Easter is about the Risen Christ. But wait! To use St Paul’s vision, we are the Risen One’s body in the world! Easter, then, is about the WE and US: holy, eternal, common-union!
Rather than say anything more at this point, I wish to go directly to the Emmaus story and take the risk of interpreting it by changing the text, using collective words for the presence of church—for example, WE and US, in place of names and pronouns for Jesus. I think this moves us away from getting stuck back in history, and brings us into the Living Gift of Christ’s presence here and now. Oh, the sweet fragrance and shock of Easter, now!
So, unleash your creativity and passion for God and encounter again the story of Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35):
Now on [Easter two] were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, WE came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing US. And WE said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered US, “Are you the only strangers in Jerusalem who do not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
WE asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem [God’s people]. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
Then WE said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into… glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, WE interpreted to them the things about US in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, WE walked ahead as if WE were going on. But they urged US strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So WE went in to stay with them. When WE were at the table with them, WE took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized US; and WE vanished from their sight.
They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while THEY were talking to us on the road, while THEY were opening the scriptures to us?”
That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how [the holy common-union, Christ in and as US] had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The story, like the Christ, lives today! I have seen and heard exactly such Easter marveling from the newly baptized over their experience of having been gently led into the body of Christ—the scriptures coming alive for them, the sacraments dazzling with divine presence, and for them the almost inexpressible awe and joy of being welcomed and included in the common-union.
Living the Emmaus story is what church at its best, does. We encounter people on life’s journey. We open the scriptures, and engage the conversation. And then, at the table, the bread broken, and everyone is “us”. We look and see—Christ, the eternal Living Word! And our hearts burn within us, and we want to go and tell our friends.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Out of the Darkness, Life!
Easter Vigil
St John’s Lutheran Church, Sacramento, CA
April 23, 201
John 20:1-18
Mary Magdalene comes to us tonight after some “20 centuries of conscious and unconscious composition," writes James Baker, "she is Bible story, saint, medieval myth, Renaissance legend and [finally] modern pop heroine”--and shady lady, ala Kazantzakis’ novel and later the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Jesus Christ Superstar, and Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code.
In the biblical accounts she is one of several women who followed Jesus from Galilee to his appointment with fate in Jerusalem. She is the one out of whom Jesus cast seven devils. She sees Jesus crucified, follows his body to the tomb, returns with the first group on Easter morning, and later in the day is the first to speak with the Risen Christ. The Gospels say no more. By Easter Monday she has disappeared from the record. But she’s never been forgotten.
Mary’s story is a story about any of us people of faith. Easter always begins in darkness. I speak to both you new ones in the faith and you older ones in the faith. I speak to you who have affirmed your faith and you who have accompanied these seekers on their journey into the life of Christ as lived in and through St John’s Lutheran Church. I speak to us all:
Easter always begins in the darkness. For Mary, her darkness began with the mental illness that once oppressed her. Now we have gathered here tonight in the growing darkness that symbolizes the shadows of our lives. We are haunted by our shadows; there is the darkening desolation of our losses, and the agonizing midnight wilderness of our humiliations, shame, and the looming wee hours of anxiety and hopelessness. All the spoken and unspoken truth we bring here tonight. Here, where our very souls cry out for light and life and hope.
And therefore every one of us here tonight, no matter the gender, is Mary Magdalene.
And, like Mary Magdalene drawn to the garden tomb, hoping against hope, here we have been drawn, or in the dark depths of some bottom we’ve hit, been nudged by the Spirit, toward faith and to this gathering. And we hope and pray that in this time and place, especially in the blessed sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, we will again, or maybe for the first time, recognize in our own deaths and resurrections the compassionate presence of the One who loves us and with such tenderness speaks our names even in the shadows of our lives.
For this is the night. This is the beginning. This is the dawning of the eternal light for every Mary Magdalene. “Mary”, he says. “Mary”. And she calls him her old familiar name, “Rabbouni”. And he says, “Do not hold onto me.” He means, let go of what you think you must still have from the past. Let go of even your old ideas of me.
“Mary”, he said. In overwhelmed love and gratitude, she lets go of her Jesus, leaves her shadowed old life behind, and in the dawn of the new age goes straight to her friends and proclaims, “I have seen the Lord.”
The One who once was dead is now more alive than any other human being she, or any one of us, has ever known.
Thus, writes Presbyterian Pastor and scholar Craig Barnes,
After the resurrection, things do not return to normal. That’s the good news. It is basic to everything else the New Testament proclaims. After seeing a risen Jesus, we see that there is no normal. Now we can’t even count on the darkness. All we know for sure is that a risen Savior is on the loose. And he knows our names.
Let us be apostles of such an Easter. Amen.
St John’s Lutheran Church, Sacramento, CA
April 23, 201
John 20:1-18
Mary Magdalene comes to us tonight after some “20 centuries of conscious and unconscious composition," writes James Baker, "she is Bible story, saint, medieval myth, Renaissance legend and [finally] modern pop heroine”--and shady lady, ala Kazantzakis’ novel and later the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Jesus Christ Superstar, and Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code.
In the biblical accounts she is one of several women who followed Jesus from Galilee to his appointment with fate in Jerusalem. She is the one out of whom Jesus cast seven devils. She sees Jesus crucified, follows his body to the tomb, returns with the first group on Easter morning, and later in the day is the first to speak with the Risen Christ. The Gospels say no more. By Easter Monday she has disappeared from the record. But she’s never been forgotten.
Mary’s story is a story about any of us people of faith. Easter always begins in darkness. I speak to both you new ones in the faith and you older ones in the faith. I speak to you who have affirmed your faith and you who have accompanied these seekers on their journey into the life of Christ as lived in and through St John’s Lutheran Church. I speak to us all:
Easter always begins in the darkness. For Mary, her darkness began with the mental illness that once oppressed her. Now we have gathered here tonight in the growing darkness that symbolizes the shadows of our lives. We are haunted by our shadows; there is the darkening desolation of our losses, and the agonizing midnight wilderness of our humiliations, shame, and the looming wee hours of anxiety and hopelessness. All the spoken and unspoken truth we bring here tonight. Here, where our very souls cry out for light and life and hope.
And therefore every one of us here tonight, no matter the gender, is Mary Magdalene.
And, like Mary Magdalene drawn to the garden tomb, hoping against hope, here we have been drawn, or in the dark depths of some bottom we’ve hit, been nudged by the Spirit, toward faith and to this gathering. And we hope and pray that in this time and place, especially in the blessed sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, we will again, or maybe for the first time, recognize in our own deaths and resurrections the compassionate presence of the One who loves us and with such tenderness speaks our names even in the shadows of our lives.
For this is the night. This is the beginning. This is the dawning of the eternal light for every Mary Magdalene. “Mary”, he says. “Mary”. And she calls him her old familiar name, “Rabbouni”. And he says, “Do not hold onto me.” He means, let go of what you think you must still have from the past. Let go of even your old ideas of me.
“Mary”, he said. In overwhelmed love and gratitude, she lets go of her Jesus, leaves her shadowed old life behind, and in the dawn of the new age goes straight to her friends and proclaims, “I have seen the Lord.”
The One who once was dead is now more alive than any other human being she, or any one of us, has ever known.
Thus, writes Presbyterian Pastor and scholar Craig Barnes,
After the resurrection, things do not return to normal. That’s the good news. It is basic to everything else the New Testament proclaims. After seeing a risen Jesus, we see that there is no normal. Now we can’t even count on the darkness. All we know for sure is that a risen Savior is on the loose. And he knows our names.
Let us be apostles of such an Easter. Amen.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Dia-bol and the First Temptation of the Christ and of Christians
With this Sunday’s temptation text (March 13), we begin a season of review of our life together as faith communities, families, and individuals. The church, which is the body of the resurrected Christ, is asked by Matthew’s text to be honest about motives and honest about the need for forgiveness and reconciliation. This is a not a time for a seminar on being Christian, or morbid introspection, but is a time for ongoing prayer and grappling with the ways “the devil” in us and around us is ever tempting us to take neither God nor our common-union seriously. The aim of this “retreat” is not shame and judgment but just the opposite: heading into Easter as healthy, joyous, vital Christian communities, alive with the awareness of the presence of the Christ.
In The Hidden Power of the Gospels, there are helpful reminders about dia-bol. Etymologically dia-bol suggests a “throwing across”, and by extension, situations and inclinations that amount to a “devilish” attempt to obstruct, confuse, or accuse. In common understanding, apparently even with the Greek, diabol was the term for devil, with an allusive sense to disturbing forces of evil beyond our knowledge and control.
The temptations of Jesus, as presented in Matthew’s gospel, are written for a church facing profound change, chaos, and loss. In such a situation, the temptations of the Christ are also the temptations of the church. Diabol is all too real.
First Temptation: Go ahead, make some bread! In the pattern of the first path, dealing with profound change, temptation one for Jesus is to misuse who he is for self-centered purposes. Why is that? The very human Jesus is now identified also as God’s Beloved Son. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to get clear on that profound identification, one that for him changed everything. Notice that the diabol does not dispute who Jesus is, but simply raises the sly question, “if you are the Son of God…”. Does being the beloved of God change everything for us?
Often diabol’s first subtle ploy is to confuse or distract from, or question, our essential place in the scheme of things. Are we in Christ now or are we not? Are we the body of Christ? If so, whispers diabol, then why shouldn’t we be given what we want, especially in scary times of change? But, Church does not live by balanced budgets, growing numbers, elegant or jazzy liturgies, or the absence of change and suffering. Church lives “by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Christ (and church as koinonia) as the marriage of the divine and the human, is a common-union more important than anything else. Any short term, self-serving gain, is truly a long term loss. The living Word of God is our life and hope and strength.
Second Temptation: Make your test God’s test! Climb up to the pinnacle of things religious and then show off! This is a crass sort of throwing something across our path as we wind our way amid the ruins and wilderness of the world. Seek glory! Seek miracles! Escape the chaos and confusion, by scaling the ladder of pretension, and then jump into “glory”, assuming God will take care of you!
Ouch, this one hurts, as we consider the pathetic falls and collapse of too many proud religious leaders and churches. Risking in it all for acclaim and glory, leaping into the cynical world with a pretense of faithfulness to God, foolish narcissists only confirm again and again the basis for cynicism. Lent is a good time to be reminded of our own folly, the way we “test” God in the midst of loss and confusion instead of worshiping the Holy One. Test God enough and one day we may find that we are worshiping only ourselves and the adoration we temporarily receive from others. And thus the “leap of faith” turns out to be a leap into spiritual bankruptcy and death.
Jesus, and hopefully the church of the Risen One, keeps it simple—not easy, to be sure, but simple and focused: “You shall not test the Lord your God.” Why test God when God gives us God’s very self? Or isn’t God enough for us?
Third Temptation: Become General Manager of the Universe! It’s easy! All we have to do is let diabol put asunder what God has brought together. In playing God (oh, the splendor of the nations and of the emperors’ powers!) Christians and the church are often led astray by the trappings of power and glory and thereby divorce God by forsaking the common-union God shares with us. In these times of the shaking of the foundations, in this era in which the human world seems to be shifting on its axis, when fear and trepidation rise in our hearts, pay attention, oh Church, to the faith of our Leader: “Worship and serve God alone.”
Of course, we cannot do this on our own. The gift of baptism is the gift of living in the resurrected Christ, and it is in the embrace of Christ’s steadfast faith (not our belief system) that we live, and move, and have our being. This is something far beyond mere religion.
I have a hunch that is what St Paul was getting at in his answer to the church’s struggle with diabol, an answer appropriate whenever we are tempted to lust after power and glory on either the world’s or religion’s terms by exalting the law over the gospel: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God”. (Gal. 2:20)
I hope this Lenten retreat on which we now embark will mean for us such a simple and deeply humble answer: from beginning to end, it’s all about God.
And then the angels come and wait on us: in this wilderness world, a foretaste of the feast to come.
In The Hidden Power of the Gospels, there are helpful reminders about dia-bol. Etymologically dia-bol suggests a “throwing across”, and by extension, situations and inclinations that amount to a “devilish” attempt to obstruct, confuse, or accuse. In common understanding, apparently even with the Greek, diabol was the term for devil, with an allusive sense to disturbing forces of evil beyond our knowledge and control.
The temptations of Jesus, as presented in Matthew’s gospel, are written for a church facing profound change, chaos, and loss. In such a situation, the temptations of the Christ are also the temptations of the church. Diabol is all too real.
First Temptation: Go ahead, make some bread! In the pattern of the first path, dealing with profound change, temptation one for Jesus is to misuse who he is for self-centered purposes. Why is that? The very human Jesus is now identified also as God’s Beloved Son. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to get clear on that profound identification, one that for him changed everything. Notice that the diabol does not dispute who Jesus is, but simply raises the sly question, “if you are the Son of God…”. Does being the beloved of God change everything for us?
Often diabol’s first subtle ploy is to confuse or distract from, or question, our essential place in the scheme of things. Are we in Christ now or are we not? Are we the body of Christ? If so, whispers diabol, then why shouldn’t we be given what we want, especially in scary times of change? But, Church does not live by balanced budgets, growing numbers, elegant or jazzy liturgies, or the absence of change and suffering. Church lives “by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Christ (and church as koinonia) as the marriage of the divine and the human, is a common-union more important than anything else. Any short term, self-serving gain, is truly a long term loss. The living Word of God is our life and hope and strength.
Second Temptation: Make your test God’s test! Climb up to the pinnacle of things religious and then show off! This is a crass sort of throwing something across our path as we wind our way amid the ruins and wilderness of the world. Seek glory! Seek miracles! Escape the chaos and confusion, by scaling the ladder of pretension, and then jump into “glory”, assuming God will take care of you!
Ouch, this one hurts, as we consider the pathetic falls and collapse of too many proud religious leaders and churches. Risking in it all for acclaim and glory, leaping into the cynical world with a pretense of faithfulness to God, foolish narcissists only confirm again and again the basis for cynicism. Lent is a good time to be reminded of our own folly, the way we “test” God in the midst of loss and confusion instead of worshiping the Holy One. Test God enough and one day we may find that we are worshiping only ourselves and the adoration we temporarily receive from others. And thus the “leap of faith” turns out to be a leap into spiritual bankruptcy and death.
Jesus, and hopefully the church of the Risen One, keeps it simple—not easy, to be sure, but simple and focused: “You shall not test the Lord your God.” Why test God when God gives us God’s very self? Or isn’t God enough for us?
Third Temptation: Become General Manager of the Universe! It’s easy! All we have to do is let diabol put asunder what God has brought together. In playing God (oh, the splendor of the nations and of the emperors’ powers!) Christians and the church are often led astray by the trappings of power and glory and thereby divorce God by forsaking the common-union God shares with us. In these times of the shaking of the foundations, in this era in which the human world seems to be shifting on its axis, when fear and trepidation rise in our hearts, pay attention, oh Church, to the faith of our Leader: “Worship and serve God alone.”
Of course, we cannot do this on our own. The gift of baptism is the gift of living in the resurrected Christ, and it is in the embrace of Christ’s steadfast faith (not our belief system) that we live, and move, and have our being. This is something far beyond mere religion.
I have a hunch that is what St Paul was getting at in his answer to the church’s struggle with diabol, an answer appropriate whenever we are tempted to lust after power and glory on either the world’s or religion’s terms by exalting the law over the gospel: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God”. (Gal. 2:20)
I hope this Lenten retreat on which we now embark will mean for us such a simple and deeply humble answer: from beginning to end, it’s all about God.
And then the angels come and wait on us: in this wilderness world, a foretaste of the feast to come.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Yes, Yes, No, No
In Matthew's gospel—the First Path/Chapter of the Gospel journey—Jesus is forcefully blunt. In the face of chaos, shame, and blame, do not flee to what is less than the reality of the actual situation. Do not make more of something than it is, and do not make less of it, either. Let your response for this time, and in this first path, be simply Yes, Yes, or No, No. Given the struggles and challenges faced by Matthew's community this must have been hard to hear and accept, let alone live. And it is likely hard for us when we encounter our “Matthew moments”, or Matthew weeks or months. In fact, our response to what Jesus states in Matthew 5:21-37 may be that this is impossible!
I am reminded of Scott Peck who began his marvelous book, The Road Less Traveled, with this statement: “Life is difficult.” And then he goes on the say that most of our difficulties would be greatly eased if it were possible for us to accept those three words as reality. It is our fighting against them and our fleeing from the difficulties we encounter that bring forth a large number of our problems.
In times of significant change the temptation is to knee jerk our way out of the situation, as though that were in fact actually possible. And the knee jerk is almost always an “objectification” of a situation or a person. All objectification is a refusal to accept a fuller version of our situation, and a dehumanizing of ourselves and the “other.” Gone is acknowledgment of the ambiguous layering of human reality. Gone is a narrative of a broken human life. Gone is any desire to listen, seek understanding or show mercy.
Take the teaching about murder and anger. To kill another human being is to say that they are nothing but an impediment or an offense to me, or to us, as in the case of war or capital punishment. They cease being human, and instead are an object of our fear and loathing.
To be angry with a brother or sister, to engage in name-calling of a person, group, culture, is a rejection of the rich tapestry others bring to us. To commit adultery harms marriage and friendship and the community, but to harbor lust for another person does so also: again, such a thing turns another human being into an object for one's lust (I was about to write, satisfaction, but in fact, if lust is our modus operandi, we will never be satisfied). What is missing is real love with its eagerness to truly know another human being in order to accept the fullness of their experience and story, and their hopes and dreams.
And what complexity and pain is inherent in divorce! In Jesus' day it was possible for a man to divorce his wife by simply writing, I divorce you, and the woman was cast out into a world on her own, disgraced or worse. Divorces like that still happen, and the objectification of a spouse in such cases is obvious. More likely for most people now to divorce a wife or a husband is a painful last resort of a badly deteriorated situation often involving betrayal or irresponsibility on someone's part (including a refusal to work on the relationship or becoming “bored” and yearning for the excitement of someone or something new), leading to what is experienced as relational futility. Divorce, as a poignant example of our human brokenness, often leads to great difficulties for one or both partners, the extended families, the circle of friends and/or faith community, and even the larger community in some cases, and along the way, it is almost impossible to avoid objectifications. This, too, is a feature of our humanness.
All this is enough to make us feel like cursing, the very thing Jesus commands we must not do! And why not? Again, objectification of the world and our place in it. Cursing is a way of pretending we have more power than we do. Did you see that cute Super Bowl commercial with the little boy in Darth Vader costume, attempting to use “The Force” to make things happen? He has no luck until he aims his hands a daddy's new car, and then the car turns on! (Daddy of course making this happen by the remote key.) But the childlike desire to have such power is what connects us with that little guy in the commercial. We know that desire, that dream. And every curse and sworn vow is a sign that we have objectified God into a robotic wish-granter or ourselves into something we are not: a god-like being, whose will ought to be done.
For our own sakes and the sake of the world we now face, in the chaos and challenges of this first path passage, wisdom says, keep it simple. Pray to see reality for what it is. Be humble enough to know that you do not know everything! It is sufficient for you (both the personal you and the communal you) to know to the best of your ability who and what you are, and to withhold condemnation of others, even when those others may betray us with a kiss and mock us in our troubles.
The apostle Paul wrote to his really messed up congregation in Corinth (who gave him no end of trouble), 'As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been “Yes and No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.”' [2 Corinthians 1:18-19]
Of course, Paul had plenty of No to say to them on a number of issues, but it was never a No regarding their essential worth and dignity as children of God. It was a No to all that detracted from that worth and dignity.
“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one,” commanded Jesus.
This is wisdom: to say Yes, to community and to the ambiguity and complexity of what is truly human in all we meet, know, see, and hear; and to say, No, to attitudes driven by anger, lust, or fear that prevent us from agreeing with Christ in the deep and abiding Yes of God for us and for all.
I am reminded of Scott Peck who began his marvelous book, The Road Less Traveled, with this statement: “Life is difficult.” And then he goes on the say that most of our difficulties would be greatly eased if it were possible for us to accept those three words as reality. It is our fighting against them and our fleeing from the difficulties we encounter that bring forth a large number of our problems.
In times of significant change the temptation is to knee jerk our way out of the situation, as though that were in fact actually possible. And the knee jerk is almost always an “objectification” of a situation or a person. All objectification is a refusal to accept a fuller version of our situation, and a dehumanizing of ourselves and the “other.” Gone is acknowledgment of the ambiguous layering of human reality. Gone is a narrative of a broken human life. Gone is any desire to listen, seek understanding or show mercy.
Take the teaching about murder and anger. To kill another human being is to say that they are nothing but an impediment or an offense to me, or to us, as in the case of war or capital punishment. They cease being human, and instead are an object of our fear and loathing.
To be angry with a brother or sister, to engage in name-calling of a person, group, culture, is a rejection of the rich tapestry others bring to us. To commit adultery harms marriage and friendship and the community, but to harbor lust for another person does so also: again, such a thing turns another human being into an object for one's lust (I was about to write, satisfaction, but in fact, if lust is our modus operandi, we will never be satisfied). What is missing is real love with its eagerness to truly know another human being in order to accept the fullness of their experience and story, and their hopes and dreams.
And what complexity and pain is inherent in divorce! In Jesus' day it was possible for a man to divorce his wife by simply writing, I divorce you, and the woman was cast out into a world on her own, disgraced or worse. Divorces like that still happen, and the objectification of a spouse in such cases is obvious. More likely for most people now to divorce a wife or a husband is a painful last resort of a badly deteriorated situation often involving betrayal or irresponsibility on someone's part (including a refusal to work on the relationship or becoming “bored” and yearning for the excitement of someone or something new), leading to what is experienced as relational futility. Divorce, as a poignant example of our human brokenness, often leads to great difficulties for one or both partners, the extended families, the circle of friends and/or faith community, and even the larger community in some cases, and along the way, it is almost impossible to avoid objectifications. This, too, is a feature of our humanness.
All this is enough to make us feel like cursing, the very thing Jesus commands we must not do! And why not? Again, objectification of the world and our place in it. Cursing is a way of pretending we have more power than we do. Did you see that cute Super Bowl commercial with the little boy in Darth Vader costume, attempting to use “The Force” to make things happen? He has no luck until he aims his hands a daddy's new car, and then the car turns on! (Daddy of course making this happen by the remote key.) But the childlike desire to have such power is what connects us with that little guy in the commercial. We know that desire, that dream. And every curse and sworn vow is a sign that we have objectified God into a robotic wish-granter or ourselves into something we are not: a god-like being, whose will ought to be done.
For our own sakes and the sake of the world we now face, in the chaos and challenges of this first path passage, wisdom says, keep it simple. Pray to see reality for what it is. Be humble enough to know that you do not know everything! It is sufficient for you (both the personal you and the communal you) to know to the best of your ability who and what you are, and to withhold condemnation of others, even when those others may betray us with a kiss and mock us in our troubles.
The apostle Paul wrote to his really messed up congregation in Corinth (who gave him no end of trouble), 'As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been “Yes and No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.”' [2 Corinthians 1:18-19]
Of course, Paul had plenty of No to say to them on a number of issues, but it was never a No regarding their essential worth and dignity as children of God. It was a No to all that detracted from that worth and dignity.
“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one,” commanded Jesus.
This is wisdom: to say Yes, to community and to the ambiguity and complexity of what is truly human in all we meet, know, see, and hear; and to say, No, to attitudes driven by anger, lust, or fear that prevent us from agreeing with Christ in the deep and abiding Yes of God for us and for all.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Reflections on Matthew 11:2-11 Of Prisons and Witnesses
Prisons are not good places to be. Prisoners are dehumanized, often brutalized. Prison is not a place where hope is easily kept alive. So John the Baptizer, messenger of God, now in prison has questions. What about his own ministry and his hopes for the renewal of his people? What about this Jesus? He looked so promising, and John even dared to believe, but now, in this dark, dank, inhuman place, he wonders. His hope and his dreams of the promised new day are collapsing. So he needs to hear from his closest friends about what's going. What the buzz about Jesus now?
Matthew's gospel is written to a community dealing with shattering change. Matthew and his community know very well that too much change overwhelms. Individually and as communities the experience is like being in prison: a prison of our own dark worries and demons, or of the oppressive regime around us, or of the polarized and thus demoralized culture in which we live.
In such dire circumstances, the ministry of witnesses is crucial. When our confidence in God wavers we need those who are in a better place and free, to come and witness to us again of what the Christ is up to in the world. In my view, that's just what John's disciple-friends likely did for him—at his request.
The Matthew 11 story reminds me of the situation of Martin Luther, the genius reformer. His theological insight and passion for the gospel was the driving force of most of his career. Yet he was also a deeply troubled soul and every so often descended into a prison of darkness where he felt that he was losing faith and confidence in the gospel as he had experienced, preached and taught it. So what did he do? Somewhat like John the Baptizer, he asked his friends, who were in a better place faith-wise, to surround him and “preach” the gospel to him until once again his faith was renewed. He needed to be reminded again and again about the works of God in Jesus the Christ.
Remember that Quadratos is based on the supposition that each of the gospels was written in and/or to a particular community. Matthew's gospel itself is a witness to the acts of the Christ in the midst of great change. Witnessing is powerful stuff when it is done in community and as compassionate friendship, not as arrogant theological bullying. There are times when liturgy becomes that for the people of God. There are other times when the ministry of friends does the witnessing.
Think of how Jesus' words in Matthew 11can be taken as metaphor, and thus help us to bear witness in specific ways to persons and perhaps faith communities in crisis:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Where is this happening now? What does it look like in your corner of the world? Or are you in prison and longing for hope and reassurance?
In this Matthean Advent we are blessed if we recognize our imprisonment and ask for friends to speak the good news to us and our community; and we are just as blessed if we discover that we are free enough to see what the Christ is doing even now, in this time of the shaking of the foundations.
Either way, blessed is anyone who takes no offense at him who lives the way of God in a world and time of change.
Matthew's gospel is written to a community dealing with shattering change. Matthew and his community know very well that too much change overwhelms. Individually and as communities the experience is like being in prison: a prison of our own dark worries and demons, or of the oppressive regime around us, or of the polarized and thus demoralized culture in which we live.
In such dire circumstances, the ministry of witnesses is crucial. When our confidence in God wavers we need those who are in a better place and free, to come and witness to us again of what the Christ is up to in the world. In my view, that's just what John's disciple-friends likely did for him—at his request.
The Matthew 11 story reminds me of the situation of Martin Luther, the genius reformer. His theological insight and passion for the gospel was the driving force of most of his career. Yet he was also a deeply troubled soul and every so often descended into a prison of darkness where he felt that he was losing faith and confidence in the gospel as he had experienced, preached and taught it. So what did he do? Somewhat like John the Baptizer, he asked his friends, who were in a better place faith-wise, to surround him and “preach” the gospel to him until once again his faith was renewed. He needed to be reminded again and again about the works of God in Jesus the Christ.
Remember that Quadratos is based on the supposition that each of the gospels was written in and/or to a particular community. Matthew's gospel itself is a witness to the acts of the Christ in the midst of great change. Witnessing is powerful stuff when it is done in community and as compassionate friendship, not as arrogant theological bullying. There are times when liturgy becomes that for the people of God. There are other times when the ministry of friends does the witnessing.
Think of how Jesus' words in Matthew 11can be taken as metaphor, and thus help us to bear witness in specific ways to persons and perhaps faith communities in crisis:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Where is this happening now? What does it look like in your corner of the world? Or are you in prison and longing for hope and reassurance?
In this Matthean Advent we are blessed if we recognize our imprisonment and ask for friends to speak the good news to us and our community; and we are just as blessed if we discover that we are free enough to see what the Christ is doing even now, in this time of the shaking of the foundations.
Either way, blessed is anyone who takes no offense at him who lives the way of God in a world and time of change.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They're Not Out to Get You
In response to working on this apocalypse in Luke 21 I decided to reread Cormac McCarthy's “The Road.” His bleak novel is a walk through an unnamed and undefined but dreadful apocalypse.
As with “The Road”, being on the road with the Christ will take us into bleak and terrifying landscapes and events not well-defined, and not given a date on the calendar. And then, the kicker: after rumors of wars and insurrections—which I take to mean the socio/politico/religious systems stressed and collapsing—what comes next is the persecution of Christians. And then what follows that is cosmic apocalypse, which I do not take to be literal, but rather archetypal and much deeper than typical “end of the world” speculation.
Ready for all this? Luke's Jesus expects us to be. On this road, the Christ asks us to open our hearts to the agonies and sorrows of the world. This is not easy. It will give us broken hearts, wounds, and sorrows not originally our own. In fact, the more I work my way in Luke, the more I sense how severe is the call in the fourth path of maturing service. In Luke, the only creative response to a future yet unknown, but loaded with the stealthy shadows of war, evil, and persecutions, is to live faithfully in the present, serving those in need along the way. To serve like that we need see, hear, and feel the pain right in front us, and then seek to do something about it, one way or another.
But every step brings risk. We may trip over a “roadside bomb”, or encounter the shadowy lurking “they” whom Jesus references several times (“they will arrest you and persecute you, they will hand you over, they will put some of you to death...”). Even betrayal by family and friends is a feature of the this fourth path, this “Way”.
Luke's community lived all that stuff. Opposition to the Way is real because the Way is real and runs counter to the systems that ruin life and the world.
Therefore we are asked to continue down this road, this Way of maturing, difficult service, knowing that what may be around the next bend in the road is trouble greater than we've imagined: apocalypse now.
But knit together in a community of faith and service, we are given the wisdom and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Our answer is God, not timetables or doctrines about eschatology. In Christ we endure, and doing so, we gain more than mere physical survival. We gain our souls, a transcendent gift of the grace of God.
As with “The Road”, being on the road with the Christ will take us into bleak and terrifying landscapes and events not well-defined, and not given a date on the calendar. And then, the kicker: after rumors of wars and insurrections—which I take to mean the socio/politico/religious systems stressed and collapsing—what comes next is the persecution of Christians. And then what follows that is cosmic apocalypse, which I do not take to be literal, but rather archetypal and much deeper than typical “end of the world” speculation.
Ready for all this? Luke's Jesus expects us to be. On this road, the Christ asks us to open our hearts to the agonies and sorrows of the world. This is not easy. It will give us broken hearts, wounds, and sorrows not originally our own. In fact, the more I work my way in Luke, the more I sense how severe is the call in the fourth path of maturing service. In Luke, the only creative response to a future yet unknown, but loaded with the stealthy shadows of war, evil, and persecutions, is to live faithfully in the present, serving those in need along the way. To serve like that we need see, hear, and feel the pain right in front us, and then seek to do something about it, one way or another.
But every step brings risk. We may trip over a “roadside bomb”, or encounter the shadowy lurking “they” whom Jesus references several times (“they will arrest you and persecute you, they will hand you over, they will put some of you to death...”). Even betrayal by family and friends is a feature of the this fourth path, this “Way”.
Luke's community lived all that stuff. Opposition to the Way is real because the Way is real and runs counter to the systems that ruin life and the world.
Therefore we are asked to continue down this road, this Way of maturing, difficult service, knowing that what may be around the next bend in the road is trouble greater than we've imagined: apocalypse now.
But knit together in a community of faith and service, we are given the wisdom and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Our answer is God, not timetables or doctrines about eschatology. In Christ we endure, and doing so, we gain more than mere physical survival. We gain our souls, a transcendent gift of the grace of God.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Pray Always and Do Not Lose Heart
Luke18:1-8
1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
——————————————————
Christ is the model of praying always and not losing heart.
His life was (and is) a continuous day and night cry, a consciousness of and witness to the injustice and suffering everywhere present in humanity. And not just in humanity, but in all creation, which, St Paul states, groans like a woman in childbirth–so great is the longing of all beings for the ultimate revelation of divine justice, consolation, peace, and deep communion. The four chapters of the great gospel also are such a form of prayer, bearing witness to the sins of the world and the hope of God. For the pattern of the way of the Christ gives voice to the passion of God’s great dream of shalom and becomes a sign of it.
Since this is a lot to understand, Luke writes in a very pointed manner to his fledgling church and to us: “And the Lord (Jesus!) said: “Listen to what the unjust judge says”—the judge who finally announces he will grant the widow her justice. I wonder how this resonated in the ears and the heart of Luke’s community, as they experienced the “great divorce” of Judaism and the fledgling Christian movement. Ostracized, shunned, and persecuted, they may have seen themselves as very much in the same fix as the basically powerless widow. And the ever present temptation surely must have to been to give into the ways things were and give up on God.
Listen to what the judge says and remember the widow! She “won her case”, finally, yet what power did the widow have? Most likely none but the power of persistence, the deep courage of never giving up until justice is done.
What does this mean for us? In the post-modern age, when Christianity and (real) faith are largely passe, we may also experience now what many others have endured: marginalization and a feeling of powerlessness. Longing for the past triumphalism of Christendom is neither prayer nor faith, but rather seeking to have power that is not from God.
Therefore, the sign of faith on earth are the “chosen ones”, who in their weakness are finally attentive to the primary call: unceasing prayer for people in every circumstance, friends and enemies alike, and for all creation. Such prayer gives voice to the cry of the Christ, day and night, by both words and actions. This difficult enterprise of unceasing prayer brings into ever growing consciousness the sins of the world and the hope of God.
Thus we affirm the inescapable mission of those who would follow The Way: pray always and never lose heart. That is the sign of faith on earth
1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
——————————————————
Christ is the model of praying always and not losing heart.
His life was (and is) a continuous day and night cry, a consciousness of and witness to the injustice and suffering everywhere present in humanity. And not just in humanity, but in all creation, which, St Paul states, groans like a woman in childbirth–so great is the longing of all beings for the ultimate revelation of divine justice, consolation, peace, and deep communion. The four chapters of the great gospel also are such a form of prayer, bearing witness to the sins of the world and the hope of God. For the pattern of the way of the Christ gives voice to the passion of God’s great dream of shalom and becomes a sign of it.
Since this is a lot to understand, Luke writes in a very pointed manner to his fledgling church and to us: “And the Lord (Jesus!) said: “Listen to what the unjust judge says”—the judge who finally announces he will grant the widow her justice. I wonder how this resonated in the ears and the heart of Luke’s community, as they experienced the “great divorce” of Judaism and the fledgling Christian movement. Ostracized, shunned, and persecuted, they may have seen themselves as very much in the same fix as the basically powerless widow. And the ever present temptation surely must have to been to give into the ways things were and give up on God.
Listen to what the judge says and remember the widow! She “won her case”, finally, yet what power did the widow have? Most likely none but the power of persistence, the deep courage of never giving up until justice is done.
What does this mean for us? In the post-modern age, when Christianity and (real) faith are largely passe, we may also experience now what many others have endured: marginalization and a feeling of powerlessness. Longing for the past triumphalism of Christendom is neither prayer nor faith, but rather seeking to have power that is not from God.
Therefore, the sign of faith on earth are the “chosen ones”, who in their weakness are finally attentive to the primary call: unceasing prayer for people in every circumstance, friends and enemies alike, and for all creation. Such prayer gives voice to the cry of the Christ, day and night, by both words and actions. This difficult enterprise of unceasing prayer brings into ever growing consciousness the sins of the world and the hope of God.
Thus we affirm the inescapable mission of those who would follow The Way: pray always and never lose heart. That is the sign of faith on earth
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