"When God reigns, God pours"
Pastor Larry James of Grier Heights Presbyterian Church
We apologize for the inconvenience, but this Sunday's sermon transcrip is unavailable.
Download 2011 03-27 Celebrate Bulletin
« February 2011 | Main | April 2011 »
"When God reigns, God pours"
Pastor Larry James of Grier Heights Presbyterian Church
We apologize for the inconvenience, but this Sunday's sermon transcrip is unavailable.
Download 2011 03-27 Celebrate Bulletin
Posted on March 29, 2011 at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
"Forgiving, For Living" by Von Clemans
Colossians 3:12-17
[12] As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. [13] Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. [14] Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. [15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. [16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. [17] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Today’s sermon is on forgiveness — our Lenten theme for this year.
I want you to know that my experience with forgiveness is probably a lot like yours. Sometimes we forgive too quickly and deny the reality of the wrongs done to us and to others. Sometimes we forgive too slowly, or not at all, and live our lives burdened by bitterness, resentment, and anger. Today, in spite of my personal failings at it, I bear witness to what our faith affirms — that forgiveness is possible not because of our ability, but because of God’s love and grace.
I begin with a story from a time and a place that few of us have been. It is early in the 1940’s during World War II.
Along with most of his family and Jewish neighbors, a man by the name of Simon Wiesenthal was taken captive by the Nazis and imprisoned. The cruelty he and other Jews endured at the hands of sadistic captors is almost unimaginable. The prisoners were literally starved to death, yet forced to perform labors until they could no longer stand. When they could no longer stand, they were shot. To make room for new arrivals, the weak and infirm were executed. Not even women and children were shown mercy, for all Jews were seen as sub-human. Simon watched as the Nazis executed his family and friends. Death became such a constant companion that it became not a question of if, but when and with how much suffering one would die?
One day, Simon was sent to work at a field hospital. A nurse came out of the building and selected Simon. She led him through the various wards where the soldiers injured fighting for the Nazi cause were housed. Finally they arrived at an out-of-the-way room where a solitary figure lay on a cot. The nurse left. A weak voice called out to Simon to come closer to the cot. The figure on the cot was critically injured, covered in bandages with spaces for the nose and mouth. Simon sat carefully not knowing what to expect. Then the injured figure began to tell his story.
Simon could hardly believe what he was hearing. The man was a Nazi solider in his early twenties, critically injured, and dying. He had sent the nurse to find a Jew so that he could find peace for his soul. Raised a Catholic, the young man understood that some things needed to be set right before he died. He grasped Simon arm and proceeded to tell how he had become involved with the Hitler Youth and then became a member of the SS. Simon could not — did not want to — be this man’s confessor and several times tried to pull away. But the soldier held on. With obvious difficulty, the dying man told how he and other soldiers forced several hundred Jews into an abandoned house, and then set it on fire. The anguished cries of the victims were seared into the young soldier’s brain and haunted his dreams. “If I could bring them back from the dead, I would,” he pleaded.
It had taken hours for the soldier to tell his story and for some mysterious reason, even though he was appalled, Simon stayed to hear it. But now, the soldier had confessed his guilt. He pulled Simon closer and begged for forgiveness from this solitary Jew. I cannot die in peace unless you forgive me. [i]
Now, put yourself in Simon’s place. Would you forgive this man? This enemy?
In his autobiography, Mark Twain told of a publisher who had once swindled him outrageously. After concluding a tirade on the evils of this man, Twain ended on a note of forgiveness. "He's been dead a quarter of a century now," Twain wrote, "I feel only compassion for him, and if I could send him a fan, I would."
Simon Wiesenthal’s story raises profound questions about the possibilities and limits of forgiveness. Some might argue that such a particular situation is too far from our contemporary experience. Nevertheless, even if we have not been through the horrors of war, we still know something about the challenge of forgiving.
When her husband told her that he had invited her mother to stay with them for Christmas, Kate was furious. You see, when Kate was growing up, her alcoholic mother beat her and left her in charge of six younger siblings. The mother showed no remorse even when confronted with bruises on Kate’s face. At age 20, Kate left home, started her own family, and never looked back. It was only after the birth of her fourth child that Kate’s husband made an attempt at reconciliation between Kate and her mother. The Christmas visit was very formal. Kate sensed that her mother wanted to talk about something, but Kate never gave her mother the chance, even refusing to accompany her to the airport. Just as the mother was walking out the door, she turned to Kate and said, “Can you ever forgive me for all those years?” According to Kate, that was all she needed to hear. That point was the beginning of a healing process that was nothing less than a miracle. Kate had begun to find peace in her religious community and begun to discover that, given the chance, she wanted to forgive. Still, forgiveness came slowly. The first time her mother genuinely wanted to hug her, Kate was all tensed up because the previous physical contact had been violent. It took years to trust her mother to babysit her own children. But now, the relationship had a chance. [ii]
If I were to ask, I am sure that you could provide your own stories about forgiveness. Maybe you are bitter at an unfaithful spouse that stretched the bonds of marriage beyond the breaking point. Maybe you resent the underhanded way someone at work used you to advance his or her career at your expense. Maybe you are angry with a family member for violating a confidence. Maybe you are angry with someone who abused you and betrayed a sacred trust. In the living of our days, forgiveness is always a challenge.
We know how hard it can be to forgive another. Many times it is an impossible task. Yet the Christian faith draws us into the struggle of forgiveness and will not let us go. Maybe it’s all those Assurances of Pardon where each time we confess our sins the minister tells us our sins are forgiven. Maybe it is the Lord’s prayer where we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Somehow, we begin to realize, because God forgive us, we should forgive others. If God forgives us, then maybe we can forgive others.
Just as there are many stories that highlight the challenge of forgiveness there are also stories that remind us of its healing power.
In South Africa in the not-too-distant past of apartheid and its radical racism, Nelson Mandela, was incarcerated for twenty-seven years and often mistreated. His eyesight was ruined because he had to work in the glare of a white limestone quarry; his family was harassed by the state security police. He should, by all rights, be consumed by bitterness and a lust for revenge. Yet the world watched with awe as Mandela magnanimously invited his white jailer to stand beside him as Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.[iii]
Dr. Everett (“Ev”) Worthington is a professor of psychology who has published over 20 books on forgiveness, marriage, and family topics. But his experience with forgiveness comes not just from study and research. He’s had some first-hand experience with forgiveness.
On a New Year’s Eve about ten years ago someone broke into his mother’s house. An attempted theft turned into a brutal murder when his mother fought back. A suspect was captured who volunteered details no one could have known who wasn’t at the scene. But because of “some issues with the evidence,” a jury wouldn’t indict.
Within six months of her murder Ev and his two siblings forgave the person who killed their mother. He admits that he had a lot of professional preparation. He had studied forgiveness scientifically and therapeutically for years before the incident. But ultimately he felt that they were able to forgive because, by doing so, they were honoring the values their mother had tried to instill in them.
He tries to teach his students today that forgiveness is not something that comes after justice has been accomplished. Indeed, he never got justice. But he firmly believes that forgiveness and justice can work hand in hand.[iv]
There are many more stories that build up a kind of moral capital upon which we can draw in our struggle to forgive, stories that demonstrate that forgiveness is possible even under the most difficult circumstances.
For those of you who struggle with forgiveness, I’d like to share some thoughts that come from my study of the Scriptures and my pastoral contacts with people for more than three decades. There are three negative things that forgiveness is not, and three positive that forgiveness is.
First negative. Forgiveness is not approval. Forgiving someone does not mean you condone his or her behavior. In fact, the behavior may be abhorrent, loathsome, and repulsive. Forgiveness not only recognizes detestable behavior, it turns the spotlight on that which needs to be forgiven. You can reject the behavior and still forgive the person. Forgiveness is not approval.
Second negative. Forgiveness is not cheap grace. Cheap grace is when we get off too easy — when terrible things are swept under the rug in a futile attempt to maintain the illusion of harmony. Cheap grace is when we avoid confronting the evil in another in order to reduce our own pain. Real forgiveness takes the offense seriously, along with all the pain it has caused and will cause. Forgiveness acknowledges the hurt and only then moves on. Forgiveness is not cheap grace.
Third negative. Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness may happen without forgetting, but forgetting never happens without forgiveness. Sometimes people think that forgiveness means starting over, as before, and forgetting anything happened. So, if they can’t forget, it means they can’t forgive. But forgiveness is not the same as forgetting. You see, forgiveness is always relational, not transactional. Forgiveness changes the nature of the relationship, it does not remove the consequences of the transgression. Forgiveness does not change what happened, it changes the way we respond to what happened.
In the words of theologian and writer, Frederick Buechner, “To forgive someone is to say in one way or another, ‘You have done something unspeakable, and by rights I should call it quits between us. Both my pride and my principles demand no less. However, although I make no guarantees that I will be able to forget what you have done and though we may both carry the scars for life, I refuse to let it stand between us.’” [v]
Carolyn Osiek puts it this way, “It is not ‘forgive and forget’ as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but ‘forgive and go forward,’ building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future.”[vi]
South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, says, “In forgiving, people are not being asked to forget. On the contrary, it is important to remember, so that we should not let such atrocities happen again. Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done. It means taking what happened seriously...drawing out the sting in the memory that threatens our entire existence.”[vii]
Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting.
That’s the three negative of forgiveness: it is not approval, it is not cheap grace, it is not the same as forgetting. Now for three things that Forgiveness is.
First positive. Forgiveness is a choice. Forgiveness is an act of the will, a decision, based not on feeling, but on commitment.
Simon Wiesenthal says, “Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.”[viii]
If everyone were to wait until we felt like forgiving those who wronged us, few would ever be forgiven. But, to choose forgiveness when we could just as well choose anger, vengeance, or pay-back — to choose forgiveness — is to choose for life and living. To choose intentionally to act in forgiving ways toward another, in spite of our urge to lash out and hurt, is to open the windows of our soul to healing grace. Forgiveness is a choice.
Second positive. Forgiveness is an act of self-sacrifice. We usually think of forgiveness as being costly to the offender. But forgiveness is just as costly for the offended. Forgiveness requires that we place our pride — our need to control, our desire for vengeance — into God’s hands and trust not only in God’s mercy, but also in God’s justice.
Malcom Forbes reminds us, “Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always makes you less than you are.”[ix]
Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, said, “Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you — out of love — takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.”[x]
Forgiveness requires that we let go and not hold on. Forgiveness is an act of self-sacrifice.
Third positive. Forgiveness is an act of faith. Whatever our experience with forgiving, there will be times when the forgiveness to which we aspire lies just beyond the limits of our human abilities. Sometimes the offense is so horrible that we are unable to get beyond it. Sometime the pain is too great to allow forgiveness at this time. At times like these, when forgiveness is impossible for us, we confess our inability to God and trust that in receiving God’s forgiveness we might, in time, find strength and courage enough to forgive others. Even when we are able to forgive, there are no guarantees — the risk of pain and hurt are still there. Forgiveness embraces the future in hope. In every act of forgiveness, wished for or realized, there is an act of faith.
That’s the three positives of forgiveness: Forgiveness is a choice, forgiveness is an act of self-sacrifice, and forgiveness is an act of faith.
Did you notice the story with Simon Wiesenthal was unfinished? Have you been wondering how he responded to the confession of the Nazi soldier and his plea for forgiveness? Wiesenthal tells this story in profound detail in a book called The Sunflower. I recommend it to you for your reading list. Here’s what happened. After listening to the soldier’s confession and his pleas for forgiveness, Simon got up, and left the room without saying a word. He could not forgive the man.
There is much more to this story than we have time for today. But suffice it to say that Simon had second thoughts about his response. He was troubled enough by what he had done to ask his friends what they would have done. After his release from prison, he wrote his book, The Sunflower. It tells his story, but also records the responses of fifty-three distinguished religious and world leaders who were invited to answer the question “what would you have done?”
What would you do? What have you done? What will you do when faced with the challenge of forgiving someone in order to get on with your life?
Is there someone in your life that needs your forgiveness? Is there someone that you need to forgive today? You don’t have to approve of, or excuse, bad behavior. You don’t have to diminish the seriousness of the offense. And, you don’t have to forget to forgive. You will have to choose forgiveness over continuing resentment. You will have to give up your pride, and sacrifice your need for revenge. You will have to step out in faith into a risky future.
In the face of the difficult challenges of forgiveness, we dare to forgive because without forgiveness we have no future. Without forgiveness we are slaves to our past. Without forgiveness, those who offend us, enslave us.
So, in hope, we draw from the only source of forgiveness that transcends our limitations. We draw courage from the God who forgave the iniquities of Israel. We draw strength from the God who loved the world enough to send his only Son Jesus. We draw power from the God who knows us better than we know ourselves and, in love, forgives us anyway.
In the amazing grace of God’s love, compassion, and forgiveness to each of us, forgiveness of others is more than a hope. It is a real possibility. Because we have been forgiven, we can offer forgiveness to family, friends, neighbors, whole nations, and even our enemies. Forgiveness is ours to receive. Forgiveness is ours to give. Forgiveness is ours to live. May God help us all, forgiven and forgiving, to live, truly live!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Amen.
Charge and Benediction:
Colossians 3:[12] As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. [13] Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. [14] Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. … [17] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
And now may the grace of Christ attend you;
the love of God surround you;
and the power of the Holy Spirit keep you;
that you may live in love,
grow in faith,
and abound in hope,
both now and forever more. Amen.
Download 2011 03-20 Celebrate Bulletin
This sermon is an adaptation of a sermon originally preached on Aug. 30, 1998
[i] The Sunflower — On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesentahl, © 1998, Schocken Books Inc.
[ii] Source: © The Associated Press, December 20, 1997
[iii] The Sunflower, pp. 267-8
[iv] Forgiveness and Justice, http://www.thepowerofforgiveness.com/understanding/index.html, accessed March 19, 2011
[v] Wishful Thinking, by Frederick Buechner © 1973, HarperCollins Publishers, pp. 28-9
[vi] Quoted from http://www.forgivenessweb.com/RdgRm/Quotationpage.html, accessed March 19, 2011
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Ibid.
Posted on March 24, 2011 at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
"Letting Go of the Other Person’s Throat" by Steve Eason
Matthew 18:21-35
Myers Park Presbyterian Church
March 13, 2011
Dr. Steven P. Eason
Letting Go of the Other Person’s Throat
Matthew 18:21-35
* * *
21Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. 23“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ 34And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
* * *
Corrie ten Boon was a Christian Holocaust survivor. Her family gave refuge to many Jews in their home. Eventually all of her family were arrested and she and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbruck where her sister died.
In her book, The Hiding Place, she tells this story;
It was at a church in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, “he has washed my sins away!”
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal on the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile; I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again, I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give him Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness, any more than on our goodness that the worlds’ healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
(James Blanchard Chisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 155)
* * *
There’s probably nothing more challenging than for a human being to forgive someone else. There is a fragile line between justice and mercy. If you are the victim, you want to know, “Where is the justice?” If you are the guilty one, you want to know, “Where is the mercy?” It depends on where we stand as to how we talk about forgiveness. It also depends upon the severity of the infraction.
To forgive someone for missing a meeting is in a different category than forgiving someone for infidelity. To be Jewish and forgive the Nazi’s for the Holocaust is in a different category than to forgive someone who merely criticized you behind your back.
When you are the victim, you want justice. When you are the perpetrator, you want mercy. It depends upon which side of forgiveness you stand.
Peter came to Jesus with an interesting question,
‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ (18:21)
And Jesus said to him,
‘Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.’ (18:22)
(Other translations have that as “seventy-times seven.”)
So, is Jesus saying that after seventy-seven or four hundred and ninety times, we can stop forgiving? Or, is he speaking in hyperbole, exaggerating the numbers so to say, “There is no limit to forgiveness?” That’s what we want to hear if we need the forgiveness. It’s not what we want to hear if we are called upon to do it.
Forgiveness feels like letting somebody off the hook. Retaliation feels better. Forgiveness can feel weak and vulnerable, like you’re being taken advantage of, or have no backbone. Losers forgive. Winners get even!
Whichever number you use, it must have seemed way too much to Peter who had suggested the number seven as a gracious plenty. Seventy-seven or four hundred and ninety times, is outrageous. So, while Peter is standing there choking on the math, Jesus tells this simple little parable;
A king calls in a ten thousand talent debt (That’s a day’s wages for 100,000 laborers!) from one of his slaves. It’s an enormous amount. The slave cannot pay it, so the king orders him to be sold, together with his wife and children. But he begs for mercy and the king grants it. He forgives him the entire debt. Unheard of!
But then that slave goes out and calls in a hundred denarii debt from a fellow slave. That’s only a 100 days wages for one laborer. Nothing in contrast to what he was forgiven by the king.
He seizes his fellow slave by the throat and demands payment and when the slave begged for mercy he showed none.
Here’s the kicker;
32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ “
(Matt. 18:32-33)
And that is Jesus’ point.
When you have received forgiveness why wouldn’t you give forgiveness? It is a two-way street. If God has forgiven me such a sizeable debt, how can I hold my neighbor by the throat? When you receive mercy you are empowered to give mercy. When we refuse to give that mercy, we find ourselves in a sort of prison. It’s a harsh statement that Jesus makes,
‘And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So, my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’ (18:34-35)
Harsh but true. There is a torture to refusing to forgive a person who genuinely seeks our forgiveness and reconciliation. Perhaps that’s the crux of it; does the other person genuinely seek our forgiveness and reconciliation?
* * *
David Augsburger in his book, Helping People Forgive, writes;
Repentance…consists in three dimensions –
remorse, restitution and renewal. (p. 16)
It’s not enough for a person to simply feel sorry for what they’ve done, but they must attempt to restore what was destroyed, which is to make restitution. It is their job to rebuild what was broken. But then there must be a new way of life. True repentance is more than remorse, it’s more than restitution. It is coming to a place where I no longer live like that. Augsburger goes on to make the statement,
Love may be unconditional, forgiveness is not. (p. 16)
Which is to say, simply forgiving someone without them coming to the table with repentance does not reconcile the relationship. It’s what Bonheoffer called, “cheap grace.” Jesus himself said,
“If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.” (Luke 17:3)
So which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do you forgive someone and hope they repent or do you wait for someone to repent and then you forgive them?
There are many times when someone’s forgiving spirit invites another person to repentance. They sense a mercy and a grace that is beyond human capacity and it elicits in them a desire to rebuild what they broke, to live a new life.
God’s grace precedes our repentance. It invites us to be reconciled through Christ. It is always waiting for us, longing for us, hoping for us to come to the table of forgiveness and reconciliation.
So, Peter comes to Jesus and asks him how many times should he forgive and he thinks seven is a lot. I’m sure he didn’t like Jesus’ answer, but with it came the power of God’s grace to do it.
During this season of Lent, may God give us the humility to ask for forgiveness where we need it and the mercy to take our hands off of our brother or sister’s throat, as God has so graciously removed a hand from ours.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Congregation. Amen
Download 2011 03-13 Celebrate Bulletin
Posted on March 16, 2011 at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
"An Invitation to Observe a Holy Lent" by Steve Eason
Matthew 17:1-9
Myers Park Presbyterian Church
March 06, 2011
Dr. Steven P. Eason
An Invitation to Observe a Holy Lent
Matthew 17:1-9
* * *
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
* * *
This coming Wednesday will be Ash Wednesday, which will begin a 40-day observance of Lent. On Wednesday, at both the early morning and evening services, you will hear these words:
We begin this holy season
by acknowledging our need for repentance,
and for the mercy and forgiveness
proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ,
to observe a holy lent
by self-examination and penitence
by prayer and fasting,
by works of love,
and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.
(Book of Common Worship, p. 223)
People observe Lent in different ways. There’s nothing in the Bible about Lent. The forty days of Lent do have special significance. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. When Moses received the Ten Commandments, he stayed on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights without food or drink. (Exodus 34:28) Jesus fasted and was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights before he began his ministry. (Matt. 4:2) The 40 days of Lent mirror these biblical experiences.
The traditions of Lent do vary. Some people observe Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which became a day for eating pancakes to, in essence, load up with fat before the period of abstinence. Mardi Gras (French for “Fat Tuesday”) finds its home in these traditions and is closely associated with New Orleans because of its French heritage. (Bet some of you didn’t know Mardi Gras was a religious experience!! You need some religion after Mardi Gras!)
Historically, the general rule for Lent was that a person would have only one meal a day, in the evening, or no sooner than 3:00 p.m. Some abstain from meat and only eat fish. Others choose to give up something for Lent as a sacrifice. Lent has also been a time for adding things to one’s life; enhancing personal prayer and the reading of Scripture and doing works of kindness. It’s a 40-day period of repentance and renewal of our faith to prepare for the joyous celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.
The word “breakfast” comes from the word, “break” and “fast.” You break the fast of the night. One breaks the fast of Lent after attending Easter Sunday morning services. On Easter Sunday, people would again enjoy eggs, cheese and fresh meats and other things from which they had abstained during Lent.
Lent (which simply means “spring,”) for we Protestants, is a choice rather than an obligation. It’s a discipline, like exercising or dieting, or any other form of training one’s mind and body. Lent is a time of training one’s spirit. So, it’s much more than simply giving up chocolate or alcohol. It’s a time of enhancing one’s awareness. The disciplines of Lent are intended to sensitize us to not only our own sinfulness but of God’s forgiving grace.
The story we read this morning was about Peter, James and John being on the mountain with Jesus when Moses and Elijah appeared. It’s a mystical story. Gathered on that mountain were the representatives of all of God’s salvation history; Moses representing the time of the law, Elijah, the time of the prophets, and Jesus, the age of the new Messiah. It’s all there.
But also on that mountain were Peter, James and John, representing the human community that would come to be known as the Church. They didn’t understand what was happening. Peter wanted to build some booths for everybody to have a place to stay. While God is doing great things in the world, we humans just don’t get it.
The season of Lent gives us the opportunity to get it; to reflect on the powerful presence of God in the world and our response to it. For us, it’s a time to discuss and commit ourselves to serve in some form of ministry. It’s an invitation for us to heighten our awareness, not only of who we are, but who God is.
You will hear these words on this Ash Wednesday;
We begin this holy season
by acknowledging our need for repentance,
and for the mercy and forgiveness
proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ,
to observe a holy lent
by self-examination and penitence
by prayer and fasting,
by works of love,
and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.
(Book of Common Worship, p. 223)
I would invite you to attend either the morning or evening Ash Wednesday Service this Wednesday and for 40 days thereafter “to observe a holy Lent.”
To the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Congregation: Amen
Download 2011 03-06 Celebrate Bulletin
Posted on March 08, 2011 at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
"When the Wrong Thing is at the Center" by Steve Eason
Psalm 8
Myers Park Presbyterian Church
February 27, 2011
Dr. Steven P. Eason
When the Wrong Thing is at the Center
Psalm 8
* * *
1O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
* * *
My mother and father were in the ministry so it goes without saying that when I was young, I went to church all the time. I wasn’t particularly a good Christian. Sunday School was a time to flirt with the girls and youth group was a time to get into trouble. I went to worship but I passed notes, drew on the bulletin and thought of other things.
When I was in the eighth grade I went through confirmation, like the 77 confirmands who are being confirmed with us today. For me, confirmation was a painful process. We met in the basement of the church on Sunday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. when everyone else was out having fun. I can’t remember who taught it, nor can I remember anything they said. I was so mad about being there that I just didn’t get it. But on the final day I stood with the class and took my vows and got my paperwork to make my parents happy. Then I quietly went back to my life.
Years passed. In 1972, I was a freshman in college. My physics professor required us to see Brecht’s play, “The Life of Galileo.” I had not been a very good student in high school. I played drums in a beach band, was on the football team, worked after school, and partied a lot. I forgot to study! I was fortunate to even be in college, much less to be sitting in Brecht’s play on Galileo! Needless to say, I didn’t know who Galileo was or what he had done. I was there for extra credit!
Galileo used the newly invented telescope to confirm the Copernicus theory. (I didn’t know who Copernicus was either.) Copernicus held that the earth was not the center of the universe like everyone believed, but that the earth revolved around the sun. That sounds pretty harmless to us, but back then everyone felt strongly that the earth was the center of all creation because humankind was created in the image of God. We were at the center of the universe. But science said otherwise. So, we were being displaced, moved to the side; not quite as important as perhaps we thought we were.
The Church was opposed to this scientific view and in 1633; Galileo stood trial before the Church Inquisition in Rome. He was convicted of heresy and sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life. He was 70 years-old at the time and lived out the rest of his life in his villa near Florence. He died there.
Here I was my freshman year, sitting in play, minding my own business, and God interrupts my life. I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t praying for it. I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t in any particular trouble. I was minding my own business, but I was interrupted by grace.
In that play, I saw my own egocentricity. I saw that I live as if I’m at the center of the universe. My world view was changed. I saw the nature of all sin, living as if we’re at the center of the universe, as if it’s all about us. God used science to awaken me to faith.
When I was sitting in that play and Galileo said that the sun was the center of the universe, I heard “S.O.N.” I heard that God was the center of the universe and that we were only a part of it. And by God’s grace we have been forgiven our egocentricity and invited to live a different kind of life. It wasn’t doctrine that converted me to Christianity, it was grace. It wasn’t Methodism or Presbyterianism that got to me. It wasn’t someone asking me to check off a list of things I believe. It was an awareness of grace that got to me. Even though I am not at the center of the universe, God loves me and tolerates me and cares about me anyway!
The Psalmist had it right when he wrote,
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4)
That’s precisely it! An incredible amount of grace!
I all of a sudden understood it. It’s not that I have to love God. It’s not that I have to be good. It’s not that I have to stop having fun or that I have to grow up or that I have to be different. It’s that God has chosen to love me. I do have to respond to that. I can’t live as if I don’t know that is true. It is true.
Sometimes God can’t get to us at church. Sometimes it doesn’t come through reading the Bible or taking a class. God is not limited to just religious things. God used the story of Galileo to get to me.
It was not until 1992, 359 years after the trial of Galileo, that the Catholic Church vindicated him. (Better late than never!)
Pope John Paul II said this;
Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the center of the world…the error of the theologians at the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world structure was, in some way imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture.
(Pope John II, L’Osservatore Romano N 44 (1264) –
November 4, 1992 www.wikopedia.org)
That is a huge statement even though it is extremely late.
The Church had it wrong. Humankind is not at the center of the universe. In the year 2000, John Paul issued a formal apology for all the mistakes committed by Catholics in the past two-thousand years and included the trial of Galileo.
And last May the Polish Catholic Church reburied Nicolaus Copernicus with honors. At that ceremony, the Archbishop expressed pride in Copernicus’ “…hard work, devotion, and above all, his scientific genius.” Really? Why couldn’t we see that at the time?
So, here’s what all that makes me wonder. What are we holding onto today that may be proven wrong tomorrow? Where are we not seeing things as they truly are in our day? Where are “the errors of the theologians?” Where do we, as the Church, as Christians, need to have our eyes opened to the truth?
How we see the world around us matters. How we see ourselves in that world makes a difference. Our egocentricity, our hubris, is deadly. It’s like acid that we pour on our relationships. It blocks our hears from knowing and loving God. It robs us of the joy that God created for us to have. It diverts us from the meaning and purpose of life. It leads to death and destruction, rather than to life.
How we see the world and who God is, who we are, is crucial to the way we live our lives. It determines our value system, it drives our ethics, it defines us. And if what we have at the center of our lives is wrong, then everything that flows from it will be wrong.
I had been to church all my life and the seeds of faith were planted in me but they had not yet come to fruition. They were in there, dormant, waiting, full of potential. But God took a play on Galileo and used it to transform those seeds to a plant that would continue to grow in me and bear fruit. I kept learning. I kept working at it. I kept making mistakes and I kept cultivating. I have continued to see new things. And that was thirty-nine years ago.
I’m not sure that there is one conversion to Christianity. It’s more like a million. It’s a lifetime of growing and deepening, gaining new understanding and being changed by grace. The day of my confirmation was not a big day for me, but it was a day among many days where God loved me in spite of where I was, in spite of what I could see or not see; in spite of my faithfulness or my lack of it; in spite of my egocentricity or my humility. It was one of those grace filled days.
So can you imagine how I felt last May when Catherine and I walked into the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy and saw the tomb of Galileo? I felt like I was at the grave of a dear friend. The screensaver on my computer is the picture of Galileo’s tomb. I see it every day and I’m reminded of how God’s grace breaks in upon us, sometimes when we prepare for it, and most times when we don’t. I’m reminded of how God can use anything to get to us; a confirmation class, a worship service, a play, or a scientist, even when we’re not looking for it.
The Psalmist knew all this when he wrote the words,
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
(Psalm 8:3-5)
If I have any words of wisdom for those being confirmed today, or for any of the rest of us on the journey, I would say,
Be prepared to be surprised by the grace of God, all the days of your lives.
What a tremendous gift that is!
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Congregation: Amen
Download 2011 02-27 Celebrate Bulletin
Posted on March 01, 2011 at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
