2KINGS 2:1-12
Elisha: don't leave me...
whirlwind
fire
confusion
horses
wheels
and silence
dust settles
wrinkled mantle
where Elijah once was
tearing of clothes
doubled-over grief
a wail from
some distant place within
others turn their heads
and wince
put the dusty mantle
on over torn clothes
a momento
a balm
a promise
a journy begins
with a limp
and a broken heart.
pmr
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Chariots of Fire
"THE PASSING OF THE MANTLE"
Text: 2 Kings 2:1-15
Faith United
February 22, 2009
People generally have a hard time talking about
two things: death and sex
now, don't get nervous, I'm not going to talk about sex
But I find this really strange
We are inundated all the time, by images of death
We see it on the news
most of our entertainment involves death
and pretty violent death at that
People are blown up all the time
we hear daily about earthquakes, tornadoes
floods, and of course bombs set off on the side of the road
bombs dropped from the sky
or shot from far away
Our sense are assaulted by news images
that play over and over again
just in case we forget what we saw yesterday
Like the Twin Towers, we see death played out over and over again
until it doesn't seem real
Of course we become numb to it, otherwise we've be overloaded
and overwhelmed emotionally
But I find it weird that in a world where death is in our faces
all the time
we still have a hard time talking about it
We're painfully aware that it's not at all like it is on TV
Where the person who is dying gets to say those final words
gets to tell someone that she is proud of them
or offers words of wisdom
or forgives them for some wrong
and grants a blessing
Then she simply closes her eyes and … well, dies
And it's peaceful and ok
The person in the bed doesn’t look bad at all
in fact, she looks like she's just asleep
and it's all neatly wrapped up
Well, we know it doesn't work that way
death is not that neat and pretty
maybe we'd all handle it better if it was
Sometimes we don't get to say goodbye
sometimes death takes us by surprise
and there's no time to put things in order
to make those amends
More often than not, death feels like a thief
that robs us of someone we love dearly
and aren't ready to let go of
It doesn't matter that we know that we're all going to die
It still feels unfair most of the time…
Elijah was training Elisha to take over after he was gone
in those last days, death followed them like that elephant in the room
that no one wants to talk about
but it's presence was felt
Maybe Elijah was trying to spare Elisha
by constantly telling him, "wait here. I'll go on ahead…"
maybe Elijah is trying to spare himself the pain of goodbye
but whatever his motives, Elisha refused to let Elijah go on alone
whatever happened down the road
he wanted to be there
"do you know that your master is leaving you today?"
Elijah's followers said to Elisha..
"yes, I know," Elisha said, "don't talk about it…"
and he went on, knowing the pain that lay ahead
but he just wanted to keep on walking…
Have you ever loved someone that much?
It doesn't have to be a spouse or partner
it can be that treasured friend
who is so much a part of you
that you can't imagine life without them
Elisha did well, he was a good learner
and he would do fine once Elijah was gone
but he didn't want to be without him
They kept walking, in silence, perhaps because they were men
I imagine women would have talked about it
how they felt, what lay ahead
what would happen
They were followed by others that had learned under Elijah
others that came to say goodbye to their teacher and mentor
When they came to the Jordan,
Elijah removed his mantle
which was an outer cloak, worn over his clothes
but was also a symbol of authority
He took it off, rolled it up,
and struck the water of the Jordan with it
and the waters of the river parted for them
They walked silently across the river to the other side
When they had gotten across,
Elijah turned to Elisha
perhaps he sighed heavily,
"what can I do for you before I go?
What can I give you?"
Elisha, feeling the drama of the moment, perhaps,
said, "Please let me inherit a double portion of your spirit."
In other words, Elisha felt like he was half the man that Elijah was
and would need a double portion just to break even
Elijah sighed, perhaps put his hand on Elisha's shoulder
and said, "You're asking a hard thing, it's not up to me to give that.
But if you see me being taken from you, it will be granted you,
if not, it will not."
And I think maybe Elijah was saying that only God could grant Elisha's wish
to inherit the tremendous gifts of the great Elijah
only God could determine what Elisha's ministry would be
what he would carry on
and only God could give Elisha the vision
And that's what God did
As they were walking, Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind
and Elisha saw a chariot of fire and horses
that came between the men
Elisha yelled out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel
and the horsemen!"
It was a powerful, frightening vision,
and when it was over, Elijah was gone
Elisha was alone
and when he realized this, he fell to his knees
and tore his clothes in two
as an expression of his grief and loss
When he recovered a bit,
he got up, picking up the mantle that Elijah had left behind
It was the same mantle that Elijah and thrown onto Elisha's shoulders
back when they first met,
back when Elijah chose Elisha to be his protégé
Perhaps with tears in his eyes,
Elijah took the mantle of his friend
rolled it up, and struck the waters,
and sure enough, they parted for him
I bet he gasped, even though he wasn't necessarily surprised
As he struck the water, he said out loud
"where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"
and when the waters parted, he knew that God was right there
God had not left him when Elijah left
When the other followers saw Elisha coming,
they sensed the difference in him
"The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha," they said
And so Elisha wore the mantle of Elijah, his mentor, his teacher
he carried on the ministry that Elijah and started
and in fact, he performed twice as many miracles
as his teacher did
and so it would seem that God granted his request
that Elisha inherit a double portion of Elijah's spirit
I imagine that wearing the mantle gave Elisha strength
It probably still had Elijah's smell on it
and so he felt close all the time
Someone suggested to me that the mantle carried the dust
of all the places where Elijah had traveled
all the places that he'd performed miracles
faced off with his enemies
and spoken the words of God
And so Elisha carried those memories with him
gaining strength from the reminder of his master's presence
It makes me think of when we lose someone
at funerals, we gather THINGS that were important to that person
that represent that person's life
and we put them on display
Sometimes it's as common as a pair of their favorite shoes
or a belt buckle or a jacket
I remember when Viola Livingston or Edith Johnston died
and there were sales at their houses
I know members of our congregation bought things
at both of them just to have something of theirs
something to remember them by
In my wallet I carry a poem
that you can hardly read anymore
it's so worn
but it's a poem that my friend Sandie hand-copied for me
and put inside a box that she had made for me one Christmas
The poem is about the little things in life
that mean the most
and it's signed by Sandie, with a reminder from her
to always cherish the little things
like the many blessings that she and I shared in friendship
I've been carrying that in my wallet for over 25 years
I wear a turquoise ring that belonged to my sister in law Barbara
who died two years ago
and who left me some of her jewelry
because, she said before she died,
that she wasn't bothered by the idea that my brother
might marry again after she was gone
but she didn't want the new wife to get her jewelry!
So the ring reminds me of Barbara's courage and humor
in the face of her own death
We don't talk well about death
because it frightens us, I think
And isn't it true that some realities are just too big
to name?
Too overwhelming, too confusing and frightening
to speak of?
But I've gained courage from the brave ones
who have talked to me about death as it loomed for them
I was nervous, I didn't want to say the wrong things
but I've found that people who face death with courage
and have accepted it
have a way of being honest
because what do they have to lose?
Death is real, we're all going to die
It's not depressing, really, if you think about it
all of God's creation dies, and all of it regenerated
and made new again
I love the story of Elisha and Elijah
even though at first it seems so other-worldly
Few of us expect to ever get a vision of the chariots of fire
and horsemen in the sky
Few of us expect to leave this earth as dramatically as Elijah did
He was spared some of the indignities of death
that perhaps many of us dread
But what I love about the story is the reminder
that it is a beautiful reminder of the intimacy
of two spiritual friends
and their trust in God's ongoing work of love in the world
That we can trust that our loved ones
are resurrected with God in another place
and while we're still here
we can carry on the gifts that those persons gave us
I still think of Edith when I see that little black table in the entryway
and her faithfulness to her church
that inspired others to do the same
I can still hear Karen and Lee's laughter at the table
during fellowship time
when others are visiting across the tables
I still remember Viola's faithfulness in giving me a hug at the door
when she left church
and told me of her latest aches and pains
Their spirits are still here,
because their lives are intricately woven with ours
I believe I'm a better mother because of my relationship with Sandie
I relate to Sarah the way Sandie related to me
and I have no doubt that I've inherited a portion of her spirit
that gives me the strength and ability to love,
to create beautiful things
and most of all, to laugh
even when life can be hard
That doesn't take away the sting of death
Elisha stood in the middle of the field
and tore his clothes, probably let out a grievious wail
at the deep, deep pain of separation from his mentor
And through his tears, he turned around
he saw the others far off
who looked at him expectantly
People who needed him
who needed what he had to give
who needed what he did inherit from the great Elijah
When Jesus was saying his farewells to his disciples
he told them about the gift of the Holy Spirit
and he told these very ordinary people
that they would do many more things than he did
that they would multiply the miracles that he had done
because they had the power that he gave them
power that they gained from knowing him and trusting him
that until they all got to be together again
feasting at the heavenly banquet
until then,
it was up to the disciples to carry on
even if sometimes they had to carry on
in the midst of tears and that persistent ache of loss
but to carry on the love, the grace, the passion
the vision and the power
of Jesus Christ
Perhaps when we wear a cross
or the Greek symbol of the fish
that is our way of bearing the mantle of Christ
the mantle that he put on our shoulders when we were born
and baptized into God's fellowship
Symbols like that;
or a piece of clothing or jewelry or a Bible
that belonged to someone we love
but can't see anymore…
maybe all of those are reminders
that as long we're still here, we are to carry on the gifts
that God has given us through those precious people
that God put in our lives to love and to cherish
until we meet again…
Text: 2 Kings 2:1-15
Faith United
February 22, 2009
People generally have a hard time talking about
two things: death and sex
now, don't get nervous, I'm not going to talk about sex
But I find this really strange
We are inundated all the time, by images of death
We see it on the news
most of our entertainment involves death
and pretty violent death at that
People are blown up all the time
we hear daily about earthquakes, tornadoes
floods, and of course bombs set off on the side of the road
bombs dropped from the sky
or shot from far away
Our sense are assaulted by news images
that play over and over again
just in case we forget what we saw yesterday
Like the Twin Towers, we see death played out over and over again
until it doesn't seem real
Of course we become numb to it, otherwise we've be overloaded
and overwhelmed emotionally
But I find it weird that in a world where death is in our faces
all the time
we still have a hard time talking about it
We're painfully aware that it's not at all like it is on TV
Where the person who is dying gets to say those final words
gets to tell someone that she is proud of them
or offers words of wisdom
or forgives them for some wrong
and grants a blessing
Then she simply closes her eyes and … well, dies
And it's peaceful and ok
The person in the bed doesn’t look bad at all
in fact, she looks like she's just asleep
and it's all neatly wrapped up
Well, we know it doesn't work that way
death is not that neat and pretty
maybe we'd all handle it better if it was
Sometimes we don't get to say goodbye
sometimes death takes us by surprise
and there's no time to put things in order
to make those amends
More often than not, death feels like a thief
that robs us of someone we love dearly
and aren't ready to let go of
It doesn't matter that we know that we're all going to die
It still feels unfair most of the time…
Elijah was training Elisha to take over after he was gone
in those last days, death followed them like that elephant in the room
that no one wants to talk about
but it's presence was felt
Maybe Elijah was trying to spare Elisha
by constantly telling him, "wait here. I'll go on ahead…"
maybe Elijah is trying to spare himself the pain of goodbye
but whatever his motives, Elisha refused to let Elijah go on alone
whatever happened down the road
he wanted to be there
"do you know that your master is leaving you today?"
Elijah's followers said to Elisha..
"yes, I know," Elisha said, "don't talk about it…"
and he went on, knowing the pain that lay ahead
but he just wanted to keep on walking…
Have you ever loved someone that much?
It doesn't have to be a spouse or partner
it can be that treasured friend
who is so much a part of you
that you can't imagine life without them
Elisha did well, he was a good learner
and he would do fine once Elijah was gone
but he didn't want to be without him
They kept walking, in silence, perhaps because they were men
I imagine women would have talked about it
how they felt, what lay ahead
what would happen
They were followed by others that had learned under Elijah
others that came to say goodbye to their teacher and mentor
When they came to the Jordan,
Elijah removed his mantle
which was an outer cloak, worn over his clothes
but was also a symbol of authority
He took it off, rolled it up,
and struck the water of the Jordan with it
and the waters of the river parted for them
They walked silently across the river to the other side
When they had gotten across,
Elijah turned to Elisha
perhaps he sighed heavily,
"what can I do for you before I go?
What can I give you?"
Elisha, feeling the drama of the moment, perhaps,
said, "Please let me inherit a double portion of your spirit."
In other words, Elisha felt like he was half the man that Elijah was
and would need a double portion just to break even
Elijah sighed, perhaps put his hand on Elisha's shoulder
and said, "You're asking a hard thing, it's not up to me to give that.
But if you see me being taken from you, it will be granted you,
if not, it will not."
And I think maybe Elijah was saying that only God could grant Elisha's wish
to inherit the tremendous gifts of the great Elijah
only God could determine what Elisha's ministry would be
what he would carry on
and only God could give Elisha the vision
And that's what God did
As they were walking, Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind
and Elisha saw a chariot of fire and horses
that came between the men
Elisha yelled out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel
and the horsemen!"
It was a powerful, frightening vision,
and when it was over, Elijah was gone
Elisha was alone
and when he realized this, he fell to his knees
and tore his clothes in two
as an expression of his grief and loss
When he recovered a bit,
he got up, picking up the mantle that Elijah had left behind
It was the same mantle that Elijah and thrown onto Elisha's shoulders
back when they first met,
back when Elijah chose Elisha to be his protégé
Perhaps with tears in his eyes,
Elijah took the mantle of his friend
rolled it up, and struck the waters,
and sure enough, they parted for him
I bet he gasped, even though he wasn't necessarily surprised
As he struck the water, he said out loud
"where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"
and when the waters parted, he knew that God was right there
God had not left him when Elijah left
When the other followers saw Elisha coming,
they sensed the difference in him
"The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha," they said
And so Elisha wore the mantle of Elijah, his mentor, his teacher
he carried on the ministry that Elijah and started
and in fact, he performed twice as many miracles
as his teacher did
and so it would seem that God granted his request
that Elisha inherit a double portion of Elijah's spirit
I imagine that wearing the mantle gave Elisha strength
It probably still had Elijah's smell on it
and so he felt close all the time
Someone suggested to me that the mantle carried the dust
of all the places where Elijah had traveled
all the places that he'd performed miracles
faced off with his enemies
and spoken the words of God
And so Elisha carried those memories with him
gaining strength from the reminder of his master's presence
It makes me think of when we lose someone
at funerals, we gather THINGS that were important to that person
that represent that person's life
and we put them on display
Sometimes it's as common as a pair of their favorite shoes
or a belt buckle or a jacket
I remember when Viola Livingston or Edith Johnston died
and there were sales at their houses
I know members of our congregation bought things
at both of them just to have something of theirs
something to remember them by
In my wallet I carry a poem
that you can hardly read anymore
it's so worn
but it's a poem that my friend Sandie hand-copied for me
and put inside a box that she had made for me one Christmas
The poem is about the little things in life
that mean the most
and it's signed by Sandie, with a reminder from her
to always cherish the little things
like the many blessings that she and I shared in friendship
I've been carrying that in my wallet for over 25 years
I wear a turquoise ring that belonged to my sister in law Barbara
who died two years ago
and who left me some of her jewelry
because, she said before she died,
that she wasn't bothered by the idea that my brother
might marry again after she was gone
but she didn't want the new wife to get her jewelry!
So the ring reminds me of Barbara's courage and humor
in the face of her own death
We don't talk well about death
because it frightens us, I think
And isn't it true that some realities are just too big
to name?
Too overwhelming, too confusing and frightening
to speak of?
But I've gained courage from the brave ones
who have talked to me about death as it loomed for them
I was nervous, I didn't want to say the wrong things
but I've found that people who face death with courage
and have accepted it
have a way of being honest
because what do they have to lose?
Death is real, we're all going to die
It's not depressing, really, if you think about it
all of God's creation dies, and all of it regenerated
and made new again
I love the story of Elisha and Elijah
even though at first it seems so other-worldly
Few of us expect to ever get a vision of the chariots of fire
and horsemen in the sky
Few of us expect to leave this earth as dramatically as Elijah did
He was spared some of the indignities of death
that perhaps many of us dread
But what I love about the story is the reminder
that it is a beautiful reminder of the intimacy
of two spiritual friends
and their trust in God's ongoing work of love in the world
That we can trust that our loved ones
are resurrected with God in another place
and while we're still here
we can carry on the gifts that those persons gave us
I still think of Edith when I see that little black table in the entryway
and her faithfulness to her church
that inspired others to do the same
I can still hear Karen and Lee's laughter at the table
during fellowship time
when others are visiting across the tables
I still remember Viola's faithfulness in giving me a hug at the door
when she left church
and told me of her latest aches and pains
Their spirits are still here,
because their lives are intricately woven with ours
I believe I'm a better mother because of my relationship with Sandie
I relate to Sarah the way Sandie related to me
and I have no doubt that I've inherited a portion of her spirit
that gives me the strength and ability to love,
to create beautiful things
and most of all, to laugh
even when life can be hard
That doesn't take away the sting of death
Elisha stood in the middle of the field
and tore his clothes, probably let out a grievious wail
at the deep, deep pain of separation from his mentor
And through his tears, he turned around
he saw the others far off
who looked at him expectantly
People who needed him
who needed what he had to give
who needed what he did inherit from the great Elijah
When Jesus was saying his farewells to his disciples
he told them about the gift of the Holy Spirit
and he told these very ordinary people
that they would do many more things than he did
that they would multiply the miracles that he had done
because they had the power that he gave them
power that they gained from knowing him and trusting him
that until they all got to be together again
feasting at the heavenly banquet
until then,
it was up to the disciples to carry on
even if sometimes they had to carry on
in the midst of tears and that persistent ache of loss
but to carry on the love, the grace, the passion
the vision and the power
of Jesus Christ
Perhaps when we wear a cross
or the Greek symbol of the fish
that is our way of bearing the mantle of Christ
the mantle that he put on our shoulders when we were born
and baptized into God's fellowship
Symbols like that;
or a piece of clothing or jewelry or a Bible
that belonged to someone we love
but can't see anymore…
maybe all of those are reminders
that as long we're still here, we are to carry on the gifts
that God has given us through those precious people
that God put in our lives to love and to cherish
until we meet again…
The People Who Could Fly
"WHY WALK WHEN YOU CAN FLY?"
Text: Isaiah 40:21-31
Faith United
February 8, 2009
I love to fly
well, I love to fly, but I hate the hassle now
of moving through airports and all the extra waiting
taking off of shoes, etc.
But I love being in the air,
thousands of feet off the ground
it gives you perspective, I think
Sometimes it would do us good
to get on a plane
and look down on the earth from the clouds
and realize that the world is much bigger
than all the little things that tie us up inside
My parents came to Nebraska for the first time
in 1992, when we were living in Ceresco
I had already fallen in love with Nebraska
but it was fun to see it through their eyes
When they first arrived, they kept talking about flying into the state
and seeing that from the sky,
the land was divided up into perfect grids
The roads, they said, are completely straight
This fascinated them, of course,
because there are no straight roads back east
They were fascinated by how you could see for miles ahead
when you were driving
you can see where you're going
long before you get there
My father said incredulously,
"and the sky! it's right NEXT to you here!"
I hadn't thought of it that way
but it's true, back east, you actually have to look UP
to see the sky…
Seeing Nebraska through their eyes
made me appreciate it even more
It's all about perspective….
One thing I did love about Pennsylvania
was all the trees
I loved walking through the forests
and the tops of the trees covered the sky
like a natural ceiling
it was a holy place for me, there among the trees
absolutely beautiful
and unspeakably beautiful in the fall
But then a friend of ours from Nebraska
had visited Pennsylvania for the first time
and came back not so impressed
He said, "what a waste of good land,
filled up with all those trees!"
It's all about perspective…
I'm a firm believer in getting out of your comfort zone
in learning about other places,
getting out and seeing other places
and seeing that the rest of the world
isn't necessarily like us
It's easy to become pigeon-holed in our perspective
and to even think that the whole world revolves around us
I like to read books from the perspective of someone
in another country
for instance, someone living in Afghanistan
during the different wars
they become people like me,
and not just some faceless person
but someone with a heart that beats like mine
with a heart that breaks like mine
when the world is coming apart
Just watching the movie, "Pearl Harbor" the other night
gave me a deeper appreciation of the horror
of that attack
Before, it was just a date in history, long before I was born
The books of Isaiah give us a perspective
even larger than the view from an airplane
Isaiah is talking about God, the creator
he's talking about things that are too much
to describe with human language
How can we possibly describe the Divine with such limited language?
How can we even imagine God with our limited imaginations?
Isaiah writes in a time when the nation of Israel
is in captivity in Babylon
they are in exile
they are hopeless
They don't think God cares about them
If God cared about them, they wouldn't be in this mess
they wouldn't be overrun by another nation
and at their mercy
They are the Chosen ones of God after all!
How can this happen to the Chosen Ones??
Do we ever feel that way?
When bad things happen to us,
do we get mad?
How can this happen to us?
Why is God doing this to us?
I do it too
As if I am the only one in the world
and God should treat me better
As if life on this crazy earth SHOULD be easy, somehow
especially if I live the Good Life that God wants
But the more I read history
life has never been easy,
for any of God's people
In fact, it's been harder for some than others
and I realize that I've had it pretty good
even though I've had my share of heartache
But we expect life to be easier, don't we?
I do
We shouldn't suffer anything here in America,
we shouldn't have to sacrifice, or work too hard
or suffer on our own territory,
keep it over there, please….
We are good people, why do we have to endure illnesses
the loss of loved ones,
a really bad economy,
why do we have to suffer?
I ask those same questions, too
I get mad too at the way things are
But the more I know history,
the more I know that people have always suffered
and there's no indication that we will ever stop
as long as we are on this earth
Get up in the plane,
above the clouds,
see the grid-like roads and land of Nebraska
keep pulling back, go higher
see the whole country,
the mountains, the trees, the plains
the cities
and see all those people, they look like grasshoppers from the sky
the cars, buses and trains are so tiny
pull back even more,
see the many, many countries of the world,
the continents
the people with different cultures,
different languages, different landscapes
Pull back into space
and see earth as one of many, many planets
our universe as one of many universes
created by God
Isaiah reminds us that God is far great than we can imagine
and that God is the creator of all that is
all that we see and all that we cannot see
Nothing lives without the creative power of God
Not the tiniest life that we can't see without a microscope
or the largest thing out there in space
that is beyond our comprehension
and the same one who created all that
and who is lord of all that
manages to care about us, each of us, all of us
us tiny grasshoppers
across this little planet called Earth
God cares about the ones on the other side of the world
living with bombs and rubble around them
suffering daily heartache
and us, as we go to work and school
not necessarily fearing for our lives
Have you not known? he asks
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
It is God who is above all things
who is larger than our imagination
Who could easily dismiss as tiny grasshoppers
and yet gives us value nonetheless
Who can we compare God to?
Look up, look around, pull back
get perspective, see that God is always more
than we can possibly imagine and know
This Lord is the everlasting God
the Creator of the ends of the earth
He never gets tired, he never runs out of power….
I've always wondered about the unspoken rule among Christians
that we can't get too happy
people out there have the impression
that Church people don't have any fun
that joy is almost a sin
I don't know exactly how that got started
but it's pretty ingrained
it's like we have to leave our joy at the door
when we come in here
I've always found it that people are almost afraid to laugh
like it's a sin to laugh out loud in church
or a sin to have fun in church
It's like you can't be too happy
or something must be wrong
but when I read Isaiah and many other places in the Bible
It is not God who wants to hold us back
God wants us to know the fullness of life
to know Joy
Mary Chapin-Carpenter, a country singer
writes in a song,
"In this world there's a whole lotta trouble,
in this world there's a whole lotta pain
in this world there's a whole lotta trouble
but a whole lotta ground to gain
why take when you could be givin'
why watch as the world goes by
it's a hard enough life to be livin'
why walk when you can fly?...."
I first heard that song when I was in Tilden
and I was on my way to be with a woman in our church there
who was dying
a woman who was always joyful
even though she had many health issues
as she got older
no matter how much her body was hurting,
she always greeted me with a smile
and it was hard to anticipate watching her go
I would miss her very much
but that song reminded me of what she taught me
life is hard, it's always going to be hard
no matter how good I am,
the fact is, life on this earth is hard
and God never told us any differently
God never said in the Bible
that if you are good, if you follow Jesus,
you won't have to suffer
All throughout the Bible
we're told that yes, life here is hard
and we will suffer
it's part of being human in a sinsick world
Faith doesn't make the suffering go away
Faith gives us the power and the hope
to live in this world with strength and purpose
with love and mercy
and to leave this world a little better than it was
I forget that sometimes
because I get mad when my heart gets broken
Sometimes I think hey, I've been good, why should I suffer?
Why shouldn't I?
If you live in this world and have a heart that feels anything,
you will suffer
But God gives us the power and the hope
to live life fully even in the midst of the awful stuff
we can hang our heads and give up
we can give in to all the bad news
and say, WHY BOTHER?
But then we're already dead
walking around in bodies and just breathing
God gives us more than that
God gives us a vision of God's kingdom
and we can live like kingdom people
even when we're far from home, our true home
That's what Isaiah is telling the Israelites
They are in exile, a long, long way from home
but God is with them even there
and they can still hope, still believe, still love
and live life in the midst of the terrible stuff
and that's not living in denial
it is rising above, and trusting in a power that is greater than any of us
Rev. Otis Moss III of Chicago
tells a story that he says has been passed around
from mouth to ear somewhere in South Carolina
a story that was passed down from West Africa
to the North Atlantic
It's the story, he says, of the people who could fly
The story takes place in St. Johns' Island,
just off the coast of South Carolina
as Africans who have been made slaves
are working in the hot sun
They're working so hard to pick cotton
There is one young woman and beside her her small son
maybe six or seven
She's working in the fields and she has such incredible dexterity
that she is able to pick cotton with her right hand
and caress the forehead of her young son
with the left
Eventually, however, exhausted by working so hard
in the fields,
she falls down form the weight and the pressure
of pressure of being a piece of property
Her little boy attempts to wake her very quickly
knowing that if the slave drivers were to see her
the punishment would be swift and cruel
He tries to shake his mother
and as he's trying to shake her,
an old man comes over to him
An old man that the Africans called Preacher and Prophet
but the slave drivers called Old Devil
He looks up at the old man and says, "Is it time? Is it time?"
The old man smiles and looks at the boy and says, "yes!"
And he bends down and whispers
into the ear of the woman who was now upon the ground
and says these words: "Cooleebah! Cooleebah!"
At that moment the woman gets up with such incredible dignity
She stands as a queen and looks down at her son
grasps his hand and begins to look toward heaven
All of a sudden they begin to fly
The slave drivers rush over to this area
where she has stopped work and they see
this act of human flight and are completely confused
They do not know what to do!
And during their confusion, the old man rushes around
to all the other Africans and begins to tell them,
"Cooleebah! Cooleebah!"
When they hear the word, they all begin to fly
Can you imagine? The dispossessed flying?
Can you imagine the disempowered flying?
Three fifths of a person flying? The diseased flying?
The dislocated flying? They are all taking flight!
And at that moment the slave drivers grab the old man and say,
"Bring them back!"
They beat him, and with blood coming down his cheek,
he just smiles at them
They say to him, "Please bring them back!"
And he says, "I can't."
They say, "why not?"
He said, "Because the word is already in them and since the word
is already in them, it cannot be taken from them."
The old man had a word from West Africa, cooleebah,
a word that means God
It had been placed into the heart of these displaced Africans
and now they had dignity and they were flying
And Dr. Moss III says,
"Is it not the job of the church and the preacher?
No, we are not called to make people shout
No, we are not called to make people dance
No, we are not called to have our bank accounts fly
No, we are called to make sure that the people of God fly!
Fly from breakdown to break THROUGH
Fly from hurt to HEALING
Fly from heartache to being mended to a whole person
We are called as a people to ensure that those who have been
marginalized have a word in their spirit that allows them to fly
and the question is, he says,
Are we part of a church, are we a part of a ministry
that causes people to fly?"
Isaiah says it: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles
they shall run and not get weary,
they shall walk and not faint….
When we have the word of God, the love of God in us,
we can fly….
it's a hard enough life to be living…
why walk when we can fly?
*"The People Who Could Fly," sermon by Rev. Otis Moss III, Pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago,
as aired on "30 Good Minutes," December 31, 2006.
Text: Isaiah 40:21-31
Faith United
February 8, 2009
I love to fly
well, I love to fly, but I hate the hassle now
of moving through airports and all the extra waiting
taking off of shoes, etc.
But I love being in the air,
thousands of feet off the ground
it gives you perspective, I think
Sometimes it would do us good
to get on a plane
and look down on the earth from the clouds
and realize that the world is much bigger
than all the little things that tie us up inside
My parents came to Nebraska for the first time
in 1992, when we were living in Ceresco
I had already fallen in love with Nebraska
but it was fun to see it through their eyes
When they first arrived, they kept talking about flying into the state
and seeing that from the sky,
the land was divided up into perfect grids
The roads, they said, are completely straight
This fascinated them, of course,
because there are no straight roads back east
They were fascinated by how you could see for miles ahead
when you were driving
you can see where you're going
long before you get there
My father said incredulously,
"and the sky! it's right NEXT to you here!"
I hadn't thought of it that way
but it's true, back east, you actually have to look UP
to see the sky…
Seeing Nebraska through their eyes
made me appreciate it even more
It's all about perspective….
One thing I did love about Pennsylvania
was all the trees
I loved walking through the forests
and the tops of the trees covered the sky
like a natural ceiling
it was a holy place for me, there among the trees
absolutely beautiful
and unspeakably beautiful in the fall
But then a friend of ours from Nebraska
had visited Pennsylvania for the first time
and came back not so impressed
He said, "what a waste of good land,
filled up with all those trees!"
It's all about perspective…
I'm a firm believer in getting out of your comfort zone
in learning about other places,
getting out and seeing other places
and seeing that the rest of the world
isn't necessarily like us
It's easy to become pigeon-holed in our perspective
and to even think that the whole world revolves around us
I like to read books from the perspective of someone
in another country
for instance, someone living in Afghanistan
during the different wars
they become people like me,
and not just some faceless person
but someone with a heart that beats like mine
with a heart that breaks like mine
when the world is coming apart
Just watching the movie, "Pearl Harbor" the other night
gave me a deeper appreciation of the horror
of that attack
Before, it was just a date in history, long before I was born
The books of Isaiah give us a perspective
even larger than the view from an airplane
Isaiah is talking about God, the creator
he's talking about things that are too much
to describe with human language
How can we possibly describe the Divine with such limited language?
How can we even imagine God with our limited imaginations?
Isaiah writes in a time when the nation of Israel
is in captivity in Babylon
they are in exile
they are hopeless
They don't think God cares about them
If God cared about them, they wouldn't be in this mess
they wouldn't be overrun by another nation
and at their mercy
They are the Chosen ones of God after all!
How can this happen to the Chosen Ones??
Do we ever feel that way?
When bad things happen to us,
do we get mad?
How can this happen to us?
Why is God doing this to us?
I do it too
As if I am the only one in the world
and God should treat me better
As if life on this crazy earth SHOULD be easy, somehow
especially if I live the Good Life that God wants
But the more I read history
life has never been easy,
for any of God's people
In fact, it's been harder for some than others
and I realize that I've had it pretty good
even though I've had my share of heartache
But we expect life to be easier, don't we?
I do
We shouldn't suffer anything here in America,
we shouldn't have to sacrifice, or work too hard
or suffer on our own territory,
keep it over there, please….
We are good people, why do we have to endure illnesses
the loss of loved ones,
a really bad economy,
why do we have to suffer?
I ask those same questions, too
I get mad too at the way things are
But the more I know history,
the more I know that people have always suffered
and there's no indication that we will ever stop
as long as we are on this earth
Get up in the plane,
above the clouds,
see the grid-like roads and land of Nebraska
keep pulling back, go higher
see the whole country,
the mountains, the trees, the plains
the cities
and see all those people, they look like grasshoppers from the sky
the cars, buses and trains are so tiny
pull back even more,
see the many, many countries of the world,
the continents
the people with different cultures,
different languages, different landscapes
Pull back into space
and see earth as one of many, many planets
our universe as one of many universes
created by God
Isaiah reminds us that God is far great than we can imagine
and that God is the creator of all that is
all that we see and all that we cannot see
Nothing lives without the creative power of God
Not the tiniest life that we can't see without a microscope
or the largest thing out there in space
that is beyond our comprehension
and the same one who created all that
and who is lord of all that
manages to care about us, each of us, all of us
us tiny grasshoppers
across this little planet called Earth
God cares about the ones on the other side of the world
living with bombs and rubble around them
suffering daily heartache
and us, as we go to work and school
not necessarily fearing for our lives
Have you not known? he asks
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
It is God who is above all things
who is larger than our imagination
Who could easily dismiss as tiny grasshoppers
and yet gives us value nonetheless
Who can we compare God to?
Look up, look around, pull back
get perspective, see that God is always more
than we can possibly imagine and know
This Lord is the everlasting God
the Creator of the ends of the earth
He never gets tired, he never runs out of power….
I've always wondered about the unspoken rule among Christians
that we can't get too happy
people out there have the impression
that Church people don't have any fun
that joy is almost a sin
I don't know exactly how that got started
but it's pretty ingrained
it's like we have to leave our joy at the door
when we come in here
I've always found it that people are almost afraid to laugh
like it's a sin to laugh out loud in church
or a sin to have fun in church
It's like you can't be too happy
or something must be wrong
but when I read Isaiah and many other places in the Bible
It is not God who wants to hold us back
God wants us to know the fullness of life
to know Joy
Mary Chapin-Carpenter, a country singer
writes in a song,
"In this world there's a whole lotta trouble,
in this world there's a whole lotta pain
in this world there's a whole lotta trouble
but a whole lotta ground to gain
why take when you could be givin'
why watch as the world goes by
it's a hard enough life to be livin'
why walk when you can fly?...."
I first heard that song when I was in Tilden
and I was on my way to be with a woman in our church there
who was dying
a woman who was always joyful
even though she had many health issues
as she got older
no matter how much her body was hurting,
she always greeted me with a smile
and it was hard to anticipate watching her go
I would miss her very much
but that song reminded me of what she taught me
life is hard, it's always going to be hard
no matter how good I am,
the fact is, life on this earth is hard
and God never told us any differently
God never said in the Bible
that if you are good, if you follow Jesus,
you won't have to suffer
All throughout the Bible
we're told that yes, life here is hard
and we will suffer
it's part of being human in a sinsick world
Faith doesn't make the suffering go away
Faith gives us the power and the hope
to live in this world with strength and purpose
with love and mercy
and to leave this world a little better than it was
I forget that sometimes
because I get mad when my heart gets broken
Sometimes I think hey, I've been good, why should I suffer?
Why shouldn't I?
If you live in this world and have a heart that feels anything,
you will suffer
But God gives us the power and the hope
to live life fully even in the midst of the awful stuff
we can hang our heads and give up
we can give in to all the bad news
and say, WHY BOTHER?
But then we're already dead
walking around in bodies and just breathing
God gives us more than that
God gives us a vision of God's kingdom
and we can live like kingdom people
even when we're far from home, our true home
That's what Isaiah is telling the Israelites
They are in exile, a long, long way from home
but God is with them even there
and they can still hope, still believe, still love
and live life in the midst of the terrible stuff
and that's not living in denial
it is rising above, and trusting in a power that is greater than any of us
Rev. Otis Moss III of Chicago
tells a story that he says has been passed around
from mouth to ear somewhere in South Carolina
a story that was passed down from West Africa
to the North Atlantic
It's the story, he says, of the people who could fly
The story takes place in St. Johns' Island,
just off the coast of South Carolina
as Africans who have been made slaves
are working in the hot sun
They're working so hard to pick cotton
There is one young woman and beside her her small son
maybe six or seven
She's working in the fields and she has such incredible dexterity
that she is able to pick cotton with her right hand
and caress the forehead of her young son
with the left
Eventually, however, exhausted by working so hard
in the fields,
she falls down form the weight and the pressure
of pressure of being a piece of property
Her little boy attempts to wake her very quickly
knowing that if the slave drivers were to see her
the punishment would be swift and cruel
He tries to shake his mother
and as he's trying to shake her,
an old man comes over to him
An old man that the Africans called Preacher and Prophet
but the slave drivers called Old Devil
He looks up at the old man and says, "Is it time? Is it time?"
The old man smiles and looks at the boy and says, "yes!"
And he bends down and whispers
into the ear of the woman who was now upon the ground
and says these words: "Cooleebah! Cooleebah!"
At that moment the woman gets up with such incredible dignity
She stands as a queen and looks down at her son
grasps his hand and begins to look toward heaven
All of a sudden they begin to fly
The slave drivers rush over to this area
where she has stopped work and they see
this act of human flight and are completely confused
They do not know what to do!
And during their confusion, the old man rushes around
to all the other Africans and begins to tell them,
"Cooleebah! Cooleebah!"
When they hear the word, they all begin to fly
Can you imagine? The dispossessed flying?
Can you imagine the disempowered flying?
Three fifths of a person flying? The diseased flying?
The dislocated flying? They are all taking flight!
And at that moment the slave drivers grab the old man and say,
"Bring them back!"
They beat him, and with blood coming down his cheek,
he just smiles at them
They say to him, "Please bring them back!"
And he says, "I can't."
They say, "why not?"
He said, "Because the word is already in them and since the word
is already in them, it cannot be taken from them."
The old man had a word from West Africa, cooleebah,
a word that means God
It had been placed into the heart of these displaced Africans
and now they had dignity and they were flying
And Dr. Moss III says,
"Is it not the job of the church and the preacher?
No, we are not called to make people shout
No, we are not called to make people dance
No, we are not called to have our bank accounts fly
No, we are called to make sure that the people of God fly!
Fly from breakdown to break THROUGH
Fly from hurt to HEALING
Fly from heartache to being mended to a whole person
We are called as a people to ensure that those who have been
marginalized have a word in their spirit that allows them to fly
and the question is, he says,
Are we part of a church, are we a part of a ministry
that causes people to fly?"
Isaiah says it: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles
they shall run and not get weary,
they shall walk and not faint….
When we have the word of God, the love of God in us,
we can fly….
it's a hard enough life to be living…
why walk when we can fly?
*"The People Who Could Fly," sermon by Rev. Otis Moss III, Pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago,
as aired on "30 Good Minutes," December 31, 2006.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Coming Clean
"THEY NEVER LEAVE QUIETLY"
Text: Mark 1:221-28
Faith United
February 1, 2009
This is one of those parts of the Bible
where people, including myself,
feel somewhat justified in turning off their minds
and resting for awhile
'Ah, it's the demons, again,'
another one of those stories about Jesus casting out demons
whatever that meant
Modern minds tend to believe
that the demons of that time were probably just your normal
everyday mental illnesses
People were primitive back then,
and didn't understand psychology or science
and so what do we do with these stories
if we don't believe in demons anymore?
Fred Craddock, a retired preaching professor
once said, "not believing in demons has hardly
eradicated evil in our world.."
They were also called unclean spirits
another word for unclean, is well, dirty
Dirty spirits
I never knew how to relate to the image of unclean spirits
until Larry and I were appointed to a church in Pennsylvania
right after the senior pastor of 18 years
had been abruptly removed
for several counts of sexual misconduct
We moved into his house
and it was the only time I felt like I lived in a haunted house
Have you ever been the unfortunate one
to uncover secrets that nobody wants to know about?
The congregation had an image of their pastor
to be bigger than life
amazing, wonderful, they adored him
We moved into his home
where he had lived for 18 years
We only lived there a year
because that's as much as we could stand
In his anger at being kicked out,
the pastor had locked his dog and cat into one of the bedrooms
for a few days
For weeks we could not understand where that smell
was coming from
We shampooed all the carpets in the house
we aired out the house,
but still there was that persistent, awful,
nauseating smell
coming from the back bedroom
The carpet back there was saturated
had to be pulled, and the wood underneath needed to be treated
We found fist-size holes in closet doors
broken windows that were covered up in duct tape
We got phone calls in the middle of the night
and when we answered, the caller hung up
I always referred to that parsonage as the Amityville Horror
I couldn't stand to be in my own house
There was an unclean spirit in the house
as crazy as that sounds
a spirit of intense anger, violence, lies,
broken relationships,
and many many days, all I could say was that there was
a spirit of evil in every room
Brokenness, deep pain, intense anger
After that, I believe in unclean spirits
Dirty spirits that linger and fester like untreated wounds
spirits that make you sick, literally
that cause irrational dissension
that keep bitterness and hate alive
It had filtered out of the parsonage into the church
and it infested everyone there
like a virus
and there was nothing the two of us could do about it
by ourselves
and we had to leave
I believe in unclean spirits
Unclean spirits are spirits that keep people sick
that keep relationships from being healed
spirits that keep hate alive
and fan the flames of bitterness and dissension
Unclean spirits are spirits that keep the work of Christ
from going forward
I've sensed them in all the churches I've been in
When someone is excited about a ministry opportunity
a chance to reach out to those in need
and they feel a passion and excitement
about being Jesus to someone else
but then someone says,
"what about liability issues?
can we get sued?
what if they damage the carpet?
what if they leave a mess?"
When the ministry of Christ among us is interrupted
there are unclean spirits at work
Whenever good things are kept from happening
or volatile arguments and fights
keep our focus off of serving Christ,
there are unclean spirits at work
When the truth is told and someone is punished for it
because we don't like truth that is hard to hear,
there are unclean spirits at work
We may know a lot more about what causes
various mental illnesses
but for the person who is caught up in that mental illness
it doesn't matter what science knows
that person's spirit is still so painfully broken and in chaos
unable to receive love and mercy
unable to feel the goodness of wholeness
whatever the scientific explanations are,
that spirit is still unclean
separated from God's peace
Not believing in demons anymore
has hardly eradicated evil in our world…..
Even Jesus couldn't get a break
He had just started
He was on a roll
He blew people away….
When he taught, he taught with unusual authority
not authority that comes with a degree from a university
but a different kind of authority
It wasn't just book learning
he didn't quote chapter and verse of the Scriptures
but his teaching held them mesmerized
they couldn't not listen
and he spoke to their souls
Who was he?
Where did he come from?
How did they not know him?
What school did he go to?
Who was his mentor?
Man, he had them
he had them in the palm of his hand
and than that crazy person showed up
they always do, don't they?
Just when things are going well,
the crazies show up…
Out of nowhere, in the middle of Jesus' teachings,
there was loud scream
A crazy scream,
that these days might cause us to hit the floor
for fear of being shot
A man, crazy with rage or something,
ran down the aisle
and pointed at Jesus
his eyes full of fire and hate
"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazereth??
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One of God,"..
Nobody moved
he might be armed
people froze in place,
frozen in fear
the man was wild and crazy with rage
But Jesus somehow, seemed unfazed
He reached out his hand
and with a loud voice, and seeming anger in his own eyes,
he said,
"Be silent! Come out of him!"
And the man was thrown back onto the floor
he squirmed and convulsed
as if he were having a seizure
as if he didn't want this to happen
as if he was holding on with all his might
to keep the demon inside
and then with another ear piercing scream
the man came to rest on the floor, still
looking almost dead
The unclean spirit was gone
I bet you could have heard a pin drop in that room
People stared at the man
nobody moving, maybe no one even breathing
They looked at the man,
laying peacefully on the floor,
starting to rub his face, and groan,
and they looked up at Jesus,
His face still stern and determined, focused
"What is this?" someone said, breaking the silence
"what is this?" they said fearfully
"a new teaching? with authority!
"even the unclean spirits obey him!"
and people looked at Jesus with fear
who was he, that he was that powerful?
That his words, his mere words
had that kind of powerful effect?
They didn't know whether to kiss his feet
or drive him out and send him over the cliff
But for better or worse,
his fame spread throughout the region
Everybody was talking about him
and nobody quite knew what to think
They didn't know if he was good or bad
They didn't know if that kind of power
could possibly be a good thing
But Jesus did it again and again,
he drove unclean spirits out of people
and restored them to wholeness and health again
It's easy to dismiss these stories
as ancient, and therefore irrelevant
but you know, I think you're crazy
if you ever think that unclean spirits aren't real and very much alive
We are all possessed, really
and we're fools if we don't admit that
We're all possessed by something
something or someone that keeps us from wholeness
keeps us from knowing peace in ourselves
keeps us from speaking truths that need to be spoken
We're all possessed
it's just a matter of knowing what it is that possesses us
so that we can be healed
Over and over again in the Gospel of Mark
it is the demons and only the demons who know who Jesus really is--
the Holy One of God
Those who were crazy, those who were dismissed as being sick
they were the ones who called him the Son of God
and it was the so-called sane ones
who finally put him to death
The ancients believed that unclean spirits
were more powerful than human beings
but less powerful than God
and I think they're right
they didn't know the science or the psychology
but they knew the basic truth
unclean spirits possess us
and are too powerful for us to heal on our own strength
the only way we can be healed is by the power of God
in Jesus Christ
Over and over again,
we try to heal ourselves
we try to control our lives
we try to fix it all by ourselves
but it's only when we have the strength
to surrender to God
to say, "God, I can't do this alone
I am powerless over this thing--
this addiction, this rage,
this hate, this pain, whatever…"
and then to say, "God, you take it
you take me, and heal me..
let me get out of your way and surrender my own control…"
Wow, that's hard
We are a fix-it kind of people
we are a self-help culture
Read a book, attend a workshop
and be healed!
But we're all just crazy, when you come down to it
we're crazy because we live in a crazy world
and we are fools if we think that that's not going
to rub off on us daily
We are possessed because we live in a world that wants to possess us
We join the mob spirit
we believe what we read on the internet
we let our emotions take over
and take us to places that aren't pretty
We are easily possessed
because we haven't learned that we can't be in control
and be healthy
Unclean spirits are, as they always have been,
more powerful than humans
but less powerful than God
and the only way we can be whole and healthy
and a little less crazy,
is to surrender daily to our life-giving God
the only one who can drive out unclean spirits
from our souls
and make us clean
But, beware,
those spirits never leave quietly, do they?
When Jesus rebuked them to come out,
the spirits didn't just come willingly
they were forced out
and they didn't like it
they convulsed the poor men and women
threw them around, injured them and exhausted them
on their way out,
leaving them vulnerable and weak
In another part of the Bible
Jesus talks about being careful --
that if demons are driven out,
then something good and healthy
needs to fill that empty place
otherwise, the door is left open
for more vicious and more plentiful demons to enter once again
In other words, when we are healed from our demons
we need to still be vigilant, faithful, prayerful,
actively filling that empty place with good things,
good thoughts, good spirit--
or worse and more powerful unclean spirits will come to live in us
Not believing in demons has hardly
eradicated evil in our world
Evil is alive and well
we fan the flame of it every day
we are easily caught up in it
and our only hope is Jesus
the Risen Christ
our only hope is to stay closer to him
surrender our spirits every day to him
trusting him to fill us with good things, right things
It's hard to let go of that control
It's hard to not to fight good things
Unclean spirits never leave quietly
or without trying to get the last dig in
before they are banished
Don't give them voice
don't give them room
allow your hearts, minds, and souls
to be filled with the powerful spirit of the Living Christ
whose presence banishes unclean spirits
whose power threatens and overwhelms them
Every day,
Every moment,
let the spirit of Christ come in
with each breath of air you take
and someday, we pray,
they'll all be gone
forever
and everyone
will be at peace
Text: Mark 1:221-28
Faith United
February 1, 2009
This is one of those parts of the Bible
where people, including myself,
feel somewhat justified in turning off their minds
and resting for awhile
'Ah, it's the demons, again,'
another one of those stories about Jesus casting out demons
whatever that meant
Modern minds tend to believe
that the demons of that time were probably just your normal
everyday mental illnesses
People were primitive back then,
and didn't understand psychology or science
and so what do we do with these stories
if we don't believe in demons anymore?
Fred Craddock, a retired preaching professor
once said, "not believing in demons has hardly
eradicated evil in our world.."
They were also called unclean spirits
another word for unclean, is well, dirty
Dirty spirits
I never knew how to relate to the image of unclean spirits
until Larry and I were appointed to a church in Pennsylvania
right after the senior pastor of 18 years
had been abruptly removed
for several counts of sexual misconduct
We moved into his house
and it was the only time I felt like I lived in a haunted house
Have you ever been the unfortunate one
to uncover secrets that nobody wants to know about?
The congregation had an image of their pastor
to be bigger than life
amazing, wonderful, they adored him
We moved into his home
where he had lived for 18 years
We only lived there a year
because that's as much as we could stand
In his anger at being kicked out,
the pastor had locked his dog and cat into one of the bedrooms
for a few days
For weeks we could not understand where that smell
was coming from
We shampooed all the carpets in the house
we aired out the house,
but still there was that persistent, awful,
nauseating smell
coming from the back bedroom
The carpet back there was saturated
had to be pulled, and the wood underneath needed to be treated
We found fist-size holes in closet doors
broken windows that were covered up in duct tape
We got phone calls in the middle of the night
and when we answered, the caller hung up
I always referred to that parsonage as the Amityville Horror
I couldn't stand to be in my own house
There was an unclean spirit in the house
as crazy as that sounds
a spirit of intense anger, violence, lies,
broken relationships,
and many many days, all I could say was that there was
a spirit of evil in every room
Brokenness, deep pain, intense anger
After that, I believe in unclean spirits
Dirty spirits that linger and fester like untreated wounds
spirits that make you sick, literally
that cause irrational dissension
that keep bitterness and hate alive
It had filtered out of the parsonage into the church
and it infested everyone there
like a virus
and there was nothing the two of us could do about it
by ourselves
and we had to leave
I believe in unclean spirits
Unclean spirits are spirits that keep people sick
that keep relationships from being healed
spirits that keep hate alive
and fan the flames of bitterness and dissension
Unclean spirits are spirits that keep the work of Christ
from going forward
I've sensed them in all the churches I've been in
When someone is excited about a ministry opportunity
a chance to reach out to those in need
and they feel a passion and excitement
about being Jesus to someone else
but then someone says,
"what about liability issues?
can we get sued?
what if they damage the carpet?
what if they leave a mess?"
When the ministry of Christ among us is interrupted
there are unclean spirits at work
Whenever good things are kept from happening
or volatile arguments and fights
keep our focus off of serving Christ,
there are unclean spirits at work
When the truth is told and someone is punished for it
because we don't like truth that is hard to hear,
there are unclean spirits at work
We may know a lot more about what causes
various mental illnesses
but for the person who is caught up in that mental illness
it doesn't matter what science knows
that person's spirit is still so painfully broken and in chaos
unable to receive love and mercy
unable to feel the goodness of wholeness
whatever the scientific explanations are,
that spirit is still unclean
separated from God's peace
Not believing in demons anymore
has hardly eradicated evil in our world…..
Even Jesus couldn't get a break
He had just started
He was on a roll
He blew people away….
When he taught, he taught with unusual authority
not authority that comes with a degree from a university
but a different kind of authority
It wasn't just book learning
he didn't quote chapter and verse of the Scriptures
but his teaching held them mesmerized
they couldn't not listen
and he spoke to their souls
Who was he?
Where did he come from?
How did they not know him?
What school did he go to?
Who was his mentor?
Man, he had them
he had them in the palm of his hand
and than that crazy person showed up
they always do, don't they?
Just when things are going well,
the crazies show up…
Out of nowhere, in the middle of Jesus' teachings,
there was loud scream
A crazy scream,
that these days might cause us to hit the floor
for fear of being shot
A man, crazy with rage or something,
ran down the aisle
and pointed at Jesus
his eyes full of fire and hate
"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazereth??
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One of God,"..
Nobody moved
he might be armed
people froze in place,
frozen in fear
the man was wild and crazy with rage
But Jesus somehow, seemed unfazed
He reached out his hand
and with a loud voice, and seeming anger in his own eyes,
he said,
"Be silent! Come out of him!"
And the man was thrown back onto the floor
he squirmed and convulsed
as if he were having a seizure
as if he didn't want this to happen
as if he was holding on with all his might
to keep the demon inside
and then with another ear piercing scream
the man came to rest on the floor, still
looking almost dead
The unclean spirit was gone
I bet you could have heard a pin drop in that room
People stared at the man
nobody moving, maybe no one even breathing
They looked at the man,
laying peacefully on the floor,
starting to rub his face, and groan,
and they looked up at Jesus,
His face still stern and determined, focused
"What is this?" someone said, breaking the silence
"what is this?" they said fearfully
"a new teaching? with authority!
"even the unclean spirits obey him!"
and people looked at Jesus with fear
who was he, that he was that powerful?
That his words, his mere words
had that kind of powerful effect?
They didn't know whether to kiss his feet
or drive him out and send him over the cliff
But for better or worse,
his fame spread throughout the region
Everybody was talking about him
and nobody quite knew what to think
They didn't know if he was good or bad
They didn't know if that kind of power
could possibly be a good thing
But Jesus did it again and again,
he drove unclean spirits out of people
and restored them to wholeness and health again
It's easy to dismiss these stories
as ancient, and therefore irrelevant
but you know, I think you're crazy
if you ever think that unclean spirits aren't real and very much alive
We are all possessed, really
and we're fools if we don't admit that
We're all possessed by something
something or someone that keeps us from wholeness
keeps us from knowing peace in ourselves
keeps us from speaking truths that need to be spoken
We're all possessed
it's just a matter of knowing what it is that possesses us
so that we can be healed
Over and over again in the Gospel of Mark
it is the demons and only the demons who know who Jesus really is--
the Holy One of God
Those who were crazy, those who were dismissed as being sick
they were the ones who called him the Son of God
and it was the so-called sane ones
who finally put him to death
The ancients believed that unclean spirits
were more powerful than human beings
but less powerful than God
and I think they're right
they didn't know the science or the psychology
but they knew the basic truth
unclean spirits possess us
and are too powerful for us to heal on our own strength
the only way we can be healed is by the power of God
in Jesus Christ
Over and over again,
we try to heal ourselves
we try to control our lives
we try to fix it all by ourselves
but it's only when we have the strength
to surrender to God
to say, "God, I can't do this alone
I am powerless over this thing--
this addiction, this rage,
this hate, this pain, whatever…"
and then to say, "God, you take it
you take me, and heal me..
let me get out of your way and surrender my own control…"
Wow, that's hard
We are a fix-it kind of people
we are a self-help culture
Read a book, attend a workshop
and be healed!
But we're all just crazy, when you come down to it
we're crazy because we live in a crazy world
and we are fools if we think that that's not going
to rub off on us daily
We are possessed because we live in a world that wants to possess us
We join the mob spirit
we believe what we read on the internet
we let our emotions take over
and take us to places that aren't pretty
We are easily possessed
because we haven't learned that we can't be in control
and be healthy
Unclean spirits are, as they always have been,
more powerful than humans
but less powerful than God
and the only way we can be whole and healthy
and a little less crazy,
is to surrender daily to our life-giving God
the only one who can drive out unclean spirits
from our souls
and make us clean
But, beware,
those spirits never leave quietly, do they?
When Jesus rebuked them to come out,
the spirits didn't just come willingly
they were forced out
and they didn't like it
they convulsed the poor men and women
threw them around, injured them and exhausted them
on their way out,
leaving them vulnerable and weak
In another part of the Bible
Jesus talks about being careful --
that if demons are driven out,
then something good and healthy
needs to fill that empty place
otherwise, the door is left open
for more vicious and more plentiful demons to enter once again
In other words, when we are healed from our demons
we need to still be vigilant, faithful, prayerful,
actively filling that empty place with good things,
good thoughts, good spirit--
or worse and more powerful unclean spirits will come to live in us
Not believing in demons has hardly
eradicated evil in our world
Evil is alive and well
we fan the flame of it every day
we are easily caught up in it
and our only hope is Jesus
the Risen Christ
our only hope is to stay closer to him
surrender our spirits every day to him
trusting him to fill us with good things, right things
It's hard to let go of that control
It's hard to not to fight good things
Unclean spirits never leave quietly
or without trying to get the last dig in
before they are banished
Don't give them voice
don't give them room
allow your hearts, minds, and souls
to be filled with the powerful spirit of the Living Christ
whose presence banishes unclean spirits
whose power threatens and overwhelms them
Every day,
Every moment,
let the spirit of Christ come in
with each breath of air you take
and someday, we pray,
they'll all be gone
forever
and everyone
will be at peace
Whale Vomit
"THE WISDOM OF THE WHALE"
Jonah 4:1-10
Faith United
January 25, 2009
A pastor in Pennsylvania told the story a few years ago
about being on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa
to London, England
After he'd gotten settled into his seat,
a woman with a thick European accent got on the plane
She came down the aisle looking for her assigned seat
When she found her seat, she discovered a man sitting next to her
He was dark-skinned and had an African accent
She looked at her ticket again to make sure she was at the right seat
She was
So she said to her seatmate,
"Excuse me, sir, are in the right seat?"
The man smiled and nodded yes
The woman turned around to see if there were any empty seats
in that section, and there weren't, except for this one
So she approached the flight attendant
and touched her on the arm
"Excuse me," she said, "as you see, the seat that I've been assigned
is next to…. uh… someone whose skin color is different than mine."
She smiled sweetly
The flight attendant looked at her with some confusion
and smiled and said, "Yes, ma'am, I see that…"
"Well," the woman said, "I can't sit there. Is there another available seat?"
The flight attendant looked at her strangely again,
and replied, "I'm sorry, ma'am, it's against our policy
to move people unnecessarily."
The wealthy woman sighed very loudly and dramatically,
"You don't understand," she said, "I can't sit there.
I am prepared to pay to arrange an alternative…"
The flight attendant kind of chuckled and said, "you are?"
"Yes," the woman said, "now, honey, would you please go up
to first class and see if there is an available seat?
I am not going to sit next to that person!"
The flight attendant turned away but some saw her roll her eyes
as she headed up to first class
The woman stood in the aisle, waiting
A few minutes later, the flight attendant returned
and brushed past the woman with her wallet open
She leaned over and tapped the shoulder of the man
with the African accent
"I'm so sorry, sir, I hate to do this, really. But I must make a seating change
and I'd appreciate your cooperation,
If you follow me, we have a place for you up in first class."
Everybody knows the story of Jonah
well, at least they think they do
we all know that some guy was swallowed by a fish
Even people who don't come to church
know about Jonah and the whale
although, I would bet that a lot of people
don't know the WHOLE story
Like, WHY was he in the belly of a whale anyway?
How did he get there?
And did he ever get out?
Jonah's story is a short book of the Bible
tucked in between many other books
so it's not easy to find
unless you have those nifty book tabs in your Bible
In Sunday School our kids sing songs
about Jonah being in the belly of a whale
and how finally the whale spit him out
But really, believe it or not,
the whale is only a small part of Jonah's story
when you read the whole thing
As the story goes, God comes to Jonah
and tells him, "Jonah, I want you to go to Ninevah..
I want you to tell those people to get their act together,
to stop being so wicked…."
Jonah doesn't reply, doesn't say anything to God
instead, Jonah heads to the harbor at Joppa
and instead of getting a ticket to Ninevah,
which would have been east--
(and I only know this because of the commentaries!)
Instead, Jonah gets a ticket WEST…
he finds a ship that is going to Tarshish --
the exact OPPOSITE direction from Ninevah
He thinks he's pretty clever
He thinks God doesn't know!!
He thinks he can sneak away
But it turns out a mighty wicked storm suddenly comes up
on the sea
and the ship to Tarshish is being tossed and thrown
All the sailors on the ship are terrified that they are all going to die
and they cry out to their own gods
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the belly of the ship
and was taking a peaceful, untroubled nap
The captain of the ship came down
and found him
and starts screaming at him,
"What are you doing??
How can you sleep through all this??
Call on your God, perhaps your God will spare us
so that we don't die!"
But before Jonah could hit his knees in prayer,
the other sailors decided to cast lots
to decide whose fault this life-threatening storm was…
and guess what?
Jonah picked the short stick
So they grabbed by the shirt,
held him up against the wall
and said to him, "Who are you? Why are you here?
what have you done? Who are your people?"
"I am a Hebrew, a Jew," Jonah said, trembling under
the man's grip
"I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea
and the dry land.."
The man immediately let him go, and Jonah slid to the floor
All of them were terrified
"What have you done?" they said, staring at him
"What are we going to do?" they all cried
Jonah, still sitting on the floor
straightened his glasses
and sheepishly told them to throw him overboard
that he knew that God had sent the storm
to get to him,
because he had run away
At first, the men were merciful
and tried to keep the boat afloat without doing what Jonah said
But it was useless
They prayed to God loudly,
"spare us, God! We are innocent! Do not let us perish
on account of this man's life!"
And they all grabbed Jonah and hurled him overboard
into the violent sea
and immediately, the sea was calm…
The men on the boat celebrated, made offerings to God
and gave thanks
It didn't go so well for poor Jonah
because that's when a large fish --
we don't even know what kind, we've always assumed it was a whale
hey, it works,
but a large fish opened his mouth
and swallowed Jonah whole
You have to admit this story if funny
It's just crazy, absurd
this poor spineless nerd
called to be a prophet of God
he tries to run away
and he gets thrown overboard
he starts to swim, and he gets swallowed by a fish
he can't get a break
no wonder he knew that God was after him !
It's also funny that the whole of chapter 2
is a very eloquent prayer by Jonah
perhaps trying to stay upright on his knees
on the slipper floor of the fish's insides
One can only imagine what else was down there with him
After this really nice prayer,
it says the Lord spoke to the fish
and the fish spewed Jonah up onto dry land
Spewed, which literally means, the fish threw up
and Jonah came out
If the guy didn't feel bad yet, he was now whale vomit!
As Jonah himself is cleaning himself off
and getting his bearings,
God says to him,
"Alright, listen up, NOW I want you to go to Ninevah
and proclaim the message I give to you to tell them."
So a very humbled Jonah,
stinking of fish and fish guts,
makes the long trek into Ninevah
It was a huge city, a three-day walk across
and Jonah walked a whole day into the heart of the city
and said,
"Listen up! 40 days! you've got 40 days
and then the city of Ninevah will be overthrown!
Destroyed!"
One would think that they'd laugh at him
Who is this smelly guy
with fish guts all over him, telling us what to do?
He's a Hebrew, we can just kill him,
I mean, he was only one, and they were many
But that's not what happened
Instead, the city was upset
they heard the message of the Lord
The king was horrified
he removed his robe and put on sackcloth and ashes
which is what Hebrews did when they were in mourning
When they grieved
He declared a city-wide fast
No one was to eat or drink
everyone was to call out to God, and repent of their wickedness,
their selfishness and greed
All were to wear the sackcloth and smear ashes on themselves
All were to repent of the violence of the city
And the king prayed that God would change his mind
on what to do with them all
And it says when God saw their sincerity,
their humility and deep desire to be different, to change
from their wicked ways,
God decided not to destroy them
Jonah, meanwhile, was standing on the hill
waiting for the show
waiting for the fire and brimstone to come down
He hated the Ninevites,
that's why he never wanted to go there in the first place
Jonah was an Israelite
a Hebrew
And Ninevah was the capital of Assyria
who had long been a bitter enemy of Israel and her people
Jonah, like many Israelites, believed that God loved Israel
and only Israel
and would destroy all her enemies
He couldn't wait to watch
When he found out that God had changed his plans
he threw a hissy fit
literally
He said to God, "I KNEW this would happen!
isn't this what I said would happen when I was back in my own country?
This is why I went to Tarshish in the first place!
I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!
I knew it!
Just kill me, God, kill me right now, it would be better for me to die
than to see those people live…"
And God told him he didn't have a right to be angry
he didn't have a right to be angry at God for being merciful
So Jonah went off and sat down on a hill east of the city of Ninevah
He built himself a little shelter there,
and he … pouted
The longer he sat there, and the longer he thought about it all
the angrier and angrier he got
So the Lord gave him a bush for shelter
to keep him out of the sun
and Jonah was very happy about the bush
But the next morning, a worm ate it up and it died
and Jonah lost his temper again
he begged God to just let him die, kill him!
Jonah's got some issues
The most disturbing part of this story is that he never changed
At the end of the book, Jonah is still pouting
still wanting to die, still so consumed by his own anger and hate
that he waits to die
And God says to him,
"you are concerned about a bush, for which you did not labor
and which you did not grow
it came into being in a night and perished in a night
and should I not be concerned about Nineveh,
that great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand
people and many animals?"
That's the end of the story
The story ends with a question
The so called hero of the story ends up being a jerk
Nothing better than whale vomit
What was Jonah's problem?
Well, first of all, he thought that God only loved Israel
He had a "God Bless Israel" bumper sticker on his car
He didn't really think that God loved anyone
outside of Israel
and Jonah would have been all too happy
to sit and watch all those other non-Israelites
blown to bits
as if they were merely characters
in a video game
He had no love and compassion for the stranger
for the person in another city, another country
Jonah's got major issues
He wants to control his own destiny
and he wants to determine who should and should not
be punished,
and he would always be on the good side of God
The funny thing is, the whale was only a minor character
The whale actually provided Jonah with a time out
Jonah could have used that time in the whale
to think about what was going on and why
To think about why God was so stubborn
about getting him to Nineveh
Isn't it true, that sometimes we need to be brought down
a few notches in order to get the lesson?
An alcoholic needs to reach rock bottom before he or she
can admit she has a problem?
Often it is only when things fall apart
that we are humble enough to think that maybe,
just maybe, we need to do something different
we need to learn a lesson here
We need to consider that maybe, just maybe
we were wrong….
I know it's painful
but the only way we often come to admit we're wrong
is when we have been brought low
and you can't get much lower
than being whale vomit
I think maybe sometimes God lets us get that low
in order for us to get our perspective in shape
to see that we are not God
and we never will be
and that we are no better and no worse
than that person across the aisle on that plane
who we hate so much we won't even sit next to them
Jonah was ticked off at God
Jonah was ticked off
"I knew it!" he said,
"I knew it! I knew you were merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!
I just knew it! and it makes me sick!"
He was angry because God is merciful
and yet if God weren't merciful
he would have let Jonah be worse than whale vomit
But Jonah never gets it
He never learns
and so he spends the rest of his life being bitter and angry
and just waiting to die
Now, the odds aren't good that God is going to call on us
to be prophets
but I think that we can all relate to Jonah nonetheless
Hate is easy
Hate is very, very easy
Love is the hardest thing in the world
We like easy
And it is easy to justify hate, we even use the Bible to do it
It is really hard to be a lover in a hate-filled world
It is hard to be gentle in a violent world
It's easier, much, much easier
to join the mob
to forward those emails that are cruel and mean and evil
to listen to hatemongers on TV spew out their hate
and we can say, "yeah, preach it.."
And yet we come here, and we worship a God of love
the God who is merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
the God who calls us to reach across the aisle
and love the stranger
Not kill him
not call for his destruction
God is not present in hate
When we hate, we repel God from our presence
because God does not dwell in hate
The Goodnews Badnews is that God loves everyone
even the plants and animals that he created
the beauty of creation
God is willing to love anyone
Even Jonah
Even you
and me
Jonah 4:1-10
Faith United
January 25, 2009
A pastor in Pennsylvania told the story a few years ago
about being on a flight from Johannesburg, South Africa
to London, England
After he'd gotten settled into his seat,
a woman with a thick European accent got on the plane
She came down the aisle looking for her assigned seat
When she found her seat, she discovered a man sitting next to her
He was dark-skinned and had an African accent
She looked at her ticket again to make sure she was at the right seat
She was
So she said to her seatmate,
"Excuse me, sir, are in the right seat?"
The man smiled and nodded yes
The woman turned around to see if there were any empty seats
in that section, and there weren't, except for this one
So she approached the flight attendant
and touched her on the arm
"Excuse me," she said, "as you see, the seat that I've been assigned
is next to…. uh… someone whose skin color is different than mine."
She smiled sweetly
The flight attendant looked at her with some confusion
and smiled and said, "Yes, ma'am, I see that…"
"Well," the woman said, "I can't sit there. Is there another available seat?"
The flight attendant looked at her strangely again,
and replied, "I'm sorry, ma'am, it's against our policy
to move people unnecessarily."
The wealthy woman sighed very loudly and dramatically,
"You don't understand," she said, "I can't sit there.
I am prepared to pay to arrange an alternative…"
The flight attendant kind of chuckled and said, "you are?"
"Yes," the woman said, "now, honey, would you please go up
to first class and see if there is an available seat?
I am not going to sit next to that person!"
The flight attendant turned away but some saw her roll her eyes
as she headed up to first class
The woman stood in the aisle, waiting
A few minutes later, the flight attendant returned
and brushed past the woman with her wallet open
She leaned over and tapped the shoulder of the man
with the African accent
"I'm so sorry, sir, I hate to do this, really. But I must make a seating change
and I'd appreciate your cooperation,
If you follow me, we have a place for you up in first class."
Everybody knows the story of Jonah
well, at least they think they do
we all know that some guy was swallowed by a fish
Even people who don't come to church
know about Jonah and the whale
although, I would bet that a lot of people
don't know the WHOLE story
Like, WHY was he in the belly of a whale anyway?
How did he get there?
And did he ever get out?
Jonah's story is a short book of the Bible
tucked in between many other books
so it's not easy to find
unless you have those nifty book tabs in your Bible
In Sunday School our kids sing songs
about Jonah being in the belly of a whale
and how finally the whale spit him out
But really, believe it or not,
the whale is only a small part of Jonah's story
when you read the whole thing
As the story goes, God comes to Jonah
and tells him, "Jonah, I want you to go to Ninevah..
I want you to tell those people to get their act together,
to stop being so wicked…."
Jonah doesn't reply, doesn't say anything to God
instead, Jonah heads to the harbor at Joppa
and instead of getting a ticket to Ninevah,
which would have been east--
(and I only know this because of the commentaries!)
Instead, Jonah gets a ticket WEST…
he finds a ship that is going to Tarshish --
the exact OPPOSITE direction from Ninevah
He thinks he's pretty clever
He thinks God doesn't know!!
He thinks he can sneak away
But it turns out a mighty wicked storm suddenly comes up
on the sea
and the ship to Tarshish is being tossed and thrown
All the sailors on the ship are terrified that they are all going to die
and they cry out to their own gods
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the belly of the ship
and was taking a peaceful, untroubled nap
The captain of the ship came down
and found him
and starts screaming at him,
"What are you doing??
How can you sleep through all this??
Call on your God, perhaps your God will spare us
so that we don't die!"
But before Jonah could hit his knees in prayer,
the other sailors decided to cast lots
to decide whose fault this life-threatening storm was…
and guess what?
Jonah picked the short stick
So they grabbed by the shirt,
held him up against the wall
and said to him, "Who are you? Why are you here?
what have you done? Who are your people?"
"I am a Hebrew, a Jew," Jonah said, trembling under
the man's grip
"I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea
and the dry land.."
The man immediately let him go, and Jonah slid to the floor
All of them were terrified
"What have you done?" they said, staring at him
"What are we going to do?" they all cried
Jonah, still sitting on the floor
straightened his glasses
and sheepishly told them to throw him overboard
that he knew that God had sent the storm
to get to him,
because he had run away
At first, the men were merciful
and tried to keep the boat afloat without doing what Jonah said
But it was useless
They prayed to God loudly,
"spare us, God! We are innocent! Do not let us perish
on account of this man's life!"
And they all grabbed Jonah and hurled him overboard
into the violent sea
and immediately, the sea was calm…
The men on the boat celebrated, made offerings to God
and gave thanks
It didn't go so well for poor Jonah
because that's when a large fish --
we don't even know what kind, we've always assumed it was a whale
hey, it works,
but a large fish opened his mouth
and swallowed Jonah whole
You have to admit this story if funny
It's just crazy, absurd
this poor spineless nerd
called to be a prophet of God
he tries to run away
and he gets thrown overboard
he starts to swim, and he gets swallowed by a fish
he can't get a break
no wonder he knew that God was after him !
It's also funny that the whole of chapter 2
is a very eloquent prayer by Jonah
perhaps trying to stay upright on his knees
on the slipper floor of the fish's insides
One can only imagine what else was down there with him
After this really nice prayer,
it says the Lord spoke to the fish
and the fish spewed Jonah up onto dry land
Spewed, which literally means, the fish threw up
and Jonah came out
If the guy didn't feel bad yet, he was now whale vomit!
As Jonah himself is cleaning himself off
and getting his bearings,
God says to him,
"Alright, listen up, NOW I want you to go to Ninevah
and proclaim the message I give to you to tell them."
So a very humbled Jonah,
stinking of fish and fish guts,
makes the long trek into Ninevah
It was a huge city, a three-day walk across
and Jonah walked a whole day into the heart of the city
and said,
"Listen up! 40 days! you've got 40 days
and then the city of Ninevah will be overthrown!
Destroyed!"
One would think that they'd laugh at him
Who is this smelly guy
with fish guts all over him, telling us what to do?
He's a Hebrew, we can just kill him,
I mean, he was only one, and they were many
But that's not what happened
Instead, the city was upset
they heard the message of the Lord
The king was horrified
he removed his robe and put on sackcloth and ashes
which is what Hebrews did when they were in mourning
When they grieved
He declared a city-wide fast
No one was to eat or drink
everyone was to call out to God, and repent of their wickedness,
their selfishness and greed
All were to wear the sackcloth and smear ashes on themselves
All were to repent of the violence of the city
And the king prayed that God would change his mind
on what to do with them all
And it says when God saw their sincerity,
their humility and deep desire to be different, to change
from their wicked ways,
God decided not to destroy them
Jonah, meanwhile, was standing on the hill
waiting for the show
waiting for the fire and brimstone to come down
He hated the Ninevites,
that's why he never wanted to go there in the first place
Jonah was an Israelite
a Hebrew
And Ninevah was the capital of Assyria
who had long been a bitter enemy of Israel and her people
Jonah, like many Israelites, believed that God loved Israel
and only Israel
and would destroy all her enemies
He couldn't wait to watch
When he found out that God had changed his plans
he threw a hissy fit
literally
He said to God, "I KNEW this would happen!
isn't this what I said would happen when I was back in my own country?
This is why I went to Tarshish in the first place!
I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!
I knew it!
Just kill me, God, kill me right now, it would be better for me to die
than to see those people live…"
And God told him he didn't have a right to be angry
he didn't have a right to be angry at God for being merciful
So Jonah went off and sat down on a hill east of the city of Ninevah
He built himself a little shelter there,
and he … pouted
The longer he sat there, and the longer he thought about it all
the angrier and angrier he got
So the Lord gave him a bush for shelter
to keep him out of the sun
and Jonah was very happy about the bush
But the next morning, a worm ate it up and it died
and Jonah lost his temper again
he begged God to just let him die, kill him!
Jonah's got some issues
The most disturbing part of this story is that he never changed
At the end of the book, Jonah is still pouting
still wanting to die, still so consumed by his own anger and hate
that he waits to die
And God says to him,
"you are concerned about a bush, for which you did not labor
and which you did not grow
it came into being in a night and perished in a night
and should I not be concerned about Nineveh,
that great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand
people and many animals?"
That's the end of the story
The story ends with a question
The so called hero of the story ends up being a jerk
Nothing better than whale vomit
What was Jonah's problem?
Well, first of all, he thought that God only loved Israel
He had a "God Bless Israel" bumper sticker on his car
He didn't really think that God loved anyone
outside of Israel
and Jonah would have been all too happy
to sit and watch all those other non-Israelites
blown to bits
as if they were merely characters
in a video game
He had no love and compassion for the stranger
for the person in another city, another country
Jonah's got major issues
He wants to control his own destiny
and he wants to determine who should and should not
be punished,
and he would always be on the good side of God
The funny thing is, the whale was only a minor character
The whale actually provided Jonah with a time out
Jonah could have used that time in the whale
to think about what was going on and why
To think about why God was so stubborn
about getting him to Nineveh
Isn't it true, that sometimes we need to be brought down
a few notches in order to get the lesson?
An alcoholic needs to reach rock bottom before he or she
can admit she has a problem?
Often it is only when things fall apart
that we are humble enough to think that maybe,
just maybe, we need to do something different
we need to learn a lesson here
We need to consider that maybe, just maybe
we were wrong….
I know it's painful
but the only way we often come to admit we're wrong
is when we have been brought low
and you can't get much lower
than being whale vomit
I think maybe sometimes God lets us get that low
in order for us to get our perspective in shape
to see that we are not God
and we never will be
and that we are no better and no worse
than that person across the aisle on that plane
who we hate so much we won't even sit next to them
Jonah was ticked off at God
Jonah was ticked off
"I knew it!" he said,
"I knew it! I knew you were merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!
I just knew it! and it makes me sick!"
He was angry because God is merciful
and yet if God weren't merciful
he would have let Jonah be worse than whale vomit
But Jonah never gets it
He never learns
and so he spends the rest of his life being bitter and angry
and just waiting to die
Now, the odds aren't good that God is going to call on us
to be prophets
but I think that we can all relate to Jonah nonetheless
Hate is easy
Hate is very, very easy
Love is the hardest thing in the world
We like easy
And it is easy to justify hate, we even use the Bible to do it
It is really hard to be a lover in a hate-filled world
It is hard to be gentle in a violent world
It's easier, much, much easier
to join the mob
to forward those emails that are cruel and mean and evil
to listen to hatemongers on TV spew out their hate
and we can say, "yeah, preach it.."
And yet we come here, and we worship a God of love
the God who is merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
the God who calls us to reach across the aisle
and love the stranger
Not kill him
not call for his destruction
God is not present in hate
When we hate, we repel God from our presence
because God does not dwell in hate
The Goodnews Badnews is that God loves everyone
even the plants and animals that he created
the beauty of creation
God is willing to love anyone
Even Jonah
Even you
and me
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
"BEAUTIFUL, UGLY, AND LOVED"
Text: Psalm 139
Faith United
January 18, 2009
If you're a parent, you know that as your children grow
it becomes harder and harder
to get them to do what you tell them to do
Pretty much as soon as they can get up on their feet
and move
they are out of our control
In the earlier years we do have some methods
to set boundaries
and to establish ground rules
although that whole "Time out" thing never worked on Sarah
Once they are teenagers, of course
they keep pushing the boundaries
and have very selective hearing
when it comes to our voices
But anyway,
we've established some methods over the years
some work, some don't
some Sarah has just plain laughed at
But in recent years,
when I want Sarah to do something
or I just want her to do me a favor
and she responds like I’m asking way too much of her,
I've started to say to her, "Hey, I gave you BIRTH!"
You wouldn't even be here without me!"
and, of course I am quick to remind her
that my doctor didn't believe in epidurals
so I truly did suffer
in order to bring her into the world,
SO, the very least she can do
is go make me a cup of tea
or clean the litter box
Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all….
I love the Psalms
I think it's safe to say that they are my favorite
books of the Bible
But I'm a poet
and there is so much poetry in them
not light, fluffy stuff, either
real, blood and guts, down to earth stuff
They're real
They are prayers, essentially
prayers written directly to God
It's almost embarrassing
it's like we're listening in on someone else's
most intimate words
words straight from the gut
words that reveal beauty and ugliness
all the same passages
There's nothing to hide here
What you see is what you get
The psalmists' truest most honest feelings
right her for all the world to read
but the good news is,
the one who wrote these words
that made it into the Big Book
is just like you and me
Beautiful, Ugly and deeply loved
The first thing I think of when reading these words of Psalm 139
is Santa Claus
He knows when you are sleeping
he knows when you're awake
he knows when you've been bad or good
so be good for goodness' sake…
"O Lord, you have searched me and known me
You know when I sit down and when I rise up,
You discern my thoughts form far away
you search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely…"
I confess I never believed that Santa Clause knew me that well
I knew I had to be good,
but I don't remember ever believing that he was
watching me
Kind of creepy, if you think about it
and no wonder kids are screaming and crying
and absolutely terrified to sit on Santa's knee
I would be too!
But the difference is, the psalmist
believes it to be GOOD news
that God knows him intimately and deeply
it's comforting, it's reassuring
and it's not told to us
so that we'll be good
and therefore get lots of presents
But with God, there are no secrets
that's what the psalmist says
you can't hide anything from God
You can lie to yourself,
you can deny the truth
you can keep secrets from everyone else
but you can't keep secrets from God
Can we stand it?
There are no secrets
How weird is that
when we live in a world so full of secrets?
We watch the news
and we wonder how much of what they tell us is true
and how much of it is simply what they want us to believe?
Secrets are acceptable in our world
we expect them
our trust is limited
we have come to expect to be lied to
And yet we're told, we can't have any secrets from God
In this world, we put our best face forward
we keep our weaknesses hidden if possible
we play roles at work, in church, in social gatherings
we show people what we want them to see
and all too often we hide our truest selves
because we may believe that they may not like us
if they knew the real us
Shoot, that starts in Middle School!
We're told what is cool and what is really not cool
and so we try to conform to that image
I know I spent so many years always trying to figure out
what other people wanted me to be
and I would try to be that
but when there are so many different people
with so many different expectations,
it gets not only impossible, but exhausting
You can't be what everyone else wants you to be
and it's futile anyway, finally
God knows who you really are
Adulthood is not so different than high school
We still put people in categories
and there are certain categories
that are more acceptable than others
But if we're all honest, I'd say most of us
have those times that are just plain certain
that we don't fit
It could have been our parents, our teachers
our classmates, our so-called friends
but somewhere along the way
for many of us,
someone told us we're not enough
We're just not smart enough,
beautiful enough, athletic enough
talented enough, outgoing enough
and after awhile, many of came to assume
that we ourselves are just not… enough
We don't look like the people on TV
we don't have houses that look like
they're out of Better Homes and Gardens
we may not know how to wheel and deal
to make lots of money
to sell ourselves or an image
we may not be skinny
or have beautiful hair
we may not believe everything that everyone else
seems to believe
we may have doubts and questions
that we think might horrify someone else
We just don't feel we're enough
There may not be a place or person
where we can feel like we can totally let down
our guards
and be completely ourselves
Or we may not even know what it means to be ourselves
because we've been so busy trying to be
something that we are not
But this Psalm,
believed to be written by David
expresses that enviable faith
that he, and each of us, is in fact ENOUGH
David believes
that God made each of us
and that God is never finished making us
until we take our final breath
we are, according to David, works in progress
We are daily being fashioned by God's hands
We're not mass-produced
we are custom made, each of us
with our own design
If nothing else, remember that there are no two fingerprints
alike in all the world
each of us has our own design
unique to us
that identifies US and no one else
This is tough to grasp in a world
that treats each human life with so little dignity
We hear of hundreds of people dying in the Gaza Strip
the thousands that have died in the streets of Iraq
we hear about how many died in this plane crash
or that earthquake
and they are just numbers
Numbers too big for us to comprehend
Would it make a difference?
Would we be any more horrified by war
if we realized that each and every person that died
with white skin or dark
with American citizenship or Iraqi birth
that each and every one of those people
was especially designed and created
by God?
That God knows each and every person
every one of those thousands had a name
came from a family
had a history
had funny and tragic stories to tell?
Each of them had someone who would miss them
when they were gone?
Would that change our attitude and flippancy
about the numbers of people who die daily
at the hands of a war that doesn't seem to end?
We aren't even allowed to see the coffins of our own soldiers
as if by not seeing,
it didn't happen, and it is not tragic
and yet for every one of those coffins that we don't see
there is a family torn apart
a family whose lives will be changed
by that one person's death
We are all important
We are all enough, according to David
In this world we are defined by the jobs that we do
the families that we come from
the education or lack of that we had
the mistakes that we made
the broken and failed relationships
that we are a part of
But according to the Bible
that is a lie
We are not defined by our jobs
by how much we achieve or don't achieve
by whether we can play basketball or football
or run track well
or if we're a book nerd
or a social misfit
We are all defined by the same thing
we are all children of God
created and still being created at the hands of God
We are all works in progress
we all started the same, and we will all end the same
Each of us are in the midst of our own stories
of which no two are exactly the same
We are intimately and lovingly created
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made!
God knows everything about us
our triumphs and our failures
and God is still deliriously in love with us
as any good parent is with their children
The psalmist doesn't mince words
that's what I like about the psalms
they don't pretend to be better than they are
In the midst of this beautiful prayer
this heartfelt trust and reassurance of God's enduring love
David blurts out,
"O that you would kill the wicked, God!
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me--
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with a perfect hatred…"
Hello! Not David's best moment …
Pretty arrogant
Downright mean and ugly..
Ah, dear God, I am so good, aren't I?
I hate your enemies with a perfect hatred
I am so righteous, that I am on your side
and am indignant at those who are not!
You and me, God, we're tight
and we'll get those awful sinners
and you will wipe out those wicked idiots forever…
Ok, a little reality check..
David is not perfect
David, eloquent as he was,
was still a work in progress….
He still harbored hate and sin
he still had that arrogance in him
to believe that he was better than someone else
In other words,
David was just like you and me..
We can be beautiful one moment
and turn around and be so ugly in the next
it's in us all
both
beautiful and ugly
We have the divine image of God in us
and yet our feet are planted in the mud
and so we wrestle all our lives
with the conflict inside of us
between who we truly are,
who we are created to be
and who we are because of living in this sinsick world
Most of the psalms are like that
revealing great awe and wonder and pure poetry
and a sense of the divine in all of us
and then veering into our human natures
where there is still hate and meanness
and selfishness and disregard for others
but the hope is in the end
Right after that disturbing tirade
David says to God,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart,
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting…"
He leaves the door open
He reveals his ugly side to God
but it's as if he knows that he has that potential in him
as if he knows he can be better
Search me, God, know my heart
know my thoughts, all of them
cleanse me of any wickedness
any evil
and lead me forward, to a better way
keep creating me, God
clean away all the ugliness in me
and let me see more like you see…
yeah, those hope for David
because as arrogant as he can be
as ugly as he can get when he's really honest
he knows that about himself
he knows that he's still on the way
he knows that he is still being formed and created by God
The God who loves him
who believes in him, who sees him as he can and will be
And is still forming him toward that image
And, we're assured, there is no place that God is not
The most frightening places we can imagine
are filled with the presence of God
There is no place that we can be
where God is not
and so we always have that ability to turn our faces
back toward God
Even when we're furious or confused or hateful or arrogant
even when we believe that God let us down
even when we believe that we have let God down
and he could never look at the same way again
God is there
Loving us, calling us, inviting us
We are all works of art
continually being formed and shaped and renewed
in the loving, intimate hands of God
God knows who we are, even if we don't
Even if we've played our parts for so long
we don't know which part is real and true
God knows
No matter what anyone else says,
and no matter what we've ever been through,
no matter how horrible the experience
no matter how seemingly unforgivable our mistakes
in every moment of our lives
we are precious in God's sight
God knows each of us, intimately, thoroughly
precisely because he created us and is still creating us
Nothing, no one, absolutely nothing
is beyond the grace and power of God
Always keep the door open
always keep your hearts and souls open
every single day of our lives are lived in the presence of God
and so with David,
we too, can start again anytime
and say, Search me, O God
search me and know my heart
test me and know my thoughts
and see if there is any wicked way in me
and then, God, lead me
lead me into the way that is everlasting
forever and ever
Never out of sight,
and never out of God's mind
You are enough
because you belong to God … forever
Text: Psalm 139
Faith United
January 18, 2009
If you're a parent, you know that as your children grow
it becomes harder and harder
to get them to do what you tell them to do
Pretty much as soon as they can get up on their feet
and move
they are out of our control
In the earlier years we do have some methods
to set boundaries
and to establish ground rules
although that whole "Time out" thing never worked on Sarah
Once they are teenagers, of course
they keep pushing the boundaries
and have very selective hearing
when it comes to our voices
But anyway,
we've established some methods over the years
some work, some don't
some Sarah has just plain laughed at
But in recent years,
when I want Sarah to do something
or I just want her to do me a favor
and she responds like I’m asking way too much of her,
I've started to say to her, "Hey, I gave you BIRTH!"
You wouldn't even be here without me!"
and, of course I am quick to remind her
that my doctor didn't believe in epidurals
so I truly did suffer
in order to bring her into the world,
SO, the very least she can do
is go make me a cup of tea
or clean the litter box
Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all….
I love the Psalms
I think it's safe to say that they are my favorite
books of the Bible
But I'm a poet
and there is so much poetry in them
not light, fluffy stuff, either
real, blood and guts, down to earth stuff
They're real
They are prayers, essentially
prayers written directly to God
It's almost embarrassing
it's like we're listening in on someone else's
most intimate words
words straight from the gut
words that reveal beauty and ugliness
all the same passages
There's nothing to hide here
What you see is what you get
The psalmists' truest most honest feelings
right her for all the world to read
but the good news is,
the one who wrote these words
that made it into the Big Book
is just like you and me
Beautiful, Ugly and deeply loved
The first thing I think of when reading these words of Psalm 139
is Santa Claus
He knows when you are sleeping
he knows when you're awake
he knows when you've been bad or good
so be good for goodness' sake…
"O Lord, you have searched me and known me
You know when I sit down and when I rise up,
You discern my thoughts form far away
you search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely…"
I confess I never believed that Santa Clause knew me that well
I knew I had to be good,
but I don't remember ever believing that he was
watching me
Kind of creepy, if you think about it
and no wonder kids are screaming and crying
and absolutely terrified to sit on Santa's knee
I would be too!
But the difference is, the psalmist
believes it to be GOOD news
that God knows him intimately and deeply
it's comforting, it's reassuring
and it's not told to us
so that we'll be good
and therefore get lots of presents
But with God, there are no secrets
that's what the psalmist says
you can't hide anything from God
You can lie to yourself,
you can deny the truth
you can keep secrets from everyone else
but you can't keep secrets from God
Can we stand it?
There are no secrets
How weird is that
when we live in a world so full of secrets?
We watch the news
and we wonder how much of what they tell us is true
and how much of it is simply what they want us to believe?
Secrets are acceptable in our world
we expect them
our trust is limited
we have come to expect to be lied to
And yet we're told, we can't have any secrets from God
In this world, we put our best face forward
we keep our weaknesses hidden if possible
we play roles at work, in church, in social gatherings
we show people what we want them to see
and all too often we hide our truest selves
because we may believe that they may not like us
if they knew the real us
Shoot, that starts in Middle School!
We're told what is cool and what is really not cool
and so we try to conform to that image
I know I spent so many years always trying to figure out
what other people wanted me to be
and I would try to be that
but when there are so many different people
with so many different expectations,
it gets not only impossible, but exhausting
You can't be what everyone else wants you to be
and it's futile anyway, finally
God knows who you really are
Adulthood is not so different than high school
We still put people in categories
and there are certain categories
that are more acceptable than others
But if we're all honest, I'd say most of us
have those times that are just plain certain
that we don't fit
It could have been our parents, our teachers
our classmates, our so-called friends
but somewhere along the way
for many of us,
someone told us we're not enough
We're just not smart enough,
beautiful enough, athletic enough
talented enough, outgoing enough
and after awhile, many of came to assume
that we ourselves are just not… enough
We don't look like the people on TV
we don't have houses that look like
they're out of Better Homes and Gardens
we may not know how to wheel and deal
to make lots of money
to sell ourselves or an image
we may not be skinny
or have beautiful hair
we may not believe everything that everyone else
seems to believe
we may have doubts and questions
that we think might horrify someone else
We just don't feel we're enough
There may not be a place or person
where we can feel like we can totally let down
our guards
and be completely ourselves
Or we may not even know what it means to be ourselves
because we've been so busy trying to be
something that we are not
But this Psalm,
believed to be written by David
expresses that enviable faith
that he, and each of us, is in fact ENOUGH
David believes
that God made each of us
and that God is never finished making us
until we take our final breath
we are, according to David, works in progress
We are daily being fashioned by God's hands
We're not mass-produced
we are custom made, each of us
with our own design
If nothing else, remember that there are no two fingerprints
alike in all the world
each of us has our own design
unique to us
that identifies US and no one else
This is tough to grasp in a world
that treats each human life with so little dignity
We hear of hundreds of people dying in the Gaza Strip
the thousands that have died in the streets of Iraq
we hear about how many died in this plane crash
or that earthquake
and they are just numbers
Numbers too big for us to comprehend
Would it make a difference?
Would we be any more horrified by war
if we realized that each and every person that died
with white skin or dark
with American citizenship or Iraqi birth
that each and every one of those people
was especially designed and created
by God?
That God knows each and every person
every one of those thousands had a name
came from a family
had a history
had funny and tragic stories to tell?
Each of them had someone who would miss them
when they were gone?
Would that change our attitude and flippancy
about the numbers of people who die daily
at the hands of a war that doesn't seem to end?
We aren't even allowed to see the coffins of our own soldiers
as if by not seeing,
it didn't happen, and it is not tragic
and yet for every one of those coffins that we don't see
there is a family torn apart
a family whose lives will be changed
by that one person's death
We are all important
We are all enough, according to David
In this world we are defined by the jobs that we do
the families that we come from
the education or lack of that we had
the mistakes that we made
the broken and failed relationships
that we are a part of
But according to the Bible
that is a lie
We are not defined by our jobs
by how much we achieve or don't achieve
by whether we can play basketball or football
or run track well
or if we're a book nerd
or a social misfit
We are all defined by the same thing
we are all children of God
created and still being created at the hands of God
We are all works in progress
we all started the same, and we will all end the same
Each of us are in the midst of our own stories
of which no two are exactly the same
We are intimately and lovingly created
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made!
God knows everything about us
our triumphs and our failures
and God is still deliriously in love with us
as any good parent is with their children
The psalmist doesn't mince words
that's what I like about the psalms
they don't pretend to be better than they are
In the midst of this beautiful prayer
this heartfelt trust and reassurance of God's enduring love
David blurts out,
"O that you would kill the wicked, God!
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me--
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with a perfect hatred…"
Hello! Not David's best moment …
Pretty arrogant
Downright mean and ugly..
Ah, dear God, I am so good, aren't I?
I hate your enemies with a perfect hatred
I am so righteous, that I am on your side
and am indignant at those who are not!
You and me, God, we're tight
and we'll get those awful sinners
and you will wipe out those wicked idiots forever…
Ok, a little reality check..
David is not perfect
David, eloquent as he was,
was still a work in progress….
He still harbored hate and sin
he still had that arrogance in him
to believe that he was better than someone else
In other words,
David was just like you and me..
We can be beautiful one moment
and turn around and be so ugly in the next
it's in us all
both
beautiful and ugly
We have the divine image of God in us
and yet our feet are planted in the mud
and so we wrestle all our lives
with the conflict inside of us
between who we truly are,
who we are created to be
and who we are because of living in this sinsick world
Most of the psalms are like that
revealing great awe and wonder and pure poetry
and a sense of the divine in all of us
and then veering into our human natures
where there is still hate and meanness
and selfishness and disregard for others
but the hope is in the end
Right after that disturbing tirade
David says to God,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart,
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting…"
He leaves the door open
He reveals his ugly side to God
but it's as if he knows that he has that potential in him
as if he knows he can be better
Search me, God, know my heart
know my thoughts, all of them
cleanse me of any wickedness
any evil
and lead me forward, to a better way
keep creating me, God
clean away all the ugliness in me
and let me see more like you see…
yeah, those hope for David
because as arrogant as he can be
as ugly as he can get when he's really honest
he knows that about himself
he knows that he's still on the way
he knows that he is still being formed and created by God
The God who loves him
who believes in him, who sees him as he can and will be
And is still forming him toward that image
And, we're assured, there is no place that God is not
The most frightening places we can imagine
are filled with the presence of God
There is no place that we can be
where God is not
and so we always have that ability to turn our faces
back toward God
Even when we're furious or confused or hateful or arrogant
even when we believe that God let us down
even when we believe that we have let God down
and he could never look at the same way again
God is there
Loving us, calling us, inviting us
We are all works of art
continually being formed and shaped and renewed
in the loving, intimate hands of God
God knows who we are, even if we don't
Even if we've played our parts for so long
we don't know which part is real and true
God knows
No matter what anyone else says,
and no matter what we've ever been through,
no matter how horrible the experience
no matter how seemingly unforgivable our mistakes
in every moment of our lives
we are precious in God's sight
God knows each of us, intimately, thoroughly
precisely because he created us and is still creating us
Nothing, no one, absolutely nothing
is beyond the grace and power of God
Always keep the door open
always keep your hearts and souls open
every single day of our lives are lived in the presence of God
and so with David,
we too, can start again anytime
and say, Search me, O God
search me and know my heart
test me and know my thoughts
and see if there is any wicked way in me
and then, God, lead me
lead me into the way that is everlasting
forever and ever
Never out of sight,
and never out of God's mind
You are enough
because you belong to God … forever
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