Romans – Page 5 – Salvaged Faith

Double-Dog Dare

Posted on March 9, 2009Leave a comment

Sermon Text: Genesis 17, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38

How many of you have ever accepted a dare in your life?

Growing up, one of the most dreaded games to play at a sleepover was “Truth or Dare.” My friends weren’t really crazy people, but I was always afraid to choose “dare.” I would take any embarrassing or difficult question over having to do something silly, or dangerous, or oftentimes stupid.

I’ll be honest. I’m not an extremely adventurous person. I’ll roll up my sleeves in an instant to help someone, but putting my life on the line is not something that comes naturally to me!

How many of you are adventurers? Raise your hands if you have ever been sky diving? Or bungee jumping? I have NEVER been interested in things like that and I’ve always had this kind of secret admiration for people who did. I remember at Christmas one year, we were looking at photos of a cruise my grandparents went on and we came to this picture of my grandma bungee jumping! And she was like 65 years old! I couldn’t believe it!

I did however let my in-laws talk me into white water rafting.

Last summer, we got away for a week and headed up to the Menominee River on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan. There are rapids there that are really nice and at certain parts of the year are even class five – which means no one is allowed to be on them.

In July, when we went, the rapids were about at a class 3 – which our guide informed us was dangerous enough to have fun.

I actually brought some of the pictures with me of the rafting. When we got to the rapids, because they are pretty short, we actually get the opportunity to go on it twice. The first time, our raft made it through – I’m up here in the front….

It was a lot of fun, even though I knew it was kind of risky and a little bit dangerous. But I never thought that one of us could actually fall out… that is, until the second raft came down.

We were in a spot where we couldn’t see this happening, although we heard about it.

Now call me crazy – but even after hearing about that guy fall out – I still got in the boat and went a second time! I’m not entirely sure that if I had seen these pictures that I would have – although I did know that the guy was perfectly safe.

This morning, I’m talking about dares and risky adventures, because that is exactly what we find in our scriptures for today. Throughout history – in many ways and to many people, God dares us to follow. And unlike the dares and the crazy adventures that we undertake in this world – dares that are sometimes dangerous and often stupid, there are things we do every day that put our lives on the line…. But you know what? The dare that God calls us to undertake is the only thing that can lead us into new life.

First, we have the dare given to Abraham. We can read about it in Genesis, although Paul reminds us of this great dare in our passage from Romans this morning.

Abraham was a very old man – ninety nine years old the scriptures tell us – when this great dare comes to him. God called out and said, “I am God! Walk before me and be blameless!”

Now, at 99 years old – some of us would find that command just to get up and walk to be pretty difficult! But God also dares Abraham to be blameless – to be without fault. That is a dare that I don’t think any of us today could legitimately say we have taken up and been successful with.

But there is more to this crazy dare… God says that for his part, God will make Abraham the father of many nations.

God dares Abraham AND Sarah, who is well past childbearing age, to trust him. To take the leap of faith and become the oldest couple ever to have children together.

And Paul tells us – that “Hoping against hope, Abraham believed what God told him. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his body, which was already as good as dead, or when we considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

Now… my first response when I hear this passage from Romans is that Paul is a big fat liar! Because if we go back to the Genesis version of the story – you know – the original version that Paul would have known very well – it tells us that Abraham and Sarah DON’T fully trust God’s promise. They take the dare, but try to follow in their own way. Sarah doesn’t think that she can bear children, so she gives her servant Hagar to Abraham and gets them to conceive a child for her.

That doesn’t sound like being blameless, or completely trusting to me. But perhaps why Paul can say those things is because in hindsight – he knows that eventually Abraham and Sarah did trust completely. Eventually they took on the dare and did it God’s way. No matter how many bumps in the road they hit before they got to the final destination, they still got there. They still made it to the end of their own white water rapids. So Paul conveniently forgets the bumps in the road because in the end, it was their faith that brought them life.

Which leads me to the second dare in our scriptures today. In spite of Peter’s confusion and his inability to fully understand what the call of Jesus entails, Jesus dares him and dares us to follow him. “Deny yourself – take up your cross and follow me!” Jesus calls out to the crowd.

In many, many ways – I think we are like Abraham and Sarah here. We hear the call of Jesus, but we aren’t quite sure if we can trust in God’s promise. Or rather, maybe it’s not that we don’t trust in God’s part of the equation, but we don’t trust enough in ourselves. We try to spin the dare into something that is much easier to manage, we know what the end result is supposed to be, so in the spirit of that great Sinatra song, I try to do it my way.

The problem is, it just doesn’t work like that!

Twice in this passage from Mark, the word “must” is used. The Son of Man must undergo great suffering. And if you want to follow Christ you must deny yourself. The only way to really follow Jesus is to let go of our ways, the ways of the world, and to accept the way of God.

Jesus dares us to follow him. Jesus dares us to do what is necessary – even though it might not be the easiest thing in the world.

I got to thinking about that difference between what is easy and what is necessary two weeks ago. I was at home one night watching “The Daily Show” a daily news program on Comedy Central hosted by Jon Stewart. He had a whole segment on President Obama’s address to the congress and in particular one line from that speech. As he was talking about the challenges that lie ahead, Obama had said that “This is America. We don’t do what’s easy. We do what’s necessary.”

Here is where Stewart jumped in with his response. “Have you MET Americans? We’re the people who invented the Roomba, because the other automatic machine we invented to clean the floor made you do this…(movement) THIS was too much.”

Now, the entrepreneurial spirit in our country does encourage us to come up with better and easier ways of doing things. We want things to be simple and convenient and to fit into our busy schedules.

The problem is that we treat our faith the same way. We try to fit our relationship with God into a box of our own making. We try to find a few minutes here and there between club meetings and basketball practice and our jobs and getting dinner on the table to follow Christ.

But Jesus is calling out to us – if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself, you have to take up your cross. That is the only way. I will not conform to the world you have built for yourself.

I dare you to trust me. I dare you to make the hard but necessary decision to let go of all of that stuff you think you need, to let go of those relationships that only drag you down, to let go of the things you do to get ahead, and just trust that my way is better and that my way is the only one that truly leads to life!

The piece of the dare that gets a bit lost in translation and through time is the bit about taking up our crosses. Today, we wear beautiful crosses around our necks, we put them in our churches and we have transformed the challenging dare of the cross into this rather romantic idea of the burdens we must bear. I have read countless books and heard countless people talk about the crosses in their lives being an illness, or a family member who is difficult, or a bad patch they are going through. And too many times, I have heard people think that they need to stay in an unhealthy or dangerous situation with someone like an abusive spouse because that is their cross to bear.

But if we go back to this text and the world of Jesus, this dare to take up the cross would best be translated today as: I dare you to put the hangman’s noose around your neck – or I dare you to sit in the electric chair. Jesus was talking about cross – but in his world, the cross didn’t have all of the symbolic meaning it carries today. It was an instrument of capital punishment for the criminals of the Roman Empire.

When Jesus dares us to take up our crosses, he is daring us to take on the consequences of what a life following him will entail. Our crosses are the things that happen to us as a direct result of our decision to follow Christ, as a result of the things we do in Jesus name.

I know that in the Adult Sunday School class, one of their lessons recently was on taking risks. We live out our faith very timidly in this world. We treat our faith as if it were a private thing that is just between us and God and maybe those few people in our lives that we choose to share it with. Instead of doing what is necessary – speaking and demonstrating our faith loudly and boldly in the streets, we do what is easy – we go to church on Sundays and read our daily devotions at home and hope that that is enough.

At the community forum on suicide and depression recently, someone stood up and talked about the faith of a girl she works with. She said that this teenage girl is ridiculed and made fun of by her peers because she goes to youth group. She said that this girl is being torn apart inside, and that’s because as a young person, belonging is everything. That is an example of a cross to bear – facing that ridicule is a direct result of following Christ.

In this town and this place as adults, we might not face persecution if we go to church. We probably won’t be arrested like Paul was for speaking our faith openly. We probably won’t be dragged in front of a firing squad like Christians are in some parts of this world for simply being a follower of Christ.

But that doesn’t mean that we can sit back and relax. We can stand with people like that young girl and help her to carry the cross that she bears. We can continue to follow Christ and his message to the public square and speak out on national and world issues that harm life, rather than restore it. The United Methodist Church has a whole book full of our stances on issues like the death penalty, war and torture, the environment – all stances that as a church we feel are faithful to how Jesus has called us to live with one another. Writing a letter to your Senator or Representative, attending a protest, boycotting certain goods, even getting arrested during an act of civil disobedience, like people did during the sit-in movement during the civil rights movement – all of these things are ways that Christ calls us to follow him, and there may be crosses that we have to bear as a result.

You might draw out the hatred of a colleague. You might be fired from your job. You might even be arrested. But we have to remember the dare. It is easy to stay on the paths we are on, to take the safe road, but if we want to truly save our lives, we MUST take up our crosses, we must accept the dare, we must dive in feet first to the life of Christ.

That first step is the scariest. It’s like coming to the edge of the drop on a white water trip. You can see how far you have to go, and you can see the danger that lies ahead. But once you go over the edge, once you are willing to let go – then the ride takes over. You dig in with your paddles and row with all of your might. You hear the calls and commands of your guide and you’re willing to go whatever direction they need you to go. And no matter how scary it gets, no matter what trouble is in your way, you know that the guide has been on these waters before, that the guide knows the way through, and that even if you stumble and make a mistake and fall out of the boat – the guide will get you back in.

That guide is Christ. And if we let ourselves take the dare, if we take that first step and let go of our ways – Christ will be there. He will lead us in his paths. He will help us carry the crosses we may have to bear. And he will make sure that we get through this rocky ride to the smooth water on the other side.

Just take the first step. Put yourself out there… I dare you!

senseful worship

Posted on February 23, 2009Leave a comment

I am a strong believer in using all of our minds, bodies and souls in worship. And one of the primary ways that I try to encourage people to reach that place is by thinking of all of our five senses and the worship experience. What are the things we hear? What kinds of smells do the scriptures bring to mind? What does grace taste like? What does the gospel feel like? How can we use color and images to see God?

Now – all of that is much easier said than done. It takes so much work to craft worship experiences and to be honest, for the most part I stick to a basic liturgy and try to throw one of the senses we neglect in worship (taste, touch, smell) in every now and then.

I have been thinking a lot about wanting to pick this practice back up again for Lent – even if I focus on just one sense each week. The scriptures for Lent 1B include the promise of God to Noah in the rainbow, and two years ago, we used that scripture in our emerging worship service in Nashville to literally paint a rainbow among the congregation. We had six canvases set up around the worship space and people were invited to travel among them and write/paint images, words, colors that expressed their understanding of promise and covenant.

I would LOVE to do that with my congregation. It would incorporate touch, color, movement, engage our minds etc.

I’m having more troubles thinking of what to do with the next week and the Lent 2B scriptures. Our theme is “Challenge” and the focus is on taking the leap of faith to trust in God’s promises – using Romans 4:20-22 and Mark 8:34-35

Weekly Lectionary Reflection

Posted on September 4, 2008Leave a comment

** I’m giving up on my other blog where I only post lectionary reflections… my life, the life of the church, and the texts are not seperate – they all intertwine, so they might as well on my blog too! **

I’m quite far behind this week, as far as sermon preparation goes. I’m increasingly thankful for my local pastor’s lectionary study, as we always look at the texts a full week and a half in advance.

This week, I’m thinking a lot about the confrontation that is proposed in this week’s reading from Matthew, but also how that is only possible when you are bound together in Christ. So, in continuation with my “ABC’s of Being the Church” theme, this week is B for Bound Together.

I visited with a woman recently about these kinds of confrontations when your neighbor wrongs you, and we agreed that it is a horribly difficult thing to do. BUT – in our families, we have no problems telling someone if they have hurt us, or other people. Especially she said as a parent and a grandparent, or as a sibling, there is a lot of intervening going on (some of it not so healthy). But we treat those people who are in the church with us as strangers, as people whose lives are private and none of our business.

Our text this week reminds us that we are bound together. And the Romans passage makes that even clearer as we hearken back to the 10 commandments. While the first commandments are all about honoring and loving God, the rest are about how we are supposed to live in community – take care of one another – don’t do anything that would harm the fragile balance of our togetherness – because we all need one another to survive. In the United States, we are so individualized into our family units that we can’t see the way that our actions affect other people. Or we ignore the effects. This week, as we talk about being bound together, we have to face the responsibility and accountability that goes along with that.

A is for Acceptance

Posted on August 31, 2008Leave a comment

I told all of you last week that we were going to spend this fall exploring what the scriptures tell us about how to be the church. And so today we start at the very beginning – just like all of those kids heading off to kindergarten for the first time, we are going to learn our own ABC’s. And this morning we start off with A – A for Acceptance.

While that may seem like a strange place to start, the truth is that if we are going to be Christ’s church in this world – the hands and feet and voices of Christ to the world, then we had better figure out who it is that we are following! And as we learned just a few minutes ago – names matter!

We have seven or eight young people starting confirmation this fall and they are going to be learning what it means to Claim the Name Christian. What it means to follow someone named Christ. And what we are going to learn over and over again is that saying you believe in Christ and actually accepting and claiming that name are two very different things.

Accepting Christ means that we not only believe Jesus is the Messiah, it means we take on that identity ourselves. To accept something means that we take what is offered and we receive it willingly –our lives begin to look like the name that we have accepted.

This morning, our scriptures readings go hand in hand as we learn not only who Jesus is, but what his title, “The Messiah” means for our lives, and how then we can accept that name as a church in the way that we live.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is having a conversation about identity with his disciples and he starts off by asking them a simple question. “Who do people say that I am?” After the disciples spouted off the answers of the crowds, Jesus asked the tougher question, the deeper question – “Who do you say that I am?”

For months, Peter had walked alongside Jesus and witnessed first-hand the miracles that took place. His own mother had been healed. Demons had been cast out. Hungry people had been fed. Sight was restored to those who couldn’t see. While the world was still struggling, the hopes of the prophets were beginning to be fulfilled. And Peter was blessed enough to have a front row seat to the glorious coming of God’s Kingdom. And so without hesitation, he answered Jesus question – “you are the Messiah.” And Jesus blessed him for having given this answer.

You are the Messiah – What exactly is “Messiah” supposed to convey anyways? We wrestled with this Tuesday night at our roundtable gathering and it’s a hard question. Messiah or masaich is simply a Hebrew word that means “the anointed one.” The interesting thing is that Messiah and Christ actually mean the same thing – one is just a Hebrew word and the other is Greek. When we think of children or boats being “christened,” they are being anointed, or have something poured upon them. Throughout the Old Testament, Messiah was used to refer to priests, prophets, kings of Israel and even foreign rulers who were anointed by God – set aside for a special task. Eventually the idea of “the Messiah” came to mean many things.

Especially in the prophetic writings, the Messiah was a long awaited king that would rule with divine authority – the one who would be anointed to “uphold the justice and righteousness” of the kingdom, a future King David. But when Israel comes under the authority of foreign rulers – first in exile and then later under Rome, some start to lose hope in a new king for Israel. Others take the idea of a Davidic king and claim that he will return at the end of days, the end of time. Some began to hope not for a political king, but a spiritual leader who would reform the people. As Peter walked and talked with Jesus all of these ideas and more would have been floating around. There really was no one Jewish understanding of what the Messiah would do or look like, when or even if the Messiah would ever come.

So although Peter called Jesus, the Messiah – we don’t really know what kind of Messiah he was looking for. Except that it was very different from what Jesus had in mind. As Peter comfortably felt he had figured it all out, all of a sudden, he began to hear Jesus say things that his Messiah would never say. Suddenly suffering, rejection, and death were swirling through his head and Peter stood up abruptly and motioned for Jesus to come and share a quiet word with him.

You see, Peter, just like we often do, already had his mind completely made up about who Jesus was and who the Messiah was supposed to be. But perhaps none of us have been slammed back into our places as fast as Peter was when Jesus looked him straight in the eyes and said, “Get behind me, Satan!”

When Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” technically, Peter gave the “right” answer – he correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah. But what that name might mean for the ministry of Jesus was entirely unclear. Peter’s own preconceptions and his personal attachment to this man – his teacher – overshadowed his ability to fully accept that Jesus had set his face towards the cross. While the name was right, Peter’s expectations for the Messiah were not.

The question really is not about a name or a title, but about what we mean by it and how we use it. And so Jesus has this conversation with his disciples and with us, so that we can get past our false expectations and get to the heart of who Jesus really is.

Barbara Brown Taylor describes in her book, The Preaching Life her own doubts and struggles about the identity God, and sees those doubts and mistakes as opportunities for growth. She writes:

Did God fail to come when I called? Then perhaps God is not a minion. So who is God? Did God fail to punish my adversary? Then perhaps God is not a policeman. So who is God? …every time God declines to meet my expectations, another of my idols is exposed. Another curtain is drawn back so that I can see what I have propped up in God’s place – no, that is not God, so who is God? … Pushing past curtain after curtain, it becomes clear that the failure is not God’s but my own, for having such a poor and stingy imagination. God is greater than my imagination, wiser than my wisdom, more dazzling than the universe, as present as the air I breathe and utterly beyond my control. That is, in short, what makes me a Christian.

This is what is going on with Peter. He was looking for a Messiah who would save him here and now, who would elevate him, who would give them all liberty without the struggle. And to be honest, in many ways that is how we have painted Jesus in our culture today – just say these simple words and believe.

But accepting Christ is so much more than that! Accepting Christ is to take his life and make it our own. And that is why this conversation with the disciples was so important.

Jesus knew that he had been anointed by God to redeem all people, to bring the Kingdom of God here to earth… but he also knew the only way to get there was through the cross. This conversation was a reality check for their ministry. The moment that Jesus begins to speak of suffering and death marks a radical shift in the lives of these disciples, as they are asked to leave behind their prior conceptions and expectations. They now find themselves following someone who will be a failure in the eyes of the world. And yet they are asked to follow anyways.

As a church, we are called to accept that name for ourselves. We are called to take up our crosses and follow this Messiah who asks us to give up everything – our lives, our pasts, our expectations – give up all of our lives in order to take on, in order to accept the new life that Christ offers. The question of Jesus’ identity is not a riddle from the past, but it is a calling for any who wish to be disciples of Christ. His identity must come to shape our own.

And perhaps what is even more difficult is that his name should shape our lives more than any of the other names we identify ourselves by. More than our family names, more than our race, more than our nationality. Christ’s name should guide our actions… if we truly accept it.

As Paul writes to the church in Rome, that is the question of the day: How should we live now that we have accepted Christ? Last week we heard him say that as the body of Christ, as the church, we should not live lives conformed to the world around us but that we should be transformed by the mind of Christ, and then he gives us this beautiful and challenging list of ways to do so. Things like “love from the center of who you are – don’t fake it.” “Don’t quit in hard times, pray all the harder.” “Bless your enemies, don’t curse them under your breath.” “Don’t hit back, discover the beauty in everyone.” “If you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, if he’s thirsty, get him a drink.” (all from the Message translation of Romans 12:9-21)

Almost every single one of those things are unbelievably difficult. They fly right in the face of everything that our society tells us, every way that our world believes we should live. And yet maybe they are the cross we are to bear as a church. As our roundtable group discussed, we realized that these ways of living require us to give up our instincts toward revenge and getting even, force us to let go of a dog-eat-dog mentality. They represent a fundamental friction between the ways of the church and the ways of the world – whether it’s business or politics or education or even family life.

As a church, maybe the cross we have to bear is to so live our lives after the example of Christ that we ourselves run headfirst into that friction. We take risks and put our lives on the line for the Christ that we have accepted.

One example of this is the act of simply taking someone in to care for them. As four women gathered around the table Tuesday night, we talked about how risky that is in today’s world. To love as Christ loved and without question allow someone in need into our home is not something society would tell us is safe or smart. We’ve heard on the news a hundred stories about people who extended hospitality to strangers and who were later found murdered on the side of the road. But extending hospitality to strangers is exactly what Christ did and what he calls us to do. Too often we allow the fear of what might happen, or even what will happen, keep us from accepting the way of Christ.

In college I was a speech and rhetoric major and so I have been very excited about all of the political conventions. And so Monday night, I listened to Michelle Obama speak and I heard her say

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they’ll have families of their own. And one day, they—and your sons and daughters—will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming.

This time, we listened to our hopes instead of our fears. This time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. Take those words out of the political context and just think about them… This time we listened to our hopes instead of our fears.

We have to stop being afraid of what will happen to us if we truly accept Christ and follow him and we have to hope that if we truly follow Christ, the world will be transformed. We have to stop letting our fears and our doubts get in the way of the gospel. We have to put it all out there, take risks, and together step outside of these walls as the church. The let the servant church arise, a caring church that longs to be a partner in Christ’s sacrifice, and clothed in Christ’s humanity. Amen.

Hammers and Nails

Posted on August 24, 2008Leave a comment

This morning, I want to tell you a story about a carpenter who worked for his father’s construction company. One day his dad called Junior into the office and said, “Junior, I’m putting you in charge – total and complete charge – of the next house that we build. I want you to over see the whole job from ground up and order all the materials – nails, 2.4’x… everything.”

Well, Junior quickly got to work on building the house that his father had designed. For months before the groundbreaking he studied the blueprints and checked every specification. Then he pulled together a team of dedicated and hard-working people. While he knew that this was something that he could easily do on his own – that wasn’t the way that Jesus worked. And so he brought each individual to this team because of something special that they offered – because of some gift or talent that they had. Joe was the type of guy that made sure everyone else knew what they were supposed to be doing, so Jesus made him team leader. Julius had a special talent for putting up drywall. Sue knew how to pour a fantastically level foundation. Fred was married to the local lumberyard owner and so they would have access to the best materials.

Junior brought his team together and told them – I have given you everything that you need to build this house. You have been blessed with the skills you need to make it work – but you have to work together. I have specifically brought each of you here because together you can do more than any of you could do alone. You need one another to make this happen. So as I start to build this house – each of you have an integral role to play…”

The team eagerly got to work on this great project. They were so willing to follow the guidance of their leader Junior. But after a few weeks of great work, there began to be problems among the team. Steve, who was on the crew that brought food for everyone each day stopped showing up. Megan was a part of the team because of her precision hammer work, but she spent all of her time laying tile. The guy who was supposed to order all of the cabinetry tried to cut some corners and ordered much cheaper material and only half as much as was needed. Pretty soon, others on the team got busy with their families and the rest of their lives and started showing up only every other day. Some stopped showing up at all.

Junior looked around at the jobsite – half finished, and in desperate need of help – and thought… we can still do this.

The truth of the matter is this story about Junior and his construction project isn’t a story about a house at all. While Junior may have been brought up to be a carpenter, he has a much bigger calling that has taken over his life. You see, Junior has another name and another purpose for this thing that he is building… His other name is Jesus and his plan is to build a church.

This church that Jesus has in mind, this church that Jesus is building in reality has nothing to do with 2×4’s and levels and hammers and everything to do with the people that he has called together to build it. Not some hypothetical Steve and Megan – but you and me.

If we go back to our scriptures and look at the word which is used for the church in our bibles – the word is ecclesia – which literally means the “called out ones.” Each and every single one of us has been called out, called here to this place in order to BE the church that Christ is building. In essence, we are the 2×4’s, we are the nails, we are the foundation, the supporting structure, the insulation, the windows, the doors – we are the church.

In our gospel reading this morning there is a lot going on, and we will talk about Peter’s whole declaration that Jesus is the Messiah next week… but as a result of that, as a result of someone finally “getting it” – Jesus, in essence, begins his task of building the church – laying the foundation for the Kingdom of God that he has come to proclaim. He looks at Simon, whose nickname of Peter, or petra in Greek literally means rock and he says, “On this rock, I will build my church!”

It’s almost as if he is telling his friend, You are going to be part of the foundation of my church and nothing is going to stand against it.

Here is this guy Simon Peter, who countless times in the gospels makes mistakes and lets Jesus down and seems to fail in every way possible. And Jesus decides to make Peter the foundation of the church? Sounds a little like our carpenter was using shoddy materials, doesn’t it?

No, because Jesus is the one building this church and Jesus has the ability to take all of our mistakes and all of our weaknesses and all of our failings and when he puts us together with one another, when he strengthens us with the Holy Spirit, when his flesh and blood is poured into this project – nothing, not even death will overcome this church.

In the book of Isaiah we hear a glimmer of that promise. Isaiah speaks to us God’s word when he says, “look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham and to Sarah… for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.” (Isaiah 51:1-2)

Who were Abraham and Sarah out of the multitude of people in the world? Nobody really. Nothing entirely special. They had their own faults and weaknesses. But they are the stuff from which our heritage has come and God took their lives and blessed them and made something great out of them. All of it is God’s work, not our own. This church that we sit in today is God’s church, not our own. All of us here may think we are a part of the First United Methodist Church – a church that some of your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents helped to build – but no, you are a part of God’s church, a church that Christ has built through all of them and now is continuing to build through all of you.

The difficult part is letting go enough for Christ to do his thing! And by letting go, I don’t mean sitting back and watching it all happen. I mean letting go of our ideas of what this church should look like, who it should include, and where it is headed. Letting go of all of the “good old days” talk and all of the “we shoulds” and “we shouldn’ts.”

Paul wrote to the church at Rome and sent them a beautiful systematic and theological account of what Christ has done. And he talked about God’s grace and God’s mercy and how we have an opportunity to respond to the grace that has been given to us and he writes in the passage we heard this morning (this from the Message translation): So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. (The Message, Romans 12:1-3)

More common translations of the bible ask us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God – or taking our whole lives, everything about them, our jobs, our families, our passions and hopes – all of it – and placing it before God so that God can bless our lives and transform them and use them to build his kingdom.

The amazing thing here is that God is not asking us to lie down and give up everything… This is not a sacrificial end, but a sacred beginning… Jesus tells the disciples “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Mt 16:24-25) A pastor friend of mine was also working on her sermon and wrote words so beautiful I just had to borrow some of them – because you see, we are supposed to be living sacrifices! Which means like Isaac and his father Abraham, we crawl off the altar, and start living, letting God’s hands shape our lives, pound us into shape, pour us out, fill us up. “You can live your life so that God can do something with you.” (http://faithinflipflops.blogspot.com/)

And the thing is, just like the workers who were called together by Junior – each of us has some part of our lives that God wants to use. Each and every single one of us has been graced with gifts and talents and personalities and passions that no body else has. And because together – all of us running around as living sacrifices- make up this living, breathing, moving Church – we need everyone to play their part.

Peter Gomes is a professor at Harvard Divinity School and he once said that “the church will never be any better than we are.”

I believe that is completely true. Because we are the 2×4’s and the nails and the drywall and the windows and doors and insulation – we are the church. And if we let ourselves wear out, if we put aside our best materials and only bring to the church second-rate lumber, if we cut corners and take the easy way out, then we are a weak house built on a poor foundation.

We are called to Be the church! And it takes all of us, living in partnership with one another to make this happen.

You see, the thing about the church is that it isn’t some country club that you belong to – a membership in an organization where you can pay your dues and show up for meetings once and a while. The church is a community of people who follow Christ with their whole lives! And that is a tough and challenging and beautiful and joyful and rewarding thing!

Because if you look around this morning- you will find all sorts of other people who are on this journey with you. Think of them as the other 2×4’s that support the church with you – think of them as the nails that hold us together – think of them as the windows that will fit perfectly into the holes cut for them that help us to see the world outside of us. We all have a place; we all have a purpose here.

Hear again these words from Paul in the book of Romans: So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t. If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. (The Message, Romans 12: 5-8)

It takes all of us to be the church. And as living sacrifices, the church needs all of our prayers, presence, gifts and service. Yours and mine.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember what it means to be the body of Christ, to be the church in the world today. In many ways, the church, both ours and the church universal, have allowed themselves to be more conformed to the culture around us – the attitudes, the expectations, the focus on growth at all costs and on financial success – rather than to be transformed by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The best way that I know how to start to strip away all of those things that get in the way, those things that look more like the world than like Christ, is to start back at the beginning – to go back to the basics and look at what it really means to be the church.

So in the next weeks and months, we are going to wipe our slates clean and start fresh. Now, this doesn’t mean that what we have accomplished in the past is worthless… think of it this way. I have a friend who used to run at least 3 miles every single morning. It took her a long time to build up to that, but she did it. At some point though, all of the other things in life began to take priority in her schedule, got in the way, and her running days ended. She still thought of herself as a runner, but she had stopped practicing the art. Like her, we need to shake off the dust, limber up our joints, and start practicing again. Unfortunately, if she went out there and tried to run 3 miles cold, she would have some problems – she wouldn’t make it and she just might give up. Just like she needs to start from scratch, with shorter jogs, building up her endurance, so we need to gradually open up our lives and let Christ in – let Christ transform us from the inside out.

As we do so, each week we will look at one way that Christ calls us to “be the church.” One simple way that we can start being the church again. One step at a time. Little by little, Christ will work on us, Christ will form us and shape us, little by little, Christ will build this church. Amen and Amen.

Lectionary Leanings

Posted on August 23, 2008Leave a comment

1. Christ wants us to BUILD HIS CHURCH
2. The Church as a Living Body
a. WE don’t create it… Christ does.
i. Isaiah 51:1-2 “look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham and to Sarah – for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.”
b. Letting Go of our own ideas – both the “good old days” and the “we shoulds”
i. Romans 12:1-2 “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God… do not be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
c. BUT we have to use the tools that we have been given!
i. Romans 12:6ff “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us..”
ii. “The church will never be any better than we are.” – Peter Gomes
3. It takes all of us to be the church, not just some. This isn’t some country club that you have joined, this is a community of followers of Christ and starting this fall, we are really going to focus on what that means.
a. Each week until Advent, one way that we are called to “be the church” and “embody God’s Kingdom”
b. Then after we have explored each of those ways, I am going to challenge you to take a step of faith and to make a new kind of commitment to this church (will be covenant discipleship groups starting after the new year – and dividing the congregation up into classes w/ leaders). But first, we need to get back to the basics and remember what we are called to do.

Throw Me a Bone Here!

Posted on August 17, 2008Leave a comment

Some days, I think that my cat Turbo secretly wishes to be a dog. He does things that are at times very odd for a cat – like wanting to have his belly rubbed or playing fetch. He also is very good about communicating to us when he is ready to play because he walks into the room with a toy firmly in his mouth and meows… Mraow!

The thing is, our lovely, adorable, little Turbo never wants to play when WE are ready to play. It’s always in the middle of writing a sermon or in the middle of a really intense part of a movie that he shows up ready to go. And he doesn’t make it easy for us either. You see, Turbo likes to stand just outside of the reach of our arms – about four feet away from wherever we are sitting and he drops his toy and looks at us. It’s like he’s saying… “Come and Get it!” Get up and come over here. Drop whatever you are doing and pay attention to me!

Sometimes, I think that its rather annoying. Sometimes I really just wish that he would go away and find someone or something else to play with. Because I have other more important things to focus on. But he stands there near me, with that cute little mraow! And pretty soon, I can’t help but give in.

How many of you have pets in your family? Whether they are big or they are small, whether they live outside or inside, pets are in 63% of American households. I was curious to find out a little more about all of these pets and found estimates from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association that Americans own approximately 73 million dogs, 90 million cats, 139 million freshwater fish, 9 million saltwater fish, 16 million birds, 18 million small animals and 11 million reptiles.

That’s a lot of animals!

The thing about pets is that they have this amazing ability to make us better people. According to a pet therapist, “Love is the most important medicine and pets are one of nature’s best sources of affection. Pets relax and calm. They take the human mind off loneliness, grief, pain, and fear. They cause laughter and offer a sense of security and protection. They encourage exercise and broaden the circle of one’s acquaintances.” (http://www.sniksnak.com/therapy.html)

This morning, we hear a very different sort of story from Matthew about a how a woman who was callously called a dog – widened the circle of God’s love for Jesus, for the disciples, for the church itself, all in a conversation about table scraps.

And so as I thought about those two things together: about how much I love my cat and how sometimes he really pushes me to the limits and challenges me to move beyond what I am doing, about how he helps me to love more – and about how much that woman was hated and yet how she pushed the boundaries of the gospel and helped Jesus to love better – I got to thinking about table scraps and ever-widening circles. Table scraps and ever widening circles.

First of all, a little background on this passage of scripture. Jesus is walking around with his disciples way out on the border lands of Israel – out by Tyre and Sidon. Now, this would have been like venturing into Iowa State territory for these disciples…. If they were Hawkeye fans that is. People talk funny out there, people look different (okay, well not all that different), but there is definitely some long held animosity between the people of Israel and the people “over there.”

Before they realize it, this woman comes up to them…. And not just any woman, some crazy, foolish Canaanite woman, who starts yelling and begging and pleading with them to heal her demon-possessed daughter. I can just see the disciples now… are you sure that your daughter needs the help… because you are kind of freaking us out!

And then Jesus – the one who is always supposed to have the answers and who models to us how to treat others – surprisingly just ignores the woman. Doesn’t even bother to give her the time of day.

Now, if I were a disciple, and I saw Jesus ignoring someone – I’m not quite sure what I would have thought. It probably seemed like an affirmation of their worst thoughts and assumptions about this woman. It probably seemed like they were way too good to stop and pay attention to this persistent, annoying woman who was starting to make a scene. And so one of the worked up the courage to tug on Jesus sleeve and said… “Let’s figure out some way to ditch this lady… she’s getting on our nerves!”

Now, in most of our scriptures about Jesus, here is the point where Jesus would very firmly put the disciples in their place – take care of the woman’s concern – no matter who she was – and they would be on their way. Hopefully with the disciples having learned a very important lesson. Whenever I read this passage from Matthew, I am ready and waiting and longing for Jesus to give those hooligans a talking to.

But he doesn’t. We don’t know what is going on inside of his head, but he says something very strange to our ears – even today. Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” I was sent only to the Jews – that is my mission, that is my focus, that is what I am going to do.

And this woman, this Caananite, certainly wasn’t a Jew. In the gospel of Mark she is called a Syro-Phoenecian woman, but whatever way you look at it, she was definitely not included in the bunch Jesus had in mind. If you remember all the way back to Moses and the promised land, all the way back to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob… the Israelites were promised the land of the Caananites – the land of these people – to live in, to have as their inheritance from God.

Probably the best way that I can communicate to you the kind of racism, hatred and animosity that existed between these people is to think back about a hundred years to the way that Native Americans were treated in our country. Although they lived here long before Europeans ever set foot on the continent, those who came believed that this land of America was our promised land. It was a gift from God and a place where we could grow and live and love. But what came as a result of that was the demonization of a whole group of people – who were seen as nothing more than mongrels and barbarians and dogs to the white culture.

So imagine that kind of history between them, with those kinds of walls dividing this Canaanite woman and Jesus and his disciples, not to mention the fact that he is a man and she is a woman…. knowing that she is not included and not welcomed – this woman drops to her knees in an act of worship and begs Jesus… Lord, Help me.

Scott Hoezee, a biblical scholar wrote in his reflection this week that Jesus’ “ministry is a kind of extended heavenly feeding. (In the previous chapter Jesus fed bread to 5,000 people. Immediately following this morning’s story he will do something similar feeding bread to 4,000 people. Jesus is the bread of life.) And so, this woman is asking for a place at the table, but Jesus, chillingly, relegates her to the floor of life. ‘It’s not right to toss perfectly good bread meant to feed the children to the dogs.’ Jesus calls her a dog. It’s a kind of slur, an epithet, and the disciples no doubt approved.” (Scott Hoezee http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php)

Jesus has just denied this woman what she wants, what she longs for. He has not only done that, but he has insulted her in front of all of these other people.

But what I love about this woman is that she never backs down. She is quick and witty, she rolls with the punches that are thrown at her and she boldly speaks back. “Okay, so you want to call me a dog? Fine. You say that as a dog I don’t deserve the food off of the table. Fine. But you know what? Even dogs get the leftovers from the table. Even dogs get the crumbs that fall under the children’s feet. Even dogs deserve that… so, c’mon! throw me a bone here Jesus!”

Table scraps and ever-widening circles.

Edwin Markham once wrote a quick little poem called Outwitted that describes for me what is going on here. It goes:

He drew a circle that shut me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.

We drew a circle that took him in… table scraps and ever widening circles.

We don’t know why Jesus initially excluded her, except that he felt like he had a mission to preach the Kingdom of God to the Israelites. So in a sense, he had drawn a line – a boundary – he had placed a limit on what he was willing or able or felt called to do. He had drawn a circle that shut her out.

But then this woman had the wit and the courage and daring to flip his statements on him and to draw the circle big enough so that she was not only included, but that others could be included as well.

In our Roundtable Pulpit discussion this week, we talked a lot about the table scraps – the crumbs from the gospel feast that are leftover or fall to the floor. Jesus is of course talking about himself, and his ministry and his calling to find and feed and care for the children of Israel. But even as he does so, as he goes out into the world teaching and preaching, there will be others around who will benefit also. They might have been eavesdropping as Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe they were the neighbors of someone who was healed. Perhaps they saw the multiplication of the loaves and fishes – were on the outskirts of the crowd as the food was passed around. In any case, there were numerous people who were not of the Jewish faith and heritage, who were receiving the gospel. Whether or not Jesus was talking directly to them.

We don’t know if Jesus knew this all along and he was just acting out the kind of transformation he wanted his disciples to embody, or if Jesus really did learn and grow as a result of his conversation with this woman.

What we DO know is that after she had drawn the circle bigger – by having the courage to say that even she, a “dog though she may be”, had the right to eat the table scraps – Jesus had nothing but praise and willingness in his heart toward her.

“Woman! You have GREAT FAITH!” He cried out. Like she had won a prize at the fair he made sure that everyone around him – Jew and Gentile alike – knew that this woman, this Canaanite, this nobody who he had but moments ago unkindly called a “dog” – was not only faithful, but that her plea for help would be answered. Immediately, we are told, her daughter was healed.

Here is the talking to I was waiting for! Here is the moment when this woman and Jesus partner up to stretch all of our hearts open just a little bit farther. And as they do so, they challenge all of us to think about who we are ministering to out in the world.

You see, it’s easy to get caught up in a mission. It’s easy to get caught up in one defined goal. But if we aren’t careful, we allow that one thing to so define our work in the world that we have in fact drawn a circle. We have built a wall and we have imprisoned the gospel. Because, although we may think we know exactly who should be included in our ministry, we have to remain open to whomever God sends our way. Because as Taylor says, God [is busy] rubbing out the lines we have drawn around ourselves and calling us into the limitless country of his love.

Dan Nelson writes that “Even Jesus, who presumably has diving authorization for his limits” – you know, that whole “I was sent…” thing – Even, Jesus “allows those limits to be stretched by another’s necessity. In other words, the rule here is that there is no rule, only a creative tension between our finite capacities and the world’s infinite need.” (http://sio.midco.net/danelson9/yeara/proper15a.htm)

Our finite capacities and the world’s infinite need.

Jesus as fully God never stopped being aware of this woman’s need and he never stopped loving her. But Jesus as the person who was also fully human was very aware of his limitations – of the demands on his time and energy. And maybe in this situation he had some of his priorities mixed up, but the love and the mercy were always there.

That’s the message that we get from our Romans text this morning. Paul is here writing about whether or not the love of God changes – if people can ever fall out of their standing with God – if we can ever be rejected. And his message is simple: NO. You see, as many times as we turn our back upon God’s grace and mercy, God never turns God’s back upon us. God is always there, waiting to take us back in and longing for each one of us to turn to him.

In the Old Testament, Israel was chosen, not because they were the only ones that God loved, but because they were to be a beacon to the nations – they were charged with the task of making God’s name known throughout the world. God’s vision and God’s love was always universal in scope – but that love began in just one corner of the world with one group of people.

As Paul writes Romans, he is living in a world in which his own people – those lost children of Israel that Jesus kept talking about – have rejected Jesus as their savior. They are like ungrateful children who take the bread that has been graciously set on the table and throw it on the floor.

And ironically – Paul says – their disobedience, has allowed all of us to gather up the crumbs and has allowed all of us to enter into a life with God.

The Message translation of the Bible has this wonderful way of sharing that message with us and it reads:

There was a time not so long ago when you were on the outs with God. But then the Jews slammed the door on him and things opened up for you. Now they are on the outs. But with the door held wide open for you, they have a way back in. In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.

God makes sure that we all expedrience what it means to be on the outside, so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in. The reality is, all of us have disobeyed. All of us have turned our backs on God at one point in our lives or another. All of us are as unworthy as the disciples thought that Canaanite woman was to receive God’s grace.

And yet it is offered anyways.

And it keeps being offered in ways that stretch us and stretch our hearts and stretch the gospel around the world. In our final hymn today, we will sing in the second verse the following words:

Wider grows the kingdom, reign of love and light;
for it we must labor, till our faith is sight.
Prophets have proclaimed it, martyrs testified,
poets sung its glory, heroes for it died.
Forward through the ages, in unbroken line,
move the faithful spirits at the call divine.

Forward through the ages, that love of God has gone. Forward through the ages there have been people both shut out and pulled into that glorious kingdom by our actions and by our words.

We are finite and there are limits to what we can do – but never should we put boundaries around the gospel. Never should we try to determine who is and who isn’t worthy. Because our boundaries will never be able to contain the vastness of God’s love and mercy.

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.