To Be Truly Wise 1 Kings 2

McGregor Exegesis

Advent 2 – December 7, 2008

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm. 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

A Two-Way Highway

Isaiah describes the earth-moving that has to be done if there is to be a highway fit for a king. The king is coming! Where is he coming? To your place of exile. To your place of imprisonment. A super-highway dead-ending at your doorstep. This highway is two-way. If the king can travel to you on it, you can also travel toward the king on it and toward the kingdom. Indeed the ancient practice was for the whole town to move out the gate and down the road to meet the king. (This is the same image Paul uses for the church meeting the returning Christ; in the air, yes, but in the air to accompany him to the earth.) John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness moving dirt for this highway, sin, that is. Remove the sin and replace it with obedience stretching from here to the horizon and watch what happens.

"There are those," says Peter, the preacher, "who say the terrain cannot be changed." "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!" (2 Peter 3:4) And further, he warns, that this attitude unchanged will precipitate his coming in primordial fire we now call nuclear, the old-fashioned way of reshaping the earth. "But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless." (2 Peter 3:7)

Isaiah, the preacher, in counterpoint says, "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1-2) Where is the comfort for Peter's warning? "There is a fiery future alternative to nuclear," says John, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:7-8)

Oh, but this is so slow compared with a bomb, this baptizing of people, and every day a new little sinner is born. So also it must seem to the highway builder. "Have we done anything today? This is going to take a thousand years, maybe two." Highways are built by people who know where they are headed and don't give up. "Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God..." (2 Peter 3:11-12)

Might we hasten this meeting by building the highway toward God as God builds the highway toward us? "Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other." (Psalm 85:10)

Advent 1 – November 30, 2008

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Ready To Trade

Jesus instructs the disciples to be ready to trade this world for the next. Paul gives thanks to God that the church in Corinth is ready to trade. The Psalmist is ready to trade the miserable present for the reign of God. Isaiah is ready to trade a miserable present for a future like the past, when both God and Israel were faithful.

"Come quickly Lord!" was a prayer the early church learned from her mother, the synagogue. It was always heard in the worst of times, but to utter that plea in the best of times is a real testimony to faith in God. We tend to alternate between, "Come quickly Lord," and "Stand back; I can do it myself."

Some years ago, a thirteen-year-old boy brought a gun to school and shot a girl in the head. It was all the more shocking because the assault took place in a small, New Mexico town. A witness to the crime interviewed on television had yet to lose the baby fat in his face and spoke with an unchanged voice. I found myself joining Isaiah asking God to tear open the heavens, come down and set things right, at least as right as they were when I was thirteen, before our children were armed and dangerous, but that is not the prayer Jesus has in mind, not one to set the clock back to a better time. Jesus wants us to be ready to trade this world for the next.

To say that not even the Son knows the day and the hour is certainly to say that we don't know it either. What's more, we don't even know the nature of this trade, trading this day for "the day of the Lord." What we do know Paul tells us: "God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:9) Paul also gives us an idea what "ready" means: "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:4-7)

The right fielder in a sand lot baseball game knows the difficulty of readiness. One could stand out there the whole game and never see a ball come your way. When you hear the crack of the bat and get an early flash of the ball's trajectory, high and between first and second base, all of a sudden, you are supposed to move like an anti-missile missile. You are supposed to be able to meet the ball in the air. Unfortunately, however, you discover that your feet have taken root where they were planted.

What would it be like to live every day ready to trade it for the day of the Lord? I would be more intent on God's glory than my own. I would be less threatened by earthly powers. I would be more interested in relationships that will transfer in the trade, love of God and neighbor. I would be less interested in possessions.

This first Sunday in Advent invites us not to prepare for a festive winter solstice but to be ready to trade this world for the next.

Christ the King – November 23, 2008

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

Doing the King a Kindness

The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew contains three happy stories: the one about the bridesmaids who were ready when the bride groom came, the one about the salves who made a profit for their master, and the one about those who did the king a kindness.

"Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...'" (Matthew 25:34)

The very idea that anyone would be welcomed into God's presence for doing God a kindness! How could anyone conceive of doing God a kindness? The creator of the universe says, "Thank you and welcome." The eternal one grateful to us! Imagine plodding your way through life's frustrations, coming to the end and finding out that you have actually succeeded, you actually belong. The idea in the parable of the sheep and the goats is very different from the common idea, the idea that we have to do what God tells us to do in order to belong. Obeying orders is not the same as doing someone a kindness. In this parable the king responds to people who volunteered their care, not just to those who obeyed his command. It was an old idea that one could get in good with God by following certain rules, but the incarnation of God gave us a new idea, that one could actually do God a kindness.

Ezekiel passes on the judgment of God against those who fail to obey the command to care for God's flock. "And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?" (Ezekiel 34:19) He also proclaims God's promise to come and take loving charge of the flock. "For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out." (Ezekiel 34:11) Ezekiel can foresee God the shepherd. What he doesn't foresee is God the lamb. We can conceive of our fellow human beings as God's flock and live under God's command to tend the flock. Then we live under, and are judged by the command. That is the old idea, the idea that we can belong to the kingdom by following the rules. The incarnation of God in Christ, the lamb, opens up a new possibility, that we might be drawn to God out of compassion, that we might do something righteous because we care not because we fear.

"God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places..." (Ephesians 1:20) There is power in this reciprocal identity of God, namely that the lamb is the king, and the king is the lamb; the person in need is the king, and the king is the person we helped. This is the heart of charity, of grace, of belonging to God's family, to respond to the needy as you would to the king.

Pentecost 27 –

November 16, 2008

Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123 or 76
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Pack Rat Or Flower

The parable of the talents scares me. It says that I can make fatal choices in my relationship with the master. My tendency is to think that I can just rock along through life doing what I want to do, and somehow that will be good enough. Jesus told this story about a man like me who knew the master, made his own decision about what he had been entrusted and, when confronted by the master, found his choice wasn't good enough. The master said, "Get out of here." Where do you go when the master of the universe says, "Get out of here?" That's scary.

Why do I identify with the servant in the parable that was rejected? Aren't there three servants here? Two are congratulated by their master and rewarded. Why isn't this, for me, the story of the two faithful servants? Because the rejected servant was a pack rat, and I'm a pack rat. His sense of security lay in preservation. The best thing he knew to do was to pack it away, store it up -- hide it. Those other two servants took chances with what they had been given. They could have lost everything. He didn't lose anything, but then lost everything.

To be a pack rat is to misunderstand life. Have you ever dug up or broken into the home of an actual rodent pack rat? You find a pitiful collection of things socked away for a day that never came. The pack rat doesn't understand that life is fluid. It flows. You can't stop it. You can only channel it. Life just flows. To really live, you have to let the gift of life flow through you. If you try to catch it, hold it, bury it, you'll miss it.

Consider the flower on the other hand. It's very nature is to share, to risk, to communicate. When a flower opens, it opens to the world, to the sun, to the heavens and to every creature on earth. (...for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. {1 Thessalonians 5:5) When it opens, it shares all its riches, its fragrance and its beauty. It invites every passer by. The bees come summoned by the scent, the humming birds by the color. They take from the flower, freely take as the flower freely gives. The flower has no protection and cares not to guard its beauty. It is soft and delicate and subject to all intruders. To risk its life is its life. The flower turns its face to heaven and beyond. (To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! {Psalm 125:1) It is in touch with the whole crea¬tion. That is the reward for the risk.

"She (Deborah) sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, 'The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you, "Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand."'" (Judges 4:6-7) Barak and Deborah, in a brief flowering of the tribal confederacy of Israel, plunged into what was either the end or the beginning.

Finally the flower explodes into the world with a myriad of seeds. Nothing is left of it, no cache of collectable, no monument, but the world has changed for its having lived. A hundred flowers will rise where it has fallen. God will be glorified in endless years of summers.

Pentecost 26 – November 9, 2008

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Psalm 78:1-7
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

Get A Grip

Joshua assures the new arrivals to the Promised Land that the Lord is not to be trifled with. Paul visualizes the consummation of history with a family reunion in the sky -- including just the family. Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven in the same vane, not everyone is included, the foolish having chosen and blundered their way out. The Psalmist counsels, therefore, that we teach our children how to serve the Lord so that they will be a part of the family in the future.

God's mercy is directed to all human beings, but human beings have choices. The Scriptures are clear that God honors human choice including the choice to serve other Gods, "honor" in the sense of honoring our freedom to choose. So, we can choose ourselves out of the kingdom, out of the family and out of the joyful consummation of history. What is even sadder is that we can choose our children out as well. The parents of western society have much to contemplate about having reared a secular generation. Joshua's words could just as well have bee delivered in AD 1960. "But Joshua said to the people, 'You cannot serve the LORD...'" (Joshua 24:19) What did he mean by "You cannot serve the Lord"? Was this a persuasive speech technique, or did Joshua really doubt the character of his audience? Or, did he mean that, given the risks of failing God, they should stay out of relationship with this God altogether? His listeners protested his assertion and insisted that they could and would serve the Lord. Then they went on to raise up idolatrous generations.

Serving the one God, serving the invisible and nameless one God has its rewards, but like performing in a high trapeze act, when you lose your grip, it’s a long way down. It is safer to align yourself with the spirit of the current age or the current place, the local gods. They change. You can change. A new attachment is never far away. When you drop the one God, the invisible and nameless one God, you drop a long way. The drop from there is likely to be abismal. If you have entertained the one God and declined that relationship, you could never be satisfied with a lesser god. So, western society has not moved from one god to another, but from the one God to no god, a long fall, perhaps the fall Joshua had in mind when he said you can't serve this one God; you aren't up to it. It would have been better for the foolish attendants in Jesus' story not to have gotten involved with the wedding celebration at all then to have entertained the notion and failed to act. If you want "to meet Jesus in the air" (as Paul puts it), you better get a grip on it now.

If you are a servant of the one God, it is no accident. You are a servant on purpose, God's purpose now your purpose in life. If you are going to be part of a high trapeze act, you had better practice your grip.

All Saints Sunday – November 2, 2008

Joshua 3:7-17
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12

The Faith To Lead The Faithful

Remember that Joshua didn't know how to swim and neither did any of his people. For forty years they had been lucky to find enough water to drink. Neither did they know anything about building boats. If they were going to cross that river, especially in the high-water season, God was going to have to either build a bridge or build a dam. However it was that they got from Moab to Jericho, it was a miracle of God.

This crossing of the Jordan has long been a metaphor for our going from death to life. Again, there is nothing in our experience to prepare us for that crossing. If we are to cross, it will be a miracle of God. What we can do is stride right into the water as they did, priest first.

Hungry for a miracle and honed by forty years of utter dependence on God, the priests were the first into the water, the frightening water. Generations later the religious leaders that Micah addressed wouldn't go near the water. Rather than depending on God and God's miraculous power, they depended on the religious and political structures around them. The burden they bore was not the Ark of the Covenant but the institution that pays the rent. "Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry 'Peace' when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths..." (Micah 3:5)

Sensitive to this age-old perversion of priestly role, Paul reminds the church at Thessalonica that he went out of his way to demonstrate that his only interest in them was to deliver to them the word of God, the path through the waters. "You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God." (1 Thessalonians 2:9)

Jesus criticizes the religious leaders of Jerusalem for the perversion of the stewardship of God's word. "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4)

Jesus says in so many words that if we are not all priests, we are not any priests: "...you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah." (Matthew 23:8-10) Believing, as we Protestants do, in the priesthood of all believers, the contrast between the priests who stepped into the rushing waters of the Jordan and those who heaped burdens on the shoulders of others, is a call to self-examination. May this introspection free us from merely serving an institution and empower us to renew our faith in the presence and power of God.

Pentecost 24 – October 26, 2008

Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

A Peek At The Future

At the end of Moses' faithful life, God gave him a peek at the future. His vision was perfect, the Scripture says. He was able to see all the way to the Mediterranean. In fact, it says he was in perfect health, which causes one to wonder what he died of. And, since he was the greatest of prophets, why they forgot where they buried him. "Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command." (Deuteronomy 34:5) Jesus died in perfect health, (at the Lord's command?) and no one remembered where he was buried either. Is it possible that God also gave Jesus a peek at the future, if not from the cross, from the ascension? And if so, was it a peek at the Mediterranean or at Paul bringing the good news to Thessalonica or at all the children of the Gospel who, because of the faithfulness of Jesus, would come to embrace the single righteousness, to love God and neighbor?

A part of the vision of the pioneers and perfectors of our faith is a just society. "You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor." (Leviticus 19:15) The consummation of God's promise to Israel is not just conceived in terms of the possession of the land (Deuteronomy 34), but in terms of a righteous community, a holy community (Leviticus). This holiness is synonymous with being filled with the Holy Spirit. Justice that is equal for rich and poor alike emerges from the same Holy Spirit as does speaking in tongues or any of the other gifts. There is but one Holy Spirit and one righteousness. To love God and to love neighbor are forever bound together in the nature of the Holy one of Israel. Therefore the one who campaigns for human rights has half a vision, and the one who turns to worship God has half a vision, but the one who does both has seen what God showed to Moses, the future for which Christ gave his life, holy community.

We live toward a vision of holy community. Its geography is the earth and its power is the presence of God. Joshua crossed the Jordan River with that vision before him and the Spirit of God within him. The disciples of Jesus departed Jerusalem after Pentecost filled with the Spirit of God and following the vision of a holy community. Living toward this vision starts at home. We must study justice, especially distributive justice, to know it. We must commit to justice to will it. We must pray for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to do it. The vision doesn't stop at home or at church. The vision is nothing less than the human community being the holy community. It is a time when "the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ." This is the peace we seek.

Pentecost 23 – October 19, 2008

Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm 99
Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22

Life Can Make Sense, Good Sense

"I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god." (Isaiah 45:5) "The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!" (Psalm 99:1)

Life has a coherent center. The universe has but one architect. There is only one righteousness. Human beings have but one judge. Because there is one god, life can make sense.

"Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob." (Psalm 99:4)

Life could have a coherent center, the universe a single architect. It could make sense and still have an evil intent or at least an indifferent intent. Life would still make sense, but the glory of God is that life makes good sense. Because there is one god, and that god is good, life can make good sense. "He [God] said, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'" (Exodus 33:14)

Life makes good sense to those who know the one god. "Moses said, 'Show me your glory, I pray.' And he [God] said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, 'The LORD'..." (Exodus 30:18-19)
"For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction..." (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5)

The knowledge of the one god came to Moses in face-to-face encounters on Sinai. It came to the people in his charge in a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. It came to them in the law. It came to the church at Thessalonica through the Gospel proclaimed and Holy Spirit experienced. The people were hungry for a single center for life and for their lives. God answered their hunger with the Gospel nurtured in the faith of Abraham and Isaac, championed in Moses and delivered in Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord!

There is a fork in the road for believers in the one god. Does this one God integrate human life making us all brothers and sisters, or does this one God radically divide the human community into God's people and the other people? There is biblical evidence on both sides. In the lections for this Sunday, however, we find God talking to Cyrus as personally as God talked to Moses. "Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus..." (Isaiah 45:1) When the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with that fork in the road, he took the one less traveled by and integrated the secular into the sacred.

Asked if it bothered her to join in the Christian devotional before opening the morning's food distribution to the poor, a Jewish volunteer working beside me said, "We only have one god."

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. (Psalm 96:11)

Pentecost 22 – October 12, 2008

Exodus 32:1-14
Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

The Church Is Not a Charity.

At the foot of Mount Sinai, God’s people launched their first fund-raiser. It was a building campaign of sorts, and the people gave generously. The problem with it was that they were not giving as an expression of their relation to God. Psalm 106 begins, “Praise the Lord!” This is the orientation from which all true stewardship arises. When we call our people to apply their financial strength to the church, we are asking them to do what Paul praises Euodia and Syntyche for doing, “…for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel.” (Phil 4:3)
Jesus’ opaque parable of the wedding banquet is obviously about the distinction between those who “get it” and those who don’t “get it”. There are many possible applications of that dynamic in the Kingdom of God. One of them is that people don’t get it when they think they are doing God a favor when the show up or when they contribute. God is not needy. We are the needy. God is not a beggar and neither was Jesus.

If Jesus is not a beggar, then the church is not a charity. A charity appeals on behalf of a needy part of the community. The appeal of the Heart Association is not what it can do for you but what you can do through it to help people with heart problems. It begs money from you on behalf others in need. It invites you to become a benefactor to the needy and a creator of good. People want to be godlike in the sense of knowing and creating good. This is a strong appeal.

I am all for this appeal, but it should not be the church's appeal. The church is not calling people to be godlike in the sense of knowing and creating good, but rather to be servants of God who defines and creates good. This distinction is just as important as the one about Jesus not being a beggar but harder to keep clear. Most of our appeals for money are offers to link needy people with generous people, not appeals to link disciples with God's purpose and identity in the world. We promote the church as if it were a charity! And, people treat our appeals as if they were from a charity not from God! Would there be more financial support for the mission of the church if our campaigns emphasized God's claim on our lives and God's love for the world? I don't know, but I believe that disciples are better givers than benefactors.

Pentecost 21 – October 5, 2008

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

What about Judgment Day?

At the prayer group someone reported that a person had had a near death experience in which he met St. Peter at the gate and was turned away because he hadn't forgiven someone back on earth. The question was brought to me for a "professional" opinion. Being a "grace man" more than a "judgment man,” I directed the person to Romans 10:9 for the "sola fide sola gratia" assurance of salvation.

"Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)

All the while, I knew that there was another alternative. I could have directed the person to "The Sermon on the Mount" instead, where Jesus instructs the listener to leave his gift at the altar unfulfilled, to go and be reconciled with a brother before completing the transaction with God.

"Leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:24)

So, I added the observation that although the price of admission to that eternal bliss has already been paid by Christ, it was certainly a benefit to this person to return and forgive whoever this was. I was satisfied that I had supported both righteousness and the primacy of grace.

Facile as this answer may have been, it is nevertheless an indication of a contradiction deep in our scriptures and theology. If you were to shake the Bible until all the parts that represent God as the judge and punisher of human sin fell out, you wouldn't be holding a very large book, but you would be holding the only part properly called "Gospel". So, what is it? God the judge or God the reconciler? Every Sunday morning preachers make this choice both in the content and the style of their messages judgment or grace.

"Only Trust Him," we sing. "Only if you don't come forward at the invitation, you're going to hell." Are there only two bottles in the preacher's medicine cabinet, one labeled "judgment" and the other one labeled "grace"? The prophet Amos took the former and Paul took the latter. Jesus seems to take them both. The role of the preacher, it has been said, is "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". Fine, I am as good a Neo Orthodox, "both and", "paradox" person as the next, but what I want to know is; when I get to the pearly gates, when "time for me won't be no more,” which is it going to be, judgment or grace?

Every day is a day I act on my trust in God’s or act on my guilt in God’s presence. Perhaps every day is judgment day, and the end will be no different than the present.

Pentecost 20 – September 28, 2008

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32

Is the Lord Among Us or Not?

In the mouths of the Israelites in the wilderness, this was a taunt to Moses. They wanted to know if God was going to provide for their basic needs or not. The Psalmist assures us that God has been with us (Psalm 78) and prays that God will be with him (Psalm 25). Ezekiel argues that God is with us to judge each successive generation on its own merits. No Deist, he argues against clockwork, mechanical judgment that works its own way from generation to generation. Paul takes another meaning of the Lord being among us, not "How is the food and water holding out?” and not "Is God watching you right now?" but "Is God in you right now?" "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..." (Philippians 2:5) For the chief priests and the elders in the temple "Is the Lord among us or not?" is an especially ironic question. Since their answer to Jesus' claim is an emphatic "No", is there then any sense for them that the Lord is with them in the temple?

"Is the Lord among us or not?" is as modern as it is an ancient question. Is God with us rather than with them? Is God with them rather than with us? Is God keeping us supplied with the things we need and want? Is God present in our self-understand, our history our discourse? Is God present in our hearts? Or, not?

Our son was driving on the highway many years ago. My wife was riding beside him, his wife and baby in the back seat. Off in the ditch they went to avoid a collision, no one hurt, finished the trip, my wife reported. Nice piece of driving? Following too closely? My response was, "the Lord is among us." Yes, but what about the massacre of young people outside a Baptist church in Fort Worth the same week? Who responds with "the Lord is among us"? Baptists are as practiced as any Christians with such a response, but what sense does it make to them or to us? Is it the sense of Ezekiel, the shooter serving himself God's judgment by committing suicide? Or, is it in the sense that the survivors will face this event with the "mind in them that was in Christ Jesus"? Or, will there be those who choose the response of the chief priests and elders, who come to the church unsatisfied with God's presence in the punishment of the shooter, unsatisfied with God's presence in protecting their own and unsatisfied with God's presence in their own hearts, unsatisfied with a lord "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:6-8)

"Therefore, my beloved... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling..." (Philippians 2:12) This seems a strange admonition for the author of "saved by grace through faith". What's the fear and trembling? It is that in the absence of water in our desert, in the presence of an evil inheritance, in a society banishing God from its story, in the agony of my own loss, I might not be able to answer, "the Lord is among us." I might not unless I have an experience of God's presence in my heart and mind that transcends the rest of my experience, that cannot be taken away. This experience was the passion of John Wesley to have and to share. I commend it to you and to your church. We are going to need it.

Pentecost 19 – September 21, 2008

Exodus 16:2-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 or Psalm 78
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16

Blessed Memory

The starving Israelites were not happy campers, but the blessed memory of their experience dances like a joyous child in Psalm 105. For Paul blessed memory has become the living presence of God in Christ Jesus, all that he has suffered, all that he suffers, all that he will suffer is Christ to him. Jonah was angry enough to die because of God's grace toward Jonah's enemies. The laborers hired early were angry at the generosity of the vineyard owner. Would these experiences turn into blessed memory? Would they turn into blessed memory on their own, or would someone have to turn them that way?

Life is not fair, but neither is God's grace. Because life is not fair, I can find myself dragging my history behind me as if it were a cotton-picker's sack, full of rock. But, because of God's grace for me, that sack can become rather like the bouquet of helium-filled balloons lifting the vendor's arm at the circus. Jonah's memory of Nineveh's not getting the punishment it richly deserved could become a rock in his tow sack. The laborers hired early could add their bitterness to their tow-sacks and drag them into the future, or they could look back and praise God for his grace: allowing the irregular Jews to join the righteous and allowing the Johnny-come-lately gentiles into the kingdom. Why? Why not? What is the turn of mind that compels some to find the damnation of others as precious as their own salvation and somehow tied to it? "If the atheist won't burn in hell, I won't be happy in heaven." Or, "If my ex doesn't burn in hell, I won't be happy ever." "But God said to Jonah, 'Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?' And he said, 'Yes, angry enough to die.'" (Jonah 4:9)

Was it right for Paul to be angry at his persecutors? Yes, probably right enough for him to die, but he was as pleased to live as to die because the one reality of his life was Christ, and that reality would remain the same whether he lived or died, whether his enemies were punished or pardoned, indeed whether he himself were punished or pardoned. "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh." (Romans 9:3)

Can you imagine a spirit so powerful that it could slip into your tow sack and infuse the rocks until they began to rise, first relieving you of their weight and then relieving you even of the weight of daily life, so that all memory becomes blessed memory? This is the high calling of Christ. This is the Christ that is all in all to Paul, not just an ethic but also an ethic that arises from the presence and action of Christ. Quite the opposite of our salvation being tied to someone else's damnation, our salvation is tied to God's forgiving them and us. For us to join the Psalmist in song and dance about our memories, God will have to help us turn and bless the past, all of it and everyone in it, the Egyptians, the idealist who led us into the miserable wilderness, the evil who prospered, the lazy who ate and we ourselves who share the sins of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ may all your memories be blessed memories.

Pentecost 18 – September 14, 2008

Exodus 14:19-31
Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35

To Be Social

Robert Frost observed, "To be social is to be forgiving."* Jesus was serious about forgiveness. So much so that it sounds as if he says, "Not forgiving is unforgivable." Not quite. Not to respond to a repentant heart with heartfelt forgiveness is the action Jesus condemns in the church and beyond. If Joseph had not forgiven his brothers after the death of Jacob, if he had used his high position in Egypt to get even with them instead, that would have been the end of the story of the children of Israel. There would be no Jewish community if there had not been this pivotal act of forgiveness. There would be no Christian Community if there had not been the central act of God's forgiveness through Christ. Forgiveness is at the very heart of who we are and why we are here as a community of faith.

One could ask if Moses forgave the Egyptian army for pursuing him across the sea, but the parable Jesus told would not apply to Moses because the Egyptians weren't pursuing him to ask for forgiveness. Jesus did take forgiveness to a new level, however, when he told his disciples to pray for their enemies and when he asked God to forgive the very people who were putting him to death. Then, should Moses have forgiven Pharaoh's army? As they washed up on the shore? What is the role of forgiveness in dealing with a murderous hoard? God was obviously prepared to use lethal force to protect the children of Israel. Perhaps forgiveness doesn't preclude a lethal defense, although Jesus refused it in his own defense and so did the early church. Only forgiveness makes a rational, dispassionate lethal defense possible if at all. What forgiveness will not permit is blood lust. A lethal defense is not necessarily anti-social. Blood lust is. We have witnessed blood lust tearing the social fabric of Iraq and elsewhere.

Even though his words apply to the whole human community, in this context, Jesus is talking about forgiveness within the believing community, and Paul is talking about maintaining the harmony of the community. Paul asks the believer to make the well being of the community more important than his/her own prerogatives. One aspect of forgiveness is valuing the community more than one's own injury. It is an aspect of walking humbly with God not to dwell on how one's been done wrong. Rising above one's injuries is the first step toward forgiveness, but it is also the first step away from being determined by our injuries. If we forgive others, we may be able to forgive ourselves and thereby bless all of our memories.

So, when Jesus says we should forgive seven times seventy, he is saying we should value the community more than we value our injury, and he is saying we should, for our own sakes, choose a future free from the injuries of the past.

*"The Star-Splitter" by Robert Frost -- lines 44-47:
If one by one we counted people out
For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long
To get so we had no one left to live with.
For to be social is to be forgiving.

Pentecost 17 – September 7, 2008

ExodustEx
Psalm 149 or Psalm 148
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

A Brotherhood And Protective Order

The Pharaoh discovered he was dealing with yet another animal, a "new breed of cat", a people who were protected from the Death Angel by God. The Passover meal was the chartering ceremony of this new order -- brotherhood around a common meal in small groups and protective not in the sense that they were banded together to protect themselves but because they were banded together to received the protection of God. God is at the center of this new order and is the center of their protection. When the charter was expanded to include Gentiles, it remained that of a brotherhood and protective order, still constituted around a fellowship meal; this time with more openness to sisterhood, but still with God protecting the community from the Death Angel, now referred to as the hell at hand or the hell to come.

Jesus gives the brotherhood/sisterhood some simple rules for protecting itself with God at the center of its protection. Jesus assures the church of God's presence and protection with these words: "Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matthew 18:19-20) The word "anything" in this context refers to the church's actions in ordering its internal life. This is Jesus' promise that God will support the church in this vital function. If the church doesn't order its life, who will? If the church doesn't deal with people in its midst that threaten its existence and mission, who will? I have erred on the side of inclusiveness when it included people that broke down fellowship and confused the mission. I have confused the priorities of our order thinking we were first a service organization rather than being first a protective organization. First we embrace the protection of Christ and the body of Christ. Then we imitate Christ in sacrificial service. This is the order of our historical development, and it is the order of priority for our perseverance into the future.

Who is it that is accountable to God not just for his or her own behavior but for the behavior that weakens the church? "So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekiel 33:7-8) Is it only Ezekiel who is accountable? Is it only the pastor? Or, is it anyone who sees and understands the behavior that is breaking down the protection of fellowship in Christ? What Jesus describes is a church that confronts sin among its members, but with an eye to reconciliation not division. "As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked..." (Ezekiel 33:11)

God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but if the death of the wicked is the price of the life of the covenant community, then what? "Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands..." (Psalm 149:5-6) The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross changes our concept of the role of violence in God's protection of us. That is, violence is not a tool of our protection but rather our protection absorbs and transcends violence. Paul found all the protection he needed in Christ and him crucified. In Christ risen, he found himself in communion with the brother- and sister-hood.

Matthew 18:15-20 Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149 or Psalm 148
Romans 13:8-14

A Brotherhood And Protective Order

The Pharaoh discovered he was dealing with yet another animal, a "new breed of cat", a people who were protected from the Death Angel by God. The Passover meal was the chartering ceremony of this new order -- brotherhood around a common meal in small groups and protective not in the sense that they were banded together to protect themselves but because they were banded together to received the protection of God. God is at the center of this new order and is the center of their protection. When the charter was expanded to include Gentiles, it remained that of a brotherhood and protective order, still constituted around a fellowship meal; this time with more openness to sisterhood, but still with God protecting the community from the Death Angel, now referred to as the hell at hand or the hell to come.

Jesus gives the brotherhood/sisterhood some simple rules for protecting itself with God at the center of its protection. Jesus assures the church of God's presence and protection with these words: "Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matthew 18:19-20) The word "anything" in this context refers to the church's actions in ordering its internal life. This is Jesus' promise that God will support the church in this vital function. If the church doesn't order its life, who will? If the church doesn't deal with people in its midst that threaten its existence and mission, who will? I have erred on the side of inclusiveness when it included people that broke down fellowship and confused the mission. I have confused the priorities of our order thinking we were first a service organization rather than being first a protective organization. First we embrace the protection of Christ and the body of Christ. Then we imitate Christ in sacrificial service. This is the order of our historical development, and it is the order of priority for our perseverance into the future.

Who is it that is accountable to God not just for his or her own behavior but for the behavior that weakens the church? "So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekiel 33:7-8) Is it only Ezekiel who is accountable? Is it only the pastor? Or, is it anyone who sees and understands the behavior that is breaking down the protection of fellowship in Christ? What Jesus describes is a church that confronts sin among its members, but with an eye to reconciliation not division. "As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked..." (Ezekiel 33:11)

God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but if the death of the wicked is the price of the life of the covenant community, then what? "Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands..." (Psalm 149:5-6) The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross changes our concept of the role of violence in God's protection of us. That is, violence is not a tool of our protection but rather our protection absorbs and transcends violence. Paul found all the protection he needed in Christ and him crucified. In Christ risen, he found himself in communion with the brother- and sister-hood.

Pentecost 16 – August 31, 2008

Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

The Lord and the Calendar

The Son of Man comes in his kingdom. When God reigns, God is here. Moses experienced the presence of God because he experienced the reign of God. What would we have heard of the burning bush if Moses had not been obedient to God's reign? What would we have heard of Moses if the Nile had not been obedient to God's command? What would we have heard of the Nile's turning to blood, if the children of Israel had not been set free? Would Jeremiah's voice be heard today, if the reign of God had not vindicated his words? Jeremiah knew God's presence because he was obedient to God's rule. There were those who heard Jesus say, "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom," (Matthew 16:28) who did see Jesus return because they submitted themselves to his reign. Those who wait for Jesus to return before submitting to his reign still wait -- still look for the apocalypse and hope for an easier time to be obedient.

So, the company of those who wait to see Jesus apart from being obedient to Jesus point fingers at signs “There’s the anti-Christ!”, a figment of human imagination, as if it might provoke the return of the Lord, like some mixture of bat bones and adder's tongue might conjure up spirits. This thinking is both primitive and pagan. The Son of Man comes in his reign, and there are those in reach of this message who will not taste death before they see him come in his kingdom, but will have nothing to do with fear of the end times.

Paul prescribes a formula for being ready to see the Son of Man come: "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer." (Romans 12:9-12) This is not to a conjurer's taste, but this is the way to see the return of the Lord -- the simple, moral, spiritual way.

We frighten people with dire predictions when we should be frightened by our failure to live under God's reign. Believer and unbeliever alike have a sense of the wages of sin. The world needs to hear a clear word about the real source of our anxiety. The church is called to this prophetic role always, but especially now. Never were the words of Jeremiah more penetrating than now: "Therefore thus says the LORD: ... If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth. It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them. (Jeremiah 15:19) The Gospel is our message. It is all we have to add to human discourse. Faith in Christ and the reign of God turn sin into reconciliation, crisis into hope, apathy into power and groping for God into communion.

Pentecost 15 – August 24, 2008

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

Minding The Foundation

Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Some say Bill Gates, but others Babe Ruth, and still others General Patton or Roland Reagan. But who do you say Jesus is? "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but ..." "Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug." (Isaiah 51:6 & 51:1) Now, who do you say Jesus is?

It is a time of grand prosperity in human history. (Significant exceptions noted.) University students calculate how long it will take them to earn their first million. The middle aged calculate on early and luxurious retirement (Significant exceptions noted.). It is a prosperity that devours the heavens and wears out the earth. The beneficiaries of this economic expansion have but a dim inkling of the damage it is doing to the foundation.

The few environmentalists, though not lacking in fervor, sound a faint alarm. The environment is only one casualty in the war to make every household a royal household, to make everyone as rich as the queen. Our faith is in the work of our own hands, the imaginations of our own hearts. The faith on which the expansion was build -- the morality that everyone benefits even if some benefit a lot more -- is failing. We trust this economic boom to go on forever. We plan our lives around it. We invest money as if it will. We spend money as if it will. And when this idol lets us down, as it inevitably will, we will be dismayed to find nowhere to stand, the foundation gone from under our feet. "Save me, Jesus," will sound strange on the very lips that utter the words. What was Jesus to us before we began to sink?

It was the same Peter, who, sinking in the water cried out "Lord, save me!" that responded to Jesus' question about ultimate reality saying, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." It was because of his closeness to Jesus that he was able to make his great confession. It was because of his experience of salvation at his hands that he was able to set all others aside and put Jesus at the center of the universe, to say in effect that when God's kingdom comes, it will come by the leadership of this man. We would be hard pressed to make such a confession today because we don't live that close to Jesus. We'd sooner say the models for the kingdom are the likes of Bill Gates, General Patton, Roland Reagan or Babe Ruth; economic, military, political or athletic power.

The word of God describes the true foundation for human life. The story of Moses shows the savior carefully at work behind the scenes of Egyptian prosperity to save not their prosperity but the victims of their prosperity. Isaiah tells us to look to the quarry from which we were taken rather than the vivid picture of the present age. Jesus defines the quarry from which we were taken in saying, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Paul describes the movement from faith to action. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2) It is time to mind the foundation.