Monday, June 6, 2011
Spiritual Hiccups - Urgency and Focus
Jesus' words to those who would follow him got me thinking about this. He tells one would-be disciple not to go back and bury his dead father, and he tells another not to go back and say goodbye to his family. The urgency Jesus demands contains an echo of an Old Testament story. When the prophet Elijah calls Elisha to become his disciple, he permits Elisha to return and say farewells to his mother and father. But Jesus seems to say that proclaiming the Kingdom that is drawing near demands a greater commitment and urgency than that required of the great prophet Elisha.
The Kingdom is the focus of Jesus' sense of urgency. As for me, I'm not sure that my busyness has much connection to the Kingdom. Very often, my busyness, indeed much church busyness, is about institutional maintenance that has little bearing on the Kingdom. In fact, the Church sometimes seems to have forgotten about the Kingdom altogether.
What is it that produces the urgency and focus in my life? Is it God's presence, Jesus' call? Or do other things get in the way so that I hurry along, blissfully unaware of God's presence, unaware of what Jesus asks of me? Where is the work of the Kingdom that calls me forward? What is it that is more important than anything else?
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Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sunday Sermon text - On Being Martyrs
Acts 1:6-14; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
On Being Martyrs
James Sledge June 5, 2011
How many of you have heard of Harold Camping? Raise your hands if you have. Some of you. For those of you who don’t know, Camping is a conservative Christian radio broadcaster and president of something called “Family Radio,” a California based network with more than a hundred stations. Now to be honest, I’ve never heard Mr. Camping on the radio and don’t even know if he is available around here. But I heard all about his prediction that the Rapture would occur on May 21st, with the end of the world to follow six months later. It’s worth noting that Camping also predicted the Rapture’s arrival in 1994, but then, a now, the Rapture was a no-show.
I asked for a show of hands of those who knew of Camping, and a good many of you did, but let me try someone else. How many of you have heard of Jesus? Raise your hands. Well, we did a lot better this time. I think all of you raised your hands. I guess that means that I don’t have to explain to you who Jesus is, how he came proclaiming that the reign of God had drawn near, how he was executed but rose again, and how he commissioned his followers to continue his work after his resurrection.
So we’ve established without much doubt that more of you know who Jesus is than Harold Camping, but let me ask another question regarding them. How many of you would trust Harold Camping over Jesus? Raise your hands. Okay, how many of you would trust Jesus over Harold Camping? Raise your hands. And we have a winner… Jesus!
I have another question to ask, but I don’t want you to raise your hands on this one.
How many of you paid any attention to the possibility of Judgment Day arriving a couple of weeks ago? How many of you have worried about this or about some folks’ saying that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, and the world will too? I ask because quite a few Christians do seem to worry about such things. Even though the Bible makes no mention of a Rapture, and the very idea of a Rapture was only dreamed up in the 1800s, lots of Christians ears prick up when someone says they know when it is. Even though Jesus says on more than one occasion that he doesn’t know when the new age will arrive, and that when it does it will not take any special knowledge or figuring to detect it – it will be as obvious as the arrival of Spring or Summer – still Christians persist in speculating about such things. Over and over Christians act like they trust the teachings of the latest end-of-the-world-crackpot over the clear teachings of Jesus.
Now certainly natural human curiosity contributes to this, as well as the hope of the faithful that God will one day redeem and restore all creation. After all, Jesus teaches us to pray for that day when God’s will is done here on earth just as it is now in heaven. And so it makes sense that Christians would keep an eye on the horizon of the future.
I actually have some sympathy for those who had placed their hope in a Rapture on May 21. They were wanting God to do something dramatic, to take decisive action. In a world filled with hurt, suffering, and brokenness, what person of faith hasn’t occasionally hoped for God to do something grand, in one fell swoop to change everything.
The disciples in our reading from Acts have been witnesses to such a thing, to the resurrection. They have been spending time with the risen Jesus, and they are wondering what the next big thing will be. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Not quite the Rapture, but still the hope that God will decisively change the shape of life on earth.
But the decisive change Jesus tells them to get ready for is something that will transform and empower the community of believers. “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.” When asked about what comes next, Jesus doesn’t give any formula or timetable. His focus is here, on what we do on this earth, serving as his witnesses.
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Far too many Christians have embraced a gospel of evacuation. This gospel promises to rescue believers from earth, to whisk us off to heaven, either when we die or come the Rapture. This gospel calls us to endure life’s struggles and difficulties in exchange for this promise to take us to some better place where there is no pain or suffering.
But the gospel Jesus proclaims is not one of evacuation. Jesus proclaims the Kingdom that has come near, a coming day when God’s will is done here on earth, as it is now in heaven. Our reading today from 1 Peter today calls us to be willing to suffer, to be reviled by others, not in the hope of some future evacuation, but in the certainty that God will restore. And the Bible itself ends with a picture of that restoration, with a new heaven and new earth. The very images that so many people associate with heaven, pearly gates and streets paved with gold, are not images of heaven, but of the new Jerusalem here on earth. And in the meantime, Jesus calls us to be his witnesses, to let the world know about the new day that is surely coming.
The word translated “witnesses” is the basis of our English word, “martyr.” This association of martyr and witness came about as the result of early Christians holding fast to their faith even in the face of death. They were so sure of God’s power to renew, restore, and bring life out of death, that they would not waver in their faith. They willingly embraced the same sort of suffering Jesus had faced, trusting that the power of resurrection had been set loose in the world, not a power to evacuate them, but to restore all things.
We too are called to be witnesses, to live in ways that demonstrate our trust in God’s power to restore and make new, to live in ways that show the world our hope that God’s will shall yet be done on earth, that all creation shall be redeemed. Jesus calls us to live now by the ways of that coming day just as he did, to love and forgive, to be willing to lose ourselves for the sake of others, to do God’s will over our own, knowing that nothing, not even death, can stop God’s plans.
Of course it is likely that very few of us will ever be faced with life and death decisions about being witnesses. Most of our calls to be martyrs will be much more mundane in nature, but still we are called to witness regularly, daily. Every time some of our friends are making fun of someone or some group because they are different, we are called to be witnesses of God’s love for all. Every time we discuss politics, we are called to witness to God’s special concern for the most vulnerable, to witness to Jesus’ call to love neighbor and enemy, to be willing to lose ourselves – our privileges and advantages – for the sake of the kingdom.
When we cast our vote we are called to witness by putting our desires second to God’s will and to the needs of the weak and vulnerable. When we decide how much of our money we will dedicate to our own needs and pleasures, and how much to the needs of others, we witness. When we decide not to lash out at someone who has hurt us, we witness. When we work for peace and justice, we witness. When we care for God’s creation, we witness. When we refuse to use distortions or half-truths or to stretch the truth in order to win the argument, we witness. And especially when we swim against the currents of popular opinion, challenging the consumerist, me-first attitudes that dominate our culture, we are Christ’s witnesses, declaring by our daily acts that we have glimpsed a new day, a day of peace and forgiveness and healing and hope and possibility for all.
Harold Camping has already revised his predictions of the Rapture. It is now rescheduled for October 21. Is that right Jesus? Is it the one? But Jesus says, “It is not for you to know the times or the 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. That’s you, and you, and me, and you, and you, and every one of us here. Jesus promises to come to us, to empower us by the Spirit, in order that our lives, our daily living, might show the world the hope of something better.
Thanks be to God.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Spiritual Hiccups - But They Doubted
I confess that while I think my translation a more natural reading of the Greek, I also like it for other reasons. It seems truer to my own faith. I worship and I doubt.
As a pastor, I can't begin to recall how often I've heard people turn down a nomination to be an officer, say "No" to a request to teach a class, or explain why they've never shared their faith with a neighbor, because their faith wasn't strong enough. Very often, it seems, people believe their faith hasn't reach a sufficient threshold for them to be called into Christ's service. Yet the very last thing we hear about the disciples before Jesus sends them out is, "But they doubted."
Jesus doesn't wait until we are fully qualified before calling and commissioning us. In fact, if he did there would be no Church. Jesus calls struggling, doubting, imperfect sinners to represent him in the world. And he promises to be with us and equip us so that we can do all he asks of us... even when we doubt that.
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Spiritual Hiccups - Anxious Striving
Such rhythms are quite different from the ones most of us know and practice on a regular basis. We tend to be an over scheduled people. Not only are our work lives busy with long to-do lists and calendar reminders popping up on our computers and PDAs, but our children's lives are heavily scheduled as well. Many parents shuttle children from one "enrichment" activity to another. And many of us maintain a hectic pace even on vacation. I often hear people say, "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation," which makes me think that they didn't do a lot of relaxing on their vacation, but scurried about from venue to venue, theme park to theme park, activity to activity.
Where did we get this idea that if we don't hurry, we'll miss something? How did we become so anxious? Why do we so willingly join the "rat race," furiously spinning the little wheel that is supposed to bring us fulfillment and accomplishment and stature, only to become exhausted without actually going anywhere?
Many of us are familiar with Jesus' words about the lilies of the field that neither toil nor spin where he calls us to stop worrying and striving for things. Jesus says to strive only for the Kingdom that is coming, and let God take care of the rest, but we can't quite bring ourselves to believe him, to trust that what he says is true. And so we strive very rarely for the Kingdom, for that promised day when God's will is done on earth. But we strive and worry all the time about other things.
Jesus invites us to get off our little wheels that go nowhere, to opt out of the rat race, and to find real meaning and worth in striving for the Kingdom, in trying to make the world more like God's vision for it. This is no call to a dull life of drudgery, but a gracious invitation to life that is as it should be, life whose rhythms are in sync with our deepest, truest nature. It is an invitation to freedom from endless, anxious striving. If only we can trust that Jesus knows what he's talking about.
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Sunday, May 22, 2011
Sunday Sermon text - What Binds Us Together
1 Peter 2:2-10
What Binds Us Together
James Sledge May 22, 2011
Some years ago – it may have been back when I was in seminary – a Sunday Doonesbury comic strip depicted a couple who was doing some “church shopping.” They were seated in the office of the Reverend Scott Sloan, the laid back pastor who has been a regular in Doonesbury for decades. “So what would you like to know about the Little Church of Walden, folks?” Pastor Sloan asks. “Don’t hold back—I know how difficult it can be to choose a church.”
“Well, what’s your basic approach here, Reverend,” asks the husband. “Is it traditional gospel?”
“In a way,” answers the pastor. “I like to describe it as 12 Step Christianity. Basically, I believe that we’re all recovering sinners. My ministry is about overcoming denial. It’s about re-commitment, about redemption. It’s all in the brochure there.”
“Wait a minute,” the woman interrupts, “Sinners?” Redemption? Doesn’t that all imply … guilt?”
“Well, yes,” admits the pastor, “I do rely on the occasional disincentive to keep the flock from going astray. Guilt’s part of that.”
“I dunno,” the man says, “There’s so much negativity in the world as it is.”
“That’s right,” agrees his wife. “We’re looking for a church that’s supportive, a place where we can feel good about ourselves. I’m not sure the guilt thing works for us.”
“On the other hand,” notes the husband, looking at the brochure, “you do offer racquetball.”
“So did the Unitarians, honey,” replies his wife. “Let’s shop around some more.”
This comic strip scene is not that far from reality. Although fewer and fewer Americans feel the need to choose a church, those who do often make the choice through a process not so different from buying a car or picking a college to attend. What sort of extras are there and how much do they cost? Do I like the look and feel? What sort of value to I get for my investment? And so on.
Now I don’t know that there is any great problem with people choosing a church congregation that fits their musical tastes or the worship style they grew up with. But I do worry sometimes that American notions of faith, salvation, and belief have become overly individualized and personalized.
Take that stereotypical faith question, “Are you saved?” Now admittedly this is not a standard Presbyterian question, but we’ve all been shaped by its very personal focus. In this very typically American take on faith, salvation is not a corporate thing. Congregation and community may have a role to play in bringing people to faith, but salvation is a matter or my Yes or No, of whether or not my name is on the divine guest list.
So what then are we to do with today’s words from 1 Peter? Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone… and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood. But if salvation is a Yes or No answer, an in or out seal of approval, then how does one grow into it?
Grow into salvation… Like living stones, be built into a spiritual house… Stones are a popular building material around here. Our sanctuary is made of stone. And so I want you to do a little imagining with me. I want you to imagine a time when the sanctuary had not yet been built, when the building materials had been delivered and piles of stones were sitting there waiting to be used, but construction had not yet started.
Now here is where you really need your imaginations. Imagine that these stones are alive. They are somehow aware that a church sanctuary is about to be built and that they are to be part of it. And the stones are discussing this with one another. “Has anyone heard whether or not they’re putting a pipe organ in this church? I don’t want to be in a church that doesn’t have one. That’s not really a church.”
“I don’t care about that,” says another stone. I want a church that’s active in mission and evangelism, and I don’t want to be part of a place with too much focus on the building and Sunday services. I’d rather be part of a more modest building filled with people who do ministry outside the walls.”
“Well I would like a pipe organ,” says yet another stone, “but what I really want is well-ordered worship that respects tradition. I hope this isn’t going to be one of those churches that lets women be pastors or, God forbid, gays. If it is, I want no part of it.”
Imagine this conversation going on among all the stones, arguing about the kind of church they did or didn’t want to be a part of. And imagine the construction crew arriving on a Monday morning to begin work, only to discover that huge numbers of the stones were missing, having left to seek a place more to their liking.
Ridiculous, I know, but not so ridiculous when the living stones we’re talking about are you and me and all those others called to be one in Christ Jesus. It seems to me that more often than not, we do not think of Jesus as the mortar that holds us together, but rather those other things that we have in common. And so conservative stones come together to construct conservative churches and liberals stones to construct liberal ones. African American stones construct African American churches and white stones construct white ones. Wealthy, elite stones build wealthy churches, and working class stones build working class churches. And we, the living stones, seem bound together not into a spiritual house, but into a very human structure, constructed on foundations of ethnicity, possessions, politics, and personal tastes rather than on the cornerstone of Jesus.
Just over a week ago, a majority of the presbyteries – the regional, representative governing bodies in our Presbyterian Church (USA) – approved a change in our constitution that removes a requirement for all those being ordained as pastors, elders, or deacons, either to be in a marriage between a man and woman or chaste in singleness. And while this requirement did not mention gays or lesbians by name, the focus of the rule, and of its recent removal, has been on the ordination of gays and lesbians. And so you may have seen the headline in the Columbus Dispatch stating, “Presbyterians Decide to Accept Gay Clergy.”
I’ll forgive the fact that the Dispatch doesn’t appreciate that we Presbyterians treat the ordination of pastors the same as the ordination of elders and deacons. And while I fully support the change in our constitution and rejoice with gay and lesbian friends who now hope that they can use the gifts God has given them in the calls God has placed on their hearts, my deep concern at this moment lies with the conversations and arguments between those living stones.
“What a great day. God’s grace and the spirit of Jesus has triumphed over a couple of misunderstood biblical passages taken out of context.”
“Are you kidding? This vote is a travesty, an abandonment of biblical morality, and I don’t want to be part of a church that would even consider ordaining gays.”
“Are you kidding?! Well I don’t want to be in a church filled with old-fashioned bigots like you!”
Already the conversations in our denomination have turned to who is going to stay and who is going to go. How many conservative congregations are going to exit the denomination? And how will they be treated if they leave? Will presbyteries sue them to keep their church properties for the denomination? Will the squabbling amongst the stones turn bitter ?
Come to (Jesus), a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
God has chosen you in Jesus, and chosen that person near you that you disagree with, and that person you don’t like, and that person who hates the songs you like, and so on and so on, that together we might be bound into spiritual house, a holy people, a royal priesthood, to proclaim the wonders of God’s love and mercy that have joined us together into the living body of Christ.
Thanks be to God!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Spiritual Hiccups - Lord, Lord, Where's the Fruit?
There are a lot of reasons we big on belief and short on fruits. For some folks, faith is a kind of insurance policy. Believing and church attendance are the premiums with the payout being heaven when they die. But this sort of thinking seems to motivate less and less people, which in part explains the decline of traditional congregations.
But lack of fruits is not just a problem for traditional folks. We are a consumer society, and religion has become a consumer item. People often seek a spirituality or religion that will "meet their needs." This sort of religious search sometimes expects Jesus to provide all the fruit. Faith, spirituality, religion is viewed as a product to enhance one's life.
But for me, I think that most often the problem is one of inertia. It is like those times when I am certain that I need to get up and go for a run in the morning, but I remain in bed, hitting the snooze button and staying put. All too often, I know that what Jesus asks of me is exactly what I should and need to do, but I delay, I do something else, I stay put.
It has been many years since I read Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship but I still remember him saying that true faith requires obedience. In that sense, I suppose faith is like health. Believing that I need to exercise in order to be healthy won't make any difference in my health. Only getting up and doing it will impact my health. It takes acting on belief for faith to be real, for faith to produce the fruits Jesus insists that it must.
Lord, touch my heart so that I will get off my butt and bear a little fruit.
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A Letter to the Congregation
A Pastoral Letter to the Congregation on the Passage of Amendment 10-A, Removing the “Fidelity and Chastity” requirement for Ordination in the PC(USA)
Some of you likely noticed the headline in the Columbus Dispatch the other day that read “Presbyterians Decide to Accept Gay Clergy.” As often happens with such articles, a few of the details were not quite correct, but our denomination has, in fact, voted to change its Book of Order. This change will permit sessions and presbyteries to ordain those in same-sex relationships as elders, deacons, and pastors. This change to our constitution seems to end a battle that has been raging for my entire time as a pastor, but the exact impact of this change remains to be seen.
No doubt there will be some turmoil. A few conservative congregations may feel it necessary to leave the denomination. Others will stay but insist that this change is but one more step away from biblical faith and toward the eventual demise of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I, however, welcome this change in our ordination standards, and I would like to tell you why.
The first has nothing to do with gays or lesbians per se, but rather with how the ordinations standards that we are replacing strayed from traditional Presbyterian theology and polity. Presbyterians have long given presbyteries the responsibility of ordaining pastors, and sessions the responsibility of ordaining elders and deacons. Their jobs were to examine candidates for ordination and determine if their call, gifts, faith, and adherence to our theology suited them to serve as ordained leaders in our Church. But the standards about to be abandoned changed that as you can see here.
Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.
This so-called “fidelity and chastity” amendment, approved in 1997, elevated a single “sin” above all others. This not only highlighted our culture’s obsession with sex, but it erroneously implied that sexual sins are somehow more worrisome that other sins. I don’t think Jesus ever addresses chastity, but he speaks regularly on the problem of greed and possessions. Surely in our consumerist society, this is much more of a problem for most whom we ordain. Why no mention of greed?
The new ordinations standards replace this hypersensitivity to sex with, to my mind, a much more balanced statement, one much more in keeping with basic Presbyterian/Reformed theology.
Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life. The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation. Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.
These new standards are not some secular humanist, anything-goes, follow-the-cultural-flow sort of thing. They call for conformity to Scripture and our confessions. They simply do not highlight fidelity and chastity as deal breakers.
But I am happy with this change not simply because it removes one special “sin” as a disqualification for office. I am also happy because I am convinced that God does call gays and lesbians, along with all other sorts of people, to serve as pastors, elders, and deacons. I know that some will quickly insist that the Bible won’t allow it. But the biblical texts people pluck from Leviticus sit alongside other prohibitions Christians long ago said did not apply such as bans on eating shellfish or wearing clothing made from two kinds of material. (Any cotton/polyester blends in your closet?)
For 1500 years, Christendom enforced a ban on lending money at interest, a ban clearly stated in the Bible. But John Calvin, the founder of our tradition, argued forcefully for ending that ban. He said the ban had made sense in biblical times when interest was used to trap people in poverty. But in his day, when people needed loans to start companies that might employ those same people and lift them from poverty, the ban no longer served its original purpose. In fact, Calvin argued, it would be more in keeping with the original intent of the Bible to disobey what the Bible said.
That’s a pretty novel way to read Scripture, but it became the basis for the modern banking industry. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone object to Calvin’s creative interpretation of the Bible. The simple fact is that we are not bothered by creative interpretation of Scripture when it leads us where we want to go in the first place.
I know there are people of deep and committed faith who disagree with me, but I do not see the Bible speaking against committed relationships among gays and lesbians. We have inflated the few scant verses that seem to speak on the topic far beyond their significance in Scripture, primarily because of our peculiar fascination with sex which manages to combine squeamishness and, at the same time, obsession. And there has been an added bonus for heterosexuals. All of this pointing at the “sin” of homosexuality keeps the focus on a “sin” which doesn’t tempt many of us, and off those real sins that do, the ones Jesus talks so frequently about such as greed, resentment, and hate.
I do not expect everyone to agree with me, nor need we agree in order to be joined together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our unity is in Jesus, not in our particular interpretations of Scripture. And so I hope that those who welcome this change, along with those who don’t, will take some time to reflect on our unity. There are those in our denomination who are fanning flames of discord, some by spreading half-truths and even lies. In truth, the actual changes most congregations experience will be negligible. Those where gays and lesbians have found themselves welcomed and valued will continue to operate as they always have. Meanwhile, those congregations that wouldn’t dream of electing a gay deacon under the old standards won’t likely start now. And as I’ve already noted, it is up to individual sessions and presbyteries to determine whom they will and won’t ordain under these new standards.
And so in closing, let me call all of you to something that has long been considered a “duty” of Christians, the practice of “mutual forbearance.” The Bible insists that we are all one in Christ, and it calls us to maintain this unity, even in the midst of our differences. When we practice mutual forbearance and maintain this bond of love, this unity in Christ, even though we do not agree on all issues, we make a powerful witness to the world. We show the world another way, the power of the Spirit to join all people together in the one family of God.
Peace in Christ,
James
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