SEPTEMBER 25, 2011
PHILIPPIANS 2:1-13
MATTHEW 21:23-32
FR. DOUG HALE
Our passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians is one of my most favorite passages of scripture. It is not a favorite because it is pleasant, but because it describes the very depths of the Gospel. It is so full that there seems to be no end to reflecting upon it and it’s implications for our lives.
At the core of the passage is what is considered by some scholars to be an ancient hymn of the church that Paul was probably quoting to make a point. The hymn is a depiction of the Son of God: Who took on human form, humbled himself, emptied himself, became a slave. He became obedient even unto death. He did not exploit, utilize or grasp his equality with God.
Our Gospel story illustrates this depiction of Jesus. Jesus was confronted with the question, “By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?” In other words, “did God send you to teach and heal? Why should we listen to you?”
But Jesus turns the questions around. It is not a question of him claiming authority nor that John the Baptist claimed authority. It is a question of “Do YOU RECOGNIZE John’s authority? Do YOU RECOGNIZE my authority?”
Jesus didn’t claim his divine origin, he didn’t grasp it, he didn’t exploit it. He didn’t take it and wack people over the head with it. Jesus humbly waited for people to recognize who he was, to recognize his authority in their lives, to get up and follow him.
He did not force the tax-collectors and prostitutes to follow him. They chose to follow him. What would the chief priest and elders choose? What will we choose?
This is the Jesus described in the hymn. He does not push himself on anyone. Rather, he allows himself to be pushed to the point of suffering and death. Yet in the end he will be recognized for who he is. He will be given the name above every name. Every tongue will confess him as Lord.
I am really drawn to this passage because it give me an image of not only what Jesus Christ has done for me, but also about how he approaches me. He comes to me as my servant. It blows me away that the Creator of the universe would come to me that way.
My wife and I have a friend in Turkey, who is a devote Muslim. Sumer has a lot of respect for us as people of faith. Our spiritual lives have much in common. But when we touch on this depiction of Jesus as the humble Son of God, he reacts, “GOD HAS NO SON!” He also cannot see God as humble. Rather, God is to be obeyed!
We Christians can struggle as well with this depiction of the Son of God. Some may see the incarnation as a passing phase before he becomes ruler of all. Some may so reject the image of God as Ruler of All that they cannot accept Jesus as anything other than a humble man. Some may find themselves in the middle, constantly fumbling with the implications of the paradox that God in Jesus Christ is both ruler and humble servant.
Paul's purpose in giving this description of Jesus is that our worship of him would lead us to seek to emulate him. He calls upon us to have the same mind that Jesus had: setting aside selfish-ambition and conceit, viewing others as more important than ourselves, looking out for others before we look out for ourselves.
This depiction of Jesus tugs at me. It is like he is tapping me on the shoulder and saying, “Go and do likewise. Have the same mind. Be humble. Don’t be impressed with your own prowess. Seek to be a servant of others, not there master. Don’t grab after positions of power over others. Do all this even if it means you will suffer and maybe even die.
It is much easier to use this passage to critique how others are behaving. There are bishops and bosses and politicians that are so enamored with there positions of power that they don’t bother to ask the question, do their people WANT to follow them?
There are spouses and parents and acquaintances that like bossing us around or filling the air with their precious ideas and never bother to ask: do people think my ideas are good? do they value what I have to say?
It is much harder to take a good look at ourselves and ponder, how we may step on other people’s toes, how we may be impressed with our importance in our family, in our work, or in the church.
Having the same mind as Christ is not easy. Even heading my life in this general direction is impossible for me without the inspiration and strength Christ’s mind gives to me. If I could not hold onto this image of Jesus, I would not be able to hold up to the challenge of what he is asking me to do.
It is the image of this humble God that makes it possible for us to have humility. As we hold this image of God up over and over again, it can transform how we thing about how things should be done, how we should act. Then we shall be on the road to having the same mind, not because he has forced us, but because we have chosen to follow him.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
September 18, 2011, 14th Sunday after Pentecost
SEPTEMBER 18, 2011
MATTHEW 20:1-16;
PSALM: 145:1-8
JONAH 3:10-4:11
FR. DOUG HALE
On the first opportunity that I get to be with you, I am tempted to keep the sermon upbeat. I could focus on the last verse of our Psalm and expound upon the glory of God with the Psalmist's words: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.” (145:8) and I could use Jonah's words: “...you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” (4:2)
Or...I could take it a step further and see the story of Jonah as a call for us to emulate God's willingness to forgive, and see Jesus' parable as a summons to be generous people even as God is.
But in order to take the Old Testament and Gospel texts seriously, I need to go deeper. What both texts focus upon is not the praise of God nor setting standards for moral behavior. What both texts focus upon is how difficult it is for humans to accept God's forgiving and generous nature. Jonah didn't want the Ninevites to be forgiven. The first laborers didn't want the later laborers to be paid the same wage. The first laborers grumbled. Jonah was angry to the point of wanting to die.
It is not easy to be truly forgiving. Jonah and the Jewish people had reasons for hating the Ninevites. They had invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel and carried off the whole population. Those ten tribes were never heard from again. At least once, they lay siege to Jerusalem itself and extracted a heavy tribute to leave them alone. The prophet Nahum described them as endlessly cruel and everyone who heard of their destruction would clap their hands. (Nahum 3:19)
Does this sound familiar, as we reflected back upon 9/11 this past week or so. There were the images of people in the Middle East clapping at the news of the attack on the US. There was the outrage that drove our country to war. And then there was the response to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed. We may not identify with those reactions, but honestly, I found it harder to object to such reactions. There was a certain rightness about them. There was a sense of justice to it all I think we need to be honest with ourselves about how we feel about certain people. Are there people, like sex offenders, whom we so fear that we would just as soon see them locked up permanently? Are there people who have so wronged us personally that we would love to see them get their “just desserts?” Are there people that while we don't sense that we are angry with them anymore, we really do not want to see them again. We have put them behind us and we want to move on.
Now imagine God coming to you and saying: “I have forgiven these people. They shall not receive their just desserts. I want you to welcome them back into your life, this community and this church.”
Who would you find it difficult to welcome and forgive?
We can talk about being a “Welcoming Church.” But the real test of welcoming is the willingness to forgive face to face. We can offer the peace to one another each Sunday, but the real test of the offer of peace comes when the person whose hand we take has done a real wrong to us and we are forgiving them.
It is not easy to be truly generous either. Why did the first laborer's in Jesus' parable object to the landowner's pay practice? It violated a very basic standard of justice: equal pay for equal work. We still struggle to meet this standard today.
There is a group of people in my wife's former church that will not be happy with hearing this passage this morning. They have already made it clear, quite vehemently, that they think the landowner was unjust. They get angry about it.
How about you? Have you ever experienced being paid less than someone else for the same work? Have you ever watched someone else receive more recognition for accomplishing the same thing you have? Do you have a sibling that you always felt your parents liked best?
The landowner's defense is that the first laborers had agreed to their pay prior to starting work. Historians tell us that they were paid the standard wage for a laborer for a day's work. The wages of the first laborers were just, in and of themselves.
What they objected to was generosity. Generosity of which they were not the recipients. They were filled with envy. Have you every envied what another has received and you have not?
It is one thing to be the recipient of generosity. It takes a gracious spirit to give generously to another. It takes real humility to watch as others fair better in life and accept this with grace.
Have you ever felt that life is not fair? How can life be fair when people practice unequal generosity? How can we have a just legal system when some people are forgiven? How can God be both just and forgiving? How can God be fair and generous at the same time?
What we are being told by these passages is that God's justice and righteousness include forgiveness and generosity. And what may be most difficult for us is that it is God who determines ultimately the extent of the forgiveness and generosity. God will not wait for us to be ready to forgive and will not be generous on our terms. God will decide and God's ways are not our ways; they defy our ability to make them into a predictable system of justice and fair play.
I think the only way to make sense of this is to change our perspective. We need to rethink who we are. We need to see ourselves not as Jonah but as the Ninevites. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as basically good people who are better than those who deserve their just desserts and instead see ourselves as people who have been forgiven much. We need to not see ourselves as the first laborers, but as the last. We need to stop thinking that we deserve the good we have received and instead think of it as God's generous undeserved gift.
That way, when we see others forgiven, we can rejoice that they have come to know God's forgiveness as we have. And when we see others fairing better than ourselves, we can recall the times we have been the recipients of God's generosity.
MATTHEW 20:1-16;
PSALM: 145:1-8
JONAH 3:10-4:11
FR. DOUG HALE
On the first opportunity that I get to be with you, I am tempted to keep the sermon upbeat. I could focus on the last verse of our Psalm and expound upon the glory of God with the Psalmist's words: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.” (145:8) and I could use Jonah's words: “...you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” (4:2)
Or...I could take it a step further and see the story of Jonah as a call for us to emulate God's willingness to forgive, and see Jesus' parable as a summons to be generous people even as God is.
But in order to take the Old Testament and Gospel texts seriously, I need to go deeper. What both texts focus upon is not the praise of God nor setting standards for moral behavior. What both texts focus upon is how difficult it is for humans to accept God's forgiving and generous nature. Jonah didn't want the Ninevites to be forgiven. The first laborers didn't want the later laborers to be paid the same wage. The first laborers grumbled. Jonah was angry to the point of wanting to die.
It is not easy to be truly forgiving. Jonah and the Jewish people had reasons for hating the Ninevites. They had invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel and carried off the whole population. Those ten tribes were never heard from again. At least once, they lay siege to Jerusalem itself and extracted a heavy tribute to leave them alone. The prophet Nahum described them as endlessly cruel and everyone who heard of their destruction would clap their hands. (Nahum 3:19)
Does this sound familiar, as we reflected back upon 9/11 this past week or so. There were the images of people in the Middle East clapping at the news of the attack on the US. There was the outrage that drove our country to war. And then there was the response to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed. We may not identify with those reactions, but honestly, I found it harder to object to such reactions. There was a certain rightness about them. There was a sense of justice to it all I think we need to be honest with ourselves about how we feel about certain people. Are there people, like sex offenders, whom we so fear that we would just as soon see them locked up permanently? Are there people who have so wronged us personally that we would love to see them get their “just desserts?” Are there people that while we don't sense that we are angry with them anymore, we really do not want to see them again. We have put them behind us and we want to move on.
Now imagine God coming to you and saying: “I have forgiven these people. They shall not receive their just desserts. I want you to welcome them back into your life, this community and this church.”
Who would you find it difficult to welcome and forgive?
We can talk about being a “Welcoming Church.” But the real test of welcoming is the willingness to forgive face to face. We can offer the peace to one another each Sunday, but the real test of the offer of peace comes when the person whose hand we take has done a real wrong to us and we are forgiving them.
It is not easy to be truly generous either. Why did the first laborer's in Jesus' parable object to the landowner's pay practice? It violated a very basic standard of justice: equal pay for equal work. We still struggle to meet this standard today.
There is a group of people in my wife's former church that will not be happy with hearing this passage this morning. They have already made it clear, quite vehemently, that they think the landowner was unjust. They get angry about it.
How about you? Have you ever experienced being paid less than someone else for the same work? Have you ever watched someone else receive more recognition for accomplishing the same thing you have? Do you have a sibling that you always felt your parents liked best?
The landowner's defense is that the first laborers had agreed to their pay prior to starting work. Historians tell us that they were paid the standard wage for a laborer for a day's work. The wages of the first laborers were just, in and of themselves.
What they objected to was generosity. Generosity of which they were not the recipients. They were filled with envy. Have you every envied what another has received and you have not?
It is one thing to be the recipient of generosity. It takes a gracious spirit to give generously to another. It takes real humility to watch as others fair better in life and accept this with grace.
Have you ever felt that life is not fair? How can life be fair when people practice unequal generosity? How can we have a just legal system when some people are forgiven? How can God be both just and forgiving? How can God be fair and generous at the same time?
What we are being told by these passages is that God's justice and righteousness include forgiveness and generosity. And what may be most difficult for us is that it is God who determines ultimately the extent of the forgiveness and generosity. God will not wait for us to be ready to forgive and will not be generous on our terms. God will decide and God's ways are not our ways; they defy our ability to make them into a predictable system of justice and fair play.
I think the only way to make sense of this is to change our perspective. We need to rethink who we are. We need to see ourselves not as Jonah but as the Ninevites. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as basically good people who are better than those who deserve their just desserts and instead see ourselves as people who have been forgiven much. We need to not see ourselves as the first laborers, but as the last. We need to stop thinking that we deserve the good we have received and instead think of it as God's generous undeserved gift.
That way, when we see others forgiven, we can rejoice that they have come to know God's forgiveness as we have. And when we see others fairing better than ourselves, we can recall the times we have been the recipients of God's generosity.
Monday, September 26, 2011
May 22, 2011, 5th Sunday of Easter
Every week I am presented with a challenge, the lectionary readings. The stoning of
Stephen kept going through my head. We only get a small part of the story of Stephen in our reading. We get the tragic end of the narrative. I kept wondering how I can make this pertinent to today’s world. Honestly, it didn’t take that much effort. However, putting it into coherent sentences and paragraphs was a challenge.
Today, I intend to continue from last weeks homily that referenced the differences
between the practice of religion and the growth of inner spirituality. I will also touch on what occurs to a society in crisis, when long standing structures are breaking down and dysfunctional. The overall theme will ask what happens to our morals and ethics in the midst of breakdown and new vision for the future. Boy, does that sound heavy?
A short recap is necessary here: religion deals with the exterior questions of 1. what do I believe, 2. how should I behave, and 3. who am I. Spirituality deals with the interior questions of 1. how do I believe, 2. what should I do with my life and 3. whose am I.
The reading from Acts 7:55-60 is a succinct narrative with a number of complex themes. It also shows what happens to morals and ethics under stress, it shows the difference between religion and spirituality.
Stephen had been with the Council of the Sanhedrin which was the Jewish supreme
council and court of justice in Jerusalem. The council consisted of both priests and laymen. The laymen were Sadducees and Pharisees. The priests, Sadducees, and Pharisees knew the law of Moses. They knew the ten commandments and surly the Book of Leviticus which tells them how they should behave. They were the very essence of morality and ethical being. But, something happens to humans when there is a breakdown of legitimacy, when the culture becomes dysfunctional, when the prevailing order has failed. It seems that people who live mostly from the external religious stance, who know in their head what is right but do not live by the internal reality and experience of their faith lose their grounding.
Stephen is a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Sprit gives Stephen authority to speak and to witness to whom he belongs. Stephen challenged these men with his vision of Jesus as the “Son of Man.” What angered these men was placing the crucified Jesus in close relation to God. It did not matter that Stephen was able to use the words of the prophets and Moses to back up his case. He gives a lengthy retelling of Israel’s history. He connects Israel’s rejections of their leaders, especially Moses, with his audience’s rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. He used really strong language.
What did the men in the council do when Stephen pointed out their failings? The
narrative says they covered their ears and with loud shouts all rushed together against him.
They covered their ears and shouted over him so they might not hear. That rather reminds me of what children at a certain age do when they don’t want to hear what mom or dad are saying. I have a confession. I do something similar when I just do not want to hear what political pundits are saying. I just change channels. I’m just not going to listen.
Morality can be seen as a set of answers or rules about how to behave. The Book of
Leviticus is dedicated to ritual and moral holiness. It is very precise in how one should behave and how one should believe. But what happened to “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Leviticus 19 11-18 says do not render unjust judgments, do not profit by violence against your neighbor, do not hate your kinfolk, do not take vengeance or bear a grudge. Rage and anger can erase all our head knowledge. Murder happened. The stoning of Stephen could also be seen as just; Exodus 21:12-26 gives reasons for capital punishment. The one outstanding reason it cannot be seen as just is the killing was done out of rage. Stephen’s humanity was ignored.
We live in an era of rage, of lax morals and situational ethics. Now, I am not against situational ethics.
The situational ethics theory was first postulated during the 1960’s by Joseph Fletcher. It was intended to be a middle ground position in the Christian world of ethics between legalism and a stance that says there is no law—everything is relative to the moment and should be decided in a spontaneous fashion with man’s will as the source of truth. Legalism has a set of predetermined and different laws for every decision-making situation. Fletcher’s ethical theory is based on only one absolute law, which when applied properly, handles every situation. Fletcher’s stated we must enter every situation with only one moral weapon—the law of agape love. ( internet source)
What we witness in the stoning is the ethic of legalism turned into no law at all that turned into a legal persecution of the early Christians. Humans have a way of justifying their actions. Christians did this when they burned heretics who held “unorthodox views”. Stephen’s views were also unorthodox to the Jewish leaders.
Almost every day we are confronted with dilemmas that challenge our heart, our mind
and our soul. Fletcher urges those who are concerned about their ethics to use agape love as the test of action. In the sermon on the mount Jesus said that we are to love God, love neighbor and to pray for our enemies. Jesus constantly used agape love as the yard stick for our actions.
How will we live out our Spiritual life as we continue to move into the future with all its dilemmas, with all the different situations we will be confronted with? Stephen prayed for his persecutors to be forgiven in the manner of Jesus.
When we are confronted with difficult decisions it is good to have a community of
people to whom we belong and a God to whom we belong that we can go to for help. Our
Spiritual life helps us to know what to do with our life, our practice, intentionality and purpose. Working together in a relational community with intentional practice and experiential belief, we can continue the process of ushering in God’s Kingdom. Faith can transform the world only when love, peace, and tolerance are given more than lip service.
Stephen kept going through my head. We only get a small part of the story of Stephen in our reading. We get the tragic end of the narrative. I kept wondering how I can make this pertinent to today’s world. Honestly, it didn’t take that much effort. However, putting it into coherent sentences and paragraphs was a challenge.
Today, I intend to continue from last weeks homily that referenced the differences
between the practice of religion and the growth of inner spirituality. I will also touch on what occurs to a society in crisis, when long standing structures are breaking down and dysfunctional. The overall theme will ask what happens to our morals and ethics in the midst of breakdown and new vision for the future. Boy, does that sound heavy?
A short recap is necessary here: religion deals with the exterior questions of 1. what do I believe, 2. how should I behave, and 3. who am I. Spirituality deals with the interior questions of 1. how do I believe, 2. what should I do with my life and 3. whose am I.
The reading from Acts 7:55-60 is a succinct narrative with a number of complex themes. It also shows what happens to morals and ethics under stress, it shows the difference between religion and spirituality.
Stephen had been with the Council of the Sanhedrin which was the Jewish supreme
council and court of justice in Jerusalem. The council consisted of both priests and laymen. The laymen were Sadducees and Pharisees. The priests, Sadducees, and Pharisees knew the law of Moses. They knew the ten commandments and surly the Book of Leviticus which tells them how they should behave. They were the very essence of morality and ethical being. But, something happens to humans when there is a breakdown of legitimacy, when the culture becomes dysfunctional, when the prevailing order has failed. It seems that people who live mostly from the external religious stance, who know in their head what is right but do not live by the internal reality and experience of their faith lose their grounding.
Stephen is a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Sprit gives Stephen authority to speak and to witness to whom he belongs. Stephen challenged these men with his vision of Jesus as the “Son of Man.” What angered these men was placing the crucified Jesus in close relation to God. It did not matter that Stephen was able to use the words of the prophets and Moses to back up his case. He gives a lengthy retelling of Israel’s history. He connects Israel’s rejections of their leaders, especially Moses, with his audience’s rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. He used really strong language.
What did the men in the council do when Stephen pointed out their failings? The
narrative says they covered their ears and with loud shouts all rushed together against him.
They covered their ears and shouted over him so they might not hear. That rather reminds me of what children at a certain age do when they don’t want to hear what mom or dad are saying. I have a confession. I do something similar when I just do not want to hear what political pundits are saying. I just change channels. I’m just not going to listen.
Morality can be seen as a set of answers or rules about how to behave. The Book of
Leviticus is dedicated to ritual and moral holiness. It is very precise in how one should behave and how one should believe. But what happened to “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Leviticus 19 11-18 says do not render unjust judgments, do not profit by violence against your neighbor, do not hate your kinfolk, do not take vengeance or bear a grudge. Rage and anger can erase all our head knowledge. Murder happened. The stoning of Stephen could also be seen as just; Exodus 21:12-26 gives reasons for capital punishment. The one outstanding reason it cannot be seen as just is the killing was done out of rage. Stephen’s humanity was ignored.
We live in an era of rage, of lax morals and situational ethics. Now, I am not against situational ethics.
The situational ethics theory was first postulated during the 1960’s by Joseph Fletcher. It was intended to be a middle ground position in the Christian world of ethics between legalism and a stance that says there is no law—everything is relative to the moment and should be decided in a spontaneous fashion with man’s will as the source of truth. Legalism has a set of predetermined and different laws for every decision-making situation. Fletcher’s ethical theory is based on only one absolute law, which when applied properly, handles every situation. Fletcher’s stated we must enter every situation with only one moral weapon—the law of agape love. ( internet source)
What we witness in the stoning is the ethic of legalism turned into no law at all that turned into a legal persecution of the early Christians. Humans have a way of justifying their actions. Christians did this when they burned heretics who held “unorthodox views”. Stephen’s views were also unorthodox to the Jewish leaders.
Almost every day we are confronted with dilemmas that challenge our heart, our mind
and our soul. Fletcher urges those who are concerned about their ethics to use agape love as the test of action. In the sermon on the mount Jesus said that we are to love God, love neighbor and to pray for our enemies. Jesus constantly used agape love as the yard stick for our actions.
How will we live out our Spiritual life as we continue to move into the future with all its dilemmas, with all the different situations we will be confronted with? Stephen prayed for his persecutors to be forgiven in the manner of Jesus.
When we are confronted with difficult decisions it is good to have a community of
people to whom we belong and a God to whom we belong that we can go to for help. Our
Spiritual life helps us to know what to do with our life, our practice, intentionality and purpose. Working together in a relational community with intentional practice and experiential belief, we can continue the process of ushering in God’s Kingdom. Faith can transform the world only when love, peace, and tolerance are given more than lip service.
May 15, 2011, 4th Sunday of Easter
I spent two days at our annual Clergy Conference this last week. The setting was
beautiful for it was at the Oregon Gardens in Silverton. Our speaker was Diana Butler
Bass a church historian. Her books are quite readable. I enjoyed “A People’s History of Christianity”. Her presentation was very good and very timely.
I am motivated to see if I can weave the story we heard from Acts 2 with what is
occurring today in our churches, primarily within the “Institutional Church”. I’m not sure I can pull this off, so we shall see. Note in our reading in Acts the people devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Verse 46 states that day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home. Fellowship occurred in homes where they listened to and shared the apostles' accounts of the teachings and life of Jesus.
Some background information is needed here. The writing of Acts has been dated
sometime around 85-95 CE. The Roman’s have sacked and pillaged Jerusalem and the
Temple was destroyed. Luke’s account was intended to fill Christians of his day with an unshakable confidence in their future with the story of their beginning. They were a society in great transition.
The Jewish culture and religion were under great stress; there was violence, loss of
bearing and a breakdown in the institution of the Temple. It was dysfunctional because of the influence of Rome. The old Jewish religion which was dependent on the Institutional structure of the Temple no longer existed. Certain people were without jobs, what was a priest to do without a temple? Sacrifices came to a halt. The population was at odds with itself. Those in authority started to look for scapegoats to cast blame.
William McLoughlin writes that following the breakdown come visions of a new
way of being. There are new insights, new understandings of identity and new moral and ethical possibilities. This is precisely what was going on in acts and there are many who say it is what is going on now.
The old Religious Model offered three questions: 1. What do I believe? These are
generally the regulations, the doctrines, creeds and dogmas. 2. How should I behave?
These incorporate the rules, the techniques of worship, the programs the institution has set in motion. And 3. Who Am I? The question is answered by membership in the institution and biology which was either Jewish or Gentile. All of these questions deal with the external.
Something new was emerging, a spirituality that was internal. The questions
changed to 1. How do I believe? (What is my experience with my faith, with whom do I
place my trust, what does it lead me to see as a future) 2. What should I do with my life? This question leads to intentionality and purpose of practice. The people of “The Way” became different from the greater community by the way they helped one another and those in need. 3. Whose am I? Relationship with God and in the risen Christ defined to whom they belonged. They belonged to God by faith, by the presence the Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
It is no secret that the Christian Religion as an institution seems to be broken. There have been numerous polls taken on the church and belief for years. Diana Bass stated that not all questions have been answered honestly. In the Eastern and Southern section of the US actual church attendance does not match the number of people who say they attend church regularly. She did say that Oregonians are at least honest perhaps because we don’t care if mother knows we are not going to church.
There is an interesting movement going on. In 1999 only 6% of the people polled
said they were both religious and spiritual. Religious meant they attended some type of external institutional faith organization and spiritual meant they also have practices that developed inner growth such as meditation, yoga, prayer, labyrinth walks, study groups that focused on being in touch with the Divine. In 2009 48% said they were both Spiritual and Religious. There is a combining of external religious participation and growth in spiritual awareness.
The number of people attending church is down, but the quality of the spiritual
experience with the living Christ is increasing with those who are attending church. The American Institutional Church is in the middle of change. We can lead, do nothing, or go backwards looking for a past experience as an institution or as a congregation.
What are the perceptions that youths between the ages of 16 and 29 have of the
church? If we look at those outside the church we would see that 91% see us as
homophobic, 87% judgmental, 85% hypocritical, 75% too political and militaristic, 72%
see us as out of touch with reality, and 68% say we are boring. These have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.
The attitudes of young people who were raised in the church are not so different
80% say we are homophobic, 52% say we are judgmental, 47% hypocritical, 50% too
political, 32% out of touch, and only 27% see us as boring.
Back to the Spiritual awaking in Acts that changed the world. They did not have
programs. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching which were the teachings of Jesus. They got together to share common meals (potlucks), and they were missional. They reached out to those around them that were in need. They practiced the radical hospitality of Jesus. Many mainline churches, for the most part, are doing this but it is my opinion that the media doesn’t broadcast it because it's boring. They would rather focus on the more outrageous and sensational. Do they ever show what Episcopal Relief and Development does around the world and here in the US?
As long as we, here at Resurrection, know how we believe and experience our
relationship with the Holy Triune God, as long as we know how we are intentional in our faith practice and our purpose for being Christian and to whom we belong, we are moving boldly into the future with the God who makes all things new again. We will be leading the new transformation of the church into a vibrant life that brings the Kingdom of God into reality. It is not about quantity it is about quality. Resurrection is a congregation that enhances the quality of life around you. Continue to see yourselves as the leaders of a renewed vitality in a faith in God and God’s Kingdom on earth.
beautiful for it was at the Oregon Gardens in Silverton. Our speaker was Diana Butler
Bass a church historian. Her books are quite readable. I enjoyed “A People’s History of Christianity”. Her presentation was very good and very timely.
I am motivated to see if I can weave the story we heard from Acts 2 with what is
occurring today in our churches, primarily within the “Institutional Church”. I’m not sure I can pull this off, so we shall see. Note in our reading in Acts the people devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Verse 46 states that day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home. Fellowship occurred in homes where they listened to and shared the apostles' accounts of the teachings and life of Jesus.
Some background information is needed here. The writing of Acts has been dated
sometime around 85-95 CE. The Roman’s have sacked and pillaged Jerusalem and the
Temple was destroyed. Luke’s account was intended to fill Christians of his day with an unshakable confidence in their future with the story of their beginning. They were a society in great transition.
The Jewish culture and religion were under great stress; there was violence, loss of
bearing and a breakdown in the institution of the Temple. It was dysfunctional because of the influence of Rome. The old Jewish religion which was dependent on the Institutional structure of the Temple no longer existed. Certain people were without jobs, what was a priest to do without a temple? Sacrifices came to a halt. The population was at odds with itself. Those in authority started to look for scapegoats to cast blame.
William McLoughlin writes that following the breakdown come visions of a new
way of being. There are new insights, new understandings of identity and new moral and ethical possibilities. This is precisely what was going on in acts and there are many who say it is what is going on now.
The old Religious Model offered three questions: 1. What do I believe? These are
generally the regulations, the doctrines, creeds and dogmas. 2. How should I behave?
These incorporate the rules, the techniques of worship, the programs the institution has set in motion. And 3. Who Am I? The question is answered by membership in the institution and biology which was either Jewish or Gentile. All of these questions deal with the external.
Something new was emerging, a spirituality that was internal. The questions
changed to 1. How do I believe? (What is my experience with my faith, with whom do I
place my trust, what does it lead me to see as a future) 2. What should I do with my life? This question leads to intentionality and purpose of practice. The people of “The Way” became different from the greater community by the way they helped one another and those in need. 3. Whose am I? Relationship with God and in the risen Christ defined to whom they belonged. They belonged to God by faith, by the presence the Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
It is no secret that the Christian Religion as an institution seems to be broken. There have been numerous polls taken on the church and belief for years. Diana Bass stated that not all questions have been answered honestly. In the Eastern and Southern section of the US actual church attendance does not match the number of people who say they attend church regularly. She did say that Oregonians are at least honest perhaps because we don’t care if mother knows we are not going to church.
There is an interesting movement going on. In 1999 only 6% of the people polled
said they were both religious and spiritual. Religious meant they attended some type of external institutional faith organization and spiritual meant they also have practices that developed inner growth such as meditation, yoga, prayer, labyrinth walks, study groups that focused on being in touch with the Divine. In 2009 48% said they were both Spiritual and Religious. There is a combining of external religious participation and growth in spiritual awareness.
The number of people attending church is down, but the quality of the spiritual
experience with the living Christ is increasing with those who are attending church. The American Institutional Church is in the middle of change. We can lead, do nothing, or go backwards looking for a past experience as an institution or as a congregation.
What are the perceptions that youths between the ages of 16 and 29 have of the
church? If we look at those outside the church we would see that 91% see us as
homophobic, 87% judgmental, 85% hypocritical, 75% too political and militaristic, 72%
see us as out of touch with reality, and 68% say we are boring. These have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.
The attitudes of young people who were raised in the church are not so different
80% say we are homophobic, 52% say we are judgmental, 47% hypocritical, 50% too
political, 32% out of touch, and only 27% see us as boring.
Back to the Spiritual awaking in Acts that changed the world. They did not have
programs. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching which were the teachings of Jesus. They got together to share common meals (potlucks), and they were missional. They reached out to those around them that were in need. They practiced the radical hospitality of Jesus. Many mainline churches, for the most part, are doing this but it is my opinion that the media doesn’t broadcast it because it's boring. They would rather focus on the more outrageous and sensational. Do they ever show what Episcopal Relief and Development does around the world and here in the US?
As long as we, here at Resurrection, know how we believe and experience our
relationship with the Holy Triune God, as long as we know how we are intentional in our faith practice and our purpose for being Christian and to whom we belong, we are moving boldly into the future with the God who makes all things new again. We will be leading the new transformation of the church into a vibrant life that brings the Kingdom of God into reality. It is not about quantity it is about quality. Resurrection is a congregation that enhances the quality of life around you. Continue to see yourselves as the leaders of a renewed vitality in a faith in God and God’s Kingdom on earth.
Easter Vigil, April 23, 2011
April 23, 2011, Easter Vigil
The Rev. Jo Miller
Matthew:
There is no simple way of speaking of the resurrection. The dawn is
interrupted by the earth’s quaking and the appearance of an angel. It is as though he
rides in on the earth’s quaking, flashing like lightning and dressed in snow!!. He is
powerful enough to roll away the stone in front of the tomb and then, calmly sits on
it!!! Then the angel turns to the women and says, “ Do not fear.”
In the full scope of human history it is hard to hang on to hope and live
without fear. However, that is what we are called to do, live in hope.
The angel’s full blown message is heard: he, the very crucified one, has been
raised, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee, where he will gather you around him
in forgiveness and for a renewed sense of mission. The living Spirit of Jesus today
meets us where his ministry is: to the calling of disciples who will follow his
teachings, to the crowds who are suffering and need healing, to those who are weary
and need rest, to the oppressed who need to be freed, to the lost who need to be
found, to the hard hearted who need love and compassion. God continues to
reconcile the world unto God’s self.
Jesus broke free from the bonds of death that we not even fear death, but live
a life full as we can. The risen Christ meets us here where healing and wholeness is
a reality.
The encounter with the risen Christ is not a self-contained, solitary spiritual
experience. It is an invitation to join God’s mission, to be a conduit of grace, mercy, kindness, love, and forgiveness.
Amen
The Rev. Jo Miller
Matthew:
There is no simple way of speaking of the resurrection. The dawn is
interrupted by the earth’s quaking and the appearance of an angel. It is as though he
rides in on the earth’s quaking, flashing like lightning and dressed in snow!!. He is
powerful enough to roll away the stone in front of the tomb and then, calmly sits on
it!!! Then the angel turns to the women and says, “ Do not fear.”
In the full scope of human history it is hard to hang on to hope and live
without fear. However, that is what we are called to do, live in hope.
The angel’s full blown message is heard: he, the very crucified one, has been
raised, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee, where he will gather you around him
in forgiveness and for a renewed sense of mission. The living Spirit of Jesus today
meets us where his ministry is: to the calling of disciples who will follow his
teachings, to the crowds who are suffering and need healing, to those who are weary
and need rest, to the oppressed who need to be freed, to the lost who need to be
found, to the hard hearted who need love and compassion. God continues to
reconcile the world unto God’s self.
Jesus broke free from the bonds of death that we not even fear death, but live
a life full as we can. The risen Christ meets us here where healing and wholeness is
a reality.
The encounter with the risen Christ is not a self-contained, solitary spiritual
experience. It is an invitation to join God’s mission, to be a conduit of grace, mercy, kindness, love, and forgiveness.
Amen
Easter Day, April 24, 2011
Easter Day, April 24, 2011
The Rev. Jo Miller
“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." A
quotation from Lewis Carol’s book, Alice in Wonderland. The book has several wonderful quotes. This one I particularly like and in the lastest movies it is used in an appropriate way. As Alice is walking toward her destiny she starts reciting six impossible things which turn out to be real. In my growing up I have heard another phrase, “If I can’t see it I don’t believe it.”
Believing in impossible things. Several nights ago on a science channel there was a
program on our sun. I became mesmerized with the young physicist who was explaining
the sun and so many of its properties. Our sun is an amazing star.
The scientist talked about Solar Winds- Soar winds stream off of the sun in all
directions at speeds of about 1 million miles per hour. How can scientists clock the speed of solar winds and how can they clock it at 1 million miles an hour? To me that is impossible. I can’t begin to wrap my head around a million miles an hour. But it is real.
The speed of the winds coming at our atmosphere could blow it away but it doesn’t.
I was so entranced at that moment that I missed the reason our atmosphere doesn't fly off into interstellar space. Some told me at the 8 am service that it was our magnetic poles that prevent those winds from blowing us away. Amazing. There are probes that have moved deep into the Milky Way and beyond that track the solar winds, a billion or more miles out in space and the solar winds are still blowing at phenomenal speeds. The impossibility of it all but it's real.
There were so many impossible things at the beginning of the 20th century that we
take for granted. My grandparents would have never believed that you could put a contract in a machine in Eugene and FAX it to Australia in minutes. Now we just create a PDF file and e-mail them. All these documents now just fly through the air leaping from one satellite to another with great speed and not one period gets lost from the document. Impossible, but real. Telephones that are really computers that you can use as a telephone, or a camera, or a miniature typewriter that you can text a messages to the person sitting next to you. Impossible sounding, but real. The owners of these phones can download apps such as GPS that can tell them precisely where they are sitting while they are texting the person sitting next to them.
Why are we here this morning? Did we come to hear something new, or to hear the
old, old story once again. Swiss theologian Karl Barth said that what brings people to worship- not just Easter- but any day is the unspoken question clinging to our hearts and minds. “Is it true? Is it real?
Is it true that God lives and gives us life? Is it true that perhaps this creative,
pulsating spirit who seems to fill all space, who established the laws of nature, then broke the law somehow by raising Jesus from the dead? We can’t prove the resurrection like proving that the solar winds travel 1 million miles an hour through space and time.
There are people who refuse to believe that the earth’s climate is changing even
though earth’s history shows the earth has undergone many climate changes from covering the earth in a tropical forest to Ice Ages. Impossible things that are real and true challenge us all the time. They make us uncomfortable, make us change our minds and perspective.
The resurrection is not for the beginner. It is rather an advanced course to be
undertaken only after reading about and dealing with the man Jesus and his life and his teachings beginning with Matthew’s sermon on the mount. We need to read and marvel at Jesus’ wisdom, learn from him, become fascinated by his life, fixed on the person of Jesus. If we begin there perhaps we are better prepared to hear this mystery of the resurrection, this impossible event and see beneath and beyond it to a much deeper reality and truth.
The resurrection was not and is not the end of the mystery. On any chosen day we
may accept the indwelling presence of the living Christ or reject it.
I have read several “Saul to Paul” stories from contemporary, every day people. I
can choose to accept what they say or reject it. ( that can’t be real). One of my favorite stories was written by a woman who considered herself a quasi-agnostic. “Yea I think there is a God, no not really.” One day while driving her car to the store she was having an internal argument with the God she really didn’t believe in when the car was filled with a blinding light. She pulled off the road and sat in her light filled car and felt a very real presence.
She ended up going to seminary, becoming a Methodist minister, and then went on
to teach homiletics at a Methodist seminary. Impossible, but really true. Regardless of what we can and cannot see, or believe it will always take a leap of faith. There is something in the resurrection story that reaches into the deepest regions of our hearts and minds where both doubt and faith are found.
In the resurrection God gave us such a miracle of love and forgiveness that it is
worthy of faith and therefore as Paul Tillich says is open to doubt.
Realities about which we hold no doubt may not be large enough to reveal God to
us. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without
him not one thing came into being" as the Word flew across the face of the Universe going 1 million miles an hour the Word threw thousand upon hundreds of thousands of pixels into the Universe creating stars and planets.
Perhaps we can say, without apology, what we proclaim at Easter is too mighty to
be encompassed by certainty, too wonderful to be found only within the boundaries of our imagination. Perhaps, the resurrection is yet another impossible thing that is really true.
The Rev. Jo Miller
“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." A
quotation from Lewis Carol’s book, Alice in Wonderland. The book has several wonderful quotes. This one I particularly like and in the lastest movies it is used in an appropriate way. As Alice is walking toward her destiny she starts reciting six impossible things which turn out to be real. In my growing up I have heard another phrase, “If I can’t see it I don’t believe it.”
Believing in impossible things. Several nights ago on a science channel there was a
program on our sun. I became mesmerized with the young physicist who was explaining
the sun and so many of its properties. Our sun is an amazing star.
The scientist talked about Solar Winds- Soar winds stream off of the sun in all
directions at speeds of about 1 million miles per hour. How can scientists clock the speed of solar winds and how can they clock it at 1 million miles an hour? To me that is impossible. I can’t begin to wrap my head around a million miles an hour. But it is real.
The speed of the winds coming at our atmosphere could blow it away but it doesn’t.
I was so entranced at that moment that I missed the reason our atmosphere doesn't fly off into interstellar space. Some told me at the 8 am service that it was our magnetic poles that prevent those winds from blowing us away. Amazing. There are probes that have moved deep into the Milky Way and beyond that track the solar winds, a billion or more miles out in space and the solar winds are still blowing at phenomenal speeds. The impossibility of it all but it's real.
There were so many impossible things at the beginning of the 20th century that we
take for granted. My grandparents would have never believed that you could put a contract in a machine in Eugene and FAX it to Australia in minutes. Now we just create a PDF file and e-mail them. All these documents now just fly through the air leaping from one satellite to another with great speed and not one period gets lost from the document. Impossible, but real. Telephones that are really computers that you can use as a telephone, or a camera, or a miniature typewriter that you can text a messages to the person sitting next to you. Impossible sounding, but real. The owners of these phones can download apps such as GPS that can tell them precisely where they are sitting while they are texting the person sitting next to them.
Why are we here this morning? Did we come to hear something new, or to hear the
old, old story once again. Swiss theologian Karl Barth said that what brings people to worship- not just Easter- but any day is the unspoken question clinging to our hearts and minds. “Is it true? Is it real?
Is it true that God lives and gives us life? Is it true that perhaps this creative,
pulsating spirit who seems to fill all space, who established the laws of nature, then broke the law somehow by raising Jesus from the dead? We can’t prove the resurrection like proving that the solar winds travel 1 million miles an hour through space and time.
There are people who refuse to believe that the earth’s climate is changing even
though earth’s history shows the earth has undergone many climate changes from covering the earth in a tropical forest to Ice Ages. Impossible things that are real and true challenge us all the time. They make us uncomfortable, make us change our minds and perspective.
The resurrection is not for the beginner. It is rather an advanced course to be
undertaken only after reading about and dealing with the man Jesus and his life and his teachings beginning with Matthew’s sermon on the mount. We need to read and marvel at Jesus’ wisdom, learn from him, become fascinated by his life, fixed on the person of Jesus. If we begin there perhaps we are better prepared to hear this mystery of the resurrection, this impossible event and see beneath and beyond it to a much deeper reality and truth.
The resurrection was not and is not the end of the mystery. On any chosen day we
may accept the indwelling presence of the living Christ or reject it.
I have read several “Saul to Paul” stories from contemporary, every day people. I
can choose to accept what they say or reject it. ( that can’t be real). One of my favorite stories was written by a woman who considered herself a quasi-agnostic. “Yea I think there is a God, no not really.” One day while driving her car to the store she was having an internal argument with the God she really didn’t believe in when the car was filled with a blinding light. She pulled off the road and sat in her light filled car and felt a very real presence.
She ended up going to seminary, becoming a Methodist minister, and then went on
to teach homiletics at a Methodist seminary. Impossible, but really true. Regardless of what we can and cannot see, or believe it will always take a leap of faith. There is something in the resurrection story that reaches into the deepest regions of our hearts and minds where both doubt and faith are found.
In the resurrection God gave us such a miracle of love and forgiveness that it is
worthy of faith and therefore as Paul Tillich says is open to doubt.
Realities about which we hold no doubt may not be large enough to reveal God to
us. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without
him not one thing came into being" as the Word flew across the face of the Universe going 1 million miles an hour the Word threw thousand upon hundreds of thousands of pixels into the Universe creating stars and planets.
Perhaps we can say, without apology, what we proclaim at Easter is too mighty to
be encompassed by certainty, too wonderful to be found only within the boundaries of our imagination. Perhaps, the resurrection is yet another impossible thing that is really true.
Monday, September 12, 2011
April 10, 2011, The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Yr. A
Sunday, April 10, 2011, The Fifth Sunday in Lent
John 11:1-45
The Rev. Jo Miller
What I have learned as a supply priest is you can't give an Annie Dillard kind of
homily in most churches. You know the kind of homily in which you need a crash helmet
instead of a nice Easter bonnet and a seat belt in the pew to keep you from flying off the end or out the door. It is hard to find a place where old assumptions and ways of seeing one's faith is allowed to be challenged. Do we really want our barriers and boundaries torn down? I am referring to the barriers we have built to keep God safe in God's place and to keep people well defined so we know where to keep them or where we can keep ourselves safe from God and others. We also want to keep our fears intact. We are skeptical that love wins in the end. It is a human tendency, or at least that's the way I read it in the Bible.
Love wins. Bottom line. There is a fairly new book out by Bob Bell, an
"Evangelical", a pastor of a mega church in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose book is titled Love Wins. He is tearing down walls, barriers, and boundaries. He along with some other people are beginning to preach Annie Dillard type sermons and writing books that sound a lot like the Jesus I have come to know in the Bible. And you know what, they get picketed by and receive nasty e-mails from Christians.
The Gospel of John critiques the social relations and structures of the world that
Jesus confronted. Those structures back then are very similar to our social structures today that create, uphold, and sustain boundaries, walls, divisions, prejudices, and fears. Many of these social structures are generated from religious belief systems.
In the past two Sundays and today we have had three fairly long Gospel Readings
from John. They are full, rich, deep, multilevel dramas that confront certain social
structures that we read and hear Jesus dismantling. We see how our blindness interferes with our greater spiritual understanding, we see how fear of life and death can be overcome through the presence of the Living Spirit of God who dwells in us, who is the one in whom we walk and live and have our being.
All three of the main characters in our Gospel readings were given new life: the
Samaritan woman at the well given new life, the blind man given new life, Lazarus given new life by Jesus dismantling barriers. The very presence of Jesus was a demonstration of God's love and that God's love will win in the end.
Let's take a brief look at the Samaritan woman and the boundaries or barriers that
came down. Jesus a lone man at the well of Jacob speaks to a lone Samaritan woman at
the well. Barrier number one: Jesus spoke to a woman, barrier number two a Jewish male spoke to a Samaritan, barrier number three Jesus as the Christ of God spoke to an adulteress, a sinner. The love of God was present to her. In her conversation with Jesus, the Samaritan woman slowly moves from unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, from ignorance to knowledge, from misunderstanding to understanding. Jesus was just present with her and she began to see. Her growing faith that Jesus was the Messiah brought her justification by her faith as Paul wrote in Romans.
Let us now have a brief look at last week's Gospel. The three players in this drama
were a blind man, men who had sight but were blind, and the very presence of Jesus. The primary social barriers that Jesus broke down were the understandings of sin and
righteousness. These two barriers keep all kinds of relationships from growing and
especially our relationship with the indwelling Spirit of God. The man born blind
according to the Gospel reading did not ask Jesus to heal him. He did not know who Jesus was at the time. But Jesus was present to him even in his blindness and his ignorance.
Jesus was also present to the men who were willing to make religious judgments.
Our religious judgments perhaps are the most difficult for the Spirit of God to dismantle. Our religious judgments embody our fears, our prejudices, our hatreds and we have a tendency to make them noble by claiming they are sanctified by God. Religious judgments were one of the powers that sent Jesus to the cross. God was even reconciled to those who held those judgments whether we like it or not. Perhaps because we hold judgments against those who hold negative judgments on others.
Again, as with the woman at the well it took time for the man born blind to fully
understand who had touched him and who was willing to love him. It takes us time also. It can take a life time to accept the full presence of the living Christ in our life.
Now the story of Lazarus. Keep in mind the verse in Ephesians 5:14 that we heard
last week. "Therefore it says: Sleeper awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine in you. Paul in Romans 8: 6-11 speaks of the indwelling nature of God in the Spirit. It reads "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you." Our reading from Ezekiel is also an articulation of how the very breath of God, the Rhouak, the Spirit of God can bring life back to us even if we had chosen to live in darkness, a life without hope, and a defeated life.
We read that Jesus wept. This is an emotionally profound testimony to the truth of
the incarnation itself, of Jesus being truly one of us to the point of sharing our human need for friendship and our grief at the loss of a friend. Jesus was there to have the rock rolled away that separated living from the dead. Life was breathed back into the one who had died. Love wins.
The tension between the hope of resurrection and finality of death is palpable during
this season of reflection. The tension between hope for new life and having to live in the death of the old is being played out in our news every day. Amid the painful circumstance and death-dealing social realities, we yearn for resurrection and the unbinding that releases us to dream beyond the boundaries and experience a renewed life. To dream beyond the boundaries we impose on ourselves and others impose on us is to imagine a world in which wholeness, well-being, health, and purpose are the normal expression of our human existence and to partner with the God of life in making the dream come true. It is to recognize that our world is not as it should be, while rejecting assertions that the socioreligious barriers that prevent persons from experiencing God's presence in their lives is impervious to change. This fifth Sunday of Lent invites us to consider the possibility or new life as in the resurrection in the lives of the many persons and communities who deeply need God's presence in the nowness of our existence. We need to live the life that demonstrates that God's love wins. That God's love through the indwelling Spirit of Christ
can continue to tear down the boundaries and barriers.
John 11:1-45
The Rev. Jo Miller
What I have learned as a supply priest is you can't give an Annie Dillard kind of
homily in most churches. You know the kind of homily in which you need a crash helmet
instead of a nice Easter bonnet and a seat belt in the pew to keep you from flying off the end or out the door. It is hard to find a place where old assumptions and ways of seeing one's faith is allowed to be challenged. Do we really want our barriers and boundaries torn down? I am referring to the barriers we have built to keep God safe in God's place and to keep people well defined so we know where to keep them or where we can keep ourselves safe from God and others. We also want to keep our fears intact. We are skeptical that love wins in the end. It is a human tendency, or at least that's the way I read it in the Bible.
Love wins. Bottom line. There is a fairly new book out by Bob Bell, an
"Evangelical", a pastor of a mega church in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose book is titled Love Wins. He is tearing down walls, barriers, and boundaries. He along with some other people are beginning to preach Annie Dillard type sermons and writing books that sound a lot like the Jesus I have come to know in the Bible. And you know what, they get picketed by and receive nasty e-mails from Christians.
The Gospel of John critiques the social relations and structures of the world that
Jesus confronted. Those structures back then are very similar to our social structures today that create, uphold, and sustain boundaries, walls, divisions, prejudices, and fears. Many of these social structures are generated from religious belief systems.
In the past two Sundays and today we have had three fairly long Gospel Readings
from John. They are full, rich, deep, multilevel dramas that confront certain social
structures that we read and hear Jesus dismantling. We see how our blindness interferes with our greater spiritual understanding, we see how fear of life and death can be overcome through the presence of the Living Spirit of God who dwells in us, who is the one in whom we walk and live and have our being.
All three of the main characters in our Gospel readings were given new life: the
Samaritan woman at the well given new life, the blind man given new life, Lazarus given new life by Jesus dismantling barriers. The very presence of Jesus was a demonstration of God's love and that God's love will win in the end.
Let's take a brief look at the Samaritan woman and the boundaries or barriers that
came down. Jesus a lone man at the well of Jacob speaks to a lone Samaritan woman at
the well. Barrier number one: Jesus spoke to a woman, barrier number two a Jewish male spoke to a Samaritan, barrier number three Jesus as the Christ of God spoke to an adulteress, a sinner. The love of God was present to her. In her conversation with Jesus, the Samaritan woman slowly moves from unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, from ignorance to knowledge, from misunderstanding to understanding. Jesus was just present with her and she began to see. Her growing faith that Jesus was the Messiah brought her justification by her faith as Paul wrote in Romans.
Let us now have a brief look at last week's Gospel. The three players in this drama
were a blind man, men who had sight but were blind, and the very presence of Jesus. The primary social barriers that Jesus broke down were the understandings of sin and
righteousness. These two barriers keep all kinds of relationships from growing and
especially our relationship with the indwelling Spirit of God. The man born blind
according to the Gospel reading did not ask Jesus to heal him. He did not know who Jesus was at the time. But Jesus was present to him even in his blindness and his ignorance.
Jesus was also present to the men who were willing to make religious judgments.
Our religious judgments perhaps are the most difficult for the Spirit of God to dismantle. Our religious judgments embody our fears, our prejudices, our hatreds and we have a tendency to make them noble by claiming they are sanctified by God. Religious judgments were one of the powers that sent Jesus to the cross. God was even reconciled to those who held those judgments whether we like it or not. Perhaps because we hold judgments against those who hold negative judgments on others.
Again, as with the woman at the well it took time for the man born blind to fully
understand who had touched him and who was willing to love him. It takes us time also. It can take a life time to accept the full presence of the living Christ in our life.
Now the story of Lazarus. Keep in mind the verse in Ephesians 5:14 that we heard
last week. "Therefore it says: Sleeper awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine in you. Paul in Romans 8: 6-11 speaks of the indwelling nature of God in the Spirit. It reads "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you." Our reading from Ezekiel is also an articulation of how the very breath of God, the Rhouak, the Spirit of God can bring life back to us even if we had chosen to live in darkness, a life without hope, and a defeated life.
We read that Jesus wept. This is an emotionally profound testimony to the truth of
the incarnation itself, of Jesus being truly one of us to the point of sharing our human need for friendship and our grief at the loss of a friend. Jesus was there to have the rock rolled away that separated living from the dead. Life was breathed back into the one who had died. Love wins.
The tension between the hope of resurrection and finality of death is palpable during
this season of reflection. The tension between hope for new life and having to live in the death of the old is being played out in our news every day. Amid the painful circumstance and death-dealing social realities, we yearn for resurrection and the unbinding that releases us to dream beyond the boundaries and experience a renewed life. To dream beyond the boundaries we impose on ourselves and others impose on us is to imagine a world in which wholeness, well-being, health, and purpose are the normal expression of our human existence and to partner with the God of life in making the dream come true. It is to recognize that our world is not as it should be, while rejecting assertions that the socioreligious barriers that prevent persons from experiencing God's presence in their lives is impervious to change. This fifth Sunday of Lent invites us to consider the possibility or new life as in the resurrection in the lives of the many persons and communities who deeply need God's presence in the nowness of our existence. We need to live the life that demonstrates that God's love wins. That God's love through the indwelling Spirit of Christ
can continue to tear down the boundaries and barriers.
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