Humble as a Child

October 2011 Newsletter Article

Jesus tells the disciples after they asked “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called a child and stated, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-3). Well having a child and knowing many, I am very happy that Jesus does not stop with simply that statement, because there are a lot of things about children that I am happy I have out grown and that most adults have as well.

Jesus continues by saying one should become humble like a child. Often that is explained saying we should be as innocent as children. I can tell you that children are not always innocent (babies perhaps). We have to help them learn to share and be part of the group. That is actually the point. To be able to learn is what humility means here. Jesus wants us to continue to learn about God’s ways. We do not simply follow a bunch of legalistic rules; rather we are in a humble relationship with Jesus that teaches us constantly about God’s rightness.

That is a great lesson in itself, that we should be humble students, yet Jesus adds, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” (v. 5) Jesus desires us to remember hospitality is of foremost importance. In the beginning of the school year it is obvious that not every child in the classroom is equal on every subject, yet the teacher and especially the children welcome each other into the class. We all try to come humbly to church working on our relationship with Jesus, and we find ourselves working on different things. In worship when we shake each other’s hands and share some hugs, we are attempting to live up to this welcome of each other. It is wonderful part of our worship service and when we go out into the world let us welcome people by being children of God.

This reminds me of the prophet Micah’s words:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God? (6:8)

God Doing

Matthew 21:23-32

The chief priests and the elders asked Jesus where His authority came from, and Jesus turned the question upon them by asking about John.  They answered, “we do not know,” which generally is a great answer coming from a religious authority.  However, we are privy to their argument.  They know they had not been heeding John’s message, so they cannot answer from Heaven, yet they were terrified of the crowd who certainly believed John to be a prophet.  So Jesus refused to answer them, yet rather told them a parable.

He told the parable of the two sons.  The first said he would not do it and yet went out in the field to work, while the second responded with an affirmation, but never went out to the field.  When they answered the obvious question so clearly, I believe they were reminded of David’s emphatic answer to the story of Nathans in 2 Samuel 12, about two men.  One was rich and the other only had one lamb, which the rich man took for a meal.  David thought it was so awful, Nathan giving his famous line, “you are the man.” (v.7) Which is what the temple authorities should hear especially when Jesus explains the parable. 

Jesus tells us that the prostitutes and tax collectors, may not have said the right things before but they have gone and done the work.  While they, the chief priests and the elders simply just say the right things but do not go do the work.  This parable is for all of us who worry more about the legalism of church then the work of church.

I remember working on projects with my dad. He would want me to anticipate what tool he would need next.  I learned through trial and error and often got good at it, but even when I was wrong he was much happier with me for trying.  God simply wants us doing the work.  God wants us to be righteous not right.  God is doing is God’s authority, we also must follow God, for as Jesus called His disciples, called us, to follow him.  We do not wait to be called into the vineyard, we are there with Him.  We end up in the field for we found Him, not rules. 

God’s Prerogative

Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16

Jonah was the most efficient prophet. Well once he actually started warning people and stopped trying to run from God.  Many of the other prophets never saw the people turn toward God, but Jonah did, and he was not happy about it.  Jonah wanted the people of Nineveh to suffer for their bad ways.  Jonah tells God, that he was aware “…that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”  It seems that Jonah wanted to determine who actually would receive such a wonderful God of mercy.

The Gospel parable is one of my favorites and when I say favorite, I mean difficult.  (And there are many I call favorite.)  This is one though that I was trying to teach to a group of fourth graders over a decade ago when I was their Sunday School Teacher.  That spring we were learning about parables and I had it organized so we would end the spring semester with this parable.  I told the class that I award those that brought their Bible to class.  I had a chart with their names and each week I checked not only their attendance but if they had their Bible.  Well the girls did the task remarkably well each week.  The boys, including the pastor’s twins, were not doing so well.  They all remembered the first week, but it was clear after a few weeks they had given up. 

So it came time to give out the reward, and I did it before the lesson on the parable.  I said I had prizes also for those that brought their Bible once, as each child did remember at least once.  I gave the boys a small nice gift each, and they said “thank you.”  Then it was the girls turn (why the response was clearly marked by gender, I do not know and honestly don’t care), they received the same gift as each boy, and they said “thank you.”  I was expected grumbling from the girls and teasing from the boys over this “injustice.” However, there was none.  I went through the lesson about the parable, and eventually one of the girls did say, “Like we all got the same gift even though some didn’t bring their Bibles.” I learned children seem to understand the message better.

It was not unlike the children’s moment prior to this sermon, while some kids were asked to do something for their candy, they all got candy and did not grumble.  For when the children saw the candy bowl they knew they would all get candy.  Adults need to realize when we see God we all receive grace, equally.

Yet I know it is difficult sometimes to keep that realization of God’s grace before us.  We as adults will take it too legalistically, and therefore reject it fully in areas where life is unfair or feel guilty for feeling that way.  We may simply apply the grace to the transhistorical salvation we know as heaven, and forget that people who are hungry today need salvation from hungry.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that our salvation has to do with helping those that are not able to help themselves.  Yet we see people abusing the system, I know I do, and I feel awful for even having that thought.  I try to help them but I have a lot to learn from the children.  Life isn’t fair but grace abounds.

I remember reading an article by Eugene Peterson, where he talks about brining his daughter to visit in a nursing home.  In one room there was a patient with Alzheimer's who repeated a story to the girl over and over again.  When they were in the car he apologized to his daughter, and she said something to the effect, “that is who she is.” Eugene shares that he learned about pastoral visitation from his daughter.

This scripture is easy when we simply analyze it.  Yes God’s grace is for everyone, even if they confess on the death bed.  And God’s grace of life today is for everyone, so we support and help charities, but it gets difficult when we see people with nicer cars at the food bank than our own.  This is where we become more like Jonah.  Perhaps not as bad, but we desire to hide from God’s compassion or we take no joy in seeing it.  I believe it happens to us all because we are not as keen as children to hear who God is through these scriptures.  We approach it as if it is a law, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” We squash our own feelings about working so hard for our food, for our church, because we feel guilty about being like Jonah.

As James Alison challenges us, we must be ready to relax into orthodoxy.  He suggests it is like listening to a conversation where you have a hard time hearing, lets take the bedside of someone with dementia.  If you try to listen carefully only to the words and what she is saying you tense up more and miss most of the meaning.  If you begin to relax you may not even hear every word but you get the meaning. 

We need to learn from the children and relax into this wonderful grace.  Then we will know we too deserve it when we feel the world is unfair. Thus we will know God and all receive grace, equally.

Putting on Christ

Article in Daily Democrat, 9/16/2011

It has not been cool enough to put on a jacket, but I am sure looking forward to doing just that. I hope to find a five dollar bill in a pocket, I certainly will find a receipt or a business card from the last time I wore the jacket. I will take this item out and recall the event that brought me to save said item in the pocket. Often I remember it quite well, yet my memory was jogged by the discovery. Would I have remembered the event without finding the item, perhaps, but I obviously forgot about the item tucked within the jacket.

The Christian cannon, we refer to as the Bible, is not something we can read from Genesis to Revelation in one sitting. Well that is if you have any other responsibilities in life, and fitting three books in a week is hard enough, making sixty-six very difficult even if some are as short at Philemon. Of course, no one expects someone to read the entire Bible between Sundays every week. However, even those of us that have read the entire Bible once is not enough. We must return to the scriptures every day. Yet I know many Christians who concentrate on certain scriptures, and there is certainly reasons to hang around the familiar, the friendly, and favorites, for they confirm and comfort. That is important.

We must also read the passages we find less familiar, for we will find things we forgot. Our memories will be jogged by our discoveries, even memories that were not ours individually. We are all part of the one body as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Therefore, our individual discoveries are assisted by others. Pastors, theologians, commentaries, scholars, church mothers and fathers, have all left important knowledge, be it in writings, sermons, actions, and questions, and all of them must be part of one’s Bible reading experience. We read the Bible and read the comments in our respective Bibles. We read old and new scholarship. We are in it together thus we go to Bible Studies and help each other. We do not simply have people tell us the truth, we together as Christians discover the truth of God’s Love and Grace, together. Every time we open our Bible we open it together as church, and we have personal epiphanies, assisted by our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Knowing the Bible is not done in a day and it is not done alone. It is done with a jacket that has many pockets, with many depths and textures. We read our Bible with this jacket of Christ’s that we share and explore all pockets of the truth united by the Holy Spirit.

Law of Love

Exodus 12:1-14; Romans 13:8-14

In the Exodus passage God is telling Moses and Aaron how to prepare for the first and essential Passover.  God does tell them that this is a day to be remembered as a festival of the Lord.  Even today Jews celebrate the Passover, and they remember the events as if they were there.  Not unlike when we remember Jesus at His Table, for we remember what He did for us at the cross, and we remember His presence throughout our entire lives.  Jesus’ Table was set while He was celebrating a Passover Meal, remembering what God did on the first Passover.

The first Passover was a life and death observance.  God heard the cries of the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, through Jacob.  The Hebrews did not have the Ten Commandments, they did not have the law yet.  They did not have anything that made them Jewish except for their family relations.  They were not Egyptians.  Pharaoh used the Hebrews as slaves and as scapegoats.  They were oppressed but Pharaoh was also worried about their numbers and thus took actions against them.  Actions that united the Egyptians as well.  We do this to this day.

Why were the Hebrews in Egypt?  Did God not give the land of Canaan to Abraham and Sarah?  Jacob came back to this promised land with his family, and after wrestling with God receives the name Israel.  And then we have the story of Joseph.  The eleven other sons of Israel was jealous of Jacob’s love of Joseph.  They were angered by Joseph’s dreams.  They banded together and scapegoated Joseph.  They were going to kill him but decided to profit from this awful violence upon the out casted brother, and sold him into slavery. 

Joseph ended up in an Egyptian prison, and eventually demonstrates his capability to interpret dreams.  Not only does he find himself in Pharaoh's court, Joseph saves Egypt from the horrific famine.  Joseph becomes Pharaoh's right-hand man.  The famine was felt back in the promised land as well.  Eventually Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt looking for assistance.  They do not recognize their brother, but he knows them.  Joseph finally reveals himself when the entire family is in Egypt.  And Joseph believes that God used his horrific experience to be able to save the entire family.  This is repeated with the Passover as God uses a people that were violently oppressed and scapegoated to establish God’s Law, starting with this ordinance that did save them that night.

What is clear is that the one true God can and will use our own systems of violence to save us.  With the Passover it was salvation from slavery, with Joseph it was salvation from famine.  Now Jesus enters as the lamb.  No longer is the blood to show God who is to be saved, but that we see His blood on our system of justice.  We understand that God brings us salvation from sin.  From this system of violence and scapegoating for everyone.  “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19:9)  Through this the laws still stand, yet they are fulfilled by the love Jesus showed us.  God used our own violence so we could see that the only law is Love.  We all can follow Jesus to our salvation by following that law.

Experienced Belief

Matthew 16:21-28

Peter had just answered Jesus correctly, in the previous scripture, about who He is, “Messiah, the son of the living God.”  Jesus told him he would be the rock the church would be built on and that the keys to heaven were in his hand.  He must have felt pretty good about himself, even if Jesus said it was knowledge from the Living God, His Father.  So when Peter heard Jesus say he most suffer and die, he felt confident enough to rebuke him.  Honestly can we blame Peter.  First of all, if you are in a class and a teacher says something wrong a good teacher commends someone that corrects them.  Peter knew Jesus was the Messiah, but he was still stuck on the idea that the Messiah would free the people from Rome.  Peter was not unique, the Messiah was to bring back the Kingdom of God, but they believed it as an earthly kingdom.  They looked back to the days of David as their hope of the future.

Peter heard Jesus say he would rise again, but to the Jews of the first century it was a given that everyone would rise on the last day.  Peter was terrified of the idea of Jesus, his teacher, his friend suffering to death, let alone, believing that would be the end of the movement.  Honestly, I understand Peter’s fear, and I know the resurrection.  I still tremble on Good Friday, I still cry when I truly ponder the cross.  It is horrific.  It was necessary as Jesus states in this scripture but it is awful, sad, and horrific. 

Paul picks up on this pun of Jesus’, that Peter is the rock and also the stumbling stone in 1 Corinthians 1:23:  “A stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles…”  Peter was getting in the way of Jesus’ inevitable journey to the cross, because like other Jews it is absolutely a scandal the great Messiah would be killed.  And for those not looking for a Messiah, it was just absurd.  Yet Jesus had to save us via those means.  See the cross was part of our human justice system.  True it was the ultimate punishment for a crime and a sign to others, but it is also true that humans have used violence for justice (and continue) and often it is one person or one group of others that are blamed to bring peace to the people.  Thus the system of justice of the cross was both the literal justice system and the greater overarching system we use called scapegoating.  Both are violent, horrific and sad.

So why does Jesus have to go to the cross.  It is not something answered in one sermon, but essentially Jesus takes on our system with out guilt or sin to save us from our sins, especially our own violent idea of earthly justice.  As Mark Heim pens,

God's justice machine.  God volunteered to get into ours.  God used our own sin to save us.

This is why Jesus told Peter to get out of way of the cross.  It may be the earthly justice system, but it will be a heavenly verdict when Jesus is resurrected.  Just as the angels remind us, in Mathew 28:6 “He is not hear; for he has been raise, as he said…”  Our belief, not unlike Peter’s, is because we experienced the resurrection.  Peter saw him in the unlocked room and according to John on the beach where he asked him three times “Do you love me?"  The flesh and blood resurrected opens us to believe that the earthly way are archaic and violent, and we choose to follow the man that took them on so that we all can be saved from sin.

 

 

 

 

S. Mark Heim. Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross (Kindle Location 52). Kindle Edition.

September 2011 Newsletter - Hope

 "Hopefully" in Irish is “le cuidiú Dé,” directly translated it reads "with the help of God."

Hope is an important word, actually an important part of one’s life. All humans live with the awareness of the future, the difference is that some see the future with hope and some without which leads to despair.  As church we are to vision the future with hope.  This of course is our promised inheritance, our life with The Divine in Heaven, which should allow us to live with hope.  This is the promise for our eternal life, which has already started on earth.  So how do we vision hope on earth as it is in Heaven? 

Just looking at the Gospel of Matthew I am encouraged by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, specifically the Beatitudes (Ch. 5).  They read with a future promise.  For example verse five, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  Jesus also tells us, “So not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (6:34) And Jesus states this with the command that we do strive for the Kingdom of God.  We are to pray according to Jesus, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” (6:10) We are to live our earthly lives with the knowledge of God’s promise made known to us through Jesus.  This is the promise of an eternal life and a promise of it fulfilling on earth as well.

 However, having hope does not mean it will be all rainbows and happy faces.  Honestly, having hope is most evident when bad things happen.  If we live looking at the future with Jesus’ teaching and the resurrection in mind, we will have hope.  We look hopefully to the future and realize it is all because of God.