A Sermon preached at Messiah Korean Lutheran Church, Norcross, GA (Greater Atlanta)
Pentecost 5
June 27, 2010
Text: Luke 9:51-62
This week people from all over the world have traveled to South Africa for the World Cup. In a few weeks, my wife and I will fly from Atlanta to Seattle to spend a week with our son who works for Microsoft, a distance of over 2000 miles. This long distance traveling seems very natural and ordinary to most of us in this room, but it was not always so.
New Testament Professor Tom Wright says that "in most of the world for most of human history, most people didn't travel at all. . . .they stayed in their local neighborhood all their lives." (Luke for Everyone, p. 117)
The main exception to this staying on home was going "on pilgrimage," taking a religious trip to a special site; a temple or a shrine. Indeed, in English the word for special days of observance is HOLIDAY, which was originally HOLY DAY.
In the British Isles, what we in the United States call "taking a vacation," is referred to as "going on holiday." For the Jewish people of Jesus' time, going on pilgrimage usually meant going to Jerusalem, to the Temple, like Jesus' family did when he was a twelve year old boy. (Luke 2:41-51)
In our Gospel Lesson for today, Jesus sets out on a pilgrimage;
he goes "on holy-day" in the true sense of the term;
he sets out on a mission from God and for God,
he goes to a holy place to do a holy thing.
In verses 51 and 53 of chapter 9, Luke says that Jesus "set his face for Jerusalem."
This phrase means something like, "he was determined to go and would not let anything stop him."
Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
In Luke we see in Jesus the fact that obedience to God the Father's call on his life required him to travel to Jerusalem.
In Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas and Silas and John Mark many others for whom the life of the Christian is a journey of following Jesus along the way of the cross.
In my work for the synod I do a lot of traveling. We're a large Synod, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Blue Ridge Mountains, from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean.
One of the hardest things to do is to pack right for the trip. What clothes do I need? What stuff, what things do I need? What ministry resources and workbooks for various workshops and what extension cords and phone chargers and computer attachments and other electronics and then there's the prescription medicines and the other medicines, and, well, it gets very complex and confusing.
What should I take? What should I leave behind?
Lucky for me I'm a bad dresser and only have to worry about one pair of shoes.
Today's Gospel lesson was written to teach the first Christians what it meant to be on their journey with Jesus, about how to prepare for the trip, about what to take and what to leave behind, it's a lesson in spiritual packing.
The story the Bible tells us is pretty simple, it's like a scene out of a movie or a musical play.
Imagine Jesus striding down the road, with a crowd on either side of him and the disciples following behind him, music playing in the background.
As he walks along, people come out of the crowd and he has conversation with them about what it means to be on the Way to the Holy City.
In this story, there are four encounters and several lessons about what to take and what not to take on this journey.
Part 1) The first encounter involves the village of the Samaritans, (verses 52 through 56). Jesus sent messengers to the village to let them know he was coming and the people sent back word asking him not to stop in their village, they didn't want him there.
We don't really know why not except that the Bible says it was, "because his face was set toward Jerusalem." Does that mean they were opposed to the ministry and message of Jesus? Or does it mean that since they were Samaritans they were already hated by the leaders in Jerusalem and didn't want any more trouble? We don't know.
What we do know is that two of Jesus' disciples, James and John, got angry and wanted to call down destruction from heaven, wanted to ask God to destroy this little village the way God destroyed Sodom in the time of Abraham and Lot.
And Jesus said no, leave them alone.
What can we learn about "spiritual packing" from this part of the story?
Any where we go; God has been there before us. Any where we go, God is there with us. Any where we go; God will still be there when we leave.
Just as messengers went in front of Jesus on his journey, anywhere we go with the Gospel, God has already been working.
Sometimes the people are ready, sometimes they are not.
Sometimes they receive us with open arms; sometimes they turn their backs.
But that is not our concern, we neither condemn nor punish those who aren't ready; nor do we take credit when we and the Gospel are received.
As the saying goes, "it's not about us, it's about God."
So, this part of the story teaches us that when we pack for the journey with Jesus, we leave out our egos, our pride, our anger and judgment of others.
We put in our pack humility and love, gentleness and kindness and a deep awareness that God is with us, all the way, all the time, and what happens is in holy hands and is NOT ours to control.
Part 2) In the last part of the story, people come out of the crowd to talk with Jesus as he walks along past the village. All the encounters have to do with excuses, or reasons, people think they don't have time to follow Jesus.
Verse 57 - A man says "I'll follow you anywhere."
Verse 58 - Jesus responds by warning him it's a life without a permanent home.
Verse 59 - Jesus invites a man to follow, but the man says he has to bury his father first. It's important to know his father is very much alive. What he means is, "Let me fulfill all my family obligations, then I'll follow you."
Verse 60 - Jesus tells him "Let the dead bury the dead." That is, "If you're going to follow the Kingdom of God, you have to let go of that duty in order to take up a new duty, the duty to proclaim the Good News."
Verse 61 - a person says, "Let me first go home and say good bye."
And in Verse 62 - Jesus says those words about looking back while plowing. A more modern, urban analogy is, "Don't try to drive around I- 285 while looking in the rear-view mirror; you'll have a wreck!"
In these three encounters, Jesus is calling us to leave behind one set of obligations and duties in order to take on a different set.
He asks us, no calls us, to unpack and leave behind Nationalism and Racism and social propriety in order to embrace a Kingdom that includes all people of all races and colors and languages from all over the world.
He invites us to leave behind selfish and narrow and localized devotion in order to put in our pack a sense of love and duty for the salvation of the entire world, not just our little corner of it.
When Jesus set his face to Jerusalem, he turned his back on Nazareth, on the land around the Sea of Galilee, on his life as a carpenter and small town teacher and preacher.
When Jesus set his face for Jerusalem, he knew he was going to his death, he knew he was, from that very moment, walking to the cross.
And he invites us to go with him. He invites us, calls us to follow him to Jerusalem, to the Cross. He invites us to unpack all the small but heavy and burdensome things that keep us from loving God and each other completely and fully and passionately.
Jesus invites us to drop the burdens that weigh us down, to throw aside the cares and concerns that hold us back, to cast away the judgments and hatreds that turn us away from God and toward the world.
Jesus invites us to empty our hands of all that so that we can take up our cross and gladly follow him.
When we have empty hands, we can reach out to others.
When we remove the hate from our hearts, we have room for love.
When we take the judgment out of our eyes, we then see others as God sees them, as precious children in need of love and forgiveness.
The way of the cross is not easy, but it is the way we have been called to follow.
Can you hear Christ calling you now? Saying in the still quiet of your heart; "Drop everything that is holding you back and follow, follow me to Jerusalem, follow me to Love."
Amen and amen.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
For June 20, 2010 - Revised Common Lectionary Texts
I'm at AFFIRM, the SE Synod of the ELCA's summer time youth event so I'm not preaching tomorrow. But, for those late Saturday grazers for preaching texts and options, I have published here a sermon sent to me by my friend, The Rev. Dr. Mark Scott, ELCA Foundation Representative in South Carolina and weekly pulpit supply at Mount Pleasant ELCA.
Gas or Charcoal?
A sermon preached for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost on Luke 8:26-39
At Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church
Saluda, SC
Mark Scott, Preacher
Since today is Father’s day, I thought I would begin with the burning question for fathers: Gas or Charcoal? A few years ago, my mother in law gave us money for Christmas to purchase a gas grill. We dutifully went to Sears and found one we liked, but when we realized how complicated it was to put together, we went back and paid them to assemble it for us.
That should have given us a clue about grilling. Having always been satisfied with charcoal, we thought that the experience of gas would be even better. For us, it wasn’t.
We kept running out of propane in the middle of the canister. Being absent-minded, I would often leave the grill running far longer than it needed to run. And, after about three years of staying outside, the gas grill corroded so badly that it could no longer be used. In the end, what the grill needed was a one way trip to the junk yard.
To solve the problem, we bought a small charcoal grill on sale for $17. It has corroded some too, but has lasted well for more than five years now.
The problem with charcoal though is getting it lighted. I have been using the fast lighting stuff, but it is so expensive. So we were very pleased a couple years ago, when we were visiting friends and discovered a new invention for lighting charcoal. (By the way, this is a rather longwinded explanation of the Gospel lesson.)
This invention is simply a pipe with a handle. You place the charcoal in the top of the pipe. In the bottom, you light newspapers. For about fifteen minutes, it appears that nothing is happening except that smoke is coming out of the top of the pipe. However, when you empty the contents after the fifteen minutes has passed, you have hot smoldering coals and you are almost ready to put your meat on the grill.
To me, the difference between gas grills and charcoal is the explanation to the Gospel lesson for this day. Jesus is again in a Gentile region. We know this because the swineherds are living there. Jews were forbidden by dietary laws from eating pork, so these people really don’t know a lot about the background of Jesus.
In other words, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, they are more likely to light up slowly. The “gas grill” people are paying attention though but as the story begins, they are somewhere else. Jesus leaves the boat on the Sea of Galilee and a naked demon-possessed man confronted him.
As the story progresses the fire of the Spirit slowly begins to light in the region, but the story indicates that the fire is often more smoldering than burning. Curiously, the demons inside the man recognize Jesus and offer him respect but they do not succumb immediately. The move into the swine. The economic catastrophe ensues as the swineherds lose their livelihood and the people of the village ask Jesus to leave. The only ember remaining is the man freed from demon-possession who goes around testifying to the mighty acts of God in Jesus.
When you think about it, this is an amazing story. But it is also a story of real life. Last week, the State newspaper carried an article about the governor’s race and religion. On the Democratic side, a Catholic has been nominated for the first time in South Carolina history. I suppose that for some Christians that is bad enough.
However, Nikki Haley is a real enigma. As far as many Christians are concerned, she is in about the same position of the demoniac. She grew up a Sikh. Her Indian name is difficult to pronounce. But now she says she is a Methodist. Unfortunately, it is still unclear how much she still espouses the Sikh religious experience.
But the problem of South Carolina politics is exactly the problem Jesus addresses in this Gospel lesson. By healing the demoniac man, Jesus shows that he is the Messiah for ALL people. Unfortunately, we often would prefer the gas grill instant answer type religious experience to the slow burn of the charcoal.
But notice that the charcoal produces a deeper, more intense and long-lasting heat. And essentially, when Jesus heals the man, he produces a slow burning and intense faith within him. To me, the most interesting thing that happens in this story must be what happens afterward. The man becomes a Gentile disciple. All the text tells us is that he proclaims the mighty works of God.
My guess however is that he becomes charcoal starter. His faith is so bright and intense that others come to believe even though Jesus is no longer in the region. And, while this story seems far removed from our world today, the intensity of the experience is really quite close to the experience we still need as disciples. While some might decry the multi-religious nature of the governor’s race, I think this provides us an opportunity to embrace the message all of us share.
In reality, both candidates will be explaining themselves during the coming weeks and months. But we should also be explaining ourselves as well—as disciples. This man who lives in the cemetery at the start of the lesson provides an image of living in faith for us at the end.
And, like my charcoal, we should be long-burning with the fire of the Gospel message in our lives and hearts. You have a mission to serve in this place. You are the ones our Lord has called to a life-long commitment to discipleship. And as God’s people your witness and power is a vital ingredient in shaping the lives of others around you no matter what background they come from.
Still, while corrosion is possible, it is most regrettable. As St. Paul notes we are not the beneficiaries of a spirit of timidity. Instead, our Lord calls us like the man in the story to live in the message each day as we testify to the mighty works that God has used to shape our lives.
Gas or Charcoal?
A sermon preached for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost on Luke 8:26-39
At Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church
Saluda, SC
Mark Scott, Preacher
Since today is Father’s day, I thought I would begin with the burning question for fathers: Gas or Charcoal? A few years ago, my mother in law gave us money for Christmas to purchase a gas grill. We dutifully went to Sears and found one we liked, but when we realized how complicated it was to put together, we went back and paid them to assemble it for us.
That should have given us a clue about grilling. Having always been satisfied with charcoal, we thought that the experience of gas would be even better. For us, it wasn’t.
We kept running out of propane in the middle of the canister. Being absent-minded, I would often leave the grill running far longer than it needed to run. And, after about three years of staying outside, the gas grill corroded so badly that it could no longer be used. In the end, what the grill needed was a one way trip to the junk yard.
To solve the problem, we bought a small charcoal grill on sale for $17. It has corroded some too, but has lasted well for more than five years now.
The problem with charcoal though is getting it lighted. I have been using the fast lighting stuff, but it is so expensive. So we were very pleased a couple years ago, when we were visiting friends and discovered a new invention for lighting charcoal. (By the way, this is a rather longwinded explanation of the Gospel lesson.)
This invention is simply a pipe with a handle. You place the charcoal in the top of the pipe. In the bottom, you light newspapers. For about fifteen minutes, it appears that nothing is happening except that smoke is coming out of the top of the pipe. However, when you empty the contents after the fifteen minutes has passed, you have hot smoldering coals and you are almost ready to put your meat on the grill.
To me, the difference between gas grills and charcoal is the explanation to the Gospel lesson for this day. Jesus is again in a Gentile region. We know this because the swineherds are living there. Jews were forbidden by dietary laws from eating pork, so these people really don’t know a lot about the background of Jesus.
In other words, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, they are more likely to light up slowly. The “gas grill” people are paying attention though but as the story begins, they are somewhere else. Jesus leaves the boat on the Sea of Galilee and a naked demon-possessed man confronted him.
As the story progresses the fire of the Spirit slowly begins to light in the region, but the story indicates that the fire is often more smoldering than burning. Curiously, the demons inside the man recognize Jesus and offer him respect but they do not succumb immediately. The move into the swine. The economic catastrophe ensues as the swineherds lose their livelihood and the people of the village ask Jesus to leave. The only ember remaining is the man freed from demon-possession who goes around testifying to the mighty acts of God in Jesus.
When you think about it, this is an amazing story. But it is also a story of real life. Last week, the State newspaper carried an article about the governor’s race and religion. On the Democratic side, a Catholic has been nominated for the first time in South Carolina history. I suppose that for some Christians that is bad enough.
However, Nikki Haley is a real enigma. As far as many Christians are concerned, she is in about the same position of the demoniac. She grew up a Sikh. Her Indian name is difficult to pronounce. But now she says she is a Methodist. Unfortunately, it is still unclear how much she still espouses the Sikh religious experience.
But the problem of South Carolina politics is exactly the problem Jesus addresses in this Gospel lesson. By healing the demoniac man, Jesus shows that he is the Messiah for ALL people. Unfortunately, we often would prefer the gas grill instant answer type religious experience to the slow burn of the charcoal.
But notice that the charcoal produces a deeper, more intense and long-lasting heat. And essentially, when Jesus heals the man, he produces a slow burning and intense faith within him. To me, the most interesting thing that happens in this story must be what happens afterward. The man becomes a Gentile disciple. All the text tells us is that he proclaims the mighty works of God.
My guess however is that he becomes charcoal starter. His faith is so bright and intense that others come to believe even though Jesus is no longer in the region. And, while this story seems far removed from our world today, the intensity of the experience is really quite close to the experience we still need as disciples. While some might decry the multi-religious nature of the governor’s race, I think this provides us an opportunity to embrace the message all of us share.
In reality, both candidates will be explaining themselves during the coming weeks and months. But we should also be explaining ourselves as well—as disciples. This man who lives in the cemetery at the start of the lesson provides an image of living in faith for us at the end.
And, like my charcoal, we should be long-burning with the fire of the Gospel message in our lives and hearts. You have a mission to serve in this place. You are the ones our Lord has called to a life-long commitment to discipleship. And as God’s people your witness and power is a vital ingredient in shaping the lives of others around you no matter what background they come from.
Still, while corrosion is possible, it is most regrettable. As St. Paul notes we are not the beneficiaries of a spirit of timidity. Instead, our Lord calls us like the man in the story to live in the message each day as we testify to the mighty works that God has used to shape our lives.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Going and Comingstories and sermons
Someone asked me about sermon ideas and stories for farewell sermons and "HI, I'm your new pastor" sermons, so I looked over the last few years for what I had said on those occasions and here are some things. The first bit of material is a collection of stories from a beginning sermon that rtried to set the tone of: What is the church? What sort of church life do I envision?
The last piece is a farewell Sermon I preached a little over two years ago.
I hope this helps any of ya'll who read this and are currently in transition.
I am a big fan of Church Signs. Oak Forest Methodist Church in Hayesville, NC had a message up for a week that said,
IF YOU CAN’T BE KIND, AT LEAST BE VAGUE.
Sounds like good advice to me.
Across the street from Tennessee State University in Nashville there is a Church which has the longest Church name I’ve ever seen on a sign.
I pulled in the parking lot to copy it down:
The House of the Lord,
Which is the Church of the Living God,
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth,
Without Controversy, Incorporated.
Without controversy. Whoever heard of a church without controversy?
Today’s Scripture lessons are all about controversy.
This section of Jeremiah has a heading in the American Bible Society’s Version that says “Jeremiah’s life threatened.”
And that’s exactly what is going on here. He is the lamb led to the slaughter, the tree destroyed with its fruits, Jeremiah is the one they want to cut off from the living.
From the OT, through the NT, through most of Church History,
the Community of faith has often been caught up
in dispute and disagreement about
what it means to be a true believer.
In light of religion’s history of fighting, instead of the Nashville church’s claim to be “Without Controversy,” perhaps a church sign I saw in Atlanta is more to the point. It read:
FREE FOR ALL BAPTIST CHURCH
Now I know they meant their name to convey a religious truth,
that the Grace, Love and Forgiveness of God are “free for all.”
But, when I saw the sign, all I could think of is how we call a small riot, a bar fight, a baseball fracas, any kind of wild, no rules confrontation,
a “free for all.” And every time I drove by that church, I imagined 65-year-old deacons in their Sunday suits, wrestling and throwing Bibles at each other.
The truth is, the people of God have always been, and probably always will be, a contentious lot, given to fussing with each other about all sorts of things, some of which matter and most of which don’t
GK Chesterton is one of my favorite writers. He wrote and was famous in England from about 1900 into the 1930's. He wrote mystery stories and religious biographies and books of theology, etc. etc.
He was a very eccentric man, over 6 feet, 350 pounds plus, wearing a cape and a black broad brimmed hat everywhere he went.
One time he was on a radio talk show. They had a panel of important people talking about religion and literature. The moderator asked this question:
If you were on a desert island, what one book would you want to have?
George Bernard Shaw said the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
The President of the Baptist Union said Pilgrim’s Progress
The Moderator of the Methodist Church said The Bible
The Anglican Bishop of London said, The Book of Common Prayer
Chesterton pursed his lips and said nothing. The Moderator prompted him: Mr. Chesterton, what book on a desert island?
Chesterton: I believe Thomas’ Guide to Practical Shipbuilding
I believe that in today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus has provided us with the key to Practical Soul-Building and to Practical Church Building
Farewell Sermon
Text: John 14:15-21
Title: Are We Done?
Many of you know that before I came to Friedens, I worked at a Methodist Retreat Center in the NC mountains. You might not know that for two of the four years I was there I also pastored a tiny house church in Highlands, NC called the Church of the Holy Family.
Holy Family worshipped in a house, in a two car garage which had been nicely fixed up as a Chapel. There was a pulpit and an Altar and a piano and three rows of folding chairs. It was a tight space. Nong sat with his family in the back row. Nong was 4 years old; he had been adopted from Thailand. During the service, Nong usually sat in the floor and played with his dinosaurs.
And every Sunday, after Communion, when everyone stood up for the Post-Communion Blessing, in that brief of moment of silence before the Pastor speaks, Nong would loudly ask his mother, “Are we done?”
It’s a good question for us here, today. Are we done? And the answer, in good, Lutheran, waffling, dialectical, tradition is; well, yes . . . and no?
This “are we done?” question was on the minds of Jesus’ disciples in our Gospel lesson. This text is a part of Jesus’ long sermon/conversation in the Upper Room after the Last Supper. It starts right after Judas leaves to go to the temple to betray Jesus and continues for four chapters.
And, the bottom line is that the disciples are trying to figure out, “Are we done?” “Is it all over?” “What happens next?” “What about us?”
And Jesus is trying to give them a “Yes . . . and No” answer, which they really aren’t buying.
The “Yes” part of the answer is that he is indeed leaving, it is indeed over. He tries to get them to understand what the next three days will be about for Him: death, hell, resurrection, time spent with the disciples, then Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit;
but, frankly, it’s all just too weird and confusing and frightening, and they don’t really get it.
“Where are you going?” “No, we can’t come if we don’t know the way?” “”Why don’t you speak plainly?” they ask him. “Why does he mean by that?” they ask each other. No, they really don’t get it. Why is he leaving, now, so soon? Is it really over? And Jesus’ answer is Yes . . . and No.
Yes, in that the way it’s been for the last few years is over. This close, intimate, personal relationship between me and all of you is over, Jesus says, and it can never be repeated. My time on earth is done.
But, NO, in that the community of love we started together is not over. And will never be over. It has begun in us and will continue in you all forever. Because, when I leave, I will send into your midst the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to hold you together and to lead you forward.
So, NO, it isn’t over. We aren’t done. In reality, we’ve only just now gotten started.
And the mark of this ongoing Jesus Movement/Christ Community is LOVE. Which is simple to say and hard to do.
I know I’ve said this here before, but my favorite line from GK Chesterfield bears repeating:
In one place in the Bible, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. In another place he tells us to love our enemies. This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
Love is hard, particularly the sort of love Jesus is talking about here, AGAPE, self-giving, sacrificial love which seeks nothing for itself but instead seeks only to aid and help the other. Again, love is hard, especially when we are invited by Jesus to love people we don’t really like.
And of course, this is not the only place Jesus calls upon us to love each other in this way.
The text says, “If you love me, you WILL keep my commandments.”
And what are Jesus’ commandments? Well didn’t he say they were all about loving God and each other?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind; and the second is like unto it – you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
In another place he says:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Over in the 21st chapter of John, after his death and resurrection, Jesus has a dialog with Peter on the beach:
Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs.
Peter, do you love me, Tend my sheep.
Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.
So it is clear that Jesus wants us to love one another. The problem is, loving each other is very hard business. Loving people you like is difficult enough; how can Jesus’ order us, command us to love even those we don’t like?
What are we to do? How do we begin to love others in the way Our Lord loved us?
There are two hints to the how of this in our Gospel lesson.
The first is buried within verse 15, the first line of our text:
If you love me, you WILL keep my commandments.
It is a part of our basic human nature that we hear these words as LAW, as a RULE, as a COMMAND to be OBEYED, as a WORK to be ACHIEVED.
Our ears hear Jesus saying something he didn’t say. We hear:
If you want to prove to the world and to God that you love me, then you will have to show it by loving one another.
That’s what we hear; but that’s not what Jesus said.
Jesus gave us a word of GOSPEL, not LAW;
a word of PROMISE, not JUDGMENT.
Listen:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If you are an apple tree, you will bear apples.
If you are a child of God, you will act like one.
If you are connected to the Christ, you will bear the Christian fruit of love.
Jesus’ point is that the capacity to love people is not something we develop or achieve; it is rather the gift of God received in our relationship of love with the Christ.
“If you love me you will keep my commandments,” is a gospel promise that being in relationship with the living Lord is a life-changing, transforming experience.
As Christ begins to live more and more within us, as we open our lives more and more to Christ’s leading, we find ourselves more and more able to treat others in a loving and respectful manner.
The loving relationship we have with Christ begins to spill over into loving relationships with those around us.
And, Jesus implies, though I am leaving, the love community we have created will continue to live and grow into the future.
The Second Key is found in verse 16:
And I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth . . .”
This advocate, this counselor, this Spirit of Truth; is in us, with us at all times. The Holy Spirit is available to nurture us; to lead and guide us in loving others as Christ has loved us.
Jesus says, “Yes, we’re done with me being with you. But I will not leave you orphaned, alone, unloved and uncared for. No, you’re not done with the life of loving one another with the love of God. I will send the Spirit to carry you along the rest of the way.”
Jesus comes to us today to assure us that in the midst of life’s surprising twists and turns and comings and goings; he will never be done with loving us.
Our calling today is to respond to that promise and that love by loving one another.
Are we done? Yes, if you mean are we done in our relationship of Pastor and congregation? That ends Wednesday night.
Are we done? No, if you mean are we done loving one another in the spirit and presence of the risen Christ. We will never be done with that, for Christ will never be done with us, not in a million years.
Amen and amen.
The last piece is a farewell Sermon I preached a little over two years ago.
I hope this helps any of ya'll who read this and are currently in transition.
I am a big fan of Church Signs. Oak Forest Methodist Church in Hayesville, NC had a message up for a week that said,
IF YOU CAN’T BE KIND, AT LEAST BE VAGUE.
Sounds like good advice to me.
Across the street from Tennessee State University in Nashville there is a Church which has the longest Church name I’ve ever seen on a sign.
I pulled in the parking lot to copy it down:
The House of the Lord,
Which is the Church of the Living God,
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth,
Without Controversy, Incorporated.
Without controversy. Whoever heard of a church without controversy?
Today’s Scripture lessons are all about controversy.
This section of Jeremiah has a heading in the American Bible Society’s Version that says “Jeremiah’s life threatened.”
And that’s exactly what is going on here. He is the lamb led to the slaughter, the tree destroyed with its fruits, Jeremiah is the one they want to cut off from the living.
From the OT, through the NT, through most of Church History,
the Community of faith has often been caught up
in dispute and disagreement about
what it means to be a true believer.
In light of religion’s history of fighting, instead of the Nashville church’s claim to be “Without Controversy,” perhaps a church sign I saw in Atlanta is more to the point. It read:
FREE FOR ALL BAPTIST CHURCH
Now I know they meant their name to convey a religious truth,
that the Grace, Love and Forgiveness of God are “free for all.”
But, when I saw the sign, all I could think of is how we call a small riot, a bar fight, a baseball fracas, any kind of wild, no rules confrontation,
a “free for all.” And every time I drove by that church, I imagined 65-year-old deacons in their Sunday suits, wrestling and throwing Bibles at each other.
The truth is, the people of God have always been, and probably always will be, a contentious lot, given to fussing with each other about all sorts of things, some of which matter and most of which don’t
GK Chesterton is one of my favorite writers. He wrote and was famous in England from about 1900 into the 1930's. He wrote mystery stories and religious biographies and books of theology, etc. etc.
He was a very eccentric man, over 6 feet, 350 pounds plus, wearing a cape and a black broad brimmed hat everywhere he went.
One time he was on a radio talk show. They had a panel of important people talking about religion and literature. The moderator asked this question:
If you were on a desert island, what one book would you want to have?
George Bernard Shaw said the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
The President of the Baptist Union said Pilgrim’s Progress
The Moderator of the Methodist Church said The Bible
The Anglican Bishop of London said, The Book of Common Prayer
Chesterton pursed his lips and said nothing. The Moderator prompted him: Mr. Chesterton, what book on a desert island?
Chesterton: I believe Thomas’ Guide to Practical Shipbuilding
I believe that in today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus has provided us with the key to Practical Soul-Building and to Practical Church Building
Farewell Sermon
Text: John 14:15-21
Title: Are We Done?
Many of you know that before I came to Friedens, I worked at a Methodist Retreat Center in the NC mountains. You might not know that for two of the four years I was there I also pastored a tiny house church in Highlands, NC called the Church of the Holy Family.
Holy Family worshipped in a house, in a two car garage which had been nicely fixed up as a Chapel. There was a pulpit and an Altar and a piano and three rows of folding chairs. It was a tight space. Nong sat with his family in the back row. Nong was 4 years old; he had been adopted from Thailand. During the service, Nong usually sat in the floor and played with his dinosaurs.
And every Sunday, after Communion, when everyone stood up for the Post-Communion Blessing, in that brief of moment of silence before the Pastor speaks, Nong would loudly ask his mother, “Are we done?”
It’s a good question for us here, today. Are we done? And the answer, in good, Lutheran, waffling, dialectical, tradition is; well, yes . . . and no?
This “are we done?” question was on the minds of Jesus’ disciples in our Gospel lesson. This text is a part of Jesus’ long sermon/conversation in the Upper Room after the Last Supper. It starts right after Judas leaves to go to the temple to betray Jesus and continues for four chapters.
And, the bottom line is that the disciples are trying to figure out, “Are we done?” “Is it all over?” “What happens next?” “What about us?”
And Jesus is trying to give them a “Yes . . . and No” answer, which they really aren’t buying.
The “Yes” part of the answer is that he is indeed leaving, it is indeed over. He tries to get them to understand what the next three days will be about for Him: death, hell, resurrection, time spent with the disciples, then Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit;
but, frankly, it’s all just too weird and confusing and frightening, and they don’t really get it.
“Where are you going?” “No, we can’t come if we don’t know the way?” “”Why don’t you speak plainly?” they ask him. “Why does he mean by that?” they ask each other. No, they really don’t get it. Why is he leaving, now, so soon? Is it really over? And Jesus’ answer is Yes . . . and No.
Yes, in that the way it’s been for the last few years is over. This close, intimate, personal relationship between me and all of you is over, Jesus says, and it can never be repeated. My time on earth is done.
But, NO, in that the community of love we started together is not over. And will never be over. It has begun in us and will continue in you all forever. Because, when I leave, I will send into your midst the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to hold you together and to lead you forward.
So, NO, it isn’t over. We aren’t done. In reality, we’ve only just now gotten started.
And the mark of this ongoing Jesus Movement/Christ Community is LOVE. Which is simple to say and hard to do.
I know I’ve said this here before, but my favorite line from GK Chesterfield bears repeating:
In one place in the Bible, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. In another place he tells us to love our enemies. This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
Love is hard, particularly the sort of love Jesus is talking about here, AGAPE, self-giving, sacrificial love which seeks nothing for itself but instead seeks only to aid and help the other. Again, love is hard, especially when we are invited by Jesus to love people we don’t really like.
And of course, this is not the only place Jesus calls upon us to love each other in this way.
The text says, “If you love me, you WILL keep my commandments.”
And what are Jesus’ commandments? Well didn’t he say they were all about loving God and each other?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind; and the second is like unto it – you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
In another place he says:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Over in the 21st chapter of John, after his death and resurrection, Jesus has a dialog with Peter on the beach:
Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs.
Peter, do you love me, Tend my sheep.
Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.
So it is clear that Jesus wants us to love one another. The problem is, loving each other is very hard business. Loving people you like is difficult enough; how can Jesus’ order us, command us to love even those we don’t like?
What are we to do? How do we begin to love others in the way Our Lord loved us?
There are two hints to the how of this in our Gospel lesson.
The first is buried within verse 15, the first line of our text:
If you love me, you WILL keep my commandments.
It is a part of our basic human nature that we hear these words as LAW, as a RULE, as a COMMAND to be OBEYED, as a WORK to be ACHIEVED.
Our ears hear Jesus saying something he didn’t say. We hear:
If you want to prove to the world and to God that you love me, then you will have to show it by loving one another.
That’s what we hear; but that’s not what Jesus said.
Jesus gave us a word of GOSPEL, not LAW;
a word of PROMISE, not JUDGMENT.
Listen:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If you are an apple tree, you will bear apples.
If you are a child of God, you will act like one.
If you are connected to the Christ, you will bear the Christian fruit of love.
Jesus’ point is that the capacity to love people is not something we develop or achieve; it is rather the gift of God received in our relationship of love with the Christ.
“If you love me you will keep my commandments,” is a gospel promise that being in relationship with the living Lord is a life-changing, transforming experience.
As Christ begins to live more and more within us, as we open our lives more and more to Christ’s leading, we find ourselves more and more able to treat others in a loving and respectful manner.
The loving relationship we have with Christ begins to spill over into loving relationships with those around us.
And, Jesus implies, though I am leaving, the love community we have created will continue to live and grow into the future.
The Second Key is found in verse 16:
And I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth . . .”
This advocate, this counselor, this Spirit of Truth; is in us, with us at all times. The Holy Spirit is available to nurture us; to lead and guide us in loving others as Christ has loved us.
Jesus says, “Yes, we’re done with me being with you. But I will not leave you orphaned, alone, unloved and uncared for. No, you’re not done with the life of loving one another with the love of God. I will send the Spirit to carry you along the rest of the way.”
Jesus comes to us today to assure us that in the midst of life’s surprising twists and turns and comings and goings; he will never be done with loving us.
Our calling today is to respond to that promise and that love by loving one another.
Are we done? Yes, if you mean are we done in our relationship of Pastor and congregation? That ends Wednesday night.
Are we done? No, if you mean are we done loving one another in the spirit and presence of the risen Christ. We will never be done with that, for Christ will never be done with us, not in a million years.
Amen and amen.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Spirituaal renewal Weekend.
Memorial Day Weekend I was the preacher/spiritual director for a Renewal weekend at Good Shepherd Episcopal church in Hayesville NC. I preached Friday night, led a three hour retreat on Saturday morning and preached on Sunday. I based my work on Acts 2:42 and called it "Simply Church." I have posted the Sermons from Friday and Sunday and the teaching notes from Saturday morning in order so that you can, if you wish, read from Friday through Sunday. The song leader wwas Fran McKendree, of the 70's folk-rock group Mckendree Spring. Look him up; he's doing some amazing stuff with worship music. Delmer
Apostles' Teaching
Friday Night: "Devoted to the Apostles' Teaching"
Texts: Acts 2:36-47
I used to work at Hinton Center, traveling around the country consulting with churches and ministries; from Seattle and Southern California in the West to New York and Florida in the East and most points in between.
Much of the time I worked at Hinton my son Joseph was in Hayesville High School where he played on the basketball team.
As much as possible I planned my travels around being home for his games. Not all, but most.
Then, during his senior year things got complicated as they made a run through the playoffs to the state championship.
I did the best I could but the weather intruded and game schedules were changed and I was in a bit of a mess.
Go to Indianapolis to a meeting with our major donor or go to regionals? I rearranged trips and rebooked flights and made all the games, but I was worn out and fretted - too much strain and anxiety and long drives and red-eye flights and sleeping in airports and really bad food, etc, etc.
So it happened that in the midst of all this I found myself in the Charlotte airport awaiting a delayed flight to Asheville so I could then drive home at 2 AM across Chunky Gal in the fog,
YES, I was having myself a little pity party. I just sat in a corner and moped and complained to God - WHY ME, O LORD, WHY ME!
When I finally got on that little commuter plane, I crammed myself into the little seat and found myself sitting next to a well-dressed young man - who was slightly inebriated and smelt of alcohol - and he wanted to talk!
GOOD LORD, I MOANED, NOT NOW!
Since I am constitutionally and professionally incapable of lying, when he asked me what I did, I told him.
When people discover that you are a clergyperson - 2 or 3 predictable things can happen.
Some ask you the unanswerable questions they have been thinking about since junior high catechism class.
Others clam up and ignore you - either out of fear or distaste,
And a few start a free counseling/confessional session. This was a confessional session.
When he heard I was a Lutheran Pastor, he visibly sobered up and said, "I'm Episcopalian myself; basically the same thing isn't it? So you're a priest?" I nodded. Then he launched into this story,
Three years ago, I was a physical therapist in Dalton, GA.
I was engaged to be married to a young woman. The future looked good.
One night my girlfriend went to the grocery store after work - about 10 PM.
She never came home.
A man who had been out of prison for 3 weeks abducted her in the parking lot - he brutalized her, then he murdered her and left her body in the woods.
I was in Hagerstown Maryland on business this morning.
I got a cell call from the man who would have been my father-in-law.
He told me they sentenced my her killer to death today.
For three years I thought this day would bring closure and healing to me.
But, I just feel empty inside.
If that man had not done what he did, I would be going home to my wife, probably my child, tonight.
Instead, I'm going home to an empty apartment and a goldfish.
Dr. Chilton, those young pastors you work with - tell them to be gentle with the people in the church.
Most of them are carrying a world of hurt - a load of pain and confusion they never prepared for or expected.
Be gentle with them; help them get on with life, for God's sake.
And then our plane landed and I hugged him there on the tarmac and we went our separate ways.
As I drove home through the mountains, I found myself singing an old Methodist Hymn,
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. (2x)
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me. (Charles Albert Tindley, 1906, United Methodist Hymnal, #512)
Ever since I sat on that plane listening to that young man, a question has haunted me:
How can one build a life that will stand in the storm?
My teaching and preaching for this Spiritual Renewal Weekend are an attempt to answer that question from a Gospel perspective.
We will look at it from the personal point-of-view: answering the biblical question:
"Brothers and Sisters, what should we do?" verse 37.
We will also look at it from a congregational point of view, answering the question: What is the church called to do and be in the world?
Last Sunday was Pentecost, a celebration of the birth of the church, of the coming upon the church of tongues of fire and mighty winds driving the huddled and hidden disciples out of their cramped upper room into God's wide open but crowded streets.
Out in those streets, Peter was given of God a sermon to preach, a sermon that summarized the Gospela sermon that shouted to the rooftops that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was indeed God's promised savior, and that He was risen from the dead and that he was sitting at God's right hand and that the Holy Spirit promised by Joel had just come upon all of them and that it was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the God of Noah and Moses and King David and the God of all the prophets who was calling THEM, EACH OF THEM, ALL OF THEM to repentance and new life and then the people said,
Brothers and Sisters, what should we do?
This is where our Scripture lesson begins:
Those who believed were baptized and those who were baptized received the gift of the Holy Spirit
and . . . . then what?
Those who believed and were baptized naturally gathered together. But for what purpose, to what end? Why church?
Through the years there have been a variety of answers to that question of Why Church?
And many of those answers seem to stray far from what God had in mind.
The church was created by God for a two simple purposes:
1) To be a community in which Christians are strengthened in their faith, and
2) To be a servant community; a body of people who work together to heal the world in God's name and with God's help and under God's direction.
Verse 42 summarizes this very well: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
As you know, I do a lot of church consulting. Frequently a church council or committee will say "what we need to do is"
Is could be, "start a contemporary service."
Or "Open a homeless shelter."
Or "have a better youth group."
Or "go knock on doors inviting people to church."
Or any of a number of other good ideas,
And I always ask WHY? TO WHAT END? FOR WHAT PURPOSE? WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH? WILL IT STRENGTHEN THE FAITH OF THE MEMBERS OR HELP YOU LOVE AND SERVE THE WORLD? If not, don't do it.
It is when we lose sight of our true purpose as the Body of Christ in the world that we begin to go off on congregational tangents, chasing after something to do that will make us feel important and relevant and Godly, but on our terms, not God's.
Our Call is the same as the call to the church at Pentecost;We are called to repent and be baptized.
As individuals and as a church.
This is the point at which my good Baptist friends can point an accusing finger and say, "See, see, that baptizing babies stuff has got it all out of order. It says repent and be baptized. How can a baby repent?"
And we have to concede that they have a point, if this were a one and done deal, but for us, repenting and baptismal living are a lifelong experience.
We do not divide the world into the saved and the unsaved, or into saints and sinners.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every human heart."
We find ourselves each day in need of repentance, in need of looking deeply into the mirror of God's word and recognizing our all too frequent failure to be the people God made us capable of being.
And when that hard, stern, unflinching glare of the Law has driven us to our knees, then we need to hear the word of Grace that comes to us in our baptism.
It is when we realize that we are no more deserving of God's Love than the thief who died on the Cross with Christ, then we can hear the words Jesus spoke to him as spoken to us, "This day you will be with me in paradise."
We who cross ourselves do it not in memory of the fact that Christ died on the cross, we cross ourselves in memory of the fact that he died there for us, for you and for me.
We cross ourselves, and in so doing we trace the cross the minister, the priest, the pastor marked on our forehead with the words, "Delmer Lowell Chilton, child of God, you are marked with the cross of Christ forever."
To repent and be baptized is the meaning of our lives, everyday of our lives, living each day "out of the cradle, endlessly rocking," between saint and sinner, faith and doubt, hope and despair.
No one can walk this walk alone. Everybody needs somebody, a lot of somebodies, in order to make it through life with one's soul somewhat intact.
Which is, of course, where the church comes in.
The Church is that place, those people, that community whose only purpose in the world is helping people live from the cradle to the grave as people of faith.
We have no other reason for being.
The Lutheran Augsburg Confession defines the church as "where the word is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered."
The 39 Articles of Religion of the Anglican tradition says the same thing in almost the same words. "a congregation . . . where the pure word of God is preached and, the sacraments be duly ministered."
Word: Holy Bible read and preached and taught and studied and sung.
Word: Holy Bible, struggled over, wrestled with, not just alone, but in a community of other readers and strugglers and wrestlers.
When Acts 2:42 says, "they devoted themselves to the Apostle's teaching . . ." it is not referring to a slavish devotion to a wooden orthodoxy.
NO. It means they were hungry to know more, they were committed to gathering in community to seek out God's will and way for their lives.
They were disciples who came together to learn from one another what it meant to be a follower of the Way, the way of Jesus Christ.
Some years ago, I was pastor of a church in Nashville. A big mega-church put out a bumper sticker that said, THE BIBLE SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT, THAT SETTLES IT.
The Jewish Synagogue down the street made one that said, THE BIBLE SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT. CAN WE TALK?
That's the spirit I'm talking about; the spirit of trusting in God's ongoing voice in the community of the faithful, calling us ever back to the Word and forward in the Spirit, convicting us of our sin
and washing away our guilt, showing us the malnutrition of the soul to be had in material things and feeding us at the altar on God's own flesh and blood.
We are called this day, as individuals and as a community of faith, to devote ourselves anew to the Apostles' teaching., to bow down before God and ask, "What should we do?"
We are called repent, to turn, to go in a new direction, the direction of following Christ to the Cross with our whole hearts and our entire spirits.
We are called this day to our baptism, to remember that though we be sinners, we are healed, forgiven, redeemed, beloved, sinners who are also baptized children of the Living God.
And we are also called this day to remember that above all else, beyond all else, this place, this community, this church, this Good Shepherd is to be a place where people find a help in their wounded walk through life.
A place where people like my young friend on the plane can find comfort in their sorrow, a place where weary souls can find rest, a place where people burdened by guilt and remorse
can find relief, a place where grateful people can shout out their joy, a place where confused people can ask their questions,
Are you ready to commit yourself to doing whatever is necessary to make sure Good Shepherd is such a place? Are you ready to take a good hard look at your life and repent and return to your baptism? Are you ready to devote yourself to the Apostles' teaching?
Amen and amen.
Texts: Acts 2:36-47
I used to work at Hinton Center, traveling around the country consulting with churches and ministries; from Seattle and Southern California in the West to New York and Florida in the East and most points in between.
Much of the time I worked at Hinton my son Joseph was in Hayesville High School where he played on the basketball team.
As much as possible I planned my travels around being home for his games. Not all, but most.
Then, during his senior year things got complicated as they made a run through the playoffs to the state championship.
I did the best I could but the weather intruded and game schedules were changed and I was in a bit of a mess.
Go to Indianapolis to a meeting with our major donor or go to regionals? I rearranged trips and rebooked flights and made all the games, but I was worn out and fretted - too much strain and anxiety and long drives and red-eye flights and sleeping in airports and really bad food, etc, etc.
So it happened that in the midst of all this I found myself in the Charlotte airport awaiting a delayed flight to Asheville so I could then drive home at 2 AM across Chunky Gal in the fog,
YES, I was having myself a little pity party. I just sat in a corner and moped and complained to God - WHY ME, O LORD, WHY ME!
When I finally got on that little commuter plane, I crammed myself into the little seat and found myself sitting next to a well-dressed young man - who was slightly inebriated and smelt of alcohol - and he wanted to talk!
GOOD LORD, I MOANED, NOT NOW!
Since I am constitutionally and professionally incapable of lying, when he asked me what I did, I told him.
When people discover that you are a clergyperson - 2 or 3 predictable things can happen.
Some ask you the unanswerable questions they have been thinking about since junior high catechism class.
Others clam up and ignore you - either out of fear or distaste,
And a few start a free counseling/confessional session. This was a confessional session.
When he heard I was a Lutheran Pastor, he visibly sobered up and said, "I'm Episcopalian myself; basically the same thing isn't it? So you're a priest?" I nodded. Then he launched into this story,
Three years ago, I was a physical therapist in Dalton, GA.
I was engaged to be married to a young woman. The future looked good.
One night my girlfriend went to the grocery store after work - about 10 PM.
She never came home.
A man who had been out of prison for 3 weeks abducted her in the parking lot - he brutalized her, then he murdered her and left her body in the woods.
I was in Hagerstown Maryland on business this morning.
I got a cell call from the man who would have been my father-in-law.
He told me they sentenced my her killer to death today.
For three years I thought this day would bring closure and healing to me.
But, I just feel empty inside.
If that man had not done what he did, I would be going home to my wife, probably my child, tonight.
Instead, I'm going home to an empty apartment and a goldfish.
Dr. Chilton, those young pastors you work with - tell them to be gentle with the people in the church.
Most of them are carrying a world of hurt - a load of pain and confusion they never prepared for or expected.
Be gentle with them; help them get on with life, for God's sake.
And then our plane landed and I hugged him there on the tarmac and we went our separate ways.
As I drove home through the mountains, I found myself singing an old Methodist Hymn,
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me. (2x)
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me. (Charles Albert Tindley, 1906, United Methodist Hymnal, #512)
Ever since I sat on that plane listening to that young man, a question has haunted me:
How can one build a life that will stand in the storm?
My teaching and preaching for this Spiritual Renewal Weekend are an attempt to answer that question from a Gospel perspective.
We will look at it from the personal point-of-view: answering the biblical question:
"Brothers and Sisters, what should we do?" verse 37.
We will also look at it from a congregational point of view, answering the question: What is the church called to do and be in the world?
Last Sunday was Pentecost, a celebration of the birth of the church, of the coming upon the church of tongues of fire and mighty winds driving the huddled and hidden disciples out of their cramped upper room into God's wide open but crowded streets.
Out in those streets, Peter was given of God a sermon to preach, a sermon that summarized the Gospela sermon that shouted to the rooftops that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was indeed God's promised savior, and that He was risen from the dead and that he was sitting at God's right hand and that the Holy Spirit promised by Joel had just come upon all of them and that it was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the God of Noah and Moses and King David and the God of all the prophets who was calling THEM, EACH OF THEM, ALL OF THEM to repentance and new life and then the people said,
Brothers and Sisters, what should we do?
This is where our Scripture lesson begins:
Those who believed were baptized and those who were baptized received the gift of the Holy Spirit
and . . . . then what?
Those who believed and were baptized naturally gathered together. But for what purpose, to what end? Why church?
Through the years there have been a variety of answers to that question of Why Church?
And many of those answers seem to stray far from what God had in mind.
The church was created by God for a two simple purposes:
1) To be a community in which Christians are strengthened in their faith, and
2) To be a servant community; a body of people who work together to heal the world in God's name and with God's help and under God's direction.
Verse 42 summarizes this very well: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
As you know, I do a lot of church consulting. Frequently a church council or committee will say "what we need to do is"
Is could be, "start a contemporary service."
Or "Open a homeless shelter."
Or "have a better youth group."
Or "go knock on doors inviting people to church."
Or any of a number of other good ideas,
And I always ask WHY? TO WHAT END? FOR WHAT PURPOSE? WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH? WILL IT STRENGTHEN THE FAITH OF THE MEMBERS OR HELP YOU LOVE AND SERVE THE WORLD? If not, don't do it.
It is when we lose sight of our true purpose as the Body of Christ in the world that we begin to go off on congregational tangents, chasing after something to do that will make us feel important and relevant and Godly, but on our terms, not God's.
Our Call is the same as the call to the church at Pentecost;We are called to repent and be baptized.
As individuals and as a church.
This is the point at which my good Baptist friends can point an accusing finger and say, "See, see, that baptizing babies stuff has got it all out of order. It says repent and be baptized. How can a baby repent?"
And we have to concede that they have a point, if this were a one and done deal, but for us, repenting and baptismal living are a lifelong experience.
We do not divide the world into the saved and the unsaved, or into saints and sinners.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every human heart."
We find ourselves each day in need of repentance, in need of looking deeply into the mirror of God's word and recognizing our all too frequent failure to be the people God made us capable of being.
And when that hard, stern, unflinching glare of the Law has driven us to our knees, then we need to hear the word of Grace that comes to us in our baptism.
It is when we realize that we are no more deserving of God's Love than the thief who died on the Cross with Christ, then we can hear the words Jesus spoke to him as spoken to us, "This day you will be with me in paradise."
We who cross ourselves do it not in memory of the fact that Christ died on the cross, we cross ourselves in memory of the fact that he died there for us, for you and for me.
We cross ourselves, and in so doing we trace the cross the minister, the priest, the pastor marked on our forehead with the words, "Delmer Lowell Chilton, child of God, you are marked with the cross of Christ forever."
To repent and be baptized is the meaning of our lives, everyday of our lives, living each day "out of the cradle, endlessly rocking," between saint and sinner, faith and doubt, hope and despair.
No one can walk this walk alone. Everybody needs somebody, a lot of somebodies, in order to make it through life with one's soul somewhat intact.
Which is, of course, where the church comes in.
The Church is that place, those people, that community whose only purpose in the world is helping people live from the cradle to the grave as people of faith.
We have no other reason for being.
The Lutheran Augsburg Confession defines the church as "where the word is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered."
The 39 Articles of Religion of the Anglican tradition says the same thing in almost the same words. "a congregation . . . where the pure word of God is preached and, the sacraments be duly ministered."
Word: Holy Bible read and preached and taught and studied and sung.
Word: Holy Bible, struggled over, wrestled with, not just alone, but in a community of other readers and strugglers and wrestlers.
When Acts 2:42 says, "they devoted themselves to the Apostle's teaching . . ." it is not referring to a slavish devotion to a wooden orthodoxy.
NO. It means they were hungry to know more, they were committed to gathering in community to seek out God's will and way for their lives.
They were disciples who came together to learn from one another what it meant to be a follower of the Way, the way of Jesus Christ.
Some years ago, I was pastor of a church in Nashville. A big mega-church put out a bumper sticker that said, THE BIBLE SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT, THAT SETTLES IT.
The Jewish Synagogue down the street made one that said, THE BIBLE SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT. CAN WE TALK?
That's the spirit I'm talking about; the spirit of trusting in God's ongoing voice in the community of the faithful, calling us ever back to the Word and forward in the Spirit, convicting us of our sin
and washing away our guilt, showing us the malnutrition of the soul to be had in material things and feeding us at the altar on God's own flesh and blood.
We are called this day, as individuals and as a community of faith, to devote ourselves anew to the Apostles' teaching., to bow down before God and ask, "What should we do?"
We are called repent, to turn, to go in a new direction, the direction of following Christ to the Cross with our whole hearts and our entire spirits.
We are called this day to our baptism, to remember that though we be sinners, we are healed, forgiven, redeemed, beloved, sinners who are also baptized children of the Living God.
And we are also called this day to remember that above all else, beyond all else, this place, this community, this church, this Good Shepherd is to be a place where people find a help in their wounded walk through life.
A place where people like my young friend on the plane can find comfort in their sorrow, a place where weary souls can find rest, a place where people burdened by guilt and remorse
can find relief, a place where grateful people can shout out their joy, a place where confused people can ask their questions,
Are you ready to commit yourself to doing whatever is necessary to make sure Good Shepherd is such a place? Are you ready to take a good hard look at your life and repent and return to your baptism? Are you ready to devote yourself to the Apostles' teaching?
Amen and amen.
Of Prayer and Fellowship
Saturday Morning:
Acts 2: 36-47
OF PRAYER AND COMMUNITY
Some years ago I preached on this text at the congregation I served for almost ten years in Nashville, TN.
After service, at the coffee hour, one of the parishioners, a very active church person and someone I counted as a friend came over to me and said,
I'm really disturbed by that lesson from Acts that you read. That's sounds like Communism. I don't believe in Communism. I can't believe there's Communism in the Bible. Is that one of those new translations or something?
I don't know exactly what I said except that we continued to talk about it and struggle with it together. She stayed in the church and later served as the Lutheran equivalent of Senior Warden.
As I think back on the encounter by the coffee pot, I'm not sure whether that story is about Lutheran ignorance of the Bible or about America's intense distrust of Communism or about America's equally intense idealization of individualism.
I suspect it's about a little bit of all three.
We in America have become more and more individualistic and concerned only about ourselves and at the same time less and less concerned about others and the public welfare. Two quick Illustrations to make my point:
1) Bp. Gordy - Memorial Day Meditation : commuter plane from South Bend to Chicago; Man in exit row, "I don't know about you, but if anything happens, I 'm outta here. The Hell with everybody else."
2) Texas textbook controversy: Social Studies text: A good candidate for public office is one who "takes responsibility for the common good." School Board Member - "That Common good idea just leads to Communism. We need to let the individual be free."
Now, we should not be surprised that such thinking bleeds over into the realm of church, religion, spirituality.
It seems to me that many people who say that they are "spiritual but not religious," or "I like Jesus but not the church," are exhibiting a serious degree of this intense individualism.
Not, even though I am an Assistant to the Bishop, I have to admit that I like Jesus better than I like the church sometimes, but that's not really the point.
To be Christian requires that we be in and of the church, whether we like it or not.
What good is it to commit yourself to high-minded goals like the love of all humanity if you can't be bothered to do the hard work of struggling to get along with the ordinary, ornery, sinful human beings who share the pew with you on Sundays?
That's like saying I believe in the sanctity of marriage but I can't be bothered with the hard work and compromise and emotional turmoil of being in relationship with an actual human being.
It is the very nature of Christianity that it is a communal experience and knows nothing of individual spirituality or salvation.
This is shown to us by the language of the texts we examine in various ways today.
First the one I just read: Acts 2:36-47 (reread and comment).
They, all, every one of you. "promise is to you and your children and to all who are far off.
Verse 44 KEY - together - all things in common
Verse 46 - together
Important - plural you - English has no proper plural YOU and until teachers talk us out of it, we all try to invent one: Ya'll, youse guys, you'ns, others? One I don't get is "All ya'll," seems a bit redundant. Anyway, the yous in this acts text are "ya'll" (read with ya'lls")
This also is important in the text we will read later, the Lord's prayer, Matthew's version in chapter 6, beginning with verse 5.
Jesus instructions about prayer are plural instructions, about praying in community, and even when we pray in private, should pray communally, thus the Lord's Prayer, notice:
Our Father; United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon, in his book on the Lord's Prayer notes:
"In this prayer we are taught to pray, not as individuals, but as the church. The "our" reminds us that we cannot pray without friends. The habits that the prayer forms can be acquired only through friendship with others that makes possible our friendship with God." (Lord Teach Us, The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, p. 25)
The fact that this model prayer is about life and love in community is further revealed to us by the fact that it calls upon us to do something that can only be done in Community, to forgive and be forgiven.
There is occasional discussion about the language: sins, trespasses, debts; all of which is not as important as the fact that none of it can happen in isolation: forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
GK Chesterton said, In one place Jesus tells us to love our enemies; in another place he admonishes us to love our neighbors; this is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
C.S. Lewis said many times that he didn't much like going to church. In particular he didn't like hymns, and most of his fellow church members were not people he would have naturally been friends with.
But being in church with them and praying with and for them made him love them even if he did not naturally like them. Receiving care from them when he was in trouble and learning to care about their troubles that were very different than his led him to a deeper understanding of who he was and how much Christ loved all of us. (In "God in the Dock," Essay 4, p. 61)
Ultimately, the church is a school for the soul, a laboratory where we learn to genuinely practice the virtues that the Gospel calls us to.
The word translated FELLOWSHIP in our text is KOINONIA in the Greek, which can also be translated COMMUNION.
Not the communion like the bread and wine of the Eucharist but the Communion like when we talk about the Anglican Communion, or sing about the "mystic, sweet, communion" we have with Jesus.
What the newly baptized devoted themselves to was not "Hail fellow well met, fellowship of like minded people who share a keen interest in a similar sort of spirituality.
Their devotion was to a new community that was called together by the Holy Spirit and was held together by the bond they shared in Christ.
amen
Acts 2: 36-47
OF PRAYER AND COMMUNITY
Some years ago I preached on this text at the congregation I served for almost ten years in Nashville, TN.
After service, at the coffee hour, one of the parishioners, a very active church person and someone I counted as a friend came over to me and said,
I'm really disturbed by that lesson from Acts that you read. That's sounds like Communism. I don't believe in Communism. I can't believe there's Communism in the Bible. Is that one of those new translations or something?
I don't know exactly what I said except that we continued to talk about it and struggle with it together. She stayed in the church and later served as the Lutheran equivalent of Senior Warden.
As I think back on the encounter by the coffee pot, I'm not sure whether that story is about Lutheran ignorance of the Bible or about America's intense distrust of Communism or about America's equally intense idealization of individualism.
I suspect it's about a little bit of all three.
We in America have become more and more individualistic and concerned only about ourselves and at the same time less and less concerned about others and the public welfare. Two quick Illustrations to make my point:
1) Bp. Gordy - Memorial Day Meditation : commuter plane from South Bend to Chicago; Man in exit row, "I don't know about you, but if anything happens, I 'm outta here. The Hell with everybody else."
2) Texas textbook controversy: Social Studies text: A good candidate for public office is one who "takes responsibility for the common good." School Board Member - "That Common good idea just leads to Communism. We need to let the individual be free."
Now, we should not be surprised that such thinking bleeds over into the realm of church, religion, spirituality.
It seems to me that many people who say that they are "spiritual but not religious," or "I like Jesus but not the church," are exhibiting a serious degree of this intense individualism.
Not, even though I am an Assistant to the Bishop, I have to admit that I like Jesus better than I like the church sometimes, but that's not really the point.
To be Christian requires that we be in and of the church, whether we like it or not.
What good is it to commit yourself to high-minded goals like the love of all humanity if you can't be bothered to do the hard work of struggling to get along with the ordinary, ornery, sinful human beings who share the pew with you on Sundays?
That's like saying I believe in the sanctity of marriage but I can't be bothered with the hard work and compromise and emotional turmoil of being in relationship with an actual human being.
It is the very nature of Christianity that it is a communal experience and knows nothing of individual spirituality or salvation.
This is shown to us by the language of the texts we examine in various ways today.
First the one I just read: Acts 2:36-47 (reread and comment).
They, all, every one of you. "promise is to you and your children and to all who are far off.
Verse 44 KEY - together - all things in common
Verse 46 - together
Important - plural you - English has no proper plural YOU and until teachers talk us out of it, we all try to invent one: Ya'll, youse guys, you'ns, others? One I don't get is "All ya'll," seems a bit redundant. Anyway, the yous in this acts text are "ya'll" (read with ya'lls")
This also is important in the text we will read later, the Lord's prayer, Matthew's version in chapter 6, beginning with verse 5.
Jesus instructions about prayer are plural instructions, about praying in community, and even when we pray in private, should pray communally, thus the Lord's Prayer, notice:
Our Father; United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon, in his book on the Lord's Prayer notes:
"In this prayer we are taught to pray, not as individuals, but as the church. The "our" reminds us that we cannot pray without friends. The habits that the prayer forms can be acquired only through friendship with others that makes possible our friendship with God." (Lord Teach Us, The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, p. 25)
The fact that this model prayer is about life and love in community is further revealed to us by the fact that it calls upon us to do something that can only be done in Community, to forgive and be forgiven.
There is occasional discussion about the language: sins, trespasses, debts; all of which is not as important as the fact that none of it can happen in isolation: forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
GK Chesterton said, In one place Jesus tells us to love our enemies; in another place he admonishes us to love our neighbors; this is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
C.S. Lewis said many times that he didn't much like going to church. In particular he didn't like hymns, and most of his fellow church members were not people he would have naturally been friends with.
But being in church with them and praying with and for them made him love them even if he did not naturally like them. Receiving care from them when he was in trouble and learning to care about their troubles that were very different than his led him to a deeper understanding of who he was and how much Christ loved all of us. (In "God in the Dock," Essay 4, p. 61)
Ultimately, the church is a school for the soul, a laboratory where we learn to genuinely practice the virtues that the Gospel calls us to.
The word translated FELLOWSHIP in our text is KOINONIA in the Greek, which can also be translated COMMUNION.
Not the communion like the bread and wine of the Eucharist but the Communion like when we talk about the Anglican Communion, or sing about the "mystic, sweet, communion" we have with Jesus.
What the newly baptized devoted themselves to was not "Hail fellow well met, fellowship of like minded people who share a keen interest in a similar sort of spirituality.
Their devotion was to a new community that was called together by the Holy Spirit and was held together by the bond they shared in Christ.
amen
Breaking of the Bread
SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010
Holy Trinity Sunday
"The Breaking of the Bread"
The English writer GK Chesterton was a famously eccentric man, full of wisdom and silliness in almost equal measure.
He wrote wonderful mystery novels, and magazine articles and books about Christianity.
He also weighed over 300 pounds and wandered about London in the early 20th century wearing a cape and a broad brimmed hat and carrying a cane.
He once sent a telegram to his wife that said, "I am at Trafalgar Square. Where am I supposed to be?"
Someone once asked him the old party question; "If you were stranded on a deserted island for a year, what one book would you want with you?" expecting, I'm sure, some variation on KJV, Shakespeare, BCP, etc.
Chesterton said, "If I were stranded on a deserted island I think I should like to have a Guide to Practical Shipbuilding." (P. Yancey, Soul Survivor, p.45)
The preaching and teaching for this Spiritual Renewal Weekend have focused on being a guide to practical church building, an encouragement toward being the sort of community that recognizes as its primary purpose the care and feeding of souls.
To that end we have focused on a theme of being "Simply Church," building on the words of ACTS 2:42 "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
Friday night we dealt with devotion to Apostles' teaching as a life time commitment to living in and struggling with God's word in community, yesterday at Hinton Center we talked about and prayed about the interplay of prayer and community and how you really can't have one without another.
This morning we will address what the breaking of the bread means for us, both as an image of Communion and as a call to love and serve the world.
Pray with me please: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine, Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. Amen (United Methodist Hymnal, p.10)
Those words come from the standard United Methodist Eucharistic prayer.
The Presbyterians say it this way: "As this bread is Christ's body for us, send us out to be the body of Christ in the world." (Book of Common Worship, various places)
This morning we will explore the relationship between calling this bread on this table the Body of Christ
and calling these people gathered in this room (that would be us, you and me) the Body of Christ;
and the fact that the Body of Christ was broken on the cross for us,
and the Body of Christ is broken on the table for us,
and we, the Body of Christ,
are then called to be broken and sent out in service to the world.
We begin with the Bible, with our reading from Romans, particularly the first two verses:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. . ."
THIS GRACE IN WHICH WE STAND
This is the golden thread, the recurring theme, he constant refrain that runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
God has chosen us, all of us, to be God's beloved people.
God, in an act of creation like the creation of the world itself, spoke this relationship of Grace and Love into being.
God said, "I WILL be your God, and you WILL be my people." And it was so.
Have you seen the billboards with cute little quotes signed God? I saw the funniest one I've ever seen somewhere in TN. "Don't make me come down there!" - God
I don't know who pays for those ads or who writes them, but I realized that on this one they have missed the point.
The ad echoes the parent who threatens punishment if the kids don't straighten up and fly right.
It implies that when God comes "down here," it's going to get ugly.
The fact is, our inability to live up to our end of the divine covenant of Grace has already prompted God to come "down here," and in the long run, that was a good thing. Not so good for Jesus, but good for us.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus happened because God refused to give up on us.
The Christ event created a new covenant of Grace, for a new agreement of love, a New Testament signed in the blood of the Cross, as Paul says in Romans:Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand."
From the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples
and threw them out to witness in the streets,
and three thousand repented and were baptized,
God's people have been bound together in communities known as churches.
And from the very beginning two things were very clear:
1) The church does not create itself; Rather the church is created by God the Holy Spirit which, in Luther's words in the Small Catechism: "calls, gathers, enlightens and empowers" us for ministry, and 2) When they gathered, they "broke bread."
It is when we come to the table that a lot of images erupt and compete for space in awareness.
Jesus holding up bread and proclaiming "this is my body," and then feeding it to his disciples.
Paul referring to the church, the covenant community as "the body of Christ."
Jesus' body broken and bleeding on the cross for us, for the world.
Jesus saying that when we feed the hungry and clothe the naked, when we do these things for the least of these, we have done it for him.
When we roll all that up together in our hearts and mull it over in our minds, we come out knowing that the breaking of the bread is more than a fellowship meal shared amongst like-minded religious folk who like each other.
It's also more than a weekly reminder of our individual and personal salvation and relationship of love and forgiveness with God in Christ.
Eucharist, Communion, the breaking of the bread, is when everything about our faith and life comes together and comes alive.
It is when we receive into ourselves the bread and wine that are most aware of God's Grace in Christ.
It is when we receive the sacrifice and love Jesus poured out on the cross for us.
It is when we receive the sweet healing of the Holy Spirit poured out for us at Pentecost.
It is when that same spirits pulls together into a communion community as the body of Christ.
So that when we rise from this table as the body of Christ in the world,the Spirit then sends us out from the breaking of the bread to be broken in service to the world.
Let us pray: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
Amen and amen
Holy Trinity Sunday
"The Breaking of the Bread"
The English writer GK Chesterton was a famously eccentric man, full of wisdom and silliness in almost equal measure.
He wrote wonderful mystery novels, and magazine articles and books about Christianity.
He also weighed over 300 pounds and wandered about London in the early 20th century wearing a cape and a broad brimmed hat and carrying a cane.
He once sent a telegram to his wife that said, "I am at Trafalgar Square. Where am I supposed to be?"
Someone once asked him the old party question; "If you were stranded on a deserted island for a year, what one book would you want with you?" expecting, I'm sure, some variation on KJV, Shakespeare, BCP, etc.
Chesterton said, "If I were stranded on a deserted island I think I should like to have a Guide to Practical Shipbuilding." (P. Yancey, Soul Survivor, p.45)
The preaching and teaching for this Spiritual Renewal Weekend have focused on being a guide to practical church building, an encouragement toward being the sort of community that recognizes as its primary purpose the care and feeding of souls.
To that end we have focused on a theme of being "Simply Church," building on the words of ACTS 2:42 "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
Friday night we dealt with devotion to Apostles' teaching as a life time commitment to living in and struggling with God's word in community, yesterday at Hinton Center we talked about and prayed about the interplay of prayer and community and how you really can't have one without another.
This morning we will address what the breaking of the bread means for us, both as an image of Communion and as a call to love and serve the world.
Pray with me please: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine, Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. Amen (United Methodist Hymnal, p.10)
Those words come from the standard United Methodist Eucharistic prayer.
The Presbyterians say it this way: "As this bread is Christ's body for us, send us out to be the body of Christ in the world." (Book of Common Worship, various places)
This morning we will explore the relationship between calling this bread on this table the Body of Christ
and calling these people gathered in this room (that would be us, you and me) the Body of Christ;
and the fact that the Body of Christ was broken on the cross for us,
and the Body of Christ is broken on the table for us,
and we, the Body of Christ,
are then called to be broken and sent out in service to the world.
We begin with the Bible, with our reading from Romans, particularly the first two verses:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. . ."
THIS GRACE IN WHICH WE STAND
This is the golden thread, the recurring theme, he constant refrain that runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
God has chosen us, all of us, to be God's beloved people.
God, in an act of creation like the creation of the world itself, spoke this relationship of Grace and Love into being.
God said, "I WILL be your God, and you WILL be my people." And it was so.
Have you seen the billboards with cute little quotes signed God? I saw the funniest one I've ever seen somewhere in TN. "Don't make me come down there!" - God
I don't know who pays for those ads or who writes them, but I realized that on this one they have missed the point.
The ad echoes the parent who threatens punishment if the kids don't straighten up and fly right.
It implies that when God comes "down here," it's going to get ugly.
The fact is, our inability to live up to our end of the divine covenant of Grace has already prompted God to come "down here," and in the long run, that was a good thing. Not so good for Jesus, but good for us.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus happened because God refused to give up on us.
The Christ event created a new covenant of Grace, for a new agreement of love, a New Testament signed in the blood of the Cross, as Paul says in Romans:Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand."
From the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples
and threw them out to witness in the streets,
and three thousand repented and were baptized,
God's people have been bound together in communities known as churches.
And from the very beginning two things were very clear:
1) The church does not create itself; Rather the church is created by God the Holy Spirit which, in Luther's words in the Small Catechism: "calls, gathers, enlightens and empowers" us for ministry, and 2) When they gathered, they "broke bread."
It is when we come to the table that a lot of images erupt and compete for space in awareness.
Jesus holding up bread and proclaiming "this is my body," and then feeding it to his disciples.
Paul referring to the church, the covenant community as "the body of Christ."
Jesus' body broken and bleeding on the cross for us, for the world.
Jesus saying that when we feed the hungry and clothe the naked, when we do these things for the least of these, we have done it for him.
When we roll all that up together in our hearts and mull it over in our minds, we come out knowing that the breaking of the bread is more than a fellowship meal shared amongst like-minded religious folk who like each other.
It's also more than a weekly reminder of our individual and personal salvation and relationship of love and forgiveness with God in Christ.
Eucharist, Communion, the breaking of the bread, is when everything about our faith and life comes together and comes alive.
It is when we receive into ourselves the bread and wine that are most aware of God's Grace in Christ.
It is when we receive the sacrifice and love Jesus poured out on the cross for us.
It is when we receive the sweet healing of the Holy Spirit poured out for us at Pentecost.
It is when that same spirits pulls together into a communion community as the body of Christ.
So that when we rise from this table as the body of Christ in the world,the Spirit then sends us out from the breaking of the bread to be broken in service to the world.
Let us pray: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
Amen and amen
Friday, May 14, 2010
Easter 7; May 16, 2010
EASTER 7, May 16, 2010
Texts: Acts 16:6-10; Revelation 22:12-17, 20; John 17:20-26
A sermon preached at Christ Lutheran Church, Nashville TN.
"Simon Says" is one of my favorite kids' games. It's a very simple game.
One person is Simon and everyone else lines up and Simon calls out instructions and the kids try to obey them:
Simons says - take three giant steps;
Simons says - hop on one foot;
Simon says - scratch your nose.
Now here's the fun part; you can only do those things preceded by the words Simon says. If the leader says "pat your tummy" without first saying "Simon says," and you pat your tummy, you're out! Last one standing wins.
In our first lesson, Paul and Barnabas play "Simon Says" with God. It would take a little while to explain the geography, but the short form is Paul and Barnabas kept running into closed doors when they tried to go North to preach. God kept saying, "You're out. I didn't say Simon Says!"
Why did Paul and Barnabas keep going the wrong way before they went the right way? Why did they keep bumping into closed doors before they found one that was open?
If we're honest, all of us will admit that we struggle and get confused in our efforts to understand the will of God. I imagine God gets a little flustered while trying to get through to us.
My old friend Tom Ridenhour, Jr. said to me one time, "Sure Moses saw the burning bush, but how many other signs did Moses miss before God got frustrated and set the woods on fire?"
Tom was kidding, but he had a point; the world is full of the signs of God's grace and will and we all too often miss them.
An important question for us today is WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR US TO HEAR GOD'S VOICE IN OUR LIVES?
What is it on the human side that blocks our channels of communication with God?
One problem is that we live very compartmentalized lives.
Parts of our lives are kept artificially separate from other parts; this is work; this is family; this is play; this is church.
If we only listen for God in that small section of our lives that we call Church or Religion or Spirituality; we're going to miss most of what God has to tell us.
Moses was herding sheep when he stumbled upon the Burning Bush. Not praying; working; attending to the family business.
The prophet Amos was tending sheep and trimming sycamore trees when God got hold of him and wouldn't let him go.
Jesus' disciples were called away from the midst of plying their trades. Leave your nets, close up the tax shop, put down that hammer; follow me.
Martha in her kitchen and the Woman at the well received a word of insight into their lives whilst going about their normal, hum-drum, daily chores.
God is no less active in the commonalities of our lives.
But, we must be looking, we must be listening. In Jesus' memorable phrase, we must "have eyes to see and ears to hear." We must pay attention to our lives in order to hear the voice of God within it.
The book of Hebrews begins with one of my favorite lines in the Bible, "in many and various ways God spoke . . ."
The United Church of Christ has picked up on this theme in recent years with their slogan; GOD IS STILL SPEAKING.
What they say is true, God is still speaking, in many and various ways, calling all of us into love and community.
Perhaps our biggest problem in communicating with God is not that we can't hear God; it's that what we hear displeases us.
Mark Twain once said that he had noticed that many people were upset about the parts of the Bible they didn't understand.
Twain said, "As for me, I am more disturbed by the parts I DO understand."
I get that.
Drop everything and follow me, turn the other cheek, sell all and give to the poor, love your enemies, love your neighbor, turn your backs on your family for the sake of the kingdom of God, these things disturb me. I had rather that Jesus had never said them.
But since I am convinced that he did say them, I must confess I have all too often dealt with these uncomfortable callings by pretending not to understand.
This is a technique perfected as a teenager.
One arrives home from school. There is a note on the table spelling out chores to be done. (I'm old, this is old school. These days the parent would text the list of chores, but you get the idea.)
One is unhappy; one had plans, important plans; which mostly consisted of lying around watching TV and talking on the phone to my friends. (Though I'm old, teenagers haven't changed much in 40 years.) What to do?
Well the answer was to do little, or as little as possible and then plead ignorance when Mama got home?
I didn't know if you meant weed the flower garden or the vegetable garden.
I couldn't find the gas can for the lawn-mower.
I didn't know how much detergent to use and I was afraid of messing up the clothes.
Mother was not amused. And I am fairly certain she was not fooled.
And I am fairly certain that God is neither fooled nor amused by our equally inept protestations of ignorance about what we have been called to do in the world.
It is only because we are loathe to obey that we pretend not to hear or to understand. It was only when Paul stopped trying to do things his own way; to follow his own desire to go North and preach in Asia, that God's way into Macedonia became clear and open to him.
A few years ago, Unitarian Minister Robert Fulghum had a best seller called "Everything I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten."
His point was both simple and profound. It is in Kindergarten that we learn the basic principles of being a civil human being in a group. The groups we are in and the problems they face grow ever more complex, but the principles of civility never change.
In much the same way, we don't need special signs from God to know God's will and God's way for us in the world; it is both simple and profound.
As a Church, a community of Christ, we are called to "preach the word and administer the sacraments;" that is, to teach and live the reality of God's love in Christ with as many people as possible. That's it.
In the words of Jesus himself; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself."
That is it. That is our calling. And whatever we have to do to make that happen, that is God's will for our lives.
It is really not that hard to understand.
But it is, very, often, very hard to do.
Amen and amen.
Texts: Acts 16:6-10; Revelation 22:12-17, 20; John 17:20-26
A sermon preached at Christ Lutheran Church, Nashville TN.
"Simon Says" is one of my favorite kids' games. It's a very simple game.
One person is Simon and everyone else lines up and Simon calls out instructions and the kids try to obey them:
Simons says - take three giant steps;
Simons says - hop on one foot;
Simon says - scratch your nose.
Now here's the fun part; you can only do those things preceded by the words Simon says. If the leader says "pat your tummy" without first saying "Simon says," and you pat your tummy, you're out! Last one standing wins.
In our first lesson, Paul and Barnabas play "Simon Says" with God. It would take a little while to explain the geography, but the short form is Paul and Barnabas kept running into closed doors when they tried to go North to preach. God kept saying, "You're out. I didn't say Simon Says!"
Why did Paul and Barnabas keep going the wrong way before they went the right way? Why did they keep bumping into closed doors before they found one that was open?
If we're honest, all of us will admit that we struggle and get confused in our efforts to understand the will of God. I imagine God gets a little flustered while trying to get through to us.
My old friend Tom Ridenhour, Jr. said to me one time, "Sure Moses saw the burning bush, but how many other signs did Moses miss before God got frustrated and set the woods on fire?"
Tom was kidding, but he had a point; the world is full of the signs of God's grace and will and we all too often miss them.
An important question for us today is WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR US TO HEAR GOD'S VOICE IN OUR LIVES?
What is it on the human side that blocks our channels of communication with God?
One problem is that we live very compartmentalized lives.
Parts of our lives are kept artificially separate from other parts; this is work; this is family; this is play; this is church.
If we only listen for God in that small section of our lives that we call Church or Religion or Spirituality; we're going to miss most of what God has to tell us.
Moses was herding sheep when he stumbled upon the Burning Bush. Not praying; working; attending to the family business.
The prophet Amos was tending sheep and trimming sycamore trees when God got hold of him and wouldn't let him go.
Jesus' disciples were called away from the midst of plying their trades. Leave your nets, close up the tax shop, put down that hammer; follow me.
Martha in her kitchen and the Woman at the well received a word of insight into their lives whilst going about their normal, hum-drum, daily chores.
God is no less active in the commonalities of our lives.
But, we must be looking, we must be listening. In Jesus' memorable phrase, we must "have eyes to see and ears to hear." We must pay attention to our lives in order to hear the voice of God within it.
The book of Hebrews begins with one of my favorite lines in the Bible, "in many and various ways God spoke . . ."
The United Church of Christ has picked up on this theme in recent years with their slogan; GOD IS STILL SPEAKING.
What they say is true, God is still speaking, in many and various ways, calling all of us into love and community.
Perhaps our biggest problem in communicating with God is not that we can't hear God; it's that what we hear displeases us.
Mark Twain once said that he had noticed that many people were upset about the parts of the Bible they didn't understand.
Twain said, "As for me, I am more disturbed by the parts I DO understand."
I get that.
Drop everything and follow me, turn the other cheek, sell all and give to the poor, love your enemies, love your neighbor, turn your backs on your family for the sake of the kingdom of God, these things disturb me. I had rather that Jesus had never said them.
But since I am convinced that he did say them, I must confess I have all too often dealt with these uncomfortable callings by pretending not to understand.
This is a technique perfected as a teenager.
One arrives home from school. There is a note on the table spelling out chores to be done. (I'm old, this is old school. These days the parent would text the list of chores, but you get the idea.)
One is unhappy; one had plans, important plans; which mostly consisted of lying around watching TV and talking on the phone to my friends. (Though I'm old, teenagers haven't changed much in 40 years.) What to do?
Well the answer was to do little, or as little as possible and then plead ignorance when Mama got home?
I didn't know if you meant weed the flower garden or the vegetable garden.
I couldn't find the gas can for the lawn-mower.
I didn't know how much detergent to use and I was afraid of messing up the clothes.
Mother was not amused. And I am fairly certain she was not fooled.
And I am fairly certain that God is neither fooled nor amused by our equally inept protestations of ignorance about what we have been called to do in the world.
It is only because we are loathe to obey that we pretend not to hear or to understand. It was only when Paul stopped trying to do things his own way; to follow his own desire to go North and preach in Asia, that God's way into Macedonia became clear and open to him.
A few years ago, Unitarian Minister Robert Fulghum had a best seller called "Everything I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten."
His point was both simple and profound. It is in Kindergarten that we learn the basic principles of being a civil human being in a group. The groups we are in and the problems they face grow ever more complex, but the principles of civility never change.
In much the same way, we don't need special signs from God to know God's will and God's way for us in the world; it is both simple and profound.
As a Church, a community of Christ, we are called to "preach the word and administer the sacraments;" that is, to teach and live the reality of God's love in Christ with as many people as possible. That's it.
In the words of Jesus himself; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself."
That is it. That is our calling. And whatever we have to do to make that happen, that is God's will for our lives.
It is really not that hard to understand.
But it is, very, often, very hard to do.
Amen and amen.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Easter 4, April 25, 2010
THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER April 25, 2010
A sermon preached at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Knoxville, TN
Text: John 10:22-30
In my little backyard converted shed office, I have a couple thousand books arranged on a variety of yard sale bookcases.
As I wrote this sermon, my coffee cup rested on a shelf that contains what I call my "Jesus books." In recent years, there have been a huge number of books written and debate hashed out about who Jesus was, or if he really was.I own over 30 of these books, and that's just a small part of all that's out there. They have titles like:
"Will the Real Jesus Please Stand up?"
"The Misunderstood Jew,"
"Who Was Jesus?"
"Lord or Legend?"
"Looking for Jesus,"
"The Real Jesus,"
"What Jesus Meant,"
and my favorite title: "Cynic Sage or Son of God?"
For over 2000 years the world and the church have wrestled with the question of the true identity of the wandering preacher from Galilee.The whole of Chapter 10 in John deals with this. Who does he say he is? Does his walk match his talk? Is he for real? Are the signs to be believed?
In verse 24 the people ask Jesus - Are you the Messiah? Are you the one sent from God? Jesus' answer points to actions as keys to identity, the idea that behavior reveals character.
He asks them, Do I act and talk like a Messiah, like a true king of Israel? Are the things I say and do for the benefit of the people?Do I honor God with the way I live my life?"
In the first part of chapter 10, Jesus has talked about being the Shepherd of the sheep, about how the sheep hear the true shepherd's voice and follow, about the willingness of the shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep. In verses 7 through 11 Jesus contrasts this with bad shepherds; "all who came before me are thieves and bandits." He then says that he is "the good shepherd."
In today's lesson, in verse 27, he again picks up the protective and caring shepherd theme. It may be helpful to us to think not in terms of good and bad, but rather in terms of true versus false; or real versus pretend; or fake versus genuine; or perhaps faithless versus faithful.
What Jesus lays claim to here in this text is to being not a false, not a pretend, not a fake, not a faithless shepherd of Israel; but rather to being a true, a real, a genuine, a faithful shepherd of God's sheep.
The shepherd was a powerful symbol in Israel. For much of their history they were a nomadic people dependent upon their sheep for their livelihood. Because of this, sheep and shepherd imagery was very important. The King was often referred to as the SHEPHERD of Israel, alluding back to King David, the traditional author of the 23rd Psalm. David, a shepherd boy in his youth, is the king by whom all kings are measured.
The ancient kings of Israel were different from the kings of the nations around them. The other kings were held up to be Gods on earth, divine beings in human form. The kings of Israel were not believed to be divine; they were known to be ordinary human beings who represented God on earth and ruled in God's name.
The idea was that God had placed the responsibility for the nation in their hands.The kingdom was not theirs to do with as they pleased. The kingdom was God's and they were to take care of it and God's people in God's name and with God's help. And even great King David failed to do it right all the time.
Between David and Jesus there were many years and many kings, and all the kings of Israel failed in one way or another. None of them lived up to the image of the Good, the True, the Real Shepherd of Israel, especially not the Emperor in Rome or his puppet King Herod. So the people asked; "Are you the Messiah?" "Are you the true Shepherd of the Sheep?""Are you the Saviour of Israel?" And Jesus answered them, "Yes, I am all that, and more."
In verse 25 he says, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify to me." Jesus goes on to make it plain, just as they had requested. The sheep hear my voice, they know their true Shepherd and follow and respond to him.
This is for me the difficult part of this lesson. Just hearing the voice is not enough. Many people hear, but don't respond, don't answer, don't follow, don't recognize the voice of Jesus. Those of us gathered here in Church on Sunday morning have, in one way or another heard and recognized the voice of God, the voice of our savior and friend; in the voice of the Bible; in the voice of the Church.
Some of us are more sure than others, some of us hear it more clearly and distinctly than others, but all of us have heard it. That is why we are here. But we are left to wonder about those who aren't here, who have heard the word but haven't heard the Voice. Rather than wonder about why they haven't heard in the past, our calling today is to be the voice of the gospel in the world by the way we live our lives.
Pastor John Ortberg tells this story in a recent book,
A man is being tailgated by a woman in a hurry. He comes to an intersection, and when the light turns yellow, he hits the brakes. The woman behind him goes ballistic. She honks her horn at him; she yells her frustration in no uncertain terms; she rants and gestures.
While she is in mid-rant, someone taps on her window. She looks up and sees a policeman. He invites her out of her car and takes her to the station where she is searched and fingerprinted and put in a cell. After a couple of hours, she is released, and the arresting officer gives her her personal effects, saying
"I'm very sorry for the mistake, ma'am. I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, using bad gestures and bad language. I noticed the WHAT WOULD JESUS DO bumper sticker, the CHOOSE LIFE license plate holder, the FOLLOW ME TO SUNDAY SCHOOL window sign, the fish emblem on your trunk, and I naturally assumed you had stolen the car. (When the Game is Over, It all Goes Back in the Box, 2007, p. 115)
The way we live our lives sends a message to the world. When Martin Luther said that the church is a "priesthood of believers," he didn't mean we were all pastors, he meant that we all carry Christ into the world in our words and actions.
In the modern world, we, the church, all of us in the church, are the shepherds, and the hurting, lonely, lost people of the world are God's scattered sheep. Our calling is to go out to them with the Voice of the Shepherd, calling them home to safety, calling them home to love.
We are the Voice of Christ in the world. What people know of God's law, they learn from us. What people know of God's forgiveness, they receive from us. What people know of God's love, they feel from us. The Voice of Christ calls each of us out into the world today.
Will you answer? Will you follow? Will you go out there and love the world in the name of Christ? Amen and amen.
A sermon preached at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Knoxville, TN
Text: John 10:22-30
In my little backyard converted shed office, I have a couple thousand books arranged on a variety of yard sale bookcases.
As I wrote this sermon, my coffee cup rested on a shelf that contains what I call my "Jesus books." In recent years, there have been a huge number of books written and debate hashed out about who Jesus was, or if he really was.I own over 30 of these books, and that's just a small part of all that's out there. They have titles like:
"Will the Real Jesus Please Stand up?"
"The Misunderstood Jew,"
"Who Was Jesus?"
"Lord or Legend?"
"Looking for Jesus,"
"The Real Jesus,"
"What Jesus Meant,"
and my favorite title: "Cynic Sage or Son of God?"
For over 2000 years the world and the church have wrestled with the question of the true identity of the wandering preacher from Galilee.The whole of Chapter 10 in John deals with this. Who does he say he is? Does his walk match his talk? Is he for real? Are the signs to be believed?
In verse 24 the people ask Jesus - Are you the Messiah? Are you the one sent from God? Jesus' answer points to actions as keys to identity, the idea that behavior reveals character.
He asks them, Do I act and talk like a Messiah, like a true king of Israel? Are the things I say and do for the benefit of the people?Do I honor God with the way I live my life?"
In the first part of chapter 10, Jesus has talked about being the Shepherd of the sheep, about how the sheep hear the true shepherd's voice and follow, about the willingness of the shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep. In verses 7 through 11 Jesus contrasts this with bad shepherds; "all who came before me are thieves and bandits." He then says that he is "the good shepherd."
In today's lesson, in verse 27, he again picks up the protective and caring shepherd theme. It may be helpful to us to think not in terms of good and bad, but rather in terms of true versus false; or real versus pretend; or fake versus genuine; or perhaps faithless versus faithful.
What Jesus lays claim to here in this text is to being not a false, not a pretend, not a fake, not a faithless shepherd of Israel; but rather to being a true, a real, a genuine, a faithful shepherd of God's sheep.
The shepherd was a powerful symbol in Israel. For much of their history they were a nomadic people dependent upon their sheep for their livelihood. Because of this, sheep and shepherd imagery was very important. The King was often referred to as the SHEPHERD of Israel, alluding back to King David, the traditional author of the 23rd Psalm. David, a shepherd boy in his youth, is the king by whom all kings are measured.
The ancient kings of Israel were different from the kings of the nations around them. The other kings were held up to be Gods on earth, divine beings in human form. The kings of Israel were not believed to be divine; they were known to be ordinary human beings who represented God on earth and ruled in God's name.
The idea was that God had placed the responsibility for the nation in their hands.The kingdom was not theirs to do with as they pleased. The kingdom was God's and they were to take care of it and God's people in God's name and with God's help. And even great King David failed to do it right all the time.
Between David and Jesus there were many years and many kings, and all the kings of Israel failed in one way or another. None of them lived up to the image of the Good, the True, the Real Shepherd of Israel, especially not the Emperor in Rome or his puppet King Herod. So the people asked; "Are you the Messiah?" "Are you the true Shepherd of the Sheep?""Are you the Saviour of Israel?" And Jesus answered them, "Yes, I am all that, and more."
In verse 25 he says, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify to me." Jesus goes on to make it plain, just as they had requested. The sheep hear my voice, they know their true Shepherd and follow and respond to him.
This is for me the difficult part of this lesson. Just hearing the voice is not enough. Many people hear, but don't respond, don't answer, don't follow, don't recognize the voice of Jesus. Those of us gathered here in Church on Sunday morning have, in one way or another heard and recognized the voice of God, the voice of our savior and friend; in the voice of the Bible; in the voice of the Church.
Some of us are more sure than others, some of us hear it more clearly and distinctly than others, but all of us have heard it. That is why we are here. But we are left to wonder about those who aren't here, who have heard the word but haven't heard the Voice. Rather than wonder about why they haven't heard in the past, our calling today is to be the voice of the gospel in the world by the way we live our lives.
Pastor John Ortberg tells this story in a recent book,
A man is being tailgated by a woman in a hurry. He comes to an intersection, and when the light turns yellow, he hits the brakes. The woman behind him goes ballistic. She honks her horn at him; she yells her frustration in no uncertain terms; she rants and gestures.
While she is in mid-rant, someone taps on her window. She looks up and sees a policeman. He invites her out of her car and takes her to the station where she is searched and fingerprinted and put in a cell. After a couple of hours, she is released, and the arresting officer gives her her personal effects, saying
"I'm very sorry for the mistake, ma'am. I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, using bad gestures and bad language. I noticed the WHAT WOULD JESUS DO bumper sticker, the CHOOSE LIFE license plate holder, the FOLLOW ME TO SUNDAY SCHOOL window sign, the fish emblem on your trunk, and I naturally assumed you had stolen the car. (When the Game is Over, It all Goes Back in the Box, 2007, p. 115)
The way we live our lives sends a message to the world. When Martin Luther said that the church is a "priesthood of believers," he didn't mean we were all pastors, he meant that we all carry Christ into the world in our words and actions.
In the modern world, we, the church, all of us in the church, are the shepherds, and the hurting, lonely, lost people of the world are God's scattered sheep. Our calling is to go out to them with the Voice of the Shepherd, calling them home to safety, calling them home to love.
We are the Voice of Christ in the world. What people know of God's law, they learn from us. What people know of God's forgiveness, they receive from us. What people know of God's love, they feel from us. The Voice of Christ calls each of us out into the world today.
Will you answer? Will you follow? Will you go out there and love the world in the name of Christ? Amen and amen.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
MAUNDY THURSDAY APRIL 1, 2010
John 13: 1-17; 31b-35
In April of 1995 (I think) THE LUTHERAN magazine ran an article called "Is it I?" It was about Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, "The Last Supper."
Now, while I found Pr. Schuessler's "Art Analysis" fairly interesting, I was very distracted by the fact that none of the people in the illustration of the painting seemed to be where he said they were.
What he was saying about people didn't match up with the people he claimed to be talking about.
Having had some small experience with publishing, I thought I knew what had happened, and my idea was confirmed when the text said that Judas had the money purse in his right hand while the picture showed it in his left hand.
Either Pastor Schuessler doesn't know his right from his left, or THE LUTHERAN printed the picture backwards.
I'm putting my money on THE LUTHERAN printing the picture backwards.
After I got over being first annoyed and then amused I realized that there was a deeper meaning here. (I'm sorry, I can't help it, I'm a preacher; there's always a deeper meaning!)
When I thought about it, I realized that getting it backwards is what most of us do, most of the time.
In our Gospel lesson, after he has washed his followers' feet, Jesus says to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?" And if they were honest, they would have said no. They got it backwards, and way too often, we get it backwards, too.
Today is called Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the command, the mandate, the mandatum in Latin, that Jesus gave his followers that they should Love One Another.
Though many people think of this night as the time when we celebrate the first Last Supper; in reality this night is set apart to remind us that Jesus' final words and deeds with his beloved friends were words and deeds of love, and Jesus' final command to his followers was a command to remember him with words and deeds of love of their own.
When Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and bowed down before his students; he not only humbled himself; in their eyes, he humiliated himself.
According to New Testament Scholar Robert Kysar, "Jesus' act is a radical departure from custom, since not even servants were required to wash the feet of their master." (Augsburg Commentary on John, p. 208)
Most often, footwashing was done by students for their teacher; as a sign of humility and respect and obedience. In washing his disciples' feet, Jesus turned this backwards. His humiliating act of servanthood was a powerful sign of the radical, upside-down, inside-out nature of the new Kingdom of God Jesus brought into the world.
Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "You call me teacher, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." (verse 13-14)
Does Jesus really, literally, mean that? Does he want us to go around washing one another's feet in church on a regular basis?
Well, that's the way some folks with whom I grew up take it; 'course they also handle snakes and drink poison; so maybe they're not a very good example.
In this action and by these words Jesus has called us, commanded us, to be a servant people. A people who gird up their loins and get to work tending to a hurting and needy world.
He says: "I give you this commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (verses 34-35)
But we get it backwards, don't we. Instead of seeking ways to serve others, we complain about the service others render to us. Instead of looking for ways to love others, we read magazine articles about "How to GET the love you really deserve." Instead of thinking about how we can help others improve their lives, we plot and plan for how we can get ahead.
Have you ever thought about what those words mean; "get ahead?" They mean me in front of everyone else. They mean me first, They mean; I'll tend to me and mine and devil take the hindmost.
Yes, we get it backwards. No matter how much we try, we get it backwards. "This master and servant, love one another, serve the world" stuff that Jesus talks about so much is really difficult.
It is because it is difficult that we get it backwards, and because it is difficult and we get it backwards, Jesus not only told us to love one another, He showed us how.
He showed us how when he washed the disciples' feet. He showed us how when he fed his friends at table. He showed us how when he blessed the thief who died with him. He showed us how when he forgave those who killed him. He showed us how when he died upon the cross, "for us and for our salvation."
We get it backwards and we can only get it right when we die to ourselves and let the life of Christ rise up within us, following him on the way of service, the way of Love, the way of the cross.
Amen and amen.
John 13: 1-17; 31b-35
In April of 1995 (I think) THE LUTHERAN magazine ran an article called "Is it I?" It was about Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, "The Last Supper."
Now, while I found Pr. Schuessler's "Art Analysis" fairly interesting, I was very distracted by the fact that none of the people in the illustration of the painting seemed to be where he said they were.
What he was saying about people didn't match up with the people he claimed to be talking about.
Having had some small experience with publishing, I thought I knew what had happened, and my idea was confirmed when the text said that Judas had the money purse in his right hand while the picture showed it in his left hand.
Either Pastor Schuessler doesn't know his right from his left, or THE LUTHERAN printed the picture backwards.
I'm putting my money on THE LUTHERAN printing the picture backwards.
After I got over being first annoyed and then amused I realized that there was a deeper meaning here. (I'm sorry, I can't help it, I'm a preacher; there's always a deeper meaning!)
When I thought about it, I realized that getting it backwards is what most of us do, most of the time.
In our Gospel lesson, after he has washed his followers' feet, Jesus says to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?" And if they were honest, they would have said no. They got it backwards, and way too often, we get it backwards, too.
Today is called Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the command, the mandate, the mandatum in Latin, that Jesus gave his followers that they should Love One Another.
Though many people think of this night as the time when we celebrate the first Last Supper; in reality this night is set apart to remind us that Jesus' final words and deeds with his beloved friends were words and deeds of love, and Jesus' final command to his followers was a command to remember him with words and deeds of love of their own.
When Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and bowed down before his students; he not only humbled himself; in their eyes, he humiliated himself.
According to New Testament Scholar Robert Kysar, "Jesus' act is a radical departure from custom, since not even servants were required to wash the feet of their master." (Augsburg Commentary on John, p. 208)
Most often, footwashing was done by students for their teacher; as a sign of humility and respect and obedience. In washing his disciples' feet, Jesus turned this backwards. His humiliating act of servanthood was a powerful sign of the radical, upside-down, inside-out nature of the new Kingdom of God Jesus brought into the world.
Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "You call me teacher, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." (verse 13-14)
Does Jesus really, literally, mean that? Does he want us to go around washing one another's feet in church on a regular basis?
Well, that's the way some folks with whom I grew up take it; 'course they also handle snakes and drink poison; so maybe they're not a very good example.
In this action and by these words Jesus has called us, commanded us, to be a servant people. A people who gird up their loins and get to work tending to a hurting and needy world.
He says: "I give you this commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (verses 34-35)
But we get it backwards, don't we. Instead of seeking ways to serve others, we complain about the service others render to us. Instead of looking for ways to love others, we read magazine articles about "How to GET the love you really deserve." Instead of thinking about how we can help others improve their lives, we plot and plan for how we can get ahead.
Have you ever thought about what those words mean; "get ahead?" They mean me in front of everyone else. They mean me first, They mean; I'll tend to me and mine and devil take the hindmost.
Yes, we get it backwards. No matter how much we try, we get it backwards. "This master and servant, love one another, serve the world" stuff that Jesus talks about so much is really difficult.
It is because it is difficult that we get it backwards, and because it is difficult and we get it backwards, Jesus not only told us to love one another, He showed us how.
He showed us how when he washed the disciples' feet. He showed us how when he fed his friends at table. He showed us how when he blessed the thief who died with him. He showed us how when he forgave those who killed him. He showed us how when he died upon the cross, "for us and for our salvation."
We get it backwards and we can only get it right when we die to ourselves and let the life of Christ rise up within us, following him on the way of service, the way of Love, the way of the cross.
Amen and amen.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Mid-week service, Holy Week,
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK March 31, 2010
First UMC, Hayesville, NC
Sermon Texts: Luke 11: 1-4; Luke 23:34
Title: On Forgiveness
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Pray with me please: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh my rock and my Redeemer."
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus' students ask him to teach them to pray, and half of the lesson is about forgiveness;
Forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone indebted to us.
On the cross, Jesus lives out what he taught, praying for those who killed him, and for us; Father, forgive them;
Forgiveness is at the very heart of the Christian gospel,
and it is quite possibly the most difficult thing we are asked to do for our LORD because
it is the thing that most goes against our natural inclinations.
Clara Nun, a SS teacher in OK City told a story in LEADERSHIP Magazine.
She asked a boy in her class "Billy what must we do to be forgiven."
Billy thought about it a minute, "Well, first we have to sin."
Billy is right. Without sin, there would be no need for forgiveness.
And that is the way God originally designed the world, according to the creation stories in the book of Genesis.
Perfect world, perfect people with perfect lives.
And for perfect people to be truly perfect, God had to take a chance and give us free will.
Without the ability to choose our behavior, we would all be robots and we wouldn't like that and neither would God.
And, as we all know, with that free will came the opportunity to choose badly; which Adam and Eve both did, and with that act of choosing badly Sin came into the world.
St. Augustine called it Original Sin and talked about it in ways that were very close to saying that sinfulness is genetic, that we're biologically born that way.
I don't think we have to go that far to observe and admit that the world is full of sin and that all of us, in one way or another, participate in it.
A friend of mine says that Original Sin is the only Christian Doctrine that can be proven empirically;
he says, "I have four children and six grandchildren, I know what original sin is."
If we're honest most of us will admit that this is true, not only about our children and grandchildren but about us.
We all know how far, in Paul's words, "we fall short of the glory of God."
Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism, was unintentionally funny and cranky on this point.
He wrote, almost 500 years ago, "We still stumble daily and sin because we live in the world among people who sorely vex us and give us occasion for impatience, anger, vengeance, etc."
I served as a small 3-point parish near Burlington, NC over 30 years ago. One night I took Miss Sallie Spoon, to hear her great granddaughter sing at a Revival Meeting.
The little girl sang beautifully; then the evangelist preached a fiery sermon about sin, yelling and haranguing the crowd. On the way home, Miss Sallie said to me, "I know I sin. What I want to know is what to do about it."
That is the question, isn't it? We know, in our heart of hearts, that we, all of us sin.
And even more, we feel guilty for how our sins harm others and we feel resentment for the way the sins of others hurt us.
And, as Miss Sallie said, "What can we do about it?"
How can we stop messing up our lives and the lives of our neighbors; with bad behavior and hurt feelings, with deeply buried guilt and long-held resentments?
Well, Jesus says FORGIVENESS is the only way.
God's forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness of one another, which are deeply, inseparably, tied together; these are the only things which will rescue us from ourselves.
But we hesitate over this forgiveness business, don't we? Those of us who recite the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in our worship every week say we believe in it;
I believe in the HS, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins. . .
Forgive us our sins, debts, trespasses, . . .as we forgive those who sin, trespass against us, our debtors.
We say it, but oh, so often, it is so hard to live out.
One day on the Duke campus, a person I know ran across a seminary professor who shall remain nameless. He was a good man, but a bit stodgy and old fashioned.
They stood together on the steps of a classroom building and looked out at the Duke undergraduates celebrating a basketball victory.
They were "drunk and disorderly," and in various states of undress and publicly affectionate behavior.
The professor looked at them and said to my friend, "Well, I have come to accept the idea that Jesus died for me, but I have a hard time believing that he died for these people."
Sometimes, way too many of us are way too much that way.
We have accepted the idea that Christ died for us, and if we're not careful, we'll begin to believe we deserved it.
"Of course he forgave me," we think, "I'm really sorry for what I did.
And really, it wasn't all that bad, just a little sin. Nothing like THOSE people and THOSE things THEY did."
And it is when we begin to think that we have earned God's love, that we deserve God's Grace and forgiveness, and that the things we do aren't so bad, but those other people, they are really bad and sinful and undeserving,
It's when we begin to think like that that we begin to withhold forgiveness of others.
In Jesus' prayer, it is not by accident that he ties God's forgiveness of us with our forgiveness of one another. You cannot have one without the other.
The only way we can dig down deep enough to genuinely, completely, totally, unreservedly, with no ifs ands or buts, forgive someone else,
is if we realize how very much undeserved love and grace and forgiveness we ourselves have received, from God and from one another.
As long as we believe that we are in some way better than anyone, anyone else on this planet and that we, therefore, have in some way earned God's love, we will be incapable of true confession and forgiveness.
Holy Week is about finding that place within us that knows our failure and our need.
Holy Week is about following Christ to the Cross with our hearts in our throats, realizing that his suffering and death are the result of our sin, our fault, our evil ways and deeds.
Holy Week is about dying to our pride so that we can live in Christ.
It is in Christ that we know ourselves undeserving yet fully loved.
It is in Christ that we discover our true self, fully loved and fully loving others.
It is in Christ that we find the strength to confess our faults to others,
It is in Christ that we find the love to truly, completely forgive one another.
One of my favorite writers, GK Chesterton, once observed,
In one place, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors.
In another place, he orders us to love our enemies.
This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
I invite you now to stand and turn and face your neighbors across the aisle as we confess to and forgive one another, as Jesus taught us when he taught us to pray, and as he showed us when he forgave his killers from the cross:
Join me in the prayers printed in your bulletin.
RIGHT SIDE: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed. I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
LEFT SIDE: Almighty and merciful God grant you healing, pardon, and forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.
(A short period of silence is kept)
LEFT SIDE: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word and deed. I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
RIGHT SIDE: Almighty and merciful God grant you healing, pardon, and forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.
First UMC, Hayesville, NC
Sermon Texts: Luke 11: 1-4; Luke 23:34
Title: On Forgiveness
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Pray with me please: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh my rock and my Redeemer."
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus' students ask him to teach them to pray, and half of the lesson is about forgiveness;
Forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone indebted to us.
On the cross, Jesus lives out what he taught, praying for those who killed him, and for us; Father, forgive them;
Forgiveness is at the very heart of the Christian gospel,
and it is quite possibly the most difficult thing we are asked to do for our LORD because
it is the thing that most goes against our natural inclinations.
Clara Nun, a SS teacher in OK City told a story in LEADERSHIP Magazine.
She asked a boy in her class "Billy what must we do to be forgiven."
Billy thought about it a minute, "Well, first we have to sin."
Billy is right. Without sin, there would be no need for forgiveness.
And that is the way God originally designed the world, according to the creation stories in the book of Genesis.
Perfect world, perfect people with perfect lives.
And for perfect people to be truly perfect, God had to take a chance and give us free will.
Without the ability to choose our behavior, we would all be robots and we wouldn't like that and neither would God.
And, as we all know, with that free will came the opportunity to choose badly; which Adam and Eve both did, and with that act of choosing badly Sin came into the world.
St. Augustine called it Original Sin and talked about it in ways that were very close to saying that sinfulness is genetic, that we're biologically born that way.
I don't think we have to go that far to observe and admit that the world is full of sin and that all of us, in one way or another, participate in it.
A friend of mine says that Original Sin is the only Christian Doctrine that can be proven empirically;
he says, "I have four children and six grandchildren, I know what original sin is."
If we're honest most of us will admit that this is true, not only about our children and grandchildren but about us.
We all know how far, in Paul's words, "we fall short of the glory of God."
Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism, was unintentionally funny and cranky on this point.
He wrote, almost 500 years ago, "We still stumble daily and sin because we live in the world among people who sorely vex us and give us occasion for impatience, anger, vengeance, etc."
I served as a small 3-point parish near Burlington, NC over 30 years ago. One night I took Miss Sallie Spoon, to hear her great granddaughter sing at a Revival Meeting.
The little girl sang beautifully; then the evangelist preached a fiery sermon about sin, yelling and haranguing the crowd. On the way home, Miss Sallie said to me, "I know I sin. What I want to know is what to do about it."
That is the question, isn't it? We know, in our heart of hearts, that we, all of us sin.
And even more, we feel guilty for how our sins harm others and we feel resentment for the way the sins of others hurt us.
And, as Miss Sallie said, "What can we do about it?"
How can we stop messing up our lives and the lives of our neighbors; with bad behavior and hurt feelings, with deeply buried guilt and long-held resentments?
Well, Jesus says FORGIVENESS is the only way.
God's forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness of one another, which are deeply, inseparably, tied together; these are the only things which will rescue us from ourselves.
But we hesitate over this forgiveness business, don't we? Those of us who recite the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in our worship every week say we believe in it;
I believe in the HS, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins. . .
Forgive us our sins, debts, trespasses, . . .as we forgive those who sin, trespass against us, our debtors.
We say it, but oh, so often, it is so hard to live out.
One day on the Duke campus, a person I know ran across a seminary professor who shall remain nameless. He was a good man, but a bit stodgy and old fashioned.
They stood together on the steps of a classroom building and looked out at the Duke undergraduates celebrating a basketball victory.
They were "drunk and disorderly," and in various states of undress and publicly affectionate behavior.
The professor looked at them and said to my friend, "Well, I have come to accept the idea that Jesus died for me, but I have a hard time believing that he died for these people."
Sometimes, way too many of us are way too much that way.
We have accepted the idea that Christ died for us, and if we're not careful, we'll begin to believe we deserved it.
"Of course he forgave me," we think, "I'm really sorry for what I did.
And really, it wasn't all that bad, just a little sin. Nothing like THOSE people and THOSE things THEY did."
And it is when we begin to think that we have earned God's love, that we deserve God's Grace and forgiveness, and that the things we do aren't so bad, but those other people, they are really bad and sinful and undeserving,
It's when we begin to think like that that we begin to withhold forgiveness of others.
In Jesus' prayer, it is not by accident that he ties God's forgiveness of us with our forgiveness of one another. You cannot have one without the other.
The only way we can dig down deep enough to genuinely, completely, totally, unreservedly, with no ifs ands or buts, forgive someone else,
is if we realize how very much undeserved love and grace and forgiveness we ourselves have received, from God and from one another.
As long as we believe that we are in some way better than anyone, anyone else on this planet and that we, therefore, have in some way earned God's love, we will be incapable of true confession and forgiveness.
Holy Week is about finding that place within us that knows our failure and our need.
Holy Week is about following Christ to the Cross with our hearts in our throats, realizing that his suffering and death are the result of our sin, our fault, our evil ways and deeds.
Holy Week is about dying to our pride so that we can live in Christ.
It is in Christ that we know ourselves undeserving yet fully loved.
It is in Christ that we discover our true self, fully loved and fully loving others.
It is in Christ that we find the strength to confess our faults to others,
It is in Christ that we find the love to truly, completely forgive one another.
One of my favorite writers, GK Chesterton, once observed,
In one place, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors.
In another place, he orders us to love our enemies.
This is because, generally speaking, they are the same people.
I invite you now to stand and turn and face your neighbors across the aisle as we confess to and forgive one another, as Jesus taught us when he taught us to pray, and as he showed us when he forgave his killers from the cross:
Join me in the prayers printed in your bulletin.
RIGHT SIDE: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed. I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
LEFT SIDE: Almighty and merciful God grant you healing, pardon, and forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.
(A short period of silence is kept)
LEFT SIDE: I confess to God Almighty, before the whole company of heaven, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word and deed. I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
RIGHT SIDE: Almighty and merciful God grant you healing, pardon, and forgiveness of all your sins. Amen.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Palm Sunday
I'm not preaching this week. (Why? Nobody asked me.) So I didn't write a Palm Sunday sermon. I have a group of pastor/preacher friends with whom I share sermons. One of them, an old Duke Div. School classmate, sent me this one I thought you might find either interesting or helpful or both. The author/preacher is the Rev. Dr. Warren Casiday, Pastor of St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ in Kannapolis, NC. By the way, I edited it a bit for length ( Those Reformed; less Liturgy, more preaching, but I left in his manuscript short-hand.)
To The Edge Of Night
Luke 19.28-40
H. Warren Casiday
March 28, 2010
It’s not quite Easter yet, but it will be here very soon. Just 7 days away.And what a joyful day that will be for us – as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
But we have a problem in moving from today – Palm Sunday to Easter.
We must walk through a graveyard in the dark of night that is called Good Friday.
That walk takes us from a Joyful Celebration To The Edge Of Night to total darkness to the light of the Resurrection.
We simply cannot get from PS to E w/o going through GF.
There are many churches who never observe the major event of Holy Week.
They do not have Maundy Thursday Communion Services. They never have GF services.
They rush from PS to E – neatly avoiding the unpleasantness of the week – so they can get to the trumpet sounds of E morning.
In some ways, it is easy to understand this desire to skip the events of HW.
J on the cross means death – and we don’t like to confront death. But J risen from the grave is life!
A sanctuary stripped bare for GF is can be very bleak and even depressing.
A sanctuary with Lilies and an E cross covered with flowers is uplifting & encouraging.
Why not skip through HW as if you were tiptoeing through the tulips, OR walking softly beside the graveyard at night so you don’t disturb the dead.
It is understandable.
Yet, when you read the Bible, rather than rushing through HW, to get through it quickly,the B slows down and walks very slowly through that week.
What we had just as soon get through quickly, the B takes very slowly.
In fact, in Matthew alone, nearly 30% of the book is devoted to HW.
PS is such a powerful story and so memorable that it is the 3rd best known story
after the birth narrative of J and the crucifixion/resurrection narrative in the B.
We know the story. We’ve heard it year after year. We can almost tell it verbatim.
PS is a story that leaves us spellbound with its wonder and beauty.
The borrowed Donkey. Our Lord. The Crowds. The waving of the Palm Branches. The cloaks on the ground.
The cheers and cries of the crowd:“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
And your mind comes alive with that scene – as if you had actually been there.
What a wonderful story.
But it is more than just a story.
That is the story that sets in motions the events that lead to J becoming our salvation. J shows up ready – and willing – to be our Savior / the Messiah.
What does PS mean to us today? I can think of three things.
Palm Sunday Means A Time Of:
1. CELEBRATION.
How can PS not be a time of celebration! It is a parade for J – welcoming him to Jerusalem – especially as the Messiah.
There were three groups of people who mingled together along the road that PS.
A. The disciples of J
Who had put their cloaks on the borrowed donkey
Who had followed J into Jerusalem.
Who were leading the cheers for J.
B. The Jews in town to celebrate the Passover – who came out to see J.
C. The Jewish leaders – who were there to keep an eye on J
The palms that were waved and laid on the ground for the donkey carrying J to walk over.
Palms had become a symbol of Israel’s nationalism and hopes.
And now their hopes were being focused on J.
The cloaks were spread on the ground and the donkey walked over them; welcoming a new king and acknowledging his power over them.
In a real sense, the spreading of their cloaks on the ground was their Red Carpet for J.
The “Hosannas” that were shouted out were a Hebrew word that meant: Save us now!
Or as they would have understood it: Save us now from our political enemies.
“Blessed is the King of Israel” OR “Welcome to the Kingdom of our father David.”
These were greetings called out to who they assumed was to be their national liberator.
The response of the Disciples and much of the crowd was: J is the Messiah
The response of the Jewish leadership was: There ain’t no way!
But... The crowds – And the Disciples – had misunderstood J’s purpose on PS
They were looking for the conquering king to set them free from Rome.
Instead, they got J riding on a donkey – a symbol of a servant king – a humble king.
Not everyone was thrilled by the celebration – the PS parade.
The Pharisees certainly weren’t happy about the attention J was getting.
While it is not recorded here, the Roman soldiers couldn’t have been happy either.
In fact, they probably went on heightened alert for a revolution led by J.
But... The celebration ended. And the parade stopped.
The people realized that J had committed an unpardonable sin – in their way of thinking – by not being the kind of Messiah they were expecting.
Not only was PS a time of Celebration – a wonderful parade in J’s honor – it was a time of:
2. CONFRONTATION.
We are told in the B – in the stories before PS – that the Pharisees just didn’t like J.
In fact, they were plotting to find a way to get rid of him. They wanted him dead.
Now there are probably all types of reasons for this:
Jealousy – Envy – Pride – Arrogance
But it is very likely that the primary reason was their concern that J would upset their apple cart w/ Rome.
The Jews had a tenuous truce-like relationship with Rome.
With Rome’s permission, they were able to continue their worship of Jehovah.
This was a privilege Rome rarely granted to a conquered people. You must worship our gods.
But the Jews had been allowed to worship their G.
In their thinking, if J kept stirring things up, that freedom could be taken away from them. And they certainly didn’t want that.
So J rode the donkey into Jerusalem and the crowds praised him and celebrated his arrival.
And as they shouted out their praises to G for J, the Pharisees confronted J:
“Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
Our as we might put it: “For G’s sake, man – and ours – be quiet!”
And J replied: “If they (the crowds) keep quiet, these stones will cry out.”
IE: Somebody has to praise G for J
Isn’t it ironic that even today there are times when people confront J – especially when they find out J is not who they think he is.
Not only was PS a time of Celebration – and Confrontation – it was a time of:
3. COMMITMENT.
The B simply slows down considerably during HW. Even Mark – the fastest paced Gospel – slows down for HW.
In fact, much of the Gospels’ writings are about the events of HW.
Many of the stories and parables that we love and have heard so many times were told by J during HW.
And, in one way or another, many of them dealt with the theme of our Commitment to G.
The parable of The Two Sons
One said he would work in the vineyard – but he didn’t. The other said he wouldn’t work in the vineyard – but he did. It is a story of obedience and commitment.
J told the parable of the Tenants who beat up and killed people so they wouldn’t have to give up what rightfully belonged to the Owner.
And the Pharisees understood that J was talking to them about their commitment to G.
J told the parable of the Wedding Banquet where everyone who had committed to come to the banquet backed out of their commitment. They even killed some of the ones who had been sent to invite them.
And the king brought in people from outside the wedding invitation list. Again, it is a story about commitment.
The story about Caesar’s coin – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to G what is G’s.
The Great Commandment to Love G with all your heart and soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.
The parables of the 10 Virgins and their lamps / The Talents that were used and hidden / The Sheep & Goats
The story about J’s being anointed with oil.
The story about the Vine and the Branches.
All these parables & stories are in one way or another about a person’s commitment to G
In the midst of HW, J calls us to be committed to him.
There is a strong belief among many Xns that J got himself crucified because he refused to be the kind of Messiah the people expected him to be.
They wanted a revolutionary, didn’t they? someone who would come in and free the Jews from Roman occupation. someone who could be a great king like David.
They just didn’t understand the type of Messiah J was saying he was.
The belief is that it was just a case of mistaken identity. J was just not who they thought he was – therefore, he was crucified.
But I believe that the truth of the matter is even more basic than that.
The crowds went from welcoming J on PS to yelling for his death because they knew –
just as we know – exactly who Jesus was.
Before HW is up, ALL of the people there would be united in their ultimate rejection of J.
And it wasn’t just the Jews that were united in their actions against J. It was also the Romans.
It wasn’t just the religious leaders united against J. It was also the ‘common people’ of J’s day.
It wasn’t just Judas – whom we can write off as corrupt and evil. But it was all of J’s Disciples.
Peter – the Faithful Disciple – one of the inner circle of Disc – would deny him three times.
It was all the others Disciples – who fled and hid out of fear for their own lives.
It seemed as if everyone was united in their rejection and abandonment of J.
But J had a different reason for appearing in Jerusalem.
He didn’t come to set up a rival kingdom to Rome.
He came to be crowned with thorns.To be enthroned of a cross. To bring peace between G and humanity.
J came to be our Savior
PS confronts you and me with one more thing.
It says: There Is A Decision WE Must Make.
Today, on PS, as we pause at the doorway of HW, we see the scenes of Celebration and Confrontation and the call for Commitment.
We look through the dark edge of night to the cross. And we can see the entire story of the suffering and pain and death of J.
As we gaze upon our LORD– his arms spread wide in forgiving love –
We must decide: will we accept that Love, will we live in that Love, will we share that Love?
Amen and amen.
To The Edge Of Night
Luke 19.28-40
H. Warren Casiday
March 28, 2010
It’s not quite Easter yet, but it will be here very soon. Just 7 days away.And what a joyful day that will be for us – as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
But we have a problem in moving from today – Palm Sunday to Easter.
We must walk through a graveyard in the dark of night that is called Good Friday.
That walk takes us from a Joyful Celebration To The Edge Of Night to total darkness to the light of the Resurrection.
We simply cannot get from PS to E w/o going through GF.
There are many churches who never observe the major event of Holy Week.
They do not have Maundy Thursday Communion Services. They never have GF services.
They rush from PS to E – neatly avoiding the unpleasantness of the week – so they can get to the trumpet sounds of E morning.
In some ways, it is easy to understand this desire to skip the events of HW.
J on the cross means death – and we don’t like to confront death. But J risen from the grave is life!
A sanctuary stripped bare for GF is can be very bleak and even depressing.
A sanctuary with Lilies and an E cross covered with flowers is uplifting & encouraging.
Why not skip through HW as if you were tiptoeing through the tulips, OR walking softly beside the graveyard at night so you don’t disturb the dead.
It is understandable.
Yet, when you read the Bible, rather than rushing through HW, to get through it quickly,the B slows down and walks very slowly through that week.
What we had just as soon get through quickly, the B takes very slowly.
In fact, in Matthew alone, nearly 30% of the book is devoted to HW.
PS is such a powerful story and so memorable that it is the 3rd best known story
after the birth narrative of J and the crucifixion/resurrection narrative in the B.
We know the story. We’ve heard it year after year. We can almost tell it verbatim.
PS is a story that leaves us spellbound with its wonder and beauty.
The borrowed Donkey. Our Lord. The Crowds. The waving of the Palm Branches. The cloaks on the ground.
The cheers and cries of the crowd:“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
And your mind comes alive with that scene – as if you had actually been there.
What a wonderful story.
But it is more than just a story.
That is the story that sets in motions the events that lead to J becoming our salvation. J shows up ready – and willing – to be our Savior / the Messiah.
What does PS mean to us today? I can think of three things.
Palm Sunday Means A Time Of:
1. CELEBRATION.
How can PS not be a time of celebration! It is a parade for J – welcoming him to Jerusalem – especially as the Messiah.
There were three groups of people who mingled together along the road that PS.
A. The disciples of J
Who had put their cloaks on the borrowed donkey
Who had followed J into Jerusalem.
Who were leading the cheers for J.
B. The Jews in town to celebrate the Passover – who came out to see J.
C. The Jewish leaders – who were there to keep an eye on J
The palms that were waved and laid on the ground for the donkey carrying J to walk over.
Palms had become a symbol of Israel’s nationalism and hopes.
And now their hopes were being focused on J.
The cloaks were spread on the ground and the donkey walked over them; welcoming a new king and acknowledging his power over them.
In a real sense, the spreading of their cloaks on the ground was their Red Carpet for J.
The “Hosannas” that were shouted out were a Hebrew word that meant: Save us now!
Or as they would have understood it: Save us now from our political enemies.
“Blessed is the King of Israel” OR “Welcome to the Kingdom of our father David.”
These were greetings called out to who they assumed was to be their national liberator.
The response of the Disciples and much of the crowd was: J is the Messiah
The response of the Jewish leadership was: There ain’t no way!
But... The crowds – And the Disciples – had misunderstood J’s purpose on PS
They were looking for the conquering king to set them free from Rome.
Instead, they got J riding on a donkey – a symbol of a servant king – a humble king.
Not everyone was thrilled by the celebration – the PS parade.
The Pharisees certainly weren’t happy about the attention J was getting.
While it is not recorded here, the Roman soldiers couldn’t have been happy either.
In fact, they probably went on heightened alert for a revolution led by J.
But... The celebration ended. And the parade stopped.
The people realized that J had committed an unpardonable sin – in their way of thinking – by not being the kind of Messiah they were expecting.
Not only was PS a time of Celebration – a wonderful parade in J’s honor – it was a time of:
2. CONFRONTATION.
We are told in the B – in the stories before PS – that the Pharisees just didn’t like J.
In fact, they were plotting to find a way to get rid of him. They wanted him dead.
Now there are probably all types of reasons for this:
Jealousy – Envy – Pride – Arrogance
But it is very likely that the primary reason was their concern that J would upset their apple cart w/ Rome.
The Jews had a tenuous truce-like relationship with Rome.
With Rome’s permission, they were able to continue their worship of Jehovah.
This was a privilege Rome rarely granted to a conquered people. You must worship our gods.
But the Jews had been allowed to worship their G.
In their thinking, if J kept stirring things up, that freedom could be taken away from them. And they certainly didn’t want that.
So J rode the donkey into Jerusalem and the crowds praised him and celebrated his arrival.
And as they shouted out their praises to G for J, the Pharisees confronted J:
“Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
Our as we might put it: “For G’s sake, man – and ours – be quiet!”
And J replied: “If they (the crowds) keep quiet, these stones will cry out.”
IE: Somebody has to praise G for J
Isn’t it ironic that even today there are times when people confront J – especially when they find out J is not who they think he is.
Not only was PS a time of Celebration – and Confrontation – it was a time of:
3. COMMITMENT.
The B simply slows down considerably during HW. Even Mark – the fastest paced Gospel – slows down for HW.
In fact, much of the Gospels’ writings are about the events of HW.
Many of the stories and parables that we love and have heard so many times were told by J during HW.
And, in one way or another, many of them dealt with the theme of our Commitment to G.
The parable of The Two Sons
One said he would work in the vineyard – but he didn’t. The other said he wouldn’t work in the vineyard – but he did. It is a story of obedience and commitment.
J told the parable of the Tenants who beat up and killed people so they wouldn’t have to give up what rightfully belonged to the Owner.
And the Pharisees understood that J was talking to them about their commitment to G.
J told the parable of the Wedding Banquet where everyone who had committed to come to the banquet backed out of their commitment. They even killed some of the ones who had been sent to invite them.
And the king brought in people from outside the wedding invitation list. Again, it is a story about commitment.
The story about Caesar’s coin – Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to G what is G’s.
The Great Commandment to Love G with all your heart and soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.
The parables of the 10 Virgins and their lamps / The Talents that were used and hidden / The Sheep & Goats
The story about J’s being anointed with oil.
The story about the Vine and the Branches.
All these parables & stories are in one way or another about a person’s commitment to G
In the midst of HW, J calls us to be committed to him.
There is a strong belief among many Xns that J got himself crucified because he refused to be the kind of Messiah the people expected him to be.
They wanted a revolutionary, didn’t they? someone who would come in and free the Jews from Roman occupation. someone who could be a great king like David.
They just didn’t understand the type of Messiah J was saying he was.
The belief is that it was just a case of mistaken identity. J was just not who they thought he was – therefore, he was crucified.
But I believe that the truth of the matter is even more basic than that.
The crowds went from welcoming J on PS to yelling for his death because they knew –
just as we know – exactly who Jesus was.
Before HW is up, ALL of the people there would be united in their ultimate rejection of J.
And it wasn’t just the Jews that were united in their actions against J. It was also the Romans.
It wasn’t just the religious leaders united against J. It was also the ‘common people’ of J’s day.
It wasn’t just Judas – whom we can write off as corrupt and evil. But it was all of J’s Disciples.
Peter – the Faithful Disciple – one of the inner circle of Disc – would deny him three times.
It was all the others Disciples – who fled and hid out of fear for their own lives.
It seemed as if everyone was united in their rejection and abandonment of J.
But J had a different reason for appearing in Jerusalem.
He didn’t come to set up a rival kingdom to Rome.
He came to be crowned with thorns.To be enthroned of a cross. To bring peace between G and humanity.
J came to be our Savior
PS confronts you and me with one more thing.
It says: There Is A Decision WE Must Make.
Today, on PS, as we pause at the doorway of HW, we see the scenes of Celebration and Confrontation and the call for Commitment.
We look through the dark edge of night to the cross. And we can see the entire story of the suffering and pain and death of J.
As we gaze upon our LORD– his arms spread wide in forgiving love –
We must decide: will we accept that Love, will we live in that Love, will we share that Love?
Amen and amen.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Lent 5, March 21, 2010
Lent 5, March 21, 2010
TEXTS: Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:4-14, John 12: 1-8
(A sermon preached at the Installation of the Rev. Phil Harkey as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran church, Elberton, GA)
In an odd sort of way, today is a day of mixed emotions, of conflictual feelings.
It is the Fifth Sunday in Lent and we are nearing the end of Jesus' journey to the Cross.
As the world emerges from the dark and cold of winter into the light and warmth of spring, our religious tradition calls us deeper into the darkness and gloom of Jesus' suffering and death.
Deepening this feeling of dissonance is the fact that we have gathered here to celebrate the new thing God is doing in Elberton by bringing Pr. Harkey and Holy Trinity Church together in mission and ministry.
Sadness and celebration; darkness and light; the cold of winter and the warmth of spring, the death of Christ and the birth of new hope, all mixed up together in one day.
Just like in our Gospel Lesson.
Here we find Jesus at a meal celebrating the raising of Lazarus, a feast in honor of the fact that Lazarus has been returned from the dead.
Into the midst of this party, Mary comes and anoints Jesus' feet with perfume and wipes them with her hair; an act that symbolically prepares him for death and burial, an act which also upsets everyone present.
It is a complicated story. Let's look at it carefully.
This story is in the beginning of chapter 12 in John. In chapter 11 Jesus is out preaching and teaching when he gets word that Lazarus, his dear friend, is ill. Later he learns that he has died.
The rest of chapter 11 is about how Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus and about how Martha fussed at Jesus for not coming sooner and how when Jesus saw Mary and all the others weeping, he started weeping too, and finally, Jesus went to the tomb and cried out, "Lazarus, come out."
And Lazarus came out, bound up like a Mummy in a bad horror movie; stumbling and smelly but alive.
Chapter 12 opens with the story of a dinner that took place a few weeks later to celebrate Lazarus' amazing return from the dead. Make no mistake about it; this was a party, a fiesta, a banquet.
Where I come from we would have had a pig-picking, a fish-fry, a keg party with fireworks. Pastor Harkey, you're from Charleston, right? We're talking a Low Country shrimp boil. Out on the deck, beach music playing, couples dancing the shag, little kids running around under the boardwalk chasing fireflies, old people sitting in corners talking and watching young people;
And into the midst of this joyous frivolity Mary comes with a gallon of perfume, expensive stuff, worth thirty or forty thousand dollars. And she plops down in front of Jesus and pours this rich and costly perfume all over his feet and then wipes his feet with her hair.
And the music stops, and the dancers freeze and and the old people hush talking and the children stand with their fingers in their mouths and stare while Jesus smiles and lifts Mary up and thanks her for her generosity and her love.
There are a couple of reasons for the stunned reaction on the part of the group, one that is spoken of in the text and one that is not.
1) In the text, Judas says that which everyone else is thinking, "My God, woman, what are you doing? You could have sold that and given the money to the poor."
Jesus reply here is very important. Many times people have used his words, "the poor you always have with you," as an excuse for not helping the poor.
That is definitely NOT what Jesus meant.
Jesus meant that Mary understands his immediate present and near future better than any of them.
She bought the perfume, the nard, for a specific purpose; to anoint his body when he died, and she more than anyone else, knows that Jesus is soon to die.
Her anointing his body at this time shows that she recognizes that by coming to Jerusalem and raising her brother from the dead, he has angered the people who run things and they intend to kill him.
She knows, even if the others don't, that by coming here to this place, at this time, and working this miracle, he has sealed his fate, he has signed his own execution order.
In giving Lazarus life he has assured his own death.
Mary pours out both her gratitude and her grief when she pours the perfume on Jesus' feet.
And when Jesus reminds them that they always have the poor with them, he is reminding them, and us, of our ongoing call and duty to serve the needs of what he calls elsewhere "the least of these my brothers and sisters."
Indeed what he says elsewhere is that when we serve "the least of these," we are personally and directly serving Christ. Rather than being the end of our duty to the poor, this moment with Mary at his feet is really the beginning of a higher call and a wider duty for all of us.
2) The second reason people reacted with shock and dismay is not spoken of in this text, but is easily understood.
Jesus was a single man and a rabbi; "decent women," and "decent rabbis" just didn't touch each other like that. But in her gratitude and her sorrow, Mary had thrown caution to the wind and gave vent to her deepest and most honest feelings about Jesus, her savior and her Lord.
This text calls us to do the same.
It calls us to a deep, deep grief for the death of Jesus; a profound and abiding sorrow for our faults and failures, our evil deeds and iniquitous acts; in a word, our sins, that put him on the cross to bleed and die to save us from ourselves.
It also calls us to a full and rich and sober joy and gratitude for the new life that Christ won for us there.
Martin Luther called it a "sacred exchange," a "divine trade."
On the cross Jesus took on our sins and gave us his holiness.
Upon the cross Jesus died our death and gave us his life.
There on that tree, Jesus accepted our fate and gave us his future.
And in response we are called to weep for our sins and his death and then to pour out our lives in service of Christ through service to the poor and needy of this world.
And Pastor Harkey, it is your particular call, in this place and in this time, to lead these people in doing just that.
In the midst of all the list of things a pastor does; of teaching and preaching and giving the sacraments and visiting the sick and the healthy and involvement in community affairs and bringing new people into the church; underneath all that,
your true call is simply this; lead these people in knowing that Christ has died for them and that in response they are called to die with Christ, pouring out their lives to serve the poor and needy of the world.
Amen and amen.
TEXTS: Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:4-14, John 12: 1-8
(A sermon preached at the Installation of the Rev. Phil Harkey as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran church, Elberton, GA)
In an odd sort of way, today is a day of mixed emotions, of conflictual feelings.
It is the Fifth Sunday in Lent and we are nearing the end of Jesus' journey to the Cross.
As the world emerges from the dark and cold of winter into the light and warmth of spring, our religious tradition calls us deeper into the darkness and gloom of Jesus' suffering and death.
Deepening this feeling of dissonance is the fact that we have gathered here to celebrate the new thing God is doing in Elberton by bringing Pr. Harkey and Holy Trinity Church together in mission and ministry.
Sadness and celebration; darkness and light; the cold of winter and the warmth of spring, the death of Christ and the birth of new hope, all mixed up together in one day.
Just like in our Gospel Lesson.
Here we find Jesus at a meal celebrating the raising of Lazarus, a feast in honor of the fact that Lazarus has been returned from the dead.
Into the midst of this party, Mary comes and anoints Jesus' feet with perfume and wipes them with her hair; an act that symbolically prepares him for death and burial, an act which also upsets everyone present.
It is a complicated story. Let's look at it carefully.
This story is in the beginning of chapter 12 in John. In chapter 11 Jesus is out preaching and teaching when he gets word that Lazarus, his dear friend, is ill. Later he learns that he has died.
The rest of chapter 11 is about how Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus and about how Martha fussed at Jesus for not coming sooner and how when Jesus saw Mary and all the others weeping, he started weeping too, and finally, Jesus went to the tomb and cried out, "Lazarus, come out."
And Lazarus came out, bound up like a Mummy in a bad horror movie; stumbling and smelly but alive.
Chapter 12 opens with the story of a dinner that took place a few weeks later to celebrate Lazarus' amazing return from the dead. Make no mistake about it; this was a party, a fiesta, a banquet.
Where I come from we would have had a pig-picking, a fish-fry, a keg party with fireworks. Pastor Harkey, you're from Charleston, right? We're talking a Low Country shrimp boil. Out on the deck, beach music playing, couples dancing the shag, little kids running around under the boardwalk chasing fireflies, old people sitting in corners talking and watching young people;
And into the midst of this joyous frivolity Mary comes with a gallon of perfume, expensive stuff, worth thirty or forty thousand dollars. And she plops down in front of Jesus and pours this rich and costly perfume all over his feet and then wipes his feet with her hair.
And the music stops, and the dancers freeze and and the old people hush talking and the children stand with their fingers in their mouths and stare while Jesus smiles and lifts Mary up and thanks her for her generosity and her love.
There are a couple of reasons for the stunned reaction on the part of the group, one that is spoken of in the text and one that is not.
1) In the text, Judas says that which everyone else is thinking, "My God, woman, what are you doing? You could have sold that and given the money to the poor."
Jesus reply here is very important. Many times people have used his words, "the poor you always have with you," as an excuse for not helping the poor.
That is definitely NOT what Jesus meant.
Jesus meant that Mary understands his immediate present and near future better than any of them.
She bought the perfume, the nard, for a specific purpose; to anoint his body when he died, and she more than anyone else, knows that Jesus is soon to die.
Her anointing his body at this time shows that she recognizes that by coming to Jerusalem and raising her brother from the dead, he has angered the people who run things and they intend to kill him.
She knows, even if the others don't, that by coming here to this place, at this time, and working this miracle, he has sealed his fate, he has signed his own execution order.
In giving Lazarus life he has assured his own death.
Mary pours out both her gratitude and her grief when she pours the perfume on Jesus' feet.
And when Jesus reminds them that they always have the poor with them, he is reminding them, and us, of our ongoing call and duty to serve the needs of what he calls elsewhere "the least of these my brothers and sisters."
Indeed what he says elsewhere is that when we serve "the least of these," we are personally and directly serving Christ. Rather than being the end of our duty to the poor, this moment with Mary at his feet is really the beginning of a higher call and a wider duty for all of us.
2) The second reason people reacted with shock and dismay is not spoken of in this text, but is easily understood.
Jesus was a single man and a rabbi; "decent women," and "decent rabbis" just didn't touch each other like that. But in her gratitude and her sorrow, Mary had thrown caution to the wind and gave vent to her deepest and most honest feelings about Jesus, her savior and her Lord.
This text calls us to do the same.
It calls us to a deep, deep grief for the death of Jesus; a profound and abiding sorrow for our faults and failures, our evil deeds and iniquitous acts; in a word, our sins, that put him on the cross to bleed and die to save us from ourselves.
It also calls us to a full and rich and sober joy and gratitude for the new life that Christ won for us there.
Martin Luther called it a "sacred exchange," a "divine trade."
On the cross Jesus took on our sins and gave us his holiness.
Upon the cross Jesus died our death and gave us his life.
There on that tree, Jesus accepted our fate and gave us his future.
And in response we are called to weep for our sins and his death and then to pour out our lives in service of Christ through service to the poor and needy of this world.
And Pastor Harkey, it is your particular call, in this place and in this time, to lead these people in doing just that.
In the midst of all the list of things a pastor does; of teaching and preaching and giving the sacraments and visiting the sick and the healthy and involvement in community affairs and bringing new people into the church; underneath all that,
your true call is simply this; lead these people in knowing that Christ has died for them and that in response they are called to die with Christ, pouring out their lives to serve the poor and needy of the world.
Amen and amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)