Spiritual Hiccups - Signs of the Times

Jesus clearly upset a lot of people during his earthly ministry.  If Jesus had just sat around and taught a handful of followers some timeless spiritual truths, no one would have felt the need to get rid of him, to kill him.  But Jesus troubled people.  His talk of a coming kingdom could not help but catch the attention of the Romans.  Alternate kings and kingdoms were not tolerated by Rome.  And Jesus' words of good new to the poor and oppressed also threatened the economic system on which Rome rested.

But Jesus also seems to have been a religious threat to some of his fellow Jews.  Jesus remained a faithful Jew his entire life.  He went to synagogue and made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.  Yet the established religious institutions were bothered by him.  Whether it was priestly Judaism that had closely aligned itself with Roman power, or synagogue Judaism, Jesus posed a problem.

It is interesting to speculate on whether or not Jesus had any intention of starting a new religion.  I think not.  In a manner not completely different from Martin Luther unintentionally starting the Reformation, Jesus came to call his people into a fuller experience of God's presence, and into a life shaped by God's coming dominion.  But established religious institutions found that a threat to patterns of life that had become treasured, deeply ingrained, and presumed to be integral parts of a life of faith.

A fundamental problem with religion is that, over time, it is inclined to replace faith in God with faith in its teachings about and methods connected to God.  Its traditions and habits become holy, and they are worshiped.  This holiness makes it difficult, even impossible, to toss habits and traditions even when they no longer are appropriate, when they no longer fit the times.

Jesus accuses the Pharisees of being unable to "interpret the signs of the times," perhaps words somewhat akin to Bob Dylan's once insisting that "the times they are a changing."  And I wonder if we are any better at reading the signs of the times now that religious folks were in Jesus' day.

It has become the religious mantra of a generation.  "I'm spiritual but not religious."  Sometimes this is nothing but a cop out, a narcissism that acknowledges a desire for God but has no interest in dealing with the messiness inherent in all communities.  It wants God without neighbor.  It wants God divorced from bodies and the incarnation.

But this mantra can also be an indictment of a Church that has lost its way.  It can be the sincere statement of those who long for God, but are unable to find God at Church.  They find traditions and practices that are related to God.  They find lots of information about God.  But God seems to be missing.

I believe that when we in the Church dismiss all those who are spiritual but not religious, lumping them altogether in the camp of individualistic narcissists, we misread the signs of the times.  And we miss the Spirit speaking to us, calling us to refocus our faith life on Christ's living presence with us.  We ignore the Spirit seeking to transform us into new creations, those who have died to old lives and false selves, and have discovered new life in Christ.

Jesus says that for the new to be born the old must give way.  "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  Interpreting the signs of the times requires discerning what needs to die so that something more wonderful can be born.  And unless we think our congregations and our world have fully embodied God's coming Kingdom, there is still much to come, and so still much that must die. 

Jesus, help me be among those who can read the signs of the times.

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Spiritual Hiccups - When They Cry

God gives to the animals their food,
   and to the young ravens when they cry.

Psalm 147:9

Both my church upbringing and my seminary training shaped me to look at Scripture in a certain way.  And while this way highly esteems the Bible, even treating it as God's self revelation, it often acts as though God's revelation were a fixed thing embedded in the text.  Handled this way, once you have figured out what a Scripture passage says and means, you "know" it.  I and other pastors sometimes lament when certain readings show up in the Sunday lectionary for preaching.  "What more is there to say on this?" we ask.

In more recent years, I have been introduced to different ways of approaching Scripture, things such as lectio divina.  This spiritual or holy reading of a Bible text is less interested in understanding what the text "means" and more focused on praying Scripture.  Part of this involves reading in a contemplative pose, paying attention to words or phrases in a text that stick out or claim your attention.  These words or phrases may or may not have much to do with "the meaning of the text," but they may be the way God speaks to you.

I won't claim to be terribly good at this practice.  (My long proficiency with the sort of reading practiced at seminary often gets in the way.)  But I still find that I often experience God much more directly in lectio divina than in more formal ways of reading Scripture.  

Reading Psalm 147 today, I found myself drawn to the last portion of the verse shown above, "when they cry."  For all I know the author of this psalm included this line simply to make the poetry work.  It may have had no particular significance beyond that, but still I found myself drawn to the line, captured by it in some way... when they cry.

I sometimes cry to God, but usually only when I've gotten pretty frustrated, only when things are going the way I think they should.  When I have done my best and not gotten the expected results, I will sometimes cry to God, but that seems to me totally different from what I envision those young ravens doing.

When young ravens cry, and for that matter when human infants cry, there is a profound dependence on those who hear the cry.  But as adults, we learn to take care of ourselves.  God is like the hammer for breaking the glass on some old fire alarms, to be used only in emergencies.  

Babies and young ravens seem to be born knowing that crying works.  Maybe that part of the reason Jesus says we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Sermon video - The Kingdom Marathon

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Sermon Text: The Kingdom Marathon

Matthew25:1-13

TheKingdom Marathon

JamesSledge                                      November6, 2011

Thenewscaster leads with a breaking local story. Jesus has announced plans to hold a “Kingdom of God Marathon.”  It will be a huge event for the community,something everyone can get behind, and a fundraiser for causes to end hungerand homelessness. 

Themayor and local celebrities were in attendance at the press conference whereJesus announced that the marathon was being planned for next year, exact dateyet to be determined.  The pressconference featured lots of cheering and excitement.  Everyone thought it was a wonderfulidea.  And as Jesus worked the crowdfollowing the official announcement, people told him so.  They pledged to help make it a big success,promising that they would run in it, publicize the event, or help set up aidstations along the route. 

Inthe days following the announcement, sales at sporting goods storessurged.  People were buying running shoesand other gear, books on how to train for a marathon, training calendars andsoftware programs, and just about anything connected to running.  The number of people running on the roads,sidewalks, and local trails skyrocketed. Local running clubs were overwhelmed with new members, and lots of newtraining groups formed. 

Butas days turned to weeks and weeks to months, the excitement and energywaned.  Those running clubs and traininggroups dwindled in number, and the trails and sidewalks had far fewer runnerson them.  Talk of the marathon faded aswell.  It’s difficult to publicizesomething when the exact date isn’t known, and it all but disappeared frompublic view.

Thensuddenly it was back in the news.  Jesusannounced that the first Kingdom of God Marathon would be held three weeks fromSaturday. 

A flurry of activityensued.  People dug out those runningshoes that had been gathering dust for months. But there simply is no way to get ready for a 26 mile run in threeweeks. 

Thebig day came and scores of runners gathered in the streets downtown.  When Jesus sounded the air horn the runnerssurged forward.  As the last of themcrossed the starting line, Jesus followed along in a golf cart. 

Itwasn’t long before runners began to fall by the wayside.  A mile or two was all some could manage.  As they began walking or stopped and sat onthe curb, Jesus cruised by in his golf cart. “Jesus, we so wanted to be a part of your big race,” they said as hepassed.  But Jesus just shrugged andsaid,  “You should have stayed in shape.”  And they watched as Jesus disappeared down the marathon course.

Afternearly five hours, the last of those who were actually running crossed thefinish line and went into a huge post-race celebration.  There was live music, massages for sore legs,the best food and drink to recharge after such a strenuous event, and awardsand trophies for all.  And the runnerswere soon feeling revived and having a wonderful time.

Asthe big post-race party went on, those who had tried to get ready in threeweeks trickled in to the finish line. Some couldn’t even walk the route and had found rides.  They were disappointed at not being able tofinish, but they didn’t want to miss out on the post-race festivities.  But they found the doors to the ConventionCenter where the party was going on locked tight.  People went around the building, checking allthe entrances, but there was no getting in. Finally, after banging loudly on the doors, they got the attention ofsomeone inside who went and found Jesus and brought him to the door.

“Jesus,let us into the party.  We were in therace.  See, we have our race numbers.  We paid our registration and everything.”

ButJesus simply said, “This a only for those who ran the race; not for those whoentered.”  And he turned and walked backto the party as security re-locked the door.

Nowdon’t take this story too seriously, certainly not literally.  After all, it’s a story, a parable if youwill.  I has rather obvious similaritiesto the parable Jesus tells in today’s gospel reading, but I felt moved to tellmy version because I think the Church has often encouraged us to misunderstandthe one Jesus tells.  When Jesus beginshis parable he makes clear what the parable is about.  “The kingdom of heaven will be likethis.”  As I’ve mentioned manytimes, this kingdom is not a synonym for heaven.  It is called the “kingdom of God” in thegospels of Luke and Mark, and it refers to a new day that God will bring, to aredeemed and transformed would where God’s will is done here on earth just asit is in heaven, as the prayer Jesus teaches us says. 

Butsomehow, Christianity seemed to forget this over the centuries.  This kingdom that will change the world hasbeen privatized and made a matter of personal piety.  I’ve even heard this parable preached as apressing reason for accepting Jesus as your Savior now rather than later.  “Yes, it’s true that a deathbed confessionwill get you into heaven,” the argument goes. “But you never know.  Things couldhappen so quickly that you wouldn’t have time. Then you would be like those bridesmaids with no oil for their lamps.”

Isuppose this could be true, but I’m pretty sure it’s not what Jesus is talkingabout.  Rather, this is a parable forbelievers, for insiders.  Jesus istalking about living a life that is oriented to God’s coming kingdom.  The wise bridesmaids are ready to participatein that kingdom.  They have preparedthemselves so that they do not have to change what they are doing, do not haveto make adjustments in order to be part of the banquet, the kingdom.

It’ssomething Jesus speaks of often.  He saysthe same thing in his Sermon on the Mount. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom ofheaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  Jesus is not talking about whether ornot we believe in him, but whether or not we follow him, though I suppose notfollowing him does  seem to indicate thatwe don’t believe what he tells us to do.

Iread this recently on someone’s Facebook page. “A recent Gallup poll says that 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with howthe country is being governed; 57% have little or no confidence the federalgovernment can solve the nation's problems. So in 2012, will we still re-elect90+% of the incumbents as we normally seem to do?”

Aninteresting question.  I would not besurprised if we do.  We may bedissatisfied, but we’re not sure what new thing will help.  We want something better, but we’re notreally clear what that is or how to get it. And so we stick with what we know. 

We arecreatures of habit, and those habits define us. “We are,” as Aristotle said long ago, “what we repeatedly do.”  But Jesus calls us to new habits, transformedlives that are conformed to the habits of God’s new day, that new world hecalls the Kingdom.  But it is so different.  It sounds too hard, like getting ready for amarathon.  And so as much as we likeJesus, we struggle when it comes to actually getting up and following him onthis new way he shows us.  We “believe,”but we’re less certain about the habits of disciples.

ButJesus insists that the way he shows us is not too hard, that his yoke is easyand his burden is light.  He promisesthat the Spirit will more than equip us for the journey ahead. 

Butit is so easy just to stay where we are, and keep doing what we are doing,isn’t it?

Spiritual Hiccups - ADHD Christians and the Disciplines of Disciples

One of my personal tendencies is a fascination with the new and novel.  Although I was a teenager in the 1970s, I almost never listen to "classic rock" on the radio, preferring newer offerings.  That is rather trivial, but there is a more serious side to this.  I sometimes enjoy coming up with new ideas more than I like implementing them, doing the repetitive, disciplined work of putting a new idea into practice.

In this sense I am not so different from our culture in general.  We often latch onto the new idea that is going to fix things, but tire of it quickly.  If the new coach doesn't turn the team around immediately or the new elected official doesn't make things better in short order, we're ready to move on to new options.

The following verses are from today's reading in Revelation.  "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.  And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.' 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.'"  

Revelation is often thought of as a book of coded predictions that need to be deciphered, but in reality it is a call for hope and perseverance in difficult times.  In admittedly difficult language, Revelation encouraged Christians who were struggling with rejection and persecution to hold fast to the faith, to persevere even when it earned them ridicule from their neighbors, made it difficult to participate fully in society, and could lead to arrest and possible death.

Most of our struggles as Christians are of a far different nature, but the idea that faithfulness requires perseverance and endurance could probably use some reclaiming.  Our relationship with God in Christ comes about through the gift of God's grace, but this grace invites us into a new life, one marked by disciplines, sometimes difficult ones.  We are called to follow Jesus, to take up the cross, to be willing to sacrifice self for the sake of the Kingdom, to value God's will over our own hopes, dreams, and plans.

The Christian life is a long haul exercise, more marathon than sprint.  It is the practice of certain disciplines, a lifelong work of becoming more and more the people God calls us to be.  It will have many moments of discovery and newness, but they will most often be found in faithfully persevering in those disciplines of prayer, worship, service, and self-giving. 

One of the realities of the culture we live in is that people are much less interested in church than they once were.  The reasons for this are many and varied.  Some of them are rooted in a culture that does not take a very long view of things, that has a very short attention span.  But some disinterest in church is because it doesn't seem a serious and significant enough thing to be interested in.  We have made it too easy, stripped it of Jesus' call to practice the disciplines - some of them difficult - that form us into his disciples. 

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Spiritual Hiccups - Proper Packaging

We humans seem to have a need to categorize and label things, and this tendency has it usefulness.  If a certain food disagrees with us, it makes sense for us label such foods "bad" for us.  And in a world with a dizzying array of choices, we have to have some ways of narrowing the field. 

Of course our judgments about such things are hardly fool proof.  As the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham points out, we sometimes categorize things incorrectly.

In our highly polarized culture, this categorizing tendency can cause real problems.  For example, Republicans can assume than anything a Democrat says is wrong, and Democrats can assume the same about Republicans.  Progressive Christians can dismiss anything coming out of more fundamentalist, evangelical circles, and those evangelicals can feel certain that any progressive is off base and ungodly.

And so we can be fooled by packaging.  Truth coming to us from places labeled "bad" is missed, and falsehood coming to us from places labeled "good" gets embraced.  The very power and presence of God can saunter right into our midst and be rejected because it lacks the proper packaging.

It happens to Jesus.  He visits his hometown and wows the folks there.  They are astounded at his wisdom and power, but then they look at the packaging.  They know his family, his parents and siblings.  He cannot be an important religious figure, "And they took offense at him."  The phrase "took offense" is the single Greek word skandalidzo, the root of our words scandalize and scandalous.  Jesus' packaging causes a scandal, and so they cannot see his power, wisdom and truth.  They cannot see God because the package is "wrong."

If you are anything like me, you probably have those moments when you wish God was more vividly present to you, even moments when God seems totally absent and unavailable to you.  But I wonder how often God is right there in front of me and I miss it because of the packaging.  I wonder if God becomes incarnate - takes on flesh and draws near to me in someone - and I cannot see it because I "know" that God doesn't look or act like that.

Open my eyes, God, to your presence wherever and in whomever it may be.

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Spiritual Hiccups - Church: A Wild and Crazy Place?

Looking at today's gospel with its varied images of the Kingdom - a treasure that prompts someone to sell all he has to acquire it, a pearl of such value that nothing else matters to a pearl merchant, and a net that scoops up fish of every kind, both good and bad - I wondered about such images and the Church I have grown up in and now serve.  My tradition says that one of the core purposes of the Church is "the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world."  Are we exhibiting the Kingdom Jesus speaks of in this parable?

The first two Kingdom images suggest something that totally reorders lives.  The wonder, beauty, and unsurpassed value of this Kingdom moves everything else down on the priority list.  Everything gets reorganized around the pursuit of this Kingdom.  This speaks of a kind of passion and energy that I typically see in two places: when someone falls totally and completely in love, and when someone gets completely given over to some cause. 

The net images seems totally different.  This seems to describe a large, diverse, even motley gathering that is not very selective, leaving the sorting out process for later. 

I realized this is just one short set of verses, but based on these, a Church that exhibited to the Kingdom to the world might be a place of extremely vibrant and strong passions, as well as teeming with variety and even a bit of confusion.  It would be, to borrow a phrase, a wild and crazy place.

But in my experience, "wild and crazy" seems one of the least likely phrases that anyone would apply to the Church.  In our defense, we Presbyterians also learned another phrase, "decently and in order" from the Bible.  But I sometimes wonder if we didn't take it a bit too much to heart.  Maybe we could stand to balance it with a little more "wild and crazy."

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Spiritual Hiccups - What Sort of God?

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil will not sojourn with you.
The boastful will not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers. 

You destroy those who speak lies;
    the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.

from Psalm 5

Most of us have some sort of God image, a mental picture or conceptual framework that is our notion of what God is like.  I suspect there is no figuring out the ultimate source of such God images.  Many Protestants will point to the Bible, and that will certainly be true to some extent, but that is not the whole story.  All of us who read the Bible read it selectively to some degree.  And our God image usually guides us in this selection process.

Our God image often emerges from what one of my favorite spiritual writers, Fr. Richard Rohr, calls "dualistic thinking."  We tend to see the world as a series of either or choices, and our God images tend to reflect such choices.  Some people gravitate more toward a God of judgment who punishes the guilty. Others embrace a God of love who will redeem and embrace the guilty.  Much rarer is the person whose God image somehow holds both as true. 

And so most of us struggle with those parts of Scripture that challenge our God image.  We tend to diminish them and elevate those that confirm our image.  Those of us who cherish a God of love squirm a bit when reading today's Psalm or gospel passage where Jesus speaks of evildoers "thrown in the furnace of fire." 

But despite my own dualistic tendencies, I am convinced that a true God image requires dropping the either/or choices that help produce my God image.  A true God image requires answering the question of whether God is a God of love and forgiveness or a God of judgment with a "Yes."  To borrow a Walter Brueggemann quote I used recently in a sermon, "This tension of mercy that forgives and sovereignty that will not be mocked is an endless adjudication for the God of the Bible, who permits no final or systematic resolve.  It is a tension that we all know in our most intimate and treasured relations."  

What sort of God is your God image?   And in what way does your image reduce God to something easier to understand and incorporate into dualistic modes of thought?  Or, as a classical Calvinist might put it, what sort of idol have you created with your God image?

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Sermon text - Becoming Saints - Stewardship III

Matthew 5:1-12

Becoming Saints - Stewardship III

James Sledge                                                               October 30, 2011 – All Saints

Every culture has its wisdom literature, its wise sayings and proverbs.  Our culture is no exception.  American proverbs go back to colonial times.  “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” said Benjamin Franklin.  He also supposedly said, “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”  A lot of American proverbial wisdom encourages behaviors thought to lead to success, well-being, or happiness.  Thomas Edison’s quote, “Genius is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration” is a case in point.

Such proverbial wisdom is generally meant to be self-evident.  By that I mean that once you hear it, even if it’s not something that had occurred to you before, its truth will strike you.  You will agree that while some people are smarter and more creative than others, hard work makes a great deal of difference.  Either that or you will reject it as wisdom entirely.

People have sometimes approached the Sermon on the Mount, and especially its Beatitudes, as though they were something similar, pearls of wisdom meant to guide us on the path of success or well-being.  Robert Schuller, of Crystal Cathedral fame, wrote a book back in the 1980s entitled, The Be (Happy) Attitudes: 8 Positive Attitudes That Can Transform Your Life.  In it he says, “As we look upon the Beatitudes – The Be-Happy Attitudes – of Jesus Christ, you will discover our Lord’s key to joyful living.”[1]

Schuller sees each of the Beatitudes as a proverb, a wise saying that, if followed, will lead to happiness.  Now while it is true that the word translated “blessed” in our scripture this morning sometimes means “happy,” it is quite a stretch to speak of happiness being found in mourning, in poverty of spirit, or in being persecuted or derided.  And in fact, Schuller has to get very creative in explaining what each blessing means.  For example, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” becomes “I’m really hurting—but I’m going to bounce back!”  And “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake” becomes, “I can choose to be happy—anyway!”[2]

But I think that Schuller makes a bigger mistake than just playing fast and loose with the words of Jesus.  He clearly does not realize that the blessings Jesus speaks are not advice, not proverbs. 

Rather they are categorical statements about how things are, descriptions of reality, although it is a reality not evident to a worldly observer.  It is instead the shape of the new world that God is creating, of the Kingdom that Jesus says has “come near.” 

This reality is not self-evident, and it says more about the character of God than about us.  This reality is dependent on the trustworthiness of the one who speaks it.  Jesus is describing something new, something at odds with the world as we experience it.  No one listens to Jesus and nods in agreement saying, “O yes, yes, it is quite good and enjoyable to be persecuted or to weep and mourn.”  Rather, Jesus’ words create something new, a new reality that we are invited to become a part of.

As a pastor, I do my share of weddings.  People who have no connection to this church, or to any church for that matter, come here wanting to be married.  They come because an authority has been vested in me.  When I speak the words, “Therefore, I proclaim that you are now husband and wife,” they in fact are.  If the couple walked up to someone on the street and asked, “Will you marry us?”  That person could go along and say the exact same words that I do.  Jesus’ words change something.  They would not be married.

Jesus is doing something similar with the Beatitudes.  He has the authority to say to us, “You have lived in a world that presumes blessedness, God’s favor, happiness, is to be found in riches, in doing what is necessary to get ahead, in being successful and well regarded, in standing up for yourself and triumphing over others.  But I tell you that this is not so, at least not in God’s new creation.”

The blessedness Jesus speaks into being is a future blessedness, the blessedness of the kingdom that will come.  It is not advice to make our lives better.  But, for those who are in Christ, it is a reality that can already be seen and felt.  It is a promise of future blessing to us and a reality that is embodied, that becomes visible, when we are the Church, the living body of Christ in the world.

It is a couple of days early, but we are marking All Saints today.  On the same day when we pledge ourselves to live as Jesus’ disciples, pledge to give generously from our resources of time, talents, gifts, and finances, we remember those saints among us who have died in the past year.  It seems to me entirely appropriate to combine these, to remember saints as we pledge to live as saints ourselves.

It’s too bad that the word “saint” has been robbed of its biblical meaning.  Now we tend to use the word either as a disparaging term for some goody two-shoes, or as a technical term for those declared saints by the Catholic Church: St. Paul, St. Francis, and so on.  But when Saint Paul writes to the congregations he shepherds, he uses the word very differently.  “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints…” or, “To the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi…” 

The term really means “sanctified ones,” or “set-apart ones.”  The idea is that when we are joined to Christ in baptism, when the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we become something different; we become something sanctified, holy.  We are joined to Christ and to his holiness.  And we become a part of the living body of Christ, each of us gifted in some way so that together we can show God’s love, and God’s coming new day, to the world.

I occasionally listen to NPR as I drive.  Recently a local station was having one of its regular fundraisers.  The announcer stated the $5000 goal for the next 3 hours and how some company promised to match it if they got to $5000.  I understand why these fundraisers are needed.  I might even send them some money, but I find the constant campaigns annoying.

I suspect that some people find church stewardship campaigns similarly annoying, even if they do decide that they should give a little money.  But if church giving feels like an NPR fundraiser, we are doing something terribly wrong.  Stewardship is not about making sure the church has enough money to pay the bills and keep the lights turned on, as real as such needs may be.  Stewardship is about our call to be saints, to live as those sanctified and set apart so that the world can catch a glimpse of a new reality in us, that reality Jesus speaks into being as he declares God’s favor and blessing on ways that are out of step with our world.

As the body of Christ, as saints, let us live in this new reality that Jesus proclaims.

---

[1] Robert B. Schuller, The Be (Happy) Attitudes (New York: Bantam Books, 1987) , 20.

[2] Ibid., Table of Contents.