Audacity

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 24, 2016, the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

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 love that over the past eight weeks we have had an opportunity to get to know one another better. Some of you I have gotten to know better than others. Over the next couple of months, I hope to rectify that further. Today I am going to share another bias with you, I am a fan of the New Revised Standard Version of the bible. There’s nothing wrong with the New International Version, but sometimes it loses some of the nuance the New Standard Revised keeps. Then again, there are times I prefer the NIV over the NRSV, and last week I showed used the New Living Translation, so I do tend to look around and see what’s faithful to the original text and what’s not. The reading from Hosea got a white-washing from the New International Version.

The NIV reads… “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” Yes, I called that white-washed.

In the NRSV that same half of Hosea 1:2 goes like this… “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

No good editor likes to use the same word three times in the same sentence, but who says the Lord needs an editor? I won’t say the NIV sounds appealing, what with promiscuous, adulterous, and unfaithfulness, but each of these words have different shades of “bad” in English as we read them. I mean it’s not good, but it could be worse, right?

The New Revised Standard gives us the “what’s worse,” whoredom, whoredom, and great whoredom. Perhaps the most concentrated use of the word “whoredom” in scripture. It’s a blue ribbon for Holy Writ! We have reached maximum whoredom.

Another translation I find useful is the New American Standard Version because it provides a very good word for word translation. The Hebrew here is translated as harlotry, harlotry, and flagrant harlotry. What’s flagrant harlotry? Is it like basketball where you get two shots from the line and the ball back when your team gets a flagrant harlotry foul? Whatever it is, Israel has done it. Mazel tov Israel, the Lord is done with you.

Gomer bore Hosea three children. The first is named Jezreel, named after a nation of people wiped off of the face of the earth. The second is named Lo-Ruhamah which means “no love” or “no pity.” Their third child is named “Lo-ammi.” The NIV says this means “not my people.” The NRSV doesn’t offer up the translation in parentheses, it goes straight to the explanation, “you are not my people and I am not your God.”

Over the past couple of weeks we have sung, “Seek Ye First.” The second verse goes like this:

Ask and it shall be given unto you,
seek and you shall find;
knock and the door shall be opened unto you -
Allelu, alleluia!

These words come loosely from today’s Luke reading. This is often used to tell people that if you only ask, God will provide. This has given way to something called “The Prosperity Gospel.” Prosperity proponents see faith as a contract, not a covenant between God and God’s own. If we have faith, God will deliver us not only in the heavenly realm but here on earth with security, health, and prosperity. If we act in faith, God will deliver. So if you give, God will give you wellness and wealth. I believe the scriptural term for this is “hogwash,” or at least it is in Arkansas, home of the Razorbacks.

But you know, these words are in scripture, so what do we do with them? First, we keep them with the words that precede them. This a parable about a man whose guest arrives late at night, so late that he didn’t have any bread to serve when he arrives. So he goes to see if his neighbor has three loaves. He knocks. He knocks loud. He knocks hard. He knocks often.

His neighbor is ticked off, and who wouldn’t be. It’s after midnight, and while the man wasn’t up watching Colbert (again, my preference) he had to get up early in the morning to work and work hard. The kids were in bed, with him. That was a cultural thing. Houses didn’t have rooms and beds for everybody. Getting up is a bother. Getting up would wake the kids. Then again, it’s not like the knocking and yelling is helping anybody sleep.

Now here’s an instance where I prefer the New International over the New Revised, the NRSV says the man with the guest will get bread because of his “persistence.” In the NIV the man gets what he needs because of his “shameless audacity.” Everything else being equal, give me the more expressive translation. Yeah, shameless audacity. Jesus tells his disciples to pray like this man asks his neighbor for bread, with shameless audacity.

I have a friend, Dr. Steve, who once preached on prayer and used this children’s sermon. This is the condensed version.

Once upon a time on the Barbary Coast, a bunch of school children and their teacher were going to go to the beach for a picnic. They hoped and prayed for good weather because there was only one day they could picnic and if there was bad weather there would be no picnic that Spring. Well, the big day came and it was pouring rain so the picnic was cancelled and they were all disappointed. They all wailed and cried. BUT what they didn’t know is that because of the weather Pirates couldn’t come ashore, pirates who surely would have taken them and their teacher and made them all slaves. The End.

Notice I didn’t say it was a good children’s sermon. His lesson was that we should just pray “God’s will be done” because what God wants is best for us. As far as it goes, I can’t disagree that what God wants is best for us and we must pray God’s will be done. We’ve just prayed “God’s will be done,” it would be foolish to preach against that. There’s nothing audacious here except for the nightmare ending, but there has to be more.

Did Hosea pray to God, “Golly Lord, thanks for telling me to wed this promiscuous woman, er, whore of whoredom, ah, I mean harlot?” No, I can’t imagine that was a good time at family dinner during the Shabbat either, “Mom, Dad, this is Gomer. Yes, I know her name means “complete” but the Lord is done with us as a nation, so it’s appropriate. Look I brought wine! (Gomer, Strong’s Concordance, 1584)” I can’t imagine that was a nice dinner at all.

This is the life of the prophet Hosea, with his harlot wife and children of harlotry named after the fate of Israel, flagrant harlotry; and how does our reading from this disaster end? Israel will be decimated, but… but the Lord prays, “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Now that’s a prayer you don’t expect after whoredom, adulterous, and flagrant harlotry. Even the Lord prays with shameless audacity. What can come from shameless audacity? This is a piece of a letter from a Texan living in Chicago named Chris Ladd:

Watching Ronald Reagan as a boy, I recall how bold it was for him to declare ‘morning again’ in America. In a country menaced by Communism and burdened by a struggling economy, the audacity of Reagan’s optimism inspired a generation. (https://goplifer.com/2016/07/22/resignation-letter/)

Say what you will, Reagan had some audacity. Like him or not, Regan had some audacity. Right or wrong, and history will be the judge, Reagan had some audacity.

Like him or not, like his policies or not, Reagan was largely responsible for ending the Cold War. Agree with how he did it or not, Reagan was responsible for making the United States the last standing super-power in a world of tiny little despots and frightened rulers. Like it or not, agree with him or not, say what you will, audacity was not lacking.

Yes, we need to seek God’s will in our lives. We need to come together in prayer. We need to come together. We need to see where God is leading us and his church. As I said last week we need to sit at his feet, we need to be close so when God moves we can move with God. Yes, it begins with prayer, then it goes further.

As Jesus teaches us “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We are called to pray for the greatest gift of all; not a car, nor a house, nor any other wealth which rots on this earth. We are called to pray to receive the greatest gift God can give us. His spirit. Come Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, we will be able to seek God’s will for our lives and the life of the Church which is his body. That is audacity at its most valiant.

Seeking the Better Things

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas on Sunday August 4, 2013, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Later this month St. Andrew will call and install their new Interim Pastor so while I am still on the fill-in list, my season of frequent service to this congregation is coming to an end. Thanks be to God for their hospitality and generosity during this season.

Unfortunately this week there is only text, no audio or video.

Hosea 11:1-11

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Colossians 3:1-11

Luke 12:13-21

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

I would like to begin by saying how much I enjoyed Tara Porr’s sermon from last week.[1] I particularly enjoyed how she reimagined Hosea’s proposal, if you can call it that, to Gomer. The way she took scripture and inflected it into the way we speak was marvelous. When she used Gomer’s voice to say “That’s so sweet!” I laughed. It was a wonderful way to take a whore-endous, whore-rific, whore-rible piece of scripture—puns intended—and replay it in a modern way.

But it was her skill with handling the symbolism of Hosea wedding a woman of many sexual partners symbolically representing our Faithful Lord’s wedding to a nation that takes many partners that was brilliant. Still, I can imagine her preparing that sermon, reading that passage and thinking to herself “how in the world does this preach?” because I felt the same way when I read these passages from Colossians and Luke.

She read from the densest use of the word “whore” found in scripture. I get to share “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)” and “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.” After reading these passages, when I say, “This is the Word of the Lord” I almost expect to hear the congregation reply “Really?” instead of “Amen.”

Paul tells Timothy that all scripture is good and beneficial for study and teaching, but these have an edge to them that point to many uncomfortable lessons.

Then Marie showed me an article from the Wall Street Journal blogs about the actor Ben Foster who is starring in a movie based on retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s memoir “Lone Survivor.” This book and its movie are based on one of his unit’s reconnaissance missions in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005. Their objective was to kill or capture a Taliban leader. On missions like these in the wilderness of Afghanistan they would occasionally cross paths with local shepherds.

In a recent interview, Mr. Foster was asked about this scene. He replied, “The ancient question of war is do you kill a shepherd and save your own life and potentially endanger your people, or do you let him go? They decided to let them go, and these brave young men were hunted down.” [2]

Foster continues, “[Luttrell] was the lone survivor, and asked a man in this village to give him water. The law there is if you give a man water who asks for help in war, you’re taking him in as a family member and you must protect him to the death.” [3]

The reason I chose to tell this story is because I want us to consider our family. Who is our family? How do we welcome new members into our family? What does it mean to be a member of a family or more righteously this family? We’ll get back to that.

Our gospel reading opens with a definition of family which is gaining some traction these days, the family as an economic unit. In my 20’s I had a friend whose grandfather owned a large soybean farm in Kansas. This man and his wife had four children and after the parents’ death, each of them owned a quarter share in the farm. They had it all worked out, and the family as an economic unit was secure. They didn’t run into the trouble Luke’s gospel reports when Jesus had the brother screaming, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

This man wanted his request heard, and knew how to fawn while asking it too. “Teacher,” other translations say “Rabbi,” in a word he appealed to our Lord’s earthly status and the traditions of the thousands of teachers who came before him. Maybe if he had thought of Jesus as Lord rather than as teacher he would have been better off. As important as the family as an economic unit is, Jesus did not take to the question well. Jesus flat out asked the man who he thought he was to make this decision.

Jesus adds to his lesson telling the man and all with ears to hear, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

The story that follows is one which stock brokers, insurance agents, and others who sell 401(k)’s don’t want us to hear.  In a nutshell we can plan all we want, but there will be a day; and that day could be tomorrow or it could be 100 years from now. Depending on our own resources and taking joy in stuff ultimately leads down the road to nowhere.

So, Jesus tells us to be on our guard against all kinds greed and then tells a story about a man who has a special place for all of the stuff his life has brought him. I’m not talking about his barns either, in truth I’m talking about his heart.

There is a phrase in that sentence that always gets the best of me. Jesus doesn’t warn us about financial greed alone. As for this man, his greed took root in more than just his possessions; it took root in eating, drinking, and merriment; everything his life can buy but nothing God provides. He warns the people about all kinds of greed. I could give you a litany of the sorts of greed that corrupts the lives of human beings, but the list would be long, the oration would be boring, and the recitation ultimately incomplete.

In the end, it is enough to know that Jesus warns the people about all kinds of greed, not the run of the mill garden variety financial kind. Then it’s Paul who takes that laundry list and names it something else, he calls all kinds of greed idolatry.

Now if there isn’t a more loaded word than idolatry I’d like you to share it with me. I’m not saying you can’t find one, I’m saying if you do I’d like to get prepared to be frightened. Simply put, Idolatry is putting anything, the idol, before God. A pastor friend from Colorado thought the NFL was the perfect American idol. His opinion came from the simple truth that in the Mountain Time zone games start at 11:00 AM. With worship starting at 10:30 folks didn’t get out until the end of the first quarter. If there was a potluck it would be halftime before fans got home.

So many people stayed home during football season that giving actually went down during those four months, longer if the home team made the playoffs. Considering this was during John Elway’s heyday on the reins of the Broncos, the playoffs were almost a foregone conclusion. Yes, my pastor made a pretty good argument for the NFL being an idol.

As for taking this to the “loaded idolatry” level let me finish saying “Texas high school football” and get out of the way. Considering Allen ISD just finished a $60 million facility, that’s not a sanctuary or a tabernacle, it’s a bloody cathedral to high school football.

Is it an idol? I don’t know the people well enough to know, but $60 million for a high school football stadium? If the Church of Jesus Christ had fundraising like that there would be no hunger in East Texas.

Paul begins this portion of his epistle to the Colossians saying, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Paul is writing this to the saints in Colossae, he’s writing to believers, the church. I make this point because some translations don’t say “So if…” they say “Since…” Paul is not asking whether they have been raised with Christ or not. In a lovely turn of a rhetorical phrase he is saying that they are raised in Christ.

Since they are raised in Christ their minds should not be on the things of the earth. They should not be set on the idols we make with our own hands and worshiped like they mean something. They are called to be of a higher mind. They are called to live the life they have been freely given at great cost so that we may be with Christ in God.

We are to surrender fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and all forms of greed (which is all forms of idolatry) forsaking anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. We are to be clothed with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

We are to live in Christ so that we may not only be able to seek the better things, but accept them and nurture them when we discern them.

So, what does this have to do with family? Let’s begin with who is in the family.

Paul covered this pretty well. There is no longer Greek or Jew—cultural identification and membership is considered moot.

As for circumcised and uncircumcised this relates to faith. As culture bears no more meaning; neither does religious affiliation.

As for barbarians and Scythians, the Barbarians (with a capital B) were Turks and the Scythians were Iranian. This could have meant “from west or east” as much as it could mean “vicious people” verses “more cultured vicious people.”

Slave and Free had to do with social status as well as economic status. It comes down to whether or not you have freedom on earth, you have freedom in Christ.

These differentiations are vitally important because in this day and time we have to beware of who we say doesn’t belong. Let us remember that after the “Slaughter of the Innocents” in Matthew's gospel comes the “Escape to Egypt.” Our Lord’s family arrived as strangers in a strange land. They had no visas or permits. The Lord told the Jews to stay out of Egypt so there would have been few kin folk when they arrived. Thank God for the gifts of the Magi or else they would have had no gold or other liquid assets when they arrived.

In short, our Lord was once a political refugee and an illegal alien. In Christ there is freedom for all. This is vitally important to our Lord today because while an infant he was once was a refugee, a prisoner to the power and politics of his time.

How do we welcome new members into our family? In a way, it’s not completely unlike how the Afghani man accepted Marcus Luttrell, with water. While they extended a cup of drinking water, we become family in the waters of our baptism. In this holy sacrament we are welcomed into the community which Christ has ordained to be his body. In these holy waters we are baptized and sealed by the spirit.

In the waters of our baptism we suffer the death that faces all who come into the chaos of water only to be received into new life as a member of the Christian community. We are welcomed in this messy, messy sacrament to join together in the messy lives we live together. It is this unity in Christ, as he too was baptized in the waters of new life, that we come together as family. Family where we defend each one’s dignity against the world that would love to see that new life crushed.

So what does it mean to be a part of this family? It means more than showing up once a week and touching base like a seven-day game of tag where you have to come once a week or “you’re it.”

It means we defend one another. This isn’t unlike the answer to the question “who is my neighbor.” A neighbor is someone who shows mercy, someone who makes a difference. But neighbors are largely a voluntary alliance. We don’t get to pick our family.

Family, in family there is love and respect and dignity even when your little sister bugs the living daylights out of you. Even when your brother borrows the car and doesn’t bother to put gas in it, family is still family. When the Session, Presbytery, or General Assembly votes don’t go as we believe they should, we are still family. Even when family leaves, we are still family. In this love, even in the midst of strife, in the waters of our baptism God’s peace is there.

This is where I share our joy. Nurtured by the food and drink of the Lord’s Supper we share the joy found in our Call to Worship. In the words of the 107^th Psalm, Let them give thanks for the mercy of God, for the wonders the LORD does for all people. For God satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and consider well the mercies of the LORD. Halleluiah!

God satisfies the hungry heart with the better things. It’s up to us to seek them, nurture them, and share them with the world.

---

[1] “When Words Aren’t Enough” based on Hosea 1:1-10. Miss Porr is a student at Princeton Seminary and about to start a yearlong internship in Groomsport, Northern Ireland. Godspeed and have a great year Tara.

[2] Chai, Barbara, “Ben Foster on how ‘Lone Survivor’ asks ancient questions of war.” http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/04/16/ben-foster-on-how-lone-survivor-asks-ancient-questions-of-war/, retrieved on July 31, 2013.

[3] I am reminded that Luttrell wrote in his book that he was offered tea instead of water. Foster’s recollection may be inaccurate, but it both is what he told Barbara Chai and works better with the end of the sermon.