Why I Write

All writers do their work to be read, and work is the correct word because writing done well breaks a sweat for the mind. 

With an honest eye for what surrounds me, I would say my prose is adequate, certainly not art, merely basic to the craft. I feel about my prose the way I used to feel when I used oils to create pictures -- I was a painter, not an artist.

I always loved to read Lewis Lapham when he wrote for Harper’s Magazine, and I still appreciate the work of Christopher Hitchens. Their words are sharp and funny and always provocative. (One need not agree with their thoughts to appreciate the cadence of their words)

I’m at the point now where I can improve my work most by leaving words out of the sentences. Said differently, I am tempted to use two words to say what I mean, but needing to choose only one. This calls for self-discipline and self-restraint, which I am learning with difficulty.

In the end, I write because I really cannot do otherwise. There seems to be this inner drive that will not let me alone. So, when I say that all writers do their work to be read, this is true, but all writers would write even if no one read their stuff. This blog is proof of that truism.

New Life & A New Way To Live

Under the Word, 
Video Devotion
Matthew 9:1-8
(running time 6:12)

The Challenge To Our View Of GOD, part 2

(for part 1 go here)


So, as it turns out, we do not have GOD as full-figured and thought-through as we once thought. Which if our puny minds could arrive at the circumference of the Almighty, what would that say about GOD?


In part one I concluded with three premise statements: 

1. Our View of GOD is culturally given and culturally driven
2. Our View of GOD is theologically frozen and theologically limited
3. Our View of GOD is linguistically shaped and linguistically inadequate

The basic ideas behind these statements are:

1. today's theology proper is much more complicated and challenging than we can imagine
2. and the GOD behind our theology is mystery

It cannot be otherwise.

Picking up on the idea of mystery, I would offer the thought that this primarily plays itself out in our attempts at theodicy -- the tears around the coffin of a six-year old will test your view of GOD, believe me -- and mystery is especially present at the moment of impact before the altar, facing the bread and the cup, or the before the baptismal pool when the initiate comes out of the water.

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for Matthew 11:25-30

Homiletic Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for July 3, 2011, Year A

Third Sunday after Pentecost

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(See TEXT below --  Matthew 11:25-30)

The Gospel reading for today brings to our memory these incredible and often quoted words of comfort from Jesus: 

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

but there is more here than words of comfort, as important as those words are to us.

This text also presents us, dare I say it, with theology. In fact, there is a somewhat stringent GOD-talk at work in the text. And this portion of the conversation with the text may, at first, challenge our view of how GOD is to be found in this world. But it is good to be challenged on occasion, it helps us grow and helps us solidify what we really understand about our faith.

Therefore, to help us unpack this text, we will think-through 4 statements:

• JESUS IS KNOWN IN OUR HUMILITY OR HE IS NOT KNOWN 
• JESUS REPRESENTS THE FATHER TO US AND US TO THE FATHER 
• JESUS LIFTS THE BURDENS OF BOTH RELIGION & THE HUMAN CONDITION 
• JESUS OFFERS US NEW LIFE AND A NEW WAY TO LIVE 

JESUS IS KNOWN IN HUMILITY OR HE IS NOT KNOWN AT ALL

Today’s text reads:

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

GOD is said to have hidden from the wise and revealed to the little ones the understanding of Jesus' presence and teaching. We might well ask just what GOD has against wisdom, but I think this misses the point.

What is in view are those living in pride because of their wisdom; those who think they know better than others; those with pride of life and the power that comes from prestige and privilege. And, I do not think it is GOD who actively conceals the reality of the Christ, so much as the pridefully-wise who refuse to see.

Anyway, it is the weak, the anawim -- poor ones seeking God for deliverance -- to whom Jesus reveals himself.

When I think about the end of days I sometimes can visualize this long line of people waiting to see the Christ, and to receive rewards for their time lived on earth, time that somehow honored the gift of life given to them by the Almighty. 

In this line are all the power-guys of Christianity -- the TV preachers, the great brains of the faith, all ranked from most influential to least. But, strangely, at the head of the line is not Billy Graham, or the mega-church pastor, not even Paul or Luther. No, it's some old woman of color, who lived in a tenement somewhere in a mega-city who raised her kids to live in faith and to care for their community.

Said differently, all of us will be surprised just how GOD values and evaluates the individual heart, but be sure of this, without humility we will none of us see the Christ.


JESUS REPRESENTS THE FATHER TO US AND US TO THE FATHER

The text reads: 

All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

Clearly, the Christ is said here to reveal the Father to those whom he wishes, and this revealing ministry opens to us the unique -- which means one of a kind -- position the Christ brings to our relationship with the Father and the Father’s relationship to us.

Whatever our Christology, if it is to be a Christology in more than name only, it seems to me it must include this idea of the dual representation -- the Christ presenting us to GOD and GOD to us. Here I want to follow the work of Douglas John Hall, who reminds us that the primary challenge in this regard has always been to hold tightly to the humanity of the Christ. In this regard he writes:

"One glimpses the God whom Jesus represents as one who follows the human life he leads, the relationships he forms, the responses he makes to power, to weakness, to illness and death, to sin and to the demonic."

Which Professor Hall takes to mean that:

"The transcendent significance of Jesus of Nazareth -- his being the Christ of God, the revelation of the Absolute -- is inductively, not deductively, communicated. Jesus is ultimately significant not because the church says that he is significant but because, here and there, now and then, faith perceives this significance in and through and behind what is sees and hears of this person." (emphasis his)

Said another way, we actually meet the Christ of GOD found in the person of Jesus of Nazareth by the events recounted of his life, which are mediated to us through the Spirit, the text and the actions and practices of the community created (we would say supernaturally) around the person of this 1st century Hebrew.

But notice the other direction is important as well, where Jesus represents us to GOD. Quoting Professor Hall once again:

[Jesus’] “life is one of a unique relationship with God, a relationship that enables him to relate to us -- to humanity -- in a manner that is also unique. Simultaneously, his exceptional solidarity with humankind gives him the possibility and the right to represent us before God. Precisely in his true representation of God, Jesus moves inevitably ever closer to humanity -- to the point of complete identification with the human condition, the cross; precisely in his true representation of humankind -- of true (what is, authentic) humanity..."

JESUS LIFTS THE BURDENS OF BOTH RELIGION & THE HUMAN CONDITION

The text reads:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

To Jesus' original hearers this promise of comfort, of course, comes in response to the heavy burden place upon the people by the laws of religion. These laws, some moral some ceremonial, all served to actually separate them from the relationship with GOD they desired. Jesus here offers his way, his response to the law, which was not to toss it overboard, but instead it was to offer its fulfillment by the power of his person -- "I will give you rest."

Today's Western context for the Christian faith is hardly over-burdened by an overtly zealous religious law. In general our faith expression is very free-wheeling. So what burdens us as a people? From what do we need to rest?

I have often here quoted Sally Morgenthaler, to display the challenge to us with the death of Christendom. She said, 

"The culture is having a spiritual conversation, but the church is not invited."

Underneath this quote is this question: Have you ever wondered about the details of this conversation from which we are excluded? Just what is being discussed? Could it be a searching for a way beyond the deep deadness and profound emptiness of post-modern life?

For we post-moderns, a spiritual deadness lives at the heart of our lives. We enjoy power and freedom, living by clocks and calendars. We experience very little need (this may be changing since 2008), but there is a lostness to the soul of our people that cannot be hidden by the trappings of possessions. There is this emptiness that resides at the heart of post-modern life that eats away at the soul.

Recently, I had a conversation with a thirty-something who honestly opened his heart to me, telling me of an emptiness inside that caused him some mornings not to want to wake-up. There was a sadness that reminded me of Jesus weeping over the city because he saw them as sheep with no shepherd.

Today's case is somewhat different, however. The church, as the living community of the Christ, actually weeps very little; we can't in our self-absorption. Now it is the crowd who weeps or medicates to numbness.

What will the community of faith do? When will the community formed by the Christ hear the cries of the lost?


JESUS OFFERS US NEW LIFE AND A NEW WAY TO LIVE

Finally, the text reads:

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Jesus offers those who would carry a heavy burden as a life-walk a different type of burden, one he promises to share with us. What we say around here is that following the Christ means we are offered a brand new life -- a new start to our autobiography, and a new way to live -- a way to discover what true humanity was meant to be.

And we would declare, to all who care to listen, that this new life and this new way to live is the actual, living response to the soul-deadness, the heart and art decadence of the current cultural context.

So, we have good news. The most wonderful thing has happened! The GOD of the universe has been at work all along, in and through the Christ. All one need to do is to look beyond the cultural captivity of the heart to see there is meaning and hope.

Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

The Challenge To Our View Of GOD

I have been reading Jean Pierre de Caussade's little book, Abandonment to Divine Providence. In it he writes this:

"The divine action, although only visible to the eye of faith, is everywhere and always present."

 In response I wrote in the margin: "then how do we know?" I mean, if GOD's presence can only be seen through the eye of faith, how do we know it's true? 


Which caused me to remember the parable of the illusive gardener made famous by Anthony Flew:

Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, "Some gardener must tend this plot." The other disagrees, "There is no gardener." So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. "But perhaps he is an invisible gardener." So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol with bloodhounds. (For they remember how H. G. Well's The Invisible Man could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen.) But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. "But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible, to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves." At last the Sceptic despairs, "But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?"

I think it is clear that epistemology [how you know, and how you know you know] is just as challenging to the core of the faith's realness as the sociological process of pluralization.


We must re-discover or somehow uncover what the, "Spirit is saying to the churches," now, at the beginning of the 21st Century. To do this our creative theologians must begin with GOD because everything rises or falls on our view/understanding/placement of GOD.


In the back of de Caussade's book I outlined the challenge like this:

• Our view of GOD is culturally given and culturally driven 

• Our view of GOD is theologically frozen and theologically limited 

• Our view of GOD is linguistically shaped and linguistically inadequate

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for Matthew 10:40-42

Homiletic Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for June 26, 2011, Year A

Second Sunday after Pentecost

(See TEXT below --  Matthew 10:40-42)

The Lectionary Gospel reading for today offers us GOD's point of view on the service of helps and the ministry of hospitality in the Kingdom.

We might be tempted to think that our small work in the Kingdom goes unnoticed, but today's text dispels this false notion -- nothing done in Jesus' name for the sake of the kingdom is beyond GOD’s gaze and reward (Jesus's word not mine).

Of course, here Jesus' ministry primarily brings the Kingdom promised to the Hebrews to a climax with a legitimate presentation of the King, but we should not think that what is said here fails to have its application for us as well. In this homily I will attempt to bridge the gap between Kingdom presentation to those original hearers and our own twenty-first century ears.

The context of the text is important, and in his commentary on Matthew, Douglas Hare reminds us where this morning's Gospel finds it location:

"The concluding paragraph of this discourse returns to the missionary theme with which the chapter began. Nonacceptance was anticipated in verse 14 ('And if anyone will not receive you...'). Now the same verb is used positively: 'Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me' (v. 40).

There are three themes concerning hospitality I want us to think through in this text:

• Receiving Jesus by welcoming the believer 
• Receiving Jesus by welcoming the little ones 
• Receiving the Father by welcoming Jesus 

RECEIVING JESUS BY 

WELCOMING THE BELIEVER

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me," reads the text, which proposes a somewhat different perspective on what many of us were taught about receiving Jesus.

Many of us were taught that you receive the Christ through, "asking Jesus into your heart," joining the church, experiencing baptism, receiving the table of the LORD. As important as these actions are, here St. Matthew brings a twist in the tail to these teachings, having Jesus talk about receiving the ones sent by the LORD as the basis for receiving him.

Of course, what is in view here is the Hebrew acceptance or rejection of the Kingdom offer by Messiah Jesus and by his disciples, but if we dismiss this as merely contextually significant -- that is not for us -- we miss what must be the most undiscovered theme of the New Testament. Namely, what the Christian faith ultimately offers is a koinonia community.

"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people." (1 Peter 2:10)

The question of receiving Jesus here is two-fold, I think:

1) Am I living Christ-like within my own community of faith (with those carrying my label), and     

 2) Am I living Christ-like toward believers not within my  own community of faith (with those not carrying my label) 

This is the movement from the 1st to the 21st century. The faith, ultimately, is not about Jesus and me, walking along the beach in the sunset and having a "one-on-one." No, ultimately it is you and me in community, receiving each other in Jesus' name, rubbing elbows in unity, even with all our foibles and follies.

This is difficult work, believe me. We are to love and respect and minister hospitality to those believers whose political views, for example, differ greatly from our own!

Believers have any number of substantial issues that divide us politically, racially and socio-economically, not to mention mega-church verses small church, post-modern verses traditional, worship styles -- high-church verses spontaneous and free-church verses episcopacy. The list could go on ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Have you ever wondered what the uninitiated, watching world sees when it looks at the Western expression of Christianity? How they must wonder at us. And how they easily pass us by, seeing noting more in our churches than what is already out there in the culture: fractured families, voracious attacks on each other, splintered messages.

Have you ever wondered how this must grieve the Almighty.

Remember what Jesus prayed to the Father:

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:18-21)

Clearly, the watching world legitimately rejects Jesus as coming from the Father since his community cannot be one. This calling to unity, sadly, has never been realized in the church, and it is not likely to be, at least not on a grand scale. But still the calling is there; the command is the there: We are to welcome the believer. We are to welcome in hospitality all who claim friendship with the Christ. 

RECEIVING JESUS BY 

WELCOMING THE LITTLE ONES

Jesus also teaches us: "whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

To give a cup of cold water to the little ones, to the least of these, to those who do not count, even this will not go unnoticed within the Kingdom enterprise.

Oh sure, it’s not ministering to the great, to the prophets and the righteous persons. It’s not rubbing shoulders with the important people, but the little ones, the insignificant people, they too must receive our hospitality. Jesus wants even the little ones to have a place at the hospitality table.

I suppose the most famous 20th century example of this “little one” hospitality is Mother Teresa. She said: 

"I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?" 

 She also said, "It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. 

 And finally, "To God there is nothing small.The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite."

Said differently, the small ones reside all around us -- the forgotten ones, the ugly, the darkened ones. What we must see, no matter how important we are, or how important we think we are, what we must see is that we too are small and ugly and dark. We too are in need of hospitality. What this describes is a humility based upon the reality of the common koinonia humanity we share with each other, and with the Christ.


RECEIVING THE FATHER 

BY WELCOMING JESUS

Finally, Jesus says: "whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me."

Ultimately, this may be the most important statement uttered by Jesus. To welcome Jesus is to welcome the Father who sent him. And, while this "receiving and welcoming" might seem axiomatic from the perspective or our own doctrinal teaching, what I want us to see is that to daily receive Jesus is deeply challenging.

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

This text haunts me. Sometimes it seems the road I am on is the narrow way, but then I begin to wonder and compare. Then I view my own cultural captivity and my membership in the exclusive North American club of power and prestige and possessions, and I wonder if maybe I've taken a turn down the wide way instead.

Here, in the simplest of terms, Jesus brings to the fore the key idea of his teachings: Hospitality. I am to welcome him -- which means acting on his teachings and practicing them as part of my life.

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." (Matthew 7:24)

This reminds us that the response to the free grace of GOD, expressed within that community, is daily being conformed to the image of the Christ, who in his love for us gave himself for us. There is great power here in this daily cross-bearing, in this daily being conforming to the teachings of the Christ, in this daily hospitality toward the Christ.

Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

10:41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;

10:42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

Living In Gratitude

I tend to think of myself as a grateful person. I know how fragile life is; I have learned that life can turn into nightmare without warning, so I know that I must practice gratitude toward every moment. I know I must take stock of every day and come to understand it as gift and not something to be squandered. 

[As an aside, You can't think your way to this conclusion. You have to be crushed by the human condition, and you have to be running close to the end to get it.] 

For the more biblically inclined, this calling to gratitude is clear in Holy Scripture. For example, St. Paul counsels us that to be thankful in all things is actually GOD's will:

"No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT)

So, imagine my surprise when of late I have been heart-nudged by the LORD toward a more thankful heart. 

You see, if I'm not careful I can practice the fine art of complaint. Without much provocation I can pop off about what I don't like, what I don't think is right, or how my life is being experienced in the present. 

Which reminds me of a story. Several years ago I was on a family vacation. We were at the beach, literally, and about thirteen hours from home. We had been there a day when I received a call from church that I needed to return because a member had died. I will never forget the look of my wife through the rear-view mirror as I drove away.

This caused me to complain to the LORD not only for the thirteen hour trip home, but for days afterward. 

Several seeks later, still complaining, I was making my way to a hospital visit when I stopped at a red-light. There I saw a man in a wheelchair, no legs, wheeling himself through the cross-walk. Suddenly, all my complaining turned to ashes in my mouth, and deep conviction came from the LORD as St. Paul's words came clear to my mind -- "in everything, give thanks. 

I managed to obey Paul's admonition right then, but clearly, over time I have forgotten.

So, here we go: "Almighty, Father, Most Merciful GOD, your hand has touched my heart in so many profound ways. You are so good and I am so blessed. Thank you. Amen."

Living the Lectionary

http://livingthelectionary.blogspot.com/

Check Pastor Phillip Heinze's blog on the lectionary. He writes good stuff; always to the point.

Interpretation's Arduous Task

Open publication - Free publishing - More essay

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for John 6:51-58

Homiletic Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for June 26, 2011, Year A

(See TEXT below --  John 6:51-58)

AT THE TABLE WITH THE LORD

Today's Gospel reading brings to our attention one of the most intriguing sayings attributed to Jesus. How does one explain words like:

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

and how are we to apply them to our community in this present human condition and in this present post-christian era where we find ourselves?

Of late, I have been thinking of our connection with the Christ not so much as the basis for an individualistic understanding of GOD, but instead a fluid, communal understanding of GOD. That is, what one would normally interpret as an individual act, such as prayer, I have been asking what that act of prayer looks like within the context of the Christian community.

It seems to me that it is unavoidable that the interpretation of our present text points us in the unmistakable direction of the Eucharist, that this is what St. John has in mind, but I wish to focus on its communal nature by using a different theological word for the LORD's Table, and that word is Communion.

Here I am thinking of how the Community gathers around the table of the LORD -- the table/altar that belongs to the LORD -- and what that means to the corporate identity of the community of faith.

Four thoughts flow from this:

1) We Gather Together

2) We Gather in Faith

3) We Gather to Proclaim

4) We Gather to Remember

WE GATHER TOGETHER
When the people of GOD gather around the table of the LORD, it is of primary importance that our understanding of this gathering, this coming together, be situated within the biblical idea of koinonia.

Koinonia, as a Christian reality, roughly translated means the shared-life of believers. And this shared life only becomes our shared life because we also somehow share life with the living, risen Christ. It is only his shared life with us that makes possible our shared life with each other.

Said another way, it is only in the Christ that this new life and this new way to live gives us our connection with our community of faith.

It seems to me that this life we share together with the Christ is nowhere more evident than within the communion fellowship at the LORD's Table. Here we are reminded that we are not our own; here we are reminded that to follow the Christ is to be part of a living, vital, yet flawed community, who trusts for its very existence the continuing presence of the LORD.

I believe this is the primary issue in not celebrating communion weekly. It is to forgo the most basic and memorable moment of reminder the community of faith has for its life.


WE GATHER IN FAITH
Second, when the people of GOD gather around the table of the LORD, it is of primary importance that this coming together be positioned within the framework of an ongoing faith.

Of course, we know that apart from the faith of the community we will never see these symbols of communion -- the bread and the cup -- beyond their normal, earthly existence. But, what must be kept in mind is that this faith is only visible within the context of a living, breathing community and its ongoing discipleship and faith.

In faith, we gather at Christ's table; in faith we offer Christ our allegiance; in faith we surrender to Christ our future; in faith see more to the liturgy and to the work of prayer than mere inane habits.

Said differently, it is the corporate faith of the community that anchors its actions. It is the continued, daily take up-your-cross-and-follow the Christ movement of its rites and actional beliefs, done in faith, that render powerful the word and the works of the people.

What I have in mind here is what Walter Brueggemann writes about ancient Israel's relationship to GOD. He says that the visible, daily practice [utterances and gestures, rituals and rites], “constituted and undertaken humanly, implements the defining linkage between Yahweh and Israel.”

That is, what we now practice here in faith, doing song, scripture reading, prayer, preaching and finally our table fellowship, and what we do in ministry through helps and exhortation, implements a connective reality with the GOD who is there. These are the gestures of faith. 

WE GATHER TO PROCLAIM
Notice also, this weekly gathering, where we implement these gestures and movements toward GOD, actually constitute a proclamation of GOD's reality and message to the waiting world. It is a message of love and hope and comfort in the midst of hate and despair and brokenness.

This means these communal gatherings that we call church involve testimony and martyrdom. For us in the West, where literal martyrdom is not an issue, the mere practice of getting out of bed on a chosen day and participating in the fellowship around the communion table is a homiletic action.

St. Paul writes: "Each time you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the LORD's death, until he comes," which I take to mean that by being part of this fellowship today we preach a sermon to the watching world. We are saying by our practices what we believe to be the reality of the world: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

We might be tempted to think that, after all, my neighbors are asleep when I leave to congregate with the community, so if I am preaching a sermon by going to church it's being lost on the street where I live.

Your observation is no doubt true, but it misses the point. Sure, it would be good if your neighbor somehow woke from his Sunday slumber and saw your church attendance each week. And it would be wonderful if in this seeing he came under the calling and conviction of the Holy Spirit and one day asked to join you, but this is probably a little far-fetched in this post-Christian culture, and it has nothing to do with the point I am making.

Here, we turn to Brueggemann again, translating his emphasis on Israel and Yahweh, applying what he writes to GOD and the church.

He writes: “My approach assumes that speech is constitutive of reality, that words count...that Yahweh lives in, with, and under speech, and in the end depend upon Israel's testimony for access point in the world.”(!)

which translated in terms of the church:

Our approach assumes that speech, which includes our prayers, songs, sermons, scriptures and table, is constitutive of reality, that these words and gestures really count, and that GOD Almighty actually lives in, with, and under these speech/gestures, and in the end GOD depends upon this testimony for access point in the world.

Said another way, what we do here each week really matters to the world for it offers the world a reality that counters their own view of reality. It offers the world the idea that there is more to -- dare I use the word -- there is ultimate truth in the world and that this truth is more to truth than facts and figures. That the ultimate reality behind the world is the GOD who is there and who is not silent.


WE GATHER TO REMEMBER
Finally, then, when we gather around the LORD's table, we gather as a community of memory. First, we gather to remember the LORD's love for us, remembering that even in our ugliness and selfishness, GOD sent his son for us. We remember the life and death of this first century Jew who has so profoundly impacted our lives and our families through his calling us to new life and a new way to live.

We also gather within a shared community memory. We gather at the same altar where our mate confessed Christ, where our child was baptized, where we buried our mother or father. We gather in sacred space filled with the echos of past ritual and rite, sermon and song, prayer and communion.

And finally, we gather to be reminded that even when the circumstances of our lives are dire, when the weight of the human condition has broken us and left us for dead, we still remember the promises of the Christ. 

"I am with you always, even to the end of the age."  

“He that has seen me has seen the Father." 

"There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly."

JOHN 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever." 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day 
to my Dad.

Memo To Self: How To Preach A Funeral Homily

FUNERAL HOMILY RULES:

1. This entire process of the funeral is not about you. If it leans that way you dishonor the deceased and you abuse their loved ones.
2. No one will remember a word you say, you are creating an atmosphere of hope not a class on theology.
3. Speak with authority (this doesn't mean turn up the volume). This means even as you read the obituary, do so with a surety and assurance. No one will believe what you say, especially at this most venerable time, if you don't.
4. Find one text, make sure it speaks to the family and friends about hope, park there.
5. Unless you were childhood friends with the deceased, encourage family or friends to do the eulogy -- you stick to the scriptures.
6. Keep it very brief. Speak no more that fifteen minutes.

What Is Prayer?

Under the Word, 
Video Devotion
Matthew 6:7-15
(running time 5:56)

Excellent Emo Phillips Quote

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So i ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!" "

Why shouldn't I?" he said. 

I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" 

He said, "Like what?" 

I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" 

He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! 

Are you Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! 

Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! 

Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! 

Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" He said, "Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! 

Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! 

Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" 

He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" 

I said, "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off. 

Where's the Joy: Blue Monday Questions, revisited

What started as a Blue Monday, has continued as a Blue Monday week, and it doesn't look as though the storm will abate any time soon.

Then yesterday, I got to thinking: What has happened to me hasn't really happened to me. What has happened to me I did all on my own. I walked away from joy. That is, I have somehow (and I know how) abandoned the joy produced by the LORD. I have let the burdens and brokenness of the flock, and my own troubles, break me down.

Of course, the question is, how do I come back? How do I return to joy?

Well, that's not the first question, really. The first question is: Do I even want to come back? You see, I realized something else yesterday. I realized my abandonment of joy is protest for those whose lives and hearts have been wrecked by the human condition. I am protesting to GOD on their behalf: 

"GOD, where are You? OK. If they have lost joy, then so have I." 

If this all sounds somehow heroic, believe me it is not.

So, should I decide to end my protest; should I return to joy? Sadly, I don't think I can. I know I am too wounded. Anyway, Joy, the noun, is too passive, to amorphous. I can't really get my head around it. What I need is a verb; I need something to do. I need to rejoice.

In the midst of even the Bluest of Mondays, I can still rejoice...in the LORD. I don't know about doing it always, but I can at least do it now.  

I can rejoice in all the Almighty has done around me -- the small, unnoticed divine clinches I see everyday. I can rejoice in the fact that the broken of the flock have a great shepherd -- the Christ, who gives to them daily care and life renewal. I can rejoice in the hope that this vale of blood and death and hate and greed is not the final word, in fact is not the only word to be heard now. The Christ has opened the way for a new life and a new way to live, and that, truly, is something about which I can rejoice today.

Kierkegaard on Christianity

Soren Kierkegaard

quote from the
Diary of
Soren Kierkegaard

#184

"Not until a man has become so utterly unhappy, or has grasped the woefulness of life so deeply that he is moved to say, and mean it: life for me has no value -- not until then is he able to make a bid for Christianity. 


And then his life may acquire the very highest value."

#185

"The point about Christianity is that it is right around us. That is why no poet, no orator, can paint it, they use too much imagination. Precisely on that account (that is, for the wrong reason) people love and and esteem poets and orators. For at a distance men see Christianity as a lovable thing.


Only a dialectician can represent it, as he constantly eliminates all delusions, drilling it, as it were, into our present existence right here. That is why such a dialectician will be ill liked, for at close range Christianity is hateful and shocking."
(emphasis his)


What do you think?

Blue Monday Questions

It's a blue Monday around here.  Days like this always leave me with difficult questions: 

How can I call myself a follower of the Christ when I am so culturally captive, when I have these doubts, when I seethe with anger seeing the flock suffer so?

How can I call myself a follower of the Christ when ease and comfort are my mantra, much prefering the message of resurrection (final victory) rather than the message of the cross (daily suffering by cross bearing), which is what it really means to follow the Christ now, within the human condition.

How can I call myself a follower of the Christ knowing that believers around the world suffer and I am so @ ease?

"O merciful Father, I will never be different unless your Spirit brings change to my hardened heart."


"O GOD, give me a grateful heart."

Alexander Schmemann On the Liturgy

Alexander Schmemann

quote from
For The Life Of The World
Sacraments And Orthodoxy
pages 27, 28

Alexander Schmemann offers those of us given the responsibility for the work of the liturgy a compelling insight into the importance the separate space in which the liturgical act occurs from the everyday, work-a-day world:

"The liturgy begins then as a real separation from the world. In our attempt to make Christianity appeal to the man on the street, we have often minimized, or even completely forgotten, this necessary separation. We always want to make Christianity 'understandable' and 'acceptable' to this mythical 'modern' man on the street. And we forget that the Christ of whom we speak is 'not of the world,' and that after his resurrection he was not recognized even by his own disciples. Mary Magdalene thought he was a gardener. When two of his disciples were going to Emmaus, 'Jesus himself drew near and went with them,' and they did not know Him before 'he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave it to them.' (Lk. 24:15-16)...There is no physical imperative to recognize Him. He was, in other words, no longer a 'part' of this world, of its reality, and to recognize Him, meant a conversion to another reality. The Lord's glorification does not have the compelling, objective evidence of His humiliation and cross. His glorification is known only through the mysterious death in the baptismal font, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is known only in the fulness of the Church, as she gathers to meet the Lord and to share in His risen life."

What do you think?

Unity In the Church & Knowing GOD

Under the Word, 
Video Devotion
John 17:20-26
(running time 7:33)

Lectionary Notebook. Homily for John 3:16-18

Thoughts on the Gospel Reading 

Homily for the Trinity Sunday, Year A

June 19, 2011

(See TEXT below --  John 3:16-18)

Well, what can be said about such a familiar text, especially verse sixteen, that has not already been said? I looked for the definition of “threadbare,” and Merriam/Webster wrote, "exhausted of interest or freshness."

On one level this may describe our text, past its due date. On the other hand, it is a homiletic dream to be able to preach from such an historically prized set of words.

Two things can be said concerning verse sixteen. First, it is beloved because these words combine simplicity with a profound view of theology, and second, it is beloved because these words offer a seminal text. That is, it presents a ground-floor to what is now the most accepted view of the atonement, and it does so in a way that leaves nothing to be added.

But, there is more here than verse sixteen, of course.

I suppose my favorite verse in all of scripture is verse seventeen: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

This is the Christian message, I think, at least what should be the message and the movement of the church because is ultimately mirrors the message and the movement of GOD.

Notice, GOD is moving toward the world with a profoundly demonstrated love, by giving the world himself, by joining in the devastation of the human condition, and by being subjected to the whims of a world at war with itself through evil.

St. Paul puts it this way:
"For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others." (2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT)

Here we see beyond the movement of condemning people and assigning them to separation. Here, at least, John is telling us that the Almighty, and this is the most surprising thing of all, that the Almighty has actually taken up our cause and is moved by our plight. GOD, seeing the pain of humanity, did more than just see our pain and brokenness. Through the suffering of the Son, the Almighty experiences the human condition and is even broken by it through death.

This means we can never point our boney finger in the face of the Almighty and say, "You don't understand; you don't know how I feel." (Hebrews 4:15)

But, the text also presents us the sour note of condemnation: "Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Here, one is said to be condemned from an unwillingness to believe in the name of the Son of GOD. Here John presents us with what may be the most difficult aspect of the Christian message. Namely, in this day of pluralism, the exclusivity of the person and the work of the Son (and this is not the only text which points in this direction, see Acts 4:12). And here John offers us what is for him the final word: Christ is the way, the only way, to the Almighty:

"Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it...The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world." (John 1:4,5,9)

How do we reconcile the love of GOD presented here with the condemnation from GOD just as assuredly presented? I don't have a satisfying answer, but I will say this: If someone were to "perish," as the text says, I believe they will do so because they want it that way.

Could it be, speaking strictly within Christian nomenclature, that by freedom of choice one becomes so dominated by hate and a zeal for destroying others that one finally has no recognition of what good and evil really mean as actual, active categories of human behavior? That is humanity within one dies.

Could it be that those who willingly choose real and wholehearted evil, finally are shaped by that evil and become unwilling to be part of GOD's final, forever Kingdom by ultimately rejecting GOD's presence?

Could it be that this final condemnation occurs because of GOD's unwillingness to violate one's free choice, and even if those choices lead that one down the starkly in-human trail of evil and debauchery GOD simply refuses to stop them, which means humans ultimately, actually condemn themselves?

I have in mind St. Paul's words: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done." (Romans 1:28)

What must be kept in the forefront at all times is that this idea of evil and condemnation is more than a theory of theology or a philosophical quandary to be discussed in the classroom.

No, we live in a world where monstrously evil men and women daily ply their trade. In fact, if we really knew the evil that lurks next door, or that which resides deeply even in our own hearts, we would be devastated in spirit beyond repair. 

Here the question becomes clearly focused: Is justice, ultimate justice, important to you or not? Do you want those things done in secret finally acknowledged? (Matthew 10:26-27)

Well, be sure of this, only the Almighty is witness to all these acts of human treachery. Truly, only the Almighty is the one able to know and acknowledge all the evil actually done. Only GOD sees it all.

This means, ultimately, it is the Almighty who must bring justice to the world. 

In our weaker moments, we would have him “go live” with this action right now. But, in his great love for us (and by us I actually mean real, live flesh and blood people), which was demonstrated by the giving of his Son, he waits patiently for us to choose the way of life.

All of this, of course, is more than the text says. Here, we are simply and flatly told: "whoever does not believe has already been condemned..." But, here the text also announces that those who believe, those who seek that different path found in the Christ, those who look up and pursue new life and a new way to live, they will find it!


JOHN 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.