Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the hearts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen
There is a prayer from the Eastern Orthodox tradition that is widely prayed by people of faith all over the world. It is short - and it is meant to be said over and over again - almost like a mantra. It is a prayer that is meant to cover all the bases as it were - and goes like this.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner....Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Let us try that out together.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.....
and again...
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The root of that prayer is found today in our Gospel reading. There we hear the story of a man who is blind. His name is Bartimaeus - son of Timeaus. He is sitting by the roadside on the way up to Jerusalem - begging. Indeed as a blind man that is likely all that he can do. Without his sight, he, like most blind people of his day - and indeed ours, is cut off from the normal transactions of daily life. He not only can't see to work in the fields planting and harvesting, or to labour at home making pots or tables or jewelry, he can't see the expressions on the faces of his parents or his brothers and sisters or anyone else. He dwells in darkness. He is cut off, isolated - and for the most part he is regarded as a burden by all - by his family and by society. A burden - nothing more - and nothing less. Someone who is accursed - someone who has been struck down - perhaps by God because of some sin in his life - perhaps by Satan perhaps simply by chance.
Bartimaeus is a man in dire straights - but he does have a pair of ears - and as he sits by the side of the road begging he is aware that a large crowd is approaching - and he hears that Jesus - Jesus of Nazereth is approaching - and because he has ears to hear - and because of what he cries out - we can assume that he has heard that Jesus is special - that he is a healer - that he has power - and he cries out - he cries out loudly so that he may be heard
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me
and again and again -- "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me" and when he is rebuked and sushed by people in the crowd, people who see him as a burden and as an annoyance to them and to the master, he shouts out all the more
Son of David, have mercy on me.
We know how the rest of the story goes.
Jesus stops and says to those near to him, "Call him." And they do - saying to him "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." And Bartimaeus throws his cloak aside and jumps to his feet and comes to Jesus - and when Jesus asks him "What do you want me to do for you?" he replies "Rabbi, I want to see."
And Jesus - Jesus the Son of David, Jesus the Son of God,has mercy on him and says "Go," your faith has healed you."
And Immediately Bartimaeus receives his sight - and rather than going to make for himself a new life in the town from which he has come he follows Jesus along the road - he becomes a disciple of our Lord.
"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." A prayer of desperation - and a prayer of faith.
Bartimaeus recognizes in his cry, in his plea who he is - and who Jesus is.
He recognizes in his cry that Jesus is the Messiah - the promised one of God the one who has come to heal the blind, and make the lame to walk, the one who has come to preach good news to the poor and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord - the year of liberation - the time of setting free.
And he knows that he needs these things within his own life that he needs the mercy and love of God to heal him - that God is his only hope.
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
This is a meditation - and a prayer - for millions upon millions of people, a prayer uttered for over 20 centuries - a prayer that is part of my life and which may well be - or should be - a part of your life.
Have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me - I do not do the good that I would do and the bad that I would not do - I do.
Lord, have mercy on me. My life is out of control. All that I love - has been taken from me. I have lost my job, my family, my health, I have been reduced to sackcloth and ashes. I grieve and I see no light in front of me. I dwell in darkness.
Lord, have mercy on me.
We heard read today the conclusion to the story of Job. Job was a righteous man, a man of faith, a man who had everything and regarded it all as a blessing of God. And he lost it all.
The story goes that Satan wanted to test his faith - to see if it was anchored on the blessings - or the blesser, to see if Job believed in God because of what it was God could do, and had done for him, or if he believed in God because of who God is - and nothing more.
Would Job, when he lost everything, curse God and die - as his wife suggested to him he should do, or - as he himself says to his wife - before she is taken from him, would he be one who not only accepted good from God - but trouble as well?
The story goes that Job has three friends visit with and mourn with him and that after a while they try to explain to Job why he is suffering - that it is perhaps because he has been sinful - a charge that he refutes in the strongest terms possible, and which God himself refutes when, at long last, God replies to the cries of Job, to his cries of innocence and of accusation - the accusation that he, that God, does not care.
Job in all this does not curse God, nor does he give up his faith that God is able to do all things.
God's response to Job is a reminder to him - and to Job's three friends, that God is a mystery greater than all the things we know, that He is the source of all things - the creator of all things - and to whom all things must in the end answer. And then we hear - in today's concluding story from the Book of Job, that Job repents of his attitude - the attitude that questions the goodness of God towards him, saying to God,
You said, "listen now and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me." My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
An ancient prayer indeed. It is the prayer of the righteous - as Job was righteous - even though he questioned God; and it is the prayer of those who, unlike Job, may in fact have done more to offend God than simply question him.
Job - knowing at last - when he sees at last with the eyes of faith - that God is indeed even greater and more powerful and more mysterious than he had ever thought before, and willing to accept that as he told his wife when she advised him to curse God and die - that he should indeed be willing to accept not only good from God's hands - but trouble as well, repents and receives from God a new life, a new life with a new blessings - children, land, a wife, wealth, and length of days in which to enjoy them.
Take note of this - it was not the old life he had, which he had enjoyed so much, that was restored to him; just as it was not the old life that Bartimaeus had - that he did not enjoy so much, that was restored to him.
It was a new life. A life based in a vision of who God is - and who we are before God.
It is hard for us to accept - this vision of God as all powerful, all knowing, and totally in charge.
As hard as it is for us to accept that perhaps we do not know how the world should be run, and what it is God should and should not do day by day in this world - and in our lives.
But accept it we should - for in accepting it - we let God into the deepest places of our hearts.
The Jesus Prayer - Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner; has many parts - each of which is worthy of meditation but the two main parts focus on who God is - who Jesus is - and who we are.
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Bartimaeus knew, with his eyes of faith - that Jesus was the promised one, the one with power - the one whom his ancestors called the "son of God", and believed that Jesus was fully able to help him. And he knew that he was one who needed help. One who needed mercy. Mercy, not necessarily because he was a wicked man but more simply thought - one who needed mercy because he was but a man. A man - like us - a man not able, in the end, to control the world around him. Just as Job finally accepted that it was not his place to question God - but simply to trust in him.
Today as I stand before you - I urge upon you the humility of Bartimaeus and the repentance of Job,
I urge upon you the wisdom and the power of the Jesus Prayer - the prayer that says so much in so few words.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
I cannot promise to you that this prayer will work like magic and that you will receive back into your life health that you have lost, or the wealth that you may need to enjoy life in the way that Job enjoyed life before his many afflictions.
I cannot promise you, that as happened with Mary and Martha, that your loved ones will come forth like Lazerus from his tomb and sit and dine with you and continue on till age or a new disease takes them once again from you.
But I can promise to you a new life - a different life than that which you have had - or even now have. A life that will allow you to enter into the most mysterious and most glorious place of all; a life that will allow you to dwell in the Kingdom of God - to dwell in that Kingdom both here: where we even now can taste and smell and touch that Kingdom and know it's truth and its goodness - and to dwell in that Kingdom beyond here, in the place beyond the grave, where all that is good and true and glorious and full of love abides forever in peace and in joy.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Bartimaeus sees and so receives his sight. Job sees, and so receives his new life. And both follow in the path of God - Bartimaeus by following Jesus - Job by praying for his friends.
What will we do?
We who are hurting?
We who like Job, may be angry at God?
We who like Bartimaeus may be suffering an affliction?
We who like Mary and Martha may be grieving?
All I can say - all I want to say - and all I need say - is pray. Pray with Bartimaeus -- Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Pray with those of the church around the world who know God and themselves, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Pray it over and over again - even when the crowd tells you, like it told Bartimaeus, not to pray it. Pray it over and over again - even if your wife or your friends or your own heart tells you "curse God and die".
Pray it - pray, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, and God will answer you.
Blessed be His name, now and forever. Amen.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Isaiah 53:4-12; Psalm 104; Mark 10:35-45
Let us pray - in the silence of the stars, in the quiet of the hills and in the heaving of the sea, you speak O Lord. In the words of the prophets and the message of the apostles, you speak O Lord. Now we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
How should we think about James and John, the sons of Zebedee? How should we think about the day they went to Jesus and said to him:
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
And when Jesus answered, "What is it you want me to do for you?" They replied:
"Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
How should we think about these two who were so forward that they not only wanted to stand out from the crowd, they also wanted to stand ahead of the other disciples and have the highest positions of power and privilege that they believed Jesus could grant.
We know how Peter and Matthew and Levi and the others reacted to James and John when they heard what James and John had asked Jesus to do for them. We know that they were angry with the sons of Zebedee, that they resented the two brothers' attempt to claim a position of privilege in the Kingdom of God.
And we know too how Jesus dealt with James and John, and what he said to all the disciples when he noticed their anger and resentment.
But that still doesn't answer the question - how should we think about James and John?
Should we regard them as being overly ambitious? Should we think less of them because they quite clearly seem to think too much of themselves?
Or should we just kind of ignore them and their obvious lack of sensitivity? Their lack of tact? Should we just kind of gloss over the affair and the reaction of the other disciples and of Jesus himself to their request?
My feeling is that we need to regard James and John and their audacious request with far more seriousness than we may want at first to give them.
My belief is that we should regard James and John as if they were us. And that then we should really listen to what Jesus had to say to them and to the other disciples.
Now let me qualify this.
I have never dreamed, and I doubt that any of you have ever dreamed, of actually sitting at the right hand of God and receiving all the glory and honour and respect and power that position has.
Most of us - even when we get into a really good political discussion with our friends and try to solve all the problems of Hong Kong - don't even really want to be in the government, let along to be the Chief Executive. No matter how much we may dream about what we do if we were in that position.
So for me to say that we should regard James and John as if they were us may seem to you to be a bit much, it may seem to you to be something that you can't relate to: something that only applies to those few people who are crazy with ambition, those few people who really do want, as Jesus states about the gentiles, to Lord it over others, those few arrogant ones who think that they are better, or that they know more, than everyone else.
But, my friends, that is too easy, it lets us off the hook that Jesus wants us on, the hook, which, when we embrace it, leads to wholeness for us and for our world.
We should regard James and John as if they were us. And we should listen o what Jesus had to say to them and to other disciples.
HOW MANY OF YOU, in your younger years, worked at odd jobs in the summer doing summer jobs, whether it be in shops, restaurants or offices.
Most of us have...
I think that its safe to say that we've usually had these jobs because they were expedient. We needed the money so we could have some pocket money, or because we needed to survive for a while until something else came along.
But we probably didn't aspire to these jobs as a life long profession - nor would we be delighted if one of our children said that she wanted to be a waitress when she grew up, or that he wanted to sweep the streets for the rest of his life.
We know that these jobs are important in that we think that they need to be done - but we probably don't think people should do them as a career - we probably think that they are best reserved for the very young, or for those who have no education and little hope of advancing their station in life.
We want better things then babysitting and street sweeping and waiting on tables for ourselves and for our children. We want to be paid well and we want our kids to earn a "decent" living. We want them to do something worthwhile. We want others to respect them and what they do. Like maybe they could become doctors or lawyers or accountants or run the family business or own their own computer repair business or nurse or teach or be computer programmers or x-ray technicians or heavy duty mechanics or owner-operators of their own business.
And that is good stuff - that's stuff that I want for my kids and I, like most parents, push my kids towards that stuff, I push them to get ahead.
As my father and mother did before me - so I do.
I ask them when they seem to be slacking off at school or when they are grumbling about the chores they have to perform, "Do you want to work at MacDonalds for the rest of your life? Do you want to dig ditches for a living?"
But you know - when I go to a restaurant - I want polite and attentive service.
And in the days I needed a babysitter for Ruth - I wanted someone who really cared for my child and knew how to keep an eye on her and how to react when she were getting into trouble.
If I hire to get someone to paint my house - I want it done right.
And I expect my garbage to be picked up promptly, the ditches along the highways to be properly dug, and all the debris on the streets and on the beaches I go to be cleaned up and stowed away in an environmentally friendly manner.
I want to be served, and to be served well. And so I believe so do we all.
I want to be respected, and listened to, and to have my opinions valued, and so I believe so do we all.
And I know and I believe that these wants are not wrong. And I know and I believe that these wants can easily go very wrong, and lead one first to insensitivity, and then to rudeness, and then to arrogance, and finally to tyranny.
And so my friends, when I really think about things, I have to struggle with myself. And I have to have help in that struggle, I have to have guidance: the guidance to realize that while I really don't want to be the Chief Executive of SAR Hong Kong or to Lord it over anyone else as the Gentiles do, I still, in one part of me at least, want more than I want to give or to have my children give. I need the guidance to realize that in me is a seed, that if watered, if indulged, can grow into an evil plant.
All of us have inside us somewhere James and John, all of us, in some part of our hearts and minds would rather be served than serve.
Indeed I think that even the most righteous among us occasionally dreams of the luxury of winning the Mark Six lottery and of living in ease the rest of our days rather than of the satisfaction of serving others and serving them well.
And so today, in the name of God, I deliver you a reminder.
A reminder about what Jesus had to say, and about what Jesus did.
Jesus said, "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus could not tell James or John who would end up sitting at his left or his right hand. As he said to them, it was not even something that he could grant. But I can tell you that Jesus himself sits at the right hand of God.
He sits there because he gave himself to us wholly and completely, because he served God and served us all with all of his heart and soul and body.
I can tell that you when he entered Jerusalem in triumph just a few days before his death, He rode an ass, not a stallion; and that he stayed in the humble home of a friend, not in some pretentious palace.
I can tell you that he gave food to the hungry and that he visited the sick, and that when he performed miracles he fled from the crowds that wanted to make him a king because of the power that they knew lay behind those acts.
I can tell you that Jesus didn't just wash people's souls clean of sin, he kneeled beside them and washed their feet clean of dust and dirt.
And not once did he complain that no one appreciated him, nor did he open his mouth when he was reviled and persecuted because he was a friend of sinners.
I offer you today a reminder of who is at the right hand of God and of some of the reasons for why he is there.
I offer you this reminder in the name of God, so that when you speak to your children, and when you consider what is worth while and what is worthy of respect and what jobs are beneath your dignity, and what insults you cannot bear, you will know what is right, and which seeds you should water, and which ones you should not.
I call you this day to remember James and John, and how you yourselves are like them.
And finally I call you to remember that James and John, were among the chosen ones and remained among the chosen ones, and that Jesus served them and gave his life for them.
As he has given his life for you.
Our reward is indeed in heaven - whether to the right or to the left or to the front or to the rear of our Servant King I cannot say - but I can say that God will embrace us and wipe every tear from our eyes and that all we will find there will make the glory we sometimes seek here seem like so much trash.
Praise be to God for the salvation he grants us through Christ Jesus our Lord, our brother, our friend, and our servant. Amen.
How should we think about James and John, the sons of Zebedee? How should we think about the day they went to Jesus and said to him:
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
And when Jesus answered, "What is it you want me to do for you?" They replied:
"Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
How should we think about these two who were so forward that they not only wanted to stand out from the crowd, they also wanted to stand ahead of the other disciples and have the highest positions of power and privilege that they believed Jesus could grant.
We know how Peter and Matthew and Levi and the others reacted to James and John when they heard what James and John had asked Jesus to do for them. We know that they were angry with the sons of Zebedee, that they resented the two brothers' attempt to claim a position of privilege in the Kingdom of God.
And we know too how Jesus dealt with James and John, and what he said to all the disciples when he noticed their anger and resentment.
But that still doesn't answer the question - how should we think about James and John?
Should we regard them as being overly ambitious? Should we think less of them because they quite clearly seem to think too much of themselves?
Or should we just kind of ignore them and their obvious lack of sensitivity? Their lack of tact? Should we just kind of gloss over the affair and the reaction of the other disciples and of Jesus himself to their request?
My feeling is that we need to regard James and John and their audacious request with far more seriousness than we may want at first to give them.
My belief is that we should regard James and John as if they were us. And that then we should really listen to what Jesus had to say to them and to the other disciples.
Now let me qualify this.
I have never dreamed, and I doubt that any of you have ever dreamed, of actually sitting at the right hand of God and receiving all the glory and honour and respect and power that position has.
Most of us - even when we get into a really good political discussion with our friends and try to solve all the problems of Hong Kong - don't even really want to be in the government, let along to be the Chief Executive. No matter how much we may dream about what we do if we were in that position.
So for me to say that we should regard James and John as if they were us may seem to you to be a bit much, it may seem to you to be something that you can't relate to: something that only applies to those few people who are crazy with ambition, those few people who really do want, as Jesus states about the gentiles, to Lord it over others, those few arrogant ones who think that they are better, or that they know more, than everyone else.
But, my friends, that is too easy, it lets us off the hook that Jesus wants us on, the hook, which, when we embrace it, leads to wholeness for us and for our world.
We should regard James and John as if they were us. And we should listen o what Jesus had to say to them and to other disciples.
HOW MANY OF YOU, in your younger years, worked at odd jobs in the summer doing summer jobs, whether it be in shops, restaurants or offices.
Most of us have...
I think that its safe to say that we've usually had these jobs because they were expedient. We needed the money so we could have some pocket money, or because we needed to survive for a while until something else came along.
But we probably didn't aspire to these jobs as a life long profession - nor would we be delighted if one of our children said that she wanted to be a waitress when she grew up, or that he wanted to sweep the streets for the rest of his life.
We know that these jobs are important in that we think that they need to be done - but we probably don't think people should do them as a career - we probably think that they are best reserved for the very young, or for those who have no education and little hope of advancing their station in life.
We want better things then babysitting and street sweeping and waiting on tables for ourselves and for our children. We want to be paid well and we want our kids to earn a "decent" living. We want them to do something worthwhile. We want others to respect them and what they do. Like maybe they could become doctors or lawyers or accountants or run the family business or own their own computer repair business or nurse or teach or be computer programmers or x-ray technicians or heavy duty mechanics or owner-operators of their own business.
And that is good stuff - that's stuff that I want for my kids and I, like most parents, push my kids towards that stuff, I push them to get ahead.
As my father and mother did before me - so I do.
I ask them when they seem to be slacking off at school or when they are grumbling about the chores they have to perform, "Do you want to work at MacDonalds for the rest of your life? Do you want to dig ditches for a living?"
But you know - when I go to a restaurant - I want polite and attentive service.
And in the days I needed a babysitter for Ruth - I wanted someone who really cared for my child and knew how to keep an eye on her and how to react when she were getting into trouble.
If I hire to get someone to paint my house - I want it done right.
And I expect my garbage to be picked up promptly, the ditches along the highways to be properly dug, and all the debris on the streets and on the beaches I go to be cleaned up and stowed away in an environmentally friendly manner.
I want to be served, and to be served well. And so I believe so do we all.
I want to be respected, and listened to, and to have my opinions valued, and so I believe so do we all.
And I know and I believe that these wants are not wrong. And I know and I believe that these wants can easily go very wrong, and lead one first to insensitivity, and then to rudeness, and then to arrogance, and finally to tyranny.
And so my friends, when I really think about things, I have to struggle with myself. And I have to have help in that struggle, I have to have guidance: the guidance to realize that while I really don't want to be the Chief Executive of SAR Hong Kong or to Lord it over anyone else as the Gentiles do, I still, in one part of me at least, want more than I want to give or to have my children give. I need the guidance to realize that in me is a seed, that if watered, if indulged, can grow into an evil plant.
All of us have inside us somewhere James and John, all of us, in some part of our hearts and minds would rather be served than serve.
Indeed I think that even the most righteous among us occasionally dreams of the luxury of winning the Mark Six lottery and of living in ease the rest of our days rather than of the satisfaction of serving others and serving them well.
And so today, in the name of God, I deliver you a reminder.
A reminder about what Jesus had to say, and about what Jesus did.
Jesus said, "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus could not tell James or John who would end up sitting at his left or his right hand. As he said to them, it was not even something that he could grant. But I can tell you that Jesus himself sits at the right hand of God.
He sits there because he gave himself to us wholly and completely, because he served God and served us all with all of his heart and soul and body.
I can tell that you when he entered Jerusalem in triumph just a few days before his death, He rode an ass, not a stallion; and that he stayed in the humble home of a friend, not in some pretentious palace.
I can tell you that he gave food to the hungry and that he visited the sick, and that when he performed miracles he fled from the crowds that wanted to make him a king because of the power that they knew lay behind those acts.
I can tell you that Jesus didn't just wash people's souls clean of sin, he kneeled beside them and washed their feet clean of dust and dirt.
And not once did he complain that no one appreciated him, nor did he open his mouth when he was reviled and persecuted because he was a friend of sinners.
I offer you today a reminder of who is at the right hand of God and of some of the reasons for why he is there.
I offer you this reminder in the name of God, so that when you speak to your children, and when you consider what is worth while and what is worthy of respect and what jobs are beneath your dignity, and what insults you cannot bear, you will know what is right, and which seeds you should water, and which ones you should not.
I call you this day to remember James and John, and how you yourselves are like them.
And finally I call you to remember that James and John, were among the chosen ones and remained among the chosen ones, and that Jesus served them and gave his life for them.
As he has given his life for you.
Our reward is indeed in heaven - whether to the right or to the left or to the front or to the rear of our Servant King I cannot say - but I can say that God will embrace us and wipe every tear from our eyes and that all we will find there will make the glory we sometimes seek here seem like so much trash.
Praise be to God for the salvation he grants us through Christ Jesus our Lord, our brother, our friend, and our servant. Amen.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Hebrews 4:12-16; Psalm 22:1-18; Mark 10:17-31
Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the hearts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen
The gospel story today is one of the most familiar stories of the New Testament and one of the most problematic - both for what it says about those who are wealthy - and for what it says about who in fact can inherit eternal life, who in fact can enter the Kingdom of God.
A man, who is both young and a ruler among his people (according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew) approaches Jesus with a question. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" he asks.
It is a question which reveals much and Jesus knows it, which is why he responds the way he does.
This is a man who doesn't have to worry about the life he already has. In modern terms, his mortgage is paid off. His creditors have been looked after. His stock portfolio is brimming over with only blue chip merchandise. He is truly blessed in the ways that the world, and indeed many of the church, count blessings. And he wants even more: he wants the blessings of heaven - he wants to enter the Kingdom of God and there dwell with Abraham and all who gone before him.
Let us not have any doubts about the sincerity of this man. His integrity is beyond question. When Jesus asks him if he has kept the commandments - and in particular those that relate to how we treat one another. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother, he responds that he has kept them all faithfully from the days of his childhood and Jesus, we are told, looked at him and loved him.
And then he tells the man that he lacks one thing, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor", Jesus says, "and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
We never really hear how things turn out for the rich young ruler. We do know that he goes away from Jesus very sad, because he had great wealth. What we do not know is whether or not he later follows the command that Jesus gave him. Whether he does or doesn't is never mentioned and at one level it is not important for us to know. But Jesus does say something after the young man goes away that astonishes and perplexes his disciples. He says to them:
"How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."
and when the disciples are amazed by these words, he goes on to say
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
I wish I could tell you just how perplexing it was for the disciples to hear these words. They, like so many of us, were raised to believe that earthly wealth - especially that wealth acquired by those who adhered to the customs, traditions, and laws of Moses - was a sign of God's blessing.
And in a very real sense it is.
Consider the story of Job - righteous before God and blessed with everything that a person could want till tested by Satan. And how those blessings were restored many times over when he passes his time of testing.
Consider the law itselfm which says, for example, in Deuteronomy, chapter seven: (12-14)
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land - your grain, new wine and oil - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young.
The disciples were even more amazed, our story today continues, when they heard these words of Jesus concerning how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God, and they said to each other "Who then can be saved?"
Indeed, who can be saved?
I received a letter not so long ago that reminded me of so many conversations and letters I have had or received over the past as a part of the church of Christ Jesus.
It said, in part.
I have been attempting to learn more about God's word to calm my fears and reassure myself that I will indeed be welcomed into God's kingdom when the time comes. Well, that is not happening....instead I am feeling that there is no chance of that happening. I feel further from God every time I try to understand. I know that I am a perfectionist and I know all of my faults, shortcomings and downfalls and what a letdown I have been to God who created me in His perfect image. I have really been trying to put great whole hearted effort into listening to God and trying to do the things that He wants me to. I feel that I just keep falling short of the mark, then haunt myself hour after hour as I lay awake at night. Why am I getting farther from God instead of closer. Then I begin to analyse and become more critical.
"If I had more faith..... my feet would be healed"
"If I had more faith..... I could forgive my sister"
"If I had more faith..... I would not think mean, critical or harsh thoughts of others"
"If I had more faith..... I would not speak gossip, criticize or scold"
"If I had more faith..... I would have the same type of wisdom and insight that can be seen in all the other past and present members of my prayer group."
"If I had more faith..... I would not have to work so hard to be a Christian"
I really do try hard, but the more scriptures that I read and try to understand the more convinced I am that I am doomed.....
"Who then can be saved" the disciples ask Jesus.
What a question that is. One that echoes in my heart not only as I consider the rich young ruler or as I consider the plea of the person who wrote the letter I just read, but which echoes in my heart as I consider how much I love God and yet how far I am from the perfection that God demands of me.
One thing you lack....
I think every one of us here today, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, realizes that we lack one thing - perhaps even more than one thing.
As the reading from Hebrew's today says, and as the letter I read from my friend indicated
"the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heat. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
That Word most surely judges us - and finds in us - not just one thing that is lacking - but in many cases, many things lacking.
"The more scriptures that I read and try to understand the more convinced I am that I am doomed."
Could have the rich young man given everything away and followed Jesus and thereby entered the Kingdom of God. Was his problem simply that he loved money more than he loved God.
Perhaps.
The love of money is most certainly an evil and Jesus' words about the danger of being rich should give us all pause. When the truth is told it is all too likely true that for us, as it seems it may have been for the rich young ruler, that when it comes to giving it away most people stop at nothing, or next to nothing.
You know as well as I that there are many affluent people - and most of us are that - who will quickly profess their indifference to money - or disdain for it - as if to protect themselves from the charge that they are over attached to it - but who by their habits of spending - even on the Sabbath Day - show that they value a big lunch or a shopping trip far more than they value contributing to the work of God in their church and their community.
It is easy to fool ourselves when it comes to which we love more - God or Mammon. But that can change - for us - as much it could have changed for the rich young ruler.
But all in all, money is but a symbol of what stands in the way of our of entering the Kingdom of God and it is entirely possible to give up everything for God - and still not have the heart that we need to enter into his presence.
The Apostle Paul, who was one who had a religious pedigree and a zealousness for God that was among the best, writes in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians:
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
And then, in his first letter to the Corinthians he reminds us and undoubtedly himself:
If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
"Who then can be saved", the disciples ask.
It is a profound question. And Jesus answers it by saying, "With man this is impossible, but with God; all things are possible with God."
The scriptures today speak to us of those things that are impossible to us and of how the word of God reveals to us, sometimes in the starkest fashion, just who we are and how far we are from entering the Kingdom of God. A message, in short, that would be thoroughly depressing - if it were not for the fact that the core message in today's reading is this answer of Christ - that all things are possible with God.
My friends, as it says in the Letter to The Hebrews - in Christ we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with us and help us. He knows all our flaws and imperfections and yet intercedes on our behalf. Because of his goodness we can approach the throne of grace with confidence - and we called to do so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Inheriting eternal life is not something that we can earn - nor is entering the Kingdom of God something we can work for. There is nothing we can give to obtain it. It is free gift. All we have to do is hold out our hands and accept the gift. It's both the easiest and the hardest thing we can ever do.
The easiest - because the gift is free.
The hardest - because our hands are so often filled with other things.
I tell you today - keep holding out your hands - trust in God to show you the love he has promised even as he reminds you over and over again to let go of all those other things you worry about or value.
Praise be to God.
The gospel story today is one of the most familiar stories of the New Testament and one of the most problematic - both for what it says about those who are wealthy - and for what it says about who in fact can inherit eternal life, who in fact can enter the Kingdom of God.
A man, who is both young and a ruler among his people (according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew) approaches Jesus with a question. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" he asks.
It is a question which reveals much and Jesus knows it, which is why he responds the way he does.
This is a man who doesn't have to worry about the life he already has. In modern terms, his mortgage is paid off. His creditors have been looked after. His stock portfolio is brimming over with only blue chip merchandise. He is truly blessed in the ways that the world, and indeed many of the church, count blessings. And he wants even more: he wants the blessings of heaven - he wants to enter the Kingdom of God and there dwell with Abraham and all who gone before him.
Let us not have any doubts about the sincerity of this man. His integrity is beyond question. When Jesus asks him if he has kept the commandments - and in particular those that relate to how we treat one another. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother, he responds that he has kept them all faithfully from the days of his childhood and Jesus, we are told, looked at him and loved him.
And then he tells the man that he lacks one thing, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor", Jesus says, "and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
We never really hear how things turn out for the rich young ruler. We do know that he goes away from Jesus very sad, because he had great wealth. What we do not know is whether or not he later follows the command that Jesus gave him. Whether he does or doesn't is never mentioned and at one level it is not important for us to know. But Jesus does say something after the young man goes away that astonishes and perplexes his disciples. He says to them:
"How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."
and when the disciples are amazed by these words, he goes on to say
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
I wish I could tell you just how perplexing it was for the disciples to hear these words. They, like so many of us, were raised to believe that earthly wealth - especially that wealth acquired by those who adhered to the customs, traditions, and laws of Moses - was a sign of God's blessing.
And in a very real sense it is.
Consider the story of Job - righteous before God and blessed with everything that a person could want till tested by Satan. And how those blessings were restored many times over when he passes his time of testing.
Consider the law itselfm which says, for example, in Deuteronomy, chapter seven: (12-14)
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land - your grain, new wine and oil - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young.
The disciples were even more amazed, our story today continues, when they heard these words of Jesus concerning how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God, and they said to each other "Who then can be saved?"
Indeed, who can be saved?
I received a letter not so long ago that reminded me of so many conversations and letters I have had or received over the past as a part of the church of Christ Jesus.
It said, in part.
I have been attempting to learn more about God's word to calm my fears and reassure myself that I will indeed be welcomed into God's kingdom when the time comes. Well, that is not happening....instead I am feeling that there is no chance of that happening. I feel further from God every time I try to understand. I know that I am a perfectionist and I know all of my faults, shortcomings and downfalls and what a letdown I have been to God who created me in His perfect image. I have really been trying to put great whole hearted effort into listening to God and trying to do the things that He wants me to. I feel that I just keep falling short of the mark, then haunt myself hour after hour as I lay awake at night. Why am I getting farther from God instead of closer. Then I begin to analyse and become more critical.
"If I had more faith..... my feet would be healed"
"If I had more faith..... I could forgive my sister"
"If I had more faith..... I would not think mean, critical or harsh thoughts of others"
"If I had more faith..... I would not speak gossip, criticize or scold"
"If I had more faith..... I would have the same type of wisdom and insight that can be seen in all the other past and present members of my prayer group."
"If I had more faith..... I would not have to work so hard to be a Christian"
I really do try hard, but the more scriptures that I read and try to understand the more convinced I am that I am doomed.....
"Who then can be saved" the disciples ask Jesus.
What a question that is. One that echoes in my heart not only as I consider the rich young ruler or as I consider the plea of the person who wrote the letter I just read, but which echoes in my heart as I consider how much I love God and yet how far I am from the perfection that God demands of me.
One thing you lack....
I think every one of us here today, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, realizes that we lack one thing - perhaps even more than one thing.
As the reading from Hebrew's today says, and as the letter I read from my friend indicated
"the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heat. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
That Word most surely judges us - and finds in us - not just one thing that is lacking - but in many cases, many things lacking.
"The more scriptures that I read and try to understand the more convinced I am that I am doomed."
Could have the rich young man given everything away and followed Jesus and thereby entered the Kingdom of God. Was his problem simply that he loved money more than he loved God.
Perhaps.
The love of money is most certainly an evil and Jesus' words about the danger of being rich should give us all pause. When the truth is told it is all too likely true that for us, as it seems it may have been for the rich young ruler, that when it comes to giving it away most people stop at nothing, or next to nothing.
You know as well as I that there are many affluent people - and most of us are that - who will quickly profess their indifference to money - or disdain for it - as if to protect themselves from the charge that they are over attached to it - but who by their habits of spending - even on the Sabbath Day - show that they value a big lunch or a shopping trip far more than they value contributing to the work of God in their church and their community.
It is easy to fool ourselves when it comes to which we love more - God or Mammon. But that can change - for us - as much it could have changed for the rich young ruler.
But all in all, money is but a symbol of what stands in the way of our of entering the Kingdom of God and it is entirely possible to give up everything for God - and still not have the heart that we need to enter into his presence.
The Apostle Paul, who was one who had a religious pedigree and a zealousness for God that was among the best, writes in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians:
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
And then, in his first letter to the Corinthians he reminds us and undoubtedly himself:
If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
"Who then can be saved", the disciples ask.
It is a profound question. And Jesus answers it by saying, "With man this is impossible, but with God; all things are possible with God."
The scriptures today speak to us of those things that are impossible to us and of how the word of God reveals to us, sometimes in the starkest fashion, just who we are and how far we are from entering the Kingdom of God. A message, in short, that would be thoroughly depressing - if it were not for the fact that the core message in today's reading is this answer of Christ - that all things are possible with God.
My friends, as it says in the Letter to The Hebrews - in Christ we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with us and help us. He knows all our flaws and imperfections and yet intercedes on our behalf. Because of his goodness we can approach the throne of grace with confidence - and we called to do so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Inheriting eternal life is not something that we can earn - nor is entering the Kingdom of God something we can work for. There is nothing we can give to obtain it. It is free gift. All we have to do is hold out our hands and accept the gift. It's both the easiest and the hardest thing we can ever do.
The easiest - because the gift is free.
The hardest - because our hands are so often filled with other things.
I tell you today - keep holding out your hands - trust in God to show you the love he has promised even as he reminds you over and over again to let go of all those other things you worry about or value.
Praise be to God.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Numbers 11:24-30; Psalm 124; and Mark 9:38-50
Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the hearts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen
It might be good to have your bulletin stuck in your bible at one of today's readings and have the bible open to the other because I am going to refer directly to some of the verses we found there - and do a lit adlibbing as it were on those verses.
But let me start by asking you here today - how many of you like things to be orderly? To have everything well defined? To have all the loose ends wrapped up??? Come on - fess up, and put up your hands - who likes things to be under control, to be well organized? to be predictable?
There is nothing out of the ordinary in this, it is a part of human nature. You can see it very clearly wherever people go.
People, for example almost always take the same seat at school or at church, or they start dinner by always eating what they like first and leaving the rest for later or perhaps vice-versa.
If someone changes things on us - if they take our seat for example, or tell us that we should eat our peas first and our meat second, we become upset.
Most of us really believe in the saying - "there is a place for everything and everything in its place".
We believe in it because we know that if things get out of order - if we can't predict where the bedroom chair is, or where someone has left their shoes, or where the cups and saucers are, then we are likely to stub our toes in the dark of night, or spend endless minutes searching for what we need while the kettle boils dry.
It is a helpful trait - this trait of orderliness, of habit, of custom, of predictability, so helpful in fact that none us really likes being taken by surprise - except of course on birthdays and other special occasions - and even then we kind of expect, or hope, that a particular kind of surprise is coming: some gift, or party, or thing that will please us and show us that we are loved.
The human desire for orderliness and predictability is a good thing,because of it our science and technology, our agriculture and our medicine is made possible. Yet sometimes this trait, this part of human nature, gets in our way.
It is this fact that lies behind today's Old Testament Reading and today's Gospel reading.
As we heard, in verse 24 Moses gathered 70 leaders of the Israelite community together one day so that they might assist him in bearing responsibility for watching over and caring for the people of God. He calls them to go out with him to the Tent of the Ark of the Covenant which was placed outside of the rest of the camp, and to receive there from God the same gift of the Holy Spirit that he had.
And so they do. Just as planned. While there each one of them is filled with the Spirit of God and each one prophecies, each one speaks for God the words of God, words meant for the health and well being of the Israelite family.
But there is a catch.
It turns out that two of the seventy leaders did not go out to the Tent of the Ark of The Covenant.
Instead, for some unknown reason, they stayed in the camp with the rest of the people and it is there that the Spirit descends upon them, and it is there that they prophecy, and it is there that they are caught by a young man.
They are caught by him breaking the rules and regulations set down by Moses, they are caught doing things out of turn, improperly, and without due authorization, and the young man runs out to the tent of the Ark of the Covenant and he reports all that he has seen to Moses.
Joshua, who is with Moses, Joshua, who is the chosen successor to Moses, hears the young man's report at the same time Moses does, and like John the Apostle in today's Gospel reading, he attempts to put an end to the irregularity.
In verse 28 we hear him say to Moses:
"My Lord Moses, Stop Them! Stop them from disobeying you. Stop them from doing things in the way they are not supposed to do them. Stop them from defiling the Spirit of God."
My Lord, Stop Them...
How many people have we tried to stop?
How many people have we stifled because they are not doing things the way we think they should be done? Because they are not precisely following the plan that we expect them to follow?
It is a serious question.
It is a serious question because I would guess the most damaging thing that anyone of us does in the course of an average week, whether it be at your voluntary work or in a church committee, at work, or in our homes, is our attempt to ensure that everyone works at their job in the way that we believe they should.
Just as we want the shoes left at the door, and the bedroom chairs set carefully in the corners, and the cups and saucers put in the left-hand cupboard, so we want - and expect - that those who are doing the same kind of work we are doing to be known to us, and to do it in the same way as us, in the way that we sincerely believe that God wants us - and everyone else - to do it.
And that can be a major problem. Our good and natural desire for order and predictability, our sense of what is proper and right, can lead us into all manner of serious problems.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I was in a small rural church on one of the outlying islands here in Hong Kong at one time that had a major dispute about where the rice should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual annual supper - which by the way was truly an excellent Meal.
One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the rice on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator.
"It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't even from around here."
Sound familiar to anyone? Ever wonder what that kind of attitude does to a community? Or to a church? Or even to our own sons and daughters - who somehow can't quite do things just like the old man does....
The apostle John came up to Jesus one day. In verse 38 of today's gospel reading we hear him say:
Jesus, I was walking down the road with the rest of the disciples, and we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, we tried to stop him because we don't know who he is, we tried to stop him because he doesn't follow us.
It's like an echo isn't it - these two passages we are looking at today.
Jesus - We tried to stop him!...My Lord Moses, stop them!
What was John missing?
What was Joshua missing?
What was my lady in the kitchen serving rice missing?
What are we missing?
What are we missing when new people come into our church or our work place or club or our small group- and then leave it just as quickly as they came?
What are we missing when members of our own family tell us that we are driving them away? And when strangers tell us that they do not feel welcome in our midst?
Is the sound of grumbling heard too often in our tents? Are the expectations we place upon others to do things just so - just a little bit too much?
But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Do you think I really care if Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp instead of here? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit in them. Would that they would prophesy in the camp, and speak God's word in the tabernacle, and communicate the will of the Lord to one another while walking through the desert and when they are eating and when they are playing.
It is good to have order.
It is good to do things in certain ways.
Having customs and traditions and rules and regulations makes sense to me.
They make sense that is until they get in the way of embracing other people - until they become instruments of judgement instead of instruments of grace, until they become things that blind us to what God is doing in our midst instead of helping us to see. And then they have to prioritized - according to the simple law of the Spirit - the law of love - the law that embraces all our relations - the law that the Apostle Paul tells us in the Letter to Romans gives life..
But Jesus said to John, "Do not stop him! Do not prevent him from doing good in my name simply because he is not following you and the other disciples. He is on my side. For no-one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. Truly, I tell you, whoever give you a cup of water to drink because you bear my name will by no means lose the reward."
Whoever is not against us is for us.
Sometimes my friends when we try to work together, we end up working apart. We rip and we tear at each other because others aren't serving God in the way we want them to, because they aren't doing those things we are doing those things we think need doing and doing in a particular way.
To paraphrase Moses, We are jealous for our Lord, instead of allowing our Lord to be jealous for himself.
And sometimes when we work apart, whether this be by accident or by design, we are really working together.
Work and the service clubs, the cancer societies and the food bank volunteers, are all in one way or another, about the work of God. They each do it differently - but they each do it because they want to make a difference, because they want the human family to prosper and to be whole.
And even within our work places even within the church, where people do things differently than we expect or hope - or do different things than those things we want them to, they still do it because they care and they believe, and they still hope that it will make a difference and that God's work will be done, as do in fact we.
No matter how different we may seem to be to one another, if we are really using the name of God, the name of Jesus, in our work of helping and healing, we are working together.
Blessed are we when we understand this. And blessed is the world in which we work, and for whom we work.
The world needs us to work together - even if we work at different things or work in different ways for the same goal.
It needs the hope we offer, the food we share, the relationship with God that we have entered into.
The world needs the message we bear about our common brother and sisterhood, the word we have about our unity in the family of God, and about how God loves us and wants to help us be whole.
The world needs us.
It needs to see that we are - in fact - all related and that our relationship is one of peace - of shalom - of God's righteousness and God's love.
We are dedicated by our vows of faith and our pledges of loyalty to being loving and caring members of God's family. We are set apart by our faith - we are made holy in other words - so that our presence in the larger world and in the intimacy of our families is a life giving presence.
As Christians we have committed ourselves to doing the work God calls us to do and to seeing others in the way that God sees us, and judging others in the way that God judges us.
We can only really keep our vows and pledges, we can only be true to our commitment, we can only fill the world's need for us if we embrace one another and celebrate our common bound in God, the bound that was signed and sealed upon the cross of Christ. upon the cross of the one who said before he died, for us:
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greet your relations today - those in the pews ahead of you and behind you.
And greet your neighbours in the same way - and with the same signs of peace, the peace that truly only comes through the faith in the one who said: 'They who are not against us are for us'.
Praise be to the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, now and forevermore. Amen.
It might be good to have your bulletin stuck in your bible at one of today's readings and have the bible open to the other because I am going to refer directly to some of the verses we found there - and do a lit adlibbing as it were on those verses.
But let me start by asking you here today - how many of you like things to be orderly? To have everything well defined? To have all the loose ends wrapped up??? Come on - fess up, and put up your hands - who likes things to be under control, to be well organized? to be predictable?
There is nothing out of the ordinary in this, it is a part of human nature. You can see it very clearly wherever people go.
People, for example almost always take the same seat at school or at church, or they start dinner by always eating what they like first and leaving the rest for later or perhaps vice-versa.
If someone changes things on us - if they take our seat for example, or tell us that we should eat our peas first and our meat second, we become upset.
Most of us really believe in the saying - "there is a place for everything and everything in its place".
We believe in it because we know that if things get out of order - if we can't predict where the bedroom chair is, or where someone has left their shoes, or where the cups and saucers are, then we are likely to stub our toes in the dark of night, or spend endless minutes searching for what we need while the kettle boils dry.
It is a helpful trait - this trait of orderliness, of habit, of custom, of predictability, so helpful in fact that none us really likes being taken by surprise - except of course on birthdays and other special occasions - and even then we kind of expect, or hope, that a particular kind of surprise is coming: some gift, or party, or thing that will please us and show us that we are loved.
The human desire for orderliness and predictability is a good thing,because of it our science and technology, our agriculture and our medicine is made possible. Yet sometimes this trait, this part of human nature, gets in our way.
It is this fact that lies behind today's Old Testament Reading and today's Gospel reading.
As we heard, in verse 24 Moses gathered 70 leaders of the Israelite community together one day so that they might assist him in bearing responsibility for watching over and caring for the people of God. He calls them to go out with him to the Tent of the Ark of the Covenant which was placed outside of the rest of the camp, and to receive there from God the same gift of the Holy Spirit that he had.
And so they do. Just as planned. While there each one of them is filled with the Spirit of God and each one prophecies, each one speaks for God the words of God, words meant for the health and well being of the Israelite family.
But there is a catch.
It turns out that two of the seventy leaders did not go out to the Tent of the Ark of The Covenant.
Instead, for some unknown reason, they stayed in the camp with the rest of the people and it is there that the Spirit descends upon them, and it is there that they prophecy, and it is there that they are caught by a young man.
They are caught by him breaking the rules and regulations set down by Moses, they are caught doing things out of turn, improperly, and without due authorization, and the young man runs out to the tent of the Ark of the Covenant and he reports all that he has seen to Moses.
Joshua, who is with Moses, Joshua, who is the chosen successor to Moses, hears the young man's report at the same time Moses does, and like John the Apostle in today's Gospel reading, he attempts to put an end to the irregularity.
In verse 28 we hear him say to Moses:
"My Lord Moses, Stop Them! Stop them from disobeying you. Stop them from doing things in the way they are not supposed to do them. Stop them from defiling the Spirit of God."
My Lord, Stop Them...
How many people have we tried to stop?
How many people have we stifled because they are not doing things the way we think they should be done? Because they are not precisely following the plan that we expect them to follow?
It is a serious question.
It is a serious question because I would guess the most damaging thing that anyone of us does in the course of an average week, whether it be at your voluntary work or in a church committee, at work, or in our homes, is our attempt to ensure that everyone works at their job in the way that we believe they should.
Just as we want the shoes left at the door, and the bedroom chairs set carefully in the corners, and the cups and saucers put in the left-hand cupboard, so we want - and expect - that those who are doing the same kind of work we are doing to be known to us, and to do it in the same way as us, in the way that we sincerely believe that God wants us - and everyone else - to do it.
And that can be a major problem. Our good and natural desire for order and predictability, our sense of what is proper and right, can lead us into all manner of serious problems.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I was in a small rural church on one of the outlying islands here in Hong Kong at one time that had a major dispute about where the rice should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual annual supper - which by the way was truly an excellent Meal.
One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the rice on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator.
"It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't even from around here."
Sound familiar to anyone? Ever wonder what that kind of attitude does to a community? Or to a church? Or even to our own sons and daughters - who somehow can't quite do things just like the old man does....
The apostle John came up to Jesus one day. In verse 38 of today's gospel reading we hear him say:
Jesus, I was walking down the road with the rest of the disciples, and we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, we tried to stop him because we don't know who he is, we tried to stop him because he doesn't follow us.
It's like an echo isn't it - these two passages we are looking at today.
Jesus - We tried to stop him!...My Lord Moses, stop them!
What was John missing?
What was Joshua missing?
What was my lady in the kitchen serving rice missing?
What are we missing?
What are we missing when new people come into our church or our work place or club or our small group- and then leave it just as quickly as they came?
What are we missing when members of our own family tell us that we are driving them away? And when strangers tell us that they do not feel welcome in our midst?
Is the sound of grumbling heard too often in our tents? Are the expectations we place upon others to do things just so - just a little bit too much?
But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Do you think I really care if Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp instead of here? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit in them. Would that they would prophesy in the camp, and speak God's word in the tabernacle, and communicate the will of the Lord to one another while walking through the desert and when they are eating and when they are playing.
It is good to have order.
It is good to do things in certain ways.
Having customs and traditions and rules and regulations makes sense to me.
They make sense that is until they get in the way of embracing other people - until they become instruments of judgement instead of instruments of grace, until they become things that blind us to what God is doing in our midst instead of helping us to see. And then they have to prioritized - according to the simple law of the Spirit - the law of love - the law that embraces all our relations - the law that the Apostle Paul tells us in the Letter to Romans gives life..
But Jesus said to John, "Do not stop him! Do not prevent him from doing good in my name simply because he is not following you and the other disciples. He is on my side. For no-one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. Truly, I tell you, whoever give you a cup of water to drink because you bear my name will by no means lose the reward."
Whoever is not against us is for us.
Sometimes my friends when we try to work together, we end up working apart. We rip and we tear at each other because others aren't serving God in the way we want them to, because they aren't doing those things we are doing those things we think need doing and doing in a particular way.
To paraphrase Moses, We are jealous for our Lord, instead of allowing our Lord to be jealous for himself.
And sometimes when we work apart, whether this be by accident or by design, we are really working together.
Work and the service clubs, the cancer societies and the food bank volunteers, are all in one way or another, about the work of God. They each do it differently - but they each do it because they want to make a difference, because they want the human family to prosper and to be whole.
And even within our work places even within the church, where people do things differently than we expect or hope - or do different things than those things we want them to, they still do it because they care and they believe, and they still hope that it will make a difference and that God's work will be done, as do in fact we.
No matter how different we may seem to be to one another, if we are really using the name of God, the name of Jesus, in our work of helping and healing, we are working together.
Blessed are we when we understand this. And blessed is the world in which we work, and for whom we work.
The world needs us to work together - even if we work at different things or work in different ways for the same goal.
It needs the hope we offer, the food we share, the relationship with God that we have entered into.
The world needs the message we bear about our common brother and sisterhood, the word we have about our unity in the family of God, and about how God loves us and wants to help us be whole.
The world needs us.
It needs to see that we are - in fact - all related and that our relationship is one of peace - of shalom - of God's righteousness and God's love.
We are dedicated by our vows of faith and our pledges of loyalty to being loving and caring members of God's family. We are set apart by our faith - we are made holy in other words - so that our presence in the larger world and in the intimacy of our families is a life giving presence.
As Christians we have committed ourselves to doing the work God calls us to do and to seeing others in the way that God sees us, and judging others in the way that God judges us.
We can only really keep our vows and pledges, we can only be true to our commitment, we can only fill the world's need for us if we embrace one another and celebrate our common bound in God, the bound that was signed and sealed upon the cross of Christ. upon the cross of the one who said before he died, for us:
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greet your relations today - those in the pews ahead of you and behind you.
And greet your neighbours in the same way - and with the same signs of peace, the peace that truly only comes through the faith in the one who said: 'They who are not against us are for us'.
Praise be to the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, now and forevermore. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
