tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113773102024-03-07T19:00:18.160-08:00Ben's Random RhetoricBen's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-33789121843983530012016-11-04T10:32:00.000-07:002016-11-04T10:32:27.337-07:00Mni Wiconi - Water is Life!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oct. 27th is my wedding anniversary. My wife and I had been trying to make plans to do some things together, but we just couldn't get anything to work. So we planned on going out the next day to celebrate. However, on Oct. 27th of this year, two events converged. #1: 7 men who had engaged in an armed occupation of the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge in Oregon had been acquitted of conspiracy to impede federal officers and possession of firearms in a federal facility. #2: Protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline tear gassed, pepper sprayed, shot with "less-than-lethal" ammunition, and arrested while they took direct action that was mostly peaceful until law enforcement officers were ordered to clear an advanced protest camp just north of the the main camp called "Oceti Sakowin."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This news angered and disgusted me, but then on that next morning, I got a text from my good friend Ben Morris (read his story <a href="https://paddlingpreachingandsundries.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/my-time-in-standing-rock-or-when-i-learned-how-to-pray-for-my-enemy/">here</a>)asking if there was anyone who would like to go or support going to the Standing Rock Reservation. I felt as if my only answer to that question could be, "Yes, I can go. I can help make this happen." I spent the next two days preparing to head to Standing Rock trying to make sure that this guy who hardly ever sleeps on ground let alone outside would have everything he needed to go to North Dakota and stand with Standing Rock and the Water Protectors. But here I want to stop you from thinking that this post is all about me. Rather this post is about the struggle that roused me from my comfortable life and about the people, the story, the prayer, and the land that I witnessed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Much can be said about what is going on at the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protest, but it is first and foremost an event that is mainly about Native American sovereignty and their and all indigenous people struggles with colonialism that have occurred throughout the past 500 years. For too long Native voices have gone unheard and unheeded. For too long have they been the victims of colonialism, oppression, and genocide. For too long have they been lied to. For too long have promises been broken again and again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This past summer the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a statement as a churchwide body repudiating the idea contained in the Doctrine of Discovery that Native peoples are heathens and consequently have no rights to the land that they inhabit. This doctrine also goes so far as to say that it is the duty of Europeans to subjugate and bring salvation (in the form of European culture and religion) to these peoples. As a church, we have basically stated that Native Indigenous peoples are to be respected and have full rights under human law. The vestiges of this doctrine can even be seen in the planning of the DAPL. The pipeline was first proposed to cross the Missouri river north of Bismarck, ND, the capital of North Dakota. The plan changed as the concerns of white people in Bismarck were heard, and the pipeline was re-routed to the south but just north of the Standing Rock Reservation. (A map of this can be seen <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=535158930015171&set=gm.1277143212347867&type=3&theater">here</a>.) If we feel like Native Indigenous rights are to be protected as a church, this cannot be only a feeling we have about events that have occurred in the past. Native American rights must be held with the highest regard. Native voices must be heard and respected. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the news reports that I had seen and read, I half expected the main protest camp, Oceti Sakowin much more a buzz with activity. I half expected there to be people chanting and screaming at all times. Instead, what I heard was the regular beating of the drum and the singing of prayers. I heard people chopping firewood. I saw tents struggle against the North Dakota wind, and tipis stand still and firm as people from all across the Sioux Nation and from Native tribes from all across America worked to make this their home even as winter on the North Dakota prairie is surely on its way. The camp was peaceful and quiet, even as planes, helicopters, and drones flew low overhead every 10-15 minutes. The camp was peaceful even as Dakota Access shone bright stadium style lights throughout the night towards the camp. The camp was peaceful even as law enforcement officers kept a constant watchful eye us from the ridge just outside of camp.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The people I met during my time there also amazed me. I am a big white guy, and I consistently feel the weight of my heritage whenever I have the privilege of walking among Native Americans. I know that they know that people who look like me have been the people who have hurt them for hundreds of years. I know that the Christian Church has been a source of much of that hurt for many Native peoples. So to be welcomed and embraced so warmly by people of Standing Rock and people of other tribes while I was wearing my clergy collar was a testament to what this protest is about. It is about life, rights, and the water that gives life. It is meant to be a protest of peace and life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whatever else may have been said about the DAPL protest, what I experienced was a people who want to stand strong for their rights and for the water that gives them life. Yet, standing strong to these people does not mean committing act of violence. In fact, people who come to Oceti Sakowin are asked to undergo non-violent direct action training. In participating in this training, we were even told that any kind of assault against law enforcement would be contrary to their goals. One of the signs even reads, "Destruction of property does not lead us to the completion of our goals."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the end, I feel like I did so little, but I experienced so much. My hope is that there is much good that can come from this protest even if the pipeline isn't stopped. Native voices must be heard, regarded, and respected. No longer can they be the people who we force to deal with our messes. Their backyard is just as important as our backyard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">May the God who hovered over the waters of creation that sprang forth life call us to protect the waters of us all that give us all life in the here and now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-28311122376550570782014-05-15T10:19:00.002-07:002014-05-15T10:20:10.107-07:00The Truth is...<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;"><b><u>John 18:33-17</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> I
honestly find it a little funny how we always drop the Pilate's questioning
retort to what Jesus has just said about the truth that he is bringing into the
world. It's not as if the lectionary is
pairing down a longer scene that could be broken in half. Pilate's question,
"What is truth?" (John 18:38) is how the author chooses to end that
scene! My guess is that we as a society often have trouble with ending a story
with questions. We want resolution. We want to be able to say, "This is what
has happened and all my questions have been answered." Yet that might be the precise reason that we
end with a question rather than an answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> So
much of life is filled with doubts and unanswerable questions. Questions like, "Why did my son have to
die?" and "How can some people act so cruelly firing guns at children
in an elementary school or abducting a school full of girls to be sold as
slaves?" When are encountered with
these kinds of situations in our life, we cannot help but to begin to search
for some kind of meaning, some kind of truth that will help us to
understand. So, by cutting off Pilate's
question from this scene, we, in some way, are cutting off the question that
plagues us all throughout the years of our lives. And in doing so, we just might be diminishing
what Jesus is about to accomplish in his death on the cross. The Gospel of John wants us to see and know
the truth which is depth and breadth of his love for us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> One
of the things that gives me life throughout my week is a group of people that I
have come to know over the years through my hobby of online gaming every now
and then. This group of people hail from
all over. This group of people come from
Toronto, Calgary, Baltimore, Seattle, Houston, Alabama, New Jersey, Colorado...one
things seems to be a common characteristic: We always want to know more about
the world that surrounds us. We link articles
covering politics and economics. We'll
discuss theoretical physics. A lot of them
are computer programmers and will get into discussions about how to solve what
I can only describe as "computer issues." We'll talk about TV shows,
movies, and games that are coming out.
And yes, we'll even get into conversations about faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> One
of the other things you probably should know about this bunch is that they're
not all Christian. Some of them may be
out and out atheists. Others are true
agnostics, not want or being able to say one way or another. I know some have been hurt by the church in
the past. Others are hurt by the way that they see some Christians act in
hateful ways and by the way that some in the Christian communion willfully
throw knowledge and reason to the way side.
But no matter where any of them might fall on the theological continuum,
they all value the quest (maybe the QUESTion?) for truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> This
is a quest that people, especially the younger generations thrive upon in their
lives. People are searching for truth,
and they don't necessarily want it handed to them without regard for their own
questions. That is probably why I want so desperately to tack on verse 38 to
our reading for today. It leaves in the
air this question of truth that dominates our lives. So what is the truth that dominates our
lives? It is none other than the plain
and simple truth that we all can and will experience suffering and death in our
lives. That is a truth that none of us
can escape, but that is the truth that Jesus came into the world to do
something about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> We
all have doubts and fears, and God knows we all have experienced some amount of
suffering in this world that we live in.
Even if we have not a personal experience of suffering, we cannot escape
the stories of suffering that is plastered on news on a weekly basis. In this story, in this life-giving narrative,
Jesus see all of this, and he has one reaction: compassion for us and the whole
of creation. So Jesus comes, this man
who our faith informs us is "God from God, light from light, true God from
true God," to bring a new reality into the reality of our death and
suffering. In his death that he will not
stop from happening, he comes to share with us in our suffering and death so
that we know, see, and trust that God is not an uncaring all powerful deity who
sits above wondering if any of us are ever going to be good enough to make our
own way into heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> That's
what this day, "Christ the King," is all about. This is a day where we celebrate not how
Jesus is a better king than Pilate and Caesar could ever be, but rather how he
comes to bring this new reality where our suffering and death are met love and
compassion. I know that's a sweeping claim to truth, but when I reflect on my
faith and how I feel something that can only be described as the Holy Spirit
inspiring me, I trust that it is true.
And here's the wonderful thing: when I think about my friends who may
not agree with me to that claim of truth, I still believe that that word of
promise goes forth to embrace them in their lives as well. The truth that Jesus brings is a truth that
is for the whole of creation, even and maybe especially those who might
consistently ask, "What is truth?" (John 18:38) For me, even if it doesn't answer all the
questions that I might have, it does give me hope even in that which befalls us all.</span></div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-80074935480273548122014-02-22T20:16:00.002-08:002014-02-22T20:16:45.624-08:00I must decrease so that Christ may increase...<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Matthew 5.38-48</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>2/23/2014</i></div>
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The
confirmation class asked me just this past Wednesday "So what are you
supposed to do if someone comes up to you in school and punches you in the
face?" I answered, "Come to church this Sunday. You just might hear what Jesus has to say
about that very question." At
least, that's how I remember it. I
apologize to our students if I misquoted them.
You see, we got into a discussion about the "Golden
Rule." You all have probably heard
it before. It's the "Do unto others
as you would have them do unto you" rule.
That's a great rule, don't you think?
Those of us who have children have probably taught it to them in one
form or another as they grow up. It
makes a lot of sense too. It helps to
teach our children to be nice to other people and respect those who are in
authority over them, but it probably does one thing above all else. It helps develop empathy as they grow and
become people in their own rights with their own personalities. When I say empathy, I mean that they are
gaining the ability to consider what it's like to be another person. This is an <b><i>essential</i></b> skill to
develop in our children as they grow.</div>
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Now let's
face it. Our children when they are
first born are little monsters. I love
kids, but it's true. Our children, from
when they are first born to the time they begin to be able to consider the
"other" around him or her, have a worldview so small that in many
ways they believe that they are the only thing in the universe that matters,
and that if they cry long enough and loud enough, they will get what they want
or need. This really isn't an opinion
that I have. Kids brains truly haven't
developed to the point of being able to consider the world beyond
themselves. You can see it in the way
that babies even learn to count. They
don't begin life being able to count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten. They literally begin
counting by observing what's around them.
And what do they see? They see
one hand, then another hand, and then everything else. So they count one, two, everything else. Again, they see the world as revolving around
themselves. But that's where teaching
the Golden Rule to our children helps them to develop an understanding of the
world around themselves.</div>
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When you
begin to think about the statement, "Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you." not only do you have to consider what you would like to
happen to yourself, but also have to take the crucial step of considering how
words or an action might be received by another person - a person whose mind
you cannot access. You have to begin to
imagine what it's like to be that person, and that right there is where we
begin to see what exactly empathy is: considering what it's like to be another
person. And this is where the words that
Jesus is speaking to the disciples and to us come into play for us this
morning. He is asking to not only consider the other person, but he
is also asking us to confront the humanity of the person before us <b>AND</b> take action to make them consider
our humanity as well. So, for the
confirmation students, this just might be where you might hear an answer to the
question you asked on Wednesday. The
only problem is that it might not be the answer that you or any of us would
really want to hear come from the one that we call "Lord and Savior."</div>
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"You
have heard that it was said. 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth..." For the past few weeks,
Jesus has been confronting the disciples and others gathered around him about
their preconceived notions of what it means to live a righteous life by the
laws that seem to help make the world make sense and protect what we have and
what we have gathered. In every
instance, Jesus took those laws, those sayings and made them cut even deeper into
to show us exactly how unrighteous we can be.
This week, is no different. Jesus
brings up a saying that gives people a sense of comfort that justice can be had
in their lives. He brings up the notion
of retribution as justice, and Jesus will not let this one be. He states clearly that retribution like
"an eye for an eye" is not and will not be his way in the world. O,
how we act as if this would not be true.
We want desperately to be able to hurt the ones that have hurt us. We don't want Jesus' command here to be true,
because that it completely unfair when we hurt and the other doesn't. We want them to feel what we are
feeling. We want to pervert the Golden
Rule to mean that actions that have already happened to us can and should
happen to others. But that is not what
that rule states. Even when we've been
hurt, it still calls to treat others as we want to be treated. But Jesus' reason for subverting "eye
for an eye" is for no less reason than to create a new reality within the
world where we confront our attacker with our humanity as we confront his or
her humanity.</div>
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That's what
the whole business of turn the other cheek, give your cloak, and go the extra
mile are all about in our reading for today.
Their about taking an action that confronts the person who would
subjugate us and removes the power that they would try to wield over us. We turn the other cheek not as a way to
passively accept and not escalate the situation, but instead as a way to make our
attacker see that we are human beings with the same rights as anyone else, that
if they want to keep on attacking they'll have to confront their actions. We go the extra mile, not as a weird way to
pay attention to every little detail like we so often think it must mean, but
instead it's original concept was to embarrass the Roman soldier who could
conscript anyone they pass by to carry all his gear by making him confront the
humanity of the person he has conscripted.</div>
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Perhaps
more than anything, Jesus calls us to love not just those that are easy to
love, but also those that we hate and pray for those who persecute us. We can hold onto hate so intensely in our
lives. We can make it something controls
our every actions and dominate how we live our lives. And how does Jesus end all of this? By calling us to be perfect as our heavenly
father is perfect. Oh! Is that all I have to do Jesus? I guess I'll just pack my bags and go home...</div>
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But I don't
think that this is Jesus' only point. I
do think that a part of what Jesus is doing is confronting us with the delusion
that we can make it on our own, but I think we would be remiss to not notice
how these commands become apart of how Jesus lives his life - a life that
ultimately leads to his death. Jesus
confronts evil in the world by exposing it for what it is. Jesus confronts violence in the world by
showing us that it cannot and will not have power over him. Jesus confronts hate in the world by showing
us that his love for us and the whole of creation extends beyond our ability to
fathom as he comes bringing a love that seeks to bring and give life even to
those who would be called enemies.</div>
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In Jesus'
life, teachings, and death, he shows us a way of living where the self
decreases and the other increases. He
leads a life where he is deeply concerned for how others want to be treated,
and he also shows us a beloved beautiful thing.
Jesus' life becomes the perfection that is finally, ultimately
demanded. Simply put, God will not
abandon us to the dump heap of history.
Our part, then, becomes not about how we can live out our life perfectly
enough for God, but in finding our own ways that we can decrease our demands
for ourselves and increase the life for those all around us. So what are we to do if someone comes up to
us in school and punches us in the face?
Maybe just maybe, we don't give violence for violence, but rather
confront the situation that life can not only increase for us who have been
hit, but even for the one who has attacked us so that he or she might also live
a life free from violence and hatred.
Maybe. What do you think?</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-58795801243025473602013-12-07T19:38:00.001-08:002013-12-07T19:38:22.591-08:00What we get wrong about sin<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Matthew 3:1-12</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>12/8/2013</i></div>
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I think one
of the things that people get wrong about sin the most often is that they
reduce it down to being a moral judgment against a single person. In my mind this oversimplifies something that
is much more complex and, perhaps, even
more insidious. It's so easy to think of
sin as something that happens when somebody does something wrong to somebody
else. This is why can erupt in such
outrage when something truly horrible happens.
Somebody steals from another person, and we know that they have done
something wrong. Surely that is a sin,
and lo and behold it is indeed a sin.
Somebody cheats on his or her spouse and we know that they have done something
wrong. They have hurt another person
emotionally through their actions.
Indeed that is a sin. Somebody
takes the life of another human being over argument. Indeed, that is a sin. I don't think anyone would object to those
actions being called sinful, because in each instance another person is hurt
and relationships are destroyed. Perhaps
that's where we see another layer to sin as that which destroys our
relationships with each other and with God, but sin can still be even more
complicated.</div>
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Sin isn't
just the events we can point to where a bad and wrong thing has been committed
by one person against another person.
Sin can even be those systems which oppress and hurt people on a daily
basis. We can sometimes point to single
people responsible (Hitler, Bin Laden).
We can sometimes point to organizations or governments who hurt people
and destroy relationships (The South and its participation in the horrors of
slavery). But there are sometimes in
which we cannot point at any one single person or even one single action as
being the event of sin. The biggest
example of this in the world is how there are people in the world who die from
hunger when we throw away tons of food per day from our fast food
restaurants. This world has the
resources to stop people from dying of starvation or access to clean water, yet
people still die. In other words, people
are hurt and relationships are broken.
If sin is simply a moral pronouncement against a single person, who do
you judge? The truth is there are many
people to bring to task over issues like hunger - local warlords, corporations
and profit driven policies, governments abroad AND here who could handle this
issue better, and even the American consumer like me and you. In some ways, no single person is at fault
AND everyone is at fault. Do you really
think that God has nothing to say to these situations as much as when we
personally take the Lord's name in vain or would rather not keep the Sabbath
day a day of rest? Like I said, sin is
more complex than that, and we are all too often drawn up into sin that we are
explicitly committing and complicit in its existence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's why
when John the Baptist begins proclaiming a baptism of repentance, he makes the
proclamation that all who have come are indeed in need of repentance in their
lives. Not even the Pharisees and
Sadducees can escape his bold proclamation that they too are in desperate need
of help as well. This brood of vipers as
he calls them are perhaps the people who could have been the most boastful
about their lives. They were the ones
who devoted their lives to the study of God's Law. They were the ones who devoted their lives to
trying to be able to live out God laws to their fullest. They were the ones who could call themselves
priests and caretakers of God's house.
But John singles them out and tells them that they should even be wary
of the wrath that is to come. They too
have sinned as we have sinned. For John,
repentance is the way to turn around, change your mind, and possibly even
reorient your whole life into a new direction.
He tells the people gathered there repentance leads to a life that bears
fruit. To start this new life, they are
then invited to a ritual cleansing to be purified as they would start their new
life. Too bad for John that he did not
know exactly what Jesus was coming on earth to accomplish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John knew
that Jesus was coming. He was trying to
prepare the way for him, to make his paths straight. The only thing he wasn't prepared for was how
Jesus would come to him and identify with all the people who needed to repent of their sins. John at the close of our reading refers to
the one who is coming who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. He knows that the way of purification for the
Israelites is for things that can stand fire to be passed through fire and
things that cannot stand the fire to be passed through water. By this process they will be made clean. John knows that the people cannot stand the
coming fire, so he passes them through water.
This coming fire could be considered to be God's wrath, but it is
important to remember that the fire of this other baptism is not meant to
destroy, but to purify. This is
important to hold onto to because God does not and will come to destroy us or
the creation that God has made. God's
wrath indeed says "No!" to the sin that pervades our life, but it
also still says "Yes!" to us.
Before God, the devil and sin cannot stand and will be burned away, and
we will be left standing because of what Jesus has come to earth to do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He has come
to be for us even in our sins, and he comes to be WITH us where we are even in
our sins. And this is precisely what
surprises John the Baptist when Jesus does come. Jesus comes and he identifies with us. He enters into the same waters of
purification that all the sinners have waded into. He comes as one of us to be one of us. In him, we see that God will indeed not throw
us into the fire to be destroyed.
Rather, we see a God who would give up everything, even the rightful
condemnation of us because of the sin that we steep ourselves in. What then becomes of repentance? Rather than being that which purifies us and
gets us right with God, it becomes the new life that is lived out in "the
new world of God's Rule." (Duane Priebe, Lutheran Study Bible; Matthew 3:2
note) This is not something that can be
brought about by us. It is brought about
by the God who loves us, who comes to us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What then
of all this sin? Is it something that we
simply do not need to worry about? No we do not need to worry about it in terms
of banishing it to get right with God before the end. But sin more than anything does this: It calls a thing what it is. That may sound simple, but it is indeed
something that calls into the complexity of seeing and discerning what is going
on in the world and joining in with God in declaring what is harming ourselves,
each other, and our relationships. For
even as Jesus comes to earth to bring us life and salvation, he also invites us
into new life of God's rule of love and compassion.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-88039979402226243302013-09-26T15:14:00.001-07:002013-09-26T15:14:49.054-07:00Being Known and Unkown<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>"Lord, you have
searched me out; O Lord, you have known me."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>(Psalm 139:1)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This past month, I had undertaken the endeavor to visit as
many people of the parish as I possibly could.
I must say, I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a pleasure to get to know you all
better. It was a pleasure hear your
stories again. It was a pleasure to hear
the stories I hadn't heard before. If
there is one thing that I have learned from this endeavor, then it is that
there is so much that I don't know about you, this place we find ourselves in,
and even myself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is said that Socrates' whole method of instruction hinged
upon this one single thought: the quest for knowledge and wisdom is only ever
truly found in searching the edges of what you do know so that you can find out
what you don't know. Let me tell you,
this past month has been encounter and encounter with what I don't know about
you all and this place. I didn't know
that some of you were sisters. I didn't
know some of the things that you have struggled with in your life. I didn't know some of those things that have
truly brought you joy. As I come to the
end of this one round of intentional visitation to get to know you all better,
I feel so very honored and privileged to be trusted with your hopes, dreams,
fears, and sorrows. I also get the
feeling that I could try and try and try some more and never get at the
complete bottom of who you are, and there is a beauty in that. There is a beauty in how we are so
wonderfully complex creatures that cannot be reduced down into our simplest
parts and be completely know by each other with no more surprises to be had as
we interact with one another. For you
all are truly wonderfully made.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is also something I know that is truly wonderful as
well. As much as I or any other human
being would not be able to know you fully, you are fully known by God. Trust me that is a wonderful thing, even
though I am sure it makes many of nervous to know just how much God knows about
us. God knowing you fully means that God
does have this special relationship with you, but it also means that God knows
about all those dark and scary parts that we may not want to show anybody
else. But know this: As much as God may
have searched you out and as much as God knows all about you, God still calls
out to the corners of creation, "You are wonderfully made!" Not only that, but God has seen the things we
have done to other people and ourselves, God has seen the things we have <b><u>not</u></b> for other people and
ourselves, but God the Father has still sent the Son into the world "not
to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps as we continue to encounter each other in our daily
lives, we should do well to remember how God has forgiven us, even as we have
been fully known. Perhaps that should
cause us to encounter each other with the same Grace that God has encountered
us with. Maybe when we do that, we will
be able to see each other more clearly as wonderful, complete, if yet complex,
creatures who should be encountered with a wondrous curiosity that seeks the
other out as they are and not as we think that they should be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peace,</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pastor Ben</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-1045186668363746722013-04-06T14:22:00.001-07:002013-04-06T14:22:19.812-07:00Remember Him<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Luke 24.13-35</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>4/7/13</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember
where I was. I remember that I had just
finished a test in my German Language class in college. I remember walking through the halls of the
fine arts building at Missouri Western State College and seeing all of my
friends and the staff and faculty of the music department standing around in an
almost complete daze. I remember
professors trying to still teach their classes even with everyone's minds
someplace else. I remember the
rumors. I remember the conjecture that
it had to be this or it had to be that.
I remember the marching band field that afternoon completely devoid of
air traffic in the skies. I remember my
friends lashing out in anger, vowing revenge.
I remember sitting in my best friend's dorm room watching the <st1:city w:st="on">New York City</st1:city> skyline
smoke and smolder with a headache from staring at the screen in the dark. I remember that day, and I'm sure that most
of you here today remember that day very clearly as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All
throughout our history, our lives get punctuated by single, large events that
forever shape how we live out our lives into the future. For some people, it was that day <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl Harbor</st1:place> was attacked. For other people, it was the day John F.
Kennedy was assassinated in <st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state>
while riding in his motorcade. For yet
still others, it was the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Memphis</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">TN.</st1:state></st1:place> Yet the common thread throughout those days
is terribly tragic nature of those days.
The common thread is how we remember how we and other people hurt upon
hearing that terrible news. We remember
things like how violent it was. We
remember things like how much destruction there was. We remember how many lives were lost. In short, we remember how those days live on
"in infamy."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now
consider these two disciples as they were walking down a road to the town where
they were staying. They too were trying
to come to grips with these days that they just experienced - these days that
will live on forever in their minds "in infamy." I don't even have to conjecture much as to
what was on their minds on that journey.
They are "talking with each other about all these things that had
happened." In case you haven't been
paying attention the past two weeks, they have been discussing and talking
about the betrayal, execution, and disappearance of their master, teacher, and
friend Jesus. These things are weighing
heavily on their minds, and the events of those few days will mark a change in
how they will live their life from that point on forward. The only thing is, they just might be living
those days out in different ways than they were expecting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They are in
the midst of remembrance though. They
are in the midst of remembering the tragedy and mystery that had entered into
their life. Yet, little do they know that
they are also in an act of forgetting.
They remember the things they have experienced. They have forgotten the promise that had been
proclaimed to them. And while they are
busy remembering, yet forgetting, they are also too bust to see that that very
same master, teacher, and friend had joined them on their journey. They can't see or won't see what is right
before them. So Jesus explains to them
yet again what he has come on earth to do.
He explains that the Messiah was meant to "suffer these things and
enter into his glory." He tells
them again about God's love and forgiveness that given to the whole of creation
as he gave up his life so that we might see upon that cross how he gave up his
life so that we may the rise with him into new life. He tells them about how the life he brings
bursts forth from the grave, that death has indeed lost its sting. Yet in all of this, these two disciples still
don't recognize who is before them. They
still don't recognize who is setting their hearts on fire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet that's
when Jesus reminds them of a great gift that had been given to them. They sit down for a meal, and Jesus took the
bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. And in the breaking of that bread, their eyes
are opened, and they see and remember who this Jesus is. They remember the goodness he brought them in
their lives. They remember the love that
he had shown them. They remember how,
even in the midst of all the tragedy of the past few days, that the Gospel
message (literally the Good News!) had been fulfilled. They are forgiven. They are freed from fear of sin and
death. They can go forth living their
life with boldness! Jesus is alive, and
life has begun anew amidst all that tragedy and confusion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My guess is
that we too forget the great and wonderful grace that God has given us,
especially in times of loss, grief, and fear.
My guess is that we sometimes forget that Jesus is indeed already
present with us. My guess is that we at
times dwell on the bad news so heavily that we sometimes forget the Good News
that has been accomplished in our midst.
We too are a people that need to come to the table and to have our eyes
opened in the breaking of the bread. We
too are a people who need to touch, smell, and even taste that Christ is indeed
with us, that we have not been abandoned, and that God's tremendous has
ultimately won the day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
Christian life is not one that is lived out in perfect obedience to God's
commands. The Christian life is lived
coming again and again back to God's good grace and hearing that we are indeed
forgiven and freed to finally stop worrying about ourselves and finally start
loving and caring for others as they too are a people that God loves
dearly. Come and receive that grace yet
again. Have faith at the foot of the
cross that God's love has indeed won the day.
Taste and see and remember that God is indeed good.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-75455766377017242682013-03-27T15:18:00.001-07:002013-03-27T15:18:36.415-07:00Loving Service<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">John 13.1-17, 31b-35</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Maundy Thursday 2013</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Mara
and I were married this past October, we received a gift from one of my friends
and colleagues. It is a beautiful
porcelain washing basin and pitcher with a note attached to it reminding us
that the relationship that we share is one that is based upon the service that
we give to one another – that the life that we share is one based upon the many
different ways that Mara and I will wash each other's feet in the coming
years. Of course, I don't mean that the
whole reason that we are married and stay married is because how we scrub
between each other's toes on a weekly basis.
But it is based upon the ways in which we give of ourselves in service
to one another. It is based upon how we
listen to one another as we communicate our concerns and struggles. It is based upon the things we do for each
other when we are sick to help the healing process. It is even based upon things like how I like
to make sure that I've picked up the living room before Mara gets home from
school after living the bachelor lifestyle for a few days. Our relationship is based upon love, but it
is love lived out giving of the self for the sake of the other. Mara and I aren't perfect at making sure that
our relationship is lived out in this way of every single day, but my guess is
that none of our relationships are lived out in perfect service to one another
every single hour of every single day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This night
that we contemplate right her and now is the very night in which Jesus puts on
display the kind of loving service that marks good relationships. Yet, it is also the night in which we see
just how hard it can be for people like us to carry out this kind of loving
service, especially when things start to go wrong. Those people like us are the owners of the
feet that Jesus is kneeling down to wash on this night. These disciples, they vow that will never
leave Jesus' side. They vow that they
will follow Jesus' example. They even
vow that they would never betray him.
But soon, the disciples will scatter.
Soon, the disciples will say that they don't even know him. Soon, one of the disciples in particular will
hand Jesus over to be falsely accused, beaten, and executed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet Jesus
still calls them friends. Jesus still
wants to be in relationship with these people.
And that perhaps is why Jesus continues forward to accomplish what has
been set before him. Jesus is seeking a
relationship with us as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That kind
of relationship that Jesus seeking with us all demands to be more than a simple
exchange where we are concerned with what we are getting out of him. The relationship that we have in Christ is
not one based upon how many wonderful and great things we are getting from
God. This relationship is based upon
loving service where you're as concerned with how you are caring for another as
much as how someone else is giving you something you need. And this is a reality that is even born out
in our human relationships. If we are
only concerned with what we can get from our friend or lover, whether it be how
much fun that other person can give us or how that person can give us the sex
that we want, then we have turned that other person into a vending machine that
dispenses what we want when we want it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Jesus
wants a different, life-giving kind of relationship. Jesus wants us to give of ourselves as we
have been given great and tremendous gifts.
Jesus gives of himself for our sake.
He wants us to give of ourselves too so that love may actually then be
found in abundance, rather than have it be a scarce resource that doled out
carefully only when the correct price has been paid. Yet there is something still greater that
Jesus gives us as we try to live out that relationship: forgiveness when the
disciples fail to follow Jesus and his example of loving service, forgiveness
when we fail to follow Jesus and his example of loving service. How do we know that that forgiveness is
there? Because Jesus still turns to
these disciples, the ones who betray him, deny him, and abandon him and he
still calls them his friends – all on the night in which that betrayal, denial,
and abandonment is going to take place.
He still gives them the great gift of his presence in the bread and wine
of Holy Communion. That forgiveness
becomes essential in our relationship with God, just as much as that
forgiveness is essential in our relationship with each other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The plain
and simple truth is that God has a deep, abiding, unsearchable love for us and
the whole of creation. There's not much
of a rational reason as to why God loves us so much. God just simply does. And in that love, God gives of God's self to
us. God gives to us that very same
loving service which Jesus beckons the disciples to on this evening. God loves you. God the Father gives up his very own Son for
us. God goes to the very depths of hell
for us. And there is nothing you can do
about it. Except perhaps, by loving each
other in service and forgiveness to each other, as Jesus loves us in service
and forgiveness.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-6541261141775077252013-02-23T09:09:00.002-08:002013-02-23T09:09:05.000-08:00Jesus! Watch out!<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Luke 13:31-35</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>2/24/13</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
How many times have we watched bad
movies where the plot is so transparent that we as the audience know exactly
what is going to happen to the hero of the story before it actually
occurs? Think about it. It’s like the old cartoon image of the
villain with the handle bar mustache laying the heroine on the train
tracks. Old Nefarious Nick has taken
Vicki Virtue, and Young Johnny Justice has to go save her. Johnny gets on his
swift steed and, no matter how close the timing is, Johnny will come and untie
her from the railroad tracks and save the day.
Nefarious Nick is foiled and justice has returned to the valley, at
least for this day. This isn’t exactly
what the story of Jesus is like, but I can see some parallels. Jesus lives a life dedicated to ministry to
the down trodden in the land which upsets the powerful and wealthy. We can see right from the get go that this
business is going to end in confrontation, but I think the real twist in the
Jesus story is that he can clearly see not only coming confrontation but the
outcome of that confrontation as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
How many times in our lives do we
as Christians want to live wrapped snugly in the memory of Jesus healing the
sick, feeding the poor, and fighting injustice?
We love the stories and images of Jesus as a child in temple conversing
with the elders, of Jesus seeing a sea of hungry people and feeding them, of
Jesus telling a paralyzed man to get up and take his mat with him, and of Jesus
walking with us on a road and breaking bread with us later at dinner. We start to think that, yeah, this guy was an
amazing caring human being and maybe we can be just like him. We ask ourselves things like “What Would
Jesus Do if he was in this situation?” We
like to think that these stories are simply a wonderful rule book for how we
should live our lives. But, what we tend
to forget is what Jesus has done once and for all time – he died because we are
sinful creatures who forget how to live in true relation to one another and
with God. Our own self interests start
to come in the equation whenever we think about what would Jesus do. Our concern moves from concern about who we
can maybe help to how we are doing as helpers.
It becomes about us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I think that this is exactly the
kind of thing that those Pharisees were trying to do when they came to Jesus on
that day. Jesus had been going from town
to town and village to village teaching as he made his way to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>.
After Jesus makes his famous speech about how the first will be last and
the last shall be first, some Pharisees came to Jesus and told him to get away
because Herod was looking to kill Jesus.
Wait a minute. Did the text just
say that the <i>Pharisees</i> told Jesus to
get away because Herod wanted to kill him?
That seems to be a real disconnect from the other stories we hear in the
New Testament about the Pharisees. In
fact, more often than not, it is the Pharisees themselves who are doing the
plotting and planning to kill Jesus. So
why are these particular Pharisees any different? Well, I think that these particular Pharisees
have witnessed the teachings and actions of Jesus in his ministry, and because
of that, have come to see the great good that Jesus had done. Yes!
Jesus has finally done it! He has
finally persuaded some of the people that what he is doing is right. I can imagine them saying, “We finally have
someone who can be an advocate and defender of injustice in the world. Now all we have to do is keep him alive,
because these teachings are causing quite a stir amongst the wealthy and
powerful.” If they can just hold on to
him for a little while longer, maybe he will make a difference in the
world. These Pharisees are trying to
desperately hold on to this Jesus who heals, feeds, and defends. And you know, we are right alongside those
Pharisees trying to cling on to the glory and majesty of Jesus’ ministry, but…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
But, Jesus knows that this is not
the way things are going to go. He says
as much when proclaims that he is “casting out demons and performing cures
today and tomorrow and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must
be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed out side of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>.” Jesus knows
that sin and brokenness are deeply ingrained into the human experience, and
that the only way that our cycles of sin can be broken is through a radical act
of love that takes place in the very city of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>.
What is heart breaking about this these few lines of text from Luke is
that Jesus would like nothing better than if he could just be like a “hen
[gathering] her brood under her wings.”
We would like to go along with this and have Jesus be our hen covering
us with his wings, but Jesus knows that, because of our sinful nature,
something radically different needs to happen in this world for anything to
truly change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
It is exactly because Jesus knows
that we, in the end, are not willing that is the amazing twist in the Jesus
story. Jesus knows and realizes what
must be done and he does it. Jesus sees that death and sin are realities
and the only way to change that reality is to die and be raised up three days
later. And the Pharisees will know this
is so, when they hear and experience that event in which sin and death loses
its power when Jesus dies and the cross and is resurrected three days
later. When they hear that story and
experience that story, they will be able to truly see who Jesus is and say,
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” This is so, because the fullness of who Jesus
is can only be known when one takes into account the fullness of Jesus’ life,
death, and resurrection. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Now that we are in the midst of the
Lenten season, realize that we are on a journey that explores who Jesus was,
what Jesus did and who Jesus <b><u>is</u></b>. The Lenten season is a journey in which we
retell and re-experience the Jesus story with the knowledge that at the end of
the journey the fullness of who Jesus is revealed in his death and subsequent
resurrection three days later. So, yes
we can reflect and think about who Jesus was and the things that Jesus
did. We can even take the time to ponder
what Jesus might do in the dilemmas we come across in our lives. But when you ponder about what Jesus might
do, also ponder and know that Jesus is alive and present with us to day in this
world that we live. The new reality
which Jesus brings in to our lives tells us that our sins are forgiven and that
death is no longer the final end point in our lives. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Like the plot of a bad movie, we
can see exactly how Jesus is going to end up and we so often want to scream
out, “No! Don’t go in there! You’ll be
killed! Stay with us where it is safe
and where you can care for us our entire lives!” But Jesus knows that he will be killed, and
Jesus knows that staying safe from harm will do nothing change the reality of
the world in which we live.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
When we realize that sin and death
no longer has hold over us, we can then see the fullness of who Jesus is
present in our lives. We see what Jesus
is doing when take the time to do as he did and care for the hungry. We see what Jesus is doing when we speak out
against injustices in the world. And we
see what Jesus is doing when we come together as a community in worship and
mission. “What Would Jesus Do?” can be a
very important question to ask ourselves when are at a loss to know what we
should do next, but when you are asking yourself that question, think about
what Jesus is doing in the world, because Jesus’ loving actions are just as
active now as they were two thousand years ago.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-14494855708201995802012-10-05T11:12:00.002-07:002012-10-05T11:12:11.743-07:00Flesh of our Flesh<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Genesis 2.18-24 & Mark 10.2-16</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>10/7/12</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Adam,
things are about to get a lot more interesting." Maybe that's something that God should have
mentioned to him at the beginning of this Garden of Eden story. In this second, different account of creation
(That's right, this is a second, different account of creation. If you think
the Bible is a completely accurate account of exactly how things have happened
in history, then you simply aren't reading it.
This book is a collection of stories, poems, and letters that reveal to
us truth about who God is, what God is up to, and who we are in relationship to
God. But I digress...) In this second, different account of
creation, God has decided to make this creation that has been formed by God's
hands just a little more interesting. I
actually find this interaction that God has with Adam to be a little
comical. I mean, God's like, "Adam
needs someone that he can interact with.
I know! I'll make him
one!" But what ensues is scene
where God parades this long line of animals to see if one of them would
do. I wonder how long Adam had to
politely go through this process. It's
God, so you gotta give God a little bit more respect than the usual
person. But I wonder how quickly Adam
was saying to himself, "Oh my god how long is this gonna take?" All the while God's saying, "How does
this, what did you call it? Zebra? How does this look to you?" "No! a zebra will not work. It doesn't even come close to interesting
me."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I find it
funny, but I also find it really interesting.
I find it interesting that this part of the story doesn't conclude until
God causes that deep sleep to come over Adam, takes his rib, and forms that
first woman. How wonderful is it that
Adam finds his suitable partner, his helper to be bone of his bone and flesh of
his flesh. There is great truth in
that. Maybe it's because we are truly
vain creatures. But maybe it's also because
we can only ever truly know ourselves.
No one can truly know what the world looks like to another person. For instance, a color blind person CANNOT
ever know it is like to personally experience the full spectrum of what we call
visible light. Yet, I feel that when
Adam sees this woman, this Eve, he sees something of himself in her. That here, finally in the body of Eve, Adam
finds one who knows what it is to be human with everything that comes along
with being a human. This has never meant
that women are lower to be subject to men.
The word used to describe what this woman is, helper, is word that is
only ever found in Hebrew to describe God, our helper and redeemer. This partner that Adam finally finds his joy
in is his helper who he depends on as much as she. Women were never meant to be viewed as
unequal. Never. And I have to believe that that is part of
the reason that Adam finds his joy in her.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If this
were a fairy tale, this just might be a good place to stop the story and say,
"And they lived happily ever after..." But we know the story continues on. The story continues on with disobedience,
blame, pain, suffering, murder, theft, selfishness, and indifference. Adam and Eve disobey God. They are exiled
from <st1:city w:st="on">Eden</st1:city>. Their child Cain murders their other child
Abel. Sin enters into the world as
people turn away from God and turn toward their own desires over and over and
over and over again. "Adam, things
are definitely about to get more interesting."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And we
complexity and pain that world offers every day. People grow hungry in the world while each of
us who live here in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">America</st1:country>
let so much food go to waste in our trash bins and landfills. People are forced to lived under the constant
fear of terror from those who seek to destabilize and control others like we
see going on in <st1:place w:st="on">Syria</st1:place>
this day. Children are bullied for being
different so that others may feel like they fit in sometimes to tragic,
ultimate consequences. Adults and
children suffer from abuse that sometimes literally bruises and scars and
sometimes causes emotional scars and bruises that can be as hurtful. And families and relationships can lie in
broken tatters as promises once made are broken. The pain and suffering that we experience is
most definitely not the "happily ever after" of a fairytale. But our story does not end in pain and
suffering either. Things are about to
get even more interesting.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In our
gospel reading for today, the Pharisees have come to test Jesus. That must their job. They spend an awful amount of time figuring
out newer and newer ways to test him.
Yet this day, they come to Jesus to test him about something that
obviously has been a sticky issue for thousands of years. They come to him with a question about
divorce. First of all, I believe that
this is such a sticky for us humans because we want to believe that the
promises that we once made and wholly believed in when we made them should mean
something to us even into a future that no one can possibly know. Yet it is quite obvious that those promises
do get broken, not by everybody, but by some.
But the thing about divorce is that at no time is it ever a completely
joyous occasion that gather families and friends together to celebrate. Divorce is hard, and anyone who has ever gone
through will tell you that, no matter what the reason, it sucks. Yet I also do know that there are times and
places where it must happen for the health of individuals or for the health of
children. It is the classic case of
something that sometimes needs to happen.
No one gets married intending to get divorced, but sometimes it happens
and it is the healthiest choice for everyone involved. So what are we to do with what Jesus has said
to the Pharisees and later the disciples?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think
that by making the judgment that he has made, he is lifting up the reality that
divorce is an event where we indeed see clearly the brokenness of humanity in
creation. As to what Jesus says to the
disciples, he affirms that divorce is never a way to upgrade to a new model
just because you've gotten tired of the old one. Jesus stands up and says that human
relationships are not like children's toys that get discarded as something new
and enticing gets introduced. But even
more than that, I firmly believe that the path to our forgiveness and salvation
is not found in our ability to be righteously pure. So even as Jesus names remarriage as adultery,
he is not concerned with whether we have been adulterous. Rather, I see that what concerns him the
absolute most in our gospel reading for today is the real indignation he
expresses when the disciples try to bar children from coming to him. Moreover, I feel that anyone who is in a
loving, life-giving relationship is doing a good thing that God sees and names
good. But again our salvation is not found
in our ability to be pure in our relationships.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
God knows
this. God knows that even as Adam finds
his joy in Eve, humanity will vainly search for forgiveness and life that we
can see in ourselves, that we are still in search for that which gives us life
even in the midst of our sin and death.
So I find it interesting, I find it wonderful that our salvation is
finally won for us as God takes on flesh in the very person of Jesus who goes
to the cross for all of us and all of our sins.
In Jesus, we see our God who has taken on our flesh with all the pain
and suffering it means for us. We see
that our God comes to where we are. We
see that our God loves us dearly and will not even stop at death to bring us
into new life. In the end this is the
truth that we cling to. We cling to the
God who has become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Then we see that the bonds of death cannot
hold God in - that life, love, and forgiveness of all of our sins springs forth
from this Jesus who becomes indignant, not at the prospect people divorcing,
but at the prospect of children being brought to see and know him and his love
and forgiveness. For that good news is
for everyone. That good news comes to
us, in Jesus, in God made flesh.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-24456100241491006992012-09-29T11:54:00.001-07:002012-09-29T11:54:51.092-07:00A case of the "supposed to's"<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">Mark 9.38-50</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>9/30/12</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On my mom's
side of my family, whenever we get together for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or
even summer vacation, we always end up playing one specific game together. It's a game that we call "May I?" "May I?" is a simple game where players
try to be the first one to get rid of his or her cards. There are seven rounds of play where each
player must meet a requirement to start getting rid of the cards. For example, in the first round, you must
collect two books, which are two sets three of the same card - like three
"nines" and three "jacks."
The requirement gets progressively harder each round. The "May I?" part of the game comes
in when someone lays down a card in the discard pile. If it is a card that you need or want, then
you simply have to say "May I?" before anyone else. You then get the card and the top card from
the draw pile. By the way, did I say
simple? Maybe I should have said "a
game with a long list of intricate rules that are best learned through
experience and enforced ruthlessly."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's always
fun to see new people introduced into the game as new people have been welcomed
into our family. It's always a process
of helping the new person ease into what's going. Although, adding new people into the game
always brings a fresh perspective and new insights into what could possibly
happen. Yet, that's exactly where this
game with extremely polite name can start to get a little nasty. You see there are a number of unwritten rules
that people are not allowed to break, no matter how much sense they may seem to
make. The biggest one of these is
basically the process of "taking a knee" in the final hand. You see, there can be someone who is so far
ahead by the last hand, that he or she basically doesn't have to do anything
except collect low point value cards without regard for trying to meet the hand
requirements. The only problem with that
is that there is almost no greater way kindle the fire of my mother's anger
than to engage in that kind of tomfoolery.
Without a doubt, it would be said, "But that's not how you play the
game!" Feelings get hurt, tempers
are lost, and what was once a pleasant social family activity turns into a
cause of strife. All because of the
notion of "That's not how you're supposed to act!"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"John
said to Jesus, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we
tried to stop him, because he was not following us.'" Our Gospel reading for today very much has
the disciples concerned with what people are supposed to/not supposed to
do. But before we go too much further
into the gospel for today, we must remember what has come before in the
story. One chapter earlier in the gospel
according to Mark, Jesus was telling the disciples and everyone else who was
following him around all about following him.
And so now that the disciples found someone who was not following them
but still doing some things in Jesus' name, they thought that they were doing
the right thing because this person wasn't following in the same exact way as
the disciples. I can almost hear them
say, "That's not how you play the game!" Who are these disciples to be telling Jesus
the rules, all the "supposed to's" of following Jesus!?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To Jesus,
all the "supposed to's" can become stumbling blocks in the way the
little ones, those who are the children of the faith. They then can become the very millstones that
get hung around our necks. Faith is not
and has never been about following a list of "supposed to's." Faith has always been the simplicity of
trusting that Jesus brings us life in the midst of death. Faith has always been the simplicity of
trusting that Jesus forgives us even as we are all sinners. Faith is about trusting in what God is up to,
and that that is Good News for us all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You see, when
Jesus starts listing off all those body parts that could possibly cause us to
stumble and suggesting that they be cut off rather than drag you down into the
fires of hell, he is not suggesting that we all go a grab our favorite
sharpened knives to start cutting out our eyes, cutting off our hands, and
cutting off our feet. If that were true,
then I assure you that would at least have a blind pastor standing before you
today. The stumbling blocks are those
things in our lives which cause us to mistrust that God's grace is grace is
real and is enough, even for our enemies, even for ourselves. Have salt in yourselves! Have that salt which is the good news of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> be within you and never leave. For if the Good News is like salt then the
Good News can never lose the saltiness of its love and grace which seasons us
all.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Often we do
get concerned with how things and people should be or shouldn't be. Those are not the arguments that we should
have in this world. Rather rejoice that
God's great love is an embrace that touches all of existence and be at peace
with that! With that joyous trust, we
just may find that the Good News of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>
is indeed a message that we and the people we meet need to hear. We just may find out that it is a message
that we even begin to feel should be told with all of our voices and hands in
love and service to people who just might be the "little ones" of our
faith. Again, have that salt which is
the love and forgiveness of God in the midst of our sin, and be at peace with
one another.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-25430316408808420882012-08-30T13:48:00.001-07:002012-08-30T13:48:02.725-07:00Doing Compassion<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">James 1:17-27</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>9/2/12</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The oldest
manuscripts (for instance the Muratorian Fragment from 170 A.D.) that we have
of the scriptures do not include the Letter of James in its contents. Martin Luther has famously called James the
"Epistle of Straw," evoking the image that it blows away in the wind
when it is examined too closely. And
honestly, it is light on what actually makes the gospel, gospel. It makes a couple of passing mentions of
Jesus. And it runs counter to the
message we hear from the Apostle Paul, "For by grace your have been saved
through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the
result of works, so that none may boast." (Eph. 2:8-9) No, instead we hear in the Letter of James,
"So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:17) So James, poor maligned James what are we to
do with you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It would
seem by some reasons, you should not be included in our Bibles. But then why is it that Bible after Bible
that buy or receive from parents, teachers and pastors have this
"book" named James after Hebrews and right before 1 Peter? Why has this book remained in our canon, the
contents of our Bibles? I could be
cynical and say it only because some long dead men declared that it should be,
but I truly do believe that would only be a discounting of how the Holy Spirit
guided the Bible to become the book it has become. It's here for a reason. It's scripture for us because it has
something very important to say about our life of Faith. It's hear to say that the Word of God has
come into the world to dwell richly within in us and call us to a life lived
out in tremendous displays of compassion.
The Word of God dwells within us to move us into ever greater acts of
love and sacrifice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I want to
take a moment and talk about a word that I just used – compassion. Compassion is a word that has taken a few
hits in recent years. It has been
weakened to refer mostly to the pity we might have for someone who's having a
tough time in life. We think of
compassion today, and we think about someone who has had a really bad and we
say, "There, there. Everything is
going to be alright." More over, in
recent years we've even had the development of the term "Compassionate
Conservative" which describes a fiscally conservative person who cares for
people in their plights. Yet the
response to people's plights too often in recent years has been, "I'm
doing this thing that may hurt you, because it will be good for the whole and
even you in the long run." And
that's fine. The voice that says,
"How do we help people change rather than enable behaviors?" is a
good one in the political sphere. Yet,
when we begin to talk about who our God is and what our God does in this world,
we have to be willing to delve deeper into what this word "compassion"
means to God.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Compassion
means much more than feeling deeply sorry for someone else and their
plight. We can actually get deeper into
what compassion means to our God when we look at the word's counterpart in the
German language, <i>Mitleid</i>. In German, that literally means
with-suffering. As the theologian
Douglas John Hall writes in his book <i>The
Cross in Our Context</i>, "To feel compassion, deeply and sincerely, is to
overcome the subject/object division. it is to suffer <i>with</i> the other." How do
I know that that is what God means when compassion is used to describe
God? It is because, when I look upon
that cross from which Jesus hung, I see that God has made the ultimate,
grace-filled decision to come down from heaven and be with the creatures and
creation that God has made in the midst of all of our pain, all of our
suffering, even in all of our death. Our
God is compassionate because our God comes to where we are, in <i>our</i> suffering. And then God lifts us up into new life, never
abandoning us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
wonderful gift that the Letter of James gives each and every one of us is that
it describes how this new life that we have in Christ must be a reflection of
the compassion that our God has shown us.
Does James describe the pure perfect Christian life as one where church
is never missed on Sundays, where only best clothes are worn, where you put on
display to everyone else how good of a person you have been from day to
day? NO! In fact, the Letter of James
expressly warns against that kind of behavior!
No, instead James paints a picture of the life of faith as one where we
have true compassion for those who suffer – that we suffer <i>with</i> them. Being a
"doer of the word," means being someone who loves, cares, and stands
with the other, because our God loves, cares, and stands with us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You might
ask, "But Pastor are we also not to worry about how purely we are
living? Aren't we not to be stained by
the world?" Well, I say to you if
an unstained life means that you care first and only for the purity of your
morals, then you misunderstand what James is saying about the purity of
religion. Being unstained by the world
means constantly remembering who you are as a person that God has done
tremendous things for.
"Unstained" is not permission to distance yourself from the
messiness of the world we live in.
"Unstained" keeping that identity that God loved you so much
that God died on the cross to bring you up out of sorrow, sin and death <i>as</i> you engage and seek to suffer with
world around you. And if you read the
Letter of James you will see over and over again that the works that James is
calling us to are indeed works of true compassion. The letter is filled with calls to care for
orphans, widows, the poor, and the hungry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will any of
these works of true compassion save you?
Absolutely not. But you have
received the tremendous work of God's compassion throughout your whole
life. And I do think that begs the
question: How will you respond to the
compassion that God has for you? You
have been made holy by a love that knows no bounds or depths. God doesn't want our piety and our
purity. God wants us. God wants us to be people who go forth
bearing this <i>good news</i> to whole
world, so that others may too see the boundless compassion that God has for the
whole of creation.</div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-66973651386364474872012-08-30T09:34:00.001-07:002012-08-30T09:34:13.263-07:00Ruth: A Story of Life, Loss, and Faith<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Ruth: A Story of Life, Loss, and
Faith</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Summer Pulpit Exchange 2012</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So who here
has a brown or browning lawn? Who here
has fields of corn that are beginning to wither up because rain has decided to
take a vacation this summer? Who here is
beginning to wonder and worry about what this year is going to bring, or maybe
more accurately, <b><u>not</u></b>
bring? I know that I have been simply
amazed driving to and from <st1:city w:st="on">La Crosse</st1:city>
and seeing all the grass and fields turning brown as if it were preparing for
winter. I heard that this summer nearly 2/3rds
of the <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place> is experiencing drought this
summer. This is definitely looking to be
a lean year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I come to
you all this day to present to you all one of my favorite stories of the Bible
and say a few words. Way back in May, I
decided on the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz.
This story begins with a few words that I think we all can somewhat
identify with this summer. "In the
days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land..." This is what sets the context for our story
this morning. Naomi has found herself in
a foreign land, because her husband decided to move to where there was a
possibility of food. Only now, her
husband has died. She is a widow whose
sons have even died, and she is only left with two daughters-in-law. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(read Ruth 1:6-22)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By all
accounts of what we know about Ancient Middle Eastern society, being a widow
was hard. But being a widow who is the
mother-in-law of two widows must have been worse. So not only is Naomi grieving the death or
her husband and her two sons, but she is also being faced with the prospect
trying to provide for her life and the life of Ruth and Orpah without status
and without claim to property. She in
final talk with these daughters-in-law even counts herself amongst the
dead. Naomi feels as if there is no hope
for herself, and that's why she even decides to change her name from Pleasant
to Bitter. Naomi literally means
pleasant in Hebrew. Mara literally means
bitter. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet in all
this bitterness a glimmer of something wonderful begins to shine. We get to meet Ruth. We get to meet someone who either loves Naomi
so much as a mother or feels a dutiful commitment to her that she cannot turn
away and leave her. Ruth <b><u>clings</u></b> to Naomi. Ruth will not abandon her. This makes me think. What are the things we will cling to in our
lives? What would be so important to us
that we would never let that go? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever
the answers to those questions might be, I see something yet still in these
opening verses of Ruth's story. Clinging
to Naomi is also clinging to Naomi's God.
A huge part of what Ruth displays is that what is important to her is
her faith in God. She puts total trust
of her life in her God, even if her God only seems to deal in bitterness. But is God only a god of bitterness and
sorrow?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even though the answer may seem to be yes,
based upon our story so far, I'm certain that the answer to that question is
indeed, "No." Ruth and Naomi
are on a journey, and that journey is not over yet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Sing verse 1 of "Lord
Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read Ruth Chapter 2:1-13</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who here
has ever been so hungry that your only chance for food comes from picking up
the leftovers from a field that has just been harvested? This is such the situation that Naomi and
Ruth find themselves in. Naomi is a
widow without place or power. Naomi
can't even have children, so the prospect of re-marrying is off the table for
her. Ruth is also a widow, but she is a
foreigner. The only hope of a meal is
literally picking through the leftovers, going through someone else's trash
essentially. Their journey has taken a
bitter turn indeed, but Ruth does not waver in her commitment to stand by and
care for Naomi. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I recently
had the pleasure to accompany some youth from the Blair-Taylor area on a
Youthworks mission trip. We went to
Heart Butte, Montana. Now the thing
about Heart Butte you must realize is that this small town rests in the middle
of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. If
you were only to look around, you would see that life in the town of <st1:city w:st="on">Heart Butte</st1:city> is not an
easy one. In our time there, the marks
of poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, addiction, and abuse were easily
seen. Yet, one thing struck me as I
reflected on what we were doing there painting houses, cleaning up yards, and
working with children in an afternoon Bible school: We may not have fixed everything for these
people once and for all time, but in our service, they at least were able to
see that they weren't unloved. That they
weren't forgotten. That they still
somehow mattered. And when we were
helping one particular family, the grandmother said, "Thank you so much
for helping. I don't know if I could
ever have begun to do these things. You
all make me feel like I still matter in the world."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And maybe that's
where this story of Ruth and Naomi is going.
Maybe their journey is taking them to a place where they can see that
they aren't forgotten and are taken notice of and loved. And that's the great thing that Boaz does for
Ruth and Naomi. By taking notice of
Ruth, Boaz says to her and her beloved mother-in-law, "You are worthy of
love and compassion." In effect,
Boaz says to them, "I see you. I
have not forgotten you."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is one
of the most powerful things that our God does for us. Our God has indeed made a claim upon us and
our lives in our baptisms, and God has said to each and every one of us,
"You are mine, and I will not let you go." Life indeed can take us down some bitter
roads. But we have that promise that God
will be by our sides every step of the way.
That doesn't mean that it's all feather pillows and gumdrops for us for
the rest of our lives, but it does mean that even in our darkest times our God
gives us tremendous hope of new life.
God will be with us on our journey.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Sing verse two of
"Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read Ruth 3:1-13</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay. Sometimes feet are just feet. We have come to the part of out story which
Ruth and Boaz finally have their midnight encounter. Could you heavily sexualize what is going on
here? I suppose you could, but I think
you would be missing the point of this scene.
This midnight encounter is not in the Bible so it can be more exciting
to read. Rather than call this a tawdry
scene full of innuendo, I see this scene
of Ruth coming to Boaz in the middle of the night as a scene of intimate love
and affection that goes far beyond sex. What
Ruth does here for Boaz is care and comfort him and show him that she is as
committed to him as she is committed to Naomi.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So often in
today's world we can get caught up in only thinking about what we can get out
of relationships. And this certainly
goes beyond our romantic relationships.
We want our friends to show us a good time. We want our friends to help us make more
money. We want our friends to help us
advance along our career paths. We want
friends so that they can add something to our lives. And it seems to me that that is an awfully
selfish view of friendship and romantic companionship to only think of the
other as a means to an end. It seems to
me that we should spend time considering what we bring to the relationship, how
we can make someone else's life better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's what
I see Ruth doing here. I see her finding
a way to comfort and care for Boaz in his weariness. You could make a case that Ruth is scheming
with Naomi to get her proverbial slice of the pie, but why does Boaz consider
what Ruth does here as loyal service?
Boaz reckons what Ruth does as loyalty, because even with all the other
options of young men available to her, Ruth cares and comforts Boaz. What she does is love and care for
another. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It seems to
me that Ruth's love and care is a reflection of the love and care that our God
has for Boaz and has for us. I think
that's what steals Boaz's heart in the end.
He sees God's steadfast love in the face, hands, and feet of Ruth. Is that not what we should show forth in our
lives? Should we not show forth the
steadfast love that God ahs shown us?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Sing verse three of
"Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read Ruth 4:9-12</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end,
the story works out. Naomi and Ruth have
been welcomed into a new situation in which they will be loved and cared
for. Even though Boaz uses the
traditional language of ownership, he takes Ruth as his wife with heart and
eyes wide open happy to love and care for someone who loves and cares for
him. And Ruth and Boaz conceive a
Son. Do you know who that Son is? The
son is the father of Jesse, who is the father of David, who the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' lineage to.
And that Son, would be the Son who give everything, even his own life,
so that the whole world might be redeemed and know the depth of God's love. You see in the end, this story is a story
about faith. It's a story about what God
is up to in the world. When we see what
God is up to, that God is in the business of giving love and forgiveness to the
whole, we see that the one who we trust is the one who gives us hope even in
the midst of bitterness, sin, and death.
We see that our God has not and will not abandon us. We are God's own children and there is no
power in heaven or on earth or above earth or below earth that can separate us
from that love. Our journey is a journey
of faith in the one who gives us life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Faith is
not simply the unwavering belief that God is going to make everything better in
our lives. Faith is the trust that the
one who made us and gave us the breath of life is the one who will love, guard,
and guide us even through the bitter twists and turns of life. Faith is clinging to God even when it might
seem easier to turn away forsake the journey.
Faith is something that calls us to love and care for others in our
life. Faith is that life centering trust
that no matter what may happen to us, our God loves us and always will us and
will bring us into new life, even through our death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Sing verse four of
"Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song"</i></div>
Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-25920278733510971032012-05-19T10:08:00.001-07:002012-05-19T10:08:11.975-07:00The case for Judas<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;">John 17:6-19</span></u></b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>5/20/12</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who are the
villians of the Bible? If you think
about scripture as the story of God within the world, who is opposed to God
fulfilling what God want to do in the world?
We're in the summer blockbuster movie season, and already, we have seen
villians who are disgruntled Norse gods and aliens who have come to destroy our
world. Many of our favorite stories have
a main villain who we can all root against and hope for their destruction or
neutralization. So who are the villains
of scripture? Name some:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course
the primary villain in many of our minds is Satan, the devil, the Accuser. And there are plenty of instances in which
the Devil is trying subvert the will of God.
The Devil provokes God to rain destruction down upon Job to see if Job
would still trust in the Lord even if everything was taken away from him. The Devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness ,
trying to turn Jesus away from the path that is laid out before him. And then the Devil gets portrayed as that one
who is finally thrown into the eternal fires at the end of the book of
Revelation. But what other villains are
there in the Bible? There's the snake
who convinces Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit in the garden. There's the monstrous Goliath who is the
champion of the Phillistines. There are
the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees (people who very well could have been
Jesus' cousins) who antagonize Jesus throughout the Gospels. And then there is Judas. Judas, the one who was destined to be
lost. Judas the one who betrays his
friend, teacher, and master with a kiss all for a mere 30 silver coins.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Judas. Certainly here is another villain who is
unredeemable, right? It could be easy to
think that, but today I want to
challenge that. I want to make the case for
Judas this day. I want to make a case
for the one who set everything in motion that ultimately led to Jesus being
beaten, ridiculed, and publically executed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
evidence is certainly stacked up against him.
It is Judas who questions why expensive perfume should poured out onto
the feet of Jesus. It is Judas who the
author of the gospel of John accuses of being a thief who stole regularly out
of the common purse that the disciples had.
It is Judas who accepts the bribe from the chief priests and Pharisees
of 30 silver coins. It is Judas, who in
the guilt of what he had done, hangs himself in despair. Going by the evidence, Judas was gulty of the
terrible crime of conspiring to murder an innocent who had done nothing to him
other than to call him to be a disciple and love him. Yet with everything that is stacked up
against Judas, with everything that points to Judas getting exactly what he
deserved, I still want to stand here this day before you all and make a case
for Judas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I cannot
deny that Judas had done a great and terrible wrong. I will not even stand here and try to
convince you that he was simply out of his mind and possibly temporarily
insane. What I will do is stand here and
proclaim to you that Jesus love enfolds around Judas just as surely as we are
all wrapped up in the never-failing arms of Christ this day, the days we will
all die, and into that future in which we will all be raised up into new life
with all saints who now reside with the Lord.
I have this confidence not because of all the good things that Jesus did
for people while he was living, but because he gave up his life so that we all
may be raised up with him in the Easter resurrection. Judas was indeed the one who was destined to
be lost so that scripture may be fulfilled and that we may look upon our Lord
as one who gives up everything, even his own life, so that we may not be condemned
and lost forever.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Furthermore,
my confidence comes from the prayer that Jesus lifts up for the disciples and
for us all, literally right before he is betrayed by Judas and sent on his way
to the cross. Jesus knows that this is
the last night before he is to die.
Jesus knows that Judas has already left group to betray Jesus and hand
him over to those who would have him killed.
Jesus knows that he is to be the sacrificial lamb for the forgiveness of
the sins of all creation. Yet with all
that going on in his mind, Jesus prays for the lives of all the disciples
whether they be deniers, abandoners, doubters, or even betrayers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The case
for Judas is simply this. Jesus' death
and the events that led up to his death are the good news that embraces us all,
the whole of creation and raises us up into new life in Christ as a people who
find our joy not in our own accomplishments, but in the great love that our God
has for us. The truth, the truth that
makes us holy, is the truth that seeks us out in our failings, in our mistrust,
in our dark places where it may seem like all we have done is done wrong in the
world. That is grace. Have faith in that grace, and you too will
find that Jesus still loves you and has always loved you. Faith in what Jesus has done is what lifts us
up.</div>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-10334267288405839612012-04-21T10:18:00.001-07:002012-04-21T10:18:51.573-07:00God's love is gift and life; not reward<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Acts 3.12-19 & 1 John 3.1-7<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>4/22/12</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I heard a
friend speak earlier this week, and at one point during his lecture, he relayed
a story about a team of researchers that were observing how and why children
play with the toys they play with. The
researchers would bring in a parent and his or her child, and in one corner of
the room, the researcher, parent, would sit down at a table. The researcher would then turn to the child
and then say, "You can either stay here with your mom or you can over to
the other corner of the room and play with the toys." Over there in the
other corner was a box of toys and a bright carpeted area to play in. Above the carpeted area there was a mirror
that allowed other members of the research team to observe the child as he or she
would play with the toys. They were to
observe which toy the child played with the most – in other words, which toy
the child liked the most. If the child
like the big red truck the most, they would write down big red truck. If it was the stuffed doggy, they would write
down stuffed doggy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They would
take note of this and then would have the parent and child come back another
day. Only this time, the researcher
would say to the child, "You can either stay here, or you can go over
there and play with the toys. But if
you play with the big red truck (remember they observed that this was the toy
that that specific child had chosen by themselves in the earlier session), if
you play with the big red truck, I will give you a bag of M&Ms when we are
done." What would you expect to
happen?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course
the child's going to want to go after the bag of chocolate encased in a candy
shell that allows the chocolate to melt in you mouth and not in your
hands. I bet there are even a few of us
older people who might even do something as simple as that for a bag of
chocolaty goodness. But that's not what
interested the researchers. They found
that after you make playing with child's favorite toy a requirement for getting
the promised reward, the child ended up HAVING to play with that toy. Before, you can imagine a little girl or boy
zooming around the carpet with their big red truck, making the sound of the
engine, and picking up and dropping off loads of plastic frogs, blocks, and
Barbies. Now the child kind of sits
there half heartedly rolling the truck back and forth wondering why her mom is
taking so long. In other words, the
first time, the child GETS to play with their toy. The second time, the child HAS to play with
the toy. The expectation of reward, which
one might think might enhance the experience, has only ended up ruining it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do we
end up doing the things we do anyways?
It seems to me that our first two readings that we've heard today focus
much on what God would have us do or <b><u>not</u></b>
do. In our reading from Acts, we see
Peter speaking to a crowd of people, and what is he trying to tell them? He trying to tell them who Jesus is, what
Jesus has done, and finally what they should do in response. In our reading from 1 John, we hear the
author trying to explain what the life lived in Christ looks like. He is trying to explain that living in the
light has a bearing for how we live out our days here on earth. Yet, I think the question still remains: How do we live out these words that we gather
around in our worship assemblies?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peter seems
very much concerned with what it means to be a people of the story of Jesus
Christ. He recalls what Jesus did for us
on the cross. He recalls how death and
the grave could not contain him as he bursts forth from that tomb. But then he makes a call to repentance. He makes that call for the people make a
change in their lives in live them in different way. So why should we heed Peter's words this
day? There are a couple of different
reasons. #1: We could hear them only as
a promise of a future reward. Yet will
the promise of a future reward be able to sustain us throughout our lives and
provide the motivation to live out a repentent life? Or will the promise of reward (and the
implied punishment if not followed) simply cause us to begin to hate having to
play with the toy that once cause wonder and joy to well up within us? My feeling is that we will would end up like
that little girl who can barely tolerate HAVING to play with the toy just so
she can get her reward at the end of this experiment we call life. Following in the way of Christ must mean more
than the expectation that we will get some goodies like angel wings, streets
paved with gold, and dinners with grandma and grandpa. Otherwise, we will simply end up despising
all the things that we HAVE to do to make God love us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thankfully,
that is not what God wants from us in our lives. God wants us to live fully and freely! God wants us to live joyfully and abundantly
with a grace and love that is able to embrace the whole of creation. God wants us to live not in the expectation
what we or I get out of this deal. God's
will is that, when the Son is revealed to us and in us, our lives will be
changed, not because of what we have done.
Not because of how we've kept up our part of the bargain, but only
because of what love Jesus has done and given to us in our lives. We are to live out lives as if there is a toy
chest of love, grace, and abundance that is open and available to us all to
play with and share with the rest of creation.
God's will for us is to be able to say to ourselves, "I don't have
to earn God's love. It has already been
graciously given to me. I <b><u>GET</u></b> to share what love God has
given me with the rest of the world around me." And that is a life that is full of life and
wonderful opportunities that is able to fulfill us physically, emotionally, and
spiritually. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some days
this easier to feel than others. Some
days it feels as if there has just been a ton that has been taken away from
us. Yet, those are some of the days in
which we need to hear those words "God forgives you." "Jesus is
given for you." "God loves you." and "There is nothing in
this world that can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ
Jesus our Lord." These are words of
gift. These are words of promise. These are words of life. </div>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-25545763452450482552012-02-18T13:06:00.000-08:002012-02-18T13:07:49.816-08:00Listen! And hear God's love...<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Mark 9.2-8</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>"This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him!"</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> If any of you out there are wondering what exactly is going on in our Gospel reading for today, hear that phrase spoken by more than any of the other words that you've heard this morning. <i>This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!</i> That right there is what this strange story on a mountain, dazzling lights, famous forebears of the faith, and terrified disciples centers on more than anything else – that Jesus is God's beloved Son and that we should listen to him. This has importance because it has huge implications for what happens next. So listen up people! God is about to do something wonderful. The only problem is that we often have a terrible time with listening from time to time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> For example, my mother likes to tell this story about when she was in college. It was the end of her third year of college, and with the end of every semester comes all the final tests that one must take to pass the classes you enrolled in to eventually get your degree. In one of my mom's classes, the professor hated how no matter how much he emphasized reading all the directions before starting on the test, most of the students would rip right into the questions as fast as she or he could. Some would do it because taking a test is like a race where you feel better about yourself if you get done before others. Others would start answering questions as fast as possible because the logic goes "the sooner you get done with a test, the sooner you are done with class and can begin the year end parties that <u>some</u> (definitely not me...) looked forward to.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> My mother got to this final, and she heard again the clear caution to read all the directions before you started to answer the questions. the only thing was there were four pages of solid text that were the directions. Most people got through maybe a half a page of these severely pedantic directions and decided to just get on with the very long test so that they could get done with the class. My mother and a few others decided to heed the professor's advice and read all four pages of directions which concluded with "Thank you for reading all of the directions. Write your name on the top, turn it in, and meet me at the bar downtown for a beer. You will receive an 'A.'" Not many that day read all the directions, and really that does not surprise me too much.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> We all have times in our lives where we have trouble actually listening to what is being said to us, whether it be in a text or in a conversation. We would much rather hear what we want to hear rather than listen carefully to what's been said. In fact, I believe the greatest indicator of how healthy a relationship (friendship or marriage) is how well the two people actually engage in communication. That truly is one of the most important things two people can work on in their relationship, and at times it takes hard work to truly hear what the other is actually saying. Yet, we also see this in our news as well. How many of you have heard a report or a commentator misquote or misrepresent what a public figure had actually said?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Yes, it is true we sometimes have a hard time really listening to what is being told us, even when God personally tells people like us to listen to the Beloved Son. How do we truly hear what Jesus is telling us through his life? First of all, there are times when we need to get out of the way of God is up to. Peter, who often sticks his foot in his own mouth, would love to enshrine Jesus on the top of that mountain so that he and others could always come back to that place again and again and again. But this Good Thing that has come down to earth cannot be locked up on the top of a mountain. Jesus is a Good Thing that must be brought out to the whole world for it is Good for him fill to fill the whole of creation with God's light and love. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Second of all, there are times when we simply would rather that God would do things in a different way, a way which would perhaps not include the cross which Jesus has become resolved march towards in this Lenten journey. Again, it is Peter who begins to scold Jesus for saying that he must go and die on the cross. But the cross is the way. It is the only way. It is the way which shows each of us the incredible self-emptying love of the God who truly gives up what he deserves to give us what we need – to give us mercy. In fact, that phrase I quoted at the beginning of this sermon? There are two other places in Mark's Gospel where it occurs in much the same way: 1.) at Jesus' baptism where God declares "This is my Son, the Beloved. With Him I am well pleased." and 2.) When Jesus dies on the cross and the Roman centurion proclaims "Truly this was God's Son." In sense, we only truly believe, we only truly see, we only truly listen when we gaze upon the cross which is itself the revelation of God's love in the world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> So if we truly take the time to heed God's words "This is my Son, the Beloved; Listen to him!" we must see these words as words that take us away from ourselves and towards others in the world as we too bear that cross to the whole world in our words and deeds. If we heed these words, we need not bear how wonderful our lives are, but simply bear how wonderful God's love is. For that has been and always will be enough. Because on that cross, that cross that journey towards again as begin another season of Lent this Wednesday, God's love and mercy embraces the whole world, a Grace beyond any measure. And in that, we just might find that we too might begin to be able to better listen to the world around us and hopefully respond with grace-filled love that has been shown us.</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-33103183418022782522011-12-03T15:02:00.001-08:002011-12-03T15:03:53.225-08:00A Beginning WITHOUT and Ending(Many thanks to Dr. David Lose of Luther Seminary, who was a germination point for this sermon.)<div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Mark 1.1-8</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i>12/4/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> How many of you sitting out there today knew that the new year has already begun? Well, okay, maybe not the new calendar year, because I'm guessing that many of us are putting "2011" as a date on our checks. However, the church year always begins anew with the first Sunday in Advent. I'm not too surprised if you didn't notice. There's not much that marks the beginning of the new church year. Really the only thing that is much different from this beginning of the new year from the previous church year is that, starting last week and running throughout the coming church year, we will be hearing the vast majority of our gospel readings from the Gospel according to Mark. Not much is different, but there is something nice how the church marks each new year with the beginning prologue to the Gospel story that has brought us and our ancestors together in faith throughout the centuries.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Beginnings are terribly important to us in our lives, are they not? How much time and energy do we put into the start of something new? One of our favorite and biggest holidays of the year is New Year's Eve, as many people gather together to ring in the New Year as the clock strikes midnight on January 1<sup>st</sup>. We mark the passage of time by celebrating the anniversaries of the beginnings of things. We measure the years of our life by celebrating the day we were born and our journey on earth began. Our marriages are marked by celebrating the day two people are united in the bonds of matrimony. And if you happen to be a Vikings fan, there's always the start of the new season, right? I believe that new beginnings are important to us because it shows us that life is not over. It shows that there is still something for us to live for. It shows us that there are new adventures for us to undertake – new stories to hear, new places that our friendships and relationships might go we live and grow together. Marking the beginning helps us to prepare for what just might be coming.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> And really, this is where we find ourselves as we encounter these words from the Gospel of Mark on this day: We find ourselves at "the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Yet, even with all this talk of how things are beginning, we all know too well that so many things that everything that has a beginning also will have an ending. Sometimes that ending is tragic. Sometimes we just may feel that the ending has come all too soon. Sometimes the ending comes only a long journey filled with the ups and downs of life. That's one of the things we get to know to the core of beings, is it not? Friendships don't last. Whether through distance, disagreement, or death, all of our friendships come to an end sooner or later. The same goes with our work, our careers, and even the loving committed relationship we have with that special other person in our lives. This is all something we get glimpses of when we are young children, but become well-acquainted with as we get older. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Everything. Except that is for one thing: When we are baptized, we are baptized into something eternal, everlasting. We are baptized into the life love and Body of Christ that not even death and the grave can bring a ending to. This beginning is also a beginning steeped in the rich history of the past. John the baptizer is himself the very representation of the rich prophetic tradition of the Israelite people. He, very much like the prophets Jeremiah or Isaiah or Amos or Micah, calls the people back into the way of Lord away from the trappings of everyday life. Yet, comes bearing something new to the people who come to him to be baptized by him. He brings news. He brings Good News. He brings the news of the one who is coming after him who not even this pious man of God would be worthy enough to be a mere servant of. He brings news of the one who is coming after him who bears a gift to be given to the people: A new baptism that is itself the gift of God's Holy Spirit given to each so that he or she may be brought into A NEW BEGINNING WITHOUT AN ENDING. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> That is really what all of our baptisms mean for each of us. Our baptism in an entering into a new life where no longer do we have to worry about what the ending is going to be. Instead we are given new life, right here and right now this day. It is simply a mistake to think that our baptisms only have to do with what happens to us when we die. No, on the whole they have a much greater importance the life we are able to live right here in this present moment. Each day we live out a response to the tremendous gift that is given to us as we receive the Holy Spirit on the day of our baptisms. We don't have to worry about the ending, so we can live everyday reveling in promise of that new beginning. We can live everyday still deeply amidst "the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" like it is a story that is still being played even 2000 years after it all began. We are not to give up on the life that we have right now. We are to live this day actively learning about what it means to be a people of The Good News. There is always something to learn or to discover or to engage in. What new thing would you like to learn anew this new year?</p></div>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-29610837554779169972011-11-11T08:50:00.000-08:002011-11-11T08:52:46.253-08:00The intention of God's gifts<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Matthew 25:14-30</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i>11/13/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> The Gospel according to Matthew is replete with parable after parable after parable that Jesus often sets up in this way: "The <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> will be like..." this or that or another thing. In earlier parts of the gospel, Jesus says the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> is like the little bit of yeast that is put into flour to make bread. In another place, he says the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> is like a king putting on a wedding banquet for his son. Yet in another place, Jesus says the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> may be compared to a mustard seed growing from something very small to a large bush or like a tree. So if Jesus keeps on using parables to tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like, what is he trying to tell us? </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Is the purpose of the parables to simply give one to one analogies of the specific ways that God acts? Is God a landowner who throws slaves out into then outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth all because the slave didn't invest the money that God gave him? Is the lesson to be learned that God wants us to invest with banks in our lives? No, I think that the parables seek to do one thing and one thing only: they seek to tell us a truth about the world, about us, and about what having a relationship with God is all about. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">In other words, when Jesus begins the parables, he just might be saying that The kingdom of heaven will be like this....<b>a place where truth is revealed</b>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> The parables, and especially the parable Jesus tells us this week have to do more than give us a simple moralistic lesson like one of Aesop's Fables. They have to, because if they don't then why are we wasting our time gathering around the Word of God that really only works as an advice column rather than words of hope and life that are able to lift us up in our lives wherever we just might find ourselves and be words of love and of forgiveness and of redemption that call us into a new way of life where we seek to share all of that TRUTH with the rest of the world in our words and actions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> The Bible is not a place where you can get advice on single, separate issues like some kind of ancient "Dear Abbey" letter next to the comics of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Garfield</st1:place></st1:city> and Peanuts you would find in a newspaper. Can you even imagine what THAT would be like?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Dear Bible,<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>I'm a 29 year old man who has fallen in love with a gorgeous, intelligent woman, but there is a problem. She wants the financial luxury that a wealthy investment banker can give her, yet I'm only a teacher who makes $40k a year and I have student loan debt. What can I do to attract her?<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>Not enough money for love</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> Of course the Bible doesn't work that way! Of course Jesus isn't some advice columnist who only seeks give a few words of wisdom about our minor, every day problems in life. Yes the Bible gives words of Wisdom, but words of Wisdom must eventually speak to the core of our being if they truly are going to be words that change and deeply affect our lives each and every single new day. They must speak to the truth about our lives. They must speak to the truth about who God is. They must speak to the truth about who we are in relationship with God. For if these words that gather us together as God's do not do that then, again, we are wasting our time here.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> So what then is the truth in our parable for today? It is simply this (and this insight comes from Bishop Jim Arends of the <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">La Crosse</st1:place></st1:city> area synod): if we are indeed God's people, then we must let the gifts that God gives us be the gifts that God intends them to be. And God certainly does shower us with many gifts throughout the days of our lives. We owe our very life to God. There is no other place from whence it would be able to spring forth. We owe the people we call family and friends, those people love and support us in our lives, to God. For without God, we would not have them in our lives. We owe livelyhood that our skills and abilities earn for us to God. As many of us know, as much as we hard to develop the skills and education that lead to our vocations, our education whether in school or on the job refine the things we already have a raw innate ability to do. God is the source of these things, and that is where real stewardship begins, with the knowledge that all he have comes from God.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> We are given those gifts not so that we can know that we ARE truly blessed by God. We are given those gifts so that we just might be able to share our gifts with in a loving community that seeks the welfare of others and not only ourselves. In some ways, God also gives us the gift of community through the ways we care for and share the gifts that we have been given. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> And ultimately there is one precious gift that is given to us by God. We owe our forgiveness, our redemption, our new life in Christ to the God who comes to us in our lives where we are, where we have fallen short of the glory of God, where we should see that there has been no time and no place where we have earned the love and forgiveness of Lord for ourselves. This is a gift that is manifested in our lives as we are joined with Christ in our baptism. This is a gift that is manifested in our lives as we come to the Lord's supper as sinners indeed not worthy of the gift of Jesus' body and blood, yet still given FOR US. But here's the sticking point: we are not given these gifts so that we can isolate ourselves from the world in some kind of a mystical blanket that allows us to not have to worry about others in our lives. These gifts of our faith are indeed meant to bring us out into the world to engage our neighbor, to bring forth the love in Christ Jesus that we ourselves have already received. So in the end, the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> is truly the place where God gives us great gifts, gifts that are meant to burst forth and not be buried in a field because of some fear.</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-56182607902686803152011-10-16T10:19:00.000-07:002011-10-16T10:20:31.411-07:00God or Taxes?<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Matthew 22.15-22</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i>10/16/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>So now here we’ve come – right to the intersection where politics and religion meet.<span> </span>And again, what are the two things you are not supposed to talk about in polite company?<span> </span>Politics and religion.<span> </span>Yet today the very center of our faith, the basis of our whole religion is encountered with a highly charged political question when Jesus is asked: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”<span> </span>Well, this certainly is not just any political question, but a question about something that colored the political discourse of our country for years now.<span> </span>It is a question about taxes.<span> </span>Taxes seem to be the one political issue that causes some of the most heated political debate to occur as we have a shared national history that literally began over a question of taxation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>And it continues to this day.<span> </span>One of the things I’ve seen that drives our public policy the most at the moment is the simple question: Will you raise taxes?<span> </span>Much of what drives our lawmakers this day is the pledge “I will not raise taxes.” A pledge that many of our lawmakers have taken in recent years.<span> </span>And what’s funny is that that pledge is a like a sword hanging by a small string over their heads ready to snap and slay anyone who would ever dare to consider raising taxes.<span> </span>The Pharisees and the Herodians in our reading for today are themselves seeking to place a sword on a string above Jesus’ head ready to snap at a moments notice if Jesus says “YES” or “NO.”<span> </span>But a funny thing happens as these people try to embroil Jesus into a debate over political ideals – He decides not to play their little game.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>You see, what’s at the heart of much political debate is a process in which people are thrown into a discussion where ideas and the defense of those ideas is paramount to anything else in the discussion.<span> </span>So, rather than have a conversation about how to engage an issue in government and how to come up with a solution; politicians, the media, and protesters engage in fierce defense as to how their ideas are right and other’s ideas are wrong.<span> </span>So in the end, the ideas become what is important and not the problem or the issue which needs to be solved.<span> </span>And is that not where we err the most often in our life?<span> </span>Is that not our biggest sin?<span> </span>Do we not hold to our ideas above everything else to the point where those ideas and our pursuit of those ideas becomes the God we seek and defend through our actions? </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">That’s why Jesus really doesn’t concern himself with getting enmeshed into the sticky political debate.<span> </span>That’s why isn’t concerned with the question the Pharisees and the Herodians want him to get entangled in.<span> </span>Because, the question that Jesus is concerned with is the question: how are we going to relate to God; and, through that, how are we going to relate to one another?<span> </span>This question goes beyond and breaks us out of our self-absorption and reorients us upon God.<span> </span>For Jesus is not so much concerned with what people give to the Emperor.<span> </span>He is greatly concerned, however, with how people relate to God, because that relationship, and only that relationship has the ability to give us life and show us exactly where our life, everything we have, and our hope comes from.<span> </span>Only God, and not our own powers or own ideas, only God has the power to give us life.<span> </span>And here’s the thing!<span> </span>God gives it to us abundantly!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Moreover, God gives this gift of life to everyone else around us as we are all created in the image of God and given the command to care for all of creation and the things that live upon it as well.<span> </span>You see, our political convictions never abdicate us from the reality that we are all God’s good creation and that we are all given grace upon grace to live and share the love of God with those who are around us.<span> </span>Jesus doesn’t get enmeshed in the political debate, because he points us towards that which we should truly care about in our lives.<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">You see it is very simple.<span> </span>Our love for God is shown in our love for our neighbor.<span> </span>That is made very clear when Jesus gathers the disciples for that last supper together and tells them “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)<span> </span>These are the things with which we are to consider if we are truly to live out our identity as followers of Christ.<span> </span>Being a follower of Christ does not mean forcing your ideas upon others in society, rather it means having what we say and do come forth from the setting of our eyes upon the Lord who truly does have the power to give us life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">It is very simple, yet as we know, it can be very hard for us because we are not always able to discern what is our own ambition and what has sprung forth from setting our hearts and minds upon the God who alone gives us life.<span> </span>But that is why grace abounds.<span> </span>That is why we are promised the Holy Spirit in our lives to inspire us to faith in the one God who gives us life.<span> </span>My prayer is always that the Holy Spirit may guide us from ourselves and to God and those around us. </p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-9886836082161556302011-10-01T13:22:00.000-07:002011-10-01T13:23:05.026-07:00Praise to you, O Christ? --> Praise to you, O Christ!<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Matthew 21:33-46</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i>10/2/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>There are certainly times throughout the church year where we’ll get done reading the Gospel lesson for the day and it just feels weird to say the words “Praise to you, O Christ” in response.<span> </span>The thing is, those are usually the times when we’ve heard a reading from the gospel that is filled with condemnation against God’s people or a group of God’s people.<span> </span>It feels disjointed to proclaim thanks and praise to God when we hear words like, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”<span> </span>Somehow those words don’t make me feel terribly safe, don’t make me feel terribly forgiven, don’t make me feel terribly loved.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it gain: I have <b><u>never</u></b> stood here in this pulpit and lied to you all.<span> </span>So when I say that God loves us and embraces us each all, I believe that message to my absolute core with every fibre of my being.<span> </span>So what then are we to do with this odd feeling we get when we say “Praise to you, O Christ” in response to a text that could make us feel like we have been raked over the coals?<span> </span>Well, for one thing, maybe we simply don’t feel like the message proclaimed by Christ is a message for us, because, surely God would not speak like that to a people as righteous as we are, right!?<span> </span>Yet even as I say those words, how can I not remember that Jesus is speaking to the righteous and Godly people of his day?<span> </span>This parable is a parable told specifically to the priests and elders, the leaders of the Jewish society!<span> </span>So to think that our righteousness and godliness saves us from these words being directed as us is folly.<span> </span>Moreover, as we take a closer look at this parable Jesus tells this day, can we not begin ourselves to identify with these wicked tenants?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>It may not happen all the time in our life, and it may not be the way we generally view the world; but I wonder if there has been any time in your life where you could have possibly said to yourself, “I worked so hard to get to the place where I am at this day.<span> </span>I’ve put in long hours of study.<span> </span>I’ve been dutiful and conscientious with my time and money and not been frivolous.<span> </span>This life that I have now is mine, and I’ll not let anyone take it from me!”<span> </span>That very well may be true, but it does lose sight of some other truths along the way.<span> </span>No one has gotten where he or she is today all on your own.<span> </span>Family, friends, teachers, mentors have all helped us along the way, and if you are a Christian who believes that God the Father is indeed the creator of heaven and earth, the maker of that is, seen and unseen then you at the very least owe some kind of debt or gratitude to the one who has given you your very life!<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">And this is exactly what we see going on in this parable today.<span> </span>This landowner is the one who planted the vineyard and did everything necessary for it to produce fruit.<span> </span>Yet the tenants want to claim all of the fruit as their own.<span> </span>So the great sin committed in this parable is not so much that these tenants have beaten and killed everyone whom the landowner has sent to collect the harvest, as it is the profound foolishness that they thought that they could keep the whole harvest and then the inheritance for themselves.<span> </span>And in seeing that, the elders and the priests proclaim themselves a harsh judgment upon those wicked tenants.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">So if we are like the elders, the chief priests, and these wicked tenants from the tale, what is the hope for us especially after this Word have fallen on us and crushed us?<span> </span>The hope lies not in what we can do to change God’s mind about this judgment.<span> </span>It lies in how God comes to the earth and acts.<span> </span>Again, look at the parable.<span> </span>When the landowner first heard word that his servants were beaten, stoned and killed, how does he respond?<span> </span>He sends more servants! And when that doesn’t work, he sends his very own son <b><u>alone</u></b>.<span> </span>If this landowner is indeed a representation of how God acts within the world, then I think we can see clearly that God acts, not in a way that brings destruction against these wicked tenants, but in a way where God continually seeks us out and seeks to bring us back into community!<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Furthermore, let’s not forget where in the Gospel of Matthew this parable comes.<span> </span>This comes near the end of the Gospel, as Jesus has begun teaching in the temple in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, before he is betrayed, tried and executed at the hands of Pontius Pilate.<span> </span>This parable comes to us as Jesus is in the very midst of going to the cross for our sins to reveal to us that our God is a God who gives up everything so that we may indeed see that we are forgiven and freed from our sins and death.<span> </span>This parable comes in the midst of the very thing that makes all of what we proclaim here to be GOOD NEWS!!<span> </span>And that is where our hope lies: In Jesus Christ our Lord.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">There’s a song you may or may not know very well, but it is a song that I have gotten to know well over the years.<span> </span>Its lyrics come from a very early document that strove to teach the earliest Christians the Christian life.<span> </span>“As the grains of wheat, once scattered on the hill, are gathered into one to become our bread.<span> </span>So may all your people, from all the ends of earth, be gathered into one in you.”<span> </span>There are definitely times when it just may feel like we have been dashed, broken and scattered upon God’s judgment, but God does not leave us there.<span> </span>God seeks to gather us up, to gather us in, so that we indeed can brought into that warm embrace which holds us all even as we are sinners deserving death.<span> </span>And that why in the end, as much as this gospel reading crushes me this day, I can boldly say, “Praise to you, O Christ.”</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-75628847337835686962011-08-20T13:30:00.000-07:002011-08-20T13:31:29.249-07:00The church, definitely a motley crue<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Matthew 16.13-20</span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i>08/21/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>A cheater, a hot-head, an adulterer, a drunk, a deserter, a murderer, a nervous wreck, a gossiper, a harlot, a worrier, a doubter, the impatient, a moody person, a stutterer, the old, and even the dead.<span> </span>That is quite the collection of people, don’t you think?<span> </span>Let’s say you were given a project to get done.<span> </span>The only stipulation is that you have to get this project done with this motley group of people.<span> </span>And this isn’t like Burger King – You can’t get it your way.<span> </span>These are your people, and you either work with them or you don’t get the project done at all.<span> </span>By a showing of hands, how many of you here today would be excited to enter into this kind of a project?<span> </span>How many of you would even attempt to do something important if these were the people you had to work with?<span> </span>How many of you would rather have a good group of Norwegians or Germans from the old days instead?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Believe it or not, the church we gather in this day is standing here because of the lives of that group of people.<span> </span>That group of people that includes people who have done terrible things in their lives.<span> </span>Don’t believe me?<span> </span>Every single person from that group I just mentioned is a major character in the Bible.<span> </span>Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Rahab was a harlot, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sarah was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead.<span> </span>From that group of people, you can tell the story of just about every major event beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>When I think about the history of God’s people, a history that we are grafted into in our baptism, a part of me is strengthened and assured that God works within the world even amongst all of our failings.<span> </span>In knowing this, I gain a comfort that God’s will within the world has not been and will not be thwarted by the ways we separate ourselves from each other and from God.<span> </span>But even more than that, I know that no matter what happens to us here in this day, in this congregation, God will still be our God and we will still be God’s people.<span> </span>In fact, that’s really what the word “church” means: a people who are “of the Lord.”<span> </span>So, even if lightning strikes our steeple, we will be a people of the Lord.<span> </span>Even if a great flood washes our building off of its foundation, we will be a people of the Lord.<span> </span>Even if finances dictate that we do things in a different way from the ways we have done them in the past, we will be a people of the Lord.<span> </span>That will not change because it cannot change.<span> </span>No earthly force can ever remove us from the claim that God has placed upon each and every one of us – nothing!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>But also, in reading our Gospel for this day, I also see that this history and this heritage that we have inherited from that motley bunch of people is something that we have confidence in, not because we are smart enough to walk through these doors on the weekend, but because God works this miracle of faith in us each and every day.<span> </span>What is it that Jesus says to Peter after Peter makes that bold proclamation that Jesus is, “the Messiah, the Son of the living God?”<span> </span>Jesus tells him, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah!<span> </span>For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven.”<span> </span>Peter’s very own confession of who Jesus is comes not from within himself, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working in him, giving him the confidence, the trust to declare out loud who Jesus is.<span> </span>Now, Peter doesn’t exactly understand what all that means.<span> </span>In fact, he goes on from that place continuing to stick his foot in his mouth, denying that he even knows who this Christ is, and then arguing with Paul (the murderer remember?) about what it means to be a Christian.<span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">And this is grace, because if it is left up to us, we will surely never become anything more than the things the mar others, ourselves, and our lives.<span> </span>We would never be any more than Murderers, adulterers, cheaters, deny-ers, doubters, and even the dead.<span> </span>For our trust lies within the one who is able to even pick us up out of our graves and gather us up into new life.<span> </span>We are God’s people, and God will never turn his back on us.<span> </span>Yet, God also continually calls us into a new way of life, a way of life defined not by the things we have done or not have done, but by what this Messiah, this Son of the living God has done for us.<span> </span>With that, this church has a foundation that cannot crumble no matter what the world may throw at us.</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-74124512694587519812011-06-25T10:24:00.000-07:002011-06-25T10:25:30.665-07:00<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt"></span></u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Matthew 10:40-42</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">6/26/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Here’s a question for you:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Are we a welcoming church?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Are we place where people come and are received warmly?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What is it like to become a part of this community?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Well, for one thing, there times when someone asks you a question that you must seek first to define the terms that are used in the question.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What do I mean by saying “welcoming?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What do I mean by saying “church?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What do I mean when I use the term “community?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s important to define these terms because that will help us to really explore these questions with depth and honesty.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>First off, we must always knows in our minds and in our hearts that church always and forever means the Body of Christ that has died with him to sin and been raised to a new life faith with all the saints throughout the centuries that have gone by.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Secondly, “community” always has a ever growing outward definition like the rings of a tree that start small but always increase in ever widening circles.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We are individually a person who lives in the community of our family that then includes our friends that then includes our neighbors that then includes villages, then townships, then counties, then states, then nations, then the world, then the whole universe, but most importantly, even then those that we hate.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And we all have an effect on those outer rings even if that effect gets infinitely smaller and smaller.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But what about that term “welcoming?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">I think a simple definition that could suffice is that welcoming is the ways in which we react to a new person or situation. We can either choose to be gatekeepers making sure that the person coming to the door is acceptable, or we can be people that respond to those who come through the gate knowing that we ourselves are people who have come through that gate ourselves as strangers whether it was when we were little infants or as we have grown through the years.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How we welcome others says a lot of things about who we are individually and collectively, about what truly is near and dear to our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If we welcome only those who are near and dear to our hearts, then maybe that should show us that what is near and dear to our hearts is ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And that is simply a vanity, self-love, and self-absorption.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I don’t preach these words this day as words of accusation meant to expose something that should be changed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I preach these words this day as words of warning that we should indeed guard against that form of self love so that ourselves doesn’t become the most important thing in our lives and that we always seek to reorient our lives and our love on the one who loves us and gives us life each and every day.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In our baptisms we are welcomed into the church, the body as newly adopted beloved children of God.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We receive a new identity where the question “Who are you?” is sometimes better asked, “Whose are you?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We belong to God and nothing can change that, but that reality also carries with it a responsibility that sometimes becomes easy to shirk.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And really that’s what this teaching from Jesus is all about this day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s not so much a teaching about who and why we should welcome others.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s a teaching about how we, the ones who have already been welcomed into Christ in baptism are to go out into the world and be a part of God’s mission to go out into the world to seek out the lost, the hurt, the reviled, the person who is on the outside, even if he or she lives within our local community.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">We are called to do this, because we are called to be a people of God within the world, called to be followers of Christ in where he goes and what he does.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just two verses before our reading for today Jesus says plainly, “whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So the thing that should really make us uncomfortable about our reading for today is that it calls us and shakes us out of our ever present lives to go out into the world to engage the world with words and deeds of love and peace.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We do this not so that we can receive fame, fortune or assuredness of our place in heaven, but because we have already been given the beauty of God’s unending grace.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">What we bring out into the world is not something our own, a creation that we have come up with.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We go out into the world bearing Christ and what he has.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This means that bearing Christ to the world does not take special schooling.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It does not take special talents.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It does not take perfectly crafted and beautiful words.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Because we simply bring the Word in all of its uncreated glory. For, whoever welcomes us, welcomes Christ, and whoever welcomes Christ welcomes the one who sent Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So in the end, we welcome the one who has already welcomed us with open arms that continually seek out the other with love, forgiveness and grace.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span><span></span></span></p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-40316370121103085742011-06-01T10:04:00.001-07:002011-06-01T10:04:53.317-07:00My synod asked me to share my story at Synod Assembly this year...<p class="MsoNormal">Last October 10<sup>th</sup>, I prayed this prayer of the day with my parish as many of you did on that Sunday:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Almighty and merciful God, your bountiful goodness fills all creation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Keep us safe from all that may hurt us, that, whole and well in body and spirit, we may with grateful hearts accomplish all that you would have us do, through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Amen</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">That prayer is lifted up in response to the readings we had for that day about Naaman being healed of his leprosy and Jesus having compassion for ten men who suffered from that same disease that openly ravaged the body for all to see.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now the part that has spoken to me the most as I’ve contemplated that prayer has been the phrase “that, whole and well in body and spirit, we may with grateful hearts accomplish all that you do.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For those who know me, I have been struggling with my weight and the affect it has on my health and well-being for most of my whole life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just two days after I led that prayer, a friend and colleague of mine asked if I would come and take a look at a program that he had been involved with, because he cared about me and was concerned with where I was and where I was heading in body and spirit.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">That week beginning with worship on that Sunday and continuing with a friend asking and caring about me became a place where Christ met me at a crossroad in my life and spoke a word full of grace and healing that has sent me on a journey where, like the ten lepers in that gospel story from Luke, I am finding that I am being made well.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Since that week in October, I have lost a total of 164lbs. My blood pressure is down at least 20 points, and now I walk for at least 30 minutes everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But this is not something that I could have done alone.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Without the care and support of my colleagues, without the care and support of all my family and friends, and most especially, without the care and support of the people of my parish, I would not have gotten to the point that I have gotten to this day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In whatever mission endeavor we undertake, that will always hold true.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The call to serve God will always be a call that followed within a community that seeks to share the love that our Lord has shown to us on the cross – that ground, that intersection from which we are sent out into the world.</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-10582897443283187302011-05-27T10:23:00.000-07:002011-05-27T10:24:40.250-07:00The Causality That Indicates the Reality<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">John 14.15-21</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">5/29/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>How do you hear these words this day?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What does it mean to you to hear “If…then you will?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are a couple different ways we take these words from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, these words spoken to his disciples on that last night when Jesus was betrayed, handed over to those who sought to control and kill him.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You could first hear these words as a conditional statement that probably sound a little more like “If you really do love me, then you will do what I ask of you.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s nothing wrong with complying with the command and request of our Lord, Savior, and Friend, yet it can come across as something akin to what a parent would say to a child who has a pile of broccoli sitting on his or her plate: “If you want dessert, then you have to eat your vegetables.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I think we can start to see why this would be problematic.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Taken as a conditional statement, it turns loving Jesus into a chore that must be completed or, like that child who is sitting at that dinner table 20 minutes after everyone else has left, keeping his commandments can become something like closing your eyes tightly and holding your nose as you are forced to do something that you really would rather not do.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And is that how we are supposed to approach Jesus’ command “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>In case you don’t know the full context in which our reading from the Gospel according to John comes, “…love one another.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just as I have loved you, you also should love another.” has just been spoken mere minutes before we begin our reading for today.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So is our love for another really to be something like eating our vegetables, where we see other people in our lives and begrudgingly hold our nose, close our eyes tightly and do just enough so that we can receive the reward of our dessert?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Certainly not!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So there must be another way to hear these words that come from our redeemer on this day.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Maybe we can possibly hear “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” as simply a statement of causality, where our love for Christ necessarily causes us to keep his commandments, where keeping his commandments is necessarily is an affect of our love for him.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And this reading of our gospel for today simply states the reality that if we truly do put our faith in Christ, if we center our lives upon the love that he has for us, we can almost do nothing other than love all those who abide with us on this planet we have called Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When it does get difficult for us to truly and deeply trust who this Jesus is, we also see that we will never be left alone and abandoned to try and do this all on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In fact, we will fail on our own without the help of that Advocate, that Spirit of truth<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>guiding us to know, love and trust the Son of the Father who was sent into the world not to condemn the world, but “in order that the world might be saved through him.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>No, in fact this statement is a statement of causality that brings to light the reality of who we are in Christ Jesus our Lord, that who we are is simply a people who gather around the cross that saves us all from sin and death, not to only die, but to be raised up into eternal life with Christ in the resurrection.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>No, our Lord will not leave us orphaned, abandoned to our own inability to fulfill the requirements of the law.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Jesus knows that we will fail, just much as he knew that even his most steadfast disciple, that rock on which the church shall stand, Peter, will deny that he knows this man who he has called teacher, and who the teacher now calls him his friend.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Every day of our lives we need the support and care of the Holy Spirit inspiring us to know and love God, so that we may see just how much God loves us this day and every day from here on out.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This Spirit shapes us into being what God has created us to be – a good creation that God is pleased to invite into the life and love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This Spirit sets our eyes toward that hill where we see exactly what God has given up and done for us in our lives, right here, right now!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>So if this is who we truly are, then let us truly be the people of God in the world for everybody to see, where they will know that we are Christians not because of how correct our doctrine is, not because of how morally righteous we are, but because we simply show the love Christ has for us by the love we have for all of those around us.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is not a chore to be completed to get to the really good stuff, the dessert, the paradise of heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is something that, when our eyes are firmly affixed on the cross, we rejoice in the freedom that has been given to us to finally love and serve our neighbor, not because we have to, but because we simply do!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This promise of the Holy Spirit for our lives is for today and everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is the promise which gives us life, love, and direction.</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-37990526150345081842011-05-06T11:05:00.000-07:002011-05-06T11:07:16.399-07:00Jesus meets us on the road, reveals himself in the meal<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">Luke 24.13-35</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">5/8/11</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span> Imagine, if you will, a walk – a beautiful walk on the first day that feels like spring.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You pass by trees which are just beginning to bud and flower.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You pass by lawns that are lush with soft, cool, green grass.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There is a slight breeze in the air which gently blows the fragrance of new flowers upon the air.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It is a beautiful day, and it seems as if the sun itself is declaring this to be a beautiful day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>After the long, cold, and wet winter that we’ve had, it may just perhaps be hard to imagine a day, a walk such as this.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But, I’m told that they do exist.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Those are the kinds of days that seem to gently, yet persistently whispering that life is good, that life is beautiful, that God has ordained that day to be a day of joy and peace.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span> Life being likened to a beautiful walk on a sunny Spring day is something that we could probably wish was like all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But I think we all know that life is not only a beautiful walk on a beautiful spring day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Rather it is a walk, a journey that we find ourselves in the midst of every single day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It is a walk where we recall what is behind us, perhaps even get glimpses of as we share memories and photos, but nevertheless the walk continues forward.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We recall the beautiful times of love and joy, perhaps at the birth of child or at the close of another school year.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We recall the cloudy, gray times, perhaps when violence and war have the whole world in its grasp or when we see our brothers and sisters who live on this pale blue dot succumb to the devastating effects of natural disasters that destroy homes and lives.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Yet we carry all those memories and those experiences forward with us, maybe not even realizing the impact that people and events have had us until later.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It keeps on moving to a place off in the distance.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We can try to imagine what that place will be, where it will be, and what that place will hold for us, but often as we get to that place we find that it is not what we expected and that the road seems to continue going forward. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We cannot know what the future has in store for us, and when our journey through life takes to places we didn’t expect we can often feel confused and bewildered by what has just happened.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span> The disciples find themselves in this place in this journey of life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They thought that they were coming near that destination where their friend and teacher was going to become the fulfillment of all their dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They said, “He was going to be the one who would redeem <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> and usher in a new age of peace and prosperity!”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Instead, their friend and teacher was handed over and crucified.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This was not the destination they though their journey was taking them towards.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To make matters even worse, they now begin to see that their journey has not even ended as they hear strange stories from the women of their group about an empty tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They find themselves in the midst of a walk, a journey where they don’t quite know what to make of any of these past events, and that is perhaps not too alien a feeling for us even in our present day lives.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We too know of confusion we can feel as events swirl around us and cause us to wonder “what is going on!?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span> This is where these two disciples find themselves on that day, a day that many of us could or will indentify with in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But they also find themselves being joined by a stranger who unbeknownst to them is the very friend and teacher they mourn over on this walk, on this journey to Emmaus.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They are joined by Christ on this journey.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They are joined by their friend Jesus on this walk where they are in the midst of their own pain and confusion.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That is truly on of the wonderful things about this story we are dwelling in this day – Jesus comes and meets them where they are in the midst of their journey.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then he brings to them the Word – the word that it was necessary for the Messiah to go through that pain and death and rise up to new life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A word that declared by Moses and the prophets that God’s work within the world goes far beyond the uplift of God’s people into a saving embrace for all creation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Where Jesus, this Word made Flesh, gives up everything for the creation that God has made, declaring “I will not let you go!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span> At the risk of relating this all to myself, my godson did something just this past week that simply brought joy to my face.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Last week, I got to go to chapel with my classmates that I graduated with three years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was wonderful to be in that chapel to be surround by all those familiar faces and voices.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When it was time for communion, the presiding minister got and started saying the Eucharistic prayer, giving thanks to God for all that god had done.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When the presiding minister got to the words “In the night in which be was betrayed…” my godson turned to his father and said, “I love this part!”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And so seeing that journey of these two disciples is not over, we come to the part of the story where I simply have to say, “I love this part!”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This part where Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span> For this meal that we gather around at least twice a month (and I wish we could do it more!) is a meal where Jesus himself is made known to us in a very real and very physical as we eat of the body that was broken FOR US and drink of the blood that was shed<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>FOR US.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You see this sacrament is in itself they very place where we come to meet our Lord in the breaking of the bread.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The promise that this bread and this wine really truly is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ when we hear those words GIVEN FOR YOU and SHED FOR YOU is the place where we can say with all certainty of our faith that the Lord has come to meet us where we are, along the road that we travel this day as well the days past and the days ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And I love this part, because this part declares to me that no matter where I am what I may have possibly done, or how lost I feel in my life, Jesus is present with me this day in this bread and wine that becomes the body and blood through the word that God has declared.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When you hear that, you hear all that our Lord has done and given up for us so that we might be forgiven, so that we might be raised from death into new life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">CHRIST IS RISEN!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">HE IS RISEN INDEED!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>ALLELIUIA!!!!!</p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11377310.post-41795643845873056362011-04-22T10:51:00.000-07:002011-04-22T10:54:23.827-07:00Good Friday 2011<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt">John 18-19</span></u></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Good Friday 2011</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I am stripped bare</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>there is finally nothing left to hide me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve fought and fought</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>trying desperately to cling to what has covered me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">You show me, me</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and I cringe at the crusty corners that have cut and scraped.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">My deeds, my sin</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>turning from life, turning toward what eats up my life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I lash out</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">striking with the sword, returning to that vicious circle that has spiraled down throughout history.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Though in the End, I’ve forsaken you</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">running in shame, denying what you have tried so desperately to teach me, denying who I am, denying who you are because fear for my own life has consumed me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Perhaps one of the hardest parts of this story which gathers us this day is witnessing to the actions and reactions of Peter and the rest of the disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just the night before these are all the very same people that Jesus spent quite a bit of time and care telling these disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends.” (John 15.15) these men and these women who Jesus has called and gathered around himself are more than just pupils to be taught lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These men and women are friends who share in a deep love that cares dearly for each and every one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So when disciples run away from the scene of Jesus’ arrest and then when Peter denies fully, whole-heartedly that he does not know this man who has just called him a friend, we begin to see the completeness of the disciples failure to trust and follow in the way of their Lord.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And when I hear about how these people who knew Jesus personally and loved him dearly abandons him to die, I cannot help but begin to see where I’ve failed, where I’ve run away from what I avowed to stay loyal to.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even the best of us fail in our lives to always do what is absolutely right.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even the best of us have our faults that are laid bare from time to time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And that simply is a part of what the cross reveals in stark detail.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It reveals the sins we have committed, and it reveals all those times when we very possibly could have done some more.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the end our strength, our reasoning, and our intellect fail us.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For sometimes the right thing to do is not clear, and other times it can be as clear as a bell ringing, and yet we fail to act.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But the cross also shows one amazingly foundational truth that undergirds all of creation throughout all time – Jesus dies for us so that we may see the depths to which our God goes for us people who have failed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Jesus does not make a pact before he is handed over to be killed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He does not say, “I will go do this for you if you promise to shower me with love and glory.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He does not say, “I will do this for you if you promise to be perfect from this day on out.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He says, “I do this for you, because I love you and I do not want to let you go.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So the cross finally shows the vastness of God’s love that as the Apostle Paul says in Roman, “nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.39)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But…</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Truth is stripped bare</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>everything that clouds my vision has vanished.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Light shines and shines</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>illuminating what is real and what is from everlasting to everlasting.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">You show me love</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and I smile at something so steadfast and serene.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">My hope, my trust</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>reveling in wonder, reveling in the life you continually give me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">You’ve forgiven </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And I am stripped bare</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>There is finally nothing left to hide me or your love. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p>Ben's Random Rhetorichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08134928827667930462noreply@blogger.com0