tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51668568956460527622024-03-18T07:30:53.135-07:00Notes on a Fool's ErrandCharles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.comBlogger420125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-81570433454253397862024-03-18T07:27:00.000-07:002024-03-18T07:30:20.413-07:00Sermon: The Grain that Bears Fruit<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">March 17, 2024, Lent 5B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=577771700" target="_blank">John 12:20-33</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The Grain That Bears Fruit</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Am I the only person who reads this passage from John’s gospel and wonders what happened to the Greeks?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">You know, there at the beginning of the reading, simply “<b>some Greeks</b>” who had come to the festival of Passover and approached Philip about seeing Jesus? Philip goes and tells his brother Andrew and then the two of them go to Jesus with the request and…Jesus starts talking about being glorified and grains of wheat and saving or losing your life, and then even more stuff that somehow feels a little bit out of left field? All of this happens, and we never hear about those Greeks again. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">There is a lot in this discourse that can get frankly confusing or disorienting to keep track of in our study or hearing. There is the business of those who seek to hold on to their lives instead losing them, and those who do not cling to life in this world instead holding on to eternal life There is the business of serving and following. There is what appears to be a quick exchange between Jesus on earth and a voice from heaven, and finally the line which in many studies or commentaries is held up as the key takeaway from this lesson: “<b>And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.</b>” John is even nice enough to add one of his little parenthetical explanatory comments here, to make sure that we understand that Jesus “<b>said this to show the kind of death he was going to die</b>,” that is, crucifixion – a mode of execution in which the one being killed was truly lifted up for all to see. And yes, the echo of last week’s reading, with the serpent and Son of Man both being lifted up, is pretty clear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This does come at a turning point in John’s gospel. The events of Palm Sunday are recorded just before this portion of chapter 12. The next chapter, chapter 13, begins with the event we commemorate on Maundy Thursday, although John’s story speaks of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet rather than bread and cup being shared. The rest of the gospel marks that final week of Jesus’s earthly life and ministry, with lots of private teaching time thrown in. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So, this is the climax. That crucifixion – Jesus being “<b>lifted up</b>” – is only a few days away. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is an important image. The idea that Jesus being “<b>lifted up</b>” in crucifixion would be anything but the ultimate humiliation must have seemed naïve if not downright delusional to anyone who picked up on the image. Crucifixion, as the Romans devised it, was meant not only to be physically agonizing, but also to provide the ultimate humiliation indeed: stripped naked, nailed up to this cross, exposed for all the world to see and mock.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">To suggest that such an event would be, far from a humiliation, an exaltation – a moment in which Jesus’s being “<b>lifted up</b>” would actually “<b>draw all people</b>” to Jesus – would have drawn a snort of derision from those Roman soldiers tasked with carrying out the execution, and probably a derisive laugh from those religious authorities who had <i>had enough</i> of Jesus by this time. And yet Jesus proclaims it exactly that: the moment, or the impetus, or the act in which all people are drawn to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It doesn’t make sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And it's not as if Jesus couldn't have put all of this to a stop. Remember that, for all he used the phrase "Son of Man" to identify himself, he was also the Son of God. Jesus didn't have to submit to all the pain and torture that was coming. Except that, as Jesus says in verse 27, "<b>it was for this very reason I came to this hour</b>." Drawing all people to himself was his very reason for being here, and that was accomplished only by being "<b>lifted up</b>."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And yet there is a key that is easy to overlook in this passage, back in the first part of the reading: that small line about a grain of wheat. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It’s hard to do much with a single grain of wheat. You get a lot of such grains and grind them into flour and use it to bake bread, you have something good, but a single grain? Not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In fact, as Jesus tells it, the only thing for a single grain to do is die. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The grain that falls into the earth, and “dies,” that’s when the new life happens. The one grain becomes many grains. Each one grain begets many grains, bears much fruit, bears new life, and many are fed. Here’s an image of hope for this long slog to the end of Lent; new life from old, new fruit from one seed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">But this isn’t just an image of hope: it’s also a calling. The one who can’t be like that single grain, well, is dead. The one who yields to the soil, to the nurturing and watering and care visited upon the field, yields much fruit, a bountiful harvest. This was Jesus’s path; and if we claim to follow Jesus, it’s our path too. We quit clinging to the comforts and benefits of this world, the things that allow us to be secure in our own rightness and aloof to the cruelties around us; when we lay aside that comfort and yield our lives to Jesus’s life, that’s when we bear fruit. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">But it begins with the single grain, one that falls into the earth and dies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">[<u>SING “<a href="https://hymnsbycharlesfreeman.blogspot.com/2021/03/now-when-grain-of-wheat.html" target="_blank">Now when a grain of wheat</a>”]</u></span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Thanks be to God. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i>Hymns (from </i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #247, Now the Green Blade Rises; #250, In the Bulb There Is a Flower; #450, Be Thou My Vision</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqnv-lCS5lsgWxm1-1sQqR4xpjM5b_VJLLmA7kgsjy9JE9FV1Fs0Nm-eXiRUcCEnm5j7bWqov5inKvIZ0DsafIaIykAKlPaibvgSUW-KP7glyf8i-5OrDeJqNBzL-IxL74h-vF2wf_oV6ppF3Fl6PMJDyaAJgwUUOrqt6L_PA72WPphAdbE997GzOyuA/s275/wheat%20field.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqnv-lCS5lsgWxm1-1sQqR4xpjM5b_VJLLmA7kgsjy9JE9FV1Fs0Nm-eXiRUcCEnm5j7bWqov5inKvIZ0DsafIaIykAKlPaibvgSUW-KP7glyf8i-5OrDeJqNBzL-IxL74h-vF2wf_oV6ppF3Fl6PMJDyaAJgwUUOrqt6L_PA72WPphAdbE997GzOyuA/w400-h266/wheat%20field.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /> </i></div><i><br /></i><o:p></o:p><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-26462597592885526852024-03-10T10:55:00.000-07:002024-03-10T10:55:24.591-07:00Sermon: The Crisis of Jesus<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">March 14, 2021, Lent 4B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=577092646" target="_blank">Numbers 21:4-9</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=577092722" target="_blank">John 3:11-19</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The Crisis of Jesus</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For today’s gospel reading, It’s just about possible to make any sense out of it – especially that first verse – without reference to the reading from Hebrew Scripture assigned for the day. It is true that the readings given for a particular Sunday are usually meant to bear some relationship to one another, but seldom is the connection quite so explicit as in today’s reading. So, we really might as well go ahead and examine what happens in this account from the book of Numbers, before we try to understand what Jesus is talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">We find the Hebrew people on their journey through Sinai, having been unable to gain passage through the land of Edom and seeing a way around that region. As happened more than a few times during these wanderings, the people lost their patience and began to complain, both against Moses and against God. You know that on some level they are complaining just to complain, since one of their chief complaints seems to be that there was no food and the food was terrible. When you can’t even be logically consistent, you’re frankly just trying to be a jerk.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">At this provocation, poisonous snakes got loose among the Israelites, and many of them (the Israelites, not the snakes) died while others were suffering great pain. Somehow this provoked an outcry of confession among the people, and they pleaded with their terrible awful no-good leader Moses to plead for their lives before God. Their terrible awful no-good leader Moses did exactly that, and God gave Moses a curious instruction: make a replica of one of the serpents and put it up on a pole, and the people who were bitten by the real serpents would be able to look at the fake serpent and avoid dying from their wounds. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This sounds like borderline idolatry, but in fact it works as the opposite of an idol. In order for their lives to be spared, the people would have to look at the very consequences of their sin directly, without flinching or looking away. You either confronted the wrong you had done, or you died, rather painfully at that. You could not help but be reminded of the sin you had committed and the painful consequences of that sin – not only for yourself, but for others. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Moving to the gospel reading for today, we see that very image, of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. We do so, unfortunately, by lopping off most of John’s account of Nicodemus and his visit to Jesus. We lose Nicodemus’s initial greeting and Jesus’s impatient let’s-get-down-to-business response; we lose the imagery of being “born of the Spirit” and the wind blowing where it will as image of the Spirit, and we miss most of Jesus’s chastisement of Nicodemus and his fellow religious leaders for not hearing Jesus and his testimony (which, so far in John’s gospel, mostly consisted of the clearing of the Temple we read of in last week’s gospel reading). Today’s reading begins at something of a pivot, as the text moves from Jesus's direct replies to Nicodemus and moves to the broader argument being drawn from this example by the author of this gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The parallel isn’t exact here: when the Son of Man is “<b>lifted up</b>” it won’t be about the healing of a bunch of poisonous snake bites. But the comparison does work, and to help it along it will be useful to take a closer look at two words in this discourse and check on the original Greek, which contains some nuance that our English translations, even the NRSV or NIV, don’t quite catch. One of those even affects The Most Famous Scripture Ever, the one which is so widely known and memorized as to make this whole passage almost un-preachable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I suspect most of us have that verse programmed into our brains (if we do at all) in the old King James Version: <b>“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”</b> So pervasive is this widespread piece of learning that other translations (such as the NIV in our church’s pews) hew pretty close to that version. In all of these cases there is one word in this verse that, while not necessarily translated inaccurately, is translated in such a way that a particular nuance of the Greek text is not preserved. That word is, believe it or not, “so.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">When we hear “<b>God so loved the world</b>,” we automatically translate it in our own minds as to say “<i>God loved the world <u>so much,</u>” </i>which is, well, true. The Greek from which all these versions are translated, though, uses a word that is accurately translated “so” but with a different shade of meaning; were we to render that nuance in English, it might come out as “<i>God loved the world <u>like so</u></i>,” or “<i>God loved the world this way</i>” if we were to put aside the word “so.” In this way the act of God giving God’s “<b>only begotten Son</b>” is tied again to the Moses’s raising up of that serpent in the wilderness. God’s love for the world is not separate from the world being confronted with the consequences of its sin. Jesus raised up on the cross confronts the world with its own sinfulness and the horror that comes of that sinfulness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Keeping this context and shade of meaning in mind then opens up the remainder of the reading in a way that is less bound to the kind of rhetoric and definition about “judgment” that often derails full understanding of the words of scripture. That other nuanced word of the Greek text, this one found in verse 19 and there translated as “judgment,” opens this up even more. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In that verse, the Greek word translated as “judgment” is <i>kreis</i> (</span><span lang="EL" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">κρεις</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">). And yes, “judgment” is a proper and accurate way to translate that word. However, the variety of “judgment” referenced here is not really fully captured by the way we tend to read the word “judgment” in scripture. We lapse over pretty quickly into all the images of hellfire and brimstone that have been popularized in certain strains of American theological thought and miss the immediate moment that this word wants us to notice. It might be useful to consider the English word that is adapted from that Greek word <i>kreis</i>: “crisis.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This puts the focus on that immediate moment, when the world sees verse 14 in action – “<b>the Son of Man be lifted up</b>” and the world confronted with its sinfulness and the consequences of that sinfulness. One might see this as the “moment of crisis,” or “moment of truth” to use a long-standing English-language idiom. Once the world sees “<b>the Son of Man … lifted up</b>,” once one is confronted with Jesus on the cross as the ultimate consequence of our unrepentant sinfulness, there is no more innocence, so to speak. It is the moment of truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One cannot walk away from that “sight,” that realization, that confrontation with the sinfulness of humanity and the horror it wreaks, without having to make a choice. Eventually we are going to choose one or the other: we will believe, we will take up the journey of faith, we will follow…or we won’t. We will eventually embrace the light, or we will shy away from it for good. To put a popular music spin on it, that old song title from the Doobie Brothers – “Jesus is Just Alright” – doesn’t really work as a response. Jesus is the one we are seeking or Jesus is the one we are fleeing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Perhaps the hardest part of all this is to keep verse 17 in mind when all of the other verses come tumbling after with words like “<b>condemned</b>” and “<b>darkness</b>” and “<b>evil</b>.” But that verse, maybe even more than the famous verse preceding it, is where hope is sustained in this reading. Condemnation is not the purpose of this raising up; salvation is.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That moment, the "moment of crisis" so to speak, does represent that we humans are faced with that inescapable realization and the choice that arises from it. However, there is also hope in the fact that Jesus "lifted up" on the cross is not the only way Jesus is "lifted up" in scripture; think also of the Resurrection, in which God <i>raised up</i> Jesus from the dead. But continue from there; think of the Ascension, in which Jesus is <i>lifted up</i> into the presence of the Almighty God. In short, Jesus is <i>still</i> "lifted up," still there to be seen and to be trusted. As long as you live, the choice, or the crisis, is still there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is how God loved the world; salvation – life eternal - comes by the Son being lifted up, like that old bronze serpent in the wilderness. It’s all a gift of God’s grace – nothing we have earned, nothing we can earn. The most and best we can do is not flee from it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the One who was lifted up, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #53, O God, Who Gives Us Life and Breath; #209, My Song is Love Unknown #443, There Is a Redeemer<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbz3JGkrQuGjh5bACV7jabZIhkSjMOMVg5Td51I0PL3nlKwuWC6SveRvPhEn4HH1DqgPoNRezvUKSRi3IwEJEngMlYRdURq6EmsCkhEHgDfs1qCT_zdPiQ7MQSk2GnczLP5DBZVSoc6-_V4NJDNUaJMSMLCQGAP5p5UXX_0KoF4dHttdr0D3qGoiWgIiI/s712/JOHN-316.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="712" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbz3JGkrQuGjh5bACV7jabZIhkSjMOMVg5Td51I0PL3nlKwuWC6SveRvPhEn4HH1DqgPoNRezvUKSRi3IwEJEngMlYRdURq6EmsCkhEHgDfs1qCT_zdPiQ7MQSk2GnczLP5DBZVSoc6-_V4NJDNUaJMSMLCQGAP5p5UXX_0KoF4dHttdr0D3qGoiWgIiI/w400-h211/JOHN-316.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i>There's more to the </i></span><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif;"><i>story than this...</i></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-38089409853452727552024-03-03T13:56:00.000-08:002024-03-03T14:53:33.526-08:00Sermon: Zeal for What?<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">March 3, 2024, Lent 3B <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=576505903" target="_blank">John 2:12-22</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Zeal For What?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The good folk who formulated the Revised Common Lectionary seem to have decided that the season of Lent, Year B, should start off with some Angry Jesus. After last week’s account of Jesus calling out Peter as Satan, today we get the story often labeled as Jesus’s “cleansing of the temple.” What’s more, we get it in the version found in the gospel of John, which seems in some way more intense and, well, frankly, violent than the accounts found in other gospels. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">After all, in John’s gospel this event happens very early in Jesus’s public life – you could even argue that this was his first public appearance. Yes, John had pointed him out in his baptizing activities, and a few disciples had come to him, and he had turned water into wine at that wedding in Cana, but this was out in front of the whole world, in about the most public place one could be in Jerusalem. For another thing, while the other three gospel accounts of this story do speak of Jesus driving out the moneychangers and animal keepers and flipping their tables over, only John includes that business about Jesus fashioning a whip out of cords to drive the animals out. He’s not just picking up a whip that was lying around; he <i>made</i> <i>a whip on the spot</i>. To put it bluntly, something set Jesus off, and he acted on it, big time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Jesus’s words point pretty clearly to what set him off. Evoking <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=576506022">words of the prophet Zechariah</a>, Jesus directs particular ire at the sellers hard at work on the temple grounds with the cry “<b>Stop tuning my Father’s house into a market!</b>” Jesus’s cry thus evokes the degree to which the state of the temple was far short of its intended ideal as the house of the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Those words also help explain the reply of the temple authorities. Rather than launching into a full-fledged assault on Jesus for the disruption of temple business, their reply indicates that they remember Zechariah’s words as well; thus they ask for a “<b>sign</b>” for Jesus’s prerogative to do this. They know as well as Jesus does that this isn’t how the temple is supposed to be (though they would never say so publicly).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Other gospel accounts of this incident, besides placing it during Jesus’s final week in Jerusalem instead of the beginning of his public ministry, hint that there is double-dealing going on in this temple marketplace. Particular animals “without blemish” were required for sacrifice in temple ritual, and those who came to participate regularly brought their own sacrifices. However, those sacrifices (no matter how careful one might be with them) would often be judged insufficiently unblemished or “pure” to meet temple standards. How convenient, then, that this marketplace was <i>right there</i> to provide “pure” animals for sacrifice, at what was <i>certainly</i> a most reasonable fee, of course. At minimum, the potential for abuse in such a system was clear, and in the other gospels such abuse is strongly hinted as a reason for Jesus’s anger. This isn't indicated here in John, though; it seems to be that it is simply the presence of the “market” itself that is the offense. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Does it indeed serve the purpose of the temple for these traders to be present? Or does it become an obstruction? Does it hinder the people from being able to offer their sacrifices without being exploited or drained of their meager resources? Does it detract from the holiness of worship? These are all possible responses to what happens in these first verses of John’s account, reinforced by that <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=576506103" target="_blank">quote from Psalm 69</a> the disciples recall at this point.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That phrase – “<b>Zeal for your house will consume me</b>” – sure seems to fit here. You can see why John reads this thought into the disciples’ collective thought; Jesus has seen the temple overrun by marketplace activity and he went all crazy on them. The remainder of the reading, though, should perhaps give us pause before rushing headlong into taking this as our particular lesson from the story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">We have already noted that rather than outright condemning Jesus for his act, the temple authorities ask Jesus about a sign. His answer, as much as those temple authorities might not get it, is what truly unlocks what Jesus is about at this moment, and it turns out that Jesus might not really be quite as concerned about the building as it seems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Jesus answered the authorities, “<b>Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.</b>” And let’s be honest, the reaction of those temple authorities is, on the surface, very logical. The temple has been “<b>under construction</b>” for forty-six years, as they observe (which suggests it still wasn’t quite complete), and this one man thinks he can build a whole new temple in three days? It is perfectly reasonable to respond <i>Dude must be crazy</i>, if you’re going to take that statement literally. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">However, those temple authorities didn’t get what Jesus was saying, and apparently Jesus’s own disciples didn’t either, at least until after Jesus had been resurrected years later. John is particularly fond of this little trick he pulls here – sticking in a little after-the-fact editorial comment that unveils the “real story” behind a moment like this one. In this case, the hidden nugget of wisdom John drops has everything to do with what the true “temple” really is, and what it really means to worship God in spirit and in truth. And it doesn’t necessarily have much to do with a building.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">John’s little insert is pretty simple, actually: “<b>But he was speaking of the temple of his body.</b>” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">On the surface, it might seem like a non sequitir – <i>wait, what does his body have to do with the temple? </i>– but following the logic of the statement we find ourselves with a whole lot to unpack. For John to speak of the <i>temple</i> of Jesus’s body points way, way ahead in the story. John acknowledges this in his note that the disciples only really understood what Jesus was saying here after the resurrection. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This becomes part of the gospel that sweeps through the infant church in the book of Acts. You can hear it, for example, in<a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=576506272" target="_blank"> Stephen’s last great speech </a>before his stoning, when he tells his listeners that “<b>the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands</b>” (which is itself a quote from <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=576506338" target="_blank">Isaiah 66:1</a>). God is not bound up in human buildings at all, nor can the worship and service of God be so bound. One would think churches learned that lesson from the time of pandemic shutdown. Churches ended up finding ways to keep worship going, somehow, even if the occasional house cat or dog became unintentional fixtures of the service for some. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Not all churches, though, seemed to learn this lesson. You might remember that there were a number of churches that insisted that they <i>had</i> to continue meeting together, no matter how much virus-spreading that caused. You could also see churches rushing back into in-person worship only to have to resort back to the remote version when people started contracting the virus as a result. At the risk of seeming to denigrate fellow Christians, what kind of God do they think they worship? Some kind of God who can be contained in a building? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Or are they bound by all sorts of external concerns that in fact have very little to do with the worship of God Almighty? Are they so bound up with the idea that worship itself is bound up in a particular building (not unlike the temple in the biblical account)? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If the center and focus and reason and locus of our worship is in anything other than the person of Jesus Christ, we’re doing it wrong. Even as at some point we do return to worship in the sanctuary after such an interruption, we had better be reminded that there are those who cannot gather with us or with any church in person even under the best of circumstances and remember that Jesus would not have us exclude them from the worship of the Lord because of that hindrance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The way the larger church (the "church universal," so to speak) thinks about worship needs to be different, now and forevermore. Anything that detracts from the source and object of our worship being Jesus and Jesus alone has to be put out of mind for good. If we can’t do that in the church writ large, we aren’t serving anybody particularly well – not God, nor Christ, nor ourselves nor the world around us. And it’s probably best to start that rethinking and reimagining now, before we larger church or any individual church gets itself bound up in thinking the only goal is for everything to go back to “normal." There are some “normal” ideas that should never return, and the whole idea that the worship of God in Jesus through the Holy Spirit can or should be pinned down to a building needs to be one of those “normal” things that never rears its head again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For Jesus Christ, our only Temple, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #625, How Great Thou Art; #521, In Remembrance of Me; #543, God, Be the Love to Search and Keep Me</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2ueBrutOK0Mp070ryix_CIeokmxnaP-Ad-hJFE-k9C4OrzIrOWv4nG-H-XpYN-Xh2iRrS9SJAudxzOdfe7c8jpUFZvBkPELGuqovruwjRQ5T3sqq2_PYwmkydtmNLM-HXeDrDGyLNIQaozJO974jt-7qZLvKeHOMnFwY0q5_Zsu9qzo4LM-HKm0pHfw/s512/cleansing%20temple.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="512" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2ueBrutOK0Mp070ryix_CIeokmxnaP-Ad-hJFE-k9C4OrzIrOWv4nG-H-XpYN-Xh2iRrS9SJAudxzOdfe7c8jpUFZvBkPELGuqovruwjRQ5T3sqq2_PYwmkydtmNLM-HXeDrDGyLNIQaozJO974jt-7qZLvKeHOMnFwY0q5_Zsu9qzo4LM-HKm0pHfw/w400-h301/cleansing%20temple.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-24121098315545348262024-02-25T16:20:00.000-08:002024-02-25T16:20:10.735-08:00Sermon: Three Words<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">February 25, 2024, Lent 2C<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575905526" target="_blank">Mark 8:27-38</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Three Words</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The Revised Common Lectionary offers as its Gospel reading for today only the last eight verses of what we just read, leaving out Peter's great success at naming Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One. It was my choice (along with many other preachers) to reinstate the four verses at the beginning, partly because they are critical for understanding and interpreting the eight verses that follow, and frankly also because as badly as Peter comes off in those eight verses, it only seems fair to allow him his moment of glory, so to speak, especially since those are few and far between for him in this gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It also helps this sermon to fulfill one of the long-held traditions of Protestant preaching: being presentable in three parts, good Trinitarian reference that suggests. In this case, one can fulfill that three-part quality by taking note of three specific words, spread roughly evenly throughout the text, that are key to understanding just what is going on in this reading. Furthermore, these three words frequently fall prey to misunderstanding, as their meanings have changed significantly since Mark first wrote them into his account of the life of Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The first word is the one that Peter came up with: "<b>messiah</b>". <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If you ask a modern Christian what that word means, the answer might be something like "well, Jesus, of course." One could even argue that Peter's declaration marked the beginning of naming Jesus specifically with that description. Where things get challenging here is in sorting out exactly what Peter meant by calling Jesus "messiah." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It's worth noting, though, that Jesus does not apply that term to himself, at least not in Mark's gospel until his very last night before the crucifixion. In most cases Jesus refers to himself as "<b>Son of Man</b>," as in both verses 31 and 38 of this reading. Interestingly, that reference - "<b>Son of Man</b>" - places an emphasis, as you might guess, on the mortality, and therefore the humanity of Jesus, which is a different emphasis indeed than is found in the word "messiah." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Additionally, another part of the challenge is that the expectation of a messiah, an anointed one sent by God, wasn't necessarily a long-standing tradition in Judaism; in fact, one doesn't find the world itself in the Old Testament in most translations. As a result, the word got appropriated in some interesting ways and had some interesting meanings attached to it. By the time Peter was speaking that word, it had (in the minds of many though not all) taken on a meaning specific to this time: a political and/or military leader who would deliver the land from its hated Roman Empire occupiers. (As you might guess, this wouldn't be the last time the term "Messiah" got associated with such a figure.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">We can't be certain what was on Peter's mind when he made his claim about Jesus; we don't know if he was expecting Jesus to be a "military messiah" or not. We can be certain, though, he wasn't expecting Jesus to respond with the second of three words of emphasis here: "<b>Satan</b>." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For those of a certain generation, that word is now mostly associated with a recurring sketch on <i>Saturday Night Live</i> some decades ago, in which Dana Carvey, dressed as a matronly woman known most simply as the Church Lady, got to exclaim that name at least once, when wondering if his guest had succumbed to temptation at the hands of said character. Even today, one is at least as likely if not more so to hear that figure named the Devil. While the name shows up plenty in the New Testament, again, it's not so prominent in Hebrew scripture. Perhaps its most prominent appearance is <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575905751" target="_blank">in the book of Job</a>, where (in its original Hebrew form <i>ha'satan</i>) the word designates the one who comes before God to argue for the testing of Job. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Note that Hebrew designation; <i>ha'satan </i>would be more literally tranlated as "the accuser" or "the adversary"; before it was a name, it was a description, and perhaps to grasp the full significance of Jesus's charge against Peter, we need to focus less on the character we associate with he word and pay more attention to what that word meant to those who spoke and heard it. In short, Jesus is accusing Peter - this fellow who had been numbered among his disciples since the beginning - of being an adversary. Jesus is calling Peter an enemy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The thing is, he's right.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Again let us remember that <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575905839" target="_blank">mission statement verse</a> from back in chapter 1: "<b>The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.</b>" That's why Jesus was here on this earth. That was the whole point. Anyone who would oppose that is the adversary. No matter how much they have the right answers to the questions, no matter how close they've been or how long they've been with Jesus or any other thing that might be true about them, to oppose Jesus's word and work was to put oneself in opposition to Jesus. No other way about it. Jesus had already faced The Adversary back in the wilderness, and he had dealt with plenty of demons by this time. None of them had stood in the way of Jesus's work, and Peter wasn't going to either.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That brings us to one more word that we might need to reconsider in this context: "<b>cross</b>," as in Jesus's command in verse 34: "<b>If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.</b>" I don't think anyone tries to deny the truth of this verse, at least not overtly, but there are some voices that try to numb us to its power. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I'd guess that at some point we've all probably used a phrase like "well, that's my cross to bear" in reference to some obstacle or impediment we might face in our daily lives. Right now, I could speak of this ongoing bout of vertigo or something like it as "my cross to bear," as I might have spoken of any number of other health issues over the last decade-plus. One does not want to minimize the challenges we face on a daily basis, but one does not want to confuse them with the "cross" Jesus bore in his ministry on earth. There was the physical cross, and then there was the cross that brought him to bear the physical cross. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That cross was the cross of living as if <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575905972" target="_blank">the Beatitudes</a> were really to reflect how we see others; living our ives to treat "<b>the least of these</b>" as he describes <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575906058" target="_blank">in Matthew 25</a> as we would treat Jesus; giving our ministry and our mission and our time to meet the needs of those who live invisibly among us, not getting by, not being valued or loved, being invisible and easily stepped over or stepped upon without our being troubled one bit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">See, if we do that, "the Empire" won't like it. Whether it be the Roman Empire or the British Empire or whatever corporate empire one might choose to speak of, the only one we're supposed to serve in their view is that empire, and caring for poor or the meek or the hungry or the sorrowful interferes with that empire doing what it wants to do with us. And that empire, whichever one rules in our world, won't stand for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So if we truly take up that cross, denying ourselves, and follow Jesus in spirit and in truth, there will be suffering. And if Peter couldn't follow, Jesus wasn't going to let him stand in the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Peter wasn't through bungling things in front of Jesus. The <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575906147" target="_blank">transfiguration story</a> (which we heard two weeks ago but actually comes in the chapter after this one) shows that Peter hadn't gotten it yet, and the <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575906264" target="_blank">events of Holy Week</a> suggest that even then, Peter was trying to avoid Jesus meeting that fate. By the time of the book of Acts, though, something has finally gotten through to Peter; after all of his bungling and clumsiness of word and deed, he <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575906458" target="_blank">emerges as the vocal and spiritual leader</a> of the early church in Jerusalem after Jesus's resurrection and ascension. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I suppose, after considering these three words, we might want to ponder three questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">1) do we really know what it means to call Jesus "Messiah"?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">2) are we ever guilty of making ourselves an adversary to Jesus?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">3) do we really know what means to take up our cross and follow Jesus?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the challenge, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i> unless otherwise indicated): #439, O My Soul, Bless Your Redeemer; #---<a href="http://hymnsbycharlesfreeman.blogspot.com/2024/02/when-jesus-told-his-followers.html" target="_blank">When Jesus told his followers</a>; #718, Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvIzGkAMvz-rXArkOJ035J07MKRPKLcZwJcgW2emDy2F2K_TJnCvB43cmmQZWbQQlVIjMsKphuBAD1pewvu9l-2BXe9uIFh1-mIyLYWX_Gx0_tzjCQZhUBAvdGrmIuJRhDTcEx5YGir16DcAAVlmeNT-gWcilYPb__-zYWCrFe9-BU-vmt6ZAzwmNtVQ/s768/get-thee-behind-me-satan3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="768" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvIzGkAMvz-rXArkOJ035J07MKRPKLcZwJcgW2emDy2F2K_TJnCvB43cmmQZWbQQlVIjMsKphuBAD1pewvu9l-2BXe9uIFh1-mIyLYWX_Gx0_tzjCQZhUBAvdGrmIuJRhDTcEx5YGir16DcAAVlmeNT-gWcilYPb__-zYWCrFe9-BU-vmt6ZAzwmNtVQ/w400-h264/get-thee-behind-me-satan3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-58386220739565829602024-02-18T19:52:00.000-08:002024-02-18T19:56:17.124-08:00Sermon: Waters and Wilderness (and Wild Beasts)<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">February 18, 2024, Lent 1B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575313730" target="_blank">Mark 1:9-15</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Waters and Wilderness (and Wild Beasts)</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For some, this reading for the first Sunday of Lent, from Mark's gospel, is a disappointment. "Where are the actual temptations?" they might ask. "Where's any temptation at all?" Part of the qualm is that, where Matthew and Luke have extensive temptation accounts, each with three specific tests named and played out - not just the temptations themselves (yes, including the temptation to turn stones to bread), but Jesus's answers to them - "<i>man does not live by bread alone..</i>." for example. While <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575313790" target="_blank">Matthew's account</a> expands through eleven verses and <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575313839" target="_blank">Luke's</a> covers thirteen, Mark's temptation account only takes two.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In fact, today's reading is somewhat padded by material that's already been covered in the lectionary. Verses 9-11 came up on the Sunday on which we marked the Baptism of the Lord, and verses 14-15<b> </b>appeared on the Third Sunday after Epiphany. Those two meager verses about the temptation are indeed our only "new" material for this first Sunday of Lent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">However, one can also point out that this combination of verses <i>is</i> new, and it may have something to teach us. These verses also clue us in on how Mark is presenting this Jesus character in ways that resonate deeply with the religious tradition they know. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First we return to the Jordan River, where John, who typically baptized for the repentance of sin, baptized Jesus, who (as our faith reminds us) didn't sin. In another gospel this becomes a point of contention, as John protests the roles should be the other way 'round, but Jesus convinces him to do it anyway, and the baptism happens. Mark's account skips all that but adds some drama to what Jesus sees as he comes up from the water - memorably describing the heavens as "<i>torn apart</i>" before the dove-like Spirit descends on Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Waters have a pretty interesting track record in Hebrew scripture, beginning somewhat mysteriously at the very beginning of Genesis. As early as the second verse darkness covers "<i>the deep</i>" and a wind from God blows over those waters, which are still later separated and eventually the oceans are formed. Early in Exodus we see a mother hiding her newborn son in a basket and setting it loose in the waters to keep a Pharaoh's soldiers from killing him; he is found and taken in by an Egyptian princess, but eventually Moses becomes the one who leads the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Those Hebrew people pass through both the Red Sea and the Jordan River en route to the promised land. Even the prophet Jonah spends a little time underwater, thanks to the efforts of a great fish, before being deposited at Nineveh to do the work God had called him to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Those are just a few examples. It's not a surprise that water, and immersion in it, becomes a part of an important religious practice, but the act of being immersed and then raised up works out pretty well as foretelling the ultimate earthly fate of this fellow that John was called upon to baptize. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Before Jesus has even had a chance to dry off after the baptism, he is "<i>compelled</i>" into the wilderness. Matthew and Luke (and this verse in the NIV) offer words like "<b>led</b>," but nothing so gentle here; the NRSV offers "<b>the Spirit immediately <i>drove him out</i> into the wilderness" </b>(emphasis mine). And no, we don't get any kind of account on how Jesus is "<b>tested</b>," which itself is a different interpretation than "<i>tempted</i>"; it suggests that one's strength or skill or faithfulness is being specifically tried, instead of one being lured or enticed into some sort of sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Testing in the wilderness is, again, not new. The Hebrew people faced plenty of it on their way to the promised land, and they didn't always pass those tests. The prophet Elijah faced his times of trial in the wilderness, and David had to go on the run from Saul before becoming King himself. Again, the wilderness, like the water, have a history in the history of the Hebrew people, but there are new things here too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Take those angels, who were present to minister to Jesus. That's not something you find in those Old Testament stories. That again adds something new to this story even if it starts out looking or sounding familiar. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And then there are those wild beasts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Yes, I know, the NIV uses the technically correct translation "<b>wild animals</b>." But let's be honest: "<i>wild beasts</i>" as found in the NRSV and other translations, just sounds cooler. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">While it might seem an obvious thing to expect wild animals in the wilderness, it's not the kind of thing that typically comes up in those accounts in Hebrew scripture. Also, for all the attention-getting quality of the inclusion of the "wild beasts," there isn't any particular indication that these wild animals actually <i>did</i> anything; no suggestion that Jesus had to wrestle with them or any such thing. The verse simply says "<b>he was with the wild animals</b>."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This might be something to think about. It was noted above that wild animals weren't typical of those earlier stories, but they aren't totally absent. There is <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575314545" target="_blank">the story of Daniel</a>, who ends up in that den of lions but comes out unharmed. On one of Elijah's times in the wild, <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575314429" target="_blank">ravens</a> actually came to bring food to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">What if, instead of being a part of the threat and peril of the wilderness, the "wild beasts" were really there to, well, be with Jesus. What if what we're seeing here, instead of a threat to Jesus along with all of Satan's testing, is the "wild beasts" - indeed, creation itself - recognizing their Creator, the one who <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575314060" target="_blank">in the prologue of John's gospel </a>was "<b>in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being</b>"? If we take this possibility, it really does set Mark's temptation story apart from those in Matthew and Luke. No less that creation itself was at Jesus's side in his time of testing. Later in this chapter we see that <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=575314267" target="_blank">unclean spirits know exactly who Jesus is</a>, with plenty of fear; maybe the creatures of the wilderness know who Jesus is as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And speaking of those unclean spirits or demons; while Mark doesn't specifically say anything about how this testing came out, the way those demons react to Jesus later in the chapter suggest Jesus passed those tests just fine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So, we've had "three w's" - water, wilderness, wild beasts - in this account so far. Verses 14-15 give us one more "w": witness. When this testing is done Jesus is out proclaiming. He goes back to Galilee and begins to bear witness. It's really the theme of Mark's gospel, his "topic sentence," his "mission statement": <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i>The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near; repent, and believe in the good news.</i></span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">There it is: Jesus's message in a nutshell, and not at all a bad theme to hold in mind throughout this season of Lent. We get the "repent" message plenty in this season, with all of the emphasis on penitence and reflection, but maybe we would be well served to hold on to that "believe" part of Jesus's proclamation as well; to know that the time is fulfilled, or at hand, and the kingdom of God has drawn near to us. In Jesus, repentance is never a hopeless act, not with the reign of God at hand. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So make that part of your Lenten discipline; repent, with hope in God's sovereignty. Like those wild beasts, recognize the Creator with us. See the Spirit descending like a dove. Know that even - no, especially - in this season of Lent, God is with us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Believe in the good news.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i> unless otherwise noted): #166, Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days; #---, <a href="http://hymnsbycharlesfreeman.blogspot.com/2024/02/then-jesus-came-from-nazareth.html" target="_blank">When Jesus came from Nazareth</a>; #410, God is Calling through the Whisper</i></span><span dir="RTL" face="Arial, sans-serif" lang="HE"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiozdpFSUX8IztXbmmIK2WUYkXe__v7scqcjqHhjSpA8REwBenfZgKG2f9v4q5MrArHStPmbAdC7LAlhCdAGc7r1t0GMmewXhTyorFDxKiL8t8900Bb_4YcEtDxqV31IwkEbQE9Hdga_ndSVWyQbk5DF3EWFoTGXEHeMgu8Q0eEtF4cHcOiGDpdJX9yTak/s640/Mark01v09to15_2024.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="640" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiozdpFSUX8IztXbmmIK2WUYkXe__v7scqcjqHhjSpA8REwBenfZgKG2f9v4q5MrArHStPmbAdC7LAlhCdAGc7r1t0GMmewXhTyorFDxKiL8t8900Bb_4YcEtDxqV31IwkEbQE9Hdga_ndSVWyQbk5DF3EWFoTGXEHeMgu8Q0eEtF4cHcOiGDpdJX9yTak/w400-h124/Mark01v09to15_2024.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMlng6ttiVRcK0QucxHbHhsplGTNJcZsAfklLjZhv1x5xBMkmET_1_TxxAF4dJxpCzDMmtlDMwzG3yBEsYMOK-ppNfRKQ6PAfrDbkVjnf9eE5FneP2ShkSOjaffnnFrquOqKzsWkQenXL8kbBes1t5RP9I25e1c4hl3jT7Ds1PeVLVR1-gIssw8fZcWo/s366/Jesus%20and%20wild%20beasts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="366" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMlng6ttiVRcK0QucxHbHhsplGTNJcZsAfklLjZhv1x5xBMkmET_1_TxxAF4dJxpCzDMmtlDMwzG3yBEsYMOK-ppNfRKQ6PAfrDbkVjnf9eE5FneP2ShkSOjaffnnFrquOqKzsWkQenXL8kbBes1t5RP9I25e1c4hl3jT7Ds1PeVLVR1-gIssw8fZcWo/w400-h320/Jesus%20and%20wild%20beasts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-73879507092548522612024-02-11T11:50:00.000-08:002024-02-11T11:50:27.114-08:00Sermon: With Glory<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">February 11, 2024, Transfiguration B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574679919" target="_blank">Mark 9:2-9</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">With Glory</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It’s one of those days, liturgically speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One of those days that isn’t quite a major event in the liturgical calendar. It’s certainly not on the level of Christmas or Good Friday or Easter, not even quite on the level of, say, Pentecost or Epiphany. It’s there, and it must mean something, but explaining or understanding just what it means isn’t easy at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The Transfiguration of the Lord – there’s an unwieldy name for you – marks in the liturgical calendar the final Sunday before Lent starts. Its subject is that peculiar incident we’ve heard from Mark’s Gospel, in which Jesus takes a few of his disciples up a mountain and something happens that is rather difficult to describe. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">“Transfiguration” itself is an unusual word at best. Dictionary.com defines being “transfigured” as “to change in outward form or appearance; transform,” with a secondary definition of “to change as to glorify or exalt,” a definition which is largely based on its usage to describe this event. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In fact we really don’t use this word very often outside of this story. We’re more likely to use a word like “transformation,” “transmogrification,” or maybe “metamorphosis,” which is actually close to the word used in the Greek text. Of course, popular culture can affect how we understand any of these words. The toys and movies about those robots that change into other kinds of machines can easily pop into people's minds when they hear or see the word “transformer,” and the comic strip <i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> used the word “transmogrifier” for Calvin’s fanciful machine for changing himself into someone else (that word became so uniquely associated with that comic strip that to this day, readers still think “transmogrify” was a made-up word, though it is quite real).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3YNpfEECwh2gV9qVGdRbODbGS-K9LAFo8L7M1FdDo0eFvhQRrKTVTGSqmTpeWiRWGCp-WZUtDrE9r2uc6tIjkuHk2VEz2oGwD0ZRnAFlGkoxo8KF3FRKL1PiT_fTy5FAAfwDRYon3Hk8b3RTPiea36pD-2VHhB5ktEGYe3EZzmRwBmJQzEpyDAVoyFGc/s294/transformer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="171" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3YNpfEECwh2gV9qVGdRbODbGS-K9LAFo8L7M1FdDo0eFvhQRrKTVTGSqmTpeWiRWGCp-WZUtDrE9r2uc6tIjkuHk2VEz2oGwD0ZRnAFlGkoxo8KF3FRKL1PiT_fTy5FAAfwDRYon3Hk8b3RTPiea36pD-2VHhB5ktEGYe3EZzmRwBmJQzEpyDAVoyFGc/s1600/transformer.jpg" width="171" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAdzgBHJnUUjy7bGS-yGHGDI53wV4Nj5hog3ptfHw_dm1CvhlS5Lnzy72DdXOF91drO4LeoS_z81YPmfNoR3rQ9uShNlTjhoXNS3r7UX-XVMdFOrinqhSlw4gpr1dcjd_ax3SyW2n1VDzKqdIn0rv2Cxtryne2Lsz3E0Gdji2QlGkz7TzQKZGz_P-BFg/s1229/transmogrifier.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1229" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAdzgBHJnUUjy7bGS-yGHGDI53wV4Nj5hog3ptfHw_dm1CvhlS5Lnzy72DdXOF91drO4LeoS_z81YPmfNoR3rQ9uShNlTjhoXNS3r7UX-XVMdFOrinqhSlw4gpr1dcjd_ax3SyW2n1VDzKqdIn0rv2Cxtryne2Lsz3E0Gdji2QlGkz7TzQKZGz_P-BFg/w400-h250/transmogrifier.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">All of these words carry some implication that a person or thing changes appearance, but not necessarily changing in substance or person. The Transformer robot can still be called Optimus Prime even when it looks like a truck. Calvin is still Calvin even if he’s “transmogrified” into a tiger or frog or whatever his imagination comes up with.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">What happens in today’s gospel is not exactly like that. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Mark’s early readers would have realized that something was up the moment that Mark mentioned that Jesus and the three disciples were going up a mountain. Anyone who know their Hebrew Scriptures would have remembered that interesting things happen on mountains. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One of the first such examples would have been Moses and his trips up Mount Sinai to receive the law from the Lord. In <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574680874" target="_blank">Exodus 34</a>, when Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the re-dictated Ten Commandments, his face was glowing, after God his Moses in a cleft in the rock and allowed divine glory to pass by Moses. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Another, similar mountain encounter with the glory of God is recorded in <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574680770" target="_blank">2 Kings</a>, when the fugitive prophet Elijah encounters the glory of God not in fire or earthquake or whirlwind, but in the “sheer silence” that followed. Mountains are often – not always, but often – places where holy and mysterious things happen, and not just in the Hebrew/Jewish tradition. Mark’s readers would have likely taken the hint, and expected something unusual to happen. And in Mark’s usual no-nonsense, no-frills, no-time-wasted fashion, that expectation is rewarded.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Our author quickly tells readers that Jesus began to … change. To be transfigured, as translators have usually chosen to translate μεταμορφ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">ὠ</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">θη (metamorphothe), the Greek word found here. As Mark then describes the event, Jesus changes, but the change that Mark describes seems to be mostly about light; “<b>his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them</b>” (v. 3). This would also remind Mark’s listeners about those previous mountaintop experiences, with Moses’s face ending up glowing and Elijah glimpsing the dazzling glory of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And then, as if any more clues were needed, we get those very figures themselves appearing in this scene. Elijah and Moses appeared next to Jesus, talking with him – now there’s a conversation you wish somebody had been able to record! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">By this time Mark’s readers must have felt as if they were being hit over the head with the obvious; this man Jesus is of God. Mark told us way back at the beginning of the gospel that this was the “<b>son of God</b>” (<a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574680950" target="_blank">1:1</a>), and the scene before the three disciples seems to us (who after all have the benefit of Mark’s narration and storytelling to clue us in) to be a magnificent and irrefutable demonstration of the glory of God manifested in Jesus. This would seem to be as much proof as anybody could need, right? This man is from God, right? The son of God?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">You know how there always seems to be one person, no matter the situation, who always seems to say the wrong thing at the wrong time? No matter how beautiful, how glorious, how transcendent the moment, they manage to chime in with something that’s just wrongheaded or ugly or maybe just … off? In the gospels, Peter is a good bet to be that guy. In all of the gospels he manages to be that rare combination of (1) always willing to speak, and (2) not necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer. In this case, these two traits combined to cause Peter to blurt out a suggestion that, for all his good intentions, ruined the moment. It was as if a resplendently beautiful bride took a pratfall halfway down the aisle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">To be fair, Peter’s suggestion about building three “<b>dwellings</b>” (also translatable as “tents” or “booths”) wasn’t totally out-of-nowhere. One of the possible interpretations of Jewish tradition at that time was that the “Feast of Booths,” a regularly-observed event, would be the time when God would intervene in Israel’s fortunes and usher in a new age. Peter seems to have jumped to the conclusion that the appearance of Elijah and Moses with their teacher was just this sign that God’s new age was arriving. Peter, though, was forgetting about the very things this teacher Jesus had been telling them, unpleasant things about suffering and death. Perhaps he wanted to forget them, or hoped that this intervention would make them unnecessary. Whatever it was, Peter’s blurted-out suggestion, probably babbled in a moment of bafflement and uncertainty, was just … off. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">To make that clear, a cloud descended over the mountain, and when it lifted Elijah and Moses were gone and Jesus stood alone before the disciples, with a stern warning from above to “<b>Listen to him!</b>”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It was a moment of revelation, in a way. The Transformers and Transmogrifiers that came up earlier were about concealment. Even the very packaging on that Transformers toy described them as “Robots In Disguise.” This, on the other hand, wasn’t a disguise. Just the opposite; for those few transcendent, dazzling moments, the disciples caught just a glimpse of Jesus as he really is, in all the divine glory that is his. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It had to be hard for the disciples not to wonder as they headed down the mountain, particularly when Jesus started going on about their not telling anybody about what they saw, why they couldn’t see this all the time, or at least more often.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Why is it that we can’t see this glory always? Why do we have to live in the dark and grey of the world, down in the valley instead of living in that glory up on the mountain? To put it directly, too many people have not seen that light, or have cowered in fear from it, or run from it; and this is exactly why we are called out to bear witness to the light of God that we have seen, the revelation we have known in Jesus, the indwelling of God that we know through the Holy Spirit. If others do not see the light, it is our job to bear witness to it. This is why we don’t get to stay on the mountain. There are too many in the valley or on the plain, in the city or out in the countryside, from whom the light is veiled, and our calling is to bear witness, to let that light that is within us shine through us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It’s not our light, of course. It is the light of God’s glory, the light that illumined Jesus on the mountain, dazzling and intense and brilliant. It is that glory, that transcendence that points us towards hope, knowing that the Jesus transfigured on the mountain goes before us, intercedes for us, suffers and rejoices with us in our sufferings and rejoicings. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For this we rejoice. The Transfiguration, strange as it may be, is a moment of hope, maybe one last reminder before the penitence and reflection of Lent that we are not abandoned, we are not forsaken, we are not alone. To borrow from John’s gospel, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For light, for transfiguration, for glory revealed, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</span><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">); #13, The Mighty God with Power Speaks; #11, Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud; #156, Sing of God Made Manifest<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXidnjZVrHI4gax3iMOPiFD9qMO3JYQz3ZO8aVQkR35LJbdpl0AlcQLFsnHrQ_Gq1OOhOiTGOX0bVAaA__MjjUEH8_YVTTyPZp1jq3mYMzS2vni4E1Di2K-WqpnDu_c40PrjyHnUUDSH218KMWfBDaGksgXtacTH0gnG6JAdLiroGvXSIuCw0Z-_3n3jI/s710/Mafa_Transfiguration_710.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="710" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXidnjZVrHI4gax3iMOPiFD9qMO3JYQz3ZO8aVQkR35LJbdpl0AlcQLFsnHrQ_Gq1OOhOiTGOX0bVAaA__MjjUEH8_YVTTyPZp1jq3mYMzS2vni4E1Di2K-WqpnDu_c40PrjyHnUUDSH218KMWfBDaGksgXtacTH0gnG6JAdLiroGvXSIuCw0Z-_3n3jI/w400-h248/Mafa_Transfiguration_710.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-71486572383665741762024-02-04T14:28:00.000-08:002024-02-04T14:28:05.959-08:00Sermon: With Healing<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">February 4, 2024, Epiphany 5B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574085276" target="_blank">Mark 1:29-39</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">With Healing</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">What does it take to draw a crowd these days? I mean a serious crowd, throngs of people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">We'll see one such answer a week from today, of course. Thousands of people crammed into a stadium, thousands more pouring into Las Vegas, and millions around this country and others watching via television, for a football game. The numbers are pretty impressive. Nothing like a World Cup Soccer final, mind you, but pretty impressive. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Who remembers, though, that back in the 90s that game was the object of a particularly daring and successful stroke of counterprogramming designed to draw off at least some of those crowds for a special, live episode of the sketch comedy program <i>In Living Color</i>? Timed to begin at the end of the first half and end in time for viewers to get back to the game, the counterprogramming stunt was successful enough to draw about 22 million viewers away from the Super Bowl halftime show, which that year featured singer Gloria Estefan and figure skaters Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Well, the NFL was going to have none of that. For the next year’s halftime show the league booked no less than Michael Jackson, only the biggest performer on the planet at the time. The pre-emptive strike worked, and in the twenty intervening years the halftime show has become a spectacle that equals if not dwarfs the game itself. Between the halftime show and the increasingly expensive and popular commercials that air during the game, it can become easy to forget there’s actually a game going on.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">What such a story reminds us is that crowds are fickle. You can attract crowds, to be sure, but once they are pulled in, how do you keep their attention? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One gets the idea that Jesus knew this, when one sees how today’s gospel reading turns out. When last we left our story, Jesus had just amazed the synagogue crowds with his teaching, with an exorcism thrown in as well. This got tongues wagging, as we were left with the statement that “<b>At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee</b>” (v. 28). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So for a follow-up to this smashing introduction to the people of Galilee, Jesus goes to … the house of Simon. Maybe everybody needed a rest. It still seems an odd way to follow up that experience in the synagogue. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As well, this must have been an interesting return for Simon. We first met him <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574085492" target="_blank">back in verse sixteen</a>, where he and brother Andrew “<b>immediately</b>” dropped their nets and walked right off the fishing boat in response to Jesus’s call. It seems like a rash decision. One can only wonder how Simon was contemplating explaining all this to his family, especially his mother-in-law, perhaps. “<i>You mean to tell me that you just up and walked away from a perfectly good fishing business to follow this homeless preacher? Son, have you got any sense in you at all?</i>” I have to wonder if Simon might have been wishing that Jesus would change his mind and go looking for more demons to cast out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Instead the homecoming became an occasion for another act of healing from Jesus. It’s interesting that Mark describes the event rather un-dramatically, even anticlimactically. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever; Jesus took her hand and raised her up, and she got up and started to serve. Simple. (Yeah, right. Simple.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Again word starts to spread, and before the day is over the whole town is gathered outside the house, with all those with illnesses or unclean spirits crowding around Jesus to be healed. For the people of Capernaeum this must have been an occasion of great joy, with health being restored, wholeness being reclaimed, and burdens of suffering and despair being lifted. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Yet I ask you to consider that this is only the first occasion for healing to be found in today’s scripture. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I realize that the rest of today’s reading doesn’t use the word “healing.” Verse 39 does allude to more casting out of demons, true. But specific mention of healing? No, not in the rest of this passage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And yet, after a full Sabbath day, first in the synagogue with the man with the unclean spirit, then at Simon’s home raising up Simon’s mother-in-law, and then with a whole townful of people seeking healing, we need to pay attention to what Jesus does the next morning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">He goes to find a “<b>deserted place</b>,” or a "<b>solitary place</b>," depending on which translation you read. Away from the city, away from the synagogue, away from Simon’s home, away from the crowds which were, according to Simon and his companions, searching for Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Jesus went away to that isolated place, and he prayed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If Jesus, son of God, “eternally begotten of the Father” as the creed we'll say later puts it, needed to pull away from the crowds and find a deserted place to rest and heal and get back in touch with his Father in prayer, we certainly can’t expect to be able to press on relentlessly without pause or without recharging our spiritual selves. If Jesus needed to pray, we need to pray. If Jesus needed to retreat to a solitary place, we need to step away ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In those moments there is healing to be had. In prayer there is nothing less than re-energization, from the very source of our being. In the retreat to prayer God is present to restore our strained energies, our frayed nerves, our exhausted spirits and worn-down souls. We cannot possibly think that we are superhuman enough to press through the grief, the stress, the weariness when our very Lord and Savior made a point of seeking out solitude and prayer. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is hard to fathom in our world where we are taught never to press the pause button. If Jesus were being directed by some kind of modern corporation or publicity firm, can you imagine their reaction to his going off to a deserted place to pray? First of all, there’s no way he could have done what he did on that Sabbath day without being hustled out the next morning to be on all the Monday morning news shows. The pursuing crowds would no doubt be joined by jostling cameras tracking his every step. Had Jesus been so bold as to slip out and find that deserted place, the handlers and spin doctors would have no doubt gone ballistic. “<i>You’ve got to capitalize on the moment</i>,” they’d say. “<i>If you want to take advantage of this momentum you’ve got to get out there RIGHT NOW</i> <i>and press your advantage. Rest is for the weak.</i>” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">You get the idea; our culture does not reward or even comprehend what Jesus did that morning. At what would seem to be a high point, a moment of triumph, Jesus disappeared. Simon seems to have had to organize a search party to find him. And Jesus didn’t relent and return to the disciples; they had to go and find him. Jesus took this time of restoration and healing seriously. We can do no less, no matter how much the world we live in discourages such behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Of course what happens next is equally intriguing. Simon and his companions finally catch up with him and let him know in no uncertain terms that he had disappointed a whole lot of people that morning. And Jesus’s response was…to leave town. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Not to plunge into the crowds and sign them up for long-term membership (or even to get them on an email list). Not to exploit the masses for fame and recognition. For Jesus, the next step was to get on with the work of proclaiming the good news. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Notice where Jesus’s attention was focused; his job, “<b>why I have come</b>” as he puts it in verse 38, was to proclaim the gospel. Given his retreat and prayer time, Jesus came away focused on the core of his mission, taking us back once again to what we might in modern jargon think of as Jesus’s mission statement, <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=574085442" target="_blank">back in verse fifteen</a>; “<b>The time has come, ... the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.</b>” The temptation to continue to work the present crowd, to ride the wave of popularity, would be very hard for us to pass up. Yet for Jesus, his own retreat and healing and prayer brought him back to his basic animating purpose, and he walked away from the crowds to find the next synagogue in which to teach, and continued to proclaim the good news.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As you know, this church is at a transition point. I haven't been in this interim role quite for a year yet. The church is looking forward, trying to catch a vision of just what God is calling us out to do. We all come to this moment aware of the passage of time, and aware of the uncertainty before us. What is our next step? Where do we go from here? What are we to be as a church, both as a worshiping community and as a witness to this town and this world?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Let one thing be crystal clear: we will go nowhere without all of us, together as a church and individually in our own homes and isolated places, taking time on occasion, as needed, to step away from the immediate crush of worry and uncertainty, and restoring our connection to the One who calls us his children. We can exhaust ourselves doing many things, but without the time of prayer and discernment and searching and listening for the still small voice amidst the whirlwind and chaos, we will go nowhere fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This congregation has been through a lot. There have been some wounds, some disappointments, some weariness as this church has sought its way forward. The church cannot find that way forward if its members don't take some time for healing and recharging, time spent in prayer and searching and discernment, a work that is not done with my call here or even with a new installed pastor in place; it is a work that is beginning and a work that will be ongoing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the message that healing that comes in many forms, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</span><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">); #645, Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above; #793, O Christ, the Healer; #30, O God, in a Mysterious Way</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgbnaMLr7EgD04I7kgEUHer6UULetHAuFnB_GPnbRV0G6OhaHsxS3gJTyliWFzhXL20KKyu0AR-Gh7T1e5GI4SfHgXQntAy0SqVXgOOQnZg-LWbRPnO0KMehwWsKyzdFCGYGd0akS6yMeN5nGL2tl1NF3nLkjuXJt4TaYIH7AgUnyvY1DHfd-nUSHXRAw/s275/solitary%20place.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgbnaMLr7EgD04I7kgEUHer6UULetHAuFnB_GPnbRV0G6OhaHsxS3gJTyliWFzhXL20KKyu0AR-Gh7T1e5GI4SfHgXQntAy0SqVXgOOQnZg-LWbRPnO0KMehwWsKyzdFCGYGd0akS6yMeN5nGL2tl1NF3nLkjuXJt4TaYIH7AgUnyvY1DHfd-nUSHXRAw/w400-h266/solitary%20place.jpeg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br /><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-2225350056784619282024-01-28T15:05:00.000-08:002024-01-28T15:05:31.456-08:00Sermon: With Authority<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">January 28, 2024, Epiphany 4B<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=573482796" target="_blank">Mark 1:21-28</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>With Authority</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In academic circles there is a humor piece that makes the rounds on occasion, with a title like “Why God would never get tenure” or something similar. What follows is a list of reasons that, while humorously slanted, could be seen through squinted eyes as more or less academically correct descriptions of events in the history of the church or the Bible. For example, in publication-crazed academia, everyone would recognize the failure reflected in the first reason on the list: “He only had one publication.” Even I had more than that.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Other reasons on the list include (in reference to that “one publication”) “it was in Hebrew,” “it wasn’t published in a refereed journal,” and “some even doubt he wrote it himself.” Other more general jokes on the list include “the scientific community has had a hard time duplicating his results,” “some say he had his son teach the class,” and “although there were only 10 requirements, most students failed the tests.” You get the idea.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">One of those jokes, though, actually resonates with today’s gospel reading, just a little bit. Of the “one publication” the critique observes that it “had no references,” or more clearly, “no footnotes.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">If you remember your own degree-seeking days, or if you’ve lived the academic life to any degree, you understand about things like footnotes and a bibliography, or a “works cited” or “works consulted” list – a means by which someone writing an academic paper acknowledges the sources that fed his or her research, those scholars whose previous work made the current work possible. That kind of acknowledgment isn’t completely different from the kind of teaching that was typical of rabbinical scholars or teachers in Jesus’s time. The scholar, addressing a particular text, would carefully develop an argument from the studies done by scholars before him, carefully balancing the work of one scholar against the commentary of another, weighing distinct views against one another, and carefully acknowledging and crediting those scholars whose work he uses. A modern scholar uses those footnotes and bibliographies to perform much the same function.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Keep this in mind when approaching the story in Mark’s gospel for today. In this case Jesus has the opportunity to speak in the local synagogue in Capernaeum. This was not unusual. A teacher did not necessarily have to be a synagogue official to be invited to speak in the service. What Jesus did with that opportunity, though, aroused plenty of attention. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We are not privy to the specifics of what Jesus was teaching here. Mark is not interested in our knowing this, for whatever reason. What he wants us to know is that Jesus’s listeners were quick to know that his teaching was different, and dramatically, surprisingly so. Jesus wasn’t using the verbal footnotes common to the scribal tradition; his teaching was, as the text puts it, “with authority!”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Somehow Jesus was teaching in a way that didn’t involve all those meticulous cross-references. He taught “with authority.” He taught as the One – the only One – who did not need to cite and cross-reference and footnote. He taught not just as one “with authority,” but indeed <i>as </i>authority himself. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">What happens next in the story often steals the thunder here, distracting attention from what Mark presents first. One thing to watch in this gospel is how often Mark uses the word “immediately," or some equivalent. He's used it already several times in this chapter, and he uses it more than we see here. In the NIV verse 23 is translated as beginning “just then,” but in the Greek it’s the same word – ε<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">ὐ</span>θύς – that elsewhere is translated “immediately.” “Immediately” <b>there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out… </b>. This isn’t a crazed uncontrollable person, as will show up in chapter five, wandering about the tombs and ranting and raving. This is a man sitting in the synagogue listening to Jesus teaching, with the “unclean spirit” within unable to bear the presence of Jesus. The most striking thing about this scene is that while the many in the synagogue might have marveled at the authority of Jesus’s teaching, only this unclean spirit truly grasped just what that teaching, and that authority, meant.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">It meant that “the usual” was no longer enough. It meant that “the way things are” was no longer acceptable. It meant that those things that destroy from within, those things that hold us prisoner or keep us in thrall to what corrodes and corrupts us, those things are no longer in charge. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In fact, this miracle – the best thing to call it, even as uncomfortable as it makes us – actually takes us back a few verses, to the proclamation <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=573482858" target="_blank">found in verse 15</a>: <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b>The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.</b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">This miracle – but more so, this authority, this teaching that is like no other teaching that anyone has heard – is indeed a sign of the kingdom of God come near. That demons (or unclean spirits, or any of those things that would enslave and break human beings) cannot stand in the presence of Jesus, is indeed a sign of the kingdom of God come near. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But notice something else about this scripture. Aside from the man with the unclean spirit, how do the people in the synagogue react to what happens? What is their reaction to Jesus’s teaching, or to the silencing and casting out of the unclean spirit? Let’s go looking for adjectives and verbs here to see just what Mark is saying.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Well, the NRSV translation gives us “<b>amazed”</b> in verse 22 to describe the people’s reaction to Jesus’s teaching “with authority.” By verse 27, they are all “<b>amazed</b>,” and chattering to one another. Finally in verse 28 we find out that Jesus’s fame begins to spread all through Galilee, which at least suggests that those who heard and saw went out and told others what they heard and saw.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">These are certainly evocative words that make it clear people are impressed in some way. But it seems there is something missing in them. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Where is the rejoicing? Where are the “hosanna”s or the “alleluia”s? People are amazed and astounded, but are they <i>glad?</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">This points to something we might want to take with us from this passage. Again reaching back to verse 15, Jesus comes proclaiming that “<b>the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. <i>Repent</i>, and believe in the good news.”</b> We say that the church is commissioned to proclaim the “gospel,” the “good news.” Taken by itself that sounds good, but let’s be honest; there aren’t many people who like the sound of repentance. It makes a demand on us. It says things aren’t just perfectly fine and hunky-dory the way we are. It says things have to change – no, it says things <i>are going </i>to change. And that’s a little scary, for a church in a transitional time, or maybe even more so for a nice stable thriving church. And if it scares us, why should we think that those outside the church are going to be particularly comforted by it? This whole coming near of the kingdom of God upsets the established order of things, and that’s not something that everyone welcomes.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The second point has to do with that “authority,” and it might be a particularly appropriate lesson for this day in which our church installs deacons and also elders to the session. Some scholars have observed of this story that readers through the ages have made a mistake in interpreting the reference to Jesus’s authority as a slight or criticism against the teaching of the scribes of the temple. No. That can’t be the point we take away from this story. How could the scribes do otherwise? They are but human beings. Jesus’s authority was bound to be different <i>because of who he was</i>. The <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=573482928" target="_blank">very first verse</a> of this gospel tells it straightaway: “<b>the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, <i>the Son of God</i>.</b>” The scribes could not possibly teach or advise or govern with that kind of authority any more than a contemporary academic or student can get away without citing their sources in their next paper.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">And neither can we. This is a lesson to remember for me, in my own ordination and vocation, as well as for those who are installed as deacons or elders today, and for those who are already serving, and for those who may serve in the future. The authority of the deacons or session – indeed the authority of the church itself - rests in Christ alone. It doesn’t come in titles or rituals or majority votes. To the degree we claim authority in anything outside the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ – certainly to the degree we claim authority to rest in our own position or title – we are not followers of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">This is the kind of thing that ought to speak with particular force to this church in this time, seeking the path forward with new pastoral leadership. This is the kind of thing that hopefully prompts us to get involved in that process, remembering that we are not seeking a new "boss"; we seek someone who knows who the "boss" is and acts accordingly.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">To the degree we immerse ourselves in seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we involve ourselves in studying and meditating upon scripture, we open our eyes to see where Christ would lead us to minister and to reach out both within this church and outside these walls in the community and world around us, then the coming near of the kingdom of God is good news indeed. When we are grounded in the authority of Jesus, the Son of God, we are ready to hear and to follow where Jesus leads, to live as Jesus has already shown us how to live. And then we are ready to be witnesses to what really is good news indeed.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For authority that will never be ours, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i>Hymns (from </i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>); #15, All Creatures of Our God and King; #755, Alleluia! Laud and Blessing; #12, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2K6fAno0o5tlATkKK9qxMpufAv4E2mudSvvvsxBV2ptFRJQ9yImJEhrOZMU8BI8oTvQ0rEPdqd1RY9TQpvEcz_h2v399oQdOeFAqWxJgrD38EgLs191fDV14ASb8QktAM0vS9aHnky_aLcCgfzj2ph-hKdzQLBAIKDBsZ7EoFNbgOpGSsNcbf5CD25k/s400/authority.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="353" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2K6fAno0o5tlATkKK9qxMpufAv4E2mudSvvvsxBV2ptFRJQ9yImJEhrOZMU8BI8oTvQ0rEPdqd1RY9TQpvEcz_h2v399oQdOeFAqWxJgrD38EgLs191fDV14ASb8QktAM0vS9aHnky_aLcCgfzj2ph-hKdzQLBAIKDBsZ7EoFNbgOpGSsNcbf5CD25k/w565-h640/authority.jpeg" width="565" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-22893112282430781912024-01-07T13:11:00.000-08:002024-01-07T13:11:58.544-08:00Sermon: The Heavens Torn Apart<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2">Grace Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">January 7, 2024, Baptism of the Lord B<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571661405" target="_blank">Genesis 1:1-5</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571661675" target="_blank">Mark 1:4-5, 9-11</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>The Heavens Torn Apart<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Does anything about this story from Mark sound familiar?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In truth there are several passages that might evoke something familiar from the Old Testament, or scripture we just heard during the season of Advent in particular. John the Baptist gets his own Sunday in Advent, and his wilderness-chic wardrobe might have touched off sparks of recognition. Maybe the image of the dove descending brought back memories of, say, the story of Noah’s Ark, and the <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571661803" target="_blank">dove that finally returned, letting Noah know that dry land was on its way</a>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In this case, though, I have in mind a particular image, found in a particular scripture from Isaiah that actually got preached about a month ago. Maybe it sounds just a little bit familiar? From the very <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571661485" target="_blank">beginning of Isaiah 64</a>… <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">“<b>Oh, that you would <i>tear open the heavens</i> and come down…</b>”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">And there in today’s reading, verse 10:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">“<b>And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw <i>the heavens torn apart</i> and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.</b>”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Honestly, it’s hard to believe Mark didn’t do that deliberately.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Of course, Isaiah had a much bigger display in mind. You might remember that the prophet spoke of mountains shaking, fire causing water to boil, enemies trembling, that kind of stuff. And of course, in Isaiah’s prophetic wish, the heavens-being-torn-open act was meant for all to see. Everybody was meant to be impressed and “scared straight,” so to speak, turning away from sin and rebellion to obedience to God.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">That’s not quite how Mark’s account goes. In this case it seems Jesus is the only one who sees the heavens torn apart. Other gospels record the scene differently, but here the vision was apparently meant for Jesus alone. And of course, the Spirit “<b>descending like a dove</b>” probably wasn’t the follow-up Isaiah had in mind. Screaming like a hawk, perhaps, but a dove? Too peaceful-sounding, although doves actually don't sound all that peaceful if you catch them right.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Nonetheless, even this scene should give us pause. This was not a “safe” act for Jesus. Directly after this baptism Jesus would be driven out into the wilderness, to face temptation at the hands of the tempter himself (although we won't get to that reading until Lent). The course of Jesus’s ministry on earth was never going to be smooth, and Mark manages to make that clear just from this one image. “<b>The heavens torn apart…</b>”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In fact, this kind of imagery isn’t something Mark overdoes. The Greek word used here only appears one other time in this gospel, at the other end of it. In <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571661564" target="_blank">Mark 15:38</a>, as Jesus hangs on the cross and dies, at that moment (we are told) that the curtain of the Temple was “<b>torn in two</b>.” The disruptive image of being “torn apart” returns at the end of Jesus’s ministry as it had appeared at its beginning.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Let’s be honest, it’s hard for us to think of baptism in this way. Nowadays, particularly in church traditions like ours, baptism often gets made “cute.” We have this cute little bowl of water, a child is baptized wearing a specially made and very cute baptism garment in many cases, … it’s just not the kind of picture that lends itself to images of the heavens torn apart. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">And yet, if we’re doing it right, this baptism can lead us places we don’t expect to go. If you’re lucky, it leads you to something manageable, like being ordained and then installed as an elder on your church’s session. Maybe even on the church's transition team. And sometimes even a form of service like that can feel a little bit as though the heavens are least being ripped a little bit.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">You might find yourself being led into far riskier and more challenging forms of service, whether it be in a pulpit or a mission field. You might find yourself put in a position of having to speak unpleasant truths among people who don’t want to hear them. You might find yourself, in the words of the PC(USA)’s <i>A Brief Statement of Faith</i>, called to “<i>unmask idols in church and culture</i>,” which never seems to go well for the one doing the unmasking. You might find yourself challenged to walk away from the comfortable and profitable, towards the challenging and impoverished to whom Jesus ministered. There’s no telling where that baptism might lead you. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But baptism does come with its promises as well. You won’t find yourself abandoned. As a popular saying went in my younger days, “<i>If you think God’s far away, guess who moved?</i>” You won’t be left defenseless in the stormy and difficult times. You won’t be given up for lost or forsaken – not because baptism is some kind of magic talisman, but because the Jesus who took on baptism himself is faithful and unwilling to give us up, the ones whom he gave so much to redeem.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Remembering our baptism is obviously not meant to be a literal remembering for most of us; if you were baptized as an infant you are not expected to "remember" what happened on that occasion. "Remembering our baptism," if anything, is about our need to remember the vows that were made for us, perhaps, and reaffirmed in our confirmation, or that we made ourselves if we were baptized as youth or adults. These things did not happen in isolation, but in the body of Christ represented by the church where that baptism took place. Parents who brought you forward before the congregation, trusting the pastor not to drop you or get water in your little baby eyes, the elder who spoke the words of the rite on behalf of that congregation, the pastor who performed the act "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"; we can remember that the baptism we experienced was done with and in the body of Christ, and marked us as belonging to that body. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In either case, be aware that even now, your baptism may lead you somewhere you never expected, even if the heavens aren’t torn apart.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For the unexpected path from the baptismal font, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i>Hymns (from </i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>); #408, There's a Sweet, Sweet Spirit; #482, Baptized in Water; #480, Take Me to the Water<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy0Pvim2kw3Uxc-wijR38u05MqxnKbArXM1rE2zznzaMnzueBcpllpSH7N6IAZ1LwdWnge8h_dklL8u3xsu6kWZqeQsLbyf2s42xfBDv1238MPYRDstPjZiFEPtVevqyjqwiNipiLonQPjX_yUQzkVJ_UTR7J_tN6hQu8iAUB3fOFOxvkyMFwzgafQM0/s600/Jesus's%20baptism.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="600" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyy0Pvim2kw3Uxc-wijR38u05MqxnKbArXM1rE2zznzaMnzueBcpllpSH7N6IAZ1LwdWnge8h_dklL8u3xsu6kWZqeQsLbyf2s42xfBDv1238MPYRDstPjZiFEPtVevqyjqwiNipiLonQPjX_yUQzkVJ_UTR7J_tN6hQu8iAUB3fOFOxvkyMFwzgafQM0/w400-h276/Jesus's%20baptism.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-27243208480099270862024-01-06T15:58:00.000-08:002024-01-06T15:58:57.755-08:00Sermon: All the World<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;">January 6, 2024, Epiphany B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571585313" target="_blank">Matthew 2:1-12</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;">All the World</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">I am working on a basic presumption this morning. I am assuming that no one in this congregation this morning has any ancestry that traces its roots back to first-century Judea. This is actually somewhat significant for a reason. While the Christmas story as is told in the gospel of Luke is the one that everybody knows, the one that is the basis for every Christmas pageant ever, and the one that <a href="https://youtu.be/s74pvLWoYzU?si=srqp5kjFXs6wVBEs" target="_blank">Linus recites</a> when Charlie Brown pleads for anyone to tell him what Christmas is all about, it is Matthew's account in the first two chapters of his gospel that takes the boundaries of this story beyond the boundaries of first-century Judea, a province of the Roman state called Palestine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">The world outside Judea enters into this story thanks to the Magi, represented by the three figures in this nativity who are adorned rather differently than the rest of this cast. Of course, we see from Matthew's account that these Magi did not, in fact, come to any stable; verse 11 makes clear that when they arrived, they entered a <i>house</i>, their own house as far as we know, with no mention of mangers or stables or any other such thing. Matthew's story needs to be understood on its own every now and then, not wedged into Luke's very different story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">These Magi, however many of them there were (again, there were three gifts but that doesn't necessarily mean there were three Magi bearing them), make a very long trip from somewhere in the east to get to Judea. Most scholarship reckons that they came either from Persia (modern-day Iran) or Babylon (modern-day Iraq), which gives you an idea of the length of this trip they made with nothing but their camels or their own feet. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">And about those gifts...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">It has become something of a modern joke to mock the inappropriateness of these gifts for giving to a mother caring for a small child. Since we don't know how old Jesus was by the time the Magi got there, it would have been hard to know exactly what the child, maybe anywhere from infant to age two, would need. More to the point, though, is that these Magi first went to Jerusalem for a reason. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">Since they saw a sign in the stars that provoked them to go search for a child born "king of the Jews," but had nothing else to work with (remember, there weren't any angels giving them instructions), the only obvious place for them to seek s newborn king would have been a royal court. However weird gifts of frankincense and myrrh might sound to us non-royals (I don't think anybody would refuse a gift of gold), they would be regarded as perfectly appropriate gifts to a royal court, which is where these Magi would have expected to bestow such gifts in a mannered and well-scripted ceremony of exchange across national borders. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">The unexpected chaos at Herod's court sent these Magi off on a different path, with the star they had followed now behaving in very un-star-like fashion and "leading" them to Bethlehem and the house where Mary and Joseph and the child were. Probably they knew darn well, once they arrived, how odd their gifts were going to seem; but perhaps we should allow that those gifts might be overshadowed by what they did when they saw the child; they <b>"bowed down and worshiped him," </b>as Matthew describes in verse 11. These Magi from somewhere back east, not at all subject by human reckoning to a "king of the Jews" present or future, understood enough out of all the confusion they had caused and experienced to know that the only appropriate thing to do before this child was to bow down and worship. We could only hope and pray that we would have been so wise. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">For their reward, the Magi finally got their own angelic dream, warning them to avoid Herod on the way home - an instruction they were probably only too glad to accept. On the other hand, if they had harbored any desire to stay and worship this child further, this angelic instruction made that impossible; they had to get out of the way and not risk bringing any harm to this child. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">For all of this, the challenge for us to remember is that, for all practical purposes, these Magi are <i>us</i>, or at least as close to 'us' as there is in this story. All of those participating in Luke's accout are Judeans, practitioners of Judaism as much as the Holy Family was. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">These Magi come from, and one might argue on behalf of, the world outside Judea and the religion of Judea. They are, in many ways, the first signal that we get in any nativity narrative that the "Gentiles," the term we will commonly see throughout the New Testament for the non-Jewish world, are welcomed to come and worship this newborn king. This young "king of the Jews" turns out to be one who welcomes and calls in all peoples from all places to come and to follow. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 34.666668px;">For the Magi and their journey for all the world, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal <i>unless otherwise indicated): #152, What Star Is This, with Beams So Bright; #147, The First Nowell, v. 3-6 only; #146, Gentle Mary Laid Her Child; #151, We Three Kings of Orient Are; #---, Open our eyes (insert); #150, As With Gladness Men of Old</i></span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCPTnsZLKz9N27o-DtznJ1pfiBVVRLC6vlcfHnNobc7HbnidngABa-eLIbwIoPZCQDFXfTLp_yPQPmyG58EK4hRv4Cgn-S4smTLr_mtCaPo44EmoK6d_KieVF7qAswy7JxTwywAu7uN30iTufx2_90rmvQ1edgdmvWvVKsFhRa5iqeKFDzAdb9kxQCuU/s610/epiphany-magento.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="610" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCPTnsZLKz9N27o-DtznJ1pfiBVVRLC6vlcfHnNobc7HbnidngABa-eLIbwIoPZCQDFXfTLp_yPQPmyG58EK4hRv4Cgn-S4smTLr_mtCaPo44EmoK6d_KieVF7qAswy7JxTwywAu7uN30iTufx2_90rmvQ1edgdmvWvVKsFhRa5iqeKFDzAdb9kxQCuU/w400-h263/epiphany-magento.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-38042379297568133812023-12-31T13:23:00.000-08:002023-12-31T13:23:45.743-08:00A Service of Lessons and Carols for Epiphany<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><i>Note: This order was devised last year for a service for Epiphany, emphasizing the coming of Christ as being for all nations (represented in scripture by the Magi who brought gifts to the child Jesus). Obviously different hymns could also be used for the "carols" of such a service, and there are certainly different scriptures which would also tell that story in the form of "lessons." </i></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>A Service of Lessons and Carols for Epiphany</i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>January 6, 2023<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Prelude<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Welcome<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Opening sentences: <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Arise, shine, for your light has come, <b>and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Nations shall come to your light, <b>and rulers to the brightness of your rising.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Let us pray: <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>Eternal God, by a star you led magi to the worship of your Son. Guide the nations of the earth by your light, that the whole world may see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">The Lessons: <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 1: Matthew 2:1-12: <i>The Magi travel to behold the child Jesus.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>As with Gladness Men of Old</i> (GtG 150)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 2: Matthew 8:5-13: <i>Jesus heals the servant of a Roman centurion.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>For the Healing of the Nations</i> (GtG #346)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 3: Matthew 28:16-20: <i>Jesus commissions his disciples to go into all the world.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>Go to the World!</i> (GtG #295)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 4: Acts 8:26-39: <i>Philip witnesses to an Ethiopian official.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>Take Me to the Water</i> (GtG #480)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 5: Acts 10:34-48: <i>Peter welcomes the family of Cornelius to be baptized.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>In Christ There Is No East or West</i> (GtG #317)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 6: Acts 16:11-15: <i>Paul is welcomed into the home of Lydia in Philippi.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>Go in Grace and Make Disciples</i> (GtG #296)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 7: Romans 15:7-13: <i>Paul declares his call to bear witness to all peoples.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>Help Us Accept Each Other</i> (GtG #754)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 8: Ephesians 2:11-21: <i>Christ has joined all peoples into one humanity.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>There's a Wideness in God's Mercy</i> (GtG #435)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Lesson 9: Revelation 7:9-17: <i>A great multitude from all the nations at God's throne.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Carol: <i>From All That Dwell Below the Skies</i> (GtG #327)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Litany for Epiphany:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God, Alleluia!<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>Shout to the Lord, all the earth, Alleluia!<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">With joy let us pray to our Savior, the Son of God who became one of us, saying: The grace of God be with us all. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>The grace of God be with us all.</b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">O Christ, let your gospel shine in every place where the Word of life is not yet received. Draw the whole creation to yourself that your salvation may be known through all the earth.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>The grace of God be with us all.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">O Christ, Savior and Lord, extend your church to every place. Make it a place of welcome for people of every race and tongue.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>The grace of God be with us all.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">O Christ, Ruler of rulers, direct the work and thoughts of the leaders of nations that they may seek justice, and further peace and freedom for all.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>The grace of God be with us all.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">O Christ, Master of all, support of the weak and comfort of the afflicted, strengthen the tempted and raise the fallen. Watch over the lonely and those in danger. Give hope to the despairing and sustain the faith of the persecuted.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b>The grace of God be with us all. Amen.</b><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">O Christ, light made manifest as the true light of God, gladden our hearts on the joyful day of your glory; call us by our name on the great Day of your coming; and give us grace to offer,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">with all the hosts of heaven, unending praise to God in whom all things find their ending,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">now and ever. <b>Amen.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">Postlude<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b> </b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">to make music in the heart."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;">--Howard Thurman</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BpKXOwpRBeJLX5bciLy3JcAMCzxR5AAPqWTgBpmbP5SL81dDOVHUiqPwQooyA2ilfu42Y8oPgd6Tp1fLXJoMDITF959zTeVnypVeLeEuFOblj6NFtyxEcQ9clj30P0qg-ns-HRk6YUp6sJ8vbtoIv8T4EHschwNVqOt_Tad_gdmJVxqFmUo4cptL_Eg/s610/epiphany-magento.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="610" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BpKXOwpRBeJLX5bciLy3JcAMCzxR5AAPqWTgBpmbP5SL81dDOVHUiqPwQooyA2ilfu42Y8oPgd6Tp1fLXJoMDITF959zTeVnypVeLeEuFOblj6NFtyxEcQ9clj30P0qg-ns-HRk6YUp6sJ8vbtoIv8T4EHschwNVqOt_Tad_gdmJVxqFmUo4cptL_Eg/w400-h263/epiphany-magento.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #16191f; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-74557886295418714022023-12-31T13:08:00.000-08:002023-12-31T13:08:00.981-08:00Sermon: Unexpected Prophets<p><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">December 31, 2023, Christmas 1B</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=571056269" target="_blank">Luke 2:22-40</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Unexpected Prophets</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As we gather on this seventh day of Christmas, we are presented with a scripture that takes us to the fortieth day in the life of the infant Jesus. That fortieth day was a significant one for a Jewish baby (particularly a first-born male child) and its mother, as it was a day for the two to be presented in the Temple for the child to be dedicated to the Lord. One might look back to the story of the child Samuel, whose mother Hannah had dedicated her child to the Lord, for a model of how this worked. Presuming that they had stayed in Bethlehem since the birth, the trip to Jerusalem and the Temple was a fortunately brief one for Mary and her husband Joseph.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It's worth noticing that the offering they were named to offer says something about Joseph and Mary. For those who could afford such, the offering meant to be used here was a lamb. The "<b>pair of doves or two young pigeons</b>" were designated specifically for those who couldn't afford a lamb. In other words, Joseph and Mary were poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It wasn't unusual for the Temple to be crowded; between such work as what Joseph and Mary had come to do and any number of other small rituals, there was usually a lot going on. This visit, however, turned out to be anything but routine for this new family. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First appeared a man named Simeon. Luke wants to make sure you know he was a "<b>righteous and devout</b>" man, possessed of a vision that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. He was moved by the Spirit to be at the Temple that day, and presumably that same Spirit pointed out this family to him and to the child in particular as that promised Messiah. He takes the child from the parents (a move that would likely bring an attempted kidnapping charge today) and lifted up his praise to God in words that have become one of the occasional songs of the church even today, like Mary's Magnificat that we heard a couple of weeks ago. (You can find a version of Simeon's song in your hymnal at #545.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">When he had finished his praise, he blessed the couple, but (again presumably moved by the Spirit) had something more to say to Mary, a hard word in this case, both about the fate of this child and also how Mary herself would be affected: "<b>a sword will pierce your own soul too</b>." Here was something that had not happened to this point in Mary's experience with this birth; no such warning had been given by Gabriel or by Elizabeth or anywhere along this way she had traveled. It's hard for us to imagine how such a statement must have hit her.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">While Simeon was with the family, another surprise prophet was drawing the whole Temple crowd's attention to them. Unlike Simeon, Anna is definitively named as "<b>a prophet</b>," indicating that this was not new territory in her long life. She had apparently taken to staying in the Temple full-time and not eating, perhaps in her own kind of waiting parallel to Simeon's. By this time the Temple authorities might well have started to consider her a nuisance. While he is speaking to the family, she is proclaiming to all who are passing by, all who "<b>were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem</b>." One might argue that this makes Anna "the first evangelist," the first to bear public witness to the Messiah, to speak that news to not just a select few, but to all who were present in the Temple that day. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It had been forty days since Jesus's birth, and months before that for Mary's encounter with Elizabeth and her own song of what this child was to be, and months before that when Gabriel had first appeared to her. Obviously, a lot had happened in between; the months of pregnancy, the unexpected trip to Bethlehem, the birth itself, and the appearance of those shepherds. Now, after all this, comes this unexpected encounter with prophets while doing their religious duty in the Temple. How much had time dimmed the memory of those initial encounters? And how much was the memory of those encounters stirred up now in this new encounter? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If Mary, with all she had experienced to this point, could be caught off guard by Simeon and Anna, how much more so are we unprepared for any kind of prophetic word? We live in a time and culture in which "Christmas" starts sometime after Labor Day and ends no later than, say, 2:00 p.m. on December 25; how much are we capable of hearing a word about this Messiah, this Son of God no less, who did not disdain humanity but instead became one of us and lived among us? Can we still hear and hold that message of God breaking into the world as one of us on a day when much of the country is preparing to party mindlessly over the end of one year and the start of another? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">How do we remember to listen to unexpected prophets when they receive a word? (One hint: anyone who calls himself or herself a prophet is virtually never a prophet.) How do we stay ready to receive? How do we stay prepared to discern what the Spirit is doing and where it is leading? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Perhaps this is our one quest to take with us from this season of Christmas: how to stay ready for the word from unexpected prophets.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal <i>unless otherwise indicated): #143, Angels from the Realms of Glory; #121, O Little Town of Bethlehem; #124, Still, Still, Still; #132, Good Christian Friends, Rejoice; #---, What child is this (additional verses); #123, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear; #144, In the Bleak Midwinter; #147, The First Nowell (stanzas 1, 2, and 6 only), #136, Go, Tell It on the Mountain<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETLkS9xtbdNAFGxTlqTrpGjQuBX9hJ87pUUMJv9wP_1o6bWQSTbMD2uAEzybAq1nLTr1gmP1XwxURNvE1TyL7AxQS0pC4l_Hrk89DIwroKXXG9vMLVpironeFjHsQC6EiSUEfBVV7gXHAJS-pEkoBPu1glnMSd5mrrQu6jCzqqZve_VGMRDEK2sdMMRE/s300/Presentation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="212" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjETLkS9xtbdNAFGxTlqTrpGjQuBX9hJ87pUUMJv9wP_1o6bWQSTbMD2uAEzybAq1nLTr1gmP1XwxURNvE1TyL7AxQS0pC4l_Hrk89DIwroKXXG9vMLVpironeFjHsQC6EiSUEfBVV7gXHAJS-pEkoBPu1glnMSd5mrrQu6jCzqqZve_VGMRDEK2sdMMRE/w453-h640/Presentation.jpg" width="453" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-12792218044117875922023-12-28T15:56:00.000-08:002023-12-28T15:56:13.507-08:00Confession: I Was Wrong About "A Charlie Brown Christmas"<p>I was about ten months old when <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i> first aired on CBS in December 1965. I can't say for certain that I was propped up in front of the television set for that premiere, but it's entirely possible and maybe even likely.</p><p>I would then watch that special every Christmas season, whether it involved clearing that night on my schedule, or pulling out a VHS or DVD, or in the most recent years finding it on the particular streaming service that now holds the broadcast rights to it. I'm not proud; we subscribe to that service mostly (at least from my point of view) for <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i> and other Peanuts titles they hold. (OK, so I also watch Major League Soccer matches on that service, and sometimes <i>Ted Lasso</i>.)</p><p>This season I've gotten to watch the special three times, and wasted nothing about any of those viewings. I can tell you about how the musical shifts in Vince Guaraldi's score for the show give away so much about what Charlie Brown is going through at different stages of the show. I am always ready for Shermy's one line: "Every year it's the same. I always end up playing a shepherd." I will tell you which of the lines spoken by any of the characters weren't quite understood by those speaking the parts (clearly the one who voices Lucy's "real estate" line doesn't know what real estate is, and that's exactly as it should be). And yes, I get as choked up as anyone when Linus says "Lights, please" to no apparent character, those lights go dark nonetheless, and Linus begins with the narrative from Luke 2 that he had memorized under threat of physical violence from his sister.</p><p>And for all these years, I thought that was the turning point in the show. </p><p>It was certainly the dramatic climax, as unexpected and kind of shocking as it was. Even by 1965, saying or doing something so overtly religious in a network television broadcast was not at all expected or encouraged. You can find a number of sources that will point out how CBS foofs were convinced the show was going to be a disaster, with that very recitation a big part of the reason why. </p><p>Yes, even in 1965 television executives had no idea what they were doing.</p><p>So yes, that recitation, with Linus's voice suddenly echoing all around the auditorium, was the dramatic climax of the show, punctuated by his simple statement afterwards, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."</p><p>Dramatic climax, yes. Turning point? I don't think so, not anymore.</p><p>After all, what happens next? Charlie Brown picks up the barely-there Christmas tree, heads for home (skipping at least part of the way,) gets to Snoopy's first-prize doghouse with some lament and then resolution, and finally plucks an ornament off the doghouse, and then tries to attach it to the tree - and in so doing, by his own description, kills it. With great wailing ("everything I touch gets ruined"), he exits to drown in his sorrows once more.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Y_ah2N_Y28YISsL_MMRCRGTEY5M6MHEIkJrWBsl93hhl-uJkO5pQehH-imsMKuZ_Lk7HnZWGCrhFHClLyRmYVy7RHtaMsEoypQ1cEFcnYqa-zrouIZiYhWGlB5W52ybe1xqMoWDTKCdEBswj2n4jAirg9Wg26WBEv4ZZKrIQ38236SJjgmmH2mALAD8/s654/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.50.21%E2%80%AFPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="644" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Y_ah2N_Y28YISsL_MMRCRGTEY5M6MHEIkJrWBsl93hhl-uJkO5pQehH-imsMKuZ_Lk7HnZWGCrhFHClLyRmYVy7RHtaMsEoypQ1cEFcnYqa-zrouIZiYhWGlB5W52ybe1xqMoWDTKCdEBswj2n4jAirg9Wg26WBEv4ZZKrIQ38236SJjgmmH2mALAD8/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.50.21%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="315" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>The rest of the gang shows up. Linus, seemingly a day late and a dollar short, decides that the tree isn't so bad, he kinda likes it, and all it needs is "a little love." And then he wraps his blanket around the base of the tree, which somehow is able to stand up straight.</p><p>There's your turning point, almost at the very end. Linus wraps his blanket around the base of the tree.</p><p>Linus wraps <i>his blanket</i> around the tree.</p><p>Already twice in the show Linus has had to defend his blanket against Lucy's machinations to get rid of it. In the final case, as Lucy is yet again ready to commit violence to get her way, Linus somehow whips it into part of his shepherd's costume to thwart her plans. "See? You wouldn't hit an innocent shepherd, would you?" Also, at the very beginning of the show, he has had to hold on to his blanket despite Snoopy's running grab-and-dash. </p><p>Thinking across the broader history of <i>Peanuts</i>, how often does Linus willingly give up his blanket? Not very often at all. Those times when he does he seems to be in critical condition, something like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUvFxuXKAzJIbu1aEkJ7l0be_rOK5B8pzpxIbNjzjWp2fRpAqE4wNFjipQUBTL0maCTDiBebRkk5wQYrIdSb_pStrm3S9YzsBTkXv41xv4h7MzAscFRWwsGIzMuQ1wFrdZLZU_YLe1DFT9VxHD61-tiBwVgBnWNh9n9j8mLn56yf__IZ9IcBGOkmqPfk/s928/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.35.25%E2%80%AFPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="928" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUvFxuXKAzJIbu1aEkJ7l0be_rOK5B8pzpxIbNjzjWp2fRpAqE4wNFjipQUBTL0maCTDiBebRkk5wQYrIdSb_pStrm3S9YzsBTkXv41xv4h7MzAscFRWwsGIzMuQ1wFrdZLZU_YLe1DFT9VxHD61-tiBwVgBnWNh9n9j8mLn56yf__IZ9IcBGOkmqPfk/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.35.25%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>And yet, in this moment, Linus wraps that blanket around the tree seemingly without hesitation, and doesn't appear to pass out over the strain. </p><p>Charlie Brown heard Linus's Luke 2 recitation, but it didn't seem to sink in quite right. In his head it was still about <i>using</i> the tree to do something right. How that tree, alone amidst all those aluminum trees (side query: were aluminum Christmas trees ever a real thing?), had survived all that time, seemingly losing more needles than it actually had every time Charlie Brown picked it up; I have no idea. But still, for all that, CB was still trying to do something for himself; make the tree be the "right" tree for the Christmas pageant.</p><p>Whether or not it came of some of that Luke 2 passage sinking in on him, Linus saw what needed to be done <i>for</i> the tree. He wrapped his blanket around it, the rest of the gang stripped Snoopy's doghouse of Christmas paraphernalia, and then came the Miracle of the Fully-Greened Tree. The kids start to hum, CB returns and sees the Miracle of the Fully-Greened Tree for himself, they all sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and the credits roll.</p><p>Charlie Brown tried to use the tree to prove something to the other kids, and it didn't work. Linus gave up his blanket to support the tree (remember, "it just needs a little love") and it lived. </p><p><puts pastor robe on></p><p>In the end, it isn't just <i>hearing</i> the word, or the Word, that changes things. It's what you <i>do</i> with it that matters. </p><p>[Note: as I write this it's only the fourth day of Christmas. You have time to watch the special at least two or three more times, minimum.]</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwny7EwBp6lTSO1YnoaMTdVXofUh2DSL4wWtSTH9QIe14FPghmZk-lkte9m9AQLgOaoAzjPw9dAZAoleRgTDiS376OlHBucQkKpVTOs891Fv1OVfgvjGxtqgOuyXP4MHOYz7NUng6fcfEO1Ik0jo7m2HSgD6wR5_fMU_BccRFjy0SLjUG8izAzZzhdiY/s590/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.48.38%E2%80%AFPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="514" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizwny7EwBp6lTSO1YnoaMTdVXofUh2DSL4wWtSTH9QIe14FPghmZk-lkte9m9AQLgOaoAzjPw9dAZAoleRgTDiS376OlHBucQkKpVTOs891Fv1OVfgvjGxtqgOuyXP4MHOYz7NUng6fcfEO1Ik0jo7m2HSgD6wR5_fMU_BccRFjy0SLjUG8izAzZzhdiY/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-28%20at%205.48.38%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="279" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-46257018812878747962023-12-24T11:50:00.000-08:002023-12-24T11:50:25.509-08:00Sermon: Love.<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">December 24, 2023, Advent 4B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570446917" target="_blank">Isaiah 7:10-16</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570446962" target="_blank">Romans 16:25-27</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570447018" target="_blank">Luke 1:26-38</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Love.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One might conclude, after hearing today's scripture readings, that "love" - the presumed theme of this fourth and final Sunday of Advent - seems kind of absent. Between what seems like a tense scene between a prophet and a king, a big flowery elaborate farewell salutation from an epistle, and what must have seemed a terrifying scene of an angel bringing challenging or even terrifying news to a young girl, there isn't much here that suggests "love" as a major part of the story. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Or is there? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Isaiah's account comes in a time when the nation had not yet been dragged off into exile, but threats loomed all around. Two of its neighbors had made an alliance with each other, amplifying the threat against the kingdom ruled over by Ahaz. The prophet Isaiah challenges Ahaz to receive a sign from God about what is to come, but Ahaz, for whatever reason, refuses. Of course, that's not going to stop God or God's prophet, so the sign is given. Book-study participants will recognize this one right out of the oratorio <i>Messiah</i> that we've studied this month: <b>"<a href="https://youtu.be/JIqDNTnOCks?si=1qtuo_ZqcyviuV0a" target="_blank">Behold, a virgin shall conceive</a>, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel: GOD WITH US." </b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">From there Handel goes off in different directions in his composition, but Isaiah fills in the picture a little more, culminating in the promise that the two kings threatening Ahaz and his people wouldn't even last as long as it takes for the child to learn the difference between good and evil. Even to a stubborn rebellious king like Ahaz, God is acting out of love. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Now it isn't clear to whom Isaiah is referring when he speaks of the woman who will conceive and bear that son. In some studies of this passage, it is suggested that the woman belongs to Ahaz and the child she will bear will be Ahaz's successor, Hezekiah, who would become one of the most favored kings in the history of Israel/Judah, maybe even second most favored (no one was going to beat King David). Of course, as years continued to pass and the desire for a messiah continued to grow, this passage began to be interpreted as a prophecy of just such a figure coming. From there it was only a small step for Matthew to quote from his gospel this very passage for that very purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Compared to God loving a recalcitrant king anyway, maybe it seems easier to find "love" in the reading from Luke's gospel, the immediate predecessor to last week's reading. This love, though, is coming in a way that is going to be awfully challenging for the young woman chosen to be the vessel for that love's coming. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It sure looks like Mary is alone when Gabriel shows up with his big proclamation. One curiosity about how this account is treated is that, in their haste to elevate Mary as something almost not human, some readers of this text overlook the fact that, far from meekly accepting her fate, Mary questions the angel. <b>"How will this be?"</b> she asks. <i>Even if you are an angel, it still doesn't explain how exactly this is going to work.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In Gabriel's previous visit, to the old priest Zechariah, he had been charged to announce the birth of a son to the priest and his wife Elizabeth, who in her long life had never been able to bear a child. Maybe it was understandable that Zechariah had questioned this news, but Gabriel's reaction there was a bit harsher; he essentially hit the mute button on Zechariah and announced he would not be able to speak again until this child was born and given the name John (as in the Baptist). Here, though, Mary's question is met with ... well, an answer. I wonder sometimes what we miss in scripture readings when we can't hear the tone of voice, as to why Zechariah got muted and Mary did not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Gabriel does answer, no mute button this time, and then comes the moment of (forgive the pun) pregnant pause, as so much hinges on the answer Mary gives. Luke is much more eloquent in his account of Mary's answer, but one could easily summarize it with any one of a number of different modern vernacular sayings. "<i>Let's do this ... bring it on ... make it so</i>." She answers the call, and the rest is gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One could argue that the presence of "love" here is fairly obvious. In <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570447096" target="_blank">another gospel</a> it is flat-out stated that the coming of this child is an act of love; remember "...<b>God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son</b>..."? How this might look to Mary, one could wonder. This seems like a lot for a young woman, betrothed but not yet married, to bear. Social stigma was as real back then as it is now, and being pregnant before being married was going to carry as much, if not more, of that social shame for her as it would for someone in that situation today. Knowing this, Mary stepped up anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It seems like the news that Elizabeth was carrying a child might have helped, and again, perhaps it's not an accident that Mary spent six months of her pregnancy with Elizabeth for solace from the stigma. And perhaps in a situation where love wasn't going to be apparent, finding family, finding someone else in a very different but also similar situation probably helped keep Mary from feeling cut off from God's love. At the very least, Mary and Elizabeth could be there for each other. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One more time, an epistle reading helps us pull it all together. This is a bit more florid than Paul's usual final benediction to his readers. This one, though, besides being an extremely effusive salutation, sums up in its own way just what this Advent we've been waiting through is all about. Paul has proclaimed gospel, opened up what had been a mystery for ages, and now sees this gospel no longer confined to the land of Jesus's birth and ministry but spreading to "<b>all the Gentiles</b>," out into the whole world. Again, harkening back to the famous verse from John's gospel, when it says "<b>God so loved the world</b>," it really does mean the <i>whole</i> world, no exceptions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Yes, it's good to see signs of hope, promises of peace, and occasions for joy in the weeks of Advent, but love - God's love for us, which hopefully ends up in love for one another - is, in essence, why we're even here. The God that loved his chosen ones so much even when they rebelled against them, the God who so loved the world, the God whose love was meant for all the world, is the God who loves us. One could even say that's what Advent is all about. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Thanks be to God. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #---, <a href="https://hymnsbycharlesfreeman.blogspot.com/2018/12/advent-hymn-when-isaiah-spoke-word.html" target="_blank">When Isaiah spoke a word</a>; #83, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus; #88, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (verses 1-4); #88, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (verses 5-7)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsKsUJzgBMbRaeGT0lLSR9FqHBzfI7_KH_Gs-J1OUdqe84TRKKe_gDo5_DYB73ZW-ohkssWJzo2gtzw7rFgKlv4gDlkzsVHXLsEromsPr1IR3yokRyCbFzm6JgCdhnvzFY7TrkhCYLKRTJiW1vnvfbtR2qIER3oXDc290W2KEOkUB_MLK8Pyx1p5Pg84/s200/advent%20week%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsKsUJzgBMbRaeGT0lLSR9FqHBzfI7_KH_Gs-J1OUdqe84TRKKe_gDo5_DYB73ZW-ohkssWJzo2gtzw7rFgKlv4gDlkzsVHXLsEromsPr1IR3yokRyCbFzm6JgCdhnvzFY7TrkhCYLKRTJiW1vnvfbtR2qIER3oXDc290W2KEOkUB_MLK8Pyx1p5Pg84/w400-h400/advent%20week%204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-73817800210287659852023-12-17T15:42:00.000-08:002023-12-17T15:42:27.987-08:00Sermon: Joy!<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">December 17, 2023, Advent 3B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569855376" target="_blank">Isaiah 64:1-4, 8-11</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569855308" target="_blank">1 Thessalonians 5:16-24</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569855261" target="_blank">Luke 1:39-56</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Joy!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">While modern folk are accustomed to being deluged with song during the Christmas season – the sacred songs and carols we know very well, but also songs about everything from roasting chestnuts to snowmen to reindeer with incandescent noses - in many congregations (as I am reminded by many of my colleagues in ministry), there is exactly one “song of the season” for Advent that is at all familiar: “<a href="https://hymnary.org/text/o_come_o_come_emmanuel_and_ransom" target="_blank">O Come, O Come, Emmanuel</a>.” Even those congregations that consider it a familiar song of Advent haven’t always been terribly familiar with the whole hymn. It came as a shock for many, in starting with the new <i>Glory to God</i> hymnal, to find this hymn stretched out to seven stanzas, in contrast to the three that had been included in the previous collection simply called <i>The Presbyterian Hymnal</i>. (We'll be singing this next week.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Perhaps the more curious among Presbyterian congregations noticed the short informational note at the bottom of the page, informing us that this hymn has its roots in a quite ancient practice of the church, dating back at least to the era of the great European emperor Charlemagne and probably farther back than that. Rooted in a practice of daily worship, these stanzas (or “antiphons”) were assigned to the seven-day period before the Vigil of Christmas (or Christmas Eve to us) as evocations of Old Testament passages evoking the longing of the people for a Messiah. These verses draw on not just the book of Isaiah (a popular source of Advent readings) but four other different sources from Hebrew scripture, each one read as looking forward to a promised Messiah and evoking some aspect or characteristic of that Promised One. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That lofty origin sets these ancient stanzas, and the more modern hymn we sing that was adapted from them in the 19<sup>th</sup> century, in a rather different social status than one of the other texts that is frequently sung during the season of Advent, which Lisa just sang. While the one evokes the words of kings and prophets and priests, the Magnificat is drawn from the words sung in Luke by an unwed woman, pregnant under what her community and maybe even her husband considered to be suspicious circumstances (go read Matthew's version of the story for that). Maybe you remember how in our own past such a young woman might have been sent away to stay with distant relatives to deflect the scandal of such pregnancy? I wonder sometimes if that’s what was being done to Mary here, sending her off to escape the prying eyes and wagging tongues of Nazareth. In this case the distant relatives were Zacharias and Elizabeth, themselves looking forward to a new arrival after decades of barrenness. Maybe that’s what was happening here; <i>let’s keep those embarrassing pregnant women off in the hills away from prying eyes and gossip.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It’s all the more remarkable a scene, though, as these two women, off in the hills, prophesy to one another. Elizabeth names the One in Mary’s womb as no less than, in her words, “<b>my Lord</b>,” and in response Mary sings out the brief but powerful words we know as the Magnificat, from the first word of its Latin translation <i>Magnificat anima mea</i>, which translates roughly “my soul magnifies.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This prophetic utterance operates differently than the "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" verses. Where those stanzas sing about attributes of God – “O wisdom,” “O Immanuel” (or God-with-us), and so forth, Mary’s song is all about deeds; what God is doing, or more what God <i>has done</i>. God has looked with favor on lowly Mary; God has done great things for her; God has shown mercy from generation to generation. Then Mary’s song stops preaching and goes to meddling; God hasn’t just shown strength, but God has “<b>scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts</b>”; God has toppled the powerful (an emperor like Charlemagne, perhaps?) and elevated the lowly; God has fed the hungry ones and sent away the rich with nothing. And all of it is sung with great joy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It sounds a lot like parts of today's reading from Isaiah, and it (like the Isaiah reading) is a challenging text if you pay too much attention to it. And for years certain corners of the church did their best <i>not </i>to pay attention to it. Instead of singing the Magnificat, brash and even a little subversive as it is, hymnals were filled with such carols as “<a href="https://hymnary.org/text/the_angel_gabriel_from_heaven_came" target="_blank">The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came</a>,” where the focus is on Gabriel’s announcement from earlier in Luke 1, with Mary’s role limited to verse three, a not-very-Magnificat-sounding little stanza that tells us:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 1in 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 1in 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">“To me be as it pleases God,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 1in 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">“My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 1in 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Most highly favored lady, Gloria!</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 1in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">You notice just the hint of the Magnificat, but not enough to be dangerous. And not nearly so joyful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I have no interest in forcing a choice between the only two Advent songs most people know. What must be said, though, is this: if we tune out the powerfully disruptive song of Mary, we are pretty likely to fall prey to the solemnized, imperially sanctioned tones that would point us to attributes of a high and distant God to keep us from looking for a God who breaks into humanity and upsets the order of things. Both belong; both are needed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">But at the same time, when we find it hard to see God doing anything in the world, Mary's words can ring hollow. Again, the epistle reading helps put things into perspective. For today, the key words are the very first two in verse 16: “<b>Rejoice always.</b>” I mean, the rest of the passage is good too, but here this simple reminder from Paul to his beloved Thessalonians, reminds us that our joy is not contingent. When our rejoicing is in God, rather than in some particular thing we think about God or some particular thing God has done or we expect God to do, that joy is sustained even in times when joy might not seem the most obvious reaction. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Nadia Bolz-Weber is a popular author and minister who works in women's prison ministry in Colorado. In a regular essay series she writes, the most recent essay addresses this thing exactly and reminds us of things we might easily forget: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 5pt 0.5in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the rest of us, a gentle reminder that Christ will be born on Christmas with or without us "feeling" Christmas-y. Because this pattern of time, this story, these rituals and practices and songs have gone on long before us and will continue long after us. Sometimes we are floating in that river of faith, just swimming in it and feeling the transcendent warmth of the season. And other times we seem to be standing in just a half inch of the stuff; not even enough to cover our feet. But the power of the river, its source and its destination changes not at all. And both things: submerged in and barely having our feet in <strong>are the same</strong>. There’s no ranking system at work here. One is not "better" than the other. One does not "count more". That's just not how this thing works. Thank God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Joy in God is not contingent, and Christmas happens whether we feel like it or not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Advent is not a passive season. It looks both backward and forward; it sees the degradation and sorrow of the world and still insists on hope; and it most definitely does not submissively endorse the way things are. When we have learned that, when we have understood what it means to wait in hope and expectation and to rejoice always anyway, we may finally have grasped the whole point of Advent. And when we’ve grasped that, we might be ready for Christmas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the God on High who comes and acts among us, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #104, O Lord, How Shall I Meet You; #92, While We Are Waiting, Come; #93, Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 17pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VskIHRqA0stICnwqo0kP7Y98eZVKhd21PVCQv9yVT1KhhLnQzao615iAoF6NHN56tJDlc2GU1a7ORix_5MdBlN5A42QwEt1fckEkosgyFqcDuqVcJjYXzL918z0d2swJWQUF5RsItEPNx2wi5DoYWxLfFwu3tJrXvaSLE9aHe5Km82e79y_KvzMXIio/s294/3rd%20week%20of%20Advent.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="294" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0VskIHRqA0stICnwqo0kP7Y98eZVKhd21PVCQv9yVT1KhhLnQzao615iAoF6NHN56tJDlc2GU1a7ORix_5MdBlN5A42QwEt1fckEkosgyFqcDuqVcJjYXzL918z0d2swJWQUF5RsItEPNx2wi5DoYWxLfFwu3tJrXvaSLE9aHe5Km82e79y_KvzMXIio/w400-h233/3rd%20week%20of%20Advent.png" width="400" /></a></div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 17pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-79997500768539298722023-12-10T13:35:00.000-08:002023-12-10T13:35:27.876-08:00Sermon: Peace...<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">December 10, 2023, Advent 2B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569243633" target="_blank">Isaiah 40:1-11</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569243530" target="_blank">2 Peter 3:8-15a</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569243587" target="_blank">Mark 1:1-8</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Peace...</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The years from 27 BC to about 170 are often loosely labeled in history as the <i>Pax Romana</i> or "Roman peace." That term was most likely invented in the year 55, as a kind of Roman propaganda to encapsulate the order and "peace" found in the realm of the Roman Empire. That empire was fully in charge over a large swath of Europe and the Mediterranean and guaranteed a period of peace and prosperity ... for the right people. If you were well-off, or well-connected, with the right status and the right income and the right place to live and especially the right family, sure, the <i>Pax Romana</i> was a great thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If, however, you were someone like these shepherds and other field laborers in this stable over here, that <i>Pax Romana </i>probably didn't feel particularly special. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It should also be noted that the definition of "peace" involved in calling this era a <i>Pax Romana</i> allowed for a decent amount of violence, as long as Rome prevailed. Depending on whether you hold that the gospel of Mark was written just <i>before</i> or just <i>after </i>the year 70 (and you can get good scholarly arguments both ways), Mark's readers and hearers (mostly in and around Jerusalem and the Roman province called Palestine) were either experiencing the buildup to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem that year or living in its aftermath. Either way, such a "peace" doubtless rang hollow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The prophetic oracles of the book of Isaiah were written well before any <i>Pax Romana</i> or even any Roman Empire existed. Nonetheless, the conquest of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the carrying off of so many of the Hebrew people into exile, left bitterness and sorrow on the hearts of both those who were exiled and those who remained. <i>Pax Babilonia</i> was no more a real "peace" than <i>Pax Romana</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Despite the name attached to it, the letter called 2 Peter was written well after the apostle's death, probably by a student or disciple or follower, maybe one that might be thought of as a "school of Peter," who endeavored to preserve the apostle's teachings and ideas. It's not impossible that 2 Peter was written as late as the middle of the second century, or towards the end of that aforementioned <i>Pax Romana. </i>By this time, the church has experienced full-fledged persecution, is no longer joined in any to the Jewish tradition from which it was born, and is struggling to stay afloat in a world where the Empire itself was starting to see signs of struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In short, "peace" is not really an accurate description of the life of any of these settings. Whether open conflict or increasing persecution or outright conquest, none of these audiences for our biblical writers are experiencing anything like "peace," no matter what Roman or Babylonian propaganda might want to suggest. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And yet...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In Mark's gospel, reminding us that we are not the first to await the coming of the Messiah, we get just the briefest introduction to John the Baptist (or John the baptizer), appearing on the scene instantly and presented as the one fulfilling Isaiah's prophetic claim of a voice "<b>crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight'."</b> It's not as if John was preaching a prosperity gospel or anything so appealing and enticing; his entire message could be summarized "<i>repent</i>" and baptizing those who did so. Nothing fancy, no great deep theological insight, just "<i>repent</i>." For all that, though, there's this thing about repentance; it's a great and even necessary step towards peace within. Unrepented sin doesn't make for a soul at peace. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As for Isaiah, how often do you hear or see the prophets of Hebrew scripture being instructed to "<b>comfort, O comfort my people</b>"? The prophetic literature is so often stereotyped as judgment and demands for repentance and foretelling of grim consequences for those who don't. But here the prophet is instructed, not do rail against the children of God when they're down, but to speak even tenderly, to offer reassurance that their suffering is not forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This time it's the prophet who pushes back against the words of comfort; people are grass, no constancy, no faithfulness, they wither and fail in even a breath...but in the end, for all of that, the prophet has to acknowledge that the word of God stands forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As an aside, it's little wonder that most of this reading, all but the "flesh is grass" part, got borrowed and written into much of the opening material for the oratorio <i>Messiah</i> composed by George Frideric Handel; it should be noted, though, that the one part not taken up by Handel was lifted by Johannes Brahms, some one hundred-plus years later, and made the central text of the <a href="https://youtu.be/J1n-obFbKEs?si=_aV_6VG2BSz0H3pH" target="_blank">second movement of that composer's most remarkable work</a>, which he called <i>Ein deutsches Requiem</i> (A German Requiem). You are, in some ways, looking at one of the most musical chapters of scripture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">As for 2 Peter, for some reason this author chooses to offer some apocalyptic images not far off from last week's gospel reading. Still, though, it is these authors and their readers and hearers who in all of scripture come closest to our situation; awaiting the promised return of Christ. Admittedly, we've been waiting a lot longer by now than they had. But there are two non-apocalyptic elements of this passage worth considering:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">1) That first verse, with its "thousand years like a day" image that gets borrowed and misquoted a lot, puts an interesting spin on the absence of Christ's return that was troubling many churches in this time. The delay is, far from forsaking or forgetting, an act of mercy; God is being patient, wants no one to perish, and all to come to repentance (shades of John the baptizer). Delaying is, in this reading, God's compassion and mercy in action. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">2) the author follows up at the last of this passage with that acknowledgment that the patience of the Lord is our salvation, and also suggests how we ought to respond in this time of God's patience; be found striving for peace. It's not enough to wish for peace, it's on us to work for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It can feel like a mockery to speak of peace at a time when war seems to be running rampant in the world, and even our own doorstep doesn't look so immune to such conflict. Yet our call remains; repent, speak words of comfort, and strive for peace. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Thanks be to God. Amen.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #---, A voice cries out in the wilderness; #106, Prepare the Way, O Zion; #96, On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry; #87, Comfort, Comfort Now My People<b><o:p></o:p></b></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZD6qe7sta6vN2a5U8ruXftU8p5rKym3SSh3T5fzJ7FueuJESHQsLdueshyphenhyphenChauCZBe30yvSlnwYWPkj5jZdaNja5g8XqCVTZK0ET0lOGnLruEy5-f6XDENDCKpPsv__9_eUxzVCN5OgPN3DZljAcxpETOHZiV85qx8NkHyZRv4MQz1dL9F3y9IdJefE/s220/Advent%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZD6qe7sta6vN2a5U8ruXftU8p5rKym3SSh3T5fzJ7FueuJESHQsLdueshyphenhyphenChauCZBe30yvSlnwYWPkj5jZdaNja5g8XqCVTZK0ET0lOGnLruEy5-f6XDENDCKpPsv__9_eUxzVCN5OgPN3DZljAcxpETOHZiV85qx8NkHyZRv4MQz1dL9F3y9IdJefE/w364-h400/Advent%202.png" width="364" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-35060034352903283022023-12-03T16:01:00.000-08:002023-12-03T16:01:42.009-08:00Sermon: Hope?<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">December 3, 2023, Advent 1B<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568647776" target="_blank">Isaiah 64:1-9</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568647823" target="_blank">1 Corinthians 1:3-9</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568647859" target="_blank">Mark 13:24-37</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hope?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The are two things that tend to be true of the liturgical season of Advent, which we mark beginning today; it tends to start off with a bang, as we will see momentarily, and it is usually organized around some theme or pattern, mostly to make sense of the whole thing. One such pattern assigns to the Sundays of Advent a series of commands or imperatives reflective of the scriptures assigned to each day; "watch," "prepare," "rejoice," and "behold." The other evokes more general themes for each Sunday: "hope," "peace," "joy," and "love." As you might guess from the scripture readings we've heard, it is easy to speak of the need to "watch" where this first Sunday is concerned. We might have to look harder to find themes of "hope," however. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Also, this liturgical season is "two-sided," both remembering the coming of Jesus the first time and looking ahead to the return of Christ, but the structure of the season tends to move backwards. That “looking ahead” part of the season tends to be confined to the first Sunday, while later Sundays move backward from there – presenting the proclamation of John the Baptizer in advance of Jesus’s public ministry, and finally working back to the events before the birth of Jesus such as Gabriel’s announcement to Mary or other events, depending on the gospel of the year. (With this new liturgical year B focused on the gospel of Mark, there is no pre-birth narrative to work from, so bits get borrowed from the gospels of John and Luke; Mark does appear today, as you've noticed.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The texts for this first Sunday of Advent B do bring the fireworks. The gospel selection for today brings us Mark’s “mini-apocalypse,” a spectacle to taunt even the flashiest of Hollywood special-effects types. Those first verses are the stuff of more hellfire-and-brimstone “rapture” sermons than you can shake a stick at, with the sun and moon going dark, stars falling from the sky, and “<b>the Son of Man coming in clouds</b>” with angels scattering in all directions to gather in the faithful. The verses that follow turn to encouraging disciples to “<b>be alert</b>” and “<b>keep awake</b>” with all sorts of sign-watching and being prepared thrown in. It’s a nerve-jangler of a passage, to be sure, but there is at least that one note of hope - the Son of Man descending with the angels gathering up all the faithful - as frightful as the imagery itself might be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The reading from Isaiah cuts a surprisingly similar profile, although from a different perspective; rather than foretelling the coming of the Lord, the prophetic oracle is practically begging for it. “<b>O that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you</b>” – that would also be a Hollywood-worthy spectacle, but here the tone is of longing rather than of warning. Speaking from the midst of a people who have fallen away from faithfulness and have lost touch with God altogether, the prophet pleads for God to return – with as much drama as necessary, one might say. Again, though, the passage is not completely without something to hope for, or to hope in, at least in verses 8 and 9, even if that final phrase - "<b>for we are all your people</b>" - might sound more pleading than confident.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It’s no surprise that these two passages get most of the attention on this day, to be sure. However, it might just be that in this time of Advent, particularly in the times in which we live, the most important or needful or even hopeful statement out of today’s readings might just be in the one passage that quite possibly no preacher preaches (besides me, I guess) to inaugurate this liturgical season: the epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is at least the second letter Paul has written to this church, although it is the first such letter we have in scriptural canon. It seems that some things have gone off the rails since Paul last wrote, and the Corinthians have gotten to be a bunch of folks rather pleased with themselves, for all the wrong reasons. The backhanded complimentary tone of this “thanksgiving” points to the trouble spots that will be made explicit later in the letter; it turns out the Corinthians are rather proud of the “<b>knowledge</b>” mentioned in verse 5 and the “<b>spiritual gifts</b>” noted in verse 7, as if, somehow, they were themselves responsible for them or had somehow earned them. Paul gently rebukes that idea here even before addressing it directly, reminding the Corinthians that both of those were gifts of God, as verse 5 makes clear; "<b><i>in him</i> you have been enriched in every way.</b>" To put it in a modern idiom, Paul reminds the folks in this church that, apart from the gifts and the grace and the strengthening that comes from God, you <i>aren’t</i> ‘all that.’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">But the key phrase, really, is the seemingly offhand line that comes after that spiritual gift bit: “<b>…as you <i>wait </i>for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.</b>” (emphasis mine) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The word to the Corinthians, as it is to any church that thinks it is ‘all that,’ is: you do not hasten the “<b>day of our Lord Jesus Christ</b>” by your knowledge or your spiritual gifts or your money or your votes or by any thing you do. As Jesus says in that mini-apocalypse passage in Mark, nobody knows when that day will be, not even the Son, only the Father. And you can’t do anything to change that or hurry it up. What you do is wait.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Waiting is not passive. Waiting is doing the work the church has always been called to do. Waiting is ministering to one another and to the world around us as Jesus showed us how to do. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That’s why we keep going with things like serving the CUFF meal this Thursday and providing free flu shots as that season approaches. That’s why you are still making your pledge commitments to the work and ministry of this congregation (you <u>have</u> done this, right?) Because waiting, in this case, means doing the work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If we’ve learned anything in this time of a pandemic that should be over, but isn't, it is that we live in a society that is abhorrently bad at waiting. Had we had leadership and citizens who were willing to do the hard work of waiting back when this virus first appeared, we wouldn’t have become the world’s official coronavirus petri dish. (For evidence of this claim I offer basically every other country in the world.) In this and many other ways we have proven ourselves incapable of or unwilling to wait, to the point of hostility and threat of violence in some cases. We have utterly failed at waiting and it has cost us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Guess what? When it comes to the “day of the Lord,” that is our main job: to wait. We do the stuff Jesus called us to do, and we keep doing it, and we keep doing it. We don’t get to ‘force the issue’ or hasten the timetable in any way. We don’t get to negotiate an accelerated schedule. We don’t earn our way to a quicker second Advent. We don’t manipulate Jesus into an early return. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">We do our job, and we wait. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">And yet we don't do so without that hope. Even in this passage we are reminded of that, and we are also reminded of the source of that hope. Even while Paul is previewing those things for which the Corinthians are going to be held to account, he's also reminding them that it is no less than the Christ whom we await is the one who will "<b>keep you firm to the end</b>," as verse 8 puts it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Paul goes on to add in verse 9 the simple yet profound reminder that "<b>God is faithful</b>." Perhaps we ought to be more deliberate about contemplating this simple statement. No matter how we might get a little stuck on ourselves like the Corinthians, no matter how much we might want to see our enemies get it in the end like Isaiah and his readers, no matter how dark or terrible or apocalyptic our times might seem as for Mark or his readers, "<b>God is faithful</b>." No matter how bleak things look as we wait, we are assured of the faithfulness of the God we worship and serve, and therefore we can wait in hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One might be reminded of a passage of<a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568647974" target="_blank"> reassurance from another of Paul's letters</a>, the one to the church at Rome, in which he reminds those readers that "<b>in all things God works for the good of those who love him</b>." (Romans 8:28) In all of our circumstances, great or awful, God is working for our good. Perhaps that helps us remember that in our waiting for Mark's promised coming of that Son of Man in the clouds with angels descending to gather up the faithful, we wait in hope. Hope, and not fear. Hope, and not despair. Hope, and not hopelessness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the time of hopeful waiting, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i>Hymns (from </i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #---, When the world tells us; #352, My Lord, What A Morning; #105, People, Look East; #348, Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwi_KzMS-8W3oNCmLe4UBd8E3CsvclxURt-XgAozj4Y5geUO9agJzZARVo1T0eqMi_olr32vjKEs-d5F6P8Sefy4fAhfNUlTMrXjtP7WNefHwuS5Z4Y6-C5hFyGa0yLOHdoTO0Eqbbvbt9v8ZoGmvd2nXk8G6vVluovnXgmoMhaVtaDqeCiVLRckLlImg/s558/advent%201st%20candle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="496" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwi_KzMS-8W3oNCmLe4UBd8E3CsvclxURt-XgAozj4Y5geUO9agJzZARVo1T0eqMi_olr32vjKEs-d5F6P8Sefy4fAhfNUlTMrXjtP7WNefHwuS5Z4Y6-C5hFyGa0yLOHdoTO0Eqbbvbt9v8ZoGmvd2nXk8G6vVluovnXgmoMhaVtaDqeCiVLRckLlImg/w355-h400/advent%201st%20candle.png" width="355" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-24352933328933626582023-11-26T12:32:00.000-08:002023-11-26T12:32:03.878-08:00Sermon: Sheep<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Grace Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">November 26, 2017, Christ the King/Reign of Christ A<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568030271" target="_blank">Ezekiel 34:11-24</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568030319" target="_blank">Matthew 25:31-46</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>Sheep<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">It may be some surprise, on a day designated as marking the Reign of Christ, to start off with a passage comparing a king to a shepherd. It turns out, though, that such a comparison was actually fairly common in the period in which the book of Ezekiel was written. When the first part of the chapter, before the portion included in our reading, takes aim at the kings of Israel, those who are judged as “bad kings” for their failure to lead as God intended, it in fact falls into line with a metaphor of king as shepherd that was actually pretty common in ancient Middle Eastern thought. Egyptian writings often stressed the role of kings or even deities as shepherds of the people. The Babylonian god Marduk was interestingly described as the “shepherd of all the gods.”<a href="applewebdata://15219054-4D56-46DB-BFCE-808A06E56432#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a> In more mundane terms, the famous Law Code of Hammurabi stresses the role of the king (namely, himself) as being <i>“to promote the welfare of the people, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil that the strong might not oppress the weak” </i><span style="line-height: 32px;">– exactly the kind of language describing a shepherd’s responsibility towards the sheep under his care. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">Given this context, Ezekiel’s discourse here comes as a relief and fits into a familiar political as well as theological framework. The kings of Israel are indicted for their failure to be true shepherds to the people, as in verse 3 and following: <b>“You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the week, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have scattered them.”</b> In turn God promises through Ezekiel to take such leaders away; beginning with our passage in verse 10, the “right” shepherd is revealed to be none other than God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">God promises to re-gather the sheep who have been scattered or driven away by the bad shepherds, to seek them out and to restore the flock. God promises to feed them and to restore their health. There are times the language here sounds an awful lot like the ever-familiar Psalm 23, with its promises of good pasture and good water.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">Still, though, God has a bit more for Ezekiel to say about not just bad shepherds, but bad sheep. The gentle pastoral nature of the passage is badly disrupted at verse 16, in which God promises that <b>“I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” </b>What seems like a jarring interruption (seemingly too much for the lectionary makers) turns out to be a major interjection, in verse 17 and following:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b>As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but must you tread down with your feet the rest of the pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b>Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. </b>(17-22)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">It isn’t just bad leaders God condemns through Ezekiel; the grabbers, the greedy, the hoarders among the sheep themselves also come under condemnation. Those who greedily consume the good grass and water, and even go so far as to foul the grass and water they aren’t consuming, are judged by God. There are probably three different sermons to be preached just on this passage alone. For today, let it be enough to note that the flock, the community of God’s people, are disrupted both by bad shepherds who scatter the flock and exploit their rule to enrich themselves, but also by members of the flock itself who gorge themselves and crowd out fellow sheep from access to good grass and water. The good gifts of God given for all the people of God, not just a select, privileged few. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">The thing is, I’m guessing the “fat sheep” talked a pretty good game about righteousness and “living right” and being children of Abraham and all that. We’re not talking about obvious wolves here; they are sheep, part of the flock. But their behavior towards the other sheep sets them apart as not being the “good guys” after all. How often it is that the ones who do the most harm are not those who threaten from outside, but those who destroy and hurt from within!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">Ezekiel promises that God will intervene for the sheep, both casting aside the bad shepherds and promising, where the fat sheep are concerned, to <b>“feed them with justice”</b> (v. 16). It’s hard to resist the urge to read that phrase as suggest that God is going to shove justice down the throats of the fat, greedy sheep, but in any case their grasping, wasteful ways are under the judgment of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">Whether one sees this passage as prophetic of Jesus as the good shepherd king or not, one thing that it does make clear is that we humans are in need of this divine intercession. As much as we might see ourselves us as among the innocent sheep scattered or starved by the bad shepherds or fat sheep, it’s never too far a trip from lean sheep to fat sheep. Humans, particularly humans placed in power or even merely more advantaged than another, fail. Don’t doubt that each one of us has at one time been the sheep treading down the grass or fouling the water with our feet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 32px;">The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr probably expressed this best in his <i>Moral Man and Immoral Society</i>: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>…the limitations of the human imagination, the easy subservience of reason to prejudice and passion, and the consequent persistence of irrational egoism, particularly in group behavior, make social conflict an inevitability in human history, probably to its very end</i>. (xx)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We are, particularly in large numbers, prone to wrongdoing and exploitation. We need deliverance. And the Shepherd King is promised to deliver us from the exploitation of bad shepherds and fat sheep, and even – maybe most of all – from ourselves.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">It’s not hard to make the leap from this Old Testament prophecy to today’s Gospel lesson, the familiar “parable of the sheep and goats,” particularly as the parable as Jesus tells it uses the same kind of metaphor as Ezekiel attributes to God, sorting <b>“sheep from sheep … rams from goats.” </b>Jesus’s point in the parable is also pretty similar; those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, cared for the sick, and visit the imprisoned are the blessed ones, while those who did not do those things are not, because whether you did or did not do those for “the least of these,” you did or did not do them for Jesus himself. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Jesus’s teaching directs us to care for “the least of these,” and in so doing puts an affirmative spin on what comes off as punitive in Ezekiel’s prophecy. What is striking in the parable is that this sorting is not applied only to the people of Israel, as in Ezekiel’s case or in much of Matthew’s gospel, but to “<b>all the nations</b>” – a term Matthew’s readers would instantly have recognized as including the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people of the world. The Reign of God, in other words, is not restricted to the "people of God." Nonetheless, much of Ezekiel’s warning is echoed in Jesus’s parable. Jesus may call “goats” those whom Ezekiel labels “fat sheep,” but the warning is still clear; you won’t like being sorted that way, and having justice shoved down your throat.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But let’s not forget the part that probably bothers a lot of us most; the degree to which even the sheep in Jesus’s parable don’t seem to realize who they are or whom they are serving. We tend to want our Christ the King scriptures to be all about the obvious “good guys” getting in and the obvious “bad guys” being cast out into that eternal fire. But how does that work when even the good guys don’t realize that they’re the good guys? What do we make of that?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For generations this day was known only as Christ the King Sunday; the term “Reign of Christ” is a recent one, but it has at least one definite advantage. To speak of the Reign of Christ places the obligation of responding to that reign directly on us. Are we doing the work of Christ’s reign? Are we giving food and drink, welcoming, clothing, caring, visiting? Are we doing the work instead of merely talking about it? Or have we devolved into Ezekiel’s fat sheep, crowding in and butting out and fouling the water and trampling the grass so that the other sheep can’t feed and drink, all the while hiding behind “thoughts and prayers” or some other slogan to cover for the work we won’t do? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Where are you going to be when the Big Sorting happens?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For the Reign of Christ, and that it compels us not just to talk, but to do, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Hymns (from <i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</i>): #320, The Church of Christ in Every Age; #767, Together We Serve; #---, The reign of Christ compels us<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn1"><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="applewebdata://15219054-4D56-46DB-BFCE-808A06E56432#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a> Among may other epithets: http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/lords/marduk1.html<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRUBjDqJ0_iivH2bWu5JEIz2qVIQvxR3MTCtniwXhR-3yCdaoiMqC1dXzI98e3I6BHa18dhVY7BVBiaZTp7BgRirxiQfagYTKYIDAB7wjST4NyUEC8omAlLvImvIspxdvOv1m0_oz9bP7azTMzxBwUvP5iUMTC7y1kmSG504jft1CE63hDnhDikZJbVs/s276/shepherd%20and%20sheep.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRUBjDqJ0_iivH2bWu5JEIz2qVIQvxR3MTCtniwXhR-3yCdaoiMqC1dXzI98e3I6BHa18dhVY7BVBiaZTp7BgRirxiQfagYTKYIDAB7wjST4NyUEC8omAlLvImvIspxdvOv1m0_oz9bP7azTMzxBwUvP5iUMTC7y1kmSG504jft1CE63hDnhDikZJbVs/w400-h265/shepherd%20and%20sheep.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></p></div></div>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-40820493244721843512023-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:002023-11-19T13:38:57.962-08:00Sermon: Talents <p><a name="OLE_LINK1" style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">First Presbyterian Church</a></p><p><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;">November 19, 2023, Pentecost 25A</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=567429434" target="_blank">Matthew 25:14-30</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>Talents<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Once again, here in Matthew 25, Jesus is giving a parable. It's the next-to-last parable he'll tell in this gospel; there's one more to go, the most famous one, in this chapter, and beginning with chapter 26 we are counting down Jesus's final days. In short, this is the end, or very near it, and Jesus knows this, and this should perhaps be something we keep in mind in hearing these parables. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">First of all, though, we have to define our terms, or at least one term.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The term that is given as “talent” in the NRSV is in Greek <i>talanta</i>, a term that doesn’t translate for us because it is a term for a specific amount of currency. (The NIV's "bags of gold" is imprecise, as we shall see.) Most scholars agree that one <i>talanta</i> or “talent” would be a sum of money equivalent to the accumulated wages that an average day laborer of the time could expect to earn over the course of fifteen to twenty <i>years</i>. Given the life expectancy rates of the time, you’re easily looking at a lifetime’s wages being entrusted to even the slave given only the one <i>talanta</i>. So, understand first that these three slaves in the story are being entrusted with very large sums of money. What they are asked to steward is extremely valuable.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Now also notice that this parable does not open in the same way as the first parable found in this chapter, the subject of last week’s sermon. In that case the parable is introduced with Jesus saying “<b>For the kingdom of heaven is like this.</b>” Straightforward. Seems simple. This parable, on the other hand, picks up from verse 13 – “<b>Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour</b>” – with a rather more ambiguous opening: “<b>For it is as if a man, going on a journey </b>…” with no reference to exactly what “it” is in this case. Given the parable, and in particular its testy and accusatory final section, maybe this isn’t the “kingdom of heaven” we’re looking at here. It could, though, be – like last week’s parable – about living in the time between, the waiting for the kingdom to be revealed in its fullness, perhaps. It’s not hard to argue that the two do have the same point – our waiting is not passive; we continue to work; we continue to serve; we continue to act. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But you can start a really fierce argument in biblical scholarship circles by asking whether the wealthy traveler in this parable is actually meant to evoke God, or even Jesus. His interactions with the “one-talent slave” don’t look very Jesus-like to us, if we’re honest with ourselves. At least we hope we don’t encounter Jesus blasting us as a “<b>wicked, lazy slave</b>” and calling for us to be cast into the “<b>outer darkenss, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth</b>.” But I wonder if perhaps there might be a point to this angle after all; if one is obligated to put in the work for a particularly unpleasant earthly "boss" of this sort, how much more so are we obligated put in the work for our God?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Perhaps the strongest “unlearning” we need to do with this parable is to ask ourselves these talents in the parable – these <i>talantae</i> – are really supposed to mean.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">An allegory – defined by Merriam-Webster as “the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures or actions of truths or generalizations about human existence” – can become less meaningful if we reduce it to something like a metaphor or simile – “this is that,” or “this is like that”. Once allegory is opened up, on the other hand, the potential meanings of the different symbols in the story can multiply and lead in directions we may not expect. So, what do those talents – the five, the two, the one – potentially stand for?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Over the centuries, sadly, Christian thought has tended to reduce the multiple possibilities of this allegory to only two: money – a reflection of the original meaning of the word – and talents – our English appropriation of the word to describe the natural intelligences, aptitudes, skills, or capabilities of an individual.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">On the surface there is nothing wrong with either of these representations. This passage is often enough appropriated for “stewardship sermons,” and that’s not necessarily a wrong reading of the text. It’s not as natural as it might seem, though. Note where Matthew has paced this parable in his account of Jesus’s ministry. For one, it’s right after that <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=567429527" target="_blank">parable of the bridesmaids</a> from last week, and before the famous <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=567429590" target="_blank">parable of the sheep and goats</a> (next week). Financial stewardship is certainly appropriate to think about as a part of how we live (and we certainly do talk about it that way plenty in September and October), but this series of parables seems an odd context for Jesus to start talking about money. Furthermore, as noted earlier, the next thing to happen after these parables in Matthew’s account is Jesus’s final days in Jerusalem. The anointing of his feet at Bethany, the preparations for and sharing of that last meal together, the trial and crucifixion and what comes after – in other words, what happens next is Holy Week. Again, between these two, seems an odd time for a stewardship sermon.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">As to talents, aside from how the original word has nothing to do with our modern usage, it seems unlikely to be an exhaustive thing for Jesus to talk about with what he knows is coming. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Again, neither possibility is necessarily wrong, but they don’t seem terribly exhaustive. Certainly these are not the only gifts God gives us “<i>for the living of these days</i>,” to borrow the words of an old hymn? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Maybe our reading of this parable is too limited. What if we think of <i>all</i> of the gifts and blessings with which God has gifted us? What are the other parts of our lives we are called to steward and invest and oversee and bring back a 100% return on God’s investment in us? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">What about our time? How do we “invest” our time to bring about that return? Are we studying the scriptures? Are we in prayer, meditating on God’s call to us? Are we serving God by serving God’s children? Or are our hours getting choked away in pursuits that are, even if good and even helping the church, pursuits that are not bringing about God’s call in each of us and in all of us together?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">What about our minds? How do we “invest” our minds to bring about that return? Are we again studying in God’s world? Are we paying attention to the world around us in order to hear how God calls us to work and serve our neighbors, or to work and serve <i>with</i> our neighbors? Are we opening ourselves to the truth that sets us free? Are we being “<b>transformed by the</b> <b>renewing of our minds</b>,” as the Apostle Paul wrote (<a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=567429665" target="_blank">Romans 12:2</a>)?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">What about our voices, or even our witness? How do we “invest” our witness to bring about that return? Do we bear the gospel with us readily? Are we ready to give “<b>an account of the hope that is in you</b>,” in the words of <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=567429775" target="_blank">1 Peter (3:15)</a>? Are our voices heard when injustice is not only perpetuated, but tolerated and even winked at? Is our witness heard when hatred is not only tolerated, but is enshrined in the highest halls of power our land has to offer? Do we speak up with hope when the world teaches and preaches despair?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Here’s the thing: when we <i>don’t</i> “make these investments,” people are hurt. The body of Christ loses when we don’t invest our time together. The world loses when our minds are not renewed and transformed in service to God. People suffer and are oppressed and impoverished and even killed when our witness goes silent. And while it might be hard for us to imagine, it would not be that hard to imagine Jesus’s grief, Jesus’s anger even, when those things happen. Maybe even “weeping and gnashing of teeth” kind of anger.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">How are we investing our money? How are we investing our abilities and talents? But also how are we investing our time and our minds and our witness and all of the gifts that God has given us, each according to our own ability? How are we, in short, investing ourselves?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For good return on what God has invested in us, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Hymns (from <i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</i>): #403, Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty; #716, God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending; #719, Come, Labor On<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbMlItoAw94UeG-P_8pMEEeBQQ3yR7v7O14bSzWmodrXWG8l6SNvv6N0lzeWbLpMB1Ry8stwnqf2800LSRu0IAOMD1VV8ymChDolTDFyBF0wAy11w-phVVqgCfqw1QXac1HCgXNQXajSJZh7wL44fI0kDeTaTsq8a1lzX6OD2yVXegSKX9InfatDTNtZE/s320/talents.jpg.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="320" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbMlItoAw94UeG-P_8pMEEeBQQ3yR7v7O14bSzWmodrXWG8l6SNvv6N0lzeWbLpMB1Ry8stwnqf2800LSRu0IAOMD1VV8ymChDolTDFyBF0wAy11w-phVVqgCfqw1QXac1HCgXNQXajSJZh7wL44fI0kDeTaTsq8a1lzX6OD2yVXegSKX9InfatDTNtZE/w400-h306/talents.jpg.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-44492970653693308182023-11-12T15:51:00.000-08:002023-11-12T15:51:00.234-08:00Sermon: Lamps<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">November 12, 2023, Pentecost 23A<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832560" target="_blank">Matthew 25:1-13</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>Lamps<o:p></o:p></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">I don’t think I am unduly telling tales out of school to observe that some scripture passages are more challenging for preachers than others. Not to say that any scripture is ever all that easy to preach, mind you; even a favorite like Psalm 23 presents a challenge to the preacher if only because it is so well-known and beloved that it can be hard to find something to say about it at all.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But there are passages that are challenging for different reasons. Some passages are challenging because of what they have to say. Sometimes it’s puzzling, sometimes it’s a hard word to hear, and sometimes (especially if you wander over to Revelation) its just flat difficult to make any sense of it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">And then there are passages like this parable from the beginning of Matthew 25. This presents a different kind of struggle; the struggle to create a sermon on a passage when you can’t shake the memory of scriptures like the ones you’ve just heard, even some from this very gospel, that point to some very different conclusions than the scripture at hand today.<a href="applewebdata://6B288202-12E9-4808-BD0C-AEDB4FFDA46A#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #010000; line-height: 32px;">It just feels…off. There's no "good guy" in the story, so to speak. I just wish the story was as easy as our first hymn made it seem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The point here is not to dismiss this parable. For one thing, the Revised Common Lectionary insists on bringing it around at least once every three years, and who knows how much Christian education curriculum will also include this story. Besides, it’s not our place to toss out scripture that disturbs us. There is something to be learned from this parable. It might also be, though, that after decades or even centuries of reading and hearing it, there might also be some things the church needs to <i>un</i>learn as well.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">It’s perfectly appropriate to come away from this parable having learned that we don’t want to end up like the foolish bridesmaids, lacking oil for their lamps and hunting for a 24-hour Casey's General Store in first-century Israel. Calling them "<b>foolish</b>" becomes a problem, though, when we remember <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832671" target="_blank">scripture like 1 Corinthians 1:27</a>, "<b>But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise</b>," or <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832739" target="_blank">3:18</a>, "<b>If you think you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise</b>." Scripture tends to take a dim view of what passes for human "wisdom"; see, for example, the <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832811" target="_blank">parable character in Luke 12</a> who proposed to build bigger barns for his unexpected harvest, only to have God label him a "<b>fool</b>' when telling him "<b>this very night your life is being demanded of you</b>." The "<b>foolish</b>" in scripture aren't always who or what we think they are. Perhaps the one actually "foolish" thing they did was go off looking for oil instead of simply staying and waiting for the bridegroom, no matter how dark it got.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">On the other hand, the "<b>wise</b>" bridesmaids are not necessarily objects for our emulation either. Nowadays that extra oil might qualify them more for an episode of <i>Hoarders</i> or <i>Doomsday Preppers</i> or some other “reality” show and less as examples for our emulation, or at least like that would-be barn-builder in Luke 12. At minimum, it’s one thing to be “in,” but there is simply too much weight of scripture against them to celebrate anyone who plays a role in keeping others “out,” particularly when we get to the <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832865" target="_blank">parable at the end of chapter 25</a>, the one where those cast out failed to help "<b>the least of these</b>" when they had the chance to do so. The parable cannot become an excuse to turn into hoarders of the gifts of God, whether physically or spiritually.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We might also want to re-think what it means to wait for the Lord. Somehow it seems to have snuck into the collective subconscious on this parable for many decades or even centuries that the foolish bridesmaids were somehow at fault for falling asleep, and therefore not being ready for the coming of the bridegroom. Of course, the problem with this is that the parable explicitly tells us “<b><i>all</i> of them became drowsy and slept</b>.” (25:5). The so-called “wise” bridesmaids were just as conked out as the foolish bridesmaids. Yes, we need to “keep awake” as Jesus says at the end, but that can’t be what brought shame to the "foolish" bridesmaids if the "wise" bridesmaids did it too.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">(While we're at it, what's with the bridegroom arriving for a wedding banquet at midnight? And where's the bride in all this? Shouldn't the bridegroom be bringing the bride with him? And refusing entry to invited guests? That would get heaped with scorn in a culture that was all about hospitality.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We need to steer clear of any interpretations of this parable that foster or encourage an “us against them” mentality. There is no “insider” vs. “outsider” contrast here; no “Christian” or “un-Christian,” no “saved” vs. “lost” in the way we church folk tend to define things. All of the bridesmaids are part of the same wedding party; they all are invited guests. Only the lack of lamp oil (and the choice to go chasing after it) causes the foolish bridesmaids to be left out. Now this ought to chill us a little bit, but Matthew has already cited Jesus as saying this same thing much more clearly and explicitly <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566832951" target="_blank">in chapter 7</a>; “<b>Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.</b>” (Mt. 7:21) There are many who talk the talk, to put it in modern slang, who will find themselves on the outside looking in because they didn’t walk the walk.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">So what do we learn from this? No matter how difficult or challenging the story might be, is there something we should be taking from this parable as a positive instruction for our lives?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Australian theologian William Loader puts it this way:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is about sustaining the life of faith. … <i>Having had lamps in hand which burned well once is no guarantee they will burn in future.</i> Having the status of being Christian, even being a light bearer, means nothing if it is not a continuing part of our being. Many who were first will be last (20:1-16). Matthew is interested in enabling people to live in a relationship with God which has continuing significance and continuing life.<a href="applewebdata://6B288202-12E9-4808-BD0C-AEDB4FFDA46A#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Light bulbs have to be replaced (even the fancy energy-efficient kind, eventually). Flashlights need new batteries. The oil in our lamps needs to be replenished, and regularly. And I dare say that the one sentence applies pretty well to churches as well as individuals.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">That oil, that fuel for a life lived in Christ, is not replenished by spiritualized words and lofty-sounding pronouncements. It is not replenished by calling ourselves “Christians” over and over again (or denouncing those we disagree with as un-Christian). It certainly is not replenished by checking off lists of do’s and don’ts, carefully drawing lines to make sure “we” are “in,” and “they” are “out.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We refuel our lamps by plunging into the work of God. We refuel by entering into worship, not as an accommodation to our whims and tastes, but as a profoundly needed encounter with the God who drives us out into the world to do God’s work. We refuel not by brandishing the Bible as a club with which to beat “outsiders,” but by diving into the scriptures to understand God’s call upon us, to seek in Jesus’s life and work (and in nothing else) our own life and work. We refuel by opening ourselves to the unpredictable and unsettling movement of the Holy Spirit, who calls us in ways we cannot expect or predict. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">In the end we do wait, but not passively. We <i>act</i> because we are called by a merciful and gracious God who wants no one left out. We <i>serve</i>, because we know what is to be the foolish bridesmaids, fumbling in the dark with empty lamps, but also because we know what it is to be the “wise” bridesmaids, fearfully refusing our treasure to those who need it so much more, hoarding the very Spirit we were meant to share.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">We wait by feeding and clothing and welcoming and visiting, but we also wait by <i>questioning</i> why there are so many who need feeding and clothing and welcoming and visiting. We wait by offering our thoughts and prayers in times of tragedy, but we also wait by <i>demanding</i> action to prevent those preventable tragedies and <i>taking</i> action to prevent them from ever happening again. We wait by being the body of Christ, by walking the walk as well as talking the talk. Anything less is a robbery of the God who calls us out of darkness into light, who calls us to love God with all we have and to love neighbor as self. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">With lamps trimmed and burning, with lives fueled by God’s love moving through us into the world in word <i>and</i> deed, we wait.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">For the work of faithful, active waiting, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Hymns (from <i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</i>): #362, Rejoice! Rejoice, Believers; #612, We Praise You, O God; #367, Come, Ye Thankful People, Come<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn1"><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="applewebdata://6B288202-12E9-4808-BD0C-AEDB4FFDA46A#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a> These examples and more from David Henson, “The Breaking of the Bridesmaids: Rethinking a Problematic Parable (Lectionary Reflection),” http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2014/11/the-breaking-of-the-bridesmaids-how-scripture-undermines-a-parable/ (Accessed November 4, 2014).<o:p></o:p></p></div><div id="edn2"><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="applewebdata://6B288202-12E9-4808-BD0C-AEDB4FFDA46A#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a> William Loader, “First Thoughts On Passages From Matthew In the Lectionary: Pentecost 22,” http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtPentecost22.htm <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPmK6IwULXyC-5hvpq0x6wOckD17_Iuhm2Tld8J4abI9kswgxqeC3L8Ke0xNu8BD_xNq9_t8OQzSBY7t0_BCBYwI7idcn2eSkBcvGtTwnjzj-V5NsFuqZqSJRcfgd0AqAA2NBJMo_yEYiYlOuhrYl1lePMiaFu7PGqzroX-2L6pInILZZQmq9oTbDaJk/s274/oil%20lamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="274" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPmK6IwULXyC-5hvpq0x6wOckD17_Iuhm2Tld8J4abI9kswgxqeC3L8Ke0xNu8BD_xNq9_t8OQzSBY7t0_BCBYwI7idcn2eSkBcvGtTwnjzj-V5NsFuqZqSJRcfgd0AqAA2NBJMo_yEYiYlOuhrYl1lePMiaFu7PGqzroX-2L6pInILZZQmq9oTbDaJk/w400-h269/oil%20lamp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><o:p><br /></o:p><p></p></div></div>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-85706160340816089822023-11-05T14:40:00.003-08:002023-11-05T15:08:20.714-08:00Sermon: Saints<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Grace Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">November 5, 2017, All Saints’ A<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566223674" target="_blank">Psalm 34:1-10, 22</a>; <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566223718" target="_blank">1 John 3:1-3</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>Saints</i><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is one of the quirks of the liturgical calendar that Reformation Day (which we marked last week) and All Saints’ Day fall on consecutive days, October 31 and November 1, respectively. They would seem in many ways to be quite different occasions, maybe even incompatible in the eyes of some. The Reformation of course marked, in the long term, a reaction against and ultimately departure from the larger church and many of its practices, and most (though not all) Protestant groups disposed of the practice of venerating saints in their attempts to distance themselves from the practices of that larger church. In other words, most Protestant church traditions don’t have “saints” in the formal sense.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But of course we do have “saints.” We may not use the title, but we most certainly do have “saints.” And you know of whom I am speaking. We as a congregation have borne the departure of Art Schenk and John Welch from our fellowship since this time last year. I did not have the chance to meet either of them (although our paths may have crossed with John's many years ago, in Tallahassee),, but the roles they played in the life of this congregation will linger on in the memory of many of you.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The word “saint,” still, is intimidating to us. We might, at our imagination’s most vivid moments, conjure up a scene something like that found in <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=566223787" target="_blank">a reading from Revelation</a> that we heard a few weeks ago on World Communion Sunday, the “<b>great multitude … from every nation</b>” found exulting in the salvation of God while rejoicing and praising and worshiping constantly. It’s a glorious scene to be sure, but not necessarily one in which we see ourselves; as the one elder describes them as having come through the “<b>great ordeal</b>” (likely a reference to early examples of persecution finding its way to the early church), we realize that, generally, that’s not us – we don’t know persecution for our faith. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">As for the reading from Psalm 34 today, it can sound awfully intimidating, or perhaps more of a challenge than we feel ourselves ready to meet. How often do we feel like we could accurately quote just that first verse? Do we really "<b>bless the Lord at all times</b>"? Can any of us truthfully say that God's praise will "<b>continually be in my mouth</b>"? Sometimes these psalmists set an extremely high standard, and while we might be uplifted by the poetry and musicality of it all, we might also feel just a bit overwhelmed by it and end up feeling a long way from being any kind of "saint" even if the psalmist isn't using that word to describe the singer.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But that’s where the account from 1 John comes in. Written to a church that has apparently suffered not persecution but division, this letter focuses on getting through such trials as we do face, and doing so in a way that gives off visible evidence of being those who are “<b>called children of God</b>.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">This very short passage still makes that point we need to hear; we really <i>are</i> children of God, even if the world doesn’t see it. But then, if the world doesn’t know what God looks like, how would it know what a child of God looks like? What we will be, we don’t know; but what we know is that on that day, whenever it may be, that God is at long last visible and revealed to us … “<b>we will be like [God], for we will see [God] as [God] is.</b>” This is the hope we have in us.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">Of course we don’t get there by our own superhuman will. All that goes into becoming whatever we will become is a gift of God, as the Apostle Paul would jump in to remind us at about this point. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">So, we go forward. We “press on." One thing this reading reminds us is that, to borrow another popular phrase, “the best is yet to come.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">The risk of an occasion like All Saints’ Day is that we get caught up in glorifying the past. That’s particularly a risk for a church like ours, where that list of those who have departed from us in past years can seem overwhelming and even crushing, and we are tempted to get caught in nostalgia for those days when those departed saints were filling pews all around the sanctuary.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">But the “glory days” of the body of Christ are not back there. They’re not behind us; they are still ahead. Anything in this earthly life is not going to be “glory days,” folks. We may not know what the future of this congregation or any other congregation is going to be, but we know what the future – what the <i>hope</i> – of the body of Christ is.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">And so, toward that hope, we press on, "saints" or otherwise. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;">Hymns (from <i>Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal</i>): #326, For All the Saints; #729, Lord, I Want to Be a Christian; #804, Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><o:p><br /></o:p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomaptlprLDAQi0WiqarSouvK9OVO_x1V1kqIS5JEOB0jomWUFh8j3G_ljO1kmFs9KcNyI7PdrJQz2FDXrqGUKZ68D9vSYPio8N7pge30oecxokwllS7Fl4fE449DGUjHp_5ZkK_BwIHzSQ4pXTmG4f6WBePN_OCDc7E_mHf3JsEtj-RjhyTtWiaTN9IU/s640/1John03v01to03_2023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="640" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomaptlprLDAQi0WiqarSouvK9OVO_x1V1kqIS5JEOB0jomWUFh8j3G_ljO1kmFs9KcNyI7PdrJQz2FDXrqGUKZ68D9vSYPio8N7pge30oecxokwllS7Fl4fE449DGUjHp_5ZkK_BwIHzSQ4pXTmG4f6WBePN_OCDc7E_mHf3JsEtj-RjhyTtWiaTN9IU/w400-h124/1John03v01to03_2023.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-52745691422363677092023-10-29T14:07:00.001-07:002023-10-29T14:07:16.134-07:00Sermon: The Church Under Repair<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><a name="OLE_LINK2"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">October 29, 2023, Reformation Sunday<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=565613199" target="_blank">Psalm 46</a>; <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=565613244" target="_blank">Jeremiah 31:31-34</a>; <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=565613285" target="_blank">Romans 3:19-28</a>; <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=565613341" target="_blank">John 8:31-36</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The Church Under Repair</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It was just six years ago that Protestant churches marked the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Of course this is wrong. It was actually the five hundredth anniversary of one particular branch of the Reformation, or more precisely yet, one key event in one particular branch of the Reformation – an event which, to be sure, may not have happened quite precisely in the way it is often depicted, and which (if it happened that way) happened five hundred years ago Tuesday, not today (this particular part was also true six years ago; Reformation Sunday fell on October 29, just like this year). Still, five hundred was a big round number, and quite possible to ignore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">But, to keep things accurate: it was on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther, then a young-ish German monk assigned to teach classes on scripture at the University of Wittemburg, first promulgated his ninety-five theses, or arguments, on the corruptions of the church and the need for reform. The theses were definitely sent to his superiors at the Vatican; popular lore also says he nailed a copy of those ninety-five theses to the door of the church at Wittemburg, as depicted in a number of popular paintings, though more concrete documentation of that event is not so easy to come by.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The corruptions charged by Luther included such practices as the selling of indulgences (under the guise of raising funds for building projects), something that smelled way too much like buying forgiveness to Luther. His theses enumerated scriptural and moral arguments against that and other practices, and called for a sweeping reform of the church to eliminate such corruptions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Luther was a pretty unlikely candidate to trigger such an upheaval; much of his adult life had been consumed with nearly crippling self-doubt, he being convinced that he could never be good enough for God. The supreme irony of Luther’s career is that the study of scripture his new teaching vocation demanded of him had the effect of convincing him, ultimately, that he was right; of his own efforts he <i>never would be good enough</i>; a passage like today’s reading from Romans (as well as several others from that book) showed him that he was saved not by any work or effort of his own, but only by the great gift of God’s grace. So liberated, Luther found the nerve to bear witness against the all-powerful church even at the cost of his own excommunication, and thousands of others found similar courage to follow into something new and unknown,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Luther does teach us a lesson, one applicable even to us modern Christians; <i>things don’t change if we don’t speak up</i>. Whether perpetrated by church, corporation, or government (or by the thoroughly unholy alliance of all three), injustice and corruption don't go away by themselves. Followers of Christ are obliged to bear witness – to speak out – against those injustices, no matter how pervasive or powerful, and no matter how much it costs us our standing in our community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Let me repeat: followers of Christ are <i>obliged</i> to bear witness – to speak out – against injustices, no matter how pervasive or powerful, and no matter how much it costs us our standing in our community. Otherwise we’re fooling ourselves. After all, the word “protest” is embedded in the name “Protestant.” It’s in our spiritual D.N.A., so to speak. One of the inserts in your bulletin offers an example from just sixty years ago, in which a Presbyterian leader was called upon to do exactly that, no matter the penalty he would face. He spoke up, putting himself at some risk to do so (though not nearly so much risk as others had already faced). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">I'm lifting some words from Father Shannon T.L. Kearns, a frequent guest in this pulpit, to say that being Protestant should be defined as speaking up at what's wrong, and what's more, doing something about it. Kearns speaks of "active advocacy," work in which the church reaches out and speaks out and does not sit passively to the side hoping the marginalized and people of the world might stumble upon us. That's been the call all along, no matter how much the church gets it wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Of course, Luther’s “reformation” was not the only one that took root in the church during this period. John Calvin was all of eight years old when Luther promulgated those theses, but by 1536 (at age 27) he produced his theological treatise <i>Institutes of the Christian Religion</i>, which became a bulwark of the branches of Protestantism known as “Reformed," as well as our own Presbyterian tradition via Calvin’s Scottish admirer John Knox. The work of Ulrich Zwingli and others also played a role in Reformed theology: the <i>Second Helvetic Confession</i> found in our own <i>Book of Confessions</i> is a Zwinglian document. The Anglican Reformation took root some decades later, and Methodism evolved from that about two centuries later under the leadership of John and Charles Wesley. The Protestant Reformation was no one-time thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Sadly, no branch of the Reformation is innocent of its own corruption. For many centuries Lutheranism indulged too much Luther’s own anti-Semitism, which long outlived him and was useful to the Nazis in their consolidation of power in Germany in the twentieth century. The theological extremes of Calvin and Zwingli (like predestination) were twisted into destructive theologies that we are still coming to grips with.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Calvin might look at passages such as those from Jeremiah and John as evidences for the sovereignty of God – the absolute freedom of God to do as God wills, unbound by any theological or other bind. It is ironic that his descendants have preached some of the most oppressive theologies <i>against</i> that sovereignty, claiming God to be “bound” to send person X to hell or give you great riches if you just say the magic scripture and pray the magic prayer. (I exaggerate, but not as much as you think.) Where such preachers seek to bind, the scripture found in John points to quite the opposite – “<b>if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed</b>.” It resonates in such doctrinal ideas as the “priesthood of the believer”, the idea that every person is both free and responsible to minister to one another in the name of God and to, in the <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=565613534" target="_blank">words of 2 Timothy</a>, to present himself or herself to God as “<b>a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth</b>,” an idea that every Protestant tradition manages to claim as unique to itself. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In fact, the history of pretty much every reformation is one of taking such words of scripture and, after a good start, failing to live up to them. Hence Calvin’s famous instruction that the church was to be “<i>reformata et semper reformanda</i>” – “reformed and always <i>being</i> reformed.” To be brief, we are – or always need to be – under repair. Being composed of fallible human beings, churches will fail, and must be constantly challenged to return to the scriptures and to be under the charge of the Holy Spirit to reclaim our calling, to live into whatever awaits God’s church over, say, the next five hundred years or so.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If we take today’s psalm seriously, we have in our God a strong fortress, a “bulwark never failing” in the words of the famous hymn we sang just before the message. We are never abandoned by God, no matter how much we abandon God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If we take today’s reading from Jeremiah seriously, we are under the watchful care of an all-sovereign God, a God who yet in the midst of such sovereignty and power <i>knows</i> us, and places in each of us nothing less than knowledge of him, writing on our very hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If we take today’s reading from Romans seriously, we know that despite our deep sinfulness, we are preserved and redeemed by Christ, who is faithful to be the mediator of divine grace even unto death on a cross – a death that could not keep him in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">If we take today’s reading from John seriously, we are free. Free, that is, in Christ – we are freed from sin, freed to continue in the words of our Savior, and free to know the truth. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">None of these ideas were new at the time of all those reformations. All of them are as old as the scriptures those reformers fought to put in the hands of followers of Christ and to teach and preach; those ideas had faded a bit from the church’s collective memory, though, and needed to be refreshed. That might also be true in our own time. It’s on us – all of us – to reclaim all of those legacies, as well as the legacy that give us our name “Protestant.” It’s time to speak up. After all, a little reformation now and then is a healthy thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For a legacy, and for repair of that legacy, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #610, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing; #624, I Sing Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art; #329, God Is Our Refuge and Our Strength; #275, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God; #53, O God, Who Gives Us Life; #268, Crown Him with Many Crowns<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2OQ4fZ8-3qKUhfaREo97VcFKT-Ebzj1ghGAEiWo1qX7jpaI6doVyZYVvSL_A6wWd4DdZ4PNuvV1cBaeuryUL_sHCdnfAYB9fSfr5C2AyMt0loevSdMyfkR0v6h77kQnfes3AOx_ONLd2SXYYkCq5B2GS8u4qeua-QGQA6YaEkXeU5ERxPUp2Ao0oNNs/s347/Protestant-Reformation.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="347" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2OQ4fZ8-3qKUhfaREo97VcFKT-Ebzj1ghGAEiWo1qX7jpaI6doVyZYVvSL_A6wWd4DdZ4PNuvV1cBaeuryUL_sHCdnfAYB9fSfr5C2AyMt0loevSdMyfkR0v6h77kQnfes3AOx_ONLd2SXYYkCq5B2GS8u4qeua-QGQA6YaEkXeU5ERxPUp2Ao0oNNs/w400-h300/Protestant-Reformation.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-1562328950564554162023-10-22T12:59:00.005-07:002023-10-22T12:59:54.505-07:00Sermon: It's a Trap!<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">October 22, 2023, Pentecost 21A<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Matthew 22:15-22<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It's a Trap!</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One of the most recognizable and most quoted bits of <i>Star Wars </i>film lore is a simple three-word exclamation, spoken by an admiral in the Rebel fleet upon learning that not only had they not caught Imperial forces unprepared, but that the Empire had a brand-new Death Star powering up and ready for them. Upon seeing this, Admiral Akbar (a distinctly non-humanoid character, exclaims "<i>It's a trap!</i>" And for that line, Admiral Akbar is one of the most-quoted characters in <i>Star Wars</i> lore. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Were Admiral Akbar lifted out of <i>Star Wars</i> and plopped into today's reading, he would have multiple opportunities to let out his famous quote, some of which are obvious to pretty much all the readers of this passage, and some of which require a bit more work to detect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The first clue that "<i>it's a trap!</i>" is the composition of the squad who approaches Jesus in the first place. Under normal circumstances, the Pharisees and the Herodians would have nothing to do with one another. The Herodians were not necessarily a religious group, and were open in their support for the Roman-installed puppet king Herold, and by implication the Roman Empire who propped him up. By contrast, the Pharisees were an extremely religious group (you probably know the type) and were practiced in the p.r. of opposing Rome, but not loudly enough to get Rome to pay attention. That these two groups were appearing together before Jesus at all was plenty enough reason for Admiral Akbar to exclaim "<i>it's a trap!</i>" (and we see in verse 18 that Jesus is well aware of this trap). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Admiral Akbar would be yelling out again pretty quickly once he heard the opening statement of the Pharisee-Herodian cabal. Verse 16 is a classic bit of buttering up, some deeply insincere flattery spouted forth as if Jesus were susceptible to such a thing. If they truly believed what they were saying, they would know very well that it wasn't going to work on Jesus. Cue Admiral Akbar again: "<i>it's a trap!</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">A clearly sprung trap is what we see in verse 17. "<b>Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?</b>" Admiral Akbar would be spewing out "<i>it's a trap it's a trap it's a trap</i>" on a seemingly endless loop by this time. Sure enough, in verse 18 Jesus calls out the cabal for their "<b>malice</b>" - no pulling punches here! - and then springs his own trap on them by asking them to produce "<b>the coin used for the tax</b>."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is a part of the trap that Admiral Akbar might not catch. Jesus's phrasing here sets this particular tax apart from all the other random taxes the people might have imposed upon them from Rome or from the Temple or from anywhere else. The particular "tax" referenced here is one that Rome reserved especially for those lands it had taken by conquest. It was, in effect, an "occupation tax," one that Rome levied on its conquests to pay the salaries and expenses of those soldiers and other officials doing the local physical work of occupying a territory. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In other words, Judea (and many other regions taken by the Roman Empire) were paying a tax to fund their own occupation by Rome. And to further the aggravation, such tax (roughly equivalent to a normal day's wages) could only be paid this particular coin. No other currency would be accepted. So you had to go through the hassle of getting one of these coins before you could pay the "occupation tax." No wonder many in such occupied territories never paid it and hoped the Romans wouldn't notice. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">So, by inducing his questioners to produce this particular coin, Jesus had trapped them into revealing that they were apparently OK with paying this tax, since there was literally no other use for this coin. Admiral Akbar might respond with a variant of his usual phrase, but in a much more admiring tone - <slowly> "<i>now THAT'S a TRAP!!!</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">There's one more potential trap in this passage, but it's a lot more subtle, and might be the one that modern readers and scholars of this scripture are more likely to get caught in. Jesus finishes the conversation by asking them whose image was on the coin, and when they correctly answered "<b>the emperor's</b>" in verse 21 Jesus springs his get-out-of-the-trap card: "<b>Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's</b>." It's enough to get the Pharisee/Herodian cabal to beat a hasty retreat, to be sure. Still, though, we moderns (as well as many generations of the church before us) might well be trapped by the particular interpretation of the scripture we <i>want</i> to see.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It's not hard to come up with a scripture like Psalm 24:1 - "<b>The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it</b>" - and jump quickly to the conclusion that "hey, we Christians don't have to pay any taxes!" The trouble is that even before we get to Matthew 22, we've been through a passage in Matthew 17:24-27 that doesn't let us off the hook so easily. In that passage the collectors of the temple tax show up wondering if Jesus was one of those tax-skipping types (leaving aside the fact that Jesus literally had no income). Peter answers straight out of fear "<b>yes, he does</b>" and then goes running to Jesus, who oddly enough seems to know exactly what's on Peter's mind. He uses an illustration about whom kings assess taxes on (hint: not their own children) to acknowledge, in a way, that the claim is correct; the children of God really don't "owe" the empire. And yet, in the next breath, Jesus suggests that "<b>so that we do not give offense to them</b>," Peter should go and literally fish an "occupation tax" coin out of the lake via a fish's mouth and pay the tax with it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Jesus doesn't see any good in a agitating, performative, but not very effective way of sticking it to the Empire. Left unspoken but implied is that if you are truly following Jesus, you're going to offend the empires you live among soon enough. If you're going to offend the empire, do it in a way that means something and does people some good in the process. Admiral Akbar might be wondering at this one: "<i>it's a trap?</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">One could argue that there's one more trap inherent in Jesus's final answer. Remember that the coin used to pay the "occupation tax" literally had no other use anywhere in the Roman Empire; all it could do was pay that tax. Why would God want such a thing? It truly was the emperor's in that sense, and frankly, it's best to let him have it. Give God the actually useful stuff; your time, your abilities and efforts, and yes, your financial resources as you can. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This might be a place where we get tripped up today. We may occasionally get tripped up (or trapped up?) by our sentimental attachments to certain things, even certain things about the church, and confuse our attachments to those things with things that the church can actually use. Or perhaps society has conned us into thinking some of its own obsessions and infatuations are something we need to offer to God. Even Admiral Akbar might have to concede, "<i>yeah, it's a trap</i>." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Let's put this bluntly in stewardship part two: aside from our own time, energy, presence, and work for the church, the most useful thing we are going to be able to give to the church is money, or something that can be redeemed for money, the stuff that enables the church to do things like keep the lights on and the air conditioning or heat running, to fix things that need to be fixed or remove things that need to be removed, and yeah, to pay folks who work for the church in some capacities. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Don't give God the useless things of the world; give to God what is God's, starting with ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For staying out of the traps of stewardship, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #450, Be Thou My Vision; #693, Though I May Speak; #711, Lord of All Good<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhMbrgf4onnfBJQvIEz1l6VNY-abVVJYUXGSmxMSlABbdETkY3Cd7tFqzGtTtEkokXKgh0lAnHxgBBfON8rou2Nr_KgPUGfkcj7ZYHoD0PAfNI-sTpCms-bP9HTOoCivqS-itEaX2ODDFv4MmY7oBmGf016XOEMxXrbGmHNHl3lrrM5u31QrUbAfZB6o/s722/It's%20a%20trap.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="722" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglhMbrgf4onnfBJQvIEz1l6VNY-abVVJYUXGSmxMSlABbdETkY3Cd7tFqzGtTtEkokXKgh0lAnHxgBBfON8rou2Nr_KgPUGfkcj7ZYHoD0PAfNI-sTpCms-bP9HTOoCivqS-itEaX2ODDFv4MmY7oBmGf016XOEMxXrbGmHNHl3lrrM5u31QrUbAfZB6o/w400-h274/It's%20a%20trap.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i>This guy. Remember?</i></span></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-81978141890141080812023-10-15T17:16:00.002-07:002023-10-15T17:16:23.028-07:00Sermon: Extreme Stewardship?<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">October 15, 2023 (Stewardship)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414731" target="_blank">Proverbs 11:23-28</a>; <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414783" target="_blank">Matthew 19:16-26</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Extreme Stewardship?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">This handful of verses from the book of Proverbs, clustered together as it is, provides an interesting look into how so many people assume "morality" or "goodness" or "blessing" works; good people get good things, and bad people...don't. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Honestly, it must feel nice to be able to believe such things. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">We live in a world that proves, over and over again, that such things simply aren't true. Some of the richest people in the world are also some of the worst people in the world. Meanwhile, too many hard-working and gentle people end up in homeless shelters. (I've never served a meal at a homeless shelter that didn't ask us to set aside at least one, usually two or three, meals for folks who hadn't yet gotten off from their job, or one of their two jobs.)</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">To be honest, though, the issue isn't to say that "all rich people are evil" or something like that, but it becomes necessary to point out that greater concentrations of wealth do damage, not only to those who end up poor because of it, but also to those with whom that wealth is concentrated. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">In his collection <i>Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary</i>, the novelist and Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner says of today's reading from Matthew's gospel that "<i>Jesus says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Maybe the reason is not that the rich are so wicked they're kept out of the place, but that they're so out of touch with reality they can't see it's a place worth getting into</i>." It is perhaps for a similar reason that the oft-quoted and oft-misquoted <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414840" target="_blank">1 Timothy 6:10</a> says not that "<i><u>money</u> is the root of all evil</i>," but that "<b><u>the love of money</u>is a root of <u>all kinds</u> of evil</b>."</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Perhaps most telling is a statement from Jesus in <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414907" target="_blank">Matthew 6:21</a>; "<b>For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</b>" Or, to put it in a modern vernacular rendering, "<i>What we own, owns us.</i>" This seems to be the best way to understand Jesus's questioner in this reading; we are told that after Jesus's final answer to his persistent questions, "<b>he went away sad, because he had great wealth.</b>" </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Here's the thing: most of us do not have "<b>great wealth</b>," by the standards of the Jeff Bezoses and Elon Musks and Warren Buffetts of the world. This does not, however, mean we are free from the potential peril that "<i>what we own, owns us</i>." Sometimes that peril becomes greatest for poorer people, even if they are able to come out of poverty. It is a potential hazard for anyone with possessions of any sort. It's the kind of trap that requires us, in dealing with wealth or possessions, to observe an instruction that Jesus gave the disciples earlier in this gospel (<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414961" target="_blank">10:16</a>): we have to be "<b>wise as serpents</b>" even while we are called to be "<b>innocent as doves</b>."</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Now it's worth noticing of today's reading that this is not a commonplace event in the life of Jesus. This same story, with slight variations, is also told in <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564414996" target="_blank">Mark 10:17-31</a> and <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=564415039" target="_blank">Luke 18:18-30</a>. The instruction that Jesus gives here is not repeated again. It's not a commonplace event that Jesus tells someone to give everything away; it's a one-off, only issued in the face of this one rich man who, even as he says he has kept all the commandments, sees and knows himself to be lacking something, despite his great wealth. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">For us, this instruction doesn't necessarily compel us to give it all away; if anything, the stories of too many unscrupulous televangelists wheedling widows out of their last dime is not an example this church or this pastor wants to follow. Nonetheless, we are challenged here. What are we holding on to that we don't <i>need</i> to hold on to? What of our finances or possessions are we at risk of being owned by? Or what really does own us? This may even be a question that the church, as a whole, needs to ask itself as well, but that starts with members asking the question of themselves.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Here's what it comes down to: if we really believe we are God's own, if we truly even want to be one of God's people, what we do with our possessions, perhaps especially how we provide for and support the church - the "body of Christ" in the world, after all - is going to reflect that. Providing for the work of the church is a necessary part of any member's own stewardship. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Not that this is the only worthy church, or that there aren't other church-based or charitable organizations worthy of support, but the church - again, this particular unit of the body of Christ - is a needful starting place, one that is particularly needed as a voice and witness <i>in this community</i>. Even if we haven't figured out what it is yet, we have <i>something</i> to offer this community that no other church does. But we can't do that without the support of the people who make up this church. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">It's as simple as that. And if we allow ourselves to be owned by our possessions, we won't be able to live up to that.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">Tune in for part two next week.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;">For the call to be good stewards of our possessions and the church, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 36px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #708, We Give Thee but Thine Own; #712, As Those Of Old Their Firstfruits Brought; #697, Take My Life</i></span><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLmFuSUTKf74Cs0S6qw9lrVOskcaVciwIhZeeLEPBNR3H-g82Jy9YKUzObbsCxGdVO9GNlZT_hSTNdCftNZoJ2_CscCHq2P8XzX2Xos1XaBc0GEjRJs4_EX7Dc7F2aaItIDF2SzeNPWqXmdkujb4Qg1nkuLJL4n9bC6HnzJySFn6UuGgLCdEAF2vP2euU/s600/camel%20needle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="600" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLmFuSUTKf74Cs0S6qw9lrVOskcaVciwIhZeeLEPBNR3H-g82Jy9YKUzObbsCxGdVO9GNlZT_hSTNdCftNZoJ2_CscCHq2P8XzX2Xos1XaBc0GEjRJs4_EX7Dc7F2aaItIDF2SzeNPWqXmdkujb4Qg1nkuLJL4n9bC6HnzJySFn6UuGgLCdEAF2vP2euU/w400-h309/camel%20needle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif; font-size: medium;"><i>How some modern folk might respond to that one line...</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style, serif; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><i style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5166856895646052762.post-26677272816333004312023-10-01T11:50:00.001-07:002023-10-01T12:14:10.307-07:00Sermon: The World at God's Table<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">First Presbyterian Church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">October 1, 2023, World Communion<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 7:9-17<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The World at God's Table</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It doesn't take much to remind ourselves that, whatever of God's promises we might seek out or read about or remember, or whatever vision of future glory we subscribe to, we don't live in that world yet. Clearly this is not a world that is unified in its devotion to God. Your average front page of a newspaper (whether in print or online) can usually make that clear pretty quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">What we might do well to remember sometimes is that the same is true of the world in which these scriptures were first written and disseminated. The Israel in which Isaiah wrote was a land at various times under siege or carried off into exile by one empire or another, and frankly beset by the inept or crooked leadership of one king after another. As to the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, most likely some time near the end of the first century, the Roman Empire held sway. As if that wasn't enough, the far-flung but still emerging body of followers of Christ was having to face the reality that there would be no home in the Judaism in which many had been born or raised before coming to follow the way of Christ. Even those who had held out the longest could no longer deny that the two, no matter what common roots they may have had, were simply separate faiths at this point. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">That point is simply that texts like those we have heard today sounded as farfetched and fantastical to their first readers and hearers as they do to us today, perhaps even more so. Remember from last week's reading from the book of Jonah, how ragingly angry Jonah was at the repentence of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria? If you take Isaiah's prophetic writing at its word, that this "<b>feast of rich food</b>" that the Lord prepares is to be "<b>for all peoples</b>," then you have to assume that the people of Assyria (and Nineveh) are included among "<b>all peoples</b>." And to put it bluntly, there were plenty of other menacing empires that had harmed Israel, either through attack or exile, or who threatened to harm Israel, that the idea of a feast "<b>for all peoples</b>" might well have sounded more like threat than promise to Isaiah's hearers and readers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">It's also worth noting the nature of this feast. The wines are not only well-aged but "<b>strained clear</b>" - wine-making in this period often produced wines, particularly of the less-expensive variety, that were cloudy or needed to have some excess matter strained away to be palatable. And while describing food as "<b>rich</b>" nowadays might suggest health risk more than anything, the opposite was closer to the truth in this time, with a "<b>rich</b>" meat not lacking in texture and quality and frankly edibility, which was too often the case with the meats that most could obtain. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">The remainder of this brief passage describes how the Lord takes away those barriers that have kept the peoples of the earth at one another's throats. The "<b>shroud that is cast over all peoples</b>," the shroud of violence and death, is lifted away; the tears of the peoples are dried; the disgraces that weigh down all peoples (for indeed all people are "<b>his people</b>") are wiped away. None of these can stand in the presence of the Lord presiding over the feast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Our second reading also takes us away to a time yet to be, in the seemingly fantastical writings of the writer who goes by the name of John, recording a series of visions each seemingly more "out there" than the previous one. In this case, though, this particular vision is an interruption; in chapter 6 six "<b>seals</b>" have been broken and great terrors set loose in the land, but before the seventh seal is broken we get a glimpse of large numbers of those who have in some way remained faithful despite the tribulations visited upon them. First to be presented is a vision of thousands out of the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, however, a much greater multitude appears, "<b>a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language</b>," standing before God. They are described in verses 14-16 as "<b>those who have come out of the great tribulation</b>"; they serve before the Lord's throne day and night, and "<b>never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst</b>," and the Lord will "<b>lead them to springs of living water</b>."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In short, no matter which testament you prefer, you get a vision of a great gathered multitude, one in which all of the peoples of the earth are represented. Whether they are put before a "<b>feast of rich food</b>" or being led to "<b>springs of living water</b>," this great multitude is being provided nourishment and even more, well beyond sustenance, by the one Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">This is the ultimate vision of the people of God, one way or another. When one compares that vision to the current state of the church, it's not hard to see that we have some ways to go to live into that vision of multitudes from all the peoples of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Except, not really, but yes, sort of. The church is truly spread across the nations, with all peoples or really darn close to it found in its number among the countries and tribes and languages of the earth. It can be difficult to tell that in visiting any one particular congregation of the church at worship time, when the old saw about the church at worship being one of the most segregated entities around still holds too close to true. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">In some ways the whole point of a World Communion Sunday such as we celebrate today is to remind ourselves that God's table is not only found in the United States nor alone in any other nation. That Sunday morning separation, willful or otherwise, cannot obscure the truth that God truly gathers followers and disciples from all the peoples of the earth. Some of the practices of those peoples might look wildly different from even the church next door, but God is gathering. What remains for us, really, is in some ways to get out of God's way and see all nations as part of the people of God. Even more, though, we are called to join, to serve together, to make welcome and hospitality for all those peoples God gathers in.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">For the great multitude, from all the peoples of the earth, <i>Thanks be to God. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Hymns (from </span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal<i>): #311, Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather; #695, Change My Heart, O God; #292, As the Wind Song</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5hq4FFxJhyphenhyphennzkjXuC_MeLzGbGHzAABYekmLgdqjPESLZSp0K1uVZOnlFdvehHTUEv8S_grwS6FPFh-ZSOmjN_hq6x2QjFKdUmc9RzTtqvdvRcpZqP6-ASJ81lnw1hPrLjBQfsX58XiqLX1qWW6RAQVRNTc_1lHq4Y3uf0lFyjaEmCLW99wjnumvrUJs/s400/potluck-400x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5hq4FFxJhyphenhyphennzkjXuC_MeLzGbGHzAABYekmLgdqjPESLZSp0K1uVZOnlFdvehHTUEv8S_grwS6FPFh-ZSOmjN_hq6x2QjFKdUmc9RzTtqvdvRcpZqP6-ASJ81lnw1hPrLjBQfsX58XiqLX1qWW6RAQVRNTc_1lHq4Y3uf0lFyjaEmCLW99wjnumvrUJs/w400-h400/potluck-400x400.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAB4zI5bWK-vkTaflXS4Tu6RbL58XeFcXxhHuloYbXRbXRtaiQpk2VoW4f201FZ4D6thttMfWyCF3EkqLab1keF0dmRYKNf0vwsjrz_rXoFtF-TGp5cB_dN9WKCNxBjzbtXYjuWsDEooBc3pOSgi7ONALk1TpJoQly6igevC7Mj7Q0NoEdRHVNKNgVZBU/s628/World-Communion-Sunday.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Charles F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16470576401126124958noreply@blogger.com0