tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70646034718419143802024-03-08T08:34:32.560-08:00Parson to Person -- by Rob ElderUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger226125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-36996735373903027282013-05-19T20:58:00.003-07:002013-05-19T20:58:47.002-07:00Ways of God and Some Other Ways
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Woosh! The Ways of
God (and Some Other Ways)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark 2:23-3:6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Acts 2:1-21<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First
Presbyterian Church Robert
J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Vancouver,
Washington Ninth
Sunday of Ordinary Time: May 19, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
college and seminary friend of mine, also a pastor, told me once about an everyday
sort of experience with his next door neighbor, a faithful, kosher-observant,
conservative Jew. My friend is what many would call – in as kindly a way as
possible – mechanically-impaired. Buy him all the books about how things work
that you want, he just doesn’t get it. So he generally leaves the mechanical
things of life to the experts: he tries always to drive a late-model car so he
won’t have to worry about mechanical breakdowns, calls in the plumbers or
electricians whenever there is a need and never tries to manage such “handyman”
things himself. I don’t think he ever watched <i>Home Improvement</i>, if you recall that sitcom, or put up anything
like a tool shed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Early one Saturday morning, my friend’s Jewish
neighbor peered out and saw him struggling with a ladder, planning wash the
upstairs windows on their two-story home. The neighbor – whose windows were of
the same make – called out to him, “Why don’t you do that from the inside?”
These were the sort of windows which, by flipping a lever, you can pull into
the house for easy cleaning. “I can’t figure it out,” my friend responded,
apparently too proud to admit he was so mechanically klutzy he even needed to
hire out such a simple task. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The neighbor, resting at home on Saturday, his
religious sabbath, called out again, “I could come over tomorrow and show you.
What would be a good time?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“You know what I do tomorrow!?” my pastor friend
responded. There is little time for washing windows on a Sunday for most
pastors!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Hmmm,” said the sabbath-observant Jewish next-door
neighbor, perhaps recalling for whom God created the sabbath in the first
place, “wait there a minute and I’ll be over.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus said that the sabbath was made for humanity and
not humanity for the sabbath. Most of us, with our exceptionally-relaxed, 21st
century understanding of the sabbath as a day when we might choose to go to
church for an hour or so in the morning, and then spend the rest of the day
gardening, or catching up on work at the office, or doing a thousand other
things, most of us have lost sight of the strict nature of sabbath regulations
for observant Jews. Whether he would have put it this way or not, my friend’s
Jewish neighbor was taking to heart Jesus’ own words in such a way as to
demonstrate that he knew what it means that God established the sabbath for the
welfare and happiness of humanity, and not the other way around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our time-driven culture – where we find too little
time for working, sleeping, nurturing relationships, playing, exercising,
cleaning the house, entertaining friends, meeting social obligations, washing
upstairs windows – in this culture there is an increasing longing for what both
Jews and Christians call sabbath, even though many do not know what name to put
on it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The command to observe the sabbath appears in the Ten
Commandments, which themselves appear in two places in the Old Testament:
Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 5.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> In Exodus, the reason given for keeping to a day of
rest after six days of labor is that it follows the pattern God set when
creating the world, working six days, resting on the seventh. We are reminded
by our own sabbath rest that we are made in the very image of our Creator. In
Deuteronomy, the reason given for sabbath rest is that the Jews were freed
slaves. Slaves cannot take a day off from labor. Free people can. No wonder,
when extra hours have to be spent at our jobs, we often refer to it almost
instinctively by saying, “I’ve been slaving at work for over a week!” To live
without sabbath rest <i>is</i> like slavery!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, in Jesus’ world as well as ours, while the
sabbath was defined by many things, the one thing it was not to be was a day
for work. Defining what is meant by work has provided full-time employment for
religious authorities through the centuries, but about the main general principle
there is agreement. And it is this: A day of rest from work provides a weekly
reminder that, in the end, it is not human effort that meets the needs of the
world, but rather the providing love of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have probably all heard too many sermons on Jesus’
strong words to the Pharisees concerning sabbath observance sermons which say
something to the effect that the Jews of his day were not much more than a
bunch of legalists who missed the spirit of the sabbath commandment. Perhaps
our too-eager embrace of this view has lead to our slovenly sabbath practice as
Christians, where a Sunday appears to be little more than another “day off”
during a weekend, which may or may not be punctuated by attendance at an
hour-long worship service. True sabbath observance, at its best, has been said
to “open a space for God”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> in the middle of the times of our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what was Jesus’ problem? Why did he get into
entanglements with the Pharisees over sabbath observance? Jesus asked whether
it was lawful to do good on the sabbath, and the silence of his opponents gave
him leave to let his actions give the answer. Sabbath is intended for the
goodness of humanity. But any time we read a passage of scripture and easily
find ourselves right away on Jesus’ side, we have probably not read the passage
corectly, or at least not fully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imagine Israel as an occupied country. The Romans had
succeeded in subduing many other countries and cultures, and they fully
intended to do the same with Israel. It was not just brute force which accomplished
this, though Lord knows there was plenty of that. They had somehow understood
the importance of cultural transformation. Everyone was required to honor the
emperor, subtly substituting his empire-wide image on coins, flags, and
statuary for the social cohesiveness formerly provided by local religious
customs and practices. Countries all around the former Roman empire speak
versions of Latin to this day: French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Romanian,
all testimony to the subversive cultural success of Roman empire building. No
wonder the rabbis were adamant about the provisions of the law of Israel. To
retain their uniqueness as a people tremendous effort was required to resist
pressures to conform. And among their distinctive traits was the observance of
sabbath every 7th day. To give that up would be to disappear into the generic
population of Roman-dominated Mediterranean peoples of the first century. Then
along came this itinerant preacher, Jesus from Galilee, who appeared to teach
that sabbath observance was an option rather than a requirement of their faith.
The opposition Jesus encountered is more understandable when we realize all
this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet we also need to remember what Jesus was really
doing through his actions on the sabbath. He was not saying that the sabbath is
irrelevant or even optional. He was simply issuing a reminder that God is Lord
even of a religious tradition as sacred as the sabbath. Our commitment to
religious observances concerning God should never overshadow our acknowledgement
that God is Lord even of our religious observances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is the way of God to be gracious, to require work
and then provide for rest, to free those who are bound. Our world is designed
with such graciousness in mind. Being weak creatures, we are in need of
frequent reminders about this. One day in seven is not a bad proportion for
reminding us about the grace of God. But we can turn such reminders into a sort
of substitute god, forgetting the graciousness of the One who gave them. For
this reason, Jesus came not to change the law, but to remind us of the
compassionate nature of the God whose law helps keep <i>us</i> gracious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus did not do away with sabbath observance. He did
not say that everyone is now free to take their sabbath when and where and in
whatever fashion they like, to follow a sort of “everyone for themselves”
approach to faith expression, which has become one of the chief shortcomings of
our lives in the church today. No, the point becomes clear that Jesus, when
asked about what is lawful declared that what is lawful is not nearly so
important a question as what is merciful, what is gracious, and, above all,
what points to the One who is Lord even over the sabbath itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our religious obligations we are not free to
enslave or starve people in order to maintain some lofty principle of law. When
the contest comes to a choice between compassion, food for the hungry, freedom
for the captive on the one hand, and some abstract principle on the other, it
is compassion, freedom, and care for others which are most clearly the ways of
God. Any other way is some course other than <i>the</i> way of the One who is Lord even of the sabbath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we look ahead to a new chapter in the life of our
congregation, with new leadership coming with the arival of Josh Rowley, we are
reminded of this God who provides all we need and more, in the way of
leaderhip, resources, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded
of a whole day each week given to us for freedom from work – a tithe of a 7th
of our time – by which we celebrate the gift of life itself, given back to God,
it’s true posessor. This is really good news.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, as we look ahead, we need to remember good news
is always worth sharing. So share!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Blessings to you all. And thank
you for your many many kindnesses to me and my family these last 3 plus years.</span>
</span><div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> I am
indebted to Dorothy Bass' article, “Keeping Sabbath: Reviving a Christian
Practice,” in <i>Christian Century</i>, for
seminal ideas in this paragraph<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Ibid. p.
14.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-87720852916846487882013-04-28T18:34:00.002-07:002013-04-28T18:34:31.101-07:00Beginnings and Endings
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beginnings
and Endings<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: right 436.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Robert
J. Elder<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: right 436.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">First Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, Washington</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: right 436.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Revelation
21:1-6<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Fifth
Sunday of Easter: April 28, 2013</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’ve spent a lot of time the last several days
thinking on the events that took place at, during, and after the Boston
Marathon, as I am sure many of us have: A vicious attack characterized by
senseless, indifferent slaughter and injury to innocent people by people who
were strangers to them. Why must the world be this way? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But we ought not stop with the events in
Boston.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">People: Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist – are despoiled, beaten, or killed in places ranging
from Mexico to Syria to North Korea to East Africa. One beating does nothing to
atone for another, and yet the beatings go on. Police beatings, gang beatings,
racially or religiously motivated violence have all become part of the daily
headlines. Why must the world be this way?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Owners of small businesses and shops go
out of business in many cities around the world, their stores burned out,
looted, closed forever. Innocent people living in desolate neighborhoods, folks
who didn’t riot and steal, as well as those who did, find they have even fewer
places to go and get the necessities of daily life. Innocent people running in
the Boston Marathon come away with shrapnel wounds. Why must the world be this
way?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For decades now, economists have
reported that the gap between rich and poor in America has been growing at an
alarming rate, that violence from Los Angeles to Michigan to Miami is a symptom of a despair
that accompanies a sense of lost future, of hopelessness. Why must the world be
this way?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In countries, some of whose names we can
hardly pronounce, in some countries which didn’t even
exist on world
maps a decade or two ago, whole
communities are torn apart by hatred: ethnic, tribal, religious. Sunni Muslims
kill Shiite Muslims, South American rebel forces kill teenage army draftees.
Why must the world be this way?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One German philosopher looked out on his nineteenth
century world and saw the economic dislocation of common people that was
brought on by the industrial revolution. He realized that the power to make
economic decisions rested in the hands of small groups of people, that their
control of financial institutions and even governments made substantial
betterment of the lives of working people a virtual impossibility. He longed
for a world in which economies were in the hands of the common people rather
than a few powerful individuals. He asked “Why must the world be this way?” and
answered by writing books and tracts that predicted a coming new world order in which all
means of production would be held in community for all, rather than by a
powerful few. His name was Karl Marx.
Even though he seems to have asked the same sort of
questions we find ourselves asking well over a hundred years later, his
proposed solutions have so far proved to be a mixed blessing philosophically, socially, and economically to say the least. The twenty-first century communist world, founded on various versions of
Marxist theory, has fallen to pieces, and is dying
from the weight of the failure of its attempted solutions. Human beings are
apparently incapable of bringing in a new, just world order under our own
power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One twentieth-century singer-song writer
spent much of his life speaking out for peace. He wrote one song in which he
asked us to “imagine” a world without countries, weapons, war. He also implored in one of
his songs, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.” He saw the self-defeating madness of the endless
stockpiling of weaponry by the nations of the world and asked, “Why must the
world be this way?” His name was John Lennon. He is long-since dead of course,
another victim of senseless violence. And though the world may seem to us to be a bit less tense internationally, within the borders
of the former superpowers as well as the second and third-rate powers, ethnic strife seems always on the verge of creating a
world-wide <i>im</i>plosion rather than a
nuclear <i>ex</i>plosion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Even my imaginary 7 year-old friend
Clayton found that he was confused last week. His good friend, Jackson, stayed
home from school nearly all week. When Clayton asked his mother why, she said
that Jackson’s mother was afraid for his safety. Jackson is black. Some boys
had been taunting him on the playground a week ago Monday. With all the racial
violence on the television, Jackson’s mother thought it would be just as well
to keep him home for a few days. Clayton wondered the child’s version of, “Why must the world be this way?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">He’s certainly not the first 7 year-old
to wonder this. Nor, sadly, is it likely he will
be the last. We all long for a better world. That dream is as old as humanity,
and from some perspectives, futile. Once, when the people of Judah had been
languishing in brutal exile in Babylon, enslaved and force-marched to a foreign
land where they were made the servants of the Babylonians, Isaiah wondered,
“Why must the world be this way?” Then he recorded a word from God which said, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 117.0pt 2.0in 4.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> “Do
not remember the former things, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 117.0pt 2.0in 4.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> or
consider the things of old.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 117.0pt 2.0in 4.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I
am about to do a new thing...”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We long for the arrival of that new
thing just as fully as the Jews longed for rescue from their exile. We are
weary of the world as it is. We long for a new world. So when John announced in
Revelation, “I saw a <i>new</i> heaven and a
<i>new</i> earth,” it gets our attention.
And he throws a “<i>new</i> Jerusalem” into
the bargain. In response to our persistent question, “Why must the world be
this way?” like the exiled Jews of Isaiah’s day we hear that something new is
happening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The people who first read and heard
John’s words were living in a world hostile to their very faith. Many were
called on to make the only witness to their faith available in their violent
world: martyrdom. In fact, the Greek word “martureo” <i>means</i> “to bear witness.” The cry of those going to their death for
their faith, the plea of those facing the same fate must have been something on
the order of, “Why must the world be this way?” Something needs to be done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">John’s vision in Revelation assures us
that something </span><i style="font-size: medium;">has been</i><span style="font-size: small;"> done, </span><i style="font-size: medium;">is being</i><span style="font-size: small;"> done, and </span><i style="font-size: medium;">will be</i><span style="font-size: small;"> done.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-size: small;">All that is accomplished is described as “new.” The
thing that is new is also as old as the first covenant God made with people and
as new as the mob of children who come weekdays to our preschool: </span><i style="font-size: medium;">relationship</i><span style="font-size: small;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whenever we ask, “Why must the world be
this way?” chances are good that what has broken down in one way or another is
relationship: the healthy relationship between people of different races, the
desired relationship of friendship between Jackson and his playmates on the
school play yard, the satisfying relationship between
work and vocation or calling. To that persistent question uttered by humanity,
“Why must the world be this way?” the Bible responds with stories,
declarations, visions, prophecies of God’s desire for a new relationship with
people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What is new is that very thing which God
has sought to establish with people since the beginning: relationship. The Old
Testament describes it as a dwelling or tabernacle,
but anyone who knows anything about life under a single roof knows that to live
in the same house means to be in relationship. So what is new is also very old.
Since the beginning, since the <i>Alpha</i>
of Revelation, God has desired relationship with people, so that we might be in
right relationship with each other. And if we ever want to know the end or goal
or <i>Omega</i> toward which God is moving
the world, we
must keep in mind the same word. The
beginning and ending of God’s purpose for us and for the world is just this
vision: “See, the <i>home of God</i> is
among mortals.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">God wants to be at home among us. The
vision of John brings to mind the very things that happen in healthy homes.
That is where tears are wiped away, where mourning and crying and pain are alleviated
by the love that lives there. As we talked about this passage at a Bible study
I once led, we kept falling into the temptation to speak of this vision as if
it existed entirely in the future. But one person in the group reminded us that
this is God’s declaration for today. God’s desire is to be at home with us <i>today</i>, not just in some distant future.
If we fail to treat each other better than we do, it’s not because the new
Jerusalem exists off in some distant future, but because even though new Jerusalem
has already been subdivided and built, we choose to live in old town, to
continue as slaves to sin rather than as people freed by the resurrection of
Christ to live a life that is entirely new.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When John wrote that “the sea was no more,” he was
writing from his imprisonment on the island of Patmos, separated from his
fellow believers by a seemingly endless tract of ocean. Very likely, he would
have preferred to be with them as they faced their ordeal and their
persecution. But there was a great sea between them. No wonder part of his
vision of heaven included the eradication of that barrier to human
relationships. The beginning and ending of the life of a believer rests in
relationship: relationship with God, and relationship with each other in Christ.
It is the Alpha and the Omega, that which put in motion the very cosmos itself,
and which is the goal or end toward which God is moving the world and its
history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This vision of beginnings and endings is
priceless because of the assurance it contains, that no matter what, no matter how desperate our
exile, how brutal our encounters on the
streets of the city, how unjust our experiences with each other, that is not
the direction
in which God’s purpose is moving. Though our view of the
hopefulness which God builds into his purpose for creation may be as limited as
the Jews in exile, the Christian martyrs of the first century, and the beaten
and suffering victims of modern violence, God’s work is even now providing a
new world. It is a world in which God lives with us, eradicates death,
suffering, even tears.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">God does not bring on the end of the world. God <i>is</i> the end. And glorifying God is our chief end. Receive Christ, know the God who love
you, and offer God your praise. Amen.</span>
</span></span><div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span></span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-right: -.5in;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Isaiah
43:18-19a.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-right: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Revelation
21:1-8”, by Rudolph Raber, in <i>Interpretation</i>,
July 1986, p. 296.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 7pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who
Are They – Whose Are They?<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">John 10:22-30 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Revelation 7:9-17 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;">Robert J. Elder, Pastor</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 21,
2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Suppose
you are a great sports buff, one who follows every Mariner and Blazer game with
the fierce intensity of a true and loyal fan. But imagine that you were to be
called out of the country for the week of a final game, tending to business in,
say, Thailand, where you couldn’t expect much coverage of American sports in
the local newspapers even if you could <i>read</i>
the local newspapers. But you are a real fan, so you had set your home TV
system to record the upcoming game before you left. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And suppose, on your return, before you had a
chance to watch the recorded game, one of your friends saw you in town and said
to you, “Welcome home! Say, how about those Blazers!” in such a way that you
thought maybe they had won the critical game. Now, as you watched the recorded
game unfold, you would have a different level of anxiety after a bad call from
a referee or when one of the front line players fouled out of the game, wouldn’t
you? You could still get excited about the action, but in the end, you would
think you knew who the final winner would be. It would be something like
reading a detective novel backwards. Come tribulation and hardship, you would
be secure in your knowledge. As they struggled to prevail on the screen, you
would know that in reality, your team was already victorious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">That’s something like the purpose for reading
Revelation in the church. If we take Revelation 7 seriously, we will know that
come this or come that ordeal or setback, victory has already been declared in
heaven, God’s salvation is already a fact, and the woes through which we go are
the mopping-up operation of a battle that has already been won. So no matter
what, from the testimony of John in Revelation we know that the salvation of
God is victorious. Set in the middle of the strife that believers knew then,
reminding us of the strife we may know today, John’s witness never lets up on
the ultimate victory of God, the final security in which believers may rest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And, like a pre-recorded Blazer game, John records
a victory of God which is already accomplished, not just some reality that
awaits us in the future. While many television preachers may be preoccupied
with some calendar for God’s future intervention in the world, John gives us a
vision of God’s triumph that has already broken in upon the human scene. In
Revelation, the future is determining and creating the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But who are these saved ones in John’s vision? Who
are those folks he saw gathered around the throne of God in heaven?</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-indent: -0.5pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">WHO ARE THEY?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">One thing is certain. John looked into heaven, and
the people he saw surrounding the throne of God outnumbered his personal circle
of acquaintance. Who are the people that Jesus – the Lamb – has in mind for his
church, as members of his flock, his sheep who will know his voice and follow
him? Our friends and neighbors, certainly. But more than that, just as
certainly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his
descendents would be as countless as the stars in the heavens. In the new
Israel, the Church, John’s vision in Revelation demonstrates that God’s promise
to Abraham is fulfilled. The multitude in the chorus in heaven — from every
nation and language – is so large that no one could count them all!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So often, we are preoccupied with questions about
who may and who may not be numbered among the elect, who may and who may not be
the apple of Jesus’ eye just as much as we are. One of the worst tendencies of
many church fellowships is this inclination to presume to know who belongs to
the host of heaven. This scene from Revelation should startle us any time we
are inclined toward that presumption. Apparently, the way to be numbered among
the elect has little to do with knowing who <i>else</i>
is saved, and everything to do with knowing the one doing the saving. The main
thing is to know the Shepherd; we may never know the name and number of all his
other sheep, all his other flocks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is hard news for those of us who can only find
pleasure in having when others have not, in knowing when others are ignorant,
in receiving love when we are certain others are loveless, in triumphing when
others are defeated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">John’s admitted ignorance about the “ins and outs”
of heaven ought to be a lesson for the community of faith. John, in looking
upon the multitudes in heaven, when asked who they were, was struck not by
their familiarity but their diversity. The fellowship of the saved is destined
to be greater than we expect. Remember the final scene in John’s gospel, when
Jesus told Peter that he would be imprisoned for his faith, and Peter saw John
walking along behind and asked, “What about him?” Jesus said, “What is that to
you? Follow me!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This reminds me of a wonderful little poem I read
once and which has stayed with me through the years:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> I
dreamt death came the other night,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> And
heaven’s gate swung wide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 5pt 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> An
angel with a halo bright ushered me inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> And
there! to my astonishment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> stood
folks I’d judged and labeled:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 5pt 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> As <i>quite unfit</i>, of little worth, and
spiritually disabled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Indignant
words rose to my lips<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> but
never were set free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> For
every face showed stunned surprise – no one expected me!</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Who will we find in heaven? The only way we will
know is by following Jesus. The task of the disciple is not to sort the sheep
from the goats but to obey and follow the Shepherd...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-indent: -0.5pt;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">WHOSE</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> ARE
THEY?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">...which helps us know that the main issue in
determining the population of heaven is not in finding out <i>who</i> they are, but <i>whose</i>
they are. To whom do these folks belong? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When the day of the festival of Hanukkah came
around and Jesus was in the temple, those who remembered the last big victory
they had known – the victory still celebrated at Hanukkah, commemorating the
time the Maccabee family drove the Syrians out of their homeland — they looked
to Jesus and demanded a final answer from him. “Are you the Messiah?” Are you
the one to whom we need to belong for a new victory?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">If we’re honest about it, we all struggle with this
“Who is Jesus?” question from time to time. Should I throw my lot in with him,
or should I wait and get more information? Jesus seldom responds to his
questioners just the way we wish, because he may not be just the Messiah for
whom we wish. If we want to know who Jesus is, our best opportunity to know is
in asking the ones who are following him. They are part of that uncountable
multitude who have come out of great ordeals. To follow Jesus is to know him. “Those
who stand back, arms folded, waiting to be convinced” will never receive the
final proof concerning Jesus’ lordship. “Those who enter the flock are the ones
who hear the Shepherd’s voice.”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> They are the ones over whom the Shepherd will
watch eternally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When we were very little, if we were blessed with a
good home, one of our parents — very likely it was our mothers — spent a good
deal of time watching over us, literally.
As we lay sleeping in our cribs, we were observed 0and cherished. As we
took our first steps, said our first words, celebrated our first birthdays, we
were watched and treasured. I seldom hold an infant at the time of baptism when
I don’t think of the eyes of the congregation as well as the eyes of God
watching over, guiding that child. Young children don’t mind it when we watch
over them. In fact, they often feel an immediate sense of panic and uncertainty
if a familiar face is nowhere to be found in a crowded room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But that comfort under the watchful gaze of others
begins to give way, ultimately, to an adolescent desire for freedom from
observation, for privacy. Children make a game of it initially, closing their
eyes in an effort to make others disappear. As we mature, we want to control
when we will be seen, and who will see us. And we want to hide many things from
anyone’s observation. We may have come to believe that no one, not even God,
watches over us any more. But it is not true. At the center of the very throne
of heaven, the center of life itself is the Lamb, watching over us like a
Shepherd, because we are his.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt 4.5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">“Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb!”
Some of these saints pictured in John’s vision have sacrificed everything, even
their lives, for the sake of the gospel. Now, even acknowledging their
sacrifice, they continue to recognize that salvation is a gift of God in every
way. No amount of self-sacrificing will bring them their salvation, nor will
any failure to measure up take it away. That is because of who we are and whose
we are: We are the followers of the Shepherd and our lives mirror the salvation
we have found in him. And we are his.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> We are they
who have come out of great ordeals;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> we have washed our robes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> For this
reason we are before the throne of God<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> and worship him day and night within his
temple,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> and the one who is seated on the throne
shelters us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> We will
hunger no more, and thirst no more;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> the sun will not strike us,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> nor any
scorching heat;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> for the Lamb
at the center of the throne will be our shepherd,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> and he will guide us to springs of the water of
life,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5pt; tab-stops: 31.5pt 58.5pt 1.25in 4.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"> Written
by Margie Gray Eugene, OR <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-right: -0.5in; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"> <i>Preaching the New Common Lectionary:Year C,
Lent, Holy Week, Easter</i>, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;"> Fred Craddock et. al., Abingdon, p.184.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-2235147616268056352013-04-07T14:56:00.002-07:002013-04-07T14:56:31.697-07:00Keeping in Touch
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">© copyright 2013 Robert J. Elder<!--EndFragment-->
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 6.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John 20:19-31<span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Robert
J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First
Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, Washington<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second
Sunday of Easter: April 7, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In
1899, Congressman William Vandiver coined a phrase when he said, “I come from a
state that raises corn, cotton, cockleburs, and Democrats; and frothy eloquence
neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri. You’ve got to <i>show</i> me.” The bit about frothiness
didn’t stick, but that “I’m from Missouri ... show me” business sure did.
People who require evidence have been saying, “I’m from Missouri” ever since.
Probably Thomas was the one disciple who could be said, in Congressman
Vandiver’s sense of it, to have been “from Missouri.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and
put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not
believe.” Sermons are often based on this episode by focusing on the doubts
which Thomas harbored. I have heard Thomas’ doubts compared to everything under
the sun. Frederick Buechner once called doubts “the ants in the pants of
faith,” because, he said, “they keep it alive and moving.” Talking of
ants-in-the-pants leads me to think on the equally stimulating value of fleas.
The chief character of Edward Noyes Westcott’s late 19<sup>th</sup> century
novel, <i>David Harum</i>, declared, “A
reasonable amount o’ fleas is good fer a dog – keeps him from broodin’ over
being a dog.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Which goes well with the observation of Sir Francis
Galon, the nineteenth century English scientist who said, “Well-washed and
well-combed dogs grow dull; they miss the stimulus of fleas.” All this has
reminded many preachers of a similarity between the stimulating effect of fleas
on a dog and doubts in a person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, though, I have found my eye returning to a
different aspect of the story from John’s gospel. It has to do with Jesus’
wounds and his invitation to Thomas – to all of us – to touch them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every so often, it seems almost on a daily basis, we
hear reports about a roadside bomb going off somewhere in the world, sometimes
right here at home, killing and maiming X number of innocent bystanders. A
couple of decades ago, we would have been shocked reading such reports. Now
they seem as common as a morning cup of coffee. We have become awfully
calloused to the suffering that human beings visit on one another. To the weary
world, these must seem to be just more wounds on an already much-wounded
planet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t know about you, but every time I read the
story of Thomas, I am shocked at his desire to touch Jesus in his wounded
places. Yet I am equally undone by the fact that this does not seem to bother
the risen Jesus all that much. He invites Thomas’ probing fingers into his
wounds, into the places where he was injured, battered, killed for the sake of
the gospel. The week before, when Thomas wasn’t with them, Jesus invited all of
the other disciples to see his hands and side. Jesus invited Thomas, as he
invited all of them, as he invites us, to touch his wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Unless I touch your wounds, I will not believe.” If
finding wounds to touch is the problem, then the solution is as near at hand as
the latest disaster, the nearby suffering of innocents. Pictures coming across
our TV screens on a daily basis remind us that wounds are near at hand indeed.
I believe that we can touch Jesus’ wounds today. Indeed, I believe we must.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember in John’s gospel how the disciples reacted
to the news of Jesus’ resurrection? They heard the report from Mary Magdalene,
that she had met the risen Jesus. Did they suddenly sing out for joy, begin
praising God in the streets, challenge the authority of the Scribes and
Pharisees? No, John reports what they did: “When it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had
met were locked out of fear...” The resurrection of Jesus did not embolden the
disciples, nor did it grant them faith. It sent them scrambling to the safety
of a retreat to the room where they had last eaten with him. Thomas is called
the doubter, but looking around that chilly upper room, I don’t see anything
passing for faith on the faces of those fear-filled disciples that Easter
evening, do you? Thomas, when he found his voice, merely said what everyone
else was thinking when they first heard that Jesus had risen. “How can I <i>know</i> Jesus is risen?” He sought some
tangible assurance. Why is it that he thought of contact with Jesus’ wounds as
the way to receive that assurance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thomas, always the practical one, thought he found
the other disciples deep in the denial stage that some folks go through when
they lose a loved-one to death. Practical Thomas, who tried to keep Jesus from
traveling to Judea to be with the family of Lazarus – after all, the last time
he was there they tried to stone him! – Thomas, who finally agreed to go along,
but with his eyes open: “Let’s go, then, so we can all die with him,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the end came, Thomas ducked for cover like the
rest, but he was also the last to emerge from hiding. He was, as I said, the
practical one. He found the others in denial. “We have seen the Lord!” they
said. “Unless I ... put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his
side, I will not believe.” The translators may be too tame, out of deference to
our tender sensibilities. It’s a pity. The original word for “putting” his hand
means to <i>thrust </i>or<i> jab</i>. “Unless I <i>thrust</i> (Gk.: <i>Balo</i>) my
finger in the mark of the nails ... unless I <i>jab</i> my hand into his wounded side...” Ouch. Thomas seems to need to
observe Jesus wince in pain to believe that what was human and very much dead
had now become immortal. I am undone by this whole scene, but especially by the
fact that Jesus responded to Thomas’ words by <i>inviting</i> his probing touch. It did not seem to bother the risen
Jesus. He invited Thomas’ to jab at his wounds, the places of deadly injury, if
that’s what he needed. Jesus invited Thomas, invites us, to touch him in his
wounded places, just as for so many in Galilee Jesus had touched wounded places
to make them well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Somehow this moment, this knowing of Jesus’ wounds,
transformed Thomas – and all of them – so that fear melted into joy. But this
is more than an arrival at the condition we call faith. It is also a story
about a commissioning: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: .25in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“‘Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having invited them to participate in his own wounds,
suffered for their sakes, Jesus commissioned them, the wounded, fear-filled
disciples, to show their wounds to the world, to touch the world in its wounded
places. The world says in reply to all our pontifications on faith and
doctrine, about resurrection and the ministry of Christ, “Unless I thrust my
hand into the church and find real wounds, no way I’ll ever believe.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am often asked about the decline of members in the
Presbyterian church nationally. I am afraid I have no really good answers to
the question. The sum of what I know about the church as a denomination is that
if its individual churches fail to be faithful, no amount of conversation about
faithfulness as a denomination will suffice. Ask any group of gathered
Presbyterians to raise their hand if they have grown children who are not
active in any church. Dozens of hands will go up. It is our own people we have
lost, more than people who have left in a rage over some obscure point of
doctrine. We don’t lose members due to strife over big issues of dogma. We lose
our own children when they are bored with what the church isn’t doing. The
world is broken and wants to touch
our wounds to see if there can be healing. But when we dress up our wounds to
hide them from the world, we do a disservice to the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read once about a psychiatrist who said, “‘Good
mothers tend to be a little bit messy. At least their grooming isn’t perfect.’
He knew that the touch of the small child, seeking assurance of safety and
love, should not be hampered by warnings not to spoil makeup or displace
carefully arranged hair. Jesus, our good Lord and our good friend, would pass
[the] test for a loving, embracing presence.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think Jesus always moved, and still moves, toward
the wounded ones. Like fire fighters weeping over children they cannot save, or
physicians and nurses pausing solemnly in the ER over a patient they can’t
manage to resuscitate, Jesus moves toward the wounded places on the earth,
touches the wounds of those who suffer, and brings healing where there had been
despair. When we touch the wounds of others to bring healing, we are touching
the very body of Christ.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> <i>David Harum: A Story of American Life</i>,
by Edward N. Westcott, (Grossett & Dunlap: 1898), p. 284.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> “Fingering the Evidence,” by Richard
B. Hays, <i>Christian Century</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Mediated
through Flesh,” by Margaret Guenther, <i>Christian
Century.</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-29702918775529022542013-03-31T22:12:00.002-07:002013-03-31T22:12:36.813-07:00Changing Course in Mid-Sentence
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<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Changing
Course in Mid-Sentence</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Acts 10:34-44 Easter
Sunday, March 31, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before
I can really get underway with this sermon, I really need to say a word or two
about the scripture passage for the day, especially on a day when we might have
thought we would be hearing about tombs and frightened disciples and stones
rolled away and Jesus’ missing body, and Mary standing, weeping asking the
gardener in the cemetery where they had taken Jesus. Of course, there have
been, and there will be, other Easters for the reading of those passages. Inasmuch
as this is likely to be my last Easter in this pulpit with you, I thought I’d
choose for today a lesson that concerns one of the outcomes of those first
sightings of the resurrected Jesus, as the disciples began to make their way
into the world with the word about his resurrection and all that it promised. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The very first disciple to move beyond the Jewish
people with this new saving word about salvation through the risen Christ was Peter,
who found himself drawn to a Roman centurion’s house, a man named Cornelius. He
wasn’t sure why he was going but he felt called to go, and once there, he was
welcomed and he began to preach to them. Then Luke tells us,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Peter was still speaking,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>the Holy
Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just love this verse from Acts. It was a moment in
which everything about our faith was made new, and made available for the whole
world. Any preacher who thinks he or she is in charge of worship, or in charge
of much of anything in any ultimate kind of sense, is always taken aback by the
Spirit that came storming in “While Peter was still speaking...” I imagine
Peter, in mid-sentence, Peter who had delivered a 500 word sermon earlier in
Acts about the living Christ, Peter was only getting warmed up here in this
story from his visit to Cornelius’ house, Cornelius: the first non-Jew to be
converted to Christianity. He didn’t even get to deliver any clever sermon
illustrations. He had no more than started to speak, when <i>WHAM!</i> the Holy Spirit took over, and what could he do but step
aside?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This kind of work of God, which interrupts us in
mid-sentence, brings on the surprising news that is really <i>new</i>, not the tired old stuff of human invention. I once read a headline
on the front page of our Presbytery’s newsletter that declared boldly,
“Presbytery Approves Discovering God.” Now, where was the controversy in <i>that</i> decision? Was it a split vote? But
when I read on, I discovered that the story had to do with an upcoming design
for the Presbytery’s work, called “Discovering God’s Call.” Oh. Well, that’s
not quite as funny. I am always in hopes that God’s surprising word will
intervene in the mundane places in our lives with a sort of newness that
interrupts us mid-sentence, especially if the sentence was about to say some
bland and predictable thing about a God who is author of something completely
unbland and non-predictable, like resurrection of the dead, something we don’t
just see every day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Late in the life and ministry of one of those folks
who was sometimes called a “preachers’ preacher,” Pastor Edmund Steimle was
working up a sermon on one of the scripture passages for Holy Saturday, the day
before Easter. He read from Lamentations chapter 3, which declares: “God’s
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” As he worked his way
through the passage Dr. Steimle thought to himself, “At my age, this promise of
newness every morning is at best a mixed blessing. I have come to the point in
life when I really don’t want <i>anything</i>
new in the morning. I want my slippers right beneath my bed where I left them
the night before. I want my orange juice and bran flakes for breakfast, as
normal. In my advanced years, I can do without a lot of newness, especially in
the morning.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe he would have sounded like an old crank to some
of us, but to others of us, he declares the sort of thing we may have said just
this morning. And, of course, Easter is the ultimate in total morning newness.
How can we cope with it? We may think we have something to say about it, but
just as we begin to speak, the Spirit may intervene with the kind of new thing
that saves a day we thought could never be saved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One fact of Easter that is inescapable is that God is
forever demonstrating something new God has in mind, something that it is
likely we did not expect. When it was created, did the earth expect dinosaurs,
orangutans, poison oak, Boeing 737s, $5.00 cups of coffee at Starbucks or that
there had once been water on its next-door neighbor planet? With God, as
Roseanne Rosanadana used to say, it’s always something. We might like to be in
our accustomed place, slippers on the floor next to the bed right where we left
them. We Presbyterians like to have votes and debates about whether we should
approve discovering God, if only God would stay put where we could get a bead
on him. We might have preferred sameness, we like things to stay where we put
them, we like to think we have the world under control, but things have a way
of getting rearranged by a God who, at the very least, seems to have a unique
sense of inventiveness if not humor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Roman guards dozing beside Jesus’ tomb expected a
dead body to stay where it had been deposited, and their slippers to be right
where they left them the night before. Peter, who grew up in an orthodox
household, expected non-Jews always to be where they belonged in his
thought-world, on a lower rung in the kingdom of God than those who were
children of Abraham. But then along comes this shake-it-up God, and BAM! Even a
pagan Roman officer of the occupying army receives the very Spirit of God,
along with everyone in his unclean, non-kosher household.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I imagine Peter, standing slack-jawed, mid-sentence,
when, as the scripture said, he “was still speaking,” and “the Holy Spirit fell
upon all who heard the word.” <i>All</i>.
All as in every single person, Jew, Gentile, clean, unclean, tall, short, fat,
skinny, the one who just passed the bar exam on her first try and the one who
can’t pass a bar. God seemed to be making no distinction, showing no partiality
as Peter had begun to understand when he started his little speech about Jesus,
who was crucified and then rose from the dead to call forth disciples in his
name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isn’t it just like God, when we have no sooner found
our slippers and stocked up on orange juice and bran flakes, to pull the
breakfast rug out from under us and declare a <i>new</i> thing? Here are two poems, both by a modern English poet, Steve
Turner, who, as is generally the task of poets, takes us to a place where we
may receive fresh views on seemingly tired subjects and make them new every
morning. First, this take on Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Nail Man</i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by Steve Turner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which
one was it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that
held the nails<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and
then hammered them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">into
place?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Did
he hit them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">out
of anger,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">or
a simple<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sense
of duty?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Was
it a job<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that
had to be done,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">or
a good day's work<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in
the open air?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And
when they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">clawed
past bone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and
bit into wood,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was
it like all the others,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">or
did history<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">shudder
a little<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">beneath
the head<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of
that hammer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Was
he still there,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">packing
away his tools,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when
‘It is finished’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was
uttered to the throng,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">or
was he at home<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">washing
his hands<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and
getting ready<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">for
the night?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Will
he be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">among
the forgiven<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on
that Day of Days,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">his
sin having been slain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by his own savage spike?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Secondly, Steve Turner’s take on Easter Day, the Day
of resurrection:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Poem for Easter</i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by Steve Turner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What
came first <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Easter
or the egg? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Crucifixion
or daffodils? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Three
days in a tomb or four days <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in
Paris? (returning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bank
Holiday Monday). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When
is a door <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">not
a door? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When
it is rolled away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When
is a body <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">not
a body? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When
it is risen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why
was it the Saviour <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">rode
on the cross? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Answer.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To
get us <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to
the other side. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Behold
I stand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Behold
I stand and what? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Behold
I stand at the door and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">knock
knock. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Can
you even resist wanting to call out “Who’s there”? And the instant you say it,
even in your mind, you know the answer: “Jesus.” Ever new, ever alive, ever
willing to save the nail-driver who filled his body with pain as readily as
saintly people who feed the poor in a soup kitchen. All. Christ will have all.
God shows no partiality, that’s what Peter said he was beginning to realize. We
can realize it too. It’s a good Easter Sunday realization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
account of Peter’s visit to a Gentile soldier’s home in Caesarea is filled to
the brim with newness, it has the newness of grace for all, fairly bursting
from the page as we read it. Especially in this day as we see the resurgence of
tribalism and clanism in places like Iraq and American politics, Peter’s very
first words in Cornelius’ house are startling. An impartial God? I don’t know,
I might like to find my slippers right where I left them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then
again, I might like being found even more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Copyright © 2013 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span>
</span><div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Quoted in
“Growing Old and Wise on Easter,” by Tom Long, <i>Journal for Preachers</i>, Easter 2001, p. 33.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> © 2002
rejesus ltd: http://www.rejesus.co.uk/expressions/steve_turner/index.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> 2002
rejesus ltd.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-36832970866735359472013-03-24T14:21:00.004-07:002013-03-24T14:21:59.919-07:00Something to Hold Onto
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Something
to Hold Onto<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isaiah 50:4-9a<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">© copyright 2013 Robert J. Elder</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sunday, March 24, 2013 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is the Lord GOD who helps me;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>who will declare me guilty?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every
time I hear this line from Isaiah, I think of several things. The first, of
course, is that these are words of an innocent man. Secondly, I also see Jesus,
having recently made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, hanging on the cross,
also an innocent man, holding onto the Lord God with an innocence that no one
in the mob that day seemed to recognize. And then I hear in my mind the words
of Paul in Romans 8, uttered at so many services held at the time of death:
“Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Palm Sunday and Easter are so very different,
separated by a wide week of suffering and death. The difference between Palm
Sunday and Easter is something like the little boy who had a ticket to the
circus, who went into town and saw the great parade of wagons, clowns and
exotic animals, and then went home because he thought that having seen the
parade, he had seen the circus. We know this isn’t so. And if we think about it
at all, we know Palm Sunday is not a little Easter. In some churches where folks
receive palms to wave, they fold them into litte crosses. This is where Palm
Sunday is headed, toward the cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The justification of God, given to us, free of charge
in Christ, that is something we can hold onto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why is this so? The apostle Paul had an answer to
that question. He said that though Jesus was in the form of God, he set that
aside in order to empty himself, take the form of a slave, and be born as a
human being. He said Jesus became the sort of servant for whom a call to face
death was not regarded as too great a task for one seeking to be faithful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What does it mean to be a slave or a servant – they
are the same word in the original language – what does it mean to be a slave or
servant who is willing to be obedient even to death? Few of us would have any
idea. The “Suffering Servant”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
depicted bythe prophet Isaiah is the prime Old Testament witness to a calling
to pursue freedom through servanthood. And as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday, he was preparing to perform the greatest service ever done for
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Hearing the
Word of God</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Speaking the words of God’s suffering servant, Isaiah
said, “Morning by morning he wakens – wakens my ear to listen as those who are
taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious...” Have you
ever thought about the need for our ears to be “wakened”? I have often been
asked by friends and family, on workcamps, retreats, and vacations, how I can
sleep through my own snoring. It’s easy for me, I say, my ears are asleep along
with the rest of me! What a great image Isaiah uses for preparing to hear the
Word God has to say to us: that God wakens our ears to hear. Before telling,
God makes us ready to hear. We may think our ears work fine already, but reflect
on how often our pre-set opinions can block out a new thing, especially a new
thing God would have us hear. We are so accustomed to listening for what we
already think that a new word might well pass us by, it’s just not familiar
enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember the old story about the man with beans in
his ears. His friend tells him, “You’ve got beans in your ears,” but he
responds, “What?” So his friend repeats his words a little more loudly, “I
said, you’ve got beans in your ears.” But the man responds again, “What?” So
the friends shouts now, “<i>YOU’VE GOT BEANS
IN YOUR EARS!</i>” and the man responds, “Sorry, I can’t hear you, you see,
I’ve got these beans in my ears...” It’s a silly story that points out two
things: our need to hear, but also that often the very thing we need to hear is
something we already know. Like an old commercial for corn flakes that urged us
to taste them again for the first time, many times the words of our faith are
something we need to hear again for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I once got a letter from a young friend of mine who
is a pastor. He was preaching his way through the lectionary, the three year
cycle of scripture that many of us use to organize our preaching. By the time
he reached his seventh year of ministry, he had been through the readings twice
before. He wrote to ask what I thought he should do. This was going to be his
third time through the same readings. His question made me think, “How many
times have I heard the parable of the prodigal Son? How often have I been
instructed by the incomparable words of the Sermon on the Mount? How important
is it to remind ourselves of the truth of John 3:16, that God loved the world
enough to send a savior to us?” I think I remember writing to him something
like, “The difference between hearing and hearing <i>again</i> is not as great as you might think. Those very same
worshipers have heard most of those Bible passages many times, long before you
began reading them with them.” When God opens our ears, as Isaiah said, it may
not be something entirely new that we are to hear, but something familiar that
strikes us in a new way this time around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the significant aspects of discipleship
involves hearing the Word of God, even if, as in the traumatic events of Holy
Week, that Word seems destined to shake us up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Doing the
Word of God<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You may recall that the letter of James is the one
that declares that “faith without works” is just about as good as no faith at
all. One of the jokes that perpetually makes the rounds in churches depicts a
person dying and finding himself in hell. He looks around and sees Martin
Luther and John Calvin standing nearby. He is deeply troubled. His own life was
not that exemplary, but how can these two great figures of the Protestant
Reformation have found themselves on the wrong side of the Pearly Gates? So he
asks them. Calvin responds, “I’m afraid it’s some bad news, really. Apparently
works <i>do</i> matter.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That story may seriously overstate the case for the
importance of the <i>doing</i> of the Word
of God, but it highlights the fact that coming to church, hearing about the
content of our faith is only part of the disciple’s task. It is good to know
the content of the truth about salvation. But <i>knowing</i> the work of salvation rightly leads to <i>doing</i> the work of salvation. Isaiah wrote words concerning the work
of discipleship which line up so readily with our anticipation of the events of
Holy Week: “I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put
to shame.” Jesus set his face like flint – to give his life away.” Jesus has
been described in many ways, but one appealing way is as “a man for others.”
How does that square up with a descriptive phrase like, “I have set my face
like flint”? It means that his course to the cross, though made in humility,
was undeterred. He was a self-emptying servant who taught and lived the truth
that greatness comes only in service, that true greatness resides in those who
give of themselves without thought of return.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In one of his books, concentration-camp survivor Elie
Wiesel recalled the day when he, still merely a teenager, along with his fellow
inmates, was finally liberated from the Auschwitz death camp by allied
soldiers. On that day, powerful, strong men broke down the hated fences of the
camp, and released the emaciated prisoners. Wiesel remembers being struck by
the reaction of one African-American soldier who, upon seeing Wiesel and his
fellow prisoners, was overcome with grief. He fell to his knees, sobbing at the
sight of them. At this, the newly-released prisoners walked to him, put their
thin, starved arms around his burly shoulders, and comforted him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have seen people have such reactions to Michaelangelo’s
statue of the Pietá in Saint Peter’s cathedral in Rome, the statue of Mary,
holding her dead son in her arms. They weep at the sight of the dead Jesus, and
yet, at the end of the long, horror-filled week, it is Jesus who puts his
bloodied arms around us, to comfort and restore us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Doing the Word of God involves an attitude of
self-giving service which itself is an unequaled gift of God to those who would
follow Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
coming week represents the church’s annual celebration of the greatness of the
gift of Christ to the world. The tragedy of it is that many will not hear. On
Good Friday evening, when we worship here together and recall the cost of the
servanthood of Jesus, there will be but a handful of us present compared to
those on the bandwagon on Easter morning. It is so hard to fully comprehend and
live the life of resurrection – to receive the embrace of the crucified and
resurrected Christ – unless we have first heard the truth about the cost of
salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If
you are planning to come to only one service this coming week, I would pray it
would be on Friday, and if you can come to but two, make it Maundy Thursday and
Good Friday. I will pray for you in your <i>knowing</i>
and <i>doing</i> God’s Word this week, as I
hope you will pray for me, so that we may come to know that the faith we hold
onto, in reality holds onto us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Copyright © 2013 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserve</span></span></div>
</span><div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Romans
8:33.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> The four
“Suffering Servant Songs” in Isaiah are [1] 42:1-9; [2] 49:1-6; [3] 50:4-9a;
[4] 52:13-53:12.</span><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">April Fool?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: right 6.5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">© 2013 Robert J. Elder </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: right 6.5in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luke
23:1-24<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: right 6.5in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Herod
questioned him at some length, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but Jesus gave him no answer. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The chief
priests and the scribes stood by, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">vehemently accusing him. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even Herod
with his soldiers treated him </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with contempt </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and mocked him; <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">then he put
an elegant robe on him, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and sent him back to Pilate. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That same day Herod and
Pilate </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">became friends with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The story of Jesus’ trial
and execution is, in some ways, a sort of <i>Whodunit</i>.
In the end, when all was said and done, who was <i>really</i> responsible for
the death of Jesus? If we were the Jerusalem District Attorney, whom would we
charge? The candidates for blame in our passage today appear to be Pilate,
Herod, the elders, chief priests and scribes of the Temple. But beyond our
passage, shouldn’t we include Judas, who betrayed him, the disciples, who
abandoned him, and Peter, who denied him? Is this just about the whole list of
potential suspects? Should anyone else be on our list? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his second volume, the <i>Acts
of the Apostles</i>, Luke reported that the earliest Christian preachers in
Jerusalem reminded the people that “you handed over and rejected Jesus in the
presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the
Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you
killed the Author of life...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This certainly expands the
list of suspects dramatically. Was it Pilate, the priests, or Peter? Was it
Herod or the disciples? Was it the butler in the study with the candlestick?
Was it every living soul in Jerusalem who failed to cry out for justice for an
innocent person that day? I can't think of anyone who comes through this
narrative looking very good. How do you charge a whole city with murder?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And what about the fact
that whenever we fail to claim Jesus in our day, to acknowledge his lordship in
our lives, we deny him anew, placing ourselves in the same unsavory company as
those who denied him first? Are we, too, guilty of his death?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lent is such an
counter-cultural season. Traditionally, it is a penitential season in which we
are meant to ponder our shortcomings with honest hearts -- at least as honest
as we can muster. It is a time to meditate upon the supreme sacrifice of Jesus,
which would never have been necessary if we had been as good and flawless as we
spend most of our lives trying to convince ourselves and others that we are.
For its part, our culture turns its back on Lenten themes, on “guilt trips” in
general, on anything that might serve as an assault on our blithe search for a
boosted self-esteem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It isn’t easy for any
modern preacher to stand before sophisticated people who have, or have had,
successful careers, long lists of friends, newer model cars in the parking lot,
that you are, in spite of your college degrees and many successes, fallen,
sin-filled, and in need of repentance and salvation. (“My goodness,” you may be
mumbling to yourself, “I got out of bed and made it to church, surely that
counts for <i>something</i> on the good side of the ledger, why must I be
subjected to yet another guilt trip from the pulpit? Don’t these preachers <i>ever</i>
get tired of this subject?”). Sorry, it’s Lent for me too. The Lenten season of
the cross, of betrayal and repentance, always seems out of place among
successful people. If the point of the sermon today is to discover “whodunit,”
surely everyone here can be marked off the list of suspects at least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Christine and I were in
Oklahoma City last summer for my a high school reunion, which was held a few
block away from the site of the old Federal Building. You may recall it was a
building which Timothy McVeigh decided would be a good symbol to destroy,
killing a host of innocent people in the process, including little children ion
the building’s preschool. I recall making our way through Lent back then, as we
were treated to interviews with attorneys, legal experts, and authors of books
about the trial of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing. Why? Well,
his execution was scheduled around that time, and it was to be the first
federal execution in many years. In those weeks leading up to the execution,
yet again we saw the video footage showing the ruined carcass of the Federal
Building in Oklahoma City, where one of my high school friends was killed along
with 160-some others on that horrible day. By human standards of justice, if
ever anyone deserved to die for a remorseless and brutal crime, it was Timothy
McVeigh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Drama teachers will tell
you that, for us to be engaged by a play, there must be a certain amount of
distancing. We often think that the reason we love theater is that a play has
characters with whom we can identify. But if we too closely identify with the
characters, if from the moment they walk on stage we say, ‘Hey, that’s me,’ we
are so busy defending ourselves, we can't get into the drama.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sins of other people
are always much more interesting to us than our own, and it is precisely
because they are not our own that we are free to be fascinated by them. I doubt
many of us have stayed up nights making plans to blow up public buildings. The
right sort of people, those who gather in this sanctuary this morning, or sit
at the computer monitor to read yet another joke about the well-documented
failings of famous public figures, seem so often to think of ourselves as
somehow innocent of the moral foibles by which we are ready to judge others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember sitting in the
family room of a well-to-do couple during my graduate school years, listening
to them go on and on about the fact that nobody in America understood a work
ethic any more, that people on welfare did nothing but give birth to babies to
burden the future of everyone around them, and that the world in general was
just going to hell. This from people who already had spent at least 20 years,
and proceeded to spend the next 20, benefiting from a social security system
from which they received far more than they ever put in. I am also thinking of
the rounds of school shootings, where the media seems in such a hurry to
portray the shooters as loners and losers, thereby helping us distance
ourselves from any feeling of kinship with such people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Moral condemnation,”
one preacher wrote, “appears to work like binoculars. Look through one end, at
somebody else's trespasses, at a safe distance, things are magnified. Look back
at yourself, through the other lens, everything is tiny, insignificant, mere
peccadilloes.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We may give ourselves
permission for our fascination with heinous crimes and their just desserts
because we believe as deep down as we care to go that there is nothing vaguely
similar between us and the Timothy McVeighs or the members of Al Qaeda. He was
a loner, borderline nut case, apparently absent of conscience for what he had
done. We like our evil pure, distilled down to its essence, not discolored with
bothersome exceptions and details. It helps us keep our distance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But evil is messier than
that. Our culture demands electric power, and as soon as it looks as though we
won't have as much as we want, making us more like the vast majority of the
rest of the world, we think nothing of slamming salmon runs, further despoiling
our air, and using farmers' irrigation water to get it. We refer to ourselves
with the breathtakingly narrow description of “consumers,” as though all there
is worth knowing about us is our appetite for ever-more goods and services, and
we've built an entire advertising economy around creating, then meeting those
consumer appetites, all at a cost to many things that are truly precious. We
gladly sentence a thug who smacks a convenience store clerk to a long jail
term, but if a multi-million dollar athlete is involved in violence, even
murder, that can become their ticket to notoriety and further riches rather
than punishment. We've created an entertainment culture that worships
shamelessness and graphic violence, then wonder why children carry pistols and
semi-automatic weapons to school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To those who shouted for
his execution on that April day in A.D. 33, the April fool appeared to be
Jesus, the would-be king, all dressed up in mocking royal robes and crown of
thorns, a buffoon who looked about as much like a king as a drunk sitting in a
doorway downtown begging for change looks like the Duke of Windsor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the fools on that day
as on this are the ones who think of evil as something that can be found only
in others, never in ourselves. This may be one reason Paul was led to write,
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-91430422617488671592013-03-10T20:17:00.001-07:002013-03-10T20:17:17.334-07:00To Be Lost, To Be Found, To Know the Difference
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To Be
Lost, To Be Found, To Know the Difference<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fourth in a Lenten series from Luke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">March 10, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">© 2013 Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luke 22:31-34, 54-62<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has
demanded to sift all of you like wheat,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but I have prayed for you that your own
faith may not fail;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and you,
when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just
when Peter thought he was most in touch, most in sync, most able to stand next
to Jesus, to defend him to the death, just then, at his point of greatest
self-assumed strength, just at that very moment he was <i>lost</i>. This man, who was the first to raise his hand during the pop
quiz when Jesus asked who they would say he was, who was first out of the gate
with, “You are the Messiah!” This is the one who three times said he did not
even know Jesus. There’s a lesson in there for us in there somewhere if we will
attend to it. He was lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the other hand, just when Peter went to weep in
bitterness, just when he could see that his strength had not saved his master,
had not even made a dent, just when he saw he was helpless to do anything of
significance, even unable to speak up for his own acquaintance with Jesus, just
then he was <i>found</i>. “I don’t even know
the man,” Peter declared, voice shaking with the lie. This coming from the man
Jesus once called, “The Rock.” Some <i>rock</i>...!
Yet Jesus had prayed for him, interceded for him. And we all know Peter went on
to become one of the bravest proclaimers of the faith. He was found again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be lost,
to be found, to know the difference.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes we are lost and don’t even know it. Just
when we think we are strongest, most capable, most in touch with the will of
God, just then we may find reminders of our weakness, of our incapacity to
stand by Jesus on the pedestals of our own strength and merit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a backward way, we love Peter for his failure,
don’t we? More often than we’d like to admit, our own overconfident
declarations of faith are also overstated. “I believe...” we say, unreservedly,
in church, along with everyone else, as the Apostles’ Creed is recited. Easy
enough to say in here, isn’t it, even though most of us really just more or
less mutter it? But back at work, back in the neighborhood, back amid the
hustle and bustle and jockeying for position, the elbowing for recognition,
when there’s a price to pay, we turn into Peter: “No, I’ve heard of Jesus, of
course, but can’t say that I really <i>know</i>
him.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before we are too hard on Peter, we might recall that
for all the tragedy and pain of his denial of Jesus, it is only Peter who made
it to the courtyard. He followed Jesus at least that far, which is more than
the others could say, apparently. He may be like us in this way too, when we
feel, perhaps, that even if we are not perfect, at least we are ahead of
others. Still, even that action turned into defeat. Faith, it turns out, is not
a contest to see who gets there first or farthest. The culpability for the
betrayal and denial of Jesus is cumulative, each little misstep, each failure
to understand, each refusal to follow, all add weight to the outcome, until
finally we are left with Paul saying, “All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>All</i>. No wiggle room there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think one of the amazing features of the Bible that
we share is that it consistently looks at our heroes with unblinking
truthfulness. In Peter’s own time, the literature of the Roman world was filled
with stories of gods and heroes, while ordinary people were all but invisible,
mere background figures or canon fodder for the stories of the great and glorious.
Not so in the Bible, especially here in the New Testament. Here, Simon Peter,
unarguably one of the heroes of the faith, is clearly nothing more than a lowly
fisherman from Galilee, whose language or dress or body odor gave his humble
origins away amid the Jerusalem folks sitting around the fire in the high
priest’s courtyard that night. An ordinary man. In terms of the literature of
his own day, his story would never have even been written down. If we had been
writing one of the gospels, we would likely have been tempted to try to clean
up the story of Peter, the faith ancestor of all of us here. But no, the Bible
is honest. It tells the whole story of who we are. Yet it is the very
ordinariness, the very thought that Peter was as we are, an ordinary person who
found himself in an extraordinary circumstance, this is what makes the story so
convicting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just like Peter, sometimes, for all our good
intentions and resolutions, we fall away, we fall short, we deny and betray,
and we are lost. “Alcoholics Anonymous teaches its members to introduce
themselves, “I’m Jane,” or “I’m John, and I’m an alcoholic, but by the help of
a higher power, a recovering one.” We love Peter for embodying [what we know we
are]. For most of us are quite ordinary in our sin. “No redemption would do
people like us any good that required us to be heroic. We need a higher power.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Sometimes we are lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And sometimes we are found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes we are found, though we have no sense
within us that we are worth finding. In times when we weep bitter tears of
resignation and failure, we wonder how we can go on, how we can face the world.
It is when this picture of Peter’s weeping misery is before me that I am so
captivated by Jesus’ prayer of intercession for him, even in anticipation of his
failing, even as Jesus knew Peter was bound to fail, even so, he prays for him,
intercedes for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout the gospels, Peter fills the role of the
“Everyman” disciple. He says things, does things, asks things, makes mistakes
about things that represent the ways all disciples are in relationship with
Jesus: faltering, stumbling, sometimes falling. It is no different for any of
us than it is here in the gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is interesting that in the same breath, as Jesus
made a prayer for unfailing faith for Peter, in that breath he prayed also for
Peter’s return when he failed, and commissioned him with his prayer to
strengthen others who follow. While Peter was on the road to being lost, was
destined to deny his Lord that very night, even then Jesus was praying him back
into relationship, was finding him again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Probably no hymn in the world is more well known than
“Amazing Grace.” Probably even those who claim to be totally unmusical, those
who may think they have never memorized a piece of music, would surprise
themselves when it comes to this song. See if you know it...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> [Sing it
a capella....] Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...(now you...) I once was
lost, but now am found...(now you...). See? We just <i>know</i> this hymn, it is a sort of hymn Peter could have written. In
some ways, it is amazing that it is so well-loved, considering the confession
that is called for in the very first line from anyone singing it: “Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a <i>wretch</i>
like <i>me</i>...” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A wretch? Is that what I am? I remember back in the
1970s hearing this hymn sung with a less offensive word used there, something
like “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me.” Aw, isn’t
that sweet? Jesus saved my <i>un</i>wretched
little soul. We don’t live at a time when we go around calling people wretches,
much less ask them to think of themselves that way, it might do harm to their
self-esteem or something. No one likes to think of themselves in this way. I
remember singing this hymn across the chancel from my colleague in my church in
Texas, and mouthing “...that saved a wretch like <i>you</i>!” to him. He got tickled and started laughing so hard he
couldn’t sing for the rest of the hymn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do we have problems referring to ourselves with a
word like “wretch?” Of course we do, who wants to be a wretch?! It offends my
self-image! I’m a pretty good person, certainly not a wretch. Thinking this
way, we sound for all the world like Peter, puffing himself up to size in order
to tell Jesus he would defend him to the death. Yet just when we think we are
most found, least wretched, that is when we are lost. It is one of the
paradoxical truths of the gospel. The dictionary says a “wretch” is “a
miserable person, one who is profoundly unhappy or in great misfortune.” Just
as Peter declared his willingness “to go with [Jesus] to prison and to death,”
at that very moment when he thought he was the strongest, he was at that moment
on the cusp of being the most lost. He was wretched, even if he didn’t know it,
and we are no different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many of you probably know the story of “Amazing
Grace.” The author, John Newton, was a new believer around the year 1750, yet
after coming to faith he had continued to command an English slave ship.
Eventually he saw that any role in the slavery trade was antithetical to the
Christian faith, and he left the sea for good. He studied for the ministry, and
for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At
82, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I
am a great sinner (he was lost), and that Christ is a great Saviour (he was
found).”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I once was lost, but now am found. He knew the
difference after a lifetime lived between being lost and found. These are words
that could well have been written by Peter. Indeed, I suspect that, given the
right circumstances, they could be written by us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To be lost, to be found, to know the
difference. The difference is in the one who does the finding. There is nowhere
we can go that is beyond the finding power of Christ, who prays for us: “I have
prayed for you that your own faith may not fail...” Jesus prays for us. We were
lost, but we are found. Thanks be to God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Romans
3:23, NRSV.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Ordinary
Sin,” by William Willimon, a Duke University Chapel sermon, March 28, 1999.</span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-79458194394719676582013-03-04T11:17:00.002-08:002013-03-04T11:17:35.489-08:00The Power of Darkness
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Power
of Darkness<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Third in a Lenten series from Luke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luke 22:45-53 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Psalm 55: 12-14, 20-21 </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">March 3, 2013</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">©
2013 Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I was with you day after day in
the temple,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">you did not lay hands on me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this is your hour, and the power of
darkness!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take a moment to think about the verses from Psalm 55<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
that we said together a few moments ago. Just to remind us of the bitterness
the psalmist must have felt as this psalm was composed, I’ll read the words
again:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is not enemies who taunt me –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could bear that;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I could hide from them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it is you, my equal,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">my companion, my familiar friend,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with whom I kept pleasant company;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">we
walked in the house of God with the throng.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My companion laid hands on a friend<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and violated a covenant with me<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with speech smoother than butter,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but with a heart set on war;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">with words that were softer than oil,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but in
fact were drawn swords.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wonder if these words, or words
like them, were on Jesus’ mind that night when he looked up and saw a crowd
headed his way, with Judas leading the mob, pursing his lips for a kiss of
betrayal?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I once heard about a struggling
little non-profit agency on the East Coast, a local effort that helped to house
people who were in need, people who, without someone to stand up for them,
would be on the street. The agency struggled along doing its good deeds for the
needy until one day, when a few fresh faces came onto the board of the
organization, people with all the enthusiasm and promise that seemed to suggest
they could help in significant ways. The first task they chose, however, was to
begin exposing the weaknesses of the executive director to other members of the
board. Finally, enough of the board’s energy was taken up with this discussion
that their mission began to suffer, the director finally resigned, and the
organization went out of business. An organization that for thirty years – with
all its shortcomings and warts intact had still managed to help hundreds of
families with housing needs – ceased to exist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One observer of the human scene once
said that some people, like Judas, cast out devils for a while … and then
become one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I find Jesus’ words about the power
of darkness to be particularly chilling. Still, we need to recall that this is
not the only “hour” about which Jesus spoke in his ministry. It is a word that
comes straight across from Greek and Latin into our language: <i>hora</i>, meaning <i>the</i> time, the <i>right sort</i>
of time, the <i>opportune</i> time, the
blacksmith’s proverbial “strike while the iron is hot” sort of time. There had
been other opportune “hours” in Jesus’ ministry, you can spot them running all
through Luke’s gospel: The time when Jesus healed many, when he rejoiced, the
hour of the disciples’ trials, the hour when the Son of Man comes like a thief
in the night, the hour when the Pharisees warned Jesus about Herod’s evil
intentions toward him, the time when the authorities expressed their desire to
arrest him, the time when the Passover meal was eaten with his disciples. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus had been among all these people
who came to arrest him, day after day, yet they were afraid of the friendly
crowds that followed him. How appropriate that they decided to come under the
cover of night, when his loyal crowd, most of them, were home in their beds. In
Luke 4, Jesus was tested in the wilderness and resisted, and Luke says that the
devil left him until an “opportune time.” Alas, that time has come. Jesus is
arrested. It is the devil’s hour, and the power of darkness provides the cover
for their action which the light of day might have foiled.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of us have known times when we
intend something good, but we find no means at hand to accomplish it. The human
tendency, then, is to take up any means at hand, the “ends justify the means,”
as the old saying goes. But we all have seen, time after time throughout human
history, that the means become, and even displace, the sought-after ends. The
17<sup>th</sup> century philosopher, Frances Bacon, once observed his own
culture struggling with questions of means and ends, and reflected that when
improved means are found to pursue unimproved ends, we discover that, as Bacon
declared, “it is singularly amazing how long the rotten can hold together.” In
the end, to abandon legitimate means to seek legitimate ends ultimately means
the loss of those legitimate ends. Means become ends, methods become outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes we have the good in mind
but have no power to accomplish it. Jesus knew this, but trusted enough in
God’s future to realize that though this hour was not his, other hours would
be. There would be other hours, triumphant hours to come. In this situation,
surrender and self-sacrifice were his only choices<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
as he held on to the confidence that the end of the story had not yet come,
that there was more to be accomplished through God’s own time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a little something that I
find interesting in this passage. Though they have come to arrest him, and
Jesus knows this, he continues with the same sort of ministry that has
characterized his life since his baptism in the Jordan: teaching and healing as
signs of his kingdom. Even here, even as he is about to be handed over to those
who are only too willing to do him ultimate harm, he teaches and heals. He
teaches his disciples about the special impotence of violence to accomplish
ultimate things, “No more of this!” he declares, and then he works to heal the
effects of violence as he touches the servant’s ear and restores it. When it
has been at its best, his church has been at this work ever since, teaching and
healing, proclaiming and restoring.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus knew that if his disciples took
up the means of those who came to arrest him – the sword, the club, retaliation
and bloodshed – it would ultimately taint and spoil their aim, which was to
live out the love of God for all the world to see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the power of darkness has found
its hour. What then? What is to become of the betrayer as well as the betrayed?
Betrayal moves in two directions, it moves against the welfare of Jesus, but it
also moves against the potential hopes and future Jesus saw in Judas when he
called him to be one of his chosen disciples. Jesus had once chosen Judas, had
seen something in him, some potential, had invested his time and energy into
his relationship with him. Here we find that Jesus’ hopes and dreams for Judas
are also betrayed. Maybe betrayal between intimates is always be like that, as
tragic for the betrayer as for the one betrayed, perhaps more so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a Fra Angelico painting in
the Academy in Florence, Italy, where Judas is pictured with a black halo. In
the island nation of Haiti, in the ragged city of Port au Prince, there is an
Episcopalian Cathedral, in which you can find another depiction of the last
supper. In the scene, Peter and Judas are depicted as white people, because, after
all, they both denied Jesus, and white was the skin color of those devils who
once enslaved the people of Haiti. The rest of the disciples are black. Yet
Jesus appears as mixed race, a mulatto, neither black nor white, because of a
local tradition in that culture that when the Messiah returns, he will save
both white and black, the betrayer as well as the betrayed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The power of darkness is not
ultimate. The hour that Jesus mentioned passes, and another hour comes. A seed
planted in dark soil, a baby after nine months in the darkness of the womb,
they know the time when darkness has its hour, but they prepare there for
other, brighter hours to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The power of darkness is proximate,
but it too has lessons to teach, if we will attend to them. I’ll close this
sermon with two bits of poetry, the first by contemporary Welsh poet, R.S.
Thomas, the second from a hymn verse written for a hymn competition back in
1999, in anticipation of the new millennium.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Via Negativa</b><span style="color: windowtext;">, R.S. Thomas<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why no! I never thought other than<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That God is that great absence<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our lives, the empty silence<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Within, the place where we go<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Seeking, not in hope to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arrive or find. He keeps the
interstices<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our knowledge, the darkness<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Between stars. His are the echoes<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We follow, the footprints he has just<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Left. We put our hands in<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His side hoping to find<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It warm. We look at people<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and places as though he had looked<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At them, too; but miss the reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Through the Darkness of the Ages</b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: windowtext;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: windowtext;">, Hilary Jolly<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Through the darkness of the ages,
Through the sorrows of the days,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Strengths of weary generations,
Lifting hearts in hope and praise,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Light in darkness joy in sorrows
Presence to allay all fears,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus, you have kept your promise, Faithful
through two thousand years.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we find ourselves deep in the hour of
darkness, where there is betrayal all around us, remember there is another hour
coming. Watch and be faithful.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Psalm
55:12-14, 20-21, NRSV.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Alan
Culpepper, <i>New Interpreter’s Bible</i>,
Vol. IX, Abingdon Press, p. 437.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Via Negativa,</i> and <i>Through the Darkness of the Ages,</i> copyright Jubilate Hymns, LTD.,
Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-46702513733737276182013-02-24T21:04:00.001-08:002013-02-24T21:04:40.508-08:00Who's On Trial?
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who’s On
Trial?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second in a Lenten series from Luke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luke 22:39-46 </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">February
24, 2013 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">©
2013 Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why are you
sleeping?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Get up and pray that you may not come into the time
of trial.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twice he tells them to pray. And both times he gives them
the content of their prayer, that they “not come into the time of trial.” What
did Jesus mean by that? In just a very few verses, Jesus would be appearing at
a trial. Is that what he meant? They should pray so they would be spared from
his trial? Or was it more than that? The verses prior to our own lesson were
filled with Jesus’ words about his own trials, and specifically, Peter’s coming
trial and betrayal. So what is he saying? That we can escape our trials? Or
that we can live through them and on out to the other side?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is the effect of prayer? The
circumstances of Jesus’ own prayer reveal that though he prayed God might
remove this cup – the coming agony of his passion – from him, that is not what
happened. Additionally, though he urged the disciples to pray to escape trial,
they fell asleep instead – sleeping “because of grief.” We all know about that
kind of sleep, depressed, despondent, the divorce becomes fonal tomorrow, my-world-is-about-to-end
sleep. Some might then conclude that this provides evidence that intercessory
prayer – prayer which intercedes on behalf of ourselves or others – is not
effective. Then Jesus followed his requests to God with. “yet not my will but
yours be done.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How long, do you suppose, was the
silent pause he made between the two phrases, between asking God to remove his
cup of suffering, and relinquishing control to God’s will in the matter? I
don’t know for sure, and neither does anyone else, but I’d guess it was a <i>very</i> long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever had your heart’s desire
on your lips and in your mind, wearing your hopes like clothing, finding reason
to return to them again and again, making them the subject of your prayers as
well as your daily conversation? And have you ever discovered that in response
there is sometimes only silence? I remember when it became clear my mother’s
cancer was going to take her life. I prayed that this cup would be taken from
her, from me. Silence. I waited. I slept because of grief. My mother died. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How long is the space between the time you
discover your unmet hopes and the time when you find you have said in your life
“yet not my will but yours be done”? I’d guess if it was something really
important to you, it might have been a long, long time. It was for me. In fact,
at this very moment, you may still be waiting for a response to some precious
prayer, long on your heart. It’s not easy, is it, this waiting for an answer
that does not come?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It isn’t the receiving or not receiving
a positive response to our prayers that matters, not so much as the need
finally to hand the outcomes of all our unmet desires to God, to seek his will
in all things. Easy to say. Not so easy to do. I know this and so do you. Want
to know how difficult? Just consider this scene where Jesus awaited God’s
response. <i>Jesus</i>. Son of man. The
Messiah. The anointed one of God, waiting for an answer that does not come.
This is the Jesus whom we worship, left on hold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have you ever known someone who had a
spirituality that was marked by a sense of handing over, a sense that the will
of God was uppermost in their meditations and in their lives? I have heard of
such people, saints, an occasional spiritually advanced person, but I’ve never
been one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Jesus told his disciples that they
were in the kind of night, the kind of dangerous circumstances where one would
be inclined to sell his own clothes to buy a sword, he meant that they were in
a desperate situation and they should make no mistake about it. He had told
them at his last supper with them that he was going to be arrested and killed,
and now they were moving out into the dangerous night. He was right. It is the
sort of terrifying circumstance in life where one would sell anything, set
aside any of life’s other priorities in order to have this one thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember the scene from the film <i>Titanic</i>, when the rich antagonist
offered one of the ship’s officers a fistful of money to let him have a seat on
the lifeboat. The officer looked at him incredulously. What good would money be
to him, who would, in the space of a few hours, be dead? What could he buy with
it that would be of value to him? The wealthy man thought he was offering what
was precious, but its value was only proximate. First one must have an
assurance of a continuation of life. Money only has value when it represents
something that can be added to life. But that was a night when one would have
sold his own clothes to have the one thing that might save him. What good are
clothes when in a short time you will be at the bottom of the ocean or
stretched out, naked, on a cross? “[The disciples were] prepared to meet the
incoming danger by becoming dangerous. This, of course, is not the way of
Jesus. In the battles facing the twelve, swords will be useless: a sword would
not help Judas, a sword would not help Simon, a sword would not help
frightened, fleeing disciples. But they thought so. So do we, truth be told.”
If we think our own resources will see us through our greatest catastrophe,
Jesus knows we are mistaken.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
That is the sort of circumstance in which the disciples and Jesus found
themselves, up against the wall, with only the protection of prayer to clothe
them. And God appeared to be away from his desk, their calls were going
unanswered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which is, of course, an answer of
sorts. Sometimes the answer that silence provides is hard, but it is still an
answer. It may not be the answer we want, but it will become the answer to the
ultimate prayer, the one that relinquishes control, relinquishes the idea that
we can have things the way we wanted them, that we can sell our clothes and buy
our salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A line in the Holy Week hymn titled “Go
to Dark Gethsemane,” suggests that we not turn away from Jesus’ own griefs, but
that we “learn from Jesus Christ to pray.” What do you think we we are supposed
to learn about prayer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One thing we learn is that Luke
presents us with a picture of Jesus as one who prayed throughout his life. He
did not just pray at this, his hour of critical need, but throughout his life
and ministry. Prayer was his pattern. Luke records Jesus’ determination to pray
at his baptism, at the beginning of his ministry, before he chose his
disciples, before Peter made his confession of Jesus’ Messiahship, at the
Transfiguration on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, before he taught the
disciples about prayer, here, before facing his arrest and execution, as he was
dying, and, finally, in Luke 24, when he was risen from death, he prayed with
two of his disciples who had walked with him to Emmaus, and they recognized him
as he prayed.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other things we learn about prayer from
Jesus: He was not bashful about saying what he wanted and waiting for an
answer. He knew he might not receive what he had asked for. And he determined
above all to align himself with what God is doing in the world, even when the entire
picture and reason for this was out of his own view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of all the prayers we may find in the
Bible, this prayer from Jesus reminds us that prayer in crisis means the most
when it is preceded by a lifetime of prayer discipline. Jesus could handle the
silence that confronted him because he had been in prayer so often before. One
friend of mine wrote once, “Prayer is an exercise of faith, in the fullest
sense of the phrase. Prayer requires a good bit of conditioning, and there are
no shortcuts to fitness. This is hard news, of a hard work, especially for
lumpy people like me. Some of us are simply too lazy to work that hard. And
when the crisis comes, we’re too flabby to respond. We wear out quickly.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This is what led to the disciples grief-filled slumber.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus could pray to his Father in his
hour of greatest anguish because his life had been characterized by prayer.
Some fail to pray through resignation. “When my time comes it comes,” we say,
or “Whatever God has in mind is what I’m going to get, why bother praying?” But
apparently the struggle we undergo in prayer has great value, no matter the
outcome. Jesus told his heavenly Father what he wanted, in hopes that his
request would intersect with the Father’s intentions. Some cynics say that
prayer is like throwing an anchor onto a rock, and then imagining that by
pulling on our prayer like a rope we are pulling the rock to us, when we are
really pulling ourselves to the rock. But that is only a caricature. Here,
Jesus was deliberately trying to pull himself to the rock, he wasn’t fooling
himself. It takes a lifetime of prayer to know that as one of the chief goals
of prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several years ago, professor Carol
Zaleski reflected on the peculiar practice of prayer in a short article.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
I really appreciated what she wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Recently we learned about a young girl
in our area who has been diagnosed with a virulent cancer. Doctors say her odds
of survival are at best 20 per cent. She has just begun chemotherapy and her
immune system is so ravaged that the most innocuous virus could kill her. This
little girl is being prayed for around the clock by friends and strangers – and
now, I hope, by readers of this column. Her disease will be fought with every
weapon in the medical arsenal devised by God-given human ingenuity. At the same
time, her family will storm the gates of heaven with prayer, commend this girl
to her Creator, her guardian angel and the saints, and call in all
reinforcements, for resignation is not a Christian virtue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “It would be different if we were
adherents of a Star Wars religion, latter-day Stoics who believe that the
universe is ruled by an impersonal Force; then our task would be to adjust
ourselves to its ordinances without complaint. We would follow the counsel of
Marcus Aurelius – the philosopher-emperor [whose reputation experienced] a
small revival with his appearance in the film <i>Gladiator</i> and the recycling of his Meditations into a neo-Buddhist
self-help manual – to...reflect that ‘all things are little, changeable,
perishable.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “If we think that suffering is a result
of misinterpretation, that individuals are sparks cast off by the infinite
spirit and destined to return to the mother flame, we do well to practice
composure. It is, however, a characteristic peculiarity of Christianity (as of
Judaism) to fancy that God wants us to complain and commands us to intercede.
Moreover, the creed tells us that we belong, by calling, to the communion of
saints both living and dead for whom intercessory prayer is the natural medium
of communication.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best way to understand prayer is to
start. To pull ourselves toward the Rock. And to keep on. And on and on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Luke:Interpretation Commentary Series</i>,
Fred Craddock, John Knox Press, 1990, p.260.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Luke 3:21;
5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 9:28-29; 11:1-2; 18:1; 22:39-46; 23:34, 46; 24:30-31.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Bill
Carter, in an unpublished paper presented to the Homiletical Feast in Tampa,
Florida, January, 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in <i>Christian Century</i>, “Storming Heaven,”
February 17-24, 2001, p. 24.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-39028668679922678952013-02-14T10:47:00.004-08:002013-02-16T14:26:11.543-08:00To Bathe in the Sheep Gate Pool<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> To Bathe in the Sheep Gate Pool<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Robert
J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> First
Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, Washington<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Ash
Wednesday: 2-13-2013<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: #720000; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John 5:1-9 (NRSV)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">After this there was a festival of
the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">Now in
Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which
has five porticoes. </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">In these
lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">One man
was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">When Jesus saw him lying there and
knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be
made well?” </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">The sick
man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is
stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
</span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take
your mat and walk.” </span></i><i><span style="color: #030000; font-size: 9pt;">At once
the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day
was a Sabbath.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everyone
who reads the papers knows what an “unprovoked attack” is. Among the anxieties
of modern life there is the fear that we may be walking alone one night, or
resting quietly in our own home, and suddenly, out of the darkness, a stranger
attacks us with malevolent intentions. Scoundrels have always been able to use
the element of surprise to accomplish evil ends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what about an act of “unprovoked grace”? I recall
a blossoming of bumper stickers years ago calling for a bit of unprovoked
graciousness through “random acts of kindness.” Perhaps you have been on the
receiving end of a randomly kind act, say when struggling to manage two large
full grocery bags and a stranger stepped forward and opened the door for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we are on the receiving end an act of unprovoked
graciousness, we won’t have expected it, that’s the delight of it, isn’t it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was so for the man who lounged for 38 years by the
pool called “Beth-zatha” or “Bethesda.” For 38 years, he had in mind one goal
only: to get to the pool any time the waters were stirred and receive the
healing that everyone said would be available only momentarily for the lucky
few who could jump in time. That pool must have been something like those
call-in contests on the radio: “We will offer this prize for the correct answer
from caller number 10!” Caller number 9 and caller number 11 are no closer to
winning than caller number 243. It isn’t fair necessarily, just a random chance
in a dialing sequence. Today could be your lucky day, but very likely it won’t
be. The air stirs, the aroma of fresh water invades the stagnant atmosphere
around the cisterns of the Bethesda pool, and everyone realizes it all at the
very same instant. There is a rush like nobody’s business until that
all-too-brief moment has passed. A missed opportunity means more endless
waiting until a magic moment occurs again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">38 years. Perhaps in that first year the man remained
beside the pool with nerves on edge, waiting, waiting, waiting until, WHAM! the
instant arrived when healing was only a fleeting few ticks of the clock away.
But others were faster. Then, that opportunity having been missed, there
remained only more waiting on edge. But for 38 years? By the time 38 years of
waiting go by, we have spent so much time biding our time that waiting itself
has become our whole life’s work. Day after dreary day, his focus had become
waiting. Hour by hour he waited. Days stretched into weeks and months, until he
could hardly remember a time of his life not characterized by endless waiting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, one day, a voice startled him from his usual
stupor into an unaccustomed state of alertness. He looked up. He was blinded by
the sun silhouetting the stranger’s face. “Do you want to be healed?” the
stranger asked. What a cruel, silly question! Hadn’t he devoted almost his
entire life to waiting for an opportunity to be healed? So his answer sounded
ambivalent, explaining that he had no one to help him. He had almost forgotten
the whole reason behind lying beside the pool. It had been so long since he had
really thought of the effect of the healing waters that he had come to think
only of getting in them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have all known the secret pleasure that can
characterize a temporary illness, which requires that we stay home, leaving the
real tasks of life unfinished, unattended for a while, giving us the luxury of
temporary unaccountability. For the man by the pool, means had become ends. <i>Getting</i> into the water had become the
whole life’s goal. Getting a handout from passersby had changed places with the
original target of actually becoming mobile enough to work. What healing meant,
what work is, these had been forgotten, maybe somewhere around the 24th year of
his endless waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you want to be healed? What a question! But after
38 years … interim answers, lesser answers offer themselves when our lives
involve waiting. “Perhaps he has never been well. Perhaps he doesn’t know what
it is to be well.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Abraham waited all his life for a son. Job waited
endlessly for an interim answer to his questions about suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has occurred to me that a lot of us throw away a
pretty good portion of our lives believing that waiting for real life is our
task, when the fact is that real life is only what we have right now. Life
today is not a practice for some future time of real living. Sometimes
chronically ill patients have reported that one of the key adjustments to life
with their disease was to discover who they were called to be now that disease
is a given in their life. The person they had been is gone. A new goal and task
to life need to be discovered, or else the remainder of life could seem only
that: a remainder, a time of endless waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Congregations can do this too. Members of churches
may sit year after year waiting for the church to turn into the church they
really wanted it to be, withholding themselves from real work on behalf of the
church until that far-off time when their vision of what the church should have
been will be realized. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me? Healed? The man beside the Bethesda pool said,
“No, I <i>want</i> to get into the water,
but no one will help me.” We may respond, saying, “I haven’t had anyone provide
a church for me the way I have really needed a church to be. I know what I’m
looking for in a church, and I’ll just wait to be healed until that comes
along, thanks.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus bent over, got close enough to the man’s face
that he could smell what he had had for breakfast, looked right into his eyes
and said “Stand up, take up your mat and walk.” Nothing further about pools of
water and a thousand other excuses. Just, “Get up and walk.” Unprovoked grace!
And the man did. And so may we.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Hazards of Healing,” by Margaret
Guenther in <i>Christian Century</i>, May
10, 1995, p. 507.</span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Veiled
Attempts<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Sunday, February 10, 2013</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Exodus 34:29-35
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moses did not know that the skin of his
face shone<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">because he had been talking with God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Moses
did not know that the skin of his face shone.” I like this line, I don’t fully
know why. Someone walks into my office and says, “God has been speaking to me,”
and sometimes, fearful, I think to myself, “What does that have to do with <i>me</i>?” and like the Israelites I am afraid
to come near them ... They may have been in touch with something big, something
dangerous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then, I think how often in the study at the
church or at home, alone with the Bible and a few trusted commentaries that
surround me on my desktop like old friends – and maybe a paper prepared by one
of my preaching friends from our annual meetings in January on sermon texts – I
make a study of these passages I preach on every Sunday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over my career in ministry, in my sermon preparation
times, as I have considered the implications of a scripture reading, I frequently
remark to myself how often I find some nugget, some insight, some arresting
observation among all the words written in commentaries by men and women wiser
than I, that makes me stop in my tracks — things, as they used to say, that
make you go “hmmm.” It might be a single word, repeated in an unusual way, or
an alternate translation that suddenly makes it seem as though someone turned
the light on in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A couple of days go by, and then I get to the day for
writing the sermon, and often all the shine seems to have gone from my nifty
insights, I can’t seem to find the same gear I had when I was meeting with my
fellow scholars. The light switch is overhead, just out of reach. My face was
maybe shining in scripture study days or weeks or months ago, but by some Thursdays,
I’m behind the old veil again. The world has undone my proximity to the voice
of God one more time, and I have to work at finding my way there once again, to
the place where the veil can be removed and I can sense the nearness of God
that makes my face begin to glow like moving just a little too close to the
campfire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maybe you have been there too. I suspect some of you
have. I hope many of you have. Maybe you have found times in your life when the
puzzle pieces snapped together for an instant, when the sense of something very
important to you suddenly became evident in a way it never had before. Still,
the lifting of the veil, the shining of the face lasts but a short time, and
all too soon, back behind the veil we go, back to the mundane, insightless
lives we know all too well. Why must it always be so?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recall that Phillips Brooks<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
once said, “Humility doesn’t come from counting up our sins, it comes from
standing our tallest and measuring ourselves against that which God intends for
us.” But we can so easily lose sight of our tallest selves, and especially the
selves God has in mind for us to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think this story about Moses running up and down
the mountain of meeting represents something like that in the life of Israel.
They were beginning to be made to see not only that God was willing to save
them from the slavery of Egypt, but that God was willing to believe in them,
was willing to stay beside them even when the great danger had passed, even
when – and this always comes as a great shock to people who beat themselves up
at avery available opportunity – even when they knew they had failed God, had
let God down. Even then, God believed in them, which in some ways is harder to
take than if God had simply thrown up his hands and walked away. God wanted
more from them, found more potential in them than they knew they had, and
caused them to begin to stand their tallest and measure themselves against that
which God intended for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How can it be otherwise for us, who follow the Savior?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember the very first wedding we celebrated in the
spanking new sanctuary of the church I once served in Port Arthur, Texas. One
of the distinguishing features of that sanctuary was that up at the peak of the
roof, clerestory windows ran the entire length of the room, made up of stained
glass panes of various colors. Our first wedding was at 11:00 A.M. on a
Saturday, a couple of weeks after the sanctuary had been dedicated, and I will
never forget that as the bride made her way toward the chancel, the colors from
those clerestory windows were displayed along the entire length of the center
aisle. No one had anticipated the effect. Her white dress changed colors with
every step, transfigured: one moment it was white, the next moment green, the
next it was so red it appeared to be on fire, then yellow, purple, and so on.
By the time she reached the front of the sanctuary, we were all absolutely
transfixed. I could hardly bring myself to speak the words to begin the
service. It was as if the architect and the sun had conspired to provide us
with a truly heavenly light show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One great claim of the Christian faith is that while
we may be in the dark about many things, on the ultimate issues of human life
there is light. Paul once said, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Some things, many things, we don’t know. We really don’t know the complete
answer to all questions that begin with “why.” The answers we <i>do </i>have shine in the face of Moses, in
the face of Christ, on our own faces, and can change us more fully, more
gracefully than that wedding dress ever changed that bride or any of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What happened on that holy mountain when Moses came
back to deliver the tablets to the children of Israel? When they say that his
face had a certain glow about it, what does it mean? Was it like the glow your
hands feel when they have been warmed by a fire? How do we describe such
things? One preacher says there is no describing them, that if you are going to
talk about a bear, the best thing to do is bring in a bear. But how can we
bring in the shining face of Moses?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is as hard to describe what happened on that
mountain top as it is to give an accurate description of what goes on in our
dreams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question for us is not so much whether we have
ever experienced a transfiguration the likes of the one that came over Moses,
but whether we may ever have been an agent to help God bring one to pass. In
southeast Texas, where I once served, there is a special school – the Hughen
School – for very sick children, most of whom have few or no motor skills. One
very sick boy lived at that school, dying by degrees. Tragic as that could be,
that is not the reason for telling this story. Children get grievously ill
every day. It is one of the unhappy yet constant facts of human life on earth.
But this little boy had the good fortune to be living in the same community
with some faithful believers who took the story of God’s own shining in the
world to be <i>their</i> story. God’s glory
lived in them to the degree that they carried it with them where they went. A
group of these people joined together to go to that child every day and read to
him. Knowing that he was slowly dying, unable to move or read for himself, it
was the only activity that comforted him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The social workers were amazed. Just being read to by
three ladies, taking turns, one every day, transformed him from a depressed and
despondent child into a responsive person whose spark of life, though soon to
leave him, grew brighter, not dimmer. The boy died eventually, as we all must
die. But his life had been forever transfigured by the ministry of caring
Christian people. Their lives had been changed as well. I can assure you, with
my own eyes I saw them glowing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When do we find that the veil of the mundane lives we
live has been lifted? Paul worried that people might miss the fact that Christ
has lifted the veil from our eyes. He said, “And all of us, with unveiled
faces, seeing the glory of the Lord ... are being transformed into the same
image from one degree of glory to another.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
All of us. Transformed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: 27.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William Willimon, a Methodist bishop and former chaplain
at Duke University, once wrote, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“A few weeks ago I
had a bad day, the culmination of a bad week. The congregation didn’t like my
sermon, didn’t care for my pastoral care. The Institute on Religion and
Democracy sent another batch of spiteful e-mails. The electrical relay to the
organ gave out. I was depressed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, preparing for a
sermon, reading a text I had worked on many times before – Galatians 2 – I
noticed something. A little Greek word, <i>eis</i>.
Paul says ‘a person is righteous not by works of the law but through faith in
Jesus Christ.’ But <i>eis</i> can be either
translated ‘in’ or ‘of.’ Is it the faith ‘in’ Jesus Christ – Jesus is the
object of our faith? Or can it also be the faith ‘of’ Jesus Christ – we are to
have the same faith, that same suffering, obedient unto death, boldly trusting
faith?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bishop Willimon went
on, “Suddenly the latter possibility glowed before me, lit up my imagination,
transfigured my previous understandings of faith. Our being right with God is
not so much our belief in Christ as it is our believing <i>like</i> Christ. What matters is Jesus, moving toward the world as he
moved, living and believing as Jesus, ‘Jesus only.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to preserve
that moment of exegetical insight forever. But I couldn’t. I had to go back
down and be a pastor, answer the mail, visit the sick and construct a sermon.
Still, my face shone because, like Moses, I had been talking with God. The rest
of that day some people needed sunglasses just to look at me.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are those days when I know just how he feels. I
pray that you do too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Copyright © 2013 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">An American</span></a> clergyman and
author, briefly served as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Bishop</span></a>
of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Diocese_of_Massachusetts"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Massachusetts</span></a>
in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Episcopal Church</span></a>
during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered
on January 23. He is known for being the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyricist"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">lyricist</span></a> of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Little_Town_of_Bethlehem"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">O Little Town of
Bethlehem</span></a>".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> I
Corinthians 13:12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a> II
Corinthians 3:18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></a> “Come On
Down” by William Willimon <i>Christian
Century, </i> February 10, 2004, p.
19.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-87066722744378400642013-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:002013-01-28T12:11:26.487-08:00Net Results<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Net Results<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">©
Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Luke 5:1-11</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">January
27, 2013</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">...they caught so many fish<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that their nets were beginning to break...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">With one pull of the
fishing net, Peter and his fishing friends went from having nothing to having
more than they could handle. Living as we do in the era of get-rich TV programs
and lottery jackpot amounts dangled tantalizingly at the counter of every
convenience store, we spend lots more of our time as a culture considering what
we don’t have and how much more we might like to have, than we do thinking on
the downside of what it would be like to have more than we can handle. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I
remember speaking once with a friend of mine who is an accountant. He said that
he had never seen an instance when a young person – someone under 30 years of
age – had inherited a large estate in which that money was then wisely used.
Sometimes an overwhelming bit of good luck can turn out to be just that: <i>overwhelming</i>. Witness the many stories
of lottery jackpot winners who have considered that time following their lucky
day to have been the most overwhelming portion of their lives. Many emerge
bankrupt or worse. Fights, both legal and physical, break out among those who
have joined forces to buy a winning lottery ticket. Sometimes gaining a windfall
means that other things must fall as well, unaccustomed things, perhaps even
cherished things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It was
Peter who first recognized the enormity of what they had experienced. It wasn’t
just their nets that were beginning to break as they pulled them into the boat,
it was that their view of the world and their accustomed place in it was being broken
and re-made right before their eyes, and they were powerless to stop it. “Go
away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man!” Yet he did not go away,
and within the space of a few verses, we find the fishing nets draped,
neglected, on an old worn piling of a lakeside dock. Through the webbing of the
nets you can see that immense pile of fish, steaming in the sun, but no people.
The scene looks like an abandoned town, and all you hear is an occasional slap
of the tail fin of a dying fish, and the gentle lapping of waves alongside the
dock. They’ve all gone off to be with Jesus. It is a magnetic story, it just
draws me in every time I read it. The loads of fish, a first century version of
a small fortune for the fishermen, just left there along with the unrepaired
and discarded nets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jesus
made them “fishers of men” as the old versions have translated it, people
catchers. They would no longer <i>need</i>
nets, they would <i>be</i> the net.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here
is a truth we can remember, and which should carry us all forward in our
discipleship, whether we are officers in the church, pastors, musicians,
members: We do not manipulate the net, we don’t own it, it is not ours, we do
not mend it, tend it, or haul it in; rather, by the grace of Christ, we </span><i style="font-size: small;">become</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> the net.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
It is we who are heaved over the side of the boat called the church, out into
the waters of our world, and it is we who can return with the sort of catch
that defies description if only we will remember to </span><i style="font-size: small;">be</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> the net.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I have
had conversations with other pastors, and among us we know something is going
on which pastors are generally loath to admit. Attendance, participation levels
in our churches, are off in the past few years. Over time, we have seen a
gradual decline in attendance at worship and in other activities around our churches.
What do you suppose is going on?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One
preacher</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
once declared flatly that it would make life easier for us all if the reading
for today had stopped with verse 6. By the end of verse 6 we have the sort of
lesson we may have come to expect in church: If at first you don’t succeed, try
again. But this is not a lesson about trying harder. It is a lesson about being
caught up in something bigger than we are, it is about becoming catchers
ourselves. Sometimes we forget the disciples’ central task, to become fishers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyone
who has spent much time in the church knows that lots of fishing nets turn up
empty. Walk around these halls, you might well catch bits of conversation like
these:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 2pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Pastor, I once
taught Sunday School for six years here and not one person ever said ‘thank
you.’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 2pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Pastor, I worked as
a mentor for an elementary school student, met with him every week, but he <i>still</i> flunked!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“Pastor, We worked
for six weeks to get that study group started, and in the end, only two people
showed up, <i>two people</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We all
know about discouragement, about the frustrations of working in volunteer
organizations and developing simple church programs in a world that has sold
its soul to the high energy, big budget entertainment industry. We all know how
frustrating it is to throw that net in the same pool of people time after time
and come up with little or nothing. But perhaps it’s that pool of people that
is part of our problem. With a look at membership statistics in many churches,
it doesn’t take an advanced degree in math to discover that many people don’t
leave their congregation to go elsewhere, they simply stop going to any church.
It is not just their own participation that is missed when they are gone, but
their willingness to reach out to others in their schools, neighborhoods, and
at their workplaces with the simple invitation to come and see what goes on at church.
As they have gone, the disciples’ net has developed a hole. We can only repair
that hole by taking their place, by being that part of the net, and then
casting it into a larger body of water than we’d thought we could.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Typical
Presbyterian thinking about outreach by the church into the community often
goes this way: We know that the fish are out there; yet, often we think we have
done our job if we carry an aquarium to the edge of the sea and wait for the
fish to jump in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here
is a phrase which can be easily memorized and used in about <i>any</i> circumstance when we find ourselves
talking with someone about our church. If they express interest, we can just
say, “Well, could I come by and pick you up for the service next week?”
Practice it. Say it with me now: “Can I come by and pick you up for the service
next week?” Don’t say, “Let me draw you a map to the church,” or write down the
address, or give them the web page, or express a hope that they will find their
way here sometime. That is to act as if we were the owners of the net. That is
carrying that aquarium to the sea and waiting for fish to jump in. Outreach
requires invitation. “May I come pick you up at 9:00 next Sunday?” is the
statement of someone who has recognized Jesus’ call to <i>be</i> the net.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Now
this may be a bit frightening. If you've ever been recruited from doing
something you’re already satisfied with, into a position you don’t feel
qualified for, then you probably know how Peter and the others felt. All of us
may be a bit afraid of words like “evangelism,” or “witness.” But Jesus made a
promise, and he started his promise in a most interesting way: “Do not be
afraid;” he said. I like it that when Jesus is coming at us with something we
don’t expect, something completely out of our frame of reference, he so often
begins by telling us that no matter how it appears, there is no reason to fear.
“From now on,” he said, “you will be catching people.” You will <i>be</i> the net.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Now we
may actually <i>want</i> to be afraid of
that charge, we may <i>want</i> to be people
who hope other folks will be the net and we can be maybe net managers, or net
number criticizers, or net observers in the outreach movement of the church.
But that is not the call that Jesus gives to disciples from the start. He says,
“from now on you will be <i>catching</i>
people.” Often we emphasize a different word in the sentence, We say, “from now
on you will be catching <i>people</i>.” But
I think it also needs to be read, “from now on <i>you</i> will be catching people.” That’s right. You. And you and you
and you. And don’t bother being afraid about it, because it is the most natural
thing in the world for someone who has received good news to want to share it,
so that is what you will be doing. On that score, C.S. Lewis once reminded his
readers that “the work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman, become
spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of
being done humbly ‘as to the Lord.’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">With
today’s scripture, we remember that Jesus’ call by the sea to be the net is not
made to pastors, or elders, or deacons only, though certainly it does come to
them. It comes to us <i>all</i>. It is part
and parcel of discipleship, not an
alternate choice from a menu of ways to serve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So, go this day and <i>be</i> the
net. Your net results will surprise you, I promise!</span>
</span><br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><br />
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<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> “Amateurs
and Rookies,” by Frederick Niedner, <i>Christian
Century</i>, 1/24/01, p. 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> “The
Dangers of Fishing with Jesus,” by William Willimon, preached at the Duke
University Chapel, February 5, 1995<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <i>The Weight of Glory</i>.</span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-45028236130702701332013-01-07T13:41:00.001-08:002013-01-07T13:41:04.247-08:00Comings and Goings
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comings
and Goings<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sunday, January 6, 2013</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isaiah 60:1-6 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ephesians 3:1-6</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Matthew 2:1-6</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I know
where you’re coming from.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s a common, homely phrase, and it is a bit handier
than the more grammatically correct, “I know the place from which you come.”
It’s an affirmation that we might use to let others know that we appreciate
their position, that we are listening, that we are trying to see how things
look on their side of their own eyeballs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I know where you’re coming from.” But
do we? Where <i>are</i> we coming from, and
knowing that, will it help us get wherever it is we are headed? One task of our
religious faith is to move us, to get us along on our way. All three Bible
readings today refer us to comings and goings, each in its own way. And each
brings alive a new perspective on the fact that no matter where we’ve been or
where we are headed, God comes to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God Comes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we think on Advent-themed readings
in Isaiah, we ought at least to know where Isaiah was “coming from.” A pretty
good five letter word for it would be <i>gloom</i>.
After years of captivity by their enemies, far from Palestine, in exile in
Babylon, the people of the promises had just about become the people kept on
the premises. Many Israelites were entirely ready to sink down roots in Babylon
and just get on with whatever life was to be had there. Two generations of
Israel’s children had been bom never having seen the promised land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then comes this enchanting word of
Isaiah: “Arise! Shine! for your light has come!” Eight times in chapter 60,
Isaiah uses the word “glory.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Now, that’s a much misunderstood Bible word. Ask an average person what “glory”
means, and you are likely to see head scratching before you hear an answer.
It’s a floor wax; it’s something a football star gets; it’s the name of an old
movie about the War Between the States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the Old Testament most commonly
uses the word “glory” to refer to times when people sensed God’s presence in a
special way. Now the <i>dead</i> <i>last</i> place anyone expected to find even
a hint of God, let alone a shred of the glory of his presence, was in the midst
of their exile in Babylon. Yet, there it was. No need to set out in search of
the enlightenment of God. It has come to us. It was an early sense of what
believers have come to know over the generations: no matter where we may be, or
be coming from, God comes to <i>us</i> as
redeemer, as savior, as one who can make even the most hopeless situation new
all over again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How does God come to us? Often, not as
we might expect. Tucked away in the 3rd and 6th verses of Isaiah’s prophecy are
these words,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And nations
shall come to your light,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and kings to
the brightness of your rising.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They shall
bring gold and frankincense,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is one of many clues in the Old
Testament that the glory of God is not reserved only for chosen people, but
that chosen people are the vehicles by which the glory of God might come to all
people everywhere. It is because of this Isaiah text that we sing “We three
kings...” Matthew doesn’t mention
kings at all. God comes, we know that. Isaiah affirms it. But where are we
going once he has touched our lives? For that, we can turn to Ephesians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God Comes to All<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul’s word in Ephesians confirms
emphatically what Isaiah’s prophecy had only suggested. The coming of Christ was such an important event,
it couldn’t be reserved for the people of Israel alone, but was destined to be
the means by which all people, Jews and Gentiles, might come to know the glory
of God’s redeeming presence. While the New Testament problem in Paul’s time was
to get Jewish Christians to make room for Gentile Christians in their
gatherings, it is certainly not our problem. In our time the problem is getting
Gentile Christians to make room for <i>other</i>
Gentiles!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Am I right about this? Just consider
that the old mainline Christian denominations have been dwindling away rather
pathetically during the last thirty-five years. We can be thankful that some
churches have found ways to maintain their membership over the last decade, but
these churches have been the exception. And some of the denominations which
have grown dramatically have not been without a host of their own troubles and
strife. What has been lost in the shuffle? People. People have been lost when churches
and denominations place institutional survival above serving the people God
places around them. Does God need lots more Presbyterians? Well, I believe God
could use <i>lots</i> more Presbyterians,
but not half as desperately as God seeks out more people who have felt the tug
of the gospel good news to bring that news to others from deeply convicted
hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is an old story about a king
named Ebrahim ibn Adam. Ebrahim was wealthy according to every earthly measure.
At the same time, however, he strove sincerely and restlessly to be wealthy
spiritually as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One night the king was roused from
sleep by a fearful stomping on the roof above his bed. Alarmed, he shouted:
“Who’s there?” “A friend,” came the reply from the roof. “I’ve lost my camel.”
Perturbed by such stupidity, Ebrahim screamed: “You fool! Are you looking for a
camel on the roof?” “<i>You</i> fool” the
voice from the roof replied. “Are you looking for God in silk clothing, and
lying on a golden bed?"<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where are we going to go once God has
found us? Where are we coming from? From the comfort of the pews of this
beautiful church, of an unstudied religious faith that we may not have bothered
to probe for a quarter of a century (this is a subtle boost for adult Christian
education!)? From the comfortable point of view of people who are safely “in
the kingdom” while thousands in our own community haven’t yet found the front
door of a church? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From a prison cell where he was sent
for the crime of proclaiming his faith, Paul suggested in the letter to the Ephesians
that we might find God more readily if we accepted that our calling as
Christians includes a responsibility to tell others about the Word of Life with
conviction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In Coming, God Prepares Us To Be Sent<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One last story, then I’ll stop. Our
third passage, from Matthew, reminds me of one old legend about the three Magi
who came seeking Jesus. In it the three of them are drawn together by their
common vision of the beautiful star that bids them to seek a newborn king. They
follow this star across deserts, mountains, and plains, until it stands over a
grotto in Bethlehem. But when they look into the grotto they see only a young
peasant woman and her husband with a newborn child. They turn away in
disappointment. After they have gone some distance, however, they discover they
have lost the star and with it the memory of where they have been. They are
lost between a forgotten homeland and a vanished destination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overwhelmed by a sense of despair, they
realize they have allowed their earthbound judgment to lead them astray from finding the new thing God
would bring to pass. Despondent,
they come upon an old well. It is a well known to the local people by
the brilliant reflections it
produces. They collapse in despair at the side of the well until one of
the three, hoping to quench his thirst, looks into the depths of the well and
there finds the reflection of the lost star! Looking back into the sky, they
see the star again. They are led back to the grotto where they pay homage to
the hidden king, born where the standards of the world would least expect to
find him.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the king we serve. No matter the land, the
culture, the life experiences from which we come, this is the king who joins us
on our journey to wherever we are going. He comes. He comes to all. And he
opens in us a new possibility for fuller life through ministry in his name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Walter
Burghardt, "From Gloom to Glory", <i>Interpretation</i>,
October 1990, p. 396.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Walter
Burghardt,<i> Still Proclaiming your
Wonders: Homilies for the Eighties.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> From <i>Presbynet</i>, 12/17/90</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-38275855161194906992012-11-18T17:42:00.004-08:002013-01-28T12:09:29.706-08:00Opposite the Temple<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 14.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Opposite the Temple<span style="mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 501.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Mark 13:1-8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 501.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Thirty-third
Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: right 501.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">November
18, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When Mark wrote that,
following his foray to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Jesus sat “opposite the
Temple” on the mount of Olives, he was describing not only what was – and is – literally
true. The Mount of Olives was, and still is, <i>opposite</i> the Temple mount, the one is across a small valley, the
Kidron valley, from the other. They are two hillsides facing one another, the
Mount of Olives standing actually somewhat higher. In a way it is similar to
the fact that, for years, the Presbyterian church I once served in Salem stood
where the Labor and Industries building stands today in the same sort of
relationship to the capitol building: “the Presbyterian church <i>opposite</i> the capitol,” though we might
not have phrased it that way. Mark wrote these words as a similar description
of a location, but also more than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Mark
was describing what, in a few years, would also have been theologically true.
The Temple was destroyed in the first century, never to be rebuilt. The
mountain from which Jesus ascended, the Mount of Olives, stood opposite,
representing a new truth about the way God could be worshipped. For
generations, the people had worshiped God on the holiest site they knew, on the
mount where a Temple had stood for generations, three different Temples, as a
matter of fact:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt 58.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">First the much
heralded <i>Temple of Solomon</i> which was
destroyed by the Babylonians; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt 58.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then the
Temple built in the time after Israel’s exile in Babylon, the <i>Temple of Zerubbabel</i>; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 4pt 58.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally, in
Jesus’ generation, it was a new Temple, which was begun under Herod, 20 years
before Jesus’ birth and was not finished until after his crucifixion, made of
massive stone blocks, huge stones, some the size of semitrailer trucks. Some of
the hewn stones from that Temple form the foundations of the temple mount on
which today the Mosque of Omar – the Dome of the Rock – stands, part of those foundations are commonly called the “Wailing
Wall.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The
sight of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives was and remains one of the most
spectacular views of the city, visited by virtually every tourist who travels
there, and in Jesus’ day, it offered an unparalleled view of the magnificence
of the Temple building, a building which, as Jesus spoke of it with his
disciples, was a brand new structure. When they were visiting the city, Jesus
had told them that the Temple, built of the massive stones that they could see
before them, would be “thrown down.” Later on, they asked, understandably, from
the elevated perspective of the Mount of Olives, “when will this be?” I’m sure
they also wondered <i>how</i> this could be;
anyone looking at those massive stones, that immense structure, might have
wondered at Jesus’ words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The
Temple was enormous and opulent, a walk around its perimeter would have been
about 2/3 of a mile. Its marble-clad walls were 150 feet high, and each block
weighed many tons. Outside there were columns of 40 foot high marble. The outer
courts were entered by ten different gates, each of which was covered in silver
or gold plate. Records show that two of the doors stood 45 feet high, and the
one famously called “Beautiful Gate” in Acts<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
was cast of bronze brought from Corinth in Greece. The eastern face of the
Temple and parts of the side walls were plated in gold, which along with the
white marble, caused the Temple to glow as if on fire in the rising sun of
morning, much as the golden Dome of the Rock does today. But the Temple, unlike
today’s much smaller mosque, completely dominated the mount visually, as well
as the city around it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Today
we know that it was about 70 AD, some 40 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, when
the unimaginable happened and the Roman legions came into an increasingly
restive and rebellious Jerusalem to do just what Jesus had said they would do,
tearing the Temple down to the extent that what remained amounted to little
more than a pile of rocks. Then all Jews were barred from from Israel, from
Jerusalem, and from the Temple grounds for about 19 centuries. These things he
wanted them to understand as he sat on the little mountain “opposite the
temple,” the Mount of Olives so well-known by Christians as a location where
there was once a garden in which Jesus was betrayed, where nearby in Bethany
there once had been the house of Mary and Martha, the location of some of Jesus’
most profound teaching, and where also there was a hilltop from which the
disciples watched the resurrected Christ rise into the heavens. It became, in
many ways, a new mount for believers, the old one with its Temple having been
cast down without one stone remaining on another for about 2000 years now. The
new place, the new mount was ultimately where faces looked toward heaven,
opposite the lower hillside where downcast eyes revealed only the ruins of the
old Temple.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The
Temple had certainly been made of solid earthly stuff, as solid and expensive
as could be found, but the deeper foundation which Jesus sought, as with the
foundations of our own lives, was the foundation of deep faith. That is why
anyone who heard Jesus’previous comment on a poor widow’s two half pennies
placed in the Temple offering box being a gift greater than anyone else’s<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
would have caused building committee folks to scratch their heads in wonder.
Tiny donations do not build immense, magnificent buildings. But they can reveal
a deeper foundation than the foundations of buildings, a foundation of deep
faith. Humility, service, commitment to the message Jesus brought will outlast
columns of marble and doors plated with gold. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">There
must have been despair in the disciples’ hearts at the thought of a wrecked
Temple, but there was to be a future hope on its way as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Bruce
Larson once wrote that the neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit
there is to the fellowship Christ wants to see in his church. It is an
imitation, but a good one, dispensing spirits instead of the spirit, escape
instead of what is really real, but one thing is true of such places as we used
to see on the old 1980s TV series <i>Cheers</i>:
it is a place with a fellowship that is permissive, accepting, and inclusive,
where “everybody knows your name.” It is unshockable, democratic, and even
confessional, a place where people often tell things to each other that they
would never say anywhere else. Such places flourish not because people are
alcoholics, though some are, but because we are created by God with a desire to
make ourselves known, and to know others, to love and be loved. Probably Christ
wants his church to be unshockable, democratic, a place where people can come
in where “everybody knows their name” and say, “I’m sunk!” “I’m beat!” “I’ve
had it!” Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and AlAnon have this desperately
desired quality. Churches too often miss it.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The
qualities Christ seeks in us are not that we be builders of great temples or
great fortunes or great reputations, but that we be builders of great
fellowships where the lost the least and the last can come and find in one
another the presence of Christ, opposite the Temple, standing with those who
cannot stand alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Of
course our reading begins with the words about the Temple, but continues with
words about the last things, the final things, what scholars call “eschatology.”
One of my friends once said that the word <i>eschatology</i>
sounds like a medical term.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
“How is your eschatology today?” But it’s not something measured on an blood
test or electrocardiogram. Eschatology is talk about ultimate things, final
judgment, and it is a topic that always appears in Gospel readings as we begin
to approach the season of Advent. The four disciples who approached Jesus after
his lesson at the Temple stood looking with him at the glittering, brand new
Temple from the perspective of a hillside a half mile away, and were inspired
to ask a question about last things, ultimate things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus
responded with two points. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 4pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">First</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">,
that there would be a multitude of religious pretenders coming their way who
will claim to know not only the purpose of the world, but the finer points of God’s
timing. That was and still is the
case. Jesus said to them and to us, “Many will come in my name ... and they
will lead many astray.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 4pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Second</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">,
religious pretenders notwithstanding, remember that no matter how solid it
appears to be, neither this Temple, nor the good old earth itself is going to
last forever. As one preacher put it, Jesus seems to be saying, “You never
know, so live alertly, live expectantly, live now.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn5" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
We all know what it means to live in other ways so that we only see what our
lives would have meant had we been paying attention:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life is
not living at home and going to high school, real life comes when I get out of
high school and go to college or get a job;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life isn’t
this starting-level job, real life is when I get that promotion;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life isn’t
being single, real life is when I find the right someone and get married;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life is
going to start when we have some kids and are a family;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life will
be when our two year-old is finally out of diapers and in school;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life is
when our kids finally get off to college;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life is
when the last tuition payment is made;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 0.0001pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life is
when I finally get my retirement;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 45pt 4pt; text-indent: -12.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Real life will
be after I get that bypass surgery I need...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Author
Annie Dillard put this point in the most concise and telling way I have ever
heard. “How we spend our days,” she wrote, “is of course how we spend our
lives.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The “holiday
season” – as our culture persists in referring to the coming 4 or 5 weeks from
Thanksgiving through Advent, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years – comes at many
of us like a freight train on amphetimines. So much to do, shopping, greeting
cards to send, parties to organize or attend. There is nothing wrong with all
this, it’s just important to remember to stop and realize, as if Jesus stood
beside us to say it, that one day none of these things we are attending to so
frantically will remain. Not one will remain standing. Don’t go through the
motions of these coming days, but live in them. Perhaps, as a friend of mine once
said, this is the holiday when you may think about living enough in the
precious moment God has provided to “tap your spoon on the water glass and look
at one dear face or all the dear faces across the cranberry relish and say: ‘I’ve
been meaning to say this for so long; I love you, and I thank God for you.’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn6" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[6]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 4pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I
encourage you to do such things in the midst of this passing world you love,
that is populated by people and places you love, in this church that we all
love so much. And I do this myself as I say now to each of you, I love you, and
I thank God for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In the
name of the Triune God who loves us with such unfettered abandon. Amen.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Copyright ©
2012 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">
</span><br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Acts
3:2, 10.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Mark
12:41-44<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;"> <i>Edge of Adventure</i>, by Bruce Larson and
Keith Miller.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">
Michael Lindvall, in his sermon “The Real Thing,” preached at Brick
Presbyterian Church, New York City, 11-16-03.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[5]<!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">
Ibid.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">
Ibid.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-18447410238801645262012-10-07T12:24:00.001-07:002012-10-07T12:27:33.246-07:00Avoiding the Sins of the Lips<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Avoiding the Sins of the Lips<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">A Meditation for
World Communion Sunday<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">Job 1:1, 2:1-10 </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Robert J. Elder,
Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">27th
Sunday of Ordinary Time: October 7, 2012</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Job…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">We all hear Job’s name, and we connect it immediately with the
biblical story of his abject suffering. Some questions come to my mind:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">• Why read from
such a book on World Communion Sunday, of all days? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">• How is today’s
service representative of “the world” gathered at the Lord’s table, and in
particular…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 6pt 49.5pt; text-indent: -13.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">• … how does Job’s
story relate to the Lord’s Supper? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">I reflected this week on the membership of the seven congregations
I have served during my ordained ministry, and realized that I have been
privileged to serve churches whose members were born in many different
countries. Here are a few that came to my mind: The USA, of course, England,
Scotland, Germany, Sierra Leon, Australia, Cayman Islands, Laos, Puerto Rico,
Canada, Mexico, Holland, Palestine, and, of course, Texas. In a way, over the
years, any time most congregations gather at the table, we literally celebrate “<i>World</i> Communion!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">As to my own question whether a reading from Job applies to
today’s service: in recalling the suffering of Job, we should be sure to
remember the suffering of Christ as well. If Job’s suffering was filled with questioning,
Jesus’ suffering was filled with redemption – with the identification of God
with the plight of suffering humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">The name “Job” calls to mind a few graphic images for most of
us. The phrase, “the patience of Job,” is often used as a description of an
especially long-suffering person. It is a cliché at best, a complete
misrepresentation at worst. We could believe it to be an accurate
characterization of Job only if we had never bothered to read the story, or had
“grown weary after reading only the first two chapters.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
In the 42 chapters of this most unusual Old Testament book, Job comes across as
anything but patient, especially following chapter 2. Like Tevya in the musical
<i>Fiddler on the Roof</i>, Job carries on
an active debate with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Most people with even a passing understanding of Job know that
it isn’t a book about patience, but that it has come to be synonymous with the
human quest for purpose that lies in obvious and not-so-obvious ways in human
suffering. Tom Long of Princeton Seminary once wrote, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 22.5pt 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“The story looks
as though it may deliver something to feed our aching hunger to know <i>why</i>. When we summon the book to provide
an answer, though, many readers are deeply dissatisfied, even aggrieved, with
the result. The God who finally turns up near the end of the story appears to
supply not an answer, but a swagger.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">It is important to remember that Job is a story-teller’s
story, meant to illustrate or teach. It will do no good to search through
ancient maps looking for the land of Uz, any more than it would be helpful to
look through Persian records for another Old Testament Jewish heroine named
Esther. These chronicles are not offered by the biblical writers as history per
se, they are theology and philosophy turned into stories we can understand through
the lens of our own experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">When the generic Bible dictionary speaks of Job as one who
encounters disaster with fortitude and faith, it is only partly accurate.
Clearly there is fortitude, as demonstrated in Job’s determined answer to his
wife that he would not curse God and die. In view of the suffering he endures
in the story, that is quite a lot. But notice that by the end of chapter 2 it
says only that “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” Chapter 3 begins
less auspiciously than chapter 2 ended:
“After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">If Job was determined not to curse God with his lips, he
apparently felt the terrifying need to curse <i>something</i>. How like most of humanity, that when he could not curse
something in the world around him, he turned his curses on himself. It is a
classic case of blaming the victim. Before his so-called friends could come and
offer him the thin comfort of telling him his suffering must have arisen from
some sinfulness in his life, he had already taken to heaping scorn on his own
existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Why is this? I think it is because any suffering, and
especially the suffering of innocents, brings to mind questions of the meaning
of our existence. Job “persisted in his integrity,” but immediately he began to
ask the “why” questions. If we believe that we were placed here for a purpose,
suffering is the sort of experience that calls that sense of purpose into
question in a dramatic way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">University of Chicago Divinity School professor Martin Marty
once shared a story<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a> from a
Jesuit priest who told him that, on a visit to Mexico, he happened to observe
young people coming to a cathedral on a Sunday morning. As each man approached
the church doors he handed his wife or girlfriend through into the nave and
then stood on the stairs outside smoking, occasionally looking in to see how
things were coming along at the altar. This happened again and again until
quite a crowd was assembled. Intrigued, the priest went down into the plaza. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“Good morning, gentlemen.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“Good morning, Father.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“I see you escort the ladies to mass and then wait outside.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“That’s right,” they said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“You don’t go into the cathedral yourselves?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“No, not generally.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“Well, that’s puzzling. Aren’t you Catholics?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">The men looked at him in consternation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 49.5pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“Of course we’re Catholics,” they said. “But we’re not <i>fanatics</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">They were happy to carry the label of their faith but not its
content or its action. Job was willing to carry the content of his faith, even
when he no longer saw the sense of it, no longer wished to wear the label. He
was willing to cling by a thread of faith, even when he was no longer sure
where the other end of the thread was attached. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">What drives us, and the rest of the Christian world, to the
table on this or any Sunday? Fanaticism? Or perhaps it is nothing more than our
desire to avoid the sins of the lips. Perhaps it is only that in the midst of
life’s trials and vicissitudes, when we cannot see any trace of the plan or
purpose of God, when we have nothing to offer others from our own spent
resources, when our needs are so great and our means for meeting them seem so
small, that on a day like that we want to have a way to declare that no matter
what happens to shake our confidence, we have a means by which we can declare
that we still believe. Nothing more than that, just a way of hanging on, of
refusing to curse God and die, to say that no matter what lies ahead around
curves we cannot see, we believe God’s unseen purpose lies there as well. And
perhaps holding on to just that one thing will be enough to see us through. The
observance of the Lord’s Supper is not an end in itself, but is a way of
reminding believers just how intimately Christ is with us in all the moments of
life. Christ is “the divine Son who has fully participated in our human
existence and experienced the fullness of human suffering and brokenness.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">With Christ, suffering no longer expresses our separation from
God, but rather marks our solidarity with Christ, with God-become-human. In
Christ our suffering is his own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote: “There is
nothing of which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much
he is capable of – do you want to know? You are capable of living in poverty;
you are capable of enduring almost all possible mistreatment. But you do not
wish to get to know this; no, you would become enraged at the person who would
tell you this, and you regard as a friend only the one who will help you to
confirm yourself in the idea [that you are] not capable of enduring, it is
beyond [your] power.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sometimes enduring is beyond our power, true enough. But nothing is
beyond the power of the God who raised Jesus from the dead for us. That is the
promise we share as we move to the table of our Lord.</span>
<br />
<div>
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<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> “Job:
Second Thoughts in the Land of Uz,” by Thomas Long,<i>Theology Today</i>, April, 1988, p. 5.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> Ibid., p.
6.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="color: windowtext;">In his little periodical, <i>Context</i>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary:
Pentecost, Year B</i>, Soards et. al., Abingdon, 1993, pp. 78-79.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-17626408458708968312012-09-23T20:17:00.001-07:002012-09-23T20:28:57.723-07:00With Gentle Good Works<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">With Gentle Good Works</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">25th Sunday in Ordinary Time </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Robert J. Elder, Pastor</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">September 23, 2012 </span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James
3:13-4:3, 7-8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who is wise and understanding among you?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Show by your good life<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>that your works are done with gentleness born of
wisdom.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What
do you suppose would characterize gentle good works? James suggests that they
are works that are “born of wisdom.” But how is one to know when the good we do
is “born of wisdom”? James suggests that there is one kind of wisdom that is
earthbound, and another kind of wisdom that is “from above.” He knows that our
spirits are at war within us because we have a desire for the things of the
world, and the wisdom of the world teaches us to want – even to crave – these
things. Yet it is through gentle works on behalf of others – works that set
self aside in favor of the good of others – it is by this that we can live
lives characterized by a different sort of wisdom, a wisdom from above.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James identifies two kinds of wisdom. We know what
they both are, if we just stop for a moment to think about it. The first kind
of wisdom is the kind with which we are entirely too familiar. It is what James
thinks of as <i>earthly</i> <i>wisdom</i>, worldly wisdom. This is not a
philosopher’s “straw man” wisdom, some obviously phony wisdom that James sets
up for a fall from the beginning, like someone who is the obvious, scripted
villain at a professional wrestling match, someone we know to jeer from the
beginning. This is not something about which we can all nod our heads
knowingly, having long since grown beyond it into fully mature Christian
wisdom. James knows the reality of life in the world is never that simple and
straightforward. He knows that conversion to the way of Christ requires
conversion, turning, over and over again, time and again. It requires hundreds
of little conversions from an earthbound existence which seems entirely too
normal for us to see it unless we are given new, gospel glasses to see it for
what it is. And even then, we often fail to see it. James knows this, and we do
too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James knows there is double-mindedness even among
those who long to be the friends of God, followers of Christ. The wisdom of the
world is not easy to avoid, much less abandon. A friend of mine once said that
in today’s world, it is as if the radio station virtually everyone listens to
has these for its call letters WIFM – “What’s In It for Me?” The percentage of
Americans who consider themselves to be happy peaked somewhere in the 1950s,
and has been decreasing ever since. In an era less threatened by nuclear
destruction than in the 1950s, and more wealthy by anyone’s material measure,
why is this so?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I grew up in Oklahoma, was just there July for a High
School reunion after having been away for probably 25 years, and I had almost
forgotten the reverence with which Will Rogers is still held there. Remember
his brief thought on the self-justifying mental gymnastics we can do when it
comes to the amount of money we think we need to be happy? He said, in his
characteristically concise way, “Whenever someone says, ‘It’s not the money,
it’s the principle of the thing,’ it’s the money!” We can be self-serving even
when we try to fool ourselves into thinking we are not. About a dozen years
ago, the late Meg Greenfield wrote in a <i>Newsweek</i>
article that the most dangerous people in our world are not the ones who lust
for money or sex, but the ones who lust for “greatness,” for power and
influence, for notice by “history.” Some such people will subvert democracy,
will destroy other people, and often are so singlemindedly dedicated to their
cause that they cannot regard as truth anything that did not come from their
own mouths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is “What’s in it for me” raised to a level that
passes for worldly wisdom. It confronts us every day, and is seductive in part
because it is so familiar, seems to be so true in its context. It is inscribed
not only in the things we read, see on TV, and hear in conversation in the
surrounding culture, but also because it is in our very hearts.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
When we feel ambiguous about our faith, when some of the basic tenets of our
faith strike us as “not realistic,” or “too lofty,” we can be sure we are being
seduced by worldly wisdom, and James knows it is not easy to sluff it off. We
must be converted to the wisdom of the ways of Christ over and over again,
because there are so many times when we fail to see it as wisdom at all, and
fall back on a more familiar, more earth-bound wisdom instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James declared that most of the difficulties within
the fellowship of Christ, not to mention in the world at large, come from the
conflict between our own internal cravings for things we do not have, and our
higher, more altruistic, better nature. When our cravings for the material
things of the world take over, we look into our spirits, sense an emptiness
there, and presume that we can fill it with the goods we can obtain. James
called this adultery, not in a sexual but in its theological sense, as a
primary love for something other than God is always described in the Old and
New Testaments, a love for other than the One to whom we have promised our
devotion. The only way to fill our hearts by our own power is first to forsake
the power and presence of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Complete consistency in life is not given by a first
commitment. It is slowly and painfully won through many conversions.” This
helps us better to understand “what James means by faith being tested through
many trials (1:2-3), and why it should be counted as all joy when such trials
occur. Each...test is a possibility for growth and new conversion from the
measure of the world to the measure” of the kingdom.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James demonstrates that envy leads directly toward
murder, as, earlier, he had said that desire gives birth to sin; and when sin
comes to full term it brings forth death (1:15). Modern American advertising culture
is virtually chained to the logic of envy, by which you buy cottage cheese
because you want slim legs like the model in the commercial, or a new Lexus
because you want the girl in the commercial talking on the phone with her
friend about her blind date to gaze, slack-jawed at you, as you step from the
car. We live in a time in which “to be” seems almost synonymous with “to have,”
and to have more means to be more, guaranteed to generate a “certain sorrow”
when someone else has something that we do not, accompanied by the desire to do
whatever is necessary to acquire what is not possessed. When children murder
each other for a pair of athletic shoes or a team logo jacket, we see James
words about envy leading to murder coming true with a vengeance, all in a
culture of manufactured need to which we are blind most of the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The antidote to all this worldly wisdom is a wisdom
that comes from above, and we begin to acquire this wisdom as we move toward
doing works which give evidence of the things we say we believe. Gentle good
works, the kind that do not require trumpet fanfares or award ceremonies or any
notice at all. Gentle good works will never win the Nobel Prize, but they are
the stuff of wisdom that comes from above.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Martyred Salvadoran Archbishop, Oscar Romero,
placed it in perspective for me in a prayer he wrote before he was murdered in
his church by those who sought a more earthbound submission from him: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Prayer of Archbishop Romero<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span></a></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It
helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The
Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> it
is even beyond our vision.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the
magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nothing
we do is complete,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> which
is another way of saying that</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the
Kingdom always lies beyond us.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No
statement says all that should be said.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No
prayer fully expresses our faith.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No
confession brings perfection,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> no
pastoral visit brings wholeness,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No
program accomplishes the church’s mission.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No
set of goals and objectives includes everything.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
is what we are about.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
plant the seeds that one day will grow.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
water the seeds already planted,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> knowing
that they hold future promise.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
lay foundations that will need further development.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
cannot do everything.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and
there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
enables us to do something,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and
to do it very well.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It
may be incomplete,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> but
it is a beginning,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> a
step along the way,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> an
opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and to do the rest.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
may never see the end results,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> but
that is the difference</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> between
the master builder and the worker.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
are workers, not master builders,</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ministers,
not messiahs.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
are prophets of a future that is not our own.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Elder</span><i style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>New Interpreters’ Bible</i>, Abingdon, p.
212.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i>New Interpreters’ Bible</i>, Abingdon, p.
212-213.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Source:
Bottom Drawer meeting Note 3242 by Max Glenn on Ecunet.org.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-87077699703994367082012-09-16T14:18:00.004-07:002012-09-16T14:18:41.935-07:00Look One Way, Speak Another
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt;">Look One
Way, Speak Another<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 7.0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Mark 8:27-38 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 7.0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">Twenty-fourth
Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 7.0in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt;">September
16, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .75in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">There is probably only one
sure way to approach an understanding of this reading from Mark, and that is to
take it one step at a time, almost living through it phrase by phrase, as the
disciples themselves had to do. To skip too quickly to the end is to miss the
startling points that Jesus addressed to those with whom he ultimately
entrusted the continuation of his ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">To start with, the
geography of the passage shouldn’t be overlooked. Jesus and the 12 had marched
through his healing ministry and up to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, which
were located in the foothills of Mount Hermon (now in the present-day Golan
Heights, just a few miles from the Lebanese border). From this elevated
perspective, they could look back toward the South, over the region of Galilee
and beyond the horizon toward Jerusalem. Here Jesus invited his disciples to
take a figurative look back over the Galilean ministry and ahead to Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus’ discussion with his disciples was really a
matter of answering three questions, and then determining what the answers
implied for living in this life <i>as</i>
disciples. Jesus asked all three questions, and the second two build upon the
foundation provided by the first. “Who do <i>others
</i>say that I am?” “Who do <i>you </i>say
that I am?” and finally – although he didn’t really say it this way – his words
answered a third question, “Who do <i>I </i>say
that I am?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">I</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">First, Who do <i>others</i> say that I am? Jesus was not the
first nor the last religious figure to ask questions about public opinion. In
fact, it’s fair to say that some modern religious figures are a bit <i>overly-</i>concerned about it. For instance,
some of us may remember the emergence of the so-called ‘moral majority’ back in
the 1980s – whatever happened to that idea? – a name that implied that
numerical superiority in some way blesses this or that religious opinion. In
fact, the name never really was even close to being true, only a single digit
percentage of the general population ever claimed any affiliation, far from a
majority. But somehow just saying it seemed to make it so. A series of exposés
about the organization led to its downfall by the middle of the 1980s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Some might say, “But who
would listen to a religious <i>minority</i>?”
The historical answer has been, <i>plenty</i>
of folks. The church started with 12 people who held a minority opinion in a
minority culture in the middle of an ancient Roman civilization that really
represented a minority of the world’s population then as now. There is more to
be said for holding the minority view than we usually admit. Jesus asked the
question, not to go begging after public approval, but to begin to help the
disciples learn who <i>he</i> was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 40.5pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: -3.0pt; position: relative; top: 3.0pt;">Jesus had raised the question so inescapably that even
... ordinary people, people who made no pretense of being disciples – had found
themselves not only asking it, but forced to admit that Jesus must be some
great figure indeed, John the Baptist or one of the great prophets risen from
the dead.</span></i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: -3.0pt; position: relative; top: 3.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">People all around the disciples were answering the
question before it was asked. Jesus was doing things that demanded an answer,
and the likely explanation presented itself to a people who had lived in
expectation of a Messiah for centuries. They began saying that this must be the
forerunner of the one for whom they had waited. Probably they all had varying
images of who the Messiah was to be, and since Jesus did not fit those images
exactly, they thought he might be the Master of Ceremonies, the one who would
make the introductions. A Messiah who has not yet come leaves our
preconceptions intact, makes no demands on us. But a present Messiah we could
find disturbing, because a Messiah who is already here would call for an
altered image, an altered view of who we are and what we should be doing about
it. We would have to begin to change our comfortable patterns: much easier to
continue the wait than to give in and begin to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">II</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus’ first question
inevitably led to the next, just as surely as “Don’t you just love the leather
seats in this car?” leads to, “and which payment plan do you prefer?” Jesus
knew what some of those plain folks were saying about him. He wanted to know if
the disciples had heard it. They had. So he put the next question to them. “Who
do <i>you</i> say that I am ?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now the disciples hadn’t
been asleep during the ministry of Jesus, and they knew that there was more to
him than the ordinary bumpkin in Galilee would have guessed. Peter spoke for
them all when he said that Jesus was the <i>Christ,
Christos</i>, the Greek word for <i>Messiah</i>.
Then the interesting thing happened. Instead of slapping him on the back and
giving him a cigar for arriving at the right answer, Jesus commanded them to silence.
And when he next referred to himself, he did not call himself “Christ” or “Messiah,”
but went back to that mysterious title he seemed to prefer, “Son of man.” Why?
Because of what was yet to come. Jesus cannot be appropriately understood apart
from the cross and his suffering on our behalf, and the disciples, as yet, knew
nothing of this. When they called him Christ, Jesus knew that they had no idea
what they were saying. So he began to tell them. And it was a beginning that
took the rest of his ministry for them to understand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Through almost 8 chapters
in Mark, Jesus’ power and authority had been emphasized. In this story, Jesus
shifted the emphasis. From here to the cross, his suffering and death would
receive all the attention. It was not an emphasis that the disciples enjoyed
any more than our culture does, which is demonstrated every Spring when tiny
Good Friday services are followed by extra large services on Easter Sunday. But
Jesus’ warning is clear to all: the way of the Christ, before it can be the way
of resurrection and life, must be the way of suffering, rejection, and death. A
handful of people at a Good Friday service are closer to an appreciation of it
all than hundreds crowding the pews at Easter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus had to suffer
because his understanding of the will of God ran counter to that of the
religious authorities in Jerusalem, the members of the governing councils, the
Pharisees, the scribes, the television preachers, the denominational
authorities, almost everyone with a stake in seeing the religious life of
Israel remain as it had for hundreds of years. What is ironic is that it also
ran counter to Peter who, acting on behalf of all the disciples, “took him” –
the word implies an assumption of authority – as one would “take” a naughty child
from the room for discipline. Then he “rebuked him.” In a word, Peter called
him down as Jesus had called down the demons in his healing ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;">III<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 5.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">That action forced the
asking of the 3rd question. “Who do<i> I</i>
say that I am?” The real issue at that moment was, as it is today: Who is in
charge? If we call Jesus the Christ, we give up the right to define for him
what that name means. We hand him the authority to name himself. Peter tried to
behave like the big shot who gives his money away to endow some showy thing or
other and then raises a fit if his name isn’t engraved at the top of the
program for the annual meeting. Peter acted more like a patron than a disciple.
Like us, <i>he </i>wanted to do what God
himself would do if only God were in full possession of the facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: -3.0pt; position: relative; top: 3.0pt;">Through Peter, Satan tempted Jesus to think
that God’s anointed one could avoid suffering, rejection, and death; that God’s
rule can mean power without pain, glory without humiliation, election without
service. Satan’s agent in this tempting pattern of thought was Peter, whose
thinking was human, perfectly understandable, a devilishly good idea. But
wrong.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="position: relative; top: 3pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The task of discipleship
is not to guide, protect, or possess Jesus, but to follow him. Answering “Who
do you say that I am” we must eventually ask what his being the Christ means
for our discipleship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Peter, for all his
brashness and faults, was out ahead of most of us. He could begin to see the
writing on the wall. If Jesus was the Christ, and if they were his disciples,
and if even the Christ was going to be called on to suffer, to give up his life
so that others might have life, well what would that mean for his followers?
Could they be called upon to do less? He could see coming what Jesus was about
to say, and he tried to block him. But Jesus would not be deterred from his
faithfulness to his calling. And so, the inevitable logic of what they had been
hearing bore fruit in Jesus’ next statement, which was made not only to the
disciples, but to the multitude and, ultimately, across the centuries to us: “If
any would come after me, let them take up their cross and follow me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This statement might
strike us as familiar, but it ought never to lose its impact for a people
accustomed to humming along when Frank Sinatra sang, “I did it myyyyy waaaaay.”
What statement of autonomy is more familiar to a parent experiencing the fresh
grief of an empty nest than a child’s declaration: “It’s <i>my</i> life!” Jesus’ words fly in the face of all these assumptions
about whose life we are living. He says that no one has the capacity to raise
the price that would buy his or her life as a secure possession. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-text-raise: -3.0pt; position: relative; top: 3.0pt;"> “Whoever is ashamed of Jesus now in the common pressures of
life will feel the shame of Jesus in the end, when those who wanted to save
themselves stand before the One who did not.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="position: relative; top: 3pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finding comes through
losing, living comes from dying, I find out who I really am by discovering who
Jesus is, the way to fulfill myself is to set self aside. The call of Christ
then, as now, was filled with such paradoxes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus’ words are a
challenge to any group or person, no matter whether conservative or liberal,
religious or atheist, believer or doubter. To churches that doze along in a
comfortable pew piety, Jesus’ call is clear to get up, take up a cross and
follow on the hard way; to those who occupy themselves telling people to “get
saved,” Jesus offers a rather stern warning about a preoccupation with saving
one’s self; to radical movements for liberation, Jesus warns against
identifying the assertion of any group’s economic and political agenda with the
self-emptying work of the kingdom; to those who because of self-interest are
opposed to movements to free people, Jesus issues afresh the challenge of
self-denial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Not everyone who responds
is a plastic saint, either, but often is simply the woman whose self-interest
is set aside in order to rear a houseful of homeless children, or the man whose
devotion to his mentally ill wife is the one constant in her life, or the
neighbor who sets aside her own plans to lend a hand in the church school, or
the one who offers the cup of cold water to the thirsty stranger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I Gotta Be Me </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">may well be the anthem of the self in every age. Jesus is also
concerned for self-fulfillment. But his way is more challenging, and,
ultimately, more fulfilling: “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it; but
whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Shall we
wear the cross or the crown? In the end, it must be both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <i><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">Saint Mark</span></i><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">, D.E. Nineham, p. 224.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;">This paragraph thanks largely to Lamar Williamson in his
commentay <i>Mark</i>, p. 153.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="Footnote">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Ibid. p. 155</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Footnote">
<br /></div>
<div class="Footnote">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-53139291983653811872012-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:002012-09-23T20:17:37.826-07:00A Vintage Tale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A Vintage Tale</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-text-raise: 4.0pt; position: relative; top: -4.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">copyright
© 2012 Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Twenty-second
Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">September
9, 2012</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;">Mark 12:1-12</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">A man planted a vineyard,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">and built a watchtower;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Whose vineyard is it, anyway? It’s a question put by Jesus – by means of a
parable – to those who questioned his authority. Isn’t a parable an odd sort of
way to address a question about authority? Maybe. But I’m guessing, since it’s
Jesus doing the teaching, not in this case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">To understand Jesus’ parable, the first thing we have to think about is
what it means to be tenants. Some of us probably rent homes or apartments. Some
others of us probably own our homes...or imagine we do, until we have to send
in that monthly mortgage check to the people who <i>really</i> own our homes. We may be more like tenants than we like to
think, unless the house is completely paid off. And even if it’s paid off, just
try withholding property taxes for a few years and see whose house it is then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">I have been a renter and I also have “owned” 6 different homes in my
lifetime. Though, I have to admit, I never really owned any of them, don’t
really own the one I live in now, the mortgage lender always has and still does
own a pretty large interest in my home. In many ways, I am a tenant on someone
else’s property.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">These random musings about ownership of property might help us begin to
make connection with Jesus’ teaching on authority through the parable of the
wicked tenants in an absentee owner’s vineyard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">I remember my first years of ministry, living in what Presbyterians call a “manse.”
Methodists and others call them “parsonages.” Whatever we call them, they are
church-owned homes in which pastors are invited to live during the time they
are serving a particular church. In the last half century, many churches have
sold their manses in favor of a housing allowance for pastors. Still, when
ministers gather, even if it’s been years since they occupied a manse or
parsonage, there is almost invariably a time when tales of woe from bad
experiences in the church manse are shared. I recall the story of a pastor
friend whose wife had the audacity to move the sofa in their church manse from
one room to another, only to suffer the wrath of church members who had
collectively donated the sofa specifically for the room from which she had
moved it. A great uproar ensued, and eventually the pastor and his wife moved
the sofa back where it had been. Then, as soon as possible, they found another
church to serve that did not have the “benefit” of a manse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">That little fracas involved, of course, a question of authority. Whose
manse was it anyway? The title deed had the church’s name on it, and the church
authorities had charge of the stewardship of it, and only by their leave did
the pastor and his or her family live there. “By what authority are you moving
that sofa?” the elders wanted to know. And, of course, they held all the cards,
the authority over property in the church was theirs to exercise. “By what
authority are you doing these things?” the priests, scribes, and elders asked,
after Jesus had come riding triumphantly into Jerusalem, moving the
moneychangers’ furniture on the Temple grounds. Jesus wouldn’t say, instead he
told this story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">God’s kingdom is something like a vineyard, Jesus said, which an owner
planted, improved with a new fence, wine press and watchtower. Then he leased
it to some tenants and for reasons all his own, he went to another country,
which is to say, out of sight and, judging by the rest of the story, pretty
soon out of mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">A few years back the newspaper carried a front page story about a
California company, Premier Pacific Vineyards, that had purchased and developed
six vineyards in Polk and Yamhill counties here in Oregon, as an investment on
behalf of the retirement system for California public employees. Now I doubt
that any of the front office folks at Premier Pacific come up here on a regular
basis to cultivate and water the vines in their vineyards. My guess is that
they hired vineyard managers who, in turn, hired workers to till and cultivate
the vines. My guess is also that if a day dawned when the vineyard managers and
their workers decided that they could just keep all profits from those
vineyards for themselves, the parent company would put a quick end to their
folly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">But that’s not how it went in Jesus’ parable. In his story, the tenants
enjoyed the vineyard and all the owner-financed improvements for a while, and
then began to develop a proprietary sense about the place. It wasn’t their
vineyard, never was. They didn’t purchase the ground, had made none of the
original improvements on it. They enjoyed the fruits of a vineyard established
by someone else, who had invited them to live and work there on his behalf.
That’s how things stood until that day, that seemingly normal day like other
days, when the owner sent someone to collect the rent that was due to him for
the benefits they derived from his property and its improvements. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Incredibly, the tenants in the story responded as if they were owners
rather than renters. They shamelessly beat the representative the owner sent to
collect the rent. The incredibly forbearing owner sent another unsuspecting
servant to collect the rent, money which was clearly due him. What did the
wicked tenants do? They pulled out the brass knuckles and baseball bats, beat
him, and, for good measure, added insults to his injuries, and tossed him out
the gate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Unbelievably, the long-suffering owner sent a third unlucky servant to
collect the rents, but now feeling empowered in their evil, they killed this
one. Jesus said, “so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they
killed.” By now, we may recognize the servants as representations of the Old
Testament prophets, and the land owner as a representation of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">In exasperation, the owner sent his own son – and now we begin to see the
parallel with the story of Jesus – the owner sent his own son to set things to
right, but the tenants, consistent in their evil, killed the owner’s son,
unceremoniously pitching his lifeless body outside the property. They believed
that now, with the owner’s heir out of the way, they would inherit the property
themselves, perhaps by squatter’s rights. What would you expect that the owner
of the vineyard would do to these tenants? You know the rest of the story, and
it wasn’t a happy ending for those tenants<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Why did Jesus tell this story? It’s a parable that appears in Mark,
Matthew, and Luke, and each reports that it was told in response to a question
about authority. By what authority, the presumptive authorities had asked
Jesus, do you do these things? But Jesus knew whatever authority they had was
only derivative. If the priests, scribes and elders had authority over matters
civil and religious in Israel, it was like the authority of the tenants in the
vineyard, derived, granted by another, by the God of Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">When pastors or musicians select a hymn or anthem for a Sunday morning, we
frequently ask ourselves, “Do the people know this hymn? Do they like to sing
it? Is it good music?” Rarely do we ask, “What does this hymn say about God?
Will God be pleased with our singing of it today?” When we fail to ask these
other questions, we are guilty of acting as if this were <i>our</i> church, <i>our</i> vineyard,
owned by <i>us</i> and the members who
gather here. It goes along with sentences like, “This isn’t the pastor’s
church, it’s our church,” or “This church doesn’t belong to the session, it
belongs to the people.” In truth it belongs neither to pastor nor session nor
people. We are the tenants. God is the owner who has called us to come and till
this corner of his vineyard for a time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">If we plan Sunday worship, or anything else in the church for that matter,
saying, “What do we want from this worship or this activity,” by the measure of
this gospel parable, the questions we ought to be asking instead are, “By whose
authority do we do these things that we do? What does God require? Whose church
is this, anyway?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">This teaching goes beyond the worship and fellowship life of the church, of
course. In our confessions and by our study of scripture, we believe that the
whole bountiful, beautiful earth is not ours to use for our own pleasure. We’re
all tenants in this garden of delights, in spite of the fact that we often use
and abuse the earth and its creatures as if we were gods unto ourselves, owing
nothing to anyone else. In the end the church doesn’t belong to elders,
pastors, or people, but to God. Easy to say, more difficult to live as though
it’s true and we believe it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Some have called Jesus’ parable of the wicked tenants a parable of
judgment, but is it really? Could it be that it’s a story of grace? When we ask
ourselves, “What do I want from this church? What do we need to do to keep this
congregation going, to make worship meaningful, to keep being faithful?” Ought
we not to be asking ourselves, “By whose authority is all this singing,
serving, and speaking done?” This is not <i>our</i>
church, this place is God’s. This church is ours on loan. The one who created
this church paid for it with the death of his Son.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">There is grace in this message. A pastor can’t keep a church going. Nor can
anyone sitting in a pew in the congregation or choir. This church is God’s.
Worship leaders can’t make “it” happen for you on Sunday – whatever “it” is –
no matter how hard we work on music, anthems, prayers, sermons. If something
worshipful happens, it’s a gift of God. The church is gathered under the
authority of God, not as a self-generating society of unfulfilled expectations.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Hidden148" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">A Methodist friend of mine shared
the following story of a family he knew, visiting in a university town in
California where the father was teaching for the summer:</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">When they entered town, they passed by a large, impressive
Methodist church. Of course, this story could as easily be about Presbyterians
or Lutherans as about Methodists:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The father said to his family, “Let’s go to that church on
Sunday.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">On Sunday they got up, got dressed, and walked to church. As
they came near to the building, they could hear music, loud music, guitars,
drums, emanating from the neogothic building. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 3pt 31.5pt; text-indent: 9pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> “What kind of
church is this?” his son asked. The father replied, “Well, it’s one of ours,
you’ve got to remember that we’re in California....”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 3pt 31.5pt; text-indent: 9pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A smiling usher greeted them at the door. When the door
opened, they could see that the service had begun. In the service there was a
band in full swing. People were clapping and swaying to the music, people of
all ages, of every color of the rainbow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 3pt 31.5pt; text-indent: 9pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> “Is this a Methodist
church?” they asked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 3pt 31.5pt; text-indent: 9pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> “Oh, no,” the
usher said. “We rent this sanctuary from the Methodist church. If you like, I’ll
take you to the Methodist church.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 31.5pt; text-indent: 9pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And the usher took him around the corner of the building to a
small chapel where there gathered a huddled, small group of … people, plodding
through a traditional service. On the way back home, as they made their way
through a sidewalk filled with people emerging from the larger service around
the corner, the father looked back at that emerging throng of all ages,
nations, and races, and said to his family, “<i>That</i> was the Methodist church.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">It’s important that we never fail
to remind one another that our church is not <i>ours</i>. We just work here in the vineyard for the time being. It’s a
vineyard which, if it belongs to anyone, it belongs to God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><sup><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></sup></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">From “Taken
and Given to Someone Else,” a sermon preached by William Willimon at the Duke University
chapel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-51163425421907030562012-09-02T16:39:00.002-07:002012-09-03T10:07:16.032-07:00Biblical Busybodies<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Biblical Busybodies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">II Thessalonians 3:6-13</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Rober J. Elder, Interim Pastor</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">First
Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, Washington<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Twenty-second
Sunday in Ordinary Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">September
2, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">We hear that some of you are living in idleness, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">mere busybodies, not doing any work.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Brothers and sisters,
do not be weary in doing what is right.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">When Paul began detailing the ways
in which some of the folks in that early church in the city of Thessalonica
were not pulling their weight, I can imagine that many in that little
fellowship cringed to hear his truth-telling, no matter <i>how</i> true it was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">“For we hear,” Paul wrote in his letter, which was surely read in the
middle of the gathering of that little church, since New Testament letters were
designed to edify the whole church and few could read them on their own anyway,
“For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not
doing any work.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Ouch!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">True as such things may be, we often create elaborate ways to avoid such
truth, especially in church, because to face it means to have to do something
about it. A study of any dysfunctional family will turn up many methods by
which all the family members carry on their elaborate charades to avoid
confrontation with truth; but not the apostle, not Paul. His hard words of
truth remind me of a classic, short, modern parable I once read, and have long
remembered, entitled, “The Day Rev. Henderson Bumped His Head.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
I can’t resist sharing an excerpt with you:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 3pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Leaning down toward the bottom
shelf to retrieve his trusty <i>Strong’s Bible
Concordance</i> to pursue “new moon” through both testaments, the Reverend
Henry Henderson, pastor of Sword of Truth Methodist Church, bumped his head,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “Darn,” he exclaimed, grabbing his forehead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">This he followed immediately with
[a stronger expletive] which was muttered with atypical candor. The rather
non-ministerial [utterance] surprised Henderson. He could hardly believe he
said it. [Then] he heard himself say [it] again. “This hurts.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">That, so far as the Reverend
Henderson could tell, was how it all began – an accidental blow to the brain
while reaching for a Bible concordance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Moments later, the phone rang.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “Pastor,” whined a nasal voice at the other end, “are you
busy?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “Not at all...” said Pastor Henderson out of habit. Then,
from nowhere he continued, “I’m sitting here in my study just dying for someone
like you to call and make my day! No, I <i>am</i>
busy. I was working on my sermon for next Sunday. What is it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">His words paralyzed him. They must
also have stunned the whiny voice at the other end of the line, for there was a
long, awkward silence followed by “Er, well, I’ll call you at home tonight
after work, Pastor.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “No,” said Henderson firmly, alien words forming in his mouth
as if not by his own devising, “call me during office hours on any day other
than Friday. Thank you. Good-bye.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">The receiver dropped from his hand
and into the telephone cradle. He felt odd. Yes, quite odd. His head no longer
throbbed. Yet he felt odd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Emerging from his study, he
encountered Jane Smith, come to church for her usual Friday duties for the
altar guild. “As usual, just me,” she said to Henderson. “They all <i>say</i> they’ll be on the guild, that they
don’t mind helping out the church. Yet, when it comes time for the work, where
are they?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “I think you know very well why they are not here,” said Pastor
Henderson. “You gave them only a half-hearted invitation. Everyone knows you
love playing the martyr. Their absence helps bolster your holier-than-thou
attitude.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Mrs. Smith nearly dropped the
offering plate she was holding, along with the polishing cloth and the Brasso.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;"> “Pastor! How dare you accuse me of being a complainer! You
know how hard I’ve worked to get the altar guild going! If you gave us
volunteers the kind of support we ought to...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">… but Pastor Henderson was no
longer listening. He staggered down the hall as Mrs. Smith continued her
complaint. He was feeling dizzy, unsteady...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">...He was a pastor in peril.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Henderson at the hospital that
afternoon, Room 344: [found himself saying] “So the doctor tells you your heart
problems are congenital? That so? Are you sure the doctor didn’t mention
anything about (by my reckoning) <i>eighty
pounds of excess fat</i>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 3pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">And in Room 204: “Really? So this
is the strain of emphysema that is <i>not</i>
caused by smoking? Give me a break! Two packs a day for thirty years, and you
wonder why you’re sucking on an oxygen tank for dear life?”...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.75in 5pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">...That fateful Sunday service,
after a pastoral prayer in which Henderson admitted to God that “Most of us
didn’t really want to hear anything truthful you have to reveal to us,” an
emergency meeting of the Pastor/Parish Council was called [and the next call
was to the bishop’s office]...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">We can probably imagine how the end of the story went from there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">It was Flannery O’Conner, I think, who once reworded a familiar Bible
phrase by adding a new twist, saying, “You shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you odd.” Paul never needed a blow to the head to inspire him to
declare what was true, but I am certain that more than once his unwillingness
to soften the truth of the gospel must have made him a bit odd to those on the
receiving end of truths they had made a practice of hiding. I can imagine there
were a few sluggards in the Thessalonian congregation who dreaded to see an
envelope arrive at the church with a return address bearing Paul’s name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Their error wasn’t mere sloth, a simple laziness that afflicted some of the
believers in Thessalonica. The fact is, there were some in that congregation
who had decided that Jesus was going to return very shortly, so soon, in fact,
that they determined that they might as well stop working. Why work when Jesus
would soon be there to set everything right? By believing as they did, they
became a burden on the others in their fellowship. Who was supposed to keep
these blissful non-workers and their families from starving? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">We may find this a bit quaint, even odd, but I have to say, we still have
not yet begun to hear the last of end-of-the-world prophets, they appear in
every generation. As books such as the <i>Left
Behind</i> and <i>DaVinci Code</i> novels of
a few years ago continue to come across booksellers’ counters, don’t be
surprised to discover the enduring cultural fascination with people who declare
the end or beginning of all manner of things is at hand. Just remember, this is
nothing new, and don’t quit your day job. Around 200 A.D., in a region in what
is now northern Turkey, a church leader reported to his followers that he had
dreams that the final judgment was coming at the end of the year. Many
Christian believers in the area abandoned their fields and sold their personal
possessions in anticipation of a day which not only did not come by the end of
the year, indeed, it has not <i>yet</i>
come. It has been happening ever since. Self-proclaimed spiritual leaders have
been taking the gullible for a ride for centuries. Just remember Paul’s word: “For
you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were
with you...but with toil and labor we worked night and day...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">This is not to say that such a “Day of the Lord” is never coming. The Bible
seems clearly to suggest that it is. It is to say that we have plenty of word
from that same Bible about what we should be doing in anticipation, and none of
it suggests we should simply stop doing the good work of God and sit by the
side of the road to wait for the end. Paul said, “For even when we were with
you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">It is a truth, even though it is one that may be hard to hear. “Brothers
and sisters,” Paul said, “Do not be weary in doing what is right.” This goes
for the righteous, industrious ones who do more than their share as well as the
idle ones who do little, if anything. The hard workers must not take the
example of the slothful as their excuse to despair in their task, and the
slothful ones must not be left in this one of the seven deadly sins, as if it
doesn’t matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">On the weekend of Labor Day, this passage seems like an appropriate
reminder of the nobility of work, of committing ourselves to doing some small,
useful work, even though we know that other great things may be underway in the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">In one of his Bible commentaries,<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
our favorite 16th century reformer, good old John Calvin, said, “In vain do
persons who are delighted with an easy, indolent life, and with exemption from
the cross, undertake a profession of Christianity.” He went on: “The true
self-denial which the Lord demands ... does not consist so much in outward
conduct as in the affections; so that every one must employ the time which is
passing over him without allowing the objects which he directs by his hand to
hold a place in his heart.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 5pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; mso-no-proof: no;">Here is a word to us on this Labor Day weekend. Whether we work for peanuts
or for millions, scripture is clear in its declaration that we are to work for
the betterment of all until that time when the Best of all comes, lays our work
aside, and says, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright ©
2012 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">
</span>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> by William
Willimon, in <i>Leadership</i>, magazine,
slightly altered by RJE.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> 2
Thessalonians 3:10<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> On Luke
14.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bold
Declarations<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sunday, August 26, 2012</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">© 2012, Robert J. Elder, Pastor</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 502.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.0pt; tab-stops: right 502.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ephesians 6:10-20 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 50.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pray for me, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 461.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">so that when
I speak, a message may be given to me <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 461.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to make
known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 461.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>for which I
am an ambassador in chains.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.0pt; tab-stops: 4.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 50.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember one summer seeing an eye-catching
promotional ad for an upcoming television show. An actress, who apparently had
been spending an inordinate amount of time at the gym working on physical
conditioning and strength, wanted to prove herself – to someone other than the
attendant who hands out the towels at the door, I suppose. Actresses can be
like that. So she arranged to take part in a circus trapeze act for one of
those TV extravaganzas specially made for the late summer television doldrums.
In the promotional piece, they showed her flying through the air, releasing her
grip in time to spin around and be caught by a man on another trapeze who
arrived just in time to make the catch. But I noticed right away that they had
attached two lines to a special belt around her middle, so that if her partner
failed to catch her, she would just bounce up and down like a yo-yo or a bunji
cord enthusiast going off a bridge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.75in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right away I found myself thinking, “Oh, big deal!
She’s got a net <i>and</i> a set of bunji cords!”
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How jaded and cynical can I get? I would never even climb the pole to the
platform, let alone swing over the floor of a circus tent on a trapeze unless
there was a substantial net, a large liability policy, and a highly trained
staff of physicians and nurses in place. Still, we all know what is meant when
someone says, “She’s performing without a net.” Whether we’re speaking of a
circus performer or a Wall Street investor, it means someone is operating
without precautions in the event that they might fail — they are operating at
high personal risk. It is either confidence or craziness that causes people to
take big chances. I can hardly look when one of those aerial performers,
possessed of a maniacal confidence in their sense of balance, decides to walk a
tight rope over Niagra Falls or between tall buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still, even the most daring circus performer takes <i>some</i> precautions, much as they may
attempt to make it appear otherwise. The first precaution is thousands of
hours, <i>years</i> of practice. They use
special shoes so their feet can grip the line, rosin on the wire, a special
pole to assist them with their balance. Not to do these things would be truly
crazy, potentially deadly as well. Though they may appear completely
vulnerable, there are subtle considerations providing for their safety, some of
their own strength and ability to provide for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s interesting that when Paul wrote about the
Christian struggle in the world, comparing our sources of strength as believers
to the strength of a soldier’s armor, he was a prisoner, very likely guarded by
someone wearing the very armaments he described. He was in the weakest of
positions in which anyone could find himself, able to call upon few strengths
of his own. Accused, arrested, behind bars, at the mercy of his jailers for his
daily food, subject to the beatings of his more vicious captors. Yet in such a
situation, he found the spiritual resources to write about strength, power, the
armor of God. What confidence! Someone imprisoned for his faith who continues
in his faith despite the penalties for it might appear to be working without a
net, without a surrounding community of fellow believers, without the cultural
support of a society that is tolerant of his religious affirmations, without
even an outward sign that God approves of what he is doing — because if God was
so fond of Paul, the thinking might go, why would he allow him to be imprisoned
on trumped-up charges?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without all those things that make for our accustomed
measure of safety and security in declaring in this religiously free society
that Christ is our Lord, what sources of strength are left? Just think if
constitutional safeguards concerning our religious observances were taken away,
if the entire culture around us were to turn to some set of beliefs directly
hostile to our own, and if we saw our own fellow church members, one after
another, abandon our faith, turning away from following Christ because it was
no longer culturally acceptable — where would we turn for the strength to go on,
to remain faithful?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul helps us see that all the outward safety nets
for our faith are just trappings. Strip them away, and what we have left is the
one essential of our faith, not the strength of our own personal convictions,
but the very strength of God. If we rely on our own strength, it will
ultimately fail us. If we rely on God’s strength, we cannot fail in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over 20 years ago now I recall seeing a movie called <i>The Doctor</i>. Maybe some of you will
remember it. While I don’t believe it won an academy awards, the impact of it
has stayed in my memory all this time. I think it contained a good lesson for
anyone tempted to think they can survive this world by their own wit and widsom
alone. In the film there was an intriguing scene in which the main character, a
powerful and well-known surgeon played by William Hurt, is reduced to the
status of plain old patient in his own hospital due to a serious medical
problem of his own. He finds himself being treated as a piece of anatomy,
shuffled from one waiting room to another. In particular, his own surgeon
treats him with a mechanical sort of efficiency, rather than as a human being.
When he objects, she literally throws him out of her office; but before he
goes, he says to her “What is happening to me is like something that will
happen to you. If not now, then maybe thirty years from now but it will happen.
You will get sick one day. You will know what I am going through.” I’m not
picking on physicians. Any one of us can find, and may already have found ourselves
in such a life situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before the diagnosis of his own medical problem, it
is likely that William Hurt’s character would have declared to anyone who
wanted to listen that the source of his strength lay in the skill of his hands
as a surgeon, in the quality of his mind, in the extent of his training and in
his proven ability. But one little tumor reduced him to a status in which none
of the things in which he customarily placed his confidence would provide
strength for him now. Looking around, he saw little else to bear him up in his
time of trial. Long since emotionally distanced even from his own family, he
was going to face his surgery like an acrobat working without a net.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we are sufficiently in touch with our lives to
admit it to ourselves, certainly there have been such times for each of us.
When our own mortality looks us in the face, reducing all our life’s priorities
to a single overriding concern, we are bound to reach into the deepest parts of
ourselves to search out a source of strength to see us through.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is at precisely such times, when all other sources
of strength have either failed us or been found wanting, or irrelevant, that we
are in the blessed position in which Paul found himself in his prison cell. We
may not think of it as a blessing, but I promise you it is. It may be the
biggest trauma of our lives: our health threatened by a disease; our child
marching off to war; our best friend dying before our eyes; the child we have
loved into adulthood turning on us as though we were somehow the enemy rather
than someone who loves them more than anyone in the world; a career collapsing
around us; a marriage failing with no singular or even reasonably identifiable
cause. Whatever the trauma, these are times when Paul says to us, as he says
here, “Be strong!” Actually, this English translation of Paul’s Greek word is
inadequate, making it sound as though receiving the strength of God were a step
we could take, another achievement we could undertake, a self-help exhortation
on the order of “Shape up! Be strong! Get with it! Just do it!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A better translation would be something moe akin to,
“Receive strength!” or “Turn around and open yourself to the strength of the
promises of God which await you!” Receiving the strength of which Paul speaks
is most certainly not another work we can perform, a variation of relying on
our own strength. It isn’t an admonition to search within ourselves for a
source of strength. It would be all too likely that we would have already
searched as deeply into our own sources of strength as we could and found them
wanting. There wouldn’t be any good news in that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The blessing that hides in our severest trials is
just the potential for this discovery that there is no trial we may face for
which the strength of God’s promises cannot more than provide, not even the
trial of death itself. Even when we “lose it” in the middle of our trials – get
that feeling that we are totally out of control and suffering beyond hope, even
then we may discover that our being out of control only provides us with all
the greater opportunity to invite divine strength to control the situation in
such a way that it’s resolution might be satisfying to God. A Christian is free
to recognize that hope for redemption of a terrible situation may even lie
beyond death, because in Christ, God reigns even there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you face life’s crises the way I do, you know that
it is not within human ability to fully equip ourselves for facing all the
traumas of our lives. Some battles are of such magnitude that rugged
individualism, or professional counsel can’t help but fail us. So think of the
pieces of armor that Paul used as an illustration, the qualities they represent
speaking of ways God may strengthen us. If in the middle of our trials we find
that there is truth to sustain us, it is likely to be <i>God’s truth</i>. If we find that we are unexpectedly succeeding in some
things, it is likely to be a “right”-eousness that God has granted us, not our
own faltering attempts to do things right. If we find that despite all
expectations to the contrary we are able to hold our ground and remain standing
even though everything familiar seems to be failing us, it is likely that our
shoes are firmly footed in the gospel of <i>shalom</i>,
the gospel of peace. If we find that things which usually drive us crazy now
seem insignificant, hardly relevant, it is that the sustaining word of our
faith is shielding us from those things which we might ordinarily allow to
bring us down. If we find that even though every human being around us has
failed us but we discover strength in the fact that God loves us in spite of it
all, we are protected by the promise of salvation in Christ from having to rely
on the strength of anyone else. If we find, astonishingly, that we can even
talk to others about our difficulties and maybe even support a fellow sufferer
by the ability to articulate our own pain, we are in reality giving voice to
the word of God which lives within the heart of every believer through the
strength of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Strange as it sounds to modern ears, so attuned to a
false gospel of rugged individualism and self-sufficiency, making ourselves
ready to battle life’s demons that would tear us down has little to do with our
own abilities and preparation, and everything to do with the sufficient grace
of God, which stands ready to strengthen every believer in every hour. We need
only look to our need to be open to God’s strength.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Hidden148">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Copyright
© 2012 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">
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<br /></div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-31664151067392635112012-08-19T15:15:00.002-07:002012-08-19T15:15:53.160-07:00
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14pt;">Subject or Object?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt;">Ephesians 5:15-33 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt;">Robert
J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt;">20th
Sunday of Ordinary Time: August 19, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">One summer, I was riding through the Scottish
countryside with my cousin, Malcolm and his wife, Muriel. They have a highly
kinetic relationship, so a good deal of good-natured bantering was going back
and forth between them. Finally, Muriel had spoken maybe a little more sharply
than she might have intended, and there was a moment or two of uncomfortable silence.
Then Malcolm spoke up, “Muriel, I know you love me; you told me so five years
ago.” Without missing a beat, Muriel replied with mock seriousness, “That was <i>then</i>; this is <i>now</i>…” Referring to marriage in a sermon in our day, even in an oblique
way, is among a preacher’s greatest fears...and with good reason!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Several years ago, on Orientation Sunday in Duke University Chapel, the
text assigned to the preacher ... was ... Ephesians 5:21. The preacher’s heart
sank. “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject
to your husbands...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">“I can’t preach <i>that</i>,” the
preacher thought. “Only the likes of Jerry Falwell would preach such a text!
Especially is it an inappropriate text for a progressive, forward-thinking,
university church. Forget Ephesians 5. The word for our day is <i>liberation</i>, not <i>submission</i>. But the preacher decided to let the Bible have its say.
He began his Orientation sermon this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 22.5pt 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">“[We] despise this text. No one but Jerry
Falwell (may he rest in peace) or some other reactionary would like this text.
What an ugly word! Submission. And yet we know that, taken in the context of
the day, this is a radical word. Women had no standing in that day. The writer
of Ephesians 5 expends more words giving advice to husbands, telling them about
their duties to wives, than words to wives telling them what they are to do for
their husbands...this is not a text about women’s submission in marriage, it is
a text which urges <i>mutual</i> submission
in a strange new social arrangement called the church.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 22.5pt 6pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">“And that is why we despise this text. Our
word is liberation.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">While scripture’s word is submission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">There is so much modern misunderstanding about this passage of scripture
that our lectionary suggests preachers skip verses 21-33 altogether. Even less
likely is a modern day sermon on the first 9 verses of chapter 6, with their
emphasis on obedience in children and slaves. The use – and abuse – to which
these verses have been put in many places and circumstances over the centuries,
makes any preacher less than enthusiastic about preaching on them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">So, we have a whole section of scripture, much of which sounds immediately
distasteful to modern ears, with words about subjection and submissiveness,
directed at wives, children and slaves. Aren’t these verses a perfect example
of the need to use the Thomas Jefferson method of scripture analysis, cutting
out the passages which offend us in order to leave us with a Bible that is not
only more agreeable, but which more closely reflects modern sensibilities?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Well, no, I don’t think so, though you are welcome to disagree with me, and
if you do it certainly wouldn’t be the first time in my ministry! What is
needed is the recognition of a few crucial principles in reading these verses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b>I<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Only a community of faith which receives these words <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>can hope to understand them correctly.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">These words were not directed at the culture in general, but to believers
whom together Paul calls the “body of Christ.” So, a real understanding
requires, first of all, a life within the community of faith. These are not
general human principles which would make sense to any thinking person whether
they were believers or not. They sound crazy to non-believers, and,
truth-be-told, to quite a few believers as well, and probably for good reason. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">It makes no sense to urge non-believers to allow themselves to be subject
to others, because in the world outside the family of faith, where power is the
motivating force in most relationships, to suggest that people assume a
powerless and subjective position would be tantamount to suggesting that they
become permanent victims. There is no guarantee of mutuality there. Being
subject in a world that treats people like objects doesn’t sound like good news
but more like a prescription for servitude. No one in the world can assume that
submissiveness on their own part will be met with mutual submissiveness from
others. Quite the contrary. The world is entirely likely to victimize anyone
who makes themselves so vulnerable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">We must grant that pursuing all relationships with a sense that they are about
power is a way that leads to death, not life. But only a community of faith
organized around a different standard can understand submissiveness in a way
that leads to life and wholeness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b>II<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>These verses may legitimately be understood<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<i>only with deep
humility, convictionally and confessionally.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">They are intended to be understood so that a spouse, for instance, may ask
himself or herself from time to time, “Am I working toward loving my spouse as
Christ loved the church, sacrificially, unselfishly?” They may legitimately be
used reflectively, subjectively. They may not be used legitimately as a blunt
object to threaten the opposite person, but rather as a personal moral guide. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">So when, in Paul’s letter, husbands, for instance, are advised concerning
their behavior, they are not permitted to ignore the verses directed at them
while berating their mates concerning the verses Paul wrote regarding wives.
Similarly, wives ought not read the verses directed at husbands as part of a
riot act, while overlooking the admonitions Paul wrote to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">There are those interpreters who attempt to show that these verses reveal a
divinely ordained order for family relationships, with God at the top of the
organizational chart, then husbands directly under God, with wives appearing
under the rule of their husbands. I have seen this type of structure referred
to with various headings like “God’s Chain of Command,” as though loving relationships
among faithful people had mostly to do with organizing a power structure in
which some give commands and others obey them. The odd thing is, the chain of
command idea already existed in Paul’s time, though not as a guide for
Christian living, but as a pagan listing of household responsibilities. In
Ephesians, Paul called upon everyone’s familiarity with that idea in order to
help believers break free from it, to move human relationships beyond the banal
questions of who will be giving the orders and who is destined to take them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">The discipline encouraged in this passage is meant to be internal, chosen,
not external and enforced; it is to be subjective, not objective. No one may
legitimately use these verses to force subjection on an unwilling spouse, and
neither may one use them to require sacrificial love from their “better half.”
I recently read about a Christian speaker who was approached by a married couple
with the husband asking, “I want to know <i>who</i>
should be <i>in charge</i> of a Christian
marriage?” The speaker looked at them and said, “But that’s not a Christian
question! The <i>Christian</i> question is:
‘How can I best serve my spouse…?’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">These are principles which must be freely chosen to have any meaning at
all. And the operative principle in all of them is announced in verse 21.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<b>III<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: windowtext;"> “Be subject to one another out
of reverence for Christ.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">It is true that every home needs a leader, but the contest for that
position should not be between one spouse and the other. The leader of every
believer’s home should be Jesus Christ: “Be subject to one another <i>out of reverence for Christ</i>,” Paul
declared. It is Christ who is the one deserving reverence in Christian homes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">All the things Paul encourages in his letter: that husbands love their
wives as fully as Christ loves the church, which is to say, as fully as one who
was willing to face death on a cross for the sake of his love; that wives
should subject themselves to their husbands, which anyone who has been around
our culture lately knows has about as much human chance of getting a hearing
these days as a shellfish in a oyster bar; all these things should be things we
hear with amazement, not with nodding heads. They are incredible, from a human
point of view. But before we can hold up our hands and say, “No way!”, before
we even hear words about submissiveness and sacrificial love, Paul
predetermines our view of his instructions with the first instruction, the one
that supersedes them all: “Be subject <i>to
one another</i> out of reverence for Christ.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">He explains further, “This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to
Christ and the church.” This isn’t an exhortation about how we can be if we
just work at it, but about how <i>Christ</i>
is. <i>Christ</i> was submissive even to the
point of death, <i>Christ</i> loves his
church – loves us – more than he loved his own life. It is only because we know
that’s how <i>Christ</i> is that we can
begin to see the mystery that Paul mentions as it applies to our own
commitments – how <i>we</i> can be. We begin to see that the commitments we
make to one another – not just as husbands and wives, but as lovers, as friends,
as families in the fellowship of the church – these commitments are going to be
hopelessly control driven unless we submit them to the one who was totally
submissive in giving himself away for us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Christ will not fail to honor those who reverence his submission for our
sakes. “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” For Christ has
made himself subject for our sakes. May God bless us richly in him, and may
each of us strive in every way to be a blessing for each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 27pt;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a> William
Willimon, Stanley Hauerwas, <i>Resident
Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony</i>, Abingdon, 1989, pp. 152-153.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a> Stephen
Knox, “Becoming One Christ’s Way,” <i>Best
Sermons 2</i>, Harper & Row, 1989, p. 179.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-20056137103570883302012-07-22T13:40:00.001-07:002012-07-22T14:07:21.116-07:00If He Is Here, They Will Come<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: center; text-autospace: ideograph-numeric ideograph-other;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">If He Is Here, They Will Come<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times; font-size: 5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright
© 2012 Robert J. Elder, Pastor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 22, 2012</span></div>
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Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 </div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">And they went
away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.</span></i><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Some of us likely will remember the Kevin
Costner film of 20-some years ago: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Field
of Dreams</i>. One key line in that movie, which became one of those cultural
bywords that stayed around for quite awhile, was, “If you build it, they will
come.” I can tell you that far too many businesses as well as churches have
learned the error of that thinking, that people will come just because there is
a nice facility. In the end, it’s the hearts that live inside the people in a
building that attract or repel others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Mark tells us that “they went away in the boat to a deserted place by
themselves.” But not for long. Every pastor can tell stories of dinners
interrupted, conversations stopped short, attempts to dash home for a quick
dinner frustrated by the insistent demands of people who come to the church
looking for the help they think Jesus is going to make available to them. And
if they spot you before they run into Jesus, well, that’s just how it goes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">I remember once reading about a pastor who “resigned from a suburban parish
where relentless demands on his time and energy were beginning to wear him
down. He left to become a missionary, on the coast of Maine, of all places. In
his new position he visited small clusters of Christians in remote locations.
He reported that in many ways his ministry was the same as it always had been:
he preached, taught, visited the sick. But there was this difference: between
ports of call he traveled long distances by boat. Between sermons he could
listen to the wind. Before teaching another class he could study the horizon.
After visiting the sick he was anointed with sea spray. Interspersed with his
demanding pastoral duties he took a watery “road less traveled by, and that has
made all the difference.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></a>
I have heard from one pastor who takes a week every year to hike in the
mountains alone. He asks his wife to save all the newspapers that have come
during the week of his absence. Upon returning, he reads each newspaper. That
way he can remind himself how readily the world and the people in it are able
to continue on without him.</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Mark declared that “…they went away in the boat to a deserted place by
themselves.” Doesn’t that sound good? </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">In Mark's Gospel, Jesus and his disciples cross the Sea of
Galilee so many times that it is difficult to discern the pattern and motive
behind the itinerary. Difficult, that is, until the sixth chapter, when the
reason for the crossings becomes clear: the disciples needed a break.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span></span></a>
</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Following the
teeming demands of ministry, the exhausted disciples were due for a retreat to
charge their batteries. Sociologists sometimes call this “compassion fatigue.”
Just prior to this, remember, “...many were coming and going, and (the
disciples) had no leisure even to eat.” Before the first spoonful of food had
reached their mouths, here came the tap on the shoulder and the request,
please, just this once, please help, won’t you help? So it was time for a
discipleship retreat, and off they went to a deserted place. What a great plan.
But no sooner had they tied up at the dock than “...many saw them going and
recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived
ahead of them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">If Jesus is there, people will come. That’s how it has always been. Try any
replacement for that name “Jesus” in that statement, anything that points to
something other than Jesus, and the church ceases being a church. It is, at the
last, the true test of a church. Over time, if Jesus is not present there, no
one will come. Oh, it might take a long while for some who are just in the
habit of coming around to stop, but over time it will happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">I remember reading about a once-wealthy church in Pittsburgh. It was a
large stone edifice, built in what we might think of as a sort of Presbyterian
version of an English gothic style. It had huge, vaulted ceilings, and at one
time was one of the largest open spaces under one roof of any building in the
city. The lettering over the entrance where the arched Byzantine doors once
stood now welcomes not worshipers, but people seeking a parking place:
“Southside Parking Garage,” says the sign over the opening. With a straight
face, the developer of the project said, “It was an ideal space for
conversion.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Apparently this had been a church where people had parked for years: parked
their money but not their bodies, parked their children but not their cars, and
eventually the children grew up and nothing was parked there any more at all
other than the left-over money of dead people, which kept the facility going on
life support long after the heart had quit beating on its own. With the sort of
funds they had, you could continue to offer programs for years without having
to be bothered with a congregation. But in the end, the aging trustees, who
were all that was left of the church, closed it anyway, since parking was all
it was good for. Now it is truly a drive-in church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">I’ve been in other defunct churches. They always strike me as a sort of sad
testimony, no matter how cheery – even inevitable – their transformation into
some other kind of business. Neighborhoods change, people come and people go. But
if the heart of Jesus had been celebrated and worshiped there, couldn’t the
church have changed along with the neighborhood? This is what I always wonder.
Often they are transformed into restaurants, another unintended symbol of the
body of Christ, which had once been gathered in those places around the
communion table. I know of another church in New Jersey, founded by people who
were angry with their former church, so they gathered in anger and separation.
Ultimately, the next generations forgot what the fight had been about, and
since fighting was the glue that had held it together, the church came apart.
Literally, it’s beams and timbers were dismantled and reused in what are now
many fine homes in the area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">I once wrote to my former congregation about my visit to a small country
parish in Wales during a vacation there. A sort of Stephen King cemetery
surrounds this ancient building which exudes local history from every stone.
And that may be part of the problem. It stands more like an artifact than a
congregation. Sunday worship when we were there numbered 12, 4 of which were
our party of not-very-competent Presbyterian-cum-Anglicans. The idea that a
small church is a better place to become acquainted and feel at home was given
the lie in this place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">But the very next week found us in London at St. Paul’s Cathedral for the
11:00 AM “sung mass.” It was high church at its best, and the Spirit was alive
in the place, clearly a place of worship where all were welcomed and encouraged
to take part. Jesus was there, and they came.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">“They went away to a deserted place by themselves.” Sometimes this sounds
like the very thing we need, to get away, to be alone. And sometimes we do. I
know that many folks in congregations who don’t disappear in the winter for
Palm Desert or similar warmer climes may be likely to be gone some time now
during the summer. But such separation and self-tending is meant always to
function as a servant of ministry, not as its main point. The disciples and
Jesus were allowed precious little time to themselves in deserted places. The
need of the world to be near Jesus was just too overpoweringly great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">“Mark says that Jesus and his disciples had come willingly to this deserted
place. They were exhausted from ministry among the needy multitudes. They were
seeking rest, retreat, a July vacation from the rigors of their work. Yet when
they got to the deserted place, it was quickly filled with more multitudes who
came clamoring after Jesus. The crowds did not come, like the disciples, in
order to get away from life; they followed Jesus here because they were
desperate to survive life. Jesus looked on them and quickly saw that they were
harassed and helpless, ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’ Here were the
oppressed, the hurting and the poor, come out to this desert hoping for a
blessing from Jesus.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">When Jesus got to the shore on the other side of the lake he saw that the
great throng had anticipated his next move and was waiting there for him. When
he looked out on them and had compassion on them because they looked to him for
all the world like a bunch of bleating lambs whose shepherd had left them alone
in the wilderness, he realized that this sorry gathering of people had been
paying rent to absent theological landlords for far too long. He decided that
he would teach them something right then and there about what it means to have
a real shepherd. If we had been there, we would probably have been like the
rest of the crowd, anticipating a free meal, or at least a healing or some
other miracle. But Jesus didn’t do that, not yet. He first did what the
Shepherd was called to do for his people. He “began to teach them many things.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">There is but one true teacher. The rest that we who have followed him have
to add is but commentary. The ministry of the church is not in the hands of
pastors, nor even boards and committees. Not now any more than it ever has
been. It rests largely in your hands; your able, fallible, caring, failing,
tentative, willing, reluctant hands. My long-time friend, Jim Wharton, who taught
at the seminary at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, once pointed out
that in the biblical story, God is singularly unimpressed by the differences
between clergy and lay people on points of competence, fitness, equipment,
credentials, or status. On one occasion, (in the book of Joshua) a rather
harried prostitute named Rahab was able to minister to Israel; on another, a
humble shepherd boy named David became minister to a king (I Samuel 16:14 ff);
on another, a famous prophet named Elijah endured the indignity of receiving
the ministry of a cackling flock of crows (I Kings 17:4 ff). The possibility of
ministry is as near for any of God’s people as the next human being.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn5" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[5]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Which brings me to this thought: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Times;">Hospitality is among the highest marks of the presence of Jesus in a place,
the New Testament is filled with testimonies to this fact. Over 38 years if
ministry I have been through the mill with transients who drop in on the
church, all pastors have. I have dealt with the con artists, the demanding ones
that try to make you feel guilty, the ones who have a knack for showing up as
you prepare to leave for a well-deserved hour at home before returning for an
evening round of meetings. But sometimes, it is different, not a hand-out, as
the ads used to say, but a hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">So Mark’s gospel causes us to consider this today, this presence of our
Lord in this place. Because we know that if the needy and the harassed and the
helpless ones are among us in our community, our church and even our homes,
surely Jesus cannot be far away. If they </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">come, he is here, giving us the opportunity to be a
blessing even as we seek to be blessed. Amen.</span>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times;"> “Watching
from the Boat,” by Martin Copenhaver, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian
Century</i>, June 29, 1994.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times;">[2]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times;"> Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times;">[3]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times;"> Thanks to
my friend, Dr. George Chorba, for sharing stories of “converted” churches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times;">[4]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times;"> “The
Loving Shepherd,” a sermon by William Willimon, Duke University Chapel,
7/20/97.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[5]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> <i>Biblical Basis for Ministry</i>, Earl E.
Shelp et. al., Westminster Press, 1981, p. 61.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-31798176165691663262012-07-08T13:37:00.003-07:002012-07-08T13:38:32.240-07:00Steady On<br />
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"> Steady
On<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">2 Samuel 6:1-15</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">2 Corinthians 8:7-15</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Vancouver,
Washington, July 8, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">Our Old Testament text is hard to read. I don’t mean that the
names are difficult to pronounce, though they are. I mean it is hard to read
because it appears to be a story we might wish wasn’t there in the first place.
We have come to believe in a gospel about a God who wouldn’t do capricious
things like tossing lightning bolts at someone who just casually touched a
religious object. Presbyterians emerged from a Puritan type of tradition, so we
don’t put too much stock in the religious significance of inanimate objects in
the first place. Come on up here any time you like, touch the communion table,
dabble your fingers in the water on the baptismal; you will not need to fear
being smitten by God in the chancel of First Presbyterian Church for touching
any of the furniture! So what was this Old Testament story in 2 Samuel about,
anyway?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">To answer, we have to begin by
remembering that one of the problems with Sunday readings of little snippets of
scripture at a time is that often we may miss, or be unaware of, the context,
the background of the stories. The 2<sup>nd</sup> Samuel reading is an
excellent case in point. The little portion we read seems to be a narrative
account about moving the Ark of the Covenant – a religious artifact once
famously (but rather grotesquely) celebrated in one of the Indiana Jones movies
– from a temporary resting place to David’s new capital city of Jerusalem. On the
way, an unfortunate but well-intentioned man gets himself killed by touching a
sacred object. The story is bigger than it appears. It turns out not to be a
story about how innocent people used to suffer in Old Testament times before
God decided to become loving, but rather a story about the ways in which the
headstrong political maneuverings of people can get them into deep trouble even
when they least expect it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">David, having recently become king,
decided that if he was going to unite his kingdom into a single people, the way
other kingdoms around them were united, he needed to find a city in which to
establish unquestioned political authority, a capital city. Some people were
not so excited about the idea. One morning he awoke with a thought: What about
the old Ark of the Covenant? It had been neglected, languishing, almost
forgotten, out behind Abinadab’s carport for about 20 years. The old
traditionalists still remembered it and all it represented since the time of
Moses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">In the old days, the one who possessed
the Ark of the Covenant could lay claim to an authority over the people that
was sanctioned by God. What a brilliant move it would be to go get the old box,
and carry it to the new capital! In one deft maneuver, David would capture the
imagination of the progressives who wanted to be more like the other nations
with a king and a capital city, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
the loyalty of the traditionalists, the conservatives who wanted nothing more
than the religious reminder of the good old days dating back to Moses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">As political symbols go, it was as
brilliant as wrapping yourself in an American flag, kissing babies, and then
sitting down to a big piece of apple pie. It was a surefire public relations
winner. I remember from my brief study of Oklahoma history as a youngster
growing up in that lovely state, that one dark night in 1910 the city fathers
in Oklahoma City sneaked up the road to the new state capital in Guthrie,
purloined the state seal, and took it away to protective custody in Oklahoma
City. These days we might think that would have little to do with the location
of a state capital, but in those pioneer days, without the official state seal,
Guthrie couldn’t function as the capital, and with it, Oklahoma City could. The
capital has been in Oklahoma City ever since. The ark of the covenant
functioned a bit like that for David, and his initial intention in acquiring it
for Jerusalem may have been as cool and calculating as the motives behind that
midnight raid to Guthrie, Oklahoma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">One of the mistakes we make when we
read this story is to assume that the human motives behind all the action were
pure. Anyone who has studied David and his followers even a little should know
better, but we forget. David’s faith was continually tested by a temptation to
try to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> God rather than to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">serve</i> God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">As the ark was being carried on its
new cart toward Jerusalem, a man named Uzzah, casually reached out his hand to
steady it the way you might steady a ladder for a friend heading up to the
roof. We would read that as a straightforward gesture, but in doing so we fail
to read the religious significance that lies behind even casual actions. Uzzah’s
gesture was an impulsive confession of faith in the power of human beings. The
ark of the covenant was treated just like a regular box, calculatingly included
among plans for political consolidation without sufficient thought as to God’s
hopes for Israel. It was being handled with a familiarity that suggested that
David and his supporters had begun to consider God to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> God, belonging to them, more than they saw themselves as God’s
people who belong to God. Israel was forever getting the covenant turned around
that way, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> is what this story
is really about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">God’s graciousness toward Israel was
really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God’s own</i> graciousness, not some
commodity they could elicit on command and use to further their own ends. We
are not meant to use God for our purposes, God intends to use us for God’s
purposes, and when we have that straight, we are much more likely to live in an
appropriate relationship with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">Uzzah’s gesture represented that
too-familiar attempt to manipulate God to serve human purposes. The result of
Uzzah’s death was that David was forced to reconsider what he was doing, he had
to send the ark to another storage site for three months while he got the
proper order of things straight again. “How can the ark of the Lord come into
my care?” he finally asked himself. If it was to come, it must come through a
power not entirely his own, and he would have to give heed to that reality. The
renewed procession into Jerusalem took on a whole new spirit when David
remembered that he had been anointed to serve rather than to be served.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">The last word was and is to be the
power of God’s graciousness, not the human ability to seize what it wants. God’s
grace, not our grip, is our central source of authority. This isn’t a bad thing
to remember on the Sunday following our biggest national holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">Paul reminded the Corinthians of this
grace of God in a wonderful way. The 7th verse of our 2<sup>nd</sup> Corinthians
reading used to be translated: “You excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in
utmost eagerness...” When we hear lists of things like this, what we expect to
hear next is, “Since you excel in this, this, and this, why not excel in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i>?” And that’s the way the verse used
to end, does in fact end in older translations of the Bible. But having taken a
more considered look at an ancient Greek text, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Revised Standard Version</i> gives us what makes more theological
sense. Now the passage reads, “You excel in faith, in speech, in utmost
eagerness, and in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our love for you</i>.”
Our love for you? How can you excel in the fact that someone else loves you?
The new translation makes so much more sense. The final word in the phrase is
now grace. You excel in these things that you do, but you also excel in our
love for you, that is, in something which is in no way beholden to your own
effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;">We always need reminders that the
gospel of Christ is not about doing good things, but about doing grace-filled
things, walking the extra mile, giving a shirt as well as the cloak, turning
the other cheek, offering what is not expected because the power under which we
operate is not of our own devising. We are free to respond at the Spirit’s
direction rather than by the counsel of human calculation, because the freedom
of Christ has set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">© 2012 Robert J. Elder 1st Presbyterian Church</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7064603471841914380.post-54486566786732327522012-07-01T14:03:00.001-07:002012-07-01T14:03:54.615-07:00Death and Taxes<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt;">Death and
Taxes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Romans
13:1-7; Acts 4:1-20</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">© 2012, Robert J. Elder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Sunday, July 1, 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I recall once, a few years ago, reading an article
called “Bumper-sticker theology,”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></span></a>
about the difficulties of preaching from the biblical book of Proverbs, then
making up our own bumper sticker phrases to capsulize some important belief in
a single phrase. It’s not as easy as it looks. Everyone should try summing up
something of their whole philosophy of life in six to eight words. There are
lots of these gracing reader boards outside churches that, like ours, have
reader boards. I have a friend who collects them and sends them to me, phrases
like:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Give Satan an inch and he will become
your ruler, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">and
this friendly one that might ride on a bumper you’d do well to avoid: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> “Go to God or go to hell.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A couple more
demonstrate other points of view:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">“I'm for the separation of church and
hate,” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">and this, that
takes more time to think about than is usually provided at a red light:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">“If
evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In 1816, a few years before he would die in one of
those brainless nineteenth century “honor” duels of the type that took
Alexander Hamilton’s life, a handsome naval hero named Stephen Decatur coined
one of the more famous bumper sticker phrases of all time, even though there
were no bumpers – or stickers – at the time. That doesn’t mean we can’t find
his famous words sticking to some bumpers even today. He spoke his famous
phrase at a banquet in Norfolk, Virginia, ending a toast by saying “...our
country, right or wrong.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span></span></span></a>
Everyone you speak with is likely to know the quote, few will know its origin.
I had to look it up in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxford Book of
Quotations</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But most who hear it will recognize right away an
ethical or even theological problem inherent in the statement. Its implication
is that the actions of my country, no matter what they may be, are the highest
moral standard to which we need make our allegiance, that there is no ethical
authority higher than that which benefits my country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">56 years later, in 1872, in an address to the US
Senate, a German immigrant and Civil War hero named Carl Schurz refined Decatur’s
words, unfortunately in a sentence too long to fit on anything but the bumper
on a Humvee or a Greyhound Bus, but it is well put nonetheless: “My country,
right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The implication of this is that there exists some
authority, some higher standard by which we may judge all human actions, and
seek to put right the ones that are in the wrong by that standard. This is
something that surely transcends our common ways of looking at matters before
our nation, whether they are liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.
But we do often appeal to one another with the idea that we ought to be
thinking about our national life in terms of values, and of course, this
suggests that whether we call ourselves conservative or liberal, we recognize
that many issues before us are fundamentally moral in nature. Are right and
wrong measured by something higher than national interest? I know you probably
will have an inkling how I would respond to that question, and how you might,
but, as a friend of mine said to his congregation, “You know how anybody who
believes in a God worthy of the name has to answer that question. In blunt
poker language, God trumps nation, even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i>
nation.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Our Bible passages today speak to the sometimes
heated dialogue between “our country right or wrong” and “our country ... kept
right or set right.” On the one hand, there have been more than a few who have
used Paul’s words in our text from Romans as some sort of apostolic injunction
to give blind obedience to governing authorities no matter how wicked or
wrong-headed they may be: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Let every
person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority
except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those
who resist will incur judgment.</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">
(Romans 13:1-3 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NRSV</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This text was popular with the slave-holders of the
nineteenth century as they tried to argue from the Bible for the continuation
of that peculiar institution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">On the other hand, our passage from Acts seems to
provide an equally strong case for resistance to authorities who misuse their
power in order to stifle expressions of faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">“While
Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the
temple, and the Sadducees came to them ... they arrested them and put them in
custody ... The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in
Jerusalem ... they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in
the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in
God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot
keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">(Acts 4:1-20, selections <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NRSV</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It is the sort of passage to which the American
patriots of 1776, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and others appealed
when subjected to persecution at the hands of unjust governing authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Setting these two passages side by side strikes our
minds like watching a juggler handle five baseballs. At first it might seem
easy enough, but when we observe closely, it’s not as easy as it looks. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Put Paul's words in Romans – “Let every person be
subject to the governing authorities” – next to Peter’s response to the command
of the Jerusalem authorities that they keep quiet about Jesus – “... we cannot
keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” – and we have all the
makings of an animated discussion in the earliest days of the church’s
existence about its relationship to governing power, the sometimes cosey,
sometimes hostile relationship between church and state, a discussion which has
continued from that time to the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Thinking on these things on Independence Day
weekend, a friend of mine concluded, “these two passages are ... like a pair of
goal posts for Christians to aim between as they bring their faith to bear on
politics. To the one side, ‘Yes, Paul, we are subject to the authority of the
state, and must value the good of the commonwealth.’ And to the other side, ‘Yes,
Peter and John, when push comes to shove and you have to choose, God is the
higher authority.’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In just a few minutes you and I, no matter where we
agree or disagree politically on the issues of the day, will come together to
take the bread and the cup offered in the name of Jesus Christ and thereby
reaffirm our ultimate personal and corporate loyalty to his kingdom, his reign,
his Lordship, above all other lords.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Elder,
all rights reserved<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="Footnote" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 4.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[1]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Barbara Brown Taylor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian Century</i>, April 4, 2006, p. 43.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="Footnote" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 4.5pt; text-indent: -4.5pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[2]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Brought to my attention in a sermon,
“Can Religion and Politics Mix?” by Michael Lindvall, delivered at Brick
Presbyterian Church, New York City.</span></span></div>
</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[3]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Ibid.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7064603471841914380#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="FootnoteIndex"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">[4]</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; position: relative; top: -1pt;"> Ibid.</span><span style="position: relative; top: -1pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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