This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday April 27, 2008, the 6th Sunday in Easter.
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
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 last thing I have to tell any of us is that Election Day is coming closer every day. I wish I could tell you, I would love to tell you all it’s just around the corner, but that would be a lie. After nearly a year and a half of candidates, debates, and scandal-gates, we will be celebrating the democratic process for nearly 30 more weeks. In the end of the process, voters will be responsible for electing candidates for city, county, district, state, and national office. As we learned in the 2000 election this isn’t quite true for the Presidency, but this is no place to try to explain the Electoral College.
The concept of election also has theological roots, far different from those of the political realm. Of course, theologians can’t agree on precisely what “election” means. One ancient understanding of this concept is that the Lord preordains some persons to be saved and others to be condemned. This is called “double predestination.” While this understanding of election has historical legs, it is not right.
After all, as we know, the Lord is the Lord of life, not the Lord of death. It is outside of the character of God to create life only to have it sentenced to eternal death. Remember, in the words of John’s gospel as Jesus promises his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
This isn’t the issue Paul was running into when he brought the Good News to Athens. He was teaching the truth of life eternal in Jesus Christ in the Synagogue and in the market place, where ever people would listen.
When Paul reached Athens with the Gospel, the people were intrigued. Receiving new philosophies wasn’t new to the Athenians; they loved new ideas and new philosophies. Still, while the Good News Paul shared with them was new and strange; but the Athenians weren’t sure about something this new and strange.
So Paul began by acknowledging the spirituality of the Greeks; and the Greeks of the day were a highly spiritual, very religious people. The Greeks of that day would have no trouble living in our world with its many religions, pseudo-religions, and new age philosophies. In fact, while they didn’t invent new age religion, they could easily have laid the groundwork for its current incarnation.
The Greeks were so spiritual, and so (if you’ll pardon the expression) politically correct that they would erect shrines to Gods they didn’t know existed in the off chance that if an unknown God showed up; he she or whatever would not be offended. Imagine the ancient goat god Baal showing up in Athens asking where his statue is and being told “It’s over here; you must be ‘other.’”
Paul used the Athenian anticipation of the unknown to share with them what they did not know. Paul told them of the God who made the world and everything in it. He told them of the God who breathed life into creation. He told them of the God who created life so that the living would search for its creator just as they do.
He told them of the God who created the world, so we do not need to create shrines where God can live; God lives everywhere. We shouldn’t even think of God like the idols and altars forged of gold, or silver, or stone; or of any other sort of image forged by our imaginations.
He told of God who is not served by human hands as though he needed human hands to serve him. He told of the God who freely creates out of love for creation wanting nothing more and nothing less than for creation to seek God; not because God needs it, but because God wants it. God wants a relationship with creation and has freely given all of creation the yearning to join in the life eternal.
What God wants is for creation to repent from the ancient ways and, to turn to new life because this God “has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
So if God doesn’t want us to build him shrines or altars, if God doesn’t want little houses like Peter wanted to build at the transfiguration, what does God want?
God wants us to repent. And in Jesus Christ, repentance is no longer marked by returning to the ways of the law; it is in developing a relationship with the one who created the Law, the one who is the embodiment of the Law.[1]
In our reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples how he wants to be worshiped; he tells them how to love him. Jesus tells them “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” But if we are to live for the one who wrote the law, not for the law itself, what does it mean to keep his commandments?
We are called to respond to the Word of God in faith, not in fear. We are to respond to a relationship with a living being, the Living God; not out of fear of reprisal from statues we could never hope to keep.
“For both Paul and John repentance is included in faith. Paul speaks of faith as union with Christ; the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation. The Johannine literature presents the life in Christ as rebirth; movement from death to life and from darkness to light; or as the triumph of truth over falsehood, love over hatred, God over the world.”[2]
And God so knows that we need help to strengthen our faith that he will send an advocate, a counselor, a helper so that we may keep Jesus’ commandments. Through Jesus, God sends the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Life who helps us to keep the faith. It is through the work of the Spirit and faith in the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, that we live. Because God lives, we live and on that day, that day of judgment and redemption, we will know that Jesus is in the Father and being in Jesus, Jesus is in us.
One of the great truths of the church which came from the reformation is that we are saved by grace through faith. Last week, I spoke of the radical nature of grace. Grace is the freely given gift of unmerited favor. We can do nothing to earn grace. We can’t buy it with cash, our good acts or even our repentance. Last week I said:
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it.[3]
We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is God’s freely given gift. But without our response to this gift, it is worthless. Unless we live in relationship with the Lord, sharing the grace and peace of Jesus, unless we keep his command to love and share—grace is wasted on us.
In Acts Paul teaches us that our response comes in repentance through faith. We are called to turn from the old ways and (in the case of the Athenians) many Gods to the one true God.
America’s Election Day is coming soon, November 11, 2008. In Acts, Paul promises the Athenians that God has fixed a day when the world will be judged. On our election day, we, citizens, voters will judge the quality of the candidates and elect the ones who will govern us. According to Acts, God will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. That man is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has been elected by his Father.
We talk about human election and predestination when in truth the one who is elect is our Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can claim this status. But through his work, and the presence of his Spirit, by grace through faith we share a bond, a love, a relationship with the triune God.
Jesus promises us as individuals and together as the body of Christ that he is coming; he will not leave us orphaned. This is not because Jesus needs us but because Jesus wants us. We are given the gift of grace so that we may respond in faith and love through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how we keep his commandments.
Last week’s reading from John’s gospel began, “In my father’s house there is room for everyone,”[4] through faith, we enter the household of God for the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation.[5]
[1] Repentance, “The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Buttirck, Editor. 21st Printing, Electronic Edition, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1962
[2] Ibid.
[3] Stories of Life, http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2008/04/stories-of-life.html, retrieved April 26, 2008.
[4] New Living Translation
[5] Ibid, Repentence.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Stories of Life
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on sunday April 20, 2008, the 5th Sunday of Easter.
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Stories have been one of the great mediums of history. From the ancient Greeks and the fables of Aesop, the epic poetry of Homer, and the tragedies of Sophocles; ancient history has been filled with those who would entertain and teach through stories. In modern times, this still exists but in new media including print, celluloid, video, and digital formats. One of the most delicious connections between the ancient and modern is the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the Coen Brother’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
Our readings from Acts and John are wonderful narratives, stories about the early church. But to get a more complete picture of our reading from Acts, it is important to review the beginning of the story.
At the end of Acts 6, Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council of Elders. According to the scripture, “[The Council] set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” The High Priest asks Stephen if this is true and Stephen begins to testify.
Stephen begins by telling the story of Abraham, the story of the beginnings of the nation of Israel. He reminds the Council of the covenant between Abraham and the Lord. He tells them of the patriarchs, the sons of Abraham who would be the fathers of the twelve tribes. He told of selling Joseph into slavery and his ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand over all of Egypt.
Stephen reminded them of Moses being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians. He told of Moses fleeing into the land of Midian. He tells the council of how Moses received the Lord’s commission, and how he led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land receiving the Law.
Stephen told of the people’s disobedience in the desert. He called them a stiff-necked people, a people who could not be turned from their own ill devices even when yoked like oxen. Stephen told the Council of Elders the story of their very own salvation. He told them the story of their life together as the people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He testified to the many great victories of the Lord the council represents and protects from the scandal of Jesus.
You’ve got to imagine they were quite pleased with themselves. The rebel rouser Stephen is capitulating to the pressure of the superior authority of the council. They would have his apology before they passed their judgment against him and his heresy, the lies he spoke.
As the Sanhedrin heard the story they loved to hear, today we hear the story we love to hear; the story of the Father’s house, the story of the way, the truth, and the life. These are the stories of our lives, of our salvation, and of the one who provides it for us through his life, his work, his death, and his victory over death. Through this, Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
One of the great promises people hold onto from these verses is that “in the Father’s house there are many rooms.” One of the times I heard this scripture was at the funeral of a friend named Phillip Berg,[1] a funeral held twenty-three years ago today. The minister told us all that Phil had gone to help prepare the room promised for all of us in heaven. The minister told this story as if Phil had gone on to be a carpenter’s assistant in the Kingdom so that we could have nice digs when it came our time to move in. In his death he was going to help prepare a place for our death.
But you know, our God is the Lord of life, not death.
In a way, I prefer the New Living Translation’s interpretation of this verse. It says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”
To the ancient Jews, the Father’s house was not a physical structure; it’s the Father’s family. Jesus is telling all who will hear that his Father has more than enough room for everyone in his family. The beloved Son shares the truth of his Father’s love, there is room enough for everyone in the family of God.
Jesus is able to welcome all of us into the Father’s house because he has made the way for us. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
As Jesus tells his disciples no one comes to the Father except through him, he is telling them, the church, and the world that through his work, through his way, through his life, death, and resurrection, he opens the way so that we may all come to the Father.
Often when the church reads this verse, it is read with a twinge of exclusivity. It is read “when we accept that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, we are welcomed into the Father’s house.” It focuses on what we do to accept grace. This reading is flawed. Instead of focusing on what we have to do to take a gift, we must first focus on the gift, on what Jesus has freely given, the gift of grace.
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it. Jesus tells us that he is the way before we ever knew that such a way existed, much less before we knew we needed it. The gift of grace was given to us before we could ever think to ask for it.
We cannot initiate the motion the Father started long before our creation. It is impossible to accept what we have all ready been given. What we must do is respond to the gift of grace and the one who freely gives it. One of the ways we do this is to be the church, the body of Christ in the world sharing the good news of our Lord with a world that doesn’t necessarily want to hear it.
Recognizing the gift we have received, we are called to respond to this great gift of grace and peace offered freely from the darkness of the manger, the waters of the Jordan, the plate and cup of the upper room, the foot of the cross, and here today.
Stephen then told the council, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
He had gone from telling the story they wanted to hear, the story they are familiar with, the story of their salvation, to telling them that they had betrayed and murdered the one they had been sent to recognize and worship. The council had gone from hearing the story of their life to hearing a story of their death; and they were not amused. Scripture says they ground their teeth.
This is when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the same images Jesus saw at his baptism, he saw the glory of God. And he also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. After being dragged outside, they began to stone him. Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoing the words Jesus spoke on the cross before he declared it finished and surrendered his soul.
Stephen responded. He spoke the words of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He testifies that the Scribes, the Pharisees, and all of the Council were the ones who killed the one sent to save them. This is not the story of Stephen’s death but of his life. I
t is the story that shows that there is room in the Father’s family for one and all. And in response to this promise, Stephen was faithful, faithful even unto death. The same way the Messiah, his Lord and ours, was faithful, faithful even unto death.
Yes, this faithfulness can lead to our death, but as the story of Stephen shows, this story of martyrdom is not a story of death, but a story of life. He lived the life eternal while on earth and, as testified by his vision shared in scripture, he continues to live life eternal.
It is through these stories of life, the life eternal lived by Stephen, the resurrected life of Jesus the Christ, the life lived in the Father’s house, that Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
In the Father’s house, the family of God and the body of Christ we come to know through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured; that we are given the free gift of life so that when our hearts are troubled, we can trust him completely as the way, the truth, and the life.
[1] Phillip A. Berg died in Emporia, Kansas on April 17, 1985 at the age of 19 and was buried in Neodesha, Kansas three days later. He died of an aortic aneurism, a complication of Marfan syndrome, a bone elongation disease. When he died he was 7’ 1” tall (2.16 meters) and weighed about 125 pounds (56.7 kilos). He was a fraternity brother, one of my pledge sons, and a great friend.
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Stories have been one of the great mediums of history. From the ancient Greeks and the fables of Aesop, the epic poetry of Homer, and the tragedies of Sophocles; ancient history has been filled with those who would entertain and teach through stories. In modern times, this still exists but in new media including print, celluloid, video, and digital formats. One of the most delicious connections between the ancient and modern is the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the Coen Brother’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
Our readings from Acts and John are wonderful narratives, stories about the early church. But to get a more complete picture of our reading from Acts, it is important to review the beginning of the story.
At the end of Acts 6, Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council of Elders. According to the scripture, “[The Council] set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” The High Priest asks Stephen if this is true and Stephen begins to testify.
Stephen begins by telling the story of Abraham, the story of the beginnings of the nation of Israel. He reminds the Council of the covenant between Abraham and the Lord. He tells them of the patriarchs, the sons of Abraham who would be the fathers of the twelve tribes. He told of selling Joseph into slavery and his ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand over all of Egypt.
Stephen reminded them of Moses being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians. He told of Moses fleeing into the land of Midian. He tells the council of how Moses received the Lord’s commission, and how he led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land receiving the Law.
Stephen told of the people’s disobedience in the desert. He called them a stiff-necked people, a people who could not be turned from their own ill devices even when yoked like oxen. Stephen told the Council of Elders the story of their very own salvation. He told them the story of their life together as the people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He testified to the many great victories of the Lord the council represents and protects from the scandal of Jesus.
You’ve got to imagine they were quite pleased with themselves. The rebel rouser Stephen is capitulating to the pressure of the superior authority of the council. They would have his apology before they passed their judgment against him and his heresy, the lies he spoke.
As the Sanhedrin heard the story they loved to hear, today we hear the story we love to hear; the story of the Father’s house, the story of the way, the truth, and the life. These are the stories of our lives, of our salvation, and of the one who provides it for us through his life, his work, his death, and his victory over death. Through this, Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
One of the great promises people hold onto from these verses is that “in the Father’s house there are many rooms.” One of the times I heard this scripture was at the funeral of a friend named Phillip Berg,[1] a funeral held twenty-three years ago today. The minister told us all that Phil had gone to help prepare the room promised for all of us in heaven. The minister told this story as if Phil had gone on to be a carpenter’s assistant in the Kingdom so that we could have nice digs when it came our time to move in. In his death he was going to help prepare a place for our death.
But you know, our God is the Lord of life, not death.
In a way, I prefer the New Living Translation’s interpretation of this verse. It says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”
To the ancient Jews, the Father’s house was not a physical structure; it’s the Father’s family. Jesus is telling all who will hear that his Father has more than enough room for everyone in his family. The beloved Son shares the truth of his Father’s love, there is room enough for everyone in the family of God.
Jesus is able to welcome all of us into the Father’s house because he has made the way for us. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
As Jesus tells his disciples no one comes to the Father except through him, he is telling them, the church, and the world that through his work, through his way, through his life, death, and resurrection, he opens the way so that we may all come to the Father.
Often when the church reads this verse, it is read with a twinge of exclusivity. It is read “when we accept that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, we are welcomed into the Father’s house.” It focuses on what we do to accept grace. This reading is flawed. Instead of focusing on what we have to do to take a gift, we must first focus on the gift, on what Jesus has freely given, the gift of grace.
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it. Jesus tells us that he is the way before we ever knew that such a way existed, much less before we knew we needed it. The gift of grace was given to us before we could ever think to ask for it.
We cannot initiate the motion the Father started long before our creation. It is impossible to accept what we have all ready been given. What we must do is respond to the gift of grace and the one who freely gives it. One of the ways we do this is to be the church, the body of Christ in the world sharing the good news of our Lord with a world that doesn’t necessarily want to hear it.
Recognizing the gift we have received, we are called to respond to this great gift of grace and peace offered freely from the darkness of the manger, the waters of the Jordan, the plate and cup of the upper room, the foot of the cross, and here today.
Stephen then told the council, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
He had gone from telling the story they wanted to hear, the story they are familiar with, the story of their salvation, to telling them that they had betrayed and murdered the one they had been sent to recognize and worship. The council had gone from hearing the story of their life to hearing a story of their death; and they were not amused. Scripture says they ground their teeth.
This is when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the same images Jesus saw at his baptism, he saw the glory of God. And he also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. After being dragged outside, they began to stone him. Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoing the words Jesus spoke on the cross before he declared it finished and surrendered his soul.
Stephen responded. He spoke the words of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He testifies that the Scribes, the Pharisees, and all of the Council were the ones who killed the one sent to save them. This is not the story of Stephen’s death but of his life. I
t is the story that shows that there is room in the Father’s family for one and all. And in response to this promise, Stephen was faithful, faithful even unto death. The same way the Messiah, his Lord and ours, was faithful, faithful even unto death.
Yes, this faithfulness can lead to our death, but as the story of Stephen shows, this story of martyrdom is not a story of death, but a story of life. He lived the life eternal while on earth and, as testified by his vision shared in scripture, he continues to live life eternal.
It is through these stories of life, the life eternal lived by Stephen, the resurrected life of Jesus the Christ, the life lived in the Father’s house, that Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
In the Father’s house, the family of God and the body of Christ we come to know through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured; that we are given the free gift of life so that when our hearts are troubled, we can trust him completely as the way, the truth, and the life.
[1] Phillip A. Berg died in Emporia, Kansas on April 17, 1985 at the age of 19 and was buried in Neodesha, Kansas three days later. He died of an aortic aneurism, a complication of Marfan syndrome, a bone elongation disease. When he died he was 7’ 1” tall (2.16 meters) and weighed about 125 pounds (56.7 kilos). He was a fraternity brother, one of my pledge sons, and a great friend.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Shepherd Calls Us All
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville,
Arkansas on April 13, 2008, the 4th Sunday in Easter.
The image at right is a chalk drawing of Jesus the Good Shepherd in the chancel of the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
In our gospel reading today, we heard the first half of what is known as the “Good Shepherd” discourse. There is no more endearing image of Jesus from scripture than the Good Shepherd. You need only look behind me for proof of this. The wonder of this image is not only that the shepherd cares for the sheep, but that the shepherd protects the sheep from predators and thieves.
Imagine if you will a large pen, a stockyard or a sale barn perhaps. In this yard are the sheep of many different shepherds. The gatekeeper recognizes the shepherd, so the gate is opened and the shepherd calls the sheep by name. Somehow, some way, the sheep know the voice of their shepherd. When the shepherd calls, the sheep come.
Saturday afternoon, I was sitting at the computer, looking over this sermon, and one of our cats came into the room. Now, cats are historically finicky. It is said you don’t own a cat, the cat owns you. But Cal is different; he knows his name and responds when called. When I call him he knows he will be petted, he will be loved. We even started a game while in seminary, while he is on the bed I can walk up to him, pat my chest, and he will come up, put his paws on my chest, and I pet him.
Now does that make him well trained or me?
I couldn’t tell you how the sheep know the shepherd’s voice, but scripture says they do. Perhaps it is something like me calling Cal by name. The shepherd develops such a loving and protecting relationship with each sheep that an intimacy develops. Or maybe it is the flock who knows their shepherd’s voice like Israel knows the voice of the Lord their God.[1]
In our Call to Worship we offered the words of the nation of Israel, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”[2] In this Psalm, the Lord is worshipped for the protection of the shepherd and how the shepherd provides for the flock.
We give thanks that we have a good shepherd in the Lord Jesus, a shepherd who protects the sheep from danger. That’s actually what I preached a year ago, the last time this gospel reading was used in worship.
But when I read all of the lectionary readings this time I became more interested in the sheep than the shepherd.
My usual sermon points to Jesus in the word and in the world. But recently I have been thinking not just about Christ but the body of Christ, the church. And while these readings from John and the Psalms wonderfully describe Jesus as the Good Shepherd, today I am drawn to who we are as the sheep and the flock.
As the sheep in the psalm, we shall fear no evil because of the work of the Good Shepherd. We are fed and watered in perfect rest and harmony, not in a terrified and anxious hurry. We have been anointed and set aside; we drink from the cup of many blessings, the cup which over flows with the goodness of the Lord.
We are so loved that we have been given a name, both as individuals and as a holy people. We are a people following the call of the good shepherd. The voices of other shepherds surround us; voices that call us away from the good shepherd and toward a life that is less; voices that tempt us to veer from a holy way of life.
The thief would come to steal and kill and destroy, but the good shepherd offers life, abundant life.
So often, this is where I would say give praise, halleluiah, glory to God. But today, as the church, as the holy people of God, as the flock of the shepherd, I want us to ask the question “what comes next?”
In Acts, we are offered the answer. The Acts of the Apostles is a unique book in the New Testament. It is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and continues the narrative account of the early church, from the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, continuing with the spread of the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”[3] In this portrait of the church, the people devoted themselves to the Lord and the teachings of the Lord in the church.
The first of the four characteristics of the church in Acts is holding fast to the teaching of the apostles, as they teach the meaning of the kerygma, or gospel message.[4] Kerygma is one of those fancy words you can drop into conversation to impress or bore your friends, but there is a very important reason to use it. Kerygma by its very definition reminds us that the message is more important than the messenger.[5]
When I was working at the University of Arkansas, one day I was on my way to my boss’ office when I heard a campus preacher on a soapbox. This is nothing new at the UofA; in fact, there had been an article in the campus newspaper about this particular man. As I walked by, he was preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Two hours later, as I returned from my boss’ office and from lunch, he was still there in full voice. But he had gotten off of his soapbox and onto his high horse preaching hair length.
Yes, it is biblical. Paul’s discourse on hair in 1Corinthians 11 is there for a reason. But this young man had gone from the fullness of the Gospel to the narrowness of Paul Mitchell and Miss Clairol. He had gone from the message of sacrificial love and gone to cosmetology school to show what offended him and God. As the early church in Acts, we need to focus on the full teaching of the Gospel, not tiny pieces of it. We are called to focus on the one who is the message, not the one who gives it today.
The second of the four characteristics is koinonia, the fellowship which entails both spiritual communion and the sharing of possessions.[6] The people were called to be together in the community of believers.
There are many who say: “I feel just as close to God in the woods (or on the lake, or with my family, or in bed, or so on) than I ever could in church, and I was once one of them. There is something to be said for solitary time of meditation and reflection, but this alone is not how we are called to respond to the word of the Lord.
We are called to come together to hear the word of God. We are called to come together to be the community of God and it is impossible to be a community of one. I have spoken of Jewish theologian Martin Buber who said, “I cannot be an I without a thou.” In the Lord, if we do not have a relationship with others, we do not have a relationship with the people of God, nor do we have a relationship with God. We don’t even have a right relationship with ourselves. To be God’s people, we must be with God’s people as God’s people serving God’s people.
This point is also elaborated on later in this reading. The author of Acts reminds us that the people would sell their possessions and distribute the proceeds to those in need. Scripture does not say “other members of the community as they had need,” it says “distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Yes, God is alive in the church, but only when the church is alive in the world meeting the needs of all God’s creation.
The sharing of meals and celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the third element of the church’s devotion shared in Acts.[7] Today we will celebrate both beginning with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We are called to joyfully come together and share the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the body and blood of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We celebrate this meal that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. [8]
Today we also celebrate Fellowship Sunday. We come together and break bread and drink from the cup of what is in the refrigerator. We will sit around the table and share stories, we will laugh, and we will share concerns with one another. We are called to share the word of God, and we are called to joyfully share the bounty of the Lord’s Table and the kitchen table together.
The last of the four characteristics of the early church is prayer, both in their homes and in the Temple.[9] We are called to share our joys and concerns for the church, the world, and one another. We are called to pray not just for those we love, but for those who would do us harm. We are called to pray not just for the weak, but also for the strong. I am called to pray for you and you for me.
Brian Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Catholic Order of the Missionaries of Charity, collected and edited the letters of Mother Teresa in a book called “Come Be My Light.”[10] In her letters, there is one thing that stood out to me as she wrote of the Sisters of Loreto, the Missionaries of Charity, and the people of India; she ended nearly every letter begging the recipient, “Please pray for me.” The Saint of Calcutta knew the prayers she needed from the people and from the church. In this, we should remember that if Mother Teresa needed prayer, all of us need prayer.
Let me say to you, in the words of Mother Teresa, “Please pray for me.”
We talk about the Good Shepherd, but we also need to talk about our role as the flock; the body of Christ bringing in the Kingdom of God; the kingdom begun before the creation, marked by the crucifixion and resurrection, continuing today. The shepherd calls us all, all of the sheep in the pen. The shepherd calls us to be the flock and follow him, Jesus the Christ, into the assembly and into the world.
We are called together to share the good gifts of God with one another and with the world. We are called to do this as joyful response to the gift of salvation given freely by the grace of God.
We are called to be like the church of Acts spending much time together; breaking bread and eating with glad and generous hearts praising God; having the goodwill of all the people; through kerygma, koinonia, breaking bread and prayer. And by these things, through God’s grace and peace, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
We are called to be the church, the body of Christ in the world today as the church was called to be two thousand years ago.
[1] New Interpreter’s Bible, volume IX, page 667.
[2] This rendering of the 23rd Psalm comes from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship. As this Psalm was from today’s lectionary, we used it as our Call to Worship.
[3] Introduction to “The Acts of the Apostles” from the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, electronic edition
[4] Ibid, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[5] “Kerygma”, BDAB Lexicon, Electronic Edition
[6] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid, Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, Communion Setting E
[9] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[10] “Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta”, Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, editor. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Arkansas on April 13, 2008, the 4th Sunday in Easter.The image at right is a chalk drawing of Jesus the Good Shepherd in the chancel of the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
In our gospel reading today, we heard the first half of what is known as the “Good Shepherd” discourse. There is no more endearing image of Jesus from scripture than the Good Shepherd. You need only look behind me for proof of this. The wonder of this image is not only that the shepherd cares for the sheep, but that the shepherd protects the sheep from predators and thieves.
Imagine if you will a large pen, a stockyard or a sale barn perhaps. In this yard are the sheep of many different shepherds. The gatekeeper recognizes the shepherd, so the gate is opened and the shepherd calls the sheep by name. Somehow, some way, the sheep know the voice of their shepherd. When the shepherd calls, the sheep come.
Saturday afternoon, I was sitting at the computer, looking over this sermon, and one of our cats came into the room. Now, cats are historically finicky. It is said you don’t own a cat, the cat owns you. But Cal is different; he knows his name and responds when called. When I call him he knows he will be petted, he will be loved. We even started a game while in seminary, while he is on the bed I can walk up to him, pat my chest, and he will come up, put his paws on my chest, and I pet him.
Now does that make him well trained or me?
I couldn’t tell you how the sheep know the shepherd’s voice, but scripture says they do. Perhaps it is something like me calling Cal by name. The shepherd develops such a loving and protecting relationship with each sheep that an intimacy develops. Or maybe it is the flock who knows their shepherd’s voice like Israel knows the voice of the Lord their God.[1]
In our Call to Worship we offered the words of the nation of Israel, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”[2] In this Psalm, the Lord is worshipped for the protection of the shepherd and how the shepherd provides for the flock.
We give thanks that we have a good shepherd in the Lord Jesus, a shepherd who protects the sheep from danger. That’s actually what I preached a year ago, the last time this gospel reading was used in worship.
But when I read all of the lectionary readings this time I became more interested in the sheep than the shepherd.
My usual sermon points to Jesus in the word and in the world. But recently I have been thinking not just about Christ but the body of Christ, the church. And while these readings from John and the Psalms wonderfully describe Jesus as the Good Shepherd, today I am drawn to who we are as the sheep and the flock.
As the sheep in the psalm, we shall fear no evil because of the work of the Good Shepherd. We are fed and watered in perfect rest and harmony, not in a terrified and anxious hurry. We have been anointed and set aside; we drink from the cup of many blessings, the cup which over flows with the goodness of the Lord.
We are so loved that we have been given a name, both as individuals and as a holy people. We are a people following the call of the good shepherd. The voices of other shepherds surround us; voices that call us away from the good shepherd and toward a life that is less; voices that tempt us to veer from a holy way of life.
The thief would come to steal and kill and destroy, but the good shepherd offers life, abundant life.
So often, this is where I would say give praise, halleluiah, glory to God. But today, as the church, as the holy people of God, as the flock of the shepherd, I want us to ask the question “what comes next?”
In Acts, we are offered the answer. The Acts of the Apostles is a unique book in the New Testament. It is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and continues the narrative account of the early church, from the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, continuing with the spread of the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”[3] In this portrait of the church, the people devoted themselves to the Lord and the teachings of the Lord in the church.
The first of the four characteristics of the church in Acts is holding fast to the teaching of the apostles, as they teach the meaning of the kerygma, or gospel message.[4] Kerygma is one of those fancy words you can drop into conversation to impress or bore your friends, but there is a very important reason to use it. Kerygma by its very definition reminds us that the message is more important than the messenger.[5]
When I was working at the University of Arkansas, one day I was on my way to my boss’ office when I heard a campus preacher on a soapbox. This is nothing new at the UofA; in fact, there had been an article in the campus newspaper about this particular man. As I walked by, he was preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Two hours later, as I returned from my boss’ office and from lunch, he was still there in full voice. But he had gotten off of his soapbox and onto his high horse preaching hair length.
Yes, it is biblical. Paul’s discourse on hair in 1Corinthians 11 is there for a reason. But this young man had gone from the fullness of the Gospel to the narrowness of Paul Mitchell and Miss Clairol. He had gone from the message of sacrificial love and gone to cosmetology school to show what offended him and God. As the early church in Acts, we need to focus on the full teaching of the Gospel, not tiny pieces of it. We are called to focus on the one who is the message, not the one who gives it today.
The second of the four characteristics is koinonia, the fellowship which entails both spiritual communion and the sharing of possessions.[6] The people were called to be together in the community of believers.
There are many who say: “I feel just as close to God in the woods (or on the lake, or with my family, or in bed, or so on) than I ever could in church, and I was once one of them. There is something to be said for solitary time of meditation and reflection, but this alone is not how we are called to respond to the word of the Lord.
We are called to come together to hear the word of God. We are called to come together to be the community of God and it is impossible to be a community of one. I have spoken of Jewish theologian Martin Buber who said, “I cannot be an I without a thou.” In the Lord, if we do not have a relationship with others, we do not have a relationship with the people of God, nor do we have a relationship with God. We don’t even have a right relationship with ourselves. To be God’s people, we must be with God’s people as God’s people serving God’s people.
This point is also elaborated on later in this reading. The author of Acts reminds us that the people would sell their possessions and distribute the proceeds to those in need. Scripture does not say “other members of the community as they had need,” it says “distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Yes, God is alive in the church, but only when the church is alive in the world meeting the needs of all God’s creation.
The sharing of meals and celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the third element of the church’s devotion shared in Acts.[7] Today we will celebrate both beginning with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We are called to joyfully come together and share the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the body and blood of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We celebrate this meal that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. [8]
Today we also celebrate Fellowship Sunday. We come together and break bread and drink from the cup of what is in the refrigerator. We will sit around the table and share stories, we will laugh, and we will share concerns with one another. We are called to share the word of God, and we are called to joyfully share the bounty of the Lord’s Table and the kitchen table together.
The last of the four characteristics of the early church is prayer, both in their homes and in the Temple.[9] We are called to share our joys and concerns for the church, the world, and one another. We are called to pray not just for those we love, but for those who would do us harm. We are called to pray not just for the weak, but also for the strong. I am called to pray for you and you for me.
Brian Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Catholic Order of the Missionaries of Charity, collected and edited the letters of Mother Teresa in a book called “Come Be My Light.”[10] In her letters, there is one thing that stood out to me as she wrote of the Sisters of Loreto, the Missionaries of Charity, and the people of India; she ended nearly every letter begging the recipient, “Please pray for me.” The Saint of Calcutta knew the prayers she needed from the people and from the church. In this, we should remember that if Mother Teresa needed prayer, all of us need prayer.
Let me say to you, in the words of Mother Teresa, “Please pray for me.”
We talk about the Good Shepherd, but we also need to talk about our role as the flock; the body of Christ bringing in the Kingdom of God; the kingdom begun before the creation, marked by the crucifixion and resurrection, continuing today. The shepherd calls us all, all of the sheep in the pen. The shepherd calls us to be the flock and follow him, Jesus the Christ, into the assembly and into the world.
We are called together to share the good gifts of God with one another and with the world. We are called to do this as joyful response to the gift of salvation given freely by the grace of God.
We are called to be like the church of Acts spending much time together; breaking bread and eating with glad and generous hearts praising God; having the goodwill of all the people; through kerygma, koinonia, breaking bread and prayer. And by these things, through God’s grace and peace, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
We are called to be the church, the body of Christ in the world today as the church was called to be two thousand years ago.
[1] New Interpreter’s Bible, volume IX, page 667.
[2] This rendering of the 23rd Psalm comes from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship. As this Psalm was from today’s lectionary, we used it as our Call to Worship.
[3] Introduction to “The Acts of the Apostles” from the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, electronic edition
[4] Ibid, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[5] “Kerygma”, BDAB Lexicon, Electronic Edition
[6] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid, Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, Communion Setting E
[9] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[10] “Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta”, Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, editor. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
t3h msg
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday April 6, 2008, the 3rd Sunday of Easter.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
This sermon mentions a bulletin insert. This is the text of the insert:
Dad@hvn, ur spshl. we want wot u want &urth2b like hvn. giv us food & 4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz. don test us! sAv us! bcos we kno ur boss, ur tuf & ur cool 4 eva! K?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
In your bulletin is a lavender sheet of paper, take a moment and look over it. Tell me the truth, does it look just a little like gobble-de-gook to you? If this looks like gibberish to you, and unless you’re a teen, a college student, or the parent of one there is no reason it shouldn’t, it’s because it is written in Short Message Service abbreviation script, a common way to format cell phone text messages. [1]
In text messages, grammar goes out the window, numbers and odd characters are used for letters, and punctuation is used in ways that would have given my second grade teacher Miss Bedene[2] a heart attack. Because of a keyboard so small it can only be operated with thumbs and a screen so small the display is at most six square inches[3] (and my phone’s display is only about 1.25 square inches) and a message size of 160 characters, an entirely new dialect of English is evolving.
A few years ago, the online Christian magazine “Ship of Fools” sponsored a contest to format a familiar prayer in SMS script in 160 characters or less; the maximum length of a cell phone text message. Matthew Campbell from York College in the UK submitted this winning entry. Do you recognize it yet? Believe it or not, it’s the Lord’s Prayer.
The “literal” translation of this text message is: “Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. Give us food and forgive our sins like we forgive others. Don’t test us! Save us! Because we know you are boss, you are tough and you are cool forever. Okay?”[4]
It’s not the King James, is it?
Beginning in 2004 there has been a UK advice forum called “Text Talk” providing a new voice and a new way to ask for help. “Text Talk” offers information on a wide range of issues, including counseling, housing, substance abuse, and careers with guaranteed immediate response. In the first nine months of operation, 200 young people, many of them boys, accessed the service.[5] And let’s be honest, anything that can help boys ask for help is a good thing.
Short Message Service text, it’s not the King James English, but then again that’s the point, isn’t it?
We can say what we want, but there is a new slang, dialect, lingo, jargon of language coming along; just like a new jargon has come along with each coming generation; the way language has evolved since long before King James.
Peter raised his voice and addressed the crowd. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Israel is the Lord’s promised people. The nation has had a special, intimate relationship with the Lord since the days of Abram. And now Peter indicts them, convicts them of crucifying Jesus, the one whom God has made both Lord and Messiah.
The people are cut to the heart by the actions of their people and words of the disciple. They ask, “What shall we do?”
“Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” Peter commands them, “so that your sins may be forgiven.” Repent, and be baptized for this promise is for you, for your children, and for all who fall away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.
This is new to Israel. They had awaited the coming of the Messiah since the days of the prophets and now he is crucified. But now, through the risen Christ, the nation of Israel—and by Israel all people—are given the gift of forgiveness of sins by the grace of God almighty.
The language of sin and repentance is dicey. It has always seemed to me that when people start talking about sin, there is a tendency to either talk about the sins of others or sins the speaker tries to hide from the world.
The March 12 issue of the “Washington Post” includes this little tidbit from a speech titled “The Need for Both Passion and Humility in Politics.” Quoting theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the speaker said: “Driven by hubris [a fancy word for arrogance], we become blind to our own fallibility and make terrible mistakes.” The speaker was former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.[6] Spitzer decries hubris and then is brought down by his own. I can’t decide if this is prophetic or ironic.
As tempting as it is to point at the arrogance of others, Paul warns us against this in Romans. After a laundry list of sin, Paul reminds the church of Rome that when we pass judgment on another, we condemn ourselves because we are doing the very same things.[7]
So when both Peter in Acts and Paul in Romans talk to the church about sin they make this one point, there is no one without sin, there is no one without the need of repentance. To say that someone else needs to repent shows all too well that our world is broken, when we judge the sins of others, we condemn ourselves.
So what does Peter mean when he tells the assembly to repent? Peter is telling the people that they need to feel remorse; yes this is one of the things he is telling them.[8] But remorse alone is nothing. Sorrow might be a normal reaction, but it can hardly be our only reaction. Shame is worthless to the people and to the Lord. So if sorrow and regret are incomplete and shame is not the way to respond, how should we react in repentance?
Even more than remorse, Peter is telling them to be converted. He is telling them to turn from the ways of the law and to the ways of peace and grace through the Lord.[9] And he is telling them with their repentance, they need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
As Peter told the people to be baptized, today we are called to remember our baptism. Dr. Stan Hall wrote, “Teaching and washing or washing and teaching, at the core of the assembly in the name of Jesus, signifies gospel appropriated by faith.”[10] Teaching and washing, word and sacrament together are at the heart of our worship and have been since the beginnings of the church. The word informs us and the baptism washes, just as it washed the three-thousand in our reading from Acts.
Dr. Hall goes on to say that the corporate confession and absolution says we begin from our baptism. In this sacramental washing we experience new birth in the name of Jesus Christ. In this way the three thousand in Acts were washed and made clean of the sin of the nation of Israel. Notice I say nothing about any particular individual’s sin. Peter was dealing with Israel’s sin, as an Israelite himself; Peter who denied Christ, Peter who would become the rock of the Church; even he needed to atone for the sins of his nation.
Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” This is a new language, a new way of communicating with one another. In the waters of our baptism in the corporate confession of sin, we come together a community of the Lord our God. We are washed and made clean. We are called to remember this bath as we confess the sin of humanity, the church, and ourselves, not for guilt and shame, but to remember that we have been born anew and washed in the waters of our baptism.
Baptism is the foundational sacramental element of coming together in the community established by Jesus Christ. Continued feeding of the faith is also needed.
Luke’s gospel shares the story of two men, Cleopas and his friend traveling to Emmaus. Jesus, not recognized by either man, asks them what they are talking about. He might as well have asked one of us if it has rained lately,[11] the two men were flabbergasted. Hadn’t this lone traveler heard? Doesn’t he know?
The three reach Emmaus. Jesus was walking on when the others invited him to stay the night. The day is nearly over, they said, come and stay with us. Together at the table Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. In this simple supper of bread and cup, the same supper we celebrate today, this sacramental, sacrificial food; in this food the men were restored from despair to hope. Hope that though he was crucified, Jesus lives and continues to live.
In this same breaking of bread we are fed and nourished in the gracious gifts of God.
In Acts, Peter was teaching the nation of Israel that something new was happening. At Emmaus, Jesus showed the two that though he was crucified, he still lives and will be with them eternally to provide the bread of faith and the cup of salvation.
Something new was happening. The elements of water and grain have been around forever. But in Jesus Christ they became something new. Today we celebrate the sacraments in remembrance and in confidence.
“Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. This new text, this new dialect, is a new expression of the ancient truth. It may seem unusual to us, but no more so than baptism did to Peter’s assembly or Jesus’ blessing over dinner did to the travelers to Emmaus. We are invited to join, and remember this in the water of our baptism. We are invited to come to the table and taste and see that the Lord is good.
This new message is the same message Jesus and Peter shared with their listeners, it is the same message the Lord continues to share with us and it is the message we share with the world, and that’s why I titled this sermon “The Message.”
[1] The title of this sermon is a combination of two abbreviated message formats. “t3h” is the word “the” in Leet Speak. In Leet (short for “Elite”) Speak numbers often replace letters and order of letters is often changed. “msg” is Short Message Service Script for “message.” SMS is often a phonetic language.
[2] My second grade teacher, died in the Hyatt tragedy in Kansas City Summer 1981.
[3] My estimate of the size of an iPhone screen based on specs found at http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html retrieved April 3, 2008.
[4] Txt Tlk, Homiletics Online.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000057, retrieved April 2, 2008.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Century Marks, Irony of It All, “The Christian Century” Vol 125, No 7, April 8, 2008, page 8. Spitzer is the former governor of New York caught patronizing call girls.
[7] First person reformatting of Romans 2:1 (NRSV)
[8] “Metanoeow”, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition, Revised and edited by Frederick William Danker based on Walter Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English editions by W.F.Arndt, F.W.Gingrich, and F.W.Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000
[9] Ibid
[10] Hall, Stanley R. “Essential Tenets of Reformed Worship?” Theology and worship occasional paper no. 10, PC (USA); Louisville, KY., page 17
[11] According to Weather Underground it has rained 13.4 inches since March 1. This is much higher than usual.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
This sermon mentions a bulletin insert. This is the text of the insert:
Dad@hvn, ur spshl. we want wot u want &urth2b like hvn. giv us food & 4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz. don test us! sAv us! bcos we kno ur boss, ur tuf & ur cool 4 eva! K?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
In your bulletin is a lavender sheet of paper, take a moment and look over it. Tell me the truth, does it look just a little like gobble-de-gook to you? If this looks like gibberish to you, and unless you’re a teen, a college student, or the parent of one there is no reason it shouldn’t, it’s because it is written in Short Message Service abbreviation script, a common way to format cell phone text messages. [1]
In text messages, grammar goes out the window, numbers and odd characters are used for letters, and punctuation is used in ways that would have given my second grade teacher Miss Bedene[2] a heart attack. Because of a keyboard so small it can only be operated with thumbs and a screen so small the display is at most six square inches[3] (and my phone’s display is only about 1.25 square inches) and a message size of 160 characters, an entirely new dialect of English is evolving.
A few years ago, the online Christian magazine “Ship of Fools” sponsored a contest to format a familiar prayer in SMS script in 160 characters or less; the maximum length of a cell phone text message. Matthew Campbell from York College in the UK submitted this winning entry. Do you recognize it yet? Believe it or not, it’s the Lord’s Prayer.
The “literal” translation of this text message is: “Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. Give us food and forgive our sins like we forgive others. Don’t test us! Save us! Because we know you are boss, you are tough and you are cool forever. Okay?”[4]
It’s not the King James, is it?
Beginning in 2004 there has been a UK advice forum called “Text Talk” providing a new voice and a new way to ask for help. “Text Talk” offers information on a wide range of issues, including counseling, housing, substance abuse, and careers with guaranteed immediate response. In the first nine months of operation, 200 young people, many of them boys, accessed the service.[5] And let’s be honest, anything that can help boys ask for help is a good thing.
Short Message Service text, it’s not the King James English, but then again that’s the point, isn’t it?
We can say what we want, but there is a new slang, dialect, lingo, jargon of language coming along; just like a new jargon has come along with each coming generation; the way language has evolved since long before King James.
Peter raised his voice and addressed the crowd. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Israel is the Lord’s promised people. The nation has had a special, intimate relationship with the Lord since the days of Abram. And now Peter indicts them, convicts them of crucifying Jesus, the one whom God has made both Lord and Messiah.
The people are cut to the heart by the actions of their people and words of the disciple. They ask, “What shall we do?”
“Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” Peter commands them, “so that your sins may be forgiven.” Repent, and be baptized for this promise is for you, for your children, and for all who fall away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.
This is new to Israel. They had awaited the coming of the Messiah since the days of the prophets and now he is crucified. But now, through the risen Christ, the nation of Israel—and by Israel all people—are given the gift of forgiveness of sins by the grace of God almighty.
The language of sin and repentance is dicey. It has always seemed to me that when people start talking about sin, there is a tendency to either talk about the sins of others or sins the speaker tries to hide from the world.
The March 12 issue of the “Washington Post” includes this little tidbit from a speech titled “The Need for Both Passion and Humility in Politics.” Quoting theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the speaker said: “Driven by hubris [a fancy word for arrogance], we become blind to our own fallibility and make terrible mistakes.” The speaker was former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.[6] Spitzer decries hubris and then is brought down by his own. I can’t decide if this is prophetic or ironic.
As tempting as it is to point at the arrogance of others, Paul warns us against this in Romans. After a laundry list of sin, Paul reminds the church of Rome that when we pass judgment on another, we condemn ourselves because we are doing the very same things.[7]
So when both Peter in Acts and Paul in Romans talk to the church about sin they make this one point, there is no one without sin, there is no one without the need of repentance. To say that someone else needs to repent shows all too well that our world is broken, when we judge the sins of others, we condemn ourselves.
So what does Peter mean when he tells the assembly to repent? Peter is telling the people that they need to feel remorse; yes this is one of the things he is telling them.[8] But remorse alone is nothing. Sorrow might be a normal reaction, but it can hardly be our only reaction. Shame is worthless to the people and to the Lord. So if sorrow and regret are incomplete and shame is not the way to respond, how should we react in repentance?
Even more than remorse, Peter is telling them to be converted. He is telling them to turn from the ways of the law and to the ways of peace and grace through the Lord.[9] And he is telling them with their repentance, they need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
As Peter told the people to be baptized, today we are called to remember our baptism. Dr. Stan Hall wrote, “Teaching and washing or washing and teaching, at the core of the assembly in the name of Jesus, signifies gospel appropriated by faith.”[10] Teaching and washing, word and sacrament together are at the heart of our worship and have been since the beginnings of the church. The word informs us and the baptism washes, just as it washed the three-thousand in our reading from Acts.
Dr. Hall goes on to say that the corporate confession and absolution says we begin from our baptism. In this sacramental washing we experience new birth in the name of Jesus Christ. In this way the three thousand in Acts were washed and made clean of the sin of the nation of Israel. Notice I say nothing about any particular individual’s sin. Peter was dealing with Israel’s sin, as an Israelite himself; Peter who denied Christ, Peter who would become the rock of the Church; even he needed to atone for the sins of his nation.
Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” This is a new language, a new way of communicating with one another. In the waters of our baptism in the corporate confession of sin, we come together a community of the Lord our God. We are washed and made clean. We are called to remember this bath as we confess the sin of humanity, the church, and ourselves, not for guilt and shame, but to remember that we have been born anew and washed in the waters of our baptism.
Baptism is the foundational sacramental element of coming together in the community established by Jesus Christ. Continued feeding of the faith is also needed.
Luke’s gospel shares the story of two men, Cleopas and his friend traveling to Emmaus. Jesus, not recognized by either man, asks them what they are talking about. He might as well have asked one of us if it has rained lately,[11] the two men were flabbergasted. Hadn’t this lone traveler heard? Doesn’t he know?
The three reach Emmaus. Jesus was walking on when the others invited him to stay the night. The day is nearly over, they said, come and stay with us. Together at the table Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. In this simple supper of bread and cup, the same supper we celebrate today, this sacramental, sacrificial food; in this food the men were restored from despair to hope. Hope that though he was crucified, Jesus lives and continues to live.
In this same breaking of bread we are fed and nourished in the gracious gifts of God.
In Acts, Peter was teaching the nation of Israel that something new was happening. At Emmaus, Jesus showed the two that though he was crucified, he still lives and will be with them eternally to provide the bread of faith and the cup of salvation.
Something new was happening. The elements of water and grain have been around forever. But in Jesus Christ they became something new. Today we celebrate the sacraments in remembrance and in confidence.
“Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. This new text, this new dialect, is a new expression of the ancient truth. It may seem unusual to us, but no more so than baptism did to Peter’s assembly or Jesus’ blessing over dinner did to the travelers to Emmaus. We are invited to join, and remember this in the water of our baptism. We are invited to come to the table and taste and see that the Lord is good.
This new message is the same message Jesus and Peter shared with their listeners, it is the same message the Lord continues to share with us and it is the message we share with the world, and that’s why I titled this sermon “The Message.”
[1] The title of this sermon is a combination of two abbreviated message formats. “t3h” is the word “the” in Leet Speak. In Leet (short for “Elite”) Speak numbers often replace letters and order of letters is often changed. “msg” is Short Message Service Script for “message.” SMS is often a phonetic language.
[2] My second grade teacher, died in the Hyatt tragedy in Kansas City Summer 1981.
[3] My estimate of the size of an iPhone screen based on specs found at http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html retrieved April 3, 2008.
[4] Txt Tlk, Homiletics Online.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000057, retrieved April 2, 2008.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Century Marks, Irony of It All, “The Christian Century” Vol 125, No 7, April 8, 2008, page 8. Spitzer is the former governor of New York caught patronizing call girls.
[7] First person reformatting of Romans 2:1 (NRSV)
[8] “Metanoeow”, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition, Revised and edited by Frederick William Danker based on Walter Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English editions by W.F.Arndt, F.W.Gingrich, and F.W.Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000
[9] Ibid
[10] Hall, Stanley R. “Essential Tenets of Reformed Worship?” Theology and worship occasional paper no. 10, PC (USA); Louisville, KY., page 17
[11] According to Weather Underground it has rained 13.4 inches since March 1. This is much higher than usual.
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