Holy Lamentation

This sermon was heard at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Carthage, Texas on February 24, 2013, the 2nd Sunday in Lent.

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35

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

Woe. Plain and simple woe, the noun. Not the verb “whoa” you would say to a horse after a hard ride. Anguish, affliction, despair, misery, wretchedness; you know, woe. The horror and desolation of living in a world where there is poverty, crime, hunger, and North Korea has the bomb. The word woe has an ability to sum it all up pretty well.

About 25 years ago a man named Bobby McFerrin recorded a song called “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Then again, that was before North Korea got the bomb. I seem like a pretty cheery guy this morning, don’t I? Thank God it gets better. In fact that is our hope, our one hope, thanking God it does get better.

The Psalm I used for our Call to Worship, the 27^th Psalm, gives us the image of a great king facing the greatest dangers of his civilization. Ordained and installed as the head of the nation of Israel by the power and glory of the Lord, he still has many enemies. Evildoers have come upon him to eat up his flesh. Armies have encamped against him. He laments that his father and mother forsake him, but in the midst of this lament he knows it is the Lord who will sustain him:

For on the day of trouble the LORD shall shelter me in safety;

the LORD shall hide me in the secrecy of the holy place

and set me high upon a rock.

Even now the LORD lifts up my head

above my enemies round about me.

Therefore I will offer in the holy place an oblation

with sounds of great gladness;

I will sing and make music to the LORD.[1]

This is a Psalm of David, King David, the man who knows God’s own heart. One of the greatest kings of Israel, the father of Solomon, a leader in peace and in war; his name is mentioned over eight hundred times in the Old Testament and sixty more in the new. It’s easy to say he is one of the more important people in scripture and his life has more than it’s fair share of trouble.

There is woe, there is great danger. Herod and his ilk have been waiting at the door for thousands of years; and by the light of Christ that shines, the darkness is pierced. Jesus lives and works, praying for Jerusalem and for us in the midst of the things that cause us to lose sight of the church’s vocation.

In this, we can rest assured that in the grand scheme of life, nothing happens outside of the love and protection of the Lord God Almighty. Where before this in scripture is the story of Jesus and the devil in the wilderness, this is the story of another temptation, Jesus is invited to run for his life. Jesus cuts through the worldly political twists and turns, knowing that his time will not come today or tomorrow. Jesus is in control even when it appears to the world that he is not.

In the grand scheme, while we must let God be God who will act in God’s own time and in God’s own way; we must not allow ourselves to let this be our call to inaction. We must begin by being willing to be collected as chicks gathered by their mother, and then we must allow ourselves to be nurtured and grow into the people God calls us to be. As chicks will follow their mother hen, we must follow Christ seeking and finding the vocation of the church to share the good news with the world, using words when necessary.

When we read that Jesus calls Herod “that fox,” we can tell he means business. Let’s begin with the fact that the biblical witness on foxes is hardly favorable. The fox Jesus is sly, cunning, and voraciously destructive. Yet Jesus isn’t worried. Jesus knows what time it is and his planner is up to date with his schedule from now until Passover and beyond.

Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him. Jesus gives a warning in return. Jesus tells Herod and the Pharisees and the world that he will not be hindered. His work will not be impeded by Herod or by anybody else. He will cast out demons. He will cure the ill. Then on the third day, he will finish his work.

Finish, this is the same word Jesus will use upon the cross as he commends his spirit into his Father’s hands. Today he says, “On that day I finish.” On that Good Friday Jesus will say “It is finished.”

Jesus knows his fate, and he knows that today it has nothing to do with Herod Antipas. He knows it so well that he knows that his fate will be met down the road in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, this is a city that does not live up to its name. The Hebrew word for “City of Peace,” Jerusalem kills the prophets and stones those sent to it. This is where Naboth[2] and Zechariah[3] were stoned. This is where Stephen[4] will be stoned. This is a city that has been besieged over forty times and razed to the ground seventeen.[5] City of Peace? Not so much.

Jesus warns the Pharisees that he will not be rushed. As Jesus warns Herod and all with ears to hear that he is not finished, as he warns Jerusalem that he is coming; Jesus laments. He doesn’t lament his fate, no; he laments the city where his fate will be sealed. He laments the city where his fate will be unsealed.

In the City of David, in the City of Solomon’s Temple, in the City of God, in the City of Peace Jesus laments how often he has wanted, longed to gather the people. As a hen gathers her brood, Jesus longs to gather the children of Jerusalem. As he longs to gather the children of Jerusalem, Jesus longs to gather the children of God in this day and time.

David shares holy lament with us in his Psalms. Jesus shares a holy lament for the city that will take his life. The most important thing in these laments aren’t the complaints levied against God and man. The most important thing is the hope that even in a world gone mad there is hope that God is in control.

The Lord tells Abram that though he is advanced in age and without an heir, his progeny will be more abundant than the stars in the sky. Abram is blessed “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” Jesus says he will continue his work on earth. He declares “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

So here’s the deal, the most difficult deal: There is woe, there is reason to lament, and God is in control. Psalm 23 says it best, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (now there’s woe), I fear no evil because you, the Lord our God, you are with me. This is our hope.

During this the second week of Lent we continue to walk that path to the cross with our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. As Luke’s gospel reminds us, on this path he is casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow. On the third day his work will be finished. Jesus knows his woes, but he doesn’t let them stand in the way of today. Today and tomorrow and forever he will do as the Father commanded.

This is holy lament, acknowledging the pain, yet knowing God is in control in its midst. There is the old story about Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the hanging of two fellow prisoners in their concentration camp. The guard asks Bonhoeffer “Where is your God now?” The guard wants to hear Bonhoeffer’s lament, Bonhoeffer’s hopelessness, Bonhoeffer’s woe. His reply is that God is hanging right beside the two. Yes, there is lament, and Bonhoeffer, he who will be martyred as the Nazi retreat, Bonhoeffer leans toward hope. Just like Jesus. These are heady roll models, but God will hear our laments and our praise. Together they are holy lamentation.

There is woe in this world, and thank God it gets better. That is our hope, our one hope, in the grand scheme of life, nothing happens outside of the love and protection of the Lord God Almighty. Thank God it does get better.

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[1] Psalm 27:5-6, “The Book of Common Worship.”  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993, page 639.

[2] 1Kings 21:8-14

[3] 2Chronicles 24:20-22

[4] Acts 7:52, 58

[5] Tan, Paul Lee, “Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Sign of the Times.”  Chicago: Assurance Publishers, 1979, entry #2593.

Extra-Terrestrial

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall Texas on Sunday November 25, 2012, the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is also Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday.

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Psalm 132:1-12

Revelation 1:4b-8

John 18:33-37

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

This month on facebook, many of my pastor friends have participated in something called “Thirty Days of Thankfulness.” Some of your friends may have been doing this too. Beginning on Reformation Day and continuing throughout November, people have been sharing what they are thankful for.

People are thankful for family and friends. People are thankful for the roof over their heads. People are thankful for the jobs that help provide the roof over their family’s heads. People are thankful for sun and snow. People are thankful for first responders and the Red Cross because nobody is thankful for Superstorm Sandy. Many of my friends are of course thankful for the one who makes all of this, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I have thought about this constantly. I have decided I am thankful for words. I love the written word. I love a good novel. I love good magazine articles. I love getting letters and cards, especially with notes written inside. I love messages sent and received on facebook and Twitter. I love sharing through email. I even love composing and sending the pastoral letter every month, though some months are better than others. I love the Word of God. Above all, I am thankful for the word of God. I love the word who was God. I love the word who was with God. I love God who is the Alpha and the Omega. The one who was, is, and is to come.

There are some words that end up changing. It has to do with the way words are used than it has to do with the words themselves. Slang has a lot to do with that. So does emerging technology.

There’s a word that is almost missing completely from our vocabulary, King. All royal terms are now almost missing from our vocabulary. Unless you read a British scandal rag or an American tabloid there’s no reason for us to even consider the words and titles or royalty anymore.

Those of you who are around my age may remember this: In 1972, a man named David McCall noticed that his sons could remember the lyrics to songs on the radio, but could not remember their multiplication tables. So he wrote a song about multiplying by threes called “Three Is a Magic Number.” It tested well with kids and ended up on a children’s album. At the same time, a man named Tom Yohe heard the song and began making doodles that fit the music.[1] This is how Multiplication Rock! began. With the addition of Grammar Rock! in 1974 they evolved into Schoolhouse Rock! In 1975 America Rock! was born with the coming of the American Bicentennial celebration.

One of the songs from America Rock! is called “No More Kings.”  It’s a ditty about American Independence from the English Monarchy.  In three minutes it chronicled American history from the pilgrim landing of 1620 through the Boston Tea Party of 1773.  It portrayed King George first as a benevolent protector of the colonies and later as an uncaring, oppressive tyrant.  The clarion call of the song was found in its final verses:

They wanted no more Mother England.
They knew the time had come
For them to take command.

It's very clear you're being unfair, King,
No matter what you say, we won't obey.
Gonna hold a revolution now, King,

And we're gonna run it all our way
With no more kings...

We're gonna elect a president! (No more kings)
He's gonna do what the people want! (No more kings)
We're gonna run things our way! (No more kings)
Nobody's gonna tell us what to do![2]

No more kings has been our clarion call for nearly 240 years. No more kings! We are very serious about this, and we should be. We don’t want a government that doesn’t respond to the people. As the song says, “[The President]'s gonna do what the people want!” With nearly 240 years without a king, monarchy is little more than a weak concept to us. This doesn’t upset me, but it doesn’t leave us with much context for what a king or kingdom is. And that is important in today’s gospel reading. It is important on this, Christ the King Sunday.

Today we enter the drama between Pilate and Jesus. It begins as the Sanhedrin, the temple leadership, has finally been able to bring Jesus before the Roman Governor Pilate. The Scribes and the Pharisees accuse Jesus of calling himself a King. In the Roman Empire this is a treasonous offence; because there is no other King aside from Caesar. Debate raged between the leaders of the temple and the governor of the state. “Why do you bring him to me?” Pilate asks.  “Because he’s guilty!” they answer. Realizing that the temple leaders would see Jesus killed, Pilate goes to Jesus himself and asks “Are you the King of the Jews?” 

Pilate asks Jesus a political question, “Are you the King of the Jews? Are you their King,” It is the question Pilate needs answered if he is going to execute Jesus. If Jesus is a rival king, then he is guilty of treason and subject to execution by the hand of the empire he rebels against. It’s the law of the land. If Jesus is of no earthly political threat, there is no reason that he should be held by Rome. If he is a threat to the temple, that is a matter for the Sanhedrin, not Pilate. Oh and how I imagine Pilate hoped this would be their matter instead of his. 

Pilate asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 

As with most tests, Jesus does not answer directly. He answers by asking, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” Pilate confirms that no Roman authority delivers Jesus to Roman law; it is his own nation and the chief priests. Then Pilate asks the question of all questions: “What is it that you have done?”

What have you done? What have you done to deserve this fate? What have you done to cause such an uproar? What have you done that the chief priests of your own people will bring you to me to be executed?

So Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

A word that gets a lot of attention is “extra.” It has many different nuances, but in general it means “more.” This is how Taco Bell gives us the XXL Steak Nachos; extra, extra large. This is how teachers came up with “extra credit” to give more points to students for more work.

Sometimes though, it means “beyond.” We’re all familiar with the old movie “ET: The Extraterrestrial.” It’s a film about a little guy from outer space. Extraterrestrial means “beyond our world.” To us, we can say that Jesus’ kingdom is extraterrestrial; from beyond our world, from another place. Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Marie recently gave me a copy of Mitch Albom’s new book, “The Time Keeper.”[3] One of the main characters is the first man who measured time. Measured time was such a novel concept that it took the people from pagan religions where gods of dark and light fought over the skies to the Timex, Swatch, and Rolex. Measuring time moved us from a broad concept of seasons to a concrete understanding of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Albom’s understanding of time, which is nothing new, allows us say that the kingdom of God is now and forever, now and not yet, and yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This view of time, both ethereal and concrete, helps us see another way that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Christ’s kingdom not only exists beyond this world, it exists both inside and outside of time. That’s a kingdom Pilate could never have considered.

So we have a king, a great king whose kingdom exists outside of anything we have ever experienced; not really of this world, not really of this time. In that way, this king’s reign doesn’t threaten us because of how it exists and how it doesn’t exist. This is a time when we run into our American mindset. Again from Bicentennial Rock!

We're gonna elect a president! (No more kings)
He's gonna do what the people want! (No more kings)
We're gonna run things our way! (No more kings)
Nobody's gonna tell us what to do![4]

I believe that Americans, as a people, have no concept of kings, kingship, and kingdoms. In the Old Testament, it represented the national or civil monarchy.[5] The books of Kings and Chronicles show the varying success of these earthly kingdoms. The word is also used for the Redeemer King.[6] These are the kings of the Psalms. To the Greeks, the king was the lawful and usually priestly ruler of the people, in a good sense[7] (whatever that means). While this king points to the civil kings, it is also the fertile soil of the Messiah to come. This is the king we speak of when we speak of Christ the King.

As Americans, democracy, the voice of the people, and self governance are ingrained upon us. This kingship is foreign to us, and a little frightening. Kings call us to give up control of our and that doesn’t always set well. Giving up our right to control our own lives is positively undemocratic. Yet, that is how we are to live in the Reign of Christ under his kingship.

We know the slogan “God is my co-pilot.” While this keeps our personal sense of control in order, it is a poor substitute for the kingdom to come. It affirms self control and denies the Kingship of Christ. Honestly, if God is not our pilot we are going the wrong way. God is sovereign, God is in control, and this is the way of the kingdom to come.

Our call, our vocation is not to live in the turmoil of our daily lives, but in the reign of Christ. On this Christ the King Sunday we are called to remember this: Our lives are different, but not so different. There are now and have always been kings and governments and commitments that have made a play for our attention, our devotion, our honor. Our call; here and beyond, now and forever, is to be citizens in Christ’s kingdom.

So for me, I am thankful for words. I am thankful for words, like love, and peace, and grace, and hope. I am thankful for the Reign of Christ that makes these words more than words. I am thankful for the Reign of Christ that makes these words more than just words; yesterday, today and tomorrow; now and forever and always; on earth as it is in heaven.

---

[1] Schoolhouse Rock, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Rock

[2] Ahern, Lynn, “No More Kings.”  Lyrics found at http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/No.html

[3] Albom, Mitch, “The Time Keeper.” New York: Hyperion, 2012.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. I, page 565.

[6] Ibid. page 566.

[7] Ibid. page 564.

"Point of View" and "...then how?"

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday October 14, 2012, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Psalm 22:1-15

Hebrews 4:12-16

Mark 10:17-31

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 like to start with something that has a little more pizzazz than this. I like starting with stories that either take an unexpected turn or stories that seem completely unrelated to the Gospel I had just read. Every pastor has their own way of beginning a sermon, but this one was illusive.

I mean these are some pretty heady readings. Hebrews tells us that Jesus has been tempted and tested just like we are yet is without sin. So let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. At first look from a cautious point of view that doesn’t sound like such a good idea. Jesus was tried, tempted, and tested just like we are everyday, but he didn’t succumb to Satan’s antics. Jesus has been through the same things we have, and he did much better. How can we approach that?

The gospels are loaded with stories of how Jesus was tried by Satan after forty days in the wilderness, his family when they thought he was nuts, the Presbytery—er, Pharisees, and finally by his own. Yes, saying “by his own” I’m talking about Judas, but Mark’s gospel has shown us that many of the disciples who were named were named because they were making a mistake. Peter, even after he is declared to be the Rock of the Church, told Jesus how to be the Messiah.

So we should approach boldly, with confidence? With our sins and his sinlessness we how can we approach Jesus at all? If we approach with confidence had better make sure we don’t approach in arrogance. Otherwise we could end up like the Nazi’s at the end of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” after picking the wrong Grail cup.

Our Call to Worship this morning taken from the 22^nd Psalm begins with the greatest lament in Christian Literature! “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I know my share of sorrow, grief, and shame—but these words take the cake. “Oh my God, I cry in the daytime and you do not answer; by night I find no rest.” Abandoned by God, the psalmist cries out.

You can expect fair-weather friends and bad-weather enemies to betray you, but when the times get hardest can you imagine being abandoned by your best friends? It happens to Jesus at his moment of greatest despair. It didn’t just happen, he prophesied it would happen.

Of course our Old Testament reading was from Job. Last week’s reading from Job set up the scene for a man’s great downfall. His wife cries out “curse God and die!” Job refuses to curse God. He asks “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” So Job did not sin with his lips.

By this time in the story, Job is not a happy camper. His three “friends,” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, each try to tell Job why he is bad, wrong, evil, sinful, or whatever. Job is done. He wants justice. He’s so upset that he wants God to come and hear his complaint. He figures no great power would ever press charges against him. Job riles because God is absent, he is abandoned. He is lost, but he is not silenced by this darkness.

So with all of these stories, we see despair. People looking for what’s good. People looking for what’s just. People looking for peace in a world that looks like God is looking the other direction.

To this, we bring you the story of the rich man. The rich man asks the question of the hour, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Let’s be honest, in one way or another, everyone has asked that question. We may scoff because we know how Jesus will respond, but honestly, everyone wants to know what we have to do to inherit eternal life.

At least the rich man doesn’t ask what he has to do to earn eternal life. To earn eternal life implies that there is something we can do, something that has to be done so that we can earn eternal life. At least he got that part of his question right. We can’t earn eternal life, we can only inherit it.

So Jesus gives him the quiz. Using the last six of the Ten Commandments, Jesus asks the rich man how he has treated the people around him, how he has lived in the community. He has kept the commandments of God since he was a boy.

So Jesus told him what comes next. Jesus used five verbs: Go, Sell, Give, Come, and Follow. He tells him to trade his treasures on Earth for treasures in Heaven. Then he can come and follow. He asks the man to do as the other disciples had done, leave it all behind and follow. This is the fate of the apostolic disciples. They gave all they had to God, in exchange God was all they had.

The Dutch missionary Andrew van der Bijl is more commonly known as Brother Andrew. The first of the many books he wrote was the memoir “God’s Smuggler.”[1] It tells the story of his early childhood, conversion to Christianity, and adventures as a Bible-smuggler behind the Iron Curtain. It has now sold over 10 million copies in thirty-five languages and is a model for the modern conversion and missionary story.

One of the major themes in the story is Andrew’s utter dependence upon God. When in Seminary in Scotland, one of the lessons that was impressed upon the students was that they all faced obligations, they all faced challenges, and these could only be met by complete and utter faith in God.

The seminarians who tried to rely on “keeping a little back in case of a rainy day” soon found that every day was rainy. When they began to depend upon themselves and their own money management skills two things happened:

The first was that the demands seemed to increase.

The second was that the miracles seemed to dry up.

The theme of God providing everything was first and foremost in the book. Miraculous acts and gifts provided what Andrew needed, from safety and provision traveling in Eastern Europe to toothpaste.

Nothing was too small or too big for God’s concern. I think we can safely say that this rich man’s story is the antithesis to “God’s Smuggler.” He wanted to follow the Lord, but the rich man didn’t want to leave his safety net behind.

After a bit more of this, noting how difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples ask the big question all over again, “Who then can be saved?”

This is where folks often begin to feel a little smug. After all, none of us are rich. We certainly don’t have the riches that the rich man has. We don’t have the world at our disposal. The world is not our oyster. The only oysters we have are found in a Po’ Boy; and we say “po’” because we don’t have enough for the whole word “Poor.” We try to distance ourselves from this narrative because we’re nothing like this rich man, nothing like him at all.

This is how we perceive ourselves, our point of view. When our point of view begins to exclude us from specific scriptures, we fall into one of scripture’s traps. When we begin to think that lessons of scripture don’t apply to us because we’re nothing like that, we begin to pare not only the breadth of God’s sovereignty and authority, but the reach of God’s love.

When we think we are poor, it is because we don’t look around. No, I don’t live in that gated community on South Washington, neither do any of us. But when we look around, and see the poverty that surrounds us we learn that there are some who see us as the rich man who won’t give up what he has to help the poor and follow Jesus.

Also our reading talks about financial wealth. This is surely the most accessible form of wealth. But this is also when I wonder if this point of view isn’t overly restrictive. Our wealth extends beyond our treasure. It includes our time and our talent as well.

Some of us have made sacrifices. Some of us have taken jobs in places where our talents are needed to help those who don’t have the same resources we do. Some of us have taken jobs in places where our talents are sorely needed to help those in crisis and in danger. Some of us have served our country to help preserve the freedom of the rich and the poor. Some of us have taken our lives and shared them with the sick and the widowed and the orphaned. All who do this forsake worldly wealth in exchange for Christian service, but is there more?

Even more than all of this, we are called to set aside our egos. We are called to set aside what we think is best so that we can find and follow what God thinks is best. Setting aside our selves, our notions, and our identities is even tougher than emptying the bank account. From our point of view what we have is limited, and it’s ours! From God’s point of view, what we have been given, given, is everything!

In “Call to Conversion,” Jim Wallis reminds us “Evangelism can no longer mean simply taking people out of the world, running them through some process of conversion and then placing them back in the same world and somehow expecting them to survive. If conversion is the translation of persons from one world to another, from one community to another, then conversion to Christ requires a new environment in which it is more possible to live a Christian life.”[2]

We are called to accept the gift of eternal life and everything that comes with it, the good and the bad. We are then called to share those blessings with others creating a new community that is only possible through God.

So, there is nothing we can do to earn eternal life. There is nothing we can do to purchase our inheritance. For us it is impossible. We can’t buy our way into the family, yet there is a great cost, whether economic or not, to following Jesus like the first apostles and disciples. Our point of view may even keep us from seeing the price we are being called to pay. So then what, what can we do to inherit eternal life?

Gloriously, our earlier readings not only ask big questions, they give us big answers.

Hebrews says that Jesus has been tempted and tested just like we are yet is without sin. So let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. This still sounds pretty heady and then we finish reading the verse. We approach the throne of grace “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace and mercy are things we cannot hope to earn or purchase. Offering anything for grace or mercy would not make them grace or mercy at all! The cautious point of view I mentioned earlier is not what God wants from us. Jesus didn’t show us a way we could imitate, he showed us Himself. We can’t be sinless, but we can follow Jesus. This is why we are called to ask. This is why we are called to be bold.

As for the psalmist, too well we know the cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But regardless of how David feels about his earthly situation, he still knows God is God. He cries, “Yet you are the Holy One, enthroned upon the praises of Israel, our ancestors put their trust in you; they trusted, and you delivered them.

As for Job, well, he’s seeking an audience with the Lord trusting the Lord is just.

So here’s my point, and it gets back to verse 18 from our Mark reading. Jesus asks the young man “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except for God alone.” This repeats what Hebrews and Psalms teach us. God is good and no one is good except for God alone. It also reminds us that Jesus did not come to eliminate the law. Jesus loves the man because he follows the law! But to follow Jesus, there is more.

We don’t really know the fate of this rich man. He may have gone home and died a rich man who told stories about the day Jesus told him to give it all up. He might have told that story as a grand joke or as a sad lament. Then again, he may have repented. He may have done as Jesus asked, not immediately, but he might have.

Scripture doesn’t say he did, and scripture doesn’t say he didn’t.

What I say is Jesus is in the business of reconciliation. Our take on the shape of reconciliation isn’t always to our liking. It wasn’t to the liking of a lot of people. That’s our point of view, but it is God bringing us together in the name of Christ. And that’s who can be saved, everyone through Christ; because only in God are all things possible.

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[1] Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, “God’s Smuggler.” Old Tappan, NJ: Spire Books, 1967.

[2] Wallis, Jim, “The Call to Conversion.” San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992), 115. Found at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1208.

Political--Not Partisan

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday September 16, 2012, the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Proverbs 1:20-33

Psalm 19

James 3:1-12

Mark 8:27-38

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

Published in 1964, “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer” by C. S. Lewis[i] takes the form a collection of letters sent to a fictional friend named Malcolm. About ten years ago, Christian book publishers were revisiting this form of literature. Wm. B. Eerdmans published “Letters to New Pastors,” the Michael Jinkins foray into this genre.

Instead of one recipient, Jinkins letters are received by several. Among the recipients are a man seeking spiritual direction, a woman having difficulties in her vocation and at home, and a man suffering from burnout. The first letter is to a new pastor named Malcolm who writes in one letter that he “hates church politics.”[ii]

Jinkins answers Malcolm’s concerns deftly reminding him that he grew up in the church, his parents were elders in the church, and if it weren’t for politics there wouldn’t be a church. Jinkins calls church politics “a group of people trying to work out how we live together.” In fact that’s how Jinkins defines politics in general, “people working out their common life, people negotiating their values, beliefs, and aspirations, and the varying degrees of influence necessary to promote the values and beliefs they hold precious and the aspirations they think are worth the work.”[iii]

To Jinkins “the church is more than that, but it is certainly not less than that.”[iv]

From modern media, television, radio, papers, magazines, internet; it’s difficult for me to find similarity between what passes for politics and Jinkins’ definition. Too often all I hear is yelling. I hear emotional arguments. I have even heard people ask not to be bothered with facts while making a point. There is information and bad information. There is rumor and innuendo.

As Mark Twain once said there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Here’s my point, setting aside how we exercise our partisan political process, politics is about how we live together.

The word political comes into our language from the Greek word for city. It has entered our lives in some very familiar place names, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and the ever popular Metropolis. Geographers use the term “megalopolis” to describe a large area that includes several major cities and their hinterlands that form a geographic economy. Simply, politics has to do with how a community operates.

I mention the difference between textbook politics and the current American version of politics because of something President George W. Bush’s second Press Secretary Scott McClellan, wrote in his book “What Happened.”[v] McClellan talks about how American politics has shifted from using power to change things and make them better to a pattern of gaining power for the sake of having power. He talks about a model of governing called “the permanent campaign” where working out our common life is forsaken in exchange for maintaining power within one political party.

Let me take a moment to point out that as McClellan noted President George W. Bush’s administration worked under the principles of the “permanent campaign;” the concept itself was created by Patrick Caddell, an advisor to President Carter in the late 1970’s. If the people who govern us are guilty of this sin as McClellan says, then it is not the failing of just one side of the political aisle, it belongs to both.

Then Jesus said, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

This gem came after one of the most dramatic scoldings found in the New Testament. It is heard after Jesus calls Peter “Satan” and tells him to back off. Of course, this happened because Peter told Jesus that he was all wrong about what it means to be the Messiah.

Jesus tells his disciples what it will take for him to be the Messiah, the Christ; this after Peter rightly says Jesus is the Christ. People had guessed that Jesus was one of the ancient prophets, or maybe the reincarnated John the Baptist. Peter is the one who when Jesus asked “Who do you say I am” proclaimed “You are the Messiah, the Christ.”

Jesus told his disciples what shape it would take. It would take suffering. It would take rejection by the most powerful people in the land. It would take physical torture. It would take his very death.

I wonder if at this point Peter quit listening. I don’t really blame him if he did. Yes he should have been paying more attention, but after hearing this litany of woe the internal cries of “Oh my Lord, no, this cannot be!” must have been deafening. Whether this is what was happening or not, Peter completely missed the part about the resurrection.

Peter heard that his Rabbi, his teacher, was going to be treated unbearably. Peter heard his friend was going to suffer. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. I wonder if any of us would be different, hoping and praying such wretchedness would not come to your friend and your Lord, but that is not what the life and the resurrected life of the Christ is about.

Jesus promised pain and suffering and he promised his light at the end. Then, to make his point, to make the truth known, Jesus calls all of the people with ears to hear and feet to gather and receive the truth. He calls everyone to know the cost of following him. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

This is the problem I have with Caddell’s “permanent campaign,” there is no sacrifice. Anything that could cause controversy, anything that can cause the nation to feel the slightest distress is avoided completely. As much as can be swept under the national rug is, despite the twenty-four hour news cycle.

These days most news organizations are little more than a place for merchants to sell their goods. Each network becomes a niche for a particular set of viewers—customers. “News programs” are just the bridges that link one set of commercials to the next.[vi] So if something comes up that isn’t supported by the mission of the network or the whims of its viewers, it is often ignored or discredited.

That’s why I watch “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. They try to discredit everything, including themselves, all for the sake of the laugh. Of course, that’s their corporate mission. This irony escapes no institution, including the church.

On Friday, Harriette, Tom, Lisa, and I were in Fort Worth for the Presbytery meeting. By the way, if you ever considered hating church politics, this was the time. The meeting featured two major pieces of business, one of which included a “Covenant Agreement” in its appendix. The agreement reads:

In order to: promote the ongoing faithfulness of our members in the work of the Mission of God through Jesus Christ; exercise “mutual forbearance”; treat others with respect regardless of theological and ecclesiological differences; and work for fairness to all parties in our decisions, therefore, the Presbytery Council of Grace Presbytery and the congregation of the space for congregation name Church of space for name of city, Texas covenant to follow this Procedure and abide by its terms as a way of discerning God’s will for the relationship between the congregation and Grace Presbytery.[vii]

After this paragraph there is space for this document to be dated and signed by the congregation’s pastor and Clerk of Session, the Presbytery Council’s Moderator and the Stated Clerk of the Presbytery. The proposal attached to this covenant did not pass. If it had, I would not have signed it.

The reason comes from the Ordination Vows taken by every Elder, Ruling Elders and Ministers alike. One of the constitutional questions we all answer is “Will you fulfill your ministry in obedience to Jesus Christ?” My vows do not ask me to fulfill my ministry in obedience to a piece of paper.

Elders are also asked if we will, “sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do,” and “be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions?” This piece of paper and its covenant do not carry the weight of the essential tenets of the faith. Neither will you find such a document or a place to sign on in any of our confessions.

Elders are also commended by ordination vows to “be governed by our church’s polity, and abide by its discipline.” We are also to be “a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit.” (Sounds like our Call to Worship from James, doesn’t it?) Friends, if I will not abide by the polity of the denomination and the rules of the presbytery, surely one more sheet of paper will not secure my allegiance.

Friends, when I am not a gracious Elder, one more sheet of paper will not make me that way.

Our vows, the vows all elders take, detail ways which make us better Elders; enabling and encouraging us to live into these vows, spreading the Gospel, and being better children of Christ.

This covenant, even more than adding one more layer of “assurance” in a world filled with uncertainty and sin, is warned against in Matthew 5:37 when Jesus says to the crowds “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’” In the case of this “Covenant Agreement,” the Presbytery was being asked to take an oath to a process written by men.

This I could not in do. If push had come to shove and I was required to sign this paper, it could have been at the expense of my ordination. I do not think it would have, but it surely could have been taken to Presbyterian courts which can suspend or revoke my ordination. But Jesus asks “For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Is it worth the integrity of the Word to sign a piece of paper promising to obey a policy that deals with what Jesus calls “the things of men,” above “the things of God?” I say no.

If you wondered what all of the hullabaloo is about, I’m not saying. In fact I have not told you what it was about. I have even taken the name of the procedure out of the covenant. The reason why is because it doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter what this whole thing is about. It doesn’t matter because if it’s not one thing it’s another. If it’s not one “thing of men” it’s another. It doesn’t matter because if I am not asked to sign a loyalty oath today, I may be asked to sign one tomorrow.

This is the bad side of the nature of politics, sometimes we are asked to set aside our convictions, our beliefs, our values for someone else’s. To our Lord this is not important because we are being called to a standard more important than “permanent campaigns” and “loyalty oaths.” We are called to lose our lives for the sake of the gospel because that is the only way we can save our lives.

Jinkins ends his letter to Malcolm paraphrasing the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “Politics is the arena where conscience and control meet, where ethics and power collide, and where we must work out the tentative and uneasy compromises that make it possible for us to live together.”[viii] In the church, the only source of political power, the only judge of how we live together is the Lord our God.

My sermon title today comes from the realization that our world is political. Considering that the world and the church is nothing less (but surely more) than how people work out living together on God’s good earth that should be evident.

What our faith is not about is partisan politics along the lines of how it is demonstrated in our nation. God is sovereign above all, certainly sovereign above our political parties. God is not bound to our partisan ways. God works to bring reconciliation to the world, which is contrary to the permanent campaign that seeks to do nothing more than hold and gain power for its own sake, not for the sake of citizens. It is when we see beyond our divisions that we begin to work together, not ashamed of the Son of Man, becoming an instrument in the coming glory of God.

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[i] Lewis, C. S., “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.” (1st American ed.), New York: Harcourt, Brace & World 1964.

[ii] Jinkins, Michael, “Letters to New Pastors.” Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2006, 39-44.

[iii] Ibid p. 40, italics original to the text

[iv] Ibid p. 40, italics original to the text

[v] McClellan, Scott, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.” New York: PublicAffairs, 2008.

[vi] This point was actually made about all television in Dan Jinkins book “Life Its Own Self, the Semi-Tougher Adventures of Billy Clyde Puckett and Them.”

[vii] Grace Presbytery Stated Meeting Docket, Vol. 33, No. 4. Book 2, inserted page.

[viii] Jinkins, Ibid. p. 44. Jinkins footnotes this reference to: Neibuhr, Reinhold, “Moral Man and Immoral Society.” New York: Scribner, 1932, 1.4.

Words and Deeds in a Chaotic World

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday June 24, 2012, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Podcast of "Words and Deeds in a Chaotic World" (MP3)

1Samuel 17:32-49

Psalm 9:9-20

2Corinthians 6:1-13

Mark 4:35-41

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

Friends, it is good to be back with you. As you’ve probably heard, we’ve had a chaotic week. We discovered the distance from the Marshall Wal-Mart to our house is just over 1,253 miles if you go by way of Mexico, Missouri. We also discovered that some phone calls sometimes chaos has a way of overwhelming life. So it is good to be back home where we belong, away from the chaos. So now, if you will indulge me, I want to start at the beginning. In fact, I’m beginning with the beginning of the beginning.

Genesis 1:1-2 reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” I begin here to share a word that doesn’t get a lot of play when looking at the creation story, formless. In this setting formless means “land reduced to primaeval [sic] chaos”[1] When God created the heavens and the earth; creation began with utter and complete disorder. There was nothing but chaos. It took the act of creation to bring order to the primeval chaos of existence.

In ancient times, water embodied chaos. So God built a barrier, a vault, between the waters of order and the waters of chaos. Continuing with verses 6 and 7, “And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.”

God would later use the waters of chaos to wipe creation from the face of the earth in the story the flood. The chaos of the sea is the home of the Leviathan, the ancient dragon of the sea. The Behemoth of Job is a creation of the seas and the waters. The abyss, the depths of the oceans and seas is the place of the bottomless, unfathomed, and incomprehensibly deep underworld. The sea was considered the personification of death itself. Ultimately, the scriptural image of the waters and the seas and the storms and the winds is danger.[2] 

In our enlightened age, even for people who do not know the history or the mystery, storm-tossed waters continue to be a metaphor for the turmoil of living.

Let’s look at Mark’s gospel.  In the midst of the storm, in the midst of the sea, in the midst of certain death; Jesus was resting on a cushion. We read that he was sleeping, but scripture goes further, he was sleeping on a cushion. The Galilean galley didn’t have a lido deck where Jesus could rest in the stern of the ship. On the contrary, these were working vessels for working men. There wasn’t a place designed on the ship to go take a nap. Still Jesus was resting on a cushion. 

Jesus knew there would be a storm. I imagine that as soon as the skies began to boil everyone knew there was going to be a storm. At least one-third of the disciples were seasoned fishermen and the rest of them were locals. As Jesus notes in Luke’s gospel,[3] these disciples knew how to interpret the look of earth and sky. So we can safely say, even though the storm rose suddenly while they were on the water, the men in the boats on the sea knew hard weather was coming up. Still Jesus takes a nap-on a cushion.

Soon everyone on the boat was, well, let’s say they were emotionally wrought. They were in a big old panic. They were losing their collective minds. Everyone had a pretty good idea what kind of danger they were in and the fishermen knew what kind of danger they were in, and Jesus slept.

I imagine by this point, everyone who saw the Lord catching forty winks on a cushion was wondering when or if he would wake up and grab a line or pick up a bucket to bail or something. Jesus had not yet revealed his messianic identity, so they weren’t expecting anything miraculous, but c’mon, lend a hand.

I also imagine their conversations included the sentence “Wake him up!” followed by its mate “No, you wake him up!” Finally, some of the disciples got the fuzzy end of the lollypop and scripture tells us what followed, “The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’”

Now, there’s a sentence right out of the chaos, “don’t you care?” And it’s not an unfamiliar sentence to these disciples on the water in the storm. The story of the prophet Jonah[4] features this scene:

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

In the midst of the chaos, Jonah takes a siesta as the world crumbles around him. This leaves us the captain to wake the one person not feverishly praying to his God. To paraphrase this captain, a man who cries out to his passenger, “Maybe your God will care enough not to drown us, maybe your God will care enough to keep the chaos from swallowing us. Do something!”

There is an old saying attributed to St Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words.” Francis is telling us to get up off the couch and do something with our salvation. It’s a good thought, but it denies an important truth. It forgets that when our God created the cosmos, he spoke. God didn’t pull the ingredients out of the cabinet and pop it in the Easy Bake. God spoke and God created. In our reading, Jesus spoke and the storm was calmed.

You have often heard me say all translation is interpretation, and this is true. In our reading, the New Revised Standard Version tells us Jesus awakens and says, “Peace! Be still!” Isn’t this wonderful? Can’t you see Jesus standing in the boat in the midst of the raging sea, stretching his arms and saying “Shalom!” It’s Jesus offering his peace over the terror of our lives. It’s a nice picture, but it’s not what Mark’s gospel means.

The New International Version gets it better in this case. Jesus cries out “Quiet! Be still!” The word Jesus uses is a cry to tell the wind to shut up. He’s telling the wind stop and be still. The Greek word tells us that Jesus is telling the wind to be muzzled.[5] Jesus binds the storm and the chaos in a muzzle. He’s not offering his peace. He’s not giving the wind and the storm his shalom. He’s binding the chaos of life now and forever from the midst of the tempest. In a word, in one word, Jesus binds the chaos of the world under his control for all times.

This is what I mean about words and deeds. For our Lord and God, words are deeds. Our God creates a world that he declares “very good” simply speaking it into existence. Our Lord binds the chaos of the world and places it under his control.

For us, this has been a time of chaos. By the way, if you think I’m standing in the pulpit talking about you specifically, you’re not completely wrong. When I was younger, I often felt like my pastor examined my soul when writing Sunday’s sermon. Please know that the reason this feeling has truth is that what I am saying is universal; we all know the chaos of our lives. We are all being thrown around in our dinghies on the sea of chaos. It’s the reason why the reader of Mark’s gospel could hear the story of Jonah in the words of the disciples; everyone was familiar with the stories. Just as important, they were familiar with the words.

A part of our personal chaos included the death of my sister’s husband Tom. Between Tom’s death and my mother-in-law Toni’s health, the chaos of our lives made their way across the life of the Elders, Georgia,[6] and this congregation. During Tom’s funeral, the Reverend Terry Kukuk of the First Presbyterian Church in Mexico, Missouri shared these words:[7]

Psalm 23 (the Lord is my shepherd…) was read this afternoon because Mary Jane (my sister) said it was Tom’s favorite. It’s a favorite Psalm for many. Somehow, these ancient words have stretched themselves out over the generations and found a home in many hearts. The image of God as shepherd brings comfort and reassurance in many moments for life. These words often act like an anchor, holding us when so much around us is falling apart.

We have come to associate Psalm 23 with funerals but when you really stop to consider the words of this Psalm you discover that this is a Psalm about living. For it locates the daily activities of life in the presence of God. This Psalm calls us to have confidence that in all circumstances of life we can turn to God and trust in God’s steadfast faithfulness.

In these words, Rev. Kukuk clearly and wonderfully answered one of the most problematic questions asked about scripture.  Jesus does not promise that there will be no more storms.  He promises that he will be with us in the storms.  Jesus doesn’t promise to end the pain.  He promises to be with us while we are in pain. 

In Leipzig, Martin Luther was asked, “Where will you be, Brother Martin, when church, state, princes and people turn against you?” Luther answered: “Why, then as now, in the hands of Almighty God.”[8]  So it was with Martin Luther, so it was with Jonah, so it was with the disciples, so it is with Mary Jane, so it is with Toni, so it is with us all.

Here is what this means to me: In the face of everything that did happen, was happening, and is going to happen, Jesus had a peace about him that was unknown to everyone else on the sea. The disciples knew they were in danger. The waves were breaking over the bow of the ship and it was taking on water. The boat was filling with so much water that it was being swamped by the sea, the wind, and the waves. 

The disciples were worried, I am sure; they knew their situation was perilous.  In the meantime, here’s Jesus, napping on the stern, on a cushion.  So when they were asking Jesus if he cared, the disciples were probably just hoping Jesus would grab a bucket or a line and help stem the rising tide of the storm. 

But what they got was different; they got the word of the Lord crying, “Be still.”  “Be still;” this is the same phrase Jesus used in the first chapter of Mark when expelling the unclean spirit from a man.  Now he uses this phrase to calm the chaos of the wind and the water and the sea. 

The disciples knew they needed a miracle, they didn’t know the miracle was taking a nap on the boat.  In ancient times, boats were seen as symbols of the church.  It was a great ark that saved humanity in the time of the great flood.  The boat was integral to the story of Jonah.  Jesus spent enough time on the docks to earn his union card.  Is it any wonder that we are called to the vessel where Jesus is by the rudder?  

Our reading reminds us that we are called to join the one who brings order to the storms, the rage, and the chaos in the boat we call the body of Christ, the church. This is what God calls us to do. Just like the lives of the disciples who are called to follow Jesus then, we are called now. We are called to be in the boat with Jesus through the chaos of our lives together. 

As the old song goes, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”[9] Yes, we do. The love of God is with us in the waters of our baptism, the very waters that were separated at creation by the vault; the waters which Jesus stills by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the love that muzzles the chaos of the sea and promises to remain with us through the storm of our lives.

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[1]  ‘Wht from the Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, 1907.

[2] Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, Chaos entry

[3] Luke 12:56

[4] Jonah 1:4-6

[5] A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Bauer, Danker Ed’s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, page 1060.

[6] Georgia is our church secretary and instrumental musician. She is a gem.

[7] Editor’s note—The quote from Rev. Kukuk is in italics. The regular font is my comment. –PAA

[8] Luther quote from HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustrations_for_installment.asp?installment_id=2723, retrieved June 21, 2009.

[9] Gordon Lightfoot, “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.”