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July 18, 2010
Colossians 1:15-29
Guest preacher Ervin Stutzman, Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, and member of Park View Mennonite, brought the Sunday morning sermon at Park View as part of our summer-long "Living Letters" series focusing on Paul's epistles.
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[coming soon]
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July 11, 2010
Colossians 1:1-14
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul highlights their identity as belonging to God. He speaks of their faith in Christ, their love for all people, and their hope as they are renewed in Christ. We get a glimpse of what God is like because we read about Jesus. In this sermon, guest preacher and Park View member Myron Augsburger reminded us that we are called to live so that others get a glimpse of Jesus through our lives. We can celebrate our Christian heritage, for it points us to the fact that we belong to God, just as the church at Colossae did. Colossians 1:1-14 calls us to come to know that we live in God?s grace, and are a part of God?s family.
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June 27, 2010
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (and Luke 9:51-62; 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21)
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Paul has more than one problem on his hands at the church in Galatia. We spent a couple Sundays now looking at one big problem. We?re about to uncover a second big one.
Both problems stem from the fact Jewish believers in Jesus were being asked to accept Gentile believers as full partners in faith, without making them become Jews. And this required a seismic shift for Jewish believers. They had to completely change their minds about social taboos, and now freely fellowship with Gentiles, sit in their homes, and eat at their tables. We have no idea how huge this was. And they had to shift their theology. to change their beliefs about the nature of salvation itself. They were now being told salvation was available to all, by God?s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, without being descended from Abraham and following the practices Jewish law requires.
This led to a backlash, and problem number one?legalism. Some Jews tolerated Gentiles joining the church, but they insisted new converts also become Jews, and follow the law. So they went around preaching Jewish legalism? the need to practice circumcision, and follow dietary laws, and other purity rituals. In Galatians, and elsewhere, Paul called them out on this corruption of the gospel and pleaded for the believers to hold fast on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.
But as it often goes, when you introduce something new into a system, reactions can go in two opposite directions. So legalism was only one problem. It had an opposite counterpart?libertarianism. That?s what Paul is taking aim at in today?s text, Galatians 5, the idea that because of God?s lavish grace, anything goes.
Preaching salvation by grace is dangerous. Much better, if you wants things clear, and stable, and orderly, to have an objective legal standard by which we can measure ones level of righteousness Grace opens up all kinds of unpleasant possibilities.
For one, the Gentiles welcomed the fact that they could be included without having to jump through all the Jewish hoops. But then some took it to an excess. They concluded there was no moral law by which to judge right and wrong. Their hedonistic culture still held some appeal, so spiritual freedom meant license to behave as they wished.
And then there were Jews who for whatever reason, were already chafing under the requirements of Moses? law. Maybe they were jealous of the freedoms they saw around them. So once they learned from Paul and others that actually, circumcision and diet and ritual purity was not what saved them, then it wasn?t too big of a leap to also throw away the laws of Moses that spoke to how they treated others economically, or how they exercised power over others, or how they behaved sexually. And they thought, isn?t grace grand?
For Gentiles and Jews, the idea of freedom from old legal framework was rather . . . intoxicating. They could get used to this. The problem was, as they let go of the old ethical framework that consisted entirely of earning righteousness, and earning God?s favor, they had no other ethical framework to take its place. _____________________
Which leaves a perplexing question: ?If our good conduct contributes nothing to salvation, and if salvation is purely God?s free gift of grace . . . why be good?? ?Why be good?? That was what the Galatians were asking.
And there?s a fine line between legalism and libertarianism. So Paul needed to give a careful, nuanced answer. Which is why he wrote Galatians 5. In our reading we skipped from verse 1 to 13 and following. But I want to pick up a verse we missed. Because I think his answer is summed up in verse 6: Paul says, it?s not following the law that saves you, nor being free from the law that saves you. Neither one count for anything, he says. But, (and let me quote Paul exactly) ?the only thing that counts is faith working through love.?
This one sentence completes Paul?s argument in the book of Galatians. There is a 3-part progression in his argument. Paul preaches grace which evokes faith that expresses itself in love.
There is an ethical framework for those who put their faith in Jesus for their salvation. And it?s no cake-walk. It?s not cheap grace. There is a rigorous ethical framework. Christian ethics is centered on sacrificial love patterned after Jesus Christ. Paul quotes none other than Jesus in v. 14 when he writes, ?The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ?You shall love your neighbor as yourself.??
Now let?s be clear. Paul is not promoting a new legal system here. Love is not just a new law to replace the old. It?s not just a different way to earn God?s saving grace. Otherwise we?ve just created a new legalism. No, the good new news is that salvation is God?s doing. It?s God?s initiative. It?s God?s free gift of grace. But it?s a gift that sets in motion a chain of events, events made possible only by God?s grace.
God?s initiative of grace evokes in us a response of faith, which then works itself out through love. You see, grace draws us to trust deeply in the one who made this gracious move toward us. And our trust transforms us into the image of the one in whom we put our trust. We are drawn to love like Jesus loved. We are drawn to express faith the way Jesus did, by obeying God?s great love command: ?Love the Lord your God, with all you have and are. And love your neighbor as yourself.? _____________________
So how do we get from opening ourselves to God?s grace, to living a life of sacrificial love of God and others, without falling into the ditch on either side? legalism that assumes we need to work to earn God?s grace, or libertarianism that assumes since God?s saving grace is free, we are also free to define our own ethics. Well, the answer, according to Paul, is that the path from grace to love, passes through faith. In other words, we get from free saving grace, to the rigorous ethic of sacrificial love, by responding to God?s grace with profound, radical trust? that is, faith.
And we had two other scripture readings in today?s lectionary, that illustrate this very kind of faith. An Old Testament and a Gospel story, both of which, I should warn you, are not for the faint of heart. You may wonder, when we look at them, why they?re even in the same Bible as Paul?s glorious words on salvation by grace.
Let?s look at the Gospel story first. Jesus doesn?t come across in this story as being very . . . well . . . gracious. In Luke 9:51ff, it says he ?set his face toward Jerusalem? and while he was on the way, he encountered some potential disciples, people who wanted to follow him. One of them said, ?Wherever you go, I will go.? Jesus tried to talk him out of it, warning him of the hardships. And another person, Jesus invited; said, ?Follow me.? And the man said, ?sure, but let me first go and bury my father.? Jesus? response? ?Let the dead bury their own dead.? And a third said, ?I?ll go with you, but let me first go say farewell to my family.? Jesus retorted, ?No one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.?
Obviously, this isn?t one of those ?sweet Jesus? stories. Although some commentators try their best to make it into one. Scholars bend over backward trying to interpret the excuses of these three persons, as actually being unreasonable. Such as, saying that, well, because of ancient burial customs, the man who wanted to bury his father was really asking for a one-year delay. That may well be possible. But it?s a moot point. This passage isn?t even trying to illustrate how nice and sweet and gracious Jesus is. The point of this passage is that the agenda of the kingdom of God is urgent. Twice it tells us ?Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.? And urgency requires complete?and immediate? trust in the leader. You know, when the fire department is racing toward the scene of a house fire, sirens wailing, the rookie crew member doesn?t ask the captain to make a quick stop at 7-11 because he missed breakfast that morning.
Jesus is making clear that being his follower demands that we give our all. Now. The only way to do that is to trust Jesus completely, that he knows what he?s doing, and when it needs to be done. There is a word for that kind of all-out, immediate, and unqualified trust. It?s called faith.
Read that meaning of ?faith? into Paul?s words, when he says, salvation is only by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. We can read that meaning of faith into Paul?s words, because that?s what Paul meant by faith. That?s the kind of faith Paul demonstrated in his own life. When he deliberately walked into situations that resulted in him being whipped, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked, homeless, and hungry. Paul preaching cheap grace? I don?t think so. _____________________
Then there?s the Old Testament story, from 1 Kings 19. Also not for the faint of heart. This is another discipleship story. The young man Elisha was being asked to follow the master prophet of Israel, Elijah, and become his disciple and apprentice.
Elijah found Elisha out plowing in the family fields, walked up beside Elisha and threw his mantle over Elisha?s shoulder. This was a symbolic and powerful act. Elisha knew immediately what it meant. It meant that Elijah, this renowned prophet, a prophet both loved and hated throughout the land, was choosing him to be his successor. And Elisha dropped the reins and went after Elijah, and told him, ?Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.? And Elijah said, ?Of course. Do as you please.? A different response than Jesus gave. So obviously we can?t say the Bible teaches us that we always have to forsake our family obligations in order to be faithful to God . . . Or that it?s never okay to stop at 7-11 for an egg sandwich.
But clearly in this story, Elisha wasn?t asking to say goodbye because he wasn?t committed, or because he was pulling some delay tactic. Clearly not, because in the very next verse it tells us what he did. Elisha slaughters his team of oxen. He butchers them. He chops up the wood from his plowing equipment, and builds a fire to boil the meat. He cooks a feast, and serves it up to the people. This is radical following. Elisha was destroying any possibility of a Plan B. This is even more radical than James and John walking away from their fishing boats when Jesus called them, leaving their father Zebedee holding the nets. At least James and John didn?t sink their boats and cut up their nets. If they changed their mind later on, they could go back to their father and go fishing again. But Elisha completely destroyed the very means of his livelihood, before he began following Elijah. What if this prophet thing didn?t work out the way he hoped? There would be no turning back. Elisha took Plan B, and burned it, and boiled it.
There is a word for that kind of all-out, immediate, and unqualified trust in the one who calls us. It?s called faith, the very kind of faith Paul calls for in Galatians. _____________________
Those two stories are perfect illustrations for how we get from free grace to sacrificial love. We trust the one who calls us. And we do all within our power and will? and we do have power and will? to nurture a relationship of trust with this one who calls us. There are essential spiritual disciplines that grow faith, that nurture trust. For instance, we come together to worship to hear the stories again, to listen to each other?s story. We pray for the Holy Spirit?s work in our lives. We spend time in the scriptures, allowing them to form us, allowing the scriptures to read us. We practice mutual care, mutual admonition, mutual discernment. We practice giving and receiving hospitality, so we learn to recognize and trust the Jesus we meet in those around us. And we practice saying ?yes? when we hear Jesus say to us, ?Follow me.?
Let us practice saying yes right now, in song, as we sing together a song of commitment, Sing the Story #40: We will follow, we will follow Jesus And let?s just see where it takes us.
?Phil Kniss, June 27, 2010
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Last week, Pastor Phil gave insight into the story behind Paul?s letter to the church in Galatia. He talked about the fight that Paul was having with Peter; a struggle about how to put into practice the decision made at the Jerusalem conference and recounted in Acts 15. At question was just how closely, if at all, Gentile believers need to follow the Jewish religious laws. Phil pointed out that theory said they did not need to, while practice was a bit more complicated than that.
The passage we heard read today, from the third chapter of Galatians, continues Paul?s treatise on being justified by faith. Verses 23 ? 25 set out how, prior to Jesus, it was the law that governed God?s chosen. As important as the law was to the Jews, and to Paul with his Jewish training, Paul says in verse 21 that the law cannot give life. In fact, we have been locked up under the law, in a sort of holding pattern until the coming of Jesus and the faith we could receive through trust in Christ. In essence, the law became a kind of disciplinarian or guard to keep God?s children until the advent of faith in Christ.
It is through belief in Jesus that we become drawn in as children of God. I?d like to take just a moment to say that this was not a new plan that God cooked up because the whole law thing wasn?t working so well. From the beginning, God?s intent was that through Israel all the nations of the world would be drawn to worship God. Listen to Genesis 12: 1-3. The LORD had said to Abram, ?Go from your country, your people and your father?s household to the land I will show you. ?I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.? God gives Abram three blessings. God promises to make of Abram a great nation, to bless him, and to make Abram?s name great. Immediately following these three promises, God says that this is happening so that Abram will be a blessing to others. Verse three ends with the phrase, ??and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.? If you read the story of Abraham carefully, you will read how the glory of God was made apparent to many of the nations with whom Abraham had contact.
Jump ahead to the establishment of the temple in Jerusalem. Hear Isaiah 56: 6-7. And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant? these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.? Foreigners will be accepted as they follow the Mosaic laws, and the temple will be known as a house of prayer for all peoples. Worship of God was not just for Israel, but for all who would come to know God.
In light of this, Galatians 3:26 is not news. All along, God has had a place for all, Jew AND Gentile, in God?s family. Paul is saying that faith in Jesus brings anyone fully into that family. We become known as children of God because when we were baptized into Christ we have clothed ourselves with Christ. This is the piece that I?d like us to consider closely today. What does it mean to be clothed with Christ?
If you have any awareness of events in the world this past week, you know that the World Cup of soccer is occurring in South Africa. This is the most closely followed sporting event in the world. For those who are there, or those watching the games on TV, the teams are known by their jerseys. When I hold up this jersey, my guess is that some of you know immediately which country?s players wear this. What team is it? Argentina. If I had other jerseys available, I could have held them up and likely someone would have been able to identify the team. Anyone wearing this jersey during the World Cup would be identified as a supporter of Argentina. On the soccer pitch, you know that the person wearing this jersey is playing to represent Argentina.
Clothing can identify who we are, where we are from, or who or what we support. Let me give another example. Are you familiar with the term ?haute couture?? It?s a French phrase meaning ?high sewing?, or ?high dressmaking?. I found out that it is actually a controlled term and that not just any clothier can use it. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. I have to say that the definition I just gave is thanks to Wikipedia.
I suppose that I don?t know what haute couture really looks like. To be honest, and this should be no surprise to anyone, I?m not one to pay much attention at all to fashion or clothes. But someone who wears haute couture is making a statement. That statement might be that they are wealthy. It might be that they care about appearance. And we might make assumptions about a person based on what they wear. They are elegant, refined, snobbish, aristocratic, powerful, important. If the person tends more toward Thrift Shop Chic, we may think that they are working class, middle class, poor, common, salt of the earth, slovenly, lazy, unimportant. All kinds of information can be inferred based on how a person dresses.
To clothe oneself with Christ must surely be the ultimate in haute couture! Can you imagine any garment that could be of higher quality than Christ? Or created with more love and attention to detail by a more skilled seamstress than God? And surely we would say that it is a garment that was designed specifically for the individual wearer! Spiritually speaking, I am dressed in haute couture! All of a sudden I?m feeling pretty special, and so should you!
The challenge, of course, is to figure out what in the world it means to be clothed with Christ. What does that look like? There are a number of possibilities. It might mean that we wear a cross on a chain around our neck, or a t-shirt that has a Bible verse on it or some phrase that proclaims a message about God. I?m almost certain that is NOT what it means to be clothed with Christ. In fact, I?m almost certain that it has nothing to do with what we wear, and everything to do with our attitudes and how we behave.
If we are clothed with Christ, I have to assume that just like with other clothing, people can see us and make judgments about us based on that clothing. So our attitudes, which cannot help but be manifested in our behaviors, are our Christ-clothes. Perhaps this is why Paul goes on to say in Galatians 3:28 ?There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.? These other differences fade away when we are clothed with Christ. People will not see those differences because they will first see Christ. I believe that is what Paul was saying to the church in Galatia, and that is what this letter is saying to us today. The more fully dressed in Christ we can be, the less our individual differences will matter.
I want to end by reading a short journal entry. This was written by Everett Brubaker, who just graduated from EMHS and is in Eastern Europe with the schools Touring Choir.
June 13 The day began in our small hotel in Wroclaw. We packed up our things, had breakfast at the hotel and departed for Katowice. It was a 3-4 hour bus ride and we arrived ready to sing for a Baptist congregation. We sang 6 songs total throughout the service. We were there on a day when several members were getting baptized. It was fun singing for an energetic congregation and listening to a service that was entirely in Polish. After the service we drove to Polwice. We spent the afternoon relaxing, playing cards, playing soccer, and just enjoying each others company. It was a gorgeous day and the host church also prepared a wonderful meal for us. We sang our evening concert to a full house.
After the concert, the congregation and the choir fellowshipped outside. There was barbeque, games of soccer and volleyball (Poland vs USA). There were little children running around. I met this little 5 or 6-year-old kid who I later found out was named Naton. He was kicking a ball around so I hopped in and kicked a soccer ball with him. He was having a great time but after a half hour or so he scurried off to the playground. I went and sat in a chair to watch a volleyball game which seemed to be getting quite heated. After some time Naton came and stood next to me. He was holding a paper plate full of salad and seemed to be having some trouble holding the plate while maneuvering a fork so I put out my hands and he set his plate on them and continued to eat the salad. Upon finishing his first salad, he proceeded to go back for seconds and thirds, each time returning and using my hands for a table. He talked to me while he ate, all in Polish. I smiled and nodded and laughed when he was and looked concerned when he did. Naton eventually headed out to leave with his dad and while scampering away, turned back and yelled something in Polish. He dad turned back and yelled, ?Tomorrow?? I smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Later that evening our choir was assigned to hosts. John and I are currently with a host family who speaks virtually no English. It is proving to be quite an adventure but one John and I are excited to take head on. -Everett Brubaker
Now, you might wonder about my choice of this entry, but to me, Everett was fully clothed in Christ on June 13. He was showing love to Naton, and differences of language and culture disappeared. There was neither American nor Pole, teen nor youth, East nor West. There was just two of God?s children, one of whom, Everett, was bringing glory to God through simple acts of friendship and service. It is my prayer that we all have stories like that. We might be like Everett, showing God to others, or we may be like Natan, seeing God through the Christ-clothes that others are wearing.
The song we are going to sing, #373 in our hymnal, uses a slightly different metaphor, that of a vine and branches, but the words speak to this idea of being immersed in Christ. ?May we, loving one another, radiant in thy light abide; so through us, made fruitful by thee, shall our God be glorified.? May we, who have been baptized into Christ, clothe ourselves in Christ, to the glory of God.
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We know for a fact, that the reason today?s passage from Galatians even exists, is because of a fight between Peter and Paul.
The epistles we?re looking at this summer, we?re calling ?Living Letters? because they carry a message that?s still vital for us today. They?re ancient letters, of course. But they were written by real people, to real church communities, facing particular opportunities and particular threats.
In these letters, there are lots of theological discussions. But behind almost every theological discussion is a story. Some church was dealing with a specific situation, that called for careful thinking, for theological reflection. Most of the time, we don?t know the story, because Paul and other biblical letter writers don?t tell us. But today we know. We know these verses in chapter 2 of the letter to Galatia were written because of a fight between Peter and Paul. Paul tells us so.
If you look in your Bibles at Galatians, chapter 2, you see that this theological treatment of justification, and faith, and works, and law, that we read this morning begins in verse 15. But the four verses right before that are a story. A story about a fight. Not a physically violent fight, of course. But a fight nevertheless? a passionate and deep struggle between two strong opposing parties. We only get Paul?s side of the story, of course. We have to make assumptions about the other side. But it?s important that we pay attention to the story, so we can make more sense out of the rest of Galatians.
As Paul tells it, when Peter (also called Cephas) came to Antioch, they had a face-to-face confrontation. This would have been after the Jerusalem Council, told in Acts 15, where the church decided to allow Gentiles to join in full communion without becoming Jews, without following all the laws that Jewish Christians followed. So by this time, when Paul is writing, the official position of the church? the position that (to quote Acts 15) ?seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us?? was not to burden Gentiles with the demands of Jewish law, but extend to them full fellowship as Gentiles.
But, as sometimes is the case, what looks great in theory, and on paper, gets complicated when it meets ?real-life.? This was especially true in Jerusalem, the mother city of Judaism. I reminded us last Sunday that this Jesus movement called ?The Way? started out solidly within Judaism. It was a Jewish reformation movement. Until Paul?s ministry took it way beyond Judea, all around the Mediterranean, all over the Roman Empire, into every major center of commerce and culture. So while Gentiles were happily joining together with Jews in far-flung places like Galatia and Asia Minor, it was a whole different picture in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was not only Judaism Central, this was during a period of growing Jewish nationalism, and growing frustration and anger toward Rome, and consequently, growing anti-Gentile sentiment. So while James and the apostles in Jerusalem, were theoretically in support of ministry to the Gentiles, this rapid expansion of the church into Gentile territory was creating real problems for them, and the home church.
For one thing, in Jerusalem they didn?t have Gentiles knocking on the door wanting to join the church. So it wasn?t something they were passionate about, like Paul. They didn?t have any real face-to-face experience with this issue.
And secondly, it created a huge image problem for them as followers of Jesus. Not to mention, a huge barrier in their witness to fellow Jews. Already, they were marginalized by the Jewish establishment. Now they had to suffer even more by being associated with this renegade Paul. Word traveled fast. Everyone knew Paul was out looking for relationships with Gentiles? staying in their homes, worshiping with them, eating with them. It was distasteful to nearly every Jew in Jerusalem. Jerusalem Christians were trying their best to be respectable full participants in the Jewish community, but Paul was making it awfully difficult.
So what happened in Antioch? and this was just about 100 miles north of Jerusalem, where the ministry to Gentiles really began? was that Peter and Paul were both there, and as you might expect they were both enjoying fellowship with Gentile Christians, eating with them, meaning, of course, sharing the common meal, the Lord?s Supper. Until some representatives of James and the Jerusalem church came to visit Antioch. So out of deference to the visitors from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from table fellowship with the Gentiles In other words, he didn?t take communion with them, so as not to give offense to the mother church.
And Paul, you might say, went ballistic. Jewish piety, when there?s an offense, generally calls for private reproof. But Paul took it public, opposing Peter to his face, which meant he considered this both alarming and urgent. Peter probably didn?t see this as a big deal. Just took a small symbolic step back to keep the peace. But Paul saw it as a blatant repudiation of the Gospel.
To withdraw from table fellowship with Christians who were culturally and racially different, was to forsake them as his brothers and sisters, make them second-class Christians. It violated the unity of the Church. It mocked the cross of Christ. It challenged the heart of the Gospel.
So Paul challenged Peter, saying, in v. 14: ?If you, a Jew, live like a Gentile most of the time, not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews??
And then today?s passage, the theological lesson, begins in the next verse. But really, you can still think of this as what Paul is saying to Peter. There weren?t quotation marks in early manuscripts, anyway. We have to figure out by the context, where a quote begins and ends. These might not be the words Paul spoke to Peter, but they well could be.
The words in v. 15 could be a general statement. ?We ourselves . . .? sounds like an editorial ?we.? ?We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.? But I think the passage could just as well read like this: ?Peter, you and I are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. You and I both know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And you and I have both come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.? And v. 18: ?But if I build up again?like you did Peter? the very things that I once tore down, then I?m acting like a sinner . . . and Christ died for nothing.?
Maybe these weren?t the words Paul spoke to Peter, but these words were, without a doubt, a direct result of this heated conflict between Paul and Peter.
In this letter, Paul appeals to the church in Galatia, not to let this spirit that Peter demonstrated take over the church, and nullify the Gospel. Gentiles and Jews are united by a common faith in Christ. It is not a unity based on common ethnicity. or on common customs and background, or even on a common religious legal code, but a unity based on faith in Jesus Christ. Or in the words of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, the church is not called to an ethnic, social, or legal unity, but to ?an evangelical unity.? That?s a unity that grows out of a shared trust in God?s gracious work of salvation in Christ. _____________________
So what do you suppose Paul really means, in this theological argument that says we are justified only by faith in Christ? What does ?faith in Christ? refer to, exactly?
People use the word ?faith? in lots of different ways, of course. But I think we can have a pretty clear sense of what Paul means by it in Galatians.
I think it?s safe to say that faith is a response to God?s grace, and that response is characterized primarily by confession. That is, we confess, or express our faith in, our trust in, the work of God in Jesus Christ. We confess, or express our faith with words, as in, a statement of faith. We confess, or express our faith with attitudes, as in having a posture of trust in the work of God. We confess, or express our faith ethically, as our trust in God transforms how we live in this world.
But always, whether expressed in words or thoughts or deeds, our faith finds meaning in the one being confessed?Jesus Christ. It?s not what we do that gives faith meaning. It?s the work God has done through this one we confess.
I was inspired this week by reading Charles Cousar?s commentary on Galatians in the Interpretation series. Cousar is a professor emeritus of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia.
Cousar wrote, ?Faith is never intended to be a possession people can have to guarantee their status, like a membership card? (p54) ?Faith is God?s gift which we reappropriate.? Despite what we like to think, faith is not something we muster up, or master, or manipulate. We don?t have faith so we can put God in debt to us. We are tempted to think that if we can manage to have sufficient faith, then God owes us a special blessing, or that if we just believe, God will have to take special care of us. No, that?s just turning faith into a kind of works. And Paul was adamant in Galatians and elsewhere, that faith was the opposite of works.
Faith is a response to God?s grace already given, it?s not something we muster up to earn God?s grace. Otherwise, Cousar suggests, we just turn faith into the ?ultimate form of self-justification which finally succeeds? in earning God?s favor. He says, we make faith like circumcision, some act that people perform to gain God?s favor and justification.
But you know, we can miss the mark on faith in more than one direction. We can try desperately to earn God?s favor by jumping through all kinds of hoops, and call it faith. But that?s just a different kind of works. Or we can be completely passive, and thank God we don?t have to be a righteous do-gooder, and feel compelled to live like we?re out to change the world, and call that faith. But that?s just spiritual laziness. In fact, it?s one of the seven deadly sins: sloth.
Here?s another quote from Cousar that I think is right on. ?Faith is not a reliance on one?s accomplishments, or one?s lack of accomplishments, but a trust in the accomplishments of God.?
Faith is a free and generous trust that God does good work. Or as Cousar put it, ?[Faith is] the sometimes quiet, sometimes reckless confidence in the goodness and faithfulness of God . . . Faith is not a way for humans to ?get God on their side.? [God] is already for them. In faith [people] change, not [God]. The experience of trusting God always leads to the thorough reshaping of the believer.?
You see, a full and robust belief in salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, is by no means a way to get off easy in this life, ethically speaking. Trust in God changes us. Faith reshapes us. It makes us obedient? not in a superficial and formalized way, adhering to the demands of the law for the sake of the law. Rather, obedience as radical following of the one in whom we trust. Faith makes us obedient to the one whose mission it is to move among suffering humanity carrying good news to the poor proclaiming release to the captives healing, restoring, reconciling. Faith makes us obedient participants in God?s saving story.
It?s the kind of scandalous faith we heard about in the Gospel reading today. Where a sinful woman came into a house and fell at the feet of Jesus weeping, tears flowing seeking to be made whole. She didn?t have to earn God?s grace and salvation first. She came as a sinner. But her expression of shameless trust in Jesus to heal and forgive, in other words, her faith, resulted in her leaving that house forgiven and transformed, set on a new path in life.
Being justified by faith is not a free pass to heaven. The justification, the being made righteous, is indeed, God?s marvelous work, not our work. But faith is our confession of trust in God?s work, a trust so deep that we forsake all to follow and obey this one who forgives us and justifies us.
But we do have to confess. We confess our trust, and we confess our need, our sin.
So I invite us now to a time of confession and reflection. I will pray a few lines of confession on all our behalf. If you can identify with this confession, do so, in the silence that follows.
Let us pray.
O God, before whose face we cannot make ourselves righteous even by being right: free us from the need to justify ourselves by our own anxious striving.
O God, before whose face we are nevertheless called to account: save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore in the world, and in our own lives.
Give us courage to respond to your grace with robust faith in your goodness, with strong trust in your work, and with a pulsing desire to follow you in obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[silence]
Hear these words of assurance (Psalm 32):
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, ?I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,? and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.
Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
?Phil Kniss, June 13, 2010
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The epistle to the Galatians is an emergency letter. I have no idea how it was delivered to the churches in Galatia, or how far it had to travel, but as far as Paul was concerned it couldn?t get there fast enough. It was the kind of letter that, had there been the option in 55 A.D., Paul surely would have used email. The subject line would have been, ?URGENT!? In all caps.
Ancient letters, like Paul?s, all have a wordy beginning. Where we put names and addresses, and then ?Dear So-and-so,? Ancient letters take several descriptive sentences to say who it?s from, and several descriptive sentences to say, ?Grace to you and peace, church at Galatia. In other words, ?Dear So-and-so.?
Then, the body of the letter begins; in our N.T., usually not until 7 or 8 verses in. Paul?s usual pattern?after the ?from me, to you, grace and peace, etc?? is to begin the body of the letter with an extended polite introduction, maybe reminiscing about their long and tender relationship, or expressing thanksgiving to God for what God is doing among them. Even in his letter to the churches at Corinth, who were having all kinds of bitter disputes over worship, the role of women, sexual immorality, etc., even to them, he opens his letter with tender words of thanksgiving.
Not so with his letter to the church at Galatia. After his ?from me, to you, grace and peace? the first words out of his mouth were, ?I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.? There wasn?t time for polite niceties. The very Gospel of Jesus Christ was at stake. As was every community formed around that Gospel. The Good News was being turned on its head, twisted, corrupted to the point it was becoming Bad News, at least to a large segment of the church. By this letter, Paul was attempting an emergency resuscitation of the Gospel, trying to keep the Christian communities in Galatia from having their life-breath choked out of them.
It?s really hard for us to understand what all was at stake here, but let?s review. Jesus was a Jew. All his disciples were Jews. He framed his whole message as a fulfillment of Jewish law. His ministry was geographically centered in Judea. After he left, the apostles in charge of the early church set up headquarters in Jerusalem, worshiped in the temple and synagogues, and devoted themselves to a better practice of Judaism. The church, sometimes called ?The Way,? was from the beginning, without question, a Jewish movement. And despite strong hints Jesus gave pointing to a larger mission, and even some hints in Hebrew scriptures, nobody, but nobody, thought this would be anything other than a Jewish reformation movement.
But things had changed by the mid-50s, 20-plus years after Jesus? death and resurrection. The number of Jesus? followers were expanding exponentially, and were forming communities not just in the heart of Jewish country, but in towns and cities around the Mediterranean, even where there were no synagogues. And Gentiles were joining these communities . . . in droves.
This set up an intense, and quite predictable, conflict in the church. The gospel message was that salvation comes by God?s grace, through faith in Jesus, not by good works, and strict adherence to the law. So some were teaching, and practicing, full inclusion of Gentile believers, without requiring them to become Jews. No need for males to be circumcised, which for thousands of years, had been the fundamental ritual of the covenant, the sign of belonging to God and God?s people. But now, uncircumcised men, and women who did not follow Jewish law, were sitting in house churches right next to devout Jewish believers in Jesus, eating and drinking the Lord?s Supper with them, with no restrictions! When Jewish believers in Jesus were put in this situation, it directly challenged everything they knew about what it meant to be Jewish. Many of them were fine with Gentiles joining the movement, so long as they also became Jews. So among the communities in Galatia, influential teachers went around redefining the Gospel of Jesus, as something for Jews only.
This conflict absolutely permeates the life of the early church, and permeates most of the New Testament scripture, from the book of Acts on. It certainly permeates the book of Galatians, and we will revisit it in the coming Sundays. _____________________
But today we focus on a few verses in chapter 1, where Paul reveals why he is at the center of this controversy, why he feels so deeply about this matter, that it merits an emergency letter to the Christian communities in Galatia.
It goes back to one fateful day that Paul was knocked to the ground and struck blind, as he was on the road to Damascus. The voice Paul heard, as he lay on the ground stunned, said, ?I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. I have appeared to you for one purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify on my behalf to the Gentiles, so that they may turn from darkness to light.?
We often call this Damascus Road encounter Paul?s ?conversion?. And it was a conversion, no doubt. Paul?s whole point of view was changed. But on that day, Paul was not ?converted to Christianity,? as much as he was called and grasped by Jesus Christ. You might even say Paul was grasped and shook by Jesus? and told, ?You are mine! From this point on, you are my servant, to do my bidding.? Seems Paul didn?t have much say in the matter.
And Jesus? bidding, as it turned out, was for Paul to go all over the region of the Mediterranean, into all the Greek-speaking parts of the Empire, where Jews were already a small, persecuted minority, and build the church of Jesus Christ with Jews and Gentiles together, side-by-side recipients of God?s grace.
More than any other apostle, Paul is responsible for the spread of this movement to the Gentiles. And it began on the day Jesus himself called him, and held him in a grace grasp.
I use that phrase on purpose. Because I think it highlights something about God?s grace that?s easy to miss. We easily and quickly spiritualize, personalize, sentimentalize, what it means to receive God?s grace and salvation.
The great theologian Karl Barth, in his writings, asked, What does it really mean, in concrete and practical terms, to be a Christian? Barth suggests that the classic answer to that question focuses on the benefits we get from our salvation. The Christian is a recipient of God?s grace, and thus enjoys the benefits of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of joy, peace, and hope found in Christ. There is nothing untrue about that. Many of the great hymns we sing spell out the benefits for us. Spiritual benefits of salvation are the theme of many sermons. The trouble with this classic answer, according to Barth, is we are then tempted to assume that enjoying God?s gifts is the only relevant and important reality to which God calls us. So my salvation, my peace, my joy, my assurance of God?s blessing, become my main concern. We are tempted to make Jesus our personal spiritual genie, at our beck and call. When it?s actually the other way around. We are at Jesus? beck and call.
To receive God?s grace-filled invitation to salvation, is to be issued a life-altering call. It is to be commissioned, forever, as a witness to others. We are grasped by the grace of God in Christ, and set apart as servants of Christ, to be persons who in word and deed point to God and to what God is doing in the world. Our preoccupation as Christians is not the gifts God bestows on individual believers, but the service of love to the world for which we are grasped, and to which we are called.
Paul?s ?conversion experience? recorded several times in scripture, is a case in point. Not one of these repeated accounts of Paul?s conversion mentions anything about a new joy, or peace, or sense of security that resulted from Paul?s encounter with Jesus. Rather, Jesus? revelation of himself to Paul resulted in Paul being sent to participate in God?s mission. Paul was ordered to sign on to God?s agenda, and leave his own behind.
Paul lays that out quite clearly in today?s text from Galatians 1, v. 15-16, when he describes his conversion on the Damascus Road: He says, quote, ?God, who had set me apart before I was born, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles.?
Paul was grasped and called by God?s grace. The picture we get here is not the kind of grace that rains down on us in gentle showers of blessing, although we can experience God?s grace that way. The picture here is of God?s strong hand of grace that grasps us, and turns us, reorients us, maybe even shakes some sense into us. It?s the voice of God that says, ?No! Stop going that way. You are missing the point. This is not about you. This is not about what you can accomplish through your own raw energy and zeal and devotion.? As the voice said to Paul, ?Stop kicking against the goads. Turn around and go my way.? _____________________
That?s a bit of a different slant on grace, isn?t it? We?ll talk more about grace and faith in coming weeks, but this kind of puts it in perspective. God?s lavish and unmerited grace is not to be confused with sweet sentimentality. It is not be confused with permissiveness, or blessing whatever we do, or whatever direction we choose to go. No, God?s grace holds us in a love grasp, and reorients us, directs us toward a life of love and sacrificial service of God.
Maybe that?s a new thought to think of grace as being held in a firm grasp. Are we saying that God?s grace is really God controlling and manipulating us, pushing us here and there, removing our free will? No, God will always allow us to wriggle free from the grasp if we so choose. But because of God?s strong grace grasp, we won?t be able to do that without some painful consequence.
Because being held in God?s grace grasp is the life that God created us for. God designed us to have the fullest and richest life when we give up our own agenda, and orient ourselves toward God?s agenda.
When we live as one held in a grace grasp, it means our life has both direction and purpose. We are oriented around a reality much larger than ourselves. So our life purpose is not dependent on our life circumstances.
We hit a snag in our thinking, when we look for meaning in a life that sometimes deals people a lot of garbage. Life is sometimes downright rude, indiscriminate, senseless. So where is meaning in life? When we orient our lives around ourselves and our needs and our blessings, we are condemning ourselves to a life of disappointment. When we attach the meaning of life, to the circumstances of life, we lose the battle.
But when we orient around something larger than ourselves or our circumstances, suddenly God?s strong grace grasp becomes a tremendous gift to us. Our orientation becomes a faith posture. Faith doesn?t even try to make sense out of every tragedy. Instead, it affirms that the circumstances of life are part of a large mosaic that we cannot see, but God sees. It affirms that God is present and active in the places of suffering, even when we can?t perceive it.
The God who calls us and grasps us is the same God and Father of Jesus Christ, who suffered and was crucified. It is the same God who transformed that suffering into glory, through the resurrection. God was not detached from suffering on Good Friday, nor is God detached from human suffering today. But God?s grace grasp orients us toward Easter. And what a wonderful gift of grace that is. _____________________
Being held in a grace grasp is a gift, in that when I come to realize that it?s not my agenda, nor my responsibility to make everything happen, I am relieved of a great burden. I need not struggle with self-doubt, did I make the right decision back there? should I have done something differently? We always make choices that are clouded with some degree of uncertainty, maybe even confusion. But God still holds us in this grasp of love and grace. But when we realize we are first and foremost called and grasped by God, to live our lives in God?s service, it takes the burden off. When our call and vocation is clear, we need not even try to be self-reliant.
As the hymn-writer Fred Pratt Green wrote, How clear is our vocation, Lord, when once we heed your call: to live according to your word, and daily learn, refreshed, restored, that you are Lord of all, and will not let us fall.
Let?s sing that hymn together, #541.
?Phil Kniss, June 6, 2010
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I have read that there was a time, around 320 A.D. more or less, that there were arguments in the streets among common people? sailors and travelers and moneychangers and bakers? arguments that bristled with as much passion and partisan zeal as say, New Yorkers arguing about the Yankees vs. Mets, or Chicagoans at each other over the White Sox vs. Cubs.
But these ancient street arguments were not over sports or politics. They were over the Doctrine of the Trinity. I read that in the early 300s, especially in Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, people on the streets were singing ditties, based on popular tunes, proclaiming that the Father alone was true God, but that the Son was neither co-eternal nor uncreated, since he proceeded from the Father. I read that a market vendor, when giving his customers what they ordered, would add an unsolicited theological discourse, on whether the Father was greater than the Son.
What got these persons all inflamed was a theological controversy between Arius, and bishop Alexander and his sidekick Athanasius. Arius, apparently, was a charismatic figure, and a skilled propagandist, who put his dissenting beliefs to music, so the common people would help spread the word. When things really started getting out of hand, Emperor Constantine summoned a council to Nicaea, in modern-day Turkey, to settle these questions.
And what resulted from a month of negotiations, was the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D.
But that didn?t settle everything. Many more councils ensued. There was one in Constantinople in 381 that added several lines about the Holy Spirit, including that the Spirit proceeds from the Father.
There was one in Chalcedon in 451 which ruled that Jesus had two natures, both divine and human. That resulted in a major schism.
Then in 589, at the Third Council of Toledo (that?s not Ohio, by the way), the Latin-speaking churches of Western Europe, added the words, ?and the Son,? (in Latin, filioque) so that now the Nicene creed said the Holy Spirit ?proceeds from the Father and the Son.? The Eastern church found this addition unacceptable, because it equated the Father and Son. The ?filioque controversy? got political and personal, as not only the popes, but kings and emperors, took positions on it, over against each other, until in 1054 there was another major schism in the church, that continues today, separating Western Christianity from the Eastern, or Orthodox, Christianity.
A lot more could be said, but I try to make it a habit in my sermons not to bore you to tears.
Suffice it to say, the Doctrine of the Trinity, in the history of the Christian church, has been a hugely important issue.
What makes it so? For one thing, saying God is both one, and three, creates difficulty for persons guided primarily by logic and reason. And we Western Christians, in particular, love logic and reason. We have to work it out in some way that makes sense for our logical minds. Eastern Christians tend to experience it a different way.
We?ve been blessed for several weeks to have worshiping with us a priest from the Eastern Christian tradition, specifically the Coptic Orthodox church. Now, Coptic Christians were part of that first schism after Chalcedon. Sometimes they?re called ?non-Chalcedonian? Christians. But I told you I wasn?t going to bore you.
Father Luke, would you please come and join me here behind the pulpit for a minute? Just the fact that the two of us can stand behind the same pulpit as brothers in Christ says a lot about how far the church has come, since these divisions over the Trinity.
Father Luke, your church was brought into being because of a particular way of stating the doctrine of the Trinity, and the nature of God, as seen in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. But putting aside for now, the finer theological points that make your tradition distinct, I want simply to ask you one personal question, and have you give a brief response.
What does the Trinity mean to you in your personal spiritual life? In other words, why is believing in the Trinity important to you personally, in your experience of God? _____________________
Thank you, Father Luke. For the most part, Eastern and Western Christians get along fairly well today. The popes and patriarchs have made null and void earlier declarations that condemned each other. And both Eastern and Western Christians are strongly Trinitarian. But there is a difference in how the Trinity is approached. We can describe that difference with the word ?theory.?
When we in the West use the word theory, we are talking about a rational hypothesis, which we try to prove, or at least logically argue to be true. And that?s how we tend to approach Trinity, as a theory, trying our best to ?make sense? of it.
But in Eastern Christian theology, the word theory, or in Greek theoria, means contemplation. It means to view or witness something, in this case, to ?see God.? It?s a stage on a deeply spiritual journey.
So Greek, and Russian, and Coptic Orthodox Christians, continue to find that the contemplation of the Trinity is an inspiring religious experience. The Trinity can only be grasped intuitively, and, as a result of a religious experience. Meanwhile, Western Christians get hung up on the logic of it, or lack thereof. We are less comfortable with contemplating the mystery, and allowing the mystery to be a vehicle for seeing God.
I would encourage us, when it comes to the Trinity, to be more Eastern than Western. As Bishop N. T. Wright of England has said, the Trinity is not a mind game. I quote, ?It would be a mistake to give the impression that the Christian doctrine of God is a matter of clever intellectual word games or mind games. For Christians it?s always a love game: God?s love for the world calling out an answering love from us.?
We all, certainly, want to know God. We wouldn?t be here today, if that wasn?t the case.
And there are different ways of knowing. There is knowing arrived at through analysis, and knowing arrived at through contemplation and experience. We can learn to know something by dissecting and analyzing it. Deconstructing it, and debating the details, until we make conclusions about its essential nature. That?s what the ancient councils of the church were doing. We can also learn to know something by living with it, by relating our lives to it, contemplating its beauty and wonder, experiencing and interacting with it, developing a relationship with it, allowing the knowledge to transform us. There are times and places to seek both kinds of knowledge of God.
Mind games are enjoyable to many of us, including myself. Mind games can even be fruitful and productive. But for the Doctrine of the Trinity, let?s get beyond the mind game, and make it a love game. Let?s marvel at the beauty of a God who longs to relate to us in love. _____________________
We learn how to understand and relate to the Trinity, through scripture, even though the word Trinity doesn?t appear in the Bible. Paul, for instance, doesn?t teach the doctrine of Trinity, per se. like he teaches the doctrines of justification or sanctification. Paul teaches relationship to God.
Paul describes, to the church in Rome, in today?s reading from Romans 5, for example, how, because of Jesus, we can relate to the God of the universe, in peace. Romans 5:1??We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace.? Paul says because of the Holy Spirit we can experience the real and present love of God. Verse 5: ?God?s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.? It?s a concrete, present, multi-faceted relationship with a triune God, that makes a joyful and hopeful life possible, even in a world full of suffering, Paul says.
And the Gospel reading this morning, from John 16, gives another picture of this relational God, put into words by Jesus himself. Jesus describes the Godhead as a divine community. In John chapter 16, vv. 14-15, Jesus describes to his disciples this interactivity between himself and the Spirit and his Father. ?[The Spirit] will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that [the Spirit] will take what is mine and declare it to you.?
Jesus tried to reassure his disciples, that they could experience the real presence of God when he was no longer physically present. Jesus was the incarnation of God. God in real flesh. God present. Emmanuel. The disciples understood that. But how was God going to continue to be present with them when the incarnation ended? when Jesus left them?
So Jesus reassured them they would not be abandoned. God will continue to be present. God will be with them through the Holy Spirit.
And that?s what happened in the early church. They experienced God?s presence and activity in many different ways. And it was this lived experience of God, that they wrote about in the scriptures, and that informs our thinking today. And it was the lived experience of God, that early theologians tried to hammer out in words. Yes, those early doctrinal councils had political aspects to them. But primarily, they were just trying to find adequate language for their experience. This wasn?t an ivory tower academic exercise. If it was, I don?t think there would have been common folk in the market singing ditties about the Trinity.
God is not just a concept. God is known in relationship. The Trinity, which we know because of Jesus, keeps us grounded in the worship of a relational God. It keeps us from making God into some cosmic notion of goodness. Let me read a paragraph or two from the writings of N. T. Wright. I may have read these before, but they bear repeating. ?Once we glimpse the doctrine of the Trinity?? or we might substitute the Orthodox language? ?Once we [contemplate] the doctrine of the Trinity we dare not slide back into . . . paying distant homage to a god who is . . . merely a quasi-personal source of general benevolence . . . Christian faith is much more hard-edged, more craggy, than that. Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel . . . not as a teacher of timeless truths, nor as a great moral example, but as the one through whose life, death, and resurrection God?s rescue operation was put into effect, and the [world] turned its great corner at last . . . It is because of Jesus that Christians claim they know who the creator God of the world really is. It is because he, a human being, is now with the Father in the dimension we call ?heaven? that Christians came so quickly to speak of God as both Father and Son. It is because he [is still] in heaven while we are on earth . . . that Christians came to speak of the Spirit, too . . . [present with us] as a distinct member of the divine Trinity. It is all because of Jesus that we speak of God the way we do. And it is all because of Jesus that we find ourselves called to live the way we do.?
The Trinity is not a dry, intellectual study of God?s nature. The Trinity is putting into words what it means to worship a God who is with us, really with us, in a way that puts a claim on our ordinary daily lives. The Trinity compels us to respond to and relate to God, one way or another. Accept or reject. But respond, we must. In obedience or in rebellion, but relate to God, we must.
Deep knowledge and experience of God will not come from rational analysis or debate. Contemplating the Trinity, is like examining a multi-faceted gemstone that reflects the light in different colors and intensities, depending on the angle from which we?re viewing it. The Trinity helps us see God from three angles. God the majestic sovereign, creator of the universe, all-knowing, all-powerful. And, God who understands my human frailty, God who has been in my shoes, God who knows suffering, and continues to suffer. And, God who is near to comfort, to guide and empower in the present, to speak the words of God to us today. God who brings together earth and heaven.
It is our life calling to know this God, not by looking on from a distance, but by engaging in practices that nurture a deeper knowledge and participation in God.
Let us commit ourselves to a life of contemplation and action, that we might be drawn into the embrace of our loving God.
In response, let us sing the hymn printed on the bulletin insert. No matter by what name we name God? Eternal Light, Eternal Hope, Eternal Power, Eternal Wisdom. Eternal Life, Eternal Brightness, Eternal Spirit, Eternal Savior. The aim of our coming to God is the same? to come before your face to know you, my eternal God.
?Phil Kniss, May 30, 2010
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Happy birthday to us!
Pentecost Sunday is frequently referred to as the birth of the church,
when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven to empower the followers of Jesus,
gathered in Jerusalem.
This is the eighth Sunday of Easter.
It is the 50th day after Easter, and thus the name Pentecost.
The Eastern Christian churches have a different calendar than Western Christian churches.
It happens that this year Pentecost falls on the same day in both calendars.
So Christians around the world today
are celebrating the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples,
empowering them and birthing the church.
That is what the Holy Spirit does.
To steal a phrase from Garrison Keeler, it gives us
?...shy people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.?
It transformed those gathered in the upper room
from a huddle of fear to a rowdy rabble proclaiming God?s deeds of power.
This beginning of the church was immediately diverse and multicultural.
The coming of the Holy Spirit pushed the Gospel of Jesus Christ
out beyond the Jewish world of Jerusalem
to be heard by people from ?every nation under heaven?.
The community exploded, led by the Spirit of God.
This new, expanded and Spirit-led community,
has some distinctive characteristics.
In our gospel text from John 14, Jesus promises that the Spirit will come,
but specifies to whom it will come.
Beginning in verse 15 Jesus says,
?If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.?
Jesus identifies his community as those who live as his disciples,
those focused on glorifying his Father, making God known to all people.
The idea of community is one that we in Mennonite circles are pretty familiar with.
We use the word a lot.
In fact, if you pay attention to your bulletin every week,
you will be familiar with these words.
?Park View Mennonite Church is a community of communities who worship God and follow Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Each community and its members participate in God?s saving, healing, and reconciling mission in our world, our neighborhoods, and our church.?
That is our vision as a congregation, it is what we strive to be and to do.
There is a focus on worship and discipleship ? following Jesus,
and there is a focus on participating in God?s mission in the world.
What it means to be a new community formed by the Spirit is where the challenge lies.
How does your Sunday School class, your small group,
your commission or committee,
your book club or supper club,
meet this vision?
What shape does your community take?
What shape does our larger community, our congregation take?
We may have some of the same challenges that the people of Acts 2 faced with Pentecost.
I?ve already noted how the new community that began to form
with the coming of the Holy Spirit was diverse and multicultural.
This began a long process of struggle for the early followers of Jesus
to determine how to define who was in and who was out.
Following Jesus was for Jews initially,
then it was also for Gentiles who agreed to follow Jewish custom,
and then in Acts 15 leaders in Jerusalem agreed
separated following Jesus from obeying the laws of Moses.
Romans 8:14-17 says that this Spirit we have received is a spirit of adoption,
bringing us back into God?s family.
The community created by the Holy Spirit is a community of God?s children.
The multiple voices of Pentecost are a sign of the breadth of the new community,
encompassing everyone.
That is, of course Good News.
We are a part of the ?everyone? brought into this inclusive community.
Our sins, our moral and ethical failings,
are forgiven and forgotten as through the Spirit we commit our lives to Christ.
We are adopted back into the family of God.
And through the workings of that same Spirit
we are empowered to change and move beyond our human failings.
So we are molded into a body,
a community of Jesus-lovers who come with all sorts of backgrounds and experiences.
2000 years of church history tells us that is no easy task being this body!
As I thought of this challenge
I was reminded of my social studies lessons back
when I was in my middle and high school years.
Growing up in Canada we looked at the cultures of Canada and the United States.
I remember being taught that in the United States
a melting pot approach was taken when assimilating immigrants.
It was expected that newcomers to the nation
would blend into the dominant culture and cut off ties to their homeland.
Canada?s approach to immigration had newcomers maintain
more of the heritage of, and connection to, their country of origin.
These cultural pieces were then welded together
to form a cultural mosaic of unique parts that shape the whole.
As I recall, both of these approaches had strengths and weaknesses,
although my suspicion is that because it was a Canadian education,
the mosaic was presented as more appealing than the melting pot.
Perhaps a more fitting way of looking at Christian community
is to use anthropologist Paul Hiebert?s model
of bounded and centered communities.
A bounded community has firm boundaries
and clearly distinguishes insiders and outsiders.
You are either in or you are out of the community.
A centered community is not so concerned with who is in or who is out,
but with whether people are moving toward the center,
toward the core beliefs and convictions of the community.
For the church, that would mean
moving toward living a life of discipleship to Jesus
and pointing others toward relationship with God.
This centered approach probably fits most closely with current Anabaptist thought,
although the bounded approach is very much our history.
With a strong center of discipleship to Jesus,
we can have a more open outer edge
that allows us to reach out and be mission-oriented,
interacting with others and inviting them to join our community.
But sometimes we gloss over the hard work of community.
We have, even in the renewed and Spirit-led community,
a tendency to let our human nature define things.
We struggle with knowing what it means to be an inclusive community,
and I recognize that even saying ?inclusive community? can create alarm.
How loosely or narrowly do we define our core values?
What if people are not moving toward the center,
or are not (in our opinion) moving quickly enough?
Is there a point at which we have to say ?No, you are not a part of this group??
Phil alluded to this last Sunday as he talked about our proclivity to splinter and separate.
There are all sorts of challenges to being a community
where the Spirit of adoption is at work.
How we look,
the color of our skin,
the language we speak or the accent we speak it with,
do we say foy-er or foy-eh (hopefully not that one),
the understanding we have of the authority of the Bible,
how we worship,
what music we sing,
how much money we earn and how we spend it,
all of these might cause us to question whether we can be in community.
In fact, I think that there are times
when we really are hesitant to want to deal with the hard work
of living out this Spirit of adoption.
It makes for some hard times in the body!
Not infrequently we look at our history and shake our heads at the failures we see,
failure to see God?s Spirit working in diversity.
But we don?t always fail.
Some years ago, before I moved here,
Virginia Mennonite Conference was faced with the issue
of persons in the military who were coming to Mennonite congregations in the Norfolk area. Could they become members of these congregations
when a core Anabaptist belief involves Jesus? teachings on peace,
and on calling his followers to be peacemakers?
I would have liked to have been an observer of the process that evolved
as committed lovers of Jesus wrestled with this question.
Here the mission-oriented nature of the community was attractive and effective,
but was coming into conflict with the discipleship values at it?s core.
Reaching out to persons in the military
and encouraging them in their relationship with God
is following the call of the Gospel.
Allowing persons in the military to be a part of the church
might water down our peace witness,
might cause change to our core values.
What if ?they? challenge us
and push us to abandon our commitment to peacemaking as a discipleship issue?
But what if ?they? help us to clarify what we believe,
and enrich our understanding of discipleship?
Somehow, Conference leaders, with the Spirit guiding,
came to a conclusion that our congregations
can accept as members persons in the military,
even while we continue to teach Christ?s call to be peacemakers.
Within the Harrisonburg District of Virginia Mennonite Conference,
there are a number of new or developing congregations
that are drawing in persons who are new to faith in Jesus,
or who come from Christian backgrounds other than Mennonite.
In these congregations ? and in ours - the challenge is present each week
to welcome people with a diversity of belief
while encouraging movement toward deeper discipleship.
Some of these congregations have dropped Mennonite from their church name
because they feel it is a barrier to newcomers.
Some explore new ways of being church, new ways of worshipping.
Some explore ancient forms of worship
or seek to emulate the early church community practices.
In these ways they are seeking to strengthen their core of discipleship
as they engage in God?s mission.
This is the church that we are a part of,
a community that is empowered by the Holy Spirit
to live as disciples and engage in mission and ministry.
Our human nature works against this,
and would have us live in a spirit of slavery to fear.
We might fear others. We might fear change.
We might choose to want our church to be a melting pot
where people come and become just like us.
But the Spirit at Pentecost announced its arrival with a multitude of voices.
Everyone in the world could hear
and understand the good news of Jesus Christ.
That Spirit calls us into a community that represents a mosaic.
The pieces of the mosaic are formed into a body pleasing to God.
With the help of the Spirit we can reach out and welcome new friends,
in Jesus? name, as our hearts are warmed with love.
?Well met, dear friends? is #102 in Sing the Story.
Let us join together and sing this invitation,
on our birthday,
for the Holy Spirit to continue to guide and empower us in this new community,
the body of Christ.
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May 16, 2010
Easter 7: John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34
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Jesus cared a lot about the unity of his disciples.
That would be putting it mildly.
He was impassioned . . . and insistent,
as he expressed his deep longing for his disciples,
in his famous prayer in today?s Gospel, John 17.
?Oh, Father, that they may be one!?
And again, ?That they may all be one.?
?That they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one!?
In the seven short verses of today?s reading,
six times Jesus uses the word ?one?
in pleading with his Father for the unity of his followers.
This is pretty important to Jesus.
After he left the earth
he longed for his disciples to remain as one body,
united in him, as he was united in God.
So . . . how did they do?
The million-dollar question.
The World Christian Encyclopedia
counts 34,000 Christian denominations.
There are dozens of separate Mennonite denominations
in North America alone.
We might be one of the most splintered traditions,
except maybe the Baptists.
So how do you think Jesus feels about all these denominations?
Do you suppose he?s weeping
over the failure of his disciples to remain one?
It?s a popular truism.
Preachers often point to the thousands of denominations,
then point to Jesus? prayer,
and then say, isn?t it shameful?
But I wonder, is it really?
I Jesus really weeping over these denominations, or not?
Well, there are certainly many parts of the Christian story of schism,
that are absolutely shameful, and worth weeping over.
We could probably point to a number of Mennonite splits
and say surely there could have been a better way
to resolve our differences,
than to walk away from each other.
But on the other hand,
is the fact there is a plethora of denominations,
in and of itself a sign of the church?s failure?
Should it be the goal of the church to do away with denominations?
I would argue . . . strongly . . . NO!
If there was a way to measure
how much God was interested in something, on a scale of 1-10 . . .
the structural unity of the church
(that is, getting all Christians to break down denominational walls
and come together under one global Christian body)
I don?t think even registers a .001
on the ?God-is-interested? scale.
Hear me out.
I?m all for unity.
Jesus was impassioned in his plea for one-ness.
So must I be.
But more often than not,
being ONE in structure
only gives the impression of being one in Christ.
It?s a cheap substitute.
Structural unity doesn?t measure anything very substantial at all.
It certainly doesn?t measure spiritual one-ness.
Whenever we gather under ONE structural umbrella,
it gives the impression that there is blessed unity.
As a matter of fact, there is often (should I say usually)
more conflict over differences inside
each of these supposedly unified bodies,
than there is between the different bodies.
In other words,
Mennonites have more to fight about with each other
(and they do),
than Mennonites have to fight about with Lutherans.
Episcopalians have more to fight about with each other
(and they do),
than Episcopalians have to fight about with Methodists.
The same is true with almost any group.
Now I truly love the Anabaptist angle on the Gospel.
I love and value being Mennonite.
But let it be perfectly clear.
Getting all Christians to become Mennonites
was NOT what Jesus was praying for!
Being united in one organized religious body
says very little indeed,
about whether or not we are living as One in Jesus Christ.
So what does bring about our one-ness in Christ?
If it?s not structure and organization . . . it must be theology.
It must be that even though we?re divided up
into all kinds of groups and religious bodies,
what?s really important is that we become ONE in our theology,
on the same page in our beliefs and practices.
Right?
Well, let?s think about that.
Yes, we are called to do good sound theological discernment.
Our aim, always, ought to be to seek together to find deeper truth?
a deeper shared truth about God.
But is it really God?s intention that all Christians
all around the world,
think the same way about God?
Should all Christians really
operate with the same metaphors for God?
have the same vision of how God works in the world?
use the same doctrinal language
to describe their experience of God?
Do we think that God does not have
different working agendas and different modes of operation,
depending on whether God is working
in a Swiss-German community in Ohio,
or in the lives of New England aristocrats,
or among Miami?s Haitian immigrants,
or in the entertainment industry in southern California,
or with the urban poor on Chicago?s south side?
Not to mention, whether God is working
in Sudan, or Hong Kong, or Afghanistan, or London, England.
For that matter, bring it close to home.
Do we think God wants all of Jesus? followers in Harrisonburg
to believe and to do the same thing,
whether they are situated among the marginalized
in the northeast community,
or in Old Town Harrisonburg,
or in an upscale east-side subdivision,
or a trailer park populated with Spanish-speaking immigrants,
or adjacent to JMU student housing on Port Road,
or in a concentrated Mennonite community like Park View?
I don?t think that perfect uniformity of theology and practice
was what Jesus was so impassioned about in his prayer.
So if it?s not one-ness of structure and organization,
if it?s not one-ness of belief and practice,
what is it that can make us one, as Jesus prayed . . . and longed for?
The kind of being ONE
Jesus was yearning for was of a different nature.
We see that by the words he prayed so eloquently,
?As you and I are one, Father, may they be one.?
?As I am in you and you in me, may they be in us.?
In his prayer, Jesus was drawing a direct comparison
between the oneness he experienced with his father in heaven,
and the oneness that we are also called to experience with God.
Between Jesus and his father,
there was a deep unity,
a deep oneness of purpose,
a deep continuity of mission.
In various places Jesus deferred to the one who sent him,
saying things like,
I only do what my Father does.
I am only speaking my Father?s words.
There was not a disconnect, but a continuity,
between the mission and purposes and will of God in the world
and what Jesus undertook to do and to say.
And Jesus? prayer was that this same unity and continuity,
would be the experience of his disciples.
Because as they align themselves
with the mission of God in the world,
and the words and ways of Jesus in the world.
they will, by definition, be in unity with each other.
If A=C, and B=C, then A must equal B.
If we find ourselves in unity with the purposes of God in Christ,
we will be in unity with each other . . .
even when we speak different languages,
even when we use different metaphors to describe our faith,
even when we live in vastly different cultural contexts.
We want to be one?
We must learn to know Jesus more deeply.
We must immerse ourselves in the full story of Jesus in scripture.
We must open ourselves more completely to the Spirit of Jesus,
the Advocate we talked about last Sunday.
Jesus wants followers who are in synch with
his mission
his identity
his purpose
and who will continue the work he began,
continue . . . as in an unbroken line,
without interruption or corruption.
_____________________
And now to bring this around to the topic of freedom.
It is this oneness of purpose
and continuity with the person and mission of Jesus,
that gives people the ability
to live lives of true, deep freedom,
even in the midst of terrible trials.
When we are one, we are free.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that as we become clear about who we are in Christ,
as we fully immerse ourselves in Christ,
as we become in Christ, as Christ is in God,
like Jesus prayed,
we will also reach a place of deep inner freedom.
It?s those who don?t know who they are,
who are in bondage.
It?s those who squander their lives chasing after the wind,
who pretend to be free, by answering to no one,
who seek to satisfy every fleeting desire,
it is they who miss out on true freedom and deep joy.
Despite the illusion of freedom,
they are bound to their own insecurity,
always grasping, searching, but never finding.
See, our culture has this silly idea that freedom is escape.
That freedom is getting out from under
any external constriction or limitation or pain
or inconvenience or even, annoyance.
We should be free to do and to be
whatever we good and well feel like doing or being.
The biblical concept of freedom is so much richer than that.
Freedom is not just escape from restriction.
Freedom is learning how to embrace our full humanity,
discovering how to live into the fullness of life
that God designed for us.
Freedom is the deep liberation that comes
from discovering and choosing
the life God created us for.
Freedom is aligning ourselves with God?s larger purposes.
In other words, freedom is obedience.
What a concept!
Now we can see that story of Paul and Silas in Acts 16,
from a whole different angle.
Did you wonder how Paul and Silas had the wherewithal
to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving,
after they were beaten to a pulp, bloodied and bruised,
and locked in chains and stocks?
You see, Paul and Silas were never truly in captivity.
Those chains and stocks only held their arms and legs.
Hardware could not imprison Paul and Silas? deepest humanity.
Even a dark damp prison could not obscure
the light and image of God that gave them deep liberation.
There were other prisoners in that story . . .
that weren?t in jail.
Some of them were set free. Some weren?t.
The demon-possessed slave girl was freed twice, in one act of God.
Freed from a spirit that held her captive,
and freed from human ownership and exploitation.
But her owners were in jail, so to speak. And stayed there.
Captive to greed.
Captive to a death-dealing desire
to manipulate others to their advantage.
_____________________
Do we want to be truly free?
The path laid out for us in today?s scripture readings
is to choose the right master.
Let us, by faith, submit ourselves to the purposes of God in Christ.
As we unite ourselves with God in Christ,
we will find ourselves in deeper union with each other,
and we will find our deepest freedom.
There is a wonderful ancient hymn of the church,
?Ubi caritas et amor Deus ibi est.?
Where there is charity and love, God is there.
We find it in Sing the Journey, #39.
It says there the text dates to the 9th century, which is plenty old.
But some scholars believe it goes back much further than that.
So what I?ve said this morning is nothing new, at all.
Because this text sums up exactly what I?ve been saying.
Since the love of Christ has brought us all together
Let us all rejoice and be glad, now and always.
Let every one love the Lord God, the living God;
and with sincere hearts let us love each other now.
Therefore when we gather as one in Christ Jesus,
let our love enfold each race, creed, every person.
let envy, division and strife cease among us;
may Christ our Lord dwell among us in every heart.
Bring us with your saints to behold your great beauty,
there to see you, Christ our God, throned in great glory;
there to possess heaven?s peace and joy, your truth and love,
for endless ages of ages, world without end.
?Phil Kniss, May 16, 2010
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This is the sixth Sunday of Easter, two Sundays before Pentecost.
Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church,
and empowered Jesus? disciples for ministry.
So a couple weeks ahead of time,
in the calendar of the Christian year,
we are given a glimpse of what?s coming?
a sort of preview of Pentecost.
The lectionary calls for us to read from the Gospel of John,
where Jesus, in a sense, predicted Pentecost.
Toward the end of his ministry,
when Jesus spoke to his disciples
he repeatedly talked about two things that would happen.
One was, he was about to leave them.
He was about to enter a period of great humiliation and suffering,
after which he would die, then rise again,
then go to be with his Father in heaven.
The second thing Jesus predicted,
was that the disciples would not be left alone.
He would be sending someone to be with them.
He would send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.
The Advocate.
The word also gets translated ?Comforter.?
Or sometimes ?Counselor.?
But what is meant, exactly, by the Holy Spirit as Advocate?
You may have noticed my intentionally provocative sermon title.
Which reads, ?The Holy Spirit is not your Advocate,
and why that?s good news.?
Perhaps you fear I am going off the deep end,
since we all know that the Holy Spirit is frequently referred to
as an Advocate that Jesus sends to us.
I could right now read 4 or 5 scriptures that say so,
including today?s Gospel reading.
I could refer to dozens of hymns
the church has sung through the ages,
that say so.
So why would I say something so heretical,
as to suggest the Holy Spirit is not our Advocate?
Well, let?s take a closer look.
The original word in Greek is ?????????? (parakletos).
It?s sometimes just transliterated, Paraclete.
Apparently, the meaning of this word can be fairly broad,
which explains why the King James
translates it Comforter,
and some others, Counselor.
But given the context here,
it is most likely used in the sense of advocacy.
Paraclete is the noun form of the
Greek verb ????????? (parakaleo) which means literally,
to ?call to one?s side.?
So a paraclete is the one who is called to stand beside,
like an attorney who represents someone in court.
An advocate.
One who ?steps in? and stands alongside
and makes my case before judge and jury.
Of course, having an expert and articulate advocate on one?s side,
is a great comfort . . .
an Advocate is a much-needed Comforter
to someone who is threatened.
But it?s a different kind of comfort than say,
having someone?s grandmother
give them a hug or hold their hand.
Being an advocate is not just about giving emotional comfort
and solace.
It?s about having someone stand beside,
who is knowledgeable and loyal and trustworthy,
who will tell it like it is,
even when the truth is hard to hear.
I would like to disabuse us of the notion
that the Holy Spirit?s main job is to hold us close
and squeeze our hands.
The Holy Spirit is not our grandmother.
As wonderful as grandmothers are.
And on this Mother?s Day, I must also say, if you?ll pardon me,
the Holy Spirit is not our mother, either.
Yes, a good mother is loyal and trustworthy and
will always be a loving truth-teller.
If a child is blessed with a good mother,
there will never be a stronger and more tenacious Advocate
than Mom.
But that does not describe the relationship
between the Holy Spirit and us.
Yes, without question.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate.
A loyal and persistent and skillful Advocate.
Just happens not to be OUR Advocate.
The Holy Spirit is an advocate for Jesus and the Gospel.
Remember what Jesus said in today?s Gospel reading in John 14?
?The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything, and remind you
of all that I have said to you.?
God is sending the Holy Spirit, in Jesus? name,
on behalf of Jesus,
to teach everything Jesus taught,
and to remind the disciples of everything Jesus said.
You see, once Jesus has departed the earth,
a certain danger will set in.
The disciples? memory will be selective.
Once the church gets established,
and if the movement gains traction,
there will be all sorts of temptations
to veer away from the radical path that Jesus put them on.
They will be more likely to opt for safety and security,
as opposed to ?taking up their cross? and following.
They will be sorely tempted to minimize the teachings of Jesus
that aren?t convenient for them,
or that don?t seem to serve their agenda and purposes.
And Jesus knew all this.
So one is being sent to Advocate for the Jesus way,
to remind and reinforce the radical Gospel message.
And in the next chapter, Jesus mentions the Advocate again.
Listen to John 15:26.
?When the Advocate comes,
the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father,
he will testify on my behalf.?
On my behalf, Jesus said.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for Jesus, first and foremost.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for the truth of the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for God?s agenda,
for the larger mission of God in this world,
that Jesus engaged in during his time on earth,
and then passed on to his disciples to complete.
It is that mission of God
for which the Holy Spirit has come to Advocate.
In all these scriptures that promise us the Holy Spirit,
nowhere do we get the idea that the Spirit is being sent,
to be on our side no matter what,
to speak up for our own interests,
to take a stand against anything that threatens us,
to protect us from any and all harm.
That?s what mothers do.
No . . . the Holy Spirit is sent to defend the name of Jesus,
to articulate the message of Jesus,
to stand up on behalf of the Gospel.
That is the primary work of the Holy Spirit.
The ministry of Jesus
and the ministry of the Holy Spirit
are always and intimately connected to each other.
We cannot separate them.
In fact, we might well refer to the Holy Spirit,
as the Spirit of Jesus,
as scripture does on several occasions.
_____________________
I hope you are not let down this morning,
by this realization that the Holy Spirit is not really your Advocate.
Don?t be disappointed.
This is Good News!
What would our faith be like,
if one of the main tenets of our faith,
was that God, through the Holy Spirit,
was always on our side?
Maybe you trust yourself more than I trust me.
But I frankly don?t trust myself to get it right all the time.
Even most of the time.
I am too prone to make decisions based on my own fears.
When I?m being called to take some risky step of faith,
and I turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance,
I don?t think it would be a good thing
for the Holy Spirit to just take my side,
like my mother probably would.
When I resist something, out of fear,
I don?t think it would do God any favors
for the Holy Spirit just to pat me on the back,
and say, ?That?s okay, Phil.?
(or as my mother would say, ?That?s okay, Philip?)
It?s not in the interest of Jesus or the Kingdom of God,
for the Holy Spirit to just comfort me,
and say, ?I know this must be frightening.
You can do it when you?re ready.
Maybe some other day when you?re stronger.?
And besides my fears, and other emotions that might drive me,
I don?t trust my thinking well enough
to believe that it would be helpful
for the Holy Spirit to always reinforce my thinking patterns.
I?m too self-oriented.
Too protective.
Sometimes, perhaps, too logical.
If God wanted me to do what Peter was asked to do,
in our scripture last week?
when Peter had that vision of unclean animals
coming down from heaven,
a sign that he should cross this huge social and religious
barrier, and enter into the Gentile world?
if I?d have been in Peter?s sandals,
I wouldn?t have made it to Cornelius? house
if the Holy Spirit just reinforced my way of thinking.
If the Holy Spirit had stood by me, as my Advocate, and said,
?Yes, Phil, you make a good point.
That does go completely against your tradition and teaching.
Just forget it. Bad idea.?
But the Holy Spirit is not our Advocate.
The Holy Spirit has been sent to us as an Advocate
for the Jesus Way,
for the kingdom of God,
for the mission of God in this world.
Sometimes we human beings get in the way of that.
God needs an Advocate.
Jesus needs someone to stand up for the cause of the Gospel,
even an inconvenient Gospel.
There is a constant tendency to make Christ and the Gospel convenient.
We are tempted, continually, to create God in our image.
We want Jesus to reinforce what we have already
decided or wanted or believed or . . .
So Jesus sent the Holy Spirit,
not to pat our backs and hold our hands.
But to keep us from forgetting what Jesus was all about.
To keep us from distorting his message into something
he wouldn?t even recognize.
So whenever people claim today that the Holy Spirit
is saying this or doing that,
there is a built-in test, a measuring stick:
Does it look like Jesus?
Many Christians these days claim to be hearing from the Holy Spirit,
about this or that or the other thing.
But does it look like Jesus?
If people claim that the Holy Spirit is blessing them,
leading them to accumulate all manner of wealth and possessions
and gather earthly comforts all around them,
as evidence of God?s blessing on them . . .
well . . . does that look like Jesus?
If people credit the Spirit of God with leading them into battle,
into taking up weapons of violence against their earthly enemies,
and giving them victory by force . . .
well . . . does that look like Jesus?
If people believe the Holy Spirit is on their side,
as they wield their power over others in coercive ways,
manipulating others toward their own advantage . . .
well . . . does that look like Jesus?
If people say, ?God told me to do this or that . . .?
We have a right to ask, ?Does it look like Jesus?
Or does it look like something they wanted to do anyway?
Of course, I?m not saying God isn?t doing new things today.
Certainly some things God is up to today
would not have a precise parallel to what God did
in Jesus? life and ministry 2,000 years ago
in a very different culture and context.
So we need to carefully and prayerfully discern.
God is doing new things,
and the Holy Spirit is part of these new things.
But the Holy Spirit is most certainly not
our personal, private, spiritual genie
that gives us three wishes and more.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus, and represents Jesus.
We cannot separate the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Jesus.
There is an unbroken line connecting
the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth
and the ministry of the Holy Spirit today.
With very little effort, we can make the Holy Spirit say
whatever we want the Holy Spirit to say.
We can distort the gospel message of Jesus
to say whatever we want it to say.
The job of the Holy Spirit, as the ?Paraclete,?
is to be the loyal, persistent, undeterred, and expert Advocate
for the Jesus Way.
The job of the Holy Spirit is to stand up for,
to stand alongside, like an attorney,
whenever the life and teachings and meaning of Jesus are threatened
whenever they get distorted or misshapen
or used in ways that don?t honor Jesus.
And this is good news.
Preserving the core of the Gospel of Jesus,
even against my own attempts to bend it to my advantage,
is good news,
for me and for the world.
I thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to be Jesus? Advocate.
That is a comfort to me.
That helps me stay grounded.
It keeps me from drowning in a sea of self-interest.
It keeps me on the journey for which God made me.
Let?s sing together, in response, Sing the Journey #46
?O breathe on me, O breath of God.?
This is based on the more familiar, ?Breathe on me, breath of God.?
Remember, the word for spirit and breath are same,
so when I sing this,
I?m asking the Spirit of God to breathe on me,
?fill me with life anew,
that I may love the things you love,
and do what you would do.?
And, ?breathe on me, O breath of God . . .
until my will is one with yours . . .
breathe, my will to yours incline,
until this selfish part of me glows with your fire divine.?
Let?s make this our fervent prayer,
as we sing together.
?Phil Kniss, May 9, 2010
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How do our children and others we meet learn about who we are? How do we make them want what we have? Do our actions, attitudes, and words make people want to be like us?
John 13:31-35 is a passage filled with discipleship themes. Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman points out that love is the mark that should identify a person as a follower of Christ. It is our attitudes, actions, and acceptance of others that gives credibility to the words of love we speak. The tough part is that we are called to love people who are like us?needy, irritating, with bad habits. Acts 10:1-23 demonstrates how God pushed Peter to see that everyone is loved by God.
Where have we seen the call to love get ignored or broken? Where do we have work to do? Pastor Barbara encouraged us to explore this and then work to let the love of God show through us.
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[We sang the following hymn just prior to my sermon]
"Nothing is lost on the breath of God"
words and music by Colin Gibson
Nothing is lost on the breath of God, nothing is lost for ever; God's breath is love, and that love will remain, holding the world for ever. No feather too light, no hair too fine, no flower too brief in its glory; no drop in the ocean, no dust in the air, but is counted and told in God's story.
Nothing is lost to the eyes of God, nothing is lost for ever; God sees with love and that love will remain, holding the world for ever. No journey too far, no distance too great, no valley of darkness too blinding; no creature too humble, no child too small for God to be seeking, and finding.
Nothing is lost to the heart of God, nothing is lost for ever; God's heart is love, and that love will remain, holding the world for ever. No impulse of love, no office of care, no moment of life in its fulness; no beginning too late, no ending too soon, but is gathered and known in God's goodness.
The scripture readings this morning are truly rich. A great story from the early church in Acts. And in the Gospel of John, in Revelation, and in Psalm 23 we have some beautiful and profound scriptures on which to meditate today and seek new depths of truth. And we will, in just a moment.
But first, I want us to pause, and drink in more deeply the song we just sang, while the music is still resonating in our ears and hearts.
This song has quickly become a favorite of this congregation since the purple songbook came out.
The poetry is exquisite. The power of this text lies in its vivid images, and the thoughts these images evoke. Even without putting the whole song together and weaving a narrative out of it, these 4 and 5-word phrases, all by themselves just shimmer with truth and beauty. no feather too light, no flower too brief, no dust in the air, nothing is lost . . . all is seen and known by God no distance too great, no child too small, no ending too soon, those phrases, by themselves, conjure up in our minds a wonderful truth about God . . . God knows, sees, and cares. This is an intensely personal and intimate portrayal of a loving God.
But it wasn?t until this week, with today?s scripture rolling around in my head? John 10, Revelation 7, and Psalm 23? that I saw this song in a fuller light. This is more than a string of beautiful images about God?s intimate care. It?s more deeply theological that it seems at first sight, and grounded in a biblical view of God. This is not sentimental fluff. The poet (and composer), Colin Gibson, is a retired professor emeritus of English literature at a university in New Zealand, who specializes in the interchange of word and image, and has written numerous hymns. This is carefully crafted theology informed, I think, by the same understanding of God that we get from today?s texts.
What this song is saying, one verse at a time, is terribly important for us to hear in the times we live in
This song (and today?s scriptures) articulate a view of God, that stands apart from two other popular views of God that, in my humble opinion, get God completely wrong. One view, that many people hold, is that God manages and controls every happening in our world. That God sits at a big control panel in the sky, pulling switches, causing . . . every circumstance people face in life. That God?s finger literally and deliberately paints every particular sunrise, coaxes every bud into flower, decides where rain should fall, causes traffic lights to turn green and parking spots to open. And, following that logic, God?s finger also controls where the next earthquake will strike, who will die from cancer or flood or terrorist attack or collapsing coal mines, and causes that light to turn green at a certain moment, putting someone in a precise spot down the road where a runaway truck collides with them head-on, in a fiery explosion. And that God is doing all this for a specific reason, even if the reason is hidden from us, for now.
The other popular view, an opposite one, is that God is aloof, and unknowing, and uncaring. That if anything good happens in the world, it is purely by our human good will and good effort. That maybe God did create the universe, and put it in motion, but now is letting things take their course, just watching from afar, if watching at all. That God is some ambiguous force or energy field, but not a loving being that is interested and active in the world today.
This song, and today?s scriptures, dispute both those views, powerfully.
Nothing is lost on the breath of God . . . no suffering, large or small, goes unnoticed. No God is not directing every feather and grain of dust, causing every impulse of every creature, making things begin too late, or end too soon. But nothing is lost on God. No matter what happens in life, large or small, God?s breath is love, and that love will remain, holding the world forever. Look at the end of the third verse. Some things do begin too late. Some lives end too soon. God did not pull a switch to cause these events. But there is no premature or tragic death, that isn?t gathered, by God, and known in its goodness. God sees with love, and that love will remain. God?s heart is love, and that love will remain, holding the world, holding us, no matter what. Nothing is lost on the God of love. _____________________
If the reason for a sermon is to expound on the scripture of the day, and make it memorable and formative, the song we just sang is sermon enough.
But let me say a few more things about these texts. First, Psalm 23. This is without doubt the most well-known and most beloved passage of scripture. The psalmist paints a wonderful visual image of God. God is a shepherd and we are God?s sheep. You can practically see this vivid picture of a kind shepherd who knows just where to take his sheep. When we need a good place to graze, our shepherd finds lush green pastures. When we need to lie down and rest, our shepherd finds a spot where the grass is especially soft and full. When we are thirsty, the shepherd lovingly leads us to cool, clear, still waters. Wherever the Lord, our shepherd, leads, is the right path.
It is right, even when we walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death? when it?s is so dark you can?t see the path in front of you, the sounds in the darkness threatening, the sense of dread overwhelming. Even there, in the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil, because God is with us, because our shepherd carries a strong rod and a long staff. And that rod and staff comfort us. Even surrounded by enemies, we are secure. The presence of our shepherd allows us to eat in peace, at an elegant table, our enemies looking on. Our cups are running over. We shall not want for anything, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, because the Lord is our shepherd.
Isn?t that a wonderful picture? A picture of perfect security. Perfect protection. Perfect love. Even when we are hassled and harried sheep.
Now, without taking anything away from the truth and the comfort of that psalm, did any of you find yourself saying, ?Okay . . . but?? Okay, if God is my shepherd, it hasn?t always felt like it. Okay, if God protects and provides for those in God?s care, why do some people get a raw deal in life? Was their shepherd looking the other way, or what?
Like most passages of scripture, this one doesn?t say everything that needs to be said. Else, our Bible would not be a book, but a pamphlet. So we turn to other texts to tell other facets of the truth.
Let?s look again at the great N.T. shepherd text, John 10. We read the last part of the chapter. In the first part, Jesus talked about himself as the Good Shepherd, who loves the sheep, and even lays down his life for the sheep, unlike the hired hand, who sees it as a job, and will go only so far to take care of the sheep, but not as far as self-sacrifice.
Well, this last part of the chapter is a different scene, probably the same day. Here Jesus is walking around the temple, and the air is tense. The religious leaders are trying to expose Jesus as a blasphemer. So they are following him around, pressing him on the one crucial point. ?Tell us once and for all. Are you, or are you not, the Messiah??
So he brings up this sheep and shepherd theme again. He says, ?The reason you don?t believe me, is that you are not part of my sheep. My sheep know my voice, and I know them. They follow me, because they trust me. I give them life, and they will never perish.? And then here?s the kicker, ?No one will ever snatch them out of my hand.? No one. Threaten me if you will. Threaten my sheep. But no one takes my sheep. And they were threatening. In the very next verses, they tried to stone Jesus, but he escaped, John tells us.
So if we are the sheep, and Jesus the good shepherd, this statement is tremendously comforting. ?No one will snatch us out of God?s hand.?
Jesus is reassuring all who would follow him, there is nothing anyone can do to you, that will remove you from my love and care. No one can snatch you from me. When someone snatches sheep from a flock they do it by stealth. They sneak up and take what they want quickly and secretly. They get one over on the shepherd. But no one gets one over on God. God is on guard. Attentive. Alert. There is nothing anyone can do, to outwit, overpower, or outmaneuver God. Nothing. Nothing is lost on the breath of God, the eyes of God, the heart of God. We are always within reach of God?s love and care. No matter what happens, God is there. God cares. God saves.
It may not be the kind of care or the kind of salvation that we were hoping for. It might even look sometimes like the devil got one over on God. There might be a beginning too late, or an ending too soon. There might be deep sadness, even overwhelming tragedy. There might be agonizing pain, even death.
But the message of this Easter season is that God already won the battle over sin and death. Nothing can happen in this life to snatch us from God?s hand, out of reach of God?s love and care. Nothing is lost on God.
The Book of Revelation provides yet more evidence. In the passage we heard from Revelation 7, we have another amazing and imaginative image painted with words. What is pictured here is ?a great multitude that no one can count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.? And they are all crying out loudly, ?Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!? And the angels and elders add to their song, ?Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.? Now who is this crowd in white robes, shouting praises and waving palm branches? And where did they come from? The answer is given. ?These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship God day and night within God?s temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.?
These are the people who gave their very lives for their faith. These are the martyrs. People who know what suffering is. We ask, ?Where is God in the midst of suffering?? These people know. They have been there and done that. Their robes had been stained with blood. Now they are washed white in the blood of the Lamb . . . Jesus.
They are on the other side of the suffering now. It says in Revelation 7, They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd . . . and God will wipe away every tear.?
At one time, the sun did strike them, they did hunger and thirst, their eyes stung with tears. I wonder. When all that was going on, did they every question where God was in it? Did they ever feel like a sheep without a shepherd? Probably.
But now they see things from a larger point of view. They know now that their great ordeal never separated them from the love and care of their God.
So now they stand before the throne of God, singing and shouting, ?Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.?
God saves. Salvation is who God is. It is fundamental to God?s nature. From the creation to the flood to the Exodus . . . from the Exile to the rebuilding of Jerusalem . . . from the birth of Jesus to his death to his resurrection . . . from the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, to the day of Pentecost when 3,000 persons believed, were baptized, and joined the new community. From the beginning of time until now, God?s nature and purpose has been to save.
That does not mean God always prevents suffering and death. Or that God shields people from the consequences of all the sin and brokenness in the world. Or that we will never suffer at the hands of others. But God will never let us out of the reach of his love and care. We may well get blood stains on our robes. But God will wash them. We may well get persecuted or humiliated. But God will spread a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We may well be threatened by would-be sheep-snatchers. But our good shepherd will never let us be taken out of his loving grasp. We may well experience a beginning too late, or an ending too soon. Nevertheless . . . nothing is lost on the breath of God, but is gathered and known in its goodness.
That is the word of hope from the scriptures on this fourth Sunday of Easter.
That is also the word of hope in the song we are about to sing. Turn to #575 in the hymnal, ?Precious Lord, take my hand.? This song was written by the black Gospel musician, Thomas A. Dorsey (not Tommy Dorsey the big band leader). In 1932, his wife Nettie died in childbirth, and their newborn son also died a few days later. In his grief, Dorsey stopped singing and playing the piano, for a long time. Until a good friend of his took him to a piano practice room at a nearby college, and left him there. Alone in the room with the piano, Thomas Dorsey experienced anew the presence of God in the midst of his pain and suffering. It was in that room, that day, that he wrote this song.
Let?s sing it together, in hope, and in confidence.
?Phil Kniss, April 25, 2010
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Easter 3: John 21:1-19; Acts 9:1-6
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Happy Easter . . . again . . . on this third Sunday of Easter!
I?m always glad somebody decided that, for the church,
Easter wasn?t a day, but a season.
It?s just too big a deal for a one-day celebration.
Of course every Sunday, for Christians, is a nod to the resurrection.
But once a year we set aside fifty days, or eight Sundays,
to specifically dwell in this truth,
to live with it,
to explore its many angles,
to remind ourselves that it makes a world of difference
that Christ is risen!
Fifty days to say yes, God has the ability and the will
to take the worst that the world can do
to try to thwart God?s purposes?even death itself?
and then transform it, redeem it,
turn it into something glorious and beautiful.
In the Easter season,
we join with Christians all over the world in saying,
there is nothing that the love of God in Christ cannot redeem.
Everything, in God?s hands, can be redeemed.
That?s the glorious truth we proclaim at Easter.
The God who raised Jesus from the dead,
is still in the raising business.
God raises, for instance,
people who appear hopelessly irredeemable,
and redeems them for full value.
God takes persons who are in complete bondage?
to sin,
to the powers of evil,
to their illusions,
to some crippling loss,
to the oppression or violence of others,
and transforms their bondage to freedom.
God resurrects, God in Christ redeems,
that which seems hopeless, dead, lost, of no value,
and redeems it for full value.
We heard two of these resurrection-redemption stories this morning.
That?s why I love that we have eight Sundays in Easter.
There are so many resurrection stories in scripture to tell.
For eight weeks, we get to wallow in stories about
God turning death and darkness on its head,
and surprising people with life and light.
In today?s stories, as in all good gospel stories,
things are going a certain direction,
then God injects a surprising, and delightful, reversal.
Something funny happened on the way to . . .
you name the place.
For Saul, it was on the way to Damascus.
For Peter, it was on the way to disillusionment.
For you and me,
depends what direction we?re heading.
So let?s take a close look at this story in John 21.
At the beginning of this text, v. 3,
seems to me is where Peter hits bottom.
In almost every way.
When he said, ?I?m going fishing,?
that was no casual comment.
He wasn?t just bored,
tired of being cooped up in the upper room.
He wasn?t gonna cool his heels down by the creek
with a cane pole in his hand . . .
in case that?s the image of fishing
that gets conjured up in your mind.
Peter?s brand of fishing was not something anyone did to relax.
It was grueling, physical, messy, exhausting, all-night work.
And it required substantial equipment.
Peter?s comment, ?I?m going fishing,?
and the other disciples? immediate reply,
?We?re going with you,?
represents, I think, profound giving up, complete resignation.
They were quitting.
Their 3-year stint as disciples of Jesus was over.
This was a mindful, deliberate turning away
from Jesus? first call, ?Follow me.?
They were going back to a job that held some security.
If Peter was going to be redeemed, Jesus had a lot of work to do.
Not long before, Peter denied publicly, three times,
that he even knew this man Jesus.
Now, he was the ringleader of a group decision
to quit following Jesus altogether.
What could Jesus possibly do
with this grand mess Peter made of the whole project?
And the story goes,
Jesus went to the edge of the lake
where they were fishing just off-shore,
They had slaved away all night,
and every time, the nets came up empty.
Jesus called out,
?Friends, haven?t you any fish??
?No??
?Well, then, cast your nets on the right side of the boat,
and you?ll have some.?
They don?t know it?s Jesus, but they do what the man says.
And here comes the surprising, delightful,
and downright hilarious redemption.
They suddenly have in their nets
more fish than they have manpower to pull in.
Then they realize it?s Jesus there on the shore,
and Peter jumps into the lake half-dressed
and waddles to shore,
where Jesus has a little fire going,
cooking up some breakfast of guess what? . . . fish!
And Jesus says, probably with a mischievous grin,
?Ah . . . you have some fish now, too.
Bring a few of them.
Let?s make it a big breakfast.?
Jesus was making the same, gentle, redemptive approach
that he did when he appeared to them in the upper room.
As I said last week,
he could have tore into them in that upper room
for their betrayal, their desertion,
their embarrassing lack of trust.
But he held out his arms, saying, ?Peace be with you.?
Same thing here on the seashore.
Once again, they had deserted.
They showed how faith-less they were.
The fact that they caught nothing all night,
was actually poetic justice.
Jesus should have let them stay empty-handed.
They had quit Jesus to become fishermen again.
Now Jesus had a fire going on the beach,
with some of his own fish already cooking.
Let the disciples eat his fish.
Would have made a powerful point.
But Jesus wasn?t trying to make a point.
He was trying to make disciples.
Jesus didn?t scold them for quitting
and going back to fishing.
Jesus helped them with their fishing.
He provided for them, a huge catch of fish,
which they, of course, could sell for a healthy sum of money.
Then he invited them for breakfast,
and invited them to put some of their fish on the fire, too.
He didn?t look at those fish they caught as ill-gotten gain,
even though they wouldn?t have been fishing
if they hadn?t turned their back on him.
Jesus shared in their bounty. Shared in the joy of the catch.
Ate some of the fish himself.
Amazing. Hilarious.
Indeed, something funny happened on the way to Peter?s escape . . .
back to his old life.
His hopelessness and disillusionment got redeemed.
His old, dead faith and hope and love for Jesus, were resurrected.
But Jesus wasn?t done with Peter yet.
This breakfast was Peter?s redemption for going back fishing.
There was still the issue of Peter?s three-fold denial of Jesus.
At the darkest moment in Jesus? life,
while he was being accused, mocked, and tortured,
Peter denied, three times, he had any connection to the man.
So Jesus opened a conversation with Peter.
In the most gentle, and affirming way, yet with utmost clarity,
he asked a question three times,
?Simon son of John, do you love me??
The same number of times Peter denied that he knew Jesus.
Each time Peter answered, ?Yes, Lord, I love you.?
?Then feed my lambs,? Jesus said.
Jesus wasn?t punishing Peter.
But he was holding him accountable.
He held up a mirror to Peter, for clarity, not condemnation.
?Do you love me, Peter??
?Yes, Lord. I love you.?
?Feed my sheep.?
I think with that, Peter?s redemption was complete.
_____________________
And as for the other redemption story of the morning, from Acts 9,
I won?t go into detail.
Ross told it well to the children.
But here again,
someone, Saul of Tarsus, seemed unredeemable.
Full of passion and zeal
and absolute single-minded conviction for the wrong thing.
He was fighting a holy war,
putting to death Jewish believers in Jesus.
And he knew he was acting on God?s behalf.
Doing God?s work.
Unredeemable.
God?s best chance would be just to get Saul out of the way,
right?
Put an end to him. That?s what the believers wanted.
No more Saul.
But God saw resurrection potential in Saul.
So a funny thing happened on the way to Damascus.
Funny, in that there was
another delightful and surprising and joyous reversal.
Saul was struck blind, and then given a new way of seeing.
The same Saul who in verse 1 of chapter 9, was (quote)
?breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,?
by verse 19 was (quote) ?with the disciples in Damascus . . .
proclaim[ing] Jesus in the synagogues, saying,
?He is the Son of God.?
_____________________
There are no end to these resurrection-redemption stories.
We?ll look at more in coming weeks.
And God is still in the resurrection-redemption business.
Here and everywhere, funny things are still happening . . .
on the way to . . . somewhere else.
God has the power and the will
to redeem all kinds of lives that have gotten off track,
and redeem them for their full value.
That?s what redemption means.
Something loses its value?
dies, or is lost, or is in bondage in some way?
then it gets restored it to its full intended worth.
God created each life good and beautiful and in God?s own image.
But for all kinds of reasons, lives get diminished.
They get damaged, derailed.
They might get derailed by our own illusions,
like in the stories of Peter and Saul,
who both lived out of badly mistaken notions
of who God was, and what God was doing.
Lives can also be diminished by willful sin on our part,
be it sexual promiscuity, or other self-destructive behavior,
unrestrained greed, or even criminal activity.
Lives can be mortally wounded by violence,
whether as victims of domestic abuse, or war,
or other violent trauma.
Lives can be badly damaged by some misfortune
or catastrophe or crippling loss.
Think of the people of Haiti whose suffering is unimaginable,
and whose lives are now redefined by that disaster.
And when I visited the Ninth Ward in New Orleans
in December,
I saw the same utter loss of hope brought about by
a physical, economic, and social disaster,
still . . . nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina.
There are many different kinds of death, you know,
and not all physical.
Each needs its own sort of resurrection.
Whether our lives get diminished and suffer a sort of death
due to illusions, or disobedience, or violence, or
some irredeemable loss or disaster . . .
the God of Easter resurrection
never stops surprising people.
When God gets involved,
funny things happen on the way to wherever we?re headed.
God has this delightful habit of surprising people
by redeeming a life or a situation that seemed irredeemable,
and making of it something holy, something full of life.
We need only open ourselves to the work God in Christ wants to do.
Our encounter with Jesus may be as patently obvious
as was Paul?s on the road to Damascus, or
as was Peter?s in the fishing boat.
Or it may happen more quietly and gradually.
Either way, God is working to bring life from what looks like death.
We all have these stories in our own lives, and they must be told.
They are gospel. They are good news.
I invited Jon Dutcher, a member of this congregation,
whose life has blessed me many times, to tell his redemption story.
_____________________
Jon Dutcher story of redemption
?Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it; redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.? Am I boasting in this redemption? No, the Word points me to one who deserves my boasts. ?In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.? (Psalm 44) So - when I boast, let me boast in the miraculous redeeming nature of Christ who causes me to thrive, yes, even to conquer. Let me be enraptured, enriched, and totally taken up in giving ?credit where credit is due.? (Psalm 34)
When I experienced the new birth, God?s redemption was poured into me. The holy nature of the divine, in effect, occupied every aspect of my being. I now view situations from a new vantage point. Let?s look at one example, one action of the Blessed Redeemer in my life.
I have spent more than 30 years in education. This includes teaching pre-school through grade 7 and administration, K-12. Most enjoyable was the time I spent in second grade: 9 years as a teacher, and 2 years as a student.
Redemption was the last thing on my mind when I was diagnosed with Parkinson?s Disease on that January day. For the next 7 years, I worked ?around? the disease until finally I simply could not go on. It was painful, devastatingly painful, and when I use the word ?painful,? it includes the concept of gut wrenching loss. Who was I if not an educator?
So did God redeem this painful situation? Yes, but first I had to find myself in the pain. In order for God to redeem this hurting heart of mine, I had to see myself and my situation as needing to be redeemed and worthy of redemption.
While I was an administrator, I had assumed (wrongly!) that having Parkinson?s would simply translate into more years ?back in the classroom,? but it became exceedingly clear that even that level of stress was more than I could sustain. My days of teaching were over! And I wasn?t at all happy about it.
But the redeemer had plans, and those plans did not include years of isolation. In fact four years ago Vi and I felt led to make a huge move to the Shenandoah Valley. Here in the Valley I have felt support from the community, from Park View Church, from my Maust cousins, and from our PVMC small group which meets weekly. I receive a boost of joy from my volunteer work at Cub Run Elementary Library, where I teach library skills to100 second graders every week.
Did someone mention ?redemption??
_____________________
Yes, Jon, I did mention redemption.
Redemption redefines us,
it gives us a new way of seeing ourselves and seeing life.
That is the good gift of the God of resurrection,
a gift we celebrate with you, Jon.
Christ is risen! May God be praised.
?Phil Kniss, April 18, 2010
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We?ve finished the first week of Easter. Last Sunday was the big day, of course, but it?s still Easter season? the period of fifty days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday.
This high season in the church year? often called ?The Great Fifty Days?? celebrates the time between Jesus? glorious resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
And this is an absolutely crucial fifty days in the larger Christian story, even though?as far as we know? during these 50 days neither Jesus nor his disciples did any public ministry . . . at all. There are no lepers healed, no crippled made to walk, no blind given sight, no demon-possessed liberated, no sermons preached, no parables told . . . no children put on the knee, no Pharisees put in their place.
And throughout these ?Great Fifty Days? it seems, the disciples mostly hung out in a secret room, away from prying eyes, with doors locked. The disciples intentionally went to a place that was out of the limelight, away from the crowds, removed from the action. They were regrouping. Trying to figure out what went wrong, what?s going on now, and what to do next. _____________________
When you stop and think about it, it was sort of like half-time, at, say, a football or basketball game.
They?re in the locker room. Taking a break from the crowds and the action. And in the first half they?ve been . . . well . . . whupped! They?ve had their hind ends kicked. Hard.
Just about everything they expected to happen in the first half . . . didn?t. It turned out exactly the opposite. The tide turned. Once, throngs of people followed them, praising God. Now, they were the hunted. And just about everything they expected themselves to do, they had failed to do, and failed miserably. Remember the pre-game bravado? the smack-talk? When Jesus warned them things would get tough, Peter had said he would be on Jesus? side... till the end. ?Even if I must die with you.? And every other disciple said, ?Yeah. Me too. We?re a team!? So when the going got tough? The tough got going . . . in the opposite direction, running away for their lives.
So if you were coach Jesus . . . at half-time, what kind of talk would you give these miserable players? I can think of some coaches who would relish the chance to just lay into them, red-in-the-face, eyes bulging, yelling at them for the most despicable, cowardly, clumsy, and downright pathetic performance ever witnessed in a lifetime of coaching. None of them deserved to play the second half. They had all deserted.
But when Jesus showed up, in that upper room locker room . . . instead of screaming and throwing things around the room, he held out his arms and said, ?Peace be with you.? He breathed on them, giving them the Holy Spirit, and said again, ?Peace be with you.? And when he returned a second time to meet Thomas, he said the third time, ?Peace be with you.?
Obviously, Jesus does not have a future in the NFL.
But this was a different kind of half-time. It required a different approach. The disciples did not need to have their failure pointed out. They knew it all too well. No, they had to be reassured God still wanted them on the team. They needed redemption. They needed forgiveness. They needed peace. They needed the kind of peace that comes from being reconciled . . . to each other, and to the one they deserted. They needed to come to believe that they even had the capacity to be trustworthy, after they had broken trust in such a huge way.
Jesus knew that the peace they needed most at the moment, was peace set in motion by forgiveness. Forgiveness was the first and most profound truth about the resurrection the disciples needed to grasp.
Craig Barnes is a Presbyterian pastor, seminary prof, and author. He wrote, and I quote, ?At the center of the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus Christ has come looking for us . . . He walks right through the locked door to find us. He shows us his wounds from the cross, which are the marks of our forgiveness. Then he says, ?Peace be with you.? You are forgiven, peace is restored to your troubled soul, and you are free.?
This is just beautiful. The Gospel story is a freedom story. When we are at our very worst, Jesus comes to us. When we are most wanting to hide . . . to isolate ourselves behind locked doors . . . and hide the truth about ourselves, even from ourselves, when shame and regret has paralyzed us, Jesus comes to the place where we hide, and says, ?Peace be with you.? At the heart of the Easter event is liberation. It is about being freed from the bondage of sin, freed from our failure to trust God, freed from our spiritual humiliation. The risen Christ comes to us, announcing peace and forgiveness. _____________________
We have a lot to be freed from, believe it. As individuals, and as a church. We have botched things terribly in the first half.
Like the disciples, we, the church, have often misunderstood the Gospel. We?ve made wrong assumptions about what God expects of the church. We act as if God called the church into being for the express purpose of growing itself into a strong center? a center of social influence and political power and abundant material resources. We think if the church builds an impressive base of operations? has people flocking to its many and varied services, has charismatic preachers, and attractive well-kept buildings, then it must be doing what God called it to do.
We?re no different that the disciples. They assumed Jesus was going into Jerusalem to establish himself, to overthrow King Herod, retake the throne, and let them sit at his right and left hand. The disciples didn?t want to hear about suffering, and sacrifice, and carrying their cross. Any more than the church today wants to hear about being called to a life of ministry at the margins of society, among the least of these, enduring ridicule, rejection, and even persecution if it comes.
As individuals, we have often misunderstood the nature of faith in Jesus. We have drunk so long from the wells of our dominant culture, and its out-of-control affluence, and love of power and pleasure, independence and autonomy, that we aren?t ready for Jesus? clear invitation to a life of self-giving love for others. We?d rather not hear about walking through a narrow gate and down a hard road, even if it supposedly ?leads to life.?
In our valiant attempts to be faithful to God, we have (if we are honest with ourselves) often, and repeatedly, come up short. We fail as a church, and we fail as individuals. We fail to understand the radical Gospel call, and fail to trust God enough to follow that call.
And sometimes, we are struck with the shame of this failure. We want to hide. To deny. To distance ourselves. But the Gospel message is this: When we are at our very worst, Jesus comes to us, speaking words of healing and forgiveness, ?Peace be with you.? Be freed from your self-imprisonment. Be freed from your shame and humiliation. Be freed from your sin. _____________________
That was the gospel message to the disciples in John 20. Jesus bestowed freedom on his disciples, freedom to come out of hiding, to have their peace restored.
But here?s the thing. It didn?t stop there. Jesus did not bestow peace on the disciples just so they personally would have peace and freedom. What he said was, ?Peace be with you . . . pass it on.? Literally. See v. 21. ?Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.?
I grant you forgiveness. Now go and do the same for others. Vv. 22-23: ?Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.?
In this room where they were hiding, Jesus commissioned them to carry the Gospel of forgiveness to every other person who was hiding from the truth, in one way or another. After he breathed on them, and said, ?Receive the Holy Spirit,? he then said, in effect, ?Now go . . . find other souls crippled by shame. Seek out other children of mine who are hiding for fear behind locked doors. And speak my peace to them. With deep love, speak those words that give them courage to turn and repent. Speak the language of forgiveness. Jesus gave his disciples, and gave us, the job of priest. To act on behalf of God, announcing reconciliation, declaring forgiveness. ?If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.? _____________________
What does that mean, really? In our temptation to play God, I think we sometimes put the wrong accent on these words. I don?t think Jesus meant, ?Now go out there, and you be the judge. You decide who?s condemned for their sins, and who is not condemned.? We might like to have that authority, but we don?t. I think rather, Jesus was saying, if you don?t get out there and proclaim the gospel of forgiveness, who . . . else . . . will? If you, the ones who have experienced this forgiveness of sin, because of my resurrection, don?t go out and pass on this peace, who will? When you proclaim forgiveness to others, they are forgiven. They find freedom. When you fail to proclaim my forgiveness, people stay bound. Their sins are retained. That?s an awesome and wonderful responsibility.
We have been called to be disciples of Jesus, not because we are better than those around us. No, being a disciple of Jesus means coming to terms with how wrong we were about Jesus, and knowing how much we need to be forgiven. It is facing up to our shame, and then hearing Jesus? words, ?Peace be with you.? Be free of shame. Undo the locks. Throw open the doors. You are loved. You are restored.
And then, in gratitude, passing the peace of Christ on to others who need to hear it.
Don?t we all know there is so much judgement being thrown around these days, even in the church. Maybe . . . especially in the church. And there is so little proclaiming God?s peace to each other. How can that be? We . . . who can?t help but be painfully aware, of how far we fall short of God?s call. We . . . who, when we came face to face with our failures, and began to withdraw in shame, heard the words of the Risen Christ spoken to us, ?Peace be with you. Be restored. I love you.? How can it be that we Christians are so slow to pass the peace to the rest of God?s children? How can it be that we are often the first to pass angry judgement on what we see as the failures of others? or choose words that divide and condemn those we don?t understand, or don?t agree with? How can we not extend to others the same grace and peace that God extends to us?
Sojourners, in Washington, DC, initiated a ?Covenant of Civility? that they invited church leaders to sign, from across the political and theological spectrum. And many have. There are seven points in the covenant. Such basic things as, ? we commit that our dialogue with each other will reflect the spirit of the Scriptures . . .?quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry? ? [acknowledging that we are] created in the image of God, [so] the respect we owe to God should be reflected in the honor and respect we show to each other ? [that] when we disagree, we will do so respectfully, without falsely impugning the other?s motives, attacking the other?s character, or questioning the other?s faith ? [that we] commit to pray for our political leaders?those with whom we may agree, as well as those with whom we may disagree
One would hope this kind of covenant would not be necessary, but apparently it is. One would hope that among Christians, speaking peace to one another, extending forbearance to our sisters and brothers, would be second nature, but apparently it is not. So I signed the covenant. I commit myself to speak the peace of Christ . . . at all times. _____________________
All of us here today have fallen. Some have fallen far . . . and hard. But all of us have failed, in one way or another, to understand, and live out, the call of the Gospel. Some are hiding our failures, out of shame or embarrassment. Some are living in denial of our failures. But all have fallen.
So all of us here today, and whenever we gather in worship, gather as fallen human beings in need of a word of peace and forgiveness.
In many Christian traditions it is customary in every worship service to include a ?passing the peace.? We sometimes do it, too. And when we do, we often turn it into a time for a little social chit-chat. ?Good morning, good to see you. How?s it going?? Chit-chat has its place, of course. But not in the theologically profound ritual of passing the peace. When we pass the peace, we are following Jesus? example, using Jesus? own words, found in the Gospel of John and elsewhere: ?Peace be with you.? When we turn and face another member of the body of Christ, or even a stranger in our midst, and say the words, ?The peace of Christ be with you,? we?re not saying hi-how-are-you-doing. We are speaking holy words, we are pronouncing a divine blessing, we are making a proclamation, that no matter what brokenness lies within you, no matter what dis-ease, what secret sin or shame, what fractured relationship, the peace, the Shalom, the wholeness of the Risen Lord Jesus be in and upon and through you. ?The peace of Christ be with you.? And then the other responds, ?And also with you.?
Can we do that much for each other whenever we gather in worship this Easter season?
Each Sunday, there will be a time in our worship, when we turn to others around us? next to us, behind or in front us, across the aisle, whether we know these persons or not? and speak these profound and holy words to each other: ?The peace of Christ be with you.? ?And also with you.?
For some, those may be the only words of peace they have spoken to them that week. So let?s speak them and mean them. Let?s imbue them with their full and rich meaning. ?The peace of Christ be with you.? ?And also with you.?
We will conclude the passing of the peace by singing an Affirmation of our Easter faith, STS #89, Christ is alive.
This song may be new to some of us, but it?s a beautiful proclamation of the good news of Easter. ?Christ is alive, and goes before us, to show and share what love can do. This is a day of new beginnings; our God is making all things new.?
It will be introduced by an ensemble. And we will sing the refrain.
Now, let us pass the peace. ?The peace of Christ be with you.? ?And also with you.?
?Phil Kniss, April 11, 2010
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Easter Sunday: John 20:1-18, Acts 10:34-43, Isaiah 65:17-25
?We need to keep our eyes peeled for the new things that God is doing in and among us!? This was a phrase that Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman came back to a number of times as she spoke of the on-going resurrection work that God is engaged in. It is easier to see this work when things are going well, but it is also true that God is working even in the darkness of our struggles. In John 20, Mary experienced this as she went to Jesus? tomb on that first Easter morning. In the midst of her grief, she heard Jesus call her name.
In Haiti, there are stories of hope in the midst of over-whelming suffering. In our own community there are these same stories, as people respond in Christ?s name to those who are in need. Resurrection continues today. Can you see it, even experience it?
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The Triumphal Entry story lends itself to great congregational worship. The praise just flows. The ?Hosannas? come easy. This morning, as always, it was great to be part of it, with the children, the procession, the choirs. Jesus? entry into Jerusalem is a delightful story to recall, and to re-enact. Palm branches waving, people making an impromptu red carpet out of the colorful clothes on their back, crowds of children and adults singing songs of praise, welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, the Pharisees trying to shush them, and a serene Jesus perched on the back of a donkey, just taking it all in. It?s a great, uplifting story.
But you don?t have to dig very deep, to discover there?s a hitch in this story. A very big hitch. Jesus turned out to be a huge disappointment. And much quicker than we think. No sooner did he enter the city, than he took a sharp turn that devastated his worshipers. When the parade stopped I think Jesus became an embarrassment to the people trailing him singing and waving palms. I don?t think I?m overstating the situation at all. We sometimes miss this sudden and radical turn of events.
We like to think that the crowds were just being fickle. That later in the week they were seized by some evil, mob mentality, urged on by Jesus? false accusers, the religious hierarchy. That in the heat of the moment they caved under pressure and started calling for his crucifixion.
It?s nice for us to think that? we who identify with these ordinary citizens? to blame those self-righteous and corrupt religious leaders in the top echelon, or just to blame the Roman oppressors. We?d rather not consider that maybe these ordinary citizens actually did want Jesus crucified. We?d rather not have to come to the conclusion, that had we been there, we would surely . . . have done the same.
It?s nice to think that. I just don?t think there?s any biblical basis for it. Everything we know about the political, and religious, and social situation there, leads me to conclude that the common people, the citizens, really meant it when they shouted ?Hosanna!? on the way to Jerusalem, and really meant it when they shouted ?Crucify him!? only a short while later. Jesus utterly let them down. And he did so in such a blatant, and in-your-face kind of way, that they were cut to the core, they were enraged. _____________________
You must understand. This parade into Jerusalem, was not just a happy celebration for Jesus the great teacher and healer and story-teller. They weren?t following him with palm branches and song because they loved him as a person, because he was kind to children and made the blind see. That was certainly part of it. But this march into Jerusalem was a political march. There is no other way to see it. They were openly chanting messianic language, straight from the prophets and the psalms. ?Hosanna . . . save us . . . Son of David!? They saw Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah to deliver them from the brutal oppression of the Roman Empire. They would be following him to Herod?s palace where he would throw out the Romans, and take over the throne of David, and they would be a free and independent people, once and for all.
Picture, if you can remember it, in 1989, East Germans marching through the hole in the Berlin Wall, or Indians marching with Mahatma Gandhi in the Salt March of 1930, or Blacks and Whites walking arm-in-arm on the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. If you can picture those scenes in your mind, then you have an idea of what it felt like to the people, to be with Jesus on the march into Jerusalem.
The crowds, the common people, were thrilled with the prospect that they were about to be freed! True, the religious higher-ups didn?t believe in Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees and were sternly warning them. But that didn?t matter. They saw, with their own eyes, all the proof they needed that Jesus was Messiah. They saw the miracles. If Jesus could feed five-thousand, heal the lame, and raise the dead, it would be nothing for him to take Herod and Herod?s army and throw them out of the palace, back to where they came from. _____________________
But . . . on what was to be the day of triumph for Jesus and the people, this great parade came to a screeching halt.
In fact, in Luke?s version of the story, this triumphal entry was neither triumphal . . . nor an entry. We stopped at v. 40 in Luke 19. But in v. 41 it says, as he came near Jerusalem . . . and saw the city, he wept. Jesus had only come within sight of Jerusalem, when the tone of story changes abruptly. The hosanna?s died down, and now Jesus is weeping, and pronouncing words of lament and harsh judgement against Jerusalem. Not against Rome . . . but Jerusalem!! Jesus said, referring to Jerusalem, ?Your enemies will crush you to the ground.? I wonder what the people near him thought about that pronouncement.
And when they finally did enter the city, Jesus did not go straight to the palace and retake the throne. He went to their own place of worship, the temple, and started cleansing it of corruption, and money-changing, starting throwing Jewish people out into the streets. At first, I suppose, the people gave him the benefit of the doubt. This must be part of the plan. Luke says, in v. 48, that even while he taught in the temple, the people were spellbound, so the chief priests and scribes waited to move in on him.
But I don?t think it took long for it to dawn on even the most uneducated of the common citizen. Jesus was not the kind of Savior they thought they were following into Jerusalem. It soon became clear.
They had joined a movement, spending the last days and weeks openly rejoicing, proclaiming the beginning of the end. They were following a king, who peacefully, without weapons, using only divine power, would unseat the most powerful and brutal king they had ever known. But Jesus had no intention of using his power to cast Herod off his throne, and bring political liberation. Instead, his target seemed to be his own people. If Jesus was a king, he was not the king they imagined.
Whoops! Big whoops! They had Jesus all wrong. Jesus was the worst kind of messianic pretender. He led them on. Only to turn the tables on them, and humiliate them.
I really doubt at this point, that the religious establishment had much trouble at all convincing the crowds of what they, the leaders, had been saying all along: Jesus was a fraud. They probably didn?t have to try hard to get the chant going, ?Crucify him, crucify him!? _____________________
The crowds actually discovered a pretty important truth that week. Worship is a risky thing. By its definition, worship is risky. It?s risky to bow yourself in worship to One you have no control over. It?s risky to publicly align yourself to publicly declare your loyalty and affection and adoration to One you don?t really know, and can?t predict or manage. At the end of worship, there is always the possibility of a ?Whoops! What have we gotten into??
Every time we walk into this sanctuary and join our hearts and voices in worship, we are taking a risk. Because we are declaring our loyalty and undying devotion to a God who is beyond our control, a God who we know only in part. We are throwing our lot in with God, even though we don?t know what God?s next move will be. But that?s the nature of worship.
Our temptation is to only worship the part of God that we know. But that?s worship that doesn?t move us or change us. That?s only reciting what we?re already convinced of. True worship lays down our petty agenda before the great mystery of God. True worship declares our loyalty even to that truth of God that is beyond our grasp. True worship transforms us. Because when we lay down self, then God is free to move us to a new place. God will change us.
Worship is an act of radical submission. When we sing songs of praise to God Almighty, when we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord . . . are we prepared to face the implications of that worship? are we ready for the ?whoops?? are we ready if God throws us a curve? are we ready to sing ?Jesus is Lord? if Jesus leads us down a path we don?t want to go? are we ready to keep praising God if God asks us for something difficult if not impossible?
The only worship that has integrity is worship that not only shouts ?Hosanna,? but also lays down our lives and agenda, both as individuals and as a community, worship that says to God, ?Here I am. Do with me what you will. Here we are. Do with us what you will.?
Anyone here who has made a commitment to follow Jesus in life, and has publicly declared that choice in baptism, has already said those words, or words like them.
This is the public statement that Jeffrey Smoker will make here in a moment. And we are all here to bless and affirm Jeffrey in this statement. But it is also an opportune time to reexamine our own readiness to still make that statement today.
All during Lent, we?ve responded to the sermons with a time of confession, taking small pieces of paper and writing on them, and letting go of them, onto the healing waters, symbolized by this bowl of water near the cross. Today, these waters become the water of Jeffrey?s baptism.
So I invite another kind of response from you. Most of you are still holding your palm branch, or have it lying close to you. Make that branch a symbol of the worship you have publicly offered to God today. Let it symbolize all that you know about God, for which you are willing and ready to worship today. Now, let us ask ourselves, are we ready to follow Jesus . . . tomorrow, wherever he leads, even if he takes a sharp turn from where we expected to go? Are we ready to truly lay down our agenda, and submit ourselves to God, for the duration? all the way to the end, be it cross, or be it glory . . . or be it both?
If so, I invite us to take our palms with us as we leave the sanctuary. To carry them from our place of worship, to the next place Jesus may be leading us. You are welcome to take them home with you, and put them in a visible place this Holy Week, reminding you of your commitment to keep following. If you prefer not to take them home, that?s fine. There will be a basket in the foyer where you can place them.
So I invite us to a time of prayer and self-reflection. Again, we will first listen to, and then sing, #63 in Sing the Story, ?God, fill me now.? It?s an invitation both to let go and to hold on . . . to approach God with empty hands . . . and to cling to the fullness of what God has to offer us. We will sing verses 1 and 2.
?Phil Kniss, March 28, 2010
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There are two reasons why the message in the scripture readings this morning is a hard message to swallow. 1. We?re Americans. 2. We?re Mennonites. Well, not all of us, but the majority of us here today fit both those categories. And that?s a bad combination if we?re looking to be inspired by today?s scripture.
So let me tell you what it is about being American and being Mennonite that make these texts difficult. And then we?ll look at the texts themselves.
Americans have a reputation for being inventive, clever, finding a way around any problem. We call it ?American ingenuity,? and we?re proud of it. Our values are shaped by sayings such as, ?Where there?s a will, there?s a way.? ?Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.? Americans admire, without exception, persons who make their way in the world by themselves, against great odds. We say they ?pull themselves up by their bootstraps.? We admire people with an independent spirit. That?s what made our country what it is today. American frontiers-people could never have pushed westward without it. California and Oregon might not exist today except for these strong, ingenius, risk-takers. People who could make things happen. We look up to the movers and shakers among us. This is an American value for which I?m grateful. I am indebted, and you are indebted, in many different ways to the ingenuity and creativity and ?can-do spirit? of millions of Americans, past and present.
Okay, so what is it about being Mennonite? Well, Mennonites are also great do-ers. We believe firmly in ?faith in action.? We go to great lengths, and make significant personal sacrifice, to put our faith into action and service, put our faith into ?shoe-leather,? so to speak. We have a cultural heritage of being hard workers, with an amazing work ethic. We have a faith heritage of choosing to go into hard and dangerous places to serve. ?To know Christ truly, we must follow him in life.? So goes an old Anabaptist saying. We believe that all disciples of Jesus are called to take up our cross, to make the sacrifice, to do whatever it takes, to demonstrate our faith to the world. We Mennonites are steeped in a faith tradition that majors in ethics, in doing what is right. It?s a tradition I am incredibly grateful for. I can say in all honesty and integrity, that I?m proud of this faith tradition.
But it does create a bit of tension for us, if we?re looking to be inspired by today?s scripture readings.
Because in today?s texts, we are not the ones who make a way. We are not the ones who make things happen. We are not the ones who, through some American ingenuity, or some Mennonite work ethic, earn anything in terms of God?s favor, or God?s blessing.
Let?s take a look at them, briefly, one by one. If you have your Bibles, you might want to page along. I don?t often refer to all four lectionary readings in my sermon, but this time I was struck by this strong thread that seemed to run through all these texts.
First, Isaiah chapter 43. The prophet tells his people that God, Yahweh, is ?the one who makes a way.? [v. 16] Referring to the Exodus of the Israelite slaves from Egypt, the prophet reminds the people that they did not escape, God delivered them. It was not by the strength of horses or chariots, armies or warriors. [v. 17] All of those, when confronted by Yahweh the way-maker, simply lie down in defeat.
And the people Isaiah is speaking to now, are once again between a rock and a hard place, in exile in Babylon. And the Lord says, through the prophet. [v. 18] You thought the Exodus was great? Forget it! Forget the old days! Wait till you see the deliverance I?m working on now. I am about to do a new thing. I, the Lord your God, am about to make a way . . . again. A way in the wilderness. A river in the desert. It will be so great, the wild animals will praise me, even nasty, sheep-stealing jackals will honor me for it. I will do it. So that you, the people I created for my pleasure, will praise me. It?s not going to be about you. Sorry.
And then we heard Psalm 126. This is all about letting go of our need to make the way, to manage the outcome. It?s about remembering that God is the great way-maker, the great restorer. This is a psalm for people in the desert, who are all out of water. And there is nothing they can do to change that. If there is going to be any restoring, any refreshment or renewal, it?s going to be God doing it.
The other day someone told me about hearing this text explained by a pastor from a famine-stricken part of Africa. The experience of drought and famine and starvation in Africa brought to light a deeper meaning in this text I had never seen. Where it says, Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves . . . it never occurred to me what this might be referring to. The African pastor said he knew. In a time of severe drought, it becomes a test of faith, whether you take your last bag of beans, and cook and eat them, or plant them. Those who were carrying seed to sow, were weeping because they were taking the last remainder, and choosing not to eat them and satisfy present hunger, but to plant them, trusting that rain would come. Those with such a radical willingness to let go . . . to release control over the outcome, will come back rejoicing, carrying sheaves, the psalmist said.
Then we had Paul?s letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, starting with verse 4. This one hits close home to Mennonites, or anyone else who values their history and genealogy, and family and faith traditions. Paul reads down a list of all the gifts of his heritage? all the strengths that come from being part of a people with a strong communal identity, strong religious tradition, and a rigorous system of ethics. These are like Paul?s family jewels, the treasures of his tradition. They are to be celebrated and valued. But Paul says . . . ?Rubbish!? Rubbish! Compared to the surpassing value of what God has done for me, through Christ, purely by grace . . . what I have accomplished as a righteous man of faith is like . . . nothing. In fact, he says, what I intend to strive after from here on out, is to be like Christ, in laying down his privilege and power, to be like Christ even in his sufferings and death, so I might be like him in his resurrection. It?s a life-changing revelation to Paul, the righteous one, the Pharisee, the do-er of good, the follow-er of the law. Paul realizes he is not the one who makes the way. God, in Christ, is the way-maker.
And finally, we have this amazing Gospel story, John 12:1-8. I could go any number of directions with this story. It?s rich with possibilities. But I?ll pick up on this thread running through these readings. Jesus? disciples were always trying to be the way-makers, and as a result, often getting in Jesus? way. Judas gets the black mark in this version of the story, but it?s clear from the other gospels, Judas was only saying what the others were thinking.
Pouring out this costly ointment was plain and simple . . . a ridiculous waste. Their resources were few. They had a lot of work ahead of them, if they were going to be successful at helping Jesus pull off this victory over the Roman oppressors. Even selling it and giving money to the poor made a lot more sense. At least doing that would solidify their support among the masses. How was pouring all this money on the feet of Jesus accomplishing anything helpful at all?
But God the way-maker, operates in a different kind of economy. There was something in this act of worship and over-the-top gratitude, that had great value in God?s economy. It?s not that the poor don?t have important needs. They do. God knows. Meeting human need is part of God?s agenda, and ours. And it always will be. But God the way-maker was looking at the larger picture here. The disciples needed simply to let go of their desire to manage the process and control the outcome. They needed to step aside, and make way for the way-maker!
So this is what I found running through the scriptures today. Two realities living in tension with each other. On the one hand, our common human temptation to seize on our agenda, and do whatever it takes to make it happen? hard work, ingenuity, determination . . . even craftiness or deceit, if necessary. On the other hand, our calling as God?s people, to yield ourselves, utterly and completely, to the God who makes a way in the wilderness, the God who causes rivers to spring forth in the desert, the God who transforms the last of the dry seed into an overflowing crop of grain, the God whose economy operates on different principles, the God who can turn crucifixion into resurrection.
In these texts, and I dare say, in our lives today, we are caught in the middle of this tension. Between making a way for ourselves, and yielding to God the way-maker.
I can imagine, if you stop to reflect on this for a bit, you can identify where this tension is showing up in your life right now. And it is a tension. It?s not all one or the other. We are not called to give up everything, and stop trying. We are not called to laziness. Faithfulness requires discipline. It requires rigorous effort and hard work and accountability.
So what this means for us is that we have to do some discernment. We must pray. We must reflect and consider and consult with each other. We must discern whether our time and efforts and energy are working in collaboration with the Holy Spirit, whether they are in synch with the way that God is making in the wilderness, the springs that God is pushing out of the desert sands, the new life that God is creating from what has died. Our whether it?s just our agenda that we?ve latched onto.
I think one of the clues that often shows up, is how much anxiety we?re taking on. If it?s a way that God is making, and we?re just collaborating, we?re probably much more at peace, there is a lot more joy in our efforts. But if we are the ones trying to make a way, if we are taking on too much of God?s work, and trying to make things happen on our schedule, then I think it?s pretty predictable that we?re carrying around a lot of anxiety. It?s a real joy-stealer, taking responsibility for God?s work.
I?ll tell you, being perfectly candid, this is where it hits home for me. We pastors can be some of the worst offenders, when it comes to feeling responsible for God?s work. After all, we?re constantly being told that our work is God?s work. So much so, that it?s easy to start feeling lots of anxiety over whether the church is growing in numbers, or meeting its budget, or even . . . staying together. As if . . . the future of the church is in our hands. We have to keep reminding ourselves that the church is not our project. God called it into being. Jesus Christ is its head. And it is God?s mission (God?s way) that gives the church its only reason to exist. Sometimes, as leaders, our job is to keep from getting in the way of God. To encourage all of us in the church, to release our petty agenda, to step aside, and make way for the way-maker.
There?s a lot of brokenness in the world, and it?s a constant temptation for those of us who see it, to think we are responsible for fixing it all. Restoration is God?s agenda. Salvation . . . of human souls and human systems . . . is God?s work, in Christ. God is making a way. Our responsibility is to be attentive to what God is doing around us, and to collaborate . . . to work in synch with . . . and just to make way, for the one who makes a way.
Maybe there is a particular area of brokenness you are wrapped up in right now . . . wrapped up tight . . . and you are full of anxiety about it. Maybe its brokenness in your life, in your family, in the world, or brokenness in the church,
We need each other in the church to help discern what to hold on to, and what to let go of . . . discern when I?m trying to make my own way, and when I?m making way for the way-maker.
We invite you once again to a time of reflection and confession. In the blue folders in the hymnal racks, are tiny pieces of paper. Today let them represent the area of brokenness with which you are striving, or full of anxiety about, or trying to make your own way through. You can write a word or phrase or sentence on them, or they can stay blank and be a symbol of this brokenness. You are invited to bring them to the healing waters of God, symbolized by this bowl of water, near the foot of the cross. And let go of them, let them float away on the water. And in so doing, make way for the one who makes a way in the wilderness, who brings forth springs in the desert sand, who produces abundant sheaves in times of drought, who creates new life where there was death, new beginnings, when we reach the end of the road.
As you come, we will sing again ?God, fill me now.? [STS 63] With each refrain we say, ?Here before you now; see, my hands are empty. God, fill me now with you.? At the conclusion of the confession, we will joyfully break out into a song of assurance, [HWB 640] This is a day of new beginnings, time to remember and move on, time to believe what love is bringing, laying to rest the pain that?s gone. And the song ends with the words, ?Our God? . . . not us, but . . . ?Our God is making all things new!?
?Phil Kniss, March 21, 2010
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Lent 4: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Jared K. Stoltzfus is the pastoral intern at Park View Mennonite for the 2009-2010 school year. He is a second-year MDiv student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.
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Today we encounter one of the most, if not the most, familiar parables of Jesus. Not only is this true in the church but perhaps in also very true of outside the church. Most of the time when we have thought or heard about this text is had been from the point of view of the son who was lost and is now found. This makes sense if, we just think that that this parable carries on the theme of the other two preceding it, the lost sheep and the lost coin. However, this reading seems to only capture half of what is going on in this parable. This is not just a father with one son; this is father with two sons. He has an older son too, not just the impatience younger that asks for his inheritance before his father is dead. This parable is not just a nice story about how much God loves us; this story has something very serious to say about how we view others as well.
BODY:
2 Corinthians 5:16-21- A new point of view
We need to start building a new set of lenses to look at the Gospel text and so I want to first turn our attention to the Epistle reading. This is no doubt another familiar passage that has lost a lot of its punch. This concept of a new creation has no doubt been drilled into our heads, at the price of it becoming less than exciting or true. However, this passage is truly extraordinary. We don?t have to go very far in it to see some remarkable things. For one we know longer have a human point of view, we no longer look at things like a human. The Greek here translates to something like ?according to the flesh.? We no longer look at this like this, our bodies; our human minds would look at things. That is what Paul seems to be labeling as the ?old.? Instead we are new, we have been given a new point of view, something outside of our human understanding. Perhaps this is a simple transformation of human thoughts into proper thoughts, or perhaps it is a radical reorientation to the things of God, which far exceeds what we could come up with. It is a reorientation to the things of God, and not the things of the flesh, of humans.
I think it is now, with these beginning concepts in mind, of a transformed point of view that we can enter into the Gospel reading, a story of a father and two sons.
A Father and his Two Sons
Like I said earlier this parable is third in a string in chapter 15. The whole discourse that Jesus gives here begins with the framing of verses 1 and 2 of chapter 15. The chapter starts with grumbling at Jesus for some very questionable practices, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees. Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners. Scum of scum in Jewish society. Tax collectors collaborated with the occupying forces of Rome and made a profit of their fellow Jew. Sinners were just plain unclean. They had broken laws, set up by the Pharisees and were therefore cast to the sides. Already in these first few verses we see the beginnings of two different points of view. We have the establishment point of view, and we have what Jesus is doing.
As we enter into the story we are introduced to a man, who has two sons. The younger one comes to his father and demands his inheritance. A bold move for the son, not only because his father isn?t dead yet but because he is after all the younger son. It was not his place to ask for such things. Nevertheless, the father gives him what he asks for. And in a few days this son picks up and leaves. He gathers everything of his and leaves, and goes off to a distance country, no doubt a gentile one. What does he do there he squanders all of the money, spends it on dissolute living, wild living, living in excess. He goes out and blows it and he his left with nothing. Now a famine comes upon the land and he is really up a creek without a paddle. He hires himself out and is reduced to feeding pigs, the worse and most unclean of all creatures. Yet he is so hungry he dreams about eating what the pigs are eating.
At this point the younger son comes to his sense and realizes a couple of things. One that his father?s hired hands are a lot better off than he is. Two that he has sinned and three that it would be better to acknowledge his sin and be treated as a servant or slave in his father?s household than dream of eating pig slop. And so he gets up and heads back to his father.
Now the scene switches to the father, waiting, And as he looks into the distance he sees someone coming, and soon he realizes who it is. It is his son. The one who took his money and left his family. But even though he is a long way off he runs to him, greets him with a kiss and lavishes his love upon him. The son tries to get out the words he rehearsed but the father tells his servants to go get a robe, ring, and fattened calf, there is going to be a party.
We could stop here and this would be a wonderful story about a father?s love. We could feel all warm and fuzzy knowing how extravagant the father?s love his for his children. I think that we have come to expect that sermon. We know its twists and turns and we are comfortable with that message. Now it is true that the father?s love is wonderful and extravagant. I am not denying that reality. I just want us to go deeper and wrestle with the issues that extravagant love raises. To do that we must enter scene three; the older son.
The older son enters the stage to a party. He has been out working and did not see his brother coming home. He asks around and finds out that his brother, the one who squandered everything is back, and his father has killed the fattened calf for him. This ticks the older son off and he stands outside the party refusing to go in. Now here is an interesting move. The father does not let him outside; he goes to the older son, wanting to bring him into the party. The older son vents. ?That son of yours?, he says, has done some terrible things. He wasted all your money, on prostitutes and now he comes back and you throw him a party. I have been hear the whole time. Working myself to death for you and want do I get nothing, not even a little goat? This is not fair, this is not right. The father replies, ?Son you are always with me, everything that is mind is yours.
A Different Point of View- A lingering question.
That is where the story ends, and we are left with a question, what did the brother do. Did he realize his father?s point and come in or did he stay on the outside. There is no point in trying to figure out the answer to this because there is no answer, which is still a question for us. With this older son Jesus looks at the Pharisees and confronts their intolerance and their strict definitions of who is in and who is out. Who you grumble about me eating with tax collectors and sinners, don?t your realize that God loves them too. Don?t your realize the joy and happiness when someone who is lost is found. Why do you stand on the outside with that human point of view, looking down on those who are unclean saying that have no hope of coming in to the feast. They have every hope; God?s love is extravagant, far more than you are willing to let it be. THAT is now FAIR they and we cry in protest. How can you let that SON OF YOURS back into the fold? He did real terrible things. Cast him out. To this Jesus says a resounding no. Our FAIR, our JUSTICE is from a human point of view. We would claim to be in, need to see with some different lenses. ?THERE IS A NEW CREATION: EVERYTHING OLD HAS PASSED AWAY; SEE, EVERYTHING HAS BECOME NEW!!!? We are no longer supposed to be building ways and casting those out, we love with extravagance far beyond what we thought was possible. We are now ambassadors for CHRIST, ambassadors for RECOCILATION.
That question that lingers at the end of the text lingers now for us as well. We might have been the prodigal son or daughter at one time but that does not stop us from becoming that older son as well. We are now in the fold of God, are we as extravagance as God was to us, or have we turned our backs on our own reconciliation and instead turned to walls and barriers of the Pharisees? This parable never gets old and never losses and message. It meats all of us now and begs us to reflect on the question, will we come in. Our we willing to let God?s love be extravagant (as if we really have any say in that) or our we just going to stand on the outside with our human point of view screaming it isn?t fair, I want a fattened calf.
Response:
Once again we are now going to enter a time of confession. The question has been posed. I invite us to reflect on it and if we feel God?s call to repent, and bring it forward. Just like the last three weeks there is tissue paper in the blue folders in the pews. Take a piece, write something on it, or leave it blank, and come forward and place it in the water as the ensemble sings SOFTLY AND TENDERLY JESUS IS CALLING. After that song we will again join in singing the hymn of assurance STS 63 GOD FILL ME NOW VERSES 1 AND 2.
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Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman highlighted the difference between physical thirst and spiritual thirst. We all understand physical thirst, but grasping what spiritual thirst is can be more difficult. The texts for today, Isaiah 55 and Psalm 63, both speak of water, and both are addressing the idea of spiritual thirst. Isaiah 55 is a vision of what can be for the Israelites. There is an invitation for anyone and everyone to come to drink and be filled. There is also a promise of an unending covenant, a promise that comes with a plea to turn to God. Psalm 63 also begins with an image of thirst, but quickly moves to testimony of the wonder of holding on to God. Perhaps this is what we thirst for, to be able to cling to God. But we can only hold on to so many things at one time. If we are to hold on to God, then we need to examine what things of this world we need to let go of. To cling to God, and the things of God, is our major life-work.
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We?re just starting the second decade of the new millennium. People like to name decades after some dominant characteristic of the time?Roaring ?20s, Decade of Decadence, etc. If I were to name the decade we just finished a couple months ago, I would call it the Decade of Fear. People have always struggled with fears, to some extent. But I think this past decade stands in a league of its own. It began 10 years ago with Y2K: we were afraid computers would bring the world crashing down. People built underground bunkers full of canned goods, water, and guns. Then a year later, the 9-11 terrorist attacks changed us forever: we literally embraced fear as the only way to survive. Again, people reinforced and stocked their bunkers. We were all urged to be suspicious and vigilant and to be very afraid whenever our government raised the official threat level from orange to red. All through this decade we discovered countless new ways to be afraid? of people with bombs in their shoes or underwear, of snipers, of kidnappers, of school shooters, of H1-N1 virus, of food bacteria. The divisive politics in the last couple national elections have elevated fear to new levels. The more polarized we have become, the more our weapon of choice is fear?for both ends of the pole. People on the left have been taught to be afraid of evangelical Christians, anti-abortionists, tea party protestors, and Sarah Palin. People on the right have been taught to be afraid of environmentalists, gays and lesbians, socialists, and Barack Obama.
We are encouraged by the media not only to be suspicious, but to be downright afraid, constantly on guard against the ?enemy,? who is clearly hell-bent on destroying us, and destroying the life we cherish.
But I don?t blame big corporate media for all of this. They produce what they know we want to hear. Because if we don?t watch it, companies won?t sponsor it. Thoughtful, rational sustained discussion of differing viewpoints, doesn?t sell on cable TV. If people who disagree, sit and respectfully listen to each other, and ask questions to build understanding, it doesn?t pull in the big money. It?s just too boring for us, the American public. We want people yelling at each other, shaking their fists, exaggerating, misrepresenting, and calling each other names. We want talk show hosts who will find the most extreme case, and then tell us that everyone on the other side is just . . . like . . . that! which is why we need to be afraid of them.
It is getting harder and harder, in the Age of Fear, to find a source of news that informs, rather than inflames. _____________________
Not all fear is a bad thing, of course. When I face a situation where suddenly? life and death hangs in the balance? I, for one, am glad that God created in us a fear instinct. It?s life-giving fear that seizes us and makes us step back from the edge of a cliff, or run away from a mad dog, or take cover when bullets fly. Thank God for that kind of fear.
But the fear I?m talking about, the fear of this age, is a fear that drives us away from others. It?s a fear that makes us take on a posture of self-protection and isolation instead of openness and hospitality. That kind of fear is not life-giving. It sucks life out of us. It keeps us stuck in whatever feels safe and secure. It prevents us from going where God is calling us. It robs us of the full and abundant life God desires for us.
And it?s that kind of fear God warns us about in scripture. Fears that paralyze, that hinder, that destroy, are not the work of a good Creator, they are from the Evil One. These are the fears referred to when scripture says, ?Be not afraid.? ?Fear not, I am with you always.? ?Perfect love casts out all fear.? ?Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change.? ?With the Lord on my side I do not fear.? And from today?s reading in Ps. 27. ?The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear??
If we allow fear to turn us away from where God is calling us, then that fear is sin. And we need to confess that fear. And we need to be delivered of that fear. A lot easier said than done, but God does provide what we need to face our fears and learn to live with them.
We heard about it this morning in Luke 13. Jesus looked at the city of Jerusalem, full of people that God dearly loved, and the image that came to Jesus? mind was a chicken? a mother hen and her chicks. Jesus said, ?Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!? I love to picture that in my mind. I know chickens. I didn?t grow up a chicken farm, but we always had a backyard chicken coop when I was a kid. I?ve seen, many times, how a mother hen acts when she suddenly thinks it?s time for her chicks to gather in under her wings. She sounds the alarm in no uncertain terms, and they come running. And they don?t trickle in one at a time. They come immediately, en masse. And they all end up under the shelter of her wings, all of them together in one place, all of them under one set of mothering wings.
That?s an image to hold on to as a way to live with our fears.
Baby chicks find strength being in community, under the protection of the one that formed the community. All baby chicks, by nature?s instinct, know who they are. They are part of a brood . . . a flock . . . who all belong to a particular mother. That reality defines them. Completely. Alone, they could never survive.
That?s why Jesus used the image of a hen and chicks. That?s why the psalmist wrote poetry about finding refuge under the shelter of God?s wings.
God doesn?t want us to be afraid. God wants us to be chicken. God wants us to run, together, en masse, and seek shelter under God?s wings.
Now, don?t misunderstand. Running under God?s wings is not escapism. We?re not trying to avoid dealing with a real threat. No, God wants us there because that is the place where we can best confront our fears. That?s the place where we know clearly and experience deeply who we are and to whom we belong. When we have a community of persons to be with who trust in the same mothering God we trust in, when we are in right relationship with that God, and with each other, then we have a strong basis on which to face our fears with confidence, individually and collectively. We find that confidence with each other, under God?s wings. Being ?chicken? in that way, is nothing to be ashamed of. It?s the biblical response to the fears we face.
It?s also the precise antidote we need for the kind of fears our culture tries to instill in us. Look at almost any example of fears from the last decade? from the Y2K panic to the color-coded war on terrorism, from over-reactive journalists to over-protective parents, from H1N1 to E-Coli, from Glenn Beck to Ed Shultz. Fear-mongering is the stock-in-trade of partisan politics, of extreme activist groups on the right and left, of most mainstream media outlets, and of a lot of popular entertainment.
For certain groups, for certain powers-that-be, it?s actually profitable, good for the bottom line, if the general populace stays afraid much of the time. It helps sell the protection they have to offer.
And the way to make sure people stay afraid, is to keep them from doing what little chicks do? keep them from coming together, and drawing strength from their common identity. So they try to convince you that you really are on your own, that you are the only person you can trust, that if you don?t take of yourself first, nobody else is going to. Why else do you think gun sales are up everywhere? Why are lawmakers voting in recent weeks to make it even easier to carry loaded guns on college campuses and restaurants?
Faith in Jesus Christ calls us to resist this mass cultural hysteria. The response of faith, is not a response of suspicion, separation, and human isolation. The response of faith does not first protect my own self-interest. The response of faith moves me toward the other. And in so doing, moves me toward God. The response of faith is a response of love. That?s why we read in 1 John, ?There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear.? Fear and love are incompatible. They are opposites. Love draws us out of ourselves and toward the other. Fear draws us into ourselves, and away from the other. Love casts out fear. And followers of Jesus are called to love.
So a gathering of Christians should be the last place on earth, where people rally support for a cause by instilling fear, and anxiety, and creating distance between ourselves and those who are different from us. But I think we know all too well, that?s not always the case. The merchants of fear also operate in the church. _____________________
We are called to be a people of peace, a people secure in our identity in Jesus Christ, a people who answer to a Lord who made a habit of saying, Fear not. Peace be with you. I am with you always.
Of course, if we do find peace and security in Christ, if we are freed from our fears, that?s not a guarantee we escape injury from that which threatens us. Isaiah 43 says, ?When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.? Not if. When. God?s people will keep on passing through raging waters, and fire, and storm, and earthquake. And where is God in the storm? Where was God when the earth shook in Haiti, or in Chile yesterday?
Well, I can tell you God wasn?t sitting in a La-Z-Boy watching CNN. God was right there under the rubble. It might not make sense to us, but it?s the Gospel truth. God suffers with us. God shares our dark, cramped, and painful space of suffering.
God is with us . . . right in the middle of the place . . . where our fears are most real, most intense. We are invited to be ?chicken? in the good way. To find ourselves?and help each other find? the shelter of God?s wings, and gather under those wings together. We are invited to come to a place where we are holding on to that oft-repeated promise that God is with us . . . always, and are letting go of those persistent fears that bind us, that pull us into ourselves and away from others, that prevent us from living the life to which God called us.
I don?t know what kind of persistent fears trouble you. I only know about mine. As someone who has been a perfectionist from the day I was born, and who now leads a fairly public kind of life, I know I have to battle the fear of failure, the fear of looking foolish or stupid in the eyes of others, so I like to play it fairly safe. I?m cautious. Which is good sometimes, but probably also keeps me from stepping into the unknown, where God just might be calling me occasionally.
I don?t know your fears. Many of us fear failure, or fear loss. We fear illness and death. We fear broken relationships. We fear being alone. We fear loss of control over our lives. We fear for our emotional and mental well-being. Perhaps the stress is so great, we feel we are on the edge every day, and live with a constant fear of falling off. Maybe we fear economic catastrophe. Maybe we fear a longtime relationship with a spouse, or a dear friend, is about to slip away forever. Maybe we are facing a serious illness, the potential end of our lives, or the life of someone we love. And fear is paralyzing us.
We are invited to hold on, and let go. To hold on to the promises of a God who longs to shelter us as a mother hen with her chicks. To hold on to the cross of Jesus Christ, a symbol of the most profound suffering we can imagine, that was transformed to a symbol of the glory of God. And to let go of our fears? fears that draw us into ourselves, fears that keep us from stepping forward into whatever scary place God is calling us, a place where God is already there.
I invite us again, as we are doing each Sunday during Lent, to a time of confession, in both word and action.
In the narrow blue folders in your hymnal rack, you will find small pieces of tissue paper. If you want to participate in this act of confession, simply name the fear with which you are struggling today. You need only write a word or a few words if you wish. Then begin the act of holding on, and letting go. Hold on to Christ, and let go of your fears, by approaching the cross, this image of humiliation made into an image of glory, a symbol of fear made into a symbol of love, and come to this water bowl, representing God?s healing stream, and release your fear, written on the tissue paper, onto the surface of that water. Let it be soaked up by that water, and softened, and eventually, dissolved.
If it is physically difficult for you to make the walk forward, be bold to ask someone else to carry your confession for you.
During this act of confession, we will be singing together in the purple hymnal, Sing the Story, number 63, ?God, fill me now.?
Come whenever you are ready.
?Phil Kniss, February 28, 2010
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We celebrate Lent because we have to. We simply have to. It?s a spiritual necessity.
If our aim is to journey toward wholeness, in Christ, Lent is an essential part of that journey. It?s a needed Sabbath rest on the road to wholeness. A stop-off, to step back, survey the landscape, take stock. To cease our striving, for a season. To quit grasping.
Lent is not, as many people seem to think, a 40-day season to give up an earthly pleasure, like chocolate, or dessert, or television. Nothing wrong with that, of course. That?s a good discipline. But we ought to be making good lifestyle choices anytime of the year. Giving up one vice or one luxury for 40 days doesn?t even come close to the heart of the matter, concerning Lent.
In the church calendar, the season of Lent begins, appropriately, right after Transfiguration Sunday. When we cancelled for snow Feb. 7, it threw us off one week, because we decided to use that service the next week, and just skip what would have been Transfiguration Sunday. Not a big deal. Transfiguration was never a huge thing for Mennonites.
But I?ve appreciated that at Park View, we have often taken that Sunday once a year, to retell that Gospel story of the three disciples being overwhelmed by the glory of God being struck almost senseless by this shining vision of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on top of the mountain, and wanting somehow to make it permanent, and build three houses for these three divine beings. I?ve appreciated that at Park View we make it a point each year to reflect on, and celebrate, those times where we have, quite unexpectedly, seen the glorious, luminous face of God, where we have met the holy, the divine.
So, not wanting to be derailed by a little bit of snow (or a lot of snow), I decided to have us read two Gospel stories today? the Transfiguration story we missed last week, and the story we usually look at on the first Sunday in Lent? the story of Jesus? temptations in the wilderness.
Somehow, it seems right to hold these two back-to-back, whether a week apart, as usual, or in the same service, as we?re doing today. The bright, shining Mount of Transfiguration and the stark, barren wilderness of Temptation, are two faces of the same reality. God is equally present in both, but is encountered in very different ways. One without the other, is a story . . . half-told.
On the Mount of Transfiguration we get a gleaming clear vision of this close connection between heaven and earth. But in the wilderness of Lent, we?re on the other side of this mountain. Here we see the shadows of our humanity, we muck around in our messy life at the foot of the mountain.
We might very well wish, like Peter did, that we can hold on to these mountain-top visions of God?s glory, that we are sometimes blessed with. I imagine, to some degree, we can all identify with Peter?s bright idea to build a shelter to house this divine glory. For many centuries now, churches have attempted to do exactly that? institutionalize the divine, make permanent and predictable the glory of God.
Lent is a season both for holding on . . . and letting go. There are some things in life that are core to who God called us to be, and what God called us to do. And there are some things in life? even things that we strive after and cling to? that are, at best, peripheral to God?s calling on our lives, and might actually distract us from the life God intends. Lent is a season to discern what is at the core, and what distracts us from the core. It?s a season to help us let go of those things we need to let go of, and hold on to that which we need to hold on to. That takes careful discernment, and the support of a community of faith.
This act of letting go does not come naturally. You know, it?s not only infants who have a strong grasping instinct. Long before a baby knows how to respond to other external stimuli it knows how to grasp. You just touch the palm of an infant, and its fingers wrap tightly around, refusing to let go. Human beings may grow out of that physical instinct to grasp. But our instinct to grasp in other ways, lasts our lifetime.
We do not by nature voluntarily let go of what we think we need for happiness. That is why Lent is a spiritual necessity. That is why the church calendar asks us to set aside today and the next five Sundays to celebrate this season. Because we may not do it otherwise, and it?s something we need to do.
It would be more to our liking to give just a slight nod to Lent, and then quickly move on to Easter, to resurrection, to joy and peace and victory. But no. We need . . . to take . . . our time . . . with this season. We need to slow down long enough to gaze honestly into the shadows. If we don?t, we cheapen the resurrection. If we don?t go to the depths, we don?t get to the heights. It?s as simple as this: If we don?t do Lent, we sabotage Easter.
God?s wonderful grace and salvation and resurrection power is all about God finding us in the middle of our brokenness and sin and death, in the middle of the wilderness, and bringing us up into the light, into wholeness of life.
So these six Sundays of Lent are not just gloom and doom theology. We won?t be beating ourselves down with ?what-a-worm-am-I? kind of thinking. Yes, in our Ash Wednesday services last week we did take time to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. But we remember our sin and shadows and brokenness, knowing that God?s grace is, and will be, sufficient for all our sins, sufficient to transform us and bring us into the light.
You know, don?t you, that the Sundays in Lent don?t count in the 40 days? The days between Ash Wednesday and Easter add up to 40, only if you skip the Sundays. Each Sunday in Lent is a little feast in the middle of the fast. We ?break fast? on Sundays. A spiritual breakfast so-to-speak. In Lent, we rejoice when we come and worship each Sunday. We give thanks. We praise. But we praise in a minor key. We?re a bit subdued because we are more keenly aware of the reality of sin and brokenness and shadows that is part of life on the other side of the mountain. _____________________
Today?s Gospel story of Jesus? temptations in the wilderness is the story of an arduous spiritual workout for Jesus. It?s a story of Jesus deciding what to hold on to, and what to let go of.
Jesus had just been baptized by John, in the Jordan River. He has just been proclaimed, in public, by a voice from heaven that he was the very Son of God, God?s own beloved. Then, strangely, at the very moment Jesus should have been most ready to engage in his mission, when he should have had the greatest clarity, on the heels of this public affirmation and recognition, the Holy Spirit sent him into the middle of nowhere.
We usually read this short story in Luke 4, and we miss the impact. It?s only 13 verses long, takes a minute to read. But this was not a simple weekend in the Sinai, with a pesky conversation with the devil thrown in. Can we even imagine . . . what 40 days in the desert would be like? The depth of suffering . . . The excruciating physical and emotional and spiritual isolation. . . The agony of being without anything?food, shelter, company. I don?t think I could survive 40 days in my own house, with a stocked refrigerator and air-conditioning? if I was all alone, if I could not leave it, or have anyone join me in it.
But Jesus was out there alone in the wilderness for 40 days, sent there by the Holy Spirit, met there by the devil.
As painful and full of suffering as it was, it must have also been deeply clarifying for Jesus.
At his baptism he was named by his Father. ?You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.? In the desert, that identity was tested. The Deceiver was intent on convincing Jesus to walk away from his true self, away from that voice from heaven that named him. The desert deceiver failed in that attempt. And eventually gave up and left for another opportune time.
That?s what Jesus? temptations were all about. He was tempted to let go of his true self, and grasp hold of a false identity.
When he was tempted to use his power to turn stones into bread and satisfy his intense hunger, tempted with political power and influence, tempted to attract attention and glory to himself, the real underlying temptation?in all three of those? was to hold on and let go of the wrong things. To let go of his true identity, to release himself from his heavenly call, to forget who he belonged to, and to grasp hold of the intoxicating power of controlling his own destiny, satisfying his own desires, and using power over others to accomplish his agenda.
We who are called by Christ, are in exactly that position. We, too, are given a name by God. God calls us his own children, adopts us, calls us into a new community.
And we are constantly tempted, like Jesus, to let go of, and hold on to, the wrong things? to let go of that which is true to who God created us to be, and hold on to those things that distract and derail.
Lent is the season to refocus, rethink, repent, to reorient ourselves God-ward. It is the season for holding on to those things which move us toward God, and God?s kingdom. And it is the season for letting go of whatever may be in our lives, that functions as a distraction.
Like I said, it will require some careful discernment to determine what you called to hold on to, and let go of during this season of Lent. We take Lent too lightly, if we think we can just decide on a dime, the day before Ash Wednesday, what one substance or behavior to fast from for 40 days . . . and then assume that we?ve done the work of Lent. No, Lent is a season for discerning. It will take all 40 days, and maybe then some, to listen for what God is telling us to hold on to, and to let go of. It will be more than one simple material thing. I am confident of that.
Each Sunday that we gather in worship this season, we will allow time in the service to at least start this work of holding on . . . and letting go. It will come in our weekly ritual of confession, following the sermon. It will be an act in which you get physically involved in the holding and releasing. And it will be, at the same time, both completely private, and very public.
We will not be required . . . this morning, or ever . . . to reveal to anyone else what we feel called to let go of. It may be something clearly sinful we are confessing, greed or anger that?s gone awry and hurt other people, some act of violence, or infidelity, or deceit, or some sexual addiction, or food addiction, or substance abuse. It may be something that seems rather benign, television habits, or use of the internet, the way we eat, the way we treat our bodies. It may be some toxic relationship that needs to be addressed, some bitterness eating away at our spirit. It may be a general self-absorption that?s getting us off-track.
I will shortly invite those who wish to participate to a period of silent reflection and physical action. After a short time of meditation, we will physically express our holding on to Christ by moving from our seats and approaching the cross. And we will physically let go of something God may be prompting us to let go of, by literally casting it on the water, letting it float away in God?s healing stream.
On the stand here near the cross is a vessel of clear water. In the hymnal racks in front of you are the usual blue folders, but inside you will find tiny slips of tissue paper. If you want to participate, take your pen or pencil (or borrow from someone nearby) and write on one of those slips of paper what God is prompting you to release. And when you are ready, approach the cross and release that slip of paper onto the water. This is a very public demonstration of your will to hold on to Christ and let go of what?s getting in the way. But what you release into the water will not be seen by anyone. What doesn?t dissolve, will be taken out in one soggy clump and disposed of. But after today, this act of letting go will be strengthened if you share it with someone, and allow the body of which we are part, to help us on this continuing journey of holding on, and letting go.
After I lead in a prayer of confession, there will be time to silently pray and write, and then we will begin to sing from Sing the Story #63 . . . God, fill me now. Anytime during the music and singing, just come and participate in this ritual as you wish.
Let us pray. With all our heart and mind and strength, Lord, we hold on to you, to that which gives us life. But we confess that we have also stubbornly held on to things that distract us from the life you intend. Give us the wisdom, and the strength, to let go, to empty our hands before you. And the confidence that in so doing, you will fill us now . . . with you.
?Phil Kniss, February 21, 2010
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Epiphany 6: Luke 5:1-11
?Put out into deeper water and let down your nets.? This was the command from Jesus to Simon in Luke 5:4. This Simon was a common fisherman who chose to obey. This choice lead Simon to the abundance of deep waters, and provides a glimpse of the power of Jesus.
Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman said that Jesus did not call Simon to something completely different. Rather, Jesus called Simon to a deeper understanding of what Simon was already doing.
What does it mean for us to step into deep waters in our families, friendships, or work place? Can we trust Jesus enough to leave the shallow places? What would this look like, and what are our fears?
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We are continuing in the season of Epiphany, looking at how God is revealed. We have already looked at God?s revealing work in a number of ways. Now, I?d like to step back from specific Bible stories, and look at the larger story that is the Bible.
We have heard some Bible passages read and recited this morning. My guess is that what you heard may have been familiar to you. Nehemiah 8 and Luke 4 should be familiar because Pastor Phil preached on these passages as recently as October 18 as a part of the series about being church in smaller, more intimate and accountable communities. You may recall that Phil spoke on the importance of interpreting scripture - not on your own, but in the context of a community. That continues to be an important point to hold on to.
Now, allow me to change gears a bit. Children and youth, I have some questions for you. I need you to raise your hands for me so we can see where you are. Ok, now put them down. How many of you have heard the story about God creating the world?
Have you heard the story of Joseph and his many-colored coat? David and Goliath? Jesus walking on the water? Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana? You better know that one, Pastor Barbara just preached about it last Sunday!
Adults, you all know those stories, and probably many, many more. You probably know some stories from the Bible that I don?t remember. Many of you - children, youth, and adults, have memorized verses from the Bible, or maybe even whole chapters or books!
We value the Bible. The Bible is what we believe to be God?s story, telling us about who God is and what God wants us to be. We reference the Bible as we attempt to discern - in community how God is calling us to live in our unique context. But many of us have a nagging suspicion that our biblical grounding is slipping.
According to one source, 81 % of American Christians surveyed thought the saying ?God helps those who help themselves? is a Bible verse. Jay Leno questioned some people who thought that phrase was one of the 10 Commandments. And many thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. Beyond biblical illiteracy, for those of us who do read the Bible, ok, for ME when I read the Bible, I sometimes wonder why a particular story was included in the Bible. What does it mean? Wouldn?t the Bible have been better without some of the gruesome stories?
In Nehemiah 8, the city walls and gates of Jerusalem had just been rebuilt. Israel was in exile. This small group remaining in Jerusalem had forgotten their story. When Ezra brought out the Book of the Law, people were amazed. They were weeping at what they heard. Now, it also says that they didn?t understand what they were hearing and the Levites went out and helped them to understand.
We need to hear the Bible story, and like the remnant in Jerusalem, we need help in understanding what we are hearing.
In October of last year, I went to Hesston College, in Kansas, to participate in a conference titled: Learning the Bible in Life-giving Ways: History, Hooks, and Heilsgeschichte. For years, Marion Bontrager and Michelle Hershberger have been teaching this as a required course to all students at Hesston. My experience this weekend was powerful. I was helped to understand - and put together ? what I have been reading in the Bible.
I?d like to break now, from giving a sermon, and invite you to listen in on a conversation. Kim and Eric, would you join me up here? Kim and Eric Schmucker graduated from Hesston College almost 4 years ago. While there, they both participated in the Bib Lit class that Marion and Michelle teach. We?ll talk a bit about that class.
What does Heilsgeschichte mean? What impact did this course have on you? Talk a bit about the content of the course, or the outline that people have in their bulletins. What does it mean that this is your story?
How do we approach the Bible? It is not simply a book of verses that we should learn. It is not a book of ideas and theology, which we simply need to learn in a rote manner so as to have ?right? beliefs. The Old Testament isn?t just an extended genealogy of Jesus, outlining the family into which he was born? Nor is it just a series of books with shadowy references pointing to Jesus? The Bible is certainly not a book about a God who deals with puppet-like people, pulling their strings and making them act at God?s whims. Do we view the Bible as being written by God, a book that is perfect, without error or contradiction, a book that is an exact history, and a science book following modern scientific approaches? I would say ?No.?
Can we take the perspective that the Bible was written, edited, and collected by diverse people who were inspired by God? The writing and editing occurred with divine inspiration, but the writing and editing occurred in a particular historical context, with a vocabulary, concepts, strengths, and weaknesses that were unique to that context.
As we read the Bible, look at it as the story of God?s good creation, and of human rebellion toward God. In this story, God, with amazing grace and a dogged persistence that defies logic, works to solve the problem of sin. This is a story of God?s dynamic interaction with humans humans who, at times, show amazing faithfulness and at other times, remarkable faithlessness.
It?s my story, because the story does not end with the book of Revelation. It is a story that rolls on through history, full of love. May God continue to be revealed through our reading of the Bible, and may we continue to find ourselves placed firmly within that story.
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Epiphany 2
Isaiah 62:1-5; John 2:1-11
Pastor Barbara Moyer Lehman reflected on the news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and Park View Mennonite Church?s experience of hosting homeless men and women sleeping in our building this week. How does this Sundays lectionary text from John 2:1-11 relate to this? The wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, was the first of the signs through which Jesus would reveal his glory. This was meant to open peoples minds to God. What are the signs around us now? In the midst of pain and suffering and injustice, what signs do we need to remind us of God?s presence?
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";s:12:"link_replies";s:155:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/3423144521760970727/comments/defaulthttp://www.pvmcsermons.com/2010/01/barbara-moyer-lehman-seeing-signs.html#comment-form";s:9:"link_edit";s:82:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/3423144521760970727";s:9:"link_self";s:82:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/3423144521760970727";s:4:"link";s:73:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2010/01/barbara-moyer-lehman-seeing-signs.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:24;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-2452504735862187035";s:9:"published";s:29:"2010-01-10T12:00:00.001-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2010-01-26T15:39:28.659-05:00";s:5:"title";s:28:"Phil Kniss: Possessed by God";s:12:"atom_content";s:15952:"January 10, 2010 Epiphany 2: Baptism of our Lord Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, Isaiah 43:1-7
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...or read it now God has a claim on you. God has a claim on me. I mean that in the same sense of early American pioneers, who ventured out into the wild west, into untamed wide-open land, and pounded a big stick in the ground . . . ?staking their claim.? That?s about all it took to own a piece of land back then. If it was still unclaimed, and you were standing on it, then you could claim it, you could, at that moment, possess it, as first owner. It was legally yours, and no one else?s. If someone tried to take it from you, you had the right to defend it, to take it back.
God has that kind of claim on us. God was the first to do so. The pioneer claimant. So God has complete and prior authority to name the land, to shape it, to develop it, or leave it alone, to build something on it, or to tear down, to dwell in it, or abandon it. It?s completely up to God how God chooses to act on this claim.
But there is one problem with this analogy. A big problem. We are not just acreage. We are not property to be used or discarded. You and I and all humankind, are the crowning work of God?s creation. God created us and chose us for a unique purpose. God?s claim on us is a love claim. God?s exclusive claim on us, is the right to relate to us in love.
And that, of course, puts God in a terribly awkward dilemma. For that love to be fulfilled, it must be reciprocated. Love is not complete, until it goes both directions. So while God has an absolute and complete claim on our lives, God must give us freedom. God must allow us to choose. For God to benefit from this love claim, God must let go of the claim. As I said last Sunday, God is the Hound of Heaven who pursues us. But it?s an empty chase, if we don?t also pursue God. _____________________
But having heard the scripture readings this morning, who would not want to pursue a relationship with such a God?
The prophet Isaiah gives us in today?s text, one of the most overwhelmingly tender . . . warm . . . and passionate passages in the whole of scripture. This is God talking, the Almighty and Just and Righteous Creator, speaking to his human creatures, his lowly, fickle, frequently rebellious, often oblivious, sometimes downright mean and stupid, human creatures. And God?s obvious and deep affection for the likes of us comes through with breathtaking power:
?But now thus says the Lord, he who created you . . . he who formed you . . . Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.?
How could we not?when loved with such tender passion? how could we not love in return? How could we not gladly give ourselves over to such a lover? Okay, I?ll tell you. We have been born into, and have grown up in, and continue to be immersed in, a culture that trains us to be self-made and self-determined. It is a fundamental cultural virtue, to a be ?your own person.? I am supposed to aspire to be independent, not owned by anyone or anything. To call my own shots. To be my own boss.
I guess it?s not too surprising that people aren?t coming in droves, to give themselves over to a God who says, ?You are mine.? We instinctively assume there is something wrong, or sinister, about one who would say, ?You are mine.? We don?t seek to be possessed. We seek freedom.
But in God, you see, we can have it both ways. God has a rightful claim on us. We are possessed by God. But God, out of deep love and affection, also gives us freedom.
The challenge for each of us? and doing so will be the journey of our lifetime? the challenge is to learn how to lay down ourselves, without losing ourselves. to allow this divine possession, while becoming a more whole and a more free person in the process. _____________________
I believe this is what was happening with Jesus at his baptism. After coming through what was probably a normal childhood, normal adolescence, and normal young adulthood, Jesus was now, finally, coming to terms with his identity. He was grasping who he was called to be, and what he was called to do.
Sometimes we say this baptism was Jesus? ordination for ministry. Here, he was commissioned for service. That?s not really a wrong way to describe it. His work was ordained and commissioned by God, and after his baptism and a stint in the wilderness, he did launch his public work in a larger way. But it?s not the best way to describe it, and certainly not a complete description.
I don?t think Jesus? baptism was primarily a commissioning for service. It was primarily a ?christening,? a naming. Now, we Mennonites don?t baptize infants, so we don?t often use the language of christening. But in many long-standing religious traditions, baptizing and naming are two central actions of the priest in the ritual of ?christening.? And in the Jewish tradition, for boys at least, naming and circumcising happened at the same time, on the eighth day after birth.
So you could say, what happened to Jesus in the Jordan River that day, was a sequel to what happened when he was eight days old, being held in the arms of his teenage mother? the day he was given the name ?Jesus.? That day, even though baby boy Jesus had no clue what was going on, he was publicly named by his Jewish community, his identity was located within these people of faith. In that ritual the community was told, in effect, ?Here is one of your own. Care for him.? And the baby Jesus was told, in effect, ?You are one of us. You belong here, with us.?
So Jesus? baptism in the river Jordan was his re-christening. When Jesus rose out of the water, the dove descended and a voice from heaven named him. ?You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.? The God who gave Jesus life made a pronouncement the began with two words ?You are...!? Not, ?you shall? or ?you should? or ?you will? which are words of duty, of ordination for service. But, ?You are!? Words of identity. Words of naming, of christening.
In our culture, we don?t really think too much about the significance of being named. Names for babies come in and out of fashion. Sometimes, parents just like the ring of a certain name. Sometimes, a name comes from the family, a generation or two back. Sometimes, a name is chosen for what it means.
I?ve told you before that I?ve always been a bit envious of people who have names that mean, ?Gift of God? ?Strong one? ?Son of righteousness.? My name means ?lover of horses.? That one hasn?t really panned out. Oh, I admire horses. But I?ve been on one maybe 3 or 4 times in my life.
But you know, that doesn?t really matter. The real significance in being named was . . . who named me. I was named by David and Esther Kniss, of Sarasota, Florida. Two persons, out of their own free will, chose to love me, and take responsibility for me. They did that by naming me, and saying, in effect, to me and to the world, ?You are our son. We claim you. We have a stake in your life. Until you reach adulthood, as long as we are responsible, we will sacrifice our very selves for you.? And they did. And I am forever grateful.
You know, having the right, and responsibility, to name a child, is an awesome and powerful thing. I was blessed to have parents who fulfilled that responsibility with love and integrity. Not everyone does.
That?s really what it means in Isaiah 43, when God says with deep affection, ?Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.? God gives us our name. God lays claim to our life. God has a stake in who we become. We belong to someone greater than ourselves.
And that?s what was happening, first and foremost, at Jesus? baptism. God was declaring, to Jesus and to the world, ?You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.? God was saying to all who would hear. I claim this man Jesus. He is mine, and I love him. No matter what he may do, or what people may do to him. I love him. I claim him.
In his baptism, I think Jesus came to understand, in a deeper way than ever before, who he was, who he was called to be, and who he would yet become. On that crucial, pivotal day of baptism, Jesus was not given a to-do list, he was given a name. After that, his ministry happened because he accepted that name as his true identity, and didn?t allow anything else to rob him of that identity, or to redefine him and make him into someone he was not.
And no sooner was he baptized, that his identity was put to the test, in his wilderness temptations. Remember the lines used by Satan, to get to him, ?If you are the Son of God . . .?
Note . . . On his baptism, the voice from heaven said, ?You are . . .? In the temptations right after that, a voice said, ?If you are . . .? Interesting juxtaposition isn?t it?
Jesus was able to withstand the temptation, because he had gotten clarity, in his baptism, about who he was. If only we all had that kind of clarity. If only we were not so confused, so often, about our core identity. If only the cultural values we swim in 24/7 didn?t do such a great job telling us lies that we are what we drive, or what we wear, or what we look like, or even, what we do. And we believe those lies. We make decisions based on those lies. More than we care to admit.
But the voice of God is a truth-telling voice. ?I have redeemed you,? God says. ?I have called you by name, you are mine. I am the LORD your God, and I will be with you. I love you.? And that voice is still speaking love, and affection, and passion toward each of us, as God?s good creation. God?s voice is not silent. The question is whose voice am I tuning my ears to listen to? Will I listen to the One who created me, and the only One with the power to create and name me, who declares with affection, ?You are my beloved . . .? Or will we listen to the voice of the enemy of God, the tempter in the wilderness, who whispers, accusingly . . . ?If you are . . .? Jesus chose to listen to the baptismal voice. Which voice will I choose?
The voice of our Creator speaks love. It speaks acceptance of us, as we are, and calls us toward something even greater. We are possessed by God, and as such God has a stake in both who we are now, and who we will be yet become. Since God?s stamp is placed on our lives, God has a stake in our future. God has a claim. ?You are my child. I love you.?
Let us now, and always, tune our ears to that tender voice. And turn down the volume of all other voices that try to convince us otherwise. So that the first voice we hear when we rise in the morning, and the last voice we hear when we lie down at night, is the voice of the One who claims us, and says, ?You are mine.? Who will say to us, in our times of fear, Do not be afraid, I am with you I have called you each by name Come and follow Me I will bring you home I love you and you are mine.
?Phil Kniss, January 10, 2010
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