Sermons and thoughts on faith on Scripture from my time at Old Presbyterian Meeting House and Falls Church Presbyterian Church, plus sermons and postings from "Pastor James," my blog while pastor at Boulevard Presbyterian in Columbus, OH.
As a pastor, I find that it is easy for me to get preoccupied with the tasks of professional ministry, so preoccupied that I can miss opportunities for showing Christ to others. One of the big items in my work is Sunday worship. It is important work, but I wonder what Jesus would think about the way I and many attending worship might respond to someone in need. I can get so focused on the upcoming service that I become oblivious to much of what is going on around me. And I mentioned in this blog before a time when the ushers at our church escorted a man seeking assistance out of the building, telling him to come back later, at a better time.
I wonder if I and those ushers and lots of other folks wouldn't have chimed in with the crowd in today's gospel who "sternly ordered" a blind beggar to be quiet when he cried out for Jesus' help. Surely Jesus had more important things to do. He has just told his disciples that he is headed to Jerusalem where he will be mocked, flogged, and killed. He is on his way to his moment with destiny. Surely he hasn't time for one so unimportant as this blind beggar.
Luke's gospel tells us repeatedly that Jesus brings a new day where the poor and unimportant are lifted up while the rich and powerful are pulled down. God's kingdom is full of reversals, and Jesus enacts one as he heals this blind beggar, who then joins Jesus on the way.
In our current economic climate, lots of congregations and charities are hurting for money. Many churches are struggling to balance budgets, pondering where to make cuts. Mission dollars are often a tempting target because they represent the largest share of "discretionary" spending. And a $5000 cut in mission giving is surely preferable to a $5000 cut in my salary.
Giving thanks is a fundamental act of faith. The Psalms are filled with calls the give thanks and offer thanksgiving. "O Give thanks to the LORD..." In my own Calvinist tradition, gratitude is understood as the prime motivator of a Christian life. And so this week when most all Americans celebrate Thanksgiving would seem to be a moment when an entire nation could engage in a shared religious experience without worrying too much about particular theological doctrines or differences. So it would seem, except that we have a hard time squeezing much thanks or gratitude into what we call Thanksgiving.
Most of us know some version of that first Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims. But aside from the fact of a meal, I'm not sure it has much in common with our celebration. Theirs was centered around joy that they had survived, that God had provided (with the assistance of Native Americans being a significant part of that providence). In the midst of suffering and death, of the very real threat that none of them would make it, God had seen them through.
But our version of Thanksgiving has become a celebration of abundance and excess. We stuff ourselves, catch a parade, watch some football, and get ready to shop. Some of us may offer thanks for all this abundance, but of course it is an abundance produced by our hard work and by American ingenuity. It is not about God providing our daily bread. It is all about having more.
Despite Jesus' repeated warnings on the subject, despite the Bible's repeated warnings, we have become a nation obsessed with consumption and accumulation. The gospel that spews non-stop from our televisions and other media is that happiness is about having more. And so we simply cannot reconcile our culture's gospel with what Jesus says in today's gospel reading from Luke. "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me... How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
Our need to accumulate is rooted in our survival instinct, a drive to store up enough food to get through the winter and so on. But of course our accumulating has nothing to do with survival. Instead it comes from our anxiety, our worry that others may get more than us, our worry that there isn't enough to go around. At a fundamental level, our need to accumulate is rooted in a fear that if we don't grab our share, we will be left out. We simply do not trust that God's providence will be sufficient to give us all that we need.
I am suspicious that true gratitude becomes more and more difficult the more we have. Wealth often breeds a sense of entitlement. And somewhat surprisingly, wealth often diminishes generosity. People of limited means are often much more generous with what little they have than those who are wealthy. Having more, it seems, often leads to more anxieties and worries about holding on to it. Perhaps this is why Jesus says wealth and the Kingdom of God are so incompatible.
On Thursday, my family will join with a few others to celebrate. We will enjoy turkey and pumpkin pie and good wine and many other delicious dishes. I will have a grand time and wouldn't miss it for the world, nor would I begrudge anyone else such enjoyment. But I do find myself growing increasingly uncomfortable with just what it is that motivates me. To what degree is my life an act of gratitude and thanksgiving? And to what degree is it an attempt to accumulate things, status, reputation, respect, etc? To what degree is my life a joyful response to God's gifts? And to what degree is it an attempt to assuage my own anxieties?
The other day I was flipping through the hymnal looking at the hymns listed as being for today, Christ the King. Some of them are pretty well known: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” “Rejoice, the Lord is King,” to name a few. Here is the first verse of another one. “The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now; a royal diadem adorns the mighty victor’s brow.”
When Jesus began his ministry he said, “The kingdom of God has come near.” And now, on the last day of the Christian year, we celebrate that despite the powers-that-be trying to stop Jesus, despite their killing Jesus, he sits upon the throne of God’s kingdom, and the day is coming when everyone on earth will see his reign.
Christ is King! All hail, King Jesus! In a lot of people’s minds, the Jesus who died on the cross has now morphed into a king of power and might. Some Christian writers go so far as to say that “the lamb becomes a lion.” The Jesus who willingly suffered has been transformed into a warrior who will return to earth to set things right, by force if necessary.
Some of those hymns seem to hint at this. Yes, Jesus suffered once, but now he is clothed in glory. The crown of thorns has been replaced by a real crown. The lamb that was slain is now “the mighty victor.” That sounds a bit more like my image of a king, of God’s messiah.
We Americans don’t have that much direct experience with kings and royalty. But I think most of us still have a pretty good image of them. We’ve seen enough movies, read enough stories, and seen royals from other countries. Think about the images that come to mind when you hear the word king. Think about the things you associate with kings.
There’s a king in the Bible who fits my stereotype of a king to a “t.” It’s Solomon, who built the great Temple in Jerusalem, who was known for his wisdom. Listen to this description of how Solomon lived. Solomon's provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour, and sixty cors of meal ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl… (Solomon) also made a great ivory throne, and overlaid it with the finest gold… Nothing like it was ever made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver--it was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon… Solomon gathered together chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem… Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue. (1 Kings 4:22ff)And I suppose I should mention that Solomon also had 700 wives, including a daughter of Pharaoh, and 300 concubines. Now that’s a King!
So on Christ the King Sunday, perhaps we should picture Jesus like Solomon, only grander. Except I’m not sure the description of Solomon is all that complimentary. In the book of Deuteronomy, just before the Israelites cross the Jordan River to enter the Land of Promise, Moses recites God’s law. The law on kings says, He must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the LORD has said to you, "You must never return that way again." And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself. When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests. It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment.(Deut. 17:16-20)
I wonder if the prophet Jeremiah has these verses from Deuteronomy in mind when he condemns the kings and priests and leaders of his day. Jeremiah says that the terrible events in Jerusalem, the coming destruction of the city and the exile of the people to Babylon, are because of bad shepherds, shepherds who didn’t care tenderly for the flock, but who enriched themselves and enjoyed the good life.
And Jeremiah promises that God will not sit idly by forever. Those shepherds who have not attended to the flock will themselves be attended to by God. And God will raise up a good shepherd who will search for and find all the lost sheep, none shall be missing.
If Jeremiah was around today, I think he would find quite a few folks who fit, more or less into the bad shepherd role. As our nation and the world struggle to come out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, CEOs of corporations that have laid off thousands of workers are being paid hundreds of millions of dollars. And when these CEOs are let go, they receive severance packages and retirements that often exceed what the rest of us will make in a lifetime.
And if you can’t become a CEO, make it big in politics. If you do, you will never want for money again. I saw a report the other day on how, during the worst economy in my lifetime, the average wealth of those in Congress jumped 16% between 2008 and 2009, from $785,000 to $911,000. Almost half in Congress are now millionaires. And all US presidents, regardless of party, walk away from the White House rich, whether or not they were rich when they were first elected. They almost can’t help it, with appointments to boards, invitations to speak, and book deals.
I don’t want to paint with too broad of a brush, but I imagine that biblical prophets, who tended to speak large and use hyperbole, would have struggled to name the good shepherds of our day, the leaders who worry more about the sheep than themselves, who do not acquire great quantities for themselves, who do not exalt themselves over the other members of the community, who meditate day and night on doing what is right. But curiously, when the prophets see their world falling apart because of bad shepherds, they do not hope for a return to the good ole days, but instead for a new thing that God will do.
I recently attended a retreat where the featured speaker was Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann. He argued that one of the crucial tasks for the church in our time is to help our society move through a drama of loss and renewal. And he says this can only happen when we look around us, speak the truth about our situation, lament the loss all around, and from there, begin to envision and hope for the new thing God is doing.
Facing loss, we often prefer denial. We want things to get back to how they were. We long for good ole days. We speak of how we need to restore traditional values. We fondly remember when there were 40 youth in the confirmation class. But the problem with all kinds of denial and nostalgia is they presume that some moment in the past is as good as it gets. But as soon as we elevate any good ole day to such a pinnacle, we essentially deny the faith of prophets, the faith of Jesus. We say that when it comes to our daily lives, to life here on earth, to history, God doesn’t have much to do with what happens. God doesn’t matter.
And so in our day false prophets of nostalgia like Glenn Beck arise and insist that Jesus and the Bible don’t say anything about social justice, about a coming day when the poor are lifted up and the hungry fed, about a new day when the shepherds’ concern is only for the flock, not for themselves.
But prophets like Jeremiah stare into a time of defeat and exile, look at the ruins of a shattered Jerusalem, see the suffering of the poor and those caught up in the economic tragedy of that day and insist, “The days are surely coming…” Jesus looks to the agony of the cross and insists that it will be a great victory for God’s kingdom that is drawing near.
And we, as we proclaim Christ our King, and as we offer our pledges to God, must decide what we will long for and hope for and work for. As we see the world around us changing, as things we have counted on and enjoyed and grown comfortable with pass away, as we strain to see a future that is not at all clear, will we, like the Israelites who had escaped Egypt, look back in longing for the old, the familiar? (Facing the uncertainty of the Wilderness, the Israelites begged Moses to take them back to the security of slavery in Egypt.) Or will we trust that the future belongs to God? Will we move toward something we can see only by faith, boldly proclaiming, “The days are surely coming…”
When you read the Bible, do you occasionally find yourself saying, "I'm not sure I believe that?" I know that I've upset people at times when I preached from today's gospel reading and highlighted the idea of God favoring criminals who feel bad about what they've done over good, diligent, religious people. And even Jesus' statement, "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted" can be problematic. Do I really think being humble is a good strategy? Do you? I don't know. I'm not sure I believe that.
We Protestants, with our focus on the Bible, don't like to admit to doubting it, but think of all the passages that trouble us, that we either ignore or use elaborate interpretations to make them say something other than what they actually say. How many of us believe that wealth is one of the single biggest obstacles to following Jesus? How many of us believe in turning the other cheek? Much has been said about how few Christians regularly read the Bible, and I wonder if this isn't a strategy for avoiding those "I'm not sure I believe that" moments.
I've said this before, but I increasingly feel that the end of Christendom, our culture's unwillingness to continue propping up the Church, is a huge gift. When Christianity became wedded to the state, it had to become compatible with the state. It had to tone down those teachings of Jesus that made people in power uncomfortable. It had to ignore those teachings that undermined the national, military, colonial, economic, or other ambitions of the state. And while Christian faith often mitigated some of the state's worst tendencies, very often the state did more transforming of Christianity that the other way round. And the Church compromised on modeling the ways of the Kingdom to the world.
But the culture has realized that it no longer needs the blessings of the Church. It no longer is willing to send us members, shut down activity on Sunday morning, or augment Christian Education in the schools. And so we are free. Our contract with the state has been broken. We no longer need sell our souls for the culture's promise of preferential treatment. We can be the outposts of the Kingdom Jesus calls us to be.
And that brings me back to those "I'm not sure I believe that" moments. What if our discomfort with many biblical teachings is rooted in that deal Christianity made with culture all those centuries ago? And if so, don't we need to reexamine our discomfort to see if it's nothing but old cultural residue that seeks to distort the faith for the culture's benefit?
Today's reading from Malachi is probably not the best example, but it is one among many where God's relationship with Israel is described in terms of marriage. And looking at a number of such readings, what strikes me is how God goes through the whole gamut of emotions we might expect of someone who loves a spouse dearly but discovers that the spouse is unfaithful.
Faced with Israel's repeated unfaithfulness, God's anger can boil up and issue in promises to destroy. But then God can plead with Israel to come back, can speak of wooing Israel once again. God's relationship with Israel is depicted as the source of endless emotional turmoil for Yahweh. The decision to enter a covenant with them has complicated God's life in countless ways.
Christians - at least Western ones - often seem troubled by such a view of God. Our understandings of divinity are much more influenced by Greek, philosophical thinking. Parts of the New Testament itself have a bit more Greek, Western influence. But of course all of that comes after Jesus, who is quite at home in the world of the Old Testament prophets, the very folks who spoke of God's inner turmoil.
And besides, what is Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane if not a manifestation of inner turmoil, a poignant picture of how complicated God's life is because of us.
If you've ever raised children, or if you've ever been a child (hopefully that covers everyone), you likely realize that young children do not often appreciate the care and nurture they receive from parents. Providing food, shelter, clothing, and a variety and activities and entertainment is simply what parents are supposed to do, so overt displays of gratitude are rare. Adult relationships can fall into the same sort of pattern, taking partners or spouses for granted. But I think this is the norm with children. Parents are doing their job when they provide for their children.
A similar dynamic can occur in the life of faith. People of faith can easily perceive God in a manner similar to the way small children see their parents. It is God's job to care for and provide for them. After all, they are members of the faith family. God is Father, and that's what fathers do.
That seems to be what is going on in today's verses from Luke. The story is a bit sparse on details, but Jesus encounters 10 lepers who ask for healing. Jesus sends them to the priests, a command that assumes a healing. (The priests had to certify as clean those whose illnesses previously made them unclean. Then they could reenter community life.) When all 10 are healed along the way, one comes back to give thanks and praise, while the others precede on to the priest, and presumably back to their everyday lives.
As I said, the story is short on details, but it seems to imply that the other 9 are Jews while the one who returned is a Samaritan, a groups generally despised by the Jews. For some reason, only this outsider, "this foreigner," as Jesus calls him, is moved to come back. And this prompts Jesus to say to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
At least that's what my Bible translation says. But all 10 were made well. Surely Jesus means something more. And in fact, the word Jesus uses literally means "saved." And I am convinced that Jesus is saying that this outsider, this one who apparently is surprised enough by his healing that he must come back, has experienced something more profound than a healing.
In this story, the outsider seems to have the advantage, because the outsider doesn't presume as much. This outsider doesn't presume a special relationship with God by virtue of his religion. And so this outsider sees his healing as a wonderful gift.
Jesus speaks often of sinners and tax collectors going into the Kingdom ahead of the good, religious folk. And perhaps this is one reason why. Like children from nice homes who their care for granted, religious people are more prone to take God's love for granted, and so displays of gratitude are rare.
Often times when children grow up, they look back with regret on how little they appreciated their parents. But I'm not sure that happens nearly so often in the lives of people of faith. And I'm not really sure why.
In our world of screaming television pundits, I sometimes wonder if any of them have read the words from today's passage in James. "How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire... For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue - a restless evil, full of deadly poison."
In an internet world, I suppose we should include the computer keyboard in James' diatribe. The blogosphere is replete with wild statements picked up by others and passed on as fact. A great fire indeed.
This may seem a strange segue, but I have come more and more to believe that the label "Christian nation" produces much more mischief than it does good. The problem with such a moniker is that if this is a Christian nation, then what goes on in the nation must be, by definition, Christian behavior. And while there are undisputedly many ways in which Christianity has influenced this country for the better, there is a great deal of our culture that is not and never has been Christian.
Take political discourse. We all know how angry and shrill this has become of late, but in truth, yelling and screaming has been a part of our political process from the beginning. 200 years ago, politicians sometimes fought duels. But Jesus says, "If you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire." Apparently we decided not to go with Jesus on this one.
And this is simply one example among many. The drive to acquire and accumulate wealth goes against many of Jesus' teachings. The treatment of Native Americans and African slaves goes against Jesus' teachings. Regarding any other person as a "them" rather than a neighbor goes against Jesus' teaching.
I presume that claiming the mantle of Christian nation is done with the best of intents. But if Christians want to follow Jesus and be the light to the world he calls us to be, then we must be willing to be different from the world, including our own country, wherever it is at odds with the ways of God.
I cannot imagine any other country in the world where I would rather live. But if someone who knew nothing about Jesus observed American culture carefully, do you think that the Great Commission, where Jesus calls us to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything he has commanded, would be enacted in their life. If not, then we're not a Christian nation.
I grew up in the Presbyterian tradition, which means I am a child of the Protestant Reformation. For me this meant unquestioned assumptions about faith/belief as the foundation of any relationship with God, and about the Bible as the single authority for this faith. These two are linchpins of Protestantism: justification by grace through faith and Sola scriptura (Latin for Scripture alone).
And so it is not all that startling to hear that Martin Luther supposedly wanted to exclude the book of James from the Bible. After all, it said, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone," and Luther was the one who started the focus on grace and faith as the key.
Personally, I'm glad Luther failed in his quest. While I do hold to the the notion of right relationship with God being a gift, I regularly see the perversion James abhors at work among people of faith. And so we need James to remind us that faith that bears no fruit is indeed dead.
Today's readings from Habakkuk, James, and Luke all point to a God who is extremely interested in the shape of society. It is impossible to read such passages and conclude that religion is somehow unconcerned with politics. God cares deeply about the plight of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the oppressed. Biblically speaking, a private morality that does not share such concerns is not morality at all. A faith that does not seek to redress systems that favor the rich over the poor is dead.
Looking at the Bible as a whole, there seem to be two big issues when it comes to humanity's relationship with God. One is concerned with purity and God's holiness. The other is concerned with a just society that cares for the most vulnerable. In the Old Testament, larges sections of the law deal with each. Purity laws address right worship, avoiding idolatry, sexual mores, and so on, while other laws require landowners to leave some of the harvest for the poor, mandate care for widows and orphans (the most vulnerable of the ancient world), and call for the regular cancellation of debts and return of land to original owners (the Jubilee year). Some of the prophets worry more about the people's failure to maintain purity while others condemn the failure to maintain a just, compassionate society.
Among modern religious folks, there is a tendency for us to focus on one or the other of these. Some see religion as primarily a matter of purity while others see it primarily about social justice. And I wonder if this doesn't sometimes mirror the faith vs. works divide.
I think we are always better off when we integrate both of these biblical concerns rather than choose one over the other. Although it is worth noting that when Jesus finds himself in a situation where purity seems to conflict with social concern, he routinely ignores the purity rules. He heals on the Sabbath, touches those who are unclean, or eats with sinners, never mind what the rules say.
