“LETTING GO”
Text: Matthew 9:14-17
Faith United
June 29, 2008
People – good people—
who haven’t grown up reading the Bible
or learning the Biblical stories in Sunday School,
often tell me that they have a hard time starting it now
They get very confused very quickly
Especially when there’s so much talk going on
about this or that is wrong
because “the Bible says so”
Many people can quote chapter and verse
of something that condemns
what they happen to be condemning
But you have to be really careful with the Bible
it’s a very powerful thing
and is actually quite dangerous in the wrong hands
But I think that if we approve or disapprove of something
Just Because it says so in the Bible
then you have to take it all the way
The kings in the Old Testament
Good kings like David and Solomon
had hundreds of wives and concubines
HUNDREDS
so, then it must be ok? Right?
So why is polygamy outlawed?
It’s in the Bible!
Or throughout the Old Testament
people owned slaves
bought and sold them
In the New Testament,
St. Paul writes to churches
telling them how to treat their slaves
and telling slaves how to treat their masters
In the 1800s, the Methodist Episcopal Church split in half
North and South
because the Southern states found justification
even God’s blessing upon slavery in the Bible
The northern part of the church didn’t agree
So there was, for awhile, two different denominations
Methodist Episcopal South
and Methodist Episcopal
And really, the Southerners had a point
It’s right there in the Bible
so it must be okay
They pointed to the story of Noah and his cursing
of Ham and his son Canaan
to show that since the beginning,
what we now call African Americans
were cursed by God
to be servants of the whites
Right there in the Bible
The Early Mormon Church --
and of course some fundamentalist groups
of the Mormons, as we know --
used the Old Testament to justify
polygamy
And well, the majority of us don’t buy that argument
Although we can’t deny
that yes, our spiritual ancestors
David and Solomon and many others
had many, many wives
Right there in the Bible
When early scientists wanted to prove
that the earth was not in fact flat
but was round,
early peoples pointed again, to the Bible
to Genesis,
to say that it was indeed flat
and the skies were a dome over the flat land
because that’s how it’s described in the Bible
When I was in college
really good Christian people
pointed to the New Testament
to tell me that God does not call women
into the ministry
because “it says so in the Bible”
And so, no, I don’t blame people
who just sit down and open the Bible
and close it in frustration and confusion
if they try to just read it start to finish
It IS confusing
But it’s nothing new
Jesus got into a lot of trouble
for messing with Scripture
as others saw it
The Pharisees, who were the keepers of the Church tradition
Keeper of the laws and leaders of the people
cherished the Scriptures
and cherished the laws of God
and traditions of their faith
To them, it seemed like Jesus was just some troublemaker
some free thinker, some wise guy
who just wanted to stir up trouble
Their religion, which was born through the Scriptures
and stories of the Old Testament
valued sacrifice for sins
If you sinned, you made an offering in the temple
you gave your best
you took the best calf, the best animal
and slaughtered it on the altar
In fact, it seemed, the more painful the sacrifice
the more worthy was the person giving it
There was no JOY about it
religion was not supposed to be JOYFUL
it was supposed to be painful
They lived by rigid rules
and sub rules to explain the rules
so that there was never any room for doubt
or uncertainty
Every day you knew exactly what to do and how to do it
right down to the detail
Then here comes Jesus --
Fasting was another key part of the Pharisee’s faith
It was a way to practice their religion
by depriving themselves
suffering for God
and it seemed the more you suffered
the more you loved God
And here Jesus comes--,
and this Jesus must have been a Methodist
because he and his disciples loved to eat --
They loved to celebrate
Jesus, apparently, was not morose enough for them
He was liable to hang out with anyone
he didn’t check out their credentials,
their worthiness
He didn’t ask them first, if they followed all the right rules
or voted the right way
before he would sit down with them
in fact, he seemed to go out of his way
to hang out with the least worthy
the most far-out people he could find
and I bet the Pharisees began to believe
that he did it just to annoy them
They were sure he had a specific Agenda!
So this particular day,
some followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus
Now, they weren’t Pharisees,
but like the Pharisees,
they adhered very closely to the law
I mean, John the Baptist was really into suffering for the Lord
He was out there in the desert
living on bugs and wild honey
wearing animal skins
and he hardly ever washed his hair
He preached wrath and doom
and scared the youknowwhat out of people
so they’d come be baptized
and so his followers come to Jesus
who they were told was the one
that John the Baptist was preparing the way for
and they’re confused
“Ok,” they say,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast often
but your disciples don’t?”
(Maybe at that very moment, the 12 disciples
were thoroughly enjoying a big delicious meal
with great gusto)
It’s not fair!
If Jesus was the Messiah, if he was the One,
then why is he going against John the Baptist
and the traditions of the elders?
and Jesus says a strange thing
he says,
“Can the wedding guests mourn as long
as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then it’ll be appropriate to fast. “
In other words, I’m not here for very long
life is short
and in Jesus’ case, it was even shorter than usual
and he was saying there is a time to fast, yes,
but there is a time to CELEBRATE, to enjoy…
and that time is definitely when Jesus is among them
there will be plenty of time later to grieve
when he is gone
and they will have reason to grieve
but now, he is here, he is bringing them the face of God
the appropriate response is to receive the gift!
ENJOY!
Celebrate!
Receive the blessing!
“No one,” he says, “puts a piece of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment,
for the patch tears away from the garment
and a worse tear is made.
Neither is new wine put into old wineskins;
if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled
and the skins are destroyed;
but new wine is put into fresh wineskins,
and so both are preserved.”
Jesus had said more than once in the Gospels
when instructing his disciples,
“go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
go nowhere among the Gentiles…”
and sometime later, along the way
he changed that
he didn’t only go to the Jews with his message
but broadened his ministry to non-Jews
Later on, when the disciples spread out
and started preaching and teaching
they stuck with Jesus’ old commandments
about the people of Israel
Or, they decided, if Gentiles wanted to be a part of the new Way
they had to become Jewish first,
they had to get circumcised
St. Paul came along, preaching to the Gentiles
and he believed that the message was open to all people
Jew or Gentile
and that Gentiles could remain Gentiles
and still be accepted into the faith
But Peter and the disciples fought him
and there was huge controversy among
the believers in Christ
Peter and the others believed that if Gentiles
wanted to join the faith
they had to be circumcised first
(Obviously, men were the only ones that counted
as believers at that time)
Anyway--surprise, surprise
they had a committee meeting to talk about it
a Conference--
to argue both sides
and both sides had strong arguments for their position
and it tore them apart
People, of course
thought that people who would let
uncircumcised men into the fellowship
weren’t truly of God
and those who believed that God is a God of mercy
as we see God in Jesus,
and would therefore not require the Gentiles
to conform to Jewish traditions
just to be worthy of inclusion,
well, they were just bleeding heart liberals
who ought to be punished
Paul won that battle, but the war was far from over
and there remained a stubborn contingency
who refused to include Gentiles among them
if they didn’t get circumcised
Later, Peter would get a vision from God
where God would command him to eat
all the things that are declared unclean
and unfit to eat in God’s own law
and Peter protested against God!
It’s unclean, Lord!
But God said to Peter,
“you shall not declare unclean
what I say is clean…”
and after that Peter actually changed
from his staunch, rigid position
to include uncircumcised Gentiles in the faith
Because he had a vision from God
a visit from the Spirit of God
“New wine is not put into old wineskins
if it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled
and the skin is destroyed…
but new wine is put into fresh wineskins
and so both are preserved.”
Jesus was a Jew
He was raised Jew
he and his faith adhered faithfully
to the Jewish laws and traditions
but when Jesus began his ministry
some things had to change
he didn’t get rid of the law
but he came to fulfill it
Some things were done away with
or changed with the coming of Jesus
because God was doing a new thing in Jesus
and when God does a new thing
the old passes away , according to the prophet Isaiah
It’s not completely thrown out
but is changed
The Methodist Episcopal Church
could not remain intact
and keep doing things the way they’d always been done
once people started to realize
that people from Africa were, in fact, human beings
created by God,
and that God is not a God of slavery
They came to new understandings
and so the old had to pass away
At first, that meant that the Church was split
into North and South
but as time went on, more and more people
realized, I believe, by the Spirit of God
that things simply could not remain the same
once we gained new understanding
And so the Methodist Episcopal Church
was finally reunited into one again
with the unified decree that slavery was wrong
in the sight of God
The old wineskins could not contain
all that the Spirit of God was doing in the Church
and so they had to change too
The Spirit of God stirs things up
God is not done doing new things
God is still working, still creating, day after day
Just 100 years ago
women couldn’t even vote
much less run for the presidency
Just 50 years ago, African Americans couldn’t vote
couldn’t even sit in the same restaurants
or drink at the same fountains with white people
and good, Christian, church-going people
justified their racism with their belief in the Bible
They could quote chapter and verse,
right there in the Bible
But with new understanding and new insight
society had to change
the Church had to change
and we still have a long way to go
The Church is still very much segregated
But new wine, the Spirit of God
could not work in the church if it remained closed
and rigid in it’s old traditions
New spirit, new wine, requires new containers
new foundations
I don’t know about you, but that scares me sometimes
How do we know when to stop?
How do we know where to draw the line?
How do we know when it is of the Spirit
and when it’s just some arrogant liberals
trying to stir things up and destroy?
I believe Jesus is our criteria
As I’ve said before,
when the Bible confuses me,
I go to Jesus
and the Gospels
How would Jesus respond?
Jesus said, just a couple of verses before this passage,
“Go and learn what this means,
“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
I desire MERCY and not sacrifice
In other words, time and time again
when Jesus was called on the carpet
for breaking a temple rule
it was always because he chose mercy
over law
He chose human hearts and souls
over black and white words on a page
because he came to bring the Spirit of God
that sets us free from slavery
and emotional constipation
Jesus, the Risen Christ is still alive
and his spirit is still moving, growing
and challenging us
as people and as a church
We could hold on tight to what is black and white
so we don’t have to struggle at all
or think or go on faith
but I believe Jesus calls us to live by the Spirit
to trust the spirit to tell us what is right
to teach us, stretch us,
challenge us
as we get more and more new information
in this world and in our lives
God is doing a new thing all the time
and so we have to find more and more new ways
to respond to God’s transforming grace
It hurts
It’s hard to let go of the old
and trust the new
It’s hard to change
but God is out there running ahead of us
and if we stay back here
and refuse to follow
then we are the ones who are sadly deprived
of the new life and profound new blessings
that God has in store for us
There’s a very wise saying
“Let Go and Let God”
Let go-- you or I are not in charge of the world
and we can tie ourselves up with rigidity and misery
and withhold mercy from people around us
or we can trust the spirit of God
who is running on ahead
creating, changing, enlivening,
opening up new possibilities all over the place
Let go
Let God run the world
Let God do new and amazing things in you
and get on board with all the exciting new things
that God is about
You were created to be a part of it
and God is not finished creating you OR the world yet
Let go, and let God’s Spirit amaze us all….
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
“GOD DOES NOT HATE”
Genesis 21:8-21
Faith United
June 22, 2008
We all want to know where we came from
and how
Parents love to tell the stories
of their child’s beginnings
there’s always stories to tell
And how we began says a lot about who we are
and what’s inside of us
I came from two people who lived on opposite sides of the world
My mother grew up in the Deep South in Mississippi
and my father grew up as a British subject
in some town in India that I still can’t pronounce
My father came to the United States in 1949
at the age of 20
and he and my mother met
at a Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky
I’ve been told that my southern grandfather
wanted nothing to do with this skinny, dark-skinned foreigner
with a British accent
and he certainly didn’t want him
anywhere near his daughter
Well, obviously, my grandfather was overruled
and his daughter married this skinny, dark-skinned foreigner
from India
who didn’t even know how to drive a car
I’m the youngest of four children
but when Mom and Dad were expecting my oldest brother,
their first-born,
the congregation in their little church in New Jersey
joked about what kind of baby could come
from a Mississippi girl and
and an India-born Brit
The joke was that my brother’s first words
would be, “Bring me the bloody bottle, ya’ll!”
I’ve always liked stories
which is probably how I was first drawn
to the Bible
Some people don’t like to read the Hebrew Testament
because well, sometimes it’s just plain R-rated
and therefore a bit confusing
as to how to explain it to the kids
Veggie Tales does a great job
of transforming R-rated Bible stories
into G
Lustful kings like David
become talking cucumbers
who just want their neighbor’s rubber ducky
But everybody has their stories
even the heroes and she-roes of the Bible
I often tell Sarah that she’ll have plenty of stories
to tell her therapist someday
But I firmly believe that it’s just as important
to tell the difficult stories
in our families and in our lives
as it is to tell the good, warm fuzzy ones
Everybody has stories
Nobody gets out without those embarrassing ones
or the ones that hurt or confuse
the ones we’d rather not talk about
It’s all a part of who we are
and the same is true in the Bible
People don’t like to read about
how people slaughtered people in the thousands
in the name of God
Or how they treated people
because they believed God told them to
But those stories, ancient as they are
are about you and me
we haven’t changed
We still slaughter hundreds of thousands of people
and some believe that God told us to do it
We still use Scripture to justify evil
You don’t have to be as whacked out
as that church down in Kansas
who shows up at military funerals
and proclaims God’s judgment and hate
But maybe it takes someone
that whacked out
to show us how ridiculous it is ever to believe
that God could hate any one of the children
God has created
for any reason
The Bible is big on stories of beginnings
how things began
how people began
It is their story
and it is ours
Abraham was one of God’s best friends
and yet he was just as crazy as any one of us
he was just as prone to be influenced by the world around him
the expectations of manhood
This is one of those stories that perhaps
Abraham hoped no one would remember to write down --
it’s not his finest moment,
nor is it Sarah’s…
but…. it explains a lot
Sarah was so excited about having a baby
at 90
I mean, how crazy is that?
She lived to tell about it
and that little slimy baby
melted that old woman’s heart
at least… for a little while
When God first promised Abraham
that he would have many descendents
as many as there were stars in the sky
Sarah felt the pressure
because she wasn’t getting pregnant
all those years
The pressure was on her,
there was never any thought that it might be the father’s fault
The pressure to conceive
was so great on women then,
because it was their whole life purpose
to put out babies
If you failed at that, what were you?
So she wasn’t going to let her husband
look like a fool
even if it was God’s fault
that she couldn’t get pregnant
She took her servant girl, Hagar
and told Abraham to sleep with her
This was pretty common
because it was that important for a man to have children
the owner of the slave woman
would literally sit behind the slave woman
as she gave birth
and pretend that it was SHE that was giving birth
and then she could therefore claim the slave’s child
as her own
Human beings are a little nuts
We’ll do anything to get what we want
And so it happened
Hagar got pregnant with Abraham
and had a son named Ishmael
Everything was cool for awhile
Sarah was let off the hook
she had a surrogate son for her husband
that’s all that mattered
She didn’t like it
in fact as time went on
she was so bitterly jealous of Hagar
that she couldn’t stand the sight of her
even though the whole surrogate thing
was her idea
It just was that much worse
when God’s sense of humor kicked in
and 90 year old Sarah got pregnant
and gave birth to her own son
By then, Ishmael was about 14
They threw a huge party for baby Isaac
when Isaac was weaned
that wasn’t necessarily a normal thing
but this kid was special!
He was born in the assisted living residence
It just wasn’t enough for Sarah
the past was too painful
and Ismael and Hagar were a constant reminder
of Sarah’s shame
She would not have it
She couldn’t stand the sight of them
So she told Abraham to get rid of them
both of them
throw them out
that… that… BOY
would not share an inheritance with her son
even though she had claimed That Boy
when she thought she couldn’t have her own
Now he was nothing to her
And Hagar had never been anything to her
but a tool, a baby machine
and she was done using her
Get them out of here, she told her husband
I think her menopause was acting up that day
And Abraham, the great and wonderful Abraham
faithful to the Lord
couldn’t stand up to his own wife
Ishmael was his son!
He didn’t care about Hagar
she was just a slave girl
she was nothing to him
but Ishmael was his first-born son
I don’t know why God let this happen
I don’t know why God didn’t intervene
and tell them both to shape up
but I guess back then, like now,
God knows that people will be cruel
no matter what
and God chooses to bring some good
out of absolute evil
So Abraham, in one of his wimpier moments,
sent Hagar and his first born son
away, out into the desert
with a meager loaf of bread
and a skin of water
he knew he’d never see them again
he knew they’d never survive
but he thought there was nothing he could do
And so they wandered, just the two of them
a boy and his mother
with no place to go
nothing to eat or drink
Until the water ran out
By then, you can imagine,
Hagar had reached the depths of despair
as she watched her son
weaken with dehydration
She turned away from him and wept
she could not, absolutely could not watch her son die
I bet she wailed
Who was gonna hear her anyway?
What else did she have to lose?
She’d lost her dignity many times already
and now she was thrown out like a piece of garbage
that she could deal with
but she could not deal with watching her son die
while she looked helplessly on
But out there in the middle of nowhere,
it says God heard her
She wouldn’t necessarily have said that she was praying
she was just weeping and wailing in despair
but God received that as a prayer
And an angel, a voice from somewhere
said to her
“Hagar, what troubles you?”
If Hagar was in her right mind
she would have said, “are you kidding me?
What TROUBLES me??”
But she wasn’t in her right mind
and the angel didn’t wait for her obvious answer
but went on to say,
“Do not be afraid, Hagar,
for God has heard you and your son,
right where you are …
out here in the middle of nothing…
Take his hand, lift him up,
for I will make a great nation of him.”
And while she was perhaps thinking
that she was hallucinating and hearing voices
because of heat stroke,
Hagar blinked and saw a well
a well of water
out in the middle of nowhere
in the middle of the desert
there was a well of water
With her legs and hands still shaking
from the heat,
she approached the well
and filled the water skin with water
and gave her boy a drink
maybe, she poured some over her own face
and her boy’s face, to wash away her tears
to revive his delirious face
and then went on to weep with relief
Ishmael, the boy’s name
means “God hears.”
Because God heard her cries in the desert
in the place of absolute despair and wretched thirst
and God gave her a well of water
in the middle of the wilderness
And Ishmael
would grow up
and become the ancestor of his own nation
much like his brother Isaac
Ishmael is the heir of Islam
The people of Islamic faith
claim Abraham as their father and ancestor in the faith
alongside the Jews
And when Abraham would come to die
both of his sons would come together
to bury their father in peace
It’s one of those embarrassing family stories
one of those stories of shame
of a father casting out his own son
his own flesh and blood
just because he was born of a foreigner
a hated foreigner
But God didn’t see the distinction
between the two boys
God didn’t see Hagar
as a piece of trash to be thrown out to die
But the story may explain
why the children of Isaac
and the children of Ishmael
are still fighting
We still convince ourselves
that some of God’s children are better than others
that some are God’s favorites
and some don’t even deserve to live
Whether it’s race, or occupation or religion
or in what country they happen to be born
We still do it
we still cast some of God’s children out
as if they were nothing but trash
as if they were unworthy of life itself
But God doesn’t hate anyone
That’s what I believe
God doesn’t hate anyone
no matter how much we try to pin our own hatred on God
God’s very being is love
and God creates in love
hate is not something that is even in God’s DNA
it’s in ours
and God gives us our stories
to remind us that we can be better
that we can, by God’s grace,
become more like God
When the rest of the world
makes us feel like garbage
or when we participate in making someone else
feel like garbage,
God weeps for the world
and God makes a way in the desert
provides an abundant well of living water
to give us life again
to remind us of who we are
and who we are born to be
children of the living, loving God
who simply doesn’t know how… to hate
Genesis 21:8-21
Faith United
June 22, 2008
We all want to know where we came from
and how
Parents love to tell the stories
of their child’s beginnings
there’s always stories to tell
And how we began says a lot about who we are
and what’s inside of us
I came from two people who lived on opposite sides of the world
My mother grew up in the Deep South in Mississippi
and my father grew up as a British subject
in some town in India that I still can’t pronounce
My father came to the United States in 1949
at the age of 20
and he and my mother met
at a Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky
I’ve been told that my southern grandfather
wanted nothing to do with this skinny, dark-skinned foreigner
with a British accent
and he certainly didn’t want him
anywhere near his daughter
Well, obviously, my grandfather was overruled
and his daughter married this skinny, dark-skinned foreigner
from India
who didn’t even know how to drive a car
I’m the youngest of four children
but when Mom and Dad were expecting my oldest brother,
their first-born,
the congregation in their little church in New Jersey
joked about what kind of baby could come
from a Mississippi girl and
and an India-born Brit
The joke was that my brother’s first words
would be, “Bring me the bloody bottle, ya’ll!”
I’ve always liked stories
which is probably how I was first drawn
to the Bible
Some people don’t like to read the Hebrew Testament
because well, sometimes it’s just plain R-rated
and therefore a bit confusing
as to how to explain it to the kids
Veggie Tales does a great job
of transforming R-rated Bible stories
into G
Lustful kings like David
become talking cucumbers
who just want their neighbor’s rubber ducky
But everybody has their stories
even the heroes and she-roes of the Bible
I often tell Sarah that she’ll have plenty of stories
to tell her therapist someday
But I firmly believe that it’s just as important
to tell the difficult stories
in our families and in our lives
as it is to tell the good, warm fuzzy ones
Everybody has stories
Nobody gets out without those embarrassing ones
or the ones that hurt or confuse
the ones we’d rather not talk about
It’s all a part of who we are
and the same is true in the Bible
People don’t like to read about
how people slaughtered people in the thousands
in the name of God
Or how they treated people
because they believed God told them to
But those stories, ancient as they are
are about you and me
we haven’t changed
We still slaughter hundreds of thousands of people
and some believe that God told us to do it
We still use Scripture to justify evil
You don’t have to be as whacked out
as that church down in Kansas
who shows up at military funerals
and proclaims God’s judgment and hate
But maybe it takes someone
that whacked out
to show us how ridiculous it is ever to believe
that God could hate any one of the children
God has created
for any reason
The Bible is big on stories of beginnings
how things began
how people began
It is their story
and it is ours
Abraham was one of God’s best friends
and yet he was just as crazy as any one of us
he was just as prone to be influenced by the world around him
the expectations of manhood
This is one of those stories that perhaps
Abraham hoped no one would remember to write down --
it’s not his finest moment,
nor is it Sarah’s…
but…. it explains a lot
Sarah was so excited about having a baby
at 90
I mean, how crazy is that?
She lived to tell about it
and that little slimy baby
melted that old woman’s heart
at least… for a little while
When God first promised Abraham
that he would have many descendents
as many as there were stars in the sky
Sarah felt the pressure
because she wasn’t getting pregnant
all those years
The pressure was on her,
there was never any thought that it might be the father’s fault
The pressure to conceive
was so great on women then,
because it was their whole life purpose
to put out babies
If you failed at that, what were you?
So she wasn’t going to let her husband
look like a fool
even if it was God’s fault
that she couldn’t get pregnant
She took her servant girl, Hagar
and told Abraham to sleep with her
This was pretty common
because it was that important for a man to have children
the owner of the slave woman
would literally sit behind the slave woman
as she gave birth
and pretend that it was SHE that was giving birth
and then she could therefore claim the slave’s child
as her own
Human beings are a little nuts
We’ll do anything to get what we want
And so it happened
Hagar got pregnant with Abraham
and had a son named Ishmael
Everything was cool for awhile
Sarah was let off the hook
she had a surrogate son for her husband
that’s all that mattered
She didn’t like it
in fact as time went on
she was so bitterly jealous of Hagar
that she couldn’t stand the sight of her
even though the whole surrogate thing
was her idea
It just was that much worse
when God’s sense of humor kicked in
and 90 year old Sarah got pregnant
and gave birth to her own son
By then, Ishmael was about 14
They threw a huge party for baby Isaac
when Isaac was weaned
that wasn’t necessarily a normal thing
but this kid was special!
He was born in the assisted living residence
It just wasn’t enough for Sarah
the past was too painful
and Ismael and Hagar were a constant reminder
of Sarah’s shame
She would not have it
She couldn’t stand the sight of them
So she told Abraham to get rid of them
both of them
throw them out
that… that… BOY
would not share an inheritance with her son
even though she had claimed That Boy
when she thought she couldn’t have her own
Now he was nothing to her
And Hagar had never been anything to her
but a tool, a baby machine
and she was done using her
Get them out of here, she told her husband
I think her menopause was acting up that day
And Abraham, the great and wonderful Abraham
faithful to the Lord
couldn’t stand up to his own wife
Ishmael was his son!
He didn’t care about Hagar
she was just a slave girl
she was nothing to him
but Ishmael was his first-born son
I don’t know why God let this happen
I don’t know why God didn’t intervene
and tell them both to shape up
but I guess back then, like now,
God knows that people will be cruel
no matter what
and God chooses to bring some good
out of absolute evil
So Abraham, in one of his wimpier moments,
sent Hagar and his first born son
away, out into the desert
with a meager loaf of bread
and a skin of water
he knew he’d never see them again
he knew they’d never survive
but he thought there was nothing he could do
And so they wandered, just the two of them
a boy and his mother
with no place to go
nothing to eat or drink
Until the water ran out
By then, you can imagine,
Hagar had reached the depths of despair
as she watched her son
weaken with dehydration
She turned away from him and wept
she could not, absolutely could not watch her son die
I bet she wailed
Who was gonna hear her anyway?
What else did she have to lose?
She’d lost her dignity many times already
and now she was thrown out like a piece of garbage
that she could deal with
but she could not deal with watching her son die
while she looked helplessly on
But out there in the middle of nowhere,
it says God heard her
She wouldn’t necessarily have said that she was praying
she was just weeping and wailing in despair
but God received that as a prayer
And an angel, a voice from somewhere
said to her
“Hagar, what troubles you?”
If Hagar was in her right mind
she would have said, “are you kidding me?
What TROUBLES me??”
But she wasn’t in her right mind
and the angel didn’t wait for her obvious answer
but went on to say,
“Do not be afraid, Hagar,
for God has heard you and your son,
right where you are …
out here in the middle of nothing…
Take his hand, lift him up,
for I will make a great nation of him.”
And while she was perhaps thinking
that she was hallucinating and hearing voices
because of heat stroke,
Hagar blinked and saw a well
a well of water
out in the middle of nowhere
in the middle of the desert
there was a well of water
With her legs and hands still shaking
from the heat,
she approached the well
and filled the water skin with water
and gave her boy a drink
maybe, she poured some over her own face
and her boy’s face, to wash away her tears
to revive his delirious face
and then went on to weep with relief
Ishmael, the boy’s name
means “God hears.”
Because God heard her cries in the desert
in the place of absolute despair and wretched thirst
and God gave her a well of water
in the middle of the wilderness
And Ishmael
would grow up
and become the ancestor of his own nation
much like his brother Isaac
Ishmael is the heir of Islam
The people of Islamic faith
claim Abraham as their father and ancestor in the faith
alongside the Jews
And when Abraham would come to die
both of his sons would come together
to bury their father in peace
It’s one of those embarrassing family stories
one of those stories of shame
of a father casting out his own son
his own flesh and blood
just because he was born of a foreigner
a hated foreigner
But God didn’t see the distinction
between the two boys
God didn’t see Hagar
as a piece of trash to be thrown out to die
But the story may explain
why the children of Isaac
and the children of Ishmael
are still fighting
We still convince ourselves
that some of God’s children are better than others
that some are God’s favorites
and some don’t even deserve to live
Whether it’s race, or occupation or religion
or in what country they happen to be born
We still do it
we still cast some of God’s children out
as if they were nothing but trash
as if they were unworthy of life itself
But God doesn’t hate anyone
That’s what I believe
God doesn’t hate anyone
no matter how much we try to pin our own hatred on God
God’s very being is love
and God creates in love
hate is not something that is even in God’s DNA
it’s in ours
and God gives us our stories
to remind us that we can be better
that we can, by God’s grace,
become more like God
When the rest of the world
makes us feel like garbage
or when we participate in making someone else
feel like garbage,
God weeps for the world
and God makes a way in the desert
provides an abundant well of living water
to give us life again
to remind us of who we are
and who we are born to be
children of the living, loving God
who simply doesn’t know how… to hate
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Last Laugh
“VERY FUNNY”
Genesis 18:1-15
Faith United
June 15, 2008
As many of you know, I’ve been at Annual Conference
most of the week
Wednesday night was my first night
at the hotel where we were staying
for the Nebraska Annual Conference session
in Lincoln
Sarah and I had just walked back
from having supper downtown
when the skies started looking pretty ugly
Before we got to the elevator,
we were instructed by others
to follow them into the basement
because there was a tornado warning
and everybody was supposed to head
to the lower level
We gathered in a big meeting room downstairs
where there were tables set up
as if this were just another meeting
Some people came in soaking wet
having been caught in the downpour
others were carrying drinks from the restaurant
more than a little put off that their supper was interrupted
Most of us down there were from the Annual Conference
but there was a few other hotel residents
who were obviously business men and women
staying there for other reasons
At one point, I saw a little old lady
with obviously red dyed hair
she was a little bent over and very frail
but she was frantically looking for her husband
in the crowd
Obviously she was upset
not knowing where he was
as they’d gotten separated in all the excitement
I saw some hotel workers comforting her
and then the wonderful moment
when another worker
wheeled her husband in his wheelchair
He, too, was very frail, and bent over in his chair
He held onto two poles that helped him move his chair
like two walking sticks
The woman’s face was one of pure elation and relief
as she slowly shuffled over to her precious husband
and gave him a kiss on the cheek
and lovingly petted his head
It wasn’t long before someone in that room full of mostly Methodists
decided we needed to sing
So William Williams, a former District Superintendent from this district
stood up and invited us to pray
an African American woman clergy
stood up with him
to lead us all in singing
We sang all the good old hymns
and a few of the new ones that we could remember
I looked over at the little old man and woman
She sat in a chair beside him
with her hand on his forearm
as if to keep him from getting away again
The man held up his sticks in the air
and waved his arms
as he boisterously sang
along with “How Great Thou Art”…
People knew enough to just stay clear of him
and his waving walking sticks
At the end of the hymn
he waved to William
and William and someone else
helped the man up out of his chair
You could tell he didn’t spend much time out of it
His legs were wobbly
and unsure underneath him,
but he propped himself up
with his two sticks
William got us all to be quiet
and the old man gestured excitedly with his arms
occasionally having to steady himself
He said he wanted to testify
And he told us
that he and his wife were celebrating
their fifth wedding anniversary
He said she was a war bride
as they got married at the beginning of the Iraq War
He proudly declared that he was 95
and his young bride was 92
He said loudly, gesturing with his trembling hands
that they were both going for 100
He also told us that this was his 80th time
attending Annual Conference
and that the Lord has been good to him
all his life
It was just then that the siren went off again
over the intercom
telling us we could go back to our rooms
The old man waved us off
and said it was ok, he was done
and as he stumbled back into his wheelchair
his bride stroked his bald head lovingly
as he gave loud thanks to God that we were all safe
I gotta tell you, that was one of the highlights
of my time at Annual Conference
Somehow, in the basement
no one was more important than anybody else
we WERE one in the Spirit for a little while
and when we came back to the basement for a second warning,
within minutes of departing,
we got the news of the tornado
hitting the Boy Scout camp in Iowa
and we were hushed into prayer
and more reflective singing
and the bride and bridegroom held onto each other
for life
It’d been 24 years since God first promised Abraham a son
24 years
I imagine Abraham and Sarah had finally given up
She was 90,
he was 100
I mean, let’s be realistic
They’d hoped for so much
and they’d had such a hard life
and they’d gotten old
They’d traveled for years,
being nomads
never settled anywhere
always on the move
They’d been strangers in foreign lands many times
there were those awful times
when Abraham had insisted Sarah was his sister
and she was handed over to strangers
like a possession
so that Abraham’s life could be spared
I imagine she’d gotten very bitter over the years
hardened in her old age
hardened by disappointment
hardened by a wandering life
hardened by being used
hardened by never having a child in her womb
even after God had promised
so many years ago
and seemed to have forgotten them
Then three strangers show up at their tent
by the oak trees of Mamre
It was a given in the Jewish culture
that you received strangers and took care of them
that you fed them, gave them shelter
washed their feet
There was no question about it,
no thought as to whether they were dangerous
it was just what you did if you were a Jew
And not only did you feed them
but you gave them your best
Serving meat was a rare delicacy
and a costly sacrifice
but it was a sign of deep respect for the stranger
So Abraham, though he surely could have fed himself
and his own people
with that meat
instead he got Sarah to prepare a feast
for their guests
He didn’t know what they wanted
if they were just passing through
he didn’t know if they would hurt him
but he did what he was taught to do
from his people
And so the men ate, and Abraham watched
As they ate, one of them said,
“Where is your wife Sarah?”
Abraham nodded toward the tent
as Sarah moved back out of sight
as she watched and listened
One of the men, wiping his hands on his robe said,
“I will return to you in due season,
and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”
That old joke again!
Abraham smiled and said nothing
It wasn’t that long ago
that he’d had a vision of the Lord
and the Lord had said to him the same thing
that Sarah would give birth
and he had fallen on his face with laughter
I mean, he didn’t even try to hide it
it just struck him as hilarious
and he could hardly breathe for laughing
yeah, right, he’d said to himself
My 90 year old wife is going to give birth
Ok, whatever, God….
He didn’t say anything out loud
but had just laid facefirst in the dirt
wiping the tears from his face
This time,
Sarah let out a burst of laughter from the tent behind them
and then quickly covered her mouth
and held her breath
She held her empty belly
and must have thought how childbirth would surely kill her
at this age
“After I’ve grown old and my husband is old
shall I have pleasure?” she said to herself, still giggling
One scholar said the passage could be translated,
“Even though I am withered, shall I become ripe again?”
The men nodded toward the tent,
“Why did Sarah laugh?” one of them said
Sarah moved forward out of the shadows
and straightened her face,
“I didn’t laugh,” she said
and the man said, “Oh yes you did.”
Try to imagine the conversation between Sarah and Abraham
after the three visitors left
Maybe Abraham raised his eyebrows, elbowed his dear old wife
and she slapped him on the arm
calling him an old fool
Maybe he shrugged and left the dishes for the servants
as he and Sarah went into the tent
on the off chance the strange visitors could be onto something
They would look back on that day
many years later
and tell the story a different way
they would be sure that one of those men
was an angel of the Lord himself,
if not all of them
That the angels had a message for them
a message of hope
that finally, after all these years
of waiting and losing hope
of struggling and searching
and wondering
and growing old and bitter
FINALLY, God would deliver on his promise
And later, Sarah would say
“God has given me laughter,
and all those who know me will laugh me,”
when that 91 year old woman
gave birth to a baby boy
and it didn’t kill her
God gave me laughter, she said,
after she’d grown old and bittered by years
Our culture is so focused on youth
as if aging is a fate worse than death
we are lured to pay all kinds of money
for all kinds of stuff to look young, to stay young
or to hide our age
as if in shame
And yet the Bible lifts up aging
as a time of wonder and hope
Age is revered as a sign of favor
In fact, many of the heroes called by God in the Old Testament
were senior citizens
THEY were the ones who changed the world
and helped form the people of God
“After I have grown old,” Sarah says,
“shall I still have pleasure?”
She’d given up
She’d resigned herself to the idea that her life was over
and she would wait to die
that she was just an old woman
who could nothing anymore
much less know joy
and pleasure with her husband
“God gave me laughter,” Sarah said
as she held her newborn baby later on
in her thin, and wrinkled arms
“And all who hear of it, will laugh with me…”
all who hear of it, will know the joy of God
that breaks into our despair with hope
Abraham and Sarah didn’t know
who those strangers were
until later
They were, as it says in Hebrews,
they were entertaining angels unaware
They were welcoming a life-transforming presence
in the stranger
In our world,
we’ve learned to never trust the stranger
to even avoid the stranger and shut them out
In the Disciple Bible Study program
there’s an assignment
to all those involved
to welcome a stranger
To do something you’ve never done before
and perhaps hoped not to have to do
Visit a nursing home,
go to a soup kitchen and serve a meal
Talk to a homeless person
and give them something to eat
As a pastor, there weren’t too many choices
that I hadn’t done
so what I ended up doing
was visiting a prisoner
on Death Row down in Missouri
A woman
It was incredibly scary to me
They patted me down, emptied my pockets
ushered me through a series of doors
that shut and locked behind me
and I sat at a table, that was fastened to the floor
with an older woman who was sentenced to die
We weren’t allowed to talk about
what she was accused of
but at her own initiation
and not knowing that I was a pastor,
she started talking to me about her faith
as she lit up a cigarette
She talked about the joy that her faith brought her
how she led Bible Studies
and tried to minister to other inmates
who were sometimes hostile to her gift
Her eyes shone
her face was hardened by a lot of experience
a lot of pain
by imprisonment
I was scared to death the whole time
but I also came to believe
that it’s important to step outside your safety zone
to meet the stranger
and that the more you do that
the more you see that people are people
everywhere
and the stranger is no longer a stranger
but a child of God
Dennis—(our local homeless man) was a stranger to me
He made me very uncomfortable
and that was precisely why I wanted to visit with him
His smell made me sick
His lifestyle confused me and repulsed me
but every time he showed up
I kind of held my breath
and made him a cup of coffee
or a bowl of soup
and sent him on his way again
and tried to imagine the face of God
in his face
coming to me for mercy and a little kindness
I truly believe God sent Dennis across my path
to show me another side of God’s face
You never know when God is going to show up
and no matter what you’ve been through
how tough life has been for you
or old your body feels
or old ancient your spirit might feel
embittered by disappointment and loss
regrets and unhealed hurts
God can still come in
if you stand at the entrance and let him in
We have many opportunities daily
to welcome God
and trust that God has come to us
in whatever form
whether to bring a promise or a lesson
or to use us to be a blessing
on some stranger’s journey
There’s a medieval saying that says
“God draws straight lines
with crooked sticks…”
We are not from around here
we’re just passing through
we’re not true citizens of a world
that values youth over wisdom
and thinks that one can only have sex appeal
if their skin is unwrinkled and perfect
and their stomachs flat and firm
We’re citizens of a world that knows
that these bodies are temporary
and the life is eternal
and that joy is always possible
if we open the door
to God’s wondrous sense of humor
and God’s enduring ability to bring hope out of hopelessness
and joy out of sorrow
So welcome the stranger
do something you thought you’d never do
don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable
look again at the person you thought you knew
and let yourself be surprised
take another look at the stranger’s face
and look for the face of God
who, I assure you, always has the last laugh…
Genesis 18:1-15
Faith United
June 15, 2008
As many of you know, I’ve been at Annual Conference
most of the week
Wednesday night was my first night
at the hotel where we were staying
for the Nebraska Annual Conference session
in Lincoln
Sarah and I had just walked back
from having supper downtown
when the skies started looking pretty ugly
Before we got to the elevator,
we were instructed by others
to follow them into the basement
because there was a tornado warning
and everybody was supposed to head
to the lower level
We gathered in a big meeting room downstairs
where there were tables set up
as if this were just another meeting
Some people came in soaking wet
having been caught in the downpour
others were carrying drinks from the restaurant
more than a little put off that their supper was interrupted
Most of us down there were from the Annual Conference
but there was a few other hotel residents
who were obviously business men and women
staying there for other reasons
At one point, I saw a little old lady
with obviously red dyed hair
she was a little bent over and very frail
but she was frantically looking for her husband
in the crowd
Obviously she was upset
not knowing where he was
as they’d gotten separated in all the excitement
I saw some hotel workers comforting her
and then the wonderful moment
when another worker
wheeled her husband in his wheelchair
He, too, was very frail, and bent over in his chair
He held onto two poles that helped him move his chair
like two walking sticks
The woman’s face was one of pure elation and relief
as she slowly shuffled over to her precious husband
and gave him a kiss on the cheek
and lovingly petted his head
It wasn’t long before someone in that room full of mostly Methodists
decided we needed to sing
So William Williams, a former District Superintendent from this district
stood up and invited us to pray
an African American woman clergy
stood up with him
to lead us all in singing
We sang all the good old hymns
and a few of the new ones that we could remember
I looked over at the little old man and woman
She sat in a chair beside him
with her hand on his forearm
as if to keep him from getting away again
The man held up his sticks in the air
and waved his arms
as he boisterously sang
along with “How Great Thou Art”…
People knew enough to just stay clear of him
and his waving walking sticks
At the end of the hymn
he waved to William
and William and someone else
helped the man up out of his chair
You could tell he didn’t spend much time out of it
His legs were wobbly
and unsure underneath him,
but he propped himself up
with his two sticks
William got us all to be quiet
and the old man gestured excitedly with his arms
occasionally having to steady himself
He said he wanted to testify
And he told us
that he and his wife were celebrating
their fifth wedding anniversary
He said she was a war bride
as they got married at the beginning of the Iraq War
He proudly declared that he was 95
and his young bride was 92
He said loudly, gesturing with his trembling hands
that they were both going for 100
He also told us that this was his 80th time
attending Annual Conference
and that the Lord has been good to him
all his life
It was just then that the siren went off again
over the intercom
telling us we could go back to our rooms
The old man waved us off
and said it was ok, he was done
and as he stumbled back into his wheelchair
his bride stroked his bald head lovingly
as he gave loud thanks to God that we were all safe
I gotta tell you, that was one of the highlights
of my time at Annual Conference
Somehow, in the basement
no one was more important than anybody else
we WERE one in the Spirit for a little while
and when we came back to the basement for a second warning,
within minutes of departing,
we got the news of the tornado
hitting the Boy Scout camp in Iowa
and we were hushed into prayer
and more reflective singing
and the bride and bridegroom held onto each other
for life
It’d been 24 years since God first promised Abraham a son
24 years
I imagine Abraham and Sarah had finally given up
She was 90,
he was 100
I mean, let’s be realistic
They’d hoped for so much
and they’d had such a hard life
and they’d gotten old
They’d traveled for years,
being nomads
never settled anywhere
always on the move
They’d been strangers in foreign lands many times
there were those awful times
when Abraham had insisted Sarah was his sister
and she was handed over to strangers
like a possession
so that Abraham’s life could be spared
I imagine she’d gotten very bitter over the years
hardened in her old age
hardened by disappointment
hardened by a wandering life
hardened by being used
hardened by never having a child in her womb
even after God had promised
so many years ago
and seemed to have forgotten them
Then three strangers show up at their tent
by the oak trees of Mamre
It was a given in the Jewish culture
that you received strangers and took care of them
that you fed them, gave them shelter
washed their feet
There was no question about it,
no thought as to whether they were dangerous
it was just what you did if you were a Jew
And not only did you feed them
but you gave them your best
Serving meat was a rare delicacy
and a costly sacrifice
but it was a sign of deep respect for the stranger
So Abraham, though he surely could have fed himself
and his own people
with that meat
instead he got Sarah to prepare a feast
for their guests
He didn’t know what they wanted
if they were just passing through
he didn’t know if they would hurt him
but he did what he was taught to do
from his people
And so the men ate, and Abraham watched
As they ate, one of them said,
“Where is your wife Sarah?”
Abraham nodded toward the tent
as Sarah moved back out of sight
as she watched and listened
One of the men, wiping his hands on his robe said,
“I will return to you in due season,
and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”
That old joke again!
Abraham smiled and said nothing
It wasn’t that long ago
that he’d had a vision of the Lord
and the Lord had said to him the same thing
that Sarah would give birth
and he had fallen on his face with laughter
I mean, he didn’t even try to hide it
it just struck him as hilarious
and he could hardly breathe for laughing
yeah, right, he’d said to himself
My 90 year old wife is going to give birth
Ok, whatever, God….
He didn’t say anything out loud
but had just laid facefirst in the dirt
wiping the tears from his face
This time,
Sarah let out a burst of laughter from the tent behind them
and then quickly covered her mouth
and held her breath
She held her empty belly
and must have thought how childbirth would surely kill her
at this age
“After I’ve grown old and my husband is old
shall I have pleasure?” she said to herself, still giggling
One scholar said the passage could be translated,
“Even though I am withered, shall I become ripe again?”
The men nodded toward the tent,
“Why did Sarah laugh?” one of them said
Sarah moved forward out of the shadows
and straightened her face,
“I didn’t laugh,” she said
and the man said, “Oh yes you did.”
Try to imagine the conversation between Sarah and Abraham
after the three visitors left
Maybe Abraham raised his eyebrows, elbowed his dear old wife
and she slapped him on the arm
calling him an old fool
Maybe he shrugged and left the dishes for the servants
as he and Sarah went into the tent
on the off chance the strange visitors could be onto something
They would look back on that day
many years later
and tell the story a different way
they would be sure that one of those men
was an angel of the Lord himself,
if not all of them
That the angels had a message for them
a message of hope
that finally, after all these years
of waiting and losing hope
of struggling and searching
and wondering
and growing old and bitter
FINALLY, God would deliver on his promise
And later, Sarah would say
“God has given me laughter,
and all those who know me will laugh me,”
when that 91 year old woman
gave birth to a baby boy
and it didn’t kill her
God gave me laughter, she said,
after she’d grown old and bittered by years
Our culture is so focused on youth
as if aging is a fate worse than death
we are lured to pay all kinds of money
for all kinds of stuff to look young, to stay young
or to hide our age
as if in shame
And yet the Bible lifts up aging
as a time of wonder and hope
Age is revered as a sign of favor
In fact, many of the heroes called by God in the Old Testament
were senior citizens
THEY were the ones who changed the world
and helped form the people of God
“After I have grown old,” Sarah says,
“shall I still have pleasure?”
She’d given up
She’d resigned herself to the idea that her life was over
and she would wait to die
that she was just an old woman
who could nothing anymore
much less know joy
and pleasure with her husband
“God gave me laughter,” Sarah said
as she held her newborn baby later on
in her thin, and wrinkled arms
“And all who hear of it, will laugh with me…”
all who hear of it, will know the joy of God
that breaks into our despair with hope
Abraham and Sarah didn’t know
who those strangers were
until later
They were, as it says in Hebrews,
they were entertaining angels unaware
They were welcoming a life-transforming presence
in the stranger
In our world,
we’ve learned to never trust the stranger
to even avoid the stranger and shut them out
In the Disciple Bible Study program
there’s an assignment
to all those involved
to welcome a stranger
To do something you’ve never done before
and perhaps hoped not to have to do
Visit a nursing home,
go to a soup kitchen and serve a meal
Talk to a homeless person
and give them something to eat
As a pastor, there weren’t too many choices
that I hadn’t done
so what I ended up doing
was visiting a prisoner
on Death Row down in Missouri
A woman
It was incredibly scary to me
They patted me down, emptied my pockets
ushered me through a series of doors
that shut and locked behind me
and I sat at a table, that was fastened to the floor
with an older woman who was sentenced to die
We weren’t allowed to talk about
what she was accused of
but at her own initiation
and not knowing that I was a pastor,
she started talking to me about her faith
as she lit up a cigarette
She talked about the joy that her faith brought her
how she led Bible Studies
and tried to minister to other inmates
who were sometimes hostile to her gift
Her eyes shone
her face was hardened by a lot of experience
a lot of pain
by imprisonment
I was scared to death the whole time
but I also came to believe
that it’s important to step outside your safety zone
to meet the stranger
and that the more you do that
the more you see that people are people
everywhere
and the stranger is no longer a stranger
but a child of God
Dennis—(our local homeless man) was a stranger to me
He made me very uncomfortable
and that was precisely why I wanted to visit with him
His smell made me sick
His lifestyle confused me and repulsed me
but every time he showed up
I kind of held my breath
and made him a cup of coffee
or a bowl of soup
and sent him on his way again
and tried to imagine the face of God
in his face
coming to me for mercy and a little kindness
I truly believe God sent Dennis across my path
to show me another side of God’s face
You never know when God is going to show up
and no matter what you’ve been through
how tough life has been for you
or old your body feels
or old ancient your spirit might feel
embittered by disappointment and loss
regrets and unhealed hurts
God can still come in
if you stand at the entrance and let him in
We have many opportunities daily
to welcome God
and trust that God has come to us
in whatever form
whether to bring a promise or a lesson
or to use us to be a blessing
on some stranger’s journey
There’s a medieval saying that says
“God draws straight lines
with crooked sticks…”
We are not from around here
we’re just passing through
we’re not true citizens of a world
that values youth over wisdom
and thinks that one can only have sex appeal
if their skin is unwrinkled and perfect
and their stomachs flat and firm
We’re citizens of a world that knows
that these bodies are temporary
and the life is eternal
and that joy is always possible
if we open the door
to God’s wondrous sense of humor
and God’s enduring ability to bring hope out of hopelessness
and joy out of sorrow
So welcome the stranger
do something you thought you’d never do
don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable
look again at the person you thought you knew
and let yourself be surprised
take another look at the stranger’s face
and look for the face of God
who, I assure you, always has the last laugh…
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Preaching in Tornado Country
“DON’T BE STUPID”
Matthew 7:21-29
June 1, 2008
Faith United
(Preached three days after several tornadoes touched down in the Kearney/Gibbon and surrounding areas)
I don’t often like to admit I’m a Christian
when I’m in public—
you have to admit that as Christians
we have a serious image problem these days;
And you may have picked up occasionally
my hesitancy to tell anyone out there
what I do for a living
Whether it’s the person cutting my hair
or someone that I’m introduced to
outside of the context of church
I’m more than a little disturbed by what is called
the prosperity gospel
something that is selling really well these days
One of its proponents is Joel Osteen
that ever-smiling, shiny-toothed pastor on TV
and author of best-selling books
One could accuse me of being jealous I suppose
after all, he is on the best seller list
he is pastor of a 30,000 member church
and his face is on TV
His message is simple,
and I guess that’s why it sells so well
His message is,
If you become a Christian, your life
will go much, much better
Choose to be happy, he says
Don’t be so negative
God wants you to succeed
Believe that good things will come your way
and they will
Now don’t get me wrong,
I’m not one of those believers who says
that we must be miserable for Jesus’ sake
A lot of our bad days do come from negative thinking
or beating ourselves up unnecessarily
But today we read the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
and I just don’t think that Jesus
would be very successful in a megachurch
nor would he be on the bestseller list
with his toothy grin on the front cover
I’m not one to say whether someone else
is a true Christian or not
that’s not for me to decide, thank God
but I do wonder if Joel Osteen
has read the Gospels
Osteen says that we can make our lives successful
WE just need the right attitude
and WE will therefore be successful
But I don’t find that message at all
in the Sermon on the Mount
which is in Chapters 5-7 of Matthew
This is Jesus’ basic creed
this is what he’s all about
Jesus is very demanding
Almost too demanding
we can even say at times
that what he wants is IMPOSSIBLE
I mean, he couldn’t have really meant that stuff
about turning the other cheek
or praying for your enemies
or doing to others
what you would have them do to you?
I mean, who can DO that??
It says the people were astounded by Jesus’ teaching
ASTOUNDED
that wasn’t just… yeah, he’s really dynamic
or boy, does he have white teeth!
Jesus didn’t preach like the popular preachers
of his day
because the message he preached
wasn’t very popular
It was DEMANDING
IMPOSSIBLE
RIDICULOUS
In fact, one might be able to imagine
the Sermon on the Mount being played on YouTube
or on CNN or Fox News
in case somebody in that congregation
happened to be running for President
yeah, if Jesus was your pastor
you might not win an election
Thank God they didn’t have the internet
or video cameras back then
or Peter wouldn’t have gotten away
with simply saying the night Jesus was arrested,
“Oh no, I don’t know that Jesus dude
I have nothing to do with HIM…
man, he’s quite a character isn’t he?” --
right before the cock crowed three times
Aren’t we glad that when we say stupid things
it doesn’t end up on the internet?
Jesus didn’t preach a popular message
Not when you really listened
But Jesus didn’t use spin doctors
to form the right the words to say
or worry about how it would be received
or interpreted by the masses
He was very practical
In fact, many would have said he was TOO practical
not intellectual enough
He was a builder,
he knew about construction
his family was into carpentry and stonemasonry
that’s what he grew up with
He knew how to build a house
on solid ground
with a solid foundation
He also knew that most people of his day
built their houses along the sandy riverbeds
because they had easier access to water
Building on rocks made it difficult
you had to climb rocky slopes to get home
you had to carry the building materials over those slopes
and go fetch water every day
and try to get it home over rough surfaces
No, it’s much easier to build on the sandy riverbank
You’re not thinking about possible storms
I mean, how often do those storms hit US?
And why build in preparation for something
that may never happen?
Jesus was practical
He didn’t use lofty, intellectual terms
that didn’t touch real life
Joel Osteen seems to promote
that very popular idea
that if we’re just good enough
if we just work hard enough
and are smart enough
than bad things won’t happen to us
But we’re not stupid
we know that storms come
no matter good we are
You can look at two houses
they can look exactly the same on the outside
Beautiful, well-decorated, furnished with taste
hot tub, sauna, the works
They look exactly alike
But you don’t really know their strength
their stability
until the storms hit them
I’ve learned a lot of things in my life
and one of the most painful things I’ve learned
is the power of failure
For a long time I believed
what Osteen believed
that if I was just good enough, faithful enough
if I knew my Bible
if I prayed regularly
if I was a good person and a good Christian
than nothing bad would ever happen to me
and if it did, it was a sign that something was wrong with me
But after getting knocked around a bit
after having experienced pretty intense failure
a time or two
I learned a lot
Life happens
It doesn’t always work out the way we wanted it to
Storms come
storms hit
and hit hard
and knock us over
Sometimes it happens
because we’ve made bad choices in our lives
but all too often things happen just because
the conditions were right for disaster
When Mother Teresa visited Haiti,
she was shown one of the most horrendous slums
in the world
Somebody asked her,
“How do you explain all of this
in light of our claims that our God is a loving God?
Why does God let things like this happen?”
And Mother Teresa answered
“When I see God,
he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do!”
Haven’t we all felt that way?
What are we standing on?
How do we find stability in the storm?
What keeps us getting out of bed every morning
after we’ve been hit hard?
How do families stay together
after they’ve suffered tragedy?
How do communities stay alive
once the rug has been pulled out from beneath them?
Jesus is saying, Listen to me
Listen to my words
be my disciples
We talk a lot in our Conference about making disciples
we’d really like to fill all the pews
and to push the numbers up
but making disciples is not about just
putting warm bodies in the pews
it’s about forming a people of God
it’s about a lifelong learning to follow Jesus
it’s about trying and failing and trying again
it’s about saying, Jesus, you’re crazy
I can’t do that
but then trying it anyway
It’s like two houses in Nebraska
one has a basement
and one doesn’t
I’d rather be in the one with the basement, thank you
because we know the storms will come
and when it’s all over
both houses may have blown down
but only one will keep you safe
Jesus spends three chapters
preaching the Sermon on the Mount
telling us what following him entails
what he believes, what his society is about
and how it contradicts so much of our own society
he doesn’t just write a book
and sell it with his picture on it
when he’s done preaching, telling it like it is
he gets down off that mountain
and starts practicing what he preaches
he heals the lepers,
he heals the servant of someone who isn’t a church-goer
he gives peace to the crazy person
he makes a lame man walk
makes the blind to see
the deaf to hear
he prays for his enemies
he doesn’t blow them up
he doesn’t even save his own life
He doesn’t give us an easy way out
or let us hide in the crowd
He tells it like it is
and gives us a choice to follow or not
Assuring us that we can’t live by the rules
of two different kingdoms
We sign up for his and play by his rules
and risk looking like a fool
or we play by the rules of the kingdom of this world
and buy into the Game
We build a foundation of stone
We do it day by day, in the everydayness of life
In the things that we say and do
in the way that we treat people
in the way that we talk and act and play
As parents, there’s the old joke
that we say to our children
“do as I say, not as I do.”
Jesus would never say that
He may be impossibly demanding
in his expectations of being his followers
but he doesn’t ask anything of us
that he doesn’t do himself
Do as I do, Jesus would say
Watch me… and learn
To be called by Jesus means to be challenged by him
Challenged to be better people
the kind of people that know that this isn’t all there is
that we have a higher calling
that we are building our lives right here and now
lives that will go on forever
Say what you mean, and mean what you say,
Jesus might tell us
Back it up with your life
Follow me
we’ve seen how Jesus weathers storms
nothing can take that dude down!
Nothing
and maybe if we follow him,
we can have that kind of foundation, too
that kind of power
not the kind of power
that destroys and wipes out
but the power to stand tall and strong
through the storms, through the night
knowing that we are a people of God
we are not alone
we are connected to each other,
to others who believe this craziness
that Jesus teaches us
and who are willing to be their lives on it
Don’t be stupid
Build your lives on the things that matter
the things that last forever
the things that last beyond these very human bodies
we’re hanging out in now
things that last beyond this world
things that last longer than sound bytes
and YouTube videos and
gossip columns
It’s not the structure of the house Jesus is talking about
it’s the location where we build
If you build in a flood zone,
expect to be flooded
If you build in Nebraska
make sure you have a solid basement
If you follow Jesus,
no one guarantees it’s going to be easy
because Life isn’t easy
this world is not easy
but if you follow Jesus
if you are a part of the Body of Christ
you have a rock to stand on
and when the storm is over
you won’t be alone
and you will have the tools you need
to build again
and again
We know that storms happen
boy, do we know…
some things are just beyond our control
And Jesus is clear
there is just no way for us to make our lives secure
by trying to construct our lives on our own foundation
No matter how many weapons we have
or what materials we use
If we’re relying on our own resources
then we will fall
If we build our lives on Jesus’ life and teachings,
then we will make it through to the other side
no matter what hits us along the way
So get a life
build your lives on the Rock that may be shaken
but won’t collapse ...
Matthew 7:21-29
June 1, 2008
Faith United
(Preached three days after several tornadoes touched down in the Kearney/Gibbon and surrounding areas)
I don’t often like to admit I’m a Christian
when I’m in public—
you have to admit that as Christians
we have a serious image problem these days;
And you may have picked up occasionally
my hesitancy to tell anyone out there
what I do for a living
Whether it’s the person cutting my hair
or someone that I’m introduced to
outside of the context of church
I’m more than a little disturbed by what is called
the prosperity gospel
something that is selling really well these days
One of its proponents is Joel Osteen
that ever-smiling, shiny-toothed pastor on TV
and author of best-selling books
One could accuse me of being jealous I suppose
after all, he is on the best seller list
he is pastor of a 30,000 member church
and his face is on TV
His message is simple,
and I guess that’s why it sells so well
His message is,
If you become a Christian, your life
will go much, much better
Choose to be happy, he says
Don’t be so negative
God wants you to succeed
Believe that good things will come your way
and they will
Now don’t get me wrong,
I’m not one of those believers who says
that we must be miserable for Jesus’ sake
A lot of our bad days do come from negative thinking
or beating ourselves up unnecessarily
But today we read the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
and I just don’t think that Jesus
would be very successful in a megachurch
nor would he be on the bestseller list
with his toothy grin on the front cover
I’m not one to say whether someone else
is a true Christian or not
that’s not for me to decide, thank God
but I do wonder if Joel Osteen
has read the Gospels
Osteen says that we can make our lives successful
WE just need the right attitude
and WE will therefore be successful
But I don’t find that message at all
in the Sermon on the Mount
which is in Chapters 5-7 of Matthew
This is Jesus’ basic creed
this is what he’s all about
Jesus is very demanding
Almost too demanding
we can even say at times
that what he wants is IMPOSSIBLE
I mean, he couldn’t have really meant that stuff
about turning the other cheek
or praying for your enemies
or doing to others
what you would have them do to you?
I mean, who can DO that??
It says the people were astounded by Jesus’ teaching
ASTOUNDED
that wasn’t just… yeah, he’s really dynamic
or boy, does he have white teeth!
Jesus didn’t preach like the popular preachers
of his day
because the message he preached
wasn’t very popular
It was DEMANDING
IMPOSSIBLE
RIDICULOUS
In fact, one might be able to imagine
the Sermon on the Mount being played on YouTube
or on CNN or Fox News
in case somebody in that congregation
happened to be running for President
yeah, if Jesus was your pastor
you might not win an election
Thank God they didn’t have the internet
or video cameras back then
or Peter wouldn’t have gotten away
with simply saying the night Jesus was arrested,
“Oh no, I don’t know that Jesus dude
I have nothing to do with HIM…
man, he’s quite a character isn’t he?” --
right before the cock crowed three times
Aren’t we glad that when we say stupid things
it doesn’t end up on the internet?
Jesus didn’t preach a popular message
Not when you really listened
But Jesus didn’t use spin doctors
to form the right the words to say
or worry about how it would be received
or interpreted by the masses
He was very practical
In fact, many would have said he was TOO practical
not intellectual enough
He was a builder,
he knew about construction
his family was into carpentry and stonemasonry
that’s what he grew up with
He knew how to build a house
on solid ground
with a solid foundation
He also knew that most people of his day
built their houses along the sandy riverbeds
because they had easier access to water
Building on rocks made it difficult
you had to climb rocky slopes to get home
you had to carry the building materials over those slopes
and go fetch water every day
and try to get it home over rough surfaces
No, it’s much easier to build on the sandy riverbank
You’re not thinking about possible storms
I mean, how often do those storms hit US?
And why build in preparation for something
that may never happen?
Jesus was practical
He didn’t use lofty, intellectual terms
that didn’t touch real life
Joel Osteen seems to promote
that very popular idea
that if we’re just good enough
if we just work hard enough
and are smart enough
than bad things won’t happen to us
But we’re not stupid
we know that storms come
no matter good we are
You can look at two houses
they can look exactly the same on the outside
Beautiful, well-decorated, furnished with taste
hot tub, sauna, the works
They look exactly alike
But you don’t really know their strength
their stability
until the storms hit them
I’ve learned a lot of things in my life
and one of the most painful things I’ve learned
is the power of failure
For a long time I believed
what Osteen believed
that if I was just good enough, faithful enough
if I knew my Bible
if I prayed regularly
if I was a good person and a good Christian
than nothing bad would ever happen to me
and if it did, it was a sign that something was wrong with me
But after getting knocked around a bit
after having experienced pretty intense failure
a time or two
I learned a lot
Life happens
It doesn’t always work out the way we wanted it to
Storms come
storms hit
and hit hard
and knock us over
Sometimes it happens
because we’ve made bad choices in our lives
but all too often things happen just because
the conditions were right for disaster
When Mother Teresa visited Haiti,
she was shown one of the most horrendous slums
in the world
Somebody asked her,
“How do you explain all of this
in light of our claims that our God is a loving God?
Why does God let things like this happen?”
And Mother Teresa answered
“When I see God,
he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do!”
Haven’t we all felt that way?
What are we standing on?
How do we find stability in the storm?
What keeps us getting out of bed every morning
after we’ve been hit hard?
How do families stay together
after they’ve suffered tragedy?
How do communities stay alive
once the rug has been pulled out from beneath them?
Jesus is saying, Listen to me
Listen to my words
be my disciples
We talk a lot in our Conference about making disciples
we’d really like to fill all the pews
and to push the numbers up
but making disciples is not about just
putting warm bodies in the pews
it’s about forming a people of God
it’s about a lifelong learning to follow Jesus
it’s about trying and failing and trying again
it’s about saying, Jesus, you’re crazy
I can’t do that
but then trying it anyway
It’s like two houses in Nebraska
one has a basement
and one doesn’t
I’d rather be in the one with the basement, thank you
because we know the storms will come
and when it’s all over
both houses may have blown down
but only one will keep you safe
Jesus spends three chapters
preaching the Sermon on the Mount
telling us what following him entails
what he believes, what his society is about
and how it contradicts so much of our own society
he doesn’t just write a book
and sell it with his picture on it
when he’s done preaching, telling it like it is
he gets down off that mountain
and starts practicing what he preaches
he heals the lepers,
he heals the servant of someone who isn’t a church-goer
he gives peace to the crazy person
he makes a lame man walk
makes the blind to see
the deaf to hear
he prays for his enemies
he doesn’t blow them up
he doesn’t even save his own life
He doesn’t give us an easy way out
or let us hide in the crowd
He tells it like it is
and gives us a choice to follow or not
Assuring us that we can’t live by the rules
of two different kingdoms
We sign up for his and play by his rules
and risk looking like a fool
or we play by the rules of the kingdom of this world
and buy into the Game
We build a foundation of stone
We do it day by day, in the everydayness of life
In the things that we say and do
in the way that we treat people
in the way that we talk and act and play
As parents, there’s the old joke
that we say to our children
“do as I say, not as I do.”
Jesus would never say that
He may be impossibly demanding
in his expectations of being his followers
but he doesn’t ask anything of us
that he doesn’t do himself
Do as I do, Jesus would say
Watch me… and learn
To be called by Jesus means to be challenged by him
Challenged to be better people
the kind of people that know that this isn’t all there is
that we have a higher calling
that we are building our lives right here and now
lives that will go on forever
Say what you mean, and mean what you say,
Jesus might tell us
Back it up with your life
Follow me
we’ve seen how Jesus weathers storms
nothing can take that dude down!
Nothing
and maybe if we follow him,
we can have that kind of foundation, too
that kind of power
not the kind of power
that destroys and wipes out
but the power to stand tall and strong
through the storms, through the night
knowing that we are a people of God
we are not alone
we are connected to each other,
to others who believe this craziness
that Jesus teaches us
and who are willing to be their lives on it
Don’t be stupid
Build your lives on the things that matter
the things that last forever
the things that last beyond these very human bodies
we’re hanging out in now
things that last beyond this world
things that last longer than sound bytes
and YouTube videos and
gossip columns
It’s not the structure of the house Jesus is talking about
it’s the location where we build
If you build in a flood zone,
expect to be flooded
If you build in Nebraska
make sure you have a solid basement
If you follow Jesus,
no one guarantees it’s going to be easy
because Life isn’t easy
this world is not easy
but if you follow Jesus
if you are a part of the Body of Christ
you have a rock to stand on
and when the storm is over
you won’t be alone
and you will have the tools you need
to build again
and again
We know that storms happen
boy, do we know…
some things are just beyond our control
And Jesus is clear
there is just no way for us to make our lives secure
by trying to construct our lives on our own foundation
No matter how many weapons we have
or what materials we use
If we’re relying on our own resources
then we will fall
If we build our lives on Jesus’ life and teachings,
then we will make it through to the other side
no matter what hits us along the way
So get a life
build your lives on the Rock that may be shaken
but won’t collapse ...
Storms, Waterfalls, and Indy
Today I returned to the pulpit after being off last Sunday for a week of Continuing Education in Minneapolis. I vaguely remember preparing the bulletin on Wednesday of this week, noting that Matthew 7:21-29 was the Gospel Reading from the Lectionary. The story of the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish man who built his house on sand, and then both were hit by storms. The foolish man's house fell-- "and great was its fall!" When I came back to the Scripture on Friday, I was a little unnerved at the prospect of preaching this passage after Kearney and the Gibbon area was hit by F1 and F2 tornadoes the very day before. Hmmm.
This afternoon, my family and I went to a matinee to see the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series of movies. We all love Indy. I was in high school when Indy made his debut on the big screen and I learned about the Ark of the Covenant. Of course, Indy hadn't sported that nifty hat and whip in all of my daughter's 14 years on this earth, and yet she has come to appreciate his adventures with pure delight. And so we shared the adventure again, delighting at the ridiculous stunts and scrapes with death that Indy faced, now in his 60s, but with no less style and confidence. Halfway through the movie, I remembered that today was the 24th anniversary of Sandie's death, a woman who was like a mother to me, whom I absolutely adored, who died within four months of being diagnosed with melanoma at the age of 39. Wow.
Five days before her death, my family and I visited Sandie and her family at her home in the Hudson River Valley of New York. Sandie herself was not feeling well at the time, but was able to move around the house and communicate with brief snippets of conversation here and there. For the most part, however, she didn't speak much, and being only 18 myself and very afraid for her, I agonized over the lack of communication.
To give us all a respite from the house and talk of illness, we all went out that weekend to see the then-newly released film, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." (Whose idea was THAT??) During the scene where the blond love-interest of Indy's was set up to be sacrificed in a pit of fire, I think I stopped breathing. She dangled in a cage, strapped in, being dropped toward the fire, then pulled back up, dropped again, pulled back up-- as Indy fought the bad guys up top and kept trying to get back to save her. Of course we knew he would, but.... I watched that woman dangle above death, be snatched away, only to be dropped again, I found myself begging the Powers That Be or Whomever, to spare her life. Please let her live, I kept silently pleading, only occasionally remembering to breathe. I was sure that Sandie, who sat two seats away from me, was getting the references to death, and I was sure she, too, must be suffering through this agonizing ordeal. Finally, of course, Indy beats up all the bad guys and saves the girl once again from the fires of death. Whew. Thank God.
On leaving the theatre, I took a deep breath and tried to act calm as I put my shaking hand on Sandie's shoulder and joked lightly, "Some movie, eh?"
Sandie's face lit up with pure joy. "I LOVED it! That was great!!" and she actually laughed for the first time all weekend.
I didn't know that when I said goodbye to Sandie that weekend, when we hugged and exchanged "I love you"s that it would be our last. I was in complete denial that she was in that much danger, or maybe I really didn't know. I can't remember. I just know that four days later, when I learned of her death, I was devastated as if I'd lost my own parent.
Today, watching Indy kick and punch and survive going over three waterfalls, among other impossible things, and once again come out the hero in the end, I felt teary. But it was bittersweet. I remembered the first three adventures I had with Indy, the second one being much too intense and dramatic and therefore memorable, forever etched in my heart. I was grateful for that memory of Snake Surprise, Eyeball Soup and Monkey Brains-- the dinner fare before the human sacrifice, that gave Sandie, at least, a respite from Reality and Illness and Suffering for a good two hours. I don't care if the movie company is playing on my nostalgia to get me to buy a ticket to see a Senior Citizen whip-snapping, fedora-bearing Indiana defy death a thousand times in an hour. It worked. It was a gift, to remember, to give thanks, and to re-live the gift of being taken to exotic, impossible places with him to forget about Life for awhile. Thanks, Indy.
You would like this one, Sandie. See ya later.
This afternoon, my family and I went to a matinee to see the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series of movies. We all love Indy. I was in high school when Indy made his debut on the big screen and I learned about the Ark of the Covenant. Of course, Indy hadn't sported that nifty hat and whip in all of my daughter's 14 years on this earth, and yet she has come to appreciate his adventures with pure delight. And so we shared the adventure again, delighting at the ridiculous stunts and scrapes with death that Indy faced, now in his 60s, but with no less style and confidence. Halfway through the movie, I remembered that today was the 24th anniversary of Sandie's death, a woman who was like a mother to me, whom I absolutely adored, who died within four months of being diagnosed with melanoma at the age of 39. Wow.
Five days before her death, my family and I visited Sandie and her family at her home in the Hudson River Valley of New York. Sandie herself was not feeling well at the time, but was able to move around the house and communicate with brief snippets of conversation here and there. For the most part, however, she didn't speak much, and being only 18 myself and very afraid for her, I agonized over the lack of communication.
To give us all a respite from the house and talk of illness, we all went out that weekend to see the then-newly released film, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." (Whose idea was THAT??) During the scene where the blond love-interest of Indy's was set up to be sacrificed in a pit of fire, I think I stopped breathing. She dangled in a cage, strapped in, being dropped toward the fire, then pulled back up, dropped again, pulled back up-- as Indy fought the bad guys up top and kept trying to get back to save her. Of course we knew he would, but.... I watched that woman dangle above death, be snatched away, only to be dropped again, I found myself begging the Powers That Be or Whomever, to spare her life. Please let her live, I kept silently pleading, only occasionally remembering to breathe. I was sure that Sandie, who sat two seats away from me, was getting the references to death, and I was sure she, too, must be suffering through this agonizing ordeal. Finally, of course, Indy beats up all the bad guys and saves the girl once again from the fires of death. Whew. Thank God.
On leaving the theatre, I took a deep breath and tried to act calm as I put my shaking hand on Sandie's shoulder and joked lightly, "Some movie, eh?"
Sandie's face lit up with pure joy. "I LOVED it! That was great!!" and she actually laughed for the first time all weekend.
I didn't know that when I said goodbye to Sandie that weekend, when we hugged and exchanged "I love you"s that it would be our last. I was in complete denial that she was in that much danger, or maybe I really didn't know. I can't remember. I just know that four days later, when I learned of her death, I was devastated as if I'd lost my own parent.
Today, watching Indy kick and punch and survive going over three waterfalls, among other impossible things, and once again come out the hero in the end, I felt teary. But it was bittersweet. I remembered the first three adventures I had with Indy, the second one being much too intense and dramatic and therefore memorable, forever etched in my heart. I was grateful for that memory of Snake Surprise, Eyeball Soup and Monkey Brains-- the dinner fare before the human sacrifice, that gave Sandie, at least, a respite from Reality and Illness and Suffering for a good two hours. I don't care if the movie company is playing on my nostalgia to get me to buy a ticket to see a Senior Citizen whip-snapping, fedora-bearing Indiana defy death a thousand times in an hour. It worked. It was a gift, to remember, to give thanks, and to re-live the gift of being taken to exotic, impossible places with him to forget about Life for awhile. Thanks, Indy.
You would like this one, Sandie. See ya later.
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