His

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 27, 2011, the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 49:8-16a

Psalm 131

1Corinthians 4:1-5

Matthew 6:24-34

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

AllState Insurance has begun a series of TV ads featuring the embodiment of mayhem.  In a press release, AllState says, “By depicting the uncertainties of everyday life, the advertising reinforces humorously why consumers need the protection of Allstate insurance.”[1]  In a warped way, a way that laughs at the misfortunes of others, AllState declares these ads “edgier” than the simple Dennis Haysbert voiceovers.  (You may remember Haysbert from when he played “Snake Doctor” on the CBS TV Show “The Unit.”)

Played by actor Dean Winters, Mayhem takes all forms.  Mayhem is a girl driving a Barbie Pink Jeep in a mall parking lot smashing other vehicles.  Mayhem is another young driver trying to text and drive.  Mayhem is a branch coming down in a storm.  Mayhem is the GPS system in the car that doesn’t get updated giving directions to smash into another vehicle.  Mayhem is a deer caught in the headlights.  Mayhem is a Christmas Tree falling off of the roof of the car after not properly securing it.  Mayhem takes all shapes and sizes.  Mayhem is caused by people; Mayhem is caused by nature; Mayhem is even caused by computers.

There is nothing quite like teaching people that Mayhem is everywhere so they had better do two things, the first is get used to it and the second is get insurance.  They really aren’t even saying “prepare,” they’re saying “buy insurance to protect yourself from every unknown risk.”

This is make-believe mayhem, this isn’t even close to real mayhem.  Real mayhem is stuff like the financial crisis.  This crisis was begun by greedy people who tried to get more toys so they could win.  Stockholders were swindled by a series of lies that drove up stock prices for the principle purpose of increasing bonuses to the directors who oversaw record-breaking false profits.  It’s a case of false prophets reporting false profits.

So where is the protection for the investor? Mark Taibbi[2] recently wrote an article for Rolling Stone that highlighted several factors involved in the economic collapse including a rather porous relationship between corporate boards and the government agencies that monitor them.  What regulator is going to kill the goose before getting a golden egg of their very own?  Taibbi tells us those who are in line for their egg surely won’t.  Taibbi all but says, “Worry, the cycle of ill-gotten gain has not been broken.”

What do we have to worry on the international front?  Moammar Gadhafi[3] is in denial while his nation is in chaos.  Just this month Hosni Mubarak’s regime was brought down in Egypt.  Political, economic, and cultural strife are making their way known from North Africa through the Mid East.  Iran is even facing political turmoil. 

On a side note, we’re all in favor of justice and democracy, but in the same breath we aren’t in favor of the spike in oil prices that lag just a day behind any uncertainty.  It’s back to the economy; and who has made more in the past five years than the oil companies?

Google has been accused of changing the way websites do business.  Recently changing the algorithm that displays results, they have been accused of directing business away from one set of web sites to another, messing up business models and paring profits.  What Wal-Mart has been accused of doing to Main Street, Google is now being accused of on Tech Street.[4]

Thursday’s storms even created mayhem of its own, causing death and destruction in its wake.  A Presbyterian Church in Nashville even lost parts of two roofs during the storm.  Add to that the Christchurch earthquake and its death toll still rising, mayhem has come into the house and gotten comfortable.

Oh, and one more word on the matter: Pirates!

There have been so many disasters over the past five years (ten years?) that people have become overwhelmed and donations are dropping just when they are needed most.  There is actually a tendency during a spate of emergencies for donations to drop off.  It’s not news to relief agencies.  It even has a name, “disaster fatigue.”

So hear now the words of the ancient bard:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me,

Deep dark depression, excessive misery,

If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all,

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.

So when I read this Gospel passage, I just want to look to the heavens, shake my fist, and ask God what exactly is meant by “do not worry about your life?”  Oh, and seeing as how the New Living Translation renders this “not to worry about everyday life” does that give us license to worry about the big nasty stuff as long as we don’t sweat the small stuff?  Then are we supposed to accept adding insult to injury when somebody says “it’s all small stuff?”  Sorry, I’ve got worries… and I know that you do too. 

We pray over our joys and concerns every week and it never fails, there are always joys and concerns; and generally, there are far more concerns than joys.

This is why; after all of this raving through the first nine verses of our reading I want us to focus on the tenth, “Strive first for his kingdom and his righteousness.”  We are called to a radical new priority, strive first for the kingdom of God, and then what follows.

The prophet Micah is often quoted with directions on how to minister to the prisoners and the lost.  He prophesied, “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  This is what we are called to do.  These are the ways of his kingdom and his righteousness.  This is striving for his kingdom and righteousness.

The prophet Isaiah tells the covenant people to raise up, restore, and establish the land saying to the prisoners, “Come out;” and telling those in the darkness “Show yourselves.”  The Lord promises that the one who has compassion for the prisoners and the lost will lead them and by springs of water will guide them; for the Lord has comforted his people, and the Lord will have compassion on those who suffer.  This is striving for his kingdom and righteousness.

Through Isaiah, the Lord promises that those who have cause to be anxious will be comforted.  This promise was reflected again by Paul in 1Corinthians.  Paul begins his call to those who will be sent in the name of the Lord by telling them that they are, that we are, servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.  As servants of Christ, we are called to do the business of the household of God. 

The glory of this term, servant, is that it’s no lofty theological term.  It isn’t something that has a long theological history; defined and redefined by the greats of the church.  Servant is a household term.  It is a common term.  Servants helped around the house.  Servants cooked and cleaned.  The servants took care of the business of the household as assigned. 

This isn’t a position of privilege or status; it is a position of duty, a vocation of action.  As servants we are the helpers of the master, the one who is the head of the household.  We take the master’s instruction, not our own.   This is striving for his kingdom and righteousness.

We are also stewards of God’s mysteries.  The managers of the household receive orders from the head of the household leading others in the work of the manor.  In a way, being a steward would be like a chef leading the kitchen staff in preparing daily meals and arranging special events.

Being stewards of God’s mysteries is a difficult proposition.  By definition, this points to “the private counsel of God” or “the reality that transcends our understanding.”[5]  So to be stewards of these mysteries, we must be attentive to the will of the master, the will we find in scripture of God, in the life of Jesus, and in the calling of the Holy Spirit.  This is striving for his kingdom and righteousness.

In the movie “The Princess Bride” the stable boy Westley is a servant of the family of the maiden Buttercup.  Whenever Buttercup would ask Westley to do any chore he would respond, “As you wish.”  No matter how menial or degrading or cruel, he would respond, “As you wish.”

The story continues, “[Buttercup] was amazed to discover that when he was saying ‘As you wish’, what he meant was, ‘I love you.’ And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.” 

I want to redraw this story in the light of our Gospel reading instead of Paul’s letter.  As the epistle says, we are called to answer the Lord saying “As You Wish,” but more often than not, we ask God what we will eat or drink or wear.  We are called to say, “As you wish,” but the Lord knows our tendency is to say “we wish” instead.  This is not striving for his kingdom and righteousness.

It is the Lord who constantly tells us “I love you,” when all our sinful nature wants to hear is “as you wish.”  It is a shame that all too often our cries and our prayers deal with superficial worries of life when we are called to strive for the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

This leads us to one more matter that we must examine on account of this passage, discerning his kingdom and his righteousness.  The best example for me to bring up today is the biennial root canal that is the General Assembly of the PC(USA).  This is a place where good Christian men and women come together to discern God’s will for the denomination and for the whole Body of Christ.  As is the norm when good Christian men and women come together to discern God’s will, people will often reach opposite conclusions regarding the best way to strive for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

What I find distressing is not that we disagree.  I’m distressed when we insult and revile another in God’s name.  I have seen fear and shame and anger do their level best to overwhelm love.  Often people are so blind to their own words that not only is grace lacking, but so is confession that no one person has had all the answers since the guy on the cross.

Yet as we strive for the kingdom of God and his righteousness together, we are able to discern God’s way and wisdom for our lives.  In Committees, in Session and in Presbytery and in General Assembly, we are more apt to discern God’s wisdom than when we work alone.  When we hear the opinions of others, especially when we disagree, we are more likely to learn from one another.

Next weekend, this feast of discernment makes its way to Dallas where Grace Presbytery will vote on the amendments sent by the General Assembly to the presbyteries.  So now, let us pray not for a side to win the day, but that as a Presbytery we strive for his kingdom and his righteousness. 

When we concern ourselves with the work and the mysteries of God, acting as servants and stewards, we truly love God back.  When this happens, we are promised that all these things, the everyday things, will be given as well.

The things that will be given to us won’t fall like manna from heaven.  They will come from the person sitting right next to us; from neighbors; and in the smiling face of a stranger.  The things which will satisfy our worries will come in the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reflected in the eyes, the hearts, the souls of our friends and neighbors.

We receive the blessings of others, as others receive the blessings we give them.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God multiplies these blessings beyond what we could ever do ourselves.  As we deal with the worries of his kingdom and righteousness, our earthly worries have the tendency to be taken care of along the way.

As I said earlier, we are called to a radical new priority, we are called to work for the things of the kingdom of God first, and then deal with what comes.  When we strive for this inbreaking of the kingdom of heaven on earth, this touch of God’s righteousness in our lives and the lives of others, when we touch the world like this, the world returns the touch.  In the way of glory and light; what goes around, comes around; for the glory of the Lord and the good of all creation.  In short, we are to do his work by his will for his kingdom and his righteousness.  His.

So let us act in ways that are pleasing to God, let live as the LORD requires, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God.  By doing God’s work on earth, we participate in the kingdom of heaven which is constantly coming on earth.  And by doing God’s work through Jesus Christ our Lord, we prepare for the eternal coming of his kingdom and righteousness.

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[1] “AllState Declares Mayhem Is Coming in New Ad Campaign,” http://www.allstatenewsroom.com/releases/allstate-declares-mayhem-is-coming-in-new-ad-campaign, retrieved February 26, 2011.

[2] Taibbi, Mark, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?,” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216, retrieved  February 22, 2011.

[3] Name spelling from CNN

[4] Google Rejiggers Search Rankings to Reward 'High Quality' Sites, http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/google-rejiggers-search-rankings-to-reward-high-quality-sites/19859717/, retrieved February 26, 2011.

[5] “Musthrion” Entry, A Greek—English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Revised and Edited by Frederick William Danker, Third Edition.  Based on Walter Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, sixth edition,  ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann  and on previous English editions by W.F.Arndt, F.W.Gingrich, and F.W.Danker., Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Business as Unusual

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 20, 2011, the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

For the last three weeks, the lectionary, the list of readings I use for sermons, has set us on a journey through The Sermon on the Mount.  We started with the Beatitudes which describe the characteristics of Christ’s disciples.  These statements described disciples who long to love God and seek justice, just as the prophet Micah beckoned.  They describe not how to be disciples but who the disciples are; who the disciples are while Jesus still walks the earth.

The next week we were reminded that we are the salt of the earth.  We bring spice to life.  When used in accord with the Lord’s desires we bring holiness to the world.  We serve as a preservative keeping fresh God’s word in life.

It also says we are the light of the world, shining the light where it is meant to be seen.  The darkness never overcomes the light, the light overcomes the dark.  The light too must shine, or it is without use.  In ancient times, it was dangerous to shine the light of Christ, but they were still called to let light shine.

This is where we are reminded that salt and light can only be salt and light.  They have very specific uses; all of them for the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Last week the Sermon on the Mount took us through some very heady territory, judgment.  We discovered that there are things that will cause us to be judged, some by the church council and others by God’s own self.  Yet in all of this judgment, Jesus teaches us that now we are being held to a higher standard.  This difference is made clear as Jesus begins a saying with “You have heard it was said…” then turning the saying to something higher beginning with the proclamation “But I tell you…”

So we are still under the Torah, but we live under the Living Torah, the Law of Jesus Christ.  This is because Jesus teaches faithfulness to the law, not just simple following.  Lemmings follow, but when they do they often run off of the edge of a cliff seemingly without a second thought.  Jesus wants more for his people.  Jesus wants more from his people.  Jesus wants disciples, not lemmings.

This brings us to our reading today, our final reading from the Sermon on the Mount, the notorious “turn the other cheek” passage.  This presents us with an issue that is as difficult for us to manage as it was for the hearers to manage then.  One of my commentaries noted that if we followed these instructions to the word we would quickly be naked and broke leading to prison and disgrace.[1]  While Jesus’ disciples found themselves imprisoned and disgraced by the cross, this imprisonment is not what Jesus had in mind.  So we have two competing thoughts.

The first is that Jesus said what he meant and meant what he said.  When Jesus said “turn the other cheek” he meant that if we were to be struck by the powerful then we should offer them more.  On the other hand, as I said last week, Jesus does not mean for anyone to be abused.  So how do we balance this?  Where does Jesus point us today?  How can we be faithful to not just the words but to the higher standard the words point toward?

There is one more thing we need to consider that I haven’t said over the past three weeks.  We hear the Sermon on the Mount from our own ears, from our own lives and life experience.  Would you be surprised if I told you that Jesus was not talking to people like us?

Jesus lived in a backwater of the Roman Empire.  The power rested in Rome.  The power for Palestinians to control their own destiny was not what we have today.  Taxation was a farce.  Those who got taxed the hardest were the people who would actually pay their taxes.  That way the tax man was covered when Rome came looking for their share of the spoils.

Conscription was a way of life.  You could be drafted into service by a Roman soldier for a thousand paces, a mile, if the soldier wanted.  In fact, the word the New International Version translated as “forces” can be translated “conscripts.”  There is a definite military overtone to the word in Greek that just isn’t there in English.

The only reason Judaism was allowed to exist in the day was that the faith didn’t cause any problems for the state.  If Rome is happy then everybody’s happy.  So if the church was not causing a ruckus then Rome was fine with the church.  For the followers of Jesus, for these first Christians, this was far from true.  The followers of Jesus had caused trouble in the temple; trouble that would cause Jesus to be executed in the most degrading way the Empire could devise.

So here’s the point: The life experience of the first century Christian is not much like ours.  From a cultural point of view, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is not speaking to the same crowd I am speaking to today.  On the whole, we American Christians are an affluent people, not so the conquered people of Israel some two millennia ago.

Now I know that none of us bathe in champagne.  Averages do that to us; it takes extremes and makes them seem like one specific someone somewhere in the middle.  Averages take away individuality and as the song goes, “numbers don’t lie, but numbers don’t bleed.”[2]  The numbers say one thing, but our individual lives often say something else.  Yet from a global perspective, even those of us who are living in American poverty are doing better than most of the world.

Let’s make this clear though, the one thing that we are not is the oppressed minority.  We cannot be forced to carry a soldier’s tools for even one step.  We have the power to speak and vote, powers that others in this life would die for; and recently a lot of people in Near East Asia and North Africa are fighting and dying for these very rights.  There are nations where we would be arrested simply for possessing the Word of God, much less studying it and praising its creator.

Jesus was talking to the oppressed minority, not to the power elite.  Pagans were in charge.  The faith of Matthew’s community was suspect in the citadels of both the city and the church.  Expressing their faith could be dangerous, yet Jesus called them to continue sharing so that their light could be seen.

In a significant way, Jesus was not talking to us.  He was talking to a church that was being born, not a faith that is 2,000 years old.  It could well be the difference between what you would say to a toddler and to a full grown adult.  In the opinion of much of the world, and whether right or wrong it is their opinion, we are more like Rome than we are the ancient Christians.

Regardless of the opinion of these mythical others, regardless of the differences between us and the ancient church, these words are meant for us, and Jesus means for us to live by the higher standard they put into words.  In these expressions, one of the things that Jesus says is that there are standards for individuals and there are standards for the church.

Something that gets lost in the translation is you can tell the difference between “you” and “you all” in the original text.  This gets lost in English.  Our English versions reflect verses 38 through 48 are all directed at some unspecific you.  What English doesn’t tell us is that verses 38-42 are singular; these verses are directed toward individual believers.  Verses 43-48 are plural; they are directed toward the entire community.  The first paragraph of our reading is directed at each of us, the second is directed at all of us.

What makes this important, what gets lost in the translation, is that there are some commands that are for us individually.  How we treat others in relationship is important.  How we treat others with power, especially others with the power to make our lives far, far worse is important to each of us.  We are to treat others with love, caring, respect and dignity; especially those who do not treat us the same.

As a community, as a nation, as a people, we are called not to return hate with hate.  We are not to persecute those who would persecute us.  We are not to persecute those who have persecuted us.  This is especially true when the tables turn and the persecuted become the persecutors.

The reason we do this, the reason Christians are called to do this is that we are called to a higher standard.  The Psalmist prays that the Lord will give us understanding so that we will keep and obey the law with all our heart.  We seek our understanding in the law through Jesus Christ, through the foundation laid by Jesus Christ.  This foundation is based in an understanding that is deeper than the words of the law itself, it is in Christ’s embodiment of the law.

The basis of that deeper understanding is here, what we do we don’t do for ourselves.  What we do we don’t do to build individual temples.  We don’t do for us; we do for the glory of God.  That’s the deeper understanding; we do what we do for the glory of God.  Our understanding of God and God’s law and Christ’s embodiment of the law are all for one end, the glory of God.

In a way, by turning the other cheek we show others that what they can do to us does not hurt us like they would desire.  It also teaches us that as we turn from taking excessive punishment as a form of justice, we turn toward grace.  We don’t turn from punishment, we aren’t soft on crime, but we turn from the eye for an eye of the Torah to the command of Jesus.

By carrying a soldier’s pack two miles instead of one, we have actually taken power from the one who would conscript us.  In choosing to carry the wares an extra mile we have effectually chosen the first mile too.  This actually takes power from the oppressor.  This is counterintuitive, it goes against logic, but this entire passage moves like that.

There is an old Gary Larson “The Far Side” cartoon that shows this.  It’s a scene from the bowels of hell with two overseer devils looking over their dominion.  There are several men doing their work in anguish and, out of place, there is one minion whistling a happy tune moving his wheelbarrow through the depths of the underworld with a smile on his face and a glint in his eyes.  The caption is one devil saying to the other, “We’re just not getting through to that guy.”

Jesus wants us to be that guy, working joyfully for the glory of God as we are being wrung through the grinder of daily life.  By God’s grace and peace, Jesus wants us to be “that guy” who life can’t spit out at the end of the day.

When I took Driver's Education, the teachers were teaching defensive driving.  Their take on the whole issue of right of way was dealt with asking “who is supposed to yield the right of way?”  That wasn't the way we thought of it when we were fifteen, we always heard about who had the right of way and suddenly we were supposed to turn that thinking 180 degrees and think about yielding the right of way.

I came to think of it this way, I can be as right as I want.  I can be the one who should be allowed to go, but if someone fails to yield the right of way when they should, I can be as right as I want but that is of little consolation on the way to the hospital.

You have heard it said “I have a right...”  Jesus doesn’t tell us we have a right.  Jesus tells us we have a responsibility.  Jesus calls us to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect, but not perfection based in flawlessness.  Surely that’s tempting to lean toward since God is flawless, but that’s impossible for us and nobody knows that better than Jesus.

Instead, perfection has to do with relationships.  It has to do with righteousness between one and another.  It has to do with honesty and sincerity.  It has to do with authentically genuine relationships that reflect the new Torah lived in Christ the Lord.  Perfection deals in complete relationships that move us toward reconciliation instead of retribution, justice instead of vengeance.  It has to do with caring even for those who wish us harm so that as Matthew tells us we may be sons and daughters of our heavenly father.

Is this difficult?  Sure it is; this isn’t business as usual, not then and not now.  This is a new way of seeing the law.  This is a new way of dealing with others.  How difficult is it?  We need Jesus; we can only do this with the help of Jesus.  As scripture reminds us, anyone can love their friends; it takes God to show us how to love our enemies.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.. VIII, Leander E. Keck, Convener and Senior New Testament Editor, Nashvile, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 197.

[2] Walkenhorst, Bob, “Too Many Twenties.”  From the album “Skin” by The Rainmakers.

Go and Be Reconciled

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 13, 2011, the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

As many of you either saw or heard last Sunday, pop music diva Christina Aguilera “sang” the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV.  Well there were a lot of folks who were outraged by her rendition, wishing that singers of the anthem would just stick to the tune Francis Scott Key used when he put lyrics to melody in the first place.  It was reported by Us Weekly[1] that among the many Americans who felt this way, the most famous was former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.

According to a source, Governor Palin reportedly blasted Christina Aguilera’s disastrous performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV calling Aguilera a “demanding beauty queen who’s clearly in over her head.” The report also mentioned the Governor wanting to “deport” Aguilera, after having “to suffer through a performance by a foreigner with a poor grasp of the English language.” Palin also levied criticism on the Obama administration for allowing “spicy Latin princesses” to do the jobs of American pop divas.

The source reported a radio interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity where the Governor says “Quite frankly, Sean, public figures must be held accountable for what they say,” explained Palin.  “Here’s another case of an airhead diva going on TV, running her mouth off, sounding like a fool.  She doesn’t understand something so basic about America, yet we’re supposed to tolerate her diva behavior?  Americans can see through that, Sean.”

These are pretty heavy words.  She even used the “F” word, fool.  But there’s one more thing you need to know about this, none of it was true.  The story was created by a satirical “news organization” called SuperTuesdayNews.com.[2]

The real Governor Palin later responded to the false reports. “I had no interview with Sean [Hannity] and I have never bashed Christina.  In fact,” Palin adds in an on the record interview with Us Weekly, “I’ve defended her by telling folks to back off the criticism of her mistake.”

This spoof of Governor Palin has been blown way out of proportion after media reported the former vice presidential candidate’s fabricated comments as fact.  It was comedy, it was satire, and it was taken for fact by “real” news organizations.

Anyone who says Raca, an ancient Aramaic insult, is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  But anyone who says, “You fool” will be in danger of the fire of hell.  If there is a problem with the written word it’s that it’s hard to detect sarcasm and anyone who has accidently insulted somebody online knows this.  SuperTuesdayNews.com was telling a joke, a joke that got lost on Us Weekly and everyone else who picked up this item as gospel truth.

SuperTuesdayNews.com was being mean for the sake of the joke.  By our reading, this would place them in danger of the fire of hell.  The only people on a slipperier slope would be those who repeated this story as truth, without first finding that it was a joke.

There are two parts to our gospel reading today.  The first we have just touched upon, injuring another.  Jesus tells those who have just heard the beatitudes, those who had just heard that they are salt and light, that if they are angry with their brother they are as subject to judgment as they would be if they murdered.  Insult your brother and you’re answerable to the Sanhedrin, but calling someone a fool, well, that makes God your judge.  This is expanded in the rest of our reading.

It’s easy to understand the injunctions against taking vows.  This is the heart of the commandment that says thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.  Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.  Don’t swear by anything because once your reputation is damaged all that is left is to try to earn back the trust you have lost.  Also taking oaths by greater things adds nothing to your word.  Demanding others take oaths by greater things simply means distrust.  So let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, anything else is either window dressing or a smoke screen.

As for the injunctions against adultery and divorce, these are landmines of our time.

Jesus tells us that anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart.  If this causes you to sin, it is better to eliminate the part of the body responsible than to allow the possibility of sin.

Well, this is one of those times when something gets lost in the translation.  Let me explain this by comparing two levels of lust.  Let’s call the first “Gee, she’s (or he’s-your choice) kinda cute” and the second “Gee, how can I go all King David on this Bathsheba?”  The first type, noting someone is attractive, is not the lust of the original Greek language.  Doing something about it, as David did with Bathsheba, that’s a sin.  On top of that, considering how to do “The David” is a sin.  That’s what this passage is talking about.

Oh, and scholars agree that the self mutilation of this passage is an exaggeration, it’s just an expression used by Jesus to make sure the people understood how important this teaching was.  I’m willing to agree with them, but then again, the vast majority of these scholars were men as am I.  Men probably aren’t the most unbiased of judges on the whole “pluck it out/chop it off” matter.

The divorce statutes are even more difficult to interpret for our day and time.  It’s because so many of us are either divorced or have friends and family who are divorced.  This includes my family where among the five of us, two parents, two siblings, and me, there are seven divorces, so finding an interpretation that is faithful and pastoral means cutting away a lot of things that aren’t necessary to the core of this teaching.

That ground is here.  Jesus is teaching faithfulness.  I look to our reading from Deuteronomy when interpreting this passage.  Deuteronomy tells us to be obedient, not to bow down and worship other gods.  The passage ends with Moses declaring to the congregation to choose life so that you and your children may live.  This is our call, to choose life so that we all may live.

Divorce and adultery are about the ancient legal status that someone bestows upon another by their actions.  Whether it’s by infidelity or by legal certificate, it is about what one person in a relationship does to another.  What the passage is saying is that we are not to behave in a way that would cause dishonor to another, particularly someone we love.

Jesus is talking about relationships.  Jesus is talking about faithfulness.  Jesus is talking about choosing life not just for yourself, but for your whole family.  It’s about life that is wonderful and glorious, a delight in the eyes of God.

What it’s not about is life lived in abuse.  It is not about life lived where you wonder where your partner is, and with whom.  It’s not about worrying if you are going to survive your partner’s viciousness or carelessness.  It’s not about staying in marriage because it’s what the law requires.  It’s about relationships grounded in God’s loving kindness given without reservation to those who have not earned it, but it’s not about tolerating infidelity and horror.

The common bond of all of these specifics, murder and anger and adultery and divorce, and even oath taking, the common bond between these is that there is a higher calling than what the law calls us to live.  That higher calling is the law made and embodied in the living Torah that is Jesus the Christ.  It is Christ who tells us that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  It is about relationships lived in faithful gracious love with one another, and the truth that we often make this life more difficult than necessary.

The way we live into this new life is the second major part of our reading.

Earlier this week I got a facebook friend request from an elementary school buddy who I haven’t seen in thirty-five years.  He began, “Dear Paul, I’m sorry.”  Now, I expected the usual things someone says in a facebook friend request. I did not expect this and I had no idea the emotional impact that it would have on me.  A simple “Dear Paul, I’m sorry” made me reel.

He went on to say that after his family moved away, he had become messed up because of drugs.  He reminded me of a time at the old municipal swimming pool a few years later, we must have been about thirteen or so, and he said something about my weight. I said, “Thanks a lot.”

He wrote, “I never forgot how mean and wrong it was to say that and I still hurt really bad for having said it.”  He said he had tried to find me for the last few years on line and succeeded just last week.  He repeated his apology and asked me to forgive him.  He regretted that I was hurt and that he did not apologize then.

Jesus says “If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there.  First go and be reconciled to your brother.”

This is what he did.  This is what God calls us to do.  But it is very important to note what he did and what Jesus says, “If you remember that your brother has something against you, you are to go and be reconciled.”  It doesn’t say we get to sit in self pity and wait for someone who has wronged us to come and make it right, it says to go out and seek who you have wronged, who we have wronged.  It says go and be reconciled.

Jesus does not call us to passively sit by waiting for the world to apologize for its injustices.  It calls us to go out and right the wrongs we have done against others.  Take my word for it, having been on both sides; these words can be difficult to say, but they are glorious to hear. It’s not easy, but it is glorious.

My response began, “Think nothing more of it.  I forgive you.”

This is something we do every week.  Every week we come together and pray a Confession of Sin.  Then we hear the Assurance of Pardon.

Today we prayed God’s compassion and mercy on us.  We prayed that we acknowledge God’s statutes and our way of replacing them with our own desires. We prayed God set us right in accord with his design for us.”

Then we heard the Assurance of Pardon, We boldly declare God will put the law within us, writing them on our hearts.  God will forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more.[3]

We hear the Good News of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

The Rev. William Sloane Coffin preached that he is “stunned by people who… say, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins,’ as if it were a piece of cake.”  He continues “The Assurance of Pardon is what takes humility, because it means giving up your opinion of yourself and accepting someone else’s opinion of you.  It means allowing someone else to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  It means that you recognize that finally your value is a gift, not an achievement.”[4]

Coffin says that he believes the Assurance of Pardon is the most exciting part of the worship service.  Yet there is another part of liturgy that I believe is just as exciting.

There is something called “Passing the Peace” which you may have participated in at another church or at Presbytery worship.  It isn’t a time to meet and greet one another; it is a time when after we confess our sin and receive the assurance of pardon people extend that same peace to one another.  People shake hands and hug, usually saying something like “Peace be with you” and are answered with something like “And also with you.”  It is a way that people in the church offer and share forgiveness received from God with each other.  It is a way people go and become reconciled one to another before coming to the altar.

The 2010 film “The Book of Eli”[5] ends with this prayer, this benediction if you will.  Denzel Washington’s Eli says:

“Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that I may have done, I’m so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I’m so very tired, but I go now to my rest at peace knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.”

So be strong, be straight.  Lord, keep us on straight paths through the many obstacles life places in our way.  Thank you for keeping us when all seems lost.  Thank you for your protections and signs.  Thank you for new friends and watch over them as you have watched over us.  Be with us so that we may know the higher law that is your life and the good we do by it.  And when we stray, we are sorry about the bad and pray for your forgiveness and grace as you send us to go and be reconciled, to one another and to you.

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[1] Oops! Sarah Palin Didn’t Call Christina Aguilera an Airhead,” http://www.popeater.com/2011/02/10/sarah-palin-christina-aguilera-super-bowl/, retrieved February 10, 2011.

[2] “Palin Says She’d Deport Christina Aguilera for Botching National Anthem,”

 http://www.supertuesdaynews.com/1/post/2011/02/palin-says-shed-deport-christina-aguilera-for-botching-national-anthem.html, retrieved February 10, 2011.

[3] Kirk, James G. “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship.” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001, page 33-34.

[4] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 312

[5] “The Book of Eli.” A Warner Brothers Movie, 2010.  The quote comes from the Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/quotes, retrieved February 11, 2011

Backfield in Motion

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 6, 2011, the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  It is also Super Bowl Sunday.

Isaiah 58:1-9a

Psalm 112:1-9

1Corinthians 1:18-31

Matthew 5:1-12

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

This may seem hard to imagine, but believe it or not, I’m an introvert.  I’m really pretty shy.  At one time in my life I was shy to the point of stammering.  To help get over that, my parents encouraged me to take speech and theater classes so that I would learn how to speak in public.  Well, I’m still pretty shy and I’m still an introvert, but at least now I’m comfortable in front of a microphone.  I am accustomed to public speaking.

One of the things that this has given me an opportunity to do is some radio work.  I have had a show on my college radio station when music was played on turntables, not out of computers.  I have called some baseball games with friends who worked at the radio station in Lamar, Colorado.  I have even called high school football from the teeming megalopolis of Green Forest, Arkansas on opening night of the 2007 season against the Reeds Spring, Missouri Red Wolves.  To get a handle on Green Forest, imagine Hallsville with a livestock sale barn surrounded by hay fields and chicken houses and you’re there..

The play I remember best was a fourth down and short on the Reeds Spring side of the field.  Green Forest was too deep to punt, but not close enough to try the field goal.  Everybody in four states knew they were going to run the ball.  This is when I noticed all of the Reeds Spring players were near the line of scrimmage; none of them was any more than a couple yards off the line.  When you hear announcers say that the defense is in the box that is what they mean.  So I said that the defense was in the box.

I also said that if Green Forest can get past the line of scrimmage, there would be no one to stop the back from scampering the remaining thirty yards to the end zone, effectively putting the game on ice for the home team, and that was exactly what happened.   The Green Forest runner took it to the edge of the line, got a block, popped through the hole, and put six on the board for the home team.

The play was designed to go just a few yards.  It was designed to get four yards and a cloud of dust, and it did that.  But when it busted loose, it was a jailbreak.  Green Forest went on to win the game by more than two touchdowns.

You are the salt of the earth.  Salt to the ancients had a status that we really can’t imagine.  We just don’t have one thing in our lives that represents so much.  Salt was the preservative of the time.  We know that.  We also know it is the most common seasoning ever.  Then we need to recall that since Matthew spoke to the first Jewish Christians, the uses of salt in the Old Testament were also brought to mind in this phrase.

Matthew’s people were reminded of sacrifice, Leviticus 2:13 told the people that they were to include salt in all of their sacrifices.  Ezekiel 43 said that when the people brought their sacrifices of bulls and rams it was the priest who would put salt on the offering.  Being salt was holy.

Ezra 4 and Numbers 18 give us the sharing of salt, enjoying a meal and fellowship together. In this place, the salt was more than a seasoning; it was an expression of loyalty and fidelity.  Sharing the salt expressed the binding relationship of the meal.

In 2Kings 2 the people find good land with a poor water source.  Elisha purifies the water miraculously using salt.  And when he did the Lord said, “I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” The passage ends with the narrator declaring “So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.”

Jesus cries out “You are the salt of the earth.”  Jesus cries this out to his disciples on the mountainside who were declared blessed in the beatitudes.  So it is no wonder, with all of the things that salt represented to them that when they were told that they were the salt of the earth, their blessings were taken to a whole new level.

Jesus continues, “You are the light of the world.” The disciples are to shine their light on the darkness of the world.  There’s an old saying, when you open a dark closet, the light enters the closet, the darkness does not spill into the room.  The light is shined on all those things that were once in the dark.  In this sense, the light doesn’t bring attention to itself.  Attention is drawn to what was once in the dark and is now in the light too.  So when we shine the light on the world, we draw attention not on ourselves, but onto what the light reaches.

Jesus then adds “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”  There are two different and contrasting ideas at play here.  “A city on a hill cannot be hidden” offers the startling contrast that from within the darkness, only light and what is lit can be seen.  If you are in the dark, what’s it like to look into more darkness?  When you’re the one in the darkness, it is only when there is a light shining that there is any difference.  The city on the hill can truly be seen by those in the dark.

This was a dicey proposition for the followers of Christ.  It was not popular to be a follower of Christ in all quarters.  Being seen as a follower of Jesus could lead to a lot of problems, particularly in the temple and synagogues.  This was especially true in the forty years after the death of Jesus when this gospel was written.

Still it is with these followers of the Lord, they are the light of the world.  So it is with us followers of the Lord, we are the light of the world.  The source of our light is the light of Christ.  Shining the light of God, it is impossible to hide. Still, even if it wasn’t always compatible with personal safety, not only are they that light, they are called to let their light shine in the world through their good works.

So this should challenge us all; we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world.  We come to bring holy spice to life.  We are called not to hide our lights; we are to let them shine through our lives.  We are called be a like a city on the hill in the darkness. 

As we are called to be salt, we are also called to keep our saltiness.  Salt is unless when it loses its saltiness, when this happens, salt becomes worthless. The only way salt looses its saltiness is when it becomes contaminated.  When sand or dirt falls into salt, it looses its saltiness.  When water comes into contact with salt it dissolves and after the water evaporates, the salt will have lost its saltiness because it will be combined with everything that was in the water and everything that fell into the salt water as the water evaporated. 

As the light, we are to shine into the dark corners of life and creation.  Through our works we are to shine the light of God so others may praise the Father in heaven.  We are to be the place for those in the darkness to see.  We need to remember that some lights are different than others.  Some light the room, others light the world, and when the light is hidden, it becomes worthless too.  Even when it is dangerous to shine, we are called to put ourselves out where the world can see what we do and for whom we do it.

Returning to the Green Forest Football game, the play itself was not designed for much.  It was designed to get three or four yards and keep the drive going.  It wasn’t the quarterback chucking the ball downfield.  It wasn’t a screen pass to get to the sideline.  It wasn’t even a quarterback sneak for a couple of yards; it was fourth and short, but not that short. 

When the play began, the center snapped to the quarterback who handed to the running back.  The offensive line blocked so that nobody ended up in the backfield and the hole opened in the line.  Then, of course, the running back took the ball through the hole for the first down and beyond.  Because the offense did its job very well and there was nobody in the secondary after the defense was unable to make the initial stop; there was nothing between the runner and glory.

In the kingdom of God, salt can only be salt and light can only be light; no more, but no less either.  There is salt that is used to prepare the sacrifice.  There is salt that is used to preserve meat.  There is salt used in the temple and there is salt used at the table.  They all give glory to God though they are used for different purposes.  Nobody did anybody else’s job.  The offensive guard didn’t try to run the ball; that was left to the running back.  Everyone used their abilities and talents like they were called to do.  

In the same way, we are also called to fully be who God has called us to be in the place God has put us, nothing more and certainly nothing less. We are all called to different roles within the body of Christ all to give glory to God. 

Now, this is where I want to back up just a touch over the past few weeks.  I have told us all over the past four months that there are things we need to do.  There are many, many faces of the children of Christ we are to seek and find and serve.  Yet, there is something I have not said strongly enough, so let me say it now: We are to seek who we are first, both individually and as a congregation.

Are we the salt of fellowship or the salt of the priests?  Are we the salt of loyalty and fidelity or are we the salt of purification?  How do we season?  How does our light shine?  We need to ask ourselves if we keep our light under a basket?  These are the questions we must ask ourselves first.  We must seek and discern what God is calling us to do, who God is calling us to be.  Only when we are in accord with our Christian vocation will our salt be pure and our light shine as the Lord calls it to shine.

It is our blessing today that we are called to consider these things over the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper.  As the salt is important to the bread, we share Christ’s salt.  We shine the reflected light of God’s glory to a world that sorely needs it.  As this meal fills and nourishes us, we are fed by the sacrifice of God.  As we share this meal, we share it with the Lord in a binding, loving relationship.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.  In one of the most Old School matchups of the Super Bowl era, the Green Bay Packers host the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dallas, Texas.  It is also Souper Bowl of Caring[1] Sunday, when we provide additional gifts of food and finance to the food pantry along with our regular tithes and offerings.  As Christ shares the supper with his disciples then and now, we share a bit of our supper with those who need salt and light.

Thank you for your gifts and your support of the pantry.  The work done there is a great outreach to the poor and even more to the working poor who have a hard time making ends meet.  It is when these shelves are stocked that this glorious mission, which is rooted in the Protestant churches from Marshall, shines brightest.

Friends, pray for discernment; pray for faithfulness.  Seek to be salt, seek to be light.  Let’s get our backfields in motion.  Some of us will be the bruisers on the offensive line and others will be speedy tailbacks, and that’s just fine when we live fully into our calling as the children of the Lord God.  That’s because only when we all work together as the people of God that we can beat those red devils and put up six in the name of the Lord.  At the risk of sounding like a football coach ending his halftime speech, who’s with me.

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[1] For more information about the good work done by Souper Bowl of Caring, go to their website at http://www.souperbowl.org/.