This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the First Sunday in Lent, February 25, 2007.
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Written in 1951, The Last Temptation, or as it is more commonly known in America, The Last Temptation of Christ, is a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all human weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, Christ became the perfect model for our lives; he sacrificed not only on the cross, but throughout his life. He struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh.[1] This book places a great emphasis on the humanity of Jesus dueling with the divinity of the Christ. As you can imagine, it has been on many banned book lists since its publication.
You may be more familiar with the cinematic version made by Martin Scorsese in 1988 starring Willem Defoe as Jesus. The movie version tried to address the controversial subject matter by beginning with a disclaimer explaining that, “[the movie] departs from the commonly-accepted Biblical portrayal of Jesus’ life, and that it is not intended to be an exact recreation of the events detailed in the Gospels.” [2]
This version was so controversial that it was originally banned in many cities and picketed almost everywhere. Even two years after its theatrical release, when it made its cable debut on the Cinemax premium cable channel, many systems, including the one I subscribed to back in Colorado, chose to black it out. I don’t think you would find it surprising that while doing research for this sermon I was unable to find a copy at WalMart or Movie Gallery.
The idea that Jesus was tempted is controversial. People asked, what does it mean if Jesus can be tempted? The simplest answer to this question is that if Jesus could be tempted by the spoils of this world then he is fully human. And Jesus is so fully human that he is perfectly human, more human than we could ever be.
So filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is in the wilderness fasting, eating nothing for forty days and forty nights. Verse two tells us that during the entire fast Jesus was being tempted by the devil.
One of the elements of fasting is that while the body abstains from food, the soul is fed. The fast becomes a period of general readjustment, of renovation from the outer sphere of life down to the roots of its innermost fibers.[3] Through the fast, prayer is reinforced and penance is paid.[4] The fast is more than the deprivation of our bodies; it is a means of spiritual preparation. But let’s face it, forty days and forty nights of temptation would be ruthless. Jesus perseveres this time of trial, preparing himself spiritually for his life to come.
So after forty days and forty nights, the devil needs to bring his best material if he is going to tempt Jesus.
Luke writes about three specific temptations. The scene begins with the devil saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” When looking at original text, there are two ways to interpret hunger. Jesus could have been hungry for bread or he could have been hungry for spiritual truth.
It kind of leaves this open for us, doesn’t it? The original text could go either way. But all translation involves interpretation, and our text says Jesus was famished. This translation implies Jesus could use a good meal.
Jesus’ response turns this interpretation on its ear. While the devil may have hoped Jesus would fall for bread alone, invoking the words of Deuteronomy 8:3, Jesus reminds us “One does not live by bread alone.” Jesus hungers for spiritual food.
The Devil offers the most human of needs, nourishment. But Jesus turns away from earthly satisfaction in favor of something more substantial. Recorded in the Gospel, Luke is teaching the readers that the need for bread is secondary to the fact that it is God alone who gives bread.[5]
Jesus teaches that the one who gives the gift is more important than the gift itself.
The devil isn’t out of temptations yet, there is more up his sleeve. So the second temptation is offered, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.”
There is some hinky stuff in this passage. First, with this offer, we are reminded that the devil has power in the world, power that can be delegated and allocated as he sees fit. The devil offers this power to Jesus. Imagine if you will the power to do anything you desire. For Jesus, there is a lot of good that can be done with that kind of power.
But this power is given with a catch, “If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
A catch doesn’t get catchier than this. Fly paper wishes it was this sticky.
But Jesus does not get trapped by political intrigue. He denies the devil his worship using the words of Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” The devil offers power over this world, a world that is temporary, a world that is limited. Jesus knows that there is a greater power than the political domain of the devil and the price of the devil’s power is too high.
Jesus rejects the devil’s demand of worship insisting that the only real power comes from God.[6]
Jesus acknowledges that the source of power is more important than power itself.
So the devil has offered Jesus something to eat and all of the power in the world. What’s left?
The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. They are on the highest place of the high places of the Holy Land. And from there, the devil goads Jesus. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
This time, it is the devil’s turn to invoke scripture, Psalm 91:11-12. Now this is a good temptation. The devil uses something good to suit his own bad intentions.
In this case, the devil literally offers the oldest trick in the book. The devil asks Jesus to doubt the Lord’s sincerity. Paraphrasing Genesis 3:1-4, the serpent tests Eve saying, “Go ahead, eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. Sure, God said you will die, but do you seriously think that God will take your life?” In Luke the devil invites Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple because, after all, “God has promised to protect you. Do you doubt it?” In both, Eve and Jesus are tempted to wonder if God is serious. Eve falls victim to the temptation, Jesus does not.
Jesus responds in kind to temptation shrouded in scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, Jesus tells the devil to shove off reminding him “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” The Old Testament reminds us that Israel tested the Lord time and time again, and in every case the Lord is faithful. It is said that scripture is best interpreted by scripture, and this is a shining example.
Jesus is invited to test the sincerity of the Lord; Jesus reminds us the Lord is not to be tested.
These first recorded temptations of Jesus, physical satisfaction, political power, and testing God’s sincerity, these are the things the devil puts on the table. Jesus passes these tests. Jesus does this by knowing what is important. Bread is not as important as the one who makes it.
Power is not as important as the one who creates and gives it. Testing God’s sincerity is not as important as knowing God is earnest and faithful.
But there is more at stake than this.
The devil prefaces the first and last temptations with this phrase, “If you are the Son of God…” So while it is easy to say that the temptations are about bread and sincerity, there is something more sinister happening. The greater, more subtle temptation the devil tries to place in Jesus’ mind is the doubt that he is the Son of God. Yes, on one level the devil asks if God will do what God has promised for the Son. But it is far more devastating if Jesus doubts whether he is the Son or not. If the devil can plant this seed of doubt, then everything else is lost.
But this seed has no purchase. Jesus will not allow the devil to define what being the Son of God means. The devil will not define what kind of Messiah Jesus will be, that is between Father and Son.
And as soon as we doubt that we are the children of God we are lost.
Jesus reminds us that being children of God is more important than anything else.
The very thought that Jesus could be tempted by fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust put people in a rage. But in the past twenty years, some have begun to rethink their opinion of the movie, and of the temptations Jesus faced. In light of the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, some have begun to examine what it might have been like for Christ to be fully human, subject to all human weaknesses, while fully God, perfect and omnipotent. Some groups that originally condemned the film have even revised their opinions. Promise Keepers is the most notable conservative Christian group to come out and defended Kazantzakis and Scorsese’s interpretation of Christ’s temptation. Acceptance seems to be growing as many people begin to examine the difficulty of bearing the two natures of Jesus and how difficult it must have been for him to be faithful to the will of the Father with this world raging around him.[7]
The idea that Jesus was tempted is controversial. The thought that Jesus could be tempted is horrifying. Even more horrifying would be the prospect that Jesus would fall to temptation. To resist temptation, Jesus relies on scripture and his relationship with the one who gives us scripture. As we approach the cross through Lent, we need to be intentional about growing in relationship with the Lord our God, just as Jesus shows us how.
[1] The Last Temptation of Christ- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_last_temptation_of_christ, accessed February 19, 2007
[2] The Last Temptation of Christ-Film, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Temptation_of_Christ_%28film%29, accessed February 19, 2007
[3] Wesseling, Theodore, “The Cleansing of the Temple.” London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1945.
[4] Jungmann, Josef A, S.J., “Public Worship: A Survey.” Howell, Clinton, translator. The Liturgical Press: Collegeville
[5] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, page 197.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, The Last Temptation of Christ-Film.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Here's Your Sign
This sermon was delivered on Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday, February 18, 2007 at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine was its “The Meaning of Life” issue. The cover says the issue includes “wisdom and good advice.”[1] The series of articles that shares this wisdom is called “What I’ve Learned.” The way the interview looked, it was a basic question and answer session, but the way it was written it was impossible to get a feel for the exact questions.
The interview that got my attention was the last name on the cover and what it said about him: “James Watson, who helped discover DNA and still can’t find God.” Hey, I’m a Christian, this gets my attention.
In his interview, Dr. Watson[2] says, “I’ve seen no evidence of a god, so I’m not going to think about one. Being raised nonreligious made you free. You could look at the evidence. Whether being nonreligious or a democrat was more important, I can’t tell you.”[3] Watson finds no evidence of God, but there are those who have seen evidence of God, and on this Transfiguration Sunday we read about their witness.
Transfiguration, what a fancy word. The term comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive. It’s really a pretty simple word though when it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[4] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[5] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change. No, this is something more.
The book of Exodus makes it clear that we are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture never tells us they had a face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there was a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.
So how do the people respond? Scripture tells us they were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. Regardless of the reason Moses was calling them to him, they were afraid to come near. Really, can you blame them? Nothing like this had ever happened before; at least scripture had never reported anything like this before. We know why Moses’ face shone, they did not.
The people deserved to be leery of Moses glowing like the dial on my watch.
So Moses called to them, Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation. And they came to him. Moses called them together to share the Good News of the Lord. But imagine the looks on their faces when he was talking. Distracted would describe the look, but I think it would only begin to describe how they looked and felt.
Moses discerned that the change in his appearance was so disturbing to the Israelites that he chose to cover his face while with the assembly. When Moses was with the Lord or when Moses was telling the assembly what the Lord had said, he dropped the veil. Otherwise, this became the only way that Moses could be with the people and appear like a normal man, not the one who had been anointed by the glow of the Lord.
As verse 32 tells us, Moses gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. But the message almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger. This is the first time this sort of thing was reported in scripture, but it wasn’t the last. Today we are privy to the greatest example of the glow of the Lord, the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
This is a miraculous occasion, a time of glory and majesty. This is the perfect time to rest and reflect upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ. These three men, Jesus’ closest earthly confidants; what are they doing? The New Revised Standard Version says they were fighting off sleep. According to other translations, sleep had won.
But this sight, whether they were fully asleep or not, made them fully awake. Here is their master with Moses, the bearer of the law; and Elijah, the one who would return preceding the Messiah. This is a glorious sight.
Peter responds as only Peter knows how: he wants to do something now! Let’s build dwellings, or shelters or tabernacles or memorials again depending on your translation, one apiece!
Can’t you just see the looks on the faces of John and James? “Huh? What?”[6]
But we can’t really blame Peter; he was so thrilled he had no idea what he was saying. This is Peter’s way. Peter’s response shows again that the message of the transfiguration almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger.
The people of Israel received a sign in the shining face of Moses. Peter, John, and James received a sign when they were allowed to see Jesus transfigured in glory and majesty. And in both cases, with the glow, the listeners received the word of the Lord. Moses shared the word the Lord gave him with the people. Peter, James, and John got one better—they heard the voice of God, words echoed from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my Chosen,” followed by the command, “listen to him!”
Futurama is a television show produced by the creator of “The Simpson’s.” It’s about a man, Philip J. Frye, who was accidentally frozen in a cryogenic lab at midnight on December 31, 1999 and thawed 1,000 years later. In the episode titled “Godfellas,” Frye’s best friend and roommate, a robot named Bender, is accidentally shot from a space ship’s torpedo tube while it’s traveling at maximum velocity. Since Bender is moving faster than the ship’s top speed, there is no way to catch up and rescue him. Bender floats through space until he passes through an asteroid field and accidentally accumulates a microscopic civilization on his stomach (or what passes for a stomach on a robot), which declares him God, and worships him despite his constant inability to provide for their needs.[7]
After the civilization that lived on Bender destroyed itself, he was distraught. Then he found an eternal omnipotent presence, the cartoon equivalent of the god of the universe. Bender shares his lament with the greater power. He says that no matter what he did, he could not help them. He did something, it didn’t work. He did nothing, and that didn’t work either. Then Bender learned the lesson of quality miracles from the being, “When you’ve done something right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
Dr. Watson, the DNA guy, says that he has seen no evidence of god, so he isn’t willing to even think about God. But I like this idea from Futurama. When a miracle is done right, we may not be sure God did anything at all.
We live in a complex and complicated world, we are a busy people. There is always something to take our minds from a restful place and engage us in something new. It’s not that there is no evidence of God, it’s just that in a society of adrenaline junkies that insists on dramatic experiences, we can easily miss the subtle evidence God provides. This could be by design, like the god in Futurama; the discreet signs now seem so obvious to us that we take them for granted.
Peter, John, and James got a sign, didn’t they? They were witness to a miracle that could have made Dr. Watson acknowledge the presence of God. But as Dr. Watson might point out, it has been a long, long time since a moment like this one, and we aren’t likely to see one like it any time soon. Where’s our sign?
Look around…in our prayers we give thanks for the sun and the rain. We offer thanks for mercies received. We thank God for the world around us and a place to worship. We pray for the sick and infirm, many of whom we don’t know individually and thanks be to God that as the church we do know them. We give thanks for the waters of our baptism and the sacramental meal which nourishes the Body of Christ. We give thanks to God for our daily bread. We give thanks for the small miracles around us every day. And even though they are common and ordinary, they are still miracles. The message gets lost again in the appearance of the messenger. Only this time, the appearance is too ordinary to get our attention.
So what should we do? We should do as the Israelites did. We should listen to the word of God all around us. And the word of God comes in wonderful and mysterious ways. It comes in the first light of the sunrise and the last light of the sunset. It comes in the face of those we love, and those who love us. It comes in words of encouragement, words we hear and words we share. It comes to us in the word of God recorded for us to read. It comes to us in the living word of Jesus Christ. We need to listen to the word of God around us. Be still, and listen for the word of the Lord. The voice from the cloud tells Peter, John, and James “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Listen to the voice, this is the first step. Listen; resting and reflecting upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ in the arms of the loving God.
As our Psalm teaches, the Lord is great; he is high over all the peoples. Let us confess his great and awesome name for he is the Holy One. The Sovereign God loves justice and establishes equity; executing justice and righteousness. And as God calls Moses and Aaron and Samuel, God calls each of us. God speaks to us. We have our signs, let us follow them. We must now listen for the word of the Lord and answer in word and in deed.
[1] The cover actually says “wisdom and damn good advice,” but I chose to edit my reading for delicate ears.
[2] Ph.D., Indiana University, Zoology, 1950.
[3] Richardson, John H., “What I’ve Learned, James Watson,” Esquire. January 2007, vol. 147, no. 1.
[4] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (accessed: February 17, 2007).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Read with puzzled facial expression.
[7] Keeler, Ken, “Godfellas,” Futurama. episode 52, taken from TV.com, http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html, February 17, 2007.
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine was its “The Meaning of Life” issue. The cover says the issue includes “wisdom and good advice.”[1] The series of articles that shares this wisdom is called “What I’ve Learned.” The way the interview looked, it was a basic question and answer session, but the way it was written it was impossible to get a feel for the exact questions.
The interview that got my attention was the last name on the cover and what it said about him: “James Watson, who helped discover DNA and still can’t find God.” Hey, I’m a Christian, this gets my attention.
In his interview, Dr. Watson[2] says, “I’ve seen no evidence of a god, so I’m not going to think about one. Being raised nonreligious made you free. You could look at the evidence. Whether being nonreligious or a democrat was more important, I can’t tell you.”[3] Watson finds no evidence of God, but there are those who have seen evidence of God, and on this Transfiguration Sunday we read about their witness.
Transfiguration, what a fancy word. The term comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive. It’s really a pretty simple word though when it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[4] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[5] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change. No, this is something more.
The book of Exodus makes it clear that we are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture never tells us they had a face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there was a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.
So how do the people respond? Scripture tells us they were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. Regardless of the reason Moses was calling them to him, they were afraid to come near. Really, can you blame them? Nothing like this had ever happened before; at least scripture had never reported anything like this before. We know why Moses’ face shone, they did not.
The people deserved to be leery of Moses glowing like the dial on my watch.
So Moses called to them, Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation. And they came to him. Moses called them together to share the Good News of the Lord. But imagine the looks on their faces when he was talking. Distracted would describe the look, but I think it would only begin to describe how they looked and felt.
Moses discerned that the change in his appearance was so disturbing to the Israelites that he chose to cover his face while with the assembly. When Moses was with the Lord or when Moses was telling the assembly what the Lord had said, he dropped the veil. Otherwise, this became the only way that Moses could be with the people and appear like a normal man, not the one who had been anointed by the glow of the Lord.
As verse 32 tells us, Moses gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. But the message almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger. This is the first time this sort of thing was reported in scripture, but it wasn’t the last. Today we are privy to the greatest example of the glow of the Lord, the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
This is a miraculous occasion, a time of glory and majesty. This is the perfect time to rest and reflect upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ. These three men, Jesus’ closest earthly confidants; what are they doing? The New Revised Standard Version says they were fighting off sleep. According to other translations, sleep had won.
But this sight, whether they were fully asleep or not, made them fully awake. Here is their master with Moses, the bearer of the law; and Elijah, the one who would return preceding the Messiah. This is a glorious sight.
Peter responds as only Peter knows how: he wants to do something now! Let’s build dwellings, or shelters or tabernacles or memorials again depending on your translation, one apiece!
Can’t you just see the looks on the faces of John and James? “Huh? What?”[6]
But we can’t really blame Peter; he was so thrilled he had no idea what he was saying. This is Peter’s way. Peter’s response shows again that the message of the transfiguration almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger.
The people of Israel received a sign in the shining face of Moses. Peter, John, and James received a sign when they were allowed to see Jesus transfigured in glory and majesty. And in both cases, with the glow, the listeners received the word of the Lord. Moses shared the word the Lord gave him with the people. Peter, James, and John got one better—they heard the voice of God, words echoed from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my Chosen,” followed by the command, “listen to him!”
Futurama is a television show produced by the creator of “The Simpson’s.” It’s about a man, Philip J. Frye, who was accidentally frozen in a cryogenic lab at midnight on December 31, 1999 and thawed 1,000 years later. In the episode titled “Godfellas,” Frye’s best friend and roommate, a robot named Bender, is accidentally shot from a space ship’s torpedo tube while it’s traveling at maximum velocity. Since Bender is moving faster than the ship’s top speed, there is no way to catch up and rescue him. Bender floats through space until he passes through an asteroid field and accidentally accumulates a microscopic civilization on his stomach (or what passes for a stomach on a robot), which declares him God, and worships him despite his constant inability to provide for their needs.[7]
After the civilization that lived on Bender destroyed itself, he was distraught. Then he found an eternal omnipotent presence, the cartoon equivalent of the god of the universe. Bender shares his lament with the greater power. He says that no matter what he did, he could not help them. He did something, it didn’t work. He did nothing, and that didn’t work either. Then Bender learned the lesson of quality miracles from the being, “When you’ve done something right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
Dr. Watson, the DNA guy, says that he has seen no evidence of god, so he isn’t willing to even think about God. But I like this idea from Futurama. When a miracle is done right, we may not be sure God did anything at all.
We live in a complex and complicated world, we are a busy people. There is always something to take our minds from a restful place and engage us in something new. It’s not that there is no evidence of God, it’s just that in a society of adrenaline junkies that insists on dramatic experiences, we can easily miss the subtle evidence God provides. This could be by design, like the god in Futurama; the discreet signs now seem so obvious to us that we take them for granted.
Peter, John, and James got a sign, didn’t they? They were witness to a miracle that could have made Dr. Watson acknowledge the presence of God. But as Dr. Watson might point out, it has been a long, long time since a moment like this one, and we aren’t likely to see one like it any time soon. Where’s our sign?
Look around…in our prayers we give thanks for the sun and the rain. We offer thanks for mercies received. We thank God for the world around us and a place to worship. We pray for the sick and infirm, many of whom we don’t know individually and thanks be to God that as the church we do know them. We give thanks for the waters of our baptism and the sacramental meal which nourishes the Body of Christ. We give thanks to God for our daily bread. We give thanks for the small miracles around us every day. And even though they are common and ordinary, they are still miracles. The message gets lost again in the appearance of the messenger. Only this time, the appearance is too ordinary to get our attention.
So what should we do? We should do as the Israelites did. We should listen to the word of God all around us. And the word of God comes in wonderful and mysterious ways. It comes in the first light of the sunrise and the last light of the sunset. It comes in the face of those we love, and those who love us. It comes in words of encouragement, words we hear and words we share. It comes to us in the word of God recorded for us to read. It comes to us in the living word of Jesus Christ. We need to listen to the word of God around us. Be still, and listen for the word of the Lord. The voice from the cloud tells Peter, John, and James “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Listen to the voice, this is the first step. Listen; resting and reflecting upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ in the arms of the loving God.
As our Psalm teaches, the Lord is great; he is high over all the peoples. Let us confess his great and awesome name for he is the Holy One. The Sovereign God loves justice and establishes equity; executing justice and righteousness. And as God calls Moses and Aaron and Samuel, God calls each of us. God speaks to us. We have our signs, let us follow them. We must now listen for the word of the Lord and answer in word and in deed.
[1] The cover actually says “wisdom and damn good advice,” but I chose to edit my reading for delicate ears.
[2] Ph.D., Indiana University, Zoology, 1950.
[3] Richardson, John H., “What I’ve Learned, James Watson,” Esquire. January 2007, vol. 147, no. 1.
[4] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (accessed: February 17, 2007).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Read with puzzled facial expression.
[7] Keeler, Ken, “Godfellas,” Futurama. episode 52, taken from TV.com, http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html, February 17, 2007.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The Dichotomous Key
This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on February 11, 2007.
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
The Book of Lists is an almanac of sorts written by Irving Wallace, his daughter Amy Wallace, and his son David Wallechinsky.[1] Among the lists found in the book is a list of Unnatural Laws. We are all familiar with natural laws, like every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Unnatural Laws are things like Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong will,” and its corollary, “The probability a slice of buttered bread falling butter-side down is directly proportional to the price of the carpet.”[2] One of my favorites from this list is “There are two kinds of people in this world, those who separate people into two categories and those who don’t.” After reviewing today’s gospel reading, I do believe Luke got the memo.
Blessed are you who are poor, and woe to you who are rich. Blessed are you who are hungry now, and woe to you who are full now. Blessed are you who weep now, and woe to you who are laughing now. Blessed are you when people hate you, and woe to you when all speak well of you. Luke got the memo: There are two kinds of people, the ones who are blessed and those who know woe. Luke doesn’t talk about a middle ground. Luke only has the two extremes, blessings and woes. There is nothing in between.
I would love to do a little hedging right now. I would love to apply Matthew’s more nuanced writing of these lessons to Luke’s version. After all, Matthew’s version comes first in our bibles. It was written first, predating Luke’s by about ten years or so. And it gives us a much broader view of those who are blessed. Matthew writes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… blessed are the meek… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… blessed are the merciful… blessed are the pure in heart… blessed are the peacemakers… blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake… blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Matthew’s version of the beatitudes offers a broader, more inclusive, less severe look at the blessings. Luke blesses the poor; Matthew blesses the poor in spirit. Luke blesses those who hunger, Matthew blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Matthew’s gospel even blesses people Luke doesn’t think about like the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. Matthew even expands the “hate and revile” section with those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Matthew gives everyone something to sink their teeth into. Who isn’t poor in spirit, at least from time to time? Who doesn’t hunger and thirst for righteousness? You got to love that Matthew. Unfortunately, we aren’t reading Matthew.
Luke doesn’t add qualifiers. When Luke deals with the poor, he is talking about the economically disadvantaged, not those who need a spiritual lift. When Luke talks about the hungry and the weeping, he is talking about people who are hungry and weeping right now. Not yesterday, not in the near future, not spiritually; Luke deals with the hungry and weeping right now. When Luke’s listeners are persecuted, they are not persecuted on account of some vague righteousness, they are persecuted on account of the Son of Man.
It’s easier to love Matthew’s rendering of this passage. The people who are blessed in Matthew’s gospel seem to look more like us than the people who are blessed in Luke’s. But there is one more thorn on the rose Luke gives us which is pruned from Matthew, the woes.
Woe to those who are rich. Woe to those who are full now. Woe to those who are laughing now.
Woe to those who are spoken of well. As one writer in Homiletics Magazine writes, “It seems that Jesus is simply being un-American here.”[3] It looks like Jesus is completely indifferent to the American Dream. The Declaration of Independence calls “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” unalienable rights. This teaching of Jesus does nothing of the like. Jesus would call these unalienable rights a woeful state.
When identifying trees, arborists use something called a dichotomous key. To use a dichotomous key, you begin with a leaf in one hand and the key in the other. The key then asks a series of questions to help the user narrow down the number of possible species a sample can come from. These keys generally begin with the question, “Is the sample deciduous or coniferous?” Getting away from the five dollar words, does the tree lose its leaves or is it an evergreen? From there, it asks questions about the breadth of the leaves, and the number of lobes on the leaf. It asks if the leaf is needlelike or not. Each of these questions eliminates more and more trees until one is left to identify the sample.
The crucial element to the dichotomous key is that it asks either/or questions. It separates the specimen into two categories, does it look like this or not. And it does this until it eliminates every other tree in the book and identifies the leaf.
Jesus seems to be using a dichotomous key to describe people instead of trees. Jesus uses this sermon to talk about distinct types of people: those who are poor, and those who are rich, those who are hungry and those who are filled, those who weep and those who laugh, those who are reviled and those who are popular. When focusing on this part of the scripture, we focus on these separations. But there is one other set of separations that tends to be overlooked when we focus on these.
In the scene preceding our reading, Jesus spent the night at the top of the mountain praying. And when day came, he called his disciples (everyone who believes in him) and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.[4] From there, “He came down to them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people.” The lesson tends to be overshadowed in Luke’s gospel is that Jesus comes down from the mountain to be with the people. He comes to be one of us.
Jesus has come from the heavenly host and become human. He has joined us on a level place; he does not stand above us. What a scandal, Jesus has come to earth to be with those who are blessed, and those who are filled with woe. He is with people who will be blessed, and those who will be filled with woe. Jesus is with us, and there is nothing we can ever do that will end that.
Even the crucifixion won’t end Jesus being with us. The resurrection confirms this.
The people come from all around. He is surrounded by those who will become his closest pupils and confidants. He is surrounded by other believers. He is surrounded by other folks. But Jesus does not make his divisions between these categories. His dichotomous key doesn’t use these characteristics to separate the blessed from those who know woe.
The people come from all around, “a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.” The people who come to be with Jesus are Jews, the people of the covenant, the people of Judea and Jerusalem. And he is also surrounded by the gentiles, the hated gentiles, the people from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. But Jesus does not make his divisions between these categories. His dichotomous key doesn’t use these characteristics to separate the blessed from those who know woe.
Jesus’ ministry extends to both those who have been in covenant with God and those who were alienated by God.[5] Jesus is with us all, regardless of our life situations. Jesus does not desert us because of what makes us different from one another.
Jesus shares the word and the power of God with everyone on the plain. And Jesus continues to share the word and the power of God with us all. God’s blessing is not restricted by our earthly status, after all, status changes. Those who are filled now can be hungry later, and this was an important truth of first century life. But the word and the power of God are not dependent on these things; the word and the power of God are gifts for us all now through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
You have probably heard of Warren Buffett, an investor known as the Oracle of Omaha. According to Forbes Magazine, he is the second richest person in the world behind Microsoft's Bill Gates.[6] Buffett had always intended to donate his fortune to charity, but his original plan was to wait until the time of his death to make the donation. In a stunning reversal, Buffett has set in motion a plan to donate $30.7 billion, or 85% of his personal wealth, to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to accelerate and deepen the amount of work the foundation can do. Buffett effectively, doubled the size of the foundation’s endowment.
This is what Buffett had to say about the foundation in a letter he wrote to Bill and Melinda Gates announcing the donation:
I hope that the expansion of [the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s] giving is one of depth, rather than breadth. You have committed yourselves to a few extraordinarily important but underfunded issues, a policy that I believe offers the highest probability of your achieving goals of great consequence. The doubling of [the foundation’s] present spending can increase [it’s] already impressive effectiveness in addressing the societal problems upon which it now focuses.[7]
Daniel Borochoff, the president of the American Institute of Philanthropy said this about Buffett’s gift: “They are playing God with that kind of wealth. They’re going to be responsible for whether a lot of people live or die.”[8] It’s melodramatic, but I think he’s right. But there is a problem with this statement; people with this kind of money have always had the power of life and death over others. And just maybe, this is what Jesus is getting at. Wealth itself is neutral, it is how people acquire and use wealth that makes the difference between blessings and woes.
Jesus makes no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, the rich and the poor, but people make these distinctions. And usually when people make these distinctions it injures people who are the most vulnerable.
In the end, Jesus teaches us that whoever dies with the most toys surely does not win. In fact, only by sharing our earthly blessings will we ever truly know the heavenly blessings. I am not suggesting you write a check for $30.7 billion and put it in the plate. But I am suggesting we do as Buffett did. See where good work is being done—and join in. It may not be in our original plans, but the new plan given us in the Good News is too good to pass up.
[9]In the past, you have heard of my affinity for the School House Rock series from ABC television. One of the most popular, and one of my favorites, is “Conjunction Junction.” In the words of the song, this little ditty teaches, “and, but, and or can get you pretty far.” There are distinctions between people in this world, but Jesus doesn’t make them. In the Christ, God became a part of the creation. And it is very good. In a world that is filled with “but” and “or”, Jesus teaches us that “and” is more important. And he came and joined us in our situation. And now we must come and join him in his situation just as he joined us.
[1] Wallace, Irving, Wallace, Amy and Wallechinsky, David, “People’s almanac presents the book of lists, The.” New York: Morrow, 1977.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law, accessed February 10, 2007.
[3] http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=93000312, accessed February 5, 2007.
[4] Luke 6:13, parenthesis added for clarity.
[5] Ibid homeliticsonline.com.
[6] http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?section=money_topstories, accessed February 10, 2007.
[7] Buffett’s Letter to Bill and Melinda Gates, http://berkshirehathaway.com/donate/bmgfltr.pdf, accessed February 9, 2007.
[8] Ibid homeliticsonline.com.
[9] This paragraph is difficult to read silently because of the run-on of conjunctions. Sorry about that.
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
The Book of Lists is an almanac of sorts written by Irving Wallace, his daughter Amy Wallace, and his son David Wallechinsky.[1] Among the lists found in the book is a list of Unnatural Laws. We are all familiar with natural laws, like every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Unnatural Laws are things like Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong will,” and its corollary, “The probability a slice of buttered bread falling butter-side down is directly proportional to the price of the carpet.”[2] One of my favorites from this list is “There are two kinds of people in this world, those who separate people into two categories and those who don’t.” After reviewing today’s gospel reading, I do believe Luke got the memo.
Blessed are you who are poor, and woe to you who are rich. Blessed are you who are hungry now, and woe to you who are full now. Blessed are you who weep now, and woe to you who are laughing now. Blessed are you when people hate you, and woe to you when all speak well of you. Luke got the memo: There are two kinds of people, the ones who are blessed and those who know woe. Luke doesn’t talk about a middle ground. Luke only has the two extremes, blessings and woes. There is nothing in between.
I would love to do a little hedging right now. I would love to apply Matthew’s more nuanced writing of these lessons to Luke’s version. After all, Matthew’s version comes first in our bibles. It was written first, predating Luke’s by about ten years or so. And it gives us a much broader view of those who are blessed. Matthew writes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… blessed are the meek… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… blessed are the merciful… blessed are the pure in heart… blessed are the peacemakers… blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake… blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Matthew’s version of the beatitudes offers a broader, more inclusive, less severe look at the blessings. Luke blesses the poor; Matthew blesses the poor in spirit. Luke blesses those who hunger, Matthew blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Matthew’s gospel even blesses people Luke doesn’t think about like the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. Matthew even expands the “hate and revile” section with those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Matthew gives everyone something to sink their teeth into. Who isn’t poor in spirit, at least from time to time? Who doesn’t hunger and thirst for righteousness? You got to love that Matthew. Unfortunately, we aren’t reading Matthew.
Luke doesn’t add qualifiers. When Luke deals with the poor, he is talking about the economically disadvantaged, not those who need a spiritual lift. When Luke talks about the hungry and the weeping, he is talking about people who are hungry and weeping right now. Not yesterday, not in the near future, not spiritually; Luke deals with the hungry and weeping right now. When Luke’s listeners are persecuted, they are not persecuted on account of some vague righteousness, they are persecuted on account of the Son of Man.
It’s easier to love Matthew’s rendering of this passage. The people who are blessed in Matthew’s gospel seem to look more like us than the people who are blessed in Luke’s. But there is one more thorn on the rose Luke gives us which is pruned from Matthew, the woes.
Woe to those who are rich. Woe to those who are full now. Woe to those who are laughing now.
Woe to those who are spoken of well. As one writer in Homiletics Magazine writes, “It seems that Jesus is simply being un-American here.”[3] It looks like Jesus is completely indifferent to the American Dream. The Declaration of Independence calls “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” unalienable rights. This teaching of Jesus does nothing of the like. Jesus would call these unalienable rights a woeful state.
When identifying trees, arborists use something called a dichotomous key. To use a dichotomous key, you begin with a leaf in one hand and the key in the other. The key then asks a series of questions to help the user narrow down the number of possible species a sample can come from. These keys generally begin with the question, “Is the sample deciduous or coniferous?” Getting away from the five dollar words, does the tree lose its leaves or is it an evergreen? From there, it asks questions about the breadth of the leaves, and the number of lobes on the leaf. It asks if the leaf is needlelike or not. Each of these questions eliminates more and more trees until one is left to identify the sample.
The crucial element to the dichotomous key is that it asks either/or questions. It separates the specimen into two categories, does it look like this or not. And it does this until it eliminates every other tree in the book and identifies the leaf.
Jesus seems to be using a dichotomous key to describe people instead of trees. Jesus uses this sermon to talk about distinct types of people: those who are poor, and those who are rich, those who are hungry and those who are filled, those who weep and those who laugh, those who are reviled and those who are popular. When focusing on this part of the scripture, we focus on these separations. But there is one other set of separations that tends to be overlooked when we focus on these.
In the scene preceding our reading, Jesus spent the night at the top of the mountain praying. And when day came, he called his disciples (everyone who believes in him) and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.[4] From there, “He came down to them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people.” The lesson tends to be overshadowed in Luke’s gospel is that Jesus comes down from the mountain to be with the people. He comes to be one of us.
Jesus has come from the heavenly host and become human. He has joined us on a level place; he does not stand above us. What a scandal, Jesus has come to earth to be with those who are blessed, and those who are filled with woe. He is with people who will be blessed, and those who will be filled with woe. Jesus is with us, and there is nothing we can ever do that will end that.
Even the crucifixion won’t end Jesus being with us. The resurrection confirms this.
The people come from all around. He is surrounded by those who will become his closest pupils and confidants. He is surrounded by other believers. He is surrounded by other folks. But Jesus does not make his divisions between these categories. His dichotomous key doesn’t use these characteristics to separate the blessed from those who know woe.
The people come from all around, “a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.” The people who come to be with Jesus are Jews, the people of the covenant, the people of Judea and Jerusalem. And he is also surrounded by the gentiles, the hated gentiles, the people from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. But Jesus does not make his divisions between these categories. His dichotomous key doesn’t use these characteristics to separate the blessed from those who know woe.
Jesus’ ministry extends to both those who have been in covenant with God and those who were alienated by God.[5] Jesus is with us all, regardless of our life situations. Jesus does not desert us because of what makes us different from one another.
Jesus shares the word and the power of God with everyone on the plain. And Jesus continues to share the word and the power of God with us all. God’s blessing is not restricted by our earthly status, after all, status changes. Those who are filled now can be hungry later, and this was an important truth of first century life. But the word and the power of God are not dependent on these things; the word and the power of God are gifts for us all now through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
You have probably heard of Warren Buffett, an investor known as the Oracle of Omaha. According to Forbes Magazine, he is the second richest person in the world behind Microsoft's Bill Gates.[6] Buffett had always intended to donate his fortune to charity, but his original plan was to wait until the time of his death to make the donation. In a stunning reversal, Buffett has set in motion a plan to donate $30.7 billion, or 85% of his personal wealth, to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to accelerate and deepen the amount of work the foundation can do. Buffett effectively, doubled the size of the foundation’s endowment.
This is what Buffett had to say about the foundation in a letter he wrote to Bill and Melinda Gates announcing the donation:
I hope that the expansion of [the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s] giving is one of depth, rather than breadth. You have committed yourselves to a few extraordinarily important but underfunded issues, a policy that I believe offers the highest probability of your achieving goals of great consequence. The doubling of [the foundation’s] present spending can increase [it’s] already impressive effectiveness in addressing the societal problems upon which it now focuses.[7]
Daniel Borochoff, the president of the American Institute of Philanthropy said this about Buffett’s gift: “They are playing God with that kind of wealth. They’re going to be responsible for whether a lot of people live or die.”[8] It’s melodramatic, but I think he’s right. But there is a problem with this statement; people with this kind of money have always had the power of life and death over others. And just maybe, this is what Jesus is getting at. Wealth itself is neutral, it is how people acquire and use wealth that makes the difference between blessings and woes.
Jesus makes no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, the rich and the poor, but people make these distinctions. And usually when people make these distinctions it injures people who are the most vulnerable.
In the end, Jesus teaches us that whoever dies with the most toys surely does not win. In fact, only by sharing our earthly blessings will we ever truly know the heavenly blessings. I am not suggesting you write a check for $30.7 billion and put it in the plate. But I am suggesting we do as Buffett did. See where good work is being done—and join in. It may not be in our original plans, but the new plan given us in the Good News is too good to pass up.
[9]In the past, you have heard of my affinity for the School House Rock series from ABC television. One of the most popular, and one of my favorites, is “Conjunction Junction.” In the words of the song, this little ditty teaches, “and, but, and or can get you pretty far.” There are distinctions between people in this world, but Jesus doesn’t make them. In the Christ, God became a part of the creation. And it is very good. In a world that is filled with “but” and “or”, Jesus teaches us that “and” is more important. And he came and joined us in our situation. And now we must come and join him in his situation just as he joined us.
[1] Wallace, Irving, Wallace, Amy and Wallechinsky, David, “People’s almanac presents the book of lists, The.” New York: Morrow, 1977.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law, accessed February 10, 2007.
[3] http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=93000312, accessed February 5, 2007.
[4] Luke 6:13, parenthesis added for clarity.
[5] Ibid homeliticsonline.com.
[6] http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?section=money_topstories, accessed February 10, 2007.
[7] Buffett’s Letter to Bill and Melinda Gates, http://berkshirehathaway.com/donate/bmgfltr.pdf, accessed February 9, 2007.
[8] Ibid homeliticsonline.com.
[9] This paragraph is difficult to read silently because of the run-on of conjunctions. Sorry about that.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Volunteers
This sermon was delivered at First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday February 4, 2007.
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
My wife got a call from her cousin Cindy last night. I met Cindy once, at our wedding, and as soon as I saw the two of them together I knew they were as thick as thieves, and I am told I don’t know the half of it. They grew up together, spending the night at each other’s houses, playing together, getting in trouble, the stuff that cousins-closer-than-sisters do. Cindy was raised in the Our Lady of Pompeii parish and Marie was raised in St. Clair’s. So as young girls do, and as teen age girls do, they made fun of the old ladies of the Women’s Guild. You know, the old ladies! They have funny blue hair and they were always telling the two of them to behave. Can’t you just hear them now? “We’ll never be like that!”
Well, last night they were talking, and with a sense of foreboding, Cindy told Marie, “I’m getting old.” Marie asked what makes her say that. Cindy said, in a weary voice, “I was cleaning the kitchen at the parish the other day.” Sensing where this was going, Marie began to laugh asking, “So, you did too good of a job, huh?” Cindy asked, in the same drained tones, “Do you remember the Women’s Guild at the church? Do you remember how we used to make fun of them?” Marie roared in laughter. “They have invited me to join them. They have invited me to join the Women’s Guild. They want me to take over the kitchen. I am getting old.”
No good deed ever goes unpunished, does it? Invited to join, you know what that means, don’t you—drafted.
Oh, by the way, the all church clean up is scheduled for Saturday March 3rd, the day before Palm Sunday. We’ll get started about nine in the morning. See you there!
This weekend on AMC, the American Movie Classics cable network, there have been a bunch of John Wayne movies. I’m not sure why. It’s not the Duke’s birthday, that’s in May. Since he died in June it’s not that either. And they’re showing all sorts of movies, too. They’re showing Hellfighters, a story modeled on the life of oil field fire specialist Red Adair. They’re showing Mcq. AMC’s website says “John Wayne breaks from his cowboy image to play a hardened Seattle police officer whose best friend is murdered and accused of being a drug trafficker.”[1] Also breaking his cowboy image is a showing of The Quiet Man where he plays an Irish boxer wooing Maureen O'Hara. And, of course, they’re showing The Green Berets.[2]
Say what you will about this movie and what it represented, and much has been said about it, there is a piece of it that I absolutely love. It’s relationship between Wayne as Colonel Mike Kirby and Jim Hutton as Peterson. Sure, it’s the same relationship seen in every war movie ever made but I still love it: The hard acre Colonel takes on the unit slacker and teaches him what it takes to be a soldier. In this case, Jim Hutton portrays the guy who doesn’t play by the rules. His character is sort of like a quartermaster, the guy in the unit in charge of supplies. And when he is unable to get what he needs through channels, he is willing to get it by hook or by crook. Before becoming a Green Beret, the latest victim of his scrounging is Colonel Kirby’s unit. Well, it doesn’t take long for the Duke to nail the scrounger, so Kirby gives Peterson two choices, the stockade or joining Colonel Kirby’s unit. Peterson quickly accepts the transfer and is promptly promoted to Sergeant.
After shipping out to Vietnam, Colonel Kirby gets tough and teaches Sergeant Peterson to be a Green Beret. Peterson uses his talents for scrounging supplies to get the supplies needed by the unit to do what they had been sent to do. Yes, it’s a rough and tumble time between the two of them. But respect replaces hostility. Soon Peterson becomes Colonel Kirby’s right hand in matters of procurement.
But here’s the thing to remember about their relationship, it began when Colonel Kirby caught then Corporal Peterson red handed. There was no way out and Peterson had two choices, serve the Colonel or become a prisoner. It was an easy choice for Peterson. He chose life outside of the stockade. The movie never says if Peterson volunteered or was drafted into the Marines, but he was definitely drafted into the Green Berets.
In the church, we often talk about making a personal choice, a personal confession to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and our hearts. This is an important image. We take our sin soaked lives and open them to the one who is so pure we are blinded by the light of his life. We have to take the first step to bring Christ into our lives.
There is one thing about this though; it’s not good reformed theology.
For the new guy on the scene, Jesus is pretty pushy. Simon is in business with his partners, and that night, business was bad. An evening of hard, dangerous work passed with nothing to show for it. So Jesus gets into one of the boats and tells Simon Peter to put out from the shore. Jesus doesn’t ask, he insists, he gets in and tells Peter to put out from the shore.
Jesus commands Simon Peter. Jesus doesn’t ask “who would like to take me out on the lake?” Jesus doesn’t ask for volunteers, he tells people what to do and requires people respond. Jesus uses imperatives while speaking to Peter: “do this, do that.” And he does this when Peter is in the middle of his real job. Peter, James, and John are on their boats. Jesus calls them while they are at what would be considered a really bad time because of what’s going on in “real life.”
This is looking more and more like a conscripted service than it is a volunteer army with every word.
You see, Jesus was not asking for volunteers. John 15:16 says it best, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”
Now tell me, after a hard day or night of work, how many of you would have been ready to put out the boat, or take out the truck, or turn on the computer, or answer the phone, or open the store for someone you don’t know? I won’t speak for you, but I would be leery. As for Peter, I am sure he wanted to get to the market to sell the evening’s catch. Oh yeah, that’s right, there was no evening catch.
So then, after telling Peter to put out into the lake, Jesus tells him to cast his freshly cleaned net for a catch. Again, Jesus doesn’t suggest this, he doesn’t ask him. He tells Simon to put out his net. Peter’s response: “Master, we have worked all night long, and have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.”
There are two ways to read this verse; one is the King James way with great confidence, reverence, and honor. But for me, after a long night’s work, my voice would have dripped with sarcasm.
Oh, yes Master, we have worked all night long, and have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.
Before enjoying a relationship with the Lord I was a very sarcastic man, so it’s easy for me to put this emphasis on Peter’s words. But I’m much better now.
Of course you know what comes next, we just read it. Peter had so many fish in his nets that they were beginning to break. And when everyone had come out to bring in the catch, there were so many fish in the boats that they had begun to sink.
Simon Peter knows when he is humbled. He falls at Jesus’ knees telling him to go away. “Lord, I am a sinful man, go away from me.”
Here we go again with the commands.
Jesus isn’t to be put off by Peter’s insistence though. He offers two things, first the Old Testament imperative, “Fear not!” Then Jesus tells the fishermen what will become of them, “From now on, you will be catching people.” With this command, they leave their old world behind and enter the new world headed by Jesus, the anointed one who is the Christ.
Returning to the reformed theological view of the Army of the Lord, we believe that there is one Lord, God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we believe that in this army, as the Lord is the Commander in Chief, everyone else is a Buck Private. There are no other officers, not even any non-commissioned officers. We are all members of the same corps, or body if you prefer, with equal rank. Yes, we all have different specialties as we have different gifts and the Jesus is the head of the church, Lord of the conscience. We are ordered to follow him.
We have no other bishop but Jesus Christ; we are members of his eternal, universal church. The question is not whether we will accept Jesus into our hearts. We have been called. We have been purchased at a price. We have been drafted by the one who gives us life outside the stockade. Our only choice is whether we will desert or not.
Earlier I used the phrase, “enjoy a relationship with the Lord.” This is when we need to remember that we have two choices, we can serve in the army of the Lord as drafted or we can report to the stockade of the life of sin we build for ourselves. We can choose to enjoy or resent this relationship and our call to serve God. Like Sergeant Peterson in the movie, we can choose to despise and resent our lot in life or we can choose life and develop a relationship with our commanding officer. We are not volunteers, we are all draftees. It is up to us whether we serve the army of the Lord as soldiers or as prisoners of our own demise.
As for me, I say listen for the call. Listen for your marching orders, and respond to them. Peter, James, and John responded when called. What will we do? Listen, and do as we are told by the Lord our God. As the song goes, “I am a soldier/in the Army of the Lord.”[3] Like a soldier reporting to the perfect General, let me do as I am commanded.
[1] http://www.amctv.com/show/detail?CID=5860-1-EST, accessed February 3, 2007.
[2] Movie references taken from my personal recollection of “The Green Berets” and from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Berets_%28film%29, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hutton, and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063035/ accessed February 3, 2007.
[3] “Soldier,” traditional. I own a copy of this song by The Blind Boys of Alabama on, “Spirit of the Century.” Realworld/Island records, 2001.
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
My wife got a call from her cousin Cindy last night. I met Cindy once, at our wedding, and as soon as I saw the two of them together I knew they were as thick as thieves, and I am told I don’t know the half of it. They grew up together, spending the night at each other’s houses, playing together, getting in trouble, the stuff that cousins-closer-than-sisters do. Cindy was raised in the Our Lady of Pompeii parish and Marie was raised in St. Clair’s. So as young girls do, and as teen age girls do, they made fun of the old ladies of the Women’s Guild. You know, the old ladies! They have funny blue hair and they were always telling the two of them to behave. Can’t you just hear them now? “We’ll never be like that!”
Well, last night they were talking, and with a sense of foreboding, Cindy told Marie, “I’m getting old.” Marie asked what makes her say that. Cindy said, in a weary voice, “I was cleaning the kitchen at the parish the other day.” Sensing where this was going, Marie began to laugh asking, “So, you did too good of a job, huh?” Cindy asked, in the same drained tones, “Do you remember the Women’s Guild at the church? Do you remember how we used to make fun of them?” Marie roared in laughter. “They have invited me to join them. They have invited me to join the Women’s Guild. They want me to take over the kitchen. I am getting old.”
No good deed ever goes unpunished, does it? Invited to join, you know what that means, don’t you—drafted.
Oh, by the way, the all church clean up is scheduled for Saturday March 3rd, the day before Palm Sunday. We’ll get started about nine in the morning. See you there!
This weekend on AMC, the American Movie Classics cable network, there have been a bunch of John Wayne movies. I’m not sure why. It’s not the Duke’s birthday, that’s in May. Since he died in June it’s not that either. And they’re showing all sorts of movies, too. They’re showing Hellfighters, a story modeled on the life of oil field fire specialist Red Adair. They’re showing Mcq. AMC’s website says “John Wayne breaks from his cowboy image to play a hardened Seattle police officer whose best friend is murdered and accused of being a drug trafficker.”[1] Also breaking his cowboy image is a showing of The Quiet Man where he plays an Irish boxer wooing Maureen O'Hara. And, of course, they’re showing The Green Berets.[2]
Say what you will about this movie and what it represented, and much has been said about it, there is a piece of it that I absolutely love. It’s relationship between Wayne as Colonel Mike Kirby and Jim Hutton as Peterson. Sure, it’s the same relationship seen in every war movie ever made but I still love it: The hard acre Colonel takes on the unit slacker and teaches him what it takes to be a soldier. In this case, Jim Hutton portrays the guy who doesn’t play by the rules. His character is sort of like a quartermaster, the guy in the unit in charge of supplies. And when he is unable to get what he needs through channels, he is willing to get it by hook or by crook. Before becoming a Green Beret, the latest victim of his scrounging is Colonel Kirby’s unit. Well, it doesn’t take long for the Duke to nail the scrounger, so Kirby gives Peterson two choices, the stockade or joining Colonel Kirby’s unit. Peterson quickly accepts the transfer and is promptly promoted to Sergeant.
After shipping out to Vietnam, Colonel Kirby gets tough and teaches Sergeant Peterson to be a Green Beret. Peterson uses his talents for scrounging supplies to get the supplies needed by the unit to do what they had been sent to do. Yes, it’s a rough and tumble time between the two of them. But respect replaces hostility. Soon Peterson becomes Colonel Kirby’s right hand in matters of procurement.
But here’s the thing to remember about their relationship, it began when Colonel Kirby caught then Corporal Peterson red handed. There was no way out and Peterson had two choices, serve the Colonel or become a prisoner. It was an easy choice for Peterson. He chose life outside of the stockade. The movie never says if Peterson volunteered or was drafted into the Marines, but he was definitely drafted into the Green Berets.
In the church, we often talk about making a personal choice, a personal confession to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and our hearts. This is an important image. We take our sin soaked lives and open them to the one who is so pure we are blinded by the light of his life. We have to take the first step to bring Christ into our lives.
There is one thing about this though; it’s not good reformed theology.
For the new guy on the scene, Jesus is pretty pushy. Simon is in business with his partners, and that night, business was bad. An evening of hard, dangerous work passed with nothing to show for it. So Jesus gets into one of the boats and tells Simon Peter to put out from the shore. Jesus doesn’t ask, he insists, he gets in and tells Peter to put out from the shore.
Jesus commands Simon Peter. Jesus doesn’t ask “who would like to take me out on the lake?” Jesus doesn’t ask for volunteers, he tells people what to do and requires people respond. Jesus uses imperatives while speaking to Peter: “do this, do that.” And he does this when Peter is in the middle of his real job. Peter, James, and John are on their boats. Jesus calls them while they are at what would be considered a really bad time because of what’s going on in “real life.”
This is looking more and more like a conscripted service than it is a volunteer army with every word.
You see, Jesus was not asking for volunteers. John 15:16 says it best, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”
Now tell me, after a hard day or night of work, how many of you would have been ready to put out the boat, or take out the truck, or turn on the computer, or answer the phone, or open the store for someone you don’t know? I won’t speak for you, but I would be leery. As for Peter, I am sure he wanted to get to the market to sell the evening’s catch. Oh yeah, that’s right, there was no evening catch.
So then, after telling Peter to put out into the lake, Jesus tells him to cast his freshly cleaned net for a catch. Again, Jesus doesn’t suggest this, he doesn’t ask him. He tells Simon to put out his net. Peter’s response: “Master, we have worked all night long, and have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.”
There are two ways to read this verse; one is the King James way with great confidence, reverence, and honor. But for me, after a long night’s work, my voice would have dripped with sarcasm.
Oh, yes Master, we have worked all night long, and have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets for a catch.
Before enjoying a relationship with the Lord I was a very sarcastic man, so it’s easy for me to put this emphasis on Peter’s words. But I’m much better now.
Of course you know what comes next, we just read it. Peter had so many fish in his nets that they were beginning to break. And when everyone had come out to bring in the catch, there were so many fish in the boats that they had begun to sink.
Simon Peter knows when he is humbled. He falls at Jesus’ knees telling him to go away. “Lord, I am a sinful man, go away from me.”
Here we go again with the commands.
Jesus isn’t to be put off by Peter’s insistence though. He offers two things, first the Old Testament imperative, “Fear not!” Then Jesus tells the fishermen what will become of them, “From now on, you will be catching people.” With this command, they leave their old world behind and enter the new world headed by Jesus, the anointed one who is the Christ.
Returning to the reformed theological view of the Army of the Lord, we believe that there is one Lord, God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we believe that in this army, as the Lord is the Commander in Chief, everyone else is a Buck Private. There are no other officers, not even any non-commissioned officers. We are all members of the same corps, or body if you prefer, with equal rank. Yes, we all have different specialties as we have different gifts and the Jesus is the head of the church, Lord of the conscience. We are ordered to follow him.
We have no other bishop but Jesus Christ; we are members of his eternal, universal church. The question is not whether we will accept Jesus into our hearts. We have been called. We have been purchased at a price. We have been drafted by the one who gives us life outside the stockade. Our only choice is whether we will desert or not.
Earlier I used the phrase, “enjoy a relationship with the Lord.” This is when we need to remember that we have two choices, we can serve in the army of the Lord as drafted or we can report to the stockade of the life of sin we build for ourselves. We can choose to enjoy or resent this relationship and our call to serve God. Like Sergeant Peterson in the movie, we can choose to despise and resent our lot in life or we can choose life and develop a relationship with our commanding officer. We are not volunteers, we are all draftees. It is up to us whether we serve the army of the Lord as soldiers or as prisoners of our own demise.
As for me, I say listen for the call. Listen for your marching orders, and respond to them. Peter, James, and John responded when called. What will we do? Listen, and do as we are told by the Lord our God. As the song goes, “I am a soldier/in the Army of the Lord.”[3] Like a soldier reporting to the perfect General, let me do as I am commanded.
[1] http://www.amctv.com/show/detail?CID=5860-1-EST, accessed February 3, 2007.
[2] Movie references taken from my personal recollection of “The Green Berets” and from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Berets_%28film%29, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hutton, and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063035/ accessed February 3, 2007.
[3] “Soldier,” traditional. I own a copy of this song by The Blind Boys of Alabama on, “Spirit of the Century.” Realworld/Island records, 2001.
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