A Most Unlikely Sword

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 21, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

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

Reading Paul’s epistles to the churches is a lot like reading a Jeopardy board. The board is filled with answers and the contestants come up with the right questions. His first letter to the church at Corinth contains the answers to questions from that congregation which are still used. The latter part of Chapter 14 deals with answers about worship.

Starting at verse 26, Paul gives instructions about psalms, doctrines, tongues, revelations, and interpretations and their use in worship. The verse ends saying that the purpose of these things is to edify, to build up the Church. Through verse 39, Paul goes into who can, who must, and who mustn’t participate in worship. He also speaks to propriety in worship. He sums up his talk in verse 40 which I share with you from the King James because it cuts to the chase, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

There is a joke among Presbyterians that this verse is tattooed on us before leaving seminary. Actually Presbyteries quit mandating the tattoo in the early 80’s. (Small joke, very small.) But I say this because pastors, especially freshly minted pastors, often get wound a little tight. Everything has to be just so… I was a basket case on my first Easter Sunday in the pulpit. If I knew then what I know now. A couple of years later, I was so comfortable in worship that on a Sunday when preaching on “good gifts” my children’s sermon included me taking a bite out of a Milk Bone brand dog biscuit.

Just so you know, you will never find a Milk Bone in the Communion tray replacing our traditional wafer, and that is not a joke.

I imagine all denominations have their own stories about “decently and in order” and today we hear one where Jesus is the star of the story.

We begin with a woman. There isn’t much we know about this woman. There is much we assume, but not much we know. We know she has what the King James calls “a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” While the NIV’s language may be more accurate, “she was bent over,” there is a poetic quality to being “bowed together” which captures her plight better than “bent over.”

We really know nothing else about her. She could be in her late 20’s, her back bowed because of an accident. She could be in her 30’s and bowed from childbirth and work. She could be older and with these same conditions and have a disease like arthritis. We know so little about her, she could have a birth defect and this eighteen year “spirit of infirmity” may be visited upon an eighteen-year-old.

There is no talk of other family. Is she a teen? Are there children? Are they young or adult? Is she a respected woman, a real “Proverbs 31” gal whose body has paid the price? Is she a widow? We know nothing. What do we know?

We know this. Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in one of the synagogues. The crippled woman was there. Jesus saw her. Jesus called her forward. Jesus said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he laid hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. This we know. Then we get an earful from a synagogue leader who seems to have been a fan of Paul from his “decently and in order” Pharisee days.

Back to the King James, “And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people,” Notice his indignation is toward the people, not Jesus, “‘‘There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” The synagogue leader is doing what he’s supposed to be doing, keeping order in the assembly. If he doesn’t, worship doesn’t glorify God. Right?

Jesus made a rookie mistake, he’ll get a talking to in the coach’s office in the clubhouse after the game, but not in front of the press or the other players.

But Jesus isn’t going into the clubhouse. This is the second time in two weeks of readings Jesus has called people “hypocrites.” Last week he dropped “the H-Bomb” on the crowd who couldn’t tell what direction the wind was blowing. This week he drops it on religious leaders who think order is more important than relationship. Hypocrite is a word that’s bandied about often, especially these days, so what does it mean?

Random House tells us a hypocrite is somebody who pretends to have virtues, morals, religious beliefs, or principles that they don’t actually possess. Especially a person whose actions go against those stated beliefs. Another slightly different nuance is someone whose public persona doesn’t match their private attitudes.

In biblical Greek it literally means to judge or to decide from under. Not very helpful, is it. It’s because it’s an idiom, an expression, one that came from the theater. It means “to act from under a mask” like the Greeks did in the theater, using masks so you could see what character they were portraying. Another way to approach that, two-faced. That’s what Jesus was calling the people when he was calling them hypocrites. He was calling them two-faced.

Jesus is saying that it’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference. It’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference.

There’s more flooding in South Louisiana. The Disciples of Christ and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are already on the ground in South Louisiana, and do you know why? It’s because they’re still down there because of Hurricane Katrina. There is still so much to do post-Katrina that the people of God are still on the Gulf taking care of God’s business. They are there ready to meet the challenges of this new crisis. What they need is reloading.

Our denominations are working with disaster assistance in Syria and throughout the Middle East. They are in Nepal after the latest round of earthquakes. They are working in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and other nations to help settle refugees. Here in Oklahoma they have helped provide emergency relief and helped rebuild after tornadoes and ice storms. They do this seven days a week, even on the Sabbath.

Last week our Gospel reading talked about how Jesus would separate families. Jesus wields a most unlikely sword, a sword of love, separating the people of faith. Today he separates those who only serve in robes from those who serve with their heads, hearts, and hands. Jesus shames the leaders, all powerful, affluent men. They untie their livestock so they can get water on the Sabbath, but they disgrace a sister, a daughter of Abraham who has been bowed under crippling pain for eighteen years. They will free their animals, but not their own people.

Eighteen years of crippling pain, Jesus sees her and “Plan A” takes a back seat to grace and mercy. “Decently and in order” get put on the back burner and a relationship is kindled instead. Jesus could have gone along with the liturgy, but his spirit is grieved by the condition of one of his lambs. She is lifted to a place she never imagined being, a place known only to those who know Jesus.

We end hearing, “When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” We have to be careful with this though. Forgive my foray into the political, but there’s a problem with people who delight in gaffes, when someone powerful is disgraced. There are people who wait for the humiliation and find elation. They find joy in others’ embarrassment. They delight in shame. They don’t find relief or relationship.

What our reading says is “the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” They were not delighted in the humiliation of the powerful, but in the lifting of the infirm. They found joy in the building of the synagogue through the new work of Jesus Christ, the work of relationship and service. Joy was found edifying the body as Paul would tell the church in 1Corinthians. As tempting as it may be to delight in the shame of others, it never glorifies God.

You know, there’s a funny thing about Jeopardy. The questions the contestants give aren’t always the ones that go with the answer Alex Trebek reads. We read Paul’s answers, but we really don’t know the Corinthians’ questions, just like we don’t know exactly who the bowed together woman is. What we know is Jesus, the fully human and fully divine Lord of all chose that moment, stopping all that was seemingly holy, to make a holy moment of gracious connection.

It was out of everybody’s comfort zone, I imagine the leader, the woman, and the crowd wondered what Jesus was doing. I imagine the woman was both physically and emotionally uneasy coming forward too. But she did, and she received the blessing of encountering God. Let us rejoice! It is good to worship decently and in order, but we can’t let decency and order become a straightjacket that prevents us from encountering God and being healed.

God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 31, 2016, the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary

Time.

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

On the cover of your bulletin is a piece of art known as a word cloud. This particular one is called a Wordle. To make one, you put together a piece of text, this is Colossians 3:1-11, paste it into the Wordle generator, make a couple of style choices, and “Bingo!” your Wordle is created.

To create the design, Wordle takes out words like conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. If it didn’t, words like “and,” “but,” “about,” “a,” and “the” would dominate the piece. Then it takes the words used most often, makes them larger, and moves them toward the center of the design. In its way, Wordle shows us the most used, most important words in a piece of text. In Colossians 3:1-11 that would be God, Christ, Earthly, Things, and Life. “Honorable Mention” goes to Self, Also, and Now for their importance, but let’s look at these.

Paul wrote this letter to the church at Colossae. He wrote from his prison cell having never been there. This congregation was a church plant by a man named Epraphas who had filled Paul in on their plight. Modern church leaders think they have it tough, Paul was in jail and local pastors were seeking his advice. In this part of the letter, Paul was giving instruction and encouragement.

He reminded them that they have been risen with Christ! Since they have risen with the Lord they should set their minds, hearts, and hands to the things of the Lord. They should “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God,” not on earthly things.

Oh, and what a list of earthly things we have. He tells the Colossians to do away with whatever belongs to their earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. Now here’s something tricky where the original languages come in handy. When this was read in worship today, Marie read “greed, which is idolatry.” Because of how English arranges itself, it sounds like greed is the only item on the list which is idolatry. When we take a closer look at the Greek, the word “idolatry” actually describes the phrase “whatever has to do with your earthly nature.” So greed isn’t the only thing on the list of “earthly things” which is idolatry, they are all idolatry. None worse than any of the others.

From here, people tend to ask a lot of questions, technical questions, about what exactly idolatry is. Here’s the easiest answer, anything that anyone puts between themselves and the Lord is an idol. Worshiping that earthly thing is idolatry. I mentioned the Rev. Bill Clarke to you a couple of weeks ago, the Pastor from First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado. He considered professional football an idol because of the way it is worshiped. Stay with me here…

Being raised in the Central Time Zone, and a fan of a Central Time Zone team, games begin at 12:00 Noon. I could easily go to church, pick up some Pizza-Pizza, and get home before the end of the first quarter. First Presbyterian Lamar started worship at 10:30 but because Colorado is in the Mountain Time Zone, the early game begins at 11:00 am. Folks who went to church and had lunch with the family might make the fourth quarter.

This was the 1990’s, John Elway’s first Super Bowl victory run, and people stayed home from church to watch the games. People who had tickets to Mile High Stadium in Denver were minor celebrities next Sunday, especially if it was a good game. People would take AMTRAK from Lamar to Kansas City to wear orange in the sea of red. To Bill, the NFL was idol, it came between the congregation and worship, between the people and the Lord.

Idolatry, it’s not just the Baal’s anymore.

Paul not only wants us to do away with our earthly nature, the things that rest in our minds and in our hearts, Paul wants us to change our behavior. Since we are raised with Christ, new creations in God, setting our minds above earthly things; Paul now expects us to change our lives!

Paul wants the Colossians to be rid of ill will from your lips. Once again, the English would have think it was only filthy language that Paul wants rid from our lips, but no, it’s the entire laundry list. I suspect this was literal in the day, but now must be dealt with on social media. Paul not only wants that language from our lips, but from our fingertips, which calls for the need to be rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from Facebook and Twitter too.

So, in God, in Christ, our old selves are gone. Everything we were before is now gone. So what are we? Well, we aren’t Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. Thank you, Paul, The Artist formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, you have told us what we aren’t but not what we are.

In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be, separated by our faith like Jews and gentiles. In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be separated by the scars put on bodies by our faith like circumcision. In God and in Christ we aren’t barbarian or Scythian. Now that one escapes us because we don’t know their history, but the Scythians were a tribe of, for want of a better word, Black Sea pirates, worse than barbarians. Then whether we are slaves or free.

We look a little deeper into what Paul said here. First he said that the Colossians were no longer worse than barbarians and people worse than barbarians. He also said that they weren’t slaves. These people lived on the Black Sea, modern day Turkey. Many of these people were Roman citizens, most were free locals. I imagine they looked at this letter and asked “Paul, buddy, you’re the one in jail, we were never slaves?” Paul says they were raised, so we had to be raised from something? What they were slaves to was, wait for it, the people they were in the beginning of this reading. They were slaves to everything they put before God. They were also slaves to rage, anger, malice and slander.

For any Colossian who wanted to believe the misguided assumption Paul wasn’t talking to them, they must not have paid attention to the preceding sentence, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

These are people Paul never met, but he knew them. He spoke with them just like they were friends because they were. They were friends in Christ. He spoke to them like he knew them because in a way he did, they were all washed in the same baptism as the children of Christ.

I’ve often talked about our Lord’s vocal inflection. In the “Parable of the Rich Fool” as the NIV calls it, I imagine Jesus looking at this man and mourning “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is the way Jacob Marley cautions Ebenezer Scrooge, with pity that is filled with love.

We read this and we don’t see him as such a fool. This man is the essence of the Protestant work ethic. He’s a hard worker, not a freeloader. He’s not sitting around, he’s about to begin an expansion project and God calls him a fool? Yes, he is a fool.

In this parable there is no mention of family or heir or even a friend. God’s question about who will get what he has prepared isn’t mocking. It’s a real question. Who will get his goods? Recently the rock star Prince died without a will or family. Who will receive his wealth? Half of it will go to the lawyers who act as the points on the swords of the people battling over his wealth. As for this rich fool, who, indeed who, will receive what he leaves? Who will receive what he leaves? Ashes to ashes. Rust to rust.

The reason this man, steeped in hard work and careful planning, successful by every measure the world uses, the reason he’s a fool is that he’s alone. He’s a fool because he is surrounded by all of his wealth, and he’s all alone. In a world where he is judged a success he’s about to die alone, judged by his God who sadly declares him a fool. Say this for the Colossians, whatever they had, they had each other.

Life isn’t about tools and schools and programs and projects. It’s about living together. It’s about caring for one another. It’s about fellowship. It’s about community. It’s about coming together. It’s about living with, in, and by the words and life of Christ as our one best example. It’s about seeing what’s important, God, Christ, and Life; Life in God and in Christ. It’s about who we bring along for the ride. It’s about sharing all these things. All of that, all of that is worship. It’s not about our stuff.

So here’s our Wordle. God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life. Important either for what they should mean or important for what they shouldn’t. Jesus isn’t telling us not to work hard, he is telling us to balance our time and other scarce resources between God, family, and work. As for wealth, I like what John Wesley says, “make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Work hard, be fruitful, be prudent, and be generous. I like that. And always put relationships before wealth. Wealth fades, but love endures. Amen.

meanwhile back at the ranch...

This sermon was heard at John Calvin Presbyterian Church on Sunday January 31, 2016, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Sorry, I don't have any audio for this one.

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 7:1-6
1Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

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’m a big fan of sermon titles. I noticed that Pastor Beth usually lists the sermon title as “The Message,” and that’s fine, but I don’t. My sense of humor, irony or the “ah-ha moment” doesn’t allow it. Now it doesn’t mean that the title of a sermon won’t change, but that doesn’t happen often and it didn’t happen this week. You see, the way the lectionary is set up there is a real “meanwhile back at the ranch…” feel to it.

This week our gospel reading began with the same words it ended with last week, “In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” It’s a set up. The folks who put the Revised Common Lectionary together practically begged ministers and preachers to do a two part sermon. Who am I to disappoint, right? So, meanwhile, back at the ranch…

So the people have just heard that the One they had been waiting for was in their presence. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him! He has been anointed to bring good news to the poor! Release the captives! Recover sight to the blind! Set the captive free! He has been sent and anointed—he has been ordained by God to do the things that only God can do! He is all but claiming the role of the Messiah, the Christ. He’s not saying he is… but he’s not saying he’s not. The people were stoked like the fires of a kiln ready to fire clay into fine pottery.

Oh how they gush over him like a clear cold spring of water. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” They are so proud of him, they invoke the “family” name. Yeah, Joseph’s son! Not only did they help build my house, they built most of the furniture! They’re better than the Amish I tell ya!

They are so stinking proud to be there to hear the message of fulfillment that they can hardly believe it. They’re sitting up ready to see signs and miracles in Jesus’ home town like he has already performed in Capernaum. After all, you always play better before the home fans than you do on the road. They know they are living in an “I was there” moment, they just didn’t know the true shape of the moment.

So, what does Jesus do with this moment? He turns it on its ear. Jesus is kind of famous for that, isn’t he? He does this by upholding the faithful. He upholds the widow at Zarephath in Sidon who fed the prophet Elijah. Her faithfulness was rewarded with grain and oil so that she and her family would have bread through the drought. A drought caused when Elijah himself stopped the rains!

He upholds Naaman, the general who slaughtered many Israelites. Through a household slave, Elisha instructs Naaman to bathe in the Jordan seven times to rid himself of his leprosy. Naaman is incensed because there are much better rivers at home, but he is convinced and after faithfully bathing is cleansed.

Hooray! The prophet has come! He’s the son of our very own Joseph! Let’s kill him! You’d think it was an American election the way the crowd turns so quickly. They try to herd him off a cliff, but he manages to escape unharmed. What is it about these two examples that makes them so enraged? It’s really quite easy.

These examples, these great heroes of the faith, these names mentioned in the synagogue as people whose faith carried the day are not Israelites. One was a gentile widow from a Sidon, north of the nation. Israelite widows are starving every day because of the drought that Elijah himself called upon the land, but the hero of this story is a gentile woman.

Naaman is a great general, but he’s no Moses! He conquered Israel! There should be no love lost over the fate of the skin condition of your Syrian enemy. This is tantamount to curing Bin Laden’s kidney ailment! Hundreds of years later, hundreds of years after the Babylonian emancipation, well into the Roman occupation, Jesus is holding up Naaman’s cure as something worthy, something good.

If you’re wondering what my point is here, that’s my point! Of course the people are going nuts! There are people at home who need the help, not these foreigners you’re talking about Jesus. It’s time to build a tram so we can ride you out of town on a rail.

But here’s what’s important, Jesus is talking about their faith. Elijah is rejected, he has to leave. The kings of Israel were so bad that his first appearance in scripture is to call this drought on the land. The widow of Zarephath is preparing her family’s final meal but instead prepares a meal for the prophet as well and is rewarded for her faithfulness.

Naaman could have slaughtered Elisha’s entire household, he brought the firepower to do it too. But instead of bringing wrath at the offense of being told to take a bath in a filthy foreign river, he follows the word of the prophet and is healed.

In their faithfulness, these people, not the children of God, are freed from the captivity of hunger and disease. Through grace, the oppression of their lives has been lifted. The blindness of life beyond what they can see with their eyes is lifted.

I enjoy a good children’s sermon. There are Sundays when after hearing a good children’s sermon all I want to do is read the scripture, say, “Yeah, what she said,” and sing a couple of extra hymns. Last week, Pastor Beth warned the children, “So next week if I ask you ‘What are the three gifts of the Holy Spirit’ what are you going to say?” Well my first thought was “does that mean she’s going to call in the children’s sermon? I can put her on speaker.” But I figured no, so I’ll do it, “what are the three gifts of the Holy Spirit?” Everybody together now, faith, hope and love.

Paul writes to the Corinthians about the spiritual gifts. The Corinthians were a gifted people, but they lorded their gifts over one another for personal advantage. Paul needed to put an end to that. He didn’t tell them not to use their gifts until they could use them properly, he taught them the guide post to follow to use them properly. Love.

Yeah, I can speak in tongues. I can prophesy. I have great knowledge and understand the great mysteries of life and beyond. I have faith that can move mountains, I’m generous to a fault, I am willing to give my life! But if I do this without love that what am I? Nothing. What have I done? Nothing. What have I gained? Nothing. Or worse, I can become so arrogant that I become insufferable while offering faint or even false praise to God.

This is what happens without love.

Everything we have comes to an end. Prophecies, tongues, knowledge, all of them ultimately sands through the hourglass of time. It is as Paul says, when the complete comes the partial comes to an end. The mirror in which we see dimly will be replaced by the glorious face to face visage of the perfect love of Christ.

Paul also teaches, “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Why is love the greatest?

Perhaps it is that faith is rooted in the past. In the “Institutes of the Christian Religion” John Calvin himself writes, “Faith is ultimately a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us found upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Faith is based in our knowledge, our knowledge of the past and our faith of what it means as the people of God.

As for hope, hope is based in the future. Hope is about what is to come. Hope is about the reign of Christ that we say is now, but we can’t see yet. Hope is about the coming of Christ, it’s not about earthly things that fade and rot. Again as Paul says, when the complete comes the partial comes to an end. The mirror in which we see dimly will be replaced by the glorious face to face visage of the perfect love of Christ. This is our expectant hope.

But love, love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Faith is in what was. Hope is in what will be. Love is because of what is, because of who God is in Christ.

So what does what Jesus’ message in the Synagogue have to do with love? That’s kind of messy. It takes a special kind of Messiah to be so loved that you want to kill him, and oh how the people want to kill him. The Reverend William Sloan Coffin was the pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City, one of the premier Christian pulpits in the world. One of my favorite quotes from a Sloane sermon speaks to a nation, but points to the church, “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with the world.”

Jesus is having a lover’s quarrel with Israel. He’s telling them that great examples of what God expects do not always come from God’s people. He’s saying that as much as that might pain them to hear, it is important because it’s true. Truth hurts and with love truth heals. The people boast “We know his daddy!” and but Jesus doesn’t say, “Who’s your daddy?” He doesn’t say “Who’s your Momma?”

He isn’t rude or arrogant. He’s frank, but he’s not rude or arrogant. He isn’t irritable even if the nation finds him irritating. He isn’t a noisy gong or clanging symbol. He isn’t gleeful that they are doing it all wrong so the gentiles can be grafted into the Kingdom. (God knows the gentiles, the Christian world, will get enough wrong on its own. Literally God knows.) God in Christ will endure all things, even death on the cross to show his love has no end.

Friends, believe the good news, in Christ we are forgiven. Only though the love of the Messiah, through Christ’s life and death and resurrection is this possible. Only by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ is this even conceivable. By our faith in the hope of God’s love is this even conceivable. God loves us enough to have that lover’s quarrel with us and by that we are saved.

So meanwhile, back at the ranch, the people weren’t happy. Nobody is ever happy when discipline comes down. Whether it is being told someone is a better example like Jesus did or being told you are a bad example like Paul did. But by grace we are given God’s discipline in love. It is up to us to receive it the same way or face the fate of this assembly—they heard the word, responded with rage, and Jesus escapes without them even knowing he left their presence.

Amen.

Kings and Kingdoms

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

Kings and Kingdoms, Princes and Principalities. At the risk of sounding whiney, the last time you shared your pulpit with me I cried over the tragic loss of a friend’s mother. Today we cry over a world continuing to go mad. Violence in Ethiopia, Baghdad, Syria, France; and yesterday Belgium went on high alert against suspected terror attacks. Belgium! Except for NATO Headquarters, fine chocolates, and the Chimay Abbey with their wonderful ales, what in the world is there in Belgium that would warrant Enhanced Terror Alerts? What in the world would elicit an attack?

I guess that goes to show what I know about world affairs.

“What in the world…?” is actually a question asked in our gospel passage today. Or at least that’s how I paraphrase Pilate’s question to Jesus on this day after state elections in Louisiana. I mention our elections because Roman politicians, Pilate included, were sophisticated enough that had they met Hughie Long he would have addressed them as “Suh.”

Jesus, son of Mary, what in the world have you done to make these people so upset that they come to me? What have you done to make the Sanhedrin, the temple elite, think I, the Roman Prelate of Palestine, am less of an enemy than you? What did you do to turn the entire countryside on its ear? What did you do to earn this level of spite from your own people?

Now that’s a question.

I love that their exchange includes repartee straight out of “The Princess Bride.” Remember when leaving the Fire Swamps Prince Humperdink shouts “Surrender!” to Westley and Westley graciously accepts? Listen to this—

Pilate asks “So, you a king?” Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king.” Like I say, right out of “Princess Bride,” but Jesus continues, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." But as Jesus said earlier in the passage, “my kingdom is not from here.”

We have heard the words of the glorious images that make up the answers to Pilate’s question since we began reading Mark’s and John’s Gospels at Advent last year. The images of the Baptism of the Lord, the miracles, the healings, the wisdom; these things begin answering the question, “What did you do.” But more than all of these things, more than these wonderful and glorious things, today we are given an image from John the Revelator about who Jesus is, what Jesus did and who he still is and what he continues to do.

He is the faithful witness. Jesus is the Christ, the select, the anointed. He is the one who was elected to come and bring the Word of life to the world. He is the one who does only what he sees his Father doing. He is the one who is in eternal relationship with the other persons of the Trinity. He participated in the works of God since before the beginning. He is the one who came to earth, fully human and fully divine, teaching us through his words and actions.

He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the one who was born to live to die and rise again. As we testify in the traditional version of the Apostles’ Creed, he descended into hell and rose again from the dead. As the firstborn of the dead, He is the Son who leads his brothers and sisters who have died and will die. He is the one who conquered death so that we will no longer know the full sting of the cold hard hand of mortality.

He has freed us from the power of sin by his own blood. As the Lamb of God, there is no other sacrifice that can be made that will be able to do what God has done now and forever through His Holy Son Jesus. There is no other priest that can make a sacrifice like the one the high priest of God makes of his own body, his own blood, his own life. By the power of his blood, we are free.

He is the ruler over the kings of the earth and has made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve him now and forever. Amen.

The question is not just what did Jesus do, it is what does Jesus continues to do. Pilate’s question is almost rhetorical. The answer he wants isn’t about the charges against Jesus. The politician in him knows all he needs to know to rule from the Pharisees who bring Jesus. As Tetrarch, Pilate knows what he plans to do, he wants more.

The question Pilate wants answered is much deeper than just a recitation of the charges; Pilate wants to know the Truth, “Truth” with a “Capital T,” about Jesus. The Truth Pilate wants to hear is the Truth we claim and testify on this Christ the King Sunday: The Lord is King and for this he was born and his kingdom is not of this earth. Creation is but a part of His kingdom.

From my “easily amused” file, November 6 was a pretty big day at our house. For the first time since September 2010, Olusegun Samuel released his seventh CD of original music titled, quite imaginatively, 7. Yes, he released a second disc of soul covers in 2011, but this is the first original music in over five years. Big deal, right? The name may not sound familiar, but Mr. Samuel is an acclaimed performer. He has won multiple Grammys and been nominated for an Academy Award.

This is where I give you the “Paul Harvey” “Rest of the Story” moment and tell you Olusegun Samuel is better known by the name Seal.

I have loved Seal’s music since his first CD, and being who I am, I prefer some of the unfamiliar songs from the CD’s that most people don’t hear very often. For example this song from his first disc released almost twenty-five years ago:

But if only you could see them
You could tell by their faces
They were kings and queens
Followed by princes and princesses
They were future power people
Throwing love to the loveless
Shining a light ‘cause they wanted it seen.

Well there were cries of why
Followed by cries of why not?
Can I reach out for you
If that feels good to me
And the riders will not stop us
Cause the only love they find is paradise
No the riders will not stop us
Cause the only love they find is paradise.

“Future Love Paradise” from Seal’s first CD is definitely one of my favorites. Funky beat, big hook, mad groove, great lyrics, what’s not to love?

But in a world gone mad, a world gone so very mad that Belgium has gone to “Alert Level ‘Danger Will Robinson’,” we have two choices. The first is to pack up the plantation, fill the moat, and pull up the drawbridge. We can retreat into ourselves so very deeply that we think, hope, we pray nobody can hurt us. We can try to create a cocoon that will protect us from the elements the world throws at us hoping to emerge like a butterfly when spring comes again to the world.

This doesn’t always work for the chrysalis though, does it? Last week’s squall line showed the damage one errant hailstone can inflict; the damage a big gust of wind can bring. Multiplied umpteen times and our shells don’t stand a chance.

Or we can take a better path. In Seal’s words, we can live like princes and princesses. We can shine the light because the King and the Kingdom want it seen and when the world asks why we can answer “why not?” Reaching out is always better than living in fear. Always.

That is future, love, paradise. In the words of our Prayer of Illumination, we act on our prayer that “the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under [God’s] most gracious rule.”

We need to remember the words of the American sonnet called “The New Colossus” which was placed at the foot of a French statue:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give us your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
These American ideals, these Christian ideals, these show the world that we are not afraid of its chaos. We know the author of peace. We know the author of joy. We know the King of Kings.

The King of Kings lives and breathes and remains with us. We are to share this glorious hope not as people in pews, not as a man in the pulpit, not as mere mortal beings, but in the words of the Revelation, “as priests serving his God and father.” In this we rejoice in God’s triumph on behalf of all creation.

Yes, we know that the world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight. To paraphrase one of my favorite passages from Job, we know that Satan, the oppressor, the King of Lies, is in this world, just wandering around in it like an evil Johnny Appleseed sowing discontent. Yeah, we know that’s true.
But what’s more important than Satan’s lies is God’s truth. What’s more important is what Jesus tells Pilate, the Lord’s kingdom is not from this world. That is the truth we are called to share, that is our testimony.

As princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God we are called to shine the light of hope, the hope of God in Christ who came on a colt, not on a tank.
And so now I say again in the words of John the Revelator, “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Enough Rope

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday June 7, 2015.

1Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20
Mark 3:20-35

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

On my next birthday I am going to be 53 years old. To some of you I am old enough to be your grandfather. To others I am old enough to be your grandson. To my parents I am old enough to be me. Funny how that works out, isn’t it? What that age makes me is of an age that I love old cartoons, the ones I grew up watching in the 1960’s. In all honesty though, give me the ones that are just a little older than those. Give me the old Tex Avery MGM “Tom and Jerry” cartoons any day.

One gag that never got old in my seven year old head was any one of the half dozen Tom and Jerry cartoons that featured a bulldog named Spike. Spike was often tied up to his dog house and would chase Tom the Cat until he got snapped back when he reached the end of his rope. It was probably too violent and I probably laughed a bit too loud when Spike got snapped back.

On the other hand I was never comfortable with Tom teasing and taunting Spike and I would always be relieved when Tom got his. Spike would always find a way to trick Tom so the overconfident cat would get too close and Spike would be able to get Tom. Again it was probably too violent and I really did laugh too loud when Tom got what was coming to him. From a reformed theological point of view I was getting way too much amusement out of violent cartoon justice or instant cartoon karma and not looking nearly enough toward grace.

Our reading from Samuel comes at one of the hinges of history for the Hebrews, the moment when the people of Israel went from being ruled by Judges to being ruled by Kings. Two reasons were given for this change. The first is found in our reading and it’s every parent’s nightmare, Israel wanted a king because every other nation had one. The other reason is that the days of the Judges didn’t end well. The last verse of Judges reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” Let’s face it, when people, sin stained people do what is right in our own eyes, it doesn’t end well, the end of the book of Judges is just one fine example.

Unfortunately Kings are no less human than Judges and this isn’t starting on a good note either. Sure, Samuel’s kids aren’t the best, the elders of Israel say as much, but Samuel knows the people have a King. Samuel knows the people have the King of Kings and need no human king. Samuel knows this, and of course the Lord knows it too. And the Lord is gracious to Samuel telling him, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

Obedient to the Lord, I can see Samuel shrugging his shoulders. He goes to the people and tells them what the king they want will do for them. He warns the people, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

The people had taken just enough rope and were warned that they will be snapped back like Spike at the end of his leash. So do the people head toward renewal? No. Do they seek the prophets? Sorry, not tonight. They want a king. They want somebody human to lead them, or as Tex Avery would put it, to put the rope around their neck, draw the line in the sand, and whatever else happens before they get snapped back like Spike.

The people tell Samuel what they want. The Lord tells Samuel it’s not his fault. The world rejects the Lord, not the man. Samuel warns the people and the books of the Kings and Chronicles show that what is warned comes to pass. When the people cry out in the days of the kings the Lord does not answer, not on that day. The Lord gives the people enough rope and the people run to the end of it.

Since this isn’t a cartoon my seven year old self has quit laughing.

Our reading from Mark’s gospel shows us the beginning of the day when the Lord answers the cries of the people. As usual, it features more people trying to do the work of the Lord. Just three chapters into Mark and Jesus has been accused of blasphemy and of other less heinous acts against the powers of the church. He has forgiven sin. He has healed on the Sabbath. He has taken fishermen, zealots, a Roman collaborator, and a pair of guys so loud they are known as the “Sons of Thunder.” He has taken a guy who will question him at every turn, and a doubter. It seems the only person flying under the radar is Judas. So maybe it’s no wonder that the people who have “known him all his life” would be a little concerned.

Seen as a man, seen as a carpenter named Jesus from a backwater in Nazareth, he looks like a guy thwarting conventional wisdom, the faith of a thousand years. He’s a man turning the faith on its very ear, seemingly without the authority to do so. From all reports his family might have thought he was nuttier than a fruitcake.

The family tries to bring him home. Maybe they think he’s tired, it’s time for a break. Exhaustion is a very real possibility. They try to get him to come home. Scripture isn’t quite as subtle. “He has gone out of his mind!” “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons!” Well, at least they give him credit for good work, eh?

But Jesus tells them, no. Satan can’t cast himself out. The kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, a house divided against itself cannot stand; and Jesus is talking about the kingdom of evil, the house of Satan. You can’t plunder the house of Satan without tying up the big man first. And then, boy, oh boy.

Jesus is doing the work of the Lord. The Lord has come, Emmanuel, God with us; he has come to set us free. Jesus is doing something new and all the people can do is try to tie the old ropes of the judges, the kings, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the temple elite into a lovely bow to snap this new prophet back into place. Snap him just like Spike.

If there is one thing though that we can see it’s this; first, the ropes that we use to tie up our lives will never be used to confine the Lord. The restrictions, the constrictions that we use to keep ourselves in line will never tie up the Lord. Not even our understanding of holy things like Sabbath will keep the Lord from doing what is needed even on the Sabbath. Earlier in chapter three this is shown as Jesus heals on the Sabbath and gets an earful for his trouble.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t understand Sabbath, it’s more likely we don’t understand it. What Jesus knows as the Son of God is deeper than we can see in this mirror darkly. Regardless of the day, we tie ourselves to our kings and their rules when the King of Kings shows us the better way.

The other thing that is more important is that the Lord doesn’t use our ropes to let us hang ourselves. Now it’s true, the Lord allows the people of Israel to pick up enough rope to hang themselves and watches as they put themselves on the leash of a human king. The Lord has Samuel warn the people of what will happen if they stay the course and of course it does. The future of the Kings even comes to pass without the Lord jumping in the way. God doesn’t take a bullet for us to stop the kings. Crying for help in the days of the Kings the Lord does not answer, not on that day.

What the Lord doesn’t do is act vengefully. The Lord never says to the people, and allow me to quote a fine Catholic theologian, “If that’s the way that you want it, then that’s the way I want it more.”

The Lord loves the people enough to allow them to fail. The all-powerful Lord could whip the people into shape, but the all loving Lord suffers with the people as they seek their way until they find their way back. Yes, the Lord allows us enough rope, the Lord even allowed the Kings to enslave his own subjects with that rope, but the Lord will never hang us with it.

God is love. God loves us enough to let us be who we are. God loves us so much that the Lord never forgets that we belong to Christ even as we call him “possessed by the Lord of the Flies.” When people act like petulant seven year olds, a feat that is far worse at thirty-seven, forty-seven, and fifty-seven than it is at just-seven, God still loves. God even shows us that it is the human rulers who snap us back by the leashes we fashion, that is what causes the Spirit to mourn.

Sure it was funny then, and if I see those cartoons now I still might laugh. Tex Avery had a way of putting together cartoons—animators, artists, writers, and musicians—in ways that appeal to the funny bones of multiple generations. But Avery’s goal was always to amuse, to entertain. Thanks be to God our Lord doesn’t leave us to our own devices. Our hope is in the Lord who comes and is not offended by our foolish insult. Our hope is that the love of God never changes. Our hope is that we see that only God’s perfect love, not the ties that bind, are our salvation.

Amen.

Ought

This sermon was heard at St Mark Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas on Sunday May 3, 2015, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Acts 8:24-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

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

Who isn’t familiar with this passage from John’s gospel? Who over the age of 50 doesn’t remember Bruce Wilkinson’s “The Secrets of the Vine?” It was his first book after the mega-hit “The Prayer of Jabez.” “The Secrets of the Vine” was about this very passage and had a lot of very good information about grapes and vine dressing and what it means with this passage. Believe it or not, this and a segment of “Ask This Old House” where Roger Cook shows a man how to prune and you will have a basic knowledge of what it means to grow vines to bear fruit.

I’m not going to go into deep detail about how to prune for several reasons; one is that someone from the extension office or that “Ask This Old House” video would do a better job teaching you about it than I can. The better reason is that we have better fruit to harvest today. It begins with the rather disturbing image that “Whoever does not abide in me,” abide in Christ, “is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”

This is a disturbing image because we hear Jesus talking about fire and really unsettling images come to mind, and not without good reason. The thought of being burned alive with all of the requisite screaming and crying is seared into our imaginations. We think of the whole hell-fire-weeping-and-gnashing-of-teeth thing with its obligatory unpleasantness. But what if this isn’t quite right? What if we’ve taken a step too far getting to this image?

Let’s begin with the fact that pruning involves cutting out what is unproductive and leaving what’s fruitful. Jesus is talking about cutting the fingernails of the vine, not the fingers. We also need to know that pruning for productivity means cutting out things that may be pretty, but add nothing to the harvest.

The pieces that sport only vegetative, leafing, buds have to go so the flowering fruit buds will get more nourishment. God’s pruning cuts out things that we have become accustomed to, things we might like, things that are pretty. That’s the hard part. That sort of pruning smarts, don’t let anyone tell you that it doesn’t.

Still, what about the branches that don’t remain in the vine? Branches that don’t remain, branches that aren’t a part of the vine, the true vine; they wither and die. Dead branches don’t feel the pain of the burning. Dead is dead and the dead branches have already felt the searing disconnect of death. The burning fire causes no pain. After the pain of death, the rest is cremation.

We have this image that pruning is going to cut into what is important, important to our life in Christ and this is not so. The first thing pruning does is take what’s dead and takes it away. It then takes what doesn’t produce fruit and cuts that away. Then it cuts away what binds the plant. Pruning doesn’t take what’s important. Burning just disposes of what’s cut away. Now living branches burning, we’d feel that, but that’s not what our scripture says.

Now here’s what’s even better. In Christ we have already been pruned. Our gospel passage tells us that we have been cleansed by the word spoken by Christ. We are cleansed by the Word of God in Christ. We have been pruned and it’s not up to us to prune. It’s not up to us to do that.

We also need to remember our reading from 1John teaches us that the pruning the Father does is done in love. Fear has to do with punishment, but God’s pruning is not punishment, it is shaping us to bear much good fruit. Godly pruning is done in love.

The first thing that means for us is that we need to abide in the vine. As the branches in the tree of life in Jesus, we come off what vintners call the central leader. We are the branches off of the central leader of Christ. Christ is the central leader. When the Church gets into trouble is when the Church leaves the central leader.

We are called to abide in Christ, abide. Rest is another word for abide. The branch doesn’t physically suckle from the vine, it rests, it abides, it remains attached and it is fed by the vine. This is how we are fed, this is how we bear fruit, by resting, abiding in Christ. This is how we are fed. We remain attached. We rest. We abide.

We remain and we are fed by the vine. As we are fed we bear fruit. As for the fruit, well, that’s a wildcard isn’t it. John’s gospel leaves that one alone, not saying what the fruit is. Let’s just say that whatever the fruit is, it’s valuable and desirable.

1John gives us a way into what that valuable and desirable fruit is, love. I believe the Church, the “capital C Church,” the Universal Church, tries too hard and overshoots the easy, obvious answer. Paul teaches one of the fruits of the Spirit is love, John teaches God is love. When we shoot past love to make more complex, more complicated theologies we may be going further than God intends. We may end up jumping right off the vine. At times by our own best intentions the “Capital C” Church quits abiding and resting when we go off on crusades, regardless of the century.
We must remember, it’s not up to us to do the pruning. The pruning is done in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ. It’s up to us to abide. In abiding we ought to love one another—because God loved us first.

About a million years ago Spike Lee made a movie called “School Daze” (Daze spelled D-A-Z-E). It’s about Homecoming Weekend at mythical Mission College, but it’s said to be based at least in part on Lee’s experiences at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, Spellman College, and Clark Atlanta University. Its overriding theme is variations of black-against-black racism. At the end of the movie, at the dawn of a new day, Vaughn “Dap” Dunlap, played by Laurence Fishburne, comes to the main quad of the Mission campus to ring the college bell. As he does, he yells “Wake up!”

As he rings the bell, characters from around campus begin to awaken. He continues, “Wake up!” Characters begin to leave their dorm rooms, fraternity and sorority houses, and homes. Dap runs to the camera and yells “Wake up!” This is when people begin to congregate around Dap and around the bell. Then the two main character’s Fishburne’s Dap and Giancarlo Esposito’s Julian “Dean Big Brother Almighty” Eaves meet at the bell, and it looks like a showdown.

Then Julian appears to have an epiphany. Dap and Julian look into the camera, breaking the illusion that the message is for them, Dap calmly says, “wake up.” The frame freezes and an alarm clock rings.

Friends, the “Capital C” needs to wake up. In this case it’s not so much that we need to wake up and do something as much as it is that we need to wake up and be what it is called to be, the body of Christ; abiding in the vine, taking nourishment in Christ, as we will today celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

Still, over the past ten years I have become distressed reading opinions from people from both sides of the theological aisle arguing and complaining about the state of the church. I say this knowing every time I point my finger, three point back. Or as our scripture warns, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”

This is why when I read our passages for today, 1John 4:11 stuck in my head, “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”

I read letters to the editor, I read minutes from sessions and presbytery meetings, I tuned into General Assembly on-line and wonder if we have forgotten to love one another, or even perhaps how to love one another; and let’s keep in mind that “ought” is a pretty low threshold. We have vocations. We have a call on our lives. We take vows at baptisms and ordinations. John tells us we ought to love one another; what a low threshold for such a mighty love.

I say we need to get back to the Gospel of Luckenbach; it’s time we get back to the basics of love.

As Presbyterians we have a long tradition of seeking guidance from our three sources of governance, in order: Holy Scripture, the Book of Confessions, and the Book of Order. Unfortunately too often we tend to move from Grace to Law, from the Living Torah to the Book of Order. Jesus demonstrated love and taught us to love God and neighbor. When others tried to force Jesus into constructs like government and taxes, he shows that the Lord God is not bound that way. As people try to force God to be one way, the Triune God-Father, Son, and Spirit-shows The Way.

The issue of our time is that we must abide, individually and corporately, in the vine of Christ. The Father God, the vine dresser, never acts out of loving character when cutting away what is dead or unproductive. In God’s love, Jesus ministered to everyone, including Zealots and Roman collaborators; lepers and harlots. As the Body of Christ the church ought to abide and feed from the vine of Christ-especially when this direction takes us from our comfortable places. The church must start again. God is love, and it's time we get back to the basics of love. Our hope is in abiding in Christ and love one another, that’s it.

Or at least we ought to since God loves us so much.

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas on Sunday July 14, 2013, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Amos 7:7-17

Psalm 82

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

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

If you know the lyrics, sing along. If you don’t, then just hum. Nobody is going to mind.

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood; it’s a beautiful day for a neighbor. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine? 

It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood; a neighborly day for a beauty. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.

 I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; 

since we’re together we might as well say:

“Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Won’t you please, won’t you please, please won’t you be my neighbor.[1]

New episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” were shown on PBS stations from 1970 until 2001 and on National Educational Television two years before that. Reruns aren’t available on local stations, but they are through the PBS Kids web site.[2]

The show was characterized by its quiet simplicity and gentleness. Episodes did not have a plot, but they did have a theme. They consisted of Rogers speaking directly to viewers about various issues, taking the viewer on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, crafts, and music, and interacting with his friends. The half-hour episodes were punctuated by a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.”

At the beginning of each episode, Mister Rogers enters his television studio house singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” He hangs up his suit jacket, puts on a zippered cardigan, then takes off his dress shoes to put on his sneakers. One of Rogers’ sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.

Rogers covered a broad range of topics over the years, and the series did not shy away from issues that other children’s programming avoided. In fact, Rogers endeared himself to many when, on March 23, 1970, he dealt with the death of one of his pet goldfish. The series also dealt with competition, divorce, and war. Rogers returned to the topic of anger regularly and focused on peaceful ways of dealing with angry feelings.[3]

All of this happened in the context of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a mystical place where the imaginary fourth wall of the television screen magically disappeared for a half hour and we were all welcomed into a world of peace and grace.

Considering Mister Fred Rogers was a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an ordained PC(USA) Minister, welcoming children into a world of peace and grace was his vocation as well as his passion.

So the expert in religious law came to test Jesus asking, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies in true rabbinical fashion, asking a question when an answer is sought. “What is written in the Law?”

The lawyer answers this question by a perfect recitation from Leviticus and Deuteronomy[4] saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms the lawyer’s answer saying, “Do this, and you will live.” The experts in the law commonly accepted that observance of the Torah was essential to inherit eternal life.[5] So when Jesus and the lawyer agree on this point, they share the truth of thousands of years of tradition.

But the lawyer’s questions are more than an academic or rabbinic exercise. He wants to justify himself. So he asks Jesus another question, “Who is my neighbor?” This is an important question, more important than we may suppose. What gets lost in the translation of Leviticus is that the original command to love the neighbor specifies “your kin” and “any of your people.”[6] So the lawyer wants to be justified that by helping his family, his people, and his nation he will inherit eternal life.

Then Jesus tells the legal expert a story and asks him another question, “So which of these three, the Priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The lawyer answers, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.” This must have been difficult for the expert in the law. He knew it wasn’t his people, the Priest or the Levite, but he couldn’t push the name of his dreaded cousin past his lips. Instead he says, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.”

Saying this, the lawyer, the expert in the law tells the world that being a neighbor is about more than just being kin or members of the same nation. It has to do with action and mercy.  Being a neighbor now means more than it did in Leviticus. Then Jesus gives him his charge, “Go, and do likewise.”

Jesus shares the vision of inheriting eternal life written in the Torah with the lawyer.  Then he shows him that the Living Torah, the person and the work and the word of Jesus Christ, expands the Torah given to Moses. Justification by the Torah now means that loving God and loving your neighbor are inseparable.[7] Being justified means more than just taking care of business as usual.

The hardest part about this story is that the holy men in the parable, the priest and the Levite, were doing what they were supposed to do. They were going to work. They were doing what was right in the name of the Law. They followed the rules and abided by the regulations approved by the General Assembly, er, the Presbytery, er, the law handed down to Moses. They did the right thing in the eyes of the law, but doing what was right was no longer enough in the eyes of God.

To the Greco-Roman world, the cradle of Western culture, mercy was a character flaw; the ideal was justice. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice. This unearned relief, we call it grace.

Sociologist Rodney Stark put it this way. “The notion that the gods care how we treat one another would have been dismissed as patently absurd. This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. Moreover, the corollary that because God loves humanity, Christians may not please God unless they love one another was something entirely new.”[8]

Mercy is the new benchmark in justification. Mercy is the new benchmark in being a neighbor. Mercy has a place in the administration of justice in the Christ’s kingdom and only the Samaritan acted in accord with the living Torah.

Only the despised Samaritan showed love in an act of mercy. Only the loathed foreigner connected loving God and loving your neighbor as the way to being justified. Only the reviled outsider saw his brother left beaten on the side of the road. Only the detested alien saw the way to justification through mercy. Only the abhorred stranger showed the divinely required attitude we are to share with one another.

An ancient rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day was on its way back. “Could it be,” asked one student, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No,” answered the Rabbi. “Could it be,” asked another, “when you look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No,” said the Rabbi. “Well, then what is it?” his pupils demanded. “It is when you look on someone’s face and can see… your brother. Because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, it is still night.”[9]

In the past month, there has been quite a commotion about Mr. Rogers. The people at Fox News found a 2007 article by Jeffrey Zaslow from the Wall Street Journal titled, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled” [10] At the center of the article was LSU finance professor Don Chance who observed a “culture of excessive doting” in 21^st Century university students The article begins:

[The professor] says it dawned on him last spring.  The semester was ending, and as usual, students were making a pilgrimage to his office, asking for the extra points needed to lift their grades to A’s.

 “They felt entitled,” he recalls, “and it just hit me.  We can blame Mr. Rogers.”

Professor Chance notes Asian students, students who did not grow up with Mr. Rogers, accept “B’s and C’s as an indication that they must work harder, and that their elders assessed them accurately.” The article continues:

By contrast, American students often view lower grades as a reason to “hit you up for an A because they came to class and feel they worked hard,” says Prof. Chance. He wishes more parents would offer kids this perspective: “The world owes you nothing. You have to work and compete. If you want to be special, you'll have to prove it.”

If there is one thing I can agree with after working over ten years in higher education, it’s that there is a sense of entitlement among students. I have seen that sense of entitlement reinforced by some parents and grandparents who called to ask if there wasn’t any way I could give Junior one more chance. I don’t say that Professor Chance is wrong about that. I do say that his finger pointing is misdirected. I won’t say where it should be directed, but putting this on Mr. Rogers is wrong.

Looking at Mr. Rogers’ point of view, we need to remember that he was a Christian and a Presbyterian minister. He pastored children daily for over 40 years. He told children, the weakest members of any society, that in the eyes of God they are loved and have value. He told misfits they are loved. He told fat kids they are loved. He told bullied kids they are loved. He told poor kids they are loved. He told abused kids they are loved. Even if it is just in his neighborhood, they are loved.

He loves them. He is their neighbor. He invited children into that neighborhood daily not so that they could beg for grades from Professor Chance fifteen years later, but so that they could know grace and peace and mercy and love and hope. It’s true; this world isn’t looking to do them or anyone else any favors, but through Christ God offers us grace, peace, mercy, love, hope, and salvation. We are freely offered grace as a gift, not as payment for services rendered. If it were, it wouldn’t be grace. This is what Mr. Rogers offered his audience daily.

Gentleness, love, mercy, peace, grace; isn’t this what we want from our neighbors? It sure beats the scorn and ridicule, derision and division we see every day. We want people in our lives showing the fullness of God’s mercy to everyone, not just some.

We want to know what it is to receive divine mercy, God’s divine loving-kindness. We must realize that this mercy arises out of a mutual relationship one for another, not just as a winner-take-all justice the ancient Greeks favored.

If Professor Chance and Fox News want us to believe we have no value outside of what we can do for our economy and ourselves that is their business. It is after all the way of the world. On the whole though, I prefer to live a state of grace, a place where I know what is most important cannot be earned, it can only be given. A place where that grace is freely given, even if it’s just for 30 minutes a day with a man in a zip up cardigan.

Luke shows us the lawyer accepts Jesus’ revision of the Torah. He learns that the one who shows mercy like the Samaritan is the neighbor, not those who share family or heritage like the priest and the Levite. What might have started as a theological exercise between the lawyer and teacher becomes more when the Torah comes to life in Jesus Christ.

When the law comes to life, we can no longer answer these questions like we’re taking a college entrance exam. We now have to answer the questions with our hands even more than we do with our heads. Jesus commands us to be good neighbors; loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength; and our neighbor as ourselves.  On this the words of the Law and the prophets hang.

This is our call, this is our vocation. It is no longer enough to do just what the written law tells us; now there is more. We are called to this new word of discipleship when Jesus charges the lawyer, “Go, and do likewise.” Or as Mr. Rogers once said:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Friends in Christ, Mr. Rogers tells us, Jesus tells us, those who help are our neighbors. So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; since we’re together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?

---

[1] Rogers, Fred, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”  Pittsburgh, PA: Family Communications, Inc., 1967.

[2] From the PBSKids.org websie retrieved July 12, 2013.

[3] Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood, retrieved July 8, 2010

[4] Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5

[5] “Adlet and Blink,” Commentary section, from Homiletics Online, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=930000347, accessed June 10, 2007.

[6] 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 427. 

[7] Kittel, Gerhardt, “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. vi, page 316

[8] Galloway, Paul, “How Jesus Won the West: Christianity became dominant because it offered better ideas and unexpected mercy,” The Lutheran, November 1998, 19.

[9] Thompson, Marjorie J. “Soul Feast” Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 127.

[10] Zaslow, Jeffrey, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled.” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2007, retrieved July 12, 2013.

Shannon and Joe's Wedding Homily

This evening, February 23, I presided over the celebration of marriage for Joe and Shannon Summers. This was an interesting service because (as reported in the homily) they ran into a peck of trouble on the way to the altar. They are a wonderful couple and may God bless them and their new family with much joy now and forever. Amen.

This is going to sound a little unusual, but Shannon, Joe, and everyone assembled to witness their wonderful and glorious wedding, let us take this moment and take a deep breath. You’ve been preparing for this moment for a long time and the last two days have been hectic in overdrive. So let’s take a moment and just breathe in the moment. In through the nose and out from the mouth. If it helps, close your eyes for a moment and let us rejoice, we are here.

As for how I got here, I met Shannon and Joe for the first time less than 48 hours ago at the Dairy Queen in Waskom. A little earlier a major part of their wedding plans fell to pieces. Suddenly they needed a new minister for their wedding because their minister had a family emergency, and they didn’t know anybody else. It ended up throwing a monkey wrench the size of a large gorilla into their wedding plans. Friends of friends connected us, for which I say “Praise God!”

As we chatted at the DQ, I gave them one of those little pieces of wedding advice I give all couples, “The ceremony will not go perfectly; so don’t be surprised when it happens, just roll with it.” That’s when Shannon said “You mean something else?” I kind of shrugged because, well, yes, something else. That was when she said, “Well, if God is with us…”

What a wonderful thing to say. What a wonderful faith to have. Sometimes life goes to thunder and when it does if God is with us… if God is with us who or what can possibly stand against us.

This is a very holy expression too. Our reading from the psalms confesses confidence and trust in God as our sure refuge in times of trouble. Fear has no hold on those who heed the instruction, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Life will have its pitfalls, but that isn’t why we’re here today. Of course it’s not! We’re here to celebrate the creation of a new family. Sons and daughters come together as Shannon and Joe wed. New family bonds are borne. Teens and toddlers come together. Relationships with new aunts and uncles and new grandparents are forged. These new relationships, this new household does not begin lightly. Shannon and Joe come together in the words of the Psalmist, in the strength of the Lord.

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
    though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble with its tumult. 

Through all of the trials and tribulations the world throws your way, you still know your refuge and your strength. Yes the world changes, and in all of these changes, the Lord is your God. Through this blessing you have done more than survived, by the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of his Holy Spirit, you have thrived in your love. That is the blessing we need to take when things go sideways, that God is still in control.

Shannon, you are so right, when God is with us no one can stand against us. As the psalmist says, “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” In this truth, one of the greatest truths in the gospel, this is where you make your new home.

So now, before we continue. Let’s take one more breath. Let’s rest in the outstretched arms of the loving God. And let us smile and celebrate that you make your new life as a new family in the house of the Lord.

Amen.