Sunday Sermon - Faith for Difficult Times

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

Today's gospel reading is Matthew's account of the Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John see Jesus shining like the sun as he talks with Moses and Elijah. Upon seeing this, Peter suggests building a shrine of some sort. "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Peter's suggestion is forgotten when the voice of God speaks, and in Mark's version of this event we learn that Peter makes his suggestion because he's terrified and doesn't know what to say.

I don't want to be too hard on Peter, but he seems to be like a lot of us religious folks, wanting to somehow capture and institutionalize this remarkable experience. Build a shrine. That way they can come back later and commemorate the event as a religious holiday. But when God cuts Peter off, the only command spoken is "Listen to him."

We're fast moving into the Christmas shopping season, and I've already seen a poll on Facebook where people can vote for or against the idea of having a "holiday tree" in the White House as opposed to a Christmas tree. And there will be campaigns directed at retailers demanding that they "put Christ back in Christmas" if their banners announce "Happy Holidays." People, presumably for genuine religious reasons, will get all worked up about this slight against Jesus, will demand that Christmas be an appropriate shrine.

Sometimes I wish that God would show up, terrify us all out of our decorating and singing Christmas carols, and a divine voice boom, "Listen to him!" And I'm pretty sure that what Jesus says won't have much to do with celebrating Christmas, but will have everything to do with caring for the poor, loving enemies, turning the other cheek, and all that other stuff we prefer to ignore.

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Sunday Sermon - "Faith for Difficult Times"

From Mark 13:1-8: Jesus speaks of the Jerusalem Temple being destroyed, but while many read the Bible looking for timetables, Scripture is much less concerned with prediction and more concerned to encourage faithful living in difficult times.

Nov. 15 Sermon.mp3

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's gospel reading, Jesus is asked by Pharisees and Sadducees to show some sort of heavenly sign, presumably to prove his identity. Jesus refuses--other than a veiled hint about the sign of Jonah, something that can only be understood in light of the cross and the resurrection. But Jesus clearly thinks that they should have already been able to figure out who he is. But they "cannot interpret the signs of the times."

There was a Bob Dylan song in the 60s about the times. One verse goes:
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don't criticize what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

A couple of generations later, people who sang along with Dylan now struggle to lead the church in new times. Especially in mainline denominations like my own, we can struggle to break out of patterns from an older time. As we struggle to connect with those generations born after 1980, we often embody Einstein's definition of insanity, continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results.

But if our faith is in any way true, then surely God is at work in our world. Are our churches decline because that is simply the hallmark of a more secular age? Or are we, like Pharisees and Sadducees of long ago, unable to interpret the signs of the times?

If Christ truly died and rose again; if the Church has received the gift of the Holy Spirit, then God must be up to something, and God must expect us to be a part of it. But if I'm going to glimpse this work of God, I suppose I might need to lift my head up out of the routines of church work to see, and then interpret, the signs of the times.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly,
and do what is right.

How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.

These verses from Psalm 15 and 147 seem to me to describe two aspects of God that are often difficult to reconcile. In the first, one can come before God only if she is good and follows the Law. But in the second, a gracious God reaches out to gather in the outcasts. In a sense, here is the dichotomy of Law and Grace. Do we relate to God because we keep on the straight and narrow? Or do we relate to God because God pursues us and rescues us?

I think that a lot of denominations and traditions seek to resolve the conflict between these two views by featuring one component -- Law or Grace -- more prominently than the other. And so in some churches faith is mostly about following the rules, and in other churches faith is mostly about accepting God's freely given love. Problem is, the Bible never resolves the tension between these two poles. The call to purity and God's forgiveness and love are not either/or but both/and.

We humans tend not to like paradoxes, and there is a paradox here. But I think that this paradox serves as a powerful corrective for those of us gathered around either pole. If we emphasize Law and right behavior over all else, we need to be reminded of God's embrace of those who are undeserving. But if we tend to think that God simply loves everyone no matter what, we need to be reminded that God calls us to live holy lives.

You sometimes hear the tension between these two poles explained as the "God of the Old Testament" versus the "God of the New Testament," as though they were different Gods. But instead, what we see in this tension is a God who will not be conformed to our labels, who will not be as we would prefer, but who is more than we can imagine and comprehend. And I know that for me, it is a good thing to be reminded that God embodies more than I can take in at one time.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

I've always been fascinated by today's gospel reading, where Jesus at first refuses to help a Canaanite woman who asks Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus refuses because she is a foreigner, a Gentile. He even goes so far as to compare such foreigners to dogs. (Attempts to soften Jesus' words by saying heuses an affectionate term for a family pet don't really help at all.) But after this woman insists that even the dogs are allowed to enjoy the scraps that fall from the table, Jesus commends her for her faith and heals her daughter.

Why does Jesus say he won't help and then change his mind? Is his own, exclusive view of God's grace expanded by the woman's answer? Does he plan all along to heal the child but engages the woman as he does to help expand his followers' view of God's grace? Or does Matthew tell the story in such a way that Jesus becomes an example for the Church which is called to move beyond the limits it knows and embrace those it thinks are outsiders?

However you explain the way Jesus acts, the story clearly insists that the Church and individual Christians call into question the boundaries and limits that they assume are hard and fast. Are our boundaries God's boundaries, or are they simply our conventions, traditions, and assumptions? What conversation do we need to have with those who are not like us so that we can discover that they too are embraced in God's love?

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's Old Testament reading Nehemiah speaks to an Israel who has struggled and languished after returning from exile in Babylon. And he recalls their history with God for the people, asking them to remember who they are, a people formed by God, a people who exist because God cares for them.

In the gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus speaks to Pharisees who complain about his disciples' not washing their hands before eating, breaking "the tradition of the elders." But Jesus says that it is the Pharisees, and not his disciples, who have lost their way, have forgotten who they are. "You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'"

In much of traditional, Protestant, American Christianity, the term "going to church" has come to describe the dominant form of religious participation. But more and more, people are finding that this falls woefully short. And they are beginning to ask themselves, Who are we? What does it truly mean for us to be the people of God?

Both Jesus and Nehemiah say that answering these questions requires some deep remembering. It is a remembering that reaches beyond how we've been doing things for a generation or two. It reaches back to remember who we are at our core. It finds an identity in God's saving acts, most especially God's saving act in Jesus. It answers questions about who we are by asking who Jesus calls us to be, by considering how we are called to serve God.

Who are we? Who has God called us to be in Christ? Is what we are currently doing about that? Or do we need to do some remembering?

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Our video camera is on the fritz. Hopefully it will soon be repaired or replaced and sermon videos will again be available.

Sunday Sermon - Faith That Makes a Difference

From Mark 12:38-44: Features "the widow's mite," but also tells of widows whose houses are devoured by the scribes. Is the widow's generosity an example for us to follow, or an example of how religious institutions will sacrifice the needy for their own glory?

Nov. 8 sermon.mp3

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
(from Psalm 97)

To say "God is king" sounds like standard religious fare that doesn't provoke a lot of thought. But in my own faith life, I think this may be the hardest thing for me to believe, or at least for me to live like I believe it.

Saying that God is king means that God is ruler, is in charge, is in command of everything. However chaotic the world may appear, God is running the show. Everything, from political events to evolution to the flow of history, is somehow under the rule of God's providence.

One of the other readings today is from Revelation. And while many people think of this as a book of predictions about the future, John writes Revelation primarily to remind struggling 1st Century Christians that God is indeed king. Despite some of them suffering because of their faith, despite the power and might of Rome which insisted that the emperor was divine, God was in fact in charge.

The LORD is king! All of history bends to God's command. And we people of faith are called to live in ways that show others this reality. Like I said, I think this is one of the most difficult parts of my faith life.

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Oops!

Two technical glitches in one week, and so there is no video of Sunday's sermon, just as there was no audio. Hopefully all will be repaired for this coming Sunday.

No audio of worship -- Video will be posted later.

Audit recording device failed today, so there is no audio of today's All Saints sermon, "The End." However, the video will be posted later.