"O sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day."
It is easy for me to get caught up in trying to do faith and live the Christian life in a manner that gets things just right. I want to make sure I understand what this passage of Scripture or that one really means. I want to figure out just what it asks me to do. I want to examine my life and see where I'm getting it right and where I need to change. Certainly there is a place for this, but sometimes I need simply to cut loose and worship.
I was watching the Ken Burns film on our National Parks last night as they showed footage of the Grand Canyon. And there was one quote about how when the Creator made it, God created no sufficient word to describe it. One is simply left awed and can only marvel, and perhaps worship.
I don't necessarily mean "going to church" on Sunday. I include that, but I am talking about simply being overwhelmed by the wonder, majesty, and goodness of God to the point that all I can do is praise, sing, and say "Thank you, thank you!"
I come from generations of Presbyterians, and sometimes we worship mostly with our heads. It is good sometimes to remember the heart, to do worship that is like responding to seeing the Grand Canyon.
Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
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Today's gospel reading contains some seemingly unrelated sayings of Jesus as the "Sermon on the Mount" nears its end. These instructions end with Jesus saying, "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets." This line doesn't garner the attention lavished on Jesus' later statement about the "greatest commandment:" loving God with your whole being and loving neighbor as self. But the same summary about this being the essence of "the law and the prophets" is found both places.
For Jews, including the Jew named Jesus, "the law and the prophets" included the bulk of scripture and encompassed the whole of righteous living. And while Christians sometimes want to reduce faith to what someone believes, Jesus insists that he does not invalidate the law, but rather fulfills it. Jesus seems to presume that his followers will continue to embrace the law, even if it is reinterpreted through his life and teaching.
And so Jesus tells his followers, not once but twice, that treating others as we would like to be treated is a reliable guide to living as God's law demands. How wonderfully simple, and how terribly difficult. Not only do my needs often override Jesus' instruction -- if I'm in a big hurry I may not stop to help a stranded motorist even though I would want someone to stop for me -- but I also tend to cut myself a lot more slack than I do others.
As a pastor I find it easy to get frustrated with church members who don't volunteer for the wonderful projects or activities that the leadership has planned. But of course I don't do that much volunteering of my own. "I'm too busy at the church," I say. As though the busyness of my job is more important than the busy lives others lead. And it is easy to presume that the people I disagree with are motivated by greed or selfishness while my beliefs and opinions come, of course, from only the purist of motives.
I wonder if the best way to pursue the righteousness Jesus recommends might not be to focus on enemies, strangers, and those I disagree with. Maybe if I could treat them as I want to be treated, then I might come close to living as Jesus calls me to live.
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Today's psalm begins, "For God alone my soul waits in silence." And the gospel reading opens with Jesus saying, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" Focused on God alone with no worries; now that sounds like bliss.
One of the prominent schools of thought in church leadership encourages pastors to practice something called "non-anxious presence." This means that you are to be fully present or engaged in the issues that your congregation or committee or board is dealing with, but you are not supposed to let the anxieties surrounding these issues affect how you respond. In theory it is wonderful, but in practice it can be terribly difficult. I can be non-anxious fairly easily if I remain detached and unengaged. But when I begin to give myself fully to the situation, I often have a hard time keeping those anxieties at bay.
I may have gotten a tiny bit better at non-anxious presence after years of trying, but for me, this is less a proficiency issue and more a faith one. Too often I am tempted to think that "success" or "failure" as a church leader is primarily about my competency. But if it's all about my competency, or lack thereof, then what room do I allow for the Spirit to move in the congregation? If it's all about my proficiency, what is faith about?
In a success and results oriented culture, pastors, just like many others, can view their self worth as a matter or what they have accomplished rather than how faithful they are. We are called to live out our faith, and so what we do matters. But we are also called to trust in God's providence. Integrating and balancing faith and human effort may just be one of the most difficult practices of Christian living.
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I didn't preach today in what has become our regular rotation here. (I'll post a video of Brett's sermon here tomorrow.) However, I did a funeral for a dear member just a bit ago. I've never done many Sunday funeral services. I suppose that funeral homes and cemetaries frown on such things. But having a funeral service on "the Day of Resurrection" seems entirely fitting. And in this time when more people are doing cremations, when services don't necessarily need to be on a "work day" for funeral homes and cemeteries, I wonder if Sunday funerals might become more frequent.
Funerals are an intriguing part of the pastor business. For some reason I've recently run across a number of articles and a new book by Tom Long on Christian funerals. To be honest, I've always wondered about some funeral traditions. Why, for instance, do so many church members opt to have a family member's funeral service at the funeral home rather than at the church sanctuary? I'm happy to be of help at either locale. I simply wonder why a church member would prefer the non-church setting.
But while I do sometimes wonder about funeral customs and the like, I should add that funerals are often places where that I most feel like I have helped or comforted someone. People often seem genuinely appreciative of a pastor's efforts at a funeral. I suppose that's why I've heard more than one pastor utter, "I'd rather do five funerals than do one wedding." But that's a different conversation.
In the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, we commend to Almighty God our sister, Betsy.
Today's reading from Matthew is always one of the readings for Ash Wednesday. I've always thought it a bit strange to read Jesus' words warning against "practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them" at a service where people go out with a cross clearly marked in ashes on their foreheads. (Some congregations take note of this situation by encouraging people to wash off their crosses before going out in public.)
Of course Jesus also says things such as, "Let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." It seems that the issue is motivation. What drives people to be public about their faith?
If you look at church signs, you will no doubt notice that a fair number of churches are named after someone. As a seminary student I did my internship at Howard Memorial church. That was a second name for this congregation, a change prompted by the Howard family donating the money to build a sanctuary. I even know of a William and Mary Hart Presbyterian Church. Usually you can only get your last name on the sign.
Now I have no idea if the Harts wanted the church named for them or not. Perhaps is was done posthumously to honor what had been lives of humble and dedicated service. Or perhaps they gave money on the condition of it being named for them. I'm hoping it's the former.
What motivates us to do what we do in the name of faith? Many churches, mine included, are moving into their "Stewardship Season," and this always raises questions of why people do or don't give. What lies behind our giving, our service, our worship, our private devotion, the way we act toward others, and on and on. I suppose that the answers we give say a lot about who we really are, and how we understand that our lives are lived to and in the presence of God.
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Join us this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. for the second in a three part class that examines if there really is a conflict between science and religion. Do the creation accounts in Genesis mean that Christians can't believe in evolution? What sort of book is the Bible and just where is it authoritative for people of faith? Join the discussion this Sunday and next as we continue to explore these questions.
Today's gospel reading in Matthew has Jesus' famous words about turning the other cheek, which means to offer your left cheek to the person who has struck you on the right. Jesus not only commands an ethic of non-violence for his followers, but he goes on to say, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Jesus says that if we love only those who love us, we are no different from anyone else in the world. Only by loving those who hate us can we become more like Jesus, more like God.
A common biblical refrain calls for the people of God to be distinct from the world. Sometimes this has been construed as disdain and separation from the world, but mostly it is about being a light to the world, an example of another way, the Way of Jesus, the Way of the cross, the Way of God's coming dominion.
Perhaps because Americans so long thought of this as a "Christian country," we lost our appreciation for this call to be an example, a light to world, a distinct community that embodied God's Way rather that the world's way. And while I would be lying if I said the decline of the American church and of my denomination didn't bother me, I can't help but think we are being given a new opportunity to rediscover this call for Jesus.
Now if I could just find the allure of the world a little less captivating.
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You know, sometimes I think I'd be a lot happier, and being a Christian would be a lot easier, if the Bible was a pamphlet instead the voluminous work that it is. And couldn't we have just one gospel? Even better if the picture of Jesus in that gospel was perfectly consistent, with no room for questions or interpretation regarding what it means to follow him. But as it is, we have Jesus forgiving those who crucify him in Luke. But in today's reading from Matthew Jesus not only demands that people cannot fool around, but that they cannot even think about it.
The fact is that I like some of the portraits of Jesus in the Bible better than others. And I tend to hang those on the walls of my life and put the others in the basement somewhere. And from what I can tell, I'm far from alone on this. But if God's inspiration and providence were in any way responsible for the Bible that we do have (as I assume they were), then apparently we are meant to wrestle with those images of Jesus and God and faithful life that are not our favorites.
In fact, I've come to believe that the complexities of Scripture, including those passages that we find appalling or unfathomable, serve to shake any arrogance we might have about getting God all figured out. And they keep rattling and shattering those all too comfortable images of God and faith we construct for ourselves. I think it was C. S. Lewis who called God a "great iconoclast," who allows us to seize on images that draw us closer to God, but then shatters those images so that we have to keep moving closer and closer to the divine whom we can never fully comprehend.
Not the way I would have done it. But then again, it's probably just as well that I'm not God.
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I've always loved the story of Naaman, the Syrian commander whose leprosy is healed by Elisha. The Bible has quite a few healing stories, but what fascinates me about these verses (2 Kings 5:1-19) is the "unimportant" people without whom this healing would never have occurred.
Naaman learns that he might be healed from the words of a slave girl who was captured by one of Naaman's raiding parties into Israel. But although a slave has directed him to Israel, Naaman still thinks in the ways of the rich and powerful. And so he carries all sorts of treasure, along with a letter of recommendation from the King of Aram, to the King of Israel. Anything so significant as a healing surely runs through kingly avenues of power.
But things don't go at all as Naaman had expected. Not only is Israel's king not in command of such events, but Naaman is unimpressed by the prophet Elisha's instructions for healing. And once again servants have to step in and convince Naaman to do a task he assumes is too menial to go with a healing. And even after he is actually healed, he still thinks in terms of tribute, of treasure offered in payment. But Elisha will accept none.
I'm still inclined to view things a little like Naaman. Despite the fact of Jesus, a Savior and King far from any palace, who went to the poor and the outcast, who was, according to Paul, "God's power made perfect in weakness," I still expect God to operate through proper channels.
I wonder how often I miss the healing, life-changing power of God because it comes it ways I don't expect, shows up in places I assume it wouldn't go, and is revealed through the most unexpected sorts of folks.
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