Sermons from Myers Park Presbyterian Church

Decemeber 11, 2011

 

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Dr. Steven P. Eason
"It’s Not About Me"
John 1:6-8, 19-28

 

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⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

¹⁹This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²²Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. ²⁴Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” ²⁶John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, ²⁷the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” ²⁸This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

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Well, I went shopping yesterday – with the rest of America.  I couldn’t help but notice that nowhere in the mall was there any mention of John the Baptist!  No line to see John the Baptist.  No John the Baptist music.  He wasn’t there.

So why are we reading this story about John the Baptist on the third Sunday of Advent?  Its thirty years after the birth of Jesus.  Why read it now?

John was extremely popular with some, and he threatened others.  The Pharisees, the religious establishment, sent a delegation to go check him out.  They want to know who he is but John goes through a litany of who he was not.  He’s not the light.  He’s not the Messiah, he’s not Elijah, and he’s not the prophet of which Moses spoke. 

John is outside of the establishment.  He’s not in Jerusalem.  He’s not a part of the temple.  He’s out there “beyond the Jordan.”  He’s not doing it right, so God couldn’t be involved in that.  They want to know who he is and why he is baptizing people. 

The Jews baptized for two reasons.  They baptized Jews who were unclean, who needed to be purified before entering the temple because they had touched a dead body or for some other reason.  Or, they would baptize as a final step in the conversion process for Gentiles who were seeking to become Jews.  There was an oral test, circumcision and then baptism. 

So John is not baptizing people into Christ, as we do.  Nor is he a Jewish priest but he’s out there baptizing and proclaiming something new that is about to happen.  He’s a stray.  So, they send some folks to check him out!  But when they get there, he won’t talk about himself.  He’s pointing to somebody else.  In essence John is saying, “It’s Not About Me.”  He’s pointing to Christ.

My father was a United Methodist pastor and so was I, when I first went into the ministry.  When I became a Presbyterian I was concerned that this would be a great disappointment to both of my parents who were raised as Methodists.  Both sets of grandparents were Methodists.  I anguished over my decision and dreaded the day when I was going to tell him of my decision to transfer my ordination.  I don’t know how he was really feeling, but he was gracious enough to say, “Steve, you’ve always been a Presbyterian.  You just didn’t know it!”  He was right about that.

The day he came to my installation service at First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia he brought a gift.  It was a small framed pattern of cross-stitch with the Methodist logo and the words, “If I have only led you to myself, I have not led you very far.”  Pointing to somebody else.

Those are the words of John the Baptist.  “It’s not about me.”  John knew what he was not, which helped him to know who he was.  He was a witness to something greater than himself.  St. Francis once said, “We are the moon reflecting the rays of the sun from our surface.”  John is a witness. 

A witness in a courtroom is someone who has personal knowledge, who has heard or seen something of importance.  A witness is one who comes forth, who cannot stay silent.  A witness is one who points to the truth.

You know it is possible to be a poor witness?  There are those witnesses who claim to know too little;

‘We don’t pretend to be like Christ.  We’re not sure what we believe or even who he really was or is.  We’re still trying to figure it out.  We’re more confused than anything else.’

It’s one thing to be open-minded, it’s another thing to be paralyzed with the questions and become so skeptical that you witness to nothing.

Then there are those who lay claim to too much.

                           ‘We are like Christ and you need to believe like us, act like us, and be like us. You ask the question – we have the answer.’

 And yet, behind the curtain their lives are flawed and broken and sinful, just like all the rest of us.  They have their version of Jesus but may not even know him at all.

And then there is the witness who disclaims everything;

                           ‘I’m just a member of a church and have no intention of Jesus getting control of my life.  I use Jesus when I need him but have no desire to actually be used by him.  I’m not a witness – I’m a consumer.’ 

What kind of witnesses are we to this One for whom the world has set aside December 25th to honor?  

You do know that John was eventually imprisoned and beheaded.  His head was served on a platter to Herod at his birthday party!  (Mark 6:14-29)  Pointing to Christ can be a dangerous business.  There are people in the world who don’t want to see it.  There are systems in the world that don’t want this “light” shining in their “darkness.”  And there are witnesses who don’t want to witness.

Would they ever send a delegation to talk to us because we are pointing to Christ?  Would anybody ever serve our head up on a platter because we were faithful and unwilling to compromise?  Those are not the kind of questions you get on your Christmas cards, are they? 

The Church may be criticized or even ignored today because it is seen as irrelevant, judgmental, pious and hypocritical.  And if that’s all they see in us, then we should be criticized or ignored.  But what if we were to take the voice of John, “It’s not about me.” 

• What if young parents pointed their children to Christ? 

• What if education were seen as a means for preparing one for service to the larger community rather than to acquire money and power? 

• What if all of us pointed to Christ in the way we used our finances, not lavishing ourselves but investing in others? 

• What if we all pointed to Christ in refusing to yield his ethics and morals in the marketplace?  Would any of us be willing to take that ridicule and heat?  Or even worse, the sacrifice of income and security? 

• What if, as a church, we pointed to Christ by standing up in our city for affordable housing, or ministries that enable people to get out of poverty rather than keeping them standing in longer soup lines?

• What if we pointed to Christ in becoming advocates for those who have no advocacy? 

• What if we pointed to Christ by shocking this community with our generosity, compassion and love? 

 You could lose your head pointing to Christ, but you would never lose your heart.  In fact, you might just find it there.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

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December 4, 2011

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Dr. Steven P. Eason
"Hurry Up and Wait"
2 Peter 3:8-15a

 

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⁸But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

⁹The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

¹¹Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? ¹³But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. ¹⁴Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; ¹⁵and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,

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I’m not very good at waiting.  I don’t like airports, doctors’ offices, traffic jams, or restaurants where I have to wait.  I don’t like those little pagers with the blinky lights either.  Doesn’t help.  I don’t like being put on hold, standing in line, or taking a number.  I just don’t like to wait.

I’ve noticed that other people don’t like to wait either.  And we all seem to have different waiting techniques.  Some people stay glued to their Smartphone or iPad while they’re waiting.  I love the fellow who talks on his cell phone so loud that 200 people around him can hear the entire conversation.  I once heard every detail of a marital argument.  I was tempted to put on my counselor hat and fix them before the plane left but we only had 20 minutes!  (She was right, by the way.) 

Kids aren’t very good at waiting.  “Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?”  “No, and if you ask me one more time, I’m going to turn around and start all over again! “ Try taking a kid with you to the DMV!   They’ll pay for all your sins!

I’m sure nobody likes to wait.  Some are better at it than others.  The people to whom Peter is writing didn’t like to wait either.  Folks in the early Church had an expectation that Christ was coming back in their lifetime, before the apostles died. (John 21:23-23)  But when that didn’t happen, they became disillusioned.  So Peter writes,

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)

In other words, God is waiting too!  I’ve never thought of it that way.  God is waiting for us?

Here we are on this blue ball, revolving around the sun, in the midst of a vast universe.  Supposedly, we are the only form of life in our solar system.  Depending on who you ask, the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, plus or minus.  Some argue that humans have only occupied the earth for about the last 200,000 years.  Again, it depends on who you ask.

So when you put all of that into perspective, it would only be logical to deduce that we are of some value to God.  We live on a planet in a solar system which is in a galaxy, which is within the universe…which is really, really big.  And we are really, really small, and yet here we are – apparently of some significance to God.  God is waiting for us?  Can you even begin to get your head around that? 

The early church was waiting for the second coming of Christ.  The Bible writers all agree that there will come a final day but they disagree on what that will look like.  Peter has the heavens passing away with a loud noise.  (Not sure where he got that idea.)  There will be fire and it will consume everything on earth.  So is he painting a picture of the future or is he making a point.  The point being, there will come a day when God’s reign will overcome evil in the world.  There will come a day when it’s over, and yet, it will have just started.  In the meantime, we live as a people who know that ultimately, God will prevail over all.  In the meantime, God waits for us to get it – to turn from our foolish ways and to submit our will to his.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are authors of the New York Times bestselling Left-Behind series.  Their new book is entitled, Are We Living in the End Times?  Many people think we are.  But there have always been people who think we are.  In their promotion they write,

God in His mercy may wait one more day, which in His economy of time is a thousand of our years.  But we are instructed to watch and wait for Christ’s imminent return as if it could be today.  Because it could!  (leftbehind.com)

I don’t live thinking that Jesus is going to come back on Thursday or Friday.  I don’t live with an expectation of a cataclysmic, apocalyptic ending.  I don’t want to live in fear of God, that if I don’t behave myself, somehow I will be eternally punished.  That’s not a reason to love God, to be grateful to God, or to offer God praise. 

We’re not called to live out of fear, but out of faith.  And faith is not mere belief, as if one is trying to believe in something they’re not sure is true. 

• Faith is a way of knowing, that whether we live or whether we die, we belong to God.

• Faith is a way of living without fear, but with hope that regardless of the circumstances, God loves us and knows where we are in the vastness of this universe.

• Faith is a life lived in response to the grace of God – all of life, all the time – no matter how long time may be.

So, on this second Sunday of Advent, we wait.  And God waits with us.  And while we wait, we hope.  And while we hope, we have faith.  And in our faith, we have peace. 

As we come in repentance to the Table of Christ, let us pray for the world that needs this faith, this hope, this peace as we all wait together for Christ to come again.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

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November 27, 2011

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Dr. Steven P. Eason
"We Need Some Things We Don’t Expect"
Isaiah 64:1-9

 

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O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— ²as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! ³When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. ⁴From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. ⁵You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

⁶We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. ⁷There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. ⁸Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. ⁹Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

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Two weeks ago I was invited to participate on a panel for a psychology class at the Pfeifer University extension here in Charlotte.  The topic was, “Religion and Psychotherapy” and the panelists included a rabbi, the director of Catholic Social Services, a Muslim Haman and me as the token Protestant! 

The students had questions as to how we deal with a person’s faith and our own view of God in a therapeutic relationship.  The four of us agreed on more than one might think.  But there were differences. 

The rabbi shared his belief in the “Watchmaker Theory.”  God is the watchmaker who designs the watch and then steps away from it.  God is absent from the world which explains how things like the Holocaust could happen.  Evil in the world is an abuse of humankind’s freewill.  There are other tragedies like natural disasters, accidents and illness, which indicate an impossibility for God to be present.  God is absent or God simply does not care.  

Beyond the Watchmaker Theory is the possibility that God is punishing us.  But if things like the Holocaust, cancer, car accidents, and other tragedies are a means of divine punishment, then God apparently chooses to punish some but not others.  We all “…have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) So all should be punished.  Does God pick and choose? 

Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists and the like, seek to find meaning and purpose in light of pain and suffering.  Is God absent?  Is God punishing some for their sins?  Are there times when God momentarily withdraws from history but chooses to intervene at other times?  (Jewish theologians call this “The Eclipse of the Divine Presence.”)   Others say that, “God is dead,” otherwise God would intervene on our behalf.  Still others have come to the conclusion that God may exist but God is not omnipotent, God is limited or self limits, in order to allow our free will to exist.  In other words, God’s hands are tied. 

Regardless of the theory, people try to make sense of the world and discern God’s activity, or lack thereof, in it.

This section of Isaiah is a part of a communal lament.  Israel had occupied the Promised Land but had a long cycle of being unfaithful.  They worshipped other gods.  They forgot their roots and so God allowed the Babylonians to conquer them.  At least, that’s how they saw it.  In exile for almost 50 years, they were finally released when the Persians defeated the Babylonians.  Going home to restore Jerusalem would not be an easy task.  The restoration of anything is never an easy task. 

So, the prophet cries out for a demonstration of divine power,

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.  (64:1a)   

In other words,” O that you would get involved!”  It’s a very common prayer. 

There has never been a time in the history of the world without dishevel, chaos, pain or suffering.  In our current world we wonder what will be our financial future.  The people of Greece and Italy wonder that.  The G-20 Summit had to wonder about it.  Christine Lagarde, Chairperson of the International Monetary Fund, wonders.  She was quoted to say, “There are dark clouds over Europe and uncertainty in the United States.”  (60 Minutes, November 20, 2011) 

But does God have anything to do with our finances or are we left to sort this out on our own?  And if so, are we to look to our political leaders?  Who among them will lead us?  Does it do any good to pray for the elections, for Congress, or is God detached from all of that? 

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, … (64:1a)

And now would be a good time, by the way. 

In our times of trials and tribulations we long for divine activity.  That’s one of the dangers of prosperity.  When you are prosperous you can be lulled to sleep by a false sense of security.  In prosperity, we want God to keep the blessings coming.  Endorse us.  We try to turn God into a “Genie-in-the-Bottle.”  God exists for us.  We pray for things and God produces them.  It’s a consumer-driven religion that is obviously a small, tainted and unhealthy view of God.  It’s not a very accurate view of ourselves either.

In our despair we want God to “tear open the heavens and come down.“  We don’t care how, we just want it to happen.  We don’t want a “Watchmaker God.”  We don’t want a God who created and then detached.  We want God to help us now. 

We can’t explain the Holocaust or genocides, child abuse, or how anything else evil can happen in a world where God exists.  We don’t know when God will intervene, or even if God will intervene.  We pray for intervention but we don’t know what the answer will be.  Sometimes the answer is, “Yes.”  Sometimes the answer is apparently, “No.”  We don’t know what makes the difference.  How are we to know?  God’s activity in the world is a mystery – to all of us; to Jews, Muslims, Christians and the like.  

The truth is, “We Need Some Things We Don’t Expect.”  Isaiah writes, 

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.  (64:3) 

The world needs some of that.  We need something we don’t expect.  We need something we cannot produce. 

But there is a brutal honesty in Isaiah that none of us deserves this divine intervention. 

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.  (64:6-7) 

We’re not exactly in the best position to be expecting God to do anything for us.  But if that’s the way it works, we would all perish.  God doesn’t intervene in human life based on who deserves it.  It’s not a merit system.  Isaiah writes; 

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever.  Now consider, we are all your people.  (64:8-9) 

Sometimes the only prayer we have is reminding God of who we are.  “We belong to you.”  Don’t leave us down here without your power and your strength. 

Today is the first Sunday of Advent but every year the Church struggles to do Advent because it’s not about Christmas.  It’s about the anticipation of the second coming of Christ.  It’s not about getting ready for the birth of Christ.  It’s about his return. 

Will Willimon writes, “The world wants Christmas jingles and the Church sings laments.”  (The Christian Century, Dec. 19-26, 1984, p. 1192)  I don’t know if the world does want Christmas jingles.  Some people want God to show up.  Some people want more than a passing Christmas holiday season.  Some people need to be surprised by God’s activity in the world.  They are longing for something real and lasting.  We need God to do something that we don’t expect. 

Jesus came to a broken world, a world of lament.  He came to redeem it; to salvage it; to reclaim it.  We don’t need a helpless infant under the stars.  This world needs a powerful God to “tear open the heavens and come down.” 

As Christians, our hope is not limited to a political party or a candidate.  Our hope is not based solely on the wisdom of our financial leaders.  Our hope is not confined to our courts of law to bring justice on earth, or to our police or military to provide protection for all people.  Our hope drills down a lot deeper than all of that.  Our hope is in the God of Abraham and Sarah – the God of Covenant who came in Jesus Christ and sent the Holy Spirit; a God who is mysterious but not far away; a God who cares about the world; a God who has sacrificed for the world, who continues to be our Father, our potter, our redeemer, and friend. 

Sometimes the only prayer you have is an Advent prayer; 

‘We need something we don’t expect, O Lord.  We cannot fix ourselves.  We need you to tear open the heavens and come down.  Not because we deserve it, but because we don’t.  You are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are the work of your hand.’ 

So begins Advent.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

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November 20, 2011

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Dr. Steven P. Eason
"Thanksgiving!"
Deuteronomy 26:1-11

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When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, ²you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. ³You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” ⁴When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, ⁵you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. ⁶When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, ⁷we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; ⁹and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. ¹¹Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

 

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I Thessalonians 5:12-18

¹²But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; ¹³esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. ¹⁵See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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This Thursday we will sit down at our tables of Thanksgiving.  For many, but not all, it will be a day of family, friends, food and football.  It’s a day for Christians, Jews and Muslims – people of all faiths or no faith, to pause and give thanks.  Thanksgiving is a national holiday that has evolved throughout American history.

Three hundred and ninety-one years ago, in September of 1620, a group of English merchants financed the voyage to America for 102 men, women and children. 

• They sailed for 65 days (just over two months) on the Mayflower.  A third of that group, 34 of them, were Puritans, or separatists, from the Church of England.  (So, they were disgruntled Episcopalians!)  The rest of the group was hired to protect the interest of the investors. 
• Their original destination was Virginia, but because of an error in navigation, they ended up in New England.  They dropped anchor on November 21, 1620 in what is now Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts, which is just inside the hook of Cape Cod.  It was there that they drew up the Mayflower Compact to govern themselves and for almost a month they sailed up and down the coast of the Cape area looking for the best place to settle until they were forced by a blinding snowstorm to take refuge on December 21, 1620 at Plymouth.  Their first winter was devastating and they lost 42 of the original 102 who made the trip.   
• In the spring of 1621, two Indians by the name of Samsoset and Squanto befriended the 60 remaining settlers and taught them how to survive in the wild.  The fall of that year, they had a bountiful harvest and Governor William Bradford declared a celebration.  They invited 90 of their Native American friends for a three-day festival, what we now call the first Thanksgiving Day.  (Sylvia Hawes – a direct descendant of William Bradford) 

Here’s what I didn’t know.  The settlers did not repeat their celebration of Thanksgiving the following year.  Two years later in 1623, during a severe draught, they gathered to pray for rain.  When a long, steady rain followed on the very next day, Governor Bradford proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving with their Native American friends.  Grateful for rain.

It wasn’t until the year 1777, that was 156 years after that first Thanksgiving Day, that all thirteen colonies would join for the first time in a Thanksgiving Day celebration.  That was mostly a celebration of our victory over the British and it was a one-time affair.  From there the day varied among the colonies.  

Eleven years later in 1789, President George Washington proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving, which was spurred by the completion of the Constitution of the United States.  He wasn’t particularly a religious man but he wrote, 

Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26^th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States, to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be:  That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation…; - and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to infer upon us.      (George Washington, 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, The Salem Mercury (Mass.) 1789 Volume 111, No. 158 front page) 

There were those, including Jefferson, who felt an annual national holiday set aside for Thanksgiving was not necessary, but in 1846 (225 years after that first Thanksgiving), Sarah Hale, a magazine editor, went on a 17 year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents in order to establish Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday.  (Ms. Hale was the author of the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” but apparently Ms. Hale was anything but a “little lamb!”)  She prevailed. 

It was four months after the victory at Gettysburg in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving in response to the end of the Civil War.  He wrote,

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.  (www.classicallibrary.org/lincoln/thanksgiving.htm) 

Every president since Lincoln has honored the day as a national holiday. 

Here’s something you may not know.  Franklin Roosevelt moved the date up by one week in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season, which was met with public uproar.  Two years later, he moved it back!  (President Roosevelt would be pleased to know that we now begin the Christmas season the day after the Fourth of July!)  

So, the American Thanksgiving Day has evolved over the past 391 years.  Sixty survivors from the Mayflower, along with 90 of their Native American friends gave thanks for a year of survival.  Other Thanksgiving Days came because of, 

• gratitude for rain
• victories over the British
• the establishment of the Constitution of the United States
• and for the end of the Civil War.   

From a historical perspective, the American Thanksgiving Day originated as a response of gratitude after times of trial and tribulation.  It was a celebration at the end of times of scarcity.  It was a time to remember the providence of God that sustained us through difficult and painful times. 

From a biblical perspective, the same is true.  Thanksgiving comes not solely because of our abundance in the present but also because of the many ways in which we have been sustained in trying times in the past.  

Paul writes to the Thessalonians; 

…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (I Thess. 5:18) 

The children of Israel looked back and remembered God’s providential hand that led them out of Egypt, a place of slavery.  They looked back at how God had sustained them in the wilderness, and led them to the Promised Land.  That happened over years.  But they never forgot.  

The power of gratitude is in looking back and remembering how God has been at work in your life, in the lives of others and in the world.  It’s not always the abundance for which we are thankful.  Sometimes there is no abundance.  More often, it is for God’s providence in times of scarcity; in times of trials and tribulations. 

With the spirit of our forefathers and mothers we will gather around our tables of Thanksgiving on Thursday to celebrate this great American holiday.  We are grateful for our many blessings but let us also give thanks for the many ways in which God has sustained us in our times of trouble and despair.

…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  (I Thess. 5:18) 

Thanks be to God! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

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November 13, 2011

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Dr. Steven P. Eason
"Risk Management"
Matthew 25:14-30

 

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¹⁴“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²²And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ ²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

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Well, that sounds awful doesn’t it?  No one wants to be that “worthless slave,” thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Terrible! 

Let’s remember that this story never actually happened.  Jesus made the whole thing up.  It’s a parable.  Parables don’t have facts, they just have truth.  This means, you have to be very careful with a parable.  It’s easy to overcook it, try to get too much out of it, or not enough, you can miss the whole point of it.

On first reading, this parable seems to say that each of us is given different talents and we should use them or we’re going to be severely punished.  But is that what its saying?  Puts the fear of God in you, I know that.  So Jesus wants us to live our lives out of guilt and fear?  God’s going to get us if we don’t behave?  What does that say about who God is? 

Is God like this master who goes away, entrusting his property to his slaves, giving five talents to one, two to another and then one to some poor soul?  Seems unfair.  And then God just goes away?  Is God like this master?  Absent and demanding – unfair and cruel? 

When the master does return, he wants to settle his accounts.  Another loving image of God.  But that’s how a lot of folks look at Christianity, as some kind of “heavenly examination system.” (Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 2, p. 136)   God gives you the rules and then comes back to grade you.  A cosmic version of Santa Claus; making a list and checking it twice. 

Is Jesus telling us that God is like this earthly slave master?  Or, is Jesus not talking about God here at all?  He could just be using a modern day example of slavery to get to another point.  The spotlight of the parable is not on the master but on the third slave.  That’s who Jesus wants us to see. 

All three slaves receive an enormous amount of wealth.  A talent was not something like playing the piano or carving a sculpture.  A talent was a measure of weight in silver, gold or copper.  One talent could equal about 6,000 denari and one denarius was a common laborers daily wage.  So, a talent would be roughly equivalent to 17 years of wages for the average worker, if they worked every day.  Five talents would amount to the value of almost 100 years of wages!  So, it’s obvious that Jesus has put these crazy amounts in here to make a point.  The master has been more than generous.

The first two slaves doubled their holdings.  Those are the guys you want to hire at the bank!  This other guy received one talent, which is still a lot.  Jesus has him go off and dig a hole in the ground and hide his master’s money. 

Before you judge him too harshly, that’s not actually a bad idea.  In fact, in our economy, who doesn’t feel like burying their wealth in the ground?  At least you won’t lose it!

                        “Risk management,” is a term we hear a lot in a banking town.

(It’s) the identification, assessment and prioritization of risk followed by a coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.  (Wikopedia.org) 

(I had a lot to look up!)       

Now, risk can come from a lot of sources; from uncertainty in the market, from failures, liabilities, accidents, natural causes, deliberate attacks or just things that are uncertain and unpredictable.  We have strategies to manage risk, to transfer risk to another party, to avoid the risk, to reduce the negative affect or even to choose to accept the lesser risk to avoid the greater risk.  People do this for a living!  Some of you.  Truth is we all do it to different degrees.  We’re risk managers! 

And, isn’t that what this third slave is doing – risk management?  He decides to play it safe, dig a hole, put the 17 years of wages in the ground and protect it from thieves and the risk of losing it.  So, when the master comes back he’ll get what’s his.  That’s a deal in today’s market.  You throw a guy in the outer darkness for this? 

So, Jesus, what’s your point?  The point may not be with what the third slave did or did not do with the talent but with the fact that he has an awful relationship with the master.  Listen to this.  When the master comes back the one talent slave says, 

‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, (circle the word, “afraid”), and I went and hid your talent in the ground.  Here you have what is yours.’  (25:24-25) 

Now we’re at the heart of the problem.  This parable is not so much about using your talents or giving more money to the church. (Although we need you to get your pledge cards in and we do need those increases!)  This parable is about having a relationship with God that’s not based on fear.  Or knowing a generous and gracious God and living accordingly. 

How many people in the world today see God as somebody to be avoided?  God is some unknown, far away, absent entity who sits with arms crossed and a scowl on his face, looking down and waiting for you to mess up.  And when you do, you are thrown into the “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  (25:30)  That’s a pretty awful view of God, isn’t it?  Who would want to worship that? 

It’s not a wonder that some people avoid church and stay away from Christianity if that’s the way they see God, or the way we have projected our relationship with God.  Life is like a big exam.  If you get it right, you get rewarded.  If you get it wrong, you are punished for eternity.  That’s a very long time!  A billion years, times a billion years then times 10 more billion and add on 40 billion more.  You’re still not done.  That’s a lot of billions for the mistakes you made in just 85 or 90 years (if you should live so long).  Is that really the way it works?  Is that who God is? 

I know it says here that there are consequences to our choices; that we can separate ourselves from the graciousness of God.  Not so much by digging holes and managing the risk as it is by seeing God as some “harsh man reaping where (he) did not sow and gathering where (he) did not scatter seed.”  (25:24b)   That’s the outer darkness.  You’re outside the grace – outside the generosity – outside the life of faith.   It’s really dark out there.  Your life’s in a hole in the ground. 

There are those scholars who think Jesus has this third slave representing the scribes and Pharisees.  Two chapters back, in Matthew, he delivers some strong confrontations concerning their hypocrisy and legalism.  It may be that this third slave is the scribe or the Pharisee who has received the law of God and just buried it.  It’s as if Jesus is saying,

‘You’re just keeping the law.  You’re doing all the right things but for the wrong reasons.  There’s no life in it.  You’re just keeping the rules for your own self- preservation.  You’ve missed the whole point.  It’s not how it works.‘  

Whatever Christianity is, it’s not a merit badge system.  Salvation is not by works, but it is a free, gracious gift like a master entrusting five talents, 100 years of wages, to a slave.  It should compel you to live a generous life – a life of faith and trust in God.  Don’t bury it. 

When we reduce the Christian faith to merely a religion of rules and regulations with traditions, we suck the life out of it.  We dig a hole and bury it.  There are other scholars who suggest the third slave may indeed be the Church today.  We dig holes and bury things, keeping them safe, avoiding the risks, rather than living generous and gracious lives with the doors open to all kinds of people.  “Here’s the grace you gave us Lord and we doubled it!”  I’d like to belong to that church.  Who wouldn’t?  But oddly enough, some don’t.  That’s why Jesus probably told this parable. 

The shift that Jesus is most likely calling for in this parable is a shift in the way we see who God is.  We may be spending too much energy digging holes trying to save things, rather than investing them graciously and generously in the things of God.  The worst risk of all is that of missing the joy in life because you were so calculated and so afraid of failing.  The even greater risk is in seeing God in the wrong light and wasting your whole life accordingly.  Maybe Jesus is calling us to manage that risk.  

It’s not about the money.  You could turn five talents into forty and still have the misconception of who God is.  It’s about the relationship.  The third slave buried his talent because he was afraid of the master.  Jesus is inviting us to see it another way. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Congregation:  Amen

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November 6, 2011

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Whom do you serve?
Joshua 24: 1-3, 14-25

There are times in life when it is important to renew commitments and remind yourself why you made the commitment in the first place.   At the end of the book of Joshua, the leader of the Israelites calls the people to renew their commitment to God.  The country is at peace.  Life is going well.  People are comfortable.   And, Joshua asks: Whom do you serve?

 One commentator has noted that “this is a defining moment for Israel, in that the people are asked not only to identify their god, but to shape their own self-identity as well.” [i]  When we identify the god we serve, we begin to define who we are as persons and as a people.  This was true in the ancient world and it is true today.   

"Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. ²And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. ³Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;"

‘Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’

16 Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; ¹⁷for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; ¹⁸and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’

"19 But Joshua said to the people, ‘You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.’ ²¹And the people said to Joshua, ‘No, we will serve the Lord!’ ²²Then Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.’ And they said, ‘We are witnesses.’ ²³He said, ‘Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.’ ²⁴The people said to Joshua, ‘The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.’ ²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem."

Whom do you serve?   This question is a challenge, because there are times we place something other than God at the center of our lives. 

 When my husband and I were first married we lived in a small apartment in San Francisco.  We were just starting our careers and we had big dreams for the future.  My aunt and uncle came to visit.  After dinner that evening, we talked to them about moving and owning our own home, buying new furniture, making more money.  In our minds this was the ticket to happiness and freedom.  My uncle looked around and said to us:  you are going to look back on this as the happiest time of your life.  At the time, I thought that was ridiculous.  In fact, I didn’t understand what he was talking about.  I thought that the more we had the better life would be. 

 Some 20 years later, when we lived in a large house, with a big yard to mow, a driveway with 4 cars in it and college tuition to pay, I thought about what he said.  And, when my husband and I downsized and moved temporarily into an apartment again, we finally understood what my uncle meant.  The pressing obligations, continual upkeep of everything we owned, and the stress of all the stuff had pushed God to the margins.  Even though I was serving the church, I realized how easy it was to serve other gods.  My work, my achievements and my ambitions sometimes pushed God to the edges of my life.  I knew this wasn’t right, but it just happened.  I had responsibilities and obligations.  But, secretly I hoped God would make my life easier, without my having to make any changes. 

 Well-known Charlotte artist Romare Bearden is quoted as saying: 

"You have to go back to where you started to gain insights.  Things that aren’t essential have been stripped away and the meaning of other things has become clear."

Once we begin to strip away the non-essential things that clutter our lives we gain clarity and are able to make different choices.  We don’t have to do this.  The decision isn’t forced on any of us.  We are asked to choose whom we will serve.  We are free to choose.    

Many of us haven’t thought about this in a long time.  We had the decision about whom we would serve made for us when we were babies; then we confirmed this choice as teenagers.  We have routines and habits and this is one of them.  Our text this morning invites us to return to the question again – to make a choice and renew our commitment.

How do we begin to do this?

We need to know who we are choosing.  Which God are we putting at the center of our lives?  There is a book many of us are reading by Rob Bell called Love Wins.  You heard Steve make a reference to it last week.  Bell’s premise is that the story of the bible is:   “God so loved the world . . . that’s why Jesus came.”

But, he goes on to say that this story has been hijacked by a number of other stories, that have nothing to do with what Jesus came to do.” [ii]  For many this has created a barrier to God and our ability to choose God as the one we will serve.  Bell writes:

"Do you know any individuals who grew up in a Christian church and then walked away when they got older?  Often pastors and parents and brothers and sisters are concerned about them and their spirituality – and often they should be.  But sometimes those individuals’ rejection of church and the Christian faith they were presented with as the only possible interpretation of what it means to follow Jesus may in fact be a sign of spiritual health.  They may be resisting behaviors, interpretations, and attitudes that should be rejected.  Perhaps they simply came to a point where they refused to accept the very sorts of things that Jesus would refuse to accept." [iii]

If God is not whom you serve . . . perhaps it’s because the god you reject should be rejected. Who wants to serve a God who is described as hating people because of their beliefs or their politics, or their ethnicity? We all have seen signs that tell us what God hates at every kind of protest and demonstration. This past week I even saw a sign that read "God hates banks." Really! Is this the same God that invites us to love the way Jesus loves; to serve the way Jesus serves; to offer healing and hope the way Jesus does? I don’t think so.

It’s important to ask which God will be at the center of our lives.  Which God will we serve?  Which gods will we turn away from?  How do we choose?

John Maxwell, a well-known leadership expert and speaker writes:

“Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say “yes” to the best.”

His premise is that there are many good things that we could be doing, but knowing that there is only a limited amount of time, what is the “best” thing we could be doing?  This quote has been helpful to leaders as they make decisions.  It can help us as we review our choices and as we reflect on our priorities.  How do we sort out the good from the best?   This will be unique to each one of us and our circumstances; however, there are a couple of things I will suggest to get you started.

First, think about what you are doing. How you are living your life and what kind of choices have you made?  Is this how you want to live?

Second, do you want to make any changes?  If not, why not?  You might be perfectly happy with your life the way it is.

Third, stop and take time to pray.  Talk to God.  Maybe you could sit still and listen. Turn the Blackberry off or if that doesn’t work shoot God a note on the Blackberry.  God gets it.  Whatever works.   You already know how you make decisions in life.  So, apply that to this decision. 

Finally, ask yourself: what is the best thing you could be doing when it comes to faith?

Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of the Willow Creek church in the Chicago area, wrote a book I read many years ago called The God You’re Looking For.  He tells this story:

“On a sunny August morning, three different couples prepare for a weekend of sailing.  One couple get out of their car the one with the license plate holder that reads, “I’d Rather Be Sailing,” and begin to haul their provisions to the boat.  It takes them several trips to carry their picnic basket and the rest of their gear to their craft.  Once aboard, they change their clothes, turn on the music, and then spend the better part of the day lounging around on the boat (which is still tied to the dock), reading and napping and talking.  They sleep in the cabin Saturday night, and on Sunday morning go through roughly the same routine of the previous day, cleaning up the sailboat, reading and napping.  Then about four o’clock, they pack everything up and drive back home.

The second couple gets to their boat early on Saturday morning.  They travel to the same marina, they have the same license plate frame, they bring the same gear, turn on the same music, socialize a bit, but then do something somewhat odd:  They start up the motor.  They untie the ropes.  They back out of their slip and cruise around the harbor.

The couple spends an hour looking at the other boats in the harbor and then drops anchor to cook a dinner meal.  That evening, they venture out by the breakwater, to gaze out on the open seas, then come back in, sleep on the sailboat, and repeat the whole process on Sunday.

The third couple gets to their boat early on Saturday, bring their gear aboard, back out of the slip, and head straight for the breakwater.  As they’re heading out, they hoist the sails, and when the wind fills them, they shut off the motor and enter the open sea.  They hear the sails straining and the water rushing along the hull.  They feel the swells rising up underneath them, and they keep going until the sight of land is lost.  They spend the entire night out on the seas, cooking in spite of the motion of the boat underneath them.  They use a flashlight at night to look at the charts and to keep their bearings.  And then they come back into the harbor late Sunday night.

On Monday morning, each couple will be asked, “What did you do this weekend?” and each couple will give the same answer, “We went sailing.”  But did they really do the same thing?  It’s like this with our commitments, isn’t it?” [iv]

There are choices.

The only way we can unfurl our sails and travel out into the open sea with a sense of trust is if we have put God at the center of our lives.  When God is the one we serve, we are able to overcome fear.  God frees us from bondage, delivers us from what enslaves us, protects us along the way and forgives what we have done wrong.  We won’t have perfect lives.  We won’t escape the pain and heartache of human life, but we can discover profound joy and true peace to sustain us in the good times and in the bad.

In our scripture passage this morning, all the people cry out:  We will serve the LORD!  Joshua,   places a large stone under an oak tree as a witness - a reminder of their promise.  

What will be our witness, our reminder?

There are all kinds of reminders in this Sanctuary:  the stories in our stained glass and Reredas windows.  The empty cross of Christ.  The light of the candles.   The baptismal font.

The communion table can become our reminder.

When we gather around this table we will remember what God has promised to us and what we have promised to God.  Then, when we move out of this Sanctuary, into our circles of influence, and the table remains here, our lives can reflect compassion and justice and peace.  We will be a witness to others.

Soon, we will share a meal at this table.  So, I leave you with this question:  Whom do you serve?  With all the things in our lives, the joys and successes, the pressures, the family, the distractions and obligations, all the stuff - the question remains:    Whom do you serve?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

---

End Notes

[i] Texts for Preaching NRSV (Year A), p. 55 

[ii] Bell, Rob  Love Wins, p. 4

[iii] Ibid., p. 10-11

[iv] Hybels, Bill The God you’re Looking For, p. 130-132

October 30, 2011

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"Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda!"
John 8:31-36
Dr. Steven P. Eason
 

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³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” ³³They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

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Well, it’s Reformation Sunday.  No parades, no presents, no cards, cakes or candies.  Just Reformation Sunday.  About as exciting as watching paint dry.  And yet, a long, long time ago, in a place far away, people fought and died over what it meant to be the Church.  For centuries there had been only one church, until the 11^th century, when Greece and others pulled away to form the Eastern Orthodox Church.  The western church remained purely Catholic – Roman Catholic.  It was that way for centuries.

In the year 1302, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church dispensed a formal decree stating that salvation was not possible outside the Catholic Church.  Hard lines were drawn.  The church grew in wealth, political power and corruption.  The Catholic Encyclopedia states,

Political power, material possessions, privileged positions in public life, the defense of ancient historical rights, earthly interests of various kinds were only too often the aim of higher clergy.  (www.newadvent.org) 

There was a growing mistrust of the church among the common people and the church responded by burning heretics at the stake.  Back in 1415, John Hus, a priest was bound at the stake for heresy but it would not be until the 16^th century when things would come to a head.  The Church was selling indulgences, which had once been strictly spiritual disciplines.  Now you could pay cash for an indulgence in order to remove any obstacles between you and heaven.  Buy your way out of sin or into a high church office.  It was a means of raising funds for the church. 

A German Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther, a professor of theology, nailed 95 theses (or arguments) against indulgences on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saint’s Day.  He would argue his case against the selling of indulgences, which would bring into question the authority of the Pope, as well as the theology and tradition of the church.  His goal was to reform the Church.  They weren’t open to it.

The Church took a bold stand against the would-be reformers who were now being called “protestors” or “Protestants.”  The Council of Trent would yield nothing to the rebels.  After years of debate, the Catholics maintained papal authority and their positions on Scripture, marriage, the Mass, celibacy, the sacraments, and all other issues raised by Luther and his followers.  It now was virtually impossible to be neutral. 

Luther was banished from the church, stood trial before Charles V, and went into hiding where he translated the Bible from Latin to German, so that it could be read by the common people, which had never been done.  The doors were open.

The issues were much more than what people believed.  They were socio-economic and political.  It was the perfect storm for a division and a revolt. 

A new movement was born that branched off into many different directions.  There was Luther in Germany and Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland..   Then there was King Henry VIII in England.  Each one brought some new emphasis to the table.

Luther argued that the Scriptures alone were the authority and rule of faith for the church.  He also argued that we are justified by grace and not by works.  You can’t buy your way into heaven.  It is by faith alone that we are saved through Christ. 

Zwingli added that the Christian life should be simpler and that statues and paraments should be removed from the churches.  He also called for more simplistic buildings and worship services.  All this was going on while St. Peters was being built in Rome!  The church had become too rich, too worldly and Zwingli called it back to simplicity.

John Calvin was the second wave of the Reformation and pushed it beyond Germany throughout all of Europe.  He was a lawyer who had studied humanism and brought a rigid discipline to the new Protestant lifestyle.  In Geneva he formed a Christian community that governed every part of a person’s life.  The term “Protestant work ethic” came out of Calvin’s Geneva.  Capitalism found its birthplace as feudalism began to diminish.  You could be punished for many things in Geneva, including laughing in church.  Being a Protestant, a protester, was serious business.

John Knox studied under Calvin and returned to his homeland in Scotland, where he and the Scottish Parliament eventually established Presbyterianism; “presbyter” meaning “elder,” a church governed by elders.  Thus the bagpipes and Scottish traditions we Presbyterians enjoy to this day.  (As a side note, I had the privilege of preaching in the Church of the Holy Rude in Sterling where John Knox preached James VI’s coronation sermon.  It had once been a Catholic Church, now Presbyterian and stripped of all its statues.)

Over in England, King Henry VIII had other motives in the Reformation.  The theology of the Church didn’t bother him.  It was the politics, the money and the rules and the regulations that he opposed.  Henry requested an annulment of his marriage which was refused and so he pulled away from Papal authority, abolishing 500 monasteries, removing their roofs and allowing the buildings to deteriorate.  Because his arguments with the Church were not theological, the Church of England remained close to Catholic traditions and worship, which are seen today in the Anglican Church and in the Episcopal Church, finding their birthplace in the Church of England.

People fought and died over these issues that we have virtually forgotten.  People now choose to attend a church for a wide variety of reasons.  The Catholic Church of today is vastly different from the Catholic Church of the 16^th century.  Protestants aren’t protesting much.  All churches have their challenges, shortcomings, failures and sin.  Those churches that once sought to re-form the church are now in need of re-form themselves.   Therefore we have the phrase, “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda!”  Reformed and always reforming. 

Discipleship is not a piece of cake, then or now.  Jesus said to the Jews, who believed in him,

‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’  (John 8:31-32)

But we have various versions of “the truth!” 

Over the past years the Church has debated the institution of slavery, the role of women in the church, divorce and remarriage, and most recently, positions on homosexuality.  We live in a post-modern world in which some say is also post-denominational, and even post-church.  We have new questions like, “Do you have to have the Church at all in order to be spiritual?” And what is “spiritual?”  Does the mega-church have it any more right than the small country church?  Should the mainline churches close their doors and start attending Elevation Church or Warehouse 242?  Who has the truth?

That would be Jesus!  “Which Jesus?” is a good question asked by Rob Bell in his book, Love Wins.  Some say that God created us in God’s image and then we returned the favor.  We have created God in our image, fashioning for ourselves a Jesus that makes sense to us.  As long as we keep doing that we will always be divided by a catalog of truths.  Take your pick!

And by the way, that is one of the major characteristics of this post-modern world in which we live.  There apparently is no “absolute truth” and so we are all left to our individual truths.  Where is the authority?  A central question of the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century. 

 If we brought the lessons of the Reformation with us, they might be;

•  Newer is not always better.  Whenever we venture into something new, we always take ourselves with us, so you can assume it will be tainted by our sinfulness.  We must be always open to re-form.
•  Old is not always right.  There are some things in our tradition, and certainly in Scripture, that are stakes in the ground, but because it is tradition doesn’t automatically make it right.  To re-form does not mean to throw away or to adapt, but to return to the core of who we are as defined by the Scriptures. 
• And this Reformation cannot be done by mere human effort.  We are reformed, not by mere ideas, arguments or positions.  We are re-formed by a fresh wind of God’s Spirit among us.  We are re-formed according to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit.  Yet, not all of us agree on what this means. 

Our task as Christians in the Church today is not simply to reiterate what our fathers and mothers in the faith once said.  Rather, our task is to do today what they did in their day; to open ourselves to the work of a living God who reforms us into God’s will and vision for who we are called to be in this day and age.

In this sense, Reformation is a gift that is to be celebrated by the Church both then and now.  “Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda!” is more than just an ancient motto, “the Church reformed and always reforming.”  It is our hope and trust in God to lead and guide us in this modern day, not to merely adapt to a changing world but to be the faithful disciples of Christ who said,

‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’  (John 8:31-32) 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

 

10-30 Sanctuary Bulletin

October 23, 2011

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"What Defines You?"
Dr. Steven P. Eason
Mark 10:17-31

 

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¹⁷As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” ²⁰He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

²³Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

²⁸Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” ²⁹Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, ³⁰who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

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The Church has been known to pull this story out every time we’re trying to raise money.  The gist of it is,

 ‘You don’t want to be like this guy, so cough up the cash!  You don’t want to reject Jesus, do you?’ 

 It probably makes a difference who you are as to how you read this text.  If you’re poor and struggling, this verifies everything you’ve ever thought about rich people.  They are self-absorbed, greedy; want everything handed to them on a silver platter and think the world revolves around them.  That’s how some folks may see it.

You would read this text with a little more empathy if you were rich.  And, there are different definitions of rich.  (Most people always define rich as being someone else!)  But, let’s say you fall into that category.  Then you’d know how hard it would be to fulfill Jesus’ request.  It seems extremely unfair that I should have to sell everything I own and give it to the poor, who have done nothing to deserve it, in order for me to get into heaven.  Surely that can’t be the way it works.  Those of us with some resources would read this text and identify with this young man’s struggle. Don’t be too quick to judge him.

We’ve misused this story over the years to bash the rich (those other people) hoping to make them feel guilty enough to give a little more.  But I’m not sure this story is about that at all.

Adam Hamilton, in his book, Enough, identifies what he calls, “The Restless Heart Syndrome (RHS)” (p. 55).  You’ve heard of Restless Leg Syndrome.  Well, Restless Heart Syndrome works in a similar way but its primary symptom is discontent.  It’s when we’re never satisfied with anything. 

This man talking to Jesus apparently had a restless heart.  He had an abundance of worldly possessions but wanted something more.  So, he came to Jesus asking, “‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (10:17b) 

Scottish philosopher, James Mackintosh wrote, “’It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.’” (Adam Hamilton, Enough, p. 56)  St. Augustine prayed this prayer; “’Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.’” (Enough, p. 63) 

We can identify with this young man.  There’s something within us that is not satisfied unless we are connected to God.  We try to fill that with all kinds of substitutes, but none of them work.  It’s like drinking ocean water when you’re thirsty.  It looks like a good thing but it’s not. 

The substitutes we have for a relationship with God are such a big issue that it actually became grounds for the First Commandment, “…you shall have no other gods before me.”(Exodus 20:3)

How many of life’s problems are related to having the wrong god?  It’s the First Commandment for a reason.  When anything else is at the core of our lives we are malfunctioning.  We are not lined up with what and who we were created to be.  We’re drinking salt water to quench our thirst and it doesn’t work. We’re rich but empty.

Jesus wasn’t trying to get this man’s money; he was trying to get his heart and all of his money and possessions were in the way.  And this isn’t something Jesus told everyone to do.  He didn’t go along the highways telling people to sell everything they had and give it to the poor.  This is what this man needed in order to get free from the straps that were around him.  If everyone who was rich sold what they had and gave it to the poor, all we would do is transfer the wealth to the other side of the equation.  Then we’d have another group of rich people that would need to give all the money back to the people who just gave it to them.  It’d be like clowns coming out of a Volkswagen!  That would be absurd!

What Jesus asked of him is not a formula for getting into heaven.  You can’t work your way into eternity.  Jesus is trying to get this man free from his demons.  You’re worshipping the wrong thing.  You’ve got the wrong god at the center of your life.  There’s no room for the Lord in your life because it’s crowded with all the other junk. 

We often miss this part of the story.  Look at verse 21,

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; …’   (10:21a)

Jesus loved him.  I find it odd that both Matthew and Luke left this detail out of their telling of the same story.  For me, this is key.  Jesus loved this man.  Jesus loved somebody who was rich and powerful.  Jesus loved somebody who was all tied up with the wrong things.  Jesus loved somebody who was misspending his life, who was getting it wrong.  Jesus loved a man who was self-absorbed and lost. How in the world could you leave that part out of the story? 

You have to love somebody to tell them the truth, because the truth is often hard to hear.  This was so hard that Jesus’ disciples asked, “’Then who can be saved?’” (10:26b)  I mean, if this guy can’t get in, who can?  And Jesus says,

“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  (10:24-25)

He certainly knew how to make a point!  Try squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle!  Why is it that hard for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God?

When the Bible uses the word “kingdom” it’s talking about a form of government.  God’s government.  Government is the means by which a society pursues essential objectives; security, justice, economy, welfare, equality, education, healthcare.  Governments vary in the way they operate.  Every government has its own culture, its own use of power, and its own core values. 

Jesus is talking about entering God’s kingdom, God’s government.  He is not talking about something that happens when you die, but something that happens while you’re still living.  The rule of God, the government of God, the realm of God’s power and control is not something we wait to enter when we leave this earth, but something we live in while we’re here.  If that’s the case, it’s “hard” to live in the realm of God’s government (the “kingdom”) if we insist on being the king or queen.         

This guy couldn’t leave the one kingdom for the other.  His wealth was a curse.  He was too loaded down to get through the eye of the needle.  You can’t live in both kingdoms, serving both masters because they are at odds with each other.  Mark says,

 …he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.                                                                            (10:23)

There are those who are analyzing our present economic crisis who say we don’t actually have a money problem.  We have a heart problem.  We have lived beyond our means.  Greed has eaten into our system like rust eats into metal.  We have the wrong god at the altar.  We may, or may not, be able to fix our money problems, but the problems of the heart are a different matter all together.  Who’s going to fix that?

I hope there were other occasions for this young rich ruler to consider his position in life.  Henri Nouwen wrote these words,

Every time you close another door – be it the door of immediate satisfaction, the door of distracting entertainment, the door of busyness, the door of guilt and worry, the door of self-rejection – you commit yourself to go deeper into your heart and thus deeper into the heart of God.  (inwardoutward.org, Thur. October 20, 2011, Henri J. Nouwen, “Closing Doors”)

This young man was defined by his possessions.  That’s where he got his identity.  They told him who he was.  That’s where his heart was.  What defines you?  Where is your heart?  And to which kingdom do you belong?

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Congregation:  Amen

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October 16, 2011

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"The Wedding Reception"
by Rev. Von Clemans
Matthew 22:1-14

[22:1]  Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: [2]  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. [3]  He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. [4]  Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ [5]  But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, [6]  while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. [7]  The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. [8]  Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. [9]  Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ [10]  Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

[11]  “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, [12]  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. [13]  Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ [14]  For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Most everyone enjoys going to a wedding banquet or, as we say in our day, a wedding reception. It is a wonderful time to celebrate the wedding of a couple or, if we don’t know the couple, to honor their parents by our attendance.  There’s great food and music, a beautiful location, and good conversation (unless, of course, you happen to be seated by Great Aunt Margaret who is just a little hard of hearing — I don’t know this personally, but I have heard it happens!).  At wedding receptions, guests enjoy the hospitality of the host and, for a time, are transported out of their daily routines into a different world where, for a few hours, everyone lives as though life were one long celebration.  Who wouldn’t want to go to a wedding reception?

According to this strange and difficult parable of Jesus, there were some in Jesus’ day that refused to attend the wedding reception for the King’s son.  In the midst of this peculiar parable, Jesus shows us something important about what it’s like to live in God’s kingdom.  In the middle of ancient customs, violent reactions, class distinctions, and surprise endings, Jesus lets us peek at the dynamics of grace, indifference, judgment, and hope.  This is not just a peculiar story.  It is a mirror that begs us to consider where are we in the story.  Which character would we be if we were invited to this wedding reception?

The King of the land announced a royal wedding of the King’s son.  Such affairs were grand and elaborate occasions for people to see and be seen.  Great preparation was required.  As was the custom in those days, the King sent out servants to hand-deliver invitations to the event. Typically the King would invite people from the upper crust — governmental leaders, close friends, or political allies.  The guest list was more about influence and status than it was about the wedding couple.  Then preparation would begin for the wedding.  When all was ready, the servants would go out again to all the invited guests to tell them it was time to come to the banquet.

Here the problems began.  The folks who had been invited wouldn’t come. So the King sent additional servants.  They explained that the site was prepared, the food was cooked, and the table was ready.  So, come on!  But they still refused to attend.  One said there was business to attend to.  Another had something going on at the farm that needed attention.  So they blew off the invitation.

Now as I was trying to get my head wrapped around this parable I wondered what it would look like in today’s world.  Here’s what I came up with.

The governor’s son’s is getting married.  The governor’s family is ecstatic and decides to put on a magnificent feast.  Using all his social, business, and governmental connections he arranges for a location wedding and reception at an exclusive club on the beach.  The cost for the location, caterers, musicians, designers, and planners is astronomical, but nothing is too good for this occasion.  So the governor had invitations hand-lettered in calligraphy to a large list of family, friends, colleagues, donors, political supports, and even a few political opponents.  Rather than send them through the mail the governor contracted with a specialized business to deliver the invitations in person, an indulgence that wasn’t missed by the invitees.  Those who received invitations were appropriately pleased and impressed with the governor’s good taste and with their own status which got them on the list in the first place. Months went by as the preparations moved forward. The governor’s wife, concerned that few people had taken the time to RSVP, convinced the governor to follow up.  So, in the days before the wedding and reception the same company sent out personal representatives to let the invitees know that all was ready.  Amazingly, even after receiving and accepting the initial invitation, people declined to attend.  When the word got back to the governor, he was incensed! He gave word to the personal representatives to try again.  They went back to the invitees and said:  “Look, the governor has secured this beautiful location, the weather is gorgeous, the prime rib is slow cooking, the salmon is on ice ready to go on the grill, everything is ready.  All we need is you.”  But the invitees made fun of the representatives and offered lame excuses like having a business meeting or needing to work at the plant.  As if they didn’t know in advance that this event was coming.  As if they couldn’t manage their schedules. As if this occasion really wasn’t important enough to be “inconvenienced.”  So the governor read this exactly as intended.  This was a personally slap of the governor’s face- disrespect of the highest order!  Who were these people, anyway, to reject the hospitality, not just of any wedding reception, but the social event of the year? When someone extends their welcome and hospitality in such a grand way, the last thing you do, if you want to stay in their good graces, is blow them off!

Did I mention that Jesus’ parable is rated PG-13 for its intense violence? For that reason, you won’t hear this parable taught in Sunday school!  We don’t usually see this level of violence in Jesus’ parables, but there it is.

Jesus tells us, after the second set of servants are rejected by the invitees, the invitees turn violent.  Beyond disrespecting the King and blowing off the event, the invitees capture the king’s servants, mistreat them, and eventually murder them.  The King is outraged.  His anger explodes.  Who could blame him? 

The King reacts violently to being disrespected.  He sends soldiers across the land to the original invitees, murders them, and burns their cities. This is not one of the edifying parables of childhood.  This is an adult-sized parable challenging our sense of propriety and shaking up our comfortable notions of how God deals with people.  The disrespect of the invited guests has consequences even in a kingdom where the king graciously invites them to the feast.

After the anger of the King abates, he turns to immediate matters.  Apart from the mistreatment of the king’s representatives, the wonderful event, offered to kin and kindred, was in danger of being cancelled.  He had a banquet to put on and no guests to enjoy it.  What good is a reception if nobody comes? So, what to do? 

In the sports world, this is when you bench the starters and bring in all new players.  If the starters can’t or won’t engage with enthusiasm, or worse, behave defiantly toward the coach, they get replaced.  Take them out and let new players have a chance to play.  The effects of such a radical move, both on the incoming players and on the ones replaced, is often amazing.

The King tells his servants that the first string wasn’t worthy of the invitation.  So, he said, “Go out into the main streets and invite everyone you find.”  The main streets were the common thoroughfares, the public spaces, where Kings and peasants crossed paths, where wealthy and the poor passed nearby but avoided contact, where shopkeepers waited on the affluent. Imagine a public street in uptown Charlotte and you get the picture. The servants invited everyone they saw. Here, the text points out that they gathered both the good and the bad and were able to fill the banquet hall.

If the original invited guests had come, the hall would have been filled with all the good people, the people of high standing, the connected people, the people with influence and affluence, the people who everyone would agree deserved to be at the King’s feast. The good people would have been pleased that someone, especially the King, recognized the effort they had put into achieving and maintaining their favored position.  But those very worthy people believed their own press releases and thought it safe to disrespect the King.  Their arrogance was their undoing.  For the King was not pleased with their reaction and reacted most unfavorably to their dismissal.

The guests that did come to dinner that day were regular folks, not particularly deserving, some good and some bad.  They were there because, when invited, they came.

You can imagine the conversations on the street as the servants went out with their invitations. “Are you saying the King is inviting me to his son’s wedding feast?  This is a joke. Right?  Why would the King invite folks like me?  You’re serious.  Really?  Right now?  Okay… Hey, Martha, close up the shop. We’ve got to run home and get our best robes.  We’re going to the King’s party!”

The banquet was underway.  Everyone there marveled at the great food and wine — fit for a King!  Even more they marveled at their good fortune at having been invited.  They didn’t quite understand how they ended up there, but they were enjoying the experience and feeling more than a little gratitude toward the King.

In the Gospel of Luke, the parable Jesus tells ends here. The King throws a party.  Invited guests rebuff the King’s invitation.  Consequences are severe.  New guests, of much lower status, are brought in to enjoy the party.  The King’s wedding reception was successful.  A good time was had by all.  The end.  According to Luke.

But here in Matthew’s Gospel there is one additional, disturbing scene.  The King circulates among the guests, as good hosts do, and spots a man dressed inappropriately for the wedding.  Now, since the guests were last minute replacements, you might wonder why the King became so upset over someone, having just come from the main street, was not dressed properly in a wedding robe.  How could the King hold someone off the streets to the standards expected for any normal, kingly wedding reception when this one was anything but normal? Two things might be at work.  On the one hand, the King had just been through the bad experience of rejection by the first invitees.  So he was probably sensitive to any perception of being slighted. This man, like the originally invited guests, dishonored the King by this choice of dress. Note, also, that all the other second tier invitees were dressed properly.  Apparently, when they received an invitation from the King, they did what they could — dressing up — to show their respect for the King.  Imagine someone showing up to a formal wedding reception in cutoffs and t-shirt when everyone else was in semi- if not formal- dress.  There are some behaviors that bring shame upon the guest and the host.

The King then, in another surprising reaction, has the man tied up and thrown out of the wedding reception, at which time the weeping and gnashing of teeth begins.

The parable ends with a saying we’ve all heard before: Many are called, but few are chosen.

Indeed! In this parable, many guests were called, because, as they saw it, they were worthy.  But they were not chosen.  Then, many other guests were called, not because of their merit, but because of the King’s generosity. One of them was singled out for his dishonoring of the King.  He was not chosen.  Of the many who were called, the ones chosen were those who heard the invitation to the feast and responded appropriately and honorably.  The chosen ones enjoyed the King’s hospitality and ate and drank and celebrated, honoring the King by the way they behaved.

Let me say a quick work about the violence in this parable before we wrap up.  Matthew wrote his Gospel in the last decades of the first century, some fifty or more years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  He wrote this parable, I believe, as an allegory of how God and human beings behave toward one another. The King is God.  The Son is Jesus.  The original guests are the people of Israel, especially their religious leaders. The wedding reception is the great banquet envisioned by prophets as what the world would look like when God is in charge.  It is a metaphor for the heavenly kingdom to which all faithful followers aspire.

Matthew writes his Gospel in the shadow of the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. when the center of Jewish religious life was destroyed by the Roman Empire.  For the people of Matthew’s day this was like our December 4, 1941, or the more recent 9/11.  The terrible events of that time caused God’s people to reflect deeply, as we have done, on what they had done to deserve such punishment.  Matthew and others concluded that God was displeased with humans who respond to God’s favor with indifference and defiance. 

In the shadow of the destruction of the Temple this parable is very much a parable of judgment, of how God will act toward us if we act in certain ways toward God. In that sense, the violence of the parable provides tangible deterrance to avoid the behaviors that precipitate that violence.

In our lives of faith such violence has been used as the primary motivation for living a Christian life.  Obey God’s commandments and you’ll avoid God’s punishments.  Obey God’s rules and you’ll be rewarded.

But the people of God in Jesus’ time recognized, as we do today, that there is little direct correlation between good behavior and rewards to come. So there is something else going on.  Something that works against our built-in sense of goodness or badness.  Something that God’s people call grace.

This parable illuminates the all too human cycle of grace, indifference, and judgment, and the triumph of grace which give us hope.

The parable reminds us that God reaches out to us before we even know there’s a party in the works.  God reaches out to us because God is connected to us, God cares about us, God values us, even before we know we are on God’s mind.  God continues to reach out to us even when God’s attention leads us to believe that we are special.  Basking in the reflected glory of God can easily tempt us to believe God’s favor is a result of our merit.  And when that merit turns into a sense of entitlement, we are further tempted to discount our need for God.  We might be inclined to reject God’s invitation to celebrate God’s goodness and put our trust in our own ability to enjoy life without attending God’s party.  That’s when God’s judgment comes upon us in the form of the consequences of our decisions.  When a people, or a nation, begins to think that everything they have is a result of what they themselves have done and earned and don’t see the hand of God working in and through and in spite of human effort, they succumb to the idea that it’s all about us.  In that idolatry lays the seeds of our destruction.

The parable warns us of judgment but quickly moves to a word of grace.  When God moves on to more responsive people, God reaches out to those on the margins of our acceptability — the common, ordinary folks that live not in the heights of privilege and power, but those that you can find on a street corner.   God reaches out to people who are shocked when they get an invitation to God’s party.  They know instinctively that it’s God’s favor, God’s graciousness, not their own, that opens the doors to the party. Their humble gratitude is the only gift they can offer in return for the host’s extravagant hospitality.  But here, too, is a danger.

If we think that such a gracious invitation requires nothing on our part and we show up to God’s party in our grubbies without regard for the respect due to our host, we too will be discarded like the ungrateful people before us. 

It’s not about being called, for many are called. Those who are chosen have responded with thoughtfulness and gratitude for being invited to the party. 

The judgment of this parable is that grace does not give us a free ride.  Grace demands a response of gratitude. But, even still, grace trumps ingratitude.  Grace continues to seek out those who will respond to it and calls them chosen. The wedding reception went long into the night.

So… where would you be in the parable?  Are you living more like the original invitees, who relished their status and power, thinking that will be enough?  Are you like those who are so tied up with work and responsibility that you don’t have time to attend God’s party?  Are you like the one who is grateful for the invitation to join God’s party but thinks it’s not worth changing clothes to attend?  Or, are you like the regular folks who use what they have to respond with humble gratitude to God’s extravagant invitation, enjoying the feast that God has prepared?

Friends, the wedding reception is coming.  The King is putting on a party.  You are invited.  Other guests are waiting.  The table is spread.  It’s going to be great!  How you dress is up to you! Come on in!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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October 2, 2011

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                                                        "I Want to Know Christ"
                                                            Dr. Steven P. Eason
                                                            Philippians 3:4b-14

 

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If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

                                                                *     *     *

It has been a difficult week here at the church.  One of our members lost her father.  Another lost her older sister.  One of our members lost her mother and many of our members are fighting battles against some serious disease.  

On Thursday, a memorial service was held here for fourteen-year-old Sloan Chambers, a beautiful young girl in every way, the daughter of Labron and Kate.  It’s been a tough week.

Stephen Covey wrote the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (1989).  One of those habits he identified as, “beginning with the end in mind.” (p. 95) When you come to the end of your life, can you look back and say that you lived a rich full life?  Did you use your time wisely?  Did you give your heart and soul to the right things?  Did you live a life of faith and trust in God?  Did you love people outside the boundaries of your own comfort zone?  Did you live in the kingdom, the culture, of God? 

What is the goal of life?  When you get to the end and look back, what was the meaning and purpose of it all?  Why were you here?  What did you accomplish and what was the goal?

The Apostle Paul experienced a shift in his life.  He started out thinking the goal of life was one thing and then had his heart and mind changed. 

He started out, like most of us, thinking the goal of life was to achieve, to acquire the brass ring, to climb the ladder of success.  Paul writes,

 If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh (in other words, in the things of this world.), I have more; (and then he goes into a list of his accomplishments)…circumcised on the eight day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.  (Philippians 3:4b-6)

How would you list your accomplishments?  What’s your list of credentials, your pedigree, your education, social standing, professional achievements?  That’s what Paul is listing here for us.  That’s what he thought was the goal of life.  As if these things were the end and not the means to the end.  His life was all about him.  It was self-serving, self-centered, self-governed.  So, when you get to the end of your life and look back on it, is that the way you’d want to have spent it?  Is that the only legacy you would leave behind? 

Perhaps the best news that Paul gives us here is that it is possible to make a shift in life.  It’s possible to change, to go in a different direction.  It’s possible to change the goal in midstream.  Paul had accomplished all these things.  He was a thoroughbred in the Jewish community.  All he had to do is stay the course and he was destined for great things.  So what happened? 

He encountered Jesus Christ.  He never met Jesus in the flesh, but he encountered Christ through the Holy Spirit.  That’s how it happens for you and me. 

When Christ gets a hold of a person’s life, their goals change.  What they thought were treasures become what Paul calls, “rubbish.” (3:8)  None of the things Paul mentioned are evil.  There’s nothing wrong with being born in a certain culture or receiving an excellent education.  There’s nothing evil about that, but when Christ got a hold of Paul’s life, he realized those things were not the end, but the means to an end.  The goal became something else.  His self-righteous life became empty to him.

Perhaps the most powerful statement Paul makes is when he writes,

I want to know Christ… (3:10a)

 What if you prayed that every morning as a prayer?

                      ‘I want to know Christ…,I want Christ to be revealed to me. I want to know him.’

That’s a life-changing prayer.

That’s the new goal!  That’s the new life.  That’s the shift that was made in Paul’s life and that can be made in your life in my life, too.  He writes,

…this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.  (3:13-14)

 If Paul would have continued on his quest for success, he would have been buried and nobody would be talking about him today.  When Christ became the goal of his life, the ripple-effect of Paul’s life continues to this day.  His grave was not the end of his life, but the beginning of it.  He traded in his “rubbish” for the “prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Therein lies the hope of the Christian faith for you and for me.

 As we come to the Table of Christ on this World Communion Sunday, we are reminded that the unifying factor for the world is the grace of God poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.  At this Table we are reconciled to a new goal.  We trade in the “rubbish” for “the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  What an incredible gift!  Thanks be to God!            

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  

Congregation:  Amen

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