tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37181717390885689022024-03-14T11:14:27.367-04:00DiscernlandAdventures in being hunted.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.comBlogger326125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-70084444707939130782017-04-15T03:48:00.000-04:002017-04-15T03:49:16.855-04:00Unnamed Discipleship<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for Good Friday <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">John 18:1-19:42<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">"</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "palatino" , "palatino linotype" , "century schoolbook l" , "baskerville" , serif;">Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "palatino" , "palatino linotype" , "century schoolbook l" , "baskerville" , serif;"> "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Last year I had the
privilege to be in the place where all of this happened. It’s in Jerusalem, in
the Old City. The Old City is not as old as the city described in the New
Testament, which can be confusing to tourists. That city, in the gospels for
instance was smaller even that the small Old City of Jerusalem is now. The
current Old City is less than a half square mile in area, though it feels a
great deal larger when you are in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus was arrested in the
Garden of Gethsemane which is a walk of, I’d say, less than a half hour to the
temple where the high priest Caiaphas would have been. Then another short walk
to the south eastern part of the city that housed the headquarters of Pilate.
Finally, it is a short walk to Golgotha where Jesus was executed by crucifixion
and his tomb is not more than 200 feet from there. All told I suppose one could
walk from the top of the Mount of Olives, through the Garden of Gethsemane, to
the Temple, to the Roman Headquarters, and then on to the cross and tomb in a
half day. I suppose lots of tourists do that every day, I know I have.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Church that has been
built on the location of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is called the
church of the Holy Sepulchre. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Soon after Jesus’ ascension Christians began to
meet at the tomb and at Golgotha to pray and share the meal. This became a
nuisance to the Empire so they filled in the old expired quarry that had been
turned into a Jewish cemetery and where they used to crucify people, they
filled it in and, to add insult to injury, erected a Temple to Venus. Years
later Emperor Constantine’s mother Helena, using an ancient travelogue as a
guide, excavated the old site of the tomb and place of crucifixion, and
established the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the fourth century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Temple is no longer
there of course, destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman Empire, all that remains is
the western retaining wall that holds up the small mount that used to hold the
Temple. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The headquarters of the Empire are, of course, perfectly preserved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My point I suppose on all
this is to try to drive home the reality of all this. All of this happened: the
crucifixion of Jesus, his death, his burial, his arrest. It is all too real, and,
as we focus more on the fact of all this, I am struck by a particular aspect of
the story that might be the most real. It’s not about Jesus, or Pilate, or even
Peter, it’s about another disciple who is not even named in this scene.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If you look at what this
disciple is doing in this story today, a great deal is revealed. First we see
that after the arrest of Jesus this unnamed disciple is known to the High
Priest. Being known to the High Priest means that the disciple is able to
invite Peter in. Being known to the High Priest, this disciple is able to walk
in the areas of power, indeed he is able to share his privilege and include
others. This disciple has one foot in the cultural and societal power
structures of the world and one foot in the radically dangerous, loving Kingdom
of God in Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, once this disciple
has secured Peter’s entry into the courtyard of the Temple we have Peter’s
famous denials of Jesus. Much has been made of these denials, and rightly so:
all of us have denied Jesus at one time or another, probably most of us do so on
a regular basis. But what we don’t have in this scene is the denial of that
unnamed disciple of Jesus. This unnamed disciple is not asked about Jesus, he is
not interrogated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">While some of us are Peter
and we deny Jesus, <i>all of us</i> are
really this unnamed disciple walking in two worlds, one in discipleship to
Jesus but also wielding significant cultural power of one kind or another.
Furthermore we are this unnamed disciple because we have the privilege of <i>not being</i> interrogated about our
allegiance to Jesus. That disciple could have spoken up and said, “I am one of
his disciples,” but he didn’t. He simply let Peter get questioned. If I know
people, then I would wager that this unnamed disciple even was aghast and
indignant at Peter’s denials of Jesus. Yet that unnamed disciple was never
questioned and thus stayed safe with an intact integrity knowing that he was
pure and good and on the right side of history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We are this unnamed
disciple. We are walking in two worlds, one of power and privilege and one of
knowing the expansive, boundary breaking world of Jesus. But it is not simply
that we are bi-cultural. The fact of our privilege in the world allows us to be
quiet in our discipleship, to avoid interrogation and, when it serves our
purposes to silently deny Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As we stand here at the
cross it is time to give that unnamed disciple a name be it Josh, Russ, Budd, Mary, …. That disciple needs a name. Claim your name and identity as a disciple
of Jesus. Do not remain silent for when the powerful are silent then they are
complicit in the injustices of the world. Come out of the shadows and boldly
distinguish yourself as a disciple of the one who was obedient to God even unto
death on a cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-85683820775702943212017-01-30T10:43:00.002-05:002017-01-30T10:43:19.386-05:00We Need to Talk<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for Epiphany 4A<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Micah 6:1-8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You know what? I’m a grown
man. I’m not afraid of the dark, anymore. I can walk confidently through most
days. It’s good to be a grown up. Yet, while I’m a grown up, there is one
phrase that strikes fear deep into my heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“We need to talk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Have you ever noticed that the phrase, “We
need to talk,” is not an invitation to light-hearted conversation? “We need to
talk,” means that we need to have a foundational, likely overdue, conversation.
For example, my wife has never said, “We need to talk,” and then we chatted
about a t.v. show or a weekend away. “We need to talk,” is always serious and
about clearing out a block in the relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Whenever I hear those
words I also get a little nervous, what did I do? I imagine my wife feels a
little nervous when I say the same thing. Even though I’m nervous I know that
what lies on <i>the other side</i> of that
conversation is a stronger, truer version of us as a unit. Sometimes I’ve had
to sit down with some of you and talk, and some of you have emailed and called
and said effectively: “Josh, we need to talk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">How about you, what’s your
experience with that phrase, “We need to talk,”? It’s almost never good when
your boss has that conversation, or if you are the boss and call that conversation,
it may not go well. But, if the relationship is equal then that conversation is
about clarity. But then again almost no relationship is equal, or equal across
all domains. But if love and respect is present then the need for talk can be
healing and offer a window to strengthen the relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In today’s Old Testament
reading we hear from the prophet Micah. It’s an awfully famous passage, indeed
I’d wager that it’s probably the only bit from Micah that any of us have heard,
“and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” It’s a pretty good and pithy statement of
what life ought to be in response to God. In fact, I’ve even seen that some
churches have this passage as a sort of mission statement. But most of us might
not know that what brought about this whole statement in the first place was
that God saying to the people: “We need to talk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So what brought about this
serious talk? If you look at the passage, you will see that God says, through
the mouth of the prophet Micah: Hear what the Lord says: “Rise, plead your case
before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains,
the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the
Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.” This
is actually a funny play on words because the word, or rather, the <i>name</i> Israel means “to contend with God.”
It was the name given to Jacob after wrestling with the angel after which he
received a crippling wound and a new name: Contending with God, Israel. So the
people of God have this relationship with God but let’s not lose sight of the
fact that it is a contentious relationship, an in this passage God brings up a
controversy that he has with the people who have been contending with him for a
long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not only does God have a
controversy, have a problem to discuss, but God is making it public, he wants
the mountains and the hills to hear what’s going on. The created order is
invited to hear this controversy. God says, ““O my people, what have I done to
you? In what ways have I wearied you? Answer me! We need to talk. Here the
controversy is laid bare: the people of God, both them and us, have treated God
as if we are weary of him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We’ve all be here haven’t
we? We grow weary of those closest to us. We get . . . I don’t know, too comfortable, too familiar
and we forget basic kindnesses and respect. We need to reset ourselves, we need
to talk. That’s what’s going on here: the people of God are weary of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So God decides to remind
them of their history with him, he recounts their emancipation from slavery
under the Egyptians, about the leaders he gave them, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
God goes on to reference other wonderful acts of his presence among them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, if I were counseling
a couple I might ask one side of the couple to not bring up the past so
strongly, that it sets the other in a defensive posture and that they should
instead move forward from the present in mutuality and co-equal respect. But in
this instance, the couple is not equal. God is God, and they are not. God is
not our buddy, God is not our Jiminy Cricket conscience, God is God: the one
who gives us life, breath, and being, from whom all our works are begun,
continued, and ended. So I think we can give God a little leeway here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s actually interesting
how God reminds them of the history that they share because throughout a great
deal of the Hebrew Scriptures, it is the <i>people</i>
who are reminding <i>God</i> to remember the
covenant they have made. But he reminds them and then the voice changes, now
the people respond: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before God on high?” They have had the talk, there is clarity: God is God and
you are not. Now what? “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before God on high?” The people are wondering how to respond to the gracious
gifts that God has brought. How to respond? How to pay back a never failing
avalanche of graces? Let’s try, they say, “How about burnt offerings, how about
10,000 rams, how about tens of thousands of rivers of oil, how about my child?”
They get it now, they’ve had the talk, they want to respond to God’s love and
grace, and they are getting crazy with it. But in their craziness they realize
the extremes of grace that God has gone to, so they want to match that extreme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What comes next is, to me,
like God taking the people and saying, “Shh…shh,…you know what I want? I don’t
need all these gifts, here is what I want: I want you to do justice, and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Can you do that? That’s all I
want, I don’t need the sacrifice, I want you to do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s so simple. But
difficult. I daresay that most of us would much rather get the rivers of oil
and sacrifice the rams than do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You’ll note here a few
things. Most importantly the prophet doesn’t say, “What does the Lord request?”
It says, “require.” Relationship with God has certain requirements that are necessary
for the deepening and strengthening of that relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Next we see that God wants
us to do justice. Do justice. Not dream of justice. Not wish for justice, not
think about justice, but do justice. This is one area where I actually disagree
with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He said that “the moral arc of the
universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I’m not so sure. There is
nothing natural about justice, justice doesn’t just spring up or evolve on its
own. Justice has to be done, justice has to be done by individuals in ways both
small and large. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If you are not sure where
to start I have two suggestions. The first is to simply, and perhaps most difficult, be keenly aware of how
you might be allowing unjustice exist in your tiny realm of influence. Once the
subtle racisms and sexisms are found you can begin to undermine them, to do
justice. My other suggestion for doing justice is to think big but act small. For
example, there is a the Refugee Support Services group that meets at the
Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte that meets close to here on central
Avenue. Go, take the Refugee 101 course, it’s free and takes less than an hour.
There you will learn about the long plight of a refugee who, by the way, God
demands our care of consistently in the Scriptures. Then, of you want, through
the Refugee Support Services you can choose to befriend a refugee family. Not
to fix, not to convert, not to make like you, but to befriend, to be with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If that’s too much
involvement for you then do justice with advocacy. Did you know that North
Carolina and only one other state try 16 and 17 year olds as adults in the
court system. What kinds of decisions were you making at 16, were they adult
decisions? Friends, we need to stop thinking about justice and do justice. If
you want to know more about do justice in this area search Raise the Age NC and
you can find a petition and other resources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">God wants us to do
justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him. Loving kindness is
interesting. We are to be attracted to kindness, to love it. To be kind, not
nice, there is a difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Finally, to walk humbly
with our God. This gets to the core of our existence. To walk humbly with God
is to know that there is a God that has graced us with everything. That God is
God and that we are not. The humble bit here doesn’t get as much press in the
church as the walk humbly bit, including in this sermon. But to know God, is to
know that we are properly humble before God’s holiness and that there is no
good in us, except through God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">All of this started
because God said, “We need to talk.” And I’m glad that God did have that talk.
Whenever these hard talks occur however, when love and commitment are present,
which they always are with God, on the other side of these talks there is
deeper love and commitment as well as a renewed understanding of what the relationship
is. Our relationship with God is first and foremost a relationship, we must
never be scared away by God’s holy otherness, but that God has requirements to
do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-83872527485029693882017-01-24T09:20:00.000-05:002017-01-24T09:20:27.100-05:00Dreaming and a Dog Jesus<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for Epiphany 3A<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Matthew 4:12-23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Last night I dreamed that
all but ten of you heard this sermon. The rest of you walked out in protest.
Hopefully that won’t happen in real life. Dreams are funny, especially in the
telling, they reveal a deep truth. So perhaps I’m a little anxious about the
content of this sermon because I need to hear this one especially.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><img alt="Image result for archbishop of york" 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sNW+UdKGmCgBAFHQC0L48BjdrPKM+3t03smus47B0l0dS43uQku58ma/wiPI4+ysC9FUAc8plvy6BoFI52McZ8w8h+EaAyHAUEL8K1PdD9INBMspmGWxsLTVMs36d7Q+hibi09WRWU3BPUEbciIqSrkXHeAIPKItIJkk3kTHlc8oN5Z85Z091jEiX6obsf6J/mTrTAfukH3Whlw+rzjNbQjbQkaxWdLxH3rVChCT+cBvLJO176ofPSH7AJgMnrvb36Wj2dpfDqCFjhzH0VPr5oW3l4QHo8PnTs0+SO+p/JXy6lTe/e0vvYnmI6YkxmTUlKTduYOgBOp8bCHiglpLRVQWCgAeQH8GFYIe4202+SyaVMdrPlT3SYHlzgcmZ/Zux7T22uoBvfNt7onVWJVBCK08F0JKTUYALc6i0pgHNr+0Dcm+l4sHibCKaoGaZdJgUqs1TZ1Bvob3DC52I8rRV5lTFzpm70ssumzWF7+I3gha4FX7pbakYni05wM9VLcj70skjoR3gCRc8uZ6xCm4scgkrMnBCc4SW6sCxBB1LBl12+7yBEc6imOfKFNv3kW15c44jCZkzKFBZmOVd+8SbLvoIg2EPlSpWNsD+WMwrLLN2Lki5NzmDW7jA7sAL5raw4cKGU81pkoKA2rBFZUDknNlzG9iLHzJEdaT6OZcqX3nLvlsQLCWCeYXmd9fE6Rvwfgb05ZSNL6c9IIxpu0SN2x38k7y1uIRPpRq2SnYLzh4ZyBC1xLSLPlkML6GDoNKgJRuQb68oKy8TYC0C8WpjInOnIHu+UQfrsDulfZXtjVbMZQCpAhv4cpgsoeURsTo0ZCIm4QMqARnxCnLXyp2vxw1ordErRoxjzPHNng6yV5MMRZu0SJjRDnmPLyA4sNDCNPWzHzh5xI6GEWuezNApUZieOAVuCTDfWaQucHycspSOYEMomBtDD7PCEq47qC86Er6Rag/V3t0/Aw/PTjlCB9I9ORJbQ7fgYseFaLxhUU+5gvwxghqpuS9gN7bwJcamGT6P67s6tRfRtPUawIKHclWfgn0dyZdmy3YWIJ1N4VeOOEfqlStSrgy5pdcp9pXKluliNDrvrFx0czMgPhCb9LKL9Xk3F/yum4t3Gvt6e6LO4VW8qr5WILLsSMx6RJXjGVsZZEBHacW7qy7dSsux9WUmIc1prAsZcoEfZySybczcDT3wvpTBcQmSdjysAVuDGy8RS19sH03hYoqQub2ZLmwCpcbHmzix0Omu0cainyk90vY2NwUtbwVjf3xGndT2mybX4op20ymNZtTLdcyaeHSFOVNAFzJTnbSbckcvb08yI7mpCtZpeW9r2LHTyJIMWpV1Iqs+56jUEefnErCOKZlBMMonPIfYHdL9P3QPUrrlJN+ZUL62zE+nxiFioGfORn9kak6a628flEEAiiq+dhXpwlLE4Gp2DDKg/oi3e9YaC2Ubwj4fjyy0VF0VQAB0AGkSZuPZoZjAa0BUI3W/FuJ2RrHlEXhHBVnSQzzcrNrfmQQbm53tpt18IC4+4ZTrccx18IJUnFE+SqhOwRRr7N8wyBQCVFyoYZuWhHS0Bfs6yne1BxhEBvdkpnncLybEmeNdATaw3s3n/HKIknCkkVCETVe2chRYnQaEkabk6eEBjxpVrb8vJsobMLDvWJvm07u2lso2veIdVxq8wpnlpnzALMl/atobgHVT/vtEEgpQbFP1LjYZihB0gkjrvCCtUWmgr6wy9uQOcMNRJw0EFqMTnBEKeOV3ZgxLmYkRCtxTXhlIi3CXCq7i6pM2dmA0Fx56wCEgnlDDPl5jtG0uj02gBNm0fTSuerrmZlCtudffDbRy7IIoTCuI5iTFaYSwU+sWzhXGciYoAYXhRkZZepPyvE8bWRDfzTQI5sY4Sq9CNxG6zAdoJaQcxzeQsmnSODjSOsyNQNI8oS5iWxhExX2mh+xoWvFfYue8YHKiRqy+A6tXkKL7C0MUyl5iKm4NxEy20PpFmUuNIw3hyJ2poS8jaKKU6W3iDj2HibLK25Rj4zLXmIiT8fQjQ3gnmqj0VK4zwBO7VymULe4FjCr9XmU1QgYWZWB8xe2nxi+J2KgtlC3vETE+CpdQM80Xbl4RXunhHfBIxoc4co/wvUZ5K68hCl9LmID8jIG+sw+H2FHxMGcJpzTLkuSBtFacb15m1s176DujyUfvheWahSvHBva1bCJc1AXcj5e8cvSICYZRrMEtHM2aT3VCudtftAKOupgZUYmwFrnwjMOw9zmmZmVzoCNxfkIgFeICccI4fAczHIB2APIem5/fAPG8MyzS+pUgliBe1udhqfSAdX9ZlnKSX8b2PrG1JX1vsA2U8ib2vHqPKsXNIpTxhocXp5yN/QJv7gRcR4aCblImAeAA0geqtJb5+cEf/HCVsY9aoGhR5gAIA0gcC+Uq98ofN4e1c2iXIfM1ztfW+0dq/Myg6Bb6ACwH7+fuiC6kbHh7WQNC3TiAjnGs3iZusAaxNYjhIK0khCyQGSFoRqo4mmkWhr4KwcvL7SoqpcqW651UpMmEC5A0WwGxOjXA3tFfBIceDqppaMbBtHQZlV7A2NgHUje52iTwgNKsGrqKWYuX65KFxbKUnsNQPvN3beu0BZsqVJUujynUWOZNPavbQgdOXURkmfMaxLkgXBUrLy20uMuW3TlyhI40qT9YdFAAAW9gB3mGYmygAbgadBEeam6CfMB4glMb3GhhhfiFDsY+fZbsp0JgrR4pNHMmCdpQVo43SmgreqMVXe8LdViaTGIuLjeEqoxiYRa5EQJc1gbgm8DdPfCcjwiPEjmJV6JMIFrRqmNLCtWuSdTEfMesSN0tKdLyAnWbIKsVYWINiDvE7BZpV/CLW+kThNZqNOli0wXOnPqDFRyjlPQg6xZ7bFKuJOYZmvHkU+084m1idfH0izsGocspb6m0VNgE7M8sf0h84uim9kQGILd64+gwDg7obUpYxzETaxLiB4aPPbRXPgoLj6d0mK3xg96LQxhbofKKwxmScxgMnCMzlQKSr7NxroYesNmllBvFXYs1lPlHbh3iuZLsjd4cjzg0BpqpINTqCtdqgbER6LAEwrS+K5drmIVfxYLG0H1hQYntO4TZgUwNOJPpBjHMcyd0aRUPD3ExFSVJ0bXyMNPEFaGQNeK13dkWacyuF+WycErEdCSeRPwiqK1MzMx3Yk++JlDjJYMobYG/wAo4UlFNqH7KShdufQDqzbARmZN6gnIA0tJKXFl62PI/KJf1ipawlJkU/a09PECCnEuANTTOzYgsAuYi9u8Lqwvr1F/CIYnsFABII2P4HqIca4EWkyN9lIr8OrZaplmCdmOtl1TxJYbRwxJKimPfVJy82l62Fr8hp01iPN4inruoPkSI4DGJrb2Ue+LKpI8lwqq9JgO400uCIgnQxPrakEDTbmd4gylLH5mPKNyp1PLFtr84nMl5Z8CD+H4xHpVudATy0H8dPhE5BcMuxsdD5f8QnM7vhaeC0tGv1S1W+1HACO9Se9HMCNBnCy8l1yuPqtlEO/A6d1fFnHwEJIh84GHdTzb9mJdwgjlNeDqGDqdiLH/AKsoxVfFY/lc7zX/AE0i2MDlgsehG395KvFU8Tj+VTv0h+osUHKkoKVgjQJpEIiCGG7REvhWl0k1kgLjWSrREEF6xNIDTTa8AbutnNb2b7UGoOsco3c6x5aGhwuXe63Er7QmpcEHYxSH0hYL9XqC4HdmfrReE8wnfSThvbUjMB3lGYeYg1bIBSDwOc0+WPH5ReknRRFE/RlrVDwB+NovQbCBMbV+6086ftGR+jV7MFxAKsUo0Gy3KI2IU+ZbxZ7bCzwd0CrdVMV3jHtGLGcaERXnEqZXPjCUg2TLOUkY+dDAbD1uYLcQHSOPDuHvOYJLUsx+A6k8h4xYGo0xisDsgXwF1pKCZOcS5YJY+4DmSeQh1nfR/LMgrnczrXz30v0ybZfjDHwvw48hSGEvXci5cnqTsB4eEEnmFTlOvgYRfK8HbZbUkkcriGUaVBVOC1EmblyMXucuQM2ax5WFz+EEfqGIzBlFNUn+5m/MrYR9GcNYipHZ+yeXiOYBg+TGpE8PaCubnj7OQtpfPX0dcFTJ0x87WSwDkDa5ByrfdiB5Adbxc2D4NJp07OSgRefMserMdWMSaDDZchCkoWUszerG5/AeQEd2ew+EITuDnko5cDswUFVH0uqROlzFsSZZBH3lVjcf5oQDWqRnXUHccwfH98WD9LEy31d/F09CA37I90VZWywSWQ2PwPmIZxhqiBRnwWwOauszFm5beOo+MaCuB3Av1/4gdNLoAXQ5Ts1iFPkdjHBqu+wg1JAuKJVNQDHGU2lh6xCTM2oF/l5RPp0C6tby/efwETptEY1z+FY/AuHLMw+s7oL91h4dmhdLe9vfEn6hLmqCw71hqNx+/aOv0TTv5NVO339fACVt7jEigUBdPTyjFyiRKaXQdPaNLm+SrrHOFZ8ollHaS97ruB4rv6wAtF6UktS4DNlFxcm+3PbnAzjLgekqXadTTkkTWJLLlYynPWyi6N4i48I0MXI1t75GyyuoYfZyflgm/ThVCoiwOB17kvrd/wBmEnEcOmSGyzUKnWx3VvFW5j+NIfeB5f5OUeV2+Nv3Q3YLbCzS0tNFM2E6Zv0R+tJ/dFT8Tj+VTv0v2Vi2MHN8w8P20ip+J/51O/S/ZEQOVBQoxNw46xDtEqhGsekFtTeA7TkNPqpdVtACq5wwVW0LlY2sLR8roeruptqKY8j0R7Da5NfZT7xxr6cPLZTzEdJr96OwEFQ1TnANEZNfOlkeybDyJuPwi5JLaRX5lKuJvl3KC/vMPEs6AR4BFebA9l3TrHdR3THNRpaOjNYRBVAlyoHeaETjOVY38Yeqv2zAbF8LE42Y2Xn1PgOnnCMzg0ElMxNLiAFV9Jw3NrpmRbrLB/KTLaKOYF928PfFoYJhEmlQS5KW11J1LaWzMdz/ABaN1loiCXLUKo2A28/PxjGHK8Z753uFDZakeGOSeVOapOthpsOVtN/+YGTwWNze/Q+WovG/rGjDS0AfrdyUzFCIzYUZJxU3va2x5gjaHTB8VE1NT3wO8OviPCFBpPhGkhmlMGXcfHwg0MzoyVbKxmTt9QnmYxMRJxJiE3EVOqgvMVTa5GpYegBMDKvjKmBsvaOeip/+iIYbjTSDU1ppYhe1h0uO6WfpglfySW33Zwv5Mrr+IioXmddYuXH8Q+uSux+pVDKSDcd03U3H2CIU5nAUxh3aScL82moLHyssaGPA+JlPIHyP5RRlsDa3PwUU4YlhqKVfW63I89YxcGkZs3Yyr9ci399oFUPCtTTjuzVlDo1SAo/sr3fhHc0k/Zq+mXxWZmPwSL6W3s4fFn7BIOJ5pC+P6pbS5KkAg5yOQFrD5mE1pg8/l/vD43DNM7Z3rUmG2pEubMP62giZO4WpVp3nyXE3IVGsrKLkj7wvsYK0MJDb864Pn7hHZOGNqv8AIXvBFR2FCUZwWqs7qtxmWzLLNxvYrr5qesH6YAADpCTV4esuZKmyVHbPLVygW18psxGltcrXAIOsPNIhKKSuUkC46EjUekYefDolO63ulSaojtyu9o6prGqCOsJgJ9xXGoo0mLldVZejC4iLTYekjKssWW+gve3lEmtr0lGzXL8pa6uembkg8W9AYh0tQ8xlLhVAIsi62Jvcl9Cx9w8I1MXGn09pVNWHn5WOfy+XfZdcEv376af9yV++Kq4mb+VTv0/2RFq4VN9skaBf+5JiquJB/Kp36X7IhxvKxihgiRSnWOFo2kHvRZw2RIDUjT6qdVPpC9U6mD9QukL9RuYBEN1u9XcdAXIiMEZGQwudX2Ow7x84kMbLfwiP9r1jnjFRkks3QGCqiQMOn9ric48lAX4mLElEAXisvo5cO82ad3dj6X0izpcktrHm8JiYUQPQLeXPvESqqyTYRM7I+kBeKsal0dNMnG1wLIOrkGw/jpHiQN0ECzSj4jOCk3NiN/CFmp4qpFYiZVyBblnVvQ9ne3wil+IuIqiqZu1mEi98g0QenPzMT+HuGc6rNmeyy3QdRcgE+djCjMF2TJuU0MvsG90fKtaVxRRNtV0/rMC/6loKSJmcZk74+8lnHvS4+MVamBITYIIlHhiWtmUFG6oSpB15rYw27oB/4uUt604chWUswbaeOvzj3NCDI+vSyMlSzgbLOVZo8rsM3uaDVHi1SNZshH8ZTlD/ANOYGB/xCEZOi5LOBfsnI+rwO8WyZmAjRlgSnEEofne0k/1kskf4pRce+0E5E9XUOjK6HZkYMvvU6eR1jPlx5YvG0hPRZUUngcCgeLoBNQ9bX9CDBXGsYqEqXlS3yoLE2CAjMoN8xFzrAjiY2KN5j/K0MWJ0aK82sKdqyqmRLXCnKPyj+HP0PptY8jTBHrF7OA97FLE6jE7tnhpq6N/CDCVXTAxVqiYD7JziWpFvaHeXONdCNPGNUkSaZ5aVF585rZy7Fkkhtu6dGOYjU8rnTQERiWKT5xLPMY35AkKOeig/7wy09OsynktNRGHZi7OAtrEqCZmh1CjnBsqI47AZeCapvPGyUxW6iQ07/V3p9l0E11YlprBFuWUS5SqoW+bUhiRpAGnWnqQ8zL9VZLlnRWaUVzbMALZttNDrzhkcSyhY5CnZhjdXYFFI1IPePsg7G4F4H4m6zKaaJcyW/cFlRgLWYEhZehGgvoBGViPJNFpvUBqGwA9R6+q0MiJlbEVV1zaF0+H0ky6S6pGZtleVkVieQ0G/qekeU1G6U9ZJmLkYKj2FyLBm1UnddN/ltA3DMBnzTZZbAc2cFUA5kkixA6CGyVWJMlTadG7Xs5DgzT9siwsOqi+/gN9zsTM7E0x2oWCfSiN9llxMbZNUfvt9EqSz+VpbqPzUwZrm+k1rC17WF77AwzosLaC7UZHMz008DKcf6kFsRxZJRKIBNmjQoG7ss/8AyMOf9Aa9bRmdQx3y5hYwWf8A1dFgZUcGEHPNblT5jBQWJAVfaYkAAdSeX4+MC6jFnbuySUX/ANwizt1yKfzY/pHvfowPEyZMIM5s1tlACop/opyPibnxjpeNfB6KyLvzbn6eQ/lY+d1eSbux7D/JXsmUFGg8TzJPUncnfeCFCO9fxH4mBvaRPwxrnbmvpbNr8I0c7bHcPb7rNxv1B8/Zd8NAyzbfd+U2VCdx9hAyy6pBa4yTbc2TZvPIyeeUw4Yf+ameX/dlxHqpiGmqBMF1TK9vM5G08mHuEYuNEHuIP+3sm5H6VUEbyRqIlYtQiU3dOaW2qN4fdPiIiSm1EUlYWWCjQOBe0+qLlbiFqvWzGGS+kL2J+1CkXK6Xq7fyGn2UOMEYYyGVzC+yLd6AvGcmbNpnSX7RUj4QQWosST4wTkKGW55wU7KgFqrPoywiYgbMCLG1j4Wi0EmMotaN0komwtHjVEVaKFI08vaP1LV2LDpFC/TXjfaVQpkPckjva7zH1PuGnvi7qiazaAR8y8Ry3mVU1m9p5rb9SxG0VksUB5qjRaCy6QtkA3dgB77Xi2FpQtLT5RoqmUxH3kN9fEhwfQws4Lh47UtylgS087d4+75w7YcFMmcp1y5JoF9bhshPuce6NqGDsQHe3+dklLJqNKPSybeZ1Me3v8vxjs+x6n5RHkc40Uqu8sR3HhGksRFxavEpTbTxiCvVa7VbLf8ACBD02Vu1kO0mb95NMw5B1PdceDAiA8ireY5OYkXgzJv16RQtbI2nCwiC2HYrtV4i81Qs5FWYrDvLoswG4LWPsNrttzFoZ66teVPlOrZc0iXyzK39Flv8d4BrLHYMSASZssDwKpMZj7mX3iC83HKRllF5Du6KEBzhT3RYkBTc8+UZD8ZsezG223bbeYH1Tj5nzN7zt6G/915VTKZixejBcans5rSwb88o28jrG31eTWdmJcwyill7F2JsoFj2RbQm3+9o5JiEoHNLw5j4s8xvX2DHT/xJuWHyVHK8pj68rwANkA2sEcW4fYk/yvRkgU838FGjIm57imKqtgC06WAFXQDKoOluUBZsynpGcyWWZPYkIAQyyAdxm+0fibC9heMbHai1hKkKOmVQNP0ntEduIKuxytLTmSokWtrc3ueVoXhxnMJsto8gO59+Uw+bVV3txtwsapqZxAZpk0W1sh7PN5S1Ga3Vr+kT+G8KqBOmGdLYK0tkDctStu6TcbE7fvgBiXFM5TaZVhL7ANYkf3KmB+I4m6LmmPNcHoHfoRo7LvcQbSNJbqaL+gJ/hLMjp2s2T60ptCi5ZCuSv5dpdwWVl7aUFBUjQayrakb6QPp6cIuUDY2N973NyfG8QW4klshl9lMylg+ZgVZWUMFyrLzX9o7nkII4jiAK/Wgp7JwDMKi4lOT3g4GwLXIbbW2+kPY88Xbudfi/ZRKx+gCuF2cc9o0BjWixaVM0zKfLeJ31dG9hvQxqg3wkuOVKwmuCAqAMzG9zbUdNY70pXtGC2GYXIGwIOtvX5wsY5mlpfUEG1/P/AIj3h6qmsHmgAZJRF20UknMAvVjY/COZzC+PIeL2K3IGsfA01umyiVAj5msCLeZzq2g/swLrHRZc8Eg55ZXTkcysL3/RhPp+I6hgwlSzMAF81tB67X8N4B1eI1Lv+UzqAdiCBAo5nMNhUfECKUqQe0DSG5m6How29Dt6wHQWax3vr59II16FGEwHofHWMxST30mj2Zgv5MLZvfvGjlt1s7Qf6CgQGpAPVd0GkAsXXWDy+zAjGF0vGJGe8u16nHqxb9Ag0bgRpEqRKuIaXHL6xrNm9YK4f+bHlGRkEcqt4XtTHKXGRkSOF4rqsfL9b/Pz/XP+s0ZGRX/sZ7qw8LkzYLt/bb5mGDB/aqP6g/6kqMjI6OT9L+33WaPEu8/eI0vf1jIyDDhBCnyecJ3Ge3rHkZFHcFWZ4lGwH2fWD0uPYyLR+FXk5RCd/NU/+y3+ikF8M9k/oj8YyMjnOoeJ3uU/j8D2QDFvzyfpfiI3wj26n9B/1jGRkZ0P7osvKhcFf+Xj+smfJ4sSV/5X/cL8xGRkNLx5KS+Pv53J/q/waGPGfzcv9OX+xGRkSOF4+SX6PYxH4d9ud/V1H6kZGRjY/wCqnZP01VFF7XqPnFi4b9mMjI7rE4XPzcIhjX5k+kCP/TzvJfkYyMjD6r/UfAWrgfo/JRKj/Mj+rHyEDpvtHyMZGQieEcpW4l3X0jyf/NZP6f4GMjI2m/0x9lns/WHuukv2YE4vtGRkYDPEu+zv6T4QMQUoPZ9YyMhwLhl//9k=" /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Anyway, in my dream the Archbishop of York,
John Sentamu, and other dignitaries were there, as were a few of my seminary classmates,
and since I don’t see any of them here, I think we are safe. The funny thing in
the dream was that you all came back for the Creed, so you were definitely
protesting the sermon, but you were committed to Trinitarian Christianity, so
that’s good. That’s the thing about my dreams in particular, they are strange,
but perfectly reasonable. There are no unicorns or hobbits in my dreams,
everything really could happen. My wife finds this to be rather boring: my
dreams are just reality, but slanted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Come to think of it, that
is what Jesus was after: a slanted reality. A reality where everything is the
same, but everything is different, where somehow the lighting has changed so
that we see more of reality. It’s in this slanted reality and his invitation to
it that we catch up to him today in our gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus begins his ministry
because of the arrest of John the Baptist. There is continuity in the two
ministries of John and Jesus,but they are not the same: John was preaching the
repentance of sins, Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. Today we see
that Jesus begins calling disciples. There is a word in these accounts of Jesus
calling his followers that always interests me that word is, “immediately.”
“Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Immediate. There is no
waiting. There is no preparation. There is no, “waiting for the right time,” or
the right season of life. They follow him immediately. Following Jesus is a
right-here, right-now occasion. None of us can ever be prepared for following
Jesus: it’s not that kind of thing. You get prepared for following Jesus by <b><i>following
Jesus.</i></b> I want to say to anyone who is thinking about going deeper in
their spiritual lives, or committing to an outreach mission, <i>just do it</i>, follow Jesus immediately,
come with us, we don’t know exactly what’s going on either, but Jesus is
leading us into some interesting territory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Immediately they left
their nets and followed him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, we Christians believe
that Jesus is the perfect icon, the most-full manifestation, of the God of love
that the world has ever encountered.
When Jesus leads us, he leads us onto more and more profound avenues of
love. That is the way of Jesus, as a spiritual and <i>political</i> path. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, don’t get antsy, I
can’t have you walking out on me, I know you won’t, because the part where you
leave, isn’t this part, it’s in a minute. Anyway, the way of Jesus is the way
of love, as a spiritual and political path. By <i>politics</i> I mean any public act, yes it can be voting and advocacy
but it also means how you buy, sell, work, parent, be a friend, or talk to any
of your neighbors. The way of Jesus is the way of love. When we follow Jesus we
are lead more and more into love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So, my questions for you
today is: how is that going? This is the part of the sermon where you walk out.
Is your love for others <i>total</i> or have
you left a few people out? Have you followed Jesus into <i>every</i> avenue of your life or is there one person that you have
walled off from Jesus’ leading? You see we can do that, even though we follow
Jesus, we can still direct him. Jesus is so non-violent that he will <i>allow</i> us to forbid him to go into
certain areas of our lives. It’s as if we say, “Yes Jesus I will follow you but
not over here, or over there, and that place over there, you can go there in a
year.” Do you see what I am saying?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Where have you walled off
Jesus’ way of love in your life? Is it in your family’s past? Perhaps your
college roommate. Maybe you have walled off Jesus’ leading in how you make a
living or in your sex life. Maybe you have refused to love the mayor, our our
governor, or our president. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You see, when we remove
even one person from our love, from Jesus’ guidance, we are showing that our
following of Jesus into love is not complete. As one of my spiritual mothers
says, “When we leave one person out of our love, or commit one act of
un-kindness, we are revealing that our <i>so-called</i>
love is only there <b>because it pays</b>.<a href="file:///C:/Users/jbowron/Desktop/sermons%202017/Sermon%20for%20Epiphany%203A.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“We are revealing that our
so-called love is only there because it pays.” We are admitting that since
there is even one that is walled off from Jesus’ leading that we aren’t
following him at all, <b><i>we are in fact leading him</i></b>. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">We are
treating Jesus not as our lord but as a dog that is leashed. Yes, he walks
ahead of us, but we are the ones who are leading. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<img alt="Image result for dog on a leash" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSiQqAusHnqANJ8Z00Zr1MuoVzEq9UvWhc6OwdnqU8I-Em-yiKUJw" /> (All Gods must be kept on a leash)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Oh Jesus I love that you are
leading me, No! Not there! Bad Jesus, let’s not walk over there. Good Jesus, we
don’t walk over there, that area, that person is undeserving of my love.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“When we leave one person
out of our love, or commit one act of un-kindness, we are revealing that our
so-called love is only there because it pays.” That one person that you don’t
love, it shows that the entire system, your entire well-meaning-ness is really
just a cottage industry of quid-pro-quo of affection and respect based on the
condition of pleasing you. Jesus wants to trample that old system and set up a
new one of unconditioned love, and he has empowered you to do it too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, when we found that we
have not been following Jesus into certain places and relationships, we are not
lost or even bad, but we have the opportunity to, just as those first disciples
did, to <i>immediately</i> follow Jesus into
all of life. Immediately, not later, not soon, not once we have a moment to
deal, immediately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Love does not mean
approval by the way. We seem to have forgotten that. Love does not mean
approval. We can love, we can be lead into love by Jesus, even though we might
be actively opposing a given person or policy. We are called to follow the lord
of love more deeply into love. We can pray for those we love, and we can
actively oppose them, that is possible. But what I expect from all of you is
love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I implore you, please,
please allow Jesus the Lord of Love to lead you into every corner of your
lives. Let him illuminate all the darkness that you don’t let love into. If you
allow him in, he will transform you. Even those you do not like and who are
evil, you can love and fight even more, <b><i>but you will love them</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You’re still here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Must have just been a
dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m glad. I’m glad you are
here. In fact, I hope you believe me when I say, I love you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/jbowron/Desktop/sermons%202017/Sermon%20for%20Epiphany%203A.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Ruth Burrows OCD, TO Believe in Jesus, 523<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-89098951975497677932016-10-31T11:03:00.000-04:002016-10-31T11:03:52.846-04:00A wee little man in the present tense<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for Proper 26 C<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Luke 19:1-10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I have mentioned in the
past about the childhood Bible that I had, its images still figure prominently
on the landscape of my spirit. I can still vividly recall the image of the
chief tax collector Zacchaeus up in the tree, the illumined face of Jesus
up-turned to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Today’s Gospel story is
very familiar and it is featured in every children’s bible or comic gospel I’ve
ever seen. I suppose that’s because children like climbing trees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The way that we usually
read this story is that Jesus invites himself to sit with Zacchaeus and the
mere invitation and meal is enough for Zacchaeus to turn over a new leaf and
give half his possessions to the poor and plan to give back four times what he
may have cheated out of people. This reading makes sense to us because it fits
our normal understanding of how God works in our lives, we confess our evil,
repent, and then are forgiven. Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to
this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek
out and to save the lost." Cause and effect. It makes a whole lot of
sense: Zacchaeus, that short man in both stature and social standing, is a
sinner in need of repentance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Zacchaeus is a chief tax
collector. As we know the tax collectors worked for the empire and could add a
little to the bill for their own payment. They were especially hated by the
natives probably because the tax collectors themselves were natives. It’s one
thing to be the occupying empire, it is quite another to collaborate with them.
In the first century the people commonly referred to the tax collectors as
sinners, <i>as a group</i>, because for them
the activity of collecting taxes was especially heinous; it was a sin against
God and neighbor to do what they were doing and they became rich from it. Tax
collectors were sinners because their livelihood was enmeshed with their sinful
actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The usual reading of this
passage has Jesus, the forgiver, walking into a sinful life in order to redeem
it. I like that reading because it makes sense to me, I have lived that life. I
have found myself to be living out of right relationship with God or my
neighbor, or even myself, I have confessed and I have felt God’s forgiving
love. Haven’t you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But I don’t think that is
what’s going on in the story. And the reason I don’t think so is, unfortunately,
for grammatical reasons. I’ll get to that in a minute, first let’s look again
at the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The passage says that
Zacchaeus is short, but the Greek word there (<i>elikia</i>) could mean short in stature, age or time of life, or even
maturity. So Zacchaeus could just be young, or maybe he’s grown-up, yet
immature! Maybe that’s why this rich, up and coming tax collector, who manages
a bunch of other tax collectors sees nothing at all wrong with climbing a tree:
he’s young at heart and just doesn’t care what people think. When my kids climb
trees they certainly aren’t worried what people will think, they climb trees because
they want to!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So Jesus spots him, <i>Jesus looks up to the see the small Zacchaeus</i>.
Jesus is able to spot Zacchaeus because Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. It seems
that this is the first lesson of this passage; Jesus will always find those who
seek him. If you want to find Jesus, you <b><i>will</i></b> find him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Anyway, Zacchaeus accepts
Jesus’ invitation to invite Jesus over for dinner and as soon as they get
inside, once they get through the crowd that is scandalized that Jesus is
eating with such a sinner, Zacchaeus announces that he will give half of his
things to the poor and he will pay back four times as much to anyone he may
have cheated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Except that’s not what Zacchaeus
says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I know that what the text
says, but that’s not what it says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You see, as part of my weekly
discipline, to actually pray with the
scripture, I have to force myself to read slowly, and the best way that I have
found to do that is to read it in Greek, and because my Greek is not nearly as good as it
used to be; I have to look words up. So to read and understand these ten verses
it might take me a half hour of slow, plodding, yet revealing effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What I found was that Zacchaeus
doesn’t say that he will give half of his possessions to the poor and that he
will pay back those who he has cheated, instead what he says is that he <b><i>gives</i></b>
half of his things to the poor, he <b><i>pays</i></b> back anyone he has cheated. It’s
all in the present tense. In fact in the grammatical structure of Greek what
Zacchaeus says is called the iterative-present, he has been doing those things
in the past and he is doing them in the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In the version of the
Bible that we almost always use in this church, the New Revised Standard
Version, the translators have decided to place Zacchaeus’ statement to Jesus in
the future tense, he <b><i>will</i></b> do these things. The
implication is that because of his encounter with Jesus he will change his
ways. He is having his Ebenezer Scrooge moment, he <b><i>will</i></b> change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The notion of whether Zacchaeus
is <i>doing</i> the good deeds in the
present or <i>will</i> in the future, to me
is crucial. Once I discovered that the Greek used the present tense, I did a
quick online search and found that 6 out of the 24 most used translations of
the Bible in English use the future tense, and the remaining 18 use the present
tense. Zacchaeus says, “Lord I <i>give</i>
half my possessions to the poor, and if I find that I have cheated anyone, I <i>pay</i> them back four times as much.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Who cares? Why does all
this matter? Why does all this comparison and grammatical rigmarole matter?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It matters because if Zacchaeus
has this encounter with Jesus and then promises amendment of life, well that’s
actually a really good thing. But if we see that Zacchaeus has been giving to
the poor and making right with those he may have accidently cheated all along,
well that’s a whole other kettle of fish. If we hear the past and present
activity of this sinner, this person who the entire community reviles, if we
see that he is in fact more than simply just, that he is living a
salvation-life, well then we have a problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You see, when we read
Zacchaeus as promising some future event, then when Jesus’ statement that “Today
salvation has come to this house,” we read that as centered on Jesus only. Now,
that’s not bad, and I’m no heretic, as you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of
Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But when we read the
Zacchaeus has been just and giving all along, we find that Jesus is in a place
of discovery, he exclaims, perhaps loud enough for those who are outside and
wouldn’t be caught dead with someone like Zacchaeus, “Wow! Salvation has come
to this house! Here is a son of Abraham!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Indeed the Son of Man came
to seek and save the lost, but Zacchaeus’ lost-ness has more to do with the
fact that his community and the system in which they are forced to live has
made them all take up sides. In Jericho the people could not even conceive of a
situation whereby a chief tax collector could be anything other than a sinner,
a traitor, and a collaborator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Most of us who know this
story from of old might think of Zacchaeus as a sniveling little miser who
finally got right with God. But the story actually shows this very righteous,
good person who is also very hated by his community. Jesus then is the
bystander in the story who recognizes the wonder that God has been at work even
in the evil system of taxes, military occupation, social stratification, and
judgement. Jesus is there to recognize and declare that salvation is there,
that God seeks people through whatever boundaries a society has set up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus then is the one who
accepts the invitation to witness to God’s work in the most intractable, divisive
situations. And since that’s what Jesus does, then you can bet that that is
precisely what we are meant to seek: God working in unlikely places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, if only we were, I
don’t know, engaged in a sharply divided political landscape. If only we had an
economic situation that pits us against them, where we judge each other
harshly. If only we had a system in our city whereby we demonize certain groups
with zero sense of history or even common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s simple folks: Who is
your enemy? Who is the one that you know is sinful? I’ll give you a sec to
figure that out. Who is sinful, who, in your mind, is clearly working against
the purposes of God? Now, invite yourself over to their house. I can guarantee
that God is up to something in that person’s life, and you will get the joy of
discovering it just as Jesus did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus knew exactly who and
what Zacchaeus was: a rich, chief tax collector. He had every right to dismiss Zacchaeus
as less-than. But he decided to see what Zacchaeus was all about, and he
discovered that God was already at work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Are you brave enough to be
like Jesus, to be willing to enter the life of the one our community knows is
oh so very sinful? Are you brave enough to listen for God even in dark corners?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Don’t be surprised by the
way if you find that someone else thinks you’re the sinful one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You don’t have to actually
go over to their house, but you might. Enter their lives, see what they are
about, above all listen. Look for God, and just as Zacchaeus looked for Jesus
and found him, you too will find God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Y’all we need this right
now. We need this. Our community is hurting just as much as Jericho was hurting
2000 years ago. The election is not going to fix our problems either, in fact I
think it will make things worse. The only thing that can heal our community is
if there are a great many sinners going out and looking for Jesus, looking for
God at work in each other’s lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-9570456138932192942016-10-18T23:01:00.000-04:002016-10-18T23:01:07.001-04:00Temptation, Revelation, Anger: an Installation Sermon for Rev. Suz Cate and Holy Trinity, Clemson<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Feast of St. Luke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I just got back from a
week at the beach. It wasn’t all fun and games, it was actually a little
soul-wrenching and head-checking because I was there for the Credo Conference.
Credo is a ministry of the Episcopal Church, namely the Church Pension group.
The idea of Credo is to assess the health and vitality of your life in the
areas of spirituality, mental and physical health, vocation, and financial. I
was there with 22 complete strangers, all of whom are now friends. We came from
all over the church with all kinds of interesting and creative ministries. I’m
happy to report that the Episcopal Church cares very much for her priests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You see, being ordained,
being a deacon or a priest, or a bishop, is strange work. It is so integrated
that sometimes us collared folk lose sight of where we end and the church
begins. It’s tough work. Like the bishop says in <i>Les Misarable</i>, the novel, which is actually a wonderful piece of
Christian literature, he says, “Just as the coal miner emerges from the mine
covered in the soot and grime of his work so too does the priest.” This happens
to everyone of course, but priests get an especially high dose of the highs and
lows of human experience, and it can be jarring spiritually, emotionally, and
physically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So this Credo conference
is all about best practices for living a healthy life <i>and</i> they offer desert at every meal and late night snacks. I
actually think that the folks who run Credo just put this stuff out and when
they clean up they take note of what is left to gauge whether we are all
listening to the health recommendations. On one of the final nights I was
staying up late with several of my new friends playing a game. As we played we
were all in close proximity of a tray of cookies. Now, I’m no bastion of
self-control obviously, in fact I had had two cookies already, but as the game
went on the chocolate and toffee in these cookies were assaulting me. Others
made mention of the wonderful cookies. Finally, I reached over, grabbed the
tray, and offered them to everyone. One person said, “No! Get behind me Satan!
I a planned the work and I’m working the plan! No thank you!” Others chimed in
too that they were trying to be healthier. Encouraged by their self-control, I
abstained and the desire for cookie goodness evaporated. It passed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Temptation. It’s tough.
But having others around to help you through it, that’s the key. Have you had
that, have you had a moment of temptation and then just the smallest of nudges
from someone else brought you on the right path immediately? Perhaps for you it
was a time that you were about to bad-mouth someone and throw them under the
bus and then the person you were with said something good about the one you
were about to malign; and you stood down. Perhaps you were about to break your
sobriety but chose a meeting instead. Maybe you were tempted to cheat at school
but decided to just do your best and let the chips fall where they may.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I’m talking about this
because today’s gospel reading, chosen for the feast of St. Luke could not be
better for this occasion, and it has something to do with temptation. It’s the
story of Jesus going home to Nazareth and reading in the synagogue. He reads
this passage from Isaiah. “The spirit is upon me because the Lord has anointed
me to preach good news to the poor, release to the prisoners, give sight to the
blind, liberate the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then
Jesus says, “This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He is saying
that what Isaiah was talking about 250 or more years before Jesus was born is
happening right then and there in that synagogue and it is centered on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And for us, since it is
centered on Jesus, that means through our baptisms that this activity, these
reversals: sight to the blind, freedom to prisoners and oppressed, and good
news to the poor, since we are baptized into Jesus, this is our life and work
too. Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Israel, he <b><i>is</i></b>
the Year of the Lord’s favor he is the release to prisoners and he is the sight
of the blind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That’s us, that’s our
work. And on this occasion tonight, where we celebrate the beginning of a new
relationship between a priest and a parish, I cannot think of a better choice
of a person to continue to lead you into the work and life of Jesus. Suz, who I
have known for about 8 years, is a person who walks closely with Jesus taking
her cues from him and not much else. This is who the church needs, a person
dedicated to Jesus Christ to the exclusion of all. That doesn’t mean she won’t
care for you and the various ministries of this parish, it actually means that
she will love you and the ministries of the parish more deeply than she could
have on her own. But it also means that with her powerful commitment to Jesus
she will sometimes be critical of the activities of this parish. She will ask
good questions. She will call attention to every elephant that a room can hold.
And it will be uncomfortable. But it’s good because she is, in her questions
and her leading, bringing you closer to Jesus who brings good news to the poor
and release to the oppressed, and then you will do that work too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Which brings me back to
the temptation. You see, this passage where Jesus asserts that God’s way of
doing things has been most revealed in him comes right after Jesus’ time in the
desert, where he is tempted by the Devil. So this great revelation, this
wonderful expression of what we are about, about our work and mission comes
right after temptation. Now, what <i>follows</i>
tonight’s passage is a scene where Jesus criticizes some of those in the
synagogue and they get angry, real angry, like
run-out-of-town-on-a-rail-and-they-tried-to-throw-him-off-a-cliff angry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Revelation of God and the
purpose of our life and work sits right between temptation and anger. <i>It’s a narrow way too.</i> In Luke there is
more room and real estate given to the temptation story and the part about
Jesus making everyone mad than to this great proclamation that God has come
powerfully in Jesus. The work we do and the abiding presence of Jesus sits
cozily between temptation and anger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here’s what I mean: I will
now talk just to this congregation. Suz, plug your ears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Friends. She’s the real
deal. That’s really good. But it will sometimes get on your nerves. She will
poke you where it hurts, where you are tender. She will be looking for Jesus in
the most unlikely places and you need to join her in this. But sometimes you
will be tempted to hold on to your pet project, your little fiefdom. Don’t fall
into that temptation. Sometimes you will though, and you’ll go right from
temptation into full on anger because this Jesus is threatening the way things
have always been done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, Suz. I want to talk
to just Suz, so you all plug your ears. These folks are the real deal. And
that’s really good. But it will sometimes get on your nerves. They will squeal
when you poke them where it is tender. But they will also show you where Jesus
is in this place and in this city. But sometimes you will be tempted to start
your own pet project, or not listen very deeply. Don’t fall into that
temptation. But sometimes you will, you’ll go from temptation into full on
anger because Jesus is threatening the way <b><i>you think</i></b> things ought to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ok, ears unplugged. I said
ears unplugged!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here’s the thing. <b>You have each other to help you through
temptation and anger to keep on that narrow path between them, staying with
Jesus and his work of release and Good News.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Just like my new friends
were able help to be strong against the temptation to stuff my face with
cookies, so too will all of you together be able to see temptation and anger
when they arise, confront and deal with it in love, head-on so that this
community can become more true to God’s call in this city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The good relationship
between a rector and her parish is a beautiful thing, but it doesn’t just
happen. A healthy church is one where people realize and own their strong
feelings of involvement and mission. I’m not telling you to become indifferent
to your projects and missions, to the way things are done here, that is all
important, vital even, but it must be tempered with the fact of Jesus Christ:
that God’s favor has come powerfully among you all and that you have work to
do, work with each other and work with those who you haven’t met yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As this church that has
been walking with Jesus all along joins hands with Suz who has been walking
with Jesus as well; my hope and prayer is that each of you will allow the God
of release, sight, liberation, and Good News to anoint you for the work of God.
And when you receive that anointing anew, well: brace yourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-28440378356107324002016-10-14T13:42:00.001-04:002016-10-14T17:53:16.659-04:00God and Gasoline<div class="MsoNormal">
This past Monday I departed Charlotte on my way to the Credo
conference. Credo is clergy wellness conference that the Church Pension Group
sponsors. The idea is to assess all areas of our lives: physical, mental,
spiritual, vocational, and financial so that we can continue to be healthy,
happy, productive people for God. Now, I had some concerns about this conference
because it was being held at Salter Path NC, on the Atlantic coast, hurricane Matthew was in that very spot a few days prior to my departure.
On Sunday I received a call that the storm had passed and it was all systems go
for the conference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I left Charlotte and approached the small hamlet of
Hamlet NC, I noticed that there were lots of people in line at the gas
stations: lots, like maybe a ¼ mile of cars lined up. I called the conference center
to ask them if anything was wrong between Hamlet and Salter Path, “Well, no,
things are fine, we all lost power for a few days but I guess people are now
able to get out. You know, some folks panic.” So I kept driving on, eventually
I myself needed to stop for gas and stopped near Whiteville, the first three
gas stations I stopped at had no gas or power. All of them had signs on the
doors with my new least-favorite words “No gas, cash only.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once I drove through Whiteville by way of some back road,
dodging giant oaks that were partially in the road and driving carefully across
inches deep water, I noticed that the entire city was without power and was indeed
in great crisis. I decided to just keep moving, to get on 74 East and hope for
the best. 74 was closed by police in either direction. I asked the police how
to best get to Salter Path, they didn’t know, they weren’t local. So I let the
navigation software do the work, I found an alternate route and got going. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Soon
after leaving town I found that the road I was supposed to take had turned into
a river, a very large active river. I made a note of that on the navigation
software and pulled over to consider my options. I called my wife. She basically
became Houston to my Apollo mission. She checked and called for places that had
gas. We found one in the next town, Clarkton, just a few miles to the north. My
gas was really low at this point but Clarkton looked to only be about 8 miles
away; I’d limp there as much as possible and then perhaps need to walk if I ran
out of gas. I can be a little slow on the uptick so it was then that I realized
that Hamlet was basically my last chance for gas many miles ago, indeed I had
been in a trap for a long time before I even realized it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About three miles out of Whiteville I ran out of gas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Running out of gas is one thing. Running out of gas in a
disaster area is quite another. I was no longer a tourist passing through and
gawking at the damage, safely ensconced in my security. I was now a local. I
didn’t know what to do and I could feel myself panicking. A very long convoy of fire trucks rolled past me on the way to Whiteville. I got out of the car,
breathed. I prayed for Jesus to be with me, a prayer practice that I do daily:
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner. I love this prayer, it has saved
me so many times. Mercy of course means to have compassion and presence. Jesus
be with me in this moment. I was safe, mostly. I had breath and heartbeat. I
weighed my options and stuck out of thumb.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I can’t remember if I’ve ever hitchhiked before. It’s
interesting. You can make eye contact with people as they drive past. Here I
was, nice chubby guy in Costco slacks, brown leather shoes, gingham
button down shirt, and Ray-Bans. No one stopped. But after a couple of minutes
an older black man in a 1992 Cougar (I learned all this about his car later) stopped
and asked if I was out of gas. “Yes.” “OK, you want to come with me to Clarkton
and get gas?” “Yes please.” He was driving in caravan with his son-in-law so he
grabbed his son-in-law’s gas can and off we went. First off I realized that
Clarkton would be no quick drive, the road that lead directly there was closed
due to flooding. We had to take many detours.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The man who stopped is named Kenteny. I learned a lot about
him. I learned that his son in law is a preacher. I learned that Kenteny is
unemployed. He is a strong believer in God. His wife caters weddings and
events. He smokes. He also was in Whiteville helping a friend there and was on
his way home in Clarkton, he was hoping not to run out of gas. He called me
Preacher Man after I told what I do for a living. After a half-hour of driving
we made it to Clarkton, walking would have been disastrous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was a very long line at the gas station. We got in
line and waited, it would be a long wait. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzj4P6-mdKcqrFqq17GoSAfWqV2Y5XpWDd9wtbnp45qJHg659gSo682aozzi82ZUHfLxngzC5XTNluXtfQw0yYteMGvRSTHxbsXAdNA7H8DhSA31PxpYBu7ia_Ki7gcDoB9ETzcHaf8Uo/s1600/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzj4P6-mdKcqrFqq17GoSAfWqV2Y5XpWDd9wtbnp45qJHg659gSo682aozzi82ZUHfLxngzC5XTNluXtfQw0yYteMGvRSTHxbsXAdNA7H8DhSA31PxpYBu7ia_Ki7gcDoB9ETzcHaf8Uo/s320/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+435.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I kept thanking him, knowing that I
was pressing my luck with him. He certainly didn’t anticipate all this. As we
waited I scoped out the situation, went into the gas station. They had power
but the internet was down and so was the phone so that meant no credit cards:
cash only. No problem, I’ll just use the ATM: “broken cable,” on account of the
internet I suppose. I went across the street knowing that cash was the only option.
Strike two. There was a bank, last option. Praise be unto Jesus! It worked. Cash
in hand I went to the Subway to get me and Kenteny lunch. They were sold out of
almost everything so I got us steak, the only meat left. Cash only of course.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We ate in the car. Talked. Watched funny things happen like
this young man and his horse. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_T5z_VuM7_Okziqm-_iN1sAihqGUcoIryMcJLbApCSnIjWDQF0n8iHczQeeQEUgTdz2WHiaFDjbYitkiwSWuwACJqPxoE0n4M-X2JHvz5c2ZxioO5QNTbUlCTlsOobtwdiNrLolc-Dk/s1600/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_T5z_VuM7_Okziqm-_iN1sAihqGUcoIryMcJLbApCSnIjWDQF0n8iHczQeeQEUgTdz2WHiaFDjbYitkiwSWuwACJqPxoE0n4M-X2JHvz5c2ZxioO5QNTbUlCTlsOobtwdiNrLolc-Dk/s320/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+437.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
He was showing off for a while but then he
started taking kids on rides. There was a young white kid who stuck his head in
“our” car and chatted us up for an hour. He was obviously very poor and his
accent was so profound it almost sounded British. I looked around at this scene
and sincerely wondered if I were in heaven. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Two hours. Two hours in line for gas. I filled the fuel
canister and bought Kenteny gas and we were en route back to my car. On the way
there he became very emotional and said that he had never had a full tank of
gas in that car and that I had been a blessing to him. I replied that I could
never had been a blessing to him if he had not first been a blessing to me. He
asked what he supposed to do, just leave me on the side of the road? Jesus made
him stop. We both spoke, we both thanked God for the kind of life that allows
us to live these Jesus-lives. It reminded me of the book of Acts when it talks about the apostles going along the road giving praise to God. But I also know
that I was living the Widow’s Mite and the Good Samaritan because this man had
given out of his poverty and also I was
being treated as a neighbor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We got back to the car and put the gas in. We exchanged
phone numbers and Kenteny said that he would escort me to a further town that
was in good shape and I could fill up there. I told him he had done more than
enough already and that he should just go his own way. He refused, saying “We
got you this far, let me see you on your way, you need to make it to that conference
because they need your voice and testimony!!” Ok.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We drove about 40 minutes to another town close to the road
I needed to take. We only had to wait about 20 minutes for gas, I tanked up. I thanked Kenteny profusely. This is him at our last stop. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJsKJo0xsjyUKoVCWfRCCo50VNf0UEkgVRue0T-NVRh_XJyydpFinqAiuL9IxAYZGsil-K4JpRpGr_AI0Kg6UQk17SgMCSFg27mk1R2GUF2C-W5VdDIRI024Dn_yXyha662NC_ydfv64/s1600/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJsKJo0xsjyUKoVCWfRCCo50VNf0UEkgVRue0T-NVRh_XJyydpFinqAiuL9IxAYZGsil-K4JpRpGr_AI0Kg6UQk17SgMCSFg27mk1R2GUF2C-W5VdDIRI024Dn_yXyha662NC_ydfv64/s320/Josh%2527s+iPhone+Oct142016+443.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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He asked that I call
him when I got to my final destination. That’s not right, he kept saying,
destiny. “Call me when you get to your destiny.” I really like that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kenteny is not an angel and he is not Jesus. He a man who
has allowed God’s loving life to penetrate his own, to mold and shape him.
Kenteny is a man who has sinned against God and neighbor, without a doubt. And
while he is a sinner he is also a saint, a life that recognizes that the things
that matter most in earth and heaven is relationship and reaching out to those
in need. I was in need and he reached out. Thank you my brother. I’ll do my
best to do the same for someone else.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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I can't help but wonder and mourn over those relationships that I have lost out on because I was too secure, too strong, too scheduled to allow to emerge. Thankfully, sometimes God is an empty gas tank and he forces the issue.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-75765675647175023272016-09-06T09:46:00.003-04:002016-09-06T09:46:29.028-04:00Fie lee mon, Phil ley mon, Fie ley mon<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s not every day that we
read an entire book of the Bible in church. Well, today is no different, but we
do come awfully close to reading an entire book from the New Testament. The
book we read, almost in entirety, is Philemon. You may have never heard of it.
It only makes an appearance in our calendar of readings once every three years,
and that is usually around Labor Day; so if you have missed church that
weekend, there is a very good chance you may have never read Philemon. It’s a
shame because this little book packs a real punch that we, the Church, needs to
hear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">First a little background:
Philemon is among the shortest books of the Bible. The letters of second and
third John are a bit shorter; but Philemon is number three in the shortest book
of the Bible category. It is one of the letters of Paul who wrote a great deal of
the New Testament. Philemon is unusual among Paul’s letters because it is
written to an individual. In most of Paul’s letters he is writing to a
community, a church, like the churches in Rome, Corinth, Thessalonica, Galatia,
and Philippi. But Philemon is written to
an individual, Philemon by name, as it turns out!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So what we have in
Philemon, as we have in all of Paul’s letters is one side of a conversation.
Paul’s letters are a little like overhearing a person’s cell phone call: we
hear one side, and we can make out the main point of the conversation but we
don’t know what the other one is saying, and we also don’t know why the call
was made in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The letter to Philemon is
a mystery, but we can learn a lot with a careful reading. First we see that
Paul is writing to someone he knows and loves, Philemon, and not only that,
Philemon has a church in his home. This is what the church looked like in the
first several generations, believers would gather in house churches. This model
of meeting in homes is still done widely, especially in places where the church
is under oppression and persecution as it was in the Roman Empire. Since
Philemon had a house we might surmise that he was wealthy. As we read along we
learn that Philemon actually owned a slave. That slave’s name is Onesimus
(O-Nee-si-mus). At one point Paul says to Philemon, the slave owner, that he
knows that Onesimus is useless to him. Some scholars think that Philemon may
have nicknamed Onesimus “Useless,” because in Greek the word Onesimus means
useful or beneficial. Paul will playfully use these words of useful, useless
and beneficial throughout the letter; perhaps to chide Philemon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">How Onesimus, the slave,
got to Paul is something of a mystery. Paul says that he is imprisoned for the
gospel, this is not a metaphor, Paul was imprisoned many times for preaching
the improbable and socially revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. Historians
have supposed three possible scenarios: the first is that Philemon the
Christian slave owner has sent his slave Onesimus to Paul who is in prison,
possibly in Rome. Perhaps Philemon sent greetings or supplies. Another scenario
is that Onesimus escaped from his master Philemon and fled to the bustling
metropolis in search of Paul. Under Roman custom it was possible for a slave to
appeal to a friend or relative of a slave owner if the owner was abusing the
slave; then the friend could appeal to the better nature, if you will, of the
slave owner for the better treatment of the slave. Finally, Onesimus simply
could have escaped for good from his owner. This was perilous of course as
slaves were not citizens, had very few rights. The slave owner, Philemon also
would have possibly been financially ruined as slaves were quite expensive to
acquire anywhere from 300 to 3,000 denarii at the time, that’s somewhere
between one year and ten years’ worth of wages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In either scenario,
through this letter, we see that Onesimus the slave has made his way to Paul,
has apparently been converted to the faith because of the filial affectionate
language; and now Paul is sending him back to Philemon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, Paul gets a great deal
of criticism from people today, and rightly so, because he makes no attempt or
statement to usurp, disrupt, or otherwise overturn the evil of slavery. Though
I will say that if you read Ephesians or Colossians from a first century perspective,
Paul comes out as moral and revolutionary as they come. But in this letter,
Paul does not lay out the immorality of Philemon’s engagement with the sinful
institution of slavery. Why not? Some scholars say that Paul, and others in the
early church, may not have been able to imagine a world without slavery. In the
ancient world, slavery was so pervasive that everyone either knew a slave,
owned slaves, or <i>was</i> a slave. But the
ubiquity of a sin does not mean that the sin does not exist, what’s going on
here?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As we read the letter to
Philemon we see that Paul has great affection for Onesimus, he says that he has
become his father. It is interesting because it seems that Paul is also
something of a spiritual father to Philemon as well, perhaps Paul brought
Philemon to faith in Jesus Christ, he says, “I say nothing about your owing me
even your own self,” which of course is a passive way of saying, “You owe me,
you owe me everything because I showed you the path to eternal life.” So being
the “father” of both Philemon and Onesimus, Paul urges Philemon to receive the
returned Onesimus not as a “slave, but more than a slave, as a brother.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here we see that Paul does
in fact level a withering criticism and undermining of slavery. His critique
though is not general or abstract, it is personal and relational. Paul is not
necessarily trying to overthrow the Roman Empire’s slave trade; <i>he’s overthrowing slavery for Philemon and
Onesimus! </i>Paul, through the relationships that have been forged through
Jesus Christ, is overturning one of the insidious, debased, and pervasive
sinful systems of his day. We see in this letter to Philemon three people in a
new relationship because of Jesus Christ, a relationship that moves across the
insurmountable barrier of slave and master: “receive him not as a slave, but
more than a slave, as a beloved brother.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We don’t know if Philemon
obeyed Paul or not. But we have the letter; and that means that the church, in
her wisdom, guided by the Holy Spirit, thinks that what it has to say is
worthwhile and is descriptive of what a Christian life should look like. It’s
too bad though that we don’t have the next letter from Philemon back to Paul;
because, as revolutionary as Paul’s command to receive Onesimus as a brother
was, it’s in the doing that is most interesting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What would that reunion
have looked like? “Here comes old ‘Useless,’” as Philemon called Onesimus,
“Paul has sent him back, but I don’t like him! Now I have to love him?!” Or,
what if Onesimus had in fact run away? Now Paul has sent him back. What’s
Onesimus feeling now that he has to return to this slave owner? Perhaps
Philemon is humbled, humiliated and ashamed that his sinfulness in owning
another human being has been exposed to Paul. The return, the reconciliation,
is the hard part. It is one thing to be loving in the abstract, it’s quite
another to be put arms, legs, and hands on our love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So what about you? What is
God calling you to love? What injustice are you called to reconcile in actual
action, what evil are you being called to confront and defeat, who are your
being called to take back in? We need to get specific here, because the
abstract is a temptation. Abstraction, keeping things general, is a way to keep
loving reconciliation at arm’s length.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Systemic racism for
example is something we all need to overcome through reconciliation. But we
don’t <i>individually</i> address systemic
racism; we find the one small way that we can undermine racism in our own small
circle. Yes, fight the systemic sin, but don’t let your epic war replace the
small ways you can fight in your own small seemingly insignificant way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What sin or evil are you
struggling with? Don’t fight the grand cosmic evil of lies, and systems, and
genetics, and addiction. Instead, be like Philemon in this letter, do the next
right thing. Make the next, small right decision because our lives are not, as
it turns out, lived in the grand scheme, but on the very small scope of the
next moment that arises. Do the next right thing and a year, a decade, a
lifetime of those next right things, well then, the grand scheme just might
emerge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is why the letter to
Philemon deserves a wider reading, because it shows how all of us are born into
sinful systems, but we can, through Jesus Christ, find the love necessary to do
the next right thing, not in the abstract but in the really real lives we each
live. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thank you God for showing
us the path of reconciliation; thank you St. Paul for showing us one way to
love; and thank you saints Philemon and Onesimus for showing us that broken
relationships and great evil can be repaired through the love of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-67290496586545751122016-08-28T19:06:00.002-04:002016-08-28T19:06:31.445-04:00Party<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for Proper 17 C<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Luke 14:1,7-14<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ecclesiasticus 10:12-18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Once I was at a meal with
a dear friend at a Greek restaurant. It was one of those
order-at-the-counter-then-take-your-seat places. We sat down and immediately
the server brought olives, pita bread, and hummus. I was famished and I
immediately dove into the appetizer, as did she. As we chatted and solved the
world’s problems the main meal was brought. The server laid out my gyro and
salad, but nothing for my friend. I said, “Didn’t you order anything?” “Yes,”
she said, “Oh,” I said, looking around, “What did you get?” “Well,” she said
sheepishly, “I ordered olives, pita bread, and hummus.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Worst meal companion ever.
I just pounced on her food. I think I remember being embarrassed and offering
some of my food to her, she shared and we laughed. That’s what I remember at
least, and that’s the story that I’ll stick to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You ever do anything like
that? Ever do something that was rude or just bad etiquette?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Today Jesus is teaching
about etiquette. How one should sit at a banquet. It’s all good advice, in
order to avoid embarrassment: “don’t take the place of honor in case someone
better comes along displaces you, better to take the lower spot and then be
elevated.” Jesus is basically rephrasing a popular Jewish proverb. Back in the
Greco-Roman world at banquet meals the host of the meal would invite and seat
people based on material or social wealth. It created a system of tit for tat, <i>quid pro</i> <i>quo</i> invitations and honoring. If someone of low estate sat in a
place of honor then they would be humiliated to be moved. However, the lowly
could be elevated to a more honorable position. It was a way of indicating the
social mobility of a person but also an opportunity of your own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus then offers a more
spiritual interpretation of the need to socially not place one’s self above
their station: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be exalted." This is not only good social advice, <i>let those with election-ears hear</i>; but
it’s also sound spiritual advice: God seems to work against the normal worldly
ordering of things, we see this a lot in the Bible: backwater tribes like
Israel, stuttering murderers like Moses, unprepared arborists like the prophet
Amos, and carpenters living in an occupied land like <i>Jesus: God takes what the world considers lowly and exalts it</i>, and
the opposite is true as well: <i>God is
unimpressed and unbought by our achievements and privileges; indeed God is not
swayed or moved by even our morality</i>. Instead we learn about how God would
have things and we learn that we are loved and accepted before and, even
despite, our attempts at morality, which, let’s face it, is many times our
attempt at exalting ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So far so good. The story
continues in our gospel, Jesus says to the one who had invited him, "When
you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or
your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and
you would be repaid.” And here we see that Jesus may have been an even worse
meal guest as I was. Jesus is pushing against the normal custom and even reason
for having a banquet. The banquet in the ancient world was partially to show
off and increase your own social capital. Jesus isn’t the most mannerly of
guests because he is cutting through the social veneer of why and how everyone
in the room got there in the first place and he is criticizing the host. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And he’s not done yet, “But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be
repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." It is <i>because</i> they cannot repay that the blessing can be found, because
the normal ordering of things, the tit for tat, <i>quid pro quo</i>, the using each other for social gain, all that is
short circuited in this new way of being together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So what’s this look like?
I would caution all of you to not to immediately spiritualize this reading too
quickly. Undoubtedly there is a powerful lesson about humility as a spiritual
discipline but let’s get to that in a minute, first: who are you hanging out
with? Are these only people that can “pay you back”? Are the people that you
have around you just like you who help to secure a certain kind of life? Are
you inviting other kinds of people into your life? Our society has been
carefully constructed to keep the full spectrum of people apart, and you had
better believe that such separation is good for business and the powers that be.
Being around other people that can’t pay you back is part of the work of this
church, if you don’t have opportunity to hold the kind of banquets that Jesus
is talking about, join some of our mission and outreach work, we make it really
easy to jump right, in fact, why not join the group making sandwiches for Urban
Ministry Center right after this service, or better yet, help out at the Men’s
Shelter today at 4:00 to dip your toes into one of these kind of banquets?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But more than this, more
than inviting others not like you into banquets; when was the last time you
were invited into a banquet that you couldn’t repay? Most of us are quite
powerful and comfortable, and the kinds of banquets that we get invited to it’s
easy to pay people back; but we are only powerful and comfortable because we
have kept ourselves in situations where we retain the social, political and
cultural power. What if we routinely placed ourselves in places and times where
the best thing for us to do would be to shut up and listen, to learn, to just
be with? What if we both gave and were invited to banquets where paying back is
just not an option?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This is precisely why
Jesus gave us the meal. The meal of Jesus is a special way of living out this
banquet where repayment is impossible. There is nothing we can do to repay in
full what God has done and is doing for us. That bears repeating: <i>There is nothing we can do to repay in full
what God has done and is doing for us</i>. So we live this life in which God
has fully accepted us and loves us so desperately, we live this life of a
banquet that is utterly free and open to us. Now what? We can’t pay that back
to the one who threw the banquet. What to do? First of all, I think we go to
the meal, to the banquet, and we keep going back so that we can learn how to
live like that banquet. Then I think we go out and make our lives like the kind
of banquet that Jesus is describing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So we can go back and read
Jesus’ saying that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble
themselves will be exalted,” is in fact a spiritual skill for how to live
closer to what God would want. But it is not merely spiritual. Don’t get me
wrong, our spiritual side is vital, but to separate inside and outside,
personal and public is to do violence to what Jesus was all about. The
spiritual and the physical, the social, in Jesus Christ are utterly bound
together, inseparable and mixed. As Marion preached a couple months ago: “we
need to put legs on our prayers.” To live a life like Jesus, and that is the <b><i>entire</i></b>
point my sisters and brothers, our spiritual lives must be mirrored in our
public lives. And the converse is true: our public lives are an indicator of
what’s going on spiritually.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That to me is a frightful
truth: our public lives are an indicator of what’s going on inside,
spiritually. I’ll have to sit with that reality for a bit. But I’m encouraged
to remember that all of this teaching that Jesus gives us today is in the
context of a banquet, a party. Jesus is inviting us into a party where the
normal ordering of things, paying and paying back is suspended in favor of a
whole bunch of humble people elevating each other over and over again so that
all are honored and loved as they should be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That sounds good, that’s a
party I’d go to, want to join me?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-3038403408379124712016-08-18T22:28:00.000-04:002016-08-18T22:28:20.517-04:00Seeing stuff with Christian eyes, part 2/50Horror. Good God what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Wait just a minute! Is is good for anything? I'm talking about horror as a genre, horror movies in particular. When I was growing up the name of the game was Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Chopping Mall. I watched some of those movies through my hands, but they were basically ways to be grossed out.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/equinox-movie-poster-review-cult-film.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Once I started having kids (and by "I" I mean my wife, of course) I was completely turned off by all horror and even a hint of violence. Having a child, for me, it seems, had made me sensitive to the delicacy of the human body and any assault on that precious gift. Still to this day though I don't watch movies or television that features routine violence, especially torture.<br />
<br />
Lately though I have been really interested in horror as a genre. I haven't quite figured out why. I like that horror is a genre that intentionally is used to elicit a bodily reaction, that's interesting. But so does porn. Porn and horror could be similar in that they are meant to make something happen bodily, but good horror has story.<br />
<br />
One movie I watched recently was Equinox. What caught my eye is that it is part of the Criterion Collection<br />
<br />
I love the Criterion collection it is a wonderful collection of world cinema that are influential and important for various reasons. You can learn more about this important collection <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Criterion_Collection">here</a> and <a href="https://www.criterion.com/library">here</a>, a great many of these films are available on Hulu. There are a few horror films on there, my favorites are <i>Chronos </i>and early del Toro movie and <i>House</i>, a delightfully wacky Japanese horror, I'll likely write about after I seen it a few more times.<br />
<br />
My interest in horror is two fold, bodily and religiously. Body: it seems to me that the horror in horror is the treatment of bodies. We are repulsed because we see a body being treated in a way that we know is wrong and inappropriate. Even those who take squirming delight in horror are reacting in a way that they know, "this is not how a body is to be respected." The body in horror is the avenue of the story. My concern though is that an over-abundance of exposure to these types of scenarios where the body is disrespected and, just as bad, dis-jointed from the integrity of a loved, storied personality, an integrated person (body-soul-mind), then bodies become just another thing to use as a commodity. That's the real horror of horror, bodies being used as an end. And that is, I don't know, the ministry of horror: Bodies are not things like other things, bodies are people. And, as Terry Pratchett reminds us, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/365392-and-sin-young-man-is-when-you-treat-people-like">"sin is when you treat people as things."</a> The sin of this posture towards bodies is what horror highlights, by doing that very thing.<br />
<br />
Now, changing gears: horror is usually gothic in nature. Not this kind of gothic.<br />
<br />
<img height="112" src="http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/images/shows/south-park/clip-thumbnails/season-7/0714/south-park-s07e14c06-the-goth-kids-16x9.jpg?" width="200" /><br />
<br />
I'm sure that some academics have carefully defined gothic over the years, but what I mean is that religious symbols seem to have an objective power. In almost all horror movies that deal with demons, magic, and old old monsters; the cross is able to keep the big bad at bay. I think that this gothic aspect to horror comes from the Middle Ages when the European world was awash in the blessing power of sacraments and relics. There are many tales that we have of the power of the Eucharistic elements, of witches stealing a host from a church to use it in their Black Masses only to combust and the host makes its way back to the church. These are called host tales, where the sacramental element has objective power over evil. This world-view could be seen in the ocular communion of the church in the middle ages, where simply gazing upon the sacrament would bestow benefits upon the faithful.<br />
<br />
Even in horror there is an expectation that the human body is deserving of integrity and respect and that God, even in the midst of all the blood and guts, is real and is incompatible and intolerant of evil.<br />
<br />
Equinox is an interesting movie that holds to all of the above. It's from 1967 and not much of a story at all. Indeed, I almost turned it off a couple of times but then the special effects would kick in . These were primitive, but charming. I noticed that the stop motion animation sequences were unusually long and affecting. There were alot of scenes that were reminiscent of Evil Dead, Equinox is clearly an influence.<br />
<br />
Once the movie was over I looked it up, especially the name that I had heard before: Dennis Muren. Oh that Dennis Muren.<br />
<br />
<img height="200" src="https://2warpstoneptune.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/cine-muren-1978-1.jpg" width="190" /><br />
<br />
One of the main SFX people behind Star Wars. That Dennis Muren. A real ground-breaker. What Equinox, this cheesy, short, story-thin, yet visually arresting little horror film was, was a 20 year-old Muren's summer project. They made the movie with $6,500.<br />
<br />
All of a sudden this movie had a story behind it and I could see its merits. Which makes me wonder: what is the value of a piece of art, divorced from its story? This movie got a lot better because of what it means in the history of special effects prior to, with Harryhausen,<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="268" src="//giphy.com/embed/sEUSv13Bq9lny" width="480"></iframe><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/cyclops-ray-harryhausen-the-7th-voyage-of-sinbad-sEUSv13Bq9lny">via GIPHY</a><br />
<br />
and what would follow with Star Wars and more. So then, should art be judged without appeal to its history or should be keep in mind what it took for this piece to be made? Perhaps it's something like the body being divorced from its integrity, horror follows. That's overstating it of course. But everything has a story that adds to the depth of the art or of the body; and it just get better the more we know and the more we include that in our understanding of the art. Or the body.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-84889473294955530012016-08-14T13:44:00.000-04:002016-08-14T13:44:09.177-04:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Sermon for 13+Pentecost C
2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When I was growing up one
of my many aunts had a collection of Precious Moments figurines. For those of
you born after, say, 1985, Precious Moments, which are still being made, are
porcelain figurines, or greeting cards of cartoonishly cute children usually
accompanied with a positive affirmation such as, “Learn from yesterday, live
for today, hope for tomorrow,” or, “Never stop believing in hope because
miracles happen every day.” </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">There is a Christian flavor to Precious Moments as
well, such as the image of the cutest, biggest blue-eyed girl you ever saw
holding an old rugged cross. There is an image of girl in a smocked dress with
a dainty pink, frilled, heart decorated umbrella accompanied with the verse:
“He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the
Almighty.” They are visual doggerel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These figures feature
prominently in my early memories of God. It must have been the quotations from
the Bible attached to the cute images that made that early impression. I
suppose that my young eyes saw these images and read those words and made the
intuitive leap that God was a nice guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I know it’s silly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I know that God is, in fact, not a nice guy,
or even a guy for that matter. But these images of cutesy angels, toddler
Jesus, and soft, smooth shepherds still reside in the background of my mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">How about you? What early
images of God do you have that still are in the mix? Maybe it’s an image of Jesus
from a children’s Bible. Maybe it’s a stained-glass Jesus. Perhaps some of the
images we have of Jesus or God aren’t even buried deep or from our childhood,
maybe they are very current. When I say “Jesus,” what image comes to mind for
you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I suppose that for most of
us, Jesus is a kind, peaceful person. Jesus is the kind of person that we want
around when we are feeling down. Jesus for some of us might be a human rights
activist who struggles alongside us for the legal equality for all. Most of
all, I suppose, Jesus is the unconditioned loving presence that we all gather
around, Jesus the loving unifier. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So, with these images in
mind; what do we make of Jesus in our gospel reading today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“I came to bring fire to
the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which
to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think
that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division!” I have never seen this passage on a Precious Moments figurine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What’s going on here? “Do
you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but
rather division!” Was Jesus having a bad day? Is this some sort of holy
tantrum?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Today Jesus sounds so at
odds with our normal peace-loving, kind Jesus. And it’s not just Jesus, God, in
the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah is also out of sorts. “What has straw in
common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and
like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” Where’s the loving, creating God? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I think what we see today
is a God, a personality, a life that is ultimately so incompatible with the
world, so off-key and off-rhythm with how we do things and treat each other,
that the patience is beginning to wear thin. That’s what going on with Jesus
today, he is saying that what passes for peace in the world is not the kind of
peace that he is bringing. The peace the world offers is status quo, it’s
silence, and it’s the peace of a prison. Jesus did not come to bring that fake
peace, he came to bring real Godly peace, peace which walks with justice and
truth. Jesus is so desperately angry because the peace of God cannot be
established while there is control and oppression which is how the world thinks
of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“I came to bring fire to
the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” This is fearful language
and we should be afraid. We should be afraid of trying to control God, of
making God in our own Precious Moments image. We attempt to control God by
making him in our image, making sure that the things that concern God are
exactly our concerns and nothing else. This is why theologies of unbridled prosperity
are so popular in our country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Think about Jesus for a
minute. Is this Jesus satisfied with you? Is this Jesus angry about the things
that you are angry about? Is this Jesus, Jesus, or is it just you being a
really good ventriloquist? I’m telling
you this in love because I’ve noticed something in my life, in the life of this
parish, and in the larger church: why is it that our lives don’t look any
different from everyone else’s? What difference does it make that we have all
been here today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There are classical ways
of living out the faith of Jesus Christ. Things like committing to
non-violence, voluntary poverty, celibacy; but there are other ways of showing
a life of Jesus, reconciliation with enemies, striving for justice. My point is
while not everyone is called to total pacifism or giving up all their
possessions, isn’t it odd that none of us are? There is something amiss. We all
seem to be exercising a religion that keeps us exactly where we want to be.
Where is the division? Where is the fire?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 339.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let’s
go ahead and assume that we have made God in our image. Now take that image and
smash it for the idol that it is. Jesus is not you. Jesus thinks our lukewarm,
mealy-mouthed hints at fairness and niceness needs to be burned up. Instead, let’s
follow the creative God of dynamic peace and justice. Follow this God into your
life to stand for love in the darkest corners of the day-to-day. This means
then bringing division, it means bringing division to the how the world has
established its normal way of operating. Following God into life means breaking
down, in small ways, the artificial political boundaries that cheapen life; it
means suspending the us vs. them mentality that the world has carefully
cultivated in you so that you can see, hear, and feel the person who is in front
of you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 339.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Jesus
is not us, but we are meant to be Jesus. There is a very big difference in
Jesus being us and us being Jesus. Jesus is the template, model, source, and
summit of our lives; and Jesus does not conform to our desires and comforts.
Instead Jesus walks ahead of us showing a way of life that is radically open to
God’s call and with that openness comes a life of surprise. That’s the image of
Jesus we should have, a radical trail blazer not to be admired, but <b><i>followed</i></b>
into the forest of world, making a way, dividing the world so that love may
enter in, even through our day to day decisions and lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-74973881066157501592016-07-04T17:05:00.000-04:002016-07-04T17:05:23.198-04:00Seeing stuff with Christian eyesWe just took the children to see the Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory. I've been a fan of Pixar for at least 25 years even when their shorts were just featured in animation anthologies. When I was in middle and high school I became fairly obsessed with animation, especially from Japan. I used to go to a club once a month in Atlanta called AnimeX where we would watch undubbed Japanese animation. Remember this was pre-internet so there was no streaming and the popularity of the form was not quite popular enough to make it into <a href="https://twitter.com/loneblockbuster">Blockbuster, remember Blockbuste</a>r? I used to even read Animation trade magazines, that's where I discovered the Pixar upstarts.<br />
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Now I take my kids, indeed my older daughter is about as I was when I discovered Pixar. The shorts to me are the best. They are something of a throwback to the early days of Warner Bros. putting a Bugs Bunny cartoon before the feature. I love the shorts more than the feature because they pack an emotional wallop but are also micro studies of how stories work. These folks have done their homework.<br />
<br />
Finding Dory is a true sequel, it basically takes an established character and situation and plays with the opposites. We don't find Nemo, we find Dori; Nemo is missing through most of the first movie, Dory is in almost every frame of this one; in the first film Nemo's future is at stake, in this film her past is in the balance.<br />
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I like sequels, and I like this one, but the inversion-of-the-establishment-of-the-first-film seems played out. <br />
<br />
However, where I think this movie really shines is in two areas.<br />
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The first, is that every single character is flawed in some way: Dory has no memory, her parents have lost a child, Marlin is a pathological worrier, Nemo is disabled, Destiny the Whale Shark is nearly blind, Bailey the Beluga Whale is emotionally blocked from using his sonar, Becky is a shell shocked Loon.<br />
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<a href="http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/a/aa/Becky_(Finding_Dory).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160330202337" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/a/aa/Becky_(Finding_Dory).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160330202337" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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There is a very nice sub-plot, told in flash back, of Dory's parents raising a child with special needs. How does one, in fact, raise a child who cannot remember the immediate past.<br />
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Which leads me to the second strength of this film: memory. Dory, "suffers from short term memory loss."<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3kIpCzLzEo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Throughout the film Dory contends with living in a world of memory as a person [sic] without memory. The world is a place of memory. I've heard tell of a tribe in the Amazon that indicates the past, in body language, by pointing forward. In the West we usually point forward to signify the future, and point back to the past. The tribe instead points backward for the future because the future is unknown and unseen, and what is forward, what is seen is a function of the past. Unfortunately, in the West, and America in particular, the past is forgotten very quickly and wisdom is in short short supply.<br />
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The world is a product of the past, what then is life when there is no memory? In Finding Dory we find that a life without memory is dark indeed. There are part of the film that are heartbreaking because of the discontinuity of her life. Andy Stanton, the writer captures the hopelessness of the memory-free life very well.<br />
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In Christian worship, ever since the absolute beginning (we have a Eucharistic prayer from before the earliest New Testament writings, about the year 50, called the Didache, which means, the teaching) that says that Jesus wanted his followers to hold a meal in remembrance of him.<br />
<br />
The word that is used is a fully embodied remembering of Jesus. This is not merely an intellectual affair, a simple memory game. Instead remembrance might be better described as remembrancing. Remembrance is not a noun but a verb, an activity which we engage in. Our lives then are a continual remembrance, an embodied memory, of Jesus Christ: his ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. Our lives are an activity, a constant reminder (see that, REMINDER?) of the living reality of the living Jesus.<br />
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This remembrancing is so very important because when we remember Jesus we remember our humanity. Jesus is not some special case super hero, he is God's message to us about what we are supposed to be: creatures that are capable of having our personalities fired by God so that we become icons, images, of the invisible God, giving the gifts of God: love, peace, justice, presence. This is worth remembering.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-19537805176098593922016-06-29T10:06:00.000-04:002016-06-29T10:06:55.370-04:00Traditioning The words we use, the language that we speak and think with is impoverished. English is one of the most dense languages available to us in terms of actual vocabulary, but it is still limited in our expression. All language is limiting. But speak we must. I think it's good to get that out on the table, once we speak we have already limited our inner meaning, our thoughts, our desires, our emotions, our investment in our relationships.<br />
<br />
For example, when I shout, "I love you" to my wife as she leaves the house, or when we part company, those three words are a cipher for a powerful relationship that lies at the intersection of our bodies, our history (individually and together), economics, society, time, sickness, commitment, children, and a million other grids of meaning that all overlap and converge in this one relationship. And all that is just with this one relationship not to mention my myriad connections with family, friends, staff, enemies, teammates, neighbors, et. al. <br />
<br />
Dealing with others, making ourselves known and intelligible is always mediated through our words (verbal, body, contextual). And those words are always something of a betrayal of our deeper meaning and significance.<br />
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One word that kept coming up repeatedly is tradition. Tradition comes from the Latin, <i>traditio</i>, meaning to pass on. Most of us, I imagine think of tradition in terms of set-in-stone objects and practices that are stodgy, yet comfortable. I think of the couple that wants nothing to do with church most of the time, but want to "use" the church, and her words, for the "ceremony." I'm not denigrating this motivation because in it I recognize that people still see tradition as worthy enough to at least bring it out, and dust it off when needed to effectively solemnize an occasion. The thing about tradition though is that we have, especially in the church, but certainly in civil society (see 4th of July parades) objects and practices that are effectively divorced from reality.<br />
<br />
The reality is the life of the practitioner. Tradition is meant to be a lived reality, not a series of objects moved in a certain order for magical effect. Words on a page that are moved around (spoken) without being implanted in the life of a practitioner is also life-less and magical. By magic I mean simply prioritizing the object in question with power over life. So in the Church we see in sacramental life prioritizing of the bread and wine over the gathered body of those who believe that God is up to something, in other words the Eucharistic elements have more power to express God than the assembly of believers.<br />
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Tradition then, to look back to the Latin, is the passing on of something, and I think that the emphasis has been on the "something" and not on the "passing." Tradition is passing, it is active. The most important aspect of the passing is the activity, the lived activity of the content of the tradition. To put not-too-fine-a-point on it: to shove symbols at people and expect a transformation is mere magical thinking. Instead, what if we passed our tradition by living it actively? Evelyn Underhill, the great Christian teacher, said once that the life of prayer is more easily caught than taught. <br />
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Sometimes, actually very often, indeed twice this week, young couples contact me to talk about baptism. The emails read something like this: "Good morning. My husband and I would like to have our 5 month old son baptized. We do not belong to your church, and haven't decided on one as of yet. However, we find this to be extremely important for our son, and an important part of our role as parents. Our other child was already christened by his age, and we would love to dedicate his life in Christ as well." This, to me, looks like non-practice meeting up with objects, for magical effect, perhaps family magic. I used to say to people, "call me me once I've seen you in church for a year." The church is for those who want to walk with God, with the disestablishment of the church there is no longer any social benefit to participating in the church, why does this even matter to you if you don't go to church? I've softened on this. Now I meet with people right away and talk to them about what baptism means and that it is not a private act for family, it is not celestial fire insurance, it is the initiation of this person into the Body of Christ and the people gathered there are going to promise to raise this child, so it might be a good idea for you to get active in our parish so that people aren't adopting a stranger. <br />
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That usually is met with surprise, that the small thing they think they wanted is actually pretty darn big. I've not had anyone come and hear all this, then walk away. I'm traditioning them, and myself.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-72310224373782478412016-06-28T10:07:00.000-04:002016-06-28T10:07:55.135-04:00Masters recap part one of a lotI took a class on contemporary Anglican Theologians, with the Rev. Drs. Ben King and Rob MacSwain. Ben is a historian of the church and Rob is a theologian. Rob taught many of my theology classes for my MDiv including directing my independent study on Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian and ethicist. Hauerwas, famously, was on the cover of Time Magazine in 2001 as the America's most important theologian, which he had a real problem with; but no one remembers this because the issue came out on Sept. 11. Hauerwas, being American, is given to pithy quotes, see <a href="http://http://www.patheos.com/blogs/paperbacktheology/2014/10/favorite-stanley-hauerwas-quotes.html">here</a>. <br />
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The first theologian we read was Rowan Williams who is decidedly NOT given to pithy, bumper-sticker ready quotations. As I read through his extraordinarily dense and nuanced, <a href="http://https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Theology-Rowan-Williams/dp/0631214402/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467120495&sr=8-1&keywords=on+Christian+theology">On Christian Theology</a>, I kept looking for that one phrase that would sum up his project. I couldn't find it. Hauerwas can be summed up in "The first task of the church is for the church to be the church," followed closely by, "The Church doesn't have a social ethic, it is a social ethic." But Williams...? Nope.<br />
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Williams is doing something else. I think this is owed to his being a poet, but the activity of reading On Christian Theology imparts an experience of the content, which is some doctrine of God or a method of doing theology. The form itself communicates the content. What I mean is, his chapters on the Self and the Holy Trinity actually, I think, give a sense of what life is like in these doctrines. So his chapters on the Trinity, for example, are very subtle, intricate, and intermingled. One gets an actual experience of the Trinity's <a href="http://https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perichoresis">perichoretic</a> relationship. It is the most difficult theology I've ever read, but it repays the effort.<br />
<br />
Williams writes widely for the wider audience. I'd highly recommend, Finding God in Paul, Being Christian, and my favorite, Silence and Honey Cakes.<br />
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Another aspect of Williams that came up in our discussion of his theology was the fact that he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and not a widely successful one. Some of his thoughts on homosexuality didn't fair too well once he had the power of the office. One person in the class said insightfully, "If only he had been Rowan Williams instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he thought we needed the office, not the man." Williams ultimately went against some of his own thoughts as the Archbishop, this, apparently had real personal consequence. Therefore, some of Williams later work looks at tragedy as a Christian category. In fact as I work on my paper for this class, which is on theodicy,wondering about a loving, powerful God in a world of pain and suffering, Williams' thoughts on tragedy loom large.<br />
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I'll reflect more on this class, especially the other theologians we covered, later.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-24014082579867741482016-06-27T08:37:00.000-04:002016-06-27T08:37:05.194-04:00WhereaboutsI've been out of town for several weeks, three to be exact. I only missed one Sunday because after the first week I came home to Charlotte to pick up the family to join me. Where was I? I went home to Sewanee, AKA the School of Theology at the University of the South. The way that my very happy childhood shook out, I somehow emerged without a sense of place, without a place that I call home. So when I visit my parents, I visit them, I don't go "home." That house was sold my senior year of high school. Years later we went to seminary at Sewanee. It's a beautiful place, take a look: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gl0_Q8FwLec" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <br />
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Not only is it beautiful but the faculty and staff of the school of theology basically formed me into a priest, and a Christian. So this place feels like home. It's got it's problems, but knowing about those (it's racist founding (which they openly acknowledge and face down), its relationship with the surrounding community, etc.) means that Sewanee is a real place, not a fantasy. So Sewanee is my spiritual home. Earlier this year on a trip to Jerusalem I was struck by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which, for me, is the perfect icon of the broken Body of Christ. On that trip my heart became magnetized to that strange place. But in Sewanee, I'm fed spiritually just being there.<br />
<br />
I was there to start a new course of study. I'm doing what is called a STM, a Masters of Sacred Theology. I have no idea why they don't call it a MST. I've been told that the STM is the most academic degree they offer, even more than the MDiv. I am hear to report that this seems to be the case. I take classes along with the Dmin (doctor of ministry) students. A DMin is not a PhD, but it is an advanced degree that is more practical in nature, at least in what they produce at the end. The DMin students, for their program, must do a project related to the parish. The STM students write a thesis, 120 pp. So... there's that.<br />
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Students take two courses at a time, for three weeks, five days a week, two hours per day per class. It was intense. They basically take a semester's worth of work into three weeks. The first few days I thought I had made a horrible mistake, I certainly felt like a total slacker. My reading and thinking had gotten a little flabby, but as the days went on I was able to run with the big boys and girls. I was reading about 150 pages of content per day for the classes, plus a little wikipedia for the stuff I didn't understand. So when there is a theologian writing about the grave mistake of the epistimology of Dun Scotus, you have to do some quick reading on what the heck that is!<br />
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I'll highlight what I read later, but suffice it to say for now that the course of study was amazing. It was hard at times to remember, with my family there, that I was not on vacation. I found myself resentful of all the work, but kept repeating: I. Am. Not. On. Vacation.<br />
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I'm so grateful to the parish for supporting this study. For me, I am greatly fed by this high level kind of study and it is a joy for me to make it intelligible to the parish through our programming and my preaching. More to come!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-36422050903935690902016-06-26T17:01:00.003-04:002016-06-26T17:01:56.639-04:00Good 'Ol PaulSermon for Proper 8C<br />
Galatians 5:1,13-25<br />
Did you ever learn something that was a game-changer? You know, like one day you knew how life worked, but then you learned one little thing, and boom! Life is different, you see the world anew, a light goes on.<br />
I know that the best kind of learning is slow and nuanced, where knowledge becomes wisdom, but sometimes, a powerful learning can be summed up in a bumper sticker-like pithy saying. For me, several years ago this happened when I came upon the dual saying: the map is not the territory and the menu is not the meal. The map is not the territory and the menu is not the meal. Have you heard this phrase?<br />
It basically means that the means of signification and language are in fact not what they refer to. I’ll probably say something that refutes all this when we talk about sacraments at the end of July. But for now: The map is not the territory and the menu is not the meal. What’s that mean? To me it means that we have to continually remind ourselves that the tools we use to make sense of the world are no the world itself. Actual maps can get you from point A to point B, but those maps look nothing at all like the territory you are in. The difference between a two dimensional map and the Grand Canyon, for instance, couldn’t be more different.<br />
Likewise, the menu is not the meal. The menu hints at the meal, it gets you to the meal, but you don’t eat the menu, you eat the meal.<br />
Both the map and the menu though are pretty darn useful, they get you somewhere or something. The map gets you to the Grand Canyon, then you put the map away. The menu gets you to the meal. Once you order your food the server takes the menu away.<br />
I’m bringing all this up because we need to talk about Paul. It’s funny, we need to talk about Paul, as if we were going to hold an intervention. Paul has gotten a great deal of grief from the church in recent years, some of it deserved, mostly not. I think that the main problem that most people have with his writings is that he wasn’t just like us, he wasn’t as politically progressive as we would have him. Hopefully I can help repair Paul’s bruised reputation a little today. <br />
The reading we get from Paul today is from his letter to the church in Galatia. Because Paul’s writings were put into the Bible, many of us just sort of assume that these writings fell out of heaven, fully formed. But that’s not it at all, Paul was always writing to a specific community, that he usually knew very well. All of Paul’s writings are, what scholars call, occasional writings. It doesn’t mean that wrote when he felt like it, it means that he wrote for particular occasions, he had a reason for writing.<br />
The reason that Paul is writing the Galatians is because they have heard and responded to God’s loving acceptance in Jesus Christ, but in his absence they have fallen back into their old ways of expecting certain behaviors and life-styles for members of the church. Paul is writing to chastise them for their exclusion and condition making.<br />
And here is where we get the map and the territory, the menu and the meal. Paul uses two symbol systems to outline his argument: slavery and freedom, and flesh and spirit. I’d like to dive into these in detail but always remember that the map is not the territory.<br />
First Paul says that, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” He’s using this dichotomy of freedom and slavery because, everyone in that age would have understood exactly what he means, those who were listening either, were slaves, had slaves, or knew one or the other. Slavery in the first century was extremely commonplace. Paul is sometimes criticized for not coming down hard enough on slavery. To those I would say, read Paul, you’ll be surprised. That does not take away the fact that preachers in this very city in the 18th and 19th centuries used selective citations of Paul to prop up their own evil economic system.<br />
But when Paul talks about freedom from slavery he is using the culturally resonant metaphor to reveal the fact that the Galatians, and by extension, us, are reverting back to an old understanding of what it means to be accepted by God, namely that we must submit to laws of behavior and winning God over. That’s slavery. Freedom on the other hand, through Christ means that we are free from the slavery of winning God’s love. And that freedom also means that we are free from expecting others to have to earn our love. <br />
The other symbol that Paul uses us flesh and spirit. Remember that he is trying to communicate a deeper truth, the map is not the territory. Believe me I could give you twenty minutes on the different Greek words for what we would call the body, but what matters is what he says. The flesh and the spirit and vying for control of the full human being, in each of us. If we let the flesh drive the bus then all those bad behaviors follow, he ends his list with “and things like this.” It’s not meant to be exhaustive or even definitive, you know what he’s talking about: fear, lying, unfairness, callousness, the list is almost endless. But when the spirit drives the bus, when the spirit is in control of the human being, then that life takes on the shape of a human that is in close contact with God, a life like Jesus’, a life that bears fruit, like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”<br />
So, keeping in mind that the map is not the territory and that no metaphor is perfect: We are no longer owned, enslaved, to the notion of living that would have us have to earn God’s love. In Christ we are made free to come to God. And because we are now free in Christ, the spirit can now run our lives, not the flesh. That’s Paul 101, that’s Christianity for Dummies.<br />
Now, listen to me. I need you to go from hearing these words to listening to these words. Everything I’ve been saying, you think is about someone else. But it’s not, it’s about you. I was thinking about you when I wrote this. I do that a lot, much more than you might be comfortable with, I write sermons with specific people in mind. This one is for you, all this stuff about being set free from the slavery of impressing God is real, it’s real that we don’t earn love, and it’s real that we should extend that same unconditional love to other. It is real. And it’s about you. And you’re not doing it. And if you did, you’d be, if not happier, you’d be free, free with God.<br />
Look, I know the political system is rough. Lord knows that the last few weeks have been bad weeks for the world. And, frankly, I don’t have the faith in the moral arc of the universe. I don’t have faith that everything happens for a reason, or that everything will work out. But I have faith in God and God alone. I trust that God has accepted me and you and the entire creation, without condition, full-stop. And that sets me free, it sets me free to love. It sets me free to throw a wrench into the machine of condition and exploitation.<br />
That’s the territory, that’s the menu. This place of love is our destination. If Paul’s maps and menus don’t get you there, then set them aside, but don’t set aside where he’s trying to get us. Come up with your own maps and menus, but make no mistake, the territory is God, and the meal is Jesus Christ.<br />
Amen.<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-33000174520516611822016-06-25T18:34:00.002-04:002016-06-25T18:34:44.399-04:00Sermon for a FuneralHere is the text of a sermon I preached for a parishioner. She was 90 years old. Her name was Joyce. It was a beautiful occasion. I've long held that the funeral rite of the Episcopal Church is our most beautiful liturgy. I think that in it, we have the church's strongest proclamation of what it's about and also it happens at the time of our lives that says most strongly what will happen to us. Those two items coming together powerfully makes for good liturgy. Here's the sermon:<br />
<br />
Funeral Sermon for Joyce Brown<br />
June 25, 2016<br />
Job 19:21-27a<br />
2 Cor. 4:16-5:9<br />
John 10:11-16<br />
<br />
Joyce was a walking paradox. She was always reticent at first and then you couldn’t get her to shut up. She was, for the last several years, quite frail, but always present and on the go, under her own power.<br />
Her family was kind enough to send me some of Joyce’s poems and I found one that gives us insight into her loquaciousness. “Silence is Golden, or so they say. Alas, I’ll be poor then for many a day, for talk I must or else I’ll bust, I really can’t help being made that way!” And, so you know, Joyce ended this poem with an exclamation point. <br />
A few months ago when Joyce turned 90, during the service I gave her special attention which she of course tried to deflect, saying, “Oh no, oh no!” Then she stood up and gave a speech.<br />
But don’t you know that these little speeches, they were always about the community and how much they cared for her. The same thing happened a few months ago when she left the women’s retreat. Just before her departure she held forth for ten straight minutes, after saying that she didn’t know what to say. Joyce’s self-deprecation was in her own way an honoring of those around her. <br />
Joyce wasn’t all about being shy, and then over-speaking. She was also unusually spry for her age. A while back at St. Martin’s we had a Palm Sunday procession through our neighborhood. It was a very chilly morning and more than one person, a fraction of Joyce’s age, declined the long, cold walk. But Joyce did the procession. Yes she brought up the rear along with us priests and her friend Fran, but she did it. I was so worried about her over that broken pavement but she never missed a step.<br />
Joyce was a paradox: Small and frail, but large and strong; never wanting to make a fuss, but always making a fuss.<br />
And Joyce’s faith is a paradox. Here we are at the commemoration of a death, and we talk about life. We worship a God who actually died, and yet we proclaim his ongoing and enduring life.<br />
These first two readings which Joyce chose for us to hear on this occasion are all about the paradox of life in God, that even in death, we shall be alive in God. Even our mortal bodies which are subject to all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune can be, in the audacious words of the patronal saint of this parish, “what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” This is what God has always been after, to swallow up everything into his loving life. And we here today are a testimony to that life and love that Joyce lived and embodied.<br />
The other funny thing about our paradoxical faith is that God has hidden God’s self in the creation. This means that the world is fundamentally sacramental, that we can use our bodies and our need to create signs and symbols and poetry, to see, smell, taste, hear, and touch God. Joyce knew that, Joyce knows that. In fact, Joyce gave us the gift of God’s presence by being so weak and making such a fuss; that was Joyce, but it was also God that we served and put up with.<br />
Another of Joyce’s poems addresses her knowledge that God can be found anywhere. <br />
The Tree<br />
Through the glass windows, spread in grace,<br />
You see the world while in God’s place,<br />
It is a wonder to behold, bringing feelings, peace untold,<br />
God’s own nature there to see draws prayers from the soul,<br />
That beautiful tree.<br />
<br />
On the tree outside the church, Jesus on a limb doth perch,<br />
And as he swings his sandaled feet, He looks inside to see us meet,<br />
Of course you say, you see him not, be still be sure he’s not forgot.<br />
<br />
This poem may sound to some as radical or even anti-institutional church, but I don’t think so, it’s simply the musing of a faithful woman who knew that God is not contained in the church. The church is not the custodian of God, but merely the gathering of those who have been shocked by God’s love and we are trying to figure it out. After all, as Jesus says in our gospel reading, the fold of those under God’s call is much much more broad and inclusive than most of us would be comfortable with. Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” He’s talking about us, he’s talking about that person you hate, he’s talking about the one you think is beyond love and respect. God loves that one. So what are you going to do in light of that reality?<br />
This is the paradoxical God that Joyce believed in, loved, and participated in: that life has swallowed up everything, that God can be found, if you look, and that the church is not the custodian of God, but instead is the aftermath of this loving, life-giving God.<br />
That’s what I wanted to say to you today, that was me preaching the gospel with some help from Joyce. But I wanted to end with a story and poem of my own, all about Joyce.<br />
Last year we had what we call an instructed Eucharist, it’s when we take a look at what we do in worship and answer questions so that we can more thoughtfully engage in our worship. At one point I talked about how it takes so many people to make it all work, from the hours of preparation of the preacher to the staff lining up all the volunteers, the readers, the one who composes the prayers, the altar guild in making everything right, even the little lady who launders and starches the linens; it takes many many people to pull off the congregational, corporate worship of God, this all happens by, with, and through our bodies which God has filled with his Holy Spirit! It was pretty good!<br />
At that moment, Joyce’s shaky white arm shot up, shyly. “Yes Joyce?” I asked. She answered, “The. Linens. Are. Not. Starched.” <br />
What do I know? Those linens are nice and crisp, but they aren’t starched, apparently starching makes linens less absorbent or something. Joyce used to come into the sacristy to retrieve the linens used in our Eucharistic meal. As time went on she declared that our sacristy was too busy and that she didn’t want to get knocked over. So she used to wait in the front row after the service and someone from the altar guild would deliver the soiled linens to her in a ziplock bag. Joyce would then take those linens home and wash them by hand. I heard that Joyce would even take the water in which the linens were washed outside and commit it to the ground, such high respect did she offer the elements of our sacrament.<br />
Here is a poem I wrote, soon after meeting Joyce and learning about her small service to Christ’s church:<br />
<br />
She was British, there must be a story there,<br />
About how she came to the States.<br />
<br />
<br />
She had always worked in the background,<br />
At Church for decades.<br />
<br />
Her, now, papery hands,<br />
Had rinsed Christ’s blood from the linen.<br />
<br />
She takes them home to rinse.<br />
Toddles outside,<br />
<br />
To commit Christ<br />
To the ground: Burying him, again, and <br />
Again, and again.<br />
<br />
Unaware that he has stowed away,<br />
Under her fingernails.<br />
<br />
Thank you Joyce, thank you for your irascible, loving spirit. Thank you for showing us God. God bless you and keep you and through the mercies of God rise again in glory.<br />
Amen.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-10449583107803321542015-02-23T10:52:00.002-05:002015-02-23T10:52:14.461-05:00The Ministry of TemptationsSermon for Lent 1B<br />
Genesis 9:8-17<br />
Mark 1:9-15<br />
<br />
Happy Lent! <br />
Uh . . . dreadful Lent?<br />
In the past several years, I have been fairly vocal in my distaste for Lent. I think that I have finally found out my problem with it, which means basically that I am in a new season of considering Lent for the first time, all over again.<br />
Part of my problem, I suppose, is that the common, popular notions of what Lent does, don’t do it for me. For example, Lent is basically a time for people to do little self-improvement projects: 40 bags of clutter in 40 days, No sugar for 40 days, no coffee for 40 days; all of these to somehow build a habit that they have been meaning to get to; which is fine, really, though I have never met a person who was made better by not having coffee. Indeed the entire human race is made at least tolerable with coffee.<br />
I am not against building good healthy habits. But it seems to me that self-help is not what Lent is about. <br />
<br />
Some people suppose that Lent is about suffering. This I simply don’t get. Self-imposed suffering is not for me. Suffering has a role in the Christian life though; suffering for us means an opportunity to more fully grow into our humanity and discipleship to Jesus Christ in the direct action of alleviating suffering, not in fabricating it for ourselves for some kind of project. Besides, if you decide to stop eating sugar are you suffering? Because that, to me looks like the healthiest thing you could do for yourself.<br />
So if Lent is not all about self-improvement and self-imposed suffering, what is it?<br />
<br />
Well, it seems to me that Christianity is about delving ever more deeply into reality. Reality, so we Christians say, is all about what happened at Easter. We say that the world was fundamentally changed at the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection means that death, as we knew it, was destroyed, hell was forever unlocked and blown open, and the divine life of God was open to all. This is reality. We call it the Paschal mystery, it just an old Greek word for Easter. We live in a Paschal reality.<br />
So then Lent, like all of the Christian seasons, should add to our expanding view of this reality? It’s funny because Lent, like Advent is a preparatory season. Lent, like Advent, is meant to get us ready for what comes next. <br />
Lent then gets us ready to encounter this new Easter reality by putting us in touch with what is at stake. Having a good Lent shows us what we are being saved from and what we are being saved for. This is why this season is so focused on repentance from sin and bodily suffering, because what is at stake is our separation from God and our very bodies. And being the milquetoast Christians we can be sometimes, we translate this fundamental reality of sin and body and make it about de-cluttering and having tea instead of coffee.<br />
<br />
Ok, I need you to stay with me, because, as it turns out these little projects and suffering may actually serve a purpose. Let’s see what the readings have to say to all of this today.<br />
First, I’d like to draw your attention to the first chapter of Mark, today’s gospel reading, again! We have heard this reading three times in the lectionary since December. Once again we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the desert. Mark is characteristically brief, we don’t get the story of exactly what those temptations were, and the Church would add those stories a generation later. But it is worth noting that it is the Spirit that drives Jesus into the desert. It is the Spirit that sets up the conditions for the temptations. In this story we learn that, since we are Christians, even God gets tempted.<br />
Which leads us to the Genesis reading. <br />
It is the familiar story of Noah. The rains have come and gone, which, I will remind you that God brought because of the violence of humanity. Today’s reading picks up in the part of the myth, which is quite likely fiction, but certainly true in the deepest sense, and ultimately descriptive of God, where God is establishing his first covenant with humanity. Several more covenants will follow with Abraham, Moses, and most intimately in Jesus Christ. But today we get the first covenant, God’s promise to be with us. God says, “never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."<br />
In this story we see that the character of God needs reminding not to destroy all flesh. God is trying to build a habit I guess because he sets up an external cue, the rainbow, to interrupt the old way of being. God, it seems, is giving up violence for Lent. <br />
God, by the way, is the only personality that can justifiably use violence, being the creator and all. But here we see that God knows that he will be tempted to do violence, so the cue of the rainbow is established to interrupt the temptation.<br />
<br />
It seems, as we read these stories today, that temptation has a ministry. Each temptation we have is a signal to our spirits and our bodies to consider an area that needs attention and growth. Have you considered the ministry of your temptations?<br />
God knew that he would be tempted to engage in violence, likely because he knew that violence could not be cured by more violence. The temptation to do violence needed to be countered by the covenant and the rainbow reminder of that covenant.<br />
There is a ministry to your temptations. They point out what needs light and attention. Think this through: we are not tempted by things that don’t matter to us.<br />
Here is a controversial statement: I simply do not care about Duke or North Carolina basketball. It’s nothing personal, but I just didn’t get that college basketball fanatic gene. It doesn’t matter to me, I appreciate the beauty of a well-played game of basketball, but as to who wins, I don’t care. Therefore, I am not tempted to trash-talk Carolina or Duke, spelled D. O. O. K. apparently. But for some of you, especially the ones who I know on Facebook, to trash the other team and those associated with that team, the temptation is strong. This is a fairly innocuous example, but you can see that you are only tempted by the things that need attention. This is the ministry of temptations.<br />
What are you tempted by, what needs work? Is it your knee-jerk reactions, is it that you want to rescue everyone, is it that you eat to take the pain away? What is your temptation trying to show you?<br />
Too many of us engage our temptations by attacking them without going deeper. <br />
Temptations are a finger pointing to a deeper problem, and most of us do Lent by staring at the pointing-finger and we spend no time bravely engaging what the temptation is trying to point to.<br />
We probably avoid going deeper for one main reason: we think that if we could just get our act together, if I cut the sugar, if I stopped swearing so much; then I would be more lovable, I’d be worthy of affection and respect. Going deeper than the mere sugar means to engage that feeling even more strongly, that’s scary. But know this, to bravely go deeper, to be vulnerable and honest, is also to begin to see that you are loved, you are lovable. It’s paradoxical, but the act of going deep, of being scared, is precisely what Lent is about: about getting in touch, bravely, with what God was most interested in saving through Easter.<br />
Observe a good Lent. Get in touch with what is at stake in Easter: which is your separation from God and your very existence, in your body; your sin and your body. Know that Lent is here for you to more and more deeply come to know what God did with Easter.<br />
Watch those temptations, really watch them, what are they pointing to? Instead of shamefully trying to cover and obliterate your temptations why not think of them as being given by the Holy Spirit as something that needs attention, prayer, work, kindness, healing, love.<br />
Keep those little self-improvement projects, but know that they are pointing to something deeper, something that yearns be loved and healed. But know further that God already loves your insecurities, your foibles, and is ready through your bravery to transform them, or not, as is his will.<br />
Keep a good Lent, be patient with the strange ministry of your temptations, knowing that Lent is here to have you grow deeper into the Easter mystery and to show you what you were saved from and for.<br />
Amen.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-66500376350630299452014-08-23T16:45:00.002-04:002014-08-23T16:45:29.541-04:00The Church's WitnessSermon for Pentecost 11A<br />
<br />
In her book, “Fierce Conversations,” Susan Scott says that while not every conversation changes the world, every conversation carries the capacity to do that very thing. Scott also says that what characterizes a real, fierce conversation is when those who are in the conversation have the courage to step out from behind themselves to reveal the truth that is in them. No more hiding or positioning, just real, fierce conversation.<br />
The conversation between Peter and Jesus today, is one of those conversations.<br />
It starts with Jesus asking who people say that he is. Peter answers that some think that Jesus is John the Baptist, or one of the prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah. The thing is, these people that are guessing at what Jesus is, are giving really good answers. TO be John the Baptist is to be one who offers forgiveness of sins that does an end run around the spiritual industrial complex of the day. You could see how people might think of Jesus as connected in some way to John the Baptist. <br />
As to their guess that Jesus might be Elijah, that is a very good answer. Elijah, it seems, in the time between the writing of the Old Testament and the first century when Jesus lived, had taken on a particular status in Judaism. Elijah, it was, and still is, thought, would precede the coming of God to be with His people. In many ways, Jesus is Elijah, just not as they expected him to be.<br />
Still others, it seems, thought that Jesus might be Jeremiah; another interesting and not altogether untrue answer. Jesus was ultra-critical of Jerusalem and the religious powers that be, just as Jeremiah had been prior to the Babylonian captivity. <br />
You’ll notice that Jesus doesn’t say that the people that Peter has polled are wrong. I imagine that Jesus might have been even a little impressed at the closeness to the mark that these folks got. They might not be right, but they are getting warmer.<br />
But then Jesus sort of leaves those not-too-bad answers, and turns to Peter and asks one of the most important questions that exists: “But who do you say that I am?”<br />
“Who do you say that I am?”<br />
Peter gives a remarkable answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” We, here on this side of history, we hear Peter’s statement and say: oh yeah that’s Peter’s confession: Jesus is the messiah and the Son of the living God, no big deal. But this was being said for the first time, this was a leap in insight, Jesus is not necessarily a prophet, like those of old, instead he is something else entirely: the anointed one of God whose work is meant to restore God’s people to Him, he is the Son of the Living God. Not like all those other dead God’s, but the son of the only God, the living God. This is major, this is ground breaking, this is Dylan goes electric, this is the invention of fire, this is Peter’s confession.<br />
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬<br />
It might help to set the scene a little bit, Peter and Jesus are having this conversation in Caesarea Philippi. Mother Suz has been there and she told me that it is in Caesarea Philippi where the Romans had set up a shrine to Pan, the nature god. Along with Pan, there is, and she has pictures of this, mini-shrines to a great many of the gods of the Romans, including a central niche for the son of the living god, for Augustus Caesar, for the Emperor, the god-man.<br />
Peter is saying something so radical that we could easily miss its gravity. Peter is witnessing to God’s long-purposes at work in Jesus, but he is also putting Jesus above all the dead gods of old who represent the many aspects of life: fertility, joy, work, conflict, love, death. Peter even goes so far as to witness to Jesus as the son of the living God, over and against the Emperor, even over the Emperor who is the very embodiment of worldly power.<br />
Good answer. <br />
And Jesus rewards Peter for such a good answer: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, " This is a big deal, because we have, in response to Peter’s good answer, Jesus saying that his church will be built upon that answer. This is the first time in all the gospels that the word church is used. In all four gospels the word church is only used three times, and all of them in Matthew.<br />
It is often said that Jesus came preaching the kingdom, but instead we got the church. This is both true and false at the same time. Jesus preached the kingdom, he revealed the kingdom in his life, teachings, death, and resurrection. Jesus is the revelation of that Kingdom, the way that God behaves with his creation. We, the church are not the revelation, Jesus is. Instead, the church is that body of people who witness to the revelation. Period. We are witnesses of Jesus, we proclaim him as the living God, above and beyond all other gods, all other graspings at control, and power, and security. We are the church, we are the witness to Jesus Christ who is the only revelation of God, our job is to point to him, that is why Peter’s answer is so highly regarded by Jesus. <br />
And how is it that Peter arrived at this insight? Jesus says that it was not flesh or blood that has revealed this to him, but his Father in heaven. Peter didn’t learn this from somebody, he didn’t learn it from saying the Creed, or by assenting to a list of doctrines, he learned it from God, he learned it from obeying Jesus’ call to discipleship. <br />
It is in the doing of discipleship that our faith can be grown into insights such as these.<br />
This is how we can achieve the insight of who Jesus is, through our discipleship. Just as we learn about each other in real, fierce, truth-telling conversations. So too, do we discover who Jesus is when we obey his call to be his disciple.<br />
And just as we all are surprised to hear what stories and pains we all carry, so too will we be surprised when we find that Jesus, more and more, begins to be a part of how we live. This is how discipleship works, it grows: a little here, a lot there.<br />
I can personally attest to how sneaky Jesus can be, that he continues to reveal himself even more deeply as I give him more of my life as his disciple.<br />
<br />
This conversation. This conversation between Jesus and Peter is our conversation. Jesus is asking us, who we say he is. And it is through our discipleship that we begin to formulate that answer.<br />
Sure, we can all give the theological answers that sound good, but for each of us to come to an insight, and authentic response to who Jesus is, to do that we must be disciples, to live this Jesus life.<br />
To let this conversation with Jesus take on the characteristics of being a real, fierce conversation, then we have to step out of ourselves and do what all disciples of Jesus properly do, and point to him.<br />
To be the church is to necessarily point away from ourselves and point to Jesus. This means that we should stop worrying about the budget, and the building so much. Point to Jesus, witness to Jesus, the revelation of God.<br />
The Church has shrunk in the recent years because the youth of today see us as being more interested in keeping our buildings than with witnessing to Jesus. <br />
Let’s get back to our original insight, to Peter’s confession.<br />
Let’s be the church, fiercely.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-55550021882716468662014-07-06T09:10:00.000-04:002014-07-06T09:10:41.947-04:00Why You Should Be an Atheist Sermon for Pentecost, proper 9A<br />
<br />
Here are the <a href="http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp9_RCL.html#GOSPEL">readings</a>, and here is an <a href="https://my.ekklesia360.com/Clients/player/videoplayer.php?sid=8853&url=http://9a19d6ed4e8a465a64ab-c8ead92575507677918d1c11d59d4875.r17.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/2/0e3397559_1404603125_2014-07-05-rev-bowron.mp3&mediaBID=3059177&template=https://my.ekklesia360.com/Clients/player/videoplayer.php&module=sermon&content_id=798715&type=sound&CMSCODE=EKK&skin=&CMS_LINK=https://my.ekklesia360.com&width=400&height=300&fullscreen=&image=&overrideImage=false&playlist=true&autostart=true&target=MediaPlayer">audio link</a><br />
<br />
This is not an Independence Day sermon. Please don’t take that as some sort of political statement, it’s just that I took an ordination vow to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and important national holidays don’t trump that. I love this country. And the fact that I can preach freely from this pulpit unhindered, and that all of you came here this morning of your own volition, is proof that the United States is a wonder to behold. May all her citizens live into the promises of both freedom and equality, and let us recapture a sense of brotherly love, upon which this country was founded, amen.<br />
This is not an Independence Day sermon.<br />
<br />
Our gospel reading today is strange. You’ll notice on the citation of the verses, in your bulletin, that it is from Matthew chapter 11. The verses start at 16 and then go to 19, then there is a break from 20-24, then our reading picks up again at 25 and ends with 30. You should always wonder why that break happens. The breaks in the scripture that our lectionary makes is usually for clarity, but also for politeness. The lectionary is very good about sanitizing the dirty scripture. And please don’t think that this is an innovation of the Episcopal Church, we are just one of the hundreds of millions of Christian communities that is reading this scripture this way this morning.<br />
Let’s briefly walk through the scripture and I’ll fill you in on the missing, juicy bits.<br />
First Jesus asks a crowd how he should describe those who are hearing him and seeing his deeds of power. He says that they are like children in the streets, on this side they play music and complain that he is not dancing, on that side they wail and complain that he has not joined in their mourning. Then he says that John came fasting and abstaining from drink and they said he had a demon. Jesus then says that he came drinking and eating and they called him a glutton and that he hung out with the wrong people.<br />
Jesus is expressing what so many of us know: that the only way to be free of accusations of hypocrisy is to do nothing. John is too “spiritual” and Jesus is too “earthy.” <br />
Which brings us to the missing bits in the lectionary today: your bulletin won’t have these parts. Jesus goes on to heap woes upon all the cities in which he did his deeds of power: his miracles. The problem that Jesus sees is that his deeds of power have not produced the expected repentance and amendment of life in those who have seen those deeds. Usually when we think of the miracles of Jesus we see them as proof of his divinity, but from Jesus’ perspective it seems that he wants them to be a catalyst of change, of repentance from sin, from the exploitation of others.<br />
It’s after all these woes are delivered that the lectionary picks back up with the familiar and comforting words of Jesus: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."<br />
Today’s gospel reading is fairly schizophrenic: we get the critique of the critics of too-spiritual and not-spiritual-enough living, then the woes for unrepentance, and then finally the soft comfort that Jesus offers. All of this seems disjointed. In fact, I’d wager that most preachers today will ignore the first two sections and focus solely on Jesus statements about rest and lightness. But I think that all this seeming disjointedness is actually held together, indeed that the key for understanding all this is in the seemingly light touch that Jesus offers us at the end of our reading.<br />
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My yoke is easy and my burden is light.<br />
Jesus is giving us insight into what life with him looks like. It’s called faith. We throw that word around all the time don’t we, as if we knew what it meant? It reminds me of how my two year old repeats words she doesn't understand. She goes around the house saying, “Actually,” or “Interrogate,” she doesn’t understand what she is saying; she just likes the sound of it. It’s the same way with us when we say, “Faith,” we just like the sound of it and give little thought to what it means.<br />
Whenever Jesus talks about having faith in him, he talks about either taking up a cross or, like today, that faith in him is to have a light burden. Both of these descriptions have to do with the loss of the self, or maybe the loss of certain kinds of beliefs. Jesus is calling us to a different kind of faith, one in which we do not heap belief upon belief, burden upon burden. Instead, Jesus is offering us a light burden, perhaps even a freedom from belief.<br />
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Looking back over the Bible you will find that idolatry lays at the root all the problems of individuals, as well as the people of Israel, and of us, the Church. Idolatry: putting other gods before the one God, and, don’t you know, there are millions of gods. I’m not talking about the gods of old: Baal, Odin, Moloch, or Aphrodite, I’m talking about the real gods of our lives: validation, security, satisfaction, power, love. To engage in idolatry means that we have not trusted God to be God, that we have taken his job of giving us meaning and security and have assigned his role to his creations.<br />
God has consistently called people away from these other so-called gods. We are called to worship the only god there is, but this God can only be accessed through faith, which is a kind of trust, a radical trust that resists definition. God, best described by Jesus, says, “Stop believing, stop adding burdens! Instead: trust, my burden is light.”<br />
What this means then is pretty tough stuff, and here, I would appreciate it if you didn’t run me out on a rail for saying what I’m about to say: we have to stop believing in God. <br />
Hear me out: I’m not calling for a blanket atheism of course. What I am asking you to do today is to become an atheist of the God of your thoughts. Stop believing in Your God, and start trusting in the one true God, the God of light burdens, the God of faith.<br />
Hear this: the idolatry of God is the last and great idolatry that must be overcome. We in the church are the most egregious sinners when it comes to making an idol of God. We think we have God so figured out. That we can track his movements like we track a tropical storm. The God who created tigers and Boson particles, the wind and human feelings; it is almost comical that we would display so much hubris about God’s doings. Yet, of course, this same God has revealed himself which is what gives us the wherewithal to say that it is the words of Jesus are the words of God; and Jesus today is telling us, “Don’t make an idol of me. My burden is light, don’t heap burdens of belief on me, instead: have faith, which is the absolute opposite of idol worship.”<br />
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I’d be willing to wager that many of us here have experienced this kind of idol worship and subsequent private-atheism many times in our walks in faith. It usually starts with a set-back or crisis of some kind or other. Then we begin to pray that God will save us, or catch us in this crisis. Then something strange happens. We don’t get caught by God: the cancer proceeds, the rehab doesn’t take, they declare war, we fail. We aren't caught; God has not answered our prayer. God has failed us. <br />
God, of course, has not failed us, but the god of our thoughts and expectations has failed us.<br />
And many of us have the crisis of unbelief that God has not delivered and we are crippled into despair. I think that Jesus is asking us to disbelieve in the God of our thoughts and it is precisely in the falling-through of our expectations of that idol-God to enter into actual faith, actual trust of the only God. And it is in that trust that we encounter reality. <br />
Where we find ourselves, no longer slave to the god of our thoughts but instead in dynamic, real relationship with the one true God.<br />
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Usually, I try to end my sermons with some sort of memorable turn of phrase that summarizes what I have been saying. I’m not going to do that this week. Because the truth is, what I am saying is pretty wild: destroy the idol of the God of your thoughts and seek a deepening faith in the real God. I am asking you to free yourself from the idol you have made of God. I will not end with some pithy saying because the truth is: the rest of Ordinary time, this season of the church between Pentecost and Advent, is a time to explore the implications of following Jesus on the road of faith.<br />
Be freed from the idol of your expectations of what God can do, be free to fall into faith. <br />
Be free.<br />
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Oh! Maybe it’s an Independence Day sermon after all.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-26943153163201964882014-05-07T16:19:00.002-04:002014-05-07T16:19:23.063-04:00Sermon for Easter 3ASermon for Easter 3A<br />
Luke 24:13-35<br />
For over ten years I have had an obsession with the James Joyce novel, if you can call it that, Finnegans Wake. I say, “if you can call it that,” because this book is largely considered to be unreadable. And that is why I am obsessed with it: how can there be an unreadable book?<br />
The book is layer upon layer of linguistic somersaults and inscrutable homophonic puns which refer to at least three things at once; it makes for a dizzying experience. I love it. <br />
The book infamously begins in mid-sentence, uncapitalized with these words: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” As the book comes to a “close,” we notice that it ends as it began, in mid-sentence, in fact, the first sentence ends the last; giving the book a circular structure. There are some who say that Finnegans Wake can be read starting anywhere in the text, like jumping into a round river, eventually it all circles back.<br />
It is nearly unreadable and I love it. But if you sit with it long enough and it begins to make sense, The Wake begins to reveal itself, that, or its madness is contagious. It begins to sing and, after a while, it really does begin to tell the largest story we have: the story of all human history, the story of us, the story of all polarities: light and dark, sin and redemption, death and life, the story of destruction, and yes even the cosmic story of Resurrection. Finnegans Wake then is the story of all and each of us, the story of falling and rising. Each of us reflected in the title character that died and who was waked, with all the attendant dancing and toasts, and through a spirit-filled baptism, as it were, we rise from death, truly waking. <br />
Finnegans Wake makes sense as these orienting points make themselves known. The unreadable book can now be accessed and even read and interpreted, and we find that Joyce was writing our very lives, and through the inscrutable and seeming chaos we find that life is magic, that it makes sense, it’s just not the sense that we were looking for.<br />
The seeming unreadability of our lives can be confusing and debilitating. If only there were some orienting landmarks that we could reckon by; we might be able to see the larger landscape of our lives and make a way forward. <br />
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As we happen upon the two disciples walking into Emmaus today, we find them utterly bereft. Jesus appears among them, yet they do not recognize him. He asks them what’s going on and they stop; here the scripture hilariously says, “They looked sad.” <br />
Then one of the disciples, Cleopas, a heretofore unmentioned disciple, says, “Are you the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened?” He then goes on to tell the harrowing story of Jesus, his teachings, deeds of power, and death; and their confusion over the Empty Tomb.<br />
Then Jesus says, “You fools! Why are you still unbelieving? You know things had to shake out like this.” And then Jesus does something interesting, he takes the book of their lives, even more encompassing than Finnegans Wake, and he begins to interpret it for them about what God was, and is, up to.<br />
As they come to their destination, Jesus keeps going. But the disciples invite him in. As they sit down to the meal, Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and shares the bread just as he had in the feeding of the thousands and just as he had in that last night when he gave them a practice that would characterize his people forever. In that breaking of bread the disciples recognize him. And just as he appeared suddenly, Jesus was gone. But then the disciples reflect on Jesus’ interpretation of the Scriptures, their “hearts were burning within them,” they knew it was him.<br />
The two disciples then run to the others to tell what happened but they are cut short because the other disciples are rejoicing over an appearance of Jesus. Jesus, it seems, is appearing all over.<br />
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Here we see Jesus coming into the sadness and confusion of the lives of his disciples and he begins to interpret their experience and giving it shape and meaning. <br />
Jesus interprets our lives; he shows us the contours and shape of how and why we live. Our lives look at times like a swirling chaotic tale, as Macbeth says: Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player; That struts and frets his hour upon the stage; And then is heard no more. It is a tale; Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; Signifying nothing. <br />
And life can well and truly look and feel that way at times: Nigerian students kidnapped, natural disasters, death penalties, and the general, cold unfeeling we have for each other. But then Jesus appears, unbidden, reminding us that we have read the story wrong; we have encountered the dense language of life and gotten confused, we have gotten so close to the forests’ trees that we have even lost sight of the tree, we have our noses on the bark. Jesus comes and shows us the larger movement of our story, that death is not the end, and indeed we can move past that last sentence, just like in Finnegans Wake, and notice that the last sentence of death moves seamlessly back into the first sentence of life.<br />
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And just as James Joyce rewards the diligent and disciplined reader in The Wake to reveal its depths; so does Jesus enroll us into the story of all Scripture; interpreting our lives and writing us into God’s story of redemption and adoption. As each of us grows in grace we are surprised to find that when we read the Bible, we are there. My friends, we are in a book that God is writing and Jesus is a recurring character that the world, try as it might … just…can’t…keep…down!<br />
One more thing by way of an epilogue.<br />
You will notice that Jesus was fully prepared to keep on a-walkin’ once he had met the disciples and discussed the scripture. It says, “He walked ahead as if he were going on.”But it was the disciples’ willingness to offer hospitality that Jesus was finally revealed to them.<br />
Our encounters with Christ will always occur in the midst of hospitality; when we open ourselves to another in service and respect. This is the genius of this strange God of ours who doesn’t give a list of dos and don’ts but instead gives us a meal, whereby we learn the lessons of hospitality. The meal then, that Jesus gave us, is the subtext of the novel our lives: each of us walking the road of our lives, encountering countless people, each moment arising from the last, and each moment an opportunity to encounter Christ anew by the extension of our hospitality.<br />
It is when we extend hospitality to those whom life gives us; when we put aside our own goals and motivations; here in hospitality is Christ given the opportunity to be revealed. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to have your life take an adventurous shape? Don’t you want to have your heart burn within you?<br />
Extend hospitality and Christ will appear; and then you’d better hang on because God will set you on a swirling whirling circuitous route. But your life will have shape and it will be readable, and other people will look at your life and won’t be able to read anything there but, “Jesus.” And that’s a book I’d like to read.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-53775988299380360612013-09-24T09:05:00.000-04:002013-09-24T09:05:01.327-04:00The sermon from last week in which I try to explain the hardest parable in the BibleSermon for Proper 20C<br />
Luke 16:1-13<br />
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I hardly do anything that my preaching professor taught me.<br />
He said, “Don’t self-disclose! Nobody wants to hear about your wife, your vacation, or the cute things your kids say.” Of course, I talk about my family all the time in sermons. He says, don’t preach yourself, preach the gospel! I agree with that in sentiment and principle but the truth is, the gospel lands somewhere and that somewhere is me and it’s you.<br />
There is one thing that my professor taught me that I actually grudgingly accept. He taught us that we must always preach the hardest text. The lectionary gives us four readings every week: the Old Testament, the Psalm, the New Testament epistle and then a reading from the Gospels. So typically I will heed my professor’s injunction to preach the hard texts because it is the hard texts that you, the congregation, are wondering about.<br />
Which brings us to the gospel. One writer that I consulted this week about this text said that today’s reading is the weirdest story in the gospels. And I’d agree whole-heartedly. Let’s dive in and see what sticks and catches, what’s tough and hard to understand.<br />
The whole passage seems to be divided between the parable that Jesus tells and then his comment on it. He tells the story of a rich man who has heard some rumors about some mismanagement of his property by the man he hired to manage it. So he summons the manager and says, “What’s this I hear about you? Show me your books, because you’re about to be fired!” <br />
The manager then goes on to hatch a scheme, he goes to those who owe the master and he essentially cooks the books. He makes their debts smaller, for one he cuts it in half, for another he also gives a huge reduction. The manager says that his motivations are basically to win friends and influence people so that when he gets canned he’ll have made some friends, who I suppose can help him out later.<br />
Now, let’s pause here for a minute because everybody wants to argue about what the exact financial arrangements were. Was the manager not so much cooking the books as uncooking them? You see, back then it was common practice among the tax collectors to collect the required tax and then add a little more to the top for their own benefit. Was the manager doing something like this? Maybe.<br />
Or maybe the manager was cheating his boss. Maybe since he knew he was caught in a bind and in no way would be keeping his job, he decided to buy some favors and friends with money that wasn’t his. Maybe he was counting on losing his job so he thought he’d seal the deal with this underhanded deal; you know, in for a penny in for a pound!<br />
Whatever the reason for his actions, one of the more vexing parts of this passage is that the master commends this behavior and Jesus seems to in some way as well.<br />
What’s going on here? The manager is a hero of sorts in the story and the master embraces him for his shrewdness. It is indeed strange. Are we to applaud and emulate the manager for undoing the usury that he had been engaged in? Are we meant to look to the manager as a paragon of virtue as he buys friends with money that isn’t his?<br />
Let’s have Jesus clear this whole thing up. Take it away Jesus: “I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”<br />
Huh?<br />
It’s more than a little confusing because it doesn’t sound very Christian. Is Jesus saying that we should be manipulative and cheat? Is he saying that we should be like those in the world? <br />
Well, he kind of is. It turns out that this manager, this “Saint Shyster,”as I call him, may have a thing or two to teach us. I think the point of this whole story is that Jesus is taking us to the side and saying, “Look, I’ve been doing a lot of talking about lost sheep, and coins and sons, it’s all about the economy of the Kingdom of God. This economy of God stuff is upside down. God will come after you and all kinds of other people, no matter the cost. It’s not fair. It is actually unfair and gratuitous how gracious God is, you will be offended, offended! at how loving and forgiving God can be.” “But,” Jesus seems to be saying, “the Kingdom of God is not here fully yet. I don’t want you children of light to be caught unawares.”<br />
You see, Jesus is showing us that the gospel does indeed land somewhere. The gospel lands in the world, in our world. This invasion by God of history and our lives lands right here, and it’s alien. And then each of us has to figure out how this life will now look. And Jesus doesn’t want us to be naïve about it. He wants us to have open eyes, without the rose-colored glasses.<br />
Jesus says, go ahead and be smart with the ways of the world. Get some friends by those means. It’s ok.<br />
But he doesn’t leave it there; Jesus gives us a stark reminder that the money will be gone. He says today, “when it is gone,” not if it is gone, but when. Jesus knows that it’s not about the money, that stuff is fleeting. But go ahead and know how to use it, get some friends. <br />
It’s funny; it’s not necessarily the ends justifying the means but the ends justifying a new end: the friends who will welcome us into the eternal homes. <br />
This might be the key to our beginning to understand this parable: all this talk of cheating and cooking the books, friends and eternity, homes and hating. Maybe, just maybe, this is Jesus’ way of telling us that this gospel-life, this Jesus-living is a messy business. It is never a once and for all affair. Instead, our discipleship to Jesus is a daily encounter with honest and dishonest wealth, with a million little ethical dilemmas. If the devil is in the details, you can be assured that Jesus is also in the details of how we live, how we buy, how we sell, how we relate to those we love and those we don’t.<br />
The money is going to be here, and then it will be gone. It’s a symbol of our common life, and that’s why Jesus says to make friends by it. And we do. <br />
Look; I’ve been to your houses. I’ve been to the swim meets and the scout meetings. You all are friends. I’d bet the majority of you are here because you have made friends first and then were invited to Saint John’s. And that is good. This is how Saint John’s has grown over the years. And this is precisely what Jesus is talking about. The money and the sociability is a means to friends but those friends are now the means to the larger end of being the Church. Of being that beloved community that is engaged in the work of justice and peace, and reconciliation and love. We were made friends first by our social standing and common neighborhoods and swim teams and the PTA, but now; wow, now we find ourselves at this table.<br />
How did we get here? You were just some guy I played tennis with. <br />
How did we get here? You were just a lady I met at book club who offered me chardonnay. <br />
How did we get here, you were just on my soccer team and asked me if I wanted to go to something called EYC. <br />
How did we get here? Now; now we are gathered at this table where the most unusual prayer is said, where it describes this other world where God is breaking through to show us what reality has been all along: a creation that is not broken or in strife but is loved and loving, where there is enough for everyone and we are all made whole in God’s widening embrace.<br />
Here we are, a people brought together by dishonest wealth, but that wealth has brought us friends. And we friends are surprised to find that God had a lot more in store for us here, because we are a lot more than friends, we are fellow travelers on this road, even more than that, we are siblings in the family of God.<br />
Huh! I thought this reading was tough. Turns out that it’s not so bad after all; this life following Jesus can be hard, but it’s not all hard, after all, I’ve got you to help me: my friends. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-59551889923144092832013-09-08T12:56:00.002-04:002013-09-08T12:56:39.284-04:00Sermon for Luke 14:25-33<br />
Here is the <a href="http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp18_RCL.html#GOSPEL"> Scripture</a><br />
A Strange Case of Identity<br />
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“Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, yes, even life itself cannot be my disciple… None of you can be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.” <br />
You know, I could use a break from all these tough readings the lectionary has been giving us. For the past three months it’s just been one difficult saying of Jesus after another. You know: “Let the dead bury their own dead, this very night your life is being demanded of you, the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour, I came to bring fire to the earth!” And the zinger of them all: “You hypocrites!”<br />
I could use a break from all these hard sayings. Why can’t we get the touchy-feely Jesus, where is the Jesus of the hallmark cards? Where is the Jesus carrying me on the beach? If I could choose which readings come up I’d choose one where he’s a real nice guy; maybe one of the infancy stories where he doesn’t say anything at all. That’s the Jesus that is best for me, the one that doesn’t say anything. But alas, no luck today; today we get the tough Jesus.<br />
“Unless you hate…” I’ve wrangled with this passage all week and I can tell you it’s not good news. The Greek word used here is , it means “hate.” There’s no getting around it. Jesus is saying that we cannot be his disciples unless we hate our families, our possessions, even our own lives. The word is hate, if you wanted to you could squeeze a slightly softer definition of what Jesus says, could mean, sometimes; detest. Isn’t that so much better? “Unless you detest your children and spouse, you cannot be my disciple.” Nice.<br />
You know, in the gospel today, it doesn’t sound very Christian, but to me it certainly sounds a lot like Jesus. Can you hear that today? He doesn’t sound very Christian, but he certainly sounds like Jesus. I think that is what is so shocking about what Jesus is saying today, it’s because we have warped Jesus’ radical message to such a degree that we have equated Christianity with mere niceness, manners, and good citizenship. But here it is, it’s unavoidable, he says, “Unless you hate your life, you cannot be my disciple.” It occurs to me that Jesus would have done very well with a press agent, you know, someone to clear his messages before they went public. I mean, how exactly are we supposed to grow the church with such a strange thing to say? People like their lives, people like their possessions, people, generally at least, like their families. What’s he getting at anyway?<br />
If you take away all my possessions, all my family, and even my life; you aren’t left with much at all. It seems that Jesus is stripping us of all our many identities so that we can rediscover our primary identity in him. Jesus is showing us how we need to be willing to let go of the most fundamental identities and subdue all of them so that we can be identified through him and him alone. To follow Christ means to let go of all other possessions all other identities. We have to be Christians first and foremost. We let go of being parents, and children, male and female, gay and straight, black and white, American and Southern, paleo and vegetarian, even Carolina and State! All these many identities which shape who we are need to be taken off in favor of putting on Christ.<br />
And this following of Christ first and foremost, before all other identities, complicates everything! Some people think that when we follow Christ everything comes into stark focus, everything is “just easier.” We don’t follow Christ to get the easy answer to life, we follow Christ because Christ is true! And our following of him complicates life. Wouldn’t it be easier to carry grudges and write people off that have wronged you? It would! But instead we have to forgive and seek reconciliation. Wouldn’t it be easier to say about our enemies: Kill ‘em all? Yes, it would, instead we are supposed to pray for our enemies and be peacemakers; even though advocating for peace sounds utterly crazy right now.<br />
The cost of discipleship is time, and energy, and life. This Jesus-life will cost you your life; meaning you may actually die as a result of living the Gospel, but more likely it will cost you your life as you now live it. Following Jesus will make you live in a different way that can look strange to those around you.<br />
But God does a funny thing in this whole arrangement; he hides good news in the midst of all this hate and loss of life: when we drop our foundational relationships and our defining possessions and we enter into his heart, we find that we can love our family, neighbors, and our enemies more than we possibly could have on our own. All this hating of our families and our own lives actually gives us the wherewithal to love them all the more, but this time through the expanding heart of Jesus Christ.<br />
It’s no wonder that C.S. Lewis used the peculiar symbol of a wardrobe as the access to the land of Narnia. Through this dark and confining wardrobe one is able to break through to a larger wondrous world. It’s through this difficult teaching of Jesus, through this dark work of detesting our families and possessions that we can get to the foundational and fundamental relationship with Jesus which will allow us all to, in turn love them all the more.<br />
Step through. <br />
Do the hard work of letting go of those people and things you possess and that possess you: your children, your relationships, your security, your pride, and even yourself. Do this painful work of going through the wardrobe so that you can enter the larger world of Christ’s unconditional love for all.<br />
Leave everything behind. Leave it all behind and enter a world of so much more.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-63595061255245144352013-09-03T16:15:00.001-04:002013-09-03T20:07:43.797-04:00Crisis of the imaginationI'm going to go ahead and say this out loud. I don't have all the answers to how Christians ought to respond to all the various problems of the world. Big surprise right? <div><br></div><div> I might be a pacifist though justified war is attractive. Though I confess that just war is mostly attractive because it allows for violence which I harbor plenty of in my heart and mind.<br>
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What it boils down to is that I haven't had occasion to think these things through, and it's usually not something I'd do unless I had to. (this is the bugbear of parish ministry by the way, too many meetings and not enough study, don't get me wrong I love my work and I don't expect to study for a living, but the Christian tradition is HUGE and to think that we got all we needing seminary is laughable.) I don't feel up to the task of responding to this very large question, I will work hard to get some clarity. I will pray too.<br>
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What I will do. I will commit myself to getting educated about Christian responses to war and violence and I will review my findings here as often as I can. I hope you will join me in this exploration.<br>
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Here is a good analysis of the situation in Syria: <iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F107938389"></iframe><br>
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And <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/09/your-cheat-sheet-to-the-syrian-conflict.html">this</a>: <br>
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Finally: Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn<br>
but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the<br>
strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that<br>
all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of<br>
Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and<br>
glory, now and for ever. Amen.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-46321456837506522152013-09-02T22:22:00.000-04:002013-09-03T09:32:24.250-04:00On being a hermeneutical, symbolic guruIn seminary I had some business cards worked up. I had no business so I put on it: <i>dad, banjo player, student body president, hermenutical person</i>. For those non-theological nerds; a hermeneutic is an interpretation, a lens by which we view the world, and also texts, like the Bible. I was keenly aware then, and even more now, that the life of a minister is essentially to help people interpret their lives in the light of the gospel.<br />
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Being a symbolic person can be fraught with problems and opportunities. A few years ago, a community that I belong to began to tell a different kind of story about me and began to invest me with authority, there was even a special ceremony when one of the leaders of my community prayed to God to, in some way, inhabit my life and make me a priest. It's called ordination.<br />
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Since then I have settled into a job as a spiritual leader, a preacher, and a pastor to a community of faith in Charlotte NC. I almost always wear a special uniform that signifies to all who see it that I am a representative of the Church. When I go in public, most people do a double take when they see me. Many years ago, I had a conversation with a friend and we lamented the necessity of small talk. I suggested that we wear a signifying article of clothing whereby it would tell the world that we were open to deep conversation, and were willing to get to it quickly. Now both he and I wear a collar. When people come into my office they usually start crying. I usually don't say anything more than, "So what's on your mind?" They cry, I think, because I'm listening. I'm listening, but also I represent and symbolize a larger reality. and they are primed to have their lives interpreted and plumbed to see where God is moving.<br />
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Sometimes I see that being a symbolic person means that for some of the people in my community that I stand as a proxy for their own faith; "I may not have faith, but my priest does." There are some priests who support this sick notion so that they can hold more authority; but to hold ourselves up as the paragon of faithful living will eventually take its toll. The Pew research Council has shown that this kind of thinking has a debilitating affect on clergy health. <br />
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The film maker, Vikram Gandhi has pulled off an amazing experiment. As a young student of religion, the U.S. born Indian-American became disillusioned with religion and especially the gurus of his family religion, Hinduism. Gandhi decided to become a guru himself, cultivate a teaching and a following, and finally reveal himself as a charlatan. This is no spoiler of course, since the first few minutes of his documentary, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1865425/">Kamure</a>, show him anxiously rehearsing for the "Great Unveiling."<br />
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One might question the ethics of one who would purposely dupe the naive but that would miss the point of Gandhi's intentions. Gandhi and his teachings as his "ideal self," Sri Kamure, is that each person has within them what they need to cultivate their own happiness. Indeed, as Kamure's students grow they develop as their own gurus and even teach their teacher their own individual teachings. It is this convolution which makes the film and the man, Kamure, so charming. <br />
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What I find so fascinating about this film is that the teaching is so overtly anti-guru; which garners him more and more devotees. His students even routinely look into the camera and earnestly talk about the non-necessity of gurus and then look longingly toward the reluctant objection of affection.<br />
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Alan Watts said that a guru is someone who will pick your pocket and then sell your watch back to you. Kamure, the guru and the film, do just that.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06046905136842863354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3718171739088568902.post-16356441640554226702013-09-01T09:34:00.000-04:002013-09-01T09:34:50.095-04:00The Real Economy, a sermon <a href="http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp17_RCL.html#GOSPEL">Luke 14:1, 7-14</a><br />
The Real Economy<br />
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Has Miss Manners has invaded the gospels today? Why is Jesus so interested in seating arrangements anyway? It seems that he is trying to show how life will be lived for those who choose to follow him. And this life will look a little bit, or maybe as today’s reading shows us, a lot different, from the surrounding culture.<br />
It’s a question that has plagued the church from the very beginning: “How then shall we live?” Every generation of Christians from those who originally heard Jesus’ words up to today have asked the same question, “How do we live in this culture, the one I was born into, the one I live in now, yet still respond in an authentic way to the call of Jesus?”<br />
It’s a tough question, with a complex answer. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. Trust me on this, if the answer to the question of how do we live in response to Jesus? begins with the words, “Well, you just…” Walk away, because you are about to be handed a parcel of goods that are not so good. <br />
This is complex because we have all, before we could talk, were enculturated, conditioned, and otherwise trained to think in the cultural language and economies of our society. And that society is not the one that Jesus is talking about.<br />
Our modern, western society has its own values. We value hard work, perseverance, innovation, wealth, competitiveness, pursuit, and enjoyment. All these things are good, but our system, our economic system, does not have an inherent moral center, nor ought we to expect it to. The Invisible Hand is neutral and we have learned time and again that mutual self-interest for the collective betterment of society is fraught with problems, not the least of which is the crazy assumption that all people are equal in society and have the same access to the resources which build wealth.<br />
More insidious than the obvious injustice of our system is the spiritual crisis that it perpetuates. All of us have a void within us; a void that we try to fill with things that satisfy us. And it just so happens that our economic system is tailor-made for finding more and more to satisfy us. Look, I’m not blaming capitalism. I’m a capitalist. I have a pension, never mind that I am paid by other capitalists who voluntarily give money into a community chest which we redistribute to various staff members, ministries, and outreach opportunities. Economies are complex, all economies. People living within a totalitarian socialistic state also suffer from this human void I am talking about. We have this hole in our lives and we are on a search to fill it, to satisfy this hunger. Economies are created to deal with, and capitalize on, that void.<br />
Economy is an interesting word. It comes from the Greek word oikos, meaning household. When we talk about the economy we are talking about the household of a society, how it is managing its household. This is why budgets are called moral documents. Have you ever heard that: a budget is a moral document? If you want to know what someone thinks is important, look at their budget. This works for nations and people alike.<br />
Today Jesus is teaching us about the economy, the household, of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is showing us how we are to live in this world, but his way. And it’s counter-cultural. Instead of the culture that teaches us to be better, faster, stronger; Jesus is urging us to take a back seat. He is telling us that the humble will be exalted, and also that those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Not only that, but that we should be about the business of giving to those to whom we have no hope of getting paid back! Not getting paid back? That’s just bad business! No wonder Jesus stopped being a carpenter! I imagine Jesus would go bankrupt thinking like that, he probably made furniture and doors for poor folks who couldn’t pay him a dime!<br />
But that’s the teaching, this is what he says, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”<br />
It’s interesting, many economic historians assume that economies were initially built on barter systems, and they generally are; but what we are finding out is a little more interesting. It seems that the straight barter doesn’t really work like that. For example, let’s say I have an ox and you have goats. You need the ox, but I don’t need the goats right now. So I give you the ox, and now you are in my debt, for, say, five goats. That debt, right there is the beginning of all economies. That debt gets moved around and re-symbolized and re-symbolized into currency and now into ones and zeros that the banks move around and invest.<br />
But here, in the words of Jesus we learn about another economy, an economy that is almost unimaginable: an economy that is based on the gift with no hope, or expectation, of re-payment. This is the grace economy. This is the economy of the good news of God. Jesus is removing the debt, the debt, the void, the thing that we are all after to satisfy; Jesus is inviting us to leave it alone, don’t try to fill it.<br />
This is the meaning of Christian freedom: whereas the culture endeavors to give us freedom to pursue our desires which we think will satisfy us, but Christ gives us the freedom from our need to always seek satisfaction. The economy of God usurps the normal ordering of our lives. And why shouldn’t it? People at Saint John’s are always asking me, “Why do you always have to talk about being counter-cultural?” My answer is because God is counter-cultural! If he were just like us, we wouldn’t worship him! God is different from you! And he aches in that difference. God says in the prophet Isaiah, “your thoughts are not like my thoughts,” and how he aches for our thoughts to be more and more similar.<br />
My brothers and sisters. You will never be satisfied with getting more and more. There is always something more to be had, something more to be. The world will never ever ever ever say to you, “You’ve done enough. You are enough. Why not just rest awhile and enjoy your family, don’t buy anything you don’t need. Just…be.” The world will never say that, nor should we expect it to. But Jesus is calling us to imagine a gift economy, a grace-living where we stop trying to fill the void, we stop keeping track of debts and keeping score.<br />
Let me close this with a story, [this is from Peter Rollins' <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Idolatry-God-Addiction-Satisfaction/dp/1451609027">Idolatry of God</a>, used with permission]<br />
It seems that there was a successful Texan. (all stories that feature Texans are automatically good, in my opinion) Well, he had done quite well for himself and had a sense that he wanted to find out more about where he came from, so he did some looking around in his family tree. Low and behold the Texan found out that he had a cousin in Ireland. <br />
Well, the Texan flew out there and walked up to the door and met his long lost cousin Seamus. Seamus said, “Well, I suppose you’d like to see the family land.” “Yes I would indeed,” said the Texan. SO Seamus takes his cousin out in the back yard and says, “You see that old chicken coop over there? That’s the southern boundary of my land. You see that fence right there? That’s the eastern boundary of the land. You see that lawn mower? That the western boundary of the land.”<br />
The Texan scoffed. “Well, let me tell you, I could drive all day south and never reach the southern boundary of my land. And I could drive all day east and never reach the eatern boundary of my land, and I could drive all day west and never reach the western boundary!”<br />
“Yeah,” says Seamus, “I used to have a car like that.”<br />
You see, Seamus is so outside the game of being in the seat of honor that he can’t even understand that his Texan cousin is trying to belittle him.<br />
The gift economy! <br />
Take the lower seat, invite those and give to those who cannot pay you back. <br />
Give it a try. <br />
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