(Ok, this is mostly Nick's work. I did help somewhat in the formulation, but he did most of the writing. I think it is quite a new, refreshing way to look at the Good Samaritan story!)
How many of you have ever heard a sermon based on the parable of the Good Samaritan? Usually, the response to that question is that every hand in the church goes up. “Good Samaritan” has survived 2,000 years of history to mean someone who goes out of his or her way to aid another. We have Good Samaritan Hospitals, Good Samaritan laws, and even the Good Sam Camping organization. One of the problems with such familiarity with a Biblical parable or event is complacency. We think we know it so well that, when it comes up, we tend to preach it, teach it, discuss it, or think about it the way we always have – without giving it a chance to reveal new or different meaning in our lives. The reality for preachers is that these very familiar passages are more challenging than the obscure. That being said, let’s dive into the story and see what it teaches us.
The story that Jesus tells in this passage comes as part of an exchange with a Pharisee. This religious leader wanted to test Jesus to see how learned he was. So he asked a question that has been repeated down through the ages – “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, being wise, asked the Pharisee, “What do the scriptures say?” Obviously, the religious man quoted the passage, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and heart and strength and mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus complimented the man on his knowledge and told him to go and do what the text says.
But the Pharisee, not wanting to be sent away so easily, pressed Jesus further, “But who is my neighbor?” That also is a question that has survived the ages. What he was really asking ever so politely, was, “What is the least I can do and still get in?”
People and, sadly, some churches, spend much more time debating salvation and what it means to be a Christian than they do living salvation and being Christian. The religious right of today talks about being Christian, but they so often spend more time judging and excluding people for one reason or another than they do spreading the inclusive love that Jesus lived, taught, and expects of us.
Now, Jesus was not going to let this guy off so easily. Jesus responds to the Pharisee’s with what we now know as the parable of the Good Samaritan. But as we look at the story, I want to look at the various characters and see how they relate to us as the people of God, both as the church and individually as believers.
The first character we encounter is the traveler who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by bandits. This guy was robbed, beaten, and left in the ditch for dead. In this traveler I think we can see much of the world. We have all been robbed of our joy, beaten by the trials and troubles of life, attacked on all sides, and often can be found bleeding and broken in the ditches along the road of life. You can probably see what I am driving at here – the world, by and large, is suffering and many people have been overlooked and, in essence, left for dead. We will come back to the traveler in a bit, but for now let’s look at how others responded.
Let’s see how the rest of the folks responded to encountering a broken and bleeding brother or sister in need. First, along came a priest hurrying on his way to be about his priestly duties. When he saw the wounded traveler, he crossed to the other side to avoid him. There are a couple of reasons for this reaction. First, there was probably some concern that by stopping to help, he might suffer the same fate. So, partly out of fear, he hurried on his way. How often do we – the church – fail to respond to those in need out of fear? If we speak out against the injustices we see in the world, someone might paint us with the same brush and cast us out. You know, that whole guilt by association thing. Sometimes our fear is that we might succumb to whatever caused those others to be in need. Will getting down in the dirt with those in need makes us dirty too?
There was also a ritual reason for his unwillingness to help. If the traveler were indeed dead, which was possible, any contact would make the priest “unclean” and unable to perform his priestly duties. Likewise, if we stop to help, we might not have the time or resources left for the ‘important’ work of BEING the church.
The second traveler to come along was a Levite, one of the “chosen” people, someone who was important (more likely SELF important). To help this wounded traveler was beneath him. The second traveler wouldn’t associate with “THOSE PEOPLE”. Have any of us ever met people or even churches like that? The love of God and neighbor has no room for divisions that label anyone among “THOSE PEOPLE.” But sadly the divisions exist – whether the divisions are racial, sexual, gender, or economic, whether they are the addicted or those suffering mental illness or some physical challenge. How often do churches and people cross to the other side of the road just to avoid reaching out to “THOSE PEOPLE”? You know, quite often I think that WE are often among “THOSE PEOPLE!”
Now we come to the Samaritan! He was one of “THOSE PEOPLE” too. He knew the pain and hurt and hopelessness of the world. He and his people were Samaritans!!! They were despised, even loathed, by the Jews. He truly knew what it meant to be left for dead. He had a heart of compassion because of his own experience. How many of us know the pain of rejection, even hatred and loathing? I am sure many of us have felt that pain and I would hope that we can use that experience to energize us to be like the Samaritan, to transcend our fears, our privilege, and our need to be right, I would hope that the total love of God would empower us to go out and spread that love that we have found to those we encounter.
Then there is also the innkeeper. You know, he often gets overlooked in the story because we tend to focus on the three people who pass by. But imagine his confusion and surprise when this Samaritan showed up with a half dead traveler. The Samaritan passed over a few coins and instructed the innkeeper to care for the man, and promised to pay if the cost exceeded those coins.
Would we be willing to be as trusting? Would we be willing to get involved even when a total stranger presents us with such an odd situation? As I thought about the innkeeper’s role in all this, I realized that, while we all have traits of the three travelers, in reality we are the innkeepers! It is Jesus who is the Samaritan – Jesus was oppressed and rejected by the religious institutions of the day. It is Jesus who rescued the world two thousand years ago, and entrusted its healing and ongoing care to us. And it was Jesus also promised to return. In the meantime, we are called to be about continuing his work, WE are called to be the ones caring for a world that is suffering. We are the ones who are called to take care of the world that has, in so many ways, has been left for dead.
We need to be careful not allow ourselves to become like the Pharisee who tried to trap Jesus with the questions that brought about this parable, and we need to be careful to avoid the fear and worry of the priest or the pompous self importance of the Levite. What we are called to do is to embrace the love and presence of Christ evidenced in the Samaritan and to fulfill our destiny as the innkeepers until Christ’s return.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Message for Suzy
(Note to my regular readers, I am putting this here because a friend wants to purchas a gift. However, I cannot send it to the person direct. So you all get to evesdrop a bit on the surprise!)
The first is the plain pattern. The second is a possible color scheme.
Perseveration
Perseveration is a term that some may be familiar with (Dr. Spo!) and some may not be familiar. It is defined as "Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus."
What I hate, I get cognitive perseveration, or maybe a more common way to say it is that I tend to ruminate on things. I keep playing scenerios over and over in my head trying to come up with a different or better way to respond to them. I look for where I may have been at fault and then look for ways to change the fault.
And what is the worst part of the whole thing, I can see that this behavior is not normal or beneficial but trying to stop it tends to lead to even more perseveration. It is kind of like telling people to stop thinking of yellow Volkswagen. (Now you all are visualizing a yellow Volkswagen, probably a VW "Bug." And if you weren't imagining the "Bug" before, you are now!) But then there is the worry about trying to stop the whole thing and so on...
Part of the thing that I can see is that, in my eyes, the stimulus has not ceased. It is still open ended. And as long as there is not "closure" (I really HATE that word) to the situation, the possibility of attack is still there.
Then I fall into the unhealthy pit of "being flawed" and "unworthy of." The being flawed is pretty self-explanatory, and the "unworthy of" follows that if I am flawed, then I am unworthy of whatever I may have, be it home, job, partner, or life itself. To see it typed shows how absurd this is, but some of this stuff is beyond logic.
Nick reminds me that we are all flawed as people, but that does not mean we are fatally flawed.
What probably doesn't need to be said, but I will say it anyway, this is an extension of the whole "Ms Diva and Stage Mom" thing.
Seems Stage Mom's mother (Ms Diva's grandmother) went in and had a knee replacement. Supposedly I was told this. For the life of me, I can't remember it! So now I am the big meany 'cause I didn't go visit or pray for Stage Grandma.
Of course, Stage Grandma told me that it was ok becuse the former priest prayed for her. (Now, this former priest was the person that Stage Mom said didn't give any pastoral care for the past four years!) I just wish people would grow up.
Are we destined to be perpetual children?
What I hate, I get cognitive perseveration, or maybe a more common way to say it is that I tend to ruminate on things. I keep playing scenerios over and over in my head trying to come up with a different or better way to respond to them. I look for where I may have been at fault and then look for ways to change the fault.
And what is the worst part of the whole thing, I can see that this behavior is not normal or beneficial but trying to stop it tends to lead to even more perseveration. It is kind of like telling people to stop thinking of yellow Volkswagen. (Now you all are visualizing a yellow Volkswagen, probably a VW "Bug." And if you weren't imagining the "Bug" before, you are now!) But then there is the worry about trying to stop the whole thing and so on...
Part of the thing that I can see is that, in my eyes, the stimulus has not ceased. It is still open ended. And as long as there is not "closure" (I really HATE that word) to the situation, the possibility of attack is still there.
Then I fall into the unhealthy pit of "being flawed" and "unworthy of." The being flawed is pretty self-explanatory, and the "unworthy of" follows that if I am flawed, then I am unworthy of whatever I may have, be it home, job, partner, or life itself. To see it typed shows how absurd this is, but some of this stuff is beyond logic.
Nick reminds me that we are all flawed as people, but that does not mean we are fatally flawed.
What probably doesn't need to be said, but I will say it anyway, this is an extension of the whole "Ms Diva and Stage Mom" thing.
Seems Stage Mom's mother (Ms Diva's grandmother) went in and had a knee replacement. Supposedly I was told this. For the life of me, I can't remember it! So now I am the big meany 'cause I didn't go visit or pray for Stage Grandma.
Of course, Stage Grandma told me that it was ok becuse the former priest prayed for her. (Now, this former priest was the person that Stage Mom said didn't give any pastoral care for the past four years!) I just wish people would grow up.
Are we destined to be perpetual children?
Monday, July 05, 2010
Life With(out) Ms Diva and Stage Mom
Well, I sent a letter to Ms Diva explaining how I did not feel we could work together with our current level of lack of trust and respect. I said that this did not prevent us from ever working together, but allowing the girl to preach after the outburst would not be appropriate.
I heard that she had been angry with her father right before she came in and gave me all kinds of attitude, but that is no excuse.
Stage Mom called the Warden and yelled, saying I was punishing Ms Diva. The Warden backed me up! He told Stage Mom that she may want to contact me, either phone or e-mail, or something. But you know, I still haven't heard from her. Obviously this is not important enough for her to actually be proactive. I don't think she wants to give up her victim status.
I will probably send a letter commenting about them not being at church for the past four weeks, but I am not going to be very excited about it. Frankly, I would be happy if they went somewhere else. Might drop the drama level in the congregation.
I heard that she had been angry with her father right before she came in and gave me all kinds of attitude, but that is no excuse.
Stage Mom called the Warden and yelled, saying I was punishing Ms Diva. The Warden backed me up! He told Stage Mom that she may want to contact me, either phone or e-mail, or something. But you know, I still haven't heard from her. Obviously this is not important enough for her to actually be proactive. I don't think she wants to give up her victim status.
I will probably send a letter commenting about them not being at church for the past four weeks, but I am not going to be very excited about it. Frankly, I would be happy if they went somewhere else. Might drop the drama level in the congregation.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Pentecost 6 Porper 9C: We Aren't Perfect, Nor Are We Expected To Be
Pentecost 6 Year C Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 July 4, 2010 The Rev. Benton Quest
Something that I have noticed in the world is that we really have a hang up about getting everything “right.” I am not talking about “Right” as in Republican, but “right” as in correct. I mean, let’s face it, we have to get things right in our world or we get sued. Am I wrong? Braking systems don’t work right, boom! We sue! Medications don’t work right and suddenly there are commercials for class-action law suits EVERYWHERE! We seem to live in a world where perfection is the standard that is set and nothing short of perfection will be tolerated.
And, I have to admit, when it comes to things like the breaking system on my car, or the side-effects of the drugs I take, or the air worthiness of the planes I fly on, I don’t want a whole lot of mistakes there! But I think this whole focus on perfection has not necessarily served us well. I heard something on the radio the other morning that I think sums up our situation. In our world today, so often The Perfect is the enemy of The Good.
You may have heard that phrase before, but have you really thought about it? So often when we search for the “perfect,” we loose all the wonderfully good things that we may have passed by. Granted, there are things that we want to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as we can get. Like I said, I kind of like it when my car stops. But does everything in our world have to be perfect? I think we carry this perfection to the point where it gets in our way. We strive so much for The Perfect that we may find ourselves trapped doing nothing.
I just finished a piece of stained glass. I was not pleased with it. It was a difficult pattern and some things just did not go together the way I wanted them to. I fussed and fumed about it. I came really close to throwing the thing off the balcony. But others who saw it, liked it. And the person who was buying it like it. And the person who received it as a gift REALLY liked it. No, it was not perfect, but that didn’t matter. It was what the person wanted and it was what was needed in the situation. If I would have waited until it was perfect, a piece of glass would not have been made, and a gift would not have been given, an anniversary would not have been celebrated.
In our faith life, I think we can get caught in the same kind of dilemmas; we can get so worried about being the PERFECT Christian or being the Perfect Episcopalian. We try our darndest to do the right things, to get the rite right, to be perfect. Or we do the opposite; we figure that since perfection is not possible, we should never try at all. Since no matter how hard we try we are going to come up short, we may figure that we might as well not try at all. And the truth about both of these reactions, striving for perfection or slipping into apathy, is that they point out how messed up this idea of having to have everything Perfect really is and how far from reality we can wander when we don’t keep a foot in reality and don’t keep looking around us.
Last week, we talked about how God can use us all; even those that society may call unclean or abominations. And we discussed how God can work with us to help form us into creations that have the potential of being so much more than we ever expected. But as I was saying, in our world we expect perfection from ourselves and others right away. The problem with this is if you have EVER tried to learn anything new, there is a lot of trial and error, there are a lot of mistakes made, until you even get anything CLOSE to perfection. We know this, we know that there will be mistakes; we know that we are going to fall and that we are going to drop the ball. And even though we know this, somehow we have difficulty giving ourselves and others the gift of patience and forgiveness.
Now one thing that I don’t like to make is “PROCLAMATIONS ON HIGH” from the pulpit, but this is one proclamation that I can make with no hesitation: God knows we are not going to be perfect and God is OK with that! And how can I be so sure about this? Well, we have proof right in today’s gospel reading.
In the gospel reading for today, Jesus is telling his followers to go out into the world and preach the Good News. Now, Jesus tells the disciples what to do when they come into a home and how to treat the people who are present. This is good stuff to remember for being a good guest. (We think about being a good host, but there is also something to being a good guest!) But Jesus explains to the disciples how they are to treat the people whom they encounter and how to graciously accept hospitality.
Now, if Jesus was expecting the disciples to be perfect, this would be the end of the lesson: We would meet people and share the message and they would invite us in and all would be well with the world. If we were expected to be perfect, there would be no need for a contingency plan because all of Christ’s followers would be spreading the message perfectly. But that is not what happens in the gospel reading. Jesus DOES give the disciples a contingency plan. Jesus gives the disciples a plan for what to do if the members of the household do not hear the Gospel message. In simple words, Jesus gives the disciples a plan in case they fail.
Jesus knows that the disciples will, in fact, at some point, fail. But the fact that they will fail does not mean that they are not sent out into the world. Even knowing that they will fail, Jesus still sends them out to spread the news. Just because the disciples will not be batting 100% does not mean they are pulled out of the game. Jesus does expect the disciples to be out in the world and to work to bring the Good News to the people, but Jesus is also a realist, he knows that not everyone will be open to the message and knows that not every attempt to spread the message will be perfect.
I was frustrated a while ago about things just not going well in life. I was bellowing about not being a good enough priest and not being able to spread the message and on and on. Basically, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and hoping that God would hear and make everything better. It was at this time that a friend of mine told me something that gave me a bit of a shake: He said, “You know Ben, even Jesus didn’t hit 100%.” He said, “When you think about it, Jesus didn’t get the message through to both of the criminals at the crucifixion. He spoke the message to both but only one heard and believed. So you are expecting to be PERFECT when Jesus was only 50% from the cross!” WOW! I had forgotten about that! Even when the SON OF GOD brought the message to the people, not everyone heard it or understood it! To the eyes of the world, even Jesus had failed!
If our Savior, the Son of God, the one we follow, did not get it “perfect” by the world’s standards, then that should tell us something about the world’s expectations. If, according to the world Christ did not hit 100%, then why are we all so scared of not hitting 100%? Christ knows there will be times when our attempts will fall short, but we are to try anyway! Christ knows that our attempts my look to the world like a total failure, but Christ sends us out there anyway! We may not feel ready for the challenge, but Christ sends us out into the world to bring the Good News to those who will hear, and in some cases to plant the word in those who are not yet ready to hear. Just like the disciples in Biblical times, Christ prepares us and then sends us. And as we are out in the world, Christ begs us to spread the word, but Christ also reminds us to be gentle with ourselves when things do not appear to go as planned.
I think we fear change because with change comes the fear of possible failure. And, frankly, failure is not a comfortable thing. If we don’t go out and try, we will not fail, but we also will not make any new discoveries! Teflon was discovered through what was, at first, thought to be a failed experiment! Humanity can, at times, look like a failed experiment. And Christ knows that we all have our short comings, we discussed that last week! But we are called to move beyond our fears and our anxieties and trust in the God who made us, who calls us, who saves us! We are called to take the love and forgiveness we find at the table and spread it to all we encounter! We are called to bring the message to the world! And it is guaranteed that not everyone will respond when we share that love, but that is not ours to worry about. Our Lord shared his life even when he knew it would be rejected. All he asks of us is for us to share our hearts.
Something that I have noticed in the world is that we really have a hang up about getting everything “right.” I am not talking about “Right” as in Republican, but “right” as in correct. I mean, let’s face it, we have to get things right in our world or we get sued. Am I wrong? Braking systems don’t work right, boom! We sue! Medications don’t work right and suddenly there are commercials for class-action law suits EVERYWHERE! We seem to live in a world where perfection is the standard that is set and nothing short of perfection will be tolerated.
And, I have to admit, when it comes to things like the breaking system on my car, or the side-effects of the drugs I take, or the air worthiness of the planes I fly on, I don’t want a whole lot of mistakes there! But I think this whole focus on perfection has not necessarily served us well. I heard something on the radio the other morning that I think sums up our situation. In our world today, so often The Perfect is the enemy of The Good.
You may have heard that phrase before, but have you really thought about it? So often when we search for the “perfect,” we loose all the wonderfully good things that we may have passed by. Granted, there are things that we want to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as we can get. Like I said, I kind of like it when my car stops. But does everything in our world have to be perfect? I think we carry this perfection to the point where it gets in our way. We strive so much for The Perfect that we may find ourselves trapped doing nothing.
I just finished a piece of stained glass. I was not pleased with it. It was a difficult pattern and some things just did not go together the way I wanted them to. I fussed and fumed about it. I came really close to throwing the thing off the balcony. But others who saw it, liked it. And the person who was buying it like it. And the person who received it as a gift REALLY liked it. No, it was not perfect, but that didn’t matter. It was what the person wanted and it was what was needed in the situation. If I would have waited until it was perfect, a piece of glass would not have been made, and a gift would not have been given, an anniversary would not have been celebrated.
In our faith life, I think we can get caught in the same kind of dilemmas; we can get so worried about being the PERFECT Christian or being the Perfect Episcopalian. We try our darndest to do the right things, to get the rite right, to be perfect. Or we do the opposite; we figure that since perfection is not possible, we should never try at all. Since no matter how hard we try we are going to come up short, we may figure that we might as well not try at all. And the truth about both of these reactions, striving for perfection or slipping into apathy, is that they point out how messed up this idea of having to have everything Perfect really is and how far from reality we can wander when we don’t keep a foot in reality and don’t keep looking around us.
Last week, we talked about how God can use us all; even those that society may call unclean or abominations. And we discussed how God can work with us to help form us into creations that have the potential of being so much more than we ever expected. But as I was saying, in our world we expect perfection from ourselves and others right away. The problem with this is if you have EVER tried to learn anything new, there is a lot of trial and error, there are a lot of mistakes made, until you even get anything CLOSE to perfection. We know this, we know that there will be mistakes; we know that we are going to fall and that we are going to drop the ball. And even though we know this, somehow we have difficulty giving ourselves and others the gift of patience and forgiveness.
Now one thing that I don’t like to make is “PROCLAMATIONS ON HIGH” from the pulpit, but this is one proclamation that I can make with no hesitation: God knows we are not going to be perfect and God is OK with that! And how can I be so sure about this? Well, we have proof right in today’s gospel reading.
In the gospel reading for today, Jesus is telling his followers to go out into the world and preach the Good News. Now, Jesus tells the disciples what to do when they come into a home and how to treat the people who are present. This is good stuff to remember for being a good guest. (We think about being a good host, but there is also something to being a good guest!) But Jesus explains to the disciples how they are to treat the people whom they encounter and how to graciously accept hospitality.
Now, if Jesus was expecting the disciples to be perfect, this would be the end of the lesson: We would meet people and share the message and they would invite us in and all would be well with the world. If we were expected to be perfect, there would be no need for a contingency plan because all of Christ’s followers would be spreading the message perfectly. But that is not what happens in the gospel reading. Jesus DOES give the disciples a contingency plan. Jesus gives the disciples a plan for what to do if the members of the household do not hear the Gospel message. In simple words, Jesus gives the disciples a plan in case they fail.
Jesus knows that the disciples will, in fact, at some point, fail. But the fact that they will fail does not mean that they are not sent out into the world. Even knowing that they will fail, Jesus still sends them out to spread the news. Just because the disciples will not be batting 100% does not mean they are pulled out of the game. Jesus does expect the disciples to be out in the world and to work to bring the Good News to the people, but Jesus is also a realist, he knows that not everyone will be open to the message and knows that not every attempt to spread the message will be perfect.
I was frustrated a while ago about things just not going well in life. I was bellowing about not being a good enough priest and not being able to spread the message and on and on. Basically, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and hoping that God would hear and make everything better. It was at this time that a friend of mine told me something that gave me a bit of a shake: He said, “You know Ben, even Jesus didn’t hit 100%.” He said, “When you think about it, Jesus didn’t get the message through to both of the criminals at the crucifixion. He spoke the message to both but only one heard and believed. So you are expecting to be PERFECT when Jesus was only 50% from the cross!” WOW! I had forgotten about that! Even when the SON OF GOD brought the message to the people, not everyone heard it or understood it! To the eyes of the world, even Jesus had failed!
If our Savior, the Son of God, the one we follow, did not get it “perfect” by the world’s standards, then that should tell us something about the world’s expectations. If, according to the world Christ did not hit 100%, then why are we all so scared of not hitting 100%? Christ knows there will be times when our attempts will fall short, but we are to try anyway! Christ knows that our attempts my look to the world like a total failure, but Christ sends us out there anyway! We may not feel ready for the challenge, but Christ sends us out into the world to bring the Good News to those who will hear, and in some cases to plant the word in those who are not yet ready to hear. Just like the disciples in Biblical times, Christ prepares us and then sends us. And as we are out in the world, Christ begs us to spread the word, but Christ also reminds us to be gentle with ourselves when things do not appear to go as planned.
I think we fear change because with change comes the fear of possible failure. And, frankly, failure is not a comfortable thing. If we don’t go out and try, we will not fail, but we also will not make any new discoveries! Teflon was discovered through what was, at first, thought to be a failed experiment! Humanity can, at times, look like a failed experiment. And Christ knows that we all have our short comings, we discussed that last week! But we are called to move beyond our fears and our anxieties and trust in the God who made us, who calls us, who saves us! We are called to take the love and forgiveness we find at the table and spread it to all we encounter! We are called to bring the message to the world! And it is guaranteed that not everyone will respond when we share that love, but that is not ours to worry about. Our Lord shared his life even when he knew it would be rejected. All he asks of us is for us to share our hearts.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Another Sleepless Night
The usual response will be: Just deal with it. I know I should, but I hate how this thing is just floating out there. No kind of closure. And although this may sound melodramatic I feel like I am walking in a field of landmines. I am not sure what will set off the next one. Quite frankly, I hate it.
I see no way of this ending in a win-win situation. The family involved has made no attempt to show any remorse at their behavior. In fact, they have been trying to defend it and say that I am the bad one in the situation. I am not going to change practices just because one person does not like it. I have gotten positive feedback about what has been happening and if one person does not like it, well, I guess that is too bad. What I hate is this tip-toeing around trying to figure out what is happening.
I don't foresee is woman and her daughter ever seeing me as the leader. As such, all she will do is bring anxiety into a system that is anxious enough. And if it comes down to then having a problem with me, well, there are always other churches. That sounds harsh, but we cannot survive if everyone wants to be leader.
I am getting really sick of not sleeping. And I know I should "Let Go and Let God." Maybe I am just not build for this calling. I see macaroni and glue sculptures in my future. When you come to visit, just don't bring anything sharp.
I see no way of this ending in a win-win situation. The family involved has made no attempt to show any remorse at their behavior. In fact, they have been trying to defend it and say that I am the bad one in the situation. I am not going to change practices just because one person does not like it. I have gotten positive feedback about what has been happening and if one person does not like it, well, I guess that is too bad. What I hate is this tip-toeing around trying to figure out what is happening.
I don't foresee is woman and her daughter ever seeing me as the leader. As such, all she will do is bring anxiety into a system that is anxious enough. And if it comes down to then having a problem with me, well, there are always other churches. That sounds harsh, but we cannot survive if everyone wants to be leader.
I am getting really sick of not sleeping. And I know I should "Let Go and Let God." Maybe I am just not build for this calling. I see macaroni and glue sculptures in my future. When you come to visit, just don't bring anything sharp.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Pentecost 5 - 8C We are all on the team.
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62
If we were going to have a casting call for church members, what would we be looking for? I am guessing we would look for people of impeccable moral character, right? And we would probably look for people who were upstanding figures in the community. We would probably want some people who are trustworthy and those that once they make a commitment are always going to follow through. We would want the people who are not going to make us look silly or cause our church any embarrassment. Oh, and being rich and being able to handle money would also be a good thing! If we were going to purposely select members for a church, we would want the best of the best!
Now, according to the standards that we had just set up, how many of us would be members of this church? How many of us are always of impeccable moral character? How many of us are always the most upstanding figures we know? How many of us have NEVER once had an “oops” moment where we realize we had promised to do something and then come to the scary conclusion that we had something else planned during that time? If you are like me, you are coming to the conclusion that the worldly standards for church membership are darn near impossible to live up to! If we had to live up to these standards just to get membership, if this were true, then I am guessing our churches would be pretty empty.
But if we listen to people on TV, isn’t that what they keep telling us? Don’t we hear that we have to be good enough, or rich enough, or pure enough, or faithful enough, or “whatever” enough to be acceptable to Christ? And if we can never be “whatever” enough, then why should we even bother?
Well, thankfully, the church that Christ has envisioned for us is not the church that the world has envisioned for itself. Where the church of the world would be turning people away, the church that Christ has envisioned for us is always busy drawing people in. How can I say this? All we have to do is look at the gospel reading that we have had for the past month! In each of these readings, Christ is reaching out to the outcasts of the world and bringing them into the community of the church.
Three weeks ago, we had the son who was raised from the dead. Two weeks ago, there was the sinner woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Last week, we had the demon possessed man. And now this week we have the reluctant disciples. If we think back to what criteria we had discussed as constituting the perfect church member, each of these people would probably not even get to the steps of that perfect church, as the world would have it. But each of these people are called into truly perfect church of Christ. Each of these people is given Christ’s special attention. Even the ones who do turn away do so of their own accord; Jesus does not send them away.
On this last point, some may say that I am splitting hairs: Jesus does make demands of these people, but he does not say, “You are not worthy!” All these people, people whom the world were not comfortable with, Jesus loved and welcomed into his presence, and therefore into the Church.
But just because Jesus welcomed all of these people into the body, doesn’t mean that it was, or is, a free-for-all. To those who follow Jesus, Jesus makes some pretty strong demands. Jesus calls us past our day-to-day life. Jesus calls us to go out and proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to counter what the world expects to demonstrate that in Christ something truly transforming is occurring.
In the gospel reading for today, the things that the “would-be followers” ask to do before following Jesus, do not seem to be bad at all, but Jesus responds to these requests quite negatively. Even simple, no-brainer, “NICE” things like burying a father seem to be rejected by Jesus. I really don’t think we are supposed to take this literally or else we would have dead bodies lying all over the place. But I think Jesus wants to shake up our thinking and make us question those things that we consider important. If burying a father, (which would be “honoring your father,” fourth commandment, you know!) is not worthy of taking time away from our ministry in Christ, then what is? And I think this is what Christ would have us consider. What do we just assume is Christian and don’t take time to truly ponder?
Jesus accepts all kinds of people, Jesus accepts us! But Jesus is not content to just leave us to our own devices. Jesus is not willing to allow us to just do whatever we think is right and attributing that impulse to “being Christian.” As we see from the gospel reading, Christ wants us to think about our lives. We see this also in our reading from Galatians. Galatians tells us what, as Christians, we are to strive for. We are to strive for those things that create and nurture community. We are to strive for love, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the things that help us all to live together as the body of Christ and are the gifts that come from the Spirit. The rest, jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, those are all things that we need to be aware of and work to avoid.
Of course, avoiding all of these “negative” emotions does not mean that we become door mats. I find it interesting that our President is being criticized for not showing anger. And much of this criticism would be coming from the Christian right. From what I have seen, the President is acting in a very Spirit-filled manner; not becoming angry and quarrelsome. Some may say that he is doing nothing, but would yelling and screaming get him anything more? I don’t know. I know that yelling as screaming tend to make people defensive and when people get defensive, pretty much nothing happens. But I do know that, according to our scripture readings, the President is acting in accordance with to the Bible than some of the people I see. Sorry, I don’t like to get political, but this just seemed to come to mind.
So this is the dilemma we are left with: Christ invites all people to be his followers; HOWEVER, Christ has some pretty big expectations from his followers! Like I had mentioned last week, we can think of Jesus as our coach, maybe even more so as our Little League coach. The coach gets all kinds of kids and the coach’s job is to turn them into the best team possible. (I chose a little league coach because no one can be cut from the team.) The coach is going to work with the team and present to them an ideal to reach for. I am sure the coach knows that the team will probably not reach the ideal, but that does not mean that the ideal should not be placed out there. Then working with the team that is there, the coach works to form the best team possible. Christ is the coach and we are the rag-tag team.
But the other thing that we need to remember, the coach is not there just to produce a winning team, a good coach is there to help the players get the most enjoyment out of the game! When the players are better conditioned and trained, they are less likely to get hurt and are more likely to find true joy in the game. A good coach should also be able to lift the players to levels of skill they never thought they had. These all work together to create an exceptional player and an exceptional team.
The great thing about our life is that though Christ, we have the best of situations: We are welcomed into his church no matter what or who we are and through Christ we are formed into wondrous new beings. Christ asks a lot of us, but Christ also gave a lot to us! When the one who laid down his life so that we might have eternal life asks for us to work on our technique, we shouldn’t be too upset! Christ asks us to change, not because we are horrible people, but because Christ wants us to get the BEST out of life! Remember, Christ has our best interests at heart!
Thankfully, Christ is not the usual casting director. The church Christ builds is made not for some imaginary perfect person, but for us “real” people. The people Christ calls to the table are not the few, but the many. This is a truly great thing! This is a life changing thing! And it is this message we need to take to the world!
Luke 9:51-62
If we were going to have a casting call for church members, what would we be looking for? I am guessing we would look for people of impeccable moral character, right? And we would probably look for people who were upstanding figures in the community. We would probably want some people who are trustworthy and those that once they make a commitment are always going to follow through. We would want the people who are not going to make us look silly or cause our church any embarrassment. Oh, and being rich and being able to handle money would also be a good thing! If we were going to purposely select members for a church, we would want the best of the best!
Now, according to the standards that we had just set up, how many of us would be members of this church? How many of us are always of impeccable moral character? How many of us are always the most upstanding figures we know? How many of us have NEVER once had an “oops” moment where we realize we had promised to do something and then come to the scary conclusion that we had something else planned during that time? If you are like me, you are coming to the conclusion that the worldly standards for church membership are darn near impossible to live up to! If we had to live up to these standards just to get membership, if this were true, then I am guessing our churches would be pretty empty.
But if we listen to people on TV, isn’t that what they keep telling us? Don’t we hear that we have to be good enough, or rich enough, or pure enough, or faithful enough, or “whatever” enough to be acceptable to Christ? And if we can never be “whatever” enough, then why should we even bother?
Well, thankfully, the church that Christ has envisioned for us is not the church that the world has envisioned for itself. Where the church of the world would be turning people away, the church that Christ has envisioned for us is always busy drawing people in. How can I say this? All we have to do is look at the gospel reading that we have had for the past month! In each of these readings, Christ is reaching out to the outcasts of the world and bringing them into the community of the church.
Three weeks ago, we had the son who was raised from the dead. Two weeks ago, there was the sinner woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Last week, we had the demon possessed man. And now this week we have the reluctant disciples. If we think back to what criteria we had discussed as constituting the perfect church member, each of these people would probably not even get to the steps of that perfect church, as the world would have it. But each of these people are called into truly perfect church of Christ. Each of these people is given Christ’s special attention. Even the ones who do turn away do so of their own accord; Jesus does not send them away.
On this last point, some may say that I am splitting hairs: Jesus does make demands of these people, but he does not say, “You are not worthy!” All these people, people whom the world were not comfortable with, Jesus loved and welcomed into his presence, and therefore into the Church.
But just because Jesus welcomed all of these people into the body, doesn’t mean that it was, or is, a free-for-all. To those who follow Jesus, Jesus makes some pretty strong demands. Jesus calls us past our day-to-day life. Jesus calls us to go out and proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to counter what the world expects to demonstrate that in Christ something truly transforming is occurring.
In the gospel reading for today, the things that the “would-be followers” ask to do before following Jesus, do not seem to be bad at all, but Jesus responds to these requests quite negatively. Even simple, no-brainer, “NICE” things like burying a father seem to be rejected by Jesus. I really don’t think we are supposed to take this literally or else we would have dead bodies lying all over the place. But I think Jesus wants to shake up our thinking and make us question those things that we consider important. If burying a father, (which would be “honoring your father,” fourth commandment, you know!) is not worthy of taking time away from our ministry in Christ, then what is? And I think this is what Christ would have us consider. What do we just assume is Christian and don’t take time to truly ponder?
Jesus accepts all kinds of people, Jesus accepts us! But Jesus is not content to just leave us to our own devices. Jesus is not willing to allow us to just do whatever we think is right and attributing that impulse to “being Christian.” As we see from the gospel reading, Christ wants us to think about our lives. We see this also in our reading from Galatians. Galatians tells us what, as Christians, we are to strive for. We are to strive for those things that create and nurture community. We are to strive for love, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the things that help us all to live together as the body of Christ and are the gifts that come from the Spirit. The rest, jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, those are all things that we need to be aware of and work to avoid.
Of course, avoiding all of these “negative” emotions does not mean that we become door mats. I find it interesting that our President is being criticized for not showing anger. And much of this criticism would be coming from the Christian right. From what I have seen, the President is acting in a very Spirit-filled manner; not becoming angry and quarrelsome. Some may say that he is doing nothing, but would yelling and screaming get him anything more? I don’t know. I know that yelling as screaming tend to make people defensive and when people get defensive, pretty much nothing happens. But I do know that, according to our scripture readings, the President is acting in accordance with to the Bible than some of the people I see. Sorry, I don’t like to get political, but this just seemed to come to mind.
So this is the dilemma we are left with: Christ invites all people to be his followers; HOWEVER, Christ has some pretty big expectations from his followers! Like I had mentioned last week, we can think of Jesus as our coach, maybe even more so as our Little League coach. The coach gets all kinds of kids and the coach’s job is to turn them into the best team possible. (I chose a little league coach because no one can be cut from the team.) The coach is going to work with the team and present to them an ideal to reach for. I am sure the coach knows that the team will probably not reach the ideal, but that does not mean that the ideal should not be placed out there. Then working with the team that is there, the coach works to form the best team possible. Christ is the coach and we are the rag-tag team.
But the other thing that we need to remember, the coach is not there just to produce a winning team, a good coach is there to help the players get the most enjoyment out of the game! When the players are better conditioned and trained, they are less likely to get hurt and are more likely to find true joy in the game. A good coach should also be able to lift the players to levels of skill they never thought they had. These all work together to create an exceptional player and an exceptional team.
The great thing about our life is that though Christ, we have the best of situations: We are welcomed into his church no matter what or who we are and through Christ we are formed into wondrous new beings. Christ asks a lot of us, but Christ also gave a lot to us! When the one who laid down his life so that we might have eternal life asks for us to work on our technique, we shouldn’t be too upset! Christ asks us to change, not because we are horrible people, but because Christ wants us to get the BEST out of life! Remember, Christ has our best interests at heart!
Thankfully, Christ is not the usual casting director. The church Christ builds is made not for some imaginary perfect person, but for us “real” people. The people Christ calls to the table are not the few, but the many. This is a truly great thing! This is a life changing thing! And it is this message we need to take to the world!
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
More "fun time" with Stage Mom and Miss Diva!
The letter I would like to send. (Beware, totally snarky!)
Stage Mom,
I am writing this because I am at a loss.
First off, I am at a loss for the anger that I feel is being directed toward me. I have to assume that this anger is displaced because we really do not know each other well enough for the amount that is present.
You say I have not done enough to be pastoral. In what manner? What do you want me to do? I will not do therapy, I am your priest, not your therapist. I can be supportive of you during the process, but it would be inappropriate for me to offer to do therapy.
You say I ignored your mother when she had surgery. Your mother did not say anything to me. If she is upset, I wish she would say something. If I also remember right, this was right between Palm Sunday and Easter. I was living in Lansing at that time. I think I did offer to visit. I don’t remember. However, this feels like an attempt to find something to be angry about and this incident provides a way of channeling your anger toward me.
I feel it is important for the children to be in worship. Children add to the worship of the congregation and it is our duty, as Christians, to help each other grow. Miss Diva using the excuse that she doesn’t get anything out of worship is a strawman argument in that she has not been present in enough services to make that decision. Also, from you words and attitude and her words and attitude, it would not make any difference what I preach. I get the distinct impression that you consider Miss Diva to be more advanced than I. That is ok, you can believe that. But that doesn’t mean that I have to change the church to make her happy.
I am sorry, but nothing I do can make you happy. There are too many other things going on in your life and until you deal with that, you are going to keep blaming others for your unhappiness. If you get rid of me, then what? You will not be pleased with the next priest either, I can guarantee that! No one is going to live up to the secret agenda you have. And since no one can live up to it, what good does it do?
You told Senior Warden that pastoral care has been absent here for four years. I have only been here 3 months. I AM NOT THE ONE WHO YOU ARE ANGRY WITH!
Do you realize that in saying that I should meet with your daughter outside the church because she is very possessive of the church and will fight me about it, you are giving her tacit permission to be a bully? You are telling her that she just has to beat, or browbeat, people until she gets what she wants. This is what passes for parenting these days?
And you really cannot be surprised that I retracted the offer to have Miss Diva preach. You acted like you got shocked when I said that I would be working with her to write a sermon. Did you think I was just going to let her go? Especially after the display she put on? But then again, you seemed to enjoy it. The “apologize to Fr. Ben” was a nice touch. But WAYYYYY too late. And the smug, “I told you she would be upset,” let me know that you have no respect for me.
You say that I don’t show you any respect! I would never let my child give you a dressing down in public. My child would be treating you with respect and dignity. If you want respect, you, AND YOUR CHILD, need to be willing to give it.
The letter I would like to send. (Beware, totally snarky!)
Stage Mom,
I am writing this because I am at a loss.
First off, I am at a loss for the anger that I feel is being directed toward me. I have to assume that this anger is displaced because we really do not know each other well enough for the amount that is present.
You say I have not done enough to be pastoral. In what manner? What do you want me to do? I will not do therapy, I am your priest, not your therapist. I can be supportive of you during the process, but it would be inappropriate for me to offer to do therapy.
You say I ignored your mother when she had surgery. Your mother did not say anything to me. If she is upset, I wish she would say something. If I also remember right, this was right between Palm Sunday and Easter. I was living in Lansing at that time. I think I did offer to visit. I don’t remember. However, this feels like an attempt to find something to be angry about and this incident provides a way of channeling your anger toward me.
I feel it is important for the children to be in worship. Children add to the worship of the congregation and it is our duty, as Christians, to help each other grow. Miss Diva using the excuse that she doesn’t get anything out of worship is a strawman argument in that she has not been present in enough services to make that decision. Also, from you words and attitude and her words and attitude, it would not make any difference what I preach. I get the distinct impression that you consider Miss Diva to be more advanced than I. That is ok, you can believe that. But that doesn’t mean that I have to change the church to make her happy.
I am sorry, but nothing I do can make you happy. There are too many other things going on in your life and until you deal with that, you are going to keep blaming others for your unhappiness. If you get rid of me, then what? You will not be pleased with the next priest either, I can guarantee that! No one is going to live up to the secret agenda you have. And since no one can live up to it, what good does it do?
You told Senior Warden that pastoral care has been absent here for four years. I have only been here 3 months. I AM NOT THE ONE WHO YOU ARE ANGRY WITH!
Do you realize that in saying that I should meet with your daughter outside the church because she is very possessive of the church and will fight me about it, you are giving her tacit permission to be a bully? You are telling her that she just has to beat, or browbeat, people until she gets what she wants. This is what passes for parenting these days?
And you really cannot be surprised that I retracted the offer to have Miss Diva preach. You acted like you got shocked when I said that I would be working with her to write a sermon. Did you think I was just going to let her go? Especially after the display she put on? But then again, you seemed to enjoy it. The “apologize to Fr. Ben” was a nice touch. But WAYYYYY too late. And the smug, “I told you she would be upset,” let me know that you have no respect for me.
You say that I don’t show you any respect! I would never let my child give you a dressing down in public. My child would be treating you with respect and dignity. If you want respect, you, AND YOUR CHILD, need to be willing to give it.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Observations on Seperation
Ok, Nick has only been gone for one day. But, I miss him so much. I realize how much I have become dependent upon him being there.
What I find interesting is that my lived experience is not much different having him close to two-thousand miles away or just 30 miles away at work. It is kind of like the concept that I could drown in 6 feet of water as easily as I could drown in 1000 feet of water. Once the water is over my head, I can't breath. In a similar fashion, once Nick is away, it doesn't matter if he is two miles away or 2000, he is still away.
But the psychological stress is different. Knowing that he is in Acapulco is hard. I see him on Skype and remind myself that this could be an episode of Mission: Impossible and the room could just be made up to look like it is in the tropics. Whether he is two miles or 2000 miles, knowing that he is 2000 miles away is more stressful.
Oh well....
What I find interesting is that my lived experience is not much different having him close to two-thousand miles away or just 30 miles away at work. It is kind of like the concept that I could drown in 6 feet of water as easily as I could drown in 1000 feet of water. Once the water is over my head, I can't breath. In a similar fashion, once Nick is away, it doesn't matter if he is two miles away or 2000, he is still away.
But the psychological stress is different. Knowing that he is in Acapulco is hard. I see him on Skype and remind myself that this could be an episode of Mission: Impossible and the room could just be made up to look like it is in the tropics. Whether he is two miles or 2000 miles, knowing that he is 2000 miles away is more stressful.
Oh well....
Confusion and other updates
Ok, when I talked with the kids last week, on of the overwhelming comment that I heard was, "I can't sit still for an hour." Now, this was not just from one kid, nor was it just from one family. It was from almost every kid there.
WHAT IS UP?!?!?!
I feel old when I start doing, "When I was a kid..." but when I was a kid, we could, and did, sit through church. We were able to sit for an hour and even if we were bored silly, we still sat there. I will admit that I sat at the end of the pew so I could see what was going on, but that was pretty much it.
Did I always understand the sermon? I RARELY understood the sermon. But we were there and we sat through the service. We did not get up and run down the aisle. We did not go out an chat with our friends. And, truthfully, I would have never thought of telling the priest that I could not sit through the service.
I heard Ed Friedman, author of Generation to Generation, call us the generation of perpetual novelty. We seem to need to be constantly stimulated. I know that I have some difficulty with this. As I type this, music is on in the background, and if I were not sitting in my office, I would probably have a TV on. But when our children cannot go from the grocery store to home without watching a movie, or cannot go five minutes without texting someone, that is insane! A friend of mine told me that her daughter, age 12, sent/received over 6500 text messages during the last billing period! THAT IS INSANE!
Now, I know that I do not have children, but what are we doing to our kids! And are we giving them excuses for not developing? You know that the kids that told me they could not sit still heard that from someone. And what do they do at school? Do we have ADD rooms for them? Maybe the reason they never learned to sit still is because they never HAD to sit still? Granted, it is not the most pleasant thing to learn, for the child or the adult, but it is something that can be learned.
Are we doing something to ourselves and our kids by having the perpetual stimulation?
I remember, when we would travel, we would play games, like the ABC game where you had to find the letters in the alphabet before you drove past a cemetery. Or we learned to read the map. (My father would even try "short cuts" we would suggest.) Or drew, or whatever. We learned other ways to keep our minds occupied. We learned skills. Were long trips a drag? Yes, but that is why we left at o'dark thirty! At least we slept part of the way. (Well, my sibs did, I still can't sleep in a car.)
Oh well....
Updates: I sent the letter to Miss Diva concerning the no-preaching gig. Have not heard back. Heard from the Asst. to the Bishop who reassured me that even though she was friends with this family, she could not condone the behavior and had my back. That brought much relief.
Nick is in Acapulco on a business trip. (REALLY!!) I worried all the flight time and I will worry all the time back. But Continental Airlines has a fun thing that you can follow flights so I was able to watch his progress. We also Skype so not only am I able to talk with him, but also see him. (AND THE BEAUTIFUL PACIFIC OCEAN HE CAN SEE FROM HIS BALCONY!) And what is great is that it is free! Ok, so I ranted a bit about technology earlier, but it does have its benefits.
Oh well, all for now. Have a great day and do something where you have to actively keep your mind occupied.
WHAT IS UP?!?!?!
I feel old when I start doing, "When I was a kid..." but when I was a kid, we could, and did, sit through church. We were able to sit for an hour and even if we were bored silly, we still sat there. I will admit that I sat at the end of the pew so I could see what was going on, but that was pretty much it.
Did I always understand the sermon? I RARELY understood the sermon. But we were there and we sat through the service. We did not get up and run down the aisle. We did not go out an chat with our friends. And, truthfully, I would have never thought of telling the priest that I could not sit through the service.
I heard Ed Friedman, author of Generation to Generation, call us the generation of perpetual novelty. We seem to need to be constantly stimulated. I know that I have some difficulty with this. As I type this, music is on in the background, and if I were not sitting in my office, I would probably have a TV on. But when our children cannot go from the grocery store to home without watching a movie, or cannot go five minutes without texting someone, that is insane! A friend of mine told me that her daughter, age 12, sent/received over 6500 text messages during the last billing period! THAT IS INSANE!
Now, I know that I do not have children, but what are we doing to our kids! And are we giving them excuses for not developing? You know that the kids that told me they could not sit still heard that from someone. And what do they do at school? Do we have ADD rooms for them? Maybe the reason they never learned to sit still is because they never HAD to sit still? Granted, it is not the most pleasant thing to learn, for the child or the adult, but it is something that can be learned.
Are we doing something to ourselves and our kids by having the perpetual stimulation?
I remember, when we would travel, we would play games, like the ABC game where you had to find the letters in the alphabet before you drove past a cemetery. Or we learned to read the map. (My father would even try "short cuts" we would suggest.) Or drew, or whatever. We learned other ways to keep our minds occupied. We learned skills. Were long trips a drag? Yes, but that is why we left at o'dark thirty! At least we slept part of the way. (Well, my sibs did, I still can't sleep in a car.)
Oh well....
Updates: I sent the letter to Miss Diva concerning the no-preaching gig. Have not heard back. Heard from the Asst. to the Bishop who reassured me that even though she was friends with this family, she could not condone the behavior and had my back. That brought much relief.
Nick is in Acapulco on a business trip. (REALLY!!) I worried all the flight time and I will worry all the time back. But Continental Airlines has a fun thing that you can follow flights so I was able to watch his progress. We also Skype so not only am I able to talk with him, but also see him. (AND THE BEAUTIFUL PACIFIC OCEAN HE CAN SEE FROM HIS BALCONY!) And what is great is that it is free! Ok, so I ranted a bit about technology earlier, but it does have its benefits.
Oh well, all for now. Have a great day and do something where you have to actively keep your mind occupied.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Well, I Don't Think This Happened To Me Before.
Because of my actions, I may have a family leave the congregation. And truthfully, I am not overly bothered by this.
A week or so ago, I explained a situation with a mother and a daughter. Well, the whole thing just got more crazy.
I scheduled a meeting with the Youth so we could talk about when they wanted from their program. The Prodigy Girl decided she could not be bothered to come in for the meeting. So we discussed various things like when Sunday School was going to be and what the young folks could do to be more involved in the life of the church. We also discussed Confirmation and some of my expectations for Confirmation.
Afte about a half-hour, Miss Diva herself graced us with her presence. She was very upset and, if not screaming, at least speaking in a vary angry voice. I asked her if she would please sit down and speak in a more civil tone; to which she said, "No!" (Her mother was sitting there, almost encouraging the behavior.)
The "conversation" continued with Miss Diva telling me that she gets "so much more" out of Sunday School than the worship service and cannot understand why I would want the kids in the service. She cannot understand why her sister should have to do sermon reports for Confirmation since she never had to. (It didn't even phase her that I am a different Priest than the one who did her Confirmation classes.) I was then told by Miss Diva that the sister's faith is so deep that she shouldn't have to write about it and how dare I ask her to do anything like that to be confirmed. (Remember, the mother [henceforth referred to as "Stage Mom"] was sitting there not saying anything.)
After trying to end the conversation three times, Stage Mom finally told Miss Diva that she should not use that tone of voice with me. (Not that her whole interaction was inappropriate, just the tone of voice) After a brief scuffel, Miss Diva decided to apologize for her tone. (How magnanimous!)
Then, after Miss Diva left, Stage Mom said, "See, I told you she would give you a fight." This was said almost with a smirk. Then Stage Mom said, "She doesn't do change well." I SHOULD SAY NOT! Then Stage Mom told me she once asked Miss Diva when she felt closest to Jesus. Miss Diva's reply was, "Mom, I don't understand your question, every moment of my life I am close to Jesus." (This all was said in a manner that insinuated that I should be hanging on Miss Diva's every word becaus I could learn so much from her, considering how deep she was.)
(I just puked a bit in my mouth while typing that!)
I finally said that I needed to leave before I said or did anything that I would later regret.
Now I was stuck in a situation: The assistant to the Bishop was friends with Stage Mom and Miss Diva. I asked Miss Diva to preach for me when I was going to be gone on vacation because Assistant said that "she has a strong faith." Now I was supposed to work with this child who obviously didn't think anything I said was worth listening to.
Well, the letter went out today:
"Dear Miss Diva,
After the meeting of Friday, June 18th, I will be retracting the offer to have you lead and preach to the congregation on August 1st... "
Stage Mom told me that if I proceed with the requirements of Confirmation and with wanting her children in Worship, her children would be "Worshiping at the 'Church of the Holy Comforter.'" When I gave her a questioning look, she said, "If you make demands, they won't come to church." Their loss I guess.
I am also betting that this letter will be enough to stop the family from attending church. They were not present this past Sunday because they had to "go pick strawberries" during worship time. So much for the importance of church.
What is odd is that I am strangly calm now.
A week or so ago, I explained a situation with a mother and a daughter. Well, the whole thing just got more crazy.
I scheduled a meeting with the Youth so we could talk about when they wanted from their program. The Prodigy Girl decided she could not be bothered to come in for the meeting. So we discussed various things like when Sunday School was going to be and what the young folks could do to be more involved in the life of the church. We also discussed Confirmation and some of my expectations for Confirmation.
Afte about a half-hour, Miss Diva herself graced us with her presence. She was very upset and, if not screaming, at least speaking in a vary angry voice. I asked her if she would please sit down and speak in a more civil tone; to which she said, "No!" (Her mother was sitting there, almost encouraging the behavior.)
The "conversation" continued with Miss Diva telling me that she gets "so much more" out of Sunday School than the worship service and cannot understand why I would want the kids in the service. She cannot understand why her sister should have to do sermon reports for Confirmation since she never had to. (It didn't even phase her that I am a different Priest than the one who did her Confirmation classes.) I was then told by Miss Diva that the sister's faith is so deep that she shouldn't have to write about it and how dare I ask her to do anything like that to be confirmed. (Remember, the mother [henceforth referred to as "Stage Mom"] was sitting there not saying anything.)
After trying to end the conversation three times, Stage Mom finally told Miss Diva that she should not use that tone of voice with me. (Not that her whole interaction was inappropriate, just the tone of voice) After a brief scuffel, Miss Diva decided to apologize for her tone. (How magnanimous!)
Then, after Miss Diva left, Stage Mom said, "See, I told you she would give you a fight." This was said almost with a smirk. Then Stage Mom said, "She doesn't do change well." I SHOULD SAY NOT! Then Stage Mom told me she once asked Miss Diva when she felt closest to Jesus. Miss Diva's reply was, "Mom, I don't understand your question, every moment of my life I am close to Jesus." (This all was said in a manner that insinuated that I should be hanging on Miss Diva's every word becaus I could learn so much from her, considering how deep she was.)
(I just puked a bit in my mouth while typing that!)
I finally said that I needed to leave before I said or did anything that I would later regret.
Now I was stuck in a situation: The assistant to the Bishop was friends with Stage Mom and Miss Diva. I asked Miss Diva to preach for me when I was going to be gone on vacation because Assistant said that "she has a strong faith." Now I was supposed to work with this child who obviously didn't think anything I said was worth listening to.
Well, the letter went out today:
"Dear Miss Diva,
After the meeting of Friday, June 18th, I will be retracting the offer to have you lead and preach to the congregation on August 1st... "
Stage Mom told me that if I proceed with the requirements of Confirmation and with wanting her children in Worship, her children would be "Worshiping at the 'Church of the Holy Comforter.'" When I gave her a questioning look, she said, "If you make demands, they won't come to church." Their loss I guess.
I am also betting that this letter will be enough to stop the family from attending church. They were not present this past Sunday because they had to "go pick strawberries" during worship time. So much for the importance of church.
What is odd is that I am strangly calm now.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Pentecost 4 Year C Demons Walk Among Us
Luke 8:26-39
You may be happy to know that you are not going to get the usual sermon for today: The usual sermon involves how demons were the way that people of the past would describe mental illnesses. You would be told that when we hear about people possessed with demons, we are not supposed to assume that as an actual being inhabiting the person and we are to realize that people were dealing with the unexplainable in their midst. You have probably already heard a sermon like that, if not, you probably will at some point. And besides, I don’t want to get into the whole “do demons exist or not” argument. It is not really a useful argument so I am not even going to go there. But that does not mean we are not going to talk about demon possession!
So, you are probably saying to yourself, “Self, how can we talk about demon possession if we are not going to talk about demons?” Well, we can talk about demon possession by using the term “demon possession” to represent those things that drive us away from God and away from each other.
In the gospel reading for today, we had the man who, we are told, was possessed by demons. He was running around naked, he had to be chained, and he was living in the tombs among the dead. Whatever was happening to him, it was keeping him from living a life that was complete and fulfilling. If we use our definition, whatever the demons were, we can see that they were keeping him from God and from the community.
What are the demons that posses us in our world today? What are the things that keep us away, not only from God, but from each other? One of the biggest, and probably oldest, demons there is would be the demon of Greed. As we learn more about the housing collapse and about the disaster in the Gulf, we find more and more that people were taking all kinds of risks, doing all kinds of things that could be considered foolhardy at best, to make money. They did not care about what might happen to others. They did not worry how their actions would impact the rest of the world. As long as they were making money, that was all that mattered. The demon of Greed kept them apart from those of the community and relegated them to live amongst the dead. The drive for money became their god and did not allow the true God to speak in their lives.
But collapsing economies is an extreme case. Most of us will never be in the situation where our actions can cause billions of dollars to be made or lost. Even at our greediest, we probably will not cause damages to that extent.
So does that mean that we do not need to talk about demons? What about us? What other demons may be living in our lives? Truthfully, this is the part that I don’t like to talk about because it hits way too close to home. And talking about demons in our lives brings up one of the big demons that we clergy deal with: That demon is the demon is acceptance. I am not sure I want to talk about these demon things because you may not like what I have to say. You may think I am being too hard, or “not living in reality” and you may not want to come here anymore. And then people will get angry with me and it will just become a huge mess. So the demon of Acceptance would be telling me to just be quiet.
How would being quiet be a bad thing, though? Wouldn’t saying nothing bring our community together? Wouldn’t it make us all so much happier? Well, in saying nothing, I would be avoiding my obligation to you as a leader. It is not really much of a leader who allows anything to happen. Think of a coach who would allow the players to do whatever they wanted; wouldn’t be much of a team, would it? The same goes for a church. Sometimes we need to hear that what we are doing is not in our own best interest, let alone best interest of the congregation or other members of the congregation. However, if I were to allow everyone to do whatever they like, it make you all like me, and it may make the demon of Acceptance very happy, it would not make for a healthy and vibrant congregation. And it would not allow us to grow closer to God.
Another demon that seems to be running rampant in our society is the demon of Distraction. We don’t pay attention to ANYTHING anymore! Families sit around the table with their heads buried in their various personal electronic devices. When children cannot even travel from the grocery store to home without having to be watching a movie, there is a problem. I have seen this! I had also been out with a family in a restaurant and one of the kids never once added to the conversation due to being so engrossed in a video game. But it is not only the kids. People walk around with a blue tooth stuck in their ear, because “you never know when someone will want to talk to you!” I don’t think we realize that we are telling the people around us that they, the people we are right in the presence of, that those people are not as important as that person who might call.
Distraction keeps us from experiencing what is really happening. Distraction tells us that what MIGHT be is more important than what IS. And Distraction keeps us from God because we may just miss that important call or that big putt or that last minute touchdown. What I always wonder is: If the call, putt, or touchdown was that important, wouldn’t an all-caring, all-loving God make sure it was part of our lives?
Just like the demons in the gospel, the demons in our lives are many! And they are sneaky! They don’t want to be called out and named. They don’t want us knowing about them because once we know about them, we can start to banish them.
However, another demon can come jumping in right here! That demon is the demon of Self Sufficiency. “I can do it myself!” I don’t need God, I don’t need the church, I don’t need anyone. And that demon is probably as old as the demon of greed if not older. The way that demon stays alive is to keep the person away from those things that could get rid of the demon. The demoniac in the Gospel lived alone and did not encounter people. When the demoniac come in contact with Jesus, the lies of the demons were made clear and the demons were driven away.
We encounter Christ in our world through the people who surround us. When we isolate ourselves from the community of faith, we prevent Christ’s love which is found in the community from touching us. The demons in our lives love this isolation, but this isolation does not help us to grow and mature. Isolation prevents us from truly feeling Christ’s love and prevents us from spreading that love to the world.
This conversation about demons could continue on. I am sure we can find all kinds of things that prevent us from being a part of community and from growing closer to God. But the main point that we need to remember is that our demons, whatever they are, cannot stand when confronted with the love of Christ. Those things that pretend to give life cannot stand when confronted with the true life we find in Christ. We may want to move away from the community of faith, and we may even move away from Christ, but we need to remember that it is WE who are moving away, not Christ. Christ is here, embodied in the community and found around the table. And it is in Christ that we find our strength to live life fully and authentically.
You may be happy to know that you are not going to get the usual sermon for today: The usual sermon involves how demons were the way that people of the past would describe mental illnesses. You would be told that when we hear about people possessed with demons, we are not supposed to assume that as an actual being inhabiting the person and we are to realize that people were dealing with the unexplainable in their midst. You have probably already heard a sermon like that, if not, you probably will at some point. And besides, I don’t want to get into the whole “do demons exist or not” argument. It is not really a useful argument so I am not even going to go there. But that does not mean we are not going to talk about demon possession!
So, you are probably saying to yourself, “Self, how can we talk about demon possession if we are not going to talk about demons?” Well, we can talk about demon possession by using the term “demon possession” to represent those things that drive us away from God and away from each other.
In the gospel reading for today, we had the man who, we are told, was possessed by demons. He was running around naked, he had to be chained, and he was living in the tombs among the dead. Whatever was happening to him, it was keeping him from living a life that was complete and fulfilling. If we use our definition, whatever the demons were, we can see that they were keeping him from God and from the community.
What are the demons that posses us in our world today? What are the things that keep us away, not only from God, but from each other? One of the biggest, and probably oldest, demons there is would be the demon of Greed. As we learn more about the housing collapse and about the disaster in the Gulf, we find more and more that people were taking all kinds of risks, doing all kinds of things that could be considered foolhardy at best, to make money. They did not care about what might happen to others. They did not worry how their actions would impact the rest of the world. As long as they were making money, that was all that mattered. The demon of Greed kept them apart from those of the community and relegated them to live amongst the dead. The drive for money became their god and did not allow the true God to speak in their lives.
But collapsing economies is an extreme case. Most of us will never be in the situation where our actions can cause billions of dollars to be made or lost. Even at our greediest, we probably will not cause damages to that extent.
So does that mean that we do not need to talk about demons? What about us? What other demons may be living in our lives? Truthfully, this is the part that I don’t like to talk about because it hits way too close to home. And talking about demons in our lives brings up one of the big demons that we clergy deal with: That demon is the demon is acceptance. I am not sure I want to talk about these demon things because you may not like what I have to say. You may think I am being too hard, or “not living in reality” and you may not want to come here anymore. And then people will get angry with me and it will just become a huge mess. So the demon of Acceptance would be telling me to just be quiet.
How would being quiet be a bad thing, though? Wouldn’t saying nothing bring our community together? Wouldn’t it make us all so much happier? Well, in saying nothing, I would be avoiding my obligation to you as a leader. It is not really much of a leader who allows anything to happen. Think of a coach who would allow the players to do whatever they wanted; wouldn’t be much of a team, would it? The same goes for a church. Sometimes we need to hear that what we are doing is not in our own best interest, let alone best interest of the congregation or other members of the congregation. However, if I were to allow everyone to do whatever they like, it make you all like me, and it may make the demon of Acceptance very happy, it would not make for a healthy and vibrant congregation. And it would not allow us to grow closer to God.
Another demon that seems to be running rampant in our society is the demon of Distraction. We don’t pay attention to ANYTHING anymore! Families sit around the table with their heads buried in their various personal electronic devices. When children cannot even travel from the grocery store to home without having to be watching a movie, there is a problem. I have seen this! I had also been out with a family in a restaurant and one of the kids never once added to the conversation due to being so engrossed in a video game. But it is not only the kids. People walk around with a blue tooth stuck in their ear, because “you never know when someone will want to talk to you!” I don’t think we realize that we are telling the people around us that they, the people we are right in the presence of, that those people are not as important as that person who might call.
Distraction keeps us from experiencing what is really happening. Distraction tells us that what MIGHT be is more important than what IS. And Distraction keeps us from God because we may just miss that important call or that big putt or that last minute touchdown. What I always wonder is: If the call, putt, or touchdown was that important, wouldn’t an all-caring, all-loving God make sure it was part of our lives?
Just like the demons in the gospel, the demons in our lives are many! And they are sneaky! They don’t want to be called out and named. They don’t want us knowing about them because once we know about them, we can start to banish them.
However, another demon can come jumping in right here! That demon is the demon of Self Sufficiency. “I can do it myself!” I don’t need God, I don’t need the church, I don’t need anyone. And that demon is probably as old as the demon of greed if not older. The way that demon stays alive is to keep the person away from those things that could get rid of the demon. The demoniac in the Gospel lived alone and did not encounter people. When the demoniac come in contact with Jesus, the lies of the demons were made clear and the demons were driven away.
We encounter Christ in our world through the people who surround us. When we isolate ourselves from the community of faith, we prevent Christ’s love which is found in the community from touching us. The demons in our lives love this isolation, but this isolation does not help us to grow and mature. Isolation prevents us from truly feeling Christ’s love and prevents us from spreading that love to the world.
This conversation about demons could continue on. I am sure we can find all kinds of things that prevent us from being a part of community and from growing closer to God. But the main point that we need to remember is that our demons, whatever they are, cannot stand when confronted with the love of Christ. Those things that pretend to give life cannot stand when confronted with the true life we find in Christ. We may want to move away from the community of faith, and we may even move away from Christ, but we need to remember that it is WE who are moving away, not Christ. Christ is here, embodied in the community and found around the table. And it is in Christ that we find our strength to live life fully and authentically.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Pentecost 3 Year C Grace Vs. Law
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
In one of my former congregations, I had a member who used to refer to people as “Old Testament Christians.” At first I didn’t see any problem with this. The people believed in Christ; that was a good thing. They paid attention to the Old Testament; that seemed like a good thing, too. I really didn’t think too much about it. But the guy who made this comment was a smart man; he wasn’t the type who would just say something off hand. For him to name a group of people, “Old Testament Christians” probably meant that there was something more to it.
So once, when I was talking with the guy, I asked him what he meant when he called someone an “Old Testament Christian?” He responded by asking me a question: “Have you ever met someone who claims to be a Christian but whenever they are confronted with a problem, they jump back to the laws of the Old Testament?” I replied, “Yes.” He said, “Those are the people I am talking about. They are all about grace when it is black and white or when it fits their understanding of the world. But as soon as things start to get gray, they move away from grace and go right to law. They have difficulty dealing with the ambiguity of the world and dealing with things they don’t necessarily agree with. So instead of staying in the conversation and learning and growing, they jump right to the LAW and say that that settles it. Those would be the ‘Old Testament Christians.’”
Once I started to think about it, the concept made me kind of sad. All of these people who could be living in the light of Christ’s love are being stuck in the judgment of the law. To many people, it may seem like the law is the way we earn our salvation. We have to do everything “good enough” and then we will “earn” our salvation. But this is not the way. The Law provides us something that looks like a way to be assured that we are going to make it to heaven, but all that the Law does is points out our flaws. All that the Law does is holds us captive. The Law just points out how we have fallen short of the mark; and when I say, “we,” I mean all of us. If, in order to achieve salvation, we have to keep all the Law, we can never do that. None of us has ever kept all of the Ten Commandments, let alone the other 603 that are in the Old Testament that we usually don’t talk about. Did you know that? In the Old Testament there is 613 laws!
We cannot keep the Law. Period. If the Law is how we attain salvation, then we are all are always going to fall short. Our reading from Galatians says, “no one will be justified by the works of the law.” We cannot get our salvation from the Law, no matter how much we try.
But we have a hard time moving beyond the Law. Why is that? I would like to think that we pay attention to the law because it gives us a way to exist as a community. We get along better if we don’t kill each other. We can survive as a community if we are not stealing from each other. And our families stay intact if we remain faithful. Law is God’s way of providing us a guide for better living. And when all are following the Law, we have to admit that life is pretty nice.
It would be nice if we followed the law because we all existed better together. But, unfortunately, we usually use the law as a way of keeping score. “We” keep the law better than “They” do, so therefore “We” are better and therefore more deserving. That other person, “They” don’t keep the Law, and therefore do not deserve anything.
This is what we see in the gospel reading for today. The woman was seen as bad. She was a bad woman and didn’t keep the Law. Therefore she didn’t deserve Jesus’ care and compassion. The Pharisees thought that they were all deserving of the attention that they received because they kept the law. (Or so they wanted others to believe.) And I am sure that if there was any way they didn’t keep the law, they has some kind of justification for it. But now this woman, it was known that she broke the law and was not a good person. She did not deserve any kind of love or care.
That is the thing about grace, and that is what we are talking about here today, is that it is there for us. It is there for us when we deserve it, but, especially, it is there when we don’t deserve it. And probably the time that we most appreciate grace is when we DON’T deserve it. When we are following the Law and we receive blessings, we tend to assume that these are just the rewards of our good behavior. But when good things happen to us, when we are blessed even when we know we have not been keeping the Law, when we know we haven’t been exemplary and still God sees fit to bring blessing into our life; that is when we truly feel God’s grace.
The unfortunate thing is, when we most feel God’s grace, it is at that moment that the world finds it the most offensive. I have heard of congregations keeping Youth Directors on who have embezzled from the checking accounts. I have heard of spouses keeping in a marriage even after finding out that the other spouse has flaunted the marriage vows. In the Bible we have Ananias, a Christian, taking in Saul, someone who was known for killing the Christians. In these situations, most of us would find the actions of these people questionable at best, and in most cases, we would find them very offensive. The world tells us that someone who steals should be fired, someone who cheats should be thrown out. And, of course, if the person is killing Christians, well that person does not deserve any kind of kindness.
But the way of God, the way of Christ, is not the way of the world. In the gospel reading, Jesus should have pushed the woman away. By the logic of the world, he should have been offended. But Jesus wasn’t. Jesus allowed the woman to express her gratitude and Jesus gave her his blessing. To the world, to the Pharisees, this was offensive. But Jesus took it in stride. The way of Jesus was not the way of the world.
I read a quote, I don’t know who said it, but it really opened my eyes to the way of Christ. It said, “Perhaps God’s grace is always offensive unless you are the one receiving it, in which case you might take down your hair and weep and kiss someone’s feet.” It would be wonderful if the whole world could celebrate with the woman who received God’s grace. It would be wonderful if we could always see God’s grace as a reason to rejoice. It would be wonderful if we could always see the world as God sees it. Unfortunately, we can not.
But the great thing is, even if it doesn’t make sense to us, it does make sense to God. God will be present and God’s grace will be present.
We have been given the law to help us to live together, but we have also been given grace so that when we do fall short of the law, we are still loved and accepted. The law is there to help us to be community, but Grace is there to give us the strength to carry on.
The Old Testament Christian, does make sense. By following the Law, we can exist better, together. But it is only when we have the love and grace of Christ that we can grow together as communities of love. We are not just law, we have more, we have Christ’s love! The love the world may find objectionable, but the love the world needs.
Luke 7:36-8:3
In one of my former congregations, I had a member who used to refer to people as “Old Testament Christians.” At first I didn’t see any problem with this. The people believed in Christ; that was a good thing. They paid attention to the Old Testament; that seemed like a good thing, too. I really didn’t think too much about it. But the guy who made this comment was a smart man; he wasn’t the type who would just say something off hand. For him to name a group of people, “Old Testament Christians” probably meant that there was something more to it.
So once, when I was talking with the guy, I asked him what he meant when he called someone an “Old Testament Christian?” He responded by asking me a question: “Have you ever met someone who claims to be a Christian but whenever they are confronted with a problem, they jump back to the laws of the Old Testament?” I replied, “Yes.” He said, “Those are the people I am talking about. They are all about grace when it is black and white or when it fits their understanding of the world. But as soon as things start to get gray, they move away from grace and go right to law. They have difficulty dealing with the ambiguity of the world and dealing with things they don’t necessarily agree with. So instead of staying in the conversation and learning and growing, they jump right to the LAW and say that that settles it. Those would be the ‘Old Testament Christians.’”
Once I started to think about it, the concept made me kind of sad. All of these people who could be living in the light of Christ’s love are being stuck in the judgment of the law. To many people, it may seem like the law is the way we earn our salvation. We have to do everything “good enough” and then we will “earn” our salvation. But this is not the way. The Law provides us something that looks like a way to be assured that we are going to make it to heaven, but all that the Law does is points out our flaws. All that the Law does is holds us captive. The Law just points out how we have fallen short of the mark; and when I say, “we,” I mean all of us. If, in order to achieve salvation, we have to keep all the Law, we can never do that. None of us has ever kept all of the Ten Commandments, let alone the other 603 that are in the Old Testament that we usually don’t talk about. Did you know that? In the Old Testament there is 613 laws!
We cannot keep the Law. Period. If the Law is how we attain salvation, then we are all are always going to fall short. Our reading from Galatians says, “no one will be justified by the works of the law.” We cannot get our salvation from the Law, no matter how much we try.
But we have a hard time moving beyond the Law. Why is that? I would like to think that we pay attention to the law because it gives us a way to exist as a community. We get along better if we don’t kill each other. We can survive as a community if we are not stealing from each other. And our families stay intact if we remain faithful. Law is God’s way of providing us a guide for better living. And when all are following the Law, we have to admit that life is pretty nice.
It would be nice if we followed the law because we all existed better together. But, unfortunately, we usually use the law as a way of keeping score. “We” keep the law better than “They” do, so therefore “We” are better and therefore more deserving. That other person, “They” don’t keep the Law, and therefore do not deserve anything.
This is what we see in the gospel reading for today. The woman was seen as bad. She was a bad woman and didn’t keep the Law. Therefore she didn’t deserve Jesus’ care and compassion. The Pharisees thought that they were all deserving of the attention that they received because they kept the law. (Or so they wanted others to believe.) And I am sure that if there was any way they didn’t keep the law, they has some kind of justification for it. But now this woman, it was known that she broke the law and was not a good person. She did not deserve any kind of love or care.
That is the thing about grace, and that is what we are talking about here today, is that it is there for us. It is there for us when we deserve it, but, especially, it is there when we don’t deserve it. And probably the time that we most appreciate grace is when we DON’T deserve it. When we are following the Law and we receive blessings, we tend to assume that these are just the rewards of our good behavior. But when good things happen to us, when we are blessed even when we know we have not been keeping the Law, when we know we haven’t been exemplary and still God sees fit to bring blessing into our life; that is when we truly feel God’s grace.
The unfortunate thing is, when we most feel God’s grace, it is at that moment that the world finds it the most offensive. I have heard of congregations keeping Youth Directors on who have embezzled from the checking accounts. I have heard of spouses keeping in a marriage even after finding out that the other spouse has flaunted the marriage vows. In the Bible we have Ananias, a Christian, taking in Saul, someone who was known for killing the Christians. In these situations, most of us would find the actions of these people questionable at best, and in most cases, we would find them very offensive. The world tells us that someone who steals should be fired, someone who cheats should be thrown out. And, of course, if the person is killing Christians, well that person does not deserve any kind of kindness.
But the way of God, the way of Christ, is not the way of the world. In the gospel reading, Jesus should have pushed the woman away. By the logic of the world, he should have been offended. But Jesus wasn’t. Jesus allowed the woman to express her gratitude and Jesus gave her his blessing. To the world, to the Pharisees, this was offensive. But Jesus took it in stride. The way of Jesus was not the way of the world.
I read a quote, I don’t know who said it, but it really opened my eyes to the way of Christ. It said, “Perhaps God’s grace is always offensive unless you are the one receiving it, in which case you might take down your hair and weep and kiss someone’s feet.” It would be wonderful if the whole world could celebrate with the woman who received God’s grace. It would be wonderful if we could always see God’s grace as a reason to rejoice. It would be wonderful if we could always see the world as God sees it. Unfortunately, we can not.
But the great thing is, even if it doesn’t make sense to us, it does make sense to God. God will be present and God’s grace will be present.
We have been given the law to help us to live together, but we have also been given grace so that when we do fall short of the law, we are still loved and accepted. The law is there to help us to be community, but Grace is there to give us the strength to carry on.
The Old Testament Christian, does make sense. By following the Law, we can exist better, together. But it is only when we have the love and grace of Christ that we can grow together as communities of love. We are not just law, we have more, we have Christ’s love! The love the world may find objectionable, but the love the world needs.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
It Has Been An Interesting Week
I have been having a bit of a crisis week. I have already considered quitting my call about 20 times. I have thought death would be a good thing about an equal amount of time. I have been pulled back from the brink by Nick more times than I would care to admit. (I feel guilty for putting him through things like this.) And I really don't want to do anything.
I know that something is going on that is beyond the triggering event. The triggering event was a parent telling me that her children didn't feel like they belonged anymore because a quilt was taken down from the sanctuary. They also didn't feel like they were important because I didn't meet with them on my first Sunday here and haven't gotten back to them.
I explained that the first Sunday was NOT a good idea to have any kind of meeting and that I have been trying to schedule a meeting. The message that I have been trying to schedule a meeting did not get to them. The mother's comment was, "Well that is one of the challenges God has put before you as their Shepherd." (AAAARRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!)
What I hate is that I am a cheerleader for getting the kids into the worship service, not just as acolytes, but as active participants. (I have been told by the mother that her children would be upset by being referred to as "kids." I hate the term "Youth" because it sounds so stilted and churchy.) I am upset because the kids have Sunday School during the church service and even now, that there is not Sunday School, they are out in the fellowship hall during worship. Maybe if they were in the sanctuary more, they would feel more comfortable in it?
But my reaction is way out of proportion to the situation. Maybe it is the feeling of being blind-sided? Maybe it is the feeling that the parent is using the children as a means of speaking her mind without having to take responsibility for her actions? I don't know. I just don't like the feeling.
I asked why the child did not come to me directly. "She is shy." But she is able to lob gernades over the fence when it suits her.
I never thought that a 15 year old would become my thorn. But the chestnut is "Beware of those who introduce themselves first, they have the biggest agenda." I guess the presumption that I would drop everything on my first Sunday to meet with her was a pretty large sign. Oh, and I have been told how "theologically advanced" she is. *Snarky comment witheld*
I am glad to have kids in the congregation that can think theologically, but I also do not feel I need to pass everything that I do through her filter. I don't even ask the Bishop! I just wish people could be a stable and emotionally mature as me! *wink wink!*
I have written a letter to the adult leaders of the Sunday School (one of which is the mother who talked to me) stating my intent to meet with the YOUTH. *shudders* I also stated how I would like to have a designated student to be the contact person along with the adults and when there is a problem, the child, along with an adult (if necessary, cause I understand that the Priest can be scary, especially since I have only been here for 3 months) should bring the problem directly to me. We shall see.
I guess I am just afraid of getting pummeled like I was in my first and second churches. Christians can be very mean people.
I know that something is going on that is beyond the triggering event. The triggering event was a parent telling me that her children didn't feel like they belonged anymore because a quilt was taken down from the sanctuary. They also didn't feel like they were important because I didn't meet with them on my first Sunday here and haven't gotten back to them.
I explained that the first Sunday was NOT a good idea to have any kind of meeting and that I have been trying to schedule a meeting. The message that I have been trying to schedule a meeting did not get to them. The mother's comment was, "Well that is one of the challenges God has put before you as their Shepherd." (AAAARRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!)
What I hate is that I am a cheerleader for getting the kids into the worship service, not just as acolytes, but as active participants. (I have been told by the mother that her children would be upset by being referred to as "kids." I hate the term "Youth" because it sounds so stilted and churchy.) I am upset because the kids have Sunday School during the church service and even now, that there is not Sunday School, they are out in the fellowship hall during worship. Maybe if they were in the sanctuary more, they would feel more comfortable in it?
But my reaction is way out of proportion to the situation. Maybe it is the feeling of being blind-sided? Maybe it is the feeling that the parent is using the children as a means of speaking her mind without having to take responsibility for her actions? I don't know. I just don't like the feeling.
I asked why the child did not come to me directly. "She is shy." But she is able to lob gernades over the fence when it suits her.
I never thought that a 15 year old would become my thorn. But the chestnut is "Beware of those who introduce themselves first, they have the biggest agenda." I guess the presumption that I would drop everything on my first Sunday to meet with her was a pretty large sign. Oh, and I have been told how "theologically advanced" she is. *Snarky comment witheld*
I am glad to have kids in the congregation that can think theologically, but I also do not feel I need to pass everything that I do through her filter. I don't even ask the Bishop! I just wish people could be a stable and emotionally mature as me! *wink wink!*
I have written a letter to the adult leaders of the Sunday School (one of which is the mother who talked to me) stating my intent to meet with the YOUTH. *shudders* I also stated how I would like to have a designated student to be the contact person along with the adults and when there is a problem, the child, along with an adult (if necessary, cause I understand that the Priest can be scary, especially since I have only been here for 3 months) should bring the problem directly to me. We shall see.
I guess I am just afraid of getting pummeled like I was in my first and second churches. Christians can be very mean people.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
A Great Way To Start Pride...
Nick and I came back from camping over the Memorial Day weekend and I noticed someone had changed the sign in front of the church. This was nothing big, someone had just changed the sign from "Spread the Message" to "Sunday Worship 9:30."
When we got home, there was a message on the phone, it said that the sign had been vandalized and that the message had since been fixed. I did not know what was placed there, but I was more than a bit apprehensive.
I got a message this morning telling me what was on the sign: One side said, "Eat me gay service 9:30" and the other said, "Spread the ass." I am suspecting that it is some kids acting like idiots. I really don't think it was aimed specifically at me.
It does hurt though.
People ask why we need Pride now days. THIS IS WHY! When someone can sue for libel just because someone calls them gay (think George Rekers) is insulting to those of us who are gay. When what you are can be considered libel, it does not help to increase one's self-esteem. When something that is a defining aspect of your life is used as an attack, it points out that there is need for change in our world.
I also feel sad for a world that finds homosexuality something that is so scary. If this was done by kids, then it should be telling that they find the thought of being gay as something that is detestable.
And since when has defacing something associated with the church been OK?
When we got home, there was a message on the phone, it said that the sign had been vandalized and that the message had since been fixed. I did not know what was placed there, but I was more than a bit apprehensive.
I got a message this morning telling me what was on the sign: One side said, "Eat me gay service 9:30" and the other said, "Spread the ass." I am suspecting that it is some kids acting like idiots. I really don't think it was aimed specifically at me.
It does hurt though.
People ask why we need Pride now days. THIS IS WHY! When someone can sue for libel just because someone calls them gay (think George Rekers) is insulting to those of us who are gay. When what you are can be considered libel, it does not help to increase one's self-esteem. When something that is a defining aspect of your life is used as an attack, it points out that there is need for change in our world.
I also feel sad for a world that finds homosexuality something that is so scary. If this was done by kids, then it should be telling that they find the thought of being gay as something that is detestable.
And since when has defacing something associated with the church been OK?
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Too Good Not To Share
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
We All Have A Language and We All Have A Story: Pentecost
I think one of the saddest questions that I ever get asked as a priest is, “Is this the right way to…” or “ Is it ok to…” Now, I can understand why people ask these questions, but that still doesn’t stop me from getting sad. I believe that these questions are asked because people want to be respectful of God and don’t want to do anything that is disrespectful. I can appreciate that. But what makes me sad is that in my opinion, it presents the wrong image of God.
It is not that God should not be respected. Yes! God should be respected! But it presents the image that there is only one way that God is willing to accept that respect. If we do not do that exactly right thing, then God is going to look the other way.
We have seen this attitude throughout history. It even has a name! It is called Gnosticism. Gnosticism says that there is a special way to get God’s attention and if we do not use that special way, then God can’t be bothered listening to us. But as I was writing this sermon, I just had to laugh at how wrong that all seems.
You see, I was sitting out in the “back yard” of the church while writing this. And while writing, there were all kinds of noises and things going on. Birds were singing, trucks were making noises, music was playing, and jets were passing over head. It was all kinds of noisy and, I believe, it was all praising God! And I had to wonder, since there were all kinds of things praising God in all kinds of ways, then something here must be WRONG! The Gnostics would have us believe that there is only one way to properly praise God, so that must mean that every other way has to be wrong.
I hope that last statement feels a bit uncomfortable to you. It should. Why would birds singing be a wrong way to praise God? Why would the music I hear be a bad thing? If God made the whole wondrous world, why would the sounds that come from it be unpleasing to God?
The writer of the Psalms was not caught up in the idea that God could only be worshipped in a certain way. The first stanza of today’s psalm sings praises for the abundance that we find in the world!
O LORD, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
The earth is full of your creatures! And all of these creatures are making all kinds of different sounds. Some moo, some croak, some chirp, and some talk! God created many incredible ways in which the creation can sing his praise! When I worked at camp, we taught a great song called, “All God’s Critters.” The first verse will give you a feel for the song:
“All God’s critters got a place in the choir/
Some sing low, some sing higher/
Some sing out loud from the telephone wire/
And some just clap their hands/
Or paws/
Or anything they got now!”
The message of the song is that we all have our way, our language for praising God! And no matter the way, our way has a place among the voices singing out to God.
If this weren’t true, we wouldn’t have the story of Pentecost. In the story of Pentecost, we are told that all the people heard the Good News in their own language. No matter how the people expressed themselves, God was sending the message to them!
Some people will say that the reason the populations were able to hear the message is because God opened their ears to the message; that the disciples were not really speaking in a different language. Well, I do believe that God will open the ears of those we speak to, but that would not explain why the people were hearing all kinds of different languages. No, I think we have a combination of the disciples peaking to the people in their own language and the Lord opening up their ears, and probably more importantly, their heart to the message. In the miracle of tongues that we see during Pentecost, God is once again saying “Yes” to all the various ways that people express themselves in the world.
Over the past weeks, we have been talking about how to spread the message. Christ tells us to go out and speak the word. We are shown where Paul went out and spoke to the women and their hearts were opened and their families were baptized. And today we are shown that Christ will rain the Spirit down upon us so that we may speak that word in a way that the world will understand. I think this is one of the challenges that face us as the People of Christ in the world. We always need to be aware of the message we wish to speak and also the manner in which we speak it. The right message in the wrong manner will be lost.
Some of you know my story about teaching an adult class in French. One of the people, who had just said that people should learn how we speak and do things if they want to be part of the church, got very angry that I was not speaking in a way she understood. I told her, in English, that if she wanted to be part of this group, she would need to learn French. My message was proper and true, it was just presented in a manner she could not understand. If there was nothing about it that she could latch onto, then the message was lost on her.
The same can be said about our world today. We need to look at how we are presenting the message. Is it in a manner people can understand? Is there a way we can alter our presentation so as to make it more approachable? I am not talking about changing the message, not at all! But I am talking about how the message is placed out in the world. If we are speaking French to an English speaking world, no one is going to understand. If we are speaking Ph.D. Quantum Physics to someone who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, the message will be lost. If we are speaking at an adult level to a six-year-old, the six-year-old is going to be hard pressed to understand. And if we continue to speak to the six-year-old as if he or she were an adult, the child would feel totally left out and abandoned.
The miracle of Pentecost is not that one way of spreading the word is better than the others; the miracle is that God can use all kinds of languages to spread the word! And also, all kinds of languages can praise the Lord! It is not just Aramaic that God hears, it is also Greek and Parthian! It is not just King James that God hears, but also New Revised Standard! It is not just organ that God hears, but also keyboard, tambourine, and drums! God has given us so many languages to speak in, and God wants us to speak to the world in our own unique language!
As Episcopalians, we have a language, we have a way of speaking. And this is a good thing! But we also have a message that needs to be brought to the world! The question becomes, how do we keep the message but make sure we can spread the message. This is not always the easiest thing to do! But it is definitely worth the challenge.
A couple of suggestions that I will make are not that hard to implement.
The first would be to increase our understanding of our faith. If we do not understand the message, it makes it harder to spread that message. If I am not sure of what I am saying in English, I am going to have a really difficult time saying it in French! In the fall, I will be offering adult classes where we can together grow in faith and our knowledge of the faith. We can grow in our understanding and learn to articulate our faith so that others may come to understanding.
Second would be to increase the languages we speak. If all we speak is middle-class Episcopalian, then if we encounter someone who has a different language, we will be stuck. Even if we try to share the Good News, if we don’t have a feel for that other person’s language, it will be as if we are speaking French while that person only understands English.
And thirdly, but by no means the least important is to keep the lines of communication open between you and God! Daily prayer and meditation is a wonderful thing. Ask for guidance and for the words to say. Ask what God would have you do and then trust that you will be given the power to do it!
We shouldn’t have to worry about if something is “right.” As long as we are speaking our language in love, I truly believe that God will hear. God, as the ultimate loving parent, loves us and loves our effort to serve God. Even if our efforts fall short, I believe that God appreciates the effort itself and can take that effort and use it to God’s glory!
We are children of the Pentecost; we are the people of Holy Spirit! Let’s go out and spread God’s message to the world! However we can! With our hands, or paws, or anything we got now!
It is not that God should not be respected. Yes! God should be respected! But it presents the image that there is only one way that God is willing to accept that respect. If we do not do that exactly right thing, then God is going to look the other way.
We have seen this attitude throughout history. It even has a name! It is called Gnosticism. Gnosticism says that there is a special way to get God’s attention and if we do not use that special way, then God can’t be bothered listening to us. But as I was writing this sermon, I just had to laugh at how wrong that all seems.
You see, I was sitting out in the “back yard” of the church while writing this. And while writing, there were all kinds of noises and things going on. Birds were singing, trucks were making noises, music was playing, and jets were passing over head. It was all kinds of noisy and, I believe, it was all praising God! And I had to wonder, since there were all kinds of things praising God in all kinds of ways, then something here must be WRONG! The Gnostics would have us believe that there is only one way to properly praise God, so that must mean that every other way has to be wrong.
I hope that last statement feels a bit uncomfortable to you. It should. Why would birds singing be a wrong way to praise God? Why would the music I hear be a bad thing? If God made the whole wondrous world, why would the sounds that come from it be unpleasing to God?
The writer of the Psalms was not caught up in the idea that God could only be worshipped in a certain way. The first stanza of today’s psalm sings praises for the abundance that we find in the world!
O LORD, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
The earth is full of your creatures! And all of these creatures are making all kinds of different sounds. Some moo, some croak, some chirp, and some talk! God created many incredible ways in which the creation can sing his praise! When I worked at camp, we taught a great song called, “All God’s Critters.” The first verse will give you a feel for the song:
“All God’s critters got a place in the choir/
Some sing low, some sing higher/
Some sing out loud from the telephone wire/
And some just clap their hands/
Or paws/
Or anything they got now!”
The message of the song is that we all have our way, our language for praising God! And no matter the way, our way has a place among the voices singing out to God.
If this weren’t true, we wouldn’t have the story of Pentecost. In the story of Pentecost, we are told that all the people heard the Good News in their own language. No matter how the people expressed themselves, God was sending the message to them!
Some people will say that the reason the populations were able to hear the message is because God opened their ears to the message; that the disciples were not really speaking in a different language. Well, I do believe that God will open the ears of those we speak to, but that would not explain why the people were hearing all kinds of different languages. No, I think we have a combination of the disciples peaking to the people in their own language and the Lord opening up their ears, and probably more importantly, their heart to the message. In the miracle of tongues that we see during Pentecost, God is once again saying “Yes” to all the various ways that people express themselves in the world.
Over the past weeks, we have been talking about how to spread the message. Christ tells us to go out and speak the word. We are shown where Paul went out and spoke to the women and their hearts were opened and their families were baptized. And today we are shown that Christ will rain the Spirit down upon us so that we may speak that word in a way that the world will understand. I think this is one of the challenges that face us as the People of Christ in the world. We always need to be aware of the message we wish to speak and also the manner in which we speak it. The right message in the wrong manner will be lost.
Some of you know my story about teaching an adult class in French. One of the people, who had just said that people should learn how we speak and do things if they want to be part of the church, got very angry that I was not speaking in a way she understood. I told her, in English, that if she wanted to be part of this group, she would need to learn French. My message was proper and true, it was just presented in a manner she could not understand. If there was nothing about it that she could latch onto, then the message was lost on her.
The same can be said about our world today. We need to look at how we are presenting the message. Is it in a manner people can understand? Is there a way we can alter our presentation so as to make it more approachable? I am not talking about changing the message, not at all! But I am talking about how the message is placed out in the world. If we are speaking French to an English speaking world, no one is going to understand. If we are speaking Ph.D. Quantum Physics to someone who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, the message will be lost. If we are speaking at an adult level to a six-year-old, the six-year-old is going to be hard pressed to understand. And if we continue to speak to the six-year-old as if he or she were an adult, the child would feel totally left out and abandoned.
The miracle of Pentecost is not that one way of spreading the word is better than the others; the miracle is that God can use all kinds of languages to spread the word! And also, all kinds of languages can praise the Lord! It is not just Aramaic that God hears, it is also Greek and Parthian! It is not just King James that God hears, but also New Revised Standard! It is not just organ that God hears, but also keyboard, tambourine, and drums! God has given us so many languages to speak in, and God wants us to speak to the world in our own unique language!
As Episcopalians, we have a language, we have a way of speaking. And this is a good thing! But we also have a message that needs to be brought to the world! The question becomes, how do we keep the message but make sure we can spread the message. This is not always the easiest thing to do! But it is definitely worth the challenge.
A couple of suggestions that I will make are not that hard to implement.
The first would be to increase our understanding of our faith. If we do not understand the message, it makes it harder to spread that message. If I am not sure of what I am saying in English, I am going to have a really difficult time saying it in French! In the fall, I will be offering adult classes where we can together grow in faith and our knowledge of the faith. We can grow in our understanding and learn to articulate our faith so that others may come to understanding.
Second would be to increase the languages we speak. If all we speak is middle-class Episcopalian, then if we encounter someone who has a different language, we will be stuck. Even if we try to share the Good News, if we don’t have a feel for that other person’s language, it will be as if we are speaking French while that person only understands English.
And thirdly, but by no means the least important is to keep the lines of communication open between you and God! Daily prayer and meditation is a wonderful thing. Ask for guidance and for the words to say. Ask what God would have you do and then trust that you will be given the power to do it!
We shouldn’t have to worry about if something is “right.” As long as we are speaking our language in love, I truly believe that God will hear. God, as the ultimate loving parent, loves us and loves our effort to serve God. Even if our efforts fall short, I believe that God appreciates the effort itself and can take that effort and use it to God’s glory!
We are children of the Pentecost; we are the people of Holy Spirit! Let’s go out and spread God’s message to the world! However we can! With our hands, or paws, or anything we got now!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
"Fr., I am having a hard time paying my bills..."
I HATE THESE TYPES OF PHONE CALLS!!!
Ok, got that off my chest.
I really hate it when I get phone calls asking for money. Especially when, to the person, it IS a pastoral emergency. I used to have people who would call right after the food pantry would close and want food for the weekend. And then there are the people who are "stuck" in a motel and have no money to pay for the room they were staying in for the past three days. There are also the ones who can't seem to understand that I DON'T have money to give them, even after telling them that I do not have a discretionary fund.
I also hate when you suggest something like calling 211, and the person asks what it is and then says they called it. If they didn't know what it was, how could they have called it?
I would love to be able to give something to all the people who call, but when does helping become enabling?
Ok, got that off my chest.
I really hate it when I get phone calls asking for money. Especially when, to the person, it IS a pastoral emergency. I used to have people who would call right after the food pantry would close and want food for the weekend. And then there are the people who are "stuck" in a motel and have no money to pay for the room they were staying in for the past three days. There are also the ones who can't seem to understand that I DON'T have money to give them, even after telling them that I do not have a discretionary fund.
I also hate when you suggest something like calling 211, and the person asks what it is and then says they called it. If they didn't know what it was, how could they have called it?
I would love to be able to give something to all the people who call, but when does helping become enabling?
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Spread The Message! Easter 7 Year C
I find an interesting phenomenon going on in the world today: It seems that there are people everywhere claiming to be Christian, but the world dose not seem to be any more Christian. In fact, it seems like the world is getting less and less Christian all the time. Is it just me? Do you see it? Maybe I am just paying attention to the wrong groups or something. But it just seems that the concept of Christian is dwindling away.
On the grand scale, I don’t know if there are fewer and fewer Christians in the world. At least in America and in Europe, I do know that the mainline denominations are experiencing declining attendance. But fewer people in the churches does not necessarily mean that there are fewer Christians. But as I said, it just seems like the world is less and less Christian, and by saying that, I also mean that the world seems to be becoming less and less nice. And yet, when we look at Jesus, he seemed like a nice guy! Not a push-over by any stretch of the imagination, but nice! And still, many of the Christians that I meet in the world seem to be anything BUT nice.
Do you realize that one of the most important calls that we have as people of Christ is to bring others to belief? I have known people who though this was just a horrific kind of thing. But if you don’t believe me, go back and look at the beginning of the gospel reading for today. Jesus is praying for his disciples, which means he is also praying for you and for me. And what is he saying? Well, he is asking that God be with us. And God is to be with us not just so that we can feel the love of God deep in our hearts, but with us so that we might bring this wondrous love to the world. Jesus says, “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.”
What Jesus is saying here is that although God could just swoop in and make the whole world believe, that is not God’s way. Jesus is saying that it is not just up to God to come and open peoples’ hearts to the good news. No! It is up to us to be out and spreading that news to those we encounter on a daily basis! If we remember the reading from Acts last week, Lydia didn’t have a great awakening on her own. It was while Paul was speaking to Lydia that the Lord opened her heart to the word. It wasn’t that she suddenly had a great desire to search out the word, the word was brought to her and then her heart was opened.
Would her heart have been opened if she had heard the word from someone else? We don’t know that. But that is not what we are supposed to gather from the story. What we are to gather is that we are sent out into the world to spread Christ’s love. Period. That simple.
It seems as if we in the mainline denominations have trouble with doing this. We seem to have difficulty telling the world about the love that we have found in Christ. You’d think with our Lord and Savior praying that we might bring others to believe would be enough for us. It would seem that this would be all the prodding we would need to be able to go out and spread Christ’s love to the world. You would think this would be true, but unfortunately, this is not the case. We have not gotten the name “The Frozen Chosen” without some help on our part.
Our Pentecostal brothers and sisters are very good at spreading the message. They seem to have no difficulty in telling the world of Christ’s love. Personally, sometimes I think they are a bit too excited about spreading the faith! But I would rather have a few Pentecostals spreading the faith than have no one saying anything. But, I guess if no one said anything, then the rocks and stones would proclaim the message! But even with our Pentecostal brothers and sisters there is some problems. Remember what I said about being “nice?” I have found some of these folks to not be overly nice in the face of challenges.
So we have us Episcopalians who are very nice but quite quiet, and we have the Pentecostals who are not so quiet, but who can be somewhat, well, socially challenging. If only we take some of each and put them together. If we could do that, I think we could become a force for change that the world has never seen before. Or maybe saw about 2000 years ago!
Some of you probably know that I had been backed into a corner and told that I better accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, or ELSE! And actually, it did more to keep me away from the church than to bring me into the church. But just because we are afraid our message may be odd by societal standards, or may be uncomfortable to some does not mean that we should not spread the message. What we need to remember is that we are Nice Episcopalians too! We have a way of spreading the message that is unique to us! We can say the message in ways that will make perfect sense to some people. It may not make sense to everyone, but that is ok. There are people out there who need to hear the message that we have to spread. Our message is not different, but our manner of spreading the message is! That is what is important! And we need to trust that if we speak the message, that God will open the ears and the hearts of those who are listening.
This is our call as Christians. Jesus himself calls us to experience his love, peace, and forgiveness, but he also calls us to share this love with the world. You see, we are called to be more than just welcoming; we are called to be inviting. Welcoming is waiting for someone to show up at your door and then being hospitable to that person. And we do that really well! But we are called to go out! To speak the word to the world. We are called to reach out and invite the world to experience the love that we have found in Christ!
We have something the world needs we have the love of Christ and, to be honest, we are really nice people! We can do a lot to change the attitude of society that believes Christians are judgmental. We can be part of the mission that Christ sets before us. Christ prays that we go out and spread the message. And Christ sends us out.
On the grand scale, I don’t know if there are fewer and fewer Christians in the world. At least in America and in Europe, I do know that the mainline denominations are experiencing declining attendance. But fewer people in the churches does not necessarily mean that there are fewer Christians. But as I said, it just seems like the world is less and less Christian, and by saying that, I also mean that the world seems to be becoming less and less nice. And yet, when we look at Jesus, he seemed like a nice guy! Not a push-over by any stretch of the imagination, but nice! And still, many of the Christians that I meet in the world seem to be anything BUT nice.
Do you realize that one of the most important calls that we have as people of Christ is to bring others to belief? I have known people who though this was just a horrific kind of thing. But if you don’t believe me, go back and look at the beginning of the gospel reading for today. Jesus is praying for his disciples, which means he is also praying for you and for me. And what is he saying? Well, he is asking that God be with us. And God is to be with us not just so that we can feel the love of God deep in our hearts, but with us so that we might bring this wondrous love to the world. Jesus says, “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.”
What Jesus is saying here is that although God could just swoop in and make the whole world believe, that is not God’s way. Jesus is saying that it is not just up to God to come and open peoples’ hearts to the good news. No! It is up to us to be out and spreading that news to those we encounter on a daily basis! If we remember the reading from Acts last week, Lydia didn’t have a great awakening on her own. It was while Paul was speaking to Lydia that the Lord opened her heart to the word. It wasn’t that she suddenly had a great desire to search out the word, the word was brought to her and then her heart was opened.
Would her heart have been opened if she had heard the word from someone else? We don’t know that. But that is not what we are supposed to gather from the story. What we are to gather is that we are sent out into the world to spread Christ’s love. Period. That simple.
It seems as if we in the mainline denominations have trouble with doing this. We seem to have difficulty telling the world about the love that we have found in Christ. You’d think with our Lord and Savior praying that we might bring others to believe would be enough for us. It would seem that this would be all the prodding we would need to be able to go out and spread Christ’s love to the world. You would think this would be true, but unfortunately, this is not the case. We have not gotten the name “The Frozen Chosen” without some help on our part.
Our Pentecostal brothers and sisters are very good at spreading the message. They seem to have no difficulty in telling the world of Christ’s love. Personally, sometimes I think they are a bit too excited about spreading the faith! But I would rather have a few Pentecostals spreading the faith than have no one saying anything. But, I guess if no one said anything, then the rocks and stones would proclaim the message! But even with our Pentecostal brothers and sisters there is some problems. Remember what I said about being “nice?” I have found some of these folks to not be overly nice in the face of challenges.
So we have us Episcopalians who are very nice but quite quiet, and we have the Pentecostals who are not so quiet, but who can be somewhat, well, socially challenging. If only we take some of each and put them together. If we could do that, I think we could become a force for change that the world has never seen before. Or maybe saw about 2000 years ago!
Some of you probably know that I had been backed into a corner and told that I better accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, or ELSE! And actually, it did more to keep me away from the church than to bring me into the church. But just because we are afraid our message may be odd by societal standards, or may be uncomfortable to some does not mean that we should not spread the message. What we need to remember is that we are Nice Episcopalians too! We have a way of spreading the message that is unique to us! We can say the message in ways that will make perfect sense to some people. It may not make sense to everyone, but that is ok. There are people out there who need to hear the message that we have to spread. Our message is not different, but our manner of spreading the message is! That is what is important! And we need to trust that if we speak the message, that God will open the ears and the hearts of those who are listening.
This is our call as Christians. Jesus himself calls us to experience his love, peace, and forgiveness, but he also calls us to share this love with the world. You see, we are called to be more than just welcoming; we are called to be inviting. Welcoming is waiting for someone to show up at your door and then being hospitable to that person. And we do that really well! But we are called to go out! To speak the word to the world. We are called to reach out and invite the world to experience the love that we have found in Christ!
We have something the world needs we have the love of Christ and, to be honest, we are really nice people! We can do a lot to change the attitude of society that believes Christians are judgmental. We can be part of the mission that Christ sets before us. Christ prays that we go out and spread the message. And Christ sends us out.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Easter 6 Year C "A River Runs Through It!"
A while ago there was a movie out that was called, A River Runs Through It. I never saw it. But I was thinking that this could almost be the subtitle for my life. Just about everywhere I have lived has been with a few miles of a river. I have lived near the Mississippi River and thought that all rivers were over a mile across. I have lived near the Upper Iowa River that you can walk across. And now, I live near the Middle Rouge River. And no matter what size the river was, it had an effect on my life and what was happening around me.
I think that if we all think about this, it is probably true for most of us. Unless we lived in a desert, we have probably been close to some river or stream. Water is one of the most important things in our lives. And this makes sense. We are somewhere between 55% and 78% water. I had heard it said once that bodies seem to be a way for water to get from one place to another. So since our bodies are more water than anything else, it would be important for us to be near water. So it would make sense that our cities, towns, and agriculture would spring up (catch that? “SPRING UP”!) around water, and even more so, rivers that are moving and not stagnant.
Now in our age of indoor plumbing, we may not appreciate having a clean source of water nearby. We just turn on the tap. But in Biblical times, the concept of clean water could mean life or death, quite literally. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that throughout the Bible, rivers are often the symbol of God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s grace.
Actually, we could rename the Bible, A River Runs Through It. In Genesis we have the River of Life that begins east of Eden and in the closing chapters of Revelation we again have the river of life flowing through the New Jerusalem. We have the cooling streams in the Psalms and the water from the rock in desert. We have the river Jordan and Christ’s baptism and we have the river in Philippi where Lydia and her household were baptized. It seems that no matter where we look in the Bible, living flowing water, life giving rivers, are present.
It makes sense that the initiation rite of Christianity is baptism. It makes sense that we start with water. We start our lives as Christians with the water of life. But hopefully this is not where the stream of living water ends, hopefully this is just the trickle that suddenly becomes a rushing river!
What I find sad is that some people, especially adults, do not want to be publicly baptized. They want to go back to the process of having private baptism with just a small group of people. But to do this is to go counter to the meaning of the rite. As I have said, Baptism is a rite of initiation; it is how we say to the world, “I am a Christian!” Some think we baptize to tell God we are Christian, but God already knows that! We are baptized to say to ourselves and the world, “As for me, I will serve the Lord!”
We also recognize baptism as a way of invoking the Holy Spirit, the Advocate that Jesus speaks of in the gospel reading for today. Now when we start talking about the Holy Spirit, things can start to get a little weird, but I will say that I truly believe that one of the ways that the Spirit functions within the world is through our interactions with others. When we interact with others in faith and love, it is then that the Advocate is present. So in our baptism, we are also telling the world that we intend to be a part of something bigger, something that is world encompassing. In keeping a baptism private, we are depriving the world of that part of the Advocate that God has bestowed upon us!
What is so wonderful is when the River of Life is just coursing through your life! Don’t you just love it? Isn’t it great when the sun is shining and the birds are singing! The rent is paid and the car payments are off to the bank? Isn’t it wonderful when the kids are all doing what they are supposed to be doing and the ice makes tinkling noises in the glass? Isn’t that wonderful! At times like this, it is easy to see God at work in our lives. At times like this, it is so wonderful to share the blessings that we have been given.
It gets more difficult, though, when the river seems to be drying up. It gets more difficult when we can’t see the river. It is harder when we don’t even know if there is a stream. These are the times when faith needs to step in and we need to open our eyes. Even when the steam has dried, there is usually a sign that the river was there; the grass is greener, the vegetation is thicker. Even when the stream seems to have gone totally underground, once we have experienced the path of the river, when we look, we can usually find it.
The water metaphors can go on and on!
If we are feeling dry, we need to search out those who are swimming in the Spirit! And if we are swimming, we need to look at how we can share the River so as to irrigate them and help them to grow!
I think what is unfortunate is that so often we walk around being thirsty when we are surrounded by water. We seem to feel that the water that nurtured us has dried up and we are now left scampering to find something to drink. We look around us and see nothing but a desert. Often we can remember times when the River of Life flooded our lives, but those times can seem like such a long time ago. And the problem is that when we feel the most dry, those are the times we need to be around others. When we feel that the River has dried up, we just need to look to those around us. When it feels like the River of Life has passed us by, it is then that we most need to be a part of a community of faith.
If we think of God’s love as a river, and remember what rivers meant to people of Biblical times, we can more fully understand our readings. We can see how that love is to be spread and shared. In sharing water, the whole community would live. In sharing Christ, we spread the Spirit out into the world. In living our lives rejoicing in the River of Life we received in our baptism, we can’t help but splash that water onto those who are round us.
So how has this River of Life tracked its way through your life? Is it a rushing torrent or is it a shallow trickle? Is it a wide river or just a dry bed? Is there a dam across it holding it back or is it splashing, cascading, and singing throughout your life? Are you spreading the water to all those who are thirsty or are you keeping it to yourself? Christ calls us out, are we willing to answer?
I think that if we all think about this, it is probably true for most of us. Unless we lived in a desert, we have probably been close to some river or stream. Water is one of the most important things in our lives. And this makes sense. We are somewhere between 55% and 78% water. I had heard it said once that bodies seem to be a way for water to get from one place to another. So since our bodies are more water than anything else, it would be important for us to be near water. So it would make sense that our cities, towns, and agriculture would spring up (catch that? “SPRING UP”!) around water, and even more so, rivers that are moving and not stagnant.
Now in our age of indoor plumbing, we may not appreciate having a clean source of water nearby. We just turn on the tap. But in Biblical times, the concept of clean water could mean life or death, quite literally. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that throughout the Bible, rivers are often the symbol of God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s grace.
Actually, we could rename the Bible, A River Runs Through It. In Genesis we have the River of Life that begins east of Eden and in the closing chapters of Revelation we again have the river of life flowing through the New Jerusalem. We have the cooling streams in the Psalms and the water from the rock in desert. We have the river Jordan and Christ’s baptism and we have the river in Philippi where Lydia and her household were baptized. It seems that no matter where we look in the Bible, living flowing water, life giving rivers, are present.
It makes sense that the initiation rite of Christianity is baptism. It makes sense that we start with water. We start our lives as Christians with the water of life. But hopefully this is not where the stream of living water ends, hopefully this is just the trickle that suddenly becomes a rushing river!
What I find sad is that some people, especially adults, do not want to be publicly baptized. They want to go back to the process of having private baptism with just a small group of people. But to do this is to go counter to the meaning of the rite. As I have said, Baptism is a rite of initiation; it is how we say to the world, “I am a Christian!” Some think we baptize to tell God we are Christian, but God already knows that! We are baptized to say to ourselves and the world, “As for me, I will serve the Lord!”
We also recognize baptism as a way of invoking the Holy Spirit, the Advocate that Jesus speaks of in the gospel reading for today. Now when we start talking about the Holy Spirit, things can start to get a little weird, but I will say that I truly believe that one of the ways that the Spirit functions within the world is through our interactions with others. When we interact with others in faith and love, it is then that the Advocate is present. So in our baptism, we are also telling the world that we intend to be a part of something bigger, something that is world encompassing. In keeping a baptism private, we are depriving the world of that part of the Advocate that God has bestowed upon us!
What is so wonderful is when the River of Life is just coursing through your life! Don’t you just love it? Isn’t it great when the sun is shining and the birds are singing! The rent is paid and the car payments are off to the bank? Isn’t it wonderful when the kids are all doing what they are supposed to be doing and the ice makes tinkling noises in the glass? Isn’t that wonderful! At times like this, it is easy to see God at work in our lives. At times like this, it is so wonderful to share the blessings that we have been given.
It gets more difficult, though, when the river seems to be drying up. It gets more difficult when we can’t see the river. It is harder when we don’t even know if there is a stream. These are the times when faith needs to step in and we need to open our eyes. Even when the steam has dried, there is usually a sign that the river was there; the grass is greener, the vegetation is thicker. Even when the stream seems to have gone totally underground, once we have experienced the path of the river, when we look, we can usually find it.
The water metaphors can go on and on!
If we are feeling dry, we need to search out those who are swimming in the Spirit! And if we are swimming, we need to look at how we can share the River so as to irrigate them and help them to grow!
I think what is unfortunate is that so often we walk around being thirsty when we are surrounded by water. We seem to feel that the water that nurtured us has dried up and we are now left scampering to find something to drink. We look around us and see nothing but a desert. Often we can remember times when the River of Life flooded our lives, but those times can seem like such a long time ago. And the problem is that when we feel the most dry, those are the times we need to be around others. When we feel that the River has dried up, we just need to look to those around us. When it feels like the River of Life has passed us by, it is then that we most need to be a part of a community of faith.
If we think of God’s love as a river, and remember what rivers meant to people of Biblical times, we can more fully understand our readings. We can see how that love is to be spread and shared. In sharing water, the whole community would live. In sharing Christ, we spread the Spirit out into the world. In living our lives rejoicing in the River of Life we received in our baptism, we can’t help but splash that water onto those who are round us.
So how has this River of Life tracked its way through your life? Is it a rushing torrent or is it a shallow trickle? Is it a wide river or just a dry bed? Is there a dam across it holding it back or is it splashing, cascading, and singing throughout your life? Are you spreading the water to all those who are thirsty or are you keeping it to yourself? Christ calls us out, are we willing to answer?
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
The Power of Music
I find it interesting how certain songs can bring up such strong emotions in me.
There are songs from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that I cannot listen to with a dry eye. One song that especially gets me is "Old City Bar." The song is not a tour de force, but the theme of being home for Christmas runs through it. One line that gets me is, in refrence to being home on Christmas Eve, "If one could be home, they'd be already there." I guess I still deal with the feeling of never really being home. Even when I am at my childhood home, I never feel like I am there. And expecially at Christmas, it always felt like I was a stranger in the midst of strangers. I was supposed to be surrounded by friends and family and what I found was that I was surrounded by people I barely knew. This may also be my attraction to all things Christmas, trying to regain the dreams of home and family that I seem to have missed.
Another song that is getting to me is "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I have never seen Wicked but I love the song. Whenever I hear the song, I want to cheer, pump my fist and simultaneously flip-off the world. It too can bring tears to my eyes.
I don't know if this is a normal feeling for people/guys/gay guys. I guess we all have things that happen in our lives. I just find it interesting how music can bring up these feelings. I am guessing the emotion would not be as strong without the addition of the music.
There are songs from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that I cannot listen to with a dry eye. One song that especially gets me is "Old City Bar." The song is not a tour de force, but the theme of being home for Christmas runs through it. One line that gets me is, in refrence to being home on Christmas Eve, "If one could be home, they'd be already there." I guess I still deal with the feeling of never really being home. Even when I am at my childhood home, I never feel like I am there. And expecially at Christmas, it always felt like I was a stranger in the midst of strangers. I was supposed to be surrounded by friends and family and what I found was that I was surrounded by people I barely knew. This may also be my attraction to all things Christmas, trying to regain the dreams of home and family that I seem to have missed.
Another song that is getting to me is "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I have never seen Wicked but I love the song. Whenever I hear the song, I want to cheer, pump my fist and simultaneously flip-off the world. It too can bring tears to my eyes.
I don't know if this is a normal feeling for people/guys/gay guys. I guess we all have things that happen in our lives. I just find it interesting how music can bring up these feelings. I am guessing the emotion would not be as strong without the addition of the music.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Stage 3 Churches in Stage 4 Scoiety?
I have been thinking. I have been wondering what has been happening to church attendance over the years. It seems that in the mainline denominations, the attendance has been dropping. We keep coming up with ideas as to how to bring more people into the churches. We come up with ideas about how to grow the faith of those who are there. We keep coming up with plans. But I wonder if we are doing exactly the right thing and that we really shouldn't be getting so worried.
What if we look at society through the lense of "Stages of Faith?" What if what we are seeing is exactly what is to be happeing? What if we are going from the Stage 3 faith on to Stage 4 and then into Stage 5? If we ARE growing as a people/society, shouldn't the attendance in our congregations drop?
I think the major point is that we in mainline denominations to stand strong and to not be afraid just becasue we see our numbers dropping. We also need to NOT drop back to earlier stages of faith trying to regain past glories. If the collective faith development is growing and maturing, then to try to move backwards will be insulting as least and damaging at worst.
What if we look at society through the lense of "Stages of Faith?" What if what we are seeing is exactly what is to be happeing? What if we are going from the Stage 3 faith on to Stage 4 and then into Stage 5? If we ARE growing as a people/society, shouldn't the attendance in our congregations drop?
I think the major point is that we in mainline denominations to stand strong and to not be afraid just becasue we see our numbers dropping. We also need to NOT drop back to earlier stages of faith trying to regain past glories. If the collective faith development is growing and maturing, then to try to move backwards will be insulting as least and damaging at worst.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Easter 5 Year C
Some of you may know that I was raised Roman Catholic. And not just any kind of Roman Catholic, mind you, I was raised a Pre-Vatican II Catholic! “How can this be?” you may ask. I was not even alive when John XXVI was alive so how could I not be pre-Vatican II? Well, my father was pre-Vatican II, and the Roman Catholicism that he learned is the Roman Catholicism he taught. So the faith that I learned at home had some major overtones of works righteousness and all that this entailed.
For those of you who may have not know what that the term, “works righteousness” means, it is the belief that we are only as good as the things we do and that the only way to get to heaven is to be totally exceptional and die right after having gone to confession. If you do not do this, then you have to hang around in Purgatory for a while, ok, you have to hang around in Purgatory for a LONG while, until you have earned enough, as my father would call them, “graces” to be allowed into Heaven. Now, it takes much longer to earn Heaven once you were in Purgatory, so, as I said, the best bet for Heaven was to go to confession, get absolution, have a massive coronary and die.
This really didn’t make for a comfortable childhood. There was always the thought that I could never be good enough. And you know, after a while, I got to feel that it really didn’t matter: If I could not EVER be good enough, then why bother. I would try to be “oh so good” but then something would happen and I would just give up.
Sometimes I still feel this in my life. When things are going badly, I feel that I must be doing something wrong or else God wouldn’t be letting this happen to me. And probably even scarier is looking at others and having the feeling that THEY must have done something wrong or else God wouldn’t be letting this happen to them. What really scares me is when people, in the name of Christianity, reject, vilify, and turn away others because the so-called Christians feel that those other people are not good enough or are worthy of God’s love.
As you can probably guess, this is not a new problem. In fact, it is a problem of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS! It has been a problem that has been around from time immemorial! We, as people, are constantly grouping people. We are constantly deciding who belongs and who does not. It is something that we all do, and it is something that hopefully our scripture readings for today can help us to unlearn.
In our world today, whether we like it or not, we have a caste system. There are people who fit into our view of the world and there are those who don’t. We tend to like people who are like us and tend to avoid those who are different. In Biblical times, the same forces were at work, but it was much more codified. We know about Jewish dietary laws, that the Jews were only supposed to eat certain things, but the truly devout Jew was only to associate with other Jews. They were not supposed to have anything to do with the Gentiles. More so, they were not supposed to dine with the Gentiles or to consider the Gentiles as equals in any manner. In our world, we may make some disparaging comments in private about another group, but in Biblical times, there was nothing private about the comments.
We see this in today’s reading from Acts. When the people heard that Peter had gone to the Gentiles and that the Gentiles had accepted the word of God, they were not happy about it! Far from it! They were angry that Peter would have gone to them because they all knew that the Gentiles were undeserving of the Christ.
Why would they think that they were better than the Gentiles? Well, part of the reason, I am sure, is that they were taught their entire life that Gentiles were bad. And if you avoided the Gentiles, then you did not have anything to counter this belief. All you had to work from is the stories that you were told. The Gentiles also had no way of getting “right” with God, they did not follow the purity laws that the Jews followed so they could be nothing but profane. This would be similar to not going to confession in my Roman Catholic youth.
Also, if you are following all these laws to achieve God’s good graces, then you NEED to know that following the law is going to get you SOMETHING. If the Gentiles can get in God’s good graces without following the law, then the thought would be, “Why follow the law?”
This was the mindset of Biblical times, and quite often it is the mindset of our world yet today. And this is the mindset that is countered by our reading from Acts and our Gospel reading. In the reading from Acts, God is at work changing Peter’s view of the world. We have this weird story of the sheet and Peter not wanting to eat the food because it was not clean, or we might say that the food was not “lawful,” to eat. Now this whole thing of God telling Peter to eat happens three times! From last week, that this event happens three times should make you stop and think! Remember, in the Bible, the number three represent wholeness. The point that God is making is that the previous laws are no longer valid. God has made those things that were once considered profane, pure. And as if to say, “Now, show me what you have learned,” the messengers of Cornelius show up and want Peter to go to the Gentiles, whom, we need to remember, were considered profane.
If we need further confirmation that we are not to judge the pure from the profane in the people we meet, we just need to look to the words of Christ in today’s gospel reading. Christ gives us a pretty straight forward command; Christ tells us that we are supposed to love one another. And not just in the “Golden Rule” way of loving others as we would want to be loved, but we are to love in a radically new manner. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us! (Cue screeching brake noise!) We are to love one another is a manner that is probably beyond most of our comprehension! Most of us would probably have a bit of a problem laying down our lives for someone else, let alone lay down our life for someone who would betray us or abandon us, but that is what Christ did for us! Christ laid down his life for the disciples knowing that they would abandon him and knowing that Peter would even deny him. Christ laid down his life for us knowing that we were going to make mistakes, or even purposely go against what he had taught. Christ laid down his life knowing that we, as people were never going to reach the goal of sinlessness that my father presented as the ultimate goal of being Roman Catholic.
And this love we get from Christ is not to be kept in our little group. We are to love all people in this self-sacrificing manner. Jesus showed us through his life that he did not regard peoples’ station in life; he was as likely to dine with the people of the street as he was the people in the castles. He was probably MORE likely to be among the people whom we may consider “undesirable” than those who would be classified as “good Christians.” Christ was more likely to dine with us AS WE TRULY ARE than as we envision ourselves to be.
Ok, this is where things gets difficult, because it can sound like I am saying that we do not need to ever strive for anything other than our basest instincts. If Christ loves us, even when we are not being at all Christian, then we might as well do anything! Right? Well, this is NOT the point we are supposed to get. The point is that CHRIST LOVES US, ALL OF US! Period. Christ loves us, as we are, and wants us to love each other, as they are. Christ doesn’t want us to stay were we are and will send people like Peter into our lives to help us to change and grow; but we need to remember that none of us is ever too far gone. We are never outside of the reach of Christ. The one who died for our transgressions, even before we were born, continues to reach out to us and asks us to reach out to others. Christ calls us to reach out to the fellow sinners we find in the world.
God doesn’t consider us to be unclean. Christ loves us even though we fall short of what would be considered perfection. Christ loves us, all of us, as we are, but also loves us enough to not leave us where we are. And Christ then sends us out to bring the message to others, even those the world might consider profane.
For those of you who may have not know what that the term, “works righteousness” means, it is the belief that we are only as good as the things we do and that the only way to get to heaven is to be totally exceptional and die right after having gone to confession. If you do not do this, then you have to hang around in Purgatory for a while, ok, you have to hang around in Purgatory for a LONG while, until you have earned enough, as my father would call them, “graces” to be allowed into Heaven. Now, it takes much longer to earn Heaven once you were in Purgatory, so, as I said, the best bet for Heaven was to go to confession, get absolution, have a massive coronary and die.
This really didn’t make for a comfortable childhood. There was always the thought that I could never be good enough. And you know, after a while, I got to feel that it really didn’t matter: If I could not EVER be good enough, then why bother. I would try to be “oh so good” but then something would happen and I would just give up.
Sometimes I still feel this in my life. When things are going badly, I feel that I must be doing something wrong or else God wouldn’t be letting this happen to me. And probably even scarier is looking at others and having the feeling that THEY must have done something wrong or else God wouldn’t be letting this happen to them. What really scares me is when people, in the name of Christianity, reject, vilify, and turn away others because the so-called Christians feel that those other people are not good enough or are worthy of God’s love.
As you can probably guess, this is not a new problem. In fact, it is a problem of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS! It has been a problem that has been around from time immemorial! We, as people, are constantly grouping people. We are constantly deciding who belongs and who does not. It is something that we all do, and it is something that hopefully our scripture readings for today can help us to unlearn.
In our world today, whether we like it or not, we have a caste system. There are people who fit into our view of the world and there are those who don’t. We tend to like people who are like us and tend to avoid those who are different. In Biblical times, the same forces were at work, but it was much more codified. We know about Jewish dietary laws, that the Jews were only supposed to eat certain things, but the truly devout Jew was only to associate with other Jews. They were not supposed to have anything to do with the Gentiles. More so, they were not supposed to dine with the Gentiles or to consider the Gentiles as equals in any manner. In our world, we may make some disparaging comments in private about another group, but in Biblical times, there was nothing private about the comments.
We see this in today’s reading from Acts. When the people heard that Peter had gone to the Gentiles and that the Gentiles had accepted the word of God, they were not happy about it! Far from it! They were angry that Peter would have gone to them because they all knew that the Gentiles were undeserving of the Christ.
Why would they think that they were better than the Gentiles? Well, part of the reason, I am sure, is that they were taught their entire life that Gentiles were bad. And if you avoided the Gentiles, then you did not have anything to counter this belief. All you had to work from is the stories that you were told. The Gentiles also had no way of getting “right” with God, they did not follow the purity laws that the Jews followed so they could be nothing but profane. This would be similar to not going to confession in my Roman Catholic youth.
Also, if you are following all these laws to achieve God’s good graces, then you NEED to know that following the law is going to get you SOMETHING. If the Gentiles can get in God’s good graces without following the law, then the thought would be, “Why follow the law?”
This was the mindset of Biblical times, and quite often it is the mindset of our world yet today. And this is the mindset that is countered by our reading from Acts and our Gospel reading. In the reading from Acts, God is at work changing Peter’s view of the world. We have this weird story of the sheet and Peter not wanting to eat the food because it was not clean, or we might say that the food was not “lawful,” to eat. Now this whole thing of God telling Peter to eat happens three times! From last week, that this event happens three times should make you stop and think! Remember, in the Bible, the number three represent wholeness. The point that God is making is that the previous laws are no longer valid. God has made those things that were once considered profane, pure. And as if to say, “Now, show me what you have learned,” the messengers of Cornelius show up and want Peter to go to the Gentiles, whom, we need to remember, were considered profane.
If we need further confirmation that we are not to judge the pure from the profane in the people we meet, we just need to look to the words of Christ in today’s gospel reading. Christ gives us a pretty straight forward command; Christ tells us that we are supposed to love one another. And not just in the “Golden Rule” way of loving others as we would want to be loved, but we are to love in a radically new manner. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us! (Cue screeching brake noise!) We are to love one another is a manner that is probably beyond most of our comprehension! Most of us would probably have a bit of a problem laying down our lives for someone else, let alone lay down our life for someone who would betray us or abandon us, but that is what Christ did for us! Christ laid down his life for the disciples knowing that they would abandon him and knowing that Peter would even deny him. Christ laid down his life for us knowing that we were going to make mistakes, or even purposely go against what he had taught. Christ laid down his life knowing that we, as people were never going to reach the goal of sinlessness that my father presented as the ultimate goal of being Roman Catholic.
And this love we get from Christ is not to be kept in our little group. We are to love all people in this self-sacrificing manner. Jesus showed us through his life that he did not regard peoples’ station in life; he was as likely to dine with the people of the street as he was the people in the castles. He was probably MORE likely to be among the people whom we may consider “undesirable” than those who would be classified as “good Christians.” Christ was more likely to dine with us AS WE TRULY ARE than as we envision ourselves to be.
Ok, this is where things gets difficult, because it can sound like I am saying that we do not need to ever strive for anything other than our basest instincts. If Christ loves us, even when we are not being at all Christian, then we might as well do anything! Right? Well, this is NOT the point we are supposed to get. The point is that CHRIST LOVES US, ALL OF US! Period. Christ loves us, as we are, and wants us to love each other, as they are. Christ doesn’t want us to stay were we are and will send people like Peter into our lives to help us to change and grow; but we need to remember that none of us is ever too far gone. We are never outside of the reach of Christ. The one who died for our transgressions, even before we were born, continues to reach out to us and asks us to reach out to others. Christ calls us to reach out to the fellow sinners we find in the world.
God doesn’t consider us to be unclean. Christ loves us even though we fall short of what would be considered perfection. Christ loves us, all of us, as we are, but also loves us enough to not leave us where we are. And Christ then sends us out to bring the message to others, even those the world might consider profane.
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