While this sermon shares the same name as my last sermon, the spelling, text, and message is different. This sermon was heard at Broadmoor Presbyterian Church on Sunday May 15, 2016, Pentecost Sunday.
Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, 25-27
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.
There’s an ancient hymn of the church, “Old Time Religion.” There are almost as many different authors listed of this hymn as there are versions. Depending on the source, we learn that the song is an old Negro Spiritual. Then checking the authorship of the Jim Reeves version and it credits Reeves, Tommy Hill, Leo Jackson, Ken Hill, and Gordon Stoker with no mention of the spiritual. Then there’s the Tennessee Ernie Ford version and the Buck Owens version with their fingerprints in the credit line. The version recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama is attributed to someone named J. Baird.
You know me by now, of course I wouldn’t mention this song unless I meant to say something about it. And here goes, check out these choruses:
It was good for the Hebrew children.
It was good for dad and mother.
Makes me love everybody.
It was good for our mothers.
It has saved our fathers.
It will do when I am dyin’. (I love that, It'll do when I'm dyin')
It will take us all to heaven.
Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me.
Let me throw a wet blanket here, but the religion of the Hebrew children was not the “old time religion” of my father and mother. It’s a wonderful chorus, but good for the Hebrew Children isn’t in my experience. It was a classic of Twentieth Century Protestant hymnals, but “Old Time Religion” isn’t found in the new Presbyterian Hymnal.
Now here’s the fly in the ointment, as a Negro Spiritual, the faith of the Hebrew children is very important. The stories of the Exodus, the stories of people whose freedom was denied for hundreds of years by the Pharaohs in Egypt until the coming of Moses, were and continue to be very important. These stories are important for the men and women whose freedom was taken and continues to be in peril.
This was important to the slaves who originated this hymn. It was important to the Blind Boys of Alabama. But I can’t imagine Jim Reeves or Tennessee Ernie Ford or even Buck Owens catching the theological subtext because like me, it’s not their experience.
It may not be in our hymnal, but let’s go down Southfield Drive until it becomes Hollywood and see if it’s in the hymnbooks at Hollywood Presbyterian, a historically black congregation just down the road. Something old, something new.
Something old, something new. Pentecost has been a part of the celebration of the Church since before the Church was Christian. Pentecost is a part of the old time religion, but in Christ it became something new. Jews from every nation were living in Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost. When it began, it began with a sound like the rush of a violent wind.
Being people of the New Millennium, children of the Information age, we tend to look at scripture like we’ve seen it a hundred times. This is one of those times. We hear “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” and tend to think “whoosh” when we should think Hurricane Camille, Andrew, or Katrina. We should think about the tornadoes that blew through town a couple of weekends ago. We should think about a “Mike Bettis from the Weather Channel doing a remote from your front porch” kind of violent wind sound. This isn’t something soft and pretty, this is a “change your life” event.
With this comes fire that licks like tongues and those tongues are speaking in the native languages of a world full of new believers and old skeptics. The world of Judaism was living in Jerusalem and the world was hearing the Gospel in their native languages. Not the angelic tongues we often think of when we hear of Pentecost, but languages with known words and grammar and these were used so people could hear the Word of God and understand it so they can share it.
Of course the old skeptics would say they sounded like a bunch of drunks. Then again the words of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, non-Jewish Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontians (is that what you call a resident of Pontus?), Asians (folks from what we call Turkey), Phrygians, Pamphylians, and Egyptians with Galilean accents might sound drunkish.
Peter stands up for the Apostles declaring, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.”
Then being this close to Mardi Gras “only nine o'clock in the morning” is meaningless when it comes to day drunk, but that’s not the point.
Peter was sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ as fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. The Spirit of God is being poured out upon all flesh. Sons and daughters prophesy. Young men see visions. Old men dream dreams. Slaves, even the male and female slaves, receive his Spirit and they prophesy.
In the name of God, by the work of Christ, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Christ does not replace the Law; Christ fulfills the law.
This brings us to an interesting part of our reading from John, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” You will hear a lot of people who quote this invoke all sorts of things out of Leviticus. As for me, if we invoke too much Leviticus we won’t be able to eat the Red Beans and Rice I brought for today’s potluck and that would be a pity. So what does Jesus mean?
Some scholars say that the Ten Commandments serve three purposes. They give instruction on how to relate to God, to creation, and to each other. Christ knew how well we had done with this since the days of Moses so he knew the Advocate was a must to help us carry out these commandments.
As for the Levitical laws, they served all sorts of purposes. Some of them helped the people keep the commandments. Some of them helped keep family relationships in a semblance of order. Some were necessary to keep the people from getting trichinosis. We’ve been through this before, there were 613 mitzvoth, 613 laws; 248 thou shall’s and 365 thou shall not’s. Some became passé like the dietary restrictions. Peter would even argue with God, argue with God about dietary restrictions. He wouldn’t dare touch shrimp, lobster, bacon, or crawfish. But after a vision from the Lord God, the “mudbug,” a critter whose name makes its inclusion on the dietary restriction list self-explanatory, is now good eating.
So what did Jesus mean when he told the people to keep his commandments? The 613 seem to be in a state of flux since Peter saw his first catfish. What did Jesus mean? I believe the answer lies in the end of our reading from John’s gospel:
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
What exactly does the Holy Spirit remind us? What has Jesus taught us? Jesus has taught us that even though he did not replace the law, he has fulfilled it. Fulfilling it he has done so in a new and glorious way, a way we could not expect or imagine. The scribes and Pharisees expected one thing and Jesus showed them something else.
They tried to trick him into blasphemy and he could not be tricked by their worldly games. They fawned over him, ingratiated themselves, then tried to spring a trap only to find that their traps had no power over Jesus. They complained he ate with whores and other women. He ate with tax collectors. He ate with zealots. He ate when he should have fasted, but these same temple leaders complained when the Baptist fasted when they would have rather he had a sandwich. Jesus tells his people the world will never be happy with them.
The world will never be happy with them, so why bother?
Jesus gives his people something better, something the world cannot offer, his peace. Peace we extend to each other during this very service! Let’s do it again!
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!
And also with you!
Jesus says “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let your hearts be afraid."
On this Pentecost Sunday this is the commandment Jesus wants us to remember. If it doesn’t bring his peace, is it really his commandment?
The Civil Wars were Joy Williams and John Paul White, an Alternative-Country musical duo who from 2008 until 2014 recorded two CD’s a couple of EP’s and won four Grammy awards. The second single released from the first disc was the title track “Barton Hollow.”
Ain't going back to Barton Hollow
Devil gonna follow me e'er I go
Won't do me no good washing in the river
Can't no preacher man save my soul
It only took a few minutes of research on line for me to decide that there are more opinions about what this song means than copies sold, I bring up this song for this chorus.
If there is one thing every pastor, minister, and evangelist should want you to know it’s this, “Can’t no preacher man save my soul.” Absolutely not. We are saved by faith though grace in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was born to live to die and rise again. Today we celebrate the coming of the day he promised until he comes again in victory, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, His Spirit.
Friends, there is a difference between religion and faith. Let me say this again, there is a difference between religion and faith. Straight out of John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion” we receive this definition of faith:
Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
So if this is faith what’s religion? Religion is how we celebrate that faith. If faith is the fabric of our lives, then religion is the hanger we put it on. Religion is a framework. We are the theological heirs of the Reformation; Calvin, Knox, Hus, Zwingli and many others. Our Jewish brothers have their scripture and authoritative writing as do our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters. There are many old time religions, many theological hangers on which people hang the fabric of faith.
Ain't going back to Barton Hollow
Devil gonna follow me e'er I go
Won't do me no good washing in the river
Can't no preacher man save my soul
It only took a few minutes to find dozens of interpretations to this song. It doesn’t take as long to find even more meanings to the Pentecost. But on this Pentecost Sunday I want us to remember these things:
That hymn, it may not be ours to sing.
That whooshing sound, if you find it deafening, could be that’s as it should be.
If what you hear makes perfect sense coming from one pastor but another pastor makes no sense at all, that’s alright too. Remember that first Pentecost had one Apostle speaking your language and the others speaking goobledy-gook.
Yes, when we love Jesus we keep his commandments, yes those commandments are found in scripture, and yes, those commands are found in the life of Christ.
Finally, we are saved by grace through faith. It’s not our religion but our Lord who saves.
Barton Hollow says it won’t do us any good to wash in the river. That’s true as far as it goes. No words of a preacher will save our souls either. The power is that Jesus shared our baptism. There was no need, he didn’t need the cleansing we need. Yet through baptism he identifies with us. That’s the power. No preacher man will save our souls. The words are Christ’s not mine. It is grace alone through faith alone through Christ alone.
It has been an honor and a pleasure to share the word of God with you these past three years. Of course it wouldn’t seem like I preached a sermon if I didn’t play with the Greek would it? Jesus called the Spirit the Advocate. Used this way, Advocate means one who walks beside. What a wonderful image. What a glorious truth. Let us rejoice in his Holy comfort, God in Spirit who walks beside us.
Marie and I thank you for walking beside us too.
Amen.
Showing posts with label John 14. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John 14. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Plural
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 29, 2011, the 6th Sunday in Easter.
Podcast of "Plural" (MP3)
Podcast of "Plural" (MP3)
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
As I have said before, all translation is interpretation. One of the shortcomings of English is that we don’t have different words for “you” as a singular person and “you” as a group of people. God bless Texas
Jesus says, “If you love me you will obey what I command.” This is relatively easy to figure out when you think of “you” in the singular. It’s not always easy to do, but it’s easy to figure out. I am called to do what Jesus commands. I am called to follow his commandments. When I do this, this is the sign that I love God. Wonderful! Glorious!
I’m responsible for my own actions. I am responsible for my walk with God. I am responsible for how I live my life. But when taken to the extreme, this means that I am not my brother’s keeper. I don’t have any responsibility beyond my own reach. What I do is my business and what you do is your business.
Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth.” On the request of my Lord and Savior, the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to be with me forever. I will forever be led and instructed and counseled by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God’s Truth, the one and only Holy Spirit of God. I will be equipped to receive the truth.
What I receive will not be the first counselor either, it will be another. This means that I have already received the Counselor of God once. This is a blessing I have received and will receive again.
He continues, “You will know him because he lives with you and will be in you.” Not only will God be sent to me, not only will God equip me, not only will God counsel me; God will dwell in me. Jesus promises that the Spirit of Truth will take up residence in little ole me.
I will be privy to God’s plans and God’s wisdom as the Spirit of Truth counsels me. Of course this means that if any one of you disagrees with me, you disagree with God. But that’s tough toenails because I have received the Spirit of Truth. God’s right, you’re wrong, and that’s that.
The Lord Jesus promises “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.” Now this is a little rabbinical jargon, for a Rabbi to leave a disciple as an orphan means that the Rabbi has died. The student may or may not have parents, but the spiritual and intellectual parent is gone. Jesus promises that this won’t happen. He will not leave me behind. This is promised in word and realized in the resurrection.
Taken to back to that extreme, because He lives, I will never be without my teacher. I will forever be in his presence. I guess it’s just so sad if you aren’t there too.
He promises “Because I live, you also will live.”
You see where I’m going with this by now. When we look at all of these promises in the singular, when “you” becomes “me” and “people like me” my tunnel vision becomes dangerously narrow. It’s the sort of shortsightedness that has led people to do horrible things in the name of God.
This is the kind of thinking that brought the world the Knights Templar. This is the kind of thinking that brought the world the crusades. It’s the sort of thinking that brought the Spanish Inquisition. It’s the kind of thinking that brought the Klan.
It’s this sort of narrow vision that brings the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka and brings them out of the woodwork to share what the Rev. Fred Phelps calls “God’s message” at the most horrible of our nation’s tragedies. In fact according to their website, today they are picketing “the Beast Obama” in Joplin , Missouri Oklahoma
On this Presbyterian Heritage Sunday I honestly say that this is one of the things I like about Presbyterian Polity. The way the Church is organized, it is impossible for one single person to get the kind of traction required to lead a congregation like a single person can lead a congregationally governed church or a church run by a single Bishop or Cardinal. Decision making in the Presbyterian Church is made locally by the Session, regionally at the Presbytery, and nationally through the General Assembly. Each of these is made up of several and many individuals from the local groups so that one person cannot be vested with too much power.
I have made fun of “seeking the will of God by majority rule,” but it’s better than having one person vested with the power to let a single vision overwhelm the will of God. But this majority rule is important for another reason. That reason takes us back to our reading.
In the first six verses of our reading from John’s gospel the “you” Jesus is speaking to is not an individual. It’s not even to each of the individual listeners. What’s missing in English that’s present in the Greek is that Jesus is speaking not to “you” in the singular; he’s speaking to “all y’all” in the plural.
So this is the kicker, Jesus is telling not just you or me but you and me that as the church we show God our love by following his commands. Jesus is speaking to the community of believers. Jesus is speaking to the church.
Jesus is telling the church that if we love him we will obey what he commands. This isn’t a cause-and-effect thing. Love is not the reward for our obedience. It’s not “if we obey God he will love us,” it’s when we love him we will obey. Obedience is a sign of love not the other way around. In fact, it is impossible to love and be disobedient.
This is another sticking point. What exactly does Jesus mean when he says “what I command”?
There are a lot of commands in scripture. There’s the first command humanity received in the garden in Genesis, “don’t eat that.” We didn’t get very far with that one. There are also the “Heavy Ten,” the Ten Commandments. When Rabbi’s analyzed the first five books of scripture, what we call the Torah or the Pentateuch, they find 613 distinct laws or mitzvah.
Honestly, that’s a lot of laws to keep straight.
In the book of Mark, Jesus tells us what his most important commands are. When quizzed on this by a scribe Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
How’s that for the circle of life? Jesus says if we love him we will keep his commands and he says that the first command is to love the Lord you God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. If we love him we will obey him, to obey him is to love him and our neighbor as ourselves. This is why the Spirit of Truth lives in the church, the Body of Christ. This is God’s call to the church.
As you know, we’re not a very free-flowing church. We follow a bulletin that lays out the order of worship. There are places in the order for the inbreaking of the Holy Spirit, but scheduling the Holy Spirit is just as silly as it sounds.
But there is one very intentional moment we make together. When we all come together and after Mr. Al does the announcements, we begin worship by welcoming the Light of Christ into the sanctuary. Brionna brings the light, after all it’s like scripture says, a little child will lead us. Then as Mr. Al says before we sing our last hymn, after we receive the charge and benediction, we follow the Light of Christ into the world. We follow the light. This is why it is customary to allow the light to leave the sanctuary first so that we can follow the light.
We do this as a congregation and we also do this as individuals. We do this as individuals because our reading this morning does not stop at verse twenty. Where the first six verses in our reading are plural, speaking to us as the Church; the “you” in the last verse of our reading is singular.
The first words to us as individuals are not so different from the words we hear as the church. “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” This comes with all of the pitfalls I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, but it also comes tempered with the wisdom of the ages written in scripture, it also comes with the wisdom of the church interpreting scripture. This too is a part of our Presbyterian heritage. As the church and as individuals we are called to know and obey the Christ, this is how we show our love for him.
By obeying God we show that we love God and God loves us too. Again as much as this seems like a cause-and-effect relationship, God never works that way. God creates because God loves and wants to share life, eternal life, with creation.
God loves us first, but not like a good old fashioned unrequited middle school crush. God doesn’t stop loving us. God created life out of love, and when we return that love it grows and becomes so much more than we could ever hope or imagine.
So today, when we go from this place, let Brionna lead us as a church and each of us as individuals as she bears the light. Let us be our brother’s keeper. Let us be instructed by the Holy Spirit of Truth who comes as our next counselor. We are not orphans because God lives. And because God lives we live, both as the church and as individuals. Follow the light into the world where we as the church and we as the individual people of God live into the love of Christ.
[1] http://godhatesfags.com retrieved May 28, 2011.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Facts
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 22, 2011, the 5th Sunday of Easter.
Podcast of "Facts" (MP3)
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Podcast of "Facts" (MP3)
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Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
When I was in college my fraternity brothers and I played a stupid game. At the dawn of what we call “basic cable” The USA Network was more than reruns of NCIS and Law and Order: You Pick ‘Em. They showed reruns of Dragnet. For those of you who aren’t snickering, Dragnet was a late ‘60’s police procedural drama that focused on Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Detective Bill Gannon. In the first minute of the show Sergeant Friday would tell the audience what the day was, what the weather was in Los Angeles
So when I was in college, my idea of amusment was sitting in the basement of a fraternity house with six guys waiting to hear “It was the tenth of October, it was sunny in Los Angeles
One of the trademarks of the series was was labored dialogue, but what stuck out was Jack Webb’s vocal delivery. It was low key, barely varied in pitch or tempo, but there was still something very distinctive. So when the witnesses they were interviewing would make a side comment or follow a rabbit hole in the dialogue, the Sergeant would say “Just the facts” in a quick, curt, business like way.
Fifty years later, “Just the facts”[1] is still the trademark of the show. Looking at today’s gospel reading, I got this feeling of just the facts. There are a lot of facts in the narrative.
Here’s the first fact we get in our reading today, in the Father’s house there are many rooms. Since the dawn of the faith, Jews identified “the Father’s house” with a heavenly dwelling place. This is clearly the image that Jesus is using. There are enough rooms in the Father’s house. This is the first fact.
The narrative moves on when Jesus says “you know the way to the place where I am going.” What the editor doesn’t say is that this is a setup. Jesus hopes someone will ask what he means so he can switch the conversation to a new way of living as the family of God. Thomas takes the bait and Jesus sets the hook. Thomas says “we don’t know the way” which leads Jesus to the second fact, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is followed by the fact that no one comes to the Father except through him.
But there is always more to the facts than simply meets the eye. To be useful facts demand interpretation.
As we talk about the Father’s house we miss a very important part of the picture. When we look at the Father’s house image, we think of heaven, the final eternal reward, but this is not what Jesus means. Referring back to John 8:35, Jesus says “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” The Greek word the New International Version translates as “family” in 8:35 is translated in 14:2 as house. These editors understood that the house of God is the family of God and could have easily written “the Father’s family” instead of “the Father’s house.”
What this means to us is that where we know that a house has rooms; what we don’t so much get out of the translation is that Jesus was not talking about a physical location in the afterlife, he was talking this life and relationship with him and with the Father. This passage can be poorly interpreted to mean that in heaven there are more than enough rooms for each of us to have our own view of the beach and the mountains. What it means is that God has so much love that we are sons and daughters in the heavenly family. It means that God’s love is never ending and overflowing.
Jesus says that he is going there to prepare our place. Another way to say this is Jesus intercedes for us. The resurrection is often described as the lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world. This is how Jesus intercedes for us. This was the final earthly action preparing a place for us. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to take our place as children of God.
This revelation also points to the truth Jesus shares when he says I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Their relationship is so full and so glorious that while the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father, they are so close that they and their work are in complete harmony. This is the relationship Jesus came to show us. This is the relationship that we are called to share with him and with one another.
Looking at Jesus saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” he uses the ancient name of God and describes himself as God and then he says more. He begins with the way. This word literally means “the path” or “the road” not “the way we do things.” In a more literary way, it means a journey. We are called to take this life voyage as Jesus traveled it. We are to walk with his holy wise compassion. We are called to work to reconcile creation to God. Anything less is not the path God intends.
When we say he is “the truth,” we think of factual truth. This is right for as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. When Jesus says he is the truth he says he is reliable and he is faithful, which is much more than factually correct. When Jesus says he is the truth, he says he is truth personified as he is God personified. By him God’s truth is accessible to all. By him truth is the reality of the fully human fully divine Messiah.
When we say that he is the life, we say that he is life eternal. What is amazing is that while we will never know what it means to be fully divine, we won’t know what it means to be fully human either. Jesus is more human than we can hope to be. He lives in the way we cannot live without his real presence in our lives. He is the life that he wants us to live. He is the life that he shares. He is the life we are called to share.
Again, we know the facts of “the way, the truth, and the life,” but until we look at them in the light that shines beyond simple facts, we don’t know our Lord as well as God desires.
There is one more piece to this, when Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through me. Nineteen hundred years after these words were written we look at them through the eyes of our lives and our faith, not the lives of those who first heard them. We need to get past the facts we read in English and find their truth. That’s what makes this difficult to hear.
When we look at this phrase, we read it to mean that Jesus is the only way to God. When we read the passage this way what it means is that we’re right. We’re in church, we worship God, we’re right. We’re right and anyone who doesn’t agree with us is wrong. But that should never be our benchmark. The cornerstone of the church is not that we are right about anything. The foundation of our faith must always be God is right.
So those who heard this letter didn’t hear it the way we hear it today. What this meant when it was written is that the claims Jesus makes, the truth he tells, is the full expression of the complete revelation the authors of John’s gospel received. It was how they had experienced the Father and the Son, and what it means to be a member of the church. It means that they are no longer a part of the Jewish community. It means that they are no longer part of the gentile community either. It means that in the community of Christ where no one comes to the Father except through the Son.
Yes, this truth does establish boundaries. It says this is who we are and this is how we understand God. It says who we are. It doesn’t say a word about who anybody else is.
It says that through a man named Jesus of Nazareth God reveals his holy presence and the means to reconciliation with God the Father Almighty. It says that salvation comes through the Son. It says this is the particular truth that separates Christians from all other peoples. As for me, I say this is better than being right.
As for me, I say the truth of Jesus Christ is more than just the facts.
Six months ago I attended the PC(USA) transformation conference in Fort Worth Transforming Church
I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about our code here at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall , Texas
Many thoughts have gone through my head about our code. I have heard and I myself have said that this congregation is a family. With apologies to The Olive Garden, I find it true; when you’re here you are family. I have also heard us called “The Church of the Bells.” When folks ask me what church I pastor and I say “First Presbyterian” they usually have no idea which church I’m talking about. When I say “The Church of the Bells” you can see their eyes light up in recognition. Everybody knows “The Church of the Bells” and where it’s located. We also say we are a downtown church, not one on the fringe of town.
I am sure there are many others and I hope you will share your insights with me. At the Session meeting tonight I hope the Elders will add to this conversation that is so far in my head.
These are all bits and pieces of our code. But the problem with code is that it’s just facts, what they are not is the truth. Like DNA, code is the building block but it’s not the building. The truth is found when we use the code to seek the answers to questions like “What does it mean to be a part of the heavenly family?” “What is so important about ‘The Church of the Bells’?” “What does it mean to be a downtown church?” “What does it mean to us that we testify that no one comes to the Father except through the Son,” especially in a world with a new religion on every corner.
Our code helps us frame who we are, in Peter’s words a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. But the furniture is added only when we find what the code means as we trust in God and trust in Jesus so we may proclaim the mighty acts of God who calls us out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Knowing the code doesn’t matter until we do something with it to do God’s reconciling work.
Sergeant Joe Friday took just the facts. Each witness can testify only to what they saw. But it was Friday who took the facts and interpreted them to find the truth. He took “Just the facts” and made them into more. We have wonderful and glorious facts, but it isn’t until we seek the truth that they matter. This is our call, our vocation, and in this we grow in the faith of relationship with the Father and the Son.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Unforeseen Hope
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday May 23, 2010, Pentecost Sunday.
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
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 want to read those last two verses again, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
In John’s gospel, the disciples were promised someone who would be alongside them when the world prosecuted them and persecuted them. They were promised one who would serve as their advocate. As our reading from the Book of Acts begins, the disciples need an advocate.
As Acts begins, Jesus tells the apostles not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This, he said, is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This wait could not have been comfortable. Given the events of the Passover, they were marked men. The Romans knew this crew as rabble rousers. The temple leadership knew them as the worst kind of heretics. Yes, Jesus had returned to them, but he had ascended to the Father. He was gone again. He had promised to return again, but he gave them no estimated time of arrival.
They had received great promises. They had high hope. But the advocate was still a promise, not a reality; not to them, not yet. They may have had all of the hope in the world, but with the reality of living in Palestine at that very moment, they would have been foolish if they had not felt fear.
It was at this very moment, on the day of Pentecost, that they were assembled together in one place. It was at this very moment that from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
This must have been even more frightening. They knew to be leery of the princes of this world. They knew the Governor and the Tetrarch and the Prelate and the Sanhedrin had them in their sights, and now the violent winds rushed down on them. I was watching the Weather Channel on last week, and I saw what was happening in Norman and Oklahoma City. I saw Mike Bettis with the VORTEX2 storm chasers tracking down the big storms; but I can’t imagine what it’s like to see that live from the front porch.
We may be talking about this scripture and praising God for the glory of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but on that day, they were in the midst of a violent wind filling the house where they were sitting. We talk about joy, they experienced terror.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared on them. By this gift, the apostles were able to communicate with the Jews from every nation under heaven who were living in Jerusalem. The crowd gathered and they were bewildered. Nobody needed a translator anymore. Nobody needed to find a common tongue, not anymore. The apostles spoke to the masses in their own tongues, the curse of Babel was broken for a great shining moment. There was joy and glory was given to God.
The people asked what this meant. And they heard the response of the informed crowd. They’re drunk. Peter said that they weren’t drunk; after all it was only nine in the morning. Let’s remember, I grew up in Kansas City where the bars open at 6:00 am six days a week. I’ve seen drunks at nine in the morning. But none of them could quote the prophet Joel.
In the June 8, 2009 issue of the Presbyterian Outlook Magazine, Jack Haberer writes:
There is a new wind blowing through the sometimes musty halls of American Churches, and it is sweeping away the hypocrisy, lack of social concern, and unnecessary cultural baggage accumulated by the mainstream churches through the years. Thousands of people, young in spirit, are turning away from the anti-intellectuality of separatist fundamentalism and from mainstream ecumenical liberalism…[and to]…a vital, open, and truly revolutionary answer to Christ’s call to “go and teach all the nations.”[1]
The Good News is that these words come to us with a joy and determination to leave unproductive church-ianity in the wake of a spirit led revival. The bad news is that these words don’t come from a new missional group. They don’t come from the writings of the emerging church either. They come from the pen of Richard Quebedeaux and were written 35 years ago.[2] Asking “What happened,” Haberer pines “The young evangelicals [of the 1960’s and 70’s] grew older.”
We know the statistics; the church has lamented them for over fifty years. You’ve heard me quote these numbers from The Mainline Evangelism Project. In 1960, twenty-six million people were members of the seven mainline denominations. That comes to 14.4% of the population.
In 2000, the number of people who were members of the mainline churches fell to 21 million folks and the percentage of people who were members of these churches fell to 7.4% of Americans. The fall in the mainstream ranks is in raw numbers and even more so as a percent of the population. Our only consolation is that there is company in this misery; these numbers pertain to all of the mainline denominations.[3]
Haberer does not see us as hopeless though, he continues in the Outlook, “We all do well to re-read the gospels’ stories. The clarity of Jesus’ vision, the strength of his resolve, the power of his appeal, the cost of his summons to follow … such words and actions have stood the test of time. Let us all catch that vision together and refuse to let it fade.”[4]
To recapture the Spirit of Pentecost, we must again learn to speak so that those who will hear us will understand we have something to say. And what a thing we have to say. We believe that faith makes a difference in our lives.
As the apostles shared with the world on the day of Pentecost, we too are called to share. Our stories tell others about who we are and whose we are. We all have stories, but we only share in the Pentecost when we share the stories of our faith. We are called to know our stories, the stories that show others the difference a relationship with the triune God makes in our lives. And we must be able to communicate this story so that those with ears may hear.
We, we who carry the cross of Christ into the world must learn to speak so that the world may hear. The blessing of the Pentecost is the immediacy of the ability that the Galileans received to speak to the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, and so on. But going back to what I said earlier, about the decrease in members in the mainline Christian churches, we don’t need to speak to just Asians, Arabs, Egyptians, and Libyans belonging to Cyrene; we need to speak to our neighbors.
We can gain wisdom on this matter from ancient Celtic Christianity.[5] In 563 AD, about a century after the death of St. Patrick, Columba sought off to an island off of the western Scottish coast. This isle would be his base to reach the Picts of Scotland. Columba took a sizeable corps with him and they learned the culture of the Picts. They chose to pay the price to understand the Picts. Columba’s way of doing mission was the opposite of the model James Michener presented in his novel “Hawaii.” They learned about the people, their language, and their culture. They sent out teams from their island settlement—a little place called Iona—and in 100 years the Picts were significantly Christian.
The lessons we take from this is that there people close to us who do not know the Word of God. We need to learn about how they speak and show them the Gospel in words they understand. Peter and the Apostles did this miraculously; Columba and the Iona community did this diligently. We need to learn how to share the story of faith so that those with ears may be able to hear the word of God.
We talk about speaking in tongues, this gift of the Spirit being the one most accented during Pentecost, but where at Pentecost we talk about speaking in foreign tongues, we have to remember that there is an entire generation of people in America who don’t hear the word because we don’t speak their language. In this social networking world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, we need to learn how to take the message of God into the world in a new language, without compromising the cross of Christ.
So today, let us all regain the elemental presence of worship. We come to the font of many blessings overflowing with living water and remember our baptism. We come to the table with the cup and the plate to partake in the food that feeds our bodies and our souls. We hear the Word proclaimed and even more so, we come to know the Word Incarnate, the Son of God, the one who the Lord has set aside since before the creation, Jesus the Christ.
And today, especially today, we need to allow ourselves to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit so that as steel is forged in the furnace, we may be made strong for the Lord’s service. And we do this so that in the words of our Lord, “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” By this, our hope is anything but unforeseen.
[1] Haberer, Jack, The Presbyterian Outlook. Vol. 191-20, June 8/15, 2009, page 5.
[2] Haberer cites Quebedeaux, Richard, The Young Evangelicals: Evolution in Orthodoxy. H&R, 1975.
[3] Reese, Martha Grace, Unbinding the Gospel, 2nd edition. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008, page 25.
[4] Ibid, Haberer
[5] Hunter, George C. III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. Nashville: Abingdon, 2000, page 36.
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
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 want to read those last two verses again, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
In John’s gospel, the disciples were promised someone who would be alongside them when the world prosecuted them and persecuted them. They were promised one who would serve as their advocate. As our reading from the Book of Acts begins, the disciples need an advocate.
As Acts begins, Jesus tells the apostles not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This, he said, is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This wait could not have been comfortable. Given the events of the Passover, they were marked men. The Romans knew this crew as rabble rousers. The temple leadership knew them as the worst kind of heretics. Yes, Jesus had returned to them, but he had ascended to the Father. He was gone again. He had promised to return again, but he gave them no estimated time of arrival.
They had received great promises. They had high hope. But the advocate was still a promise, not a reality; not to them, not yet. They may have had all of the hope in the world, but with the reality of living in Palestine at that very moment, they would have been foolish if they had not felt fear.
It was at this very moment, on the day of Pentecost, that they were assembled together in one place. It was at this very moment that from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
This must have been even more frightening. They knew to be leery of the princes of this world. They knew the Governor and the Tetrarch and the Prelate and the Sanhedrin had them in their sights, and now the violent winds rushed down on them. I was watching the Weather Channel on last week, and I saw what was happening in Norman and Oklahoma City. I saw Mike Bettis with the VORTEX2 storm chasers tracking down the big storms; but I can’t imagine what it’s like to see that live from the front porch.
We may be talking about this scripture and praising God for the glory of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but on that day, they were in the midst of a violent wind filling the house where they were sitting. We talk about joy, they experienced terror.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared on them. By this gift, the apostles were able to communicate with the Jews from every nation under heaven who were living in Jerusalem. The crowd gathered and they were bewildered. Nobody needed a translator anymore. Nobody needed to find a common tongue, not anymore. The apostles spoke to the masses in their own tongues, the curse of Babel was broken for a great shining moment. There was joy and glory was given to God.
The people asked what this meant. And they heard the response of the informed crowd. They’re drunk. Peter said that they weren’t drunk; after all it was only nine in the morning. Let’s remember, I grew up in Kansas City where the bars open at 6:00 am six days a week. I’ve seen drunks at nine in the morning. But none of them could quote the prophet Joel.
In the June 8, 2009 issue of the Presbyterian Outlook Magazine, Jack Haberer writes:
There is a new wind blowing through the sometimes musty halls of American Churches, and it is sweeping away the hypocrisy, lack of social concern, and unnecessary cultural baggage accumulated by the mainstream churches through the years. Thousands of people, young in spirit, are turning away from the anti-intellectuality of separatist fundamentalism and from mainstream ecumenical liberalism…[and to]…a vital, open, and truly revolutionary answer to Christ’s call to “go and teach all the nations.”[1]
The Good News is that these words come to us with a joy and determination to leave unproductive church-ianity in the wake of a spirit led revival. The bad news is that these words don’t come from a new missional group. They don’t come from the writings of the emerging church either. They come from the pen of Richard Quebedeaux and were written 35 years ago.[2] Asking “What happened,” Haberer pines “The young evangelicals [of the 1960’s and 70’s] grew older.”
We know the statistics; the church has lamented them for over fifty years. You’ve heard me quote these numbers from The Mainline Evangelism Project. In 1960, twenty-six million people were members of the seven mainline denominations. That comes to 14.4% of the population.
In 2000, the number of people who were members of the mainline churches fell to 21 million folks and the percentage of people who were members of these churches fell to 7.4% of Americans. The fall in the mainstream ranks is in raw numbers and even more so as a percent of the population. Our only consolation is that there is company in this misery; these numbers pertain to all of the mainline denominations.[3]
Haberer does not see us as hopeless though, he continues in the Outlook, “We all do well to re-read the gospels’ stories. The clarity of Jesus’ vision, the strength of his resolve, the power of his appeal, the cost of his summons to follow … such words and actions have stood the test of time. Let us all catch that vision together and refuse to let it fade.”[4]
To recapture the Spirit of Pentecost, we must again learn to speak so that those who will hear us will understand we have something to say. And what a thing we have to say. We believe that faith makes a difference in our lives.
As the apostles shared with the world on the day of Pentecost, we too are called to share. Our stories tell others about who we are and whose we are. We all have stories, but we only share in the Pentecost when we share the stories of our faith. We are called to know our stories, the stories that show others the difference a relationship with the triune God makes in our lives. And we must be able to communicate this story so that those with ears may hear.
We, we who carry the cross of Christ into the world must learn to speak so that the world may hear. The blessing of the Pentecost is the immediacy of the ability that the Galileans received to speak to the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, and so on. But going back to what I said earlier, about the decrease in members in the mainline Christian churches, we don’t need to speak to just Asians, Arabs, Egyptians, and Libyans belonging to Cyrene; we need to speak to our neighbors.
We can gain wisdom on this matter from ancient Celtic Christianity.[5] In 563 AD, about a century after the death of St. Patrick, Columba sought off to an island off of the western Scottish coast. This isle would be his base to reach the Picts of Scotland. Columba took a sizeable corps with him and they learned the culture of the Picts. They chose to pay the price to understand the Picts. Columba’s way of doing mission was the opposite of the model James Michener presented in his novel “Hawaii.” They learned about the people, their language, and their culture. They sent out teams from their island settlement—a little place called Iona—and in 100 years the Picts were significantly Christian.
The lessons we take from this is that there people close to us who do not know the Word of God. We need to learn about how they speak and show them the Gospel in words they understand. Peter and the Apostles did this miraculously; Columba and the Iona community did this diligently. We need to learn how to share the story of faith so that those with ears may be able to hear the word of God.
We talk about speaking in tongues, this gift of the Spirit being the one most accented during Pentecost, but where at Pentecost we talk about speaking in foreign tongues, we have to remember that there is an entire generation of people in America who don’t hear the word because we don’t speak their language. In this social networking world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, we need to learn how to take the message of God into the world in a new language, without compromising the cross of Christ.
So today, let us all regain the elemental presence of worship. We come to the font of many blessings overflowing with living water and remember our baptism. We come to the table with the cup and the plate to partake in the food that feeds our bodies and our souls. We hear the Word proclaimed and even more so, we come to know the Word Incarnate, the Son of God, the one who the Lord has set aside since before the creation, Jesus the Christ.
And today, especially today, we need to allow ourselves to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit so that as steel is forged in the furnace, we may be made strong for the Lord’s service. And we do this so that in the words of our Lord, “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” By this, our hope is anything but unforeseen.
[1] Haberer, Jack, The Presbyterian Outlook. Vol. 191-20, June 8/15, 2009, page 5.
[2] Haberer cites Quebedeaux, Richard, The Young Evangelicals: Evolution in Orthodoxy. H&R, 1975.
[3] Reese, Martha Grace, Unbinding the Gospel, 2nd edition. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008, page 25.
[4] Ibid, Haberer
[5] Hunter, George C. III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. Nashville: Abingdon, 2000, page 36.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Election Day
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday April 27, 2008, the 6th Sunday in Easter.
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The last thing I have to tell any of us is that Election Day is coming closer every day. I wish I could tell you, I would love to tell you all it’s just around the corner, but that would be a lie. After nearly a year and a half of candidates, debates, and scandal-gates, we will be celebrating the democratic process for nearly 30 more weeks. In the end of the process, voters will be responsible for electing candidates for city, county, district, state, and national office. As we learned in the 2000 election this isn’t quite true for the Presidency, but this is no place to try to explain the Electoral College.
The concept of election also has theological roots, far different from those of the political realm. Of course, theologians can’t agree on precisely what “election” means. One ancient understanding of this concept is that the Lord preordains some persons to be saved and others to be condemned. This is called “double predestination.” While this understanding of election has historical legs, it is not right.
After all, as we know, the Lord is the Lord of life, not the Lord of death. It is outside of the character of God to create life only to have it sentenced to eternal death. Remember, in the words of John’s gospel as Jesus promises his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
This isn’t the issue Paul was running into when he brought the Good News to Athens. He was teaching the truth of life eternal in Jesus Christ in the Synagogue and in the market place, where ever people would listen.
When Paul reached Athens with the Gospel, the people were intrigued. Receiving new philosophies wasn’t new to the Athenians; they loved new ideas and new philosophies. Still, while the Good News Paul shared with them was new and strange; but the Athenians weren’t sure about something this new and strange.
So Paul began by acknowledging the spirituality of the Greeks; and the Greeks of the day were a highly spiritual, very religious people. The Greeks of that day would have no trouble living in our world with its many religions, pseudo-religions, and new age philosophies. In fact, while they didn’t invent new age religion, they could easily have laid the groundwork for its current incarnation.
The Greeks were so spiritual, and so (if you’ll pardon the expression) politically correct that they would erect shrines to Gods they didn’t know existed in the off chance that if an unknown God showed up; he she or whatever would not be offended. Imagine the ancient goat god Baal showing up in Athens asking where his statue is and being told “It’s over here; you must be ‘other.’”
Paul used the Athenian anticipation of the unknown to share with them what they did not know. Paul told them of the God who made the world and everything in it. He told them of the God who breathed life into creation. He told them of the God who created life so that the living would search for its creator just as they do.
He told them of the God who created the world, so we do not need to create shrines where God can live; God lives everywhere. We shouldn’t even think of God like the idols and altars forged of gold, or silver, or stone; or of any other sort of image forged by our imaginations.
He told of God who is not served by human hands as though he needed human hands to serve him. He told of the God who freely creates out of love for creation wanting nothing more and nothing less than for creation to seek God; not because God needs it, but because God wants it. God wants a relationship with creation and has freely given all of creation the yearning to join in the life eternal.
What God wants is for creation to repent from the ancient ways and, to turn to new life because this God “has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
So if God doesn’t want us to build him shrines or altars, if God doesn’t want little houses like Peter wanted to build at the transfiguration, what does God want?
God wants us to repent. And in Jesus Christ, repentance is no longer marked by returning to the ways of the law; it is in developing a relationship with the one who created the Law, the one who is the embodiment of the Law.[1]
In our reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples how he wants to be worshiped; he tells them how to love him. Jesus tells them “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” But if we are to live for the one who wrote the law, not for the law itself, what does it mean to keep his commandments?
We are called to respond to the Word of God in faith, not in fear. We are to respond to a relationship with a living being, the Living God; not out of fear of reprisal from statues we could never hope to keep.
“For both Paul and John repentance is included in faith. Paul speaks of faith as union with Christ; the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation. The Johannine literature presents the life in Christ as rebirth; movement from death to life and from darkness to light; or as the triumph of truth over falsehood, love over hatred, God over the world.”[2]
And God so knows that we need help to strengthen our faith that he will send an advocate, a counselor, a helper so that we may keep Jesus’ commandments. Through Jesus, God sends the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Life who helps us to keep the faith. It is through the work of the Spirit and faith in the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, that we live. Because God lives, we live and on that day, that day of judgment and redemption, we will know that Jesus is in the Father and being in Jesus, Jesus is in us.
One of the great truths of the church which came from the reformation is that we are saved by grace through faith. Last week, I spoke of the radical nature of grace. Grace is the freely given gift of unmerited favor. We can do nothing to earn grace. We can’t buy it with cash, our good acts or even our repentance. Last week I said:
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it.[3]
We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is God’s freely given gift. But without our response to this gift, it is worthless. Unless we live in relationship with the Lord, sharing the grace and peace of Jesus, unless we keep his command to love and share—grace is wasted on us.
In Acts Paul teaches us that our response comes in repentance through faith. We are called to turn from the old ways and (in the case of the Athenians) many Gods to the one true God.
America’s Election Day is coming soon, November 11, 2008. In Acts, Paul promises the Athenians that God has fixed a day when the world will be judged. On our election day, we, citizens, voters will judge the quality of the candidates and elect the ones who will govern us. According to Acts, God will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. That man is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has been elected by his Father.
We talk about human election and predestination when in truth the one who is elect is our Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can claim this status. But through his work, and the presence of his Spirit, by grace through faith we share a bond, a love, a relationship with the triune God.
Jesus promises us as individuals and together as the body of Christ that he is coming; he will not leave us orphaned. This is not because Jesus needs us but because Jesus wants us. We are given the gift of grace so that we may respond in faith and love through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how we keep his commandments.
Last week’s reading from John’s gospel began, “In my father’s house there is room for everyone,”[4] through faith, we enter the household of God for the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation.[5]
[1] Repentance, “The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Buttirck, Editor. 21st Printing, Electronic Edition, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1962
[2] Ibid.
[3] Stories of Life, http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2008/04/stories-of-life.html, retrieved April 26, 2008.
[4] New Living Translation
[5] Ibid, Repentence.
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The last thing I have to tell any of us is that Election Day is coming closer every day. I wish I could tell you, I would love to tell you all it’s just around the corner, but that would be a lie. After nearly a year and a half of candidates, debates, and scandal-gates, we will be celebrating the democratic process for nearly 30 more weeks. In the end of the process, voters will be responsible for electing candidates for city, county, district, state, and national office. As we learned in the 2000 election this isn’t quite true for the Presidency, but this is no place to try to explain the Electoral College.
The concept of election also has theological roots, far different from those of the political realm. Of course, theologians can’t agree on precisely what “election” means. One ancient understanding of this concept is that the Lord preordains some persons to be saved and others to be condemned. This is called “double predestination.” While this understanding of election has historical legs, it is not right.
After all, as we know, the Lord is the Lord of life, not the Lord of death. It is outside of the character of God to create life only to have it sentenced to eternal death. Remember, in the words of John’s gospel as Jesus promises his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
This isn’t the issue Paul was running into when he brought the Good News to Athens. He was teaching the truth of life eternal in Jesus Christ in the Synagogue and in the market place, where ever people would listen.
When Paul reached Athens with the Gospel, the people were intrigued. Receiving new philosophies wasn’t new to the Athenians; they loved new ideas and new philosophies. Still, while the Good News Paul shared with them was new and strange; but the Athenians weren’t sure about something this new and strange.
So Paul began by acknowledging the spirituality of the Greeks; and the Greeks of the day were a highly spiritual, very religious people. The Greeks of that day would have no trouble living in our world with its many religions, pseudo-religions, and new age philosophies. In fact, while they didn’t invent new age religion, they could easily have laid the groundwork for its current incarnation.
The Greeks were so spiritual, and so (if you’ll pardon the expression) politically correct that they would erect shrines to Gods they didn’t know existed in the off chance that if an unknown God showed up; he she or whatever would not be offended. Imagine the ancient goat god Baal showing up in Athens asking where his statue is and being told “It’s over here; you must be ‘other.’”
Paul used the Athenian anticipation of the unknown to share with them what they did not know. Paul told them of the God who made the world and everything in it. He told them of the God who breathed life into creation. He told them of the God who created life so that the living would search for its creator just as they do.
He told them of the God who created the world, so we do not need to create shrines where God can live; God lives everywhere. We shouldn’t even think of God like the idols and altars forged of gold, or silver, or stone; or of any other sort of image forged by our imaginations.
He told of God who is not served by human hands as though he needed human hands to serve him. He told of the God who freely creates out of love for creation wanting nothing more and nothing less than for creation to seek God; not because God needs it, but because God wants it. God wants a relationship with creation and has freely given all of creation the yearning to join in the life eternal.
What God wants is for creation to repent from the ancient ways and, to turn to new life because this God “has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
So if God doesn’t want us to build him shrines or altars, if God doesn’t want little houses like Peter wanted to build at the transfiguration, what does God want?
God wants us to repent. And in Jesus Christ, repentance is no longer marked by returning to the ways of the law; it is in developing a relationship with the one who created the Law, the one who is the embodiment of the Law.[1]
In our reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples how he wants to be worshiped; he tells them how to love him. Jesus tells them “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” But if we are to live for the one who wrote the law, not for the law itself, what does it mean to keep his commandments?
We are called to respond to the Word of God in faith, not in fear. We are to respond to a relationship with a living being, the Living God; not out of fear of reprisal from statues we could never hope to keep.
“For both Paul and John repentance is included in faith. Paul speaks of faith as union with Christ; the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation. The Johannine literature presents the life in Christ as rebirth; movement from death to life and from darkness to light; or as the triumph of truth over falsehood, love over hatred, God over the world.”[2]
And God so knows that we need help to strengthen our faith that he will send an advocate, a counselor, a helper so that we may keep Jesus’ commandments. Through Jesus, God sends the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Life who helps us to keep the faith. It is through the work of the Spirit and faith in the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, that we live. Because God lives, we live and on that day, that day of judgment and redemption, we will know that Jesus is in the Father and being in Jesus, Jesus is in us.
One of the great truths of the church which came from the reformation is that we are saved by grace through faith. Last week, I spoke of the radical nature of grace. Grace is the freely given gift of unmerited favor. We can do nothing to earn grace. We can’t buy it with cash, our good acts or even our repentance. Last week I said:
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it.[3]
We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is God’s freely given gift. But without our response to this gift, it is worthless. Unless we live in relationship with the Lord, sharing the grace and peace of Jesus, unless we keep his command to love and share—grace is wasted on us.
In Acts Paul teaches us that our response comes in repentance through faith. We are called to turn from the old ways and (in the case of the Athenians) many Gods to the one true God.
America’s Election Day is coming soon, November 11, 2008. In Acts, Paul promises the Athenians that God has fixed a day when the world will be judged. On our election day, we, citizens, voters will judge the quality of the candidates and elect the ones who will govern us. According to Acts, God will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. That man is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has been elected by his Father.
We talk about human election and predestination when in truth the one who is elect is our Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can claim this status. But through his work, and the presence of his Spirit, by grace through faith we share a bond, a love, a relationship with the triune God.
Jesus promises us as individuals and together as the body of Christ that he is coming; he will not leave us orphaned. This is not because Jesus needs us but because Jesus wants us. We are given the gift of grace so that we may respond in faith and love through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how we keep his commandments.
Last week’s reading from John’s gospel began, “In my father’s house there is room for everyone,”[4] through faith, we enter the household of God for the death of the old nature, the putting on of the new humanity, resurrection to newness of life, and new creation.[5]
[1] Repentance, “The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.” Buttirck, Editor. 21st Printing, Electronic Edition, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1962
[2] Ibid.
[3] Stories of Life, http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2008/04/stories-of-life.html, retrieved April 26, 2008.
[4] New Living Translation
[5] Ibid, Repentence.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Stories of Life
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on sunday April 20, 2008, the 5th Sunday of Easter.
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Stories have been one of the great mediums of history. From the ancient Greeks and the fables of Aesop, the epic poetry of Homer, and the tragedies of Sophocles; ancient history has been filled with those who would entertain and teach through stories. In modern times, this still exists but in new media including print, celluloid, video, and digital formats. One of the most delicious connections between the ancient and modern is the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the Coen Brother’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
Our readings from Acts and John are wonderful narratives, stories about the early church. But to get a more complete picture of our reading from Acts, it is important to review the beginning of the story.
At the end of Acts 6, Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council of Elders. According to the scripture, “[The Council] set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” The High Priest asks Stephen if this is true and Stephen begins to testify.
Stephen begins by telling the story of Abraham, the story of the beginnings of the nation of Israel. He reminds the Council of the covenant between Abraham and the Lord. He tells them of the patriarchs, the sons of Abraham who would be the fathers of the twelve tribes. He told of selling Joseph into slavery and his ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand over all of Egypt.
Stephen reminded them of Moses being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians. He told of Moses fleeing into the land of Midian. He tells the council of how Moses received the Lord’s commission, and how he led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land receiving the Law.
Stephen told of the people’s disobedience in the desert. He called them a stiff-necked people, a people who could not be turned from their own ill devices even when yoked like oxen. Stephen told the Council of Elders the story of their very own salvation. He told them the story of their life together as the people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He testified to the many great victories of the Lord the council represents and protects from the scandal of Jesus.
You’ve got to imagine they were quite pleased with themselves. The rebel rouser Stephen is capitulating to the pressure of the superior authority of the council. They would have his apology before they passed their judgment against him and his heresy, the lies he spoke.
As the Sanhedrin heard the story they loved to hear, today we hear the story we love to hear; the story of the Father’s house, the story of the way, the truth, and the life. These are the stories of our lives, of our salvation, and of the one who provides it for us through his life, his work, his death, and his victory over death. Through this, Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
One of the great promises people hold onto from these verses is that “in the Father’s house there are many rooms.” One of the times I heard this scripture was at the funeral of a friend named Phillip Berg,[1] a funeral held twenty-three years ago today. The minister told us all that Phil had gone to help prepare the room promised for all of us in heaven. The minister told this story as if Phil had gone on to be a carpenter’s assistant in the Kingdom so that we could have nice digs when it came our time to move in. In his death he was going to help prepare a place for our death.
But you know, our God is the Lord of life, not death.
In a way, I prefer the New Living Translation’s interpretation of this verse. It says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”
To the ancient Jews, the Father’s house was not a physical structure; it’s the Father’s family. Jesus is telling all who will hear that his Father has more than enough room for everyone in his family. The beloved Son shares the truth of his Father’s love, there is room enough for everyone in the family of God.
Jesus is able to welcome all of us into the Father’s house because he has made the way for us. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
As Jesus tells his disciples no one comes to the Father except through him, he is telling them, the church, and the world that through his work, through his way, through his life, death, and resurrection, he opens the way so that we may all come to the Father.
Often when the church reads this verse, it is read with a twinge of exclusivity. It is read “when we accept that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, we are welcomed into the Father’s house.” It focuses on what we do to accept grace. This reading is flawed. Instead of focusing on what we have to do to take a gift, we must first focus on the gift, on what Jesus has freely given, the gift of grace.
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it. Jesus tells us that he is the way before we ever knew that such a way existed, much less before we knew we needed it. The gift of grace was given to us before we could ever think to ask for it.
We cannot initiate the motion the Father started long before our creation. It is impossible to accept what we have all ready been given. What we must do is respond to the gift of grace and the one who freely gives it. One of the ways we do this is to be the church, the body of Christ in the world sharing the good news of our Lord with a world that doesn’t necessarily want to hear it.
Recognizing the gift we have received, we are called to respond to this great gift of grace and peace offered freely from the darkness of the manger, the waters of the Jordan, the plate and cup of the upper room, the foot of the cross, and here today.
Stephen then told the council, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
He had gone from telling the story they wanted to hear, the story they are familiar with, the story of their salvation, to telling them that they had betrayed and murdered the one they had been sent to recognize and worship. The council had gone from hearing the story of their life to hearing a story of their death; and they were not amused. Scripture says they ground their teeth.
This is when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the same images Jesus saw at his baptism, he saw the glory of God. And he also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. After being dragged outside, they began to stone him. Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoing the words Jesus spoke on the cross before he declared it finished and surrendered his soul.
Stephen responded. He spoke the words of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He testifies that the Scribes, the Pharisees, and all of the Council were the ones who killed the one sent to save them. This is not the story of Stephen’s death but of his life. I
t is the story that shows that there is room in the Father’s family for one and all. And in response to this promise, Stephen was faithful, faithful even unto death. The same way the Messiah, his Lord and ours, was faithful, faithful even unto death.
Yes, this faithfulness can lead to our death, but as the story of Stephen shows, this story of martyrdom is not a story of death, but a story of life. He lived the life eternal while on earth and, as testified by his vision shared in scripture, he continues to live life eternal.
It is through these stories of life, the life eternal lived by Stephen, the resurrected life of Jesus the Christ, the life lived in the Father’s house, that Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
In the Father’s house, the family of God and the body of Christ we come to know through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured; that we are given the free gift of life so that when our hearts are troubled, we can trust him completely as the way, the truth, and the life.
[1] Phillip A. Berg died in Emporia, Kansas on April 17, 1985 at the age of 19 and was buried in Neodesha, Kansas three days later. He died of an aortic aneurism, a complication of Marfan syndrome, a bone elongation disease. When he died he was 7’ 1” tall (2.16 meters) and weighed about 125 pounds (56.7 kilos). He was a fraternity brother, one of my pledge sons, and a great friend.
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Stories have been one of the great mediums of history. From the ancient Greeks and the fables of Aesop, the epic poetry of Homer, and the tragedies of Sophocles; ancient history has been filled with those who would entertain and teach through stories. In modern times, this still exists but in new media including print, celluloid, video, and digital formats. One of the most delicious connections between the ancient and modern is the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the Coen Brother’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
Our readings from Acts and John are wonderful narratives, stories about the early church. But to get a more complete picture of our reading from Acts, it is important to review the beginning of the story.
At the end of Acts 6, Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council of Elders. According to the scripture, “[The Council] set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” The High Priest asks Stephen if this is true and Stephen begins to testify.
Stephen begins by telling the story of Abraham, the story of the beginnings of the nation of Israel. He reminds the Council of the covenant between Abraham and the Lord. He tells them of the patriarchs, the sons of Abraham who would be the fathers of the twelve tribes. He told of selling Joseph into slavery and his ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand over all of Egypt.
Stephen reminded them of Moses being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians. He told of Moses fleeing into the land of Midian. He tells the council of how Moses received the Lord’s commission, and how he led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land receiving the Law.
Stephen told of the people’s disobedience in the desert. He called them a stiff-necked people, a people who could not be turned from their own ill devices even when yoked like oxen. Stephen told the Council of Elders the story of their very own salvation. He told them the story of their life together as the people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He testified to the many great victories of the Lord the council represents and protects from the scandal of Jesus.
You’ve got to imagine they were quite pleased with themselves. The rebel rouser Stephen is capitulating to the pressure of the superior authority of the council. They would have his apology before they passed their judgment against him and his heresy, the lies he spoke.
As the Sanhedrin heard the story they loved to hear, today we hear the story we love to hear; the story of the Father’s house, the story of the way, the truth, and the life. These are the stories of our lives, of our salvation, and of the one who provides it for us through his life, his work, his death, and his victory over death. Through this, Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
One of the great promises people hold onto from these verses is that “in the Father’s house there are many rooms.” One of the times I heard this scripture was at the funeral of a friend named Phillip Berg,[1] a funeral held twenty-three years ago today. The minister told us all that Phil had gone to help prepare the room promised for all of us in heaven. The minister told this story as if Phil had gone on to be a carpenter’s assistant in the Kingdom so that we could have nice digs when it came our time to move in. In his death he was going to help prepare a place for our death.
But you know, our God is the Lord of life, not death.
In a way, I prefer the New Living Translation’s interpretation of this verse. It says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”
To the ancient Jews, the Father’s house was not a physical structure; it’s the Father’s family. Jesus is telling all who will hear that his Father has more than enough room for everyone in his family. The beloved Son shares the truth of his Father’s love, there is room enough for everyone in the family of God.
Jesus is able to welcome all of us into the Father’s house because he has made the way for us. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
As Jesus tells his disciples no one comes to the Father except through him, he is telling them, the church, and the world that through his work, through his way, through his life, death, and resurrection, he opens the way so that we may all come to the Father.
Often when the church reads this verse, it is read with a twinge of exclusivity. It is read “when we accept that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, we are welcomed into the Father’s house.” It focuses on what we do to accept grace. This reading is flawed. Instead of focusing on what we have to do to take a gift, we must first focus on the gift, on what Jesus has freely given, the gift of grace.
Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.
There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it. Jesus tells us that he is the way before we ever knew that such a way existed, much less before we knew we needed it. The gift of grace was given to us before we could ever think to ask for it.
We cannot initiate the motion the Father started long before our creation. It is impossible to accept what we have all ready been given. What we must do is respond to the gift of grace and the one who freely gives it. One of the ways we do this is to be the church, the body of Christ in the world sharing the good news of our Lord with a world that doesn’t necessarily want to hear it.
Recognizing the gift we have received, we are called to respond to this great gift of grace and peace offered freely from the darkness of the manger, the waters of the Jordan, the plate and cup of the upper room, the foot of the cross, and here today.
Stephen then told the council, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
He had gone from telling the story they wanted to hear, the story they are familiar with, the story of their salvation, to telling them that they had betrayed and murdered the one they had been sent to recognize and worship. The council had gone from hearing the story of their life to hearing a story of their death; and they were not amused. Scripture says they ground their teeth.
This is when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the same images Jesus saw at his baptism, he saw the glory of God. And he also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. After being dragged outside, they began to stone him. Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoing the words Jesus spoke on the cross before he declared it finished and surrendered his soul.
Stephen responded. He spoke the words of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He testifies that the Scribes, the Pharisees, and all of the Council were the ones who killed the one sent to save them. This is not the story of Stephen’s death but of his life. I
t is the story that shows that there is room in the Father’s family for one and all. And in response to this promise, Stephen was faithful, faithful even unto death. The same way the Messiah, his Lord and ours, was faithful, faithful even unto death.
Yes, this faithfulness can lead to our death, but as the story of Stephen shows, this story of martyrdom is not a story of death, but a story of life. He lived the life eternal while on earth and, as testified by his vision shared in scripture, he continues to live life eternal.
It is through these stories of life, the life eternal lived by Stephen, the resurrected life of Jesus the Christ, the life lived in the Father’s house, that Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”
In the Father’s house, the family of God and the body of Christ we come to know through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured; that we are given the free gift of life so that when our hearts are troubled, we can trust him completely as the way, the truth, and the life.
[1] Phillip A. Berg died in Emporia, Kansas on April 17, 1985 at the age of 19 and was buried in Neodesha, Kansas three days later. He died of an aortic aneurism, a complication of Marfan syndrome, a bone elongation disease. When he died he was 7’ 1” tall (2.16 meters) and weighed about 125 pounds (56.7 kilos). He was a fraternity brother, one of my pledge sons, and a great friend.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Once More
This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007.
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
When coming to church, everyone comes with some basic assumptions about what’s going to happen. Some of this is based on how we are raised in the church. Some folks prefer to worship using the smells and bells of a defined liturgy. Some prefer a looser, more open form of worship. Some of this is based on particularly where we are. You would expect something different in a Presbyterian Church than in a Roman Catholic Church than in an African Methodist Episcopal Church than in a Greek Orthodox Church. Some of the differences are very important, after all, theology matters. Some of them are more cosmetic; is there an organ, piano, guitar, band, or a full orchestra?
When it comes to the Word of God, these words from the Presbyterian Church’s Directory for Worship are authoritative for how scripture is to be used in a Presbyterian worship service: “The Scriptures shall be read and proclaimed. Lessons should be read from both Testaments. Scripture shall be interpreted in a sermon or other form of exposition.”[1] As required by the PC (U.S.A.) Book of Order, we do all of the “shall’s.” Scriptures are read and proclaimed and then are usually interpreted in a sermon. Twice this year, Christmas Eve and Good Friday, the Word has been interpreted in worship without using a sermon. As for the “should” in the passage, lessons from both testaments are read in every regular Sunday worship service.
The Directory for Worship also gives some direction about the proclamation of the word. It says, “The preached Word or sermon is to be based upon the written Word. It is a proclamation of Scripture in the conviction that through the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ is present to the gathered people, offering grace and calling for obedience. Preaching requires diligence and discernment in the study of Scripture, the discipline of daily prayer, cultivated sensitivity to events and issues affecting the lives of the people, and a consistent and personal obedience to Jesus Christ. The sermon should present the gospel with simplicity and clarity, in language which can be understood by the people.”[2]
All right, we have covered the formal expectations of worship, the word, and the proclamation of the Good News. But it would be wrong not to be pastorally sensitive to the informal expectations we have for worship and the proclamation of the word. After two years and around one hundred worship services, these are some of the informal expectations I have noticed. For one, we are to be done in one hour, give or take five minutes. For the times when worship lasts longer than that, there should either be a very good reason, like baptism or welcoming new members into the congregation. We should sing good songs. This one is a little difficult because what’s good for some is not for others. At the very least, we should usually sing from songs we know. Frankly, we have a pretty expansive repertoire, this can be done without becoming boring. (So I would like to apologize now for today’s song selections. In today’s service the only songs most of us are familiar with are the Gloria and the Doxology.) Another informal rule is that the sermon should be interesting. Enlightening is one thing, but if the sermon is as dull as dishwater, who’s going to pay attention long enough to be enlightened? Finally, holidays are special and should be treated that way. So, did you notice the paraments are red today in honor of Pentecost? And Ken and Lee Ellen have done a wonderful job of preparing the Fellowship Hall for Memorial Day.
I have nothing against these rules, both the formal and the informal ones. I try to play by them, or have good reason for not. They have good reasons for existing. They are a part of the culture and climate of the congregation. This is fine. It’s just that I am about to violate the rule about interesting sermons, and at Pentecost on Memorial Day weekend, my sin is a double-whammy. Throw in the song scandal and if we don’t finish in an hour my shame will be complete.
Maybe my problem has been with John’s gospel and our lectionary readings. On April 20th, seven weeks ago, we talked about “John’s Pentecost.”[3] The twentieth chapter of John describes Jesus giving the apostles the Holy Spirit: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”[4] This event happens during Jesus’ first appearance to the apostles after the resurrection. Our gospel reading seems kind of anticlimactic. It’s like we are getting this lesson once more.
For that matter, in last week’s tongue twister extraordinaire we considered the glory of the Father and the Son with enough grammatical twists and turns to impress an Olympic gymnast. So this week it’s once more, this time with feeling.
But then again, the whole second part of our gospel reading seems to conjure up the notion of “once more.” Jesus tells his apostles, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” With all that is said about the Holy Spirit, in scripture, in books, in magazines, in commentaries, in sermons, John tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything and remind us of what he has said to us. Instead of the powerful mysterious mystical spirit, this reading makes the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune God seem look like a bad high school history teacher.
Considering John’s gospel is often called the “Gospel of the Spirit,”[5] this reading is a dud. For John’s gospel, the appearance, the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit is old news because it doesn’t happen fifty days after Easter, but on Easter.[6] But because of our gospel reading schedule, we celebrate this once more.
So how’s that for a holiday? Repeats. It’s like going to Thanksgiving dinner and getting turkey leftovers.
But as I fought and wrangled with today’s reading, I fell in love with two verses, the last two. The first of these we have all read looked at, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Again, this seems like a repeat. But then we consider what follows as Jesus offers this benediction, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Counselor, the Helper, is here to remind us that the peace of the Lord has been left with us and continues to be with us, now and forever, a peace which comforts our troubled, fearful hearts.
It’s easy to focus on the middle verses from our reading, where Jesus promises that those who believe in him will do great works. If we ask in his name, whatever we ask will be done so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. These verses have been used to create a picture of Jesus that is more suited to a picture of Santa Claus. But in the purpose of the Spirit is not to be a credit card from the Lord, it is to remind us of the continued peace of Jesus. So it is when our prayers are in accord with his peace, a peace the Spirit reminds us and teaches us, that our prayers, the prayers which Christ would pray, will be answered.
Philip wants Jesus to show him and the rest of the apostles the Father. If Jesus will do this, they will be satisfied. I am flabbergasted, to me that would be amazing but Philip says it’s enough. Now that’s a tough crowd. Instead, Jesus offers Philip his peace, the peace of knowing that in seeing Jesus he has all ready seen the Father.
To me, this has been a tough passage. So much of it we have seen before, so much of it we have seen recently. Yet, when the Spirit comes, and Jesus tells us that the presence of the Spirit is here to remind us. We are constantly reminded of the holy and redemptive presence of God. By our Confession of Sin not only are we reminded of our human nature, more importantly we are reminded of God’s graceful and grace filled nature. We are reminded that we can never be separated from God because of the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are reminded that we have done nothing to earn such a wonderful gift because that is the nature of a gift, it must be given because we can never earn it.
We are told this joyfully by our Lord Jesus Christ, on the day of his resurrection, and we are reminded of it once more fifty days later as we celebrate Pentecost. So now with no further ado, I’ll say it once more; we are saved by grace through faith and reminded constantly through the living power of God the Holy Spirit just as it was always intended to be.
[1] PC (USA) Book of Order, Directory for Worship, W-3.3101(1), What Is Included, Scripture
[2] Ibid. W-2.2007, Preaching the Word
[3] For a copy of this message, read “Blowin’ in the Wind,” http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2007/04/blowin-in-wind.html
[4] John 20:21-22
[5] 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 348.
[6] Ibid.
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17, 25-27
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
When coming to church, everyone comes with some basic assumptions about what’s going to happen. Some of this is based on how we are raised in the church. Some folks prefer to worship using the smells and bells of a defined liturgy. Some prefer a looser, more open form of worship. Some of this is based on particularly where we are. You would expect something different in a Presbyterian Church than in a Roman Catholic Church than in an African Methodist Episcopal Church than in a Greek Orthodox Church. Some of the differences are very important, after all, theology matters. Some of them are more cosmetic; is there an organ, piano, guitar, band, or a full orchestra?
When it comes to the Word of God, these words from the Presbyterian Church’s Directory for Worship are authoritative for how scripture is to be used in a Presbyterian worship service: “The Scriptures shall be read and proclaimed. Lessons should be read from both Testaments. Scripture shall be interpreted in a sermon or other form of exposition.”[1] As required by the PC (U.S.A.) Book of Order, we do all of the “shall’s.” Scriptures are read and proclaimed and then are usually interpreted in a sermon. Twice this year, Christmas Eve and Good Friday, the Word has been interpreted in worship without using a sermon. As for the “should” in the passage, lessons from both testaments are read in every regular Sunday worship service.
The Directory for Worship also gives some direction about the proclamation of the word. It says, “The preached Word or sermon is to be based upon the written Word. It is a proclamation of Scripture in the conviction that through the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ is present to the gathered people, offering grace and calling for obedience. Preaching requires diligence and discernment in the study of Scripture, the discipline of daily prayer, cultivated sensitivity to events and issues affecting the lives of the people, and a consistent and personal obedience to Jesus Christ. The sermon should present the gospel with simplicity and clarity, in language which can be understood by the people.”[2]
All right, we have covered the formal expectations of worship, the word, and the proclamation of the Good News. But it would be wrong not to be pastorally sensitive to the informal expectations we have for worship and the proclamation of the word. After two years and around one hundred worship services, these are some of the informal expectations I have noticed. For one, we are to be done in one hour, give or take five minutes. For the times when worship lasts longer than that, there should either be a very good reason, like baptism or welcoming new members into the congregation. We should sing good songs. This one is a little difficult because what’s good for some is not for others. At the very least, we should usually sing from songs we know. Frankly, we have a pretty expansive repertoire, this can be done without becoming boring. (So I would like to apologize now for today’s song selections. In today’s service the only songs most of us are familiar with are the Gloria and the Doxology.) Another informal rule is that the sermon should be interesting. Enlightening is one thing, but if the sermon is as dull as dishwater, who’s going to pay attention long enough to be enlightened? Finally, holidays are special and should be treated that way. So, did you notice the paraments are red today in honor of Pentecost? And Ken and Lee Ellen have done a wonderful job of preparing the Fellowship Hall for Memorial Day.
I have nothing against these rules, both the formal and the informal ones. I try to play by them, or have good reason for not. They have good reasons for existing. They are a part of the culture and climate of the congregation. This is fine. It’s just that I am about to violate the rule about interesting sermons, and at Pentecost on Memorial Day weekend, my sin is a double-whammy. Throw in the song scandal and if we don’t finish in an hour my shame will be complete.
Maybe my problem has been with John’s gospel and our lectionary readings. On April 20th, seven weeks ago, we talked about “John’s Pentecost.”[3] The twentieth chapter of John describes Jesus giving the apostles the Holy Spirit: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”[4] This event happens during Jesus’ first appearance to the apostles after the resurrection. Our gospel reading seems kind of anticlimactic. It’s like we are getting this lesson once more.
For that matter, in last week’s tongue twister extraordinaire we considered the glory of the Father and the Son with enough grammatical twists and turns to impress an Olympic gymnast. So this week it’s once more, this time with feeling.
But then again, the whole second part of our gospel reading seems to conjure up the notion of “once more.” Jesus tells his apostles, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” With all that is said about the Holy Spirit, in scripture, in books, in magazines, in commentaries, in sermons, John tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything and remind us of what he has said to us. Instead of the powerful mysterious mystical spirit, this reading makes the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune God seem look like a bad high school history teacher.
Considering John’s gospel is often called the “Gospel of the Spirit,”[5] this reading is a dud. For John’s gospel, the appearance, the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit is old news because it doesn’t happen fifty days after Easter, but on Easter.[6] But because of our gospel reading schedule, we celebrate this once more.
So how’s that for a holiday? Repeats. It’s like going to Thanksgiving dinner and getting turkey leftovers.
But as I fought and wrangled with today’s reading, I fell in love with two verses, the last two. The first of these we have all read looked at, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Again, this seems like a repeat. But then we consider what follows as Jesus offers this benediction, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Counselor, the Helper, is here to remind us that the peace of the Lord has been left with us and continues to be with us, now and forever, a peace which comforts our troubled, fearful hearts.
It’s easy to focus on the middle verses from our reading, where Jesus promises that those who believe in him will do great works. If we ask in his name, whatever we ask will be done so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. These verses have been used to create a picture of Jesus that is more suited to a picture of Santa Claus. But in the purpose of the Spirit is not to be a credit card from the Lord, it is to remind us of the continued peace of Jesus. So it is when our prayers are in accord with his peace, a peace the Spirit reminds us and teaches us, that our prayers, the prayers which Christ would pray, will be answered.
Philip wants Jesus to show him and the rest of the apostles the Father. If Jesus will do this, they will be satisfied. I am flabbergasted, to me that would be amazing but Philip says it’s enough. Now that’s a tough crowd. Instead, Jesus offers Philip his peace, the peace of knowing that in seeing Jesus he has all ready seen the Father.
To me, this has been a tough passage. So much of it we have seen before, so much of it we have seen recently. Yet, when the Spirit comes, and Jesus tells us that the presence of the Spirit is here to remind us. We are constantly reminded of the holy and redemptive presence of God. By our Confession of Sin not only are we reminded of our human nature, more importantly we are reminded of God’s graceful and grace filled nature. We are reminded that we can never be separated from God because of the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are reminded that we have done nothing to earn such a wonderful gift because that is the nature of a gift, it must be given because we can never earn it.
We are told this joyfully by our Lord Jesus Christ, on the day of his resurrection, and we are reminded of it once more fifty days later as we celebrate Pentecost. So now with no further ado, I’ll say it once more; we are saved by grace through faith and reminded constantly through the living power of God the Holy Spirit just as it was always intended to be.
[1] PC (USA) Book of Order, Directory for Worship, W-3.3101(1), What Is Included, Scripture
[2] Ibid. W-2.2007, Preaching the Word
[3] For a copy of this message, read “Blowin’ in the Wind,” http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2007/04/blowin-in-wind.html
[4] John 20:21-22
[5] 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 348.
[6] Ibid.
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