Where the Light Is

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 9, 2016, the fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

While I ordinarily preach using scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary, this is Children's Sunday. The Federated Church just completed its "Fun with Bells (and Parables) Vacation Bible School. Keeping with the theme of the week, I am preaching the parable of the light and the basket.

Genesis 1:1-5
Luke 11:33-36

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

This is one of those Sundays when there is too much to say and too many places to start. So let’s start here. Some people will say that the pulpit is no place to talk about politics. I will agree that the pulpit is no place to endorse a political candidate or a political party. Aside from the tax ramifications, which are important, it’s a bad pastoral move. It’s not my role to endorse anyone and you don’t want to hear it. But, to say the gospel is apolitical is misreading the gospel.

In ancient Rome, Caesar was Lord. Caesar was the master over the empire and ruler of all. The word of Caesar was life and death. To declare “Jesus is Lord” was a political statement. To say “Jesus is Lord” was to put the authority of somebody else before the Emperor and was punishable by death. The Romans were pretty lenient with religion; they didn’t care because it kept the locals happy. But to declare a living man was God and Lord of all was to challenge Caesar, and that wasn’t happening.

So if I should ever sound political that’s why and that’s what I consider before I say anything in the pulpit. Yes, the gospel is political.

This week has been a study of contrasts. It’s been hard wrapping my head around it. The news has been filled with lows and the church has been filled with highs! It’s not like we have turned a blind eye to the world, but Vacation Bible School has been glorious. To see the joy in the kids and the volunteers was wonderful!

When I was in Berryville, Arkansas, four churches came together for VBS and it was fun, but there were over a hundred kids and it seemed like as many parents and it became a huge production. Don’t get me wrong, it was great, but by the time it was done I was exhausted. The production was huge. And I didn’t really get to know any of the kids. This week, walking down the street, sitting in The Cup, playing “Telephone,” teaching lessons, hearing the bells, seeing the crafts, and just watching your children and grandchildren, and neighbors; I got to know the kids. I could see and feel the Holy Spirit at work. I could see joy in their faces. I didn’t see pride, I saw delight. Even playing there was love and cooperation and peace that surpassed my understanding.

To hear the questions, the comments, oh, it was so wonderful. We checked out the foundation in the baptistery and they asked me questions about baptism, so it’s probably time for that conversation for some of you.

Let me share this wonderful story, Zach saw the gaps in the Magill’s back patio wall and asked what they were, Terry told him they were to drain the patio after it rained and that very few people ever noticed them. As this was happening I was sitting next to Alice and said he was going to be a Detective someday. Alice suggested he could be an intelligence analyst. Let’s face it, the kid’s got a future.

Just to sit by the pool, watch the children play, watch Lisa juggle, drink a limeade; do you mind if I praise God that you called me to be your pastor? That you called Marie and I to come to Weatherford and The Federated Church? Thank you and praise God!

Then during the afternoons, I would go into the office and check the email. One of the joys of serving The Federated Church is that for four generations, you have figured out how to be one Body of Christ with first two and then three Christian denominations under one roof. You figured that out. God knows the Presbytery hasn’t figured it out, just ask Jody and Bruce, they’ll tell you. You have found the way. The flipside of that is that with three denominations I get triple the newsletters and triple the action alerts. Because of the violence in Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas this week, that’s been a lot of reading.

Just to add more blood to this fiasco, while editing the sermon, Marie told me about two more on Saturday, another shooting in Alabama and the incident at the Dallas Police Headquarters.

Some of those emails asked how I was planning to modify today’s worship and sermon. Well let’s start here, I wasn’t planning on telling you about my email. I was planning on a lovely extended children’s message. Lighter than usual, a pleasant change for everybody. To help, some folks provided ideas for worship. These included links and letters and resources. These provided food for thought. There was a lot of good information. Some suggestions. A couple of suggestions those weren’t very subtle either.

This quote came from Texas Governor Greg Abbot during a Friday afternoon press conference, “We as a people need to move forward and live our everyday lives knowing that Texas is going to be greater going forward unaltered, unaffected by this act of cowardice.” (Dallas mayor and Texas governor address shooting, http://finance.yahoo.com/video/dallas-mayor-texas-governor-address-001007137.html, retrieved July 9, 2016. Remark found at 11:30.) Really, as a city, as a society, as a people, we need to move forward unchanged, unaffected after a peaceful protest is shattered by sniper fire? The Dallas Police Department, I can’t say they supported the protest, but they supported the rights of the protesters. Then these protectors became victims of this heinous act of cowardice and we’re going to be greater going forward unaltered and unaffected?

I was shown other more conciliatory words from the Governor later in the day. More polished, but not from a dais, not from a microphone. These words came first.

In this great nation we have killings in schools and in movie houses, in homes and in the streets. Police and civilians are killed by police and by civilians. First degree murder and justifiable homicide, warranted and unwarranted killings and for the love of God a seminary classmate from Dallas buried her mother and two cousins last year because they were shot and killed in a House of God. They were members of the Emmanuel AME Church. They are three of the Charleston Nine.

Still we are told we “need to move forward and live our everyday lives knowing that [our world] is going to be greater going forward unaltered, unaffected.” We live our everyday lives unaltered, unaffected, like nothing has changed because nothing has changed. And if we continue to live like this nothing will change. Violence and hatred and rage and darkness will be a way of life until something drastic changes. Unaltered and unaffected is the last thing we need to be.

Like I said, it’s been quite a week.

I try to be subtler than this in my sermons, but one of the things I do is work through the musical question, “So what?” Well, so this…

Jesus said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy (the NIV text note says this could mean ‘generous’), your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy (the NIV text note says this could mean ‘stingy’), your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” You should have seen it here this week. You got a taste of it earlier. There was a light shining that glowed from within these kids. There was a light that glowed, reflecting the light of the Holy Spirit that burns.

I was filled with such joy because I got to be a part of it! What a privilege! What an honor! These kids were so generous with their love for God and for one another. They shared what they had. They shared time and energy. They made sure no one was left behind. They laughed together, they learned together, and, during the parable of the Good Samaritan, when they discovered the smelly kid in their class at school was their neighbor too, they paused together. At that moment, they became more generous with who they thought was their neighbor. Their light became healthier.

These kids are so generous. They submitted to the Word of God and to learning and the bells and the crafts and most of all to one another. Kids that didn’t know each other on Tuesday were friends on Thursday. The light that shined was full and bright. At the food bank they came to realize that the poor not only needed bread and cereal, but baby formula and toilet paper. The epiphany was obvious; poverty means more than they knew. Generosity means more than they know.

Yes, they learned that they will goof, to use grown up words, that’s the nature of sin. In a world that spends so much time and energy on mayhem, murder, and bedlam, in that darkness there is light. In a world where my internet news feed is 85% chaos or Kardashian, in that darkness there is light. These wonderful children, who live in this circus learned that by love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ redeems the world and their “whole body [will be] full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on [them].”

I saw that in a world full of darkness, the light still shines.

Terry taught them a song, “This little light of mine/I’m gonna let it shine/Not gonna hide it under a bushel/Gonna let it shine on everybody/I’m gonna let it shine. The light shines and we are called to take that light and shine in the world. Genesis tells us, the Lord created the light and separated it from the dark. That’s what the Lord was doing here all this week, taking the light and separating it from the dark.

For those of you who weren’t here last week I asked, “What’s your story?” This is mine. This is a time when Jesus and the church made a difference in my life. During a week when the darkness threatened to swallow everything, your children shined the light of Christ. The light of Christ shines and I pray it can be seen in my eyes. Don’t let your light rest in a place where it will be hidden, under a bowl. We all need to be able to share our light, and let it shine, and the children will lead us all.

After Awakening

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday November 6, 2011, the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Psalm 78:1-7

1Thessalonians 4:13-18

Matthew 25:1-18

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

Seminary is good about doing many things. One of them is turning the way a bunch of folks interpret scripture on its collective ear. One of those ear-turning things is that the scribes who wrote, copied, and edited texts would occasionally add stuff. Sometimes the additions were to make things more clear. Sometimes the additions were to advance an agenda. Sometimes the additions were to make the audience more comfortable with the word. You just heard me share one of those, verse 13 from our gospel reading.

This verse has Jesus telling his listeners to “keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Actually, this translation is better than the New Revised Standard Version’s which renders this verse, “Keep awake, therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour.” “Keep watch” makes some sense, but “keep awake” makes very little sense to me in the context of this reading. To see what I mean, I want to take a close look at the differences between the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins.

Let’s begin with the obvious things. All ten of the women were virgins, bridesmaids in other translations. They all waited for the bridegroom together; they all had lamps; and they all fell asleep. This is why translating the phrase “keep awake” makes absolutely no sense to me. Why make distinctions between the ladies with the phrase “keep awake” if nobody keeps awake?

What happened next is interesting though. When they all awoke, they trimmed their lamps. For those of you who have never trimmed a lamp it’s not difficult. There are several different types of ancient lamps and they all work on the same basic principle. There is a reservoir that contains the oil and the wick. The wick is snaked up through a hole in the lamp. The oil is then absorbed by the wick and the oil which burns when lit.

In both only a little bit of wick burns as long as there is oil in the lamp. If there is no oil in the lamp, the wick itself begins to burn. If the wick burns too long, the oil can’t get to the end anymore and it will need to be trimmed.

By the way, the word we translate as “trim” is translated other ways in scripture. Everywhere else in the New Testament, this word means to adorn or to put in order.[1] I don’t think this parable calls us to bedazzle our lamps, so we can ignore that one. But when it comes time to put things in order, to put all things in order, this is an important note for the translation and for our lives.

I bring this up because as both the wise and the foolish virgins fell asleep, they must have asleep with their lamps burning. If they hadn’t what follows next would not be an issue. The wise virgins had their things in order, the foolish did not.

When they fell asleep, their lamps were lit. When they were awakened they were either going out or had gone out. None of them had oil left in their lamps, but only the wise women thought to bring an extra flask of oil in case the bridegroom’s already late arrival was further delayed.

Well, you know how the rest of this goes. The wise virgins refuse to give the foolish virgins any oil because there may not be enough for them if they do. Then in a land that is two-thousand years removed from the 24-hour mini-mart the wise virgins suggest the foolish ones find an oil merchant and get their own.

What makes this obviously a parable, a story based in literature, tradition, and wisdom but not in truth, is that the five foolish virgins were able to find a 24-hour mini-mart where they did secure oil for their lamps. In real life the chances of finding such a merchant would have been between slim and none, but in the parable it happens. By the time they return, the bridegroom has closed the door to the foolish ladies. They were summarily rejected.

So the difference between the wise and the foolish has nothing to do with sleeping because both groups fell asleep. The difference is that only five woke up prepared and ready to go in the middle of the night. The difference between the groups was how they prepared before they fell asleep and then what they did once they awoke.

The difference is that one group came as prepared as an Eagle Scout on a weekend campout and the other was rejected by the bridegroom. So as I said, it’s not really a matter of “keep awake,” at least not as far as I’m concerned. When you get right down to it, I prefer the New International Version’s translation of verse 13 that says “keep watch” better than the New Revised Standard Version’s, but honestly, in my opinion, it could have be translated better.

Another way this could have been rendered is for Jesus to say “be in constant readiness.” As for the language, any of these translations; keep awake, keep watch, or be in constant readiness are suitable. But these phrases all mean slightly different things. What I like about “be in constant readiness” is that you can still be ready and grab forty winks. But if you are constantly ready, you will have oil in case the bridegroom is delayed.

You don’t need much extra oil, enough to fill your lamp one or maybe two more times. The crier will tell you when the bridegroom arrives; you just need to have enough oil to keep your lamp lit. The wise women did this, the unwise did not.

But another way this can be translated is that Jesus warned his disciples not just to be awake, but to be alive, to be fully alive.[2] Jesus wants more than warm bodies.  He wants the church to be filled with people who are more than just awake. Awake is a threshold; alive, truly alive is what he wants the church to be.

Our Lord calls us to aspire to and to work toward the life He gives us and calls us to live; to be good stewards of the life, the world, and the gifts we have been given. Our goal, our call, our vocation is be the light of God in the world and to bring light into the world.

The most common way we bring the light is by doing good works. Praise God this part of the body of Christ does many good works in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have opened our doors for community worship services and for civic organizations. We share worship with the community not only every Sunday, but with fellow Presbyterians on Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday. We hosted a group that helps teach people valuable life skills including budgeting and meal preparation. We hosted the youth of the First Methodist Church from San Angelo and their presentation of Matthew’s gospel in the musical Godspell.

We work to fight hunger and do the work of the greater church, through the Marshall Food Pantry. We also make contributions to Presbyterian Disaster Relief and contributions to the Presbytery for mission. We give time and energy to many good causes for the glory of our Father who is in heaven. But there is more, oh so much more we can do and need to do.

One thing we all need to do more of is to share worship. Here’s an uncomfortable question, “When was the last time you invited someone to come and worship with this part of the body of Christ?” The Rev. Mike Nelson tells this story about this:

When I was interning at a Lutheran Church in north Minneapolis, I had the privilege of sharing an office with Bob Evans, a retired pastor who served our congregation as voluntary “evangelism consultant.”

One week he had an insert run off for the Sunday worship bulletin that simply stated, “Surveys show that the average Lutheran invites someone to church once every 14 years.”

At the bottom he asked the tongue-in-cheek question: “How many of you are past due?”[3]

This is just one way we can trim the lamps of our lives. Don’t misunderstand me, I know that inviting someone to worship may cost more than we will ever find in our bank accounts.  Inviting others puts us individually and corporately on display. It puts us on the line to show that we worship and work for the glory of God in the world. What could cost us more than that?

This parable is loaded with many symbols. When this gospel was written these elements would have been important to all of its listeners. Jesus is known far and wide as the bridegroom.  While not mentioned by name in this parable, the church is called the Bride of Christ. The wedding banquet refers to the anticipated Messianic Banquet; a great feast for the faithful in the age to come that was a feature in Jewish and Christian speculation about the end time.[4] Oil is often used in scripture and in worship to represent the Holy Spirit. Sorry, there isn’t a scriptural parabolic use of the virgin, but interpreters instead liken them to the members of the church who will be sorted like the sheep and the goats in the end times.[5]

The symbols are glorious and illuminating, but there is still that same old problem of reading parables like watching “The Da Vinci Code,” filling in scriptural allusions like watching Tom Hanks fill in the blanks of Dan Brown’s prose.

What we can say is that the kingdom of heaven will be like a great banquet. A banquet the Lord our God hosts when all of creation is put into order. When through the Holy Spirit we work to do God’s will, we work to help put creation into order.

 Another interesting thing about the word English bibles translate as trimmed is that it comes from the same root word as the words for world, earth, and ultimately creation; the sum of everything here and now, all of the cosmos. In the common use of the word, it pointed to an orderly creation, a universe where all is beautiful.[6] So as the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, all of what is good and ordered and created is from and for the Lord. 

As we trim the lamps of our lives, we participate in making the orderly creation which God envisions. As we trim the lamps of our lives, we work to bring back toward Eden the creation our Lord began.

So this is our goal, this is our endeavor, this is our vocation; this is how we serve as good stewards over God’s creation. We let our light shine before others, that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.[7]

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[1] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Gerhard Kittel, editor.  Vol. III.  Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans, 1965, page 867.

[2] gragorew, “A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature.”  Revised and edited by  Frederick William Danker, Editor, 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, electronic edition 2000

[3] HomileticsOnline.com, Timothy F. Merrill, Executive Editor, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=invite , retrieved November 8, 2008.

[4] Messianic Banquet, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible

[5] New Interpreter’s Bible, v. viii, Leander Keck, General Editor.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 450 and HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000101, retrieved November 5, 2008.

[6] Kittel, page 868-880

[7] From The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter XVI - Of Faith and Good Works, and of Their Reward, and of Man's Merit, paragraph 6..

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/.

What Happens In Between

Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

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

In the liturgical year, we are in the Easter Season, the time between the end of Holy Week and Pentecost. In our reading, the Lord is still with his apostles. By our calendar, the Ascension of the Lord is still about ten days away. So it seems a little odd that our reading comes from between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. In fact, by the liturgical calendar, it takes place on Maundy Thursday. Narrowing the time down even further, this is what is happening in between the Last Supper and Jesus’ arrest. This moment is between when Jesus prophesies Judas will betray him and when he will prophesy Peter will deny him.

This is a transitional moment in the life of the Lord and the apostles. Jesus has just told Judas “Do quickly what you are going to do.”[1] The apostles didn’t know what that meant, but Jesus did. He knows the apostles are expecting to celebrate the Passover with the man who has ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey. The people went out to meet him waving palm branches and crying “Hosanna.” This is the greeting reserved for a king, not a carpenter and itinerant preacher. There was joy in this celebration, yes, Jesus had prophesied his own death, but at the moment this was lost on the apostles. Well, it was lost on all who had remained in the upper room.

In the verse preceding our reading the narrator tells us it was night. The sky and the time were dark. Jesus knew that this darkness would extend well beyond the dawn of the new day. At this moment, at this very moment, Jesus knows that his time with the apostles is limited. He knew that the dawn would be difficult for them, so he had to tell them what they needed to be able to survive the next few days without him. This is the end of the first part of Jesus’ ministry on earth and whatever he needs to say to them he has to say now.

So as we go on, we mustn’t lose the irony of their situation,[2] the apostles are basking in the glow of their Passover feast, yet one of them had just left with a cryptic command from their Messiah, so they are a little confused. It’s dark outside, there are a few oil lamps burning around the room. Jesus begins to give his final instructions in this darkness set against a backdrop of betrayal and denial. There is great light in the room, the person of Jesus Christ and the word he speaks, the word of truth and life burns like a fire in the night. All of this happening in the darkest night humanity has ever known; the night the shepherd would be betrayed by one of his sheep.

In our reading, Jesus has two words for the apostles. One deals with his glory and the glory of the Father. The other is a new commandment.

Jesus begins by saying “now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” Now, while it is dark, while Judas is on his way to betray Jesus and the prophecy of Peter’s denial is imminent, now while this tempest is brewing, the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. In a wonderful motion, God the Father and God the Son lift one another in mutual glorification. They initiate this motion together, simultaneously. This motion has been made from the beginning and exists even now. It has always been this way and it will always be this way, even in this darkest of nights.

On this night, nothing has been left undone, nothing is incomplete.[3] When Jesus says “It is finished” from the cross in just a few hours, he will mean it. Now is the time when Jesus knows he will go to a place no one can follow. He knows his sojourn will be agonizing, but he knows that as his life brings glory to the Father, so too will his death. He knows glory abounds regardless of Judas’ betrayal or Peter’s denial. There is nothing anyone can say or do, there is nothing any group of people can say or do which will separate Jesus from the Father, and in this, glory abounds.

The next thing Jesus gives the apostles is a new commandment, that they love one another. They should love one another just as He loved them. So what does it mean for them to love one another as Jesus loved them?

First, we need to get something clear about this command. They are to love one another. This must come first. At this moment they aren’t being told to go out and evangelize the world. They aren’t being told they have to put more in the plate when it comes by. They aren’t even told to save the world. (It’s Jesus who takes care of that.) They are told to love, and they are told to love one another.

Their love for one another is what is going to get them through the next few days. They are going to feel great loss when Jesus is taken from them. They will feel like their world will never be the same without their Lord. This is when they will need love the most. This love is going to get Peter past his denial of Jesus. This love is going to get all of them past the ugly scene with Judas and the private guard of the chief priests and Pharisees. This love is going to get them past the crucifixion. This love is going to get them through from this dark moment until his glorious resurrection.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that some ordinary human love is a suitable replacement for the love of Jesus; on the contrary. Jesus told them to love one another as he loved them. They are to love one another sacrificially. They must be willing to give up everything for one another. This sort of love has only one source, this is the love of God, modeled for the apostles by Jesus the Christ. Their love will not sustain them through the dark night coming, but His love will.

This love must begin with them, with the community. This love must begin with the apostles and the disciples and all who know the love of Jesus. This love isn’t for the lost of the world outside the communion of the church; it is for the lost of the world inside the communion of the church. Often in the history of the church, there have been disagreements. I could regale you with the latest salvos in the fight for peace, unity, and purity in the Presbyterian Church (USA), but why should I when the first major fight for peace, unity, and purity is found in our reading from Acts?

Our reading in Acts shows Peter in a sticky situation. He has just returned from a glorious time with the Gentiles in Cornelius’s home at Caesarea. Peter had received a word from the Lord to go and take and eat with the Gentiles, so he did. The Gentiles heard the word of God, received the Holy Spirit, and were baptized. Peter shared their hospitality, but with their hospitality he shared their unclean food. Returning to Jerusalem, Peter’s breaking of the table purity with the Gentiles was controversial, even scandalous. Peter explained, step by step, that he was directed by the word of the Spirit. He was told to go, take, and eat. He was also told “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Peter explained to the church in Jerusalem that the Spirit told him not to make distinction between them and us, between the Jews and the Gentiles.

This is the root of the love we are to share with one another. This is the communion we are share with one another. We are one with the Spirit; we are one with the Lord.[4] This is the love of God, modeled by Jesus, which we are to share with one another. This is the new commandment the apostles received. This is the new commandment we receive still today. And it is through this love for one another that everyone will know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

John Lennon once said “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”[5] Judas had his plans. He was on his way to execute them, and by them he would forge the first link of a chain that would bind Jesus to the cross. Peter had his own gung-ho plans. He was ready to take on the Jews and the world. He was ready to lay down his life for his Lord, but instead he will deny Jesus three times before cockcrow. There are great plans in the works. Conspiracies abound. Toil, torment, torture, suffering and death are on the horizon for Jesus (and Judas for that matter). Plans will come, plots will go, and in the meantime, life goes on.

We are in a great dark time, just like the apostles were some two thousand years ago. In the meantime, like sands through the hourglass, life happens while we make plans. Here’s a challenge, find some time this week and put aside your plans. Take time to look at life and God’s love around us. Take time to feel the sun on your face, or hear the rain on the roof. Let this be a time to put aside our plans, and seek the life happening around us. Let us be with those who are here with us today, and with those who are absent. Be a part of this communion, a communion begun by Jesus on a dark night long ago, a communion of people who are like we are and a communion of people who are not like us at all. And let us love one another as Christ loved us.

The events of our gospel reading happen during the Last Supper. We celebrate the inauguration of this sacrament on Maundy Thursday. Maundy means mandate, commandment.[6] Jesus has given his apostles a new commandment; he has given us a new commandment; to love one another; a love which reflects the glory of God and the glory of Jesus; the glory they give to one another. This is the glory that finds in us another pair of eyes when we take time to be attentive to the glorious life of the Lord surrounding us. This is the glory that finds in us another pair of hands when we take time to participate the glorious life of the Lord surrounding us.

In the liturgical year, we are in the Easter Season, the time between the end of Holy Week and Pentecost. It seems a little odd that our reading comes from between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. But the darkness of this time is not so different from our own. In this dark time, we are to seek the one light that shined brightly on that dark night, the love of Jesus for his apostles and for the world. There is light in the word of God, the word that calls us to see the mutual glory of the Father and the Son, the word that calls us to take this love so graciously given and share it with one another. A love by which all unity may one day be restored, a love by which we'll guard each one's dignity and save each one’s pride, a love which makes us one.[7]

[1] John 13:27b
[2] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, page 310.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Peter Scholtes, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” 1966 F.E.L. Publications. Assigned 1991 Lorenz Publishing Company (a div. of the Lorenz Corporation)
[5] The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. www.bartleby.com/66/. May 5, 2007. Columbia notes that others may have been responsible for this quotation.
[6] McKim, Donald. Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996, “Maundy” entry.
[7] Ibid. Peter Scholtes

Witnesses of the Light

This homily was delivered in the chapel of St. John's Hospital Berryville, Arkansas on Christmas Day, 2006

John 1:1-14

Today as I was doing my rounds, I went into a room where the shades were drawn and the lights were turned off. It was pretty dark. The next room I went into didn’t have the lights on either, but the shades were open. And the open shades allowed the light to pour into the room. Have you ever noticed that? Of course you have! But note that the darkness doesn’t spill into the room—the light goes to the dark. Our gospel reading deals with the true light in a dark place.
In this gospel reading, there are two principles in this passage. The first is God; God in Word, as God the Father, in the light, and in the flesh. The second is the witness.

On this Christmas Day we come and we testify as the witness to the birth of the Lord in the flesh. God has chosen to come among us and walk as we walk, hope as we hope, and pray as we pray. Fully human and fully divine, Jesus came as a babe, swaddled by his mother and laid in an animal’s pen.

Yes, God could have come in honor and triumph, but instead he came as we come into the world in the stench of a sty to experience life, joy, and pain just like we do.

Just as we do, Jesus lives and works with his people. The hospital is a place where the healing ministry of Jesus extends through your hands. Regardless of your responsibilities, you extend the healing ministry of Jesus in this place. Our Savior came as a child, and experienced a painful and humiliating death. Our patients come the same way, and in every way in between.

And we are the witnesses. We are the witnesses that as our Lord came to heal, he heals as one who experienced the same ailments and afflictions we do. He shares our joys and our sorrows as God and as a man, a man born of a woman in a barn in Bethlehem. Let us witness the ministry of God as we participate in his healing ministry. Let us bear witness to the Light of the world. Shine, reflecting his light in this world and in this hospital.

Jesus is the light of the world and we are the witnesses. Let us bear witness to the joy of the light that the darkest corners may be lit.