On My Way to a Sermon: I Corinthians 12; To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Cor 12:7-11)
What if Paul really means what he is saying here? I mean what if Paul really means that every member of the church is the recipient of a charismatic gift from and through the Holy Spirit?
How many times have I read these verses before myself and instead of pausing to really pay attention to the charismatic nature of these gifts and then launched into the cliched encouragement of accountants to use their gifts on the Finance Committee and teachers to use their gifts on the Christian Ed committee? I don’t know exactly how many times, but I am a bit ashamed to think about it.
I know why I’ve smoothed the rough edges of these verses. I read ‘gifts of healing’ and in my minds eye come images of Benny Hinn slapping people in the forehead using his ‘gift of healing.’ I read ‘various kinds of tongues’ and I remember watching Jimmy Swaggart with my grand-mother. He would regularly go into a little tongues in his sermons. It never struck me as all that authentic frankly.
I don’t want to be compared to Benny or Jimmy so I’ve neatly tamed these verses to mean using in church the skills that we already have acquired in school or in our careers. I don’t want to turn worship into cheap entertainment and I don’t want to promise people results that I cannot guarantee.
But here is the thing. If we only read these verses and then think about skills we already possess we are closing off the possibility that God could still be creating in and through us, in strange, amazing and unexpected ways. Reading 1 Cor 12 as an encouragement to use the skills we possess in the long-run limits God to what we think we can do ourselves. Well, ok, God isn’t limited, but we are limiting ourselves. While lingering for a moment with the possibility that the Holy Spirit could empower us to do unexpected things, give gifts beyond our imagining and everyday experience might just challenge some of our dearly and rarely questioned assumptions. God is no longer some distant ‘higher power’ waiting patiently around the corner for our call, but a present and active, and perhaps inconvenient, reality. Church is no longer an occassional boost to the ego or massage for the spirit, but a training ground for the mission that God has called us to undertake. Faith no longer some dusty old ideas that we affirm upon occasion, but a process and a practice and a journey which stretches us and challenges us daily to grow into the Image of God that we were created to reflect into the dark corners of the world.
Maybe we are missing a golden opportunity by skimming over these verses and this whole idea. Perhaps there are many people out there who are waiting for someone to tell them that they were created to make a difference in the world. Perhaps there are people out there who are waiting for the opportunity to be a part of something good in a world that seems over-run by violence and greed. Perhaps they are waiting, expectantly to be told that there is a path through life that will bring more satisfaction than cruises and retirement accounts, something worth sacrificing for. Do we offer that? Paul was convinced that the Holy Spirit would empower the new Christians at Corinth to do great things. Do we challenge each other to great things? Or are we stuck in a system that offers people a place on a committee, which doesn’t sound much like a world changing kind of activity?
What if Paul really means that we are all recipients of a manifestation of the Spirit? God would no longer be a cosmic butler, church no longer a matter of convenience, membership no longer having one's name on a list, discipleship no longer joining a committee, and faith no longer a collection of ideas. All of which is good news if we’ve long been haunted by feelings of insecurity and the fear of our inadequacy. Bad news if we like our God distant, our church convenient and comforting and our faith safely ensconced in our mind.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sermon: Mt 17; Transfiguration
Mt 17:1
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Mountains are thin spaces, special connections between humans and God.
At least, that is what the scholars tell me is one reason why Jesus, Peter, James and John go up a high mountain.
But I’ve climbed a mountain (well, not a mountain exactly. Mars Hill Mountain is located in my home town and it is technically a few feet short of mountain, which by the way should tell you something about the stubborn streak of the stock I come from… we still call it a mountain anyway, but that isn’t my point). I climbed an almost mountain, and as beautiful as the view from the summit was, the journey wasn’t easy. And you don’t need any special equipment to climb Mars Hill Mountain. But I did it in the summer and its hot and humid and the mosquitoes and blackflies are out. There are some pretty steep sections. It can be challenging, perhaps not for some of you more experienced hikers, but it was for me.
Today’s first story, Jesus, Peter, James and John, going up the mountain comes AFTER a story we talked about not to long ago; the story of Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ, but then faltering with the idea that Jesus will have to suffer and be crucified, and in his attempt to wrap his head around that idea (which begins, like most of us if we admit it, with denying that which we cannot yet comprehend) Jesus calls him Satan…
Now my point is this.
The mountain, if you asked me, is the journey of being a faithful disciple
The mountain can be
personal struggles;
the loss of a loved one,
caring for aging parents,
battling addiction,
the constant maintenance of a healthy relationship with our spouse,
just keeping the bills paid.
The mountain is the stuff of life that you can’t avoid,
The stuff that you wouldn’t either, such as raising kids and caring for parents
But the details of life that can swing either way
As moments that can reveal the glory of God
Or that can really weary, discourage and distract us…
Jesus told this parable in Luke 8 about a farming scattering seed…
14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.
This is what I think…
Matthew is telling us a story to address the same issue
Because the mountain, if you asked me, is discipleship struggles
If you call someone fool you are headed straight for hell!
If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek
If someone takes your coat, give your shirt as well
If you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven
Following Christ is the decision to climb a difficult, risky path through life…
It doesn’t come easy
It doesn’t seem natural
Or logical even, sometimes
So the mountain is that struggle with the voices in our head that suggest that Jesus
Must have meant something else, something less demanding when he said to
Give generously, forgive wantonly, accept openly…
So the mountain can be personal struggles, discipleship struggles and one more…
We’ve really rehearsed these examples so much that I sometimes fear that they lose their edge
But the mountain is the story of Dietrich Bonheoffer who returned to Germany during Hitler’s rule
To lead an underground seminary, as so many churches drank the Nazi cool-aid and watched as innocent Jews were loaded into cattle cars.
The mountain is the story that I mentioned not too many weeks ago, of Martin Luther King Junior penning letter to a Birmingham Jail, in response to the local white clergy who wanted him to stop causing such a stir in the community. You are disrupting our peaceful existence…
Or John Woolman the 18th Century Quaker who walked around in white because wearing clothes made of dyed fabric would have been depending on slave labor and slavery, Woolman believed was wrong. There were all that many who agreed with him at the time… Not even among the good Christians
My point is that the mountain is not just personal struggles, or the growing pains of our own development of faith, the mountain is also the witness that we are called to maintain in a world filled with violence and injustice. The challenge of being the church God has called us to be even when culture and society will not agree or understand or appreciate what we are doing…The mountain is our hesitation to join Jesus in over-turning the tables of the money lenders…
17:1 After six days
Which could mean six days after Peter’s confession followed quickly by fear, doubt and denial…
But which also points us to two other stories…
The story of Moses on Mt. Sinai, surrounded by the cloud of God’s presence, the presence that made his face shine like the sun…
And also the story of creation in Genesis…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain, the mountain of their fears, doubts, and denials
To see, firsthand, what God was doing…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain to see the glory of God
They were lead up the mountain for strength and hope…
When all about them would seem dark and dangerous,
This glimpse of God’s glory, in their friend Jesus
Was meant to inspire them to follow him
Taking God’s creative and creating light into the dark places of the world
Reflecting God presence into the lives of those who were denied
That loving forgiving presence
The thing about the transfiguration is that it isn’t something we can practice
We can’t work toward transfiguration
We can’t earn it
We can’t plan it
We can’t control it
Transfiguration is a gift
Seeing God’s glory
God creative presence
Is a rare and wondrous and if we look at Peter’s reaction,
A daunting thing
Peter is shown the transfiguration
So that one day, he will remember it
And realize, when he has returned to his simple, safe life of fishing
That he too is called to follow Christ, no matter the consequences
And that no matter how dire those consequences seem
On the other side of sacrifice… is glory, light, resurrection
The creative presence of God, even in defeat.
Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
James William McClendon, Jr.
Doctrine p 29
John Howard Yoder wrote similarly contrasting two choices for the church… ‘run-of-the-mill’ devotion or a ‘heroic’ level of devotion.
J.H. Yoder; The Priestly Kingdom
The Kingdom as Social Ethic, p. 83
The Transfiguration is a gift to inspire heroic devotion… to shock us out of our curious believing and into action…
Which is where our second strange story comes into play…
Mt 17:27
Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.
We cannot control Transfigurations
We cannot plan them, as I said,
We wait expectantly for them…
We ready ourselves for Transfigurations
Those moments that interrupt our struggles and doubts and silence and fear
With the white light of God’s own creating
We ready ourselves to be ready for those moments
With the seemingly foolish
Searching for gold coins in the fish mouth
Peter, for all his faults, did something foolish, silly, unbelievable
When Jesus told him to go fishing for a coin, he did…
And that is what is required of us…
Watching and waiting,
and when the time comes the courage to take risky and even foolish chances
that God’s creative presence will come shining into our darkness
come shining through those of us
who will dare to climb the mountain…
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Mountains are thin spaces, special connections between humans and God.
At least, that is what the scholars tell me is one reason why Jesus, Peter, James and John go up a high mountain.
But I’ve climbed a mountain (well, not a mountain exactly. Mars Hill Mountain is located in my home town and it is technically a few feet short of mountain, which by the way should tell you something about the stubborn streak of the stock I come from… we still call it a mountain anyway, but that isn’t my point). I climbed an almost mountain, and as beautiful as the view from the summit was, the journey wasn’t easy. And you don’t need any special equipment to climb Mars Hill Mountain. But I did it in the summer and its hot and humid and the mosquitoes and blackflies are out. There are some pretty steep sections. It can be challenging, perhaps not for some of you more experienced hikers, but it was for me.
Today’s first story, Jesus, Peter, James and John, going up the mountain comes AFTER a story we talked about not to long ago; the story of Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ, but then faltering with the idea that Jesus will have to suffer and be crucified, and in his attempt to wrap his head around that idea (which begins, like most of us if we admit it, with denying that which we cannot yet comprehend) Jesus calls him Satan…
Now my point is this.
The mountain, if you asked me, is the journey of being a faithful disciple
The mountain can be
personal struggles;
the loss of a loved one,
caring for aging parents,
battling addiction,
the constant maintenance of a healthy relationship with our spouse,
just keeping the bills paid.
The mountain is the stuff of life that you can’t avoid,
The stuff that you wouldn’t either, such as raising kids and caring for parents
But the details of life that can swing either way
As moments that can reveal the glory of God
Or that can really weary, discourage and distract us…
Jesus told this parable in Luke 8 about a farming scattering seed…
14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.
This is what I think…
Matthew is telling us a story to address the same issue
Because the mountain, if you asked me, is discipleship struggles
If you call someone fool you are headed straight for hell!
If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek
If someone takes your coat, give your shirt as well
If you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven
Following Christ is the decision to climb a difficult, risky path through life…
It doesn’t come easy
It doesn’t seem natural
Or logical even, sometimes
So the mountain is that struggle with the voices in our head that suggest that Jesus
Must have meant something else, something less demanding when he said to
Give generously, forgive wantonly, accept openly…
So the mountain can be personal struggles, discipleship struggles and one more…
We’ve really rehearsed these examples so much that I sometimes fear that they lose their edge
But the mountain is the story of Dietrich Bonheoffer who returned to Germany during Hitler’s rule
To lead an underground seminary, as so many churches drank the Nazi cool-aid and watched as innocent Jews were loaded into cattle cars.
The mountain is the story that I mentioned not too many weeks ago, of Martin Luther King Junior penning letter to a Birmingham Jail, in response to the local white clergy who wanted him to stop causing such a stir in the community. You are disrupting our peaceful existence…
Or John Woolman the 18th Century Quaker who walked around in white because wearing clothes made of dyed fabric would have been depending on slave labor and slavery, Woolman believed was wrong. There were all that many who agreed with him at the time… Not even among the good Christians
My point is that the mountain is not just personal struggles, or the growing pains of our own development of faith, the mountain is also the witness that we are called to maintain in a world filled with violence and injustice. The challenge of being the church God has called us to be even when culture and society will not agree or understand or appreciate what we are doing…The mountain is our hesitation to join Jesus in over-turning the tables of the money lenders…
17:1 After six days
Which could mean six days after Peter’s confession followed quickly by fear, doubt and denial…
But which also points us to two other stories…
The story of Moses on Mt. Sinai, surrounded by the cloud of God’s presence, the presence that made his face shine like the sun…
And also the story of creation in Genesis…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain, the mountain of their fears, doubts, and denials
To see, firsthand, what God was doing…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain to see the glory of God
They were lead up the mountain for strength and hope…
When all about them would seem dark and dangerous,
This glimpse of God’s glory, in their friend Jesus
Was meant to inspire them to follow him
Taking God’s creative and creating light into the dark places of the world
Reflecting God presence into the lives of those who were denied
That loving forgiving presence
The thing about the transfiguration is that it isn’t something we can practice
We can’t work toward transfiguration
We can’t earn it
We can’t plan it
We can’t control it
Transfiguration is a gift
Seeing God’s glory
God creative presence
Is a rare and wondrous and if we look at Peter’s reaction,
A daunting thing
Peter is shown the transfiguration
So that one day, he will remember it
And realize, when he has returned to his simple, safe life of fishing
That he too is called to follow Christ, no matter the consequences
And that no matter how dire those consequences seem
On the other side of sacrifice… is glory, light, resurrection
The creative presence of God, even in defeat.
Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
James William McClendon, Jr.
Doctrine p 29
John Howard Yoder wrote similarly contrasting two choices for the church… ‘run-of-the-mill’ devotion or a ‘heroic’ level of devotion.
J.H. Yoder; The Priestly Kingdom
The Kingdom as Social Ethic, p. 83
The Transfiguration is a gift to inspire heroic devotion… to shock us out of our curious believing and into action…
Which is where our second strange story comes into play…
Mt 17:27
Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.
We cannot control Transfigurations
We cannot plan them, as I said,
We wait expectantly for them…
We ready ourselves for Transfigurations
Those moments that interrupt our struggles and doubts and silence and fear
With the white light of God’s own creating
We ready ourselves to be ready for those moments
With the seemingly foolish
Searching for gold coins in the fish mouth
Peter, for all his faults, did something foolish, silly, unbelievable
When Jesus told him to go fishing for a coin, he did…
And that is what is required of us…
Watching and waiting,
and when the time comes the courage to take risky and even foolish chances
that God’s creative presence will come shining into our darkness
come shining through those of us
who will dare to climb the mountain…
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sermon: Matthew 16:21-28; Consequences, Clutter and Cold Steel
Mt 16:24-26
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
Intro:
You are a kid. A young kid. It is winter. Snow blankets the playground… you are at school. It is cold out and you are all wrapped up in layers of coats, mittens, scarves. One of the kids from a grade or two above yours, one of the cool kids, comes and dares you to stick your tongue on one of the metal bars of the jungle gym.
Ever happen to anybody?
What did you do?
I’m not exactly sure why I thought of the time I got my tongue stuck to the jungle-gym bar, except that the first thing that jumps out at me in today’s reading is Jesus question, ‘what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit the soul.
There is something troubling about that word…. Forfeit…
There will be consequences.
I’m sure I’ve suffered more troubling consequences in my life than getting my tongue stuck to the metal bar… but that is what I thought of…
And I got that strangely funny and frightening image of God leaving me stuck to the pole for all eternity.
Context:
This is the end of a story that is all about consequences though.
As uncomfortable as consequences are… I suppose we’ve got to deal with them.
Just a few verses back, Jesus will ask the disciples, who do you say I am? (A question we will revisit in a couple of weeks). Peter says, ‘the Messiah’ and Jesus praises him.
Then Jesus begins to describe the consequences of being the messiah… he will be crucified and Peter gets… afraid? I think Peter is afraid. And he chastises Jesus, tells him not to talk like that.
Peter doesn’t like the consequences, not for Jesus, not for himself.
You see we often think that Peter chastises Jesus because he doesn’t get it…
Because he mis-understands what the Messiah will have to go through
But I think Peter does get it… and doesn’t want to hear it…
He understands that if the Messiah must sacrifice and suffer,
So must the disciples…
And those are not the consequences of following Jesus
That Peter wants.
And he is right…
Right after that exchange Jesus launches into the challenging verses we read today…
Lay down your life, take up your cross…
Those are the consequences of following me, getting behind me…
Have you got my back? Jesus asks?
This is what having my back means; following me, going where I go
But not just going where I go, among the sick and the poor, the abused and forgotten
And then to the cruel and powerful who put them there…
But doing what I do,
Helping the poor and expendable,
And confronting the powerful, show them a new way
Challenge them to live a new kind of life
If you don’t, there will be consequences…
You think that by not following me,
Or by creating distance between us that you are
Making your life easier,
But you’re not
You are losing your life.
This is the uncomfortable assumption behind the question, what will it benefit a man if he gains the world and forfeits his soul… the assumption is that there are consequences to not following Christ.
Jesus really focuses our attention on the 1,000 pound gorilla in the room.
Does faith really matter, does devotion to Christ and his church really matter, ultimately?
‘The important distinction between the objectives of highly devoted Christian teenagers and their peers was simply that highly devoted Christian teenagers did not think about their actions or their futures simply in terms of what they wanted. They considered themselves morally bound to contribute to God’s purpose in the world. ‘ Kenda Creasy Dean
It is uncomfortable because we all have friends, loved ones, family members, perhaps even spouses, who do not have faith,
Or, if they do have faith,
Their faith is like the proverbial treadmill in the TV room.
It just sits there, without getting used for its intended purpose…
Nobody runs on it, its just a clothes hanger
And Jesus is saying, here,
And in many other places, that I have included in your devotions for this week
Jesus is saying that this is not really faith at all
And there will be consequences
And I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that comfortable.
Because my friends and relatives are good folks
And it makes me sad to think that they are risking consequences.
Even if we don’t want to go down the path of eternal damnation as the consequence,
We are still left with the suggestion that life lived without a relationship with God is
A wasted life… that the potential that we were created with lies wasted, unused
That we did not become all we could have become
Accomplished all that we could have accomplished
The consequence is that those who do not
Passionately foster their faith relationship
Are a mere shadow of the self they could have been
Through Christ.
And if we take Paul’s theology seriously,
Paul’s theology that suggests that the church is a diverse body, with different
Parts depending on one another,
If one part, one person, does not reach potential,
The rest suffer.
It isn’t so much about personal consequences…
It doesn’t simply affect me if I do not allow Christ to grow in me
It affects you, all of you,
It affects the church
And if the church is affected,
So is to is the world which waits for our witness
A witness that does not reach its full power
Because we have not followed Christ, picked up a cross…
The other evening Bert and I watched this show, Clean House.
It is basically is lighter version of Hoarders.
Hoarders is a show that documents the lives of people who cannot part with their belongings, to the point that it affects their health, they have no room at all in their homes, which are full of stuff.
Clean House is basically the same thing. A team of folks come in to help the person or family clean out all the clutter, and then give them a re-decoration.
In one episode, as the guests were trying to get a woman to get rid of some of her stuff,
She absolutely had a melt-down. Most do have a melt-down.
They cannot part with their stuff.
Anyway, she said to the host, ‘I thought you were coming to help me, not make me get rid of the things I love.’
And I thought, that is Peter.
When Peter chastises Jesus for the challenge of the cross,
The challenge for the disciples to put aside the idea of gaining,
And pick up a cross…
Peter is saying, I thought you were coming to help me, not make me get rid of the things I love.
And perhaps, just perhaps,
That is what Jesus question, What is the benefit of gaining the world if we forfeit our souls
Perhaps that is the moment of realization that Jesus is pushing us toward…
That we have to put aside some of the things we love, in order to pick up the cross…
Just because the woman loves the stuff, doesn’t mean it is good for her…
It was ruining her marriage, having negative consequences on her children…
This question of Jesus challenges a church that is so focused on self-help and self-esteem that it has lost its true mission, which is to see God's purpose done in the world
This Question of Jesus challenges a discipleship that is assumes it already knows the right answers to the doctrinal questions, but is not put into action in any intentional way
This Question of jesus challenges the church that is satisfied with 'be good' and
be nice' with a much more challenging goal, to accept the way of the cross.
These words of Jesus challenge a discipleship that treats the church as ok when it is convenient, but not all that important, not something to sacrifice for,
with a warning of the consequences of an apathetic faith,
the loss of life.
Perhaps that is what Jesus has the guts to show us…
That we need to make space for the cross
To put down some things we love, clean up the clutter
Give up the things that get in the way of fostering faith
Get rid of the barriers that are blocking us from our cross
In order to pick it up and follow
For it is only in the following Christ, all the way, that we will
Ever grow into the person we were created to be.
And it is only in the journey of becoming who were are meant to be
That Berean becomes the church god intended it to be
A church that welcomes the wandering to dine at Christ’s table,
Live in God’s Kingdom, and find a path with a purpose, the path Christ
Chose, the path of the cross
Renowned preacher, theology professor and storyteller Fred Craddock swears this happened to him: He was visiting in a home of one of his former students after graduation, and after a great dinner, the young parents excused themselves and hustled the kids off to bed, leaving Fred in the living room with the family pet-a large, sleek greyhound. Earlier in the evening Fred had watched the kids roll on the floor playing with the family dog.
"That's a full-blooded greyhound there," the father of the kids had told Fred. "He once raced professionally down in Florida. Then we got him. Great dog with the kids, that greyhound."
Well, sitting there with the dog, the dog turned to Fred and asked, "This your first visit to Connecticut?"
"No," Fred answered. "I went to school up here a long time ago."
"Well, I guess you heard. I came up here from Miami," said the greyhound.
"Oh, yeah, you retired?" Fred said.
"No, is that what they told you? No, no, I didn't retire. I tell you, I spent 10 years as a professional, racing greyhound. That means 10 years of running around that track day after day, seven days a week with others chasing that rabbit. Well, one day, I got up close; I got a good look at that rabbit. It was a fake! I had spent my whole life chasing a fake rabbit! Hey, I didn't retire; I quit!"
(found this Craddock quote in a William Willimon Sermon, but I forget which one)
Today, Jesus invites us to quit chasing fake rabbits
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
Intro:
You are a kid. A young kid. It is winter. Snow blankets the playground… you are at school. It is cold out and you are all wrapped up in layers of coats, mittens, scarves. One of the kids from a grade or two above yours, one of the cool kids, comes and dares you to stick your tongue on one of the metal bars of the jungle gym.
Ever happen to anybody?
What did you do?
I’m not exactly sure why I thought of the time I got my tongue stuck to the jungle-gym bar, except that the first thing that jumps out at me in today’s reading is Jesus question, ‘what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit the soul.
There is something troubling about that word…. Forfeit…
There will be consequences.
I’m sure I’ve suffered more troubling consequences in my life than getting my tongue stuck to the metal bar… but that is what I thought of…
And I got that strangely funny and frightening image of God leaving me stuck to the pole for all eternity.
Context:
This is the end of a story that is all about consequences though.
As uncomfortable as consequences are… I suppose we’ve got to deal with them.
Just a few verses back, Jesus will ask the disciples, who do you say I am? (A question we will revisit in a couple of weeks). Peter says, ‘the Messiah’ and Jesus praises him.
Then Jesus begins to describe the consequences of being the messiah… he will be crucified and Peter gets… afraid? I think Peter is afraid. And he chastises Jesus, tells him not to talk like that.
Peter doesn’t like the consequences, not for Jesus, not for himself.
You see we often think that Peter chastises Jesus because he doesn’t get it…
Because he mis-understands what the Messiah will have to go through
But I think Peter does get it… and doesn’t want to hear it…
He understands that if the Messiah must sacrifice and suffer,
So must the disciples…
And those are not the consequences of following Jesus
That Peter wants.
And he is right…
Right after that exchange Jesus launches into the challenging verses we read today…
Lay down your life, take up your cross…
Those are the consequences of following me, getting behind me…
Have you got my back? Jesus asks?
This is what having my back means; following me, going where I go
But not just going where I go, among the sick and the poor, the abused and forgotten
And then to the cruel and powerful who put them there…
But doing what I do,
Helping the poor and expendable,
And confronting the powerful, show them a new way
Challenge them to live a new kind of life
If you don’t, there will be consequences…
You think that by not following me,
Or by creating distance between us that you are
Making your life easier,
But you’re not
You are losing your life.
This is the uncomfortable assumption behind the question, what will it benefit a man if he gains the world and forfeits his soul… the assumption is that there are consequences to not following Christ.
Jesus really focuses our attention on the 1,000 pound gorilla in the room.
Does faith really matter, does devotion to Christ and his church really matter, ultimately?
‘The important distinction between the objectives of highly devoted Christian teenagers and their peers was simply that highly devoted Christian teenagers did not think about their actions or their futures simply in terms of what they wanted. They considered themselves morally bound to contribute to God’s purpose in the world. ‘ Kenda Creasy Dean
It is uncomfortable because we all have friends, loved ones, family members, perhaps even spouses, who do not have faith,
Or, if they do have faith,
Their faith is like the proverbial treadmill in the TV room.
It just sits there, without getting used for its intended purpose…
Nobody runs on it, its just a clothes hanger
And Jesus is saying, here,
And in many other places, that I have included in your devotions for this week
Jesus is saying that this is not really faith at all
And there will be consequences
And I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that comfortable.
Because my friends and relatives are good folks
And it makes me sad to think that they are risking consequences.
Even if we don’t want to go down the path of eternal damnation as the consequence,
We are still left with the suggestion that life lived without a relationship with God is
A wasted life… that the potential that we were created with lies wasted, unused
That we did not become all we could have become
Accomplished all that we could have accomplished
The consequence is that those who do not
Passionately foster their faith relationship
Are a mere shadow of the self they could have been
Through Christ.
And if we take Paul’s theology seriously,
Paul’s theology that suggests that the church is a diverse body, with different
Parts depending on one another,
If one part, one person, does not reach potential,
The rest suffer.
It isn’t so much about personal consequences…
It doesn’t simply affect me if I do not allow Christ to grow in me
It affects you, all of you,
It affects the church
And if the church is affected,
So is to is the world which waits for our witness
A witness that does not reach its full power
Because we have not followed Christ, picked up a cross…
The other evening Bert and I watched this show, Clean House.
It is basically is lighter version of Hoarders.
Hoarders is a show that documents the lives of people who cannot part with their belongings, to the point that it affects their health, they have no room at all in their homes, which are full of stuff.
Clean House is basically the same thing. A team of folks come in to help the person or family clean out all the clutter, and then give them a re-decoration.
In one episode, as the guests were trying to get a woman to get rid of some of her stuff,
She absolutely had a melt-down. Most do have a melt-down.
They cannot part with their stuff.
Anyway, she said to the host, ‘I thought you were coming to help me, not make me get rid of the things I love.’
And I thought, that is Peter.
When Peter chastises Jesus for the challenge of the cross,
The challenge for the disciples to put aside the idea of gaining,
And pick up a cross…
Peter is saying, I thought you were coming to help me, not make me get rid of the things I love.
And perhaps, just perhaps,
That is what Jesus question, What is the benefit of gaining the world if we forfeit our souls
Perhaps that is the moment of realization that Jesus is pushing us toward…
That we have to put aside some of the things we love, in order to pick up the cross…
Just because the woman loves the stuff, doesn’t mean it is good for her…
It was ruining her marriage, having negative consequences on her children…
This question of Jesus challenges a church that is so focused on self-help and self-esteem that it has lost its true mission, which is to see God's purpose done in the world
This Question of Jesus challenges a discipleship that is assumes it already knows the right answers to the doctrinal questions, but is not put into action in any intentional way
This Question of jesus challenges the church that is satisfied with 'be good' and
be nice' with a much more challenging goal, to accept the way of the cross.
These words of Jesus challenge a discipleship that treats the church as ok when it is convenient, but not all that important, not something to sacrifice for,
with a warning of the consequences of an apathetic faith,
the loss of life.
Perhaps that is what Jesus has the guts to show us…
That we need to make space for the cross
To put down some things we love, clean up the clutter
Give up the things that get in the way of fostering faith
Get rid of the barriers that are blocking us from our cross
In order to pick it up and follow
For it is only in the following Christ, all the way, that we will
Ever grow into the person we were created to be.
And it is only in the journey of becoming who were are meant to be
That Berean becomes the church god intended it to be
A church that welcomes the wandering to dine at Christ’s table,
Live in God’s Kingdom, and find a path with a purpose, the path Christ
Chose, the path of the cross
Renowned preacher, theology professor and storyteller Fred Craddock swears this happened to him: He was visiting in a home of one of his former students after graduation, and after a great dinner, the young parents excused themselves and hustled the kids off to bed, leaving Fred in the living room with the family pet-a large, sleek greyhound. Earlier in the evening Fred had watched the kids roll on the floor playing with the family dog.
"That's a full-blooded greyhound there," the father of the kids had told Fred. "He once raced professionally down in Florida. Then we got him. Great dog with the kids, that greyhound."
Well, sitting there with the dog, the dog turned to Fred and asked, "This your first visit to Connecticut?"
"No," Fred answered. "I went to school up here a long time ago."
"Well, I guess you heard. I came up here from Miami," said the greyhound.
"Oh, yeah, you retired?" Fred said.
"No, is that what they told you? No, no, I didn't retire. I tell you, I spent 10 years as a professional, racing greyhound. That means 10 years of running around that track day after day, seven days a week with others chasing that rabbit. Well, one day, I got up close; I got a good look at that rabbit. It was a fake! I had spent my whole life chasing a fake rabbit! Hey, I didn't retire; I quit!"
(found this Craddock quote in a William Willimon Sermon, but I forget which one)
Today, Jesus invites us to quit chasing fake rabbits
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tucson, Hospitality, Peace and 2011 at BBC
We are all shocked, saddened and troubled by this past week’s news of the violent events in Tucson Arizona, which resulted in serious injury and death. You are also, I am sure, aware that many have been reflecting on the angry, divisive and sometimes violent rhetoric that has grown in prominence in our political system and in the media by those who 'report' on politics. In the aftermath of these tragic events many are lamenting the lack of civility in our nation when debating controversial topics. This reminded me of a piece of Berean’s own history that I recently discovered.
The other day while waiting for our secretary to print up some documents for me to proof, I decided to take a glance at the meeting minutes of the Women's group that met at BBC in the early 1950's. I believe this must have been an earlier incarnation of what is now called the 3 B's. I looked at the notes for early in the year of 1950 specifically and saw an interesting note. A woman in the group had prepared a paper entitled 'The Negro Problem.' Now, we wouldn't necessarily choose that language today, but I want us to stop and think about what this little note tells us. Sixty years ago, when our nation was just beginning to discuss the issue, before many churches were willing to talk about the issue, the women of Berean were thinking and talking theologically about what at the time was a very controversial subject, the treatment of African-Americans in our society. It made me extraordinarily proud to read that note. Here was a group of ladies in a tiny little country church, who could have just as easily assumed that their thoughts, prayers and theological reflection would have little to no effect on the nation at large or any influence in the halls of power, but still, they tackled the tough issues, believing that they should and would have a witness to their community.
The year ahead at Berean Baptist will give us many opportunities to live up to the standards of these women, our fore-mothers of faith. We will be studying and discussing the issue of Creation Care and with it the issue of Global Warming. This is still a controversial topic and I am sure that many diverse opinions are present in our little church. This past Sunday, in observation of Human Trafficking Awareness Day, we heard a frank presentation on the lives of women caught in the cycle of abuse and prostitution. We said and heard words that we are not accustomed to in a worship service. We were forced to give careful attention to a slice of our society that many, if not most of us, are quite ignorant of. Once again, God could be calling us to acknowledge, discuss and perhaps get involved in a social issue that could be painful and controversial. Finally, we will be engaging in a discernment process in which we will ask God to show us if we should openly welcome LGBT folks into the life and ministry of our church. This is a divisive subject. This has caused not only individual churches, but entire denominations to fight and split. I am sure that there are many differing opinions on this topic.
We could interpret the events of this past week as a warning for us to avoid controversy topics that bring our differences to the fore. While we would never do violence to one another, we could run the risk of hurtful words or a split in our little church. But I am moved to a different interpretation; As the Church of Christ in a nation and society that is shaken to its core by violence in action and in rhetoric, it is important, vitally important, that we not shy away from the potentially controversial issues that I have listed previously, but that we engage in these dialogues with an even larger goal than our own growth as disciples and effectiveness as the Church of Christ. This is our opportunity to be a witness to our community, our nation and the wider world. God has created us with diversity and called us to live in peace and reconciliation. This is our opportunity to teach the world what God’s Peaceful Kingdom looks like and acts like. We are called by God to welcome strangers, be hospitable to outsiders, and to work tirelessly for peaceful relationships, not just with people we like and like us, but with all God's children, especially those who are not ‘us.’ Perhaps God has brought these issues to the forefront of our lives so that Berean has the opportunity to show the world God’s Peaceful Kingdom in action, lived daily in the lives of normal folks like you and me.
This will take courage, this will take patience, this will take honesty, and above all this will require prayer. So, I encourage you to join me in praying each and every day in the year ahead, not only for friends and loved ones, sick and mourning ones but also for those whose viewpoint on controversial topics is different from your own. Be thankful for them, for it is through difference and diversity that the Holy Spirit can work to bring wisdom and to deepen our faith.
Blessings,
Pastor Darin
The other day while waiting for our secretary to print up some documents for me to proof, I decided to take a glance at the meeting minutes of the Women's group that met at BBC in the early 1950's. I believe this must have been an earlier incarnation of what is now called the 3 B's. I looked at the notes for early in the year of 1950 specifically and saw an interesting note. A woman in the group had prepared a paper entitled 'The Negro Problem.' Now, we wouldn't necessarily choose that language today, but I want us to stop and think about what this little note tells us. Sixty years ago, when our nation was just beginning to discuss the issue, before many churches were willing to talk about the issue, the women of Berean were thinking and talking theologically about what at the time was a very controversial subject, the treatment of African-Americans in our society. It made me extraordinarily proud to read that note. Here was a group of ladies in a tiny little country church, who could have just as easily assumed that their thoughts, prayers and theological reflection would have little to no effect on the nation at large or any influence in the halls of power, but still, they tackled the tough issues, believing that they should and would have a witness to their community.
The year ahead at Berean Baptist will give us many opportunities to live up to the standards of these women, our fore-mothers of faith. We will be studying and discussing the issue of Creation Care and with it the issue of Global Warming. This is still a controversial topic and I am sure that many diverse opinions are present in our little church. This past Sunday, in observation of Human Trafficking Awareness Day, we heard a frank presentation on the lives of women caught in the cycle of abuse and prostitution. We said and heard words that we are not accustomed to in a worship service. We were forced to give careful attention to a slice of our society that many, if not most of us, are quite ignorant of. Once again, God could be calling us to acknowledge, discuss and perhaps get involved in a social issue that could be painful and controversial. Finally, we will be engaging in a discernment process in which we will ask God to show us if we should openly welcome LGBT folks into the life and ministry of our church. This is a divisive subject. This has caused not only individual churches, but entire denominations to fight and split. I am sure that there are many differing opinions on this topic.
We could interpret the events of this past week as a warning for us to avoid controversy topics that bring our differences to the fore. While we would never do violence to one another, we could run the risk of hurtful words or a split in our little church. But I am moved to a different interpretation; As the Church of Christ in a nation and society that is shaken to its core by violence in action and in rhetoric, it is important, vitally important, that we not shy away from the potentially controversial issues that I have listed previously, but that we engage in these dialogues with an even larger goal than our own growth as disciples and effectiveness as the Church of Christ. This is our opportunity to be a witness to our community, our nation and the wider world. God has created us with diversity and called us to live in peace and reconciliation. This is our opportunity to teach the world what God’s Peaceful Kingdom looks like and acts like. We are called by God to welcome strangers, be hospitable to outsiders, and to work tirelessly for peaceful relationships, not just with people we like and like us, but with all God's children, especially those who are not ‘us.’ Perhaps God has brought these issues to the forefront of our lives so that Berean has the opportunity to show the world God’s Peaceful Kingdom in action, lived daily in the lives of normal folks like you and me.
This will take courage, this will take patience, this will take honesty, and above all this will require prayer. So, I encourage you to join me in praying each and every day in the year ahead, not only for friends and loved ones, sick and mourning ones but also for those whose viewpoint on controversial topics is different from your own. Be thankful for them, for it is through difference and diversity that the Holy Spirit can work to bring wisdom and to deepen our faith.
Blessings,
Pastor Darin
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