God's Little Instruction Book

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church on Sunday September 4, 2016, the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

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

Over the last few weeks we have been on the road with Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In this time Jesus has been welcomed and rejected. We have been with Jesus as he has taught and healed in the synagogue and in homes. He has welcomed the outcast and rebuked the powerful. We have seen humility and hypocrisy. We have joined Jesus for meetings with Pharisees, publicans, and prostitutes. We have heard him speak of love, grace, and forgiveness. We have seen Jesus in action and we have heard him teach with authority. So by this time it is no wonder large crowds were travelling with him.

Because of the way Jesus turned and spoke to the crowd I make these two assumptions: First, that there were true believers in the crowd, those who believed they were ready, come what may, when they reached Jerusalem. But secondly, I am just as sure that there were people who followed because it was a great crowd.

Sensing the time was right; Jesus turns to the mass of followers and announces what it takes to complete the journey, what it takes to be his disciple. He tells the crowd that to be his disciple they must hate their families and their own lives. He ends by telling the crowd that to follow him they must give up everything. I can only imagine this must have put quite a damper on the festivities.

When I started seminary, one of the supplementary textbooks for Introduction to the Old Testament was Michael Joseph Brown’s, “What They Didn’t Tell You, A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies.” This book offers twenty-eight “rules of thumb” for seminarians. Some of the information was useful, some wasn’t. But one of the rules has stuck with me like a stone in my shoe. Rule ten says, “The Bible means what it says, and says what it means. Except when it doesn’t.” Luke’s discourse on hating family is the essence of this rule.

The original language of the text is an idiom, an expression unique to the culture. Fortunately for us, the parallel in Matthew’s gospel expresses what Jesus said in a way we can better understand. Matthew’s gospel records Jesus saying “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” While it is probable that Jesus said what was recorded in Luke’s gospel, its meaning is better rendered in English the way it is written in Matthew’s.

Either way, Jesus calls for a radical realignment of priorities. What has been acceptable in the past isn’t anymore. Anyone who is not ready to make the sacrifice Jesus demands follows at their own peril. The law isn’t changing, but its interpretation in Christ is new and different.

This is an example of scripture meaning what it says, except when it doesn’t. We aren’t supposed to hate, loathe, and despise our families and our lives. To follow Christ, we must love the Lord our God more than we love our families and our lives. In their place, Jesus put discipleship above all other obligations. Inherently we knew that Jesus did not abolish the law to honor thy father and thy mother; but it is difficult to understand that from this passage’s English translation.

The final verse in this reading was difficult for many in the crowd to hear then and it is now too. Jesus tells the crowd none of them can become his disciple if they do not give up all their possessions. Jesus doesn’t offer any wiggle room here; this is not an expression. Just as we are called to put Jesus above all human relationships we are called to part from all things for the sake of discipleship. This reading points to a renunciation of all possessions as a part of the radical realignment of our lives. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must put Him above everything.

Jesus goes on in this lesson to warn us about what will happen should we fail. If we cannot bear the cost of discipleship, we stand to be mocked just as the builder is ridiculed when unable to finish building a tower. Just like a warrior who doesn’t bring enough firepower to win a battle.

But I skipped something, and this sentence is the hinge pin between the two parts. “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We are told we have to put Jesus above all else. And we are warned about the results of following without being fully engaged. But what does it mean to carry our cross?

Theories abound. Some New Testament language scholars see bearing the cross as the metaphorical beginning of discipleship. We do in our lives as Jesus does on his journey. Others compare this to taking on a yoke, its mantle representing the patibulum, the horizontal piece of the crucifix. Others attribute this phrase to a popular expression which was originally a curse applied to the zealots and later to Jesus’ followers, “Ah, take up your cross.” Perhaps it was some sort of rallying cry having militaristic characteristics. “Take up your cross!” But there is one theory I find quite interesting.

In ancient Israel, the Greek letter “Tau”, our letter “T” was worn by some as a cultic mark, a sign of protection and possession. After the crucifixion, the Tau was related to the historical cross of Jesus as a seal of possession in Christ. While scholars do not think that this was in the mind of Jesus, perhaps it was in the mind of those who wrote this gospel. Now, don’t worry, this is not a call for all of us to go and get tattoos. The Tau is a sign, a symbol. Symbols communicate action; they do not perform the action. We have another symbol to communicate this action.

We carry the cross in the waters of our baptism. As some took the Tau as a symbol, we accept the water as the sign that we rise and die and rise again with Christ. As Jesus called the followers to take up the cross daily, we are called to remember our baptism. In our baptism we accept Jesus’ call to faithfulness, rebirth, and covenant into the body of Christ.

Several years ago, on a rainy Easter Sunday in Austin, Texas, the Reverend Doctor Ellen Babinsky began the service of the Lord’s Day by saying that it was damp and that in our baptism we are called to live wet. The morning was rainy and sloppy. We were never promised that living wet would be tidy; on the contrary, living wet is frequently sloppy.

In 1993, Honor Books published “God’s Little Instruction Book, Inspirational Wisdom on How to Live a Happy and Fulfilled Life.” What the book does is couple little insights with scripture. I’ll admit some of them bother me. For example, “There is a name for people who are not excited about their work—unemployed.” This isn’t a pastoral thing to say.

Another is “the best way to forget your own problems is to help [solve someone else’s].” While this is not inappropriate under many circumstances, this advice can be a disaster for problem solvers with mental health issues. This “inspirational wisdom” could make matters worse for both.

When the authors remind us “If at first you don’t succeed, try reading the instructions,” I just hope the instructions don’t contain an idiom translated from Ancient Greek. This is the problem with clichés. These guides to a “happy and fulfilled life” are so glossy that when forced to bear the weight of the cross they crumble like sand castles. The way of the discipleship is more precious than simple sayings.

One of my favorite movies is Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride.” If you have never seen it, then after church get supper to-go from Lucille’s or Benchwarmer Brown’s or Taco Mayo or Micky-D’s or your favorite restaurant and pull it up on Netflix. You’ve deprived yourself and your children too long.

The image from the cover of the bulletin has two characters from the movie, Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya, and Wallace Shawn as Vizzini. Vizzini has been hired to kidnap the Princess Buttercup and has hired a swordsman, Inigo, and a brute played by the late professional wrestler Andre the Giant to assist him. Vizzini as the brains of the operation has laid out a diabolical plot, but he is being followed by a Man in Black who seems intent to thwart their plans.


Every time the Man in Black gets closer, Vizzini gets more flustered. Every time Vizzini gets flustered, he cries out, “Inconceivable!” Finally, after the fifth time Vizzini cries out “Inconceivable” Inigo says “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” As for our reading, Jesus says we have to hate our families, but as we now know, that does not mean what we think it means.

As for me, I believe that the bible is always right; but I know I get things wrong. There are things we don’t understand. Great is the mystery of faith. What we must understand is that we are called to live in community, in the assembled body of Christ, living wet, and bearing our crosses.

Fortunately, we have the perfect role model for this relationship. We have the example of Jesus who as a person teaches us how to relate to one another with humility, love, grace, and forgiveness. We have the example of Christ the Lord who models the perfect relationship; existing as one in three in an eternal dance of being in community. When we live wet, when we bear our cross in Christ, then we can follow and be his disciple. Amen.

His Name Was Earl

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 28, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

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

This is an odd story, as many stories are. Of course if all stories were "normal" there would be no point to recording or telling them. This is the story of someone I met one day at First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas named Earl. I'll let you decide if this story is worth recording and telling.

Early one Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with my Spiritual Director. According to the Spiritual Director's International Website, Spiritual Directors are folks "who share a commitment to the art of contemplative spiritual compassionate listening." The closest certified Spiritual Director to Weatherford is the Rev. Carol Waters in Clinton.

Spiritual Directors aren’t counselors. They are fellow travelers who listen and ask good questions like a counselor, but their concern is with spiritual health and development instead of mental health. The image they use to describe their work is called The Three Chairs. This description of The Three Chairs Concept comes from their website:

In one chair a seeker sits, desiring a deeper relationship with God, a Higher Power, or Ultimate Reality. In a second chair, a spiritual director listens, inquires, and holds the space for the seeker to encounter the true Spiritual Director in the third chair.

On that Wednesday afternoon, to help me encounter God, he asked me how I had been blessed lately. I talked about my second anniversary at the church (celebrated about ten days earlier) and about other stuff, but he knew there had been so many stresses in my life that sometimes the tiny diamonds of blessings got buried under tons of dung. One comes sprinkled like pixie dust and the other comes dumped from a bucket truck. Ever feel like that? Can I get an "Amen"?

Not long after my Spiritual Director left, a man rang the church doorbell. He was a black man at the door, maybe in his late 20's but looking much older. He told me his name was Earl and he could not read or write; and he sounded like someone who could not read or write. I hate using what we from Kansas called "discouraging words," but it was true. He was dirty. His clothes were in tatters. He looked, moved and sounded like the walking-talking stereotype of an illiterate black man in deep east Texas. God forgive me for this overgeneralization, this stereotype; but then again, this might have been a part of some sort of test. More on that in a couple.

When I answered the door, he said that he was sent over to us from another church because he was looking for some bibles. While he couldn’t read, that was no problem because his mamma could. While he couldn’t read them for himself, he knew some bible stories but he had no idea what they were called or where to find them.

I said "Sure" and headed toward the chapel where there was a surplus of bibles. Georgia, the church secretary, offered to go and get some from the spares stored in the choir room instead. That was perfect. So he came into my study while she went to the choir room for the bibles. I also gave him a Gideon New Testament-Psalms-Proverbs book. He asked for three of those. No problem, there are plenty more where that came from.

He asked me to mark some things for him. No problem. He asked me to mark "that place where it says 'the Lord is my shepherd.'" No problem, the 23rd Psalm coming right up! By this time Georgia got to my office with the other bibles and she started marking them. Then he asked for that story of the guy who "Satan took everything he had but God returned it seven times. "No problem, Job coming right up!”

This is when Georgia told me she had to leave. She had an appointment. No problem, it had been in the works all week. That left us alone, Earl and me, just the two of us.

This is when Earl made a less precise request. He said that he was watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network the other day and they mentioned a scripture "where God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both."

I thought about it for a moment. By this time, I had begun to believe Earl was a soul God placed in my day so I could be blessed, and be a blessing too. Kind of the on the nose about what my Spiritual Director said not twenty minutes earlier.

I told Earl that I didn't know the verse they used on TBN or what they were talking about, but I wanted to share Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." I told him that as much as we were a blessing to him by giving him the bibles, he was a blessing in my life. He was the man I needed to see that day. So I marked it in the bible he handed me and that's when it got weird.

Suddenly, Earl's demeanor completely changed. He stood taller. His eyes became clear. His voice took on a power and command I did not expect. He blessed me. I mean he blessed me, not in some general “you are a blessing in my life” way, he blessed me. I don't know exactly what he said because I was so taken aback that I didn't hear everything he said. What I did hear was, "We won't see each other again for a long time, but we will see each other again," and that's where it got fuzzy again.

As he started to leave he dropped one of the small Gideon testaments, and when it hit the floor, the moment was over. The electricity in the room was gone. His old voice returned, he smiled and said "Whoops."

It's said that the vast majority of people never have a spiritual experience while in church. Well, I had mine that day. I met a man who seemed to shrug off his human facade like I’ll take off this robe after church. He blessed me and told me that we will meet again one day. He spoke with a voice of peace and authority that I haven't ever heard another human being use. Was Earl an angel? Perhaps, I think so. Biblical Greek translates the word we use for “angel” as “messenger” and I got a message.
Does that make me crazy? Well, if I’m crazy, that’s not the reason.

I was asked if I had been blessed lately and not an hour later, there’s a man who in his own way is giving me the message that “God said ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Don’t get me wrong, at that moment my life didn’t turn around. Life wasn’t a bowl of cherries. Every moment hasn’t been “happily ever after.” There is struggle, but as much as I have ever felt helpless I have never felt hopeless.

If Earl had walked into most offices, he would have been ushered out as quickly as security could get there. That’s the nature of most offices. Not so in the church, thank God. So it was my good fortune to be blessed that day to offer him a seat and because of that he blessed me.

There was nothing tangible, physical on this earth he could offer me. Nothing. He had nothing, he owned nothing. He was waiting on his mamma to bring back the car. They might have been sleeping in it for all I knew. All he wanted was the Word of God and I had plenty of the printed variety. He wanted some instruction too and so I could offer him the Word of God proclaimed. He had nothing, but he had a lot of it.

So in a way, without intending to, purely because I was living in the moment, I was doing as Jesus commanded in Luke 14:12-14. There was a man in my office who could never repay me. He had nothing to give me; and I didn’t know he had anything I wanted. I was able to have him sit at the table and feed him with the bread of life and give him the living water that satisfies hunger and thirst, the Word of God. By this I was blessed. I was blessed by an angel named Earl.

Come to think about it, maybe those were the verses the folks on TBN were talking about. “God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both?”

After he left, about five minutes later our Worship Leader, a man named Al, came in to pick hymns for Sunday’s worship. I asked him if he saw a black man leaving, either getting into a car or walking away on foot, because I wanted to tell him this story. He said he didn’t. I didn’t think there was any way Earl could make a “quick getaway” and was sure Al would have seen him. No, Earl was gone.

Friends, I keep asking if you have had any experiences like this. Last week’s board meeting included this story and three others from three board members. So that you know, the other six aren’t off the hook, there’s another meeting in two months.

There are so many questions of faith, but here’s one for the people of faith: How have you been blessed? How have you been blessed lately? How does your faith make a difference in your life? As Christians in a world that has a warped view of Christian values, we are like Jesus, we are being carefully watched, and when we live our lives like our faith makes a difference, the world sees. That’s when the world begins to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s time to show the world the Gospel again.

Mañana

Before we get started, this is my last Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas so "Time Loves a Hero" will be taking a short hiatus. Starting in about a month, I will be serving the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas. As soon as I get to Marshall, "Time Loves a Hero" will return with new postings.

This is a bittersweet day for me. May God bless us all.

So with no further ado, this sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 29, 2010, the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

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

The Society of Friends, Quakers, have a way of helping members seek discernment on how to proceed with keenly felt concerns and dilemmas, the clearness committee. The committee, which is chosen by the caller, is a group of close, wise, and honest friends who come together and spend time waiting in silence and asking questions. They do not give advice or criticize. They do not tell their own stories or judge the caller. The group asks honest, probing, caring, challenging, open, unloaded questions. The questions are not asked for the curiosity of the questioner, but for the sake of the one seeking clarity.

In “Let Your Life Speak,” Parker Palmer tells this story about asking for help discerning a vocational prospect with a clearness committee. He had just received an opportunity to become president of a small educational institution. As Palmer tells the story, he notes that he did not really convene the group for clarity; what he had done is call his friends together to brag about being offered a great job.

“For a while, the questions were easy, at least for a dreamer like me: What is your vision for this institution? What is its mission in the larger society? How would you change the curriculum? How would you handle decision making? What about dealing with conflict?

Halfway into the process, someone asked a question that sounded easier yet turned out to be very hard: ‘What would you like most about being president?’

The simplicity of that question loosed me from my head and lowered me into my heart.”

Palmer then goes on in fits and starts trying to answer the question. But he doesn’t answer the question. He tells them what he would not like about being president of the institution. He is gently guided back to the question by the committee several times. Returning to Palmer’s text…

“Once again the questioner called me back to the original question. But this time I felt compelled to give the only honest answer I possessed an answer that came from the very bottom of my barrel, an answer that appalled even me as I spoke it.

“‘Well,’ said I, in the smallest voice I possess, ‘I guess what I would like most is getting my picture in the paper with the word president under it.’

“Finally [after a long, contemplative silence] my questioner broke the silence with a question that cracked all of us up—and cracked me open: ‘Parker,’ he said, ‘can you think of an easier way to get your picture in the paper?’”[1]

Being humbled, well, that’s a focus of our gospel reading today isn’t it? Palmer was laid bare by his clearness committee. They asked the right questions, and finally he came to the right answer, not a flattering one, but the right one all the same.

Parker tried to use the clearness committee to exalt himself; sharing with his friends the great job he had been offered. Instead he was humbled, in his own words he was cracked open by the questions the committee asked.

There is a very important thing about the language being used in our gospel reading today that I want to share; something our it shares with Palmer’s last sentence. These words in this portion of Palmer’s text, cracked open; and these words from verse eleven, exalt, be humbled, humble, and be exalted; are verbs. One more time, these are verbs.

Adjectives like humble and exalted do not carry the same literary weight as the verbal forms, even though they look exactly the same to us in English. Adjectives describe states of being. They describe conditions. The verbs, they perform the actions that cause the conditions. It may not seem like such a big difference, but it comes up in our gospel reading.

Now, the feelings evoked by the adjectives, words that add to the sentence, are important. They are important to help define, help sharpen what is going on in the sentence. They help evoke a passion. They help define the action and the one who is either doing the action or having the action done to them. I don’t want anyone to think that the emotions and the feelings are not important, but the point I’m making is that the emotions and the feelings are caused by the action. In an effective way, the verb always precedes the modifier.

So that’s the reason for the English lesson. In verse eleven, Jesus is not describing how the people who take banquet seats that do not suit them will feel. He describes what will happen to people who take banquet seats that do not suit them.

Jesus gives us some advice. The first is to always select a less honorable seat, that way you will not be humbled by a host that moves you down the table and you may be raised to a better place at the table if the master wishes.

That’s another important element of these particular verbs, to humble and to exalt; they deal with reversal of fortune. By both of these verbs your status will shift, the only question is if you will be lifted up or cast down.

Palmer offers these words on being humbled as a verb which I find useful:

I had read somewhere that humility is central to the spiritual life, which seemed like a good idea to me: I was proud to think of myself as humble! What I did not know is that for some of us the path to humility goes through humiliation—being brought low, unable to function, stripped of pretenses and defenses, feeling fraudulent, empty, useless—that allows us to regrow our lives from the humus of common ground.

The spiritual journey is full of paradoxes, and one of them is that the humiliation that brings us down -- down to ground on which it is safe to stand and to fall -- eventually takes us to a firmer and fuller sense of self. When people ask me how it felt to emerge from depression, I can give only one answer: I felt at home in my own skin and at home on the face of the earth, for the first time.[2]

Our prayer for illumination offered these words: “Teach us to walk the path he prepared for us so that we might take a place at the table with all who seek the joy of his kingdom.” Our reading from Hebrews offers us words about walking in God’s path:

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with confidence:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”

Through [Jesus], then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

These last two sentences, “let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise” and “do not neglect to do good and share” are particularly timely today.

A little more than five years ago, I came to this part of the body of Christ with a newly minted Masters of Divinity degree and little idea of what I was doing or would do next. Of course, I was not the first minister to feel this way, and that’s what I chose to share in my first sermon.[3] It began like this:

Gregory of Nazianzus was a priest and later a scholar in the early church. Initially he became a priest because of his father just happened to be the Bishop of Nazianzus. So Gregory was called to the ministry as well. Unfortunately for Gregory, he held the office of priest and the vows of ordination in such high esteem that immediately after he was ordained, he left. You see, Gregory felt that there was no way that he could hold to the vows of ordination, there was no way he could hold this office. He saw the priesthood as a sort of tyranny; a tyranny over himself and over his parish. He was so afraid of the ramifications of his ordination that he left the parish for five years. The monastic movement was beginning to gain steam at this time and young Gregory found the solitary lifestyle of the monk to be the best way to deal with his vocation.

To say the least, the people were steamed. I don’t blame them and I am sure that you don’t either. Nobody knows better than you what it’s like to have the Pastor Nominating Committee find someone for the church who then runs for the hills. But after five years, he was able to discern that he was called by God and the community to serve the body of Christ as their priest and he returned home. Imagine his homecoming, there is joy, but there must be some anger as well. It is only human. And Gregory preached, oh yes, he preached. And it was historically noted as one of the worst sermons ever heard in that church. Gregory preached a curt little sermon about why he avoided his responsibilities for five years. The congregation was not particularly sensitive toward his plight. Even if his reasons were valid, they did not fall on sympathetic ears.

I have always loved the story of Gregory the Great. He was a hero of the ancient church. His writings on baptism are still read today in church history and in seminaries. But this part of the story has always tickled me the most. This story always reminds me that one of the saints of the church started his illustrious vocation because it was the family business. Then as soon as he was ready, he was so awed and humbled by his vocation that he received the symbols of his ordination and promptly ran for the hills. Any ordained minister who can’t relate to this story should either reconsider their ordination or at least read the story again.

I ended my first sermon with these words:

Gregory of Nazianzus was right to take the prospect of ordination seriously. As in the times of Gregory, Matthew, and Paul, we are living in times which ministry is wrought with peril. But in light of all of this, we are called to tell the truth, sharing the good news of God; news which brings together the broken people who we are. We are called to be a light to a world which does not want to hear the message of the Gospel. And we now, as was done two thousand years ago, we now are called to take these steps together. We are called to rise every day and take these first steps again and again.

I am honored, and humbled, that you have called me and my family to join you in this journey as we take these, our first steps with you, together as the body of Christ. I promise that I will not leave you after the ordination service Saturday and join a monastery. We will take this journey together, and through the love of God we will proclaim the good news of our baptism into the life and death of Jesus Christ. And as the church we call all people to be reconciled to God and to one another.[4]

So on this, our final Sunday with this part of the body of Christ, let me say that it has been our privilege to be your pastor and pastor’s spouse, you have lifted us up. I am humbled that you selected me to join with you, to join with this part of the body of Christ as Minister of Word and Sacrament. I am honored that we took these steps together “to gather and welcome the broken people of the world and through God’s love make us one.”[5] I am overjoyed that you have graciously invited us into your homes and into your lives. It has been our honor and privilege to serve Christ in this time and place.

I pray that over the past five years we have told the truth, sharing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ who brings together the broken people we too are. I pray that we have been a light to a world which does not want to hear the message of the Gospel. And as was done two thousand years ago, we have taken these steps together. We are called to rise every day and take these first steps again and again.

A friend once told me that while the traditional translation of the word mañana is “tomorrow,” another way to translate it is “not today.” If we massage it far enough, it could mean “another day.” This is the last time that I will lead worship on the Lord’s Day in this place. This is the last time I will preach from this pulpit. I will never again celebrate the Lord’s Supper from this table or baptize a new member from this font, but, in God’s glorious time, we will worship together again.

So let’s not say “good bye,” instead, let’s just say mañana; and until we meet again, amen.

[1] Palmer, Parker J., Let Your Life Speak, Listening for the Voice of Vocation. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2000.
[2] Parker J. Palmer, “All the Way Down,” Weavings, September-October 1998, 40 retrieved from HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=843, retrieved August 28, 2010.
[3] The italicized portion is from my sermon “First Steps” at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.
[4] Book of Confessions, 9.07
[5] This is the Mission Statement of the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas

Laying in Wait

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday February 21, 2010, the 1st Sunday in Lent.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

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

“When the devil had finished every test, he departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time.” Such foreboding has been seen in scripture before, but there is something subtle about this sentence that gets it lost in the midst of Jesus’ glorious revelation. Jesus has just fought the devil and won using the most powerful tool in his arsenal, the Word of God. Yet in light of this great and lopsided victory, lest we think that the devil is vanquished, we receive one final warning in this little sentence. “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time.”

My favorite scripture on the existence of the devil[1] (and yes, I have a favorite “devil” reference) is from the book of Job. In Job 1:6-7 and later in 2:2 we hear this conversation. “The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’”

Scripture doesn’t deny the existence of Satan, on the contrary. This passage from Job shows that the Lord and Satan are long time acquaintances. Job tells us the Lord is in the highest heaven as the heavenly beings present themselves. As a king receives his vassals, the King of Kings receives the sons of God.[2] Is Satan one of these sons? Well, I don’t know if their relationship is that close. What I am certain of is that Satan did not have to storm the gates of heaven to present himself before the Lord. We can safely say they were familiar with one another.

This familiarity is continued as Jesus recognizes the devil in the wilderness. Luke writes that for forty days Jesus was tempted by the devil. Throughout his entire time in the countryside Jesus was tempted by the one who slanders[3] creator and creation. The greatest temptations a man can be offered were laid before him, but Jesus is not just a man. The fully human and fully divine Lord Jesus knows that his life is for more than earthly temptation and earthly reward.
There is an old saying that the devil’s greatest trick is to get people to believe he doesn’t exist. Well, the Lord our God and his Son Jesus didn’t fall for that trick.

Our notion of the devil comes from many places that are not biblical. One of the oldest of these sources is Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” In 1321 Dante introduced readers to the “emperor of all the realms of woe.”[4] He describes this being as having two great wings more like those of a bat than a bird. He likens their size to “Sails so immense [they] were never known at sea.”

So it comes as no wonder that when we think of the devil we think of the goat legged, spade tailed, winged and horned creature so popular on the Halloween costume sales rack. Beginning with Dante’s wings, Wormwood from C. S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters,” and more recently Anne Rice’s Memnoch, literature presents us with many images of the devil.

In cinema, horror movies have given us such memorable twists on the devil as “Rosemary’s Baby” and Damien in “The Omen.” Film comedies have given us more unorthodox devils including “Little Nicki” featuring Harvey Keitel as Satan and Adam Sandler as the most inept of his three sons; and “Bedazzled” featuring Elizabeth Hurley as the “devil in a blue dress” version of the prince of darkness.

In what is in my opinion one of the strangest examples of Satan in American culture comes from the realm of jurisprudence. In 1971 Gerald Mayo filed suit against Satan and his servants in United States District Court. The suit claimed Satan placed deliberate obstacles in Mayo’s path and caused his downfall. In what is neither a landmark civil, criminal or theological decision, the court did not deny the existence of Satan; rather, the court asserted that it was unlikely that Satan was ever present in the geographic area included in the Western District of Pennsylvania.[5]

Something people try to do everyday is look for Satan around the corner, looking for the devil in the details. Everyday people are telling us who the great Satan is and that he’s just laying in wait to get us. We have been told that foreign world leaders are evil personified. Leaders of the Axis of Evil have been vetted as the head of the underworld. We have also been told that our domestic leaders are the root of all that is wrong in this world. And maybe it’s just me, but that rhetoric seems to have been ramped up over the past five years.

Twenty years ago, a friend in Colorado was sharing a tape someone recorded from the radio that claimed Prince Charles of Wales was the antichrist. I never bothered to listen to the tape, but she was convinced.

Everyday people look for the devil in our midst so that we can point to someone and say, “That’s him, that’s the source of evil.” Here’s a question, why do we bother to look for the devils we don’t know when we can identify the devils we do?

There are devils all around us that we don’t bother to identify because these devils don’t fit the mold we expect to see from books and movies. We need to look for the devils that break the mold. Then when we find these devils, we can find how they can be conquered. In a sense, our reading from Luke presents us with a devil we know all too well, temptation.

The devil tempts Jesus using the kind of stuff that tempts us everyday. Jesus is first tempted with his physical needs, particularly hunger. Jesus’ response turns this temptation on its ear. While the devil may have hoped Jesus would fall for bread alone, invoking the words of Deuteronomy 8:3, Jesus reminds us “One does not live by bread alone.” Jesus hungers for spiritual food.

The devil offers the most human of needs, nourishment. But Jesus turns away from earthly satisfaction in favor of something more substantial. Recorded in the Gospel, Luke is teaching the readers that the need for bread is secondary to the fact that it is God alone who gives bread.[6] Jesus teaches that the one who gives the gift is more important than the gift itself.

The second temptation is one of power and authority. The second temptation is offered, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.”

With this offer, we are reminded that the devil has power in the world, power that can be delegated and allocated as he sees fit. The devil offers this power to Jesus; and for Jesus there is a lot of good that can be done with that kind of power.

But there is a nasty condition. This power is given with a catch, “If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” A catch doesn’t get catchier than this. Fly paper wishes it was this sticky.

But Jesus does not get trapped by earthly power. He denies the devil his worship using the words of Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” The devil offers power over this world, a world that is temporary, a world that is limited. Jesus knows that there is a greater power than the earthly power of the devil and the price of this power is too high.
Jesus rejects the devil’s demand of worship insisting that the only real power comes from God.[7] Jesus shows us the source of power is more important than power itself.

Finally, the devil tempts Jesus to prove God’s faithfulness. The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. And from there, the devil goads Jesus. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

This time, it is the devil’s turn to invoke scripture, Psalm 91:11-12. Now this is a good temptation, using the Word of God to suit his own bad intentions.

Jesus responds in kind to temptation shrouded in scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, Jesus denies the devil reminding him “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” The Old Testament reminds us that Israel tested the Lord time and time again, and in every case the Lord is faithful. It is said that scripture is best interpreted by scripture, and this is a shining example.
Jesus is invited to test God’s fidelity; Jesus reminds us the Lord is not to be tested.

These are the temptations, physical satisfaction, power and authority, and testing God’s faithfulness. These are the things the devil puts on the table. But there is more at stake than this.

The devil prefaces the first and last temptations with this phrase, “If you are the Son of God…” So while it is easy to say that the temptations are about earthly matters, there is something more sinister happening. The greater, more subtle temptation the devil tries to place in Jesus’ mind is the doubt that he is the Son of God. Yes, on one level the devil asks if God will do what God has promised the Son. But it is far more devastating if Jesus doubts whether he is the Son or not. If the devil can plant this seed of doubt, then everything else is lost.

But this seed has no purchase. Jesus will not allow the devil to define what being the Son of God means. The devil will not define what kind of Messiah Jesus will be, that is between Father and Son. Jesus reminds us that being the children of God is more important than anything else.

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, “Despair is the fate of the realists who know something about sin, but nothing about redemption.”[8] We know the sins that Satan presents us, and when these sins are couched in the best things in life we tend to look at them differently. It is Jesus who reminds us that all Satan offers is a barrier between us and God. Satan offers sin, Jesus offers redemption.

It is these barriers that we need to break, the devil is in these details; and when we overcome these temptations, the power of Satan is broken. No, on this side of glory that victory is not permanent. After Jesus faced the devil, he faced scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees who brought their own barriers to place between God and God’s people. So too will there be people who will erect barriers around us.

So know this, this is what we know and share with the world. First is that the devil is in the world. Just as surely as the Lord saw Satan and just as surely as Jesus was tempted by the devil; the devil is still in the world today. We must also remember that we don’t have to look for the Lord of the Flies because the temptations that surround us are as devilish as any personification of Satan.

The second thing to take into the world is that in Christ there is victory. Throughout this season of Lent we will see the princes of this world working to defeat God incarnate, the living Lord Jesus Christ. They will try, and for a moment it will look like they will succeed, but ultimately they will fail. Are the princes of this world the minions of the Prince of Darkness? Surly not, these were the holiest men in Judea. What they wielded, poor imitations of relationship with the almighty bound by laws and customs, these were devils finding their opportune time.

Finally, even in our post-resurrection world, Satan is laying in wait bringing lies and temptations as attractive now as they were then. And again, only in God is there victory. Yes, what Satan offers us are lies, but in the words of the Irish rock band U2, “The truth is not the same without the lies he made up.”[9]

Temptations surround us, and we must revel in the truth and reveal through our lives that victory is assured in Christ Jesus.

[1] If this were a seminary paper, it might be considered a bit of a stretch to use “the devil” and “Satan” interchangeably, but some of the greatest writers of the New Testament did the same thing, so I beg you allow me to follow their precident. (P. L. Hammer , “Devil,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.”)
[2] Text note, NRSV.
[3] Ibid., Hammer
[4] Alighieri, Dante, “The Divine Comedy.” Trans. Lawrence Grant White. New York: Pantheon Books, 1948, Canto XXXIV, line 28.
[5] United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (1971), http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_ex_rel._Gerald_Mayo_v._Satan_and_His_Staff, retrieved February 19, 2010.
[6] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, page 197.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years, Volume 2.”Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 66.
[9] God, Part II, from “Rattle and Hum.” Words by Bono, Music by U2.

God's Little Instruction Book?

I was not in the pulpit this weekend. This is a sermon I delivered three years ago on the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 5, 2004, at Genesis Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.
Scripture: Luke 14:25-33

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen

Over the last ten weeks of Ordinary Time we have been on the road with Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In this time Jesus has been welcomed and rejected. He has commissioned and he has welcomed back the commissioners. We have been with Jesus as he has taught and healed in the synagogue and in homes. He has welcomed the outcast and rebuked the powerful. We have seen humility and hypocrisy. We have joined Jesus for meetings with Pharisees, publicans, and prostitutes. We have heard him speak of love, grace, and forgiveness. We have seen Jesus in action and we have heard him teach with authority. So by this time it is no wonder that there is a large crowd following him.

Because of the way Jesus turned and spoke to the crowd I will make two assumptions about it. First, I suspect that there were true believers in the crowd, those who believed they were ready, come what may, when they reached Jerusalem. But I am just as sure that there were people who followed because it was a great crowd.

Sensing the time was right; Jesus turns to the mass of followers and announces what it takes to complete the journey, what it takes to be his disciple. He begins by telling the crowd that to be his disciple they must hate their families and their own lives. And he ends by telling the crowd that to follow him they must give up all of their possessions. I can only imagine this must have come as quite a shock to the crowd.

When I entered the seminary, one of the supplementary textbooks for Introduction to the Old Testament was Michael Joseph Brown’s, “What They Didn’t Tell You, A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies.” This book offers twenty-eight “rules of thumb” for seminarians. Some of the information was useful, some wasn’t. But one of the rules has stuck with me like a stone in my shoe. Rule number ten says, “The Bible means what it says, and says what it means. Except when it doesn’t.” Luke’s discourse on hating family proves the value of this rule of thumb.

The original language of the text is an idiom, an expression unique to the culture. Fortunately for us, the parallel in Matthew’s gospel expresses what Jesus said in a way we can better understand. The disciple records Jesus saying “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” While it is probable that Jesus said what was written in Luke’s gospel, its meaning is better expressed in English the way it is rendered in Matthew’s.

Either way, Jesus calls for a radical realignment of priorities. What has been acceptable in the past… is no longer. Anyone who is not ready to make the sacrifice Jesus demands… follows at their own peril. The law isn’t changing, but its interpretation in Christ is new and different.

This is an example of scripture meaning what it says, except when it doesn’t. It’s not that we have to hate, loathe, despise, and scorn, our families and our lives. Rather it’s that to follow Christ we must love the Lord our God more than we love our families and our lives. In its place, Jesus put discipleship above all other obligations. We knew all along that Jesus did not abolish the law; but it is difficult to understand that from this passage.

The last sentence in this lesson was difficult for many in the crowd to hear then, and to us may seem even tougher for our culture. Jesus tells the crowd none of them can become his disciple if they do not give up all their possessions. Jesus doesn’t offer any wiggle room here, this is not an idiom. Just as we are called to put Jesus above all human relationships we are called to part from all things for the sake of discipleship. This reading points to a renunciation of all possessions as a part of the radical realignment of our lives. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must put Him above everything.

Jesus goes on in this lesson to warn us about what will happen should we fail. If we cannot bear the cost of discipleship, we stand to be mocked just as the builder is ridiculed when unable to finish building a tower. Downtown, across the street from Republic Square, at the corner of Fifth and San Antonio, stands the skeleton of what was a major construction project. Austinites know this corner; some know it more personally than as just an urban eyesore. It is technically known as AN-2. Locals know it as the “Intel Shell.” What was to be a major player on the city’s high tech scene is now a carcass, an icon for the bursting of the high tech bubble.

But its incompletion is more than a cautionary tale of what can happen when economic conditions go bad. It’s an example that Jesus was right, those who can’t finish what they start will be ridiculed. To make this point, the Austin Chronicle held a contest for what should be done with the empty shell. My favorites include a bird and bat sanctuary/guano factory with observation area. The simplest suggestion came from a man who wants to raise a banner covering the north and east sides of the building, overlooking what would have been a lovely courtyard—overlooking what is now a field overgrown with weeds—a banner announcing “No Intel Inside.”[1] Builders who are unable to finish will loose money and face, but this is not the end of the world.

The other cautionary tale, the one about waging war, is even more dire. Jesus warns that those unable to wage war successfully against another should send ambassadors to discuss terms of peace. While the first example is embarrassing, the results of this one are grim. If peace cannot be made, the advancing force will wreak havoc devastating life and property.

But I skipped one verse, and this sentence is the hinge pin between the two parts of this section. “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We know we have to put Jesus first, above all other people and things. And we are warned about the results of following without being fully engaged in the way. But what does it mean to carry our cross?

Theories abound. Some New Testament language scholars see bearing the cross as the beginning of discipleship. We do in our lives as Jesus does on this journey. Others compare this to taking on a yoke, its mantle representing the horizontal piece of the crucifix. Others attribute this phrase to a popular expression which was originally applied to the zealots and later to Jesus’ followers; perhaps as a sort of curse or rallying cry. Some believe it has militaristic characteristics.[2] But there is one theory I find most interesting.

In ancient Israel, the Greek letter “Tau”, our letter “T.” was worn by some as a cultic marking, a sign of protection and possession. After the crucifixion, the Tau was related to the historical cross of Jesus as a seal of possession in Christ.[3] While scholars do not think that this was in the mind of Jesus, perhaps it was in the mind of the community that wrote this gospel. Now, don’t worry, this is not a call for tattoos for the people of Genesis and the body of Christ. The Tau is a sign, a symbol. Symbols communicate action; they do not perform the action.[4] We use another symbol to communicate this action.

We carry the cross in the waters of our baptism. As some took the Tau was a symbol, we accept the water and living wet as the sign that we rise and die and rise again with Christ. As Jesus called the followers to take up the cross daily, we are called by our confessions to improve our baptism.[5] In our baptism we accept Jesus’ call to faithfulness, rebirth, and covenant into the body of Christ.[6]

This year on a rainy Easter Sunday, the Reverend Doctor Ellen Babinsky began the service of the Lord’s Day by saying that it was a damp Easter morning and that in our baptism we are called to live wet. The morning was rainy and sloppy. We were never promised that living wet would be tidy; on the contrary, living wet is frequently sloppy. It calls us to forsake people and things that we might otherwise be attracted to. But if we do not fully commit to the life of discipleship in the water and the cross we stand to inherit the dangers of ridicule and worse.

In 1993, Honor Books published “God’s Little Instruction Book, Inspirational Wisdom on How to Live a Happy and Fulfilled Life.” What the book does is couple little insights with scripture. I got to admit, a lot of it bothers me. (To repeat one of my professors, “I don’t do cute.”) For example, they write, “There is a name for people who are not excited about their work—unemployed.” This isn’t a pastoral thing to say, especially to someone whose livelihood depended on the completion of the “Intel Shell.”

Another is “the best way to forget your own problems is to help [solve someone else’s].” While this is not inappropriate in many circumstances, this advice would be a disaster for people with mental health issues. Sometimes, trying to help solve someone else’s problems could make matters worse for both.

When the authors remind us “If at first you don’t succeed, try reading the instructions,” I just hope the instructions don’t contain an idiom that has to be interpreted first. This is the problem with aphorisms. These guides to a “happy and fulfilled life” are so glossy that when forced to bear the weight of the cross they dissolve like sand castles. The way of the discipleship is more dear than these simple sayings.

Last weekend in the Olympic Marathon, Cornelius Horan, a defrocked Irish Priest, entered the marathon course in its twenty-third mile and pushed race leader, Vanderlei de Lima, into the crowd. Mr. Horan was wearing a sign which said, “The Grand Prix Priest, Israel fulfillment of Prophecy says the Bible.”

Horan calls himself the Grand Prix Priest because in July 2003 he ran onto the course of the British Grand Prix; staying on the track for more than 20 seconds, nearly being hit by several cars which had to swerve dramatically to avoid hitting him. Eventually he meandered close enough to the edge of the track for an official to grab him and take him away. That day Mr. Horan was carrying a sign saying, “Read the Bible—The Bible is always right.”[7]

As for me, I believe that the bible is always right; it’s me that gets things wrong. There are things we don’t understand and there are things we won’t understand. What we must understand is that we are called to live in community, in the assembled body of Christ, living wet, and bearing the cross.

Fortunately, we have the perfect role model for this relationship. We have the example of Jesus who as a person teaches us how to relate to one another with humility, love, grace, and forgiveness. We have the example of a God who models the perfect relationship; existing as one in three in an eternal dance of being in community. When we live wet, when we bear the cross of Christ, then we are able to follow and be his disciple. Amen.

[1] Intel Building Design Contest Winners, Austin Chronicle, May 11, 2001
[2] Kittel, TDNT, Vol. VII, page 577-578
[3].Ibid.
[4] Lewis, C. S., Screwtape Letters, The, page 125.
[5] Book of Confessions, 7.277
[6] Book of Order, W-2.3004
[7] ESPN.com

Table Etiqutte

This sermon was delivered on the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 2, 2007, at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

This sermon is rated PG-13

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

When I was in college, one of my jobs was as a houseboy at a sorority. This meant I worked as a cook’s assistant, waiter, bus boy, and dishwasher for ten meals a week. The sisters had a way of coming to dinner every evening. They would all assemble at the south end of the dining room. Then the house mother would lead the procession to her table at the north end of the room, escorted by the head houseboy.

There were about a dozen round tables, each seating six women. As the gathering stretched out and became a line, they would begin to separate into smaller table groups. So after Mom’s table would fill, the ladies would go to the second and so on until everyone was at their seat. Each table had a head spot, which was usually taken by one of the officers.

Special dinner guests were no trouble for the women; the guests were always escorted by a houseboy and seated to the right of the housemother.

After everyone had reached a seat, the chaplain would begin the grace from wherever she was in the room. After the Amen, Mom would sit down first and the rest would follow. This was the cue for me and the other houseboys to serve the meal.

The process was pretty easy, the new initiates were shown how the procession worked and there was soon little chance of anyone taking an inappropriate seat. If someone did, there was a gentle reproach and she would move to another spot.[1]

It’s pretty easy to connect this story to today’s gospel reading. In fact, I think you will easily see the similarities between this illustration and the gospel’s parable. But there is a more recent story that illuminates a deeper meaning in this parable.

I don’t have to tell you that this week's news has been overwhelmed by United States Senator Larry Craig of Idaho. Senator Craig is a conservative Idaho Republican who believes strongly in national defense, balancing the federal budget, and striking a balance between conserving the land and developing natural resources. He is also in favor of firearms rights for law-abiding citizens, accessible affordable healthcare, and tax reform. [2] He wants to get government out of our hair and to improve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for his Idaho constituents and for all American citizens. He is also in favor of upholding traditional family values, holding the line against liberal social initiatives including gay marriage.[3]

Whether you agree with Senator Craig’s politics or not, you might admire his strong stance on issues. It is this strong stance that brought him to the head of the congressional table in leading the push toward a legislative platform based on politically and socially conservative values. And given the news of the last week, it seems right now that Senator Craig has taken the place of the man in the gospel who took the parable’s honor seat at the banquet. And this week when the banquet master showed up with police reports from the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal of the Minneapolis Airport, he was told to get up and move.

Senator Craig has taken a defiant tone in his public comments on the incident. He has vehemently denied being a homosexual. He has claimed he was entrapped by a sting operation. He claimed pleading guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct was a mistake.

What I know from police reports is that Senator Craig stood outside of a bathroom stall looking at the man sitting there. When Senator Craig entered the adjacent stall he made gestures consistent with someone seeking an illicit sexual liaison. When the man in this stall showed his police identification, the Senator said, “No.” And when asked to provide his driver’s license for proof of identification, he offered his Senate business card and said, “What do you think about that?”[4]

Well, I guess that’s the question all of us have to answer, isn’t it: “What do you think about that?”

Here is what I think about that. The Senator pleaded guilty to charges less severe than the initial charges. The charges he plead guilty to are not ones that reflect well on a law-and-order socially-conservative Senator from a conservative state during a contentious election cycle. And there are so many piranhas swimming in Senator David’s waters that the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of Gay Republicans, don’t want anything to do with him.[5]

Lest you think I hold Senator Craig to a standard I don’t hold others to, let me say no one is without fault. No one is without sin. The list of political scandals, sexual and otherwise, is long and extensive. It includes people from both sides of our political aisles and extends from time immemorial. Names like Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, Strom Thurmond, and Thomas Jefferson, should not be forgotten as Senator Craig’s is mentioned. And lest you think I am directing my comments toward the same-sex aspect this incident; I believe the casual and extramarital qualities of this encounter is the scandal, not its homosexuality.

Ultimately, Senator Craig’s mistake was that he stood on his own two feet. And like all human feet, they are made of clay, while seemingly solid, are in truth brittle. His ultimate sin is one of hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another.

To quote an old song:
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear stained eyes
Don't be surprised, when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet.[6]

Senator Craig lived by the ways of a conservative Republican agenda, and now he will be taken down by it. Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay said on the Today Show, “There are scandals that need to be addressed. Republicans address them, Democrats re-elect them.”[7]

The Senator had exalted himself by his political positions, and by these same positions he has been humbled. The ice has cracked and Senator Craig has felt the cold water rush around his ankles. Yesterday he announced that he will resign from the Senate effective September 30th.[8]

But what do we need to take from this story of public disgrace? How does the Senator’s story illustrate this parable? In Luke’s parable, the host does not remove the unseated guest from the banquet. This guest, while disgraced and embarrassed, is still welcome to take and eat. The Lord our God does not dismiss him or anyone else from the banquet because of indiscretion. Disciplined yes, dismissed no.

Where Senator Craig’s public scandal has separated him from people he has loyally served for over 25 years in Congress, he has been abandoned by them in a moment of personal crisis. Based on the Log Cabin Republican’s actions and Congressman Delay’s comments, Senator Craig should be cast aside as quickly as possible for the good of the party.

Dare I say, based on this parable, this is not what Jesus would have done. Take, eat, do this in remembrance of me, this is Jesus’ command. As the disgraced man was invited to come and to stay at the table, we are all are invited to the table Jesus sets, none are turned away. We are not worthy to come to the table. By virtue of who we are and what we do, we have no place at the table. We only have a place because of who Jesus is. Because he is the host and he invites us.

On Friday February 13, 2004, Austin, Texas received about three inches of snow, a huge amount for central Texas. The temperatures hovered at about thirty degrees all day long, and the winds gusted as high as 15 miles per hour. The humidity was high, the dew point was low, and the chill was biting. [9] A good friend and I volunteered for “Freeze Night” at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Austin. “Freeze Night” is a program where homeless people are able to get a couple of hot meals and a place to sleep out of the wind, the cold, and the snow.

That night I did not sleep well, so at about midnight; I went out to where people were sleeping. There I felt a draft against my legs. Someone had gone outside for a cigarette and left a blanket in the door so they would not get locked out. Having been a smoker, I understand the urge. The smell of the smoke gave me the melancholy smile of someone who hasn’t had a cigarette in about twenty years. But it also reminded me of something from my prior career in Higher Education.

Fifteen years ago, I was the Coordinator of Residence Life at a small community college in rural southeast Colorado. While there, I constantly told residents not to leave the outside doors propped open. The residents would prop the doors open so that they could sneak something or someone into the building. I told them that leaving the doors open made them vulnerable to dangers from the world coming into the building.

As I smelled the smoke and considered the open door; a thought occurred to me: When I was in Colorado these homeless people were the people I was locking out. And that night they were the people I was locking in. I was humbled that the people I once rejected from shelter and protection were now the people I was charged with sheltering and protecting. Responding to the needs of all the children of God is what Jesus calls us to do. That chilly night in Austin, we invited the people to come and share the banquet God provides. They could not repay us, not in any tangible way. Rather the payment that I have received was a glimpse of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God through the presence of homeless people on a cold, cold winter’s eve.

And we continue to experience this inbreaking as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper; a feast that provides benefits that no earthly meal will ever match.

God gives us grace as through faith. Jesus shows us grace through the meal he shared with us that night long ago. The Holy Spirit shows us grace as the church called to celebrate this supper until Jesus comes again. The sovereign triune God shows us the grace that we are called to share with the world. In this relationship, there is truth that in Jesus’ freely given self-emptying we must remember that we are empty and can only be filled by the risen Lord. And we are called to share what we have received, the only thing which is worth sharing, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.

[1] Alpha Sigma Alpha, Epsilon-Epsilon Chapter, Emporia State University, Fall 1983-Spring 1984. Yeah Apples!
[2] Senator Larry David Website, http://craig.senate.gov/priorities.cfm, accessed September 1, 2007.
[3] Ibid, http://craig.senate.gov/releases/pr110606a.cfm, accessed September 1, 2007.
[4] Senator Larry Craig Arrest Report, http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/070828_Craig_Police_Reprot.pdf , accessed August 29, 2007.
[5] Heard on ABC Radio News, August 29, 2007
[6] Waters, Roger, “The Thin Ice,” Pink Floyd, The Wall. Columbia, 1979
[7] Today Show, Thursday August 30, 2007. Transcript from http://www.tomdelay.com/ accessed on September 1, 2007.
[8] Addendum, September 4, 2007: This was reported by news agencies as “Senator Craig Announces Resignation (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20467347/, accessed September 1, 2007). In retrospect, I (and every other news agency that reported this story) should have paid more attention to the source documents as Senator Craig has announced that he may not resign, citing the phrase, “it is my intent to resign…” not necessarily meaning “I will resign” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20593999/, accessed September 4, 2007).
[9] Weather Condition History for Austin, Texas for Friday, February 13, 2004, http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KATT/2004/2/13/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA, Accessed August 28, 2007.