April 2012 Newsletter

 

Easter is a time to celebrate life. The tomb is empty demonstrating to humanity that death is conquered by the divine love of God. Jesus was hung on the tree because of the earthly violence that permeates life on earth. Most sin comes from the breaking of the greatest commandment as Jesus sums it up,

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37-40)

It is a call against coveting, a call to follow a different model of desire. Earthly desires are tied to the desires of others, and thus jealousy, hatred, rivalry, etc. become the basis of most sin. The perfect and completely sinless Jesus is murdered and demonstrates not only God’s power over death, but the reaction of love and forgiveness by God. The empty tomb turns the earthly world inside out and upside down.

Jesus does not simply mean for us to wait for Heaven, but to bring the Heavenly model to earth as he did. Our desires are to be in line with that of His. As John shares in his Gospel, Jesus demonstrates that model with the washing of the disciple’s feet. Jesus even clearly states he has set this as our example:

You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13: 13-15)

Let us go forward in the season of Easter, following this model of Heaven. As His Disciples we are all servants of each other and the world. We are called out of the world together to share this wonderful good news, this wonderful example of Heaven on Earth.

Blessings,

Pastor J.C.

Vision First

Habakkuk 2:2-3; Mark 1:9-15

This first Sunday of Lent we generally start with the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  This year we are concentrating on the Gospel of Mark, who only writes of the occurrence and not interactions with Satan.  Mark mentions Satan three other times.  The next time is in chapter three, and refers to “Satan casting out Satan.” Jesus is making the point that even Satan doesn’t succeed split, then in chapter 4 is in the explanation of the Parable of the Sower.  The last is in chapter 8 and is actually the lectionary scripture for next Sunday.  This one is the most pertinent to today’s reading.  It is when Jesus tells Peter to get behind him, Satan.  Right after Peter answered correctly who Jesus was. 

Of course in the first chapter of Mark Satan is the tempter but what is he tempting?  In chapter 4 with Satan coming and taking the word from the one’s on the human created path.  That is not where the seeds will grow, so Satan seems to tempt the word away with the what we humans create.  This is goes right into Jesus’ use of the word “Satan” for the man who just identified Him correctly.  Jesus knows that Messiah has a connotation of an earthly king.  He realized when Peter rebuked Him about the way being the death and resurrection, Jesus knew Peter mind, “was not on divine things but on human things.”  Peter was thinking of the packed down earthly path was the way, but Jesus knows that is Satan’s temptation.  That we take the ways of the world to be the ways of the church.

So when Jesus went from His baptism, into the wilderness, driven by the Spirit.  What was the temptation according to Mark?  For Jesus to start His ministry it was important He did not sin, but the ultimate sin would have been for him to rule the earth like an earthly king.  It is clear this temptation by Satan was squashed, for as John reported in his Gospel, when Jesus feed the 5,000 they wanted to force him to be king, he slipped away.  And found the twelve in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in rough water, thus demonstrating with His power over the elements, was not a king as they know earthly kings.

Now before I was a minister I was a pastry chef in a Manhattan Restaurant.  I was thinner then and so often people would state they would not be so thin if they did what I did.  Well little did they understand it was hard physical work as well as you do get tired of the desserts.  I would encourage my workers to always try the desserts for it was important to keep things tasting their best, and they would consume the least attractive versions.  It was never an issue.

I do remember my first week as the head pastry chef, three weeks into the job (it was a surprise to me as well).  I was working on a hazelnut linzer torte with a fig filling as I had developed at a previous restaurant.  I made a small version for the chef.  This was inspired by the fact the kitchen had a plate with black mission figs, but they were not using enough.  She suggested using Madeira Wine to enhance the fig filling.  So the next morning before anyone was at the restaurant, I went to the bar to sign out my two cups of wine.  I started by searching the well and then the lower shelves.  I found no Madeira Wine until I looked about eye level (important to note I’m tall).  So I signed out the wine and made my tasty torte and served it with cardamom ice cream (it was very tasty).

So the next day when the bartender arrived he came to talk to me.  Well yell in my face, and as I took it I did realize that the numbers he mentioned would mean the 12 slices of that dessert at 12 dollars would not pay back those two cups of madeira.  I knew the chef had said Madeira and I know I did not miss any cheaper version in the bar.  When I apologized to her, she apologized to me, that I was not yet informed of the cooking madeira and red wine in the kitchen.  I never really got upset at the bartender for even today I can feel my blood boil when someone cuts off the entire top of a strawberry to remove the stem.  It is simple with a small pairing knife to remove just the green, and waste no strawberry meat.  In the kitchen I had talked to many assistants about that, even making some go back to cut the green out of the scraps for a strawberry sauce.

For in a restaurant it is really a business.  The vision may include tasty gourmet food, a wonderful dining ambiance, but it comes down to money.  It is all about making a profit. The church does need to be in the black, which is difficult for many congregations.  However the vision cannot be the worldly path.  That path seems the easiest and is the path for businesses, but the church is different.  It is not of this world.

Our path is among the good soil.  We are rooted in God’s Word and Love and yet we are running off the path that Satan tempts us with.  We need a vision that resembles the one Habakkuk writes of:

Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay. (2:2-3)

Jesus knew the worldly path, the worldly kingship, would be our temptation as well.  Church we need to look for Jesus’ vision and get behind him and follow.

Holy Everywhere

Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39

Jesus touches Simon Peter’s mother-in-law to heal her.  He crosses a very strong line, and He implies that is to be done not only for individuals but in the synagogues, the religion as well. The healing was a miracle, but the touching was against the rules of ancient Judaism.  So even if it was good, full of love, it broke the law to touch the unclean. 

We as Christians are not immune to these lines as well.  How we worship, what we think,  we set up lines as well. 

We need to learn from young children who can see the image on a coloring sheet and yet color away with their hearts intent.  If the page is a picture of a bunny they will color across all the lines and say it is a bunny.  It is not that the lines are not important but they are not meant to contain, that which is “unsearchable” as Isaiah says in verse 28.

Let us be like the children, like Jesus, and cross over boundaries and lines to touch others with our crayons of love. 

Is not the cross and empty tomb the ultimate crossing of the boundary?

Love Builds for God

1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

Paul writes about being vegetarian, because the churches in the Gentile cities most meats were prepared in a temple in honor of an idol.  Of course Paul and others are quite aware there really are not other gods or idols, and thus the meat is fine to eat.  However, Paul realizes that knowledge does not transfer smoothly to new believers, or believers whose family still worships at the pagan temples.  As they discover the reality of the one true God through Jesus at the table, they may slip as Paul explains again in Galatians:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? (4:8-9)

Paul sees this as an issue, but it is not knowledge that ultimately works to keep people focused on Jesus, it is love.  Knowledge puffs, but love builds.  Paul writes latter about maturing in the faith and you will notice knowledge is not mentioned:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (13:11-13)

Not only is it love that is more important we do not see clearly until face to face.  Which brings me to the Gospel scripture.  If we think we have the correct knowledge, we may be just puffed up.  In this scene with Jesus according to Mark it is not those following Jesus, those listening to Jesus, it is the unclean spirit that recognizes Jesus as the “Holy One of God.”  This is a humbling reminder that Love is what builds up God. 

Come & See

1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 1:43-51

Writing the article that is linked here, I realized that it worked well with the scriptures above.  Basically my son may not answer to his name, but he seems to answer to the Divine who calls one to love perfectly.  The article is not the sermon, but in written form it worked very well, and I thought it wise to simply link that written word in this week’s sermon jotting.

Many blessings, JC

 

http://dmergent.org/2012/01/18/autism-sculpts-divine-desire-asdd/

Love

Isaiah 61:1-4;; 8-11; Luke 4:16-21
I remember helping my father with the Christmas lights.  I even remember one strand that if one was out or loose the whole strand was out.  I am so glad that strand did not persist in our yearly tradition, but it was not as easy as today.  Incandescent bulbs broke easily and they needed to be clipped on the tree.  So when Mindi and I started celebrating Christmas as a married couple I was happy to buy a strand of the new LED lights.  They were easy to put on and seemed to work well for the last 6 years and they worked perfectly fine the first night I put them up this year.  The next day half the bottom strand stopped working.  I changed the fuses and they still did not light. 
I thus went out searching for similar lights and I did find something compatible at the second store.  As a son of an engineer I was searching for a strand strung in a parallel circuit, not a series circuit.  It is fine if you do not remember this information from grade school, as a son of an engineer I have to remember certain things.  I will remind you the difference between these two type of circuits.  A series circuit the current of electricity passes through each circuit element without branching, thus if one element is disconnected (for bulbs burnt or loose) the current is disabled.  A series circuit also must share the voltage of the source, while a parallel circuit will have the same voltage draw of the source for each element is directly connected to the source.  This is why a parallel circuit light strand will stay let if one bulb is burnt out or loose.
So I, as my father’s son, looked at the box of lights for the words parallel circuit, and found the trademarked term “Constant ON” with a accurate definition of a parallel circuit, including two illustrations.  However, no where is it confirmed that the circuit was strung parallel, not even in parenthesis (I do like parenthesis).  I have no problem with the company trademarking a catchy term, but if they were going to take the time to define it on each box, I feel it would be a good idea to share the official term within the definition.  Do they really think we cannot handle the term “parallel circuit”?
I bring this up to demonstrate how terms meanings can be lost and or manipulated so easily in society.  And as religious people we also let some of our important words to lose their meaning.  Take for instance the word “love,” it is of great importance to the Gospel.  We use it between, family members and friends.  We say it to our children even before they understand language, and we use it to explain the feeling we have for them.  We use it also for pizza, paintings, and presents under the Christmas tree.  We are quite aware that feeling the word love varies as per the context.  However, the word love is used only for half of its Biblical meaning.  Feeling is important, but it is also used to refer to action. 
Isaiah’s prophecy is about action for those oppressed, broken-hearted, captive, mourning and more.  Jesus correctly states that the prophesy had been fulfilled in His reading, for Jesus is the incarnation of love.  It is not that Jesus has a warm and fuzzy feeling, but came to earth as a baby to preach, heal, teach, and most of all love us beyond understanding, to the point of death.  Isaiah’s words define the action part of the definition of Love, which is known as the Good News; Gospel. 
I believe the best explanation how the definition is feeling and action is when Jesus answers what the most important law is: 

He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ (Matthew 22:37-40)

Yes it is important to have a wonderful feeling for God and simultaneously love your neighbor as yourself.  As this is recorded in Luke, the neighbor is the Good Samaritan.  It is clear that we are not simply to have nice and warm feelings, but to do compassion and merci to express this love.  Just as Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 what we do to the least of these we do onto Him.  The one that loved us so much he went humbly to the cross.  This love is equally action, and we participate in the action of love we are in touch with the feeling for God with all our heart, soul and mind. 
As church, we are to love each other, as Jesus told Peter when Jesus asked him three times if Peter loved Him.  Peter would respond with affirmation and Jesus responded with a call to action; “…feed my lambs…tend my sheep….feed my sheep.” (John 21) And as a church we are not strung in a parallel circuit, we are strung in the old series circuit.  The light of Christ is more than powerful enough to light each one, but if one is burnt out or loose we are all affected.  Jesus is the strand itself, as He says He is the vine (John 15), but God does the pruning.  We must love one another and the neighbor for we are all interconnected.  God will fix and/or replace the burnt bulbs and loose ones, but we must realize we are strung together by God’s grace and love, and thus we shine Jesus’ love by our action of love, for Jesus fulfilled this prophecy and we are called to do the same:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4: 18-19)

Jesus is the Way

John 14: 1-10

I lived right near the Woodcock Nature Center growing up, and I would explore the trails with a few friends or alone.  I knew the trails within the boundaries of the park, like the back of my hand.  Well one summer day, when I was under the age of 10, I found myself with a group of kids, many were older than me.  We went beyond the boundaries of the park and found ourselves in a new area of the woods.  We ended up on the far side of a large fenced field with horses, which was very exciting and occupied us for a while.  We then headed back on the this new trail but missed the trail head back into the nature center.  We went back and forth on the trail looking for where we originally turned but could not find it.

I was getting scared especially as the sun lowered.  However, I was even more frustrated that the older kids were not listening to me that I believed the turn was further down the trail, for when we came back I could not get them to go far enough the second time.  I was tempted to go out on my own, but I was taught to not leave the group when lost in the woods (a good idea).  I knew where to go, but I was limited by the group to wandering around lost.

In this scripture, John tells us about Jesus’ pastoral statement about the place He has prepared for us in the Father’s house.  This wonderful pastoral statement is a scripture very appropriately shared at death beds and during funerals.  There is nothing like hearing the promise of Heaven.  Then Jesus goes on to tell them they know the way, but the disciples don’t get it once again.  So Jesus states another pastoral statement,

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:6-7)

Jesus is making it clear they are to continue following what He had shown them, they are to continue following Him even after He is in Heaven preparing our rooms.  Even before believers in Jesus where called Christians we were called followers of “The Way.”

How does Jesus show the way?  Jesus healed many people and even commissioned the Disciples to do likewise. 

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9:1-2)

Thus we are to heal people as Jesus did and that will be in many forms.  Jesus also speaking of when He will return to judge in Matthew 25 that we must also help others.  We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoners, if we want to be in the Father’s house.  The way includes healing and helping.

Jesus also notes during John’s account of the Last Supper, He gives us a new commandment.  It is given after He tells them He is with them only a little longer.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

So the way of Jesus is to Heal, Help, and Love.  These are what Jesus wants us to do and then teach others.  Commanding us to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..” (Matthew 28:19).  Jesus shows us the way and opens it up with His laying down His Life and the Father resurrecting Him from Death. 

The Prophet Micah says it best,

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? (Micah 6: 8)

To do justice is to heal and help, and to love kindness with humility is to Love one another.

So when we finally found the path back into the nature center, I knew I would be home shortly.  When I got home I was happy, but I was ecstatic when I climbed over the fallen tree I knew so well.  For when I knew I was back on the right path I knew the promise I would get home.  We must follow Jesus, “the Way,” so we might know the promise of Heaven. 

Don’t Worry, Strive…

Matthew 6:24-34

Jesus knew that there were famines and droughts from the history recorded in the Old Testament, not to mention His own experience.  Thus Jesus knew that there are times when there is not enough food for birds, or enough water for lilies to bloom.  It is clear that Jesus is not saying we should not set our alarms for the next day’s work, or not to plan for retirement.  Rather Jesus is telling us not to worry, and specifically in relationship with His statement of serving two masters.  If one chooses to serve wealth the worry will be inevitable, but if  you serve God you will not need to worry. 

This metaphor Jesus uses of the the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, speak to us about following Jesus in three ways.  The first being of ecology, that is how the earth operates.  Clearly God created a world where the animals and plants depend on each other to survive, therefore they actually depend on God.  Even in Jesus’ day people were beginning to be separated from the natural world, and today we are even more separated from the reality of how God’s creation is good and provides for itself.  We should see in this metaphor that we need to appreciate the wonderful miracle of this world as we work for the Kingdom of Heaven.

The second way this metaphor speaks to us it that of equality.  It relates to the first, in that we are to see the interconnectedness of humanity as we observe in nature.  For we know there are some people that do not know where their next meal is coming from and Jesus knew that also, as he included in a parable:

And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” (Matthew 20: 6-7)

This is a reality for people throughout history and continues today.  They don’t even have the luxury of the same type of worry people with wealth would worry, they simply live as lilies and birds, dependent on God’s Grace.  Those of us with some time, wealth, and ability become the Body of Christ for these people that live not knowing what tomorrow’s troubles is as they need to met today’s. 

The third aspect is the greatest and that is of celebration.  That if we do follow God (not wealth) we are to be taken care of just as the beautiful flowers and birds.  I generally start my sermon preparation on Tuesday, but because of a funeral on Wednesday, I had to prepare for, I did not start until after the funeral was complete and some other important work was done.  Late in the afternoon, I had the idea I would go home and rest, but realized I was going to be in a meeting all day on Thursday (it was on my calendar but it was not on my mind).  I then got another cup of coffee (thank God for “dancing goats”).  Read the scripture two times when two friends arrived at my door.  I could feel the anxiety mounting as I considered sending these two away, who obviously wanted to talk and ask questions.  I then glanced down at my open bible and saw verse 34 whish was  highlighted from a previous time: 

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

I then thought, I should be here now with these friends.  I then asked them to help with the sermon.  I told them that there were still some flowers in the sanctuary from the funeral, and if they could go and observe them and tell me about them.  They ran to see the flowers and ran back to tell me something about the arrangements.  I should probably tell you that these two friends were young children.  “They smell good,” “I like the purple one" etc.  Then flowers and pieces were taken to my desk for decorations.  I then realized that children do not worry about tomorrow.  They may ask what is for dinner or what is next, but I have observed they often ask again for they forget.  Then the scripture that was part of the service earlier that day was put on my heart by the Holy Spirit. 

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’And he laid his hands on them and went on his way. (Matthew 19:13-15)

Jesus tells us to be like children to inherit the Kingdom.  Children appreciate the wonderful nature that is Creation.  Children love and do not worry about tomorrow.  Children celebrate when they know love.  Paul says it well in Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us go out in the world serving only Christ.  Not worrying but striving for God’s Kingdom, like the children who made a beautiful arrangement on my desk with broken flowers and pedals. 

 

 

Special note to Hare, Douglas in “Matthew” edition of Interpretation.  John Knox Press 1993

Plumb Line

Amos 7: 7-9, Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus is asking us to not retaliate and to even go as far as to offer more to an enemy, to someone attacking you.  This is a hard scripture.  Jesus asks us to pray for our enemies, and love them.  I do not believe Jesus wants us to get on our knees and propose to an enemy, nor have warm fuzzy feelings for said enemy, but He is asking us to love them, just as God loves us.  We can pray that they will change their hearts and actions and that is certainly a fine and healthy prayer, but in this context I do not believe that Jesus is even upholding the Proverbs that Paul quotes (proverbs 25: 21-22)":

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;
   and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,
   and the Lord will reward you.

In the Matthew passage Jesus is asking us to pray for our enemies so we may see them in God’s eyes, and to show them love.  We actually determine our enemies generally by who is outside our group.  Be it nation, religion, clique, for it is rare that we actually have someone who is specifically attacking another, without the support direct or more likely indirect from others.  When we see someone as God seems them, it is hard for us to act as an enemy.

A great example of a man that knew he had an enemy is that of Dietrich Bonheoffer.  See Dietrich watched as his church, the German Church, began to ignore the cross of Christ, so to be able to support Hitler.  Bonheoffer knew Hitler and his followers as an enemy, and despite his Christian ethics, felt a need to participate in an assassination attempt.  Eventually Bonheoffer was jailed.  Despite being an enemy of what we, as humans, considered to be one of the most evil leaders, Dietrich treated each of his captors with respect and compassion.  They may have locked him up and may be called on to execute him at any moment, Dietrich saw them as children of God.

The plumb line is being consistent and perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect.  To understand this, I share with you my experience of plumb lines. When I was a child we lived in a relatively new home and thus my father, the engineer, would require shelves and the like to be plumb level, that is the plumb line was based of gravity.  And it worked.  I then went in my early adult life on a mission trip to Virginia, where we were to reroof, put up siding, hang doors, replace windows, and put up a ramp to the front door.  This group tackled this project in three days, and on one of the days I was helping with the ramp.  Well the building was old and leaning some, it was not obvious to the naked eye, but when we started considering putting the ramp on the house we realized if we made it plumb to the building it would look very slanted, and if we made it plumb to gravity it would look slanted in the opposite direction.  One of the elder contractors shared his experience, that in this situation you make the plumb line the average of the two.  Sure enough that worked well, after carefully cutting the dowels in a specific order about an 1/8th of an inch different from the proceeding one.   (We may had changed the design if we had more time or was aware of the plumb line issue previously).  It worked out aesthetically wonderful, and even allowed for the water to run off well. 

Jesus tells us that our plumb line is to not retaliate, to love and pray for our enemies, and thus as Jesus says:

…so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. …Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:45 & 48)

This plumb line cannot be averaged with the world.  When we follow this line, it will be noticeably different then the world.  When we love as God Loves, we bring Heaven to Earth.

Low Salt Area

Matthew 5:13-20
We have to follow the law even greater than the Pharisees and Scribes?  That seems quite difficult since they were the experts in the Jewish Law, the Torah.  Jesus says He came to fulfill the law not abolish it, so we need to explore what is the law according to the Rabbi Jesus.  The best example would be in the Gospel of Luke when a young lawyer tests Jesus on the law.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ (Luke 10:25-28)

The lawyer answers with the Shema with an additional caveat of loving your “neighbor as yourself,” which is confirmed by Jesus as being the right answer.  Of course the young lawyer is not satisfied with this, and asks who is his neighbor, which is when Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan.  Making it clear our neighbor is not simply the person who lives next door.

There is this children’s book about two boys living in Jerusalem.  One Jewish and one Muslim, who were both feeding the same stray white cat.  Both had been raised on the rules of their religious tradition, and both thought the other was not their neighbor, until the day they both worrying about the cat who had been missing for a while.  When they went looking for the cat and  met each other, they followed the rules of their society and fought (specifically over whose cat the stray was).  They followed the cat to a litter of kittens as a rare snowfall began concerned about her freezing.  They realized that she wants peace and they worked together for their love of the cat.  The book is called “Snow in Jerusalem” and is truly a oversimplification of peace in the Middle East.  Or is it?  The boys realized that love took precedent over the rules they had learned.  They saw how the snow fell, as we noticed this week in Durant, on everything.  Reminding me of Jesus’ saying in the end of this chapter five of Matthew:

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The boys realize that the snow represents the Grace of God that falls upon everyone, so we are to love everyone as God does.  That is the real law.  It is not simply about the rules.

So what about this salt?  It is a very strong metaphor that is understood when you explore how it was used in Old Testament.  How the first believers would have understood salt as a religious metaphor.  First of all culturally, one would say in the first century, “sharing salt” to refer to table fellowship.  That is certainly powerful for Christians, whose worship centers around a holy feast.  In Leviticus 2:13, “  You shall not omit from your grain-offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Which tells us to specifically to put salt in all offerings, because as the first half of the text says, it is a metaphor for the covenant itself.  The next piece of scripture I have us turn to is Numbers 18: 19, “All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.” Again telling us that salt is a sign of the everlasting covenant.  And a very powerful sign of the covenant.  We have been iced over the whole week and we have not had salt to through out on the roads to melt the ice.  Up north we would call it a Low Salt Area, which you would see signs for such areas around reservoirs.  Salt is so strong it  contaminates the water supply, and I have known of houses whose wells are no longer good to drink from because of the salt that is put down on the roadway.  This idea of salt being so powerful is also found in 2 Kings 2: 19-22

Now the people of the city said to Elisha, ‘The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.’He said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.’ So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

Now we know that salt is seen as very powerful and even purifying, a symbol of table fellowship, and the Covenant, the Law.

Jesus says to the believers who were listening to him on the mountain, “You are the salt of the earth”  You are the very powerful purifying, table fellowship that is the covenant.  You are the Law.  You are the law as He teaches and fulfills which is love of God and of humanity, our neighbor.  We are not to lose our saltiness but to permeate the world and change it.  To be a light for the true covenant that is embodied by Jesus’ love that He went to the cross for all of us, leaving us to be the church the body of Christ, the fulfillment of the Law, SALT.

Go out in the world as salt demonstrating this love and flavoring the earthly world with Heaven’s law.

February 2011 Newsletter

We gathered for dinner after worship on January 23, and I was wonderfully surprised at the banner that read, “Pastor’s Appreciation Day” with a lovely snowman painted on the end.  The spread of food looked amazing and tasted even better.  It is a great joy to share a meal in Fellowship Hall, large such as it was that Sunday, as well as the lovely meals Sunday evenings and the first Wednesdays of the month (it will be baked potatoes this Feb. 2).  Yet the surprise did not end there. I was honored, humbled and extremely thankful for the Proclamation of “Pastor J.C. Mitchell” day, a desk plaque, and the greatest gift, a basket of cards from various congregants (the children’s being the most dear and smile producing).  I thank everyone who helped surprise me with such a wonderful honor, and everyone that celebrated with us that Sunday afternoon.  Mindi, A.J., and I are very thankful and honored to be part of such a wonderful and loving congregation: our family.

Each week, while we may not share a meal in Fellowship Hall, everyone is welcome to come back Sunday evenings at 5:30 PM to do just that as well as stay and hear some wonderful music and enjoy a study; or if a child, a fun night of educational fun and games.  We also share the wonderful meal of the Lord’s Table during worship.  This is central to our worship and our identity as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). “In 1991 The Commission of Theology, a working group of our Council on Christian Unity, stated in 'Report to the Church on the Lord’s Supper' that the Lord’s Supper is a means by which we are nourished in the love of God in Jesus Christ and united with the church universal ‘is a truth the Disciples are made aware of more surely by our partaking of the Supper than by any statements we make about it.’”  (Kinnamon, Michael;  We Are Disciples: 2009)   This is both because each person’s relationship with Jesus is personal, and the breaking and sharing of the bread has numerous theological implications.  We are reminded of the sacrifice, the new covenant, the gathering of believers at one table, the banquet in heaven, the resurrection, and  the great Love and forgiveness of God for all of us (and I am sure you can add more thoughts, for it is in our partaking that we know Jesus).  We keep the Table central to our worship and identity, knowing it is Jesus who invites to this open table.

In the Gospel of John, the Last Supper is depicted differently from the synoptic Gospels.  John tells us it is the night before the Passover and describes Jesus washing His disciples’ feet.  During this Last Supper our Lord Jesus demonstrates a wonderful example of leadership.  Jesus knows He will go to the cross, taking on our sins, and thus tells His disciples, and us today, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  I feel the love at First Christian Church; let us share the invitation to the Table, to the Love, to each other, and beyond the church walls.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor J.C. Mitchell