This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 16, 2009, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
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 John’s gospel, Jesus says “I AM” twenty-four times.[1] In each of these phrases the text invokes something very special; each of these phrases uses the Greek version of the Holy Name of God. I was reminded last week that it was C. S. Lewis who said that it is foolish to believe that Jesus is a wonderful teacher, but not the Son of God and the Son of Man. Jesus declares that he is the Son of God and the Son of Man. He clearly says “I AM,” at least in John’s gospel. Lewis tells us that our choices are to believe that Jesus is either exactly who he says he is, or that he’s a complete and total whack job. It is foolish to believe that a man can be a wise teacher if he claims to be God and is not. This is eminently logical, but logic is not where we should be coming from today.
Logic and knowledge and interpretation were the wheelhouse of the Jewish leadership. Jesus says I am the living bread that came down from heaven…and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The first thing that the temple leaders can think to say is “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Yes, of course it’s a good question. It’s a very good question especially from someone and for someone who is so locked up in the legal aspects of faith that mystical and metaphorical symbols have no other expression than those of their fathers and their fathers before them. This is probably what Jesus finds disappointing. These are leaders who are ordained to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love fail to exercise a grain of imagination. Well, actually I misspoke, that question comes from my ordination vows, not the Jewish leaders. Too, they are in the vows taken by all Presbyterian Elders.[2]
Jesus offers eternal life, life in Christ, life that is available not just in the future, but today too. Eternal life is connected to physical life; after all, Jesus existed in this world, he is the Word become flesh. But eternal life is more than physical life. Eternal life is life in Christ, life in God. Eternal life is life worth living. Very early on in John’s gospel we read this as it is written, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” In a very real way, John teaches that before the Word, before the life and the Word of Jesus how people lived wasn’t really life at all. Instead, at its best it was a step toward what life could be.
Some people lived well in that first step of life; David and his son Solomon were great examples of glorious lives lived in the Lord before Jesus lived. Our reading today demonstrates this showing that when the Lord asked Solomon what gift he wished to receive, Solomon was wise enough to ask for an understanding mind to govern the Lord’s people and the ability to discern between good and evil. It’s not too much of a leap to connect this request with our call to serve God’s people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.
Because Solomon sought wisdom instead of riches and power he received wisdom and was also given riches and power. Yet, neither David nor Solomon had the connection to the Lord that we have today. As from words of the Lord Jesus, “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” As glorious and blessed as their lives were, they could not partake of God incarnate and live because of him, not in the way available to us through the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We participate in this action when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is in the supper that we celebrate our continuing to abide in Christ and that Christ abides in us. By abiding, our lives and our faith are nourished in the love of the Lord Jesus. According to John Calvin, with the participation of the Holy Spirit, faith is nourished and strengthened by the sacrament. He calls the Lord’s Supper “a secret too sublime for my mind to understand or words to express. I experience it rather than understand it.”[3]
It is this choice of Calvin’s that further invites us to experience that mystery rather than to try to pick it apart. Denominations have done this dissection for hundreds of years, but it is to no avail. Rather, let us know that Jesus said “this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Let us know that his body, his very flesh to us is bread for life. Let us remember this as we partake of the supper together. This element of togetherness is too important. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes of coming together as the family of God together at the table which Christ invites us to share.
“The simple act of sitting down around a table is something a lot of people don't find particularly important - but for Christians, the shared supper is a vital aspect of spiritual life.
“‘The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that 'their eyes were opened, and they knew him.’
“‘The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father's house.’”[4]
We are called to eat the flesh, but we are to come together to eat it, not on the run like a holy sort of drive-thru window. We do this together because when we receive the Lord we receive one another too. Jesus came to be with the whole congress of creation, not just bits and pieces.
Thomas Merton wrote, “There is not one of us, individually, racially, socially, who is not fully complete in any sense of having in himself all the excellence of all humanity. And this excellence, this totality, is built up out of the contributions of the particular parts of it that we all can share with one another. I am therefore not completely human until I have found myself in my African and Asian and Indonesian brother because he has the part of which I lack.”[5]
We come together because separately none of us are complete.
Barbara Williamson tells this story: “Each year at lambing time, there are lambs and ewes who do not make it. Inevitably, on one side of the field is a ewe whose lamb has died. The ewe is filled with ilk but will not nourish any lamb she does not recognize as her own. Inevitably, on the other side of the field is a lamb whose mother has died. That lamb will starve because no ewe will accept and nourish it. So the shepherd takes the dead lamb and slits its throat, and pours its blood over the body of the living lamb. Recognizing the blood, the ewe will now nurse and save the orphaned lamb. Through the gift of the blood of the lamb who has died, the living lamb is recognized and restored to the fold, nourished and saved. That is the Lamb of God.”[6]
By his stripes, by his blood, we are saved. The bread of life feeds us and allows us to be recognized by the Father…or as this illustration tells us, the mother. This is a paschal way to express the invitation we receive to come to the table.
The words of the Orthodox liturgy call us to the table this way:
Come, O faithful ones,
let us enjoy the Lord’s hospitality,
in the banquet of immortality
In the upper chamber, with minds uplifted,
let us learn the Word from the Word
whom we magnify.[7]
We are called to the table to share the bread of life. Another ancient word used for the bread of life is Eucharist. The words of the ancient church describe the Eucharist as “either by good grace, or by thanksgiving. And rightly, indeed it is to be called good grace, as well because it signifies eternal life, concerning which it has been written: The grace of God is eternal life, and also because it contains Christ the Lord, who is true grace and the fountain of all favors.”[8]
Consider these words from Paul Bernier: “If we understand Eucharist as the mystery of Christ’s continuing ability to feed his people, if we know that his bread is broken to be shared with the needy and the poor, this will form out attitude and lend the dynamism of faith too our efforts. We need a clear ideal of what kind of world we are striving to build and the ideal we take from the Lord’s table is that he has given us brothers and sisters the world over who have a claim on us because we accept the bread broken in order to be shared.”[9]
These favors, this life, nourished by the bread of life calls us to more than simply taking from the loaf; we are to offer the loaf just as the Lord offered it to us. As the author Flannery O’Connor wrote, “You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.”[10] In the words of Mother Teresa, “The Eucharist and the poor are but one love for me.”[11]
As bloody and as violent as some of these images of are; twentieth century theologian Karl Rahner reminds us that “The Lord gave himself to us precisely as food to be enjoyed.”[12] In a world that is often more focused on the suffering of Good Friday, we are called to be the people of Easter. Grace came to us violently, but Jesus went to it voluntarily so that we may enjoy him forever.
I know I have piled many, many images together. Sometimes the connection is well explained, sometimes the imagery opens us to new ways to taste and see that the Lord is good, and sometimes it’s just baffling. It is my hope that these images can help spark a new look at the bread of life for all of us, a new look at the great I AM and who HE IS. Jesus is the bread of life; it is by his flesh that we are fed with the gift of eternal life. He is the fountain of all favors and we are the fruit of his work.
But in a spiritual way, many live like the Dickens character Oliver Twist. We are orphans in a strange place, hoping for even a morsel of bread so that we may know life, and so that we may share this new life with others. It is our hope that we may eat of this bread and drink of this cup; and when we do, we should hunger and thirst for new life, holy life, life in Christ. It is my hope that we can all leave here with Twist’s words on our lips, begging to the Lord our God with anticipation of living life eternal; life with, by and through God. “Please sir, I want some more.”
[1] BibleWorks search for the Greek phrase “ego eimi,” the equivalent to the Hebrew Tetragrammaton.
[2] PC(USA) and Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Book of Occasional Services, pages 58 and 24.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin.
[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 66.
[5] Eucharist, Liturgical Training Publications 18
[6] Eucharist
[7] Orthodox liturgy, Eucharist
[8] Eucharist
[9] Eucharist 86
[10] Eucharist 120
[11] Eucharist, 123
[12] Eucharist, 82
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Which Came First?
Dear Friends, please excuse my absence for the past two weeks. On July 28 at 2:00 AM my mother died. Thanks to the good people of First Presbyterian in Berryville for allowing my absence. Thanks also to the Reverend Dick Shinkle, and Mr. Ken Kinser for ably filling the pulpit while Marie and I were out of town.
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 9, 2009, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
One of my high school biology teachers was one of those people with a slightly crazy eye and a wicked sense of humor. Naturally, I liked the guy. Just to add a little spice to the day, occasionally someone would ask Mr. Schartz a biologically absurd question. No, it wasn’t me… not always. For example, one day Mani Mani, yes, that’s his real name, asked Mr. Schartz “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Mr. Schartz answered, “The egg, dinosaurs hatched from eggs long before chickens.”
Honestly, we were disappointed by his answer. Yeah, sure, dinosaurs were older than chickens, but it didn’t answer the question the way we wanted it answered. His answer was too simple, too direct, way too on target. We wanted some sort of obscure, arcane information that could have only come from the mouth of Mr. Schartz. Of course his answer was right, and I remember it over thirty years later, but if anything it was too correct. Nothing funny, nothing witty, nothing provocative, it was just the right answer given to fifteen and sixteen year old boys who were looking for something a little wilder and a little weirder.
The theological equivalent of this question goes something like this: Which came first, grace or faith; salvation or acceptance of salvation? Now there’s a question that has been asked for two-thousand years.
Jesus makes the answer abundantly clear in our reading today. “No one can come to me unless drawn by the father who sent me.” It is by the grace of God that we are saved. There is no act that we can perform which can enhance our status with God. There is no wrong we can right, no song we can sing, no word that we can speak that will do what God cannot do without us. Since there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, salvation comes from grace alone.
A few years ago, the Mount Comfort church participated in a huge evangelical event sponsored by several churches in Northwest Arkansas, including First Baptist Springdale and Christian Life Cathedral. Marie and I served as counselors for the event. What this meant is that after the evening’s activities, we were to go to the floor of Barnhill Arena on the UofA Campus and help counsel individuals who were seeking a relationship with Christ connect with a church.
We were told that it was our duty as soldiers in the army of the Lord to get unbelievers to sign their names to the card connecting them to this event and the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe it was in the other order, I don’t remember. It was important to get folks to sign their names to a card at the event—even if they had signed their name to a similar “card at church camp”[1] years earlier. The way the organizer described it, it was as if the camp card is no longer valid. That part always puzzled me, does signing a card at church camp expire after a certain age? Is “signature salvation” like cell phone rollover minutes? If not used after twelve months it goes away?
The way this event was described to us, it was our opportunity to “bring” the unchruched into a relationship with the Lord, as if anything we did could do that. A signature on a card, whether done at church camp or at the home of the Razorbacks, does not seal our salvation. That was done long ago before the dawn of creation. It was done by the creator of all things, the creator of salvation.
This is an example of what Ralph Wood wrote about in the journal “Christian Ethics.” Wood writes, “The German religious painter Mathias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece gets the order of things right when it shows John the Baptist standing beneath the cross and pointing with his long index finger away from himself to the Man who has been nailed on the cross for our sins. From the mouth of the Baptizer issues these words: ‘May he increase that I decrease.’”[2]
Paul’s famous writing to the Ephesians states it this way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”[3]
Wood rephrases this with a provocative statement that is sure to convict any reader; “Without the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, we get the order backward—Christ decreased in order that we may increase.” [4] When we say we “bring” somebody to the Lord we put the cart before the horse. God is all ready with us, we bring nobody.
This takes us to another element from our reading of John’s gospel. Jesus goes on saying, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.” We are saved by grace which was present since before the beginning. We are saved by grace which is purchased by Christ’s death on the cross. Yet it is by faith that we come to know what God’s grace is and what it means to us, what eternal life means to us.
But I ask you to pause for a moment. We should never think of eternal life as what comes after. We tend to think of eternal life as something to do with length of life when in truth it has to do with the quality of our life, both here and on the other side of forever. “‘Eternal life’ does not speak of immortality or a future life in heaven, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God.”[5] Eternal life is a quality of life issue, but a quality of holy joy rather than a quality of human happiness.
Wood continues, “I don't believe that God much cares whether we are happy, but I believe that he cares enormously whether we are faithful and therefore joyful. Happiness is largely a matter of outward circumstance. We must possess certain things to be happy: health, money, security, success, and power. None of these things is required for joy. True joy lies in knowing that we are saved by God. It is by grace alone through his gift of faith alone. This knowledge brings the peace that surpasses all mere human happiness. We can have this joy and peace no matter how grim our circumstances-even amidst poverty and ill health, despite failure and weakness, and no matter how sinful we are.”[6]
This is how we are to respond, not in happiness, but in joy. In the joy of God we are to put away falsehood speaking the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Paul again explains this in his writing to the Ephesians as we read today. As with much of Paul’s teaching, this is not easy. We are called not to sin steal or let evil talk come from our mouths. We are to put away wrath and anger and wrangling and slander and all malice. We are called to be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us. We are called to be imitators of Christ living in love as he loves us; giving ourselves as he gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
There are two things at work here; there is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our response to that grace which is faith. These two things we will confess in word and song in a few moments.
Our Affirmation of Faith comes from the Westminster Standards and what we believe about effectual calling. (Sorry about the five dollar word.) We believe that God so loves the world, that even before the creation of the world, that although we are dead to sin, by the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit, through the saving work of Jesus Christ we are called into a saving relationship with the holy triune God.
And before our Affirmation, we will sing the song inspired by Isaiah’s vision of the Holy Lord in the temple. We will sing asking God’s question to Isaiah “Whom shall I send?” Then we will respond with Isaiah’s glorious words: “Here I am, Lord. / Is it I, Lord? / I have heard You calling in the night/ I will go, Lord, if You lead me. / I will hold Your people in my heart.”[7]
Our vocation is defined by Jesus in today’s gospel reading; the effectual calling of the Lord followed by our active response. It’s not the sort of thing that will win us a popularity contest, Jesus even notes that the popular kids, the power elite, grumble and complain about his words. Of course, it is the most powerful are called loudest by Jesus to hear the word of God. It is the most powerful who can make the biggest difference in the lives of the weak and oppressed in our earthly confines. Still, from the Sanhedrin to Congress, it seems like the power elite have trouble with this.
So it is up to us, it is up to the disciples of Jesus Christ to take God’s word into the world for caring for the poor, caring for those in need. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote of this and how we use our freedom. He tells us that freedom without responsibility is a horrible thing. Exercising freedom without resolve for others simply takes and takes; it’s a one way street of greed and gluttony. The freedom Christ exercises, the freedom Christ calls us to exercise is the freedom to live in joy and give sacrificially one for another. Freedom with responsibility requires action on our parts to take the gospel into the world and show the world God’s good grace through faith.
I read this yesterday and I have to share it with you. Wikipedia reports[8] “Penitents Compete” is a new Turkish reality television series in which a Jewish rabbi, a Buddhist monk, a Greek Orthodox priest, and a Muslim imam will attempt to convert a group of 10 atheists each week. It is scheduled to begin airing in September 2009 on Turkey's Kanal T network.
Kanal T's Deputy Director Ahmet Özdemir has said that that the goal of the show is “to turn disbelievers into (believers in) God,” but that which God they choose is up to them. He also believes that the show will be helpful for those interested in learning about other religions. Any converts will be offered a free pilgrimage to one of four holy sites–Mecca, Vatican City, Jerusalem, or Tibet. The newly-converted will be followed by a camera crew to ensure that the trip is a pilgrimage and not a vacation.
Two hundred atheists had already applied as of July and were being pre-vetted by an eight-person team of theologians to ensure that they truly are atheists, and not simply seeking to gain fame or fortune.
Some say the show will be good for interfaith relations and others say it’s inappropriate for television. A Turkish mufti worries that the show will confuse people and have negative consequences. An Israeli Rabbi noted that the spirit of this program does not jibe with Jewish tradition which doesn’t allow the active seeking of converts. This same Rabbi also said the show is “tasteless,” which I always thought was a touchstone of reality television.
Still, the best way for us to represent our faith, our life in Christ, whether on Turkish television or here in our own little corner of the world, is to hear Christ’s call and respond. We are to know that we do not come to the Lord unless drawn by the Father who sent him. We are to believe so that we may have eternal life. We are to enjoy eternal life confident in the life of peace and joy of knowing that we are saved by God, knowledge which surpasses all human happiness.
[1] That is a direct quote
[2] Homiletics Online, Animating Illustrations, keywords “grace alone,” http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords="grace%20alone", retrieved August 6, 2009.
[3] Ephesians 2:8-9, NRSV
[4] Homiletics Online, Animating Illustrations, keywords “grace alone,” http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords="grace%20alone", retrieved August 6, 2009.
[5] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, note on “Eternal Life from John 6 as found in the CD-ROM edition.
[6] Ibid, Homiletics Online
[7] Copyright © 1981 Daniel J. Schutte and New Dawn Music, 5536 NE Hassalo, Portland, Oregon 97213.
[8] Penitents Compete, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitents_Compete, retrieved August 8, 2009.
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 9, 2009, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
One of my high school biology teachers was one of those people with a slightly crazy eye and a wicked sense of humor. Naturally, I liked the guy. Just to add a little spice to the day, occasionally someone would ask Mr. Schartz a biologically absurd question. No, it wasn’t me… not always. For example, one day Mani Mani, yes, that’s his real name, asked Mr. Schartz “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Mr. Schartz answered, “The egg, dinosaurs hatched from eggs long before chickens.”
Honestly, we were disappointed by his answer. Yeah, sure, dinosaurs were older than chickens, but it didn’t answer the question the way we wanted it answered. His answer was too simple, too direct, way too on target. We wanted some sort of obscure, arcane information that could have only come from the mouth of Mr. Schartz. Of course his answer was right, and I remember it over thirty years later, but if anything it was too correct. Nothing funny, nothing witty, nothing provocative, it was just the right answer given to fifteen and sixteen year old boys who were looking for something a little wilder and a little weirder.
The theological equivalent of this question goes something like this: Which came first, grace or faith; salvation or acceptance of salvation? Now there’s a question that has been asked for two-thousand years.
Jesus makes the answer abundantly clear in our reading today. “No one can come to me unless drawn by the father who sent me.” It is by the grace of God that we are saved. There is no act that we can perform which can enhance our status with God. There is no wrong we can right, no song we can sing, no word that we can speak that will do what God cannot do without us. Since there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, salvation comes from grace alone.
A few years ago, the Mount Comfort church participated in a huge evangelical event sponsored by several churches in Northwest Arkansas, including First Baptist Springdale and Christian Life Cathedral. Marie and I served as counselors for the event. What this meant is that after the evening’s activities, we were to go to the floor of Barnhill Arena on the UofA Campus and help counsel individuals who were seeking a relationship with Christ connect with a church.
We were told that it was our duty as soldiers in the army of the Lord to get unbelievers to sign their names to the card connecting them to this event and the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe it was in the other order, I don’t remember. It was important to get folks to sign their names to a card at the event—even if they had signed their name to a similar “card at church camp”[1] years earlier. The way the organizer described it, it was as if the camp card is no longer valid. That part always puzzled me, does signing a card at church camp expire after a certain age? Is “signature salvation” like cell phone rollover minutes? If not used after twelve months it goes away?
The way this event was described to us, it was our opportunity to “bring” the unchruched into a relationship with the Lord, as if anything we did could do that. A signature on a card, whether done at church camp or at the home of the Razorbacks, does not seal our salvation. That was done long ago before the dawn of creation. It was done by the creator of all things, the creator of salvation.
This is an example of what Ralph Wood wrote about in the journal “Christian Ethics.” Wood writes, “The German religious painter Mathias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece gets the order of things right when it shows John the Baptist standing beneath the cross and pointing with his long index finger away from himself to the Man who has been nailed on the cross for our sins. From the mouth of the Baptizer issues these words: ‘May he increase that I decrease.’”[2]
Paul’s famous writing to the Ephesians states it this way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”[3]
Wood rephrases this with a provocative statement that is sure to convict any reader; “Without the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, we get the order backward—Christ decreased in order that we may increase.” [4] When we say we “bring” somebody to the Lord we put the cart before the horse. God is all ready with us, we bring nobody.
This takes us to another element from our reading of John’s gospel. Jesus goes on saying, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.” We are saved by grace which was present since before the beginning. We are saved by grace which is purchased by Christ’s death on the cross. Yet it is by faith that we come to know what God’s grace is and what it means to us, what eternal life means to us.
But I ask you to pause for a moment. We should never think of eternal life as what comes after. We tend to think of eternal life as something to do with length of life when in truth it has to do with the quality of our life, both here and on the other side of forever. “‘Eternal life’ does not speak of immortality or a future life in heaven, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God.”[5] Eternal life is a quality of life issue, but a quality of holy joy rather than a quality of human happiness.
Wood continues, “I don't believe that God much cares whether we are happy, but I believe that he cares enormously whether we are faithful and therefore joyful. Happiness is largely a matter of outward circumstance. We must possess certain things to be happy: health, money, security, success, and power. None of these things is required for joy. True joy lies in knowing that we are saved by God. It is by grace alone through his gift of faith alone. This knowledge brings the peace that surpasses all mere human happiness. We can have this joy and peace no matter how grim our circumstances-even amidst poverty and ill health, despite failure and weakness, and no matter how sinful we are.”[6]
This is how we are to respond, not in happiness, but in joy. In the joy of God we are to put away falsehood speaking the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Paul again explains this in his writing to the Ephesians as we read today. As with much of Paul’s teaching, this is not easy. We are called not to sin steal or let evil talk come from our mouths. We are to put away wrath and anger and wrangling and slander and all malice. We are called to be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us. We are called to be imitators of Christ living in love as he loves us; giving ourselves as he gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
There are two things at work here; there is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our response to that grace which is faith. These two things we will confess in word and song in a few moments.
Our Affirmation of Faith comes from the Westminster Standards and what we believe about effectual calling. (Sorry about the five dollar word.) We believe that God so loves the world, that even before the creation of the world, that although we are dead to sin, by the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit, through the saving work of Jesus Christ we are called into a saving relationship with the holy triune God.
And before our Affirmation, we will sing the song inspired by Isaiah’s vision of the Holy Lord in the temple. We will sing asking God’s question to Isaiah “Whom shall I send?” Then we will respond with Isaiah’s glorious words: “Here I am, Lord. / Is it I, Lord? / I have heard You calling in the night/ I will go, Lord, if You lead me. / I will hold Your people in my heart.”[7]
Our vocation is defined by Jesus in today’s gospel reading; the effectual calling of the Lord followed by our active response. It’s not the sort of thing that will win us a popularity contest, Jesus even notes that the popular kids, the power elite, grumble and complain about his words. Of course, it is the most powerful are called loudest by Jesus to hear the word of God. It is the most powerful who can make the biggest difference in the lives of the weak and oppressed in our earthly confines. Still, from the Sanhedrin to Congress, it seems like the power elite have trouble with this.
So it is up to us, it is up to the disciples of Jesus Christ to take God’s word into the world for caring for the poor, caring for those in need. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote of this and how we use our freedom. He tells us that freedom without responsibility is a horrible thing. Exercising freedom without resolve for others simply takes and takes; it’s a one way street of greed and gluttony. The freedom Christ exercises, the freedom Christ calls us to exercise is the freedom to live in joy and give sacrificially one for another. Freedom with responsibility requires action on our parts to take the gospel into the world and show the world God’s good grace through faith.
I read this yesterday and I have to share it with you. Wikipedia reports[8] “Penitents Compete” is a new Turkish reality television series in which a Jewish rabbi, a Buddhist monk, a Greek Orthodox priest, and a Muslim imam will attempt to convert a group of 10 atheists each week. It is scheduled to begin airing in September 2009 on Turkey's Kanal T network.
Kanal T's Deputy Director Ahmet Özdemir has said that that the goal of the show is “to turn disbelievers into (believers in) God,” but that which God they choose is up to them. He also believes that the show will be helpful for those interested in learning about other religions. Any converts will be offered a free pilgrimage to one of four holy sites–Mecca, Vatican City, Jerusalem, or Tibet. The newly-converted will be followed by a camera crew to ensure that the trip is a pilgrimage and not a vacation.
Two hundred atheists had already applied as of July and were being pre-vetted by an eight-person team of theologians to ensure that they truly are atheists, and not simply seeking to gain fame or fortune.
Some say the show will be good for interfaith relations and others say it’s inappropriate for television. A Turkish mufti worries that the show will confuse people and have negative consequences. An Israeli Rabbi noted that the spirit of this program does not jibe with Jewish tradition which doesn’t allow the active seeking of converts. This same Rabbi also said the show is “tasteless,” which I always thought was a touchstone of reality television.
Still, the best way for us to represent our faith, our life in Christ, whether on Turkish television or here in our own little corner of the world, is to hear Christ’s call and respond. We are to know that we do not come to the Lord unless drawn by the Father who sent him. We are to believe so that we may have eternal life. We are to enjoy eternal life confident in the life of peace and joy of knowing that we are saved by God, knowledge which surpasses all human happiness.
[1] That is a direct quote
[2] Homiletics Online, Animating Illustrations, keywords “grace alone,” http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords="grace%20alone", retrieved August 6, 2009.
[3] Ephesians 2:8-9, NRSV
[4] Homiletics Online, Animating Illustrations, keywords “grace alone,” http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords="grace%20alone", retrieved August 6, 2009.
[5] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, note on “Eternal Life from John 6 as found in the CD-ROM edition.
[6] Ibid, Homiletics Online
[7] Copyright © 1981 Daniel J. Schutte and New Dawn Music, 5536 NE Hassalo, Portland, Oregon 97213.
[8] Penitents Compete, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitents_Compete, retrieved August 8, 2009.
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