*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”
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Love...an update on my March 30th post
Well, it took me a little longer than I expected it would, what with Easter and some other events cutting in to some of the time that I had hope I could have used to finish this book in a timely manner. It is a fast read, but with my self-diagnosed ADD and everything going on, it only took 7 weeks to read this book. I enjoyed it thoroughly, however.
When I wrote the post on the promotional video and the feedback from it in March, I mentioned that I thought it was silly to label someone as a heretic from a 2:30 min video that only scratched the surface of a larger work. It would probably be a series of 45 minute to 1 hour long sermons actually, the way that they are formatted. After having read the book from cover to cover, I still think this is a silly premise. My own theology doesn't have anything to say in disagreement with what Bell is trying to communicate. I believe that God is an all loving God. I believe that we get in the way of God trying to love us by not listening and not trusting what God has to say to us. I also believe that God's love is much bigger than we can fathom. The God seen in parts of the Old Testament is often one that incites the fear of retribution...but if you take a deeper look, the God that we read about in the Old Testament is really a God much like what we see in the New Testament in Jesus. We have a choice to make...accept God's love and trust the good things that God has in store for us or reject them and not trust the good things God has for us and create for ourselves a hell that is not that unlike what Dante describes in his Inferno, only in a figurative sense.
I'm not going to say much more than this because I believe that more people should read the book and form an opinion about it rather and take my word for it. But I will leave you with an excerpt:
"Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story.
We all have our version of events. Who we are, who we aren't, what we've done, what that means for our future. Our worth, value significance. The things we believe about ourselves that we cling to despite the pain and agony they're causing us.
Some people are haunted by the sins of the pas. Abuse, betrayal, addiction, infidelity- secrets that have been buried for years. I can't tell you how many people I've met over the years who said they couldn't go to a church service, because 'the rood would cave in' or 'there would be a lightning bolt.'
Flaws, failures, shame like a stain that won't wash out. A deep-seated, profound believe that they are, at some primal level of the soul, not good enough.
For others, it isn't their acute sense of their lack or inadequacy or sins; it's their pride. Their ego. They're convinced of their own greatness and autonomy - they don't need anybody. Often the belief that God, Jesus, church, and all that is for the 'weak ones,' the ones who can't make it in the world, so they cling to religious superstitions and myths like a drug, a crutch, a way to avoid taking responsibility for their pathetic lives.
We believe all sorts of things about ourselves.
What the gospel does is confront our version of our story with God's version of our story.
It is a brutally honest,
exuberantly liberating story,
and it is good news.
It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved.
That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what's been done to us or what we've done, God has made peace with us." (pp170-172)
Enjoy!
When I wrote the post on the promotional video and the feedback from it in March, I mentioned that I thought it was silly to label someone as a heretic from a 2:30 min video that only scratched the surface of a larger work. It would probably be a series of 45 minute to 1 hour long sermons actually, the way that they are formatted. After having read the book from cover to cover, I still think this is a silly premise. My own theology doesn't have anything to say in disagreement with what Bell is trying to communicate. I believe that God is an all loving God. I believe that we get in the way of God trying to love us by not listening and not trusting what God has to say to us. I also believe that God's love is much bigger than we can fathom. The God seen in parts of the Old Testament is often one that incites the fear of retribution...but if you take a deeper look, the God that we read about in the Old Testament is really a God much like what we see in the New Testament in Jesus. We have a choice to make...accept God's love and trust the good things that God has in store for us or reject them and not trust the good things God has for us and create for ourselves a hell that is not that unlike what Dante describes in his Inferno, only in a figurative sense.
I'm not going to say much more than this because I believe that more people should read the book and form an opinion about it rather and take my word for it. But I will leave you with an excerpt:
"Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story.
We all have our version of events. Who we are, who we aren't, what we've done, what that means for our future. Our worth, value significance. The things we believe about ourselves that we cling to despite the pain and agony they're causing us.
Some people are haunted by the sins of the pas. Abuse, betrayal, addiction, infidelity- secrets that have been buried for years. I can't tell you how many people I've met over the years who said they couldn't go to a church service, because 'the rood would cave in' or 'there would be a lightning bolt.'
Flaws, failures, shame like a stain that won't wash out. A deep-seated, profound believe that they are, at some primal level of the soul, not good enough.
For others, it isn't their acute sense of their lack or inadequacy or sins; it's their pride. Their ego. They're convinced of their own greatness and autonomy - they don't need anybody. Often the belief that God, Jesus, church, and all that is for the 'weak ones,' the ones who can't make it in the world, so they cling to religious superstitions and myths like a drug, a crutch, a way to avoid taking responsibility for their pathetic lives.
We believe all sorts of things about ourselves.
What the gospel does is confront our version of our story with God's version of our story.
It is a brutally honest,
exuberantly liberating story,
and it is good news.
It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved.
That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what's been done to us or what we've done, God has made peace with us." (pp170-172)
Enjoy!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Jesus is Calling
May 15, 2011
Easter 4A
John 10:1-10
“Jesus is Calling…”
A couple years back, a short video surfaced on the Samsung website and later on YouTube. The video was taken by some Welsh shepherds who seemed to have a little extra time on their hands. So they got a life time supply of LED lights, a camcorder and recorded what they called “extreme shepherding.” If you haven’t seen this video, it is worth taking about five minutes to go online and google LED sheep to see it. If you do, you will see these shepherds spending hours hooking their sheep up to these LED lights and then shepherding them around so that on camera you see a game of pong being played, fireworks going off and, in their most pain staking task, the creation of the Mona Lisa through the arranging of the sheep in various patterns with the colored LED lights. It was quite the advertising piece for Samsung, but it also demonstrates the ability of sheep to follow the voice of their shepherd…in this case, with the help of sheep dogs.
Here’s another story. There is a village in Africa that was visited by a missionary. One evening, the missionary overhead two of the men in the village talking about the whereabouts of someone…after hearing the concern in the first man’s voice in regards to the female he was talking about and assuming it was his daughter, he went out to ask the men who they were talking about. It turns out that one of the man’s sheep had gone missing and the two men were out looking for her. The missionary later learned that in that village all the sheep had names and everyone in the village knew the names of the sheep and who the sheep belonged too. And when the shepherd called the name of his sheep, they would know it and come to him.
“The sheep follow him because they know his voice” Jesus said.
Have you ever found it strange that in the Revised Common Lectionary, the set of reading that we use for Sunday mornings, there is one Sunday set apart every year in the Easter season for Jesus, the good shepherd, and yet, in this day and age many of us know very little about sheep or the practices of shepherding sheep? Growing up in Suburban Detroit, the closest I got to sheep was at the petting farm at the Detroit Zoo. I knew nothing about them except their wool made really nice sweaters and that lambs were very cute. Then in seminary, when we were studying a similar text from the Gospel of John, my friend Josh shared with the class that many of the sheep farmers that he knows in South Dakota do not like the sheep/shepherd imagery because sheep are stubborn, smelly and pretty dumb. This information, plus the fact that I think that lamb tastes pretty good, is about the extent of my knowledge of sheep…so I’m not going to pretend that I understand this metaphor that Jesus is using.
I appreciate, however, Jesus’ attempt to reach the people that he was talking to, living in an agrarian culture where many of the people he interacted with probably were shepherds. So Jesus would have had a working knowledge of the shepherd’s life. He also would have known that in those days, the sheepfold would have been constructed out of a cave with rocks and brush and soil to shelter the sheep and keep them safe from thieves and wild animals. Sometimes shepherds would share a sheepfold and multiple flocks would have stay together at night before being called out by the shepherd in the morning. The other thing that Jesus would have known is that many times, the shepherd would lie across the gate and actually act as the door so that the sheep would remain safe and so that anyone who was thinking about coming and taking the sheep would need to rethink his strategy if he thought he could sneak through the gate.
Knowing these things, Jesus begins his teaching in Chapter 10 of John by using this figure of speech about the Shepherd versus the thief. For some reason, however, the people who were listening to Jesus didn’t get it. So, Jesus tried another way of going about things, using the gate metaphor…saying that he was the gate and that those who entered the sheepfold by him will be saved and come and go to the pasture. We’re beginning to make more sense here, but Jesus’ form of speech is still a bit complicated. And we never do learn if the people finally get what he is talking about…and honestly, in the Gospel of John it’s hard to tell if anyone really gets Jesus because he speaks in metaphor a lot. I am the vine, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life. No wonder so many people have a love/dislike relationship with the Gospel of John…if only John’s Jesus would speak to us in everyday Aramaic! (or English!)
As complicated as Jesus’ metaphors in the Gospel of John have a tendency to be, there is still a lot of good news to be gleaned from this text and others like it. But first the bad news…the shepherds in South Dakota might not like it, but humans have many sheep like qualities. We are stubborn, we prefer safety and sometimes, regardless of level of education, we can be dumb. We have fallen victim to this epidemic called “complacency”…as long as the status quo is held and we feel safe and secure, we’re good to go. The problem when stubbornness and preference of safety and stability meet complacency is that the possibility arises that we can become a people who merely exist instead of a people who live. We like the safety and security that the sheepfold provides, we like our things and we like the financial security…but there is no food in the sheepfold…but there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold…do we risk it?
Enter the good news. Though we are stubborn and prefer the safety and stability of the sheepfold and the status quo, and though there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold, we have a shepherd who will not settle for letting only those of us who dare go out into the pasture. Our shepherd is the kind of shepherd who is willing to fight the most stubborn of us and yank us out of our safe place so that we don’t just exist, we thrive and flourish and have abundant life. He does this because he knows and he wants us to know that life cannot be defeated, life cannot be stolen away from us because our life is with him and it is forever. And so Jesus will yank us out of our safe places and then lead us out to pasture by still waters, even and especially when it means walking through the valleys of the shadow of death to get there.
Our shepherd rose from the dead and in that moment, death was defeated and life conquered. We are free to exit the sheep fold and go out into the pasture and live abundant lives confident in the knowledge that our shepherd is guiding us, that he will lead us through the valleys of death to the still waters and banquets of love where our cups will over flow with peace, joy, love and life.
Listen for the shepherd’s voice. He is calling you by name…Do you hear him?
Easter 4A
John 10:1-10
“Jesus is Calling…”
A couple years back, a short video surfaced on the Samsung website and later on YouTube. The video was taken by some Welsh shepherds who seemed to have a little extra time on their hands. So they got a life time supply of LED lights, a camcorder and recorded what they called “extreme shepherding.” If you haven’t seen this video, it is worth taking about five minutes to go online and google LED sheep to see it. If you do, you will see these shepherds spending hours hooking their sheep up to these LED lights and then shepherding them around so that on camera you see a game of pong being played, fireworks going off and, in their most pain staking task, the creation of the Mona Lisa through the arranging of the sheep in various patterns with the colored LED lights. It was quite the advertising piece for Samsung, but it also demonstrates the ability of sheep to follow the voice of their shepherd…in this case, with the help of sheep dogs.
Here’s another story. There is a village in Africa that was visited by a missionary. One evening, the missionary overhead two of the men in the village talking about the whereabouts of someone…after hearing the concern in the first man’s voice in regards to the female he was talking about and assuming it was his daughter, he went out to ask the men who they were talking about. It turns out that one of the man’s sheep had gone missing and the two men were out looking for her. The missionary later learned that in that village all the sheep had names and everyone in the village knew the names of the sheep and who the sheep belonged too. And when the shepherd called the name of his sheep, they would know it and come to him.
“The sheep follow him because they know his voice” Jesus said.
Have you ever found it strange that in the Revised Common Lectionary, the set of reading that we use for Sunday mornings, there is one Sunday set apart every year in the Easter season for Jesus, the good shepherd, and yet, in this day and age many of us know very little about sheep or the practices of shepherding sheep? Growing up in Suburban Detroit, the closest I got to sheep was at the petting farm at the Detroit Zoo. I knew nothing about them except their wool made really nice sweaters and that lambs were very cute. Then in seminary, when we were studying a similar text from the Gospel of John, my friend Josh shared with the class that many of the sheep farmers that he knows in South Dakota do not like the sheep/shepherd imagery because sheep are stubborn, smelly and pretty dumb. This information, plus the fact that I think that lamb tastes pretty good, is about the extent of my knowledge of sheep…so I’m not going to pretend that I understand this metaphor that Jesus is using.
I appreciate, however, Jesus’ attempt to reach the people that he was talking to, living in an agrarian culture where many of the people he interacted with probably were shepherds. So Jesus would have had a working knowledge of the shepherd’s life. He also would have known that in those days, the sheepfold would have been constructed out of a cave with rocks and brush and soil to shelter the sheep and keep them safe from thieves and wild animals. Sometimes shepherds would share a sheepfold and multiple flocks would have stay together at night before being called out by the shepherd in the morning. The other thing that Jesus would have known is that many times, the shepherd would lie across the gate and actually act as the door so that the sheep would remain safe and so that anyone who was thinking about coming and taking the sheep would need to rethink his strategy if he thought he could sneak through the gate.
Knowing these things, Jesus begins his teaching in Chapter 10 of John by using this figure of speech about the Shepherd versus the thief. For some reason, however, the people who were listening to Jesus didn’t get it. So, Jesus tried another way of going about things, using the gate metaphor…saying that he was the gate and that those who entered the sheepfold by him will be saved and come and go to the pasture. We’re beginning to make more sense here, but Jesus’ form of speech is still a bit complicated. And we never do learn if the people finally get what he is talking about…and honestly, in the Gospel of John it’s hard to tell if anyone really gets Jesus because he speaks in metaphor a lot. I am the vine, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life. No wonder so many people have a love/dislike relationship with the Gospel of John…if only John’s Jesus would speak to us in everyday Aramaic! (or English!)
As complicated as Jesus’ metaphors in the Gospel of John have a tendency to be, there is still a lot of good news to be gleaned from this text and others like it. But first the bad news…the shepherds in South Dakota might not like it, but humans have many sheep like qualities. We are stubborn, we prefer safety and sometimes, regardless of level of education, we can be dumb. We have fallen victim to this epidemic called “complacency”…as long as the status quo is held and we feel safe and secure, we’re good to go. The problem when stubbornness and preference of safety and stability meet complacency is that the possibility arises that we can become a people who merely exist instead of a people who live. We like the safety and security that the sheepfold provides, we like our things and we like the financial security…but there is no food in the sheepfold…but there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold…do we risk it?
Enter the good news. Though we are stubborn and prefer the safety and stability of the sheepfold and the status quo, and though there are thieves and robbers and wild animals outside of the sheepfold, we have a shepherd who will not settle for letting only those of us who dare go out into the pasture. Our shepherd is the kind of shepherd who is willing to fight the most stubborn of us and yank us out of our safe place so that we don’t just exist, we thrive and flourish and have abundant life. He does this because he knows and he wants us to know that life cannot be defeated, life cannot be stolen away from us because our life is with him and it is forever. And so Jesus will yank us out of our safe places and then lead us out to pasture by still waters, even and especially when it means walking through the valleys of the shadow of death to get there.
Our shepherd rose from the dead and in that moment, death was defeated and life conquered. We are free to exit the sheep fold and go out into the pasture and live abundant lives confident in the knowledge that our shepherd is guiding us, that he will lead us through the valleys of death to the still waters and banquets of love where our cups will over flow with peace, joy, love and life.
Listen for the shepherd’s voice. He is calling you by name…Do you hear him?
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Faith of Thomas
Easter 2A
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31
“The Faith of Thomas”
It was evening of the day of the Resurrection.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. While Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death when Lazarus died, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And when Jesus said his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it. And…why call him “doubting” Thomas? If we were to follow the literal translation of the Greek…we might call him “unbelieving” Thomas, or “lacking faith” Thomas instead of “doubting” Thomas as the Greek word for doubt never appears in this text.
What we can say about Thomas is that he was bold in his questioning. He was realistic enough that he knew there were times when he needed to speak up. And his boldness in questioning is something that is talked about in the Hebrew Scriptures as a positive aspect of faith. Abraham questioned God…Moses, David and Job questioned God.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
I’ve heard some people say that it’s not okay to be like Thomas…it’s not okay to question our faith. To say that, though, seems to say that it’s not okay to be human. We are all like Thomas at one time or another. We all have our days where we question and days when we doubt. In fact many of us, I’m sure, have moments every day where we question what we believe. It all comes with being a part of a sinful world. We see violence on the news, we hear of neighborhood children dying of cancer, we see floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters tear apart lives. It’s normal to doubt and to question, for doubting and questioning is nothing more than part of a quest for certainty, not an absence of belief. There is no shame in this, for the questioning and doubting of Thomas, all stems from a yearning for a personal encounter with the risen Lord. And in that encounter there is joy. There is joy in knowing that our creator is bigger than all of our doubts and questions. There is joy in knowing that it is when we doubt, when we ask questions…when we have the boldness of Thomas, our faith grows.
Theologian Paul Tillich said once that “the older faith must die, eaten away by doubts, but only so that a new and deeper faith may be born.” When we doubt, when we question, our faith becomes newer, deeper…our relationship with God becomes stronger. We shouldn’t be afraid to doubt and question, for God holds us up even when our doubts and questions seem to pile up.
Jesus didn’t reprimand Thomas for his lack of faith, his uncertainty. He invited him to touch his wounds and simply said, do not be unbelieving, but believe. And Thomas didn’t need to touch, he just needed the invitation to be moved to the exclamation My God and My Lord!
And it is then that Jesus says - How much more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe? How much more blessed are we who have not seen the risen Jesus and yet believe? Yes, we are blessed…blessed that our faith or the faith of our parents brought us to this font so that because of God’s mercy we could be given a new life in Jesus. We are blessed because we come to this table where we can see, touch and taste the body and blood of Jesus. We are blessed because like Thomas, we do see the risen Jesus. We may not have seen the risen Jesus the way that Thomas has seen, but we do see the risen Jesus in the bodies and souls of strangers and those we love. We have placed our hands in Jesus’ pierced side when we caress the skinned knee of a child. We have touched the nail marks when we visit someone in the hospital. We have seen the wonder of the resurrection in those around us. We have seen because we love.
Let us all be as bold as Thomas…and let us be filled with joy. There is no shame in having doubts and questions. Only joy…for it is when we are bold enough to bring our doubts to God that our faith grows. And when our faith grows, we can exclaim with Thomas “My God and My Lord!”
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31
“The Faith of Thomas”
It was evening of the day of the Resurrection.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. While Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death when Lazarus died, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And when Jesus said his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it. And…why call him “doubting” Thomas? If we were to follow the literal translation of the Greek…we might call him “unbelieving” Thomas, or “lacking faith” Thomas instead of “doubting” Thomas as the Greek word for doubt never appears in this text.
What we can say about Thomas is that he was bold in his questioning. He was realistic enough that he knew there were times when he needed to speak up. And his boldness in questioning is something that is talked about in the Hebrew Scriptures as a positive aspect of faith. Abraham questioned God…Moses, David and Job questioned God.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
I’ve heard some people say that it’s not okay to be like Thomas…it’s not okay to question our faith. To say that, though, seems to say that it’s not okay to be human. We are all like Thomas at one time or another. We all have our days where we question and days when we doubt. In fact many of us, I’m sure, have moments every day where we question what we believe. It all comes with being a part of a sinful world. We see violence on the news, we hear of neighborhood children dying of cancer, we see floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters tear apart lives. It’s normal to doubt and to question, for doubting and questioning is nothing more than part of a quest for certainty, not an absence of belief. There is no shame in this, for the questioning and doubting of Thomas, all stems from a yearning for a personal encounter with the risen Lord. And in that encounter there is joy. There is joy in knowing that our creator is bigger than all of our doubts and questions. There is joy in knowing that it is when we doubt, when we ask questions…when we have the boldness of Thomas, our faith grows.
Theologian Paul Tillich said once that “the older faith must die, eaten away by doubts, but only so that a new and deeper faith may be born.” When we doubt, when we question, our faith becomes newer, deeper…our relationship with God becomes stronger. We shouldn’t be afraid to doubt and question, for God holds us up even when our doubts and questions seem to pile up.
Jesus didn’t reprimand Thomas for his lack of faith, his uncertainty. He invited him to touch his wounds and simply said, do not be unbelieving, but believe. And Thomas didn’t need to touch, he just needed the invitation to be moved to the exclamation My God and My Lord!
And it is then that Jesus says - How much more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe? How much more blessed are we who have not seen the risen Jesus and yet believe? Yes, we are blessed…blessed that our faith or the faith of our parents brought us to this font so that because of God’s mercy we could be given a new life in Jesus. We are blessed because we come to this table where we can see, touch and taste the body and blood of Jesus. We are blessed because like Thomas, we do see the risen Jesus. We may not have seen the risen Jesus the way that Thomas has seen, but we do see the risen Jesus in the bodies and souls of strangers and those we love. We have placed our hands in Jesus’ pierced side when we caress the skinned knee of a child. We have touched the nail marks when we visit someone in the hospital. We have seen the wonder of the resurrection in those around us. We have seen because we love.
Let us all be as bold as Thomas…and let us be filled with joy. There is no shame in having doubts and questions. Only joy…for it is when we are bold enough to bring our doubts to God that our faith grows. And when our faith grows, we can exclaim with Thomas “My God and My Lord!”
Thursday, April 21, 2011
“And Yet…”
April 21, 2011
Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
He knew, and yet, he washed.
He performed an act reserved only for servants, and act of humility, even though he knew. As he got up from the table, took of his outer robe and wrapped a towel around himself he knew, but he did it any way. He washed the twelve pairs of feet that sat with him at the table that night, twelve pairs of feet that had walked with him for three year, who had given up their lives and professions to follow him, who had sacrificed what they had…and he knew that one pair of feet was about to betray him…one pair of feet was about to deny him three times…all twelve pairs of feet that he washed were about the desert him in the garden as he was arrested, leaving him to walk the rest of the road to the cross alone, surrounded by those who would mock and beat him on the road…he knew all this about his disciples…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
At the table that night, during supper, he washed calloused feet made hard by the journey of life and of the last three years. He saw the imperfections, the misshapen toes, the scars, that these feet carried. He knew where those feet had been because his feet walked along side of their feet. He also knew where those feet were going…and, at least for the next day or so, he knew that those twelve pair of feet would be simultaneously longing to be next to his feet and, at the same time, longing to be no where near where his feet were about to go…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
He did it as an act and an example of love, an act of servant hood for those who had been the closest to him for the last three years. And yet, not all of them wanted to be washed…not all of them truly got it. Peter, the rock on which Christ was to build his church, Christ’s right hand man, resisted. “You will never wash my feet,” he said. As he was one to do, Peter was looking at things from a human perspective instead of God’s perspective. Instead of seeing an act of love and generosity, a leveling of the playing field between teacher and student, an encounter with living water and a form of baptismal grace, Peter saw his teacher and Lord committing a scandalous act by lowering himself to the level of student and slave by washing the disciple’s feet…feet that had probably already been washed when they entered the upper room before the meal had even begun…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
“Unless I wash you,” Jesus replied, “you have no share with me.” Jesus knew that this pair of feet would be the pair of feet that would deny him three times before the cock crowed and he would do it out of fear, wanting to save his own skin, and yet Jesus wanted Peter to remain in his love and his care. And, as Jesus had said to Peter at the beginning of their conversation…Peter wouldn’t understand until later…for once he heard that if Jesus didn’t wash him, he would have no share with Jesus, Peter goes overboard…not only wanting his feet washed, but the rest of him as well. Makes you wonder what the others thought in that moment. Were the other feet squirming in embarrassment as Peter, the block head, made another dumb move? Or were they scrambling to get in line so that Jesus could wash the rest of them, too, just as Peter had requested?…were the feet that were about to betray Jesus fidgeting nervously as this conversation took place?
They were his inner circle, his most trusted companions and even they didn’t get it…and yet he washed their feet anyway…he loved them anyway, in fact, he loved them to the end.
This evening, we stand as a church some two thousand years after this night and, as our Jewish brothers and sisters asked during the Passover seder this week, so we ask ourselves tonight…why is this night different from the rest? And as people who stand on the other side of the cross and the empty tomb, we know why because we know something that the disciples didn’t know as they sat at the table, shared a final meal with their teacher and watched Jesus commit a great act of love by washing their feet. Unlike the disciples, we know what is going to happen next, who is going to betray, where and why, who is going to deny and who is going to desert…and we know that this story has a happy ending…and yet it seems that even as people who on this night live on the other side of the cross and empty tomb than the disciples did on that last night with Jesus, we don’t always get it either…and sometimes we resist…but Jesus wants to wash our feet anyways.
Jesus knows that sometimes our first instinct is to see things the way that we want to see them, the way that suits us instead of taking the risk of seeing things the way that God sees them...Jesus knows that sometimes we resist being served by him because he knows that for some, letting go and being vulnerable is scary because it means giving up some of the freedom and control that we think that we have. And Jesus knows that sometimes we ignore or just simply forget the new mandatum, the new commandment that Jesus gave the disciples to love one another as he loved them. And yet, Jesus wants to wash our feet anyways…Jesus wants to give us a share with him and show his love for us as an example of the new commandment.
This night is different from all the rest because of this new commandment. Yes, we celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper on this night but it’s the mandatum that Jesus gives to the disciples that gives today its name. And all this new commandment requires of us is that we love…that we love with a fervor so great that it matches the love that Jesus has for us.
As broken people living in a sinful world, we have a tendency to get so caught up in the me’s and the my’s and the mine’s that sometimes we either forget about this new commandment to love…sometimes we either resist or we just don’t get it and our feet end up going the same way the disciples went…deserting, betraying and denying Jesus through our actions and our words…and yet Jesus still wants to wash our feet, to give us a share with him in hope that maybe one day our feet won’t desert or deny or betray, but will instead walk with him on the rest of the journey to the cross, showing his love to all those that we pass by.
Eventually, the words that Jesus spoke to Peter came true…eventually Peter did get what Jesus was doing for him by washing his feet. As Peter stood on the other side of the cross and empty tomb, he knew that Jesus had prepared him for what was to lie ahead for him and the other disciples. Jesus knew what was going to happen after the last supper when he was in the garden…and yet, by washing them, he prepared them for what they would face by giving them a taste of baptismal grace, an encounter with the living water which sustained them through the three days from that night until Easter morning. Tonight we will show each other a small act of love by washing one another’s feet. Don’t be ashamed if your feet aren’t pretty, or if they are scarred or if they smell…come and look for the love of Jesus coming from the person washing your feet…and if you feel so moved, let the love of Jesus flow through you as you wash someone else’s feet. Think of it as Jesus preparing us for the rest of the journey through these three Holy Days. Amen.
Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
He knew, and yet, he washed.
He performed an act reserved only for servants, and act of humility, even though he knew. As he got up from the table, took of his outer robe and wrapped a towel around himself he knew, but he did it any way. He washed the twelve pairs of feet that sat with him at the table that night, twelve pairs of feet that had walked with him for three year, who had given up their lives and professions to follow him, who had sacrificed what they had…and he knew that one pair of feet was about to betray him…one pair of feet was about to deny him three times…all twelve pairs of feet that he washed were about the desert him in the garden as he was arrested, leaving him to walk the rest of the road to the cross alone, surrounded by those who would mock and beat him on the road…he knew all this about his disciples…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
At the table that night, during supper, he washed calloused feet made hard by the journey of life and of the last three years. He saw the imperfections, the misshapen toes, the scars, that these feet carried. He knew where those feet had been because his feet walked along side of their feet. He also knew where those feet were going…and, at least for the next day or so, he knew that those twelve pair of feet would be simultaneously longing to be next to his feet and, at the same time, longing to be no where near where his feet were about to go…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
He did it as an act and an example of love, an act of servant hood for those who had been the closest to him for the last three years. And yet, not all of them wanted to be washed…not all of them truly got it. Peter, the rock on which Christ was to build his church, Christ’s right hand man, resisted. “You will never wash my feet,” he said. As he was one to do, Peter was looking at things from a human perspective instead of God’s perspective. Instead of seeing an act of love and generosity, a leveling of the playing field between teacher and student, an encounter with living water and a form of baptismal grace, Peter saw his teacher and Lord committing a scandalous act by lowering himself to the level of student and slave by washing the disciple’s feet…feet that had probably already been washed when they entered the upper room before the meal had even begun…and yet he washed their feet anyway.
“Unless I wash you,” Jesus replied, “you have no share with me.” Jesus knew that this pair of feet would be the pair of feet that would deny him three times before the cock crowed and he would do it out of fear, wanting to save his own skin, and yet Jesus wanted Peter to remain in his love and his care. And, as Jesus had said to Peter at the beginning of their conversation…Peter wouldn’t understand until later…for once he heard that if Jesus didn’t wash him, he would have no share with Jesus, Peter goes overboard…not only wanting his feet washed, but the rest of him as well. Makes you wonder what the others thought in that moment. Were the other feet squirming in embarrassment as Peter, the block head, made another dumb move? Or were they scrambling to get in line so that Jesus could wash the rest of them, too, just as Peter had requested?…were the feet that were about to betray Jesus fidgeting nervously as this conversation took place?
They were his inner circle, his most trusted companions and even they didn’t get it…and yet he washed their feet anyway…he loved them anyway, in fact, he loved them to the end.
This evening, we stand as a church some two thousand years after this night and, as our Jewish brothers and sisters asked during the Passover seder this week, so we ask ourselves tonight…why is this night different from the rest? And as people who stand on the other side of the cross and the empty tomb, we know why because we know something that the disciples didn’t know as they sat at the table, shared a final meal with their teacher and watched Jesus commit a great act of love by washing their feet. Unlike the disciples, we know what is going to happen next, who is going to betray, where and why, who is going to deny and who is going to desert…and we know that this story has a happy ending…and yet it seems that even as people who on this night live on the other side of the cross and empty tomb than the disciples did on that last night with Jesus, we don’t always get it either…and sometimes we resist…but Jesus wants to wash our feet anyways.
Jesus knows that sometimes our first instinct is to see things the way that we want to see them, the way that suits us instead of taking the risk of seeing things the way that God sees them...Jesus knows that sometimes we resist being served by him because he knows that for some, letting go and being vulnerable is scary because it means giving up some of the freedom and control that we think that we have. And Jesus knows that sometimes we ignore or just simply forget the new mandatum, the new commandment that Jesus gave the disciples to love one another as he loved them. And yet, Jesus wants to wash our feet anyways…Jesus wants to give us a share with him and show his love for us as an example of the new commandment.
This night is different from all the rest because of this new commandment. Yes, we celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper on this night but it’s the mandatum that Jesus gives to the disciples that gives today its name. And all this new commandment requires of us is that we love…that we love with a fervor so great that it matches the love that Jesus has for us.
As broken people living in a sinful world, we have a tendency to get so caught up in the me’s and the my’s and the mine’s that sometimes we either forget about this new commandment to love…sometimes we either resist or we just don’t get it and our feet end up going the same way the disciples went…deserting, betraying and denying Jesus through our actions and our words…and yet Jesus still wants to wash our feet, to give us a share with him in hope that maybe one day our feet won’t desert or deny or betray, but will instead walk with him on the rest of the journey to the cross, showing his love to all those that we pass by.
Eventually, the words that Jesus spoke to Peter came true…eventually Peter did get what Jesus was doing for him by washing his feet. As Peter stood on the other side of the cross and empty tomb, he knew that Jesus had prepared him for what was to lie ahead for him and the other disciples. Jesus knew what was going to happen after the last supper when he was in the garden…and yet, by washing them, he prepared them for what they would face by giving them a taste of baptismal grace, an encounter with the living water which sustained them through the three days from that night until Easter morning. Tonight we will show each other a small act of love by washing one another’s feet. Don’t be ashamed if your feet aren’t pretty, or if they are scarred or if they smell…come and look for the love of Jesus coming from the person washing your feet…and if you feel so moved, let the love of Jesus flow through you as you wash someone else’s feet. Think of it as Jesus preparing us for the rest of the journey through these three Holy Days. Amen.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Faith of the Israelites...faithfulness of God
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets — who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented — of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. ~HEBREWS 11:1, 29-40
During this season of Lent, we decided to use the Faith series suggested by Sundays and Seasons. It's been a great series talking about the faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses and, this week, the Israelites.
Looking at the writing from this chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, there are some interesting themes. First, is that the writer of this letter depends heavily on the Old Testament tradition, specifically, the fathers of the faith. And the second is that seems to view the lives of these father of the faith (he does speak of Rahab, also) through the lens of the Christ event, claiming, for example, that Moses did what he did because of Christ.
What I find interesting about the passage for tonight, however is that when the writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of the faith of the Israelites, he does so within the context of the leaders (specifically the judges and kings) that save the Israelites from themselves.
God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the slavery they were under in Egypt...the people griped and moaned...but God worked through Moses and led them through the Red Sea.
The people questioned Joshua about the plan that God had given him for the destruction of Jericho...but God worked through Joshua, the people lived out the plan and the walls came a tumblin' down. God worked through Rahab to keep the spies of the Israelites safe when they snuck into Jericho.
Gideon was chosen by God to free the Israelites from themselves and the idolatry they had gotten themselves in to, he destroyed the statues of Baal and Asherah and challenged the people to turn back to God.
Barak was chosen to lead Deborah's army against the Canaanites, who had oppressed the Israelites. He was victorious.
Jephthah was chosen to lead the Israelites in battle against the Ammonites, who had rules over them, scripture says, because God had handed the Israelites over to the Philistines and Ammonites when the Israelites had turned their back on God.
Samson was a Nazarite, chosen to lead the Israelites against the Philistines. A messenger of the Lord when to Samson's mother and told her about the son that she was going to have, that Samson was going to be a Nazarite...this meant that his mother could drink no alcohol while she was pregnant and that during Samson's life, he would never be able to drink alcohol or cut his hair (there were other stipulations as well, but these were the most well known of them). God used Samson to defeat the Philistines, he killed many single handedly.
(Check out Samson's story in the book of Judges...it's really good)
Then we have Samuel, who was on the cusp of the transition of the era of the Judges and the era of the Prophets (Samuel was the last judge and first prophet). Samuel led the Israelites against the Philistines and defeated them 20 years after the Israelites had been defeated by the Philistines and the ark of the covenant was taken.
Finally, we have David, second King of Israel. He was the youngest and the smallest of the sons of Jesse, but God had plans for him and he was a great king. He did have his weak spots (Bathsheba) but God stayed by his side, showing him, through Nathan, where he had sinned and helping him to repent.
The writer speaks of the prophets as well, doesn't name any more of them specifically.
Here's what I've noticed, though..the writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of the faith of these individuals, of Noah and Moses and Abraham and the Israelites (and their judges and prophets and kings) but the thing that sticks out here is how God's faithfulness plays in. God never abandoned the people that God chose...God let them live out the consequences of their sinful actions, but God never left them.
Adam and Eve were forced to leave the garden, but God provided clothing for them. Cain was forced to wander and be alone after killing Abel, but God protected him from those who would want to avenge Abel.
Noah never spoke out on behalf of his neighbors (he never speaks, actually), which, depending on how you want to interpret it, is or is not a big deal as Noah never questioned the instructions the God had for him.
Moses had doubts about the mission that God had for him, but God provided the resources for him to use and was with him all along the way from Egypt to the edge of the promised land (the consequence of his mistrust of God at the end of his life was that he never got to see the promised land).
The Israelites doubted God, questioned God, turned from God again and again, but God never turned away from them. God delivered them through the Red Sea, provided for them in the desert, brought them (despite the years of wandering) into the promised land, and provided for them leaders that would bring them back to a focus on God instead of on themselves and other deities.
This is all about God's faithfulness towards us and the result of God's enduring faithfulness is that we have been given the ability to trust in and be faithful to God in return. And that, my friends, is pretty cool.
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. ~HEBREWS 11:1, 29-40
During this season of Lent, we decided to use the Faith series suggested by Sundays and Seasons. It's been a great series talking about the faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses and, this week, the Israelites.
Looking at the writing from this chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, there are some interesting themes. First, is that the writer of this letter depends heavily on the Old Testament tradition, specifically, the fathers of the faith. And the second is that seems to view the lives of these father of the faith (he does speak of Rahab, also) through the lens of the Christ event, claiming, for example, that Moses did what he did because of Christ.
What I find interesting about the passage for tonight, however is that when the writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of the faith of the Israelites, he does so within the context of the leaders (specifically the judges and kings) that save the Israelites from themselves.
God sent Moses to free the Israelites from the slavery they were under in Egypt...the people griped and moaned...but God worked through Moses and led them through the Red Sea.
The people questioned Joshua about the plan that God had given him for the destruction of Jericho...but God worked through Joshua, the people lived out the plan and the walls came a tumblin' down. God worked through Rahab to keep the spies of the Israelites safe when they snuck into Jericho.
Gideon was chosen by God to free the Israelites from themselves and the idolatry they had gotten themselves in to, he destroyed the statues of Baal and Asherah and challenged the people to turn back to God.
Barak was chosen to lead Deborah's army against the Canaanites, who had oppressed the Israelites. He was victorious.
Jephthah was chosen to lead the Israelites in battle against the Ammonites, who had rules over them, scripture says, because God had handed the Israelites over to the Philistines and Ammonites when the Israelites had turned their back on God.
Samson was a Nazarite, chosen to lead the Israelites against the Philistines. A messenger of the Lord when to Samson's mother and told her about the son that she was going to have, that Samson was going to be a Nazarite...this meant that his mother could drink no alcohol while she was pregnant and that during Samson's life, he would never be able to drink alcohol or cut his hair (there were other stipulations as well, but these were the most well known of them). God used Samson to defeat the Philistines, he killed many single handedly.
(Check out Samson's story in the book of Judges...it's really good)
Then we have Samuel, who was on the cusp of the transition of the era of the Judges and the era of the Prophets (Samuel was the last judge and first prophet). Samuel led the Israelites against the Philistines and defeated them 20 years after the Israelites had been defeated by the Philistines and the ark of the covenant was taken.
Finally, we have David, second King of Israel. He was the youngest and the smallest of the sons of Jesse, but God had plans for him and he was a great king. He did have his weak spots (Bathsheba) but God stayed by his side, showing him, through Nathan, where he had sinned and helping him to repent.
The writer speaks of the prophets as well, doesn't name any more of them specifically.
Here's what I've noticed, though..the writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of the faith of these individuals, of Noah and Moses and Abraham and the Israelites (and their judges and prophets and kings) but the thing that sticks out here is how God's faithfulness plays in. God never abandoned the people that God chose...God let them live out the consequences of their sinful actions, but God never left them.
Adam and Eve were forced to leave the garden, but God provided clothing for them. Cain was forced to wander and be alone after killing Abel, but God protected him from those who would want to avenge Abel.
Noah never spoke out on behalf of his neighbors (he never speaks, actually), which, depending on how you want to interpret it, is or is not a big deal as Noah never questioned the instructions the God had for him.
Moses had doubts about the mission that God had for him, but God provided the resources for him to use and was with him all along the way from Egypt to the edge of the promised land (the consequence of his mistrust of God at the end of his life was that he never got to see the promised land).
The Israelites doubted God, questioned God, turned from God again and again, but God never turned away from them. God delivered them through the Red Sea, provided for them in the desert, brought them (despite the years of wandering) into the promised land, and provided for them leaders that would bring them back to a focus on God instead of on themselves and other deities.
This is all about God's faithfulness towards us and the result of God's enduring faithfulness is that we have been given the ability to trust in and be faithful to God in return. And that, my friends, is pretty cool.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Love...
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. ~ I Corinthians 13
Between putting together a wedding liturgy planning booklet, doing my own wedding planning, and reading all the hype about Rob Bell's new book (which I really want to get my hands on), I have been thinking a lot about love.
Well, the liturgy planning booklet hasn't gotten me thinking about love that much, although I do enjoy projects like this where there is actually a visible proof that I have accomplished something.
And while I have been enjoying the ease with which wedding planning has gone so far (thanks to my fabulous family), it's not the planning that gets me thinking about love...I love my fiancee and I love the idea that, by the grace of God, we will get to spend the rest of our lives together. But I don't have to think about it that much, I just love him.
So I guess it's the Rob Bell book that's gotten me thinking about love...and not just any love, divine love.
As I mentioned, I haven't read the book yet...but the more I read about the accusations of heresy and the more my friends talk about it, the more I want to run to the book store down town and get a copy...except the bookstore downtown doesn't have it yet and it's too new to find at the used book sellers in town.
I am a fan of Rob Bell. I like the Nooma series and have found it to have more of a Lutheran spin to it than an Evangelical one...though I must admit that as open minded as I claim to be, I tend to be overly cautious about things that are labeled as Evangelical...it could have something to do with the fact that some who call themselves Evangelical would not consider my call to ministry valid, or that many televangelists who label themselves as Evangelicals have been exposed as hypocrites or have given the word Christian a bad rap by spouting hate language, blaming this group or that group (though it's usually the gays) for this or that disaster. I do know that not all Evangelicals are bad...after all, I am ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and therefore, by association, am technically Evangelical. And if you work with the traditional meaning of Evangelical, I will claim that...but I shy away from how is has been seen in the public eye lately.
But I digress.
This whole deal about whether or not Rob Bell is a heretic based off of a 2:30 minute video is kind of silly, I think. There was one blog I read where the blogger, attacked Bell's theology based off of something that the blogger misquoted. It could be that we heard the same thing, but heard it differently...I'm not here to say that this blogger is wrong. But I am perplexed that people are calling Bell a heretic for suggesting the following:
#1) Mahatma Ghandi is in heaven
#2) Heaven is full of surprises and we don't know the full extent of God's love..and most likely, it's greater than we imagine.
Where's the heresy in that?
Mahatma Ghandi is very well known for being fond of the teachings of Christ. Christ's teaching to "turn the other cheek" from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is where Ghandi gleaned the idea of non-violent resistance. He even said "I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Could it be that while Ghandi was not a Christian, he was a Christ follower?
As far as the heaven being full of surprises and not knowing the full extent of God's love, isn't that Gospel good news? I don't know about you, but stories like this past week's Gospel about the Samaritan Woman at the Well from John 4, and the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee from the Gospel of Luke, bring me to tears sometimes because they remind me of just how great God's love truly is...that God would have mercy on even a poor sinner like me (Growing up in the LCMS, I got used to referring to myself as a "poor miserable sinner" on almost a weekly basis, and I admit it, try as I might to be otherwise, that is what I am...though I will also answer to "beloved child of God"). And if you know me and my faith story, about the crisis I went through in my late teens, you know that I believe in an all loving God...one who loved the world so much that he made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be his. So if someone is suggesting that above all, Love wins, I have no problem with that.
Again, I haven't read the book, this is only what I have gleaned from the promo-video and the reviews of said video. I will report back when I have read the book. These are just my thoughts on the hype.
I welcome your thoughts as well.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. ~ I Corinthians 13
Between putting together a wedding liturgy planning booklet, doing my own wedding planning, and reading all the hype about Rob Bell's new book (which I really want to get my hands on), I have been thinking a lot about love.
Well, the liturgy planning booklet hasn't gotten me thinking about love that much, although I do enjoy projects like this where there is actually a visible proof that I have accomplished something.
And while I have been enjoying the ease with which wedding planning has gone so far (thanks to my fabulous family), it's not the planning that gets me thinking about love...I love my fiancee and I love the idea that, by the grace of God, we will get to spend the rest of our lives together. But I don't have to think about it that much, I just love him.
So I guess it's the Rob Bell book that's gotten me thinking about love...and not just any love, divine love.
As I mentioned, I haven't read the book yet...but the more I read about the accusations of heresy and the more my friends talk about it, the more I want to run to the book store down town and get a copy...except the bookstore downtown doesn't have it yet and it's too new to find at the used book sellers in town.
I am a fan of Rob Bell. I like the Nooma series and have found it to have more of a Lutheran spin to it than an Evangelical one...though I must admit that as open minded as I claim to be, I tend to be overly cautious about things that are labeled as Evangelical...it could have something to do with the fact that some who call themselves Evangelical would not consider my call to ministry valid, or that many televangelists who label themselves as Evangelicals have been exposed as hypocrites or have given the word Christian a bad rap by spouting hate language, blaming this group or that group (though it's usually the gays) for this or that disaster. I do know that not all Evangelicals are bad...after all, I am ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and therefore, by association, am technically Evangelical. And if you work with the traditional meaning of Evangelical, I will claim that...but I shy away from how is has been seen in the public eye lately.
But I digress.
This whole deal about whether or not Rob Bell is a heretic based off of a 2:30 minute video is kind of silly, I think. There was one blog I read where the blogger, attacked Bell's theology based off of something that the blogger misquoted. It could be that we heard the same thing, but heard it differently...I'm not here to say that this blogger is wrong. But I am perplexed that people are calling Bell a heretic for suggesting the following:
#1) Mahatma Ghandi is in heaven
#2) Heaven is full of surprises and we don't know the full extent of God's love..and most likely, it's greater than we imagine.
Where's the heresy in that?
Mahatma Ghandi is very well known for being fond of the teachings of Christ. Christ's teaching to "turn the other cheek" from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is where Ghandi gleaned the idea of non-violent resistance. He even said "I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Could it be that while Ghandi was not a Christian, he was a Christ follower?
As far as the heaven being full of surprises and not knowing the full extent of God's love, isn't that Gospel good news? I don't know about you, but stories like this past week's Gospel about the Samaritan Woman at the Well from John 4, and the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee from the Gospel of Luke, bring me to tears sometimes because they remind me of just how great God's love truly is...that God would have mercy on even a poor sinner like me (Growing up in the LCMS, I got used to referring to myself as a "poor miserable sinner" on almost a weekly basis, and I admit it, try as I might to be otherwise, that is what I am...though I will also answer to "beloved child of God"). And if you know me and my faith story, about the crisis I went through in my late teens, you know that I believe in an all loving God...one who loved the world so much that he made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be his. So if someone is suggesting that above all, Love wins, I have no problem with that.
Again, I haven't read the book, this is only what I have gleaned from the promo-video and the reviews of said video. I will report back when I have read the book. These are just my thoughts on the hype.
I welcome your thoughts as well.
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