What are you going to do with your Advent Season this year? Most of us will probably spend it rushing between parties, shopping, and either cleaning for guests to come, or packing to be guests somewhere else. In between we will put in as few hours of work as possible to get it all done while our employers want us to stay overtime.
Do you know what you are supposed to be doing with your Advent Season? Once, a long time ago before marketing departments spent millions on advertising, advent was the season of peace, of stillness. The harvest was in, the party was over, and it was the beginning of a whole season of waiting(aka winter).
Advent is a time for silence, rightly falling in the season of silence. Just imagine the silence of a snowfall. It is in this time that we need to stop, to sit, to wait, and to listen to the silence. But silent is not the same as alone. Silence is, in fact, the most essential element of any conversation. If someone is not listening, then all of our speech is for nothing. In the year of the church, it is the time to experience the distance between us and God.
The church year is a celebration of the life of Jesus that mirrors the natural year, with its seasons; winter, spring, summer and fall. It is distinctly different from the calendar year or the fiscal year or the school year. Which calendar are you on right now? Probably you are juggling several already-if your children are in school, if you are looking for your winter boots, if you are gathering tax receipts from charity donations, and purchasing a new calendar for 2006. And if you are feeling a little harried from all of that, perhaps it is because you are not honoring the most important calendar in your life.
Be in the silence this Advent. Even though it is hard, even though there are only 15 more shopping days until Christmas. Even though the rest of the world is making more noise than usual, we must give ourselves this time to listen to the silence. Because if we don't hear the silence, we never have the chance to hear the answer.
(The 15 days reflects the actual publishing date of the article. I am not that confused about the date. hml)
Monday, November 28, 2005
Speaking to the Silence
I am not going to preach the gospel today. I'm hardly going to preach at all. Shannon wanted me to, he thought I should go right to the sticking place and address the fact that it has Jesus saying the first generation of followers would live to see the end of the world. That isn't what Advent is about though. This isn't the time in our lives set aside to tear apart inadequacies. This is the time of our lives set aside to listen to the silence. It is a time to reflect on our longing for connection with God, in anticipation of our celebration of God's way out of that separation. When the scribes of Matthew wrote into the gospel that they would see the return of Jesus, they were giving us a concrete example of the feeling of longing. Even amongst those who knew Jesus, even the experience of God in human form did not diminish the feeling of being apart from Him. Meditating on this divide is the work we are meant to do during Advent.
The longing to bridge the silence with God did not start after the Ascension of Christ. That longing has been there since God pulled Adam from the dust. In the casting out from Eden, the slavery of Egypt, the exile of the Babylonians, the oppression of the Romans, the Protestant Reformation, even our troubles in the Anglican Communion now, we are beseeching God to answer our pleas. We want to be in accord with God's will, we just don't know what to do.
The old testament reading from Isaiah is a powerful statement of the pain of waiting for God to speak. Just listen.
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence-
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-”
Where is our burning bush?
“When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.”
We have no Moses. We have no intermediary. Come anyway.
“But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.”
Without your presence, we have no choice but to do the wrong thing.
“Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.”
We are sorry, Lord God, please forgive us.
“After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
Speak to me. Speak to me God.
For this writer, I cannot think, having read ahead, that God ever answered. But out here, past the end of the book, somewhere in the midst of the story, we know that there was an answer. Although the author of this lament could not know it, God could not keep silent; he did answer. He sent his Son, to say, see me. See how the divine can meet in the flesh. Do these things, do them in my name, and in the doing, you will never be alone again.
I have been meditating on this by reading a little book by Barbara Brown Taylor called, When God is Silent. I haven't spoken to any one idea or illustration I got from this book. But the realization that Advent is the time to embrace the silence is the result of my understanding of the central question of this book; what does it means to speak authentically when God is silent more often than not in our lives? I just wanted to be sure to credit it somewhere along the way.
This is the time, in the cycle of the church year, in the life of our parish, and in our own lives, to stop, to sit, to wait, and to listen to the silence. Silent is not the same as alone. Silence is, in fact, the most essential element of any conversation. If someone is not listening, then all of our speech is for nothing.
Be in the silence this Advent. Even though it is hard, even though there are only 27 more shopping days until Christmas. Even though the rest of the world is making more noise than usual, we must give ourselves this time to be listen to the silence. Because if we don't hear the silence, we never have the chance to hear the answer.
The longing to bridge the silence with God did not start after the Ascension of Christ. That longing has been there since God pulled Adam from the dust. In the casting out from Eden, the slavery of Egypt, the exile of the Babylonians, the oppression of the Romans, the Protestant Reformation, even our troubles in the Anglican Communion now, we are beseeching God to answer our pleas. We want to be in accord with God's will, we just don't know what to do.
The old testament reading from Isaiah is a powerful statement of the pain of waiting for God to speak. Just listen.
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence-
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-”
Where is our burning bush?
“When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.”
We have no Moses. We have no intermediary. Come anyway.
“But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.”
Without your presence, we have no choice but to do the wrong thing.
“Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.”
We are sorry, Lord God, please forgive us.
“After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?”
Speak to me. Speak to me God.
For this writer, I cannot think, having read ahead, that God ever answered. But out here, past the end of the book, somewhere in the midst of the story, we know that there was an answer. Although the author of this lament could not know it, God could not keep silent; he did answer. He sent his Son, to say, see me. See how the divine can meet in the flesh. Do these things, do them in my name, and in the doing, you will never be alone again.
I have been meditating on this by reading a little book by Barbara Brown Taylor called, When God is Silent. I haven't spoken to any one idea or illustration I got from this book. But the realization that Advent is the time to embrace the silence is the result of my understanding of the central question of this book; what does it means to speak authentically when God is silent more often than not in our lives? I just wanted to be sure to credit it somewhere along the way.
This is the time, in the cycle of the church year, in the life of our parish, and in our own lives, to stop, to sit, to wait, and to listen to the silence. Silent is not the same as alone. Silence is, in fact, the most essential element of any conversation. If someone is not listening, then all of our speech is for nothing.
Be in the silence this Advent. Even though it is hard, even though there are only 27 more shopping days until Christmas. Even though the rest of the world is making more noise than usual, we must give ourselves this time to be listen to the silence. Because if we don't hear the silence, we never have the chance to hear the answer.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Christ the King - Proper 29
Well, here we have it. If you ever had any doubts about what to do now that you are a Christian, this is it.
Feed the hungry. Quench the thirsty. House the stranger. Clothe the naked. Comfort the sick. Visit the prisoner.
I could go on about what it means to feed, clothe, house and comfort people, but you already know how to do those things. You already know what it means, and you already do some or all of these acts of mercy. So I am not going to give examples of how to do them. I am not going to advertise the organizations in the church that specialize in them. And I am not going to show how they were radical new statements of hospitality in the first century. Two thousand years later, after whole societies have been built on these rule of hospitality; these are still radical new statements about how to treat our fellow man.
But why frame this as an example of rewards and punishments? Wasn't it enough just to tell us how to be righteous? Why do we have to be so complicated, bringing in parables of kings and listing off not only the reward for action, but the punishment for inaction?
Why? Because people don't just need to know how; they need to know what to why, and they want to know what to expect as a result. Jesus spoke in parables not only so his listener could understand the concepts, he spoke this way so that even we would be able to find the meaning. So lets talk about how the framing of this list of good deeds gives us even more information about how to be followers of Christ.
Since we know how, what we really need to consider is why do we have to do anything at all? Paul is pretty clear in his letters that Jesus did all the work so to speak, and that in his death we are forgiven our sin, and thus relived of our guilt for failing to do God's will. So just why are we getting a list of work to do to be considered righteous by God?
Because for the writer of Matthew, Jesus is come for the Jews. And the Jews are a covenant people. In a covenant, both parties have responsibilities. The covenant relationship places emphasis on our free will, and it demands that we claim the responsibilities that we are given. In this passage, Jesus is laying out the new covenant. What God does for the people who do the right thing, and what God will not do for the people who do not hold up their part of the bargain.
So here we are, we know how to act to be good Christians, do this list of actions. We know why to do these things, because we are a covenant people with responsibilities. What is the result? What good comes from doing these things.
If we are about anything as Christians, it is about people, about relationships. So now that we know what to do, and why. Lets look at the people involved so that we can see the result.
Who are the people bound by this covenant? Who is Jesus talking to? It is always important when reading passages of Scripture to consider who is the audience. Who is being told to do these things? Jesus sometime addresses the crowds, sometimes his disciples and sometimes Pharisees and other Jewish leaders. Well, in this case, Jesus is talking to his disciples. So, it isn't just anyone that Jesus is addressing, but the core of his followers. The leadership that will be in place after he is gone. We are the inheritors of that leadership, and so this passage has special meaning for us about what to do.
In this parable, Jesus first gathers all the people of the world. Everyone. Don't forget about everyone. Because then he is going to separate our sheep and goats. The righteous from the unrighteous. Then he is going to describe their actions and their reward.
Jesus starts with the righteous. “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom,” he says, to people that follow his commands. When did we do that, they ask? And he tells them, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, my brethren, you did it to me.”
How many of you think, that because you are ever conscious of your duty to other Christians that you are righteous, that you are going to be rewarded with eternal life?
Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and like any parent, even when he is making the grand statement, he is still talking about someone standing in the room. So when the king is separating those who act according to God's will from those who don't, he is sorting the disciples. In his story, the king tells the unrighteous goats, you never did anything for anyone, “you did not do it to one of the least of these,” and so you are banished to the outer darkness.
Now how many of you are thinking, hmm, maybe I ought to go talk to Prison Ministries, I just don't visit enough prisoners.
I am not going to do a big word study of the ancient Greek, but the thing to notice that when Jesus is listing off the benefits of being in accord with the covenant, he is talking about having done these deeds for his family, for other Christians.
But when he is listing off the sins of the unrighteous, he says, “one of the least of these.” The word here, in the Greek is not a family word, it is a general people word. Here he is talking about “all the nations,” the Christians, the Jews, and the Gentiles, and every other oppressor they have not yet encountered. He is saying, you aren't showing this extreme compassion to all people, and so you are not experiencing the glory of God.
When we started the story, we could feel so comfortable, knowing that with all this insider knowledge we would be considered righteous. We were so sure that all this covenant asked us to do was take care of our fellow Christians and God would take care of us.
Yes, this tells us what to do: the how of acting as Christians.
Yes, this tells us why to do it: because we are free agents in a covenant with God.
But in the middle of all this grand expression of good and evil; Jesus is teaching us what we can expect from keeping this covenant. Not only is he offering us direction about discipleship, but all we need to know about evangelism. Jesus is telling us how to make more Christians. If we do these things, we will bring more people to God, and we won't have to stand on street corners and yell, “Repent, for the end is near.” We won't have to offer video conferences about what it means to be episcopalian. We only have to do the things we are told, and those people will be so moved by our actions, that they will ask us what we are about.
If you feed the hungry, they will want to know why you are giving your food away.
If you offer your water to the thirsty, they will want to know why you are sharing.
If you give a stranger a place to sleep, they will wonder what is wrong with you.
If you give someone clothing, even unto the shirt off your back, people are going to want to know what you know that they don't.
If you care for the sick, they will want to know why you aren't afraid to catch their illness.
If you visit the prisoner, they will want to know why you are not afraid of them.
And they will ask.
The real question is, what will we say? What will we tell someone when they ask why we have stepped so far out of our own self interest? Will we say something about liberal politics? Will we say something about community service?
Or will we tell them, because someone once did this for me.
Even if you grew up in the Church, if you have not experienced the incomprehensible love of another person, offered in Christ's name, you will not stay in the Church. If you have not offered this love in Christ's name, you will not really be one. Oh, you may fill out forms saying you are a Christian of one sort or another, but you will not really be one.
You will really be a goat, and like the goats, you will not know the blessings of the kingdom, the kingdom prepared and waiting, since the beginning of the world. It is here, it is waiting, why are we?
Feed the hungry. Quench the thirsty. House the stranger. Clothe the naked. Comfort the sick. Visit the prisoner.
I could go on about what it means to feed, clothe, house and comfort people, but you already know how to do those things. You already know what it means, and you already do some or all of these acts of mercy. So I am not going to give examples of how to do them. I am not going to advertise the organizations in the church that specialize in them. And I am not going to show how they were radical new statements of hospitality in the first century. Two thousand years later, after whole societies have been built on these rule of hospitality; these are still radical new statements about how to treat our fellow man.
But why frame this as an example of rewards and punishments? Wasn't it enough just to tell us how to be righteous? Why do we have to be so complicated, bringing in parables of kings and listing off not only the reward for action, but the punishment for inaction?
Why? Because people don't just need to know how; they need to know what to why, and they want to know what to expect as a result. Jesus spoke in parables not only so his listener could understand the concepts, he spoke this way so that even we would be able to find the meaning. So lets talk about how the framing of this list of good deeds gives us even more information about how to be followers of Christ.
Since we know how, what we really need to consider is why do we have to do anything at all? Paul is pretty clear in his letters that Jesus did all the work so to speak, and that in his death we are forgiven our sin, and thus relived of our guilt for failing to do God's will. So just why are we getting a list of work to do to be considered righteous by God?
Because for the writer of Matthew, Jesus is come for the Jews. And the Jews are a covenant people. In a covenant, both parties have responsibilities. The covenant relationship places emphasis on our free will, and it demands that we claim the responsibilities that we are given. In this passage, Jesus is laying out the new covenant. What God does for the people who do the right thing, and what God will not do for the people who do not hold up their part of the bargain.
So here we are, we know how to act to be good Christians, do this list of actions. We know why to do these things, because we are a covenant people with responsibilities. What is the result? What good comes from doing these things.
If we are about anything as Christians, it is about people, about relationships. So now that we know what to do, and why. Lets look at the people involved so that we can see the result.
Who are the people bound by this covenant? Who is Jesus talking to? It is always important when reading passages of Scripture to consider who is the audience. Who is being told to do these things? Jesus sometime addresses the crowds, sometimes his disciples and sometimes Pharisees and other Jewish leaders. Well, in this case, Jesus is talking to his disciples. So, it isn't just anyone that Jesus is addressing, but the core of his followers. The leadership that will be in place after he is gone. We are the inheritors of that leadership, and so this passage has special meaning for us about what to do.
In this parable, Jesus first gathers all the people of the world. Everyone. Don't forget about everyone. Because then he is going to separate our sheep and goats. The righteous from the unrighteous. Then he is going to describe their actions and their reward.
Jesus starts with the righteous. “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom,” he says, to people that follow his commands. When did we do that, they ask? And he tells them, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, my brethren, you did it to me.”
How many of you think, that because you are ever conscious of your duty to other Christians that you are righteous, that you are going to be rewarded with eternal life?
Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and like any parent, even when he is making the grand statement, he is still talking about someone standing in the room. So when the king is separating those who act according to God's will from those who don't, he is sorting the disciples. In his story, the king tells the unrighteous goats, you never did anything for anyone, “you did not do it to one of the least of these,” and so you are banished to the outer darkness.
Now how many of you are thinking, hmm, maybe I ought to go talk to Prison Ministries, I just don't visit enough prisoners.
I am not going to do a big word study of the ancient Greek, but the thing to notice that when Jesus is listing off the benefits of being in accord with the covenant, he is talking about having done these deeds for his family, for other Christians.
But when he is listing off the sins of the unrighteous, he says, “one of the least of these.” The word here, in the Greek is not a family word, it is a general people word. Here he is talking about “all the nations,” the Christians, the Jews, and the Gentiles, and every other oppressor they have not yet encountered. He is saying, you aren't showing this extreme compassion to all people, and so you are not experiencing the glory of God.
When we started the story, we could feel so comfortable, knowing that with all this insider knowledge we would be considered righteous. We were so sure that all this covenant asked us to do was take care of our fellow Christians and God would take care of us.
Yes, this tells us what to do: the how of acting as Christians.
Yes, this tells us why to do it: because we are free agents in a covenant with God.
But in the middle of all this grand expression of good and evil; Jesus is teaching us what we can expect from keeping this covenant. Not only is he offering us direction about discipleship, but all we need to know about evangelism. Jesus is telling us how to make more Christians. If we do these things, we will bring more people to God, and we won't have to stand on street corners and yell, “Repent, for the end is near.” We won't have to offer video conferences about what it means to be episcopalian. We only have to do the things we are told, and those people will be so moved by our actions, that they will ask us what we are about.
If you feed the hungry, they will want to know why you are giving your food away.
If you offer your water to the thirsty, they will want to know why you are sharing.
If you give a stranger a place to sleep, they will wonder what is wrong with you.
If you give someone clothing, even unto the shirt off your back, people are going to want to know what you know that they don't.
If you care for the sick, they will want to know why you aren't afraid to catch their illness.
If you visit the prisoner, they will want to know why you are not afraid of them.
And they will ask.
The real question is, what will we say? What will we tell someone when they ask why we have stepped so far out of our own self interest? Will we say something about liberal politics? Will we say something about community service?
Or will we tell them, because someone once did this for me.
Even if you grew up in the Church, if you have not experienced the incomprehensible love of another person, offered in Christ's name, you will not stay in the Church. If you have not offered this love in Christ's name, you will not really be one. Oh, you may fill out forms saying you are a Christian of one sort or another, but you will not really be one.
You will really be a goat, and like the goats, you will not know the blessings of the kingdom, the kingdom prepared and waiting, since the beginning of the world. It is here, it is waiting, why are we?
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Reinforcing Stereotypes
I really wish I had a picture of this, but I have to say..
One of our parishioners is of Middle Eastern descent, born there, speaks with an accent, the whole thing.
Today, I caught him out in the parking lot showing off his new pellet machine gun to all the kids. FYI, it was a full sized replica of an AK47, the weapon of insurrection in the Middle East.
I had to go tell him that he was scaring the neighbors and proving all their terrorist fantasies. He laughed, but he did put it away.
I wonder if it is because he hadn't thought about it, or if it was time for service?
Personally, I don't think any sort of gun, including the rubber band kind (I am an easy target) should be at church. It conflicts with the whole Prince of Peace message we are trying to share. But it is a sad thing that we have to worry about such things, even at church.
One of our parishioners is of Middle Eastern descent, born there, speaks with an accent, the whole thing.
Today, I caught him out in the parking lot showing off his new pellet machine gun to all the kids. FYI, it was a full sized replica of an AK47, the weapon of insurrection in the Middle East.
I had to go tell him that he was scaring the neighbors and proving all their terrorist fantasies. He laughed, but he did put it away.
I wonder if it is because he hadn't thought about it, or if it was time for service?
Personally, I don't think any sort of gun, including the rubber band kind (I am an easy target) should be at church. It conflicts with the whole Prince of Peace message we are trying to share. But it is a sad thing that we have to worry about such things, even at church.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
How to talk about GOd in the 21st Century
This is the second article in the How to Talk about God series. Last month I spoke on what it is like to talk to God and I used television shows to explain two perspectives. This month, I would like to complain about the problem of hermeneutics, the fact that everyone has preconceived notions. Something that we all experience when we try to speak to non-Christians about our faith is that people want to tell us what we think instead of listen to us. There is a two fold reason for this.
First, we as humans want to teach more than we want to learn. This is a pretty well documented sociological fact and remembering this when we encounter people who always dispute our facts, opinions and faith goes a long way towards keeping us in charity with our fellow humans. We are who we are and we like to be 'in the know.'
Second, we live in a post Christendom era. The Anabaptist Network have put together a FAQ of their “Core Convictions” and one of them sums this idea up perfectly. “Western culture is slowly emerging from the Christendom era when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost all were assumed to be Christian. Whatever its positive contributions on values and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted the gospel, marginalized Jesus, and has left the churches ill-equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture.”
Our world is still full of default Christian values and traditions. Christmas and Easter are still considered national holidays, people running for public office are expected to profess Christianity, and the media and marketing industries cater to the perceived desires of Christians, which we all too often defer to ourselves. Whatever Jesus WOULD do, I highly doubt he would buy bumper stickers. No matter how much I enjoyed both Wonderfalls and Joan of Arcadia, should I have been letting my understanding of the gospel and that of non-believers be molded by people trying to make a few dollars from advertising bathroom cleaner?
We are called to be set apart from the rest of the world. This is not because we know we are better than the other inhabitants of the planet, but because we know that we are worse. We are called apart to serve people in need and not to cater to the power brokers of this world. When we want to talk to people about God, are we doing this? And more importantly, how are we doing this? Asking people if they are saved and do they know Jesus invites one of my favorite bumper sticker responses, “Born OK the first time.” These questions are phrased in a language set apart, and the secular understanding of them will never match the 'technical term' status we assign them. What I think of when someone says 'chaos theory' and what the physicist think are radically different.
Hermeneutics is the study of the problem of preconceived notions. We must be careful that we understand this problem, and we understand what the preconceived notions are before we try to talk to someone about church, or Jesus, or Christianity (three very different things). When we ask people what they think first, before we speak, we acknowledge their world view and perspectives. This gives us a language, their language, as a place to begin the conversation. This allows us to address other peoples actual needs, which is the true service instructed by the gospels and what we are actually trying to say when we ask, Are you saved?
First, we as humans want to teach more than we want to learn. This is a pretty well documented sociological fact and remembering this when we encounter people who always dispute our facts, opinions and faith goes a long way towards keeping us in charity with our fellow humans. We are who we are and we like to be 'in the know.'
Second, we live in a post Christendom era. The Anabaptist Network have put together a FAQ of their “Core Convictions” and one of them sums this idea up perfectly. “Western culture is slowly emerging from the Christendom era when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost all were assumed to be Christian. Whatever its positive contributions on values and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted the gospel, marginalized Jesus, and has left the churches ill-equipped for mission in a post-Christendom culture.”
Our world is still full of default Christian values and traditions. Christmas and Easter are still considered national holidays, people running for public office are expected to profess Christianity, and the media and marketing industries cater to the perceived desires of Christians, which we all too often defer to ourselves. Whatever Jesus WOULD do, I highly doubt he would buy bumper stickers. No matter how much I enjoyed both Wonderfalls and Joan of Arcadia, should I have been letting my understanding of the gospel and that of non-believers be molded by people trying to make a few dollars from advertising bathroom cleaner?
We are called to be set apart from the rest of the world. This is not because we know we are better than the other inhabitants of the planet, but because we know that we are worse. We are called apart to serve people in need and not to cater to the power brokers of this world. When we want to talk to people about God, are we doing this? And more importantly, how are we doing this? Asking people if they are saved and do they know Jesus invites one of my favorite bumper sticker responses, “Born OK the first time.” These questions are phrased in a language set apart, and the secular understanding of them will never match the 'technical term' status we assign them. What I think of when someone says 'chaos theory' and what the physicist think are radically different.
Hermeneutics is the study of the problem of preconceived notions. We must be careful that we understand this problem, and we understand what the preconceived notions are before we try to talk to someone about church, or Jesus, or Christianity (three very different things). When we ask people what they think first, before we speak, we acknowledge their world view and perspectives. This gives us a language, their language, as a place to begin the conversation. This allows us to address other peoples actual needs, which is the true service instructed by the gospels and what we are actually trying to say when we ask, Are you saved?
Naming as Creation
Genesis 2:28-24
Two chapters into the bible, and we have already created the world twice. Most of you have probably heard some or all of this passage before in marriage ceremonies. What I think gets ignored when we read this passage with the intent to justify marriage is the remarkable gift that God gives man, that of naming. Sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists, indeed most other fields ending in -ology know that the act of naming something brings it into reality. It isn't enough to see a cow; if you can't tell someone about the cow, you can't get help getting it our of the road. This is because we are creatures of community. We survive by common knowledge passed down through generations. This, and other stories of the Septuagint are stories that bind a people together. So first, lets look at how this story binds people into covenant with God, then we can move on to how this story is reinvented in the new covenant of Jesus Christ.
There are two creation stories in the bible. I didn't get that impression as a child, and many adults still don't know this. Sunday school, in my experience, tends to use the first creation story to explain the beginnings of Adam and Eve. I think this because “be fruitful and multiply” sounds more like homework to grade schoolers than “...a man... clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” Racy stuff, and I admit, I haven't read this to my own kids either.
But what are we losing by focusing on the “And God Said” version of creation. This God is outside time, outside interaction and outside comprehension for us. True, God is all of those things, but this is our story of events, and we are not outside time, and we are not outside creating meaning from our interactions with God. The first story is like a perfectly planned pregnancy with a clear understanding of parent and child. The second is like a baby in a basket found on the doorstep; God and Adam are now in this together.
'In this together' is a much better explanation of the covenant relationship than that of parent and child. When we envision a parent-child relationship, our first image is always that of the greatest difference in power, babies and mothers, or fathers and five year olds. God is infinitely more powerful than us and to focus on the power aspects of our covenant with Him gives us the excuse to undervalue our own contribution, and it offers us the excuse to not act. This second story of creation is much more meaningful because in it, we are co-creators.
We are not just creating names for animals, we are creating relationships. And we are creating ourselves. Even before there were two of us, we were already longing for community with each other. God was too exalted, to perfect for us to be really comfortable with. And verse 20 says, “The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.”
If God was too exalted, then the animals were not exalted enough. We gain more understanding all the time about how animals can communicate with each other, but no matter that we say dog is a man's best friend, dogs can't get really excited about politics, plowing or procreating. We need each other, and God created us to need each other, even before we could know ourselves in relation. God put Adam to sleep and used him to create a match, someone with the same abilities and desires as himself. When Adam saw her he said, Finally, someone I can talk to about how stupid this dog is.
This story is part of a saga, a sweeping narrative that the Jewish people have used as part of a set of stories to set themselves apart and define their covenant with God. This story has passed through the minds of man for far more years than we can credit the bible. We are not the Jewish people but we worship the same unchanging God, and we keep their oldest stories alive in our tradition because it is our history too. This creation story is archetypal of our powers of creation. But it is formulated under the old covenant. What we really need to know is how Jesus told us we should be using that power.
In Luke 10 we meet a Lawyer, not in the laws of the land, but in the laws of Moses. He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus lets him answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the Great Commandment of our faith, and it is not something new. These exact words come from God, written in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy.
But Jesus is offering us a new vision of the old covenant that God has made with the Jews and the lawyer wants to remain righteous. So he asks for clarification, “Who is my neighbor?” You know he is expecting to hear, Jews or maybe something more vague like, People like you,. This is what the church leaders would tell him; that is what his mother would tell him. But Jesus doesn't tell him that. Jesus is offering him and us another way to use the power of creation we have in the naming of a thing. He is showing us how to redefine who we think of as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
Do you remember the answer to the lawyer's question? It is the parable of the good Samaritan. A man half dead and naked on the side of the road is passed by a representative of God himself, because if he does not keep purity he can no longer go into the Temple. Likewise, an assistant to the representative of God himself passes by. This poor man is surely thinking God has forsaken him, if God's own select, the very people who spend their lives in communion with God won't help him, why would anyone else?
But along comes a Samaritan, someone who doesn't speak his language, someone his faith tells him to avoid, and that man, whom he himself would not help, picks him up, cleans him up, and puts him up to recover – for two months, and offers to come back later and pay off any extra expenses. That is some neighbor.
What just happened here? The lawyer is in a tailspin, and so are we. Jesus just took our power to name people and turned it upside down. We all use language to bring people like us close and to push away people who are different, then we use that distinction to determine who benefits from our resources. We name our neighbors all the time, based on their physical proximity to our homes, their socio-economic status in relation to ours, their political affiliations, their religious preferences. Jesus said, you have been given a power by my Father to define your relationships, to define each other, to define yourselves. Do not limit yourselves. Take this creative power and use it to break down the limits you have created for yourself.
All through the New Testament Jesus is taking the prescriptive, negative, laws God gave to his people because they could not recall their powerful relationship with Him, and turning them in to proscriptive, positive expressions of a life lived fearlessly. Adam did not start out afraid of God, he started out beside Him, asking for his needs and offering himself as a means to fulfilling those needs. But like every human life must go through a time of trial, also known as adolescence, so the whole human race must go through an adolescence. The laws of Moses, the THOU SHALL NOT's can be seen as a time of youth, where our Father, God could only speak to us by setting down the negative outlines of behavior. Jesus came through and said, grow up already. It isn't about what you can't do, it is about what you can do. Don't you remember? Don't you remember when you were a child of God and you loved Him and all the things He gave to you, all the freedom He allowed you? Remember how happy you were to see another person? Why are you treating each other as though you are not all equal in the eyes of the Lord?
Jesus is still asking us this today. Why are we adding limits to the command to Love our neighbors as ourselves. Was the parable of the Good Samaritan not clear enough? The first thing God gave us after life itself is an amazing power indeed, that of naming the things in our world. And he has given us something else, a desire to live in community with each other and the means to do so. When we put up walls, literal and figurative, in our world, we are putting up walls in our relationship with God too. Each one of us needs to look into our own lives and find the walls we are building with our words. Who are we denying a relationship with God by our defining them as other?
I challenge each of you to spend the next week listening to the words you use, and the words of those around you. Who isn't getting fair treatment in housing, in employment or in our courts because we don't see them as a neighbor? Who don't we see in our community, and so don't see in communion with ourselves. John 3:16 says “For God so loved THE WORLD.” It doesn't say for God so loved the Jews, or for God so loved the Christians, and neither should you. We are to bring about the kingdom of God, and that kingdom will never happen as long as we are using our God given powers to destroy rather than to build. Listen to your words, are you using them to be a Pharisee, or are you using them to be a Samaritan?
Amen.
Two chapters into the bible, and we have already created the world twice. Most of you have probably heard some or all of this passage before in marriage ceremonies. What I think gets ignored when we read this passage with the intent to justify marriage is the remarkable gift that God gives man, that of naming. Sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists, indeed most other fields ending in -ology know that the act of naming something brings it into reality. It isn't enough to see a cow; if you can't tell someone about the cow, you can't get help getting it our of the road. This is because we are creatures of community. We survive by common knowledge passed down through generations. This, and other stories of the Septuagint are stories that bind a people together. So first, lets look at how this story binds people into covenant with God, then we can move on to how this story is reinvented in the new covenant of Jesus Christ.
There are two creation stories in the bible. I didn't get that impression as a child, and many adults still don't know this. Sunday school, in my experience, tends to use the first creation story to explain the beginnings of Adam and Eve. I think this because “be fruitful and multiply” sounds more like homework to grade schoolers than “...a man... clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” Racy stuff, and I admit, I haven't read this to my own kids either.
But what are we losing by focusing on the “And God Said” version of creation. This God is outside time, outside interaction and outside comprehension for us. True, God is all of those things, but this is our story of events, and we are not outside time, and we are not outside creating meaning from our interactions with God. The first story is like a perfectly planned pregnancy with a clear understanding of parent and child. The second is like a baby in a basket found on the doorstep; God and Adam are now in this together.
'In this together' is a much better explanation of the covenant relationship than that of parent and child. When we envision a parent-child relationship, our first image is always that of the greatest difference in power, babies and mothers, or fathers and five year olds. God is infinitely more powerful than us and to focus on the power aspects of our covenant with Him gives us the excuse to undervalue our own contribution, and it offers us the excuse to not act. This second story of creation is much more meaningful because in it, we are co-creators.
We are not just creating names for animals, we are creating relationships. And we are creating ourselves. Even before there were two of us, we were already longing for community with each other. God was too exalted, to perfect for us to be really comfortable with. And verse 20 says, “The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.”
If God was too exalted, then the animals were not exalted enough. We gain more understanding all the time about how animals can communicate with each other, but no matter that we say dog is a man's best friend, dogs can't get really excited about politics, plowing or procreating. We need each other, and God created us to need each other, even before we could know ourselves in relation. God put Adam to sleep and used him to create a match, someone with the same abilities and desires as himself. When Adam saw her he said, Finally, someone I can talk to about how stupid this dog is.
This story is part of a saga, a sweeping narrative that the Jewish people have used as part of a set of stories to set themselves apart and define their covenant with God. This story has passed through the minds of man for far more years than we can credit the bible. We are not the Jewish people but we worship the same unchanging God, and we keep their oldest stories alive in our tradition because it is our history too. This creation story is archetypal of our powers of creation. But it is formulated under the old covenant. What we really need to know is how Jesus told us we should be using that power.
In Luke 10 we meet a Lawyer, not in the laws of the land, but in the laws of Moses. He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus lets him answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the Great Commandment of our faith, and it is not something new. These exact words come from God, written in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy.
But Jesus is offering us a new vision of the old covenant that God has made with the Jews and the lawyer wants to remain righteous. So he asks for clarification, “Who is my neighbor?” You know he is expecting to hear, Jews or maybe something more vague like, People like you,. This is what the church leaders would tell him; that is what his mother would tell him. But Jesus doesn't tell him that. Jesus is offering him and us another way to use the power of creation we have in the naming of a thing. He is showing us how to redefine who we think of as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
Do you remember the answer to the lawyer's question? It is the parable of the good Samaritan. A man half dead and naked on the side of the road is passed by a representative of God himself, because if he does not keep purity he can no longer go into the Temple. Likewise, an assistant to the representative of God himself passes by. This poor man is surely thinking God has forsaken him, if God's own select, the very people who spend their lives in communion with God won't help him, why would anyone else?
But along comes a Samaritan, someone who doesn't speak his language, someone his faith tells him to avoid, and that man, whom he himself would not help, picks him up, cleans him up, and puts him up to recover – for two months, and offers to come back later and pay off any extra expenses. That is some neighbor.
What just happened here? The lawyer is in a tailspin, and so are we. Jesus just took our power to name people and turned it upside down. We all use language to bring people like us close and to push away people who are different, then we use that distinction to determine who benefits from our resources. We name our neighbors all the time, based on their physical proximity to our homes, their socio-economic status in relation to ours, their political affiliations, their religious preferences. Jesus said, you have been given a power by my Father to define your relationships, to define each other, to define yourselves. Do not limit yourselves. Take this creative power and use it to break down the limits you have created for yourself.
All through the New Testament Jesus is taking the prescriptive, negative, laws God gave to his people because they could not recall their powerful relationship with Him, and turning them in to proscriptive, positive expressions of a life lived fearlessly. Adam did not start out afraid of God, he started out beside Him, asking for his needs and offering himself as a means to fulfilling those needs. But like every human life must go through a time of trial, also known as adolescence, so the whole human race must go through an adolescence. The laws of Moses, the THOU SHALL NOT's can be seen as a time of youth, where our Father, God could only speak to us by setting down the negative outlines of behavior. Jesus came through and said, grow up already. It isn't about what you can't do, it is about what you can do. Don't you remember? Don't you remember when you were a child of God and you loved Him and all the things He gave to you, all the freedom He allowed you? Remember how happy you were to see another person? Why are you treating each other as though you are not all equal in the eyes of the Lord?
Jesus is still asking us this today. Why are we adding limits to the command to Love our neighbors as ourselves. Was the parable of the Good Samaritan not clear enough? The first thing God gave us after life itself is an amazing power indeed, that of naming the things in our world. And he has given us something else, a desire to live in community with each other and the means to do so. When we put up walls, literal and figurative, in our world, we are putting up walls in our relationship with God too. Each one of us needs to look into our own lives and find the walls we are building with our words. Who are we denying a relationship with God by our defining them as other?
I challenge each of you to spend the next week listening to the words you use, and the words of those around you. Who isn't getting fair treatment in housing, in employment or in our courts because we don't see them as a neighbor? Who don't we see in our community, and so don't see in communion with ourselves. John 3:16 says “For God so loved THE WORLD.” It doesn't say for God so loved the Jews, or for God so loved the Christians, and neither should you. We are to bring about the kingdom of God, and that kingdom will never happen as long as we are using our God given powers to destroy rather than to build. Listen to your words, are you using them to be a Pharisee, or are you using them to be a Samaritan?
Amen.
Sunday, October 9, 2005
All Dressed Up, Where to Go?
The Lectionary Committee has once again left in a passage of the Bible that we would gladly never read. My first, oh 10 readings of this, absolutely confirmed my opinion that Jesus would never have said anything like that. And I really wished we could have skipped over to the Lukan version which does not include the misplaced guest. But the last, well, one of the last, nice things that John Williams did for me before he left was to tell me, hey, I think that pants aren't really what Jesus was talking about, and Pat says, of course not, its more like righteousness and good living and the sacraments and things like that. Pat doesn't really talk like that, but I remember the feeling of a stone shifting in my heart and finally being able to read this passage without revulsion. So lets take a minute to put it in its place in the story of Jesus and in the story of the Gospels, because I will always think that this is one of my most important tasks in preaching.
First, we need to remember the Gospel that we are reading. This is Matthew, written for Jewish-Christians who approached their Christian faith as the fulfillment of their Jewish traditions. If there is anything we take with us from Sunday School lessons of the Old Testament, it is that God can and will smite the enemies of his chosen people and Israel too, if she gets out of hand. The compliers of the book of Matthew read the material through the lens of their lives and their faith in God, and as much as we don't like to think about it, God does smite.
Second, we need to remember that this is from that same series of parables that we have been reading for the last several weeks. Jesus is still in the temple where his authority to teach was questioned, but he is no longer speaking to the priests, now he is turned back to the crowd. The Pharisees and priests and elders are all still standing there, so he is still speaking for their benefit, but he is no longer addressing them directly.
So lets look at this parable again with these frames of reference in our minds.
We think of weddings as big deals now, and credit cards and brokerage firms are all doing commercials about a daddy and his daughter out shopping for her wedding. They are trying to tell us something we may have forgotten with all our talk of love, but weddings celebrate marriages, which are alliance making deals, just like any other board room transaction. Marriages are covenants, just like God's covenant with Israel. We may not ever have to climb a mountain and carry big hand hewn rocks back down to make a covenant for God, but we will all likely experience a wedding. This is something we can relate to.
And if you have ever had a hand in putting a wedding together, you can feel the rage that the king felt when people didn't bother to show up. Then just imagine the lawsuits to follow if you sent out the reception staff to lead people into the reception and the guests started punching or shoving them or even pulling out guns like a Quinten Tarantino movie and shooting them?? Imagine the rage if the wedding was actually a peace accord to stop the fighting of two families or of two countries. How much greater then would that anger be if it was to unite all the people of God and no one bothered to show up?
What would it feel like to be a minor nobody invited because you are the second cousin twice removed from the step brother of the groom? You would probably be right to think your picture was never going to get into the wedding album, but free drinks and a meal are nothing to sneeze at. You would probably be cowering under the pews if the honored guests started beating up the ushers. You might start trying to work your way under the sub-flooring when the hosts started shooting back.
At this point, you are thinking, party's over, and I have not even a story to tell in polite company. But now the host, victor from the vantage of the doorway, brushes off the ushers and sends them off looking for people to eat at the reception. If the guests don't want lobster puffs, then as God as my witness, I will find someone else who does.
OK, that was fun for us, but what does it have to do with the actual story? Remember where Jesus is? He is in the temple courtyard talking to people who are compelled to attend temple, but never get to go inside. Wedding guests invited to fill in the back pews of the church so the pictures make the groom appear more popular than he in fact is. Remember who else is listening? The people who do get to go inside, who do get to sit in the front row, and who are invited to sit at the bridal party table. Doesn't seem like such a great story to them. My father sent prophets to tell you of my wedding, says Jesus, and you ignored them. My father sent more people to lead you by the hand to my wedding, and you killed them. So you are no longer invited, Jesus tells them. This marriage, this covenant, is no longer by invitation only, Jews and Gentiles are equally welcome. The rich and the poor are equally invited. The full and the hungry have equal access to the feast.
So what about that guest who get thrown out, wailing and gnashing his teeth in the outer darkness? What about the idea that many are called but few are chosen? I choose to believe that Jesus didn't say this in a red lettered sort of way. I choose to believe that this is an addition, in Mathew, of Jews who have professed Jesus, and who have been spurned by their families and friends, in those ways that Jesus says that being his follower is likely to do. I chose to believe that a people for whom the Old Testament expressions of God are still the most natural have chosen to continue expressing him in those ways.
For those who complied Matthew, and Matthew is full of parables that end in gnashing, wailing, outer darkness and the call of many and the few chosen, there is a need to confirm that they have made the right choice, we all want to know we have made the right choice, especially in a choice as hard as following the prince of peace. And if that means there is a little of the my dad can beat up your dad in this community, it only means they are human, the same as us. And if you don't think so, my dad... well, you get my point.
So what do we do with this parable? What are we supposed to take away from this story that is applicable and relevant to our lives? Maybe we shouldn't have big parties for our marriages. I didn't, but I am notoriously cheap about things like parties, all parties are potlucks at my house. Maybe we should expand our guest lists, not treat people as commodities but honor all of them as guests in our churches, in our lives, in our hearts. Maybe what this is telling us, who are not Jews being persecuted by our families for following a radical untrained teacher, is to watch what we wear.
I had a really hard time getting past the clothes and into the metaphor. Jesus was a guy in hand me down shoes who regularly gave away his coat. The only reason he had a coat to give away was that people kept giving him another one. Of all the people to associate status with clothing.... Then I extended the metaphor. OK, I didn't, but Pat explained it very clearly and slowly for my closed ears and open mouth. Jesus wasn't telling people - wear a suit or I'll be back. Jesus was telling people to participate in the sacraments, to stay in right relationship, in our hearts, with God and with the commandments. Do we love God with all our heart and with all our strength and all our mind – all the time? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves – all the time? Because if we are doing so, when someone asks us, what are you wearing? Why are you a Christian? We will not be speechless, we will have ready at our lips the proclamation that Jesus died for our sins and has freed us to be in a right relationship with God, he has confirmed our faith in God and he has cleared from our countenance the worry and the fear that result in putting ourselves and our small worries before the Kingdom of Heaven.
What are you wearing today? Do you have on your wedding garment, the certain knowledge that God loves you, that Jesus died for you, that you are adding to the Kingdom of Heaven? Did you put on a fancy hat to hide your eyes and hope no one would recognize you when you drove up to church? Are you prepared to be a defender of your faith in the same way that Jesus is prepared to defend you before the Father? Are you hoping no one will ask what a nice person like you is doing being a Christian?
The community who developed the scripture we now call Matthew never saw Jesus walk through the temple, just like us. They did not hear him with their own ears, just like us. But they complied a testament of the Gospel that is timeless. The variations in their story, like the variations in the other Gospels, give us more fuel for our faith than they could have ever intended. Last week I much preferred Luke's telling of this story, it was simple and seemed easily understood within my frames of reference, and preaching on that version would not have brought me the growth in my faith that I experienced in having to ponder a piece of clothing and the idea of speechlessness. We are always exhorting others to read the Scriptures, but while I can and do find insights in them when reading them alone, I invite you to find a partner or small group to read them together. For when 2 or 3 are gathered in his Name, He will be with us. We are a community, Christ demands that we acknowledge our community and our inter dependence. This is a great party and every day we re-accept the invitation. So break out the party shoes and when someone asks why you are all dressed up, tell them. Don't be speechless. Amen.
First, we need to remember the Gospel that we are reading. This is Matthew, written for Jewish-Christians who approached their Christian faith as the fulfillment of their Jewish traditions. If there is anything we take with us from Sunday School lessons of the Old Testament, it is that God can and will smite the enemies of his chosen people and Israel too, if she gets out of hand. The compliers of the book of Matthew read the material through the lens of their lives and their faith in God, and as much as we don't like to think about it, God does smite.
Second, we need to remember that this is from that same series of parables that we have been reading for the last several weeks. Jesus is still in the temple where his authority to teach was questioned, but he is no longer speaking to the priests, now he is turned back to the crowd. The Pharisees and priests and elders are all still standing there, so he is still speaking for their benefit, but he is no longer addressing them directly.
So lets look at this parable again with these frames of reference in our minds.
We think of weddings as big deals now, and credit cards and brokerage firms are all doing commercials about a daddy and his daughter out shopping for her wedding. They are trying to tell us something we may have forgotten with all our talk of love, but weddings celebrate marriages, which are alliance making deals, just like any other board room transaction. Marriages are covenants, just like God's covenant with Israel. We may not ever have to climb a mountain and carry big hand hewn rocks back down to make a covenant for God, but we will all likely experience a wedding. This is something we can relate to.
And if you have ever had a hand in putting a wedding together, you can feel the rage that the king felt when people didn't bother to show up. Then just imagine the lawsuits to follow if you sent out the reception staff to lead people into the reception and the guests started punching or shoving them or even pulling out guns like a Quinten Tarantino movie and shooting them?? Imagine the rage if the wedding was actually a peace accord to stop the fighting of two families or of two countries. How much greater then would that anger be if it was to unite all the people of God and no one bothered to show up?
What would it feel like to be a minor nobody invited because you are the second cousin twice removed from the step brother of the groom? You would probably be right to think your picture was never going to get into the wedding album, but free drinks and a meal are nothing to sneeze at. You would probably be cowering under the pews if the honored guests started beating up the ushers. You might start trying to work your way under the sub-flooring when the hosts started shooting back.
At this point, you are thinking, party's over, and I have not even a story to tell in polite company. But now the host, victor from the vantage of the doorway, brushes off the ushers and sends them off looking for people to eat at the reception. If the guests don't want lobster puffs, then as God as my witness, I will find someone else who does.
OK, that was fun for us, but what does it have to do with the actual story? Remember where Jesus is? He is in the temple courtyard talking to people who are compelled to attend temple, but never get to go inside. Wedding guests invited to fill in the back pews of the church so the pictures make the groom appear more popular than he in fact is. Remember who else is listening? The people who do get to go inside, who do get to sit in the front row, and who are invited to sit at the bridal party table. Doesn't seem like such a great story to them. My father sent prophets to tell you of my wedding, says Jesus, and you ignored them. My father sent more people to lead you by the hand to my wedding, and you killed them. So you are no longer invited, Jesus tells them. This marriage, this covenant, is no longer by invitation only, Jews and Gentiles are equally welcome. The rich and the poor are equally invited. The full and the hungry have equal access to the feast.
So what about that guest who get thrown out, wailing and gnashing his teeth in the outer darkness? What about the idea that many are called but few are chosen? I choose to believe that Jesus didn't say this in a red lettered sort of way. I choose to believe that this is an addition, in Mathew, of Jews who have professed Jesus, and who have been spurned by their families and friends, in those ways that Jesus says that being his follower is likely to do. I chose to believe that a people for whom the Old Testament expressions of God are still the most natural have chosen to continue expressing him in those ways.
For those who complied Matthew, and Matthew is full of parables that end in gnashing, wailing, outer darkness and the call of many and the few chosen, there is a need to confirm that they have made the right choice, we all want to know we have made the right choice, especially in a choice as hard as following the prince of peace. And if that means there is a little of the my dad can beat up your dad in this community, it only means they are human, the same as us. And if you don't think so, my dad... well, you get my point.
So what do we do with this parable? What are we supposed to take away from this story that is applicable and relevant to our lives? Maybe we shouldn't have big parties for our marriages. I didn't, but I am notoriously cheap about things like parties, all parties are potlucks at my house. Maybe we should expand our guest lists, not treat people as commodities but honor all of them as guests in our churches, in our lives, in our hearts. Maybe what this is telling us, who are not Jews being persecuted by our families for following a radical untrained teacher, is to watch what we wear.
I had a really hard time getting past the clothes and into the metaphor. Jesus was a guy in hand me down shoes who regularly gave away his coat. The only reason he had a coat to give away was that people kept giving him another one. Of all the people to associate status with clothing.... Then I extended the metaphor. OK, I didn't, but Pat explained it very clearly and slowly for my closed ears and open mouth. Jesus wasn't telling people - wear a suit or I'll be back. Jesus was telling people to participate in the sacraments, to stay in right relationship, in our hearts, with God and with the commandments. Do we love God with all our heart and with all our strength and all our mind – all the time? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves – all the time? Because if we are doing so, when someone asks us, what are you wearing? Why are you a Christian? We will not be speechless, we will have ready at our lips the proclamation that Jesus died for our sins and has freed us to be in a right relationship with God, he has confirmed our faith in God and he has cleared from our countenance the worry and the fear that result in putting ourselves and our small worries before the Kingdom of Heaven.
What are you wearing today? Do you have on your wedding garment, the certain knowledge that God loves you, that Jesus died for you, that you are adding to the Kingdom of Heaven? Did you put on a fancy hat to hide your eyes and hope no one would recognize you when you drove up to church? Are you prepared to be a defender of your faith in the same way that Jesus is prepared to defend you before the Father? Are you hoping no one will ask what a nice person like you is doing being a Christian?
The community who developed the scripture we now call Matthew never saw Jesus walk through the temple, just like us. They did not hear him with their own ears, just like us. But they complied a testament of the Gospel that is timeless. The variations in their story, like the variations in the other Gospels, give us more fuel for our faith than they could have ever intended. Last week I much preferred Luke's telling of this story, it was simple and seemed easily understood within my frames of reference, and preaching on that version would not have brought me the growth in my faith that I experienced in having to ponder a piece of clothing and the idea of speechlessness. We are always exhorting others to read the Scriptures, but while I can and do find insights in them when reading them alone, I invite you to find a partner or small group to read them together. For when 2 or 3 are gathered in his Name, He will be with us. We are a community, Christ demands that we acknowledge our community and our inter dependence. This is a great party and every day we re-accept the invitation. So break out the party shoes and when someone asks why you are all dressed up, tell them. Don't be speechless. Amen.
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