This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 27, 2010, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
2Kings 2:1-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
I was looking for a focus in our readings this morning about Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, and then one of my bible commentaries[1] showed me one way these readings could be examined. One of the ways to look at these two passages is to look at the focus of the people in these stories.
The story of Elijah and Elisha begins to end in Gilgal where Elijah tells Elisha to stay put. The Lord has sent Elijah to the Jordan, and that’s where his focus is. Elijah and Elisha have been together quite a while. There is a mentor/protégé relationship between the two of them. Elijah lets Elisha know that while the fruit of their association had been glorious, it is now time for a new chapter. Where Elijah is going Elisha can’t follow, but for the time being that’s not going to stop Elisha.
Everyone seemed to know what was going to happen. Our reading begins as the writer of Kings tells those with eyes to read that Elijah is on his way to the whirlwind so he could be taken to heaven. So what’s going to happen next isn’t a secret. Listen to the other people in this passage. Twice we hear Elisha asked, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” and twice we hear Elisha answer, “Yes, I know; be silent.” Again, let those with ears to hear know that what’s going to happen next isn’t a secret.
Elijah knows that the Lord has sent him to the Jordan. Elisha won’t be deterred, he’s going to follow. Each of them has a focus. Elijah follows the Lord, Elisha follows Elijah. They have a holy purpose in their lives and they won’t turn from them.
Everyone knew what was going to happen to Elijah. Still, preparing for the whirlwind offered more than ample opportunity for the people along the way to worry about what was going to happen next. They highlighted this uncertainty, and the anxious feelings that came with it. They shared this holy focus.
In one of George Moore’s novels, he tells of Irish peasants in the Depression who were set to work building roads. For a time everything went wonderfully. The men were glad to have jobs, and sang songs as they worked. But after a while they discovered that the roads they were building led nowhere, expired in peat bogs or simply ended. As that truth gradually dawned upon them, they grew listless and stopped singing. In the words of the novelist: “The roads to nowhere are difficult to build. For a man to work well and to sing as he works, there must be an end in view.”[2]
This is the important difference between Moore’s novel and our Old Testament reading. In Kings everyone knew that they were being led by the Lord. They weren’t building roads to nowhere.
Everyone knew Elijah and Elisha were being led to the Jordan. Everyone knew that Elijah was about to be taken. Everyone knew that Elisha was going to return alone. Elisha knew his return would be a lonely road. Still, everyone knew that they were being led by the Lord.
As for the request that Elisha might receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, Elijah knew that this wasn’t his call to make.
What was happening and what was going to happen wasn’t their idea; they were doing what they were called to do. They were fulfilling their vocation.
Jesus had a slightly different focus. Where the focus of Elijah and Elisha was on what they were doing, the focus of the Jesus was more on who he was than on what he was doing.
This part of Luke’s gospel, beginning with today’s reading and extending to the first half of chapter nineteen, is Luke’s travel narrative. In this section Luke describes Jesus’ travels through Palestine as he gradually works his way through the Holy Land toward Jerusalem and the triumphant entry; ultimately his crucifixion. One of two things can be said about this travelogue; either the writer of Luke had no idea of the geography of Palestine or Jesus took the least direct route ever considered to get to Jerusalem. More on that in a few.
We start with Jesus on the road. Even this early in Luke’s gospel Jesus knows where he is going and what is going to happen when he gets there; not unlike Elijah, Elisha, and the cast of thousands. Whether despite this or because of this, Jesus has his face set toward Jerusalem.
He is resolute; he is determined to go. Of course this made the Samaritans none too happy. And since the Samaritans and Jews were related like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s were related, when it was clear that Jesus was destined for Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive him and the entire traveling party was left out in the cold.
So what do James and John do? They ask Jesus if they can rein fire down from heaven upon their heads. As Jesus rebukes the Sons of Thunder and in a sentence that is missing from many translations Jesus says, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.”[3]
James and John are focused on the purpose, on the mission, on the goal, and perhaps on their new found power and authority. They have a goal in mind and are willing to do what they see fit to those who stand in their way.
Jesus though has another purpose in mind. He tells them that this vengeance, this act of fury and rage against those who do not see their purpose is not who they are. It’s not their spirit, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them. They’re different. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem.
As I mentioned earlier, one of two things can be said about Luke’s travelogue; either Luke had no idea of the geography of Palestine or Jesus took the least direct route ever considered to get to Jerusalem. But this analysis has a problem. Whenever we try to concretely describe and label the historical truth of the life of Jesus, we tend to lose some of the greater theological truth of the life of Jesus.
In my opinion it really doesn’t matter which is right. The underlying question is not “was the author of Luke’s gospel a Greek who had never been to Palestine, had no idea about the geography, and only knew city and regional names?” The underlying question of Jesus’ travels is not “why did he take this route or that route?” Both are good questions but the answers just aren’t important. The important question is “What is the purpose of this journey?”
Nuts and bolts are one thing, but we should never become over enamored with the question of how to build a car when the better question is why we are taking the trip.
Our reading helps us see the purpose like this: Jesus is showing the world what it takes to be his disciple. He is telling people to follow and showing them that there is a price, there are responsibilities to being his disciple. He is also showing the world that he himself is focused on being a disciple of the Father and nothing will deter him from that.
He will not be deterred by people who do not care for his mission because their worship is different. He will not be deterred by people who don’t know how to follow. He will not be deterred by people who don’t know how to love him.
For us, one of the best places to find what it means to love God is found in Exodus. The first commandment of the Lord our God is “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” This is what Jesus tells the world in his travels. “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” Everything we do has to flow from this before anything we do will give glory to God. If we fail to begin here, what we do might begin to work toward purity and social justice; but they are our works, not God’s.
We have to single mindedly wrap ourselves in the mantle of the Lord like Elisha wrapped himself in Elijah’s mantle. We have to put on God’s cloak and go into the world sharing the Good News of Christ. We have to do this confidently and humbly.
We do this first and foremost by acknowledging God to be the only true God and our God. We may not acknowledge “other gods” like the ancient Middle Eastern Baals or the Greek and Roman pantheons of gods anymore, but that doesn’t mean other gods still don’t exist. BP seemed to worship cash on the wellhead and on the barrelhead over stewardship over God’s good creation, and we see where that is getting all of us.
We are called to worship and glorify God accordingly. We are to pray and work. We are to consider and meditate. We are to remember; honoring and adoring the Lord who chose us before we could ever even think of choosing anything. We are to love and desire the Lord as we love and desire the partners we want for our children.
We are to believe in God even, especially when it is most difficult to believe in God, and these are difficult times indeed. Our belief is to be more than our words; it is to be in our hearts and in our hands. We are to trust and hope, calling on the Lord in times of joy and in times of pain.
It is easy to love God in delight when things are looking up; it is tougher when circumstances cause us to question God’s love.
And it’s easy to forget God when things are going well and we don’t remember because things are so good. It’s easier to remember God when God is the only hope we have left.
And even as these statements contradict one another, that doesn’t make either one any less true than the other. This is the just one of the mysteries of our sinful nature and God’s steadfast love.
In this contradiction, in this irony, we are also called to fear God and rejoice in God. In the freedom God gives each and every one of us we are to yield to God with all obedience and submission. On one hand we are to rejoice when God is pleased and on the other be grieved and confess our sin when we do not live up to our call as disciples of the Lord.
We are called to respond to the work of God in our lives with zeal, praising and thanking God for all of our lives. This is how we are to respond to God. This is to be our single minded focus as we walking humbly with God.
This is how we are to be disciples of the Lord, putting nothing before God. This is what we are called to do as disciples of the Lord. This is how we are to share the Good News with our whole beings and our actions.[4]
In “Letters to Rulers of People,” Francis of Assisi wrote these words: “Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember, that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received—fading symbols of honor, trappings of power—but only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”[5]
In the strife of the present, it is by our memory of God’s saving deeds in the past that we can by faith alone have hope for the future. We are saved by grace through faith, but it is in remembering all of the mighty and merciful acts of God that we can begin to have an idea of how God provides.
Remember the focus of Elijah and Elisha; and remember the grace of God as Elisha received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Focus knowing that the Lord is God, and go in peace remembering the focus of the Lord as he reconciled us to himself. Focus like Elijah and Elisha and Jesus and go in the name of our Lord. Respond to God as St. Francis calls us to respond and give a full heart. And yes, in this way, and in this way alone, we will share the fruit of the Spirit.
[1] Lose, David J. “Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary.” Year C, Volume 3. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, pages 191-195.
[2] Haughey, John, S.J. “The Conspiracy of God.” Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973, 35. as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1314, retrieved June 26, 2010.
[3] This section of verses 55 and 56 is found in the New American Standard Bible, but not in the New International Version and only in a footnote in the New Revised Standard Version.
[4] This section on the First Commandment is based on the 103rd and 104th questions and answers from the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This adaptation is based on the version of the Catechism found in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Confessions sections 7.213 and 7.214.
[5] Ibid, HomileticsOnline.com.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Even in the Quietest Moments
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 20, 2010, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
1 Kings 19:1-15
Psalm 42 & 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Marie has got me reading, "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. According to the back cover, Gilbert’s tale is the story of how she left behind the outward marks of success and what she found in their place, "a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence."[1] One of the recurring themes of the book is prayer.[2] Throughout the text, Gilbert shares several of her prayers and God’s responses.
One example is when she is on her bathroom floor in the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband and she prays, she begs, "Please tell me what to do" She repeats this prayer again and again. She finally hears what she says is her own voice, but a perfectly wise, calm, and compassionate version of her voice; a version of her own voice if it were filled with love and certainty. She hears this warm and affectionate voice say to her, "Go back to bed, Liz."
This voice, in five words, told her what she needed to know. It told her that there was nothing she could do about her situation at 3:00 in the A of M on that Thursday in November. In these five simple words this omniscient, intelligent voice told her that she was loved. In these five simple words, she knew that she would need all of her strength over the next few months, she knew she would need her rest.
The love of God as she understands God gives her the word, the answer to prayer in this most chaotic moment, "Go back to bed, Liz."
In the second part of her three part book, this dedicated student of yoga goes to India to an Ashram; a sort of monastery for yoga students. Like a monastery, the Ashram is not a tourist attraction. People come from all around the world to study and pray and serve. There is one chapel that’s open to the public, but the rest is for students. In that way, she says it’s more like a university than a chapel; it is for serious students, not casual visitors. In local terms, it’s more like Little Portion Monastery than like Throncrown Chapel.[3]
This is where she meets a man called Richard from Texas, and by her descriptions, Richard is all Texan. In a conversation one night about prayer, Richard shared, that at one time his prayer was always the same, "Please, please, open my heart. And please send me a sign when the event has occurred." Well, in Richard’s own words, be careful what you pray for. The author’s words are better than my recap, so in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert:
"After a few months of praying constantly for an open heart, what do you think Richard got? That’s right–emergency open-heart surgery. His chest was literally cracked open, his ribs cleaved away from each other to allow some daylight to finally reach into his heart, as though God were saying, ‘How’s that for a sign?’"[4]
Yep, how’s that? Signs, signs, oh how we look for signs. Sometimes the signs are as subtle as being told to go back to bed, sometimes they are as thunderous as open-heart surgery. Today, let’s look at some other signs.
Our reading from 1Kings has Elijah in some serious trouble, as is the way of the prophets. Elijah has just vanquished the prophets of Baal with a sword. He did what he was called to do by the Lord. Because of that, he was threatened with the same fate that befell the prophets of Baal. Why? Because Queen Jezebel was angry that’s what angry Queens do. As an Israelite, this may not have meant so much to King Ahab, but to Queen Jezebel, the one who was raised worshiping Baal, this was a huge deal and as we all know from thousands of years of experience, "If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy."
So Elijah got up and fled for his life going to the southern end of the Kingdom of Judah to Beer-sheba. For those of us who don’t remember our Ancient Mid-East geography (let me raise my hand), the priests of Baal were killed in the neighborhood of the Wadi Kishon,[5] at the northern end of the northern Kingdom if Israel. Fleeing, Elijah went to the southern part of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. To flee Jezebel, Elijah went as far as he could go and still remain in the Holy Land.
Then he went one more day south.
Why did he go? Why did this hero of the Lord, this slayer of the prophets of Baal go so far away? He went to ask the Lord that he may die. He went south to declare he was no better than his ancestors and prayed that the Lord take his life. He prayed to die on his own terms. He was afraid and rightfully so. He got out of Dodge. I think he would rather let the Lord take him out than the Queen.
So when Elijah travels to the southern reaches of Judah and prays to die, the angel of the Lord appears telling him to get up and eat. The Lord then provided for Elijah’s needs for forty days and forty nights until he was ready for his next duty. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s words, the angel of the Lord told Elijah to get off the floor and go to bed.
The Lord asks Elijah why he was still there and Elijah protests. He reminds the Lord that Jezebel and the prophets of Baal have killed all of the other prophets of the Lord, and by the Lord’s help and protection, he put the prophets of Baal to the sword. He is a marked man and when it’s the Queen’s marking, peril isn’t far behind.
Now from the hand of the Lord, Elijah had received forty days and forty nights of food, water, and sleep, and still he still protests. (Of course, don’t we all protest the Lord now and then.)
So the Lord tells Elijah "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then he receives blessed assurance: "There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."
Then there came a voice to him and asked, "What are you doing here?" Elijah protests one more time, actually, protest may be too strong. I imagine his protest is now more of an accounting of the last couple of months than shaking his fist at the Lord.
Elijah hears the rush of the great wind, a wind so strong that it split mountains and broke rocks. Then he hears the rumble and experiences the tremors of an earthquake. The fire follows with its burning light and searing heat. But the Lord is not in the wind or the quake or the fire. The Lord is not in any of this power, any of this destruction, any of this chaos. Then, then the sound of sheer silence falls.
When Elijah hears the silence, silence that can be heard, he wraps his mantle (his robe’s hood) around his face and went out, standing at the entrance of the cave. Then he is told that he has something to do, go to Damascus.
In all of the power and wreckage, Elijah does not find the Lord. Elijah finds the Lord in the still silence of creation in the midst of broken life. After this, he is given his next command, his next commission. Then this is not unusual. Our gospel reading vividly gives us the stillness of the Lord in the light of broken creation.
This is the sort of story that makes great movie. It begins with Jesus crossing over the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. It’s dramatic because it follows Jesus calming the storm. It’s dramatic because it is the first time the Good News is being taken to the Gentiles. It’s dramatic for what happens next.
Just as soon as the disciples get out of the boat, they are met by the man we call the Gerasene Demoniac. This man is infested with so many demons that they call themselves Legion. Based on the Roman Legion and its 1,000 soldiers, these demons consider themselves a vast and formidable force in this man’s body and soul. But this legion of demons knows one thing, they know that Jesus is Lord. Knowing they are to be exorcised, they ask not to be sent to the abyss.
So the legion of demons asks Jesus for permission to enter a nearby heard of swine. Jesus allows it to happen and the swine take a full gainer with a half twist down the bluff and into the lake. Since the Legion of demons meet their end in the sea this shows how the power of Jesus and how horrible the abyss must be as because demons were known to avoid water at all costs.[6]
We are told that this man was naked and lived at the city tombs. He did not live in a home and he was chained up like a dog; only to break his bonds and frighten everyone with his uncontrollable behavior.
Jesus hastens the man to change. In one fell swoop, the man is transformed from demon possessed to calm. He goes from the storms that raged in his mind and through his body to a man Luke tells us was in his right mind. He was possessed by a legion of demons, now he is filled with the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. This man is a new creation, a new creation in Jesus. From personal chaos, he hears the holy stillness of the Lord.
So what does he want to do, he wants what every good person who is personally blessed by the Lord should want to do. He wanted to follow, and he wasn’t planning to turn from the plow.
But this is not what the Lord has in mind. Instead, Jesus tells the man, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." Sound familiar? The Lord tells Elijah, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus." When he arrives at Damascus he is to anoint Hazael king over Arum. The formerly demon possessed man is told to return home. There he is to declare how much God has done for him.
In the midst of noise and terror; in the midst of unrest and fear; in the midst of all of the chaos that the world can give a human being, God is present. The signs of stillness, whether at the mouth of the cave as Elijah heard or in the tombs at Jesus’ side, the Lord is there with what is needed to be whole again. This is all the sign we need.
Then the Lord is there to show what we are to do next. Yes, there may be protest as our plans quickly become god’s chuckles, and the Lord shows us the way.
Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, The Reverend William Williman shares this story with Christian Century Magazine:
"This is really unacceptable," I told the first-year divinity student who had just informed me that she would once again not have her paper in on time. "You’re going to be a pastor. Pastors must be punctual. You can’t stand up on Sunday and say, ‘I had hoped to have a sermon for you today, but first one thing and then another came up. We’re going to break up into buzz groups instead of listening to me preach today.’"
"I agree with you," she told me. "I have few obvious gifts for ministry. I’m always late. I’m too old. I know I have no business being in seminary. I’ve told God that repeatedly. My being here is God’s idea, not mine."[7]
With wonder and joy, we are called by the Lord. We are not called in the wind, tremors, and fire that consumes this world. We are not called by the thousand voices that fill our heads with trouble and distress. We are called by the sheer silence Elijah hears. We are called by the still presence of the Lord. We are called to go, and return, just as both Elijah and this gentile hear. Even in the quietest moments, we hear the Word of God; loving us, empowering us, healing us, and sending us.
In the words of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are called to respond in the waters of our baptism, the waters that bring us together as a community. We are called not because it is the Law that brings us together to do what is right, or at least what’s not wrong. It is in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith, heirs according to the promise of God. Saved by grace through faith, we are called to respond the grace freely offered with thanks and discipleship, just as Elijah and the gentile do.
Willimon continues: Upon reflection, I thought [this seminarian] had it about right. We are in ministry, in service to God and God’s world, because we have been called and put here by a God who just loves to make something out of nothing.[8]
Eat, pray, love. In the presence of the God, Elizabeth Gilbert heard from the Lord while praying. Elijah and the Gentile man heard the God’s words too . Eat, pray, love. Pray, listen, and respond. Because even in the quietest moments, we hear the Lord cry out, the Lord our God who just loves to make something out of nothing.
Reference:
Cousar, Charles B,. Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., "Tests for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C", Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, pages 391-40
Endnotes:
1. Gilbert, Elizabeth, "Eat, Pray, Love, One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia." New York: Penguin, 2006, back cover Penguin Paperback edition.
2. Note: These lines were cut from the sermon: Gilbert prays to God, a god she describes as an experience of supreme love (page 14). While her description would not be good for a Trinity Sunday sermon, I would not say she is wrong. I would say it is incomplete.
3. Little Portion Monastery and Throncrown Chapel are two of the many spiritual sites in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. While Little Portion does have a conference center and hosts many workshops, the monastery is dedicated by the community to the Lord for worship and service. Throncrown Chapel is the dream of a man named Jim Reed. Designed by Arkansas Architect E. Fay Jones, the chapel has won many awards for its design of 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. The Little Portion Monastery can be found at http://littleportion.org/. Throncrown Chapel can be found at http://www.thorncrown.com/.
4. Ibid, page 139-140.
5. 1Kings 18:40.
6. Cousar et. al., page 398 .
7. Willimon, William H., "Summons to Ministry." Christian Century, February 21, 2001, page 7 as cited at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1653, retrieved June 15, 2010.
8. Ibid.
1 Kings 19:1-15
Psalm 42 & 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Marie has got me reading, "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. According to the back cover, Gilbert’s tale is the story of how she left behind the outward marks of success and what she found in their place, "a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence."[1] One of the recurring themes of the book is prayer.[2] Throughout the text, Gilbert shares several of her prayers and God’s responses.
One example is when she is on her bathroom floor in the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband and she prays, she begs, "Please tell me what to do" She repeats this prayer again and again. She finally hears what she says is her own voice, but a perfectly wise, calm, and compassionate version of her voice; a version of her own voice if it were filled with love and certainty. She hears this warm and affectionate voice say to her, "Go back to bed, Liz."
This voice, in five words, told her what she needed to know. It told her that there was nothing she could do about her situation at 3:00 in the A of M on that Thursday in November. In these five simple words this omniscient, intelligent voice told her that she was loved. In these five simple words, she knew that she would need all of her strength over the next few months, she knew she would need her rest.
The love of God as she understands God gives her the word, the answer to prayer in this most chaotic moment, "Go back to bed, Liz."
In the second part of her three part book, this dedicated student of yoga goes to India to an Ashram; a sort of monastery for yoga students. Like a monastery, the Ashram is not a tourist attraction. People come from all around the world to study and pray and serve. There is one chapel that’s open to the public, but the rest is for students. In that way, she says it’s more like a university than a chapel; it is for serious students, not casual visitors. In local terms, it’s more like Little Portion Monastery than like Throncrown Chapel.[3]
This is where she meets a man called Richard from Texas, and by her descriptions, Richard is all Texan. In a conversation one night about prayer, Richard shared, that at one time his prayer was always the same, "Please, please, open my heart. And please send me a sign when the event has occurred." Well, in Richard’s own words, be careful what you pray for. The author’s words are better than my recap, so in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert:
"After a few months of praying constantly for an open heart, what do you think Richard got? That’s right–emergency open-heart surgery. His chest was literally cracked open, his ribs cleaved away from each other to allow some daylight to finally reach into his heart, as though God were saying, ‘How’s that for a sign?’"[4]
Yep, how’s that? Signs, signs, oh how we look for signs. Sometimes the signs are as subtle as being told to go back to bed, sometimes they are as thunderous as open-heart surgery. Today, let’s look at some other signs.
Our reading from 1Kings has Elijah in some serious trouble, as is the way of the prophets. Elijah has just vanquished the prophets of Baal with a sword. He did what he was called to do by the Lord. Because of that, he was threatened with the same fate that befell the prophets of Baal. Why? Because Queen Jezebel was angry that’s what angry Queens do. As an Israelite, this may not have meant so much to King Ahab, but to Queen Jezebel, the one who was raised worshiping Baal, this was a huge deal and as we all know from thousands of years of experience, "If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy."
So Elijah got up and fled for his life going to the southern end of the Kingdom of Judah to Beer-sheba. For those of us who don’t remember our Ancient Mid-East geography (let me raise my hand), the priests of Baal were killed in the neighborhood of the Wadi Kishon,[5] at the northern end of the northern Kingdom if Israel. Fleeing, Elijah went to the southern part of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. To flee Jezebel, Elijah went as far as he could go and still remain in the Holy Land.
Then he went one more day south.
Why did he go? Why did this hero of the Lord, this slayer of the prophets of Baal go so far away? He went to ask the Lord that he may die. He went south to declare he was no better than his ancestors and prayed that the Lord take his life. He prayed to die on his own terms. He was afraid and rightfully so. He got out of Dodge. I think he would rather let the Lord take him out than the Queen.
So when Elijah travels to the southern reaches of Judah and prays to die, the angel of the Lord appears telling him to get up and eat. The Lord then provided for Elijah’s needs for forty days and forty nights until he was ready for his next duty. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s words, the angel of the Lord told Elijah to get off the floor and go to bed.
The Lord asks Elijah why he was still there and Elijah protests. He reminds the Lord that Jezebel and the prophets of Baal have killed all of the other prophets of the Lord, and by the Lord’s help and protection, he put the prophets of Baal to the sword. He is a marked man and when it’s the Queen’s marking, peril isn’t far behind.
Now from the hand of the Lord, Elijah had received forty days and forty nights of food, water, and sleep, and still he still protests. (Of course, don’t we all protest the Lord now and then.)
So the Lord tells Elijah "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then he receives blessed assurance: "There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."
Then there came a voice to him and asked, "What are you doing here?" Elijah protests one more time, actually, protest may be too strong. I imagine his protest is now more of an accounting of the last couple of months than shaking his fist at the Lord.
Elijah hears the rush of the great wind, a wind so strong that it split mountains and broke rocks. Then he hears the rumble and experiences the tremors of an earthquake. The fire follows with its burning light and searing heat. But the Lord is not in the wind or the quake or the fire. The Lord is not in any of this power, any of this destruction, any of this chaos. Then, then the sound of sheer silence falls.
When Elijah hears the silence, silence that can be heard, he wraps his mantle (his robe’s hood) around his face and went out, standing at the entrance of the cave. Then he is told that he has something to do, go to Damascus.
In all of the power and wreckage, Elijah does not find the Lord. Elijah finds the Lord in the still silence of creation in the midst of broken life. After this, he is given his next command, his next commission. Then this is not unusual. Our gospel reading vividly gives us the stillness of the Lord in the light of broken creation.
This is the sort of story that makes great movie. It begins with Jesus crossing over the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. It’s dramatic because it follows Jesus calming the storm. It’s dramatic because it is the first time the Good News is being taken to the Gentiles. It’s dramatic for what happens next.
Just as soon as the disciples get out of the boat, they are met by the man we call the Gerasene Demoniac. This man is infested with so many demons that they call themselves Legion. Based on the Roman Legion and its 1,000 soldiers, these demons consider themselves a vast and formidable force in this man’s body and soul. But this legion of demons knows one thing, they know that Jesus is Lord. Knowing they are to be exorcised, they ask not to be sent to the abyss.
So the legion of demons asks Jesus for permission to enter a nearby heard of swine. Jesus allows it to happen and the swine take a full gainer with a half twist down the bluff and into the lake. Since the Legion of demons meet their end in the sea this shows how the power of Jesus and how horrible the abyss must be as because demons were known to avoid water at all costs.[6]
We are told that this man was naked and lived at the city tombs. He did not live in a home and he was chained up like a dog; only to break his bonds and frighten everyone with his uncontrollable behavior.
Jesus hastens the man to change. In one fell swoop, the man is transformed from demon possessed to calm. He goes from the storms that raged in his mind and through his body to a man Luke tells us was in his right mind. He was possessed by a legion of demons, now he is filled with the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. This man is a new creation, a new creation in Jesus. From personal chaos, he hears the holy stillness of the Lord.
So what does he want to do, he wants what every good person who is personally blessed by the Lord should want to do. He wanted to follow, and he wasn’t planning to turn from the plow.
But this is not what the Lord has in mind. Instead, Jesus tells the man, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." Sound familiar? The Lord tells Elijah, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus." When he arrives at Damascus he is to anoint Hazael king over Arum. The formerly demon possessed man is told to return home. There he is to declare how much God has done for him.
In the midst of noise and terror; in the midst of unrest and fear; in the midst of all of the chaos that the world can give a human being, God is present. The signs of stillness, whether at the mouth of the cave as Elijah heard or in the tombs at Jesus’ side, the Lord is there with what is needed to be whole again. This is all the sign we need.
Then the Lord is there to show what we are to do next. Yes, there may be protest as our plans quickly become god’s chuckles, and the Lord shows us the way.
Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, The Reverend William Williman shares this story with Christian Century Magazine:
"This is really unacceptable," I told the first-year divinity student who had just informed me that she would once again not have her paper in on time. "You’re going to be a pastor. Pastors must be punctual. You can’t stand up on Sunday and say, ‘I had hoped to have a sermon for you today, but first one thing and then another came up. We’re going to break up into buzz groups instead of listening to me preach today.’"
"I agree with you," she told me. "I have few obvious gifts for ministry. I’m always late. I’m too old. I know I have no business being in seminary. I’ve told God that repeatedly. My being here is God’s idea, not mine."[7]
With wonder and joy, we are called by the Lord. We are not called in the wind, tremors, and fire that consumes this world. We are not called by the thousand voices that fill our heads with trouble and distress. We are called by the sheer silence Elijah hears. We are called by the still presence of the Lord. We are called to go, and return, just as both Elijah and this gentile hear. Even in the quietest moments, we hear the Word of God; loving us, empowering us, healing us, and sending us.
In the words of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are called to respond in the waters of our baptism, the waters that bring us together as a community. We are called not because it is the Law that brings us together to do what is right, or at least what’s not wrong. It is in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith, heirs according to the promise of God. Saved by grace through faith, we are called to respond the grace freely offered with thanks and discipleship, just as Elijah and the gentile do.
Willimon continues: Upon reflection, I thought [this seminarian] had it about right. We are in ministry, in service to God and God’s world, because we have been called and put here by a God who just loves to make something out of nothing.[8]
Eat, pray, love. In the presence of the God, Elizabeth Gilbert heard from the Lord while praying. Elijah and the Gentile man heard the God’s words too . Eat, pray, love. Pray, listen, and respond. Because even in the quietest moments, we hear the Lord cry out, the Lord our God who just loves to make something out of nothing.
Reference:
Cousar, Charles B,. Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., "Tests for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C", Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, pages 391-40
Endnotes:
1. Gilbert, Elizabeth, "Eat, Pray, Love, One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia." New York: Penguin, 2006, back cover Penguin Paperback edition.
2. Note: These lines were cut from the sermon: Gilbert prays to God, a god she describes as an experience of supreme love (page 14). While her description would not be good for a Trinity Sunday sermon, I would not say she is wrong. I would say it is incomplete.
3. Little Portion Monastery and Throncrown Chapel are two of the many spiritual sites in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. While Little Portion does have a conference center and hosts many workshops, the monastery is dedicated by the community to the Lord for worship and service. Throncrown Chapel is the dream of a man named Jim Reed. Designed by Arkansas Architect E. Fay Jones, the chapel has won many awards for its design of 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. The Little Portion Monastery can be found at http://littleportion.org/. Throncrown Chapel can be found at http://www.thorncrown.com/.
4. Ibid, page 139-140.
5. 1Kings 18:40.
6. Cousar et. al., page 398 .
7. Willimon, William H., "Summons to Ministry." Christian Century, February 21, 2001, page 7 as cited at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1653, retrieved June 15, 2010.
8. Ibid.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Public Virtue
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 13, 2010, the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
A couple of weeks ago I said something that raised a couple of eyebrows. In the sermon called “What is Truth” I said that truth “like any virtue is public, not private.”[1], [2] So the question becomes, can virtue be private? Must virtue be public? I am here to say virtue must be public or it is no virtue at all.
Now this is a departure for me, I love to set up an insightful conclusion after careful development of a theme, analysis of the scriptural text, enlightening observation, and illuminating illustrations. I love to explore the text not only in English, but in either Hebrew or Greek depending on the text of the day. Not today though, here’s today’s conclusion: There is no such thing as private virtue, virtue must be public or there is no virtue at all.
An example of what I mean can be found in the movie “High Plains Drifter.” In a flashback scene that drives the movie, Clint Eastwood’s character, The Stranger has a dream. It begins with a bloody man lying in the street. The man is being whipped by three men. It is dark, but the silhouettes of those watching are clearly the townspeople. The bloody man begs the townspeople for help, but receives none. Only one woman, Sarah Belding, tries to help, and she is held back by her husband. The bloody man is Marshall Jim Duncan.[3], [4]
So who is virtuous, the townspeople who watch their Marshall being whipped to death? They should know murder is wrong; still they might be shocked into silence by what they are seeing. They might be afraid, in fear for their lives; they could be thinking that if they interfere they could be next. Finally, some of them are bound to know [SPOILER ALERT] the murderers are actually in cahoots with the local town leaders who are trying to stop the Marshall from reporting the local mine’s illegal operation to the authorities. Or is the only one who has virtue Sarah Belding who tries to stop it?
The only person with virtue is the one who acts, putting her life and marriage at risk trying to help the Marshall. Some probably are shocked by this public display of brutal murder, knowing murder is a sin. Some of the others are afraid of losing what they have. Some of the others just won’t be bothered. Some of the others are corrupt. Little virtue is found here. Virtue is only found in public action, action only Sarah takes.
Simeon shows his virtue when he proclaims to the amazement of Mary and Joseph that the Lord’s promise has been fulfilled, he has seen the Lord’s Messiah.[5] Anna shows her virtue when she praises God sharing Jesus with all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.[6] Those who praised Jesus’ preaching and teaching showed their virtue.[7] The devil learned about the virtue of Jesus first hand when the Messiah declared his allegiance and faith to God instead of to the temptations of this world.[8] Even in their fear, the demons worshiped Jesus declaring “You are the Son of God.”[9] The demons weren’t virtuous, but they knew who was.
Of course, the disciples who followed Jesus showed their virtue in their very public allegiance to the Lord’s Messiah.[10]
Today’s reading gives us more. Today’s reading gives us one who sins acting virtuously and one who is presumably virtuous acting sinfully.
Let’s begin with the host, he’s a Pharisee and we know what that means. He’s powerful. The Pharisees were the most prominent and influential group in ancient Palestinian Jewish life and the most precise interpreters of the law. They were scrupulous in their observance of the law, in particular concerning Sabbath observance, tithing, and purity laws.[11] He’s pretty well to do. We can come to this conclusion based on this passage. The descriptions of the Pharisee’s house and table show that he has the assets to live pretty well.
For the sake of clarity, I want to take a quick peek into a rabbit hole. Being powerful and well to do are not sins, they are not evil, they do not make this Pharisee virtuous or unvirtuous. It’s what is done with riches and power that points toward virtue or away from it. Yes, yes, I know about the camel and the eye of the needle, but that passage teaches it’s “more difficult,” not “impossible” for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.[12] We see examples of both sides of this needle everyday. But I digress…
On the other hand, scripture leaves us with no question about the woman. She is a sinner and around town she is known as a sinner. The Pharisee notes that if Jesus were a prophet, he would have known what kind of sinful woman she is. Near the end of this passage, Jesus acknowledges that she is a sinner, one who has a great need for forgiveness of her sins. While scripture only hints at what variety of sinner she is, the heading of this passage in my study bible[13] says she is a harlot.
Let’s note again that the passage describes her as a sinner of means. Between the alabaster jar and the ointment held within, her sins certainly had nothing to do with poor stewardship of money.
But our passage gives us more, more about the virtue of the host and the harlot.
Providing hospitality to his guests was Simon the Pharisee’s first responsibility. The hospitality codes were older than Abraham and infinitely important. When a guest is invited into the home, it is customary to offer water to wash the feet. In a time and place where people wore sandals and livestock shared the roads, washing the feet became an important welcoming ritual. It was also proper to offer oil. In a time when Ivory soap was still 1850 years on the horizon[14] oil was used like soap. And the welcoming kiss was as ordinary as a handshake to us today. Simon could not be bothered to offer Jesus any of these things.
So what was Simon doing while he should have been fulfilling his obligation to Jesus? He may have been gossiping with the other guests, bragging about the coup of getting Jesus to come over for dinner. He may have been too busy showing off for the other guests to care for the guest who should have received the most honor. And here’s a question left unanswered by the text—was Jesus the guest of honor? Was Jesus afforded the place of an honored guest or was he treated like a ragamuffin prophet from Nazareth; and after all, can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?[15]
Frankly for a host, between what we know and what we might guess, Simon’s actions showed that he valued his other guests more than Jesus. He valued the virtues of a Pharisee’s life in the synagogue and in the temple more than life in Christ. His virtue extended to some guests, but not to all. Not to the one who deserved it most or the one who arguably deserved it least.
As for the sinful woman, in the home of the Pharisee, she shows what she is willing to risk for Jesus of Nazareth. At the Pharisee’s table, she takes expensive ointment from an expnesive jar and anoints Jesus. She washes the feet of the Lord with her tears. She dries the feet of the Lord with her hair, and if we can take a quick reference from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, a woman’s long hair was to be her glory. She took the things about her that were most treasured by society, even if society did not treasure her, and worshiped at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
When it comes to the question of worshiping God, the sinful woman is more virtuous than the Pharisee. We see this in both of their public acts at the banquet. In his actions, the Pharisee displays his virtue by ignoring Jesus. In her actions, the sinful woman shows her virtue to God incarnate.
To say this again, we cannot refute the sinful acts of the Pharisee and the woman. We know the woman is sinful because scripture tells us so. We are told that the Pharisee is sinful when Jesus reminds him “I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, you gave me no kiss, and you did not anoint my head with oil.” We learn that both have sinned, one publically and one privately.
This is where Jesus teaches Simon with a question. Jesus asks, “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?”
Something Simon the Pharisee would have known that we may not is that the normal living daily wage in that time was one denarius. He also would have also known that both of these debts, one of two months pay and the other of twenty months, would have been nearly impossible for a common worker to repay.
Simon answers rightly: “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt will love him more.” It’s not that both won’t love, but the one with the greater debt will love more.
Jesus takes Simon’s words and tells all who will listen, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little. Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” Jesus demonstrates virtue lies in holy work.
Know this though; it is not our virtue that leads to forgiveness, not at all. Jesus shares this truth with everyone at the banquet. Jesus tells her that her sins are forgiven, but not because of what she’s done. The way we often see it, by the order of the events found in scripture, the sinful woman performs a great act of penance and generosity and then Jesus says “you are forgiven.” But that’s not what Jesus says. The key is found in the word “hence.”
Look at verse 47 again: “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.” Jesus says her sins are forgiven without mention of her actions. She has sinned and her sins have been forgiven. Her actions at the banquet have nothing to do with gaining forgiveness. Jesus continues: “Hence she has shown great love.”
She anoints and kisses his feet not to receive forgiveness of sins but because she has received this glorious gift.
We work, and work, and work; but even before we can consider what we might try to do to please God and win the prize; it is freely offered. We are saved by grace through faith, by the grace that is freely offered we are called to respond in faith actively.
Our love and the actions that follow from our love are the product of God’s love and forgiveness, not their cause. She has shown great love performing Simon’s hosting duties at the expense of her own safety and reputation. She has lived a sin-soaked sin-sickened life, but she had faith that the source of her salvation was in Jesus. And to use an old expression, she showed an attitude of gratitude to the Lord.
Her virtue is on display for all to see while Simon, whose debt is also cancelled by the Lord, Simon’s virtue lies on his way of life; in the ways of the temple run by human beings, not the way of new life in Jesus Christ.
We are called to accept and respond to the love and redemption freely given. We know Jesus’ saying, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”[16] We also need to share God’s love by Christ in the world. The sinful woman shows virtue to Christ and the world. The Pharisee shows no virtue—and Christ shows us his lack of virtue.
By the way, at the end of “High Plains Drifter” [SPOILER ALERT] Mordecai[17] shoots Sarah Belding’s husband Lewis dead after he aims his rifle at the Stranger’s back attempting to kill him.[18] I don’t want to make much more of a fictional killing, even one done in defense of the questionable Stranger, but Mordecai shows that as with many things in life, so too with virtue, it’s better late than never.
[1] http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-is-truth.html, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[2] This concept from the Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins, as an Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology. He later became Professor and Dean of the Seminary. He is currently President-Elect of Louisville Theological Seminary. Congratulations Michael.
[3] “High Plains Drifter Plot Synopsis,” “Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068699/synopsis, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[4] “High Plains Drifter,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_Drifter, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[5] Luke 2:25-32
[6] Luke 2:38
[7] Luke 2:41-52, 4:16-30
[8] Luke 4:1-13
[9] Luke 4:41
[10] Luke 5:1-11, 27-32, 6:12-16
[11] Pharisees, “The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Volume 4. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2009, page 469 ff.
[12] Luke 18:18-30 and parallels
[13] The New Interpreters’ Study Bible, Luke 7:36-50, RESPONSES OF A PHARISEE AND A HARLOT
[14] Ivory soap was first sold in 1879, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_soap, accessed June 15, 2007
[15] John 1:46
[16] Luke 12:48b
[17] Thinking about this later, I believe Mordecai is the stand in for the audience in this movie. He is the second least despicable character in the film after Sarah Belding. It is though his eyes in a later flashback that the audience comes to realize what is going on with the killing of the Marshall. Mordecai witnesses the killing of the Marshall from beneath a plank sidewalk.
[18] Ibid notes 3, 4
1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
A couple of weeks ago I said something that raised a couple of eyebrows. In the sermon called “What is Truth” I said that truth “like any virtue is public, not private.”[1], [2] So the question becomes, can virtue be private? Must virtue be public? I am here to say virtue must be public or it is no virtue at all.
Now this is a departure for me, I love to set up an insightful conclusion after careful development of a theme, analysis of the scriptural text, enlightening observation, and illuminating illustrations. I love to explore the text not only in English, but in either Hebrew or Greek depending on the text of the day. Not today though, here’s today’s conclusion: There is no such thing as private virtue, virtue must be public or there is no virtue at all.
An example of what I mean can be found in the movie “High Plains Drifter.” In a flashback scene that drives the movie, Clint Eastwood’s character, The Stranger has a dream. It begins with a bloody man lying in the street. The man is being whipped by three men. It is dark, but the silhouettes of those watching are clearly the townspeople. The bloody man begs the townspeople for help, but receives none. Only one woman, Sarah Belding, tries to help, and she is held back by her husband. The bloody man is Marshall Jim Duncan.[3], [4]
So who is virtuous, the townspeople who watch their Marshall being whipped to death? They should know murder is wrong; still they might be shocked into silence by what they are seeing. They might be afraid, in fear for their lives; they could be thinking that if they interfere they could be next. Finally, some of them are bound to know [SPOILER ALERT] the murderers are actually in cahoots with the local town leaders who are trying to stop the Marshall from reporting the local mine’s illegal operation to the authorities. Or is the only one who has virtue Sarah Belding who tries to stop it?
The only person with virtue is the one who acts, putting her life and marriage at risk trying to help the Marshall. Some probably are shocked by this public display of brutal murder, knowing murder is a sin. Some of the others are afraid of losing what they have. Some of the others just won’t be bothered. Some of the others are corrupt. Little virtue is found here. Virtue is only found in public action, action only Sarah takes.
Simeon shows his virtue when he proclaims to the amazement of Mary and Joseph that the Lord’s promise has been fulfilled, he has seen the Lord’s Messiah.[5] Anna shows her virtue when she praises God sharing Jesus with all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.[6] Those who praised Jesus’ preaching and teaching showed their virtue.[7] The devil learned about the virtue of Jesus first hand when the Messiah declared his allegiance and faith to God instead of to the temptations of this world.[8] Even in their fear, the demons worshiped Jesus declaring “You are the Son of God.”[9] The demons weren’t virtuous, but they knew who was.
Of course, the disciples who followed Jesus showed their virtue in their very public allegiance to the Lord’s Messiah.[10]
Today’s reading gives us more. Today’s reading gives us one who sins acting virtuously and one who is presumably virtuous acting sinfully.
Let’s begin with the host, he’s a Pharisee and we know what that means. He’s powerful. The Pharisees were the most prominent and influential group in ancient Palestinian Jewish life and the most precise interpreters of the law. They were scrupulous in their observance of the law, in particular concerning Sabbath observance, tithing, and purity laws.[11] He’s pretty well to do. We can come to this conclusion based on this passage. The descriptions of the Pharisee’s house and table show that he has the assets to live pretty well.
For the sake of clarity, I want to take a quick peek into a rabbit hole. Being powerful and well to do are not sins, they are not evil, they do not make this Pharisee virtuous or unvirtuous. It’s what is done with riches and power that points toward virtue or away from it. Yes, yes, I know about the camel and the eye of the needle, but that passage teaches it’s “more difficult,” not “impossible” for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.[12] We see examples of both sides of this needle everyday. But I digress…
On the other hand, scripture leaves us with no question about the woman. She is a sinner and around town she is known as a sinner. The Pharisee notes that if Jesus were a prophet, he would have known what kind of sinful woman she is. Near the end of this passage, Jesus acknowledges that she is a sinner, one who has a great need for forgiveness of her sins. While scripture only hints at what variety of sinner she is, the heading of this passage in my study bible[13] says she is a harlot.
Let’s note again that the passage describes her as a sinner of means. Between the alabaster jar and the ointment held within, her sins certainly had nothing to do with poor stewardship of money.
But our passage gives us more, more about the virtue of the host and the harlot.
Providing hospitality to his guests was Simon the Pharisee’s first responsibility. The hospitality codes were older than Abraham and infinitely important. When a guest is invited into the home, it is customary to offer water to wash the feet. In a time and place where people wore sandals and livestock shared the roads, washing the feet became an important welcoming ritual. It was also proper to offer oil. In a time when Ivory soap was still 1850 years on the horizon[14] oil was used like soap. And the welcoming kiss was as ordinary as a handshake to us today. Simon could not be bothered to offer Jesus any of these things.
So what was Simon doing while he should have been fulfilling his obligation to Jesus? He may have been gossiping with the other guests, bragging about the coup of getting Jesus to come over for dinner. He may have been too busy showing off for the other guests to care for the guest who should have received the most honor. And here’s a question left unanswered by the text—was Jesus the guest of honor? Was Jesus afforded the place of an honored guest or was he treated like a ragamuffin prophet from Nazareth; and after all, can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?[15]
Frankly for a host, between what we know and what we might guess, Simon’s actions showed that he valued his other guests more than Jesus. He valued the virtues of a Pharisee’s life in the synagogue and in the temple more than life in Christ. His virtue extended to some guests, but not to all. Not to the one who deserved it most or the one who arguably deserved it least.
As for the sinful woman, in the home of the Pharisee, she shows what she is willing to risk for Jesus of Nazareth. At the Pharisee’s table, she takes expensive ointment from an expnesive jar and anoints Jesus. She washes the feet of the Lord with her tears. She dries the feet of the Lord with her hair, and if we can take a quick reference from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, a woman’s long hair was to be her glory. She took the things about her that were most treasured by society, even if society did not treasure her, and worshiped at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
When it comes to the question of worshiping God, the sinful woman is more virtuous than the Pharisee. We see this in both of their public acts at the banquet. In his actions, the Pharisee displays his virtue by ignoring Jesus. In her actions, the sinful woman shows her virtue to God incarnate.
To say this again, we cannot refute the sinful acts of the Pharisee and the woman. We know the woman is sinful because scripture tells us so. We are told that the Pharisee is sinful when Jesus reminds him “I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, you gave me no kiss, and you did not anoint my head with oil.” We learn that both have sinned, one publically and one privately.
This is where Jesus teaches Simon with a question. Jesus asks, “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?”
Something Simon the Pharisee would have known that we may not is that the normal living daily wage in that time was one denarius. He also would have also known that both of these debts, one of two months pay and the other of twenty months, would have been nearly impossible for a common worker to repay.
Simon answers rightly: “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt will love him more.” It’s not that both won’t love, but the one with the greater debt will love more.
Jesus takes Simon’s words and tells all who will listen, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little. Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” Jesus demonstrates virtue lies in holy work.
Know this though; it is not our virtue that leads to forgiveness, not at all. Jesus shares this truth with everyone at the banquet. Jesus tells her that her sins are forgiven, but not because of what she’s done. The way we often see it, by the order of the events found in scripture, the sinful woman performs a great act of penance and generosity and then Jesus says “you are forgiven.” But that’s not what Jesus says. The key is found in the word “hence.”
Look at verse 47 again: “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.” Jesus says her sins are forgiven without mention of her actions. She has sinned and her sins have been forgiven. Her actions at the banquet have nothing to do with gaining forgiveness. Jesus continues: “Hence she has shown great love.”
She anoints and kisses his feet not to receive forgiveness of sins but because she has received this glorious gift.
We work, and work, and work; but even before we can consider what we might try to do to please God and win the prize; it is freely offered. We are saved by grace through faith, by the grace that is freely offered we are called to respond in faith actively.
Our love and the actions that follow from our love are the product of God’s love and forgiveness, not their cause. She has shown great love performing Simon’s hosting duties at the expense of her own safety and reputation. She has lived a sin-soaked sin-sickened life, but she had faith that the source of her salvation was in Jesus. And to use an old expression, she showed an attitude of gratitude to the Lord.
Her virtue is on display for all to see while Simon, whose debt is also cancelled by the Lord, Simon’s virtue lies on his way of life; in the ways of the temple run by human beings, not the way of new life in Jesus Christ.
We are called to accept and respond to the love and redemption freely given. We know Jesus’ saying, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”[16] We also need to share God’s love by Christ in the world. The sinful woman shows virtue to Christ and the world. The Pharisee shows no virtue—and Christ shows us his lack of virtue.
By the way, at the end of “High Plains Drifter” [SPOILER ALERT] Mordecai[17] shoots Sarah Belding’s husband Lewis dead after he aims his rifle at the Stranger’s back attempting to kill him.[18] I don’t want to make much more of a fictional killing, even one done in defense of the questionable Stranger, but Mordecai shows that as with many things in life, so too with virtue, it’s better late than never.
[1] http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-is-truth.html, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[2] This concept from the Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins, as an Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology. He later became Professor and Dean of the Seminary. He is currently President-Elect of Louisville Theological Seminary. Congratulations Michael.
[3] “High Plains Drifter Plot Synopsis,” “Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068699/synopsis, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[4] “High Plains Drifter,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_Drifter, retrieved June 12, 2010.
[5] Luke 2:25-32
[6] Luke 2:38
[7] Luke 2:41-52, 4:16-30
[8] Luke 4:1-13
[9] Luke 4:41
[10] Luke 5:1-11, 27-32, 6:12-16
[11] Pharisees, “The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Volume 4. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2009, page 469 ff.
[12] Luke 18:18-30 and parallels
[13] The New Interpreters’ Study Bible, Luke 7:36-50, RESPONSES OF A PHARISEE AND A HARLOT
[14] Ivory soap was first sold in 1879, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_soap, accessed June 15, 2007
[15] John 1:46
[16] Luke 12:48b
[17] Thinking about this later, I believe Mordecai is the stand in for the audience in this movie. He is the second least despicable character in the film after Sarah Belding. It is though his eyes in a later flashback that the audience comes to realize what is going on with the killing of the Marshall. Mordecai witnesses the killing of the Marshall from beneath a plank sidewalk.
[18] Ibid notes 3, 4
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Lightning Strikes
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 6, 2010, the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
1 Kings 17:8-24
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Here’s a bit of grade school humor that I recall from many a long days past. Does lightning strike the same place twice? No, because after the first strike, the place is never the same. I think it was out of the Boy Scouts of America’s “Boys’ Life” magazine from the 1960’s or early 70’s. Then again, I suspect it gets reprinted every five years or so, as the readership of “Boys’ Life” turns over to a new generation of scouts.
At my high school, as on many other tall buildings, on the top of the tall exhaust stack were lightning rods. The purpose of this type of lightning rod is to attract lightning, not to repel it. Placed in the highest point possible on a building, the rod attracts the lightning bolt and its electrical current and directs it safely to the ground so that there will be minimal if any damage to the building or disruption to it’s electrical system. Larry and Margaret have seen first hand what happens when lightning strikes a building.
Unfortunately, this technology doesn’t always work. My high school also had a two story stairwell that had a spire at the top that accidently acted like a lightning rod. It’s a beautiful feature; it’s even the image on the school’s logo and letterhead, but about every five years of so, it takes a bolt instead of the nearby lightning rods or trees. Sitting in one of the rooms within ten yards of the spire tip during a thunderstorm could be a spectacle. Believe me; I was there for one of those times. The experience definitely reminds me of the lightning strike joke, where I was sitting was not the same place it was moments earlier.
But lightning strikes once and lightning strikes twice in the stories of the widows whose sons have died.[1] The stories themselves from 1Kings 17:10 and 17-24 and Luke 7:11-17 are nearly identical.
Both of these stories take place when the prophet came to town. In the reading from 1Kings, it was Elijah; in the reading from Luke, it was Jesus; the prophet, priest, and king. In both stories the woman whose son had died was a widow. Elijah stretched himself across the child three times. Jesus touched the bier and said, “Young man, I say to you, rise.” Life returned to both of these widow’s sons. Elijah and Jesus both gave the young man back to his mother.
There are two differences though. The last (and least) difference is that in 1Kings, only the woman proclaimed “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” Where in Luke we read, “The crowd said ‘God has looked favorably upon his people.’” I say this isn’t much of a difference because in the Kings reading only the woman was present when her son returned to life. In Luke not one crowd, but two were there when the man received new life. In both stories, everyone who witnessed the miracle praised God. In the first case, it was one woman; in the other, it was the whole crowd.
The other case is quite different, wonderfully different. In 1Kings we read that Elijah cried out to the Lord. In Luke we read that he had compassion for the widow. The glorious difference is this: Elijah cried out to God and for Jesus this action would have been unnecessary. Since Jesus is God, there was no need for Jesus to call out to anyone else.[2] Jesus sees what the Father has done in 1Kings and follows.
It is said that Luke’s gospel fully and intentionally formatted this miracle, which appears only in this gospel, to resemble the reading from 1Kings 17. The genre, structure, detail, and even the vocabulary connect these two stories beyond what could be expected by coincidence.[3] I’m not saying what a skeptic might say, that this didn’t happen it’s just a “copycat miracle.” What I am saying is that the way this story was recorded in Luke’s gospel intentionally tied these together.
I am not saying that the writers of Luke’s gospel put this story in here because they thought that it was a good story to copy and a good place to put it either. For doubters, I just want to remind you of the end of John’s gospel where it is recorded, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” This could be one of those things not written anywhere else.
What I am saying is that lightning struck twice, and neither time was the place the same after it struck.
It is easy to focus on the triumphant aspects of these readings, everybody loves a happy ending. But before every happy ending, there is a time of trial and tribulation.
Elijah has seen his trials. In the reading immediately before our reading from 1Kings, Elijah went to Ahab, King of Israel, and told him of the coming seven year drought. Especially in instances like this one, the only thing worse than a prophet being wrong is a prophet being right. Directed by the Lord, Elijah is sent to a place for fresh water and promised bread and meat. But it didn’t take seven years for the wadi, stream, to turn bone dry. So Elijah is sent to Syria, to Zarephath, where he is met by a widow who is also in dire straights.
Elijah asks for water, which she provides and then he asks for a morsel of bread. This is when we find out how nasty things are for the widow. In so many words, she apologizes for not keeping the sacred responsibility of hospitality but she is preparing the last meal for her family. The death sentence has been handed down by the drought and she’s making their last meal. Elijah shares the greatest invocation God ever gives the people, “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid,” he says, “because the Lord, the God of Israel promises that their meal will not run out and their oil will not run dry. Fear not, the Lord will provide.
Gloriously, the Lord provides. Even after the cruelest twist of fate, the later death of the widow’s only son; gloriously, the Lord provides.
By the same turn, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the Word become flesh, is the Word threatened by those who would take his life. Between Luke 4 and our reading today, Jesus is tempted by the devil, tempted with the most wonderful treats of this world if he will only betray God.[4] He discovers the truth of the old adage that no prophet is accepted in his home town.[5]
He healed the paralyzed man, this healing being more than the physical healing of the man’s body; Jesus forgave his sins as well healing his entire being, raising the ire of the scribes and Pharisees.[6] Eating with the outcasts, Jesus is scorned by those he has been sent to save.[7] He teaches on fasting[8] and the Sabbath,[9] turning from conventional wisdom and showing the world new constellations in the midst of the oldest stars.[10]
Jesus is nearly in constant danger from those who rule the land where he lives, those who he has come to save, and finally by one of his disciples. Jesus knows his woes so he knows the joy of restoration. He knows the joy of the Father’s presence, the presence that enters our lives like a bolt of lightning, making it so that we will never be the same.
Elijah and Jesus were both surrounded by those who would have their heads should the opportunity arise; so as we read their words, as we soak in their actions like the waters of our baptism, we are reminded that they knew the woes of the world as well as and better than we do. They don’t come to us as some lofty above-it-all types that promise new life without experiencing our life. They come as the Lord’s emissary and as the Living God, the ones who know our pain by experience, not by just hearing the story. Woes surrounded one of the greatest heroes of the faith, Elijah and the subject of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, and yes, woes surround us too.
There are some things I want to repeat that I have said in the last couple of minutes:
-Before every happy ending, there is a time of trial and tribulation.
-Elijah shares the greatest invocation God ever gives the people, “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid,” he says.
- Fear not, the Lord will provide.
I believe this, truly I do. I know that only in Christ is life worth living. Christ is the Victor over the forces of this world. I know this and I believe it.
The psalm from our Call to Worship makes this abundantly clear, the Lord cares and sustains those who the powerful push to the sides of society.
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
whose hope is in the LORD their God;
who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who gives justice to those who are oppressed,
and food to those who hunger.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous
and cares for the stranger;
the LORD sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.[11]
I know this to be true. I have faith that sustains me, even if some days I’m hanging by a thread. One of the recurring themes that can come from our readings is “Don’t worry, be happy! Fear is a sin, trust and believe because God is greater than the world.”[12] But this can be offered naively, and like the whitewash that covers Aunt Polly’s fence, it doesn’t last long. I say this because I know that there are many, many who live daily in the space between the joy of dancing in the morning and living in long, dark times that are always darkest before the dawn.
Pain and suffering is as close as the foodbank. It is as close as the hospital. For people sitting on either side of the visitor’s glass, pain and suffering are as close as the jail. They are as close as the city square and the skate park. They’re as close as these pews and this pulpit. We know that Jesus is calling us to life triumphant, we know that we should have no fear, we know that the Lord will provide; but there are still many who can’t be sure if that next call is salvation or (more likely) a debt collector.
To me, this is the hardest part of speaking the truth to speak; the truth that God provides and in the meantime there are widows and orphans in this world, like the families restored by Elijah and Jesus. The hardest part of this truth is that there are people in this world who wait and wait faithfully for restoration. They wait faithfully for the dawn that never seems to rise.
There are a couple of quotes from the Reverend William Sloane Coffin that I want to share with you. The first is like a whetstone for my sharp tongue. Coffin quotes the Reverend Reinhold Niebuhr saying, “Despair is the fate of realists who know something about sin, but nothing about redemption.”[13] And yes, as I say the hardest part of speaking the truth of God is the reality of people waiting in pain, this quote speaks to me. I know Niebuhr’s despair, I know realism, and I know about redemption. Some days the difference between knowing about and truly knowing can be measured by inches, other days by light years.
But the other thing Coffin says is “Hope is what’s still there when all your worst fears have been realized”[14] When the wolf is at the door, when it is darkest before the dawn, that is when all we have left is hope. This hope is not in might or power. It’s not in the princes of this world. Our hope is in the love of Christ, Christ who walked in our shoes 2,000 years before we did.
Christ who walked with us. Christ who knew all that this world had to offer from personal experience. Christ who would experience the most degrading death the Roman Empire had to offer. Our hope is not in the sun that rises, but in the Son who calls upon it to rise. Our hope is not in the words of my mouth, but in the one whose Word brings new life.[15]
Today in our Call to Worship, we praised the Lord who sustains the orphaned and widowed; frustrating the ways of the wicked.[16] In our Call to Confession we prayed declaring that the Lord visits “calamity’s child with the gift of new life.”[17] In our Confession of Sin we confessed not only our faith, but our failure to live our faith as we are called to live it.[18] As we prayed together in our Prayer for Illumination this morning, this is Christ’s word to the helpless, the needy, those who mourn, and those who are desolate or wounded by life.[19] In our scripture readings this morning we heard of how Elijah and Jesus both restored life to the sons of widows, and in the eyes of their cultures, restored their mothers to new life too.
This is the joy of life in Christ, we receive new life. We receive life that we could have neither expected nor imagined. In Christ all is new. This is the word that spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. This is the word that is true in our lives today. This is the word that we must continue spreading throughout the world beginning with our next door neighbor.
[1] My wife Marie noted that given the miracles of modern medicine, the miracle of resuscitation can seem almost commonplace, ordinary, no longer the thing of miracles. I like the point but I really couldn’t find the place to put it.
[2] Comparison taken from a table in “The New Interpreter’s Bible.” Volume IX. Keck, Leander E. General Editor. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 157.
[3] Ibid, 158.
[4] Luke 4:1-13
[5] Luke 4:24
[6] Luke 5:17-26
[7] Luke 5:27-32
[8] Luke 5:33-39
[9] Luke 6:1-11
[10] The “Stars/Constellations” turn of a phrase comes from William Sloane Coffin. I do love the way he preached.
[11] Translation of Psalm 146:5-9 from “Book of Common Worship.” Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993, pages 777-778
[12] Among others, the June 4 and 5 entries of: Chambers, Oswald, “My Utmost for His Highest.” Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1935, 1963, 1992.
[13] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 66.
[14] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 1, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 137.
[15] In the pastoral prayer, I noted that things are difficult for this part of the Body of Christ. Our hope is not in our wisdom, but in the grace and peace of Christ. Amen.
[16] Psalm 146:9
[17] Kirk, James, G. “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship.” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001, page 313.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Prayer for Illumination, Year C, Ordinary 10. “Revised Common Lectionary Prayers: Proposed by the Consultation on Common Texts.” Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002.
1 Kings 17:8-24
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Here’s a bit of grade school humor that I recall from many a long days past. Does lightning strike the same place twice? No, because after the first strike, the place is never the same. I think it was out of the Boy Scouts of America’s “Boys’ Life” magazine from the 1960’s or early 70’s. Then again, I suspect it gets reprinted every five years or so, as the readership of “Boys’ Life” turns over to a new generation of scouts.
At my high school, as on many other tall buildings, on the top of the tall exhaust stack were lightning rods. The purpose of this type of lightning rod is to attract lightning, not to repel it. Placed in the highest point possible on a building, the rod attracts the lightning bolt and its electrical current and directs it safely to the ground so that there will be minimal if any damage to the building or disruption to it’s electrical system. Larry and Margaret have seen first hand what happens when lightning strikes a building.
Unfortunately, this technology doesn’t always work. My high school also had a two story stairwell that had a spire at the top that accidently acted like a lightning rod. It’s a beautiful feature; it’s even the image on the school’s logo and letterhead, but about every five years of so, it takes a bolt instead of the nearby lightning rods or trees. Sitting in one of the rooms within ten yards of the spire tip during a thunderstorm could be a spectacle. Believe me; I was there for one of those times. The experience definitely reminds me of the lightning strike joke, where I was sitting was not the same place it was moments earlier.
But lightning strikes once and lightning strikes twice in the stories of the widows whose sons have died.[1] The stories themselves from 1Kings 17:10 and 17-24 and Luke 7:11-17 are nearly identical.
Both of these stories take place when the prophet came to town. In the reading from 1Kings, it was Elijah; in the reading from Luke, it was Jesus; the prophet, priest, and king. In both stories the woman whose son had died was a widow. Elijah stretched himself across the child three times. Jesus touched the bier and said, “Young man, I say to you, rise.” Life returned to both of these widow’s sons. Elijah and Jesus both gave the young man back to his mother.
There are two differences though. The last (and least) difference is that in 1Kings, only the woman proclaimed “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” Where in Luke we read, “The crowd said ‘God has looked favorably upon his people.’” I say this isn’t much of a difference because in the Kings reading only the woman was present when her son returned to life. In Luke not one crowd, but two were there when the man received new life. In both stories, everyone who witnessed the miracle praised God. In the first case, it was one woman; in the other, it was the whole crowd.
The other case is quite different, wonderfully different. In 1Kings we read that Elijah cried out to the Lord. In Luke we read that he had compassion for the widow. The glorious difference is this: Elijah cried out to God and for Jesus this action would have been unnecessary. Since Jesus is God, there was no need for Jesus to call out to anyone else.[2] Jesus sees what the Father has done in 1Kings and follows.
It is said that Luke’s gospel fully and intentionally formatted this miracle, which appears only in this gospel, to resemble the reading from 1Kings 17. The genre, structure, detail, and even the vocabulary connect these two stories beyond what could be expected by coincidence.[3] I’m not saying what a skeptic might say, that this didn’t happen it’s just a “copycat miracle.” What I am saying is that the way this story was recorded in Luke’s gospel intentionally tied these together.
I am not saying that the writers of Luke’s gospel put this story in here because they thought that it was a good story to copy and a good place to put it either. For doubters, I just want to remind you of the end of John’s gospel where it is recorded, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” This could be one of those things not written anywhere else.
What I am saying is that lightning struck twice, and neither time was the place the same after it struck.
It is easy to focus on the triumphant aspects of these readings, everybody loves a happy ending. But before every happy ending, there is a time of trial and tribulation.
Elijah has seen his trials. In the reading immediately before our reading from 1Kings, Elijah went to Ahab, King of Israel, and told him of the coming seven year drought. Especially in instances like this one, the only thing worse than a prophet being wrong is a prophet being right. Directed by the Lord, Elijah is sent to a place for fresh water and promised bread and meat. But it didn’t take seven years for the wadi, stream, to turn bone dry. So Elijah is sent to Syria, to Zarephath, where he is met by a widow who is also in dire straights.
Elijah asks for water, which she provides and then he asks for a morsel of bread. This is when we find out how nasty things are for the widow. In so many words, she apologizes for not keeping the sacred responsibility of hospitality but she is preparing the last meal for her family. The death sentence has been handed down by the drought and she’s making their last meal. Elijah shares the greatest invocation God ever gives the people, “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid,” he says, “because the Lord, the God of Israel promises that their meal will not run out and their oil will not run dry. Fear not, the Lord will provide.
Gloriously, the Lord provides. Even after the cruelest twist of fate, the later death of the widow’s only son; gloriously, the Lord provides.
By the same turn, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the Word become flesh, is the Word threatened by those who would take his life. Between Luke 4 and our reading today, Jesus is tempted by the devil, tempted with the most wonderful treats of this world if he will only betray God.[4] He discovers the truth of the old adage that no prophet is accepted in his home town.[5]
He healed the paralyzed man, this healing being more than the physical healing of the man’s body; Jesus forgave his sins as well healing his entire being, raising the ire of the scribes and Pharisees.[6] Eating with the outcasts, Jesus is scorned by those he has been sent to save.[7] He teaches on fasting[8] and the Sabbath,[9] turning from conventional wisdom and showing the world new constellations in the midst of the oldest stars.[10]
Jesus is nearly in constant danger from those who rule the land where he lives, those who he has come to save, and finally by one of his disciples. Jesus knows his woes so he knows the joy of restoration. He knows the joy of the Father’s presence, the presence that enters our lives like a bolt of lightning, making it so that we will never be the same.
Elijah and Jesus were both surrounded by those who would have their heads should the opportunity arise; so as we read their words, as we soak in their actions like the waters of our baptism, we are reminded that they knew the woes of the world as well as and better than we do. They don’t come to us as some lofty above-it-all types that promise new life without experiencing our life. They come as the Lord’s emissary and as the Living God, the ones who know our pain by experience, not by just hearing the story. Woes surrounded one of the greatest heroes of the faith, Elijah and the subject of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, and yes, woes surround us too.
There are some things I want to repeat that I have said in the last couple of minutes:
-Before every happy ending, there is a time of trial and tribulation.
-Elijah shares the greatest invocation God ever gives the people, “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid,” he says.
- Fear not, the Lord will provide.
I believe this, truly I do. I know that only in Christ is life worth living. Christ is the Victor over the forces of this world. I know this and I believe it.
The psalm from our Call to Worship makes this abundantly clear, the Lord cares and sustains those who the powerful push to the sides of society.
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
whose hope is in the LORD their God;
who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who gives justice to those who are oppressed,
and food to those who hunger.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous
and cares for the stranger;
the LORD sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.[11]
I know this to be true. I have faith that sustains me, even if some days I’m hanging by a thread. One of the recurring themes that can come from our readings is “Don’t worry, be happy! Fear is a sin, trust and believe because God is greater than the world.”[12] But this can be offered naively, and like the whitewash that covers Aunt Polly’s fence, it doesn’t last long. I say this because I know that there are many, many who live daily in the space between the joy of dancing in the morning and living in long, dark times that are always darkest before the dawn.
Pain and suffering is as close as the foodbank. It is as close as the hospital. For people sitting on either side of the visitor’s glass, pain and suffering are as close as the jail. They are as close as the city square and the skate park. They’re as close as these pews and this pulpit. We know that Jesus is calling us to life triumphant, we know that we should have no fear, we know that the Lord will provide; but there are still many who can’t be sure if that next call is salvation or (more likely) a debt collector.
To me, this is the hardest part of speaking the truth to speak; the truth that God provides and in the meantime there are widows and orphans in this world, like the families restored by Elijah and Jesus. The hardest part of this truth is that there are people in this world who wait and wait faithfully for restoration. They wait faithfully for the dawn that never seems to rise.
There are a couple of quotes from the Reverend William Sloane Coffin that I want to share with you. The first is like a whetstone for my sharp tongue. Coffin quotes the Reverend Reinhold Niebuhr saying, “Despair is the fate of realists who know something about sin, but nothing about redemption.”[13] And yes, as I say the hardest part of speaking the truth of God is the reality of people waiting in pain, this quote speaks to me. I know Niebuhr’s despair, I know realism, and I know about redemption. Some days the difference between knowing about and truly knowing can be measured by inches, other days by light years.
But the other thing Coffin says is “Hope is what’s still there when all your worst fears have been realized”[14] When the wolf is at the door, when it is darkest before the dawn, that is when all we have left is hope. This hope is not in might or power. It’s not in the princes of this world. Our hope is in the love of Christ, Christ who walked in our shoes 2,000 years before we did.
Christ who walked with us. Christ who knew all that this world had to offer from personal experience. Christ who would experience the most degrading death the Roman Empire had to offer. Our hope is not in the sun that rises, but in the Son who calls upon it to rise. Our hope is not in the words of my mouth, but in the one whose Word brings new life.[15]
Today in our Call to Worship, we praised the Lord who sustains the orphaned and widowed; frustrating the ways of the wicked.[16] In our Call to Confession we prayed declaring that the Lord visits “calamity’s child with the gift of new life.”[17] In our Confession of Sin we confessed not only our faith, but our failure to live our faith as we are called to live it.[18] As we prayed together in our Prayer for Illumination this morning, this is Christ’s word to the helpless, the needy, those who mourn, and those who are desolate or wounded by life.[19] In our scripture readings this morning we heard of how Elijah and Jesus both restored life to the sons of widows, and in the eyes of their cultures, restored their mothers to new life too.
This is the joy of life in Christ, we receive new life. We receive life that we could have neither expected nor imagined. In Christ all is new. This is the word that spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. This is the word that is true in our lives today. This is the word that we must continue spreading throughout the world beginning with our next door neighbor.
[1] My wife Marie noted that given the miracles of modern medicine, the miracle of resuscitation can seem almost commonplace, ordinary, no longer the thing of miracles. I like the point but I really couldn’t find the place to put it.
[2] Comparison taken from a table in “The New Interpreter’s Bible.” Volume IX. Keck, Leander E. General Editor. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 157.
[3] Ibid, 158.
[4] Luke 4:1-13
[5] Luke 4:24
[6] Luke 5:17-26
[7] Luke 5:27-32
[8] Luke 5:33-39
[9] Luke 6:1-11
[10] The “Stars/Constellations” turn of a phrase comes from William Sloane Coffin. I do love the way he preached.
[11] Translation of Psalm 146:5-9 from “Book of Common Worship.” Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993, pages 777-778
[12] Among others, the June 4 and 5 entries of: Chambers, Oswald, “My Utmost for His Highest.” Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1935, 1963, 1992.
[13] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 66.
[14] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 1, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 137.
[15] In the pastoral prayer, I noted that things are difficult for this part of the Body of Christ. Our hope is not in our wisdom, but in the grace and peace of Christ. Amen.
[16] Psalm 146:9
[17] Kirk, James, G. “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship.” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001, page 313.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Prayer for Illumination, Year C, Ordinary 10. “Revised Common Lectionary Prayers: Proposed by the Consultation on Common Texts.” Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)