The 19th Sunday after Pentecost, OCTOBER 23, 2011
MATTHEW 22:34-46; LEVITICUS 19:1-2,15-18
The Rev. Doug Hale
In your mind, what is the one most important thing about the Christian faith? If someone asked you to explain the Christian faith, what is the one thing that you would want to make certain that you told them?
What is the most important thing in your faith? What theme seems to come up for you over and over again when you are thinking about the implications of your faith? Some people might say: the forgiveness of sins, love, living a good life. What would you say?
The question asked of Jesus in our Gospel passage this morning is a similar question. “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” What is core? What is your focus? Never mind that the question is asked to test Jesus, to try to trip him up. Jesus treats it as a legitimate question.
Jesus begins with quoting what is called the “Shema.” He refers to words that would have been on the lips of Jews every day, repeated as part of their daily prayer:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deut. 6:4-5)
The beginning for Jesus is the core of our spiritual life. It is our relationship with God.
Jesus doesn't stop with this. He has a second part to his answer. This part of his answer comes directly from our reading from Leviticus. (Lev. 19:9-18) There are a series of commands about how to treat other people that end with, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In this day in which we live, where some advocate that enlightened self-interest is the way that will guide our economy forward, it is important to hear these words of scripture in another way. Love your neighbor, NOT JUST yourself. When we are making decisions about actions we will take, we need to take into account how our decisions will effect other people.
The flip side of this command is that we love others AS WE LOVE OURSELVES. Many people have been told from the beginning of their lives that they are worthless, but we are told here that not only are other people worth loving, but that we too are worth loving. God wants us to come to know that we are indeed worth much, that we are loved. It is from our love of God and for ourselves
that we find the ability to love others.
It is important to note that in our Leviticus text, the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” ends with “I am the Lord.” In fact, all of the commands in this section end with “I am the Lord.” “Do this BECAUSE I am your God.” Our desire to love God is to be the motivation for loving ourselves and others. The moral life is not just a system of values, it is rooted in our relationship with God. It is rooted in the person of God. If we are to lead moral lives then we need to cultivate our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is to lead us into loving ourselves and our neighbors.
Jesus has a third part to his answer. “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Today, there is a lot of talk about the ethic of love, that we should love one another. But often times it gets spoken about in such general terms that we don’t get around to talking about specific ways to love or to talking about specific actions, to talking about what love requires of us.
But Jesus tells us that we need to hang some specific commandments upon these greatest but general commandments. For instance, the 10 Commandments begin with “I am the Lord your God.” Sound familiar? And then we are given 10 specific ways to show our love for God and for our
neighbors.
The passage from Leviticus is a collection of fairly concrete and practical commands. They include such things as specific ways to care for the poor and direction on how to treat the disabled fairly. The reality is that in Scripture we are given a lot of specific direction about how we are to live our lives. Ancient Rabbis came up with 1226 commandments, prohibitions and precepts in scripture
that are there to guide our lives. That should be enough to keep us busy in applying them for years to come.
They are there for us if we are willing to open the Scriptures and read them and take them to heart. Some will be easy because we are already doing them. Some will be challenging and cause us to change our lives. Some will be clear and directly apply to our lives. Some will take some thought about how they apply to the different circumstances in our lives.
Jesus' answers point us in the direction we need to be going with our lives. It must begin with our devotion to God. Our lives need to be centered in God.
It then takes into account how God views us as valuable and then directs that outward to help us see the value of the people around us.
And finally, we are given a lot of direction in Scripture about how to love God, love ourselves and love one another. If we limit ourselves to what we might hear from sermons on Sunday morning, then we will miss out on a lot of what Scripture has to offer us in guidance. It is there for us to read for ourselves. Considering how it might be applied might be a good source of conversation during Coffee Hour rather than talking about the weather.
Fr. Doug Hale
Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
October 16, 2011, 18th Sunday after Pentecost
OCTOBER 16, 2011, 18TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, Year A
ISAIAH 45:1-7; MATTHEW 22:15-22
THE REV. DOUG HALE
So... How many of you were stunned by the reading from Isaiah?
Well, if you were a Jew during the exile in Babylon, you probably would have been stunned. Isaiah was presenting a radical proposal. He presents a foreign king, Cyrus, with the title used only for Jewish kings up to that time: Messiah, God's anointed, God's chosen one. Then they are told that Cyrus will be God's instrument for good for the people of Israel.
This would be like Jerry Falwell saying that God has chosen and empowered President Obama as an instrument for the good of Republicans, or for Jesse Jackson to proclaim that President Bush did the work of God for the Democrats.
Isaiah's message was a radically different view of God from most of his contemporaries. In his day, the common perspective was that each nation state or group of people had their own god. Marduk was the god of the Babylonians. Yahweh was the god of the Israelites.
But at the end of our passage, God declares, “I am Yahweh, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I Yahweh do all these things.”
It is this God of all creation that is not limited to using Israelite kings to do the good that needs to be done for the people of Israel.
Now, if we skip forward to Jesus' day, we see that Isaiah's message has not gotten through yet. The Pharisees seek to entrap Jesus with a question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” The question is presented by representatives of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were probably sympathetic to the Zealots who wanted to throw off the Roman occupation of their country. The Herodians were comfortable with the arrangement of local Jewish leaders under the wider Roman rule.
If Jesus said “Yes, pay the tax,” the Herodians would have given him a thumbs-up and the Pharisees would have given him a thumbs-down. If he had said, “No, don't pay the tax,” the responses would have been the reverse. He could not please both.
But Jesus asks to see the specific coin used for the payment of the tax to the Roman emperor. “Whose head and whose title is this?” he asked. The answer was obvious. The image of Tiberius was on the coin along with the inscription, “of Tiberius Caesar.” The coin belongs to Caesar, so give it back to him. The Herodians were ready with the thumbs-up.
But then Jesus said, “Give to God the things that are God's.” Well, doesn't everything belong to God? Suddenly, no one knew what to do with their hands. The question was who do we owe the money to, Caesar or God? Jesus' answer was “Yes.”
The question to Jesus reflected the same issue that Isaiah had addressed centuries before. Isaiah's prophecy recognized that their were no easy answers to this issue.
Cyrus might be an instrument of God, but he doesn't know it. In fact, on an inscription we still have today, he credited his successes to Marduk. But, God says to Cyrus that he has been given these successes “so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.” Cyrus is a work in progress for God, but a work nonetheless.
Isaiah helps us see that what Jesus was getting at is that whether or not Tiberius knows it, he belongs to the one God and so does his coin.
People may not perceive Tiberius or Cyrus as instruments of God, but that does not mean that God is not at work through them.
In the early centuries of the Church, Church leaders encouraged people to pray for the leaders of the Roman Empire. They recognized with Isaiah that the Emperor could be used by God, so they prayed that he indeed would be used by God and that one day he would come to know God. It was not until the fourth century that an Emperor, Constantine, became a follower of Christ.
We may pat ourselves on the back, “Oh, we understand that there is only one God,” but it is not easy to apply the perspective to the specifics of our lives.
As the presidential political season heats up, we may have a hard time seeing certain politicians as being the instruments of God's good work in our lives. Some of the rhetoric I hear makes it sound like people think their least favorite President was an instrument of the devil, not of God.
There was a saying in Jesus' day, “Can anything good come from Galilee?” Today there seems to be plenty of rhetoric that is based upon the question, “Can anything good come from the other political party?”
But God is in the habit of using unlikely people: Galileans, Gentiles, Roman Centurions. They all belong to God. Right now God may be using some unlikely person in our minds whether or not they know it or we recognize it?
I have been a part of precious little conversation across opinions about the issues of our day there seems to be very little civil conversation that recognizes that the other may actually have something worth listening to
Yet, I believe that is what God is saying to us today:
“Those other people are my instruments for good.
“Give them your respect; Listen to them.
“They may have something to say that is truly worth listening to and you will miss it if you don't let down your guard.”
Look for the work of God for your benefit in those unlikely people. Take time to listen. Ask real questions, not rhetorical questions. Most of all, pray for them, that God will truly use them for good.
Fr. Doug Hale
ISAIAH 45:1-7; MATTHEW 22:15-22
THE REV. DOUG HALE
So... How many of you were stunned by the reading from Isaiah?
Well, if you were a Jew during the exile in Babylon, you probably would have been stunned. Isaiah was presenting a radical proposal. He presents a foreign king, Cyrus, with the title used only for Jewish kings up to that time: Messiah, God's anointed, God's chosen one. Then they are told that Cyrus will be God's instrument for good for the people of Israel.
This would be like Jerry Falwell saying that God has chosen and empowered President Obama as an instrument for the good of Republicans, or for Jesse Jackson to proclaim that President Bush did the work of God for the Democrats.
Isaiah's message was a radically different view of God from most of his contemporaries. In his day, the common perspective was that each nation state or group of people had their own god. Marduk was the god of the Babylonians. Yahweh was the god of the Israelites.
But at the end of our passage, God declares, “I am Yahweh, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I Yahweh do all these things.”
It is this God of all creation that is not limited to using Israelite kings to do the good that needs to be done for the people of Israel.
Now, if we skip forward to Jesus' day, we see that Isaiah's message has not gotten through yet. The Pharisees seek to entrap Jesus with a question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” The question is presented by representatives of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were probably sympathetic to the Zealots who wanted to throw off the Roman occupation of their country. The Herodians were comfortable with the arrangement of local Jewish leaders under the wider Roman rule.
If Jesus said “Yes, pay the tax,” the Herodians would have given him a thumbs-up and the Pharisees would have given him a thumbs-down. If he had said, “No, don't pay the tax,” the responses would have been the reverse. He could not please both.
But Jesus asks to see the specific coin used for the payment of the tax to the Roman emperor. “Whose head and whose title is this?” he asked. The answer was obvious. The image of Tiberius was on the coin along with the inscription, “of Tiberius Caesar.” The coin belongs to Caesar, so give it back to him. The Herodians were ready with the thumbs-up.
But then Jesus said, “Give to God the things that are God's.” Well, doesn't everything belong to God? Suddenly, no one knew what to do with their hands. The question was who do we owe the money to, Caesar or God? Jesus' answer was “Yes.”
The question to Jesus reflected the same issue that Isaiah had addressed centuries before. Isaiah's prophecy recognized that their were no easy answers to this issue.
Cyrus might be an instrument of God, but he doesn't know it. In fact, on an inscription we still have today, he credited his successes to Marduk. But, God says to Cyrus that he has been given these successes “so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.” Cyrus is a work in progress for God, but a work nonetheless.
Isaiah helps us see that what Jesus was getting at is that whether or not Tiberius knows it, he belongs to the one God and so does his coin.
People may not perceive Tiberius or Cyrus as instruments of God, but that does not mean that God is not at work through them.
In the early centuries of the Church, Church leaders encouraged people to pray for the leaders of the Roman Empire. They recognized with Isaiah that the Emperor could be used by God, so they prayed that he indeed would be used by God and that one day he would come to know God. It was not until the fourth century that an Emperor, Constantine, became a follower of Christ.
We may pat ourselves on the back, “Oh, we understand that there is only one God,” but it is not easy to apply the perspective to the specifics of our lives.
As the presidential political season heats up, we may have a hard time seeing certain politicians as being the instruments of God's good work in our lives. Some of the rhetoric I hear makes it sound like people think their least favorite President was an instrument of the devil, not of God.
There was a saying in Jesus' day, “Can anything good come from Galilee?” Today there seems to be plenty of rhetoric that is based upon the question, “Can anything good come from the other political party?”
But God is in the habit of using unlikely people: Galileans, Gentiles, Roman Centurions. They all belong to God. Right now God may be using some unlikely person in our minds whether or not they know it or we recognize it?
I have been a part of precious little conversation across opinions about the issues of our day there seems to be very little civil conversation that recognizes that the other may actually have something worth listening to
Yet, I believe that is what God is saying to us today:
“Those other people are my instruments for good.
“Give them your respect; Listen to them.
“They may have something to say that is truly worth listening to and you will miss it if you don't let down your guard.”
Look for the work of God for your benefit in those unlikely people. Take time to listen. Ask real questions, not rhetorical questions. Most of all, pray for them, that God will truly use them for good.
Fr. Doug Hale
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
October 2, 2011, 16th Sunday after Pentecost
October 2, 2011, 16th Sunday After Pentecost
The Rev. Doug Hale
Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 21:33-46
Isaiah sang a song for his beloved's vineyard and Jesus told a parable about those who tended a vineyard. While I don't think I'll try to sing you a song today, let me tell you about my new yard.
Our new house has an amazing garden. There are blackberry vines, apple trees, peach trees and cherry trees. You would expect that it would yield a variety of fruits, but other than the very productive blackberries, the apples were inedible and the peaches and cherries bore nothing.
Clearly, those who tended this garden in the past were not concerned that it bear fruit. The trees have gone without pruning. It is as if it had been allowed to go wild and fallow. On the other hand, I am sure it has received plenty of Oregon rain.
So judge with me. What should be done? This garden needs a new tenant who will help it bear fruit. In the many places I have lived, I have always tried to work with what the yard already has in place, trying to help it look it's best.
This yard is the most challenging I have ever faced. It is the only one that ever had fruit trees, and I don't know if I know enough to judge what are the right steps to take for the path to fruitfulness.
I know it will take some drastic pruning in some cases and some dormant spray. And then I will have to wait and see if they will bear worthy fruit or not.
Unfortunately, I already know that a peach tree and an apple tree will have to be dug up and cast out, for I judge that they are already dead.
In time, I hope to see a restored yard that is pleasant in appearance, and keeps me busy during the summer gathering in it's fruits.
Being the recipient of the gardener's pruning saw may not be a pleasant experience. At the time that it happens, do the trees really know the difference between the branches cut off by a gardener's judicious cuts and branches snapped off in a storm? The shock to the tree is one thing when yearly pruning removes small amounts of the tree is one thing. But what is it like for a tree to have half of its branches removed because it has gone out of control and it is not producing worthy fruit?
What is it like for us when difficulties come in our lives and large portions of who we are are torn away from us? It can be deeply painful. And how do we understand it? Is it simply the vicissitudes of life? Is it God's punishment? Is it the judicious discipline of our Lord? Whatever it is, it hurts all the same.
How shall we respond to what has happened to us whatever the cause or reason? Shall we be angry? Depressed? Shall reject the idea of God's judgment? Or what?
Let me tell you about what else is in my yard that I do know something about. There are five rose bushes of varying conditions. None of them had been cared for recently. The aphids where having a hay-day, when we moved in. Four of them seemed fairly healthy with a lot of growth, but they had not been properly pruned and they had very few if any blooms.
By the driveway is an old rose. It looked like it had been through a war. There were very few branches and fewer leaves. And yet, when we moved in, it had two large beautiful white with red blooms. I was amazed that it could actually bloom at all.
I did a bit of judicious pruning and applied systemic fertilizer and insecticide. Then I waited to see what would happen.
One has produced amazing clusters of small pink blooms. This rose will do well. But three of the healthiest looking roses have yet to bloom again, but they have put a lot of energy into more branches and leaves. This winter, I will need to do some drastic pruning and then wait and see if they will respond.
Then there is the old rose by the driveway. It began to put out new growth. On closer inspection I realized that in that new growth were five new buds...amazing! One of them began to open yesterday. Clearly, this rose knows that it's purpose in life is to produce flowers.
The purpose of life is what really matters. What was the purpose that Isaiah's beloved gave to the vineyard? To produce fruit! What purpose did Jesus' landowner give the tenants? To produce fruit!
God gave to the fruit trees the purpose in life to produce fruit for eating and for the roses to produce blooms of beauty.
God has given purpose to our lives as well. Jesus speaks of people producing the fruits of the kingdom. Isaiah tells us that God wants our lives to be ones of justice and righteousness. God wants our lives to produce to satisfy the hungry hearts and care for those who suffer. God has planted us for this purpose.
God has applied to our lives a myriad of blessings to help us grow. God has pruned us so that we might be better focused upon what we are here to do.
Remember in those times in your life, when it is so painful, what your purpose is life is. Take a lesson from the old rose. Produce the fruit God has asked of you to produce,no matter your condition at the time.
The Rev. Doug Hale
Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 21:33-46
Isaiah sang a song for his beloved's vineyard and Jesus told a parable about those who tended a vineyard. While I don't think I'll try to sing you a song today, let me tell you about my new yard.
Our new house has an amazing garden. There are blackberry vines, apple trees, peach trees and cherry trees. You would expect that it would yield a variety of fruits, but other than the very productive blackberries, the apples were inedible and the peaches and cherries bore nothing.
Clearly, those who tended this garden in the past were not concerned that it bear fruit. The trees have gone without pruning. It is as if it had been allowed to go wild and fallow. On the other hand, I am sure it has received plenty of Oregon rain.
So judge with me. What should be done? This garden needs a new tenant who will help it bear fruit. In the many places I have lived, I have always tried to work with what the yard already has in place, trying to help it look it's best.
This yard is the most challenging I have ever faced. It is the only one that ever had fruit trees, and I don't know if I know enough to judge what are the right steps to take for the path to fruitfulness.
I know it will take some drastic pruning in some cases and some dormant spray. And then I will have to wait and see if they will bear worthy fruit or not.
Unfortunately, I already know that a peach tree and an apple tree will have to be dug up and cast out, for I judge that they are already dead.
In time, I hope to see a restored yard that is pleasant in appearance, and keeps me busy during the summer gathering in it's fruits.
Being the recipient of the gardener's pruning saw may not be a pleasant experience. At the time that it happens, do the trees really know the difference between the branches cut off by a gardener's judicious cuts and branches snapped off in a storm? The shock to the tree is one thing when yearly pruning removes small amounts of the tree is one thing. But what is it like for a tree to have half of its branches removed because it has gone out of control and it is not producing worthy fruit?
What is it like for us when difficulties come in our lives and large portions of who we are are torn away from us? It can be deeply painful. And how do we understand it? Is it simply the vicissitudes of life? Is it God's punishment? Is it the judicious discipline of our Lord? Whatever it is, it hurts all the same.
How shall we respond to what has happened to us whatever the cause or reason? Shall we be angry? Depressed? Shall reject the idea of God's judgment? Or what?
Let me tell you about what else is in my yard that I do know something about. There are five rose bushes of varying conditions. None of them had been cared for recently. The aphids where having a hay-day, when we moved in. Four of them seemed fairly healthy with a lot of growth, but they had not been properly pruned and they had very few if any blooms.
By the driveway is an old rose. It looked like it had been through a war. There were very few branches and fewer leaves. And yet, when we moved in, it had two large beautiful white with red blooms. I was amazed that it could actually bloom at all.
I did a bit of judicious pruning and applied systemic fertilizer and insecticide. Then I waited to see what would happen.
One has produced amazing clusters of small pink blooms. This rose will do well. But three of the healthiest looking roses have yet to bloom again, but they have put a lot of energy into more branches and leaves. This winter, I will need to do some drastic pruning and then wait and see if they will respond.
Then there is the old rose by the driveway. It began to put out new growth. On closer inspection I realized that in that new growth were five new buds...amazing! One of them began to open yesterday. Clearly, this rose knows that it's purpose in life is to produce flowers.
The purpose of life is what really matters. What was the purpose that Isaiah's beloved gave to the vineyard? To produce fruit! What purpose did Jesus' landowner give the tenants? To produce fruit!
God gave to the fruit trees the purpose in life to produce fruit for eating and for the roses to produce blooms of beauty.
God has given purpose to our lives as well. Jesus speaks of people producing the fruits of the kingdom. Isaiah tells us that God wants our lives to be ones of justice and righteousness. God wants our lives to produce to satisfy the hungry hearts and care for those who suffer. God has planted us for this purpose.
God has applied to our lives a myriad of blessings to help us grow. God has pruned us so that we might be better focused upon what we are here to do.
Remember in those times in your life, when it is so painful, what your purpose is life is. Take a lesson from the old rose. Produce the fruit God has asked of you to produce,no matter your condition at the time.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
September 25, 2011, 15th Sunday after Pentecost
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.
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.
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.
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