Pentecost 15A
September 25, 2011
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
On September 11th, I was scrolling my Facebook feed on my iphone while waiting for the flight that took Chris and I to Orlando, Florida on our honeymoon. While doing this I came across a comment posted by someone I’ve known since high school. The post was about how proud she is in regard to how this country has been unified since the attacks on America 10 years prior. My first thought was yeah, we did pull together for a little bit, but then we fractured big time. It wasn’t two days after the attacks when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were blaming the attacks on the Gays, Feminists, the ACLU, Pagans, etc. In the years that have followed we have blamed this person and that for the attacks…some saying blaming all muslims, others saying that the CIA must have known something was up…others still blamed the Bush administration, claiming a relationship between the Bush family and Bin Ladin. The list goes on and on…and still, 10 years later, as we enter another election cycle and the third possible occurrence of a major budget crisis in a year had appeared, it is clear from news reports, facebook and twitter, that as a nation, we are still pointing fingers, blaming this person and that person for the state our nation is in, rather that putting in the effort to come together and seek ways in which we can do better for our nation and the future of our nation.
There was a lot of finger pointing going on among the Israelite exiles in Babylon, too. Instead of pointing the finger at others among them, though, the fingers were pointed towards the ancestors and towards God. Our reading from Ezekiel this morning was written around the time that the first group of exiles had been taken from their home in Israel to Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had ordered the capture of 3,000 people from Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel…as well as the removal of the King of Judah from the throne. The rest of the people were left to be workers for the Babylonians in Judah. The exiles were not too thrilled with their situation in Babylon, mostly because they didn’t think that they had anything to do with becoming exiles and therefore there wasn’t anything they could do about getting out of exile. Their thinking comes from a couple of sources.
First, there is a writing in Exodus that appears again in Deuteronomy in which God says that God will visit the sin of the fathers on the children and the third and fourth generations of those who hate him…in addition to this, the writers of the books of Kings and Chronicles had made it abundantly clear that by re-instituting pagan worship during his reign, which took place about a hundred years earlier, King Manasseh had sealed the fate of Israel for generations to come. A final element that needs to be noted for the context of Ezekiel and his audience, is that they lived in a poly-deistic society…for them, the God of Abraham or the other gods like Baal, let you know how pleased they were with you by how things went. To them, drought which yielded bad yields of crops, floods, damaging winds, and other natural events of the sort, were all acts of the gods to get your attention.
And so, when you add all this up, the visiting sins up future generations, the well known sins of Manasseh and their beliefs about natural phenomena, the 3,000 Judean exiles in Babylon decided that it was unfair that they had been taken from their homes, their livelihoods, their families and been taken to this place. And we can all agree with them on that…it isn’t fair when people are forcibly taken from their homes, families and livelihoods. But in their eyes, what made it even more unfair was that they felt that they were completely innocent and had done nothing to deserve the situation that they were in. God had exiled them, taken them away from everything they had as punishment for what their ancestors had done. So why bother doing anything, we can’t fix the situation we’re in…so the exiles spent their days repeating an old proverb “the parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It was a proverb that expressed their feeling that their situation in exile was completely the fault of the parents and grandparents and, for them, absolved them of any guilt involved with the exile.
And this is where Ezekiel steps in.
Ezekiel had been taken into exile with the rest of the group…but Ezekiel was also a prophet who had a message to bring to the exiles. It was a message from God that called them out on the finger pointing and showed them a different way of looking at things. First, God forbids the use of the proverb used by the exiles and in the verses that are missing from this passage, God uses Ezekiel to explain to the people that they have wrongly interpreted the passages form Exodus and Deuteronomy. Ezekiel tells them that when God looks at an individual, he doesn’t see the sins or the righteousness of the parent or the grandparent, but God looks at the person him or herself and judges everyone accordingly. But if there are generations after generations of folks who hate God, then yeah, there might be consequences.
In general, however, who we are in the eyes of God is not defined by the past acts of our ancestors, but by who we are…and going further, who we are is not defined by who we were before, but who we choose to be and what we choose to do now. This is how God works! We can think that we are storing up righteousness for a rainy day…or think that all the bad things we’ve done in the past will be held against us…but that’s not how God works. God gives us a chance every day to choose who we are going to be and how we are going to act. The past does not define us, nor the future, only the present.
And yet, along with the Judeans in exile, we are often tempted to look out at the world and see how things are, throw our hands up in the air and say “why are you being so unfair, God?” When we do that, though, we are ignoring that there is a difference between the worldly order of things and God’s order of things. In the worldly order of things, everything that we do affects the people around us…if I don’t go grocery shopping regularly, my husband and dog will have nothing to eat…if we as a congregation don’t join together to serve with LINK, Family Promise and the food pantry, people who really need our help won’t get that meal or that place to sleep. If we as a nation don’t peaceably work out a solution to our economic problems, our children and children’s children will be affected by this. This is the worldly order of things, the cause and affect of physics is very much how the world works. As Homer Simpson once said “how come my actions always have consequences?”
Fortunately for us, God knows all to well how the world works. God has been looking over us from the beginning but because he is an all loving God, God knows that he can’t force us into anything…not into loving him and not into choosing to do the right things every day. But that’s why God does give us a choice every day…God allows us to choose every day who we are going to be and what we are going to do. We can choose to follow God and listen for what God has for us to do, or we can choose to ignore it and go the other way. But with that choice comes and admonition, to get a new heart and a new spirit, to turn and choose life! To try every day to be better people for God and for the world…it’s not easy, but we know that it’s possible. We know this because we have the example of the one who was in the form of God but chose humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. Jesus wasn’t afraid to call out the Pharisees when they pointed fingers and he’s not afraid to call us out, either. Sure it’s uncomfortable…but in the end, it what helps us to grow and thrive.
And so we have a decision to make today and every day…in this world of fractured people, finger pointing and unfairs, who are we going to be? Are we going to be the people who throw our hands up in the air and give up? Or are we going to be a witness to the world of how God does things?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
“God Doesn’t Charge a Baggage Fee…He Passes Over It”
Pentecost 12a
September 4, 2011
Exodus 12:1-14
One of my favorite websites to peruse every now and then is OldLutheran.com. They have a wonderful selection of products full of puns intended for Lutherans. You can get socks that say ‘Here I Stand’ or get shorts that on the left side of the back say ‘Left Behind’ and any number of other things that help you boldly proclaim your Lutheran heritage in a lighthearted manner. One year, after purchasing some items for a reformation party, I received a free gift from Oldlutheran that I now carry my knitting stuff in. It has the words “this is my Lutheran baggage” on it. And while I thought the pun was funny, it also got me thinking about the baggage that we carry…and I’m not talking about the baggage that Delta airlines charges you $20 a bag to check when you go on a trip, I’m talking about life baggage. We’ve all got life baggage, good and bad, things we’ve done, things we didn’t do, things that people have done for or to us or have just plain forgotten to do. Some of our life baggage lifts us up while some of it weighs us down.
The Israelites in Egypt were certainly weighed down by the baggage of the slavery that had been imposed upon them by the Pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph. For generations, the Israelites had been oppressed, worked to death and been tread upon by the Egyptians, who had taken them as slaves because they feared that the Israelites would rise up and defeat the Egyptians by use of military force. And now God is going to set them free.
Before the point where we enter this story, God has raised up Moses and Aaron as leaders of the Israelites and has sent them to Pharaoh with demands to let their people go. Even after nine plagues, Pharaoh has still not had a change of heart. However, now that we have entered the story, we see God instructing Moses and Aaron on how to make preparations for a meal that will take place the night of the tenth and final plague, a plague which will claim the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, from the house of Pharaoh to the livestock. Now, if you read the narrative of the plagues, which begin in chapter 7 of Exodus, you will find the details a little bit lacking as far as specifics of the plagues themselves…and that’s what makes our passage for this morning so important.
The writer of this portion of Exodus wanted to make sure that the details of the Passover meal were laid out so that his readers could grasp the importance of what was going on at this moment in time. Freedom was at last in their line of sight and now God was giving the people instructions as to how to celebrate and remember their liberation from the hands of the Egyptians. And God is very specific as to how they were to go about this. On the 10th of this month, every family is to take a 1 year old male lamb from the sheep or the goats…if a family is too small for one lamb, they are to share it with their neighbors. On the 14th of the month, at twilight, everyone is to slaughter their lambs and put blood from the lamb on the lintels and door posts. Then roast the lamb over fire, organs and all, and serve with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. If anything is left over in the morning, burn it. And, by the way, eat the meal quickly, and be dressed as if you would be ready to leave at any moment. All of this was to happen on the night that God was to send the tenth plague upon Egypt, striking down the first born, with the exception of those in houses with lambs blood on the lintels and doorposts…them God would Passover.
The details of this narrative are very important to the writer of this part of Exodus, because they tell us about the beginning of God’s giving the Israelites a new and fresh start. People have said that the reason they had unleavened bread was because there was no time, but there were at least 4 days in which to make bread…and here’s the thing about yeast…it carries over the old with the new. So if you want to make bread that is totally new in character, without any traces of the old, you leave about the yeast. And if you want to cook something in a manner that leaves nothing of the old when you’re done, you use a fire instead of boiling. God was giving Moses and Aaron instructions of how to signal to the people that they were going to get a totally new start.
But what about this whole lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintel deal? Seems a little gory, doesn’t it. Think about the rainbow from the story of the flood in Genesis, though. God told Noah that the rainbow would be a sign for both Noah and God that would help them both remember the covenant that they had made together. In a similar manner, the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of the houses of the people of Israel, while not as pleasant as a rainbow, served that dual purpose, to remind the people that they have received life and to remind God to Passover those houses, leaving those first born untouched by the plague.
The story of the Passover is considered to be the climax of the Exodus narrative and one of the most important and celebrated stories in the Jewish heritage. It is the story of a God who sides with the slave, the outcast, and the downtrodden…a God who does not leave God’s people behind but seeks ways in which to bring them something better. Each year on Passover, our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community gather to remember the night in which God liberated the Israelites from their oppressors.
Around that same time, we in the Christian community gather to remember the night in which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was betrayed and what happened in subsequent days with Jesus’ arrest, trial, death and resurrection. But we don’t just remember the events of Holy Week during holy week, every time we come to the table and celebrate the Eucharist we remember how God has passed over our sins and liberated us from the sin that oppresses us daily. There may not be blood on the doorposts, but the blood in the chalice still is enough to remind us of the life we have received. We remember how God looks at the baggage that we carry, especially the stuff that weighs us down…the things we didn’t do that we should have; the things we shouldn’t have done, but did anyways; the times we didn’t follow Jesus’ instructions to hold our brothers and sisters accountable when they have sinned against us, but instead either made it public or held grudges…God looks at that baggage and then passes it over, freeing us to live in ways that Christ would have us to live, released from the bonds that sin has over us.
When we were baptized, as Reed and Natalie will be today, we were marked with the cross of Christ. It is a mark that we carry with us on our foreheads for the rest of our lives. It is a mark that reminds us of who we are and whose we are. It’s also a reminder that we have been given life. We are God’s beloved children, called and claimed and washed…the baggage that weighs us down has been removed so that we can be free from sin and free to live. And so today we remember, we remember the day of our baptism, we remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us when we come to the table, eat of his body and drink of his blood, we remember that God has given us a new start, totally from the from old weights that drag us down so that we can live and be free to love, to loose and to live. Amen.
September 4, 2011
Exodus 12:1-14
One of my favorite websites to peruse every now and then is OldLutheran.com. They have a wonderful selection of products full of puns intended for Lutherans. You can get socks that say ‘Here I Stand’ or get shorts that on the left side of the back say ‘Left Behind’ and any number of other things that help you boldly proclaim your Lutheran heritage in a lighthearted manner. One year, after purchasing some items for a reformation party, I received a free gift from Oldlutheran that I now carry my knitting stuff in. It has the words “this is my Lutheran baggage” on it. And while I thought the pun was funny, it also got me thinking about the baggage that we carry…and I’m not talking about the baggage that Delta airlines charges you $20 a bag to check when you go on a trip, I’m talking about life baggage. We’ve all got life baggage, good and bad, things we’ve done, things we didn’t do, things that people have done for or to us or have just plain forgotten to do. Some of our life baggage lifts us up while some of it weighs us down.
The Israelites in Egypt were certainly weighed down by the baggage of the slavery that had been imposed upon them by the Pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph. For generations, the Israelites had been oppressed, worked to death and been tread upon by the Egyptians, who had taken them as slaves because they feared that the Israelites would rise up and defeat the Egyptians by use of military force. And now God is going to set them free.
Before the point where we enter this story, God has raised up Moses and Aaron as leaders of the Israelites and has sent them to Pharaoh with demands to let their people go. Even after nine plagues, Pharaoh has still not had a change of heart. However, now that we have entered the story, we see God instructing Moses and Aaron on how to make preparations for a meal that will take place the night of the tenth and final plague, a plague which will claim the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, from the house of Pharaoh to the livestock. Now, if you read the narrative of the plagues, which begin in chapter 7 of Exodus, you will find the details a little bit lacking as far as specifics of the plagues themselves…and that’s what makes our passage for this morning so important.
The writer of this portion of Exodus wanted to make sure that the details of the Passover meal were laid out so that his readers could grasp the importance of what was going on at this moment in time. Freedom was at last in their line of sight and now God was giving the people instructions as to how to celebrate and remember their liberation from the hands of the Egyptians. And God is very specific as to how they were to go about this. On the 10th of this month, every family is to take a 1 year old male lamb from the sheep or the goats…if a family is too small for one lamb, they are to share it with their neighbors. On the 14th of the month, at twilight, everyone is to slaughter their lambs and put blood from the lamb on the lintels and door posts. Then roast the lamb over fire, organs and all, and serve with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. If anything is left over in the morning, burn it. And, by the way, eat the meal quickly, and be dressed as if you would be ready to leave at any moment. All of this was to happen on the night that God was to send the tenth plague upon Egypt, striking down the first born, with the exception of those in houses with lambs blood on the lintels and doorposts…them God would Passover.
The details of this narrative are very important to the writer of this part of Exodus, because they tell us about the beginning of God’s giving the Israelites a new and fresh start. People have said that the reason they had unleavened bread was because there was no time, but there were at least 4 days in which to make bread…and here’s the thing about yeast…it carries over the old with the new. So if you want to make bread that is totally new in character, without any traces of the old, you leave about the yeast. And if you want to cook something in a manner that leaves nothing of the old when you’re done, you use a fire instead of boiling. God was giving Moses and Aaron instructions of how to signal to the people that they were going to get a totally new start.
But what about this whole lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintel deal? Seems a little gory, doesn’t it. Think about the rainbow from the story of the flood in Genesis, though. God told Noah that the rainbow would be a sign for both Noah and God that would help them both remember the covenant that they had made together. In a similar manner, the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of the houses of the people of Israel, while not as pleasant as a rainbow, served that dual purpose, to remind the people that they have received life and to remind God to Passover those houses, leaving those first born untouched by the plague.
The story of the Passover is considered to be the climax of the Exodus narrative and one of the most important and celebrated stories in the Jewish heritage. It is the story of a God who sides with the slave, the outcast, and the downtrodden…a God who does not leave God’s people behind but seeks ways in which to bring them something better. Each year on Passover, our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community gather to remember the night in which God liberated the Israelites from their oppressors.
Around that same time, we in the Christian community gather to remember the night in which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was betrayed and what happened in subsequent days with Jesus’ arrest, trial, death and resurrection. But we don’t just remember the events of Holy Week during holy week, every time we come to the table and celebrate the Eucharist we remember how God has passed over our sins and liberated us from the sin that oppresses us daily. There may not be blood on the doorposts, but the blood in the chalice still is enough to remind us of the life we have received. We remember how God looks at the baggage that we carry, especially the stuff that weighs us down…the things we didn’t do that we should have; the things we shouldn’t have done, but did anyways; the times we didn’t follow Jesus’ instructions to hold our brothers and sisters accountable when they have sinned against us, but instead either made it public or held grudges…God looks at that baggage and then passes it over, freeing us to live in ways that Christ would have us to live, released from the bonds that sin has over us.
When we were baptized, as Reed and Natalie will be today, we were marked with the cross of Christ. It is a mark that we carry with us on our foreheads for the rest of our lives. It is a mark that reminds us of who we are and whose we are. It’s also a reminder that we have been given life. We are God’s beloved children, called and claimed and washed…the baggage that weighs us down has been removed so that we can be free from sin and free to live. And so today we remember, we remember the day of our baptism, we remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us when we come to the table, eat of his body and drink of his blood, we remember that God has given us a new start, totally from the from old weights that drag us down so that we can live and be free to love, to loose and to live. Amen.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Who is the future of the church?
As a young pastor who came to Trinity fresh out of seminary, I fell into a role that many young pastors who are called to serve program size parishes do, ministering to youth and young adults.
In my first two years here, my priority went to the youth as it seemed that they were the most in need of organization and of being fully re-integrated into the life of the congregation. In that time, a few really strong leaders have emerged and while there have been struggles, there has been amazing ministry done by these youth and a lot of re-integration has happened. And so, after updating the Sunday School roster for this year, I realized that there is a critical mass of young families in this congregation (by the end of this year there are going to be 28 children age 2 and under!!!) and so I am implementing a plan to use those strong leaders from the youth to take on more of a leadership role for me to oversee while I shift more of my direct efforts to young adults and young families. This way, I will be able to give more equal attention to both youth and ya/yf while raising up leaders from both of those groups.
Then about 10 days ago, someone told me how happy there are they I am shifting my ministry focus to the ya/yf population of the church. "Youth aren't really the future of the church, you know...it's the young adults who are returning with their young children." I responded to the person that I disagreed because both groups represent the future of the church, but in different times and ways. I didn't have the time to give rationale, but I've been digesting this interaction for the past few days and wanted to share some thoughts.
I do firmly believe that youth are the future of the church...I have believed this for a long time.
I also believe firmly that young adults are the future of the church and have believed this for a long time.
Youth are most certainly the future of the church, they are the ones providing leadership in places that we don't often see. Very few adults have the blessing of being able to see youth at work on mission trips, at synod assembly, in youth group and confirmation. They are willing to take on tough issues, face down adversity and frustrations and persevere through disappointments. The youth of this current generation, for the most part, love better than we adults love and they are more accepting that most adults are. They see through the bull&*^& that we produce when we say that folks should behave one way and then we ourselves act another way. But they are also under attack...from bullies, from a sex saturated culture, from colleges that tell them that they need a certain number of extracurricular activities to be able to think about applying to that college, from their own doubts and questions, and sometimes from their churches. And so to make sure that the youth remain the future of the church and become those young adults who bring their children to church is to engage them, invite their questions and doubts and tell them they are allowed to struggle. Give them a place to rest and re-create both physically and spiritually. Help them to see that God loves them no matter what and put scripture in their hands and a language of faith into their hearts so that they can profess what they believe when people challenge them...and so that they can profess what they don't believe or what they are struggling to believe in. And most of all, drop the fake crap, stop pretending we're cool when we're not and just love these youth for who they are, for who God made them to be.
Young adults are also the future of the church. They are the ones that are getting married and having children, thus, increasing the membership numbers of a congregation. There are strong leadership roles that these folks play too, Sunday school teachers, ministry team members (I don't like the word committee, sounds boring), event planners, bible study leaders. But this group is also faced with its challenges...wedding planning, working overtime, finding work, going to school, sick kids, kids who don't sleep through the night, kids school and sporting functions living in a different city or state than family, finances, etc. Like the youth of our congregation, the young adult/young family set is also over booked. I remember when I was in high school, my mom had a dry erase calendar by the door and it was constantly packed with events that the three of us kids had between Sarah's softball, Chris' rowing and my band and choir stuff. And they are struggling with the same questions youth face, but they look at it with a different lens than youth do as they are at a different place in their lives.
We need to find how to engage these young adults and young parents...how do we as a church provide them with a safe space to discuss the parts of scripture they question? How do we as a church provide them a place to discuss the struggles that young people face with finding jobs and managing finances? How do we as church help provide sabbath to young parents so that they can have time for themselves and/or for their significant others/spouses? How do we engage them when they are tired from not having slept the night before because of crying children or working on their dissertation or any number of other things that keep young adults burning the candle at both ends?
Youth and young adults/young families are all the future of the church...
Strike that...they ARE the church! They are the church now and here.
Are you ready to embrace that change, church? it's happening right now
In my first two years here, my priority went to the youth as it seemed that they were the most in need of organization and of being fully re-integrated into the life of the congregation. In that time, a few really strong leaders have emerged and while there have been struggles, there has been amazing ministry done by these youth and a lot of re-integration has happened. And so, after updating the Sunday School roster for this year, I realized that there is a critical mass of young families in this congregation (by the end of this year there are going to be 28 children age 2 and under!!!) and so I am implementing a plan to use those strong leaders from the youth to take on more of a leadership role for me to oversee while I shift more of my direct efforts to young adults and young families. This way, I will be able to give more equal attention to both youth and ya/yf while raising up leaders from both of those groups.
Then about 10 days ago, someone told me how happy there are they I am shifting my ministry focus to the ya/yf population of the church. "Youth aren't really the future of the church, you know...it's the young adults who are returning with their young children." I responded to the person that I disagreed because both groups represent the future of the church, but in different times and ways. I didn't have the time to give rationale, but I've been digesting this interaction for the past few days and wanted to share some thoughts.
I do firmly believe that youth are the future of the church...I have believed this for a long time.
I also believe firmly that young adults are the future of the church and have believed this for a long time.
Youth are most certainly the future of the church, they are the ones providing leadership in places that we don't often see. Very few adults have the blessing of being able to see youth at work on mission trips, at synod assembly, in youth group and confirmation. They are willing to take on tough issues, face down adversity and frustrations and persevere through disappointments. The youth of this current generation, for the most part, love better than we adults love and they are more accepting that most adults are. They see through the bull&*^& that we produce when we say that folks should behave one way and then we ourselves act another way. But they are also under attack...from bullies, from a sex saturated culture, from colleges that tell them that they need a certain number of extracurricular activities to be able to think about applying to that college, from their own doubts and questions, and sometimes from their churches. And so to make sure that the youth remain the future of the church and become those young adults who bring their children to church is to engage them, invite their questions and doubts and tell them they are allowed to struggle. Give them a place to rest and re-create both physically and spiritually. Help them to see that God loves them no matter what and put scripture in their hands and a language of faith into their hearts so that they can profess what they believe when people challenge them...and so that they can profess what they don't believe or what they are struggling to believe in. And most of all, drop the fake crap, stop pretending we're cool when we're not and just love these youth for who they are, for who God made them to be.
Young adults are also the future of the church. They are the ones that are getting married and having children, thus, increasing the membership numbers of a congregation. There are strong leadership roles that these folks play too, Sunday school teachers, ministry team members (I don't like the word committee, sounds boring), event planners, bible study leaders. But this group is also faced with its challenges...wedding planning, working overtime, finding work, going to school, sick kids, kids who don't sleep through the night, kids school and sporting functions living in a different city or state than family, finances, etc. Like the youth of our congregation, the young adult/young family set is also over booked. I remember when I was in high school, my mom had a dry erase calendar by the door and it was constantly packed with events that the three of us kids had between Sarah's softball, Chris' rowing and my band and choir stuff. And they are struggling with the same questions youth face, but they look at it with a different lens than youth do as they are at a different place in their lives.
We need to find how to engage these young adults and young parents...how do we as a church provide them with a safe space to discuss the parts of scripture they question? How do we as a church provide them a place to discuss the struggles that young people face with finding jobs and managing finances? How do we as church help provide sabbath to young parents so that they can have time for themselves and/or for their significant others/spouses? How do we engage them when they are tired from not having slept the night before because of crying children or working on their dissertation or any number of other things that keep young adults burning the candle at both ends?
Youth and young adults/young families are all the future of the church...
Strike that...they ARE the church! They are the church now and here.
Are you ready to embrace that change, church? it's happening right now
Sunday, August 14, 2011
A Canaanite Woman and a Gran Torino - Pentecost 9A
Pentecost 9
August 14, 2011
Matthew 15:21-28
If there was ever a 100% human portrayal of Jesus within the Gospels, there are three main examples which pop into my head, Jesus cleansing the temple, Jesus in the garden, and Jesus in his interaction with the Canaanite woman that we heard this morning. Now many attempts have been made to try and clean up this interaction between Jesus and this woman. It’s almost as if we would prefer that Jesus was not 100% human sometimes, especially where a text like this is concerned, and so we try and create a kinder, gentler Jesus than the one that Matthew portrays in this text. So maybe Jesus was just testing the faith of this woman, maybe he wanted her to act more like a proper woman and not address him in such a bold manner…a manner which was stereotypical of prostitutes of that time. But what if Jesus interacts with the Canaanite woman in this way because he’s just telling it like he sees it at that moment?
When I was reading the text this week, the plot of the movie Gran Torino popped into my head. It’s about a man named Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet from Detroit. He was a widower who neither trusted in the young priest who frequently called on him after his wife died, nor his neighbors, a Hmong family who had recently moved in next door. Walt really wished they would just go away, along with the rest of the people who had caused such a change in the racial diversity of his neighborhood. But things took a twist for Walt when the youngest of his neighbors got caught trying to steal Walt’s car. All Walt asked for as punishment for the crime was that the boy do some chores for him as Walt decided to reform the boy and do what he could to keep the boy out of his cousin’s gang…and as their relationship developed, Walt became more and more involved with the Hmong family that he originally despised. The neighbors became family and in the end, Walt made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the lives of his neighbors from the gang that threatened their safety.
Within this movie, Clint Eastwood captured very accurately the continued racial tensions that exist within the city of Detroit and its suburbs. But what I like about it is that it demonstrates what can happen when we look beyond ourselves and dare to see our neighbors beyond the stereotypes that seem, all to often, to define us. It is a portrayal of a broadening worldview…one that also takes place in our gospel text this morning.
At this point in the journey, Jesus and his disciples were in the district of Tyre and Sidon, a land formerly known as Canaan. The folks who lived there were considered to be the enemies of the Jews since the time of Noah. The Canaanites, later called Syrophonecians, were descendants of Noah’s son Ham, the son that Noah cursed for having seen Noah naked. They were also pagans who worshiped Phonecian gods and had been slaves to the Jews for sometime, as was promised to Abraham by God. So the fact that Matthew refers to the woman as a Canaanite rather than a Syrophonecian seems to play off the adversarial nature of the relationship between these two groups of people. So, if it is surprising to Jesus, or to the disciples, that a Canaanite woman would approach Jesus and ask for his help while he was in the land formerly known as Canaan, it should really only be because the Canaanites did not take too kindly to the Jews.
It is obvious, though, that this woman knew exactly who Jesus was and knew of the miracles that he had performed. And it would seem, given the relationship between the Jews and the Canaanites that her willingness to cross the divide signifies the desperate nature of her daughter’s situation and the depth of concern that this woman has for her daughter.
The reaction of the disciples and of Jesus to this woman, however, is quite shocking when you think about it. Instead of being warm and welcoming, the disciples wish to cast her off back where she came from and Jesus first ignores her…twice, then he refers to her and her people as dogs, which were at that time seen as unclean in that cultural framework. And this is the part of the story that we wish to clean up a lot of the time. We like the part where Jesus praises the woman’s faith…though she never actually confesses anything…and we like the part where the woman’s daughter is instantaneously healed. But it’s the initial reaction of Jesus to this woman that makes this story difficult to read and to interpret…and so we try and interpret it by seeing Jesus in the kindest light possible and sometimes this leads us to portray the woman as the bad guy.
But we miss the point when we try and clean this story up a bit to locate the kinder, friendlier Jesus in this interaction…Matthew didn’t sweep things under the rug and neither should we.
When we try and clean this story up and look for the nice Jesus in this story, we miss out on the human aspect of Jesus that Matthew was trying to show here…as well as the divine aspect that is also on stage…with Jesus, they are one and the same. In Old Testament times, we see a God who was known to change his mind from time to time. And what we see when we look at this story is a fully human and fully divine Jesus who also changes his mind…a very human Jesus whose figurative sight is broadened to a greater vision of what God’s kingdom really is…who God’s kingdom encompasses. In this interaction we see a man on a mission from God to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel who realizes that maybe more than just the house of Israel needs to be saved…maybe they…maybe we…all need saving.
Two weeks ago, we heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men plus women and children and there were 12 baskets of food left over…one for each of the tribes of Israel…and at the end of this chapter of Matthew we hear of the feeding of 4,000 with there being 7 baskets of food left over…7 being the number of completion in the Hebrew tradition. And in between these two stories is the tale of a woman from a group of outsiders…a woman from a group of people that were considered the enemy, having the boldness to remind Jesus of the leftovers …how there is still enough to go around even after all the children have been fed. And it is because of her testimony that we see a shift in Jesus’ mission…a shift from a mission to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel to a mission to save all of the lost sheep.
When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t just die for the sheep of the house of Israel, he died for all of us. His worldview broadened to see the grand scope of the inclusive nature of the kingdom of God…his arm open not just to some, but to all.
Jesus may not have been a grumpy old man like Walt Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino and certainly Walt Kowalski is no Jesus, but in the end, both Jesus and Walt were willing to sacrifice their lives for the greater good…Walt for the family that he had become closer to than his own family and Jesus, not just for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but also for the Canaanite woman and her daughter and for you and for me and for all of humanity.
Amen
August 14, 2011
Matthew 15:21-28
If there was ever a 100% human portrayal of Jesus within the Gospels, there are three main examples which pop into my head, Jesus cleansing the temple, Jesus in the garden, and Jesus in his interaction with the Canaanite woman that we heard this morning. Now many attempts have been made to try and clean up this interaction between Jesus and this woman. It’s almost as if we would prefer that Jesus was not 100% human sometimes, especially where a text like this is concerned, and so we try and create a kinder, gentler Jesus than the one that Matthew portrays in this text. So maybe Jesus was just testing the faith of this woman, maybe he wanted her to act more like a proper woman and not address him in such a bold manner…a manner which was stereotypical of prostitutes of that time. But what if Jesus interacts with the Canaanite woman in this way because he’s just telling it like he sees it at that moment?
When I was reading the text this week, the plot of the movie Gran Torino popped into my head. It’s about a man named Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet from Detroit. He was a widower who neither trusted in the young priest who frequently called on him after his wife died, nor his neighbors, a Hmong family who had recently moved in next door. Walt really wished they would just go away, along with the rest of the people who had caused such a change in the racial diversity of his neighborhood. But things took a twist for Walt when the youngest of his neighbors got caught trying to steal Walt’s car. All Walt asked for as punishment for the crime was that the boy do some chores for him as Walt decided to reform the boy and do what he could to keep the boy out of his cousin’s gang…and as their relationship developed, Walt became more and more involved with the Hmong family that he originally despised. The neighbors became family and in the end, Walt made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the lives of his neighbors from the gang that threatened their safety.
Within this movie, Clint Eastwood captured very accurately the continued racial tensions that exist within the city of Detroit and its suburbs. But what I like about it is that it demonstrates what can happen when we look beyond ourselves and dare to see our neighbors beyond the stereotypes that seem, all to often, to define us. It is a portrayal of a broadening worldview…one that also takes place in our gospel text this morning.
At this point in the journey, Jesus and his disciples were in the district of Tyre and Sidon, a land formerly known as Canaan. The folks who lived there were considered to be the enemies of the Jews since the time of Noah. The Canaanites, later called Syrophonecians, were descendants of Noah’s son Ham, the son that Noah cursed for having seen Noah naked. They were also pagans who worshiped Phonecian gods and had been slaves to the Jews for sometime, as was promised to Abraham by God. So the fact that Matthew refers to the woman as a Canaanite rather than a Syrophonecian seems to play off the adversarial nature of the relationship between these two groups of people. So, if it is surprising to Jesus, or to the disciples, that a Canaanite woman would approach Jesus and ask for his help while he was in the land formerly known as Canaan, it should really only be because the Canaanites did not take too kindly to the Jews.
It is obvious, though, that this woman knew exactly who Jesus was and knew of the miracles that he had performed. And it would seem, given the relationship between the Jews and the Canaanites that her willingness to cross the divide signifies the desperate nature of her daughter’s situation and the depth of concern that this woman has for her daughter.
The reaction of the disciples and of Jesus to this woman, however, is quite shocking when you think about it. Instead of being warm and welcoming, the disciples wish to cast her off back where she came from and Jesus first ignores her…twice, then he refers to her and her people as dogs, which were at that time seen as unclean in that cultural framework. And this is the part of the story that we wish to clean up a lot of the time. We like the part where Jesus praises the woman’s faith…though she never actually confesses anything…and we like the part where the woman’s daughter is instantaneously healed. But it’s the initial reaction of Jesus to this woman that makes this story difficult to read and to interpret…and so we try and interpret it by seeing Jesus in the kindest light possible and sometimes this leads us to portray the woman as the bad guy.
But we miss the point when we try and clean this story up a bit to locate the kinder, friendlier Jesus in this interaction…Matthew didn’t sweep things under the rug and neither should we.
When we try and clean this story up and look for the nice Jesus in this story, we miss out on the human aspect of Jesus that Matthew was trying to show here…as well as the divine aspect that is also on stage…with Jesus, they are one and the same. In Old Testament times, we see a God who was known to change his mind from time to time. And what we see when we look at this story is a fully human and fully divine Jesus who also changes his mind…a very human Jesus whose figurative sight is broadened to a greater vision of what God’s kingdom really is…who God’s kingdom encompasses. In this interaction we see a man on a mission from God to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel who realizes that maybe more than just the house of Israel needs to be saved…maybe they…maybe we…all need saving.
Two weeks ago, we heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men plus women and children and there were 12 baskets of food left over…one for each of the tribes of Israel…and at the end of this chapter of Matthew we hear of the feeding of 4,000 with there being 7 baskets of food left over…7 being the number of completion in the Hebrew tradition. And in between these two stories is the tale of a woman from a group of outsiders…a woman from a group of people that were considered the enemy, having the boldness to remind Jesus of the leftovers …how there is still enough to go around even after all the children have been fed. And it is because of her testimony that we see a shift in Jesus’ mission…a shift from a mission to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel to a mission to save all of the lost sheep.
When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t just die for the sheep of the house of Israel, he died for all of us. His worldview broadened to see the grand scope of the inclusive nature of the kingdom of God…his arm open not just to some, but to all.
Jesus may not have been a grumpy old man like Walt Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino and certainly Walt Kowalski is no Jesus, but in the end, both Jesus and Walt were willing to sacrifice their lives for the greater good…Walt for the family that he had become closer to than his own family and Jesus, not just for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but also for the Canaanite woman and her daughter and for you and for me and for all of humanity.
Amen
Sunday, August 7, 2011
It's Not About Us - Pentecost 8A
Pentecost 8
August 7, 2011
Matthew 14:22-33
This summer at confirmation camp I got the chance to traverse the high ropes course at Camp Tomah Shinga. I made it through the course last year with not much of a problem and this year, after the initial climb up the pole to the course, it seemed like I was going to make it through about the same as last year, if not faster. The belay team had my rope tight, the course was steady, and I raced across the first beam like an experienced acrobat…but then we got to the wire I had to cross…which was not that big of a deal…until the wind picked up. Ah yes, I said to myself, that was a factor I had not thought about since last year there was not much wind. I had seen a couple of the youth become almost paralyzed by these brisk breezes that came through that afternoon, but you never know until you experience it for yourself just how much a strong wind can make you question your trust in a rope and the group of folks that are keeping that rope tight.
So when I was reading this text this week, the first thing to pop into my head was this experience and I thought “oh sure, I know how Peter felt when he was walking on water and the wind picked up.” After all, I had experienced something similar. Peter and I had both been walking somewhere that humans don’t normally walk, trusting in something to keep us going until the breeze picked up and then we started to question what in the world we were doing in our respective positions. Though, when I thought twice about my trust in that rope, I didn’t have that problem of sinking as steel wires and water are two very different things.
And that’s when I realized that maybe it’s not about me and it’s not about Peter in this account from Matthew. Maybe it’s about something more.
It can be so easy for us to make it about Peter, to look at this story and say, look how much faith he had in Jesus that he actually got out of the boat trusting that Jesus would give him the ability to walk on water…but when the wind picked up, he took his eyes off of his savior and that is where he got into trouble…that is when he started to sink. So this is our lesson, to be more like Peter when it comes to getting out of the boat…but at the same time be less like Peter when we’re walking towards Jesus on the water. This is a comforting reading for us who live in an individualistic society, we can put ourselves in Peter’s shoes comforted by the fact that even Jesus’ closest companions messed up a time or two or over and over again. They gave it their all but often times they struck out. And you know, this is not a wrong reading of this text, there are multiple ways of going about it.
But where this can get dangerous is that we might start telling ourselves, oh, if I just had more faith and kept my eyes on Jesus, I wouldn’t be in this financial mess…I wouldn’t have been laid off…if I hadn’t taken my eyes off of Jesus, our marriage wouldn’t have fallen apart…if I had just had more faith, Jimmy would have beaten the cancer…if I had just had more faith…the list goes on and on of ways we could beat ourselves up thinking that we should have had more faith…if we had just kept our eyes on Jesus.
But this is why I think that it may be that Matthew’s account of this story isn’t about Peter and it isn’t about us…it’s about Jesus. You see, we could go on and on about the faith it must have taken Peter to get out of the boat after Jesus tells him to. We could admonish one another to have the courage and faith that it took Peter to get out of the boat. But if you look at the words Peter uses when he addresses Jesus, they are the same as the words that the company of Satan, the high priest and the mockers at the cross use to test Jesus. If it is you…command these stones to turn to bread…confess to us that you are the Messiah, the son of the living God…come down off of that cross and save yourself…command me to come to you on the water.
Poor Peter wants so badly to get it right, but in the process things go horribly wrong and he ends up on the bad end of a good deal. And we do the same thing sometimes…if it is you, Jesus, heal my friend…get my spouse a job…find me my soul mate…reveal the winning lottery numbers to me so I can get out of debt…then I will truly know that it is you and will truly be able to trust you.
The older I get and the more opportunity I have to read about the disciples, the happier I am that Jesus chose who he chose. This was not a first string starting line up…maybe third string or bench warmers…but that’s good because most of us don’t do any better than they did…we try and we try and we put all the effort in that we can but none of us fit that perfect model of discipleship. We mess up, we take our eyes off of Jesus when the winds pick up and we get scared, our trust wanes when storms brew and knock us around like a little life raft in the ocean during a hurricane. We are sinful beings, it is impossible, no matter how hard we try, to keep our eyes on Jesus all the time, it is impossible for us to have the mountain of faith that we so desperately want to have. You know what, though, in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be perfect and have an impressive amount of unwavering faith…because it’s not about us…it’s about Jesus.
It’s about the one who came from God to save us from ourselves. It’s about the one who sends us out and then accompanies us on the journey. It’s about the one who comes to us in the middle of the sea ready to reach down his hand and pull us up when we begin to sink and pull us back into the boat. Jesus doesn’t care about the level of faith we have because he knows that we have it through the gift of the Holy Spirit…Jesus himself said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can do great things. Little faith is enough faith for Jesus because it is still faith and because Jesus is the one who had faith enough for us all, who put so much trust in his Father and our Father, that he went to the cross and gave up his life for those of us who struggle along side of Peter and the other 11 disciples. We want to get it right but sometimes we fail and sometimes storms emerge, some that we see and some that are completely unexpected. And when things go awry and when those storms rise up, Jesus is the one who comes to us in them and reaches out his hand to bring us to safety…we might not always recognize it at the time, but regardless that hand is always there ready when we need him.
The most freeing part of a ropes course is the zip line. That’s the part where you put 100% trust in the rope and the line and give up control of what is going to happen in the minute or two that follows. The same freeing experience can be had when we stop worrying about whether we’re good enough and trust 100% that Jesus loves us enough that, even though we might not always recognize it, even though we stand and struggle next to Peter and the other disciples, Jesus will always be there to reach down his hand and pull us up out of the water and back to safety. It’s the letting go that’s up to us.
August 7, 2011
Matthew 14:22-33
This summer at confirmation camp I got the chance to traverse the high ropes course at Camp Tomah Shinga. I made it through the course last year with not much of a problem and this year, after the initial climb up the pole to the course, it seemed like I was going to make it through about the same as last year, if not faster. The belay team had my rope tight, the course was steady, and I raced across the first beam like an experienced acrobat…but then we got to the wire I had to cross…which was not that big of a deal…until the wind picked up. Ah yes, I said to myself, that was a factor I had not thought about since last year there was not much wind. I had seen a couple of the youth become almost paralyzed by these brisk breezes that came through that afternoon, but you never know until you experience it for yourself just how much a strong wind can make you question your trust in a rope and the group of folks that are keeping that rope tight.
So when I was reading this text this week, the first thing to pop into my head was this experience and I thought “oh sure, I know how Peter felt when he was walking on water and the wind picked up.” After all, I had experienced something similar. Peter and I had both been walking somewhere that humans don’t normally walk, trusting in something to keep us going until the breeze picked up and then we started to question what in the world we were doing in our respective positions. Though, when I thought twice about my trust in that rope, I didn’t have that problem of sinking as steel wires and water are two very different things.
And that’s when I realized that maybe it’s not about me and it’s not about Peter in this account from Matthew. Maybe it’s about something more.
It can be so easy for us to make it about Peter, to look at this story and say, look how much faith he had in Jesus that he actually got out of the boat trusting that Jesus would give him the ability to walk on water…but when the wind picked up, he took his eyes off of his savior and that is where he got into trouble…that is when he started to sink. So this is our lesson, to be more like Peter when it comes to getting out of the boat…but at the same time be less like Peter when we’re walking towards Jesus on the water. This is a comforting reading for us who live in an individualistic society, we can put ourselves in Peter’s shoes comforted by the fact that even Jesus’ closest companions messed up a time or two or over and over again. They gave it their all but often times they struck out. And you know, this is not a wrong reading of this text, there are multiple ways of going about it.
But where this can get dangerous is that we might start telling ourselves, oh, if I just had more faith and kept my eyes on Jesus, I wouldn’t be in this financial mess…I wouldn’t have been laid off…if I hadn’t taken my eyes off of Jesus, our marriage wouldn’t have fallen apart…if I had just had more faith, Jimmy would have beaten the cancer…if I had just had more faith…the list goes on and on of ways we could beat ourselves up thinking that we should have had more faith…if we had just kept our eyes on Jesus.
But this is why I think that it may be that Matthew’s account of this story isn’t about Peter and it isn’t about us…it’s about Jesus. You see, we could go on and on about the faith it must have taken Peter to get out of the boat after Jesus tells him to. We could admonish one another to have the courage and faith that it took Peter to get out of the boat. But if you look at the words Peter uses when he addresses Jesus, they are the same as the words that the company of Satan, the high priest and the mockers at the cross use to test Jesus. If it is you…command these stones to turn to bread…confess to us that you are the Messiah, the son of the living God…come down off of that cross and save yourself…command me to come to you on the water.
Poor Peter wants so badly to get it right, but in the process things go horribly wrong and he ends up on the bad end of a good deal. And we do the same thing sometimes…if it is you, Jesus, heal my friend…get my spouse a job…find me my soul mate…reveal the winning lottery numbers to me so I can get out of debt…then I will truly know that it is you and will truly be able to trust you.
The older I get and the more opportunity I have to read about the disciples, the happier I am that Jesus chose who he chose. This was not a first string starting line up…maybe third string or bench warmers…but that’s good because most of us don’t do any better than they did…we try and we try and we put all the effort in that we can but none of us fit that perfect model of discipleship. We mess up, we take our eyes off of Jesus when the winds pick up and we get scared, our trust wanes when storms brew and knock us around like a little life raft in the ocean during a hurricane. We are sinful beings, it is impossible, no matter how hard we try, to keep our eyes on Jesus all the time, it is impossible for us to have the mountain of faith that we so desperately want to have. You know what, though, in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be perfect and have an impressive amount of unwavering faith…because it’s not about us…it’s about Jesus.
It’s about the one who came from God to save us from ourselves. It’s about the one who sends us out and then accompanies us on the journey. It’s about the one who comes to us in the middle of the sea ready to reach down his hand and pull us up when we begin to sink and pull us back into the boat. Jesus doesn’t care about the level of faith we have because he knows that we have it through the gift of the Holy Spirit…Jesus himself said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can do great things. Little faith is enough faith for Jesus because it is still faith and because Jesus is the one who had faith enough for us all, who put so much trust in his Father and our Father, that he went to the cross and gave up his life for those of us who struggle along side of Peter and the other 11 disciples. We want to get it right but sometimes we fail and sometimes storms emerge, some that we see and some that are completely unexpected. And when things go awry and when those storms rise up, Jesus is the one who comes to us in them and reaches out his hand to bring us to safety…we might not always recognize it at the time, but regardless that hand is always there ready when we need him.
The most freeing part of a ropes course is the zip line. That’s the part where you put 100% trust in the rope and the line and give up control of what is going to happen in the minute or two that follows. The same freeing experience can be had when we stop worrying about whether we’re good enough and trust 100% that Jesus loves us enough that, even though we might not always recognize it, even though we stand and struggle next to Peter and the other disciples, Jesus will always be there to reach down his hand and pull us up out of the water and back to safety. It’s the letting go that’s up to us.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Dependence Day - Pentecost 3A
Pentecost 3A
Matthew 11:16-30
July 3, 2011
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail in regards to the proceedings that took place on July 2nd. It was on the 2nd of July, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress voted on a resolution that legally separated the thirteen American colonies from British control. In the letter to his wife, John Adams wrote: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” Mr. Adams was two days off in his guess at when the birthday of the United States would be celebrated…however, for the most part, the majority of what else he wrote to Abigail has happened and continues to occur when we celebrate our nation’s birthday.
Last Sunday, our Gospel reading came from the end of a speech that Jesus gave the disciples before sending them out into the mission field. If you take a look back at chapter 10 of Matthew you would hear about the mission Jesus was sending them on and how that mission would not without its hardships. Jesus says the disciples are being sent out like sheep into the midst of wolves, they will be persecuted for spreading the gospel. They are told that anyone one who is willing to follow should love Jesus more than their family and should be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. After Jesus had finished giving his instructions to the disciples and he has sent them out. And Jesus himself continues to travel to different cities preaching to and teaching the people. And it appears that instead of receiving welcome and hospitality, Jesus was met with apathy. We hear, in our text today, the part which is not printed in your bulletin but should not be ignored, Jesus reproaching the cities who had not received his teaching or deeds of power with a welcome attitude…and it would seem that they hadn’t cared for John the Baptist’s message either.
In a moment of frustration, Jesus asks “to what shall I compare this generation?” This is a statement used in God’s lawsuits (if you will) against the people of the Old Testament…and not in a good way. “You are like children in the marketplace!” he continues, comparing the people to children who don’t play well with one another. He says “John didn’t eat or drink and you said he had a demon! Now the Son of Man comes eating and drinking and you say ‘Look! a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” What do I have to I do to please you??
It seems that the people didn’t want to listen to someone who departed from social norms, like John…and they certainly didn’t want to listen to someone who ate with the sinners.
So Jesus turns to the one he can trust most than anything and says “I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” In other words, I thank you that you have hidden these things from those who rely on themselves, the priests, religious leaders and others who had power, and have revealed them to those who rely on you, the poor, the downtrodden, the outcast.
The wise and intelligent people were those who believed their righteous deeds made them better that those who didn’t always do what they were supposed to. They were so dependant on themselves, so Independent from anyone else that they began to think that it was up to them to secure their own salvation. Why would they need an ascetic who lived in the wilderness and acted like a crazy man or someone who hung out with the outcast of society to teach them the word of God… these men were irrelevant in their eyes…just keep fishing and doing the right things and you’re fine.
Fast forward about 2000 years…what would happen if John and Jesus came to us now, on the eve of our nations 235th birthday and appeared walking down Mass Street? Would we take notice? Or, in the midst of all the ways that we have tried to become independent from a whole lot of things and self-reliant for a whole lot of other things, would we just walk on by?
Personal independence and personal freedoms are something that we value in this nation. We’re a “if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” culture. We want independence from any number of things…we look up to so-called self-made entrepreneurs… we value anonymity over community, especially since the advent of social media. And as much as we as Lutherans profess that our salvation has been achieved by the Grace of God alone through our faith, it’s still really tempting to think that maybe, just maybe we can get ourselves on the road to salvation faster on our own. It can become so tempting for us to make a list of all the good things that we’ve done and compare notes with our friends and family members to see who deserves salvation more.
It is so tempting for us to think that if we do enough good deeds and righteous acts, we can speed up our way to salvation. And when this happens, we end up looking only to ourselves for our salvation…and we start getting worn down. Scholar Barbara Brown Taylor said it best when she wrote “I may believe that I live by God’s grace, but I act like a scout collecting merit badges. I have a list of things to do that is a mile long, and…the majority of them are things I think I ought to do…that I have better do or God will not love me anymore…I thought that the way to find rest for my soul was to finish my list of things to do and present it to God like a full book of savings stamps, but as it turned out that was not the ticket at all.” When we start running around collecting merit badges to present to God, those “badges” become a heavy burden on top of the other burdens that we already carry because of the sin that we live in…and we get worn down and tired. We get worried, frustrated and sometimes angry. The weight of the burdens keeps piling on and soon no amount of rest can relieve our weary souls.
But, we are blessed…blessed that in almost the same breath, Jesus both scolds us and offers us words of comfort. And so we hear “Woe to you!” but then, “come unto me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” I’m sure that if Jesus and John walked down main street USA this morning, the “woe to yous!” would be flying everywhere…but there would still be the offer to come and rest.
Our savior Jesus Christ knows the burdens of being human…he knows what it is like to carry those burdens because he carries our burdens just like he carried the cross on his way to Golgotha …and though Jesus was crucified almost two thousand years ago, that offer still applies…to take off the yoke of our burdens and put on his yoke…one that is light and allows us to truly be free…free from sin, death and the powers of evil…free from worrying if we did every thing right. When we go to the cross and exchange our yokes for the yoke of Christ, we are taking on the role of servants…servants who are free to go out into the world and serve God in thanksgiving for the salvation that we have received through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it is here that we have rest…rest for our souls…sacred rest.
So let us on this independence day weekend declare our dependence on the one who calls us to himself and takes our burdens on his shoulders and gives our souls sacred rest. Amen
Matthew 11:16-30
July 3, 2011
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail in regards to the proceedings that took place on July 2nd. It was on the 2nd of July, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress voted on a resolution that legally separated the thirteen American colonies from British control. In the letter to his wife, John Adams wrote: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” Mr. Adams was two days off in his guess at when the birthday of the United States would be celebrated…however, for the most part, the majority of what else he wrote to Abigail has happened and continues to occur when we celebrate our nation’s birthday.
Last Sunday, our Gospel reading came from the end of a speech that Jesus gave the disciples before sending them out into the mission field. If you take a look back at chapter 10 of Matthew you would hear about the mission Jesus was sending them on and how that mission would not without its hardships. Jesus says the disciples are being sent out like sheep into the midst of wolves, they will be persecuted for spreading the gospel. They are told that anyone one who is willing to follow should love Jesus more than their family and should be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. After Jesus had finished giving his instructions to the disciples and he has sent them out. And Jesus himself continues to travel to different cities preaching to and teaching the people. And it appears that instead of receiving welcome and hospitality, Jesus was met with apathy. We hear, in our text today, the part which is not printed in your bulletin but should not be ignored, Jesus reproaching the cities who had not received his teaching or deeds of power with a welcome attitude…and it would seem that they hadn’t cared for John the Baptist’s message either.
In a moment of frustration, Jesus asks “to what shall I compare this generation?” This is a statement used in God’s lawsuits (if you will) against the people of the Old Testament…and not in a good way. “You are like children in the marketplace!” he continues, comparing the people to children who don’t play well with one another. He says “John didn’t eat or drink and you said he had a demon! Now the Son of Man comes eating and drinking and you say ‘Look! a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” What do I have to I do to please you??
It seems that the people didn’t want to listen to someone who departed from social norms, like John…and they certainly didn’t want to listen to someone who ate with the sinners.
So Jesus turns to the one he can trust most than anything and says “I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” In other words, I thank you that you have hidden these things from those who rely on themselves, the priests, religious leaders and others who had power, and have revealed them to those who rely on you, the poor, the downtrodden, the outcast.
The wise and intelligent people were those who believed their righteous deeds made them better that those who didn’t always do what they were supposed to. They were so dependant on themselves, so Independent from anyone else that they began to think that it was up to them to secure their own salvation. Why would they need an ascetic who lived in the wilderness and acted like a crazy man or someone who hung out with the outcast of society to teach them the word of God… these men were irrelevant in their eyes…just keep fishing and doing the right things and you’re fine.
Fast forward about 2000 years…what would happen if John and Jesus came to us now, on the eve of our nations 235th birthday and appeared walking down Mass Street? Would we take notice? Or, in the midst of all the ways that we have tried to become independent from a whole lot of things and self-reliant for a whole lot of other things, would we just walk on by?
Personal independence and personal freedoms are something that we value in this nation. We’re a “if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” culture. We want independence from any number of things…we look up to so-called self-made entrepreneurs… we value anonymity over community, especially since the advent of social media. And as much as we as Lutherans profess that our salvation has been achieved by the Grace of God alone through our faith, it’s still really tempting to think that maybe, just maybe we can get ourselves on the road to salvation faster on our own. It can become so tempting for us to make a list of all the good things that we’ve done and compare notes with our friends and family members to see who deserves salvation more.
It is so tempting for us to think that if we do enough good deeds and righteous acts, we can speed up our way to salvation. And when this happens, we end up looking only to ourselves for our salvation…and we start getting worn down. Scholar Barbara Brown Taylor said it best when she wrote “I may believe that I live by God’s grace, but I act like a scout collecting merit badges. I have a list of things to do that is a mile long, and…the majority of them are things I think I ought to do…that I have better do or God will not love me anymore…I thought that the way to find rest for my soul was to finish my list of things to do and present it to God like a full book of savings stamps, but as it turned out that was not the ticket at all.” When we start running around collecting merit badges to present to God, those “badges” become a heavy burden on top of the other burdens that we already carry because of the sin that we live in…and we get worn down and tired. We get worried, frustrated and sometimes angry. The weight of the burdens keeps piling on and soon no amount of rest can relieve our weary souls.
But, we are blessed…blessed that in almost the same breath, Jesus both scolds us and offers us words of comfort. And so we hear “Woe to you!” but then, “come unto me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” I’m sure that if Jesus and John walked down main street USA this morning, the “woe to yous!” would be flying everywhere…but there would still be the offer to come and rest.
Our savior Jesus Christ knows the burdens of being human…he knows what it is like to carry those burdens because he carries our burdens just like he carried the cross on his way to Golgotha …and though Jesus was crucified almost two thousand years ago, that offer still applies…to take off the yoke of our burdens and put on his yoke…one that is light and allows us to truly be free…free from sin, death and the powers of evil…free from worrying if we did every thing right. When we go to the cross and exchange our yokes for the yoke of Christ, we are taking on the role of servants…servants who are free to go out into the world and serve God in thanksgiving for the salvation that we have received through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it is here that we have rest…rest for our souls…sacred rest.
So let us on this independence day weekend declare our dependence on the one who calls us to himself and takes our burdens on his shoulders and gives our souls sacred rest. Amen
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Holy Spirit Conspiracy Theory - Pentecost
*The bishop and his wife arrived at Trinity unannounced for the 11am service today. I was so unhappy with how the end of the sermon turned out, I preached extemporaneously for the last five minutes so what you see here is not the entirely what I preached*
June 12, 2011
Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost
I wanted to start my sermon this morning by asking all of us to pause for a moment. Now take a deep breath in…and exhale. Another deep breath in…and exhale. One more…breathe in…exhale.
Congratulations, you have just participated in a conspiracy.
Pentecost is the perfect day for us to participate in breathing together, for it is a day in which we celebrate the birthday of the church and commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in wind and flame, in the speaking of various tongues…and yes, even in water. It’s a day in which we look back at the history of the church and see the ways in which the Spirit has been at work, but it is also a day in which we look forward towards where the Spirit is moving us in the days ahead. And it’s a day to which I have attached a conspiracy theory…which I will explain later.
The feast of Pentecost is not a creation of the church. As we hear in the book of Acts, Pentecost was already going on before the church was born. The word Pentecost is something that the Christian church borrowed from Greek speaking Jews who used that word as a renaming of sorts of the festival of Shavuot, or the feast of Weeks. In the Jewish tradition, Pentecost is an observance of the day that Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai. It is also end of the celebration of the grain harvest, a seven week season of gladness that began with the harvest of barley and ended with the harvest of wheat…we read in the book of Exodus that folks were to observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest. This feast got the name Pentecost because it falls 50 days after the end of Passover.
It was on this feast day that the disciples were all in the same place in Jerusalem and were probably out observing the festival. We don’t know how long it had been since Christ’s ascension, but it had probably only been a couple days…depending on how reliable you believe Luke’s historical analysis of things to be. What we do know, though, is that they had obeyed Christ’s command to remain in Jerusalem until the arrival of the Holy Spirit. We also know that during that time, they decided that it was unsuitable for there to only be eleven disciples so they cast lots and voted Matthias in as the twelfth disciple. Then, probably a few days later, the Holy Spirit decided to show up and do something incredible.
While the disciples were out, all of a sudden, from heaven came sound like that of a violent wind and tongues of fire appeared on the heads of each of the disciples. Then each of them, filled with the Spirit, began to speak in different languages so that those around them could understand them speaking in each of their native tongues. And here is where a question comes in…there were only 12 disciples, but there were at least 16 different languages represented. So how did that work, specifically? Did a couple get to speak in more than one language? or did they think that they were speaking in Aramaic but the Spirit was deciphering what they were saying so that everyone could understand what was being said? The details don’t seem to matter to Luke but, however it happened, it is no wonder that a crowd gathered and became puzzled by what they had seen…and it is no wonder that the folks who hear this chaos wondered if the disciples had had a little to drink that morning.
What the people in Jerusalem witnessed that day was the fulfillment of what had been spoken by the prophet Joel, a pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh. It wasn’t just the disciples upon whom the Spirit was coming to, but everyone…all flesh. There was, in that moment an increase in understanding between the disciples and those who gathered around them through the speaking in different native tongues by the twelve from Galilee.
And in this was a reversal of an event that occurred in the beginning of scripture…an event that resulted in confusion and scattering. In my mind, the story of Pentecost is a reversal of the event that happened at Babel. In Babel, human pride instigated the building of a tower that the men who were constructing it thought could be built tall enough to reach up into the heavens. The pride of those who built the tower, and their belief that they could be like God, resulted in the tower being knocked down and the languages of the people becoming confused so that they would not be able to understand each other.
Where at Babel, there was a great scattering because of human pride…in Jerusalem on the festival of Pentecost, there is, in a way, a unification because of the work of the Spirit. And we might want to stop there and sing and rejoice at the work of the Spirit and the formation of the church in this gathering and unification…but that’s not the end of the story and to stop there would be far too easy and ignores the fact that there is still pride and still confusion and scattering. We must keep going because the Spirit keeps going…it did not stop on Pentecost and neither do we.
The great conspiracy of the Holy Spirit is not that our lives will be made easier because she has come, but rather, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, a monkey wrench is often thrown in our plans and our paths sometimes change course from where we think they should go. If the Holy Spirit had not been poured out upon the disciples, I’m sure James and John and Peter and Andrew could have easily gone back to their career as fishermen. I wonder if in those days of waiting they thought about that possibility. It would have been easy, they knew what they were doing, they had done it all their lives in the family business…Zebedee and Sons could very well have been restored. But in the pouring out of the Spirit and the giving of the ability to communicate to people outside of Galilee, the idea that they could go back to commercial fishing was gone. They had a new mission, a mission to go out and spread the good news of the Gospel to the people of different nations and tongues. The Spirit had been poured out upon all flesh and now they had to go and awaken people to the presence of that Spirit.
And just as it was for the disciples, so it is for us. The Spirit wasn’t just poured out on that one day of Pentecost, it continues to be poured out. The Spirit is the one who calls us to the waters of the font, enlightens us with unique gifts and strengthens us for the work of using those gifts to awaken the Spirit in other people. There is one function of the Spirit that Martin Luther forgot when he was writing his Small Catechism, however. Luther writes that the Spirit calls, gathers and enlightens…but he forgot another task, the task of sending forth. Though we may not always like it, in order for the work of God to be done, the Spirit sometimes needs to light a fire under us and send us out. And through the gifts that we have been given, we follow in the footsteps of the disciples, going out and through our actions and our words, spreading the good news about our risen Lord and Savior, the one who sent the Spirit to be with us, to call us, to gather us in to community, to enlighten us with various gifts and finally to send us out into on our different paths to spread the good news.
The path on which we have been sent and in which we are now being sent may not be the paths that we may have imagined ourselves on. The Spirit might have thrown a monkey wrench or two into our plans for where we have seen ourselves going…as the Spirit is one to do. But Jesus never said that being his disciple would mean an easy path…any path that follows the one who endured the cross and was resurrected is sure to be anything but a straight road without any bumps, pot holes, or roadblocks in the way. But in the pouring out of the Spirit, there is a calling…a calling to follow the lead of that Spirit, to go out in to the world and conspire with that Spirit to see God in the faces of those we meet, to engage the Spirit living in those around us through our actions…and if necessary, our words…as St. Francis of Assisi would say. Come, Holy Spirit, And let the church say “Amen”
June 12, 2011
Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost
I wanted to start my sermon this morning by asking all of us to pause for a moment. Now take a deep breath in…and exhale. Another deep breath in…and exhale. One more…breathe in…exhale.
Congratulations, you have just participated in a conspiracy.
Pentecost is the perfect day for us to participate in breathing together, for it is a day in which we celebrate the birthday of the church and commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in wind and flame, in the speaking of various tongues…and yes, even in water. It’s a day in which we look back at the history of the church and see the ways in which the Spirit has been at work, but it is also a day in which we look forward towards where the Spirit is moving us in the days ahead. And it’s a day to which I have attached a conspiracy theory…which I will explain later.
The feast of Pentecost is not a creation of the church. As we hear in the book of Acts, Pentecost was already going on before the church was born. The word Pentecost is something that the Christian church borrowed from Greek speaking Jews who used that word as a renaming of sorts of the festival of Shavuot, or the feast of Weeks. In the Jewish tradition, Pentecost is an observance of the day that Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai. It is also end of the celebration of the grain harvest, a seven week season of gladness that began with the harvest of barley and ended with the harvest of wheat…we read in the book of Exodus that folks were to observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest. This feast got the name Pentecost because it falls 50 days after the end of Passover.
It was on this feast day that the disciples were all in the same place in Jerusalem and were probably out observing the festival. We don’t know how long it had been since Christ’s ascension, but it had probably only been a couple days…depending on how reliable you believe Luke’s historical analysis of things to be. What we do know, though, is that they had obeyed Christ’s command to remain in Jerusalem until the arrival of the Holy Spirit. We also know that during that time, they decided that it was unsuitable for there to only be eleven disciples so they cast lots and voted Matthias in as the twelfth disciple. Then, probably a few days later, the Holy Spirit decided to show up and do something incredible.
While the disciples were out, all of a sudden, from heaven came sound like that of a violent wind and tongues of fire appeared on the heads of each of the disciples. Then each of them, filled with the Spirit, began to speak in different languages so that those around them could understand them speaking in each of their native tongues. And here is where a question comes in…there were only 12 disciples, but there were at least 16 different languages represented. So how did that work, specifically? Did a couple get to speak in more than one language? or did they think that they were speaking in Aramaic but the Spirit was deciphering what they were saying so that everyone could understand what was being said? The details don’t seem to matter to Luke but, however it happened, it is no wonder that a crowd gathered and became puzzled by what they had seen…and it is no wonder that the folks who hear this chaos wondered if the disciples had had a little to drink that morning.
What the people in Jerusalem witnessed that day was the fulfillment of what had been spoken by the prophet Joel, a pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh. It wasn’t just the disciples upon whom the Spirit was coming to, but everyone…all flesh. There was, in that moment an increase in understanding between the disciples and those who gathered around them through the speaking in different native tongues by the twelve from Galilee.
And in this was a reversal of an event that occurred in the beginning of scripture…an event that resulted in confusion and scattering. In my mind, the story of Pentecost is a reversal of the event that happened at Babel. In Babel, human pride instigated the building of a tower that the men who were constructing it thought could be built tall enough to reach up into the heavens. The pride of those who built the tower, and their belief that they could be like God, resulted in the tower being knocked down and the languages of the people becoming confused so that they would not be able to understand each other.
Where at Babel, there was a great scattering because of human pride…in Jerusalem on the festival of Pentecost, there is, in a way, a unification because of the work of the Spirit. And we might want to stop there and sing and rejoice at the work of the Spirit and the formation of the church in this gathering and unification…but that’s not the end of the story and to stop there would be far too easy and ignores the fact that there is still pride and still confusion and scattering. We must keep going because the Spirit keeps going…it did not stop on Pentecost and neither do we.
The great conspiracy of the Holy Spirit is not that our lives will be made easier because she has come, but rather, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, a monkey wrench is often thrown in our plans and our paths sometimes change course from where we think they should go. If the Holy Spirit had not been poured out upon the disciples, I’m sure James and John and Peter and Andrew could have easily gone back to their career as fishermen. I wonder if in those days of waiting they thought about that possibility. It would have been easy, they knew what they were doing, they had done it all their lives in the family business…Zebedee and Sons could very well have been restored. But in the pouring out of the Spirit and the giving of the ability to communicate to people outside of Galilee, the idea that they could go back to commercial fishing was gone. They had a new mission, a mission to go out and spread the good news of the Gospel to the people of different nations and tongues. The Spirit had been poured out upon all flesh and now they had to go and awaken people to the presence of that Spirit.
And just as it was for the disciples, so it is for us. The Spirit wasn’t just poured out on that one day of Pentecost, it continues to be poured out. The Spirit is the one who calls us to the waters of the font, enlightens us with unique gifts and strengthens us for the work of using those gifts to awaken the Spirit in other people. There is one function of the Spirit that Martin Luther forgot when he was writing his Small Catechism, however. Luther writes that the Spirit calls, gathers and enlightens…but he forgot another task, the task of sending forth. Though we may not always like it, in order for the work of God to be done, the Spirit sometimes needs to light a fire under us and send us out. And through the gifts that we have been given, we follow in the footsteps of the disciples, going out and through our actions and our words, spreading the good news about our risen Lord and Savior, the one who sent the Spirit to be with us, to call us, to gather us in to community, to enlighten us with various gifts and finally to send us out into on our different paths to spread the good news.
The path on which we have been sent and in which we are now being sent may not be the paths that we may have imagined ourselves on. The Spirit might have thrown a monkey wrench or two into our plans for where we have seen ourselves going…as the Spirit is one to do. But Jesus never said that being his disciple would mean an easy path…any path that follows the one who endured the cross and was resurrected is sure to be anything but a straight road without any bumps, pot holes, or roadblocks in the way. But in the pouring out of the Spirit, there is a calling…a calling to follow the lead of that Spirit, to go out in to the world and conspire with that Spirit to see God in the faces of those we meet, to engage the Spirit living in those around us through our actions…and if necessary, our words…as St. Francis of Assisi would say. Come, Holy Spirit, And let the church say “Amen”
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