Sermon 8-25-13 Mercy

Sabbath laws were very important in Israel. Sabbath was a time of rest, a time of renewal, a time reserved for worship and remembering all that God had done for the Israelites.

     I don’t think Jesus is suggesting that we should not be faithful in observing the Sabbath.  What Jesus is teaching us is that Compassion and mercy are more important than observation of the law!   

     Whenever Jesus encountered someone suffering, whether blind, or deaf, or with any kind of disability, Jesus immediately responded with healing. He never refused to heal anyone he encountered. Jesus even healed people without their having to ask. Not only does Jesus free the woman in today’s reading from her crippling condition without her even asking, but he does this on the Sabbath right in front of the leaders who taught that any kind of work on the Sabbath day, including the work of healing, was contrary to the will of God!

    Jesus insisted healing on the Sabbath was honoring God.  He reminded the leader of the synagogue that he let his livestock get a drink on the Sabbath, which was technically working. So why would God oppose the healing of this “daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years” on the Sabbath?

     In Matthew’s version (Matt. 12:1-14), Jesus’ hungry disciples pick heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus defends them by reminding his listeners of an example from the Old Testament. In 1 Sam. 21:1-6, David asks the priest, Ahimelech, for five loaves of bread to feed his soldiers. When the priest has no common bread, only holy bread, David persuades the priest to give him the holy bread to feed his soldiers. Jesus is clearly teaching that Compassion and mercy are more important than observation of the law! Laws should be set aside so that people have the resources they need for life.

     Being a disciple of Jesus, trying to live as Jesus lived is not natural for human beings. Two recent psychology experiments have caught my attention. Studies of revenge have demonstrated that revenge is very pleasurable to humans. When we think about revenge, our brain experiences the same pleasure we receive from narcotics. Yet, every Sunday we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Clearly, actually forgiving those who have wounded us is a challenge!  It’s not in our nature to forgive.  It’s a choice we have to make if we want to live as Christians.

     The second was a typical psychology experiment where undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different conditions.  In one condition they were led to believe they had power and in the other condition that they did not have power. Then the researcher measured the empathy shown by each group. Those who believed they had power showed substantially less empathy.  Now these are just randomly assigned undergraduates, but the results do seem to fit with our experience of persons in power.  Having power makes it all too easy to believe your perspective is the only right way to see the world.

     We humans have a strong desire to be in control of our lives. Yet, that power, that control, interferes with our capacity to live as Jesus lived. Disciples have to choose to behave in an unnatural way! As Christians, we are called to give those around us the benefit of the doubt, to imagine sympathetically the challenges they may face, to emphasize and identify with them rather than see them as opponents or obstacles.

     We are faced with the choice between self-absorption and compassion and mercy on numerous occasions nearly every day of our lives. Unless we consciously choose to act with compassion and mercy and forgiveness, it will be all too easy to assume our challenges are greater than those faced by others, our frustrations more valid and vexing, our excuses more understandable, our priorities more important and so on and so on until, suddenly, we really have moved ourselves to the center of our universe.

     We are called to practice “intentional compassion,”  to see those ALL around us as fellow children of God worthy of respect, honor and love. We need to remember that  compassion, mercy and forgiveness are more important thatn the law. And, I think we also need to honor the Sabbath as a time to remember all God has done for us and to renew our commitment to following the way of Jesus. We need the Sabbath to remind ourselves to pay attention, to be aware, to notice those around us and to choose compassion with those around us rather than putting our goals and concerns first.

Scripture for 8-25-13 Luke 13:10-17

 

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." 13 And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." 15 Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" 17 As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Quote of the Day

A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that?  -Archbishop Oscar Romero

Sermon 8-18-12 Running Our Leg of the Race

Today’s New Testament lesson ends with two images to motivate us to persevere in faith, enduring suffering and striving for a better world:  The race and the cloud of witnesses.

     I love the image of this congregation as one leg of a relay race that began with God’s covenant with Abraham about 2000-1500 BCE. The next legs of the race were run by Abraham’s descendants, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. The race continued with Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt about1300 BCE and Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, the time of the judges (The writer of Hebrews mentions Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. I would add Deborah. The time is now 1200-about 1000 BCE) and the time of the kings (Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon (1020 – 930 BCE). There were many subsequent kings until the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE and of the southern kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE. But the race continued as the people kept the faith alive through the exile (587-538 BCE), the return to Judah  (538 BCE-332 BCE),  the occupation of Palestine by the Greeks and Romans, and the persecution of the early Christians.

     Today’s Scripture list of models of faith begins with the period of judges and the early monarchy, highlighting the accomplishments of faith. Despite these achievements, the emphasis on suffering is strong. The biblical story is a long story of those with persevering faith who look beyond the present with hope. Then as now the reality is that much remains to be fulfilled. It is in this context of the struggles and sufferings of persevering faith, that the writer tells us what Jesus did. Instead of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. The writer is encouraging us to pick up our cross and carry it through our leg of the face of faith.

     Think about that image. This congregation is one leg of a relay race that has been run for almost 4000 years. We are surrounded by a cloud of faithful Christians from down through the centuries cheering us on as we run our leg. Loyalty to the reign of God connects us with generations of prophets and martyrs who suffered for God’s covenant. This is not just a list of historical persons. All these women and men are truly alive and gathered around us like the crowd in a stadium. They are our fans, on the edge of their seats cheering us on now that our turn has come in the relay race of faith. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, . . . let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith . . . (Hebrews 12:1-2)

     That sense of history is both inspiring and encouraging. It gives us a sense of a larger purpose which we all need to rise to meet the challenges of our time. It places our struggles in the context of a long, long struggle toward a vision of a world reigned by God, a world of peace and justice, a world of abundant life, of healing, hope and love.

     The thing about a relay race is each leg has to be run well. No matter how good the runners of the first and last legs are, if the runners of the middle legs don’t also perform well, there’s no chance of winning the race. This is not one of the glorious times in the history of the Christian church. We are not like the disciples converting thousands in one afternoon.  We are not ending the crusades like St. Francis, or saving England like John Wesley. We are just running one of the thousands of the middle legs of the race.  Yet, it is our responsibility to run our leg well.

     When I think about running a race, I immediately think about training.  No one runs a marathon without many weeks, even months, of training. As Christians, we are to be in training.  We’re not just to live our daily lives following the Great Commandment to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to adopt a training regiment to make God our first priority throughout each and every day. I believe this requires the disciple of prayer, prayer to begin our day, prayer to end our day and prayer throughout our day.  It is so easy for us to become so focused on our problems that we forget God is always speaking to us—to our hearts, to our minds, to our spirits.  We just have to be willing to stop long enough to center ourselves on God and to listen. To center our lives on God is to learn to sense God’s presence with us throughout each day, to be strengthened, encouraged and guided by that presence. To recognize that we are in training as a congregation to run our leg of the race well, is to recognize our need for discipline.

     I also find that loving God and loving others is so intertwined that when we stop to listen to God, we become more aware of the needs of others. Somehow listening to God always ends up with awareness of things we need to do to help others. 

     A second important aspect of running any race is pacing. You can’t start out running full tilt or you’ll never have the strength to finish the race.  Somehow we have to keep our lives focused on God over the long haul through all the important and minor changes in our lives. This is where perseverance and endurance come in. We train and we run not just when the weather is good, not just when we feel like it or it feels good.  Not just when we are aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We pray regardless of how we feel.  We are helped to persevere when we hang on to the moments of peace and joy we have experienced in the past, through any moments of doubt and despair.

     A marathon racer doesn’t just cross the finish line and walk off and sit down. Usually they have to slow down gradually to recover from the effort.  We all need times of recovery, re-creation. That’s why it’s important to remember that it’s the congregation that’s running the race, we need to help each other pace our lives.

     One can't help but be inspired by today’s reading from Hebrews. Seeing ourselves in the context of 4000 years of faithful devotion to God motivates us to persevere. We are not the first ones to run the race of faith. Faithful saints before us have run the same race, fought fatigue, battled discouragement and, even occasionally, have won! But winning is not the most important criteria. The most important criteria is faithfulness. The struggle continues. We are not required to succeed, only to be faithful. 

Scripture for 8-18=13 Hebrews 11:29 -- 12:2

29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given friendly welcome to the spies.

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—

33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.

36 Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—

38 of whom the world was not worthy--wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

 

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Quote of the Day

Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience.                                                                                     -Archbishop Rowan Williams

Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church Praises Attorney General Eric Holder

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) of The United Methodist Church applauds U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s promise at the annual meeting this week of the American Bar Assn. in San Francisco to address racial disparities in the federal justice system.
“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington,” said Bill Mefford, GBCS director of Civil & Human Rights, “Attorney General Holder has reminded us that the dream articulated by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is still long from being fully realized and a primary obstacle is the current mass incarceration that characterizes our criminal-justice system.”
Attorney General Holder acknowledged the U.S. system’s ineffectiveness and unsustainability, as well as the tremendous cost, both financial and social, it places on the country.
“The attorney general rightly recognized the innate racism in our current system with black men receiving sentences 20% longer than sentences handed down to white males for the same crimes,” Mefford said in praising Holder for declaring this situation unacceptable and shameful. A group of U.S. Attorneys has been directed by Holder to examine sentencing disparities, and to develop recommendations on how to address them.
Driving much of this unacceptable and shameful situation is the ineffective “War on Drugs” begun in the early 1970s and that has done very little to address drug use and addiction, according to Mefford. “For far too long, we have responded to the root causes of crime — poverty, unemployment, lack of adequate education, and addiction — with incarceration,” Mefford said.
Attorney General Holder called for large-scale reforms that will make harsh and retributive punishment more reserved and less of a first option. The reforms he called for include scaling back on the use of mandatory minimum sentences, expanding compassionate release for those currently incarcerated who pose no threat to public safety, and highlighting best practices for alternatives to incarceration. Mefford said The United Methodist Church has long called for criminal-justice system reforms, including:

• opposing all mandatory minimum sentences;
• increasing services for victims of crime;
• improving indigent defense services;
• scaling back on prosecutorial discretion; getting rid of solitary confinement; and
• increasing funding for reentry services, particularly in the areas of housing, employment, substance abuse and mental-health treatment services.

“We believe that Scripture calls for a justice system that will serve as a balm of healing to the entire society,” Mefford said. “We pray and advocate for a criminal-justice system that brings healing to those who have been victimized, restoration for those who have committed crimes and justice for those who have been mistreated by the broken system currently in place.”
On behalf of the thousands of United Methodists engaged in ministries among the millions of people directly impacted by the broken criminal-justice system, Mefford emphasized that the United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society stands with Attorney General Holder and is ready to assist in any way it can to ensure that these reforms, as well as other necessary reforms, are fully implemented.
The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Prime responsibility of the board is to seek implementation of the Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns of the General Conference, the denomination’s highest policy-making body. The board’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education & Leadership Formation, United Nations & International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.
For more information, contact Bill Mefford, bmefford@umc-gbcs.org
Related Social Principles 164 V. The Political Community

Sermon 4-11-13 Faith Is the Assurance of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things Not Seen

     Throughout the New Testament, Abraham is held up as the primary example of those who live “by faith.” (Romans 4:11-12, 16; Galatians 3:7, 9, 29; Hebrews 11:10-20)  For the Apostle Paul, God’s original call to Abraham came before circumcision as the mark of Jewish identity AND before the Law of Moses. All that was expected of Abraham was that he have faith in God’s promises. Therefore, both Jew and Gentile could be “children of Abraham” if they had the same kind of faith. (Romans 3:21—4:25). We too are called to have that same kind of faith!

     Initially God told Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1).  And Abraham left without any idea of where he was going. Abraham “set out” on a journey in obedience to God’s command.  As children of Abraham we are to be on a journey, following the prompting of the Holy Spirit, not knowing where it will lead us or what  we will experience.   

     Twenty-four years later God promised, “The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:8) Yet to their dying days, Abraham and Sarah were sojourners and aliens in the promised land, living in tents. They lived with a promise but not the realization of that promise. When Sarah died, Abraham’s neighbors told him to take a plot of ground for her burial.  He insisted on paying for it because he said, “I am a stranger and sojourner among you; give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead. . . . I will give the price of the field. . . “ (Genesis 23:4, 13). 

     Abraham was 75 years old when he received the promise of a son.  He was 100 years old when he finally became a father. God makes Abraham and Sarah wait a very long time and there’s a lot of ambiguity and probably a lot of anxiety waiting for God to finally fulfill his promises. Abraham trusted in a future that seemed impossible. Imagine hearing at age 75 that you are going to be the father of a great nation and then trusting that promise for 25 more years. Abraham and his wife Sarah received the son of promise Isaac. But a son did not make them parents of many nations. They had only tasted the first signs of that eventual fulfillment, just as establishing residence in the land of promise did not mean they had actually become people of that land.

    Abraham and Sarah illustrate the trust and obedience of a faith that lasts a lifetime. Abraham's faith is never presented as a sudden heroic decision, but something more like an undercurrent that directs and is directed by a series of actions over time in the same direction, even when the ultimate destination is unknown or seems impossible to attain.  What a wonderful reassurance that we are not called to succeed, but only to continue the struggle, only to be faithful.

      Is our faith an undercurrent that directs and is directed by a series of actions over time in the same direction?  Yes, I can see that in the actions of many of you!  An undercurrent that keeps you ready to see others’ needs and to respond with caring. An undercurrent of servant leadership that keeps you working for the well-being of the community without regard for personal rewards.

 

     For Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, the promise was a homeland, a land in which they would no longer be strangers and foreigners, a land where they could faithfully worship their God and live according to his law. This longing for a homeland sustained the Jewish people for hundreds of years. Do we also long for something more than what one can see in life?

     “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”(Hebrews 11:1) I’ve always loved that Bible verse.  Some of you may remember it’s on a plaque in my living room. But what does it mean to have faith in what cannot be seen? It seems to me it means believing God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven is a real possibility. It means living with the longing for the world Jesus showed us, a world of healing and hope, compassion and caring, peace and justice.

     To live with an undercurrent of longing for God’s Kingdom means refusing to accept that the world has always been like this.  Refusing to accept great disparities in wealth; refusing to accept self interest as the only determinant of behavior; refusing to see caring for others as a threat to our personal well-being; refusing to believe that satisfying our needs is more important than preserving the planet. To live with an undercurrent of longing for God’s Kingdom means always working to make the world a better place.

     It also means expecting that we may not see that better place in our lifetime; expecting that we can only continue the struggle and trusting that eventually the promise will be fulfilled. 

     There are some things that only God can do. When we look at the rising tide of violence around the globe, the increasing number of refugees, the widespread hunger, we realize that some of these problems are so deep-seated that without God’s help they will not be solved. The good news we Christians tell one another and tell the world is that God is still actively at work in the world. God Holds the Future!

     Our challenge is to figure out where God is working and join in the struggle.  Holding onto God’s promises won’t be easy but we can trust that God will take care of us as we struggle to be obedient to his direction. Life may be risky and dangerous, but we can live without fear. The God who so loved all those who witnessed to us in the Bible, will not abandon us NOR will he abandon the world for which Jesus came, died and was risen. To live with the conviction of things not seen is to live with the conviction that the cross is more powerful than the sword and that, in the end, love will win.

     Abraham and Sarah saw only glimmerings of the eventual fulfillment of God’s promises. The story of Abraham and Sarah is a story of hardship and struggle, persistence and HOPE. This is the faith that just keeping going day after day, hanging on to the glimpses of God at work in the world and persisting in spite of doubts and fears. Living in hope. The faith of which the Bible speaks is fully in the world, but not of it. (Romans 12:2)

Scripture for 8-11-13 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

2 For by it the men of old received divine approval.

3 By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear..

 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

13 These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Quotation of the Day

“The less we want to have, the less we need to have. This fact is itself one of the blessings God offers, with compound interest. The less we need to have, the less we need to fear. The less we need to fear, the more we know that a life of giving allows us always to live, not on the brink of destruction, but on the brink of blessing, where we can more readily hear the promise that the ‘Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour,’ desiring not to punish but to bless.” (Audrey West, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1, Propers 3-16). 

Sermon 8-4-13 Trust in God's Way

Scripture:  Luke 12:13-34
      It was customary for people in Palestine to take their disputes to respected Rabbis; but Jesus refused to judge this property dispute. Instead he used the request to teach what his followers’ attitude to material things ought to be. Jesus spoke both to those who had an abundant supply of material possessions and to those who had not.

     To those lucky enough to have financial resources beyond what’s required for daily necessities, Jesus told a story about a man who wanted the security of enough possessions to last him a long time.  It reminds me of the ad on TV, will you outlive your financial resources? Let us tell you whether retirement is possible and how much money you will need. This man never saw beyond himself. There is no parable which is so full of the words, I, me, my and mine. Despite his over-abundance of goods, the one thing that never entered his head was to give any away. His whole attitude was the very reverse of Christianity. Instead of denying himself he aggressively affirmed himself; instead of finding his happiness in giving he tried to preserve it by keeping.

     BUT, many of Jesus’ hearers only had just enough to live on and there was always the prospect that one day they wouldn’t have even that.  Most of them would have perhaps one spare garment, but not more. As with many in today’s world, both in the non-Western world and in this country, one disaster—a family member being sick or injured, for example—could mean hunger or homelessness. It was to these followers that Jesus gave his clear and striking commands about not worrying over food and clothing.

     Jesus knew how afraid people in his day were. And Jesus knows how afraid people are today.  And so he offers us words of comfort. There’s nothing to be afraid of, he says. God is with us and wants the best for us. God wants the kingdom to be ours both in the here and now and forevermore!

     All of Jesus’ examples have to do with building our lives around things that can’t be stolen away easily. If we center our lives on our possessions, then our whole lives will be about protecting and keeping those possessions -- so much so that we may live in constant fear that they will be taken from us. Even our neighbors become suspect and unworthy of our trust. Will they keep a neighborhood watch out for us? Or might they be the ones who will break in and rob us of our precious possessions?

     As we accumulate stuff, we find we must lock our doors, protect our neighborhoods, circle our wagons, form our tribes, all in an effort to keep that which is most sacred to us safeguarded against potential thieves who might come in the night and try to steal the things that make us happy: our giant screen televisions, our computers and gaming systems, our stereos and cars and boats and jewels.

     The problem is not money, but making money our god.  The question is: Do you count on money to guarantee your security or God? Unfortunately, if we believe that money can satisfy our deepest needs, we discover we never have enough. If we look to money for security, then we end up counting, tracking, and stock piling money. Just think about how much of the news today relates to what’s happening with the stock market. Doesn’t that show how obsessed we are with money?

     Jesus invites us to serve the God who is infinite and whose love for us and all creation is infinite as well. Love operates differently than money. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that when your second child came along, you didn’t divide your love for your first child between the two children. Suddenly you had more love, more than you could possibly have imagined before. The more love you give away, the more you have. Love – and especially God's love – cannot be counted, kept track of or stockpiled. When you serve God, you live in a world of abundance, of possibility, of contentment. In God’s world – Jesus calls it the "kingdom of God" – not worrying actually becomes possible.
     When Jesus speaks of “treasure in heaven,” this doesn’t mean treasure that you will only possess after death. “Heaven” is God’s sphere of reality, which, as the Lord’s Prayer suggests, will one day spread over the entire earth. The kingdom of God is bringing the values and priorities of God to this world. Those who welcome Jesus and his kingdom-message must abandon the greed and anxiety of the world and live by the values and priorities of God.

     The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.

     We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the consequences of such a life is joy.   Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow.  Pain and hardship still come. So often when they come we realize that there is no way we can protect ourselves from the events that really change our lives. There is nothing we can do to guarantee our well-being. The really important events in our lives are beyond our control: a sick or injured spouse or child, the death of a spouse or child. We can only live confidently leaving our needs in the hands of an all-knowing, steadfastly caring God. The kingdom of God is about living a life turned toward God, turning, facing, yearning, reaching out to God with trust and hope.

     Can we believe the words of our Lord? Can we let his love and his promises take away our fears? Can he free us to live with courage and conviction, hope and trust? Can he inspire us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth? Jesus urges us to center our lives on the God who created us and who wants us to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven! God, the creator, loves to give good gifts, loves to bring you his care and rescue.

     I know, I know, it's hard to believe in God’s world of abundance -- this world that invites us to trust God's faithfulness like a flower does spring or to sail upon the currents of God's love like a bird does the air. This is the world Jesus invites us into: a world of abundance, generosity, and new life. But it is also a world of fragility, trust, and vulnerability. Which is why we have to choose. We can’t worship both God and money. The most powerful Lord in the universe, the creator of all things, wants to hear our voices, and speak to us. How we respond to God’s request for our time and attention is a good measurement of whether Jesus is our Lord. Those who live lives turned toward God may confidently leave their needs in the hands of an all-knowing, steadfastly caring God.

Review of Reza Azlan's "Zealot"

By Patrick Scriven, Director of Communications and Young People’s Ministries, Pacific NW Conference, United Methodist Church

Two of the biggest religion stories over the past week involved the formerly Christian, Muslim author Reza Aslan and the young, formerly conservative, evangelical blogger Rachel Held Evans. Aslan’s recent book on Jesus, “Zealot,” became a hot item after an insulting, yet not surprising, Fox News interview went viral. Held Evans wrote a piece distributed by CNN on why Millennials are leaving the evangelical church, and what they might be looking for.

Reza Aslan’s book Zealot begins with a vivid description of the Temple cult in first century Judaism that is quite provocative. His subsequent detailing of the political, religious and social tensions of the day breathes significant life into his portrait of Jesus, his earliest followers, and the world in which they lived. Given the limited data any historian has to work with Aslan should be applauded for created such a compelling world even as a healthy amount of skepticism ought be applied to his more dramatic flourishes, particularly when they reach beyond scholarly consensus.

One of my favorite things about history is the way looking back inevitably causes us to reexamine the present. In this case Zealot, on more than one occasion, prompted me to think about the role of the church in the 21st century.

Aslan describes a Temple cult that was central to the religious practice of a majority of the Jewish people throughout the region. When the Temple was destroyed along with Jerusalem following revolts in 70 CE, the Jewish faith was forced to reconsider, reshape, and reform – not for the first time. Of course, Aslan also makes the point that this event had significant impact upon the shaping of Christian theology as well.

The destruction of Jerusalem was not the preferred choice of any of the first century Jews that we are aware of. One might even conclude that it was the refusal of some to recognize Rome’s overwhelming dominance that made it inevitable. But this dramatic event forced a creative resurgence, indeed a complete reformulation of what it meant to be a Jew and how one faithfully worshiped God.

Many mainline folks like myself salivate when we read posts like Rachel Held Evan’s. We imagine that with a little bit of work we can pick up a portion of those young evangelicals who are falling away from their parent’s church forgetting that our own children tend to follow similar patterns. Several blogs over the course of the past week have rightly cautioned that such thinking may be somewhat wishful; I’m drawn to agree.

In my mind, one word connects Aslan’s work and Held Evan’s blog. That word is one you’ll rarely hear me saying and that may be part of the problem. The word is authority.

In Aslan’s description of Jesus’s world and the origins of the church so much is anchored around authority, how one attains it, and where it is ultimately rooted. Jesus builds his ministry to those who are not benefitting from the formal authority structure and boldly claimed a direct authority from God that is in conflict with the powers of the day. The nascent Christian community continues his ministry to the poor and outcast claiming authority through the risen Jesus; an authority that emboldens them through early persecution and sustains their theological imaginations as Jerusalem is destroyed. In contrast, the priestly caste’s authority is directly challenged by Jesus and other’s because of their collaboration with the state (Rome) and ultimately is undermined by it’s close connection to a physical location.

What Held Evan’s blog doesn’t account for is the draw of church’s like Seattle’s Mars Hill. If Millennials are truly looking for more progressive faith communities it hard to imagine what they see here. Part of this phenomenon can be explained by the reality that generational groupings make broad generalizations that never fit perfectly. More detailed analysis of the millennial cohort helps us to see significant religious diversity. But I also suspect that people are drawn to the sense of authority with which Driscoll offers his teachings.

What Mainline Protestantism is missing, in large part, is a deep, profound sense of authority. Even as Protestant clergy are often told to “take thy authority” as they are ordained, there is a lack of clarity about what that truly means. Serious theological questions remain open in the minds of many moderate and progressive Christians. And others who have resolved those questions in less traditional, but perhaps more faithful, ways display anxiety in sharing these new reformulations of the faith to people in the proverbial pews.

While the obnoxious interview on Fox News played a huge role, the buzz around Aslan’s book betrays our culture’s continued interest in a first century itinerant preacher and significant dissatisfaction with the sanitized Jesus too often presented by churches of all stripes. Christian leader’s should be thankful for the opportunity this book provides to open dialogue about the historical Jesus we all learn about in seminary and tend to hide as we preach a safer, softer Christ who loves Easter bunnies and potpourri.

Let me suggest that what we are seeing today is a new recalibration after the destruction of the third Temple. This Temple, unlike it’s predecessors, was built with bricks of privilege and the mortar of cultural accommodation and collaboration. Amidst the rubble, the church cannot rely on privilege to sustain itself. It is no longer the state religion or the default religious preference of emerging generations and this, while painful for some, is a grand opportunity.

For the church to thrive we will need a creative and engaged theology that recovers the authority Jesus claimed. Our imaginations must be unshackled from the theology of empire and reengaged with those who Jesus calls us to serve. This is where truly divine authority always lies.

Such authority is not synonymous with an obnoxious certainty (which is the heresy of some) but it does require that we truly know, experience and declare the movement of God in people’s lives – and not shy away from defining it as such (something most mainline Christians are terrible at). Again, I would suggest this becomes easier as our heads move out of the clouds and our faith is contextualized by missional immersion. A faith rooted in Jesus’way will by its nature offend and divide, but it need not be deliberately offensive.

Sermon 7-28-2013

Abba! Father, Hallowed Be Your Name

     In Jesus’ day, travelers often journeyed late in the evening to avoid the heat of the midday sun. In today’s parable, a traveler arrives close to midnight. The late arrival  put the householder in an embarrassing situation. He had no bread so he could not fulfill the sacred obligations of hospitality. Late as it was, he went out to borrow from a friend. The friend’s door was shut. In this part of the world,  the door was opened in the morning and remained open all day, for there was little privacy. But if the door was shut, that was a definite sign that the householder did not wish to be disturbed. But the seeking householder knocked, and kept on knocking.

     The poorer Palestinian house had just one room with only one little window. One-third of the room was a raised platform where the whole family slept on mats, not beds. Families were large and they slept close together for warmth. It was also the custom to bring all the animals into the house at night. Imagine the commotion if you got up in the middle of the night to answer the door (babies crying, dogs barking, sheep bleating, cocks crowing)!

     Is there any wonder that the man who was in bed did not want to rise? But the determined borrower knocked on with shameless persistence until at last the householder, knowing that by this time the whole family was disturbed anyway, arose and gave him what he needed.

     “That story,” Jesus said, “will tell you about prayer.”But there is substantial disagreement about what that story tells us about prayer. Some believe this story tells us to be persistent in prayer, that Jesus is encouraging an insistent asking, a search that refuses to give up. This interpretation focuses verse 8, I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. In other words, if you don’t get an answer right away, you’ve got to keep trying. To the extent that this means our prayer shouldn’t be just routine or formal praying, going through the motions as a daily or weekly task this is certainly true.

     Persistence is also required if your focus is on seeking the Holy Spirit. The action of the Holy Spirit is gradual; it happens over a long period of time. Because spiritual growth takes a lifetime, we should keep praying to God. We ought to beg and beg God for the Holy Spirit to come into us and work change upon our hearts. Note, we beg not for God to fill our specific requests but for God to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts. We beg not for experiences of the Holy Spirit, which are rare, but for changes in wisdom and understanding and in our capacity to love and care for others.  But, importantly, we are not to take God’s silence as a sign of rejection. When we pray, we are to pray with the assurance that we are God’s beloved children. It’s certainly true that persistence is what’s needed if we seek the change of heart brought by the Holy Spirit.

     It’s also true that the Holy Spirit is what this whole fast-paced, ever-changing world needs. I truly believe the only remedy for our current situation is the slow and persistent work of the Holy Spirit to bring changes from the inside, so that we can become catalysts for change for the good on the outside. So that we can bring God’s love and hope to people who really need community. Persistence is what’s needed if we  focus is intercessory prayer, prayer that pours God’s love out onto others.

Tom Wright, suggests,

There is a battle going on a fight with the powers of darkness and those who have glimpsed the light are called to struggle in prayer, to pray with passion—for peace, for reconciliation, for wisdom, for a thousand things for the world and the church, perhaps a hundred or two for one’s own family, friends and neighbours, and perhaps a dozen or two for oneself.

     There are, of course, too many things to pray about. That’s why it’s important to be disciplined and regular. If you leave it to the whim of the moment you’ll never be a true intercessor, somebody through whose prayers God’s love is poured out into the world.[1]

I really like that ratio (a thousand/to a hundred/to a dozen) between prayers for the world, prayers for those you care for and prayers for yourself. I also like the emphasis on discipline and regularity as well as energy, passion, and commitment.

     Someone has said that the Lord’s Prayer has two great uses in our private prayers. If we use it at the beginning of our devotions it awakens all kinds of holy desires which lead us on into the right pathways of prayer. If we use it at the end of our devotions it sums up all we ought to pray for in the presence of God.

     The Lord’s prayer begins by calling God Father. Actually the word was abba, better translated as papa or daddy. It reflects the familiarity, the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with God, a relationship which Jesus came to restore between God and us.

     The name Abba Father also identifies who we are. We are children of God. The Gospel promises that no matter how powerful our earthly names, they do not define us. What defines us is the name given to us by God alone: the name of beloved child of God. We discover who we are by hearing once again whose we are, to whom we belong. We who call ourselves Christians are marked with the cross of Christ and named a beloved child of God forever.

     Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are reminded of this gift of identity (as a child of God). That no matter where we go, God will be with us. That no matter what we may do, God is for us and will not abandon us.

     That first word, Abba Father, also tells us that in prayer we are not coming to someone out of whom gifts have to be unwillingly extracted, but to a father who delights to supply his children’s needs. It’s important to focus on the last verse of our Gospel reading, ¹³If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

     The lesson of this parable is not that we must batter at God’s door until we finally compel him to give us what we want, until we coerce an unwilling God to answer. Jesus is trying to say just the opposite: If an unwilling householder can be coerced by a friend’s shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who is a loving Father supply all his children’s needs.

     This does not free us from commitment to prayer. Prayer is our personal connection with God. Deeper than mere words, in prayer we open our hearts and hope for answers. But it does mean that we are not wringing gifts from an unwilling God, but going to one who knows our needs better than we know them ourselves and whose heart towards us is the heart of generous love. If we do not receive what we pray for, it is not because God grudgingly refuses to give it but because he has some better thing for us. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer. The answer given may not be the answer we desired or expected; but even when it is a refusal, it is the answer of the love and wisdom of God.

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[1] Wright, Tom (2004) Luke for Everyone, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, p.134