Kingdom of God – Page 6 – Salvaged Faith

emergingumc2

Posted on November 18, 2009Leave a comment

Perhaps a few too many days have passed since the event for me to recall everything clearly. I would have gotten to the blogging right away but a few things got in my way. I watched with much excitation the Iowa/Ohio State football game while I was waiting for my flight. Then I got up and did church Sunday morning. And then I helped move a friend. And then I was sick, sick, sick the rest of the day. Monday I was a zombie. And since then I have been playing catch up.

But there are some key things I want to get down before they slip away completely.

–ONE–

The church and the congregation are not the same thing. The congregation is part of the church, but the church… the Kingdom of God… the bride of Christ… is SO much bigger than the congregation – or the denomination. I knew that, but the way that we talked about the specific role of the congregation last week (public worship, teach core doctrine, care for congregation, institutional player) I realized both how limited that role is and also how important.

To be honest, as I look at my gifts for ministry – I am gifted to be a leader and a pastor within the congregation. I love worship and I want that worship to be available to all. I strive to be an institutional player in my community and build connections between my institutions and our schools and our city government and our state agencies. I’m a good ambassador in that sense. I’m a good representative. I have the gifts to care for people in my congregation – I did it this afternoon as I sat with a family around their dying father. I love to teach and I have the gifts and abilities to take complex ideas and help people understand them.

I also deeply feel called to be a part of small communities of people who are trying to live the gospel with each other. And I think in part what I realized this weekend is that I may not be called to be a leader of a group like that, but I am called to join one. I’m called to help create space for them to happen. I’m called to equip others to lead them.

As an institution, our congregation can be a hub for missional activity. I love that imagery. and I want to make THAT happen.

–TWO–

As a part of the conference experience, we were at Lockerbie Central UMC/Earth House. This is a church that has converted its basement into a vegan restaurant, its middle floor into office space and a coffee shop, and it’s top floor/sanctuary into a blank worship space and flexible auditorium/stage/performance space. I am in LOVE with the whole thing. I love the beautiful old stained glass windows and the homemade chai lattes and the organic fair trade coffee and the gorgeous hardwood floors and the fact that so many different types of people are trying to figure out their lives and their faith in that space. I love the fact that yoga classes and cooking classes and films about social justice issues and conversations about salvation are happening in the same space. I love that people enter that community (enter THE CHURCH) through all sorts of different venues.

I stayed with a young woman who come to the community in part because of a yoga class. And she worships there sometimes. She helps non-profits across the state find the resources they need personnel wise to be effective. And she’s finding community and hope and inspiration there at the Earth House Collective AND the Lockerbie Central congregation.

–THREE–

Our hosts coordinated homestays for many of us, and that in itself was a blessing. I got to know December, even if just for one evening of really deep and vulnerable conversation over a cup of tea. It was amazing to experience that and to know that there was someone, a stranger, who had a similiar story to me. It was a reminder of how small the world is and also a reminder of how powerful the gift of hospitality can be.

–FOUR–

I’m really struck by the difference between the inclusiveness of what the public congregation should be and the exclusiveness of a committed group of disciples who are trying to live the gospels. I’m not sure if this quite came into focus for me completely until this morning as a sat around a table with pastors from other traditions. I had said something about our open communion table and realized how sharply that contrasted with my LCMS colleagues. Ironically, I was at the same time arguing for committed exclusive discipleship groups. We were having a discussion about the limits of God’s kingdom, and I realized the beauty of the Methodist/Congregational structure. We can HAVE the absolute openness of the Kingdom in the congregation, in the sacraments, in worship, in teaching… everyone is welcome. And then we can invite those who want to take deeper steps into discipleship groups. The problem with a lot of churches with rigorous discipline is that it creates and us vs. them mentality, you are in or you are out. If we instead have a partnership that lets us know all who believe are in, and then invite everyone to go deeper, we get around some of that exclusivity.

What I am trying to figure out is how to translate that back into my institutional congregation. I believe we have the structure within our language already. We have baptized members and professing members – and TECHNICALLY professing members should be people committed to living out their baptismal vows through specific practices. And if someone decides they aren’t ready to commit to those practices, they can still be baptized members of our church! Really, what that takes is for us to take our vows seriously and to seriously hold one another accountable AND to value baptized membership in a new way. To realize there is a difference between those who follow Jesus and those who are disciples. Ideally, everyone would be a disciple. But not everyones ready. Not everyone’s ready to take that risk – but they still believe.

Hebrews Part 4: Jesus the Priest?

Posted on October 25, 2009Leave a comment

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I. Introduction
A. Talking about who Jesus is – Christology and Atonement
B. [SLIDE] Already the book of Hebrews has told us some things about who Jesus is. He was with God before the foundations of the earth. He is the Son of God. And for a time, he was made a little lower than the angels – took human form and lived among us. He took on our life and because of what he has done for us, we are now children of God.
C. [SLIDE] We recalled how easily we forget what God has done for us. Like the Hebrew people in the desert, we wander and grumble and always want something else than the rest, the grace, that has been prepared for us. But Christ cuts through all of our excuses and denials and speaks to our heart, shows us the right path, if only we are willing to listen.
D. The answer begins with chapter 4 verse 14. Jesus is the great, high priest and we are invited to approach the throne of grace with boldness to find mercy and grace in time of need.
E. [SLIDE] Last week we did some background work and looked at different ways that we understand what Jesus did on the cross – go over them quickly
F. [SLIDE] This week, we are going to go even deeper. We are going to move on to some of the harder stuff – the meat, instead of the milk.

II. [SLIDE] What does Hebrews in particular have to say?

The author is writing to a bunch of Jewish Christians – they are people who have grown up their entire lives sitting in the synagogue listening to teachers read out of the Torah. They have made countless visits to Jerusalem to the temple to worship and sacrifice. But now, these people are also Christian. And they are having a hard time putting together the two parts of their lives – their old temple worship and their new faith in Jesus. And so he uses the ways God has spoken to us in the past to show how Jesus is the way that God is speaking in our future.

A key way that he does this is represented by this image right here. Does anyone know what this is? The ark of the covenant! This would have been located in the midst of the temple as the Jews came to Jerusalem to worship and to offer sacrifices. So when we hear in 4:14 – approach the throne of grace with boldness to find mercy… this is literally the mercy seat, where the grace of God is received.

Other important point – copies and shadows of the heavenly things.

III. Three main roles of Jesus as Prophet, Priest & King [SLIDE] –

A. [SLIDE] Jesus as Prophet (vs 1:1-4)
1). You think you had prophets in Israel… well Jesus is a true prophet.
2). Restores our knowledge of God’s will for our lives
3). Messenger of God’s true will – Announcement, message of deliverance
4). AND – Jesus is THE WORD
5). SLIDE] Gives authentic picture of God’s work of creation and redemption

B. [SLIDE] Jesus as Priest
1). What is the role of the priest in Israel? Think back to the three atonements… satisfaction, return of the righteous order
2). Mediation between God and humans
3). Why is Jesus a better priest? Priests die – Jesus doesn’t = all time; High Priest only one allowed into the holiest of holies sinned & had to cleanse himself – Jesus doesn’t. High Priest offered blood of goats and bulls and ashes – but Jesus offers his own blood – without blemish to purify our hearts.
4). Importance of Melchizadek
5). Jesus once for all.

C. Jesus as King
1). David as King, but also Melchizadek as King (of righteousness and peace)
2). Reign of God – restoration of our humanity and place in the community
3). New covenant…

IV. Conclusion

In light of all of these things, the writer of Hebrews reminds us: 19 Therefore, my friends,* since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

This idea of encouragement is especially important, because there is also an idea in Hebrews that once we have been cleansed from our sin – once that sacrifice is made, that’s it. We get one chance. If we continue in our sin – then we are subject to the judgment. Next week we will talk about how that challenge – to live without sin, to live in the faith is carried out.

Reading the Church into the individual

Posted on September 17, 2009Leave a comment

Lately I have begun approaching scripture with a whole new set of eyes. As I think about what it means to be the pastor of a congregation… even more than that, what it means to speak the Word to the congregation… I’ve started thinking about “we” instead of “me.”

In my preaching, I have felt less called to preach to our individual responsibilities, but our communal ones. I have felt called to talk about our unity in the body of Christ and our task to work together for God’s kingdom. If I truly believe in a perichoretic God, then it only makes sense!

For that reason, I look at scriptures like the one from this week about the first being last and servant of all and I wonder what that would look like if as the CHURCH we put ourselves last. What would it look like if we who are in the church put the needs of others first? What would happen if our desires took a back seat to God’s.

Does anyone else read the scriptures in this way?

Christ-Colored Glasses

Posted on June 14, 2009Leave a comment

Parker Palmer is someone who often writes about life changes and how to navigate them with faith. In college, his book, “Let your Life Speak” became required reading for all students as they thought about what vocation was calling their name. And in his book, The Active Life, he writes about a moment of insight and transformation in his own life:

I took the course in my early fourties, and in the middle of that course I was asked to confront the thing I had fears about since I had first heard about Outward Bound: a gossamer strand was hooked to a harness around my body, I was backed up to the top of a 110-foot cliff, and I was told to lean out over God’s own emptiness and walk down the face of that cliff to the ground eleven stories below.

I remember the cliff all too well. It started wit ha five-foot drop onto a small ledge, then a ten-foot drop to another ledge, then a third and final drop all the way down. I tried to negotiate the first drop; but my feet instantly went out from under me, and I fell heavily to the first ledge. “I don’t think you have it quite yet,” the instructor observed astutely. “You are leaning too close to the rock face. You need to lean much farther back so your feet with grip the wall.” That advice went against my every instinct. Surely one should hug the wall, not lean out over the void! But on the second drop I tried to lean back; better, but not far enough, and I hit the second ledge with a thud not unlike the first. “You still don’t have it,” said the ever-observant instructor. “Try again.”

Since my next try would be the last one, her counsel was not especially comforting. But try I did, and much to my amazement I found myself moving slowly down the rock wall. Step-by-step I made my way with growing confidence until, about halfway down, I suddenly realized that I was heading toward a very large hole in the rock, and- not knowing anything better to do – I froze. The instructor waited a small eternity for me to thaw out, and when she realized I was showing no signs of life she yelled up, “Is anything wrong, Parker?” as if she needed to ask. To this day I do not know the source of my childlike voice that came up from within me, but my response is a matter of public record. I said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

The instructor yelled back, “Then I think it’s time you learned the Outward Bound Motto.” Wonderful, I thought. I am about to die, and she is feeding me a pithy saying. But then she spoke words I have never forgotten, words so true that they empowered me to negotiate the rest of that cliff without incident: “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” Bone-deep I knew that there was no way out of this situation except to go deeper into it, and with that knowledge my feet began to move.

No matter how old we are, or experienced we are, or how familiar with the world we may be, there is a moment in each of our lives when something shifts – when we begin to see things in a whole new and transformed way. A moment where we let go of our fears and our old way of seeing things and suddenly the whole world opens up.

In many ways I had one of those moments at Annual Conference this year. For the most part, it was your regular old, run of the mill conference. We debated issues and voted on little keypads, we worshipped together and got to spend time with colleagues. But there were a few moments – here and there – where my world got turned upside down by the turn of a phrase or by a challenge issued forth from the pulpit or lectern, or a passage in the book that I took along with me.

After worship today, if you are able to stick around for our Administrative Board meeting, I’m going to be sharing a few of those challenges with the congregation. But for this morning – in light of our scripture readings I want to focus on just one… something that Bishop Trimble said from the pulpit…

“I don’t want you to tell me what’s impossible.”

Bishop Trimble was asking all of us to take a leap of faith, to take a risk and to step out on behalf of the God that we worship and to stop saying the word can’t. Things like…. We can’t start a ministry with the local Hispanic community because none of us know Spanish… He doesn’t want to hear it. We can’t grow our church because we live in a dying and aging county… He doesn’t want to hear it. We can’t be renewed and revitalized and transformed because we are a church that is already here and doing what we are supposed to be doing… He doesn’t want to hear it.

That last one is actually my own take on our Nicodemus story from this morning. In John’s gospel, this religious leader seeks Jesus out in the middle of the night to ask him some questions. He’s curious. He probably believes in many ways that Jesus – the young upstart that he is – has something to teach him. He’s willing to listen. But when Jesus starts talking metaphorically about being born again, suddenly this inquisitive Pharisee puts on his jaded glasses of disbelief and doubt.

What on earth are you talking about? You can’t be born again after you have grown old already? What, am I going to crawl back into my mother’s womb?

And Jesus looks him square in the eye – Don’t tell me what’s impossible.. Yes, you HAVE to be born of water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. You have to be reborn, replenished, revived by God’s grace… you have to accept the gift of life that I am offering you. All you have to do is say yes… and it’s yours. Don’t tell me what’s impossible.

Judith McDaniel suggests that this passage in John is as much about our ruts of disbelief and doubt as they are about those of Nicodemus. “we collect pennies from heaven when what is being offered is unimagined wealth… the very kingdom of God,” she writes. “Jesus is telling Nicodemus, and us, that God’s kingdom is here. The kingdom of God is not some far-off goal to be attained, for there is nothing we can do to attain it. The kingdom is present now, as a gift from God. Only God can gift us, can beget us as a totally new being in a new world.”

In other words, just take off those jaded glasses of disbelief and doubt and try these ones on for size. These Christ-colored glasses of truth and reality will open you up to the radical transforming power of God’s Spirit and I promise you… everything will be seen in a new light.

“In fact,” Emmanuel Larety writes, “to be in tune with God’s reign and presence we all need a transformative overhaul of our traditional ways of seeing and being… knowing and experiencing the world… [and] when this happens, it is as if we have begun life all over again.” (46, B-4)

As I think about what is happening in this congregation, I absolutely see signs of rebirth and awakening. And you know what the first clue was for me… Not once has someone said to me… We can’t. Not once has any committee or group or person said that we couldn’t do something – that it was impossible.

But I think that transformed way of seeing started long before I ever got here. I think that the summer before I arrived, when you were seriously contemplating with one another what the future of this church would be, you found yourselves on the side of the cliff with Parker Palmer. You were stuck dangling there by a thread, not being able to go back to the way things were before… perhaps not even wanting to, but also not quite knowing the steps to take next. And that motto from Upward Bound comes to my mind… “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.”

And so you dug your heels into it and took the leap of faith and were willing to find some way to move around on that cliff. That step of trust happened long before I got here, and in many ways, it is that transformation in the way you see and experience the world that has allowed me to do what I need to do.

So we definitely are on track for the first part of the Bishop’s challenge… and for responding to Jesus plea with us and Nicodemus from our gospel reading today. We are open to the possibility of transformation, of being made into something different. We are ready to say – Yes, Lord… Melt us, Mold us, Fill us, Use us… just send your Spirit upon us!

I think we are ready to see ourselves in a new light… but this morning, I want to extend that call just one step farther… I want to challenge us to look at the world and its people in this new light too.

That’s the challenge presented to us in our letter to the Corinthians this morning. Paul is begging his brothers and sisters not just to see themselves as transformed, but to see everything in a whole new way… For the love of Christ, Paul writes, urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them… From now one, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view… if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!

What Paul is saying is that if you are in Christ, if you are wearing your Christ-colored glasses, the whole world and everyone who is in it is transformed before your eyes. As John Stendahl puts it, if we see in the imagination of our hearts, ourselves, our foes, and this old world all thus transfigured by the death of Christ, will we not deal differently with each? (138, B-4)

If we are going to be transformed… if we are going to be the living Body of Christ in this community… then we have to see everything differently. We need to see that cliff we are on not as a challenge, but as an opportunity. We need to dig in our heels and dive in deep to this part of the world that we find ourselves.

This past week, we had a horrible tragedy in our community. In fact, as we were driving home from Annual Conference late on Sunday afternoon, we drove right by the house on L Avenue where the unspeakable happened. And I got to thinking about the theme of our whole conference – radical hospitality – and what it means to invite and welcome people into our midst.

As your pastor, I knew that there were people hurting in this community following this tragedy. I knew that there were people feeling forsaken who needed to be surrounded in prayer. I knew that we were lost in how to respond. And so I set up a space for prayer here in the building. And I contacted a few of the people I knew who had been personally affected and let them know about it.

I had no idea if anyone would show up. I had no idea what I could possibly say or offer – except I knew that Christ was here.

I’m not sure that anyone physically showed up. But I know people were affected by the fact that such a place even existed – that there was a place – whether they decided to come or not – where they could go. A place where people who were lost and hurting would be welcomed with open arms.

That is after all, how we started this worship service… with a cry to gather us in.

Here in this place, new light is streaming
now is the darkness vanished away,
see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in the lost and forsaken
gather us in the blind and the lame;
call to us now, and we shall awaken
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

Wake Up!

Posted on November 30, 2008Leave a comment

This news story was posted yesterday on Yahoo News –

“Sebastian D’Souza hears the gunfire at (shah-trapati shiv-a-ji)) Terminus from his office across the street at the Mumbai Mirror tabloid.

He follows the sound through the sprawling station, slipping unseen through parked trains. When he first catches sight of the young men, he doesn’t realize they are the gunmen. They look so innocent. Then he sees them shooting.

“They were firing from their hips. Very professional. Very cool,” says D’Souza, the newspaper’s photo editor. For more than 45 minutes he follows as they move from platform to platform shooting and throwing grenades. Often, D’Souza isn’t even 30 feet away. The few police at the station are either dead, in hiding or had long fled.

There are billboards everywhere, signs of India’s economic boom. At one point, he photographs them standing beneath a tea company sign. They appear to be having a calm conversation. “WAKE UP!” the billboard reads.”

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

The season of Advent is a time of paradox. While on one hand we are preparing for the warm and beautiful scenes surrounding the birth of the Christ child, we are also preparing ourselves for the second coming of Christ. We find ourselves surrounded by this rich color purple, both because it is a symbol of the royalty of our Lord, but also the color for repentance and confession.

It is hard for a pastor to live in that paradox. It is hard to not give in to the cultural emphasis on Christmas – what with decorations and music being found in the stores before Halloween. As I chatted with other colleagues in this past week, we all struggled to take seriously the desperation and the seriousness that the scriptures from this morning call for. It’s almost Christmas after all, and wouldn’t a sermon on the apocalypse be a little too heavy?

We don’t want to talk about the darkness and evil in the world because this is supposed to be a season of joy and light, peace on earth and good will toward all.

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

Some days the darkness sneaks up on you. Some weeks it is hard to ignore. Most of my pastor friends were up long into the night re-writing their sermons. We simply cannot let the evil of this world go unnoticed this Sunday morning.

There are so many things that are heavy on our hearts this week. The loss of life in Mumbai. The trampling of a woman at a Wal-Mart on this Black Friday. Friends and family that have been laid off or fired. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day and we remember that there are now 33 million people living with HIV worldwide.

What does any of this have to do with Advent? We have to think back to the paradox of the season. You see, we celebrate Advent because we need to remember that God came down to earth as a vulnerable baby. We recreate nativity scenes and put stars on our trees to recall the shining light that led the world to the Christ child. We recite the promises of the prophets and remember that our God is faithful.

But we also celebrate Advent because we must remember that there are still promises left to be fulfilled. There is still darkness and evil in our world. There are still people crying out for healing and salvation. God’s work has begun among us, but it is not finished yet.

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

A friend wrote yesterday, “can anyone explain to me how any sale can be so good to not only line up at 5 in the morning but then to trample, to death, a worker at the store. And then complain when the store announces it is closing in light of the incident!

That new world, really, is it coming soon? Because some days I really start to lose hope in this one.”

Hope is what this first Sunday of Advent is all about – and yet it is hard to be hopeful.

We are desperate for the coming of the new heavens and the new earth. We are at the end of our ropes. We are waiting O God! When, are you going to act?

That desperation. That bold trust that God will come. Those are the things that this season is all about. That is why we start Advent with an apocalyptic vision:

From our gospel reading this morning we hear, “in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven… Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory…. When you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates… beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

Apocalyptic writings can be frightening to hear. They urge us that the time is coming, and coming soon, when God will set all things right. And they often do so with visions of disaster and tragedy, death and destruction.

Most days, we would hear those visions of apocalypse and have very little to connect us to the reality that birthed these types of prophecies. We don’t understand what could possibly be so hopeful about these terrifying visions.

But what we have to understand is that apocalyptic scriptures are not born out of times of safety and security, peace and well-being, but they are born out of times of desperation. They are written only in times of suffering and persecution. They are born out of a yearning for God to intervene.

As his people were being taken away to exile in Babylon, we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah this morning “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!… to make your name known to your adversaries!”

In other words – we are struggling down here, O God! Come and set things right!

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

Just who is it that should keep awake? Who is falling asleep? Who isn’t paying attention? In some ways, I feel like Isaiah is calling out to God to wake up. Wake up! Look at what is happening! Why aren’t you doing something?!

But perhaps Isaiah is speaking to us as well. Maybe Isaiah thinks that we are the ones who need the wake up call. Who need something as dramatic as the heavens tearing open in order to get our heads right.

Maybe the call is not to wake up to the reality of evil and darkness around us – but to wake up to the promise and the hope of our God. To stop letting the evil take us over, to stop letting it control our lives, and instead to wake up to the reality of the in-breaking Kingdom of God.

You see, Isaiah has some harsh words for his brothers and sisters, who seem to have succumbed to the darkness. He wants them to look around for themselves and to see that God has not left them.

“We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” God isn’t quite finished with us yet. God hasn’t finished shaping our world. God has not abandoned us.

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

In these seemingly dark days – with disaster and tragedy, difficulty and despair all around us, it is hard to see the signs of God’s presence. We are eagerly waiting for something dramatic to shake the earth to its core – to set things right once and for all. We are waiting for the grand finale – for the completion of God’s work.

And Advent is that time of year when we get slapped upside the head with challenging images of the heavens shaking and the earth trembling and voices crying out in the wilderness. Advent really isn’t a time for the soft and cuddly, but a reminder that the every present Kingdom of God is about to fully break into our midst – whether we are ready for it or not.

But perhaps part of our wake up call also needs to be prepared not for catastrophic billboards from on high, for cosmic signs and wonders, but to simply wake up and notice where God is already active in our midst.

Yes, Christ promises to return, and in the Advent season we eagerly await the return described in Mark. But Advent is also the reminder that God has already come down and made his life among us, and that while there may have been a star in the heavens, the presence of God was found in the ordinary. An infant born and laid in a manger of hay. Smelly shepherds coming in from the fields. A holy meal of simple wine and bread.

“Wake up!” the billboard reads.

Wake up and look around you. Look with eyes wide open for the signs of the Kingdom of God.

Look for where hungry people are being fed by food banks all across the country.
Look for where the oppressed are set free through prison rehabilitation programs or through AlAnon.
Look for where the sick are healed, like our loved one Mike Schott.

If you look hard enough – you will see that God is still working. God is still active. God remembers the promises that were made. And know, that our hope rests in that God. That he will see us through.

Even now as we wait – as we look around – as we take it all in… we dare to hope.

Amen. And Amen.

Lectionary Leanings

Posted on August 6, 2008Leave a comment

After preaching last week on who is missing… I feel obligated to listen for God’s word on how we reach those that we have named.

This week’s lectionary readings, have me thinking about going to where people are – instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Romans has this great two step plan for salvation: believe and you will be justified, speak and you will be saved. Well, speak not just anything… but speak the truth about God. That Christ is Lord.

One of the scariest questions (in my opinion) that had to be answered on our examination questions for ordination is “How do you interpret the statement ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’?” I have often hesitated to use that statement because of the way I have heard others use it. I hear it used in militaristic and political ways that seem to have no connection with the Jesus who speaks out of the scriptures. I hear it used solely as a means of gaining salvation, as the defining measure – rather than as a beginning point for a whole life lived in faithful action. I hear it in ways that separate and promote Christ from the Trinity.

What I realized is that the question is really about HOW Jesus is Lord and finally was able to write that we can only call Jesus, “Lord” in the context of the Kingdom he proclaimed. A Kingdom that is for the poor and oppressed, a Lord that walks along side the people and offers them life, rather than ruling from above. When we claim that Jesus is Lord, we are proclaiming a kingdom that is not of this world – that seeks peace and wholeness rather than power and domination. We proclaim that our final allegiance doesn’t lie with our family or the state, but with God.

In my lectionary discussion group, we spent quite a bit of time bemoaning the crazy and chaotic world around us… and I heard many laments about the downfall of Christianity in America. But I am more than prepared to say that living in a post-Christian America may in fact be exactly what we need to more fully accept Christ as our Lord. Living in a post-Christian America means that we no longer are Christian by default, but that we now have the ability to choose to deeply commit our lives to this way. And it means that there are new opportunities to share this gospel with people who are disheartened by the world – to offer them a future of hope that lies now within our modern politics, but with God’s kingdom. We offer an alternative to the world as it is – not rose colored glasses – but a connection to something that is bigger that our current struggles.

I’m also thinking a lot about Matthew and Peter’s venture out onto the sea in connection with a poem by the late Eddie Askew. I can’t remember the title or which book its in, but here is the piece of the poem I have:

And, suddenly, I notice with unease, you standing with them, outside the boundary wire of my concern. Not asking that they be admitted to my world, but offering me the chance to leave my warm cocoon, thermostatically controlled by selfishness, and take my place with them, and you. At risk in real relationships, where love not law, defines what I should do.

I keep thinking about how often we tell people to come to church, rather than take church to them. I think about all of those people who will never on their own accord set foot in our large brick building. I think about the people who are in the bars in town – or working at the grocery store or the dollar general or the gas station. And I think about Jesus standing with them out in the storms of their lives.

While the storm was raging on that lake, the disciples were relatively safe in their boat. It seems they were more startled than anything else by this figure that appears and Peter doesn’t really believe it could be Jesus… what on earth is he doing out there? Why doesn’t he stay where it is safe… either get in the boat or stay on the short! He is outside the boundary of where Peter thinks he should be. And so to make sure it is really him, Peter wants proof. If it’s you Lord, command me to come to you. And Jesus says, Come.

Peter gets out there, but its scary to be in the world without all of the safety of the church (ahem, I mean boat). and so he falters and Christ picks him up and helps him back into the boat. It is new and terrifying to try to proclaim Christ out in the world, rather than just in the safety of the church, but we are called to do so. Not because Jesus tells us to (after all, Peter is the one who suggested it)… but simply because that is where Jesus is.

Lectionary Leanings

Posted on August 5, 2008Leave a comment

After preaching last week on who is missing… I feel obligated to listen for God’s word on how we reach those that we have named.

This week’s lectionary readings, have me thinking about going to where people are – instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Romans has this great two step plan for salvation: believe and you will be justified, speak and you will be saved. Well, speak not just anything… but speak the truth about God. That Christ is Lord.

Three Simple Rules: Stay In Love With God

Posted on July 20, 2008Leave a comment

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Sermon Text: Psalm 119: 105-112, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Hymns for the Day: Stay in Love with God

Two weeks ago, we began exploring together the three simple rules of a Wesleyan community. These were the rules that Wesley himself taught and encouraged his classes and societies to follow – rules that would help them to grow in their faith and to become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ.

When we talked about the first rule – to do no harm – we talked about the ways we are freed from our old lives and from our old ways when we begin this walk with Jesus. We held onto the passage from Matthew, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Doing no harm is not about a list of Don’ts and rules that are impossible to follow – it is about trying our best to live our lives aware of how we hurt others (knowingly or unknowingly) – and then, with the grace of God, trying to live differently. Doing no harm is about laying down the burdens of past guilt and pain and starting a new with the yoke of Christ, who promises to lead us and to teach us.

Last week, we explored the second rule – to do good – and we did so by exploring the parable of the sower. In this parable of Jesus, the sower could really be more like a foolish farmer – because he scattered his grain everywhere – on the path, in the rocks, in the weeds and finally on good soil. While it sprouted in many of those places – only in the good soil did it bear fruit. So we talked about the importance of tending our lives, of becoming the kind of people in which the word of God could not only be planted but grow. We become good soil by taking care to pull the weeds in our lives – the worldly cares that distract us, and by carefully rooting out the rocks – those people and situations which lead us to turn our backs on God’s word. And we also remembered our call to cultivate and nurture goodness in other people’s lives as well – through loving them, caring for them, and sharing our hope and joy.

This week – we listen for the last rule. In the General Rules, this third command is to “attend upon all the ordinances of God,” but in his book Three Simple Rules, Bishop Ruben Job reframes this third command as “Stay in Love with God.”

Those may sound like two very different things – but today we are going to look at how taking time to worship with a community, to pray, to study the scriptures, to fast, and to gather around the Lord’s Table – are about love – and about sustaining a relationship with the God who first loved us. Doing each of these things on a regular basis – making them habits and practices of our lives – is how we respond to God’s love for us… they are how we uphold our end of the relationship.

Now, I wouldn’t call myself a relationship expert by any means, but in just two weeks, my husband and I will celebrate one full year of marriage. One full year of living with those promises to love, honor and cherish each other. One full year of “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer.”

Now, we have learned many things over the years of our relationship, and this year of married life has been no exception. The thing is, when you are in a relationship with someone – you constantly have to work on it! There is always a give and a take, always the necessity to listen and to speak the truth of your heart, always the opportunity to grow.

A few months ago, Brandon and I finally settled into our routines around the house. And you know what – they become just that – routines. We each knew what was expected of us, and set about to do our business. But the thing was, distance started to grow between us because each of us was off in our own little world – doing our own thing.

One day, when Brandon had finished mowing the yard, I told him thank-you for his work. Thanked him for standing outside in the hot sun and getting that job done. I was kind of surprised at myself that I hadn’t thanked him any of the other times he had mowed. I started to wonder when the last time I HAD thanked him was.

And you know what… later that week, he thanked ME for putting the dishes away. And we sat down and talked about the fact that it really does make us feel loved and appreciated to hear those words… and promised to keep saying thank you for the little things. Instantly, we felt closer and more connected than we had in a long time. All because we took the time to share the love that was there.

And that’s true of any relationship. We too easily take our love for granted and forget about what our partner, our sibling, our children are doing and who they are, and we need to stop sometimes – no, we need to stop often – and take time to work on our relationships.

I believe Wesley has this third rule here because the same is true of our relationship with God. We need to work on it. We need to stop taking God’s love for granted and really explore and listen for what God has done for us… is doing for us, and then we need to share our own response of love.

In the scriptures this morning, we catch glimpses of what God’s love for us is like. Matthew shares with us five very short and very different parables about the kingdom of heaven… Or as Larry Patten rephrases it – the Realm of Love.

You see, the kingdom that Jesus is talking about isn’t some far off place, or even a heaven that awaits us after death – but about “the time when all of humanity will be governed by God’s love.” (John Shearman – www.seemslikegod.org). This Realm of Love, Jesus tells us, is like a very tiny, insignificant seed that is planted into the ground – but that springs up and grows as large as a tree! It is a seed that has already been carefully placed in our lives –love that is growing for us and in us.

This Realm of Love, this time of living according to God’s love, is like a small measure of yeast that is hidden inside the flour for the daily bread – yeast that will miraculously transform that loaf from a flat, lifeless lump into fluffy, fresh, abundant bread. The yeast too is like the love of God, hidden within us, growing and transforming our lives and the whole world.

Jesus goes on to say the Realm of Love, is like a man who sees something shining in the midst of the muddy field. And so he makes his way to that small glimmer of light, only to find a precious treasure buried there in the ground. And he covers that precious treasure back up and goes to sell everything that he has – all of his possessions, all that is nearest and dearest to his heart, so that he can buy that field and obtain that treasure for himself. That’s what God’s love is like…

This Realm of Love, this time when all of us will live according to God’s love, is also like a business man, a seller of fine jewels, who finds the one perfect pearl, and sells all that he has – ships, stores, buys out his employees, even sells his own house in order to have this one precious pearl.

These are just glimpses of God’s end of the relationship. The lengths that God goes to – the care with which God plants the seeds of love within us and waits patiently for them to grow.

Paul makes it all very clear in the book of Romans – “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And Paul says so with utmost confidence, because he knows the lengths that God has gone to in order to reach out to his children. He testifies that God the Father is so on our side, so willing to do anything for a relationship with us, that he did not even spare his own Son – gave even a part of God’s-self up, in order that we might be a part of the family of God. God sees all of us, sees each and every single one of you as a precious treasure hidden away or as that precious pearl that is without cost – and is willing to give up everything in order to show you how much you are loved.

This third rule – to stay in love with God – is about how we respond to that love. And this third rule is what really separates us as followers of Christ from the rest of the world.

Because, you know there are many good and honest, hard-working people out there who try their best to do good and who avoid the temptation to do evil. And I have known enough of these good and honest and loving people to know that they can do so without acknowledging God, without the church, and in many cases denying that either of those things are needed.

And there are many people in this room right now, and I would be the first to admit that at times I have been one of them, who are just trying their best to lead a good and faithful life, and they know what God asks of them, but can’t seem to find the time (or make the time) for all of these things God calls us to do.

Perhaps the prime example is a phrase we have all heard – and probably even said ourselves at some point in our life: I don’t need to go to church on Sunday – I can worship God in my own way. I pray, I read the Bible, what do I need the church for?

I’ll admit, I have said those words myself, and there are some things true about those statements. Yes, we can worship God outside of the church and outside of Sunday mornings. Yes, we can worship and praise God on our own. But – God also calls us to a public – a corporate – relationship with him.

In his book, “Being Methodist in the Bible Belt (A Theological Survival Guide for Youth, Parents, and other Confused Methodists),” F. Belton Joyner shares why we need to worship with others. Not only does it provide accountability in our journey of faith – helps to keep us on track… but it is how we acknowledge that we are a part of the Body of Christ – that we need others and that this journey is not just our own. Public worship reminds us that we follow a God who has called a people into being – not just individuals. Public worship is also a time to confess that we have done things that break the unity God desires for us –that we are not yet living in that time when God’s love rules all of our lives. (55-56)

Not only do we need each other to worship God fully, but, in all honesty – those times when I fell out of the habit of attending church regularly… I also tended to fall out of the habit of praying and studying the scriptures. It is hard to maintain those practices and disciplines when others aren’t there to sustain you in that journey. And when we let go of things like fasting and reading the bible, gathering together at the Lord’s Supper – they we also tend to take our relationship with God for granted.

Bishop Job reminds us about how Christ modeled how we should live, writing:

We can accuse Jesus of many things, but we cannot accuse him of neglecting his relationship with God. He must have learned early how important it was to stay close to God if he was to fulfill his mission in the world. He must have learned early that there was a power available to live the faithful, the fruitful, the good life and that this power involved staying connected, staying in touch, staying in love with his trusted Abba. He found not only his strength and guidance but his greatest joy in communion, companionship with his loving Abba.(56)

God was willing to give up everything to have a relationship with you. God has been reaching out, yearning for you to not only stay in love with him, but to deepen your relationship with him. Henri Nouwen writes “[Jesus] whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God had only one question to ask, ‘Do you love me?’” (In the Name of Jesus, pg 36-37).

Do you love God? And if you do, are you willing to do what it takes to sustain the relationship? Are you ready to choose today to say yes and to faithfully open yourself up to God’s love? He is waiting with opens arms… Do you love me? Do you?