Ezekiel 18: 1-4 and 25-32, page784
The word of the Lord came to me: What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “the parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”?
As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die.
(25) Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.”
Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again, when the wicked turn away from wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. Because they considered and turned away from all transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.
Yet the house of Israel says, “The way of the Lord is unfair.”
O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!
Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord god.
Turn, then, and live.
Sermon
I was talking with my friend Andy Crichton the other day; he was on his way to the dentist to have a crown put on a tooth.
“That doesn’t sound like much fun Andy,” I said.
“I don’t think it will be. Have you had anything like this done?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think I’ve had but two cavities in my life,” I answered.
“Well,” Andy said, “you must not go to see the dentist very often.”
The truth is, or so our family dentist used to say, is that I have my Dad’s teeth, and so in addition to regular brushing and flossing I am the beneficiary of good genes.
I’m thankful that genetics has given me good teeth, but I might trade in good teeth for a fuller head of hair, as in addition to his teeth I am acquiring my father’s hair line. Unfortunately, such decisions aren’t up to me – when it comes to genetics you get what you get.
We know this to be true – that so much of who we are is determined without our consent. Many traits pass from parents to children – hair color, skin tone, body shape. To some degree or another, even your athletic ability, personality, intellect, all may be decided before you even had a chance to decide for yourself who you wanted to be.
So we end up with expressions like “a chip off the old block,” “the apple doesn’t land far from the tree,” or “she’s her daddy’s girl” because who we are has to do with who our parents are. The genetic material that knit us together decides for us, and our genes didn’t even think to ask before they gave some of us long legs, slow metabolisms, or quickly receding hair lines.
The Israelites were so convinced of this truth that they believed not only that eye color, skin tone, and height were determined by genetics, they went so far as to believe that even sin can be passed down from mother to daughter, father to son. Hence the expression that begins our 2nd scripture lesson: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
The expression is one of those that are almost from the Bible but not quite. Sort of like “God helps those who help themselves” or “the Lord never gives us more than we can handle,” it is almost biblical.
This expression was probably inspired by Moses, where in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy God claims that some sins are so powerfully bad that punishment for committing them must span not just lifetimes, but generations.
The Israelites, at the time of Ezekiel, took this idea and used it to explain their situation. They were in exile in Babylon, taken there as military prisoners of war, and were stuck, not because they did anything wrong, but because their parents did.
The book of Lamentations, probably written at the same time and certainly responding to the same frustration of life in exile says, “Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear their iniquities.”
Scripture explains the Babylonian invasion, their destruction of homes, violence towards women and children, and death in the streets as God’s judgment, punishment for their disobedience. As the living were captured and taken forcibly to live in Babylon, they explained the horror as the wages of their own sin.
We don’t think about it exactly that way, but we do believe that the wages of sin is death; that those who live by the sword die by the sword. We don’t call it unfair that those who choose adultery also watch their marriages crumble - not as random misfortune but as the logical result of their actions. The same is true for theft or murder – if you do wrong you should expect to be punished.
But the cruel reality is that not only the one who sinned pays the price.
Children are the innocent victims of their parents’ mistakes all the time, all alcoholism, all drug abuse. They pay the price not for their own sin but the sins of their parents – and so some truth resounds from the proverb: “the parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” For the sins of the parents may well go on punishing the children.
But the difference between stating that we bear their iniquities and that sin passes from one generation to another is the role that God plays in the process.
Certainly society has seen it both ways. Across the street from Presbyterian College where Sara and I graduated sits the Thornwell Children’s Home – an orphanage founded by the same man who started the college. Only in the last 50 years have children out of wedlock been accepted, as though God were punishing the children for their parents’ sin.
When our expectations of children are influenced by who their parents are, we’re not so different – expecting little from those whose parents have accomplished little in our eyes and expecting much from those whose parents have accomplished much, as though God’s blessing or curse passed down from one generation to the next. “Well, you know who his father is, what do you expect?” we might say.
So the Israelites didn’t have much trouble believing that God was keeping them there in exile because of what their parents did or didn’t do, as sometimes we believe that the present is completely determined by the past – who we are is totally contingent on who we come from – and the future – our future – is already set in stone as though God already decided.
But it’s God’s role in all of this that we shouldn’t be so sure of, the prophet says. For while you might be so bold to think that the sons and daughters of alcoholism, infidelity, and laziness are stuck in the trap that their parents laid out; don’t be so bold to go believing that God has preordained it to be so.
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!
Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God.
Turn, then, and live.”
Turn, then, and live, says the Lord – making plain the truth that a new way of life is just as possible now as it ever was.
Turn, then, and live - making plain the truth that who you are has not been decided until it has been decided by you.
Turn, then, and live - making plain the truth that where you come from, your family, even your genes will not determine the course of your future.
Turn, then, and live says the Lord – for the Lord God takes no pleasure in your death and continually celebrates your new life.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Jonah's Anger
Jonah 3: 10 – 4: 11, page 861
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed God’s mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and God did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
The Lord appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?”
And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.”
Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Sermon
There’s probably not a better preacher alive than Dr. Fred Craddock, a minister in the Disciples of Christ tradition who served a church here in town for a number of years. And while he was there, Mr. Bronston Boone, long time member of this church, served with him, leading meetings of that congregation’s elected leaders.
Not only did Bronston drive me down to Ellijay, GA to meet Dr. Craddock, Bronston recently gave me a couple DVDs of Dr. Craddock preaching at a big convention up in Nashville.
Dr. Craddock began by talking about the recession: “Money is in short supply, as are our jobs, but we really suffer because also in short supply are words.”
We need words to explain our situation, to tell the story of how we got here, and we need words to give us a clear direction for how we are going to get out.
But where are the inspiring words? There are plenty of questions; there’s plenty of blame, plenty of excuses and distractions, but not much inspiration, and maybe that’s because no one takes words quite as seriously as deeds.
Words are undervalued, Dr. Craddock says, but we need to remember “that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words…words will kill you.”
If you don’t believe it think about the words of Homecoming season. You have teenage boys up all night amassing the courage to say the words, “Would you like to go with me to the Homecoming dance?”
Those are big, powerful words – so big and so powerful they get stuck on their way out – maybe they get halfway out or maybe they end up never spoken, even though you have teenage girls dying to hear them.
Some people don’t take words seriously. High school boys certainly do though, and I want you to know that I believe words are more powerful than just about anything else.
Think about the words “I love you.” If you’ve never heard those words from a person you needed to hear them from then you know exactly how powerful they are.
All you can eat buffet – some people take those words very seriously.
In sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live – some people take those words very seriously, others, not so much. But regardless, the minister says them and it’s how the bride and groom interprets them that matters.
I’m sorry – it matters how these words are said, but parents make their children say them even if they don’t really mean it because the words themselves have power beyond the speaker’s level of repentance.
Repentance, redemption, forgiveness – we all hear these words, often from me, but what matters is not whether or not I say them – what matters is whether or not you hear them.
Some people hear them loud and clear – those coming to church seeking forgiveness will surely find it if their ears are open and their hearts are willing – as each and every week I say the words, “who is in a position to condemn, only Christ, and Christ was born for us, Christ lived for us, Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us, by the testimony of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.”
Those are good words – good enough that I’ve memorized them so that I can say them with some conviction – but what matters is not how I say the words, what matters is how you hear them.
For some, forgiveness is only serious business when it comes to their forgiveness, and from the belly of a whale Jonah cries out to God for forgiveness. In our call to worship we read that Jonah cries out to God to save him though he knows he doesn’t deserve it.
On the other hand, when it’s the Ninevites crying out to God, Jonah hopes that God won’t listen as forgiveness is something else when it’s the Ninevites.
That’s a horrible quality, really – to believe in forgiveness only selfishly, but that’s how some people are. Jonah goes through the city of Nineveh begrudgingly preaching as all prophets do – God’s wrath is coming. Unlike most prophets, Jonah leaves no room for repentance, there’s only judgment and wrath, but the Ninevites take his words and hear the opportunity for repentance and turn from their evil ways.
This isn’t what Jonah wanted to happen, however, and this attribute also sets him apart from all the other prophets. He is the only prophet in the Bible who hopes that the people won’t listen.
Jonah doesn’t celebrate, then, when he becomes the most effective prophet in scripture, successfully convicting all the hearts of Nineveh enough that they repent and turn from their ways. Jonah was hoping that he might just control the way his words were interpreted. I guess he was hoping that his words would either fall on deaf ears or wouldn’t be taken seriously, that his words would not change a single heart, that his words would mean what he wanted them to mean: “40 days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” But what the Ninevites heard is what matters, not what Jonah said. His words were like forced apologies, they came out empty of conviction, but they were heard loud and clear.
And that’s how words are – they take on a meaning of their own, and sometimes it’s how they’re heard that matters, not how they’re said.
Cancer is a word like that. The doctor who says that word can mean it one way, but it’s how the word is heard by the patient that matters.
It’s hard to hear a word like “divorce” and not think the worst. But from that word one person hears failure, heartbreak, another relief, freedom.
There are some who grow up hearing that you’re not good enough, and it’s difficult not to carry those words around, letting them define you and everything you do, letting the one who said them determine your life’s course. But it’s how you hear the words that matters. It’s how you choose to interpret them that is really holding you back or setting you free.
The Ninevites heard the words “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” and while they could have started preparing for the worst, instead they said to themselves, “Let’s just try. Who knows? God may relent and change God’s mind; God may turn from God’s fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
I pray this day that you will be so bold to go and do the same, not letting the meaning of words be set in stone, but daring to believe that they may indeed be heard a different way.
Hear words of despair, sadness, and sickness and be bold to see in them a reason to hope.
Hear words of condemnation, foolishness, and shame and be bold to hear over and above them words of God’s promise and love.
Hear words like “not good enough,” “can’t be fixed,” and “it’s too late,” and be bold enough to say, “Who knows? God may…God just might.”
Because the truth is, it’s God who gets to decide what happens next – not the one who said the words.
“For I know that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent form punishing.”
Forgiveness is real, and while Jonah didn’t quite want to believe it, God was longing to hear of the Ninevites’ repentance. While Jonah uttered his words without conviction, not believing in the worth of an entire city, God looked down, full of forgiveness, full of love, full of patience, and was only too eager to celebrate their return.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed God’s mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and God did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
The Lord appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?”
And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.”
Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Sermon
There’s probably not a better preacher alive than Dr. Fred Craddock, a minister in the Disciples of Christ tradition who served a church here in town for a number of years. And while he was there, Mr. Bronston Boone, long time member of this church, served with him, leading meetings of that congregation’s elected leaders.
Not only did Bronston drive me down to Ellijay, GA to meet Dr. Craddock, Bronston recently gave me a couple DVDs of Dr. Craddock preaching at a big convention up in Nashville.
Dr. Craddock began by talking about the recession: “Money is in short supply, as are our jobs, but we really suffer because also in short supply are words.”
We need words to explain our situation, to tell the story of how we got here, and we need words to give us a clear direction for how we are going to get out.
But where are the inspiring words? There are plenty of questions; there’s plenty of blame, plenty of excuses and distractions, but not much inspiration, and maybe that’s because no one takes words quite as seriously as deeds.
Words are undervalued, Dr. Craddock says, but we need to remember “that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words…words will kill you.”
If you don’t believe it think about the words of Homecoming season. You have teenage boys up all night amassing the courage to say the words, “Would you like to go with me to the Homecoming dance?”
Those are big, powerful words – so big and so powerful they get stuck on their way out – maybe they get halfway out or maybe they end up never spoken, even though you have teenage girls dying to hear them.
Some people don’t take words seriously. High school boys certainly do though, and I want you to know that I believe words are more powerful than just about anything else.
Think about the words “I love you.” If you’ve never heard those words from a person you needed to hear them from then you know exactly how powerful they are.
All you can eat buffet – some people take those words very seriously.
In sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live – some people take those words very seriously, others, not so much. But regardless, the minister says them and it’s how the bride and groom interprets them that matters.
I’m sorry – it matters how these words are said, but parents make their children say them even if they don’t really mean it because the words themselves have power beyond the speaker’s level of repentance.
Repentance, redemption, forgiveness – we all hear these words, often from me, but what matters is not whether or not I say them – what matters is whether or not you hear them.
Some people hear them loud and clear – those coming to church seeking forgiveness will surely find it if their ears are open and their hearts are willing – as each and every week I say the words, “who is in a position to condemn, only Christ, and Christ was born for us, Christ lived for us, Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us, by the testimony of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.”
Those are good words – good enough that I’ve memorized them so that I can say them with some conviction – but what matters is not how I say the words, what matters is how you hear them.
For some, forgiveness is only serious business when it comes to their forgiveness, and from the belly of a whale Jonah cries out to God for forgiveness. In our call to worship we read that Jonah cries out to God to save him though he knows he doesn’t deserve it.
On the other hand, when it’s the Ninevites crying out to God, Jonah hopes that God won’t listen as forgiveness is something else when it’s the Ninevites.
That’s a horrible quality, really – to believe in forgiveness only selfishly, but that’s how some people are. Jonah goes through the city of Nineveh begrudgingly preaching as all prophets do – God’s wrath is coming. Unlike most prophets, Jonah leaves no room for repentance, there’s only judgment and wrath, but the Ninevites take his words and hear the opportunity for repentance and turn from their evil ways.
This isn’t what Jonah wanted to happen, however, and this attribute also sets him apart from all the other prophets. He is the only prophet in the Bible who hopes that the people won’t listen.
Jonah doesn’t celebrate, then, when he becomes the most effective prophet in scripture, successfully convicting all the hearts of Nineveh enough that they repent and turn from their ways. Jonah was hoping that he might just control the way his words were interpreted. I guess he was hoping that his words would either fall on deaf ears or wouldn’t be taken seriously, that his words would not change a single heart, that his words would mean what he wanted them to mean: “40 days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” But what the Ninevites heard is what matters, not what Jonah said. His words were like forced apologies, they came out empty of conviction, but they were heard loud and clear.
And that’s how words are – they take on a meaning of their own, and sometimes it’s how they’re heard that matters, not how they’re said.
Cancer is a word like that. The doctor who says that word can mean it one way, but it’s how the word is heard by the patient that matters.
It’s hard to hear a word like “divorce” and not think the worst. But from that word one person hears failure, heartbreak, another relief, freedom.
There are some who grow up hearing that you’re not good enough, and it’s difficult not to carry those words around, letting them define you and everything you do, letting the one who said them determine your life’s course. But it’s how you hear the words that matters. It’s how you choose to interpret them that is really holding you back or setting you free.
The Ninevites heard the words “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” and while they could have started preparing for the worst, instead they said to themselves, “Let’s just try. Who knows? God may relent and change God’s mind; God may turn from God’s fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
I pray this day that you will be so bold to go and do the same, not letting the meaning of words be set in stone, but daring to believe that they may indeed be heard a different way.
Hear words of despair, sadness, and sickness and be bold to see in them a reason to hope.
Hear words of condemnation, foolishness, and shame and be bold to hear over and above them words of God’s promise and love.
Hear words like “not good enough,” “can’t be fixed,” and “it’s too late,” and be bold enough to say, “Who knows? God may…God just might.”
Because the truth is, it’s God who gets to decide what happens next – not the one who said the words.
“For I know that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent form punishing.”
Forgiveness is real, and while Jonah didn’t quite want to believe it, God was longing to hear of the Ninevites’ repentance. While Jonah uttered his words without conviction, not believing in the worth of an entire city, God looked down, full of forgiveness, full of love, full of patience, and was only too eager to celebrate their return.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
It's Just That Easy
Romans 13: 8-14, page 162
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Sermon
Two of my favorite parts of the worship service here are things that we do every week without even thinking about it – we stand and say together what we believe using the Apostles Creed, one of the earliest statements adopted by the Christian Faith, and we pray together as Christ taught us using the Lord’s Prayer.
I love these parts of the service because it’s a rare treat to find yourself in a room full of people who can agree enough to say that we all believe the same thing, not once, but twice.
Human beings are notorious for complicating such simple pleasures as though we were predisposed for seeing room for disagreement.
Maybe you’ve been to a wedding, the groom’s a Methodist, the bride a Presbyterian and when it comes time to pray the Lord’s Prayer you’re not sure whether you need to be forgiven for your debts or your trespasses.
There’s an advantage to keeping things simple, but there’s something about people that makes us want to complicate matters – to take something simple like a candy bar, dip it in batter and deep fry it. People are doing that now at State Fairs and things, and it seems over the top, but this is what people do – we take simple things and make them more and more complicated.
Think about your car – it started out without power windows. But now that we have them, air conditioning, satellite radios, power steering, and heated seats it’s hard to imagine getting by without them, until something breaks and there’s absolutely no way to fix it ourselves and so we long for a simpler time when cars were just cars.
When you add things, when you make things more complicated, you have to be careful because often are things added – for convenience, for the sake of luxury, to be new and exciting - but rarely is anything taken away.
That’s how closets work. Things get added. Everything in my closet is important…or at least it was at one time. More importantly I can’t imagine going through it all to clean it out – now that all that stuff is in there I’m used to it being in there. I know I don’t need it, but I’m not going to clean it all out either.
Taxes work this way too. You start with something simple and you add to it and it gets complicated fast. I’m sure that every tax code we have seemed like a good idea at the time, but today I’m not sure what my Dog License Tax goes to pay for, and I’m certain that now that it’s been established there is no committee in our Federal Government who is going to put it to sleep. Our tax code is like a closet – I’m sure everything there is important – or at least it was at one time – and now that it’s in there it’s never coming out.
In the last 100 years, more than 40 new types of tax have been instituted, and so today there are many who call out for a simplification of the process that most need a professional to understand. The only good thing is that those who know can benefit from the exemptions.
You add and you add and you add – but not all of that adding is bad because you pay less if you can be smart about it. There’s an exemption for children, there’s an exemption for buying products that are considered environmentally friendly, and there are tons of exemptions for religious institutions.
And that’s what we really lose when we hear Paul’s words in his letter to the church in Rome: “The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” This kind of simplification sounds wonderful – there’s no need for the whole legal code we find in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th books of the Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – it’s just this simple – Love one another. But what we lose are the exemptions and I believe we depend more on those than we think.
In the time of the ancient Israelites the rules for life had been added to and amended until there was a law for everything. Just as there were laws against eating shrimp and pork, there were ways to deal with lepers and disease – there were standards for purity that allowed the Israelites to, in the name of sanitation, avoid those with disease, especially those diseases that involved blood.
Jesus, however, has a problem with avoiding people, and when a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, Jesus doesn’t push her away because the Law would have allowed him to. He says to her, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”
In the time of the ancient Israelites there was such resentment for tax collectors that there was no call to treat them with the love and respect enjoyed by others. There was the idea that some could be despised and resented in the name of unfair taxation.
Jesus, however, has a problem with such resentment, and rather than put them aside as he would have been justified in doing, everywhere he went he was called a friend of prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners.
There were also those who feared mental illness in the time of the Israelites, and there were Laws to provide guidance to deal with such people. That’s how a man ended up chained and confined to the tombs – to protect the village and to protect himself.
Jesus, however, asked him his name. He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And Christ cast out the demons, though he had every reason to walk on by. He would have been justified in doing so – the Law offering exemptions in such extreme cases.
Paul calls us to go and do the same – to wipe the slate clean and follow this one simple commandment – “love one another.” But there is certainly a multitude of problems with wiping the slate clean. You lose the exemptions, and without the exemptions, what are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to do if you don’t like your neighbor, if your neighbor doesn’t like you? What are you supposed to do if your neighbor hates you, or you hate your neighbor?
What if you are afraid – and loving someone means facing your fears?
What if you are happy as you are and happy with the world as it is – and loving someone means opening a whole can of worms?
What if you are guarded – because loving someone has broken your heart before?
There are a lot of reasons to be scared of cleaning out a closet full of complicated rules, to be afraid of wiping the slate clean and staring into the face of “love your neighbor as yourself”. But more than anything else, we should all be afraid of what’s left at the bottom once you’ve cleaned out all complications, because down at the bottom is the foundation for faithfulness. If you get down to the heart of it all, all the rules, all the ordinances, all the exemptions, you’ll find the reason for obedience.
The Lord said to Moses, “this day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”
Down at the heart of all our perpetual ordinances is gratitude – gratitude to God who spared the Israelites from the angel of death that passed through Egypt. Gratitude to God who led them out and on into the Promised Land. And now, gratitude to God who laid down his very life that we might live. Gratitude to Christ who saved us.
At the bottom of the closet is gratitude – that we are loved despite all the reasons God has not to. All the times God had every reason to give up but didn’t.
All the times good advice would have told God to walk away.
All the times the Law would have provided God with a fine exemption.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
You can expect to be forgiven – you can expect to be loved – and so you owe it to God to return the favor.
Thanks be to God – the one who had every reason to stop loving, but never did and never will.
Amen.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Sermon
Two of my favorite parts of the worship service here are things that we do every week without even thinking about it – we stand and say together what we believe using the Apostles Creed, one of the earliest statements adopted by the Christian Faith, and we pray together as Christ taught us using the Lord’s Prayer.
I love these parts of the service because it’s a rare treat to find yourself in a room full of people who can agree enough to say that we all believe the same thing, not once, but twice.
Human beings are notorious for complicating such simple pleasures as though we were predisposed for seeing room for disagreement.
Maybe you’ve been to a wedding, the groom’s a Methodist, the bride a Presbyterian and when it comes time to pray the Lord’s Prayer you’re not sure whether you need to be forgiven for your debts or your trespasses.
There’s an advantage to keeping things simple, but there’s something about people that makes us want to complicate matters – to take something simple like a candy bar, dip it in batter and deep fry it. People are doing that now at State Fairs and things, and it seems over the top, but this is what people do – we take simple things and make them more and more complicated.
Think about your car – it started out without power windows. But now that we have them, air conditioning, satellite radios, power steering, and heated seats it’s hard to imagine getting by without them, until something breaks and there’s absolutely no way to fix it ourselves and so we long for a simpler time when cars were just cars.
When you add things, when you make things more complicated, you have to be careful because often are things added – for convenience, for the sake of luxury, to be new and exciting - but rarely is anything taken away.
That’s how closets work. Things get added. Everything in my closet is important…or at least it was at one time. More importantly I can’t imagine going through it all to clean it out – now that all that stuff is in there I’m used to it being in there. I know I don’t need it, but I’m not going to clean it all out either.
Taxes work this way too. You start with something simple and you add to it and it gets complicated fast. I’m sure that every tax code we have seemed like a good idea at the time, but today I’m not sure what my Dog License Tax goes to pay for, and I’m certain that now that it’s been established there is no committee in our Federal Government who is going to put it to sleep. Our tax code is like a closet – I’m sure everything there is important – or at least it was at one time – and now that it’s in there it’s never coming out.
In the last 100 years, more than 40 new types of tax have been instituted, and so today there are many who call out for a simplification of the process that most need a professional to understand. The only good thing is that those who know can benefit from the exemptions.
You add and you add and you add – but not all of that adding is bad because you pay less if you can be smart about it. There’s an exemption for children, there’s an exemption for buying products that are considered environmentally friendly, and there are tons of exemptions for religious institutions.
And that’s what we really lose when we hear Paul’s words in his letter to the church in Rome: “The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” This kind of simplification sounds wonderful – there’s no need for the whole legal code we find in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th books of the Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – it’s just this simple – Love one another. But what we lose are the exemptions and I believe we depend more on those than we think.
In the time of the ancient Israelites the rules for life had been added to and amended until there was a law for everything. Just as there were laws against eating shrimp and pork, there were ways to deal with lepers and disease – there were standards for purity that allowed the Israelites to, in the name of sanitation, avoid those with disease, especially those diseases that involved blood.
Jesus, however, has a problem with avoiding people, and when a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, Jesus doesn’t push her away because the Law would have allowed him to. He says to her, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”
In the time of the ancient Israelites there was such resentment for tax collectors that there was no call to treat them with the love and respect enjoyed by others. There was the idea that some could be despised and resented in the name of unfair taxation.
Jesus, however, has a problem with such resentment, and rather than put them aside as he would have been justified in doing, everywhere he went he was called a friend of prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners.
There were also those who feared mental illness in the time of the Israelites, and there were Laws to provide guidance to deal with such people. That’s how a man ended up chained and confined to the tombs – to protect the village and to protect himself.
Jesus, however, asked him his name. He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And Christ cast out the demons, though he had every reason to walk on by. He would have been justified in doing so – the Law offering exemptions in such extreme cases.
Paul calls us to go and do the same – to wipe the slate clean and follow this one simple commandment – “love one another.” But there is certainly a multitude of problems with wiping the slate clean. You lose the exemptions, and without the exemptions, what are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to do if you don’t like your neighbor, if your neighbor doesn’t like you? What are you supposed to do if your neighbor hates you, or you hate your neighbor?
What if you are afraid – and loving someone means facing your fears?
What if you are happy as you are and happy with the world as it is – and loving someone means opening a whole can of worms?
What if you are guarded – because loving someone has broken your heart before?
There are a lot of reasons to be scared of cleaning out a closet full of complicated rules, to be afraid of wiping the slate clean and staring into the face of “love your neighbor as yourself”. But more than anything else, we should all be afraid of what’s left at the bottom once you’ve cleaned out all complications, because down at the bottom is the foundation for faithfulness. If you get down to the heart of it all, all the rules, all the ordinances, all the exemptions, you’ll find the reason for obedience.
The Lord said to Moses, “this day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”
Down at the heart of all our perpetual ordinances is gratitude – gratitude to God who spared the Israelites from the angel of death that passed through Egypt. Gratitude to God who led them out and on into the Promised Land. And now, gratitude to God who laid down his very life that we might live. Gratitude to Christ who saved us.
At the bottom of the closet is gratitude – that we are loved despite all the reasons God has not to. All the times God had every reason to give up but didn’t.
All the times good advice would have told God to walk away.
All the times the Law would have provided God with a fine exemption.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
You can expect to be forgiven – you can expect to be loved – and so you owe it to God to return the favor.
Thanks be to God – the one who had every reason to stop loving, but never did and never will.
Amen.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Marks of the True Christian
Romans 12: 9-21, page 162
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Sermon
You can get in a lot of trouble if you act without thinking.
You might enter into senseless business deals because of emotional pressure. You might go along with the crowd because in the moment it feels like the best thing to do. You might do something that you know you’ll regret, but you do it anyway because you just want to give in to impulse – in to momentary pleasure without thought for lasting wellbeing.
It’s dangerous – to act without thinking. Your parents told you so. But it’s also dangerous to think without acting.
It’s possible to think and think and think – to think through all the possible problems, to become aware of all the potential drawbacks, to become so fearful of risk that you become immobilized. And this is dangerous too – because without action life will pass you by.
Thinking through all the possibilities – not wanting to commit to early – all the while doors are closing.
So afraid of making a miss-step that no step is ever taken.
Assuming that there is plenty of time while the clock keeps on ticking.
Its dangerous stuff – thinking is. I can think of all kinds of reasons why now is not the best time to potty train our two year old daughter Lily – for one thing she doesn’t want to stop using diapers, but for another thing now is just not the right time. She has a new baby sister to adjust to. We’ll soon be moving into a new house, I hope anyway, and I wouldn’t want her to get used to using one set of toilets then ask her to get used to some that are completely new.
More than that, I know what to do with diapers, so I don’t have any problem telling myself “now is just not the right time.”
But if not now, when?
This is really a good question to ask when you say to yourself, now is not the right time to visit grandma, assuming that she’ll be there forever. Now just isn’t the best time to talk to your children about drugs or cigarettes or whatever else, as though you could protect them just a little while longer. Now is just not the right time to quit smoking – there’s too much stress at work – now is just not the right time – all the while assuming that we are guaranteed more than right now, when really the question is – if not now, when?
Moses surely wouldn’t have denied the fact that his people needed to be liberated from Pharaoh’s oppression – but was he just going to walk away from his flock?
Now’s not the right time – and besides – Pharaoh wants me dead for murder, my mother set me down the river in a basket – there’s nothing for me back in Egypt and here I have a family, a life – maybe later, but now’s just not the right time.
But if not now, when?
Moses had plenty of reasons to put it off – just as you do.
He had a life to attend to. Babies to feed. Times were tough.
But if not now, when? And if not you, then who?
Let love be genuine, Paul says – and maybe this one is easy enough to go along with, but in reality we push this one to the backburner as much as any other – focusing on whatever emergency we face, putting out whatever fire is burning bright while the fire of relationships needs tending. It’s easy to assume that it won’t ever go out, but for how long can you really ask those who love you to wait before the fires start to cool?
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them he says – and I suppose that we always intend to burry hatchets, put an end to harsh words, put aside old resentments – but intentions are only kind thoughts that don’t do anyone any good until they turn into action.
We postpone hard conversations – we postpone forgiveness – we postpone living as we know we should not realizing that time is short and getting shorter.
The bush is burning – as we assume it will burn on forever.
The people are suffering under Pharaoh’s oppression – as we assume that they can just go on suffering a little while longer – but why not put an end to it today?
Moses did have a life as a shepherd – but God had prepared him for a life as a shepherd of his people leading them into the promised land – and you may have a life now – but God has prepared for you a life free from the torment of grudges held tight for too long, forgiveness withheld, and the constant drive for vengeance – and why would you postpone such a life any longer? If not now, when?
Our second scripture lesson for today is from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, and the minister I knew as a child used this passage for his benediction Sunday after Sunday.
At the close of every worship service he would stand before us calling us to leave church going forth as true Christians – letting love be genuine, hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good.
Sunday after Sunday he called us to live life defined by the marks of the true Christian – but it was so easy, and it still is so easy, to believe that now is not the time and that living as we should can wait.
After all – today we live in a world where knowing what to love and what to hate is not nearly so easy as it should be – blessing those who persecute you seems a dangerous proposition indeed, and surely today is not the time for loving enemies – should we go loving our enemies leaving room for the wrath of God we may not live to see tomorrow.
But if we don’t live by these standards today – when will we?
The world is not getting any better – and if there aren’t people out in the world determined to choose another path it never will.
Now is the time. Today is the day.
Let love be genuine – now and forever.
Amen.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Sermon
You can get in a lot of trouble if you act without thinking.
You might enter into senseless business deals because of emotional pressure. You might go along with the crowd because in the moment it feels like the best thing to do. You might do something that you know you’ll regret, but you do it anyway because you just want to give in to impulse – in to momentary pleasure without thought for lasting wellbeing.
It’s dangerous – to act without thinking. Your parents told you so. But it’s also dangerous to think without acting.
It’s possible to think and think and think – to think through all the possible problems, to become aware of all the potential drawbacks, to become so fearful of risk that you become immobilized. And this is dangerous too – because without action life will pass you by.
Thinking through all the possibilities – not wanting to commit to early – all the while doors are closing.
So afraid of making a miss-step that no step is ever taken.
Assuming that there is plenty of time while the clock keeps on ticking.
Its dangerous stuff – thinking is. I can think of all kinds of reasons why now is not the best time to potty train our two year old daughter Lily – for one thing she doesn’t want to stop using diapers, but for another thing now is just not the right time. She has a new baby sister to adjust to. We’ll soon be moving into a new house, I hope anyway, and I wouldn’t want her to get used to using one set of toilets then ask her to get used to some that are completely new.
More than that, I know what to do with diapers, so I don’t have any problem telling myself “now is just not the right time.”
But if not now, when?
This is really a good question to ask when you say to yourself, now is not the right time to visit grandma, assuming that she’ll be there forever. Now just isn’t the best time to talk to your children about drugs or cigarettes or whatever else, as though you could protect them just a little while longer. Now is just not the right time to quit smoking – there’s too much stress at work – now is just not the right time – all the while assuming that we are guaranteed more than right now, when really the question is – if not now, when?
Moses surely wouldn’t have denied the fact that his people needed to be liberated from Pharaoh’s oppression – but was he just going to walk away from his flock?
Now’s not the right time – and besides – Pharaoh wants me dead for murder, my mother set me down the river in a basket – there’s nothing for me back in Egypt and here I have a family, a life – maybe later, but now’s just not the right time.
But if not now, when?
Moses had plenty of reasons to put it off – just as you do.
He had a life to attend to. Babies to feed. Times were tough.
But if not now, when? And if not you, then who?
Let love be genuine, Paul says – and maybe this one is easy enough to go along with, but in reality we push this one to the backburner as much as any other – focusing on whatever emergency we face, putting out whatever fire is burning bright while the fire of relationships needs tending. It’s easy to assume that it won’t ever go out, but for how long can you really ask those who love you to wait before the fires start to cool?
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them he says – and I suppose that we always intend to burry hatchets, put an end to harsh words, put aside old resentments – but intentions are only kind thoughts that don’t do anyone any good until they turn into action.
We postpone hard conversations – we postpone forgiveness – we postpone living as we know we should not realizing that time is short and getting shorter.
The bush is burning – as we assume it will burn on forever.
The people are suffering under Pharaoh’s oppression – as we assume that they can just go on suffering a little while longer – but why not put an end to it today?
Moses did have a life as a shepherd – but God had prepared him for a life as a shepherd of his people leading them into the promised land – and you may have a life now – but God has prepared for you a life free from the torment of grudges held tight for too long, forgiveness withheld, and the constant drive for vengeance – and why would you postpone such a life any longer? If not now, when?
Our second scripture lesson for today is from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, and the minister I knew as a child used this passage for his benediction Sunday after Sunday.
At the close of every worship service he would stand before us calling us to leave church going forth as true Christians – letting love be genuine, hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good.
Sunday after Sunday he called us to live life defined by the marks of the true Christian – but it was so easy, and it still is so easy, to believe that now is not the time and that living as we should can wait.
After all – today we live in a world where knowing what to love and what to hate is not nearly so easy as it should be – blessing those who persecute you seems a dangerous proposition indeed, and surely today is not the time for loving enemies – should we go loving our enemies leaving room for the wrath of God we may not live to see tomorrow.
But if we don’t live by these standards today – when will we?
The world is not getting any better – and if there aren’t people out in the world determined to choose another path it never will.
Now is the time. Today is the day.
Let love be genuine – now and forever.
Amen.
Monday, August 22, 2011
We Have Gifts
Romans 12: 1-8, page 157
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Sermon
You’ve all heard about the dangers of low self-esteem. How some, or maybe all of us at certain times, look in the mirror and don’t like what we see, don’t see beauty, intelligence, or creativity, but a person who could stand to look better, work harder, and give more.
What you don’t hear as much about is the flip side of that same coin – high self-esteem. I’m not sure that’s even a real term, but I heard about it once on TV and it’s stuck with me, as there are always people around who seem to suffer from thinking too highly of themselves.
Paul writes, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,” and he follows this statement with his rational, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function.”
In our world however, some functions seem to matter more than others. A search of the word “celebrity” on Google will come up with 382 million results, but you won’t have much luck trying to find information about their mothers, without whom they would not exist; their housekeepers, without whom they would not survive; or their agents, without whom they would know what to say or where to go.
There are some people in our world who seem to matter more than others, whose names you know and can remember, but Paul calls us to recognize that humanity is like a body – there are many members with different functions – and while the world might celebrate some functions more than others you must not be tricked into believing that some functions matter more than others.
Take the first two chapters of Exodus for example. Certainly you know who this story is about, the heading of chapter two tells you everything you need to know, it’s the story of the “birth and youth of Moses.” But notice that Moses wasn’t mentioned in our reading for today – he’s not given a name until verse 10. This story isn’t really his story yet – the first two chapters of Exodus is the story of strong women whose names have mostly been forgotten because our world values some functions more than others.
The heroes of this story are Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, “when you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”
Maybe even Pharaoh himself valued some functions more than others, believing that only a man would rebel against him toppling him from his seat of power, but here he underestimated two midwives who saved the lives of innumerable boys, saying to Pharaoh, “the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
These two are named in chapter one of Exodus, because these two women, Shiphrah and Puah, matter. Without their faith in God, Moses would have been killed at birth.
More than that, by these women we know that Moses was not the first to defy Pharaoh’s orders. He was not the first to stand before the most powerful man in the land without cowering. These two women went before him, defying Pharaoh’s power, refusing to follow his orders, finding a means to execute justice in a time of terror and fear.
But their names could have been forgotten. Moses is the name that we remember today. He is the one who seems the most important, as it is his function as liberator of the Israelites, bringer of the 10 Commandments, and as the guide into the Promised Land that has been valued by generations of the faithful over these two who function as his crafty and brave midwives.
It falls to us then, to remember the names Shiphrah and Puah, because without them there would have been no Moses.
On the other hand, to most people their names will be forgotten. Like mothers or housekeepers or agents of celebrities, it’s not their function as nurturers or promoters that society values, it is the one they nurtured or promoted whose name goes up in lights.
The same is true for so many in our world who live their lives disconnected from reality and ungrateful to those who held them up. Rev. Bill Williamson, longtime pastor of this church was known for saying, “There are some people who we were born on third, but think that they’re there because they hit a triple.” So it goes for the well born who go their whole lives believing that they deserve their privilege, the entitled who believe it is their right to receive gifts and handouts. For some life is easy, blessings overflow. And should they ever ask why, we should pity those who reach the conclusion that they deserve what they have been given.
Paul urges you, “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,” as those who fall into positions of power, prestige, and privilege without recognizing how they got there miss out on the opportunity to be thankful.
Tina Fey is not a notoriously religious woman. She’s a comedian notorious for her Sarah Palin impersonation and her role as lead actress and writer of the Thursday evening show 30 Rock. But in her recent book she included a prayer titled, “the Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter.”
The prayer begins, “First, Lord: No tattoos,” and it ends with this: “And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 AM, all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans [who knows what] off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know. Because I peeped it with Your God eyes. Amen.”
For Moses there were two incredible brave women, without them he never would have breathed his first breath. Then for him there was a mother who hid him as long as she could before she placed him in a basket and prayed; and then there was his sister who watched the basket float downstream into the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter. His sister was brave enough to suggest that a Hebrew woman be called to nurse him and Moses grew up nurtured in Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s own daughter and his own mother.
Without these women there would be no Moses – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
For you there are others – some whose names you remember while the memory of others has faded. There are generations of faithful, those who witnessed firsthand the mighty acts of God all the way to the forefathers and foremothers of this church who gave us a place to hear the Good News and be saved. We are the recipients of their legacy. Give thanks for them all, because without them there is no you – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
The foolish may go their whole lives thinking that nothing important happened before they showed up on the scene – but those of you who know the truth will remember and be thankful for all those who came before. Those of you who know the truth will face the trials and tribulations of today knowing that generations have passed through hardship before and lived to tell the tale. Those of you who know the truth will enter into the unfolding drama that is the great story of humanity, serving this church as many have served before, giving of your gifts just as so many before you have given.
Rejoice and be thankful – not thinking too highly of yourself, but giving thanks to all those who made you who you are.
Amen.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Sermon
You’ve all heard about the dangers of low self-esteem. How some, or maybe all of us at certain times, look in the mirror and don’t like what we see, don’t see beauty, intelligence, or creativity, but a person who could stand to look better, work harder, and give more.
What you don’t hear as much about is the flip side of that same coin – high self-esteem. I’m not sure that’s even a real term, but I heard about it once on TV and it’s stuck with me, as there are always people around who seem to suffer from thinking too highly of themselves.
Paul writes, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,” and he follows this statement with his rational, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function.”
In our world however, some functions seem to matter more than others. A search of the word “celebrity” on Google will come up with 382 million results, but you won’t have much luck trying to find information about their mothers, without whom they would not exist; their housekeepers, without whom they would not survive; or their agents, without whom they would know what to say or where to go.
There are some people in our world who seem to matter more than others, whose names you know and can remember, but Paul calls us to recognize that humanity is like a body – there are many members with different functions – and while the world might celebrate some functions more than others you must not be tricked into believing that some functions matter more than others.
Take the first two chapters of Exodus for example. Certainly you know who this story is about, the heading of chapter two tells you everything you need to know, it’s the story of the “birth and youth of Moses.” But notice that Moses wasn’t mentioned in our reading for today – he’s not given a name until verse 10. This story isn’t really his story yet – the first two chapters of Exodus is the story of strong women whose names have mostly been forgotten because our world values some functions more than others.
The heroes of this story are Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, “when you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”
Maybe even Pharaoh himself valued some functions more than others, believing that only a man would rebel against him toppling him from his seat of power, but here he underestimated two midwives who saved the lives of innumerable boys, saying to Pharaoh, “the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
These two are named in chapter one of Exodus, because these two women, Shiphrah and Puah, matter. Without their faith in God, Moses would have been killed at birth.
More than that, by these women we know that Moses was not the first to defy Pharaoh’s orders. He was not the first to stand before the most powerful man in the land without cowering. These two women went before him, defying Pharaoh’s power, refusing to follow his orders, finding a means to execute justice in a time of terror and fear.
But their names could have been forgotten. Moses is the name that we remember today. He is the one who seems the most important, as it is his function as liberator of the Israelites, bringer of the 10 Commandments, and as the guide into the Promised Land that has been valued by generations of the faithful over these two who function as his crafty and brave midwives.
It falls to us then, to remember the names Shiphrah and Puah, because without them there would have been no Moses.
On the other hand, to most people their names will be forgotten. Like mothers or housekeepers or agents of celebrities, it’s not their function as nurturers or promoters that society values, it is the one they nurtured or promoted whose name goes up in lights.
The same is true for so many in our world who live their lives disconnected from reality and ungrateful to those who held them up. Rev. Bill Williamson, longtime pastor of this church was known for saying, “There are some people who we were born on third, but think that they’re there because they hit a triple.” So it goes for the well born who go their whole lives believing that they deserve their privilege, the entitled who believe it is their right to receive gifts and handouts. For some life is easy, blessings overflow. And should they ever ask why, we should pity those who reach the conclusion that they deserve what they have been given.
Paul urges you, “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,” as those who fall into positions of power, prestige, and privilege without recognizing how they got there miss out on the opportunity to be thankful.
Tina Fey is not a notoriously religious woman. She’s a comedian notorious for her Sarah Palin impersonation and her role as lead actress and writer of the Thursday evening show 30 Rock. But in her recent book she included a prayer titled, “the Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter.”
The prayer begins, “First, Lord: No tattoos,” and it ends with this: “And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 AM, all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans [who knows what] off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know. Because I peeped it with Your God eyes. Amen.”
For Moses there were two incredible brave women, without them he never would have breathed his first breath. Then for him there was a mother who hid him as long as she could before she placed him in a basket and prayed; and then there was his sister who watched the basket float downstream into the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter. His sister was brave enough to suggest that a Hebrew woman be called to nurse him and Moses grew up nurtured in Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s own daughter and his own mother.
Without these women there would be no Moses – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
For you there are others – some whose names you remember while the memory of others has faded. There are generations of faithful, those who witnessed firsthand the mighty acts of God all the way to the forefathers and foremothers of this church who gave us a place to hear the Good News and be saved. We are the recipients of their legacy. Give thanks for them all, because without them there is no you – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
The foolish may go their whole lives thinking that nothing important happened before they showed up on the scene – but those of you who know the truth will remember and be thankful for all those who came before. Those of you who know the truth will face the trials and tribulations of today knowing that generations have passed through hardship before and lived to tell the tale. Those of you who know the truth will enter into the unfolding drama that is the great story of humanity, serving this church as many have served before, giving of your gifts just as so many before you have given.
Rejoice and be thankful – not thinking too highly of yourself, but giving thanks to all those who made you who you are.
Amen.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Things That Defile
Matthew 15: 10-28, page 17
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Sermon
This past week I was in Charleston, South Carolina. My grandmother has been in the hospital there for the past few weeks struggling to fight a rare strain of pneumonia, and my grandfather, wanting to be at her bedside each day, needed me to drive him back and forth from the hospital.
One night I fried him chicken wings, and I was reminded of how differently he eats. He grew up in a swamp, more or less, not that that explains it, but I suppose he grew up not wasting anything. When it came to chicken wings I ate the little drum stick part and the flat part with the two bones. He thought this was wasteful, because he on the other hand, in addition to eating both those parts also scrapes the skin of the pointy piece that makes up the tip of the wing that I didn’t even know was edible.
He’s always been like that. His favorite part of the catfish is the tail fin, and at Thanksgiving or Christmas I remember being called into the kitchen as a 7- or 8-year-old where he’d cut off a piece of fat from the roast: “Here you go boy; don’t tell your mother I gave you this.”
The things that go into his mouth aren’t want I would call clean, nor would I call it healthy, but what comes out of his mouth is often something different – “I can’t tell you how proud we are of you Joe,” he has so often said to me.
Then he said to the disciples, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart…’
What people eat, what goes in their mouths, is largely informed by culture. Here in Columbia, at least until the close of Sam Hills, there were rooster fries. Bushmen in Africa like nothing better than porcupine skin, and my grandfather grew up eating squirrel. But more than that, culture informs not only what we eat, but who we eat with, who we accept and who we don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. So Christ makes this statement about food, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” and follows this statement with its application.
Jesus grew up in a time with its own cultural norms, and by those norms he was told what was good to eat and what wasn’t, but more than that, he was told who he should eat with, who should be accepted, and who was worth associating with. When a woman from a certain region came to him shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon,” Jesus didn’t just think on his own, his response was informed by the cultural norms of his own day – “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
That’s not what we expected Jesus to say, but Jesus wasn’t born into a cultural vacuum. The Canaanite people for generations had been defined by where they lived, how they lived, and what they ate. These people were not just considered to be less than the Israelites, they were so low as to be considered dogs. And Jesus, just as he was taught what was good to eat by his environment, he was also taught who was good. Born into a certain family, he knew who was better and who was worse – who got the pork loin and who got the chittlins. He took in these lessons from culture, but it’s not what lessons you take in that matters, it’s not what you take in, what you eat, or where you grew up, it’s what actions that come out that define who you are.
A lot has changed at airports in the last 10 years, but the only change that I don’t find frustrating is the new Dyson Air Blade you can use to dry your hands in the Nashville Airport bathroom. There’s a lot more to be aggravated by – check-points, lines, always being ready with your boarding pass and drivers license, having to take off your shoes and not being allowed to take normal size shampoo. There’s a lot to get aggravated by, but it’s not the environment that you find yourself in at the airport that defines you – it’s how you react to the environment at the airport.
It amazes me how some supremely kind people will still help others to get baggage on and off the conveyor belts or how veteran flyers will explain to those who don’t know what can go on their carry-on and what can’t. How many people will return valuable objects left behind in airport restaurants, say please, thank you, and excuse me, even if they’re obviously running to catch their flight.
Their response to this new cultural norm of airport security says something about who they are, just as Jesus’ response to cultural norms of discrimination says everything about who he is.
In saying, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” we hear the echo of cultural norms of prejudice and racism, the hold that culture has taken on even the Son of God – but when she says to him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” he is invited to speak, not as his culture has taught him to speak, but to speak from his heart. Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
You are all the product of culture. What goes in are standards of not only what you eat, but who you eat with, who you accept and who you don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. However, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
It is not the cultural norms you were born into that define who you are, but whether you live your life never questioning those norms, especially those that discriminate against groups and individuals.
It is not the norms of the household that you grew up in that define who you will be, but it is the choices that you make – to be like them or to be different – that make you who you are.
It is not the words that you heard growing up to describe groups of people, it is not the separation that culture deemed appropriate, it is not the generalizations that you grew up believing were true that determines the future – it is what you do – what you say – that will change the world.
Amen.
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Sermon
This past week I was in Charleston, South Carolina. My grandmother has been in the hospital there for the past few weeks struggling to fight a rare strain of pneumonia, and my grandfather, wanting to be at her bedside each day, needed me to drive him back and forth from the hospital.
One night I fried him chicken wings, and I was reminded of how differently he eats. He grew up in a swamp, more or less, not that that explains it, but I suppose he grew up not wasting anything. When it came to chicken wings I ate the little drum stick part and the flat part with the two bones. He thought this was wasteful, because he on the other hand, in addition to eating both those parts also scrapes the skin of the pointy piece that makes up the tip of the wing that I didn’t even know was edible.
He’s always been like that. His favorite part of the catfish is the tail fin, and at Thanksgiving or Christmas I remember being called into the kitchen as a 7- or 8-year-old where he’d cut off a piece of fat from the roast: “Here you go boy; don’t tell your mother I gave you this.”
The things that go into his mouth aren’t want I would call clean, nor would I call it healthy, but what comes out of his mouth is often something different – “I can’t tell you how proud we are of you Joe,” he has so often said to me.
Then he said to the disciples, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart…’
What people eat, what goes in their mouths, is largely informed by culture. Here in Columbia, at least until the close of Sam Hills, there were rooster fries. Bushmen in Africa like nothing better than porcupine skin, and my grandfather grew up eating squirrel. But more than that, culture informs not only what we eat, but who we eat with, who we accept and who we don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. So Christ makes this statement about food, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” and follows this statement with its application.
Jesus grew up in a time with its own cultural norms, and by those norms he was told what was good to eat and what wasn’t, but more than that, he was told who he should eat with, who should be accepted, and who was worth associating with. When a woman from a certain region came to him shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon,” Jesus didn’t just think on his own, his response was informed by the cultural norms of his own day – “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
That’s not what we expected Jesus to say, but Jesus wasn’t born into a cultural vacuum. The Canaanite people for generations had been defined by where they lived, how they lived, and what they ate. These people were not just considered to be less than the Israelites, they were so low as to be considered dogs. And Jesus, just as he was taught what was good to eat by his environment, he was also taught who was good. Born into a certain family, he knew who was better and who was worse – who got the pork loin and who got the chittlins. He took in these lessons from culture, but it’s not what lessons you take in that matters, it’s not what you take in, what you eat, or where you grew up, it’s what actions that come out that define who you are.
A lot has changed at airports in the last 10 years, but the only change that I don’t find frustrating is the new Dyson Air Blade you can use to dry your hands in the Nashville Airport bathroom. There’s a lot more to be aggravated by – check-points, lines, always being ready with your boarding pass and drivers license, having to take off your shoes and not being allowed to take normal size shampoo. There’s a lot to get aggravated by, but it’s not the environment that you find yourself in at the airport that defines you – it’s how you react to the environment at the airport.
It amazes me how some supremely kind people will still help others to get baggage on and off the conveyor belts or how veteran flyers will explain to those who don’t know what can go on their carry-on and what can’t. How many people will return valuable objects left behind in airport restaurants, say please, thank you, and excuse me, even if they’re obviously running to catch their flight.
Their response to this new cultural norm of airport security says something about who they are, just as Jesus’ response to cultural norms of discrimination says everything about who he is.
In saying, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” we hear the echo of cultural norms of prejudice and racism, the hold that culture has taken on even the Son of God – but when she says to him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” he is invited to speak, not as his culture has taught him to speak, but to speak from his heart. Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
You are all the product of culture. What goes in are standards of not only what you eat, but who you eat with, who you accept and who you don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. However, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
It is not the cultural norms you were born into that define who you are, but whether you live your life never questioning those norms, especially those that discriminate against groups and individuals.
It is not the norms of the household that you grew up in that define who you will be, but it is the choices that you make – to be like them or to be different – that make you who you are.
It is not the words that you heard growing up to describe groups of people, it is not the separation that culture deemed appropriate, it is not the generalizations that you grew up believing were true that determines the future – it is what you do – what you say – that will change the world.
Amen.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
On Your Lips and On Your Heart
Romans 10: 5-15, page 160
Moses write concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.”
But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”
(That is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Sermon
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Before I started seminary I worked for a lawn maintenance company and I would sometimes be working in someone’s lawn, cutting their grass, trimming their hedges, spraying their weeds, and I knew I was being watched as though I weren’t completely trusted with their boxwoods. At the time I was offended, feeling as though I deserved their trust, but there is a lot of wisdom in actually being there rather than assuming you know what is going on.
Assuming that everything is fine, that you’ve given good instructions and that they’ll be carried out isn’t always a good idea.
Bob Duncan, our county historian and long time member of this church told me a story the other day about a man who paid the price for not being there, assuming that everything was fine.
This man’s church, a beautiful old church south of Bigbyville in the Hopewell Community, needed a fresh coat of paint, and the man decided he was just the one to do something about it. There weren’t any other negotiators as shrewd as him, and with painters always out to make an extra buck off the kindness of church folk, this man began interviewing painters.
One rose above the rest – or you might say he bid below the rest – and the man patted himself on the back for such shrewd negotiating and told the painter, “I want you to paint everything below the roof white.”
“Everything?” the painter asked.
“Everything,” the man said, and he assumed his work was done, having given clear directions to the painter, and assured the painter that he was not the kind to be pushed around.
Soon he would be the hero of the congregation the man assumed, without returning to the church to make sure everything was going on as it should.
On Sunday the man came to church. The painter was gone having finished his work, done just what the man had asked, but not what the man assumed the painter would do. The congregation was standing outside the church admiring the new coat of paint - the siding was painted white, the doors were white, and so were the door knobs and even the windows. Everything below the roof had been painted white and that day church was held in a dark room, not as much worshiping as hand wringing and arm crossing.
There is a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Adam Southern, columnist for the Daily Herald, wrote a story with a similar moral in the paper last week. He decided to take a trip to Atlanta, but rather than ask friends who had actually been there for recommendations about where to go and where to stay he made hotel reservations on-line. The hotel described itself as, “close to attractions and Downtown Atlanta.” Being from Atlanta I want you to know that’s not necessarily good, but that sounded good to Adam, as reading about a place is one thing and actually being there is another.
He pulled into the hotel parking lot at the same time as an ambulance. Not that an ambulance is bad, but the theme of the hotel is what concerned him – there are some hotels that seem inspired by bed and breakfasts, others that posses the flavor of the beach with shaded windows and palm trees – this hotel seemed to possess a prison theme, only lacking razor wire and a gunned parapet.
“Well, looks aren’t everything,” he told himself as he walked across the parking lot, only to be greeted by a man running and screaming to explain the presence of the ambulance, “That was a drive-by they just had!”
He went on into the office; “May I help you?” asked the desk clerk. Immediately Adam replied, “Yes! I would like to cancel my reservations please.”
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there. Sometimes you just have to be there – you can’t assume you know what’s going on, you can’t read about it on the internet. You just have to be there – and the same is true for people – the power of presence is always significant, there being a big difference between being present and not.
The Apostle Paul in this lesson from Romans writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?”
Paul seems to believe that you know the answer to this question – how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed – that wouldn’t make any sense, now would it? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard – well, you can’t expect them to do that either. What, then, are you to do? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
He can’t be talking about your feet, you might say. He may as well be asking you to walk on water. But we know he asked Peter to do that too, and so we can’t be surprised that he asks you to get on your feet, regardless of how uncomfortable that makes you feel. How else are they going to call on the Lord? How are they going to believe without you?
It’s a clear enough message, I think, but still it’s a great challenge for Presbyterians. There’s an old joke: what do you get if you cross a Presbyterian with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door but doesn’t know what to say.
Let me say this then - there’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
There is a difference between setting foot in the hospital room to sit by a dying friend not knowing what to say, and assuming there’s no point in going.
There is a difference between getting to know a teacher by seeing her in action, and assuming that education in this country is failing and teachers are the problem.
There is a difference between setting foot in East Columbia and seeing our neighbors face to face, and assuming that there’s nothing we can do to fight crime and poverty in our community.
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there – “How beautiful are the feet then,” Paul writes, “How beautiful are the feet” of those who don’t put their faith in assumptions.
Those who do so honor our God, Paul says, for there is no need to bring Christ down from heaven or to descend into the abyss that you might bring Christ up – there is no need to go looking for Christ for God has made the word near you, on your lips and in your heart.
Ours is a God who has drawn near, walked the lonesome valley with you, not looking down from heaven in times of your distress, but coming as near to you to know all your joy and all your pain, taking human form to know you rather than make assumptions about the human condition.
Go and do likewise then. Go to them.
Do not assume that they’ll figure it out on their own – if you do we may as well paint the windows and keep the good news in here and all to ourselves.
Go to them and do not assume that you already know who they are. Do not assume that they already know what you have to bring, and do not worry about what you will say – it’s not the mouth, nor the words, but the feet. For beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.
Amen.
Moses write concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.”
But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”
(That is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Sermon
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Before I started seminary I worked for a lawn maintenance company and I would sometimes be working in someone’s lawn, cutting their grass, trimming their hedges, spraying their weeds, and I knew I was being watched as though I weren’t completely trusted with their boxwoods. At the time I was offended, feeling as though I deserved their trust, but there is a lot of wisdom in actually being there rather than assuming you know what is going on.
Assuming that everything is fine, that you’ve given good instructions and that they’ll be carried out isn’t always a good idea.
Bob Duncan, our county historian and long time member of this church told me a story the other day about a man who paid the price for not being there, assuming that everything was fine.
This man’s church, a beautiful old church south of Bigbyville in the Hopewell Community, needed a fresh coat of paint, and the man decided he was just the one to do something about it. There weren’t any other negotiators as shrewd as him, and with painters always out to make an extra buck off the kindness of church folk, this man began interviewing painters.
One rose above the rest – or you might say he bid below the rest – and the man patted himself on the back for such shrewd negotiating and told the painter, “I want you to paint everything below the roof white.”
“Everything?” the painter asked.
“Everything,” the man said, and he assumed his work was done, having given clear directions to the painter, and assured the painter that he was not the kind to be pushed around.
Soon he would be the hero of the congregation the man assumed, without returning to the church to make sure everything was going on as it should.
On Sunday the man came to church. The painter was gone having finished his work, done just what the man had asked, but not what the man assumed the painter would do. The congregation was standing outside the church admiring the new coat of paint - the siding was painted white, the doors were white, and so were the door knobs and even the windows. Everything below the roof had been painted white and that day church was held in a dark room, not as much worshiping as hand wringing and arm crossing.
There is a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Adam Southern, columnist for the Daily Herald, wrote a story with a similar moral in the paper last week. He decided to take a trip to Atlanta, but rather than ask friends who had actually been there for recommendations about where to go and where to stay he made hotel reservations on-line. The hotel described itself as, “close to attractions and Downtown Atlanta.” Being from Atlanta I want you to know that’s not necessarily good, but that sounded good to Adam, as reading about a place is one thing and actually being there is another.
He pulled into the hotel parking lot at the same time as an ambulance. Not that an ambulance is bad, but the theme of the hotel is what concerned him – there are some hotels that seem inspired by bed and breakfasts, others that posses the flavor of the beach with shaded windows and palm trees – this hotel seemed to possess a prison theme, only lacking razor wire and a gunned parapet.
“Well, looks aren’t everything,” he told himself as he walked across the parking lot, only to be greeted by a man running and screaming to explain the presence of the ambulance, “That was a drive-by they just had!”
He went on into the office; “May I help you?” asked the desk clerk. Immediately Adam replied, “Yes! I would like to cancel my reservations please.”
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there. Sometimes you just have to be there – you can’t assume you know what’s going on, you can’t read about it on the internet. You just have to be there – and the same is true for people – the power of presence is always significant, there being a big difference between being present and not.
The Apostle Paul in this lesson from Romans writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?”
Paul seems to believe that you know the answer to this question – how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed – that wouldn’t make any sense, now would it? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard – well, you can’t expect them to do that either. What, then, are you to do? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
He can’t be talking about your feet, you might say. He may as well be asking you to walk on water. But we know he asked Peter to do that too, and so we can’t be surprised that he asks you to get on your feet, regardless of how uncomfortable that makes you feel. How else are they going to call on the Lord? How are they going to believe without you?
It’s a clear enough message, I think, but still it’s a great challenge for Presbyterians. There’s an old joke: what do you get if you cross a Presbyterian with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door but doesn’t know what to say.
Let me say this then - there’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
There is a difference between setting foot in the hospital room to sit by a dying friend not knowing what to say, and assuming there’s no point in going.
There is a difference between getting to know a teacher by seeing her in action, and assuming that education in this country is failing and teachers are the problem.
There is a difference between setting foot in East Columbia and seeing our neighbors face to face, and assuming that there’s nothing we can do to fight crime and poverty in our community.
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there – “How beautiful are the feet then,” Paul writes, “How beautiful are the feet” of those who don’t put their faith in assumptions.
Those who do so honor our God, Paul says, for there is no need to bring Christ down from heaven or to descend into the abyss that you might bring Christ up – there is no need to go looking for Christ for God has made the word near you, on your lips and in your heart.
Ours is a God who has drawn near, walked the lonesome valley with you, not looking down from heaven in times of your distress, but coming as near to you to know all your joy and all your pain, taking human form to know you rather than make assumptions about the human condition.
Go and do likewise then. Go to them.
Do not assume that they’ll figure it out on their own – if you do we may as well paint the windows and keep the good news in here and all to ourselves.
Go to them and do not assume that you already know who they are. Do not assume that they already know what you have to bring, and do not worry about what you will say – it’s not the mouth, nor the words, but the feet. For beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.
Amen.
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