Life Chooses YOU

 

Life Chooses YOU!

 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Choose life 

 

30:15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

 

30:16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

 

30:17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,

 

30:18 I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

 

30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,

 

30:20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

 

 

“Choose life.” Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? What does this author mean, “choose life”? Did you ever stop to think about it? People of faith have pondered this text since it was first penned millennia ago, Rabbis and preachers have pondered it from bemas and pulpits for millennia, as well. Evangelical Christians have hijacked the term to mean “accept Christ as your Lord and Savior,” or “oppose all abortions.” Years ago, someone wrote a while Bible study series they called, “Choose Life.” The assumption was that, to live one’s life according to the Bible, was choosing the kind of life God would want us to have. The obvious difficulty is that we never seem to be able to agree on what that “chosen life” might look like? 

 

The first verse of this lectionary passage already sets us off on the wrong path: “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” It sure makes it sound like the author is suggesting that there are only two choices: life and prosperity; or death and adversity. This may be what they call a “false dichotomy,” possibly? If these are our only choices, who among us who doesn’t need therapy and psychotropic drugs would choose “death and adversity”? I don’t know about you, but personally, I find even daily choices to be much more complicated than this. So did Israel, frankly. They were jostled about between hostile lands and promised territory. They lived where they had to glean to survive, and yet believed in a God who was leading them to a “land flowing with milk and honey.” They had almost a primal love for Yahweh, but regularly were seduced by the proximity of local gods that could be perched on the mantle. They belonged to a people who throughout history have been victimized by holocausts and pogroms, hostile neighbors and plagues. When this author puts before them a choice between “life” and “death,” they would most certainly choose life, but what does this really mean? It is an oversimplified message driven by an even more oversimplified understanding of what people face in “real life”—just like so many of the sermons we preachers have presented down through our own Christian history. 

 

I read a piece by a colleague on Facebook recently wherein he quoted Oswald Chambers, championing the idea that all God expects of us is “holiness.” So, what is holiness? And whose definition of it are we to use? (And don’t say “God’s definition,” for ultimately, this is exactly what we are debating!) So, if you take an additional step and suggest that holiness is living an “ethical, moral life,” then again we confront what “ethical and moral” mean? For me and my understanding of God’s inclusive love and acceptance, “ethical” living means I am compelled to accept others who may be WAY different than me in many ways, including things like culture or sexual orientation. To others, “ethical” may mean using faith categories and scripture to persuade someone that being any “sexual orientation” other than the one you were given the plumbing for at birth is wrong, requires repentance, and acquiescence to the “law of God.” You see our dilemma here? “Holiness” is truly a loaded word, in our churchy vocabulary. The founder of Methodism—John Wesley—said that the role of the church was to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.” But then he put feet to his own sermons focused on love and transformation by launching “acts of mercy” in poorhouses and prisons, women’s rights, and fighting for social justice among England’s “working poor.” So we might come to believe that Wesley’s “version” of scriptural holiness was not just upholding and defending doctrines and theological perspectives. I don’t think people would have flocked by the thousands to hear his sermons if they were just doctrinal treatises. He touched them where they lived, and preached a gospel that could lift them up out of the coal pits and exploitive practices of the monied interests in control of 18^th century England. Wesley’s version of “holiness” might better be termed “wholeness,” if one were to describe it an a more contemporary vernacular. Wesley did as did Jesus, to demonstrate what “choosing life” might look like to those who society had robbed of having choices.

 

Again, “choosing life” is about so much more than the poles presented in verse one by this author. Now, please understand that I’m not saying here that there are NOT those who make seriously bad choices that may thrust them in the direction of adversity and even death. I understand that addictions of various kinds, and mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, and certainly schizophrenia, may take persons to very bad places where their cognitive minds and feeling hearts don’t want to go. I get that, but I am not addressing these maladies in this reflection. Instead, I’m trying to get a hold on what it might truly mean to “choose life” beyond simply “choosing to believe in God.” In reading and studying the Bible for many years, serving as a pastor and interacting with God’s people for over 37 years in this endeavor, and through my own questions and experience in “living,” I have come to believe that God wants far MORE of us than just loyalty, allegiance, and doctrinal purity and/or “holy” living, at least as narrowly as some define it.

 

At each stage of our lives, we are given opportunities to “choose life.” As children, loving parents offer us many choices of things to eat, activities in which to engage, books to read, and chances to expand and row ourselves and our interests. As teenagers, we often face choices as to how much “risk” we are willing to take to have or keep certain friends, or in proportion to how much amusement we may experience. (Some of us who were more intellectually “geeky” sought less risk and more books!) As young adults, we had to choose a potential career and what preparation this career or job would require. Here is a place where the young adult often stumbles: will you choose a career that piques your interest, is connected with your passions, and that might “stretch” you? Or will you bend to the economic realities of just grabbing at a “job” to earn money to do the things you “really” want to do? I wish I could have confidence that the former choice was the norm, but I fear it is the proverbial “road less traveled.” As a pastor, I have encountered WAY too many folk who admit they chose a “job” or career based on its potential economic rewards, but that was disjointed from their personal interests, or even “gifts,” as they perceived them. This may be one of the most crucial “choose life” things we all face. Don’t fail at this one, and if you feel you have, it’s never too late to either make a career transition, OR to purposely choose to explore personal interests in the field or fields you like, even if these just become adult “diversions” alongside what you do to earn your keep.

 

“Choosing life” should be seen as God’s challenge at all stages of our lives, not just “life vs. death,” or even “money-making vs. gifts/interests.” I have identified three key areas to consider if we are to take the “choose life” challenge:

 

ACCEPTANCE—What will it take for you to accept yourself as who you are, at this point? And what will it take for you to make choices, going forward, that will enhance this acceptance? (I’m guessing that some of you, when I mention “acceptance,” thought about being “accepted” by God. Give up on this. Jesus Christ came, said what he said, and did what he did, that we might BE acceptable to God, even to the end of being proclaimed “children of God.) A second avenue of the “acceptance” question is how YOU will accept others? You also can “choose life” by accepting others as who THEY are, at this stage of their lives. Choosing to limit your acceptance of others speaks more loudly about how poorly you accept yourself than it does about any “standard” you may be using to judge others. We each must “choose life” that is our own path, and afford others the freedom to do likewise. To reject them because their standards don’t jibe with yours, or because their lifestyle is one you may struggle to endorse (or understand?), is no reason to reject their personhood, or their faith, both of which are ultimately between them and their Creator. One final note: if you recognize that self-acceptance is a goal with which you need help, BY ALL MEANS, get help! Your pastor may be helpful in sorting this out with you, but there is a strong possibility that a professional therapist may be even more helpful, if the issues blocking you are beyond simple “beliefs” or questions.

 

GOING ON TO PERFECTION—This is the famous “goal” set forth by Methodism’s John Wesley. Wesley believed that “choosing life” also meant embarking on a lifetime of self-improvement and personal and spiritual maturation. “Perfection” may indeed be an unattainable goal out there, just like traveling to another galaxy, but even as humanity chose to step out into outer space in spite of the limitation of literally astronomical distances, so can we choose to move in the direction of perfection. Don’t give up the game just because winning it seems insurmountable! My home pastor used to speak of the difference between “positional sanctification” and “real sanctification,” in a Wesleyan sense. Positional sanctification is what happened when we accepted Jesus Christ’s acceptance of US through his life, death, and resurrection. We were instantly “made acceptable” to God. “Real” sanctification is the “going on to perfection” journey we tackle as budding disciples of Jesus Christ. On this journey we seek to improve ourselves, incorporating the teachings of Jesus and learning to listen to our “better angels.” 

 

COSMIC CITIZENSHIP—“Choosing life” at this level involves accepting our full role as “children of God,” stewards of the life God has given us with the realization that it must be lived in community with OTHER children of God, and functioning as caregivers and stewards of the Earth. Our Muslim siblings believe that God “lent” the Earth to us, and that we are compelled to return it to God in the same—if not better—shape it was in when we received it. As that old poem, Desiderata, said, we ARE “a child of the universe.” Act like it, or at least understand that your journey toward perfection includes this element. I have been challenged by the opening words of Rick Warren’s bestseller, “The Purpose Driven Life”: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. A more accurate statement by my theology would be, “It’s not ONLY about you!” As one of my favorite comedic actors, “Red Green,” says, “Remember, we’re in this together.”

 

As I started writing this message, I was watching “Midnight in Paris,” a fanciful film directed by Woody Allen about a young author who dreams of Paris in the Roaring Twenties, when a trove of American artists, authors, and song writers descended on that romantic city. For the young “Gil Pender,” who is trying to decide what “life” he will choose, a quirk in the cosmic ether transports him to the very time he believes is “the Golden Age,” where he meets the Fitzgeralds, Ernest Hemmingway, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and about every other creative person of that era. There he also meets a young woman who dreams of Paris of the 1890s as “the Golden Era.” Mr. Pender comes to believe, as he experiences both of these eras, that WE must “choose life” for ourselves, and accept our time and place as realities in which to grow, thrive, and be creative. I think this is EXACTLY what the author of today’s text is trying to tell Israel! If you always believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you will spend your entire life climbing fences, and getting some nasty snags along the way.

 

One more thing: didn’t someone tell us in scripture that “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last...” (John 15:16) While God does NOT manipulate us like puppets on a string, God DID give us a “head start” on making better choices—in the Garden of Eden, through giving Israel a law to live by, and in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. Will we continue to make lousy choices? Or will we “choose life,” accepting that God has already made GOD’S choice, and it is US! Amen.

Cracked

Cracked

 

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Israel forsakes the Lord 

 

2:4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.

 

2:5 Thus says the LORD: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?

 

2:6 They did not say, "Where is the LORD, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?"

 

2:7 I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

 

2:8 The priests did not say, "Where is the LORD?" Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

 

2:9 Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children's children.

 

2:10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look; send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing.

 

2:11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.

 

2:12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the LORD,

 

2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

“Has a nation changed it’s Gods?” the prophet asks. Have we? Friends, given the bizarre occurrences since January 20 of this year, I confess that this is a prophet-inspired RANT sermon. I am disgusted with what my country has become. I don’t believe there is ANY defense for the actions of our current President and his staff that is not either selfish, bigoted, or misinformed. Those who are the current government’s “base” have sold their souls to a “false god,” and have abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not to mention, Jesus Christ, God’s Son. With each passing week, the acts of this administration have been about retribution, consolidation of power, and misinformation and “misdirection” of what our federal government is to be about, which is to “insure domestic tranquility,” provide for the “pursuit of happiness,” and to protect the “inalienable rights” of each citizen. As was the case of Israel of old, our nation may be moving toward its own downfall with passion and self-centered purpose.

 

It has always been my conviction that the world needs a “free” and “constitutional” America. Our founders did an amazing job creating the boilerplate of a governing document that could assure not just the survival of our nation, but that we could be a beacon of humanism and hope for the rest of the world. As has been often quoted, it was Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding “minds” of this nation, who said that what they gave us was: “a republic...if you can keep it.” That challenge is now, in our time, being seriously threatened. Why? Because we have a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar in charge of our government—one who delights in seeing his own name blasted in pubic media, and who believes he is the “god-ordained” leader for his time—we are slipping toward irrelevance, if not dissolution as a nation, day by day. The danger is already hammering those our nation has traditionally tried to elevate: the poor and down-trodden; the marginalized; those without a voice; and the “strangers in the land,” the immigrants, without whom American NEVER could have become “great.” Those who speak prophetically in support of the historical and time-tested values and aims of this nation have themselves become immediate targets of a ruthless, authoritarian band that at once utilizes the great power afforded them by their allegiance to the elected leader of the Executive Brance, all the while mocking him behind his back, because they realize that he is both drunk with power, and hopelessly focused on his own aggrandizement. Nebuchadnezzar, it is!

 

When I consulted the Revised Common Lectionary for a passage to focus on for this week’s “retirement sermon,” I noticed that the ecumenical document also offered a text from the Apocrypha, something mainline Christians usually don’t consult when preparing lessons and sermons. However, the passage from Sirach 10 was most elucidating:

 

10:12 The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord; the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.

10:13 For the beginning of pride is sin, and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.

 

Sound familiar? This text warns Israel of what will bring its downfall, and it doesn’t take much effort to extend this warning to a nation, or to all humankind, for that matter. When we turn away from God to “swear allegiance” to a human who sets himself UP as God, we are not just sowing seeds of our own destruction, but we are fertilizing them and saturating them in Miracle Grow as well! Those who are benefitting politically and economically from the “power” of our current Chief Executive have shown themselves willing to bend the knee—or both knees—to worship him as their savior. This is precisely what the prophet Jeremiah is warning about. His words ring just as fresh and true today as they did hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Nations that don’t heed them will pay the consequences, even as the second part of the Sirach 10:13 passages warns:

 

Therefore the Lord brought upon them unheard-of calamities and destroyed them completely.

 

 Jeremiah is even more profound in both is warnings, and in what “crops” he says will be reaped by Israel:

 

What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?

 

The priests did not say, "Where is the LORD?" Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

 

These words should do far more than make us go “tsk-tsk” for ancient Israel. Modern-day, political Israel under Netanyahu is even worse than the people Jeremiah is steamed about, as they are killing women, children, and relief workers in the name of “security,” but with the actual aim of profit, but taking control of the entire West Bank and Gaza. Believe me, when this is all over, Palestinians will not only have a prayer of a “homeland,” but will have been driven off even the modicum of land the United Nations granted them in 1948, and what was once theirs will now become Israeli settlements. What ever happened to the Hebrew hospitality code, which was once a primary command of Yahweh’s to be honored by God’s people? In our time, as the world watches, it has surrendered to a lust for power and land. And with the blessings of the President of the United States. [WHEN will “evangelical” Christians realize that modern, political Israel has little connection—other than its sins—to biblical Israel? And certainly it has none regarding belief in Yahweh! We see no modern equivalent in Netanyahu’s Israel to biblical Israel’s numerous acts of repentance and contrition.] Jeremiah would be freshly raving.

 

The question for America—ESPECIALLY for those who would call themselves Christians—is this, according to the prophet:

 

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? 

 

A question that the prophet believes begs an answer, and he immediately issues:

 

But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.

 

This is precisely what we are about, currently. What was once the “great glory” of this nation—justice, freedom, defending the rights of oppressed peoples, and uplifting the downtrodden, offering them a “fair chance” at the “American dream”—is being sold out for the promise of a tasty potage that will feed some folk’s lust for power. “Owning the libs” has become a destructive game of one-upmanship, something that was NEVER part of the great “American experiment.” We’ve turned over the reins of power to a malignant narcist, who “knighted” for a season a billionaire whose brain was fried on ketamine, and who was empowered to “take a chainsaw” to the most benevolent arms of our democracy. Eventually, even HE turned against “Nebuchadnezzar.”

 

The prophet Jeremiah’s last indictment is his most harsh:

 

…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

 

We are in grave danger of becoming a nation of “cracked cisterns,” all the while thinking they will capture and hold our personal treasure of wealth and power. They will not, for they, like the minds of some of our currently most voter-validated leaders, are cracked and leak badly. We have endorsed people who cannot “hold water.” The brackish water collecting currently in Washington, D.C. will most certainly filter into the “ground water” that has sustained our representative republic, unless Americans—Christians included—stand up, speak up, and “man” up against these ungodly forces. What will we do to support the “least of these” whom Jesus befriend, healed, and uplifted? What will we do to “welcome the stranger” and to restore “treating them like citizens of the land” which God demanded of biblical Israel—AND of us? And what will we do to stem the rising tide of racism and white supremacy infesting anew the American landscape? If your answer is “nothing,” or “this is what I voted for,” you will not get this sermon, and I will have a hard time relating to you as an American, let alone a “Christian.” Neither should you read Jeremiah without putting on your tinfoil hat.

 

I have always preached Jesus as a loving, self-sacrificing, “love one another” Savior, but in this case, there comes a time when the Jesus who railed against the power-conniving religious leaders (calling them “whitewashed sepulchers,” which was apparently quite in insult in his day!), AND overturned the encroaching, displacing tables of the money-changers, proclaiming his “Father’s house” as a house of prayer, not of payers. We are rapidly moving toward one of these “tough Jesus” times, in my view. If you don’t believe me, read the prophets. Start with today’s passage in Jeremiah 2! All that has to happen for humanity to seriously harm itself and its future is for God to step back. I fear we are approaching this reality. Where is the nation of this planet—at least one that has any power—that is speaking for justice and hope? Not China; not Russia; not North Korea; not the well-oiled Arab nation states; and, possibly for the first time in history, NOT the United States of America. “America First” might become our epitaph.

 

So, where’s the good news? If we keep reading in the Bible, it is clear that God just keeps offering people another chance. Repentance is the unlocked door to a return to God’s favor. We Christians believe that in Jesus Christ, God continues to extend a hand of hope, forgiveness, and redemption to any who will receive these gifts of God’s grace. Years ago, my evangelical friends—the same ones who now almost to a person have endorsed those who have targeted our freedoms with cracked promises of “greatness” and prosperity—used to quote a text from II Chronicles as a “formula” for what America of the “wild” 1970s needed:

 

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [II Chronicles 7:14]

 

Perhaps this is a text whose time has now truly come for the people of the United States of America. We are now a cracked nation—split right down the middle. Yielding to God, to the teachings of Jesus, and returning to the framework of our forefathers, may be our only hope for the healing we so badly need. Nothing else will hold water. Amen.

 

Postlude: I told you this would be a rant, but I hope you have found it provocative enough to reconsider our situation, as a nation. I fear that the apathy born of fear—“Oh, things will work out; they always do”—this time may be words engraved on our collective tombstone, should we cease to survive as a “beacon” nation. Please, Dear Ones, may we pray for our country, our world, and the church!

Living in the Heights

 

Living in the Heights

 

Isaiah 58:9b-14

Do not trample the sabbath 

 

58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

 

58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

 

58:11 The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.

 

58:12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

 

58:13 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

 

58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

 

 

I grew up in Oil City, PA, and on the “Northside” of our town, as you continued to scale the hill, you would wind up in what was called Hasson Heights, named after an historically prominent family, who once owned property there. “The Heights” had a beautiful park, called appropriately, Hasson Park.” Hasson Heights was home to our large municipal pool complex, numerous sports fields and baseball diamonds, the public skating rink, and later, when the powers-that-be wanted to upgrade our school system, a brand new high school was built in “the Heights.” My experience of being a student in the school system in the 1960s and early 70s (I graduated from high school in 1972) was most interesting. For grades one and two, I attended one of the more recently built schools, then our family moved into a different neighborhood. Grade three was held in—literally—a condemned building, which had to be used until the new Smedley Street Elementary building was completed. The Innis Street building had a “police line” blocking off its second floor, as it wasn’t sound(!), the roof leaked, and the “ventilation shaft” that served our third grade classroom was open to the roof, and pigeons used to fly down and poke their heads into our classroom. After having the privilege of attending grades four through six in a brand new building, off I we went to seventh grade in yet another condemned building, Southside Junior High. Again, the top floor was roped off as being unsafe. The auditorium—in the center of the structure—had a ceiling that extended up to the roof, and since the roof had numerous leaks, if it was raining when we had an assembly, we had to take umbrellas with us to the assembly. In 1968, when the new High School opened in Hasson Heights, the “old” high school building halfway up the “mountain,” became the new junior high. That building had the unique distinction of being in a volume of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” Having been built into the hillside, it was the only building in the world, at that time, the one could enter any of its five floors directly from the ground. Matriculating to the new high school in “the Heights” was a welcome thing. 

 

Of course, given that Hasson Heights was home to Oil City’s most prestigious neighborhood—Oliver Manor—a new high school had to measure up. We were one of the first schools in the region to have an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool, a planetarium, a Universal Gym appointed weight room, and literally, a “world class” fine arts auditorium, equipped with professional theatrical stage lighting, a sophisticated sound system, and an authentic Steinway grand piano on the stage. Oil City had an incredible music education staff with many “connections” in the music industry. During my years in high school, we hosted Duke Ellington and his orchestra (who opened the new auditorium and pronounced it one of the finest acoustical spaces he had played), Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinson, Harry James, and many others. Nothing was too good for “the Heights.”

 

Did your town have its equivalent of “the Heights”? Isn’t our language interesting? What’s the opposite of the heights? The “other side of the tracks,” of course. In many small towns, people were “graded” by where they lived. If you lived in “the Heights,” you were something. If you were from “the other side of the tracks,” not quite so much. I dated quite a bit in high school, and every Friday or Saturday night that I was going out, my mother would ask about the girl I with whom I was going out. If she was from the other side of the tracks, my mom might say, “What do you want with HER?” [My mom wasn’t that cruel, actually, but it was just “a thing” back in the day, at least in our town, to “grade” people like that.] Of course, years later, while still living at home, I went out on a date with Dara for the first time, and upon reporting this at the family dinner table, my dad asked, “What does she want with YOU?” I knew there may be magic in this new relationship!

 

Many years later, after answering a call to ministry, I served as a student pastor in Turtle Creek, during my seminary years. Turtle Creek was “in the valley,” while the former farming land “up on the hill” had become Monroeville, and was quickly becoming the “place to be” while the “valley towns” were rust-belting out. Neighboring Braddock had a downtown that looked like Dresden after the bombing, after years earlier, “white flight” had sent some to “Braddock Heights.” 

 

All this to say that American society, ultimately, isn’t much different in its “grading” behavior today than was small-town America in the 1960s. Lower middle-class folk are most often relegated to the less prominent turf—or the “other side of the tracks”—while the “well-heeled” occupy some version of “the Heights.” The real estate “ruler” had its day of glorifying wealth by locating it near bodies of water as a substitute for “the Heights,” in many cases, but climate change has brought frequent flooding or catastrophic storms to this region, so we are beginning to see the souring of interest in this venue, especially when insurance companies begin to say “no more.” I’m guessing that mountaintop properties will again begin to soar in value.

 

I think of these things when I read this text from Isaiah, who offers us a Hebrew prophet’s glimpse into the heart of God. In verse one, the author describes “the pointing of the finger” as a yoke, meaning it is a type of “evil” bondage on humanity. “Pointing of the finger” is not an allusion to the infamous middle-finger “salute” prominent in automobile battles at busy intersections as much as it is about this economic, ethnic, or religion-inspired “grading” of other people. When my mother asked, “What do you want with HER?” it demonstrated well this kind of evil “grading,” even though she may not have meant it as anything but a critique of the person I had chosen to date. (On the other hand, anyone that knows Dara, knows that my dad’s inquiry, “What does she want with YOU?” was nothing but an accurate judgment. This brings us to another interesting assessment we hear: “He married UP.”)

 

The Isaiah text promises a life “in the Heights” for some: “I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…” and this “reward” is not for those swimming in assets or steeped in power or prominence. Let’s look at what God honors with this promise:

 

Offering food to the hungry and satisfying the needs of the afflicted—sharing our provision with those who starve for “enough” or whose lives are being buffeted by suffering, is something that not only gives one “points” with God, but builds character and citizenship.

 

If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath—honoring God by resting as God did after creating the world, and taking time to gather with the community of faith to worship and pray will bring a multitude of blessings, not to mention better health!

 

You don’t have to be a homiletical genius here to see that these two things that are central to the heart of God, and that God says will bring great blessings to us, can be summarized—even as Jesus himself did—into two simple commands: LOVE GOD and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. Willfully doing these things pays great dividends to the believer. I firmly believe that honoring the Sabbath and worshiping together jazzes God up NOT because God “desires” or “likes” us to venerate the Divine, but that in doing so, we are coming together AS the people of God, fellowshipping with one another, praying for others, and focusing—for an hour or two—one positive, edifying things. THIS is what God is after in asking us to “not trample on the Sabbath” by ignoring it. Add to this the “rest” component, which EVERY medical expert tells us is healthy, and you have in the observation of the Sabbath so much of what might make US better people, healthier people, and better members of the community. LOVING GOD is ultimately more for OUR benefit than God’s!

 

And, of course, LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR, and all of the compassion, empathy, and acts of mercy that this will entail helps “fix the earth,” or what our Hebrew friends call tikkun olam. And let’s not play that scholastic game of trying to “define” who our neighbor is. A man did that in the Bible with Jesus, and Jesus voiced the famous parable we know as “The Good Samaritan” as his answer to the question. Our neighbor is ANYONE we see who is in need, next door or on the other side of the globe. We “act” upon our love of neighbor in many ways, as God leads. I will never forget what Diane Miller shared with one of my congregations when she was serving as our United Methodist missions coordinator for Western PA. She said that God needs three kinds of people: the “Prayers, the Players, and the “Payers.” Some of us love our neighbor by entering into a season of fervent prayers for them and their needs. Others get physically involved in helping them, feeling a call to put “feet to their prayers.” And still others recognize that they are in a position to “bankroll” the whole helping enterprise. It is OK to restrict one’s “love of neighbor” to any of these pursuits, or even a bit of all of them, but the most important thing is to be sensitive to God’s leading—which may arrive via a “tug” on your heartstrings—AND to do something! This is precisely what Jesus modeled in the great parable.

 

In short, God’s version of “living in the heights” has nothing to do with status, and everything to do with empathy and compassion. When Jesus said that the one who will turn out to be “greatest of all” will be the one who first is the “servant of all,” he meant it, not just as an observation, but as the “way of the Kingdom of God.” As the Son of God, Jesus could have chosen any human “office” he desired, but he manifested the Divine will as a servant minister, even to the extreme of washing the filthy feet of his disciples. I’ve heard it said that “washing feet” in a more modern setting means to be keeping an eye out for those in need around us—our “neighbors”—and stepping up to help them in the name of Christ Jesus. I like Diane Miller’s “Prayers, Players, and Payers” in that it recognizes that not ALL of us can put ourselves in the “doing” trenches, and certainly not ALL of us can put up the cash necessary for funding ministry to the same degree some can. And while we ALL can be “prayers,” there are those whom God will call to the special ministry of undergirding the work of others in the “mission field” with fervent prayer. (I will never forget Velma, an aged, “single mom” who was an extremely dedicated “prayer” in my first church. She spent HOURS each day in prayer for her pastors—past and present—and those doing God’s work in the world.)

 

In your own faith and ministry, make your decision about where you will “live”: Will you be a “prayer,” a “player,” or a “payer”? As Isaiah tells us, “getting in the game” will determine if we will be just a “user” of divine grace, or be part of the team that “shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Answering God’s call to be a part of THIS team is the best way to move into a better neighborhood! Amen.

 

 

A God Nearby

A God Near By

 

Jeremiah 23:23-29

God's word is like fire 

 

23:23 Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off?

 

23:24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.

 

23:25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed! I have dreamed!"

 

23:26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back--those who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart?

 

23:27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.

 

23:28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD.

 

23:29 Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

 

One of my “bucket list” things in retirement was reconnecting with my childhood love of astronomy and “star-gazing.” As a youth, I loved using the various telescopes my parents afforded me to look at the Moon, the Sun, and the few (or two?) other planets it could resolve, and simply wonder about them. Occasionally, when on a backyard “campout” with one of my rural friends, I could ponder the evening sky from the perspective of “real black,” away from the city lights, enjoying a panoramic view of the Milky Way, and often witnessing meteorites bursting like fireworks into the Earth’s atmosphere. These activities made feel closer to my understanding of God than farther away. I could never comprehend why some “science minded” folk felt that their growing knowledge of the cosmos brought more doubt than faith, as this was not my experience at all. There was a severe, necessary “interconnectedness” of the universe that seemed to me to be a Polaroid photo of who God was, and God’s essential role in what existed. Gazing at the starry heavens most often “blurred the lines” for me between what I had always been taught was “real” and what was spiritual or ethereal. In the glittering cosmos, it ALL became so profoundly real, as did the idea that God was “all and in all, and that which held all things together” (my paraphrase of Paul’s thoughts in Colossians). 

 

When I retired, the first thing I did was buy a better telescope than my parents could have ever afforded, especially while raising three boys. It is a Meade Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope with a computerized mount that, once calibrated, allows the operator to tell it to point to various celestial objects, and it will obey. With it I was able to have my grandchildren gawk through the tiny eyepiece to see the deepest craters of the moon, and behold the rings of Saturn. My aging eyes (and especially in the months before cataract surgery) were continuing to struggle with the diminutive optics of even this decent scope. I was able to boost its usefulness by purchasing a small, digital camera that replaced the eyepiece and broadcasted the telescope’s image to my phone or iPad, but getting the thing set up and calibrated could take half a night, in itself. Then, a quantum leap in amateur astronomy occurred—the “smart telescope.”

 

I first read about them when a company called “Unistellar” began offering one of those “Internet venture capital” deals, whereby you could invest in their goal of marketing a new telescope design that combined optics with a computer and a built-in, high resolution imaging sensor. It was to be called the “Equinox,” and would cost about $4,000—a BIT too rich for my blood. Fast forward to 2024, and a Chinese company, ZWO, which had been building telescope cameras for astrophotography for many years, debuted something called the “SeeStar,” their version of a “smart telescope,” but one with a $500 price point! Having read about how they worked, Yours Truly put myself on the waiting list for the SeeStar S50. In May of last year, I took delivery of my SeeStar, and on the first clear night, it basically gave me my own private star ship! Any given clear night will find it set up in my driveway or on our back deck, scanning the heavens for galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, or comets! (Smart scopes work by using their internal computers and GPS to track targeted objects, and then using their high-resolution, digital imaging sensors to take multiple exposures, then stacking them to provide brightness and clarity. What they do, prior to this new technology, could only be accomplished by expensive “rigs” owned by well-healed individuals or universities! The opening photo for this week’s retirement sermon is of M21, the Andromeda Galaxy, taken off my back deck by the SeeStar S50.)

 

Why all the astronomy in a sermon? Because this passage invokes a thought-provoking idea that God is NOT just a “God nearby,” but a God “far off” who is capable of both “micro” and “macro” involvement in my personal life and the affairs of both the wider world AND the cosmos! Our God IS a God nearby, especially when we most need this embracing proximity, just as Jesus demonstrated via his foray into our world. I am reminded of the little boy who is afraid of the dark, as his father is putting him to bed. His dad tells him that God will protect him and watch over him. The little boy responds, “I know God is with me, Daddy, but I want someone with SKIN ON to stay with me!” We all have those times in life when we need “someone with skin on” to comfort us, don’t we? In Jesus Christ, we have experience this, and through the Body of Christ, we have access to all the “skin on” people we need, especially if we are part of a loving assembly, and not a militant one that sees itself as “defenders of the faith.” (As I write this, a former colleague now with the Global Methodists, posted an article decrying what it cites as the “continued failings” of the United Methodist Church because it chooses to accept persons formerly excluded by our doctrines. This “holier than thou” article got my goat, as they say.)

 

But our need for a “God nearby” should not allow us to “box” God into nice, economy-sized portions. God IS also a “God far off,” able to manage the creative, life-giving and sustaining affairs of the universe. If God is a God of touch, compassion, forgiveness, and redeeming, God—to be God—must also be a God of physics, quantum science, orbital mechanics, and the infamous “space/time” that governs how the universe operates. If one reads the Bible with an open mind, and not scouring it for doctrines with an aim to control and confine, we read of a God who is lovingly BOTH a universe weaver and a cheek-stroking comforter, of a God who loves the limitless cosmos AND who walked the sands of the Road to Jericho with a goofy band of ne’er-do-wells he chose as his friends. When I look to the starry skies with my smart scope, I see not just the handiwork of our God, but I believe I am seeing the LIVING God actually “playing” in his backyard. 

 

Incidentally, I have to say something that the reader may not like. Do I HAVE to believe that our understanding of Yahweh includes a God big enough to be “master” of all the universe we see in the heavens, not to mention the other universes science says may exist? I just can’t conceive of this. So, while I would NEVER say that Yahweh CAN’T be that all mastering, all creating, and all powerful over everything we see kind of God, I just don’t need that “mighty” of a view of God to believe in and worship the Father of Jesus Christ and the Yahweh of the Bible. In the old film “O God,” late comedian George Burns plays a “version” of God I can live with, never eschewing divine power, but more interested in encouraging a vibrant, compassionate, and sustainable community on Planet Earth. THIS is a “god image” I can live with, and what I believe the storytellers and chroniclers of the Bible are offering to us. Again, I’m not saying that Yahweh ISN’T the one keeping M31 spiraling its billions and billions of stars around its magnificent arms, and balancing the energies of supernovas and dark matter to ward off annihilation of our home Milky Way, but I just don’t NEED a God that “universal” to feel secure in my faith. In fact, that whole “space/time” understanding of the fabric of the universe may just BE the foundation of heaven, about which our “life energy” will discover someday after our earthly demise! I’m kind of counting on this.

 

I Just finished reading “I and Thou,” written by Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher, in the earlier part of the 20^th century. In it, Buber states that the most “real” things about life are relational, in nature, and of those, we do best to eschew “I-It” relationships and nurture our precious “I-Thou” ones, especially with the “Eternal Thou.” I can relate to both the “high aim” of Yahweh to enculture relationships, AND to nurture more intimate “I-Thou” relationships with God’s people. Maybe the problem with our nation is that we have allowed our politics and other differences to degrade us to “I-It” relationships? These are the kind that become so impersonal that we can conceive of ignoring or even doing some kind of violence to those with whom we vehemently disagree. I confess that this Trump stuff has got me to the edge of that, of which I constantly need to repent.

 

Years ago, the Apple computer company put out a TV ad that made an impression on me. The ad appeared when debate was occurring over which computer was the “best,” in an era when the full efficacy of “personal” computers was in its infancy. In the ad, several supervisors and their boss were eavesdropping through a large window on a group of company employees in an adjacent “computer” room. As most of the vacant desks were home to what were meant to be IBM’s “personal” computer at that time, the employees were gathered around and were using an Apple MacIntosh desktop computer, famous for its “gooey” (G.U.I., for “Graphical User Interface”) technology, controlled by a “mouse.” The boss executive asks his supervisors, “What do you think makes the best computer?” One of the supervisors, answers in technobabble: “The one with the most bytes and mbps, the fastest processor?” “No,” the executive responds, “I think it is the one people will USE.” And while I think it was an extremely successful ad, I also believe it tells us something about which “view” of God is the most effective: The best understanding of God is the one people will “use,” or can relate to, especially in their time of personal crisis or need. THIS is the God Jeremiah is describing in today’s passage! A God who can be BOTH a “God who is near” and a “God far off,” keeping the universe on balance!

 

Which God do you need to show up today? Woody Allen once said that two-thirds of success is just showing up. God DOES show up, however we need God to be present. We Christians celebrate the loving incursion God made into our realm through Jesus Christ. We continue to celebrate our “God who is near” as the church experiences a fresh set of “growing pains,” too. And when all is right with the world for a few hours, I will celebrate the God of space/time as I gaze into the wonderment that is the cosmos with my trust SeeStar! Shalom, Yinz! Amen.

Caught Between Faith and Feet

Caught Between Faith and Feet

 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Abraham's faith 

 

11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

11:2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.

 

11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

 

11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.

 

11:9 By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

 

11:10 For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

11:11 By faith, with Sarah's involvement, he received power of procreation even though he was too old, because he considered him faithful who had promised. 

 

11:12 Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."

 

11:13 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,

 

11:14 for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

 

11:15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.

 

11:16 But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

 

So, here is our sermon question for the day: Is faith a feeling, or is it something we do? If you listen to some of the things people say about it, one might come to believe faith is more of a feeling: “Can’t you just believe?”; “You just don’t have enough faith.”; “If you believe, God will meet your needs.” Faith, for some people, is apparently Dorothy, of “Wizard of Oz” fame, clicking her red shoes together and chanting, “There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home.” Just substitute “heaven” for “home,” here. 

 

CAN faith be a feeling? I suppose. During times of deep grief or other “soul testing,” imagining God’s presence as something like a divine hug or a strong hand, holding us up when we are too week to stand or walk on our own, would be types of “feeling” faith. When one’s eyes are filled with tears, it possibly is a faithful thing to imagine God leading us to a safe place, or believing that eventually, everything will work out. Paul was probably thinking this way when he wrote Romans 8:28: “For God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, and who are called according to God’s purpose.” It’s a favorite verse of many folk, and adorns many a refrigerator magnet or Bible book marker. This sentiment is a kind of “faith feeling,” encouraging the believer to trust in God, and expect that God will lead, guide, and act in even life’s “all things.” However, note the caveat at the end: “…who are called according to God’s purpose.” God is not a genie in the lamp, awakened by our “rubbing the lamp” (prayer?), and relegated to giving us three wishes just because we possess the lamp. No, God will “cause all things to work together for good” when the greater good benefitted is God’s larger plan for redeeming and reconciling humanity. While this is not to say that God doesn’t care about our personal and more mundane concerns, it IS to say that God’s working is apt to benefit the wider faith community, of which we are called to be a part. “God’s purpose” might not always be to fix our car when we are broke, or heal our aching back when it flares up, at least not as first on the runway. And I can say with some considerable degree of certainty (because I read my Bible and pay attention to the teachings of Jesus) that “God’s purpose” to which you are called has nothing to do with making you wealthy or giving you passage to the seats of power. Someone has said, “The one who wants to be great among you must become the servant of all,” and “The last shall be first.” 

 

Hebrews chapter 11 is often called the “faith chapter,” and for good reason. The text walks through some of the Bible history, pointing out what great people of faith DID because they believed God and sought to serve God and others. That poetic first verse often trips us up into believing it offers a magical “formula” for using our faith to heal, benefit, or even prosper because we are a “Christian.” Let’s look at it:

 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

“Assurance of things hoped for” sure sounds like a way to get what we want, or to at least have the “answer to prayer” we would welcome, but is it? What are the things hoped for, here? Maybe it’s a bit selfish to think these are things WE want, as opposed to the goals and dreams of God. God has stated numerous times what God “hopes for”: A world at peace, where the lion lies down with the lamb; people who welcome “the stranger” or the “foreigner” into their land and treat them like a citizen, even a sibling; that “none should perish,” and that the whole world might be reconciled to God. Jesus came not to side with those who followed him, but because “God so loved the world.” So again, maybe we would be in error to believe that “things hoped for” has anything to do with the kind of house or car I’d like to own, or how I wish my partner might treat me. There are possibly bigger fish to fry in this testament to faith in Hebrews 11. Is it totally wrong to grab any of this “hoped for” to petition God regarding our own needs? Not totally; in fact God SO loves the world that God has demonstrated a pretty broad compassion for the needs of individual humans, their families, and even in some cases, their nations. Again, though, even these benevolent actions on God’s part must funnel toward God’s larger goal of total human/divine reconciliation. 

 

“The conviction of things not seen” has its debatable meanings, for sure. To me, this sounds like a call to “walk the talk” of Christian discipleship, not a kind of “make a wish” romanticism. Now, I confess to having many of the spacy dreams of Jiminy Cricket, my favorite Disney character. “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you.” The Bible does talk about God caring for the “desires of our hearts,” but it doesn’t go the “genie in the lamp” direction, but rather toward “ALL things working together,” which may mean for “ALL PEOPLE,” too, not just us. I still like my friend Mr. Cricket, and I do love the sappy hopes of his little song, but it’s Disney, and he’s a fictional character. For God, it DOES matter who we are—we are children of God! All of us! Remember the scene in the hilarious movie, “Bruce Almighty,” when he decides to answer everyone’s prayers in the affirmative? The world descends into chaos. Sorry, Jiminy, it just won’t work, but don’t stop singing!

 

Years ago, one of my teachers, Dr. Nan Foltz, used a phrase that has stuck with me. She told us pastors that when it comes to the effectiveness of our churches/ministries/pastoral care skills/theology, people will “vote with their feet” as to whether they approve. I was fortunate throughout my ministry that most of that “feet voting” was manifest by folk coming INTO the door of our faith community, not going OUT. There certainly were some who disapproved of any or even all of my handling as a preacher and leader, but most either felt we were doing the kind of job they could join, or they simply felt sorry for me! As I mentioned earlier, some that left might have used the “I’m not getting fed” line, and as one married to a dietitian, I have learned that our best and most healthy “diet” is not necessarily going to make the menu of some folk. The question is, are YOU willing to “vote with your feet” to be a part of the kind of faith journey God and the Bible call us to, especially in this “faith chapter” of Hebrews?

 

Note that patience was certainly a trait of these great people in the faith “hall of fame.” Abraham and Sarah, had they had the patience of most folk today, would have voted to chuck God’s promises of a beach full of ancestors. As it was, even THEIR patience ran thin, and the Hagar/Ishmael plan was hatched. While it made sense on paper, or at the time, as some might say, it DID leave the world with a perpetual civil/religious war between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Just a small “glitch,” I’m sure…? I just read a sad commentary from a female colleague this week concerning the disaffiliation that occurred among the people called Methodists (speaking of Ishmael and Isaac!). She was lamenting the fact that the “new” order of the Global Methodist Church allows churches to pick their own pastors, and while the GMC has not yet “outlawed” female clergy, many churches are “voting with their feet” in opposition to them, by just not inviting women to be their pastoral leaders. The colleague I mentioned is either being discharged from the church she is currently serving, or had applied for consideration by another, and was told they did not want a woman pastor. This kind of voting with feet is NOT something that should be happening in the Body of Christ. Didn’t someone write that: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus? And isn’t the Book of Acts riddled with great women of the faith in key leadership roles, as well as those mentioned in the many and various greetings in Paul’s epistles? Oh, and how about this “faith chapter” in Hebrews? Yes, friends, there are countless women in our lineage of people who “walked the talk” and led the church through the ages. Why, in 2025, would people who dare to call themselves Christ followers shun the women God has gifted and called into servant ministry as pastors? Huh? I feel so sorry for my friend, for she has demonstrated a LONG history of competent and gifted Christian ministry as an Elder in the United Methodist Church, only now to be experiencing rejection in the splinter church. 

 

So, to summarize, faith is not just something we believe. It may start with that; in fact we call it a profession or confession of faith, don’t we? But then, at least according to the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and according to the rich historical heritage of the Body of Christ, it becomes something we LIVE, led by the values of these examples and teachings. When we chose to “tune” it to something WE like, it ceases to be a faith walk and becomes our private “spiritual” gymnasium. That image comes to mind because my wife and I go pretty regularly to an “Anytime Fitness” gym on the edge of our plan. There are two kinds of people populating that gym most mornings: those who have clearly been trained to follow a prescribed regimen based on sound rules of fitness and that uses the machines and weights available at this particular gym; and those who are doing their “own thing,” which seems to involve hogging a favorite machine, often to just read their phone, or chat with another loiterer. Dara used to try to teach her Penn State nutrition and health students that, when they accounted for their own “gym time,” they should count only the time they actually spent working out, not the periods they just occupied space. “I spent a whole hour at the gym today” ain’t bragging rights when three-quarters of that was scrolling Facebook or Instagram. Now, apply this concept to living out our Christian discipleship, and it may explain why the church is struggling, splitting, and underfunded, today. This is what I’m calling the dilemma between “faith and feet.” 

 

At the risk of belaboring an obvious point and “preaching to the choir,” as they say, I would like to point us in the direction of Jesus Christ. So, God shows up on earth, and after beginning his ministry, he has three years before the great disaffiliation sends him to the cross. What does he do? He offers himself to the “least, the last, and the lost,” as we might say. He hangs out with tax collectors and “sinners,” lepers, the poor, gentiles, and other marginalized groups, not only ministering to them, but advocating for them to be included in whatever the Divine is up to. He chooses his “inner circle” for these marginalized people. He refuses to us his obvious “power connection” to God to do anything but heal, feed, and release those held captive by demons. He never used it to either save himself or whack his enemies. Maybe this is the faith walk we might consider emulating? Or at least moving in the direction of? The next time you feel yourself caught in the paradox between faith and feet, why not just walk in the direction of Jesus? Amen? Amen.

 

 

I, the Teacher

 

I, The Teacher

 

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23

Search out wisdom 

 

1:2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

 

1:12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

 

1:13 I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to humans to be busy with.

 

1:14 I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun, and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

 

2:18 I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to my successor,

 

2:19 and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

 

2:20 So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,

 

2:21 because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

 

2:22 What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?

 

2:23 For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

 

Teachers have always been my heroes in life. I owe so much to my teachers, from the earliest Sunday School volunteer instructors through my seminary and post-graduate professors. To this day (and mind you, I am about to turn 71!), I can remember the wonder my favorite elementary school teachers displayed as they taught us geography, history, science, and language arts, not to mention READING, in the earliest grades! Their own fascination with learning, and the joy with which they taught, fueled what I assume was some kind of innate curiosity in me, something I have always figured came from my father, who was himself a curious and well-read individual. Miss Korb introduced me to Tom Sawyer and instilled a love of classic literature. Mr. Pelesari made mathematics palatable for me, which was a major stretch, given my penchant for the conceptual and aversion to anything that actually had to “add up.” The principal of our elementary school picked up on my love of science and “fed” it by ordering some special equipment for our classroom, and when I got involved in shortwave radio (I built a Heathkit receiver when I was 10), he got permission from my folks to take me to the home of one of his friends, who was a serious Ham radio operator. Miss Reid taught me how to write a lick, and tried to warm me about the difference between creative and academic writing, something I never really learned, as I spiced my term papers with humorous anecdotes, and my news stories with fictional references (and some might say, my sermons with malarky). Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Allen had such a passion for Pennsylvania and U.S. history and government that I couldn’t help but catch it, too, which is probably why I am so enraged by a U.S. President who clearly doesn’t have a clue about any of it.

 

I could go on AND on, detailing the teachers and professors who made a major impact on my life; you’d be shocked at the specific details I still recall of just how and even when they made key learning “connections” for me. And I can hardly talk about my two sojourns at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary without shedding a few tears over the monumental influence those teachers had on my understanding of faith, biblical studies, and social justice. The late Scottish pastor and leader, Rev. George MacLeod, wrote of places on earth where the “veil” between heaven and earth was so “thin” that one could almost “feel” the presence of the Divine. (As the founder of the Iona Community, he believed Iona to be such a “thin” place.) For me, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary was truly a “thin” place, and those professors were beloved guides on my journey of exploration. 

 

I will forever be indebted to one of my college professors—Dr. Franklin Takei—who taught philosophy with an almost giddy glee, and who helped guide me to the perfect graduate school, based on how he saw my mind work. (And yes, he WAS related to Star Trek’s “Sulu”!) Oh, and no father could have ever been more proud than I was when both of my children were chosen by the landmark program, “Teach for America,” and were sent to struggling school districts for two years to inspire troubled students. Nothing like having your KIDS as your heroes, huh?

 

Now, here in this wonderful passage from Koheleth—“the teacher.” I’m tempted to think of the author of Koheleth as a preacher, for he/she speaks for God, but honestly, ANY good teacher does, too, whether they know it or not. All great teachers could echo this author’s central pursuit: “I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven…” This is the curiosity I spoke of, earlier! Friends, are YOU curious about life, the universe, and everything? Are YOU developing a passion for fascinating facts and discoveries, and if so, what are you doing about it? I know I’m prejudiced about this “life-long learning” thing, but I find it hard to believe ANY person can say they believe in God without applying one’s mind to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven! After all, God didn’t create out of some parental duty or because of some celestially-mandated need. God CREATED because God first LOVED, and then out of a curiosity of what relationships with the created might look like. If you don’t believe that, you need to go back and read your Bible again!

 

I believe that the frustration Koheleth is dealing with in this passage is over rote acceptance of life as a drudgery. How many of us might echo the author’s thoughts here, especially if your own life consists of eating, sleeping, and working to pay the bills, so you can move on to the next day of eating, sleeping, and paying the bills. The teacher here may be trying to jar us into understanding that God wants WAY more for us than this! It would be Jesus himself, who would later say, “I came that you might have LIFE, and it ABUNDANTLY!” Any good preacher or teacher will tell you that “abundant” life is not at all about monetary or temporal wealth, but about the richness of relationships and the love we culture, as well as the serendipity and passion of curiosity-driven learning. Short of these things, life is nothing but vanity—how do I LOOK, how do I FEEL, or what do I WANT? Life is a vast, empty canvas and our Creator offers us a broad palette of colorful paints and textures to go crazy upon it. When our children were little, Dara and I learned to never view something one of them created and ask, “What is it?” Instead, we would say, “Tell me about this…” A spirited conversation always followed this latter inquiry, rather than the “explanation” that would have occurred as a response to the former. If you want to have a good conversation with your pastor, friends, ask them to “tell me more” about their sermon, rather than just grading it, or disagreeing with what she/he said. Want to know what the stupidest thing I ever heard a professing “Christian” say? Here it is: “I’m just not getting fed at that church.” Really? What kind of appetite are you bringing? Are you looking for just dessert, and your pastor is trying to spread the board with decent nourishment for your soul? Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

 

As I look back on my life, I am increasingly realizing how much I learned from those with whom I stringently disagreed. I may not have realized it at the time, but maturity and experience have a way of polishing the lenses, don’t they? I remember balking at many of the sermons by one of my home church’s more “liberal” preachers during my youthful, “evangelical” period. Thankfully, though, my curiosity-tuned brain filed away a number of those sermons in my noggin, and now, as I “re-listen” to them, I can “search them out by wisdom,” discovering the pearls. This reexamination has also illustrated just how blessed we all were by the heritage of pastors who sojourned at Grace UMC, Oil City, even a few we might have found periodically incomprehensible. 

 

Some of the futility Koheleth voices in this passage may be from an attempt by some to remain “self-taught.” Other than the “I’m not being fed” idiocy I mentioned earlier, the very concept of being “self-taught” may be in second place on my “stupid-O-meter.” No one is self-taught, about anything. We may learn from the experience of others, learn by reading or viewing videos of what others may teach us, or even by some personal measure of “trial and error,” but in any case, we don’t learn without at least comparing our results with those who have gone before us. Americans have that “rugged individualism” in our DNA from our historical frontier experience, but the notion that any of us is a true “rugged individual” without the experience of the wider community is fallacious. Show me someone who claims to be totally “self-taught” and I will show you “the fool” mentioned countless times in holy scripture.

 

Obviously, we have a wide variety of teachers in our lives, including God, via the scriptures, and certainly through the teachings of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And was not the Holy Spirit sent to “teach us many things”? Most of us have generously benefitted by those with teaching gifts, in the schools and in the church. Ultimately, though, the effectiveness of the teaching we receive is best measured by how good of a student we make of ourselves. If we hold to an egotistical “self-taught” boast, or have only critical evaluations of those who tried to teach us the invaluable lessons of life and faith, then the resulting ignorance and error is on us. We have succumbed to the “vanity” Koheleth flags in this passage of scripture. Don’t be a victim of what this rejection of good learning leaves you with: “For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.” May God help you sort out yourimportant lessons and be thankful for the bevvy of good teachers who have crossed your path! Amen!