Musings on the Daily Lectionary

Many of us wish for, dream of, and often strive to achieve status, power, and prestige. Pastors are by no means immune to this desire to be important and impressive. There's even a name for it: "steeple envy," where pastors of smaller churches long for the positions of their big church colleagues. More than one person has noted that when pastors leave a congregation, God almost always seems to call them to a bigger church with a better salary.

I don't want to overstate this. Many pastors labor very contentedly in smaller congregations and feel blessed to be there. And most pastors I know make a genuine attempt to listen for God's call. I point out "steeple envy" only as a way of acknowledging the strong pull the ways of the world exert on most all of us.

In today's verses from Luke, Jesus talks about something often labeled "servant leadership." Contrary to what some suppose, Jesus does not necessarily condemn having power or influence or prestige. Rather the issue is more about how one employs them. And Jesus insists that it must be for the sake of others. "But I am among you as one who serves."

What motivates a person's actions can be difficult to know. It can be hard to know it for ourselves at times. It's one of those heart things central to a life of faith.

God, bend my heart to your will. May all my acts in some way share your love and serve others.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's reading from Acts, the first church conflict erupts as "the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food." Just who these two groups are is unclear, perhaps Greek speaking Jews from the Jewish diaspora versus local Jews. Regardless, the twelve recognized the problem, but are too busy with their evangelistic work to "wait on tables." And so some are chosen for this serving role. (This is where Presbyterians get the idea for Deacons as opposed to Elders who are more focused on apostle-like duties.)

But this story is more than a little curious to me. Stephen, the first of these waiters, hardly sounds like a waiter. "Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people." Somehow I doubt that this means he could balance a lot of trays as he carried food to needy widows. Maybe the job descriptions didn't work out quite like the twelve had planned. And Stephen will go on to give a witness as bold as any apostle.

Churches and societies need people with different gifts and different callings. We all have our own particular roles to play. But we probably shouldn't get too locked in by our job descriptions. When we are "full of faith and the Holy Spirit" like Stephen, the fact that we are just a waiter, or a youth, or a you-fill-in-the-blank doesn't much matter.

What signs and great wonders is God seeking to do through you and me?

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

What is God like? Surely that is one of the most basic faith questions. But answering this question is a complex task. Getting to know another human being is difficult enough. God, even more so. And much of our knowledge of God is somewhat indirect, the insights and encounters of others who have drawn close to God. For Christians, Scripture is a unique and authoritative witness that points us to God, that reveals the true nature of God, but even here we sometimes encounter aspects of the divine that seem hard to reconcile. You sometimes hear people speak of "the God of the Old Testament" and "the God of the New Testament" as though these were different being altogether.

I think this is a false dichotomy, but it does point to the real difficulty of weaving together disparate images of God into a single, coherent one. It also points to a difficulty we humans have with some of the paradoxes presented to us by God. We tend to see either/or choices when it comes to mercy or judgment, a God who loves us or God we are supposed to fear, a God who demands holiness and righteousness or a God of grace who embraces the unworthy. Yet God seems to integrate all this into Godself.

Images of God in Scripture often are focused on one side or the other of such paradoxes, but there are elements of God's nature that seem constant, that are pictured fairly uniformly throughout the Bible. Some of those are seen today in Psalm 146.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

It seems there is a special place in God's heart for many that the world often ignores, for those the world does not value. And surely one of the ways we get to know God, that we draw closer to God, is to love, care for, and value those who are special to God.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

I've never really understood the fascination that some Christians have with figuring out when "the end" comes. Longing for God's Kingdom I get, but trying to find a formula that will accurately predict the timing; I just don't see the point. And my take on today's reading from Luke is that Jesus wants to dissuade speculation about "the end." In both Matthew's and Mark's gospels, Jesus says that even he does not know the time. But in those gospels, and in Luke, Jesus does talk about what "the end" looks like. And in today's reading he says, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near."

I take Jesus to mean that although we do not know when the Kingdom will arrive, its arrival will be obvious, as clear as the signs of spring. And our call as followers of Jesus is not to figure out the timing, but to live by the ways of the Kingdom now. Our energies will be much better spent praying for strength to do God's will when the "worries of this life" tempt us to forget our callings.

I suppose that this gets to the heart of what it means to be a Christian and, more particularly, to live a Christian life. If the alertness Jesus commands is not about anticipating the moment, then what does it mean for us to live as those who are prepared for the day of the Lord?

Lord, give us strength to live each day in ways to declare your coming Kingdom.

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Sunday Sermon: "All God's Children: All Sorts of Folk"

A sermon from Matthew 28:16-20, the so-called "Great Commission." Though not often thought of this way, Jesus may actually be telling us to reach out and welcome those who are different, who don't look like us, who don't seem like our sort of folk.

Sermon for June 21.mp3

No video of worship this week. Audio coming soon.

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

If you want to make an avowed capitalist squirm, just read from today's verses in Acts. "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need."

Acts' commune-like description of the early Church bespeaks an ideal that most congregations don't even attempt to emulate. Of course today's reading from Acts also tells of a couple who did not live up to that ideal. It seems that the difficulty of living up to our calling as a Christian community is nothing new.

But it is not clear that modern Christians even aspire to the ideal found in Acts. We treat it as a kind of fantasy not to be taken seriously. I wonder how it might impact the witness we give as congregations if we at least attempted to move toward the image in Acts. Even if we fell far short, how might we look different, and how might we offer something compelling to the world, if we embraced these verses in Acts as a part of our calling to follow Jesus?

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's gospel reading, Jesus tells anyone who will listen, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets." The term "scribes" may sound something like a stenographer to us, but scribes were a highly educated, professional class of teachers and interpreters of the law. And so I suspect that Jesus' warning about such folks might well fit any sort of religious professionals. Thus it might also apply to those religious institutions that such religious professionals manage.

As a pastor, I have on occasion heard a conversation about the appropriate car for a pastor to drive. What general rule I can glean is that such vehicles shouldn't be overly ostentatious, but they should they should be befitting a respected professional. I can remember a time not so long ago when I thought of Lincoln Town Cars as a pastor's car. I recall this as I wonder about Jesus' apparent disdain for religious professionals.

I am convinced that there is no such thing as pure, unadulterated spirituality or faith. The practice of such things by necessity takes on forms that must be managed in some way. I believe that any spirituality that does not build community is a false one, and with community inevitably comes some sort of organization or institution. And therefore, "organized religion" (though in my experience it often seems hopelessly disorganized) is a necessity.

Yet there is no denying a tendency for such religious institutions to become self serving and to lose sight of their fundamental purposes. For the Church, this means there is always a tension between our following the commands of Jesus and our being corrupted as the Church becomes a vehicle for getting what we want. Even in the very best Church (or any other sort of religious enterprise) there is always a mix of good and bad, of God's work being done alongside greed, lust for power, and outright hypocrisy. There is no pure church, just as there is no pure synagogue, mosque, government, movement, cause, etc.

My theological tradition has long held that this situation requires regular change and reformation. Churches must be remade and refocused on their fundamental purposes. And I increasingly believe that a time of reformation is upon the Church, a time when we must carefully examine ourselves. It is a time when we must work to cast off all that makes us like those Jesus warns people about, and it is a time when we must hear anew the call to be faithful disciples who join together to be the body of Christ in and for the world.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

I've always thought that the Acts account of Pentecost was both funny and confusing. Peter's defense against the charge of drunkenness? It's too early in the morning. "I'd never be drunk by 9:00." And which is it, by the way? At one point Acts says, "Each one heard them speaking in the native language of each... All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" So it seems that everyone heard the disciples speaking in his or her native language, and all of them were amazed. And yet Acts also says, "But others sneered and said, 'They are filled with new wine.' " Well, which is it?

Acts almost seems to describe two different events, the first a remarkable undoing of the Tower of Babel story from Genesis 11, and the second some sort of ecstatic blubbering that is mistaken for drunkenness. One describes gifts of the Spirit that will assist the Church in taking its message to others. The second describes an exuberant frenzy that is unintelligible to outsiders.

Reading this passage literally, as modern people so tend to do, one can't really reconcile the two depictions in the story. But then again, what need does the Bible have to abide by our modern sensibilities.

I'm by no means an expert in this area, but as I gradually gain some small measure of spiritual maturity, I discover that figuring out exactly what happened rarely gets me to the meaning and purpose, to the truth of the Bible. The truths in Scripture are sometimes much more evident when I let go of the modern notion that truth means getting the facts straight.

Lord, open me and guide me to your truth.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

"Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." I've always liked the translation that says, "Render unto Caesar," when Jesus is asked about paying taxes. Of course the question isn't really about taxes. It's an attempt to trap Jesus. The taxes in question are those due to Rome. Rome was not only an occupying power, but it made claims of divinity for its emperor, and Roman coins had inscriptions referring to this divinity. And so there were theological objections to the taxes along with a general dislike of Rome, but a great fear of what happened if you defied Rome. Thus Jesus' opponents think they have cornered him with their question. If Jesus says, "Yes" to paying taxes he alienates all those who object on theological or nationalistic grounds. Say, "No," and the Romans will be after him.

But as often happens with Jesus, he doesn't really answer the question. Instead he springs a trap on his opponents. Asking them to show him a Roman coin, one that contains a graven image of the divine emperor, he catches them in violation of the commandment against graven images. He then sidesteps the trap laid for him with that well know phrase about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. But Jesus never says how one determines which is which.

Of course Jesus knows his Scripture, our Old Testament, backward and forward. And I'm convinced that he has this verse in mind as he parries his opponents. "The Earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it." (Psalm 24:1)

And so we're left with a hanging question about loyalties, about what is owed whom, about who and what we should support and serve. If Jesus' answer to his opponents is a bit evasive, the way he lives his life is clear. Serving God trumps all other loyalties, to family, to his religion, to his country, even to his own personal desires and safety. And for me, following him in this path is a lot more difficult question than the one about taxes.

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Sunday Sermon: "All God's Children: Adoptive Families"

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's reading from Acts, the disciples are talking with the risen Jesus shortly after the first Easter. Considering all that has happened, the question they ask Jesus is hardly surprising. "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus the Messiah has been raised from the dead. Jews of Jesus' day thought that the resurrection would come at the end of the age, so it made perfect sense to thing something big was about to happen.

But Jesus' answer tosses aside any concerns about timetables and and the arrival of the end. Instead he says his followers have work to do. "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This is not the only place in the Bible where Jesus tells his followers not to concern themselves with figuring out when the end comes. And here Jesus insists that the life of the Christian is not about figuring out such mysteries. Rather it is about being witnesses. And yet many Christians are still fascinated with trying to figure out supposed formulas in the book of Revelation. And the Christian life is often understood to be more about belief than about anything else.

I suppose it is not surprising that any focus on being witnesses diminished in this country over the years, especially when we tended to think of ourselves as a "Christian nation." But I wonder if we didn't lose our souls along the way. I wonder if we didn't cut the heart out of the Christian life when we shifted the focus of the faith to believing and attending church, forgetting that we are called to be witnesses. And of course, our lives are our most powerful witness. And if the Church is struggling in our day, surely the quality of our witness has something to do with that.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will empower us to be his witnesses. Send her to us, Lord!

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