We last left Jesus preaching against anger, lust, divorce, lying, and anything that separates us from our neighbor in yesterday’s Gospel lesson. We have to lay down our gift at the altar and deal with anything we are holding against our neighbor before we can be right with God. My colleague Evan gave such a clear message about our need to see this, as he said “there is a brokenness among us that can only be healed if we recognize that victory for our side isn’t as important as communion with the other.” After such a profound and pointed message from Jesus within his Sermon on the Mount, I am sure that when we open up the Lectionary to see this coming Sunday’s Gospel it will be a piece of cake…
What? Are you serious? In this passage from Matthew Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek,” and “Give your cloak as well,” and “Go also the second mile,” and “Give to everyone who begs from you,” and “Love your enemies,” and “Pray for those who persecute you” and to top it all off, “Be perfect!” Come on man! Seriously? Could we not get a week of “It is okay to be mad at those who are mean to you.”? Or, perhaps “If someone slaps you it is appropriate to hit them back.”? How about “Be pretty good, for you are a pretty good person.” I mean this is asking a lot of us. And, in all seriousness that is precisely the point of discipleship, of following Jesus, and of taking on our true nature as a child of God. Being a Christian is not a hobby that we take up in our spare time!
As we travel through this part of Matthew we may feel as though the hits keep coming, and that every week Jesus ups the ante. We experience this sentiment because it is true. Discipleship as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount requires not just more and more of us, but all of us as we grow closer and closer to God and to one another. The examples Jesus used of how to follow God in everyday interactions with one another push us to examine how we treat ourselves, our families and friends, and our neighbors. A full life, a life in Christ, does not consist of retribution, vengeance, and defensiveness, but something else entirely.
To be a follower of Jesus calls us to live detached from the automatic, instinctive response when others treat us with disrespect, anger, or meanness. Not responding to disrespect with disrespect or anger with anger or meanness with meanness cannot happen overnight, nor can it happen on our own. We must live life differently than how we so often live. We instinctively follow the impulses in response to our thoughts, feelings, emotions, conditions, situations, or other persons. To turn the other cheek is to ignore the rage that wells up inside of us when we are mistreated, so how do we do this?
Jesus ends this passage with the answer to this question: being perfect (and this deserves more exploration throughout this week). Perfection is the way that we must live our lives if we wish to live differently than the world around us; however, perfection is not what we may think it is. It is not a perfect score, like on a standardized test or in Olympic Gymnastics, nor is it pitching a perfect game like in baseball (Pitchers and catchers report today by the way!), nor is it any other human measure of being really good at something. Perfection in the Father is about one thing: fulfillment. Being fulfilled not by the result or the outcome, but by growing ever deeper in relationship with our true self, our neighbors, and our God. Let us be fulfilled by our Almighty Parent!
Showing posts with label RCL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RCL. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2017
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Welcome, welcome, welcome!
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Matthew 10:40
A few years ago a woman named Siobhan Garrigan went to Northern Ireland to study the current state of Catholic-Protestant relations in this divisive part of the world. While she was there she visited a Presbyterian church. What she there saw was shocking.
At first, it was shocking because it defied all the negative expectations. At the door to the church there was a welcoming committee that greeted everyone who entered. When newcomers approached the ushers said,
“Hello” or “Good morning.” Then they asked, “Where are you from?” At this point the scholar, who was herself from Ireland, felt pleased to see such a warm welcome. Finally the welcoming crew asked the fresh faces a final question, "What's your name?"
One unfamiliar man said, "My name is Martin." The committee said, "Welcome Martin. Please come in and find a seat." A new woman said, "I am Margaret." They said, "Welcome, please come inside Margaret! The service is about to begin." Finally, a couple approached, the husband’s name was Peter and the wife’s name was Maria. The committee grimaced and said, "Maria and Peter are you sure you're not more comfortable at the Catholic Church down the street?" Just by the name alone the "welcoming committee" was making an assumption about those entering the church’s doors. The committee greeted those with Protestant sounding names with a warm welcome and entry into the church, while the committee greeted those with traditional Catholic names with suspicion and a subtle invitation to go elsewhere.
Now we do not participate in this brand of gatekeeping at St. John’s, right? Our ushers, our newcomer committee, and every one of us almost always does a good job of greeting new members with a smile and a firm handshake. I still remember the overwhelming welcome I received when I came to visit here during my interview process. At least 60 people introduced themselves to me. In the Episcopal Church, we love to say that, “All are welcome,” and so often we practice this. Yet, while we do not have the same struggle as those in Northern Ireland sometimes we face the same challenge of welcoming, which requires us to let go of being in control and having power, even power over very good ministries.
This past week I had the privilege of participating in one such good ministry, Sawyerville Day Camp down in Hale County (Alabama). During the first part of pre-camp when just the staff members were present we faced a bit of a hospitality crisis. Many of the staff come from Episcopal Churches all over the diocese of Alabama, and primarily these high school and college students are white, upper middle class people. Almost all of them feel connected to the work of Sawyerville, as it has been around for their entire lives, and they feel that it is the Episcopal Church’s ministry. At the same time the local staff members from Greensboro and elsewhere in Hale County, actually grew up in the community where Sawyerville happens, many of them attended camp, so they too feel like it is their ministry of hospitality.
While both sides felt a need to welcome the other, soon it became clear that there was some tension, it was unclear who was welcoming whom, and some polarization happened. The white staff all sat in one big clump, while the black staff all congregated in another. Leslie Manning, the director of Sawyerville, invited everyone to model a more hospitable approach.
“If we cannot sit together, laugh together, cry together, and share life together,” she said, “then how do we expect to model racial reconciliation to the children who are coming to camp?” That was all she had to say, it seemed to uncork the stiffness. The rest of the week at camp everyone sat with everyone else. Black, white, brown, young, old, male, female, gay, straight, all mixed together, worked together, laughed, cried, and lived together. In the midst of this coming together, the staff was able to welcome one another into their lives and into some difficult issues.
One young woman from Greensboro after a couple of days at camp spoke up in a camp meeting saying some very difficult words. She said, “The male staff members need to do a better job of modeling how to act in front of our boy campers. Our boys are (ages 8-12) threatening the girls, saying, ‘I will beat you,’ or fake hitting them. Violence against each other especially again women, cannot even be threatened.” As soon as she finished speaking, the entire room began clapping and nodding their heads. This young woman courageously invited everyone into a difficult issue that was addressed together with the campers the next morning. She could have been met with disapproval, a blow to her self-esteem, or she could have been rejected. Yet, she let her guard down and welcomed others into this challenging reality.
We face a similar challenge. We have to welcome others into our lives, into difficult issues, and into our church. Jesus lays it out in today’s gospel, whoever welcomes one coming in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes God. Yet sometimes this is hard to do in our family of faith. Not because we do not want to welcome others into our church, as I believe we seriously want to welcome others into this beautiful place. However, we struggle with hospitality because welcoming those who look or sound different from us, welcoming those who come from a different state or different country, welcoming those with different education or no diploma, and welcoming those who believe differently or live differently than we do makes us feel unsafe. We want our family of faith to be a safe space and welcoming in the outsider requires that we have courage. Yet, Jesus challenges us to think about extending our definition of who is in the family. We are invited to give the cool glass of water to the stranger coming in Jesus’ name.
The love that we have for those closest to us, that warm and fuzzy feeling that rests within us, we have to take that beyond just those we like, just those who look like us, just those who are highly educated and upwardly mobile. We have to discover ways that this place can be hospitable for everyone who comes to it.
If we are to be welcoming like Christ would have us be, we must let go of power and control, like that displayed by the Northern Irish Presbyterian welcoming committee. We must let go of our desire to be accepted and approved, like the young woman at Sawyerville Day Camp. We must even let go of our preconceived notions of security within our family of faith. This is when we really begin to extend the welcome of Christ. We must welcome the stranger like we welcome our family because when we do this, we truly welcome Jesus and when we welcome Jesus we welcome God.
I want to end with what is called the welcoming prayer. It is a prayer that begins our contemplative prayer time every Thursday morning and it was written by Father Thomas Keating. Let us pray.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it’s for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions. I let go of my desire for power and control. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure. I let go of my desire for security and survival. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and His healing action within. Amen."
A few years ago a woman named Siobhan Garrigan went to Northern Ireland to study the current state of Catholic-Protestant relations in this divisive part of the world. While she was there she visited a Presbyterian church. What she there saw was shocking.
At first, it was shocking because it defied all the negative expectations. At the door to the church there was a welcoming committee that greeted everyone who entered. When newcomers approached the ushers said,
“Hello” or “Good morning.” Then they asked, “Where are you from?” At this point the scholar, who was herself from Ireland, felt pleased to see such a warm welcome. Finally the welcoming crew asked the fresh faces a final question, "What's your name?"
One unfamiliar man said, "My name is Martin." The committee said, "Welcome Martin. Please come in and find a seat." A new woman said, "I am Margaret." They said, "Welcome, please come inside Margaret! The service is about to begin." Finally, a couple approached, the husband’s name was Peter and the wife’s name was Maria. The committee grimaced and said, "Maria and Peter are you sure you're not more comfortable at the Catholic Church down the street?" Just by the name alone the "welcoming committee" was making an assumption about those entering the church’s doors. The committee greeted those with Protestant sounding names with a warm welcome and entry into the church, while the committee greeted those with traditional Catholic names with suspicion and a subtle invitation to go elsewhere.
Now we do not participate in this brand of gatekeeping at St. John’s, right? Our ushers, our newcomer committee, and every one of us almost always does a good job of greeting new members with a smile and a firm handshake. I still remember the overwhelming welcome I received when I came to visit here during my interview process. At least 60 people introduced themselves to me. In the Episcopal Church, we love to say that, “All are welcome,” and so often we practice this. Yet, while we do not have the same struggle as those in Northern Ireland sometimes we face the same challenge of welcoming, which requires us to let go of being in control and having power, even power over very good ministries.
This past week I had the privilege of participating in one such good ministry, Sawyerville Day Camp down in Hale County (Alabama). During the first part of pre-camp when just the staff members were present we faced a bit of a hospitality crisis. Many of the staff come from Episcopal Churches all over the diocese of Alabama, and primarily these high school and college students are white, upper middle class people. Almost all of them feel connected to the work of Sawyerville, as it has been around for their entire lives, and they feel that it is the Episcopal Church’s ministry. At the same time the local staff members from Greensboro and elsewhere in Hale County, actually grew up in the community where Sawyerville happens, many of them attended camp, so they too feel like it is their ministry of hospitality.
While both sides felt a need to welcome the other, soon it became clear that there was some tension, it was unclear who was welcoming whom, and some polarization happened. The white staff all sat in one big clump, while the black staff all congregated in another. Leslie Manning, the director of Sawyerville, invited everyone to model a more hospitable approach.
“If we cannot sit together, laugh together, cry together, and share life together,” she said, “then how do we expect to model racial reconciliation to the children who are coming to camp?” That was all she had to say, it seemed to uncork the stiffness. The rest of the week at camp everyone sat with everyone else. Black, white, brown, young, old, male, female, gay, straight, all mixed together, worked together, laughed, cried, and lived together. In the midst of this coming together, the staff was able to welcome one another into their lives and into some difficult issues.
One young woman from Greensboro after a couple of days at camp spoke up in a camp meeting saying some very difficult words. She said, “The male staff members need to do a better job of modeling how to act in front of our boy campers. Our boys are (ages 8-12) threatening the girls, saying, ‘I will beat you,’ or fake hitting them. Violence against each other especially again women, cannot even be threatened.” As soon as she finished speaking, the entire room began clapping and nodding their heads. This young woman courageously invited everyone into a difficult issue that was addressed together with the campers the next morning. She could have been met with disapproval, a blow to her self-esteem, or she could have been rejected. Yet, she let her guard down and welcomed others into this challenging reality.
We face a similar challenge. We have to welcome others into our lives, into difficult issues, and into our church. Jesus lays it out in today’s gospel, whoever welcomes one coming in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes God. Yet sometimes this is hard to do in our family of faith. Not because we do not want to welcome others into our church, as I believe we seriously want to welcome others into this beautiful place. However, we struggle with hospitality because welcoming those who look or sound different from us, welcoming those who come from a different state or different country, welcoming those with different education or no diploma, and welcoming those who believe differently or live differently than we do makes us feel unsafe. We want our family of faith to be a safe space and welcoming in the outsider requires that we have courage. Yet, Jesus challenges us to think about extending our definition of who is in the family. We are invited to give the cool glass of water to the stranger coming in Jesus’ name.
The love that we have for those closest to us, that warm and fuzzy feeling that rests within us, we have to take that beyond just those we like, just those who look like us, just those who are highly educated and upwardly mobile. We have to discover ways that this place can be hospitable for everyone who comes to it.
If we are to be welcoming like Christ would have us be, we must let go of power and control, like that displayed by the Northern Irish Presbyterian welcoming committee. We must let go of our desire to be accepted and approved, like the young woman at Sawyerville Day Camp. We must even let go of our preconceived notions of security within our family of faith. This is when we really begin to extend the welcome of Christ. We must welcome the stranger like we welcome our family because when we do this, we truly welcome Jesus and when we welcome Jesus we welcome God.
I want to end with what is called the welcoming prayer. It is a prayer that begins our contemplative prayer time every Thursday morning and it was written by Father Thomas Keating. Let us pray.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it’s for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions. I let go of my desire for power and control. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure. I let go of my desire for security and survival. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and His healing action within. Amen."
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary (or simply TAoOLJCttBVM)
Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? We are only nine short months away from the big day! Before you know it retailers will be exchanging their Cadbury eggs for candy canes, the holiday songs will start filling stores with cheer, and we will wait expectantly for Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick to come down the chimney. We can laugh at this, but my grandmother, Nangy, often would tell me excitedly on our way to the beach in the summer that she had finished all her Christmas shopping. I would snicker, but pretty soon I realized that she was being serious.
The commercial and secular versions of Christmas tend to infuriate me; however, I appreciated that my Nangy would spend months thinking about how she would celebrate the birth of God into this world with her family. My grandmother’s desire to get ready for Christmas year round encourages me to ponder more deeply this moment when Mary begins preparing to bear God Incarnate into this world. What was it like for Mary to encounter Gabriel?
There is a piece of altar artwork that hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The golden backdrop that Simone Martini employed presents an immaculate setting for the very first moment of Gabriel’s conversation with Mary. Carefully examining the artwork shows that the angelic messenger’s words are visually depicted on the wooden piece; the original Greek words fly from Gabriel’s mouth towards Mary. Less careful examination is required to see that Mary does not want anything to do with the messenger of God.
In this Gothic era painting, Gabriel kneels at Mary’s feet. Mary bends away from the angel’s words. Gabriel looks longingly at this highly favored lady. Mary pulls a veil to cover her ears from the greeting, and she looks away from the winged creature. Highly praised as Martini’s masterpiece, this artistic vision perfectly captures the skepticism that envelopes the start of Mary’s journey. When Gabriel speaks, “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!” I cannot help but hear his message in the tone of a telemarketer calling at the most inopportune moment, “Grrrreeetings favored one! YOU are theeaaa BIIIIIGGG WINNER! The Lord is with you!”
Mary’s journey begins with apprehension, as she is perplexed by Gabriel’s words. She ponders all these things in her heart and wonders what sort of greeting this might be. The angel not wanting to be denied continues his persuasion, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God,” then he promises her son, Jesus, will be great, the Son of the Most High. Mary knows there has to be a catch, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The protestation of Mary seems a completely human response. How often do we turn God away with our excuses? I do not have the time, the money, or the strength to do this God. Yet, Gabriel continues, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."
It is in this moment that everything changes. It is in this moment that something clicks within Mary.
A fresco of the Annunciation completed by Fra Angelico depicts this moment. Gabriel announcing something deeply personal to Mary, that her barren cousin will bear a child, shifts the trajectory of our relationship with God. Mary instead of leaning away, angels towards the angel. She mimics Gabriel’s posture. It is in this moment that Mary says yes. She takes the impossible with God. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
For nine months she would possess within her the Incarnate God. What a mysterious time for Mary! And, what a mysterious time for us! God desires for us to bear Jesus into the world. God speaks to us urging us to bring Christ into this aching existence. Christmas is not just a season that we celebrate in December, the Incarnate God comes to us every day! Let us be ready for Christ’s coming, not just with candy and music, but with open hearts, expectant souls, listening ears, and excited spirits. Amen.
The commercial and secular versions of Christmas tend to infuriate me; however, I appreciated that my Nangy would spend months thinking about how she would celebrate the birth of God into this world with her family. My grandmother’s desire to get ready for Christmas year round encourages me to ponder more deeply this moment when Mary begins preparing to bear God Incarnate into this world. What was it like for Mary to encounter Gabriel?
There is a piece of altar artwork that hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The golden backdrop that Simone Martini employed presents an immaculate setting for the very first moment of Gabriel’s conversation with Mary. Carefully examining the artwork shows that the angelic messenger’s words are visually depicted on the wooden piece; the original Greek words fly from Gabriel’s mouth towards Mary. Less careful examination is required to see that Mary does not want anything to do with the messenger of God.
In this Gothic era painting, Gabriel kneels at Mary’s feet. Mary bends away from the angel’s words. Gabriel looks longingly at this highly favored lady. Mary pulls a veil to cover her ears from the greeting, and she looks away from the winged creature. Highly praised as Martini’s masterpiece, this artistic vision perfectly captures the skepticism that envelopes the start of Mary’s journey. When Gabriel speaks, “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!” I cannot help but hear his message in the tone of a telemarketer calling at the most inopportune moment, “Grrrreeetings favored one! YOU are theeaaa BIIIIIGGG WINNER! The Lord is with you!”
Mary’s journey begins with apprehension, as she is perplexed by Gabriel’s words. She ponders all these things in her heart and wonders what sort of greeting this might be. The angel not wanting to be denied continues his persuasion, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God,” then he promises her son, Jesus, will be great, the Son of the Most High. Mary knows there has to be a catch, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The protestation of Mary seems a completely human response. How often do we turn God away with our excuses? I do not have the time, the money, or the strength to do this God. Yet, Gabriel continues, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."
It is in this moment that everything changes. It is in this moment that something clicks within Mary.
A fresco of the Annunciation completed by Fra Angelico depicts this moment. Gabriel announcing something deeply personal to Mary, that her barren cousin will bear a child, shifts the trajectory of our relationship with God. Mary instead of leaning away, angels towards the angel. She mimics Gabriel’s posture. It is in this moment that Mary says yes. She takes the impossible with God. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
For nine months she would possess within her the Incarnate God. What a mysterious time for Mary! And, what a mysterious time for us! God desires for us to bear Jesus into the world. God speaks to us urging us to bring Christ into this aching existence. Christmas is not just a season that we celebrate in December, the Incarnate God comes to us every day! Let us be ready for Christ’s coming, not just with candy and music, but with open hearts, expectant souls, listening ears, and excited spirits. Amen.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Saint Joseph
Reni’s Portrait of Saint Joseph with the baby Jesus
Paul’s Letter to the Romans makes a strong case that our inheritance as children of God depends not on the law, but on faith. What does it mean to be faithful? During the season of Lent I have had a bit of a shocking realization. As I look back at past Lenten disciplines, I have discovered that I spent a lot of time creating laws for myself. While for some giving up or taking on something provide a new spiritual intimacy with God, I tended towards the extremes. If I give up chocolate for forty days, then God will shower me with grace. I started to believe that I needed to make myself feel so bad that I would have to rely more heavily upon God (not good), or that I needed to lure God into loving me by making myself into such lowly creature (much worse).
The Rev. Evan Garner pointed out on Ash Wednesday, Lent IS NOT about competitive suffering (bragging about how bad we have it) causing God to love us more. God loves us unconditionally! Lent IS NOT a time to make ourselves feel bad enough that we have to rely more on God. Focusing on sin (especially in others) can be an obsessive and self-centered practice that does not even allow God in to transform us. Upon reflection I have been “Lenting” all wrong. Lent IS a time when we intentionally focus upon giving our hearts back to God. It IS a season about returning to God. Lent IS all about faith, but again what does it mean to be faithful?
Faithfulness seems a slightly evasive quality. Sometimes I find it easier to describe what it is not, then what it is (it is not being perfect, right, or unquestioning). Yet, even more helpful than describing what faithfulness is or is not, talking about who is faithful aides me in understanding how I might continue to return to God in this season of Lent.
Today we celebrate a saint who is a paragon, a shining example of faithfulness. Today we celebrate Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary mother of Christ Jesus. Today we look at a quiet, faithful man that stands out as an ideal partner in our Lenten journey.
When I was a child growing up at St. Andrew’s, Birmingham there were only two parts in the Epiphany pageant that I wanted to play. One was the role of the inn keeper because I only had one line, “There’s no room in the inn,” and the other was that of Joseph. I liked acting as Joseph because he said no words, he just protectively walked with the pregnant Mary, like a loyal sheep dog, and watched over the birth of Jesus with loving admiration. Reflecting twenty years later, I find that being Joseph taught me that his seemingly small and simplistic part in the Incarnation of God took faithfulness that sheds light on how to walk through Lent.
Only two of the four Gospel accounts even mention Joseph, and in those books, Matthew and Luke, he is not even quoted. His faithfulness was not seen in mighty words, but rather in his deeds. Matthew describes Joseph as a righteous man who was going to dismiss Mary quietly when he discovered she was with child. Joseph could have legally put Mary to death for adultery, but instead he had a dream. In this dream an angel told him that he was to take Mary as his wife, as the child within her was from the Holy Spirit. Joseph could have ignored the dream, but instead he acts upon his faith and takes Mary as his wife, knowing that the child she bore was not his own but God’s.
Courageously later in Matthew, Joseph again led by angelically laden dreams, protects his family from Herod’s psychopathic, narcissistic slaughtering of innocent children. Joseph dreams that he should take his family from Israel to Egypt and he does, then he guides them back to Israel. Joseph fearing that Archelaus, the son of Herod, would seek revenge against him, even has a final Divine dream in which the Lord told him to avoid Herod’s son and go to Nazareth.
Yet, Joseph’s faithfulness to God was certainly not always easy. Joseph, a carpenter by trade, most likely had to work very hard to provide for his family. And while he probably taught Jesus’ his woodworking trade, traditionally scholars believe he was much older than Mary, and he died before Jesus’ adult ministry. So the last example of Joseph’s faithfulness is what we read today from Luke’s account of the Gospel.
What about this passage shows Joseph’s saintly quality, his faithfulness? After acting out a plot line that belongs in a Hollywood movie, Mary and Joseph track down their missing twelve-year-old Jesus, who has been in the Temple for three days with the religious elite of the day. Mary offers an appropriate parental response, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Jesus almost nonchalantly answers, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" Luke says that Mary and Joseph do not quite understand this.
Maybe Joseph was not smart enough to get what Jesus was saying. Maybe he was not paying attention. However, I believe that Joseph’s misunderstanding points to an extreme sense of faithfulness towards Jesus. He believes that Jesus is his son. Even when the adolescent Incarnate God says that his Father is in heaven, Joseph still wants to protect him, to provide for him, and to teach him how to live in this world. This is Joseph’s faithfulness, staying by Jesus even beyond understanding.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
John 11:33-54: These signs are written so that you may come to believe in Christ Jesus.
At the end of his gospel account, John summarizes his purpose writing, “These [signs] are written so that you may come to believe.” What does it mean to believe? What does believing look like? Or, who does believing look like?
Today’s gospel reading, which I have expanded to include most of yesterday’s story of Mary and Lazarus depicts two of three members of a family from Bethany. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus might just be belief personified at least according to John.
Before what we heard this afternoon, Martha hears that Jesus is near and does not wait in her household, but seeks out Jesus in the streets. The subsequent conversation enlightens the characteristics of a believer in the face of life and death. Martha greets Jesus simultaneously challenging him and illuminating her belief in him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” She longs to be reconnected with her brother, but thinks this will happen through the Resurrection on the last day. When Jesus makes a profound confession, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” Martha is able to make a personal response looking Jesus in the eye and saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” Martha takes one form of a believer, and when we confidently go out to meet our Lord we like Martha personify belief in Christ.
Mary is called by her sister to go and find Jesus. She does not hesitate to respond to this calling, as she gets up quickly and goes to him. The interaction that Mary and Jesus have depicts another way of believing. She uses the same words as her sister’s to greet Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Instead of following up with confident words of belief, she weeps. Mary’s response is not a display of disbelief, rather it is a glimpse of the inner pain that accompanies death and loss. Jesus does not tell her that Lazarus is in a better place, nor does he attempt to take away her pain with a cliché phrase of false comfort, nor does he make a theological statement, instead Christ joins in the weeping. Mary walks with Jesus to her brothers tomb to continue in her grief process, not knowing what will happen next. Mary, displays another form of a believer and when we weep in grief, frustration, or anger we again personify belief, and Christ weeps with us.
Lazarus does not seek out Jesus in the same way as his sisters, rather Jesus seeks him out. This interaction displays another shape of believing. In this story we may focus upon Lazarus’ natural death, yet it is also about his emotional/spiritual disconnection from his friend Jesus at the time of death. Jesus calls out Lazarus from the darkness of his tomb, and any doubt in Jesus as the Messiah is overcome when Lazarus shakes off all disconnection and death to respond to this call. Jesus calls the community to unbind him. Lazarus is a believer like his sisters, and I believe even in our disconnection and spiritual death we too personify belief.
Many believed through Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead, but the Pharisees, the religious elite of the day, worried that Jesus would cause a revolt that would bring the Roman Empire’s wrath upon them. The Chief priests and Pharisees did not want to shake the status quo, as life was comfortable to them. More Roman troops would diminish the power that they had, so Caiaphas, speaking as the high priest, offered to his fellow temple leaders a solution. Instead of letting the believers of this upstart “Messiah” gain too much momentum and fervor, let us have this one man killed instead of our whole nation. What Caiaphas did not realize in this statement that he was prophesying in the name of the Almighty God. The death of Christ would call all the disparate Children of God together as One Body to believe in the Son that God sent to earth. What does it mean to believe?
To believe is to run out to meet our God. To believe is to weep when we are grief stricken and to know that Jesus weeps with us. To believe is even to be spiritually dead and to allow for Christ to raise us and for our community to unbind us. To believe is to see that even through the fear of losing the status quo and the systematic sin that took Christ to the Cross God’s Will is accomplished. These signs are written so that you may come to believe in Christ Jesus.
Today’s gospel reading, which I have expanded to include most of yesterday’s story of Mary and Lazarus depicts two of three members of a family from Bethany. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus might just be belief personified at least according to John.
Before what we heard this afternoon, Martha hears that Jesus is near and does not wait in her household, but seeks out Jesus in the streets. The subsequent conversation enlightens the characteristics of a believer in the face of life and death. Martha greets Jesus simultaneously challenging him and illuminating her belief in him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” She longs to be reconnected with her brother, but thinks this will happen through the Resurrection on the last day. When Jesus makes a profound confession, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” Martha is able to make a personal response looking Jesus in the eye and saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” Martha takes one form of a believer, and when we confidently go out to meet our Lord we like Martha personify belief in Christ.
Mary is called by her sister to go and find Jesus. She does not hesitate to respond to this calling, as she gets up quickly and goes to him. The interaction that Mary and Jesus have depicts another way of believing. She uses the same words as her sister’s to greet Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Instead of following up with confident words of belief, she weeps. Mary’s response is not a display of disbelief, rather it is a glimpse of the inner pain that accompanies death and loss. Jesus does not tell her that Lazarus is in a better place, nor does he attempt to take away her pain with a cliché phrase of false comfort, nor does he make a theological statement, instead Christ joins in the weeping. Mary walks with Jesus to her brothers tomb to continue in her grief process, not knowing what will happen next. Mary, displays another form of a believer and when we weep in grief, frustration, or anger we again personify belief, and Christ weeps with us.
Lazarus does not seek out Jesus in the same way as his sisters, rather Jesus seeks him out. This interaction displays another shape of believing. In this story we may focus upon Lazarus’ natural death, yet it is also about his emotional/spiritual disconnection from his friend Jesus at the time of death. Jesus calls out Lazarus from the darkness of his tomb, and any doubt in Jesus as the Messiah is overcome when Lazarus shakes off all disconnection and death to respond to this call. Jesus calls the community to unbind him. Lazarus is a believer like his sisters, and I believe even in our disconnection and spiritual death we too personify belief.
Many believed through Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead, but the Pharisees, the religious elite of the day, worried that Jesus would cause a revolt that would bring the Roman Empire’s wrath upon them. The Chief priests and Pharisees did not want to shake the status quo, as life was comfortable to them. More Roman troops would diminish the power that they had, so Caiaphas, speaking as the high priest, offered to his fellow temple leaders a solution. Instead of letting the believers of this upstart “Messiah” gain too much momentum and fervor, let us have this one man killed instead of our whole nation. What Caiaphas did not realize in this statement that he was prophesying in the name of the Almighty God. The death of Christ would call all the disparate Children of God together as One Body to believe in the Son that God sent to earth. What does it mean to believe?
To believe is to run out to meet our God. To believe is to weep when we are grief stricken and to know that Jesus weeps with us. To believe is even to be spiritually dead and to allow for Christ to raise us and for our community to unbind us. To believe is to see that even through the fear of losing the status quo and the systematic sin that took Christ to the Cross God’s Will is accomplished. These signs are written so that you may come to believe in Christ Jesus.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Romans 12:1-8: Who are you? What are your gifts? What is your place in the world?
“What do you think are your spiritual gifts?” was one question posed to the youth confirmation class this past Sunday afternoon. After a moment of pondering the question one high school student said, “I like to serve others and… music, I like to make music.” Another teenager piped up, “I think I am pretty patient.” Then one more said, “I love to work with kids.” “I am funny and I like to laugh with others,” another added. In the midst of what is a difficult time in anyone’s life, high school, the six youth involved in confirmation class showed immense maturity to take a critical look inside to wonder some big questions: “Who am I? What are my gifts? What is my place in the world going to be?”
Who are you? What are your gifts? What is your place in the world? These three questions have bugged me since I first heard them almost ten years ago. Eric Hartman, the dean of students at Sewanee was keen on asking these three introspective puzzlers to anyone who sought his counsel and even some who did not. So this past Sunday after we talked about spiritual gifts Kristin Hanson invited me to talk about my experience of discerning one’s gifts and a call to ordained ministry.
As I talked about spiritual gifts and ministry, I stumbled upon a Truth that I keep bumping into in my own life. No matter how hard I try to figure out my call right now, no matter how much work I put into discernment at this moment, no matter how exhaustive I am with discerning a vocation, I will still have to keep listening to figure out who I am, what my gifts are, and what my place is in this world.
In today’s epistle to the Church in Rome, Paul help us, or at least me, to know how it is that spiritual gifts are most effectively used. At this point in the early Church, the gentiles within the Church of Rome were boasting of their practices to the Jewish faction within the church. The gentiles did not follow the same rigorous code that the Jewish followers of Christ did, but instead of harmoniously coexisting, the gentiles rubbed it in faces of their Jewish brothers and sisters. As this is one of Paul’s last letters, it possesses some more advanced statements of his Faith in God, and he eloquently urges both sides to come together. By this point, twelve chapters into the letter, Paul is issuing an invitation not to one specific group but to all members of Christ’s Body. That exhortation extends to us. This is how we can best identify, understand, and use our spiritual gifts… together!
Paul presses hearers of this letter to come together, not focusing on what is happening in the world, but by discerning together the will of God. When we start to see what God is working right here in this world listening as a community, we no longer focus primarily on our individual needs or petty differences that keep us apart. We start to act as a body. It is as this body that we can start to answer, “Who am I? What are my gifts? What is my place in this world?”
Sometimes I think of the simplicity of picking up a coffee mug and then putting it back on a table. My biceps and triceps must work together along with all the smaller muscles in my forearm and all the tendons and ligaments in my hand and fingers. While this task might not drain my brain, I typically have to think about it and send some neural signals down my spine to my arm and fingers. It seems that only when the members do not work together do I ever even think about this task.
Each part of the body has a task to do. Each member has gifts that help to accomplish that task. We can withhold our gifts from one another, we can without our talents from one another, we can without ourselves from this corporate body, but with Paul, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves (your bodies) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
We will constantly ask, “Who am I? What are my gifts and talents? What is my place in the world?” While we will never have a permanent answer, by presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, God uses our gifts together to bring healing, unity with God, and love to Creation. We each are given gifts through God’s abundant grace. We must be bold and share these gifts with one another, so that we can make this body stronger and allow Christ to work through us.
Who are you? What are your gifts? What is your place in the world?
Who are you? What are your gifts? What is your place in the world? These three questions have bugged me since I first heard them almost ten years ago. Eric Hartman, the dean of students at Sewanee was keen on asking these three introspective puzzlers to anyone who sought his counsel and even some who did not. So this past Sunday after we talked about spiritual gifts Kristin Hanson invited me to talk about my experience of discerning one’s gifts and a call to ordained ministry.
As I talked about spiritual gifts and ministry, I stumbled upon a Truth that I keep bumping into in my own life. No matter how hard I try to figure out my call right now, no matter how much work I put into discernment at this moment, no matter how exhaustive I am with discerning a vocation, I will still have to keep listening to figure out who I am, what my gifts are, and what my place is in this world.
In today’s epistle to the Church in Rome, Paul help us, or at least me, to know how it is that spiritual gifts are most effectively used. At this point in the early Church, the gentiles within the Church of Rome were boasting of their practices to the Jewish faction within the church. The gentiles did not follow the same rigorous code that the Jewish followers of Christ did, but instead of harmoniously coexisting, the gentiles rubbed it in faces of their Jewish brothers and sisters. As this is one of Paul’s last letters, it possesses some more advanced statements of his Faith in God, and he eloquently urges both sides to come together. By this point, twelve chapters into the letter, Paul is issuing an invitation not to one specific group but to all members of Christ’s Body. That exhortation extends to us. This is how we can best identify, understand, and use our spiritual gifts… together!
Paul presses hearers of this letter to come together, not focusing on what is happening in the world, but by discerning together the will of God. When we start to see what God is working right here in this world listening as a community, we no longer focus primarily on our individual needs or petty differences that keep us apart. We start to act as a body. It is as this body that we can start to answer, “Who am I? What are my gifts? What is my place in this world?”
Sometimes I think of the simplicity of picking up a coffee mug and then putting it back on a table. My biceps and triceps must work together along with all the smaller muscles in my forearm and all the tendons and ligaments in my hand and fingers. While this task might not drain my brain, I typically have to think about it and send some neural signals down my spine to my arm and fingers. It seems that only when the members do not work together do I ever even think about this task.
Each part of the body has a task to do. Each member has gifts that help to accomplish that task. We can withhold our gifts from one another, we can without our talents from one another, we can without ourselves from this corporate body, but with Paul, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present yourselves (your bodies) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
We will constantly ask, “Who am I? What are my gifts and talents? What is my place in the world?” While we will never have a permanent answer, by presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, God uses our gifts together to bring healing, unity with God, and love to Creation. We each are given gifts through God’s abundant grace. We must be bold and share these gifts with one another, so that we can make this body stronger and allow Christ to work through us.
Who are you? What are your gifts? What is your place in the world?
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
John 5:19-29: It's a "THRILLER"... Thriller of a Call!
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| Michael Jackson in "Thriller" click here to watch |
I can remember hearing the song and thinking that it was catchy and a bit spooky, but it was not until MTV was celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the music video that I actually ever saw the full length (it’s about 15 minutes long) version. Even though I was in high school, and the zombies, werewolves, and creatures were no longer state-of-the-art, I was legitimately scared after watching it. In fact, when I again sat down to enjoy Jackson’s creative genius I got goose bumps.
Whether we like him or not, and whether or not we like any films about zombies or werewolves or vampires, registered somewhere within our collective, cultural identity is a fixation with the undead, the half-human/half-monster, and all creatures magical. Without being careful I tend to let this creative view of reality run amuck in my mind. Perhaps this is why Jackson emblazoned a message at the beginning of “Thriller” to warn viewers that he is not a member of the “Occult.” He did not want others to believe that he practiced such “demonic” behavior.
I struggle, and I believe, we together tussle with understanding what happens after death, what happens when we die, and what Jesus means when he says, “the time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [the Father’s] voice and will come out.” Is it like “Thriller”? Will we crawl from beneath the surface of the earth to dance as rotting corpses? Are we going to be consumed with terrorizing the living? Do we become life-sucking creatures? Hollywood’s vivid imagination can be a tempting trap into which we can teeter, but the gospel according to John outlines a different path beyond the grave.
In the passage directly before today’s, Jesus heals a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Even though he tried desperately to enter the pool of Beth-zatha, which supposedly possessed healing powers when its waters were stirred, it is not until Jesus tells him to get up and take his mat that his illness vanishes. The religious authorities eventually discover that Jesus did this miraculous deed, yet he did it on a Sabbath. When confronted about this Jesus says that even on the Sabbath, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” Enraged all the more, the Jews seek to kill him, not only is he breaking the Sabbath rules, but he also thinks God is his Father.
Jesus responds to these authorities in today’s passage by speaking about the unity of the Father and the Son. Not only do the Father and the Son work on the Sabbath, they also both have the power to raise the dead back into life. Actually, Jesus is the one who has explicitly been given this ability. Now, this is where we get back to “Thriller.” Certainly, it is fun to go see horror movies, to think about zombies, and to wonder what it is like beyond the grave; yet, the example of Christ Jesus shows us exactly where we are headed and it does not involve zombies.
Later in John right before Jesus is betrayed he prays to the Father that those who believe in him may be one with one another, and one with the Father and the Son. To be united with the Son means that we are united in his life and in his death and in his resurrection. Jesus is the one whom we follow into the resurrected life, so if we look at Jesus’ post-death life we get a glimpse of what life looks like on the other side of the grave.
Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, but at first she thinks he’s the gardener. When he calls her by name she recognizes him. Resurrection life may not mean looking exactly as we have, but we shall still be known by those whom we love.
Jesus comes among the disciples, even with their doors locked. He greets them saying, “Peace be with you.” His hands and his side, his scars from his gruesome death, he shows them. We retain those marks that we have obtained in our life and in our death. Jesus, then breathes on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Post resurrection life is about the Spirit. It is about forgiveness of sins, even forgiving those who wound us.
Jesus appears to others including Peter, as they were fishing. They did not recognize him at first, but when he told them to cast their nets on the right side they hauled in an abundance of fish. In this multitude they recognize the LORD. Life in the resurrection will be full of abundance.
Jesus asks Peter if he loves Jesus three times. Each time Jesus gives a command: Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep. This in many ways unbinds Peter’s 3 denials that he uttered before the crucifixion of Christ, and gives a charge for life in the Resurrection. Be forgiven, be love, and care for the flock.
Life after death, life beyond the grave is not about zombies or corpses or vampires. As good as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is to me, it does not give an accurate picture of what is coming to us. Life on the other side of the grave is about redemption, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, love, and care. The time is coming when we will hear the voice of the Father even in the grave! And, if we trust in Jesus Christ and his ability to lead us beyond this life, we can hear this call joyfully, and respond by following him into the resurrection of life!
Monday, January 6, 2014
Epiphany: The Magi Finally Made It
When did it happen? Thanksgiving? The weekend after Thanksgiving? Did you wait until Christmas? Or, did you make it until today? When did the magi, the three wise men from Matthew 2:1-12, make it to your manger scene? Maybe you were tempted like me to put up your Creche scene this last weekend. Yet, today is the day. Only twelve long (and cold?) days after the birth of the Christ child these three strangers from the East show up to greet Jesus with gold (oh boy), frankincense (okay), and myrrh (what the heck is that?). That seems like an awfully long time to wait around a barn full of animals to me. Of course, I think I am missing the point here.
Today is Epiphany, which means "Manifestation" or "Appearing." Yes, it is the day on which the Church celebrates the magi visiting the Christ child and his family. Yet, we might be limiting ourselves if we think that this alone is what this day that is all about.
First, let's get this out of the way, in Matthew's account, the only place where we find the Magi, Jesus is not born in a manger. He is born in Bethlehem, but there is no mention of any barn or shepherds, although there are some angels.
Next, in many parts of the world today is the peak of the Christmas celebration. Epiphany follows the 12 days and nights of Christmas. It is seen by many, especially those in the Eastern Church, as the culmination of the Nativity season!
Also, those in Greece, Egypt, Russian, and else where do not just focus upon the wise men today. Epiphany (which means "Appearing" remember?) is a celebration of God's most fitting, clear manifestation in this world (aka Jesus of Nazareth) and people outside of Jesus' family recognizing it.* Today the Church at large also celebrates two other stories of God's appearing in the world and people actually noticing it. For some reason seeing God is hard for us to do, like when no one stopped to listen to world famous violinist Josh Bell playing a wealth of classical pieces on a $3.5 million violin in the metro station of Washington D.C. (Click here for the story.)
One of the other (Non-Magi) stories is of Jesus being baptized and others seeing the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and the other is of Jesus' miracle of turning water into wine in Cana. Both of these stories helped people around Jesus to know that God is with us in the world. The trouble is that we often do not stop to recognize that God is being made manifest all around us.
Today we can move the magi and we can think that they finally made it to the Christ child, but the message of Epiphany is that God is made known to us in the world. Our challenge is to continue to recognize Christ being made manifest in the world. Will you stop and hear the music or will you rush on by?
*For some reason the church does not consider the story of the shepherds an Epiphany moment, perhaps because one understanding of Epiphany has been "Christ's appearing to the Gentiles," and the shepherds were part of the people of Israel.
Today is Epiphany, which means "Manifestation" or "Appearing." Yes, it is the day on which the Church celebrates the magi visiting the Christ child and his family. Yet, we might be limiting ourselves if we think that this alone is what this day that is all about.
First, let's get this out of the way, in Matthew's account, the only place where we find the Magi, Jesus is not born in a manger. He is born in Bethlehem, but there is no mention of any barn or shepherds, although there are some angels.
Next, in many parts of the world today is the peak of the Christmas celebration. Epiphany follows the 12 days and nights of Christmas. It is seen by many, especially those in the Eastern Church, as the culmination of the Nativity season!
Also, those in Greece, Egypt, Russian, and else where do not just focus upon the wise men today. Epiphany (which means "Appearing" remember?) is a celebration of God's most fitting, clear manifestation in this world (aka Jesus of Nazareth) and people outside of Jesus' family recognizing it.* Today the Church at large also celebrates two other stories of God's appearing in the world and people actually noticing it. For some reason seeing God is hard for us to do, like when no one stopped to listen to world famous violinist Josh Bell playing a wealth of classical pieces on a $3.5 million violin in the metro station of Washington D.C. (Click here for the story.)
One of the other (Non-Magi) stories is of Jesus being baptized and others seeing the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and the other is of Jesus' miracle of turning water into wine in Cana. Both of these stories helped people around Jesus to know that God is with us in the world. The trouble is that we often do not stop to recognize that God is being made manifest all around us.
Today we can move the magi and we can think that they finally made it to the Christ child, but the message of Epiphany is that God is made known to us in the world. Our challenge is to continue to recognize Christ being made manifest in the world. Will you stop and hear the music or will you rush on by?
*For some reason the church does not consider the story of the shepherds an Epiphany moment, perhaps because one understanding of Epiphany has been "Christ's appearing to the Gentiles," and the shepherds were part of the people of Israel.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
John 1:1-18: Let's Play "Guess the Present!"
Merry Christmas! I have a confession to make to you this morning. This is only the second time in my life that I have ever been to church on Christmas day. Yes, I know. It’s strange. A priest has only been to church one time on Christmas day. Well, my family custom on this day was to wake up, check out our stockings, eat our traditional breakfast, and then tear into our presents. Typically by this time in the day, as a child, I was well on my way to playing with whatever toy or game I had received. In that spirit, I actually want to play a game with you all this morning. I know. It’s strange. Playing a game in church on Christmas day. This is not why you came, but I think you might enjoy this.
Now, this game is actually an adaptation of another game. My friend, Nathan Carlson, a member of St. Thomas down in Birmingham, taught me his game a few years ago. Nathan is a teacher and soccer coach at Homewood High School. He’s creative, he’s funny, and he’s caring. The game he plays is called, “Guess What’s Underneath My Shirt!” As baffling as it might be, the game is simply played by guessing what is underneath Nathan’s shirt. He might hide a toaster oven and the objection of the game is to guess toaster oven. Maybe you get to keep the object, but probably you just get the satisfaction of knowing you were right.
Well, this morning I want to play the Christmas version of this game entitled, “Guess the Present.” I imagine you might already be pretty good at this. We all tend to look at the presents underneath the Christmas tree and we make a guess at what’s underneath the wrapping paper. Well, the game is played in much the same way. I will hold something up and you guess what is held within the packaging. If you guess correctly, then you have the satisfaction of knowing you were right.
Round:
1. Lamp shade
2. Clock
3. Mystery Present
In this third package it could really be anything. It just looks like a box. Who knows what it could be inside this mystery present? While we are thinking about what is held within this paper, I wonder why it is that we give one another presents at this time of year. Why do we give gifts at Christmas time?
Perhaps it has something to do with St. Nicholas. He was the 4th Century Christian bishop of Myra who supposedly would go around to poor families and pay their daughters’ dowries leaving money and sometimes food in a family member’s shoes that would have been left on the outside of the house. Some still celebrate the tradition in early December as they put their shoes out and wait for presents to fill them up. Actually if you leave out a stocking you are in some way celebrating St. Nicholas. Still I don’t know if this is the real reason why we give each other presents now. I wonder what is in the mystery present.
But why do we give each other presents? Maybe it is because we like each other. We appreciate one another, and we want to show that gratitude in giving one another a gift. Perhaps… Really, I have to know what is in this mystery box! If it could be anything, what do you wish it is? A picture of a beloved relative? A gift card? Keys to a new car? A check for a million dollars? Alright, I cannot stand it anymore… I am going to open this present!
There is nothing inside, just some gold paper. I wonder why there’s nothing in it. Sometimes we cannot sense with our sensory perception the gifts we are given. We may not be able to see, touch, taste, smell, or hear a gift, but that does not mean it is not given to us. I believe this is the case with the gift that we receive in today’s gospel.
The good news of John opens with a mysterious song that focuses upon the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehend it not.”
God, in His infinite abundance, goodness, and love created all things by speaking things into being through the Word. All of this that we see, touch, taste, smell, and hear has been made and made good through the Word of God. Yet, like a mysterious present that we cannot figure out, sometimes we do not understand this present that we have been handed. “He was in the world and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him,” John says. I believe that we give each other gifts at this time of year to take part in God’s abundant gift giving. We attempt to show one another our appreciation by participating in God’s gifting.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” The gift that we have been given is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When God came into the world through the Word of God we were given the clearest gift of God’s abundant love for us. Through God becoming incarnate all of creation and we ourselves were made holy vicariously.
God’s Word also brought true light into the world. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” This light was brought into the world through the Word of God. It enlightens us all. In this the darkest time of year for us in the northern hemisphere we are reminded that the true light enlightens us all. We have this light within us. Each of us has this light within us. The Christ light burns inside.
So as we go forth from here celebrating Christmas, celebrating the Word of God made flesh and dwelling with us, let us also take with us the light of Christ. When we meet our family, our friends, and our neighbors that light burns within us, and it burns within them as well. Remember that all whom we meet have been made holy by God’s coming to be with us. Remember that God has given us all the gift of coming to be with us. Remember that we all possess Christ’s light within us. Amen.
Now, this game is actually an adaptation of another game. My friend, Nathan Carlson, a member of St. Thomas down in Birmingham, taught me his game a few years ago. Nathan is a teacher and soccer coach at Homewood High School. He’s creative, he’s funny, and he’s caring. The game he plays is called, “Guess What’s Underneath My Shirt!” As baffling as it might be, the game is simply played by guessing what is underneath Nathan’s shirt. He might hide a toaster oven and the objection of the game is to guess toaster oven. Maybe you get to keep the object, but probably you just get the satisfaction of knowing you were right.
Well, this morning I want to play the Christmas version of this game entitled, “Guess the Present.” I imagine you might already be pretty good at this. We all tend to look at the presents underneath the Christmas tree and we make a guess at what’s underneath the wrapping paper. Well, the game is played in much the same way. I will hold something up and you guess what is held within the packaging. If you guess correctly, then you have the satisfaction of knowing you were right.
Round:
1. Lamp shade
2. Clock
3. Mystery Present
In this third package it could really be anything. It just looks like a box. Who knows what it could be inside this mystery present? While we are thinking about what is held within this paper, I wonder why it is that we give one another presents at this time of year. Why do we give gifts at Christmas time?
Perhaps it has something to do with St. Nicholas. He was the 4th Century Christian bishop of Myra who supposedly would go around to poor families and pay their daughters’ dowries leaving money and sometimes food in a family member’s shoes that would have been left on the outside of the house. Some still celebrate the tradition in early December as they put their shoes out and wait for presents to fill them up. Actually if you leave out a stocking you are in some way celebrating St. Nicholas. Still I don’t know if this is the real reason why we give each other presents now. I wonder what is in the mystery present.
But why do we give each other presents? Maybe it is because we like each other. We appreciate one another, and we want to show that gratitude in giving one another a gift. Perhaps… Really, I have to know what is in this mystery box! If it could be anything, what do you wish it is? A picture of a beloved relative? A gift card? Keys to a new car? A check for a million dollars? Alright, I cannot stand it anymore… I am going to open this present!
There is nothing inside, just some gold paper. I wonder why there’s nothing in it. Sometimes we cannot sense with our sensory perception the gifts we are given. We may not be able to see, touch, taste, smell, or hear a gift, but that does not mean it is not given to us. I believe this is the case with the gift that we receive in today’s gospel.
The good news of John opens with a mysterious song that focuses upon the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehend it not.”
God, in His infinite abundance, goodness, and love created all things by speaking things into being through the Word. All of this that we see, touch, taste, smell, and hear has been made and made good through the Word of God. Yet, like a mysterious present that we cannot figure out, sometimes we do not understand this present that we have been handed. “He was in the world and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him,” John says. I believe that we give each other gifts at this time of year to take part in God’s abundant gift giving. We attempt to show one another our appreciation by participating in God’s gifting.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” The gift that we have been given is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When God came into the world through the Word of God we were given the clearest gift of God’s abundant love for us. Through God becoming incarnate all of creation and we ourselves were made holy vicariously.
God’s Word also brought true light into the world. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” This light was brought into the world through the Word of God. It enlightens us all. In this the darkest time of year for us in the northern hemisphere we are reminded that the true light enlightens us all. We have this light within us. Each of us has this light within us. The Christ light burns inside.
So as we go forth from here celebrating Christmas, celebrating the Word of God made flesh and dwelling with us, let us also take with us the light of Christ. When we meet our family, our friends, and our neighbors that light burns within us, and it burns within them as well. Remember that all whom we meet have been made holy by God’s coming to be with us. Remember that God has given us all the gift of coming to be with us. Remember that we all possess Christ’s light within us. Amen.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Luke 21:5-19: When Practice Doesn't Make Perfect
"Practice makes perfect" is one of those sayings that I took to heart from an early age. I was never the tallest, the fastest, the most athletic, or the best skilled player on any of the soccer teams that I played on as a kid. So what I lacked in ability I tried to make up for in effort... AND PRACTICE (Sorry Allen Iverson, I'm talking about practice). I practiced and practiced and practiced. Everyday of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year, I practiced. Through that time I was urged on by the thought that if I practice hard enough, then I will be prepared to play a perfect game.
Sometimes this mentality creeps up in me as I prepare for something upcoming in the life of the parish. In particular, I think, "If I can practice hard enough, then I will preach a perfect sermon and everyone will walk away saying things like, 'Wow, I really want my spiritual life to grow!' and 'I can't wait to serve at St. John's Church more often!' and maybe even, 'That Seth really can preach!'" Yet, this upcoming Sunday's gospel from Luke describes a very different vision than practice makes perfect.
One day, according to Jesus, the religious and political structures will begin to fall, and wars and earthquakes will shake the earth, and famines and plagues will encircle the globe. At that point those who follow Jesus will be given an opportunity to testify. Well, the truth is our earthly systems continue to fail, wars and natural disasters continue to cripple nations, and food shortages and disease kill thousands every day. All that Jesus has said is going to happen is already happening and has been happening since he ascended into heaven. We have the opportunity RIGHT NOW to speak in his name, so what is stopping us?
I often wonder, what does it mean then to testify to God? Does it mean that we have to rehearse some Bible verses that we shoot at unsuspecting passersby? Maybe. Does it mean that we memorize some passionate narrative about turning away from a life of sin? Perhaps. Does it mean participating in dramatic debate about all of the signs (earthquakes, wars, famines, etc.) pointing to Jesus' impending return? Probably not. I think to testify is to engage in honest conversations and instead of "preparing [our] defense in advance," we leave our defenses down.
When we come in defenseless we can more honestly engage with those whom we might see as enemies. God already gives us words and wisdom if we would just slow down enough to listen to what is being said within our hearts, minds, and spirits. If we come in having a practiced script we might be too tied up in spitting out what we want to say. We might miss that our supposed opponents are just like us. We might miss that God removes those things that stand in the way of connecting with our opponents. We might miss that no division exists in God's reality, they are merely our own fabrication.
There are certainly things to practice in this world. Yet, there is one area where not practicing leads to perfection. When we talk to our "opponents" leave the memorized monologues behind and rely upon taking down our defenses, so that we stand together on the sacred ground that we share in interacting with one another. Christ will give us the words to say, but only if we first remove our shields of apprehension, fear, prejudice, doubt, and hatred.
Loving Father, you constantly give us words and wisdom, I ask that You help us to remove anything that we build up between each another, that we might see that Your Kingdom is that space that exists between us, and that we are the ones who are charged with revealing it to one another. All this we ask through the loving example of Jesus your Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Luke 20: 27-38: Start Living in the Resurrection
For the Gospel lesson link click here
For the Sermon audio click here
I have not often had the misfortune of walking into a room mid-confrontation. Once or twice, I have walked in to hear friends fighting over something that had just happened. Tension filled the air, yet most often they were arguing over a video game. This morning we get dropped into a heated debate about marriage, or is it about the Resurrection? We will come back to this in a moment. Right now, let’s try to understand how we got plopped into this debate. We hoped over an important detail when we took a detour last week celebrating All Saints’ Sunday. Just before this morning’s gospel story, Jesus came into the Temple, expelled those who were trying to make a profit from this holy place, and won a few arguments with the spiritual elite of the day. Jesus has been embroiled in a series of similar contests between Pharisees and scribes, but now we focus upon his conversation with the Sadducees.
Why are Sadducees so named? Well, the Sadducees are sad-you-see because they do not believe in the resurrection (BWAHAHA). That bad joke is brought to you by Evan’s 2nd grade Sunday school teacher, Miss Dot. We do not know too much about Sadducees because they became extinct by the end of the first century. What we do know is that they were connected to the wealthy people of the day, they wanted to know just what they could get away with and still be considered good people, and they did not believe in the resurrection. They actually sound like some Episcopalians I know.
The Sadducees, a group not mentioned previously in Luke, are on some level really wondering what Jesus’ response will be to their question, but there is also a desire to prove that Jesus does not know about the Scriptures. Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees often come off looking like the bad guys, but initially they served as foils for Jesus, sparring partners that made it easier to make one’s point more clearly. The Sadducees address him, perhaps mockingly, as “rabbi” or “teacher,” then quote a strange law attributed to Moses, “If a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.” Sadducees insist that there is no resurrection because they think that their legacy, their livelihood, and their life itself is passed on through their children. In Deuteronomy and Genesis Moses has made it clear that if one brother dies before bearing any children from a marriage, the hope of him “living on” is passed on to his brother.
Before going any further, let me say, this is a brutal system that completely neglects the position of women. In this chauvinistic, patriarchal society women are seen as nothing more than a way to pass on a man’s legacy. Continuing the name of the deceased came before the needs and desires of women in this society. The Sadducees do not seem to care about the woman from their example, as they continue full speed with their quest to prove the resurrection incompatible with Scripture.
Amplifying their example, they say, “Now there were seven brothers; the first married and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” It almost seems comical, SEVEN marriages! Really?! SEVEN! This is EXTREME! Isn’t it? Yet, it is a good question, who are we going to marry and be married to in the resurrection? Or maybe asked more generally, what is it going to be like in the resurrection? I wonder about this sometimes, “Am I going to get to see my family? Am I going to have a body? Am I going to get to watch a movie of my life?” Yet the Sadducees’ attempt to prove their beliefs right through Moses’ law and our attempts to understand “heaven” are out of focus with Jesus’ description of the resurrection.
Jesus did not let the Sadducees’ question reverberate too long in the temple. Perhaps worn a little thin from arguing with Pharisees and Scribes all day long, Jesus sets up a contrast between this age and the next, as those whom he has already contested eavesdrop wondering if Jesus will slip. There is a difference that exists between those who are focused on “this age” and “those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection.” Those of this age are concerned with marrying and being given in marriage, both men and women succumb to the temptations of this life. Those in the age to come do not worry about such things, not because they do not care about their earthly relationships, but because they have begun to act out of deeper Truth. Those in the age to come Jesus says, “are like angels and are children of God being children of the resurrection.” They have adopted the characteristics of resurrection life. They live in the Truth that the resurrection is already underway.
The Sadducees and the onlooking Pharisees and Scribes will not be sold without justification from Scripture, so Jesus recalls the story of Moses and the burning bush. God speaks to Moses saying, “I AM The God of Abraham, the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob.” To Jesus this shows that God does not relate to dead people, but to living ones. God would not say “I AM the God of someone who is dead,” rather God is beyond the realms of time and space. To God all are alive. God is the God of the living not the God of the dead.
When Jesus finishes his argument an eerie silence hangs over the temple, our gospel lesson does not give us the full ending. The Pharisees and Scribes break the quiet and celebrate the Sadducees defeat in this temple debate, saying, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” No one dared to ask him another question.
Yet, what I take away from this contest is not that Jesus is really good at debate, or that we do not need to ask questions about what the resurrection will be like. What I take away from this gospel is that our charge is to start acting like the resurrection is already happening. We might be anticipating the cross in Luke’s gospel, but the cross and the resurrection have already happened. Jesus has already been raised from the dead and this means that we too are raised from the dead for we are buried with Jesus in our Baptism. We therefore are charged to start acting like the resurrection is all around us. We are called to look around with resurrection vision, to taste with a resurrection tongue, to smell with a resurrection nose, to hear with resurrection ears, to feel with a resurrection sense. This is our call. Not to get bogged down in the laws that we make up about ourselves. Not to get stuck in the rules that we think apply to us getting into heaven, but to act as though we are already walking with Christ in the light of the resurrection.
We do this by opening our hearts, minds, and spirits to Christ, by caring most for the least among us, by seeking forgiveness when we wrong someone else, by remembering the resurrection, and by coming back together as the Body of Christ.
There is a resurrection, the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, Jesus himself shows, and we show every week as the Body of Christ. Our task is not to prove this to others through law and rules, but to live this out in our lives as the truest of all realities. We are children of the resurrection, let’s start living like it!
For the Sermon audio click here
I have not often had the misfortune of walking into a room mid-confrontation. Once or twice, I have walked in to hear friends fighting over something that had just happened. Tension filled the air, yet most often they were arguing over a video game. This morning we get dropped into a heated debate about marriage, or is it about the Resurrection? We will come back to this in a moment. Right now, let’s try to understand how we got plopped into this debate. We hoped over an important detail when we took a detour last week celebrating All Saints’ Sunday. Just before this morning’s gospel story, Jesus came into the Temple, expelled those who were trying to make a profit from this holy place, and won a few arguments with the spiritual elite of the day. Jesus has been embroiled in a series of similar contests between Pharisees and scribes, but now we focus upon his conversation with the Sadducees.
Why are Sadducees so named? Well, the Sadducees are sad-you-see because they do not believe in the resurrection (BWAHAHA). That bad joke is brought to you by Evan’s 2nd grade Sunday school teacher, Miss Dot. We do not know too much about Sadducees because they became extinct by the end of the first century. What we do know is that they were connected to the wealthy people of the day, they wanted to know just what they could get away with and still be considered good people, and they did not believe in the resurrection. They actually sound like some Episcopalians I know.
The Sadducees, a group not mentioned previously in Luke, are on some level really wondering what Jesus’ response will be to their question, but there is also a desire to prove that Jesus does not know about the Scriptures. Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees often come off looking like the bad guys, but initially they served as foils for Jesus, sparring partners that made it easier to make one’s point more clearly. The Sadducees address him, perhaps mockingly, as “rabbi” or “teacher,” then quote a strange law attributed to Moses, “If a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.” Sadducees insist that there is no resurrection because they think that their legacy, their livelihood, and their life itself is passed on through their children. In Deuteronomy and Genesis Moses has made it clear that if one brother dies before bearing any children from a marriage, the hope of him “living on” is passed on to his brother.
Before going any further, let me say, this is a brutal system that completely neglects the position of women. In this chauvinistic, patriarchal society women are seen as nothing more than a way to pass on a man’s legacy. Continuing the name of the deceased came before the needs and desires of women in this society. The Sadducees do not seem to care about the woman from their example, as they continue full speed with their quest to prove the resurrection incompatible with Scripture.
Amplifying their example, they say, “Now there were seven brothers; the first married and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” It almost seems comical, SEVEN marriages! Really?! SEVEN! This is EXTREME! Isn’t it? Yet, it is a good question, who are we going to marry and be married to in the resurrection? Or maybe asked more generally, what is it going to be like in the resurrection? I wonder about this sometimes, “Am I going to get to see my family? Am I going to have a body? Am I going to get to watch a movie of my life?” Yet the Sadducees’ attempt to prove their beliefs right through Moses’ law and our attempts to understand “heaven” are out of focus with Jesus’ description of the resurrection.
Jesus did not let the Sadducees’ question reverberate too long in the temple. Perhaps worn a little thin from arguing with Pharisees and Scribes all day long, Jesus sets up a contrast between this age and the next, as those whom he has already contested eavesdrop wondering if Jesus will slip. There is a difference that exists between those who are focused on “this age” and “those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection.” Those of this age are concerned with marrying and being given in marriage, both men and women succumb to the temptations of this life. Those in the age to come do not worry about such things, not because they do not care about their earthly relationships, but because they have begun to act out of deeper Truth. Those in the age to come Jesus says, “are like angels and are children of God being children of the resurrection.” They have adopted the characteristics of resurrection life. They live in the Truth that the resurrection is already underway.
The Sadducees and the onlooking Pharisees and Scribes will not be sold without justification from Scripture, so Jesus recalls the story of Moses and the burning bush. God speaks to Moses saying, “I AM The God of Abraham, the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob.” To Jesus this shows that God does not relate to dead people, but to living ones. God would not say “I AM the God of someone who is dead,” rather God is beyond the realms of time and space. To God all are alive. God is the God of the living not the God of the dead.
When Jesus finishes his argument an eerie silence hangs over the temple, our gospel lesson does not give us the full ending. The Pharisees and Scribes break the quiet and celebrate the Sadducees defeat in this temple debate, saying, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” No one dared to ask him another question.
Yet, what I take away from this contest is not that Jesus is really good at debate, or that we do not need to ask questions about what the resurrection will be like. What I take away from this gospel is that our charge is to start acting like the resurrection is already happening. We might be anticipating the cross in Luke’s gospel, but the cross and the resurrection have already happened. Jesus has already been raised from the dead and this means that we too are raised from the dead for we are buried with Jesus in our Baptism. We therefore are charged to start acting like the resurrection is all around us. We are called to look around with resurrection vision, to taste with a resurrection tongue, to smell with a resurrection nose, to hear with resurrection ears, to feel with a resurrection sense. This is our call. Not to get bogged down in the laws that we make up about ourselves. Not to get stuck in the rules that we think apply to us getting into heaven, but to act as though we are already walking with Christ in the light of the resurrection.
We do this by opening our hearts, minds, and spirits to Christ, by caring most for the least among us, by seeking forgiveness when we wrong someone else, by remembering the resurrection, and by coming back together as the Body of Christ.
There is a resurrection, the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, Jesus himself shows, and we show every week as the Body of Christ. Our task is not to prove this to others through law and rules, but to live this out in our lives as the truest of all realities. We are children of the resurrection, let’s start living like it!
Monday, November 4, 2013
Luke 20:27-38: A Tricky Question
This coming Sunday's gospel text (Luke 20:27-38) begins with a tricky word problem akin to some sort of religious standardized test (SRT). The Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, come to Jesus with a question about a woman. This is no normal woman, nor is it a normal question. They want to know the afterlife fate of a woman who subsequently marries seven brothers, presumably as they are all dying of natural causes, not being poisoned in their sleep. In this question scenario the woman bears no children and eventually dies herself. "In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?" the Sadducees maliciously ask (cackling with a sinister laugh), then state, "For the seven had married her." In this moment the Sadducees grinning from ear to ear are attempting to pin Jesus down with the traditional teachings of the Faith. In particular the rule that when a wife's husband dies she is to marry the man's brother who will take care of her is being questioned in light of the belief that in the resurrection marital relationships still exist.
Sometimes we make a lot out of the differences between Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Disciples, Apostles, disciples, etc. We have a modern analogy of our Christian denominations and how they differ, but I don't think that comparison works very precisely. Typically, I think when reading the gospel of Luke, I don't want to be like the Pharisee, but often times the Apostles and disciples are not doing any better. Instead of believing that Jesus wanted nothing more than to humiliate the Pharisees, or in this reading the Sadducees, it would be beneficial to see these religious leaders as foils, so subtract the sinister laugh from above and think that through the teachings of these others, Jesus clarified his own powerful message.
In this Gospel, the Sadducees want Jesus to throw his hands up as soon as he hears this SRT question, but instead he expands the horizons of those asking the question. Immediately in his response Jesus turns the focus from marital relationships ("Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage") to a relationship with God ("those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead"). Jesus explains that in the age to come there are no earthly constraints, like marriage, upon resurrection relationships. For those who may love their spouse and enjoy the relationship of marriage this may be difficult to comprehend. "Why would God not want me to love my spouse forever?" one might ask. My understanding is that even the best relationships here on earth are not grand enough for post-resurrection life! In the resurrection there is no death or pain, so we who live in these mortal frames cannot fully comprehend post-resurrection relationships to make a marital commitment.
The Sadducees who relied upon Moses teaching were keen to use his words to show there was no resurrection, but Jesus turns the great Hebrew leader's words around to teach the Sadducees. Moses speaks of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, which points to their present existence and shows, "He is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." This is both a comforting and mystifying ending to the gospel.
As I read Jesus' response to this tricky question, I attempt to standardize it into some sort of post-resurrection system. Yet, I think this is what Jesus was warning the Sadducees not to do. I pretty quickly let my imagination run wild with what is coming on the other side of the grave, and the problem with that is not that I am thinking too big a vision of what is to come, but rather that I cannot possibly imagine something loving and lovely enough. For God is the God not of the dead, but of the living; for him all are alive! God is always with us, even at that difficult moment when we let go of this world and these earthly relationships.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Luke 18:9-14: We Need to be a Pharisee to be a Tax Collector...
Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV)
The first day of college orientation I shyly sat with very little hair on my face in a Guerry Auditorium with 366 of classmates. Dean Rob Pearigan, the dean of students at the time, asked us to raise our hands if we thought that we were going to make A’s and B’s during our first year at Sewanee. At least 367 hands shot skyward. For a moment Dean P let us sit there starring around at one another in our arrogance, before he said, “About eighty percent of you are wrong!” A strange sense of worry washed over the auditorium, as we all started grumbling. I believe Dean P was just trying to motivate us. Yet, it felt like a disappointed coach taking the mistakes of last year’s team out on the new recruits. Somehow his words got through to me.
During the next nine months I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. I read every page assigned to me, I took all my drafts to the writing center to be marked up so professors wouldn’t make them bleed red ink, and I even spent many Friday and Saturday nights in the library doing work. At the end of those two semesters, I looked back and thought, “I was right to hold up my hand in that auditorium on the first day of orientation.” The confidence I had been building over that first year was reaching a level of inflated ego that teetered on the verge of making me downright cocky.
As I entered into my sophomore year, I took on a few more commitments. I was running varsity track and cross-country, serving as a sacristan at church, working on the dorm staff, making new friends, and still keeping up my grades. Noticing all that I was doing, my mom rightly felt a sense of parental pride. By the time Christmas Break came my quiet confidence had been melted away by an unhealthy amount of cockiness. So when my mom told me something like, “I am proud of you for all your hard work the last year and a half.” I responded, “I know. I am awesome!”
While my remark to her was made somewhat sarcastically, she could tell that the naïve dedication of my first year had shifted into a sense of self-righteousness. Cutting through my own puffed up ego my mom looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Yeah, and you are humble too!” When I begin to rely a bit too much on my own ego I remember this story and it seems to be a gentle reminder.
I am reminded not to avoid working hard, or striving for excellence, or even taking the time to recognize the things that I have done well, but rather this story helps me to recognize that I have a tendency to believe that on my own I have achieved something that makes me right, praise worthy, or awesome. I bet we all have a story from our life where we have thought a little too highly of ourselves.
Even though I know this tendency that resides within me, I really want to put myself in the place of the lowly tax collector. I want to do this because I know that he, and not the Pharisee, is whom Jesus praises. Much more often I am in the place of this particular Pharisee. I think highly of myself because I follow the “rules” of being a Christian: I pray, I tithe, I give up stuff during Lent, I come to church, I do outreach. Is this not enough? I am doing all the right stuff. However, it is not really about what I do, it is about how I do it. We can see this starkly in the two characters from the parable:
The Pharisee
Frame: Some who relied on themselves because they were righteous regarding others with contempt (v. 9)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Pharisee (v. 10-11)
Stance: Standing by himself (v. 11)
Prayed: “God, I thank you I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this toll collector.” (v. 11)
Action: “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” (v. 12)
Result: Unjustified; All who exalt themselves will be humbled (v. 14)
The Toll Collector
The first day of college orientation I shyly sat with very little hair on my face in a Guerry Auditorium with 366 of classmates. Dean Rob Pearigan, the dean of students at the time, asked us to raise our hands if we thought that we were going to make A’s and B’s during our first year at Sewanee. At least 367 hands shot skyward. For a moment Dean P let us sit there starring around at one another in our arrogance, before he said, “About eighty percent of you are wrong!” A strange sense of worry washed over the auditorium, as we all started grumbling. I believe Dean P was just trying to motivate us. Yet, it felt like a disappointed coach taking the mistakes of last year’s team out on the new recruits. Somehow his words got through to me.
During the next nine months I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. I read every page assigned to me, I took all my drafts to the writing center to be marked up so professors wouldn’t make them bleed red ink, and I even spent many Friday and Saturday nights in the library doing work. At the end of those two semesters, I looked back and thought, “I was right to hold up my hand in that auditorium on the first day of orientation.” The confidence I had been building over that first year was reaching a level of inflated ego that teetered on the verge of making me downright cocky.
As I entered into my sophomore year, I took on a few more commitments. I was running varsity track and cross-country, serving as a sacristan at church, working on the dorm staff, making new friends, and still keeping up my grades. Noticing all that I was doing, my mom rightly felt a sense of parental pride. By the time Christmas Break came my quiet confidence had been melted away by an unhealthy amount of cockiness. So when my mom told me something like, “I am proud of you for all your hard work the last year and a half.” I responded, “I know. I am awesome!”
While my remark to her was made somewhat sarcastically, she could tell that the naïve dedication of my first year had shifted into a sense of self-righteousness. Cutting through my own puffed up ego my mom looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Yeah, and you are humble too!” When I begin to rely a bit too much on my own ego I remember this story and it seems to be a gentle reminder.
I am reminded not to avoid working hard, or striving for excellence, or even taking the time to recognize the things that I have done well, but rather this story helps me to recognize that I have a tendency to believe that on my own I have achieved something that makes me right, praise worthy, or awesome. I bet we all have a story from our life where we have thought a little too highly of ourselves.
Even though I know this tendency that resides within me, I really want to put myself in the place of the lowly tax collector. I want to do this because I know that he, and not the Pharisee, is whom Jesus praises. Much more often I am in the place of this particular Pharisee. I think highly of myself because I follow the “rules” of being a Christian: I pray, I tithe, I give up stuff during Lent, I come to church, I do outreach. Is this not enough? I am doing all the right stuff. However, it is not really about what I do, it is about how I do it. We can see this starkly in the two characters from the parable:
-The Pharisee is self-righteous; the tax collector is contemptible.
-The Pharisee thanks God for making him unlike the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and even the tax collector; the tax collector begs God for forgiveness.
-The Pharisee tithes and fasts; the tax collector bows his head and beats his breast.
Based solely on the actions of these two characters the Pharisee is the one apparently doing the admirable things. Tax collectors in those days would take more than their share of their tolls, which would create enmity in his neighbors and separation between them. What I believe Jesus wants us to see is that it is not enough to just do the right action! It’s not about coming to church, it’s not about fasting, and (Evan close your ears) it’s not even about tithing! (Blasphemy in the pulpit during stewardship season!) God does not care about any of these actions. God cares about the intention!
The sinful tax collector looks in the mirror and sees the wickedness he has committed so he goes up to the temple and standing away from others, he prays. He cannot bring himself to looking up towards God and even averts his eyes from catching anyone else’s in the temple. Beating his breast as a sign of his contrition, he prays a very simple prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” To this miserable one the only thing that will bring relief from the separation and destruction that he has caused is God’s mercy. God’s mercy is more than enough though to overcome the wrongs that the tax collector has committed and he is the one that walks home justified. He is the one that walks home in right relationship with God. He is the righteous one and not the Pharisee.
Yet before you walk away thinking that I am saying go be like the tax collector, steal money from others, and one day turn back to God seeking his mercy think about what Jesus is saying to us. Neither of these men is complete. Both need God. One, the Pharisee, goes through the motions, while he appears connected he is walking in a spiritual wilderness. He is the one who seems to have it all together (nice car, big house, beautiful family), yet just beneath the surface he is cracking. He has relied upon himself for so long that he has turned himself into a God. God alone is merciful, justifying, and righteous!
The other, the tax collector, knows he is far away from God and yearns for God’s mercy to overflow in his life, so that he will turn away from a life of swindling others out of money. Only the one who seeks God’s mercy is put in right relationship with God, but after turning from this life of taking advantage of others he needs reminders of God’s mercy. We need reminders of God’s mercy, God’s presence in our lives, God’s abundance in our world.
This Pharisee is not wrong because he tithes, he is wrong because he does not connect his tithe to gratefulness for all God’s blessings in this life. He believes that what he has done has brought him into right relationship with God. Rather it is by tithing, serving others, fasting… whatever the spiritual discipline… that we are reminded that it is not us who is righteous it is God.
We do not give money to the church so that we can boast about it or serve the poor so we can guilt others into it or fast just to feel more important than someone else. We practice these so that we can participate more fully in the life of God! To tithe our first fruits is to show our gratitude and our reliance upon God’s abundance. To serve the poor is to connect with the person of Christ Jesus in those who are around us. To fast is to help understand all that God gives us daily.
When I hear today’s parable I don't want to be the arrogant college student or the Pharisee, I want to be the tax collector, seeking always God’s mercy which never fails. But, to do this I have to practice, like the Pharisee. The challenge is for us to avoid just going through the motions, and instead find practices that continuously draw us into the realization that we everyday we require God’s mercy!
-The Pharisee thanks God for making him unlike the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and even the tax collector; the tax collector begs God for forgiveness.
-The Pharisee tithes and fasts; the tax collector bows his head and beats his breast.
Based solely on the actions of these two characters the Pharisee is the one apparently doing the admirable things. Tax collectors in those days would take more than their share of their tolls, which would create enmity in his neighbors and separation between them. What I believe Jesus wants us to see is that it is not enough to just do the right action! It’s not about coming to church, it’s not about fasting, and (Evan close your ears) it’s not even about tithing! (Blasphemy in the pulpit during stewardship season!) God does not care about any of these actions. God cares about the intention!
The sinful tax collector looks in the mirror and sees the wickedness he has committed so he goes up to the temple and standing away from others, he prays. He cannot bring himself to looking up towards God and even averts his eyes from catching anyone else’s in the temple. Beating his breast as a sign of his contrition, he prays a very simple prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” To this miserable one the only thing that will bring relief from the separation and destruction that he has caused is God’s mercy. God’s mercy is more than enough though to overcome the wrongs that the tax collector has committed and he is the one that walks home justified. He is the one that walks home in right relationship with God. He is the righteous one and not the Pharisee.
Yet before you walk away thinking that I am saying go be like the tax collector, steal money from others, and one day turn back to God seeking his mercy think about what Jesus is saying to us. Neither of these men is complete. Both need God. One, the Pharisee, goes through the motions, while he appears connected he is walking in a spiritual wilderness. He is the one who seems to have it all together (nice car, big house, beautiful family), yet just beneath the surface he is cracking. He has relied upon himself for so long that he has turned himself into a God. God alone is merciful, justifying, and righteous!
The other, the tax collector, knows he is far away from God and yearns for God’s mercy to overflow in his life, so that he will turn away from a life of swindling others out of money. Only the one who seeks God’s mercy is put in right relationship with God, but after turning from this life of taking advantage of others he needs reminders of God’s mercy. We need reminders of God’s mercy, God’s presence in our lives, God’s abundance in our world.
This Pharisee is not wrong because he tithes, he is wrong because he does not connect his tithe to gratefulness for all God’s blessings in this life. He believes that what he has done has brought him into right relationship with God. Rather it is by tithing, serving others, fasting… whatever the spiritual discipline… that we are reminded that it is not us who is righteous it is God.
We do not give money to the church so that we can boast about it or serve the poor so we can guilt others into it or fast just to feel more important than someone else. We practice these so that we can participate more fully in the life of God! To tithe our first fruits is to show our gratitude and our reliance upon God’s abundance. To serve the poor is to connect with the person of Christ Jesus in those who are around us. To fast is to help understand all that God gives us daily.
When I hear today’s parable I don't want to be the arrogant college student or the Pharisee, I want to be the tax collector, seeking always God’s mercy which never fails. But, to do this I have to practice, like the Pharisee. The challenge is for us to avoid just going through the motions, and instead find practices that continuously draw us into the realization that we everyday we require God’s mercy!
I am going to end with a prayer inspired by Peter J. Scagnelli’s Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C. Let us pray:
Silence our prayer when our words praise ourselves. Turn your ears from our cry when our hearts judge our neighbor. Raise always up to us spiritual practices that leave on our lips the prayer of the tax collector: “O God, be merciful to us who are sinners.” We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever. Amen.
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Endnote: Much of this sermon came from a comparison of the parable's characters based on Joel B. Green's The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997, 645).The Pharisee
Frame: Some who relied on themselves because they were righteous regarding others with contempt (v. 9)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Pharisee (v. 10-11)
Stance: Standing by himself (v. 11)
Prayed: “God, I thank you I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this toll collector.” (v. 11)
Action: “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” (v. 12)
Result: Unjustified; All who exalt themselves will be humbled (v. 14)
The Toll Collector
Frame: “Other” regarded with contempt (v. 9)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Toll Collector (v. 10-13)
Stance: Standing far off (v. 13)
Prayed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v. 13) Request for reconciliation made in humility as seen by following actions…
Action: Did not look up to heaven, beat his breast (v. 13)
Result: Justified; All who humble themselves will be exalted (v. 14)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Toll Collector (v. 10-13)
Stance: Standing far off (v. 13)
Prayed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v. 13) Request for reconciliation made in humility as seen by following actions…
Action: Did not look up to heaven, beat his breast (v. 13)
Result: Justified; All who humble themselves will be exalted (v. 14)
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
St. James of Jerusalem: You think your family is tough!
Left to Right: My mom (Barbara Sloan), me, and my sister (Elin)
My sister, Elin, and I are very good friends. We talk with each other at least once a week. I am privileged to be the godfather of my niece and was blessed to help baptize my nephews this past summer. We spend a week together each summer as camp directors and another week at the beach. In all of these settings I realize more and more how thankful I am to have my older sister; however, that has not always been the case.
Elin was born eight years before I was, and I am pretty certain that for those eight years she felt like the center of the universe, or at least the center of our family. She was not only the only child to my mom and dad, but she was also the only grandchild of my mom's parents. While I think at first she thought having a little brother was great (I was like a live doll with which she could play), soon she realized that she had to share the time and affection of her family. This did not go well for either of us.
For about ten years Elin and I struggled to figure out how to interact with one another. There were days and weeks when I am sure we were nice to each other. Yet, the bulk of memories with my sister from the first decade of my life are traumatic, like the time when I asked her to tie my shoes and kicked her when she was on my level, or that time that I beat her in bowling and she wouldn't talk with me for several days, and who could forget all those times when she would tell me that she had been tested as a genius when she was my age, and I was not nearly as smart as she was. Those first few years were very difficult for us individually and as siblings. Something happened when she went away to college though. Almost immediately we both felt immense sadness, and our relationship shifted. Since then, we have developed a great friendship realizing all our shared experiences and things in common that we love.
It seems unclear who James of Jerusalem is. Some early Church scholars point to him being the cousin of Jesus of Nazareth. This is what our Catholic sisters and brothers believe. There is apocryphal writings that describe him as a child of Joseph's first wife, which sounds a bit scandalous to me. Our gospel for today though (Matthew 13:54-58), points to James being one of the brothers of Jesus. Regardless of the familial relationship that he shares with Jesus, I have to think that growing up with the Messiah would have been difficult. I can hear the voice of Mary, "Why can't you be more like your brother Jesus?" and Joseph, "You know your brother Jesus was healing lepers by your age?" All joking aside, growing up with Jesus as your actual brother would have been as fascinating as it would have been difficult.
Matthew describes that the people in his hometown synagogue could not believe the deeds of power that he was completing. What about his family? I wonder if they were the ones had the biggest doubts in him. Mary certainly stood by her son throughout his entire earthly ministry, but we hear less about Joseph and his sons. In Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (15:1-11), Jesus first appears to James after the resurrection. Maybe it took something so shocking as overcoming death for Jesus' brother to realize that something special was happening in his brother's ministry. It makes me think that maybe we are missing something that is happening right under our noses. Who am I overlooking? What is happening even in my own family's life that is powerful, life-giving, or restorative?
From the time that James met his resurrected brother until his death, he shared the gospel with an intense passion. Early historians called James "the Just," as he was constantly praying for those in need, coming to help them, and serving as an intermediary between Paul and Peter who did not often occupy the same space. Many came to believe in Jesus through James, who did not cut his hair or oil his body. Although his uncleanliness did not get him into trouble, his evangelism did. When other factions in Jerusalem asked him to stop his preaching they took him to the top of the temple and asked him to preach down for these early Christians to turn away from Jesus. James stood firm in his faith and was thrown from the temple and beaten to death.
I recently spoke with some friends about whether or not the Resurrection of Jesus was real. Among the many reasons I have faith in Christ overcoming death is the witness of James the Just. He went from being a doubting brother who could not believe in his brother's deeds of power to being a leader in the evangelical movement of the early Church. He was willing to die for someone in whom he believed. This strengthens my own faith.
So as we remember James, the brother of Jesus, I wonder what are we missing in our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, our cousins and friends? I bet if we look close enough we will observe some deeds of power. We might just observe a moment of resurrection. We will see the Christ within each other! And for that thanks be to God!