First Sunday of Lent
February 17, 2013
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 (CEB)
(1) Once you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and are settled there,
(2) take some of the early produce of the fertile ground that you have harvested from the land the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket. Then go to the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside.
(3) Go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him: “I am declaring right now before the Lord my God that I have indeed arrived in the land swore to our ancestors to give us.”
(4) The priest will then take the basket from you and place it before the Lord your God’s altar.
(5) Then you should solemnly state before the Lord your God: “My father was a starving Aramean. He went down to Egypt, living as an immigrant there with few family members, but that is where he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
(6) The Egyptians treated us terribly; oppressing us and forcing hard labor on us.
(7) So we cried out for help to the Lord, our ancestor’s God. The Lord heard our call. God saw our misery, our trouble, and our oppression.
(8) The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with awesome power, and with signs and wonders.
(9) He brought us to this place and gave us this land - a land full of milk and honey.
(10) So now I am bringing the early produce of the fertile ground that you, Lord, have given me.” Set the produce before the Lord your God, bowing down before the Lord your God.
(11) Then celebrate all the good things the Lord your God has done for you and your family - each one of you along with the Levites and the immigrants who are among you.
Romans 10:8b-13 (CEB)
(8b) The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
(9) Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
(10) Trusting with the heart leads to righteousness, and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation.
(11) The scripture says, All who have faith in him won’t be put to shame.
(12) There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all, who gives richly to all who call on him.
(13) All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved.
Luke 4:1-13 (CEB)
(1) Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
(2) There he was tempted for forty days by the devil. He ate nothing during those forty days and afterward Jesus was starving.
(3) The devil said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
(4) Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread.”
(5) Next the devil led him to a high place and showed him in a single instant all the kingdoms of the world.
(6) The devil said, “I will give you this whole domain and the glory of all these kingdoms. It’s been entrusted to me and I can give it to anyone I want.
(7) Therefore, if you will worship me, it will all be yours.
(8) Jesus answered, “It’s written, You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”
(9) The devil brought him into Jerusalem and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down from here;
(10) for it’s written: He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you
(11) and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.”
(12) Jesus answered, “It’s been said, Don’t test the Lord your God.”
(13) After finishing every temptation, the devil departed from him until the next opportunity.
So, today is the first Sunday of lent. I have to admit, it doesn’t seem quite normal to me as this is the first year in quite some time that I was unable to attend an Ash Wednesday service. Yet, here we find ourselves gathered as we collectively take that first step into that yearly reminder of how our sin, the sin that we are unable to overcome, was finally overcome for us by our messiah, Christ Jesus.
Traditionally, lent is a time when we do some major soul searching. Many traditionally sacrifice a part of their routine in order to remember the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for us. Sometimes we go without chocolate, coffee, soda or some other favorite snack.
The sacrifices are one of the focal point of the lenten season, as they help us to remember the ultimate sacrifice Christ makes on Good Friday. Yet, today, on this first Sunday in Lent, we focus not on the sacrifices, per se, but rather on temptation. Not just any ordinary, run of the mill, temptation; but, rather, the temptation Jesus himself faces in the wilderness with no less than the devil, himself.
Now, it is important to set the scene. Jesus has just been baptized. It is at this point, after this baptism, that Jesus goes off into the wilderness. It is at this point that Jesus is confronted by the devil and is tempted in the three ways the scriptures tell us. Jesus is tempted first with food, with sustenance after his body was weakened by fasting for so long. Then comes the temptation of power, power over all people and things. Finally, comes the temptation of testing God. This may be the most interesting. It is also the one I think I want to focus on a bit. It is easy to see ourselves in the first two temptations. We all have our baser instincts that can have an immense amount of control over us. Think of hunger. How many people in the world are hungry or thirsty? How many times have we heard of parents who steal to feed their family. How many are tempted by physical needs in one way or another. This temptation might be the one that is easiest for us to relate to, as it involves those biological functions which are common to us all and we each know to some extent what it is to be hungry, thirsty, tired, sick, or hurt.
Next comes the temptation of power. We can all relate to this as well. It is symbolic, at least in my mind, to our psychological needs. It is our need to be with people, our need to be successful, our need to be wealthy. It is our need to be worthy to our friends and family. It is our need to know that we can affect people’s lives.
Finally, the temptation of testing God. This one can be either easily related to, or very difficult to relate to, depending on how we think of it. If we think of this temptation as testing God’s word, it can be easy to relate to. We know that God has said that he loves us, so when we act in a way that puts that promise to a test, we are testing God to keep that promise. Yet, if we think of this temptation in another way, it becomes difficult to get our minds around. When the devil tempts Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, he is in essence, testing Jesus belief and understanding that he was the Son of God. While we are all children of God, what the devil was asking was a bit different. It is easy in retrospect to say that Jesus was the Son of God. That is something that we, as Christians, hold as fundamental to our faith. Yet, this is also one of those times when it becomes helpful to remember the very human side of Christ. Jesus Christ was a human being, in every way that we are human. Which we can take to mean that he dealt with things like doubt. It is this doubt that could make it very difficult to entertain the idea that he was the Son of God. Jesus is just about to begin his public ministry. Shortly, he will be going out into the world and sharing the good news of the gospel. He will bring this news as the Son of God, he needs to be sure he is. He needs to believe with every fiber of his being that he has understood his call correctly. Anything less would be insufficient and would weaken his message. When the devil asks him to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, he is playing to that belief. He is putting the entire ministry of Christ, that which is about to begin, on the table. He is saying, if you are so sure, then jump. Jesus had to be sure he was who he said he was, but the devil is saying, if you honestly believe that, then prove it. In essence, the devil is playing mind games.
These temptations both remind us that at the very outset of his ministry, Jesus knew the road would be rough. They also remind us that, very much like us, Jesus dealt with all of this as a human. He existed in a world that was full of temptation and he had to struggle with that temptation in many of the same ways that we continue to struggle with temptation. It is worth noting that even in Luke’s account this morning that in verse 6 that, “And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their (kingdoms) glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.” The devil was given the authority of the world. This is not to suggest that God has no authority in the world, but rather that temptation is the way that the devil works in the world. It is in that temptation, that we are each put into situations wherein we are called to make a choice that either brings us closer to God or further away from the source of all-encompassing love.
Temptation is that thing that we, as humans, have dealt with since the very beginning. In so many of the early writing of Christianity we see how our forefathers in the faith dealt with temptation. It is one of those stories I want to bring up this morning.
The year is around 386. The man who would come to be known as Saint Augustine is around 32 years old. The past few years of his life has been a constant inner struggle. He sees himself as a philosopher and has struggled with coming to terms with the faith he has learned from his mother, Monica. Over the past few years, he has joined a group that was seen as heretical by the church. He spent time talking with friends about astrology and other pagan-associated ideologies. He wants to come to faith yet struggles with the idea of how evil exists and where it comes from. If you read the Confessions of St. Augustine, you get a front row seat into this internal struggle. Yet, he finally comes to a faith that is so strong it led many others to a life in the service of Christ as well. I want to just mention how Augustine comes to understand evil, because it ties into the temptation we all deal with daily.
Augustine couldn’t understand how evil could exist in a world that was created by God. He understood God to be totally good and that everything that exists was created by God. So the problem was how evil could exist if God didn’t create that evil. It made no sense. But then, he has a realization. He comes to define evil in a very particular way. For Augustine, evil becomes something that has no substance but it does have a formal existence. In other words, it does exist, but is is not a thing. It is a state of mind, or a frame of thought. What causes this evil to come into being is the disorder of priorities. The priorities that we have in how we choose to love. Augustine understands man to have two wills. One will is of God and one will is of Man. These two wills are in constant struggle for control over behavior. Augustine explains it in this way.
“The enemy had control of my will, and from that had made a chain to bind me fast. From a perverted act of will, desire had grown, and when desire is given satisfaction, habit is forged; and when habit passes unresisted, a compulsive urge sets in: by these close-knit links I was held”...”To set out and arrive at my goal was only a matter of having a will to go: but it meant a wholehearted and undivided act of will, not this stumbling to and fro with a maimed will, wrestling with it as one part rose while the other slipped to the ground.”
Augustine has what we would call a conversion moment in a garden and all of these ideas are swimming around in his head. He had understood his actions to be his will, but when he began to look upon the problem as this struggle between two wills, things start to make more sense. In this struggle, he could see that part of the issue he was having was with control and that depending on God meant losing that control or at least accepting that he didn’t have all the control. He eventually comes to emphasize the experience of the force of habit because he now thought that the experience proved conclusively that change could only happen through processes entirely outside of his control. He writes, “That was all, just not to wish what I wanted, and to want what You (God) wished. but where was my free-will in the gruelling time: from what deep recess was it called-up, at that turning point, in which I bent my neck to Your light yoke.
Augustine sees this struggle of wills to be the heart of his faith because it is in this struggle that the free-willl which God gives man plays out its role. It is in this struggle that the temptation attacks. When we choose the wrong thing, we are in essence, putting our priorities in an order that is different than what God would want. Therefore, the temptation wins and we take a step further away from God. The story of the temptation of Jesus reminds us of this struggle between these two wills that struggle within each of us.
It is here that our faith brings us today. And it is here that we yearn to hear God and to draw closer to him, firm in our belief in his promise that Easter is coming. Frederich Beuchner wrote an arcticle called Whistling in the Dark. I would like to close this morning with a passage from that article.
Buechner writes: In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days. After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves. Se we ask, If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why? When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore? If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be? Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember? Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for? If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?
To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
First Sunday after Christmas
First Sunday of Christmastide
December 30, 2012
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 (NIV)
(18) But Samuel was ministering before the Lord - a boy wearing a linen ephod.
(19) Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
(20) Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home.
(26) And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.
Colossians 3:12-17 (NIV)
(12) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
(13) Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
(14) And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
(15) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
(16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
(17) And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Luke 2:41-52 (NIV)
(41) Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
(42) When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.
(43) After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.
(44) Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.
(45) When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
(46) After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
(47) Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
(48) When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
(49) “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
(50) But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
(51) Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
(52) And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
“For those four weeks, I would go out into my community and witness to those that have not yet accepted Jesus into their lives,” one person said.
“A very wise thing to do,” said the group leader. And all the group members agreed that would be a very good thing to do.
“For those four weeks, I would dedicate all of my remaining time to being of more service to others, “ said another woman.
“That’s wonderful!” the group leader commented, and all the group members agreed.
One gentleman in the back finally spoke up loudly. “For those four weeks, I would travel throughout the United States with my mother-in-law in an economy car, and stay in a cheap motel every night.”
Everyone was puzzled by his answer. “Why would you do that?” the group leader asked curiously.
“Because,” the man smiled sarcastically, “it would be the longest four weeks of my life.”
Here is an example, putting myself and my parents into the story. My parents have realized that I have wandered off. The idea that they left me behind is not even brought up, I was the one who had to have wandered off. They turn around and walk back to Jerusalem, finding me at the temple. The first reaction of my mother, may very well have been close to what Mary said. But that is where the similarities end. At this point, my father would get involved. I think it is curious that Joseph is silent throughout this story. My father would come over, grab me by the ear, with no intention of being gentle. God’s son or not, this just isn’t acceptable behavior. My father would pull me over to the side and slap me right upside the head, again with no intention of being gentle. Then he would say something close to, “Are you out of your mind?” Although his words would be slightly different, just not repeatable in this particular location. Do you know what you put your mother and I through? What could have possibly led you to believe this was ok to do?
Then, let’s assume I respond in the same way Jesus did. “But you should have known I would be here.” “Why would you think any different?” This, in turn, would ensure another slap upside the head as he would say, “This, my boy, is not your mother’s and my fault! You better give up the attitude and answer my questions with a little more respect, or your are gonna have one heck of a headache by the time we get back home. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Dad. I am sorry.” I would have to say, as that is the only acceptable response. And he would reply, now get your butt moving, we are already gonna get home late and you will still get your chores done before you even think about going to bed, understand?”
Now, raise your hand if this story is more in line with what you would have experienced? Don’t lie!
Yet, the story in scripture is so totally different. Why is it, that the story is so unbelieveable? Why do Mary and Joseph react so differently to how most parents react? Is it due to a different time? I don’t think so, if anything parents have gotten less strict rather than more. I believe that a father in ancient Israel would at the least respond as my own father would, likely more strict. Is it because they were at fault? I doubt that too. Jesus knew the rules of the household. He knew that he should let his parents know where he is. So why do we get a story that in so many ways is unbelieveable?
The truth is that there may simply not be an answer to this question. Maybe part of being a Christian is believing in the unbelievable? We have just celebrated Christmas, which when you get down to the cold hard facts, is pretty unbelievable. Christmas is about believing that God himself came to earth as a flesh and blood human. God came to us as one of us. This is unbelievable too. Prior to Christianity, most religions had a God or Gods that were elsewhere. They may interact with humanity through the weather, through disasters or through blessings. They may have helped win battles, punish enemies, or hear prayers, but they were not human in any way, shape, or form. Even in Judaism, Christianities forbear, God was separate from the human experience. He was present in prayer, in battle, in blessing, but he was not human. Not only this, but according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah that was to come was not God incarnate. The Jews believed that the messiah that was foretold by the prophets, would be a soldier, a leader, someone who would help overthrow the shackles of Rome or any other foreign power that held the Jews captive. The messiah was not understood to be God in the flesh.
Yet, it turns out, that is exactly what the messiah was. Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation, the moment when God decided that he was to intervene in humanity by becoming fully human. The Word became flesh, as John reminds us. But what does it mean to become fully human? And what purpose would God have for intervening in humanity in this way?
These are questions I ask, knowing very well that I don’t have the answers to them. In fact, I don’t believe anyone has the answers to these questions; except God, of course. Yet, here we are, the last sunday of the calendar year, asking these questions and wondering what it all means. We are hoping that we can gain a better understanding. We are hoping that as we make the progression from one year to another, that God is still present, that God is still guiding us, protecting us, and most importantly loving us, because if this last year taught us nothing else, it taught us that we simply can’t do it alone.
The other night, Eimy and I went to the movies to see Les Miserables. Now, it has long been one of my favorite stories. I learned the music when I was in high school, I saw the play twice on broadway, I have seen a number of the film adaptations, and when I lived abroad the first time, I took with me, and read, the entire novel, which, if you have never seen it, is quite bulky. My copy had over a thousand pages, but it was a book that I couldn’t but down.
So, Eimy and I went to see the movie and I have to admit it is one of the best movie adaptations I have seen in a long time. I am going to assume that you all have some idea of what the story is about, and it is far too complicated to get into it here. However, if you have never read it or seen it, I encourage you to do so.
As I watched this movie, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. The story, like many others, involves a number of different characters, and each one is essential to the story. Yet, most stories present us with characters that are either good or evil, either positive or negative, either saint or sinner. Yet, Hugo’s characters don’t fall under any of these categories. They are each very human and they each suffer from different character flaws and tendencies. No one in the story is truly good and no one is truly bad. Even the character who most people associate as the “evil” character, Inspector Javert, is not evil at his core. As you get to know him, you understand that his understanding of the world is based on laws. For him, good means following the laws and bad means breaking them. In his mindset, he is Good, regardless of how he portrayed.
The main character also, is no saint. He has done a lot of good in his life, but he has erred in the past. It goes on like this. No character is without some flaws, some imperfections. They are, for lack of a better term, truly human in every way. Because we all are this way too. Each and every one of us is not truly good or truly bad. If we look at ourselves, we see our flaws. When we look at others, we see their flaws as well. Regardless of how we try to define our world and its inhabitants, at the end of the day, we are all just human and our understanding of the world comes from that collective identity as member of humanity.
So, if God were to intercede in our lives, doesn’t it make sense that he would have to do it as a human, because doing it in any other way would make it impossible for us to grasp the message he gives us.
As the characters in the movie change over time and circumstance, they too slowly begin to see their common humanity. Without trying to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, the last scene is one in which the lead character finally sees the connections that have woven together his reality throughout his life.
Much the same way, the incarnation is essentially, God’s attempt to help us see the connections that weave all of us together, a tapestry that begins and ends with God himself. Jesus being born a flesh and bone human being allows us to view the connections that unite us with each other and the connections that unite us with God.
This Christmas, we celebrate connection. We celebrate that God wants us to connect to each other and to him. We are invited to participate in the weaving together of all of our uniqueness with the glory and brightness that is God incarnate.
Towards the end of the movie, there is a song, and one of the lines says, “to love another person is to see the face of God.” We know that God is love, but this re-words that truth in a way that makes us stop to think. To love is to see. To love another is to see God. God has entered into our reality to show us just how world-changing love can be.
As you go today, as you prepare for the beginning of a new year, a new life, a new time, a new motivation, may you also prepare for a new love. May this year and may this day give you the opportunity to see God’s face in the love you have for your spouse, for your children, for your family and for your friends. And may others see God’s face in the love they have for you. That is the incarnation, seeing God in all his glory in the flesh and bone of those you encounter.
December 30, 2012
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 (NIV)
(18) But Samuel was ministering before the Lord - a boy wearing a linen ephod.
(19) Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
(20) Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home.
(26) And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.
Colossians 3:12-17 (NIV)
(12) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
(13) Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
(14) And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
(15) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
(16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
(17) And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Luke 2:41-52 (NIV)
(41) Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
(42) When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.
(43) After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.
(44) Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.
(45) When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
(46) After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
(47) Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
(48) When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
(49) “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
(50) But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
(51) Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
(52) And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
One of the great things about the holidays is spending time with family. As the holidays pass, we realize another wonderful tradition about the holidays, our families go home. So, in that respect, A bible group was discussing the unforeseen possibility of sudden death. “We will all die some day, the leader of the discussion said, “and none of us really knows when, but if we did, we would all do a better job of preparing ourselves for that day.” Everybody nodded their heads in agreement with this comment.
“What would you do if you knew you only had four weeks of life left before your great judgment day?” the leader asked the group.“For those four weeks, I would go out into my community and witness to those that have not yet accepted Jesus into their lives,” one person said.
“A very wise thing to do,” said the group leader. And all the group members agreed that would be a very good thing to do.
“For those four weeks, I would dedicate all of my remaining time to being of more service to others, “ said another woman.
“That’s wonderful!” the group leader commented, and all the group members agreed.
One gentleman in the back finally spoke up loudly. “For those four weeks, I would travel throughout the United States with my mother-in-law in an economy car, and stay in a cheap motel every night.”
Everyone was puzzled by his answer. “Why would you do that?” the group leader asked curiously.
“Because,” the man smiled sarcastically, “it would be the longest four weeks of my life.”
I have to admit, that as a kid growing up, this particular piece of scripture made total sense. By that, I mean, it fit into the view of the world I had. Think about it, what self-respecting teenager honestly thinks his parents know what is best? How many of you, at that age, sat in church and thought, why can’t my parents be at least half as cool as Joseph and Mary? Jesus pulls a stunt like this and the pie ends up in the face of Mary and Joseph.
However, looking at this scripture through the eyes of a parent gives me a whole new understanding. This is one of those pieces of scripture that, in all reality, is totally unbelievable. Am I wrong? Put yourself in the story, how different would it turn out?Here is an example, putting myself and my parents into the story. My parents have realized that I have wandered off. The idea that they left me behind is not even brought up, I was the one who had to have wandered off. They turn around and walk back to Jerusalem, finding me at the temple. The first reaction of my mother, may very well have been close to what Mary said. But that is where the similarities end. At this point, my father would get involved. I think it is curious that Joseph is silent throughout this story. My father would come over, grab me by the ear, with no intention of being gentle. God’s son or not, this just isn’t acceptable behavior. My father would pull me over to the side and slap me right upside the head, again with no intention of being gentle. Then he would say something close to, “Are you out of your mind?” Although his words would be slightly different, just not repeatable in this particular location. Do you know what you put your mother and I through? What could have possibly led you to believe this was ok to do?
Then, let’s assume I respond in the same way Jesus did. “But you should have known I would be here.” “Why would you think any different?” This, in turn, would ensure another slap upside the head as he would say, “This, my boy, is not your mother’s and my fault! You better give up the attitude and answer my questions with a little more respect, or your are gonna have one heck of a headache by the time we get back home. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Dad. I am sorry.” I would have to say, as that is the only acceptable response. And he would reply, now get your butt moving, we are already gonna get home late and you will still get your chores done before you even think about going to bed, understand?”
Now, raise your hand if this story is more in line with what you would have experienced? Don’t lie!
Yet, the story in scripture is so totally different. Why is it, that the story is so unbelieveable? Why do Mary and Joseph react so differently to how most parents react? Is it due to a different time? I don’t think so, if anything parents have gotten less strict rather than more. I believe that a father in ancient Israel would at the least respond as my own father would, likely more strict. Is it because they were at fault? I doubt that too. Jesus knew the rules of the household. He knew that he should let his parents know where he is. So why do we get a story that in so many ways is unbelieveable?
The truth is that there may simply not be an answer to this question. Maybe part of being a Christian is believing in the unbelievable? We have just celebrated Christmas, which when you get down to the cold hard facts, is pretty unbelievable. Christmas is about believing that God himself came to earth as a flesh and blood human. God came to us as one of us. This is unbelievable too. Prior to Christianity, most religions had a God or Gods that were elsewhere. They may interact with humanity through the weather, through disasters or through blessings. They may have helped win battles, punish enemies, or hear prayers, but they were not human in any way, shape, or form. Even in Judaism, Christianities forbear, God was separate from the human experience. He was present in prayer, in battle, in blessing, but he was not human. Not only this, but according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah that was to come was not God incarnate. The Jews believed that the messiah that was foretold by the prophets, would be a soldier, a leader, someone who would help overthrow the shackles of Rome or any other foreign power that held the Jews captive. The messiah was not understood to be God in the flesh.
Yet, it turns out, that is exactly what the messiah was. Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation, the moment when God decided that he was to intervene in humanity by becoming fully human. The Word became flesh, as John reminds us. But what does it mean to become fully human? And what purpose would God have for intervening in humanity in this way?
These are questions I ask, knowing very well that I don’t have the answers to them. In fact, I don’t believe anyone has the answers to these questions; except God, of course. Yet, here we are, the last sunday of the calendar year, asking these questions and wondering what it all means. We are hoping that we can gain a better understanding. We are hoping that as we make the progression from one year to another, that God is still present, that God is still guiding us, protecting us, and most importantly loving us, because if this last year taught us nothing else, it taught us that we simply can’t do it alone.
During this year we have tried to deal with changes, we have tried to be open and honest in our discussions with each other. We have tried to be helpful to those in need. We have tried to be of service to those we encounter. We have tried to be open-minded when our day to day realities get shattered or when the change comes slowly, tapping at our stained-glass windows, reminding us that what has been is no more and that whether or not we like it, the change has come and is ready to engulf us in its uncertainty, its strangeness, its darkness.
This week has been one of discomfort for me. I have been battling this cold or whatever it
is. I have been coughing, I have lost my voice on a number of occassions. I have felt feverish, yet with no fever. On top of that, my kids are with their grandmother, so the house is eerily quiet. So quiet, that I can actually hear myself think. I had forgotten what that was even like. Yet, it has served to give me a space. A space to help me sort out all that I have been experiencing this year. Sometimes it is important to just take a time and reflect, collect, and invigorate. This past week has served very well for this. This idea of incarnation was one thing I spent some time reflecting about this week. And it is here, in this idea of incarnation, that my thoughts found some structure.The other night, Eimy and I went to the movies to see Les Miserables. Now, it has long been one of my favorite stories. I learned the music when I was in high school, I saw the play twice on broadway, I have seen a number of the film adaptations, and when I lived abroad the first time, I took with me, and read, the entire novel, which, if you have never seen it, is quite bulky. My copy had over a thousand pages, but it was a book that I couldn’t but down.
So, Eimy and I went to see the movie and I have to admit it is one of the best movie adaptations I have seen in a long time. I am going to assume that you all have some idea of what the story is about, and it is far too complicated to get into it here. However, if you have never read it or seen it, I encourage you to do so.
As I watched this movie, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. The story, like many others, involves a number of different characters, and each one is essential to the story. Yet, most stories present us with characters that are either good or evil, either positive or negative, either saint or sinner. Yet, Hugo’s characters don’t fall under any of these categories. They are each very human and they each suffer from different character flaws and tendencies. No one in the story is truly good and no one is truly bad. Even the character who most people associate as the “evil” character, Inspector Javert, is not evil at his core. As you get to know him, you understand that his understanding of the world is based on laws. For him, good means following the laws and bad means breaking them. In his mindset, he is Good, regardless of how he portrayed.
The main character also, is no saint. He has done a lot of good in his life, but he has erred in the past. It goes on like this. No character is without some flaws, some imperfections. They are, for lack of a better term, truly human in every way. Because we all are this way too. Each and every one of us is not truly good or truly bad. If we look at ourselves, we see our flaws. When we look at others, we see their flaws as well. Regardless of how we try to define our world and its inhabitants, at the end of the day, we are all just human and our understanding of the world comes from that collective identity as member of humanity.
So, if God were to intercede in our lives, doesn’t it make sense that he would have to do it as a human, because doing it in any other way would make it impossible for us to grasp the message he gives us.
As the characters in the movie change over time and circumstance, they too slowly begin to see their common humanity. Without trying to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, the last scene is one in which the lead character finally sees the connections that have woven together his reality throughout his life.
Much the same way, the incarnation is essentially, God’s attempt to help us see the connections that weave all of us together, a tapestry that begins and ends with God himself. Jesus being born a flesh and bone human being allows us to view the connections that unite us with each other and the connections that unite us with God.
This Christmas, we celebrate connection. We celebrate that God wants us to connect to each other and to him. We are invited to participate in the weaving together of all of our uniqueness with the glory and brightness that is God incarnate.
Towards the end of the movie, there is a song, and one of the lines says, “to love another person is to see the face of God.” We know that God is love, but this re-words that truth in a way that makes us stop to think. To love is to see. To love another is to see God. God has entered into our reality to show us just how world-changing love can be.
As you go today, as you prepare for the beginning of a new year, a new life, a new time, a new motivation, may you also prepare for a new love. May this year and may this day give you the opportunity to see God’s face in the love you have for your spouse, for your children, for your family and for your friends. And may others see God’s face in the love they have for you. That is the incarnation, seeing God in all his glory in the flesh and bone of those you encounter.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sunday of the Epiphany
January 6, 2013
Sunday of the Epiphany
Isaiah 60:1-6 (NIV)
(1) Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
(2) See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
(3) Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
(4) Lift up your eyes and look about you; all assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.
(5) Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.
(6) Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
Ephesians 3:1-12 (NIV)
(1) For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles -
(2) Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
(3) that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.
(4) In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
(5) which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
(6) This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
(7) I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
(8) Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
(9) and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
(10) His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
(11) according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(12) In him and through faith in him may we approach God with freedom and confidence.
Matthew 2:1-12 (NIV)
(1) After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
(2) and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
(3) When king Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
(4) When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
(5) In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written:
(6) But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
(7) Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
(8) He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
(9) After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
(10) When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
(11) On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
(12) And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The character had lost a lot in his life. He lost his parents at a very young age. He lost his brother shortly thereafter. He lost his son to an illness no one could have predicted. He lost his wife because the loss of his son had hit him so hard and he lost his daughter in that process. He lost everything and everyone that had mattered to him. And, most importantly, he lost his ability to trust. And with this, he lost his ability to see the hurt he caused, and the destruction he left in his path.
The character, at least for me, was easy to connect with. Now, the actions that made up his life may be extreme, but yet, to some extent we all can understand his anger and frustration. We all hurt people we love. We all destroy things, whether by intention or not. The destruction that we cause is real, especially for those who try to pick up the pieces.
Yet, when we get to the point when we begin to realize what we have done, the struggle becomes even harder. Destruction is one thing. It is entirely another to come to terms with it and begin to rebuild what you have destroyed. Apology and forgiveness fall into a category that many of us find unbearable at best and impossible at worst. It is so much easier, we tell ourselves, to cut our losses, to live with the shame and the regret than to try to make amends for what we have done.
I realized that myself this week. One afternoon, Eimy and I were talking and I began to realize some things that I had done that had seriously hurt her. Yet, acknowledging the wrong I had done, but I had never really apologized for it. Until that afternoon, as I stood there and tried to find the words that I needed to say and she needed to hear. Eventually, I muddled through what I was trying to say. I hoped that I had fixed it. Yet, even when we apologize, forgiveness is not a given. Even when we get the forgiveness we seek, it doesn’t come as soon as we hope it would.
It is a difficult thing to admit our faults, seek forgiveness for them, and pray that the forgiveness, the true forgiveness we seek, will come. Many times it does, and I am thankful that for me it did, at least it did this week. But there are other people I have hurt in my life whose forgiveness I still wait for. I imagine that many of you can relate to this. We all struggle with these issues and we struggle with them throughout our lifetimes.
When you think about it, it does make sense, kind of. You see, it is all interconnected. Our lives, our loves, our sins, and our fears. The tapestry that is life can not be separated from the strands of fabric that compose it. And in each of these strands, we find our realities. We find our lives, our loves, our sins, and our fears. Trying to rid our everyday from these fabrics, weakens the fabric as a whole.
The book that I read talks about this. The greatest fear of all is, of course, death itself. In the story, the character is in a conversation with Jesus. In this conversation, Jesus is trying to help the character understand what death really is. Jesus explanation goes like this:
“It’s a conversation with many layers, much of it not for today. For now, understand that a significant reason why you fear death is because of your atrophied and miniscule perception of life. The immensity and grandeur of life continually absorb and eradicate death’s power and presence. You believe death is the end, an event causing a cessation of things that truly matter; and therefore it becomes the great wall, the inevitable inhibitor of joy, love, and relationship. You see death as the last word, the final separation. The truth is death has only been a shadow of those things. What you call death is indeed a separation of sorts, but not anything like you imagine it. You have focused yourself and defined your existence with reference to the fear of that singular last-breath event rather than recognizing death’s ubiquitous presence all around you - in your words, your touch, your choices, your sorrows, your unbelief, your lies, your judgment, your unforgiveness, your prejudices, your power-seeking, your betrayals, your hiding. The ‘event’ of death is only one small expression of that presence, but you have made that expression everything, not realizing that you swim in death’s ocean every single day.” (Young, p. 67)
And then, it get’s really interesting. Jesus continues, “You were not designed for death, but neither was death intended for this universe. Inherent in the event of death is a promise, a baptism in this ocean that rescues, not drowns. Human beings uncreated life and brought that un-life into your experience, so out of respect for you, we wove it from the beginning into the larger tapestry. You now experience this underlying tension between life and death every day until you are released through the event of death, but you were designed to deal with its encroachment in community, inside relationship, not in self-centered isolation like your little place here.” (Young, p. 67)
You see, our fear is only powerful if we confront it alone, and we may very well know that. However, the other fabrics that come together in our tapestry of life work the same way. Our sin is only powerful if we confront it alone. In the case of our lives and our love, the work the same way, but in the opposite direction. Our lives only have power if we live with others. Our loves only have power when that love is shared.
Everything about us is overflowing with the underlying necessity for community. But this is the sunday of the Epiphany. So, you may be wondering where exactly I am going with this. Well, what is an epiphany? Well, in the sense that we are celebrating today, Epiphany refers to commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the magi. Yet, the meaning of the word goes deeper than that. Epiphany refers to a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
An epiphany is an “aha” moment. It is important to note that the only thing that changes in an epiphany is our own understanding of it. The event, the realization is about something that has already been, but we are just realizing it.
The fabric of our lives, the one that is woven together in community, has always been woven together in the same way. The importance of the community in the formation of the tapestry has always been there, yet we don’t see it that way. We tend to think of community coming next. Man and woman were created and then the community was formed. Yet, I ask this morning, if maybe, just maybe, the community was there from the beginning and the existence of the community was necessary for the weaving together of the fabric of our lives.
If so, then we need to start living in that realization, in that recognition, in that epiphany. God created the world and everything in it. The recognition among the gentiles that Jesus has come for all mankind is an epiphany because God always intended creation to be for everyone. The love of God existed before history itself, and certainly before the physical birth of Jesus Christ. Our epiphany is that Christ is the fulfillment of the promise God made to all of creation. Our epiphany is that we not only all share in the gift but that we were all made from the fabric of that relationship. The relationship with God and the relationship with each other.
I want to mention here, that next week we will be celebrating a service that many of you may have never done and I am certain that I never have. This service will focus on the idea of covenant, and more specifically on the covenant we share with God and with one another. Part of the idea of covenant is that we are, by nature of being human and created by God, in covenant with God. Over this next week, I ask you to reflect on what it means to be in covenant with God and what it means to be in covenant with each other as a body of Christ, as a community of faith. Next week, when we join together for worship, bring those reflections with you so that as we pray together, we pray as a community, we pray in the hopes of weaving together a tapestry that will give new life to our church, to ourselves and to the mission of Christ on earth.
As we think and reflect this week, let us also realize how important we each are for the entire covenant. While we each make our own, each individual who enters makes the whole stronger. Coming to terms with this takes a lot of trust. It is not really in our nature to trust in that way, but for that we are here, for that we are created, for that we live in this time and in this place.
A covenant isn’t a magical promise that will ensure easy going. It will not guarantee that there are no more arguments among us nor will it guarantee that forgiveness will be easy. It is a promise we make to each other and to God. A promise that is made as we have each had our epiphanies. We promise to journey on, wherever God may lead us. It is about looking back, recognizing hurt, but also recognizing the healing that comes. It comes from the only place it truly can, from Christ.
Towards the end of the book I read there is a poem. I want to close this morning with that poem, and as a starting off point in our reflections throughout this week.
We have each been someone’s voice, and we have each failed to be someone’s voice. Our covenant brings us together to be the Voice to answer those who seek. Let this epiphany be our epiphany, the epiphany where we realize the truth God has set before us, the truth that until today, we could not see. And let this epiphany be the epiphany where our broken bits of soul are joined together to make real what we now can see together. Amen.
Young, Wm. Paul. Cross Roads. 1st ed. New York: Faith Words, 2012. Print.
Sunday of the Epiphany
Isaiah 60:1-6 (NIV)
(1) Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
(2) See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
(3) Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
(4) Lift up your eyes and look about you; all assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.
(5) Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.
(6) Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
Ephesians 3:1-12 (NIV)
(1) For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles -
(2) Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
(3) that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.
(4) In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
(5) which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
(6) This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
(7) I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
(8) Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
(9) and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
(10) His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
(11) according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(12) In him and through faith in him may we approach God with freedom and confidence.
Matthew 2:1-12 (NIV)
(1) After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
(2) and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
(3) When king Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
(4) When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
(5) In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written:
(6) But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
(7) Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
(8) He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
(9) After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
(10) When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
(11) On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
(12) And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Now, Now the best comes. Did you ever read a book, or watch a movie and you get emotionally involved in the story. Then, at the very end, you hear that line. What now? someone will ask. Now the best comes.
You have been emotionally invested in the story, living the experience along with the characters, and finally at the end, that line comes along and you know it is the end of the story, but there is more and it is even better than what you just experienced.
It is a nice thought, it is a good way to end a story, but it can also be extremely aggravating.
That happened to me this week. I was still struggling with this cold that keeps toying with me, like I’m one of those block puzzles that kids sometimes get for christmas. With a little bit of time and forethought, the puzzle almost gets completed. Maybe its one of those 3d eiffel towers or empire state buildings. You finally get to the last piece and then the dog gets loose and knocks it all down. That kind of cold. just feeling better and along it comes again and knocks you down again. So, I was working a lot at home, planning out services over the next couple of months and doing a little pleasure reading. I picked up a book called Cross Roads by Wm. Paul Young that I had heard good things about and got into it and couldn’t put it down.
The story, like many others, dealt with a young man who was rich and powerful, but in his quest to be rich and powerful had burnt a lot of bridges and had ostracized himself from friends and family to the point that he was alone. He was alone and paranoid and unwilling to trust or love because in this quest, he had realized that those who got close to him, were there not out of an honest sense of friendship but rather because they hoped to gain, or at least he feared that they hoped to gain advantage by being near him.The character had lost a lot in his life. He lost his parents at a very young age. He lost his brother shortly thereafter. He lost his son to an illness no one could have predicted. He lost his wife because the loss of his son had hit him so hard and he lost his daughter in that process. He lost everything and everyone that had mattered to him. And, most importantly, he lost his ability to trust. And with this, he lost his ability to see the hurt he caused, and the destruction he left in his path.
The character, at least for me, was easy to connect with. Now, the actions that made up his life may be extreme, but yet, to some extent we all can understand his anger and frustration. We all hurt people we love. We all destroy things, whether by intention or not. The destruction that we cause is real, especially for those who try to pick up the pieces.
Yet, when we get to the point when we begin to realize what we have done, the struggle becomes even harder. Destruction is one thing. It is entirely another to come to terms with it and begin to rebuild what you have destroyed. Apology and forgiveness fall into a category that many of us find unbearable at best and impossible at worst. It is so much easier, we tell ourselves, to cut our losses, to live with the shame and the regret than to try to make amends for what we have done.
I realized that myself this week. One afternoon, Eimy and I were talking and I began to realize some things that I had done that had seriously hurt her. Yet, acknowledging the wrong I had done, but I had never really apologized for it. Until that afternoon, as I stood there and tried to find the words that I needed to say and she needed to hear. Eventually, I muddled through what I was trying to say. I hoped that I had fixed it. Yet, even when we apologize, forgiveness is not a given. Even when we get the forgiveness we seek, it doesn’t come as soon as we hope it would.
It is a difficult thing to admit our faults, seek forgiveness for them, and pray that the forgiveness, the true forgiveness we seek, will come. Many times it does, and I am thankful that for me it did, at least it did this week. But there are other people I have hurt in my life whose forgiveness I still wait for. I imagine that many of you can relate to this. We all struggle with these issues and we struggle with them throughout our lifetimes.
When you think about it, it does make sense, kind of. You see, it is all interconnected. Our lives, our loves, our sins, and our fears. The tapestry that is life can not be separated from the strands of fabric that compose it. And in each of these strands, we find our realities. We find our lives, our loves, our sins, and our fears. Trying to rid our everyday from these fabrics, weakens the fabric as a whole.
The book that I read talks about this. The greatest fear of all is, of course, death itself. In the story, the character is in a conversation with Jesus. In this conversation, Jesus is trying to help the character understand what death really is. Jesus explanation goes like this:
“It’s a conversation with many layers, much of it not for today. For now, understand that a significant reason why you fear death is because of your atrophied and miniscule perception of life. The immensity and grandeur of life continually absorb and eradicate death’s power and presence. You believe death is the end, an event causing a cessation of things that truly matter; and therefore it becomes the great wall, the inevitable inhibitor of joy, love, and relationship. You see death as the last word, the final separation. The truth is death has only been a shadow of those things. What you call death is indeed a separation of sorts, but not anything like you imagine it. You have focused yourself and defined your existence with reference to the fear of that singular last-breath event rather than recognizing death’s ubiquitous presence all around you - in your words, your touch, your choices, your sorrows, your unbelief, your lies, your judgment, your unforgiveness, your prejudices, your power-seeking, your betrayals, your hiding. The ‘event’ of death is only one small expression of that presence, but you have made that expression everything, not realizing that you swim in death’s ocean every single day.” (Young, p. 67)
And then, it get’s really interesting. Jesus continues, “You were not designed for death, but neither was death intended for this universe. Inherent in the event of death is a promise, a baptism in this ocean that rescues, not drowns. Human beings uncreated life and brought that un-life into your experience, so out of respect for you, we wove it from the beginning into the larger tapestry. You now experience this underlying tension between life and death every day until you are released through the event of death, but you were designed to deal with its encroachment in community, inside relationship, not in self-centered isolation like your little place here.” (Young, p. 67)
You see, our fear is only powerful if we confront it alone, and we may very well know that. However, the other fabrics that come together in our tapestry of life work the same way. Our sin is only powerful if we confront it alone. In the case of our lives and our love, the work the same way, but in the opposite direction. Our lives only have power if we live with others. Our loves only have power when that love is shared.
Everything about us is overflowing with the underlying necessity for community. But this is the sunday of the Epiphany. So, you may be wondering where exactly I am going with this. Well, what is an epiphany? Well, in the sense that we are celebrating today, Epiphany refers to commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the magi. Yet, the meaning of the word goes deeper than that. Epiphany refers to a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
An epiphany is an “aha” moment. It is important to note that the only thing that changes in an epiphany is our own understanding of it. The event, the realization is about something that has already been, but we are just realizing it.
The fabric of our lives, the one that is woven together in community, has always been woven together in the same way. The importance of the community in the formation of the tapestry has always been there, yet we don’t see it that way. We tend to think of community coming next. Man and woman were created and then the community was formed. Yet, I ask this morning, if maybe, just maybe, the community was there from the beginning and the existence of the community was necessary for the weaving together of the fabric of our lives.
If so, then we need to start living in that realization, in that recognition, in that epiphany. God created the world and everything in it. The recognition among the gentiles that Jesus has come for all mankind is an epiphany because God always intended creation to be for everyone. The love of God existed before history itself, and certainly before the physical birth of Jesus Christ. Our epiphany is that Christ is the fulfillment of the promise God made to all of creation. Our epiphany is that we not only all share in the gift but that we were all made from the fabric of that relationship. The relationship with God and the relationship with each other.
I want to mention here, that next week we will be celebrating a service that many of you may have never done and I am certain that I never have. This service will focus on the idea of covenant, and more specifically on the covenant we share with God and with one another. Part of the idea of covenant is that we are, by nature of being human and created by God, in covenant with God. Over this next week, I ask you to reflect on what it means to be in covenant with God and what it means to be in covenant with each other as a body of Christ, as a community of faith. Next week, when we join together for worship, bring those reflections with you so that as we pray together, we pray as a community, we pray in the hopes of weaving together a tapestry that will give new life to our church, to ourselves and to the mission of Christ on earth.
As we think and reflect this week, let us also realize how important we each are for the entire covenant. While we each make our own, each individual who enters makes the whole stronger. Coming to terms with this takes a lot of trust. It is not really in our nature to trust in that way, but for that we are here, for that we are created, for that we live in this time and in this place.
A covenant isn’t a magical promise that will ensure easy going. It will not guarantee that there are no more arguments among us nor will it guarantee that forgiveness will be easy. It is a promise we make to each other and to God. A promise that is made as we have each had our epiphanies. We promise to journey on, wherever God may lead us. It is about looking back, recognizing hurt, but also recognizing the healing that comes. It comes from the only place it truly can, from Christ.
Towards the end of the book I read there is a poem. I want to close this morning with that poem, and as a starting off point in our reflections throughout this week.
I met you at the crossing
Where one road finds another
I did not even ask your name
I would not even bother
I looked at only what I saw
And did not see you fall
And even though I said I loved
I hardly loved at all.
I didn’t mean to leave you there
It wasn’t my intent
I simply looked the other way
And said nothing I meant.
I didn’t choose to cross this road
Although it’s what I wanted
Instead pretended you weren’t there
Believed you never counted
Oh, see I have this golden chain
Tied round my throat and heart
A bond more real to me than you
Is keeping us apart
I need a Voice to answer me
I need Someone who’s true
I need new eyes that let me see
That in my me is You
O, Someone please now guide me cross
This road betwixt between
And join my broken bits of soul
To real that is unseen. (Young, p.268-269)
We have each been someone’s voice, and we have each failed to be someone’s voice. Our covenant brings us together to be the Voice to answer those who seek. Let this epiphany be our epiphany, the epiphany where we realize the truth God has set before us, the truth that until today, we could not see. And let this epiphany be the epiphany where our broken bits of soul are joined together to make real what we now can see together. Amen.
Young, Wm. Paul. Cross Roads. 1st ed. New York: Faith Words, 2012. Print.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Beyond the Walls: The Wall of Judgment
This sermon was delivered on October 9, 2011 and is the next installment in the series "Beyond the Walls." We are looking at the walls that we build around ourselves and around our churches that inhibit our ability to to fulfill our mission and the Great Commission.
The Wall of Judgment
October 9, 2011
Romans 14:13-23 (NAB)
(13) Then let us no longer judge one another, but rather resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
(14) I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; still, it is unclean for someone who thinks it is unclean.
(15) If your brother is being hurt by what you eat, your conduct is no longer in accord with love. Do not because of your food destroy him for whom Christ died.
(16) So do not let your good be reviled.
(17) For the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;
(18) whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by others.
(19) Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another.
(20) For the sake of food, do not destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to become a stumbling block by eating;
(21) it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
(22) Keep the faith [that] you have to yourself in the presence of God; blessed is the one who does not condemn himself for what he approves.
(23) But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because this is not from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Mark 1:40-45 (NIV)
(40) A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
(41) Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
(42) Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
(43) Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:
(44) “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
(45) Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
The Wall of Judgment
I have to admit, I am lucky. I am lucky because as I start my career in ministry, I have had the opportunity to work alongside ministers like Pastor Judy and Pastor Skip who have a lot of experience that they have been able to share with me in many ways. One of those ways is evident today.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the walls we build around ourselves and our churches. This morning we look at the wall of Judgment. Now, there are lots of verses of scripture that talk about judgment, it is a recurring theme in many parts of the bible. So when Pastor Skip told me that Judgment is this week’s topic, I got excited because, unlike some other weeks, there is ample time taken throughout scripture on this topic. But then, he gave me the scripture we are going to be using, the short story of the leper from the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. I read over it a couple of times and while I could see a number of themes present, judgment was not one of them. This brings me back to being lucky. If it hadn’t been for the experience Pastor Skip has shared with me, I might never have seen the connection between our topic this week and the scripture I just read.
Judgment, you see, is an interesting topic for a number of reasons. So let’s start off by defining what judgment can mean. There are various definitions of this word. Here are just a few.
1. The faculty of being able to make critical distinctions and achieve a balanced viewpoint.
2. The decision or verdict pronounced by a court of law.
3. A particular decision or opinion formed in a case in dispute or doubt.
4. An estimation
5. An opinion formed.
There are also a few definitions of judgment that deal with God.
1. The estimate by God of the ultimate worthiness or unworthiness of the individual or of all mankind.
2. God’s subsequent decision determining the final destinies of all individuals.
None of these definitions fit clearly into our scripture from Mark this morning. So how is it that we proceed with no clear link.
Well, let’s step back for a moment and not concentrate on the idea of judgment itself. You see our topic isn’t judgment itself, but rather the Wall of Judgment. We are looking at the walls we build around us that interfere with our ability to fulfill our calling as individuals and as the body of Christ on earth. So let us look at what we can mean by a Wall of Judgment. And let us look at how that wall can keep us separated from Christ and from each other.
The reading from Mark talks about a situation that existed in Jesus’ day. That situation was the division of people based on a perceived, and sometimes real, threat.
Leprosy itself was not a specific condition, but rather a variety of illnesses that in one way or another affected the skin. Leprosy could be anything from a rash to a flesh eating bacteria. People were scared to death of leprosy. People lived in absolute fear of leprosy and all those who had leprosy. Therefore, if you had a skin disease, you were made into an instant outsider.
In those days, the law that governed society came from the books of Moses. Specifically that which we today call Leviticus. Leviticus was very clear: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ And he shall live alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” (Lev. 13:45-46)
If you had leprosy you lost everything – job, family, place in the community – everything. Just as with many other things, when someone loses everything, they get desperate. The leper in Mark who approaches Jesus shows his desperation by breaking the law, by coming into the city, and getting close enough to Jesus that he could talk to him. He is lucky that he wasn’t stoned. But Jesus has pity on this poor desperate leper and heals him.
This is where it gets interesting. You see, diseases were not understood then as they are today. Therefore, anyone who touched a leper was considered unclean. It was a kind of guilt by association. Jesus would have known this, yet he reached out and touched this man. Under normal circumstances both this man and Jesus would have had to go to the chief priest to prove their cleanliness and make the appropriate sacrifices before they could legally be welcomed back into the fold.
Of course, Jesus didn’t go to the chief priest, he didn’t become a leper, and he wasn’t perceived by those around him to have been contaminated.
If you remember a little earlier I talked of a division of people based on a perceived threat. That perception lies at the heart of the wall of Judgment that I want to talk about this morning. We all know that we are not supposed to judge others. This is not news. This is not a recent development. It is something that we have heard over and over our entire lives. This is especially true for those who have been active in church their whole lives. The Bible is very clear on this point. God is the only one who has the power and authority to judge. We do not.
Yet, as with many other things, our reality doesn’t work that way. We know we shouldn’t judge, but we do. In fact, it is very possible that of all our sins, this act of judging others is perhaps the most pervasive in our culture. Judgment is a necessity we tell ourselves. Besides most times we are not trying to play God or to usurp His power. Rather, we are trying to maintain the best influences in our lives. We are trying to make sure that we associate with those we should. We have a society that has rules and we have to make sure, to the best of our ability, that those rules are followed.
We live in a society where rules are important, and this is not a bad thing. If there were no rules, chaos would ensue. So it is important that we follow those rules and it is important that others follow those rules. However, it is very easy to go from a place where rules are important to a place where rules are and end in and of themselves. It is easy to forget that the rules are there for a different reason. The rules exist to keep peace, to provide stability, to enhance the lives of everyone. Yet, sometimes, many times we put such importance on the rules that we convert a helpful tool into something that actually counteracts its own purpose. When we put too much importance on those rules, we actually create a world in which there is less stability, there is less trust. This is what we call the wall of judgment.
Have I lost any of you yet? Well, let me give you an example. We read some scripture this morning from Romans. At first glance the reading is pretty straightforward in regards to judgment. However, the more you read the more you begin to wonder what is going on. For those who know a little about the early church it makes some sense. Yet, for those who are not acquainted with some of the problems of the early church, this reading begins to get confusing.
It begins with the simple statement, “Then let us no longer Judge one another, but rather resolve never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” This is pretty straightforward, but then it gets into a whole bunch of stuff about food. Why food? For those who know about the early church, you will remember that the early church was full of both Jews and Gentiles. Those of Jewish background had grown up living under pretty strict dietary standards that were laid out in the books of Moses. Those who were Gentiles didn’t come from a background with the same requirements. Therefore, the traditions surrounding what foods could and could not be eaten and the rules that regulated how food was to be eaten and prepared were different and this caused quite a bit of arguing in the early church. It was a pretty big debate. There was a lot of divisiveness over this topic. Some said these old traditions should be upheld in the new church. Others said that the fact that Jesus came and died for our sins created a new covenant and therefore, those old rules no longer applied.
This is a common problem in a lot of the early churches and you can see evidence of that in a number of the Epistles. The reading in Romans tries to deal with this ongoing argument. Basically, what is said is that if you want to keep with the old rules, fine. There is no harm in that. However, don’t judge someone else based on what they eat. Tradition is fine, however there is a new covenant here. There is a new church, and that new church doesn’t center itself upon the old covenant made with Moses. It centers itself based on the new covenant through Jesus Christ. So if you want to follow old rules, go right ahead, but if you are doing that and it causes one of your new brothers in Christ to misunderstand the new covenant, well, that is not OK. The word of God is paramount and any arguing over details that detract from the message is harmful to the whole church, and therefore is not in accordance with the message of love that is given to us through Christ.
So we have the divisions of a society that are reflected with how it treats those who suffer from leprosy or who are otherwise unclean. We have the early church struggling to come to terms with how their own understanding of their relationship with God has changed in the new reality of the message of Jesus Christ. And now, we are here, on this Sunday morning, wondering what we can learn.
So, I ask you, in order to define this wall of Judgment, who do we consider today as lepers? Who do we consider today to be serving God in a way we don’t think is right?
The answers to those questions are endless. I could come up with a list, but the list would be way to long to recount in a few minutes. But, let’s name a few.
1. Immigrants
2. Those whose skin is not our color.
3. Those whose music we don’t like.
4. Addicts – either of drugs, or alcohol, or some other destructive force.
5. Criminals
6. Those who profess other faiths.
7. Those who love someone of their own gender.
8. Those who are poor.
9. Those who are rich.
10. Those who speak a language different from our own.
The list can go on and on. We live among lepers. Sometimes we might even be the leper and at other times we treat others like they are lepers. We judge based on things that we feel are legitimate concerns. We use this basis of judgment for one purpose, to separate. Yet, whether or not we intend on it, this separation is perceived as condemnation.
This judgment, this condemnation of others is based on fear, mistrust, misunderstanding, anger, loneliness, the inability to communicate, and so on and so forth. In so many ways, like the leper in our reading this morning, we move through life shrouded in desperation. Either we feel like a leper to the world, untouchable and unclean – or we have chosen others to be treated like lepers.
These divisions are our modern day examples of the food problem in the early church. The details have changed in 2000 years, but the situation is still the same. We build up walls, many of them, especially this wall of judgment, based on perceived threats, based on stereotypes. But in reality, this serves only to keep people apart. It is a form of leprosy that we willingly take on because it offers us a safe haven from having to interact with the other and the other unknown. It is just easier to adopt this form of leprosy than it is to risk reaching out and touching or being touched. It is not until human beings are able to see one another as children of God that we will be able to sit down and begin to try and understand one another. This is true not just for Muslims and Christians, or Muslims and Jews, it is also true for grown-ups and teenagers, for blacks and whites, for gay and straight, for liberals and conservatives, for old hymn lovers and new music lovers.
Jesus, reached out and touched the leper. In that act, he tore down that wall. He healed, he loved, he acted. You see, it is not just a matter of being willing to reach out and touch. We can control that. We can control when we reach out and we touch. No, it is also, perhaps more importantly, a matter of being willing to risk being touched, touched by God and changed, transformed, made whole.
This week, Steve Jobs passed away. I was listening to the news that day and heard a speech he made at Stanford University in 2005. Towards the end of that speech he mentioned something that I think fits in nicely with this message. He said,
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
This morning, these words ring true. As we gather to worship Jesus Christ and his message of love, of renewal, and of hope, let us remember that we have limited time to get it right. During our time, it is essential that we learn to tear down these walls that we spend so much time building up. It is only by tearing down these walls, by bearing our souls to our friends and neighbors, that we truly come to know not only the words of Christ, but we come to trust in him in our nakedness and we come to feel the message of Christ as it warms our hearts and souls.
May God bless us this morning, may he warm our hearts and souls, and may he give us the strength to trust in his message and the courage to live his message even when that means doing something we don’t want to, even when that means talking to someone we don’t want to talk to, and especially when that means loving someone we find hard to love. Amen!
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