Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas on Sunday July 14, 2013, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Amos 7:7-17

Psalm 82

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

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

If you know the lyrics, sing along. If you don’t, then just hum. Nobody is going to mind.

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood; it’s a beautiful day for a neighbor. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine? 

It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood; a neighborly day for a beauty. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.

 I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; 

since we’re together we might as well say:

“Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Won’t you please, won’t you please, please won’t you be my neighbor.[1]

New episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” were shown on PBS stations from 1970 until 2001 and on National Educational Television two years before that. Reruns aren’t available on local stations, but they are through the PBS Kids web site.[2]

The show was characterized by its quiet simplicity and gentleness. Episodes did not have a plot, but they did have a theme. They consisted of Rogers speaking directly to viewers about various issues, taking the viewer on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, crafts, and music, and interacting with his friends. The half-hour episodes were punctuated by a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.”

At the beginning of each episode, Mister Rogers enters his television studio house singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” He hangs up his suit jacket, puts on a zippered cardigan, then takes off his dress shoes to put on his sneakers. One of Rogers’ sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.

Rogers covered a broad range of topics over the years, and the series did not shy away from issues that other children’s programming avoided. In fact, Rogers endeared himself to many when, on March 23, 1970, he dealt with the death of one of his pet goldfish. The series also dealt with competition, divorce, and war. Rogers returned to the topic of anger regularly and focused on peaceful ways of dealing with angry feelings.[3]

All of this happened in the context of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a mystical place where the imaginary fourth wall of the television screen magically disappeared for a half hour and we were all welcomed into a world of peace and grace.

Considering Mister Fred Rogers was a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an ordained PC(USA) Minister, welcoming children into a world of peace and grace was his vocation as well as his passion.

So the expert in religious law came to test Jesus asking, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies in true rabbinical fashion, asking a question when an answer is sought. “What is written in the Law?”

The lawyer answers this question by a perfect recitation from Leviticus and Deuteronomy[4] saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms the lawyer’s answer saying, “Do this, and you will live.” The experts in the law commonly accepted that observance of the Torah was essential to inherit eternal life.[5] So when Jesus and the lawyer agree on this point, they share the truth of thousands of years of tradition.

But the lawyer’s questions are more than an academic or rabbinic exercise. He wants to justify himself. So he asks Jesus another question, “Who is my neighbor?” This is an important question, more important than we may suppose. What gets lost in the translation of Leviticus is that the original command to love the neighbor specifies “your kin” and “any of your people.”[6] So the lawyer wants to be justified that by helping his family, his people, and his nation he will inherit eternal life.

Then Jesus tells the legal expert a story and asks him another question, “So which of these three, the Priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The lawyer answers, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.” This must have been difficult for the expert in the law. He knew it wasn’t his people, the Priest or the Levite, but he couldn’t push the name of his dreaded cousin past his lips. Instead he says, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.”

Saying this, the lawyer, the expert in the law tells the world that being a neighbor is about more than just being kin or members of the same nation. It has to do with action and mercy.  Being a neighbor now means more than it did in Leviticus. Then Jesus gives him his charge, “Go, and do likewise.”

Jesus shares the vision of inheriting eternal life written in the Torah with the lawyer.  Then he shows him that the Living Torah, the person and the work and the word of Jesus Christ, expands the Torah given to Moses. Justification by the Torah now means that loving God and loving your neighbor are inseparable.[7] Being justified means more than just taking care of business as usual.

The hardest part about this story is that the holy men in the parable, the priest and the Levite, were doing what they were supposed to do. They were going to work. They were doing what was right in the name of the Law. They followed the rules and abided by the regulations approved by the General Assembly, er, the Presbytery, er, the law handed down to Moses. They did the right thing in the eyes of the law, but doing what was right was no longer enough in the eyes of God.

To the Greco-Roman world, the cradle of Western culture, mercy was a character flaw; the ideal was justice. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice. This unearned relief, we call it grace.

Sociologist Rodney Stark put it this way. “The notion that the gods care how we treat one another would have been dismissed as patently absurd. This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. Moreover, the corollary that because God loves humanity, Christians may not please God unless they love one another was something entirely new.”[8]

Mercy is the new benchmark in justification. Mercy is the new benchmark in being a neighbor. Mercy has a place in the administration of justice in the Christ’s kingdom and only the Samaritan acted in accord with the living Torah.

Only the despised Samaritan showed love in an act of mercy. Only the loathed foreigner connected loving God and loving your neighbor as the way to being justified. Only the reviled outsider saw his brother left beaten on the side of the road. Only the detested alien saw the way to justification through mercy. Only the abhorred stranger showed the divinely required attitude we are to share with one another.

An ancient rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day was on its way back. “Could it be,” asked one student, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No,” answered the Rabbi. “Could it be,” asked another, “when you look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No,” said the Rabbi. “Well, then what is it?” his pupils demanded. “It is when you look on someone’s face and can see… your brother. Because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, it is still night.”[9]

In the past month, there has been quite a commotion about Mr. Rogers. The people at Fox News found a 2007 article by Jeffrey Zaslow from the Wall Street Journal titled, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled” [10] At the center of the article was LSU finance professor Don Chance who observed a “culture of excessive doting” in 21^st Century university students The article begins:

[The professor] says it dawned on him last spring.  The semester was ending, and as usual, students were making a pilgrimage to his office, asking for the extra points needed to lift their grades to A’s.

 “They felt entitled,” he recalls, “and it just hit me.  We can blame Mr. Rogers.”

Professor Chance notes Asian students, students who did not grow up with Mr. Rogers, accept “B’s and C’s as an indication that they must work harder, and that their elders assessed them accurately.” The article continues:

By contrast, American students often view lower grades as a reason to “hit you up for an A because they came to class and feel they worked hard,” says Prof. Chance. He wishes more parents would offer kids this perspective: “The world owes you nothing. You have to work and compete. If you want to be special, you'll have to prove it.”

If there is one thing I can agree with after working over ten years in higher education, it’s that there is a sense of entitlement among students. I have seen that sense of entitlement reinforced by some parents and grandparents who called to ask if there wasn’t any way I could give Junior one more chance. I don’t say that Professor Chance is wrong about that. I do say that his finger pointing is misdirected. I won’t say where it should be directed, but putting this on Mr. Rogers is wrong.

Looking at Mr. Rogers’ point of view, we need to remember that he was a Christian and a Presbyterian minister. He pastored children daily for over 40 years. He told children, the weakest members of any society, that in the eyes of God they are loved and have value. He told misfits they are loved. He told fat kids they are loved. He told bullied kids they are loved. He told poor kids they are loved. He told abused kids they are loved. Even if it is just in his neighborhood, they are loved.

He loves them. He is their neighbor. He invited children into that neighborhood daily not so that they could beg for grades from Professor Chance fifteen years later, but so that they could know grace and peace and mercy and love and hope. It’s true; this world isn’t looking to do them or anyone else any favors, but through Christ God offers us grace, peace, mercy, love, hope, and salvation. We are freely offered grace as a gift, not as payment for services rendered. If it were, it wouldn’t be grace. This is what Mr. Rogers offered his audience daily.

Gentleness, love, mercy, peace, grace; isn’t this what we want from our neighbors? It sure beats the scorn and ridicule, derision and division we see every day. We want people in our lives showing the fullness of God’s mercy to everyone, not just some.

We want to know what it is to receive divine mercy, God’s divine loving-kindness. We must realize that this mercy arises out of a mutual relationship one for another, not just as a winner-take-all justice the ancient Greeks favored.

If Professor Chance and Fox News want us to believe we have no value outside of what we can do for our economy and ourselves that is their business. It is after all the way of the world. On the whole though, I prefer to live a state of grace, a place where I know what is most important cannot be earned, it can only be given. A place where that grace is freely given, even if it’s just for 30 minutes a day with a man in a zip up cardigan.

Luke shows us the lawyer accepts Jesus’ revision of the Torah. He learns that the one who shows mercy like the Samaritan is the neighbor, not those who share family or heritage like the priest and the Levite. What might have started as a theological exercise between the lawyer and teacher becomes more when the Torah comes to life in Jesus Christ.

When the law comes to life, we can no longer answer these questions like we’re taking a college entrance exam. We now have to answer the questions with our hands even more than we do with our heads. Jesus commands us to be good neighbors; loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength; and our neighbor as ourselves.  On this the words of the Law and the prophets hang.

This is our call, this is our vocation. It is no longer enough to do just what the written law tells us; now there is more. We are called to this new word of discipleship when Jesus charges the lawyer, “Go, and do likewise.” Or as Mr. Rogers once said:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Friends in Christ, Mr. Rogers tells us, Jesus tells us, those who help are our neighbors. So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; since we’re together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?

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[1] Rogers, Fred, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”  Pittsburgh, PA: Family Communications, Inc., 1967.

[2] From the PBSKids.org websie retrieved July 12, 2013.

[3] Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood, retrieved July 8, 2010

[4] Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5

[5] “Adlet and Blink,” Commentary section, from Homiletics Online, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=930000347, accessed June 10, 2007.

[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, 1994, page 427. 

[7] Kittel, Gerhardt, “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. vi, page 316

[8] Galloway, Paul, “How Jesus Won the West: Christianity became dominant because it offered better ideas and unexpected mercy,” The Lutheran, November 1998, 19.

[9] Thompson, Marjorie J. “Soul Feast” Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 127.

[10] Zaslow, Jeffrey, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled.” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2007, retrieved July 12, 2013.

Signage and Its Purpose

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 15, 2012, the 2nd Sunday in Easter.

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Acts 4:32-35

Psalm 131

1 John 1:1-2:2

John 20:19-31

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

The District of Columbia was created to serve as our nation’s permanent capital in 1790. Within the District, a new capital city was founded in 1791 to the east of the settlement at Georgetown. The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant.[1]

A planned city, Washington was modeled in the Baroque style and incorporated avenues radiating out from rectangles. The District itself is divided into four quadrants. The axes separating the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. In most of the city, the streets are set out in a grid pattern with east-west streets named with letters and north-south streets named with numbers.

One of the oddities to the city’s layout is that there is no J Street in any quadrant. Legend has it that J Street was deliberately omitted by L’Enfant because of a dispute with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay over The Treaty of Enmity, Commerce and Navigation.[2] In truth the probable reason is more mundane. It is far more likely that the reason there is no “J” Street is because in the Gothic writing style popular until the mid-nineteenth century, the letters “I” and “J” were indistinguishable.

One of the better narratives explaining this is found in an episode of NCIS. At the conclusion of the episode Assistant Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer shared his take on why there is no J Street with Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. He said it was because the founding fathers did not want anyone to get lost.[3]

One very important purpose of signage is so people do not get lost.

In my opinion, Thomas, or “Doubting Thomas,” gets more abuse than he deserves for being skeptical. I find his tendencies to speak his mind and to ask questions when he doesn’t understand admirable. Thomas was not a man to be persuaded willy-nilly.  In John 14[4] when Jesus says “And you know the way to the place where I am going;” Thomas is the one who says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” If we truly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question, then Thomas belongs in the Hall-of-Fame.

I imagine Thomas was a man of home spun wisdom. He had a “Show-Me” mentality that would have been popular here when Marshall was the Confederate capital of Missouri-in-Exile.[5] He was deliberate and he was cautious. He has questions and he wants them answered. He has doubts and he wants them vanquished.

So it was the evening on the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection; and the disciples had locked themselves in the house where they met. Not detoured by physical barriers, the Lord entered the room and offered them his peace. He showed them his hands and side and the disciples were overjoyed. In the next moment, they received their vocation, their directions; they were pointed in the direction they were to take so they would not get lost. They were also given the most important thing they could take on their journeys; by the breath of Christ, in the wind of God, they received the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As for Thomas, scripture doesn’t say why he was not with the other disciples; only that he wasn’t. So when the others finally see Thomas, he got an ear full. “We have seen the Lord!” they proclaimed loudly and joyfully. They weren’t rubbing it in his face, I think they were rejoicing and wishing he had been with them to share the glorious gifts they had received.

The Missouri Mule spirit that had served Thomas did not desert him. He knew all about the crucifixion and he knows dead is dead. He seemed willing to believe some sort of apparition, a Holy Spirit, but the physical presence of the Lord in the glory of his resurrection body struck him as unlikely. He had to see the Lord Jesus for himself. He had to touch him. He needed it before he would believe it was true.

Sure enough, a week later they gathered for fellowship. Give Thomas credit, he wasn’t sure about the resurrection, but he still believed and still worshiped Jesus. Then just like the week before, Jesus came into the closed room, stood among them, and said “Peace be with you.”

Quoting John’s gospel, “Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas, answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

Then, as a word for the world to come, Jesus blesses the generations that follow the original apostles and disciples. This first generation believed because they saw. The next generations, including those who hear and read this gospel then and now, they believe only because of these words and by the witness of the lives of the disciples that have followed since.

We live in a world where we, like Thomas, did not receive the Holy Spirit along with the disciples on that first Easter Sunday so long ago. Like Thomas at the beginning of our reading, all of humanity longs to see Jesus, behold the glory of his face, and touch his hands and side. Like Thomas, we can find the resurrection difficult because we have not personally seen the person of the resurrection. Like Thomas we all want to stand before the Lord and worship crying, “My Lord and my God.” We want to sing out adoring God in the happy chorus begun by the morning stars.

We’re looking for miracles; we’re looking for signs to point us toward belief. We are looking for signs of assurance.

In one way or another, one of the great questions of life is “What size miracle are you looking for?” In a society where bigger is infinitely better, the land of the super-size, we want big-big miracles with a big-big crunch. We want “burning-bush” and “loaves-and-fishes” sized miracles. Of course, as is usually the case, we should beware what we ask for when we ask for big-big miracles.

One of my favorite miracles is a big-big one. It comes from Numbers 11. The people of Israel are in the desert and they aren’t happy about it. They have been so long with only manna to eat that they have begun to grumble and long for “the good ol’ days” when they were in Egypt eating fish and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic and ate them at no cost. No cost except for their freedom, but they were so bored with their food and their journey that they longed for the regular hours of strict manual labor under the whip.

Moses hears the grumbling and fears for his life, not a bad reaction if I say so myself. Moses asks the Lord “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?”

I wonder if this isn’t a big question among all overwhelmed leaders. 

Moses even tells the Lord “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” He finally says if he can’t get relief he would rather die at the hands of the Lord than the crowd.

So the Lord tells Moses to assemble the leaders of Israel and tell them this,

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Beware what you ask for, because you just might get it.

People look for miracles. People look for signs and it looks like the people of Israel missed one. It looks like they blew through the “Yield” sign to me. In the parable of the vine and the branches John’s gospel would translate “Yield” as “Abide.” But for our purposes and the purposes of the people in the desert, it appears that Israel blew through a “Yield” sign.

Of course, the witness of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and all human history shows us that on the whole humanity has a tendency to blow through the “Yield” sign. And “Stop” signs for that matter too.

Another very important purpose of signage is to warn people and give them direction.

Everybody looks for signs and in our reading everyone gets the sign they need. The disciples saw the hands and side of Jesus and they believed. Thomas not only wanted what the other disciples got, he wanted to touch Christ’s rich wounds too. In the end though, seeing Jesus was enough. When he saw his Messiah he declared his faithfulness crying “My Lord and my God!”

In this world, people want their own “resurrection appearance” miracle. Everybody wants to see Jesus just like the disciples, but scripture says that’s not for everybody. So what kinds of signs and what kind of miracles should we be looking for?

Last Saturday there were a lot of little miracles wondering around the lawn. To see the smiles of the kids as they were having their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny was joyful. It was a sign of new life and the promise of what can be.

Last weekend there was a little boy who arrived late and was only able to find one egg on the ground. There were also several teenage boys who made pouches out of the front of their t-shirts that they filled with eggs. (Why t-shirts? Take it from a former teenage boy, baskets would not do.) When they saw the sad little boy they dropped eggs where he could get them. This little boy went from dejected to elated because he found eggs, enough eggs to fill his basket. Leaving greed behind in the name of sharing is always a miracle. Just like it was in the time of the early church as we heard from Acts this morning.

As for the disciples, they were asked to share forgiveness with the world. Now that’s a miracle as small as a smile and as big as a burning bush. This was tough because the disciples knew that only God could forgive sins, and they knew that even with the Holy Spirit they were not God. Yet they received the power and responsibility to forgive or not forgive people who had hurt them and others.

Their power was not to limit or empower God. Their power was given so that they might no longer be bound to anger and vengeance. God forgives, but unless we forgive we bind ourselves to the past. We don’t forgive so others can go on with their lives, but so we can get on with ours.

Let me add that if you have ever tried to get over such harm on your own, you’ll know it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to do the job.

Here’s the final sign we need, the green light. We need to be the miracle. We need to live so that others can see that our God lives. We need to live like the disciples of every time and age before us who lived so we could believe. Our lives need to show those who see us that our God lives so they can believe. It is our call and our vocation to live lives worthy of Christ so that they can believe and become Christ’s disciples.

In this case, the purpose of signage is to move people off the mark; going where they are supposed to go.

So, what size miracle are we looking for? Here is the biggest one of all. Here is the miracle we are to share with the world. We were created by the Triune God who loved so much that he created life. The Lord not only created matter to love and care for, our God created a race of people who could choose to love the Lord God back. (Risky move that is.) We are loved by a God who loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This by the grace and peace given freely by God in Christ.

Signs have their purpose. They make sure we don’t get lost, they assure us, they warn us, they give us direction, and they get us going when we are supposed to go. On the whole, this is a worthy vocation Jesus sends us into the world to share.

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[1] Much of these first paragraphs are taken and adapted from: “Streets and Highways of Washington DC.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Washington,_D.C.

[2] “No J Street in Washington DC,” http://www.snopes.com/history/american/jstreet.asp

[3] “Jimmy Palmer,” The NCIS Database” Wiki. http://ncis.wikia.com/wiki/Jimmy_Palmer. The episode is called “Broken Bird.”

[4] John 14:4-5

[5] Marshall, Texas,  The Republic of Texas and the Civil War (1841–1860) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall,_Texas#The_Republic_of_Texas_and_the_Civil_War_.281841.E2.80.931860.29

Picking Up, Dusting Off, Moving On

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday March 25, 2012, the 5th Sunday in Lent.

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Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

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

Growing up, my mother was raised in the town where I was born, Mexico, Missouri. Mexico was once known as the “saddle horse capital of the world.” Simmons Stables still stands (well, sort of) on West Boulevard between Grove and Webster Streets. She was also raised in the shadow of the Mexico Military Academy, a boy’s military school with an equine program. So horses were always a part of her life. She passed that on to me with the Triple Crown.

When I was ten years old was the perfect time to introduce anyone to the Triple Crown. It was 1973 and the horse was Secretariat, still one of the most regaled horses of all time. He won the Kentucky Derby in a time that is still a race record. His win in the third race in the crown not only established a race record that still stands, but he won by 31 lengths, an absurd distance to win a race. It’s like winning the Daytona 500 by a half a lap going away.

Over the next five years, the Triple Crown would be won in 1977 by Seattle Slew and the next year by Affirmed. Before Secretariat won the crown, no horse had completed the feat since Citation in 1948. No horse has won the crown since Affirmed either. It was a great time to learn about horse racing.

Because of this upbringing, I was unknowingly in a great position to meet Marie. As you know, she is horse crazy. I may like to watch a race, but she can tell you things about the horses and the “Sport of Kings” that I would never guess. Among the things she taught me about was race preparation.

We can begin with pedigree. The sires and dams of great horses can be traced back so many generations that Luke’s genealogy of Jesus almost looks quaint by comparison. Preparing a horse for the Triple Crown begins long before the horse turns three, it takes generations and generations.

Training begins on these horses almost after they take their first steps. There is much for a farm, trainer, and horse to do even before setting foot on a track. Just preparing a horse to run takes work, and instilling and nurturing that love to run takes the right amount of work and play.

On the day of the race there are the stable hands and horsemen that work the horse to prepare for the big day. There is feeding and grooming. There is walking and putting on tack. There is a ton of preparation before the horse goes out before tens of thousands of people, probably the biggest noise they have ever heard. This all before the jockey dresses and weighs in before the race. Then comes the post parade and the wait for the gate. That’s when the hard work begins.

While I was contemplating this scripture, this is the image I could not get out of my head.

Our Gospel reading begins not long after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the events we will celebrate next weekend on Palm Sunday. Jesus was a threat to the establishment. He was drawing crowds that made the temple leadership uncomfortable. They were uncomfortable because any large crowd around a charismatic Rabbi would make the Roman overlords uncomfortable. Momma Rome wasn’t happy; and when Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

So our reading begins with the Greeks looking for Jesus. These Greeks were pagan Greeks; the Book of Acts uses a different word for Greeks who were Jews and believers in Christ. While Rome was the political and economic capital of the Empire, Athens was the cultural center of the Empire. The Greeks were travelers. They brought art and stories and mythology and religion home with them from their journeys. Also to say “the Greeks” wanted to “see Jesus” is to say that they wanted a meeting. They wanted a sit-down.

They wanted to hear his story. They wanted to learn about him and they wanted to take the word of God and Jesus home with them to share with others. These Greeks would be among the first evangelists. I suspect they stayed in town long enough for the crucifixion and resurrection. Scripture doesn’t say whether or not they did. It doesn’t even say whether or not they ever met with Jesus at all.

With the arrival of the Greeks Jesus saw the final domino fall into place. It was at this moment that Jesus knew his message would go beyond the bounds of Palestine. Jesus knew his words and his deeds would be known throughout the world. He knew that what was coming would be told. He knew his hour had come, and after it came word of it would go through the whole wide world.

Jesus and Philip and Andrew; we first heard these names after the baptism of the Lord as Jesus calls his first disciples. In a wonderful way, the news of the Greeks comes in the reverse order of their call to discipleship. What once went from Jesus to Andrew to Philip now goes from Philip to Andrew to Jesus. The Lord saw this circle close. So with this news, with these signs, and with his knowledge; he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and moves on. This as he moves the whole world one step closer to eternity.

This is probably not how it happened, there’s very little chance it did. But I imagine when Jesus gets the news of the Greeks seeking a meeting he literally picks himself up, dusts himself off, and moves on.

As he begins to move on, he begins with a quick agricultural parable. Usually, the agricultural parables were used to describe the Kingdom of God. This is one of the purposes for this parable. He tells his disciples that unless a seed dies, it remains a single seed. But when it dies and takes root it produces many seeds. Jesus tells them that only by the death of a seed will other seeds be produced. This is the Good News of the Kingdom of God, more seeds will be produced, but Jesus shares the price of the bounty. It will cost the life of the first seed to produce all of the rest. The second purpose of this parable is to show that the fully-human fully-divine Jesus must die.

This takes us to something important to remember about Jesus. Our Lord did not have a death wish. Jesus did not approach the hour singing “Get Me to the Cross on Time.” We hear this speech in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we hear it here too.

His heart is troubled. Jesus knows what’s going to happen, and now happen soon. But he’s not in a hurry to meet his fate. I guess he has always known his time with his apostles would be short, but he has just gone from an indefinite “one day” to a very finite “the hour.” He has gone from “some day” to “not long from now.”

What troubles him? Perhaps it is the coming crucifixion. Surely the humiliation, indignity, and pain would be troubling. He knew he would soon be paraded like someone worse than a common criminal. Rome saved crucifixion for special cases. Rome saved crucifixion for people who were to be made examples for all to see. He knew he would be writhing. He knew the pain would be unbearable. He knew the thirst of the day’s sun would scorch his body inside and out. He knew the flogging and mocking would come.

Yet, Jesus knew that it was for this very reason that he came to this hour. In all of the horror, terror, and glory; Jesus both dreaded and embraced the hour and his destiny.

In this knowledge, in this hour Jesus cried out “Father, glorify your name.” And the reply came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” While the crowd didn’t hear the thunder of God at the baptism of the Lord, they heard this. They heard the voice from Heaven in all its glory. Jesus declares this word is not for him. After all, Jesus is confident with his relationship with his Heavenly Father. This voice is for the disciples. This word is for us so that we may be confident. Confident in the Heavenly Father and confident in the one he sent to us, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord Incarnate, Emmanuel—God with us.

Friends, I have never heard this thunder so clearly in all my life. I feel like we, this part of the Body of Christ, is that race horse being led to the gate. We have been made ready to run the race of our lives. Unfortunately, we don’t have the benefit of knowing the track is a dirt oval and the race is going to end after ten furlongs. Horses and NASCAR drivers have the benefit of knowing it’s nothing but left turns for the whole distance. We don’t.

So what do we need to know to run the race? What do we need to know about this hour for this congregation? The first thing we need to remember is that if we try to hold onto our life, surely we will lose it. Jesus warns his disciples and I can’t imagine this warning doesn’t pertain to the Body of Christ as well.

Jesus says the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. This English translation isn’t quite what Jesus means. This is an expression, like “month o’ Sundays” meaning “a long time” and not “thirty weeks.” What Jesus means is that those who love their life more than Him will lose what they hold onto so dearly. It is when we hold the Lord and the love of God above everything else that we will keep our lives for eternal life.

Yes, I say again, eternal life is available to us on this side of the grave. It is not something we wait for while on this earth. It is available to us now when we love God more than anything else. Because of this, because of this gift, because of God’s good grace, we are called to respond faithfully. This is how we live eternal life, not just have it. To live life, we must share. We are called to take what God has given us and share it with the world.

So if we love the building and the programs and the denomination and all other manner of things more than we love the Lord our God we have surely missed the point. If we love our history more than we love the Lord we have missed the point. If we love our polity and Confessions more than we love the Lord we have missed the point.

We are called to love the Lord who loved us first more than everything else. Jesus leads us to places we would have never considered going without him. In its way, this should be troubling to us. It was troubling to Jesus so it would be awfully conceited of us to not be troubled too. But like Jesus we are called to embrace this hour. In Christ, we are called to approach the hour with confidence in our relationship with the Almighty, not in the trappings we put around Him.

We are called to love God and one another, not history, buildings, and paperwork. I found a way to describe a healthy relationship with the church a couple of weeks ago on the wall of a fellowship hall in Dallas—“Cherish our past—Support the present—Embrace our future.” This is a good plan for any congregation.

So, am I about to share my five point plan with you? Am I about to tell you it’s going to be in the newsletter so stay tuned? Oh how I wish it were so. If there is one thing that has been revealed to me recently it’s that thinking has put the church in the place it is now, and it’s not more fancy thinking that’s going to get us out of it.

I’m a smart man, I’m a learned man, I have great knowledge and training, and right now it’s not changing the world. If all it took was good thinking, a smooth voice, and an internet presence; I’d have this thing licked. But that’s not what it takes, not at all.

We have to begin again with the basics. We have to begin with establishing Godly priorities. Our first priority is this, establishing a relationship with the Lord. That’s where it has to begin. It begins with walking the word. It begins with prayer. It begins by keeping company with those who walk in the word and live life bathed in prayer. It begins by realigning our priorities.

We need to hear that voice again, the voice that came from heaven saying “I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.” Only by listening and responding to the voice and its glory will we ever, ever make it out of the starting gate.

Consequences

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday November 13, 2011, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Judges 4:1-7

Psalm 123

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Matthew 25:14-30

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

I have said before that the source of our readings every Sunday is something called the Revised Common Lectionary. Lectionaries have been around since before the beginning of Christian worship. A professor once told a class at Austin Seminary that when Jesus was in the synagogue reading from Isaiah, that was a lectionary reading for that day.

It makes sense, back in the day, finding a specific reading wasn’t anything like it is today. The Isaiah scroll would have been huge, and finding one specific reading within that huge scroll would have been both difficult and time consuming. So it makes sense that the scroll would have been open to that reading when it was handed to Jesus. It would have been open to that reading because that was the lectionary reading.

The Revised Common Lectionary is the second generation of lectionary readings used by Protestants. The first is still used extensively by Lutherans and Episcopalians while the revised version is used more by Methodists and Presbyterians. The lectionary splits scripture into three different years, one year assigned to each of the first three gospels. John’s gospel is sprinkled among all three years, especially in Advent, Lent, and Easter. With these gospel readings there are also readings from the Epistles, Psalms, and Old Testament.

I like the lectionary because it provides me a discipline of reading through the year. It makes me take a hard look at specific readings and keeps me from focusing on just what I think is important or interesting.

That being said, it has holes. One of these holes is that the Old Testament is just too large to fit in the lectionary. There are over 150 weeks within the lectionary, but still a full third of the psalms and a major chunk of the law, prophets, and other writings are missing. Today gives us one example.

Over the three year course of the lectionary, our Old Testament reading this morning is the only time the book of Judges is read in worship. We don’t hear the stories of Samson and Delilah. We don’t get to hear the glorious call of Gideon. At that, we don’t hear the meat and potatoes of the story of Deborah and Barak, just this introduction to the story, and that’s a shame.

It begins with Deborah telling Barak, “The LORD the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’” Glorious, isn’t it, but that’s not how it ends.

What comes up missing is Barak’s answer to Deborah, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” Deborah responds, “Certainly I will go with you, but because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.”

This is how it happens too. In verse 17, after Barak and his army have routed Jabin’s army and Sisera is on the run, we meet Jael. She’s a lovely homemaker, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Sisera and Heber have done business in the past so Sisera thought Heber’s tent would provide safe haven. Not so much.

Jael covers Sisera with rugs to hide him. He feels safer. Sisera is thirsty so Jael gives him warm milk. He feels rested and falls asleep. But instead of hiding Sisera from his enemies, Jael kills Sisera with a tent stake through the temple. When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael showed him where to find him, snug as a dead bug in a rug. Barak took the field, but a woman took the general of the army with rugs, warm milk, and a tent stake.

As I said, there are holes in the lectionary. We read the glorious prophecy that the army of the Lord will prevail under the leadership of Barak, but we don’t hear the consequences of his response, his defiance of God’s prophet. These are consequences worth hearing.

Our Gospel reading has its own consequences. Three servants, three slaves are trusted with the wealth of their master who goes away on a long journey. One slave is trusted with five talents, one with two talents, and the third with one. Each is given a very generous gift from the master. A few weeks ago we learned how much these are worth, so we won’t do that again. Let’s just say that these riches had value beyond imagination.

Let’s also remember that the master gave to each slave a number of talents according to their ability. The master didn’t burden the slaves with riches they were unqualified to handle. They had the faculties to work with what they were given. They were not given too much nor were they given too little. It’s the Goldilocks of trust, what they were given was just right.

The master’s trust was met with fulfilled expectations from two of the three slaves. The servants who were given five talents and two talents doubled their master’s trust. The servant who performed under expectation buried his treasure. It didn’t appreciate even one denarius in that hole.

Now, the master was away for a long time, scripture doesn’t say how long but in the history of the faith it is safe to say that “a long time” is a very long time. When he returned, the master settled accounts with the servants.

Those who doubled what the master gave received even greater in return. These servants were trusted with “a few things,” and anyone who can call even one talent “a few things” knows wealth far beyond my wildest imagination. In return for their faithful service, they are put in charge of many things and welcomed into the “master’s happiness.”

As you know, I look at several different translations to see how other folks render the scripture. In this case some translations say “enter into the joy of your master”[1] and another has the master saying “Let’s celebrate together.”[2] I’m not going to say that one is a more faithful translation or one is better. What I will say is that when you consider all of these translations together we get a glorious view of the master’s joy with these good and faithful servants and that is a wonderful thing.

The third, the one who was trusted with least didn’t live up to that much trust. He took the gifts of his master and put them in a hole in the ground. We need to remember that in the first century burying treasure in a hole in the ground was like an earthen safe deposit box. So if he wasn’t going to do anything with his master’s talent at least he did nothing safely. But where the servants who doubled their master’s talents were invited to share in his joys, this servant was given a different invitation.

This servant approaches his master with his dirty bag of treasure and says, “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

In counseling there’s something called phenomenology. The simplest way I can explain it is that we create our own reality and respond accordingly. This servant feared his master and responded in fear. He felt the best he could do is return the talent unscathed. So how did that work out?

The master responds, “So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.” The servant who lived in fear, not despite his fear, was cast from his master’s sight.

As for the faithful servants, “whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” As the master has already said, the faithful servants are welcomed share their master’s happiness. The third fearful servant, he was cast out of the presence of the master and into the darkness.

Oh, by the way, we don’t know, but perhaps the two other servants thought the same of their master. Their difference may not have been their opinion of the master, but their difference was their response. There are consequences we face in receiving and rejecting the gifts and talents of our Lord. We have heard them in Judges and we have heard them again in Matthew. God’s gifts are wonderful, and even more so are God’s rewards.

But there is one more consideration worth our attention. There is a question left unanswered in scripture I want us to wrestle for a moment. It’s a sensible question, it’s an obvious question.

What if the servant had lost his master’s fortune? What if not from theft or negligence, what if by circumstance and poor investing the servant had lost his master’s wealth?

It’s not as unusual as you might think. In this economy it’s probably more common than I think. In the past few years we can see how downtowns have turned over businesses. We can look at the Wall Street and banking debacle of a few years ago to see just how easy it is to lose five talents. Shoot, on Wall Street the losses surpassed hundreds of thousands of talents.[3] So how do we think this master would respond to losses if return of riches earned one slave a one way ticket to Weeping-and-Gnashing-of-Teeth-Ville.

Theologian Karl Barth once wrote that God created man in his own image and then man returned the favor. If we think our heavenly master would respond the same way a 21^st Century banker would react to a defaulted business loan we have committed the sin of creating God in our own image. What if the value isn’t in succeeding in the ways that we know using dollars and disciples and such? What if the value is in using the gifts? What if success is answering the call?

I believe that in the kingdom of heaven it is better to try and fail than to not try at all. It’s better to work for the kingdom and not see the results in our time than it is to see nothing and give up. I believe it is more noble to try and have faith that the master and the master’s talents are enough than it is to seek achievement in the short term that we can see and touch.

I believe it is more noble to have faith and use the gifts and talents God has granted us individually and as the body than it is to live in fear. Recently we read from Exodus “I the LORD your God am a jealous God,” so fearing God isn’t wrong. But if that is all, if that’s all we think of our Lord then we are guilty of using human economics, accounting, and legalism to define the power and the grace of God, and this is not our Lord.

Our Lord, the master of this parable, welcomes slaves to share in his joy. It’s humanly typical how the wealthiest and most powerful people in our world don’t welcome their servants to share in their joy. Our Lord offers his greatest gifts to us and simply demands we use them. Yes, the Lord is a fan of good stewardship (You knew this was going to be a stewardship sermon, didn’t you!), but the Lord measures our success in ways we cannot know.

It is better to use the time, talents, and treasure we have been given than not because even if it seems that we have lost all, we are not the judge of what losing all truly means. Ultimately, failure can be expressed in the old expression, “you can’t win if you don’t play.” We face the consequences of not living in God’s love, the God who shares the overflowing bounty of talents, who calls us use those talents.

So let us answer the call. Let us live into the best of our heavenly vocation with the talents God has given us. Let us share in the master’s happiness. Truly, the worst thing we can do is say, “No.”

---

[1] New Revised Standard Version and New American Standard Bible

[2] New Living Translation

[3] A $700 Billion bailout comes to about 350,000 talents of gold at $58/gram.

Oh, the Places We'll Go

Dear friends and followers,
Thank you for your patience and your prayers. Marie and I have finally (happily! joyfuly!) arrived in Marshall, Texas and have begun serving as Pastor and Spouse. Today was my first Sunday in the pulpit at First Presbyterian and worship was glorious. So with no further ado...

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday October 3, 2010, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Lamentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26
Psalm 137
2Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

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

In literature, there are two models of optimism. One of them is Don Quixote. Quixote is the Man of La Mancha; he is the one who tries to cure the ills of his society through acts of chivalry. While part one is written as a farce, written to see how comical the life of a chivalrous man is when seen through the eyes of sensible readers, the second part is more serious and is focused on deception. The noble, if not a little mentally unhinged “Man of La Mancha,” becomes aware of how the world perceives him and how his nobility is mocked by those around him. Even his squire, the faithful Sancho Panza, makes sport of his master. While accidental, Panza’s deceit shatters Don Quixote. Eventually, the noble knight falls into a melancholy which is only “cured” when he regains his mental health. He dies a sane yet broken man. Alas, the tragedy of a broken man who realized he was a better man when he lived his delusions.

The other great model of optimism is Pollyanna. Pollyanna is a young orphan sent to live with her rich but stern Aunt Polly in Vermont. Pollyanna’s gift is that she can see the bright side of every situation through what she calls “The Glad Game,” an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. Her attitude and the game eventually rub off on the entire town and people begin to see their lives as half full rather than empty and futile. This is even true when Pollyanna is hit by a car and looses use of her legs. After some turmoil, Pollyanna finds her silver lining and is glad that she once had legs.

If there is one difference between these two literary optimisms it is this:

Quixote’s optimism is based on something inside of him, his chivalry and people’s reactions to it. Ultimately it becomes unrealistic; a foolishly impractical pursuit of principles marked with rash and lofty romantic ideals. Pollyanna’s optimism is based on gratefulness for what she has, which has nothing to do with other’s reactions. It’s not that she doesn’t realize that she is in hot soup; she knows that life can be harsh, especially for an orphan who goes to live with an aunt that doesn’t particularly want to become her guardian. It’s just that she knows what is good in her life and she chooses to celebrate goodness instead of pain.

Quixote tried to make grand gestures, he tilted at windmills; this is where we get the expression “tilting at windmills.” He tried to change great things by great acts. Pollyanna changed lives around her simply by counting her meager blessings and sharing them with others until thankfulness prevailed.

I mention this because of how it relates to our reading from Lamentations this morning.

The Jews call the book of Lamentations “Eikha” or in English, “How.” In this book of scripture, Jeremiah, on behalf of the Jews, cries to the Lord how horribly their world is crumbling around them. It’s a tragic time for the community. Jerusalem has become like a widow who mourns at the loss of her protector. She was a princess in the Lord’s world, but now she is merely another slave. Exile will be difficult, ripe with suffering and hard servitude. There will be no resting place; no place to rest, eat, or drink. The nation’s gates are desolate and its foes will become its master. The nation’s enemies will prosper and Judah will suffer.

This is how the book of Lamentations begins, with a full recitation of the woes of the nation of Judah beginning with the question “How lonely sits the city that once was full of people?”

Yet on the same scroll Jeremiah’s words come, words realizing that while even the thought of affliction and homelessness is wormwood and gall, there is one truth that comes to mind. There is one thought that will keep the people even in the midst of their exile: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning, great is the faithfulness of the Lord.

Jeremiah knows that there is pain and struggle and strife, he has been prophesying this very pain, struggle and strife for a long, long time. The people just mocked him as he told them a hard rain was going to come and there was only one place to find an umbrella.

Jeremiah is not like Don Quixote who hopes and prays that the works of people, even good works by well meaning people, will make a difference. He is more like Pollyanna who knows that there is good; and in the case of Jeremiah, knows the source of all that is good is in the name of the Lord.

It is Pollyanna who takes even the smallest blessings of her life and makes them so that they become blessings for the world around her. It is through her attitude and her actions that she can see the blessings of the bleak world around her. As the Apostles cry out to Jesus asking for more faith, it is our Lord and Savior who says that even the smallest amount of faith, faith the size of a mustard seed, can do unimaginably mighty things.

So today, with our faith the size of a mustard seed, we are able to see and live the future that the Hebrews couldn’t even imagine in exile. Today we join with Christians around the globe and celebrate the meal that brings us all together. World Communion Sunday originated at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh by The Rev. Dr. Donald Kerr in 1933. This was the darkest year of the Great Depression. The storm clouds of Nazism and Fascism hovered over Europe and threatened the entire world. As a faith response to these concerns, a group of leaders at Shadyside Presbyterian Church sought to do something both real and symbolic to proclaim that God is God indeed, in spite of politics, economics and future shock.

Still in our time when the Great Recession has been declared over by those who no longer suffer its effects, and still in our time when men and women fight oppression and terror overseas and at home paying the ultimate price for their work on behalf of a grateful nation where we reap the benefits of their sacrifice; still it is time for us to do what is both real and symbolic to proclaim to the world that God is God indeed. In the words of Dr. Kerr, “[World Communion Sunday] emphasized [sic] that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

According to our very own Book of Common Worship, “The [Lord’s Supper] was given by Christ himself. Before church governments were devised, before creeds were formalized, even before the first word of the New Testament was written, the Lord's Supper was firmly fixed at the heart of Christian faith and life. From the church's inception, the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper were joined. Along with the reading and proclamation of the scripture, the supper has given witness to God's redemptive acts each Lord's Day, giving Christian worship its distinctive shape. In this sacrament, the bread and wine, the words and actions, make the promises of God visible and concrete. The Word proclaimed in scripture and sermon is confirmed, for all that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ means, is focused in the Sacrament.”

It is by this meal shared together with fellow Christians everywhere that we do more than share Dr. Kerr’s vision. It is the meal that nourishes Christians everywhere. It is the meal that our Lord ordained to feed his servants until he comes again in victory.

So today we share this meal, a meal we consider the outward sign of an inward grace. It is by grace through faith, faith the size of a mustard seed, faith the size of a little orphan girl, that we come and share the promise given us for new life in Christ Jesus. We do this for one reason, because in the words of Luke, we do as we are expected to do. To paraphrase the words of the New English Bible in verse ten of our reading from Luke, we are servants doing our duty. Today we do it together in celebration with Christians of all stripes.

We celebrate the Lord’s Supper, doing this in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do this also to be fed to do the work of God, going where our Lord sends us, sharing what we are called to share with the world.

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go” was the last book written, illustrated, and published by acclaimed children's author Dr. Seuss before his death in 1991. About life and its challenges and written in the style of classics such as “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat,” “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” is a popular gift for high school and college graduates every year because of its whimsical style and eye to the future. It is perhaps best known for the line, “Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. (98 3/4% guaranteed.)”

Oh, the places we’ll go. For Marie and I it is a joy and our distinct privilege to come together with you and share the mission of this part of the body of Christ. We come together with you in the sight of our Lord to do the work that we have all been called to do, and it is by this sacrament that we all come together to be nourished by the Lord our God. Do I know the shape and direction of that ministry today? Well, this I do know: That in the light of God, through discernment of the Holy Spirit, and in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, all I can say is, “Oh, the places we’ll go.” After all, it’s 98 3/4% guaranteed.

Together we will go into God’s good creation taking the Word with us. As our acolyte Brionna leads us, where a little girl with faith the size of a mustard seed leads, let us go boldly into the world. Let us all take the light of God into the world.

70 or 72?

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday July 4, 2010, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary time.

2Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:1-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

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

So today, our gospel reading begins with Jesus appointing the seventy and sending them ahead in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go, or is it the seventy-two? As I read this morning, the New Revised Standard Version has the number at seventy. The New International Version has the number at seventy-two. Just to keep everything interesting, the ancient Greek versions of Luke are split answering this question.[1] Well, it is said that it is best that scripture interpret itself; so let’s find why the number could be either seventy or seventy-two.

The New Interpreter’s Bible[2] reminds us that Genesis 10 lists the nations that sprang from Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It says that it is quite probable that these are the nations where Jesus sent the others. These nations are the “every place and town” mentioned in Luke that Jesus intended to go to. It would make sense, if Jesus’ first mission was to redeem the nation of Israel, these are the places he would go and the people he would see.

By now, you may have noted one little problem with my answer, it’s not a number. I haven’t said whether the number of folks he’s sending out, and now where he’s sending them out to, should be seventy or seventy-two.

Hold on, here comes the answer. You see, in the Hebrew Scriptures, seventy nations were listed in Genesis 10 and in the Greek version there were seventy-two. So the answer to the question is quite probably, “The choice of seventy or seventy-two most likely depends on which translation of the Old Testament was used by which manuscript writers and editors to interpret the question of how many nations sprang from the loins of Noah-slash-How many towns and places Jesus intended to go.”

Again, there isn’t a number in the answer to my question, is there. Now instead of a good answer we have another question.[3]

Really, it may be as close to an answer as we can get. To answer the question just decide for yourself which ancient manuscript of the Old Testament floats your boat and once you make that decision the choice of seventy or seventy-two is easy.

As for me, I love the question and I find the answer interesting. I learned more than I intended seeking the answer to it. I have even learned enough to spend a few minutes on a Sunday morning sharing it with you. But as for the importance of this question, “seventy or seventy-two?” it doesn’t mean much in the kingdom of heaven.

What is important, what is of great evangelical and biblical importance is that Jesus set aside a number of people, and sent them off in pairs, breaking ground for him in all of the towns and places he intended to go taking God’s peace to the nations.

If there’s one thing to take from this question, it’s not which number, it’s why the number. The why is sharing God’s peace and preparing the Lord’s way.

There are ten elements to Jesus’ commission to the disciples.[4]

The commissioning of these disciples affirms that there is a need for the church in the world. Jesus sends the disciples to the places he himself intended to go. They were sent first to prepare his way. Yes, these are the places the Lord intends to go and the disciples are sent first.

The commission emphasizes the importance of prayer. They are told that they are to pray for laborers, fellow laborers to join them in the field and reap the harvest which is plentiful. They are to seek God for the glory of the gospel.

They are called to be active in their work in the kingdom of God. They are not called to simply sit at the feet of the Lord and seek their own spiritual growth. The disciples are sent into the world. They are sent into the field to seek the growth of the kingdom.

The commission does not come without a warning. The commission is dangerous. They will be like lambs in a world of wolves. They will be the young and defenseless in a world that is wily and treacherous.

The next part of the commission seems out of line with the rest, they are to greet no one upon the road. If I were sent out to share God’s peace, I would think that telling everyone I met would be a good thing; but this is not their commission. They were called to a specific time and place and it was not on the road. They are called to focus on their journey and not be distracted by the priorities of other travelers.

The commission then specifies the purpose of their mission to the nations, to offer God’s peace. For the cities that accepted the gospel, the disciples were to enter the house and say, “Peace to this house.”

After extending the peace of God to the household, they could receive the peace of God in hospitality. They were told to stay at the first household where they were welcomed; they weren’t to cherry pick for better digs. This means that the host sets the context of the witness. They are not to impose restrictions upon their hosts.

They were to accept food and water to quench hunger and thirst. This foreshadowed the problem that Peter would face later in Acts. If the household that welcomed them was not a Jewish family but a gentile God-fearing family, dinnertime could be dicey. They could be offered things that they would not eat under Jewish culinary restrictions. Yet, this is what the Lord demanded. They were to accept the hospitality provided and not seek other “more suitable” accommodations.

When they entered a town where they were welcomed, they were to heal the sick and declare “The kingdom of God has come near you.” Together, community was developed through hospitality, care of physical needs, and proclamation of the gospel.[5] This is how the disciples were commissioned to take Jesus’ work into Galilee.

Their commission also took into account that the peace will not always be accepted. This is always a difficult thing to imagine, but some will reject the wonder and the glory of God’s peace.

So despite any rejection they face; they were to persevere in their mission. As for the towns that would not accept them, they were told to go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.” Strong stuff, it’s like saying “If that’s the way that you want it, oh that’s the way I want it more.”[6] It’s tough, but they are called to keep on despite the rejection of God’s peace.

As for the word of God, the redemptive word was nearly the same for the nations that do not receive the peace of God. They still receive the Word: “The kingdom of God has come near.” They just don’t hear, “The kingdom of God has come near you.” Now that’s a difference.

So again I say that the answer to seventy or seventy-two isn’t so important. It is when we as the Body of Christ over-focus on the minutiae, the “seventy or seventy-two” type of questions, that we fail to answer the call to the bigger questions of the church’s mission.

Last week I said that our single minded focus is to abide in the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” Today we learn what it means for us to share that commandment with others.

God’s commission Jesus gives in this passage is still important for us today. There is still a place for the church in the world. There is still a place for disciples to go before the Messiah returns. We too are called to pray for the church which is the Body of Christ. We are to pray as we go into the world and we are to pray for others to join in the fellowship and work of God’s bountiful harvest. We aren’t to pray for folks in the pews just to bring in more offerings (as nice as that would be); we are to seek disciples for the work of the kingdom of God.

We are to be active as well. I praise God for everyone who comes to hear the gospel of the Lord, but hearing the gospel is not all that discipleship demands. We are called not just to come, but also to go in the name of the Lord. We are called to go into a dangerous world.

We are called to go concentrating on what it means that we are focused on the gospel and not every cause that crosses our path. We are to extend God’s peace to a world that sorely needs to hear the good news of its coming.

We are not to impose ourselves and our way of life on others. In the first century, this would mean that we were not to demand circumcision on all men or humiliate your host for offering shrimp wrapped in bacon. We are all children of God and as a wise man once said we must seek to understand then we can seek to be understood.[7]

We are to know that the peace will not always be seen by others as peace. This is particularly true today when God’s peace is often offered with a dose of bigotry and fear. We need to remember that fear seeks safety, love seeks the truth; and our truth is in God’s peace. We are to take God’s peace as our commission to take the word that “the kingdom of God has come near” and share it with the world. The message of God’s redemptive peace does not change regardless of whether it is accepted or not.

What’s important about our reading is that it gave the folks Jesus sent out their commission and it gives us our commission for taking God and God’s peace into the world too. It’s not so important whether it’s seventy or seventy-two. In this case it’s not so important whether the Hebrew of Greek Old Testament texts are more accurate. What’s important is the commission.

The question of why these numbers are important is the better question. We now know the reason for the number is that Jesus was laying the path, using disciples to make straight his way into the world. Jesus gave them a commission to go into the world sharing the nearness of the kingdom of God with all would listen. Their commission is our commission too.

We are called to take God’s words to others. We are to take God’s peace to those who live across the street and across the globe. So let’s remember to take the most important things. Things like “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” Things like God’s peace. Things like “the kingdom of God is coming near.” We need to keep a single minded focus on these most important things. Remember, we can’t agree whether it’s seventy or seventy-two disciples and there are bigger fish to fry.

[1] This was edited from the sermon for the sake of time: “Measured in sheer bulk of textual witness, the number Jesus sends out is split pretty evenly between seventy and seventy-two. Considering the textual significance, the academic importance of the manuscripts, the number Jesus sends out is split pretty evenly between seventy and seventy-two. All righty then, if we can’t solve the mystery of seventy or seventy-two using ancient Greek manuscripts, then where do we turn next? ”
[2] Culpepper, R. Alan. “The New Interpreter’s Bible.” “Luke” section. Leander E. Keck, Senior New Testament Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 219.
[3] This was edited from the sermon for the sake of time: “Scripture has a way of doing that. People say it’s an instruction book, but I always found when you look past the shiny coat and look at the meat of holy writ, there’s always more than meets the eye.”
[4] Ibid, Culpepper, page 222
[5] Ibid, page 220
[6] Croce, Jim, “One Less Set of Footsteps.” (The man could write a break-up song.)
[7] Covey, Stephen R. “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” The Free Press, 1989