I dont' get it. Call me naive. Call me just having gotten off the bus, I don't know. I don't know why we've gotten so mean. Why do we accept MEAN as normal behavior?
We're all sick of this election. But why can't we just vote our conscience and let each other do the same? Why can't we peacefully disagree? I don't understand why it's become a battle between Good and Evil, between God's Chosen and Satan's Chosen. That's not fair. That's not at all Christ-like. Who are we to be so arrogant as to assume that we know who God wants for this corrupted job of president?
I don't understand, either, why everything is either really good or really bad. One candidate is God's Man, the other is a threat to all "godly" values, according to some. One is good, one is evil. We're like that with our leaders. They have to be either perfect, without fault, or they are garbage.
Look at all of us who are voting, even, maybe especially those of us who call ourselves Christian. Do we have spotless lives? I used to think that Church should be a place where we can bring our truest selves, to be most honest, to find acceptance and God's grace. In the real world it doesn't work that way. I don't know why people have to withold their truest selves when they come to church, or why nobody wants to talk about the things that break their hearts. Why can't we talk about our kid who's struggling with drugs? Or that our son or daughter just came out to us as a homosexual and we are afraid for them in this world? Or that our spouse drinks too much? Instead, we come to church and leave our dirty laundry at home, and try not to show our hearts breaking.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that everything in our world tends to be black and white, good or bad. Saints or sinners. This doesn't make sense because time and time again our beloved saints are sometimes caught as sinners, and it turns to scandal. But maybe if we were able to talk honestly about our struggles, people wouldn't be forced to be honest only when they're "found out."
I digress.
I'm tired of either/or. We're all a bunch of mixed-up, multi-colored individuals. We all have our brokenness, our scars. Jesus was the most real and honest person there ever was, and yet we who follow him still keep hiding, as if he no longer tolerates Real People. We are all of us a mixture of good and bad.
As are the people who are insane enough to run for public office. We're all smart people. We all know how it works. We all know that scripts are written to give off certain impressions, rumors are spread, scandals are fired up, lies are rampant, sound bites are the gospel. So why do we buy it all? Why do we get all fired up and believe everything we're told? How can we truly believe that one candidate is the Son of God and the other is the Son of the Devil? They are both as mixed up and faulty and crazy as any one of us. We can only hope that they truly believe some of what they tell us and that they truly desire to reach for those ideals that seem to keep out of our reach as a nation.
Let's pray for McCain and Obama. Let's be sufficiently horrified that anyone would plan to assasinate either one of them. Let's be ashamed that anyone who claims to love God can still hate someone that is different in color or party line. I know who I'm voting for, and I trust you do too. We may not agree, but that doesn't make me or you any more bound for hell. Our nation will go on no matter who is elected. We pray that good things will happen and that needed change will happen. We pray that we can grow as a nation and learn not to act out our fears and resort to primitive violence to solve our problems. I think if the Devil threatens us anywhere, it is in our ease in hating, judging, condemning. It is in causing good people to do bad things in the name of Good. When we hate, when we act out of fear and rage, we are giving power to Evil, not to Good.
The world is not black and white-- let's open our eyes and give thanks for the variety of colors that God has made. Let's stop being afraid and giving power to Evil and calling it Good. I think Jesus would rather shut down the Church altogether than see it become an institutional powerhouse for hate and violence. Let's stop making Jesus weep.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Footprints of God
“HIDE AND SEEK”
Exodus 33:12-23
Faith United
October 19, 2008
One time when I was a little kid
my parents and I went to the airport
to pick up a friend who was flying in to visit
Somehow I got separated from my parents
I was probably wandering into one of the gift shops
looking at the stuffed animals or something
I turned around and realized that my parents
were no longer right beside me
but I looked at saw the back of my father
at the magazines
and so I hurried over and put my arms around his waist
when the man turned around, it was not my father
He was very amused,
I, of course, was mortified
and went running off looking for my parents
who weren’t that faraway, but enjoying the cuteness of my mistake
From the back, the man looked just like my dad
God was finally fed up
Which is kind of weird, because this is only the second book
of the Bible,
and already, God has finally HAD IT with his people
They were ungrateful, they were bitter,
they complained, and finally, they gave up on this mysterious,
invisible God of the Mountain
and built a calf out of gold
and bowed down to worship it
They danced and sang and ate and drank
and sang praises to this golden calf
That seemed to be the last straw
God was pretty ticked off at this point
God finally says to Moses
“take your people out of here, leave this place, go on.
But I won’t go with you.”
Essentially God says to Moses that he doesn’t trust himself
that if he were to go with his people
he might just lose his temper and zap ém all
Well, that’s not what it says exactly,
but I think that’s what it means
He says, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey,
but I will not go among you,
or I would consume you on the way,
for you are a stiff-necked people.”
So he’s saying, he doesn’t trust himself
if he were to go among them,
he might finally have to just kill them all…
I love it, God is so much more direct in the Hebrew Testament
Well, the people were so upset
when they heard that God called them a stiff-necked people
and that therefore God was not about to go forward with them
that they grieved out loud,
they took off all their jewelry
for God also said to Moses,
“Say to the Israelites, ‘you are a stiff-necked people,
if for a single moment I should go up among you,
I would consume you
So now take off your ornaments
and I will decide what to do to you.’
Well, I’d be pretty terrified if I were them
All they saw of God to this point
was lightening on the mountain
accompanied by thunder
They saw a cloud, a mysterious cloud
that would occasionally surround Moses
and they knew, then, that God was speaking to Moses
out of this mystical cloud
God was so mysterious and powerful
and earth shaking,
they knew he was not one to be messed with
and they didn’t want to have anything to do with him
They always told Moses to go and talk to him
they begged Moses to tell God not to speak to them
they were too terrified of him
and of course, the more distant they were from God
the more outlandish their images of him became
But Moses set up a tent
called a tent of meeting
he set it up outside their campsite
and there he would go to talk to God
The mysterious cloud would be at the entrance of the tent
and out of that would come God’s voice
Meanwhile, when Moses left the campground
all the people would sit at the openings of their own tent
and watch him go
Perhaps they feared he might not come back….
but it was clear that Moses had a special relationship with God
after all that they’ve been through to this point
Moses’ relationship with God had matured a lot
from that first encounter with the burning bush
Moses was pretty comfortable with God
and pretty outspoken at times
Maybe it was just absolute frustration
but Moses pretty much said to God what was on his mind
This time was no different
Moses was mad at God
for saying that he wasn’t going to go forward with them
after everything God had promised them
after leading them out here in this wilderness
making them leave Egypt on a wing and a prayer
risking their lives, their children’s lives
after all that God had asked of them
God was going to leave them now?
When they most needed him?
Moses was mad
And he didn’t mind letting God know what he thought
He goes to speak with God who is in the cloud
and he says, hey, you’ve told me to do all this
‘You told me to bring these people up
and yet you don’t tell me who is going with us
You tell me that you know me by name
and that I’ve found favor in your sight
If you mean that, show me
Show me the way
Remember, too, that this nation belongs to YOU
If you refuse to go forward with us,
then we’re not going
How will it look if we go forward
and how will others know that we have found favor with you
if you leave us now?’
And God, I imagine, smiled
I bet God was proud of Moses
proud of his gumption, his guts, and his honesty
And God said to Moses,
ok,
‘I will do the very thing you have asked;
because you HAVE found favor with me
and I do know you by name….’
In other words, you win, Moses
and you’re right
I will go with you, I will not give up on you
Moses, in his anger, reminded God
of all that God promised these people
that no matter how stiff-necked and exasperating they were
they were still God’s people
To know someone by name in the Bible
means to know them intimately
to know who they are, deep down,
to know their hearts and souls
To know them more completely than anyone else possibly can
and God says to Moses,
“I know you by name,”
In other words, I know who you are, I made you
I know your heart,
I know your passion
and even your stubborn love for these
stiff-necked people
and of course, of course I will go with you
You’d think Moses would leave it at that
but he’s tired
he’s come a long way
he has suffered so much
and fought so many battles to get here
to simply do what God wanted him to do
and also, apparently to keep GOD from giving up on any of them
and so he makes a brazen request
an absurd, unheard-of request
He wants to see God
He wants to see the face of God
this one who he’s believed in
enough to ever begin this crazy journey
to not walk away in the middle of it
but now, he needs some reassurance
“Show me your glory, “ Moses says
Which in a way, is kind of funny
What, the parting of the Red Sea was not impressive enough for you, Moses??
The spontaneous thunder and lightening on the mountain?
The shaking earth?
The water in the desert, the manna from heaven,
not enough for you?
You want something a little more impressive than that?
And Moses would say,
“Yeah. I do.”
And again, I imagine God chuckling
Ah, dear Moses, his dear, faithful, brazen friend Moses
God says to him,
“I will make all my goodness pass before you,
and will proclaim before you
the name, Yahweh….”
In other words, God would declare his own name
the name that declared who God is
the name that sums God up
Yahweh
I will tell you who I am, God is saying, in other words
I will speak my name to you
And, God says,
“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,
But,” God adds,
“you cannot see my face;
for no one shall see me and live…”
Why is that?
I confess I first learned that
when as a teenager I saw the movie
“Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
near the end, when Indiana Jones and Marion
are tied to a stake
watching the Nazis get ready to open the ark of the covenant
Weird things started happening
and Indiana Jones yells at Marion
to close her eyes,
no matter what, he says, keep your eyes closed
And of course,
we see why
When the ark is opened,
all the Nazis are vividly, grotesquely destroyed
Some of them melted,
some of them exploded
some of them suffered a lot before they died
but before the ark’s lid came down again
all those who dared to look
were killed
and I remember asking my parents what that was all about
and learning the tradition that one does not look upon God and live
and it was believed back then,
that the ark of the covenant contained the very presence of God
Well, of course, that was Hollywood
and they really did it up
But what did God mean?
No one shall look upon me and live…
Did God mean what Steven Spielberg thought he meant?
That God would wipe out and annihilate
even MELT anyone who dared to look upon his presence?
I doubt that, but it made for a good movie
But God said to Moses,
“There is a place near me in the rock
where you will stand
and while my glory passes by
I will put you in the cleft of the rock
and I will cover you with my hand
until I have passed by
then I will take away my hand
and you shall see my back,
but my face shall not be seen…”
What’s that all about?
What’s with the mystery and the hiding?
Why CAN’T we see God face to face?
Well, I think we can get a little TOO comfortable with God sometimes
I mean, seriously, some people give you the impression
that they know God so well
they could draw you a picture
or show you a picture that God signed himself
but I think when it comes right down to it,
we have to ask
how does the finite, the human being
relate to God who is Infinite?
I think it’s like looking straight into the sun
after awhile, it would burn our eyes
if we got physically too close to the sun, of course
we’d be cremated
the heat would be too intense for us to stand
I think God is too much for us
God is so much more than we can ever imagine
Our language doesn’t contain words
that can adequately sum up who and what God is
We are limited by language
and the images that we can create with our minds
God is always beyond our reach
because we are, in fact, finite human beings
with our feet in the dirt of this earth
How can one trapped in time
imagine someone who is eternal and timeless?
We can only stand glimpses
and often, even when we get those glimpses
it is hard for us to explain
Jesus, we believe, is the incarnation of God
but even then, Jesus is not the total picture of God
Jesus is the image of God we can deal with
and even then, we wrestle with all that Jesus is
and all that he taught
Shoot, if we wrestle this much with Jesus
how much more overwhelming would it be
to experience the fullness of God?
I think we’d be incinerated!
God is too much for our human minds and hearts
to take in
So we only see the shadows of God
the reflections of God in our world
in the eyes of other human beings
‘Now we see in a mirror dimly,’ Paul writes in Corinthians,
but then, in eternity, we shall see face to face
Now we know only in part
but then we will know fully, even as we are fully known’
We see and know now,
only what our rational minds can handle
and even then, we back off
Sometimes even with what God has given us
we don’t want it all
we only want as much as we can handle
Don’t confuse us, or challenge us
or give us anything that will turn our way of thinking
completely upside down
Often we can’t handle even the shadows of God
that God has given us
And so God gives us about as much as we can stand
But still, we want assurance
Wouldn’t it be nice
if God would just write some answers in the sky for us?
Even just now and then, write in the clouds,
“I do exist, I am here…”
Sometimes, we’re like Moses,
if we have the nerve, we tell God what we think,
“why? why are you doing this?
why aren’t you doing THAT?
what are you doing to us? Why are you abandoning us?”
and God can take it
He took it from Moses
and in no way, was his love for Moses diminished
because he knew that Moses was just a man
a faithful, committed, determined, and good-hearted human
but just a man, just a human, after all
He couldn’t see the whole picture
like God does
he couldn’t see the future and the past and the present
all in one
Moses was bound by time
and so God had mercy on him
knowing that his perspective was limited
as a human being
but finally, after the shadows passed
after the presence of God passed by
and after God sheltered Moses with his hand
and allowed Moses to see God’s back
they went forward
they went forward together
because Moses finally said, “I will not go forward
I will not even go toward the Promised Land
if you don’t go with me….”
Moses saw the back of God
I like to think of it as Moses seeing not where God is going
because we can’t comprehend that
but Moses saw where God had already been
Hindsight is 20/20, they say
In a sense, Moses saw the footprints of God
and that was enough for him to go forward
We can also see God’s footprints
if we look carefully
we can see where God has already been
where God is present, even if only in shadows and light
we can sense God’s presence, even though we can’t see it
and we can know, too, that God knows each of us by name
knows who we are, good and bad
faithful and terrified
broken and made whole
and so we can trust that God won’t leave us
No matter what happens in the future
God goes with us,
and we can look back and see where God has gone with us before
Go forward,
God said to Moses, and God says to us
Go forward, though the way often looks treacherous
sometimes dark, sometimes overwhelming,
go forward toward the Promised Land
and we’ll get there together….
Exodus 33:12-23
Faith United
October 19, 2008
One time when I was a little kid
my parents and I went to the airport
to pick up a friend who was flying in to visit
Somehow I got separated from my parents
I was probably wandering into one of the gift shops
looking at the stuffed animals or something
I turned around and realized that my parents
were no longer right beside me
but I looked at saw the back of my father
at the magazines
and so I hurried over and put my arms around his waist
when the man turned around, it was not my father
He was very amused,
I, of course, was mortified
and went running off looking for my parents
who weren’t that faraway, but enjoying the cuteness of my mistake
From the back, the man looked just like my dad
God was finally fed up
Which is kind of weird, because this is only the second book
of the Bible,
and already, God has finally HAD IT with his people
They were ungrateful, they were bitter,
they complained, and finally, they gave up on this mysterious,
invisible God of the Mountain
and built a calf out of gold
and bowed down to worship it
They danced and sang and ate and drank
and sang praises to this golden calf
That seemed to be the last straw
God was pretty ticked off at this point
God finally says to Moses
“take your people out of here, leave this place, go on.
But I won’t go with you.”
Essentially God says to Moses that he doesn’t trust himself
that if he were to go with his people
he might just lose his temper and zap ém all
Well, that’s not what it says exactly,
but I think that’s what it means
He says, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey,
but I will not go among you,
or I would consume you on the way,
for you are a stiff-necked people.”
So he’s saying, he doesn’t trust himself
if he were to go among them,
he might finally have to just kill them all…
I love it, God is so much more direct in the Hebrew Testament
Well, the people were so upset
when they heard that God called them a stiff-necked people
and that therefore God was not about to go forward with them
that they grieved out loud,
they took off all their jewelry
for God also said to Moses,
“Say to the Israelites, ‘you are a stiff-necked people,
if for a single moment I should go up among you,
I would consume you
So now take off your ornaments
and I will decide what to do to you.’
Well, I’d be pretty terrified if I were them
All they saw of God to this point
was lightening on the mountain
accompanied by thunder
They saw a cloud, a mysterious cloud
that would occasionally surround Moses
and they knew, then, that God was speaking to Moses
out of this mystical cloud
God was so mysterious and powerful
and earth shaking,
they knew he was not one to be messed with
and they didn’t want to have anything to do with him
They always told Moses to go and talk to him
they begged Moses to tell God not to speak to them
they were too terrified of him
and of course, the more distant they were from God
the more outlandish their images of him became
But Moses set up a tent
called a tent of meeting
he set it up outside their campsite
and there he would go to talk to God
The mysterious cloud would be at the entrance of the tent
and out of that would come God’s voice
Meanwhile, when Moses left the campground
all the people would sit at the openings of their own tent
and watch him go
Perhaps they feared he might not come back….
but it was clear that Moses had a special relationship with God
after all that they’ve been through to this point
Moses’ relationship with God had matured a lot
from that first encounter with the burning bush
Moses was pretty comfortable with God
and pretty outspoken at times
Maybe it was just absolute frustration
but Moses pretty much said to God what was on his mind
This time was no different
Moses was mad at God
for saying that he wasn’t going to go forward with them
after everything God had promised them
after leading them out here in this wilderness
making them leave Egypt on a wing and a prayer
risking their lives, their children’s lives
after all that God had asked of them
God was going to leave them now?
When they most needed him?
Moses was mad
And he didn’t mind letting God know what he thought
He goes to speak with God who is in the cloud
and he says, hey, you’ve told me to do all this
‘You told me to bring these people up
and yet you don’t tell me who is going with us
You tell me that you know me by name
and that I’ve found favor in your sight
If you mean that, show me
Show me the way
Remember, too, that this nation belongs to YOU
If you refuse to go forward with us,
then we’re not going
How will it look if we go forward
and how will others know that we have found favor with you
if you leave us now?’
And God, I imagine, smiled
I bet God was proud of Moses
proud of his gumption, his guts, and his honesty
And God said to Moses,
ok,
‘I will do the very thing you have asked;
because you HAVE found favor with me
and I do know you by name….’
In other words, you win, Moses
and you’re right
I will go with you, I will not give up on you
Moses, in his anger, reminded God
of all that God promised these people
that no matter how stiff-necked and exasperating they were
they were still God’s people
To know someone by name in the Bible
means to know them intimately
to know who they are, deep down,
to know their hearts and souls
To know them more completely than anyone else possibly can
and God says to Moses,
“I know you by name,”
In other words, I know who you are, I made you
I know your heart,
I know your passion
and even your stubborn love for these
stiff-necked people
and of course, of course I will go with you
You’d think Moses would leave it at that
but he’s tired
he’s come a long way
he has suffered so much
and fought so many battles to get here
to simply do what God wanted him to do
and also, apparently to keep GOD from giving up on any of them
and so he makes a brazen request
an absurd, unheard-of request
He wants to see God
He wants to see the face of God
this one who he’s believed in
enough to ever begin this crazy journey
to not walk away in the middle of it
but now, he needs some reassurance
“Show me your glory, “ Moses says
Which in a way, is kind of funny
What, the parting of the Red Sea was not impressive enough for you, Moses??
The spontaneous thunder and lightening on the mountain?
The shaking earth?
The water in the desert, the manna from heaven,
not enough for you?
You want something a little more impressive than that?
And Moses would say,
“Yeah. I do.”
And again, I imagine God chuckling
Ah, dear Moses, his dear, faithful, brazen friend Moses
God says to him,
“I will make all my goodness pass before you,
and will proclaim before you
the name, Yahweh….”
In other words, God would declare his own name
the name that declared who God is
the name that sums God up
Yahweh
I will tell you who I am, God is saying, in other words
I will speak my name to you
And, God says,
“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,
But,” God adds,
“you cannot see my face;
for no one shall see me and live…”
Why is that?
I confess I first learned that
when as a teenager I saw the movie
“Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
near the end, when Indiana Jones and Marion
are tied to a stake
watching the Nazis get ready to open the ark of the covenant
Weird things started happening
and Indiana Jones yells at Marion
to close her eyes,
no matter what, he says, keep your eyes closed
And of course,
we see why
When the ark is opened,
all the Nazis are vividly, grotesquely destroyed
Some of them melted,
some of them exploded
some of them suffered a lot before they died
but before the ark’s lid came down again
all those who dared to look
were killed
and I remember asking my parents what that was all about
and learning the tradition that one does not look upon God and live
and it was believed back then,
that the ark of the covenant contained the very presence of God
Well, of course, that was Hollywood
and they really did it up
But what did God mean?
No one shall look upon me and live…
Did God mean what Steven Spielberg thought he meant?
That God would wipe out and annihilate
even MELT anyone who dared to look upon his presence?
I doubt that, but it made for a good movie
But God said to Moses,
“There is a place near me in the rock
where you will stand
and while my glory passes by
I will put you in the cleft of the rock
and I will cover you with my hand
until I have passed by
then I will take away my hand
and you shall see my back,
but my face shall not be seen…”
What’s that all about?
What’s with the mystery and the hiding?
Why CAN’T we see God face to face?
Well, I think we can get a little TOO comfortable with God sometimes
I mean, seriously, some people give you the impression
that they know God so well
they could draw you a picture
or show you a picture that God signed himself
but I think when it comes right down to it,
we have to ask
how does the finite, the human being
relate to God who is Infinite?
I think it’s like looking straight into the sun
after awhile, it would burn our eyes
if we got physically too close to the sun, of course
we’d be cremated
the heat would be too intense for us to stand
I think God is too much for us
God is so much more than we can ever imagine
Our language doesn’t contain words
that can adequately sum up who and what God is
We are limited by language
and the images that we can create with our minds
God is always beyond our reach
because we are, in fact, finite human beings
with our feet in the dirt of this earth
How can one trapped in time
imagine someone who is eternal and timeless?
We can only stand glimpses
and often, even when we get those glimpses
it is hard for us to explain
Jesus, we believe, is the incarnation of God
but even then, Jesus is not the total picture of God
Jesus is the image of God we can deal with
and even then, we wrestle with all that Jesus is
and all that he taught
Shoot, if we wrestle this much with Jesus
how much more overwhelming would it be
to experience the fullness of God?
I think we’d be incinerated!
God is too much for our human minds and hearts
to take in
So we only see the shadows of God
the reflections of God in our world
in the eyes of other human beings
‘Now we see in a mirror dimly,’ Paul writes in Corinthians,
but then, in eternity, we shall see face to face
Now we know only in part
but then we will know fully, even as we are fully known’
We see and know now,
only what our rational minds can handle
and even then, we back off
Sometimes even with what God has given us
we don’t want it all
we only want as much as we can handle
Don’t confuse us, or challenge us
or give us anything that will turn our way of thinking
completely upside down
Often we can’t handle even the shadows of God
that God has given us
And so God gives us about as much as we can stand
But still, we want assurance
Wouldn’t it be nice
if God would just write some answers in the sky for us?
Even just now and then, write in the clouds,
“I do exist, I am here…”
Sometimes, we’re like Moses,
if we have the nerve, we tell God what we think,
“why? why are you doing this?
why aren’t you doing THAT?
what are you doing to us? Why are you abandoning us?”
and God can take it
He took it from Moses
and in no way, was his love for Moses diminished
because he knew that Moses was just a man
a faithful, committed, determined, and good-hearted human
but just a man, just a human, after all
He couldn’t see the whole picture
like God does
he couldn’t see the future and the past and the present
all in one
Moses was bound by time
and so God had mercy on him
knowing that his perspective was limited
as a human being
but finally, after the shadows passed
after the presence of God passed by
and after God sheltered Moses with his hand
and allowed Moses to see God’s back
they went forward
they went forward together
because Moses finally said, “I will not go forward
I will not even go toward the Promised Land
if you don’t go with me….”
Moses saw the back of God
I like to think of it as Moses seeing not where God is going
because we can’t comprehend that
but Moses saw where God had already been
Hindsight is 20/20, they say
In a sense, Moses saw the footprints of God
and that was enough for him to go forward
We can also see God’s footprints
if we look carefully
we can see where God has already been
where God is present, even if only in shadows and light
we can sense God’s presence, even though we can’t see it
and we can know, too, that God knows each of us by name
knows who we are, good and bad
faithful and terrified
broken and made whole
and so we can trust that God won’t leave us
No matter what happens in the future
God goes with us,
and we can look back and see where God has gone with us before
Go forward,
God said to Moses, and God says to us
Go forward, though the way often looks treacherous
sometimes dark, sometimes overwhelming,
go forward toward the Promised Land
and we’ll get there together….
It Matters What You Think
“PEOPLE WHO THINK TOO MUCH”
Philippians 4:1-9
Faith United
October 12, 2008
We don’t talk about the Holy Spirit much
Maybe you’re like me
when someone mentions the Holy Spirit
I picture one of those crazy guys on those religious channels
who are talking to the camera
and gesturing and waving their Bible
or worse, the ones who are on a stage
and who walk up to people and push them on the forehead
and that person collapses in front of them
“slain in the Spirit,” they call it
Or we picture people who are a lot less reserved
that we are in church
people who dance and wave their hands
and mutter phrases over and over
the holy rollers, we might call them
So we don’t talk about the Holy Spirit much
It’s just safer to stick with God and Jesus
And how do you talk about the Holy Spirit, anyway?
Is it an it? or a He or a She?
Language can be a problem
Larry bought me a book a few years ago
called “Women Who Think Too Much”
He never said exactly why he bought that for me
But I admit I never read it
it’s still on my shelf
because I really don’t want to think about
how I might think too much
But I admit I do think too much
I’m not against thinking
I think that more people ought to do it more often
the problem becomes just what do we spend our time
and energy thinking about?
There have been many instances over the years
where someone has invited me to a 12 step group
So many times, in fact, that I started to get the idea
that maybe
Number one; it was a good thing
and Number two: maybe even God was trying to tell me something
From the Twelve Steps that originate with A.A.
and then are adapted for other groups
the first step is to admit that we are powerless over our lives
Obviously, in the case of an alcoholic or addict
they are specifically powerless over their addiction
but it’s also true of all of us
Ultimately and finally, we are powerless over our lives
and until we admit that, accept that
we cause ourselves a whole lot of pain
We don’t want to be powerless
Powerless sounds weak and helpless
But another thing I’ve learned in middle age
is that it is in fact true
I can work and work and work to get what I want
and I don’t always get it
In fact, probably most of the time I don’t get what I want
I can do things to be responsible
I can make good decisions that affect my life
I can make goals
I can do what I can to carry out those goals
but ultimately, I am not in control
And if nothing else teaches us that,
watching a loved one die
or getting a dismal prognosis ourselves
is a slap in the face
a wake-up call
that we are not in fact in control
We can exercise, eat right, avoid the obvious things
that aren’t good for our bodies
we can take steps to contribute to our health
but we can’t cheat death
I wonder if that’s one reason why
we get so ticked off with God
when we pray and pray and pray
for someone we love to get well
and they don’t?
We did our part, and it didn’t work, as far as we can see
Or God didn’t do what we told him to do…
We like to be in control
We do not want to admit that there comes a point
where we realize we are not in control
We can do everything in our power to do
to get and keep that job
to advance, to get raises
we can do our part
but finally, that decision is in someone else’s hands
Maybe we had a dream we went after
and finally we realized that dream wouldn’t come true
no matter what we did
We are ultimately powerless over our lives
Sounds depressing, maddening, even,
but I think that’s one thing Paul was getting at
when he wrote what is referred to
as his happiest letter
His letter to the Church at Philippi
is his happiest letter
In his other letters, you see a real grump
he can get really mad
and stop just short of using words that wouldn’t be printed!
Or maybe he did and somebody edited him…
In some of his letters, he appears unforgiving and rigid
impossible
and there are times, too, that Paul doesn’t seem to like women
very much
and yet at other times, he praises the women that are leaders
in his churches
But the letter to the Philippians is his happiest letter
It’s a love letter to the church
And what Paul have to be so happy about??
He says, “Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord, always!”
He says, “don’t worry about anything, but with prayer and supplication
make all your requests known to God.”
Don’t worry, be happy, like the song says
Easy for him to say
I confess I’m not too fond of those Christian writers and speakers
who get on TV with their bleached white teeth
and expensive clothes
and tell us to be happy, praise the Lord!
Sometimes the religious language gets in the way
of our knowing the truth of God’s message
But Paul wasn’t a sunshiney, sparkling toothed evangelist
He didn’t just say the words
like a lot of people do
Paul is not writing this letter on his best day ever
He’s writing from prison
while he awaits execution
He’s not going to get out this time
the angels aren’t going to break open the door
and rescue him this time
He’s going to die
The government is going to kill him
The prisons of that time weren’t too comfortable, either
It was a dark, cement, cold dungeon
that he waited in
alone
anticipating his death anytime
A death that was unjust
He SHOULD have been rescued
He was a good man
He, like Jesus, just made the wrong people mad
And in the midst of that situation,
he writes a love letter to his favorite congregation
a little church in Philippi
a church struggling in the midst of an unjust, sometimes cruel society
A church in a community where Christianity is not the most popular
in fact, it’s often ridiculed
He writes to a little church
that doesn’t have a lot of money
a lot of prestige or media coverage
but a little church that is alive
Alive with the Spirit of Christ
alive with a passion to live and share the good news
of the Christ
Alive with the passion of helping the poor and needy
of worshipping God
despite the growing chaos of the world
despite ridicule and persecution
despite their founder being in jail
and awaiting certain death
And Paul writes to them,
“Don’t worry…”
and obviously, they had a lot to worry about!
but he says, “Don’t worry. in your prayers
give thanks, and offer God your requests…
and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
He doesn’t say
“ask God, and God will do whatever you want.”
He never says that
If he believe that, he’d ask God to get him out of prison
and save his life
but it’s already past the time that he could hope for that
But he doesn’t spend his final days
in bitterness over what he didn’t get
over why God didn’t answer his prayers
and do what he told God to do
He tells them to keep praying
He tells them to surrender their lives to God
every day
because he knows that we can do it once
and then we’ll just take it all back again
As Christians, we need to realize that we are powerless over our lives
finally
That doesn’t mean that we don’t strive and seek and try
that doesn’t mean that we don’t pray and work
It means that finally, if we don’t get what we think is best
we need to surrender all our pain, our anger, our fears
all of it, to God
Surrender our lives
knowing that our lives are in God’s hands
That’s hard
That’s really hard
We try to control our own lives
we try to control other people’s lives
sometimes we consume ourselves with what other people should do
and then if they don’t do it,
we spend time being mad
We try to control our children’s lives
we worry, we stew
thinking, sometimes, that if we STOP worrying,
somehow something bad is going to happen
But other people are not going to do what we think they should do
especially our children,
our relatives, our parents
And worrying about that, stewing about that
doesn’t change it
Rejoice, Paul says
He is calling us to have joy
Joy that surpasses our circumstances
and that doesn’t mean we go around with sunshiney smiles
even if our hearts are breaking
it means that deep down, even when the world is falling apart
around us
we can have that peace, knowing that we’re in God’s hands
Even if we’re in prison,
even if it feels like we’re going to die from the pain
even when the rest of the world seems totally out of control
We can’t fix it
But we can surrender ourselves and the world
to God’s hands
and then let it go
Today
Then we’ll do it again tomorrow
Even Jesus said “don’t worry about what you will eat or drink
or what you will wear….
don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has troubles of its own.”
In other words,
God wants to care for you
God wants to provide for you and all God’s children
Worrying doesn’t get you anything but ulcers and stress
Do what you can, offer it up to God
and then let it go for today
Do it again tomorrow
I do think too much
I often think what will happen if I do this or that
or I try to imagine what could happen
and then I try to prevent that from happening
It’s exhausting…
Ridiculous, even
I read somewhere this week
that Joy is life in excess
Joy is LIFE in excess
It’s abundant life
life that comes from within
and is not dependent on outer circumstances
And I believe that that kind of joy comes from the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit that was there at the beginning of creation
is also alive in us
working on us, shaping us, transforming us
and when we make it a habit
of surrendering every day,
lifting up the burdens on our hearts
lifting up the world in chaos
lifting up the uncertainty of the future
when we take this crazy life
just one day at a time
the Holy Spirit carries that and uses that
to re-create us every day
to give us the wisdom we need
the insight and the power and strength
Have you ever had the experience where you entered into
a conversation
and you knew what you wanted to say
and you were going to let somebody have it
but when you opened your mouth
you were much more gracious than you intended to be?
That’s the Holy Spirit
Or have you ever just gotten a strong feeling
that you needed to call someone
someone you may not call often
and when you go with it
it turns out that person needed an ear to listen…
That’s the Holy Spirit
Or do you ever look back on a time in your life
when you were so devastated
that you never thought you’d feel good again?
And yet here you are, strong again
with a little more insight, a little more openness to love?
That’s the Holy Spirit
In fact, I think Paul is trying to tell us
that the deepest, most lasting joy
comes after you have been to the bottom
after you have hit rock and you can’t go down any further
When you’ve experienced the deepest darkness
maybe even not wanting to live anymore
when your heart has been irreparably broken
and somehow, you get up again
somehow, someone loves you back to life again
Joy that comes after you’ve known absolute darkness
is a joy that surpasses understanding
Sometimes we have a lot of things getting in the way
of our truly knowing that joy
and sometimes we have to be emptied out
completely
before we can know that kind of life giving joy
a peace underneath it all
that sustains us when we’re hardest hit
And then we can fill our minds with the most beautiful things
instead of the constant what-ifs?
or stewing over what someone did or said to us…
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just
whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable, if there is ANYTHING
worthy of joy and praise,
think about THOSE things….
What can we think about?
What are the true and beautiful things
we can think about together
or the things that we can think about
as we go to sleep at night
instead of all the things we worry about?
When you toss and turn at night
worrying and stewing and fretting,
stop
get out of bed, pace if you have to
and talk out loud to God
tell God what is tearing you apart
what is making you crazy
and give it up, let it go
and think about what is good, what is beautiful
what is life-giving, what makes your heart smile
what brings a tear of joy to your eyes
Think about those things
We are powerless over our lives, finally
We need help
Clean out, get rid of all the garbage
and make room in your hearts and souls for JOY
Philippians 4:1-9
Faith United
October 12, 2008
We don’t talk about the Holy Spirit much
Maybe you’re like me
when someone mentions the Holy Spirit
I picture one of those crazy guys on those religious channels
who are talking to the camera
and gesturing and waving their Bible
or worse, the ones who are on a stage
and who walk up to people and push them on the forehead
and that person collapses in front of them
“slain in the Spirit,” they call it
Or we picture people who are a lot less reserved
that we are in church
people who dance and wave their hands
and mutter phrases over and over
the holy rollers, we might call them
So we don’t talk about the Holy Spirit much
It’s just safer to stick with God and Jesus
And how do you talk about the Holy Spirit, anyway?
Is it an it? or a He or a She?
Language can be a problem
Larry bought me a book a few years ago
called “Women Who Think Too Much”
He never said exactly why he bought that for me
But I admit I never read it
it’s still on my shelf
because I really don’t want to think about
how I might think too much
But I admit I do think too much
I’m not against thinking
I think that more people ought to do it more often
the problem becomes just what do we spend our time
and energy thinking about?
There have been many instances over the years
where someone has invited me to a 12 step group
So many times, in fact, that I started to get the idea
that maybe
Number one; it was a good thing
and Number two: maybe even God was trying to tell me something
From the Twelve Steps that originate with A.A.
and then are adapted for other groups
the first step is to admit that we are powerless over our lives
Obviously, in the case of an alcoholic or addict
they are specifically powerless over their addiction
but it’s also true of all of us
Ultimately and finally, we are powerless over our lives
and until we admit that, accept that
we cause ourselves a whole lot of pain
We don’t want to be powerless
Powerless sounds weak and helpless
But another thing I’ve learned in middle age
is that it is in fact true
I can work and work and work to get what I want
and I don’t always get it
In fact, probably most of the time I don’t get what I want
I can do things to be responsible
I can make good decisions that affect my life
I can make goals
I can do what I can to carry out those goals
but ultimately, I am not in control
And if nothing else teaches us that,
watching a loved one die
or getting a dismal prognosis ourselves
is a slap in the face
a wake-up call
that we are not in fact in control
We can exercise, eat right, avoid the obvious things
that aren’t good for our bodies
we can take steps to contribute to our health
but we can’t cheat death
I wonder if that’s one reason why
we get so ticked off with God
when we pray and pray and pray
for someone we love to get well
and they don’t?
We did our part, and it didn’t work, as far as we can see
Or God didn’t do what we told him to do…
We like to be in control
We do not want to admit that there comes a point
where we realize we are not in control
We can do everything in our power to do
to get and keep that job
to advance, to get raises
we can do our part
but finally, that decision is in someone else’s hands
Maybe we had a dream we went after
and finally we realized that dream wouldn’t come true
no matter what we did
We are ultimately powerless over our lives
Sounds depressing, maddening, even,
but I think that’s one thing Paul was getting at
when he wrote what is referred to
as his happiest letter
His letter to the Church at Philippi
is his happiest letter
In his other letters, you see a real grump
he can get really mad
and stop just short of using words that wouldn’t be printed!
Or maybe he did and somebody edited him…
In some of his letters, he appears unforgiving and rigid
impossible
and there are times, too, that Paul doesn’t seem to like women
very much
and yet at other times, he praises the women that are leaders
in his churches
But the letter to the Philippians is his happiest letter
It’s a love letter to the church
And what Paul have to be so happy about??
He says, “Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord, always!”
He says, “don’t worry about anything, but with prayer and supplication
make all your requests known to God.”
Don’t worry, be happy, like the song says
Easy for him to say
I confess I’m not too fond of those Christian writers and speakers
who get on TV with their bleached white teeth
and expensive clothes
and tell us to be happy, praise the Lord!
Sometimes the religious language gets in the way
of our knowing the truth of God’s message
But Paul wasn’t a sunshiney, sparkling toothed evangelist
He didn’t just say the words
like a lot of people do
Paul is not writing this letter on his best day ever
He’s writing from prison
while he awaits execution
He’s not going to get out this time
the angels aren’t going to break open the door
and rescue him this time
He’s going to die
The government is going to kill him
The prisons of that time weren’t too comfortable, either
It was a dark, cement, cold dungeon
that he waited in
alone
anticipating his death anytime
A death that was unjust
He SHOULD have been rescued
He was a good man
He, like Jesus, just made the wrong people mad
And in the midst of that situation,
he writes a love letter to his favorite congregation
a little church in Philippi
a church struggling in the midst of an unjust, sometimes cruel society
A church in a community where Christianity is not the most popular
in fact, it’s often ridiculed
He writes to a little church
that doesn’t have a lot of money
a lot of prestige or media coverage
but a little church that is alive
Alive with the Spirit of Christ
alive with a passion to live and share the good news
of the Christ
Alive with the passion of helping the poor and needy
of worshipping God
despite the growing chaos of the world
despite ridicule and persecution
despite their founder being in jail
and awaiting certain death
And Paul writes to them,
“Don’t worry…”
and obviously, they had a lot to worry about!
but he says, “Don’t worry. in your prayers
give thanks, and offer God your requests…
and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
He doesn’t say
“ask God, and God will do whatever you want.”
He never says that
If he believe that, he’d ask God to get him out of prison
and save his life
but it’s already past the time that he could hope for that
But he doesn’t spend his final days
in bitterness over what he didn’t get
over why God didn’t answer his prayers
and do what he told God to do
He tells them to keep praying
He tells them to surrender their lives to God
every day
because he knows that we can do it once
and then we’ll just take it all back again
As Christians, we need to realize that we are powerless over our lives
finally
That doesn’t mean that we don’t strive and seek and try
that doesn’t mean that we don’t pray and work
It means that finally, if we don’t get what we think is best
we need to surrender all our pain, our anger, our fears
all of it, to God
Surrender our lives
knowing that our lives are in God’s hands
That’s hard
That’s really hard
We try to control our own lives
we try to control other people’s lives
sometimes we consume ourselves with what other people should do
and then if they don’t do it,
we spend time being mad
We try to control our children’s lives
we worry, we stew
thinking, sometimes, that if we STOP worrying,
somehow something bad is going to happen
But other people are not going to do what we think they should do
especially our children,
our relatives, our parents
And worrying about that, stewing about that
doesn’t change it
Rejoice, Paul says
He is calling us to have joy
Joy that surpasses our circumstances
and that doesn’t mean we go around with sunshiney smiles
even if our hearts are breaking
it means that deep down, even when the world is falling apart
around us
we can have that peace, knowing that we’re in God’s hands
Even if we’re in prison,
even if it feels like we’re going to die from the pain
even when the rest of the world seems totally out of control
We can’t fix it
But we can surrender ourselves and the world
to God’s hands
and then let it go
Today
Then we’ll do it again tomorrow
Even Jesus said “don’t worry about what you will eat or drink
or what you will wear….
don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has troubles of its own.”
In other words,
God wants to care for you
God wants to provide for you and all God’s children
Worrying doesn’t get you anything but ulcers and stress
Do what you can, offer it up to God
and then let it go for today
Do it again tomorrow
I do think too much
I often think what will happen if I do this or that
or I try to imagine what could happen
and then I try to prevent that from happening
It’s exhausting…
Ridiculous, even
I read somewhere this week
that Joy is life in excess
Joy is LIFE in excess
It’s abundant life
life that comes from within
and is not dependent on outer circumstances
And I believe that that kind of joy comes from the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit that was there at the beginning of creation
is also alive in us
working on us, shaping us, transforming us
and when we make it a habit
of surrendering every day,
lifting up the burdens on our hearts
lifting up the world in chaos
lifting up the uncertainty of the future
when we take this crazy life
just one day at a time
the Holy Spirit carries that and uses that
to re-create us every day
to give us the wisdom we need
the insight and the power and strength
Have you ever had the experience where you entered into
a conversation
and you knew what you wanted to say
and you were going to let somebody have it
but when you opened your mouth
you were much more gracious than you intended to be?
That’s the Holy Spirit
Or have you ever just gotten a strong feeling
that you needed to call someone
someone you may not call often
and when you go with it
it turns out that person needed an ear to listen…
That’s the Holy Spirit
Or do you ever look back on a time in your life
when you were so devastated
that you never thought you’d feel good again?
And yet here you are, strong again
with a little more insight, a little more openness to love?
That’s the Holy Spirit
In fact, I think Paul is trying to tell us
that the deepest, most lasting joy
comes after you have been to the bottom
after you have hit rock and you can’t go down any further
When you’ve experienced the deepest darkness
maybe even not wanting to live anymore
when your heart has been irreparably broken
and somehow, you get up again
somehow, someone loves you back to life again
Joy that comes after you’ve known absolute darkness
is a joy that surpasses understanding
Sometimes we have a lot of things getting in the way
of our truly knowing that joy
and sometimes we have to be emptied out
completely
before we can know that kind of life giving joy
a peace underneath it all
that sustains us when we’re hardest hit
And then we can fill our minds with the most beautiful things
instead of the constant what-ifs?
or stewing over what someone did or said to us…
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just
whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable, if there is ANYTHING
worthy of joy and praise,
think about THOSE things….
What can we think about?
What are the true and beautiful things
we can think about together
or the things that we can think about
as we go to sleep at night
instead of all the things we worry about?
When you toss and turn at night
worrying and stewing and fretting,
stop
get out of bed, pace if you have to
and talk out loud to God
tell God what is tearing you apart
what is making you crazy
and give it up, let it go
and think about what is good, what is beautiful
what is life-giving, what makes your heart smile
what brings a tear of joy to your eyes
Think about those things
We are powerless over our lives, finally
We need help
Clean out, get rid of all the garbage
and make room in your hearts and souls for JOY
Monday, October 6, 2008
Thou Shalt Not Commit Idolatry
“HEARTS ARE BETTER THAN STONE”
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Faith United
October 5, 2008
I hate rules
Don’t you?
There is something inside of us
that seems to hate being told what to do
I mean, that tag on the mattress
that says, “do not remove this tag”?
I rip it off
just to see what happens
Nothing
I see a sign that says “Do not enter”…
and something in me really wants to go there
Why is that?
You know what I mean, I know you do
We want to see for ourselves
I especially never liked being told what NOT to do
if you couldn’t give me a good reason,
like when people say, “because I said so!”
Well, what kind of answer is that?
I was fortunate in some ways
Growing up I didn’t have any desire to get drunk
when I saw that some people got addicted to the alcohol
and it destroyed their lives
Or that some people drove while they got drunk and died
or killed someone else
I knew then, why it wasn’t good to drink too much
or to drink and drive
I didn’t smoke not because my parents told me not to
but because my Aunt Julia had emphysema
but still smoked three packs a day
She looked like a walking corpse
and when she breathed in and out
you could hear her insides rattle
When she died, she died an excruciating death
After knowing her, I had no desire to smoke at all....
I think most of know that there has to be some rules, of course,
or there would be rampant chaos
I don’t think most of us know what exactly to do with the Ten Commandments
First of all, I’d like to bet
that most of us can’t even remember all of them
But the ones we do remember
are started with the words, “Thou shalt not…”
and we don’t talk like that anymore
"thou shalt not…"
Sounds pretty intense and important
but other than that, the words sound archaic
so why would we listen anyway?
Many of us remember one of many controversies
surrounding the Ten Commandments
There was Judge Roy Moore in Alabama
who fought to be able to keep a monument
displaying the Ten Commandments
in the front yard of his courthouse
The Commandments were engraved in the old language
on a slab of stone that weighed 5,280 pounds
During the time that he was fighting the government
to keep them displayed on public property,
Judge Moore made many public appearances
to fight for his cause
When he made those appearances,
he lugged the Ten Commandments around with him
on the back of a flatbed truck
wherever he spoke
Joshua Green, writing for the Atlantic Monthly
wrote that whenever the flatbed truck
returned to Alabama
Waiting there would be a 57 foot yellow I-beam crane
that spanned the ceiling of the local warehouse
That crane would drop down to retrieve the slab,
pick it up and move it into the warehouse
and in so doing, this 5 ton crane visibly buckled
under the weight
To me that’s a good image of what we do with God’s words
We make them into heavy burdens to bear
so heavy that it even a crane buckles under the weight
THOU SHALT NOT!!
It brings to mind the image of lighting and thunder
and a bolt of lightening coming out of the cloud
just inches from a gray haired bearded man
trembling in his sandals
We don’t like rules
but boy, we do enjoy making them
We don’t like obeying them, or having them given to us
but somehow we get a big kick out of delivering them
THOU SHALT NOT!!...
Judge Moore’s fight caused a lot of stir
and a lot of discussion around the water cooler
and editorials in newspapers
a lot of righteous indignation in our country
'What is this country coming to
that we can’t carve God’s words into stone
and put them on public property?' people said
And yet, go out today and ask someone
if they can tell you what the Ten Commandments are
I wonder how many people here can recite them
What does it prove to have them engraved in stone?
Yeah, God engraved them in stone,
gave them to Moses
and right away, he went down the mountain
got mad at his people, threw a hissy fit
and shattered the tablets
Later, God was kind enought to give him a second copy
but they were soon misplaced
They were put into the ark of the covenant
and we haven’t seen them since
So even the Israelites didn’t have them in front of them
They had to learn them
they had to live them
How else do you think that they were remembered at all?
They were remembered
because they were passed on by word of mouth
over centuries and centuries
they were lived out by a community of people
they were broken again and again
and tried again and again
The thing is, we may hate rules
we may hate being told what to do
but boy, we sure do like to MAKE rules
we like to put the law in stone
believing somehow that if we put it in stone
we can preserve it
Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now
God didn’t give the Israelites those commandments
because God was on some power kick
and wanted to demonstrate his superiority
God had already been through the ringer with these people
anyone else would have just sent a lightening bolt
to wipe them all out by now
because they were a handful
God parted the sea for them
gave them food and water in the desert
and all they did was complain and whine
Are you trying to kill us?? they kept saying to Moses
But instead of throwing a fit and wiping out the lot of them
God says to them,
“You’ve seen what I’ve done…
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...”
The Israelites had no permanent home yet
they were camping, living in tents
former slaves, who had never known freedom
And I guess when someone has told you
what to do all your life
from sun up to sundown
well, freedom can be pretty scary
They didn’t ever have to think for themselves
they didn’t ever have to make any decisions
so they were essentially like little children
out there in the desert
with all that wide open space
and they were so terrified,
they wanted to go back to Egypt
where they knew what the rules were
they knew what to expect every day
it wasn’t great, mind you, but it was predictable,
no uncertainties and no surprises
I’ve met a lot of people
who have endured abusive relationships for years
or who grew up with or married an alcoholic
I’ve known some recovering alcoholics or addicts
and many of them have told me why it’s so hard to quit
even when they know that their addiction is killing them
I’ve had children or spouses of alcoholics tell me
why it’s so hard to leave or get help
or to not get sucked into the whole sick cycle of addiction
Because addiction and addictive behavior is what they know
it may be chaotic and soul-killing
but it’s what they know
they know what to expect
recovery is so hard because the slate is clean
the horizon is wide open
and you don’t know what to expect
it’s a whole new world
and for a lot of people, that’s terrifying,
so terrifying that they are willing to stay in bondage
so they at least know how to act
It was like that for the Israelites
They knew how to live in slavery
because they had never been free
and out there in the wilderness
there were enemies around every corner
and they never knew when they’d attack them
they didn’t always know when they could eat
or have something to drink
and their only shelter was a tent on poles
very skimpy when the harsh winds blew
yeah, man, they’d take slavery back any day
so they lashed out at Moses and the God who set them free
But God still wants to make a covenant
that’s what the Commandments are
they are a covenant, a promise, a pact of love
'You’ve seen what I’ve done,
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...'
God is a poet
'I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself
and here we are...'
The Commandments don’t start with the statement:
“You ungrateful little snots, here are the rules
and you WILL obey them…”
No, instead, God says, “I am the Lord your God
who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt
I have set you free…”
and so, God says, 'these are the boundaries
this is what I say to you…
you shall have no other gods….
you shall not worship any other gods
you shall not make gods out of the things
of the earth and bow down to them...'
And that means, don’t worship anything else but God
not because God will strike you down
but because God loves you, loves us,
because God is the God who set us free from slavery
so why would we go back and enslave ourselves?
Worship money? Worship THINGS?
Worship popularity and power?
Worship a piece of cement on the front lawn?
We still do it
We still are terrified of freedom
God never said 'Thou shalt engrave these words on stone
and put them in your front yard …'
God says, 'this is how I want you to live
this is a way to live so that you can live in community
with one another
live in peace with one another...'
simple stuff, common sense:
Don’t worship a piece of cement
or anything less than god,
don’t use God’s name to get your own way
rest, refuel, spend time with God who wants to fill your soul;
honor your parents,
don’t kill each other,
don’t sleep with anyone but your own spouse,
don’t steal,
don’t lie,
don’t keep wanting what your neighbor has…
The Ten Commandments
are not meant to be a sledgehammer
they’re not meant to be a test of our righteousness and value
They are not meant to be a weapon
to use against our neighbor
They are given as part of a covenant
They are a reminder of who God is, and what God wants
They tell us in pretty general terms how God wants us to live
and they give us boundaries
and they aren’t enslaving boundaries
there’s a lot of room to live and breathe
and yet we don’t seem to want that room
because that gives us too much room for possible error
God says, "Ï am the Lord your God who set you free,”
so here, listen to me,
Those Israelites didn’t have a clue as to how to live
they were afraid to put one foot in front of another
because they were always waiting for that slavemaster
to crack his whip as soon as they stepped out too far
and now, God has brought them THIS far,
they were absolutely terrified
of having so much freedom
they thought surely they would be punished for it
But the commandments are a declaration of freedom
you are free to live, God is saying
don’t bind yourselves up worshipping things that don’t last
(hmmm… like the stock market)
don’t use my name to club other people over the head
that is a misuse of God’s holy name
Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian preacher,
said that the commandments are like tent poles
It was as if God said to the Israelites,
“Sink these 10 posts in the center of your camp,
hang a tent on them
and together we will survive the wilderness….”
The Commandments are our foundation
What would happen if we stopped worrying about
carving them in stone
and were more diligent in writing them on our hearts?
They were meant to be LIVED OUT
not carved in stone
Not something to memorize, but something to give shape
to our lives
We have so many choices in this world
we’re always being pulled here and there
and in so many different directions
it’s more confusing than ever
just like when the Israelites were set free into a vast wilderness
The Commandments are our foundation
to hang out tents on, to be the structure of our lives
It doesn’t help to put them on the wall
of our courthouses, schools, or anywhere
if we don’t read them, if we don’t take them into our hearts
and lives
Just like putting “In God we Trust” on our money
doesn’t insure that we are trusting God
Don’t make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or above,
don’t bow down to it, don’t worship it
Worship the invisible God made visible through us, God’s people
'You shall be my treasured possession, God says,
a priestly kingdom, a holy nation'
and he wasn’t talking to the United States or Canada or England
he was talking to all the people
that God created and who God identifies
as God’s holy people
God is God, we are not
That’s another thing God made clear
The mountain thundered, the skies lit up
the winds blew
and the presence of God
the holy presence of God made himself known
in the middle of the desert
saying, 'live with me
live in freedom and joy
live the good life
do what is good,
love one another
worship me and nothing less
and know forever
that you are my treasured possession
you are my holy nation
and it was I who bore you on eagles’ wings
and drew you to myself...'
Put your weapons down
stop fighting so hard
stop worrying about getting your own way
or being right
stop worrying about having the most toys
don’t let the Dow Jones run your life
open your clenched fists
open your arms
walk in freedom, trust God with each footstep
and remember every day
that you are God’s treasured possession….
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Faith United
October 5, 2008
I hate rules
Don’t you?
There is something inside of us
that seems to hate being told what to do
I mean, that tag on the mattress
that says, “do not remove this tag”?
I rip it off
just to see what happens
Nothing
I see a sign that says “Do not enter”…
and something in me really wants to go there
Why is that?
You know what I mean, I know you do
We want to see for ourselves
I especially never liked being told what NOT to do
if you couldn’t give me a good reason,
like when people say, “because I said so!”
Well, what kind of answer is that?
I was fortunate in some ways
Growing up I didn’t have any desire to get drunk
when I saw that some people got addicted to the alcohol
and it destroyed their lives
Or that some people drove while they got drunk and died
or killed someone else
I knew then, why it wasn’t good to drink too much
or to drink and drive
I didn’t smoke not because my parents told me not to
but because my Aunt Julia had emphysema
but still smoked three packs a day
She looked like a walking corpse
and when she breathed in and out
you could hear her insides rattle
When she died, she died an excruciating death
After knowing her, I had no desire to smoke at all....
I think most of know that there has to be some rules, of course,
or there would be rampant chaos
I don’t think most of us know what exactly to do with the Ten Commandments
First of all, I’d like to bet
that most of us can’t even remember all of them
But the ones we do remember
are started with the words, “Thou shalt not…”
and we don’t talk like that anymore
"thou shalt not…"
Sounds pretty intense and important
but other than that, the words sound archaic
so why would we listen anyway?
Many of us remember one of many controversies
surrounding the Ten Commandments
There was Judge Roy Moore in Alabama
who fought to be able to keep a monument
displaying the Ten Commandments
in the front yard of his courthouse
The Commandments were engraved in the old language
on a slab of stone that weighed 5,280 pounds
During the time that he was fighting the government
to keep them displayed on public property,
Judge Moore made many public appearances
to fight for his cause
When he made those appearances,
he lugged the Ten Commandments around with him
on the back of a flatbed truck
wherever he spoke
Joshua Green, writing for the Atlantic Monthly
wrote that whenever the flatbed truck
returned to Alabama
Waiting there would be a 57 foot yellow I-beam crane
that spanned the ceiling of the local warehouse
That crane would drop down to retrieve the slab,
pick it up and move it into the warehouse
and in so doing, this 5 ton crane visibly buckled
under the weight
To me that’s a good image of what we do with God’s words
We make them into heavy burdens to bear
so heavy that it even a crane buckles under the weight
THOU SHALT NOT!!
It brings to mind the image of lighting and thunder
and a bolt of lightening coming out of the cloud
just inches from a gray haired bearded man
trembling in his sandals
We don’t like rules
but boy, we do enjoy making them
We don’t like obeying them, or having them given to us
but somehow we get a big kick out of delivering them
THOU SHALT NOT!!...
Judge Moore’s fight caused a lot of stir
and a lot of discussion around the water cooler
and editorials in newspapers
a lot of righteous indignation in our country
'What is this country coming to
that we can’t carve God’s words into stone
and put them on public property?' people said
And yet, go out today and ask someone
if they can tell you what the Ten Commandments are
I wonder how many people here can recite them
What does it prove to have them engraved in stone?
Yeah, God engraved them in stone,
gave them to Moses
and right away, he went down the mountain
got mad at his people, threw a hissy fit
and shattered the tablets
Later, God was kind enought to give him a second copy
but they were soon misplaced
They were put into the ark of the covenant
and we haven’t seen them since
So even the Israelites didn’t have them in front of them
They had to learn them
they had to live them
How else do you think that they were remembered at all?
They were remembered
because they were passed on by word of mouth
over centuries and centuries
they were lived out by a community of people
they were broken again and again
and tried again and again
The thing is, we may hate rules
we may hate being told what to do
but boy, we sure do like to MAKE rules
we like to put the law in stone
believing somehow that if we put it in stone
we can preserve it
Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now
God didn’t give the Israelites those commandments
because God was on some power kick
and wanted to demonstrate his superiority
God had already been through the ringer with these people
anyone else would have just sent a lightening bolt
to wipe them all out by now
because they were a handful
God parted the sea for them
gave them food and water in the desert
and all they did was complain and whine
Are you trying to kill us?? they kept saying to Moses
But instead of throwing a fit and wiping out the lot of them
God says to them,
“You’ve seen what I’ve done…
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...”
The Israelites had no permanent home yet
they were camping, living in tents
former slaves, who had never known freedom
And I guess when someone has told you
what to do all your life
from sun up to sundown
well, freedom can be pretty scary
They didn’t ever have to think for themselves
they didn’t ever have to make any decisions
so they were essentially like little children
out there in the desert
with all that wide open space
and they were so terrified,
they wanted to go back to Egypt
where they knew what the rules were
they knew what to expect every day
it wasn’t great, mind you, but it was predictable,
no uncertainties and no surprises
I’ve met a lot of people
who have endured abusive relationships for years
or who grew up with or married an alcoholic
I’ve known some recovering alcoholics or addicts
and many of them have told me why it’s so hard to quit
even when they know that their addiction is killing them
I’ve had children or spouses of alcoholics tell me
why it’s so hard to leave or get help
or to not get sucked into the whole sick cycle of addiction
Because addiction and addictive behavior is what they know
it may be chaotic and soul-killing
but it’s what they know
they know what to expect
recovery is so hard because the slate is clean
the horizon is wide open
and you don’t know what to expect
it’s a whole new world
and for a lot of people, that’s terrifying,
so terrifying that they are willing to stay in bondage
so they at least know how to act
It was like that for the Israelites
They knew how to live in slavery
because they had never been free
and out there in the wilderness
there were enemies around every corner
and they never knew when they’d attack them
they didn’t always know when they could eat
or have something to drink
and their only shelter was a tent on poles
very skimpy when the harsh winds blew
yeah, man, they’d take slavery back any day
so they lashed out at Moses and the God who set them free
But God still wants to make a covenant
that’s what the Commandments are
they are a covenant, a promise, a pact of love
'You’ve seen what I’ve done,
how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...'
God is a poet
'I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself
and here we are...'
The Commandments don’t start with the statement:
“You ungrateful little snots, here are the rules
and you WILL obey them…”
No, instead, God says, “I am the Lord your God
who brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt
I have set you free…”
and so, God says, 'these are the boundaries
this is what I say to you…
you shall have no other gods….
you shall not worship any other gods
you shall not make gods out of the things
of the earth and bow down to them...'
And that means, don’t worship anything else but God
not because God will strike you down
but because God loves you, loves us,
because God is the God who set us free from slavery
so why would we go back and enslave ourselves?
Worship money? Worship THINGS?
Worship popularity and power?
Worship a piece of cement on the front lawn?
We still do it
We still are terrified of freedom
God never said 'Thou shalt engrave these words on stone
and put them in your front yard …'
God says, 'this is how I want you to live
this is a way to live so that you can live in community
with one another
live in peace with one another...'
simple stuff, common sense:
Don’t worship a piece of cement
or anything less than god,
don’t use God’s name to get your own way
rest, refuel, spend time with God who wants to fill your soul;
honor your parents,
don’t kill each other,
don’t sleep with anyone but your own spouse,
don’t steal,
don’t lie,
don’t keep wanting what your neighbor has…
The Ten Commandments
are not meant to be a sledgehammer
they’re not meant to be a test of our righteousness and value
They are not meant to be a weapon
to use against our neighbor
They are given as part of a covenant
They are a reminder of who God is, and what God wants
They tell us in pretty general terms how God wants us to live
and they give us boundaries
and they aren’t enslaving boundaries
there’s a lot of room to live and breathe
and yet we don’t seem to want that room
because that gives us too much room for possible error
God says, "Ï am the Lord your God who set you free,”
so here, listen to me,
Those Israelites didn’t have a clue as to how to live
they were afraid to put one foot in front of another
because they were always waiting for that slavemaster
to crack his whip as soon as they stepped out too far
and now, God has brought them THIS far,
they were absolutely terrified
of having so much freedom
they thought surely they would be punished for it
But the commandments are a declaration of freedom
you are free to live, God is saying
don’t bind yourselves up worshipping things that don’t last
(hmmm… like the stock market)
don’t use my name to club other people over the head
that is a misuse of God’s holy name
Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian preacher,
said that the commandments are like tent poles
It was as if God said to the Israelites,
“Sink these 10 posts in the center of your camp,
hang a tent on them
and together we will survive the wilderness….”
The Commandments are our foundation
What would happen if we stopped worrying about
carving them in stone
and were more diligent in writing them on our hearts?
They were meant to be LIVED OUT
not carved in stone
Not something to memorize, but something to give shape
to our lives
We have so many choices in this world
we’re always being pulled here and there
and in so many different directions
it’s more confusing than ever
just like when the Israelites were set free into a vast wilderness
The Commandments are our foundation
to hang out tents on, to be the structure of our lives
It doesn’t help to put them on the wall
of our courthouses, schools, or anywhere
if we don’t read them, if we don’t take them into our hearts
and lives
Just like putting “In God we Trust” on our money
doesn’t insure that we are trusting God
Don’t make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or above,
don’t bow down to it, don’t worship it
Worship the invisible God made visible through us, God’s people
'You shall be my treasured possession, God says,
a priestly kingdom, a holy nation'
and he wasn’t talking to the United States or Canada or England
he was talking to all the people
that God created and who God identifies
as God’s holy people
God is God, we are not
That’s another thing God made clear
The mountain thundered, the skies lit up
the winds blew
and the presence of God
the holy presence of God made himself known
in the middle of the desert
saying, 'live with me
live in freedom and joy
live the good life
do what is good,
love one another
worship me and nothing less
and know forever
that you are my treasured possession
you are my holy nation
and it was I who bore you on eagles’ wings
and drew you to myself...'
Put your weapons down
stop fighting so hard
stop worrying about getting your own way
or being right
stop worrying about having the most toys
don’t let the Dow Jones run your life
open your clenched fists
open your arms
walk in freedom, trust God with each footstep
and remember every day
that you are God’s treasured possession….
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