Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Pray unceasingly?
I have shared with this congregation before that one way that I used to try and condition myself to pray unceasingly was every time I saw an ad on the El or a billboard or a newspaper ad or even a license plate holder that said Wolfe Ford etc., I would offer up a quick, Hi God, kind of prayer. I got good at it. Of course, this worked much better in Chicago than it does here, as there were many more ads and it generally works better when you are alone than when you are having a conversation with someone. Nonetheless, I can't tell you how awesome of a spiritual discipline that was, so I would encourage it. However, as frequent as advertisements of all sorts are, does that really qualify as 'unceasingly'. Unceasing, nonstop, without end, constantly. This, it would seem, is impossible, right. What kind of cruel trick is it to demand the impossible from us? If this is the kind of responsibility that is being laid upon our shoulders, why are we so darn excited over the coming of the Christ child anyhow?
As we studied this passage in our Prayer Warriors group, we came across the idea that prayer is generally seen as either a monologue or a dialog. In other words, many of us think of prayer as a type of meditation- a spiritual way of talking to oneself. Or prayers where you offer up your sins and don't really expect a booming voice that says, “you are forgiven,” but have the assurance that it was heard. Monologue is probably the most common type of prayer. Others think of prayer as a conversation with God – a dialog. We expect that prayer ought go something like this... We ask God a question and God answers. “God, what should I do?” and we look for signs of what to do. “God, I need healing for...” and we look for signs of God's healing. Most of us don't expect a verbal response from God, but we look for signs. In our culture, we call people who talk to God Christians. People who talk to God a lot we call saints. People who hear God talking to them we call schizophrenic. So true dialog is rare in our context.
I looked to Rev. John Wesley's notes on the New Testament to see if I could gain some insight into how much prayer, monologue or dialog, that we had to really engage in in order to consider ourselves to be praying unceasingly. I mean, come on, surely we don't need to be offering up prayers while were sitting back and listening to music or operating heavy machinery or sleeping do we?
Well, Wesley cuts us no slack. First, he reminds us of the context that this command comes in. Paul says, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This makes it even harder, because it limits the type of pray that we are to do unceasingly. I am a big fan of the beautiful lamentations we read throughout Scripture. Also, I find the very idea that God encourages us, pleads with us, to go to Godsself, straight to the big cheese of the universe no need for a middle man but to the creator of all with our requests and petitions- I find this idea to be one of the most awesome concepts that we believe as Christians. Yet, these petitions don't seem to count toward our praying unceasingly quota. The text tells us to give prayers of rejoicing unceasingly. To have, as Wesley puts it, “uninterrupted happiness in God.” He goes on to say that praying unceasingly is the “fruit of always rejoicing in the Lord.” And in turn, giving thanks for everything is the fruit of both the rejoicing and praying. Giving thanks is the fruit, not a command to give thanks, but a reward of giving thanks. How odd. You do something and your reward is that you get to say thanks to the party that you did something for. Odd man mister Wesley is. But before we dismiss this as some queer passing fancy that he cranked out one morning let me tell you that all of what makes Wesleyan theology unique, the driving theological point that makes us distinctive as a people called United Methodists, lies on what comes after. In giving thanks for everything, we practice “Christian perfection.” And that is our Wesleyan take on humanity. We are not totally depraved beings. We are not absolved from responsibility with the attitude that if God wants us to be good, its up to God that we are good. No, we hold that, through the grace of God it is each of our responsibilities to be not only good, but perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. And what is this perfection? Giving thanks always. Wesley tells us, “further than this we cannot go; and we need not stop short of it.” Sisters and brothers, you and I are capable of perfection, in this life, and it is somehow tied up in this idea of praying unceasingly. This idea of giving thanks, unceasingly. Wesley tells us that we can compare prayers to breathing- the breath of our spiritual life. “He that lives cannot possibly cease breathing.” Unceasing prayer is not a goal that we are working toward. It is the very life-line, the very oxygen of our spiritual lives and if we don't do it, we are simply dead.
These words from our founder laid down so heavily upon me last Tuesday night as I explored them and prayed over them. I was blessed, or maybe more accurately, I was cursed with the confidence that these words were God's truth. That Christian life depended on praying unceasingly and anything short is just pretending, just going through the motions. Well, I have to tell you, I am not in constant dialog or even monologue with God. Sisters and brothers, I can now tell you what despair over one's soul is really like.
So, I continued working on the text. I continued praying over the text. Let me tell you, sisters and brothers, we do not call the life of Jesus Christ good news for nothing. Let me tell you about another assurance that I had this week. An assurance that completely changed everything that I thought I knew about salvation, everything that I thought I knew about God, everything that I thought that I had learned in seminary, and many things that I had preached in this very pulpit. The humbling realization that I came to is that my conception of God was too small and my conception of prayer was too narrow. Let me back up spell and tell you that Ann and I have had a rough couple of weeks on several fronts. But we have been going through each challenge and each sorrow together. This is what relationship is about. A relationship is not about endless chatter, though a deep relationship has constant communication. A relationship is not constant back-scratching- that is, a healthy relationship does not depend exclusively on a 'you do this and then I'll do that' sort of transactions. So, why did I think that God wanted to hear constant chatter from our lips? Why did I think that the basis of our relationship with God is quid pro quo transactions? “God, I offer you praise, you bless me with your peace. Deal? Deal.”
Sisters and brothers, prayer is relationship with God. Prayer is not just talking to God or even talking with God. Prayer is being in an ever thankful relationship with God. Praying unceasingly, is throwing your lot totally in with God. It is marrying God, sharing a mortgage with God so to speak. Making what is good for God, good for you. Making what is disdained by God, disdained by you. Seeing the world, seeing your very life- not as something independent from God, but coexisting through God- that is unceasing prayer. That is true relationship with God. That is being born of the Spirit. That is Christian perfection. Amen?
You know, I got to be honest here. I never really liked the 'holiday season' much. I always saw a disconnect between the gifts given to rich children and the astonishing lack of our nation's and world's poor- all in the name of celebrating the birth of a lowly child in a manger. I am not a big fan of the hoaky songs that every single top 40 artist whips up to market for the holidays. And there is nothing like obnoxious drivers in overcrowded parking lots to sap your enthusiasm for Christmas. But, what if I truly prayed unceasingly? What if I truly saw the world through the eyes Christ and heard my sisters and brothers through the ears of God? What might I discover then? In this season of Advent, this season of preparation, this season of repentance and evaluation of our relationship to God- lets take stock in what we see and hear. A friend sent me an e-mail that invited me to think back to the sights and sounds of the holiday. To use the sights and sounds of today as sort of a litmus test of how we see the birth of a baby in a manger 2000 years ago. Think with me...
When you listened to the news do you see chaos and strife, or do you see sheep without a shepherd? When you went out to do your shopping did you see only hordes of people in the stores, or did you notice the worried expressions on some of their faces--worried because they are facing this Christmas without employment or without enough money and they don't know how they are going to make ends meet. Did this move you to compassion in the way that God is moved at each of our trials?
What did you hear this Christmas?
Did you hear only the blast of music and carols, or did you hear the silent sighs of the lonely and the bereaved who may be dreading Christmas because it accentuates their loneliness? What did you do to alleviate some of the world's loneliness? And in the midst of the sounds of honking horns and people arguing over parking places, did you hear faint sounds of laughter coming from church missions projects because you furnished food and toys for families and children and helped to rebuild a church in Gulf Port?
You see, so often what you see and what you hear is not dependent upon the event but upon your relationship with God. If you did in fact hear the cry from the lonely, the laughter of poor children, if you saw the sheep without a shepherd, then, and only then, might you have noticed the events that took place in Bethlehem that night. If you lacked that spiritual seeing and hearing then you probably would have been with the 99% who were present but who saw or heard nothing out of the ordinary.
One hymn, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, puts it best: “No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin. Where meek souls shall receive him still, the dear Christ enters in”.
Sisters and brothers, this Advent season and beyond, let us accept nothing short of perfection from ourselves. Let us pray unceasingly, prayers of thanksgiving. Sisters and brothers, as we commune with one another and our Lord this evening, let us be of a mind to have a perfect communion. A perfect merging of God's will and our own. As we take the body of Christ, let it transform us so that we can be the eyes and ears of Christ for the world. Amen? Amen.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Be Prepared!
November 6, 2005
Scripture Lessons
Hebrew Scripture Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Epistle Reading 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13
This is a text about being prepared. Do we have any boy scouts here? Join me in the Scout's Pledge...
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
And what is the Scout motto? Be prepared. This morning, we are going to look at what it might mean to be prepared for the Kingdom of God. What will be required of us when we wake up to see the bridegroom ready to start the feast? As we dig through the Scriptures, we find at least 3 themes. We need to be prepared by accepting Christ, by laying down a firm foundation, by being prepared in prayer.
If we want to be at the Wedding Feast of the bridegroom, we have to first get on the guest list. We have all been given the invitation. You may remember from four weeks ago when Jesus said, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who threw a banquet and ultimately invited everyone. Or our first talk on grace, the Prevenient Grace, that is nothing more than an invitation- God wooing us since the dawn of creation. But to get on the guest-list, you have to say 'Yes'. To turn in the R.S.V.P. A.S.A.P. The unfortunate and uncomfortable reality, the one that we are embarrassed to talk about, is that accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is a requirement, a prerequisite, to getting on the guest list of the heavenly banquet. Be prepared by accepting Jesus Christ.
But simply being on the guest list is not enough. In this allegory, we are told ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” Now lets stop right there. I think that it is safe to assume that all of the bridesmaids at the wedding are on the guest list for the banquet. But as we read on, we see that only half of them make it through the gates. The tradition has always held that the bridesmaids represent the church. And so, this allegory is a tragedy. Think of a wedding, any wedding that you may have participated in. When I have think weddings that I have been a part of, and I think of the rest of the wedding party, and then I think of how I would feel if half of my friends couldn't go to the reception- it saddens me. And so, even for those who are prepared, who are invited in to the heavenly banquet, there will always be a tinge of sadness and regret. Why didn't I remind my friends to go get some oil? Why didn't I do more to make sure that they had what they needed? Could I have given them a ride to the lamp shop? Could I have made the oil more accessible to all? At the end of the day though, it is up to each of us to be prepared. “Oh nobody else, will walk it for us; we have to walk it by ourselves.”
We need to be prepared by laying down a solid foundation. We read before about the wise and the foolish. We read how the wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his on the sand. To get at what we mean by being prepared with a firm foundation let us look at the real story of Rosa Parks. I have heard repeated many times this week the lies that my teacher told me. The story of Rosa Parks usually goes something like this. Once upon a time, their was an African-American woman in the south who sat down in the front of a bus. Then a white man came along and asked for her seat. Well, she was tired and didn't want to move to the back of the bus so she decided to say, “no” and this started the Civil Rights Movement.
This is the way the story usually goes. You get the image of a regular old lady who one day just snaps at the injustice around her and says, “no”. The real story, as told by Ms. Parks herself, is that she had been actively involved in the civil-rights movement for quite some time before this historic day. In fact, she was the secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP. Parks said, "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Ms. Parks did not come out of nowhere. She was shaped in a community- 2 communities to be more precise. The first was the American South, where from the day she was born she was told that she was inferior, that she had to walk to her nearly condemned school while the white kids took their new bus to their new school. She was told that she was inferior when absolutely everything in her society was given a label of white and black. Most of us believe what we are told over a lifetime- and that is a powerful reason why segregation lasted so long. But she was also a part of another community. She was brought up in strength in the civil rights movement. Through this other community she was putting into practice what she had read all along in the Scriptures- that she was a child of God and therefore equal to all other children of God. It was this community building her up that gave her the foundation needed to stand up against that bus driver. Alone, she would have crumbled. But with her foundation, she recalls that she felt like she had a warm quilt of strength at the moment when she felt called to make history.
If we are going to be prepared for the kingdom of heaven, we need to ensure that we have a solid foundation. A foundation that only comes from being in the community that we call the church. It is only by allowing ourselves to be shaped into the body of Christ that we are able to be prepared. That is why communion is so important for us. It is the table that we gather around that builds us up in community. That allows us to commune with Jesus Christ and with one another. Be prepared by making a firm foundation.
Be prepared to pray. Being prepared to pray means that in any circumstances, a prayer is ready on your lips. And the only way that you can do that is if it is such an ingrained habit that you can't help but pray.
“Mary Lou Retton catapulted to international fame at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, becoming the first American [to] ever win the Gold Medal in the All-Around in women's gymnastics. When asked about the secret of her success, Mary Lou said, "To be a complete gymnast, someone should be able to sneak up [might I add, like a thief in the night] and drag you out at midnight [maybe like the bridegroom], push you out on some strange floor -- and you should be able to do your entire routine sound asleep in your pajamas. That's the secret. It's got to be a natural reaction."”
Because of the countless hours spent in the gym practicing, gymnastics became as natural to Mary Lou as breathing. So this morning we ask ourselves, does praising God come naturally to you? The opportunity for practice is now. Practice now so that you will be ready to spend eternity praising Him. Through prayer and song, each day is another day to perfect your praise. (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 10-19-05)
We hear the same idea being illustrated as an explanation of why Japanese school children generally have a higher level of math skills than their American counterparts. Parents expect that their 8 year old children will not just know their multiplication tables, but ought to be able to tell you what 8 times 7 is when awoken from a deep sleep. Pray needs to be an immediate reaction to everything- that which comes before all else- worry, action, anger whatever. Prayer must come first. Matthew makes it clear in his telling of Jesus' parable that all of the bridesmaids were asleep. Elsewhere, we read that the bridegroom, that is Jesus, will come like a thief in the night. There are some who interpret the term gregoreo, keep alert, in the sense that we should constantly be on the lookout for the parousia, the end of the world and the coming of Christ. This is not the message that we see here. The idea is not that we need to be second guessing the time of the second coming, because scriptures say that that is the work of false prophets. Instead, we are to be in a state of constant readiness. We are not meant to have panicky last-minute anxiety, but the assurance of doing the appropriate thing at all times. I think back to school and those times where I waited until the night before to cram in everything that I thought would be on the test. And I compare the stress of those times to the other ones where I simply kept up with studying over the course of the semester. In the former, life was hell. I certainly did not enjoy the material and dreaded the test even more. But when I was prepared, I was able to soak in what I was learning, enjoy the growth, and when the test came, I enjoyed taking it in order to demonstrate what I had learned. This is the difference alluded to in this text. The bridesmaids see the bridegroom coming and some run off for last second preparations and others are prepared and greet him. It is as simple as that. Which path are you going to choose? Might I suggest being prepared by accepting Christ, establishing the foundation that can only come through community, and by being prepared in prayer. Amen?
Monday, October 17, 2005
The Amazing Prevenient Grace
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Amazing Grace. What is grace? The word grace comes from the Greek word charis, which means 'gift'. And hence the first word in this classic text. Amazing. What is so amazing about grace? Well, it just defies common sense. This is amazing because, if you think about, we are being offered a relationship with God. Little ol us, great big God. This is amazing. It is amazing that God has asked us into the Kingdom. In fact, God created us, with the hope that we would be in God's kingdom through God's grace. Grace is amazing because it is unearnable. It is a free gift given to us by a generous God. That is amazing because few of us, unless we are truly partaking in Christian charity give gifts freely. I'll be honest- I generally give nicer gifts to my brother than I do my sister because my sister generally gives nicer gifts to me than my brother. But God's grace- grace that climaxes in the gift of son Jesus Christ.
As I was typing my notes for this, I found something interesting. Unearnable is not even in the dictionary, let alone MS Word's spell check. Why? Because unearnable is not even in the vocabulary of the world. What do you mean unearnable? I earned everything that I have we can imagine ourselves saying. I then decided to do a Google search of the word 'unearnable'. There is no better way to get a pulse on the culture than to do a Google search. Try this at home. I only glanced at the summaries of the first 50 hits, but every single one of them linked to someone talking about God’s Grace. I think that is why some of us have a hard time getting our heads around what unearnable grace might mean. This must be why Jesus had to use such stark images in his parables and why Paul had to go to exhausting lengths at telling us about faith over works, and why the church has had to have so many painful corrections throughout the years. We simply cannot get our minds around unearnable. But think about it. What could we possibly offer to God? God the almighty, the one who created everything out of nothing. The alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the big cheese over all. What could we possibly offer? Well, those who have been in a healthy relationship may know the answer. Love. God created us, God fashioned us in God’s image, and God desires one thing from us. Our love. Love that is forced, love that is manipulated like a giant puppet master is not love at all. So God gave us each wills. God gave each of us free choice. God gave us the opportunity to accept and return God’s love and like any partner in a healthy relationship, God gives us the ability to reject it. To go our own way. Alone. And look to the extremes which God went to in order to offer us the opportunity to enter into relationship.
The way that it is put in the old standard liturgy for communion, "Hear the Good News: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. This proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven." Now if that is not a sweet sound, I don't know what is. God calls us. God gives us the ability to answer the call. God gives us the means to sustain a healthy and thriving relationship with God. This is what grace is all about. Over the next two days, you will be hearing about this grace. More importantly, I pray that you are awakened to this grace in the fullness that God intends. The first part of this grace, God calling us, theologians call Prevenient Grace. The second part, where God gives us the ability to say yes to the call, is called Justifying Grace. And the gifts to sustain the relationship is called Sanctifying Grace. We will be hearing more about Justifying and Sanctifying Grace later. But I have the honor of sharing the good news about Prevenient Grace. Write this down please. Prevenient Grace is grace that comes before. In other words, there is a gap between humanity and God. For shorthand we call this gap, this falleness from right relationship with God, sin. And the only way we can overcome this gap- the only way we can conquer sin, the only way is through God's grace. Grace is a pre-condition. Grace must happen before the relationship can go on. It is prevenient.
God loves us enough to seek us out.
“I once was lost, but now I am found.”
How was I found? Because God sought me out, that's how. God wooed me. God began courting me from before I was even born. You know, I got a some help from a colleague for this message. She offered suggestions about how I could take theological mumbo-jumbo and make it real through example. So she suggested that I think about how I might have wooed my wife Ann and then compare that to how God woos us. Well the thick headed, slow thinking fool that I can sometimes be thought, well, thats not going to work. I never wooed Ann, we just sort of happened. About 8 years ago, the summer after I went AWOL from the Navy, we started hanging out. We had common friends and it seemed like we always happened to end up at the same places. And then at the end of the summer I said something like, will you go out with me? And Ann said, we already go out all the time- where did you have in mind? No, I mean will you go out with me? She said, well sure. This was amazing. And it didn't take long for me to think, that was a pretty good idea on my part. And then at the end of the year when I was arrested for going AWOL and after a month of being in the brig was finally given visiting rights- Ann brought me homemade spinach calzones. Let me tell you, there is nothing in this world that tastes better than a spinach calzone with a flaky crust and a sweet tomato sauce, and roasted garlic and mushrooms, made with love for a Vegetarian living on bland bread and mushy peas in the brig. Now it was right about this time in my thoughts, as I was preparing my notes, that it occurred to me what I had been missing in the facts of the events. Ann wooed me. I had been wooed and didn't even know it. Here I thought that that I was going along just fine, not having a care in the world and things were happening by my great impulsive decisions and instead, Ann had been wooing me all the time. She had her sites set on me for reasons that only she knows and she wooed me. It was no accident that we were our mutual friends called us both. Nope. Ann had said, on occasion, let's call Karl and see if he will come out. She used other people to help in her wooing me. She waited patiently for me to come to the idea that I should ask her if we could deepen our relationship. And it took an unfortunate incident- something that I was certain no good could out of, for Ann to have the opportunity to demonstrate her love in the shape of a homemade calzone. And it only took me about eight years to figure this out.
This is a little like the love behind prevenient grace. God calls us. God puts us in situations where, if we but open our eyes, we can see God right before us. God uses other people to invite us into relationship, to be Jesus for us. God draws us in close, with the fruits of God's love. And here is the part to write really big on your paper. God empowers us. God empowers through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, there are two symbols for the Holy Spirit that are used in the Holy Scriptures. The first is that of a dove. The dove has always been a symbol of freedom and of peace. Therefore, it makes sense that the Holy Spirit, the agent of the only true and lasting freedom and the source of the only true and lasting freedom be depicted as a dove. But there is another description of the Holy Spirit that is just as prevelant, but not mentioned as often in our prayers and liturgies. And that is fire. We read in the book of Acts of how the Holy Spirit descended upon the first disciples like tongues of flame. And this is the image that we cannot lose. This is the image that we cannot ignore. Nikos Kazinakis put it like this... “The Spirit is fire...(that) clamps its talons int the very crown of saints, martyrs, and great strugglers, reducing them to ashes...Wake the fire! That is (our) duty. This is how we collaborate with God.”
Think about fire for a second. That is what the Holy Spirit is like. Think about the recent fires in California. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is somewhat like this. Like a powerful force changing the entire forest as well as the individual trees. Think about a raging prairie fire as it uncontrollably spreads with amazing quickness and completeness. Its awesome isn't it. I think that this is why we hesitate to use fire in our prayers and liturgies. It is too awesome to think about. It is out of our control. There are no four words that we can't bear to hear more than 'out of our control.' There is nothing that fire touches that it doesn't transform. Hear where I am getting? There is nothing that the Holy Spirit touches that it doesn't transform. There is nothing that God's grace touches that it doesn't transform. And that is why it was hard for many of us to come this weekend isn't it. Although I didn't recognize and couldn't articulate it until after my weekend, I was a hesitant to come. I had my excuses about work that needed to be done and whatnot. But the reality is I was afraid of the fire that I sensed that I would encounter. Most of us don't really want our lives changed. We want our lives to stay just as they are. To stay right here in our oblivious comfort thank you very much rather than becoming martyrs, or worse yet, saints. We want to keep the blinders on to be shielded from the power of the flame, the intense light of God's Amazing grace.
But there comes a time sisters and you two brothers when a strange stirring comes creeping into our hearts. A desire, a longing for life, and for life abundantly. If someone has felt this stirring say Amen. Wesley called it prevenient grace. The Grace that comes in and changes who we are from the very core of our being on out. Once we allow this grace to come in, God uses it to make us, to fashion us, to mold us into perfect vessals for Christ's love. Once we allow this grace to come in, our blinders are blown of.
“I was blind, but now I see.” Amen?
This prevenient grace causes our priorities to be reshaped. We see the full humanity in our fellow sisters and brothers and we see the imago dei, the image of God in each of them and in ourselves. We look for the grace that is contained in moments of crisis, moments of tragedy, earthquakes, floods, and personal losses. Events that would have broken us before, are now causes for renewed strength. When we allow God's prevenient grace to reshape us, we are beginning a road where our desires change. Where we offer ourselves in grateful service, not out of obligation or duty, but because we recognize that the more we give, the more we truly receive, Amen? We continue down a path were it is no longer a burden to answer God's call, but our one and only desire.
The scriptures describe it like this.
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost.” Amen?
Sisters and brothers, and I daresay I need to be preaching to myself- but hear this – the time is fast approaching when we need to say yes completely and fully to Jesus Christ. The time is fast approaching when we need to yell out to God set me on fire. I am so tired of compromising. I am so tired of lukewarm living. The time is fast approaching when we need to fish or cut bait. If you feel like you aren't there and you need to pray on it- pray on it. But do not use prayer as an excuse for procrastination. The real beauty of this time set aside in our normal week is that the normal cares and distractions of the world are set aside. So use this time to the fullest. As you continue on this journey, this road to Emmaus, use it as a time of listening and a time of responding to what you hear when you do listen. Use it a time to open yourself to the possibility of leaving an unfulfilled you behind and going out as a new that has life and has it abundantly.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Sermon 10-9
As this week's events unfolded, I found myself returning to a prayer that the Trappist monk Thomas Merton offered after the dropping of the first atomic bomb.
“Lord, mercifully hear this prayer which rises to you from the tumult and desperation of a world in which you seem to have forgotten, in which your name is not invoked in love, your laws derided, your presence ignored”
As we are still coordinating our responses to the two hurricanes that came from the Gulf Coast, we hear more horrific news this week. On Wednesday, almost 2000 people were buried in mud from landslides caused by excessive rain in Guadalajara. There were so many people buried so deep in the mud that the government is considering not retrieving the bodies and just calling it a mass grave. Yesterday, 18,000 people where killed in an earthquake in Pakistan, with another 40,000 injured. And then you put on top of this family bickerings, that are all the more painful because you feel guilty for worrying about the petty in the midst of such great tragedies. And it seems like so many in our immediate circle of friends are suffering as well. It seems like too much. And then, when your personal dreams and aspirations are thwarted by unforseen circumstances and you feel like you are just spinning your wheels, well, its hard. In fact, one wouldn't sound crazy for saying that it seems like we must have been abandoned by God.
Now this is where the discipline part of the relationship between us and God comes in. These are the times when we really need to blow the dust off of our Bibles, remove it from its special place in our house and bring it to our reading chair, and crack it open. And I believe that it helps if you have a plan going into it. By the nature of my vocation as a minister, my Bible reading plan generally revolves around the weekly common lectionary- the texts determined by an ecumenical council that would be read in the mainline churches.
And what did I read? If you find it helpful to follow along, we will be mostly looking at Philippians 4 starting with verse 4. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
Well, that is not exactly the words that were on my lips, God. And if you will excuse me the contrary spirit, I think I need a little more convincing. Rejoice in the Lord always indeed.
And then, what came next?
5”Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.”
Now, if I were an organized preacher like Pastor Monica up the road, I would have known months ago that a focus on the theme “God is closer than you think” would go great with the text, “The Lord is near”. But I am not an organized preacher, so my sermons are worked on and prayed on the week before I come before with what God has put on my heart. The Lord is near. Well that just my knocked my socks off.
Hear what Martin Luther King Jr. had to say about this passage.
“Not only is there a God; he is near. He will neither forget nor forsake you. Only be gentle to all, and let God care for you; leave it to him how he is to support and protect you. Has he given you Christ the eternal treasure?... With him is much more than anyone can take from you.... [Y]ou possess in Christ more than is represented in all this world's goods. On this subject the psalmist says (Ps. 55:22): "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you," and Peter (I Pet. 5:7), "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." And Christ in the sixth chapter of Matthew points us to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. The thought of these passages is the same as the Lord is near.
Now follows, [in verse 6] Do not worry about anything.
Take no thought for yourselves. Let God care for you. The one you now acknowledge is able to provide for you.... So let the whole world grasp, and deal unrighteously: you shall have enough. You shall not die of hunger or cold unless someone shall have deprived you of the God who cares for you. But who shall take him from you? How can you lose him unless you yourself let him go? We have a Father and Protector who holds in his hands all things, even those who, with all their possessions, would rob or injure us. Our duty is to rejoice always in God and be gentle toward all.... It should be our anxiety not to be anxious, to rejoice in God alone and to be kind to everyone.
(Source: Martin Luther, Sermons, vol. 6, pp. 93-112. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983.)
Let us take a step back and remember where Paul is when he writes this letter to the Philippians. He was in prison. Not a cushy country club prison like where we can expect Kenneth Lay to end up. No, Paul was in serious Roman prison. That meant that any day could be his last. It was a very real possibility that in the middle of writing this letter, he would be interrupted to be fed to a starving lion. Think about it. What would a 'normal person's' state of mind be in such circumstances? What would yours be? If we skip ahead to verse 11, we see that he is at peace. He tells us, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.”
I'll be honest, because if church is anything, it is a place of accountability. That would not be my reaction if I were in Paul's shoes. I would be raving about the government, “Can you believe this Caesar who unjustly imprisoned me?” I would be calling on every last friend and acquaintance to get me out of that prison and I would be praying the prayer that I started this sermon with. “God, where are you?” But the fact of the matter is, is that Paul is demonstrating what it means to be a true witness to Christ, or to use the Greek term, he is a martyr, an example who we look at and say, wow, I want the peace that he has. A man who gives us those comforting words, hey, God is closer than you think.
So, lets look for this peace that Paul has. What kind of peace is it? Is it the peace that comes from having all obstacles, trials and tribulations cleared from your path. No, in John 16:33, Jesus says “33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’”. You know, Adolf Hitler said that he wanted peace. And I believe him. His means to peace was to eliminate conflict. He reasoned that if he killed all of the Jews, Gypsys, homosexuals, Catholics, and anyone that didn't like the way he ran things, that there would be peace. No enemies equals peace. And this type of thinking is pervasive in the world today. The definition of peace and freedom that the world holds is to hunt down and destroy your enemies one by one. Jesus the Christ was not crucified because he preached peace and love. The Romans and the temple authorities had nothing against peace and love. He was killed because he exposed that what the world calls peace is just another face of evil.
No, we read of a different peace in the Bible. We read of a peace that is not determined by outside forces. Rather, peace is nothing more or less than being in right relationship with God. Ghandi summarized his ethics like this, “be the change you want to see.” In other words, don't focus on what others need to be doing or not doing. Focus on perfecting your own righteousness. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet that we are all invited to. In fact he goes out of his way to say that both good and bad were invited. But there is a dress code. In baptism, we were given a robe of righteousness. And we had best wear it lest we find ourselves speechless before the king and he says to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14For many are called, but few are chosen.’
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,” as Paul puts it, how can we be a part of the few who find peace- The peace that Paul is sharing with the Philippians?
“Stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”
If your still with me look at verses two and three. “Be of the same mind in the lord.” Be in harmonious community in the lord. “Be one with God, one with other and one in fellowship with all the earth”, as our communion liturgy says. In other words, be church. Help each other as we struggle beside each other in the work of the gospel. And in so doing, our names shall be written in the book of life. We will be at the wedding banquet dressed to the nines.
Well what else? “4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
As we already mentioned, this is hard, but what a burden is lifted when we change our mopiness and exchange it for rejoicing. What a relief when we give our burdens to Jesus and leave nothing but the rejoicing. In case you missed again I say rejoice.
In verse 5, we are reminded that in order to be the change we seek, to be peace, we need to “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” And somehow connected with that, in the same verse, Paul tells us the “The Lord is near.” If that is not cause for peace, I don't know what is. We are offered such an intimate relationship with the creator of all, the big cheese behind the big bang, that we have no reason to worry about anything. We have been given the gift of prayer and “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [we can] let our requests be made known to God.
And here is the promise. Here is the good news sisters and brothers. “7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Our hearts and minds will be guarded, protected, shielded and we will be at peace. Amen? Part of peace is a purity of mind. Part of peace is is praying unceasingly so that there is room for God and God alone. “ 8Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” In a nutshell “9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in [the example of Paul], and the God of peace will be with you.” Closer than you think!
This is a tall order. Being peace and having peace are quite counter cultural in a world that depends upon, that thrives upon, and has known no other way of operating except by war. Being peace in the face of natural disasters takes a strong will and faith and reliance on the goodness of God. But here is my last bit of good news. If you get nothing else from this time together here this morning, in fact, if I get nothing else from the time spent in prayer and study and writing and preaching this week it should be this. In fact, there just may be a Bible Bee next week with this as the answer, so you might even want to write this down.
Philippians 4:13. If you know it or have it open in front of you, say it like you mean it with me.
13I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Amen?
Friday, June 03, 2005
June Cross and Flame letter
God also said, “Let there be light”. And God divided the darkness from the light. And here is where our hope is. With our free will, God also gave us reason. We are awakening to the consequences of our sins. We see both the darkness and the light. The deeper we plunge into the darkness, into great need, strong temptation and emotional pain, the more precious that light appears. We begin to realize that God has a better way and come to the point where we depend upon God's wisdom and not our own. We freely choose to put our lives, our communities, and all of creation in God's hands. We begin to see that nature is good, not something to be conquered. We begin to see that our neighbor (whom we have called 'enemy' for so long) is made in God's image. To kill her is nothing less than committing deicide. We begin to recognize that there is truth and that it is based in love. The true Light, which was present before creation, came in human form about 2000 years ago and showed us a way, showed us the truth, showed us life, and life abundantly. And it indeed is good.
As we work through Genesis this Summer, let us embrace it as an opportunity to reclaim our identity as children of light!!!
Faith journey in a nutshell.
This community of faith that we enter into is the conception of the Father, established and led by Christ, which is provoked by the ever-processing fecundity of the Holy Spirit. It knows no geographical boundaries, has its own economy, judicial proceedings, and even its own grammar. It is a new way of being a people of God that is an expansion of the generous covenant with the chosen people of Israel. We are gathered to simultaneously inaugurate and demonstrate the new creation, the new way of being- i.e. creation redeemed from sin in “an ongoing redemptive relation to God”.5 This positively affects our relationship with those both within the community, as well as the wider world.
Internally, the church gathers to worship God and interpret the movement of the Spirit. We “describe his wonders [thereby giving] Him the fullest glorification possible.”6 When we describe these wonders well, we glorify each of the distinctive roles that the three persons of the trinity perform in the life of creation, for each person should be worshipped. First, the Father should be worshiped as the creator of all things. Then the Son, whom through his life, suffering and death we became intimately related with God. We worship the Son for what he did for us, for what he did, “is inseparable from the Person of Jesus Christ and vice versa.”7 Because there is no individual incident that you can point to and say, “that is where the salvation of humankind occurred,” it is likely that the event required all of Jesus’ offices (i.e. according to Calvin- Prophet, Priest, and King).8 So when we worship well, we draw upon descriptive images that evoke all of the components essential to teaching us how to be the polis of God, reunite the flesh with God, understand the magnitude of Christ’s redeeming the sins of the world etc. We have a natural tendency to praise and pray to the person of Jesus because we can relate, ever so slightly, to his fully human nature. As Jones comments, Jesus Christ is both ‘with us’ and ‘for us’ fully in both his humanity and divinity.9 That is, he is of the same substance as we are and can therefore work on our behalf and he can achieve this work because he is fully divine. So, we worship the Son because we cannot do otherwise. “It is I [Jesus], it is I; it is I who am highest; it is I you love; it is I who delight you; it is I you serve; it is I you long for; it is I you desire; it is I who am your purpose; it is I who am all; it is I that Holy Church preaches and teaches you; it is I who showed myself to you here.”10 We may not be certain how we are saved, but it is enough to know that we have been assured that the church is.
And finally, we share Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians that “out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”11 We worship the Holy Spirit for guiding us to God. Also, as Gregory of Nazianzus suggests, the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped because we declare that he deifies us in our baptism. And “if he is to be worshiped, surely he is an object of adoration, and, if an object of adoration, he must be God.”12 Then, lest we mistakenly essentialize any one of these roles to any one of the persons, thereby ignoring each of their complete natures, we worship the unified Godhead. We offer up prayers to God, ‘not as though we would pull down to ourselves [God], but that, by these remembrances and invocations […] we may commend and unite ourselves Thereunto.”13 That is, the blessing bestowed upon the church is the ability to discern God’s will over and against competing wills in the world.
Through this process of continually appealing to God to grant us the strength and wisdom to receive and utilize God’s will, we learn to better care for the different parts of the body of Christ. The more faithful the church is at practicing praise and prayer, that is, the more it acknowledges the corruption of humanity as compared to the goodness of God and conforms itself to the latter, the greater its blessing. Kathryn Tanner describes this phenomenon as the non-competitive relationship between God and humanity where humanity gains self-actualization and freedom in direct proportion to its dependence upon ‘the fecund provider of all that the creature is in itself.”14 We partly receive this blessing through the Eucharist in which we reenact the death, life and return of Jesus Christ, as expressed in ‘the mystery of faith’, so that we develop the theological virtues that enable our re-membering and reenacting of Christ’s works in the way we live our own lives.
Humanity, in the Kingdom of God will become fully actualized human beings, completely decentralizing secular power in favor of a universal congregation (and all of creation with it) aligning in right relation to God. So, Ludwig Feuerbach was correct in noting that ‘every advance in religion is therefore a deeper self-knowledge’ though he was horribly mistaken regarding the direction of the knowledge.15 We are a poor reflection of the divine rather than the divine being a hyperbolic reflection of us. Furthermore, it is easier to know God than our own soul because, “he is the ground on which our soul stands”.16 As mentioned above, God is immutable and simple whereas humans are fickle and changed from moment to moment.
By now it should be clear that the church, the cross, and the entirety of our reality, is given to us as pure gift. As St. Anselm expressed this truth, “for I cannot seek thee unless thou teach me, or find thee unless thou show me thyself.”17 It is a gift freely given by a God who is pure love, who obviously does not expect that we could return the favor, and who does not have any need to give except for the simple fact that it is somehow pleasing to God. But, “he made everything for love; the same love sustains everything, and shall do so forever.”18 Furthermore, by accepting this gift, we are not doing God a service at Sunday service. God is complete within the trinity-each component offering and receiving abundant love from the others. Nevertheless, God does take delight in our limited appreciation of God’s continual bestowing of gifts. God revealed to Julian, “see here how I let my side be opened, and my heart be riven in two, and all the blood and water that was within flow out. And this makes me happy, and I want it to make you happy.”19 And again, “If you are pleased, I am pleased…if I could suffer more, I would suffer more.”20 She concludes that “This human example was so powerfully shown, that a man’s heart could be ravished and he could be beside himself with joy at this great friendliness.”21
So, what does this mean for the church? When the church conveys these truths and models 'this great friendliness' well, it stands as a light to the nations, displaying to the world the humble power of a community of believers aligning their wills with God’s. More specifically, the church demonstrates to the world what the future Kingdom of God will look like. It demonstrates in the here and now what creation’s destiny is. That is, it with our process, route and end. The church is a sign of the simultaneous current presence and future realization of the Kingdom of God. It is the indication that the children of God are finally accepting the direction of the Holy Spirit toward the second person of the Trinity. When church is church, we love one another, praise God well, and spread the good news. By this infectious example, we invite others to partake in the fruits of these actions. When we trust in the Lord and demonstrate his radical commandments to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable, we demonstrate to the watching world that love does not cause the social order to fall into chaos like we always imagined. Rather, we establish a fellowship of right relation with each other and God, which produces an environment of peace. When we squarely confess those sins (individual and communal), which we would otherwise choose to ignore, we demonstrate that reconciliation and gratifying justice are not the products of coercion, but the outcome of mutual love. By giving itself up to God, the church lays bare the power that obeying the various counter-intuitive commandments demonstrated to us by our Lord has. When we forgive one another, share unselfishly, and hold each other accountable, we create a new environment which is open to the Holy Spirit and reverberates into the secular world. These service oriented ministries that 'bridge and empower' are primarily in the domain of the deacon. That is, deacons create the bridges between the disparate areas of the church so that we truly are a united body, and not isolated hands, heads, and feet. Deacons also create the bridges that allow the church's witness to truly be a witness. This is done by making connections between the church and the world. So that the church does not only model peace, but is actively engaged in its creation in the world. So that the church does not restrict her offering of accountability and forgiveness to her own, but reverberates throughout society.22
The church is also the storehouse of both our publicly and privately proclaimed knowledge of God.23 Therefore, we are given the responsibility to pool our gifts, graces, and knowledge in order to educate one another in the ways of celebrating our faith well. This is the primary function of the elder. When we dedicate the community and the individuals within the community exclusively to the act of praising God, we bear witness to the fount of true happiness that makes even the most cutting-edge consumer product pale in comparison. In other words, we, as church, are God’s agents of change, not out of our own intellect or will, but out of our prayerful obedience. The elder is responsible for ensuring that 'the flock' is nourished, recognizes in their own lives cause for rejoicing, and views the church as a safe place of exploration. Through these preconditions, the elder speaks for the church in word and sacrament, therby empowering the community to praise God well. This is where my “greatest passion intersects with the world's greatest needs”, as the common definitian of calling states. I seem hard wired for theological and philosophical study. More importantly, when it comes time to combine this study with what the Holy Spirit is putting on my heart to share with the congregation, I do so in a way that connects. I am very conscious of being
When we accept people into this community, we baptize them “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” not because we are tritheists, but because this expression of the Godhead most closely resembles (as far as the tradition has been able to determine up to this point) its distinct complexities.24 For example, the nature of God is love, which is a relational topic. Yet, God is not dependent upon creation in any way, especially since creation is incapable of mutually fulfilling its end of perfect love. So, God’s love finds its perfect expression within the persons of Godself. Without an internal relationship of God, God could not fully express Godself.
Of course, the church does not live up to her calling. Our ignorance, sloppiness, and even our good intentions not founded in The Word create a fog in which “signals cannot be recognized, and one can no longer distinguish between friend and foe.”25 Our fallen nature allows for betrayal, lust for power, and fear. As James Cone concluded in his study of Black spirituals, there is a fluidity of time in the work of salvation. There is always a sense of “already but not yet” in the work of God. Any attempt to push things toward “the sweet by and by” while ignoring present reality is not consistent with the redemption that Jesus offered. Likewise, an obsessive focus on the present will only lead to embitterment and despair. So even though it is understandable why the church gets scorned by the world for declaring that the Kingdom of God is here in the midst of tragedy, we remain confident in declaring that “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”26 The alter of a church is on the east side because “we are seeking Paradise, our old fatherland, which God planted in the East of Eden.” This vision of the true promised land and the hope in the rewards of aligning our will with God’s will is the source of our strength. In defining real possibility, Jones declares, “the act of hoping for that future possibility involves belief that the possibility can be realized, can become actual”.27 As Martin Luther King preached, “I just want to do God’s will and He’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”28 In an age of corrupt Romans and Barbaric hordes, black plague and ruthless kings, or S.A.R.S. and religiously fanatic quasi-United Methodists with access to the bomb, we can put our trust and confidence that there is a higher power that gives life instead of destruction, engenders love instead of hate, and offers hope in place of fear.
For this reality, we continuously offer up our praise and thanksgiving.29
Further thoughts on Who Jesus is and What He Did?
All of Christology is an exegesis of Matthew 16:15.30 Jesus asked his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" to which Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Therefore, the very question “Who is Jesus and what did he do?” is redundant. Neither ‘Messiah’ nor “Son of the living God” is a job description. They do not describe an accident or property of Jesus. Rather, Jesus Christ’s essence, existence, and ‘purpose’ as the second person in the Trinity are identical.
The latter part of Simon Peter’s confession, that Jesus is the “son of God”, is a designation that appears at lest thirty-nine times in the scriptures, and is verbally affirmed by the first person in the trinity, Christ himself, friends and detractors of Jesus, and even Satan herself. But Jesus is also God. I heard a pastor scandalize his church by exclaiming, “Jesus? That bastard be his own daddy.” It is through this wonderful absurdity that Jesus can accomplish the salvific function of the Messiah. St. Augustine puts it a little more delicately by saying, “God himself remains God; humanity is assumed by God. There results a single person. Here is God, our liberator; here is man, our mediator.”31 Jesus Christ, as the second person in the Trinity, shares the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, eternality and impassibility.32 But, as the son of the Virgin Mary, he is fully human. The tradition tells us that only that which is assumed can be saved. Likewise, humanity is too fallen to overcome its own fallenness. So, Jesus Christ is the salvation of creation partly because he perfectly united humanity with the Godhead. As Julian of Norwich teaches us, the ‘higher part’ of humanity (our soul-though not detached from the body) has been united with God since creation.33 But our ‘lower part’, that is, our sensory part, was not united with the Godhead ‘until’ Jesus Christ.34 In other words, Jesus Christ demonstrates that God is actually in creation, not just behind it. Just as Adam, God’s firstborn creation lost God’s blessing as a result of disobedience, Jesus Christ regains it through perfect obedience. However, as Kathryn Tanner points out, this is not to imply that God rewards His Son for this perfect obedience. Rather, the obedience is the result of God’s blessing.35 This is accomplished by conforming the flesh completely to the will of God. When Jesus committed the unique (that’s an understatement!) act of conquering death in his own flesh, he gave us grounding for our own hope of resurrection in the new earth. It is unfortunate that some church leaders would remove this hope through statements such as “I believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but I cannot affirm that his resurrection involved the resurrection of his physical body.”36 This violates the rules of Christian grammar in the same way as “I believe the Jaberwokky ditried at the gumgum tree” violates the grammar of literature. The syntax implies sense, but the locutions are nonsensical.
When a Christian who speaks well says ‘Messiah’, they are referring to Jesus. However, this meaning is a partial supplanting of a more general Jewish term meaning ‘the anointed one’, which referred to a political ruler who would restore Israel and renew God’s covenant with His chosen people. As Jones notes, “The actual Jesus—as the subject--redefined and reshaped the predicate, ‘Messiah.’”37 In one sense, Jesus is a messiah of a radically different sort than what the Jewish tradition had anticipated. Rather than overthrowing the competing nation-state, Jesus introduced a new way of being a people that was not founded in violence. On the other hand though, there are important similarities between Christian and Jewish Messianic expectations. In both the Christian and post-Second Temple Judaism, the coming (or return) of the ‘Messiah’ will accompany the creation of God’s kingdom on earth and its accompanying distribution of justice. For Christians, this has happened already, but not yet.
Jesus Christ the Messiah is the Word who told us and showed us the way to be truly human. Colloquially put, he practiced what we preached. By doing so, he demonstrated the unfortunate and inevitable result of living in complete obedience to the Father in the present, fallen world. Namely, death-even death on the cross. But through the conquering of even this, we get a glimpse of the unlimited possibilities of the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately,38 one component of Christ’s messiahship is that Jesus handed the cross down to us through the establishment of his church as his body. Although, “the ecumenical creeds of the church have not attempted to define how Jesus is savior,”39 we can agree that his life, work and death “is fundamentally at work with regard to sin and the consequences of sin.”40 We grow in faith, not by creating increasingly specific theories of atonement, but by weaving the tapestry of the components of Christ’s life and death, with our own lives and deaths.
When Paul tells us to pray unceasingly, a fitting mantra for every occasion could be “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus…”
1 Titus 3:6
2 St. Basil the Great. On the Holy Spirit. tr. David Anderson. (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press; Crestwood, NY. 1980). 115.
3 D. Stephen Long. The Goodness of God: Theology the Church and Social Order. (Brazos Press; Grand Rapids, MI. 2001.) 156.
4 John Howar Yoder. Body Politics. (Herald Press; Scottsdale, PA. 2001. 30.
5 Kathryn Tanner. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity. (Fortress Press; Minneapolis, 2001). 102.
6 (Basil 86)
7 Jones II-427.
8 Jones II 434.
9 Jones II 435.
10 Julian of Norwich. 78.
11 Ephesians 3:16-17
12 Gregory of Nazianzus. The Theological Orations. 211.
13 Dionysius the Areopagite. The Divine Names. Kessinger Publishing. 83.
14 Tanner 3.
15 Ludwig Feuerbach. The Essence of Christianity. 13
16 Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. (London: Penguin Classics, 1998). 133.
17 Anselm of Canterbury. A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham. Ed. Eugene R. Fairweather. (Westminster Press; Phillidelphia, 1956. 72-73.
18 Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. (London: Penguin Classics, 1998). 52.
19 Julian of Norwich. 20.
20 Julian of Norwich. 72.
21 Julian of Norwich. 51.
22The South African post-apartaid reconciliation comes to mind.
23 Basil 98.
24 “there is one God the Father, one Only Begotton Son, and one Holy Spirit. We declare each person to be unique, and if we must use numbers, we will not let a stupid arithmetic lead us astray to the idea of many Gods.” Basil 72.
25 Basil 114.
26 Julian of Norwich. 79.
27 Jones. II 692.
28 Martin Luther King, Jr. Sermon. April 3, 1968
29 There is no doubt that any given truth claim offered in this paper is in dire need of clarification and amplification. Fortunately, “the Lord will provide a full answer for any remaining questions, since He gives knowledge to those He has chosen, by the Holy Spirit.” (Basil 118).
30 With its parallels in Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20
31 Augustine. Sermon 293,7. trans. Edmund Hill, Sermons, Part III vol. 8:155 The Works of Saint Augustine, ed. John E. Rotelle, OSA (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 1993).
32 Scripturally, these are attested to respectively in (Matt 28:18) “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” (John 16:30) “Now are we sure that Thou knowest all things,” (Matt 28:20),“I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (John 1:1),“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” and (Heb 13:8), “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
33 Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. (London: Penguin Classics, 1998). 132.
34 ‘Until’ is in scare quotes because this point of unification was the beginning of history from which time moves bilaterally from.
35 Kathryn Tanner. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity. (Fortress Press; Minneapolis, 2001). 87-88.
36 C. Joseph Sprague. Affirmations of a Dissenter. (Nashville; Abingdon, 2002). 42.
37 Jones 388.
38 I say unfortunately out of honesty to my fallen nature. I am confident that as one grows in faith, this so called burden becomes a supreme blessing.
39 Jones II 428.
40 Jones II 427.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
On the Trinity
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. It is one of the times during the year where we pause for a moment and ask the big question to God- Who are you anyhow. The response that the faithful get is I am. I am the Father, I am the Son, I am the Holy Spirit. And we ask, which one? I am. I am the Father, I am the Son, I am the Holy Spirit. And this would be as good as a spot as any to end this sermon, because once we get past saying that God is the Father, Son, and Spirit, we start to get into trouble. But I am going to go on anyhow.
The most common criticism of Christianity by Muslims is that we are tritheists. A faithful Muslim would say, “there is but one God, Allah. But these Christians, they worship 3. They worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They baptize their children in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They give their lives to three, not one”. A faithful Christian must respond, “No, we worship but one God, in three personas.”
[Certain Tibetan Buddhist Monks ... chords]
This would have been a big help in the early third century, when Turtullian struggled to find a word to describe the three aspects of the one God.
(3-1) Let's try it together. This side says 1, this side says 3. I think that there is a message about why the church needs diversity in order to get the whole story, but that was a sermon that some of you already suffered through on Wednesday.
3-1. St. Patrick's Day children's sermon. [3 leaves or 1 leaf] What Pat really said though was, we do not even have the language to describe a shamrock accurately, how can we describe God? So maybe I better stop here?
No, lets give it our best anyhow.
The Athanasian creed that we read sets out four rules for speaking well about God.
there is one God
the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God
these three persons of the Trinity are distinct. the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
this is the essence of what Christians believe, so you better pray hard about it
To understand the basics of the Trinity is to understand the basics of God. God is excessive. God is overflowing abundance. Right now, on some deserted island, there are tens of thousands of flowers blooming that no-one will ever see. What a waste. No, God is like that. God doesn't do anything half way. We also know that God is love. Not that God has love, but God is love. And it is an excessive love. It is a love that is so excessive and perfect that the only object of this love that can handle it is Godself. God's love pours out from the Father and into the Son, and out from the Son and through the Spirit and from the Spirit and into God and it still spills over into all of creation. This excessive love that we see this in the Trinity shows us something quite amazing about God, if you think about it. Our God is a relational God. Not some mastermind in the sky. Not some cold. unconcerned great principle. No, our God, the God of love, the God of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is relational. And this is good news sisters and brothers. We are direct recipients of God's overflowing love and thank God for that.
God is relational. This is how we can understand how we can have 3-1. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Now, in these days of Oprah, we all take it for granted that we are to love ourselves. But lets step back and look at that for a second. When we speak of love, we are usually implying that there is a subject and an object. “I love Ann.” “Ann loves Eggplant Parmesan (and me too, I hope).” There is a person that is doing the loving, and there is someone or something being loved. But Jesus tells us it is perfectly reasonable to love yourself. In fact it is the benchmark for fulfilling our Gospel call to love our neighbors as ourselves. The subject is I, and the object is I. There are not two separate 'I's, but one I that loves and receives the love. So it is with the Trinity.
My identity is relational as well. I am a pastor. I am a husband. I am a friend. I will soon be a father. I am a son. I am me. Each of these entail different roles, different relationships. I say and do things differently in the role of a pastor than I do as a husband. But they draw from the same me. The same character, the same characteristics, are applied to all aspects of my life. So it is, in a sense, with God the Trinity.
There are many other ways that our church Fathers and Mothers have left us to understand the Trinity, and I love to explore, so if you want to talk more about it, give me a call. Seriously. But for now, lets go with this.
“Within the Trinity, there is constant movement, interaction, as the Father gives to the Son, and the Son is constantly returning praise and glory to the Father, and the Father and the Son give to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit constantly draws everything back to the Father and the Son. There is the Beloved, the Lover, and the Love.” (Willimon)
Next week, we will answer the question. “So what? How does God being a Triune God affect my life in some other way than giving me a headache.” But for this week, I think that it is enough that we pray for increased understanding of God. That we continue to seek to learn more about God, in the same way that we ask a newfound friend questions about their life and who they are so that we can have a deeper relationship with her. God's very nature is based on relationships. So we, as creatures with the image of God in our breasts- we are called to be based in relationships. We are called to give and take, to assert and sacrifice, to be willing to compromise with each other, even if it means not naming your child Athanasius, even if you know that it is the best possible name, to offer ourselves wholly to one another.
God being abundant, effusive, gracious and ridiculously generous in God's outpouring of love calls us to be abundant, effusive, gracious, and ridiculously generous in our outpouring of love. When we reflect on the awesomeness of the nature of God in the Trinity and our relationship with God, our illusions of lack melt away. We are introduced into a different way of seeing our lives. We see abundance. We see that we partake in God's abundance. The world tells us to hide away our talents, our money, and be cautious about who we love. The Trinity tells us that to stop moving through relationships is death. That if you bury your talents, you lose them. If Amen? Amen.
