tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73083747109228797002024-03-18T23:51:06.943-04:00The Bold JourneySarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-6462516461247420782011-04-11T10:17:00.001-04:002011-04-11T10:17:38.634-04:00Weeping<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">John 11:1-45</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Julie hasn’t been to church in ages.<span style=""> </span>She’d grown up in one, but it had been a few years since she’d attended a service outside of her college roommate’s wedding.<span style=""> </span>She’s here on impulse this morning.<span style=""> </span>The sermon title says “weeping” and that pretty much sums up her life lately. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style=""> </span>She notes her displeasure as the pastor begins to read the story of Lazarus.<span style=""> </span>Julie remembers this story from Sunday School.<span style=""> </span>She had thought it was creepy and they had joked about Lazarus rising up like a zombie or something out of a nightmare.<span style=""> </span>In youth group, she’d wondered with Martha about the smell or how someone could rise up after 4 days of being dead, and then what happened to Lazarus afterward, cause didn’t he just die again?<span style=""> </span>The story was strange and fascinating.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But now the passage is just vile, a bitter reminder of how people don’t come back to life.<span style=""> </span>Her brother Josh had died five months ago. He didn’t have friends and family around him to even call for help or resuscitate him.<span style=""> </span>And Jesus didn’t raise him back up.<span style=""> </span>He died in a hospital, with strangers around him, hours after he’d been found beaten on the street for no good reason.<span style=""> </span>Just at the “wrong place at the wrong time,” the police officer said.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style=""> </span>Julie had cursed God in those days, railed against Jesus and her faith and turned her back on the church once and for all.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Her eyes well up as she listens to this scripture.<span style=""> </span>She’s ready to leave, because what’s the point of listening to this story?<span style=""> </span>A story of the miracle she wanted most of all, the story that happened for one man and his family, but not for hers.<span style=""> </span>A story that teases her with the possibility that someone could be restored to life after death, but that remains so out of reach for her.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">She stays, though, because she doesn’t want to make a scene.<span style=""> </span>She steels herself for the rest of this ordeal, called worship.<span style=""> </span>The pastor continues to explain how this is the end of a series of miracles in the gospel of John.<span style=""> </span>Jesus has healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, fed the hungry and now this, his final move, his piece de resistance as he says in verse 4 that Lazarus’ illness is “for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Julie thinks back to all the well-meaning, yet misguided people who told her that Josh’s death happened for a reason.<span style=""> </span>That Josh was such a good young man, that God must have wanted him in heaven early.<span style=""> </span>That this death is all part of God’s plan and she should find comfort in that.<span style=""> </span>And her favorite that Josh is now in a better place.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But Julie doesn’t see the point in her brother’s <b>having</b></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> to die just to prove that God is all powerful or to somehow create something good.<span style=""> </span>Couldn’t an all-powerful God do great things without having people die untimely deaths?<span style=""> </span>Why couldn’t God have just wanted Josh to keep being her fabulous brother and living his life to the fullest?<span style=""> </span>Wasn’t that enough of a good purpose?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The pastor starts to explain how this is a metaphor—one of those likely things pastors say these days, a way of distancing us from questions like if it really happened, and if so how did Jesus actually raise someone from the dead.<span style=""> </span>She then says it foreshadows Jesus’ own resurrection, making us realize that Jesus has power over death and life.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Even though she’s annoyed, Julie understands the idea of the metaphor here—of this snap shot account, being more about the power of Jesus to conquer death, his own eventual resurrection, than it is about the particular resurrection of Lazarus, and how that might have worked or why Jesus chose only him.<span style=""> </span>But for Julie, who sees herself like Mary and Martha, calling for Jesus, wishing he would do something, it’s hard to look past the literal story of a beloved brother who was saved and restored, and her brother who was not.<span style=""> </span>The pastor points to the humanity of Jesus—how he loved his friend and weeps at his passing.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“But,” Julie thinks, “If God wept over Josh’s death, why didn’t God save him?<span style=""> </span>If Jesus could raise Lazarus, why doesn’t he do it for everyone?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">She has this image of Josh, the one she’s dreamed about a thousand times, his lifeless body, his beloved face, his scraggly blonde hair, just laying there—bruised and broken.<span style=""> </span>But this time there is a person kneeling over him, crying and Julie can see that this is God and Josh awakens and smiles at her—and Julie hears this voice saying, “I was with him Julie, I cried over your brother just as you did.”<span style=""> </span>The scene changes, and Julie sees the lifeless body of Jesus, so long ago, and that same shining person who says, “I wept over him too.<span style=""> </span>I weep for all of you, my beloved children.<span style=""> </span>But I cannot save you all from death.<span style=""> </span>Your eternal life is with me, not here on earth.<span style=""> </span>And it’s painful and confusing and I’m sorry that it happened this way to Josh, I’m sorry that some survive longer and some do not, I’m sorry for the evil men who killed Josh, but I love those killers too, because they all belong to me.<span style=""> </span>I work with what I have, I don’t cause disaster, but I help turn it into beauty.<span style=""> </span>The death of Lazarus, the death of your brother, the death of Jesus—my son and myself—all disasters, but in resurrection, those deaths become beauty.”<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Julie blinks and sees the sanctuary again and hears these words, “I am the resurrection and the life.<span style=""> </span>Those who believe in me, even though they die. Will live, and everyone who lives and believe in me will never die.”<span style=""> </span>The pastor reminds them that this is not to say that we will all avoid the end of our mortal lives.<span style=""> </span>But it’s a message that resurrection can happen in our lives now.<span style=""> </span>Our lives can be made new in Christ.<span style=""> </span>Beauty can come out of disaster.<span style=""> </span>Life out of death.<span style=""> </span>The message of the resurrection of Lazarus and of Jesus too.<span style=""> </span>She mentions that it’s this particular miracle, in the gospel of John, that will cause Jesus’ death, will be the miracle that draws attention to him and raises questions.<span style=""> </span>Jesus will pay a price for this act.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Julie gets that Josh didn’t get to live to 90 like their grandmother did, but his death wasn’t for nothing.<span style=""> </span>She remembers that four other lives were saved because Josh was an organ donor.<span style=""> </span>And even though Josh is gone that counts for something.<span style=""> </span>Knowing that God didn’t need or want Josh to die helps.<span style=""> </span>Knowing that God cried with her when Josh died helps even more.<span style=""> </span>Knowing that God shares in her grief and pain, helps her feel like she’s not alone.<span style=""> </span>Her grief is still with her, but her anger lessons.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">By the time she’s singing the final hymn, Julie feels lighter.<span style=""> </span>She feels peaceful for the first time in months.<span style=""> </span>Her faith is restored, just a little bit.<span style=""> </span>She has the glimmer of hope that maybe Josh hadn’t been alone and that God hadn’t really wanted him to die, especially not such a horrible death.<span style=""> </span>And that his death, leads to new life, after all.<span style=""> </span>That in Jesus, through his grace and glory, all life can be made new.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And it feels a bit like resurrection.<span style=""> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-12594791689051827842011-02-28T09:22:00.002-05:002011-02-28T09:43:53.502-05:00Today’s Troubles<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Matthew 6:24-34</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">I don’t know about you, but when I read this passage, I automatically start thinking about the very things Jesus tells us not to worry about: what to eat and what to wear.<span style=""> </span>Are you happy with what you chose to wear today? <span style=""> </span>Are you warm enough or cool enough?<span style=""> </span>Do your clothes match?<span style=""> </span>Are they stylish?<span style=""> </span>What are you going to wear for the rest of the week?<span style=""> </span>Is there laundry to do, dry cleaning to pick up?<span style=""> </span>And what about food?<span style=""> </span>Did you skip breakfast?<span style=""> </span>Are you hungry?<span style=""> </span>What are you going to do after church?<span style=""> </span>Go grab a coffee or a bagel?<span style=""> </span>Eat a good lunch?<span style=""> </span>And what about dinner?<span style=""> </span>What will you have?<span style=""> </span>Will you cook or go out or order in or go to a friend’s house?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">You’re thinking about food now, aren’t you?<span style=""> </span>Maybe even worrying about it a bit?<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Try to sit here and not worry: Jesus says our life is more than food, but what about the bigger things.<span style=""> </span>Don’t think about your depleted savings account or the fluctuating stock market.<span style=""> </span>Don’t think about your job or school or that interview that’s coming up or that exam.<span style=""> </span>Don’t think about your next doctor’s appointment or procedure.<span style=""> </span>Don’t think about your mortgage.<span style=""> </span>Don’t think about the meaning of life, and what you’re doing, and if you’re really happy or just marking the passing of days.<span style=""> </span>And I haven’t even mentioned war and terrorism and global warming.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">The easiest advice that Jesus offers is to not worry about the small stuff.<span style=""> </span>In fact, don’t worry about anything that isn’t from God.<span style=""> </span>Don’t worry about tomorrow, because today’s troubles are enough for today.<span style=""> </span>We could just end it there, with a feel-good, don’t-worry-be-happy sort of sermon.<span style=""> </span>And don’t we all need it?<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">As a collective, we Americans are more anxious now than ever.<span style=""> </span>We’re anxious, we’re medicated, we’re not sleeping well, we’re not able to be our best selves.<span style=""> </span>Ironically, in many ways, this is the best time ever to be alive.<span style=""> </span>With so many technology advances, medical discoveries, and educational opportunities—we should all be living great lives, and yet so many of us are overcome by anxiety.<span style=""> </span>We have high expectations to live up to, quick technology gives us more tasks to complete in shorter amounts of time.<span style=""> </span>We’ve been told we can be anything we want to be, and yet job markets are tight and competitive, and once we get a job, it’s still really difficult to make ends meet, yet alone buy a grand home and all of the other luxuries of the American dream life.<span style=""> </span>We’re more isolated too have fewer friendships are further away from family.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">We’re lonelier, and stressed out, and facing high pressures.<span style=""> </span>It’s normal now to have issues with depression and anxiety—even children are facing these issues—because of the times we live in.<span style=""> </span>It used to be almost shameful, to be taking prozac or Zoloft, but I bet we could go around the room raising hands this morning and find a lot of company.<span style=""> </span>So this passage is both particularly appropriate and excruciatingly difficult for us.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Jesus says, do not worry about food or clothes.<span style=""> </span>He adds the peaceful, comforting illustration of Lilies being clothed in natural beauty.<span style=""> </span>“Birds of the air” that eat without having to grow their own food, grocery shop or cook.<span style=""> </span>But clearly, being a human being is a little more complicated—we cannot disregard a concern for clothing so much so that we run out to a field with nothing on.<span style=""> </span>And we cannot survive on sunshine.<span style=""> </span>Photosynthesis doesn’t work for us.<span style=""> </span>We’re not planted in the ground or covered in feathers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Food and clothing are two of our basic human needs.<span style=""> </span>It’s quite a different story to tell a wealthy woman not to devote her life to high fashion than to tell a homeless man not to worry about his bare feet in the middle of winter.<span style=""> </span>King Solomon might not have been clothed in glory enough to match the lilies of the field, but that’s not very comforting for a person who lacks food and clothes.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">As Jesus urges us not to worry about these things, we need to help others be able not to worry.<span style=""> </span>It’s not to make light of serious needs.<span style=""> </span>Help others not to worry, bring food for ALIVE, bring socks for The Open Table.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">You cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve God and money.<span style=""> </span>You cannot serve God and spend a big chunk of time worrying about your own welfare.<span style=""> </span>Because we’ll end up obsessing over money and hating God.<span style=""> </span>Because if we serve money, we undoubted worry a great deal.<span style=""> </span>We worry about interest, security, protection, insurance.<span style=""> </span>We lock up our valuables. We worry about not ever having enough, because somebody will always have more.<span style=""> </span>It’s a game we can’t win.<span style=""> </span>We end up living out of the mindset of scarcity—the fear that there is never enough—which just leads to more anxiety, unhappiness, and the complete distraction from God and all that is beautiful and holy.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">If we strive after God, we live into the mindset of abundance.<span style=""> </span>There is always enough God, always enough love, always an abundance of all that is beautiful and holy.<span style=""> </span>We don’t have to strive after money or material goods, can be satisfied with less, without consuming too much, buying too much, eating too much.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be give to you as well.<span style=""> </span>Jesus is our Lord.<span style=""> </span>Jesus overthrows all other concerns.<span style=""> </span>Jesus is our master and we serve him.<span style=""> </span>Which means that we serve the people that Jesus serves: those who are hungry, those who are thirsty, those who need real bread and real water, and those who need the Bread of Christ and the Wine of salvation.<span style=""> </span>We serve those who hunger for God and long for the clothes of his righteousness.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">When we strive after God, we find that what we have is enough.<span style=""> </span>We have enough food, enough clothes, and enough trouble to keep us busy for today.</span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-43155055000620152092011-02-07T11:18:00.000-05:002011-02-07T11:19:15.987-05:00Let Your Light Shine<style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>“Shout out!<span style=""> </span>Do not hold back!” God tells Isaiah, and we all know we’re in for it now. Trumpets were used, frequently, as calls to war in Israel, but God finds a trumpet blast a suitable start for this sermon. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The people of Israel are passionate about their worship.<span style=""> </span>They are faithful and regular and devote. They are a nation chasing after God, fasting and humbling themselves, desiring to draw closer to God, filling the temple to the brim, desperate to know God’s ways—imploring God to answer them.<span style=""> </span>Their actions may seem outwardly holy, but their spiritual practice ends at the temple.<span style=""> </span>And they have the audacity to wonder why God doesn’t kiss them on the forehead with gratitude.<span style=""> </span>God is not impressed by their posturing and whining.<span style=""> </span>God says they serve their own interests on the Sabbath and not God’s.<span style=""> </span>They oppress their workers.<span style=""> </span>They quarrel and fight.<span style=""> </span>And that, in short, their fasting will not make their voices heard on high.<span style=""> </span>It’s not enough to go through these actions when their hearts aren’t in the right place.<span style=""> </span>God doesn’t want to hear it.<span style=""> </span>Worship, if it is not backed by action, is not what pleases God the most.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know that we look around and lament all the empty space in the pews.<span style=""> </span>When we tell stories of our past, we remember times when we needed the balcony and even further back when we needed the chapel downstairs for overflow.<span style=""> </span>We remember Easters when there was standing room only, when the choir loft was full, when there were 20 babies in the nursery.<span style=""> </span>We sit in meetings and wonder how to get back to those days, how to fill up our pews, how to increase our attendance and membership numbers.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And as a church, we are not alone, all across the nation in mainline denominations, other churches are asking the same questions: why are we hemorrhaging members and money, and have been for the last 40 years and how do we make it stop?<span style=""> </span>While some suggest that mainline Protestantism took a liberal turn in the 1960s and can never grow again unless it becomes more conservative: keeping out gays, no longer ordaining women, stopping our focus on social justice or political progressiveness . . .<span style=""> </span>what we’re really looking at is a world that is skeptical of institutions, that is postmodern and diverse.<span style=""> </span>We’re looking back at the end of Christendom, at a time that has long gone, a time when everyone who was respectable went to church, some for religious reasons and some out of social pressure or shear habit.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">We live in a land of many different faiths and many who identify as “Christian” but never set foot in a church.<span style=""> </span>The church no longer has the central place in society that it once held, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.<span style=""> </span>I imagine that most of you are here because you want to be, not because you feel pressured or to obey the rules of society—because our wider culture tells us that we should spend a Sunday morning at brunch, or with the newspaper and a cup of coffee—it’s just another morning, afterall, except that the office is closed.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In our passage in Isaiah, the temple is not facing these problems—people are showing up for worship, it’s the central part of their life, it’s what you do on a Sabbath, take a bath, put on your nice clothes, get to temple, shake hands with all the right people, sings songs, say your prayers, make your sacrifices and your fasts, listen to scripture, and then go out into the world, feeling good and pious.<span style=""> </span>Maybe even to grandma’s house for Sunday dinner or out for a Sunday drive.<span style=""> </span>Kind of like it’s 1952 in America again.<span style=""> </span>And that is what we mourn when we look around the sanctuary and wish for more company.<span style=""> </span>Those days when everybody showed up.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Jesus never said anything about being the center of society . . . Jesus was much more focused on saving individuals and forming a community of love and service to carry out his work.<span style=""> </span>His was a radical group, not concerned with social conformity or respectability.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">God says to Isaiah, this is not about worship.<span style=""> </span>I don’t care what’s going on in the sanctuary, but I do care about what is NOT going on in the world.<span style=""> </span>Because the point of worship—comes at the very end of our service together—we come to be nourished, built up, encouraged, and then SENT OUT to the world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sadly, when we tell the stories of our church, this is what I do not hear: we used to be really active in the community.<span style=""> </span>All over town, we were known as the church to go to if you needed help.<span style=""> </span>The dinners we cooked for the homeless were legendary.<span style=""> </span>We had the best food pantry, we bought the most coats, we worked with the mayor and city council to find solutions to homelessness and poverty in our city.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know there was some mission work and giving, but it’s not what is highlighted—it’s not what defines our church, not like our fine music program, or our drama group . . . I’m talking about the stories we use to define ourselves, to tell of our history . . . What we talk about is who we were, are, or want to be.<span style=""> </span>And that’s part of why it’s so hard for us to talk about the future, because we still want to talk about worship style and music, we want to talk about our buildings and our finances, we want to talk about our physical appearance and accessibility in Old Town, our presence as a place to worship . . . but what we need to discuss is our presence as a missional church, our presence to those in the community who are in need physically and spiritually.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">We’re starting to get a reputation around town as a place to go for a meal and warmth.<span style=""> </span>The Open Table is truly working at Washington Street.<span style=""> </span>We give the hungry bread.<span style=""> </span>We welcome the homeless into our doors. We are starting to be noticed in ways that we haven’t been perhaps for decades. But there is so much more we need to do t owork to end injustice and oppression.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Listen again to what God promises if we are faithful and care for the poor and work to fix injustices . . . “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt.”<span style=""> </span>A good walk-through of our buildings can show us a thing or two about “ancient ruins” and a good walk through our financial situation and the realestate situation of Old Town can show us just how unlikely it is that we can “rebuild” anything on our own.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are churches like ours who have managed to turn around when they focus on mission, when they stop navel gazing and longing for an extinct past and stop focusing on their problems—and remember what God really desires, far beyond lovely music and beautiful prayers and full pews</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">God doesn’t just want us to show up at church on Sundays but “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.<span style=""> </span>To share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin.”<span style=""> </span>Because we are all children of God, and we cannot praise God with our lips and then deny God with the rest of our actions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Only then, God tells Isaiah, “Light shall break forth like dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly; You shall be like a watered garden, spring of water whose waters never fail.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In these days of finding a way forward, this is our message of hope.<span style=""> </span>Thank be to God.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-87344104226457114982010-08-04T13:37:00.001-04:002010-08-04T13:37:29.635-04:00To Love or Not to Love<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Hosea 11:1-11</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">If you’re going to the beach soon or just need something light and fluffy to read, an Old Testament prophet is a good way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is much adventure and juicy drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The oracles are written in beautiful poetry that just drips with rich metaphors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God is like a steadfast husband, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> is like a faithless wife, God is like a loving mother, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> is like a rebellious son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God chases and pursues relentlessly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> turns and runs away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are in suspense as we wonder if <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> will safely return, or if she will continue to lead a life of recklessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We wonder if God will just give up on the wayward child and abandon him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And God wonders these things right along side of us, caught up in the suspense with us, wondering if God will finally abandon the people (us) who really do deserve it after all.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In this robust passage of Hosea, the prophet takes us on a walk down memory lane, sharing early memories of childhood: teaching us to walk, kissing our cheeks, bending down and lifting us up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The focus is not on us, not how cute we were, but how loving God was, patiently guiding us, teaching us, loving us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Moments we cannot remember because we were too young and naïve (self centered?), but God has not forgotten our babyhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But this sweetness doesn’t last, we children grow up and are no longer as cuddly, as dependent, as loving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We think we no longer need God, and go in search of other ways to nourish our souls and beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We no longer depend on the face and hands of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And God laments at the difficulty of maintaining this deep love and devotion in the eye of such unfaithfulness.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In Hosea’s time, the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">kingdom</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Israel</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> had divided between North and South.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God refers to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, as Ephraim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God compares Ephraim to a child he has taught to walk and taken in her arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God led these people with “cords of human kindness, with bands of love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She was like a caregiver who lifts an infant to her cheek, who bends down to them and feeds them. God, as a mother, as a father, as an aunt or uncle, as one who cares for small children, remembers how God cared and tended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is a God who is accommodating, who sacrifices and humbles Godself to be known to us—an almighty, all powerful God, who is humble enough to brush crumbs off of our chins when we are not able to do this for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When we don’t even know what is happening to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As Hosea says: “They did not know that I healed them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God cares for us and provides even when we are unaware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The founder of Methodism Anglican priest John Wesley, referred to this as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Prevenient grace”: of God’s mercy that precedes us, that goes before us, that is at work long before we are aware of it, or even aware of our need for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God takes care of us even when we don’t know it, preparing a way for us without our awareness or permission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And all of that love and tender care turns out to be a waste of time, when we repay God by turning away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hosea outlines the particular punishment that <st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> faces: returning to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the place of slavery, the place that God previously liberated them from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Turning away from God, we all face a return to our previous conditions of sin, of separation from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> faces loosing their nation and being ruled by the neighboring nation of <st1:place st="on">Assyria</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God had secured them land and freedom and will take it away and give it away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But God is not comfortable with this decision, God remembers how God took such great pains with Israel, how God loves and tends to us and asks: “but how can I really give them up and hand them over” says God, dangling the child over the pit of destruction, coming just <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">this</b> close to walking away, then realizing that God can’t do that, won’t do that.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The best parents will tell you that no matter what you will always love your kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If they disobey, talk back, get arrested, marry someone you hate, etc, you still help them, defend them, love them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And this love is completely natural, automatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Conventional wisdom backs this up, that this parental love comes with the territory, and we’re biologically rigged to always love our offspring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But reality tells us that parents do not always love their kids, well or sometimes at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Children are abandoned, physically or emotionally, are abused, are endangered, are not shown love, all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The news tells us this is true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some of our own stories of our upbringing or experiences with our children tell us that this is true too.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God knows this, so in the midst of a parent-child relationship description, God turns and expresses a desire to abandon the child <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but makes the point that God will not do this simply because God is God, not a human, not mortal, and therefore not tempted to not love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After considering all the various ways of destroying us, God’s compassion kicks in and grows and God vows to bring us home.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The extent of God’s mercy does not end with Prevenient grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We cannot rely on God to always take care of us with no effort on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As we mature, as we become alert to God’s actions in our lives, to the need that we have for God, as we realize that God has been helping us walk all along, then we realize our own shame and we return home, we “shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west . . . and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-30322800086751851742010-07-19T14:10:00.000-04:002010-07-19T14:25:11.629-04:00Summer Fruit<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Amos 8:1-12<br style="mso-special-character: line-break"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This is not one of those fun, encouraging scriptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not a depiction of God who gathers us close in her arms, and holds us his palm. Amos encounters a <span class="yshortcuts">different face of God</span>. A God who tosses our clothes out onto the pavement and leaves us standing cold and naked with shame. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This passage is about why we are all doomed, and it’s not why you might think: it’s not about personal immorality, adultery, or war: it is about the poor. Specifically, a lack of concern for the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God cares about our individual morality as well, but as far as this passage is concerned, that’s not why we’re all doomed. It’s the sneaky, less obvious ways, the injustices we’re trained not to see. The rich rulers are cheating the poor and ruining the land. God’s mercy concerns not the rich, but the poor. God stakes a claim to say that the divine One cares deeply about how humans are treating each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And to demonstrate this care and concern, God shows Amos a basket of summer fruit.<br /><br />When I was little, my grandparents had a basket of plastic fruit sitting on their kitchen table. It was pretty and shiny, and I knew it was fake, but once I chewed on it either just to be sure or because it looked so good. The plastic had a nasty, harsh taste, and bounced between my teeth and my tongue. This was fruit that could not be consumed and digested. This is like the basket of fruit that I imagine God showed to Amos. The image is only visual, Amos does not touch or taste the fruit to experience how this fruit also shows the difference between good and evil.<br /><br />Imagine with me, for a moment, that our nation is like Ancient Israel. Imagine that we have a shrinking middle class, while the rich seem to get richer and fewer and the poor poorer and more numerous. In which we don’t have a living wage, and yet blame folks for being poor, while we can shop discount and bulk because the workers aren’t paid enough, while a $40 sweater cost $2 to make, but the profit goes to the company and not to the knitter, when the hands in the middle make all the profit, cheating the maker and the buyer, when a grande nonfat latte costs $4.50, but for every pound of coffee sold in the United States farmers get less than 35 cents and coffee pickers less than 14 cents. And all along we exchange the ephah for the shekel and buy the needy for a pair of sandals. We don’t even have to wait for the sabbath to be over, we can do this all <span class="yshortcuts">on Sunday</span> if we want to. But the <span class="yshortcuts">God of love and mercy</span> and justice says: I see you over there and I will not forget. The God of Jacob is the same God of Jesus, the same God who holds the poor close to the divine heart. Just Imagine. Our resources not being used in ways that can sustain all people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our rain forests trampled, oil seeping into our coasts, sweatshop laborers working for pennies so that we can have more wardrobe options, many layers of hands in the middle, from producer to buyer, marking up the prices all the way from shrub to cup.<br /><br />We’re all linked in this system together. Just as the whole nation of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> is indicted. God says “No, you are not taking care of all of my people; you are cheats and scamps and things we can’t say in church and I don’t know you. You are not my people and I am not your God.” God will cause the land to revolt and nature will have a final say. Not locusts or a shower of fire, but silence. To the people who will not listen, God has nothing to say.<br /><br />God threatens that the sun will go down at noon and the earth will collapse into itself and there will be massive amounts of death and mourning. Natural disasters are just that, natural. And we have eclipses frequently and understand what’s really going on. But the literary merit of drastic measures is appropriate for God. We need a drastic reorientation before we recognize that the poor are exalted and that the fortune of God has nothing to do with economics.<br /><br /> The basket of fruit, is a pun and a metaphorical turn: in Hebrew “summer fruit” and “the end” are linked as terms that look and sound similar, so the original audience had a better clue about where this was going. The NIV plays on this stating that the “ripe” fruit indicates that the time is “ripe” for <span class="yshortcuts">Israel</span>, and while this shows an explicit link it doesn’t do justice to the richness of the original pun. Amos has no easy defense for the fruit that signifies the end. In the earlier vision reports, God showed Amos locusts and a storm of fire and Amos was able to say, no Lord, please not that. But the fruit looks pretty benign. Amos can’t say to God, oh no not the fruit, because how is God going to bring about the end with a pile of produce? But God has a trick here, linguistically at least. What looks healthy and rich, the fruit that is ripe, and the people who are wealthy, are poor in spirit and are withering and dying though they look well.<br /><br />We are not just like Ancient Israel, the US is not chosen by God, but we do find ourselves in a position of global power. And we also suffer the same problems of labor and land. We can wait for Jesus to make everything right. Israel waits, but by the time of Christ, Israel has long fallen and the Romans are in charge. We thought we were safe and indestructible once, but we are starting to know better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We fear the threat of other nations, of our own economic structures, of our ability to contain and control oil in the gulf.<br /><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If we trample and exchange dollars for cents and get rich at another’s expense and do nothing and say nothing. If we turn out shopping carts away and do not look at the roots of our social evil and see the magnitude of our smallest actions, if we do not recognize that this is not God’s way. In the New Testament, James picks up this theme that our existence in God makes us rich, that earthly possessions do not ultimately satisfy and that we are not allowed to oppress others for our gain and comfort. He says: “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At the end of the book of Amos, God does leave us hope of restoration, but only after all has fallen, and the earth has sunk: until we recognize this, we’re on a dangerous path of shortchanging our neighbors and ourselves from God’s fulfillment….<br /><br />“The time is surely coming, says the Lord,<br /> when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps,<br />and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed,<br />the mountains shall drip sweet wine<br />and all the hills shall flow in it<br />I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel...<br />I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God says to Amos, what you think is a basket of healthy summer fruit, was grown in overworked soil, and picked by underpaid hands, and sprayed with chemicals to appear ripe. The fruit that looks like health and harvest is bitter and poisonous...<br /><br /> You see fruit, says the Lord God, but I am showing you the end.<br />God will not destroy us, we can do that on our own.<br />God will not take the word from us, but we will silence our own lips.<br /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list"><br clear="all"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"></span><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn1"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> James 5: 1-6</span></p></div><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn2"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> Amos 9: 13-15</span></p></div></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-3622706425850315662010-07-04T10:42:00.000-04:002010-07-04T12:16:22.168-04:00Live Like Christians<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Galatians 6:1-16</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In Paul’s letter to the Galatians we find a bitter struggle in the early church to define mission and identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul argues that Christians are free from much of Jewish law, including ritual observances and circumcision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He emphasizes that we are righteous not through works of the law but by faith in Christ.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s a bit strange to us today since we don’t spend a lot of time differentiating ourselves from Judaism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But for Paul and the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">church</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Galatia</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, the Christian church was still settling into itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul was a Jew who became a Christian after meeting the risen Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The people of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Galatia</st1:place></st1:country-region> were gentiles, pagans, not Jews, who had learned of Jesus from Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One of the issues concerned the nature of being a Christian and whether or not one had to be Jewish first—like Jesus and Paul—or just jump straight to Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We don’t worry about this now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We can go right to the Christian part, while acknowledging the importance of Judaism as our religious ancestor, studying the Old Testament and learning about the religion of Jesus and Paul, without having to actually practice or observe it for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This frees us too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are able to respect Judaism and Jews, without having to compare ourselves, without having to find one superior and one inferior, without having to take on a successionist idea: that the New Testament is infinitely superior to the previous one, but to recognize that the Old Testament can stands on it’s own with it’s own inherent value as the Hebrew Bible, and isn’t always answered or fixed with Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We don’t think of ourselves as “freed” from Judaism, from the law, and ritual the Hebrew religion, because most of us were never Jews in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead, we think of being free from whatever we were before, from our previous condition of sin or darkness that Jesus saved us from: maybe we were lost, maybe we were overly self-reliant, whatever it was that held is in bondage—or that holds us in bondage—Jesus frees us from: whether it’s addiction, abuse, self-loathing, whatever it is, whatever sinful condition we are all in, Jesus offers us freedom.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And that’s Paul’s point in this letter: the Galatians don’t need to worry about other religious rituals, he compares following the rites of Judaism to the rites of their former pagan religions, basically, living as though nothing has changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For us today, this would mean living as though Jesus doesn’t make a difference, keeping our same habits, attitudes, fears, going through the motions, going to church, making the outward effort, but not changing anything on the inside, not experiencing a change of the spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Galatians are concerned about circumcision as an outward and visible sign which was important when it symbolized the covenant between God and the people of <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>, but unnecessary for the new Christian communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul is concerned that the only reason the Galatians would do this is to mark themselves differently, to differentiate themselves from other people, but in a way that is only physical, instead of being different in spirit and in action—like wearing the cross or the Christian t-shirt without the spirit of belief and service to back it up.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Paul says that through baptism in Christ, we become united—marked all the same, neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Circumcision was only for a portion of the population, but baptism is for everyone (3:28).</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In turn, we are enslaved, not to ways that divide, not to status symbols, but to each other, in loving service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Being a Christian isn’t about playing nice in any kind of false sense.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This is still a widespread problem for us today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Whenever we hear someone say, the problem with church is that it’s full of hypocrites, that’s what they are talking about: a group of people who go to church, claim to be different, claim to be following Jesus, but then go out the door and are just as mean and nasty and back-stabbing as the next person.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of course, we’re all human, we’re all sinners, and none of us is perfect—but does it make a difference that we are Christians?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Are we living into that freedom?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The freedom that is in Christ, the freedom that is not self-indulgent, but that looks out and cares for others?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Living like a Christian is seriously different, not like living like others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s about authenticity, not just a good showing.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This week we mourned the passing of long-time member Ruth Harvey—in every remembrance of her, friends spoke of her kindness, how she reached out to new people at church and made them feel welcome, how she reached out to new teachers at her school and helped them along the way, how she was kind and nice, living out her faith with hospitality and kindness, not closed off, not ignoring new people, but warm and welcoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At church and at work, she lived out her commitment to serve others.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Being a Christian means living with hope, living with love, living in service and love to others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The outward signs of our faith matter: but those signs should be the love we have for other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul urges the church to not grow weary doing what is right.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Our Director of Christian Education, Rachel Miller is not doing something normal, or totally understandable, by living in a country where she doesn’t know the language or the customs, where the food is strange and upsets her stomach, but she’s there because of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She’s doing what is right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She is testing her own work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Carrying her own load.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Living out the fact that freedom in Christ isn’t a personal freedom, but means a freedom to help others, including children who don’t have the same opportunities—for medical treatment, for education—children with the same hopes and dreams, but not the resources to achieve them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And when asked why she’s doing this, she can only say that God has compelled her to do so, she could have spent the summer as usual, going to work, swimming, spending time with family and friends, but instead she’s in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Democratic Republic of the Congo</st1:place></st1:country-region>, serving others out of the freedom she has in Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She may grow weary, she may get homesick, she may be stressed and frightened, but she’s pushing on, learning as she goes, sharing the love she has with all those little girls out of the freedom God gives her.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As we celebrate our freedom and independence as a nation today, may we be mindful of how much greater our freedom is in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not just freedom from tyranny and oppression, but freedom from sin and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-39356869471622618932010-06-17T10:24:00.000-04:002010-06-17T10:25:35.078-04:00Royal Possession<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">1 Kings 21:1-21a </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Last week we talked a bit about Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab was king of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the most evil king ever, who had married a Sidonian woman and worshipped her tribal god instead of the God of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because of his worship of Baal, God caused a three year drought and God’s prophet Elijah got to deliver the bad news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Today, we find Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah again, but we get a clearer picture of the evil of this royal duo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Ahab’s queen is not just a normal trophy wife who helped him forge valuable alliances with other kingdoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jezebel’s name is synonymous with a troublesome, seductive woman, a hussy, a harlot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And while she certainly welds her power for greed and destruction, she’s not the sole downfall of her husband.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ahab is no saint on his own. He has some major character flaws and is generally unfit to be a king, especially a king of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He is greedy, he has poor coping mechanisms, he seems to have missed the whole point of leading the people of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-element: para-border-div; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt"><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When Naboth, the vineyard owner, wouldn’t agree to sell or trade, Ahab took to his bed, refused to eat dinner and just rolled over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As if he had no other responsibilities for the kingdom but to sulk over not getting the perfect garden for his vegetables (which, given his childish nature, he probably would not have eaten anyway).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This immature behavior let’s us know to just what extreme Ahab was unfit for the monarchy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He wasn’t just evil, he was foolish and petty too, and unable to think for himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jezebel had probably figured out this personality trait of her husband’s and takes it upon herself to do what the king will not: take possession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No less greedy, Jezebel at least has the ambition and cunning to get the job done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of course, she is merciless and cruel and no doubt deserves at least part of the reputation she’s gotten over the centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She’s misguided, but decisive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She makes a plan and goes for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She sets up an elaborate plot to sentence Naboth wrongly to death row.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And while Ahab doesn’t come up with this plan, he is not surprised, nor does he question his wife when she promises the desired vineyard and then delivers good on her promise.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">King Ahab is certainly not the first king of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> to look out his window and covet the property of his neighbor. As David looked out and desired Bathsheba, Ahab looks next door and sees the vineyard of Naboth and dreams of his own, royal vegetable garden in its place. He starts off with the honorable thing and offers Naboth a trade of either cash or a similar property, but this vineyard is Naboth’s ancestral inheritance—something God is very clear about in the Hebrew Bible—land and families are important, not to be handed over or sold, but past down to the generations.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Ahab and Naboth were both Israelites, but Naboth worshipped the God of Israel, while Ahab had strayed with a foreign god.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their desire for the same land is a government issue, but also a religious one since Naboth firmly believes that God has given his family this land and that it would be a sin to hand it over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ahab realizes he’s been out done, he’s been trumped by the God-card and resigns to do nothing but pout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But his wife, Jezebel, has no respect for this foreign God of Israel—she has, after all, already put to death hundred’s of God’s prophets, so that only a few remain—she has conducted her own genocide of sorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So for her, taking the land, is not a big deal, it’s what a king should do, if he wants something he should just go and get it, because what else is the use of being king?</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This was one of the arguments God used against having a monarchy for Israel in the first place because Kings would take up the best resources and the best people for themselves, and the society would be less egalitarian and fair, but the people insisted, they wanted to be like other nations and have a king, so that they could be respected too, since simply having God Almighty wasn’t good enough clout.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The nation of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> today is back in the headlines, where it never strays far, with the recent flotilla incident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Obama and Netanyahu will meet again soon to try to find some common ground and work toward peace—but even then peace is so illusive and difficult for that region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Too many groups of people—with different nationalities and religions have a serious stake in the land, and tend to want all or nothing, making compromise basically impossible.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Compromise, had it even been attempted, would not have been possible for Naboth and the King and Queen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When Elijah reenters the scene, God’s judgment is swift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And because Ahab is not on good terms with God, he does not view Elijah’s arrival at the vineyard during his moment of taking it into possession as a good thing.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Ahab and Elijah in a cultural and religious war, not like King David and the prophet Nathan who convicted David of his sin with Bathsheba.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ahab does not see Elijah as a helpful advisor, but refers to him as his “enemy” and ironically as the “troubler of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s not until after Elijah tells Ahab the consequences for his actions, the terrible fate for all of his family, that Ahab humbles himself and mourns his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He doesn’t feel bad for Naboth’s wrongful death, for the loss of such an upstanding man to his family and community, but is only upset when he learns that his own family and household will be eaten by dogs and birds. </span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">His repentance is cheap and while Ahab is spared, Jezebel and Ahab’s sons are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Punishment still comes to their household and to the generations following Ahab.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This is a grizzly, cautionary tale of not keeping some of the basic Commandments: of worshipping other gods, of coveting your neighbors’ property, of committing murder.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s a tale of greed and desire getting in the way of true relationship with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s about loosing sight of God and relying on our plans a schemes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Unlike Ahab and Jezebel, may we not be cause of oppression, of theft, of murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>May we look for ways to do justice and act kindly and walk humbly with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Amen. </span></p></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-8120831551004569792010-06-07T11:32:00.001-04:002010-06-07T11:32:50.075-04:00Wild Miracles<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">1 Kings 17:8-24</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> Don’t you just love how our scripture tends to start right in the middle of things? As though we all remember exactly who Elijah is and what he was up to?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">By way of a little background on this story, Elijah was a great prophet, in the time of the kings of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, when <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> was an establish monarchy—no longer a roaming, nomadic tribe. Elijah had the uncomfortable job of telling the kings the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They would seek out his advice and he would have to tell them what God had to say, and when it wasn’t favorable, he might find himself hiding for his life.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The historian who compiled the book of 1<sup>st</sup> Kings tells us that King Ahab “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal” worshiped and built a sacred altar and did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than had all the kings of Israel before him.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God is particularly displeased to see a king of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> worshipping another god. Baal, it turns out is the god of storms and rain, and, by extension, life, death, and fertility. As punishment, Elijah informs King Ahab that there will be a severe drought for three years, to show exactly which god is in charge of the storms and rain, life and death.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so Elijah, heads on out of town, to get out of Ahab’s jurisdiction, and goes to the Wadi Cherith, a marsh where he will still have some water to drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God sends ravens to feed him bread and meat, twice a day. But soon, because there is no rain, the Wadi dries up and Elijah must move on.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Which catches us up to today’s scripture lesson, God sends Elijah to the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">land</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Sidon</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, which also happens to be the birthplace of the Queen Jezebel and the heartland for Baal worship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No ravens this time, God tells Elijah that a widow there will provide for him.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the Bible, widows are always of God’s special concern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Without husbands to provide for them or give them security and status in Israelite society, these women are vulnerable, with few resources and no power, not exactly the ideal caretakers for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s great prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But Elijah has just relied on ravens, so the widow may seem like an upgrade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He finds her, by the city gate, gathering sticks for kindling, which cannot be a good sign that she’ll be able to provide a feast all on her own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Fortunately, God is with her, and after obediently fetching a drink of water for Elijah, she continues to listen to the word of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She protests, but she does go and make bread and feed Elijah first, even though she only has enough oil and grain for one last meal for herself and her son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She tells Elijah that they are preparing to eat this last meal and then starve to death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is a drought after all, so there will be no more grain until after it rains again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But she does it: maybe out of an act of faith, or out of a desperate hope that this man is right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In anticipation of the story of Jesus and the loaves and fishes, Elijah assures her that her jars of oil and meal will not go empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And sure enough, God provides for the three of them, and the supplies hold and they are all able to eat for many, many days.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">During the drought, God cares for those who are faithful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Elijah, the widow, and her child, are fed, even while the rest of the land starves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God does not give Elijah good news for the King and Queen, but does give good news to this widow and child who were on the verge of death, showing even more that God truly is in charge of the harvest, life and death. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><em><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal">In his book, </span>Testimony to Otherwise</em>, theologian Walter Brueggemann notes that the story of Elijah makes a break in the historical account of the kings of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Among these stories of war, infidelity, punishment, and disgrace, we find the stories of the prophets that "open to the listeners in daring imagination the claim that the world does not need to be perceived or engaged according to dominant shapings of power, to privileged notions of authority, to conventional distributions of goods, or to standard definitions of what is possible."</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">These days, we find more and more stories that are told from unlikely points of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just think of Wicked, the story of the Wizard of Oz, told from the wicked witch’s point of view or of Wide Sargasso Sea, the story of Jane Eyre told through the eyes of the crazy wife in the attic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In our Postmodern awareness, we are more sensitive to other sides of the story: not just the winners of history, of the rich and elite, but the stories of the ordinary, of the underdog, of the slave, of the victim. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so, in the middle of this litany of the kings of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, of their comings and goings, we find the story of a great prophet and a poor widow and her son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> Brueggemann says that Elijah "enacts otherwise, showing that the world could be and would be different, concretely, decisively different."</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This whole business of good news for the impoverished and marginalized and bad news for the rich and royal will continue with Jesus, which is why so many people will call on stories of Elijah to help them process the reality of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’d be nice sometimes, or easier at least, if so many stories of the Bible were not so uncomfortable, if they didn’t call on us to help feed the hungry and heal the hurts of the world—but the message of Elijah, of Jesus, is not self-fulfillment and satisfaction, it’s not prosperity and simple happiness,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> Elijah spends a lot of time on the run, finding unlikely sources for meals and shelter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He interprets God for the people, he obeys God’s commands, and he challenges God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He and God have a full and rich relationship, sometimes harmonious, sometimes tense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When the widow’s son dies anyway, even with the abundance of food, Elijah cries out to God, asking what God has against him now that the son of his hostess would die anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And God hears these cries as Elijah stretches his own body across the child’s, and God answers Elijah by giving the child life again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is not the sort of miracle we expect anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Who among us would expect to be able to stretch out over the lifeless body of a loved one and bring them back?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Elijah raises people from the dead, Jesus will later raise people from the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">These are the sorts of wild miracles that God is capable of doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God gives sustenance to those who have nothing, hope and healing to those who have none.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Thanks be to God.</span></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list"><br clear="all"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"></span><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn1"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> 1 Kings 16:30-33</span></p></div></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-86432468539848745642010-05-24T09:18:00.000-04:002010-05-24T09:19:09.575-04:00Language of the Holy Spirit<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Acts 2:1-21 (Genesis 11:1-9)</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It can be tempting to celebrate Pentecost as a singular fixed moment in time, as the birthday for the church and just leave it at that, as the day to commemorate the moment when the flaming tongues of the Holy Spirit descend on the apostles as a sign of the outpouring of this divine gift, of the presence of God among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We could celebrate this event as a final, complete moment in itself, in which no other can compare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We could box up the Spirit in our tidy, commercialized language of success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I frequently overhear other ministers talk about the work of the spirit in their churches, and more often than not it has something to do with a shiny new building or an influx of new members—God can do amazing things!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Like help us build this new gymnasium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As if to say the presence of the Holy Spirit in our congregations is measured by our numbers or by the amount of money we receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As though God created a finalized product in the church, that we must simply maintain now, keeping up our numbers and appearances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At which point we have domesticated God, tamed the divine down to tiny little expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">There are other stories, though rarer, of churches who send people out into the world, who fully embrace mission locally and globally and choose to believe that the transforming power of the Holy Spirit—the flaming tongues of Pentecost have more to do with working to change the world—in very real and tangible ways, that move beyond supporting an established institution and an expensive infrastructure, more than “playing church”, but actually being “church” for a world that is broken and hurting.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The event of Pentecost is truly an amazing, miraculous story, which informs us that amazing, miraculous stories are still possible for the church today. (more than nostalgia for a past when God was active)</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Pentecost was already a Jewish holiday occurring 50 days after Passover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The eleven remaining disciples were gathered to observe this Holy Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of course, they had already been through a lot at this point—Jesus had left them once again, this time ascending into heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And these men from Galilee are gathered to worship and to remember the event of Moses coming down from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:placename st="on">Sinai</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> with the gift of law for the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in the midst of this—this moment that so defines the birth of their religion, the law and ordering of their lives, their ritual is disrupted by a loud, rushing, mighty wind, that draws attention to them and a crowd forms around the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are inundated with the Spirit of God the same that moved across the chaotic waters of Creation, assaulted with tongues as of fire, and babbling in languages they can’t even understand, to be ridiculed by those who do not understand and find comic relief in accusing them of being drunk!</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But they are not drunk with wine, they are intoxicated with the incredible power of the Holy Spirit and that is how they are each able to speak the message of God in a language that is foreign to them, but recognizable to the diversity of the crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The message of God, instantly translated into a dozen different languages, allowing for clear communication and unity.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the book of Genesis, we find the story of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">tower</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Babel</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Human beings had become numerous on earth and decided they wanted to build a tower to the sky, to reach God in heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But God didn’t like this plan and realized that if the people could not communicate well to each other, they could not successfully pull off a big project like a tower to heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So God, who created the world with a single spoken Word, scattered the people to far reaches of the earth and jumbled their languages, thus creating a diverse world.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The event of Pentecost reverses the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">tower</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Babel</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>—at least temporarily. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It doesn’t eradicate all languages and unify them into one, rather the people are able to hear the message of God in their own native languages, and to understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The diversity continues to exist, but there is new understanding, new community within the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Language can create and unify and it can destroy and scatter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are increasingly separated through language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not just different linguistic families, but also through rhetoric and jargon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is difficult for Republicans and Democrats, Christians and Muslims, to speak with one another, rather than at and against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s difficult to find even an objective news story because everyone has an opinion and hardly anyone can look at an issue from several angles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s either all good or all bad, the solution to the problem or the death toll for us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For the thousands of Jews gathered in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, language kept them divided, but through the Holy Spirit they were able to truly hear one another for the first time.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Hear the words that Peter quotes from Joel: telling the critics that in the last days, God will pour out the Holy Spirit on everyone and sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams, slaves will also prophesy, and there will be signs in heaven and on earth, the sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">There will be much, much more than simply speaking in other languages, there will be visions and dreams, probably some of hope and some of terror, and there will be a reversal of creation as the bright shining sun goes dark and the luminous yellow moon turns blood red to show the “great and glorious,” wonderful and fearful return of the Lord.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Spirit of God is serious business, powerful and transformative—she is not just sweet and comforting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In our prayers, we invoke the Holy Spirit, asking God to descend upon us, to unify us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When we say these familiar words, we better know for sure what we’re asking!</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Annie Dillard, in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> Teaching a Stone to Talk</i> writes “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It is madness to ask God to help us achieve our church or personal goals unless we are willing to ask God what our goals should be in the first place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We may invite God into our lives hoping for protection from life’s trauma and our own foolishness, we may be mostly hoping for good health and personal satisfaction, but we often forget about the terrifying God on the other end of the deal—the one who’s will we ask be done, without the foggiest idea what that will might be, without really comprehending just what God might ask of us, what God might truly demand of us, how God might really shape and form us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The terrifying Poet, T. S. Eliot, has this to say to us:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The dove descending breaks the air<br />With flame of incandescent terror<br />Of which the tongues declare<br />The one discharge from sin and error.<br />The only hope, or else despair<br /> Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-<br /> To be redeemed from fire by fire.<br /><br />Who then devised the torment? Love.<br />Love is the unfamiliar Name<br />Behind the hands that wove<br />The intolerable shirt of flame<br />Which human power cannot remove.<br /> We only live, only suspire<br /> Consumed by either fire or fire.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</span></span></span></span></a></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Pentecost is not some remembrance of a past event, of the one-time only birth of the church, sprung fully formed from the mind of God, instead it is the ongoing, often painful, growing and shaping of the community of faith in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list"><br clear="all"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"></span><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn1"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> Dillard, Annie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Teaching a Stone to Talk</i>, Harper & Row, 1982</span></p></div><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn2"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> Eliot, T.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The Dove Descending.”</span></p></div></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-33925498003649645892010-05-11T11:03:00.001-04:002010-05-11T11:03:26.835-04:00Hospitality of Lydia<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Acts 16:9-15</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the book of Acts, we travel with Jesus’ followers to new lands as they spread the good news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul has a vision of a man asking for help in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on">Macedonia</st1:country-region>, with his companions, Paul travels to this Roman district in <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On the Sabbath, they go to the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps there is a temple or synagogue there or just a known place for gathering and prayer and there they find a group of women worshipping God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Among these women is Lydia, a dealer of purple cloth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We know very little about <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but what we do know is fascinating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The rest we could imagine from the text.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region> was a rarity in those days, not defined by husband or children, but by her textile business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She was her own woman, successful and free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The leaders and elites of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Macedonia</st1:place></st1:country-region> looked to her to supply the luscious purple fabric for their robes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And in return, they paid her well with money and respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They listened to her, this woman who possessed a strange authority, as she measured out bolts of the fabric, she told them stories of a foreign God, not the gods of Rome, not stories of Jupiter, Apollo, or Venus, but stories of a tribal God of Israel—a single God who was greater than the many, a God who created, a God who protected and liberated, a God of love and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lydia was strange indeed, but the people accepted her.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">She observed the Hebrew Sabbath and would gather with other women by the river side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There they would worship this God with songs and prayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They would tell each other stories of their encounters with God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">One day, several men, foreign travelers joined them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the one named Paul began to tell them new stories about this same God: about how this God had also become human, had lived and breathed among them, had appeared to Paul, and showed him the error of his ways as a zealous Jew who persecuted Christians, and had convinced him that he, Jesus, was truly the Messiah, the Son of God, for whom they had waited for so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lydia was immediately convinced that this man spoke the truth—that the Messiah, whom she had heard about, had really and truly come—had died, and then risen again, and continued to live through his believers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She vowed to do whatever she could to help spread this new message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Since she was already telling the story of God, she would happy tell this story of Jesus too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She asked to be baptized and to have her whole household baptized as well, so that they might all begin this new journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And finding out that these foreigners were traveling missionaries, with no place to call home, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region> insisted that they stay at her house and use her good fortune to help spread the good news.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God opened her heart and she, in turn, opened her home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After her baptism, she turns her house into a base for the spread of Christianity in <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her baptism leads immediately to hospitality and a sharing in all the risks of mission.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke, the writer of Acts, doesn’t expand on just how important Lydia’s hospitality is, but we can see that she gives them a home-base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A place to sleep and eat, a place to return to from preaching and later from prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul and his companions are in a foreign country, they have no place to call home, and the gift of Lydia’s home provides much needed creature comfort so that they can have the physical strength and sound mindset to continue the work of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Maybe she went out and preached too, or maybe she continued with her business, providing fine clothes for the rich, telling them her story, of this Jesus she had met and of these travelers staying in her home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Hospitality: no matter who it is from is a great gift: having a place to go, to stay, to sleep, to eat, to rest weary bones and fill empty stomachs, a place of safety cannot be overestimated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Neither can kindness to strangers.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a model, an early church mother, for us now and for the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus might have asked <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region> to give up her wealth, to sell her house and follow him—but she gives these things to god in different ways: she doesn’t sell her house, but she gives it to Paul for God’s purposes. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">What if we extended our resources: our time, our money, our space to help feed those who are hungry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It would be our basic task as Christians, and a clear example of Lydia-like hospitality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It would not change the whole world, but it could help, in small ways, to transform part of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What if we served breakfast, once a week, to the homeless and hungry in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Alexandria</st1:place></st1:City>, right here in our social hall?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This might include coming in on a weekday morning before you head to work or go about the rest of your day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It might include scrambling eggs or having a cup of coffee with someone who is struggling and in need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It might include washing table clothes, setting up tables, or buying food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is not the kind of thing that is easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It won’t be for the feint of heart, but it will be for the kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After all, it is so important to eat a healthy meal in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most of us know how much some caffeine and protein can make a huge difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On a cold morning, we could provide a warm place to sit for an hour or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our neighbors could find church doors that are open, and people who care—not because of our own agenda or because we have to, but because God cares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For people living on the margins, seeing a volunteer, someone who gives their time and effort just for the sake of giving it away, can give these folks so much hope—just to know there are people in the world who would care for them and expect nothing for themselves in return is life-changing.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Paul responded to a vision from God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lydia</st1:place></st1:country-region> responded to Paul’s message of God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">How will we respond?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span> </p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-6013704816565646002010-04-12T12:41:00.000-04:002010-04-12T12:42:14.413-04:00Doubting<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">John 20: 19-31</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Easter Sunday is rarely an appropriate time to engage in a discussion of the factuality of the resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Congregations on an Easter Sunday want to hear a word of hope, they want to sing their alleluias, they want to know that Jesus still lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Especially if this is the one Sunday a year they come to church, they want to hear a story of impossible odds, a story of grace and above all love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But this Sunday we join the disciples, particularly Thomas, in wondering if it’s all true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Though the gospel accounts differ, in all of them Jesus appears first to some of his female followers, then to the rest of his disciples in various locations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In Matthew it’s in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place st="on">Galilee</st1:place>, in Mark on a country road, in Luke on the road to Emmaus, and in John, in a locked room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The main point for all of these encounters is that the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples and tasks them with carrying on his work because he’s back, but only for a little while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the book of John, Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene who then goes and tells the rest of the disciples about the empty tomb and the gardener who turned out to be Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We don’t know if the disciples believe her, but the first thing Jesus does when he appears to them, after he calms them down with a word of peace, is to show them his wounds, to show them that he’s really the same guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At the very least, their disbelief is a possibility that Jesus has already considered and he’s prepared to offer evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Proof that the writer of John then, extends to us with his gospel as his testimony.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The “proof” offered in the gospel of John does not meet our standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John’s testimony would not hold in a court of law or even a news article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>An account of Jesus apparating through a locked door doesn’t prove anything to us 2000 years later—did you see it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I sure didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’d need video footage and scientific experiments to show the plausibility of a divine person traveling through solid material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We might need Jesus to stand before us and demonstrate what he can do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’d need much more than just seeing his hands or placing our own in his side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We would need even more proof than poor old doubting Thomas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Life of Pi by Yann Martel tells the story of a young man named Pi, who ends up on a life boat with various wild animals when a ship with his family and their zoo animals sinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a tale of remarkable survival as he keeps himself alive for 277 days with a hungry, adult <st1:place st="on">Bengal</st1:place> tiger on board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a beautiful story of faith and strength and careful managing of the tiger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the end, when Pi has found safety and a maritime official, Mr. Okamoto is questioning him in an investigation of the ship’s sinking, a slightly different story is revealed than the one he has told through the entire book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The animals turn out to bear a striking resemblance to other people who had been on the ship and the possibility of a much darker story of human desperation while at sea emerges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With the two accounts, Mr. Okamoto doesn’t know what to do, but Pi points out that he can’t prove either story, but will just have to take Pi’s word for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So he then asks Mr. Okamoto: “So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can’t prove the question either way, which story do you prefer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Which is the better story, the story with the animals or the story without animals?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mr. Okamoto agrees that it is “The story with the animals.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pi’s response is: “Thank you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And so it goes with God.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We cannot prove the resurrection one way or the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We cannot say for sure that it did not happen, that it was merely a resuscitation, or some sort of trick of hide-the-body the disciples played.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We cannot say for sure that it happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But we do know that Jesus really does continue to live and breathe in and among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We know this because Jesus is God and God is everlasting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is the important part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not the mechanics of Jesus’ dead body being restored to life—because how or if God did that, isn’t something we can discover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is it possible for God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Surely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Does that mean it happened, in any sort of factual historical sense?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not necessarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is it the better story, full of the truth of God’s redeeming love?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Absolutely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">A few years ago, there was much talk of the “Jesus tomb,” a tomb found in Jerusalem where people named Jesus, Mary, and James had all been buried together, possibly around the time that Jesus Christ had lived and died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was great speculation about how to prove if this was Jesus the Christ and what implications there would be and the possibility of the death of Christianity and the shattered faith of millions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There’d never be anyway to analyze the bones to determine if this was Jesus of Nazareth, not resurrected, but buried after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But what if they could prove, beyond a doubt that it was?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Christian doctrine would have to change, but would it die?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Would we have nothing left to believe in?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Could Jesus still be the Messiah?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Could Jesus still be God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These are not easy questions, but the truths of Christianity are much more valuable than the provable facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If it’s a beautiful story of love and redemption, does it have to have happened that way?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The reason this debate is not appropriate for Easter Sunday, is because whether or not the physical resurrection happened, isn’t the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Believing or not is a matter of faith, not history or science, or fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some Christians find it impossible to believe without the resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some don’t find it necessary at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We certainly have doubts now and they range all the way from doubting the existence of God to doubting the goodness of God to doubting our world to doubting ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After his death, the disciples continued to have a very powerful, physical experience of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And even with all of this physical presence, they still have doubts. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus shows them his hands and his side so that they can see it’s him with their own eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He breathes on them, giving them the Holy Spirit, in a way they can feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into them, it’s very much like when God the Creator first breathed life into Adam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That account of human creation was also very physical, very tactile, very personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God formed a human being with God’s own hands out of the dirt of the earth and breathed divine breathe into him so that he might have life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So too, Jesus instructs his disciples with touch and breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus breathes on the disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Asking them to carrying on—authority to forgive sins, etc—to carry out his ministry, with the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">If we haven’t gotten the message, Jesus continues to be God incarnate—God in a flesh and blood body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not a ghost, not a zombie, but the real thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just how this is possible is one of the mysteries of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because God continues to care about human beings—all of us, our souls and our bodies, because God took great care in forming us in the first place, and continues to take great care with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Peace be with you.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-10569151957252207182010-04-06T09:24:00.004-04:002010-04-06T09:31:57.021-04:00The Last Supper<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJu2ATKiEik42XP5EUKiZmvDSCfOXAG3r9PYzFDrvXzsibl1RkrG4m6IkOsE20IniWrvELVrdpmZow1aerWbQzW-BxqwS7ZJCq1EwbpwmPEnQKpE8oNlRj4x0O16aZuwM6ESvE5dUbmVM/s1600/lastsupp.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 183px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457016522575610706" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJu2ATKiEik42XP5EUKiZmvDSCfOXAG3r9PYzFDrvXzsibl1RkrG4m6IkOsE20IniWrvELVrdpmZow1aerWbQzW-BxqwS7ZJCq1EwbpwmPEnQKpE8oNlRj4x0O16aZuwM6ESvE5dUbmVM/s320/lastsupp.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke 22:14-20, 39-46</span> <div><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">During the last supper, Jesus uses familiar ingredients to tell the story of what he is about to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He gives his disciples a tangible way to remember and celebrate him, and a way of bonding them and us together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He uses bread and wine, elements that are already rich in Biblical imagery of wheat and harvest, vines and branches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Since this is also the Passover meal, the bread is unleavened, a sign of the hurry the early Hebrew people were in and the wine, Jesus’ blood, is also the blood of the lamb, a symbol of life and covenant.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For those observing the first Passover in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, death was coming that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Salvation from that death was immediate, not a promise for a distant future. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>The Hebrew people had to eat their meal of lamb and bread and bitter herb, prepared in a particular way, that very evening, in order to save their lives, and show their obedience to God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>God was done with the various amusing plagues on the Egyptians, this time God meant business.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus’ meal is also close to death—not that very night but soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His meal comes on the eve of trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After he shares the bread and the cup, he goes out to the garden to pray, to ask God that the cup of suffering might be removed from him if it would be God’s will.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At the same time of the feast, the high priests are conspiring against Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Judas has already agreed to sell insider information to the high priests who will have Jesus arrested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Jesus reveals to the disciples that one of them will betray them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As they ask, “is it I, Lord?” Jesus and Judas both know who it will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And yet, Jesus doesn’t turn Judas away from the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead, he gives him a morsel of forgiveness and a sip of salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus’ table is open to everyone, to friends and to enemies alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The first group of disciples were far from perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They denied Jesus, they fell asleep while he was praying, they brandished the sword instead of resisting passively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do this in remembrance of me, he says to Judas who will betray him and to Peter who will deny him and pretend to forget.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But when they share the loaf and the wine, they will have the chance to remember Jesus again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even though this memory is dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because it is the memory of a man who resisted empire and local religious authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is the memory of a man who did not resist arrest, who did not defend his innocence either physically or verbally, who resisted the entire unjust system that would crucify him on a cross.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Through the celebration of Communion, he invited them to remember all that they saw, and did, and learned when he walked and breathed among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The fruits of the harvest and of the vine were there to remind them that it had all really happened and to remind them of their ongoing purpose, work, and commitment to make things right in the world—to never stop telling the story of Jesus.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">To all of his disciples throughout the centuries, Jesus says:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am with you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even when you can’t see me, even when it seems like I’m truly gone, when you taste bread and drink wine, which you will do every day of your lives, remember me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My flesh, my blood, they live within your flesh and blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You consume my body, so that you may be my body for the whole world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We celebrate our own community of disciples in the shared loaf, the shared body of Christ and in the common cup and common life of service together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Christ is spiritually present in the bread and juice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Christ is physically with us in the hands that give and receive.</span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We remember the Christ who continues to live and breathe among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We remember that he was arrested and tried, tortured and killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And he did this all out of love so that we might live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Amen.</span></p></div></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-80219536659380686882010-03-31T14:39:00.001-04:002010-03-31T14:39:43.199-04:00From Joy to Disaster<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke 23:1-49</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus finally makes it into <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a triumphant entry—full of pomp and circumstance, full of hope and possibility as the masses cry out to him “save us!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But their hope and joy will soon turn to disappointment: Jesus isn’t what they expect, salvation isn’t easy, and he will not turn out to be a quick solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the cries of praise, will turn to cries of death threats—because we are all Fickle human beings.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></i></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus has a full itinerary for the holy city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As he enters <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, he weeps: “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But now they are hidden from your eyes . . . because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44).</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">He enters the temple, overturns the tables, and cleanses the “den of robbers.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He teaches in the temple for a few days and all the while, the priests, and the scribes, and the leaders search for ways to kill him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are supposed to be the religious authorities, and this man is trying to change everything, and completely criticizing their practices and authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But so far, they can’t do anything, because the people are completely “spellbound.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The joyful religious expectation of the crowd doesn’t last long and they begin to turn against him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s slow at first, but their excitement dwindles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps it’s when they realize how much Jesus will demand of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps it’s when he mentions that their beloved city, of memories and relics, will be destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His critics publicly attack him, looking for any slip up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They confront and try to trick him, on a procedural note, on the question of taxes, so that they might get him into trouble with the government, but Jesus doesn’t fall for it and isn’t about to suggest civil disobedience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Whose face is on the coin,” he asks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Give that coin to the man who’s on it: “to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God’s.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He denounces the scribes for their corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But then his teachings take a turn, he tells of the coming destruction of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> and the distress that will follow.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the midst of all of this action and preaching, his disciple Judas, under the influence of evil and greed, makes a deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They still don’t have proper charges, and never will, but with the disciple’s betrayal, Jesus popularity is beginning to erode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They probably do not like this talk of destruction and wrath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus isn’t shaping up to be the kind of savior we really and truly want—one to take us, shelter us, and make it all better, to give us power, and a kingdom again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This disapproval becomes just after Jesus’ arrest, did they loose faith when he didn’t escape and save himself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What kind of savior can save us, if he can’t save himself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What strange hypocrisy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some might have realized where this was all heading, and where Jesus would take them—and it didn’t look one little bit like salvation, it looked like death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The cross has always been a stumbling block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We worship a crucified savior, a risen Lord to be sure, but a Messiah who faced death as a criminal before the glory of the resurrection.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And because his popular approval has eroded, the authorities, both religious and civil, have more confidence in going after him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And suddenly, our triumphant savior, is arrested, we standby, watching him be betrayed, beaten, humiliated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Like any criminal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And we wonder if he was ever really the Messiah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The full scope of emotion in such a short time leaves us reeling.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We know there is blessed victory in the end, but before we get to the celebration, we must endure the suffering first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Before we get to the crown, we must suffer the cross.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The religious authorities take Jesus to the local civil authority, to Pilate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And like any good District Attorney, Pilate doesn’t want to try a criminal that he can’t convict and mercifully doesn’t want to put the wrong man to death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They mount the lies against him, even saying that Jesus told them not to pay taxes, which is clearly not what he actually said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pilate only cares about the accusation that Jesus is claiming to be a king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So Pilate asks, did you call yourself a king?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Jesus says, “You say so.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus could really use a lawyer at this point, but he goes on defending himself in this enigmatic way instead of stating clearly “No, I didn’t technically say those words.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Pilate finds that Herod actually has jurisdiction here and sends Jesus on his way.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And Herod, Herod, that fox, who has been waiting to fulfill his own father’s longing of meeting this man, the famous threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But like Pilate, his questioning gets no where and he sends Jesus back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With no solid charges, Pilate wants to flog Jesus and release him.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But the crowd cries out and beg him to release a murderer instead—to trade Barabbas who is a true threat to society, but somehow not as scary as Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In their minds, it would be better to have a murderer on the streets than Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They choose a murderer because of their fear and misunderstandings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They choose to do the exact opposite of what is good for them</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so Jesus carries his cross and dies beside two other criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even in those final moments, his innocence is recognized by one of the criminals and by a Roman Centurion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But it doesn’t make a difference.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so Jesus suffered and died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He was brave, he was merciful and full of grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But he died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Leaving his disciples and his family to wonder what on earth had just happened—to wonder what they had done with the last few years of their lives, and was it worth it, the miracles, the people they had healed and met and dined with, so important at the time, so meaningful, so life changing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But here they are at the foot of the cross, and they just had to wonder why he couldn’t just save himself, why he couldn’t have just said the right words and gotten himself out of it all . . .</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">I hope for them, in the back of their minds they remembered Jesus’ words, about how all of this was going to happen, but it had to feel like disaster to them . . . they also went from celebrities, to outcasts, hiding out, hoping not to be recognized, even though that had been so visible just days before.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As we head into this week, may we remember the hopeful celebration of Easter that awaits us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>May we remember that God can transform anything: even a death by capital punishment, into an act of salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Let us pray:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">With holy anger, Christ,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Disrupt the power that feeds</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Upon the cruel sacrifice</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of others’ rights and needs.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As you turned over tables</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And sent coins</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Spinning and jangling</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Across the temple floor,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Disrupt the unholy commerce</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In our hearts:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Selling faith</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For security</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And trade justice</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For peace.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">By your holy anger</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Drive out every transaction</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">That profanes</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The house of prayer</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">By that same anger start</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">What evil can’t defeat:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">A stubborn passion in the heart</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">To see god’s will complete.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Baptize us with fire</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Hotter than Herod’s wrath</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Until we no longer mute</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The fury in our hearts</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At the slaughter</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of the innocents.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Baptize us with fire!</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But do not let our rage</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Grow bitter as the din</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of fierce mean minds that fail to gauge</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When anger turns to sin.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Instead, let anger be</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The first note</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In love’s ascending scale,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The starting tone</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Of heaven’s dove:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“O <st1:city st="on">Jerusalem</st1:City>, <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">if only you knew</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">the things that make for peace . . .”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Instead, let anger be compassion’s kindling fire</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">That lights in us the energy to live as you desire.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list"><br clear="all"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"></span><div style="mso-element: footnote" id="ftn1"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7308374710922879700#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:85%;"> Troeger, Thomas H.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Above the Moon Earth Rises: Hymn Texts, Anthems, and Poems for a New Creation</span></p></div></div>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-85292415488956557152010-03-16T12:58:00.001-04:002010-03-16T12:58:46.055-04:00God’s Justice<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The story of the prodigal son is the third in a series of parables that Jesus tells the tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees and scribes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The stories all share a common theme: there is the lost sheep—in which the shepherd leaves his 99 sheep in order to find the one that was lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is the woman who searches her entire house until she finds a single coin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And now the story of the youngest son who runs off, squanders his inheritance, and then comes back, humbled and apologetic, only to be greeted triumphantly by his father.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">What was once lost now is found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even if it’s only one seemingly insignificant thing like a tax collector or a sinner</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s a comforting story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If we get lost along the way, even if we’re the only one missing, God will come back, find us, and bring us to safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God isn’t going to choose to save the many over the one; God is going to save all of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And it doesn’t matter if we’ve wandered off, gotten lost in a couch cushion, or really blown it and run away—God still goes looking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s such good news because we’ve all been lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We are lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We all desperately want to be found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We want to be welcomed, to be taken in and greeted with a feast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We want that extravagant generosity, from God, and from the people in our lives—that unconditional forgiveness, even when we’ve left, and squandered all our riches, and slept in a pen with pigs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s not such a great story, if you’re a Pharisee or a scribe, the older brother, one of the 99 sheep, one of the coins in the purse, one who has always done what you’re supposed to do, followed the leader, not gotten lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not particularly fair to the first who become last.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sometimes we’re the older, faithful sibling, and sometimes we’re the younger reckless one, but the good thing is that God loves both of them, loves us all the same, and none of us deserve it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The father is generous enough to give out the inheritance without strings or questions—able to give out that freedom, suspecting, perhaps knowing that it will be completely abused, but giving out that choice nonetheless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And upon return, the younger son, knowing he has sinned, fully repentant, comes back home with his ears down and his tail between his legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He doesn’t even ask to be his father’s son anymore, because he’s blown his chance, he doesn’t deserve that honor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He just needs a place to work and sleep, and he’s happy to be a servant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But his father’s extravagant grace strikes again, and he does the unexpected, he opens his arms, and welcomes his son home, as a true son, as a beloved son—no need for penance or second class citizenship, his old place is restored, and he is honored for his return.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Haven’t we ever wandered away from God, haven’t we wondered how God would receive us, if God would receive us, if God would turn away from us, or take us back only after a trial period of good behavior, and even then there would be conditions and restrictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Maybe we feel that way now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If God really knew us, knew all the things we had done and thought then God wouldn’t love us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’ve rejected God and turned away too many times, we’ve been told that God won’t love us anymore, doesn’t want us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The comparison to a loving parent only goes so far—because too many times parents really do turn away from their children, do withhold their love, and refuse to face them and welcome them as their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But God isn’t like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God doesn’t care why we left or how long we were gone or what we did or thought or said, no matter how truly terrible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No matter if it gives us chills or keeps us up at night, no matter if it’s the most horrible thing a human being has ever done, God is still happy to see us—and it’s a real, and genuine welcome, not hesitant, not conditional, but it’s as if we never left, never turned away, never failed in our own love.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And the real point of the parables is that none of us deserve this extravagance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not fair and it’s not just, but it’s mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The big brother, the little brother—neither deserve it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sara Miles is the author of two books and the director of ministry for St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:City>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There, she runs a food pantry that feeds 800 people every week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And unlike most pantries, they give away food for anyone who needs it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They don’t keep records, or keep track of who qualifies for food stamps, or who got food last week, or who has legal citizenship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because if you’re hungry and you need food, then you can have it, whether or not you deserve it, because that is exactly the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The food is like God’s grace and no one deserves it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What we actually deserve is usually pretty harsh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The world’s justice can also be pretty harsh.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God is not just.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God is not fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God is merciful.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so our response to others is not to be just, or fair, but to be merciful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John Wesley spoke a lot about social holiness: he said there was no such thing as holiness without social holiness, no such thing as only personal holiness that is devoid of caring for others—meaning we have no choice but to care for others, even our frivolous little brothers.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It could be easy for Americans to look at other countries and wonder why they can’t be more like us—with resources, stable building structures, public water works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just like it could be easy for the well-off to wonder why those living on welfare just can’t take care of themselves, why those living below poverty levels can’t have healthy meals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It could be easy to say that those who are poor and those who struggle have done it all to themselves, have somehow chosen to live this way—that they have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>taken all their resources, and all the chance in the world, and squandered them away in dissolute living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That we shouldn’t help people because they’ll just become dependent on us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We should love them, but only at a distance.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Through the United Methodist Committee On Relief, we send help to those who need it, both nationally and internationally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps it’s not just or fair, that we send aid to other countries that may not deserve it in the worldly sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes UMCOR probably helps the younger brother—the one who didn’t take the right risks or make the right plans, because any disaster—natural or human made—has lots of compounded causes, some mistakes, some accidents, some that could’ve been prevented, some that could never have been imagined.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus feeds people, loves people, heals people, and it’s not about whether or not they’ve worked hard and deserve it, because it’s grace, and none of us deserve it.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And this is social justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Earlier this week, radio personality Glenn Beck urged everyone whose church proclaims social or economic justice to leave it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He said it was all code for communism and fascism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He urged listeners to go talk to their priests, to ask if they were involved in this whole social justice thing, and to leave their churches if the answer turns out to be yes.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Just to be clear, if you are in any UMC, the answer to Mr. Beck’s question is “Yes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yes, you are part of a church that cares about social justice, that cares about God’s justice, which may not always seem fair, but is always full of grace and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We care about the least of these because that’s what Jesus urged us to do.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And the best way to affirm this stance of the UMC, for today, is to give to UMCOR to help ensure that God’s merciful justice continues to spread throughout the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-87594642559273513692010-03-03T13:10:00.000-05:002010-03-03T13:11:57.439-05:00Foxes and Hens<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke 13:31-35</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For us, now, Lent is an inward journey of the soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But it also marks the outward journey of Jesus, 2000 years ago, to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> and to the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In some of the gospels, Jesus doesn’t seem to know exactly what is going to happen—he just has a general idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Luke leads us to believe that Jesus knows exactly what the upcoming days will hold for him—knows that despite Herod’s threats, he will not be killed just yet, not until he has made it into Jerusalem, and he will not give into any threat, will just continue doing his work because he’s too busy to worry about his own life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When the Pharisees, acting on Herod’s behalf, try to get Jesus to stop healing and casting out demons, Jesus lets them know that he knows they’re working for Herod and asks them to pass along just how much he’s not intimidated by “that fox,” so much that he’s not even worried about insulting this puppet king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He channels other prophets like Uriah and Jeremiah who were murdered in <st1:city st="on">Jerusalem</st1:City> when they dared to speak out against the kings of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is simply ridiculous for the Pharisees and Herod to suggest that Jesus will die before reaching the holy city.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At one time, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> was a roaming people, people under the covenant of Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But eventually, they became a monarchy—with <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> as their capitol of royal complacency—the favor of God evident by their power and military prowess, and not their special relationship with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus laments over this lost city, and even laments over the Pharisees who live within the holy city’s walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He tells them he’s not a threat since the city is so unwilling to change, “you get to keep your house,” he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ultimately, Jesus is not a threat to them, because they and the people are not willing to let him—he knows he will not be able to save <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> this time.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In case we think Jesus is so brave before a fox because he’s an even tougher beast who could eat that fox for dinner, Jesus reveals what type of animal he is: a chicken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And not just any chicken, but a female chicken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Can you imagine the fox getting a whiff of this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ooooh, tough!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But of course, Jesus is never who we really expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The scriptures speak of God as an Eagle, able to soar and to protect, but Jesus doesn’t go for this image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As always, Jesus’ concern is not for himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The news that Herod wants to kill him is not news, especially since Herod’s father already tried to kill him as an infant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He moves on toward <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, not with fear and concern for his own life and death, but with sadness over the people—for this brood of baby chicks, who refuse to be gathered up in safety.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When I was little my uncle raised chickens in <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Rockingham</st1:PlaceName> <st1:placetype st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Each chicken house had about 20K chickens, and when you’d walk in, the little chicks would scatter, like a moving, yellow carpet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They were surprisingly easy to step on, and yet difficult to catch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He didn’t have foxes to worry about, but he did have a few feral cats who were very good and sneaking their supper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the chicks were largely unprotected, thousands of babies, and no mother hen.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The people of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, like little yellow chicks, are unprotected, with at least one fox on the loose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus is the mother hen, who cannot get to them, because they will not allow her to come close and gather them up in safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She can protect them, and wants to so badly, but they scatter when she comes close—they do not know who or what is good for them.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Looking out for ourselves, loving ourselves, protecting our own self interest, looking out for number one, that’s the easy thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Loving others, trying to save them, that’s the most vulnerable, helpless thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When we stand with our arms open wide and welcoming, not really knowing how our gesture will be received, our heart and chest exposed, we are unable to block or defend ourselves—because this is how you stand when you mean it.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The fox is not welcoming or protective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He’s calculating, cunning, vicious, and a coward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He sends the Pharisees instead of going himself, but Jesus lets them know that he’s not playing that game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He won’t be scared away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But he also won’t put up a fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Chickens are not known for bravery, do not have magnificent talons, are not even terribly attractive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But they care for their young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They sit patiently on their eggs, keeping them warm until they hatch, and they chase the chicks around making sure they stay where they are supposed to—the meanest ones can peck and scratch, but what is that compared to the chops of a fox?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus longs to gather up the chicks—not just the few he has managed, but all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The fox offers is really just a power-hungry fool, and not all that powerful in the grand scheme of the <st1:place st="on">Roman empire</st1:place>.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus the hen, offers only protection with her own body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Medieval mistic, Julian of Norwich wrote of Jesus as our mother, only better than an earthly mother because he doesn’t feed us milk, he feeds us his body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If the fox wants to kill the chicks of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, he’ll have to kill the mother hen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He sneaks up on her one night, while she and the chicks are sleeping in the coup, and when he snatches her in his teeth, the little yellow chicks scatter in 20K different directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She dies, with her wings stretched wide, open, inviting, ready to gather her brood, and yet completely empty. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Something much bigger than the death of a hen is going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The language of brooding is the same in Genesis, God the Creator “brooded” over the waters of creation, birthing the earth into existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus the son was present at this beginning, and it’s no accident that he broods over the people of Jerusalem—not with immediate success—but will eventually triumph with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The time will come, says Jesus, when everyone will greet him as a king—not like a king Herod, but as the true king as we say “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”</span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-56645989058137289082010-02-18T11:39:00.001-05:002010-02-18T11:41:10.663-05:00Transfiguration<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Luke 9:28-36</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Exodus 34:29-35</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Today is Transfiguration Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s the last Sunday before Lent starts and we celebrate the glory of God and God’s acts of salvation through Moses and Jesus—both human beings, both chosen by God to be messengers to the people.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the popular Twilight saga, there’s something interesting about vampire skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Like traditional vampires, they do not go out into the sun—but not because they are afraid, or find the sun deadly, but because their skin changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not painful for them, but if they do it in front of mortals, they will instantly be revealed as something completely other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When vampire Edward wants to reveal to his human girlfriend just how different and scary he is, he takes her to a meadow and steps into the light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As the sun filters through the trees and hits his skin, he shines with a bright white light, as if his skin is made out of thousands of diamonds—vampire purists make lots of fun of these sparkly vampires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But when mere mortals see this dazzling skin, they are amazed, afraid, intrigued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This past week, it’s not difficult to imagine something ordinary transformed into something glistening white, but it may be hard, by now, to fully appreciate that glory and beauty especially when it’s still hurting your back or threatening your life with killer icicles. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When Moses goes up the mountain to talk to God, he stays for forty days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God gives him the commandments by which the Hebrew people will live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God blesses Moses with this information, with this conversation, with this time together—but he doesn’t force Moses to see his face, he turns a back to Moses, to save him the pain of seeing God’s face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When Moses comes down off that mountain, to the Hebrew people who are waiting below, his face is shining, a dazzling, white light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are reluctant to approach him and for their benefit, Moses hides his skin with a veil.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This story of Moses stretches to our Gospel lesson today, extending God’s faithfulness all the way from the Hebrew people in the wilderness to Jesus and his disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus, John, James, and Peter go up a mountain to pray—to be with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And as the three disciples are fighting to stay awake, the see Jesus with Moses and Elijah, and Jesus is suddenly transformed into a glorious, glowing being, transformed face and bleach white clothes.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This glowing effect is the glory of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In Hebrew the term is Kabod, This is very close to the Hebrew term for horns, which is why if you are familiar with Michelangelo’s statue of Moses you may remember that he has a set of horns coming out of his head!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But it actually means “to be loaded down with riches.” </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This glory comes from proximity to God because God has seen Moses and seen Jesus—has validated and blessed them—because they’ve been seen by God or have been in God’s presence—seen the way God sees them, as glowing, lovely beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And they are so loaded down with the glory of God, that this light of God shines out of them.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Oil of Olay is really missing out here on the best skin care regime EVER: drink lots of water and pray daily.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">So as we look at our own dull winter skin, what does that say about us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Have we ever shone with the light of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is it just covered up with the grime of the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is there anything particularly glorious about any of us?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">A fun trick, with any story, is to think of which character we identify with the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do we pick the most glamorous and heroic character or do we go with the underdog?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In today’s stories, do we identify with Moses and Jesus—with the messengers of God, or do we identify with the less than faithful Hebrew people and the disciples.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For me, I’ll have to go with the one who’s yawning through the whole thing, who’s fighting off sleep, and just about misses the entire event altogether, and when he realizes what’s going on, is still clumsy at responding to the wonder if front of him, the scripture even says he didn’t know what he was saying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I identify with Peter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">I’d love to tell you that after a week of sermon preparation that I’m glowing after basking in the presence of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I imagine that most of us are really like Peter, looking at something amazing: prophets returned from the dead, Jesus revealed as God, the voice of God in a cloud, and thinking okay, let’s build some tents, let’s figure out how to make this permanent maybe that’s how we all are—ready to build something insignificant, to focus on something we can understand—creature comforts and preservation—and not looking to where Jesus is going next, hoping to settle down in comfort, maybe take a nap, instead of moving onward to Jerusalem and all the mystery and terror that will hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Come to think of it, I’d much rather take a nap on that mountain, build a small commune for Elijah and Moses, instead of travel on toward <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, to fear and persecution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Peter may be a coward at times, but sometimes the safe route is rather appealing.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But then we completely miss the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If we fall asleep, we pass the holiness, we’re blind to the glory, we are not amazed or dazzled by the presence of God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Transfiguration points to <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City>, points to the rest of Jesus’ work, points to the tragedy, the disaster, and the blessed restoration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-42021462679352539352010-01-21T09:18:00.000-05:002010-01-21T09:19:23.939-05:00Water Into Wine<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">John 2:1-11</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The greeting from our United Methodist wedding liturgy includes these lines:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">With his presence and power</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus graced a wedding at Cana of Galilee,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And in his sacrificial love</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Gave us the example of the love of husband and wife.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Every time I say those words at a wedding, I feel like it’s a bit of a stretch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not the sacrificial love part, but the part about Jesus at the wedding in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place st="on">Cana</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s as though we’re saying, in the history of why marriage is important to the church, that part of that reason is because Jesus also went to a wedding and made sure the wine didn’t run out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To be honest, the story of the wedding at <st1:place st="on">Cana</st1:place> doesn’t seem all that solid of an endorsement of marriage, at least not to the extent that our wedding liturgy might have us believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yes he was present, yes he was helpful, but he didn’t offer a blessing, or comment really, he was just a guest, and he didn’t disrupt the wedding, didn’t overturn tables or call the whole ordeal a disgrace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s just not as compelling as it would be if Jesus had spoken at length on how good and wonderful it is to be married and how we should all do it as soon as possible.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">All we really know is that Jesus was a helpful, if somewhat reluctant wedding guest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus didn’t say much about marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He talked about divorce, but didn’t encourage or discourage marriage, beyond sticking with your vows once you made them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We assume that he was never married, but as the Da Vinci code has pointed out, there has long been some speculation on the matter. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Marriage is not an original Christian idea. It’s a longstanding Jewish custom to be sure, but the first 1000 years of Christianity didn’t value marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After all, Christians were concerned with the quick return of Jesus and personal holiness, and all the trappings of marriage and family were distractions and if not downright evil.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Paul said it was not a good idea to marry unless the alternative were burning alive with passion (1 Corinthians 7:9).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But he really thought it’d be better if everyone were single like himself.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But I digress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This story about the wine at the wedding, isn’t really about a wedding and certainly isn’t about marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead, the wedding is a backdrop for Jesus’ first miracle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John chooses to show us Jesus’ first sign of turning water into wine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At first blush, it seems like a party trick, but Jesus is rather discreet about it, and not at all interested in doing it at first when his mother pointedly tells him that they are out of wine and Jesus says “what’s it to you or me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Who cares, it’s not the end of the world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s certainly not healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, or feeding thousands, it’s giving wine to a few hundred wedding guests, helping the host to save face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the grand scheme of things, a fancy wedding is not a big deal, then or now.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Can you just imagine, you’re one of hundreds of guests at a wedding, you’re at a reception, and the Embassy Suites has run out of wine and it turns out that Christ is there and he lends a hand?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Can you just imagine being in an earthquake, in say, Haiti, and it feels like the entire world is falling apart and crushing you and it turns out that Christ is there, but the world continues to collapse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">What does it mean that Jesus saves a wedding celebration but not thousands of innocent people in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As I was watching the events unfold, and reading the news, I kept wondering if Pat Robertson would say anything ridiculous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In case you missed it, the evangelist who famously declared 9/11 and Katrina to be acts of divine punishment for the gays and lesbians in our country, for our acceptance of abortion, and for our overall level of immorality has stated that the Tuesday’s earthquake in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region> is because of a pact they had made with the devil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s right, hundreds of years ago, the Haitians won the rebellion against the French only because of a pact with the devil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And obviously for Pat Robertson, this abundance of badness has something to do with the poor people of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region> and God and Satan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead of geographic forces, compounded on economic ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m sure it’s hard for him to understand that bad things happen like that but they do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They just do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s part of life.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And I’m sorry for going after him, because Pat Robertson is a child of God too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And while he’s extreme, there are still lots of people, even me sometimes, who think that we deserve either our bad or good fates, at least sometimes, and we do, sometimes, but not always or usually and certainly not when it’s an earthquake instead of say, ruining a life because you decide to drive drunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are differences.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the miracle is in the response, the whole world sending the troops, food, volunteers, coming to help, all of us praying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The miracle will be in the slow rebuilding of a destroyed country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not immediate or glamorous like water into wine, but it is love and concern and respect and human decency.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And this passage, while about God’s extravagance, isn’t really about the injustices of the world either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At it’s heart, the gospels show us over and over that God wants abundance for us: delicious feasts and flowing wine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The kingdom of heaven is after all like a wedding banquet, and Jesus is happy to provide the wine of salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That every day on earth is not a feast day is certainly a tragedy, but it’s not God’s fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s not God’s fault that we don’t enjoy our lives to the fullest, that we don’t stop to enjoy a good meal nearly as often as we should, that we don’t cultivate enough deep and lasting friendships, that we don’t spend enough time with our families, that we don’t read enough good books, or take as many good, deep breaths as we should. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And it’s not God’s fault that tens of thousands of God’s children are dead, wounded, scared, hungry, thirsty, mourning, and in so much need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tragedy is not God’s design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God’s intention is for those of us who are safe and fortunate to reach out to others because we are all meant to live abundantly good lives whether we live in the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> or in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Haiti</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When Jesus shared the last supper, he used delicious foods to represent his body and blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He didn’t offer up a cup of vinegar and say drink from this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant, instead he chose a cup of wine—something tasty and rich with imagery of grapes and harvest and vines, as he is the vine and we are the branches.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">God gives to us out of radical abundance, sacrificial love, flesh and blood, grace and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thanks be to God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-4705384934631593872010-01-04T13:35:00.001-05:002010-01-04T13:36:20.510-05:00HomageMatthew 2:1-12<o:p></o:p> <p class="MsoNormal">In case you are wondering, I am a Pisces.<span style=""> </span>That means I am introverted, dreamy, artistic, sensitive, and fishy.<span style=""> </span>Just a quick survey: how many of you know your astrological sign?<span style=""> </span>And how many of you ever glance, even just casually, at your horoscope in the paper?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here’s what the prophet Isaiah has to say about the practice of astrology:<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“let those who study the heavens stand up and save you those who gaze at the stars, and at each new moon predict what shall befall you.<span style=""> </span>See, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of flame.<span style=""> </span>No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!<span style=""> </span>Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth; they all wander about their own paths: there is no one to save you” (Isaiah 47).<span style=""> </span>So beware: Astrology is a path that leads to nowhere.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In Matthew’s tale of the Magi, he writes that they have seen a star rising and have come to pay homage to the child who has been born King of the Jews.<span style=""> </span>Because they observe and follow the stars, the magi are astrologers.<span style=""> </span>Biblical translators have not always been comfortable with this, and so the NRSV and the King James call them “wise men” and the hymn we just sang refers to them as “kings.”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Matthew tells us very little about these cameo characters.<span style=""> </span>They could have been Persian priests or Arab kings.<span style=""> </span>They could have been named Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar as according to tradition.<span style=""> </span>But whoever and whatever they were, Matthew tells us that they practices astronomy, and were most likely magicians or sorcerers, who found the star of Jesus and followed it until they found him.<span style=""> </span>They were certainly not Jews, but they knew a king when they found him, and they knelt before him, and gave his family expensive gifts.<span style=""> </span>And because of them, we kneel when we pray and we give each other gifts at Christmas.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of course, the church has not always been so kind to those who conduct alternative spiritual practices.<span style=""> </span>Recently, some folks have been quite upset about the Harry Potter books and Christian children reading and learning about witchcraft.<span style=""> </span>And here, we have a group of star-gazing wizards, worshiping Christ in the Bible.<span style=""> </span>Matthew offers no judgment or commentary, does not explore this interesting relationship between pagan magicians and a Jewish king, just leaves it there, perhaps to show us just how universal Christ is, that even these men recognize the truth of Jesus.<span style=""> </span>In fact, the magi are better informed about the nature of this young child than are the chief priests and scribes who Herod consults.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This story makes it possible for us to consider the validity of different faith practices.<span style=""> </span>Instead of condemning astrology, proving that it is false, or showing that Jesus is better, Matthew lets us know that it actually is quite effective and accurate.<span style=""> </span>The magi find a message in the stars, they follow it through, and they find Jesus.<span style=""> </span>It might not be a conventional route to the Messiah, but it’s a successful one nonetheless. <span style=""> </span>Which leaves us with the prospect that God can be found by alternate faith routes.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The scandalous part is that Matthew doesn’t mention anything about their faith after meeting Jesus.<span style=""> </span>He doesn’t say that they stop practicing magic.<span style=""> </span>Obviously, the astrology they used worked, because it led them to Jesus.<span style=""> </span>What could it mean if they met Jesus and yet didn’t change or convert?<span style=""> </span>We don’t know if they ever found out what happened to Jesus as an adult.<span style=""> </span>There’s a legend that the apostle Thomas baptized them on his way to India.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">They might have been like Gandhi, who loved Jesus and his teachings, particularly the sermon on the mount, but was not interested in associating with Christianity.<span style=""> </span>He once said:<span style=""> </span>"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."<span style=""> </span>And so Gandhi believed in Jesus, followed his teachings, and yet remained Hindu.<span style=""> </span>Perhaps this was also the case of the magi, who found a Jewish king, were in awe of him, but remained astrologers—perhaps it’s possible that they were both pagan magicians and Christians, just Christian in the sense that they worship Christ, but are not part of the religion of Christianity, especially since that wouldn’t exist for a few more decades. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But whatever happened to them afterwards, we know that the wise men went looking for Jesus—and they already knew they were looking for a humble child who would become this king.<span style=""> </span>They were seekers--those who are looking for something, but aren’t sure what, are maybe looking for God, or for meaning in their lives, or for answers, or for community, or just for something bigger and more secure than themselves.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In church evangelism lingo, we contrast “seekers” with “believers” as if when someone finds their beliefs, they stop seeking altogether.<span style=""> </span>Hopefully we’re all seekers, whether we’ve been here forever, or just walked through the doors for the first time, whether we’ve always believed in Jesus, or we’re still not sure what it is we’re looking for or what we believe in.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The gospel reminds us that Jesus comes for everyone, Jews, gentiles, and foreign magicians—everyone can recognize Jesus as the Messiah and pay him homage.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The magi are a small group of outsiders, showing us the proper way to worship Christ: kneeling and offering gifts, showing us that sometimes it’s the seekers who are better able to kneel at the manger than those who have done so their entire lives.<span style=""> </span>As Stephen Bauman writes:<span style=""> </span>“Not every committed Christian in name has a taste for actually kneeling in the dust and muck of a barn in a backwater town with astonished recognition that this is where God prefers to make an entrance.”<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We all need regular reminders that no one is above another, that no one has an exclusive claim to truth, and that there are many and varied paths to find it.<span style=""> </span>Epiphany gives us a chance to reflect on holy humility:<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">What if the magi walked into a church, and were told to leave because of their practices—and yet they were among the first to ever worship Jesus?<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">What if Gandhi were kicked out for being Hindu, even though he understood the message of Jesus so thoroughly?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Magi, might not be Christians, they might follow stars, but they were wise enough not to worship the star of Bethlehem itself, but the source that gave it light.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Light has come to the world--the scandalous light of Jesus, that still surprises this cold, dark world.<span style=""> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-31075969208766285452010-01-04T13:26:00.001-05:002010-01-04T13:27:37.543-05:00Christmas EveLuke 2:1-20<o:p></o:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is the story of Claire, a little angel.<span style=""> </span>Even though she’s not mentioned in the Bible, she was still very much present for the birth of Christ.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">All of the big angels are talking and singing—God is doing something amazing for the people on earth, but Claire doesn’t really understand.<span style=""> </span>It sounded like Gabriel told that young girl that she would give birth to God.<span style=""> </span>Claire isn’t exactly sure just how God plans to become a baby, but it sounds like God the Creator, is sending God the Word, to become human, incarnate, and God the Holy Spirit is working to make sure all the right people understand.<span style=""> </span>At least that’s what Claire thinks she’s heard.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Claire and the other angels have been watching over Mary from heaven, praying for her and doing what they can to keep her safe.<span style=""> </span>They have been watching Joseph too, helping him to understand this miracle that Mary so easily accepted.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The time has almost come for God the Word to be born and things are getting complicated.<span style=""> </span>On earth, the human emperor has decided he wants to know just how big his empire is and so he’s taking a census, asking every person to be registered in their hometown.<span style=""> </span>This means that Mary and Joseph have to travel to Joseph’s hometown of Bethlehem.<span style=""> </span>This could be a dangerous trip for them, but it’s also important because it will fulfill the prophet Micah’s prophesy: “you, O Bethlehem, . . . from you shall come forth one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old” (Micah 5).<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And so Mary and Joseph are journeying across the rocks and the hills, joining up with various caravans as they enter Bethlehem.<span style=""> </span>It’s such a small town, but so many people are here!<span style=""> </span>Claire has trouble from time to time picking them out of the crowd! Claire and one of the bigger angels, slip down from heaven, and walk among the people on earth, invisible to their eyes.<span style=""> </span>Night is coming, and Claire watches as Joseph and Mary search for a place to stay.<span style=""> </span>They don’t know anyone there and all of the inns are full.<span style=""> </span>Mary’s starting to cry, Claire can see that she’s worried about giving birth to her baby on the street and she sends Mary just the tiniest encouraging bit of warmth to keep her spirits up.<span style=""> </span>Finally, it seems that an innkeeper has taken some pity on them, because they are young and poor, he won’t give them his own room, but he will let them stay in his stable, where they will at least be dry and warm.<span style=""> </span>Claire is upset that God is going to be born in a barn like a calf, but the bigger angel smiles at her, this must all be part of God’s plan, God’s great reversal, that God almighty will be born on earth as lowly as possible.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Claire watches as Joseph faithfully helps Mary deliver the baby.<span style=""> </span>Mary wraps him tightly in bands of cloth and she lays him down to sleep in a feeding trough since it’s the closest thing they have to a crib.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Again, Claire thinks this is just wrong and horrible, that God—now as the infant Jesus—is lying in a food dish!<span style=""> </span>Surely the other angels could have helped with something better.<span style=""> </span>Couldn’t Jesus have been born in a palace with lots of blankets and a proper cradle?<span style=""> </span>But the bigger angel whispers to her, a quick story of how Jesus will one day feed thousands of people, he will share meals with sinners and thieves, and he will even use a loaf of bread and a cup of wine to explain the sacrifice of flesh and blood that he will make.<span style=""> </span>Claire shivers at the thought of this tiny baby, so wrinkly and pink, ever doing these things, ever suffering.<span style=""> </span>But she understands that the manger makes sense, and is somehow a proper bed for this new child.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Claire can’t stop staring at the baby, he is just so amazing, Claire, of course, has never had any doubt of God, but just looking at this baby, she can tell that he’s really a human baby, but she can see that he’s God too.<span style=""> </span>She just has to tell someone, but who?<span style=""> </span>If they were in heaven, they would start singing, but can they do that on earth among these tired, worn out people?<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Just then the bigger angel, takes her by the arm, and they disappear, out of the town, to the hills nearby.<span style=""> </span>The bigger angel must have shared Claire’s thoughts, because she leaps into the air and spreads out her wings and her heavenly glory to the shepherds who are watching their flocks.<span style=""> </span>Claire holds her breath as the shepherds cry out in fear—“oh why are they always afraid of us?” she thinks to herself.<span style=""> </span>But the bigger angel is wise and says: “Do not be afraid for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.<span style=""> </span>This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then Claire and a great many of the other angels from heaven joined in singing their song: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill!” <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">When the song was over, all of the angels, but Claire departed for heaven.<span style=""> </span>She slipped in among the sheep and watched as the shepherds talked of this amazing thing that had happened.<span style=""> </span>They said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And Claire, flew along with them, silently, and invisibly, as they went with haste<span style=""> </span>and they found Mary, Joseph and the child lying in the manger.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And they went out into the town and the fields and told everyone of the angels, and the young family, and the tiny, infant Messiah, of the child who has been born unto all of us, and everyone was amazed.<span style=""> </span>Everyone accept for Mary, and for the little angel Claire, who pondered all of these things in their hearts.<o:p></o:p> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-65574003632072943662009-12-07T13:02:00.000-05:002009-12-07T13:03:18.016-05:00Prophet of Light<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 1:68-79</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">We continue our Advent practice of actively waiting, preparing for the birth of Christ, for salvation, love, mercy, and divine justice to enter the world once again and one day forevermore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That Christmas is coming is becoming more real with each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We may hope for happy gatherings, delicious food, entertaining gifts, and overall good feelings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But our scriptures and songs cry out for more than holiday cheer: the prophet Malachi cries out for divine justice, and today, we hear of the birth of the prophet of the Most High, John, who has come to prepare the way of Jesus—to offer repentance and forgiveness and salvation that we might all be ready to behold Jesus when he comes.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">John’s parents are Zechariah and Elizabeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are good, solid folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Zechariah is a priest and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Elizabeth</st1:place></st1:City> is descended from Aaron who served as priest for Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The book of Luke notes that both people are righteous and live blamelessly according to all of the commandments and regulations of the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their one source of shame is that they do not have any children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Elizabeth</st1:place></st1:City> is barren and both have gotten on in years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are not unlike many couples in the Bible who cannot have children and yet manage, by the grace of God, to give birth to children who will go on to greatness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>People like Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, even Mary and Joseph fall into this category of conceiving under rather unusual circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This preference of God’s, to acquire great leaders out of impossible reproductive conditions tells us something important about God: that God isn’t concerned with our pesky rules of biology, that nothing, in deed, is impossible for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These are stories of hope for people not only fighting for a child, but also for anyone who is facing an impossible situation. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so we have this couple who fit this recognizable motif—they are righteous and deserving, but are still waiting to have a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then one day, the priest Zechariah, is in the temple, offering incense to the Lord when the angel Gabriel appears to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And tells him that he and Elizabeth will have a son who will be a great prophet, right along the lines of Elijah, who will help the people return to righteousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But like Sarah who laughs at the thought of having a child at her age, Zechariah doesn’t totally believe this glorious being in front of him and expresses his doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As a punishment for his disbelief, Gabriel takes Zechariah’s ability to speak away from him until after the baby is born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">After nine months of silence, Zechariah’s first words are a Holy Spirit filled prophesy: first of a savior and then future of his own son, who will become a prophet who will prepare the way for the savior, to enlighten people in the ways of salvation and forgiveness because dawn will soon break, giving light to all of those who have sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, that we may all be guided into the way of peace.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Advent is like Lent, in that it is a time of darkness, preparation, and searching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The way of peace, is a way out of that darkness, but it’s a difficult concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Christmas phrase “Peace on earth” always carries a hint of irony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Every year there’s enough stuff happening in the world to remind us of how we have not achieved peace on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With bombings in <st1:country-region st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>, the need for more troops in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it’s not likely that we’ll reach peace in 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It’s easy to fall into disillusionment, especially this time of year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus has already been born, over two thousand years ago and nothing has really changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus has come, is coming soon, and will come again—but it’s easy to take a look around and wonder if that really matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And then there’s the darker underbelly to the entire Christmas season, especially for those who feel alienated from the forced cheer of the season, those who’ve lost family members, those who are fighting illness, those who’s children no longer speak to them and on and on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes there isn’t much to be happy about and holidays make it even worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And it’s easy, in the face of so much personal and global dissatisfaction, to blame God.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The prophet Malachi notes that the priests are presenting offerings and the people are praying, but they have no hope, no spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They question God: claiming that all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord and God delights in them” and by asking “where is the God of justice?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Malachi speaks of God’s displeasure with humanity, of our continual faithlessness and how it has actually made God weary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Out of tiredness and disillusionment, God tells Malachi that the Lord will come to the temple, to cleanse and refine and purify the people so that they will be righteous instead of a faithless bunch of doubters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God may be weary of the people, but the people, it seems, are also weary of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God asks, “when I send my messenger, who will be able to endure his presence?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This cleansing and purifying is a painful process—a good scrubbing with a rough sponge, to scrape away all impurities and doubts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Like Zechariah, we do not believe the miracles in front of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We wearily trudge through our own dark valleys, sending God our prayers and our offerings, and for what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do we believe that God rewards the wicked?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do we wonder if there is any divine justice in the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As we prepare for the continual birth of Christ, have we given into the idea that things will never change?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the face of such impossibility, it is important to remember the births of John and Jesus, events that even their parents even have trouble believing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s important to remember the ongoing, though seemingly slow, redemptive work of God in our lives and in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If peace and justice seem absent in our world, perhaps we need to remember our own roles in perpetuating strife and injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">When God takes on all of humanity and becomes a human being that is the ultimate act of trust and inspiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If God were completely disillusioned with humankind, God would not have become incarnate with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God would not have become something that God didn’t have value or hope in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In Jesus, God shows us God’s confidence and faith in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus comes to show us the way, to announce peace, to shine light, sure that we will be able to see this light and follow, as long as we are willing to avail ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John comes as a prophet, to proclaim the way of this light who can shine through our disillusionment and despair .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One who will shine a light in the darkness, one who will not let us hide in our holes of despair, but will confront us with the breaking dawn of a new day.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">As we prepare for such light—light that may even be painful to our eyes—may our prayers be daring and bold, may we pray for peace on earth, with the expectation that it will be so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In the name of Jesus, our light, our way, and our savior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-28287986078843408462009-11-30T13:18:00.001-05:002009-11-30T13:18:57.122-05:00Christ the King?<p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">John 18:33-37</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Welcome to the end of our liturgical year!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Next Sunday we start Advent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As our undecorated Christmas tree tells us, soon, very soon, we’ll begin to officially anticipate the birth of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But we’re not there yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’re still in Ordinary Time, which is where we spend most of our time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Before we can start to dream of a sweet, newborn Jesus, we remember the events just before Easter-- we must listen in on the confrontation between Pilate and Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus has been turned in and Pilate has to figure out why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus isn’t really on his radar, but he’s obviously upset somebody and so here we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The only thing that slightly disturbs Pilate is this alleged claim of Jesus’ to be king, for this could signal possible political disturbance and unrest and it’s illegal to just challenge the emperors throne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And we watch this scene, wondering, with Pilate, if Jesus really is a king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But Jesus doesn’t answer, not directly, he doesn’t make the situation any less confusing for Pilate or for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sometimes, reading this, I want the story to be different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I want Jesus to say “No!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m not here to challenge Caesar’s throne, I’m not a threat in the ways that you think, I was no threat to Herod, just let me go, back to what I was doing all along.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Sometimes, I want Jesus to say “Yes!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of course, I am the king of the Jews, of the entire world, and your emperor should still not be concerned with me, because I’m not taking over in the way that you think—I’m not after his particular throne, but out to change the entire world--not as a power-hungry maniac, but as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the living breathing god that I am, now let me go so I can get back to what I was doing all along.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">But Jesus rarely behaves the way we want him to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead, he turns the question back to Pilate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Just as he did to his disciples when they asked if he was the Messiah and he replied with, “who do you say that I am.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To Pilate’s inquiry: those are your words not mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“You say that I am.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And with Pilate, we wonder, does this cryptic, noncommittal response make Jesus a king?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s enough to convince Pilate that Jesus is not a criminal, but not enough to save him from death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This Jesus as King business is no less complicated and strange for us who do not live in the land of kings, than for the people who were much more familiar with the likes of King David. King David had questionable integrity, and yet was loved and chosen by God</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Jesus is a king we can feel confident in, no moral ambiguity about this one—not possessing wives and slaves and riches and power, not about control, military might, or coercion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And while Jesus does not say he is a king, he does lay claim to a kingdom—one that is “not of this world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If his kingdom were an earthly one, his followers would fight for his freedom—he would have some sort of military might—some fighting power, followers who were organized and motivated to defend and protect their leader—but Jesus needs no such protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Not a violent, political image, not a worldly leader with robes and a crown—not a literal reality, but a metaphor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because this humble man standing before Pilate, the one who is about to be tortured, is not of earthly royalty.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">What does it mean for us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do we say that Jesus is King of our hearts/king of our lives? Jesus is King—as ultimate ruler, or does it mean something else?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Something bigger, something more expansive.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Because Jesus is both ruler and servant, both King and subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s a paradoxical image, because Jesus is lowly servant as well as master of the universe—one who comes to save, rather than to control.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">He tells Pilate, “I came into this world, to testify to the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice”—those who listen have no need to ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pilate demonstrates his cluelessness, his lack of insider knowledge, his missing VIP card to the club of truth, when he asks: “What is truth?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There’s no answer—if you don’t know, you don’t know—and if you read through the gospel of John, you’ll find your answer: It’s Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pilate looks him right in the face and misses the literal truth that is before him.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">It probably wouldn’t make Pilate’s life any easier for jesus to say “I’m not a King, I’m the almighty God incarnate.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus doesn’t say those things so much as let people figure it out for themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>God generally doesn’t approach us and demand that we recognize God, God is more subtle, more shifty, more difficult to pin down, sometimes easy to miss, and easy to dismiss, and easy to doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Faith isn’t easy, isn’t obvious, and so jesus is going to parade around as God the King in any recognizable fashion and demand that we bow before his crown and kiss the hem of his robes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For those who do bow and kiss his feet, he offers praise, but he never asks for such devotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That is on our part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s our responsibility to see God, to be alert, to watch for the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes it hits us over the head like a frying pan, obvious, plain to sight, and yet even then, what we see of as “proof” others can easily call coincidence, modern medicine, friendship, love, luck, but nothing more, nothing divine and holy, not the hand of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And so we have our unusual King to crown this morning—one who is humble and subtle, not loud and ostentatious, not obvious, but rather easy to pass by, to mistake as a bruised and battered and misunderstood criminal.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And he is our Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When we are bruised and battered and misunderstood, we know he has gone before us, has been there too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He’s not a distant king, living a good and comfortable life, removed from everyday existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He is a servant who has suffered—most likely even more than we ever will.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And when asked who he is, Jesus says the Truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Which is still rather confusing and why there are still so many answers in the world:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jesus is Lord, Savor, King,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>prophet, teacher— to some God, to others merely an exceptional human being, and to some, a complete joke.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And yet he is the Truth—the entire truth of the universe, of existence, of all that is divine, of all that is God—embodied as a human man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No wonder our words fail us.</span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-11874540327621100442009-11-09T12:25:00.000-05:002009-11-09T12:26:13.858-05:00Commitment<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Mark 12:38-44<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Hebrew term for loyalty is Chesed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This can be faithfulness between God and a human community or between members of a family or community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Chesed is a major theme in the book of Ruth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The three main characters—Naomi, Ruth, and Boas--do not have to care for one another nearly to the extent that they do: their family obligations to each other are minimal and yet they come together to form their own close-knit family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They demonstrate a high level of commitment and loyalty to each other and the best part is because they choose to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The story of Ruth begins with tragedy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First a famine in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on">Bethlehem</st1:City> causes a family: Elimelech and Naomi with two sons to move to the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">land</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:placename st="on">Moab</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There, Elimelech dies of unknown causes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The two sons marry local women—Orpah and Ruth—but after 10 years, the two husbands die also for unmentioned reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Naomi, Orpah and Ruth—are left without husbands and without children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are three women, related only through marriage to deceased men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because women were entirely dependent on men, these widows have very little status in the world—no one to provide for them, to protect them, or to give meaning for their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Naomi decides to trade in this foreign land of death and sadness for her homeland where the famine that drove them out had ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As she and her daughters-in-law pack up, she encourages each of them to return to their own homes that they might remarry since they still have hope that life could turn out well for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For Naomi, she feels her own life is essentially over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She cannot have more children, cannot produce sons for Orpah and Ruth to marry, so their connection should be severed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s too late for Naomi to have a good life again, but the young women still have a chance for remarriage and children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Orpah agrees, sadly, and returns to her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ruth, however, clings to Naomi, not wanting to leave her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The language of clinging is like that of a husband to a wife, she transfers the faithfulness she had for her husband, over to her husband’s mother and in a vow befitting a marriage ceremony, she professes her commitment to stay with Naomi: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Where you die, I will die—There will I be buried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ruth is making a claim both of ethnicity and religious identity—there was no conversion then, what you were born is what you were—but Ruth claims that she will no longer be a Moabite and no longer worship the Gods of Moab.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She will travel with Naomi and make her home in a foreign land just as Naomi had done. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She doesn’t have to do this for Naomi, and that’s why it’s so amazing that she does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Naomi sees that she will not be able to convince Ruth otherwise, and so they set off for <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place></st1:City>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This homecoming is particularly difficult for Naomi who left with husband and sons, and now returns “empty” as she says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">They return to <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place></st1:City> at the beginning of the harvest—a good sign that more fruitful times may be ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In her role as Naomi’s provider, Ruth decides to go out and glean behind the harvesters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Amazingly enough, she ends up in the field of her late father-in-law’s kinsmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She meets Boaz who has heard of this Moabite woman who has stayed with Naomi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Boaz praises Ruth for taking care of Naomi and encourages her to stay and glean in his fields—he offers her protection—food and drink—and additional grain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He goes far beyond his family duty to care for Ruth and Naomi. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Seeing Ruth return with such a bounty, Naomi suspects that Boas might be a suitable and willing husband for Ruth—she cannot give Ruth another son to marry, but she can still hope for one of her husband’s relatives to be a suitable match.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And so she carefully instructs Ruth to visit Boaz on the threshing floor—and yes, this scene is absolutely not rated for General audiences nor is it the socially approved method for gaining a spouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even though he’s been slightly tricked, Boaz responds well to the whole arrangement and marries Ruth gives her and Naomi further security with the purchase of land. Not because he has to, but because he wants to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Their marriage produces a son who will go on to become the grandfather of King David.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And so Ruth’s and Naomi’s fortunes are overturned: they have men in their lives again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The story that began with such disaster and sadness ends happily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">They form this tiny, love community out of their own free agency—a system of mutual protection and care and security and a future for two women who otherwise would have had none.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The widow in the gospel, who gives everything she has away, is like Naomi and Ruth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They have very little in the world, and yet they give each other what they can: their love and assistance—giving out of their poverty and loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Boaz is a wealthy landowner, but unlike the scribes, he does not take advantage of the widows, but restores their fortunes out of his own abundance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their family works because they are mutually invested in each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At it’s best, the church is kind of like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Whether we give out of abundance or out of poverty, we give of ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For the most part, none of us have to be here, none of us have to love each other, or be loyal to each other, or show any level of commitment to each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And yet we do. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In a few moments, we will receive our confirmands—three young men—into the membership of our church community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They have been a part of the church since infanthood, baptized and raised in the faith, but today they get to make the decision for themselves, that the God of their parents, is also their God, that their parent’s faith and parent’s church is also their faith and their church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We give thanks for their families, for their mentors, who have encouraged them along the way and helped them to feel that we are all their families too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Though they do not remember their baptisms, they are living into the promises that their parents and church made for them on their behalf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They come now, to join as full members of this congregation, not because they have to, but because they want to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">And as they promise their Chesed to God and to God’s church, the rest of us, will reaffirm our commitment to support them, to care for them, and to give thanks to God for them—not because we have to, but because we want to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Thanks be to God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-55533383366316622312009-10-13T10:01:00.001-04:002009-10-13T10:03:30.381-04:00Vanish in the DarknessJob 23: 1-9, 16-17<br />Hebrews 4:14-16<br /><br />Common Biblical wisdom speaks of the patience of Job—as the model character of one who endures great hardship and yet remains steadfast in his faith in God.<br /><br />But the term “patient” implies someone who suffers silently, who does not complain, who remains confident that this too shall pass. Job does endure. He does not give up on the existence of God. But he doesn’t do it gracefully, without complaint, without loosing hope. The fact that Job is alive at the end of the book with a new family and fortune does not mean that he was patient during the darkness.<br /><br />Job is a righteous man. There are only so many of these men in the Bible. And God is having a conversation with the imperial court—God from time to time seems to have these conversations with others in the divine realm. And one called the Accuser steps forward, his name is Ha Satan, and he’s not our modern concept of Satan, he’s not evil, he’s on God’s side, but he’s more of a CIA operative in God’s service. And he questions how faithful and good the people really are to God. And God says, “See Job over there, he hasn’t given me any trouble, Job and I are just fine.” To which Ha Satan says, “Of course he loves you, you spoil him! You give him everything he wants, you give him the easy life, he’s never had any difficulty ever.” And so God and Ha Satan come up with a test, Ha Satan will take everything away from Job, except for his life, says God. Job must stay intact, but his family, his home, his livestock, his career, even his health—it all has to go, and all at once. And then, God will know what Job is made of and if he still believes and serves the almighty God.<br /><br />And so, Sebeans kill Job’s oxen, fire falls from heaven and burns all his sheep and servants. Chaldeans run off with all of the camels and kill more servants, a great wind sweeps across the desert and collapses his eldest son’s house killing all of his sons and daughters inside.<br /><br />In today’s passage, we get a glimpse of how Job is doing with all of that. After his friends blame him and are largely unhelpful, Job speaks of his desire to go to God himself, to plead his case, to discuss his plight with God, like two rational human beings, so that he might find relief. He would argue and God would listen.<br /><br />Job is furious. He wishes he had never been born. He wishes he could disappear into the darkness.<br /><br />When I think of anger at God, I always think of a scene from The West Wing<br /><br />At the end of season two, in an episode called “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScv89J6rro">Two Cathedrals</a>,” we see President Bartlett’s life and presidency spiraling out of control. He’s just lost one of the most important people in his life to a senseless accident involving a drunk driver. He’s announced that he covered up the fact that he had MS, and he’s facing the usual array of national and global crises that a President faces.<br /><br />The scene takes place in National Cathedral just after the funeral of his beloved secretary and advisor. Clearly agitated, he asks Secret Service to seal the door. As the door thumps shut, we see him turn toward the High Altar and begin to walk down the nave. As he goes along he starts cursing God in English and then in Latin. <br /><br />He quotes Graham Greene: “You cannot conceive nor can I the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God,” but says the President, “I think you’re just vindictive.” He goes through the list of disasters: both natural and manmade. And then turns to his own confessions: “Yes,” he says, “I’ve committed many sins, have I displeased you, you feckless thug?”<br /><br />He then runs through a list of all the good things he’s done for the country: creating jobs, setting aside land for conservation, to his personal triumph of raising 3 children. “That wasn’t good?” he asks, “That’s not enough to buy me out of the dog house?”<br /><br />He stands at the entry to the high altar and continues to rail curses in Latin, telling God where he thinks God should go. He then lights a cigarette and stamps it out right there in the crossing.<br /><br />Job assumes that God is reasonable. That he could sit down with God, and speak man to man with God, that if God would just listen he would grant mercy. The problem for Job is that he doesn’t know where to find God.<br /><br />For President Bartlett, he knows where God is, at least metaphorically. He paces down the Cathedral nave like a Lion stalking his prey. If he could just get his hands on God, if God really were just a man like him, we get the impression that he’d let God have it—the stamped out cigarette on the floor is as close to physical assault as he can get, and he has to settle with a verbal rampage—and silence, because God doesn’t talk back.<br /><br />Job believes God is reasonable and just, God’s just missing.<br /><br />The psalmist cries out, my God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? Do not be far from me!<br /><br />The Bible is full of accounts of God near and far, the promise that God is compassionate and ever-present, but these scriptures remind us that believers from long ago also felt distant from God just as we do sometimes—feel close or far, depending on where we are and what’s going on in our lives, not where God is.<br /><br />Our Hebrews passage gives us further assurance. We have word on the character of God; fearsome, sharp, piercing, dividing, a fierce judge from whom no one can hide. But also a high priest, one who has great sympathy for us. This priest is Jesus, and he is not unsympathetic--he knows our weaknesses, because they are his weaknesses, he was tested and challenged.<br /><br />And that means Jesus continues to work on our behalf—Jesus prays for us and is with us in our darkest times. We cannot vanish into darkness, into oblivion, because Jesus will always be with us and will not forsake us.<br /><br />Even though God does not respond and act the way we want God to, or the way we imagine God should, we can still communicate our desperation and confusion to God.<br /><br />In the end, Job is not punished for his words. God speaks to him and humbles him. Job repents and his livelihood is restored.<br /><br />We can take the easy way out and reject God, or we can stand tall and engage the almight—to wrestle, to argue, to curse if we need to because God is big enough to handle our frustration and anger and will not reject us. Thanks be to God.Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-62911652201648075742009-09-28T09:51:00.000-04:002009-09-28T09:52:06.475-04:00Esther EnchantedOnce upon a time about 2500 years ago, in the far way land of Persia, there lived a powerful king name Ahasuerus. King Ahasuerus ruled from India to Ethiopia. The king was not a bad king, but he wasn’t a terribly good king either. He relied on the advice of his officials, instead of his own wisdom. And his favorite part of being king was getting to live like a rock star with lots of wine and lots of women. One day he decided to give a huge banquet for all of his kingdom. He wanted to display his wealth and the splendor and pomp of his majesty. In the court of the garden of the King’s palace he threw a banquet that lasted for seven days. The palace garden was decorated with white cotton curtains, fine linen and purple and silver rings and marble pillars, couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of marble and colored stones, tables heavy-laden with food, jars of royal wine, the fine china and golden stem wear. And the king ordered everyone to drink without restraint and do as each person desired—to experience the life of the king: to drink as much as he liked and to do as he pleased, and to leave the decision making and ruling of his empire to those who were more clear-headed. Wise to her king’s recklessness, the Queen Vashti threw her own banquet for the women of the palace.<br /><br />On the seventh day of the feast, the King, full of wine, asked his servants to bring Queen Vashti in her royal crown out for all of his guests to see for he wanted to show off her great beauty. But the queen, impetuous as she was, refused to parade around for a room full of drunken men. <br /><br />The king was enraged, but he didn’t know what to do. He asked his lawyers to find out what should be done to Vashti according to the law. One of the officials spoke: “Vashti has not only caused dishonor to the king, but to all of the officials and all of the people of the kingdom. We cannot have the queen disobeying the king for soon all wives will disobey their husbands. We must issue a degree that all women must honor and obey their husbands or we will have total chaos.” The king liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself. Vashti was banned from the kingdom and it was ordered that every man should be master of his own house.<br /><br />With Vashti gone, there was no queen to keep King Ahasuerus happy. He was sad, but he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t feel like throwing a banquet and he didn’t feel like drinking as much as he wanted. Concerned about his well being and zest for life, his officials suggested a competition: they would gather up all of the beautiful young girls throughout the land and bring them to the palace, and after extensive makeovers, the king could choose the one he wanted. The king liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself.<br /><br />Esther was a young beautiful woman living in the kingdom. Esther’s parents had died when she was young and so her cousin Mordecai had adopted her and raised her as his own daughter. They were Jews, living in a Persian empire, and Mordecai had been captured from Jerusalem and brought to Susa. Esther’s real name was Hadassah, but Mordecai had changed her name to Esther so that they could blend in with the local culture better. It wasn’t dangerous to be Jewish in Persia, but they were a definite minority and had learned to be careful and private about their identity. While most of the Jews longed for their own land again, they had learned that life in Persia wasn’t so bad.<br /> When Mordecai heard of the king’s request for all the young women, he brought Esther forward as a candidate. She was collected with all of the other women and brought to Hegai, a eunuch, who was in charge of the king’s harem.<br /><br />There were women from all 127 provinces and Esther was intimated. Esther of course, was quite beautiful, but with women from India and Ethiopia, she wasn’t sure just how much the king would like her. She wasn’t sure she could learn all of the appropriate courtly rituals, wasn’t sure she could entertain the king with her singing and dancing, wasn’t sure she could endure the months and months of beauty treatment, teeth whitening, and plastic surgery. What if she had to diet and give up cake for a year?<br /><br />She also wasn’t sure about the king: a man who spent most of his time drinking and doing as he pleased was not the sort of man she was used to. Her father had been such a hard worker and kind man—and death had claimed he and her mother much too soon. Mordecai—who she now thought of as her father—was also so kind and protective. They lived alone, just the two of them, and they worked in the garden together and they shared a love of their family, their Jewish religion and culture—they had a peaceful, comfortable existence, and Esther wasn’t sure she wanted to trade their small cottage for all of the riches in Persia. But Mordecai, always planning for the future, thought this would be a good chance for them and indeed, for all of the Jews living in Persia--the thought of a Jewish queen was so scandalous and wonderful that Mordecai couldn’t help encouraging Esther to join the other young women at the palace.<br /><br />Hegai was in charge of this new assortment of girls. When she arrived, he noticed Esther at once, she was different from the other girls, there was something he couldn’t quite name, but she reminded him very much of his sister when they were young—beautiful, but also full of spirit, as if the deity somehow shined out of her . . . he liked her more and more as the days went on, and like a fairy godmother, gave her special treats, found her the best maids, carefully monitored her progress, and advanced her quickly.<br /><br />After an entire year of beauty treatment and training, it was finally Esther’s moment to go before the king. Her maids helped her dress in her finest blue robes, they braided her hair with flowers. As she entered his room, the king wondered if he had ever seen someone so beautiful before and he felt himself fall quickly in love. He put a royal crown upon her head and made Esther his queen. Then he threw an elaborate banquet in her honor. And the lived happily ever after, the Jewish Queen and her Persian King.<br /><br />But wait. It turns out that there was trouble brewing in another part of the palace. During the time that Esther had been at the palace, Mordecai visited every day to find out how she was doing. Since he spent so much time by the palace gate, he heard lots of courtly gossip including a plot to assassinate the king which he had shared with Esther who told the king, and ultimately saved King Ahasuerus’ life.<br /><br />The king’s highest official was a man named Haman. For his own reasons, Haman had decided that he would like everyone to bow to him and everyone did except for Mordecai. This made Haman furious and he decided that he would kill not only Mordecai but also all of the Jews. As the king’s advisor, he told the king that a lawless people were living in the kingdom and that they needed to be destroyed. The king, full of wine and happiness, liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself and sent forth a royal decree for the destruction of all of the Jews to happen in a few days.<br /><br />Mordecai heard of this news and showed Esther the written decree and charged her to go to the king to make supplication for her people. Knowing that the king could kill her for approaching him when she has not been called, but that if she would be killed with her people anyway, Esther decided that she would do what she could. Summoning the strength of Mordecai’s words “perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this,” she began her planning.<br /><br />Esther had dreamed of doing something important, and even though she was now queen, something she still didn’t believe sometimes, she still wondered if there weren’t something more, she had heard all of the stories of her people, of David and his bravery before Goliath, . . . there weren’t many opportunities for her people to be brave anymore, living as they were in another land—they were scattered from each other, and even felt separate from God, as though Yahweh were no longer guiding them as once before, but had left them up to their own . . . but with destruction so close at hand, it seemed miraculous that Mordecai had even heard of the plot against their people, and perhaps even miraculous that Esther should just happen to be queen right now, perhaps it really was God, working mysteriously to ensure their survival, and if it was truly meant to be, then Esther would succeed her in attempt to change the king’s decree. Surely God would give her the wisdom and the strength to face this horrible task.<br /><br />There was no magic wand, no fairy god-mother, she could not blink and make it all disappear. Esther would have to do this herself, she would have to use all of the tricks she knew to work for the king’s favor.<br /><br />She dressed in her finest robes of royal blue and carefully adorned herself in her full regalia including her crown and approached the king’s room—where he was drinking. Even though he had not seen her in a month, the sight of her so dressed up caught the king’s breath and he wondered why he had no summoned her himself. The king liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself. His heart was soft as he asked her “What is it Queen Esther? What is your request, it shall be give you, even to the half of my kingdom.”<br /><br />With relief, Esther smiled, and made her very simple request, for the King and Haman to kindly join her for a private banquet the following evening. The king happily acquiesced, for he loved banquets.<br /><br />With the two men now in her own territory, Esther offered a fine meal and good wine. Sensing she really wanted something else, the king asked again: “what is it Queen Esther? What is your request, it shall be give you, even to the half of my kingdom.” It wasn’t quite the right time. Esther needed to find a way to save all of her people, including Mordecai and herself, but she needed to make sure that Haman’s role in all of this was clear.<br /><br />And so she invited them to return for a second banquet the following night. Haman was so thoroughly pleased. He thought to himself, “I dined with the king and queen alone! I am nearly the most powerful man in all of Persia.”<br /><br />On the second night of feasting and drinking in Queen Esther’s quarters, King Ahasuerus asked: “what is it Queen Esther? What is your request, it shall be give you, even to the half of my kingdom.” Gathering her strength, Esther plunged in: “please spare me and my people for our lives have been sold—if it was merely into slavery I would not ask, but we have been sold unto death.”<br /><br />Enraged, the king asked, who is it that has done this?<br />Esther replied, “a foe and an enemy, the wicked Haman!”<br /><br />The king, in great anger, didn’t know what to do. An official suggested he order the destruction of Haman and the salvation of all the Jews. The king liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself. He promoted Mordecai to be his new vizier and ended his decree to destroy the Jews. <br /><br />To celebrate their deliverance from death, the divine providence in their lives, Esther and Mordecai decided to inaugurate a great feast for all the Jews living in the province, they called it Purim. The king liked this idea very much and wondered why he couldn’t think of ideas like this for himself. There was great gladness and joy and they all lived happily ever after.<br /><br />Centuries later, a group of Jews living in a different empire, gathered secretly in a room. Stories of their ancestors weighed heavily upon them, the story of Esther included. And while they shared a meal, their Rabbi told another story of love and bravery, one of triumph in the face of death, one of great sadness and fear, with a happy ending after all.Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7308374710922879700.post-3524959161091561022009-09-17T13:36:00.000-04:002009-09-17T13:37:25.348-04:00Wisdom of GodJames 3:1-12; Proverbs 1: 20-33<br /><br />Though fashion experts will tell you that it’s okay to wear white. Practically of course, it’ll soon be too cold for white sundresses or linen pants. One theory behind this custom, is that once upon a time, the wealthy would take off most of the summer and head for resort locations where they would trade their dark, drab city clothes in favor of cool, white summery ones. The white clothes were a sign of their wealth and time for leisure. Putting them away after Labor Day, marked a reentry into normal, city life. The change of clothes helped mark the change of season.<br /><br />We are also feeling the change, the weather change, the season change, the back-to-school change. We mark the passing of time with pencils and backpacks, and soon pumpkins and candy. At church, we return to Sunday School and choir, to TOW and to lectionary sermons.<br /><br />Even if we’re not going back to school, even if it’s been years since we’ve had a “first day” of school, even if we’ve been at work and church all summer and this is not a time for reentry, this is still a great time for renewal, to dust off our brains, to learn something new, to engage God in a new way.<br /><br />James writes about teachers, and the scrutiny for those who teach, based mostly on the words they choose. He explains that our speech guides our bodies, the way a bridle guides a horse, or a rudder a ship. <br /><br />He speaks of the tongue as a small body part that guides the whole and can have the impact of a small fire or a small stain. With our tongues we proclaim both praise and insult. And as springs only produce one type of water and trees only produce one type of fruit, we ought not produce both blessings and curses.<br /><br />For our own reentry, as we gather together more, in our worship, in our fellowship, in our meetings, in our Bible studies, in our choir rehearsals, in community to choose our words with care—speaking to each other with love, or at least respect, speaking up when we need to and being quiet when we need to . . . remembering the fragile human beings all around us.<br /><br />It is Wisdom that helps us . . . discern when to raise our voices and when to lower them. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman. She stands on street corners and public squares crying out to the men. Woman Wisdom stands in direct contrast to another type of woman found in Proverbs: Woman Stranger. This woman also stands on street corners and public squares crying out to the men, but her offer is somewhat different . . .<br /><br />Woman Wisdom offers knowledge and counsel, offers the fear of God—but if ignored, she offers laughter, mocking, destruction. Wisdom is a path for salvation, for security and ease. Not following her is a path to disaster and dread. <br /><br />She has a striking amount of power, addressing men in the busiest parts of the city, speaking where judges and prophets speak their condemnations and Prostitutes call out to customers and to ignore her teachings equals death.<br /><br />Proverbs 3 speaks of Wisdom’s relationship to God and to creation. In the very beginning God acquired her and through her all things came into being. Through and with her, God created the world and placed Wisdom within creation so that people could live in harmony and right relation. She is connected or perhaps the same as that Word that was spoken to create the world. In Greek: the male form of Word is called Logos, the female counterpart is Sophia: Wisdom. It is the spoken Logos that is with God from the beginning who is then born in a manger in Bethlehem. Even in the NT, we find Jesus closely associated with Woman Wisdom.<br /><br />The figure of Wisdom has close connections to goddesses in Mesopotamia and Egypt. She could be a survival of this tradition. Or she could be a combination of all the positive roles of wives and mothers in Israel, just as Woman Stranger is a synopsis of male fears of female temptation.<br /><br />Proverbs begins and ends with female imagery, both positive and negative, but it is not a book about or for women. The primary audience is male as the book offers advice about the proper type of wife to acquire in order to have the good life. The original was addressed to “my sons” and even though the NRSV changes this to “my children” it is still far from gender neutral.<br /><br />Nevertheless, the female imagery provides resources for women readers despite the male-centered perspective . .. .<br /><br />The wisdom tradition starts with experience, as a way of doing theology. The focus on daily life can offer a way of knowing and being for those who have been largely excluded from participation in the older traditions—in the forming of covenant, prophecy, the canonization of scripture . . .<br /><br />Wisdom is not just about following set rules and ethics,<br />Wisdom is a path to God, a mediator, a way, a union.<br />It is learned through life and experience.<br />The more we see, the more we do, the more we try, the more we survive, the wiser we become.<br /><br />It is wisdom that helps us know when to speak and when to keep silence<br /><br />Helps us form right relationships with God, to live well and simply, to live peacefully and harmoniously, to pay attention to creation, to our experiences, to our practices.<br /><br />During their last supper, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples what to believe, he told them what to do: for the bread and for the wine, do this and remember me.Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18046691746585249301noreply@blogger.com0