Today we stand as onlookers with Peter and John and James on a special experience - a mysterious experience.
Jesus and three of his disciples had gone to a mountain to pray. The weary disciples at some point fall asleep - but Jesus continues in prayer, he continues to prepare himself for the events that lie just before him, his trip up the road to Jerusalem, his trip towards the cross that he has
told his disciples awaits him in the Holy City.
As Jesus prays something we cannot explain happens to him - his countenance, and even the robe he is wearing, begins to glow until it is a dazzling white.
As the disciples struggle back to consciousness they see Jesus shining, and with him they see two men - Moses the law-giver, and Elijah the prophet - talking with him, and they are full of fright, full of awe, full of joy at what they see.
Peter tries to capture the moment - "Master," he says, "It is good for us to be here, let us make three booths for you and for Moses and Elijah - three tents..." but even as he says this a heavy cloud sweeps over the mountain, obscuring his view - and the view of the other disciples - and
plunging them into fear once more.
And in this cloud - in the midst of this roiling obscurity, this damp and forbidding darkness, Peter and James and John hear a voice; a voice as clear as the light that had just moments before filled the mountain top; a voice as awesome as the thunder that shook Sinai when Moses went to receive the Torah:
"This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him"
And then the moment is over. The cloud vanishes. The sun shines. The birds sing. Jesus stands alone - near to them. The valley below where the other disciples are waiting for them is once more visible...
The scriptures record that the disciples - that James and John and Peter - are told by Jesus not to speak of this experience until after he has been raised from the dead - and presumably they did not.
But the experience that they witnessed, the experience that they were part of, remained with them, until eventually it was recorded in three of the four gospels. It remained with them - and it shaped them - and it became part of them, part of their testimony -part of their witness to who Christ was - to who Christ is.
In the Second Letter of Peter - Peter writes these words:
"We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been
eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from
God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic
Glory saying, "This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well
pleased." We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we
were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic
message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to
this as to a lamp shining in a dark place - until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts."
As we come into the season of Lent,- the season where we consider the temptations that assail us, - the season where we contemplate the suffering that we, with Christ, undergo,- the season where we gaze upon both the good and the evil that is in this world -and in our own hearts, I think that we do well to be attentive to this vision, to this experience, in the manner that Peter suggests.
WE do well to attend to the fact that Jesus is more than the person from next door, more than a good friend with whom we can walk and talk, more than a good example for our children and our grandchildren to emulate.
Jesus is the Son of God - the chosen one - the one whom we are commanded to listen to.
Jesus is the Chosen One
- the one who is able to carry us into the presence of God - the one who gives peace
- the one who gives joy
- the one who gives victory over sin and death.
Sometimes I think we forget this.
Sometimes I think we fall into our daily routines without a thought about the divinity that surrounds us, without any real awareness of the power that surrounds us and holds us up. We have business to do, we have people to see, we have kids to move from A to B to C and back again.
And in the bustle - in the hurry - in the work that we do we lose track of where we are going; we lose track of whose we are and what has been promised to those who are attentive to him.
I dare say that everyone here today takes time to talk to God
- that everyone here prays to God on a regular basis,
- that everyone here asks God for his help - if not for yourselves - then
for others.
That is good.
But how many of us here today actually listen to God?
How many of us here in our time of prayer stop talking,
- stop reading,
- stop thinking about what concerns us and simply listen,
- listen to the point where you can hear your pulse beating in your ears
and feel the air moving steadily and strongly in and out of your lungs.
- listen to the point where images began to dance on the back of your
eyelids and the spirit begins to put words upon your hearts,
words that you do not think about -
words that come from somewhere within you -
words of praise and of assurance,
words of guidance and of comfort.
How many of us wait upon the Lord until he answers - until he speaks - until he graces us with a dream or a vision - or a set of words - or an experience wherein his will is revealed to us.
How many of us go apart for a while as did Jesus and as did his disciples - and listen to the wind and the rain - and gaze upon the moon and the stars - and enter into the silence that lies within these things – the silence where the words of Christ are not only remembered - but rise fresh
and new?
A friend of mine some years ago asked the question - how many people actually have the kind of experience or vision like that which is described in today's gospel? And if we do - so what?
I can't say I have had an experience like that of Jesus or the disciples.
My robe has never shone any whiter than it is today, yes, I do have white robes, although I rarely use them - a voice from heaven has never come forth from a cloud in my presence.
But I know my friends from the things that I occasionally see when I stop what I am doing and look and listen to what is happening around me deep within me - that there is a vast and great power operating in this world - an invisible power that manifests itself in startling expressions of love and care - and upon occasion in vivid demonstrations of beauty and of raw power. It is a healing power - a sustaining power – a giving power - one able to bear one through the most horrible of times - one that weeps with me when I sorrow - and holds me when I feel close to despair.
This is my Son, my chosen one, listen to him...
Listen to him - listen to what he said to his disciples the night he was betrayed - "The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
Are you afraid today?
Are you troubled?
Then today is a time to step aside for a while, to find the quiet space in which you can pour out your heart to God, to climb the mountain of transfiguration and to fix your eyes upon the fire and the cloud of God's presence, and to pray - and to listen.
Today is the time to allow the ordinary bread and wine of our existence to be held up before God and transformed by his love to become symbol of the body and blood of Christ.
Today is the time to allow the liturgy and the message to be the work and word of God in our hearts.
It is God's will that the glory that came upon Moses as he entered the tabernacle of God's presence in the desert of Sinai be seen by all.
It is God's will that the glory that came upon Jesus as he communed with Moses and Elijah upon the mountain, be known by all.
Each one of us is invited into the tabernacle, each one of us is invited to climb the mountain, each one of us is invited to enter the holy of holies, into the place where God abides and to then carry the light that shines upon us in these places into the world - into the place where not only we see it - but others may see it as well.
As Paul writes in today's epistle reading:
"Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the
Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's
glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing
glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
There is a mystery involved in entering into the presence of God, of turning aside and of praying and listening to what he says.
That mystery is not contained in what God says and does, that is meant for all to hear and see, rather it is contained in what God does to us, with us and thru us, as we make ourselves available to him through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Listen to my Son, who I have chosen. Listen to the one whose face not only shone - but his entire being, for in listening we ourselves will be transformed, and God's perfect light will cast out the darkness of sin and death.
Blessed be the God of Moses and Elijah, and Blessed be the name of his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Philippians 2:1-13; Psalm 78; Matthew 21 23:32
In today’s reading we hear of the story of two young sons: one younger and the other one older. We had in the story one of the sons who said yes when his father asked him to go and work in the vineyard – and then did not do it. We have the other one who refused to work in the vineyard, and yet later changed his mind and went and worked in the vineyard.
I would like to ask those of you who are parents here today – do you find this story familiar to you? Did you ever have one of your children promising to do something, and then not do it all? Let us have a show of hands…..
Have you ever had one of your children telling you that they would not do it, and yet later on had a change of mind and did it for you? Can we again have a show of hands…?
This seems to be a common enough experience for parents, and it is no wonder that Jesus used this story in order to demonstrate to us what obedience is and what is not.
There was this man who had two sons. He went to the older son and asked him to go and work in the vineyard today. And the boy answers – and I think that you can very well imagine some of the things that his son might have said. I also think that you can imagine the tone of his response.
No father! I will not go! I already make plans for today. I cannot do it. No way. It is not my turn to work in the vineyard today. Get my little brother to do it. You are always on to me. It is not fair. Forget it!
There was absolutely no sign of respect from the boy – no honouring of his father – no respect – no admiration.
How do you think the father felt – he had a sick feeling right in the pit of his stomach – a feeling that his son is going astray – that his son does not care – that the entire thing is out of control – his family is going out of control and nothing good will come out of such a situation – indeed most likely – great harm will come out of it.
As parents most of us have been there, have we not? But can you for one moment put yourself into Jesus’ shoes? Imagine it from His point of view – the very Jesus who wanted us to work with him in order to build a better world – the very Jesus who invites us to work in the vineyard that produces the best fruit in the entire world – in the vineyard that produces the love and joy and peace and hope and strength that is so much needed in this world of ours…..
“I slaved and laboured so hard every day for my son, I have given him everything, a fine land, a fine home, and countless blessings, thinks only of himself!”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that not what is happening with a lot of people in this world? This happens not only with little children – but with so many adults as well.
They are all living in a fine land, they have fine homes, prosperity, good health, and blessings too numerous to count, and they say to God, the source of all good things: “Who are you? I do not owe you anything. I have better things to do with my time and my life than going to church. I have better things to do with my money than sharing it with people who are too lazy to work.”
“I am not going to go to church every Sunday and listen to someone telling me all those things about faith, or sing all those silly hymns. My time will be better spent sleeping for a couple more hours. When should I spend my time in church, when I could be looking at ways to win at the horse races or with betting on soccer games. No way am I going to help make the experience of the Christian community any better by joining the choir, helping with Sunday School classes, or being friendly and encouraging toward other people as they enter leave the church building. This is just not for me.”
“Why should I bother myself to go out there and tell others about all the wonderful things that Jesus did for me? Why should I go on prison visits? Why should I care about injustice in this world? Why should I help those who are in need of help? Why should I ever help anyone who is not a family member? Preaching the Bible is for those mindless insensitive and crooked bible thumpers! It is only for those who are either in trouble or have nothing better to do! If people would just stop spending their money on such needless causes, or stopped spending money on killing themselves off, they will be fine. They do not need me!”
No. I will not help you!
No, I will not work for you!
No, I have better things to do with my time and my money!
No, what you want is not important!
No, I do not care!!!
Thank of how our Father in Heaven feels!
Yes, think of how our Father in Heaven feels!
How wonderful it must have been for the father in the story when he went to talk to his other son. In this story it was the youngest son, and the son in reply to the father’s request said, “Yes, Father, I will go!”
Imagine it for a moment.
Imagine how the heart break of the Father turned around.
My child cares for me, for the family and for what I want!
My child has respect for me!
My child is willing to help!
My child is wiling to do the work that the world needs doing if the fine fruit of my vineyard is going to grace the world as I wanted it to; if my healing word is to spoken to others, and my healing touch to be experienced by all those children of mine who are in need of it.
But we do know what happened, do we not???
We know from the story that we hard this morning, the story that Jesus told us, what happened. We know from our very own experience with our own children, with our own families, and from our own friends just how the Father felt. We know just how God feels. When the willing son did not do what he promised to do. When the unwilling son changes his mind and did what he was first asked to do….
Some people said that Jesus told this story for the benefit of the chief priests and leaders of the people in order to shame them – in order to force them to recognize that they were just like the younger son – worshipping and obeying God as an appearance – but deep inside, they were rebellious, self-righteous, hypocritical and disobedient.
Some people will tell you that one should understand the words of this story in the context of verses 23 to 28 of our Gospel reading of this morning, where we have the chief priests and leaders challenging Jesus about his authority to teach do work miracles.
We are told that we should understand this story to be how Jesus got back at the chief priests and leaders of the day. He did it by suggesting to them that they are really like the younger son – disobedient children of God. And that the sinners, were like the oldest son, who came to Jesus for forgiveness and for mercy, were those who changed their minds as to the way they were living their lives. Those were the people whom the chief priests and scribes could not abide with because those were the tax collectors and prostitutes.
This may be the case with the way that Jesus ended the story when he told the chief priests and leaders in verses 31 and 32: “You can be sure that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will! When John the Baptist showed you how to do right, you would not believe him. But these evil people did believe. And even when you saw what they did, you still would not change your minds and believe.”
But to leave this story at this level of understanding is to miss the importance of the story for us here today. It only reduces the Gospel to simple history, and the Gospel is not and never was meant to be seen as history.
We here today know that the Chief Priests and Leaders of the people make a bad mistake. We know that their religion was only a matter of outward appearance rather than real inner passion.
So what???
What message does it give to us today?
What value to us apart from making us feel good does this judgment have on us today?
It is of great value if we ask ourselves as to which child are we?
Are we the ones who can recite the creed – the ones who can have our children baptized – even ones who work in the church and do all the things that make us seem holy – and yet nor really seeing and believing that God is working in and around us – just like the chief priests refused to believe that God was working in John the Baptist or in Jesus the Son of Joseph and Mary?
Are we familiar with religion – practiced even at religion? But not familiar with faith and with what it requires of us in our hearts and our heads and in our attitudes and our actions. What does it require of us and what does it do for us?
Or are we the ones who said at first – no way God – forget it; you do not even exist – and if you do – you are not what I want in a God – I have better things to do than pray and read that silly old book with all its rules and regulations, it wars and woes, its contradictions and craziness.
Are we the ones who led a life that was clearly wrong – ones who cheated on our friends, who stole from our employers, who drank and did drugs and lived on the street anyway we could? Are we the ones who do are using the excuses of being too tired from work to attend fellowship on a weekday?
And then changed our minds! Then, when listening to the pain that is within every human being; and to the voice promising forgiveness and wholeness that comes from without, through people like John and Jesus turned and received a new life?
Or are we somewhere in between? Children of God who try hard on some days to be faithful – and on other days – let our hardness of heart, our selfishness, our unwillingness to see God and listen to God in our daily routines get the better of us?
That is the benefit of this passage for us today – in asking ourselves who we really are – and what it really means for us.
And in asking who we are and what it means considering the Gospel that Jesus proclaims both in this story and elsewhere: the good news that it is possible to change one’s mind; that it is never too late; today at least – to become a child that is destined to see and enter the Kingdom of God.
It is all a matter of saving faith, a matter of seeing that God is and that God is willing and able and of accepting that and going forth and labouring at the work He has asked us to do for Him.
A matter of seeing that God is forgiving and gracious; of seeing that God is more interested in saving His children than in allowing them to perish; of accepting that God will give to us a new life – no matter how bad our old life is; and that He is able to accomplish all this in us; no matter how defiled we think that we have become when we turn to Him and allow Him to have His way with us…
It is a matter of seeing that God is present in the most unlikely persons that work each day around us, that as He spoke through the wild man of the wilderness; the one who wore the worst clothing and said the strangest things that as He spoke through a carpenter’s son and worked wonders in the world around him, so God is present today and in the most unlikely persons, in the least of our brothers and sisters; and that while present there in them He wants us to minister to him, to minister a cup of cold water; to minister some clothing to cover his nakedness; to minister hope and encouragement when he is placed in prison; and to bring comfort when he is sick in bed.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news I am preaching here today is not a gospel of what work we must do or not do.
It is not a matter of what we offer in terms of percentage of our income to God each year. It is not a matter of how to successfully avoid committing one or other of the seven deadly sins…
The good news I preach today is the Gospel concerning faith. It is the Gospel of believing; and in believing, in hoping and in praying, and in opening oneself to the power of God and to the will of God.
Today it is not too late to get right with God.
It is not too late to say to God – I believe – help me in my unbelief.
It is not too late to say to God – YES – I will go out in the vineyard after all. I will go with you as you go with me, and to work to bring the good news of your love to my family and my friends and to the whole world in all that I say and do. I will worship you and work with you and obey your will.
IT IS NOT TOO LATE!
I would like to ask those of you who are parents here today – do you find this story familiar to you? Did you ever have one of your children promising to do something, and then not do it all? Let us have a show of hands…..
Have you ever had one of your children telling you that they would not do it, and yet later on had a change of mind and did it for you? Can we again have a show of hands…?
This seems to be a common enough experience for parents, and it is no wonder that Jesus used this story in order to demonstrate to us what obedience is and what is not.
There was this man who had two sons. He went to the older son and asked him to go and work in the vineyard today. And the boy answers – and I think that you can very well imagine some of the things that his son might have said. I also think that you can imagine the tone of his response.
No father! I will not go! I already make plans for today. I cannot do it. No way. It is not my turn to work in the vineyard today. Get my little brother to do it. You are always on to me. It is not fair. Forget it!
There was absolutely no sign of respect from the boy – no honouring of his father – no respect – no admiration.
How do you think the father felt – he had a sick feeling right in the pit of his stomach – a feeling that his son is going astray – that his son does not care – that the entire thing is out of control – his family is going out of control and nothing good will come out of such a situation – indeed most likely – great harm will come out of it.
As parents most of us have been there, have we not? But can you for one moment put yourself into Jesus’ shoes? Imagine it from His point of view – the very Jesus who wanted us to work with him in order to build a better world – the very Jesus who invites us to work in the vineyard that produces the best fruit in the entire world – in the vineyard that produces the love and joy and peace and hope and strength that is so much needed in this world of ours…..
“I slaved and laboured so hard every day for my son, I have given him everything, a fine land, a fine home, and countless blessings, thinks only of himself!”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that not what is happening with a lot of people in this world? This happens not only with little children – but with so many adults as well.
They are all living in a fine land, they have fine homes, prosperity, good health, and blessings too numerous to count, and they say to God, the source of all good things: “Who are you? I do not owe you anything. I have better things to do with my time and my life than going to church. I have better things to do with my money than sharing it with people who are too lazy to work.”
“I am not going to go to church every Sunday and listen to someone telling me all those things about faith, or sing all those silly hymns. My time will be better spent sleeping for a couple more hours. When should I spend my time in church, when I could be looking at ways to win at the horse races or with betting on soccer games. No way am I going to help make the experience of the Christian community any better by joining the choir, helping with Sunday School classes, or being friendly and encouraging toward other people as they enter leave the church building. This is just not for me.”
“Why should I bother myself to go out there and tell others about all the wonderful things that Jesus did for me? Why should I go on prison visits? Why should I care about injustice in this world? Why should I help those who are in need of help? Why should I ever help anyone who is not a family member? Preaching the Bible is for those mindless insensitive and crooked bible thumpers! It is only for those who are either in trouble or have nothing better to do! If people would just stop spending their money on such needless causes, or stopped spending money on killing themselves off, they will be fine. They do not need me!”
No. I will not help you!
No, I will not work for you!
No, I have better things to do with my time and my money!
No, what you want is not important!
No, I do not care!!!
Thank of how our Father in Heaven feels!
Yes, think of how our Father in Heaven feels!
How wonderful it must have been for the father in the story when he went to talk to his other son. In this story it was the youngest son, and the son in reply to the father’s request said, “Yes, Father, I will go!”
Imagine it for a moment.
Imagine how the heart break of the Father turned around.
My child cares for me, for the family and for what I want!
My child has respect for me!
My child is willing to help!
My child is wiling to do the work that the world needs doing if the fine fruit of my vineyard is going to grace the world as I wanted it to; if my healing word is to spoken to others, and my healing touch to be experienced by all those children of mine who are in need of it.
But we do know what happened, do we not???
We know from the story that we hard this morning, the story that Jesus told us, what happened. We know from our very own experience with our own children, with our own families, and from our own friends just how the Father felt. We know just how God feels. When the willing son did not do what he promised to do. When the unwilling son changes his mind and did what he was first asked to do….
Some people said that Jesus told this story for the benefit of the chief priests and leaders of the people in order to shame them – in order to force them to recognize that they were just like the younger son – worshipping and obeying God as an appearance – but deep inside, they were rebellious, self-righteous, hypocritical and disobedient.
Some people will tell you that one should understand the words of this story in the context of verses 23 to 28 of our Gospel reading of this morning, where we have the chief priests and leaders challenging Jesus about his authority to teach do work miracles.
We are told that we should understand this story to be how Jesus got back at the chief priests and leaders of the day. He did it by suggesting to them that they are really like the younger son – disobedient children of God. And that the sinners, were like the oldest son, who came to Jesus for forgiveness and for mercy, were those who changed their minds as to the way they were living their lives. Those were the people whom the chief priests and scribes could not abide with because those were the tax collectors and prostitutes.
This may be the case with the way that Jesus ended the story when he told the chief priests and leaders in verses 31 and 32: “You can be sure that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will! When John the Baptist showed you how to do right, you would not believe him. But these evil people did believe. And even when you saw what they did, you still would not change your minds and believe.”
But to leave this story at this level of understanding is to miss the importance of the story for us here today. It only reduces the Gospel to simple history, and the Gospel is not and never was meant to be seen as history.
We here today know that the Chief Priests and Leaders of the people make a bad mistake. We know that their religion was only a matter of outward appearance rather than real inner passion.
So what???
What message does it give to us today?
What value to us apart from making us feel good does this judgment have on us today?
It is of great value if we ask ourselves as to which child are we?
Are we the ones who can recite the creed – the ones who can have our children baptized – even ones who work in the church and do all the things that make us seem holy – and yet nor really seeing and believing that God is working in and around us – just like the chief priests refused to believe that God was working in John the Baptist or in Jesus the Son of Joseph and Mary?
Are we familiar with religion – practiced even at religion? But not familiar with faith and with what it requires of us in our hearts and our heads and in our attitudes and our actions. What does it require of us and what does it do for us?
Or are we the ones who said at first – no way God – forget it; you do not even exist – and if you do – you are not what I want in a God – I have better things to do than pray and read that silly old book with all its rules and regulations, it wars and woes, its contradictions and craziness.
Are we the ones who led a life that was clearly wrong – ones who cheated on our friends, who stole from our employers, who drank and did drugs and lived on the street anyway we could? Are we the ones who do are using the excuses of being too tired from work to attend fellowship on a weekday?
And then changed our minds! Then, when listening to the pain that is within every human being; and to the voice promising forgiveness and wholeness that comes from without, through people like John and Jesus turned and received a new life?
Or are we somewhere in between? Children of God who try hard on some days to be faithful – and on other days – let our hardness of heart, our selfishness, our unwillingness to see God and listen to God in our daily routines get the better of us?
That is the benefit of this passage for us today – in asking ourselves who we really are – and what it really means for us.
And in asking who we are and what it means considering the Gospel that Jesus proclaims both in this story and elsewhere: the good news that it is possible to change one’s mind; that it is never too late; today at least – to become a child that is destined to see and enter the Kingdom of God.
It is all a matter of saving faith, a matter of seeing that God is and that God is willing and able and of accepting that and going forth and labouring at the work He has asked us to do for Him.
A matter of seeing that God is forgiving and gracious; of seeing that God is more interested in saving His children than in allowing them to perish; of accepting that God will give to us a new life – no matter how bad our old life is; and that He is able to accomplish all this in us; no matter how defiled we think that we have become when we turn to Him and allow Him to have His way with us…
It is a matter of seeing that God is present in the most unlikely persons that work each day around us, that as He spoke through the wild man of the wilderness; the one who wore the worst clothing and said the strangest things that as He spoke through a carpenter’s son and worked wonders in the world around him, so God is present today and in the most unlikely persons, in the least of our brothers and sisters; and that while present there in them He wants us to minister to him, to minister a cup of cold water; to minister some clothing to cover his nakedness; to minister hope and encouragement when he is placed in prison; and to bring comfort when he is sick in bed.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news I am preaching here today is not a gospel of what work we must do or not do.
It is not a matter of what we offer in terms of percentage of our income to God each year. It is not a matter of how to successfully avoid committing one or other of the seven deadly sins…
The good news I preach today is the Gospel concerning faith. It is the Gospel of believing; and in believing, in hoping and in praying, and in opening oneself to the power of God and to the will of God.
Today it is not too late to get right with God.
It is not too late to say to God – I believe – help me in my unbelief.
It is not too late to say to God – YES – I will go out in the vineyard after all. I will go with you as you go with me, and to work to bring the good news of your love to my family and my friends and to the whole world in all that I say and do. I will worship you and work with you and obey your will.
IT IS NOT TOO LATE!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Mark 1:4-11
This morning I would like to share with you some thoughts on the topic as printed on the service sheet “Who do you think you are?” Before we do that, I am going to tell you a story. No, this story is not a true one, but rather funny. The story goes that Jesus and the Apostle Paul were playing golf one day. As Jesus got ready to tee off he pulled out a nine iron. Paul said, “Lord, I would not use that if I were you. You should be using the driver. If you use a nine iron you will not be able to hit the ball over the water hazard. Only Tiger Woods could hit a ball that far with a nine iron.” Jesus said to Paul, “Well, if Tiger Woods can do it, I can also do it.” So he hit the ball and landed right in the water hazard. Jesus went down and when he got to the water he walked out on the water to the exact spot where the ball fell in and reached down for it. Then Jesus came back up and started to tee off again with the nine iron. Paul interrupted and said to Jesus, “Lord, please be patient with me, but I already told you once that if you use the nine iron the ball will land in the water hazard.” But Jesus went ahead, and same as the last time, the ball again landed in the water. Again he went down and walked across the water until he came to the place where the ball was. Just then some people came up, and they saw Jesus walking on the water. Stunned, one of them said, “Who does he think is? Jesus Christ?” And Paul replied, “No, he is Jesus Christ, but he think that he is Tiger Woods.”
We may find this joke to be rather funny, but it shows to us a very important point. Who we are is actually very important. Who we are defines what we do. Other people build up their expectations of us on the basis of whom they think we are. You know that I am Edwin, however, if I started acting like John Illsley, you will not be very happy with me, and you will say, “Who do you think you are?” In the story, we can see that one of the golfers got the shock of his life when he sees another golfer water walking on water. But Paul was not shock at all, as he knew that the person on the water was Jesus. When we started acting out of place, or acting like someone else, people will start getting angry and say, “Who do you think you are?”
This is important because Jesus' friends thought they knew who he was. Up to the time that Jesus started his ministry at the age of thirty, he probably lived a rather ordinary life. The Bible doesn't tell us much about that life. In fact the book of Mark just completely jumps over it. We know that he was a carpenter. Other than the incident that Luke records when he was twelve we know nothing else.
If you had asked them, Jesus' friends and acquaintances would tell you who he was. He was Jesus the carpenter. He went to work every morning, and then went home every night. On the Sabbath he was in the Synagogue. A smart hard working fellow.
So it took people by surprise when he started acting like God. They took offense and tried to kill him. They said "Isn't this the carpenter the son of Mary and aren't his brothers and sisters here with us." "Who does he think he is claiming to be the Messiah." We should teach him his place. He is just an ordinary carpenter.
They thought Jesus was a carpenter but we know he was the Son of God. This fact became clear at his baptism. After Jesus was baptized God spoke to him out of heaven and said, "You are my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." God is speaking to Jesus. He says, "You..." Now I assume that Jesus knew who he was. It was unlikely that God is telling Jesus something he did not already know.
God was claiming Jesus as his own. This was a signal to Jesus that the time had come for him to start living out his true identity. Jesus' baptism was his calling to begin saving the world.
And that is what Jesus did. God said "you are my beloved son" and right away Jesus started acting like the Son of God. Just look at the sequence of events in Mark. The first thing Jesus did after his baptism was to go into the desert to meet the Devil and defeat him. Then he started gathering together his disciples.
It is clear that Jesus' baptism was the beginning of his earthly ministry. But why was Jesus baptized to begin with? John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. It says that John was calling people to repentance. And when they were baptized they confessed their sins. In Judaism a baptism was a ritual washing of something. It was common for them to wash pots or eating utensils. The idea was that they be purified of any uncleanness. John was calling people to a ritual cleansing that symbolized the cleansing that the Messiah would work in them.
But Jesus had no uncleanness. He was perfect without sin. He didn't need to repent of any sin. He didn't need to be cleansed of any impurity. So why was Jesus baptized?
The only possible answer is that Jesus was baptized as an example to us. He wanted to show those who would be his followers what kind of relationship they would have with God. He didn't need to repent of his sins, but we do. We need allow God to wash our lives clean. And like him the Holy Spirit descends upon us when we turn to God.
But more importantly than that, in our baptisms God claims us as his own. When Jesus was baptized a voice came out of heaven and said, "You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased."
When we were baptized God claimed us as his own also. Certainly none of us were born daughters or sons of God in the same way Jesus was. But because of the blood of Christ, God adopts us. We are adopted sons and daughters of the living God. Now some of us were baptized as infants, and some of us were baptized as adults. Some of us were dunked in the water and some of us were sprinkled on the head. It doesn't matter how is was done. What matters is that your baptism represented God's action of accepting you.
Now we were not baptized for nothing. When God claimed Jesus and said, "You are my son in whom I am well pleased," Jesus didn't just stand there. Jesus responded to God's statement of who he was. He started acting like the Son of God. He started acting like a Savior. Jesus' baptism was his calling to ministry.
Likewise, our baptism was our calling to ministry. When God baptized each of us, God also called us to ministry. God said, "You are my beloved daughter, You are my beloved son." And God expects us to respond to that. God has claimed us as adopted sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. And through the Holy Spirit, God expects us to act like it. We are to go out into the a World that doesn't know of the love of God and proclaim it.
Now when we do that, people are going to take offense. They will say, "who are you to tell me I should love my neighbor." "Nobody could love me. Who are you to say that God loves me?" "Who are you to even say that there is a God?" "Who do you think you are telling me how live my life?" And we can respond, "I am and adopted daughter," or "I am an adopted son of God. Christ is my brother." "Do you want to be our sister or our brother too?
We may find this joke to be rather funny, but it shows to us a very important point. Who we are is actually very important. Who we are defines what we do. Other people build up their expectations of us on the basis of whom they think we are. You know that I am Edwin, however, if I started acting like John Illsley, you will not be very happy with me, and you will say, “Who do you think you are?” In the story, we can see that one of the golfers got the shock of his life when he sees another golfer water walking on water. But Paul was not shock at all, as he knew that the person on the water was Jesus. When we started acting out of place, or acting like someone else, people will start getting angry and say, “Who do you think you are?”
This is important because Jesus' friends thought they knew who he was. Up to the time that Jesus started his ministry at the age of thirty, he probably lived a rather ordinary life. The Bible doesn't tell us much about that life. In fact the book of Mark just completely jumps over it. We know that he was a carpenter. Other than the incident that Luke records when he was twelve we know nothing else.
If you had asked them, Jesus' friends and acquaintances would tell you who he was. He was Jesus the carpenter. He went to work every morning, and then went home every night. On the Sabbath he was in the Synagogue. A smart hard working fellow.
So it took people by surprise when he started acting like God. They took offense and tried to kill him. They said "Isn't this the carpenter the son of Mary and aren't his brothers and sisters here with us." "Who does he think he is claiming to be the Messiah." We should teach him his place. He is just an ordinary carpenter.
They thought Jesus was a carpenter but we know he was the Son of God. This fact became clear at his baptism. After Jesus was baptized God spoke to him out of heaven and said, "You are my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." God is speaking to Jesus. He says, "You..." Now I assume that Jesus knew who he was. It was unlikely that God is telling Jesus something he did not already know.
God was claiming Jesus as his own. This was a signal to Jesus that the time had come for him to start living out his true identity. Jesus' baptism was his calling to begin saving the world.
And that is what Jesus did. God said "you are my beloved son" and right away Jesus started acting like the Son of God. Just look at the sequence of events in Mark. The first thing Jesus did after his baptism was to go into the desert to meet the Devil and defeat him. Then he started gathering together his disciples.
It is clear that Jesus' baptism was the beginning of his earthly ministry. But why was Jesus baptized to begin with? John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. It says that John was calling people to repentance. And when they were baptized they confessed their sins. In Judaism a baptism was a ritual washing of something. It was common for them to wash pots or eating utensils. The idea was that they be purified of any uncleanness. John was calling people to a ritual cleansing that symbolized the cleansing that the Messiah would work in them.
But Jesus had no uncleanness. He was perfect without sin. He didn't need to repent of any sin. He didn't need to be cleansed of any impurity. So why was Jesus baptized?
The only possible answer is that Jesus was baptized as an example to us. He wanted to show those who would be his followers what kind of relationship they would have with God. He didn't need to repent of his sins, but we do. We need allow God to wash our lives clean. And like him the Holy Spirit descends upon us when we turn to God.
But more importantly than that, in our baptisms God claims us as his own. When Jesus was baptized a voice came out of heaven and said, "You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased."
When we were baptized God claimed us as his own also. Certainly none of us were born daughters or sons of God in the same way Jesus was. But because of the blood of Christ, God adopts us. We are adopted sons and daughters of the living God. Now some of us were baptized as infants, and some of us were baptized as adults. Some of us were dunked in the water and some of us were sprinkled on the head. It doesn't matter how is was done. What matters is that your baptism represented God's action of accepting you.
Now we were not baptized for nothing. When God claimed Jesus and said, "You are my son in whom I am well pleased," Jesus didn't just stand there. Jesus responded to God's statement of who he was. He started acting like the Son of God. He started acting like a Savior. Jesus' baptism was his calling to ministry.
Likewise, our baptism was our calling to ministry. When God baptized each of us, God also called us to ministry. God said, "You are my beloved daughter, You are my beloved son." And God expects us to respond to that. God has claimed us as adopted sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. And through the Holy Spirit, God expects us to act like it. We are to go out into the a World that doesn't know of the love of God and proclaim it.
Now when we do that, people are going to take offense. They will say, "who are you to tell me I should love my neighbor." "Nobody could love me. Who are you to say that God loves me?" "Who are you to even say that there is a God?" "Who do you think you are telling me how live my life?" And we can respond, "I am and adopted daughter," or "I am an adopted son of God. Christ is my brother." "Do you want to be our sister or our brother too?
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Pushing Against The Rock
There was this man who got very angry because this little church had rented an empty store beneath his apartment, and they begun to hold the most noisy revival services you ever heard. They were loud AMEN’S and loud PRAISE THE LORD all night long. He complained to the Landlord. He complained to the police. But nothing could be done.
Well, he got angrier and angrier and then one night, he decided he was going to get even with the people in the church. He went down to a store that rented costumes and he rented a Devil's suit. He went home and put it on. He climbed down the stairs and waited for just the right moment. And as it happened, a storm came up, and thunder rolled and lightning stuck, and the lights went out. At that moment he burst into that little church, yelling and screaming at the top of his voice!
And you know what, everyone ran out of that church, except one lady. And this man stepped up to her, tail twitching, pitch fork gleaming, and he said, "How come you are not running away like all the rest?"
And she said, "Mr. Satan, I want you to know, I have been on your side all along."
Today's gospel reading - to a great extent the readings from Deuteronomy and from Paul's Letter to the Romans are about taking sides. About putting God first in our lives. About remembering whose we are and what has been done for us. About declaring our loyalties.
I want to look primarily at the gospel reading today. At the temptation story - and try to understand a bit of what it is all about.
At first glance the temptations of Jesus seem strange. They seem so unlike our temptations - to take things, to use people, and to ignore God. They seem so odd. Make bread out of stones? Leap from the temple? Worship Satan to gain the world? We can't really conceive of these kinds of temptations being related to the temptations that we experience.
Yet the temptations of Jesus are ours for Satan is with us as he was with Jesus; he is with us not so much to get us to do wrong things - we need no help in that - but to develop in us life destroying attitudes and beliefs; to develop in us those things that will take us further and further away from God's love till one day we discover that we have no faith at all, that we are people without hope and without purpose, that we are – in short - completely lost - living only for today, living only for ourselves.
As a friend of mine on the Internet put it: Satan is interested in what we think; in what we believe about ourselves and God.
Look at Satan.
What is he saying in the temptation story that we heard today?
"If You are the Son of God ... If You are ... If You really think You are -- then can You not prove Your power through a self-serving miracle?
If you are really loved by God, can You not prove God's care by leaping from the temple?
If you really want to change the world - if that is your mission - can You not do it better in the way that I show you?
If You are the child of God , then why can't you, why don't you..."
Think about that voice for a minute. The voice Jesus heard as he wandered through the wilderness that we so often walk through in our lives – the wilderness not of sand, rock, and bush - but the wilderness of the soul.... the wilderness of a world that does not care - of a world that does not provide anyone an easy time of things - but rather is coldly
indifferent if not openly hostile to us and to what we want and what we feel
How often have we heard the kind of words in ourselves that Jesus heard at the end of his forty days of wandering - that voice speaking inside our minds and hearts - whispering quietly - but insistently:
"If you really are a child of God, would you act that way"
"If you are really are a child of God - would you not be able to overcome your weaknesses, do the good you intended, straighten yourself out?"
"If God loved really loved you, would God treat you this way. Would God let you suffer?"
"Are you really? Really a child of God? Is God really there for you? For anybody?"
"Isn't there an easier way? A better way? Better than this. Better than now?"
The voice of Satan is the voice of doubt and that doubt takes two major forms
- doubt in the goodness of God - and what is commonly called "self-doubt", that doubt that questions who we are and what we are about - not for the purpose of improving ourselves or causing us to turn to God, but for the purpose of tearing down whatever
good that may have been built up in us and causing us to wonder if there is any point in our continuing to live, or in trying to be faithful.
One of the biggest occasions of doubt that arises in the life of believers is related to the reality of temptation - and to the fact that we all too often succumb to it.
I think you all here know the feeling -
You make a promise to God that you will pray more often: - and you find yourself so busy - working - watching TV - running to meetings, that you end up praying less than you had before.
You make a promise to God that you will not be so impatient with the annoying people in your life - and you find yourself, only a few days later, yelling at one of them with more strength and energy than ever before.
You try to do something - or to not do something and you fail - and you feel guilty about it - you feel that you are a complete failure as a human being - let alone as a Christian.
Have you ever said to yourself: "If I was really who I believe myself to be - then I would not be tempted?"
Have you ever said to yourself: "If God was real - if I was real - then I would not be doing what I am doing?"
Self doubt - soul destroying doubt. It is a common thing. Like the other doubt that Satan throws at us - the doubt that says to you when you are in trouble: "If God really cared, then I would not be in this mess".
God does care. God cares like a parent cares for his or her child as they are learning to walk.
First God holds our hands and calls to us to move toward him, then, as we gain strength God let us go, but is there to catch us lest we fall and to encourage us to encourage us to walk and to learn how to do the many other things that make life so good.
Temptation is a reality of the Christian life. It is there for two reasons.
The first reason is this: Satan does not want us to succeed at being God's people.
I mean imagine a world where Christian's actually lived like Christ? And did what he did? All the time! This is not a pleasant thought for those who love darkness. And it leads to a spiritual principle that I really want you to take note of - and that is this:
THE CLOSER YOU GET TO GOD THE STRONGER THE TEMPTATIONS YOU WILL FEEL.
or to put it another way: The devil never attacks those who are already on his side.
The second reason for temptation is this: God wants us to choose Him freely.
God does not want you or anyone else to be obedient robots, he wants us to be whole human beings who freely love him and others to be people who in every way are made in His Image.
And that requires something for us to choose, something for us to do, something for us to believe.
There was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture placing thoughts into the man's mind such as; "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it?" Satan said many other things like this, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.
These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man even more. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough."
And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of Prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.
"Lord" he said, "I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock a half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
To this the Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. BUT YOUR CALLING WAS TO BE OBEDIENT, TO PUSH AND TO EXERCISE YOUR FAITH AND TRUST IN MY WISDOM.
This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."
Each of us is called to be obedient, to push and exercise our faith and to trust in God's wisdom.
In the doing of this it is not a sin to be tempted - indeed often it is part of God's plan for us - that same plan that led to the Spirit driving Jesus out into the wilderness where he was tempted.
Nor is it a sign that we are lost, that we are beyond hope, when we succumb to temptation and do those thing we ought not to do and fail to do those things we ought. For that to be so would mean that the cross of Christ was to no avail and that his sacrifice on our behalf means nothing.
And that most certainly is not the case. God's word does not come back to him empty. His love is not without power and impact and effect. As a loving parent helps his or her child back to their feet when they stumble and fall so God helps us backs to our feet when we fall and call out for help. Over and over again - until we finally are strong enough to go onto the next lesson.
What God wants from us is not that we be perfect - but that we strive to be that way - that we give it our best shot - and keep on trying.
What the devil wants is that we give up - for he has no victory when we do wrong things - for he knows that God will forgive us when we seek him. What the devil wants is that we give up entirely and that we abandon faith in God and the idea that what we are made in God's image for a purpose and a reason.
Don't give up. Have faith. Remember, as I said at the beginning when I told that little joke about the man who dressed up as Satan to scare all the good church folk who were making noise - it is all a question of whose side we are on.
God is on our side - the devil is not.
Do not give up faith in God because of the temptations you feel - nor because of the ones you give in too - but instead get up on your feet, turn afresh to God, and begin walking once again, remembering the word that God has given us the word of faith that says simply and clearly - "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Saviour and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
May His name be glorified day by day. Amen.
Well, he got angrier and angrier and then one night, he decided he was going to get even with the people in the church. He went down to a store that rented costumes and he rented a Devil's suit. He went home and put it on. He climbed down the stairs and waited for just the right moment. And as it happened, a storm came up, and thunder rolled and lightning stuck, and the lights went out. At that moment he burst into that little church, yelling and screaming at the top of his voice!
And you know what, everyone ran out of that church, except one lady. And this man stepped up to her, tail twitching, pitch fork gleaming, and he said, "How come you are not running away like all the rest?"
And she said, "Mr. Satan, I want you to know, I have been on your side all along."
Today's gospel reading - to a great extent the readings from Deuteronomy and from Paul's Letter to the Romans are about taking sides. About putting God first in our lives. About remembering whose we are and what has been done for us. About declaring our loyalties.
I want to look primarily at the gospel reading today. At the temptation story - and try to understand a bit of what it is all about.
At first glance the temptations of Jesus seem strange. They seem so unlike our temptations - to take things, to use people, and to ignore God. They seem so odd. Make bread out of stones? Leap from the temple? Worship Satan to gain the world? We can't really conceive of these kinds of temptations being related to the temptations that we experience.
Yet the temptations of Jesus are ours for Satan is with us as he was with Jesus; he is with us not so much to get us to do wrong things - we need no help in that - but to develop in us life destroying attitudes and beliefs; to develop in us those things that will take us further and further away from God's love till one day we discover that we have no faith at all, that we are people without hope and without purpose, that we are – in short - completely lost - living only for today, living only for ourselves.
As a friend of mine on the Internet put it: Satan is interested in what we think; in what we believe about ourselves and God.
Look at Satan.
What is he saying in the temptation story that we heard today?
"If You are the Son of God ... If You are ... If You really think You are -- then can You not prove Your power through a self-serving miracle?
If you are really loved by God, can You not prove God's care by leaping from the temple?
If you really want to change the world - if that is your mission - can You not do it better in the way that I show you?
If You are the child of God , then why can't you, why don't you..."
Think about that voice for a minute. The voice Jesus heard as he wandered through the wilderness that we so often walk through in our lives – the wilderness not of sand, rock, and bush - but the wilderness of the soul.... the wilderness of a world that does not care - of a world that does not provide anyone an easy time of things - but rather is coldly
indifferent if not openly hostile to us and to what we want and what we feel
How often have we heard the kind of words in ourselves that Jesus heard at the end of his forty days of wandering - that voice speaking inside our minds and hearts - whispering quietly - but insistently:
"If you really are a child of God, would you act that way"
"If you are really are a child of God - would you not be able to overcome your weaknesses, do the good you intended, straighten yourself out?"
"If God loved really loved you, would God treat you this way. Would God let you suffer?"
"Are you really? Really a child of God? Is God really there for you? For anybody?"
"Isn't there an easier way? A better way? Better than this. Better than now?"
The voice of Satan is the voice of doubt and that doubt takes two major forms
- doubt in the goodness of God - and what is commonly called "self-doubt", that doubt that questions who we are and what we are about - not for the purpose of improving ourselves or causing us to turn to God, but for the purpose of tearing down whatever
good that may have been built up in us and causing us to wonder if there is any point in our continuing to live, or in trying to be faithful.
One of the biggest occasions of doubt that arises in the life of believers is related to the reality of temptation - and to the fact that we all too often succumb to it.
I think you all here know the feeling -
You make a promise to God that you will pray more often: - and you find yourself so busy - working - watching TV - running to meetings, that you end up praying less than you had before.
You make a promise to God that you will not be so impatient with the annoying people in your life - and you find yourself, only a few days later, yelling at one of them with more strength and energy than ever before.
You try to do something - or to not do something and you fail - and you feel guilty about it - you feel that you are a complete failure as a human being - let alone as a Christian.
Have you ever said to yourself: "If I was really who I believe myself to be - then I would not be tempted?"
Have you ever said to yourself: "If God was real - if I was real - then I would not be doing what I am doing?"
Self doubt - soul destroying doubt. It is a common thing. Like the other doubt that Satan throws at us - the doubt that says to you when you are in trouble: "If God really cared, then I would not be in this mess".
God does care. God cares like a parent cares for his or her child as they are learning to walk.
First God holds our hands and calls to us to move toward him, then, as we gain strength God let us go, but is there to catch us lest we fall and to encourage us to encourage us to walk and to learn how to do the many other things that make life so good.
Temptation is a reality of the Christian life. It is there for two reasons.
The first reason is this: Satan does not want us to succeed at being God's people.
I mean imagine a world where Christian's actually lived like Christ? And did what he did? All the time! This is not a pleasant thought for those who love darkness. And it leads to a spiritual principle that I really want you to take note of - and that is this:
THE CLOSER YOU GET TO GOD THE STRONGER THE TEMPTATIONS YOU WILL FEEL.
or to put it another way: The devil never attacks those who are already on his side.
The second reason for temptation is this: God wants us to choose Him freely.
God does not want you or anyone else to be obedient robots, he wants us to be whole human beings who freely love him and others to be people who in every way are made in His Image.
And that requires something for us to choose, something for us to do, something for us to believe.
There was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture placing thoughts into the man's mind such as; "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it?" Satan said many other things like this, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.
These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man even more. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough."
And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of Prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.
"Lord" he said, "I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock a half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
To this the Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. BUT YOUR CALLING WAS TO BE OBEDIENT, TO PUSH AND TO EXERCISE YOUR FAITH AND TRUST IN MY WISDOM.
This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."
Each of us is called to be obedient, to push and exercise our faith and to trust in God's wisdom.
In the doing of this it is not a sin to be tempted - indeed often it is part of God's plan for us - that same plan that led to the Spirit driving Jesus out into the wilderness where he was tempted.
Nor is it a sign that we are lost, that we are beyond hope, when we succumb to temptation and do those thing we ought not to do and fail to do those things we ought. For that to be so would mean that the cross of Christ was to no avail and that his sacrifice on our behalf means nothing.
And that most certainly is not the case. God's word does not come back to him empty. His love is not without power and impact and effect. As a loving parent helps his or her child back to their feet when they stumble and fall so God helps us backs to our feet when we fall and call out for help. Over and over again - until we finally are strong enough to go onto the next lesson.
What God wants from us is not that we be perfect - but that we strive to be that way - that we give it our best shot - and keep on trying.
What the devil wants is that we give up - for he has no victory when we do wrong things - for he knows that God will forgive us when we seek him. What the devil wants is that we give up entirely and that we abandon faith in God and the idea that what we are made in God's image for a purpose and a reason.
Don't give up. Have faith. Remember, as I said at the beginning when I told that little joke about the man who dressed up as Satan to scare all the good church folk who were making noise - it is all a question of whose side we are on.
God is on our side - the devil is not.
Do not give up faith in God because of the temptations you feel - nor because of the ones you give in too - but instead get up on your feet, turn afresh to God, and begin walking once again, remembering the word that God has given us the word of faith that says simply and clearly - "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Saviour and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
May His name be glorified day by day. Amen.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Genesis 50:15-21; Psalm 103; Matthew 18:21-35
One clergy family decided to let their three-year old son record the message for their home answering machine. The rehearsals went smoothly: “Mommy and Daddy cannot come to the phone right now. If you will leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they will get back to you as soon as possible.” Then came the test. The father pressed the record button and their son said sweetly, “Mommy and Daddy cannot come to the phone right now. If you will leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they will get back to you as soon as Jesus comes.”
The three readings of this morning speak to us today of sin and of forgiveness.
Our first reading shows Joseph’s brothers begging him, in the name of the God of their Father, to forgive them. And Joseph does – saying as he does:
“Do not be afraid. Do I act for God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives…”
You may remember, Joseph, was sold into slavery by his brothers, who were envious of the favoritism shown by their father towards him and resentful of the attitude that Joseph seemed to have towards them. They would have murdered him, but for their reluctance to actually have his blood on their hands, but the fate that they condemned him to was little better than murder, for no slave is able to do as they wish, and the life of a slave could be taken at the whim of his master.
It was only due to Joseph having favour in the eyes of God that Joseph was able to prosper even in his slavery and, after many trials and tribulations, including a spell of over two years in prison for an offence that he did not commit, rise to the position of being at the right hand of the Pharaoh, where he was appointed with the task of keeping Egypt safe from seven years of drought and famine.
Certainly his brothers committed a grave sin against Joseph. And yet, many years later, when hunger brought them into Egypt – he fed them; indeed he provided richly for both them and his father, saying even then, that God had a purpose in allowing them to sell him into slavery, for it made it possible for him to save them and all his people in their greatest time of need.
God gave to Joseph the grace to see beyond the pain to the gain. The grace to see what while evil was done to him – God was able to use that evil for good.
Often that is a most difficult thing for us, at least it is for me.
We cannot see anything good coming out of the harm that others have done to us. We cannot see any reason for giving out mercy, we cannot see any reason for giving to them forgiveness, even if, in other areas of our life we may have prosper.
We carry the wounds of the past with us, we remember the hurt done to us.
We tend to think of what might have been, rather than taking a look at our life as it is now, and seeing in it the hand of God to do good for many, and from that point of view, forgiving other people for the harm that they may have done to us in the past, and often in the very distant past.
If the truth ever be told – even in the story of Joseph, sin remains sin, even though God brought good out of it.
That is a simple fact of truth, and we should never lose track of it.
No matter what God does with the sins that have been committed against us, they remain as sins.
The Psalm reading of this morning speaks to us of what God does with our sins. Let me quote from the first eleven verses:
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…the LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens above the earth, so great is this love of those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us…
God does indeed remove our sins from us. Out of love for us, God forgives us our sins. God cancels them out. God makes the debt that in justice we owe to him – of no account. That is the great message of the cross 0 that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.
As we all know from our experience in life sin is serious. Sin is always wrong, it is always bad. It always hurt someone. However, the incredible news is, that while sin always hurt, its power to hurt ends when forgiveness is applied to it.
We have all been forgiven by God. Sin no longer has the power to harm our relationship with God. It has been washed away; it has been nailed to the cross. It has been buried by God, never to rise again. In the place of sin has new life comes forth, a life that we have but to reach out to receive.
That is what God does for each and every one of us. Instead of punishing us for our sins, instead of keeping us away at arm’s length, instead of turning away his face from us as we so very much deserves, God turns to us.
God turns to us, and in pain, and in tears, and finally in death itself, he forgives us and calls us, as well as empowers us, to live as ones who are able, just like Joseph, to save many lives – as ones, just like Jesus, are able to bring the word of life to those who are living in darkness, the word of love those who are perishing on account of their lack of love.
Max Lucado in his thesis “The Grip of Grace” tells us that “God does not condone our sin, nor does he compromise his standard. He does not ignore our rebellion, nor does he relax his demands. Rather than dismiss our sin, he assumes our sin and, incredibly, incredibly sentences himself. God is still holy. Sin is still sin. And we are redeemed.”
We are indeed redeemed. We have been bought out of slavery to sin and death. God is good to us – even though some of our brothers and sisters have not been good to us – even though we ourselves have not been good to God.
And so, we finally arrive at the Gospel lesson of today as well as at the title of our Sermon “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
After listening to Jesus speak to him and the other disciples about how to treat a brother or a sister who has sinned against them, Peter comes up to Jesus and asks him:
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” And then Jesus gave his famous answer - “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times”.
And then Jesus tells them an alarming parable about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and how one of these servants, even he is forgiven a massive debt by his master, fails to be equally forgiving of a fellow servant who owes him but a very small debt.
“You wicked servant” says the master to the one he had forgiven so much. “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
This is alarming, is it not? And how much more so when you remember the punch line of Jesus. “This”, says Jesus “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
This parable is alarming because a lot of people find it difficult to forgive. And because, in some way or other, from the parable, it seems like that the forgiveness that we will finally receive from God depends on the forgiveness we give….
“This”, says Jesus, “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” And again, from earlier in the Gospel according to Matthew, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. This, says Jesus, is how you should pray, “forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”
God loves and forgives us – even before we even ask. His forgiveness is total and unconditional, and he calls on us to open our live to him and to accept that love and forgiveness.
If you are worrying about not being able to forgive someone one time, let alone seventy times seven times, there is something you can do about it. Or if you are worrying that your perhaps your prayer to God might be fulfilled before you are ready for it, and that God will end up in forgiving you in the same way that you forgive others, there is something you can do about it.
That something is this:
Surrender your judgment to God, surrender your judgment to God and keep on praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, and pray this prayer with deep earnestness. From time to time try changing the words. Change them from “And Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” to “And, as You have forgiven us our trespasses, help us to forgive those who trespass against us”, and change the words back again.
Pray the prayer of Christ and taste the grace of God of which our Psalm reading sings of today.
Remember that sin is sin –and that it all hurts – and yet God removes it from us as far as the east is from the west. He forgives us, he has compassion for us, like a father has for his children, like a mother has for her child.
Taste what that means for you. Think of how God has shown love for you, forgiveness to you, even before you even asked for it, even before you thought to ask.
Then you will be, as the Psalm puts it, “Like a tree planted by streams of water”. You will be drawing upon the love of God – the story of God’s wonder and grace – the word of God. You will be able to yield your fruit in season, and your leaves will not wither, your actions, and later even your feelings, will be good.
Yes, sin is sin, and we have every right to be angry about it. We should be angry about it. But work to let go of your anger to those who have sinned against you. Work on it by not only remembering what God has done for you, but also by remembering who is in the end, the only one who has the right to render judgment.
Forgiveness means that we must forever give up the idea that we are the judge.
I, personally, am so happy about that, because I know that I will make a lousy judge. Because I know also how my judgments of other people have in times past proven wrong, and I know how even when they have been “right”, they have done nothing to improve the situation for me. For those I am worried about. For the one that has done wrong.
Think on all these things. Think about how God’s ways are greater than ours, and how God cares for us, and wants us to care for other people.
Then pray again. “Lord, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me” and again, “Lord, as you have forgiven my trespasses, help me to forgive those who have trespass against me.”
God will certainly help you, as he has helped me, as you remember what is near to God’s own heart – and ask his help with it. God will help you even as you continue the prayer as Jesus taught us to pray.
Fear not that you have already lost – or will loose your salvation – your joy or peace. Rather keep trying to forgive – for in trying to forgive, forgiveness comes.
Do not fear your failures to forgive despite your resolve to forgive. The Lord who calls us to forgive seventy times seven times has himself done the same – and indeed even more.
Your salvation is not lost by one act of malice, or even by a series of such acts. It can only be lost if you commit what the Scriptures call the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin which we understand to be the denial of God and of God’s power; the denial of the Truth of God that seeks to leaven your life.
The truth of God is that God is forgiving.
The power of God is the power to help you to stand firm and to show that truth to others, through the love that we give.
Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my innermost being, praise his holy name. Amen.
The three readings of this morning speak to us today of sin and of forgiveness.
Our first reading shows Joseph’s brothers begging him, in the name of the God of their Father, to forgive them. And Joseph does – saying as he does:
“Do not be afraid. Do I act for God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives…”
You may remember, Joseph, was sold into slavery by his brothers, who were envious of the favoritism shown by their father towards him and resentful of the attitude that Joseph seemed to have towards them. They would have murdered him, but for their reluctance to actually have his blood on their hands, but the fate that they condemned him to was little better than murder, for no slave is able to do as they wish, and the life of a slave could be taken at the whim of his master.
It was only due to Joseph having favour in the eyes of God that Joseph was able to prosper even in his slavery and, after many trials and tribulations, including a spell of over two years in prison for an offence that he did not commit, rise to the position of being at the right hand of the Pharaoh, where he was appointed with the task of keeping Egypt safe from seven years of drought and famine.
Certainly his brothers committed a grave sin against Joseph. And yet, many years later, when hunger brought them into Egypt – he fed them; indeed he provided richly for both them and his father, saying even then, that God had a purpose in allowing them to sell him into slavery, for it made it possible for him to save them and all his people in their greatest time of need.
God gave to Joseph the grace to see beyond the pain to the gain. The grace to see what while evil was done to him – God was able to use that evil for good.
Often that is a most difficult thing for us, at least it is for me.
We cannot see anything good coming out of the harm that others have done to us. We cannot see any reason for giving out mercy, we cannot see any reason for giving to them forgiveness, even if, in other areas of our life we may have prosper.
We carry the wounds of the past with us, we remember the hurt done to us.
We tend to think of what might have been, rather than taking a look at our life as it is now, and seeing in it the hand of God to do good for many, and from that point of view, forgiving other people for the harm that they may have done to us in the past, and often in the very distant past.
If the truth ever be told – even in the story of Joseph, sin remains sin, even though God brought good out of it.
That is a simple fact of truth, and we should never lose track of it.
No matter what God does with the sins that have been committed against us, they remain as sins.
The Psalm reading of this morning speaks to us of what God does with our sins. Let me quote from the first eleven verses:
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…the LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens above the earth, so great is this love of those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us…
God does indeed remove our sins from us. Out of love for us, God forgives us our sins. God cancels them out. God makes the debt that in justice we owe to him – of no account. That is the great message of the cross 0 that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.
As we all know from our experience in life sin is serious. Sin is always wrong, it is always bad. It always hurt someone. However, the incredible news is, that while sin always hurt, its power to hurt ends when forgiveness is applied to it.
We have all been forgiven by God. Sin no longer has the power to harm our relationship with God. It has been washed away; it has been nailed to the cross. It has been buried by God, never to rise again. In the place of sin has new life comes forth, a life that we have but to reach out to receive.
That is what God does for each and every one of us. Instead of punishing us for our sins, instead of keeping us away at arm’s length, instead of turning away his face from us as we so very much deserves, God turns to us.
God turns to us, and in pain, and in tears, and finally in death itself, he forgives us and calls us, as well as empowers us, to live as ones who are able, just like Joseph, to save many lives – as ones, just like Jesus, are able to bring the word of life to those who are living in darkness, the word of love those who are perishing on account of their lack of love.
Max Lucado in his thesis “The Grip of Grace” tells us that “God does not condone our sin, nor does he compromise his standard. He does not ignore our rebellion, nor does he relax his demands. Rather than dismiss our sin, he assumes our sin and, incredibly, incredibly sentences himself. God is still holy. Sin is still sin. And we are redeemed.”
We are indeed redeemed. We have been bought out of slavery to sin and death. God is good to us – even though some of our brothers and sisters have not been good to us – even though we ourselves have not been good to God.
And so, we finally arrive at the Gospel lesson of today as well as at the title of our Sermon “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
After listening to Jesus speak to him and the other disciples about how to treat a brother or a sister who has sinned against them, Peter comes up to Jesus and asks him:
“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” And then Jesus gave his famous answer - “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times”.
And then Jesus tells them an alarming parable about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants, and how one of these servants, even he is forgiven a massive debt by his master, fails to be equally forgiving of a fellow servant who owes him but a very small debt.
“You wicked servant” says the master to the one he had forgiven so much. “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” And in anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
This is alarming, is it not? And how much more so when you remember the punch line of Jesus. “This”, says Jesus “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
This parable is alarming because a lot of people find it difficult to forgive. And because, in some way or other, from the parable, it seems like that the forgiveness that we will finally receive from God depends on the forgiveness we give….
“This”, says Jesus, “is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” And again, from earlier in the Gospel according to Matthew, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. This, says Jesus, is how you should pray, “forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”
God loves and forgives us – even before we even ask. His forgiveness is total and unconditional, and he calls on us to open our live to him and to accept that love and forgiveness.
If you are worrying about not being able to forgive someone one time, let alone seventy times seven times, there is something you can do about it. Or if you are worrying that your perhaps your prayer to God might be fulfilled before you are ready for it, and that God will end up in forgiving you in the same way that you forgive others, there is something you can do about it.
That something is this:
Surrender your judgment to God, surrender your judgment to God and keep on praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, and pray this prayer with deep earnestness. From time to time try changing the words. Change them from “And Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” to “And, as You have forgiven us our trespasses, help us to forgive those who trespass against us”, and change the words back again.
Pray the prayer of Christ and taste the grace of God of which our Psalm reading sings of today.
Remember that sin is sin –and that it all hurts – and yet God removes it from us as far as the east is from the west. He forgives us, he has compassion for us, like a father has for his children, like a mother has for her child.
Taste what that means for you. Think of how God has shown love for you, forgiveness to you, even before you even asked for it, even before you thought to ask.
Then you will be, as the Psalm puts it, “Like a tree planted by streams of water”. You will be drawing upon the love of God – the story of God’s wonder and grace – the word of God. You will be able to yield your fruit in season, and your leaves will not wither, your actions, and later even your feelings, will be good.
Yes, sin is sin, and we have every right to be angry about it. We should be angry about it. But work to let go of your anger to those who have sinned against you. Work on it by not only remembering what God has done for you, but also by remembering who is in the end, the only one who has the right to render judgment.
Forgiveness means that we must forever give up the idea that we are the judge.
I, personally, am so happy about that, because I know that I will make a lousy judge. Because I know also how my judgments of other people have in times past proven wrong, and I know how even when they have been “right”, they have done nothing to improve the situation for me. For those I am worried about. For the one that has done wrong.
Think on all these things. Think about how God’s ways are greater than ours, and how God cares for us, and wants us to care for other people.
Then pray again. “Lord, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me” and again, “Lord, as you have forgiven my trespasses, help me to forgive those who have trespass against me.”
God will certainly help you, as he has helped me, as you remember what is near to God’s own heart – and ask his help with it. God will help you even as you continue the prayer as Jesus taught us to pray.
Fear not that you have already lost – or will loose your salvation – your joy or peace. Rather keep trying to forgive – for in trying to forgive, forgiveness comes.
Do not fear your failures to forgive despite your resolve to forgive. The Lord who calls us to forgive seventy times seven times has himself done the same – and indeed even more.
Your salvation is not lost by one act of malice, or even by a series of such acts. It can only be lost if you commit what the Scriptures call the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin which we understand to be the denial of God and of God’s power; the denial of the Truth of God that seeks to leaven your life.
The truth of God is that God is forgiving.
The power of God is the power to help you to stand firm and to show that truth to others, through the love that we give.
Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my innermost being, praise his holy name. Amen.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Romans 8:12-25; Psalm 139; Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Last Sunday we heard the parable of the sower and the seed - and discovered that God has some peculiar farming techniques.
This week - with the parable of the weeds in the garden we discover once again God's method of farming is different than ours - and I am for one am very glad of it.
Last week's "parable of the sower and the seed" and today's "parable of the weeds" are parables about the church - about the field that God plants in the hope of gaining a rich harvest of blessing for himself and for the world that he has made.
We are the field of God - we are the ground he works - the plants he nurtures - the people he rests his hopes upon - the people he plants his seed in, the congregation he anoints with his Spirit.
The farmer's parables are parables about us - about you here in the church - you who are called by the name of Christ - as much as they are about God and what he does.
We are the field of God.
I daresay that the two predominant reasons modern people give for not being Christian and for not associating with or attending church are the following:
1. People in the church as just as lousy as everyone else in the world - that in general they are hypocrites - and in particular - there are thieves, liars, gossips, cheats, snobs, and adulterers among them.
2. The whole idea of a good God is clearly ridiculous - because if he was so good why would he allow so much evil to exist in the world.
Does any one of those two reasons sound familiar to you? Say Amen if it does!....
IT's true. That's where people are at.
They are upset - and I think rightly so - that not everything is perfect.
Like the farmer's servants in today's parable they are concerned:
- concerned that there are weeds among the wheat
- concerned that the harvest might not turn right
- concerned that the good purpose of their master might fail.
At least some are - the rest are just plain critical - they don't understand things of the Spirit nor do they want to understand things of the Spirit.
The highly esteemed Bible teacher Dr. Howard Hendricks said something quite interesting sometime back. Let me quote:
"From research and personal experience," says Dr. Hendricks, "I've come to the conclusion that in every church, 16 percent of the members will never change. The tragedy is I see young pastors every day leaving the ministry because of that 16 percent. It's as if they are butting their heads against a brick wall. What they should be doing is concentrating on the 84 percent who are ripe for change. That is where the real ministry of the local church takes place."
Dr. Hendricks is right. What is true for young pastors is true for many people.
It is easy to be intimidated by what we might call the weeds in the church; it is easy to focus that exist in here in the church and out there in the world; it is easy, so easy, that we can forget the vast bouquet of flowers that makes up the rest of the church, the eighty-four percent that is the baby instead of the bathwater - or perhaps it's just five percent! But that five percent is the leaven that raises the whole loaf! The electricity that makes the whole engine operate! The power that makes it all come alive and come true.
There is almost no explaining why God allows the devil to cast his horrid seed in his garden.
But the word that God gives his servants about it is very clear -
"do not disturb it! Do not try to pluck it out - because if you do - you're going to wreck the whole place; you're going to end up pulling up wheat as well no matter how careful you are, you're going to develop an eye of judgement - and while you may be right in that judgement - you may end up doing wrong. Leave it to me. The weeds will be burned at the time of harvest - and all of you will have a hand in it - you will see justice done. The weed will perish - and the wheat stored in the granary of heaven."
Leave it me. Wait for the time I have set....
It's hard to wait. And it's hard to understand - especially when you see such terrible things happening; but when it comes to dealing with other people - with other people - both in the church and out of it, God calls us to mainly to plant and not to pluck up - at least for a while.
We are to resist evil of course - in ourselves and in others - through his power.
We are called to recognize evil and to name it - and to pray to God that he will take care of it, much as the farmer told his servants in the parable that he would take of it.
BUT most of all we are told to do good instead of evil
- to bless instead of curse
- to praise instead of criticize
- to help instead of stand off
- to love instead of hate
- to forgive instead of resent
- to tell truth instead of lies.
It seems that there is a plan, that God does have a system, but still - when you look at it with only the dim light of human wisdom, or the closed eyes of human doubt and human pride, there is almost no explaining why God allows the devil to cast his horrid seed in his garden..
Why, O why does God allow weeds in his field?
I want to finish off today by saying that I am sure glad of one thing in this whole mess, - in this strange system of divine agriculture - in this field that is so mixed and cluttered with weeds (and some of them are real whoppers), I am sure glad that God waits a while and that he tells his servants to hold back.
You see - every now and then I get this idea into my head that perhaps I'm being a weed right now.
And I know for sure that I've been a weed in the past - that some things I have done or failed to do - were more of the devil than they were of the Lord.
And knowing that - and knowing what God has done and can do with us and for me - then I let him; I'm rather content to have the weeding put off to the end!
How about you???
How often have you been a weed in the garden of the Lord? Would you - with what you know now - fancy being plucked up at those times?
My friends, God is so merciful that he allows evil to exist so that what is good might grow. He allows it exist because so many times he can turn it to the good.
Indeed - as we celebrate here today with Holy Communion - he can even turn death to life.
There is almost no explaining any of these things - but there is a truth - there is a substance to it - that can be touched and experienced much as the disciples touched the risen body of Christ; and that truth is a saving truth, a healing truth, a truth that can only be found in that crazy mixed up field in which God plants his seed, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave himself over to death so that we might live and who lives so that we might never die.
May his name be praised day by day. Amen.
This week - with the parable of the weeds in the garden we discover once again God's method of farming is different than ours - and I am for one am very glad of it.
Last week's "parable of the sower and the seed" and today's "parable of the weeds" are parables about the church - about the field that God plants in the hope of gaining a rich harvest of blessing for himself and for the world that he has made.
We are the field of God - we are the ground he works - the plants he nurtures - the people he rests his hopes upon - the people he plants his seed in, the congregation he anoints with his Spirit.
The farmer's parables are parables about us - about you here in the church - you who are called by the name of Christ - as much as they are about God and what he does.
We are the field of God.
I daresay that the two predominant reasons modern people give for not being Christian and for not associating with or attending church are the following:
1. People in the church as just as lousy as everyone else in the world - that in general they are hypocrites - and in particular - there are thieves, liars, gossips, cheats, snobs, and adulterers among them.
2. The whole idea of a good God is clearly ridiculous - because if he was so good why would he allow so much evil to exist in the world.
Does any one of those two reasons sound familiar to you? Say Amen if it does!....
IT's true. That's where people are at.
They are upset - and I think rightly so - that not everything is perfect.
Like the farmer's servants in today's parable they are concerned:
- concerned that there are weeds among the wheat
- concerned that the harvest might not turn right
- concerned that the good purpose of their master might fail.
At least some are - the rest are just plain critical - they don't understand things of the Spirit nor do they want to understand things of the Spirit.
The highly esteemed Bible teacher Dr. Howard Hendricks said something quite interesting sometime back. Let me quote:
"From research and personal experience," says Dr. Hendricks, "I've come to the conclusion that in every church, 16 percent of the members will never change. The tragedy is I see young pastors every day leaving the ministry because of that 16 percent. It's as if they are butting their heads against a brick wall. What they should be doing is concentrating on the 84 percent who are ripe for change. That is where the real ministry of the local church takes place."
Dr. Hendricks is right. What is true for young pastors is true for many people.
It is easy to be intimidated by what we might call the weeds in the church; it is easy to focus that exist in here in the church and out there in the world; it is easy, so easy, that we can forget the vast bouquet of flowers that makes up the rest of the church, the eighty-four percent that is the baby instead of the bathwater - or perhaps it's just five percent! But that five percent is the leaven that raises the whole loaf! The electricity that makes the whole engine operate! The power that makes it all come alive and come true.
There is almost no explaining why God allows the devil to cast his horrid seed in his garden.
But the word that God gives his servants about it is very clear -
"do not disturb it! Do not try to pluck it out - because if you do - you're going to wreck the whole place; you're going to end up pulling up wheat as well no matter how careful you are, you're going to develop an eye of judgement - and while you may be right in that judgement - you may end up doing wrong. Leave it to me. The weeds will be burned at the time of harvest - and all of you will have a hand in it - you will see justice done. The weed will perish - and the wheat stored in the granary of heaven."
Leave it me. Wait for the time I have set....
It's hard to wait. And it's hard to understand - especially when you see such terrible things happening; but when it comes to dealing with other people - with other people - both in the church and out of it, God calls us to mainly to plant and not to pluck up - at least for a while.
We are to resist evil of course - in ourselves and in others - through his power.
We are called to recognize evil and to name it - and to pray to God that he will take care of it, much as the farmer told his servants in the parable that he would take of it.
BUT most of all we are told to do good instead of evil
- to bless instead of curse
- to praise instead of criticize
- to help instead of stand off
- to love instead of hate
- to forgive instead of resent
- to tell truth instead of lies.
It seems that there is a plan, that God does have a system, but still - when you look at it with only the dim light of human wisdom, or the closed eyes of human doubt and human pride, there is almost no explaining why God allows the devil to cast his horrid seed in his garden..
Why, O why does God allow weeds in his field?
I want to finish off today by saying that I am sure glad of one thing in this whole mess, - in this strange system of divine agriculture - in this field that is so mixed and cluttered with weeds (and some of them are real whoppers), I am sure glad that God waits a while and that he tells his servants to hold back.
You see - every now and then I get this idea into my head that perhaps I'm being a weed right now.
And I know for sure that I've been a weed in the past - that some things I have done or failed to do - were more of the devil than they were of the Lord.
And knowing that - and knowing what God has done and can do with us and for me - then I let him; I'm rather content to have the weeding put off to the end!
How about you???
How often have you been a weed in the garden of the Lord? Would you - with what you know now - fancy being plucked up at those times?
My friends, God is so merciful that he allows evil to exist so that what is good might grow. He allows it exist because so many times he can turn it to the good.
Indeed - as we celebrate here today with Holy Communion - he can even turn death to life.
There is almost no explaining any of these things - but there is a truth - there is a substance to it - that can be touched and experienced much as the disciples touched the risen body of Christ; and that truth is a saving truth, a healing truth, a truth that can only be found in that crazy mixed up field in which God plants his seed, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave himself over to death so that we might live and who lives so that we might never die.
May his name be praised day by day. Amen.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
I Kings 19:1-8; Psalm 34; John 6:41-51
The Story of Elijah is an interesting one - he was one of the first of the great prophets, a prophet to the nation of the Northern Israel - to the people who would later become known as the 10 lost tribes.
Like us, Elijah is on a journey - a journey of the Spirit - a journey that has led him to a confrontation with the priests of Baal - the god of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab - on that journey Elijah has earned the hatred of Jezebel - which, given her "charming personality" was a very easy thing to earn - and she wishes him dead - and so he flees from the city of Jezreel to Beersheba - and then - he goes out into the wilderness about a day's walk, and came to a solitary broom tree in the midst of this wilderness, and sits under - and asks God that he might die.
There are times, are there not, when people we know and love despair to the point of wanting to die.
Perhaps there have been times when we ourselves have thought death a sweet alternative, - an alternative - as it was to Elijah - to being a solitary voice - an alternative to the stress of being under attack from those who were once our neighbours, - an alternative to the loneliness and fear of being the odd person out, the person who has done what was right only to find that all who have stood with him or her have vanished away - and every hand seems set against you - an alternative to feeling that perhaps - just perhaps - you are no better - and perhaps even worse than those who have gone before you - no better even than those who are against us.
Our journey through life takes us through some very dangerous country, our pilgrimage can leads us into some very desolate wilderness..
And so Elijah prays that he might die:
"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."
And then he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep, a sleep that I know that each one of you here today understands - the sleep of exhaustion, - the sleep of stress so high and the energy to go on fighting so low that it sweeps over you - and normally is too soon gone - the new day comes too quickly.
And in the night - something happens. Some answer to his prayer. An angel comes and touches him - wakens him - and tells him to "get up and eat". And there is food - a Cake of Bread upon a hot stone - and drink - a jar of water set near to hand.
And he eats and he lies down again, till again - some time later - the angel returns and touches him once more, and says: "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
And he rises, and he eats and he drinks - and then, the scriptures say, he went forty days and forty nights to Horeb - the mountain of God - the place we call Mount Sinai - and there he comes to a cave and spends the night there.
Other interesting things happen to Elijah while he is at the Mountain of God. At the end of this journey through the wilderness he is granted a vision of God - and given a message of hope for his own life and for the nation - and he is given a disciple - one who will keep him company and help him on his journey - and at last take his place as prophet over Israel when he grows old - the young man Elisha.
But, with me, think of the words of the angel to Elijah, the words "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
To survive on our journey, to have the strength to go through the barren places of life, those places where we are alone - because of divorce, or illness, or death - we need to eat to drink the food and the drink that God has prepared for us: the food that he grants each one of us in the sacred stories of this holy book and in the newer tales told by people of faith who enter our lives from time to time.
We need to cry out to God when we are in need, when we are in despair, and then heed the tap that comes upon our shoulder in the middle of the night - the voice that whispers in our inward most ear - and tells us to believe, to trust, to rise up and take the bread and the water that will be there for us and to eat and drink - and to eat and drink again -- and go forth to complete our journey.
Are you running on empty? Do you sometimes feel that you do not have the strength to travel onward for another day? let alone another 40?
Perhaps it is time to eat.
The food is all round us - especially in this place - and in the people who sit beside you - people who have faith - people who know the story and who know where God is to be found.
God is here - God's angels hover round us.
God is here - in the truth that we proclaim - in the bread that has been passed around this sanctuary - in the light that enters through the windows - in the water that flows in the rivers of the island outside these doors - in the ordinary things - the daily miracles that so many take for granted - the rising and setting of the sun, and the moon and the stars, and the ever changing mountains and the rhythm of the seasons - in the breath that comes in and out of our lungs each minute - in the crying of a baby and the laughter of a child and the care of a lover.
God is here in the Christ, the son of Joseph - whose parents indeed we do know; in Jesus, the carpenter with whom we are well familiar -
God is in the one who says:
"I am the bread of life" and again "I am the living bread that came down from heaven - whoever eats of this bread will live forever."
God is in the one who said to his disciples and to us:
"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Solid food is available my friends, food that will sustain us on our spiritual journey.
It is a great tragedy not to take it up and eat it - a tragedy that can so easily be avoided if one but takes the time to look around, and to think about what will truly satisfy.
Jean Pierre Caussade writes in the book "Abandonment to Divine Providence"
"God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment." He goes on - "The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God.... we find all that is necessary in the present moment." Again: "We are bored with the small happenings around us, yet it is these trivialities - as we consider them - which would do marvels for us if only we did not despise them."
Bread - ordinary bread -- bread simply for the eating. Rich and filling - something we know well - something that endures when other more exotic foods are not available, or proves - as so much of the food that we eat in this society does - to lead to death instead of life.
Ordinary stuff. Stuff we know. Stuff that is so familiar to us that many of us fail to understand it - and either try to make it out to be more than it is - or despise it for being less than they think it ought to be, for being ordinary - familiar - common: rather than magical, powerful, immaculate, glorious, and wondrous beyond even the ability of Cecil B DeMille to portray in a movie.
But the ordinary is powerful, it is magical - it is immaculate and glorious and wondrous, for those who have the eyes to see - those who seek God - and are willing to get up and eat and drink what he has provided.
God has provided us with food for our journey - take and eat that you may be strong in him and so reach the place he is calling you to.
Let us Pray a prayer by Janet Cawley:
God of the way,
you are the road we travel,
and the sign we follow;
you are bread for the journey,
and the wine of arrival.
Guide us as we follow in your way,
holding on to each other,
reaching out to your beloved world.
And when we stray,
seek us out and find us,
set our feet on the path again,
and lead us safely home.
In the name of Jesus, our Companion we pray. Amen.
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
Like us, Elijah is on a journey - a journey of the Spirit - a journey that has led him to a confrontation with the priests of Baal - the god of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab - on that journey Elijah has earned the hatred of Jezebel - which, given her "charming personality" was a very easy thing to earn - and she wishes him dead - and so he flees from the city of Jezreel to Beersheba - and then - he goes out into the wilderness about a day's walk, and came to a solitary broom tree in the midst of this wilderness, and sits under - and asks God that he might die.
There are times, are there not, when people we know and love despair to the point of wanting to die.
Perhaps there have been times when we ourselves have thought death a sweet alternative, - an alternative - as it was to Elijah - to being a solitary voice - an alternative to the stress of being under attack from those who were once our neighbours, - an alternative to the loneliness and fear of being the odd person out, the person who has done what was right only to find that all who have stood with him or her have vanished away - and every hand seems set against you - an alternative to feeling that perhaps - just perhaps - you are no better - and perhaps even worse than those who have gone before you - no better even than those who are against us.
Our journey through life takes us through some very dangerous country, our pilgrimage can leads us into some very desolate wilderness..
And so Elijah prays that he might die:
"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."
And then he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep, a sleep that I know that each one of you here today understands - the sleep of exhaustion, - the sleep of stress so high and the energy to go on fighting so low that it sweeps over you - and normally is too soon gone - the new day comes too quickly.
And in the night - something happens. Some answer to his prayer. An angel comes and touches him - wakens him - and tells him to "get up and eat". And there is food - a Cake of Bread upon a hot stone - and drink - a jar of water set near to hand.
And he eats and he lies down again, till again - some time later - the angel returns and touches him once more, and says: "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
And he rises, and he eats and he drinks - and then, the scriptures say, he went forty days and forty nights to Horeb - the mountain of God - the place we call Mount Sinai - and there he comes to a cave and spends the night there.
Other interesting things happen to Elijah while he is at the Mountain of God. At the end of this journey through the wilderness he is granted a vision of God - and given a message of hope for his own life and for the nation - and he is given a disciple - one who will keep him company and help him on his journey - and at last take his place as prophet over Israel when he grows old - the young man Elisha.
But, with me, think of the words of the angel to Elijah, the words "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
To survive on our journey, to have the strength to go through the barren places of life, those places where we are alone - because of divorce, or illness, or death - we need to eat to drink the food and the drink that God has prepared for us: the food that he grants each one of us in the sacred stories of this holy book and in the newer tales told by people of faith who enter our lives from time to time.
We need to cry out to God when we are in need, when we are in despair, and then heed the tap that comes upon our shoulder in the middle of the night - the voice that whispers in our inward most ear - and tells us to believe, to trust, to rise up and take the bread and the water that will be there for us and to eat and drink - and to eat and drink again -- and go forth to complete our journey.
Are you running on empty? Do you sometimes feel that you do not have the strength to travel onward for another day? let alone another 40?
Perhaps it is time to eat.
The food is all round us - especially in this place - and in the people who sit beside you - people who have faith - people who know the story and who know where God is to be found.
God is here - God's angels hover round us.
God is here - in the truth that we proclaim - in the bread that has been passed around this sanctuary - in the light that enters through the windows - in the water that flows in the rivers of the island outside these doors - in the ordinary things - the daily miracles that so many take for granted - the rising and setting of the sun, and the moon and the stars, and the ever changing mountains and the rhythm of the seasons - in the breath that comes in and out of our lungs each minute - in the crying of a baby and the laughter of a child and the care of a lover.
God is here in the Christ, the son of Joseph - whose parents indeed we do know; in Jesus, the carpenter with whom we are well familiar -
God is in the one who says:
"I am the bread of life" and again "I am the living bread that came down from heaven - whoever eats of this bread will live forever."
God is in the one who said to his disciples and to us:
"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Solid food is available my friends, food that will sustain us on our spiritual journey.
It is a great tragedy not to take it up and eat it - a tragedy that can so easily be avoided if one but takes the time to look around, and to think about what will truly satisfy.
Jean Pierre Caussade writes in the book "Abandonment to Divine Providence"
"God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment." He goes on - "The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God.... we find all that is necessary in the present moment." Again: "We are bored with the small happenings around us, yet it is these trivialities - as we consider them - which would do marvels for us if only we did not despise them."
Bread - ordinary bread -- bread simply for the eating. Rich and filling - something we know well - something that endures when other more exotic foods are not available, or proves - as so much of the food that we eat in this society does - to lead to death instead of life.
Ordinary stuff. Stuff we know. Stuff that is so familiar to us that many of us fail to understand it - and either try to make it out to be more than it is - or despise it for being less than they think it ought to be, for being ordinary - familiar - common: rather than magical, powerful, immaculate, glorious, and wondrous beyond even the ability of Cecil B DeMille to portray in a movie.
But the ordinary is powerful, it is magical - it is immaculate and glorious and wondrous, for those who have the eyes to see - those who seek God - and are willing to get up and eat and drink what he has provided.
God has provided us with food for our journey - take and eat that you may be strong in him and so reach the place he is calling you to.
Let us Pray a prayer by Janet Cawley:
God of the way,
you are the road we travel,
and the sign we follow;
you are bread for the journey,
and the wine of arrival.
Guide us as we follow in your way,
holding on to each other,
reaching out to your beloved world.
And when we stray,
seek us out and find us,
set our feet on the path again,
and lead us safely home.
In the name of Jesus, our Companion we pray. Amen.
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Galatians 2:15-21
Two thoughts for today - both related to the nature of grace, to the nature of God's love and what it demands of us.
I would like to do that with two stories. The first story is an old one that some of you may have heard before.
Two well dressed Jewish fathers came to their rabbi. "Rabbi, I do not understand my son," said the first father. "I spent $25,000 on his bar mitzvah. I sent him to the finest Hebrew school. Just last week he tells me he is a Christian."
"Funny you should ask," said the second father. "I am here for the same reason. Rabbi what can you tell us?"
"Funny you should ask," said the Rabbi. "I, a Rabbi, and my own son came to me and said he became a Christian."
"What did you do?" asked the two men.
"I talked to God," said the Rabbi.
"And, what did God say?"
God, he said to me, "Funny you should ask!"
When Paul wrote to the Galatians he wrote to a community facing the reverse problem to that of this old joke. he wrote to a community where people who had discovered the good news of Jesus Christ were being taught by some that to be a true follower of Christ they had to become Jewish first, that they had to be circumcised and initiated at the synagogue and then observe the Law of the Old Testament - those things pertaining to Feast Days and Diet and Ritual Cleanliness and so on and so forth.
In short they were being taught that the grace and love of Jesus Christ was not enough; that to be a follower of Christ, to be fully acceptable to God, they had to do something special, that they had to earn their way, that they had to follow rules and regulations to prove themselves worthy of God.
This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that says, as it does in today's scripture reading, that a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
None of us, my friends needs to earn our way. None of us has to follow the traditions and rules of others to be loved and accepted by God.
That is the first lesson of our scripture reading today, and the second I want to make is like it.
Again - a story to begin with. A woman, a mother, tells the story, about her young son and herself. She says:
My little boy came into the kitchen one evening while I was fixing supper and he handed me a piece of paper he'd been writing on. After wiping my hands on my apron, I read it, and this is what it said:
For cleaning my room, $5.
For making my own bed this week, $1.
For going to the store $1.
For playing with baby brother while you went shopping, $1.
For taking out the trash, $1.
For getting a good report card, $5.
For walking the dog, $2.
Have any of you ever been there with your kids? Having them come to you and charge you for doing chores and looking after themselves???
The woman continues her tale by saying:
I looked at my son, standing there expectantly, and a thousand memories flashed through my mind. So, I picked up the paper he had given me, and turning it over, this is what I wrote:
For the nine months I carried you, growing inside me. No Charge
For the nights I sat up with you, doctored you, prayed for you. No Charge.
For the time and the tears, and the cost through the years. No Charge
For the nights filled with dread, and the worries ahead. No Charge.
For advice and the knowledge, and the cost of your college. No Charge.
For the toys, food and clothes, and for wiping your nose. No Charge.
When you add it all up, the full cost of my love my Son. No Charge.
That is what is God's love is all about. There is no charge. Just a lot of hope - God hoping for us - God praying for us - God feeding us, God watching over us.
The mother who related the story I just told concludes the story by saying
When my son finished reading, he had great big tears in his eyes. He looked up at me and he said, "Mama, I sure do love you." Then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote on his bill: PAID IN FULL.
My friends, God owes us nothing for what we do for him, nor do we owe him - for he has written NO CHARGE upon our bill, he has written it in the sign of the cross.
Never, my friends demand of others that they earn your love. And never let them demand of you that you earn their love.
Rather - love as you are loved by God, unconditionally - as a gift - without ties or conditions, with only the hope that those whom you love might in turn love others in the same way.
Let go and let God be operative in you - day by day. Amen
I would like to do that with two stories. The first story is an old one that some of you may have heard before.
Two well dressed Jewish fathers came to their rabbi. "Rabbi, I do not understand my son," said the first father. "I spent $25,000 on his bar mitzvah. I sent him to the finest Hebrew school. Just last week he tells me he is a Christian."
"Funny you should ask," said the second father. "I am here for the same reason. Rabbi what can you tell us?"
"Funny you should ask," said the Rabbi. "I, a Rabbi, and my own son came to me and said he became a Christian."
"What did you do?" asked the two men.
"I talked to God," said the Rabbi.
"And, what did God say?"
God, he said to me, "Funny you should ask!"
When Paul wrote to the Galatians he wrote to a community facing the reverse problem to that of this old joke. he wrote to a community where people who had discovered the good news of Jesus Christ were being taught by some that to be a true follower of Christ they had to become Jewish first, that they had to be circumcised and initiated at the synagogue and then observe the Law of the Old Testament - those things pertaining to Feast Days and Diet and Ritual Cleanliness and so on and so forth.
In short they were being taught that the grace and love of Jesus Christ was not enough; that to be a follower of Christ, to be fully acceptable to God, they had to do something special, that they had to earn their way, that they had to follow rules and regulations to prove themselves worthy of God.
This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that says, as it does in today's scripture reading, that a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
None of us, my friends needs to earn our way. None of us has to follow the traditions and rules of others to be loved and accepted by God.
That is the first lesson of our scripture reading today, and the second I want to make is like it.
Again - a story to begin with. A woman, a mother, tells the story, about her young son and herself. She says:
My little boy came into the kitchen one evening while I was fixing supper and he handed me a piece of paper he'd been writing on. After wiping my hands on my apron, I read it, and this is what it said:
For cleaning my room, $5.
For making my own bed this week, $1.
For going to the store $1.
For playing with baby brother while you went shopping, $1.
For taking out the trash, $1.
For getting a good report card, $5.
For walking the dog, $2.
Have any of you ever been there with your kids? Having them come to you and charge you for doing chores and looking after themselves???
The woman continues her tale by saying:
I looked at my son, standing there expectantly, and a thousand memories flashed through my mind. So, I picked up the paper he had given me, and turning it over, this is what I wrote:
For the nine months I carried you, growing inside me. No Charge
For the nights I sat up with you, doctored you, prayed for you. No Charge.
For the time and the tears, and the cost through the years. No Charge
For the nights filled with dread, and the worries ahead. No Charge.
For advice and the knowledge, and the cost of your college. No Charge.
For the toys, food and clothes, and for wiping your nose. No Charge.
When you add it all up, the full cost of my love my Son. No Charge.
That is what is God's love is all about. There is no charge. Just a lot of hope - God hoping for us - God praying for us - God feeding us, God watching over us.
The mother who related the story I just told concludes the story by saying
When my son finished reading, he had great big tears in his eyes. He looked up at me and he said, "Mama, I sure do love you." Then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote on his bill: PAID IN FULL.
My friends, God owes us nothing for what we do for him, nor do we owe him - for he has written NO CHARGE upon our bill, he has written it in the sign of the cross.
Never, my friends demand of others that they earn your love. And never let them demand of you that you earn their love.
Rather - love as you are loved by God, unconditionally - as a gift - without ties or conditions, with only the hope that those whom you love might in turn love others in the same way.
Let go and let God be operative in you - day by day. Amen
Friday, July 23, 2010
Malachi 3:7-12; Psalm 107; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21
The title of today's sermon, "Your Money or Your Life"…sounds like something that comes from the lips of a robber, especially one from the days of highwaymen in England, when bandits were roaming the road of England accost travelers with the words “Stand and Deliver – Your Money or Your Life.”
I on purpose use that title.
A lot of money in our society asks as to why there is there so much emphasis on money in many of our churches in the world. In a certain church in Hong Kong, there is even a sign that tells the people that it costs 40,000 Hong Kong Dollars every day to run it! There is even one rather large Filipino denomination who will publish your name on the notice board if you did not paid your tithes for the month!
There can only be two possible answers to that question.
The first answer is that there is so much emphasis on money in so many Christian churches because those churches has a need for money:
Bills must be paid
Projects needs funding.
Outreach Projects needing money
Salaries have to be paid
Building maintained
And so forth
So many of our Christian churches talk about money – so the churches can get more of it. And very often they talk about money in terms that would seem to be very similar to that of the British Highwaymen of the old days. All too many churches seem to indicate by their preaching, their Television appeals, and their literature, that if you give them more money, you will live a blessed and long life, that God will love you more; but if you do not well you will not be blessed - that God will not love you.
Quite frankly that kind of talk turns me off - perhaps even more quickly than it turns you off.
It turns me off because it equates entry into the kingdom of heaven with giving money to this or that ministry or to this or that church - it turns me off because it equates the amount of love that you receive from God with the amount of money you give to God's work - and that, quite frankly, is a perversion of the gospel - that gospel that says in no uncertain terms that God loves us unconditionally, that God's saving love towards us has nothing at all to do with how much we give or how much we do, that God's offer of a healing touch has nothing to do with our virtue or our sin.
But bills do have to be paid. The work of God does need the gifts that God has given us for that work. Quite frankly the work of God needs our wallets. And it always has. And that truth needs to be plainly spoken. The truth concerning tithing - the truth about giving God our first fruits - our best fruits.
Listen to these words from the third chapter of the Book of the prophet Malachi. Words written some three hundred years before Christ, time when the Land of Israel was suffering from drought and disaster, from poverty and parsimony: (3:7-12)
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me."
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In your tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,".
The problem with money in this church, or any church, could simply be solved if we all did what the bible says we should do which is to offer to God the full tithe, the first fruits, the unblemished portions, the cream of the crop - and did so routinely and without muttering or murmuring - about it. And that should be easy because the TV evangelists are right in one point as they plead and beg and make fancy offers of free gifts to get more of your dollars. God does bless those who give him his due.
That's the truth about money and the church, plainly spoken.
And once spoken I don't believe one should make a big fuss about it. It is enough surely to remind people of what it is God has done for them and will do for them - and to ask that they pray to God about what their commitment is for both their regular tithes - and should there be a need - their special offerings.
In the church we should practice what we preach - we should ask for "our daily bread" and then let go of the asking for the rest of the day, and trust that God will answer our prayer - that God will meet our needs..
Giving is, after all, between God and the giver. And so is receiving. Between God and the receiver.
It should be enough to tell the faithful what the need is and to let it go at that. It should be enough to occasionally remind people what the biblical teaching on giving is and then go on to examine the other teachings of the bible without begging and pleading.
Unfortunately some churches spend a lot of time berating those who are faithful givers to give more and turning off those who are new believers in the Lord by focussing their efforts on getting more out of them - rather than encouraging them to a closer walk with Christ a walk which, in the end produce the fruit of a life that is totally committed to God
So the first answer to the question - why is there so much emphasis on money is that in many churches and in many ministries - there is a real need for more money, or a real greed for more money.
In either case - need or greed - this kind of emphasis on money reflects a poverty of Spirit that is not of the kind indicated by the beatitudes. It is not the poverty of humility and obedience, but the poverty of indifference and rebellion towards the Will of God..
The second answer is that there is a lot of emphasis or talk about money in the church because there is a lot of talk about money in the bible, especially in the Gospels, where Jesus it seems is constantly speaking to people both plainly and in parables about the dangers of wealth, or about how wealth - whether it be little - or much - needs to be used: - The poor widow who gave her all to the temple treasury - the vineyard owner who paid all his workers, even those hired last, the same wage, - the rich young ruler who was told to sell all he had and follow Jesus, - the steward who was forgiven a great debt, but refused to forgive a fellow servant a small debt, - the sheep who share their food, clothing, homes, and time - versus the goats who do not, the list goes on and on - - and includes today's Gospel reading - where we heard the story which is normally titled "the parable of the rich fool", the story of one who saved and saved and saved for his future - only to die before that future could come.
You know how it goes it was just read a few minutes ago.
The beginning, or the set up, of the parable is however quite instructive to today's topic. A Man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him.
Jesus responds to him with the words "who set me to be a judge or abritrator over you." And then he says to the crowd, to us, these words:
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed this is the key to the talk about money in the bible....The role it plays in our lives...And the role that it cannot play in our lives, no matter how much we might want it to, or how much the world tells us it can.
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed it doesn't. But there are all kinds of greed.
Some is simple avarice - the kind of wanting more that will people to drive hundreds of miles and stand in line for hours to buy a Mark Six Lottery ticket. Or to work 14 hours a day so that you can get ahead - where enough is never enough.
Some is fear - the fear that leads people to stow away their wealth "for a rainy day" and never use it even when it does rain.
And some is just plain old idolatry - as Paul calls greed in today's reading from the Letter to The Colossians. The idolatry that regards money and what it can do for oneself and ones family as more important than what it can do to help bring about Shalom - the time of peace.
You know what I am talking about don't you? - The idolatry that we see in those who will not hesitate to spend 600 or 800 or a thousand dollars for a dinner out with the family each week, but who chock on the idea of giving a tenth of that sum each week to the work of God. - The idolatry that sees people who will cheerfully buy their children designer clothing and running shoes at well over a $1000 a pop, but who refuse to share with the hungry and starving in the world because they think or know that the agency who conveys the gift, the government department who administers it, or the people who receive it in the end, will spend the money on everything but the essentials. - The idolatry that sees people who will keep the best portion for themselves and give the leftovers to those who beg at the door. Those whose idea of making a sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel is to attend church on Sunday morning rather than get up late. Those whose idea of making an important offering to the Lord is to buy five new shirts and give the old discarded one to the Salvation Army rather than putting them in the trash.
Why is there an emphasis on money in so many churches? Well there are at least two possible answers. One is not so good - and the other - well it is the Gospel truth.
There is, in all churches worthy of the name of Christ, the same emphasis on money as there is in his teachings.
Money and our attitude concerning who deserves it and who doesn't is a barometer of our spiritual health and insight. Money and how we use it and how we feel about it is symbolic of where we are at.
That is one of the purposes of the teaching concerning offering our first fruits to God and giving to God a tithe, be it 5% or 10% or even 20% of all that we earn. It reveals who we are and what we believe, though I must hasten to point out that there is many a good tither, many a good giver, who give out of a sense of duty - rather than out of a love and trust in God.
Still, all in all, whether or not we freely offer the cream of our crops, the best of what we have, to God is a test of our faith - of where we are at. It does not win us salvation. It does not bring to us the love of God. But it does show us where our hearts are... what we really believe or what we really desire.
Hear once again our Lord. Ponder the message that he is speaking to you this day when he says:
Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions.
And consider where you would be in relationship to the Lord - and to all the world - should this very night your soul be required of you.
And do from that mediation - what it is God is calling you to do, and do it faith and trust and in joy, knowing that whatever it is it is of God - and God is good.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
I on purpose use that title.
A lot of money in our society asks as to why there is there so much emphasis on money in many of our churches in the world. In a certain church in Hong Kong, there is even a sign that tells the people that it costs 40,000 Hong Kong Dollars every day to run it! There is even one rather large Filipino denomination who will publish your name on the notice board if you did not paid your tithes for the month!
There can only be two possible answers to that question.
The first answer is that there is so much emphasis on money in so many Christian churches because those churches has a need for money:
Bills must be paid
Projects needs funding.
Outreach Projects needing money
Salaries have to be paid
Building maintained
And so forth
So many of our Christian churches talk about money – so the churches can get more of it. And very often they talk about money in terms that would seem to be very similar to that of the British Highwaymen of the old days. All too many churches seem to indicate by their preaching, their Television appeals, and their literature, that if you give them more money, you will live a blessed and long life, that God will love you more; but if you do not well you will not be blessed - that God will not love you.
Quite frankly that kind of talk turns me off - perhaps even more quickly than it turns you off.
It turns me off because it equates entry into the kingdom of heaven with giving money to this or that ministry or to this or that church - it turns me off because it equates the amount of love that you receive from God with the amount of money you give to God's work - and that, quite frankly, is a perversion of the gospel - that gospel that says in no uncertain terms that God loves us unconditionally, that God's saving love towards us has nothing at all to do with how much we give or how much we do, that God's offer of a healing touch has nothing to do with our virtue or our sin.
But bills do have to be paid. The work of God does need the gifts that God has given us for that work. Quite frankly the work of God needs our wallets. And it always has. And that truth needs to be plainly spoken. The truth concerning tithing - the truth about giving God our first fruits - our best fruits.
Listen to these words from the third chapter of the Book of the prophet Malachi. Words written some three hundred years before Christ, time when the Land of Israel was suffering from drought and disaster, from poverty and parsimony: (3:7-12)
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me."
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In your tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,".
The problem with money in this church, or any church, could simply be solved if we all did what the bible says we should do which is to offer to God the full tithe, the first fruits, the unblemished portions, the cream of the crop - and did so routinely and without muttering or murmuring - about it. And that should be easy because the TV evangelists are right in one point as they plead and beg and make fancy offers of free gifts to get more of your dollars. God does bless those who give him his due.
That's the truth about money and the church, plainly spoken.
And once spoken I don't believe one should make a big fuss about it. It is enough surely to remind people of what it is God has done for them and will do for them - and to ask that they pray to God about what their commitment is for both their regular tithes - and should there be a need - their special offerings.
In the church we should practice what we preach - we should ask for "our daily bread" and then let go of the asking for the rest of the day, and trust that God will answer our prayer - that God will meet our needs..
Giving is, after all, between God and the giver. And so is receiving. Between God and the receiver.
It should be enough to tell the faithful what the need is and to let it go at that. It should be enough to occasionally remind people what the biblical teaching on giving is and then go on to examine the other teachings of the bible without begging and pleading.
Unfortunately some churches spend a lot of time berating those who are faithful givers to give more and turning off those who are new believers in the Lord by focussing their efforts on getting more out of them - rather than encouraging them to a closer walk with Christ a walk which, in the end produce the fruit of a life that is totally committed to God
So the first answer to the question - why is there so much emphasis on money is that in many churches and in many ministries - there is a real need for more money, or a real greed for more money.
In either case - need or greed - this kind of emphasis on money reflects a poverty of Spirit that is not of the kind indicated by the beatitudes. It is not the poverty of humility and obedience, but the poverty of indifference and rebellion towards the Will of God..
The second answer is that there is a lot of emphasis or talk about money in the church because there is a lot of talk about money in the bible, especially in the Gospels, where Jesus it seems is constantly speaking to people both plainly and in parables about the dangers of wealth, or about how wealth - whether it be little - or much - needs to be used: - The poor widow who gave her all to the temple treasury - the vineyard owner who paid all his workers, even those hired last, the same wage, - the rich young ruler who was told to sell all he had and follow Jesus, - the steward who was forgiven a great debt, but refused to forgive a fellow servant a small debt, - the sheep who share their food, clothing, homes, and time - versus the goats who do not, the list goes on and on - - and includes today's Gospel reading - where we heard the story which is normally titled "the parable of the rich fool", the story of one who saved and saved and saved for his future - only to die before that future could come.
You know how it goes it was just read a few minutes ago.
The beginning, or the set up, of the parable is however quite instructive to today's topic. A Man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him.
Jesus responds to him with the words "who set me to be a judge or abritrator over you." And then he says to the crowd, to us, these words:
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed this is the key to the talk about money in the bible....The role it plays in our lives...And the role that it cannot play in our lives, no matter how much we might want it to, or how much the world tells us it can.
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed it doesn't. But there are all kinds of greed.
Some is simple avarice - the kind of wanting more that will people to drive hundreds of miles and stand in line for hours to buy a Mark Six Lottery ticket. Or to work 14 hours a day so that you can get ahead - where enough is never enough.
Some is fear - the fear that leads people to stow away their wealth "for a rainy day" and never use it even when it does rain.
And some is just plain old idolatry - as Paul calls greed in today's reading from the Letter to The Colossians. The idolatry that regards money and what it can do for oneself and ones family as more important than what it can do to help bring about Shalom - the time of peace.
You know what I am talking about don't you? - The idolatry that we see in those who will not hesitate to spend 600 or 800 or a thousand dollars for a dinner out with the family each week, but who chock on the idea of giving a tenth of that sum each week to the work of God. - The idolatry that sees people who will cheerfully buy their children designer clothing and running shoes at well over a $1000 a pop, but who refuse to share with the hungry and starving in the world because they think or know that the agency who conveys the gift, the government department who administers it, or the people who receive it in the end, will spend the money on everything but the essentials. - The idolatry that sees people who will keep the best portion for themselves and give the leftovers to those who beg at the door. Those whose idea of making a sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel is to attend church on Sunday morning rather than get up late. Those whose idea of making an important offering to the Lord is to buy five new shirts and give the old discarded one to the Salvation Army rather than putting them in the trash.
Why is there an emphasis on money in so many churches? Well there are at least two possible answers. One is not so good - and the other - well it is the Gospel truth.
There is, in all churches worthy of the name of Christ, the same emphasis on money as there is in his teachings.
Money and our attitude concerning who deserves it and who doesn't is a barometer of our spiritual health and insight. Money and how we use it and how we feel about it is symbolic of where we are at.
That is one of the purposes of the teaching concerning offering our first fruits to God and giving to God a tithe, be it 5% or 10% or even 20% of all that we earn. It reveals who we are and what we believe, though I must hasten to point out that there is many a good tither, many a good giver, who give out of a sense of duty - rather than out of a love and trust in God.
Still, all in all, whether or not we freely offer the cream of our crops, the best of what we have, to God is a test of our faith - of where we are at. It does not win us salvation. It does not bring to us the love of God. But it does show us where our hearts are... what we really believe or what we really desire.
Hear once again our Lord. Ponder the message that he is speaking to you this day when he says:
Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions.
And consider where you would be in relationship to the Lord - and to all the world - should this very night your soul be required of you.
And do from that mediation - what it is God is calling you to do, and do it faith and trust and in joy, knowing that whatever it is it is of God - and God is good.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I Kings 21:1-22; Psalm 30; Luke 10:1-12,17-20
Into the middle of Jesus' teaching a man with a question breaks. You can almost see him, standing there in the crowd, squirming with this question that is consuming his attention. It doesn't matter that Jesus has been speaking of eternal truths. The man is concerned with today and so misses eternity. Apparently his father had died and his brother was refusing to follow the commandments of the law which specified a certain division of the estate. That he should ask Jesus' opinion is not surprising. The rabbis were often sought out to give rulings on points of law, including those related to family money matters. But notice what the question says. In the background it is quite clear that the man has decided what his rights are and now wants Jesus to enforce that decision. Jesus declines to get involved. Instead he gives the man, and the crowd, an answer which must have sounded peculiar.
"Beware of covetousness." That's the traditional rendering of this word. Covetousness. A strange word, not one that comes trippingly off the tongue in the conversation of most of us. I can't think of one occasion in the past month where I have used it. Maybe your speech is a whole lot different than mine but I doubt it is part of your regular vocabulary either. Covetousness. Sometimes it gets translated as "all kinds of greed". That's not bad. It's certainly closer to where you and I live, but it's not quite on. Covetousness really means "wanting more of what you already have enough of". Wanting more of what you already have enough of. Saying it that way may help us to find ourselves in this strange story from long ago. After all, I doubt that most of us would call ourselves greedy. Not a nice word, not a word we use about ourselves. But wanting more of what we already have enough of. That sounds a lot more like you and me than is comfortable.
This farmer has done very well for himself. Remember please that he's done nothing illegal. This is no slum landlord or drug dealer, he doesn't cheat his employees or mistreat them. He's a hard worker, an upstanding citizen. This is lawful profit. This isn't someone hanging around in back street alleys exchanging manila envelopes of insider trading information. Through a combination of skill and luck and plain hard work, his investment and labour have paid off. He's got this massive crop in. And in typical fashion he calls in the architect to help him plan bigger barns. The hours pass, finally the architect says, "look, I've got to get home. I have been out every night this week". "Leave the plans with me", says the man, "I'll keep working on them. We'll pick it up tomorrow." So he continues to work with his drawings and his figures. His wife comes in to say "goodnight, don't work too late" and he barely hears her, so caught up is he in the vision of the future.
The hours pass, and he senses what seems to be a knock at the door. But before he can answer the door there seems to be someone in the room with him. "Who are you?" "I'm death" the presence replies. "What are you doing here?" "I've come for you. Ten, nine, eight." "Wait a minute, I'm not ready. You didn't warn me." "Oh yes, I warned you. I warned you when that young man had that boating accident. When the friend you started farming with died of cancer. I warned you, but whether or not you were listening, who can say? Seven, six, five". "Wait, wait, I'll give you half of all I have." "What is that to me? Four, three." "Wait, I'll give you everything I have. I'll start all over again. I'm just not ready." And death counts him out of the picture. In the morning, his wife finds him slumped over the papers. The pressure building up in his system had simply been too much for his heart. The little pain he felt and ignored had been the warning of something more massive.
At the farmer's funeral many fine words were spoken. He was an example to the community, he was a big barn builder, always willing to help his neighbour in times of need, a strong supporter of community charities. A fine man, a fine man. But that night, the angel of God walked through the cemetery and wrote on the man's headstone the letters "F O O L". "So are all of you", Jesus said, "who are rich in the things of this world but have no treasure in heaven."
Notice what's happening here. Don't make the man worse than he is. He's not unlike most of us in his passions and motives. Notice too that what happens isn't a punishment. The message of the parable is not, God doesn't like people who work hard and are successful. What happens to the farmer is not a denial of any of the good, loving, charitable actions which may have characterized his life. The parable is simply an observation of the way life is for all of us, rich and poor, successful or struggling. This is one of those facts of life.
It's not an easy story. Certainly not one I might have picked for a pleasant summer Sunday, had I had my way. But there it is. And, if we can cut through the layers of familiarity, especially those of us who have heard the story over and over again, we'll find rare gold for the living of our days. I think that Jesus' teachings around money and possessions may be harder for our age and generation to follow than many of his commandments that we may put more emphasis on. Oh we often concentrate on the other ones, but these may be the tough ones. After all, we are brought up to consume. My daughter before she learns to read, is being bombarded by all sorts of messages which tell her to have, to want, to need more and more things. We are trained to be consumers and when we don't consume we're told that because consumers don't have confidence the economy is faltering. Which being translated appears to mean - if you're not buying it is your fault that your neighbour is unemployed. So Jesus' words, "beware of covetousness" beware of wanting more of what you already have enough of, go against the grain in ways which are deeper than we may always comprehend.
So what's the rich man's problem? Why is he a fool? Notice a couple of things. In the first place he's all alone. Those of you who, like me, have been in the Middle East may notice how peculiar that is. Anthropologists and ethno-historians point out that, particularly in the Middle East, it is extremely rare to be alone. Middle Eastern life is often very gregarious. You live in tight knit communities. The smallest transaction is worth endless debate. Having been part of such discussions there is often a subtle pressure not to introduce the detail which will end the discussion. The message is, we have a wonderful discussion going here, why close it with something as mundane as a decision?!
In any event, a respected man makes up his mind in community. This fellow talks to himself. He has no friends, no cronies. His money has allowed him to build a vacuum and live in it. His speech, full of "I" and "me" and "mine": my goods, my grain, my barns, my soul is not a sad speech but a pitiful one. He's arrived, he's finally made it, but there's no one to share his joy, no one to hear his arrival speech. He speaks to the lonely audience of his own soul.
Jesus' point of course is to show that the farmer's formula for the good life, "eat, drink and be merry", is sheer stupidity. For like everything else he has accumulated, even his soul is on loan, and now the owner wants it back. And the sting of Jesus' words lie in the question at the end of the parable. "Who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" They show just how lonely and empty the man's life truly is.
The Romans had a proverb: "Money is like seawater; the more you drink the thirstier you become". Yet money, or the things which money secures, are a passion for many people. Lee Ka Shing made billion of dollars , and the casino magnate, Stanley Ho made billions. It was much more than either could possibly spend. If you spent a thousand dollars an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, you'd need over 100 years to spend a billion. Why the drive to pursue more money when they already had more than they could count, let alone spend? Surely not happiness since each of them became more and more unhappy as their wealth increased.
But you don't have to be a Lee Ka Shing or a Stanley Ho. All material things are given to us by our creator to be enjoyed. But it's easy to become enslaved by them. We find ourselves driven by the urge for more, more, more. More to eat, more to drink, more to wear, more to entertain us, more to distract our minds. And every time we surrender to that inner urge for gratification we lose a little bit more of that inner freedom that allows us to exercise one of the chief human powers - the power to choose. Beware of covetousness.
A very rich man died and left his inheritance equally to his two sons. Now one son had married young in life and had a large and happy family. The other was still a bachelor. The night after the division of the estate the single man sat thinking in his living room. "Why did my father make such a mistake? Here's my brother, with all those mouths to feed, so many to provide for and no real joy in it. While I'm quite comfortable, I've got more than I could ever use. Why divide the estate equally?" The other brother, when the children were tucked in bed and his wife was off at some project of her own mused: "Why would my father divide the estate equally? Here I am, surrounded by a loving family and all that joy, while my brother sits alone over in his house. I have my family to care for me, while he will need financial security for his future. Why divide the estate equally?" So each man, that very night, resolved to place the majority of his inheritance in a suitcase and take it over and hide it where the other brother would find it and use it. As they were doing just that, they met between their two homes and realizing what each had intended fell into one another's arms, meeting in love as their father had hoped they might. Thanks be to God. Amen.
"Beware of covetousness." That's the traditional rendering of this word. Covetousness. A strange word, not one that comes trippingly off the tongue in the conversation of most of us. I can't think of one occasion in the past month where I have used it. Maybe your speech is a whole lot different than mine but I doubt it is part of your regular vocabulary either. Covetousness. Sometimes it gets translated as "all kinds of greed". That's not bad. It's certainly closer to where you and I live, but it's not quite on. Covetousness really means "wanting more of what you already have enough of". Wanting more of what you already have enough of. Saying it that way may help us to find ourselves in this strange story from long ago. After all, I doubt that most of us would call ourselves greedy. Not a nice word, not a word we use about ourselves. But wanting more of what we already have enough of. That sounds a lot more like you and me than is comfortable.
This farmer has done very well for himself. Remember please that he's done nothing illegal. This is no slum landlord or drug dealer, he doesn't cheat his employees or mistreat them. He's a hard worker, an upstanding citizen. This is lawful profit. This isn't someone hanging around in back street alleys exchanging manila envelopes of insider trading information. Through a combination of skill and luck and plain hard work, his investment and labour have paid off. He's got this massive crop in. And in typical fashion he calls in the architect to help him plan bigger barns. The hours pass, finally the architect says, "look, I've got to get home. I have been out every night this week". "Leave the plans with me", says the man, "I'll keep working on them. We'll pick it up tomorrow." So he continues to work with his drawings and his figures. His wife comes in to say "goodnight, don't work too late" and he barely hears her, so caught up is he in the vision of the future.
The hours pass, and he senses what seems to be a knock at the door. But before he can answer the door there seems to be someone in the room with him. "Who are you?" "I'm death" the presence replies. "What are you doing here?" "I've come for you. Ten, nine, eight." "Wait a minute, I'm not ready. You didn't warn me." "Oh yes, I warned you. I warned you when that young man had that boating accident. When the friend you started farming with died of cancer. I warned you, but whether or not you were listening, who can say? Seven, six, five". "Wait, wait, I'll give you half of all I have." "What is that to me? Four, three." "Wait, I'll give you everything I have. I'll start all over again. I'm just not ready." And death counts him out of the picture. In the morning, his wife finds him slumped over the papers. The pressure building up in his system had simply been too much for his heart. The little pain he felt and ignored had been the warning of something more massive.
At the farmer's funeral many fine words were spoken. He was an example to the community, he was a big barn builder, always willing to help his neighbour in times of need, a strong supporter of community charities. A fine man, a fine man. But that night, the angel of God walked through the cemetery and wrote on the man's headstone the letters "F O O L". "So are all of you", Jesus said, "who are rich in the things of this world but have no treasure in heaven."
Notice what's happening here. Don't make the man worse than he is. He's not unlike most of us in his passions and motives. Notice too that what happens isn't a punishment. The message of the parable is not, God doesn't like people who work hard and are successful. What happens to the farmer is not a denial of any of the good, loving, charitable actions which may have characterized his life. The parable is simply an observation of the way life is for all of us, rich and poor, successful or struggling. This is one of those facts of life.
It's not an easy story. Certainly not one I might have picked for a pleasant summer Sunday, had I had my way. But there it is. And, if we can cut through the layers of familiarity, especially those of us who have heard the story over and over again, we'll find rare gold for the living of our days. I think that Jesus' teachings around money and possessions may be harder for our age and generation to follow than many of his commandments that we may put more emphasis on. Oh we often concentrate on the other ones, but these may be the tough ones. After all, we are brought up to consume. My daughter before she learns to read, is being bombarded by all sorts of messages which tell her to have, to want, to need more and more things. We are trained to be consumers and when we don't consume we're told that because consumers don't have confidence the economy is faltering. Which being translated appears to mean - if you're not buying it is your fault that your neighbour is unemployed. So Jesus' words, "beware of covetousness" beware of wanting more of what you already have enough of, go against the grain in ways which are deeper than we may always comprehend.
So what's the rich man's problem? Why is he a fool? Notice a couple of things. In the first place he's all alone. Those of you who, like me, have been in the Middle East may notice how peculiar that is. Anthropologists and ethno-historians point out that, particularly in the Middle East, it is extremely rare to be alone. Middle Eastern life is often very gregarious. You live in tight knit communities. The smallest transaction is worth endless debate. Having been part of such discussions there is often a subtle pressure not to introduce the detail which will end the discussion. The message is, we have a wonderful discussion going here, why close it with something as mundane as a decision?!
In any event, a respected man makes up his mind in community. This fellow talks to himself. He has no friends, no cronies. His money has allowed him to build a vacuum and live in it. His speech, full of "I" and "me" and "mine": my goods, my grain, my barns, my soul is not a sad speech but a pitiful one. He's arrived, he's finally made it, but there's no one to share his joy, no one to hear his arrival speech. He speaks to the lonely audience of his own soul.
Jesus' point of course is to show that the farmer's formula for the good life, "eat, drink and be merry", is sheer stupidity. For like everything else he has accumulated, even his soul is on loan, and now the owner wants it back. And the sting of Jesus' words lie in the question at the end of the parable. "Who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" They show just how lonely and empty the man's life truly is.
The Romans had a proverb: "Money is like seawater; the more you drink the thirstier you become". Yet money, or the things which money secures, are a passion for many people. Lee Ka Shing made billion of dollars , and the casino magnate, Stanley Ho made billions. It was much more than either could possibly spend. If you spent a thousand dollars an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, you'd need over 100 years to spend a billion. Why the drive to pursue more money when they already had more than they could count, let alone spend? Surely not happiness since each of them became more and more unhappy as their wealth increased.
But you don't have to be a Lee Ka Shing or a Stanley Ho. All material things are given to us by our creator to be enjoyed. But it's easy to become enslaved by them. We find ourselves driven by the urge for more, more, more. More to eat, more to drink, more to wear, more to entertain us, more to distract our minds. And every time we surrender to that inner urge for gratification we lose a little bit more of that inner freedom that allows us to exercise one of the chief human powers - the power to choose. Beware of covetousness.
A very rich man died and left his inheritance equally to his two sons. Now one son had married young in life and had a large and happy family. The other was still a bachelor. The night after the division of the estate the single man sat thinking in his living room. "Why did my father make such a mistake? Here's my brother, with all those mouths to feed, so many to provide for and no real joy in it. While I'm quite comfortable, I've got more than I could ever use. Why divide the estate equally?" The other brother, when the children were tucked in bed and his wife was off at some project of her own mused: "Why would my father divide the estate equally? Here I am, surrounded by a loving family and all that joy, while my brother sits alone over in his house. I have my family to care for me, while he will need financial security for his future. Why divide the estate equally?" So each man, that very night, resolved to place the majority of his inheritance in a suitcase and take it over and hide it where the other brother would find it and use it. As they were doing just that, they met between their two homes and realizing what each had intended fell into one another's arms, meeting in love as their father had hoped they might. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Hosea 1:2-10; Colossians 2:6-15; Psalm 85; Luke 11:1-13
I am struck by fact disciples asked Jesus "teach us how to pray" - surely they knew how to pray? - they had been there and done that - with John - with the village rabbis - in the synagogues and temples - yet they after watching Jesus for a while - after seeing what he could do - after being impressed by his wisdom - his power - his love - they ask him to teach them how to pray...
And this makes me think about us - have we asked Jesus to teach us to pray? Or have we assumed that we know how?
The Christian life - the Godly life - is fueled by prayer - it is made strong by our contact with God each day - just as the relationship between husband and wife is sustained by communication - intimate - regular - joyful - sincere - needy - honest talk...
Yet very few people ever show the hunger of the disciples and ask "teach us how to pray"
When it comes to prayer - I think many people assume they already know all they really need to know - for they know the Lord's Prayer - the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him "Lord, teach us how to pray."
But the Lord's Prayer which they have heard, and which we know, is not THE answer of Jesus to his disciple's question - it is only A answer - a model as it were - of what our prayer might be like - of what it might include - and of what attitude our prayer might be uttered with.
The Lord's Prayer, my brothers and sisters, is only a model, an example of what prayer is like - yet - I am afraid that people - have turned it into AN ICON - AN IDOL OF PRAYER - and so have missed the point of what Jesus said to his disciples on that hot and hazy day in Palestine so long ago.
Many Church members lament the loss of the days when recitation of the Lord's Prayer was compulsory at school. They regard it as something for kids to hold onto." "It'll come back to them when they're in trouble." "At least it's a foundation." And so on.
The Lord's Prayer itself is precious - and for many of us learning it, and saying it together, is a precious childhood memory. Taking it out of the daily school routine here is one more example of the erosion of so much that was once held dear, and essential to the shared "Christian" culture. The absence of prayer in the schools compounds the frustration, grief, guilt churchgoers of a certain age feel over the fact that their children and grandchildren don't go to church.
But the Lord's Prayer can also be a perversion of prayer, something you do for a bit of religion; a retreat into magic; a set of words that might help in a fix; and as such it misses the point of what prayer is all about.
When a person learns the Lord's Prayer by heart, they did not know all they need to know about prayer. And teaching the Lord's prayer to others as a form of evangelism, as something that non-church-going kids need to hear, is a deep denial of the reason why Jesus taught his disciples this prayer in the first place.
The Lord's Prayer is a model of what prayer is for us as disciples - it is not meant for strangers - for people who do not know the Lord or believe in the God of Abraham and of Sarah and of Mary and of Joseph.
The Lord's Prayer is a form of prayer for disciples - for followers of Jesus - for the family of God.
A form of prayer mind you, not THE PRAYER or the ONLY PRAYER - nor even all prayers rolled into one. IT IS A MODEL - an example of how we - as followers of Jesus - might pray to God above.
IT IS, ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS, A MODEL OF INTIMACY
God is not "Father" - a formal and stiff parent whom me must address with great respect, fear, and awe - - God is "Daddy" - "Papa" - the one into whose lap we as toddlers crawl up into and whose beard we play with as we chatter to him - the one whose arms hold us safe as we laugh and giggle and ask him what we want and tell him about our day.
God, as Jesus explained, is like the neighbour who is close enough to pester at the worst time, or a parent who wants only what's best for the children - the One you know you can count on because you *know* "him".
That's the One to whom this sample-prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer is addressed, and that is how Jesus suggests we can address Him!
God is the one we spend time with - as a child spends time with his friends and his parents - simple time - time of thanksgiving - of praise - of need of asking for forgiveness - of expressing hope.
Lord, Teach us how to pray...
When it comes to prayer - all of us need some instruction - some understanding - but more than that - we need time - time and desire.
Time for shooting or spot prayers - the kind of prayer that is seen when your child runs into the room and says - wow it sure is hot outside - or - gee whiz - it sure would be nice to go to the beach later - And time for special times of prayer - special occasions - as when your child has hurt herself and comes to you for a bandage and for a hug - or when your son comes and asks you to tell him about why he has the name he has - or what your family do about the children down the street whose mother died and whose father is out of work...And time for regular prayer - as when you plan the day at the breakfast table - or review it at the supper table
Prayer is a matter of time and of desire - the desire to communicate - the desire to know - to listen - to think - to enjoy - to understand - to help - to be with...
I know people, within and without the church, who are offended by talk of intimacy/familiarity with God. They are the people who want only the prayer-book words at weddings, only the "old favourite" hymns on Sundays, and only the King James Version at their funerals.
In a sense they keep God away from their inner selves with language. They like the sound of the words, and the atmosphere they create, but they don't really want to know what they mean, or the God they are addressed to.
Don't keep God away - keep coming to God - coming and asking - coming and sharing - coming and learning - for God answers prayer - he hears us - he communicates with us.
God answers prayer - not always as we want - with magical solutions to our problems - but God answers. There are so many times when God answered my prayers throughout the years.
Sometimes he answers simply by listening when we share - as a father listens to his daughter tell him about her day - as a mother listens when her son speaks of his sense of frustration and of anger about how things are going at school, or at work, or with that special friend that he thought he could trust.
God is my friend - my Daddy - my Papa - the one who understands me - the one who holds me - the one who reassures me.
The Lord's Prayer, my friends, is not magic - it's not the sum total of what we should say to God - it is a model for those people who are interested in knowing their heavenly father - a form of what prayer can be like for those who really want to be like Jesus. It is an example of the freedom that we can have with God - the freedom that God himself bestows.
Hear the Prayer Jesus said we can pray... hear it as an example - audacious and bold and so intimate it is almost beyond words...
Daddy, you are so wonderful - I wish that everybody could have a Daddy like you, and that everyone would do the things you tell them to do - because what you say is so good.
Daddy - will you make supper tonight? Will you put good food on the table like you did last night and the night before?
Oh - and Daddy - I hope you won't be mad...I did something I shouldn't have today - will you forgive me??
Yes Daddy - I know - You want me to forgive my little brother for the nasty thing he did to me - and I will - I love him - even if he is weird.
Thank you Daddy for not being angry.
You'll protect me always, won't you Daddy? You'll keep me safe from those things that go bump in the night? From those things that frighten me?
I knew you would Daddy - for you are the best Daddy anyone could ever have. I love you Daddy. You are the greatest.
I got to go now Daddy. See you later.
Such my friends is the Lord's prayer for those who belong to the Family of God - and it is a surprise for many.
As David Buttrick expresses it, The Lord's Prayer with it's "Abba!, turns all our formal, strained praying into glad amusement, for right in the middle of our stained-glass phrases is that impudent word "Daddy!"
Lord - teach us how to pray...
To pray the Lord's Prayer, and to pattern prayer after this example is to be impudent and sassy, to be bold and to be vulnerable.
It is to be a child. A child whose father is the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it.
To pray as Jesus taught us to pray is, above all to be connected. - connected when we are afraid and when we are full of courage, - connected when we are weeping - and when we are laughing, - connected when we are in need - and when we have much to give...
Lord, teach us how to pray....
When it comes to prayer - nothing else will quite do except that our hearts and our minds be turned to God as a child turns to its parents in trust and in confidence; in the trust and the confidence that they will be heard and helped and encouraged and loved..May His name be praised day by day. Amen
And this makes me think about us - have we asked Jesus to teach us to pray? Or have we assumed that we know how?
The Christian life - the Godly life - is fueled by prayer - it is made strong by our contact with God each day - just as the relationship between husband and wife is sustained by communication - intimate - regular - joyful - sincere - needy - honest talk...
Yet very few people ever show the hunger of the disciples and ask "teach us how to pray"
When it comes to prayer - I think many people assume they already know all they really need to know - for they know the Lord's Prayer - the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him "Lord, teach us how to pray."
But the Lord's Prayer which they have heard, and which we know, is not THE answer of Jesus to his disciple's question - it is only A answer - a model as it were - of what our prayer might be like - of what it might include - and of what attitude our prayer might be uttered with.
The Lord's Prayer, my brothers and sisters, is only a model, an example of what prayer is like - yet - I am afraid that people - have turned it into AN ICON - AN IDOL OF PRAYER - and so have missed the point of what Jesus said to his disciples on that hot and hazy day in Palestine so long ago.
Many Church members lament the loss of the days when recitation of the Lord's Prayer was compulsory at school. They regard it as something for kids to hold onto." "It'll come back to them when they're in trouble." "At least it's a foundation." And so on.
The Lord's Prayer itself is precious - and for many of us learning it, and saying it together, is a precious childhood memory. Taking it out of the daily school routine here is one more example of the erosion of so much that was once held dear, and essential to the shared "Christian" culture. The absence of prayer in the schools compounds the frustration, grief, guilt churchgoers of a certain age feel over the fact that their children and grandchildren don't go to church.
But the Lord's Prayer can also be a perversion of prayer, something you do for a bit of religion; a retreat into magic; a set of words that might help in a fix; and as such it misses the point of what prayer is all about.
When a person learns the Lord's Prayer by heart, they did not know all they need to know about prayer. And teaching the Lord's prayer to others as a form of evangelism, as something that non-church-going kids need to hear, is a deep denial of the reason why Jesus taught his disciples this prayer in the first place.
The Lord's Prayer is a model of what prayer is for us as disciples - it is not meant for strangers - for people who do not know the Lord or believe in the God of Abraham and of Sarah and of Mary and of Joseph.
The Lord's Prayer is a form of prayer for disciples - for followers of Jesus - for the family of God.
A form of prayer mind you, not THE PRAYER or the ONLY PRAYER - nor even all prayers rolled into one. IT IS A MODEL - an example of how we - as followers of Jesus - might pray to God above.
IT IS, ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS, A MODEL OF INTIMACY
God is not "Father" - a formal and stiff parent whom me must address with great respect, fear, and awe - - God is "Daddy" - "Papa" - the one into whose lap we as toddlers crawl up into and whose beard we play with as we chatter to him - the one whose arms hold us safe as we laugh and giggle and ask him what we want and tell him about our day.
God, as Jesus explained, is like the neighbour who is close enough to pester at the worst time, or a parent who wants only what's best for the children - the One you know you can count on because you *know* "him".
That's the One to whom this sample-prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer is addressed, and that is how Jesus suggests we can address Him!
God is the one we spend time with - as a child spends time with his friends and his parents - simple time - time of thanksgiving - of praise - of need of asking for forgiveness - of expressing hope.
Lord, Teach us how to pray...
When it comes to prayer - all of us need some instruction - some understanding - but more than that - we need time - time and desire.
Time for shooting or spot prayers - the kind of prayer that is seen when your child runs into the room and says - wow it sure is hot outside - or - gee whiz - it sure would be nice to go to the beach later - And time for special times of prayer - special occasions - as when your child has hurt herself and comes to you for a bandage and for a hug - or when your son comes and asks you to tell him about why he has the name he has - or what your family do about the children down the street whose mother died and whose father is out of work...And time for regular prayer - as when you plan the day at the breakfast table - or review it at the supper table
Prayer is a matter of time and of desire - the desire to communicate - the desire to know - to listen - to think - to enjoy - to understand - to help - to be with...
I know people, within and without the church, who are offended by talk of intimacy/familiarity with God. They are the people who want only the prayer-book words at weddings, only the "old favourite" hymns on Sundays, and only the King James Version at their funerals.
In a sense they keep God away from their inner selves with language. They like the sound of the words, and the atmosphere they create, but they don't really want to know what they mean, or the God they are addressed to.
Don't keep God away - keep coming to God - coming and asking - coming and sharing - coming and learning - for God answers prayer - he hears us - he communicates with us.
God answers prayer - not always as we want - with magical solutions to our problems - but God answers. There are so many times when God answered my prayers throughout the years.
Sometimes he answers simply by listening when we share - as a father listens to his daughter tell him about her day - as a mother listens when her son speaks of his sense of frustration and of anger about how things are going at school, or at work, or with that special friend that he thought he could trust.
God is my friend - my Daddy - my Papa - the one who understands me - the one who holds me - the one who reassures me.
The Lord's Prayer, my friends, is not magic - it's not the sum total of what we should say to God - it is a model for those people who are interested in knowing their heavenly father - a form of what prayer can be like for those who really want to be like Jesus. It is an example of the freedom that we can have with God - the freedom that God himself bestows.
Hear the Prayer Jesus said we can pray... hear it as an example - audacious and bold and so intimate it is almost beyond words...
Daddy, you are so wonderful - I wish that everybody could have a Daddy like you, and that everyone would do the things you tell them to do - because what you say is so good.
Daddy - will you make supper tonight? Will you put good food on the table like you did last night and the night before?
Oh - and Daddy - I hope you won't be mad...I did something I shouldn't have today - will you forgive me??
Yes Daddy - I know - You want me to forgive my little brother for the nasty thing he did to me - and I will - I love him - even if he is weird.
Thank you Daddy for not being angry.
You'll protect me always, won't you Daddy? You'll keep me safe from those things that go bump in the night? From those things that frighten me?
I knew you would Daddy - for you are the best Daddy anyone could ever have. I love you Daddy. You are the greatest.
I got to go now Daddy. See you later.
Such my friends is the Lord's prayer for those who belong to the Family of God - and it is a surprise for many.
As David Buttrick expresses it, The Lord's Prayer with it's "Abba!, turns all our formal, strained praying into glad amusement, for right in the middle of our stained-glass phrases is that impudent word "Daddy!"
Lord - teach us how to pray...
To pray the Lord's Prayer, and to pattern prayer after this example is to be impudent and sassy, to be bold and to be vulnerable.
It is to be a child. A child whose father is the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it.
To pray as Jesus taught us to pray is, above all to be connected. - connected when we are afraid and when we are full of courage, - connected when we are weeping - and when we are laughing, - connected when we are in need - and when we have much to give...
Lord, teach us how to pray....
When it comes to prayer - nothing else will quite do except that our hearts and our minds be turned to God as a child turns to its parents in trust and in confidence; in the trust and the confidence that they will be heard and helped and encouraged and loved..May His name be praised day by day. Amen
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