Text: John 18:33-37 NRSV
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
I want to begin by talking about something of which I have no first hand experience, that is the fear a soldier faces before going into his or her first battle. While I was in the draft for the Vietnam War I was never drafted, nor did I volunteer. So what I have to say comes from things others have said or written.
While there are as many versions of this story as there have been warriors there seems to be a common experience – that is fear. It would not be surprising to hear about the fear of being hurt, or even killed. It would not be a surprise to hear about the fear of having to kill another human being. But while these fears may be a contributing factor, it is the fear of cowardice that is most often expressed by soldiers before entering combat. As far as I can tell the question, “will I have the courage to face the enemy, or will I turn and run?” is a universal common experience of all those entering combat for the first time.
During training there is usually a lot of bravado, chest thumping, and claims of invincibility. After all, firing weapons at targets that are not shooting back is relatively easy. The use of the intoxicating destructive power of modern weapons creates a sense of invincibility in most, if not all, recruits. The truth of the matter is that no one really knows how he or she will react to combat until they come under fire. This moment of existential truth is called a "trial by fire."
It is one thing to think about or to commit to the potential or theoretical sacrifice of combat while swapping lies at the barracks or the local tavern. It is quiet another to actually face an enemy who is trying with all of their might, their skill, their training, and their luck to kill you.
It is also hard for those of us who are parents, spouses, or friends of those who face this trial by fire. When my son Jesse deployed first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq, I had to live every day with the real possibility that Jesse would not survive his tour of duty in these two war zones. I was not consciously aware of how much anxiety and fear I was actually living with until I experienced the overwhelming sense of relief, shared in common with the other families gathered, when Jesse finally made it home safely to Fort Bragg. The trial by fire that family and friends face is the realization that there is nothing they can do to protect their loved one. The only weapon a mother or father, wife or husband, sister or brother carry is their love, their hope and their prayers for their loved one living and fighting in harms way. For many left behind, they are left fighting great battles of despair, anxiety, and depression. that is only relieved when their love one returns home.
One of my favorite lines from a movie about World War II comes from the movie “Big Red One”. Netflix describes this movie as: "One of the great, unsung war films, (that) follows four comrades – members of the 1st Infantry Division, called the Big Red One – from the invasion of North Africa onto Sicily, Normandy, and to the liberation of the Nazi death camps". At the end of the movie the survivors are trying to sum up the war they have won. As they reflect on all the horror they have survived the subject of glory comes up. One of the characters responds by saying something I believe to be very profound and the point of the movie "The only glory in war is surviving.”. Given the reality of the everyday life we live in the Kingdoms of this world, survival may be the best we mortals can realistically expect. Yet as a people of faith we hope and long for more than a life of survival.
Peter and the followers of Jesus were hoping for much more than survival. Even though, in the time of the Roman occupation of Israel and Judea, survival was not something to be taken for granted. The people of the land of Israel were looking for the restoration of the Davidic dynasty. From childhood, as soon as they were old enough to attend synagogue they had heard the words of Psalm 132 drilled into their heads, placed in their hearts, as they sang the Song of Accents: "The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: 'One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.'”
There were many pretenders to the throne of David, but Jesus, an heir to David’s throne by birth, had proven for those with eyes to see and ears to hear that he was the true Messiah, the Christ. Peter, a simple man of great passions and hope, had chosen to be a follower of Jesus. We can only imagine what it meant for Peter and the other disciples as they accompanied Jesus into the capital city of Judea, the city of David, Jerusalem on that day the Church now celebrates as Palm Sunday. The crowds that had gathered to welcome them must have been encouraging. The way Jesus had confronted the Chief Priest, the Sadducees, and had purified the temple surely emboldened and encourage the disciples as they began to have visions of the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom, with Jesus as King.
John 18:1b-8, 10-11
But the scriptures tell us that, …on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” Then Simon Peter, who had started carrying a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
So they take Jesus to stand trial, first before the high priest Annas, who gets nowhere with his interrogations. Then Annas handed Jesus over to his son in law Caiaphas who was not really a high priest but had been appointed high priest by the Romans. What happened between Caiaphas and Jesus is not known and would not have been considered important to the Jews or to the Christian church for whom John writes his gospel. Caiaphas then takes Jesus to Pilate’s headquarters hoping that the Roman Empire would dispose of this troublemaker from Nazareth.
Pilate usually tried to stay out of Jerusalem as much as possible preferring the civilized quiet of his Vila on the Mediterranean Sea to the petty arguments and controversies of the Jewish religious sects in Jerusalem. But as Roman Procurator over Judea, Pilate felt compelled to make a show of force during the various high festival days just to remind everyone who the real power in the Kingdom was -- Rome.
Pilate didn’t pretend to understand all of the nuances of the religious laws of the Jews. He could not have cared less. For Pilate it was a big bore. As John tells us, Jesus was brought before Pilate. Because of the religious festival the Jews would not even bring him into the headquarters and Pilate had to walk out to the gate to find out what the charges were against Jesus. All he got out of the High Priests men was that he was a criminal. Pilate irritated by the intrusion on his time says to the High Priest men “if he has violated your law you take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.”
The High Priest men then explained to Pilate that because of the purity laws of Passover they were not permitted to put anyone to death and that only Roman law could be used to try and execute this man.
John 18:33-37
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Meanwhile, the real trial is taking place outside by the charcoal fire. Inside, Jesus is being questioned, but it is meaningless; Jesus moves with firm purpose to his own glorification. But outside, Simon Peter and the church are being questioned, and that trial is not going well at all. Peter and the church are in full denial as to whether or not we know this man Jesus and whether or not we are followers of his truth. In this trial by fire we have more often than not proved ourselves to be cowards.
Don’t get me wrong. There is courage in abundance to find ways to take over the Kingdom of this World. While we celebrate in this country the founding fathers principle of separation of Church and State it has more to do with how as citizens we are free to practice a religion of our own choosing without interference from Government. But like Peter we see this fight as taking place within the kingdom of this world and not God’s kingdom.
But are there any here that truly believe that the world we mortals have created for ourselves, the world we live, play, and work in; is the world God intended when God created us, in God’s own image? When you get up in the morning and look at your image in the mirror do you see the image of God staring back at you? When the world passes by this church and observes how we related to one another and to the community in which we live is it able to see the image of God at work in this world? Does the world witness in our lives a people who live and act as if Christ is our King? Are we seen as being people of the sword or a people of the Cross?
But we should be careful in how we understand these two kingdoms. For too long the idea that the Kingdom of God is not of this world has been used as an excuse by the church to separate religious life from secular life making practicing Christians dual citizens in a schizophrenic world. We have all at some time or another been trapped in this dualism, compromising our religious beliefs and practices in the secular world for the practical purpose of just being able to survive in this world. But the truth is that Christian faith is all about the life we refer to when we pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
But when the Gospel has Jesus proclaim that his Kingdom is not of this world Jesus is simply saying that the laws that govern the Kingdoms of this world are not the laws of God but are man made. His Kingdom is not of this world because this world is not as God made it to be. Jesus’ Kingdom is the world as God intended, as God created it to be. And, the only way to get back to the way God intended the world to be is through the cross. Like Peter we in the church are quick to pull out our swords and attack those who serve our enemies or challenge our security. But Jesus is calling us to sheath our swords and become soldiers, not of the sword, but of the cross.
The church is charged with the mission to witness to God’s Kingdom in all its glory here and now, in this time and in this place. The invitation from Christ the King is to live as soldiers of the Cross-, to take up our cross, and to follow him. Our calling is to fight for his truth, that the Kingdom of God might be established in all its glory in this time and in this place. This is our Trial by Fire!
So we pray...
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A Called Congregational Meeting
10th Sunday after Pentecost Year B
First Central Congregational Church UCC
Omaha Nebraska
August 9, 2009
Text: John 6:35, 41-51
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
A CALLED CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
As chair of your Religious Leadership Team it is my duty today to present to this meeting of our congregation the report of your Religious Leadership Team on our recent interviews with Jesus, as well as, a summary of our interviews of those from our congregation who claim to have had first hand experience of signs that Jesus is what he claims to be, “the bread of life” or perhaps the “Messiah”.
First, let me say how much I appreciate those of you who came to this meeting today. The question before us has the potential to change this congregation forever. Some of us would be just as happy if this controversy had never come up in the first place. I also want to thank each of you who have spoken here today for your eloquence of speech and for maintaining a spirit of civility in your comments. We all feel passionately about the question before us today. I must confess, there were times when I feared our passions would get the best of us. But I think it is fair to say that so far we have been able to keep our comments fairly civil. I thank you for that.
As most of you know this issue over bread began when the last administration in Jerusalem decided to align itself with the Roman Empire. As several of you have pointed out already, there was a time when a person could enter the market place and know without a doubt that whatever was purchased was going to be Kosher according to the teachings of Moses and the prophets who followed him. Today our town is filled with foreigners, and our market is filled with all kinds of strange and exotic foods. It is practically impossible to know what is Kosher and what is not?
Then there is the recession that has hit our community. With all the foreign goods in our market the price of our home grown products, with the Kosher guarantee, can no longer be sold at a price that will sustain any of our local farmers and fishermen. Suddenly, we find that people of faith are going hungry, while the pagans in our midst, who have no trouble at all eating the leftovers from their religious sacrifices, are eating just fine.
It is no wonder that many of our finest members, starving half to death, have been going about in search of a new Prophet in the tradition of Moses. These poor souls are hoping this new prophet would approach God on behalf of his chosen people, hoping that God would send down manna from heaven for them to eat, just like God did for their ancestors in the desert.
Recently, members of our little congregation have been going out and listening to any rabbi or false prophet that comes along claiming to be the new Messiah. So it was determined by our executive council that a select group of religious elders from our congregation would be called upon to question anyone claiming to be a prophet, or messiah, to determine on behalf of the congregation if they truly were from the one true God of Moses and Abraham, or just trouble makers passing through our town, trying to take advantage of our members who are struggling to put bread on their tables.
Then last year Jesus shows up, teaching and preaching, creating great crowds of groupies that followed him everywhere he went.
Some of you probably know Jesus’ father Joseph, and his mother Mary. Joseph has done a little carpentry work for some of us around town. Well, as I was saying, Joseph’s son Jesus starts showing up, not to do carpentry, but going about town, teaching and preaching to anyone who would listen, that the Kingdom of God is near! Well as you would expect, people began to gather to hear him preach and to check out his teachings, hoping that perhaps he was the new prophet God had sent to re-establish order to our lives and put proper food back in the bellies of our starving congregation.
As sister Rebecca has reminded us today, it was not too long ago that Jesus showed up down at Lake Tiberius holding some kind of revival meeting, and a crowd of around 5,000 people gathered to hear what this new teacher had to say. Like a lot of new preachers, Jesus went on and on until suddenly everyone began to realize that it was getting late and no one had bothered to bring any food for them to eat.
Well to make a long story short, as sister Rebecca tells it, there was this boy who wandered through with the groceries his mother had sent him to fetch at the market down by the lake. Jesus had his disciples confiscate the boy’s basket. Then taking this families food, by some miracle, began to feed all those who had gathered on that hillside. Now, I would have hated being that boy who was going to have to explain to his mother what had happened to the family supper, bringing home nothing but leftovers in his basket. But, according to sister Rebecca, the leftovers turned out to be rather substantial.
Anyway, before you knew it everyone in town was talking about this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Some in our congregation began to openly suggest this Jesus was a prophet sent from God to save us from starvation. As a result of these and other events the Religious Leadership Team of our congregation, with the authorization of the cabinet, approached Jesus to examine his credentials and determine whether or not he is qualified according to the teachings of Moses and the prophets.
Your Religious Leadership Team also interviewed several of our members who reported to have witnessed signs indicating that Jesus is truly from God, possibly the New Messiah.
I would like to now read for the record the findings of your Religious Leadership Team.
THE JESUS INTERVIEWS
POINT I
Our tradition teaches us that Moses was able to pray to God on behalf of our ancestors, securing Manna from heaven so that they would not starve while lost in the desert.
Jesus seems to be claiming, in spite of the miracle feeding of the 5,000, that in fact what he is offering is a different type of food. Jesus is quick to quote Moses when he says “that people cannot live by bread alone” but then he twists Moses words to justify his claim that he is offering food for eternal life.
It is therefore, the determination of your religious leadership team that Jesus is not offering to help us feed the hungry among us. Instead, Jesus seems to be using bread as some kind of metaphor for another way of living life in relationship with God.
POINT II
Jesus seems to be discrediting the very teachings of Moses and the prophets claiming that he is speaking according to the word he has received directly from God, and that his word takes precedence over the Law of Moses and the prophets. According to Jesus, and I quote: “ No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.” We actually heard him say: “And they shall all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”
It is the determination of your religious leadership team that the teachings of Jesus are dangerous in that they undermine the very traditions that led us to this land and gave us authority over everything and everyone that lives in this land. Everyone here has known from birth that we are a privileged people and that it was for us that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the children of Israel this land of milk and honey. Every time we have strayed from these teachings we have suffered the wrath of God.
Further, the teachings of Jesus border on sacrilege, if you listen closely to what Jesus is teaching it sounds like he is claiming to be God. If not God, at least Jesus claims to have been sent directly from God. The truth is that we know for a fact that Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary from up at Nazareth. Many of you will remember that Jesus and his father did some work on our synagogue not that many years ago.
It is the determination of your religious leadership team that Jesus is a subversive who is only going to lead people down a path of revolution against established law and order.
POINT III
Moses promised our ancestors in the wilderness that those with a blood claim as direct descendent of Israel and were willing to be circumcised, a land to call our own. Jesus, on the other hand, appears to be teaching some new kind of ritual cannibalism, although no evidence of actual cannibalism has been discovered. Your religious leadership team can report that we actually heard Jesus say, and I quote: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
It is the determination of your religious leadership team that unless Jesus is again speaking in metaphors that this is a very dangerous solution to the needs of the hungry. And, this teaching could lead to serious consequences if misunderstood by those who hear it.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM THE JESUS INTERVIEWS
Therefore, it is the conclusion of this report that, based on the Jesus interviews, the likely result of the congregation voting to follow Jesus would result in our congregation:
- Being expelled from the Jewish faith by the leadership in Jerusalem.
- We would be risking being brought up on charges of treason and heresy by the Roman & Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.
- And, ultimately we run the risk of being crucified on a cross by the very people we are trying to help.
THE WITNESS INTERVIEWS
Brother Phillip reported being at a wedding in Cana that Jesus and his mother were hosting. Once again they obviously were not very well prepared for they ran out of wine. But as brother Phillip tells it, Jesus took a cask of ordinary water and turned it into wine. The guests were amazed that the hosts had reserved the best wine till last.
Sister Miriam reported to us the incident in Jerusalem where Jesus cleansed the temple of those trying to make a living, the moneychangers and those providing animals for the sacrifices. Some have claimed this as a sign of his authority because of the words of the prophet, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Brother Nicodemus reported on his secret visit to Jesus and provided further evidence that at least for some, Jesus is sent from God. Although, it is still rather confusing as to how those who have already been born must be born again.
Your leadership team also interviewed others who spoke of the healing that Jesus has done as signs that he is from God. Some of these reports raised additional concerns. The team was concerned to hear about the healing that took place on behalf of an official working for the Romans. We are also troubled by the reports of Jesus healing on the Sabbath in direct violation of our Sabbath Laws. Still, Jesus’ ability to heal the sick along with the other signs reported to the Religious Leadership Team is evidence that Jesus is authorized by God.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM THE WITNESS INTERVIEWS
Therefore, it is the conclusion of this report that based on the WITNESS INTERVIEWS; your religious leadership team can confirm that these signs, when taken independent of our interviews with Jesus, are ample evidence to suggest that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the Son of God – the Messiah.
CONCLUSION
While it is the opinion of your religious leadership team, based on the Jesus interviews alone, that those who want us to become followers of Jesus are asking us to make a huge leap of faith. But, the Religious Leadership Team cannot ignore the testimony of so many of our members who have experience powerful signs that Jesus is from God.
At the end of our deliberations, after many meetings, your Religious Leadership Team could not reach a consensus. We have concluded that there is just too much at stake for us to make a recommendation. The team felt that a decision of this magnitude required the vote of the entire congregation. Therefore, it has been decided to bring the following proposal to the congregation for vote.
PROPOSAL
“We the members of First Central Congregation of Capernaum accept the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as revealed to some of our members through first hand experience and explained by the witness of the Evangelist John. Further, that Jesus of Nazareth is to be understood as the ‘Bread of Life’.”
Upon approval of this proposal, we the members of First Central Congregation will consider ourselves to be Christians with the full privileges and obligations of disciples of Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the full expectation that in this act we will never be hungry, and we will never be thirsty.”
Respectfully submitted by the Committee of Religious Leaders
First Central Congregation of Capernaum
Submitted on this the 9th day of the month celebrating Caesar Augustus.
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VOTING INSTRUCTIONS
So that there is no confusion at the ballot box that might lead to accusations of voting irregularities, “Let me be perfectly clear”:
THE CHOICE
- If it is your desire that this congregation continue to practice our faith as we have for generations, according to the Law of Moses and the word of the Prophets, and to reject the signs and words of Jesus, you will need to vote NO!
- If it is your desire to see this congregation become followers of Jesus of Nazareth, the self described “Bread of Life”, you will need to vote YES!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Blessed be the Tie that Binds
Ecclesiastical Council
First Central Congregational Church
Omaha, Nebraska
January 30, 2010
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."
"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end."
"For we know only in part and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."
In 1991, when I arrived at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia I believed I was well prepared for the study I was about to begin. I had just completed a degree in History from the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. I had graduated with departmental honors for my scholastic scholarship.
I had also by this time spent three years serving as pastor of two Methodist Congregations in Northwest Arkansas. In spite of my inexperience these two congregations, with great patience and love, affirmed for me my call to ordained ministry. I was looking forward to moving closer to that goal at Seminary.
I was also blessed with the circumstances of my birth. I am a fourth generation pastor being the son, grandson, and great grandson of preachers. I have aunts and uncles and cousins who have, or are, serving in the international mission field. My childhood was spent attending church every time the doors were open. Each summer I attended Vacation Bible School and spent a week at Church Camp. By the time I reached Candler I had been thoroughly schooled in doctrine, the bible, and church politics.
On top of all of that, my father was both a preacher and a professor of philosophy and religion at Oklahoma Baptist University. Growing up at home my brothers and I got a heavy dose of philosophy, politics and theology every night at the dinner table as we discussed the events of the day, in particular the violent struggle of civil rights movement, the war on poverty, and the war in Vietnam.
So I hope you can understand why, when I showed up for Seminary, I believed I was well prepared for whatever Candler School of Theology had to teach me.
At Candler the first year is made up of basic introductory classes in bible, church history, and a praxis class on practical ministry. The bible and church history were not exactly a breeze, but I held my own. What was new and unexpected was the praxis class. My group was assigned to work as student Chaplains at Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. Grady is a big teaching hospital that also serves as the trauma and indigent care hospital for the greater Metro Atlanta area. I was assigned to a step down pediatric ward for babies coming from intensive care.
When I got my assignment I immediately began to think through what I thought my role was to be. As I imagined my day I saw myself providing pastoral care for the parents and staff on the ward who either had children in medical crisis or in the case of the staff helping them come to grips with the stress involved in providing medical care for infants in the grips of a medical crisis.
When I showed up for my first day on the ward I soon realized there were no parents to be found. The babies on this ward were those babies that had been abandoned by their mothers at the hospital door, or found by others in the allies and dumpsters of inner city Atlanta. The babies on this ward were almost exclusively crack babies, many suffering from the HIV virus that had been transmitted to them by their mothers.
So I began to focus on the staff. I began to hang out at the nurses station and in the staff lounge, asking questions, trying to figure out how I could pastor to these heroic people who day after day tried to save these children from the consequences of their births.
Within hours of my first day on the ward, Betty, the head nurse on the ward, approached me with a certain intimidating glare in her eye. I knew that something was terribly wrong. Nurse Betty was an imposing figure both in stature and personality. She would have made a great drill sergeant for the French Foreign Legion. And in the year to come I often wished that she would leave Atlanta to take up what I was sure to be her true calling.
Betty’s only words to me were short and sweet, with no sympathy for the new guy, “Leave my staff alone, she said. Your job here is to provide pastoral care for these babies.”
I was stunned. And, my feelings were hurt. But my pride was too great to let her see that. So I started searching out rooms with babies wondering how in the world I was to provide pastoral care to infants who could not understand a word I had to say. All those years of church School, worship, history classes, philosophical arguments, seemed totally useless when trying to minister to a crack baby. Here I was, a white man, raised in the bible belt of Oklahoma, being asked to minister to African American crack babies from the poverty stricken slums of inner city Atlanta.
As days passed I discovered that I would spend very little time with the infants with a prognosis of survival. I was careful to stay out of the way of the staff working to keep these babies alive, only entering the room when they were away. But, whenever the staff determined that an infant was not going to make it, they would send for me. Once called, I would stay with the infant until he or she died. Meanwhile the staff moved on to those infants that had a chance of survival.
At first I struggled to know what to do. I knew somehow that a discussion about the theology of Barth or Kierkegaard was not going to work. So, I began to sing. I would sing any song I could remember from growing up in the church, including Amazing Grace, Jesus Loves Me, and Blessed Be the Tie that Binds. I soon discovered that these songs were comforting to the babies, not that they understood the words, but I could tell by their behavior that the sound of a singing voice was in some way soothing to them. So I would sing. The words, unintelligible to the infants, turned out to be a gift of grace for me.
I distinctly remember one day in particular when a nurse came to get me to sit with a dying baby boy. He did not have enough strength left to move his head, but his eyes would follow me as I rocked back and forth singing to him. Whether out of instinct or the urgings of the Spirit I suddenly reached out and put my finger in the palm of his hand. This infant boy did what all babies do; he closed his hand around my finger. I continued to sing, but I quit rocking as the baby and I locked our eyes upon one another. I could sense the easing of anxiety. I believed then and believe to this day there was a deep spiritual connection that in that brief time bridged the huge chasm that separated us by health, by age, by language, by race. This little child on that day was my neighbor and I was his and we loved one another. Then he died.
There are plenty of theological and psychological arguments that could explain what took place that day. But these arguments are secondary to the act of love that took place between myself and that baby who has no name but child of God. No words were said that were understood, that was not the language we used. No great arguments of theology or law were discussed. We spoke the language of love. I do not speak of romantic love, but the same love that we share with Christ in his ministry, his torture, his death, and his resurrection. Did I die with that baby to be resurrected in the love of Christ? In faith I believe this to be true. I believe we both shared in the death of Jesus and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the manifestation of Christ’s love, experienced in the extended hand of Christian fellowship.
Ultimately, what I wish to give witness to is that through the act of loving one another, two extraordinarily different human beings experienced a deep spiritual connection. Through love we became one in Christ. Love was the tie that bound us together that day and it is love that binds us together for eternity. I believe the love we shared that day is exemplary of the promise that Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 13.
Ah, the “Wedding Text.” How many of us gathered here today have preached or heard this text in the context of a wedding. Many people know this passage by heart and find it as familiar and as comfortable as a favorite pair of old shoes. The irony of course, is that this text has little to do with the love that is associated with marriage. The more accurate understanding of this chapter is in the context of Paul’s attempt to communicate to the church in Corinth the meaning, the purpose, and the necessity of love within the Christian community. Specifically, that unity and difference can be acknowledged, respected, and celebrated only when love is at the center of what we do, and who we are as a Christian community.
Against all popular opinion, this is not a passage about romantic love, but about a radical communal love that enables individuals to imagine life in a community where unity and difference co-exist.
This is good news for those of us struggling to be faithful to the gospel of the risen Christ as members of the United Church of Christ, a church that is, and continues to be, a church of diversity and inclusivity. We are a uniting church that seeks to be united in common purpose, serving the universal call to discipleship. At the same time we are a church that celebrates our differences, our diversity, the spiritual gifts that each member, each congregation, brings to the common call to service. Paul’s urging to the church in Corinth to pursue love is a help to our congregations to envision a kind of love that can have such extraordinary power as to create, sustain, and build Christian unity in the midst of our differences and diversity.
But these claims about love are not communal mandates, new commandments, but rather a promise that comes from the very beginning of time itself--a promise from God. The love that Paul asks the Corinthians to strive for is the kind of love that Jesus pursues and proclaims as the acting out of God’s love for the world. Our pursuit of love is not only for the sake of our Christian communities, but also for the purpose of God’s mission in the world.
In this season of Epiphany, our pursuit of love can bring the light of Christ to those in darkness—to the poor, to the captive, to the blind, to the oppressed, and yes to infant crack babies in the catacombs of our hospitals, and the alleys of our cities. As a community of Christ, as the United Church of Christ, we are called to bring this good news to a world fragmented and polarized. To a world that reduces meaning to sound bites and diatribes that divide and separate us from one another, a world where public discourse is reduced to loud noise, where civility is drowned out by the sound of noisy gongs and clanging cymbals of partisan talk shows masquerading as news. To this world we are called to be a sign of God’s uniting love where we can coexist in our differences united in the love of God and the love for one another.
When we are truly a community in Christ, a community that knows its unity and celebrates its diversity, a community that knows the reality of division, and yet has in view the cross that binds us together, we will be able to join Jesus and walk along with him in his ministry to those who so desperately need to hear and know his love for them, including us.
Love is the tie that binds us together. Love is a promise that unites us and nurtures us as the uniting and United Church of Christ. Love is the language of our friend and savior Christ Jesus.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Let us pursue love!
Amen.
First Central Congregational Church
Omaha, Nebraska
January 30, 2010
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."
"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end."
"For we know only in part and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."
In 1991, when I arrived at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia I believed I was well prepared for the study I was about to begin. I had just completed a degree in History from the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. I had graduated with departmental honors for my scholastic scholarship.
I had also by this time spent three years serving as pastor of two Methodist Congregations in Northwest Arkansas. In spite of my inexperience these two congregations, with great patience and love, affirmed for me my call to ordained ministry. I was looking forward to moving closer to that goal at Seminary.
I was also blessed with the circumstances of my birth. I am a fourth generation pastor being the son, grandson, and great grandson of preachers. I have aunts and uncles and cousins who have, or are, serving in the international mission field. My childhood was spent attending church every time the doors were open. Each summer I attended Vacation Bible School and spent a week at Church Camp. By the time I reached Candler I had been thoroughly schooled in doctrine, the bible, and church politics.
On top of all of that, my father was both a preacher and a professor of philosophy and religion at Oklahoma Baptist University. Growing up at home my brothers and I got a heavy dose of philosophy, politics and theology every night at the dinner table as we discussed the events of the day, in particular the violent struggle of civil rights movement, the war on poverty, and the war in Vietnam.
So I hope you can understand why, when I showed up for Seminary, I believed I was well prepared for whatever Candler School of Theology had to teach me.
At Candler the first year is made up of basic introductory classes in bible, church history, and a praxis class on practical ministry. The bible and church history were not exactly a breeze, but I held my own. What was new and unexpected was the praxis class. My group was assigned to work as student Chaplains at Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. Grady is a big teaching hospital that also serves as the trauma and indigent care hospital for the greater Metro Atlanta area. I was assigned to a step down pediatric ward for babies coming from intensive care.
When I got my assignment I immediately began to think through what I thought my role was to be. As I imagined my day I saw myself providing pastoral care for the parents and staff on the ward who either had children in medical crisis or in the case of the staff helping them come to grips with the stress involved in providing medical care for infants in the grips of a medical crisis.
When I showed up for my first day on the ward I soon realized there were no parents to be found. The babies on this ward were those babies that had been abandoned by their mothers at the hospital door, or found by others in the allies and dumpsters of inner city Atlanta. The babies on this ward were almost exclusively crack babies, many suffering from the HIV virus that had been transmitted to them by their mothers.
So I began to focus on the staff. I began to hang out at the nurses station and in the staff lounge, asking questions, trying to figure out how I could pastor to these heroic people who day after day tried to save these children from the consequences of their births.
Within hours of my first day on the ward, Betty, the head nurse on the ward, approached me with a certain intimidating glare in her eye. I knew that something was terribly wrong. Nurse Betty was an imposing figure both in stature and personality. She would have made a great drill sergeant for the French Foreign Legion. And in the year to come I often wished that she would leave Atlanta to take up what I was sure to be her true calling.
Betty’s only words to me were short and sweet, with no sympathy for the new guy, “Leave my staff alone, she said. Your job here is to provide pastoral care for these babies.”
I was stunned. And, my feelings were hurt. But my pride was too great to let her see that. So I started searching out rooms with babies wondering how in the world I was to provide pastoral care to infants who could not understand a word I had to say. All those years of church School, worship, history classes, philosophical arguments, seemed totally useless when trying to minister to a crack baby. Here I was, a white man, raised in the bible belt of Oklahoma, being asked to minister to African American crack babies from the poverty stricken slums of inner city Atlanta.
As days passed I discovered that I would spend very little time with the infants with a prognosis of survival. I was careful to stay out of the way of the staff working to keep these babies alive, only entering the room when they were away. But, whenever the staff determined that an infant was not going to make it, they would send for me. Once called, I would stay with the infant until he or she died. Meanwhile the staff moved on to those infants that had a chance of survival.
At first I struggled to know what to do. I knew somehow that a discussion about the theology of Barth or Kierkegaard was not going to work. So, I began to sing. I would sing any song I could remember from growing up in the church, including Amazing Grace, Jesus Loves Me, and Blessed Be the Tie that Binds. I soon discovered that these songs were comforting to the babies, not that they understood the words, but I could tell by their behavior that the sound of a singing voice was in some way soothing to them. So I would sing. The words, unintelligible to the infants, turned out to be a gift of grace for me.
I distinctly remember one day in particular when a nurse came to get me to sit with a dying baby boy. He did not have enough strength left to move his head, but his eyes would follow me as I rocked back and forth singing to him. Whether out of instinct or the urgings of the Spirit I suddenly reached out and put my finger in the palm of his hand. This infant boy did what all babies do; he closed his hand around my finger. I continued to sing, but I quit rocking as the baby and I locked our eyes upon one another. I could sense the easing of anxiety. I believed then and believe to this day there was a deep spiritual connection that in that brief time bridged the huge chasm that separated us by health, by age, by language, by race. This little child on that day was my neighbor and I was his and we loved one another. Then he died.
There are plenty of theological and psychological arguments that could explain what took place that day. But these arguments are secondary to the act of love that took place between myself and that baby who has no name but child of God. No words were said that were understood, that was not the language we used. No great arguments of theology or law were discussed. We spoke the language of love. I do not speak of romantic love, but the same love that we share with Christ in his ministry, his torture, his death, and his resurrection. Did I die with that baby to be resurrected in the love of Christ? In faith I believe this to be true. I believe we both shared in the death of Jesus and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the manifestation of Christ’s love, experienced in the extended hand of Christian fellowship.
Ultimately, what I wish to give witness to is that through the act of loving one another, two extraordinarily different human beings experienced a deep spiritual connection. Through love we became one in Christ. Love was the tie that bound us together that day and it is love that binds us together for eternity. I believe the love we shared that day is exemplary of the promise that Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 13.
Ah, the “Wedding Text.” How many of us gathered here today have preached or heard this text in the context of a wedding. Many people know this passage by heart and find it as familiar and as comfortable as a favorite pair of old shoes. The irony of course, is that this text has little to do with the love that is associated with marriage. The more accurate understanding of this chapter is in the context of Paul’s attempt to communicate to the church in Corinth the meaning, the purpose, and the necessity of love within the Christian community. Specifically, that unity and difference can be acknowledged, respected, and celebrated only when love is at the center of what we do, and who we are as a Christian community.
Against all popular opinion, this is not a passage about romantic love, but about a radical communal love that enables individuals to imagine life in a community where unity and difference co-exist.
This is good news for those of us struggling to be faithful to the gospel of the risen Christ as members of the United Church of Christ, a church that is, and continues to be, a church of diversity and inclusivity. We are a uniting church that seeks to be united in common purpose, serving the universal call to discipleship. At the same time we are a church that celebrates our differences, our diversity, the spiritual gifts that each member, each congregation, brings to the common call to service. Paul’s urging to the church in Corinth to pursue love is a help to our congregations to envision a kind of love that can have such extraordinary power as to create, sustain, and build Christian unity in the midst of our differences and diversity.
But these claims about love are not communal mandates, new commandments, but rather a promise that comes from the very beginning of time itself--a promise from God. The love that Paul asks the Corinthians to strive for is the kind of love that Jesus pursues and proclaims as the acting out of God’s love for the world. Our pursuit of love is not only for the sake of our Christian communities, but also for the purpose of God’s mission in the world.
In this season of Epiphany, our pursuit of love can bring the light of Christ to those in darkness—to the poor, to the captive, to the blind, to the oppressed, and yes to infant crack babies in the catacombs of our hospitals, and the alleys of our cities. As a community of Christ, as the United Church of Christ, we are called to bring this good news to a world fragmented and polarized. To a world that reduces meaning to sound bites and diatribes that divide and separate us from one another, a world where public discourse is reduced to loud noise, where civility is drowned out by the sound of noisy gongs and clanging cymbals of partisan talk shows masquerading as news. To this world we are called to be a sign of God’s uniting love where we can coexist in our differences united in the love of God and the love for one another.
When we are truly a community in Christ, a community that knows its unity and celebrates its diversity, a community that knows the reality of division, and yet has in view the cross that binds us together, we will be able to join Jesus and walk along with him in his ministry to those who so desperately need to hear and know his love for them, including us.
Love is the tie that binds us together. Love is a promise that unites us and nurtures us as the uniting and United Church of Christ. Love is the language of our friend and savior Christ Jesus.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Let us pursue love!
Amen.
The Politics of Identity
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
First Central Congregational Church
Omaha, Nebraska
Galatians 3:1-2, 23-29 (a paraphrase)
YOU STUPID Galatians!
Why are you deceived?
You who have known the revelation of Christ crucified and risen.
Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law,
or by the revelation received through Christ Jesus?
Before faith came,
you were held captive by the law,
awaiting the revelation of faith.
You were under the custody of the law
until you were set free by Christ’s love
and your faith was justified.
Now that you live by faith
you are no longer held captive by the law.
You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
It was by faith that you were each baptized into the living Christ
and received the identity of Christ as your own.
You are no longer identified by
nationality or tribe,
as ruler or subject,
or by gender or sexual orientation.
For as long as you live in Christ you are heirs with Christ
and given the same promise
first given to Abraham by God.
IN THE BEGINNING DIVISION
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “Why are you deceived?”
Long before Darwin and his disciples the world has sought to divide and classify us and separate us into groups that give us a fragmented identity. This fragmented identity emphasizes a particularity, a characteristic, a part of who we are as the definitive characteristic of our identity. This fragmented identity becomes an exclusive identity by which we are known, labeled, categorized, and valued by the society in which we live, play, and work.
We are defined and separated by what we do!
We are doctors, nurses, technicians, lawyers, judges, teachers, scientists, politicians, artists, musicians, photographers, bankers, brokers, carpenters, cashiers, farmers, ranchers, architects, community organizers, expediters, designers, engineers, stay at home moms, stay at home dads, writers, firemen, postal carriers, garbage collectors, social workers, police officers, brick layers, roofers, day care workers, printers, truck drivers, ship builders, dock workers, advocates, preachers, prophets, and tent makers.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our physical characteristic!
We are women, we are men, we are children, and we are adults. We are gay, we are straight, we are bisexual, and we are transgender. We are pink, we are yellow, we are brown, and we are black. We are handicapped, we are blind, and we are deaf. We are young, we are old, and we are somewhere in between struggling with our mid-life crisis. We are athletic, and we are athletically challenged. We are anorexic, and we are obese. We are a knock out, and we are homely. We are buff, and we are couch potatoes.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our mental attributes!
We are smart, we are stupid, we are intellectual, we are pragmatic, we are creative, we are intuitive, we are emotional, and we are analytical. We are extroverts, and we are introverts. We are bilingual, and we struggle to make ourselves understood in our native language. We can speak in the language of numbers, and we see numbers as pretty shapes. We are articulate, and we struggle to get our words right. We think and speak in absolutes, metaphors, irony, and abstractions. We are obtuse. We keep our own council.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our National citizenship and ethnic heritage.
We are American. We are Mexican. We are Czech, Polish, Irish, Russian, English, Italian, French, Palestinian, Israeli, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Canadian, South African, Lakota, Dakota, Creek, Cheyenne, Navaho, and we are Hopi. We are legal immigrants, and we are illegal immigrants. We are Uzbek, and we are Kyrgyz. We are Turk, we are Armenian, and we are Kurd.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by communities of exclusivity.
We are progressives, and we are fundamentalist. We are Republicans, we are Democrats, and we are Independents. We are moveon.org activists, and we are tea party activists. We are internationalists, and we are isolationists. We are conservative, and we are liberal. We are Huskers, and we are Sooners. We are northerners, we are southerners, we are east coast, we are west coast, and we are midwesterners. We are traditional, and we are contemporary. We are institutional, and we are dissenters. We are Protestants, we are Catholic, and we are Orthodox. We are Buddhists, we are Jewish, we are Hindu, we are Sunni, we are Shia, we are Wiccan, we are pagan, we are agnostic, and we are atheist.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
A LONGING FOR SOMETHING NEW
We only have to look at the news with all its sensationalized images of war, violence, poverty, greed, and environmental horror to understand the consequences of the way we as ordinary human beings define and separate ourselves from one another and from God. Each of these identities carries with it characteristics, expectations, traditions, and boundaries that seem to separate us from one another, and binds us to a downward spiral of self destruction that in the end threatens to destroy humankind, along with all of creation.
But not every way we define ourselves is as bad as that. In the midst of all the ugliness of human behavior within this world, there is still a lot of good that takes place in life. We can find joy in our work, in our families, in our social and cultural connections. Little acts of kindness take place everyday, often where we least expect it, often out of sight. People all over the world seem to find the courage to stand up and speak truth to power, to witness to the call for justice. Individuals and entire communities are working to find ways to live sustainable lives, living in harmony with the environment and the human community. This community of faith, that gathers here in this place, certainly brings great joy and hope to many within and beyond these sanctuary walls, as it courageously seeks new ways to faithfully offer radical hospitality to those who seek to join in communion with one another, no matter where they might be on life’s journey.
Those who seek to make social and political criticism into a simplistic dichotomy between good and evil, or between religion and secularism, or any other duality, are missing the remnant beauty that still resides in the human heart and in creation. Those pundits who play the blame game putting the responsibility for violence and injustice enacted everyday upon one national or ethnic group, or upon one political party or another, one social or cultural affiliation, are only furthering the ugly divisiveness that fuels our self destructive behavior.
For some of us there is a longing for something radically different than what the world as it defines itself is offering. For some of us from deep down in the ground of our very being there is a longing for a world that is filled with peace and love between people. There are those among us who long for a radical inclusive community where everyone is truly welcome no matter what there personal God given characteristics might be. There are those in this world who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the very idea that human beings can live in community together defined not by hate and violence, greed and brutality, but instead by mutual love and respect. There is little evidence that would lead any practical person to believe this to be possible. But at the end of the day if we are honest with ourselves and take the time to listen to that still voice speaking from within our silence there remains deep down within us a longing for something different, something new.
PAUL'S MESSAGE
As angry as Paul is in his confrontation with Peter and those in the church at Galatia who are urging the community of faith return to the bondage of Deuteronomic law, Paul is still speaking in love to the longing shared by human beings for inclusion in God’s love, and an end to all those things that separate us from God and from one another. For Paul none of this made sense outside of the incarnational event of Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection.
Paul understood the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to reconcile the world. This event initiated a new creation, which included a radically inclusive new promise—a promise based on faith and not law. Paul knew that the law could not justify the promise being offered the world through Jesus Christ. Paul saw the law as limited in its exclusivity and thus inadequate to redeem the world. Paul understood the law as a temporary measure given by God to Moses as a nursemaid for the children of Israel until that time when faith was revealed to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul preached the same message wherever he went, from town to town, and even from his jail cell. Paul’s message was that this Jesus of Nazareth, was in fact God coming to be one with us, both fully God and fully human. The world in sin rejected Jesus the Christ, humiliated him, crucified him dead and buried. As an act of grace God conquered death and on the third day Christ rose from the dead that the world might be reconciled unto God. In this act God was creating within himself a new creation. Paul believed that the life we now live is itself in the process of becoming new; that the horror we are seeing in the world in which we live is merely the death throws of the old life and the birth pangs of the new life. And in this new life in Christ, God is putting to an end all those things that divide and separate us from one another and from God. God is fulfilling the promise to reconcile all people with one another, with all of creation, and with God.
So with a radical proclamation of God’s inclusive love, Paul declares that there is no longer Jew or Greek, Male or Female, Slave or Free. By the faith of Jesus Christ and through our baptism we are made into a new people having as new creatures the identity of Christ. As Paul said of himself, “It is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives within me.” Because our identity is now in Christ our faith is justified. And because our faith is justified, we are now to be included in God’s kingdom as heirs to the promise given to Abraham--the father of faith.
REASON TO DOUBT
But Paul himself was martyred. Executed by those most threatened by the radical message of God’s inclusive love. And as we look around us today at the world we live in it should not surprise us that it is despair and cynicism that appears justified, not hope and faith. The harder one looks at the world we live in with its horror, violence, destruction, greed, and just plain indifference to the self-destructive nature of human kind, we are compelled to ask ourselves can our faith actually be justified? Can any one of us with a straight face proclaim that we are in the midst of the continuing birth pangs of a new creation when the world is filled with nation at war against nation, tribe at war against tribe, when human greed and hubris is destroying the life of the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings—the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, all living creatures. There may come a day when the oil leaking from the bottom of the ocean is stopped. But there is no evidence that the human condition that led to this horror, and all other horrors inflicted on nature and on the human community, will ever stop.
The truth is that there is nothing in our ordinary daily lives that would justify our hope, or our faith. And to argue with the world according to the laws of observation and so-called common sense appears to be a lost cause. Not even self-interest, or threats of apocalyptic self-destruction, seem capable of changing the way human beings and human communities live their self-destructive lives.
IN THE END UNITY
But we are the people of the empty tomb. We hang on to our hope that our faith is justified in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. The world might think us stupid and call us foolish. But we are a people who dare to hope even when the world would have us believe that only despair is justified. As Paul says we are fools for Christ. We are fools who dare to hope that it is possible to live with one another in love and justice. We are fools who believe that a day is coming when we can say that peace has arrived and war is no more. We are a people who foolishly speak of a day when love sustains all life; a day so mysterious that we must speak in metaphor--a day when the calf and the lion lie down together, and the little child plays over the viper’s den. And in a time when so many people in this world believe that God is dead, we are a people who foolishly proclaim that God is still speaking.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a hopeful people. We hope for something that will bring us together in all our diversity, no matter where we might be on life’s journey, as one community. Through love we seek out ways that affirm and value diversity while powerfully uniting us together in faith. We long for a day when the pursuit of our own ambitions and sustenance is not in competition with the health and well being of others, or the sustainability of this planet and all the creatures that live here. And our hope gives us the courage to be a people that goes about its work, its play, its community and family life, free of the divisive ways the world would use to define and confine us. Hope gives us courage, the courage to be free of all that would divide and separate us from one another.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a people of faith. We are a people who unable to justify faith on our own dare to proclaim that the faith of Jesus Christ is sufficient to redeem all of creation, creating us and the world we live in anew. We are a people who justify ourselves, our identities, our very being as being mystically united with the identity of Christ and proclaim that by that union our faith is justified.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a people of love. Who proclaim that love is more than sentimentality, or the coming together of kindred people. We proclaim a love that is powerful enough to reconcile an entire world making a new creation of a world bent on self-destruction. It is love that sustains us during this time when the old world is destroying itself and the new creation is being born.
Now what about all those identities that the world uses to divide and separate people? In the end we keep all those characteristics, but not the identity. These characteristics contribute to who we are as people. After all, Paul did not stop making tents as he traveled from town to town preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul did not stop struggling with his own humanity whether it is his famous complaint of a thorn in his side, or his confessed inability to stop doing what he would not do or to do what he would do. Paul, like us, retained his humanity. But these very human characteristics no longer separate us from our brothers and sisters in Christ, nor do they separate us from our God. In Christ we were chosen by God and given a new identity. It is God who defines who we are and who we are becoming.
We are a people defined by the faith of Jesus Christ. And in faith we proclaim that there is unity in Jesus Christ. We are a people who say to the world in ordinary ways that in Jesus, the Sacred and the Ordinary have become one. We live our lives in the assurance that by faith the sacred and the ordinary are united in our own lives, and in our life together. And by the faith of Jesus Christ, as children of God, in all of our diversity and particularity, we are made one in Christ.
So we have hope and our hope gives us courage. We have faith and our faith is justified. And we have love and love sustains us. Thanks be to God! Amen.
First Central Congregational Church
Omaha, Nebraska
Galatians 3:1-2, 23-29 (a paraphrase)
YOU STUPID Galatians!
Why are you deceived?
You who have known the revelation of Christ crucified and risen.
Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law,
or by the revelation received through Christ Jesus?
Before faith came,
you were held captive by the law,
awaiting the revelation of faith.
You were under the custody of the law
until you were set free by Christ’s love
and your faith was justified.
Now that you live by faith
you are no longer held captive by the law.
You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
It was by faith that you were each baptized into the living Christ
and received the identity of Christ as your own.
You are no longer identified by
nationality or tribe,
as ruler or subject,
or by gender or sexual orientation.
For as long as you live in Christ you are heirs with Christ
and given the same promise
first given to Abraham by God.
IN THE BEGINNING DIVISION
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “Why are you deceived?”
Long before Darwin and his disciples the world has sought to divide and classify us and separate us into groups that give us a fragmented identity. This fragmented identity emphasizes a particularity, a characteristic, a part of who we are as the definitive characteristic of our identity. This fragmented identity becomes an exclusive identity by which we are known, labeled, categorized, and valued by the society in which we live, play, and work.
We are defined and separated by what we do!
We are doctors, nurses, technicians, lawyers, judges, teachers, scientists, politicians, artists, musicians, photographers, bankers, brokers, carpenters, cashiers, farmers, ranchers, architects, community organizers, expediters, designers, engineers, stay at home moms, stay at home dads, writers, firemen, postal carriers, garbage collectors, social workers, police officers, brick layers, roofers, day care workers, printers, truck drivers, ship builders, dock workers, advocates, preachers, prophets, and tent makers.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our physical characteristic!
We are women, we are men, we are children, and we are adults. We are gay, we are straight, we are bisexual, and we are transgender. We are pink, we are yellow, we are brown, and we are black. We are handicapped, we are blind, and we are deaf. We are young, we are old, and we are somewhere in between struggling with our mid-life crisis. We are athletic, and we are athletically challenged. We are anorexic, and we are obese. We are a knock out, and we are homely. We are buff, and we are couch potatoes.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our mental attributes!
We are smart, we are stupid, we are intellectual, we are pragmatic, we are creative, we are intuitive, we are emotional, and we are analytical. We are extroverts, and we are introverts. We are bilingual, and we struggle to make ourselves understood in our native language. We can speak in the language of numbers, and we see numbers as pretty shapes. We are articulate, and we struggle to get our words right. We think and speak in absolutes, metaphors, irony, and abstractions. We are obtuse. We keep our own council.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by our National citizenship and ethnic heritage.
We are American. We are Mexican. We are Czech, Polish, Irish, Russian, English, Italian, French, Palestinian, Israeli, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Canadian, South African, Lakota, Dakota, Creek, Cheyenne, Navaho, and we are Hopi. We are legal immigrants, and we are illegal immigrants. We are Uzbek, and we are Kyrgyz. We are Turk, we are Armenian, and we are Kurd.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
We are defined and separated by communities of exclusivity.
We are progressives, and we are fundamentalist. We are Republicans, we are Democrats, and we are Independents. We are moveon.org activists, and we are tea party activists. We are internationalists, and we are isolationists. We are conservative, and we are liberal. We are Huskers, and we are Sooners. We are northerners, we are southerners, we are east coast, we are west coast, and we are midwesterners. We are traditional, and we are contemporary. We are institutional, and we are dissenters. We are Protestants, we are Catholic, and we are Orthodox. We are Buddhists, we are Jewish, we are Hindu, we are Sunni, we are Shia, we are Wiccan, we are pagan, we are agnostic, and we are atheist.
And Paul says, “You stupid Galatians!” “ Why are you deceived?”
A LONGING FOR SOMETHING NEW
We only have to look at the news with all its sensationalized images of war, violence, poverty, greed, and environmental horror to understand the consequences of the way we as ordinary human beings define and separate ourselves from one another and from God. Each of these identities carries with it characteristics, expectations, traditions, and boundaries that seem to separate us from one another, and binds us to a downward spiral of self destruction that in the end threatens to destroy humankind, along with all of creation.
But not every way we define ourselves is as bad as that. In the midst of all the ugliness of human behavior within this world, there is still a lot of good that takes place in life. We can find joy in our work, in our families, in our social and cultural connections. Little acts of kindness take place everyday, often where we least expect it, often out of sight. People all over the world seem to find the courage to stand up and speak truth to power, to witness to the call for justice. Individuals and entire communities are working to find ways to live sustainable lives, living in harmony with the environment and the human community. This community of faith, that gathers here in this place, certainly brings great joy and hope to many within and beyond these sanctuary walls, as it courageously seeks new ways to faithfully offer radical hospitality to those who seek to join in communion with one another, no matter where they might be on life’s journey.
Those who seek to make social and political criticism into a simplistic dichotomy between good and evil, or between religion and secularism, or any other duality, are missing the remnant beauty that still resides in the human heart and in creation. Those pundits who play the blame game putting the responsibility for violence and injustice enacted everyday upon one national or ethnic group, or upon one political party or another, one social or cultural affiliation, are only furthering the ugly divisiveness that fuels our self destructive behavior.
For some of us there is a longing for something radically different than what the world as it defines itself is offering. For some of us from deep down in the ground of our very being there is a longing for a world that is filled with peace and love between people. There are those among us who long for a radical inclusive community where everyone is truly welcome no matter what there personal God given characteristics might be. There are those in this world who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the very idea that human beings can live in community together defined not by hate and violence, greed and brutality, but instead by mutual love and respect. There is little evidence that would lead any practical person to believe this to be possible. But at the end of the day if we are honest with ourselves and take the time to listen to that still voice speaking from within our silence there remains deep down within us a longing for something different, something new.
PAUL'S MESSAGE
As angry as Paul is in his confrontation with Peter and those in the church at Galatia who are urging the community of faith return to the bondage of Deuteronomic law, Paul is still speaking in love to the longing shared by human beings for inclusion in God’s love, and an end to all those things that separate us from God and from one another. For Paul none of this made sense outside of the incarnational event of Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection.
Paul understood the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to reconcile the world. This event initiated a new creation, which included a radically inclusive new promise—a promise based on faith and not law. Paul knew that the law could not justify the promise being offered the world through Jesus Christ. Paul saw the law as limited in its exclusivity and thus inadequate to redeem the world. Paul understood the law as a temporary measure given by God to Moses as a nursemaid for the children of Israel until that time when faith was revealed to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul preached the same message wherever he went, from town to town, and even from his jail cell. Paul’s message was that this Jesus of Nazareth, was in fact God coming to be one with us, both fully God and fully human. The world in sin rejected Jesus the Christ, humiliated him, crucified him dead and buried. As an act of grace God conquered death and on the third day Christ rose from the dead that the world might be reconciled unto God. In this act God was creating within himself a new creation. Paul believed that the life we now live is itself in the process of becoming new; that the horror we are seeing in the world in which we live is merely the death throws of the old life and the birth pangs of the new life. And in this new life in Christ, God is putting to an end all those things that divide and separate us from one another and from God. God is fulfilling the promise to reconcile all people with one another, with all of creation, and with God.
So with a radical proclamation of God’s inclusive love, Paul declares that there is no longer Jew or Greek, Male or Female, Slave or Free. By the faith of Jesus Christ and through our baptism we are made into a new people having as new creatures the identity of Christ. As Paul said of himself, “It is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives within me.” Because our identity is now in Christ our faith is justified. And because our faith is justified, we are now to be included in God’s kingdom as heirs to the promise given to Abraham--the father of faith.
REASON TO DOUBT
But Paul himself was martyred. Executed by those most threatened by the radical message of God’s inclusive love. And as we look around us today at the world we live in it should not surprise us that it is despair and cynicism that appears justified, not hope and faith. The harder one looks at the world we live in with its horror, violence, destruction, greed, and just plain indifference to the self-destructive nature of human kind, we are compelled to ask ourselves can our faith actually be justified? Can any one of us with a straight face proclaim that we are in the midst of the continuing birth pangs of a new creation when the world is filled with nation at war against nation, tribe at war against tribe, when human greed and hubris is destroying the life of the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings—the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, all living creatures. There may come a day when the oil leaking from the bottom of the ocean is stopped. But there is no evidence that the human condition that led to this horror, and all other horrors inflicted on nature and on the human community, will ever stop.
The truth is that there is nothing in our ordinary daily lives that would justify our hope, or our faith. And to argue with the world according to the laws of observation and so-called common sense appears to be a lost cause. Not even self-interest, or threats of apocalyptic self-destruction, seem capable of changing the way human beings and human communities live their self-destructive lives.
IN THE END UNITY
But we are the people of the empty tomb. We hang on to our hope that our faith is justified in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. The world might think us stupid and call us foolish. But we are a people who dare to hope even when the world would have us believe that only despair is justified. As Paul says we are fools for Christ. We are fools who dare to hope that it is possible to live with one another in love and justice. We are fools who believe that a day is coming when we can say that peace has arrived and war is no more. We are a people who foolishly speak of a day when love sustains all life; a day so mysterious that we must speak in metaphor--a day when the calf and the lion lie down together, and the little child plays over the viper’s den. And in a time when so many people in this world believe that God is dead, we are a people who foolishly proclaim that God is still speaking.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a hopeful people. We hope for something that will bring us together in all our diversity, no matter where we might be on life’s journey, as one community. Through love we seek out ways that affirm and value diversity while powerfully uniting us together in faith. We long for a day when the pursuit of our own ambitions and sustenance is not in competition with the health and well being of others, or the sustainability of this planet and all the creatures that live here. And our hope gives us the courage to be a people that goes about its work, its play, its community and family life, free of the divisive ways the world would use to define and confine us. Hope gives us courage, the courage to be free of all that would divide and separate us from one another.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a people of faith. We are a people who unable to justify faith on our own dare to proclaim that the faith of Jesus Christ is sufficient to redeem all of creation, creating us and the world we live in anew. We are a people who justify ourselves, our identities, our very being as being mystically united with the identity of Christ and proclaim that by that union our faith is justified.
The world might think us stupid and call us foolish, but…
We are a people of love. Who proclaim that love is more than sentimentality, or the coming together of kindred people. We proclaim a love that is powerful enough to reconcile an entire world making a new creation of a world bent on self-destruction. It is love that sustains us during this time when the old world is destroying itself and the new creation is being born.
Now what about all those identities that the world uses to divide and separate people? In the end we keep all those characteristics, but not the identity. These characteristics contribute to who we are as people. After all, Paul did not stop making tents as he traveled from town to town preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul did not stop struggling with his own humanity whether it is his famous complaint of a thorn in his side, or his confessed inability to stop doing what he would not do or to do what he would do. Paul, like us, retained his humanity. But these very human characteristics no longer separate us from our brothers and sisters in Christ, nor do they separate us from our God. In Christ we were chosen by God and given a new identity. It is God who defines who we are and who we are becoming.
We are a people defined by the faith of Jesus Christ. And in faith we proclaim that there is unity in Jesus Christ. We are a people who say to the world in ordinary ways that in Jesus, the Sacred and the Ordinary have become one. We live our lives in the assurance that by faith the sacred and the ordinary are united in our own lives, and in our life together. And by the faith of Jesus Christ, as children of God, in all of our diversity and particularity, we are made one in Christ.
So we have hope and our hope gives us courage. We have faith and our faith is justified. And we have love and love sustains us. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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