More Scriptures to Make Our Heads Spin

I both love and hate the New Common Lectionary, the selections of scripture readings for each Sunday ofthe year, set up on a three year cycle.  I love it because it forces me to think about and pray about and preach about topics and issues with which I would rather not deal.  I hate it because it forces me to think about and pray about and preach about topics and Issues with which I would rather not deal. 

The scriptures for today, John 10:11-18,  Acts 4:5-12 and 1 John 3:16-24, when taken together just make my head spin.  In the first we hear Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Then Jesus goes on to say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.” 

One Shepherd and one flock, sounds great until Luke chimes in through the book Acts: “there is salvation in no one else (but Jesus), for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” Certainly many Christian Denominations believe and teach that there is only one way to God and that that is Jesus.  Other religions also have factions that teach similar beliefs that their way is the only way.  Any time a religion says something along the lines of “God so love the world, BUT…Look out! I certainly believe that Jesus came to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to invite all nations and peoples into that Kingdom.  I also believe that God is big enough and creative enough to provide pathways for all of God’s people to find their way into the Kingdom. 

Here enters the writer of First John (thanks be to God): “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” 

The writer of First John provides us the key to a living and loving faith: that love appears not just in words and maybe even not primarily in words and speech, “but in truth and action.” It is the Spirit God has given us, that abides in us, that leads us into truth and action.  This truth and action says more about our faith, about our relationship to God and to other people than our judging who is in or out of God’s Kingdom could ever say. 

As the Old song proclaims: “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they will know we are Christians by our love.”  Not by our judgment, or our ability to correct others, or by our need to have our own way. . .but by our love!  Jesus never commanded us to agree with one another. He commanded us to love. Yes, they will know we are Christians by our love!

 

 

Three Holy Days That Changed the World

For Many Christians, the last three days of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day, are like time out of time.  We continue to live our daily lives, working and caring for family and doing all those day to day tasks that hold body and soul together. We also live into a parallel dimension in which we walk with Jesus Christ in his passion, through his death, to his resurrection. These days are referred to as the Sacred Triduum in Latin, the Holiest Three Days in English.  Worship on these days appears to be three services but is, in fact, only one. Worship begins on Maundy Thursday with the prayer:  

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these Holy Mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, page 274) 

There is no dismissal until the end of the Easter worship service when we proclaim, “let us go forth in the Name of Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia!” 

These three days are truly the center of the Christian year.  On Maundy Thursday we share in the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples as he gives them, and us, a new commandment which he demonstrates by washing their feet.  

Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord. . . So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:1ff) 

This is my Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12) 

After this meal Jesus is betrayed, then tried by the Chief priests and later by the Roman Governor Pilate. We end our worship on this evening by striping the altar area of all adornments, symbolizing that the light of Christ is leaving the world.  And then we leave the church in silence and sadness. 

On Good Friday we continue our worship with the following words: 

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 276) 

The Passion Gospel of Jesus is then read, leading is on the journey to the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal, and his death and burial.  We remember the passion of Jesus by participating in his journey.  Prayers for all of God’s people follow, ending with prayers for forgiveness and silent communion from previously consecrated bread and wine. This day is not a time for celebration. The following prayer closes part two of our three day journey: 

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, an death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death.  Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory. Amen."(Book of Common Prayer, page 282) 

On the Third Day we proclaim, “Alleluia. Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia.” The three days end and the rest of our life in Christ Begins!

That the Whole World Might be Saved through Him: But How?

In the Gospel of John 3:14-21, Jesus tells Nicodemus that like the bronze snake lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so must the Son be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life!  This is what Grace looks like, that one person, in this case one Christians believe to be both human and divine is willing to live, and perhaps die, in such a way that the person’s  relationship with God and life’s actions bring people into (or back into) a saving relationship with God and with other human beings.  “This is the first and great commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soule and mind and strength.  The second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no Commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:29-31) 

Grace continues as we hear the familiar words from John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that evryone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  Eternal life according to the Gospels is “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom the true God has sent” (John 17:3) and that “in the resurrection we neither marry nor are given in marriage, but we are like the angels in heaven.”(Matthew 28:30) 

The Grace of eternal life for Christians, then, is that we will know God and Jesus Christ, and that eternal life will be nothing like anything we have ever experienced.  Being in the presence of God, wherever that may be and whatever it looks like is sufficient grace for me.  The details I leave up to God. 

John14-21 continues to provide comfort to those of us who believe in God through Jesus: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the whole world might be saved through him.” As one who believes that God wants to save the whole world, I find this exciting and life giving, a source of Joy.   My joy is short lived, however, as I move from what I consider to be one of the most comforting and inclusive passages in the Gospels, to what I consider one of the most uncomfortable and exclusive passages, without even moving to another chapter, much less another book. 

¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  How do those of us who believe that God loves all of God’s children reconcile this statement recorded as the words of Jesus? 

I truly believe that God wants to save the world and that the “world” in scripture refers to “all people,” thus, that God wants to save all people.  But Scipture clearly says something different.  How can we remain faithful to Jesus and still believe that God can save God’s children around the world who follow different faiths, or no faith at all? 

First, I believe that we who are Christians do, in fact, know God most fully through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and if Jesus brings Grace into the world, that perhaps, this grace is not limited only to those of us who know God in this way.  If this is a possibility, then I am willing to take a chance on letting God out of the box we often place God in.  After all, in his teaching, Jesus invited his fellow Jews to love the Lord their God with their entire being and to recognize their God through him, not to worship Jesus, himself.  He also tells the Samaritan Woman that the “day is coming when the Jews and Samaritans will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. 

Perhaps the last section of this Gospel can help us move to an understanding that will allow God to be God:

¹⁹And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. 

If our deeds are done in God, then I believe that the scripture has not changed, but that the Holy Spirit has led us to see the Gospel and the World in a new light.  I believe that we have been able to let God out of the box and that God’s Spirit continues to lead us and Guide us into all truth: a truth different from what we once believed, but a truth based on our openness to scripture, tradition, reason and life experience as shown to us by God’s holy, eternal, unchanging and life giving spirit.  

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”(Ephesians 2:8-10)

 

 

  

Ash Wednesday and the Beginning of Lent

 

A Time of Repentance, Preparation and Reflection 

The season of Lent, a time of repentance, preparation and reflection leading up to Easter is for many Christians the most holy time of the year.  It is the forty day period (forty-six, if we count Sundays) leading to the Celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day.  An important custom in Liturgical Churches such as Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Episcopal, the observance of lent is becoming popular in other churches such as the United Methodist, and even some independent churches. 

Ash Wednesday, the first day of lent follows a day known as either Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras: a day in places like Albertville when pancakes, bacon and sausage are eaten, harkening back to the tradition of giving up certain foods as a sign of sacrifice and penitence.  In places like New Orleans and Mobile, the Pancake supper is usually passed over for the Celebration of Carnival ending in the dramatic climax of Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday.” 

Ash Wednesday is a day to slow down, to take a deep breath and to ask God to forgive us of sins past and to “lead us and guide us into all truth.”  The Liturgy, or worship service, on Ash Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church is quieter and simpler than our normal time of worship on Sunday.  It will provide times for silent reflection on our own lives and how we intend to lead a new life following in the way of Jesus Christ, as well as reflections on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and what this means for the whole world.  Those who would like are also invited to the altar for the “imposition of ashes,” which reminds us that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.”  This simple but powerful act, for me, puts my life in perspective and allows me to see my relationship with God, Neighbor and Self as it really is. 

Ash Wednesday worship begins with the following prayer: 

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p.264) 

This is followed by what, I believe, is the most powerful invitation ever offered to those of us on this journey as God’s people. 

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great
devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and
it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a

season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided 

a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy
Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of
notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful
were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to
the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation
was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set
forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all
Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and
meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning
of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel

before the Lord, our maker and redeemer. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265) 

And finally a reminder of our mortality and our relationship with God:

 

            Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the 
            earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our 
            mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is 
            only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; 
            through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. (BCP, p. 265) 

On Ash Wednesday we begin this powerful journey “through the wilderness” to the day of the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

One More Prophet Raised Up By God

I continue to think about the prophets God raises up in our own day and how some of them have changed my life and the world in which we live.  I want to share two stories from the life of one of my personal prophets, one whose life intersected with mine in more ways than I even knew.  I was not aware of some of her prophetic actions until 2011 when several members of the Albertville High School Class of 1966 gathered for the homecoming football game and then conversation at the home of one of our classmates.  The story shared with us that evening by the woman’s son was a story that changed our lives forever and one of which we were not even aware.  I begin her story in the summer of 1965. 

A group of parents of black children in Albertville asked the county school board to allow their children to attend school where they lived.  At the time, all the black children in the county attended Lakeview School in Guntersville.  The school was substandard, did not have indoor restrooms, a lunch room or a Gym.  Educational materials were also substandard when compared to the materials at the “white schools” in the county.  As a part of this process the then county School Superintendent arranged a meeting with the parents of all the black school children in Albertville.  During the meeting he told the parents that he and many other people in the school system and community, including members of the Ku Klux Klan did not want their children attending school in Albertville and asked them to keep them in school at Lakeview.  

At this point, my classmate’s mother, “the Prophet,” stood up and spoke to the crowd and to the Superintendent. “My children are smart children and deserve the same education your children deserve.  They deserve facilities and resources for their education that will allow them to be the best and most educated persons of which they are capable.  So, regardless of your desires, my children are going to go to school in Albertville.” 

In late August, a yellow school bus, preceeded and followed by cars carrying armed police officers and state troopers, made the rounds of all the Albertville schools. At each school, children were dropped off to attend the school in their home town for the first time.  At the high school where I was a senior that year, either four or five black teenagers got off the bus and joined those of us who had attended school in Albertville for years.  I cannot imagine how it must have felt to be new in a situation like this and I applaud their courage.  And I applaud the courage of a mother who stood up to the power establishment of that day and proclaimed by her actions that “my children are more important than anything you can do to me!”  

Years earlier this mother was singlehandedly responsible for opening up the public library to black children as well as ultimately, adults.  She approached Mrs. Fricks, the wonderful librarian of my growing up years and asked her to allow her children the opportunity to check out books at the library.  This small beginning ultimately led to the Albertville Public Library becoming truly The Public Library.   

Prophets know that one person can make a difference.  I pray that God will touch all of our hearts and give us the courage to be the prophet we are called to be, so that God’s Kingdom will come on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

God, give us that courage to always stand up for what is right no matter what.  Give us grace to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being (Book of Common Prayer, p. 305).” 

From a Sermon Preached on February 1, 2015 in Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, Alabama

God Will Raise Up Prophets

 

Prophets have been a part of almost every major religion in the world.  And prophets have rarely been well liked in most of those religions.  The reason, of course, is that prophets usually communicate a word from God which calls us to be better than we are, to care for the less fortunate, to work for peace and justice, sometimes against our own self-interests.  In short, prophets call us to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” 

Without prophets, human relationships do not evolve, injustice does not become justice, wrongs are not righted and the status quo remains.  Prophecy challenges us, prophecy makes us uncomfortable, prophecy pulls us kicking and screaming to be our best selves.  The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible proclaims the importance of prophets, especially Moses, in leading the people of God into a new life. God also promises through Moses that he “will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. “(Deut. 18:15-20)  For those of us who are Christians, we see this prophet as Jesus.  

Jesus taught like a prophet, “as one with authority,” as we read in Mark’s Gospel (1:21-28).  This prophetic teaching led to the spread of Jesus’ fame and laid a foundation for the establishment of prophetic teaching and living among Christians up to our own day.  In every age God has raised up prophets: Moses, Amos, Jeremiah, John the Baptist and others, ending, and perhaps beginning again with Jesus.  How do we perceive these prophets?  Do we name them as too crazy or too radical for our day and time?  Do they press us with a truth that cuts too deep?  Or, will we hear them, will we receive their words as words of those whose lives display the courage and risk to lead others to places where they themselves will not arrive.  People like Moses, or Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi, none of whom lived to see the human accomplishment of their goals. 

Prophets are often misunderstood, considered trouble makers or communists or un-American, or just “in the way.”  I clearly remember Martin Luther King, Jr., being labeled a communist by many in the small Alabama town in which I grew up.  There are prophets in every generation and every society.  I want to share part of the story of one person in my life who has been a prophet and whose life helped to make me who I am. 

My friend, “Brother Bob,” was a United Methodist Minister in East Tennessee, who in one season of my life was like a second father to me, and who later became a good friend and colleague.  In the early 1970’s Brother Bob was invited to present the devotion at a rally of the Ku Klux Klan.  Much to the chagrin and fear of his wife, he agreed to do so.  He arrived blindfolded at the remote site of the rally.  As his blindfold was removed, the cross was burning and he was lead to the center of the circle to begin his sermon.  Early on it became obvious to all that the devotion was a modified version of Jesus’ Parable of the “Good Samaritan.”  “The ‘Samaritan’ in the ditch is a black man traveling from Knoxville to Chattanooga and his automobile breaks down along the way.  While trying to repair his car he is robbed and beaten and left in the ditch.  Pastor Jones from the local Baptist Church passes by, sees the black man and keeps on going.  The Klan members cheer.  Next, the mayor of the town passes by, looks in the ditch and moves on.  Again the Klan members cheer.  And then, a Klansman on his way to this very rally drives by, stops and cleans the man up and takes him to the hospital.  Catcalls and boos and obscenities fill the air.  At this point Bro. Bob shouts, ‘how dare you interrupt the Word of God when it is being preached!’ He then proceeds to complete the parable.  As the devotion ends, and the fire is extinguished, the Klan Members leave quietly, without Brother Bob, who now finds himself alone in the woods in the dark. 

My pastor friend slowly finds his way to the dirt road and up the hill to the paved road where he finds a member of his mountain congregation waiting for him in his pickup.  They greet one another and ride in silence to the church where Brother Bob gets into his own car and heads to town.   

Was this action a wise thing to do?  Probably not.  Was it a safe thing to do? I doubt it.  Did it change anything or anybody? Who knows?  Was it prophetic? Yes.  Bob’s actions may are may not have changed the hearts of any of the Klansmen at the rally, but his sharing of the story with me and others has changed our lives and as we share his story with people in our lives, his prophetic act will continue to challenge us to “Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving their neighbors as themselves.”

 

(From a Sermon preached at Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, Alabama, February 1, 2015)

 

God Desires to Build, Not Destroy

 

(Based on a Sermon Preached in Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, AL, January 25, 2015) 

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”. . Jonah began to go into the city. . . And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:1-5, 10) 

God gives Jonah a second chance to carry out his mission, to bring the Ninevites back into a right relationship with God, and when they repent and commit to lead a new life, God forgives them as well.  This new beginning is the basis of our faith in a God whose primary command is “to love the lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew  22: 32ff)

This prophetic work is a good foundation for the beginning of Jesus’ mission of repentance as we see in Mark 1:14-20: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Like Jonah proclaimed to the Ninevites, Jesus proclaimed that “God has a better plan about how we treat one another and I can show you what it is, and when you repent and believe the good news, the Kingdom of God will truly come near.”  Then we see  as we continue reading in Mark 1:14-20 that Jesus calls some helpers to build on the foundation established by Jonah, John the Baptist and others, to help he build this kingdom.

“As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”

Among other things Jesus was an eschatological preacher and teacher, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God would come into the world.  In fact, proclaiming that He was one of the primary ways that God’s Kingdom was coming into the world and would be recognized.  He also proclaimed that through the disciples and those who follow them, including those of us who follow Him today, that God’s Kingdom would become just as real on Earth as it is in heaven.  I will go so far as to say that making the Kingdom a reality on Earth was, in fact, his primary purpose in coming into the world.

Jesus’ commands found in this portion of Mark, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, believe in the Gospel,” changed forever the way we look at God and the world.  To repent is not just to be sorry for our sins, but to change our minds, to change directions, to turn around as the Ninevites did.  It is to reorient our whole attitude toward God in the face of God’s coming Kingdom.  It is to hear and see the Gospel as being about all of Jesus’ life and work: not just His death and resurrection, but the whole journey, up to and beyond the death and resurrection. 

In the call of the disciples that follows Jesus’ proclamation, we see what it means to repent and believe in the Gospel.  It does not mean to accept certain “timeless truths,” but to be attached to the person of Jesus.  It means to go along with Jesus on his way—a way that will lead both to the cross and the Kingdom.  This repentance, this turning around and reorienting our whole attitude toward God results in a personal attachment to Jesus.  Like the disciples we will follow him through the cross to his resurrection in a way that we will live and share the Gospel and help bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth as in Heaven.

For some of us this may mean leaving our worldly vocations as the disciples did and serve God and the Kingdom on Earth as priests, pastors, missionaries, youth workers or other full time ways.  For most of us it will mean remaining in the world and its structures, but living in and into the spirit of the Kingdom, using our worldly resources to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth.

This is where the Kingdom begins, not in Heaven!  This is why God sent Jesus into the world.  This is why He called the disciples to help him.  This is why we too have been called to be disciples.