Ivory Towers and Street People

Ivory Towers and Street People

 

Genesis 11:1-9

God destroys the tower of Babel 

 

11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

 

11:2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

 

11:3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.

 

11:4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

 

11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.

 

11:6 And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

 

11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

 

11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

 

11:9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

 

 

Friends, today’s text is a wonderful Bible “myth,” not necessarily a piece of actual human history. Those of us fortunate enough to have been to seminary know that Bible “myths” are stories or accounts originally designed to relate a truth—a truth that is not contingent upon whether the “event” related actually ever occurred. Parables are Bible myths, for example. What they communicate has nothing to do with whether they ever occurred. In antiquity, folk would have recognized the “medium” being used, and would have immediately seized upon the intended lesson, possibly after a little pondering, but they wouldn’t have gotten lost in the historicity of the format. Unfortunately, today the Bible and its interpretation has become obfuscated by those who focus mostly on ways to harmonize its message and “taking it literally,” something never intended by most of those who penned it. Having recently preached a sermon on the parable of Job from the Hebrew Bible, I know that for at least one person who heard the sermon, my calling it a “parable” was a bit too much. She had been “assimilated” by the “must take it literally” version of the evangelical faith, and therefore had to believe that the story of Job was actually an historical account. My suggestion otherwise simply meant I was wrong, and she had to discount the message along with the messenger. The wonderful messages from this remarkable story ARE real, whether there was a “real” Job, or not. So it is with the parables of Jesus, although you may be surprised to learn that even THEY have been distorted by this “taking it literally” bug, in some circles. Likewise, today’s text of the infamous “Tower of Babel” has been similarly distorted.

 

Note that in understanding this principle of the Bible “myth” it is not necessary to believe that the story DIDN’T happen, either. Could there have been a real guy named Job who had the “weird” experiences painstakingly told in the parable? Sure. Could there have been an actual “prodigal son” who did the things this famous parable tells? Of course there could have been. It’s just that the truths the stories are intended to teach us don’t require them to be “true” stories to BE true. And, truth be told, they are timeless stories because they are so universal! Down through the ages, countless children of God have found themselves in these stories, and turned to God for rescue and relief. One of our late United Methodist scholars and storytellers, Andy Langford, used to tell some marvelous parabolic stories as part of his sermons and lectures that SO captivated his audiences! Invariably, someone would come up to him afterwards and ask, “Is that a TRUE story?” to which Andy would answer, “Well, it OUGHT to be!” 

 

Having been fully corrupted myself by the storytelling of the late Douglas Adams, and most especially by his “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,” I can’t even hear the word “Babel” without thinking of his “Babel Fish,” a mythical creature of his slightly off-kilter mind, that when inserted into a person’s ear canal, “drinks” brainwaves for nourishment and belches language interpretation. The skinny is that with a Babel Fish inserted, the user will “hear” anything said to them in their own language, as the Babel Fish does its feeding thing. Now, a whole sermon could be written around Adams’ “interesting” suggestion that language might be made “universal” as the waste of a fish’s digestive process. Think about it: it eats brainwaves and “regurgitates” words, or at least the translation of them. Might Adams be suggesting that words are not necessarily the best representation of the height of human cognitive genius? This idea might be worth considering by those who desire to take the Bible literally, come hell or high waters of baptism. Incidentally, Adams’ Babel Fish story is a “myth,” not to be taken literally, just in case you missed it.

 

Why would I suggest that the Babel story is also a Bible myth or parable? The first verse is a dead giveaway: “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.” Seriously? You would want to take that literally? Ancient audiences would have pulled up a stone near the fire to hear the rest of the story unfold. Most of them would have already been quite familiar with the kinds of people who liked to build towers—almost exclusively the wealthy and power-hungry ones. I am reminded of a story (surprised?) of the late Ohio State football coach, Woody Hayes, who was known for keeping the ball on the ground, most of the time (his critics used to say, “Three yards and a cloud of dust…”). When asked by some journalistic wag WHY he rarely called a passing play, he said: “When you pass the football, three things can happen, and two of them are bad.” So it was with the tower-builders in this story, although all of the outcomes may have been bad. First of all, it would cost enormous amounts of money and man-hours to erect such a thing. If you don’t believe THAT, just ask the crews who built the Egyptian pyramids. And for why? Building the tallest tower was an ego trip, a bragging point among the well-healed. Some built towers, like those in various religious structures, as “homes” for God or the gods, but less out of hospitality and more for possession or control of them. And then there were those who sought to “storm heaven” by building a tower high enough to reach their primitive ideas of “heaven above,” which in early modes of interacting with the gods meant they could just crash the divine party. 

 

Thankfully, we live in modern, enlightened times, and certainly have no wealthy people in our world today who believe that having the tallest towers or the biggest anything—or having your own space program--is a true sign of either status or power. Yeah. Scary, huh? 

 

Why would this “faulty tower” crowd be a threat to God such that an author would be inspired to record this particular parable? One could say that it was the author’s attempt to explain why the world was so divided by language, ideology, religion, and politics—not to mention inequitable wealth distribution--it was God’s doing, but our fault. Our pursuits of power and stature, and wasting a fortune on acquiring them, was against what God had intended for humanity, and so God “foiled” their efforts by scattering those responsible and messing up their means of communicating. The Hebrew word, “Babel,” literally means “confused” or “to jumble.” 

 

Again, thankfully, in our advanced state of self-awareness, we don’t experience these things that drive us apart…yeah. Scary, huh? It would seem that God’s “Babelizing” of the power-seekers/brokers only bought some time. Of course in our day, we could elect leaders who would focus our efforts back on building a healthy world community and who worked for wider economic opportunity for all people. OH boy…

 

My sarcasm is designed to highlight the universality of the Tower of Babel story, and its continuingly relevant message. Even as we still glorify and “celebrate” the Egyptians who built the “magnificent” pyramids as monuments to their legacies, and as “spaceships” to take them to heaven, so we still idolize those who do the same thing today, whether it’s “Trump Tower,” the various sports “Hall of Fame” players, or even Taylor Swift’s music empire. I’m not saying that it is wrong to develop one’s gifts so as to excel in some field or arena, but this story in Genesis DOES make us wonder how “impressed” God is that so many who suffer only get to watch, and in some cases, pay dearly to do so. 

 

I’ve never believed that God “visits” evil upon God’s people, believing instead that we tend to bring it upon ourselves. Jesus numerously reiterated an ancient truth from Judaism: “What you sow, you reap.” Don’t blame God for “judging” you, if you caused the calamity yourself. I confess that, as a pastor visiting folk in the hospital who were gravely ill, it was hard to hold my tongue when a lifetime heavy smoker or drinker lying in the sickbed would say, “Why is God doing this to me?” Inside my head was a voice jumping up and shouting, “WHAT?!? Why is GOD doing this to you?” Thankfully, my rudimentary psychology and better pastoral care training kicked in, and I quickly accepted the grieving of the sufferer, for this is indeed the question of one in grief over their tragic sitz im leben. If I’m really honest, I’d confess that my “inner outburst” is more a product of my temporary faithlessness, for we Judeo-Christians believe in a God who just keeps forgiving and forgiving, and never abandon’s God’s love for us, even when we are totally responsible for the bad “crop” we are harvesting because of what we have sown. 

 

So it is with the Babel story. The author wants us to know that we humans are profoundly responsible for the division and fouled communication among the human community. Locating this as God’s judgment is a way to cope with the mess we ‘s in. The hopeful message of the Gospel is that God WILL come along side us and help us begin to extract ourselves from the “tares” that we have seeded along with the good wheat God provided. However, it will mean turning ourselves godward—how one of my professors defined “repentance”—and beginning to turn from our incessant “tower building,” as well. Jesus said our eternal legacy will be defined by what we did for “the least of these,” and not by the size of our pyramids, our bank accounts, or our fame. In short, it’s not about our Ivory Towers, but how we treated and cared for the “street people” all around us, and I’m not just talking about the homeless and those in “definable” poverty. There are people all around us who have bought this tower-building definition of “being successful,” and who will never live up to it. They see themselves as failures, therefore. They need our compassion, our encouragement, our friendship, AND our Gospel. They are every bit as much children of God as the rest of us, but they’re not feeling it. As a pastor, I know it’s hard to lift such folk up, and may demand us rearranging our schedules to encourage and edify them, but how wonderful it is to see the earliest stages of their transformation when we do. You see, there are all kinds of “street people” in our lives. You may even BE one, yourself. God wants to lift you up, as well. I suggest you stop trying to build that tower to lift yourself up, and accept God’s willingness to do the “heavy lifting” in Jesus Christ. And expect that the others whom Christ is “lifting up” all around you will be your greatest assets and allies. 

 

How wonderful to believe in a Deity who, rather than asked us to build a tower to God’s “glory,” came down to US, and sent God’s Spirit to inhabit US and OUR WORLD! The Holy Spirit may indeed BE God’s “Babel Fish.” When we take in God’s Spirit, into our hearts, minds, and souls, we begin to “hear” what others are saying and understand both their joys and needs. In the Divine Commonweath of the Spirit, we join them in celebrating the joys, and have the tools—“gifts of the Spirit”—to meet their needs! On this Day of Pentecost, we are invited to take a fresh “drink” of God’s Spirit, and then enjoin the spiritual discipline of listening for the translation of both the cries of our human siblings in distress, AND the “marching orders” of God to mobilize. Amen.

 

That's All She Wrote...

That’s All She Wrote…

 

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

¹² “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes,^[a] so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

¹⁶ “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

²⁰ The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

 

In one of my favorite scenes in the Woody Allen film, “Annie Hall,” Allen’s character, Alvie Singer, is showing his girlfriend, Annie, (played by Diane Keaton), around a bookstore. As he’s suggesting books of substance to her, he says: 

 

“I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable.”

 

I guess we could call this philosophy “fatalistic”? That’s what I like about Allen’s characters—they make me feel REALLY GOOD, by comparison!

 

So it was with the apocalyptic writings we find in the pages of scripture. When you read about the moon turning to blood, or the blood running as deep as a horse’s bridle during a cataclysmic battle, it might make you feel a little better about your credit card debt or your aching tooth. In other cases, apocalyptic stories look “upward,” imagining God in God’s high heaven, the “Lamb on the throne,” and evil being vanquished, once and for all. This, too, could give you a dose of courage to get through your current challenges, hoping for that day.

 

I don’t want to make light of the serious persecution first-century Christians were facing, nor that of ancient Israel, for that matter, which had its own version of apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Daniel. However, as we seek to make sense out of things like Matthew 24, Luke 21, or Mark 13, or even worse, the Book of Revelation, it does mean understanding that this stuff was written to give hope to hurting and/or threatened people, offering, as one religious vocalist once sang, “I’ve read the back of the book and WE WIN!” 

 

I have several trains of thought going on here, so bear with me. First of all, we live in a time when some factions of American Christianity believes they are under persecution because it is currently against the law to mandate Bible readings and Christian prayers in schools. Others believe they are being persecuted because women can still choose to have abortions in some states, and members of the LGBTQ+ community can marry and have civil rights, things the “evangelical” crowd doesn’t believe in. Well, I don’t believe children should be going to bed hungry in America, or that people should have to endure sickness because they can’t afford the cost of healthcare, but I don’t see anyone wanting to do much about these things, and I would say that the latter occurances are truly making people more “horrible” than just “miserable.” Meanwhile, these “we are being persecuted” folk love to talk about the “Second Coming,” the “Rapture,” and about how the evil sinners who are keeping them from passing laws to limit or remove others’ rights will be “cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels,” all language borrowed from their interpretation of Christian apocalyptic language. At best, their assertions are a misappropriation of both context and meaning of scripture; at worst, it is judgmental and hateful of those who disagree with their perspective. 

 

Then, there is the whole question of how literally we should even be taking this material we find in places like Daniel, Revelation, and those chapters in the Gospels I cited earlier. (Paul makes very few allusions to apocalyptic literature in his writings, and then mostly in the mode of encouraging his audience. He does do that “caught up in the clouds” with Jesus deal in Thessalonians, which opened another whole can of worms—the mythical “rapture”--but still, I suggest, in the name of providing encouragement.) For us to snatch stuff out of Daniel is just bad Bible, as this was written FOR the people of Israel, hundreds of years ago, BY the people of ancient Israel, and was never meant to be catapulted into 2025 or beyond. The Revelation, likewise, was written to encourage the early church, giving them a version of a “bigger plan” and a brighter future God may have for them. (Most Bible scholars believe, by the way, that the events depicted in Revelation were fulfilled in the fall of the Roman Empire.) This “God will spare you and not your enemies” is a standard plot of apocalyptic literature. When set alongside verses like “God is Love,” “God wishes that none should perish,” and “The commandment I give you is that you should love one another like I have loved you,” all the blood and judgment of the apocalypse should be seen as a temporary catharsis from fear, not a prediction of God’s behavior, going forward. Besides, if you read what JESUS said about the “end times” in Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, you notice that he is using this kind of language as a warning to BELIEVERS—Get your act together and believe (and LIVE) the Good News, or YOU might get “left behind.” 

 

If I had to summarize the purpose and efficacy of the Bible’s apocalyptic literature, I would say it was written to encourage religious communities under ACTUAL persecution at the time, and to serve as a warning for future believers that they have responsibilities, such as loving their neighbor, forgiving those who “persecute” you, and feeding and clothing the poor. The Kingdom of God is described in this literature as a place of peace and justice, which contrasts with what is the current reality of Planet Earth. Christians are through these writings being therefore encouraged to do their best to make EARTH look more like HEAVEN before our days are over. That justice and peace are still distant goals means we have much work to do. Of course, there are those evangelicals who believe it is a futile task, and that the Kingdom of God can only happen when “Jesus returns.” This may be the greatest copout in the history of humanity, if not in the whole history of the Divine! “Let Jesus do it” is not discipleship, it is despicable. 

 

Let me say one more thing: while peace and justice work is truly hard work, it is clear that what Jesus modeled for us in this regard should also be uplifting and edifying. You don’t think Jesus was thrilled when he orchestrated a healing, or fed 5,000 people from a kid’s lunch? And don’t you think he was “edified” by those who were grateful for what God had done for them? Even his sacrifice on the cross was God’s ultimate act of edification—the pardon of humanity and the vindication of why God made us in the first place! If you don’t believe that, just look at the parable of the ten healed lepers, and he rejoiced at the one who returned to show gratitude. God has a heart too, you know! Justice and peace work, while difficult, is FUN work, especially when little “victories” occur and someone is liberated or given opportunity. To be honest, what makes me angry about the current “regime” in our country is how they are passing laws, issuing executive orders, and voting for things that stand in the WAY of justice and peace. “Owning the libs” and “winning” are threatening to totally supplant the “inalienable rights” Jefferson set as a goal for American society in the Declaration of Independence. 

 

As a pastor, I have been asked if I believe in the “Second Coming” of Jesus Christ. I am no longer as quick to say “yes” as I once was, at least to the “literal” meaning of this phrase. First of all, I don’t believe for one iota that if Jesus IS literally coming back, it will be to fix things, as he expects US to do that. Otherwise, why would he have sent the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s gifts to the church? They weren’t meant to be some kind of divine video game—they are tools of transformation. Secondly, I would say that if I DO believe in a literal Second Coming of Jesus, I would believe it is WAY off in our future, as God is waiting for us to “be the church” and work to bring about justice and peace HERE as it is in heaven (don’t we PRAY for this every time we say the Lord’s Prayer?). Again, Jesus isn’t coming again to “fix” things, but to square accounts with humanity, and to reign. We have been empowered to “make repairs,” something our Jewish siblings call tikkun olam. (Yes, justice and peacemaking work is NOT limited to the Christian faith!)

 

There is a mode of theological/biblical interpretation that suggests that we have already experienced the “Second Coming” by way of Pentecost. One can assemble a number of the sayings of Jesus that support this “virtual” Second Coming: “In my Father’s house are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you”…”Love one another as I have loved you”…”and then this from Luke 24:

 

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶ and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

 

This sure makes it sound like Jesus is sending “what my Father promised” as the key to getting the job done of bringing peace, justice, and God’s redemption done here, and that the enduement of the Holy Spirit can be seen as the “Second Coming” of Jesus himself, as the church is empowered to BE the “Body of Christ” I the world. Remember when Jesus is being taken up into heaven from the Mount of Olives in the Book of Acts (we call this the “ascension,” in Christian parlance), and the disciples are gawking as he is lifting off? The angel of the Lord asks them “Why are you standing here gazing?” The text DOES say that Jesus will return in the same way, but all of these texts make clear to me that his “return” will be “at the end of the age,” and not to snatch us up, or rescue us. 

 

One thing that makes sense in the confusing metaphors and images of apocalyptic literature such as Revelation is that there WILL be an “end of the age,” meaning a final “that’s all folks” when God decides the human age on earth is at an end. My guess is that THIS is when Jesus may again set foot on the Mount of Olives—to “Turn out the lights, the party’s over.” While I’m quoting song lyrics, here are some the folk in our contemporary “coffee house” service like to sing from Chris Tomlin’s “Amazing Grace”:

 

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God who called me here below
Will be forever mine.

 

There will be an end, but obviously one major point of debate is just how “soon” is soon? Is this GOD’S soon? My guess is, yes, it is GOD’S soon, not ours. In my current “heart,” as I have served, grown, and learned from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe “the end” and the “Second Coming” will only occur after God’s church has “so loved the world” and witnessed to God’s saving grace that what is happening here looks a lot like God’s blueprint for the Divine Commonwealth—or the Kingdom of God, as we often call it. THEN the end shall come, as God embraces us all, and WE will be forever, the children of God! That’s all she wrote. Amen.

 

 

Getting Better

Getting Better

John 5:1-9

Jesus heals on the sabbath 

5:1 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

5:2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has five porticoes.

5:3 In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people.

5:5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

5:7 The ill man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me."

5:8 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk."

5:9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a Sabbath.

If I had been a bit more creative, I would have called this sermon, “Everybody in the Pool!” As I said in last week’s sermon, when it comes to salvation, II Peter 3:9 tells us that God wishes that NONE should perish, meaning that God wants all to be reconciled to Godself. However, as we know, God created us with a free will and the privilege of self-determinism, so God will not “force” anyone to accept God’s full pardon, nor will God “demand” that everyone join in what we have come to know as our “heavenly reward.” As a wise preacher once told me, “There isn’t going to be anyone in heaven who doesn’t want to be there.” It is a much more debated theological question as to whether there will be people “excluded” from heaven who DO want to be there. I have come to believe that no, because of what Jesus Christ has birthed into our world, no one who WANTS to be with God in heaven will be left out. The advantage to giving one’s life to Christ openly in this life is not just the witness of it, but the forming and shaping the life of a growing disciple begins to walk, something that prepares her/him/they for the “life to come.” There will certainly be a lot of folk in God’s heaven that WE may not expect to see there, and many of them will find the early days in this eternity quite challenging, if they did not first engage the life of faith here, first. 

 

But this sermon is about another aspect of the God-life: “getting well,” or in a more medical vernacular, “healing.” If you’re waiting for me to share some elucidating secret as to why, when, and if God chooses to heal persons, forget it, as I don’t have a clue. I can tell wonderful healing stories all day long, but my list of persons I know who did not experience healing—either of the miraculous variety, or at the hands of competent practitioners of modern medicine—is just as long, if not longer. There are people I know who have died, whose deaths still make me angry, and many whose earthly demise make me cry, when I think about them. A young woman I once dated for over a year, and who subsequently married and had a family, died at age 47, a victim of Multiple Sclerosis. She was a person of deep faith, and I’m sure had a church family—as well as her own family—praying diligently for her healing. It didn’t happen. I also have known some very bitter, even “evil” people, who have successfully warded off illness after illness, disease after disease—many of their own causing—and just kept living. In sharing these “categories,” I am stepping close to the question of “theodicy,” or “Why do bad things happen to good people, while the evil prosper?” The fact is, there is no answer to these questions, a frustration with which has chased many marginal “believers” to other religious views that seem more palatable, such as the Eastern view of “Karma.” [At the risk of going down the proverbial “rabbit trail,” I would mention that one of my favorite, quirky TV shows was “My Name is Earl.” Earl was a man who experiences “Karma,” and what he believes is it playing out begins to transform him. Unfortunately, he comes from such a dissipated and corrupted lifestyle, he has too far to come and not enough time, as it were. Still, it was entertaining.] Don’t we all want to believe that, in an ideal world, the “good guys” always get rewarded, while the “evil” get punished? If you really want to delve into the most interesting parable in the whole Bible, read the Book of Job, for Job is a guy whose story tells us once and for all that the answer to the questions of theodicy are WAY beyond our comprehension. One might even say that they are beyond GOD’S comprehension, an assertion that will make my evangelical friends’ heads explode.

 

Today’s story from John 5 is about a healing that occurs around the Pool of Bethesda. When Dara and I were in the Holy Land back in 2011, we visited the site where they were just excavating what they believed to be the Pool of Bethesda. Like the spring water modern Catholics dip in and bring home from Lourdes, the Pool of Bethesda was a body of water believed to have divine healing blessings associated with it. The infirmed would camp around the pool, and when the waters were “stirred up,” they would either lower themselves into it, or have the help of a friend to do so. The superstition of that day was that these times when the water of the pool was “stirred up” or disturbed was when an angel of God was the agency of it. It was at these “active” times that healing could occur. The lame man in the story kept missing out on being dipped at the right times, because others beat him to the punch, and he apparently had no one to help him queue up in time, before the waters calmed. If you want to use this account as an example of patience and determination, it works well, as the text tells us this guy had been ill for THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS, and yet, here he was, still coming daily to the Pool of Bethesda, believing his time would come! Unbelievable. A modern-day Job, he was! Rather than “curse God and die,” putting himself out of his misery, he still literally waited on God, and didn’t waver in his belief.

 

We must pause a minute here and say that the Bible doesn’t really give us the story of either the Pool of Siloam mentioned as a “healing pond” in another story, nor this Pool of Bethesda. I’m possibly jumping the gun to say that the prevailing belief was that God was behind either the stirred waters OR the alleged healings that had occurred when people dipped in the pool. Just like we see today, people can believe ALL KINDS of things, when it comes to loved ones (including oneself), illness, and our desire for healing. We are no less superstitious about it today than they were in Jesus’ day. I’ve already mentioned Lourdes as one famous place where people will spend LOTS of money to go to, in search of healing, especially if they are fighting incurable or “mystery” diseases. WAY too often we eschew actual medical treatments and progress toward better ones, in favor of nostrums and “snake oil” cures. Why do we do this? Again, the culprit is the temptation to believe that some “magical cure” exists, and that complex problems—in this case, our health—must have simple solutions. If science and logic has taught us anything, it is that complex problems will also require complex solutions to “solve,” and not all complex problems can be “solved” or “cured.” Sometimes, such as in the case of certain diseases, or weather pattern anomalies caused by climate change, you just have to live with them and find ways to cope. No one likes to hear this latter assessment, so when someone comes along with an allegedly simple “cure,” we are often too quick to buy it. Look at some of the insanity being introduced to our nation’s healthcare scene by Robert Kennedy, Jr., our Secretary of Health and Human Services: autism is caused by impurities in vaccines; there are nutritional remedies for viruses like the measles; and that Lyme disease was a biological weapon that got loose from a military lab. Again, we buy these pieces of misinformation and “conspiracy theories” because they give us a simple solution, and in many cases, someone to blame. In a sermon about “getting better,” we must address these ridiculous claims, for part of getting better is looking in the right places for help in healing, and they are not to be found among this falderal.

 

Religion is not without its contribution to the “snake oil” set. While the Bible does legitimately recommend “calling on the elders of the church” to lay hands on the sick and to pray for them, it doesn’t advocate building a whole ministry around this practice, or believing that a person’s “gift of healing” means they have the magic touch that sends people “out in the spirit” and imparts a miraculous healing right on the spot. We have all seen these “healers.” Are they real? Do they work? The sad truth is that often, people believe they do, go to great expense to attend a “healing crusade,” and then find some relief that may very well be due to a rush of adrenaline imparted by the drama, the hype, or just the experience, only later to find that their presenting symptoms return, along with a new tinge of doubt. Have I ever seen or heard of a legitimate “miracle” healing? Yes, and I do believe that God can just decide to do so for one of God’s children, but I don’t believe God leaves this “power” in the hands of a person, or at least not one specific person with “the gift.” Instead, I am reminded that in the Book of Job, we are told that “God has God’s reasons for doing what God does,” most of which is “beyond the human ability to understand.” 

 

I most certainly believe in praying for healing, and have often offered to lay hands on persons in a “healing service,” and even anoint them with oil. I do not expect a miraculous healing to result, especially right on the spot, but in my mind, we come together as caring believers to support one another, pray for one another, and this includes praying for persons in need of healing. Petitioning God on their behalf, or more properly along WITH them, is the loving thing to do. Suggesting that “if they have enough faith” they will be healed, or that they are NOT healed “because they do not believe,” has nothing to do with love. These are cruel assertions born of power and control, not faith and love. Prayers for healing must always be acts of love, support, and caring, and providing encouragement to the ailing individual. I have also found that the most profound effects of such healing prayers have occurred when they were requested by the individual her or himself, instead of being initiated by another. This is not to say that one believer can’t say to another upon hearing of their need, “I will be praying for you,” for this is a loving, caring offer. “Here, let me lay hands on you and pray for you” may often not be, especially if it makes the other feel uncomfortable or threatened, in any way.

 

Healing is often not about physical issues. As a pastor, I have seen so many more folk struggling with mental health issues, relationship difficulties or failures, domestic safety issues, unexpected unemployment, family turmoil, or even crises of faith, than I have folk who turned to the church for help with physical healing. If we were to take an actual accounting of things for which folk need healing, it would be a very long list. Prayers of the faithful on their behalf are always welcome, and from the pastoral perspective, counsel—including referrals to counseling professionals—is often the best recourse. I have learned only too well from hours in the pastoral counseling room that my ability to help persons toward ultimate wholeness is quite limited. Oh sure, there are folk who just need a good ear and a chance to air their grievances, along with a few encouraging words (which may or may not include scripture), and they are able to right themselves and get on with it. But like those with physical maladies, the emotionally hurting souls so often should see a medical/psychological professional. “Getting better,” for most of us, is a journey and a process, not a one-stop-shop.

 

While I believe that ultimate wholeness may be an impossible goal without addressing the spirituality of an individual, I also eschew the temptation to pronounce the various demons we may face as “simply” a “spiritual problem.” My home pastor used to say about Christian financial stewardship, “We don’t have a financial problem, we have a spiritual problem,” and about giving, he may have been right. But people aren’t “sick” just because they don’t pray enough, nor are they poor or unemployed because they have somehow “disobeyed” God. Nor are their marriages falling apart just because they have been skipping church. Our spiritual life should be something that edifies us and helps us prioritize and approach our “healing needs” reasonably, maturely, and directly. When our spiritual life and our relationship with the divine is used as an excuse—or even leveled at us as an accusation—as to why we are experiencing these difficulties, then this is heinously in error. If we believe “God is love,” then how can we endorse such a harmful use of one’s spirituality? This was the “sin” of Job’s friends in that wonderful parable. They are looking for the quick, easy “diagnosis” for a complex and devastating thing that happened to Job, and what they came up with was “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” Not quite the same as what Jesus said in this story: “Stand up, take up your mat, and walk.”

 

The lame man in the story had sought healing according to the superstitions of his age, either because he had tried everything else, to no avail, or because it is all he knew. Jesus literally offered him a lifeline, which is what God will always do. However, not all “healings” are what we are initially looking for or hoping for. If I am sick, I want to be well, and as soon as possible. My illness playing out, which may include my encountering others along the way, may prove to be important for us—or them. And what of those faithful people who do not experience a healing? Perhaps their healing—which may be their passing on from this life, “crossing over” into the arms of God—IS the ultimate healing for them. My home pastor often referred to a Christian’s death as “the ultimate healing.” None of us wants to rush that along, but it should be a comfort to us that the sting of death has been removed by our Lord Jesus Christ!

 

Finally, in terms of our own “getting better,” there are times when we just need to “take up our mat and walk.” Might this mean carrying on, despite some chronic illness or persistent emotional challenge? It was for the Apostle Paul, who lived an amazing life with his “thorn in the flesh,” which, despite the humorous assertion, was most likely NOT his mother-in-law. The scriptures tell us, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Notice it says BEAR, not “bare”—we church folk sometimes love to play “can you top this” with stories about our own suffering, or the suffering of others. Nope--take up your mat and walk! One final note: the lame man mentioned others who had friends to help them into the Pool at Bethesda, and he did not. How many others are out there who need encouragement or a “little help” to have their spirits lifted or assistance with their healing journey? This is what is meant by “bearing one another’s burdens,” I believe, and it may be one of the most wonderful things about a caring faith community, and a great witness to the reality of God to the world. To the glory of God, may the church be about “getting better,” and helping others do so, as well. Amen.

 

Rule Change

 

Rule Change

 

Acts 11:1-18

God saves the Gentiles 

 

11:1 Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God.

 

11:2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him,

 

11:3 saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?"

 

11:4 Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying,

 

11:5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me.

 

11:6 As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.

 

11:7 I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.'

 

11:8 But I replied, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'

 

11:9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.'

 

11:10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

 

11:11 At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were.

 

11:12 The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.

 

11:13 He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter;

 

11:14 he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.'

 

11:15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.

 

11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

 

11:17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?"

 

11:18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life."

 

 

We sports fans have a love/hate relationship with rule changes. For those of us old enough to be Steelers fans from their first Super Bowl iteration, we are aware that, thanks to the prowess of that four-Lombardi Trophy bunch, a number of NFL rules were changed. Joe Greene, as a defensive lineman, was so good at what he did that, almost from the get-go, he was being double-teamed by the opposing offense. He combated that with a quick helmet slap alongside the head of one of the men covering him, and this disoriented him long enough for Greene to take on the other man, one-on-one, a battle he usually won. Soon, the NFL outlawed the “head slap.” (Joe Greene still made the Hall of Fame, by the way.) Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert was SO good at intimidating the quarterback that the NFL changed the rules as to how “physical” a defender could get with the “franchise” player. Lambert’s commentary? “I think they [quarterbacks] should have to wear dresses.” Lambert, too, made the Hall of Fame. Steelers cornerback Mel Blount liked to intimidate wide receivers by justling with them all along their routes. Blount was one of the few cornerbacks in the game who had both the speed and dexterity to run stride for stride with the speedy receivers, so his success at stymieing them also precipitating a rule change—after five yards, intentional physical “harassment” of receivers will draw a penalty. Blount is ALSO in the Hall of Fame. In the NFL world, every year brings new rules aimed at keeping the play exciting and/or protecting valuable players. 

 

The same thing applies to other sports, like baseball. Nothing got true MLB aficionados up in arms like the “designated hitter” rule, which is now practiced in both leagues. In an effort to make the game less boring, and to protect pitchers from having to bat (they’re really lousy at it), now a designated hitter is added to the lineup, taking the pitcher’s place. On the plus-side of this rule change, it has extended the careers of older, popular players like Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The down-side is that it represents a fundamental part of the game—hitting strategy—that changed, sending baseball purists into therapy. It also cued up the next most inept hitter in a team’s lineup as the “easiest out.” 

 

Rule changes in sports happen for a reason. The same is true in other arenas, as well. We all wear seat belts in cars because studies clearly demonstrated they save lives. Children must be in rear-facing, carefully-engineered car seats in the BACK seat of a vehicle, and must use booster seats until they reach a certain weight. In most parts of the country, you can’t smoke in public, only outdoors, and in designating “smoking areas.” Why? Not just because it bothered people, but because studies confirmed that second-hand smoke was just as much of a health risk as that visited upon the primary smoker. I’m happy for THAT rule change, mostly because it bothered me, though. I wish I could say my lungs were in the Hall of Fame, but I’ll settle for them just being a bit clearer.

 

The advent of Christianity changed a lot of rules—GOD’S rules! Now, I don’t want to get into a protracted theological argument about “God changing God’s mind,” partly because this is a sermon and not a term paper, but mostly because the Bible makes it clear that God DOES change God’s mind! I’m going to win that argument, and if I don’t, then Moses will. Several times during Moses’ stint as God’s “tour guide” for the wandering people of Israel, God got so mad at them that God told Moses God was thinking about wiping them out and starting with a blank slate. Moses would be spared, though, because he was in God’s corner, just as frustrated with them as was God. However, Moses used this “good guy” leverage on God, suggesting that he had gone to great trouble to get these people out of captivity in Egypt, and was now trying to keep them alive in the wilderness, and for WHAT, if God wiped them out? The scriptures clearly state that “God changed God’s mind of the EVIL God was going to do to God’s people, Israel.” You can’t get much clearer than that! 

 

In today’s Acts passage, Peter tells of how God put him in a “trance” to show him that, in the aftermath of the Christ Event AND the introduction of the Holy Spirit, inaugurating what we know as the “Body of Christ,” the church, some major rule changes were in order. Now, foods previously forbidden for God’s people to eat would now be OK, simply because God was declaring them “clean,” pretty much like God had done with sin, through Christ. AND now the gentiles—goyim in Hebrew—would no longer be anything but “family” in the church. Those previously despised by God’s “set apart” people, would now be called “bretheren.” Both of these were huge changes. HUGE! It took a trance for Peter to get the magnitude and substance of THESE rule changes in the Divine Commonwealth of God. 

 

Sidebar: Isn’t it interesting that practitioners of “evangelicalism” now totally eschew anything resembling “trances,” and aren’t fond of any use of Eastern meditation or spiritual practice? God uses a trance on several occasions to get an important message across, such as this one to Peter, and Paul’s famous “seventh heaven” experience. The theological machinations I’ve heard evangelical friends go through to “excuse” these “exceptions” to their rules about such things are quite amazing. If God can change God’s mind, is it not possible that our “narrowing” of the rules also constrains God? 

 

Back to the text…Peter not only was told about these rule changes, but he was sent to a Gentile man—Cornelius—to let him in on the gig, and to baptize him with the Holy Spirit! Peter, who had fought with Paul about the “mission” to the Gentiles, was now sent by God TO a Gentile, to fully accept him as a sibling in Christ. The landmark pronouncement of this text is: “What God has made clean, you must not profane.” Friends, the Creator of the Universe has changed the rules, and the “game” is now allie, allie, in free! In Christ, not only are our sins forgiven, but all persons are now free to come before God’s “throne of grace,” bar none. Paul states this clearly in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God changed the rules, and we would do well to not “narrow the field” by laying down our own obstacles to God’s work of reconciling the world to Godself in Christ Jesus!

 

One of my favorite bumper sticker pieces of theology I saw once said simply, “You catch ‘em, I’ll clean ‘em…God.” The church has erred, as I understand it, by demanding that persons “get their ducks in a row” before claiming Christ as Lord, and following the lead of the Holy Spirit as part of the church. None of us fully understands just how FREE God is to change the rules as to whom may be reconciled. We have just seen a huge schism cripple the people called Methodists over whether members of the LGBTQ+ community may believe and practice the Christian faith without first eschewing their sexual orientation. Modern science has clearly stated that human sexual orientation is a “fluid” thing—actually on a continuum—as it is in the rest of the animal kingdom. We do not at ALL have the same measures of the hormones that influence such things (testosterone and estrogen, for example), NOR are we all born with the exact same sexual biology, and I’m NOT talking about simply “male” and “female” plumbing. In one of my churches, I had the privilege of having the town’s leading surgeon as a church member. After one of my sermons where I was urging folk to not “screen” people merely on their sexual orientation (that church had several “favorite sons” and “daughters” who were gay or lesbian), the surgeon told me that “laity” did not realize how many children were born with sexual organs that were not “clearly defined.” He said that, in these cases, parents were consulted, and a “decision” was made to surgically alter the child to be either male or female, and that over the years, he was not surprised to hear that one of these children “came out,” expressing that their personhood did not match their sexual organs. He further suggested that he believed this could be the case even where no “corrections” were applied, surgically. The practices of the Christian faith have long been amenable to change, wrought by the advances of science and knowledge, if not just based on “preferences” and tradition. Let’s look at a few.

 

We have the sects of Protestant Christianity today because of the beliefs of Martin Luther, whose study of God’s mercy and grace from the scriptures launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517. And yet, the vitality and continued practices of the Roman Catholic Church remain, and partly due to their OWN “reformation” that we call the Second Vatican Council, that occurred between 1963 and 1965. And there is still the Eastern Orthodox faith traditions that split off from the Roman Catholic church in 1054. And what of our varying worship practices? There are churches today that don’t believe in singing anything but the words of the biblical Psalms in worship, and these without any musical accompaniment. Meanwhile, there are contemporary churches that have large “praise bands” and major pyrotechnics and “EFX” as part of their worship! Remember, for decades, pipe organs were “outlawed” in churches because they were seen as “instruments of the devil,” relegated to bars and public performance venues! (There are people today who now believe that pipe organs are the “only proper” instruments for use in Christian worship.) Our rules for “ordination” and who can be clergy are all over the place, too. I could go on and on, but my point is that almost all of these discrepancies come from some “rule changes” sects have adopted, sometimes based on their very personalized, narrow interpretation of Bible passages, while others have been made on preference, alone. Still, we generally don’t “reject” these folk outright just because they have divergent views. God certainly seems to accept them all as part of the Body of Christ. Why shouldn’t we?

 

There is something that happens in societies that sociologists call “queuing.” It happens when some previously discriminated against group gets “recognized” and promoted out of its being so victimized by bigotry. There is then a natural tendency for this “accepted” group to manifest prejudice against the next group “in line” behind them. Throughout church history, there have been groups thusly victimized, only to become recognized and accepted, and then to join the majority in persecuting yet another group of people. White Christian slave owners manifest prejudice against their African slaves, and not only their color, but their native faith traditions, such as Islam. They were “forced” to accept Christianity by their owners. Now, the most “popular” group of people to be on the wrong end of the Christian church’s “queue” are the members of the LGBTQ+ community, and many African American Christians are just as apt to reject them as white evangelicals. The sociology doesn’t excuse the behavior, however. Maybe we need more people experiencing these “trances” like Peter and Paul? Actually, I believe the real moral of the story is that God expects us to “grow up”—mature into accepting that we are ALL beloved children of God. We shouldn’t need special effects like trances and angelic “visits” to get it!

 

I grew up in a time when persons who were divorced could not be elected leaders in the church, nor were they eligible for ordination to the clergy. The Bible was pretty silent on this issue, other than to advocate for family practices and forgiving love that might derail such hurtful things before they happened. There are as many reasons persons end marriages as there are people—some, because of abuse or infidelity, others because their hearts and affections have changed. Somewhere along the way, the church realized that people who were divorced were still children of God, and shouldn’t be rejected by the church. The United Methodist Church has begun to officially do the same for our siblings who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it took a schism for that to finally happen. Such rule changes are made to be compassionate, and so as not to “get in God’s way” as God is reconciling the world to Godself in Jesus Christ. 

 

Let me make one more thing clear, here: While we are called to participate in this reconciling activity—Paul says in II Corinthians 5 that we are actually “called to the ministry of reconciliation”—it is ultimately GOD’S WORK, and God is doing it! And while we Christians believe it is “God’s rule change” in Christ to reconcile “the world,” we must also recognize that this “Christing” on God’s part most certainly is happening through other world religions. God is too big and too loving to “live” only according to the very narrow rules the church has tried to place on God. I fully believe that God IS in Christ, reconciling the world through Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., etc. And we all KNOW God has been working through Judaism since the earliest days of God’s call to Abraham. I am aware that not all of my Christian friends believe as do I about these things, but should these difference be cause for “enforcing penalties” on each other? Maybe another way of stating the expression, “God’s ways are not our ways” would be, “OUR rules are not GOD’S rules.” This latter phrase has often been used to suggest that God is going to be harder on humanity than we are on ourselves, but instead, maybe it is that WE have “narrowed” the rules to practice a type of religious “queuing.” 

 

Fact is, we in the church are called to herald the Gospel message of grace as widely as possible. People often quote Jesus saying the “way is narrow” that leads to eternal life, but “broad is the path that leads to destruction,” as a way to justify screening who is “eligible” to be saved, and this is probably quite far from what Jesus was saying. In fact, the “narrow way” is God’s “funnel” to bring all parties through God’s grace, that as few may be lost as possible—this is why it is a “narrow way,” and the spout of that “funnel” is Christ. Obviously, we know how “broad” is the path that can lead to personal disaster or ruin, if one chooses to move in that direction. I will never cease to be amazed at how many ways folk seem to find to screw up their lives, or even snuff them out. This saying of Jesus has nothing to do with following specific rules to “get saved.” God’s great rule change truly offers the “Allie, Allie, In Free” reconciliation I mentioned earlier. And as Mr. Wesley would preach and teach, “getting saved” (reconciled to God) is EASY, and is God’s action; LIVING INTO our Christianity is OUR work, and OUR challenge, though we do have the gifts and empowerment of the Holy Spirit to help us, as well as the supportive community of other Christians. I wish I could just say “the church,” here, but not every church has cast itself as a “supportive community.” Many of them have become “referees” of the man-made “rules of salvation,” and like to throw the penalty flag, relentlessly.

 

Not all rule changes are welcome, nor do they always change the game in ways we appreciate. However, what God has done in Jesus Christ IS a rule change we can live with, and for all eternity. Let us not forget, though, that God’s redeeming work is GOD’S WORK, and we are not free to make new rules as to whom and how it applies. Let us celebrate and widely witness to God’s Divine Commonwealth that is breaking in all around us! Thanks be to God!

 

Epilogue: As the owner of a MINI Cooper car, I am now part of a fun “cult” of MINI owners that have a set of “rules” we are to follow when we are out and about with our cute little automobiles. If we park somewhere, we are to keep “Rule Number One” in mind—if there is another MINI in the lot, park NEXT to it and take a picture to share on one of the MINI sites on social media! SO, Christians, may I suggest a “Rule Number One” for you on Sundays—Park your carcass next to another Christian in a church! And maybe sharing a photo of you and your fellow worshippers could become a nice witness on social media, too!

 

 

Rod and Real

 

Rod and Real

 

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

 

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

 

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

 

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 

⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

 

 

On Saturday, May 10, my brothers and I held a simple “graveside” service at the Bredinsburg Cemetery, on a rural road between Oil City and Franklin. We laid to rest the ashes of our father, Robert C. Sterling, and our mother, Shirley J. Sterling. Dad passed almost eight years ago, while Mom just died around this past Thanksgiving. Both had chosen to be cremated and have their ashes buried together at the “family plot” in Bredinsburg. Dad’s ashes resided in the closet in their apartment until Mom passed, and then I, as the eldest son and the one who had been taking care of Mom’s affairs, took possession of both sets of remains. I’m not a craftsman, but using a few new tools acquired, I built a simple, white oak box in which to seal their ashes. I ordered two small plaques with their names and dates on them and affixed them to the top side of the box, and mirrored this simple information on a small, granite headstone, which shall mark their burial spot, just beside the graves of my paternal grandparents. 

 

I share this story not only because it is so fresh on my mind, but because of that mystical metaphor that resonates in today’s text, the 23^rd Psalm—“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” This weekend’s activities in Bredinsburg is a period at the end of an elegant sentence written by these two people that meant so much to me, and whose final remains resided just below one of my home study bookshelves until buried on Saturday. There is somehow now a true finality to their lives on earth, and the crude little box across the room is no longer there to bring to mind so many colorful stories. But there is another reason.

 

Good parents are shepherds to us. Like the good shepherd described in this text, good parents feed us, clothe us, teach us, protect us, and lead us until we are able to lead ourselves to the quenching, soothing still waters of life. They do so not for what THEY get from the exchange, but simply because they love us and want the best for us. My parents sacrificed much for their three sons to “have” and to succeed in life. My father was a bookkeeper who had to keep looking for new jobs as a couple of the companies he worked for in Oil City were bought out and moved their management to larger cities, and since he wanted to keep his family in familiar, safe confines, he turned down transfers to Houston and later, Chicago. My mother was a registered nurse who worked the 11 to 7 shift for most of my younger years. This allowed her to help us with our homework each night, tuck us in, and head off to work. She was home in the morning to pack our lunches and send us off to school, after which she would put the rudiments for the evening’s dinner together and then catch a few hours of sleep, awakening in time to welcome us home from school, and to feed her brood. Having frequent desserts of Jello with some kind of canned fruit floating in it was little suffering for us, compared with all that our parental “good shepherds” did for us. 

 

I realize that not all parents fare so well in what, I’m sure, starts out with similar goals. Divorces happen; addictions such as alcoholism can happen; but probably worst of all is when parents parent the way THEY were parented, when that wasn’t all that great. Baring something that breaks this cycle, it is often all they may know, but it sure can do a number on offspring. Think of it: no one gets into parenting with experience! We’re all “first timers” the first time, and unless we intentionally take some kind of “formal” training, we will tend to parent the way WE were parented. Dara and I entered our marriage with the “parenting angst” of our generation, and with a general lack of paternal/maternal “instincts” kicking in. We intentionally waited five years before starting our family, first of all, to deliberate over whether we SHOULD have children, and then, to take advantage of a series of “parenting” classes regularly offered by our home church. [I might add that next weekend—May 18, specifically—I have been asked to offer the eulogy for our home pastor’s wife, Joan Sturtz. Lloyd and Joan Sturtz were a great influence on the Sterlings, not because they were perfect parents, as they made as many mistakes as the rest of us, but because they knew and “preached” that parenting should be an educated art, not muddled through aimlessly. Lloyd and Joan were the ones who brought all kinds of film series, special speakers, and classes on the aspects of “Christian” parenting to our church. Dara and I didn’t miss a one, so when our two children were born, we felt at least we had some “book learning” so our own parental shepherding would be more about the “real” than the rod, as we might say. AND we weren’t perfect parents, by any stretch, but all of that learning DID help immensely, and between the parenting and the prayers, we are most VERY proud of how our two children “turned out.”

 

I am sorry if your own experience of BEING parenting wasn’t something you have good memories of. Or if your own experiences of BEING a parent have their difficult memories, as well. I’ve always said, all we can do is our best at the time, and the rest we must let our children do after they “leave the nest.” Even the best shepherd can’t keep all of the sheep from getting lost. Parenting is never a pursuit for the weak of heart, or for those who fear too readily or deeply. The 23^rd Psalm is meant to be a healing Psalm, a “re-orienting” Psalm, so if that is what you need, please drink it in like a mantra. Saying parts of it over and over may indeed be therapeutic. 

 

We have projected and read the 23^rd Psalm from the King James Version of the Bible because this is how most of us were introduced to it. Another version I found interesting was the Complete Jewish Bible:

 

Adonai is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
² He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiet water,
³ he restores my inner person.
He guides me in right paths
for the sake of his own name.
⁴ Even if I pass through death-dark ravines,
I will fear no disaster; for you are with me;
your rod and staff reassure me.

⁵ You prepare a table for me,
even as my enemies watch;
you anoint my head with oil
from an overflowing cup.

⁶ Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.

 

The Jewish version uses a good “Methodist” word in the last verse—GRACE! I also like the “restores my inner person” part, which should assure us that, even if our parental “shepherds” put a few kinks in our “inner person,” God, the GOOD Shepherd, can help us be restored! 

 

Last week, I mentioned in my sermon the seminar we attended on “Fishing Differently” at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I suppose it was the “fishers of people” thing that caused me to “tongue in cheek” the title of this week’s sermon, “Rod and Real.” In fact, the shepherd’s “rod” was a tool for both defending and nudging, not fishing. It was a sort of extended “Billy Club” that could be used by the shepherd to whap another animal threatening the sheep, such as a coyote or more probably a wolf. Of course, a good “whap” with the rod could also discourage a thief who might try to steal a sheep, too! But I like the “nudging” role of the rod, as being one of God’s sheep who likes to stray from the worn path, I need a good “nudge,” from time to time. Sometimes a hard nudge. Or, if I get too comfortable in one “spot” in my life, I trust my Good Shepherd will nudge me to “move along.” If I have seen what some call a “sin of omission” in my days as a pastor, it is this tendency to stay in a very comfortable place that WAY too many of God’s “sheep” fall prey to. Church folk will talk much more easily about what they are “comfortable” with than what is troubling them or about what God is calling them to do. Complacency may be the modern church’s most prevalent sin. We all need God’s good NUDGE, occasionally.

 

I also think we have taken that “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” quite wrongly. I don’t think it’s about God “taunting” our enemies by setting up chow for us while they have to watch us eat. Instead, I believe the psalmist is saying that God invites BOTH parties to this smorgasbord. Like other animals, we are most vulnerable when we are eating, and it is almost impossible to share a meal with someone without having conversation. Possibly it is at this “table” that enemies become friends, and that this is the strategy of the Good Shepherd? Jesus certainly understood the value of sharing a meal together, didn’t he? He “ate in the house of sinners,” fed crowds miraculously, rather than sending them home to eat, and instituted what we call “The Last Supper,” which has become the church’s meal of Holy Communion. “Communion,” get it? And even after the resurrection, Jesus ate with the disciples along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Meals and their related “communion” with others are a great place to “kiss and make up,” whether it be with spouses, pouting children, or even external “enemies.” “Thou preparest a table before me in the PRESENCE of my enemies”—not “in front” of them. They have a place at the table, friends! If we are to be peacemakers, then we have to belly-up to the “board” with our hungry adversaries, from time to time.

 

The ”real” part of my sermon title has to do with the REALITY of God’s program of shepherding God’s people. We can debate “biblical interpretation” and theology all day long, but isn’t it true that God becomes most REAL to us when we are need of protection, guidance, provision, and a comforting embrace? These are the things this great Psalm “gets.” This stuff is real, especially when you find yourself in one of those “darkest of valleys.” And if we tie its “shepherd and sheep” metaphor into the teachings of Jesus, we are reminded that the Good Shepherd knows the sheep and the sheep know him, and they KNOW each other’s voices. Even one “lost sheep” is not forgotten by the Good Shepherd, for it is found, protected, embraced, and nudged back into the fold. Did you notice the sheep (people) who are excluded from the services of the Good Shepherd? Neither did I, for no one—NO ONE—is excluded from God’s accepting and loving embrace. No sheep’s voice is not heard by the Good Shepherd, and no person is prohibited from hearing and recognizing the loving “voice” of the Shepherd. In New Testament parlance, NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. NOTHING! 

 

This is the reality we celebrate as the people of God, even if we “city folk” don’t have much experience with Shepherd models. Believe me, I don’t. In 1988, when Dara and I traveled with a group from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to England and Scotland, I had my first real encounter with sheep on the mystical island of Iona. One afternoon there, as we were spending a few days with the Iona Community, I ventured into the sheep pasture behind the restored, ancient Abby, to take some photos of the Abby, juxtaposed with the wandering, grazing sheep. As I arrived at the fence keeping the sheep penned in, I came upon the “sheepgate,” which is a square of fence with a diagonally hinged gate. I pushed on the gate, and it swung into the “square,” I walked into the space, and then swung the gate back against the outer fence. I was now in the pasture. I remember thinking how stupid these sheep were, that they couldn’t figure out this simple and ancient “device” that kept them from wandering off. After I took a number of impressive photographs, which took a while, thanks to the generally uncooperative fluffy beasts, I returned to the sheepgate to exit. Oh-oh—when I tried to exit, I found the “simplicity” of the gate wasn’t so simple any more, and my OWN sheeply “simplicity” reared its stupid head. I literally couldn’t figure out how to swing the gate in such a way that I could get OUT of the pasture. Never did figure it out, actually. I had to climb over the fence. Who SAYS God didn’t pick a good metaphor when labeling us as “sheep in need of a shepherd”?

 

That’s all right, though, as staying in God’s “pasture” for all eternity is the final aim of this psalm—“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” And God’s goodness and mercy will follow us “all the days of our lives.” Not a bad gig, really. Meanwhile, pay attention to those nudges…Amen.