Luke 19:28-28
Palm Sunday
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Deliver us from cold hearts and wandering thoughts, that with steady minds and burning zeal we may worship you in spirit and in truth.
He stood in the Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning playing six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed music. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on his meeting.
4 minutes later a woman threw the money in his case and, without stopping, continued to walk. 6 minutes later, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and moved on. After 10 minutes, a 3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. Other children paused like this, but every parent forced them on.
After nearly an hour, he finished playing, having collected $32 and no applause. No one knew that this violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
If we do not have a moment to stop, listen, and reflect on one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments .... How many other gifts from God are we failing to notice?
My fear as we begin another Holy Week is that we are walking past the remarkable beauty and wonder of Jesus Christ once again without really paying attention. We’re just spending a few extra hours going to church on Good Friday, but we’re not really stopping to reflect, to be grateful, to be changed by the beauty of One, who had enormous power and relinquished it for the greater good of empowering others.
Hear the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem from Luke Gospel:
[Jesus] went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34 They said, "The Lord needs it." 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." 40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out." 41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God." 45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers." 47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard. (The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.)
The Palm Sunday story ushers us into Holy Week and the mystery of God’s abundant goodness – that God in human flesh came to liberate us from the death of power-brokering to the life of power-giving. Jesus had achieved a multitude of followers, praising God and calling him King. He did not deny his kingship. In fact, when the Pharisees challenged him to silence his followers, who were shouting, “Blessed is the King!” he said, “If these were quiet, the stones would cry out.” Palm Sunday is a stone-shouting day of gladness!
Luke’s Gospel is the only one that records this line about shouting stones and it ties in beautifully with our Stewardship theme for the year. But notice that Jesus also speaks of the stones being overturned by the people’s inability to recognize their time of visitation by God. Jesus wept over that. He wept over the brokenness of the city, over all the people he came to save, who could not see that he was their peace.
That reminds me of a great song, sung by our Seekers of Peace choir at our charter service, “Jesus weeps over the world today as we struggle to be free for we do not know the things that make for peace. And we do not see that He is our peace. He breaks down walls that divide us. He is our peace. He makes us one. He is the Prince of Peace.”
How many kings, emperors, queens, presidents, prime ministers do you know who gather the cheering, enchanted crowds and then weep? With Jesus, kingship, leadership is re-defined. Christ’s Kingship is the opposite of empire-building. Empire values power, superiority, triumph, even contempt. Jesus’ kingship takes on weakness in exchange for the empowerment of others. King Jesus values service over superiority. The Prince of Peace believes there is no triumph over others, only triumph when we achieve peace with others. Jesus’ kingship is about compassion for others, not contempt for others.
So how does this kind of leadership look in the 21st Century? People with power like us who call ourselves followers of Christ, are charged to pay attention to the weak, even at our own expense. So we choose to be generous and poorer so the 80% of the world’s population who are impoverished may become richer. That’s what we have done with our Lenten Challenge. That’s what we will do with our One Great Hour of Sharing. That what we will continue to do as we reach out in generous giving of our time and material wealth as a 20% + benevolent church. And we might even, as we grow in solidarity with the poor, stop moaning so much about our declining standard of living, and get on with solving the problem of world hunger.
How does following this King Jesus play out in the 21st Century? We who have much to say, stop talking and focus on listening to others. We who are literate care that 70% of the world is illiterate. We who have adequate health care are concerned for those with inadequate healthcare. We who have computers must remember that we are one in a hundred around the globe.
Those who are in the majority must listen to minorities and hold their opinions in high regard. This Prince of Peace brings down judgment on both Democrats and Republicans for their behavior in the last week. There is no reason to clap and cheer when close to half of your colleagues in the House of Representatives are gravely concerned and disappointed. But even in disagreement and threat, there is no absolutely no reason to spit, slap the images of leaders, or do anything else degrading toward people on the other side of a complicated and unpredictable issue.
The way of Christ is to think more highly of others than you think of yourself. Those who are superior find ways to serve rather than lording over others their strength, using their strength to increase the strength of others, to elevate others. There is no room for pompous attitudes of triumph. There is no triumph when there is no peace.
In the movie, Invictus, we see Nelson Mandela taking over as President of South Africa and then going against the judgment of his family, his friends, his colleagues, all his own people, the native Africans who have been abused, in order to give power and dignity to the very people, the white Afrikaners who had imprisoned him unjustly for twenty-six years. President Mandela wanted to make sure there was no simple transfer of power from whites to blacks. No, he was setting a new course of respect for both sides. He knew there was no triumph for the majority,the Black South Africans, at the expense of the white South Africans. The title, Invictus is from a poem. The Latin word means “Unconquered” Unconquered by the abuse of power over him for 26 years. Unconquered by the public’s expectation that he would use power against those who used it against him.
Unconquered. That’s who Jesus is, willing to relinquish power for the sake of others, willing to stand up for justice for others, willing to sacrifice his life and yet ultimately unconquered, thanks to be God. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord,” the people shout. Leaders who come in the name of the Lord, in the spirit of the Lord are people of compassion, not contempt. Jesus’s compassion leads him to weep over the city, longing for the people to understand what makes for peace.
Yet, he asserts himself against injustice – those who are taking advantage of people in the temple, but it is out of compassion for the poor, who are coming to make their offerings in the temple. Those who were making money off them are akin to credit card companies luring in naive college students. They were similar to those who hire immigrant farm workers and then entrap them with low wages, unfair housing costs and the temptation of easy debt. It was not just that they were selling things in the temple, but that they were robbing people unfairly.
Jesus is not against making money wisely and justly. In the parable of the pounds which precedes this entry into Jerusalem, Jesus has the master of the story chastising the one who did not use his money to make more money. But Jesus is relentless in telling stories about the disaster of loving money, thinking yourself better than others, not forgiving, and being ungrateful for what you’ve been given. After the parables of the lost in chapter 15, Jesus tells story after story which challenge us – those of us who do have more and think too much of ourselves, are unforgiving, and ungrateful. Read Luke 15 to the end this week, in preparation for Easter. Understand who Jesus is and who he calls you to be.
When Jesus comes into Jerusalem and his followers cheer “Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven!” These are the words first proclaimed by the angels at his birth. Then He challenges and teaches in the temple and all are spellbound by what he is saying. But the leaders, those whose power and authority is threatened by the presence of one who understands power differently, are looking for ways to kill him. And it only take five days to find a way. Jesus is prepared to be taken and is nonetheless unconquered. In his inner being, he was more than a conqueror. He was a peace-maker. And Jesus demonstrates by his willing sacrifice, by his weakness, what real strength is.
Will our lives reflect the inner strength of this Jesus? Do we dare take time to reflect on what we see in his life and teachings, as well as his sacrificial death? Or will we rush past the beauty of the greatest One on earth, God incarnate, imagining him to be a simple beggar in the street?
Open our eyes, Lord and guide our reflections this Holy week. May we who wave palm branches on Sunday be willing to keep following You on the Thursdays and Fridays of life, when the temptation to betray and deny is overwhelming. Dying and rising with You, may we live as your courageous kingdom people even now, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, yet knowing that it is always your Spirit at work in us to will your will and live according to your way.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
"Re-vere"
Philippians 3:4b-14
5th Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Bless us, O Christ, with a reverent sense of your presence that we may worship you with all our body, soul, mind, and spirit.
Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing the state of the world and the meaning of life — and less time talking about the weather? It may sound counterintuitive, but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a recent study on the subject. (NYT March 17, 2010, Talk Deeply, Be Happy? by Roni Caryn Rabin)
Okay, so from now on, Peace people, try to shift it up to a higher level of authentic relating. You’ll not only be more interesting, but you’ll be happier. It’s okay to break the ice with weather and tv and sports, but don’t stay in the same gear. Move on and talk about what really matters. Paul knew how to talk about what really matters. He did not waste time on the rubbish of small talk because of the inestimable value of knowing Christ. Gretchen Frueh knows how to talk about what matters, and even more so now, because she doesn’t have much time to dwell on the insignificant.
Paul wants the Philippians to think about the inestimable value of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and I am standing here before you because I want all of us to know more deeply the surpassing value of knowing Christ. I want you to leave today convinced that the most important thing you ever do, you ever have done or ever will do is worship God. Revere God. Celebrate the goodness of God.
Think a few minutes about things that make you special. Your good lucks, your knowledge or sheer intelligence, your athletic ability, your wonderful family, your lucrative career, your family heritage, your professional expertise, your entrepreneurial acumen, your caring heart, your financial stability, your conversational skill, your knack for home decorating, your strong or energetic body, your pragmatic judgment, your kindness, your musical or artistic talent. Think of two or three things which define you, in which you are confident.
Now hear Paul put those things in perspective. Regarding his special talents, privileges, heritage, and accomplishments, he declares them rubbish, even worse dung, poop. I could name some other crass words that rhyme with rap and it. And the point is – everything Paul counted on for his personal value became worthless when compared with the greater value of knowing Christ. Hear what he has to say about revering the Lord, putting Christ first, pressing forward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NRS Philippians 3:4.If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own; but this one, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Forget the past. Live rightly in the present, so you can be properly focused on the future. We usually do one of two things with the past. Revel in it, clinging to all our accomplishments, longing for all the power and freedom we enjoyed in it. Or we can regret our past, re-living it over and over again, wishing that we did things differently or that life could have taken a different course. If only... Neither of those pleases God. One keeps you prideful and the other makes you despairing. There’s no future with hope if you’re stuck in your past. Learn from the past, but don’t dwell in it. You have a future with hope. Don’t get stuck in the past. Live in the present, but not for the present.
In the present, you can live in shallow or deep thoughts. In the present you can live for yourself or for God and others. You can try to juggle many things which you consider of equal value or you can set priorities, putting Christ in his rightful first place. You can live for immediate gratification or live for the joy and peace which will carry you into your future with Christ. In the present, you can sit back on your laurels, thinking you have reached the goal, or that you deserve to relax. You have a righteousness given in Christ, not imparted to you through your good works, but you are still called to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Forget the past. Live rightly in the present, so you can be focused on the future.
Paul says to the them, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.” Like him in his death? We don’t like to think about death but we know that it is in the future for each of us. Those who face it with courage in the present, like Gretchen, help us to face up too. When she and I got together on Monday to talk about her memorial service, I asked her to reflect on these verses and she sent me this quote from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love, his private journal published after his death.
Nouwen says, “... Maybe the death at the end of your life won’t be so fearful if you can die well now. Yes, the real death — the passage from time into eternity, from the transient beauty of this world to the lasting beauty of the next, from darkness into light — has to be made now. And you do not have to make it alone. God has sent people to be very close to you as you gradually let go of the world that holds you captive. ...The more you trust in the love of those God has sent to you, the more you will be able to lose your life and so gain it.
Success, notoriety, affection, future plans, entertainment, satisfying work, health, intellectual stimulation, emotional support — yes, even spiritual progress — none of these can be clung to as if they are essential for survival. Only as you let go of them can you discover the true freedom your heart most desires. That is dying, moving into the life beyond life. You must make that passage now, not just at the end of your earthly life... (Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, pp. 107-108. Nouwen’s “secret journal,” written to himself during the most difficult period of his life.)
One way to stay focused on our heavenly calling to pray more often. Gia has challenged me to join her in praying on the hour, every hour, every hour on my knees. She claims it has been transformative. I’m going to try it this week. How about you? Just try it for a day – pray every hour on the hour. Say the Jesus prayer – Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Pray the Serenity prayer or the Lord’s prayer or St Patrick’s Prayer, which we sang at the beginning of the service. Pray a sentence each of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Intercession. You can remember those with the acronym – Acts I. Renew your life with reverent prayer.
To revere God is to let our past, present, and future be shaped by a focused desire to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting what lies behind and pressing on toward the goal of the heavenly call of the God in Christ Jesus at all costs. Next Sunday we press on with Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem toward death. But without death, there is no resurrection. So we die with Christ and live with Christ. That is our future. That is our now.
(Let us revere God in silence)
5th Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Bless us, O Christ, with a reverent sense of your presence that we may worship you with all our body, soul, mind, and spirit.
Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing the state of the world and the meaning of life — and less time talking about the weather? It may sound counterintuitive, but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a recent study on the subject. (NYT March 17, 2010, Talk Deeply, Be Happy? by Roni Caryn Rabin)
Okay, so from now on, Peace people, try to shift it up to a higher level of authentic relating. You’ll not only be more interesting, but you’ll be happier. It’s okay to break the ice with weather and tv and sports, but don’t stay in the same gear. Move on and talk about what really matters. Paul knew how to talk about what really matters. He did not waste time on the rubbish of small talk because of the inestimable value of knowing Christ. Gretchen Frueh knows how to talk about what matters, and even more so now, because she doesn’t have much time to dwell on the insignificant.
Paul wants the Philippians to think about the inestimable value of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and I am standing here before you because I want all of us to know more deeply the surpassing value of knowing Christ. I want you to leave today convinced that the most important thing you ever do, you ever have done or ever will do is worship God. Revere God. Celebrate the goodness of God.
Think a few minutes about things that make you special. Your good lucks, your knowledge or sheer intelligence, your athletic ability, your wonderful family, your lucrative career, your family heritage, your professional expertise, your entrepreneurial acumen, your caring heart, your financial stability, your conversational skill, your knack for home decorating, your strong or energetic body, your pragmatic judgment, your kindness, your musical or artistic talent. Think of two or three things which define you, in which you are confident.
Now hear Paul put those things in perspective. Regarding his special talents, privileges, heritage, and accomplishments, he declares them rubbish, even worse dung, poop. I could name some other crass words that rhyme with rap and it. And the point is – everything Paul counted on for his personal value became worthless when compared with the greater value of knowing Christ. Hear what he has to say about revering the Lord, putting Christ first, pressing forward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NRS Philippians 3:4.If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own; but this one, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Forget the past. Live rightly in the present, so you can be properly focused on the future. We usually do one of two things with the past. Revel in it, clinging to all our accomplishments, longing for all the power and freedom we enjoyed in it. Or we can regret our past, re-living it over and over again, wishing that we did things differently or that life could have taken a different course. If only... Neither of those pleases God. One keeps you prideful and the other makes you despairing. There’s no future with hope if you’re stuck in your past. Learn from the past, but don’t dwell in it. You have a future with hope. Don’t get stuck in the past. Live in the present, but not for the present.
In the present, you can live in shallow or deep thoughts. In the present you can live for yourself or for God and others. You can try to juggle many things which you consider of equal value or you can set priorities, putting Christ in his rightful first place. You can live for immediate gratification or live for the joy and peace which will carry you into your future with Christ. In the present, you can sit back on your laurels, thinking you have reached the goal, or that you deserve to relax. You have a righteousness given in Christ, not imparted to you through your good works, but you are still called to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Forget the past. Live rightly in the present, so you can be focused on the future.
Paul says to the them, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.” Like him in his death? We don’t like to think about death but we know that it is in the future for each of us. Those who face it with courage in the present, like Gretchen, help us to face up too. When she and I got together on Monday to talk about her memorial service, I asked her to reflect on these verses and she sent me this quote from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love, his private journal published after his death.
Nouwen says, “... Maybe the death at the end of your life won’t be so fearful if you can die well now. Yes, the real death — the passage from time into eternity, from the transient beauty of this world to the lasting beauty of the next, from darkness into light — has to be made now. And you do not have to make it alone. God has sent people to be very close to you as you gradually let go of the world that holds you captive. ...The more you trust in the love of those God has sent to you, the more you will be able to lose your life and so gain it.
Success, notoriety, affection, future plans, entertainment, satisfying work, health, intellectual stimulation, emotional support — yes, even spiritual progress — none of these can be clung to as if they are essential for survival. Only as you let go of them can you discover the true freedom your heart most desires. That is dying, moving into the life beyond life. You must make that passage now, not just at the end of your earthly life... (Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, pp. 107-108. Nouwen’s “secret journal,” written to himself during the most difficult period of his life.)
One way to stay focused on our heavenly calling to pray more often. Gia has challenged me to join her in praying on the hour, every hour, every hour on my knees. She claims it has been transformative. I’m going to try it this week. How about you? Just try it for a day – pray every hour on the hour. Say the Jesus prayer – Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Pray the Serenity prayer or the Lord’s prayer or St Patrick’s Prayer, which we sang at the beginning of the service. Pray a sentence each of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Intercession. You can remember those with the acronym – Acts I. Renew your life with reverent prayer.
To revere God is to let our past, present, and future be shaped by a focused desire to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting what lies behind and pressing on toward the goal of the heavenly call of the God in Christ Jesus at all costs. Next Sunday we press on with Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem toward death. But without death, there is no resurrection. So we die with Christ and live with Christ. That is our future. That is our now.
(Let us revere God in silence)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Re-turn
Isaiah 55:6-12
3rd Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
“Return.” We often return a product to a store because we changed our minds or it didn’t fit or look right in our house. Maybe it was defective. So we make a return of something we do not want. We return things that belong to other people. You borrow a book, a lawn mower, a ball from someone. And then you return it. You return a favor. Someone does something nice for you, like baking a cake. You return the favor, if you can, by doing something kind for them. We return home after school or work or vacation. We’re not really talking about returning, but RE-turning. More like when a teacher says, “Turn around. Pay attention.” If you watch sports on tv, you’ve seen the Corona commercial of the attractive young couple sitting on the beach sipping while watching the waves come in. Then another attractive woman walks by and the guy forgets the woman he’s with and his head swings all the way to the left, and the rest of the Corona thrown in his face is a clear message to “turn around.”
That’s sort of what we all do with God. The things of the world distract us and our eyes, our minds, our hearts, our souls are pulled away. We need weekly worship to re-turn us to God. We need daily prayer to re-turn us to God. We need a disciplined Christian life to keep us focused on God. That’s why we have Lenten disciplines. Why would people for generations give up meat on Fridays, except to remember that Christ died on a Friday? Why would Orthodox Christians couples give up conjugal relations during Lent – but to remember that Christ suffered for us. Why would some Christians fast and why would Peace people take on the Lenten Challenge, but to remember to put Jesus Christ first in our lives, to keep our focus on the One who matters most, to renew our faith.
Our theme for Lent is “Re-New your life.” And for the first three Sundays, we are considering different angles of renewal begin with our turning or re-turning toward God. First we read Psalm 51, the prayer of King David, acknowledging his sin and asking for a clean heart. The call that day was to be humble and courageous enough to see our own sin and repent. Then last week, we looked at the temptations of Christ, as a good example of how we are called to resist, to turn away from evil and keep focused on our identity as children of God, nothing that demeans that identity.
Today’s scripture from the prophet Isaiah beckons to us to return to the Lord, who will abundantly pardon. We could talk about the history of this prophet and much about the context of his writing. That might make you a better historian and Biblical scholar, but I’m hoping that today we will become better Christians, so I’m not spending much time with that. You can get a decent summary on Wikipedia about Isaiah, who lived in the second half of the 8th century BC. You can read there about how the Book of Isaiah is understood to be in three parts, possibly written by three different persons at different times. In the first 39 chapters, Isaiah prophesies doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God. The last 27 chapters prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel. This section includes the Songs of the Suffering Servant, four separate passages that Christians believe prefigure the coming of Jesus Christ, and which are otherwise traditionally thought to refer to the nation of Israel. This second half of the book includes prophecies of a new creation in God's glorious future kingdom. That’s what we’re reading today – Isaiah’s vision of the new creation.
The Israelites felt far away from God in exile. They could blame God for that or blame their captors. They might even blame themselves, which the prophets usually help them to do. Isaiah offers both the challenge and the comfort, calling them to return to the God who will abundantly pardon. Calling them to seize the day. Carpe diem. Seek the Lord, now. Don’t be presumptious that God’s love and forgiveness is something with which we can trifle, play around. It is too special to be ignored, especially when you are such a bad place. Sure God’s love is certain. Sure God is everlasting, but don’t get uppity. God’s ways are higher than yours. God’s still in charge. Hear the word of the Lord:
NRS Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
So these three themes – repent, resist, return – I see them as part of the natural cycle of growing in faithfulness. Repenting of sin. Resisting sin. Re-turning to God, which then leads to repentance of sin. If we see God’s beauty, then we see that we, created in God’s image, are tarnished, dirty, not a true reflection.
Let me use a little example from my life to illustrate how these three themes cycle. I hope the simplicity of this will help you translate into something in your own life. Some of you may have noticed that the Deiberts – both Richard and Elizabeth in particular – have a habit of running late. Notice I called it a habit. I could call it a pattern, or I could, if I have any intention of repenting, call it sin. I could justify it, saying it’s no big deal, doesn’t really hurt anyone, but if I examine it closely, I see at the root of this habit the sin of thinking I’m more important than you, or at least my time is more important than yours. Okay, so the first step is to acknowledge my habit as sin because it is a form of mistreatment of others. I can repetitively apologize or make excuses for my tardiness, but if I really want to repent, then I need to see the sin of considering my time more valuable than yours. So repenting means a real change of heart and willingness to stop making excuses for myself.
Next, I must resist the temptation to squeeze one more activity in before departing for a scheduled event. I must resist the temptation to ignore the clock – very easy for me. I must set timers for myself – put things in place – to make sure that I am guarding myself against this evil of tardiness. When distracting events happen like last minute phone calls, I must remember that my identity is that of a child of God who respects the time of others and is therefore willing to be on time, even if I must leave something unfinished. I must waste some of my time to protect some of yours –self-sacrifice. I must resist the temptation to enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes from rushing around, beating the clock in my shower and get dressed time, and all those other games I play when I’m under pressure. Sometimes those games work, but sometimes they waste my energy and with one untimely stoplight, I can still arrive late. I have to admit to myself that my games often don’t work. That admission is part of resisting temptation.
Finally, in order to really keep pressing on toward faithfulness in this area of weakness in my life, I must turn toward God, turn and re-turn, because only when I see God do I see what love really is. Only when I turn toward God do I see my sin for what it is. Only when I turn toward God do I have courage to face my sin as sin, in the comfort of knowing I will be abundantly pardoned. Only when I turn to God, rather than comparing myself with others who are tardy or others who have more consequential sins, do I set a high enough standard for myself.
If I turn to you, I’ll be sure to find that speck in your eye and fail to see the log in my own eye. When I turn to God, then I am seeing who I could be, not excusing myself for being less than I am created to be. When I turn to God, I see that God’s ways are higher than my ways. My egotistical self is put back in its place as servant of God. Now tardiness is just one of my sins. It was an easy one to talk about. There are so many different things in my life that pull me away, distract me from being the person God intends me to be. Returning to God is an acceptance of my humble place in the universe and being grateful for all the good gifts God gives.
There are lots of complaints about cold weather this year, even in Florida. Many of you came here to escape snow and even rain. But somehow God has to water the earth. We get hurricanes and thunder storms. One way or another, God has to bring the uncomfortable wet stuff to give us vegetation. We gripe about cold, but the farm workers who lost everything including their income when the plants froze have more reason to complain than we do. Returning to God means acknowledging God’s sovereignty, knowing that God must have some purpose for the stormy seasons and the exilic periods of life. Returning to God reassures us that we are in the right place. This notion of returning to God is best said by the old 1848 Shaker hymn, popularized by Aaron Copland with his Appalachian Spring in the 1946, further popularized when Sydney Carter, the English man wrote Lord of the Dance in 1963. There is simplicity in seeking one thing, being focused on one Lord, being unashamed of bowing and bending in humility, being in the God’s valley, notice it’s not a mountain top, but a valley of love of delight, where trees clap their hands. But that simplicity comes by turning, turning, turning, turning toward God until we come round right.
(Singing)
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
3rd Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
“Return.” We often return a product to a store because we changed our minds or it didn’t fit or look right in our house. Maybe it was defective. So we make a return of something we do not want. We return things that belong to other people. You borrow a book, a lawn mower, a ball from someone. And then you return it. You return a favor. Someone does something nice for you, like baking a cake. You return the favor, if you can, by doing something kind for them. We return home after school or work or vacation. We’re not really talking about returning, but RE-turning. More like when a teacher says, “Turn around. Pay attention.” If you watch sports on tv, you’ve seen the Corona commercial of the attractive young couple sitting on the beach sipping while watching the waves come in. Then another attractive woman walks by and the guy forgets the woman he’s with and his head swings all the way to the left, and the rest of the Corona thrown in his face is a clear message to “turn around.”
That’s sort of what we all do with God. The things of the world distract us and our eyes, our minds, our hearts, our souls are pulled away. We need weekly worship to re-turn us to God. We need daily prayer to re-turn us to God. We need a disciplined Christian life to keep us focused on God. That’s why we have Lenten disciplines. Why would people for generations give up meat on Fridays, except to remember that Christ died on a Friday? Why would Orthodox Christians couples give up conjugal relations during Lent – but to remember that Christ suffered for us. Why would some Christians fast and why would Peace people take on the Lenten Challenge, but to remember to put Jesus Christ first in our lives, to keep our focus on the One who matters most, to renew our faith.
Our theme for Lent is “Re-New your life.” And for the first three Sundays, we are considering different angles of renewal begin with our turning or re-turning toward God. First we read Psalm 51, the prayer of King David, acknowledging his sin and asking for a clean heart. The call that day was to be humble and courageous enough to see our own sin and repent. Then last week, we looked at the temptations of Christ, as a good example of how we are called to resist, to turn away from evil and keep focused on our identity as children of God, nothing that demeans that identity.
Today’s scripture from the prophet Isaiah beckons to us to return to the Lord, who will abundantly pardon. We could talk about the history of this prophet and much about the context of his writing. That might make you a better historian and Biblical scholar, but I’m hoping that today we will become better Christians, so I’m not spending much time with that. You can get a decent summary on Wikipedia about Isaiah, who lived in the second half of the 8th century BC. You can read there about how the Book of Isaiah is understood to be in three parts, possibly written by three different persons at different times. In the first 39 chapters, Isaiah prophesies doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God. The last 27 chapters prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel. This section includes the Songs of the Suffering Servant, four separate passages that Christians believe prefigure the coming of Jesus Christ, and which are otherwise traditionally thought to refer to the nation of Israel. This second half of the book includes prophecies of a new creation in God's glorious future kingdom. That’s what we’re reading today – Isaiah’s vision of the new creation.
The Israelites felt far away from God in exile. They could blame God for that or blame their captors. They might even blame themselves, which the prophets usually help them to do. Isaiah offers both the challenge and the comfort, calling them to return to the God who will abundantly pardon. Calling them to seize the day. Carpe diem. Seek the Lord, now. Don’t be presumptious that God’s love and forgiveness is something with which we can trifle, play around. It is too special to be ignored, especially when you are such a bad place. Sure God’s love is certain. Sure God is everlasting, but don’t get uppity. God’s ways are higher than yours. God’s still in charge. Hear the word of the Lord:
NRS Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
So these three themes – repent, resist, return – I see them as part of the natural cycle of growing in faithfulness. Repenting of sin. Resisting sin. Re-turning to God, which then leads to repentance of sin. If we see God’s beauty, then we see that we, created in God’s image, are tarnished, dirty, not a true reflection.
Let me use a little example from my life to illustrate how these three themes cycle. I hope the simplicity of this will help you translate into something in your own life. Some of you may have noticed that the Deiberts – both Richard and Elizabeth in particular – have a habit of running late. Notice I called it a habit. I could call it a pattern, or I could, if I have any intention of repenting, call it sin. I could justify it, saying it’s no big deal, doesn’t really hurt anyone, but if I examine it closely, I see at the root of this habit the sin of thinking I’m more important than you, or at least my time is more important than yours. Okay, so the first step is to acknowledge my habit as sin because it is a form of mistreatment of others. I can repetitively apologize or make excuses for my tardiness, but if I really want to repent, then I need to see the sin of considering my time more valuable than yours. So repenting means a real change of heart and willingness to stop making excuses for myself.
Next, I must resist the temptation to squeeze one more activity in before departing for a scheduled event. I must resist the temptation to ignore the clock – very easy for me. I must set timers for myself – put things in place – to make sure that I am guarding myself against this evil of tardiness. When distracting events happen like last minute phone calls, I must remember that my identity is that of a child of God who respects the time of others and is therefore willing to be on time, even if I must leave something unfinished. I must waste some of my time to protect some of yours –self-sacrifice. I must resist the temptation to enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes from rushing around, beating the clock in my shower and get dressed time, and all those other games I play when I’m under pressure. Sometimes those games work, but sometimes they waste my energy and with one untimely stoplight, I can still arrive late. I have to admit to myself that my games often don’t work. That admission is part of resisting temptation.
Finally, in order to really keep pressing on toward faithfulness in this area of weakness in my life, I must turn toward God, turn and re-turn, because only when I see God do I see what love really is. Only when I turn toward God do I see my sin for what it is. Only when I turn toward God do I have courage to face my sin as sin, in the comfort of knowing I will be abundantly pardoned. Only when I turn to God, rather than comparing myself with others who are tardy or others who have more consequential sins, do I set a high enough standard for myself.
If I turn to you, I’ll be sure to find that speck in your eye and fail to see the log in my own eye. When I turn to God, then I am seeing who I could be, not excusing myself for being less than I am created to be. When I turn to God, I see that God’s ways are higher than my ways. My egotistical self is put back in its place as servant of God. Now tardiness is just one of my sins. It was an easy one to talk about. There are so many different things in my life that pull me away, distract me from being the person God intends me to be. Returning to God is an acceptance of my humble place in the universe and being grateful for all the good gifts God gives.
There are lots of complaints about cold weather this year, even in Florida. Many of you came here to escape snow and even rain. But somehow God has to water the earth. We get hurricanes and thunder storms. One way or another, God has to bring the uncomfortable wet stuff to give us vegetation. We gripe about cold, but the farm workers who lost everything including their income when the plants froze have more reason to complain than we do. Returning to God means acknowledging God’s sovereignty, knowing that God must have some purpose for the stormy seasons and the exilic periods of life. Returning to God reassures us that we are in the right place. This notion of returning to God is best said by the old 1848 Shaker hymn, popularized by Aaron Copland with his Appalachian Spring in the 1946, further popularized when Sydney Carter, the English man wrote Lord of the Dance in 1963. There is simplicity in seeking one thing, being focused on one Lord, being unashamed of bowing and bending in humility, being in the God’s valley, notice it’s not a mountain top, but a valley of love of delight, where trees clap their hands. But that simplicity comes by turning, turning, turning, turning toward God until we come round right.
(Singing)
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Resist
Luke 4:1-13
2nd Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Temptations, temptations, I can resist everything but temptation. So said 19th Century Irish novelist, poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde. He also said, in his wit, “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.” (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1854 - 1900) I think we’ve been following the advice Oscar Wilde more than that the example of Jesus Christ.
Much of the advertising world is built on our inability to resist temptation. “Bet you can’t eat just one,” a potato chip commercial says. Listen to this recently released GM advertisement “Great temptation has always caused man to fall for it. Adam fell for the forbidden fruit; now it’s your turn.” The image flashes from a bright red apple to a bright red Chevrolet Cruze. Advertisers are paid to figure out creative ways to appeal to our desire, to break down our resistance. A Dove dark chocolate wrapper says, “Find a passion and feed it.” Find any passion and feed it?!
Feed your passion. Give in to your temptation. That’s not what I want to say to a teenager with raging hormones. That’s not what I want to say to power and money-hungry CEOs and Wall Street gurus. Not what I want to say to alcoholics and drug addicts. Not what I want to say to people with eating disorders – overeating or under-eating. Not what I want to say to an angry tenure-seeking professor at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Not what I want to say to any of us. What I want to say is resist the temptation to be anything other than the God-loving, neighbor-loving person you were created to be. It is an aberration of your God-given character to give in to the temptations of life. Resist the temptation to ruled by the powers of this world – powers of domination, self-protection, and self-absorption. Be like Jesus. Be ruled by the knowledge that you belong to God and that in God all your true needs will be met. This story comes after his baptism and geneology. They tell us who Jesus is. These temptations tell us who Jesus is not.
NRS Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." 4 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" 5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' 11 and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" 12 Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Desire is not evil. Desire is a God-given gift. But desire to have something at all costs is sinful. Jesus wanted something to eat after forty days – a good and natural desire. It is good for food to be appealing to us, but the desire for food should not rule our lives. There was nothing wrong with craving bread after a forty-day fast.
Aspiring to greatness can be a good and healthy desire, but when the devil offers Jesus greatness it comes with a request to worship the evil one. True greatness cannot be achieved by forsaking the first commandment to love God and God alone. Jesus is also tempted in the wilderness to win the approval of others by sensationalism. Gaining the approval of others is a admirable accomplishment, but we should resist the temptation to gain approval of others in cheap and ungodly ways. Trying to impress people falsely always leads to the downfall of politicians and ordinary people alike.
The source of our temptations is often our own legitimate, normal, natural desires. The desire for food, alcohol, sexual intimacy, success, material comfort, financial security, approval of others is not from the devil. These are wholesome, normal, legitimate desires. How do they become sinful? (Jirair Tashjian)
They become sinful when those desires lead us away from love of God and away from love of neighbor. When they take such prominence in our lives that God is in the backseat, not the driver’s seat. When they become self-serving needs, perverted by all-consuming passion, when they deny the humanity and dignity of others, they are sinful. Think about the natural and good inclination to speak about a relationship problem, to try to figure it out. We’ve had a relationship problem with a certain person in this building. How quickly does the natural and good desire to improve that relationship lead to the temptation to de-humanize a person by talking about him, making fun of him.
What makes temptation so alluring is that it seems so right, feels so right, looks so right. One commentator notes that “Jesus’ temptations were very real, in that they were possible, pleasant, and seemingly for the good of all.” (Thomas Walker, Interpretation Bible Studies) The things that were offered to Jesus in the wilderness were not evil in and of themselves. It was the means by which they were to be gained that was wrong.
Sexual intimacy is not evil. It is good. But full intimacy without an equally full promise of covenantal love in marriage or a sacred union is giving in to the temptation to cheapen God’s gift, to make a relationship less than it should be. Our culture is very confused about sex and the over 200 billion dollar internet porn business drives us to greater sickness in this area. And 12-17 year old boys are the most vulnerable. We have a good friend, a Presbyterian elder, devoted husband and father, who nearly lost everything due to this addiction. He got help, but it’s been a battle. Same with my sister’s former minister. Resist.
Financial security is a good desire, but if the lust for financial security which robs us of a primal trust in God, is wrong. If it prevents us from a faithful and free generosity toward God and humanity, then it is sinful. If our financial security is achieved by capitalizing on the economic weakness of others, it is sin. We are in a recession because people did not resist the temptation to try to make more money than was really possible. Capitalism run amok, an abuse of trust. Resist the temptation to make money your idol.
The drive to succeed is a good trait, but if, a person cheats on a test, or betrays a friend in order to achieve that success, then it is obviously wrong. Did you see the short track relay race the other night? The Koreans were doing so well. They had the gold, but in the last moment, the Korean skater gave the Chinese skater a little shove, and that one offense robbed the Koreans of any medal. The desire to achieve is wonderful, but when we cross the line and our drive to achieve leads us to push someone else down, even the slightest push, then we have given in to temptation. Resist.
Speaking of successful young people, a professor of psychology, Walter Mischel at Stanford found after forty years of study, that a four year-old’s ability to resist the temptation to eat a marshmallow placed in front of him or her was a good indicator of future academic and emotional success in life. He proved conclusively that the longer a four-year-old child was able to wait before taking a sweet, the better were his or her chances of a happy and successful life.
Jesus was like us in every way, except sin. He was so filled with the Holy Spirit and so well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures, so secured in his identity as Son of God, that he was strong enough and discerning enough to withstand alluring temptations, even in the weakness of a forty day fast. Here we see that Jesus’ identity was forged in his willingness in the wilderness to say “no.” He said “no” to using his God-given power to satisfy physical, spiritual, or emotional desires by the wrong means.
Temptations, temptations. They are everywhere we turn. We need to resist them because they lure us away from the persons we were created to be, children of God, who love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and who love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Temptations are a challenge to our identity. Notice how the devil challenges Jesus, “IF you are the Son of God” “If you are who you think you are” “If you will worship me, the devil” With those three “if” clauses, Jesus’ identity is in question. The trap is to try to get Jesus to prove his identity by doing something that is not consistent with his identity.
You see, in the end, there is really only one temptation – that temptation is to forget to whom we belong. Tempted to forget that we are completed loved by God. Tempted to think that we will be rejected and thrown away because of sins we have committed, when God’s forgiveness has been freely given to us. Tempted to think that we’ve got to make something of ourselves, when God has already made us and redeemed us and yes, is calling us to participate in our own salvation, our own wholeness by resisting the temptation to be less than we are.
Let us say “no” to the powers and principalities that beckon us to worship anyone other than God. Let us say “no’ to the powers of this world which tell us we are free to satisfy our own desires at any cost. Let us say “no” to securing ourselves in anything other than our identity as people belonging to God. We are the forgiven and beloved children of God, called to be faithful like Christ. That is the first word and the final word of truth about us. May God give us grace to resist everything lures us away from the One who love us best.
2nd Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Temptations, temptations, I can resist everything but temptation. So said 19th Century Irish novelist, poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde. He also said, in his wit, “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.” (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1854 - 1900) I think we’ve been following the advice Oscar Wilde more than that the example of Jesus Christ.
Much of the advertising world is built on our inability to resist temptation. “Bet you can’t eat just one,” a potato chip commercial says. Listen to this recently released GM advertisement “Great temptation has always caused man to fall for it. Adam fell for the forbidden fruit; now it’s your turn.” The image flashes from a bright red apple to a bright red Chevrolet Cruze. Advertisers are paid to figure out creative ways to appeal to our desire, to break down our resistance. A Dove dark chocolate wrapper says, “Find a passion and feed it.” Find any passion and feed it?!
Feed your passion. Give in to your temptation. That’s not what I want to say to a teenager with raging hormones. That’s not what I want to say to power and money-hungry CEOs and Wall Street gurus. Not what I want to say to alcoholics and drug addicts. Not what I want to say to people with eating disorders – overeating or under-eating. Not what I want to say to an angry tenure-seeking professor at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Not what I want to say to any of us. What I want to say is resist the temptation to be anything other than the God-loving, neighbor-loving person you were created to be. It is an aberration of your God-given character to give in to the temptations of life. Resist the temptation to ruled by the powers of this world – powers of domination, self-protection, and self-absorption. Be like Jesus. Be ruled by the knowledge that you belong to God and that in God all your true needs will be met. This story comes after his baptism and geneology. They tell us who Jesus is. These temptations tell us who Jesus is not.
NRS Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." 4 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" 5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' 11 and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" 12 Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Desire is not evil. Desire is a God-given gift. But desire to have something at all costs is sinful. Jesus wanted something to eat after forty days – a good and natural desire. It is good for food to be appealing to us, but the desire for food should not rule our lives. There was nothing wrong with craving bread after a forty-day fast.
Aspiring to greatness can be a good and healthy desire, but when the devil offers Jesus greatness it comes with a request to worship the evil one. True greatness cannot be achieved by forsaking the first commandment to love God and God alone. Jesus is also tempted in the wilderness to win the approval of others by sensationalism. Gaining the approval of others is a admirable accomplishment, but we should resist the temptation to gain approval of others in cheap and ungodly ways. Trying to impress people falsely always leads to the downfall of politicians and ordinary people alike.
The source of our temptations is often our own legitimate, normal, natural desires. The desire for food, alcohol, sexual intimacy, success, material comfort, financial security, approval of others is not from the devil. These are wholesome, normal, legitimate desires. How do they become sinful? (Jirair Tashjian)
They become sinful when those desires lead us away from love of God and away from love of neighbor. When they take such prominence in our lives that God is in the backseat, not the driver’s seat. When they become self-serving needs, perverted by all-consuming passion, when they deny the humanity and dignity of others, they are sinful. Think about the natural and good inclination to speak about a relationship problem, to try to figure it out. We’ve had a relationship problem with a certain person in this building. How quickly does the natural and good desire to improve that relationship lead to the temptation to de-humanize a person by talking about him, making fun of him.
What makes temptation so alluring is that it seems so right, feels so right, looks so right. One commentator notes that “Jesus’ temptations were very real, in that they were possible, pleasant, and seemingly for the good of all.” (Thomas Walker, Interpretation Bible Studies) The things that were offered to Jesus in the wilderness were not evil in and of themselves. It was the means by which they were to be gained that was wrong.
Sexual intimacy is not evil. It is good. But full intimacy without an equally full promise of covenantal love in marriage or a sacred union is giving in to the temptation to cheapen God’s gift, to make a relationship less than it should be. Our culture is very confused about sex and the over 200 billion dollar internet porn business drives us to greater sickness in this area. And 12-17 year old boys are the most vulnerable. We have a good friend, a Presbyterian elder, devoted husband and father, who nearly lost everything due to this addiction. He got help, but it’s been a battle. Same with my sister’s former minister. Resist.
Financial security is a good desire, but if the lust for financial security which robs us of a primal trust in God, is wrong. If it prevents us from a faithful and free generosity toward God and humanity, then it is sinful. If our financial security is achieved by capitalizing on the economic weakness of others, it is sin. We are in a recession because people did not resist the temptation to try to make more money than was really possible. Capitalism run amok, an abuse of trust. Resist the temptation to make money your idol.
The drive to succeed is a good trait, but if, a person cheats on a test, or betrays a friend in order to achieve that success, then it is obviously wrong. Did you see the short track relay race the other night? The Koreans were doing so well. They had the gold, but in the last moment, the Korean skater gave the Chinese skater a little shove, and that one offense robbed the Koreans of any medal. The desire to achieve is wonderful, but when we cross the line and our drive to achieve leads us to push someone else down, even the slightest push, then we have given in to temptation. Resist.
Speaking of successful young people, a professor of psychology, Walter Mischel at Stanford found after forty years of study, that a four year-old’s ability to resist the temptation to eat a marshmallow placed in front of him or her was a good indicator of future academic and emotional success in life. He proved conclusively that the longer a four-year-old child was able to wait before taking a sweet, the better were his or her chances of a happy and successful life.
Jesus was like us in every way, except sin. He was so filled with the Holy Spirit and so well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures, so secured in his identity as Son of God, that he was strong enough and discerning enough to withstand alluring temptations, even in the weakness of a forty day fast. Here we see that Jesus’ identity was forged in his willingness in the wilderness to say “no.” He said “no” to using his God-given power to satisfy physical, spiritual, or emotional desires by the wrong means.
Temptations, temptations. They are everywhere we turn. We need to resist them because they lure us away from the persons we were created to be, children of God, who love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and who love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Temptations are a challenge to our identity. Notice how the devil challenges Jesus, “IF you are the Son of God” “If you are who you think you are” “If you will worship me, the devil” With those three “if” clauses, Jesus’ identity is in question. The trap is to try to get Jesus to prove his identity by doing something that is not consistent with his identity.
You see, in the end, there is really only one temptation – that temptation is to forget to whom we belong. Tempted to forget that we are completed loved by God. Tempted to think that we will be rejected and thrown away because of sins we have committed, when God’s forgiveness has been freely given to us. Tempted to think that we’ve got to make something of ourselves, when God has already made us and redeemed us and yes, is calling us to participate in our own salvation, our own wholeness by resisting the temptation to be less than we are.
Let us say “no” to the powers and principalities that beckon us to worship anyone other than God. Let us say “no’ to the powers of this world which tell us we are free to satisfy our own desires at any cost. Let us say “no” to securing ourselves in anything other than our identity as people belonging to God. We are the forgiven and beloved children of God, called to be faithful like Christ. That is the first word and the final word of truth about us. May God give us grace to resist everything lures us away from the One who love us best.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Repent
Psalm 51
1st Sunday of Lent – Ashes
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Give us grace to receive your Word to us today in faith, that we may obedient to your will and live always for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
“Repent” We think of it as an angry cry from a street corner preacher, who seems to know much more about God’s judgment than God’s mercy. The longer I live the more I am ready to embrace and speak this word “repent” in gentleness, as an act of love. Patrick just read Jesus’ first words of proclamation and in essence Jesus’ message was “repent.” After being called “my Son, the Beloved” in baptism, after facing dangers and temptations in the wilderness, Jesus comes to proclaim good news and the good news is a call to repentance – turn, change, renew your life in Jesus Christ.
We embrace calls to change. Exercise – get fit now. Even the NFL is asking children to exercise one hour/day. Improve your reading skills – get help for your child to have better study habits. Change your eating habits – cut the carbs and fat, increase the fresh fruits and veggies. Nobody gets upset about those calls for healthy improvement. So what’s the big deal about inviting people to get healthy spiritually? Why I am suddenly judgmental when I invite people to repent. This invitation should seem as good-hearted as the one encouraging you to exercise, take your vitamins, and eat healthy foods. But no, everybody is defensive about this call to spiritual fitness. Well, time to get over that, Peace, because this is Lent. It is the season of self-examination. How are you doing with sin? You’re in better physical shape than spiritual shape, I’m guessing. You watch your diet better than you guard your heart against evil, if you’re like me.
King David loved God like we do. He played his instruments to God’s glory. The young man David was so capable, so impressive, he was chosen over all his older brothers and many others. But power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and so King David lost his sensitivity to God’s desires when he went from shepherding the flock to ruling the land. He had many wives, but decided he would like someone else’s for a day, and like so many of us, once he screwed up (pun intended), he kept covering himself, defending himself with more sin, ultimately having an innocent and honorable man killed, one who served him well so he could keep the wife he had stolen. Then as spiritual weakness becomes blindness, he could not even see his sin when the prophet Nathan pointed it out. He sat in judgment over the man in Nathan’s parable, not even realizing that he was the man. So it is with us.
If this story of David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan is vague for you, then take some time later today to read 2 Samuel 11-12. 2 Samuel 11-12. It is a sexy and sad story of the infidelity and blindness of all of us. How we dig deep holes for ourselves because we do not resist temptation. And then when we sin, we cover, instead of confess. But our reading today is the good news from Psalm 51, the prayer of David, when he acknowledged and repented of his sin. Let us hear David, and pray with him, this prayer for a clean heart.
NRS Psalm 51:1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. 6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. Richard and I were discussing this psalm and he said, “God seems way too concerned with our humility.” Think about it. Sin has humbling consequences, often all the more humbling the longer we defend our actions. Remember when one of our presidents tried to re-define sex. It is best to be humble and contrite, truly sorry. How many arguments would be avoided in your home if we would all practice a ready and willing contrition. It takes practice, being humble enough to admit wrong. But most of us practice defensiveness and self-justification instead. I used to be able to pick a good fight with Richard but lately, he’s been undermining me, by saying quickly, “You know, you’re right. I should work on that.” Darn, I was waiting for him to argue with me or blame me for being the source of the problem. Instead, he humbly received my critique. What do I do now? Say a prayer of thanks.
Look at the humble and contrite repentance of Tiger Woods, whom some have said sounds more like a Jew or Christian than a Buddhist this week. His words sound a lot like Psalm 51, 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. He said, “I knew my actions were wrong but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting, instead I thought only about myself. I was wrong and I was foolish.” He admitted to hurting his wife, his kids, his mother, his extended family, his friends, and kids all around the world who admired him.
That’s how it is with sin – there are far-reaching consequences, even if you are not a public figure. I believe that admission of sin, even looking closely at ourselves to find sin which we hide from ourselves, is the key to a healthy spiritual life. To avoid talk of sin, which seems to be our tendency these days -- even Christians avoid the subject -- is to deny ourselves the opportunity for healing. Sin is a sickness. And sickness unattended leads to death. But thanks be to God, death never gets the last word.
If you can admit to being sick, and go to church as a hospital, then you should receive the healing grace of God’s forgiveness in Word and Sacrament, and the balm of music and prayer and the companionship of fellow sinners forgiven will ease the pain of your wounds – wounds of your own sickness and wounds inflicted by the sickness of others. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Think of the child, who will not let the parent wash a dirty, scraped- up knee. The parent knows that knee needs to be washed, and sometimes cleaning out debris can be very painful, but the parent does it because that’s the only way to start the healing process.
Admitting sin is painful. We want to just get a band-aid, slap it on, and forget about all the dirt in there, but we need deep cleaning. But our hearts need to be pure. We need to stop playing the blame game. God does not want us trying to make up for sin. God wants us clean as fresh snow and with God’s help we can be that clean. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. What pleases God is our broken spirit – like a wild horse, unwilling to be bridled, we need our spirit of fierce independence, our spirit of rugged individualism, our spirit of prideful egocentrism broken. Like a wild two or three year-old or a rebellious fifteen year-old, we need the taming of our heart. We need a humble and contrite heart. We need to know our boundaries, respect authority, and become loving, grateful, and responsible human beings, on whom others can depend. We try to dispense self-esteem these days to kids who have no self-control and no humility, and that does them no service. It invites them to be sick and stay sick. Healthy self-esteem comes through knowing our sin, repenting of our sin, and then rejoicing in our forgiveness, the amazing grace-filled gift of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As we begin the season of repentance, Lent, I invite you to spend time in self-examination, to devote yourself to prayer and fasting, to engage works of love and service, to read and meditate on God’s word, to seek a life of fruitful sacrifice for Christ’s sake. When you come forward to receive the gifts of Christ at the communion table, you will also be encouraged to receive the sign of the cross on your forehead, a mark of ashes, reminding you of the frailty of life and of our mutual need for renewal in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray....(solo) Give me a clean heart, so I may serve Thee. Lord, fix my heart, so that I may used by Thee. For I’m not worthy of all these blessings. Give me a clean heart and I’ll follow Thee.
1st Sunday of Lent – Ashes
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Give us grace to receive your Word to us today in faith, that we may obedient to your will and live always for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
“Repent” We think of it as an angry cry from a street corner preacher, who seems to know much more about God’s judgment than God’s mercy. The longer I live the more I am ready to embrace and speak this word “repent” in gentleness, as an act of love. Patrick just read Jesus’ first words of proclamation and in essence Jesus’ message was “repent.” After being called “my Son, the Beloved” in baptism, after facing dangers and temptations in the wilderness, Jesus comes to proclaim good news and the good news is a call to repentance – turn, change, renew your life in Jesus Christ.
We embrace calls to change. Exercise – get fit now. Even the NFL is asking children to exercise one hour/day. Improve your reading skills – get help for your child to have better study habits. Change your eating habits – cut the carbs and fat, increase the fresh fruits and veggies. Nobody gets upset about those calls for healthy improvement. So what’s the big deal about inviting people to get healthy spiritually? Why I am suddenly judgmental when I invite people to repent. This invitation should seem as good-hearted as the one encouraging you to exercise, take your vitamins, and eat healthy foods. But no, everybody is defensive about this call to spiritual fitness. Well, time to get over that, Peace, because this is Lent. It is the season of self-examination. How are you doing with sin? You’re in better physical shape than spiritual shape, I’m guessing. You watch your diet better than you guard your heart against evil, if you’re like me.
King David loved God like we do. He played his instruments to God’s glory. The young man David was so capable, so impressive, he was chosen over all his older brothers and many others. But power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and so King David lost his sensitivity to God’s desires when he went from shepherding the flock to ruling the land. He had many wives, but decided he would like someone else’s for a day, and like so many of us, once he screwed up (pun intended), he kept covering himself, defending himself with more sin, ultimately having an innocent and honorable man killed, one who served him well so he could keep the wife he had stolen. Then as spiritual weakness becomes blindness, he could not even see his sin when the prophet Nathan pointed it out. He sat in judgment over the man in Nathan’s parable, not even realizing that he was the man. So it is with us.
If this story of David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan is vague for you, then take some time later today to read 2 Samuel 11-12. 2 Samuel 11-12. It is a sexy and sad story of the infidelity and blindness of all of us. How we dig deep holes for ourselves because we do not resist temptation. And then when we sin, we cover, instead of confess. But our reading today is the good news from Psalm 51, the prayer of David, when he acknowledged and repented of his sin. Let us hear David, and pray with him, this prayer for a clean heart.
NRS Psalm 51:1
A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. Richard and I were discussing this psalm and he said, “God seems way too concerned with our humility.” Think about it. Sin has humbling consequences, often all the more humbling the longer we defend our actions. Remember when one of our presidents tried to re-define sex. It is best to be humble and contrite, truly sorry. How many arguments would be avoided in your home if we would all practice a ready and willing contrition. It takes practice, being humble enough to admit wrong. But most of us practice defensiveness and self-justification instead. I used to be able to pick a good fight with Richard but lately, he’s been undermining me, by saying quickly, “You know, you’re right. I should work on that.” Darn, I was waiting for him to argue with me or blame me for being the source of the problem. Instead, he humbly received my critique. What do I do now? Say a prayer of thanks.
Look at the humble and contrite repentance of Tiger Woods, whom some have said sounds more like a Jew or Christian than a Buddhist this week. His words sound a lot like Psalm 51, 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. He said, “I knew my actions were wrong but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting, instead I thought only about myself. I was wrong and I was foolish.” He admitted to hurting his wife, his kids, his mother, his extended family, his friends, and kids all around the world who admired him.
That’s how it is with sin – there are far-reaching consequences, even if you are not a public figure. I believe that admission of sin, even looking closely at ourselves to find sin which we hide from ourselves, is the key to a healthy spiritual life. To avoid talk of sin, which seems to be our tendency these days -- even Christians avoid the subject -- is to deny ourselves the opportunity for healing. Sin is a sickness. And sickness unattended leads to death. But thanks be to God, death never gets the last word.
If you can admit to being sick, and go to church as a hospital, then you should receive the healing grace of God’s forgiveness in Word and Sacrament, and the balm of music and prayer and the companionship of fellow sinners forgiven will ease the pain of your wounds – wounds of your own sickness and wounds inflicted by the sickness of others. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Think of the child, who will not let the parent wash a dirty, scraped- up knee. The parent knows that knee needs to be washed, and sometimes cleaning out debris can be very painful, but the parent does it because that’s the only way to start the healing process.
Admitting sin is painful. We want to just get a band-aid, slap it on, and forget about all the dirt in there, but we need deep cleaning. But our hearts need to be pure. We need to stop playing the blame game. God does not want us trying to make up for sin. God wants us clean as fresh snow and with God’s help we can be that clean. 16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. What pleases God is our broken spirit – like a wild horse, unwilling to be bridled, we need our spirit of fierce independence, our spirit of rugged individualism, our spirit of prideful egocentrism broken. Like a wild two or three year-old or a rebellious fifteen year-old, we need the taming of our heart. We need a humble and contrite heart. We need to know our boundaries, respect authority, and become loving, grateful, and responsible human beings, on whom others can depend. We try to dispense self-esteem these days to kids who have no self-control and no humility, and that does them no service. It invites them to be sick and stay sick. Healthy self-esteem comes through knowing our sin, repenting of our sin, and then rejoicing in our forgiveness, the amazing grace-filled gift of God, which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As we begin the season of repentance, Lent, I invite you to spend time in self-examination, to devote yourself to prayer and fasting, to engage works of love and service, to read and meditate on God’s word, to seek a life of fruitful sacrifice for Christ’s sake. When you come forward to receive the gifts of Christ at the communion table, you will also be encouraged to receive the sign of the cross on your forehead, a mark of ashes, reminding you of the frailty of life and of our mutual need for renewal in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray....(solo) Give me a clean heart, so I may serve Thee. Lord, fix my heart, so that I may used by Thee. For I’m not worthy of all these blessings. Give me a clean heart and I’ll follow Thee.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Love Like God
1 John 4:7-21
Valentines Day – Transfiguration
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I saw a guy hovering around the chocolate display at Publix. He was mumbling aloud, “My wife wants some chocolates with nuts, and I don’t know which one of these boxes to get her. I reckon I’ll just get her some Snicker bars and put ‘em in one of those Valentine’s bags.” I wanted to tell him that some Giradelli with almonds or Hershey kisses with almonds might be more romantic than ordinary Snickers bars, but then I figured he was not really looking for my opinion – just talking to himself.
This is the day of roses, jewelry, perfume, wine, chocolate, greeting cards, lingerie, and candlelight dinners. We spend money on expressions of love but do we spend ourselves loving, loving like God. While we can thank Geoffrey Chaucer for the association of romantic love with the feast of St. Valentine, it seems that the original Saint Valentinus, the presbyter of Rome was a Christian martyr. Legend has it that he was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Emperor Claudius in the 3rd Century. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor. Then he was condemned to death.
So we have come a long way from a priest trying to share the good news of Christ’s love with a politician – to red hearts and idealized romantic love, which we think we can create ourselves with the right box of chocolates or bottle of wine.
John tells us that love has everything to do with God, that God is the definition of love. John tells us that we cannot claim to love God or even know God, if we do not love one another. John tells us that the supreme act of love was the act of God sending the Son into the world – that we might live through him. That’s the only way we grow in love is by living through him – he who was the perfection of humanity and divinity gave us love, shows us how to love, fills us with his Spirit of love, calls us to love like God.
RS 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8-9 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us,and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Loving one another is so vital to the church's ministry, witness and mission that we cannot afford for there to be any illusion about love: true love is a gift from heaven to earth; false love is a mockery of the Son of God. There is no doubt that John would spare no mercy on this culture and much of our allegedly "Christian" understanding of love. A lie he would call it. (from a sermon on this text by Richard Deibert)
We will never understand the fullness of love unless we start with God. And when we start with God we start with the understanding that God is love, not that God loves, but that God is love. There’s a big difference in saying God loves and God is love. Love is not just one of God's activities. To say ‘God is love’ implies that all God's activity is loving activity. If God creates, God creates in love; if God rules, God rules in love; if god judges, God judges in love. All that God does is the expression of God's nature, which is — to love.” (CH Dodd)
We love not as an act originating in ourselves, but because God first loved us! And we are the community that loves more bravely than any other — whose love more closely approaches the brave, risk-taking love of Jesus — because we see in Jesus how much God is for us and how little God is against us. We can love bravely because we are bravely loved. We can love with absolute confidence, uninfested by fear, because Christ is here in this world with us, for us. And when we do so love, God lives in us and changes lives through us.
If we live in deep trust in the love of God, then there is nothing to fear, no one to fear. There is a huge cavern inside us yearning to be filled. Many people try to fill it with love of people, love of material possessions, love of entertainment. Those loves will never satisfy ultimately because the cavern can never be filled with those. But God’s love is so great it can completely fill us with a deep sense of security such that we are not so desperately needy of the love of others. Then our love for others arises from a self-fulfilled position, not a needy position.
Those who are needy can appear to love others but their love is infected with self- interest, with the desperate need for a reciprocal relationship – one that meets their own desires. They are looking for love, not looking to love. Our culture is very confused about love because we define love from a human point of view, not from the position that God is love. And if we want to understand love, we need to understand how much God loves.
To experience true love, we must be willing to open ourselves up and sacrifice part of our heart and our soul. We must be willing to give of ourselves freely, and we must be willing to suffer. That’s the kind of love Jesus Christ lived and died for us.
C. S. Lewis said, “There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken; it
will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” She said, “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.” She also said, “Love until it hurts. Real love is always painful and hurts: then it is real and pure.”
Reinhold Niebuhr said, “Justice requires that we carefully weigh rights and privileges and assure that each member of a community receives his due share. Love does not weigh rights and privileges too carefully because it prompts each [one of us] to bear the burden of the other.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, who could not talk about the love of God without being willing to love those who hated him, said, “Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
Our scripture from the first epistle of John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;” Oh, what a world we might have if fear were overtaken by love, if all who claim to love God began to prove it by their fearless love of other people. It can begin right here, Peace, in the lives of each of us. It can begin with a commitment on our part to be fearless lovers of the all people, who are not concerned for our own well-being out of a fearful protection of self, but who trust God enough to love bravely, to really love like Jesus loved.
In the story of the remarkable and unlikely friendship of millionaire art dealer Ron Hall and homeless illiterate Denver Moore, told in their book, Same Kind of Different as Me, we see the struggle in both men to set aside fear and live into love. We see how love is propelled by Deborah Hall, who had a deep enough appreciation of God’s love to push both men beyond their comfort zones into a deep and lasting friendship, not just a “catch and release” acquaintance.
We cannot achieve this fear-free, unselfish love, apart from our participation in the Holy Spirit, apart from our oneness with Christ. We can not do it, but God can do it through us. When God lives in us and we abide in God, God’s love is being perfected in us, inasmuch as we prayerfully and willingly open our lives to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Valentines Day – Transfiguration
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I saw a guy hovering around the chocolate display at Publix. He was mumbling aloud, “My wife wants some chocolates with nuts, and I don’t know which one of these boxes to get her. I reckon I’ll just get her some Snicker bars and put ‘em in one of those Valentine’s bags.” I wanted to tell him that some Giradelli with almonds or Hershey kisses with almonds might be more romantic than ordinary Snickers bars, but then I figured he was not really looking for my opinion – just talking to himself.
This is the day of roses, jewelry, perfume, wine, chocolate, greeting cards, lingerie, and candlelight dinners. We spend money on expressions of love but do we spend ourselves loving, loving like God. While we can thank Geoffrey Chaucer for the association of romantic love with the feast of St. Valentine, it seems that the original Saint Valentinus, the presbyter of Rome was a Christian martyr. Legend has it that he was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Emperor Claudius in the 3rd Century. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor. Then he was condemned to death.
So we have come a long way from a priest trying to share the good news of Christ’s love with a politician – to red hearts and idealized romantic love, which we think we can create ourselves with the right box of chocolates or bottle of wine.
John tells us that love has everything to do with God, that God is the definition of love. John tells us that we cannot claim to love God or even know God, if we do not love one another. John tells us that the supreme act of love was the act of God sending the Son into the world – that we might live through him. That’s the only way we grow in love is by living through him – he who was the perfection of humanity and divinity gave us love, shows us how to love, fills us with his Spirit of love, calls us to love like God.
RS 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8-9 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us,and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Loving one another is so vital to the church's ministry, witness and mission that we cannot afford for there to be any illusion about love: true love is a gift from heaven to earth; false love is a mockery of the Son of God. There is no doubt that John would spare no mercy on this culture and much of our allegedly "Christian" understanding of love. A lie he would call it. (from a sermon on this text by Richard Deibert)
We will never understand the fullness of love unless we start with God. And when we start with God we start with the understanding that God is love, not that God loves, but that God is love. There’s a big difference in saying God loves and God is love. Love is not just one of God's activities. To say ‘God is love’ implies that all God's activity is loving activity. If God creates, God creates in love; if God rules, God rules in love; if god judges, God judges in love. All that God does is the expression of God's nature, which is — to love.” (CH Dodd)
We love not as an act originating in ourselves, but because God first loved us! And we are the community that loves more bravely than any other — whose love more closely approaches the brave, risk-taking love of Jesus — because we see in Jesus how much God is for us and how little God is against us. We can love bravely because we are bravely loved. We can love with absolute confidence, uninfested by fear, because Christ is here in this world with us, for us. And when we do so love, God lives in us and changes lives through us.
If we live in deep trust in the love of God, then there is nothing to fear, no one to fear. There is a huge cavern inside us yearning to be filled. Many people try to fill it with love of people, love of material possessions, love of entertainment. Those loves will never satisfy ultimately because the cavern can never be filled with those. But God’s love is so great it can completely fill us with a deep sense of security such that we are not so desperately needy of the love of others. Then our love for others arises from a self-fulfilled position, not a needy position.
Those who are needy can appear to love others but their love is infected with self- interest, with the desperate need for a reciprocal relationship – one that meets their own desires. They are looking for love, not looking to love. Our culture is very confused about love because we define love from a human point of view, not from the position that God is love. And if we want to understand love, we need to understand how much God loves.
To experience true love, we must be willing to open ourselves up and sacrifice part of our heart and our soul. We must be willing to give of ourselves freely, and we must be willing to suffer. That’s the kind of love Jesus Christ lived and died for us.
C. S. Lewis said, “There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken; it
will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” She said, “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.” She also said, “Love until it hurts. Real love is always painful and hurts: then it is real and pure.”
Reinhold Niebuhr said, “Justice requires that we carefully weigh rights and privileges and assure that each member of a community receives his due share. Love does not weigh rights and privileges too carefully because it prompts each [one of us] to bear the burden of the other.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, who could not talk about the love of God without being willing to love those who hated him, said, “Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
Our scripture from the first epistle of John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;” Oh, what a world we might have if fear were overtaken by love, if all who claim to love God began to prove it by their fearless love of other people. It can begin right here, Peace, in the lives of each of us. It can begin with a commitment on our part to be fearless lovers of the all people, who are not concerned for our own well-being out of a fearful protection of self, but who trust God enough to love bravely, to really love like Jesus loved.
In the story of the remarkable and unlikely friendship of millionaire art dealer Ron Hall and homeless illiterate Denver Moore, told in their book, Same Kind of Different as Me, we see the struggle in both men to set aside fear and live into love. We see how love is propelled by Deborah Hall, who had a deep enough appreciation of God’s love to push both men beyond their comfort zones into a deep and lasting friendship, not just a “catch and release” acquaintance.
We cannot achieve this fear-free, unselfish love, apart from our participation in the Holy Spirit, apart from our oneness with Christ. We can not do it, but God can do it through us. When God lives in us and we abide in God, God’s love is being perfected in us, inasmuch as we prayerfully and willingly open our lives to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Unexpected Blessings
Luke 5:1-11
Stewardship of Time & Talent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I took on the preschool class this school year because I believed our little ones at Peace needed more than an extra hour of free play in the nursery. Joy Jensen and I took it on because nobody else would. But you know what, it has been an unexpected blessing, a privilege. I love spending time with Fields Thomas and Andrew Adams, our three year olds. It is fun preparing for their class, singing with them, being silly with them, and seeing the Bible stories through their eyes. Yesterday eight of us - four youth, four adults went to Mission Beth-El to pack food, as eleven of you adults did on Thursday. I did not really want to get up earlier this morning. Some other people in my house were not happy about getting up either. I usually spend Saturday mornings polishing my sermon. But what a blessing to pack those bags, knowing that people would be blessed. At the end of our two hours, Javier counted the bags that Peace people had packed this week – 650!
Unexpected blessings come when we take on roles, to which we could easily and justifiable say “no” but which call us into a more meaningful relationship with Christ through the Church. When we say “yes” to Jesus calling, as the tired, overworked and under-successful fishermen did, our emptiness, exhaustion, and despair are transformed into fullness, gratitude, and joy.
Hear the word of the Lord:NRS Luke 5:1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
The fishermen were tired. They had worked hard all night long. They were putting things away and this teacher/preacher/healer guy wants them to take the boats out again. What a pain, but they did not resist. They went along with Jesus’ request. We can only assume that it was a hassle. Kind of like when you get home from work and have to rush to eat and get to a church meeting. It would be easier to stay home, but when you go, relationships are forged, prayers made, commitments kept, and you go home tired but renewed. At least that’s how it should be – when you are responding to a true call. This image of fishermen with their nets captivated me because if you squint your eyes, it also looks a little bit like our sound system set up. Untangling nets is kind of like untangling cords. It is work to come at 8:30 and get this place ready, and more work to tear it down at 10:40 but there’s joy in being together and doing what God has called us to do.
Because the fishermen agreed to take the boats out again, they were able to hear better than anyone else, this amazing teacher, whom they did not know was also God with us, Immanuel, but they were drawn to him.. As he finished teaching, he said, “Put your nets down in the deep water.” Now having obeyed in the first step, the Simon is a little exasperated now. Lord, we’ve already fished all night. Isn’t that enough? Note that even in his frustration Simon still says, “Well, if you say so, okay.” He really doesn’t believe anything will happen, but he’s still willing. Simon Peter doesn’t know that Jesus has an unexpected blessing.
We are like the fishermen – tired, busy, frustrated with emptiness nets or bank accounts. And Jesus says, “Let me into your boat for some teaching and fishing. We can say, “Lord, I’m too tired. It’s been a long week. I don’t have time to spend with you. We can legitimately say, “I’ve fished enough. Lord, I’m already on one ministry team in the church. I invited several friends to come to church, but they didn’t come. I visited a ministry team, but it wasn’t the right one for me. I worked in the nursery and taught Sunday school when my kids were small. My nets are empty. I have no extra time or money. Too busy, too tired. And the disciples had fished all night and their nets were empty. But they had not fished with Jesus in the boat.
When Peter, who had doubted the possibility of any fish, sees the unexpected blessing, he feel sinful for having complained about the nets, for having thought that empty nets were empty nets – with or without Jesus. He is overcome with gratitude and embarrassment for not believing that empty nets could be full nets. He’s overwhelmed with Jesus’ ability to find fish. Do you remember when this auditorium turned into a sanctuary had twice as many empty seats as full ones?
And look at the unexpected blessing.
The amazing thing to me is that when these fishermen went to shore after a successful night, they were not trying to convince Jesus to fish with them again. After all, this was a lucrative moment on the sea. No, they were dropping these their nets and following him wherever he was going. They realized that the real blessing was not catching the fish but catching a glimpse of the glory of God and devoting their lives to Christ’s service.
In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the difference between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Cheap grace, he said, is grace without a commitment and response from the believer. It is grace without servanthood. Costly grace, said Bonhoeffer, moves us to respond to the call of Jesus.
Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said the typical Christian is caught up in “admiring Christ instead of following Christ.”
The question before us is whether we want to simply be Christ admirers or whether we are bold enough to be Christ followers. No doubt, if we are courageous, we will discover unexpected blessings when we let Jesus into our boats, when we listen to him, and when we follow him.
Denny and Barbara Noto have been an unexpected blessing to Peace Presbyterian, and I think Peace has been an unexpected blessing to them, as they have committed their time and talent to Christ’s service here at Peace.
Stewardship of Time & Talent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
I took on the preschool class this school year because I believed our little ones at Peace needed more than an extra hour of free play in the nursery. Joy Jensen and I took it on because nobody else would. But you know what, it has been an unexpected blessing, a privilege. I love spending time with Fields Thomas and Andrew Adams, our three year olds. It is fun preparing for their class, singing with them, being silly with them, and seeing the Bible stories through their eyes. Yesterday eight of us - four youth, four adults went to Mission Beth-El to pack food, as eleven of you adults did on Thursday. I did not really want to get up earlier this morning. Some other people in my house were not happy about getting up either. I usually spend Saturday mornings polishing my sermon. But what a blessing to pack those bags, knowing that people would be blessed. At the end of our two hours, Javier counted the bags that Peace people had packed this week – 650!
Unexpected blessings come when we take on roles, to which we could easily and justifiable say “no” but which call us into a more meaningful relationship with Christ through the Church. When we say “yes” to Jesus calling, as the tired, overworked and under-successful fishermen did, our emptiness, exhaustion, and despair are transformed into fullness, gratitude, and joy.
Hear the word of the Lord:NRS Luke 5:1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
The fishermen were tired. They had worked hard all night long. They were putting things away and this teacher/preacher/healer guy wants them to take the boats out again. What a pain, but they did not resist. They went along with Jesus’ request. We can only assume that it was a hassle. Kind of like when you get home from work and have to rush to eat and get to a church meeting. It would be easier to stay home, but when you go, relationships are forged, prayers made, commitments kept, and you go home tired but renewed. At least that’s how it should be – when you are responding to a true call. This image of fishermen with their nets captivated me because if you squint your eyes, it also looks a little bit like our sound system set up. Untangling nets is kind of like untangling cords. It is work to come at 8:30 and get this place ready, and more work to tear it down at 10:40 but there’s joy in being together and doing what God has called us to do.
Because the fishermen agreed to take the boats out again, they were able to hear better than anyone else, this amazing teacher, whom they did not know was also God with us, Immanuel, but they were drawn to him.. As he finished teaching, he said, “Put your nets down in the deep water.” Now having obeyed in the first step, the Simon is a little exasperated now. Lord, we’ve already fished all night. Isn’t that enough? Note that even in his frustration Simon still says, “Well, if you say so, okay.” He really doesn’t believe anything will happen, but he’s still willing. Simon Peter doesn’t know that Jesus has an unexpected blessing.
We are like the fishermen – tired, busy, frustrated with emptiness nets or bank accounts. And Jesus says, “Let me into your boat for some teaching and fishing. We can say, “Lord, I’m too tired. It’s been a long week. I don’t have time to spend with you. We can legitimately say, “I’ve fished enough. Lord, I’m already on one ministry team in the church. I invited several friends to come to church, but they didn’t come. I visited a ministry team, but it wasn’t the right one for me. I worked in the nursery and taught Sunday school when my kids were small. My nets are empty. I have no extra time or money. Too busy, too tired. And the disciples had fished all night and their nets were empty. But they had not fished with Jesus in the boat.
When Peter, who had doubted the possibility of any fish, sees the unexpected blessing, he feel sinful for having complained about the nets, for having thought that empty nets were empty nets – with or without Jesus. He is overcome with gratitude and embarrassment for not believing that empty nets could be full nets. He’s overwhelmed with Jesus’ ability to find fish. Do you remember when this auditorium turned into a sanctuary had twice as many empty seats as full ones?
And look at the unexpected blessing.
The amazing thing to me is that when these fishermen went to shore after a successful night, they were not trying to convince Jesus to fish with them again. After all, this was a lucrative moment on the sea. No, they were dropping these their nets and following him wherever he was going. They realized that the real blessing was not catching the fish but catching a glimpse of the glory of God and devoting their lives to Christ’s service.
In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the difference between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Cheap grace, he said, is grace without a commitment and response from the believer. It is grace without servanthood. Costly grace, said Bonhoeffer, moves us to respond to the call of Jesus.
Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said the typical Christian is caught up in “admiring Christ instead of following Christ.”
The question before us is whether we want to simply be Christ admirers or whether we are bold enough to be Christ followers. No doubt, if we are courageous, we will discover unexpected blessings when we let Jesus into our boats, when we listen to him, and when we follow him.
Denny and Barbara Noto have been an unexpected blessing to Peace Presbyterian, and I think Peace has been an unexpected blessing to them, as they have committed their time and talent to Christ’s service here at Peace.
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