So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"
Maybe it simply my perception of Jesus or simply my perception of how Jesus was presented by his followers but more and more am I impressed with how wrong I understood Jesus to be. My perception was that Jesus was soft... almost needy. There is a reason for this. I've seen countless images of Jesus holding little lambs and children. I've heard the parables that express this idea that God's love goes out to all... that God will seek out the lost sheep...that God waits in the field for his lost son... that he knows us and has knit our very bones together in the womb. Combine these images and stories together and one begins to have the impression that God simply loves everybody and that Jesus, as God's most effective sacrament, is constantly seeking everybody out and following them around...like a puppy dog almost.
Granted, most of my perception about faith and Christ has been wrong before.
I also don't doubt that God does love everybody and seeks all to come to Him.
What surprises me however is that while God might be soft... even cuddly at times (when we need him to be) Christ is anything but needy. He offers salvation to all but he is not going to chase you down the street and force you to take it. Christ as I now understand it is anything but co-dependent... and this is exactly what you want of your Rock to begin with.
In today's Gospel Jesus lays it on the line for the twelve... he asks, "Do you also wish to go away?" The New American Bible poses the question this way, "Do you also want to leave?" Jesus says this to only a few men. Jesus in his life on earth, in his three years of earthly ministry did not exactly have a mass movement going. Sure he had some crowds when it came to healing but these seemed to drift off as soon as he got going with what it takes to follow. Today's particular passage reveals that some who followed "no longer accompanied him." So even in his ministry he was not able to communicate his message... to be really heard... by many.
And then, with those few he has in his back pocket to begin with, with those die hard followers, he has got the self assurance to offer them a way out. "Do you also wish to go away?"
Jesus is there when you turn but he is not going to chase you down the street when you turn and run the other way.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
For May 24th
Judas turned aside to go to his own place
This line comes from the place in Acts where the disciples must decide on what to do with Judas' apostleship. He had obviously left following Christ. The disciples sought to maintain the original 12. One had to be appointed. One had to be left aside.
What grabs me though is not the decision to call Matthew in his stead but the lonely, quiet line "Judas turned aside to go to his own place." It brings to the surface all those ways we humans talk about other people being careful not to really acknowledge their difficulty while acknowledging there absence. It makes me think of funerals or weddings when people gather in small circles to gossip. You might hear " it was his..." with some visual accompaniment of a person drinking. It is similar to past understandings of Cancer... when it was not polite even to say the word for fear it might strike. Thankfully we are more open about cancer now but I think we as people, especially church folk, still find things to talk about that we don't want to talk about. "Well, he beat his wife" "She had affairs" " He stole the money." "He was one of those" and you fill in the blank.
We don't like to acknowledge sin. It is all around us but there can be this mental understanding that to acknowledge it would be to take it on.
Today's reading has me thinking of Judas. Judas certainly does not come off well. It certainly does not end well for Judas. The one who betrays God to death... a little bit bigger sin than stealing candy from the local 7-11. We want to talk of Judas but do we often think about Judas the man. Did he fully know what he was doing? Did he really understand Jesus to be The Christ? Did he portray Jesus out of malice or to the best of his ability was he convinced he was walking the right path. If we are not to careful we make Judas the black sheep... the anti-Jesus- that sheep sent out into the desert to carry the sin of the people. Isn't it Christ who takes on all sin? Does not he take on even Judas' sin?
No, what haunts me in the line above is the how we care for those who go their own way. It very well may be true that we can do nothing... that folks who have gone their own way are choosing to remove themselves from grace... yet as people of grace we do not have to heap condemnation on top of the hopelessness these people already feel. I can not convince the Judas' of the world to return if I do not allow them the opportunity for them to do so.
This line comes from the place in Acts where the disciples must decide on what to do with Judas' apostleship. He had obviously left following Christ. The disciples sought to maintain the original 12. One had to be appointed. One had to be left aside.
What grabs me though is not the decision to call Matthew in his stead but the lonely, quiet line "Judas turned aside to go to his own place." It brings to the surface all those ways we humans talk about other people being careful not to really acknowledge their difficulty while acknowledging there absence. It makes me think of funerals or weddings when people gather in small circles to gossip. You might hear " it was his..." with some visual accompaniment of a person drinking. It is similar to past understandings of Cancer... when it was not polite even to say the word for fear it might strike. Thankfully we are more open about cancer now but I think we as people, especially church folk, still find things to talk about that we don't want to talk about. "Well, he beat his wife" "She had affairs" " He stole the money." "He was one of those" and you fill in the blank.
We don't like to acknowledge sin. It is all around us but there can be this mental understanding that to acknowledge it would be to take it on.
Today's reading has me thinking of Judas. Judas certainly does not come off well. It certainly does not end well for Judas. The one who betrays God to death... a little bit bigger sin than stealing candy from the local 7-11. We want to talk of Judas but do we often think about Judas the man. Did he fully know what he was doing? Did he really understand Jesus to be The Christ? Did he portray Jesus out of malice or to the best of his ability was he convinced he was walking the right path. If we are not to careful we make Judas the black sheep... the anti-Jesus- that sheep sent out into the desert to carry the sin of the people. Isn't it Christ who takes on all sin? Does not he take on even Judas' sin?
No, what haunts me in the line above is the how we care for those who go their own way. It very well may be true that we can do nothing... that folks who have gone their own way are choosing to remove themselves from grace... yet as people of grace we do not have to heap condemnation on top of the hopelessness these people already feel. I can not convince the Judas' of the world to return if I do not allow them the opportunity for them to do so.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Mother's day service
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
I am flip flopping my preparation for the weekend f May 8th. It comes right quick and I am seeking to prepare two sermons. The sunday service is also mothers day and will emphasize the children of the parish.
What grabbed me this morning was this identification with children in the epistle. Now obviously this refrence to children is for adults but as a society we often do not identify with children... I think this speaks to the fact that as a society we have lost a sense of hierarchy of any sort. Our emphasis on personal strength and personal liberty tends to cast a shadow on anything showing a lower status.
so here the epistle calls all those ready to listen children... this idea that we are not autonomous but the children of God... a statement about our place and our need. Children after all can not take care of themselves fully... they need a father... or parent... who will watch out for them. A parent who will guide them.
I think here there is a link that should unite all the children and the adults for this sermon. Our need as children for good guidance. What might work would be to parse out how little children know about how they need their mothers and then use that to demonstrate spiritual depth. Little children especially reveal many things that would apply to the spiritual life if we are able to quicken their material nature and apply toward the depth that God calls us to.
As we understand that the bread is more than the bread then we should also be encouraged by the words of our little ones to understand our need to follow God.
the visual idea that I would like to include in this sermon is the idea that God often turns what we know upside down. Therefore if I had the word MOM it becomes WOW... this could be a visual to build off of.
Next- what are those things that little ones might say?
I am flip flopping my preparation for the weekend f May 8th. It comes right quick and I am seeking to prepare two sermons. The sunday service is also mothers day and will emphasize the children of the parish.
What grabbed me this morning was this identification with children in the epistle. Now obviously this refrence to children is for adults but as a society we often do not identify with children... I think this speaks to the fact that as a society we have lost a sense of hierarchy of any sort. Our emphasis on personal strength and personal liberty tends to cast a shadow on anything showing a lower status.
so here the epistle calls all those ready to listen children... this idea that we are not autonomous but the children of God... a statement about our place and our need. Children after all can not take care of themselves fully... they need a father... or parent... who will watch out for them. A parent who will guide them.
I think here there is a link that should unite all the children and the adults for this sermon. Our need as children for good guidance. What might work would be to parse out how little children know about how they need their mothers and then use that to demonstrate spiritual depth. Little children especially reveal many things that would apply to the spiritual life if we are able to quicken their material nature and apply toward the depth that God calls us to.
As we understand that the bread is more than the bread then we should also be encouraged by the words of our little ones to understand our need to follow God.
the visual idea that I would like to include in this sermon is the idea that God often turns what we know upside down. Therefore if I had the word MOM it becomes WOW... this could be a visual to build off of.
Next- what are those things that little ones might say?
Friday, April 24, 2009
May 8th wedding
I am working on two sermons at present. One for May 8th for a wedding and one for Good Shepherd on May 9th. I am attempting to stay on topic and flip flop my way to two decent sermons.
In the chosen selection from Mark there is a word that grabs at me to some thinking that I am doing about this sermon. That word is unite. In marriage we become united. To unite is to make one and immediately what jumps to the fore is the Eucharist service itself where we hear that through the sharing of bread and wine that we are united" in Him and He in us" In Rite II form B of the Great Thanksgiving it writes, "We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts that they may be the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and his Blood of the New Covenant. Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice..."
Form A writes, which is not as strong in this unifying theme does state, "All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ. By Him, and with Him, and in Him..."
Yet it is Rite I that best speaks to this idea of unity in Eucharist where in the Great Thanksgiving this is highlighted when the priest asks that all present who receive the" body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him."
So as two become one it will be into what one will that unity be maintained, enriched, made full? For while these Eucharistic prayers remind us in worship that we need continually to recognize who fill us up so that we may serve and witness as Christians in the world, the same need is made present in marriage. Where and how will you recognize that it is God who unites you to himself in marriage so that as two made into one you may reaveal Him in the world. Where and how exactly will you do that?
I think now of two becoming one is really the willinging action of two to become bound to one another. Now bondage is a tricky word from the pulpit. You say bondage and some in the audience might travel in all sorts of mental directions... for example Uncle Frank who may not come to church often might think this might be a better topic for the honeymoon than for the marriage itself... Hey don't blame me, blame uncle frank... he's the one with the issue.
Or if I say bondage one might think of people being tied up and there is some type of bad person who has limited the freedom of some hero or heroine. The task in that mental scenario is to get out of bondage as quickly as possible. Certainly with a mental image like this the concept of bondage seems silly or neive. In fact one of the reasons I think that marriages that end in divorce is because of the fact that it is just as the marriage needs to remain bound one or both of the participants chaff at the linkage. We joke about this and our very joking reveals a sort of negative vision of this unity. We might call her the old ball and chain. Either might joke of being whipped... suggesting this sort of Master/ Servant relationship where power is held by one or where the one can not break free. Again it is negative but it does draw attention to the fact that there is this established unity and to be and remain in unity there is a challenge. The individual and his or her needs and wants will be tempered by the collective needs and wants... and at times this bond does chaff.
What comes next is to flesh out the mental image that it is when there is the most strain that the link that unites two to become one... must hold. That is the strength and need of the bond that is most essential and often where one or both become cognizant that there is another player who can bring blessing out of derision.
Joke that might fit- purpose is to listen that you don't have to figure out everything yourself.
A bear, a rabbit, and a fox go out hunting for deer. They have a successful day and come home having bagged a deer. The bear asks, "how should we divide this deer up to eat?" The rabbit pipes up, " I think we should divide it up evenly three ways." Upon hearing that the bear reaches over, grabs the rabbit and eats him. The bear then asks the fox, "how should we divide up this deer to eat?" The fox answers "I think you should figure that out." The bear now pleased asks, how did you come up with such a good idea? he asks the fox. The fox answered.
The rabbit taught me that one.
Next- The wedding service / Sacrament/ what it says about Unity
In the chosen selection from Mark there is a word that grabs at me to some thinking that I am doing about this sermon. That word is unite. In marriage we become united. To unite is to make one and immediately what jumps to the fore is the Eucharist service itself where we hear that through the sharing of bread and wine that we are united" in Him and He in us" In Rite II form B of the Great Thanksgiving it writes, "We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts that they may be the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and his Blood of the New Covenant. Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice..."
Form A writes, which is not as strong in this unifying theme does state, "All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ. By Him, and with Him, and in Him..."
Yet it is Rite I that best speaks to this idea of unity in Eucharist where in the Great Thanksgiving this is highlighted when the priest asks that all present who receive the" body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him."
So as two become one it will be into what one will that unity be maintained, enriched, made full? For while these Eucharistic prayers remind us in worship that we need continually to recognize who fill us up so that we may serve and witness as Christians in the world, the same need is made present in marriage. Where and how will you recognize that it is God who unites you to himself in marriage so that as two made into one you may reaveal Him in the world. Where and how exactly will you do that?
I think now of two becoming one is really the willinging action of two to become bound to one another. Now bondage is a tricky word from the pulpit. You say bondage and some in the audience might travel in all sorts of mental directions... for example Uncle Frank who may not come to church often might think this might be a better topic for the honeymoon than for the marriage itself... Hey don't blame me, blame uncle frank... he's the one with the issue.
Or if I say bondage one might think of people being tied up and there is some type of bad person who has limited the freedom of some hero or heroine. The task in that mental scenario is to get out of bondage as quickly as possible. Certainly with a mental image like this the concept of bondage seems silly or neive. In fact one of the reasons I think that marriages that end in divorce is because of the fact that it is just as the marriage needs to remain bound one or both of the participants chaff at the linkage. We joke about this and our very joking reveals a sort of negative vision of this unity. We might call her the old ball and chain. Either might joke of being whipped... suggesting this sort of Master/ Servant relationship where power is held by one or where the one can not break free. Again it is negative but it does draw attention to the fact that there is this established unity and to be and remain in unity there is a challenge. The individual and his or her needs and wants will be tempered by the collective needs and wants... and at times this bond does chaff.
What comes next is to flesh out the mental image that it is when there is the most strain that the link that unites two to become one... must hold. That is the strength and need of the bond that is most essential and often where one or both become cognizant that there is another player who can bring blessing out of derision.
Joke that might fit- purpose is to listen that you don't have to figure out everything yourself.
A bear, a rabbit, and a fox go out hunting for deer. They have a successful day and come home having bagged a deer. The bear asks, "how should we divide this deer up to eat?" The rabbit pipes up, " I think we should divide it up evenly three ways." Upon hearing that the bear reaches over, grabs the rabbit and eats him. The bear then asks the fox, "how should we divide up this deer to eat?" The fox answers "I think you should figure that out." The bear now pleased asks, how did you come up with such a good idea? he asks the fox. The fox answered.
The rabbit taught me that one.
Next- The wedding service / Sacrament/ what it says about Unity
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Mothers day service
I wonder...I am thinking aloud about a possibility for an upcoming church service... this is intentionally a children's service for us. That means for me that we will be seeking to have the message be appropriate for children. The day's Gospel speaks of Jesus as the vine and ourselves as the branches.
I wonder if we could make this visual? Would it be possible to stretch some type of string or rope from some type of centerpiece to every row in the church. If we were able to do it would it then be possible to hand out small sections of string to each parishioner and have them tie it on the main rope (vine) so to speak. Thus the center of the sermon would be the implied and demonstrated reality that we are all tied together and only effective if we as a community are tied to Christ.
We could even decorate the doors leading into the sanctuary with vines, leaves, and grapes.
I might even come out in farmer clothes....
hmmmmmm?
I wonder if we could make this visual? Would it be possible to stretch some type of string or rope from some type of centerpiece to every row in the church. If we were able to do it would it then be possible to hand out small sections of string to each parishioner and have them tie it on the main rope (vine) so to speak. Thus the center of the sermon would be the implied and demonstrated reality that we are all tied together and only effective if we as a community are tied to Christ.
We could even decorate the doors leading into the sanctuary with vines, leaves, and grapes.
I might even come out in farmer clothes....
hmmmmmm?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Beginning the work
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him
I stand convicted from the above. The truth of the matter is that I have not formed the correct foundation. Since beginning this walk of mine as a priest I have struggled with where God has been leading. Mind you that God has not been overtly pressuring me to do anything... at least as I can tell... what has been happening has been a lot more subtle. Since becoming a Priest there has been this gentle pressure to take up or create for myself a foundation. And the rationale for such a foundation? Simply to allow God access to a life commited to His ministry yet fearful of really turning it over to him. My outsides have done better than my insides.
I was able to steal away for a few days after Easter. I ended up having the opportunity to spend some time at my folks house. It was good not because I did anything but because I really did nothing. For three days it rained. This was terrible for golf but good for the soul. The gem of the time away was my stepfather pushing a book in front of me. It was a short book and supposedly about Golf. Enough to spark my interest and far enough away from church work to have me look at it on my vacation. The books title is Golf's Sacred Journey... Seven Days at the Links of Utopia by Dr. David Cook. It turns out the book was a lot more than an interesting account of Golf. At it's center was a text about coaching and what one needs to be taught. One of the many things that got my attention was its assistance on preparation and building a proper foundation. One line that struck me was "If you want to lead a successful organization, you better build a bullet proof foundation for why you do what you do and how you do it."
The conviction of course was that as a man of faith and religious title, I have been building my foundation on sand. I mean intent is good but intent only gets one so far. Eventually one has to transform work into discipline and get to work. While there are many ways I could go deeper from the above quote from Sunday's epistle the key one that stood out for me was action. What actions am I taking on a consistent basis to sustain me in God to live through all the complexities and stressors of full time ministry? The reality is that I have not been disciplined as I could choose to be. And that is the knock that God has been knocking on my heart for some time. It is time to get to work in building such a foundation...
I stand convicted from the above. The truth of the matter is that I have not formed the correct foundation. Since beginning this walk of mine as a priest I have struggled with where God has been leading. Mind you that God has not been overtly pressuring me to do anything... at least as I can tell... what has been happening has been a lot more subtle. Since becoming a Priest there has been this gentle pressure to take up or create for myself a foundation. And the rationale for such a foundation? Simply to allow God access to a life commited to His ministry yet fearful of really turning it over to him. My outsides have done better than my insides.
I was able to steal away for a few days after Easter. I ended up having the opportunity to spend some time at my folks house. It was good not because I did anything but because I really did nothing. For three days it rained. This was terrible for golf but good for the soul. The gem of the time away was my stepfather pushing a book in front of me. It was a short book and supposedly about Golf. Enough to spark my interest and far enough away from church work to have me look at it on my vacation. The books title is Golf's Sacred Journey... Seven Days at the Links of Utopia by Dr. David Cook. It turns out the book was a lot more than an interesting account of Golf. At it's center was a text about coaching and what one needs to be taught. One of the many things that got my attention was its assistance on preparation and building a proper foundation. One line that struck me was "If you want to lead a successful organization, you better build a bullet proof foundation for why you do what you do and how you do it."
The conviction of course was that as a man of faith and religious title, I have been building my foundation on sand. I mean intent is good but intent only gets one so far. Eventually one has to transform work into discipline and get to work. While there are many ways I could go deeper from the above quote from Sunday's epistle the key one that stood out for me was action. What actions am I taking on a consistent basis to sustain me in God to live through all the complexities and stressors of full time ministry? The reality is that I have not been disciplined as I could choose to be. And that is the knock that God has been knocking on my heart for some time. It is time to get to work in building such a foundation...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Advent I- Oblations
"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
My task for Nov 30th is three-fold (not in any particular order): to not suck, to teach about oblations, and honor that it is Advent I. We begin, in that ongoing cycle of approach, retreat, and renew to grapple with the profound mystery that Christ is, was, and will be again. Advent itself means Adventus which means the coming. As Christians we look back to that time that proceeded Christ's birth... the time of our spiritual ancestors awaiting God to be made manifest... and find ourselves, even the faithful who hold tight to Christ's being-ness, in similar straits with those wandering israelites who, even after gaining the promiseland, seem to understand completely that gaining the land was not enough. Even with the covenant fulfilled, even with Christ's entry, ministry, death, and resurrection, the world seems particularly off. Certainly, even the most pious defender of God's activity in the world, has to wonder at times, what God is doing for evil still exists and the meek certainly have not inherited the earth. Advent throws us right back into the pot. It seems to profess our lineage as God's people... God's people it seems must wait.
Why oblations? Well the pragmatic in our common ministry at Good Shepherd also acknowledges the needs of the everyday. It may be Advent but we certainly have not stopped being at least a part of the world. We happen to be in the middle of our stewardship drive. The following Sunday we collect pledge cards and offer them on the altar. If we are to wait, we hope to enjoin our congregation to afford the clergy and staff of Good Shepherd to be able to do it in our current positions! We may be called to wait but God has not yet guaranteed that in a year of financial insecurity that our waiting will take place here. At staff yesterday the following was uttered to help focus the task on Advent I. It was mentioned that this sermon is to help prepare people to act in faith... an oblation is the offering of our life (and the things that make up our life) as a gift from God... We, the people, offer every Sunday the fruits of our labor, the bread and wine and money, so that they may be transformed. Each week they approach the altar, given to the priest, and by God's grace they are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. The good news is that the action does not stop there. Christ acts, through the sacrament, through failable priests (starting with Peter and the lot) to transform our offerings, into himself and then trusting again, He gives himself to the whole body of the church. Our offerings become Him... He enters into us and we are transformed into Him (I'm riffing on rite one- And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him. ) And what becomes apparent more clearly to me is that all things move through the altar during Holy Eucharist... it becomes akin to the wind moving on the waters of creation, a point where the infinite gathers the mundane. There in Holy Eucharist the bread, wine, and financial gifts are offered up unto God and while we don't (thankfully) make Sacrament out of the money, it is offered to His service. The bread and wine, somehow in whatever way it does becomes God incarnate, moves from the altar and then feeds the people... uniting us with him... God from God, Light from Light.
We tend to minimize the money part don't we. It is lifted up and then leaves the sanctuary to be counted, deposited, and put to work. We don't really think of its mission do we. As heirs to a culture that thinks it uncouth to talk about income and money (even though it seems to drive us and our conversations in this difficult time... ie the number one issue, our economy, up to and through the election) We prefer to speak about it as gifts... treasure... than say money... yet it too moves through the altar. It too is acknowledged and offered up to God... just as the bread and wine is and (we often gloss over it) we are. Yet it too has a mission. It too has a role to play. It too has a purpose, which we pray, will go to the mission of the church. And it does doesn't it. Through it ... the people... without minimizing your evident and neccessary ministry... help some of us... the staff and clergy of the church... to do needed ministry this church feels called to. The money that will leave the altar... much like the bread, wine, and you all... will allow some of us from the body, to in the middle of the day to visit the sick. Some of it will allow some of us from the body the luxury to write sermons. Some of it will keep the lights on so that we may gather for prayer, bible study, fellowship. Some of it will go to electricty which will power computers and telephones which will be used week to week to encourage , collaborate, and comfort... comfort parishioners and strangers alike with words of hope. Some of it will go directly to feed the hungry. Some of it will go to support our fellow brothers and sisters travel either as youths or adults to be transformed in the world by serving Christ.
I heard it said ... and I liked it even though I struggled with the ramifications of the statement... that Grace is free but that the Gospel cost money. First we are to be intirely thankful that God accepts me, even when I am farthest from him, based on nothing that I could possibly offer him. It means that God reaches out to us as Paul writes, (I think this is true) before we even know we are in need of God. And Gods love for us is at the center of the good news... the gospel... that God loves us so much that he sent his Son for us. So God acts with Grace toward us... and it is free. The Gospel costs though. If we have received this love, we are called to love as God loves us... and to love as God loves us is to love sacrificially... it costs to love like this... it costs to reach out to those who may never find or wish to find what we have found in Christ. It costs to understand that though things might be tough that we are not without means. For most of us in this room there is money in the bank, food on pantry shelves, gas in the tank, grass on yard, electricity on at home, and a roof hanging over our heads. We have been given so much and I say that not to make us feel guilty but as a reminder that to he or she whom has been given much... much will be demanded. It costs. We shed a portion of what we have, acknowledging that God has shared with us more than we could possibly deserve, and trusting that God will continue to sustain us.
Next time- Oblations boil down to trust- God acts first giving himself to us (coming to church receiving- true wholeness will be denied until we begin to move from receptivity to sharing)
My task for Nov 30th is three-fold (not in any particular order): to not suck, to teach about oblations, and honor that it is Advent I. We begin, in that ongoing cycle of approach, retreat, and renew to grapple with the profound mystery that Christ is, was, and will be again. Advent itself means Adventus which means the coming. As Christians we look back to that time that proceeded Christ's birth... the time of our spiritual ancestors awaiting God to be made manifest... and find ourselves, even the faithful who hold tight to Christ's being-ness, in similar straits with those wandering israelites who, even after gaining the promiseland, seem to understand completely that gaining the land was not enough. Even with the covenant fulfilled, even with Christ's entry, ministry, death, and resurrection, the world seems particularly off. Certainly, even the most pious defender of God's activity in the world, has to wonder at times, what God is doing for evil still exists and the meek certainly have not inherited the earth. Advent throws us right back into the pot. It seems to profess our lineage as God's people... God's people it seems must wait.
Why oblations? Well the pragmatic in our common ministry at Good Shepherd also acknowledges the needs of the everyday. It may be Advent but we certainly have not stopped being at least a part of the world. We happen to be in the middle of our stewardship drive. The following Sunday we collect pledge cards and offer them on the altar. If we are to wait, we hope to enjoin our congregation to afford the clergy and staff of Good Shepherd to be able to do it in our current positions! We may be called to wait but God has not yet guaranteed that in a year of financial insecurity that our waiting will take place here. At staff yesterday the following was uttered to help focus the task on Advent I. It was mentioned that this sermon is to help prepare people to act in faith... an oblation is the offering of our life (and the things that make up our life) as a gift from God... We, the people, offer every Sunday the fruits of our labor, the bread and wine and money, so that they may be transformed. Each week they approach the altar, given to the priest, and by God's grace they are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. The good news is that the action does not stop there. Christ acts, through the sacrament, through failable priests (starting with Peter and the lot) to transform our offerings, into himself and then trusting again, He gives himself to the whole body of the church. Our offerings become Him... He enters into us and we are transformed into Him (I'm riffing on rite one- And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him. ) And what becomes apparent more clearly to me is that all things move through the altar during Holy Eucharist... it becomes akin to the wind moving on the waters of creation, a point where the infinite gathers the mundane. There in Holy Eucharist the bread, wine, and financial gifts are offered up unto God and while we don't (thankfully) make Sacrament out of the money, it is offered to His service. The bread and wine, somehow in whatever way it does becomes God incarnate, moves from the altar and then feeds the people... uniting us with him... God from God, Light from Light.
We tend to minimize the money part don't we. It is lifted up and then leaves the sanctuary to be counted, deposited, and put to work. We don't really think of its mission do we. As heirs to a culture that thinks it uncouth to talk about income and money (even though it seems to drive us and our conversations in this difficult time... ie the number one issue, our economy, up to and through the election) We prefer to speak about it as gifts... treasure... than say money... yet it too moves through the altar. It too is acknowledged and offered up to God... just as the bread and wine is and (we often gloss over it) we are. Yet it too has a mission. It too has a role to play. It too has a purpose, which we pray, will go to the mission of the church. And it does doesn't it. Through it ... the people... without minimizing your evident and neccessary ministry... help some of us... the staff and clergy of the church... to do needed ministry this church feels called to. The money that will leave the altar... much like the bread, wine, and you all... will allow some of us from the body, to in the middle of the day to visit the sick. Some of it will allow some of us from the body the luxury to write sermons. Some of it will keep the lights on so that we may gather for prayer, bible study, fellowship. Some of it will go to electricty which will power computers and telephones which will be used week to week to encourage , collaborate, and comfort... comfort parishioners and strangers alike with words of hope. Some of it will go directly to feed the hungry. Some of it will go to support our fellow brothers and sisters travel either as youths or adults to be transformed in the world by serving Christ.
I heard it said ... and I liked it even though I struggled with the ramifications of the statement... that Grace is free but that the Gospel cost money. First we are to be intirely thankful that God accepts me, even when I am farthest from him, based on nothing that I could possibly offer him. It means that God reaches out to us as Paul writes, (I think this is true) before we even know we are in need of God. And Gods love for us is at the center of the good news... the gospel... that God loves us so much that he sent his Son for us. So God acts with Grace toward us... and it is free. The Gospel costs though. If we have received this love, we are called to love as God loves us... and to love as God loves us is to love sacrificially... it costs to love like this... it costs to reach out to those who may never find or wish to find what we have found in Christ. It costs to understand that though things might be tough that we are not without means. For most of us in this room there is money in the bank, food on pantry shelves, gas in the tank, grass on yard, electricity on at home, and a roof hanging over our heads. We have been given so much and I say that not to make us feel guilty but as a reminder that to he or she whom has been given much... much will be demanded. It costs. We shed a portion of what we have, acknowledging that God has shared with us more than we could possibly deserve, and trusting that God will continue to sustain us.
Next time- Oblations boil down to trust- God acts first giving himself to us (coming to church receiving- true wholeness will be denied until we begin to move from receptivity to sharing)
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Intervention...choose Joshua 24
If anyone is following along... not that I think anyone is... you have been following the development of line of thought in the last two posts. I've been trying to wrestle with the reading for Joshua which is the OT reading for November 9th. The reading itself is the final say on a book of the Bible that demonstrates Gods strength in protecting his people but is also quick to point out that if God's people fail to commit, they will be nothing. God as revealed in Joshua is not a warm, squishy God but one of might. As evidenced by the disjointed nature found in the last two posts this line of thought has not been all that concise nor very strait. Two posts ago I became impressed not only with Joshua's cojones... ie the ability to stand up with strait truth to his people instead of trying to convince him that he was correct or they were in error... but also the image of God being proclaimed who either receives us or spits us out. The image that came to me was that of God as a center in basketball. If he be for us then our commitment will be recieved like a point guard feeding him the ball. Exploding out of the paint he'll jam it home. If we say we're for him but have not really made a commitment, then, as this reading reveals, God will stand like a lion blocking our feeble attempts from even getting close. The point of fact is that Joshua seems completely ok with the Israelites either chasing after false gods and getting de"vow"ered or living up to their conviction and sticking the covenant. In the last post I spent more time with the book of Joshua, recognizing that like Marcion, God's wrath in Joshua might interfere with Christian sensibilities and have modern Christians, like Marcion, seek to remove the book and all that it has to offer from sight. I did play with the way Jesus does demonstrate his 'wrathfulness' in the Gospels seeking to unify God's will and as essential found both in the old and new testaments. Emasculating Jesus does not seem the best solution in seeking to nullify God's strength as reavealed in the OT. Like Joshua seems to suggest in today's reading- God will not be mocked.
And where did the path lead? It led right to the most damning question that a preacher should wrestle with... why does any of this matter to the souls who show up on Sunday morning? It matters because this question of commitment.... true genuine commitment.... is about life. It is to damn easy to get caught up in trying to figure out God. We'll spend countless hours wondering if Jesus was correct or if the writers of the old testament actually had a clue or if the church has any value beyond supporting itself. And why do we do this? Because it is easier to wonder what God is about then to stare into the void of life and death. Give me starbucks. Give me my childrens homework. Give me even a failing economy... anything but that deep dark void of death that will come when the bio-electrical system that supports this very typing shuts down.
Death is morbid! Don't go there! The fact that life precedes it does not much make it easier to deal with. Easier to wonder what God might be about then live into the claim that it is God Himself who sustains our life and the other dramatic claim that if we are to live we must live to the Lord. This is in fact the claim that Joshua is suggesting to the people. What will your choice be? Whom will you live for? Will you live for life itself? Choose this day...
Most of the time we live lives that do not make us aware of this ongoing choice. The fact is that I can idly while away my time thinking of other things. That fact does not make the central question go away or eliminate it from always being a very present reality. The fact is the choose this day option is alway on... always present... always knock, knock, knocking. It is my ignorance of this that sends me following false Gods. Not in the sense that on thursday I'll bow down to baal and on Friday I'll chat with Vishnu. No like the israelites in the promiseland (A christian baptised) I can on time to time remember that God has liberated me, acknowledge that my life is infinitely better due to the relationships I've had with the faithful, be conscious that based on past experiences and the reading of scripture that God is wonderful and after doing so go back to my own devises and pursuits of my heart. These too are false Gods. This certainly is weak commitment. It is this weak game that God smacks away. Don't bring me your clouded delusions, God says, I am the God of life... and life is what I take.
And it is when life comes down on the line do we begin to see the commitment that Joshua is presenting to the people. Choose the living or choose the dead. To follow God is to choose the living. This becomes most apparent in an intervention.
An intervention is a hard thing. It's purpose is to present a choice to one who is lost. In most cases interventions are done on drunks or drug addicts... their lives so spent on death that the option for life or death must be clearly drawn. No longer are they able to see truth. They think their way of life, consumed by false Gods of delusion, apathy, and the numbness of toxins is the only way out. Often the only way to save their life is for a group of people to intervene on them. Sobriety or the street they often say. Life or death and if you choose death you will do it on the street.
An intervention does not come about easy. It is the result often of a family who in watching their loved one die drink by drink have exhausted every hope in trying to help their sick person get well. An intervention for the family is often the last result... an admision of powerlessness... dad, mom, uncle bill has squandered all hope. We must act abandoning even the result. Dad, mom, uncle bill we love you but we will no longer watch you chase the false Gods of addiction, selfishness, greed, remorse... we are powerless... to stay in covenant with us you must choose. Choose this day... life or death.... we want you to choose life.
And that question at the moment of intervention is presented and sits out there. Our drunk who has allowed this question past the defenses of a lifetime knows now the God whom Joshua presents in todays reading. He or she may attempt to justify trying to remove the mantle of God's weight upon their shoulders... but I'm a Christian, but I have been good, but I have prayed and tithed and loved... and like the false God's that have led to this moment they will be swated aside. God will not be mocked. God will dismiss them not because he does not love the broken child of God there in front of him but because he does. There in that hoped for moment of awareness, where the drunk or addict, comes face to face with the true powerless self, he or she comes face to face to the God in the paint. Bring anything but life and it will be swated away. Choose life and God will open up the Red Sea. I am the God of life Joshua reveals I am the God whom chose you. Chose me and I will open up the promiseland. Chose me and nothing, not plague, war, terror, or power will seperate you from me. I am life God says... I love you....only I am able to transform you...from the lowest bottom to newest life....choose.
And that is what hangs in the balance in an intervention. The individual, through prophets who they themselves have experienced the powerlessness of watching sickness consume their loved one, present the choice of life or the ongoing persuit of death. Get sober or get dying. Like Red in the shawshank redemption announces, Get busy living or get busy dying. Our God will not be mocked. He is not a pinch hitter. His love appears like razors to the one pursuing death- chipping away at all that is not life.
And these thoughts this morning are not easy thoughts. They are not designed to comfort or soften. I say them because life hangs in the balance. Each soul here today from the smallest to the oldest to the wisest to the most miserable is God's very own. In your baptism you were marked.... marked! Christ's very own. There is no distance that God will not go for you. There is no breadth God will not stretch accross to uphold you. He is the alpha and the omega... the source of life. And this morning.... and this afternoon.... and this evening.... and in the middle of the night when your terrors and worries and doubts creep accross you mind... he is there and he is there in the birth of your children, and when they cut their knee and when you first kiss your passionate lover and fight like cats and dogs about life, your children, work, the economy. He is there, knocking at your door, I love you so much he says... I love you so much I will allow you to discover for yourself that I am the only way. I love you so much, this wrathful God of the OT says, that I will give myself to you in my son, and be there for you now in my spirit. Choose this day, he calls, choose.
Life hangs in the balance...
And where did the path lead? It led right to the most damning question that a preacher should wrestle with... why does any of this matter to the souls who show up on Sunday morning? It matters because this question of commitment.... true genuine commitment.... is about life. It is to damn easy to get caught up in trying to figure out God. We'll spend countless hours wondering if Jesus was correct or if the writers of the old testament actually had a clue or if the church has any value beyond supporting itself. And why do we do this? Because it is easier to wonder what God is about then to stare into the void of life and death. Give me starbucks. Give me my childrens homework. Give me even a failing economy... anything but that deep dark void of death that will come when the bio-electrical system that supports this very typing shuts down.
Death is morbid! Don't go there! The fact that life precedes it does not much make it easier to deal with. Easier to wonder what God might be about then live into the claim that it is God Himself who sustains our life and the other dramatic claim that if we are to live we must live to the Lord. This is in fact the claim that Joshua is suggesting to the people. What will your choice be? Whom will you live for? Will you live for life itself? Choose this day...
Most of the time we live lives that do not make us aware of this ongoing choice. The fact is that I can idly while away my time thinking of other things. That fact does not make the central question go away or eliminate it from always being a very present reality. The fact is the choose this day option is alway on... always present... always knock, knock, knocking. It is my ignorance of this that sends me following false Gods. Not in the sense that on thursday I'll bow down to baal and on Friday I'll chat with Vishnu. No like the israelites in the promiseland (A christian baptised) I can on time to time remember that God has liberated me, acknowledge that my life is infinitely better due to the relationships I've had with the faithful, be conscious that based on past experiences and the reading of scripture that God is wonderful and after doing so go back to my own devises and pursuits of my heart. These too are false Gods. This certainly is weak commitment. It is this weak game that God smacks away. Don't bring me your clouded delusions, God says, I am the God of life... and life is what I take.
And it is when life comes down on the line do we begin to see the commitment that Joshua is presenting to the people. Choose the living or choose the dead. To follow God is to choose the living. This becomes most apparent in an intervention.
An intervention is a hard thing. It's purpose is to present a choice to one who is lost. In most cases interventions are done on drunks or drug addicts... their lives so spent on death that the option for life or death must be clearly drawn. No longer are they able to see truth. They think their way of life, consumed by false Gods of delusion, apathy, and the numbness of toxins is the only way out. Often the only way to save their life is for a group of people to intervene on them. Sobriety or the street they often say. Life or death and if you choose death you will do it on the street.
An intervention does not come about easy. It is the result often of a family who in watching their loved one die drink by drink have exhausted every hope in trying to help their sick person get well. An intervention for the family is often the last result... an admision of powerlessness... dad, mom, uncle bill has squandered all hope. We must act abandoning even the result. Dad, mom, uncle bill we love you but we will no longer watch you chase the false Gods of addiction, selfishness, greed, remorse... we are powerless... to stay in covenant with us you must choose. Choose this day... life or death.... we want you to choose life.
And that question at the moment of intervention is presented and sits out there. Our drunk who has allowed this question past the defenses of a lifetime knows now the God whom Joshua presents in todays reading. He or she may attempt to justify trying to remove the mantle of God's weight upon their shoulders... but I'm a Christian, but I have been good, but I have prayed and tithed and loved... and like the false God's that have led to this moment they will be swated aside. God will not be mocked. God will dismiss them not because he does not love the broken child of God there in front of him but because he does. There in that hoped for moment of awareness, where the drunk or addict, comes face to face with the true powerless self, he or she comes face to face to the God in the paint. Bring anything but life and it will be swated away. Choose life and God will open up the Red Sea. I am the God of life Joshua reveals I am the God whom chose you. Chose me and I will open up the promiseland. Chose me and nothing, not plague, war, terror, or power will seperate you from me. I am life God says... I love you....only I am able to transform you...from the lowest bottom to newest life....choose.
And that is what hangs in the balance in an intervention. The individual, through prophets who they themselves have experienced the powerlessness of watching sickness consume their loved one, present the choice of life or the ongoing persuit of death. Get sober or get dying. Like Red in the shawshank redemption announces, Get busy living or get busy dying. Our God will not be mocked. He is not a pinch hitter. His love appears like razors to the one pursuing death- chipping away at all that is not life.
And these thoughts this morning are not easy thoughts. They are not designed to comfort or soften. I say them because life hangs in the balance. Each soul here today from the smallest to the oldest to the wisest to the most miserable is God's very own. In your baptism you were marked.... marked! Christ's very own. There is no distance that God will not go for you. There is no breadth God will not stretch accross to uphold you. He is the alpha and the omega... the source of life. And this morning.... and this afternoon.... and this evening.... and in the middle of the night when your terrors and worries and doubts creep accross you mind... he is there and he is there in the birth of your children, and when they cut their knee and when you first kiss your passionate lover and fight like cats and dogs about life, your children, work, the economy. He is there, knocking at your door, I love you so much he says... I love you so much I will allow you to discover for yourself that I am the only way. I love you so much, this wrathful God of the OT says, that I will give myself to you in my son, and be there for you now in my spirit. Choose this day, he calls, choose.
Life hangs in the balance...
Friday, October 31, 2008
More about Joshua- My House
When do you know God is involved? At times God can seem like a whisp. At time's at least, this faithful misfit wonders where God is and when that happens along come the undercurrents: have I just imagined this God thing? Was it any more than a gas bubble? Have I surrounded myself with other wishful thinkers... we're all just confirming the illusion one to another...like lemmings in a dark room hoping for a light that will never come? Doubt, faith's ugly sister, comes a courting at times.
Yet at the same time there are moments in life that seem to be so infused with God's presence. He appears like a line of Gold thread in a blue sweater or the way cream mixes with coffee. In an instant there is change... evidence. The problem is that while God is fleetingly found in the moment the evidence seems more real looking behind. I am better at seeing God's handiwork in the way the myriad of past events seem to flow so smoothly than in the trials and tribulations of today.
My bible tells me that the story of Joshua is both historical and a theological reflection. Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, blazes into the promiseland. He is recounted, much like Moses, uplifting the law, challenging the Israelites to covenant , and even in one stunning event in chapter 5, Joshua has a vision. "Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?" He replied, "Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, " What do you command of your servant, my lord?" The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy." (5:13-15) Echos, no scratch that, almost duplication of Moses. The book seems to pass on the torch. As my editors note reveal, "the promises made to Moses and the ancestors are now becoming fulfilled und Joshua." God has not been silent.
Yet even the editorial notes reveal that this book of the bible was probably written some time after the events. It makes one suspicious, as Obama spoke of Biden, of it making editorial flourishes. It may be but what about this post event understanding. Was it written trying to shore up a marginal leader or to make theological sense of the Israelites entry into the promiseland? For the writer (s) they saw that God had been true to his promise... the challenge as it is repeated through out the book of Joshua is either God or Joshua exhorting the people to remain faithful. As it seems to appear in cycles the people are told to be faithful, the people swear obedience (as they have done in the selection for the 9th) and through out the book it is not the people, but their faithfulness that determines their success. God does not want their power... it is not enough... God wants to be their power... and like the 4th man in a baton race he demonstrates his power but only when it has been handed off to Him.
As in this weeks reading the vision shows God's wearing of peoples like a loose blanket. Joshua throws back in the peoples face their half measure commitment... the angel in the vision is neither one of Joshua's people or one of his adversaries. The angel's fealty is only to God and as an agent he calls Joshua and the Israelites to that same fealty. It appears that God is not intersted in luke warm (no pun intended about the gospel) Israelites. God seems to want them completely... maybe even with jealosy. So like the angel who is the agent of none it could be possible in this weeks reading that God stands in the middle of the paint waiting to see what the peoples descision will be. If his people bring half heartedness God swats it out of play... If the choose to turn it over to him he turns and dunks it home.
Now some might have difficulty with the OT. Certainly there are some in our culture and this time that seek to dismiss the OT. I mean after all through out the story of Joshua we have a people at war. There is conflict, difficutly, and one people being led by God to overcome another people. This kind of event conflicts with persons understanding... at least as it has presented by some in Christianity, in a God of love. Bloodshed, war, does not fit in easily with the Gospel of Love. We're not the first to struggle with the OT at times. In fact this difficulty with the OT has led some to challenge the canon or even the inclusion of the OT as part of what we should hold as Christians. In the second century there was a son of a Bishop.. and that is kind of fun to say from the pulpit... son of a Bishop Marcion who himself became a bishop. He came to the conclusion in the second century that as a church we should jettison the OT as not neccesary to our salvation because it contained the worship of a lesser God Yahweh. Marcion held that in Jesus we are introduced to the God of love so we really only need to focus on the Gospels... and for Marcion it was the Gospel of Luke. Eventually the church disagreed with the truth that Marcion was offering and he was excommunicated. His teaching was understood as a Heresy or theological error. The church held that the OT was neccesary... even if at times we may scratch our head about it. Our own church certainly holds it in high regard... at the consecration of a Bishop, the ordination of a priest, and the ordination of a deacon, they all "solemnly declare that the bishop, or priest, or deacon do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation." So if we believe that God has helped form and maintain this church we least have to wrestle with the claim that the Old Testament contains God's word...ie we need to hear it to become attuned to Gods call on our lives. Now I don't think we should just take the OT claims because the church says we should. After all what Joshua reveals is that God, as a God of Love, is understood to be very active in what appears to be retributive events. Can this God be found as well in the NT? Do we have any evidence that this God who appears to knock weak game out of the court in the gospels? Does God as evidenced in Jesus Christ show up?
I think to a certain extent this rough and tumble God shows up. Jesus is not placid. I imagine at times he was quite serene. I also believe he had a wonderful sense of humor .I also believe he had the ability to love his creation in ways that surpass even our best. I also note that I would not want to be in his way, if he saw difficulty or falsity. In those situations Jesus is rough like the angel appearing with a drawn sword. His actions reveal he was not afraid to show he was not with one or another but only with those as they were seeking the kingdom of God. Certainly, Jesus knocked the rich mans weak game out of the court. Certainly when the pharisees and lawyers kept coming at him with their understanding of law over salvation or righteous behavior over mercy they experienced a defense that itself was merciless. At one point Jesus response was so sound the gospels reveal... No one asked him questions anymore. And before we think that Jesus defense was only directed at Jesus opponents we can not forget the moment when Peter almost laughs off Jesus statement about having to die before being raised, you can almost see Jesus rise to 8 feet tall and devore Peter telling him "Get behind me satan" Swat! Not in my house, Peter.
God wants us to offer ourselves to him but he wants all of us. He wants us to grow/develop/ see beyond the shackles of our foolish beliefs or ways of living which lead not to life but death.
Next time- The power of intervention as evidence of God's duel role in the paint
Yet at the same time there are moments in life that seem to be so infused with God's presence. He appears like a line of Gold thread in a blue sweater or the way cream mixes with coffee. In an instant there is change... evidence. The problem is that while God is fleetingly found in the moment the evidence seems more real looking behind. I am better at seeing God's handiwork in the way the myriad of past events seem to flow so smoothly than in the trials and tribulations of today.
My bible tells me that the story of Joshua is both historical and a theological reflection. Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, blazes into the promiseland. He is recounted, much like Moses, uplifting the law, challenging the Israelites to covenant , and even in one stunning event in chapter 5, Joshua has a vision. "Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?" He replied, "Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, " What do you command of your servant, my lord?" The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy." (5:13-15) Echos, no scratch that, almost duplication of Moses. The book seems to pass on the torch. As my editors note reveal, "the promises made to Moses and the ancestors are now becoming fulfilled und Joshua." God has not been silent.
Yet even the editorial notes reveal that this book of the bible was probably written some time after the events. It makes one suspicious, as Obama spoke of Biden, of it making editorial flourishes. It may be but what about this post event understanding. Was it written trying to shore up a marginal leader or to make theological sense of the Israelites entry into the promiseland? For the writer (s) they saw that God had been true to his promise... the challenge as it is repeated through out the book of Joshua is either God or Joshua exhorting the people to remain faithful. As it seems to appear in cycles the people are told to be faithful, the people swear obedience (as they have done in the selection for the 9th) and through out the book it is not the people, but their faithfulness that determines their success. God does not want their power... it is not enough... God wants to be their power... and like the 4th man in a baton race he demonstrates his power but only when it has been handed off to Him.
As in this weeks reading the vision shows God's wearing of peoples like a loose blanket. Joshua throws back in the peoples face their half measure commitment... the angel in the vision is neither one of Joshua's people or one of his adversaries. The angel's fealty is only to God and as an agent he calls Joshua and the Israelites to that same fealty. It appears that God is not intersted in luke warm (no pun intended about the gospel) Israelites. God seems to want them completely... maybe even with jealosy. So like the angel who is the agent of none it could be possible in this weeks reading that God stands in the middle of the paint waiting to see what the peoples descision will be. If his people bring half heartedness God swats it out of play... If the choose to turn it over to him he turns and dunks it home.
Now some might have difficulty with the OT. Certainly there are some in our culture and this time that seek to dismiss the OT. I mean after all through out the story of Joshua we have a people at war. There is conflict, difficutly, and one people being led by God to overcome another people. This kind of event conflicts with persons understanding... at least as it has presented by some in Christianity, in a God of love. Bloodshed, war, does not fit in easily with the Gospel of Love. We're not the first to struggle with the OT at times. In fact this difficulty with the OT has led some to challenge the canon or even the inclusion of the OT as part of what we should hold as Christians. In the second century there was a son of a Bishop.. and that is kind of fun to say from the pulpit... son of a Bishop Marcion who himself became a bishop. He came to the conclusion in the second century that as a church we should jettison the OT as not neccesary to our salvation because it contained the worship of a lesser God Yahweh. Marcion held that in Jesus we are introduced to the God of love so we really only need to focus on the Gospels... and for Marcion it was the Gospel of Luke. Eventually the church disagreed with the truth that Marcion was offering and he was excommunicated. His teaching was understood as a Heresy or theological error. The church held that the OT was neccesary... even if at times we may scratch our head about it. Our own church certainly holds it in high regard... at the consecration of a Bishop, the ordination of a priest, and the ordination of a deacon, they all "solemnly declare that the bishop, or priest, or deacon do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation." So if we believe that God has helped form and maintain this church we least have to wrestle with the claim that the Old Testament contains God's word...ie we need to hear it to become attuned to Gods call on our lives. Now I don't think we should just take the OT claims because the church says we should. After all what Joshua reveals is that God, as a God of Love, is understood to be very active in what appears to be retributive events. Can this God be found as well in the NT? Do we have any evidence that this God who appears to knock weak game out of the court in the gospels? Does God as evidenced in Jesus Christ show up?
I think to a certain extent this rough and tumble God shows up. Jesus is not placid. I imagine at times he was quite serene. I also believe he had a wonderful sense of humor .I also believe he had the ability to love his creation in ways that surpass even our best. I also note that I would not want to be in his way, if he saw difficulty or falsity. In those situations Jesus is rough like the angel appearing with a drawn sword. His actions reveal he was not afraid to show he was not with one or another but only with those as they were seeking the kingdom of God. Certainly, Jesus knocked the rich mans weak game out of the court. Certainly when the pharisees and lawyers kept coming at him with their understanding of law over salvation or righteous behavior over mercy they experienced a defense that itself was merciless. At one point Jesus response was so sound the gospels reveal... No one asked him questions anymore. And before we think that Jesus defense was only directed at Jesus opponents we can not forget the moment when Peter almost laughs off Jesus statement about having to die before being raised, you can almost see Jesus rise to 8 feet tall and devore Peter telling him "Get behind me satan" Swat! Not in my house, Peter.
God wants us to offer ourselves to him but he wants all of us. He wants us to grow/develop/ see beyond the shackles of our foolish beliefs or ways of living which lead not to life but death.
Next time- The power of intervention as evidence of God's duel role in the paint
Thursday, October 30, 2008
My House!
"You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him."
Joshua is no pansy. He is not weak. He is not afraid of upsetting people's applecart. He has a passion to serve God and is intent on calling others not only to the reward but also the challenge of doing so. If nothing else he certainly is not worried that they might become upset and walk out. Church's should pay heed...not that we want people to leave but that we should not hold the power of God hostage (even if that were possible) for fear that some might find it too daunting.
Obviously I am wrestling with something here. I know what it is like to waffle. I know what it is like to wonder if a message will be received if not by the church than my colleagues. The truth be told I am envious of Joshua's passion and conviction. Here he his in the midst of his people. He is speaking to them as adults. He, without apology, offers them a crossroads. He is not pleading with them telling them "no, no don't go down that path of idolatry or chasing false God's." He is not trying to convince them "See our Lord is good... follow him" He simply and passionately makes a crossroad apparent... whom will you serve? Followed by that oft quoted line that hangs in so many Christian houses, "Me and my house serve the Lord."
And then the people ponder... HMMMMMMMMM... and they even reply well "yes we must respect the Lord. After all he has saved us/ lead us out of slavery/did great signs/went out before us etc, etc" "yes," they say "we will serve the Lord." And then it gets interesting.
Joshua then lays it out. Although he does not say it, Joshua tells the crowd that God will not be mocked. Joshua lets them know that God plays for keeps. It is as if the crowd there is playing basketball. They think they are driving the lane on some gauky and gangly seventh grader who would rather be anywhere else than the basketball court. The crowd may even think that God is on there side... did He not deliver them from all their distress? They think that God is driving the lane with them... then Joshua reverses the scene...
They are not playing against some mambee pambee pimply 7th grader but Kevin Garnett, Marcus Camby or Dwayne Wade. God stands there in the middle of the lane and asks "Don't bring your weak game to me because if you do, I'm going to swat it out of here."
What makes the scene interested is that Joshua... in caring for the people... challanges them to A.) realize that God has stayed true to His Covenant and B.) understand that to choose God is a commitment.
Joshua is no pansy. He is not weak. He is not afraid of upsetting people's applecart. He has a passion to serve God and is intent on calling others not only to the reward but also the challenge of doing so. If nothing else he certainly is not worried that they might become upset and walk out. Church's should pay heed...not that we want people to leave but that we should not hold the power of God hostage (even if that were possible) for fear that some might find it too daunting.
Obviously I am wrestling with something here. I know what it is like to waffle. I know what it is like to wonder if a message will be received if not by the church than my colleagues. The truth be told I am envious of Joshua's passion and conviction. Here he his in the midst of his people. He is speaking to them as adults. He, without apology, offers them a crossroads. He is not pleading with them telling them "no, no don't go down that path of idolatry or chasing false God's." He is not trying to convince them "See our Lord is good... follow him" He simply and passionately makes a crossroad apparent... whom will you serve? Followed by that oft quoted line that hangs in so many Christian houses, "Me and my house serve the Lord."
And then the people ponder... HMMMMMMMMM... and they even reply well "yes we must respect the Lord. After all he has saved us/ lead us out of slavery/did great signs/went out before us etc, etc" "yes," they say "we will serve the Lord." And then it gets interesting.
Joshua then lays it out. Although he does not say it, Joshua tells the crowd that God will not be mocked. Joshua lets them know that God plays for keeps. It is as if the crowd there is playing basketball. They think they are driving the lane on some gauky and gangly seventh grader who would rather be anywhere else than the basketball court. The crowd may even think that God is on there side... did He not deliver them from all their distress? They think that God is driving the lane with them... then Joshua reverses the scene...
They are not playing against some mambee pambee pimply 7th grader but Kevin Garnett, Marcus Camby or Dwayne Wade. God stands there in the middle of the lane and asks "Don't bring your weak game to me because if you do, I'm going to swat it out of here."
What makes the scene interested is that Joshua... in caring for the people... challanges them to A.) realize that God has stayed true to His Covenant and B.) understand that to choose God is a commitment.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Locked in and Locked out
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.
I heard the phrase this morning. It came from a gentleman who works as a computer technician. He spoke with some elequence about the term, "Locked in and Locked out." The phrase refers to developing software. In his line of work he talked about getting involved in trying to figure out or debug software. The struggle is that by becoming so involved it is possible to become to fixated on solving the issue that he stops seeing possible solutions. In effect the phrase refers to being too close to the problem or being "locked in." The solution is not further investigation of the issue at hand but to back away and invite others, who may or may not have the same technical ability, to examine the problem with fresh eyes. He spoke of seeking advice and that in doing so a solution may appear. The idea is that we can limit ourselves by only believing that we have all our solutions. Our fixation on solving the problem actually locks us out of solving the very same problem we are attempting to fix.
And thus we get to the gospel. We come to a gospel reading that is so incredibly filled with irony. The pharisee's are watching Jesus closely. They have yet to really figure out who this man is. He speaks with a familiarity about God that they find troubling. He speaks with authority to them. They who are the authority themselves.
The irony of course is that in Jesus parable he talks of the place of honor and of hosts. They sit eating dinner with Jesus. They are convinced that they know the way to God and God incarnate sits among them...and they are unable to see it. They are Locked in and Locked out. God is doing something else and they are too close to see it. God has taken the lowest seat and will be invited to a higher seat. They have taken the highest seat and will be asked (and shamed) to sit lower still.
The implication for persons of faith are many. We can be too tight in our estimation of truth. We can believe we sit at the right hand of God and God might invite someone else to the seat that we believe is ours. As a priest and as a laborer of the church I can let the "business" of the day and my own willful plans interefere with what God is calling me to. I too can be a pharisee, with God at my feet, and fail to even see him. I too can be locked in and locked out.
I heard the phrase this morning. It came from a gentleman who works as a computer technician. He spoke with some elequence about the term, "Locked in and Locked out." The phrase refers to developing software. In his line of work he talked about getting involved in trying to figure out or debug software. The struggle is that by becoming so involved it is possible to become to fixated on solving the issue that he stops seeing possible solutions. In effect the phrase refers to being too close to the problem or being "locked in." The solution is not further investigation of the issue at hand but to back away and invite others, who may or may not have the same technical ability, to examine the problem with fresh eyes. He spoke of seeking advice and that in doing so a solution may appear. The idea is that we can limit ourselves by only believing that we have all our solutions. Our fixation on solving the problem actually locks us out of solving the very same problem we are attempting to fix.
And thus we get to the gospel. We come to a gospel reading that is so incredibly filled with irony. The pharisee's are watching Jesus closely. They have yet to really figure out who this man is. He speaks with a familiarity about God that they find troubling. He speaks with authority to them. They who are the authority themselves.
The irony of course is that in Jesus parable he talks of the place of honor and of hosts. They sit eating dinner with Jesus. They are convinced that they know the way to God and God incarnate sits among them...and they are unable to see it. They are Locked in and Locked out. God is doing something else and they are too close to see it. God has taken the lowest seat and will be invited to a higher seat. They have taken the highest seat and will be asked (and shamed) to sit lower still.
The implication for persons of faith are many. We can be too tight in our estimation of truth. We can believe we sit at the right hand of God and God might invite someone else to the seat that we believe is ours. As a priest and as a laborer of the church I can let the "business" of the day and my own willful plans interefere with what God is calling me to. I too can be a pharisee, with God at my feet, and fail to even see him. I too can be locked in and locked out.
Monday, August 20, 2007
The irony of the statement
But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." Luke 14
This field is rich. The Gospel reading for Sept 2nd is one which is so incredibly rich. It leaves me a bit speachless in thinking of the possibilities for preaching. There is the virtue of humility...Jesus has joined the priests of his day. They are living a life in service of God and at their feet is God incarnate. The parable itself is indicative of their situation. The groom is at hand. The one who will be invited to sit higher up is literally sitting in the lowest place and they can not see it. The Gospel also contains the injunction to serve the "least of these." I know it pinches my feet as I begin to enter deeply into the world of church. It pinches because church and the least of these can be two different worlds. How often am I among those who can not repay? There is the fact that we tend to remember through history those who lifted up their fellows rather than the tyrants who exalt themselves. Our hero's both religious and secular tend to be those who did not seek out power and position for themselves but those who sought to increase the lives of those around them.
There is the fact that there is no guarantee that when you sit in the lowest place that the host will even invite you to some higher place. This passage says "may." There is no immediate gratification in seeking the lowest place. When we choose to sit there we should expect to stay there for it will be false humility to sit in a position of service only to expect to sit somewhere higher. Either we will be found out or we will resent the Host. Neither reveals a willingness to follow God's will. Both reveals a type of pride. The man or woman serving God so he or she will get later riches or honor has not chosen the lowest seat.
There in this particular passage is the metaphorical "all" who sit with you. There are many who are at the table. They to have been invited. They have not come to honor us but the host of the party. Our own ego can not diminish their invitation or their very sitting by expecting that the Host will somehow favor us over others. How often have I heard snide remarks about "those" Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, or Baptist? How often has it been I who has snubbed?
Rich, rich indeed.
This field is rich. The Gospel reading for Sept 2nd is one which is so incredibly rich. It leaves me a bit speachless in thinking of the possibilities for preaching. There is the virtue of humility...Jesus has joined the priests of his day. They are living a life in service of God and at their feet is God incarnate. The parable itself is indicative of their situation. The groom is at hand. The one who will be invited to sit higher up is literally sitting in the lowest place and they can not see it. The Gospel also contains the injunction to serve the "least of these." I know it pinches my feet as I begin to enter deeply into the world of church. It pinches because church and the least of these can be two different worlds. How often am I among those who can not repay? There is the fact that we tend to remember through history those who lifted up their fellows rather than the tyrants who exalt themselves. Our hero's both religious and secular tend to be those who did not seek out power and position for themselves but those who sought to increase the lives of those around them.
There is the fact that there is no guarantee that when you sit in the lowest place that the host will even invite you to some higher place. This passage says "may." There is no immediate gratification in seeking the lowest place. When we choose to sit there we should expect to stay there for it will be false humility to sit in a position of service only to expect to sit somewhere higher. Either we will be found out or we will resent the Host. Neither reveals a willingness to follow God's will. Both reveals a type of pride. The man or woman serving God so he or she will get later riches or honor has not chosen the lowest seat.
There in this particular passage is the metaphorical "all" who sit with you. There are many who are at the table. They to have been invited. They have not come to honor us but the host of the party. Our own ego can not diminish their invitation or their very sitting by expecting that the Host will somehow favor us over others. How often have I heard snide remarks about "those" Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, or Baptist? How often has it been I who has snubbed?
Rich, rich indeed.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Luke 12:49 -
Many of my friends are preaching tomorrow on Luke 12:49, if you are unfamiliar with this text, read it below ... a challenging text to say the least!
I am not preaching, but I am reading the Gospel as the deacon of the service, and I have not done a full job of reflecting on and wrestling with, and exegeting this text. That said, my reaction to this text is that: Jesus means business! Jesus did not come in a trifling way, and his mission on earth was not one that was unimportant, or without challenge. Many of us desire "peace" and "unity" rather than division, and we desire some semblance of love and companionship between sons and fathers and mothers and daughters. However, these gaps and divisions between generations are real ones, and Jesus' coming is a New Thing, the Gospel, the Good News - but it may not initially look so peaceful, or unifying or perhaps even 'good.' Jesus came into the world and he meant business, he came with power and might, and Jesus also comes into the world today, and means business, he comes into the world in power and might. Do we trust God enough to see that Jesus is calling us to interpret the present times? Will we live in a way that embraces the eschatological framework that God is going to come and judge us, and that Jesus does not come in a trifling way, but comes in a real way, to deal with real injustice; that Jesus does not come into the world powerless, but transforms and explodes the power systems of our world - even the relationships between family members of different generations?
This text is a challenging one, and even a scary one. The image of Jesus here does not seem to be an image of a 'good shepherd,' but rather a terrible taskmaster. Perhaps we need to see that God cares about the world enough to send someone who loves us, but also who will ask us to account for those things we have done, those things we have left undone, for those things that have been done in our name, and for all the ways that our lives intersect with sin and evil that is done in the world. God cares about the world enough to send His Son who loves us, and loves us enough to judge us, and to empower us to live up to that judgment.
May we hear these difficult and challenging words, and heed them as a wake up call!
I am not preaching, but I am reading the Gospel as the deacon of the service, and I have not done a full job of reflecting on and wrestling with, and exegeting this text. That said, my reaction to this text is that: Jesus means business! Jesus did not come in a trifling way, and his mission on earth was not one that was unimportant, or without challenge. Many of us desire "peace" and "unity" rather than division, and we desire some semblance of love and companionship between sons and fathers and mothers and daughters. However, these gaps and divisions between generations are real ones, and Jesus' coming is a New Thing, the Gospel, the Good News - but it may not initially look so peaceful, or unifying or perhaps even 'good.' Jesus came into the world and he meant business, he came with power and might, and Jesus also comes into the world today, and means business, he comes into the world in power and might. Do we trust God enough to see that Jesus is calling us to interpret the present times? Will we live in a way that embraces the eschatological framework that God is going to come and judge us, and that Jesus does not come in a trifling way, but comes in a real way, to deal with real injustice; that Jesus does not come into the world powerless, but transforms and explodes the power systems of our world - even the relationships between family members of different generations?
This text is a challenging one, and even a scary one. The image of Jesus here does not seem to be an image of a 'good shepherd,' but rather a terrible taskmaster. Perhaps we need to see that God cares about the world enough to send someone who loves us, but also who will ask us to account for those things we have done, those things we have left undone, for those things that have been done in our name, and for all the ways that our lives intersect with sin and evil that is done in the world. God cares about the world enough to send His Son who loves us, and loves us enough to judge us, and to empower us to live up to that judgment.
May we hear these difficult and challenging words, and heed them as a wake up call!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
discipline, practice, endurance
If no one minds, I'll return to posting only on my blog this week. Here's my thoughts for today, thanks for reading.
This is not a fun week in the lectionary. God's anger is clear in the words of Jeremiah; the people have turned away from the uncomfortable word of God and instead are listening to what is easy to hear from the mouths of liars. The author of the letter to the Hebrews is clear that following the gospel, living a kingdom life, isn't easy. It is like running a long race, it is a struggle, it is a life of discipline, being set straight by the Lord. And finally, we have Jesus, God's self, making clear that with the immanence of the kingdom of God comes division, pain, and a fire that refines away our sinful desires.
These lessons are hard for us to hear. We like our gospel to come as one of love. We like the idea of "loving God and loving neighbor" as long as it doesn't mean doing too much. We like being lazy in our faith, assured of our salvation, whenever judgment day comes (according to science we're safe for quite a while, if we reverse global warming that is). And so it'd be really easy to just skip over this week. Preach on the collect, or do an instructed Eucharist and preach on why the altar is green, but to be true to our faith, we know we can't. We have to struggle with what looks like the ugly side of following God. We have to accept that discipline "always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later is yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
In short, it seems this Sunday we will have to deal with sin. We will have to accept that we, personally, are sinners in need of judgment. We will have to accept that we exist within a culture of sin and are complicit in systemic sin. We will have to come to terms with the fact that sin is against the will of God, and the only way to return to the LORD is a painful process of giving up our own way, being thrown in the fire for a while, to be purified and made clean for God.
This won't be fun. It won't be a happy, clappy, mountain top experience. It might pit "father against son... mother against daughter... mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law...", but it will be for the good of all Creation. It will mean a change of heart, that, done right, turns from fatalistic thinking (I'm just a sinner who can do no right) to kingdom thinking (I have been washed clean so that I can work with God).
Dear God, give me the wisdom and strength to preach your word of judgment that allows us to rejoice in your grace, Amen.
This is not a fun week in the lectionary. God's anger is clear in the words of Jeremiah; the people have turned away from the uncomfortable word of God and instead are listening to what is easy to hear from the mouths of liars. The author of the letter to the Hebrews is clear that following the gospel, living a kingdom life, isn't easy. It is like running a long race, it is a struggle, it is a life of discipline, being set straight by the Lord. And finally, we have Jesus, God's self, making clear that with the immanence of the kingdom of God comes division, pain, and a fire that refines away our sinful desires.
These lessons are hard for us to hear. We like our gospel to come as one of love. We like the idea of "loving God and loving neighbor" as long as it doesn't mean doing too much. We like being lazy in our faith, assured of our salvation, whenever judgment day comes (according to science we're safe for quite a while, if we reverse global warming that is). And so it'd be really easy to just skip over this week. Preach on the collect, or do an instructed Eucharist and preach on why the altar is green, but to be true to our faith, we know we can't. We have to struggle with what looks like the ugly side of following God. We have to accept that discipline "always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later is yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
In short, it seems this Sunday we will have to deal with sin. We will have to accept that we, personally, are sinners in need of judgment. We will have to accept that we exist within a culture of sin and are complicit in systemic sin. We will have to come to terms with the fact that sin is against the will of God, and the only way to return to the LORD is a painful process of giving up our own way, being thrown in the fire for a while, to be purified and made clean for God.
This won't be fun. It won't be a happy, clappy, mountain top experience. It might pit "father against son... mother against daughter... mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law...", but it will be for the good of all Creation. It will mean a change of heart, that, done right, turns from fatalistic thinking (I'm just a sinner who can do no right) to kingdom thinking (I have been washed clean so that I can work with God).
Dear God, give me the wisdom and strength to preach your word of judgment that allows us to rejoice in your grace, Amen.
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