Later this month St. Andrew will call and install their new Interim Pastor so while I am still on the fill-in list, my season of frequent service to this congregation is coming to an end. Thanks be to God for their hospitality and generosity during this season.
Unfortunately this week there is only text, no audio or video.
Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
I would like to begin by saying how
much I enjoyed Tara Porr’s sermon from last week.[1] I
particularly enjoyed how she reimagined Hosea’s proposal, if you can call it
that, to Gomer. The way she took scripture and inflected it into the way we
speak was marvelous. When she used Gomer’s voice to say “That’s so sweet!” I
laughed. It was a wonderful way to take a whore-endous, whore-rific, whore-rible
piece of scripture—puns intended—and replay it in a modern way.
But it was her skill with handling
the symbolism of Hosea wedding a woman of many sexual partners symbolically representing
our Faithful Lord’s wedding to a nation that takes many partners that was
brilliant. Still, I can imagine her preparing that sermon, reading that passage
and thinking to herself “how in the world does this preach?” because I felt the
same way when I read these passages from Colossians and Luke.
She read from the densest use of
the word “whore” found in scripture. I get to share “fornication, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)” and “anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive language from your mouth.” After reading these passages,
when I say, “This is the Word of the Lord” I almost expect to hear the
congregation reply “Really?” instead of “Amen.”
Paul tells Timothy that all
scripture is good and beneficial for study and teaching, but these have an edge
to them that point to many uncomfortable lessons.
Then Marie showed me an article
from the Wall Street Journal blogs about the actor Ben Foster who is starring
in a movie based on retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s memoir “Lone Survivor.”
This book and its movie are based on one of his unit’s reconnaissance missions
in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005. Their objective was to kill or capture
a Taliban leader. On missions like these in the wilderness of Afghanistan they
would occasionally cross paths with local shepherds.
In a recent interview, Mr. Foster
was asked about this scene. He replied, “The ancient question of war is do you
kill a shepherd and save your own life and potentially endanger your people, or
do you let him go? They decided to let them go, and these brave young men were
hunted down.” [2]
Foster continues, “[Luttrell] was
the lone survivor, and asked a man in this village to give him water. The law
there is if you give a man water who asks for help in war, you’re taking him in
as a family member and you must protect him to the death.” [3]
The reason I chose to tell this
story is because I want us to consider our family. Who is our family? How do we
welcome new members into our family? What does it mean to be a member of a
family or more righteously this family? We’ll get back to that.
Our gospel reading opens with a
definition of family which is gaining some traction these days, the family as
an economic unit. In my 20’s I had a friend whose grandfather owned a large soybean
farm in Kansas. This man and his wife had four children and after the parents’ death,
each of them owned a quarter share in the farm. They had it all worked out, and
the family as an economic unit was secure. They didn’t run into the trouble Luke’s
gospel reports when Jesus had the brother screaming, “Teacher, tell my brother
to divide the family inheritance with me.”
This man wanted his request heard,
and knew how to fawn while asking it too. “Teacher,” other translations say “Rabbi,”
in a word he appealed to our Lord’s earthly status and the traditions of the
thousands of teachers who came before him. Maybe if he had thought of Jesus as
Lord rather than as teacher he would have been better off. As important as the
family as an economic unit is, Jesus did not take to the question well. Jesus
flat out asked the man who he thought he was to make this decision.
Jesus adds to his lesson telling
the man and all with ears to hear, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds
of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
The story that follows is one which
stock brokers, insurance agents, and others who sell 401(k)’s don’t want us to
hear. In a nutshell we can plan all we
want, but there will be a day; and that day could be tomorrow or it could be
100 years from now. Depending on our own resources and taking joy in stuff ultimately
leads down the road to nowhere.
So, Jesus tells us to be on our
guard against all kinds greed and then tells a story about a man who has a
special place for all of the stuff his life has brought him. I’m not talking
about his barns either, in truth I’m talking about his heart.
There is a phrase in that sentence
that always gets the best of me. Jesus doesn’t warn us about financial greed
alone. As for this man, his greed took root in more than just his possessions;
it took root in eating, drinking, and merriment; everything his life can buy but
nothing God provides. He warns the people about all kinds of greed. I could
give you a litany of the sorts of greed that corrupts the lives of human beings,
but the list would be long, the oration would be boring, and the recitation
ultimately incomplete.
In the end, it is enough to know
that Jesus warns the people about all kinds of greed, not the run of the mill
garden variety financial kind. Then it’s Paul who takes that laundry list and
names it something else, he calls all kinds of greed idolatry.
Now if there isn’t a more loaded
word than idolatry I’d like you to share it with me. I’m not saying you can’t
find one, I’m saying if you do I’d like to get prepared to be frightened. Simply
put, Idolatry is putting anything, the idol, before God. A pastor friend from
Colorado thought the NFL was the perfect American idol. His opinion came from
the simple truth that in the Mountain Time zone games start at 11:00 AM. With
worship starting at 10:30 folks didn’t get out until the end of the first
quarter. If there was a potluck it would be halftime before fans got home.
So many people stayed home during
football season that giving actually went down during those four months, longer
if the home team made the playoffs. Considering this was during John Elway’s heyday
on the reins of the Broncos, the playoffs were almost a foregone conclusion. Yes,
my pastor made a pretty good argument for the NFL being an idol.
As for taking this to the “loaded
idolatry” level let me finish saying “Texas high school football” and get out
of the way. Considering Allen ISD just finished a $60 million facility, that’s
not a sanctuary or a tabernacle, it’s a bloody cathedral to high school
football.
Is it an idol? I don’t know the
people well enough to know, but $60 million for a high school football stadium?
If the Church of Jesus Christ had fundraising like that there would be no
hunger in East Texas.
Paul begins this portion of his
epistle to the Colossians saying, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Paul is writing this to the saints
in Colossae, he’s writing to believers, the church. I make this point because
some translations don’t say “So if…” they say “Since…” Paul is not asking
whether they have been raised with Christ or not. In a lovely turn of a rhetorical
phrase he is saying that they are raised in Christ.
Since they are raised in Christ their
minds should not be on the things of the earth. They should not be set on the idols
we make with our own hands and worshiped like they mean something. They are
called to be of a higher mind. They are called to live the life they have been
freely given at great cost so that we may be with Christ in God.
We are to surrender fornication,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and all forms of greed (which is all forms of
idolatry) forsaking anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. We are
to be clothed with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according
to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew,
circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ
is all and in all!
We are to live in Christ so that we
may not only be able to seek the better things, but accept them and nurture
them when we discern them.
So, what does this have to do with
family? Let’s begin with who is in the family.
Paul covered this pretty well. There
is no longer Greek or Jew—cultural identification and membership is considered
moot.
As for circumcised and uncircumcised
this relates to faith. As culture bears no more meaning; neither does religious
affiliation.
As for barbarians and Scythians, the
Barbarians (with a capital B) were Turks and the Scythians were Iranian. This
could have meant “from west or east” as much as it could mean “vicious people”
verses “more cultured vicious people.”
Slave and Free had to do with
social status as well as economic status. It comes down to whether or not you
have freedom on earth, you have freedom in Christ.
These differentiations are vitally
important because in this day and time we have to beware of who we say doesn’t
belong. Let us remember that after the “Slaughter of the Innocents” in Matthew's gospel comes the “Escape to Egypt.” Our Lord’s family arrived as strangers in a
strange land. They had no visas or permits. The Lord told the Jews to stay out
of Egypt so there would have been few kin folk when they arrived. Thank God for
the gifts of the Magi or else they would have had no gold or other liquid assets
when they arrived.
In short, our Lord was once a political
refugee and an illegal alien. In Christ there is freedom for all. This is
vitally important to our Lord today because while an infant he was once was a refugee,
a prisoner to the power and politics of his time.
How do we welcome new members into
our family? In a way, it’s not completely unlike how the Afghani man accepted
Marcus Luttrell, with water. While they extended a cup of drinking water, we
become family in the waters of our baptism. In this holy sacrament we are
welcomed into the community which Christ has ordained to be his body. In these
holy waters we are baptized and sealed by the spirit.
In the waters of our baptism we
suffer the death that faces all who come into the chaos of water only to be
received into new life as a member of the Christian community. We are welcomed
in this messy, messy sacrament to join together in the messy lives we live
together. It is this unity in Christ, as he too was baptized in the waters of new
life, that we come together as family. Family where we defend each one’s
dignity against the world that would love to see that new life crushed.
So what does it mean to be a part
of this family? It means more than showing up once a week and touching base
like a seven-day game of tag where you have to come once a week or “you’re it.”
It means we defend one another. This
isn’t unlike the answer to the question “who is my neighbor.” A neighbor is
someone who shows mercy, someone who makes a difference. But neighbors are largely
a voluntary alliance. We don’t get to pick our family.
Family, in family there is love and
respect and dignity even when your little sister bugs the living daylights out
of you. Even when your brother borrows the car and doesn’t bother to put gas in
it, family is still family. When the Session, Presbytery, or General Assembly
votes don’t go as we believe they should, we are still family. Even when family
leaves, we are still family. In this love, even in the midst of strife, in the
waters of our baptism God’s peace is there.
This is where I share our joy. Nurtured
by the food and drink of the Lord’s Supper we share the joy found in our Call
to Worship. In the words of the 107th Psalm, Let them give thanks
for the mercy of God, for the wonders the LORD does for all people. For God
satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Whoever is wise
will ponder these things, and consider well the mercies of the LORD. Halleluiah!
God satisfies the hungry heart with
the better things. It’s up to us to seek them, nurture them, and share them
with the world.
[1] “When
Words Aren’t Enough” based on Hosea 1:1-10. Miss Porr is a student at Princeton
Seminary and about to start a yearlong internship in Groomsport, Northern
Ireland. Godspeed and have a great year Tara.
[2] Chai,
Barbara, “Ben Foster on how ‘Lone Survivor’ asks ancient questions of war.” http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/04/16/ben-foster-on-how-lone-survivor-asks-ancient-questions-of-war/,
retrieved on July 31, 2013.
[3] I am
reminded that Luttrell wrote in his book that he was offered tea instead of
water. Foster’s recollection may be inaccurate, but it both is what he told
Barbara Chai and works better with the end of the sermon.
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