Life is TOUGH Down Here!

 

Life is TOUGH Down Here!

 

Matthew 4:1-11
4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,

4:6 saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;

4:9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

 

Well, Lent 2023 is off and running. Traditionally, Lent is a time for Christian people to re-examine themselves, buff up their relationship with God and others with whom they live and love, and repent of the things that do harm to any of these relationships. These are noble aims for Lent. It begins with the thought, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Indeed, thanks TO the grace of God, I don’t GO there! 

 

I always felt that Lent was better used as a time for self-EXAMINATION, rather than some form of self-DENIAL, but the latter may be more your cup of Lenten tea? Ask yourself, though, what is the significance of what you choose to give up or deny to yourself? Is what you are exorcising from your life something that either will cleanse you of a residual, persistent sin? Or is it something costly that, by giving it up, you can now afford to give to an important cause? I could never see the spirituality of giving up chocolate or pizza for Lent, especially if you plan on taking them back up with abandon after the season is over. I suppose one could make a case that, by giving up some favorite activity or food during Lent, it would serve as a continual reminder of the season, and point the individual in God’s direction with a more intense focus. Frankly, though, the best testimonies I have heard coming out of meaningful Lenten observances are usually related to a discipline of self-examination, repentance, and spiritually-formative behavior modification. 

 

During my years of active ministry, I also felt Lent was a good time for the church to do a little examination, too. Rather than just “get busy” like we typically do during the high church seasons, the congregations I served often tried to study a book together or approach a difficult topic like dismantling racism, or some other area of social justice, in an effort to build more healthy relationships with our community and the world around us. I usually encouraged my parishioners to “take up something for Lent,” rather than engage in self-denial. That “something” could be joining a study group, developing a regular scripture reading plan or engaging in lectio divina Bible devotional practice. Maybe it could be taking up a new volunteer opportunity, or committing to increased financial stewardship. I found that the “taking up something for Lent” idea resonated with more folk than self-denial.

 

Now that we’ve introduced the “invitation to the disciplines of Lent,” I want to go a little different direction with this message. The text from Matthew is a familiar one, often labeled “the temptation of Jesus.” It, and last week’s text about the Transfiguration, point to the earthly challenges Jesus faced in his detour among the created order. The Transfiguration came at a time when Jesus was “spent,” and in need of ministry, himself. Moses and Elijah showed up, presumably to encourage him, and possibly to instruct him in the ways that what would happen soon—the trial and crucifixion—would be the culmination of God’s redemptive acts throughout history. Only in his case, it will be the capstone of a process leading to the restoration of all of humankind to a relationship with their creator. This time, the “salvation” will not be limited to Israel.

 

In today’s story, Jesus faces a “personal” temptation with Satan. The text reads almost like a parable or a fable, and whether this event actually “happened” could be open to debate, in that the storyteller—Matthew—most certainly did not witness it. We could guess that Matthew heard Peter, James or John tell of what they had witnessed, but of course, we have no record of this, and we DO know that Matthew, who was trying to convince Jews of the efficacy of Jesus, would regularly include stories or references in his narrative that harkened back to the Hebrew history, even when he got them wrong. Or, we could surmise that Jesus interpreted this event  to his disciples, and if so, it was probably reduced to a more parabolic form by him to make the points that 1) temptation is universal, as even the Son of God was tempted; and 2) resisting temptation is possible, if we use the defenses and “remedies” of our faith. 

 

For our brief examination of this text, I want to focus on the last verse: 

 

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

 

Let’s remember that the story is about JESUS—the Son of God—being tempted personally by the devil. While it might be a kind of moral lesson intended for Christ’s disciples, then and now, its hyperbolic pitting of GOD against SATAN is telling. In light of it, who are WE, that we believe we will escape temptation? And who are WE, that we believe we might triumph over its seductive clutches ALONE, when we do? Jesus needed the Word of God and his “mind of Christ” to beat old slew-foot, and then was restored to “health” by the “sudden” visitation by ANGELS FROM HEAVEN! Remember, this was JESUS! 

 

As a pastor, two things often mystified me, regarding “temptation” and some of the attempts to overcome it, by people I met. First of all, I met more than a few believing Christians who almost claimed a kind of “immunity” over temptation, simply because they “stayed too close to God” to let it happen. How close to God do you think Jesus was? And still, he was tempted. Temptation is a constant and widely-varied problem for the human being. Before we “activate” our redeeming relationship with Jesus Christ, temptations of all kinds keep us believing we can “conquer” anything, and tease us that we are “masters of our own domain.” It works until it doesn’t. And when things fall, WE fall hard, usually. But temptations continue, even as committed Christian people, because LIFE IS HARD, and the harder it gets, the more we can convince ourselves we “deserve” a little “devil” time to numb our senses. These temptations can take many forms: we justify using a little “chemical” (alcohol? Drugs?) medication to chill out, and WAY too many begin to rely on these, regularly. And that’s not even including those who find out too late that they may harbor a dangerously high “addictive” tendency. Temptation can be a “grass is greener” episode that leads to an adulterous relationship outside of marriage, or an unfaithfulness that destroys a courtship. Temptation may lead to poor career decisions based on a distorted assumption that “we are worth more than this,” or believing that our supervisors aren’t being fair to us. Temptation can even be giving in to psychological or mental deficiencies we KNOW we have, but foolishly choose to deny, or at least temporarily leave the safe harbor of our treatment for them. No matter how you slice it, the difficulties we face in life will often get us in MORE trouble if we yield to the temptations they often lead to, temptations that may be a siren song of an “easy way out” or a cheap solution to difficult challenges. 

 

And what of the devil tempting us, like he did Jesus? Most likely not, if you take the little we know about Satan from the Bible literally. You see, Satan, in this regard, was a “created” being who “fell” from grace, and as such, is limited in power, and finite in presence. Those of us crafted by the Almighty can only be in one place at a time, unlike the omnipresent God we serve. If YOU or I am being “tempted” by the devil, he’s leaving the rest of the world alone, so we might be engaging in an incredibly heroic act of self-sacrifice! No, Jesus gets the personal treatment from the devil; all we get are his “systems” of oppression and temptation.

 

OH, but that is bad enough! If there IS a literal Satan in the world, the one weapon he is left with on this side of Calvary is deception. Unfortunately, it is a nuclear weapon. Deception is the “mother” of all temptations. The systems of deception that are quite alive in the world are exceedingly dangerous and pernicious, whether they emanate from a “satanic” figure, or are a creation of the dark corners of the human mind. When we start believing lies, there is no end to their power. Lies are like opiates—they may lead to a feeling of power or “short cuts” to success, initially, but they are a trap, and their end is personal destruction. Unfortunately, if proliferated, they may harm or destroy our supportive communities, too. You don’t have to accept belief in a literal “devil” to see the devilish influence and power of deception all around us. It can take a genuinely difficult circumstance in life and turn it into a life-crippling disaster. Life IS hard, my friends, and it is these inevitable difficulties that can quickly lead to temptation and its slippery slope. I’m not usually a believer in the propaganda agent that is the “slippery slope,” but when it comes to temptation? Yeah, it is one, for sure.

 

Let’s not forget the angels. Even the Son of God needed a celestial supportive community to pick him up after the temptations offered him by Satan, and the “trials of the soul” they were for even HIM! Who are we to think that we can just cruise through the difficulties we face and the temptations they breed without reaching out to our supportive communities? Depending on what is tempting us to make foolish decisions and commit foolish acts, that community may be the medical community, or the psychological community, or even the legal community. It most certainly for the Christian believer is the community of faith and/or our covenant group or closest Christian friends. REACH OUT when you are being tempted to do things that you KNOW will probably lead to MORE trouble! If drug or alcohol addicts are counseled to call their sponsor when tempted to use, how much more should the people of God reach out to their supportive fellow Christian disciples?

 

One interesting note about this story. The Matthean text says that Jesus “was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” where he was tempted by Satan. There WAS no audience. Usually, he took disciples or someone with him, but this happens in solitude. Why? Possibly for the reason I mentioned earlier—his temptation was NOT to be ones “common to humans,” and therefore it might be misunderstood by witnesses. Our temptations come from INSIDE ourselves, “planted” there by the deceptive “roots” of human experience, that which we often scapegoat as “original sin.” Jesus DID take Peter, James, and John along to witness the Transfiguration, as he knew that ALL of us would need ministry by OUR supportive communities, and healing after the stressful experiences of life, and THIS could be modeled, even if his supportive community include two of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew Bible! Likewise, this is why it is so important to see the last verse of today’s text—the devil “leaves us” when we apply the defenses God offers us, and THEN we rely on our supportive community to soothe, heal, and strengthen us so we’re ready for the next tempting encounter. It doesn’t matter “who” our supportive community is, and frankly, I’ll bet you have been “picked up” by friends who would certainly rival Moses, Elijah, or even Michael the Archangel himself, in terms of the “power” they offered to help you get back on your feet. I know I have people like that. I’d hold my loving Christian partner, Dara, up against any of those guys! When the going got REALLY tough during my ministry years, it was SO wonderful to just go HOME!

 

Let’s briefly review: when tempted, Jesus appealed to God, God’s Word, and his commitment as a servant of God to make the source of the temptation go away. Then, he accepted and submitted to the ministry of his supportive community to gain back his footing and his strength. If Jesus could be tempted, even more so will we be, and the defenses he used are the same ones we should practice. 

 

May we, during this Lenten season, focus afresh on what Jesus counseled:

 

Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God.

 

Amen.

That Glow We Know

 

That Glow We Know

 

Exodus 24:12-18
24:12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

24:13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

24:14 To the elders he had said, "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them."

24:15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

24:16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.

24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

24:18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

 

Here's a good “church word” for you—transfiguration. It’s Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical year, a day that celebrates Jesus’ trip to the mountaintop where he winds up in the presence of Moses and Elijah, and begins to glow like a Coleman lantern. We are to surmise that this glow is what one takes on when they are in the ultimate “presence of God,” and I’m sure it didn’t hurt that two of the Bible’s greatest prophets showed up as Jesus’ escorts in this affair. For this gala affair, Jesus took the “human trinity” of Peter, James, and John from his little band, and are we at all surprised that, while all three of them witnessed the arrival of Moses and Elijah, and saw Jesus “transfigured” into an Identified Glowing Object (IGO), it was Peter who went bananas over the scene and wanted to “build tabernacles” for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, so they could all stay on the mountain and groove? Were it today, while all of the twelve would have common experiences with Jesus, hearing his teaching, being eyewitnesses to his miracles, and so forth, it would be Peter putting it on Facebook, we can be pretty sure.

 

Clearly, Moses was the “Jim Lovell” of the transfiguration event. Like the veteran astronaut (Gemini 7, 12 and Apollo 8) who became the steadying influence for an otherwise rookie crew during the Apollo 13 crisis, Moses had been to the mountaintop with God before. This was Jesus’ first transfiguration, and it was a first for Elijah, if we don’t count HIS spaceflight on the fiery chariot. We don’t know what they all talked about, but one wonders if the talk included Elijah giving the prophetic line to Jesus on what he was about to face, and Moses, offering wisdom and consolation, that Jesus was the culmination of the great plan for all of God’s people that the great prophet had received a hint of on Horeb a number of centuries earlier. The scriptures give us no hint of the content of that conversation, but the “glow” that overcomes Jesus is a sure sign that God affirmed it, and signed a pact with Jesus in light, that things were going to happen just as they were supposed to. Every one of us needs affirmation, from time to time, and it would appear that this “everyone” includes the Son of God. And God went all out, too—not just with the glow, but sending Moses and Elijah? Wow, these were two political and theological “heavy hitters!” 

 

Fire, clouds, and light are God’s “calling cards” in the Bible. Pillars of fire and clouds guided Israel through the wilderness after they were set free from Egypt. Clouds shrouded the “Mountain of God” (Horeb) when God was present, and today’s text says that God’s presence also appeared as a “devouring fire” there, in the sight of the people of Israel. We know that when Moses descends from the mountain his face glowed with a shine probably similar to the transfiguration of Jesus. Fire, clouds, and light. Fire purifies, clouds, while they may obscure things, also symbolize “change,” as in the weather, and light, well, numerous times the Bible tells us “God is light.”

 

The “glow” of God’s presence is not necessarily always borne of the literal giving off of light that could be measured with a light meter, but that “glow” on the faces of persons who have been in the presence of God is often quite real. I’ve seen it on the faces of people who were prayed for at an altar rail, on the face of some about to depart this life when they gaze beyond those gathered around their beds and see the face of their Savior, and on the tiny faces of infants as they are being baptized into the family of God. As I write this message, what some are calling a “revival” has broken out at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. Thousands have descended upon the chapel at that college, joining students who have been inside for days, experiencing the presence of God in an unusual way, not unlike Moses on Horeb or Jesus in the Transfiguration. Calling this event a “revival” harkens back to an earlier time in Christendom; maybe today it should be dubbed an ”in-breaking” or a “visitation of the Spirit.” Whatever we might call it, its genuineness and impact will be measured by time, changed lives, and maybe the “glow” that some have seen on the faces of those who there have “entered into God’s presence.” Even as a “revival” had occurred at Asbury College before, might it be that God chose that site as a “mountain” upon which to “visit” a couple different generations of God’s people? Seems to me, that is what is happening in these two “mountaintop” stories in the Bible. The place, itself, might not be important, but it BECOMES important when God says, “Meet you at the pole!”—or at Jumonville, or in the college chapel.

 

I’ll bet many of you who may read this message have had your own “mountaintop” experiences with God, be they with a group, or alone with God. And while there may not have been witnesses around to see a “glow” on our face, you remember a warmth deep inside yourself. And like the unusual nature of what is going on at Asbury, you knew it was different, you knew it was good, and you knew it was given to you by God. The reason the Bible talks about “the heart” so much is that these things FEEL like they are happening right there in our chest, don’t they? And if you haven’t yet had one of these experiences, your time will come—just be faithful and keep trusting God!

 

One of the dangers of “mountaintop” experiences is that we have a tendency to want to preserve them, or sustain them. That was Peter’s line on the Transfiguration event—“Let me build three tabernacles for you guys and we can just stay up here!” It is a danger of Asbury-type “revivals” or numinous experiences like that, too. They feel so good, and may exhibit such life-changing power that we just don’t want to leave them. Like old Polaroid photos, we want to coat them with that lacquer stuff to keep them forever. Or, we may fight to sustain them after “Elvis has left the building.” Let us never forget the blessing these kinds of unique experiences are, but let us also not forget that God is the host of them, and when God says they are over, they are over. We have no power over the fire, the cloud, or the light of them.

 

That’s not to say that the efficacy of them goes away. I believe a couple of books were written about the February, 1970 chapel revival at Asbury College, and I have known a number of friends who were students there at that time, and whose lives were permanently blessed and altered by that event. Who knows what will come of the lives touched by this “visitation”? I don’t know what to make of the number of “outsiders” who have felt compelled to drive long distances or hop a plane to “take in” the happening at Asbury? Is the Holy Spirit calling these people there? Are they coming out of their own spiritual curiosity or need? Or are they like the crowds that hovered around Jesus, knowing that something “big” was happening, and they just wanted to be in on it? Frankly, I wouldn’t fault them for any of these reasons, but I do hope they don’t get in the way of a “revival” that happened at a college chapel for a reason, and it was probably centered on the 1200 or so students at that institution. Still, even as Jesus could hone in on a woman with an issue of blood in a pressing crowd, or could hear the muffled cries of a lame or blind man in the midst of a mob, I’m sure God can assure that those who have the greatest needs will be touched. The one thing I can deduce from what I have read and heard of the Asbury happening is that this is that “glow we know.” While I am a 68-year-old, liberal/evangelical, ordained elder who has seen his share of weird religious “manifestations,” many of which were ginned up or artificially promoted—things that tend to make me quite skeptical of stuff like this—I DO believe that something wonderful is happening at Asbury, and again, the witness of time and “transfigured” lives will be the proof in that “pudding.” It SO just sounds like something God would be up to in these rapidly-changing times we live in—again, “that glow we know.” One caveat here—pay attention to the witness of the Spirit coming out of this over the weeks, months, and years ahead. Do NOT be surprised if you hear these younger “revivalers” speaking of being called to more diverse understandings of their faith, and to working for more inclusiveness and diversity in the Body of Christ. “Old Line” evangelicals won’t like this, but they should not turn their backs on it, as God may be doing a “new” thing in this “awakening.” 

 

Did you ever wonder what God DID with Moses for “forty days and forty nights” on the mountain? I hope he fed him, or Moses would have been a mess, coming down with those stone tablets. And what of the text telling us that “God wrote” the commandments on the tablets? The time frame of “forties” mentioned by the author is a typical biblical number. And ascribing the actual scribing of the tablets to God was probably a writer’s shortcut, as I just can’t wrap my head around God “sitting down” at a slab of stone and chiseling out the decalogue. Maybe that is why Moses was up there so long—he was “God’s secretary” to get these foundational laws down in writing? If we try to take the Bible too literally, we miss out on the opportunity to ask these interesting questions! We know the outcome, though—the ten commandments that became the base for all of the laws of Israel that guided God’s people in life, and their life with each other, and their life with God. And then Jesus, who said he came to “fulfill the law, not destroy it,” built upon those teachings for us all to live by them. Let us apply this same “outcomes based” evaluation to what God is doing on the latest “mountaintop” at Asbury University.

 

As the Asbury event winds down at some point, watch for emergence of testimonies, listen for the witnesses, expect transfigured lives, and keep an eye out for the “glow we know!” Amen!

MIS-Affiliation

 

Mis-Affiliation

 

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
3:1 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,

3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?

3:4 For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?

3:5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.

3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

3:7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

3:8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.

3:9 For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

 

Sunday night, many, MANY eyes will be on the TV and the annual “big game” that was long ago dubbed “The Super Bowl.” Do you know how it got that name? Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, and principal of the old American Football League (which merged with the National Football League, which was then divided into the National and American Football Conferences) was the one who named it. After it was decided that the NFL and the AFL (before the merger) would play an annual championship game, he was watching one of his children playing with the latest toy, a jumpy, high-bouncing ball, he asked the child what it was called. “A Super Ball,” came the reply. It hit Mr. Hunt—why not call the big game “The Super Bowl”? It made sense, as the big, season-ending games in the college football world were called “bowl” games because most of the stadiums back then looked like bowls. I think this year’s game is the 57^th “Super Bowl.” And it IS a “big game,” as well as big business, big media coverage, big partying, and of course, big gambling. While some will tune in to see the advertisements or the halftime show with Rihanna, most Americans will root for their favorite team, either the Philadelphia Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs (still owned by the Hunt family, by the way). Those two towns will be rooting for their “home” teams, while the rest of us just choose an affiliation for week, or so. Already, the quarterback of the Chiefs—Patrick Mahomes—has been named the “Most Valuable Player” of the NFL this year, so there is that in Kansas City’s favor. On the other hand, the Eagles have very “complete” team with a strong defense, and they also have the best team “fight” song, although you wouldn’t know it by the way their quarterback, Jalen Hurts, sang it after the Eagles won the NFC championship game a couple of weeks ago. 

 

Another notable about Super Bowl XVII is that it will be the first with two Black starting quarterbacks. Every year, it seems like some “new” element makes this year’s Super Bowl an even bigger game than the previous ones. So, what does all of this have to do with my SERMON for this week? I’m glad you asked that question!

 

In sports, there is nothing at all wrong with having a “favorite” team and rooting for them to win. We may do so because we are from that team’s town (or used to be), because we like the collection of players on the team (or at least their star players), or just because they have a habit of winning pretty regularly. (We Steelers fans still root hard for the Black and Gold, even though our record of winning regularly needs to be viewed through a rearview mirror, at present.) In fact, having a favorite team and rooting for them is what makes a sport popular and prosperous. Not so much, with churches. 

 

Apparently, a competition was raging at the church in Corinth. Paul doesn’t mince words, as he tells the people there that—obviously—they are not ready for “solid” food, but that he must now treat them like the “infants” they are. Not exactly a good come-on line, do you think? Paul says he must address them as “people of the flesh,” which may be a euphemism for his wanting to punch them in the face. As a pastor, I wish I could say that I always treated people with respect and demonstrated compassion, and while I never punched a parishioner, and really don’t remember “yelling” at one, there were times when I wish I could have! And it wasn’t always their fault. Sometimes my frustration was “designed at home”—my anger toward another was occasionally fueled by my own shortcomings, or by something I had really putted up, causing the rift. In psychology, we might diagnose this as “projection,” or blaming another for the very thing YOU are responsible for. Could this have been some of Paul’s problem? While Paul was a well-educated Jewish scholar, he was almost as “new” to this Christian gig as were his parishioners. Remember Obi-wan Kenobi of “Star Wars,” who blamed himself for “failing” to train Anakin Skywalker adequately, and then taking the hit for helping “create” the evil Darth Vader? One wonders if some of Paul’s indignation over what was going on in Corinth wasn’t, at least partly, an “Obi-wan” meltdown. Paul had to feel his way along, and so did the people who were his disciples. We pastors have a clue how hard this is. Of course, there was also that mysterious “thorn in the flesh” with which Paul had to contend, and it, too, could have made him a bit “edgy.” Imagine if it was a really bad case of hemorrhoids, or shingles? 

 

The central issue Paul is losing it over in today’s passage is the “competition” that has broken out among the Corinthian Christians. They had chosen “teams” (“I belong to Paul”…”I belong to Apollos”) and were spiritually duking it out over which “team” was better, and which one got to “bring in the harvest.” It seems their one-upmanship was over who was better to LEAD and which “team” should do the “following,” and therefore, the more menial tasks. Paul tries to defuse this by using one of Jesus’ best arguments—that we are ALL called to a ministry of servanthood, and that we should try to “outdo” one another in SERVING one another. That sure sounds “spiritual,” but as a pastor, I can surely say that it gets a lot of positive head-shaking and righteous-looking facial affirmations, but pretty much the parts of most folk from behind the nose and following just don’t seem to buy it, especially at first. Servanthood, you see, is a REALLY mature concept! Infants and children like to be the center of attention—all the time—so in this regard, Paul’s labeling the Corinthian Christians as “infants” in the faith was right on. Modern parishioners often model this “slow growth” characteristic, as well. Mature, seasoned believers? If they have been an active participant in the life of the congregation, they DO develop a “servant’s heart.” It is important to point out, however, that being a long-term “church member” doesn’t necessarily translate out to having a servant’s heart, which can only develop in community life. Even long-term members can be just as clueless, if they have mostly been ”Lone Rangers.” Less experienced believers/members will more often display the “early childhood development” stage. Some may manifest itself as the kind of competitiveness Paul faced in Corinth, and some of this immaturity may show as “I’m not worthy,” or “I don’t know how” pronouncements. The challenge of pastors and other leaders is to find ways to connect the ”veterans” with the newbies, so they see both HOW to be servant leaders, and why this is important. 

 

At a more macro level, the church seems never to have been able to successfully exorcise this “I’m of Apollos/I’m of Paul” game of champions. From the moment Paul and John Mark parted ways, we have been choosing sides. Modern sects and denominations have their “patron saints” around whom they rally, be it “Calvin” or “Luther” or “Wesley,” or the “Orthodox” vs. the “Roman Catholic,” or the Pope vs. the TV preachers. How about the new “game” on the block—the Global Methodists vs. the “United” Methodists? “I belong to Greenway,” or “I belong to Bickerton.” “I belong to Oliveto” or “I belong to Ongley.” “I belong to the LITERAL Bible” or “I belong to historical-critical interpretation of scripture.” How about “MY church is voting to disaffiliate” or “MY church is staying loyal to the UMC.” As I said last week, THIS “game” or competition is the worst witness Methodism has yet put forth to a world that just needs to hear about the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Doesn’t Paul eventually get around to telling the church at Corinth that we ALL belong to CHRIST? Two thousand years later, and we STILL DON’T GET IT!

 

Choosing between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs is a fun, cultural phenomenon during this Super Bowl weekend. Choosing between factions that are going to split the second largest Protestant denomination in our nation is not fun, and it will NOT be understood by the culture as anything but a “family feud” that demonstrates—yet again—that “those Christians” don’t put their “money where their mouth is.” It has been, and WILL be a negative witness to the inclusive, “grace upon grace” saving truth of Jesus Christ, and it will NOT honor Christ. That the United Methodist Church has stayed “united” to this point—warts and all—has been some kind of a positive witness, albeit a less-than-perfect one, but the culture could always point to the GOOD things we have accomplished together, such as the United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) and the various institutions of higher education we spawned and still support, especially through the Black College Fund. Africa University has also been a great success. 

It's no wonder Paul was going postal over the competition in Corinth. He KNEW it was in danger of becoming the BIG, public story about the fledgling Christian church there, when the Gospel should be the REAL “big story.” One can read between the lines of the Corinthians text to see that much more was going on than just a prideful disagreement over who these factions were “with.” The same is true with the United Methodist disaffiliation, that has been polluted with MIS-information, name-calling, in-fighting, and even complaints filed between the “camps” and pastors. What has been a bad public witness will most likely lead to two weakened denominations and more closed churches. It’s too bad we don’t have Paul here to help us straighten this out. We all say we believe in the witness of scripture, but certainly this passage is not being taken too seriously in the MIS-affiliation activity that is slicing and dicing the UMC at this time. How very sad, indeed. 

 

On a more personal level, if I were preaching this message to a congregation, I would urge each and everyone who dares call themselves a Christian to enter into a time of personal confession and discernment. WE are called to be servant leaders and show the world what servanthood to Jesus Christ looks like. We are not called to win arguments or to “disaffiliate” from those with whom we disagree. Search your hearts, friends. Choose this day whom you will serve! Amen.

Seeing Things VERY Differently

 Seeing Things VERY Differently

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
2:1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.

2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

2:3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

2:4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

2:5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

2:6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish.

2:7 But we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

2:9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love God"

2:10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

2:11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God.

2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

2:13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

2:14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

2:15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny.

2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

 

What you have just read is part of one of two, and possibly three letters to the people of the church at Corinth written by the Apostle Paul. Scholars believe we may actually have three different letters, or at least parts of them, recorded in our Bibles as First and Second Corinthians. Why is this important? Partly because it shows that Paul was regularly trying to instruct about and arbitrate for numerous “complications” in this church. The city of Corinth was a prosperous seaport, with the kind of diverse population one might expect in such a center of commerce. From rich to poor, wealthy to “blue collar,” and manifesting a wide variety of religious practices and experience, the rapid growth of the “new” religion of Christianity had brought samples of this diversity into its house churches and meeting places. Paul, raised and educated as a Jewish religious leader, was extremely challenged by this smorgasbord of humanity. We should remember that before meeting Jesus on the Road to Damascus, Paul had been charged with “enforcing” the unity and purity of the Jewish faith by persecuting Christians, who were seen as a blemish on its Jewish roots and heritage.  Now, the transformed Paul is trying hard to look past HIS past and see the kind of future the Holy Spirit had for the fledgling Christian church. This would be a church that had to somehow embrace its diversity, even celebrate it. But this meant finding a way to teach and guide the church inclusively. The difficulty of doing this is not even lost on us TODAY, over 2,000 years later. Imagine Paul’s mind and method trying to apprehend it! But try, he did. We can learn a lot from Paul.

 

In today’s passage, Paul is endeavoring to get the Corinthian Christians to see things in a very different way. While it is nigh unto impossible to remove the human “fingerprints” from what we believe God is doing in our midst, Paul appeals to a novel “mind’s eye” to view it all differently—the ageless wisdom of God Almighty. While addressing a Corinthian congregation about moral issues might more compare to writing a congregation of “believers” assembled in Las Vegas, in our day, the notion of “wisdom” was something central to a Greek-speaking, Greek-educated people. When Paul turns to wisdom as his subject, the readers (or hearers when his words were read out loud) would have grown quiet. Even as we see in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, an appeal to the logos, or collective wisdom and truth of the Divine, got people’s attention, post haste. Paul’s description of God’s wisdom as “secret and hidden” would have directly played the “E string” of the violin of these people’s curiosity. Who doesn’t like a good mystery, and who doesn’t like to hear a secret that has been hidden by the Divine mind for “ages”? They would have wanted this secret, and they would have sought this wisdom. To go even further, Paul brings in the words “power” and “spirit” with his idea, making his appeal even more winsome and impossible to top.

 

Paul is basically selling the idea that in Jesus Christ, God has revealed God’s hidden wisdom to those who trust in Christ. God will empower believers via the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Jesus—to see their lives, their world, and the in-breaking Kingdom of God VERY differently. While these Greek people held human philosophy and wisdom in high esteem, they also understood its limitations, and even its impotence in the face of the things they feared, be it war, tragedy, illness, or even the seemingly continuous arguing and infighting going on in their new church. 

 

Paul draws a parallel between what humans can know because we are human with what God can know because God is God. Again, his audience knew Plato, and that Plato postulated a huge chasm between God and humanity, with only the “things” humans could fashion and possess being very poor “copies” or representations of the Divine “ideas” in the mind of God. Now, here was Paul saying that in Christ, this chasm had been bridged by the very Son of God, and that the Holy Spirit of God would “hook us up” to the wisdom of God, the wisdom of the ages, if we reached out in faith. It all sounds so mystical, but Paul tries so hard in this letter, and in today’s passage, to make it possible, practical, and even inevitable for the Christian believer and for the church. Now, if that isn’t a tough order, I don’t know what is!

 

Interestingly, Paul starts so simply in this passage, claiming to know only “Christ and him crucified,” in an effort to “dial down” the lofty theological rhetoric that was typical in religious discourse. He does, however, go on to describe the incredible, almost unbelievable truths of the Christian Gospel, namely that God had come among us and revealed the great mystery of the ages, and that it was God’s desire that they would share in these. No longer were the precepts of faith entrusted only to “Holy Men,” but they were now offered to all of God’s people. I can say as a retired pastor that every one of us, when we mounted the pulpit on Sunday, sought to bring the incredible truths of the love, grace, and “the big reveal” that God has wrought in Jesus Christ to a level that everyone listening would get “caught up” in them, claim them as her or his own, and embark on the grand journey that is the Christian faith. We also hoped that for those who had long been on that journey, we might offer new light for their path, or significant homiletical challenges that might further spur and nurture their faith. Honestly, we preachers OH so much want to do this, and often “amen” the sermon feeling like I think Paul often felt when addressing the Corinthian church—“Close, but no cigar.” Even when we descended from the pulpit on that rare Sunday when we thought we accomplished at least a good part of our goal, the fight at the next church board meeting or nasty phone call from a parishioner suggesting “you don’t know your Bible, pastor” called our evaluation—and sometimes our whole ministry—into question. So it was for Paul here, if you read the Corinthian epistles honestly. But he never stopped trying, and neither do we modern grassroots “apostles.” The good news is that thanks to Paul’s efforts, the church is still here, and is quite thriving in many corners, and maybe thanks to our efforts, it will continue for another 2,000 years.

 

Seeing things VERY differently is the key, not just to the survival of the church, but to its continual efforts to remain relevant. The church IS still here because in each age, it found new ways to reach unbelievers with a message and public witness that caught their interest, or that led to their healing. But if it puts down anchors and tries to “stay” in any one age, time will pass it by, and it will have yielded to the “comfortable” wisdom of humans and got passed over by God’s available “wisdom of the ages.” As I said earlier, we can’t ever totally removed the fingerprints of humans from what we believe or claim to believe God is doing in the world, nor should we, if we are to be truly Christian. After all, we follow a Savior who claimed to be both fully human AND also be the “fullness of the Godhead, bodily.” Seeing things differently means that we understand the we MUST be the actors in ushering in the Kingdom of God to our age, AND God’s Holy Spirit and God’s wisdom can flow though us in these efforts almost like George Lucas’s “Force.” The efforts must be ours because we ARE the “hands and feet” of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit, are also his witnesses. We can believe this and let the Spirit lead and empower us, or we can take matters into our own hands—which the church has so often done—and look so pedestrian that unbelievers are not spurred to inquire about us, and believers within the walls of the church lose interest. And what happens when believers lose interest? Usually, we provoke some kind of theological or biblical divergence and SPLIT. That’s never a good witness to the uninitiated, by the way. Never. Doing this yet again is evidence of church leaders seeing things the “same old way,” instead of very differently with the wisdom of God. Shame on us.

 

But there is much good news in this passage! In verse 9, Paul writes: “…as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love God.’” God has great things in store for YOU, for ME, for the CHURCH, and for the WORLD, if we will just open our minds and hearts to seeing things differently. How differently? Different TODAY than what the church saw twenty years ago, ten years ago, five years ago, maybe even yesterday! The Spirit of God looks at what IS and what WILL BE, and offers the church wisdom as to how to “put our hands to the plow and not look back.” Yet, we are so easily seduced into plowing the same ground, over and over again. That is seeing things as they WERE, not how they CAN BE. Seeing things “differently” is about claiming the promise and recipe of verse 9—seeing things that NO EYE HAS SEEN (yet), nor EAR HEARD (yet), nor what our “pea-pickin’” little hearts can imagine (yet). Around a hilly and confusing city like Pittsburgh, we often say, “You can’t get there from here.” Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians—and US—that it's time we start believing we CAN get there from here! We CAN be a diverse, inclusive church AND we can be a Holy Spirit led church as well. We CAN put our human fingerprints on the gates to the in-breaking Kingdom of God, in fact, we MUST, but we do so knowing our Savior is God AND “one of us,” and that our fingerprints are also HIS fingerprints. Open the gates! Let the “captives” out and welcome the those seeking redemption in! We all need new eyesight, if this is to happen in our time. The old way of seeing will not take us to the new places the Kingdom of God needs to go.

 

There is great news here, too, for each and every Christian believer, regardless of where you are on your journey. God’s “wisdom of the ages,” the “secret” that was “hidden” for so long, have been revealed, and they are YOURS for the taking. His name is Jesus Christ, and he cares for YOU as much as he cares for the whole world. The Spirit of God that resides in your heart right now is proof of that. Trust the wisdom, trust the grace, trust the embrace of God’s love in Jesus. And trust the new way of seeing things they will lead you to! Amen. 

God, Guns, and Guts are Making America Grieve

 God, Guns, and Guts are Making America Grieve

 

Matthew 5:1-12
5:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

5:2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

5:7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

5:10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

5:11 "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

Another week, another few mass shootings in America. “When will it stop?,” everyone asks. Blame the guns. Blame “mental health.” Blame gun laws. Blame the dearth of gun laws. Say stupid things like “Guns aren’t the problem, we just need to enforce the laws.” Blame the Founding Fathers for the Second Amendment. Blame the NRA. Blame the government (AND both Democrats and Republicans). Believe me, there’s enough blame to go around. What about the American lust for guns? I don’t hear that mentioned much. Have you seen a chart contrasting the shootings in the USA vs. the rest of the developed world that has reasonable gun laws and restrictions? It’s incriminating. Deeply incriminating. Our love affair with guns is actually killing us.

 

When I was serving in Warren, PA, the Newton/Sandy Hook massacre occurred. That Sunday, I urged my congregation to write to all of their representatives, both State and Federal, urging them to consider reasonable gun regulation such as:

 

*A national, computerized system for background checks for ALL gun purchases, including those at gun shows. Private guns purchased or “gift” guns would not change hands until a form was submitted and the receiving individual’s history checked.

 

*All gun purchasers must also sign a form allowing their mental health history to be checked before the sale could be completed.

 

*All gun sellers would be required to train the purchaser in how to load, fire, and make safe the gun they were purchasing. (The week after Sandy Hook, a young boy was accidentally shot by a gun his dad had just purchased because the gun kept a bullet in the chamber even when the clip had been removed, and the father didn’t know this.)

 

*All purchasers of handguns would be required to not only receive training in handgun safety, but would have to be checked out on a firing range. (It’s not like in the movies where anyone can shoot an attacker 10 yards away and hit just the assailant. Even well-trained policemen rarely hit their target with a handgun, but untrained shooters are even more apt to hit an innocent bystander than their target.)

 

I wrote letters to all of my pertinent representatives with these suggestions. I don’t know if anyone else did, but that sermon is the only one I ever preached that was greeted with applause by the congregation, because it just made sense. The ideas got no votes, though, as evidenced by the fact that none of them ever became law.

 

But on this side of the gun, what drives people to such acts of violence? There are probably as many reasons for this as there are guns in America. We do know that over half of gun deaths, annually, are people taking their lives by suicide, and it is mostly men (women either don’t have easy access to guns, or even in desperation, can’t imagine shooting themselves; they tend to use drugs in suicide attempts, which is why many are rescued). 

 

Here is an important qualifier: there ARE hosts of serious gun owners, including hunters and collectors, who have great respect for the weapons they buy and own. I have known quite a few of these persons, including a couple of parishioners who built and repaired guns as a hobby, or for a living. Many of these people are in favor of reasonable gun regulations, as their gun-related activities and interests would not be affected by them. Unless they have been poisoned by the National Rifle Association’s propaganda and “hate” campaigns against any and all gun regulation, these are reasonable people and truly “law-abiding citizens” not jeopardized by gun safety training requirements and protective legislation. They know how dangerous guns can be in the hands of amateurs and the untrained.

 

So, what does all of this have to do with the passage in Matthew from Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount,” a section we have dubbed “The Beatitudes”? We have all seen the bumper sticker, “God, Guns, and Guts Made America Great.” Are the teachings of Jesus compatible with this slogan? Or even the American love affair with firearms? Maybe not, but not necessarily in the way one might think.

 

As an aside, I get such a kick out of pastors and church members who are advocating for disaffiliation from the United Methodist Church. Supposedly, what is at the heart of this “soft schism” is a statement in the UMC’s “Book of Discipline” that “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teachings.” These folk support this statement—and more—that do great violence to persons in the LGBTQ community. And yet, I’ll bet many of them would immediately nix the idea that owning guns for personal protection and the “right” of persons to use them to defend self and personal property are ALSO against “Christian teachings.” Is it ever right for a Christian believer to take the life of another person because they feel threatened? While this is a topic for another sermon, it is at least part of the controversy raised by the juxtaposition of “God, Guns, and Guts” and The Beatitudes of Jesus Christ.

 

Maybe our problem is at the heart of what Jesus was trying to head off? We can live resigned to “lives of quiet desperation,” or we can opt for something better—something proactive and positive. This is precisely what Jesus was getting at! Let’s look at his “Blessed are the…” statements.

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…” “Poor in spirit” may mean a number of things, but one understanding could be that persons who manifest this trait are humble, grateful people. They understand that THEY are not the reason they may be blessed, and that all good fortune comes from GOD, not from them. They also know that their understanding of spiritual truth is measured and valid only as it is prompted by GOD’S Holy Spirit. People who are ”poor in spirit” would not affirm the idea that “guns and guts” made anything “great,” apart from the blessing of God.

 

“Blessed are those who mourn…” Can a nation do any more mourning than we have done for the victims of Sandy Hook? Las Vegas? Orlando? Parkland? Virginia Tech? Uvalde? Or the over 45,000 Americans who died by guns per year? (Incidentally, that number is almost the total of American soldiers who died throughout the entire Vietnam War.) People who genuinely mourn tend to look for ways to decrease the REASONS to mourn, such as medical research to end killing diseases or safety measures to decrease highway deaths. Why are we not similarly motivated to encourage and VOTE for ways to lower gun deaths? I guess we just like to mourn and mourn, in this regard.

 

“Blessed are the meek…” Of course, as we have examined before, “meek” does not mean “weak” or “milquetoast.” The word can mean humble, but probably more accurately, it describes a person who is honest, with gobs of integrity. “Genuine” would be another good adjective for the meek. If you like psychological descriptors, how about “self-aware”? Persons who are “meek” are blessed with an almost total disregard for “props” or possessions that artificially elevate their status or their worth. These are not persons who “need’ guns, nor are they persons who will brag that their strong “guts” got them where they are. They DO, however, give credit to where credit is due—to the God who created and sustains them.

 

“Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness…” When I hear the word “righteousness,” I think of “right living,” or those who seek to live a life pleasing to themselves and God. Balanced by the other “blessed” statements of Jesus, those who “hunger for righteousness” set a God-honoring life as a top priority. This necessarily means putting personal ambition and “defense of self and property” as much lower on this priority scale. Those who thirst for righteousness think far less about “my rights” than they do about what is right in the eyes of God.

 

“Blessed are the merciful…” When it comes to addressing the ancient Hebrew law code of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” it is clear that Jesus is directly countering it as an argument for reciprocal violence in this statement. Actually, the law code statement more directly addresses compensation for a wrong done to an individual—if someone takes out your eye, you can’t kill them, but only similarly wound them, for example—than it does retribution or revenge. Remember learning that Shylock in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” wants his “pound of flesh,” but is told that if he spills one more drop of blood than exactly that pound, he will be liable? This is more what the law code is saying. Jesus, instead, elevates MERCY as the greater good. For those Shakespeareans still with me, even Portia says, “The quality of mercy is not strained…”

 

“Blessed are the pure in heart…” While all of the “blessed are the” statements of Jesus in this monumental message have a “reward” clause, this one takes the cake—those who are pure in heart will “see God.” I don’t think Jesus means “see” as in eyeball, but “see” as in “get,” or understand. People who work at cleansing their hearts of the things that corrupt them—sinful activities, selfish aims and ambition, vain personal glory, will begin to comprehend the absence of these things as beginning to align them with the ”personality” of God as demonstrated and taught by Jesus, himself. “Pure in heart” people are those who wind up as “servants of all,” and what Jesus categorized as “the last,” whom he said would become “first” in the Realm of God. Toting a gun does not make someone a hero. Being willing to lay one’s life down for a friend, does. Only the pure in heart would be willing to do this, don’t you think? Just like Jesus…

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers…” This one should be easy and obvious to interpret, but I have learned over the years that “peace” is not just the absence of war, nor is “peacemaking” just personally being a nice, accommodating individual. Peacemaking is an intentional, intense, and difficult effort undertaken on behalf of the whole community. I have been involved with a team of persons operating under the name of the “Peace is Possible Coalition.” This group meets regularly, keeps eyes peeled for places where proactive efforts toward justice are called for, writes letters to the powerbrokers, authors editorials aimed at exposing injustices, and plans forums where principal leaders come together to strategize for justice and peace. It’s a lot of work! And our efforts too often only succeed in raising an issue to the level of public knowledge or scratching the surface of monumental tasks that will be necessary for addressing serious issues that block or restrain justice. And there can be no true peace without justice. Peace without justice is at most a “cease fire” that yields little progress, especially for those suffering under an injustice, such as racism. Rodney King may have meant well with his exclamation, “Why can’t we all just get along?” as he was getting his head beat in unjustly by the police, but the truth is, the work of peacemakers is complicated, involved, and long-suffering, but real peacemakers never stop believing that peace is possible. Oh, and while the Colt company once made a gun they called the “Peacemaker,” fact is, guns make war, not peace.

 

Jesus concludes this part of his teaching by saying that living according to these ideas will most likely bring more retribution—or persecution—than praise, as in doing so, others with far less pure motives are exposed for what they are, and people don’t like this, especially when they are among the powerbrokers. And while it sounds like Jesus promises “rewards” that don’t arrive until “heaven,” his reference may have more to do with bringing some “heaven” on earth as the efforts these values evoke make for positive change that benefits all.

 

The teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount clearly dispute ideas like “God, Guns, and Guts” make anything great. Servanthood, compassion, humility, loving peace and righteousness, and lives of genuineness and integrity—these are the things that result in greatness, not as much for the individual as for the community, and that reflects the greatness of God. Jesus gives us proactive and positive goals for living that oppose the “firearm and frontal assault” mode we often see at play in the world around us. 

 

May we take these “blessed” values seriously and attain the day when we will, together, “rejoice and be exceedingly glad.” Amen.

Minding Your Own Business

 

Minding Your Own Business

 

Psalm 27:1, 4-9
27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

27:4 One thing I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in God’s temple.

27:5 For God will hide me in a shelter in the day of trouble; God will conceal me under the cover of a tent: God will set me high on a rock.

27:6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in God’s tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

27:7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!

27:8 "Come," my heart says, "seek God’s face!" Your face, Lord, do I seek.

27:9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

 

Back in the 1980s, when I was studying for my Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, I remember one really challenging week. The “normal” pressures of working toward a graduate degree at a “tough” school, coupled with pastoring a “recovering” church in a Mon Valley community, were enough, but this week was even worse. I can’t recall some of the extenuating circumstances, but I do remember that Dara was out of town for a few days attending a conference, so I had “charge” of our two small children, one of whom was just a toddler, and who had come down with a virus, of some sort. He was running a fever, which, as usual, peaked in the evening, and I remember that the night before my heaviest day of classed, it really spiked. I knew I had to take him to the emergency room, as he just felt like a little pot roast, as I held his listless body. I dropped our daughter off at a colleague’s house up the street on our way to the ER. They were able to get his fever down, and we finally all got home in the very early hours of the morning. Already feeling pretty exhausted, I left the children off at my colleague’s house again (his wife was watching our kids while I was in class), and headed for the seminary. Now, I was not alone in my exhaustion and anxiety. A number of my fellow students were living through similar challenges, and it was that point in the term when the pressures on all of us were just “off the charts.” After lunch, I had the seminar half of a required Pastoral Care class, taught by one of our favorite professors, Dr. Andrew Purves. [Each major, required class was held two days a week, with the first class being the lecture, and the second class, a “seminar,” wherein the larger class was divided into smaller groups to discuss what had been presented in the lecture, as well as share presentations on various case studies we were assigned.]

As we filed into the seminar room and took our seats around the large conference table, the tension in that room was palpable. We all “sat up at attention” when Dr. Purves entered the room and took his seat at the head of the seminar table. Dr. Purves set his notebook down, opened it for a moment, closed it, looked slowly around the room at his students, and said, in his characteristic Scottish brogue, “How is it with your SOUL, today?” I think every one of us literally broke down and cried, as in this simple Wesleyan question, he gave us permission to let out the tension in a sudden burst of emotion. Next, he had us each share what was on our hearts, one by one. In abandoning his agenda for the class in pastoral care, he provided a grace-filled example of exactly what pastoral care IS! I will never forget that day, and the great gift Dr. Purves gave to us that day. 

 

I begin this message with that story because today’s scripture from Psalm 27 is ALL ABOUT YOU. As a preacher and Christian leader who believes in and promotes the idea of our fellowship being a living, breathing, supportive faith COMMUNITY, my messages usually gravitate toward how to build this community and its “care and feeding.” Often, I push this toward how the community of faith makes disciples of Jesus Christ out of us, and how this mission leads to our community being God’s witnesses and servants in a needy world. Not today. Forgive me for not spending as much time in my messages on what YOU need, as my listeners and colleagues in the journey of Christian discipleship. An old TV commercial used to say, “Life comes at you hard,” and it does. If our faith does not first provide support to each of us, and a timely release—Dr. Purves style—for our tension, then it is nothing but another “thing” that dumps “requirements” on us—yet another stressor. One might just hear the voice of God saying in Psalm 27, “How is it with your SOUL, today?”

 

The Psalmist is not asking for God’s presence and intervention for any faith community. He or she is crying out for God’s “salvation” for themselves. Period. The Psalmist is looking for something much more holistic in their understanding of “salvation” than we usually do in Christian circles. Do we not too often limit “salvation” to having a SIN-ectomy? Like those twelve students in the seminar room in seminary, who were wound up tighter than the mainspring of a mantle clock, so the Psalmist wants God’s help to find release and refuge from the “battle.” Look what the writer is after:

 

LIGHT – without it, we stumble in the darkness, and can’t read a map, even if we have one to chart our course.

 

Freedom from FEAR – at its best, fear alerts us to danger, quickening a response leading to safety; at its worst, it paralyzes us, keeping us right in the path of the pending threat, or even worse, it lies to us and stokes more fear and anxiety in the face of a non-existent threat that may never occur.

 

A STRONGHOLD – one dictionary definition of a stronghold is: “a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld;” the writer wants God to be that stronghold of his LIFE. That day in the seminar room, both God and Dr. Purves, represented by the simple question, “How is it with your soul, today?”, were a sudden and welcome “stronghold” for us all!

 

A SHELTER – one that is a “house” where we may behold God’s beauty and worship God (a temple); “Home” may be a better word here, as if you are privileged to have the kind of peaceful, restful, and comfortable home with a loving companion like I do, you are always to glad to be there! The Psalmist—and WE—want so much more than just a “roof over our heads” in life.

 

CONCEALED and RAISED UP – while these may seem like opposite things, they are related. We want to know that God is there to protect us and even “hide” us from the threats that may come, but we also want the confidence in knowing that when the storms have passed, we will be “lifted up” above the fray, and may proudly view the world from “high upon a rock,” rather than from under the belly of the beast.

 

JOY, SINGING, and MELODY – Joy is such an elusive thing, but it doesn’t have to be! If we, like the Psalmist, cry out to God to be our stronghold, God will meet our needs. Joy happens when we know we don’t have to be afraid of anything anymore, including death! Singing is the most universal form of praise, and it has the ability to pump up and elevate the smarting soul. Singers know, too, that one must learn the melody of the song before one can compose the harmony of it. This goes to my point today that our own personal well-being and holistic “salvation” is a necessary building block to the harmony of the faith community. This writer gets that!

 

Seeing God’s FACE – this is something we read frequently in the Hebrew scriptures, and it is a multi-faceted issue for all of God’s people. Seeing God’s “face” means God notices us. We Westerners equate this with our concept of “eye contact.” When we make eye contact with someone, a connection is made. In the case of eye contact, this may not always mean a peaceful connection, but seeing “God’s FACE” is a comforting kind of eye contact for the Jews, as it means that God SEES THEM! God’s face also is often “shining” in the Bible, and this “shine” or Shakina glory offers not just God’s blessing, but also God’s power. God’s “face” is often also a symbol for God’s “graciousness” or grace. Remember the famous benediction from the book of Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Seeing God’s “face” is so much more than just a look in the eye!

 

HEAR me and do not FORSAKE me – If God is not “hearing” us, then why do we pray? Therein lies the reason some stop praying—they don’t think God is really listening. But God DOES listen. In fact, if we believe the biblical record of both the Old and New Testaments, and the very words of Jesus, himself, we know that God never does NOT listen to us. Keep praying—keep seeking that “face” of the Divine! And the Psalmist’s plea for God to not “forsake” him is a poetic way of stating his confidence that God will most certainly NOT abandon him. Israel had learned, down through the ages, that God NEVER abandoned or “forsook” them, but instead, it was THEY who had forsaken God. When they once again turned their faces toward the Almighty, what did they see, but the “face” of God still looking lovingly in their direction, and offering renewal, revival, and “salvation.”

 

This scripture—and this message—is for YOU! Leave behind your martyr complex and adopt the reality that God wants YOU to successfully navigate the rocky roads of life, keep your eyes locked on the gracious face of the God who loves you, and continually renew the joy that life is meant to be, as designed by our Creator. One of the worst feelings in the whole world is the “lie” that we can’t be happy unless everyone can be happy at the same time. Put in another way, we can’t have joy unless our whole church, or our whole faith community, is in a place of joy as well. I don’t know whether this “lie” is from old “Screwtape,” or from the too often beat-down spiritual “child” from within the human psyche, but it doesn’t matter. Leave it behind. Allowing God to help US get to a joyful, safe place is one more step toward the broader community finding a shared experience of such grace. Think, too, of the witness—people are less “attracted” to a church or a faith community that “seems” joyful from the outside, than they are to a close friend or family member who finds genuine fulfilment and joy (“salvation”) in themselves. This is the difference between “discipleship” and public relations. Jesus, himself, utilized the “each one reach one” method of making disciples, and would he have done that if a public relations campaign would have brought them in? 

 

So, mind your own business! Use the words of Psalm 27 to connect with God in a very personal way. And don’t just ask God to “fix” you so you can “be a productive disciple,” or “be a better leader in your church.” Just let the Holy Spirit of God, the joyfulness of the Son, and the intent of the Father shine God’s “face” upon you! We will all be stronger when YOU are strong, Dear Ones! Amen.

 

 

A Poor, Little Lamb

A Poor, Little Lamb

 

John 1:29-42
1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

1:30 This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'

1:31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel."

1:32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

1:33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

1:34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

1:35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,

1:36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"

1:37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

1:38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

1:39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

1:40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

1:41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).

1:42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

 

 

Good ol’ Gospel of John author! He works so very hard to help us understand that Jesus is more than meets the eye, theologically, and his language is often ethereal. Years ago, NFL coach Dennis Green, in a post-game press conference rant, assessed the team that had just beat up on his team thusly: “They ARE who we THOUGHT they were!” When asked by a reporter what he meant, he doubled down: “They ARE who we THOUGHT they were!” In today’s text, John the Baptist does a pretty good Dennis Green when he says in verse 30: “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” What? This seems to be John’s way of saying that Jesus “was” before any of us “were”—he is the eternal “star-child” who has come to restructure the “fallen” relationship between the Creator and the created. The Gospel of John uses a lot of Hellenistic language in his attempt to “radicalize” Jesus as the divine Son of God, who pre-existed the world. He seems bent on helping the “Greek” thinkers of his day appropriate an understanding of Jesus of Nazareth that goes beyond Jewish, and beyond being just another “religious” spokesman for God. In the Greco-Roman culture, “gods” who come to earth to mix it up with their human “subjects” was nothing unusual, but this gospeler goes out of his way to point out that Jesus was the “logos” of God, come to earth in human form. This would have been earthshaking for these people, as they saw the “logos” as the total summation of both the creative energy of the divine as well as the “mind” of the divine. That the divine would fully take human form and “tent among” humans was truly a revolutionary concept. The danger in John’s approach is that it snuggles up a bit close with the Greco-Roman worldview, which also accepted a pantheon of gods. The “logos” concept was brilliant on his part, as this equated Jesus with the fundamental “concept” or “foundation” represented by all of these gods. 

 

In today’s passage, the Johannine author introduces another metaphor for Jesus’ role on earth—the “Lamb of God.” It is most typically interpreted to equate Jesus with the “sacrifice lamb” burned on the altar of the Jewish temple for the sins of the people. This, of course, would foreshadow Jesus’ death on the cross, which Christianity has viewed as being for this purpose for all people of all time, who choose to believe in him. Some scholars have pointed out, however, that there is another “lamb” that is most important in Jewish history, namely the Passover Lamb. This lamb is a symbol of God’s people being set free from captivity in Egypt. Lamb’s blood was applied to the lintel and the door posts of the homes of the Jews in Egypt, so the “death angel” would “pass over” their homes, inflicting destruction only on the first-born of the homes of the Egyptians. Lamb is both consumed and used ritually in the annual Feast of the Passover in Judaism, as a celebration of this freedom granted by God. To see Jesus as this Passover Lamb may be a richer, fuller parallel to what we see in the life of Jesus than just the “meat sacrifice” altar lamb. If we see Jesus as the ultimate Passover Lamb, or the “Lamb of Freedom,” it removes some of the “glory” from the pain and gore of the cross. Christ came to free God’s people—ALL of God’s people—from everything that binds them, including, but not limited to, our sins. The altar lamb was only for the propitiation of sins, which doesn’t provide a broad enough image for John’s “logos” of God. Personally, I prefer the “Lamb of Freedom” model, of these two.

 

This lectionary passage includes John the Baptist’s dove image for the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus as he is baptized. The role of the Holy Spirit in this narrative is mostly a foreshadowing of the coming birth of the church at Pentecost. The Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity would say that the Spirit is always present with Jesus, as is Creator God, so the thought of the Spirit “descending” upon the earthly Jesus is largely a metaphor, and it does fit what happens in Acts 2 to the believers waiting in the upper room. 

 

Another part of John’s story in this passage is of importance as well. The author relates how Andrew, brother of Peter, hears Jesus speak and is called to follow him. Andrew then goes and tells Peter, “We have found the Messiah,” and he then brings Peter to Jesus, who calls Peter to follow as well, and “renames” him “Cephas.” Throughout the pages of holy writ, call stories ignite a powerful alliance between God, God’s message, God’s plan to save and redeem, and the people God calls to carry out these activities. The New Testament continues this rich heritage of vocation or “the call.” The story of Andrew is a great one. He fetches Peter, but winds up fetching others to follow Jesus, as well. Modern Christians talk about being a witness to what God is doing, and Andrew is a wonderful role model for this activity. We have too often tried to turn “witnessing” into “preaching” or “teaching the faith,” when Andrew’s example is so much more simple: Witness what God is doing and then invite others to “Come and see!” The Body of Christ today could use a whole lot more “Andrews” and far less “evangelists,” out to “save souls.” John Wesley trained his lay preachers more as “Andrews” than evangelists, inviting their listeners to “Come and see,” and then engaging in life-saving activities such as feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering the poor, and improving the conditions in the British prisons. Wesley’s model was saving PEOPLE, not just their “souls,” although this was always an essential part of their full redemption. As a pastor, I observed some serious entropy against “witnessing,” as pew-sitting Christians had erroneously been taught that it must involve sharing scripture, the “Four Spiritual Laws,” leading persons in the “Sinner’s Prayer,” and then dragging them to church. Very few were willing to sign on to this “evangelical” model of evangelization that emerged from the revivalist period in American history. I used to tell my congregations that we are called to be “Andrews,” inviting friends and family to “Come and see!” I also suggested that one of the best witnesses Christians may offer is to pray for those in need and invite them to put their concerns on the church prayer list. Very few people turn down this invitation, especially when they are facing major challenges, and when God begins to act on these prayers, these folk want to know more about “your church,” and why it prays for people like them? I told my folk that it is much easier being a witness for Christ when you are on the other end of such an “interview” conducted by a grateful person for whom we had been praying. Be an Andrew! 

 

There is another model of the “Lamb of God” we might explore in this passage, and it is one we get from the teachings of Jesus. Remember the story of the shepherd who goes off looking for the one lamb that is lost, and leaves the 99 behind? Maybe Jesus, as the Son of God whom Paul will tell us in Philippians “empties himself” of the privileges of being God and enters our world, is this “lost lamb”? Like the Prodigal Son, who goes to a “far country,” Jesus gave up much to be born and baptized into our world. He is willing to become the “lost lamb” on our behalf, and in his “wandering off,” finds us and helps reunite us to God’s flock. There is a story told in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous of a man who falls in a deep hole, and can’t get out. He keeps calling for help, but others just pass by, not knowing what to do to help him. Then, a friend sees him in the hole and jumps in with him. The man in the hole asks his friend what he was thinking, in jumping in the hole, where they are now both imprisoned. The friend answers, “I did it because I’ve been in this same hole before, and I know the way out!” Might Jesus be this kind of “lost lamb” who knows the way out because he left heaven to jump into the hole with us? The “lost lamb “ becomes the proverbial “Good Shepherd” who leads God’s other lost sheep to freedom and to reunion with the flock! This, too, is a great model for our Christian witness—one “lost lamb” helping others find the safety of the Community of Faith. Years ago, I heard one of Methodism’s great pastors and preachers, Dr. O. D. Martin, say that good preaching is “one beggar helping another beggar find bread.” If it wasn’t important that Jesus join the “lost lambs” and “hungry beggars” on earth in order to set us free, don’t you think God would have just let him wave his hands from the comfort of heaven and “fix” us from on high? But the witness of the Gospel is that it is in this empathetic act of the incarnation that Jesus is able to free us from ALL that might snare us, and personally lead us out of the “hole,” having been there before. Might Calvary be the ultimate “hole” experience, resulting in death, and the Resurrection then is the ultimate freedom from both sin and death that seals our relationship with God Almighty? 

 

Any way we look at it, being God’s “found sheep,” led to freedom by the “Lamb of God,” himself, is a good deal. If we set aside our theological arguments and differences over howGod did what God did in Jesus Christ, what we are left with is a freedom from the fear of judgment, freedom from the power of destructive behaviors that can no longer hold our souls captive, and freedom to be living witnesses—contemporary Andrews--to the love and grace of God that are equally available to all people. Also free to all is a supportive community of faith that provides nurture and fellowship, and offers a place to serve others through acts of mercy and kindness. It is usually called the church, but as the Holy Spirit moves among us today, the words “faith community” may be more descriptive of the diverse kinds of religious gatherings that are transforming hearts and neighborhoods. As a United Methodist, it means reclaiming this work of God as a “movement,” rather than merely a management style and a distinctive polity. May we all find our place among the redeemed AND the redeeming! Amen.