Pentecost

23 05 2010

May 23, 2010

A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian

Gen 11:1-9

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.
And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Diversity.
Is it a good word or a bad word for you?
Diversity is not very popular in some political circles right now. Many countries in Europe, most notably France, are debating whether or not women should be allowed to wear their traditional Muslim veils, or other obviously religious clothing or symbols. Switzerland banned the building of minarets on mosques. Arizona has now made it illegal to look like you’re illegal.
The movement of people, scattered abroad, across the face of the whole earth, is causing nations to struggle with their identities. What does it mean to be German, French, or American if people don’t speak the same language or function in the same cultural values?

Many of us, however, claim to value and seek diversity, believing that there is value to be gained from the sharing of ideas, language, and culture.

Yet the reality is, even when we claim diversity, we often seek out sameness. It is human of us to be like the people in Genesis who wanted to build a city with a big tower, so that they could stay together, united as one, and not be scattered abroad, across the face of the whole earth.

This story in Genesis is told in  “a long time ago and far, far away” manner. Even way back in the days of the ancestors, they were struggling over diversity, trying to come up with an explanation for our differences that made sense. But for me, the truest part of scripture is that a story that was written thousands of years ago is still as true for us as it was for the original audience.
Because we still seek to build towers to sameness.  We want to be with people who speak our language, whether that’s literally or figuratively. Perhaps the walls and tower they were building was to keep difference outside. Perhaps it was to make them self sufficient and enclosed, set apart from the world. Why did they do it? Why do we?

They had one language and the same words. And they made the mistake of using those words to clearly state that the whole reason for the building was not to glorify God, or to provide affordable housing for widows and orphans, or to appropriately plan for urban growth. The whole reason for the building, for the hard labor of making bricks out of mud, burning them until they are solid, and for collecting bitumen was to make a name for themselves.
oops.
The Lord came down to inspect the building and to see what the humans were up to as they industriously worked on their buildings and God realized….one language….same words….and the first thing they do is forget who they are and whose they are. The first thing they do is try to make a name for themselves.
I like that image in this text, of the Lord walking through the construction site with a hard hat on, inspecting what the people had built. And quickly, the Lord finds about 47 different code violations. Most importantly—the foundation is shaky. Rather than building on a solid foundation, they’ve built on sand. They have built to glorify themselves instead of God. So the Lord gathers together the whole construction crew and sends them off, scattering the people over the face of the earth, confusing their language, to keep them from continuing to build on a shaky foundation.

Because the truth is, when we only build towers to sameness, when we surround ourselves with people who agree with us, who think like us, who look like us, we can become unnecessarily prideful and assume that we have more of the answers than do the people on the other side of the walls. We can become arrogant and think that people who don’t agree with us, or who don’t speak our language, are wrong, or less than, or dangerous, or not beloved children of God.
People have often seen the Babel text as a story of punishment—because you built this tower, God is punishing you and confusing your language.
I wonder if this is a story of grace and gift—because you surround yourself with sameness, God is going to scatter you and confuse your language so that you won’t forget who you are and whose you are. The gift of diversity, of scattered language and culture, is the gift God has given us so that we’ll remember that we are stronger, when like the people of Babel, we leave off building the walls to the city of sameness and go out and live in a diverse world.
I read a story in the news this week that reminded me of the best parts of living in diversity. It also reminded me of America’s great legacy of being a melting pot, where people from all over the world can come here, work hard, and make our great nation stronger. The news was from Houston, Texas and was about a boy named Victor Cardenas. He had a rough home life and he ended up homeless when his mother kicked him and his siblings out of the house. So, friends from his high school would let him stay with them for a while. Finally, one of his teachers, a Russian immigrant, had him move in with her family. Once he had a stable home, he began to thrive and this month is graduating as the valedictorian of his high school class. In the fall, he’ll be going to Texas A & M on a full scholarship to study bio-chemistry. “In a suburb of Houston, Texas, the Mexican street kid had found a home, with a family of intellectual, Russian immigrants.” Stories like Victor’s can only happen when we see value in diversity, in people who are so very different than we are.
This story, and the story of Babel, reminds us that God wants us to seek out people who are not like we are.

Unlike the world around us that tells us to be just like everyone else. God has scattered us across the face of the earth and confused our language just so we will not seek sameness. Which means we need to resist our inclinations to surround ourselves with people who will only say the words we want to hear. We all might have to set aside our prejudices and actually consider that the other isn’t different from us because they are wrong, but because God wanted them to be different. Perhaps God scattered us over the face of the earth and confused our language in order to keep any of us from thinking that we, alone, have a handle on God’s truth, that we have all the answers.

Easy.

Right?

We’ll all just sit down and have a cup of tea and everything will be fine.
Or not.
What is a problem for us today was a problem for the church in the book of Acts as well. The followers of Jesus were all gathered together in one place when the Holy Spirit descended on each of them. And then, just as at the end of the story of Babel, when people were scattered all over the face of the earth, the text of Acts chapter 2 tells us that there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
Notice how both of these texts are cosmic and universal stories. In Babel, they are spread over all the face of the earth. In Acts, the people are from every nation under heaven. These are not small stories about someone else long ago and far away. They are about us. These stories could be pulled from the headlines today.
Because what do these people from every nation under heaven say when they hear these Jesus followers speaking in their languages?
They are amazed and astonished because the people speaking are Galileans.
You can fill in the appropriate insult today. But Galileans could certainly never speak all of those languages. A bunch of uneducated fishermen speaking Greek, Latin, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Korean, Chinese, and Swahili?

Come on.
Even the early church tried to build towers of sameness, seeking to define people by their otherness.

But the great irony, of course, is that God brought us reconciliation, redemption, salvation through an outsider, a peasant from Galilee. It is through Jesus the Christ, the son of a Carpenter from Nazareth in Galilee,  that we come together.
Pentecost, today, is the day we celebrate this pouring out of the Spirit upon the church. And I think we need to focus on the gift of the Spirit if we want to make diversity work. When left to our own devices, diversity just sounds like chaos—a bunch of different languages that we don’t understand.  Without the Spirit, diversity is scary.
But the spirit didn’t erase diversity and cause them to all speak one language. The diversity that mattered so much to God at the end of Babel is still operating. The Spirit gave them understanding, so they could hear about God’s deeds of power, each in their own language. Additionally, the work of the Spirit at Pentecost is what really allowed Jesus’ followers to obey his command to take the gospel to the ends of the world. Since the time the Book of Acts was written, the Bible has been translated into over 2,000 languages. The Holy Spirit does not seem to share our tendency to build walls to sameness. She seems to be more than generous and inclusive with sharing the gospel.

So perhaps we need to spend less time trying to get everyone around us to speak our language—literally, or culturally, or theologically, or politically—and spend more time discerning how we hear about God’s deeds of power from people speaking other languages, trusting that the Spirit is at work in our midst with a mysterious abundance that is not in our control.
As we celebrate this day of Pentecost, I pray that the Spirit will fall on us, will help us hear of God’s great deeds from voices to which we don’t usually listen. It is appropriate that today, on Pentecost, we are ordaining and installing officers. Listen to the language as our new elders and deacons are installed. Because we call on the Spirit to guide our work. We call on the Spirit to grant us wisdom in our leadership, compassion in our service.
Even if you aren’t being installed or ordained today, I invite you to consider how the Spirit may be calling you this day. Come Holy Spirit, dwell among us. Amen.


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Slave and Free

16 05 2010

A Sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian

May 16, 2010

Acts 16:16-40
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
When morning came, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”

And the jailer reported the message to Paul, saying, “The magistrates sent word to let you go; therefore come out now and go in peace.”
But Paul replied, “They have beaten us in public, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take us out themselves.”

The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens; so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.
After leaving the prison they went to Lydia’s home; and when they had seen and encouraged the brothers and sisters there, they departed.

God called Paul and Silas to go to Phillipi. There were people there who need to hear the liberating word of God. So they go. And first they meet a woman named Lydia. She is a successful business woman who operates an upscale fabric trading outfit. She and her household are baptized by Paul and she becomes a leader and important supporter in the early church.

But they next encounter a woman who is the opposite of Lydia. This slave girl is un-named. She has no resources or social standing. But as Paul and Silas walk through the streets of town, she follows behind them, announcing that these men are slaves of the most high God, here to proclaim to you a way of salvation.

Paul does his best to ignore her, but we’re told he gets annoyed and he turns and commands the spirit leave her, freeing her from possession. The men who own her, however, aren’t happy with this interruption of their cash flow. Because this slave girl was a money maker for them. What she was proclaiming about Paul and Silas was true, after all. So maybe she was right at least part of the time.

Some commentators get angry with Paul here because he doesn’t respond to this slave girl in Christian compassion. He doesn’t take her owners to task for her enslavement or subjugation. He doesn’t ask her name. He only exorcises her demons to get her to  stop   talking.

I’m more inclined to cut Paul some slack here. How many of us, after all, stop and ask the name of every homeless person we encounter on the street? How many of us, after all, go out of our way to share Christian compassion with every person who is yelling at us or about us on the street corner?
Perhaps we should. But we don’t. And Paul was human as we are human. We get annoyed.

Perhaps Paul was annoyed because one of the few people who correctly identified Paul and Silas as “slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation” happened to be a nameless, demon possessed teenaged girl. Perhaps he was annoyed because he’d been preaching in synagogues and living rooms, and the city leaders want him thrown in jail, refusing to hear the truth. But just seeing him walking down the street, this teenaged slave girl proclaims the truth about him.

One of the other reasons I am willing to cut him some slack is that even though he doesn’t greet her as a sister in Christ and buy her coffee, what he does—the casting out of her possession—has a real impact and consequence in her life. Once she’s no use as a fortune teller, once she stops bringing in money for her owners, she’s no longer the same value as a slave. In some ways, he frees her from captivity. His commanding the demon to depart is, how does she say it, the way this “slave of the Most High God, proclaims to her a way of salvation.”

And that, my friends, can get you in trouble. He could have just turned to the community and before going on his merry way, said, “slavery is wrong. Why do you trouble this poor girl?”

But he didn’t. He liberated her from economic slavery and showed the people that systems of this world that subjugate one person for the benefit of another are not the way God calls us to live.

And they drag Paul and Silas through the marketplace, right down Wall Street, and make an interesting claim. Remember when they arrested Jesus, his crime was making claims that put him in opposition to the Emperor. But here is Paul and Silas’ crime: “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”

They aren’t in trouble for political subversion. But for threatening the cultural and economic realm. And challenging unjust economic systems, challenging the status quo, threatens people. It allows fear to rise up and overwhelm our rational thinking, enslaving us to a cycle of anxiety.
Yes, the current system has some flaws, fear tells us, but we have figured out what to expect. We are comfortable in our prison of subjugation, and that fear of change leads us to throw in jail anyone who speaks against our enslavement.

Paul was a Roman citizen, who should have had rights, yet he was beaten, given an inadequate hearing, and thrown into the deepest corner of the jail. Needless to say, they didn’t read him his Miranda rights.

Paul and Silas, slaves of the most high God, have just freed the fortune telling slave girl from her possession, and find themselves imprisoned in a jail, where they meet the jailer, who is as much a slave of his situation as they are.

Paul and Silas, we’re told, are carrying on an impromptu worship service at midnight in the jail. And suddenly, there was an earthquake that broke down the walls imprisoning them. The jailer, when he realizes what has happened, is ready to kill himself because if he doesn’t keep the people behind bars, he isn’t serving his master. So By not walking out of the jail, Paul frees the jailer too, even though it is the jailer who holds the keys. Once again, Paul is subverting societal expectations and understandings of slavery and freedom—because what would we do if we were wrongfully imprisoned and then the walls fell down?

I, personally, would get the heck out of there.

The jailer quickly realizes that Paul is operating under a different paradigm than the rest of his inmates. Perhaps the jailer has even heard the cry of the slave girl, about being slaves of the most high God, here to proclaim a way of salvation. In any case, the jailer asks him, “what must I do to be saved?”

In the moment of grace he receives, when his prisoners don’t walk out to worldly freedom, the jailer realizes that he’d rather be a slave of the most high God than be free in a system of economic injustice. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will saved, you and your household.”

That’s the great paradox of the gospel. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.”

The gospel, the good news proclaimed in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is foolishness in the world’s terms. And in God’s kingdom, the terms of the world are revalued, redefined, and messed up.

And Paul proclaims it publicly. Even at the end, when the authorities realize that perhaps they’ve arrested the wrong people, and ask Paul and Silas to just go on their way, Paul refuses. “They have beaten us in public, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take us out themselves.”

Because when your freedom comes from being a slave of the most high God, your whole life—the good, the bad, and the ugly— is a public proclamation of the Good News. I hope this story of Paul and Silas gives our courage to live our lives publicly. It seems that too often we are shamed into silence because the world around us tells us that we should just go on with our lives, not bring attention to the realities of our lives.

But the problem with that kind of silence is that it isolates us and it perpetuates a lie. It leaves us as slaves to the notion that everyone is perfect, except us.

For Paul, I imagine that being in jail wouldn’t have made his PR team happy. Because who invites ex-cons over for dinner? Can’t you just hear his people now? “Paul, we’re glad that you love the gospel, but the next time you’re offered a chance to sneak out of jail quietly, could you please, pretty please, do it? We want people to think you are trustworthy and an upstanding member of society.”

There are times to be silent, don’t get me wrong. But they need to be on your terms. Not the city officials in Phillipi. Because when you let the world usher you silently out the back door, when no one is looking, you end up alone.

But when you live your life publicly on God’s terms, you aren’t alone. In this place, especially, we ought to be able to live publicly, to tell our stories and seek support from each other. When people say, “how are you doing?”, we tend to say, “fine”, even when the answer is:
I’m sad.

I’m lonely.

I’m scared.

I’m sick.

I’m depressed.

I’m in debt.

I’m worried.
Our silence keeps in place the cultural norms that say that everyone is okay, that people in church have it all figured out. But we know that’s not true. Slavery to the world tells us to keep up the charade. Freedom in God tells us to be honest about who we are and whose we are.

We can’t know all of the stories of all of the people sitting around us, but I do hope that in this place, at least, we can live our lives, publicly, in the freedom we get when we believe on the Lord Jesus.

Paul and Silas, slaves of the most high God, walked around publicly proclaiming salvation through Jesus Christ. Salvation that tells us that a nameless slave girl is as valuable to the kingdom as Lydia the cloth merchant. Salvation that tells us that we don’t have to be enslaved to the economic, political, or cultural systems of this world. Salvation that allows us to live authentic lives, encouraging the brothers and sisters around us.

What must I do to be saved?, the jailer asks Paul and Silas. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Friends, salvation has come for us. Thanks be to God for the mysterious and inexplicable grace that welcomes offers us this freedom! Amen.


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Categories : Acts 16:16-40

Teach Your Children Well

9 05 2010

A sermon preached at Southminster

May 9, 2010

Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Revelation 22:1-6

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him;  they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

Proverbs 22:6

Direct your children onto the right path,
and when they are older, they will not leave it.

The National Day of Prayer was this past Thursday. And it was a day with some controversy. A court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the government to declare a national day of prayer.  But President Obama called for it anyway.
Here are my problems with a national day of prayer. We need a lot more than one day a year.
We should be praying, each and every day, for the well being of our nation, for wisdom for her leaders, and for the health and success of all members of our society, among other things. So, on one level, I don’t think one day is enough.
But on another level, I don’t think the government should be the ones reminding us to pray.
No matter what you think of our government, I hope you’ll agree with me that elected officials are not the best qualified people to guide us in the ways of faith.

That’s what we should be about. We should be the ones teaching our children about faith.  Not the government.

Today we are recognizing those people who teach our faith to kids, youth, and adults. When we call their names a little later in the service, I hope that you will join with me in thanking them for the time, creativity, and love they give each and every week to the education of this congregation.

But the other reality is that even if our kids were here each and every week, that is still less than 40 hours of faith instruction a year in Sunday School.

Which is why we will also be giving our 3rd graders bibles. So they can learn to read the Bible at home with their families. Teach your children well, as the prophets Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young said. I won’t sing the lyrics, but here they are:
“Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.”

And whether or not you have children in your home, that’s what we’ve been called to do as the church. To teach what we believe and make a world that we can live in, to children, to adults, and to the wider world.

Now, I’ve already told you I don’t think our government, as great as it may be, is the best place to look to teach our children well about our faith.

And, with all respect to the public school teachers in this room, I don’t think the public schools are the best place to teach our faith either.
I think our public schools are the best place to prepare kids to use their minds, to acquire skills and abilities that will help them in the world and work place, to learn what it means to be a member of the broader society.

And yet, today is Grace Jordan day here at Southminster.

I, who argue for the separation of church and state, am asking that you respond to the Mission Committee’s request to focus our mission efforts on Grace Jordan Elementary.

But we aren’t asking you to it so that you can make those kids all Presbyterian.

We’re doing it because they are our neighbors, and they need our help.
As you’ve heard from Principal Tim Lowe this morning, the realities facing many of these kids are very different from when many of us were in school. And some of these kids need someone to spend time with them. Eat lunch, play board games, just listen.
Some of these kids need more food in their homes, and so we ask that your support the pantry as we collect food that they can take home from school. The city and state are cutting school budgets due to this economy, and so we’ll be paying for buses, helping each class go on a field trip this year, and we’ll be helping teachers keep their classrooms supplied with Kleenex and paper towels.

Some of you are wondering if I’m going to get around to the Revelation text. Some of you are hoping I forgot all about that book! But here it is. The book of Revelation gives us images to remind us of WHY we take time to help out our neighbors. Because, really. It would be a lot easier to not get involved. Surely would require less from us. We could just leave everyone to pull themselves up by their own proverbial bootstraps and go on our merry way.

But we have this image in Revelation. Of God’s New Heaven and New Earth. Of the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And it is this kingdom toward which the church is working.  Where God will live with mortals. Where nobody will cry anymore. Or be hungry. Where children won’t have to flee their homes and come to a new country as refugees to escape war, starvation, and famine. Where families will be whole and healthy.

The author of Revelation tells us that these words are trustworthy and true. And so we keep going back to these beautiful images from the end of Revelation—where we won’t need light because God will be our light. Where we won’t need water, because God will provide the living water. Where the streets of the city will be safe for all, where the leaves of the tree of life will provide healing for the nations.

This is the vision of Revelation, a vision of hope for people who need it.

And so, we look around our community and our town, we look at the world we live in, and we figure out what we can do to be a part of God’s vision for the world.

But we don’t bring about God’s vision for the world merely through charity. Charity, or the voluntary giving of aid, is important. But we need to be about more than charity, which just addresses the symptoms of a broken world. We need to be about justice, which addresses the causes of our broken world.

So how can our new partnership with Grace Jordan be about justice?  Well, for one thing, it makes a claim about the importance of a publicly funded education system to support our society. Additionally, it will help us better connect to our neighborhood, helping us to know the needs and issues that are facing the families who live around the church but may not be members of the church.

I hope this program will be helpful for Grace Jordan. But I also hope it will call us to be active in the community to seek systemic changes that will give all of God’s children the resources they need to succeed in this world. When Boise schools opened this new elementary school almost two years ago to replace McKinley, Franklin, and Jackson schools, they named it after former Idaho First Lady Grace Jordan, and we are happy to have some of her family here today. Grace Jordan was a mother, a teacher, an author. Her daughter is quoted as saying, “She encouraged us, and people around her, to always look for the best in everyone your life touches. She wanted everyone to live a life that may be a light unto the world around them and to encourage others to do likewise.”

That is what we are about here too. Helping children to succeed in their education is one way to shine a light for them, so that they may see more clearly the benefits of education, and in turn, let their lights shine for others.

This vision in Revelation is of a world that we can’t quite see yet. It seems to be just around the corner, just beyond our horizon. And still, we follow Jesus, the lamb, who calls us to hope, to have faith, to make a difference, and to believe that the work we do in his name will share God’s love with the world. Amen.


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Categories : National Day of Prayer, Revelation 21 and 22, separation of church and state, social justice

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Hospital…

2 05 2010

A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian

May 2, 2010

Rev 12:1-6, 13-17

A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she was nourished for a time, and times, and a half a time. Then from his mouth, the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.

The Book of Revelation occupies an odd place in our culture. There are references to Revelation in movies, books, and even in the news, but few of them are taken in the context of the book. Because a lot of people think they know what Revelation is about, but few of us actually read the book.
And we don’t read it because it is weird. It is a genre of literature with which we are not familiar. It uses imagery that is unfamiliar to us. It talks about things in very visual and allegorical language.
It is NOT a news report. This is not literal history. This isn’t literal anything.
It is also NOT a fortune telling book. This isn’t a book to read like a map, seeking clues to predict the future.

It is a book, perhaps surprisingly, of HOPE. Written for people who need to be reminded of God’s love and care for all of creation, even when the lives they may be living can make it hard to see.
And it is a book that is consistent with the rest of the Bible. You don’t have to agree with me about my interpretation of Revelation, but I do think you need to read it with the rest of the Bible in mind. Because God creates the world and humanity in Genesis and calls it good. God cares enough for humanity to send the son, Jesus Christ, to save the world. And Jesus, in his living, teaching, and dying, tells the world that God’s kingdom is different than the kingdoms of this world. Jesus consistently refuses military power and strength. Jesus consistently shows power in weakness. So, to get to Revelation and then read it as if God is going to demolish the world God so lovingly created? To read Revelation as if Jesus is going to become just like the powers of this world he stood against? I don’t buy it.
The word “Revelation” is the English translation of the Greek word apocalypse. Apocalypse does not mean the end of the world, even though it is used that way in popular culture. Apocalypse means to reveal, to unveil. And it is a particular kind of book. Daniel is also an apocalypse—a book of mystical symbolism meant to give hope and direction to people in pain. The best illustration of apocalypse might be the apostle Paul. According to Acts, he was on the road to Damascus, when he encountered God. And he became blind. And the more he learned about God, the more things were revealed to him, the scales fell from his eyes and things were made clear. In Galatians, Paul describes his conversion as a revelation, an apocalypse.
If you haven’t been coming to Sunday school after worship, I invite you to come for our next few weeks as we finish up a discussion on this book. Because it is worth reading. And it is easier to read, I believe, in community.
So our text this morning is from the middle of Revelation. And if the woman at the well in John’s gospel is my favorite character in scripture, this woman in Revelation is a close runner up.
I don’t know about you, but this was NOT one of the Sunday school lessons I heard as a child. David and Goliath. Noah’s Ark. Jesus and the little children. The woman who gives birth in space while a dragon waits to eat her baby.
We have been offered female “role models” from scripture before. We’re told we can be like Ruth or Esther, fulfilling their destinies as best they are able in a world that denies their full humanity. Or we can be like Mary, the pregnant teenager who ponders all these things in her heart. Or the other Mary, the one who sat at Jesus’ feet. Of course, we can’t be that Mary until we’ve first been Martha and gotten the cassarole in the oven, the table set, and the laundry hung to dry. We’re even told we can be like Christ, as long as we are the suffering servant Christ, emptying ourselves in service to others.

But how come, in all my years, nobody has ever suggested this woman in Revelation, clothed in the sun, as a role model for us?
Because she’s amazing and a model for men as well as women. And here’s why:
She knows how to dress. Stars on her head. The moon at her feet. Actually wearing the sun. She’s got style.
She’s strong. How do I know that? Well, for starters, she is giving birth.  in space. Additionally, she’s giving birth, even though there is a seven headed dragon standing there, just waiting to EAT her baby.
That also shows the woman has courage. Dragon, schmagon. She is bringing a child to life who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

Which means she has faith. Faith that the dragon she sees in front of her will not have the final word.
She is resourceful. While the cosmic forces are conspiring against her, she commandeers the moon, sun and stars as clothing. She flies with the wings of the great eagle. She gets the earth to come to her aid, swallowing up the flood.
I don’t know everything about the symbolism of Revelation, but I recognize a strong woman when I see one. Which was why I was surprised when I read a commentary and the author called the woman “passive”.
I don’t know anything about the author, but I would be willing to bet he has never seen a woman give birth. passive. Honestly, I find it hard to believe he’s ever seen a woman.
Here are his words:

“On the other hand, John depicts the woman of chapter 12 as a passive figure. She is the subject only of the verbs connected with birthing and fleeing. It is perhaps fair to say that she does not usually act in this text but rather is acted upon. She is threatened by the beast, and consequently she has to flee into the wilderness, to a place which had been prepared for her by God. The next part of the scene reinforces the passive nature of the woman. In the wilderness, the woman is fed and protected by God. Later in the text she is pursued, again by the beast, and again she is saved, this time by the earth. Note that the active roles in this text belong to the beast, the deity, and the earth.” (Paul B. Duff “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” in Reading the Book of Revelation: A Resource for Students edited by David Barr (Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2003) p. 73-4.)

Is that what it means to be passive? To have life happen to you and to react to save yourself, save the ones you love, and trust that God will provide?
What he calls “passive”, I call living your life.
Because, you know what? Some days there are seven headed dragons standing at your door. Some days you have to flee to the wilderness to be nourished. Some days you have to use all of your wits to escape the beast and the flood he’s sending your way. She flies away on eagles’ wings and convinces the earth to swallow the flood and he calls her passive?
What he calls passive, I call not being in total control.
I’m certain that if this woman had choices about how she was going to bring her baby into the world, it would not have involved the moon and a dragon. She might have wanted a quiet, candle lit room, attended by midwives, with her partner holding her hand and supporting her through the experience.
But that wasn’t what she got. She ended up as a cosmic figure giving birth in front of a dragon.
Which cable channel is it that has the show about birth stories? TLC? Discovery channel?
In any case, can you imagine the promo for the episode that told this birth story?

Tonight! 8 pm eastern. Woman gives birth in space! Watch the doctor be eaten as he asks a seven headed dragon to leave the room! Will the baby make it? Does the woman need an epidural or does zero gravity alleviate the pain? Tune in tonight to find out.

Because what TV shows like that illustrate is that no matter how much you plan, no matter how well you prepare, you can’t control everything that happens to you. Women don’t give birth in taxis on purpose, after all. We are not as in control as we pretend to be.
Another reality about birth stories is that not all experiences are the same. Women giving birth today in Darfur or in Haiti during an earthquake as their hospital was being evacuated certainly know more than I what it is like to give birth in the presence of a dragon and without control.
But, whether or not we’ve given birth to babies, our lives are like this. We are not in control. Life happens to us. And this doesn’t make us passive.
I don’t know what the seven headed dragon looks like in your life. Cancer or health problems, maybe. Or financial insecurity because of the economy. Family problems.
But there are days, and sometimes years, when we think we have it all in place. We think we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, being good Christian people, and then a funny thing happens on the way to the hospital and you’re giving birth in space. With dragons.
The Book of Revelation was written for people like that, for people like us. People who do their best to follow God and end up being persecuted by Rome. People who live the best lives they know how to live and are waking up today in Nashville and across the South to discover that their churches and communities flooded because of horrible storms this weekend. People who wear their seatbelts and obey the laws, but are killed in a car accident because the other driver was typing a text message on their phone while they drove down the highway.
Life is not in our control. And we don’t like it.

We get hung up on the vagueness of John’s language in this book. Only rarely does it feel as if anything is being “unveiled” or “revealed”. Who is the seven headed dragon, we wonder? Why does it have 10 horns? What does it all mean????
But I wonder if the author used such highly unusual images so that we’d be able to find ourselves in the story. Rather than saying, “the bad emperor in Rome is afflicting God’s people”, the author gives us language that allows us to interpret our own situations in light of the text.

So, back to my new role model. What does she do after she gives birth in the presence of a dragon? In space?
She hands the baby over to God, who snatches him away and keeps him safe at the throne. A dragon may show up on the moon, but even a seven headed beast KNOWS he can’t get at the baby in the throne room.
Then the woman flees to the wilderness, where God has provided for her. She will be there for a time, for times, for a half a time.  And Jesus went to the wilderness as well, remember. After Jesus is baptized, as soon as God says, “you are my beloved child, in you I am well pleased”, Jesus is whisked away for temptation in the wilderness.
I find some comfort in the fact that Jesus was God’s beloved and was still sent into the wilderness. By the Spirit, no less. And it was the beasts and the angels who took care of him.
So, the wilderness is the place we wander for 40 years, or only 40 days if you’re Jesus. But the wilderness is also the place we are intentionally sent by God for our own safety and for our nourishment. For a time, and times, and a half a time.
And I recognize that what is wilderness to me might be someone else’s walk in the park. But whether our wilderness is the relatively tame foothills of Boise or the untamed deadly parched earth of Somalia, God is with us. Perhaps that is easier for me to say than for some others, but it is none the less what I know to be true.
As the writer of Revelation shown us, in his somewhat metaphorical way, there is a battle being waged. In the cosmos. On earth. And that battle has been won. Not by us. Not by our brilliant thoughts or plans, but by Christ. We may not be in control. But God is.

I know this to be true. And the rest of the book of Revelation will show this to be true as well.
You may or may not feel as if you are located in a wilderness today, but whenever you do find yourself there, I pray that you will feel nourished and cared for. I pray that you will not see your time there as a time of passivity, but as a time of life. While life happens to you, may the hope that comes from Christ give you the strength to face your dragons. For a time, and times, and half a time.


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Categories : Apocalypse, Bad Birth Stories, Revelation 12, Uncategorized

What the Spirit is saying to the churches…

25 04 2010

I didn’t preach today, but I do invite you to listen to what the youth had to say about their 30 Hour Famine experience. Audio can be found here at www.spcboise.org.

But I did teach the Adult Sunday School class and we are working on the Book of Revelation. Today we talked about the 7 churches mentioned in chapters two and three. It is kind of a long passage, but here it is:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.
I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary.
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:
“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword:
“I know where you are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives.
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.
So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:
“I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first.
But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.
Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings;
and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden;
only hold fast to what you have until I come.
To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,
I will give authority over the nations;
to rule them with an iron rod,
as when clay pots are shattered—
even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.
Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of the holy one, the true one,
who has the key of David,
who opens and no one will shut,
who shuts and no one opens:
“I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:
“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot.
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

And as we talked about these different churches, we had some realizations that really stayed with me all day. I’m sure that other people have noticed this and spoke of it more eloquently, but it was what I needed to hear today for sure.

As these churches are both praised and reprimanded for their behavior, God never tells them “you should be more like that church. God tells each church to be the best version of themselves. And one church’s strength might be another church’s weakness. So if we’re listening in on what the Spirit is saying to the other churches, perhaps we could support each other and learn from each other.

And each church is different from the others.  But they are not reprimanded for being different. They are reprimanded when they aren’t being who they were called to be. There are seven churches listed and seven is the number of completion. In a world that seems to be intolerant of differentness I think we should all take a look at Revelation again. The message in the world often seems to be “if you don’t see things as I do, you are wrong”. The message in Revelation seems to be, “if you don’t see things as I do, God must have called you to be a member of one of those other churches….”

Why is that so hard for us? Why do we always have to have the only right answer? Why can’t we consider that the body of Christ might be stronger if instead of competing against, we supported all of the other congregations and denominations that make up the body?

On one level, I’m sure that the many denominations and versions of Christianity that are out there must bring God sadness, because we fight and worry about things that keep us from focusing on the important stuff. But on another level, I think the many flavors of Christianity give us a glimpse of the vastness of God. I think it is good that some of us like liturgy and pipe organs. I think it is great that others of us prefer drums and tambourines. I think it is good that some of us were called to be in the church in Ephesus and others in Thyatira.

But I think  we have to spend time listening to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, not just what we are saying to the churches.

And I think we have to come together, despite our differences, and gather around the throne of the Lamb (to borrow some Revelation imagery) singing

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev 4:11)

Because, ultimately, if we don’t do that, we are not listening to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.


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Categories : Revelation 2 and 3, church unity

Lines in the Sand

18 04 2010

A Sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian on April 18, 2010

John 7:37-8:11

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some asked, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he?  Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So there was a division in the crowd because of him.
Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?”
The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!”
Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you?
Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked,  “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?”
They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”
Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

This is one of my very favorite passages in Scripture. I love this Jesus. This is the Jesus I wish I could be most like. This is also the Jesus who is so hard for me to emulate.
Because he is fearless.
Because he doesn’t get into petty fights with hypocrites.
Because he is willing to speak words of Truth, even though they will be dangerous for him.
Because he stands with the powerless and gives voice to those who are silenced.

This passage takes place at the end of the Festival of the Booths. Where Jesus had not wanted to go. Because he knew they were trying to arrest him. But he goes. And he stands up in public and starts teaching. That particular sermon was not recorded, but the authority with which he preached was. And it appeared to leave his opponents flummoxed. They couldn’t lift a finger against him. People started talking. Is he the Messiah? Could he be?

When they can’t counter his arguments, they try to impugn his character. “There’s no way the Messiah could come from Galilee, people. Of course he’s not the Messiah.” To us, Galilee sounds like the Holy Land. We think of Galilee and have positive images. But back then, it was a big insult. Whatever the bad part of town is, the most backward part of your community—that’s what Galilee meant. And when Nicodemus tried to ask a question they called him a Galilean as well.  And look at Nicodemus’ question again: “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?”

Nicodemus isn’t really even clearly defending what Jesus has said. He’s just asking about what you need to know before you pass judgment. And they call him a Galilean.

At the very least, this should give us pause. In a culture where it is easier to call someone a name than it is to sit down and have a conversation, we should be wary of our tendency to call people Galileans.

So, the next day, after Nicodemus has questioned the tendency to judge someone before the facts are known, they bring to Jesus a woman, caught, they say, in the very act of committing adultery.

We don’t even need to go into the problems with this story. She was alone? committing adultery? They caught her in the very act? I’m guessing we don’t want to know why they were in her bedroom….

But Jesus is asked to give summary judgment on this woman, caught in the act of adultery all by herself, so that they can stone her. “What do you say?”, they asked him.
And he says nothing.

You know me well enough by now to know that I would most certainly say something. I would rise to the oratorical challenge and let them know exactly how wrong they are and how Moses will come back from the grave to get them for misusing Scripture!
Which is reason 743 that God didn’t make me the Messiah.

Jesus stoops down, and starts writing in the dust. Doesn’t say a word. Jesus doesn’t take the bait. And it takes the wind right out of their sails. Because it is hard to have a screaming match when you’re the only one screaming. It is hard to fight with someone when you have to look down to the ground to find him.

If I were the woman standing by his side, however, I would probably not, in that moment, have appreciated his action. “Gee, thanks mister. Coward. Tell these guys what’s wrong with their argument! A woman can’t commit adultery by herself! Exactly how much sexual freedom do you think a woman has in the year 33 AD anyway?”
But he continues to scribble in the dust.

I, of course, want to know what he’s writing in the sand. Some good Aramaic word for “mean, jerkface bullies”?
No, wait. That’s what I would do.

Whatever he’s writing in the sand it gives them time to take a breath. Maybe it even gives Jesus time to take a breath.

And there is advantage to writing things in the sand.
As opposed to publishing them online.
Or etching them in stone.
Or putting them on the front page of the Jerusalem Times.
Or turning to violence or anger.
Because things in the sand are not permanent. They allow you to change your mind. The sand will blow away. Or you can move your hand across it and it will disappear.  Or rains will come.
Things written in the sand allow you to reconsider and to write something else. To slow down on passing judgment and to consider another perspective.

After a while, as they continue to throw questions at his silence, Jesus stands up and tells them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Once again, at this point, I suspect the woman was having some second thoughts about Jesus’ plan.
Because Jesus invites them to stone her and then stoops back down and starts playing in the dust.

But they don’t stone her.
They were certainly more than ready to do it a few minutes ago.
But this time they just silently disperse, dropping their stones to the ground, where they each make a thud, sending up little clouds of dust.
And Jesus speaks to the woman for the first time.
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
To the person whose side of the story had not so far been requested, Jesus gives her a chance to speak. “No one, sir”, she replies.
What must that have been like to realize that for the first time, that day at least, nobody was condemning her. “No one, sir”, she replies.
“Neither do I condemn you.” Jesus tells her.  “Go your way and from now on, do not sin again.”

But what does that mean?
Everyone sins. We aren’t proud of it, for sure. But a part of our life in faith is acknowledging that we make mistakes. That we turn away from being our best selves.
Even our would-be stone throwers acknowledged that none of them were without sin. Is Jesus expecting her to be perfect? Is he referring specifically to the adultery?
But Jesus is rarely just talking to the character in the text. He is talking to us as well. And while I’m sure he would tell us all not to be caught in the act of adultery by ourselves, I suspect he’s telling us something more.

Go and do not sin again.

Maybe it is to go from here and start living as if you know you are God’s beloved child, worth more than cheap relationships.
Maybe it is to go from here and not leap to judgment again.
Go from here and stop calling people adulterers or Galileans.
Go from here and stop using Scripture as a weapon.
Go from here and try to consider the other person’s perspective.
Go from here and worry more about your own relationship with God and less about your neighbor’s.
Go from here and do not return anger and hatred when it is thrown at you.

At the beginning of the text today, Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

If we want to call ourselves believers, if we want to go and sin no more, perhaps we have to check and make sure that is rivers of living water that pour forth from our hearts.

Sometimes it seems that we live in a landscape of stones waiting to be thrown, of dry river beds, harsh words, and parched souls. But Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.”

Friends, the world may tell you that there isn’t enough of the Living Water of God’s grace to go around, that the lines we draw in the sand are permanent. The world tries to tell you that the best way to feel better about yourself is to judge someone else, but Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.”

And this living water that Jesus offers us will wash away whatever lines we make in the sand, washing it clear and clean and new.

My prayer for us all this week is that “Out of our hearts shall flow rivers of living water.’”

May it be so.
Amen.


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Easter Sermon

4 04 2010

Isaiah 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD—
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
This is the day the church comes together to celebrate the GOOD news that is, quite frankly, unexpected, and a little hard to make sense of. We know all about death. That is the normal course of things in our life.
It is resurrection that is unfamiliar.
Even Jesus’ own followers, the people who walked, talked, and ate dinner with him, weren’t expecting it.
Even though he had, not long before, brought Lazarus back from the dead.
Mary wasn’t on her way to talk with Jesus in the garden. She was on her way to anoint his dead body.
So we gather this morning to make sense of this remarkable and unplanned news.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

I confess that I am often drawn to Mary’s story in this text. It is easy for me to race past the story of Peter and the Beloved Disciple on my way to Mary’s encounter with the gardener.
But this year, as I read this text, I remembered a painting I saw at a museum a few years ago. It was painted by Eugene Burnand and is a depiction of the footrace of Peter and John on their way to the tomb.

The picture doesn’t quite do the painting justice, but I like the looks on their faces. Is it hope? Is it fear? Some combination of the two?

Randy preached last week about Peter’s betrayal of Jesus, and you can understand the look on Peter’s face—both good and bad—what if Jesus comes back? What will he say to me? But maybe betrayal doesn’t have to be the final word—maybe I can apologize before he says anything!
The other disciple, or “the one whom Jesus loved” is referred to as the Beloved Disciple by scholars and is commonly thought to be the persona of the author of the 4th gospel, John. If Peter is the disciple most like us—most likely to make mistakes, yet live his faith with great passion—the Beloved Disciple is the one who tends to respond correctly the first time.

But look at what they do in this story. Mary has gone to the tomb to anoint a dead body. As far as she knows, Jesus is still dead and so she goes to care for his dead body. But she rushes back to where the other disciples are hiding and tells them that the stone has been rolled away and that someone must have taken his body.
So our two friends here, Peter and John, race to the tomb. Now that I’ve had years of living in a home with boys, I no longer find it weird that they choose to have a footrace on the way to the tomb, because the three males who live in my house will turn any event into a competition, even a trip to the empty tomb.
But I know there’s more to it than that. Perhaps they each have something to prove. Peter had, after all, just spent the last days running away from Jesus. And John—maybe he’s just showing us how ideal disciples behave—running head on into the mystery, willing to see for himself, whatever the news might be.
And so they reach the tomb. John gets there first and looks inside, sees the linen wrappings, but doesn’t enter. Peter gets there, goes inside and also sees the wrappings. John joins him in the tomb and the text tells us, “he saw and believed.”
What do you think he believed? The text doesn’t tell us. The text does go on to say, “for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” It is possible, perhaps even probable, that the Beloved Disciple believed without understanding. That may be where many of us are. We believe, but we still don’t understand what the Resurrection means in our lives. But our belief is enough to sustain us.
Or maybe we are like Peter. Doing our very best after our very best wasn’t good enough, to make it up to Jesus. To be the best disciple we know how to be, even though we’re no model disciples. Peter is willing to have a relationship with Jesus at any and every cost.

Maybe some days we are like Mary. After Peter and John have left to go back to their homes, apparently determined that there is nothing left for them to see at the Tomb, Mary stands at the entrance to the tomb. Weeping. Because insult to injury. Her teacher, her Lord, her friend is dead and now his body is missing. And this is not the way it was supposed to be. As if it wasn’t bad enough that they tortured and murdered him, now they’ve stolen his body!
And so she weeps.
Before we move on to what happens next, remember that weeping can be an appropriate response to the Resurrection. Some days weeping is the best testimony we can offer.
Because people we love are unjustly murdered by the powers of this world and then their bodies are stolen!
On this day, 42 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, reminding us that we weep over the violence in this world that tries to silence the prophets.
Or some days we weep because loved ones get sick.
Because justice does not rain down as it should.
Because we lose our jobs.
Because children in this world are hungry.
Because wars wage across the face of the earth.
Because people die.
And that is why Jesus calls Mary’s name; that is why God calls our names. Because he walked out of the tomb to bear witness to the fact that death does not have the final say. That God has unleashed a new creation with the Resurrection of Jesus.
“Mary”, he calls out. She turns around, away from the empty tomb, away from her tears, away from discarded grave clothes, and toward the living Christ.
But she can’t hang on to him in that moment. Because the story is still unfolding.  There is work to do. She is instructed to proclaim the Resurrection to a hurting world, where people weep and suffer and worry. She is instructed to proclaim the good news of the resurrection and she does.
“I have seen the Lord!”
We’re gathered here 2,000 years later because this woman told people when she saw God.
It matters that you tell people when you have seen God, because all these years later, we’re still telling her story, even though in this text, at least, Mary’s best qualification for the job of evangelist seems to be that she recognized his voice when he called her name.
And so, like Mary, the church is called to bear witness to where we have seen God.
Just as Mary couldn’t hang on to the resurrected Jesus in the garden, we can’t leave it there either. Because God’s new creation is still in process and there is a world out there that needs to hear a message of hope instead of the world’s message of fear and anxiety. We can’t just stop on Easter morning. We have Good News to share!

The prophet Isaiah also gives us a glimpse of this new creation, this world God is bringing about. Isaiah was speaking to people who knew about exile, so he describes a world where you, and not some Assyrian invader, get to eat the crops you plant. A world where you get to live in the house you built. A world where children will not be born for calamity, but will live good and long lives—where a 100 year old person will be considered a teenager.

Many of Isaiah’s images of this new creation are not crazy impossible ideals. He’s talking about health, and adequate food and shelter, and I think his images should instruct us as a church.
How are we going to respond to the Resurrection in our community? I think that working in our community for those basic needs to be met—health, food, shelter—is a way to bring about the other, less normal, images in Isaiah.

Where the lion becomes a vegetarian who eats straw and the lamb invites the wolf to join him for a movie.

Isaiah makes it clear that things will change. But we’ve spent so many years where things don’t seem to change that I wonder if we can even imagine what would happen if everyone were able to live a long and healthy life? What would happen if everyone had adequate food and shelter? When that comes about, I suspect wolves and lambs hanging out together won’t seem so odd any more.
Hear again the voice of the prophet:
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;

New creation is not for sissies. New creation and resurrection faith call us to work for a better world, here and now, for all of God’s creation.

“I have seen the Lord!”, we proclaim to a world with our very lives, seeking to make God’s new creation visible in a world that tells us it will never be so. The witness of the empty tomb reminds us that this world doesn’t have all of the answers though. So we proclaim, “I have seen the Lord!”, even though the world thinks he is dead and gone.

Friends, on this Easter morning, whether we are Peter and John, who are already at home recovering from their footrace, or whether we are Mary, weeping at the tomb, we are called to remember that Easter is a beginning, and not an ending. We are called to remember that we have been invited to witness to the New Creation by sharing hope in a hurting world. We are called to tell the world that we have seen the Lord. And we are called to share the words of the prophet Isaiah with  people weeping beside empty tombs of their own:

But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.

Friends. Before we even called, God has answered. Thanks be to God. Amen.


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Come Together

1 04 2010

A Maundy Thursday Meditation

April 1, 2010

Southminster Presbyterian Church

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

I love the LORD, because God has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because God inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on the LORD as long as I live.

What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.

O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.

I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.

I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all God’s people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

I Corinthians 11:17-29
Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.
Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.
When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.
For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.
What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.  Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

This is the night where all of our theology and traditions and practices as a church come together. Where the rubber meets the road, as they say.
Because this is the night we lift up our praise of God as the psalmist tells us in the 116th psalm—“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all God’s people. In the courts of the house of the Lord—in your midst, O Jerusalem—Praise the Lord!”

And we are gathered in the presence of God’s people and we will gather around God’s Table—lifting up the cup of salvation—even as we remember that it was in the courts of the house of the Lord on this night, many many years ago, that Jesus was betrayed by one of his own, right after they had eaten a meal together around God’s Table.
What does it mean for us to call ourselves followers of Jesus, to try to be the Beloved Community, when we know that betrayal didn’t come from outside of the family, but from inside? It is easy to read the gospels and to think, “those evil Romans” or “those unfaithful Jewish leaders”, but we should remember that the ultimate betrayal was from one of his followers, from someone who loved him.
And Jesus knew it too. He knew that Judas would betray him, and yet he still ate dinner with him. And yet he still washed Judas’ feet. Listen to a portion of the text from John’s gospel that is assigned for tonight:

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And not only did Jesus wash Judas’ feet, but he wants us to do the same.  Jesus washes the feet of the disciples to give us a model for how we should treat each other. With trust, with humility, with forgiveness, and ever mindful of the fact that we are called to act as Jesus did. In all we do. And to all people, even when they betray.
Needless to say, that is easier said than done.
But the fact that, on some days at least, the job seems impossible, doesn’t mean we aren’t still called to it.
Tonight is NOT the night to say, “getting along with each other is too difficult, so we’re not even going to try.”
This is the night to say, “if Jesus Christ, on the night he was betrayed, can love everyone in the room, than I will do my very best.”
Of course, it is sometimes easier to love the people in the room than to love those who are outside of this room. I look around at our nation and am saddened by the fracturing of our civic and political discourse. How did we get here? How can we get past it? How can we come together?
And so I think about Jesus, on the night he was betrayed—“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” If you were wondering what “Maundy” means, by the way, it is from this verse. It is from the Latin “mandatum”—This is my mandatum, my commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.

The church in Corinth knew something about how hard it is to love one another as Christ loved us. When Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he is not happy with them. “Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.”
When they were coming together for the Lord’s Supper, it was a real meal. But not a communal meal. Everyone brought their own food. So one of you would have brought a peanut butter sandwich and someone else would have brought filet mignon. And their differences were dividing them, because communion became about personal satisfaction instead of living life abundantly in community. It was as if their own, private experience at the meal was all that mattered. But we can’t have life abundant and salvation if it is only for us and everyone else is going without. Life abundant is meant to be shared and to be passed around and to be given as freely to our neighbors as it has been given to us.
So Paul calls on them to remember—remember who they are and to remember whose they are. “Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread…”

For Jewish communities, the act of remembering around a meal was a familiar act. The Passover dinner every year was a time to remember the great deliverance of God’s people at the Exodus—not to just remember that it happened, but to connect their lives to it today, to see their lives as Exodus lives now. We’ll experience that tomorrow night at our Seder dinner as we connect our lives to the story of God’s people being delivered from slavery in Egypt into freedom in the Promised Land.
But Paul doesn’t call them to remember that Exodus. But to remember another act of liberation. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”.  We are called to remember this Table not as something that happened a long time ago and far away, but as an event that we are a part of tonight, right now.
“This is my body, broken for you”.
Betrayal from within, arguments over meals, and dissension within the ranks—that is the setting for this, our Holiest of Sacraments. It means that the Lord’s Meal is for people just like us—broken and breaking, wounded and wounding, loved and loving. But it also means that as we come together around this Table, we have to be aware. Paul told the Corinthians “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
So, friends, I invite us to examine ourselves, and to remember that if Jesus could love and serve everyone in the room, even the one who betrayed him, then surely God will help us do the same. And as we come together for communion tonight, we will be a sign for the world that coming together is possible.
We will be a sign for the world that we take seriously Christ’s commandment to love one another as he loved us. And with our lives, we will proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again.
Hear again the words of the psalmist:

I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
What shall I return to the LORD for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

Amen.


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New Things and Nard

21 03 2010

Isa 43:16-21

Thus says the LORD,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

John 12:1-11

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,
“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”  (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)
Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

A Sermon Preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church

March 21, 2010

In 586 BCE, Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians. The Temple was demolished. Even prior to this, some Israelites had been carted off into captivity, but after the destruction of Jerusalem, larger numbers go into exile. Exile was another devastating blow to a people whose history was marked with invasions, shaky alliances, and occupation. But this was the Big One. They lost their land, which had been given to them by God. They lost their Temple, where they met and worshipped and where God lived. The identifying marks of a people were obliterated.
In 539 BCE, Babylon was in turn sacked. This time the aggressor was Persia, led by Cyrus. Cyrus allowed the exiled Hebrew people to return to their land, to go home.

Most of us, of course, are not physically living in Babylon. We are in our homes. We were not carted off by a neighboring country. Exile may not be our physical location, but how might it be the location of our hearts? What situation in our lives is like exile?

The prophet Isaiah tells us not to remember the former things, or to consider the things of old. Only new things for Isaiah! But before we look at the new things, we should notice that Isaiah doesn’t completely follow his own advice. Because the first part of our text involves a lot of remembering and considering. “Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior….”
This is the same God, in other words, who ushered the people of Israel through the parted waters of the Red Sea, delivering them from Egypt, saving them from slavery.
So, before we NOT remember or consider the things of old, let’s make sure we have done just that. Because it is the past instances of deliverance that will call us to believe and trust and remember that it will happen again. The God who stopped Pharaoh, the God who freed a people from slavery and delivered them to the Promised Land is still speaking to God’s people today. And still has plans to deliver and redeem God’s people. Exile is not a place you are supposed to live forever.
But do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. Because deliverance will not be the same. Don’t go stand at the side of the Red Sea, waiting for the waters to part. Because they won’t.
Any further deliverance is going to be a very different kind of exodus.

In other words, “while I am the God who saved you once, that is no longer going to be the story you tell people. When you talk about your God, you will tell a new story.

So you can consider the old things only as they remind you to have hope for the new things.
We need to be clear that the New Things are not going to be newer versions of things you used to know. As spring is springing up all around us, we see signs of new life—the bulbs are blooming in the church gardens. There are new leaves on my lilacs. But they aren’t NEW things. I have great confidence that my tulip bulbs that were red tulips last year will be red tulips again. I am certain that the rose bush that bloomed yellow roses last year will do so again.
This isn’t just the next chapter God’s talking about. This isn’t even just a different book.
Do you not perceive it?

This is a NEW THING.

To all of us, no matter the kind of exile in which we find ourselves, God says, I am the one who can put water in the desert. I am the one who will make the path for you. A path where no path has been before. Even the ostriches and jackals will honor the Lord.
I don’t know about you, but if I saw ostriches and jackals, gathered together and honoring God, that would be a good indication of a New Thing ….
Whatever this New Thing will be, you can’t even conceive of it on your own.
Some of us hear this announcement of a new thing and say, ‘great! where do I sign up?’ For some of us, the past is something we would gladly leave behind for a new opportunity.
But some of us are looking for more details. “okay, God. before I sign up for this journey, I need you to be specific. The jackals and ostriches are interesting and all, but I don’t quite know what to do with that and I need some information.”
We are people who want to see the future before we get there. And if the past has been good to us, why would we want to leave it behind?

Look at our family from John’s gospel for an illustration of this.

The last time we saw this family, Mary and Martha were in deep grief because their brother Lazarus was three days dead. dead. dead. And Mary and Martha make some great affirmations of faith to Jesus as they talk to him outside their brothers’ tomb. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Yet, even now I know that God will give you what ever you ask of him.”
And our text this morning opened with “Jesus came to the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” John is reminding us that this family can talk to us about New Things. Lazarus was buried and three days in the tomb, but is now hosting a dinner party. Jackals and ostriches spending time together probably doesn’t seem like such a big deal when you’ve watched your brother walk out of the tomb. I’m just guessing here.

And Mary, perhaps in response to this new thing that Jesus has done for her brother Lazarus, takes a pound of Nard and pours it all over his feet.
Because this action is so foreign to us, I think we miss out on the extravagance. It isn’t often, I suspect, that someone washes your feet with their hair. With nard.
It was an extravagant gift from Mary to Jesus, an offering of love that was very personal. It was a sign, also, that during all of those times she sat at his feet and listened while he talked—she actually heard what he was saying about “coming that people might have new life and have it abundantly”—she understood when he said he was headed to the cross that he was heading to his death.
Because Nard was a very expensive and concentrated resin that was used to anoint dead bodies. She is giving Jesus the gift that she didn’t have to give her no longer dead brother, Lazarus.
Judas’ comment gets us off track, I think. “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denari and given to the poor?”, he asks.
And when he puts it like that, thief and traitor that he is, we see his point. A Roman soldier at that time earned a little over 200 denari a year, so this one pound jar of Nard was worth around, what, 40 or 50 thousand dollars?
In any case, it had great value.
But Judas sets up a false choice for us. It wasn’t that Mary won the lottery, had a lot of cash, and decided to go buy some really expensive perfume as she walked by the homeless people on the street. It would have taken a long time, I suspect, for her family to save up for that pound of Nard so that they could show love, honor, and respect to their loved ones as they died.
This gift she gives Jesus shows that she understands that a New Thing is breaking into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. This man who brought her brother back from the dead is changing everything.

How many of you have received a gift that was so staggering and surprising that it caught you off guard? Mary recognized that they were receiving that kind of gift in the life of Jesus Christ and she responds with the most extravagant gift she can dream up. And while having your feet washed with embalming ointment by someone’s hair may not be what you are asking for on your next birthday, Jesus recognizes the gift.
“Leave her alone,” he tells Judas. “She bought it so she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
In other words, Jesus is letting Judas and the others know that the systems that keep people poor, homeless, and hungry will always be here. He isn’t saying it like a promise, I don’t think, to beat down the dreams of people who want to rise above their situations and those who want to help them. I don’t think he’s saying, “you’ll always have the poor with you so don’t worry about them.”
I think he is saying it with some degree of judgment. “Because of the way you steal from the common purse and pursue your own interests above those of everyone else—you will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
These words from Jesus should call us to renewed purpose for the improvement of the lives of others. Rather than putting down the extravagant gifts that people bring to Jesus, we should all live our lives with Mary’s faith and gratitude.

Because this New Thing of which Isaiah spoke and which we recognize in the person of Jesus Christ can change lives. “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly”, Jesus says in John’s gospel.
Lazarus, who is silently sitting at the head of the table in this text, could have told us about New Life.
What is it like to walk out of a tomb, do you think?
As you may have noticed in your Year of the Bible readings, Jewish culture has a lot of taboos about dead bodies. That’s why they were buried and out of sight quickly. You weren’t supposed to spend a lot of time with dead bodies. And Jewish tradition didn’t have rules about what to do with a formerly dead person who invites you to dinner. Is the house of a formerly dead person still kosher?
Lazarus probably could have told us that the decision to listen to Jesus and to walk out of his tomb gave him new life but probably also gave him a whole new set of issues. The raising of Lazarus was the final straw for the Jewish leaders about Jesus. They are actively plotting his death from this point on. And they weren’t big fans of Lazarus either. Because everywhere he went, the people said, “Hey—there’s the guy Jesus brought back from death!” Our text even tells us this, “When the great crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.”
Living into New Life, walking out of the tombs in which we find ourselves is not without risk.
Because this world wants to keep us there.
But Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live fully into this New Thing. Lazarus walks out of his tomb and into new life with courage and confidence. Martha prepares a dinner party with Jesus, even though eating dinner with him is seditious. Mary openly declares her abundant faith in Jesus’ words by anointing his feet with perfume.
Next week, we’ll reach Palm Sunday, with the crowds who follow Jesus, shouting “Hosanna! Hosanna!” But we also enter Holy Week, when the crowds will fall away. This New Thing that will break forth in the world on Easter morning is not tame and easy to control or understand. It shatters our understanding about how the world is and could be.
I pray that we will be willing, like Lazarus, Martha and Mary, to stay with Jesus when the crowds vanish. To invite him to our house for dinner when it is not the popular thing to do. To wash his feet with nard, offering him a gift so extravagant that he sees our gratitude for this gift of New Life that we have been given.
Are there tombs you need to walk out of?
Are there gifts you need to give?
As we prepare for Holy Week, let us consider what New Things God might be doing in our midst.
Amen.


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Categories : Isaiah 43, John 12:1-11

The Marriage Ref–Prodigal Son Version

14 03 2010

Luke 15:1-32

Southminster Presbyterian Church

March 14, 2010

We all know this story.

And we keep telling it again and again because it is so true.

We know prodigal sons and daughters.

We are prodigal sons and daughters.

Don’t let our familiarity with this text keep us from hearing it as God’s new and living word for us today.

How do we welcome the prodigal home?

This morning I would like you to watch a quick video from www.theworkofthepeople.com as you ponder the question—how do we welcome the prodigal home?

And now the esteemed drama group, the Time Change Players, who were all recruited yesterday, will present a drama about the Prodigal Son, for your viewing pleasure.

The Prodigal parents on the Marriage Ref
by Marci Auld Glass (with thanks to Isaiah and Luke)

Cast:
Host                              Mary Seinfeld
Guests                          Polly and Percy Prodigal
Celebrity Referees:    King David, the Prophet Isaiah, God Almighty

Our cast is assembled on the stage of a TV studio….

Mary Seinfeld:
Welcome to the Marriage Ref! I am Mary Seinfeld your host. On this show, you, the audience, will be helping a couple with a marriage problem. We will also hear from some celebrity judges! Without further ado, let me introduce you to our couple, Percy and Polly Prodigal.
Welcome to the Marriage Ref, Mr and Mrs Prodigal!

What seems to be the problem?

Polly Prodigal:
Well, my husband and I have two delightful sons. We love them both very much.
But the younger one has crossed the line. He’s been known for, how shall I say, making bad choices in the past. A while back, he came to us and asked for his share of his inheritance! He might have well have said he wished we were dead so he could just take our money!
I, of course, told him “no way, Jose”. Go get a job!

But my husband said, “okay” and then liquidated our assets—retirement accounts, stock portfolios, real estate, camel herds—the whole shebang!—and divided it between our two sons.
We are now homeless and living in our elder son’s guest rooms with nothing to our name! And our youngest son took his inheritance, went to Vegas and squandered it on, how shall I say, “dissolute living”. We haven’t heard from him in weeks! He’s not returning my phone calls or emails!

Mary Seinfeld:
Oh dear. I’m sure it can’t be that bad. Let’s hear from your husband and see what he has to say. What is your side of the story, Mr. Prodigal?

Percy Prodigal:
She’s pretty much correct. Junior did come to us and ask for his inheritance. So I liquidated our assets and divided our estate between the two boys. And every day I stand at the gate and look down the road, hoping junior will come home.

Mary Seinfeld: Really?!

Percy Prodigal: Really.

Mary Seinfeld:
What will you do if he comes home after squandering the gift you gave him?

Percy Prodigal:
I’ll run down the road as fast as I can and give him a big hug, of course. Probably throw a big party and welcome him home too. What else would I do?
But I’m also concerned for my other son. He doesn’t recognize the gift he’s been given either. He owns the
whole estate! Everything is his. Yet he lives in scarcity.

One would think that after being given such a generous gift, if I do say so myself, that he would live in generosity and share that kind of living with those he meets. But he doesn’t. He lives as if he’s earned everything he has and that he shouldn’t be generous with anyone. And if, or when, his brother comes home, I hope there will be a good reunion. But I’m not sure that will happen.

Mary Seinfeld:
You really do love your children, don’t you?

Well, folks. There you have it. You have heard from Percy and Polly Prodigal. Before you hear from our celebrity marriage judges, let me ask you–Which one of our guests is right, and which is wrong? Should they have given everything they have to their kids or not?

(At this point, I asked the congregation for their thoughts and it was unanimous in support of Polly Prodigal–not one person thought they should have given everything to their kids.)

Mary Seinfeld:
And now let me introduce you to our celebrity marriage refs. First, all the way from Bethlehem,  a man with many wives…. King David!
(applause)
Next, from the Temple in Jerusalem, we have the prophet Isaiah!
(applause)
And, finally, from the heavenly Jerusalem–which is located somewhere near Sun Valley–where the streets are paved with gold and where he is surrounded all day by seraphs and angels—the Alpha and the Omega—God!
(applause)

Thank you all for being with us. You’ve heard the story from the Prodigals and you’ve heard the comments from the audience. What are your thoughts? King David?

King David:    (starts calmly but grows hysterical)
Well, I have some experience with parenting problems, believe you me! And I love my children as well, as long  as they aren’t trying to overthrow my monarchy, of course. But Polly is right. If the kid wanted some money, he should have gone out and gotten his own dynasty—stealing it from your parents while they are still alive is treason!
{Pause}
(starts weeping and cries out): “O my son, Absalom, my son…my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you,  O Absalom, my son, my son!” (ref. 2 Samuel 18)

Mary Seinfeld:
Umm…Thank you King David. Didn’t mean to bring up such a sensitive topic for you. Moving on….
Isaiah—what do you think?

Isaiah: (with great passion and growing anger)
Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I reared up children and brought them up but they have rebelled against me! The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does NOT know! My people do NOT understand!

The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants! For they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the everlasting covenant! Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer by their guilt… (Isaiah 1)

Mary Seinfeld: (Interrupting)
So, you’re on the side of the mother?

Isaiah: (much more nicely and caringly, but with rising energy as he gets going)
What? Oh, well. I suppose. But thus says the Lord—do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made!
(calming down)
…for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 43)

Mary Seinfeld:
Well, thank you, Isaiah. That was quite a prophecy. So it seems there might be a word of hope for Mr. Prodigal after all.

(to congregation) I’m never bringing a prophet on this show again.
And for our final celebrity judge—God almighty—thank you again for coming, it really is quite an honor. I’m a big fan.

God:
You know I can read your thoughts, right?

Mary Seinfeld:
Umm…yes, of course. I’m sorry. Won’t happen again.  So, Almighty one, what do you think about the situation in which Mr. and Mrs. Prodigal find themselves?

God:
I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Mary Seinfeld:
That’s very nice, I’m sure. And you are very good at math. But should the Prodigals have given everything they have to their sons?

God:
Let me say this another way. Each of you has received—from me—what Mr. Prodigal gave his son—both generosity and forgiveness. I have given each of you grace upon grace upon grace—far more than you deserve, and you know it—not because you have earned     it, and not because it is easy for me to do—I paid a cost too—and far more than liquidating some mutual funds,  let me add. But you won’t share that with the people you meet because you’ve determined that they don’t deserve it!
And to borrow back some words I gave to my friend Isaiah here, “incline your ear and come to me; listen so that you may live. Seek the Lord while I may be found, call upon me while I am near. Let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them return to the Lord, that I may have mercy on them and will abundantly pardon!
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says me.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55)

You always get hung up on who is worthy and who should be rewarded and who should be punished. Give it up already!

Why can’t you just see that I love you, with a love that is mysterious and abundant! Turn back to me—repent! I tell you, there is more joy in the presence of my angels over one sinner who repents!

Stop worrying about the righteousness of your neighbor, or their prodigal sons, and just turn to me in gratitude and thanks. If Mr. Prodigal can rejoice over his son, can’t you?

If I can rejoice over my prodigal children, can’t you?

Mary Seinfeld:
Well, that took an unexpected turn. Well, audience, it seems you’ve been outvoted by the Almighty One.

I guess we should think less about what we deserve, and start thinking more about what we’ve received.
We are out of time tonight, but a big thank you to our celebrity marriage refs for your unique insights. Mr and Mrs. Prodigal, we will be praying with you for the safe return of your Prodigal son and we hope you’ll invite us to the party!

Please turn in next week when Abraham and Sarah will be here to talk about Abraham’s plan to sacrifice their son Isaac on an altar! Wow! That should be exciting!


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Categories : Luke 15, Marriage Ref, Prodigal Son

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