Saturday, December 10, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Defending Our Hope
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. (1 Peter 3:13-22, NRSV)
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (John 14:15-21, NRSV)
The 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A
“DEFENDING YOUR HOPE”
My Dad preferred hearing about things by word-of-mouth over advertisements on TV or in the papers. After all that is the purpose of advertising—to get a person to hear and to do something or buy something other than what they are used to. In fact, it is people’s jobs to do that. People make careers in advertising. He knew that TV and print ads could be very impressive but just not true. A recommendation from someone he knew and trusted carried a certain weight with him. It mattered that it was done personally. When I think about the people he did business with, it worked for him. He got meat from Leo and Buddy Grieshaber in a small store and you could see how they did things, weighing things on the scale, cutting up the meat, scraping down the old butcher wooden block each night. You could see the cooler, smell that it was fresh. He used to joke that he knew the cow personally, but it was the butchers he knew and trusted. You could see what kind of butchers they were by what they did. I largely agree with Dad. But I would add that some ideas are good ones, but still need a little help getting around. If those who knew about the great new things kept quiet about them, I might never find out what they are. There are some new ideas that appear on the scene. Word-of mouth is rather slow. So there are some things that can use a little help getting around. Sometimes we need to hear about what is new.
The First Letter of Peter is from the time when the Christian faith was spreading through Palestine and beyond. It was something new to the people around it. It was the message about Jesus, who he was and what he did. That news could affect people’s lives deeply. It could change their lives. Peter tells the church some things about suffering. If a person suffers for doing what is wrong, that is expected. But if a person suffers for doing right, they are blessed. That surprises us. He says that sometimes doing right is its own blessing. If they suffer while doing right, they are to remember that Christ suffered, too, suffered for them. Faith in Jesus could change how a person looks at things. God’s purpose in sending Jesus was to bring people to God. It was achieved through the death of Christ. And the symbol of that salvation is the ark. Noah and his family were saved from the destruction of judgment on the water. Baptism is a sign of this. That is the good news they have seen and are living in right now.
The other is that they are to always be ready to make their defense of their hope. That is, if anyone asks them about it they are to give an accounting of it. There are those who have not heard the good news and this could be their chance. It is to be done with gentleness and respect. That is an additional reason they are to conduct themselves well, so that people who might criticize them will be discredited. Their behavior and their words are to reveal to those around them the reality of faith in their lives. It is no false claim. They could see what kind of people they were by how they lived. The book began with telling them that they have been born anew into a living hope by Christ’s resurrection from the dead. They have experienced the resurrection of Christ and that, in turn, has given them hope. And they are to be ready to tell others about the hope that they see in them. To do that they need to live in hope.
What we are talking about is something that goes by many names. It can be called witnessing, sharing your faith, church growth, or evangelism. When we do it, we are living as the first disciples did. It is telling others about how God has blessed you in your life, whether it is by giving you strength in times of suffering or by other blessings. It points to God. It is telling others about the greatness of God, as the Psalmist did, when he wrote, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.” or as John Newton, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”, did in his old age. He said that there were only two important things, that he was a great sinner and Jesus was a great Savior.
There is no doubt that this is a time of great change in our society and churches. Many churches lived according to the plan that the members had children who became part of the church, and those children had children, and those children had children, and so on, the church continued. And many churches depended on the same families staying in the same place. Nowadays, people no longer live generation after generation in the same place. Many people nowadays were not raised in a church and are not familiar with the ideas of the faith. What is a church to do when the plan changes? One way of responding to the change is by returning to the way of life at the beginning of Christianity when the Christians were few and surrounded by those who did not know the faith. What did they do? They shared their faith with the world around them and it became a worldwide faith.
Churches struggle with what to do in this changed world. Some put their hope in a location, or a program, or a sign, or a personality, or an ad campaign. Studies show these things are important, but not the most important thing. The most important thing is when one person invites another. It is, strangely old-fashioned, in a modern, sophisticated age. It is by word-of mouth. It is like Leo and Buddy, people we can see and trust to help us have something good, to help us see more, help us want to be a part.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus promises to send another Advocate to be with the disciples forever. He has been alongside the disciples and will soon leave them. But they will not be alone. He will send this other One. This is the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Paraclete, which is a way of saying what the Greek word does, ‘the one who is called to our side’. The Spirit helps us and will never leave us. This leads us, not to focus on our tradition, or history, but on the reality of God among us.
What if we changed how we looked at that scary word, evangelism, to show what it really is? It is not arguing with or misleading people. Maybe its goal should not be gaining members, not getting people to join us in order to support our church, but rather sharing what we have, with only the goal of helping others. Of offering to them what the church and faith can be in their lives, what is has been in our lives, but even more importantly, helping them to know that One, whether for the first time or more deeply, who will be with them forever, who will be with them in good times and bad times.
Maybe we need to change how we see the church, to see it not as an organization which draws people or is the center of a community, but as one which reaches out to people. Maybe we need to change the plan. Tim Williams found that plans do not always work. He went to Greensboro, Alabama, to help rebuild the Rising Star Baptist Church, recent victim of a fire. He loved his role as builder and felt that he had entered the kingdom of God. His volunteers learned their tasks and worked hard, except for a young man named Ian who would run over to any children brought on to the work site to play with them. His team was annoyed by this and he had planned on talking to Ian about it. The members of the church served the workers a huge meal at the building site. There were no questions in the time that followed about the new design and work at the church, but all afternoon, the parents thanked Ian for being so good to their kids. He concluded: “My crew and I thought we were in Greensboro to rebuild a church. None of us thought we could rebuild the broken hearts of its people. None of us, that is, except Ian.” When we change the plan, what was most important in the past becomes less so. When we rediscover the plan, we regain it. What becomes more important is how we are with the people who need us. That brings them life.
In First Peter we are told to be ready to share our hope with those who ask us. That is the first challenge, that our faith should be meaningful enough that it is shown in our words and deeds, that others would be attracted to the faith by them. And then there is the second challenge that we have an answer for those who ask us. When we meet those challenges, then the good news of the gospel goes out to those who can hear it. When we live in that new way, we can not only share our faith, but also share our hope. We not only have the help of the Spirit in our lives, but we can be help to others. When we are asked, we will have an answer. A hopeful answer. An answer for them.
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (John 14:15-21, NRSV)
The 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A
“DEFENDING YOUR HOPE”
My Dad preferred hearing about things by word-of-mouth over advertisements on TV or in the papers. After all that is the purpose of advertising—to get a person to hear and to do something or buy something other than what they are used to. In fact, it is people’s jobs to do that. People make careers in advertising. He knew that TV and print ads could be very impressive but just not true. A recommendation from someone he knew and trusted carried a certain weight with him. It mattered that it was done personally. When I think about the people he did business with, it worked for him. He got meat from Leo and Buddy Grieshaber in a small store and you could see how they did things, weighing things on the scale, cutting up the meat, scraping down the old butcher wooden block each night. You could see the cooler, smell that it was fresh. He used to joke that he knew the cow personally, but it was the butchers he knew and trusted. You could see what kind of butchers they were by what they did. I largely agree with Dad. But I would add that some ideas are good ones, but still need a little help getting around. If those who knew about the great new things kept quiet about them, I might never find out what they are. There are some new ideas that appear on the scene. Word-of mouth is rather slow. So there are some things that can use a little help getting around. Sometimes we need to hear about what is new.
The First Letter of Peter is from the time when the Christian faith was spreading through Palestine and beyond. It was something new to the people around it. It was the message about Jesus, who he was and what he did. That news could affect people’s lives deeply. It could change their lives. Peter tells the church some things about suffering. If a person suffers for doing what is wrong, that is expected. But if a person suffers for doing right, they are blessed. That surprises us. He says that sometimes doing right is its own blessing. If they suffer while doing right, they are to remember that Christ suffered, too, suffered for them. Faith in Jesus could change how a person looks at things. God’s purpose in sending Jesus was to bring people to God. It was achieved through the death of Christ. And the symbol of that salvation is the ark. Noah and his family were saved from the destruction of judgment on the water. Baptism is a sign of this. That is the good news they have seen and are living in right now.
The other is that they are to always be ready to make their defense of their hope. That is, if anyone asks them about it they are to give an accounting of it. There are those who have not heard the good news and this could be their chance. It is to be done with gentleness and respect. That is an additional reason they are to conduct themselves well, so that people who might criticize them will be discredited. Their behavior and their words are to reveal to those around them the reality of faith in their lives. It is no false claim. They could see what kind of people they were by how they lived. The book began with telling them that they have been born anew into a living hope by Christ’s resurrection from the dead. They have experienced the resurrection of Christ and that, in turn, has given them hope. And they are to be ready to tell others about the hope that they see in them. To do that they need to live in hope.
What we are talking about is something that goes by many names. It can be called witnessing, sharing your faith, church growth, or evangelism. When we do it, we are living as the first disciples did. It is telling others about how God has blessed you in your life, whether it is by giving you strength in times of suffering or by other blessings. It points to God. It is telling others about the greatness of God, as the Psalmist did, when he wrote, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.” or as John Newton, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”, did in his old age. He said that there were only two important things, that he was a great sinner and Jesus was a great Savior.
There is no doubt that this is a time of great change in our society and churches. Many churches lived according to the plan that the members had children who became part of the church, and those children had children, and those children had children, and so on, the church continued. And many churches depended on the same families staying in the same place. Nowadays, people no longer live generation after generation in the same place. Many people nowadays were not raised in a church and are not familiar with the ideas of the faith. What is a church to do when the plan changes? One way of responding to the change is by returning to the way of life at the beginning of Christianity when the Christians were few and surrounded by those who did not know the faith. What did they do? They shared their faith with the world around them and it became a worldwide faith.
Churches struggle with what to do in this changed world. Some put their hope in a location, or a program, or a sign, or a personality, or an ad campaign. Studies show these things are important, but not the most important thing. The most important thing is when one person invites another. It is, strangely old-fashioned, in a modern, sophisticated age. It is by word-of mouth. It is like Leo and Buddy, people we can see and trust to help us have something good, to help us see more, help us want to be a part.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus promises to send another Advocate to be with the disciples forever. He has been alongside the disciples and will soon leave them. But they will not be alone. He will send this other One. This is the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Paraclete, which is a way of saying what the Greek word does, ‘the one who is called to our side’. The Spirit helps us and will never leave us. This leads us, not to focus on our tradition, or history, but on the reality of God among us.
What if we changed how we looked at that scary word, evangelism, to show what it really is? It is not arguing with or misleading people. Maybe its goal should not be gaining members, not getting people to join us in order to support our church, but rather sharing what we have, with only the goal of helping others. Of offering to them what the church and faith can be in their lives, what is has been in our lives, but even more importantly, helping them to know that One, whether for the first time or more deeply, who will be with them forever, who will be with them in good times and bad times.
Maybe we need to change how we see the church, to see it not as an organization which draws people or is the center of a community, but as one which reaches out to people. Maybe we need to change the plan. Tim Williams found that plans do not always work. He went to Greensboro, Alabama, to help rebuild the Rising Star Baptist Church, recent victim of a fire. He loved his role as builder and felt that he had entered the kingdom of God. His volunteers learned their tasks and worked hard, except for a young man named Ian who would run over to any children brought on to the work site to play with them. His team was annoyed by this and he had planned on talking to Ian about it. The members of the church served the workers a huge meal at the building site. There were no questions in the time that followed about the new design and work at the church, but all afternoon, the parents thanked Ian for being so good to their kids. He concluded: “My crew and I thought we were in Greensboro to rebuild a church. None of us thought we could rebuild the broken hearts of its people. None of us, that is, except Ian.” When we change the plan, what was most important in the past becomes less so. When we rediscover the plan, we regain it. What becomes more important is how we are with the people who need us. That brings them life.
In First Peter we are told to be ready to share our hope with those who ask us. That is the first challenge, that our faith should be meaningful enough that it is shown in our words and deeds, that others would be attracted to the faith by them. And then there is the second challenge that we have an answer for those who ask us. When we meet those challenges, then the good news of the gospel goes out to those who can hear it. When we live in that new way, we can not only share our faith, but also share our hope. We not only have the help of the Spirit in our lives, but we can be help to others. When we are asked, we will have an answer. A hopeful answer. An answer for them.
Friday, July 22, 2011
It Does a Body Good
The 5th Sunday of Easter, Year A
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," 8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:2-10, NRSV)
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it." (John 14:1-14, NRSV)
“IT DOES A BODY GOOD”
We have a greater awareness of the importance of nutrition these days. Just look at the ads all around us. They tell us of the wonderful things in good food: potassium, fiber, good bacteria in yogurt, antioxidants, vitamins. There are still those ads, though, which promote other foods—those high in fat and sugar and calories. Those are the ones with the huge sandwiches, like the triple bacon cheeseburger, without a single vegetable in sight. There is no arguing that those things don’t taste good. But our awareness of the effect of what we eat on how we feel and on how our health will be in the future is growing and we are urged to make better choices for our meals. One of those good things is calcium and it is found in great things—cheese and ice cream, and, of course, milk. We know that it is important in building bones, which provide strength and structure for the whole body. And we are learning that it is not just good for us at the start of life; it is good for us all through our lives. As they said on a TV commercial some years ago, “Milk does a body good.”
One of the Scripture readings this morning is from First Peter. He reminds them of their start. As we heard a few weeks ago, they have been born anew into a living hope through the Resurrection of Christ. By faith their lives begin anew. And he tells them to long for the pure spiritual milk, like newborns. And its purpose is the same as that of ordinary milk, to help us grow, to nourish us, to make us strong. We are to long for it. Like milk is our first food, we are to feed our faith on what is basic. We heard about that last week. What was basic to the early church was Scripture and teaching, prayer, the Lord’s supper and fellowship. Those things are basic to our lives of faith. It is easy to want the things that are not good for us. God has the goal of growing strong, not just physically, but spiritually as well. It is God’s plan that we grow. That is done as we bring the word of God into our lives. The writer of the letter talks about this as growing into salvation.
In First Peter, he continues on by describing the community. They are, together, a spiritual house with Jesus as the cornerstone. Individually, they are living stones which are put together. How they come into this community is through faith in that cornerstone. That cornerstone holds them together. It is like last week, talking about Christ as the gate of the sheepfold. The church is God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. How we come into that community is by Baptism. It is the beginning of a new life in the community of faith. It is also the beginning of a life of growing in the faith. Its root is in the mercy of God.
The Gospel reading talks about what Jesus told the disciples. He wants them to have peace so he tells them that God has a place for them. He said that he would go to prepare it and come to take them to it. That confused some of the disciples who asked where Jesus was going because they wanted to know the way. Jesus’ reply is that he is the way. He is also the truth and the life. It is faith in that that is important. That is also done as we baptize, making promises on behalf of infants, whom we help grow in the faith so that they become people who live the promise we make. But beyond all this is that God makes promises to us, promises which we know and believe in and grow to trust in hearing God’s word.
We begin by tasting that the Lord is good. That might sound strange to us, but it is a metaphorical use of the word ‘taste’. We, of course, are used to the literal one. In a different sense to taste is to experience something. When we taste something then we know its worth. Sometimes we use that word to mean to have a little of something, like at the HyVee supermarket where the people give out small samples of things hoping we will buy more. Just a taste of something might make us want more. In a similar way, we are given the possibility of experiencing God in our lives just a bit, and when we find that it is wonderful and God is good, we will want more. God leads us into growth by giving us good in our lives.
Scott Walker of Waco, Texas, heard that Ed, a friend of his, died one day. Scott visited with the family in preparation for the funeral and asked what the most important lesson Ed taught them. A daughter, Helen said that her father had taught her to ride a bicycle. That took Scott by surprise until he realized that it was the symbol of their relationship, her father gently picking her up when she fell.
When we experience God’s goodness, our faith in God grows. We grow by consuming what is good for us. And just like we do not grow to our full height overnight, we grow best by growing daily.
It is also good to remember that we do not grow alone, as Linda Neukrug found when she worked at the cash register of a bookstore. A little boy wanted to pay for a book about the moon. This prompted Linda to ask him if he wanted to travel on a spaceship. The boy looked frightened and asked, “Now?” Linda replied that it would be when he grew up. But this still did not ease the boy’s mind. It was only eased when his father said that he would go with him.
In Baptism, we begin what will be a lifelong journey. We can trust that knowing that God will be with us on that journey, however many years we are blessed to be on it.
God’s plan for our lives is growth. Just as we grow from birth into adulthood by good food, so God has things, good things, that feed our lives. We have the promise of God’s presence and grace. We have the pure spiritual milk of the Word. We have the building of living stones, of which we are a part. All these things are for us all throughout our lives. But most of all, we have love.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," 8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:2-10, NRSV)
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it." (John 14:1-14, NRSV)
“IT DOES A BODY GOOD”
We have a greater awareness of the importance of nutrition these days. Just look at the ads all around us. They tell us of the wonderful things in good food: potassium, fiber, good bacteria in yogurt, antioxidants, vitamins. There are still those ads, though, which promote other foods—those high in fat and sugar and calories. Those are the ones with the huge sandwiches, like the triple bacon cheeseburger, without a single vegetable in sight. There is no arguing that those things don’t taste good. But our awareness of the effect of what we eat on how we feel and on how our health will be in the future is growing and we are urged to make better choices for our meals. One of those good things is calcium and it is found in great things—cheese and ice cream, and, of course, milk. We know that it is important in building bones, which provide strength and structure for the whole body. And we are learning that it is not just good for us at the start of life; it is good for us all through our lives. As they said on a TV commercial some years ago, “Milk does a body good.”
One of the Scripture readings this morning is from First Peter. He reminds them of their start. As we heard a few weeks ago, they have been born anew into a living hope through the Resurrection of Christ. By faith their lives begin anew. And he tells them to long for the pure spiritual milk, like newborns. And its purpose is the same as that of ordinary milk, to help us grow, to nourish us, to make us strong. We are to long for it. Like milk is our first food, we are to feed our faith on what is basic. We heard about that last week. What was basic to the early church was Scripture and teaching, prayer, the Lord’s supper and fellowship. Those things are basic to our lives of faith. It is easy to want the things that are not good for us. God has the goal of growing strong, not just physically, but spiritually as well. It is God’s plan that we grow. That is done as we bring the word of God into our lives. The writer of the letter talks about this as growing into salvation.
In First Peter, he continues on by describing the community. They are, together, a spiritual house with Jesus as the cornerstone. Individually, they are living stones which are put together. How they come into this community is through faith in that cornerstone. That cornerstone holds them together. It is like last week, talking about Christ as the gate of the sheepfold. The church is God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. How we come into that community is by Baptism. It is the beginning of a new life in the community of faith. It is also the beginning of a life of growing in the faith. Its root is in the mercy of God.
The Gospel reading talks about what Jesus told the disciples. He wants them to have peace so he tells them that God has a place for them. He said that he would go to prepare it and come to take them to it. That confused some of the disciples who asked where Jesus was going because they wanted to know the way. Jesus’ reply is that he is the way. He is also the truth and the life. It is faith in that that is important. That is also done as we baptize, making promises on behalf of infants, whom we help grow in the faith so that they become people who live the promise we make. But beyond all this is that God makes promises to us, promises which we know and believe in and grow to trust in hearing God’s word.
We begin by tasting that the Lord is good. That might sound strange to us, but it is a metaphorical use of the word ‘taste’. We, of course, are used to the literal one. In a different sense to taste is to experience something. When we taste something then we know its worth. Sometimes we use that word to mean to have a little of something, like at the HyVee supermarket where the people give out small samples of things hoping we will buy more. Just a taste of something might make us want more. In a similar way, we are given the possibility of experiencing God in our lives just a bit, and when we find that it is wonderful and God is good, we will want more. God leads us into growth by giving us good in our lives.
Scott Walker of Waco, Texas, heard that Ed, a friend of his, died one day. Scott visited with the family in preparation for the funeral and asked what the most important lesson Ed taught them. A daughter, Helen said that her father had taught her to ride a bicycle. That took Scott by surprise until he realized that it was the symbol of their relationship, her father gently picking her up when she fell.
When we experience God’s goodness, our faith in God grows. We grow by consuming what is good for us. And just like we do not grow to our full height overnight, we grow best by growing daily.
It is also good to remember that we do not grow alone, as Linda Neukrug found when she worked at the cash register of a bookstore. A little boy wanted to pay for a book about the moon. This prompted Linda to ask him if he wanted to travel on a spaceship. The boy looked frightened and asked, “Now?” Linda replied that it would be when he grew up. But this still did not ease the boy’s mind. It was only eased when his father said that he would go with him.
In Baptism, we begin what will be a lifelong journey. We can trust that knowing that God will be with us on that journey, however many years we are blessed to be on it.
God’s plan for our lives is growth. Just as we grow from birth into adulthood by good food, so God has things, good things, that feed our lives. We have the promise of God’s presence and grace. We have the pure spiritual milk of the Word. We have the building of living stones, of which we are a part. All these things are for us all throughout our lives. But most of all, we have love.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Sharing Community
The 4th Sunday of Easter, Year A
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, NRSV)
"Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:1-10, NRSV)
“SHARING COMMUNITY”
Sharing comes with difficulty for most of us. It starts out when we are young and first discover that word, “Mine.” Laying claim to what is our own is necessary in part, but some of us develop the skill very very well throughout life. It is particularly intense if what we want to own is a rare or valuable or desirable object. It’s not just us, by the way. I bird-sit and was watching Gabby and Gordy, two Alexandrine Ring Necked Parakeets. For a while, if you gave them a small spoon of breakfast cereal, they would pick out the almonds and throw away the flakes. Not just drop the flakes, haul their heads back and fling them across the room. I stopped giving them cereal for a while. Then I tried an experiment. I stood at the entrance to the room and said, “I have something for little birds. I have something for little birdies.” They were waiting for it and rushed over to get it and ate it all. I chuckled to myself that this was the food they used to toss away. After a while Gordy, the male, would finish his first, then go to try to take the flake of cereal away from Gabby, the female. I chuckled to myself again, that now they are struggling over what they used to toss away. Sometimes what is valuable is only in the eye of the beholder. The other week Gordy tried to take the food away from Gabby but it broke and so they split it, eating side by side. They were sharing.
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a vision of a new kind of life. It comes after Peter has given a great speech telling the crowd who Jesus is and that he was put to death and raised from the dead. He goes on to say that the Holy Spirit was poured out over the disciples. Those who heard this message asked what they should do. Peter’s answer was that they should believe and be baptized. What they did next was to join the community. At the center of that community was the teaching of the apostles, breaking bread, and prayers. It was a spiritually-centered community. Their sharing went beyond just meeting together as they sold their possessions to provide for the needs of all. Great joy marked their lives. And God blessed the community by adding to its number daily.
The Gospel reading talks about another aspect of this community. It is that formed by those who hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and follow him and together form his flock. He is not only the shepherd but the gate. Through him the sheep enter the flock and are kept safe. Others may come, but they do not care for the sheep in the same way. This is what the sheep have in common; this is what they share, that they have the Good Shepherd who cares for them.
Many miss the sense of community in our society nowadays. Philip Gulley talks about it as he recalled the town he grew up in. He lived next door to a kid who ate dirt. Another neighbor sold shoes and when a snapping turtle ended up in his yard one day, they were invited over for turtle soup the next day. Another neighbor was a plumber, and would get his hair cut in exchange for unclogging their pipes. Mr. Bolton would show cartoons on his reel-to-reel projector in the garage to the neighborhood kids, while giving them popcorn and soda pop. But it wasn’t only these things that made them neighbors: “The Myerses and the Blaydeses resided two empty lots away. I’ll never forget how my mom and Mrs. Blaydes stood in those lots holding each other and crying the day the Myers boy got killed on his motorcycle on North Salem Road.”
He laments that those days are over. Community is in trouble in many ways nowadays. There are many changes in society. We are left with the question: What does the church have to offer a society with so many ways of getting together? It is that same vision as those first disciples had—that the church is a spiritually-centered community, that the church is a meaningful community in an increasingly superficial world. The church still has something to share. A church without any depth or purpose will be lost among the many things people seek. But a church which brings these things—knowledge of God, the presence of God, fellowship, sharing—to people will find a purpose in the world. The other vision is that there is more to the church than the people. It is the community God calls us to. The Lord brings us together. It is more than what we bring with us when we gather. It is what God gives us as we do that.
What do we share? There are a couple ways of looking at the word ‘sharing’. One is what we have in common, what we all partake of, and the passage from Acts is rich in that. We share the gospel, the good news of God’s love, the baptism by which we enter the church, the meal God has given us to strengthen our faith, our love for one another. We have been given many things. The other side of the word ‘sharing’ is what we bring or give of ourselves to others, what we take from those riches we were given and give to those around us and to those far away.
There is another side to the word ‘sharing’. It is that we give to others from what we were given. Gina Bridgman tells the story of when she was a girl and wanted to marry someone with a lot of money. Her mother said that money was not that important and besides, it didn’t matter unless he was willing to share it. There are many ways we share with others what we have. Perhaps it is extending oneself in new ways. It might be seeking forgiveness or letting go of old hurts. It might be to see beyond the walls of the church to find what more it can do for the people around it.
Phil Gulley found that, while he might have left his old neighborhood, he didn’t leave what made his old neighborhood special. There were new people in the new place, but they had what the others did. There is more to neighborhood than a place. That kindness is what made the neighbors into neighbors. He discovered in the new neighborhood those who brought cookies, hung wallpaper, gave out Juicy Fruit gum. He said, “Kindness thrives. It’s awareness that’s on the wane.” It is not where they were that mattered; it was that they shared their lives.
Community is a gift. It is from what we are given that we share, that brings us together. It is also something we make. The early church was blessed as it heard the Lord’s voice and was the Lord’s presence in the world around them. It was blessed in order to share and that sharing also became the blessing. We, too, can hear that voice that calls us not to be people who merely get together, but people who share what God has given us. To share is truly to create community.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Third Sunday of Easter, Year A
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:17-23, NRSV)
NRSV Luke 24:13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" 19 He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." 25 Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:13-35, NRSV)
“RECOGNITION”
How do we recognize someone? There are a number of ways. One is by looks. I have a younger brother and, for a while, people thought we were twins. Personally, I could never see it. Another way is by a characteristic like a person’s voice. One time I called my niece, the daughter of the same brother, and she said, “Hi, Dad,” before I identified myself. Apparently, we sound the same, too. And we also recognize people by their actions and habits. I was describing my idea for a little hobby project, to take pictures from all the counties of Wisconsin, and the same niece said, “That sounds just like my dad.” There are things about a person we recognize, but sometimes, for all our closeness, we don’t always get it right.
The Gospel reading this morning is of one of the times Jesus appeared to the disciples after Easter, after his resurrection from the dead. Two of them were going to a village called Emmaus. Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene earlier that day, but now he approached these two disciples on the road and walked with them. He asked them what they were talking about and it was about him and the events of the past week in Jerusalem. They were shocked that Jesus asked them about these things as if he did not know about them, they were the talk of the town, how he suffered and was put to death. And not only that, they had heard that Jesus was still alive. Jesus tells them that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and explains it all to them from the Scriptures.
It was evening and they stopped for the night and urged Jesus to join them. At the table with them, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and then they knew who this was. The Gospel says that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. It was not from his appearance, and not from the sound of his voice as they walked along. It was in what he did. Then, once they recognized him, they knew the truth of the resurrection, that Jesus was alive and walked with them. It is maybe a little strange to us that they walked with Jesus and yet did not identify him. We wonder if there might have been some kind of change in Jesus’ appearance after the resurrection, or perhaps they did not expect to actually meet him right there, right then. Maybe, until they sat down and he said those words that they had heard before or saw him in a familiar setting, at the table, they could not see. They have now what they did not have on the road. It is faith that allowed them and allows us to see Jesus. That filled them with such joy that they ran back all the way to share it.
The reading from First Peter starts to talk about the judgment. The Father will judge impartially. They were ransomed, not with money, but with the blood of Christ. It is through Christ that we come to trust in God and have obtained the imperishable new life. Christ directs our faith to God. In the judgment, what matters, then, is not if God sees our good works, or our status, our money. What matters is, if, in the judgment, God sees the redeeming work of Christ on us, in us, for us. That is how God recognizes us.
We recognize Jesus, as those disciples at the table near Emmaus did. Or sometimes, we, like the disciples while they were on the way to Emmaus, are slow to see him. We certainly don’t want to be like the disciples on the road, chattering on about Jesus, but not seeing that he is in our midst. We actually want to see Jesus. Sometimes, though, we don’t want to recognize things, especially if it is a problem or something that makes us look bad or feel bad. We, sometimes, do not want to look deeper into things and prefer not to make the connections, not to recognize what is there. When we do that, there are times we need those things, like the breaking of the bread, to help us see who is with us.
We begin to recognize Jesus, when we listen to and believe the gospel. Jesus said that the Scriptures pointed to him and it was in the breaking of the bread, perhaps reminiscent of the feeding of the crowds with loaves and fishes or the Last Supper, things given to the people to strengthen their faith, that they recognized him. God gives us things to enable us to see God, as Elizabeth Sherrill recalled one day when she checked on the barrel in the back of their garage that held their reclaimed road sand. Earlier she found that twenty-six pale green shoots had sprouted in the sand and now she found that they had wilted due to lack of water and light. She realized that she was wilting, too, from lack of contact with God. God not only gives us a new life, but also the means of sustaining and nourishing that life.
We also recognize Jesus when we see the things he has done in our lives. The way Jesus walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus reminds us that he walks with us in life, although it might take us a while to see that as Linda Neukrug did. She had open-heart surgery as a child but somehow regretted that she never had one of those near-death experience in which people see Jesus. She did have a supportive family, good friends, and a caring doctor. A friend reminded her that she was not recognizing her blessings because she was looking for something else. We grow in faith as we know that Christ died for us. We grow in faith as we realize Christ lives among us. We grow in trusting God as we know what Christ did to conquer both sin and death. That we not only want to recognize him, but that by what he does for us, he recognizes us.
How do you see Jesus? How to you recognize him? We hear about him in the Gospel. We are one with him in the sacraments. We see him with the eyes of faith. Sometimes seeing Jesus does not happen all at once. Sometimes we see it in what God has done for us. Sometimes we see it in seeing God among us. We have the blessing that he will open our eyes. Then we will see and great joy will be ours.
Amen.
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. 22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:17-23, NRSV)
NRSV Luke 24:13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" 19 He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." 25 Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24:13-35, NRSV)
“RECOGNITION”
How do we recognize someone? There are a number of ways. One is by looks. I have a younger brother and, for a while, people thought we were twins. Personally, I could never see it. Another way is by a characteristic like a person’s voice. One time I called my niece, the daughter of the same brother, and she said, “Hi, Dad,” before I identified myself. Apparently, we sound the same, too. And we also recognize people by their actions and habits. I was describing my idea for a little hobby project, to take pictures from all the counties of Wisconsin, and the same niece said, “That sounds just like my dad.” There are things about a person we recognize, but sometimes, for all our closeness, we don’t always get it right.
The Gospel reading this morning is of one of the times Jesus appeared to the disciples after Easter, after his resurrection from the dead. Two of them were going to a village called Emmaus. Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene earlier that day, but now he approached these two disciples on the road and walked with them. He asked them what they were talking about and it was about him and the events of the past week in Jerusalem. They were shocked that Jesus asked them about these things as if he did not know about them, they were the talk of the town, how he suffered and was put to death. And not only that, they had heard that Jesus was still alive. Jesus tells them that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and explains it all to them from the Scriptures.
It was evening and they stopped for the night and urged Jesus to join them. At the table with them, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and then they knew who this was. The Gospel says that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. It was not from his appearance, and not from the sound of his voice as they walked along. It was in what he did. Then, once they recognized him, they knew the truth of the resurrection, that Jesus was alive and walked with them. It is maybe a little strange to us that they walked with Jesus and yet did not identify him. We wonder if there might have been some kind of change in Jesus’ appearance after the resurrection, or perhaps they did not expect to actually meet him right there, right then. Maybe, until they sat down and he said those words that they had heard before or saw him in a familiar setting, at the table, they could not see. They have now what they did not have on the road. It is faith that allowed them and allows us to see Jesus. That filled them with such joy that they ran back all the way to share it.
The reading from First Peter starts to talk about the judgment. The Father will judge impartially. They were ransomed, not with money, but with the blood of Christ. It is through Christ that we come to trust in God and have obtained the imperishable new life. Christ directs our faith to God. In the judgment, what matters, then, is not if God sees our good works, or our status, our money. What matters is, if, in the judgment, God sees the redeeming work of Christ on us, in us, for us. That is how God recognizes us.
We recognize Jesus, as those disciples at the table near Emmaus did. Or sometimes, we, like the disciples while they were on the way to Emmaus, are slow to see him. We certainly don’t want to be like the disciples on the road, chattering on about Jesus, but not seeing that he is in our midst. We actually want to see Jesus. Sometimes, though, we don’t want to recognize things, especially if it is a problem or something that makes us look bad or feel bad. We, sometimes, do not want to look deeper into things and prefer not to make the connections, not to recognize what is there. When we do that, there are times we need those things, like the breaking of the bread, to help us see who is with us.
We begin to recognize Jesus, when we listen to and believe the gospel. Jesus said that the Scriptures pointed to him and it was in the breaking of the bread, perhaps reminiscent of the feeding of the crowds with loaves and fishes or the Last Supper, things given to the people to strengthen their faith, that they recognized him. God gives us things to enable us to see God, as Elizabeth Sherrill recalled one day when she checked on the barrel in the back of their garage that held their reclaimed road sand. Earlier she found that twenty-six pale green shoots had sprouted in the sand and now she found that they had wilted due to lack of water and light. She realized that she was wilting, too, from lack of contact with God. God not only gives us a new life, but also the means of sustaining and nourishing that life.
We also recognize Jesus when we see the things he has done in our lives. The way Jesus walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus reminds us that he walks with us in life, although it might take us a while to see that as Linda Neukrug did. She had open-heart surgery as a child but somehow regretted that she never had one of those near-death experience in which people see Jesus. She did have a supportive family, good friends, and a caring doctor. A friend reminded her that she was not recognizing her blessings because she was looking for something else. We grow in faith as we know that Christ died for us. We grow in faith as we realize Christ lives among us. We grow in trusting God as we know what Christ did to conquer both sin and death. That we not only want to recognize him, but that by what he does for us, he recognizes us.
How do you see Jesus? How to you recognize him? We hear about him in the Gospel. We are one with him in the sacraments. We see him with the eyes of faith. Sometimes seeing Jesus does not happen all at once. Sometimes we see it in what God has done for us. Sometimes we see it in seeing God among us. We have the blessing that he will open our eyes. Then we will see and great joy will be ours.
Amen.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith-- being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire-- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1.3-9, NRSV)
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 for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin ), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (John 20.19-31, NRSV)
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A
“WHERE THERE’S HOPE, THERE’S LIFE”
The news events have covered the whole range of human experience in this week after Easter. It has gone from the lowest to the highest, covering the heights of joy and the depths of despair. There have been devastating storms in the South and a royal wedding in England. Amid the other news of the week, there were these in once-in-a-lifetime events. It fit this week after Easter well to hear stories both of lives snatched from the brink of death and of the beginning of a wonderful new life together. I caught these on radio and they said that you had to see the destruction of the tornados to believe it all. The descriptions on radio did not do it justice. Those who saw it tried their best to tell us about it. They also sent an experienced war correspondent to cover Prince William and Kate’s wedding. They asked him about it, figuring that having been in conflict-torn areas, he might not have much interest in the celebration. It turned out that he found it to be exciting. What he said, too, was that you had to be there to appreciate it.
The Gospel reading is of one the Jesus’ appearances. The disciples were hiding in fear and Jesus appeared to them to reassure them. He gives them peace and shows them his wounds. Thus they believed. Well, not all of them, as there was one, Thomas, not there at that time. He was not there and so was not able to appreciate it. And when he heard the story of what had taken place, he doubted. He makes this bold statement that he wants proof, absolute proof, wants to see for himself and touch Jesus’ wounds. And when the disciples were together a week later, Jesus appears to them again and lets Thomas see and touch his wounds. Then he, too, believed. It is better to believe without needing to see, but those who are honest in their doubts are heard and he gets the chance to believe, too. Jesus does not scold him or reject Thomas, but instead helps him. Once, though, he had been allowed to see for himself, he had no doubts. His doubts are changed into expressions of great faith as he sees for himself who Jesus is. Jesus is not only alive, having been raised from the dead; he is Thomas’ Lord and God. Now Thomas knows that Christ is alive and with him. Faith is born in him.
We come to faith by hearing, or seeing, or touching the Risen Lord. There are times when faith comes by touching or being touched, just as Thomas had the chance to do. There are times when faith comes alive then, is most real to us then. Mary Brown tells the story of how the ups and downs of fertility treatment left her exhausted. She knew that God was with her and yet longed to feel God’s embrace. When she went to pick up her daughter from preschool, the teacher walked over to her and gave her a hug. She concludes with this thought: “Maybe she simply wanted to let me know I was welcome, or maybe she saw a sadness in my eyes or heaviness in my step. Whatever it was, Laura Stein’s hug encouraged me in a way nothing else could, that, yes, God would carry me through this ordeal. Through her, He had even granted my desire to physically feel His love.”
We get the chance to see Thomas’ faith grow under the patient work of Jesus who helped him grow beyond his doubts. And we get the chance to see how Thomas’ faith grows into full confidence. He now knows that Christ is alive among them. He had to see it for himself, but once he did he believed strongly. This offers hope to all who may need to be strengthened in their faith. It is that Jesus is not done with us and can guide us into stronger faith if we honesty seek him, give him our doubts, and let ourselves feel the reality of his life among us.
In the First Letter of Peter, the author likewise proclaims a faith based on the resurrection. He blesses and thanks God for the great gift of a new birth into a living hope. All this is through God’s mercy and through Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is through Christ’s new life that we receive the gift of a new life. It is a gift that is perfect and permanent and is able to help the Christians in Asia Minor and us endure suffering. Is not hope because they are alive, as if they produced the hope. It is because this hope is God’s gift, coming from outside themselves, that they are able to live. They believe in Christ even though they have not seen him. They have heard of him and believe. And that faith has the strength to give them joy, even joy in persecution and trials. They are part of this hope because of their faith, because of what Christ has done.
Christ gives the disciples in the upper room many things. To Thomas, he gives faith itself. But they all were given something else besides the joy of knowing that Jesus was alive. It is not only that they have hope because they are alive. It is because they have this hope, they have life. Because they have seen Jesus, they can fulfill a new purpose. From this hope they can live the new life. Jesus gives them peace, but they also are to give that peace to others, and they are given the gift of the Spirit, and he sends them as he has been sent. They are given the chance to do something in the world, to continue his work.
Rick Hamlin writes about the time they got rid of an almost new, large, double stroller. He weighed the possibilities for profit but also thought of a church thrift store near his office. His wife Carol had the last word: “Give it away.” A week later at church a friend had a double stroller that her mother found for her at a thrift shop when she had given up hope of finding one. Jesus’ word to them, too, about the gifts that he gives them, is: “Give it away.” That way Jesus’ presence continues.
John begins to conclude the Gospel by saying that there were many more things Jesus did. And there will be many more things that Jesus does as his followers find this truth, that they were sent and continue to go out into the world to be the living life of Christ to others, to help others see God through them, to let others touch God, to help others find faith, to share Christ’s peace, and to proclaim to all the world that Christ is alive and among us. That is a living hope. Amen.
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 for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin ), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (John 20.19-31, NRSV)
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A
“WHERE THERE’S HOPE, THERE’S LIFE”
The news events have covered the whole range of human experience in this week after Easter. It has gone from the lowest to the highest, covering the heights of joy and the depths of despair. There have been devastating storms in the South and a royal wedding in England. Amid the other news of the week, there were these in once-in-a-lifetime events. It fit this week after Easter well to hear stories both of lives snatched from the brink of death and of the beginning of a wonderful new life together. I caught these on radio and they said that you had to see the destruction of the tornados to believe it all. The descriptions on radio did not do it justice. Those who saw it tried their best to tell us about it. They also sent an experienced war correspondent to cover Prince William and Kate’s wedding. They asked him about it, figuring that having been in conflict-torn areas, he might not have much interest in the celebration. It turned out that he found it to be exciting. What he said, too, was that you had to be there to appreciate it.
The Gospel reading is of one the Jesus’ appearances. The disciples were hiding in fear and Jesus appeared to them to reassure them. He gives them peace and shows them his wounds. Thus they believed. Well, not all of them, as there was one, Thomas, not there at that time. He was not there and so was not able to appreciate it. And when he heard the story of what had taken place, he doubted. He makes this bold statement that he wants proof, absolute proof, wants to see for himself and touch Jesus’ wounds. And when the disciples were together a week later, Jesus appears to them again and lets Thomas see and touch his wounds. Then he, too, believed. It is better to believe without needing to see, but those who are honest in their doubts are heard and he gets the chance to believe, too. Jesus does not scold him or reject Thomas, but instead helps him. Once, though, he had been allowed to see for himself, he had no doubts. His doubts are changed into expressions of great faith as he sees for himself who Jesus is. Jesus is not only alive, having been raised from the dead; he is Thomas’ Lord and God. Now Thomas knows that Christ is alive and with him. Faith is born in him.
We come to faith by hearing, or seeing, or touching the Risen Lord. There are times when faith comes by touching or being touched, just as Thomas had the chance to do. There are times when faith comes alive then, is most real to us then. Mary Brown tells the story of how the ups and downs of fertility treatment left her exhausted. She knew that God was with her and yet longed to feel God’s embrace. When she went to pick up her daughter from preschool, the teacher walked over to her and gave her a hug. She concludes with this thought: “Maybe she simply wanted to let me know I was welcome, or maybe she saw a sadness in my eyes or heaviness in my step. Whatever it was, Laura Stein’s hug encouraged me in a way nothing else could, that, yes, God would carry me through this ordeal. Through her, He had even granted my desire to physically feel His love.”
We get the chance to see Thomas’ faith grow under the patient work of Jesus who helped him grow beyond his doubts. And we get the chance to see how Thomas’ faith grows into full confidence. He now knows that Christ is alive among them. He had to see it for himself, but once he did he believed strongly. This offers hope to all who may need to be strengthened in their faith. It is that Jesus is not done with us and can guide us into stronger faith if we honesty seek him, give him our doubts, and let ourselves feel the reality of his life among us.
In the First Letter of Peter, the author likewise proclaims a faith based on the resurrection. He blesses and thanks God for the great gift of a new birth into a living hope. All this is through God’s mercy and through Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is through Christ’s new life that we receive the gift of a new life. It is a gift that is perfect and permanent and is able to help the Christians in Asia Minor and us endure suffering. Is not hope because they are alive, as if they produced the hope. It is because this hope is God’s gift, coming from outside themselves, that they are able to live. They believe in Christ even though they have not seen him. They have heard of him and believe. And that faith has the strength to give them joy, even joy in persecution and trials. They are part of this hope because of their faith, because of what Christ has done.
Christ gives the disciples in the upper room many things. To Thomas, he gives faith itself. But they all were given something else besides the joy of knowing that Jesus was alive. It is not only that they have hope because they are alive. It is because they have this hope, they have life. Because they have seen Jesus, they can fulfill a new purpose. From this hope they can live the new life. Jesus gives them peace, but they also are to give that peace to others, and they are given the gift of the Spirit, and he sends them as he has been sent. They are given the chance to do something in the world, to continue his work.
Rick Hamlin writes about the time they got rid of an almost new, large, double stroller. He weighed the possibilities for profit but also thought of a church thrift store near his office. His wife Carol had the last word: “Give it away.” A week later at church a friend had a double stroller that her mother found for her at a thrift shop when she had given up hope of finding one. Jesus’ word to them, too, about the gifts that he gives them, is: “Give it away.” That way Jesus’ presence continues.
John begins to conclude the Gospel by saying that there were many more things Jesus did. And there will be many more things that Jesus does as his followers find this truth, that they were sent and continue to go out into the world to be the living life of Christ to others, to help others see God through them, to let others touch God, to help others find faith, to share Christ’s peace, and to proclaim to all the world that Christ is alive and among us. That is a living hope. Amen.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, the daffodils in the back yard bloomed for the first time this spring almost as if on cue.
Easter/Resurrection of the Lord
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." (Matthew 28:1-10, NRSV)
“BEHIND THE STONE”
People are afraid of various things in life. Pain is one of the things we fear, and so is loss. But I think we have a special level of fear for the unknown. There are fearful things we have experienced and things we have seen from the lives of others. We know those things. Those might be very unpleasant, but what is known is somehow more manageable than what is not known. We fear what we cannot see.
The Gospel reading for this Easter Sunday is familiar. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. They are incredibly surprised on the way. We have no idea how they planned on rolling away the stone, for tombs were caves sealed with large rocks so that wild animals and robbers could not disturb the bodies inside. While it was sealed, no one could look inside. They probably only wanted to be there at the place where they thought the body of the Lord, whom they loved and followed, was. They saw his death and knew that he was quickly placed in the tomb because of the approaching Sabbath. What they would have expected, if they could have seen behind the stone, was to see Jesus, who died on the cross as they saw.
On their way, the earth shook and an angel rolled the stone away. The guards fainted with fear, but to the women the angel said, “Do not be afraid.” And the stone was removed and they could see behind it and what they saw was beyond all imagining. Jesus was not there and the angel told them what had happened. He was not there because he had risen from the dead. They were invited to look at the place where he had been and were told to tell the disciples to go to Galilee where they would soon see Jesus. They left with fear and great joy. Fear at this completely unexpected event and joy that their beloved Jesus was no longer dead. And on their way, they saw him. And his words, too, were, “Do not be afraid.”
The angel removed the stone from the tomb, but in another sense Christ does that for us. If death is the greatest unknown, our greatest fear, we have been given this great gift by Christ’s rising from the dead. We know what is beyond this life and it is life. The words of the angel tell us that this was part of God’s plan. He has been raised as he said he would be. His death and resurrection was to give us something we needed, something that we could not have by ourselves. It is the assurance of life after death and that we can have a way back to God and into eternity by what he did. We can look beyond the stone, the seal on the tomb, the mystery, the thing that keeps us from seeing past this life and traps us in our fears by what Christ did on that first Easter morning. And his words to us are also: Do not fear. What Christ did makes it possible not to fear. When we stop being afraid, we find freedom.
Christ goes before us into death and into life. It is more than an example; it is someone beside us, walking with us to show us that we need not fear. It is like the older sister or brother who goes with us into new territory not only to let us know that it is possible, but to welcome us there. Brenda Wilbee tells the story of a thunderstorm she experienced as a young child, when her grandfather had to coax her out from under a bed. He sat with her, all bundled up on the porch and saw that he was not afraid of the storms. She recalled, “Soon I, too, caught his excitement and lost my fear.” We gain and learn courage when we know that Christ is with us and for us.
What is behind the stone is life, not death. The darkness of the cave is only temporary. Once we know that by faith, we are freed to have hope. We are freed from sadness to have inexpressible joy. That joy is possible because we know about the future. It is like the discovery Rick Hamlin made when informed of the death of a friend, Charley. He knew that he would miss the way he could drop in on him during his long illness and know that he would always be there with a friendly greeting. He found it hard to believe that it was over. At the service there were tears, but also hugs and the fellowship of those who had supported Charley and his family over the years. His impression was that it was more like Easter than Good Friday. The service used the hymns and readings that Charley had picked and some of those attending formed a little choir. He thought that death had not triumphed. “At the last minute, a group of us gathered in a corner and sang one more tune for Charley: ‘Out in Arizona where the bad men are, nothing there to guide you but the evening star.…’” He drove home beneath a sky filled with stars.
We are freed from our fears so that we can seek the things that are above as the writer of the letter to the Colossians talks about. The Resurrection is not only about how we will live some day; it is about how hope changes our lives now. We are no longer limited to living from our fears; instead, we can seek something higher, greater, more lasting. Once fear is gone we can live this life fully. Once we are freed from the greatest uncertainty in our lives we can live with purpose. Christ is our guide both in life and in death.
The Resurrection shows us what is beyond this life, just as those first disciples got the chance to see what was beyond that great stone. It is the answer to our hopes both now and for the end of our lives. It is light in our darkness. It is life, that where Christ is, we will be also. The disciples saw that death could not hold him and the women found that he walked among them. He is alive and holds life in his hands. We shall not die, but we shall live. That is our hope, that where he is, we would be also. Christ is alive. Allelujah!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
This was the sermon last Sunday, for the fifth Sunday in Lent.
Text: John 11.1-45
“WHAT IS TO COME”
Each holiday has symbols associated with it. The ones for Easter are flowers and grass, eggs, rabbits and chickens. They all fit what is happening around us at this time of year. New foliage is springing forth and newborn animals and newly hatched birds appear. I don’t think it is a coincidence that as I left the house to come here, two rabbits ran across my path. It is a time that reminds us of the life that is taking the place around us after the deadness of winter.
New life is the message of the Gospel reading. It is the familiar story of Lazarus who was revived after death. The whole story has, not just a miraculous ending, but stages along the way. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, along with his sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is ill, but rather than come right away, Jesus delays. He intends to go back to Judea but it has become a dangerous trip since the Judeans had just tried to stone him. He tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and he is going to wake him. The disciples misunderstand and say that he will be alright then, but Jesus tells them that Lazarus is dead. They go and arrive four days after Lazarus’ death. Martha went out to meet Jesus. She said that had he come Lazarus would not have died. He reassures her that Lazarus will rise again. He says instead that he is the resurrection and the life and asks her if she believes this. She does. Martha comes out to see Jesus and he weeps with them. Jesus came to the tomb and orders that the stone sealing it be removed. After a prayer, he commanded Lazarus to come out and he did. Those around him believed.
We might wonder, too, why Jesus said that the illness does not lead to death. That is a strange statement when we consider that Lazarus had indeed died. It is as if Jesus has something else in mind than what they call death. Being a friend of Jesus did not prevent Lazarus’ death. There comes a time for the earthly life to end. But there are many kinds of death. There is the end of life, but also hope, love, the things we hold dear. People’s spark of life can die before their bodies do. We can lose our sense of purpose or right and wrong. A person can lose what makes that person a person. But perhaps what Jesus means is that this illness is not going to end in death because it can’t touch Lazarus in a way that brings him to an end.
Martha and Mary express hope that Lazarus will rise when all rise on the last day. It is part of the general rising of the righteous at the end of time. But Jesus’ answer isn’t that. There is more to it than that. It is not some vague hope for some day in the future that things will turn out well. It is real and immediate. They are correct that Lazarus will live again, but it has its basis in Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. Those who have faith in him will live forever. Eternal life is found through him. And what he does shows that. He has power over death. This miracle, like the others, shows us something about God. It is that God has power beyond the ultimate power in our world, power over life and death.
This is for God’s glory. It is also to bring the disciples to faith. That is why they are able to see it. It is why this story and even more so the one we share at Easter is central to our faith. It shows that Jesus is more than a man and his earthly life more than the average earthly life. In this account, some people believe, although incompletely, and some question what Jesus is doing, but in the end, all the doubts are cleared up. We, too, have times when we wonder what is going to happen, what is going to survive in our lives.
Jesus’ miracle first brings faith alive in us. Martha’s hope is our hope, too, that on the last day, all will be made right. We know that beyond this life lays a new existence, not just what we know here extended on infinitely. We will need a whole resurrection, like Lazarus had, from the dead, not just a healing. This is the hope of a completely new existence, one in which we cannot die again. Part of the joy of the resurrection is the end of all that is imperfect.
Spring shows us part of that hope. We see grass and flowers, like last year’s, but they are not last year’s. The new rabbits in the yard are not last year’s; they are their descendants. New life is not the same as old life.
Brenda Wilbee tells a story that show us that hope. She was mourning the loss of her Aunt Grace who had made her Tinsy Winsy, a sock monkey when she was very little. Time came when Tinsy Winsy wore out and lost his stuffing. Aunt Grace suggested she repair the monkey and those of her sisters. The girls were apprehensive that they wouldn’t be the same and Aunt Grace wisely replied that they would keep their button eyes, that it throwing out their bodies, they would keep their souls. She concludes: “How well I remember the summer afternoon she handed me Tinsy Winsy, all plump and new, his limbs fit and fat, his eyes sparkling … And remembering that, I see I’ve not lost Auntie. Because, though we all have to throw out our old bodies sometime, we have a Creator Who never throws away our souls.” The account of Lazarus’ rising from the grave is a story to strengthen our faith. It is to show us again who Jesus is.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he gave us a sign of a greater hope, greater reality. It is a sign of who he is—the Messiah, Son of God, the One who cares for us in this world and into the next. And it gives us a sign of the hope for our lives, that under God’s care we do not come to an end. But it is not a hope only for some day. It is for us today. What in us needs to come alive? What in us is gone? Like with Lazarus, Jesus calls it to come forth, into new life.
Amen.
Text: John 11.1-45
“WHAT IS TO COME”
Each holiday has symbols associated with it. The ones for Easter are flowers and grass, eggs, rabbits and chickens. They all fit what is happening around us at this time of year. New foliage is springing forth and newborn animals and newly hatched birds appear. I don’t think it is a coincidence that as I left the house to come here, two rabbits ran across my path. It is a time that reminds us of the life that is taking the place around us after the deadness of winter.
New life is the message of the Gospel reading. It is the familiar story of Lazarus who was revived after death. The whole story has, not just a miraculous ending, but stages along the way. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, along with his sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is ill, but rather than come right away, Jesus delays. He intends to go back to Judea but it has become a dangerous trip since the Judeans had just tried to stone him. He tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and he is going to wake him. The disciples misunderstand and say that he will be alright then, but Jesus tells them that Lazarus is dead. They go and arrive four days after Lazarus’ death. Martha went out to meet Jesus. She said that had he come Lazarus would not have died. He reassures her that Lazarus will rise again. He says instead that he is the resurrection and the life and asks her if she believes this. She does. Martha comes out to see Jesus and he weeps with them. Jesus came to the tomb and orders that the stone sealing it be removed. After a prayer, he commanded Lazarus to come out and he did. Those around him believed.
We might wonder, too, why Jesus said that the illness does not lead to death. That is a strange statement when we consider that Lazarus had indeed died. It is as if Jesus has something else in mind than what they call death. Being a friend of Jesus did not prevent Lazarus’ death. There comes a time for the earthly life to end. But there are many kinds of death. There is the end of life, but also hope, love, the things we hold dear. People’s spark of life can die before their bodies do. We can lose our sense of purpose or right and wrong. A person can lose what makes that person a person. But perhaps what Jesus means is that this illness is not going to end in death because it can’t touch Lazarus in a way that brings him to an end.
Martha and Mary express hope that Lazarus will rise when all rise on the last day. It is part of the general rising of the righteous at the end of time. But Jesus’ answer isn’t that. There is more to it than that. It is not some vague hope for some day in the future that things will turn out well. It is real and immediate. They are correct that Lazarus will live again, but it has its basis in Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. Those who have faith in him will live forever. Eternal life is found through him. And what he does shows that. He has power over death. This miracle, like the others, shows us something about God. It is that God has power beyond the ultimate power in our world, power over life and death.
This is for God’s glory. It is also to bring the disciples to faith. That is why they are able to see it. It is why this story and even more so the one we share at Easter is central to our faith. It shows that Jesus is more than a man and his earthly life more than the average earthly life. In this account, some people believe, although incompletely, and some question what Jesus is doing, but in the end, all the doubts are cleared up. We, too, have times when we wonder what is going to happen, what is going to survive in our lives.
Jesus’ miracle first brings faith alive in us. Martha’s hope is our hope, too, that on the last day, all will be made right. We know that beyond this life lays a new existence, not just what we know here extended on infinitely. We will need a whole resurrection, like Lazarus had, from the dead, not just a healing. This is the hope of a completely new existence, one in which we cannot die again. Part of the joy of the resurrection is the end of all that is imperfect.
Spring shows us part of that hope. We see grass and flowers, like last year’s, but they are not last year’s. The new rabbits in the yard are not last year’s; they are their descendants. New life is not the same as old life.
Brenda Wilbee tells a story that show us that hope. She was mourning the loss of her Aunt Grace who had made her Tinsy Winsy, a sock monkey when she was very little. Time came when Tinsy Winsy wore out and lost his stuffing. Aunt Grace suggested she repair the monkey and those of her sisters. The girls were apprehensive that they wouldn’t be the same and Aunt Grace wisely replied that they would keep their button eyes, that it throwing out their bodies, they would keep their souls. She concludes: “How well I remember the summer afternoon she handed me Tinsy Winsy, all plump and new, his limbs fit and fat, his eyes sparkling … And remembering that, I see I’ve not lost Auntie. Because, though we all have to throw out our old bodies sometime, we have a Creator Who never throws away our souls.” The account of Lazarus’ rising from the grave is a story to strengthen our faith. It is to show us again who Jesus is.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he gave us a sign of a greater hope, greater reality. It is a sign of who he is—the Messiah, Son of God, the One who cares for us in this world and into the next. And it gives us a sign of the hope for our lives, that under God’s care we do not come to an end. But it is not a hope only for some day. It is for us today. What in us needs to come alive? What in us is gone? Like with Lazarus, Jesus calls it to come forth, into new life.
Amen.
Friday, April 15, 2011
This is the last of the Lenten devotionals. We have enjoyed our time of fellowship over the past six weeks.
When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11, NRSV)
This is more of the instructions for life in the Promised Land. God has given them the land and when the land gives them something to sustain their lives, this is what they are supposed to do with it. They are to take the first of it and bring it to the sanctuary and put it down. They are to declare that they live in the land that God gave and recite this speech: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.” Then the gift is to be shared with the Levites and the aliens, those who do not have land to support them.
They are to retell the national history that brought them to that moment. All the main points of their history are there and they are to recall it, recite it. They were slaves, they were freed, they were brought to this land and given it. It is remarkable how each individual is connected with the history as they bring their offering. By telling the story of the whole people as part of your story, you join who you once were and what you do today. Your personal story and the national story are mixed together. It is like our holiday of Thanksgiving. We remember, if we pay attention, that the holiday is about how we came to this country and were helped through hard early times. We gained our independence, identified our freedom, grew, fought a war that threatened to divide the nation, and went on to become world innovators and leaders. That is what is behind the feast, that God has helped and provided for us throughout our history. And we are prosperous enough today to celebrate with food and rest and travel and festivities. We do that because we are a part of what happened and is happening; we, too, are a part of the national story.
In giving, like the Israelites, we remember where we have come from and, more importantly, that God is behind the fact we have abundance. We remember God’s hand in history, not only of our nation, but our personal stories. We see God’s goodness around us and in our past. We remember that God’s gifts are to be enjoyed and used. The abundance is not reluctantly given away, it is to be celebrated with joy.
There is more to it than that. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers of children’s television programming, was asked to write a chapter in an ophthalmology textbook. They looked for his understanding of children to help eye doctors put their younger patients at ease in what can be frightening procedures and exams. He began the chapter, “You were a child once …” and invited the doctors and medical students to understand how they are to act in the present by how they were once young themselves. They were to think back to their pasts so that they could understand others. So, too, the Israelites. They were strangers wandering without a land and God gave them this good land, and now in bringing their gifts they are to provide for those who do not have land. So, too, us. We were strangers once, and someone welcomed us. We were hungry once and someone gave us food. That is why our part of the story is to grow and expand and to include others. That is why we present our gifts. That is why coming into the land is not an end, but a beginning.
When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11, NRSV)
This is more of the instructions for life in the Promised Land. God has given them the land and when the land gives them something to sustain their lives, this is what they are supposed to do with it. They are to take the first of it and bring it to the sanctuary and put it down. They are to declare that they live in the land that God gave and recite this speech: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.” Then the gift is to be shared with the Levites and the aliens, those who do not have land to support them.
They are to retell the national history that brought them to that moment. All the main points of their history are there and they are to recall it, recite it. They were slaves, they were freed, they were brought to this land and given it. It is remarkable how each individual is connected with the history as they bring their offering. By telling the story of the whole people as part of your story, you join who you once were and what you do today. Your personal story and the national story are mixed together. It is like our holiday of Thanksgiving. We remember, if we pay attention, that the holiday is about how we came to this country and were helped through hard early times. We gained our independence, identified our freedom, grew, fought a war that threatened to divide the nation, and went on to become world innovators and leaders. That is what is behind the feast, that God has helped and provided for us throughout our history. And we are prosperous enough today to celebrate with food and rest and travel and festivities. We do that because we are a part of what happened and is happening; we, too, are a part of the national story.
In giving, like the Israelites, we remember where we have come from and, more importantly, that God is behind the fact we have abundance. We remember God’s hand in history, not only of our nation, but our personal stories. We see God’s goodness around us and in our past. We remember that God’s gifts are to be enjoyed and used. The abundance is not reluctantly given away, it is to be celebrated with joy.
There is more to it than that. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers of children’s television programming, was asked to write a chapter in an ophthalmology textbook. They looked for his understanding of children to help eye doctors put their younger patients at ease in what can be frightening procedures and exams. He began the chapter, “You were a child once …” and invited the doctors and medical students to understand how they are to act in the present by how they were once young themselves. They were to think back to their pasts so that they could understand others. So, too, the Israelites. They were strangers wandering without a land and God gave them this good land, and now in bringing their gifts they are to provide for those who do not have land. So, too, us. We were strangers once, and someone welcomed us. We were hungry once and someone gave us food. That is why our part of the story is to grow and expand and to include others. That is why we present our gifts. That is why coming into the land is not an end, but a beginning.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
This is last night's devotional. Next week we wrap up the series based on Moses' instructions to the Israelite people right before they enter the Promised Land.
This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, NRSV)
“Poor But Honest”
My dad used to joke that he came from a “poor but dishonest” family. Now, I know that explaining a joke makes it even less funny, but it was, of course, not true. Pat and Hattie were some of the most honest people around. Grandma used to say that no honest work was bad work. And, if you think about it, a person who is dishonest and poor is either dumb or lazy. I think why my dad thought it was funny was that it was a parody of many of the biographies of some years back which stressed that the person came from “poor but honest” parents and rose by his or her own abilities to become great and famous. The name for such a person back then was the “self-made man”.
Dad never forgot where he came from. He grew up in the Great Depression and never forgot it. My uncle described their family dinners as potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna. People from that era include both folks who, having undergone severe deprivation, went on to spend lavishly on whatever they wanted, never to feel deprived again. And it included others who saved everything because hard times might come again. It was not an easy time and not all the people who lived through it were poor but honest. My dad tells the story of a man who visited a friend at a job site with a bottle of whisky, had a few too many drinks with the friend, then called the boss to report the employee was drunk on the job, then applied for the open position the next day. The experience of poverty tests people. It makes some people kinder, other people meaner.
The reading from Deuteronomy is about the other experience. It is about the experience of prosperity. We might not think that such a condition is dangerous, but the reading cautions the Israelites about it. When they go into the land that God has promised them, they will have new temptations. In the desert they were tempted to doubt God’s care and to forget God’s directions. The wandering in the wilderness was to test what was in their hearts. Arriving in the land will, too.
The Promised Land will have flowing streams, wheat and barley, honey and olives, vines and figs and pomegranates. There will be no scarcity, they will lack nothing, and they will bless the Lord. Then the possibility for trouble begins. The warning is not to forget God in the abundance. It is not to forget God’s commandments. And it is not to exalt themselves, to think that they are self-made people, the source of their own prosperity, when, in fact, it is the gift of God. We don’t like this idea of testing, that there is another hurdle. We like the idea that when we become prosperous, we “have it made” or “have arrived”.
The reaction to poverty tests people. The choices we make when things are going well count every bit as much as those we make when things are not prosperous. We don’t like to hear that. We want to be comfortable and assume that the state of being wealthy is entirely good. Prosperity, or the desire to be prosperous, can distract us and blind us in many ways.
There are some dangers with wealth or with being preoccupied with getting ahead. One is how people can hide in it. They feel free from life’s realities. We can begin to think that money is the meaning of life. Henry David Thoreau went out to the woods near Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, over 150 years ago. There he lived off the land, as simply as possible in a cabin, as an experiment in living, as he put it: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear …”
Prosperity can change how we treat others. It can change how we see ourselves. The stories of many successful people emphasize how they achieved success, not where they have come from. They forgot how others helped them and the opportunities that came their way. Prosperity can make some people vain. Prosperity can make people more greedy and fearful. Those are some of the ways prosperity tests us as much as poverty does.
The answer for the Israelites is to recall how they came to the land. They are to remember their path, their story. It was under God’s leading and protection and care. That did not begin on the day they came into the Promised Land. It is also that they are to remember the One who brought them to the land. The Israelites are to remember that they are God’s people. They are not self-made. The land is a gift. Their abundance is to include kindness, generosity, humility, and gratitude. Only then will they live in the land well, and be truly well-off.
This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, NRSV)
“Poor But Honest”
My dad used to joke that he came from a “poor but dishonest” family. Now, I know that explaining a joke makes it even less funny, but it was, of course, not true. Pat and Hattie were some of the most honest people around. Grandma used to say that no honest work was bad work. And, if you think about it, a person who is dishonest and poor is either dumb or lazy. I think why my dad thought it was funny was that it was a parody of many of the biographies of some years back which stressed that the person came from “poor but honest” parents and rose by his or her own abilities to become great and famous. The name for such a person back then was the “self-made man”.
Dad never forgot where he came from. He grew up in the Great Depression and never forgot it. My uncle described their family dinners as potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna. People from that era include both folks who, having undergone severe deprivation, went on to spend lavishly on whatever they wanted, never to feel deprived again. And it included others who saved everything because hard times might come again. It was not an easy time and not all the people who lived through it were poor but honest. My dad tells the story of a man who visited a friend at a job site with a bottle of whisky, had a few too many drinks with the friend, then called the boss to report the employee was drunk on the job, then applied for the open position the next day. The experience of poverty tests people. It makes some people kinder, other people meaner.
The reading from Deuteronomy is about the other experience. It is about the experience of prosperity. We might not think that such a condition is dangerous, but the reading cautions the Israelites about it. When they go into the land that God has promised them, they will have new temptations. In the desert they were tempted to doubt God’s care and to forget God’s directions. The wandering in the wilderness was to test what was in their hearts. Arriving in the land will, too.
The Promised Land will have flowing streams, wheat and barley, honey and olives, vines and figs and pomegranates. There will be no scarcity, they will lack nothing, and they will bless the Lord. Then the possibility for trouble begins. The warning is not to forget God in the abundance. It is not to forget God’s commandments. And it is not to exalt themselves, to think that they are self-made people, the source of their own prosperity, when, in fact, it is the gift of God. We don’t like this idea of testing, that there is another hurdle. We like the idea that when we become prosperous, we “have it made” or “have arrived”.
The reaction to poverty tests people. The choices we make when things are going well count every bit as much as those we make when things are not prosperous. We don’t like to hear that. We want to be comfortable and assume that the state of being wealthy is entirely good. Prosperity, or the desire to be prosperous, can distract us and blind us in many ways.
There are some dangers with wealth or with being preoccupied with getting ahead. One is how people can hide in it. They feel free from life’s realities. We can begin to think that money is the meaning of life. Henry David Thoreau went out to the woods near Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, over 150 years ago. There he lived off the land, as simply as possible in a cabin, as an experiment in living, as he put it: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear …”
Prosperity can change how we treat others. It can change how we see ourselves. The stories of many successful people emphasize how they achieved success, not where they have come from. They forgot how others helped them and the opportunities that came their way. Prosperity can make some people vain. Prosperity can make people more greedy and fearful. Those are some of the ways prosperity tests us as much as poverty does.
The answer for the Israelites is to recall how they came to the land. They are to remember their path, their story. It was under God’s leading and protection and care. That did not begin on the day they came into the Promised Land. It is also that they are to remember the One who brought them to the land. The Israelites are to remember that they are God’s people. They are not self-made. The land is a gift. Their abundance is to include kindness, generosity, humility, and gratitude. Only then will they live in the land well, and be truly well-off.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
This is last week's Lenten devotional. We had to skip a week because of snow and sleet. The weather in Minnesota almost always manages to give us a little surprise.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:1 Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."
PASSING IT DOWN
I have a friend who has a relative who is worried about leaving things to her children. That is a way of keeping precious things in the family. That is a good impulse for someone in their later years, but my friend wishes the relative would be more decisive about it. The plan constantly shifts back and forth. The list keeps changing. It is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is going forward or backward. One concern is what they will do with it. Another is whether each gift fits the individual. Decisions are made and unmade.
As we have been considering these weeks of Lent, the Book of Deuteronomy contains the speeches Moses gave the people right before they were about to enter the Promised Land. It is a plan for entering the Promised Land and staying there. The land is their inheritance. God promised it to them long ago and that has not changed. But staying there could be as tricky as getting into it. God makes a covenant with the people of Israel and the land is part of that covenant, so when the people cease to be in the covenant, cease fulfilling their part of the covenant, then their future, their inheritance, their living in the land, is in question. So it is very important that they keep it.
And so, part of this is learning, learning the covenant, learning the relationship with God, again and again, over and over, from generation to generation. It is not just repeating the words; it is finding the meaning of faith. That is why when the children ask they should have an answer for them. We should too. That is what Christian Education is. It is so that our children, like the children of the Israelites, have a faith of their own, like an inheritance, something given to them, but given away, given as we let go of it into their own hands, so that it can be their own. It is it is so they can have lives of faith that sustain them all through their lives.
What we learn in life, even very early in life, is important in who we become and how we see God and ourselves. W. Frederick Wooden tells the story of when he was a boy, not athletic, who could only climb one or two branches of the neighborhood tree. The evening before they moved out of the neighborhood, he made one last attempt. He went to the top and looked around and fifty years later still remembers that. The most important learning is about who we are and what we can do, not what we have.
God is giving a message to Moses. And Moses is giving it to the Israelites about this great inheritance. It is not furniture, not stocks and bonds, or cattle, or antiques, or coin collections, or houses, or something else. It is the knowledge of what is most important and what God is doing and who they are. It is that the meaning of their faith is who God is and who they are and what their relationship to God is. They are to pass this on from generation to generation. How they live according to those things will determine their future. How they teach them, will determine their future’s future.
The most important thing is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And they are to learn the people’s story. “Who are we?” they might ask. “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.” And what are they to do? “Love God.”
They are to recite the words, to learn them over and over. That is their truth, their story, their inheritance. These great truths are a gift. An inheritance is a gift, to our children and children’s children, and to their children. It is what makes life possible. If there is anything worth passing down it is these. When your children ask.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:1 Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."
PASSING IT DOWN
I have a friend who has a relative who is worried about leaving things to her children. That is a way of keeping precious things in the family. That is a good impulse for someone in their later years, but my friend wishes the relative would be more decisive about it. The plan constantly shifts back and forth. The list keeps changing. It is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is going forward or backward. One concern is what they will do with it. Another is whether each gift fits the individual. Decisions are made and unmade.
As we have been considering these weeks of Lent, the Book of Deuteronomy contains the speeches Moses gave the people right before they were about to enter the Promised Land. It is a plan for entering the Promised Land and staying there. The land is their inheritance. God promised it to them long ago and that has not changed. But staying there could be as tricky as getting into it. God makes a covenant with the people of Israel and the land is part of that covenant, so when the people cease to be in the covenant, cease fulfilling their part of the covenant, then their future, their inheritance, their living in the land, is in question. So it is very important that they keep it.
And so, part of this is learning, learning the covenant, learning the relationship with God, again and again, over and over, from generation to generation. It is not just repeating the words; it is finding the meaning of faith. That is why when the children ask they should have an answer for them. We should too. That is what Christian Education is. It is so that our children, like the children of the Israelites, have a faith of their own, like an inheritance, something given to them, but given away, given as we let go of it into their own hands, so that it can be their own. It is it is so they can have lives of faith that sustain them all through their lives.
What we learn in life, even very early in life, is important in who we become and how we see God and ourselves. W. Frederick Wooden tells the story of when he was a boy, not athletic, who could only climb one or two branches of the neighborhood tree. The evening before they moved out of the neighborhood, he made one last attempt. He went to the top and looked around and fifty years later still remembers that. The most important learning is about who we are and what we can do, not what we have.
God is giving a message to Moses. And Moses is giving it to the Israelites about this great inheritance. It is not furniture, not stocks and bonds, or cattle, or antiques, or coin collections, or houses, or something else. It is the knowledge of what is most important and what God is doing and who they are. It is that the meaning of their faith is who God is and who they are and what their relationship to God is. They are to pass this on from generation to generation. How they live according to those things will determine their future. How they teach them, will determine their future’s future.
The most important thing is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And they are to learn the people’s story. “Who are we?” they might ask. “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.” And what are they to do? “Love God.”
They are to recite the words, to learn them over and over. That is their truth, their story, their inheritance. These great truths are a gift. An inheritance is a gift, to our children and children’s children, and to their children. It is what makes life possible. If there is anything worth passing down it is these. When your children ask.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Here is the Lenten devotional message from a couple weeks ago.
Deuteronomy 4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. … 5 See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children-- 10 how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so"; 11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure-- the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now. 21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving for your possession. 22 For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land. 23 So be careful not to forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
The instructions to the Israelites about how they are to live once they enter the Promised Land continue. You might say God gives them advice. Advice, the accumulated wisdom from others, comes in many forms. Al McGuire, the great Marquette University Basketball coach, left behind some pieces of it:
Dream big. Don’t be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.
Congratulate the temporary.
We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.
Anyone who offers to double your money, walk away. If he offers to make you 20 percent, hear him out.
There are probably stories behind some of these statements, especially the last one. These, and other statements, give us wisdom to live in the world. Wise behavior shows wise thinking. Another approach is to establish a set of laws to insure good behavior. And lastly, there is learning from the example of the past. We can learn much from what we and others have done before and how it worked out.
All three of these are in the reading from Deuteronomy. The name of the book is one of the strangest in the Bible. It comes from a word in the Greek translation meaning “second law”, but in fact that is not correct. It is not a second law; it is a retelling of the giving of law in Exodus. The Hebrew name of the book is debarim, meaning ‘words’, because these are the words of Moses and God. When the people of God follow these laws and principles, then they can live in the new land as a community. It is also a summary of their experience.
“Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” God took the Israelites out of Egypt. That is the beginning of the community and the plan for its life together as much as any words given. “Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” They saw how God led them in the wilderness. But there is something else they should see. Before they entered the land they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They made mistakes. We like to bury or forget our mistakes, but when we do that we can’t learn from them. We do not like how past mistakes make us feel. We do not want anyone to ask us the hard questions that follow after our faults or errors become obvious. Sometimes we only remember part of the past. We might remember, say, how we were wronged, but not what we ourselves did in the situation. Or we would rather try to believe in a false version of the past in which we were always right and we could be right again if we just got back there somehow. We try to forget that real past and then are surprised when the future is only a repetition of the past. Without a past, without the desire to live in better ways than we lived in the past, we end up back where we were. That is a kind of wandering. It definitely isn’t living in the land God gives us.
The Israelites had turned to an idol when Moses was up the mountain talking to God. They did not know when or if he would come down the mountain with the commandments, but they created a golden calf and worshiped it. The word came down from the mountain not to worship idols as they were doing it. There is proof that we need things in words. People do stupid things without guidance. And so later, when they are about to enter the land God tells them again about that time. It is not to embarrass them, but so that they will remember it, learn from it, and live rightly. They are to remember the golden calf so that they do not create any more idols of any sort. God wants to give them a new and better experience than some of the past.
What they are getting by going into the Promised Land is a new beginning, another chance, the gift of a new day. And the question is how they will use it. Gifts can be used or can be squandered and lost. Sometimes we stop valuing what we are given when we forget what life was like before we were given it. But they are not alone in this, they have the words which can guide them. Do not forget. Do not forget.
Deuteronomy 4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. … 5 See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children-- 10 how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so"; 11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure-- the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now. 21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving for your possession. 22 For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land. 23 So be careful not to forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
The instructions to the Israelites about how they are to live once they enter the Promised Land continue. You might say God gives them advice. Advice, the accumulated wisdom from others, comes in many forms. Al McGuire, the great Marquette University Basketball coach, left behind some pieces of it:
Dream big. Don’t be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.
Congratulate the temporary.
We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.
Anyone who offers to double your money, walk away. If he offers to make you 20 percent, hear him out.
There are probably stories behind some of these statements, especially the last one. These, and other statements, give us wisdom to live in the world. Wise behavior shows wise thinking. Another approach is to establish a set of laws to insure good behavior. And lastly, there is learning from the example of the past. We can learn much from what we and others have done before and how it worked out.
All three of these are in the reading from Deuteronomy. The name of the book is one of the strangest in the Bible. It comes from a word in the Greek translation meaning “second law”, but in fact that is not correct. It is not a second law; it is a retelling of the giving of law in Exodus. The Hebrew name of the book is debarim, meaning ‘words’, because these are the words of Moses and God. When the people of God follow these laws and principles, then they can live in the new land as a community. It is also a summary of their experience.
“Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” God took the Israelites out of Egypt. That is the beginning of the community and the plan for its life together as much as any words given. “Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” They saw how God led them in the wilderness. But there is something else they should see. Before they entered the land they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They made mistakes. We like to bury or forget our mistakes, but when we do that we can’t learn from them. We do not like how past mistakes make us feel. We do not want anyone to ask us the hard questions that follow after our faults or errors become obvious. Sometimes we only remember part of the past. We might remember, say, how we were wronged, but not what we ourselves did in the situation. Or we would rather try to believe in a false version of the past in which we were always right and we could be right again if we just got back there somehow. We try to forget that real past and then are surprised when the future is only a repetition of the past. Without a past, without the desire to live in better ways than we lived in the past, we end up back where we were. That is a kind of wandering. It definitely isn’t living in the land God gives us.
The Israelites had turned to an idol when Moses was up the mountain talking to God. They did not know when or if he would come down the mountain with the commandments, but they created a golden calf and worshiped it. The word came down from the mountain not to worship idols as they were doing it. There is proof that we need things in words. People do stupid things without guidance. And so later, when they are about to enter the land God tells them again about that time. It is not to embarrass them, but so that they will remember it, learn from it, and live rightly. They are to remember the golden calf so that they do not create any more idols of any sort. God wants to give them a new and better experience than some of the past.
What they are getting by going into the Promised Land is a new beginning, another chance, the gift of a new day. And the question is how they will use it. Gifts can be used or can be squandered and lost. Sometimes we stop valuing what we are given when we forget what life was like before we were given it. But they are not alone in this, they have the words which can guide them. Do not forget. Do not forget.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
A couple weeks ago I got back from reading ordination exams. Persons who want to be ordained ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) must pass (among other requirements) five exams. One of them is in Biblical Exegesis. That is a test of whether the candidates for ordination can understand the original meaning of an assigned biblical passage and then use its message in a contemporary setting. The candidates can chose an Old Testament passage or a New Testament one. Twice a year the exams are given. So readers are elected (ministers and elders) and gather to read (grade) the exams. I was part of the Chicago Reading Group, part of which you see at work in the photo.
The Old Testament passage this spring was from Deuteronomy, talking about God's instructions to the Israelite people as they enter the Promised Land. That struck me as a good metaphor for Lent, in which we prepare to enter the fullness of God's promise, the resurrection. So here is the first message from our Lenten worship series in Trinity Presbyterian Parish:
Text 1: Deut 3.18-22
Ash Wednesday
NRSV Deuteronomy 3:18 At that time, I charged you as follows: "Although the LORD your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin. 19 Only your wives, your children, and your livestock-- I know that you have much livestock-- shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. 20 When the LORD gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they too have occupied the land that the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you." 21 And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: "Your own eyes have seen everything that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so the LORD will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 Do not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you."
“IF YOU LIVED HERE”
You might have seen the billboards in the Cities, along the highway, that say: “If you lived here you would be home already.” It is an advertisement for rental properties that says “If you lived in these here apartments, you would not have your long commute. You would save time and money and gas and headache and have cut your daily trip to work short.” It is tempting, very tempting, to make things easier for ourselves.
The passage this evening is from Deuteronomy. It is the account of Moses addressing the people of Israel, just before they were to enter the Promised Land. It is filled with directions, memories of their past, warnings, and reaffirmations of God’s promises. This passage sounds like complicated and outdated instructions. But it is neither. It is a message to us of what God did in the past which shows us again who God is in the present.
God had promised Israel the land and remembered that promise through the generations and it could have gone into that land except that they lacked faith. So they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all those in the unfaithful generation had passed away. Forty years wandering in the wilderness, without coming to the place that was promised, their home. Now the time had come. We can hardly think of waiting a day for what we want let alone forty years. Now is the time to enter the land.
And here is the way they should enter. All the troops who are going to take the land from the earlier inhabitants are to enter together. Now the land had been parceled out by God to the tribes. And so one could see that together the tribes will cross the Jordan and come into the land assigned to the tribe of Reuben and subdue it. The women and children of that tribe can stay there, but the men of the tribe of Reuben must continue on. Even though those in that tribe have come to the land that will be their home, they cannot stay there now. They are to go on with the men of the other tribes and together they will make sure everyone’s home will be secure. And so it is for the tribes of Gad, the half-tribe of Manasseh, the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, Naphtali, Benjamin, Dan, Judah, and Simeon. Only when all are secure can they go live in the territory God has given them. They will work together and they will rest together. No one has life any easier than the others. According to this plan they will have God promise. They can only receive and live in the promises of God together.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. It is a traditional time for acts of self-denial. You might have heard of people giving up various things—chocolate, or a pillow, for example, are some from my childhood. It is not that we want to make life harder for ourselves. It is a reminder that it takes some kind of dedication to be a disciple of Christ. And we renew that dedication in this season. Jesus did not take the easy way through life and gives us that example of suffering for a purpose. So that we disciples, are like our master.
Often the purpose is self-improvement. This is not a bad reason. We all have parts of our lives that need attention. It would not be a bad thing to curb some of our desires that might have gotten out of hand. But there is another possibility. It comes from that idea that we are in this together. And maybe a more meaningful Lenten experience or goal would be giving up something that hurts not just us, but also others. The Wisconsin Council of Churches suggested “going green” for Lent. It is not just saving gas to save money, but because we are using up our resources too rapidly and wastefully. Or maybe we give up anger to make our communities a better place. Or maybe we eat less, not to lose weight, but to have more to share with others. Because we are all in this together. This is God’s vision of life, not just for Israel, but for all. We do not take the easiest route, so we all have a home.
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