Chewing on Jesus' words for life . . .

      I suppose the seeds of this sermon were planted more than a month ago.  It was then that I was reminded by those outside our denomination that many in the wider Church do not understand Jesus’ teaching nor the multi-layered purposes or instructions of Jesus’ teachings, particularly in John’s Gospel.

     For those of you who have been on vacation, we have spent four weeks on Jesus’ teaching that He is the bread that has come down from heaven.  This further revelation began with the miraculous feeding of the 5000 in John’s story, but it bookended by the re-creation described by John in his Prologue—In the beginning was the Word, and the was with God and the Word was God.  Everybody remember that from Christmas or the Feast of the Incarnations.  The other bookend that frames John’s Gospel is Jesus’ Death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  That is THE SIGN that confirms Jesus is who He said He is.  John presents all three unique experiences of Jesus as a trifold event.  It is part of the reason why we remind ourselves when we gather for worship that we remember HIs death, proclaim His Resurrection, and await HIs Coming Again as we remember His blessed Passion and precious Death, His mighty Resurrection, and glorious Ascension.  Everybody remembers our liturgy, even if you have been traveling, right?  Good.

     Now, remember how hard this is for us to wrap our head around when we are paying attention to Jesus’ teaching and wondering about the response of the crowds, and of the disciples, and of the Apostles.  We have almost 2000 years of post-Resurrection history and reflection!  It is no small wonder the crowds and the disciples do not fully understand Jesus’ continued instruction.  Jesus has been speaking about bread.  But while speaking of bread on one level, He has also been claiming to be the One sent from God and that He is the center of God’s plan of salvation history.  And though He feeds 5000 from a few fish and loaves and ends up with more leftovers that He had when He started, and all of this is done with no intercession for God to act, like Moses, most miss the significance of the sign.

     Jesus begins this pericope with a reminder of what He has taught the crowds.  He is the bread that has come down from heaven.  But then He pushes the metaphor, summing up to the audience and us of His centrality to God’s plan of salvation.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. Jesus has chastised the crowds and us that we seek full bellies rather than the power and mercy and grace of God.  Like woman at the well or those that followed him to Capernaum, we are interested in satiation rather than the things of God.  We would rather full bellies, slaked thirst, and no pain, right?  Then comes the fun part.  Jesus insists that the bread is His flesh, which He will give for the life of the world.

     The Jews, John tells us, begin to argue sharply.  It is, of course, understandable why they find this a hard saying.  They question how Jesus can offer His flesh for them to eat.  Though there is no explicit command that we should not eat one another, few have been willing to argue that the lack of such a commandments means that we can.  I am not aware of a Rabbi arguing that when God gave Noah all living things and green plants to eat, He included other human beings in that instruction.  In fact, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as well as some of the prophetic books, describe cannibalism as a horrible curse and a final sign of Israel’s faithlessness.  Cannibalism was an anti-sacrament in a way — it described at outward act that resulted from a depraved inward heart-attitude.  Turning completely from God and remaining unrepentant despite His warning would result in such horrible behavior.  Now, this prophet, the One who John the Baptizer has told his disciples to follow, the One who has worked the amazing signs, claims He will give His flesh as bread for the life of the world.  How can He be claiming such a thing!

     Jesus, of course, ignores the sharp arguing.  A few experts like to argue that Jesus pushes through because He does not understand the threat to Himself.  John, for his part, always reminds us that Jesus knew the hearts of those whom He engaged, and Jesus warned those who followed Him that He would be put to death and raised on the Third Day.  Jesus even instructs that the ones who should know His identity best will be the ones who put Him to death.  Jesus knows what He is doing.  He is forcing those hearing Him, including you and me, to understand His mission.  We can decide to accept or reject His teaching, as always, but there is cost if we reject Him and a blessing that exceeds all that we can ask or imagine if we accept Him.

     Jesus warns His audience, both then and us today, that unless we eat of the Son of Man and drink his blood, we have no life in us.  John uses esthio, to eat, in a common way.  But the emphasis on the blood would have been even more challenging to those hearing His words.  The reason that Israel offers sacrifices for their sins is because God instructs them that life is in the blood.  All of the Old Testament sacrifices point to Jesus’ eventual work on the Cross.  But Israel understood on various levels that the life in the blood offered to God atoned for their own sins, which should cost them their own lives, apart from the mercy and grace of God.  The cool part of the verse for us word nerds, though, is that the last verb, ouk exete, is present indicative, meaning “y’all do not have.”  To possess life, in this case zoe rather bios, one must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus.

     I know some like to lower the sting of the words.  Even if we claim the words are purely metaphorical, which they are not, it offends us, and we are liturgical Christians!  But think how much energy has been poured in to trying to explain what Jesus really meant.  Romans went trans-substantiationly; congregationalists went zwinglian; we Anglicans and Lutherans chose con-substantiation to explain what happens at the Eucharist.  Some of us give up and say it is a Holy Mystery, but the elements become His flesh and His blood.  Right?  Whatever a denomination determines is happening, Jesus is pushing us a bit to understand that we have to eat His flesh and drink His blood to possess life.  And that word I just mentioned, zoe, is important.  Bios, as all our doctors likely know, is the word that gives us biological sciences, the study of life.  Plutarch uses the term to describe the lives of those whom he writes about.  Those lives, as he describes them, end with their deaths.  Zoe, by contrast, means kinda the opposite of death.  It means existence, and it is usually written about as the opposite of death, however death was perceived in the ANE.  For our purposes, such a distinction makes sense.  We have both bios and zoe, right?  We have a life that ends, but thanks to Jesus’ work at the end of this book, and the other Gospels, we know death cannot take the zoe that God has given us.  

     I see some confusion.  That is the teacher’s fault.  How about this?  When Jesus speaks of God being the God of the living and not the dead, he is talking about those who still possess their existence, even though they seem gone from our perspective.  Better?  Ok.  Good.  The implication is that zoe in some way transcends bios in the way we were created.  To begin to possess the life that God intended for us to have, according to Jesus, we have to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood!  If we do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, we do not have zoe within us, even if we have bios.  Jesus emphasizes that in the next verse, right.  Look at verse 54.  Whoever eats His flesh and drinks HIs blood has eternal life, and He will raise them at the Last Day!

     The fun part of verse 54, though, is the introduction of a new eating verb.  Trogo is one of those words that has no English equivalent.  Some translators will go with gnaw or chew.  Some may choose grind.  I also like one translators use of savor, but that lacks the effort implied by the verb trogo.  Jesus chooses an excellent verb here because of the effort it implies.  But it is better, we would say, because of the metaphorical teaching behind the initial image.  Jesus original audience, and we this morning, have focused on the offensive language of cannibalism.  That is certainly implied by Jesus’ instruction in this passage.  But, as is so often the case, there is more behind the initial image.

     The best analogy I could come up with was the idiom “something to chew on.”  When we use that phrase, we generally mean that somebody has given us something to think about, something that will take time for us to consider.  Jesus has been instructing us now about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, a hard enough teaching, but He has given and will give other hard instructions.  Let’s start with the easy instructions, say the ones in the Sermon on the Mount.  Does Jesus really mean that the humble are blessed?  I mean, has He heard of this world?  Everyone strives for their fifteen minutes of fame or to be an internet influencer.  Does Jesus really expect us to be poor in spirit?  Maybe that is a bad example.  The meek will inherit the earth.  Wait, does He know what meek means?  Conquerors get control of the earth, not the meek.  Let’s think of more challenging teachings.  What does it mean to love our neighbor as ourselves?  Who is our neighbor?  Is Jesus serious when He says we must love our enemies?  When people steal from us, does He really expect us to offer our cloak, too?  If we did that, we’d all end up poor, beaten, and naked.  Hmmm.  That sounds a lot like His physical condition when He was crucified, come to think of it.

     The good news about His instruction here, thinking particularly as those who think of Him as not just a Savior, but the pattern for holy living, He is encouraging us, in a sense, to chew on Him, to grind on what He teaches, and to savor those new tastes that inform us about His character and the character of His Father.

     You know this on one level.  How many times do you come to the Eucharist without joy?  Good.  I am glad to see that nobody raised their hands.  God wants us to be honest before Him.  Sometimes we go to that rail with bad news.  Sometimes we go to that rail following a challenging diagnosis or injury.  Sometimes we go to that rail having been stabbed in the back by a co-worker or the subject of gossip with a friend.  Sometimes we go to that rail lacking various things we are convinced we need.  Miraculously, though, Jesus meets us there.  All that He demands is that we are repentant before Him and at love and charity with our neighbors.  That’s it.  There is no faith-scale we have to hit.  There is no test we have to pass.  Though we may not understand the particulars well, especially when newer to the faith or immature in our relationship with God, but time and time and time again we go to the altar just as we are, repentant of our sins and at love and charity with our neighbors, and chomp on that wafer, His flesh.  We grind that bread in our teeth because, like Elijah last week, things are not the way we think they should be.  And we don’t like it.  That’s not what we signed up for!  We want the glory, but we do not want the cross!

     More amazingly, as we listen to Jesus’ instruction this morning, those of us who chew on HIs words, who wrestling with His instruction, abide in Him just as He abides in the Father.  Think about that for a second.  It seems like Jesus was chewing on the Will of the Father when He dwelt among us.  It is almost as if He would rather that Cup given to Him had been passed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It’s almost as if part of the Messianic temptations were to trust the Father, despite the circumstances that Satan used to try and sow doubt!  One of the seeming corollaries to Jesus’ instruction is that the chewing, the grinding, the wrestling forces us to experience grace of God in our lives and world around us much in the same way a foodie tastes the spices, the texture, the aroma, the plating and who knows what else.  Because we are chewing, because we are wrestling and working to abide in Jesus, and because He has been raised from the dead, we know that God will instruct us, teach us what we need to know, give us a different perspective, whatever we need, because we are sharing in HIs purposes, His redemptive plan.  Admittedly, we are like toddlers and seldom get what we want as quick as we want, and we might want the wrong thing, but God, through His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, will instruct us in what we need to know.  

     Then comes the big promise.  Whoever does this.  Whoever chews on His instruction.  Whoever feeds on this bread, Jesus, will live, in the Zoe sense of the word, forever.  We will share in the same life as Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, Jacob & Rachel, Elijah, Jesus, and all those Adventers and believers in our families whom God has brought to Himself, even though we see them no longer.

     My brothers and sisters, I understand the challenge of today’s pericope and my efforts to keep it somewhat brief.  No doubt you sitting there have reflected a bit differently now on the importance of the Incarnation, God taking on human flesh and dwelling among us.  Some of you have likely learned something new about the importance of the Eucharist in your own walk with God.  As John will say near the end of this Gospel, there is not time enough to exhaust what Jesus’ is instructing us today.  There is always more to chew, more to ponder, in the mysteries of God.  But on this day you have, I hope, been prompted by a priest and by the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, to consider the challenges, to consider the teachings of Jesus from a number of perspectives.  My hope and prayer for all of us is that, as a result of all that and maybe a few conversations later this week, we will all come to savor better what Jesus has done for each one of us. And fortified in that knowledge, reminded of His Will to reach every human being and draw them into His saving embrace from the Cross, we will go back out into that wilderness out there, committed and obedient daughters and sons, intentional in our efforts to pattern our lives after His.  And dwelling in Him, dwelling in the love His Father has for Him and He for us, we can approach that work with confidence and mercy, knowing that the life, the Zoe to which he has called each and every one of us, will be ours not just for today, not just for next week or month, not even for next year, but for eternity!

 

In His promise and Peace,

Brian+

On food and naps and God's care of us . . .

      The temptation to continue our discussion of Jesus as the Bread that gives life to the world and to do a bit of liturgical instruction about the Eucharist and, more specifically, about the power of the Sacrament, but I felt nudged most of the week to our passage in 1 Kings.  In part, I figure it is because it is not an opportunity that comes around often.  In fact, it only comes up on Track II of Year B, so, in our case at Advent, every six years.  Before I start in on today’s passage, though, we need to do a bit of history.

     First, by way of reminder, the focus of our pericope today is Elijah.  When I mention that name, many of you think of a heroic prophet in the OT, if you know anything about him, right?  One of the great things about the Bible, though, is that there is truly only one heroic figure, Jesus.  Everyone else is just like us.  Peter has great peaks and valleys of faith.  Abraham & Sarah do a great job of following God, except in those cases where they think He needs their help.  David is a great king, except for the rape/adultery of Bathsheba and the killing of her husband, Uriah the Hittite.  Solomon is likewise a good king, until he chooses to marry an Egyptian woman to cement that relationship.  Josiah is truly a great king, right up until the moment he ignores the warning that God gives Necho.  Good I see nods and some looking like they are thinking of their own favorite heroines or heroes of the Bible.

     The great news for all of us is that it is God who makes human beings glorious.  It is God who is the real hero of salvation history.  He can take men and women and youth like all of us gathered here today, with all our faults and all our frailties, and use us for His redemptive purposes.  We have only to step out in obedient faith, and the rest is up to Him!  He will remind us of that yet again today as we consider this story of Elijah.  And the craziest thing about all of it is that, because of our obedience and His redemptive purposes, people may well think we are the glorious heroes, that we were the source of what they needed!

     To place our story in its context, we have to turn back a couple chapters to one of the best, but mostly unread, stories in Scripture.  It really should be the focus of a movie.  Elijah challenges the priests of Ba’al to a contest on the mountaintop in Israel, the northern kingdom.  Both the priests of Yahweh and the priests of Ba’al will build an altar on top of the mountain, offer the appropriate sacrifices, and call down fire from the heavens to show their power of their respective God or god.

     The priests of Ba’al go first and end up exhausting themselves.  They build the altar, slaughter the animals, and then start the hard work of summoning their god.  Their dances and incantations and fervent prayers go on for hours.  Meanwhile, Elijah is relaxing while waiting his turn and mocking them and Ba’al.  The best line, I think, is when Elijah teases the priests that Ba’al must be stuck on the commode, to use a more modern euphemistic translation, and cannot answer their prayers right now.

     Eventually, the priests of Ba’al give up from exhaustion, and the priests of God go to work following Elijah’s instructions.  The odd instruction given by Elijah is that they need to pour all the water on the wooden altar.  Most of you will have forgotten that all this comes after a 3-year drought, which was a reminder from God that Israel was ignoring the Covenant their ancestors swore with Moses.  Most of you have learned over the course of your lives, though, it is incredibly hard to start a fire when the wood is wet.  Most of the men are gathered up on the mountaintop this morning at the laymen’s conference, but I am sure they would tell us to pour something flammable over wood, rather than water, when it comes to starting a fire.  Priests in Ancient Israel would have had that knowledge, too, but they listen to the prophet and do as they are told.  With little more than a “show them what You got” from Elijah, the Lord sends down a consuming fire that burns the altar built by both His priests and the priests of Ba’al.

     Everyone is stunned.  Elijah instructs the priests of God to kill the priests of Ba’al for their blasphemy.  Surely Israel will return to the Lord, right?  Wrong.  In fact, Jezebel doubles down.  She kills all the priests of the Lord, as far as Elijah seems to know during his complaint to God, though we know Obadiah saves about 100 priests loyal to Yahweh.  Worse, Jezebel tells Elijah that she will surely kill him within a day.  What’s a prophet to do?  That’s where our pericope picks up.

     Elijah has been fleeing to the south.  Remember, Israel is the northern kingdom.  Jezebel would risk civil war if she sent soldiers after him into Judah.  So Elijah does the sensible thing and flees to the south.  Interestingly to some commentators, Elijah makes it to Beersheba in Judah.  We might think Elijah would stop in a city of Judah, but Elijah keeps going south.  Why?  Probably it is her promise that he will be dead within a day.  Jezebel is not known for playing by the rules or the laws or the Covenant, right?  So rather than stop, Elijah keeps heading south into the wilderness, though he leaves his servant there, likely to keep an eye out for Jezebel’s hirelings.  That’s where we pick up in his life.  He is afraid and running for his life.

     It is also the scene that proves even memes are redeemable by God.  Those of you who have seen the memes that say we should never overestimate the power of a good nap and a good meal when we are feeling like failures know one of the lessons of this pericope.  I know, a few of you have shared it.  I’ve seen your social media accounts!

     Elijah, we are told, comes to a broom tree and lays down and and prays to God to let him die.  Ironic, isn’t it, he has been fleeing for his life for 24+ hours, but now he asks God to let him die.  He expresses that he is no better than his ancestors in verse 4, and then lays down exhausted.

     What does Elijah mean by his comment on his ancestors?  Could it mean that his ancestors had been unable to convince others to follow Yahweh?  Sure.  But there is, I think, a more obvious meaning.  Elijah is a prophet.  In fact, Elijah will end up being THE PROPHET in Hebrew culture.  It is Elijah and Moses who appear with Jesus in the Transfiguration.  When Jesus asks who the people say He is, His disciples say that some say He is Elijah.  One of the strands of messiah understanding taught that Elijah would return in a fiery chariot to lead God’s people.  It made sense, Elijah was one of two people not to die.  Elijah was carried off by fiery chariots to heaven in view of Elisha and the other prophets!  Elijah seems to be recognizing that his own failures are like his fellow prophets.

     For example, can anyone think of a prophet who failed miserably, in his own mind at least, and lay down under a plant giving him shade in the heat?  That’s right, Jonah.  Remember Jonah.  He tried hard not to preach repentance to Nineveh, even hiding in the belly of a fish to avoid that sermon, right?  That’s right.  He boarded a ship and was tossed overboard when he realized he was the focus of the storm and swallowed by the fish.  It was only when the fish spit him out that he finally obeyed God.  He preached the shortest sermon of all time, and Nineveh repented.  Jonah should have been thrilled, right?  Nope.  Nineveh was the ancient enemy of Israel.  Jonah had argued with God that if he preached repentance in Nineveh, and they repented, God would forgive them.  He contemplates his rightness under that plant and is mad that God relents of the planned disaster, and God reminds Jonah and us that He loves our enemies every bit as much as He loved us.

     Another prophet is referenced in verse 6.  The angel gives Elijah bread that baked on a hot stone, a resapim.  That word appears here and in Isaiah 6.  You might remember it since Funmi’s ordination was not too long ago.  God calls Isaiah to prophesy, and Isaiah resists by telling God he is an unclean man with unclean lips.  The angel in Isaiah’s vision takes a hot stone from the holy altar of The Temple and touches it to Isaiah’s lips.  Isaiah and his lips are now cleansed and able to speak the words God will give him.

     The angel even references Elijah’s experience.  The word for the jar, or sapphat, of water from which angels gives Elijah drink is the same as the jar which keeps the widow of Zarephath, her son, and the prophet Elijah fed during the drought.  We often miss such clues in our readings, but God is really good at ministering to the needs of those whom He calls to work in His plan of salvific history.

     As you all know, none of the prophets are excited to answer God’s call on their lives.  All of them experience incredible failure despite their obedience.  At Her very best, Israel listens to the prophets for only a short time.  Usually, they ignore the prophets or try to declare them false.  Some are cast into cisterns; some are killed.  But all have the same lesson to learn as Elijah is now learning.  God is the One who gives meaning to the work.  Elijah might love the mountaintop experience and have other ideas about what should happen as a result of these powerful signs, but God almost always has different plans.  Worse, at least from the prophets’ perspective, the people to whom they are sent, His people, seldom ever listen.  The desperately want those listening to them to hear God’s warning, God’s offer of grace, and to return to God, but more often than not, the people grumble and ignore their call.  They end up becoming suffering servants in anticipation of the Suffering Servant, Jesus of Nazareth, who will be killed for His own obedience.

     It is that same Jesus, though, who reminded us of the ego eimi just a couple weeks ago, of the truth that God is.  No matter our expectations, no matter our failings, no matter our courage or cowardice, no matter our strength or weakness, God is.  No matter the calamities and disasters around us, God is. And it is His desire to reach all humanity.

     In his current state, Elijah is incapable of doing what is necessary.  The angel tells Elijah it is rab, which is translated as “too hard.”  The physical and emotional toll on Elijah is apparent.  He longs to die.  He has given his best and it makes no difference.  Now he has fled; he has run scared for over a day.  Those in power want him dead.  How does God respond?  He feeds Elijah; He waters Elijah; He lets his body recover.  He allows Elijah to come to come to the understanding that all of us dread.  God does not need us.  But even as we come to the realization of our own impotence when compared to His, as we come to realize our incredible weakness and folly when compared to His strength and wisdom, we begin to understand that we still matter to Him.  In fact, we matter so much to Him that He is willing to die for each one of us, scorned and rejected.

     In Elijah’s case, though, God feeds and waters him and allows him to rest.  Notice, though, God is not finished with Elijah’s calling.  God sends him back into the teeth of those who want the prophet dead with orders Elijah to anoint the new leadership and Elijah’s own successor!  How many of us really want to choose our successors?  None of us really likes to think of a time when we are not going to be around, right?  None of us like to face our mortality.  Oh, we make wills and trusts, but can you imagine how you will fill if I came to you and said, “God tells me it is time for you to appoint a new matriarch/patriarch in your family because your time is running out”?  You are laughing, but part of your laughter is knowing what it would do to you, right?  Yet it is God who just provided for Elijah, God who told Elijah the way was too hard for him, who tells Elijah what he must do.  Elijah, now ministered to by God is prepared for his work, and because he will trust in God, the way will not be rab for him, even if it seems contrary to common sense.

     All that brings me back to the second big teaching of this pericope today.  Ego eimi in the midst of our trials, in the midst of our valleys, in the midst of our shadows, in the midst of our mountaintops, in the midst of our disease and injuries, in our strength and health, and in the midst of our all our life and work and rest and feeding.  More amazingly, though He does not need us, He wants us to choose to love and serve Him.  And He is so with us that He knows what we need in order to serve Him.  In Elijah’s case it was rest, and food, and water, and a reminder of his own experience with God, and a reminder of the experiences of other prophets with God.  For us, it may be entirely suited to us, to what we need to learn that He is, that He loves us, and that He has work for us to do!  And then fortified by God’s tender loving care to him, Elijah is sent back north to do God’s work, just as you and I are during this liturgy, where we remind ourselves intentionally of God’s work in the past and promises of the future, and having shared in His Body and Blood, we are sent out to do the work He has given us to do.

     As I reminded you at the beginning of this, Elijah is not a superhero of the faith.  You have seen that God wanted you to know that Elijah, for all the glory that is attached to his work, was just a human being.  He had plans; he had ideas.  He experienced bitter failure and longed to die.  The hero of his story is, of course, God.  God is the one who shapes and forms and uses us to His glory.  And just as He did with Elijah, He promises to do the same with each one of us!  Can you imagine?  Can you really imagine?  That is part of why it is Good News, great news.  His plan of salvation history is not up to us.  All He asks is that we do our best to stay on the path He directs.  The rest, even the feeding and watering and the rest and the picking us up after we stumble, is up to Him!  And that is a reminder we all need to hear from time to time, just like a good nap or good meal.

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian+

Do the right thing -- on the life and witness of Barbara G. Sayer

      On behalf of Barbara’s family and on behalf of all Adventers, I want to thank all of you for joining us this morning as we celebrate both Barbara’s life among us and her confidence in God’s redemptive work in her own life.  I see a lot of unfamiliar faces, so I understand there will be some worry about this service.  If you do not attend a liturgical church, have no fear, we will do our best to make sure you understand what is happening and on what page.

     I was reminded last week of my first conversation with Barbara some 9 ½ years ago by Carol Lynn McCarty, who was then serving as the head of our Altar Guild at Church of the Advent.  Barbara was over by the linen bowl, I think, and gathering the dirty linens to take home and wash and iron.  Of all the “behind the scenes” jobs in a church, the care of the linens is only noticeable when it is not done well.  When it is done well, most people do not even consider the work involved.  Thanks to Barbara’s work in that, few of us really considered her work.

     As I was heading to through the Sacristy to the Vesting room to remove the chasuble and my robes, Barbara introduced herself to me.  This was during the first couple weeks of my tenure.  But Barbara introduced herself, told me it was her job to wash, iron, and care for the linens.  She went on to say that she did not know me.  Barbara stated that it was her wish that the priest who would bury her would know her.  She did not want a stranger talking and preaching about her and ministering to her family.  So she hoped that we would get to know each other in the weeks and months ahead.

     I, of course, told Barbara that I understood what she was saying.  I told her I did not like officiating at funerals for people I did not know.  I also told her that I hoped she would not take my next statement the wrong way, but I fervently hoped that I would not be the one who buried her.  I loved being a pastor, much of the time, but I hate burying people I know.  She got what I meant and laughed, and we spent a few Wednesdays over the next couple years talking about funerals and care of the linens.  She particularly liked how my Altar Guild at a small church in Ohio had taught me not to be messy, not to use the embroidery on the Purificator to wipe the wine off the chalice, and to get out of their way when a priest needed a tongue lashing over their sloppiness.  As the one who had to clean up after such things, she really appreciated their work with me.  Better still from her perspective, when we had a visiting priest spill the entire contents of the chalice, before it was blessed mind you, all over the big altar covering, I was not about to get in her way as she told him he needed to be more careful or he might end up cleaning up his own messes.

     Of course, we talked about things other than church.  Barbara shared her love of painting, and really art in general.  She had a monthly meeting on Wednesdays with one group that caused her to miss our midweek service.  But she often showed us what she had made.  Many of us ooohed and awed over the china she painted.

     She liked looking at my stitching, and shared some of her work.

     And she loved gardening!  I spent a couple years in college working for a landscaper over the summer months, so I knew enough to be dangerous.  But I also knew enough to avoid some real dangers.  Her favorite chuckle was when people would express I must be putting holy water on the plans around the church, and especially in Penelope’s Garden—named after her great granddaughter who died during the pandemic.  Barbara knew my secret was bonemeal.  I loved the blooms around Advent, and I knew I could not over-fertilize or burn anything out with bonemeal.  So she would laugh when Stuart or somebody would talking about the holy water because she knew what was really happening, but especially because everyone around here loved the results!

     As you might imagine, there were a number of other conversations that would not be appropriate to share during her funeral, but those conversations also helped shape our readings and songs for today.  One of Barbara’s great frustrations was when others just would not do what was right.  Barbara was gifted with a great sense of right and wrong and expected all of us to just do what was right.  So now you know why the quote is at the bottom of the front page, why something akin to it was in her obituary, and why I will be focusing a bit on the Golden Rule today.  Believe me, I was tempted to dive into First Corinthians today, in honor of her love of gardening and of her friends who garden and in honor of the fact that her perishable body has now been sown to give birth to the splendor of her heavenly body, but that would have been a long sermon.  Though Barbara would have loved a discussion about the passage, she also liked to be to the point!  So, if you are of a mind, turn to the Gospel reading.

     Jesus’ teaching on the Golden Rule comes from Luke, so we know that Luke has heard the Apostles and disciples talking about Jesus’ teachings and actions rather than watching them and hearing them for himself.  The Church tradition is that Luke spent years interviewing those who knew Jesus best, including Mary His mother, before he wrote the Gospel that bears his name.  Jesus begins His discussion of doing what is right by pointing out good behavior is not to be limited to our family and friends.  We live in a world that is just divided as the world in which Jesus was incarnated.  Pharisees fought with Sadducees and Herodians; Jews and Samaritans were not known for their ability to get along; and nobody was thrilled with the presence of Rome in ancient Judea!  Think Democrats vs. Republicans in much of our political discourse, the efforts to do away with federal authority in some states, or, since most of us cannot help but pay attention to SEC football, GA vs. FL or TN vs. AL. 

     Jesus’ first instruction to those who claim Him as Lord is about the Golden Rule is that it must be applied to one’s enemies, those who mistreat us, and those from whom we cannot expect reciprocation.  Our calling, we would say, is to mirror the life of Jesus and to incarnate with a little “i” the heart of God.  God’s work throughout the Scriptures is to woo the world, to draw the world into His saving embrace.  Jesus’ Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension are the ultimate expression of God’s desire to draw all to Him.  All of us like working among family and friends and those who can repay us, right?  In that, we are no different than sinners and enemies.  But Jesus calls us to a different perspective, a different way of living.  We called to live as if we are joyful recipients of God’s grace.  And because we are His adopted sons and daughters, He commands us to live our lives reflective of the grace He has shown each one of us! 

     Jesus, of course, dives deeply into the heart of God, even if we skip it in a first glance.  But it was an understanding I heard Barbara teach again and again.  We are called by Jesus to place the person over possessions.  Look again at verses 29-32.  Jesus tells us not to fight back, not to cling to our possessions, and to give those things we have to those who ask.  Part of our calling, as I have had to instruct Adventers for some five or six years now, is that we serve the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen.  So often, we, like the world around us, gets caught up in attitudes of scarcity.  There’s not enough money; there’s not enough space; there’s not enough time.  Adventers have learned a valuable lesson in our work to feed the food insecure in our midst here in Middle Tennessee.  God provides way more than we can ask or imagine.  It makes sense, right.  If He created everything out of nothing, what can He not do?  Nothing.  Better still, if He wants Himself glorified and His sons and daughters glorified because of His redemptive work, what better way than providing what is needed?  If you asked Barbara during the growth of that work, she would laugh aloud not just at the quantity of what God was giving us, but at the sheer absurdity of some of those gifts.  Barbara knew and loved all Adventers and how many work hard to be obedient to the call of Christ in their lives, but she got tickled when God gave us cows or lobsters or fresh produce or crazy amounts of ice cream.  God has used us to do amazing work in His Name, and no Adventer thinks it is our own planning, our own giving, or even something of which we remotely considered giving away.  Yet God has been faithful to that work and used it to reach those whom we serve.  Sadly, the Golden Rule is so ignored in the modern western Church, those whom we serve are surprised or shocked when we simply give them a choice, never mind when we give them a choice among steak cuts or seafood or flavors of ice cream.  Too often have we heard “If other Christians were like y’all, I could see myself worshipping your God.”

     Placing people above possessions is so important to Jesus, that He promises His disciples and us in verse 35 that those of us who live like this that our reward will be great, because we are kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Like our Father in heaven, we are called to show forth compassion in our lives.  We are reminded, by our engagement with others, that everyone has a story, an experience, that has led them to where they are in life.  Sometimes it has been bad choices in their lives; sometimes it has been bad instruction, or trauma, or circumstances.  Because we do not know, but we serve the One who does, we mirror the compassion He showed each one of us hopeful that they will see Him in us!

     Jesus continues in His teaching with the really hard part for many modern Christians, right?  He instructs us, He uses imperative language to use the language of linguists among us, to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful.  Such a command is hard, right?  If I don’t fight back, if I don’t cling to my possessions, if I don’t get even with those mock me or stab me in the back, I will always be taken advantage of, I will always be humiliated, right?  But that is the command of Jesus.  If we model His life and His heart, we will be forgiven.  If we condemn, if we try to get even, we will receive likewise when we stand before Him.  The good news, of course, is that Jesus modeled this behavior even during His Passion and death on the Cross, so He knows what He commands of us.  He did not strike back against those who mocked Him.  He did not call down the angels to defend Him or His honor.  Even as He took His last breaths while the crowd mocked Him If He is the Messiah, let Him come down; He saved others, but He cannot save Himself; and Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.  Jesus trusted in the Father’s power and will to redeem His suffering, even at the end of His life on earth.  But for His faithfulness even to death on that Cross, He was raised from the dead, reminding us of God’s power and will to redeem all our sufferings.  And for that we acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior and should endeavor, with God’s help, to model His compassion, His forgiveness, and His mercy in our lives and in our words.

     Lastly, Jesus reminds us as He finishes His teaching on the Golden Rule that we are not the judges.  Just as nobody else but God can see into our hearts, know everything that led us to where we found ourselves while an enmity with God, we do not know what will happen to the one whom we serve in His Name.  We might only be the seed planter in their life, the waterer, the pruner, the tiller of soil or some other role, but we know that God loved them so much that had they been the only one in need of His forgiveness and grace, He would have willed Himself to hang and die there, to suffer all that humiliation, just for them!  His purpose in coming the first time was not to condemn, but to save!  And only He knows what is going on in the hearts of others; only He has earned the right to judge. 

     It’s tough.  I get it.  There is suffering aplenty in most of our lives.  And we like to compare our own responses, or how we think we might respond, to similar suffering.  If I was hungry, I would not be choosy.  If I had suffered that trauma, I would plow on through.  I would NEVER fall in love with an abuser or a cheater.  I would never allow myself to be poor.  Right?  The truth, of course, is that none of know how we would react until we were to find ourselves in that particular circumstance, and this is where the Golden Rule should become so important to those who claim Jesus as Lord.  All of Jesus’ teaching on the Golden Rule is the reminder that we, His brothers and sisters, are called to be blessings to others in the world.  In many ways, the Golden Rule reminds us of God’s purposes way back in Genesis 12, when He chose Abram and sent him out from Chaldea.  God told Abram that His seed would be a blessing to the world, a nation of priests.  Jesus, of course, is the ultimate promise of that blessing that God swore with Abraham.  Better still, Jesus is the means by which we are all drawn into the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven.  And because He was a blessing to us, we know we are called to be a blessing to others, not just to certain others, but to all.  Such was the call on Abram; such is the same call on each one of us!

     Such also was the life lived by Barbara.  Oh, I know, she sinned.  She had harsh words for some; she lacked necessary patience at times; I am sure she let doctors know they were not the sharpest tool in the shed while she was a nurse; I am certain she made mistakes as a mother, a wife, a grandmother, and even a great grandmother.  But she trusted in Jesus’ instructions.  Only illness or art could keep her away from worshipping God in this space while I was here.  She always asked God to forgive her sins and to empower her to glorify Him in her life.  At some point in that walk with God, long before that new priest met her in the sacristy, she had adopted that motto, “Do the right thing” as the Barbara version of the Gospel.  Your attendance here this morning is testimony to the power of the Gospel in her life.

     I will leave it to all of you, who knew her as a family member, a friend, a colleague, or as an Adventer to decide whether her priest knew her well enough to use her life as an example of God’s redeeming presence in the world and especially in her own life at her funeral.  But as for me, I hope and pray that when you read about the Golden Rule or hear the words “Do the right thing” you will be reminded of the life of Barbara, that you will remember her voice and see her face, but even more importantly, give thanks to God for yet another redeemed saint in your own life, and strive, with His help, to be one in the lives of others in your own life.

 

In His Promise,

Brian†

His Power Is Made Perfect in Our Weaknesses . . .

     It is good to be back with you, though I confess some, I hope, righteous anger.  It absolutely drives me nuts when bishops do not prioritize feeding their flocks.  I have served on the Board of Directors in a couple dioceses and have expressed that sentiment.  Bluntly.  That’s part of why I am here among you today.  Nathan has heard my rants, so he volunteered me to Michelle three years ago.  The rest is, as they say, history!

     If you are new or have missed the last two years, my name is Brian McVey.  Many of you know my dad, George, whom Nathan somehow pushed to the Assembly of God church during his discussions about Anglican and Eucharistic theology while he was among you.  It’s ok to laugh.  Nathan knows I’m mostly teasing.  Mostly.  Given your audible chuckling and elbows, I am certain all of you know my oldest son, Nathan.  Karen and I truly appreciate your cross-bearing work of allowing Nathan to worship among you.  We especially appreciate that you allowed him the freedom to worship rather than doing the whole “Hey, it’s a PK!  We can put him to work!”  I know Michelle did put him to work over time, but it was with a gentle hand, and I recognize how important that was to Nathan.  It was, after all, the first time he got to choose where he worshipped.

     Usually, around this time of year, we go to the southern Maine coast for our family vacation.  Berkely Springs ends up being a good stopping point on our travels from Nashville, where I serve as the rector of the historic Church of the Advent.  The downside, of course, is that I have been on vacation mode for a couple weeks, and most of my normal sermon prep materials are in Nashville.  Worse, now that Nathan has moved to DC, I do not get the stories about what is happening at St. Mark’s.  So I apologize in advance if the sermon seems a little impersonal.  I can preach on the text any given week, but I understand the need to connect the text to our lives, both individually and communally, for preaching to be the most powerful.  Of course, if it connects, it is a great illustration of our focus today, and that means God was truly among us inspiring me in my ignorance and connecting His word to your lives in spite of me.

     I was drawn this week to the passage from Second Corinthians.  I’m not sure where I would have preached from, were I back in Nashville, I think I would have leaned into Mark, but 2 Corinthians kept occupying my thoughts and prayers with respect to this community.  On the one hand, I know there is an emotional draw for me.  About 21 years ago, when I and my classmates gathered at seminary in late August, we were required by our Dean President to select a class verse, a passage of Scripture that would describe, inform, and motivate our collective and individual ministries as we prepared to and then headed out into the fields for ministry.  To take you back in time, the great Episcopal divorce was in its infancy.  Gene Robinson had been elected and was likely to be consecrated as bishop.  Yet we had the largest class in Episcopal seminaries in nearly 20 years.  Virginia had been the last class, we were told, with so many incoming students.  If I had told you this then, you would have likely thought it strange.  We were fighting like cats and dogs in the wider Episcopal Church.  And we were not glorifying God in our disputes at all.  Yet God had called a big class to Trinity when things were seeming rather bleak.

     Peter Moore, our Dean President at the time, told us we had to select a class verse.  After some discussion, we settled initially on “Jesus wept” as our first choice.  Now, y’all are rightly chuckling again.  The Episcopal church was not glorifying God in this fight at the time at all.  So, we figured God was weeping at the state of our church.  But then we also knew He was going to have to use us to continue the church, if He intended for it to survive the fight and the divorce.  And boy, if you knew us, you knew God was shaking His head and weeping over these seminarians with which He was going to have to work.  Michelle is laughing.  She knows seminary faculties weep over the incoming students at every seminary fall!  Lol

     Peter, for his part, would not let that be our class verse.  He admonished us for not taking our responsibility seriously.  So he made us do it again.  Many of us were mad.  We had picked a verse, and we had considered it theologically.  And now we were wasting time meeting again.  But after our grumbling, we settled on part of verse 9 from today’s reading.  “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”  Peter was not happy, but we were done.  But it, like the first, was a verse that was well chosen, well-considered, and shaped the work of many of our classmates as we have served Christ as ordained presbyters in His Church for nearly two decades now.  That’s the emotional tug from this passage for me.  Let’s see if it is what God wanted you to consider today.

     If you don’t know much about Corinth, I’ll give you a quick lesson, likely more than you ever wanted to know.  Corinth was located on an isthmus, with the Aegean Sea on the west and the Saronic Sea on the east.  It was re-planted by Julius Caesar around 44BC.  Julius had armies fighting his battles and establishing him as the Emperor of Rome.  I’m sure we all know enough history to remember Marc Antony’s efforts at this time.  The danger of paid armies in the ANE was when there was no battle to fight.  Fighting men are often good at fighting.  That’s what they know.  When the battles stop, what do they do to earn money?  Think of friends and family members who served in the military among us.  Some never figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives when their terms of service end even in modernity, right?

     Well, in the ANE, as in many places, a gathered army could tempt those with enough money to try and seize a throne.  The Game of Thrones has been around a lot longer than Martin’s books and HBO’s series.  If one is rich and wants a throne and knows an army is assembled, all one has to do is offer more money than the current employer.  Julius had an army far from Rome.  He did not want to recall it, because those opposed to his rule might poach it and threaten him with it.  So he made the soldiers all citizens and had them re-settle Corinth.  It was tactically brilliant.  At its height of 6 million people, give or take, maybe ¼ million people were citizens.  Julius offered his army citizenship, and all the rights and responsibilities that went with it, if they would settle in Corinth and protect the Empire from the barbarians out there.  Giving them citizenship ensured their loyalty; and there was, for a time, a well-trained fighting force who could protect the northeast boundary of the empire.

     Of course, now that they were citizens, the former soldiers had to make new lives for themselves.  Because the isthmus is only three miles or so across, the city developed a huge business moving cargo from ships on one side to ships on the other.  Unloading and loading cargo and transferring them by wagons saved about three weeks of time, plus the inherent dangers, of shipping around the Greek peninsula.  We understand shipping costs much better thanks to our supply chain issues, right?  Time is money, literally, in logistics.  So we can all begin to understand the possibilities and generated wealth.

     Eventually, the business grew and became more efficient.  Some decided too much time was wasted, and money lost, unloading and loading ships.  They chose to make ship harnesses and systems which could lift ships out to be hauled across the three miles and dropped in the other sea.  Now, money was not spent on as many men loading and unloading.  Cha-ching!

     Of course, as with any port or trading post, other businesses cropped up.  Brothels are big in port cities, right?  Restaurants.  Bars.  If the ships are not sailing, the sailors needed to be entertained, for a cost, you understand?  The transport businesses had support businesses.  Wheelwrights, carpenters, wagon-makers, blacksmiths, and the like were all needed to keep trade flowing.  Oh, and let’s not forget, the government needed to track the taxes.  I mean, they all owed the emperor their opportunity and new standing, and they needed to make sure he was paid what he was owed for his largesse.  You laugh, but I told you Julius’ decision was tactically brilliant.  He created a city that LIKED to pay taxes, that felt it OWED him taxes in thanksgiving for the opportunity he gave them.

     Relatively quickly, Corinth became incredibly wealthy and incredibly dissolute.  “Corinthianize” became a verb that, well, was not necessarily a compliment.  Think of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”  Sometimes we think of that positively; sometimes we think of that rightfully pejoratively.  Corinth, because of its recent history, was wealthy and determined to prove the emperor proud of his decisions on their behalf.  You and I would rightly describe Corinth as trying to out-Rome Rome in everything.  That’s the city where Paul planted this church from which we have two of his letters.

     Unsurprisingly, the church in Corinth had issues, right?  To be fair, they had subscriptions.  In fact, on occasion, Paul will chew them out and remind them that not even the Romans do some of the things the Christians are allowing in their church, but he will chew them out even more for just doing things like the Romans do.  For example, as a sign of their wealth, they will gather for meals and eat until they throw up, and then eat more.  Eating until throwing up was a sign of opulent wealth.  Paul will fuss at them for letting some go hungry in an effort to show off their wealth.  Good.  I see nods.

     Like Israel before them and us today, the culture creeps into the people of God.  Without correction, we begin to think that God approves of what we are doing, until someone reminds us that, you know, some of the things were are doing actually violate the His instructions to us.  Think of our self-professing  “Christian” leaders who use immigration, poverty, slavery, or anything else to divide us and motivate voters rather than treating those impacted by the issue of the day as if they are loved by God.  Unlike our politicians, God is not interested in votes or approval.  He wants us to choose Him, but He will accomplish His purposes whether we choose Him or no.  So Paul’s admonitions and instructions are every bit as applicable to the church in the United States today as it was in Corinth in His day.

     Human beings value and prioritize traits and behaviors which, to be frank, are simply ungodly.  We prove to ourselves time and time again that we choose darkness rather than God.  Instead of using the power and strength and wealth and everything else that He has given us to glorify Him in our lives, how many of us choose to self-aggrandize ourselves?  In Corinth’s case, it was further motivated by civic pride and loyalty to the emperor.  Like American Christians who think God wants them to govern according to their desires and their wants and their needs, the church in Corinth conflated their civic loyalties with faithfulness to God.  The results were predictable.

     In this part of the letter, Paul is confronting the effects of “super apostles,” as one commentator labelled them.  Others came along after Paul left and claimed more authority than Paul.  Think of one of your favorite megachurch pastors who create cults rather than churches, or think of your favorite clergy who barely labor for God draining the resources and faith of those who hunger and thirst for God, but try to pretend they are about holy work.  Those who came after Paul declared their importance was derived from their gifts.  They claimed to have had mystical experiences which proved their importance, though, coincidentally, those experiences could not be evaluated by others.

     Paul, of course, understands that the value of his work, and our work, comes from God.  What makes our work important is the fact that God gives us the work and the gifts to accomplish the work in His Name.  When we are gathered in a community like this, as small and insignificant as a congregation might seem to the world outside us, we know we have work to do.  We know God wants us to glorify Him in this community.  And we know we have, or will have, whatever it is that we need to glorify Him properly in our communal and individual lives.

     Paul begins with what you and I might call a humble brag referencing a man.  It becomes clear in the pericope that the man Paul is describing is himself.  We do not know when this vision was granted to Paul, but we do know he has had mystical experiences of the Risen Jesus whom Paul persecuted.  I won’t bore you with the vision, but the meaning would have been significant.  The third heaven was as close as one could get to God as a living, sinning human being without being destroyed.  Think of the Court of Gentiles for foreigners visiting the Temple or standing outside the Temple when the veil of the Holy of Holies was pulled back for all to see for a couple moments on the Day of Atonement.  Paul’s claim is that he has been granted the most mystical experience possible, and if anyone has reason to brag and claim authority, it is him.

     But Paul continues on.  He reminds the Corinthians and us that he has work to do on behalf of God.  To keep him from being too arrogant, too puffed up by the experience, he was given a thorn in his side.  We do not know what the thorn is, but it plagued him enough that he asked God to take it away three times.  On the third ask, God tells Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness.  Unlike those who claim to be closer to God because of their experiences, Paul is instructed, and reminded daily by the thorn, that God works in weakness.

     You and I sitting here today may wonder at this lesson.  Why would God choose to work in weakness?  Why would God think that Paul needs a thorn to remember it is God’s work, not Paul’s, that is at work in the world?  Part of our challenge is that when we are powerful, when we think we are the “in” people or the chosen of God, we tend toward hubris.  We begin to think that it is our brilliance, our hard work, our intelligence, our practice, our whatever that causes us to be successful.  The reminder of the entirety of Scripture is that such hubris leads us from God.  The rich trust money rather than God.  The “in” people forget that God calls all of us to reach out to the margins.  God’s purpose, the whole reason He chose Abraham and his descendants, and then us who are grafted in through the Seed of Abraham’s faith, Jesus, are done so with a purpose of drawing all others in the world into a right relationship with the Father.

     Paul was the perfect evangelist for the church plant in Corinth.  He was well-educated; he was a Roman citizen; he was well travelled.  And, yes, he had had a mystical experience on the road to Damascus which taught him that, for all his religious fervor and zeal for God, he had gotten it wrong.  The One who had been hung on a tree was accursed by God for Paul and all of us.  And because Jesus was faithful even to death, He was raised on the third day, reminding us of the redemptive power of God and His will to use that power on our behalf.  But that power will not ultimately be exercised on our behalf until we die or He returns to re-create the world.  For now, our experience is one of cross bearing.  For now, we live among others, weak like ourselves, demonstrating to them by word and action, the love of God.  Paul’s thorn keeps him mindful of the boasting upon which he should be focused.  Paul’s thorn reminds him that the beatings, the imprisonments, the persecutions, the insults, the hardships were where God had been most active in Paul’s work.  To use the language of a pandemic, God’s thorn in Paul was a vaccination against false pride and hubris.  God’s thorn kept Paul focused on his need of God’s grace.

     How that works in our life is similar to the way it did in Corinth at this time.  We all know churches that place their faith in something other than God, right?  They place their faith in the attendance or the giving or the volunteering or the programs.  We understand why.  But we also understand why such churches are easily turned aside.  We understand how easy it is for leaders to begin to believe the whisper of the enemy that it is their genius, their hard work, that makes the church successful.  That stumble makes them more susceptible to temptations.  But for every church we see fall, how many labor like your own, seemingly invisible to or unnoticed by the world.  You have shared with me your feeding ministry.  Have you conquered hunger in the world through it?  No.  Have you conquered food insecurity in Morgan county?  No.  What have you really done?  The world would say not much, but I hope you have heard the thankfulness from those whom you have served in God’s Name.  You have served the stranger or the one whom you know hungering in your midst, very much unlike the Corinthians whom Paul chastised, in Christ’s Name, trusting that He will give the meaning to such faithful, intentional service.  If you have reminded just one of those whom you served of His love for them, you have done what He asked.  You, like Him, have gone in search of the lost sheep, just as He instructed all of us, and done your best to restore them.  Who knows how many have watched you labor?  Who knows how much dignity you have restored in conversations over a meal?

     Places like St. Mark’s will be where our wider church will need to turn as it faces its reality.  Our wider church just gathered in Louisville for General Convention to pass a bunch of resolutions.  Some were telling the United States what we thought about our policies; others were our comments on the conflict in the Middle East; and too few, in my opinion, were dealing with the current realities of our beloved church.  Just prior to that gathering, it was released that we are down to about 377,000 people gathering in worship each Sunday across our church.  That small number should really cause us to focus on our priorities.  If we keep doing things and shrinking, are the things we doing truly of God?  These are hard conversations and require prayerful discernment, right?  You know this given your parish experience.  But the wider church punted for three more years.  Change, and hopefully renewal, may come, but it seems like it will only come when we begin to realize that the UN does not care what we think about anything, that our government does not care about any resolution that we pass, that NYC will not miss our presence over anything, that we do not seem to be offering anyone anything they value or even should value.  Until we get back to glorifying God in our lives, I expect our corporate experience will not be a good one.  We, the church of so many of the founders of our nation, are unknown or a byword among Christians in our country today.

     Individually, of course, we all are facing thorns.  Some of you have health struggles.  Some of you may be struggling financially.  Most of us have relational issues in need of repair.  We know all too well what happens when we human beings, and others like us, trust too much in ourselves, right?  And lingering out there always is the reality of death.  We can eat right, exercise right, do everything the smart people tell us, but we each live in a shadow of death.  We each understand there is an impotence that we all share.  But that impotence, in that weakness, we realize the truth of what was revealed to Paul and shared by him with us.  God has promised and demonstrated to each of us that His redemptive power and Will are unlimited.  We know, because of our baptism into Jesus’ death, that we are promised a resurrection and glory that passes all imagination.  We know that even when our weakness leads to our eventually deaths, God’s power will glorify us with His Son our Lord!  And so, reminded of His instruction; reminded of our Lord’s shameful death, glorious Resurrection, and magnificent Ascension; fortified by His Body and His Blood, we are sent back out there to do the work He has given us to do, both individually and corporately.  And because we know our human frailties, because we know our weaknesses all too well, we know that we must seek Him and the work He would have us to do, confident that in that work for which we are ill-equipped and ill-trained and not nearly strong enough, He will be present with us, reminding that His work in us is made perfect in our weakness, and that His Will for us and for others will be accomplished, whether the world notices or not.  But always, there is that reminder and promise that One Day, when He returns, those who have chosen to follow Him will be vindicated.  That when He returns the world will have no choice to acknowledge that those who trusted their weakness, their foolishness, in His strength and His wisdom will be the ones who chose truly wisely, will be the ones for whom the eternal world has been prepared since the creation of this world!

 

In His Peace and His promise,

Brian+

 

The Good Shepherd and Cast Sheep

      Ugh.  This week I guess either I was crazy or God was really wanting us to pay attention to Psalm 23.  I shared with those present at Jean’s funeral that it is always dangerous to preach on Psalm 23.  I suppose it comes down to John 3:16 or Psalm 23 as to which piece of Scripture is best known in the Church and in the wider unchurched world.  I am certain by way of conversations since Jean’s funeral that I preached exactly what God wanted me to preach.  People said I captured Jean perfectly, describing to me how she set a table in the midst of their enemies.  At the time, many never understood what she was doing, let alone that it was a faithful ministry on her part.  But they shared their stories of her work with them and how that sermon resonated.

     I had hoped I was done with Psalm 23 for a while, but God seems to have other ideas.  Before I launch into this sermon, though, I need to remind Adventers, and those new to Advent, that Good Shepherd stories are never my own.  My pastoral care professor, the now Dean of the Cathedral in Albany, NY—which means he gets the title of “Very Rev” so you know he is more Rev than I, first served Christ’s Church as a bi-vocational priest.  He was an Episcopal priest in northern Maine and a shepherd.  As he taught our classes, he would often drop stories about being a shepherd.  The most famous of those stories I turned into a sermon that most of us know as “Away to Me.”  I see many nods and some confusion.  For those long attending, it is the sermon about the sheep dog rescuing the sheep trying to swim from an island in New Brunswick to Portugal.  It was in my mind again because I was asked if I would preach that sermon again by Adventers.  It’s a good story and good sermon, but I am not big about repeating sermons.  It seems lazy to me and fails to recognize how we engage at times with God’s Word.  Feel free to search for it on my blog, though, if you are wanting a refresher or your curiosity is piqued.  

     One of the great images of Scripture is that of God being a shepherd.  It was a common metaphor in the ANE.  Kings liked to call themselves the shepherds of their people in the ANE.  God used the familiar image to illustrate His relationship with His people.  Jesus, unsurprisingly, picked up on that image and refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd.  Since today is Good Shepherd Sunday, it makes sense that I would need to delve into my memories of Leander’s classes to illustrate the sermon, right?  Good.  For those who like to read the focused Scripture, I will be preaching on Psalm 23, mostly on verse 3a, but before we get to the text, has anyone ever seen a sheep laying on its back with hooves in the air as you have been driving in the country?  Awesome.  I know it sounds kind of crazy, but there are a few others who have seen it, so you know it’s not some crazy, AI generated story, right?

     There is an uncommon issue for shepherds, rather than rare, where sheep will end up stuck on their backs.  Imagine a turtle upside down on the top of its shell.  With me so far.  The sheep is literally on its back with its hooves splayed up and out.  Driving by when it first happens, it may be wiggling.  I think that action is not unlike a cat that is trying to scratch its back when the human refuses to do the job for which the cat chose it.  I know, I know, you dog people think you choose your pets.  Cat people know better!  That position is called cast, as in spelled the same and sounds the same as the plaster we put around broken bones.

     Now, imagine you are driving through the country and you see a cast sheep, on its back with hooves in the air, should you be concerned for the sheep?  It’s ok, none of you are shepherds.  Lol.  I like the “since you are asking us, we probably should be concerned” answer.  For us non-shepherds, does their seem to be anything dangerous about the position, apart from whether a predator is nearby?  No.  That’s why you and I are not shepherds, let alone good shepherds.

     It turns out the position is fatal to a sheep, if it stays in that position for about a day.  It turns out that sheep, because they are ruminators, are producing gas in their stomachs as they digest their food.  Most of us remember our introduction to this from our study of the biology of cows way back in elementary and junior high.  Good.  Some people paid attention.  Everything works great for a sheep when it is nightside up.  But when it gets turned upside down, often the result of wet wool and a sloping hillside, the fermentation in the fourth? stomach becomes dangerous and deadly.  Upside down, they are unable to pass the buildup of gasses.  So the pressure keeps building, sort of like a balloon is being filled up inside them.  That expanding bubble of pressure begins to push organs around.  Ladies that have been pregnant can describe this even better.  Good.  More nods.  If the sheep is not righted in time, the pressure and the dislodging of organs eventually kills the sheep.

     OK.  Knowing that a cast sheep is in danger now, how would you respond to a sheep on the side of the road in a cast position?  I heard two good answers:  Tell the owner (the shepherd) and roll them over.  For us softies, is there any other answer that seems possible?  We cannot drive past endangered or suffering animals like our hard-hearted friends, right?  Lol. See, I told you, this shepherd business is important to God.

     For those of us determined to roll the sheep over, how do we do it?  Grab the wool and pull it over.  Makes sense, right?  We may have just traumatized the sheep more doing it like that.  Imagine if someone pulled our hair to move us around.  How would that feel to us?  Ouch, indeed.  Remember, sheep typically weigh 250-350 pounds, and often cast sheep are wet, which adds more weight to the problem.  So there is more weight attached to their wool than we have to our hair.  And even if we don’t accidentally pull the wool out trying to right the sheep, we still run the risk of inflicting pain by pulling and by irritating the skin of the sheep by pulling, right?  That’s why shepherds grab under the sheep’s shank and roll the whole body over, creating torque with the hind end.  Don’t forget, topography often plays a part in a sheep being cast, so the shepherd has to figure out how to use the slope to help right the sheep.  Everybody feel like cast sheep experts now?  Good.

     Once the sheep is upright, we can hop back in our cars and continue our journey, right?  Wrong.  Remember the buildup of gasses from rumination and the organs being displaced internally as a result?  It turns out that such a condition is not unlike a inner ear infection for us.  That’s right.  The center of balance for sheep is knocked off by being cast.  If the shepherd, or Adventer in our example, leaves quickly, there is a significant likelihood that the sheep will lose its balance, fall over and roll over.  The longer the gasses build up, the more likely that is the outcome.  So, if you and I stop and do our good deed and hop right back in the car, we might not have changed the prospect for the sheep we just rescued.  Kind of depressing and sad, huh?  Now you know why shepherds are always checking their flocks and why they go looking for those not with the flock.  Is my sheep in a bramble?  Was my sheep taken by a predator?  Did my sheep eat something poisonous?  Is my sheep cast?  Hard work, isn’t it?  You might also begin to understand the difference in attention paid by the hired hand and by a good shepherd, right?  And yet God and Jesus remind us they are the Good Shepherd.  Unlike the hired hands who may not be too concerned if a sheep or two is lost, God and Jesus are incredibly focused on the lost sheep.

     Now, I told you earlier I would be focusing on verse 3a.  That danger of which I spoke in the beginning will now be more obvious to us all.  Anybody have any idea what “He restores my soul” means?  Cleanses us from sin?  Good guess.  He gives us rest to restore us?  That’s a good guess, too.  The Hebrew is rather deeper than the guesses I am hearing.  I get it.  We have all heard this psalm as “He restores my soul” for so long, we have ingrained ourselves to think it is wonderful, even if we do not understand it, right?  With all due respect to those who speak Hebrew far better, like Deacon Suzie, the Hebrew is something like napsi yeshobeb.  I know, I know, hillbilly Hebrew is a rare dialect.  Those of you who have been in Bible studies with me, though, can probably hear the root words of nepes and Yeshua in those words.  Now, I am not a Hebrew expert, by any stretch of the imagination.  But nepes is that Hebrew word which gets translated into the Greek by the Rabbis 300 years before Jesus’ birth as psyche and which we loosely call soul.  The problem for us is that we diminish the word because of our culture and our history.  I won’t ask us to define soul, but most of us would say its the animating force or the valuable spiritual thing in which God is interested, right?  For the Hebrews, though, nepes was a much more meaningful word.  Nepes was what made you and me us.  When God formed us in the womb and breathed life into us, He stamped us, breathed into us, those characteristics which make us distinct from others.  In fancy western language, we would say this was the image of God that each of us bears, reflecting in some shadowy way the glory and character of God.

     The second word sounds somewhat like Yeshua, the covenantal Name God gives to His people, right?  So there is a double meaning in this verse that I would suggest is not well captured by “He restores my soul.”  On the one hand, the psalmist is claiming that He restores me to me.  Put in better English, God reminds me of who I am in Him and strengthens me to do His Will or God reminds me of my nepes.  Pretty cool, right?  It makes sense.  God gave us those characteristics He knew those around us would value, but sometimes we forget the intention with which He created us.  This is the psalmist’s way of saying that God reminds us who we are and encourages us to live as He created us to live.

     But, in the reminder of His covenantal name, you and I can simultaneously hear this verse as reminding us that God calls us back to Himself.  What usually causes us to forget that we were created in His image is the fact that we sin.  The more we sin, the less attuned to God we become.  None of this is new to us, right?  After all, we have all been taught over and over how repentance had a physical component, literally turning ourselves, back to God.  The more we sin, the more we go our own way.  And the psalmist is reminding us today that God calls us back to ourselves and back to Him.  In truth, we cannot be ourselves unless we are following Him.

     Do we think “He restores my soul” captures the breadth and depth and nuance of the Hebrew?  Look at the second half of the verse.  Which interpretation makes the second half seem more fitting, more appropriate?  Why does God create us intentionally with nepes or psyche?  To glorify Him in the world around us!  What mars that effort on our part?  Sin.  But the Good Shepherd calls us to repentance, calls us to ourselves.  Like sheep with a shepherd, we hear His voice and turn.  And so long as we heed His voice, so long as we work to attune ourselves to Him, we glorify Him in our lives!  But even better, and the Gospel is always better, in that act of repentance you and I are made righteous.  The path that we walk following Him is covered in repentance.  And because Jesus did His work for us on the Cross, you and I can be restored to ourselves and to God.

     We all know this, even though we often forget.  When we are baptized, or someone else is using our liturgy, we vow among other things that, when we fall into sin, how will we respond?  Good.  Y’all remember.  We confess our sins and absolved.  We are specifically reminded that Jesus has made it possible for to be restored to ourselves and to God.  Then we share the peace, being at love and at charity with our neighbors, and what happens?  That’s right, we are intentionally reminded of Christ’s Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Second Coming in the Eucharist.  We literally ask God that we are made one body with Him, right?  Whoa, that’s a lot of thoughtful nods.

     I expect that for most of us, the image of the cast sheep is now rather apparent for God’s purposes today.  How often do we find ourselves stuck or in ruts or unable to remember, let alone save ourselves?  Too many times.  And yet it is the Good Shepherd who promises this day that He will restore His sheep!  Many times, even at our best intentions and efforts to help one another, we are too often like hired hands.  In our efforts to help one another, we often do harmful things like grabbing a 250 pound sheep and pulling it over by the wool, and then thinking we have done our good deed, we leave them to their own devices, not recognizing their center of balance is so confused they roll right back over and into a position that leads to death.

     It is low hanging fruit, but think of those Christians who promise that finding Jesus will eliminate all of one’s problems.  Find Jesus and your addiction will be healed.  Find Jesus and your relationship issues will be swept away.  Find Jesus and your problems of privation will become immediate abundance.  But there are subtle ways we sometimes act like hired hands.  I know many Christians who claim they are pro-life, yet are better described as pro-birth.  Too many are in politics, but they get voted into office by people like you and me.  They constantly cut spending that helps those most marginalized in our society.  They constantly rail against the idea that the government should be in the business of providing food, clothing, medical treatment, and good education for those born who grow up to be toddlers and then children and then teens.  Oooh.  That caused some interesting expressions.  Too close to home?

     Let’s go closer and easier.  How many times do people in this congregation fight with me, with Hilary, and Nancy about us teaching the food insecure in our midst to be lazy, or worse, help them take advantage of us?  It was not too long after this work was established that volunteers began to learn that many of those whom we serve are the very definition of “not lazy.”  We serve a few school teachers and other Metro school employees because, you know, they get that incredibly high pay for being teachers and waste their money on classroom supplies.  For those of you visiting, that was my sarcasm voice and the snorts you heard came from our many educators in the parish.  How many people have we met who work two, three, or four part-time jobs and still cannot make ends meet?  How many people have we served who use us when there is a medical emergency in their family because they have no healthcare because, you know, those part time jobs offer no benefits.  How many documented immigrants do we serve because, when they were settled here by our government for their service to us in their home countries, their professional certifications were not accepted by us.  We have watched physics professors and accountants and other esteemed professionals work night shifts at WalMart local grocery stores to pay the bills as they work to get re-licensed and to learn our language.  How many of those whom we served fled their country because of civil unrest that made simply living in their home country dangerous, often because of our stated policies and, worse, because of our clandestine efforts to undermine their governments?  What would we do if we were in their shoes?  Let our kids be killed?

     Pick any issue used by politicians to divide us and the media to generate headlines and income.  Somehow it is controversial to think or to express that Jesus hates the humiliation and murder of civilians in the current Middle East conflict or in Ukraine.  God breathed a napes into every Palestinian, every Hebrew, every Ukrainian, and every Russian just like He did us; yet where are the hired hands who remember that?  Somehow it has become controversial for us to think that a living wage is important.  Somehow it has become controversial for us to be able to weigh work from home versus work in the office costs and benefits or other work life balance issues.  Heck, wearing masks in the middle of a pandemic that was killing people in our very congregation was a controversial issue for those in other flocks without the medical expertise and experience we have in our own flock.  

     I wish I had a video camera set up at the altar to capture facial expressions and body language during this sermon.  I get it.  Like those cast sheep, our equilibrium is off.  We have mistaken party platforms for the voice of our Good Shepherd.  We have mistaken capitalism for the economy of our Good Shepherd.  And such loss of equilibrium, such forgetting the voice of our Good Shepherd, has disastrous consequences for us and for our efforts to glorify Him in our lives.  When we follow other voices, we are led from ourselves, we dishonor Him and we lose ourselves.  Think of how the world mocks us for “thoughts and prayers.”  Think of how the world thinks Jesus Christ is the new n-word.  Think of how some of still struggle as adults from the effects of the voices of hired hands in our faith lives today.  Think of whatever other example the Good Shepherd’s voice is placing before you this morning.

     The glorious news of the Good Shepherd’s teaching today is that He knows you.  He knows the wonderful intention of God with which you and I and everyone in the world were created.  He knows the awe inspiring intention for which God fashioned you and me and everyone in the world in the womb.  And He came to make it possible for you and for me and for everyone we encounter in the world around us to live intimately with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!  Best of all, He knew, even as we joined the crowds and mocked Him for that death, that we were like cast sheep, that our balance had been so thrown off, we had no idea what we were doing.  And still he hung there.  Still He gave up His life for us, that we might have the possibility of the abundant life for which the Father created all of us.  And He showed His love for us when He asked His Father to forgive us because we did not know what we were doing.  

     But this helping cast sheep is ongoing.  How many times would you and I, as hired hands, continue to try and right that sheep that insists on turning over?  How many times might we start to have less care and concern for that sheep the more times we would restore it?  Yet how many times have each of us been restored by Him?  How many times have we sinned and been endangered of drifting from ourselves and from God only to have Him seek us, tend us, and bring us back to the flock?  How many times have we experienced the tender care of the Good Shepherd and been placed back on the path of righteousness for His Name’s sake, just as the psalmist proclaims today?  Reminded of those times and His teaching, and soon to be fed by His Body and Blood, how well are we prepared to walk those shadowy paths through which He leads us!

In His Peace and Tender Care,
Brian+