Mt 18:12-17
12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
These are the stories we like don’t we. The ‘Blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit’ stories. Many of us connect with them somehow. Blessed are the people who get laid off at 50, blessed are the single mom’s struggling to pay the rent, blessed are those crushed in credit card debt, blessed are those been to re-hab… over and over again, blessed are the high school drop outs, blessed are those called loser, failure, unfit… There is something comforting about knowing you are in the presence of people who will find a new name for you, a new way of describing you, that doesn’t call to mind past failures and present struggles, but future victories. Find that one place on earth where you are valued and valuable. And there is something inspiring about being THAT community… that group of people who in the name of Jesus, find the worth in those whom the world calls unworthy, who remember the forgotten and love those whom other’s ignore and judge.
This is what I enjoyed the most about the beginning our Visioning Process, which still continues. We started the process with people stories and we heard so many stories about ‘I felt unloved, but here I was loved. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer, but here I feel important and valuable. I was looking for a family, and I found a family here. ‘
Gathered around Jesus, as he preached this sermon, we know it as the sermon on the Mount, were hundreds of outcasts, the expendables, these were the little ones he referred to… who suddenly heard that the kingdom of heaven was for them, that the God who created the Universe chose them to reveal his love and his power. Suddenly they were no longer the left-over or the left-out… suddenly, Jesus proclaimed… they were vital to God’s purpose and plan, an integral part of Jesus ministry in the world.
But just as we were feeling SOOOOO GOOOOOOD
Comes an IF, Walter Brueggeman coined this phrase ‘the Earth-Shattering If’
He was talking about an IF in Deuteronomy but I think it applies here.
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
This is an earth-shattering if because it pulls us out visions and dreams and parables of lost sheep and the comfort of theory, back into the everyday reality of living a shared life together in community.
Recently Isaac started taking drum lessons. You see we have this game we play at home, the boys and I. We put on a CD or a Live DVD of one of our favorite bands and jump around and play rock band…air guitars, air bass, air drums. Isaac loves air drums. He flails his arms and kicks his feet and has a great time. THEN he started taking drum lessons… learning the basics of reading music and breaking down the rhythm of a song. He had to stop flailing and kicking and start practicing the basics, One and Two and Three and Four, One e and a, Two e and a, Three e and a, Four e and a….
I give him credit, he did it, and he even practiced… but the practice was much different than dreaming about being a rock star and playing air band with dad and brother.
It is to this place, the difference between dreaming and doing, Theory and practice, that Jesus’ word, IF, takes us to. And it takes us to the very heart of our peace-making mission in the world. As radical as it is to welcome and accept others who have a past of writing bad checks or cheating on their wife or loosing job after job… it is even more radical to forgive them when their human failures affect us directly. If your brother sins AGAINST YOU …
Our witness of peacemaking, the very core of our witness to the watching world of the love of God starts when we sin against one another… when we hurt one another, disappoint one another, fail one another. The gathering of lost sheep, rejected sheep, begins in this moment, it begins in that fearful moment of direct conversation.
Its hard for me to even decide where to start because there is just so much to talk about in just this one sentence.
Jesus doesn’t command the person who is wrong, who has sinned to apologize… His command is toward the one wronged, the one hurt, the one sinned against is given the command to go and repair what they didn’t even break.
What do you think? Why would jesus want the process of conversation in the midst of conflict to start this way?
The second aspect of this sentence that I think challenges us is the phrase ‘just between the two of you.’
We don’t do that well do we? We call someone else who is not involved and talk it all over on the phone. We have conversations at coffee hour or in the parking lot with those not involved. Why? Why do we do this?
Because its natural that is why. When we feel hurt or wronged we do not want to be alone in that feeling so we go to someone else so that we don’t have to be alone. As a matter of fact, when you think about the first part of today’s reading, being alone, being the lost sheep is baaaad. Seriously, we see ourselves as those who comfort the hurt and the lonely and the rejected and so our first instinct is to what? To listen, to sympathize, to support.
Now jesus isn’t trying to short circuit that process of supporting one another when we are hurting. BUT. What can also happen when we are hurt is that we can try to gather support… when we are hurt we can want to hurt back and bring others along so that the hurt we give back is greater than what we received. We may not like the terms gossip… or revenge… but these phenomena do happen. We experience them at work, perhaps within our extended families, in the various group we belong to in the community, the school improvement team or business association or what have you.
Why does Jesus push us to go, at least at first, to the individual who has wronged us? To preserve their dignity. So that we do not become a community where there is gossip and whispering and rumor mongering.
And this leads to the third piece of this sentence that is SOOOO different from the world. What is the end result of this Christian conversation process? ‘You have won your brother or sister over. What is the end result? Not punishment but repair. Reconciliation.
What has Christ told us about the lost sheep? That God’s will is that they not be left alone, but sought after and brought back… God’s will is that they are won. The person who has hurt us is the lost sheep who needs to be found and rescued.
Do I really need to say what is so different about the conversation that Christ is teaching us? The end result is healing and a continuation of the relationship.
So let’s just make sure we are all tracking this... Jesus is telling us that the great mission of seeking the lost sheep begins here, at home, in the church, among our brothers and sisters. That the process is a conversation that the hurt or the wronged person begins, initiates. That this conversation is one on one. And does not involve others at the start. And that the end result is not vengeance… it is not making sure that they get their’s… it is winning the person who has hurt us back… So that the body of Christ, the community of faith maintains its full integrity, so that the relationship can move forward.
Now what if we are not heard, or there is no reconciliation what happens?
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
This is important, but it does not change the values that Jesus has infused our conversational process with. We are still working for the dignity of the one who has been wronged, while preserving the dignity of the person in the wrong, by limiting the number to whom we speak. And the end result is still reconciliation. The one or two others bring an objective opinion to this impasse. The one or two other’s ensure that each party, sinner and sinned against get to speak their piece appropriately and are heard and understood by the other. The one or two others may judge that the accused sinner, has not sinned. This may be a difference of opinion with no one clear solution or answer, so The one or two others seek to find peace that both parties can move forward together, with.
Now if peace cannot be created at this point we hear…
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church ; and if he refuses to listen even to the church , treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Jesus is probably imagining a smaller church than even we have. I think we could honor this third part of the process by going to the deaconate and not airing an interpersonal problem before eighty or ninety folks. But the point here is that there are three steps in which a dispute, through open and honest dialogue is reshaped into peace and reconciliation.
The greater point is that there is a specific process for dealing with controversy or conflict in the church… conversation, dialogue and there is a particular shape, a Christian way of having a conversation that Jesus is teaching us, so that we will teach it to the world.
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Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Practice of Confession
Couple of things before reading the sermon. I didn't type the end... I just went with that last thought and connected confession with peacemaking. I got the idea for this sermon from a Rob Bell sermon on confession, but if you listen to his sermon, mine is VERY different. Still his did inspire this. Finally, I mention my friend Jonathan Malone, who helped with some history and theology. Thanks Malone.
Intro:
There has been a lot of apologizing in the news this past week. Taylor Swift, who is apparently a country music singer, won an award for a music video. A Rap star named Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech to give the audience a lecture about how Taylor Swift didn’t deserve the award as much as Beyonce did. Afterword… he had to issue an apology. Serena Williams a tennis pro challenged John McEnroe when a line judge made a bad call… she verbally accosted the line judge in with a barrage of obscenities and threats, which eventually cost her the match. She had to apologize twice. (I’ll come back to that). A football player () had to apologize for having custom cleats made that challenged his team’s owner to pay him for money… he already make 9 million dollars and he feels he is getting cheated. And he had to apologize.
The interesting thing about these apologies is that most of them weren’t apologies. Kanye Apologized to Taylor Swift, but in his apology basically defended what he did by saying he was ‘keeping it real’… which is to say that he was just being honest… and so he apologized if anyone was hurt by it. That is how the football player apologized too. I’m sorry if anyone was offended. Now notice those apologies. I’m sorry if anyone was offended is not actually admitting that you have done something wrong. It isn’t taking responsibility for your actions. Its basically saying that the one’s offended are at fault.
The interesting thing about Serena Williams is that her first apology didn’t sound sincere so she issued another apology which sounded more sincere. I read one sports-writers opinion of this and basically he said that it didn’t really matter if Serena was sorry or not… she just needed to sound apologetic. It didn’t really matter is she meant her apology.
At issue here is honesty and integrity. We live in an age where both seem not only lacking, but it apparently doesn’t seem to matter to people that it is. One president tells the nation there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq… which were never found… the claim never substantiated. And to be fair the previous president wanted to quibble about the meaning of the word is… remember that famous phrase.. it depends on what your definition of is, is.
Which got me to thinking about practice of the early church… a practice that we as Baptist’s don’t think of as a part of our heritage… but I want to suggest that we need to revisit it… just because the culture around us… the culture in which we raise children and grandchildren sets such a low standard for honesty and integrity. That practice is confession.
Turn with me to 1 John 1
Jn 1:8-10; 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
The Greek word translated confess is homologeo or exomologeo homou means at the same time… logos… word or say… to say or speak …homologeo… so speak at the same time. One translator suggests To be in harmony.
Just to add another perspective Hebrew word for confess is Yahdah… meaning to throw or cast away…
But to get the full effect of what the writer of 1 John is trying to say we have to read the verses that come before what we just read.
1 Jn 1:1-8
1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We Write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Now, you tell me… what does the first phrase of I John 1… That which was from the beginning… remind you of? It should remind you of the beginning of the gospel of John… which is… In the beginning was the word… and that in turn reminds you of? Genesis 1… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In just a few words… just one word in greek really arche… beginning… the writer of first John has taken the story of our human failings and frailty… our sin and connected it to a cosmic story… the story of God creating all things.
This is amazing stuff. Sin is such a difficult word because it carries such baggage doesn’t it. Often it is religious baggage… listening to preachers who attack and berate and judge from the pulpit… No wonder we avoid talking about it… thinking about it… facing it. It can be so painful to remember how isolated we felt, perhaps as kids , when the priest or preacher started condemning and warning and frightening us with sin and hell and punishment and God’s anger.
Notice what is happening in 1 John 1 though that is really quite amazingly different. There is honesty first…6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Ok, so the writer is warning us to be honest with ourselves. And that alone can be a challenge right? The time to honestly stop and take a good look at ourselves is difficult to come by… and if we are carrying baggage then to honestly look can hurt…7 But…the writer pens for us… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Fellowship in Greek is koinonia and it means at its very root sharing….
But the writer of 1 John isn’t talking about sin and confession through scare tactics, judgment, self-righteousness or threats… He is telling us to remember creation. Remember In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
1 John isn’t inviting us to a horror show of guilt and shame… but to be a part, a participant in this creative act. Whatever failures, mistakes, poor decisions, unhealthy habits… all summed in sin…whatever that sin is that is the formless, empty, deep, darkness that we are avoiding… we can confess… we can honestly admit… because honestly admitting sin leads to a new creation… in us.
Confession, according to 1 John 1 is meant to be a creative, life-affirming and confident act that frees us from the emptiness and darkness of sin and frees us to live into a full life freed from guilt and regret.
Now, lets look at another scripture where confession is mentioned.
Jas 5:15-16
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Where the writer of 1 John talks to us about the benefits of confessing to God our sins… so that we can be freed from darkness and emptiness, toward a new creation… James is a bit more challenging.
Confess your sins to each other, he says
Now, I was raised to believe that confession was all well and good, but that confession to priest or pastor was not necessary or appropriate for Baptists. That was a catholic thing…
I asked my friend Jonathan about confession and he told me something that was shocking. Some Baptist churches in the 1700’s, including the Swansea church, practiced confession. Now individual’s did not come to the preacher to confess. They held a Wednesday night meeting and confessions would be made before the group that had gathered… they would listen, discern, and pray.
Now, before you completely shut the whole idea out of your head…just follow me for a minute.
Remember that in 1 John we had the word fellowship… koinonia in greek… which means sharing. In James why does the writer, James say we should confess to one another? Healing.
Sin is isolation. In Genesis 1 before the Fall, Adam and Eve and Yahweh walk together in the garden. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and then they hide… they are isolated from God. Sin is a separation from God and from one another. And sin is isolating. When we are struggling with sin… we can feel like we are the only one, like no one will understand, that people will think poorly of us, not like or love us anymore… and so we avoid it. What James is urging us to realize is that the best way to deal with the isolation of sin… is to be a community that uses confession so that we can support one another. The church hearing the confession isn’t meant to judge, to banish, to gossip, to punish… but to listen and pray and offer support. I think that what James has in mind is a bit like a twelve step program and meeting… a place where we can confess that we are addicted to whatever… and the people listening do not judge or condone… but understand and offer support.
James idea of church is not that this is meant to be a social club for those who already have it all figured out… but that it would be a family in which the burden of our failings and mistakes wouldn’t have to be carried alone any longer. This isn’t meant to be a social club for those who have it all figured out and straightened out… but a place to come with our brokenness to find support… to find mentors who have had similar struggles… to be isolated no longer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together suggests that confession should be a regular part of the church’s life. He doesn’t suggest that we start admitting things to the whole church… but that we create partnerships… one on one relationships… where we can seek guidance and support with our struggles.
Jesus himself in Mt 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Notice that although confession isn’t mentioned specifically… what is described is confession. And the end result is not vengeance, anger, punishment… but reconciliation. And it just needs to be between two people who have experienced an event that caused isolation and break in their relationship.
I do think that as Baptists we can reclaim the practice of confession, not to a group, perhaps not even as Bonhoeffer suggested a regular practice with a partner… but just in those instances where we have wronged another… to start confession there. The tough part… but important part.. is that the wronged person… being confessed too… becomes the prayer partner… the supportive mentor…
1 John 1: fellowship comes from koinonia –sharer
James 5; the point of confession for James is healing… sin need no longer be isolating… through confession we are no longer alone or ashamed of our failings because we have the unconditional love and support of our sister and brothers in Christ. Confession leads to intimacy, community, confidence…
Confession is a part of the foundation of peacemaking
Intro:
There has been a lot of apologizing in the news this past week. Taylor Swift, who is apparently a country music singer, won an award for a music video. A Rap star named Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech to give the audience a lecture about how Taylor Swift didn’t deserve the award as much as Beyonce did. Afterword… he had to issue an apology. Serena Williams a tennis pro challenged John McEnroe when a line judge made a bad call… she verbally accosted the line judge in with a barrage of obscenities and threats, which eventually cost her the match. She had to apologize twice. (I’ll come back to that). A football player () had to apologize for having custom cleats made that challenged his team’s owner to pay him for money… he already make 9 million dollars and he feels he is getting cheated. And he had to apologize.
The interesting thing about these apologies is that most of them weren’t apologies. Kanye Apologized to Taylor Swift, but in his apology basically defended what he did by saying he was ‘keeping it real’… which is to say that he was just being honest… and so he apologized if anyone was hurt by it. That is how the football player apologized too. I’m sorry if anyone was offended. Now notice those apologies. I’m sorry if anyone was offended is not actually admitting that you have done something wrong. It isn’t taking responsibility for your actions. Its basically saying that the one’s offended are at fault.
The interesting thing about Serena Williams is that her first apology didn’t sound sincere so she issued another apology which sounded more sincere. I read one sports-writers opinion of this and basically he said that it didn’t really matter if Serena was sorry or not… she just needed to sound apologetic. It didn’t really matter is she meant her apology.
At issue here is honesty and integrity. We live in an age where both seem not only lacking, but it apparently doesn’t seem to matter to people that it is. One president tells the nation there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq… which were never found… the claim never substantiated. And to be fair the previous president wanted to quibble about the meaning of the word is… remember that famous phrase.. it depends on what your definition of is, is.
Which got me to thinking about practice of the early church… a practice that we as Baptist’s don’t think of as a part of our heritage… but I want to suggest that we need to revisit it… just because the culture around us… the culture in which we raise children and grandchildren sets such a low standard for honesty and integrity. That practice is confession.
Turn with me to 1 John 1
Jn 1:8-10; 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
The Greek word translated confess is homologeo or exomologeo homou means at the same time… logos… word or say… to say or speak …homologeo… so speak at the same time. One translator suggests To be in harmony.
Just to add another perspective Hebrew word for confess is Yahdah… meaning to throw or cast away…
But to get the full effect of what the writer of 1 John is trying to say we have to read the verses that come before what we just read.
1 Jn 1:1-8
1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We Write this to make our joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Now, you tell me… what does the first phrase of I John 1… That which was from the beginning… remind you of? It should remind you of the beginning of the gospel of John… which is… In the beginning was the word… and that in turn reminds you of? Genesis 1… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In just a few words… just one word in greek really arche… beginning… the writer of first John has taken the story of our human failings and frailty… our sin and connected it to a cosmic story… the story of God creating all things.
This is amazing stuff. Sin is such a difficult word because it carries such baggage doesn’t it. Often it is religious baggage… listening to preachers who attack and berate and judge from the pulpit… No wonder we avoid talking about it… thinking about it… facing it. It can be so painful to remember how isolated we felt, perhaps as kids , when the priest or preacher started condemning and warning and frightening us with sin and hell and punishment and God’s anger.
Notice what is happening in 1 John 1 though that is really quite amazingly different. There is honesty first…6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Ok, so the writer is warning us to be honest with ourselves. And that alone can be a challenge right? The time to honestly stop and take a good look at ourselves is difficult to come by… and if we are carrying baggage then to honestly look can hurt…7 But…the writer pens for us… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Fellowship in Greek is koinonia and it means at its very root sharing….
But the writer of 1 John isn’t talking about sin and confession through scare tactics, judgment, self-righteousness or threats… He is telling us to remember creation. Remember In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
1 John isn’t inviting us to a horror show of guilt and shame… but to be a part, a participant in this creative act. Whatever failures, mistakes, poor decisions, unhealthy habits… all summed in sin…whatever that sin is that is the formless, empty, deep, darkness that we are avoiding… we can confess… we can honestly admit… because honestly admitting sin leads to a new creation… in us.
Confession, according to 1 John 1 is meant to be a creative, life-affirming and confident act that frees us from the emptiness and darkness of sin and frees us to live into a full life freed from guilt and regret.
Now, lets look at another scripture where confession is mentioned.
Jas 5:15-16
15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Where the writer of 1 John talks to us about the benefits of confessing to God our sins… so that we can be freed from darkness and emptiness, toward a new creation… James is a bit more challenging.
Confess your sins to each other, he says
Now, I was raised to believe that confession was all well and good, but that confession to priest or pastor was not necessary or appropriate for Baptists. That was a catholic thing…
I asked my friend Jonathan about confession and he told me something that was shocking. Some Baptist churches in the 1700’s, including the Swansea church, practiced confession. Now individual’s did not come to the preacher to confess. They held a Wednesday night meeting and confessions would be made before the group that had gathered… they would listen, discern, and pray.
Now, before you completely shut the whole idea out of your head…just follow me for a minute.
Remember that in 1 John we had the word fellowship… koinonia in greek… which means sharing. In James why does the writer, James say we should confess to one another? Healing.
Sin is isolation. In Genesis 1 before the Fall, Adam and Eve and Yahweh walk together in the garden. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and then they hide… they are isolated from God. Sin is a separation from God and from one another. And sin is isolating. When we are struggling with sin… we can feel like we are the only one, like no one will understand, that people will think poorly of us, not like or love us anymore… and so we avoid it. What James is urging us to realize is that the best way to deal with the isolation of sin… is to be a community that uses confession so that we can support one another. The church hearing the confession isn’t meant to judge, to banish, to gossip, to punish… but to listen and pray and offer support. I think that what James has in mind is a bit like a twelve step program and meeting… a place where we can confess that we are addicted to whatever… and the people listening do not judge or condone… but understand and offer support.
James idea of church is not that this is meant to be a social club for those who already have it all figured out… but that it would be a family in which the burden of our failings and mistakes wouldn’t have to be carried alone any longer. This isn’t meant to be a social club for those who have it all figured out and straightened out… but a place to come with our brokenness to find support… to find mentors who have had similar struggles… to be isolated no longer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together suggests that confession should be a regular part of the church’s life. He doesn’t suggest that we start admitting things to the whole church… but that we create partnerships… one on one relationships… where we can seek guidance and support with our struggles.
Jesus himself in Mt 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
Notice that although confession isn’t mentioned specifically… what is described is confession. And the end result is not vengeance, anger, punishment… but reconciliation. And it just needs to be between two people who have experienced an event that caused isolation and break in their relationship.
I do think that as Baptists we can reclaim the practice of confession, not to a group, perhaps not even as Bonhoeffer suggested a regular practice with a partner… but just in those instances where we have wronged another… to start confession there. The tough part… but important part.. is that the wronged person… being confessed too… becomes the prayer partner… the supportive mentor…
1 John 1: fellowship comes from koinonia –sharer
James 5; the point of confession for James is healing… sin need no longer be isolating… through confession we are no longer alone or ashamed of our failings because we have the unconditional love and support of our sister and brothers in Christ. Confession leads to intimacy, community, confidence…
Confession is a part of the foundation of peacemaking
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Fullness of Christ
I left this script behind in the actual preaching... but you will get the point
Sunday October 11, 2009
I Cor 12: The Rule of Christ
Every Member has been given some gift by the Holy Spirit
Intro:
Over the past few weeks we have been learning about Christian Practices. The point is for us to ponder together not simply what we believe uniquely as Followers of Christ, but how those beliefs cause us to behave uniquely as a result.
There is a book that was one of the causes of my beginning to think about this issue of Christian practice and unique behavior. Its call UNChristian; what a new generation really thinks about Christianity. It is based on the research of the Barna Group who spent countless hours interviewing young Christians, mature Christians, and young people who were not involved in Church, for simplicity sake I suppose, called ‘Outsiders.’ One of the things they discovered was that a vast majority of young ‘outsiders’ automatically assumed that Christians were hypocrites… that there was a vast difference between what Christians said and did. Statistically, 85% of these younger ‘outsiders’ had been exposed to Christianity and concluded that Christians were hypocritical. 47% of these young people were active churchgoers… and they too felt that most Christians were hypocrites.
To sum this up notice, whether we agree or not, that the perception among young people is that there is a disconnect between what they hear us saying we believe and how they see us behaving.
Furthermore, the Barna Group did surveys of Christian Adults and found that while in some areas there were differences like; going to church more often, owning more Bibles, donating money to religious non-profits. But, they found that the substance of people’s daily choices, actions and attitudes contained few meaningful gaps between ‘born-again’ Christians and non-religious adults.
Are you starting to get the picture that we have to deal with
Let me give it to you one more way… 84% of young outsiders interviewed said they know at least one committed Christian. 15% of those thought the lifestyles of those Christ-followers were significantly different from the norm.
This is why I started this sermon series and once wrote that is was one of the most important of my ministry. It seems obvious to me that if we cannot reclaim the uniqueness of a Christian lifestyle, we will soon be considered, if we are not already, irrelevant.
So we have talked about how Communion makes our view of money and wealth unique… we share wealth. We have talked about how Baptism makes us unique. We offer outsiders, misfits, ne’er do wells, others, welcome and hospitality instead of fear and mistrust. We have talked about Confession and how that practice teaches us to be uniquely honest about our failures and mistakes and how it also builds a community that helps the individual move beyond past failures and into something new…. That something new is what we are going to talk about today
Turn with me if you will to 1 Cor 12 and we will start by reading verse 4
I. The Church Chosen vs. The Church Created
1 Co 12:18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
I want us to think about that for a moment. Does Paul think that the Corinthian Church was chosen by each individual member? OR Created by God.
It is common, especially in our culture for us to assume that we choose the church that meets our needs, lives up to our standards. Many even use a phrase… church shopping. When we say ‘church shopping’ or think that we have chosen the church we are buying into the idea that the church is like a great number of other goods that we own, like cell-phones and flat screen TV’s; or service providers that we use; PC or Mac, Verizon or AT&T.
I suppose you could say, what is so bad about that? But the thing is… TV’s and cell-phones get replaced don’t they… and we go to service providers who provide the best…. Well…. Service and if we don’t get what we want, we can move on.
But what is the church? 1 Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We aren’t a service provider, a social service agency, a social gathering. Paul see’s the church as the body of Christ… and we do not choose the church according to Paul… God chooses us and places us in the church.
How does 1 Cor 12 challenge the way we think about church? First of all, Paul does not see the church as something we create or choose to participate in… Paul sees the church as something God is creating. When we are drawn to church we are being drawn into the creative activity of God, that began when God spoke over the chaotic waters and hung the starts and placed the planets and caused the sea to teem with life… the creative activity of God that cared for and guided rebellious humanity that God created… Adam and Eve, Cain, Abraham, Sarah, Moses and on and on… when you are drawn to church you are drawn into this long, long story of God creating and calling that creation good… and when it goes wrong… God starts over again to recreate because God won’t give up on this creation…
And you and… this is the exciting part… we are here to discover how we can play a role in that creating!
II. Gifts we have vs. Gifts we discover
1 Co 12:7-11 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
What are your gifts? What gift do you bring to church?
Did you notice how odd some of the gifts that Paul describes are? Did any of you name those gifts? No. You see, churches, all churches in my experience, tend to assume that what we mean by ‘gifts’ is the skill set that we have acquired through education, work experience, hobbies, natural talents or interests. And while that isn’t wrong, and in another letter Paul encourages the followers of Christ to put to good use these gifts in the church… what Paul is talking about here isn’t the skill set that we already have… but something new, outside our history and experience, something super-natural…
The church is meant to be the crucible in which we receive, where we discover just what part God has created us to play in this on-going creating… that we may have had no idea of, no inclination of. Let me tell you, preaching does not come naturally to me… public speaking is not my favorite thing to do… I don’t come by it easily
(feel free to insert your jokes about my preaching here)
But in all seriousness… I don’t preach because I think I’m good at it. When I leave this place and specifically you, my church family, I get very nervous and uncomfortable. I sweat and my hands shake. I don’t like public speaking. But I preach because God has called me too.
Notice that I said that I get nervous when I’m not with you. Paul says that these gifts are given, in verse 7… for the common good… in the greek this is sumferon… to carry to together.
This too challenges some of the common assumptions of church. Many people tend to think of the church in terms of what they are getting out of it. What am I receiving? Paul here is talking about what we carry together… what gifts we already have, what gifts we have to discover… to be used for the common good…
I often say to potential members… I don’t ask where you have been, if you haven’t been to church, because of my own ego, because I think you are missing something. I ask because I am missing something because you are not here… you have been placed here by God to share some special gift… if you are not here, we suffer the loss.
This also challenges the way we think about ourselves.
Again, think about my example. I don’t preach because I want to… but because I’m called to, for you… and I get nervous when I’m in front of other folks… I am who God called me to be when I am with you… John Howard Yoder wrote, and I included this quote in your devotions for the week, ‘Every human being, Christian or not, is less than he or she could and ought be if not part of a body of organic, interdependence with many peers. ‘
Think about how different that is from the world. In the world we are taught the value of the rugged individual. We are taught to leave behind associations and question the authority of the group in order to discover who we are. And yes sometimes we do have to question the authority of the group. But Paul says here that we only discover who God created us to be, who we have the potential to be… when we have a group to share ourselves with, to be shaped and challenged and encouraged by.
III Women
The sad history of the church shows that much of what Paul is talking about has been missed. Especially when he talks about being baptized into the body of Christ, jew and greek, slave and free. God gives the gifts to whom God wishes according to the needs of the community. Yet women for most of our Christian history and even today in places are denied the chance to use the gifts of ministry God has given because they are women.
It is important to realize that there were women in leadership roles in the early church. Paul depended on women to lead the early church. If you look at the first page of your devotions I included just one passage, from Romans 16 and bold printed all of the women that Paul named as key leaders in various churches.
The common assumption in both Roman and Jewish culture was that women were not equipped to be leaders, especially of men. The common assumption was that slaves (people of other ethnic groups) would not have the skills to teach or instruct. The common assumption was that poor people would not be able to take important roles in a community… and this is what made the church different, unique…
The Holy Spirit empowered men and women, rich and poor, of a variety of ethnic groups and from diverse places in the social world, to preach and teach and serve and heal and pray and spread the good news. It wasn’t past experience or education or gender or economic status or societal status that defined them empowered them… it was the call of God… the Spirit that breathed on them and made them what God created them to be…
IV. Instruments
School has started. Some of you perhaps have children in school learning instruments for the first time… or you remember what it was like when the French horn or trumpet or saxophone first entered your home. What did it sound like?
I mention this because I bet there are two reactions when the horns start bleeting and blatting. I bet there is some pride at that first trembling rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. Pride not at what is, but what might be. And there is probably a headache too.
My point is this. The church is meant to be that one place in all the world, where we are not only free, but encourage and supported as we learn to play our part in the band. It is meant to be a bit noisy and sometimes seems a bit disorganized. But here is the place where everyone gets a part, everyone plays an integral place in the song… it won’t sound the same, it won’t sound right without them. From the greatest of gifts like teaching or handling finances, to the simplest, like greeting or making coffee, are important, all are vital.
I think that is very different than the message people get in the world.
You are valuable. You have a part to play, in important part to play in God’s ongoing creation. Regardless of your education, or lack of it, your experience or lack of it, a police record, a history of rehab; no matter what you’re your parents or teachers or coaches have said about it, in this place, at Berean Baptist church we believe that you are here because God has brought you to us to play an important part in our lives, in the body of Christ, in God’s redemption of all creation. We see the potential in you, we believe that you are here to discover that image of God that you were created in and created to develop and share. We are here to support you and encourage you, to share our gifts with you, to take risks with you and to receive what you have to give.
God Bless you all
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Practice of Stewardship
This week I am away again... Chautauqua Institute to meditate, reflect, learn a little from Jim Wallis about economics and faith, plan some sermons... anyway... here is a sermon I preached at a friends church on the topic of stewardship and tithing. If you do read this and are sick of money sermons... this is the last for a while anyway...
Today we have to talk about stewardship… we have to talk about the deep things of our faith, cruciform living and resurrection faith… we have to lift up some ideas that are meant not for the Peter’s who follow Jesus back in the shadows, but instead for the Martha’s and Mary’s who will stand with Christ no matter where he goes, even to the cross….
today is not meant for dabbling in faith… today is for full hearted devotion to the life of Christ…and full-throated testimony of our faith… specifically… this is a time for us to have a discussion about how our devotion to Christ seeps into our finances, influences our spending and saving habits, and directs the way we both acquire and then put to use our economic resources.
That is not a discussion for the curious or the faint of heart
I remember being challenged at my very first church to talk more about the tithe and stewardship… I didn’t teach and challenge enough about those topics (so they thought ) and the church largely lived on the principle of its endowment. So I started to do more sermons and bible studies on tithing and giving and stewardship and Christmas came. I always got an envelope on Christmas Eve with a little something extra. It wasn’t always a lot and that was fine, but usually a few extra dollars as a Christmas gift. But this Christmas nothing. Later the explanation… you are talking about money too much. So we don’t necessarily like to talk about these topics, we find them challenging and perhaps frightening.
Scene 1:
To talk about finances and money and investment and stewardship… we need to talk about resurrection. That is why I had us listen to a portion of an Easter Risen Christ story from Luke this morning… because we aren’t really talking about money… we are talking about resurrection here today…
But before we can talk resurrection we need to talk…
Crucifixion & the Cruciform Life:
The bewilderment and bafflement that we heard about in Luke this morning came after the crucifixion… a violent act of oppression and terrorism that the Roman Empire used to punish any of those occupied peoples who dared to assert their humanity or independence. The disciples are astonished and amazed because Peter saw Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot and hung high to slowly suffocate...
I was taught to see that act of Jesus… that selfless… giving act… sacrificial act… to see that as a response to the sins of the world.
On that Cross Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the sins of the world… perhaps you were taught the same thing? Yes?
But today I want to suggest another way of looking at this scene. I’m not saying that this previous understanding of the cross is wrong by the way… I like to think of this other way of viewing the cross as just another facet of it… on the cross, Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the poverty and suffering… first of his own people under Rome and then of all humanity. So that when we look to the cross we are not only meant to see our sins… but also to see poverty and suffering.
Just think for a moment about those whom Jesus came in contact with. Those with leprousy, those whose dignity was diminished to the point of begging, those with disease. There it is right in front of us when we open the gospels to read, Jesus spoke to the poor and suffering, walked among the poor and suffering, touched and was touched by the poor and diseased, yet we rarely consider closely the harsh realities of the crowds whom Jesus surrounded himself with and what their life was like, how different it was from our own.
For instance… why did the leper have leprousy? He got sick… why? Poor nutrition. Why? He couldn’t afford to buy food. Why? He was taxed heavily by Rome (and by the Temple). He was in so much debt he was thrown off his own farm and had no way to provide food for himself or his family. Jesus
The opening of the earth-shattering Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ sounds very similar in Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain… ‘Blessed are the poor’
We are taught in the Lord’s prayer…give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…We tend to pray right over these things…. But if you lived in 1st Cent Roman Palestine… getting a loaf of bread to eat and being somehow fortunate enough to have a creditor who would forgive your debt… well… these would be incontrovertible evidence of ‘Our Father in heaven… whose kingdom has come….
Jesus told parables about the poor and the wealthy… the rich man and Lazarus… do you remember that one? The story of a wealthy man who dressed in fine clothes and has so much food he just tosses out the left-overs ( I know that doesn’t sound all that egregious, but in a time and place when so many were dying of malnutrition, to throw away food was just an incredibly callous thing to do).
Anyway… both the wealthy man and Lazarus die…
Where does Lazarus go after he dies...? What about the wealthy man…? Why?
That is the shocking part of the story for there is no clear explanation of why he lands in hell accept that he was woefully ignorant of the plight of the poor right outside his own gate
And his conversations were often challenges to the wealthy… To the young man who came to seek eternal life, he said ‘go sell everything and give to the poor…’ and when he went to visit Zacchaeus…he hardly said a word, but his presence caused Zacchaeus to offer to give half his wealth to the poor.
It is for these reasons that when Jesus hangs on the cross…. I see poverty and oppression and hunger and disease hanging there…
Of course… it doesn’t just stop there…
Are Ye Able said the master… to be crucified with me… with me… have you ever sung that hymn… Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it isn’t just a metaphor? That we are meant to give up something in order to follow Christ?
The crucifixion wasn’t just an event in history but somehow it is meant to be a practice kept current by the disciples after Jesus death and resurrection down through the ages right up to today, a practice that you and I together observe.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Luke 14:27
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Ro 6:3-4
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Crucifixion as in a violent act of oppression wasn’t meant to be practiced… but crucifixion as a loving act of sacrifice on behalf of others to incarnate… make flesh…make real… the love of God…. Well that was meant to become a regular practice for Christians…
Made in God's image, we are to grow into that reality by doing what God does: love the world (McFague; Life Abundant , pg. 13)
'Faith in god does not consist in asserting god's existence, but rather in acting on [God's] behalf.' Henri Nouwen quoted in McFague pg34 Life Abundant.
Those who call themselves Christians, Christ-followers then, are meant to show the sacrificial love of God to those who suffer…. Those who hang on the cross… we are not allowed to turn our heads… to avert our gaze from the suffering of the world around us. We can turn Sally Fields commercials off… change the channel… but those of us who are baptized are baptized into his suffering and death… and we cannot ignore the fact that…
According to UNICEF, between 26-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day
Estimated cost of clean water and sanitation for the world 9 billion US dollars
Americans spend 8 billion on cosmetics
US and Europe spends 12 billion on perfume
17 billion on pet food
The world spends 780 billion dollars in military expenditures
I know you love statistics…
1 in 10 of our RI neighbors are living in poverty….
40, 468 children, live below poverty in RI
17, 805 children live in extreme poverty… extreme poverty would be me trying to provide for my wife and two children on 11,000 dollars a year. Almost 18, 000 kids in our own state are living in those circumstances.
Resurrection Faith
This is where our resurrection story, which is meant simply to remind you of all of those resurrection stories, comes in. In all of these stories we meet baffled, confused, doubting disciples. We meet Mary who looks and Jesus and thinks he is the gardener… and Cleopas who walks with Jesus to Emmaus and listens to him speak but still can’t recognize him. All of these stories… Mark’s original ending perhaps the most maddening of all… for it ends with Mary and the other women running away from the empty tomb so frightened of this empty tomb that Mark says ‘they say nothing to no one.’ I know that isn’t good grammar, but that is the greek. They say nothing… Resurrection staring them straight in the eye… a tomb empty and an angel telling them to go to Galilee to see Jesus and they scream and run!!!
How can it be!
But here we are brothers and sisters, just as baffled, just as confused…
Here we are… we have heard the words of Jesus, blessed are the poor, forgive us our debts as we forgive…. Here we are with the stories of the rich man and Lazarus and that odd saying about rich men getting into heaven and camels fitting through needle eyes… 9 billion dollars would buy clean water and sanitation for the world (don’t forget why the leper was a leper, malnutrition and lack of sanitation) and we are spending 17 billion on pet food.
Currently, American's spend $8 billion annually on cosmetics and Europeans $11 billion on ice cream, a total more than it would cost to provide basic education ($6 billion) or water and sanitation ($9 billion) to the more than two billion people worldwide who do not have schools or toilets. (New York Times 'Most Consuming More, and the Rich Much More,' Sept 13, 1998
I believe Christian discipleship for twenty-first century North American Christians means 'cruciform living,' an alternative notion of the abundant life, which will involve a philosopy of 'enoughness'… for us priviledged Christians a 'cross-shaped' life will not be primarily what Christ does for us, but what we can do for others. (McFague; Life Abundant, pg. 14)
Resurrection Faith is all about new life…and not just a new spiritual life, but a whole new life in all its fullness. After Jesus visits with Zachaeus and Zachaeus, makes this realization that his money is not his own… let me say that again, his money is not his own… it is a gift from God for the good of the community… he offers half his wealth to the community… and what do we read in Luke… what does Jesus say? Salvation has come to this house. Salvation… is it too much of a stretch for me to suggest that salvation and resurrection do not just apply to things of the spirit, but to physical things… even financial things… Zacchaeus is saved and it reaches into his wallet and then there is a resurrection of life…not just for him, but for his community… for the poor, for those he has wronged, for those he has defrauded, for those he has ignored because he thought that his money was his own.
Since we are talking about life here… resurrection life…
Juliet Schor wrote an excellent little book called the Overspent American. You can still find it in bookstores and I would recommend it highly. Anyway Prof. Schor cites a study in this book on how American’s define ‘The Good Life’ Listen to some of this. It compares 1975 to 1991 but even though the study is dated I think it still highlights trends that are relevant and perhaps frightening…
In 1975 14% of people surveyed said a swimming pool defined the good life; by 1991 29%
In 1975 10% said a second TV defined the good life in 1991 28% said a second tv said good life
In 1975 38% said that a lot of money would give them a good life; by 1991 55% said the same
You are hearing the trend here right… material wealth, possessions, things…. Define the goodness of our lives… more and moreso…
Would you like to know what things statistically were shown to be less important to Americans for a good life: A happy marriage, children, an interesting job…
My point is that Jesus has called us to live a new life, a resurrected life… and that there is meant to be an unrestrained generosity in that new life… a belief, beyond what our eyes see and our minds tells us… that we can have an impact upon such things as poverty in RI, or even world hunger… we are called by the risen Christ to believe that we should care about the education of a girl in oh, I don’t know, Costa Rica, or Nicaraugua…
Stewardship as Creation Care
Just after this whole economic downturn hit Barbara Kingsolver, a writer of a few books, you may have heard of the Poisonwood Bible? She wrote an editorial about the lending crisis. I found what she said to be particularly striking. She basically said that we have forgotten in our nation that there is a mutual relationship between those who make loans and those who are receive those loans. It is not just the creditors who make the good life possible for their debtors, but the creditors too depend upon the business of the debtors to provide for their families… we have forgotten the relationship…
which immediately reminded me of the words of John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Which is what we read in our Acts text for today… that the early believers held all things in common and thought nothing of selling personal possessions to provide for the safety and security of their sisters and brothers in Christ.
My sisters and brothers… we live in an age… I believe I have shown in which the relationship between you and I… the relationship between one human being and another is less valuable than relationship between me and my money or me and my possessions… how else could this mortgage/banking/economic crisis have happened?
When my connection to money and possession is valued over my connection to another human I am less human, less the image that god created me to be and this is one reason why we as Christians practice the tithe and giving offerings… it reminds us of our humanity… of the reason why were created by God… which in Genesis ch2 says to keep and till creation, but you can translate those two words… to serve and protect. We were created to share ourselves… we were pleased, Paul says in 1 Thess… to share not only the gospel, but ourselves… so tithing… planning your giving… is the practice of sharing yourself with others… so that you maintain…. No you discover and utilize and perfect the image of God that is within you.
Let me say a word about practice.
It seems quite obvious to me that Acts 2, the disciples held all things in common… was not an anomaly… It was a common practice, a standard practice in the early church. In Acts 9:36 we are introduced to a woman named Dorcas who is noteworthy because she supported the poor…
In Acts 10:1-4 we meet Cornelius who is a Roman… but he is not hated… he is known as a God-fearer… How do they know that he is a God fearer? Acts 10 says it is because of his generosity to the poor. I could go on and on… Paul mentions collections taken for the poor in churches in Romans and in Galatians… it was a standard practice… an expected resurrection lifestyle… those who joined the church joined in the practice of giving to support those in need.
More than a standard practice… dare I say it was a sacrament?
I know, as Baptists we are uncomfortable with that word… but just for a minute consider…
We practice a tithe because Christ called us to take up a cross… to live a cruciform life of sacrificial service to others and the tithe is allows us to remember and rehearse that commitment
We practice tithe to reclaim our humanity… to proclaim that we are not defined (as so many in the world are) by the possessions we own, the size of our houses or cars, the breadth and depth of our portfolio’s… we are those created by God to serve and protect… and the tithe reminds us of that humanity.
We practice tithe as a sacrament… a means of communicating God’s love to the world (specifically in my mind the poor) but still the whole world…
Finally a tithe is witness to a watching world…
This is one… very important way that we show the world that the words that we pray every Sunday morning ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ are not empty words… we believe in these words… we believe enough to get some skin in the game… to lay our own resources down to construct that kingdom… tithe is our witness to the watching world…
Never for a second think that this is a private act… Tithing is the most important thing for the world to see, for when we tithe… when we give of our best to the master… we say to the watching world
this is what compassion looks life… this is what love is… this is what grace is… this is what humanity is meant to be…
Are ye able said the master… to be crucified with me? Sings the old song…
In our tithe… In our gift giving… in our service to the poor and rejected and forgotten our society, in our state… we answer… Lord, we are able… Lord, we are able…
Today we have to talk about stewardship… we have to talk about the deep things of our faith, cruciform living and resurrection faith… we have to lift up some ideas that are meant not for the Peter’s who follow Jesus back in the shadows, but instead for the Martha’s and Mary’s who will stand with Christ no matter where he goes, even to the cross….
today is not meant for dabbling in faith… today is for full hearted devotion to the life of Christ…and full-throated testimony of our faith… specifically… this is a time for us to have a discussion about how our devotion to Christ seeps into our finances, influences our spending and saving habits, and directs the way we both acquire and then put to use our economic resources.
That is not a discussion for the curious or the faint of heart
I remember being challenged at my very first church to talk more about the tithe and stewardship… I didn’t teach and challenge enough about those topics (so they thought ) and the church largely lived on the principle of its endowment. So I started to do more sermons and bible studies on tithing and giving and stewardship and Christmas came. I always got an envelope on Christmas Eve with a little something extra. It wasn’t always a lot and that was fine, but usually a few extra dollars as a Christmas gift. But this Christmas nothing. Later the explanation… you are talking about money too much. So we don’t necessarily like to talk about these topics, we find them challenging and perhaps frightening.
Scene 1:
To talk about finances and money and investment and stewardship… we need to talk about resurrection. That is why I had us listen to a portion of an Easter Risen Christ story from Luke this morning… because we aren’t really talking about money… we are talking about resurrection here today…
But before we can talk resurrection we need to talk…
Crucifixion & the Cruciform Life:
The bewilderment and bafflement that we heard about in Luke this morning came after the crucifixion… a violent act of oppression and terrorism that the Roman Empire used to punish any of those occupied peoples who dared to assert their humanity or independence. The disciples are astonished and amazed because Peter saw Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot and hung high to slowly suffocate...
I was taught to see that act of Jesus… that selfless… giving act… sacrificial act… to see that as a response to the sins of the world.
On that Cross Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the sins of the world… perhaps you were taught the same thing? Yes?
But today I want to suggest another way of looking at this scene. I’m not saying that this previous understanding of the cross is wrong by the way… I like to think of this other way of viewing the cross as just another facet of it… on the cross, Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the poverty and suffering… first of his own people under Rome and then of all humanity. So that when we look to the cross we are not only meant to see our sins… but also to see poverty and suffering.
Just think for a moment about those whom Jesus came in contact with. Those with leprousy, those whose dignity was diminished to the point of begging, those with disease. There it is right in front of us when we open the gospels to read, Jesus spoke to the poor and suffering, walked among the poor and suffering, touched and was touched by the poor and diseased, yet we rarely consider closely the harsh realities of the crowds whom Jesus surrounded himself with and what their life was like, how different it was from our own.
For instance… why did the leper have leprousy? He got sick… why? Poor nutrition. Why? He couldn’t afford to buy food. Why? He was taxed heavily by Rome (and by the Temple). He was in so much debt he was thrown off his own farm and had no way to provide food for himself or his family. Jesus
The opening of the earth-shattering Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ sounds very similar in Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain… ‘Blessed are the poor’
We are taught in the Lord’s prayer…give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…We tend to pray right over these things…. But if you lived in 1st Cent Roman Palestine… getting a loaf of bread to eat and being somehow fortunate enough to have a creditor who would forgive your debt… well… these would be incontrovertible evidence of ‘Our Father in heaven… whose kingdom has come….
Jesus told parables about the poor and the wealthy… the rich man and Lazarus… do you remember that one? The story of a wealthy man who dressed in fine clothes and has so much food he just tosses out the left-overs ( I know that doesn’t sound all that egregious, but in a time and place when so many were dying of malnutrition, to throw away food was just an incredibly callous thing to do).
Anyway… both the wealthy man and Lazarus die…
Where does Lazarus go after he dies...? What about the wealthy man…? Why?
That is the shocking part of the story for there is no clear explanation of why he lands in hell accept that he was woefully ignorant of the plight of the poor right outside his own gate
And his conversations were often challenges to the wealthy… To the young man who came to seek eternal life, he said ‘go sell everything and give to the poor…’ and when he went to visit Zacchaeus…he hardly said a word, but his presence caused Zacchaeus to offer to give half his wealth to the poor.
It is for these reasons that when Jesus hangs on the cross…. I see poverty and oppression and hunger and disease hanging there…
Of course… it doesn’t just stop there…
Are Ye Able said the master… to be crucified with me… with me… have you ever sung that hymn… Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it isn’t just a metaphor? That we are meant to give up something in order to follow Christ?
The crucifixion wasn’t just an event in history but somehow it is meant to be a practice kept current by the disciples after Jesus death and resurrection down through the ages right up to today, a practice that you and I together observe.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Luke 14:27
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Ro 6:3-4
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Crucifixion as in a violent act of oppression wasn’t meant to be practiced… but crucifixion as a loving act of sacrifice on behalf of others to incarnate… make flesh…make real… the love of God…. Well that was meant to become a regular practice for Christians…
Made in God's image, we are to grow into that reality by doing what God does: love the world (McFague; Life Abundant , pg. 13)
'Faith in god does not consist in asserting god's existence, but rather in acting on [God's] behalf.' Henri Nouwen quoted in McFague pg34 Life Abundant.
Those who call themselves Christians, Christ-followers then, are meant to show the sacrificial love of God to those who suffer…. Those who hang on the cross… we are not allowed to turn our heads… to avert our gaze from the suffering of the world around us. We can turn Sally Fields commercials off… change the channel… but those of us who are baptized are baptized into his suffering and death… and we cannot ignore the fact that…
According to UNICEF, between 26-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day
Estimated cost of clean water and sanitation for the world 9 billion US dollars
Americans spend 8 billion on cosmetics
US and Europe spends 12 billion on perfume
17 billion on pet food
The world spends 780 billion dollars in military expenditures
I know you love statistics…
1 in 10 of our RI neighbors are living in poverty….
40, 468 children, live below poverty in RI
17, 805 children live in extreme poverty… extreme poverty would be me trying to provide for my wife and two children on 11,000 dollars a year. Almost 18, 000 kids in our own state are living in those circumstances.
Resurrection Faith
This is where our resurrection story, which is meant simply to remind you of all of those resurrection stories, comes in. In all of these stories we meet baffled, confused, doubting disciples. We meet Mary who looks and Jesus and thinks he is the gardener… and Cleopas who walks with Jesus to Emmaus and listens to him speak but still can’t recognize him. All of these stories… Mark’s original ending perhaps the most maddening of all… for it ends with Mary and the other women running away from the empty tomb so frightened of this empty tomb that Mark says ‘they say nothing to no one.’ I know that isn’t good grammar, but that is the greek. They say nothing… Resurrection staring them straight in the eye… a tomb empty and an angel telling them to go to Galilee to see Jesus and they scream and run!!!
How can it be!
But here we are brothers and sisters, just as baffled, just as confused…
Here we are… we have heard the words of Jesus, blessed are the poor, forgive us our debts as we forgive…. Here we are with the stories of the rich man and Lazarus and that odd saying about rich men getting into heaven and camels fitting through needle eyes… 9 billion dollars would buy clean water and sanitation for the world (don’t forget why the leper was a leper, malnutrition and lack of sanitation) and we are spending 17 billion on pet food.
Currently, American's spend $8 billion annually on cosmetics and Europeans $11 billion on ice cream, a total more than it would cost to provide basic education ($6 billion) or water and sanitation ($9 billion) to the more than two billion people worldwide who do not have schools or toilets. (New York Times 'Most Consuming More, and the Rich Much More,' Sept 13, 1998
I believe Christian discipleship for twenty-first century North American Christians means 'cruciform living,' an alternative notion of the abundant life, which will involve a philosopy of 'enoughness'… for us priviledged Christians a 'cross-shaped' life will not be primarily what Christ does for us, but what we can do for others. (McFague; Life Abundant, pg. 14)
Resurrection Faith is all about new life…and not just a new spiritual life, but a whole new life in all its fullness. After Jesus visits with Zachaeus and Zachaeus, makes this realization that his money is not his own… let me say that again, his money is not his own… it is a gift from God for the good of the community… he offers half his wealth to the community… and what do we read in Luke… what does Jesus say? Salvation has come to this house. Salvation… is it too much of a stretch for me to suggest that salvation and resurrection do not just apply to things of the spirit, but to physical things… even financial things… Zacchaeus is saved and it reaches into his wallet and then there is a resurrection of life…not just for him, but for his community… for the poor, for those he has wronged, for those he has defrauded, for those he has ignored because he thought that his money was his own.
Since we are talking about life here… resurrection life…
Juliet Schor wrote an excellent little book called the Overspent American. You can still find it in bookstores and I would recommend it highly. Anyway Prof. Schor cites a study in this book on how American’s define ‘The Good Life’ Listen to some of this. It compares 1975 to 1991 but even though the study is dated I think it still highlights trends that are relevant and perhaps frightening…
In 1975 14% of people surveyed said a swimming pool defined the good life; by 1991 29%
In 1975 10% said a second TV defined the good life in 1991 28% said a second tv said good life
In 1975 38% said that a lot of money would give them a good life; by 1991 55% said the same
You are hearing the trend here right… material wealth, possessions, things…. Define the goodness of our lives… more and moreso…
Would you like to know what things statistically were shown to be less important to Americans for a good life: A happy marriage, children, an interesting job…
My point is that Jesus has called us to live a new life, a resurrected life… and that there is meant to be an unrestrained generosity in that new life… a belief, beyond what our eyes see and our minds tells us… that we can have an impact upon such things as poverty in RI, or even world hunger… we are called by the risen Christ to believe that we should care about the education of a girl in oh, I don’t know, Costa Rica, or Nicaraugua…
Stewardship as Creation Care
Just after this whole economic downturn hit Barbara Kingsolver, a writer of a few books, you may have heard of the Poisonwood Bible? She wrote an editorial about the lending crisis. I found what she said to be particularly striking. She basically said that we have forgotten in our nation that there is a mutual relationship between those who make loans and those who are receive those loans. It is not just the creditors who make the good life possible for their debtors, but the creditors too depend upon the business of the debtors to provide for their families… we have forgotten the relationship…
which immediately reminded me of the words of John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Which is what we read in our Acts text for today… that the early believers held all things in common and thought nothing of selling personal possessions to provide for the safety and security of their sisters and brothers in Christ.
My sisters and brothers… we live in an age… I believe I have shown in which the relationship between you and I… the relationship between one human being and another is less valuable than relationship between me and my money or me and my possessions… how else could this mortgage/banking/economic crisis have happened?
When my connection to money and possession is valued over my connection to another human I am less human, less the image that god created me to be and this is one reason why we as Christians practice the tithe and giving offerings… it reminds us of our humanity… of the reason why were created by God… which in Genesis ch2 says to keep and till creation, but you can translate those two words… to serve and protect. We were created to share ourselves… we were pleased, Paul says in 1 Thess… to share not only the gospel, but ourselves… so tithing… planning your giving… is the practice of sharing yourself with others… so that you maintain…. No you discover and utilize and perfect the image of God that is within you.
Let me say a word about practice.
It seems quite obvious to me that Acts 2, the disciples held all things in common… was not an anomaly… It was a common practice, a standard practice in the early church. In Acts 9:36 we are introduced to a woman named Dorcas who is noteworthy because she supported the poor…
In Acts 10:1-4 we meet Cornelius who is a Roman… but he is not hated… he is known as a God-fearer… How do they know that he is a God fearer? Acts 10 says it is because of his generosity to the poor. I could go on and on… Paul mentions collections taken for the poor in churches in Romans and in Galatians… it was a standard practice… an expected resurrection lifestyle… those who joined the church joined in the practice of giving to support those in need.
More than a standard practice… dare I say it was a sacrament?
I know, as Baptists we are uncomfortable with that word… but just for a minute consider…
We practice a tithe because Christ called us to take up a cross… to live a cruciform life of sacrificial service to others and the tithe is allows us to remember and rehearse that commitment
We practice tithe to reclaim our humanity… to proclaim that we are not defined (as so many in the world are) by the possessions we own, the size of our houses or cars, the breadth and depth of our portfolio’s… we are those created by God to serve and protect… and the tithe reminds us of that humanity.
We practice tithe as a sacrament… a means of communicating God’s love to the world (specifically in my mind the poor) but still the whole world…
Finally a tithe is witness to a watching world…
This is one… very important way that we show the world that the words that we pray every Sunday morning ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ are not empty words… we believe in these words… we believe enough to get some skin in the game… to lay our own resources down to construct that kingdom… tithe is our witness to the watching world…
Never for a second think that this is a private act… Tithing is the most important thing for the world to see, for when we tithe… when we give of our best to the master… we say to the watching world
this is what compassion looks life… this is what love is… this is what grace is… this is what humanity is meant to be…
Are ye able said the master… to be crucified with me? Sings the old song…
In our tithe… In our gift giving… in our service to the poor and rejected and forgotten our society, in our state… we answer… Lord, we are able… Lord, we are able…
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sermon July 12 2009 Tithing, the Witness of Giving
Note; this concept still needs work... so if this were an article I would be calling it 'TOWARD a theology of tithing... I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to say about Tithing as Witness...
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
Monday, June 29, 2009
It is not by sword or spear
Note; This is the first of the doubt sermons... it also deals a bit with violence in the Bible and violence in our lives.
The only thing that I think needs comment is the phrase 'countermemory' which Tom Thatcher uses in his latest book on the Gospel of John and Empire; Greater Than Caesar: Christology and Empire in the Fourth Gospel. I will admit that I may not have used the phrase in a technically accurate way for scholars anyway... but sometimes when I read and write sermons phrases creep in during the prep and delivery of the sermon.
Intro:
One of the questions I am called upon to answer as a pastor is; what do I do when I’m just not feeling it? And by ‘feeling it’ people mean that they do not feel the presence of God, are doubting their faith, feeling their discipleship isn’t making any difference in the world or in their life. This September I will have been preaching for 10 years and this concern is the most common concerns I have heard.
When we feel low, like prayers aren’t answered, life is too complicated and stressful, the world around us is a mess and we begin to wonder; if there is a God why is the world this way, or, if I am a disciple, why don’t I feel more joy or peace. Why don’t I feel at least like my believing and hoping and serving is getting me anywhere or my family or community or the world. Why aren’t we getting anywhere close to the Kingdom that we pray for, hope for, work for and struggle to imagine?
Today we are going to read a story from 1 Samuel. The story of 1 and 2 Samuel is the story of the transformation of Israel from what scholars often call a ‘loose confederation of tribes’ to a small but strong nation of people united under King David. And I think that we will discover that despite the fact that this story was written oh, approximately 2500 years ago and takes place even farther back in history than that, that the stories of 1 and 2 Samuel, specifically the story of David and Goliath, addresses issues that will sound familiar. Israel is dealing with similar questions to our own, and facing challenges and temptations that are not so different from our own.
1 and 2 Samuel was written sometime during the Babylonian Exile. As some of you may know the Babylonian exile took place after the Assyrian Empire finally destroyed the last holdout of the fractured nation of Israel, the birth of which we will read a part of today. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple, that David’s son Solomon built, was destroyed and the people (mostly the wealthy, the powerful and the influential people) of Judah were carried off to Babylon. They lived in Babylon under great pressure to give up their heritage and their faith in God as a part of that heritage, so that they could survive and thrive and make a life. And there was internal pressure also… a sense of being abandoned by God. But the internal pressure also took the form of their children growing enamored of and attracted to Assyrian culture and religion. And you can imagine that they too asked questions similar to our own; Where is God, is there even a God? Why do we hang onto this faith in God when our friends and neighbors and children are leaving it behind? We simply struggle to make it through one day into the next, how do we keep hoping and believing?
So they recorded this story of their birth as a nation in 1 and 2 Samuel; their early history when the nation of Israel was still young, just in its infancy. In those days the external threat came from the Philistines who wanted to take possession of the land that Israel called its own. The internal threat was a bit more complicated, but still similar. The book of Judges which comes before 1 and 2 Samuel ‘historically’ describes what life was like for Israel before King David, just after they had come into possession of the land of Canaan. It describes great turmoil and is one of the most violent books in the bible, but it sums up the Israel experience in one sentence, the last sentence of judges ‘ In those days there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.’
Another facet of this internal conflict was the religious life of Israel. 1 Samuel opens with the story of Eli who is the priest and his sons are priests too… but they are so greedy and self-serving and cruel, that God has decided to replace them…
The one thing that was meant to unite these tribes, covenant with God, suffered because the leaders, the priests reflected the culture (did what was right in their own eyes…) instead of showing the people a better way, God’s way… to live in covenant with God and each other.
So the story of 1 and 2 Samuel shows us the transition from chaos to peace and prosperity under the leadership of David. But the specific story that we read today also includes violence and a bit of chaos… so lets read it…
(Read the story of David and Goliath and Pray)
It is important, I think to begin with a discussion of the violence in this story because violence and faith are so closely linked even in our modern experience. Just recently George Tiller was murdered in his own church on a Sunday morning as he passed out bulletins. He was a doctor who performed abortions. And I suspect that the person who shot him did so under the deeply held conviction that what he did, he did in the name of God, to save innocents. I am not supporting or condoning that view, but I suspect that is how he condoned what he did.
And also recently in the news, the stories of Pentagon reports on the war in Iraq with Bible quotes on the cover-sheets. This is one of those times I wish we had power point so that you could see them. The one that particularly well, I don’t know if it amuses me or bothers me… a picture of a number of American soldiers kneeling in prayer, another of troops walking into the sunset and then a picture of a row of tanks… with the caption from Is 5:28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Now, they have really taken this out of context… these are the words of Isaiah, warning Israel about the impending doom that God will bring on them because they fail to heed God’s word… it isn’t a rousing speech about the strength and might of the armies of Israel… it is a warning of the strength of the enemy that God will use against Israel. This is warning about the destruction to come, not encouragement to go and commit destruction. Now I’m not trying to say that the war in Iraq is the moral equivalent of the murder of an abortion doctor or that American soldiers are the same as vigilante’s… not my point at all…
I simply want to illustrate that across a wide spectrum of our own culture…faith and violence are closely connected.
Does the story of David and Goliath support this connection, condone this outlook, or not?
Lets talk about the story a little bit… We begin with a detailed description of Goliath’s size which some translate at 9ft tall and others as 6ft. 9 inches tall (depending on which version of this story you read) either way, Goliath is an impressive and intimidating physical specimen.
Then we get to his armament
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (125 lbs); 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels (15 lbs). His shield bearer went ahead of him.
All of this may not seem like much to us… but in that time and place, Goliath’s size, his armor and his weaponry is the ancient equivalent of shock and awe. He has the very best military equipment, the very latest technology for warfare.
Now, notice what happens when David, who we know is ‘just’ a shepherd boy, goes to the battle lines and offers to fight Goliath. Saul, who is currently the king (picked by the way, in part because he is a warrior of great size himself) decides to let David face Goliath in combat and, 1 Sam 17:38-39
He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. So Saul is just as fixated on weapons and strength and size as Goliath. Do you notice that there is little difference between Saul, the King of Israel and Goliath, the champion of the enemy? Perhaps goliath is bigger, but both he and Saul see their place in the world through their own ability to fight… to be more violent than the next guy.
Now look at David.
1 Sam 17:39-40 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
There is the story on the surface in 1 Sam 17 and that surface story is that the small shepherd boy David struck Goliath and cut off his head… but there is another level of this story…
Goliath is the face of the violence that surrounds Israel. Saul is meant to match that violence… with size and strength and weapons… violence for violence… but he cannot… we are told in verse 11 that Saul and the Israelites are ‘dismayed’ when they see Goliath and hear Goliath. (by the way, the Hebrew word that is translated dismayed literally means beat down or to prostrate… to bow down… which suggests that Saul is ready to bow down to Goliath. Strength and violence have become Saul’s god.)
So Israel’s strength cannot match Goliaths and Saul’s weapons cannot compete with Goliath’s… which suggests the counter-story, the other level of this story… do not trust in weapons, or size or strength or violence to make your way in the world.
David is victorious with just a staff and some rocks…
Now if that doesn’t convince you that this story is not condoning violence, but offering a critique of violence in God’s name… look at the words that David says to Goliath
1 Sam 17:45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel,
1 Sam 17:47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's,
Let me say that line again…
Now what I want to suggest is that the story of David and Goliath does not support violence in the name of God precisely through this second level of the story. Those with the weapons and the size and strength are portrayed as either afraid, in Saul’s case, or as cruel, and prideful and generally dis-tasteful in the case of Goliath. And the story ends with a boy who has not size or strength or weapons winning the day.
We could be cynical and say that this second level of the story simply tells a violent story and then tries to legitimize David’s violence by invoking the name of God. And isn’t that what the pentagon reports tried to do… add legitimacy to violent acts by claiming God’s blessing and mandate.
I don’t think that is what this story is doing however. I don’t think that this is simply propaganda. I do think that the writer of 1 and 2 Samuel (or writers) are trying to think theologically about the reality of life around them and they lived in a violent world. I don’t think they are trying to legitimize violence as much as they are trying to tell you and I, the readers something about God… and in so doing… trying to place a wall, a hedge, around violence, so that they can defend themselves from violent nations and tribes around them, but still not turn into a society, a culture that lives on the violent conquest of others as the Philistines (and the Assyrians) do. They can’t or aren’t willing to be pascifists, but they are trying to place very strict controls around violence so that it does not define them… it does not become their default mode in the world… it does not become a social method… and remains a last resort and something that is entered into with great hesitation.
It is actually a common theme in the Hebrew Scriptures…
In Numbers 13, Moses has led the people to the borders of Canaan, their promised land… He sends scouts to look ahead and see what Canaan is like and they bring back this report; Num 13:27-28
"We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. Num 13:31-32"We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
And here is God’s reply…Num 14:11 The LORD said to Moses , "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?
What displeases God is the fact that Israel even at this early stage is focused on military might and loose trust in god’s might… in this case they do not have any… but they suspect that the Canaanites do..
Earlier in Exodus, when Israel must defend itself against another stronger tribe, the Amelikites we receive this amazing vision of Moses standing on a hill overlooking the battle-field… and as long as his hands are raised in the air to God, Israel takes the upper hand, but if his hands fall, they begin to loose
And in Judges 7 the great story of God choosing an army for Gideon to defend Israel… only God chooses the weakest the smallest and the least skilled at battle for Gideon’s army…
Throughout Israel’s history they have maintained a testimony of victory, not by strength or skill, but through depending on God. There are military victories and some very violent passages… but counter to those are these stories where the story is not about strength, but about God… which is intended to keep violence from becoming a driving force in Israel’s identity and its culture.
Well, that is all well and good, you are thinking, but what has it to do with the question... what do we do when we aren’t feeling our faith, when we question or doubt the goodness of God…
Lets go back to the story, When David first goes to Saul to offer to fight Goliath for Israel… Saul is not inclined to let him
1 Sam 17:33-37; 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Notice that last line… This is what the writer is trying to tell us about God…
What does David say the Lord has done for him in the past? Delivered him… and what will the Lord do for him in the future… Deliver him… This is another piece of the story I just told… David doesn’t see battle as something he does on his own, by his own power or strength… but instead it is a moment for God to be God… to rescue and protect God’s people…
Now, that word, deliver… in Hebrew that word is [natsal] and Brueggeman, who knows a lot more about the Hebrew language than I says that ‘the verb references an abrupt physical act of grasping or seizing in order to pull out of danger.’ (TOTOL 174) Makes me think of those ‘Amazing Rescues’ shows on TV where the helicopter swoops into the woman whose car is caught in a flash flood and she is harnessed to a wire and carried away to safety.
Now, here is the interesting thing. [natsal] is used throughout the Hebrew scriptures, but guess what specific story from the OT this verb is most often used in reference too…?
Ex 3.8 ‘I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians
Ex 6.6 and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians
Ex 18.9 the goodness which the Lord has done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
That pattern repeats in Judges 6.9 and 8.34… when Israel remembers God’s amazing rescue of them in Egypt and at the red sea, they use the word natsal… deliver… seized out of danger. When we read the story of David and Goliath, we are not only to be impressed by David’s courage or faith… we are to see this as another Exodus… another instance of God snatching Israel out of the mouth of destruction… Natsal reminds us of the power that God wields to rescue those are faithful to him… We are meant to see Exodus, which wasn’t a story of Moses strength or Israel’s strength, but purely of God’s strength to rescue the vulnerable…
Birch says about this… ‘David is the model for another way, of those without the benefit of superior arms and armies who never the less trust that God can make deliverance possible against the odds, that there is hope even when faced with apparently hopeless situations.’ (NIB Vol. II; 1112)
This is King Saul’s failure you see… his dismay, his despair and hopelessness, leads him to think only of his own resources or scarcity of resources, of size, strength, military might… and to forget the resources that God can provide. We are warned here not to face our Goliaths with our own strength… which will lead to dismay, but to remember God’s strength….
This applies not only to military or battle situations. Our Goliaths will not always be the external threats of armies… Our Goliaths will be, well, for instance; the legislation banning prostitution…which is apparently languishing in our legislature due to some ‘experts’ who think that legalizing prostitution is the real answer. It is a Goliath in our nation, the goliath that causes us to do all of our reasoning based on economics and inhibits view-points that say some things should just not be commodified, things such as sex. The Goliath’s come in the facts such as we are serving 8 families in our summer meal program, but If I remember correctly Rhonda said that the schools identified 62 families that would be challenged by lack of nutrition this summer.
And if the story of david and goliath teaches us anything it is that those who put their hope in their own strength, even when that is strength to do good instead of violence, those who trust in only their own will and resources and strength, will soon grow weary and discouraged and be dismayed or beaten down. While David offers us another way to face our goliaths… a way of faith that relies on the strength and the might of God.
This Story of David also teaches us not to get stuck in questioning why God allows things to be the way they are around us. I think it is natural to do so and good to ask why as a kind of motivation… but we aren’t to get stuck in those questions. Instead we are to see these instances as a time to offer courageous witness to the world of the way that God intends them to be. David doesn’t stop to ask why God allows the goliaths of the world to exist. David seizes the opportunity to show the goliaths the power of God… and for us, for you and me that means that we continue to feed as many hungry as we can, to witness to the evils of legalized prostitution to anyone who will listen, and even in our own lives to view disappointments not as defeats, but as opportunities for God to deliver us, to show his love and strength to us in new and exciting ways.
How? How are we supposed to do that?
Well, that is why I shared the history of the creation of 1 &2 Samuel with you. For that seems to be the answer. What did Israel do when faced with the goliath of the Babylonian Exile…. They remembered the story of David and Goliath and told it in a way that reminded them of Exodus. Instead of accepting a story of defeat and fear, they reminded themselves of the story of God amazing love for them, a love that did not forget or abandon them… a God and a love that would fight for them. Fight for them and win. Every Goliath in our lives is an opportunity for us to experience the victory of God’s love for us and a chance for us to show the world the strength, the courage, the peace that comes to those who believe that God’s love wins.
That isn’t something that comes naturally by the way… it is something we have to practice… this takes us back to some of our traditions and answers some basic questions… sometimes people ask me, why do we sing so many songs… singing what we believe about God’s love and God’s strength… the singing of those stories kind of helps those stories stick in our heads…singing helps us remember the story. Some other things that help us remember the story of God’s love overcoming Goliath are daily prayer and taking time every day to read the bible and reflect on it… Its tough to make time for this I know…
So start with psalms for instance
There is a psalm that David wrote about being delivered… psalm 18
I want you to think about the things that dismay you… grand things like hunger and poverty and prostitution… or personal things… struggles with raising children, guilt or shame from your past, or hurt that just wont heal…. Think about them and listen to these words of david
What will your psalm say, when you are delivered from that which dismays you…
Lets pray…
The only thing that I think needs comment is the phrase 'countermemory' which Tom Thatcher uses in his latest book on the Gospel of John and Empire; Greater Than Caesar: Christology and Empire in the Fourth Gospel. I will admit that I may not have used the phrase in a technically accurate way for scholars anyway... but sometimes when I read and write sermons phrases creep in during the prep and delivery of the sermon.
Intro:
One of the questions I am called upon to answer as a pastor is; what do I do when I’m just not feeling it? And by ‘feeling it’ people mean that they do not feel the presence of God, are doubting their faith, feeling their discipleship isn’t making any difference in the world or in their life. This September I will have been preaching for 10 years and this concern is the most common concerns I have heard.
When we feel low, like prayers aren’t answered, life is too complicated and stressful, the world around us is a mess and we begin to wonder; if there is a God why is the world this way, or, if I am a disciple, why don’t I feel more joy or peace. Why don’t I feel at least like my believing and hoping and serving is getting me anywhere or my family or community or the world. Why aren’t we getting anywhere close to the Kingdom that we pray for, hope for, work for and struggle to imagine?
Today we are going to read a story from 1 Samuel. The story of 1 and 2 Samuel is the story of the transformation of Israel from what scholars often call a ‘loose confederation of tribes’ to a small but strong nation of people united under King David. And I think that we will discover that despite the fact that this story was written oh, approximately 2500 years ago and takes place even farther back in history than that, that the stories of 1 and 2 Samuel, specifically the story of David and Goliath, addresses issues that will sound familiar. Israel is dealing with similar questions to our own, and facing challenges and temptations that are not so different from our own.
1 and 2 Samuel was written sometime during the Babylonian Exile. As some of you may know the Babylonian exile took place after the Assyrian Empire finally destroyed the last holdout of the fractured nation of Israel, the birth of which we will read a part of today. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple, that David’s son Solomon built, was destroyed and the people (mostly the wealthy, the powerful and the influential people) of Judah were carried off to Babylon. They lived in Babylon under great pressure to give up their heritage and their faith in God as a part of that heritage, so that they could survive and thrive and make a life. And there was internal pressure also… a sense of being abandoned by God. But the internal pressure also took the form of their children growing enamored of and attracted to Assyrian culture and religion. And you can imagine that they too asked questions similar to our own; Where is God, is there even a God? Why do we hang onto this faith in God when our friends and neighbors and children are leaving it behind? We simply struggle to make it through one day into the next, how do we keep hoping and believing?
So they recorded this story of their birth as a nation in 1 and 2 Samuel; their early history when the nation of Israel was still young, just in its infancy. In those days the external threat came from the Philistines who wanted to take possession of the land that Israel called its own. The internal threat was a bit more complicated, but still similar. The book of Judges which comes before 1 and 2 Samuel ‘historically’ describes what life was like for Israel before King David, just after they had come into possession of the land of Canaan. It describes great turmoil and is one of the most violent books in the bible, but it sums up the Israel experience in one sentence, the last sentence of judges ‘ In those days there was no king in Israel, all the people did what was right in their own eyes.’
Another facet of this internal conflict was the religious life of Israel. 1 Samuel opens with the story of Eli who is the priest and his sons are priests too… but they are so greedy and self-serving and cruel, that God has decided to replace them…
The one thing that was meant to unite these tribes, covenant with God, suffered because the leaders, the priests reflected the culture (did what was right in their own eyes…) instead of showing the people a better way, God’s way… to live in covenant with God and each other.
So the story of 1 and 2 Samuel shows us the transition from chaos to peace and prosperity under the leadership of David. But the specific story that we read today also includes violence and a bit of chaos… so lets read it…
(Read the story of David and Goliath and Pray)
It is important, I think to begin with a discussion of the violence in this story because violence and faith are so closely linked even in our modern experience. Just recently George Tiller was murdered in his own church on a Sunday morning as he passed out bulletins. He was a doctor who performed abortions. And I suspect that the person who shot him did so under the deeply held conviction that what he did, he did in the name of God, to save innocents. I am not supporting or condoning that view, but I suspect that is how he condoned what he did.
And also recently in the news, the stories of Pentagon reports on the war in Iraq with Bible quotes on the cover-sheets. This is one of those times I wish we had power point so that you could see them. The one that particularly well, I don’t know if it amuses me or bothers me… a picture of a number of American soldiers kneeling in prayer, another of troops walking into the sunset and then a picture of a row of tanks… with the caption from Is 5:28 Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Now, they have really taken this out of context… these are the words of Isaiah, warning Israel about the impending doom that God will bring on them because they fail to heed God’s word… it isn’t a rousing speech about the strength and might of the armies of Israel… it is a warning of the strength of the enemy that God will use against Israel. This is warning about the destruction to come, not encouragement to go and commit destruction. Now I’m not trying to say that the war in Iraq is the moral equivalent of the murder of an abortion doctor or that American soldiers are the same as vigilante’s… not my point at all…
I simply want to illustrate that across a wide spectrum of our own culture…faith and violence are closely connected.
Does the story of David and Goliath support this connection, condone this outlook, or not?
Lets talk about the story a little bit… We begin with a detailed description of Goliath’s size which some translate at 9ft tall and others as 6ft. 9 inches tall (depending on which version of this story you read) either way, Goliath is an impressive and intimidating physical specimen.
Then we get to his armament
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels (125 lbs); 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels (15 lbs). His shield bearer went ahead of him.
All of this may not seem like much to us… but in that time and place, Goliath’s size, his armor and his weaponry is the ancient equivalent of shock and awe. He has the very best military equipment, the very latest technology for warfare.
Now, notice what happens when David, who we know is ‘just’ a shepherd boy, goes to the battle lines and offers to fight Goliath. Saul, who is currently the king (picked by the way, in part because he is a warrior of great size himself) decides to let David face Goliath in combat and, 1 Sam 17:38-39
He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. So Saul is just as fixated on weapons and strength and size as Goliath. Do you notice that there is little difference between Saul, the King of Israel and Goliath, the champion of the enemy? Perhaps goliath is bigger, but both he and Saul see their place in the world through their own ability to fight… to be more violent than the next guy.
Now look at David.
1 Sam 17:39-40 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
There is the story on the surface in 1 Sam 17 and that surface story is that the small shepherd boy David struck Goliath and cut off his head… but there is another level of this story…
Goliath is the face of the violence that surrounds Israel. Saul is meant to match that violence… with size and strength and weapons… violence for violence… but he cannot… we are told in verse 11 that Saul and the Israelites are ‘dismayed’ when they see Goliath and hear Goliath. (by the way, the Hebrew word that is translated dismayed literally means beat down or to prostrate… to bow down… which suggests that Saul is ready to bow down to Goliath. Strength and violence have become Saul’s god.)
So Israel’s strength cannot match Goliaths and Saul’s weapons cannot compete with Goliath’s… which suggests the counter-story, the other level of this story… do not trust in weapons, or size or strength or violence to make your way in the world.
David is victorious with just a staff and some rocks…
Now if that doesn’t convince you that this story is not condoning violence, but offering a critique of violence in God’s name… look at the words that David says to Goliath
1 Sam 17:45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel,
1 Sam 17:47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's,
Let me say that line again…
Now what I want to suggest is that the story of David and Goliath does not support violence in the name of God precisely through this second level of the story. Those with the weapons and the size and strength are portrayed as either afraid, in Saul’s case, or as cruel, and prideful and generally dis-tasteful in the case of Goliath. And the story ends with a boy who has not size or strength or weapons winning the day.
We could be cynical and say that this second level of the story simply tells a violent story and then tries to legitimize David’s violence by invoking the name of God. And isn’t that what the pentagon reports tried to do… add legitimacy to violent acts by claiming God’s blessing and mandate.
I don’t think that is what this story is doing however. I don’t think that this is simply propaganda. I do think that the writer of 1 and 2 Samuel (or writers) are trying to think theologically about the reality of life around them and they lived in a violent world. I don’t think they are trying to legitimize violence as much as they are trying to tell you and I, the readers something about God… and in so doing… trying to place a wall, a hedge, around violence, so that they can defend themselves from violent nations and tribes around them, but still not turn into a society, a culture that lives on the violent conquest of others as the Philistines (and the Assyrians) do. They can’t or aren’t willing to be pascifists, but they are trying to place very strict controls around violence so that it does not define them… it does not become their default mode in the world… it does not become a social method… and remains a last resort and something that is entered into with great hesitation.
It is actually a common theme in the Hebrew Scriptures…
In Numbers 13, Moses has led the people to the borders of Canaan, their promised land… He sends scouts to look ahead and see what Canaan is like and they bring back this report; Num 13:27-28
"We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. Num 13:31-32"We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."
And here is God’s reply…Num 14:11 The LORD said to Moses , "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?
What displeases God is the fact that Israel even at this early stage is focused on military might and loose trust in god’s might… in this case they do not have any… but they suspect that the Canaanites do..
Earlier in Exodus, when Israel must defend itself against another stronger tribe, the Amelikites we receive this amazing vision of Moses standing on a hill overlooking the battle-field… and as long as his hands are raised in the air to God, Israel takes the upper hand, but if his hands fall, they begin to loose
And in Judges 7 the great story of God choosing an army for Gideon to defend Israel… only God chooses the weakest the smallest and the least skilled at battle for Gideon’s army…
Throughout Israel’s history they have maintained a testimony of victory, not by strength or skill, but through depending on God. There are military victories and some very violent passages… but counter to those are these stories where the story is not about strength, but about God… which is intended to keep violence from becoming a driving force in Israel’s identity and its culture.
Well, that is all well and good, you are thinking, but what has it to do with the question... what do we do when we aren’t feeling our faith, when we question or doubt the goodness of God…
Lets go back to the story, When David first goes to Saul to offer to fight Goliath for Israel… Saul is not inclined to let him
1 Sam 17:33-37; 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Notice that last line… This is what the writer is trying to tell us about God…
What does David say the Lord has done for him in the past? Delivered him… and what will the Lord do for him in the future… Deliver him… This is another piece of the story I just told… David doesn’t see battle as something he does on his own, by his own power or strength… but instead it is a moment for God to be God… to rescue and protect God’s people…
Now, that word, deliver… in Hebrew that word is [natsal] and Brueggeman, who knows a lot more about the Hebrew language than I says that ‘the verb references an abrupt physical act of grasping or seizing in order to pull out of danger.’ (TOTOL 174) Makes me think of those ‘Amazing Rescues’ shows on TV where the helicopter swoops into the woman whose car is caught in a flash flood and she is harnessed to a wire and carried away to safety.
Now, here is the interesting thing. [natsal] is used throughout the Hebrew scriptures, but guess what specific story from the OT this verb is most often used in reference too…?
Ex 3.8 ‘I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians
Ex 6.6 and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians
Ex 18.9 the goodness which the Lord has done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
That pattern repeats in Judges 6.9 and 8.34… when Israel remembers God’s amazing rescue of them in Egypt and at the red sea, they use the word natsal… deliver… seized out of danger. When we read the story of David and Goliath, we are not only to be impressed by David’s courage or faith… we are to see this as another Exodus… another instance of God snatching Israel out of the mouth of destruction… Natsal reminds us of the power that God wields to rescue those are faithful to him… We are meant to see Exodus, which wasn’t a story of Moses strength or Israel’s strength, but purely of God’s strength to rescue the vulnerable…
Birch says about this… ‘David is the model for another way, of those without the benefit of superior arms and armies who never the less trust that God can make deliverance possible against the odds, that there is hope even when faced with apparently hopeless situations.’ (NIB Vol. II; 1112)
This is King Saul’s failure you see… his dismay, his despair and hopelessness, leads him to think only of his own resources or scarcity of resources, of size, strength, military might… and to forget the resources that God can provide. We are warned here not to face our Goliaths with our own strength… which will lead to dismay, but to remember God’s strength….
This applies not only to military or battle situations. Our Goliaths will not always be the external threats of armies… Our Goliaths will be, well, for instance; the legislation banning prostitution…which is apparently languishing in our legislature due to some ‘experts’ who think that legalizing prostitution is the real answer. It is a Goliath in our nation, the goliath that causes us to do all of our reasoning based on economics and inhibits view-points that say some things should just not be commodified, things such as sex. The Goliath’s come in the facts such as we are serving 8 families in our summer meal program, but If I remember correctly Rhonda said that the schools identified 62 families that would be challenged by lack of nutrition this summer.
And if the story of david and goliath teaches us anything it is that those who put their hope in their own strength, even when that is strength to do good instead of violence, those who trust in only their own will and resources and strength, will soon grow weary and discouraged and be dismayed or beaten down. While David offers us another way to face our goliaths… a way of faith that relies on the strength and the might of God.
This Story of David also teaches us not to get stuck in questioning why God allows things to be the way they are around us. I think it is natural to do so and good to ask why as a kind of motivation… but we aren’t to get stuck in those questions. Instead we are to see these instances as a time to offer courageous witness to the world of the way that God intends them to be. David doesn’t stop to ask why God allows the goliaths of the world to exist. David seizes the opportunity to show the goliaths the power of God… and for us, for you and me that means that we continue to feed as many hungry as we can, to witness to the evils of legalized prostitution to anyone who will listen, and even in our own lives to view disappointments not as defeats, but as opportunities for God to deliver us, to show his love and strength to us in new and exciting ways.
How? How are we supposed to do that?
Well, that is why I shared the history of the creation of 1 &2 Samuel with you. For that seems to be the answer. What did Israel do when faced with the goliath of the Babylonian Exile…. They remembered the story of David and Goliath and told it in a way that reminded them of Exodus. Instead of accepting a story of defeat and fear, they reminded themselves of the story of God amazing love for them, a love that did not forget or abandon them… a God and a love that would fight for them. Fight for them and win. Every Goliath in our lives is an opportunity for us to experience the victory of God’s love for us and a chance for us to show the world the strength, the courage, the peace that comes to those who believe that God’s love wins.
That isn’t something that comes naturally by the way… it is something we have to practice… this takes us back to some of our traditions and answers some basic questions… sometimes people ask me, why do we sing so many songs… singing what we believe about God’s love and God’s strength… the singing of those stories kind of helps those stories stick in our heads…singing helps us remember the story. Some other things that help us remember the story of God’s love overcoming Goliath are daily prayer and taking time every day to read the bible and reflect on it… Its tough to make time for this I know…
So start with psalms for instance
There is a psalm that David wrote about being delivered… psalm 18
I want you to think about the things that dismay you… grand things like hunger and poverty and prostitution… or personal things… struggles with raising children, guilt or shame from your past, or hurt that just wont heal…. Think about them and listen to these words of david
What will your psalm say, when you are delivered from that which dismays you…
Lets pray…
My Ears Had Heard, but Now My Eyes Have Seen; Sermon for June 28, 2009
Note; this is the second sermon that actually deals with new Christians who experience doubts as they are learning faith.
I drew upon a Theology Today essay I found on-line by L. Rebecca Propst. Pts that are numbered 1 and 3 come directly from her essay.
I also drew upon an article entitle; Power Made Perfect in Weakness by Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung - that came from an ethics journal published by; Center for Christian Ethics and Baylor University.
I think that covers everybody who deserves credit.
Intro:
Last week we began to look for answers to the question; ‘what do I do when I’m not feeling it.’ What do we do when we have doubts about our faith, when questions about the love and/or power of God go unanswered, when prayers seem pointless and we begin to wonder if our faith and if our God really exists.
So we talked about David and Saul and Goliath; specifically how Saul, when faced by Goliath and the Philistines (his own doubts and fears) relied on his own strength to find answers, and was ultimately disappointed. Saul could only see the world through the lens of fighting and winning or fighting and being destroyed. He did not or could not think of the world a different way, so he could not imagine or believe that God might open up a different way for him….
You recall that the story of David and Goliath was written when Israel was in Babylon, and being in Babylon caused questions similar, we safely imagined to some of our own questions today; where is God, is there a God, Why is there such suffering, why does it seem as if our faith and our prayers have failed us? The point of telling you all of that was to show you how Israel handled the questions and the doubts and discouragement. They told themselves a different story… the remembered a time when God did something amazing and unexpected, with David, and that gave them the courage to continue to hope in God’s goodness instead of falling into dismay.
What do we do when we are not feeling it? We remember the stories of God’s amazing and powerful interruptions of Israel’s life to show them his love… and then we wait expectantly and patiently for those moments…. Look for them everywhere we go. And I think that believing in them changes our view, so that we can have courage and not be afraid.
Then thankfully and without any planning [a church member] got up and shared a testimony about how in a time of suffering and fear, God had revealed power through her and in her that she never knew existed so that she could care for [spouse]. Instead of being caught in the rut of not speaking and not disagreeing and not asserting her point of view… God opened up a new possibility for [same church member] where she found her voice…
This past week I got a phone call from someone, wanting more on this topic… and I’m glad because although the answer to the question…what do I do when I’m not feeling it is… remember the good things God has done… is really biblically… its what the bible shows over and over again… I think perhaps we may want a little more of an answer than ‘REMEMBER’
And so we turn to 2 Cor 12: 7-10
Now the topic that Paul is addressing here is suffering. And you may be wondering what this has to do with questions and doubts. Now here is my experience and my assumption. In my experience, we rarely have doubts in a vacuum. Doubts don’t usually appear without some form of fears, disappointments or some form of suffering (maybe not the suffering of people living in poverty in South America or Africa suffering) but some pain or discomfort of heart or soul or mind that puts us in this place of having doubts, wondering why? Or where are you God?
For me it was divorce that put me in the tail-spin of questions; where are you God when I need you? I try to follow you and this is the thanks I get? Do you really love and care for me? What is the point of faith if I have to put up with this….. ‘stuff’?
So I want to talk about a difficult topic this morning… suffering.
I cannot say all that needs to be said about suffering; such as the pain we feel when a loved one dies, or why a holocaust?
We read something very strange from Paul today….
for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
We live in a world in a culture in which avoiding pain, alleviating pain, medicating pain; is the norm. It is so assumed that we wish to avoid pain, that the Bible’s witness about suffering and pain will sound to us… just…. Odd…
1. Because…throughout the Bible Suffering is not always avoided… as a matter of fact, suffering freely chosen in order to accomplish a purpose is a strong theme in Christian tradition.
Jesus described his own life and specifically death by saying… John 10:15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
Jesus saw the purpose of his own life as voluntary suffering for a greater purpose… he laid down his life that his sheep might find life. He also says in Matt 16:24-25 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me . 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Now, lets just be clear about what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is not talking about suffering that is unexpected, incidental, or seemingly random… Jesus isn’t addressing the suffering of a disease, such as cancer, or the physical or emotional abuse of a spouse or family member.
What Jesus is talking about is the choice to be his disciple… to put into practice a kingdom way of life, such as; turning the other cheek, forgiving 70 X 7, selling what we own to give to the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned… When we actively choose to let those kingdom values shape us… we will experience sometimes; disappointment, discouragement, perhaps even pain, physical or emotional… but that suffering is for a greater purpose…
And that Idea… of voluntary suffering for a greater purpose is a common theme…
1 Peter 2:20 says: ‘But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
1 Peter 3:17
17 It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Paul famously asks in Romans, a question we all know quite well; Rom 8:35-36 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Paul expects, in asking this question that those who are disciples will have to face suffering. It isn’t a matter of if we will suffer, but when will we suffer if we have made the way of Christ in the world our way.
And in 2 Tim, Paul even encourages those who read…8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
How is suffering presented in our culture? Well, it’s a form of entertainment. Horror movies present suffering in such a way as to make it exciting for us to watch… it gives us an adrenaline rush… or action movies even pull us into a plot where someone suffers some form of injustice and then a hero stands up and fight, kills and destroys to rescue the victims…
So part of our culture wants to view suffering, but in the safe and antiseptic environment of the tv or movie screen.
Suffering is also a marketing technique; One of the best ways to get us to buy something is to make us feel inadequate… you are bald and it gets in the way of your romantic life and your business life… so you need to buy a product. You have acne, you have gray hair, your hips are too large, your breasts are too small… all of this playing on our insecurities ( a form of suffering I suggest) so that we will be active consumers of a product.
In both of these examples of suffering in our culture we see expressed the idea of avoiding suffering and here comes the bible with a very different view… Instead of viewing suffering from afar and from a safe distance… we are called to engage with the suffering… In Matt 24 Jesus explains that we serve him, comfort and care for him, when we serve, comfort and care for the poor… we aren’t allowed to keep suffering at a distance, to avoid it… but are encouraged to engage it… get right up close to it.
And we are also encouraged not only to share in the suffering of others, but to take on suffering, for a larger purpose, which is to alleviate the suffering of others, and to make a witness to the larger world of the Love of God that would undergo crucifixion to save us…
The suffering [the Bible and the Christian tradition] endorses, then, is not merely enduring pointless pain in a meaningless world. The suffering the Christian is called to bear is most often the result of try to love others in a world of sin and wretchedness.
pp. 13-14; Power Made Perfect in Weakness - Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung
So ideally, Christians are prepared to suffer… we are trained to suffer for the sake of the good of others, for living the values of the Kingdom of God. Paul saw it as a way to witness to the larger world. The world would see us choosing to suffer instead of returning evil for evil… the world would see us suffering so as to serve others and see Christ in us…see us illustrating the story of Jesus, who suffered for us… Paul throughout his letters wants Christians to see his suffering, as a courageous witness of the strength of God…
2. What about our pointless pain in a meaningless world? Or… what about the suffering that we do not choose that just happens…. Or… Does God cause us to suffer?
Let’s start with the first question…. Does God cause suffering?
If we look to the Bible, that is not necessarily an easy question to answer although I think most of us immediately respond… no, of course not.
And we have bible verses to back us up….John 9:1-4 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?"
Now, the disciples are obviously asking a question about suffering… what happened so that God would cause this man’s suffering? And Jesus responds…
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus,
But we other sources that seem to suggest differently…
Such as Isa 3:18-26 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings and bracelets and veils, 20 the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, 21 the signet rings and nose rings, 22 the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses 23 and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Now there is no mistaking that Isaiah is describing great suffering for Israel and attributing that suffering to the anger of God because of Israel’s disobedience…
Job 1:6-20
Now there is a lot going on in Job, that we just don’t have time for today… but there is no doubt that although God doesn’t necessarily cause the suffering, God, in the story, allows the suffering.
I have to admit that I still have a hard time with the idea that God would allow or cause suffering. But the alternative just isn’t an option for me personally… the option that says there is no God, or that God does not care, that I am a chemical and biological accident, a random happening due to evolution…
And that is why I think the Hebrew writers in Job and Isaiah present God to us as allowing and causing suffering…. Because the alternative leaves us with our doubts and fears and no way out of them… they would rather believe that God sometimes causes or allows suffering, because then at least God still exists and has the power. Otherwise sickness and disease and violence have more power in the world than does God.
So in a strange way… even the stories that portray God as causing or allowing suffering are designed to give hope… because they are saying that your pain, your discouragement, your suffering isn’t random… God has allowed it… God still has power over it… and if God controls it and allows it, then God can and will also bring an end to suffering.
Isaiah and Job could maintain courage and hope in the midst of suffering, if it wasn’t random… if that suffering still remained within the control of God and was just allowed. It still leaves us with a question… why would God allow it?
This gets carried through in the story from John that I read earlier… I only read a part of Jesus response… which in full reads…."Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
Which leads to my third point for today about suffering…
3. A Time of suffering in the Bible is the precursor to the opening of new possibilities… the creation of something new…
The Isaiah who described bald women, would also sing a song of God comforting his people in chapter 40 and describing a new day of joy and hope and safety for Israel… the sojourn through suffering was meant to purge the dross… what was waste, dirt…was cleansed so that Israel could in the end, grow closer to God.
God took away everything that Job had… but in the end of the story gives him back twice what he had before…
Suffering, even unexpected suffering or unwanted suffering can lead to something… new…Nothing can stop the creativity of God, not even suffering.
When we endure suffering, we say by our endurance that we are waiting for something better,… a crucible of self-transformation, an opportunity for a new vision
Pg 14 Power Made Perfect in Weakness - Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoun
Rom 5:3-5
but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance ; 4 perseverance , character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us,
the Bible in general, and Paul specifically has this unshakable view of God, who is constantly at work creating, behind the scenes of the world, behind the scenes in our lives. Paul sees the world not in the process of destruction, but sees God in the process of recreating and even our suffering, God is powerful enough and loving enough to fold into his own purpose, which is to re-create in us and through us…
Mother Teresa helps us to understand this process when she says, 'Suffering opens up space within that otherwise would not be there -- that God can come in and fill.'"
And that is what I really want us to focus on for our initial question… for those with questions and doubts… don’t avoid them… The Bible clearly tells us that these times of doubt, of fear, or questions… are the times when God can and will create this space within us… only to fill it with a deeper faith, a sense of closeness to our creator… a calling to a larger purpose… It may be chaos now… but God sometimes allows chaos so as to then create something new within us.
So what do we do? I think one lesson is that we not avoid these questions or doubts… don’t try to fill them with easy answers… with distractions that make us feel better….that is what Saul tried to do in last weeks reading… fill his doubts and fears with the easiest and most accessible answer, swords and armor… Somehow we have to sit with these questions and wait for God to reveal the purpose of our doubts and questions…So be patient…those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength Isaiah says…
Second, share your doubts with someone. When Paul talks about sharing in suffering he is first of all challenging the new Christians to see all of Jesus life as their own story… not just the resurrection, but the life and suffering… but Paul also shares his own suffering… so that he can encourage and be encouraged. So share your doubts and your questions, so that you don’t feel isolated and alone… and also share, as Nancy did last week, the new creation story that comes after the questions and doubts.
Third… This is where the Christian action of prayer comes in…
And I mean a very specific kind of prayer… If our time of doubt is actually a time where God is creating a space so as to grow closer to us, or greater in us.. or to call us or give us a gift… the kind of prayer where we do all the talking wont accomplish anything. When we are doubting or questioning or even hurting we need to do listening prayer… praying with scripture.
Ps 31
Ps 9
Ps 22
Ps 107
A quote from NT Wright, puts suffering in the context of the salvation of the world…
Thus the church is called to be for the world what Jesus was for Israel:
not just a moral lecturer, nor even a moral example, but the people who, in
obedience to God’s strange vocation, learn to suffer and pray at the place
where the world is in pain, so that the world may be healed.
N . T . W R I G H T , in The Meaning of Jesus (with Marcus Borg)
But a verse from the story of Job gives us a first step on the journey to seeing our chosen suffering… even our random sufferings as a part of a larger witness to the world…
After all his suffering, his questions, when God gives back to Job twice what he had before… Job can say
My ears had heard you, but now my eyes have seen you Job 42:5 NIV
As difficult as it may be for us to understand, Job tells us that nothing can strengthen our sense of God’s love for us… like going through suffering, and watching what God can make out of what looks like, feels like, seems like chaos… those are the moments, as we look back, when we can see God…
Lets Pray
I drew upon a Theology Today essay I found on-line by L. Rebecca Propst. Pts that are numbered 1 and 3 come directly from her essay.
I also drew upon an article entitle; Power Made Perfect in Weakness by Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung - that came from an ethics journal published by; Center for Christian Ethics and Baylor University.
I think that covers everybody who deserves credit.
Intro:
Last week we began to look for answers to the question; ‘what do I do when I’m not feeling it.’ What do we do when we have doubts about our faith, when questions about the love and/or power of God go unanswered, when prayers seem pointless and we begin to wonder if our faith and if our God really exists.
So we talked about David and Saul and Goliath; specifically how Saul, when faced by Goliath and the Philistines (his own doubts and fears) relied on his own strength to find answers, and was ultimately disappointed. Saul could only see the world through the lens of fighting and winning or fighting and being destroyed. He did not or could not think of the world a different way, so he could not imagine or believe that God might open up a different way for him….
You recall that the story of David and Goliath was written when Israel was in Babylon, and being in Babylon caused questions similar, we safely imagined to some of our own questions today; where is God, is there a God, Why is there such suffering, why does it seem as if our faith and our prayers have failed us? The point of telling you all of that was to show you how Israel handled the questions and the doubts and discouragement. They told themselves a different story… the remembered a time when God did something amazing and unexpected, with David, and that gave them the courage to continue to hope in God’s goodness instead of falling into dismay.
What do we do when we are not feeling it? We remember the stories of God’s amazing and powerful interruptions of Israel’s life to show them his love… and then we wait expectantly and patiently for those moments…. Look for them everywhere we go. And I think that believing in them changes our view, so that we can have courage and not be afraid.
Then thankfully and without any planning [a church member] got up and shared a testimony about how in a time of suffering and fear, God had revealed power through her and in her that she never knew existed so that she could care for [spouse]. Instead of being caught in the rut of not speaking and not disagreeing and not asserting her point of view… God opened up a new possibility for [same church member] where she found her voice…
This past week I got a phone call from someone, wanting more on this topic… and I’m glad because although the answer to the question…what do I do when I’m not feeling it is… remember the good things God has done… is really biblically… its what the bible shows over and over again… I think perhaps we may want a little more of an answer than ‘REMEMBER’
And so we turn to 2 Cor 12: 7-10
Now the topic that Paul is addressing here is suffering. And you may be wondering what this has to do with questions and doubts. Now here is my experience and my assumption. In my experience, we rarely have doubts in a vacuum. Doubts don’t usually appear without some form of fears, disappointments or some form of suffering (maybe not the suffering of people living in poverty in South America or Africa suffering) but some pain or discomfort of heart or soul or mind that puts us in this place of having doubts, wondering why? Or where are you God?
For me it was divorce that put me in the tail-spin of questions; where are you God when I need you? I try to follow you and this is the thanks I get? Do you really love and care for me? What is the point of faith if I have to put up with this….. ‘stuff’?
So I want to talk about a difficult topic this morning… suffering.
I cannot say all that needs to be said about suffering; such as the pain we feel when a loved one dies, or why a holocaust?
We read something very strange from Paul today….
for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
We live in a world in a culture in which avoiding pain, alleviating pain, medicating pain; is the norm. It is so assumed that we wish to avoid pain, that the Bible’s witness about suffering and pain will sound to us… just…. Odd…
1. Because…throughout the Bible Suffering is not always avoided… as a matter of fact, suffering freely chosen in order to accomplish a purpose is a strong theme in Christian tradition.
Jesus described his own life and specifically death by saying… John 10:15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
Jesus saw the purpose of his own life as voluntary suffering for a greater purpose… he laid down his life that his sheep might find life. He also says in Matt 16:24-25 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me . 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Now, lets just be clear about what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is not talking about suffering that is unexpected, incidental, or seemingly random… Jesus isn’t addressing the suffering of a disease, such as cancer, or the physical or emotional abuse of a spouse or family member.
What Jesus is talking about is the choice to be his disciple… to put into practice a kingdom way of life, such as; turning the other cheek, forgiving 70 X 7, selling what we own to give to the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned… When we actively choose to let those kingdom values shape us… we will experience sometimes; disappointment, discouragement, perhaps even pain, physical or emotional… but that suffering is for a greater purpose…
And that Idea… of voluntary suffering for a greater purpose is a common theme…
1 Peter 2:20 says: ‘But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
1 Peter 3:17
17 It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Paul famously asks in Romans, a question we all know quite well; Rom 8:35-36 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Paul expects, in asking this question that those who are disciples will have to face suffering. It isn’t a matter of if we will suffer, but when will we suffer if we have made the way of Christ in the world our way.
And in 2 Tim, Paul even encourages those who read…8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
How is suffering presented in our culture? Well, it’s a form of entertainment. Horror movies present suffering in such a way as to make it exciting for us to watch… it gives us an adrenaline rush… or action movies even pull us into a plot where someone suffers some form of injustice and then a hero stands up and fight, kills and destroys to rescue the victims…
So part of our culture wants to view suffering, but in the safe and antiseptic environment of the tv or movie screen.
Suffering is also a marketing technique; One of the best ways to get us to buy something is to make us feel inadequate… you are bald and it gets in the way of your romantic life and your business life… so you need to buy a product. You have acne, you have gray hair, your hips are too large, your breasts are too small… all of this playing on our insecurities ( a form of suffering I suggest) so that we will be active consumers of a product.
In both of these examples of suffering in our culture we see expressed the idea of avoiding suffering and here comes the bible with a very different view… Instead of viewing suffering from afar and from a safe distance… we are called to engage with the suffering… In Matt 24 Jesus explains that we serve him, comfort and care for him, when we serve, comfort and care for the poor… we aren’t allowed to keep suffering at a distance, to avoid it… but are encouraged to engage it… get right up close to it.
And we are also encouraged not only to share in the suffering of others, but to take on suffering, for a larger purpose, which is to alleviate the suffering of others, and to make a witness to the larger world of the Love of God that would undergo crucifixion to save us…
The suffering [the Bible and the Christian tradition] endorses, then, is not merely enduring pointless pain in a meaningless world. The suffering the Christian is called to bear is most often the result of try to love others in a world of sin and wretchedness.
pp. 13-14; Power Made Perfect in Weakness - Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung
So ideally, Christians are prepared to suffer… we are trained to suffer for the sake of the good of others, for living the values of the Kingdom of God. Paul saw it as a way to witness to the larger world. The world would see us choosing to suffer instead of returning evil for evil… the world would see us suffering so as to serve others and see Christ in us…see us illustrating the story of Jesus, who suffered for us… Paul throughout his letters wants Christians to see his suffering, as a courageous witness of the strength of God…
2. What about our pointless pain in a meaningless world? Or… what about the suffering that we do not choose that just happens…. Or… Does God cause us to suffer?
Let’s start with the first question…. Does God cause suffering?
If we look to the Bible, that is not necessarily an easy question to answer although I think most of us immediately respond… no, of course not.
And we have bible verses to back us up….John 9:1-4 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?"
Now, the disciples are obviously asking a question about suffering… what happened so that God would cause this man’s suffering? And Jesus responds…
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus,
But we other sources that seem to suggest differently…
Such as Isa 3:18-26 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings and bracelets and veils, 20 the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, 21 the signet rings and nose rings, 22 the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses 23 and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Now there is no mistaking that Isaiah is describing great suffering for Israel and attributing that suffering to the anger of God because of Israel’s disobedience…
Job 1:6-20
Now there is a lot going on in Job, that we just don’t have time for today… but there is no doubt that although God doesn’t necessarily cause the suffering, God, in the story, allows the suffering.
I have to admit that I still have a hard time with the idea that God would allow or cause suffering. But the alternative just isn’t an option for me personally… the option that says there is no God, or that God does not care, that I am a chemical and biological accident, a random happening due to evolution…
And that is why I think the Hebrew writers in Job and Isaiah present God to us as allowing and causing suffering…. Because the alternative leaves us with our doubts and fears and no way out of them… they would rather believe that God sometimes causes or allows suffering, because then at least God still exists and has the power. Otherwise sickness and disease and violence have more power in the world than does God.
So in a strange way… even the stories that portray God as causing or allowing suffering are designed to give hope… because they are saying that your pain, your discouragement, your suffering isn’t random… God has allowed it… God still has power over it… and if God controls it and allows it, then God can and will also bring an end to suffering.
Isaiah and Job could maintain courage and hope in the midst of suffering, if it wasn’t random… if that suffering still remained within the control of God and was just allowed. It still leaves us with a question… why would God allow it?
This gets carried through in the story from John that I read earlier… I only read a part of Jesus response… which in full reads…."Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
Which leads to my third point for today about suffering…
3. A Time of suffering in the Bible is the precursor to the opening of new possibilities… the creation of something new…
The Isaiah who described bald women, would also sing a song of God comforting his people in chapter 40 and describing a new day of joy and hope and safety for Israel… the sojourn through suffering was meant to purge the dross… what was waste, dirt…was cleansed so that Israel could in the end, grow closer to God.
God took away everything that Job had… but in the end of the story gives him back twice what he had before…
Suffering, even unexpected suffering or unwanted suffering can lead to something… new…Nothing can stop the creativity of God, not even suffering.
When we endure suffering, we say by our endurance that we are waiting for something better,… a crucible of self-transformation, an opportunity for a new vision
Pg 14 Power Made Perfect in Weakness - Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoun
Rom 5:3-5
but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance ; 4 perseverance , character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us,
the Bible in general, and Paul specifically has this unshakable view of God, who is constantly at work creating, behind the scenes of the world, behind the scenes in our lives. Paul sees the world not in the process of destruction, but sees God in the process of recreating and even our suffering, God is powerful enough and loving enough to fold into his own purpose, which is to re-create in us and through us…
Mother Teresa helps us to understand this process when she says, 'Suffering opens up space within that otherwise would not be there -- that God can come in and fill.'"
And that is what I really want us to focus on for our initial question… for those with questions and doubts… don’t avoid them… The Bible clearly tells us that these times of doubt, of fear, or questions… are the times when God can and will create this space within us… only to fill it with a deeper faith, a sense of closeness to our creator… a calling to a larger purpose… It may be chaos now… but God sometimes allows chaos so as to then create something new within us.
So what do we do? I think one lesson is that we not avoid these questions or doubts… don’t try to fill them with easy answers… with distractions that make us feel better….that is what Saul tried to do in last weeks reading… fill his doubts and fears with the easiest and most accessible answer, swords and armor… Somehow we have to sit with these questions and wait for God to reveal the purpose of our doubts and questions…So be patient…those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength Isaiah says…
Second, share your doubts with someone. When Paul talks about sharing in suffering he is first of all challenging the new Christians to see all of Jesus life as their own story… not just the resurrection, but the life and suffering… but Paul also shares his own suffering… so that he can encourage and be encouraged. So share your doubts and your questions, so that you don’t feel isolated and alone… and also share, as Nancy did last week, the new creation story that comes after the questions and doubts.
Third… This is where the Christian action of prayer comes in…
And I mean a very specific kind of prayer… If our time of doubt is actually a time where God is creating a space so as to grow closer to us, or greater in us.. or to call us or give us a gift… the kind of prayer where we do all the talking wont accomplish anything. When we are doubting or questioning or even hurting we need to do listening prayer… praying with scripture.
Ps 31
Ps 9
Ps 22
Ps 107
A quote from NT Wright, puts suffering in the context of the salvation of the world…
Thus the church is called to be for the world what Jesus was for Israel:
not just a moral lecturer, nor even a moral example, but the people who, in
obedience to God’s strange vocation, learn to suffer and pray at the place
where the world is in pain, so that the world may be healed.
N . T . W R I G H T , in The Meaning of Jesus (with Marcus Borg)
But a verse from the story of Job gives us a first step on the journey to seeing our chosen suffering… even our random sufferings as a part of a larger witness to the world…
After all his suffering, his questions, when God gives back to Job twice what he had before… Job can say
My ears had heard you, but now my eyes have seen you Job 42:5 NIV
As difficult as it may be for us to understand, Job tells us that nothing can strengthen our sense of God’s love for us… like going through suffering, and watching what God can make out of what looks like, feels like, seems like chaos… those are the moments, as we look back, when we can see God…
Lets Pray
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