarded. I don't think that's what was meant by this passage, and we, as preachers, need to reclaim the issue of suffering "for the faith", of being persecuted because one is a Christian, because one takes a stand and acts on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the neglected, "the least of these".
To do anything else cheapens God's Grace to the point that it is, well, pointless.
SECOND READING: I John 3:1-3
"Beloved, we are God's Children now; ..." What does it mean to be a child of God?
When I was a kid, I couldn't say my L's and W's, I got them backwards. My mother still laughs at my early attempts to say Pillow and Pickle.
There was a man at church who liked to ask me who I was, because he knew I would sputter and say "Im Woleww Chiwton's boy! (Lowell Chilton's boy) He did it every Sunday, and laughed every Sunday. The main thing I remember about that is I knew who I was, and who I was was related directly to family and parentage.
Most people in the modern American world do not thinkof their identity as being a "Child of God". This is an image which has been culturally lost. We are independent, individual, adult, mature, makers of our own destiny, creators of our own future, we are "self-made," we are children of no one. If we have any thought of our relation to God, it is as Co-creators, or as
partners, God is my CO-pilot, which of course puts us in the driver's seat and God along for the ride.
Recovery of the image of ourselves as "children of God" is important to our spiritual health. It is a key to a restoration of wonder and awe and mystery as a vital part of the way we look at the world. We have told ourselves that we are in charge of our fate; Katrina and Rita and Wilma and Tsunamis and Earthquakes have reminded us just how far from the truth that is.
To have a healthy relationship with the world and with the Holy, we must return to the place of wide-eyed observors and learners, ready to learn and relate, not subdue and conquer.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 5:1-12 (the Beatitudes)
I think the low point for the Beatitudes came when Robert Schuller reduced tham to Pop Psychology with his early 80's book on the "BE HAPPY ATTITUDES". I bet his New Testament Professor at the Reformed Church seminary was rolling over in his grave at that one!
They have been accused of being a sop to the underclass, along the lines of Marx's Religion As the OPIATE of the People, of the "pie in the sky, by and by" variety. They have been read as part of an eschatological ethic, imposssible for real people in the real world to achieve.
The really interesting thing is not that Jesus talks about the coming rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven. This was pretty standard stuff in those days of Messianic Hope.
The surprising thing is to whom Jesus says these rewards will come: the blessed, the sainted are not the Good, the Devout, those obviously favored by God because of their wealth and their position. No, Jesus says that God favors the poor, the sad, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted and suffer for doing the right thing and for caring for those in need.
I was thinking about a line from Flannery O'Connors novel "Wise Blood". There, her anti-hero,
the very strange Hazel Motes, replies to a question of his salvation, "Any man with a good car don't need redemption." And most of us agree with him. Anyone with a good job, a good marriage, good health, and good insurance don't need redemption. Which is why the church has stopped preaching the Gospel and started preaching self-help, relationship guidelines and politics from left to right. We're going to get a "good car" and to heck with redemption.
at least that's what I think.
Peace,
Delmo.
Friday, October 28, 2005
REFORMATION SUNDAY: Lutheran Texts for Oct. 30, 2005
FIRST READING: Jeremiah 31-34
". . .for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
When I was a kid, I said "I'm sorry" a lot. So much so that my mother, in pure exasperation, once shouted at me, "I know you're sorry, you're always sorry. I don't want to hear how sorry you are. I want you to stop doing it."
I have to say that most of my "sorry-ness" was not true repentance seeking a genuine forgiveness, not when I was a kid, not even much later in life. It was not motivated by an awareness of true guilt for having acted wrongly. Rather it was an attempt to stave off punishment after getting caught doing things "powerful" others (parents, teachers, residence advisors, spouse, parishioners, bishops) didn't want me to do.
I developed a genuine need for forgivenenss only when I recognized that the failures with those folks were not failures of action, but of relationship. In a true relationship, a balanced and loving relationship, one acts faithfully not of of fear of punishment but in response to trust and love.
To sin, either before God or our neighbor, is to break that trust, to act against it, to step outside the circle of love. And when you find yourself outside the love which is as essential to real life as air is to breathing, then the plea for forgiveness is a plea to be restored to the relationship of trust.
When that happens, when you need that kind of forgiveness from God or wife or parent or children or significant other; then the words of Jeremiah remind us that God can give that kind of forgiveness, not a petty little "Oh, it's okay, don't worry about it,' but a hearty, "I know you have failed, but I love you and will treat you as if it never happened."
It is in that kind of forgiveness that our sorry-ness is transformed into holiness, and the greatest Reformation of all.
SECOND READING: Romans 3:19-28
"For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by law."
For most of us, most of the time, the Gospel is just a little too good to believe. There's got to be a catch, a hidden clause, something that we have to do so that we can be sure that we're saved.
We just have trouble putting our full weight down on the promise of this text.
My Aunt Mildred died this past spring. She was in her 80's. In August, my siblings and I got together to work on settling her estate. As we were walking though the house, I noticed a machine attached to the back of her Laz-y-boy. My brother, who is an architect and builder and lives close by and took care of her, identified it as an auxiliary generator. The "why?" question was all over my face. He said,
Well, it's an electric chair with a motor to lift the seat up slowly so that it was easy for her to get out. A few years ago I dropped by to see her and
she said, "I'm having trouble getting out of my chair lately."
I said, "Is there something wrong with the motor? I'll take a look."
She said, "There's nothing wrong with the motor. I don't ever plug it in.
I said, "Well, why not?" and
she said, "Well, what if I was laying back in it and the power went out. I wouldn't be able to get out of it.
Hence the auxiliary power pack.
Many of us are like Aunt Mildred. Kind of afraid to fully trust the Gospel, to trust God's promise to be with us, to save us. So we get a little auxiliary power pack of good deeds, just in case.
Money given, offices filled, good deeds done. We don't flaunt them, but we keep them around, just in case.
The Gospel is, we are accepted on the strength of God's love for us. And those things we do are done in response to God's love; not in order to win God's love. But it's a hard truth to live into.
I don't really trust it myself sometimes, except when I'm preaching it, which is why I love to preach so much, I think.
GOSPEL: JOhn 8:31-36
". . . and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Jesus Christ
". . .but first, it will make you miserable." The late Rev. Dr. Benny Bedenbaugh, Professor of New Testament, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
A few year ago I was in a bookstore in Nashville and happened upon two books I had never seen before. I bought them both on the spot.
One was "The Optimist's Guide to History"
The other was "The Pessimist's Guide to History"
While I was writing the check, the clerk looked at me quizically and said, "I've sold a lot of these books, but nobody's ever bought both of them at the same time."
I said, "well, I guess most people are either optimists or pessimists, but I'm just a preacher looking for sermon illustrations."
As I thought more about it, I realized that it was likely that optimists bought the optimist's version and the pessismists bought the pessimist's version, which means they weren't really looking for the truth, they were looking for evidence to bolster their already established opinions.
And most of us are like that, most of the time. Most of what we refer to as "the truth" or "just the facts" are those tidbits of data which bolster our world view. Good enough. There's really nothing wrong with that; our human-ness hardly allows us to do anything else.
The problem comes when we treat the Truth of the Gospel like a factoid to be marshalled in defense of our various time limited political positions.
The Truth spoken of here is a living, active, moving Word of God, which breaks through our Optimism and our Pessimism and rearranges our head and our heart in ways we never imagined. It is a Truth that smashes all our preconceptions and ideas and reconstructs them on the basis of God's Love and Grace.
That kind of God, bringing that kind of truth, is not really interested in whether or not we are optimist or pessimists, doesn't really care what we make of the various denominational difference, could care less about whether we pray standing up, sitting or kneeling, etc. etc.
That kind of God doesn't want our spare time or our spare change. The God of Truth wants us.
Henry R. Rust writes of a visit ot a tiny Christian Congregation in a village in Kenya. It met in the open air beneath a thatched roof. When it came time for the offering, a round, flat basket was passed up and down the rows of benches as people placed coins and bills in it.
The basket came to a young woman with two small children. She took the basket and laid it on the ground in front of her. She took off her sandals and then stood in the basket, head bowed, praying silently for a full minute, then she stepped out of the basket and passed it on.
That's what the God of real Truth wants.
Peace,
Delmo
". . .for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
When I was a kid, I said "I'm sorry" a lot. So much so that my mother, in pure exasperation, once shouted at me, "I know you're sorry, you're always sorry. I don't want to hear how sorry you are. I want you to stop doing it."
I have to say that most of my "sorry-ness" was not true repentance seeking a genuine forgiveness, not when I was a kid, not even much later in life. It was not motivated by an awareness of true guilt for having acted wrongly. Rather it was an attempt to stave off punishment after getting caught doing things "powerful" others (parents, teachers, residence advisors, spouse, parishioners, bishops) didn't want me to do.
I developed a genuine need for forgivenenss only when I recognized that the failures with those folks were not failures of action, but of relationship. In a true relationship, a balanced and loving relationship, one acts faithfully not of of fear of punishment but in response to trust and love.
To sin, either before God or our neighbor, is to break that trust, to act against it, to step outside the circle of love. And when you find yourself outside the love which is as essential to real life as air is to breathing, then the plea for forgiveness is a plea to be restored to the relationship of trust.
When that happens, when you need that kind of forgiveness from God or wife or parent or children or significant other; then the words of Jeremiah remind us that God can give that kind of forgiveness, not a petty little "Oh, it's okay, don't worry about it,' but a hearty, "I know you have failed, but I love you and will treat you as if it never happened."
It is in that kind of forgiveness that our sorry-ness is transformed into holiness, and the greatest Reformation of all.
SECOND READING: Romans 3:19-28
"For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by law."
For most of us, most of the time, the Gospel is just a little too good to believe. There's got to be a catch, a hidden clause, something that we have to do so that we can be sure that we're saved.
We just have trouble putting our full weight down on the promise of this text.
My Aunt Mildred died this past spring. She was in her 80's. In August, my siblings and I got together to work on settling her estate. As we were walking though the house, I noticed a machine attached to the back of her Laz-y-boy. My brother, who is an architect and builder and lives close by and took care of her, identified it as an auxiliary generator. The "why?" question was all over my face. He said,
Well, it's an electric chair with a motor to lift the seat up slowly so that it was easy for her to get out. A few years ago I dropped by to see her and
she said, "I'm having trouble getting out of my chair lately."
I said, "Is there something wrong with the motor? I'll take a look."
She said, "There's nothing wrong with the motor. I don't ever plug it in.
I said, "Well, why not?" and
she said, "Well, what if I was laying back in it and the power went out. I wouldn't be able to get out of it.
Hence the auxiliary power pack.
Many of us are like Aunt Mildred. Kind of afraid to fully trust the Gospel, to trust God's promise to be with us, to save us. So we get a little auxiliary power pack of good deeds, just in case.
Money given, offices filled, good deeds done. We don't flaunt them, but we keep them around, just in case.
The Gospel is, we are accepted on the strength of God's love for us. And those things we do are done in response to God's love; not in order to win God's love. But it's a hard truth to live into.
I don't really trust it myself sometimes, except when I'm preaching it, which is why I love to preach so much, I think.
GOSPEL: JOhn 8:31-36
". . . and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Jesus Christ
". . .but first, it will make you miserable." The late Rev. Dr. Benny Bedenbaugh, Professor of New Testament, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
A few year ago I was in a bookstore in Nashville and happened upon two books I had never seen before. I bought them both on the spot.
One was "The Optimist's Guide to History"
The other was "The Pessimist's Guide to History"
While I was writing the check, the clerk looked at me quizically and said, "I've sold a lot of these books, but nobody's ever bought both of them at the same time."
I said, "well, I guess most people are either optimists or pessimists, but I'm just a preacher looking for sermon illustrations."
As I thought more about it, I realized that it was likely that optimists bought the optimist's version and the pessismists bought the pessimist's version, which means they weren't really looking for the truth, they were looking for evidence to bolster their already established opinions.
And most of us are like that, most of the time. Most of what we refer to as "the truth" or "just the facts" are those tidbits of data which bolster our world view. Good enough. There's really nothing wrong with that; our human-ness hardly allows us to do anything else.
The problem comes when we treat the Truth of the Gospel like a factoid to be marshalled in defense of our various time limited political positions.
The Truth spoken of here is a living, active, moving Word of God, which breaks through our Optimism and our Pessimism and rearranges our head and our heart in ways we never imagined. It is a Truth that smashes all our preconceptions and ideas and reconstructs them on the basis of God's Love and Grace.
That kind of God, bringing that kind of truth, is not really interested in whether or not we are optimist or pessimists, doesn't really care what we make of the various denominational difference, could care less about whether we pray standing up, sitting or kneeling, etc. etc.
That kind of God doesn't want our spare time or our spare change. The God of Truth wants us.
Henry R. Rust writes of a visit ot a tiny Christian Congregation in a village in Kenya. It met in the open air beneath a thatched roof. When it came time for the offering, a round, flat basket was passed up and down the rows of benches as people placed coins and bills in it.
The basket came to a young woman with two small children. She took the basket and laid it on the ground in front of her. She took off her sandals and then stood in the basket, head bowed, praying silently for a full minute, then she stepped out of the basket and passed it on.
That's what the God of real Truth wants.
Peace,
Delmo
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
PENTECOST 23: RCL Texts for October 23, 2005
FIRST READING: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Huh? What's that doing in Leviticus? Everytime I hear the word Leviticus I think of my many failed attempts to read the Bible through from cover-to-cover.
Genesis was a breeze. Exodus was good too, all that fighting it out with Pharoh stuff, then we get to Leviticus, somewhere in there is where I usually gave it up for a bad job; and went back to my usual state of ignorance, (though I finally did pull it off during seminary, just so I could say I had you understand.) Anyway, what's "love your neighbor" doing in the Old Testament? Didn't Jesus say that?
All right, so I'm not an OT scholar! But I'm not really that bad. I did know that Jesus was quoting the Ot when he said this (and a lot of other things too). But, still, it messes with our easy system, doesn't it? Old Testament is all about Law and Judgement; New Testament is about Gospel and Mercy. Too often that translates into Old is Bad and New is good. (Have to watch that Marcionism. It'll sneak up on you, and its tricky.)
We tend to forget that Jesus was Jewish, and not just ethnically or racially Jewish. His whole Theological, Biblical, Spiritual, Religious identity was Jewish. Jewish thought and ritual shaped and formed his awareness of who he was and who God was. Way too often, we allow some of the anti-leader rhetoric of the Gospels to distort our remembrance that Jesus was a Jew's Jew, an obervant Jew, a synagogue-on-the-Sabbath Jew. Sometimes it feels like we think of Jesus as a chronologically misplaced, modern American, mainline Protestant. (A lot like us, in other words) Not so. A good antidote is reading some good recent works on Jesus which will remind one of just how Jewish Jesus really was, and how much we have strayed from it.
Pick up one of these relatively short books: Who Was Jesus? by NT Wright; The Historical Figure of Jesus or Jesus and Judaism by EP Sanders; and Living Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson.
Or read the OT yourself and then the Gospels. It's amazing what you'll pick up.
SECOND READING: I Thessalonians 2:1-8
". . . even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts."
Back in the summer of 1977, I was a freshly minted Methodist preacher boy, serving my first congregation in rural NC. My Grandmother Hubbard, who was then in her late 80's, came to visit me in my home for a week or two. Grandma was a staunch Baptist who had for years sung loudly and off key in the choir of her local Baptist Church. She was also a loving and wise woman. Whenever I hear the line "Hail Mary, full of grace," I have to confess, I think not of Mary but of Grandma.
Anyway, a friend at the Conference office had phoned me that the Bishop was going to the NC mountains on Sunday and had decided to stop by my church on his way and hear me preach.
I was frantic, sitting in my little study in the parsonage, reading and rereading, typing and retyping, my pitiful little attempt at a sermon.
I felt a presence in the room, and looked up to see Grandma in the doorway, leaning on her walker. "What's the matter with you boy," she said, "you act like the world's coming to an end."
"The Bishop's coming to hear me preach tomorrow," I croaked, almost crying.
She snorted, "Pshaw, You preach in front of Almighty God every Sunday. What's a little bishop compared to that?"
I still get nervous about preaching. But not about my human hearers. I haven't been able to go in the pulpit since without hearing her voice and reminding myself that I preach before God, to God and really on behalf of God.
Thankfully, God is a lot more forgiving than most Bishops I've known.
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 22;34-46
Two illustrations and I'm done. If you can't preach on this text, well, you just can't preach.
1) Jane Vajner took her 4 young boys to church every Sunday. She seldom believed that the boys listened to much of the sermon, but one Sunday she found out different. On that Sunday the Pastor really came on strong with a sermon on turning the other cheek.
That afternoon, the youngest boy came into the house crying. Between sobs, he told his mother that he had kicked one of his brothers, who had kicked him back.
Mom said, "I'm sorry that you're hurt, but you shouldn't go around kicking people.
The boy sniffed and complained, "But the Pastor said he wan't SUPPOSED TO kick me back!"
2) GK Chesterton said something like, "The Bible tells us to love our neighbours. It also tells us to love our enemies. This is because they are quite generally the same people."
Peace,
Delmo
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Huh? What's that doing in Leviticus? Everytime I hear the word Leviticus I think of my many failed attempts to read the Bible through from cover-to-cover.
Genesis was a breeze. Exodus was good too, all that fighting it out with Pharoh stuff, then we get to Leviticus, somewhere in there is where I usually gave it up for a bad job; and went back to my usual state of ignorance, (though I finally did pull it off during seminary, just so I could say I had you understand.) Anyway, what's "love your neighbor" doing in the Old Testament? Didn't Jesus say that?
All right, so I'm not an OT scholar! But I'm not really that bad. I did know that Jesus was quoting the Ot when he said this (and a lot of other things too). But, still, it messes with our easy system, doesn't it? Old Testament is all about Law and Judgement; New Testament is about Gospel and Mercy. Too often that translates into Old is Bad and New is good. (Have to watch that Marcionism. It'll sneak up on you, and its tricky.)
We tend to forget that Jesus was Jewish, and not just ethnically or racially Jewish. His whole Theological, Biblical, Spiritual, Religious identity was Jewish. Jewish thought and ritual shaped and formed his awareness of who he was and who God was. Way too often, we allow some of the anti-leader rhetoric of the Gospels to distort our remembrance that Jesus was a Jew's Jew, an obervant Jew, a synagogue-on-the-Sabbath Jew. Sometimes it feels like we think of Jesus as a chronologically misplaced, modern American, mainline Protestant. (A lot like us, in other words) Not so. A good antidote is reading some good recent works on Jesus which will remind one of just how Jewish Jesus really was, and how much we have strayed from it.
Pick up one of these relatively short books: Who Was Jesus? by NT Wright; The Historical Figure of Jesus or Jesus and Judaism by EP Sanders; and Living Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson.
Or read the OT yourself and then the Gospels. It's amazing what you'll pick up.
SECOND READING: I Thessalonians 2:1-8
". . . even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts."
Back in the summer of 1977, I was a freshly minted Methodist preacher boy, serving my first congregation in rural NC. My Grandmother Hubbard, who was then in her late 80's, came to visit me in my home for a week or two. Grandma was a staunch Baptist who had for years sung loudly and off key in the choir of her local Baptist Church. She was also a loving and wise woman. Whenever I hear the line "Hail Mary, full of grace," I have to confess, I think not of Mary but of Grandma.
Anyway, a friend at the Conference office had phoned me that the Bishop was going to the NC mountains on Sunday and had decided to stop by my church on his way and hear me preach.
I was frantic, sitting in my little study in the parsonage, reading and rereading, typing and retyping, my pitiful little attempt at a sermon.
I felt a presence in the room, and looked up to see Grandma in the doorway, leaning on her walker. "What's the matter with you boy," she said, "you act like the world's coming to an end."
"The Bishop's coming to hear me preach tomorrow," I croaked, almost crying.
She snorted, "Pshaw, You preach in front of Almighty God every Sunday. What's a little bishop compared to that?"
I still get nervous about preaching. But not about my human hearers. I haven't been able to go in the pulpit since without hearing her voice and reminding myself that I preach before God, to God and really on behalf of God.
Thankfully, God is a lot more forgiving than most Bishops I've known.
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 22;34-46
Two illustrations and I'm done. If you can't preach on this text, well, you just can't preach.
1) Jane Vajner took her 4 young boys to church every Sunday. She seldom believed that the boys listened to much of the sermon, but one Sunday she found out different. On that Sunday the Pastor really came on strong with a sermon on turning the other cheek.
That afternoon, the youngest boy came into the house crying. Between sobs, he told his mother that he had kicked one of his brothers, who had kicked him back.
Mom said, "I'm sorry that you're hurt, but you shouldn't go around kicking people.
The boy sniffed and complained, "But the Pastor said he wan't SUPPOSED TO kick me back!"
2) GK Chesterton said something like, "The Bible tells us to love our neighbours. It also tells us to love our enemies. This is because they are quite generally the same people."
Peace,
Delmo
Monday, October 10, 2005
Pentecost 22, RCL texts for Oct. 16, 2005
First Lesson; Isaiah 45:1-7
"Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus(?)" My sons (both in college now) sometimes call me "Dr. Half-right". A couple of weeks ago, while lecturing at Earlham School of Religion, I did it again, showing why. I was trying to reference Judy Garland, but I said Judy Holliday, remembering that Judy Garland played Billie Holliday. Thus, "Dr. Half-right." I do it all the time and I did it again in thinking about this text. I said to myself, "Cyrus? Cyrus? Didn't Cyrus Vance invent some farm implement, back in the 1800' s, in Virginia? Well, not exactly, Cyrus MCCORMICK invented a reaper, Cyrus Vance was in the Jimmy Carter administrarion as secretary of Something like War or State. Dr. Half-right strikes again.
Anyway, the whole Cyrus, the Anointed One thing is about as jarring as some of my half-right references are to those who really know. It sounds as wrong as "King Ralph", that goofy John Goodman movie of a few years back.
We're just not used to an ordinary name like Cyrus being tied up with God and power and sweet-sounding phrases like "the Lord's Anointed." Jesus is the Lord's Anointed, as was King David. But not Cyrus, it just doesn't sound right.
And, well he wasn't Jewish, or even a fellow-traveler, proselyte type. He was a king, a tyrant, a dictator, a conqueror. Why does Isaiah call him "The Lord's Anointed?"
Well, acouple of thoughts come to mind, one of which is along the "God's ways are not my ways and God's thoughts are not my thoughts" vein. God is using Cyrus even if Cyrus doesn't know it. God is accomplishing God's purposes thorugh Cyrus, with or without Cyrus' cooperation. I have to admit that in its full flush, that thought is a little too Predestinarian for me, but I also have to admit its got Biblical precedent all over it; so, I must at least recognize that, as with Joseph's brothers (Genesis 20:19-20), God works good out of evil, and uses people who are cooperating to do the Divine Will.
Secondly, it ill behooves a person with a name like Delmer to be making cuts on anybody's name. And, God does use the ordinary, all the time, to do the extraordinary. Put another way, not only is Cyrus the Lord's Anointed, but so are we all. We just don't have a religously named chronicler like Isiah to pronounce to the world, in rich and fulsome phrases, the significance of our daily doings.
Second Lesson: I Thessalonians 1:1-10
". . .your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope."
All preachers have their "set pieces", their regular phrases that crop up over and over in their sermons. ML King Jr.'s was a bit on the three Greek words for love; eros, philia and agape. It was an old horse, but he kept it in good shape and rode it well. Faith, hope and love has the feel of such a tried and true formula for Paul. It occurs also in I Cor. 13:13, Col 1:3-5, and again in I Thess, at 5:8.
What strikes a good Lutheran about Paul's use of the phrase this time is the way he uncharacteristically ties together "work" and "faith". Lutherans, of course, are death on anything that smacks of works righteousness. So, the phrase has taken me aback, somewhat.
The Concordia Self-Study Bible, produced by the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, says in a footnote that it means works are prompted by faith. Well, that's consistent Lutheran theology, but its' not what the text says.
Leader Keck, in the Interpreter's One Volume Commentary was helpful here. He says, "The famous triad of I Cor. 13:13 appears here in a different order. All three phrases must be taken together and in all three the word "of" is important. Rather than work inspired by faith, etc., Paul speaks of work as a form of faith, labor as the shape of love, steadfastness as the manifestation of hope. " (p.867)
All this reminds me of how frequently we read our Denominational Theology into the Bible.
I was just reading in Peter Day's Denominational History book again (see mammalarians on Sept. 22) and there was a short bit about Two-Seed-in-The-Spirit-Predestinarian-Baptists.
They were started by an 1840's Baptist preacher who read the text in Genensis where God throws Adam and Eve out of the Garden and says to Eve and the Serpent that there would be enmity between her seed and the seed of the serpent. In this, the preacher saw pure Predestinationism: each of us born with either the seed of salvation or the seed of the serpent. And since this seed was in the spirit and not in the flesh, nothing could be done about it. We are fated for Heaven or Hell from conception. My point is, "Does anybody else really see predestination in that text?" Probably not. The preacher brought it to the text.
It is difficult for us to really, really listen for God's voice in the Scriptures. There are so many filters we bring to the equation. And so much we miss because we have filtered it out. And so much that's not there that we think we hear because we are looking for it.
I may well preach on this text. It has a nice tripartite construction: Work, Labor, Steadfastness. Faith, Love, Hope. Faith in the past, love in the present, hope for the future. etc. etc.
And it will do a Lutheran good to talks about "Work of Faith" without choking on it. If you're a Methodist, try preaching on a predestination text: it'll do you good and surprise your congregation.
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 22:15-22
"Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's"
Boy, isn't it great that the Lectionary Committee finally got with the program and tied a text to the REAL Church year. I'm as liturgical as the next person, but every once in a while you long for a text that ties in with what's really going on in the church at the time. Like Jesus as a boy in the temple, studying the Scriptures. That would be good around Rally Day. And that Paul text about obeying the Civilian authorities; would it kill them to slide that in around the Fourth of July? And I Corinthians 13 on the Sunday closest to Valentine's Day. C'mon, let's get real about what's important in the real church.
So here it is Stewardship Campaign time, and woohoo, we get the text we need, and we didn't pick it. Funds are tight, budgets are getting made, (pastoral salaries contemplated!) And there it is, big as life, just dying to be preached.
Just one problem. This text isn't really about money, is it? It's about about identity and commitments and relationships. When those things become clear, its about money, sort of.
This was a trick question and the Pharisees knew it. If Jesus says Yes, he could be accused of a religous fault, worshiping a god other than the LORD God of Israel. If he says no, he could be accused of fostering a revolt against the emperor. Either way, they figure they've got him.
Jesus answere slips the noose by making the Pharisees answer. Whose picture is on the coin? Then give the coin back to its maker. Neat Trick.
Then Jesus goes further. Give to God the things that are God's.
Too often, we have heard (and preached) this text as : Give the money you owe to Caesar to Caesar and the money you owe to God to God. Or more directly: Pay taxes to the government and give a tithe to the church.
Makes a good stewardship sermon. Too bad it's not what Jesus said or meant.
The key word is IMAGE. The emperor's image was on the coin, give the coin back to the emperor.
God's image is on your life, give your life to God. Give to God that which belongs to God.
Human beings bear the mark of our maker, we will return to our maker, and in the meantime we are to imitate and serve our maker. That's what Jesus said.
It is not a question of what percentage of our income, or our goods or our time or our talent belongs to God, not a matter of apportioning it out. It's all God's, as are we. We are made in the image of God, the mark of Christ, given to us in Baptism, is on our lives now and forever.
In whose image are you made? Jesus asks us. If the answer is God, then it is clear tht we are being asked to give ourselves totally to God. We are the things that are God's.
I read a story somewhere about a kid named Benji. When he was little, his very devout evangelical Mama asked him if he was ready to ask Jesus to live in his heart?
He thought about it a minute and said, "I don't know Mama. I don't think I want the responsibility."
I know how you feel kid. But want it our not, we've got it.
Peace,
delmo
"Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus(?)" My sons (both in college now) sometimes call me "Dr. Half-right". A couple of weeks ago, while lecturing at Earlham School of Religion, I did it again, showing why. I was trying to reference Judy Garland, but I said Judy Holliday, remembering that Judy Garland played Billie Holliday. Thus, "Dr. Half-right." I do it all the time and I did it again in thinking about this text. I said to myself, "Cyrus? Cyrus? Didn't Cyrus Vance invent some farm implement, back in the 1800' s, in Virginia? Well, not exactly, Cyrus MCCORMICK invented a reaper, Cyrus Vance was in the Jimmy Carter administrarion as secretary of Something like War or State. Dr. Half-right strikes again.
Anyway, the whole Cyrus, the Anointed One thing is about as jarring as some of my half-right references are to those who really know. It sounds as wrong as "King Ralph", that goofy John Goodman movie of a few years back.
We're just not used to an ordinary name like Cyrus being tied up with God and power and sweet-sounding phrases like "the Lord's Anointed." Jesus is the Lord's Anointed, as was King David. But not Cyrus, it just doesn't sound right.
And, well he wasn't Jewish, or even a fellow-traveler, proselyte type. He was a king, a tyrant, a dictator, a conqueror. Why does Isaiah call him "The Lord's Anointed?"
Well, acouple of thoughts come to mind, one of which is along the "God's ways are not my ways and God's thoughts are not my thoughts" vein. God is using Cyrus even if Cyrus doesn't know it. God is accomplishing God's purposes thorugh Cyrus, with or without Cyrus' cooperation. I have to admit that in its full flush, that thought is a little too Predestinarian for me, but I also have to admit its got Biblical precedent all over it; so, I must at least recognize that, as with Joseph's brothers (Genesis 20:19-20), God works good out of evil, and uses people who are cooperating to do the Divine Will.
Secondly, it ill behooves a person with a name like Delmer to be making cuts on anybody's name. And, God does use the ordinary, all the time, to do the extraordinary. Put another way, not only is Cyrus the Lord's Anointed, but so are we all. We just don't have a religously named chronicler like Isiah to pronounce to the world, in rich and fulsome phrases, the significance of our daily doings.
Second Lesson: I Thessalonians 1:1-10
". . .your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope."
All preachers have their "set pieces", their regular phrases that crop up over and over in their sermons. ML King Jr.'s was a bit on the three Greek words for love; eros, philia and agape. It was an old horse, but he kept it in good shape and rode it well. Faith, hope and love has the feel of such a tried and true formula for Paul. It occurs also in I Cor. 13:13, Col 1:3-5, and again in I Thess, at 5:8.
What strikes a good Lutheran about Paul's use of the phrase this time is the way he uncharacteristically ties together "work" and "faith". Lutherans, of course, are death on anything that smacks of works righteousness. So, the phrase has taken me aback, somewhat.
The Concordia Self-Study Bible, produced by the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, says in a footnote that it means works are prompted by faith. Well, that's consistent Lutheran theology, but its' not what the text says.
Leader Keck, in the Interpreter's One Volume Commentary was helpful here. He says, "The famous triad of I Cor. 13:13 appears here in a different order. All three phrases must be taken together and in all three the word "of" is important. Rather than work inspired by faith, etc., Paul speaks of work as a form of faith, labor as the shape of love, steadfastness as the manifestation of hope. " (p.867)
All this reminds me of how frequently we read our Denominational Theology into the Bible.
I was just reading in Peter Day's Denominational History book again (see mammalarians on Sept. 22) and there was a short bit about Two-Seed-in-The-Spirit-Predestinarian-Baptists.
They were started by an 1840's Baptist preacher who read the text in Genensis where God throws Adam and Eve out of the Garden and says to Eve and the Serpent that there would be enmity between her seed and the seed of the serpent. In this, the preacher saw pure Predestinationism: each of us born with either the seed of salvation or the seed of the serpent. And since this seed was in the spirit and not in the flesh, nothing could be done about it. We are fated for Heaven or Hell from conception. My point is, "Does anybody else really see predestination in that text?" Probably not. The preacher brought it to the text.
It is difficult for us to really, really listen for God's voice in the Scriptures. There are so many filters we bring to the equation. And so much we miss because we have filtered it out. And so much that's not there that we think we hear because we are looking for it.
I may well preach on this text. It has a nice tripartite construction: Work, Labor, Steadfastness. Faith, Love, Hope. Faith in the past, love in the present, hope for the future. etc. etc.
And it will do a Lutheran good to talks about "Work of Faith" without choking on it. If you're a Methodist, try preaching on a predestination text: it'll do you good and surprise your congregation.
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 22:15-22
"Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's"
Boy, isn't it great that the Lectionary Committee finally got with the program and tied a text to the REAL Church year. I'm as liturgical as the next person, but every once in a while you long for a text that ties in with what's really going on in the church at the time. Like Jesus as a boy in the temple, studying the Scriptures. That would be good around Rally Day. And that Paul text about obeying the Civilian authorities; would it kill them to slide that in around the Fourth of July? And I Corinthians 13 on the Sunday closest to Valentine's Day. C'mon, let's get real about what's important in the real church.
So here it is Stewardship Campaign time, and woohoo, we get the text we need, and we didn't pick it. Funds are tight, budgets are getting made, (pastoral salaries contemplated!) And there it is, big as life, just dying to be preached.
Just one problem. This text isn't really about money, is it? It's about about identity and commitments and relationships. When those things become clear, its about money, sort of.
This was a trick question and the Pharisees knew it. If Jesus says Yes, he could be accused of a religous fault, worshiping a god other than the LORD God of Israel. If he says no, he could be accused of fostering a revolt against the emperor. Either way, they figure they've got him.
Jesus answere slips the noose by making the Pharisees answer. Whose picture is on the coin? Then give the coin back to its maker. Neat Trick.
Then Jesus goes further. Give to God the things that are God's.
Too often, we have heard (and preached) this text as : Give the money you owe to Caesar to Caesar and the money you owe to God to God. Or more directly: Pay taxes to the government and give a tithe to the church.
Makes a good stewardship sermon. Too bad it's not what Jesus said or meant.
The key word is IMAGE. The emperor's image was on the coin, give the coin back to the emperor.
God's image is on your life, give your life to God. Give to God that which belongs to God.
Human beings bear the mark of our maker, we will return to our maker, and in the meantime we are to imitate and serve our maker. That's what Jesus said.
It is not a question of what percentage of our income, or our goods or our time or our talent belongs to God, not a matter of apportioning it out. It's all God's, as are we. We are made in the image of God, the mark of Christ, given to us in Baptism, is on our lives now and forever.
In whose image are you made? Jesus asks us. If the answer is God, then it is clear tht we are being asked to give ourselves totally to God. We are the things that are God's.
I read a story somewhere about a kid named Benji. When he was little, his very devout evangelical Mama asked him if he was ready to ask Jesus to live in his heart?
He thought about it a minute and said, "I don't know Mama. I don't think I want the responsibility."
I know how you feel kid. But want it our not, we've got it.
Peace,
delmo
Thursday, September 22, 2005
PENTECOST 19: RCL texts for September 25, 2005
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
verses 3 and 4: "As I live, says the LORD GOD this proverb shall no longer be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die."
The proverb in question says that the Parents eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. In another place in Scripture the same thought is stated even more deterministicly and theologically: The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children and the children's children to the seventh generation.
Here in Ezekiel we have one of the first hints of individual responsibility before God. Luther put it this way, "We are born alone, we die alone, we face God alone." and that is true. But between being born; and dying and facing God, we (for good or ill) live in some sort of human community.
And that human community plays a part in shaping us into people who understand that our actions in life have implications for others as well as ourselves and as much as possible attempt to take actions which benefit others as well as benefit ourselves. And some people are raised in communities which shape, or bend, them in the opposite direction, a direction filled with admontions that "it's every (person) for his/her self", "look out for number one", and"what's in it for me."
So, once again we find ourselves in the midst of ambiguity and paradox. On the one hand, as the poet and preacher John Donne said, "no man is an island," we are always in the midst of community, are shaped by community and are responsible to and for community. On the other hand, as the spiritual says, "you have to walk that lonesome valley" by yourself. WE are individuals, responsible for our own actions, accountable for our own behaviour.
And this text reminds us of this paradox and calls us to keep it in tension. May God help us.
SECOND READING: Phillipians 2:1-13
verses 6-7: " . .who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. etc."
Here's an idea: use this lesson, in particular verses 5-11, as the Creed or Affirmation of Faith this Sunday. It is, of course, an early hymn or liturgical worship piece, and using it with congregational participation would remind the congregation of this. Perhaps it could be broken into "half-verses" and read like a Psalm or "Responsive Reading".
This text is one of the best remedies to what I call "the abusive Father theory of the Atonement", otherwise called Substitutionary Atonement. In this theory God's Justice is pure and has been violated by each and every human being, which has aroused God's wrath and God's judgement must be "satisified" and God's wrath "appeased." Not not just any sacrifice will foot the bill here, the sacrifice must be "pure" and "perfect" and "without blemish." Ta Da, here's Jesus; the perfect, sinless human being, willing to be sacrificed to appease God's wrath, fulfill God's implacable judgement and justice, to stand in our place and accept our punishment.
Once Jesus dies, God's wrath is apparently spent and he now can love us. Thus, the "Abusive Father theory of the Atonemant." Everytime I hear this preached, I see an angry, abusive Father bent on beating the problematic children and just as he has worked himself up into a fit, the elder brother steps in and the Father beats the "Hell" out of him, and then he is so sorry and I love you all, etc. etc. (I know the technical theory is much more sophisticated than this, but...)
Philippians provides us with an alternative vison. A priviledged son of God, who was indeed "in the form of God' who voluntarily came into the midst of our troubled human lives to be with us and to serve us as a "humble slave", who sufffered what we suffer, and came not to assuage an angry God, but to show us the way through Death. To show to us that lives lived in fear of death are half lives, that the only way to live is to live each day fully and morally, trusting God with what happens after death.
And no, my father wasn't abusive. In fact, we preferred his spankings to those of my mother. He was a big man and I think he was afraid of hurting us.
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 21:23-32
verse 31: "Which of these two did the will of his father?"
That aforementioned Daddy of mine was a somewhat old-fashioned guy. He really didn't understand the concept of disobedience. We lived on a farm and everybody worked in some capacity from the time they were 5 or 6 years old. And Daddy was the Foreman of this Motley Crew of children. When it came to the work, which was our livelihood, he brooked no opposition, he gave orders and expected them to be obeyed.
Thus, when he told you to do something, and he came back later and discovered it not to have been done, he was well, flabbergasted, and he said, "Didn't you hear me?" For to Daddy, no other explanation made any sense, the only way one of his children would not do something he told them to do was that they had not heard him.
In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus gets into a dialogue with the "chief priests and elders" about
religious authority and God's will and sinful people, etc. and Jesus makes the point that it is obedience in action rather than verbal assent that makes for faithfulness.
The chief priests and elders are the ones who have said to the LORD, "oh yes LORD, this which you command, we will do." and then gone about their business without doing it.
The "tax collectors and prostitutes" are those who have seemingly ignored God's commands, but after their encounters with Jesus, have begun to live lives of generosity and love.
And the Lord says to the hearers/non-doers, "Didn't you hear me?"
And the Lord says to the non-hearers/doers, "Well done, good and faithful servants."
AND, NOW FOR SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT:
I'm been trying to work this in, but I can't, so I'll just share it with you, under the category of "who says Church History is boring". While perusing Peter Day's A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS, I ran accross this item:
MAMMILLARIANS
An ANABAPTIST sect of uncertain date, but whose origin was at Haarlem, in the Netherlands. The name derived from a young man's indiscreet and affectionate touching of his bride-to-be's breast, an act of tenderness that became voiced abroad among members of the sect. This elicted great disapproval amongst some of the members and they urged in favour of excommunication, while others took a more tolerant view. A split occured in the sect, with those who were willing to overlook the display of affection, who subsequently became known as MAMMILLARIANS,
separating from the hardliners. (Day, p.293)
I've read a lot of church history. I'd say that is probably the most legitimate reason for a denominational split I have ever run across ;-)
peace,
Delmo
verses 3 and 4: "As I live, says the LORD GOD this proverb shall no longer be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die."
The proverb in question says that the Parents eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. In another place in Scripture the same thought is stated even more deterministicly and theologically: The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children and the children's children to the seventh generation.
Here in Ezekiel we have one of the first hints of individual responsibility before God. Luther put it this way, "We are born alone, we die alone, we face God alone." and that is true. But between being born; and dying and facing God, we (for good or ill) live in some sort of human community.
And that human community plays a part in shaping us into people who understand that our actions in life have implications for others as well as ourselves and as much as possible attempt to take actions which benefit others as well as benefit ourselves. And some people are raised in communities which shape, or bend, them in the opposite direction, a direction filled with admontions that "it's every (person) for his/her self", "look out for number one", and"what's in it for me."
So, once again we find ourselves in the midst of ambiguity and paradox. On the one hand, as the poet and preacher John Donne said, "no man is an island," we are always in the midst of community, are shaped by community and are responsible to and for community. On the other hand, as the spiritual says, "you have to walk that lonesome valley" by yourself. WE are individuals, responsible for our own actions, accountable for our own behaviour.
And this text reminds us of this paradox and calls us to keep it in tension. May God help us.
SECOND READING: Phillipians 2:1-13
verses 6-7: " . .who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. etc."
Here's an idea: use this lesson, in particular verses 5-11, as the Creed or Affirmation of Faith this Sunday. It is, of course, an early hymn or liturgical worship piece, and using it with congregational participation would remind the congregation of this. Perhaps it could be broken into "half-verses" and read like a Psalm or "Responsive Reading".
This text is one of the best remedies to what I call "the abusive Father theory of the Atonement", otherwise called Substitutionary Atonement. In this theory God's Justice is pure and has been violated by each and every human being, which has aroused God's wrath and God's judgement must be "satisified" and God's wrath "appeased." Not not just any sacrifice will foot the bill here, the sacrifice must be "pure" and "perfect" and "without blemish." Ta Da, here's Jesus; the perfect, sinless human being, willing to be sacrificed to appease God's wrath, fulfill God's implacable judgement and justice, to stand in our place and accept our punishment.
Once Jesus dies, God's wrath is apparently spent and he now can love us. Thus, the "Abusive Father theory of the Atonemant." Everytime I hear this preached, I see an angry, abusive Father bent on beating the problematic children and just as he has worked himself up into a fit, the elder brother steps in and the Father beats the "Hell" out of him, and then he is so sorry and I love you all, etc. etc. (I know the technical theory is much more sophisticated than this, but...)
Philippians provides us with an alternative vison. A priviledged son of God, who was indeed "in the form of God' who voluntarily came into the midst of our troubled human lives to be with us and to serve us as a "humble slave", who sufffered what we suffer, and came not to assuage an angry God, but to show us the way through Death. To show to us that lives lived in fear of death are half lives, that the only way to live is to live each day fully and morally, trusting God with what happens after death.
And no, my father wasn't abusive. In fact, we preferred his spankings to those of my mother. He was a big man and I think he was afraid of hurting us.
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 21:23-32
verse 31: "Which of these two did the will of his father?"
That aforementioned Daddy of mine was a somewhat old-fashioned guy. He really didn't understand the concept of disobedience. We lived on a farm and everybody worked in some capacity from the time they were 5 or 6 years old. And Daddy was the Foreman of this Motley Crew of children. When it came to the work, which was our livelihood, he brooked no opposition, he gave orders and expected them to be obeyed.
Thus, when he told you to do something, and he came back later and discovered it not to have been done, he was well, flabbergasted, and he said, "Didn't you hear me?" For to Daddy, no other explanation made any sense, the only way one of his children would not do something he told them to do was that they had not heard him.
In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus gets into a dialogue with the "chief priests and elders" about
religious authority and God's will and sinful people, etc. and Jesus makes the point that it is obedience in action rather than verbal assent that makes for faithfulness.
The chief priests and elders are the ones who have said to the LORD, "oh yes LORD, this which you command, we will do." and then gone about their business without doing it.
The "tax collectors and prostitutes" are those who have seemingly ignored God's commands, but after their encounters with Jesus, have begun to live lives of generosity and love.
And the Lord says to the hearers/non-doers, "Didn't you hear me?"
And the Lord says to the non-hearers/doers, "Well done, good and faithful servants."
AND, NOW FOR SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT:
I'm been trying to work this in, but I can't, so I'll just share it with you, under the category of "who says Church History is boring". While perusing Peter Day's A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS, I ran accross this item:
MAMMILLARIANS
An ANABAPTIST sect of uncertain date, but whose origin was at Haarlem, in the Netherlands. The name derived from a young man's indiscreet and affectionate touching of his bride-to-be's breast, an act of tenderness that became voiced abroad among members of the sect. This elicted great disapproval amongst some of the members and they urged in favour of excommunication, while others took a more tolerant view. A split occured in the sect, with those who were willing to overlook the display of affection, who subsequently became known as MAMMILLARIANS,
separating from the hardliners. (Day, p.293)
I've read a lot of church history. I'd say that is probably the most legitimate reason for a denominational split I have ever run across ;-)
peace,
Delmo
Friday, September 16, 2005
Pentecost 18
To those of you (and there are a few) who regularly check this site for sermonic musings, I apologize that there will not be much this week. I am in Houston, at The Hospice where my good friend Barbara is dying.
Her husband Jack and I were room-mates at Guilford College back in the early 70's. We were in each others' weddings, godparents to the kids, etc. etc. Jack and Barbara have been married almost thirty years.
Today's Gospel lesson is about fairness, God's fairness, our fairness with each other. And the difference between fairness and God's Grace.
When I was a kid, fairness was very important to me. I grew up poor in a family with 5 children. Life was full of adults with power making decisions for me. Parents, Teachers, Grand-parents, Pastors, etc.
The only defence a kid has is to appeal to fairness, to justice.
The thing that is important to me about my relationship with Jack is that it was in that friendship that I learned that while fairness was an important thing, it wasn't the only thing.
I suppose he had more money than me. But it seemed natural to him that we just shared what we had with each other. We kept a change bowl and ate out when there was enough money in it. We pooled our resources and bought extra snacks for the room. Etc. It's no big thing, but the subject of who put in what or how much never arose. It was about the relationship.
The has held true for his marriage to Barbara. Share and share alike. No calculations or concerns about "fairness".
Which leads me to think that its about relationships, this kingdom of God thing. And wherever we can find a way to trust, really trust, a relationship, then the contracts and fairness fade in importance.
Which is why the judicial image of God's saving acts toward us is not very compelling for me. We don't owe God anything and God doesn't owe us anything.
God loves us, and because God loves us, God bestows on us goodness.
In response we bestow goodness on others, not because they deserve it, but because they need it, and we are brothers and sisters in Christ with all creation, and so we are in "relationship" to all creation.
And, no it's not fair that a wonderful person and flamboyant artist like Barbara is going to die at 51, leaving a devastated husband and many heartbroken friends. But life isn't fair. Neither is the kingdom. As Mark Twain said, "Heaven doesn't go on merit. It goes on Grace. If it went on merit, your dog would get in and you would stay out."
Peace,
Delmo
Her husband Jack and I were room-mates at Guilford College back in the early 70's. We were in each others' weddings, godparents to the kids, etc. etc. Jack and Barbara have been married almost thirty years.
Today's Gospel lesson is about fairness, God's fairness, our fairness with each other. And the difference between fairness and God's Grace.
When I was a kid, fairness was very important to me. I grew up poor in a family with 5 children. Life was full of adults with power making decisions for me. Parents, Teachers, Grand-parents, Pastors, etc.
The only defence a kid has is to appeal to fairness, to justice.
The thing that is important to me about my relationship with Jack is that it was in that friendship that I learned that while fairness was an important thing, it wasn't the only thing.
I suppose he had more money than me. But it seemed natural to him that we just shared what we had with each other. We kept a change bowl and ate out when there was enough money in it. We pooled our resources and bought extra snacks for the room. Etc. It's no big thing, but the subject of who put in what or how much never arose. It was about the relationship.
The has held true for his marriage to Barbara. Share and share alike. No calculations or concerns about "fairness".
Which leads me to think that its about relationships, this kingdom of God thing. And wherever we can find a way to trust, really trust, a relationship, then the contracts and fairness fade in importance.
Which is why the judicial image of God's saving acts toward us is not very compelling for me. We don't owe God anything and God doesn't owe us anything.
God loves us, and because God loves us, God bestows on us goodness.
In response we bestow goodness on others, not because they deserve it, but because they need it, and we are brothers and sisters in Christ with all creation, and so we are in "relationship" to all creation.
And, no it's not fair that a wonderful person and flamboyant artist like Barbara is going to die at 51, leaving a devastated husband and many heartbroken friends. But life isn't fair. Neither is the kingdom. As Mark Twain said, "Heaven doesn't go on merit. It goes on Grace. If it went on merit, your dog would get in and you would stay out."
Peace,
Delmo
Friday, September 09, 2005
Pentecost 11, RCL texts for Sept. 11, 2005
FIRST READING: Genesis 50:15-21
Verse 20: Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.
So said Joseph to his brothers at the end of that cycle of stories. His brothers sold him into slavery, where he was in prison and in danger of losing his life, when a series of events propeled him into the office of "Prime Minister", Pharoh's right hand man. And, when a famine struck his homeland, Jospeh was positioned to help his family and his country in its time of need.
I wonder, how often does God manipulate my evil into good? Well, maybe not my "evil", but my indifferent, selfish, lacksaidaisical, non-directive, not-intentional behaviour into benefiting others and furthering his kingdom.
More to the point, how often does God turn my ordinary and not very inspired performance of my daily duties into a lifeline for someone in need? More often than I would think, I tink.
We often feel ourselves called to heroic measures for Christ and Kngdom, and, more often than not, our efforts prove to be less than heroic. But teh story of Grace is this: God is at work in us and through us, even when we're just skidding, sometimes even when we are consciously acting against it. God's hand is at work in us, through us and around us.
Martin Luther, in his small Catechism, said that when we pray "thy kingdom come," in the Lord's Prayer, we should be aware that God's Kingdom comes without our prayer or our effort. Our prayer here is that when it comes, we will be a part of it.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 18:21-35
I knew two brothers. They're dead now. They grew up hard in rual NC during the depression. Tried their hand at a few things, truck-driving, tobacco farming, served in the Army in WWII. Not failures at any of it, but stilll just getting by.
After the War, they decided to start a dairy. They pooled their resources. They had the old family farm. One of them had a some cows, the other bought some. It was an unequal amount, but they never mentioned it again. 50 years went by. The dairy was a success. They each married, neither had any children. Their wives were difficult women, always feuding with each other or others in the community, but the brothers ignored them and worked on, made a success of their dairy.
After they turned 70, they decided to retire. Leased the dairy to a young farmer for a few years. Then they decided to let the young farmer buy them out. It was a half million dollar deal.
One night they got together to iron out some details. And the subject of the uneven amount of cows from when they started came up. A difference of about 15 cows in the original herd.
Harsh words were said, other hurts arose. After an hour, the older brother stormed out of the house. The next day he left for Florida to visit relatives. While there he got sick and was in the hospital for 3 weeks. And while he was in the hospital, his younger brother died. And they never had a chance to reconcile. And their widows kept it going after the older one died.
Emotional hurt, financial loss, lack of love, all over 15 cows. All because no one was willing to forgive the other.
Peace,
Delmer
Verse 20: Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.
So said Joseph to his brothers at the end of that cycle of stories. His brothers sold him into slavery, where he was in prison and in danger of losing his life, when a series of events propeled him into the office of "Prime Minister", Pharoh's right hand man. And, when a famine struck his homeland, Jospeh was positioned to help his family and his country in its time of need.
I wonder, how often does God manipulate my evil into good? Well, maybe not my "evil", but my indifferent, selfish, lacksaidaisical, non-directive, not-intentional behaviour into benefiting others and furthering his kingdom.
More to the point, how often does God turn my ordinary and not very inspired performance of my daily duties into a lifeline for someone in need? More often than I would think, I tink.
We often feel ourselves called to heroic measures for Christ and Kngdom, and, more often than not, our efforts prove to be less than heroic. But teh story of Grace is this: God is at work in us and through us, even when we're just skidding, sometimes even when we are consciously acting against it. God's hand is at work in us, through us and around us.
Martin Luther, in his small Catechism, said that when we pray "thy kingdom come," in the Lord's Prayer, we should be aware that God's Kingdom comes without our prayer or our effort. Our prayer here is that when it comes, we will be a part of it.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 18:21-35
I knew two brothers. They're dead now. They grew up hard in rual NC during the depression. Tried their hand at a few things, truck-driving, tobacco farming, served in the Army in WWII. Not failures at any of it, but stilll just getting by.
After the War, they decided to start a dairy. They pooled their resources. They had the old family farm. One of them had a some cows, the other bought some. It was an unequal amount, but they never mentioned it again. 50 years went by. The dairy was a success. They each married, neither had any children. Their wives were difficult women, always feuding with each other or others in the community, but the brothers ignored them and worked on, made a success of their dairy.
After they turned 70, they decided to retire. Leased the dairy to a young farmer for a few years. Then they decided to let the young farmer buy them out. It was a half million dollar deal.
One night they got together to iron out some details. And the subject of the uneven amount of cows from when they started came up. A difference of about 15 cows in the original herd.
Harsh words were said, other hurts arose. After an hour, the older brother stormed out of the house. The next day he left for Florida to visit relatives. While there he got sick and was in the hospital for 3 weeks. And while he was in the hospital, his younger brother died. And they never had a chance to reconcile. And their widows kept it going after the older one died.
Emotional hurt, financial loss, lack of love, all over 15 cows. All because no one was willing to forgive the other.
Peace,
Delmer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
PENTECOST 16; The RCL Texts for Sept. 4, 2005
FIRST LESSON: Ezekiel 33:7-11
verse 9-10: "If I say to the wicked, "Wicked man, wicked woman, you're on the fast track to death!" and you don't speak up and warn the wicked to change their ways, the wicked will die unwarned in their sins and I'll hold you responsible for their bloodshed. But if you warn the wicked to change their ways and they don't do it, they'll die in their sins well-warned and at least you will have saved your own life" (Eugene Peterson's THE MESSAGE translation)
This text has done a lot of damage in the last couple of hundred years, especially amongst the "pure and righteous" who do not hesitate to point out to the lowly sinners their faults. the problem comes in a failure to recognize the difference between sins of power and sins of weakness. Sins of power must be pointed out vigorously and must be opposed strongly. Standing up for the oppressed and against the oppresser is THE TRUE prophetic call.
Sins of weakness call for a priest, not a prophet; for tender loving care, not harch recriminition.
Too often in American Christianity, we ignore or prop up the sins of power while castigating and pointing the finger at those caught in the web of the sins of weakness. And too often, we feel good doing it.
C.S. Lewis, in MERE CHRISTIANITY, referred to them as sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit and went on to say: "The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing, . . . the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute."
SECOND LESSON: Romans 13: 8-14
Some lines from Peterson's translation:
"Don't run up debts, except the debt of love you owe each other."
"The law code - . . . , finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others."
"When you add everything up in the law code, the sum total is love."
That's all very well and good, except we have a tendency to forget what LOVE really means or is.
In our culture we confuse it with either SEX or AFFECTION. (In Biblical terms EROS or PHILEA) when what the text calls for is AGAPE, selfless concern and action for the other.
In Christian communites, the major problem is confusing AGAPE with AFFECTION.
We think when Jesus and then Paul tell us to Love one another, they mean we must make ourselves like each other a lot. That's impossible. The affections are not responsive to nor controllable by the will. You can't make yourself like someone or something you don't like.
I hate hot dogs. Always have. Always will. (Apparently. I'm 51, not many years left to change)
I like Pinto Beans and Corn Bread. A lot. Always have. Probably always will. Neither of those likes and dislikes did I decide upon.
But loving one another is different. It is an act of the will. A choice to behave in the other's best interest whether we feel like it or not. To act loving toward them before the feeling of affection arises.
And the paradoxical thing is, one will eventually find oneself liking, perhaps liking a lot, those persons one has treated with respect and compassion. And, even if the one loved continues to be a pinhead, neither Jesus not Paul said anything about moving in with them or loaning them money!
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 18:15-20
Verse 15: "If another member of the church sins against you, go point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one." (NRSV)
John Ortberg devotes one whole chapter in his book EVERYBODY'S NORMAL TILL YOU GET TO KNOW THEM to this one verse. The chapter's title is: Community is Worth Fighting For: Conflict.
There's the nub, isn't it. We make nice in order to avoid conflict; meanwhile carrying around grudges and talking to those who will be sympathetic instead of to the one who has hurt or wronged us. Our lack of emotional courage robs us of the true community to which God calls us.
Ortberg deals with this short text under seven headings:
1 - If there is conflict. We must acknowledge that conflict exists, something many of us are
unwilling to do, for if there is conflict we must deal with it. We would much rather keep
on playing nice like good little boys and girls.
2 - You. I must own my responsibility for the problem. Sitting around waiting for someone else
to figure out that they wronged you and how and need to give you an apology is a fool's
errand. The oblivious, who didn't mean to wrong you will never figure it out; and the
guilty, who meant to hurt you, will seldom acknowledge the need to apologize without
being confronted.
3. Go. Approach, don't avoid, the person you are in conflict with. Take action. So something.
4. To the Person. No third parties. Oftentimes at the office or at school or at home or at church
everybody else knows we're angry and why before the person we're in conflict with knows.
This is not only wrong, it's useless. The only people who can fix the problem are the people
involved, not everyone else on the planet.
5. In private. Use sensitivity. Don't call somebody out in front of a crowd. Give them a chance
to explain or apologize without the embarassment of everybody else knowing.
6. And Discuss the Problem. Use direct communication. Talk about the issue, not the other
person. But don't use euphemism and indirect. Say exactly what happened and exactly
how it hurt you.
7. For the purpose of reconciliation, or regaining a relationship. What happens when we don't
follow this type of procedure is that relationships wither and die for lack of warmth, or get
scorched from too much heat. Instead of practicing reconciliation; we give cold shoulders
or hot words; neither of which is calculated to achive peace and concord.
And now a true but funny story. Near here I grew up was a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I used to attend there sometimes with my friend Ricky. I especially liked the part where women got excited and danced and rolled in the aisles, but that's another anecdote.
Anyway, Daddy dais that back in the 20's and 30's the Pastor and Deacons of that church enforced the Church Rules which prohibited "trafficking in tobacco". So every spring, when the famers set out the tobacco crop, the Preacher would go personally and privately to each one, invoking Mt. 18:15-20, and tell them they were sinning. The farmers would thank the Preacher for coming and say they were going to "traffic in tobacco" anyway.
Next, following the text, the deacons would go with the same result, then one Sunday, the Preacher would read out all the men's names in church (about 80% of the male membership)
and their wives and children and Mothers would vote them out of the church.
In the fall, after the crop was sold, the men would recommit their lives to the LORD at the Fall revival and be reinstated to membership, just in time to make a big contribution to balance the budget.
I'm pretty sure that was not what Jeus had in mine. I'm also pretty sure he thought it was mostly harmless and a clever way to get around the rules.
Peace,
Delmo
verse 9-10: "If I say to the wicked, "Wicked man, wicked woman, you're on the fast track to death!" and you don't speak up and warn the wicked to change their ways, the wicked will die unwarned in their sins and I'll hold you responsible for their bloodshed. But if you warn the wicked to change their ways and they don't do it, they'll die in their sins well-warned and at least you will have saved your own life" (Eugene Peterson's THE MESSAGE translation)
This text has done a lot of damage in the last couple of hundred years, especially amongst the "pure and righteous" who do not hesitate to point out to the lowly sinners their faults. the problem comes in a failure to recognize the difference between sins of power and sins of weakness. Sins of power must be pointed out vigorously and must be opposed strongly. Standing up for the oppressed and against the oppresser is THE TRUE prophetic call.
Sins of weakness call for a priest, not a prophet; for tender loving care, not harch recriminition.
Too often in American Christianity, we ignore or prop up the sins of power while castigating and pointing the finger at those caught in the web of the sins of weakness. And too often, we feel good doing it.
C.S. Lewis, in MERE CHRISTIANITY, referred to them as sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit and went on to say: "The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing, . . . the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute."
SECOND LESSON: Romans 13: 8-14
Some lines from Peterson's translation:
"Don't run up debts, except the debt of love you owe each other."
"The law code - . . . , finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others."
"When you add everything up in the law code, the sum total is love."
That's all very well and good, except we have a tendency to forget what LOVE really means or is.
In our culture we confuse it with either SEX or AFFECTION. (In Biblical terms EROS or PHILEA) when what the text calls for is AGAPE, selfless concern and action for the other.
In Christian communites, the major problem is confusing AGAPE with AFFECTION.
We think when Jesus and then Paul tell us to Love one another, they mean we must make ourselves like each other a lot. That's impossible. The affections are not responsive to nor controllable by the will. You can't make yourself like someone or something you don't like.
I hate hot dogs. Always have. Always will. (Apparently. I'm 51, not many years left to change)
I like Pinto Beans and Corn Bread. A lot. Always have. Probably always will. Neither of those likes and dislikes did I decide upon.
But loving one another is different. It is an act of the will. A choice to behave in the other's best interest whether we feel like it or not. To act loving toward them before the feeling of affection arises.
And the paradoxical thing is, one will eventually find oneself liking, perhaps liking a lot, those persons one has treated with respect and compassion. And, even if the one loved continues to be a pinhead, neither Jesus not Paul said anything about moving in with them or loaning them money!
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 18:15-20
Verse 15: "If another member of the church sins against you, go point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one." (NRSV)
John Ortberg devotes one whole chapter in his book EVERYBODY'S NORMAL TILL YOU GET TO KNOW THEM to this one verse. The chapter's title is: Community is Worth Fighting For: Conflict.
There's the nub, isn't it. We make nice in order to avoid conflict; meanwhile carrying around grudges and talking to those who will be sympathetic instead of to the one who has hurt or wronged us. Our lack of emotional courage robs us of the true community to which God calls us.
Ortberg deals with this short text under seven headings:
1 - If there is conflict. We must acknowledge that conflict exists, something many of us are
unwilling to do, for if there is conflict we must deal with it. We would much rather keep
on playing nice like good little boys and girls.
2 - You. I must own my responsibility for the problem. Sitting around waiting for someone else
to figure out that they wronged you and how and need to give you an apology is a fool's
errand. The oblivious, who didn't mean to wrong you will never figure it out; and the
guilty, who meant to hurt you, will seldom acknowledge the need to apologize without
being confronted.
3. Go. Approach, don't avoid, the person you are in conflict with. Take action. So something.
4. To the Person. No third parties. Oftentimes at the office or at school or at home or at church
everybody else knows we're angry and why before the person we're in conflict with knows.
This is not only wrong, it's useless. The only people who can fix the problem are the people
involved, not everyone else on the planet.
5. In private. Use sensitivity. Don't call somebody out in front of a crowd. Give them a chance
to explain or apologize without the embarassment of everybody else knowing.
6. And Discuss the Problem. Use direct communication. Talk about the issue, not the other
person. But don't use euphemism and indirect. Say exactly what happened and exactly
how it hurt you.
7. For the purpose of reconciliation, or regaining a relationship. What happens when we don't
follow this type of procedure is that relationships wither and die for lack of warmth, or get
scorched from too much heat. Instead of practicing reconciliation; we give cold shoulders
or hot words; neither of which is calculated to achive peace and concord.
And now a true but funny story. Near here I grew up was a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I used to attend there sometimes with my friend Ricky. I especially liked the part where women got excited and danced and rolled in the aisles, but that's another anecdote.
Anyway, Daddy dais that back in the 20's and 30's the Pastor and Deacons of that church enforced the Church Rules which prohibited "trafficking in tobacco". So every spring, when the famers set out the tobacco crop, the Preacher would go personally and privately to each one, invoking Mt. 18:15-20, and tell them they were sinning. The farmers would thank the Preacher for coming and say they were going to "traffic in tobacco" anyway.
Next, following the text, the deacons would go with the same result, then one Sunday, the Preacher would read out all the men's names in church (about 80% of the male membership)
and their wives and children and Mothers would vote them out of the church.
In the fall, after the crop was sold, the men would recommit their lives to the LORD at the Fall revival and be reinstated to membership, just in time to make a big contribution to balance the budget.
I'm pretty sure that was not what Jeus had in mine. I'm also pretty sure he thought it was mostly harmless and a clever way to get around the rules.
Peace,
Delmo
Friday, August 26, 2005
Pentecost 15: RCL Gospel Lesson for August 28, 2005
THE GOSPEL: Matthew 16:21-28 "Get Thee Behind Me Satan."
Those of us of a certain generation can never forget Flip Wilson's comic character Geraldine.
One day Geraldine came home with a new dress. Geraldine's husband/boyfriend/whatever KILLER, asked, "Why did you get a new dress? You know we can't afford it?" Geraldine replied with her comic catchphrase, "The Devil made me do it." Killer said, "Why didn't you say, Get behind me Satan?" Geraldine replied, "I did, but he said it looked good from back there, too."
I'm not sure that's usable in a sermon, but it is funny.
In our Gospel lesson, Peter is not ready to hear the hard part of the Good News, Peter is not ready to participate in the downside of building up the kingdom of God. He's ready to do the part he likes: the preaching, the teaching, the healing, the adulation of the crowds.
He's not ready to do the part he doesn't like; the rejection, the fear, the abuse, the sheer terror and loneliness and threat of death.
In spite of his confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Peter is not ready to deny himself, take us his cross and follow wherever the Messiah, The LORD, the Son of the Living God may lead.
Like Peter, all too often we give lip service to high ideals without really being willing to follow through. And the thing that stops us is the same thing that stopped Peter; we want the gain without the pain, the glory without the cross.
We are addicted to our own enjoyments and pleasures and are unwilling to risk giving them up for the sake of others. That which keeps millions of the people in the world in poverty and hunger is not their laziness or incompetence; it is the rich people, the rich nations (that's us)
being unwilling to give up some of what we have for those in need, for equality and fairness.
The Rev. Mark Buchanan calls it a contest between God and the pig-God. He says that most of us are captive to the Cult of the Next Thing and the pig-God is our God. We want what we want more than we want God.
The only way out is through conversion, through turning our lives around and away from the tempting allure of the pursuit of happiness and placing our lives and our futures at the service of the pursuit of holiness.
Jesus has laid before us a simple clear choice in his words to Peter. No, I don't mean the famous three-part line: deny self, take up cross and follow."
I mean the blunt GET BEHIND ME SATAN!
Jesus did not say to Peter - get out of the way.
Jesus did not say - stop bothering me.
Jesus did not say - you're evil and I cast you into outer darkness.
He said, Get Behind Me. Follow me, follow me in serving the poor, follow me in tending the sick, follow me in telling the truth, follow me in serving the world, ifnecessary, follow me into death. Get behind me Satan, and if you do, follow me into selfless service, you, too, will have been saved.
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
Those of us of a certain generation can never forget Flip Wilson's comic character Geraldine.
One day Geraldine came home with a new dress. Geraldine's husband/boyfriend/whatever KILLER, asked, "Why did you get a new dress? You know we can't afford it?" Geraldine replied with her comic catchphrase, "The Devil made me do it." Killer said, "Why didn't you say, Get behind me Satan?" Geraldine replied, "I did, but he said it looked good from back there, too."
I'm not sure that's usable in a sermon, but it is funny.
In our Gospel lesson, Peter is not ready to hear the hard part of the Good News, Peter is not ready to participate in the downside of building up the kingdom of God. He's ready to do the part he likes: the preaching, the teaching, the healing, the adulation of the crowds.
He's not ready to do the part he doesn't like; the rejection, the fear, the abuse, the sheer terror and loneliness and threat of death.
In spite of his confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Peter is not ready to deny himself, take us his cross and follow wherever the Messiah, The LORD, the Son of the Living God may lead.
Like Peter, all too often we give lip service to high ideals without really being willing to follow through. And the thing that stops us is the same thing that stopped Peter; we want the gain without the pain, the glory without the cross.
We are addicted to our own enjoyments and pleasures and are unwilling to risk giving them up for the sake of others. That which keeps millions of the people in the world in poverty and hunger is not their laziness or incompetence; it is the rich people, the rich nations (that's us)
being unwilling to give up some of what we have for those in need, for equality and fairness.
The Rev. Mark Buchanan calls it a contest between God and the pig-God. He says that most of us are captive to the Cult of the Next Thing and the pig-God is our God. We want what we want more than we want God.
The only way out is through conversion, through turning our lives around and away from the tempting allure of the pursuit of happiness and placing our lives and our futures at the service of the pursuit of holiness.
Jesus has laid before us a simple clear choice in his words to Peter. No, I don't mean the famous three-part line: deny self, take up cross and follow."
I mean the blunt GET BEHIND ME SATAN!
Jesus did not say to Peter - get out of the way.
Jesus did not say - stop bothering me.
Jesus did not say - you're evil and I cast you into outer darkness.
He said, Get Behind Me. Follow me, follow me in serving the poor, follow me in tending the sick, follow me in telling the truth, follow me in serving the world, ifnecessary, follow me into death. Get behind me Satan, and if you do, follow me into selfless service, you, too, will have been saved.
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
Friday, August 19, 2005
PENTECOST 14: RCL texts for August 21, 2005
FIRST READING: Isaiah 51:1-6
"Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug."
i grew up in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Besides being the hometown of Andy Griffith and the supposed model for the town of Mayerry, Mt. Airy is also barely famous as "the home of the world's largest open-air granite quarry." No lie, they really do keep track of stuff like that and no lie Mt. Airy's is the world's largest. "Open Air" that is. Because there are bigger one's underground, deep in the earth.
This rock is so big, they call the neighborhoos's it's in "Flatrock." I finished 8th grade at Flatrock Elementary, which had been Flatrock High when my Daddy got his diploma there. Mt. Aiy High School's team are the "Granite Bears", though I'm not sure there is such a thing.
Anyway, when I read this this text, I thought of how big that Quarry really is. It's one huge, flat, rock of Granite and the 100 plus years of sawing off chunks has not diminished it much.
when I was in high school, a girl and I slipped in the gate and walked around on a full moon night. We walked for a long time and didn't get over much of it.
The text calls us to remember the immenisty of the rock from which we came, the quarry from which we were dug. I'm not sure if that means our ancestry of faith, kind of like Hebrew's "great cloud of witnesses" or if it refers to God; either way it reminds us that to be in touch with the holy is to be involved with something bigger than ourselves, something which goes beond our personal needs and preferences to encompass all of humanity and the creator's dealings with us.
It does not preclude the personal though. As a certain, nameless and no longer young lady could attest, kissing in the moonlight on a faux moonscape is kinda cool.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 12:1-8
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds."
I spent many many years thinking religion was about conforming. Conforming to the social mores and tought patterns of a rural, fundamentalist church. I had difficulty separating the liberating word of the Gospel from the confining and limiting word of "do this" and "don't do that"
I thought to be Christian was to cut your hair short, wear conservative clothes, never say cuss words, never think about girls, never drink, never get angry . . .in other words, to act just like my little old lady, semi-victorian Sunday School teachers thought nicde little boys should act.
Believe it or not, I was a proto-feminist; I believed God was a woman; the problem was I had the wrong God, or the wrong woman, or both.
The whole woman, sexuality thing is not a bad metaphor here. Failed romances are based in the attempt to conform to what another person wants you to be so that you can "win" their love.
Frankly, that never works, not really. Oh, sometimes you will speand a lifetime connected to the person won this way, a lifetime unhappily pretending to be something you're not in order to have a relationship with someone you think you want to be with.
On the other hand, true love is transformative. People in love do change in the relationship, but they change as a result of the relationship, not in order to create the relationship. One changes in response to the love of that special someone, one 's life unfolds like a beautiful flower in the warm sunshine of the other's love. (any similarity between the author's own 31 year marriage and the above dscription is purely accidental. This is poetics, not real life, after all. Or is it. ;-)
Anyway, God does not seek for us to conform to the world, but to have a different sort of love, a love in which the amazing Grace of God transforms who we are into who we could be as naturally as the sun brings blants out of the ground and nto full bloom.
GOSPEL: Matthew 16:13-20
" . . .you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church."
I have oftened wondered why Jesus decided to tag "Simon Bar Jona" with the nickname Rocky.
Most of the Rocky's I've known have been like Rocky Marciano of Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion. Rocky doen't seem to fit Simon Bar Jona, to me.
For this Rocky, this Peter, is, to put it very bluntly, not very dependable. He was hot one minute, cold the next.
I'LL WALK ON WATER LORD!
Help Me!!! I'm Sinking!"
I'LL NEVER LET THEM TAKE YOU LORD, GIVE ME MY SWORD!
Jesus?, Never heard of him.
LORD, YOU KNOW I'LL STAND BY YOU FOREVER.
Hm. Jesus is dead? I think I'll go fishing.
In picking someone like Simon bar Jona to be the cornerstone of the church, Jesus picked someone remarkably like us. For we are probably more like Peter than we would like to admit. We grow hot and cold in our enthusiasm for God, we are often confused as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and we continually stumble on the way to Jerusalem.
We usually think of faith as the faith we have in God. As I think about God trusting a bunch of Rocky's like us with the keys to the Kingdom, I am overwehlmed at the faith God has in us, his little flock, his church, his fallen creatures.
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
"Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug."
i grew up in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Besides being the hometown of Andy Griffith and the supposed model for the town of Mayerry, Mt. Airy is also barely famous as "the home of the world's largest open-air granite quarry." No lie, they really do keep track of stuff like that and no lie Mt. Airy's is the world's largest. "Open Air" that is. Because there are bigger one's underground, deep in the earth.
This rock is so big, they call the neighborhoos's it's in "Flatrock." I finished 8th grade at Flatrock Elementary, which had been Flatrock High when my Daddy got his diploma there. Mt. Aiy High School's team are the "Granite Bears", though I'm not sure there is such a thing.
Anyway, when I read this this text, I thought of how big that Quarry really is. It's one huge, flat, rock of Granite and the 100 plus years of sawing off chunks has not diminished it much.
when I was in high school, a girl and I slipped in the gate and walked around on a full moon night. We walked for a long time and didn't get over much of it.
The text calls us to remember the immenisty of the rock from which we came, the quarry from which we were dug. I'm not sure if that means our ancestry of faith, kind of like Hebrew's "great cloud of witnesses" or if it refers to God; either way it reminds us that to be in touch with the holy is to be involved with something bigger than ourselves, something which goes beond our personal needs and preferences to encompass all of humanity and the creator's dealings with us.
It does not preclude the personal though. As a certain, nameless and no longer young lady could attest, kissing in the moonlight on a faux moonscape is kinda cool.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 12:1-8
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds."
I spent many many years thinking religion was about conforming. Conforming to the social mores and tought patterns of a rural, fundamentalist church. I had difficulty separating the liberating word of the Gospel from the confining and limiting word of "do this" and "don't do that"
I thought to be Christian was to cut your hair short, wear conservative clothes, never say cuss words, never think about girls, never drink, never get angry . . .in other words, to act just like my little old lady, semi-victorian Sunday School teachers thought nicde little boys should act.
Believe it or not, I was a proto-feminist; I believed God was a woman; the problem was I had the wrong God, or the wrong woman, or both.
The whole woman, sexuality thing is not a bad metaphor here. Failed romances are based in the attempt to conform to what another person wants you to be so that you can "win" their love.
Frankly, that never works, not really. Oh, sometimes you will speand a lifetime connected to the person won this way, a lifetime unhappily pretending to be something you're not in order to have a relationship with someone you think you want to be with.
On the other hand, true love is transformative. People in love do change in the relationship, but they change as a result of the relationship, not in order to create the relationship. One changes in response to the love of that special someone, one 's life unfolds like a beautiful flower in the warm sunshine of the other's love. (any similarity between the author's own 31 year marriage and the above dscription is purely accidental. This is poetics, not real life, after all. Or is it. ;-)
Anyway, God does not seek for us to conform to the world, but to have a different sort of love, a love in which the amazing Grace of God transforms who we are into who we could be as naturally as the sun brings blants out of the ground and nto full bloom.
GOSPEL: Matthew 16:13-20
" . . .you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church."
I have oftened wondered why Jesus decided to tag "Simon Bar Jona" with the nickname Rocky.
Most of the Rocky's I've known have been like Rocky Marciano of Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion. Rocky doen't seem to fit Simon Bar Jona, to me.
For this Rocky, this Peter, is, to put it very bluntly, not very dependable. He was hot one minute, cold the next.
I'LL WALK ON WATER LORD!
Help Me!!! I'm Sinking!"
I'LL NEVER LET THEM TAKE YOU LORD, GIVE ME MY SWORD!
Jesus?, Never heard of him.
LORD, YOU KNOW I'LL STAND BY YOU FOREVER.
Hm. Jesus is dead? I think I'll go fishing.
In picking someone like Simon bar Jona to be the cornerstone of the church, Jesus picked someone remarkably like us. For we are probably more like Peter than we would like to admit. We grow hot and cold in our enthusiasm for God, we are often confused as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and we continually stumble on the way to Jerusalem.
We usually think of faith as the faith we have in God. As I think about God trusting a bunch of Rocky's like us with the keys to the Kingdom, I am overwehlmed at the faith God has in us, his little flock, his church, his fallen creatures.
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
Thursday, August 11, 2005
PENTECOST 13; RCL texts for August 14, 2005
FIRST READING: Isaiah 56:1,6-8
"A house of prayer for all peoples" Remember the catchphrase in the movie Field of Dreams?,
"Build it and they will come. Not necessarily true.
What if you built a house of prayer for all pwoples, and nobody wanted to come?
Today's USA TODAY carried a front page article on the decline of the church in Europe, as if this were sudden and breaking news. I knew August was a slow news month but come on, the Church in Europe has been in decline since the Enlightenment at least.
Be that as it may, two things in the article struck me.
One was the author's implication that prosperity was the culprit. That people who had plenty and no longer feared death no longer felt a need for God.
Well, yes and no. The implication underneath that analysis was that religion was for superstitious folk who did not feel in control of their own lives, and so they resorted to magical thinking and ritual to appease and supplicate the Gods. That's the one I'm saying NO to.
Some people are religious in that way, but relative prosperity and sophistication are not the determining factors.
I think a more important factor is that increased prosperity creates more demands on one's time and one hasn't the time for religion anymore. Henry David Throeau once said that the vast majority of men(sic) [people] go through life with their houses on their backs. By this he meant that our material goods have to be tended to.
The more we have, the more we want, the more we want, the more we work. The more we work, the more we need to play, the more we play, the more we need expensive toys with which to play; it becomes a vicious cycle.
I am real clear that my cars and my house and my computer and my VCR and DVD player and my CD player and, and, and insulate me from being in community, including the community of the church. They become if not my Gods, at least my idols.
My Daddy was not a traditional churchman. He harbored serious doubts about many of the basic tenets of the standard Southern Evangelical faith. But he was in church every Sunday, with his wife and 5 kids. I never saw him reading the Bible at home, he didn't say grace over meals, he didn't sing in the choir or teach Sunday School or usher or anything like that. He mowed the grass when his turn came. he helped build the Sunday School wing. He put up the Christmas tree and gave out the Christmas gifts to the "underpriviledged".
When I got old enough, I finally ask him why he went. He said two things, "To show people whose side I'm on." and, "I'm a part of the community."
Which leads me to the second thing that struck me about the article. They interviewed a young Irishman, a Counseling student, who said "I am a Spiritual person. I talk to a life force I call God and I get answers. If I can do that without the Church, why go to Church?"
The answer to that is Community. We all need Community. And we are starving ourselves of the benefits of community by demanding that it be exactly like we want it to be, believe things the way we think they should be believed, and meet our personal needs."
SECOND LESSON: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
"For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."
A few years ago a not-to-be-named large Protestant denomination declared a strategy for evangelizing the Jews. I was then pastor of a church on a major avenue in a major Southern city.
There were a multitude of "mainline" protestant churches on this strip, and there were three synagogus: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox.
A friend at the Methodist Church wrote a letter to the editor about how the Jews didn't need evangelizing, which provoked a torrent of contrary letters. Then the rest of the clergy on the strip combined in a letter which, using the above text as its basis, supported our firend and our Jewish colleagues.
Since my church address was the address given for the letter, I got the letters. WHEW EEE!
(that's Southern idiom for the Norwegian expression Uff Dah! You get the drift.)
Only thing I can say is, after reading the sentiments of my fellow Christians, I almost decided to convert to Reform Judaism, except that half the year the Braves are on TV on Friday night, and you know how it is, a man's got to keep his priorities straight.
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 15:10-28
Jesus said "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to dogs."
There is no way to read this story without concluding that Jesus insulted this woman by calling her a dog, by treating a non-Jewish person as less than worthy of God's attention. This just ain't right! It's not the way Jesus acts.
And there are a lot of questions for us here:
Did Jesus have an authentic CONVERSION here? a conversion which changed his understanding of his mission to one which went beyond Israel to the world?
Did Jesus already know his mission extended beyond Israel to the whole world and just used this encounter as a brilliantly ad-libbed teachable moment?
I DON'T KNOW.
But I do know three things
1) From this point on in Luke's Gospel, it is clear that Jesus saw his mission as to the whole world, not just Israel.
2) I also know that the text as it stands shows Jesus having a conversion moment, and as a result it is important to think our own lives and our conversion moments.
and 3) I know that I have been converted many times.
I count my first conversion as from racism, in an incident that is too embarassing and shaming for me to repeat except to say that I was in High School and I hurt a friend very deeply and in the process learned the depths of the evil of which I was capable and also the fact that only God's love could put it right and it did.
Since that time I have had conversions about Liberals and Conservatives and Communists and Asians and Hispanics and Jewish People and women and Yankees and intellectuals and rednecks and homosexuals, etc. etc. etc.
Everytime I have come to a place where I think I'm okay; God confronts me with another area in which I am trying to limit God's mercy and Grace, another place where I am trying to draw the line of God's love to include only people like me, and one more time I have to go through the process of being broken down and rebuilt through God's love and redemptive power.
It's like the clip-on sunglasses I bought in Daytona in April. For weeks I fiddled with them because they didn't fit right. finally I discovered it wasn't the clip-ons; it was my glasses that were crooked.
It's like that with God's word of inclusivity in our lives. We continually fiddle around with God's word, trying to bend it to the shape of our lives. Conversion comes when we begin to allow our lives to be bent by God's Word, to be shaped by God's word, "to conform our lives to His" as the Lutheran liturgy says.
Peace,
Delmo
"A house of prayer for all peoples" Remember the catchphrase in the movie Field of Dreams?,
"Build it and they will come. Not necessarily true.
What if you built a house of prayer for all pwoples, and nobody wanted to come?
Today's USA TODAY carried a front page article on the decline of the church in Europe, as if this were sudden and breaking news. I knew August was a slow news month but come on, the Church in Europe has been in decline since the Enlightenment at least.
Be that as it may, two things in the article struck me.
One was the author's implication that prosperity was the culprit. That people who had plenty and no longer feared death no longer felt a need for God.
Well, yes and no. The implication underneath that analysis was that religion was for superstitious folk who did not feel in control of their own lives, and so they resorted to magical thinking and ritual to appease and supplicate the Gods. That's the one I'm saying NO to.
Some people are religious in that way, but relative prosperity and sophistication are not the determining factors.
I think a more important factor is that increased prosperity creates more demands on one's time and one hasn't the time for religion anymore. Henry David Throeau once said that the vast majority of men(sic) [people] go through life with their houses on their backs. By this he meant that our material goods have to be tended to.
The more we have, the more we want, the more we want, the more we work. The more we work, the more we need to play, the more we play, the more we need expensive toys with which to play; it becomes a vicious cycle.
I am real clear that my cars and my house and my computer and my VCR and DVD player and my CD player and, and, and insulate me from being in community, including the community of the church. They become if not my Gods, at least my idols.
My Daddy was not a traditional churchman. He harbored serious doubts about many of the basic tenets of the standard Southern Evangelical faith. But he was in church every Sunday, with his wife and 5 kids. I never saw him reading the Bible at home, he didn't say grace over meals, he didn't sing in the choir or teach Sunday School or usher or anything like that. He mowed the grass when his turn came. he helped build the Sunday School wing. He put up the Christmas tree and gave out the Christmas gifts to the "underpriviledged".
When I got old enough, I finally ask him why he went. He said two things, "To show people whose side I'm on." and, "I'm a part of the community."
Which leads me to the second thing that struck me about the article. They interviewed a young Irishman, a Counseling student, who said "I am a Spiritual person. I talk to a life force I call God and I get answers. If I can do that without the Church, why go to Church?"
The answer to that is Community. We all need Community. And we are starving ourselves of the benefits of community by demanding that it be exactly like we want it to be, believe things the way we think they should be believed, and meet our personal needs."
SECOND LESSON: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
"For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."
A few years ago a not-to-be-named large Protestant denomination declared a strategy for evangelizing the Jews. I was then pastor of a church on a major avenue in a major Southern city.
There were a multitude of "mainline" protestant churches on this strip, and there were three synagogus: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox.
A friend at the Methodist Church wrote a letter to the editor about how the Jews didn't need evangelizing, which provoked a torrent of contrary letters. Then the rest of the clergy on the strip combined in a letter which, using the above text as its basis, supported our firend and our Jewish colleagues.
Since my church address was the address given for the letter, I got the letters. WHEW EEE!
(that's Southern idiom for the Norwegian expression Uff Dah! You get the drift.)
Only thing I can say is, after reading the sentiments of my fellow Christians, I almost decided to convert to Reform Judaism, except that half the year the Braves are on TV on Friday night, and you know how it is, a man's got to keep his priorities straight.
GOSPEL LESSON: MATTHEW 15:10-28
Jesus said "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to dogs."
There is no way to read this story without concluding that Jesus insulted this woman by calling her a dog, by treating a non-Jewish person as less than worthy of God's attention. This just ain't right! It's not the way Jesus acts.
And there are a lot of questions for us here:
Did Jesus have an authentic CONVERSION here? a conversion which changed his understanding of his mission to one which went beyond Israel to the world?
Did Jesus already know his mission extended beyond Israel to the whole world and just used this encounter as a brilliantly ad-libbed teachable moment?
I DON'T KNOW.
But I do know three things
1) From this point on in Luke's Gospel, it is clear that Jesus saw his mission as to the whole world, not just Israel.
2) I also know that the text as it stands shows Jesus having a conversion moment, and as a result it is important to think our own lives and our conversion moments.
and 3) I know that I have been converted many times.
I count my first conversion as from racism, in an incident that is too embarassing and shaming for me to repeat except to say that I was in High School and I hurt a friend very deeply and in the process learned the depths of the evil of which I was capable and also the fact that only God's love could put it right and it did.
Since that time I have had conversions about Liberals and Conservatives and Communists and Asians and Hispanics and Jewish People and women and Yankees and intellectuals and rednecks and homosexuals, etc. etc. etc.
Everytime I have come to a place where I think I'm okay; God confronts me with another area in which I am trying to limit God's mercy and Grace, another place where I am trying to draw the line of God's love to include only people like me, and one more time I have to go through the process of being broken down and rebuilt through God's love and redemptive power.
It's like the clip-on sunglasses I bought in Daytona in April. For weeks I fiddled with them because they didn't fit right. finally I discovered it wasn't the clip-ons; it was my glasses that were crooked.
It's like that with God's word of inclusivity in our lives. We continually fiddle around with God's word, trying to bend it to the shape of our lives. Conversion comes when we begin to allow our lives to be bent by God's Word, to be shaped by God's word, "to conform our lives to His" as the Lutheran liturgy says.
Peace,
Delmo
Thursday, August 04, 2005
TWELTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST: RCL texts fo August 7, 2005
FIRST READING: I Kings 19:9-18 "". . .but the LORD was not in the wind; . . but the LORD was not in the earthquake; . . .but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it . . "
What is the sound of sheer silence? And how does one hear it?
There is a lot of noise in the world today, competing voices shouting for our attention and response. A lot of those voices calim to speak for God. Pardon me if I have to say that many of them remind me of Lightning and Wind and Fire; a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing" especially not signifying God.
When I was younger I talked to God a lot. Filled The Divine One in on what was going on down here and my oh so humble opinion as to what he/she/it should do about it. I was very passionate on both counts.
I also spent a significant amount of time seeking an experience of God, a moving, soul-shattering experience; something that would jazz me up and send me out to conquer the world (or at least my little church) for Christ.
I don't talk much to God anymore. I spend a whole lot more time in prayer, but, as I said, I don't talk much anymore.
In his book SPIRITUALITY FOR MINISTRY, the late Urban Holmes used a homey image that
works pretty well for me now that I have been married to my High School sweetheart for over 30 years. He talked about how he and his long-time wife could sit in the car or in the Living Room for hours comfortably quiet in each other's presence. In the early years couples talk a lot,
communicate honestly as the Marriage gurus say. But after a while, there can be such a thing as a comfortable silence of relationship and trust.
A maturing relationship with God comes to grips with the silence. Both God's silence and our inability to speak clearly either about ourselves or about who God is. Sometimes that silence is the awkward silence of doubt and distrust, of a disquieting not-knowing. Other times it is a hard won silence of not-knowing but still trusting and still listening.
And the only way to move from one to the other is to spend some serious time in the lonely cave of solitude, filtering through the competing voices to hear the silence that signals the presence of the Holy.
ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT NOTE WITH THIS TEXT:
Over the past weekend I saw on the Saturday Religion Page of a Small Town Newspaper in the Piedmont of North Carolina that a Lutheran Church was having a Special Service with an Elvis Impersonator as the Musical Guest. Here in Hayesville, the First Freewill Baptist Church has signs all over town about their Vacation Bible School. The biggest thing on the sign is the announcement WE HAVE SPACEWALK,
And so one could say, God does not come in the noise and clatter of the Elvis Impersonator or the Spacewalks, but in the silence when we quiet down enough to hear.
SECOND READING: Romans 10:5-15
" . . if you confess with your lips that Jesus is LORD and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Verse 9
" . . . How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News!"
It has always fascinated me as to how quickly we turn Good News into Bad. The ways I always heard verse 9 about confessing and believeing was as a LAW OF SALVATION, something you had to do to be saved, a mental bridge to be crosssed and a verbal act to be taken, etc.
Its interesting how much my visceral reactions to this verse are tied up with adolesence. Of course I was a teenager when I was subjected to the Evangelical Preachers' admonitions to quit my mean-ness and join the church. This verse was one of the proof texts they used for conversionist salvation. I didn't have much trouble with the believe in your heart part, it was the confess with your lips, trotting down to the front of the church with all the emotional yellers and cryers that scared the beJesus out of me.
My son just finished a Community College class in Public Speaking today. I asked him if he learned anything. He said he learned that older people were better at it than young people.
He was referring to the people in their 40's and 50's versus those in their early 20's.
I have thought about that for a while. I think it has to do with self-consciousness, the natural shyness that comes from people who aren't real secure in their own skin yet, people who are too concerned with what others are thinking about them to know what they themselves think.
and if you don't know what you think you certainly can't make a speech, or confess reasonably with your lips.
Anyway, for me the idea of confessing Christ was anything but Good News. it was a burden and a threat. Which is not what the Good News is?
And the thing is, we're always making rules about how people are saved, turning the good news of freedom into the bad news of performance measurement. Are people smart enough, liberal enough, tolerant enough, principled enough, value-centered enough, liberated enough, productive enough, bohemian enough, left enough, right enough, religious enough, cynical enough, etc. to pass our particluar okay muster?
And the Good News is, none of that matters, once we grasp the wonderfully paradoxical nature of God's relationship with us, in that God expects nothing from us, not even our understanding or our belief; and God desires everything from us, especially our care and compassion for each other.
The language about descending to the pit or climbing to heaven is Paul's way of satirizing our continual desire to make following God into an obstacle race.
And what "confess and believe" means has nothing to do with a public service of worship or a minimal dogmatic litmus test. He says this is that which sets you free. If Jesus is LORD, then nothing else is, no system or government or other institution can define you. And if God raised him from the dead, then the worst the world can do to you, i.e. kill you, no longer threatens, and you are indeed free.
If you are aware that these things are true, then you are FREE. (or saved, if you will).
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 14:22-33
"He went up the mountain by himself to pray"
Okay, I'm not avoiding the walking on the water thing, it's just that it's kind of boring. You can't prove it or disprove it. It comes down to your philosophical presuppositions. If you believe that miracles occur, and that Jesus is the Son of God and was capable of supernatural acts, then it's no big deal. He walked across the water because he could, Peter tried it, and failed because he lost faith. End of story. And you'll preach about having Faith in Christ, and keeping your eyes on Jesus and stuff like that there.
If you don't believe that miracles occur, if you assume that Jesus was the Son of God in some metaphorical sense, and that the early church created these stories to bolster their claims of divinity about Jesus, then you don't believe it happened and you'll preach genericly about having faith in. . .well faith I guess.
So, pay your money and take your choice.
I'm more interested in Jesus going off on the mountain by himself to pray.
We in the modern world talk a lot about spirituality, about our need for a deeper spiritual life.
We also complain a lot about not having enough time for that spiritual life.
The last time I checked, a week was still 7 days, a day was still 24 hours.
The problem is not the time we have. It's what we chose to do within that time. How we apportion it out. I believe that our calendars are our most Holy Books, for that to which we give time is that which we value. If we want a deeper spiritual life, there is only one way to get it; we must put aside the time to alone witht he Mystery.
When my son David was 6 he called me at the office and asked when I would be home. It was around 4 pm. I told him a little after 5. Then I asked him why he wanted to know. He said he really wanted me home. "What for?" I asked. So I can sit in your lap. "Are you scared?" I asked. No, he said, I just like sitting in your lap and I can't do it if your lap isn't here. Then he said, "If you're going to have a kid, you have to make accomodations."
He had a big vocabulary for a 6 year old. Darn it.
Peace, Delmo
What is the sound of sheer silence? And how does one hear it?
There is a lot of noise in the world today, competing voices shouting for our attention and response. A lot of those voices calim to speak for God. Pardon me if I have to say that many of them remind me of Lightning and Wind and Fire; a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing" especially not signifying God.
When I was younger I talked to God a lot. Filled The Divine One in on what was going on down here and my oh so humble opinion as to what he/she/it should do about it. I was very passionate on both counts.
I also spent a significant amount of time seeking an experience of God, a moving, soul-shattering experience; something that would jazz me up and send me out to conquer the world (or at least my little church) for Christ.
I don't talk much to God anymore. I spend a whole lot more time in prayer, but, as I said, I don't talk much anymore.
In his book SPIRITUALITY FOR MINISTRY, the late Urban Holmes used a homey image that
works pretty well for me now that I have been married to my High School sweetheart for over 30 years. He talked about how he and his long-time wife could sit in the car or in the Living Room for hours comfortably quiet in each other's presence. In the early years couples talk a lot,
communicate honestly as the Marriage gurus say. But after a while, there can be such a thing as a comfortable silence of relationship and trust.
A maturing relationship with God comes to grips with the silence. Both God's silence and our inability to speak clearly either about ourselves or about who God is. Sometimes that silence is the awkward silence of doubt and distrust, of a disquieting not-knowing. Other times it is a hard won silence of not-knowing but still trusting and still listening.
And the only way to move from one to the other is to spend some serious time in the lonely cave of solitude, filtering through the competing voices to hear the silence that signals the presence of the Holy.
ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT NOTE WITH THIS TEXT:
Over the past weekend I saw on the Saturday Religion Page of a Small Town Newspaper in the Piedmont of North Carolina that a Lutheran Church was having a Special Service with an Elvis Impersonator as the Musical Guest. Here in Hayesville, the First Freewill Baptist Church has signs all over town about their Vacation Bible School. The biggest thing on the sign is the announcement WE HAVE SPACEWALK,
And so one could say, God does not come in the noise and clatter of the Elvis Impersonator or the Spacewalks, but in the silence when we quiet down enough to hear.
SECOND READING: Romans 10:5-15
" . . if you confess with your lips that Jesus is LORD and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Verse 9
" . . . How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News!"
It has always fascinated me as to how quickly we turn Good News into Bad. The ways I always heard verse 9 about confessing and believeing was as a LAW OF SALVATION, something you had to do to be saved, a mental bridge to be crosssed and a verbal act to be taken, etc.
Its interesting how much my visceral reactions to this verse are tied up with adolesence. Of course I was a teenager when I was subjected to the Evangelical Preachers' admonitions to quit my mean-ness and join the church. This verse was one of the proof texts they used for conversionist salvation. I didn't have much trouble with the believe in your heart part, it was the confess with your lips, trotting down to the front of the church with all the emotional yellers and cryers that scared the beJesus out of me.
My son just finished a Community College class in Public Speaking today. I asked him if he learned anything. He said he learned that older people were better at it than young people.
He was referring to the people in their 40's and 50's versus those in their early 20's.
I have thought about that for a while. I think it has to do with self-consciousness, the natural shyness that comes from people who aren't real secure in their own skin yet, people who are too concerned with what others are thinking about them to know what they themselves think.
and if you don't know what you think you certainly can't make a speech, or confess reasonably with your lips.
Anyway, for me the idea of confessing Christ was anything but Good News. it was a burden and a threat. Which is not what the Good News is?
And the thing is, we're always making rules about how people are saved, turning the good news of freedom into the bad news of performance measurement. Are people smart enough, liberal enough, tolerant enough, principled enough, value-centered enough, liberated enough, productive enough, bohemian enough, left enough, right enough, religious enough, cynical enough, etc. to pass our particluar okay muster?
And the Good News is, none of that matters, once we grasp the wonderfully paradoxical nature of God's relationship with us, in that God expects nothing from us, not even our understanding or our belief; and God desires everything from us, especially our care and compassion for each other.
The language about descending to the pit or climbing to heaven is Paul's way of satirizing our continual desire to make following God into an obstacle race.
And what "confess and believe" means has nothing to do with a public service of worship or a minimal dogmatic litmus test. He says this is that which sets you free. If Jesus is LORD, then nothing else is, no system or government or other institution can define you. And if God raised him from the dead, then the worst the world can do to you, i.e. kill you, no longer threatens, and you are indeed free.
If you are aware that these things are true, then you are FREE. (or saved, if you will).
GOSPEL LESSON: Matthew 14:22-33
"He went up the mountain by himself to pray"
Okay, I'm not avoiding the walking on the water thing, it's just that it's kind of boring. You can't prove it or disprove it. It comes down to your philosophical presuppositions. If you believe that miracles occur, and that Jesus is the Son of God and was capable of supernatural acts, then it's no big deal. He walked across the water because he could, Peter tried it, and failed because he lost faith. End of story. And you'll preach about having Faith in Christ, and keeping your eyes on Jesus and stuff like that there.
If you don't believe that miracles occur, if you assume that Jesus was the Son of God in some metaphorical sense, and that the early church created these stories to bolster their claims of divinity about Jesus, then you don't believe it happened and you'll preach genericly about having faith in. . .well faith I guess.
So, pay your money and take your choice.
I'm more interested in Jesus going off on the mountain by himself to pray.
We in the modern world talk a lot about spirituality, about our need for a deeper spiritual life.
We also complain a lot about not having enough time for that spiritual life.
The last time I checked, a week was still 7 days, a day was still 24 hours.
The problem is not the time we have. It's what we chose to do within that time. How we apportion it out. I believe that our calendars are our most Holy Books, for that to which we give time is that which we value. If we want a deeper spiritual life, there is only one way to get it; we must put aside the time to alone witht he Mystery.
When my son David was 6 he called me at the office and asked when I would be home. It was around 4 pm. I told him a little after 5. Then I asked him why he wanted to know. He said he really wanted me home. "What for?" I asked. So I can sit in your lap. "Are you scared?" I asked. No, he said, I just like sitting in your lap and I can't do it if your lap isn't here. Then he said, "If you're going to have a kid, you have to make accomodations."
He had a big vocabulary for a 6 year old. Darn it.
Peace, Delmo
Thursday, July 28, 2005
The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost; RCL Texts for July 31, 2005
FIRST READING: Isiah 55:1-5
I am preaching at Lutheran Chapel in China Grove, NC this Sunday. They are having a year-long celebration of their 225th anniversary and have 12 guest preachers this year; former pastors, pastors who grew up in the congregation and a Bishop's Assistant. I was honored to be asked. I was Pastor there 1984 to 1989. I have to confess that I said yes partly out of ego and partly out of desire for some good North Carolina Southern cooking at the after service potluck,
(what Midwest Lutherans call "hot dish") When it comes to congregational dinners, rural and small town Lutherans in North and South Carolina are much more Southern than they are Lutheran. None of that veggie cassoroles with crunchy onion surprise on top and lime Jello for desert.
We're talking about fried chicken and country ham biscuits and pork barbecue and fresh boiled corn and creamed potatoes and field peas and homemade biscuits and greens and squash and thick tomatoes the color of blood and sliced as thick as a hockey puck. And cakes and pies and fruit cobblers and . . . oh my, my cholesterol just went up a few points writing that Faulknerian sentence. (Oh yeah, the iced tea; thick and brown and cold and sweet enough to rot your teeth)
"Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." Thus sayeth the Lord. At least that's what Isaiah says the Lord says. And who am I to argue with Isaiah or the Lord?
There is something about a good church dinner that reminds us of what the Kingdom of God is supposed to be like. Everybody's there, even the ones who aren't there very often, or who don't like the Pastor, or who are at odds with others in the church about this, that or the other thing that is of vital importance right at this moment, but which will be forgotten in a year or two.
In the face of the "Fellowship Meal" in the "Fellowship Hall"; all of that seems to fade away and there we are together, sampling each other's food and admiring each other's children and asking after each other's health and listening to each other's stories and enjoying each other's company.
It is not by accident that Isaiah invokes the image of a feast as that to which God calls us. Growing up Metho/Baptist/Presbyterian, we didn't really have Feasts or Festivals in the church; not the formal Church Year ones anyway. Just Christmas and Easter really. But we had Feast Days anyway. We found times to celebrate with a feast. Homecoming with Dinner on the Grounds. Numerous family reunions, held at the Church after service and everyone was invited (and would have gone anyway, since we were all related by marriage or something.)
The first Sunday night of a revival, the last night of Vacation Bible School, etc. etc.
Because we knew instinctively that eating together in that way was something the church was supposed to do. And we knew that it was about more than food, it was about more than good fellowship and camardarie and community spirit. Deep in an inarticulated part of our souls, we knew it was about God, and about growing in God's grace and about growing as the Body of Christ, and about remembering that we were more than just some folk who liked to get together to sing hymns and listen to sermons; we were "a witness to the peoples."
And so, we are a people who feast. And we are a people who invite others to leave their differences at the door and come and eat with us, for the Lord says,
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." And who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? Not God.
SECOND LESSON: Romans 9:1-5
"I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart."
True story. A friend of mine was the Pastor of a moderate sized Lutheran Church in a moderate sized Southern city. He was in his early 60's at the time of this incident. He's a collar-wearing Lutheran of the High Church type; black shirt, white collar all the way around and dangling gold pectoral cross on Sundays. Most Sundays after Service he and his wife ate at the fast food chicken place down the street. And almost every Sunday, they sat near two very nice Southern ladies who went to a local evangelical church. They often chatted about the weather or grandchildren or the local news; never about religion.
One Sunday my friend's wife was out of town, and he went to the restaurant alone. There, he again saw the two ladies and talked with them. He got up to go out just as a parishioner came in and sat down. The parishioner overheard the two ladies talking about the departed pastor.
One lady, "He's such a pleasant, nice man."
The other said, "Yes, too bad he's going to Hell."
And they both nodded and dabbed their lips and continued eating their chicken.
Not a lot of sorrow and unceasing anguish in evidence there. Yes, Paul believes that those without Christ are going to Hell. But he's not happy about it, for Christ's sake. (yes, I meant to say "for Christ's sake" and no, it isn't taking the Lord's name in vain. It is for Christ's sake that Paul cares about them,)
Paul was once a man who could happily condemn others to death and Hell for disgreeing with him about theology, but something changed him; an encounter with God's Living Love, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Most of you reading this are not likely to condemn others to Hell for being Lutheran (or Catholic or whatever), but some of us are just as intolerant in other ways. We look down on those whose faith seems simplistic or more literal than ours, we resent those who speak the words of piety with ease, who fill their prayers with the word "just" in every other breath. And, I'm "just" as guilty as anyone I'm pointing a finger at. (Sorry Miss Mitchell. It doesn't sound as good when its grammatically correct.)
So I commit this day to seek to feel "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" over those who fail to listen to me when I try to tell them the truth about God. ;-)
GOSPEL: Matthew 14:13-21
"he had compassion" I don't know if there are any more comforting words in the Bible. And "he had compassion." It is a face of God we've all looked for and needed in our lives. "He had compassion" didn't used to mean much to me, back when I was young and knew everything and had not had the time or inventiveness to really screw up in life. But I'm older now and I don't even like to think about the ways that I have been less than I meant or hoped to be in life.
I have not just failed to do good, I have on occasion done bad, and knew I was doing bad when I did it, and I did it anyway. And I don't know why and have no excuse except that I am human and that's what humans do sometimes.
And I don't blame anyone else, not my mother or my father or the racist South or Yankees or being brought up dirt-poor in the country or my wife or my children or my churches. It was just me and life and occasional fits of sorriness. And I'm sorry. And I need a universe and a God which does not condone or condemn me but one that cares about me. And I encounter that God in the words, "and he had compassion".
Peace,
Dr. Delmo
I am preaching at Lutheran Chapel in China Grove, NC this Sunday. They are having a year-long celebration of their 225th anniversary and have 12 guest preachers this year; former pastors, pastors who grew up in the congregation and a Bishop's Assistant. I was honored to be asked. I was Pastor there 1984 to 1989. I have to confess that I said yes partly out of ego and partly out of desire for some good North Carolina Southern cooking at the after service potluck,
(what Midwest Lutherans call "hot dish") When it comes to congregational dinners, rural and small town Lutherans in North and South Carolina are much more Southern than they are Lutheran. None of that veggie cassoroles with crunchy onion surprise on top and lime Jello for desert.
We're talking about fried chicken and country ham biscuits and pork barbecue and fresh boiled corn and creamed potatoes and field peas and homemade biscuits and greens and squash and thick tomatoes the color of blood and sliced as thick as a hockey puck. And cakes and pies and fruit cobblers and . . . oh my, my cholesterol just went up a few points writing that Faulknerian sentence. (Oh yeah, the iced tea; thick and brown and cold and sweet enough to rot your teeth)
"Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." Thus sayeth the Lord. At least that's what Isaiah says the Lord says. And who am I to argue with Isaiah or the Lord?
There is something about a good church dinner that reminds us of what the Kingdom of God is supposed to be like. Everybody's there, even the ones who aren't there very often, or who don't like the Pastor, or who are at odds with others in the church about this, that or the other thing that is of vital importance right at this moment, but which will be forgotten in a year or two.
In the face of the "Fellowship Meal" in the "Fellowship Hall"; all of that seems to fade away and there we are together, sampling each other's food and admiring each other's children and asking after each other's health and listening to each other's stories and enjoying each other's company.
It is not by accident that Isaiah invokes the image of a feast as that to which God calls us. Growing up Metho/Baptist/Presbyterian, we didn't really have Feasts or Festivals in the church; not the formal Church Year ones anyway. Just Christmas and Easter really. But we had Feast Days anyway. We found times to celebrate with a feast. Homecoming with Dinner on the Grounds. Numerous family reunions, held at the Church after service and everyone was invited (and would have gone anyway, since we were all related by marriage or something.)
The first Sunday night of a revival, the last night of Vacation Bible School, etc. etc.
Because we knew instinctively that eating together in that way was something the church was supposed to do. And we knew that it was about more than food, it was about more than good fellowship and camardarie and community spirit. Deep in an inarticulated part of our souls, we knew it was about God, and about growing in God's grace and about growing as the Body of Christ, and about remembering that we were more than just some folk who liked to get together to sing hymns and listen to sermons; we were "a witness to the peoples."
And so, we are a people who feast. And we are a people who invite others to leave their differences at the door and come and eat with us, for the Lord says,
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." And who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? Not God.
SECOND LESSON: Romans 9:1-5
"I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart."
True story. A friend of mine was the Pastor of a moderate sized Lutheran Church in a moderate sized Southern city. He was in his early 60's at the time of this incident. He's a collar-wearing Lutheran of the High Church type; black shirt, white collar all the way around and dangling gold pectoral cross on Sundays. Most Sundays after Service he and his wife ate at the fast food chicken place down the street. And almost every Sunday, they sat near two very nice Southern ladies who went to a local evangelical church. They often chatted about the weather or grandchildren or the local news; never about religion.
One Sunday my friend's wife was out of town, and he went to the restaurant alone. There, he again saw the two ladies and talked with them. He got up to go out just as a parishioner came in and sat down. The parishioner overheard the two ladies talking about the departed pastor.
One lady, "He's such a pleasant, nice man."
The other said, "Yes, too bad he's going to Hell."
And they both nodded and dabbed their lips and continued eating their chicken.
Not a lot of sorrow and unceasing anguish in evidence there. Yes, Paul believes that those without Christ are going to Hell. But he's not happy about it, for Christ's sake. (yes, I meant to say "for Christ's sake" and no, it isn't taking the Lord's name in vain. It is for Christ's sake that Paul cares about them,)
Paul was once a man who could happily condemn others to death and Hell for disgreeing with him about theology, but something changed him; an encounter with God's Living Love, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Most of you reading this are not likely to condemn others to Hell for being Lutheran (or Catholic or whatever), but some of us are just as intolerant in other ways. We look down on those whose faith seems simplistic or more literal than ours, we resent those who speak the words of piety with ease, who fill their prayers with the word "just" in every other breath. And, I'm "just" as guilty as anyone I'm pointing a finger at. (Sorry Miss Mitchell. It doesn't sound as good when its grammatically correct.)
So I commit this day to seek to feel "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" over those who fail to listen to me when I try to tell them the truth about God. ;-)
GOSPEL: Matthew 14:13-21
"he had compassion" I don't know if there are any more comforting words in the Bible. And "he had compassion." It is a face of God we've all looked for and needed in our lives. "He had compassion" didn't used to mean much to me, back when I was young and knew everything and had not had the time or inventiveness to really screw up in life. But I'm older now and I don't even like to think about the ways that I have been less than I meant or hoped to be in life.
I have not just failed to do good, I have on occasion done bad, and knew I was doing bad when I did it, and I did it anyway. And I don't know why and have no excuse except that I am human and that's what humans do sometimes.
And I don't blame anyone else, not my mother or my father or the racist South or Yankees or being brought up dirt-poor in the country or my wife or my children or my churches. It was just me and life and occasional fits of sorriness. And I'm sorry. And I need a universe and a God which does not condone or condemn me but one that cares about me. And I encounter that God in the words, "and he had compassion".
Peace,
Dr. Delmo
Thursday, July 21, 2005
PENTECOST 10; The RCL readings for July 24, 2005
FIRST READING: I Kings 3:5-12
- In the history of the world, wisdom and power go hand-in-hand all too infrequently. The powerful act foolishly and the wise are powerless or so it seems. Jimmy Carter as one of the smartest, perhaps wisest (they're not the same thing, see Bill Clnton) President the US ever had, but he was not seen by many as wielding his great power effectively. On the other hand, George Bush II has certainly succeeded in throwing the US's power around in the world. The wisdom of his use of power is doubted by many. (Just to avoid accusations of parisan politics, LBJ used and misused his power both wisely and unwisely, as did Richard Nixon. It's an equal opportunity disease.)
- The key combination here is the right mixture of humility, right intention and exercise of appropriate authority. That is Solomon is humble enough to know that the power put into his hands as king is daangerous and unwieldy and he needs help. He also desires to use the power for the good of the people, not for personal gain, i.e. right intention; and lastly, he is not afraid to use the power if need be.
- In using this text sermonically, one might reflect on the fact that every Christian's Vocation is an opportunity to serve God, and as such requires the same combination of humility, right intention and willingness to appropriately wield one's power.
- Lastly, I am reminded that though Solomon had "good intentions", the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and the Scriptures show him as not only a man of wisdom and discernment, but also one of conspicuous consumption and almost unrivaled sexual desire, though he did marry all the women, it was a lot of women. Which just goes to show that Luther was right when he said we are all "Saints and Sinners simultaneously" and then quoted the Portuguese proverb that "God draws straight with crooked sticks."
SECOND READING: Romans 8:26-39
I have been a pastor for 28+ years now. I have lost count of the funerals I have done. Some of them were for people I knew well and dearly loved; others were for people I had never met. Most were somewhere in between. At almost all of those funerals I read this scripture lesson.
It is a powerful promise of the resurrection, both for those who fear death and for those left behind by a loved one. And it is also very effective oratory, soaring in ways we don't normally preach in these conversational days.
Most of the time I had had an opportunity to visit with the families of the deceased and had spoken to them concerning God's promise of eternal Life. I have always centered my funeral preaching on the Hope of the Resurrection.
And then, three years ago, my Daddy died. It was, as we preachers sometimes like to say, a good death, it was time, he was 80, and he was sick, he's not suffering anymore, he didn't have much of a life anymore. And it hurts like Hell.
As I walked up to the open casket in Moody Funeral Home in Mt. Airy, as I stood there staring down at my Daddy's waxy, cold body dressed up in his Sunday suit, I said to myself, "Is it true, is it really true, those promises I have been spouting off for 25 years? My head says its true, but all my heart knows is that Daddy isn't here anymore."
I have decided that this is the place where we live our faith; between what we know, "Daddy's dead" and what we hope is true, "nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Between the puzzling pains of this world and the mysterious promises of the next.
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Eventually Jesus is going to get through to the disciples about what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. This text reminds me of an incident that happened while I was living in Nashville, in the early 1990's. It was before the nation-wide expansion of Video Store chains and we got our weekly family night movie in the Video section of the grocery store. It was part of our weekly Friday routine. Deborah, the boys and I went to Kroger (the boys were pre-teens) and got groceries for the week, ordered carryout Pizza to take home and rented a movie for the evening.
One week I noticed "All Quiet on the Western Front" (a movie about WWI) was shelved in the Westerns section. Being selectively anal, and classic books and movies being one of the things I am anal about, I took the movie to the pimply teenager at the desk and siad, "Excuse me, this video was accidently mis-shelved. though it has Western in the title, it is really about WWI and should not be in the Western section." She smacked her gum, smiled and said, "Thank you very much, we'll take care of it." I felt good, smart and virtuous.
The next Friday, I was back in the video store and guess what? "All Quiet on the Western Front" was back in the Western section. The scene above was acted out again, almost verbatim.
And the next week, and the next week, and the next week. It became a game. I was not angry or frustrated, just amused and perplexed; and curious, would they ever get it?
So it is with preaching. Same thing, over and over and over again. Responded to with pleasant smiles and nods and thank yous. And almost no comprehension. Or so it seems to us.
But we preachers have to remember, our proclamation of the Gospel is like a tiny mustard seed, it is a little thing, and not all of the seeds take root, not all of them grow. But when they do, watch out, they grow big.
Or it's like the yeast. When you ask someone what bread is made of, they say wheat, but without the yeast, there is no bread. It's just that the yeast goes un-noticed. It is like that thing which one searches for all one's life, and its been there all along and then one day you turn a perceptual corner and see it, really see it, for the first time.
So, we are fishers, not angels. Our job is spreading the seed, catching the fish, pointing at the jewels and pearls of God's world. It's the angels' job to sort it all out.
In the meantime, we just kept telling them. One day they will have ears to hear.
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Pentecost 9, RCL Readings for July 17, 2005
DO NOT BE AFRAID, MY PEOPLE!
I have a confession to make. I am often afraid, often very, very afraid. Not so much for me, but for my family, my friends, my community, my church, my country. All sorts of others to be afraid for. I am fearful of the world and its dangers. I worry about my family on the road (my wife, and two boys in college). I worry about bad roads and bad drivers and cell phones and crooked cops and all sorts of things.
I am afraid of illness and disease, of flus that are stronger than our medicines, of cancers too quick to kill, of things we eat and ingest that will kill us now or later.
I am afraid of Republicans and Democrats, of rich people and poor people and complacent people who don't care. And I am afraid of homophobic people and of of people who may see me as homophobic and, and, and . .
I am afraid of terrorism and war and poverty and sickness, and well, you get it, I am afraid.
And yet I saih says, God says, "Be not afraid, my people." And the question is, with so much to fear, how do we "be not afraid."
And the not easy answer is to trust the truth when God calls us "my people".
If we are indeed God's people, we're called to bury our heads in the warm, sacred bosom and to rest the weight of our cares in the stong, Holy arms and to let God's strength and love soothe
the fear right out of our lives. For we are god's people.
I have a confession to make. I am often afraid, often very, very afraid. Not so much for me, but for my family, my friends, my community, my church, my country. All sorts of others to be afraid for. I am fearful of the world and its dangers. I worry about my family on the road (my wife, and two boys in college). I worry about bad roads and bad drivers and cell phones and crooked cops and all sorts of things.
I am afraid of illness and disease, of flus that are stronger than our medicines, of cancers too quick to kill, of things we eat and ingest that will kill us now or later.
I am afraid of Republicans and Democrats, of rich people and poor people and complacent people who don't care. And I am afraid of homophobic people and of of people who may see me as homophobic and, and, and . .
I am afraid of terrorism and war and poverty and sickness, and well, you get it, I am afraid.
And yet I saih says, God says, "Be not afraid, my people." And the question is, with so much to fear, how do we "be not afraid."
And the not easy answer is to trust the truth when God calls us "my people".
If we are indeed God's people, we're called to bury our heads in the warm, sacred bosom and to rest the weight of our cares in the stong, Holy arms and to let God's strength and love soothe
the fear right out of our lives. For we are god's people.
ROMANS 8: 12-25 "Of Groaning and hoping"
I'm not often sure what to make of Paul's language here about Creation groaning, but it is an image with which I resonate, particlarly in the last few years. I am becoming more and more distressed about the carelessness with which we treat the earth. If the creation is groaning, it is groaning in pain and anguish at the way it has been treated by it's supposed caretakers.
My father died two years ago. He was 80. Except for a stint in the army he lived his whole life on the same 75 acre farm, except for a few unnecessary days in the ICU, essentially dying in the house where he was born.
He annoyed the H- l l out of me and my brothers with his cantankerous, "old-fashioned" ways. He used animals in the field, not tractors, he did little spraying of herbicides, he terraced the land in sweeping rows, he rotated the crops, he spread animal manure, etc., while his more progressive neighbors streamlined and industrialized their farming.
Because Daddy's way was more labor-intensive, I hated it. I didn't like farming anyway. I justr wanted to read my books , and think my great thoughts, not muck about in the dirt. I left the farm as soon as I could.
My younger brother became an architect and a gentleman farmer, tending the land with my father. At Dad's funeral, Tony used a word I had never considered in connection with my father. He told the crowd that in all those 40+ years on the farm together, the main thing Daddy had taught him was "Stewardship" of the land. This was surprising coming from my brother, for neither he nor Daddy were real churchmen. It wasn't a word I had ever heard at our house.
But it fit. It fit who Daddy was and it fit what he did. The land was never his, it was a gift, on loan from God, and it was his duty to take care of it as best he could. His wife and kids were never his, they were a gift, on loan from God, and it was his job to take care of them as best he could. And therein was his hope, his hope in God and for the future.
We too are called to be stewards of a Creation groaning in the midst of decay. WE are called to care and to care for the needs of the world, and with our resonse to that call, within our trust in God's future, lies our hope.
MATTHEW 13:24-30; 36-43 vs. 36 "tell us what the parable about the weeds in the field means."
As a preacher I take great comfort in the fact that Jesus had to explain his sermons too. That he had occasional bad luck with illustrations. That he was totally misunderstood, no matter how clear he tried to be.
This is how I see this scene. Jesus is up preaching and Peter and the boys are amening. Jesus is waxing eloquent on the wheat and the tares and the disciples are clapping hands, shouting "amen" and "help him - - - " well, not "Help him Jesus"; this is where the image breaks down a little but you get the idea; maybe "help him Elijah", yeah, that'll work.
Anyway, Church is over and they repair to the Head Deacon's house for some post-sermon chicken and biscuits with iced-tea and conversation.
After a few obligatory"Man, that was a fine sermon Jesus" remarks, somebody, probably Thomas, says "Uh, Jesus, just a question or two. There were parts of that sermon I wasn't exactly clear on."
And Jesus says, "Which parts would that be"
and Thomas says, ""Well, all of them. Just what were you talking about?"
Anyway, as a preacher, I take great comfort in this fact. And just as we can't be sure everybody will understand everything we say, we also can not be sure who is understanding the Gospel and who isn't. Is that a wheat or a weed? Who knows?
Well, God knows. And that's a good thing, cause its God's job to know, and if it was my job, I'd screw it up, because I have prejudices about these things, and would only pick my kind of weeds to go to heaven with me. Its a good thing God goes on grace and can see the wheat in the weeds, or we'd all be sunk.
Like Mark Twain said, "Heaven goes on Grace, not on merit. If it went by merit, your dog would get in and you would stay out."
Peace,
Delmo Dorite
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)