Welcoming God
Genesis 18:1-10a; Luke 10:38-42
Pentecost 8 Lectionary 16 July 18, 2010
How do you welcome God? That’s what today’s stories are about, in Genesis and Luke.
God is always coming to us. God comes to us because God loves us. It is God’s initiative. It is not because of anything we’ve done to deserve God’s attention. The consistent Biblical witness is that God desires the human creatures God has created. You want to spend time with those you love, right? You desire that, right? So too, with God, in God’s desire to be with us!
So how do you welcome God?
We read a mysterious story in Genesis this morning. You may know where we are in the wider narrative. Twenty-four years earlier, God chose Abraham and Sarah to be the patriarch and matriarch of the people God would create. Since that time, these nomadic people, Abraham and Sarah and their servants and their animals have been wandering from temporary home to temporary home. But how can it be that they will be the father and mother of a new people? Abraham and Sarah have still not produced a single child, let alone a progeny of children. And they are 99 and 89 years old, respectively! It’s hopeless, right?
We come to the scene in this morning’s story. Abraham and Sarah and their servants and their animals are dwelling at one of their stopping places, where there’s a clump of oak trees, at a place called Mamre. It is mid-afternoon. That’s the most dangerous time of day in the desert. The sun, the heat, the extreme dryness: it’s hostile to human life. Here’s what we read. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.”
This kind of hospitality is not just polite. It is life-saving. This hospitality is still offered, even today, in the desert in that part of the world. A traveler encountering a Bedouin village will be invited to stop for shelter, for rest, for tea, so that the traveler can survive in the heat of the day.
Who are these strangers who appear to Abraham? We read, The Lord appeared… But then there are three men. But then we read again that they are the Lord. It’s typical ancient middle eastern mystery.
Whatever the intent of the original story teller (or the later editor who conflated several versions of the story), there is a famous icon that illustrates how Christians have come to understand God’s appearance in this story from 
Genesis. A Russian orthodox Christian named Andrei Rublev wrote the icon around 1410. It shows the three figures sitting around a table, sharing a meal that has been served by Abraham and Sarah. (In my own version of the icon created by a contemporary artist, Abraham and Sarah are serving the three men.) So, around the table, are these three Father and Son and Holy Spirit? The Trinitarian theology that has been read into the Genesis story depicts God, internally, in relationship! And, at the forefront of the icon, there is an empty place at the table. There is the invitation to the person praying the icon to be in relationship with God as well – which, of course, is what we do, when we share the meal during our Sunday morning worship!
Isn’t this great stuff – when we get into the riches of our Christian Tradition?
In Genesis this morning, we read a mysterious story of God coming to Abraham and Sarah. How did they welcome God? Quite tangibly: with water, food, space, with a place to rest.
How do you welcome God?
God is always coming to us. God comes to us because God loves us. It is God’s initiative. It is not because of anything we’ve done to deserve God’s attention. The consistent Biblical witness is that God desires the human creatures God has created. You want to spend time with those you love, right? You desire that, right? So too, with God, in God’s desire to be with us!
What about the story we’ve read in Luke? Have you heard that one before? Is it gull of bad news for you? We know we should be like Mary! But we’re so busy! How can we be Mary, with all the demands on our time? And isn’t Martha’s work important? If Martha doesn’t keep working, how will dinner get on the table? Wouldn’t Jesus go hungry? What kind of welcome would that be?
In Jesus, God has come into human flesh. This is not because of anything human beings did to deserve God’s presence. It is purely out of God’s desire to be with us.
In this story of Martha and Mary, God comes in tangible, physical presence, into the sisters’ home! And the fact is that both Martha and Mary are welcoming God! Martha is welcoming God by what she is doing. Mary is welcoming God by sitting, listening. There is the clear message: that too much doing does prevent us from being open to what God is saying to us. God usually doesn’t hit us over the head! God’s voice is often quiet. God is speaking all the time – through other people, and through things that happen to us – but we miss that, if we’re not regularly resting in time for quiet, for prayer, for discernment. And so, when Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things”; you and I recognize that that describes our days, as well, when we are out of balance; when we are frazzled; when we are doing too much. There is much that distracts us from spending quiet time in openness to God, welcoming God.
God is always coming to us, each day, through conversations with the people we live with and work with and play with; through our experiences; in our prayers; in our reading. God comes to us because God loves us. It is God’s initiative. It is not because of anything we’ve done to deserve God’s attention. The consistent Biblical witness is that God desires the human creatures God has created. You want to spend time with those you love, right? You desire that, right? So too, with God, in God’s desire to be with us!
How do you welcome God? What practices of the faith does the Holy Spirit draw you into, so that you can welcome the God who desires us so much? How does your practice of prayer over the daily lectionary of Scripture readings lead you into an awareness of God’s presence? Perhaps it is a half hour for open prayer, with a mug of coffee; simply listening for God? Maybe it’s an hour pedaling a bicycle, or jogging, or walking the dog – activities which become prayer practice when the Spirit opens you, consciously, to God’s presence.
We welcome God when we worship; when we practice sabbath-keeping; when we say “yes” and “no” responsibly; when we limit what we buy so we can give away lots of money; when we practice forgiveness; when we practice patience, kindness, gentleness. When the Spirit uses these practices to create space for God’s presence in the midst of our day-to-day busyness, then we come to welcoming God. We come to know how much God loves us; how much God desires us.
And you know when the life of faith becomes rich and nourishing and essential? It’s when you and I come to know that all of our own wants and needs are actually our own desire for God.
Our hearts are restless until they rest in God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
Let’s Start With This: We Cannot Measure Up
Luke 10:25-37 Pentecost 7 Lectionary 15 July 11, 2010
Have you heard the story of the Good Samaritan before? Of course you have! It may be the best known story in human history. And (as we usually read it) it is a story that contains absolutely no gospel. It ends with a command that we are unable to fulfill! What a burden. What bad news.
You know how the story goes. An expert in the religious law asks Jesus a question: “Who is my neighbor?”
Have you ever noticed that Jesus doesn’t actually ever answer that question? Instead, he tells a story. There’s a man who’s beaten up, and robbed, and left for dead on the particularly dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a 17-mile route, with many twists and turns where bandits would wait. Anyone listening to Jesus would have known the danger.
So the man is lying on the road. And a priest comes up. He was most likely a priest who lived in Jericho, and who was on the way home after serving a routine two-week assignment in the temple in Jerusalem. Obviously, he couldn’t take the risk of helping the man. Let me offer some cultural background from a scholar named Kenneth Bailey. If the man was dead, the priest “would become ceremonially defiled, and … he would need to return to Jerusalem and undergo a week-long process of ceremonial purification. It would take some time to arrange such things. Meanwhile, he could not eat from the tithes or even collect them. The same ban would apply to his family and servants. Distribution to the poor would also have been impossible.” Might he simply ignore these purity rules? “If the priest became defiled and tried to serve at the altar in a state of uncleanness, he could suffer the following fate [of a previous priest]: ‘his brethren the priests did not bring him to the court, but the young men among the priests took him outside the temple Court and split open his brain with clubs.’”[1]
If you had been in the priest’s situation, aware of those consequences, would you have helped the man lying along the road? Of course not! You couldn’t have!
Next comes a Levite. “The Levites functioned in the temple as assistants to the priests. This particular Levite probably knew that a priest was ahead of him on the road and may have been an assistant to that same priest. Since the priest had set a precedent, the Levite could pass by with an easy conscience. Should a mere Levite upstage a priest? Did the Levite think he understood the law better than the priest? Furthermore, the Levite might have to face that same priest in Jericho that night. Could the Levite ride into Jericho with a wounded man whom the priest, in obedience to his understanding of the law, had opted to ignore? Such an act would be an insult to the priest!”[2]
No one listening to Jesus would have been the least bit surprised that neither the priest nor the Levite stops to help the man who looks dead. They knew the rules for those who served in the temple. What a story!
Now – how will the story end? Are Jesus’ listeners expecting that the story will end with a tidy moral – that the next person to come by will be “a good Jewish boy”; not a priest or Levite; one of God’s chosen people for whom the purity rules would not be onerous. Wouldn’t that be a nice little Sunday School lesson: now that the priest and Levite have acted properly in their roles, now God sends one of his people to take care of the man lying in the road?
But the next character Jesus introduces isn’t a good Jewish boy, is it? The next one to come by is a Samaritan!
Let’s see: what would be a comparison, today, to a Samaritan? Perhaps it would be an illegal immigrant, taking our jobs and using our hospital emergency rooms for free medical care. Or, maybe it would be a sex offender. Or an Al Qaeda terrorist. I don’t know if it’s possible to shock you with the one Jesus holds up as an example, as Jesus’ listeners would have been shocked! They would have been as astonished as the expert in the religious law, in the story, who is forced to acknowledge that this despised person is the one who showed mercy to the beaten up man.
Then comes the bad news: “Go and do likewise.” Why is that bad news? Because not one of us can do that! Oh, we can come to the aid of someone in trouble sometimes; especially when we really like the person in need (and when she hasn’t asked for help too often in the past). But a command like this always becomes bad news – because, often, you and I do not love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
Since we cannot fulfill the demands of that law – all the time, every time – we stand condemned by the law.
Let’s start with this: We cannot measure up.
That’s the bottom line of all of Jesus’ stories, in all four of the gospels, when people are asking him what is the minimum that they must do to please God. For instance, there’s the rich man in Mark, and the parallel stories in Matthew and Luke, who asks the same question as the lawyer in this morning’s story: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you remember what Jesus tells him? It’s simple: “give away everything you have to benefit the poor, and follow me.” Can the rich man do that? (Can any of us do that? None of us have! Bad news, huh?)
For instance, there are the teachings in what we call the Sermon on the Mount: that not only must you not murder, you must not even become angry; that not only must you resist the urge to commit adultery, you cannot even admire a woman’s or a man’s beauty; and so on.
Consistently Jesus establishes this as the starting point, from which we respond to his call to discipleship: we cannot measure up to the demands of God’s law. We start with that.
That means, of course, that Jesus is a Lutheran. (Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Luther was a Christian.) All of this is at the core of the theology of our Lutheran tradition of Christianity. To take one example: in the Small Catechism, Luther teaches that the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder,” means this: “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs.” Do you see how Luther does exactly the same thing as Jesus does, in the Sermon on the Mount? He pushes the commandment to its logical conclusion, so that not a single one of us can fulfill what God demands. Why? So that not a single one of us can think we can save ourselves. We are to help and support our neighbors in all of life’s needs? Who can do that? Can you respond to all of a person’s needs? And since everyone on earth is our neighbor, can you respond to all the needs of everyone on earth?
Let’s start with this: We cannot measure up.
And so, there can be no judgmentalism in Christianity – because we are all under God’s judgment. There can be no Christian reproaching another, or condemning another, or excluding another for not measuring up to some standard we’ve constructed. Because not a single one of us can measure up to God’s standard!
So how are you and I saved? It is purely by the grace-filled act of God on the cross: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
You see, the Samaritan in the story is Jesus![3] Here, again, is what Kenneth Bailey writes: “The Samaritan then risks his life by transporting the wounded man to an inn within Jewish territory. Such inns were found in villages, not in the wilderness. There are no archaeological remains to indicate that there was an inn in the midst of the wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho at the time of Jesus. The listener to the story would naturally expect the Samaritan to take the wounded man down to Jericho where an inn could be found….The Samaritan is expected to unload the wounded man at the edge of Jericho and disappear. A Samaritan would not be safe in a Jewish town with a wounded Jew over the back of his riding animal. …
“After the Samaritan paid his bill [the next morning] he had yet to escape the town. Was there a crowd awaiting him outside the inn? Was he beaten or killed? We do not know. The story is open-ended, and as with many of Jesus’ parables the listener must supply the missing conclusion. Why did the Samaritan expose himself to potential violence?”[4]
Why? Well, it was for the same reason that God in human flesh exposed himself to crucifixion so that there could be resurrection. It was simply and purely self-giving love.
The story ends with the command, “Go and do likewise.” But let’s start with this: we cannot measure up, when judged by that standard.
Are you totally depraved? Are you entirely unable to respond to that command, “Go and do likewise?” It would be ridiculous to suggest that that is true!
But how is it that you are able to respond at all – as poor as that response may be?
Whenever you go and do likewise, is that you responding, on your own, by your own powers, your own capabilities? Instead, isn’t that God within you?
So let’s be radically Lutheran. Let’s start with this: we cannot measure up. We cannot save ourselves, even a little bit. Salvation is purely a grace-filled gift from God. It is God’s act of sacrificial love.
We respond to that gift with joy! We are freed from the need to try to save ourselves! We respond to that good news by what we do. We “go and do likewise,” as the Spirit works within us to make that response possible. Our response is also a grace-filled action of God.
In the name of that God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), page 293.
[2] Ibid.
[3] This insight comes from Kenneth Bailey.
[4] Op cit, pages 295-296.
Missionaries
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Pentecost 6 Lectionary 14 July 4, 2010
This morning, I want to be blunt about the future. I want to ask: What is the church becoming? Do you recognize that we are in the midst of a fundamental transformation, that we’re having to figure out anew how to be church? (We’re right on schedule, according to the scholar Phyllis Tickle who writes that this kind of emergence happens every 500 years.[1])
For instance, long gone are the days when the church had any clout in the wider culture. (There are lots of loud voices, from various traditions of Christianity trying to influence our American culture, but they’re not influencing public policy in any detectable way.) For the first time in United States history, there is not a Protestant on the Supreme Court, which is striking to me – but most folks haven’t given that a thought. Most folks simply see the justices’ religion to be irrelevant! It doesn’t even matter enough to consider!
Long gone are the days when, to be a citizen in good standing, you had to belong to a church.
Long gone are the days when people “went to church” because they “should.” Now, you are here, gathered as church, because you are drawn into this community by your need for spiritual and personal nourishment through Word and Sacrament.
Long gone are the days when a pastor exercised unquestioned authority, simply because of his role. My father used to love to tell the story from his childhood, of an encounter between his father and their pastor. The Ballentine family lived only a few doors down from the church building, in Lexington, South Carolina. One Monday morning, as my grandfather was getting into his car to go to work, their pastor happened to be outside the church building. He flagged down my grandfather and said, “Oh! I’m surprised to see that you’re able to go to work today, since you weren’t able to make it to worship yesterday!” My Dad said that, to his knowledge, his mortified father never once missed worship again.
Today, what would be the reaction of a member, if I laid that kind of guilt trip on her? (Believe me, plenty of times I’ve been tempted!) But if I did something like that, chances are very good that I would never see the errant member again. Long gone are the days when someone would accept that kind of authoritarian approach from their pastor.
There’s a great transformation going on, not only in the church, but in culture, in technology, in peoples’ assumptions. And that’s affecting the church. Gone are the days when something printed on paper provided people with their first contact with our congregation. Now, it’s the web site. It’s facebook.
Gone are the days when a church staff member could create a great program and then simply open the doors and offer the program to the hoards of people who would come. Now a church staff member needs to be a missionary, out of the office, among the folks, on “their turf.” (How hard that is, though! It means that the church staff member has to actively resist becoming caught up in the myriad of institutional maintenance duties that keeps him in the office!)
More and more it will be true that newcomers will join a congregation, not because of programs, but because of relationships. (That’s especially true among those now in their teens and 20s. That is why an expanded narthex is absolutely necessary to our future as a congregation: today, in our culture, relationships most often form during spontaneous encounters – around the coffee pot or the food pantry basket, or at Starbucks or Panera Bread – rather than through structured, formal programs back in the Fellowship Hall.)
Are you aware of what is emerging? The Spirit is presenting us with entirely new realities and opportunities, and the church will dwindle if we keep doing church the way we have over the past several generations. This is how we must read this morning’s story from Luke. Let me be blunt: if the church is to survive after you and I die, it will be because the Spirit has moved us to be missionaries. That’s because the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a strange and alien message to most. Most don’t know what it means! More threatening, most in our culture dismiss its importance.
There is a gift in that! It means that we know better than in years past what the first generations of the Jesus movement were encountering. That shows up in the gospel stories we read. For instance, have you ever noticed that Jesus never once set up a Bible study series and then sat in the church Fellowship Hall, waiting for people to come to him? No, he worked one-on-one, or with small groups, on peoples’ own turfs. In nearly every case, people did not come to Jesus. He went to them.
In fact, Jesus was usually not well-received! We are reading through a section in the gospel of Luke, in which most folks are rejecting what Jesus is bringing to them! When I was in Israel, I was thrilled to be in Capernaum, and in Bethsaida, villages in which Jesus lived and did much of his teaching and healing. How stunning, then, to read the stories again – and to notice that, in this section of Luke, Jesus exclaims, “Woe to you, Bethsaida!”[2] – because the people of Peter’s home town of Bethsaida have not responded to his good news! Out of the same vexation Jesus complains about the people living in his own village: “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.”[3]
This rejection, this exasperation, (and a belief that the end of time will come any day) causes Jesus to issue urgent instructions in the verses we read this morning. There is anger. If I may be so bold: there is even judgmentalism in Jesus’ directives to his missionary advance teams!) Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. (Do you remember the story, in Genesis, of how God destroyed the town of Sodom for their sinfulness? That’s what Jesus is referring to.)
“Peace to this house!” the missionaries are to say. This is not a banal greeting, like “How ya doin’?” This is the offering of the kingdom of God! Jesus sends his missionaries out with real power!
Jesus commands his missionaries to do three things: eat what is provided, accepting folks’ hospitality; cure the sick; and announce the kingdom. Some will listen. Some will receive and share in the peace of the kingdom. But when you encounter those who do not, Jesus says, don’t waste your time on them!
So, what do you think, assembled missionaries? Are these our marching orders? Are you ready to do all of these things?
If not, don’t worry; because these things would never work today, in our culture. If we tried these tactics, people would receive us with the same openness that you receive a telemarketer at dinner time.
If the church is to survive after you and I die, it will be because the Spirit has moved us to be missionaries. What will that look like? Long gone are the days of big evangelism programs, sent down from church headquarters. Our missionary work will only be effective on a small scale; one to one, or in small groups. And this is important: our missionary work will only be effective when we’re inviting people we are already in relationship with. An invitation into the community of Christ will only be welcome when the other person knows you and trusts you; and when you are alert to notice that she is in need (so you’re not offering something she doesn’t need!); and when you engage in conversation that is genuine; nothing artificial; inviting, not threatening.
Here’s how it works. How has your faith in Jesus’ resurrection given you comfort and hope, when a loved one has died? How have you struggled with that? How has your congregation helped you; as others have bolstered your faith? Talk about that. That’s not hard to do, is it? That’s the kind of honest conversation you can offer to someone you know, who is struggling through grief, for instance – but who is not embedded in a faith community to give him support. What’s necessary is a relationship between the two of you, and trust, and an alertness to the other’s need. That’s where an invitation is welcome!
Here’s another example. How do you see your work to be a calling from God? Talk about that. That’s not hard to do! That’s the kind of conversation you can have with someone you know, who sees no point, who is cynical and bitter – and who is not embedded in a faith community of others who can help us make sense. Where there is relationship, and trust, and an alertness to the other’s need, that’s where an invitation is welcome.
So, on the one hand, I don’t think Jesus’ instructions to be immediately judgmental apply to us – because oftentimes, an invitation and acceptance of the invitation takes place incrementally, over time, over months and years.
But, on the other hand, Jesus’ instructions to go out, away from the comfort of this worship space, certainly do apply to us, because it’s “out there” where the Spirit gives us opportunity for missionary conversations, to extend gentle, loving, genuine invitations that the other person will welcome!
As the Spirit does that, through us, the church will survive and thrive – even after you and I have died.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] See Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008)
[2] Luke 10:13
[3] Luke 10:15
Obeying God’s Law
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Pentecost 5 Lectionary 13 June 27, 2010
How do we obey God’s law?
St. Paul writes this, in his letter to the Galatians: For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” How do we do that?
“Morality” is such a big topic. It’s a battle of good versus evil. We need to establish what is right, and fight what is wrong. How do we do that?
One approach is to have lots of rules, defining what is right and what is wrong. There are groups who are really big on law. There are anti-gay groups, for instance, working to establish and strengthen laws against homosexuality. The more laws the better! Is that what it means to obey God’s law? But what does it mean, that leaders of those groups have turned out to be gay themselves? There are groups dedicated to the protection of marriage and the family (as they define marriage and family, of course!). The more laws the better! Is that what it means to obey God’s law? But what does it mean, when leaders of those groups are found to be engaging in extra-marital affairs?
Does a long list of “thou shalt nots” even have an effect? Law keeps people in line when the enforcing agency has enough coercive power to punish people with enough pain. That’s why the police are able to maintain order. But even so, crimes are committed every day. And, if you drive the speed limit between here and Richmond, all but three vehicles going in your direction will pass you! If I ever see a driver actually stop at a stop sign when there’s no traffic coming, I’ll faint. “Thou shalt nots” are routinely ignored.
Maybe rules of behavior were observed more closely when there was more shame in our culture. One of the reasons why there are so few children for a childless couple to adopt is because there is no longer any shame for an unmarried woman or girl who bears a child. Of course, it is important to remember that shame is a two-edged sword. There are many whose lives have been ruined by shame over something that’s no longer considered a big deal, and it’s a good thing that it’s no longer a big deal!
I think rules are obeyed when there is ownership of those rules, when they become part of who we are. We who obey God’s law want to live according to that law! I think it’s that simple. It’s a matter of formation in the faith, through the practices of the faith, so that we come to desire what God desires for us. Here’s when we obey God’s law: when we are formed by the Spirit to love others as God loves us. St. Paul expresses it this way, in this morning’s excerpt from his letter to the Christians at Galatia: For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
To those who think religion consists of a long list of “thou shalt nots,” this is an entirely different way of thinking about obeying God’s law. Indeed, it is stunning that Paul even wrote this, since, you remember, Paul was a Pharisee before he became a missionary for Jesus. You remember who the Pharisees were, don’t you? They were the ones who maintained and enforced the rules of right and wrong among the people of God during the period before and just after Jesus!
But what an impossible task that is! How complicated everything becomes when someone asks the simple question: “What does this law mean?”
That’s the reason why there are major portions of Hebrew scripture! The 10 Commandments appear in the Book of Exodus and Deuteronomy, in parallel stories. There are only 10 Commandments. But what do they mean? Biblical writers try to answer that question –in the 20 chapters that follow in Exodus; and the 27 chapters of Leviticus, which is the next book; and in much of the book of Numbers, which follows Leviticus; and in nearly all of Deuteronomy which comes after Numbers! Whew!
When St. Paul writes to the Galatians, For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; he’s not making anything up. He’s simply quoting Leviticus 19:18. The Galatians would have recognized that as a basic teaching. But what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Is there a way to avoid ending up with hundreds of religious laws to try to define that?[1]
Jesus tried to avoid that. When he was asked the question, “Who is my neighbor? Who is the one I’m supposed to love?” he told a story. It involves a man who’s beaten up and a Samaritan who takes care of him. Remember that story?
Here, in Galatians, Paul also tries an alternative to a set of rules. Paul sees that the law of God is not adequate to the task of guiding morality. In fact, Paul warns the Galatians away from what he calls slavery to that law! For freedom Christ has set us free, Paul writes. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Does freedom mean to “do your own thing?” Not at all! Listen again to what Paul writes: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Can morality be legislated? According to Paul, the result is slavery to the law that is developed to keep people in line! Paul is calling followers of Jesus to freedom from that! Here is Paul’s alternative. Because Jesus the Christ has died to sin, to brokenness, to lawlessness, we are freed to live the life of resurrection. You and I are freed from the need to be grasping and defensive and self-serving. You and I are freed to love others as we love ourselves. If we are self-indulgent and self-centered and selfish, then we are still in slavery! But instead, because Christ is raised from the dead, we are freed from all of that! We can now be devoted to each other; to caring for each other’s needs. In a Christian community like that, we can live in joy!
What does it mean to be self-indulgent, self-centered, selfish? Paul provides one of his famous lists! It is when we selfishly abuse each other by engaging in fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Paul warns us against these behaviors because we damage other people when we act in this way! Behavior like this does not bring in the kingdom of God – the joy, the fullness of mutual life that God intends for us. And so, Paul urges followers of Jesus to Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
That does not mean that our flesh is bad! It means: do not gratify your sinful desires to be selfish and self-centered, as illustrated by that list! Instead, love others as you love yourself.
What does that look like? Paul provides another list – of how we live when God the Holy Spirit forms us to love others as we love ourselves: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. Paul has taken us beyond the law as a collection of rules of right and wrong.
Paul continues: [T]hose who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified our self-indulgent ways, our self-centeredness, our selfishness.
Do you find that that’s true? Sometimes, I hope! Sometimes others see in me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You too?
Of course, often, others don’t see that fruit of the Spirit in me! And, so, I continue on the journey, with you, in community. We return to the baptismal font each week, to confess where we have engaged in fornication, or idolatry, or strife, or jealousy, or anger, or anything else on that list. We pray that God the Holy Spirit will form us in this community, so that the Spirit will bear fruit within you and me, so that others can see the Spirit in our behavior. Paul writes, If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
That’s where this morning’s reading ends, and where chapter five of Galatians ends, that abruptly. It’s as if Paul doesn’t know how to stop making lists – so he simply stops writing! Or maybe he stops because this could so easily again become a set of rules of right and wrong that would lead to slavery.
Instead, the Christian life is to be marked by freedom from our need to be selfish and self-centered, greedy and grasping. Instead, the Christian is to live full of desire – the desire to care for each other. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] One tradition among Jews today are that there are 613 laws, or mitzvoth, divided into 248 “positive” mitzvot, commandments to do something; and 365 “negative” mitzvot, commandments not to do something!
When We Have Lost Control
Luke 8:26-39 Pentecost 4 Lectionary 12 June 20, 2010
Are you in control?
Don’t you like to think you are? Isn’t it true – that, when everything is running smoothly, we like to think that’s because we’re managing everything so well! We can show each other how in control we are – by how everything’s organized on our smart phones; and by the efficient and productive way we accomplish and check off items on those “to do” lists; and by those schedules posted on our refrigerator doors, color-coded for every member of the family. We’ve got everything under control. Right?
Then there’s the diagnosis of cancer. Or, you miss a step and, lying on the ground you can tell by the pain that you’ve broken a bone. Or, you’re sitting there, stunned, because the boss has called you in to tell you that you’re included in the new wave of layoffs. We have lost control. We have entered new territory.
This morning’s story in Luke is about entering that new territory.
The story is dramatic and entertaining! It is highly stylized. It’s full of metaphor – which means that the story is about much more than the actual events of the story. (That’s often true with stories in the Bible.)
The story begins, actually, out on the lake, in the scene just before, in the 8th chapter of Luke. There we read, One day [Jesus] got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm.
Do some of you remember that story? Where were they going, “across to the other side of the lake?” That location is named in the first verse of this morning’s reading: Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
This geography is compact. The Sea of Galilee is actually a very large lake. It’s 13 miles long and eight miles wide, and all of this is happening at the northern end of the lake. From the region of Galilee to “the country of the Gerasenes,” the fishing boat would be sailed across a corner of the lake. You would be able to see the hilly terrain of the far shore.
But you wouldn’t want to go there! Not if you’re one of God’s people, following the purity rules laid down in the religious system. That’s Gentile territory over there, “the country of the Gerasenes.” In fact, in the imagination of many of God’s people, that’s cursed territory over there. That’s where the demonic is! It’s evil!
The gospel writer has assembled these stories for people who know that. Here’s how the Biblical scholar Bargil Pixner puts it:
“What prompted Jesus to say, ‘Let us go to the other side?’ Was it missionary zeal suddenly awakened or a deliberate challenge to the powers of the underworld? …
“What did the Jewish prophet want in this pagan area where Satan reigned supreme? …
“Exhausted by the day’s work Jesus lay down to rest, his head on a pillow in the back of the boat, and soon he fell asleep. Suddenly the powers of the underworld launched their attack to prevent this dangerous man from breaking into their realm. A tremendous storm sprang up to drown this venture in the waters of the Gennesaret.[1] Awaked by the frightened apostles Jesus rose up and took charge.
“As in earlier exorcisms he threatened the wind and he rebuked the evil spirit of chaos. ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
“The first obstacle had no sooner been overcome, when the second one was already in store. ‘Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him.’”[2]
This guy who confronts Jesus is really scary! For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” – for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.)
What a lot is going on here! For one thing, the demon knows who Jesus is! Did you notice that? Do you remember what Jesus’ own disciples have no idea about that? In the scene just before, when Jesus calms the storm, his disciples say, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” You see what the gospel writer is doing. While we human beings bumble around, trying to fathom who Jesus is and what he is doing, the elemental spirits of the underworld know very well! And there is a battle of God versus and evil, isn’t there? There can be no accommodation between God and evil, can there?
And there’s the issue of ritual purity and filthiness in this story. Is Jesus holy? Sent from God? Then he shouldn’t even be here, by the understandings of God’s people! He’s making himself unclean, just by stepping out on shore! The unclean, demon-possessed man, living among pagan tombs, which are intensely unclean. It can’t get any worse than this! Well, actually, it can, and it does. What are those animals nearby? Pigs!! (Do any of you know about kosher food regulations?)
Imagine the disciples’ bewilderment as they find themselves in this predicament with Jesus. Imagine how outrageous this story would have sounded to those who first heard it. And – imagine the victory in what Jesus does. What does Jesus do? He commands the unclean spirits to come out of the man. (There is a legion of them, we discover.) Where does Jesus send them? Into the herd of pigs – those unclean animals – who then rush down the steep bank into the lake and are drowned! (At this point, there would have been wild cheering and clapping and stomping of feet among God’s people listening to this story! Hooray! God wins over evil! What a total victory!)
You and I are in a far different time and place. But there is good news in this strange story for us, because we’ve spent plenty of time in “the country of the Gerasenes.”
You’ve been there whenever you’ve lost control. When the nurse has called from the hospital: “He’s not going to live very long. You need to come now.” When the doctor has explained the problem discovered in the mammogram and has given you the name of a good surgeon. When your little company has been bought by a big company, and the new bosses have said, “We’re closing your office. But we can offer you a job in our Salt Lake City office.”
At times like this, haven’t you lost control? Aren’t you dealing with forces greater than yourself?
Are those forces demonic? That’s the world view of the stories of the Bible, of course. Demons could enter through a person’s ears, or nose, or mouth. (Sounds like the warnings we receive against those demonic cold viruses, doesn’t it?) Knowing this world view enriches the many Bible stories, which are about demonic chaos. For instance, whenever a story is set in the desert wilderness, know that that’s especially dangerous – because that is out among the demons. For the cultures that produced the Bible, under the surface of the sea all is demonic chaos. So that becomes part of the meaning of a story of the Bible that’s set on a body of water.
But you and I are a lot smarter than that, right? We know that it’s barometric pressures and weather fronts that cause storms and droughts, don’t we? We know about bacteria and infections, and that it’s chemical imbalances that cause mental illness. There’s no such thing as demon possession.
Right?
But aren’t there forces greater than ourselves that are malevolent?
And, even though it’s dangerous to call something “evil” – because then we tend to lose sight of the fact that we are complicit in any evil – don’t we pray “Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil?”
In the face of destructive forces that are greater than we are, there are plenty of times during the journey when you and I have lost control.
And here’s the thing. Here’s the good news. God is there. Precisely there. In our flesh. During those times of chaos: “Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’”[3]
That’s what’s going on in these stories from Luke. Jesus is with his friends in the boat, sailing right into the storm of evil and chaos. The boat gets to the shore, and Jesus steps right into the danger, to confront the evil, right there in the country of the Geresenes, where we find ourselves so often.
At the end of the story we read: The man from whom the demons had gone begged [Jesus] that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Isn’t that what you and I are to do? We gather in community, each week. Each of us is at different places on the journey each week. Each week, some of us are suffering in different ways. Each week, there are some of us who have lost control in grief, or in an acute anxiety, or in a particular fear. All of us have been in those places on the journey.
But each week others of us who have been carried by God out of the country of the Geresenes – and so we can proclaim how much Jesus has done for us, again; God who ventures right there with us into the chaos. We can tell each other what God has done, again; how that herd of pigs has been sent into the sea this time! We can lift each other up. We can carry each other. (Who knows if I will need you to be carrying me next week?)
There is great strength and support that God gives to us, isn’t there; in that mutual conversation and consolation; in the community of faith?
Thanks be to God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] The alternate name for the Sea of Galilee.
[2] Bargil Pixner, With Jesus through Galilee According to the Fifth Gospel, (Rosh Pina, Israel: Corazin Publishing, 1992), pages 42-43. Notice that the quotes from the story are slightly different from what we read in Luke. Pixner is writing about the version of this same story as it appears in the gospel of Mark.
[3] Matthew 1:23
Grace And Forgiveness That Is Radical And Offensive!
Luke 7:36 – 8:3 Lectionary 10 Pentecost 3 June 11, 2010
Are you ready to be sent out into the world, to cause trouble in the name of Christ? That’s what the story from Luke does this morning!
You and I who are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection are called to do this (quoting from the liturgy for baptism):
“proclaim Christ through word and deed,
“care for others and the world God made,
“and work for justice and peace.”
In other words, you and I are sent out to continue the work of Jesus the Christ. And that means (according to this morning’s story), that we are sent to be radical and offensive – with grace and forgiveness!
Is it hard to even envision that grace and forgiveness can be radical and offensive? I think it may be – because we’ve thought for so long that “church” = “conventional”; or, “don’t rock the boat.” So, let me try to make a connection between us as church and our radical and offensive Lord of the Church.
In a few minutes, we’ll sing that old chestnut of a hymn: “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.” Does that hymn makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside? Let’s look at it through the lens of this morning’s story from Luke.
Jesus is invited into the home of a Pharisee, for a meal. There are other Pharisees present. This invitation is anything but innocuous.
You may know that the Pharisees were charged with policing the religious law of God’s people. The Pharisees are set up as villains in many gospel stories, but it’s important to be fair to them. The reality is that God’s people were a distinct minority in the land, and the worship of God was always in danger of being swallowed up by the prevailing culture of Roman gods. From the best of intentions, the Pharisees were doing their best to preserve holiness among those who were worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To do this, the Pharisees’ job was to enforce the religious laws that would keep people separate and unstained by the world.
Meanwhile, what was Jesus doing? He was criticizing that religious system, and in public! Claiming to be a teacher of Israel, he was attracting crowds of followers. What did the Pharisees think of Jesus? We see that in this morning’s story.
The story quickly becomes filled with dramatic tension. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.
What courage this woman has! She’s identified as “a sinner,” and in our sex-saturated culture, many of us assume that she is a prostitute. Who knows? To the story-teller, it’s not important. Whatever she has done has excluded her from the community of God’s people. She is excluded from worship. She has transgressed against the religious law. She is unclean. And she will make anyone who comes into contact with her unclean as well.
And here’s the thing: there is a well-prescribed three-step process for how she can be restored to holiness. She would know these rules. First she must confess her sins. Then go into the court of the women in the temple – to draw as close to the divine presence of God in the holy of holies as a woman is allowed – and offer an animal sacrifice to make compensation for her sins. Then she must demonstrate her sincerity by keeping the law from that time forward.[1] Why does she not do that? We can only speculate. Has she tried to go that route, and been humiliated by one of the men enforcing the rules? Has she been turned away, declared beyond salvation?
One thing we can be sure of. She has a deep hunger for God. And, since something has prevented her from pursuing the conventional route to forgiveness of sins, she is risking spectacular humiliation by doing what she is doing. She is desperately drawn to Jesus.
She crosses the border from sinfulness into the holiness of the Pharisee’s home. She smuggles an alabaster jar of ointment across the border. And here’s what we read: She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. I cannot tell you how scandalous this would have been! Not only is she is touching Jesus! She has loosened her hair – which is absolutely forbidden for a woman, because hair is so sexually provocative! The religious rules prescribe that a woman cover her hair when out in public; some rules stipulate that she cover her hair even at home. Jesus is allowing this eroticism to happen!
The Pharisee’s reaction is utterly predictable. Now when the Pharisee who had invited [Jesus] saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him – that she is a sinner.” And now things get really interesting.
Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” ”Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” And now, Jesus has trapped Simon the Pharisee.
Jesus uses the illustration of 500 denarii. Those listening to the story would have gasped at the size of the debt! The amount was the wages for 500 days of work, since a working man earned a denari a day. And Jesus’ listerners would have known that, since the working man would have to spend that denari that day to buy food and clothing and shelter, he could never accumulate 500 denarii! In other words, Jesus has named a debt that can never be paid back.
In the story of Jesus and the woman who is “a sinner” in the Pharisee’s house, who is the one who can never pay back her debt? It is the woman, of course! But who is the debtor who owes 50 denarii? Ah ha! Do you see how Jesus has just called Simon the Pharisee a sinner, too?
Maybe Simon is not a sinner in the same class as the woman. But here’s the point: no one is holy – if holiness is defined as following religious rules well enough! All fall short. That’s what Jesus is saying, with this audacious story.
What’s next? Well, it turns out that Simon the Pharisee has invited Jesus into his house to publicly humiliate him, in the presence of an audience of fellow Pharisees that he’s gathered to laugh along with him. Here’s how we find this out. Jesus turns toward the woman and says to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.” Here’s what Jesus has done. He’s listed the ways Simon has insulted him by ignoring the most basic social graces. Let’s see. What if you invited someone to dinner, and opened the door to let her in, and then sat down. No offer to take her coat. No offer of anything to eat or drink. No instructions of where to find the bathroom.
Can you imagine? In fact, it was even worse, in the ancient middle eastern cultural setting of this story. Simon’s snubs are not simply impolite. They are dishonorable! We don’t have to wait until the cross to see the humiliation of our Lord.
Who is giving honor to Jesus? That’s right: it is the woman who is “a sinner!” Jesus says to Simon the Pharisee, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Holiness, Jesus is teaching us, is not a matter of following religious rules, and keeping oneself unstained and pure. Holiness is the opposite! Holiness is getting right into the muck. Holiness is bring grace and forgiveness to those who are most despised; those who are most unclean. That’s awfully radical. That’s awfully offensive.
For Jesus, the result of this radical and offensive grace is that there will be no escaping the cross. It is only a matter of time. You and I are called to carry our crosses, our ministries, our work continuing the work of the Christ.
Here’s the third verse of the hymn that we’ll sing, in just a minute:
For the love of God is broader
than the measures of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make this love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify its strictness
with a zeal God will not own.
Such grace and forgiveness is radical and offensive to those who think religion is a set of rules of right and wrong. And, since lots of people think that’s true, those of us who are willing to live the radical and offensive baptismal life are going to be causing big trouble!
But isn’t it exciting to be part of what God is doing in the world?
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] For my understanding of the religious and cultural rules of Jesus’ day, I am indebted to Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, IL, IVP Academic, 2008). Pages 227-238 comment on this story from Luke specifically.
On Dying And Rising
Luke 7:11-17 Pentecost 2 Lectionary 10 June 6, 2010
By this point in Luke’s story, Jesus has been attracting a lot of attention, and a large crowd is going around with him. Jesus has been astonishing people by what he’s been saying in the synagogues of Nazareth and Capernaum; and by causing the miraculous catch of fish in the Sea of Galilee; and by eating with tax collectors and other sinners (which means he’s been openly and publicly defiling himself!). Many in the crowd are tagging along because they’re wondering, “What’s this guy going to do next?!”
This morning’s story certainly would have been a dramatic “next.” They’ve come to a town called Nain, which is about a day’s walk southwest of Jesus’ home base in the town of Capernaum. Envision the scene. Jesus and his large crowd have come to the gate of the town. And they encounter another large crowd coming out of the town. It’s a tragic procession. We read, a man who had died was being carried out. And it gets worse: He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow.
In that short sentence, this master story teller sets up a situation of great pathos. The woman’s husband has died. And so, the tragedy of her son’s death is not going to be that she’ll be lonely. The question is whether the woman will even be able to survive!
In that ancient society, remember that a woman (who was not a prostitute) had no protection – unless she was a member of a man’s household. A girl was part of her father’s household. Then she became a wife who was cared for by her husband. A widow was sheltered by her son (if she was blessed to have a son).
Imagine the desolation, the desperation of the woman who has lost her husband and now her son. Here is how Jesus responds: When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Compassion. Jesus is consistently compassionate. Let me ask you: is Jesus God, come into our human flesh? Is Jesus the ultimate revelation of God? We know who God is and what God is because of Jesus, right? Then we must say that compassion is the central characteristic of God. Then we can point to Jesus, in the compassion of Jesus’ followers.
Here’s what happens next in the story. Then [Jesus] came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. (He touches the frame carrying the corpse or coffin! He has made himself unclean yet again! Any furious Pharisees are thinking “What is with this guy?”)
And [Jesus] said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” And now, get this: The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
What joy!! Right? Imagine the woman’s indescribable joy! She is saved! She will survive!
But wait. What do we read next? Fear seized all of them …
Fear! Fear seized all of them? Wow. Doesn’t that suggest that we domesticate the God of the Bible? Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.
This is a story about dying and rising. It’s a story about the young man and his mother. Do you recognize that this is a story about you and me? We’re dying and rising all the time. The question, I suppose, is whether we recognize that this is “a God thing” (as my spiritual director puts it); whether we recognize that this is the baptismal life.
The imagery of dying and rising comes from the way St. Paul explains the good news of Jesus the Christ, and this is basic to the church’s understanding of baptism. The liturgy of baptism contains an excerpt from these words Paul writes to the Christians living in Rome: What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.[1] Do you hear how Paul uses the imagery of dying to sin?
Paul is even more explicit in a few verses of Galatians that were in the reading for this past Wednesday, in the daily lectionary I use: For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.[2] If God’s good favor comes through what we do, to try to please God, then Christ died for nothing.
We “walk in newness life” when we are living in the resurrection. We die to sin. We die to the law. And we rise! We rise to be free from the law.
In other words, Christ frees us from the need to justify ourselves, to prove ourselves, according to external standards (the law).
To put it another way – God’s new life comes to us when we know we are freed from the need to save ourselves; and when we respond, in that freedom, by living a Christ-like life.
And so, we die to ourselves, so that we can rise; so that we can live in the resurrection which has already begun. Time and again, our lives include dying and rising, if we’re conscious of the journey.
I’m reading a challenging book by James Davison Hunter, entitled To Change the World. He writes, “in contrast to the kingdoms of this world, [Christ’s] kingdom manifests the power to bless, unburden, serve, heal, mend, restore, liberate.”[3] Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Imagine the resurrection life of feeling blessed; unburdened; free to serve; open to healing; able to mend brokenness; restoration; liberation!
So, where are you unable to live in these ways? That is where you need to die to yourself.
To use some of this language, to offer examples: What burdens you; what is the law for you, which prevents you from feeling blessed? Why are you so hard on yourself that you are preoccupied with what you can’t fix – and so you cannot rejoice in the blessings of each day? What can you let go, to die to that part of yourself; so that God might lift you up, so that you might rise; so that you might walk in newness of life?
What prevents you from serving another person who needs comfort, or care – or a kick in the pants? Is it fear? Are you afraid of intruding on the other person’s privacy? (Boy, privacy is certainly a god that we worship in our culture!) More dramatically, if your servanthood to the other person would be to stop your enabling of her destructive behavior, are you afraid that you might make her angry at you? Let go! Die to those fears so that God might lift you up; so that you might rise, to walk in newness of life.
What is it that prevents you from feeling blessed, unburdened, free to serve, open to healing, able to mend brokenness, restored, liberated? What do you need to die to, in yourself, so that you might rise, to walk in newness of life?
In the daily prayer book I use, this is part of the prayer for Thursday mornings: “Pour into our hearts the living water of your grace, that we may be refreshed to live this day in joy, confident of your presence, and empowered by your peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”[4]
What is it within you that prevents you from being empowered by the peace of Christ? What do you need to die to, in yourself, so that God might lift you up; so that you might rise, to walk in newness of life?
What is it within you that prevents you from living this day in joy? What do you need to die to, in yourself, so that God might lift you up; so that you might rise, to walk in newness of life?
“Young man,” Jesus says in this morning’s story, “I say to you, rise!”
Doesn’t Jesus say the same thing, to you and me?
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Romans 6:1-4
[2] Galatians 2:19-21
[3] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2010), page 193.
[4] Book of Common Worship Daily Prayer (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press), page 39.
How Do We Experience God?
The Holy Trinity May 30, 2010
This is the Sunday of the Holy Trinity. This is the only Sunday of the year that the theme of worship is a doctrine of the Church. I never know how to approach the preaching on Holy Trinity Sunday. There’s no story to get into!
The past couple of years, I’ve used this as an opportunity for teaching. I’ve worked through the words and phrases and issues of the Nicene Creed. Those affirmations we make in the Creed are anything but boring! When we leave behind the idea that the Creed provides a check list of beliefs necessary to be “true believers,” and get into the mindset of the ancient Christians who actually composed the Creed, we find that the words and phrases are not limiting, but that they open us to the mystery of God who is beyond comprehension! What exciting stuff!
But – who remembers what I taught about the Creed, the past two years? (I didn’t think so. When such teaching happens in a sermon, the problem is retention. Teaching like this is better to do in a classroom setting, where we can process, and try out new understandings on each other; where there can be conversation and questioning. Then it can come to mean something!)
The basic theme, every year, on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity is: How do we experience God? So – this year I’m going to tell a story about a recent experience, to provide an example of the experiences of God that you and I are having all the time! We experience God daily – as Father and Son and Holy Spirit! We don’t have to see a burning bush, or a sensational miracle to experience God. It’s a question of recognizing God. Let me tell you what I mean.
Some of you know that, two Sundays ago, Patty and I left right after worship and drove up to New York City because our daughter was to receive a Masters Degree from Columbia University Teachers College the next day. (We could only stay for two nights and one day because Patty has a real job, and she couldn’t be away for longer than that. The long drives up and back were tough, and we didn’t get much sleep either night. But our one day with Emily and Sheldon was wonderful!
We got to see Emily and Sheldon’s apartment. And we got to meet our grand dog! The puppy’s name is “Letizia,” which is Italian for “joy!” And, since the kids live on 103rd Street in Manhattan, only one block west of Central Park, when they take our grand dog out for a walk in the park, it’s Central Park! Pretty cool, huh?
On graduation day, the ceremony wasn’t until 6:00 PM, and it was to be only a short walk away in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, so we were able to enjoy a relaxing day.
Emily had made reservations for lunch at a Turkish restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. As we were walking from the apartment to the restaurant, Emily said, “There’s Trinity Lutheran Church.” I was very interested, because that’s where Haley Poynter, from our congregation, and now a student at Gettysburg Seminary, will be doing her internship next year! Only four blocks from Emily and Sheldon’s apartment!
On the way back from lunch, I said I wanted to stop in at the church and introduce myself to the pastor there and explain the connection with Haley. It turns out that the pastor wasn’t there – because she was at Gettysburg Seminary, at a team-building event with her intern for next year! But Emily introduced us to a staff member she knew at the church, named Annie Lizardi. Annie is the Spanish Ministry Leader at Trinity. She was welcoming students who were arriving for an after-school enrichment program, and, meanwhile, she encouraged us to poke around the building.
The building is in terrible shape, and there’s very little money to fix the problems. Several walls reveal severe water damage. It’s easy to see how shabby the gothic worship space has become, because there’s too much light coming in through the windows. They are clear glass. The Tiffany stained glass windows had to be sold some time in the past so there could be money to keep the church open.
But along the walls! Folk art, bold and colorful; illustrating Biblical passages and themes, obviously the work of one artist. I was quite taken with it, and I asked Annie about the art. She said it was the work of a congregation member named Angelo Romano, a native of Spain who speaks no English, who makes his art in his tiny apartment on 107th Street. She said that, when he sells a piece, he keeps half the money and gives the other half to the church. She told me I should look around in the fellowship hall downstairs, too, because it’s full of more pieces!
And, at that moment, down the sidewalk, walked the artist! He is a tall, elegant man; in his 70s, I would guess.
Annie introduced us to Mr. Romano, telling him, “He is a pastor, and this is his wife and daughter. With a nearly extinct old-world reverence for a pastor, he grasped my hand in both of his; and when he heard that Patty was my wife, he took her hand, kissed it, and held it to his chest! Then he led us down the stairs to look at his art.
What a display! Since I knew where the money would go, I wanted to buy something. But how to decide? There was so much! After about 10 minutes, Annie came over and said that Mr. Romano wanted us at the other end of the room. (He cannot speak English, remember, and I know nothing of Spanish, so Annie was our translator.) On a long table at the end of the room were laid out four pieces of Mr. Romano’s art. Annie said, “He wants to give these to you, so you can hang them in your church.”
Patty, Emily and I looked at each other with disbelief! I was just overwhelmed! I asked Annie to tell Mr. Romano, “I accept your gift for my church. However, I will send a contribution to Trinity church in thanksgiving.” When he heard Annie say this in Spanish, he looked at me and clasped his hands to his chest in joy!
I want you to see the art he has given us.
So, what does all of this have to do with the Sunday of the Holy Trinity? It’s an example of how we experience God – as Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Let’s do a little bit of Trinitarian theology.
Where does the creativity of an artist come from? From God the Father, who is the Creator of all our gifts. All of us have the ability to be creative, because of what God creates within us, day by day! How are you creative? In other words, how do you experience God as Father?
Mr. Romano gives way half of his income to his congregation. He gives away art to this congregation of ours, that he knows nothing about. Where does that generosity come from? Generosity is a gift of God the Holy Spirit. It is one of many gifts of the Spirit. As St. Paul writes in Romans, We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.[1] There are several lists of spiritual gifts in Paul’s letters. What are your spiritual gifts and talents? In other words, how do you experience God as Holy Spirit?
And the experience of God as Son. Well, that was all over the place, during our visit to Trinity Lutheran Church. Christ is alive there! That’s true in their witness, in their tenacious ministry in that place. We saw God in the face of Annie Lizardo, and of Angelo Romano, and in the faces of the children who were assembling in that church basement for the afternoon enrichment program. Are you alert to God in the faces that you see each day? In other words, how do you experience God the Son?
Happy Holy Trinity Sunday!
In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Romans 12:6-8
The Holy Spirit Bearing Witness With Our Spirits That We Are Children of God
Romans 8:14-17; John 14:8-17, 25-27; Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost, 2010 May 23, 2010
The church is Spirit-drenched. Indeed, the whole of creation is drenched with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is a day to remember that.
I use the word, “drenched,” because that is a water image. Baptism is important to this day of Pentecost – because we are baptized not only in water but also in the Holy Spirit. And so, on this day, we return to our baptisms. We give thanks for our baptisms. We affirm our baptisms: we say “yes” to the Spirit-filled relationship that God established when we were baptized.
The Church of Jesus the Christ is dependent upon that Holy Spirit. / The Church of Jesus the Christ was created by that Holy Spirit. The Church is continually, daily re-created by the Spirit. On this day of Pentecost, we celebrate that!
Pentecost is one of the three major feast days of the Church Calendar. (Do you know the other two?[1])
God’s people celebrated Pentecost as an annual religious agricultural festival long before the life of Jesus. The name was used by Greek-speaking Jews, because “Pentecost” comes from the Greek for “50.” The day of Pentecost is “the 50th day” – the 50th day after Passover, you see!
Why is Pentecost now a Christian festival? That’s in the story from Acts that we just read! Remember that Jesus’ followers were observant Jews. That’s why, in the story, Jesus’ followers are gathered together for this Jewish festival. They are among the pilgrims in the holy city of Jerusalem. Perhaps the religious observance is helping them keep some equilibrium. (You know how that is, when you’re going through crisis: simply assembling with other believers is a helpful thing?) Consider their situation: Jesus has died, and he has risen from the dead – but what now? Jesus’ surviving followers are struggling to understand what’s next for them. And here’s what we read: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Bystanders hear all these words spoken in all those languages, and they wonder what’s going on! Are these guys drunk? “No!” Peter says. “It’s only nine o’clock in the morning!” Instead, this is God the Holy Spirit flowing among them, flowing through them, calling them to proclaim the good news of the risen Christ to all people, who speak all languages! Jesus’ surviving followers have been given their mission, by God the Holy Spirit!
This Spirit is “the Advocate” that Jesus told his followers about, in the story we just read from the gospel of John. “I have said these things to you while I am still with you,” Jesus tells them. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
It is that peace that you and I are baptized into; it is that courage – because we are baptized not only in water, but also in the Holy Spirit.
And look at what St. Paul adds to all of this Spirit talk, in the verses we read from Romans: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. What a joyful thing! Fear be gone! We did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear! Instead, Paul is saying, we are saved! God has established a relationship with us! So – you and I do not have to be fearful anymore, because God is holding us in compassion. We don’t have to work, fearfully, to justify ourselves in God’s eyes, as if the life of faith is a performance review. Instead, we are called to work in response to what God has accomplished, in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
And let’s get even deeper than that. The purpose of the life of faith is that you and I will come to trust God, as the liturgy for Holy Baptism puts it. Listen again to how Paul describes this intimacy with God: When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. It is that very Holy Spirit speaking within us, engaging our spirits in the knowledge that we are children of God. “Abba! Father!”
“Abba”: the Aramaic for “Father.” Jesus spoke Aramaic. And most translators suggest that “Abba” does not mean the formal title, “Father.” Instead, it’s more like “Daddy.” In other words, “Abba” is what Jesus called God the Daddy! And here’s why this is a remarkable piece of Scripture: Paul is saying that this same kind of intimate parent-child relationship is created for you and me, too, by the Holy Spirit.
How do we enter into that intimacy? How is it that that very Holy Spirit bears witness, with our spirit, that we are children of God? That intimacy comes when we perceive, in our daily experience, that the whole of creation is drenched with the Holy Spirit. We come to that perception, in our daily experience, when we engage in the practices of the faith.
The purpose of faith practices is to open our eyes and ears and hearts to the presence of God the Holy Spirit. Through these practices, the Holy Spirit forms us in faith! That is why parents and sponsors must agree to be responsible in these ways for those they bring to the baptismal font:
“to live with them among God’s faithful people,
“bring them to the word of God and the holy supper,
“teach them the Lords’ Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,
“place in their hands the holy scriptures,
“and nurture them in faith and prayer,
“so that your children may learn to trust God,
“proclaim Christ through word and deed,
“care for others and the world God made,
“and work for justice and peace.”[2]
There are no magical bolts of lightning at a baptism, suddenly changing the person whose head is wet! Luther teaches that it is the parents’ and sponsors’ faith that animates the sacrament. And so, it is God the Holy Spirit that is working in all of this, because faith itself comes from God the Holy Spirit. In fact, according to what Paul writes to the Jesus people in Rome, whenever we even think about God, that shows that God the Holy Spirit is moving! God the Holy Spirit creates even the impulse to pray! When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Parents and sponsors, making those promises around the baptismal font, become the base community of faith formation – to raise children in the practices of faith, so that they will come to know that all of life is drenched in the Spirit; so that they will come to trust God. We in the congregation provide the wider community of faith formation, in which parents and sponsors can be stimulated and strengthened, so that they can fulfill those audacious promises they make at the baptismal font.
The purpose of faith practices is to open our eyes and ears and hearts to the presence of God the Holy Spirit. That is why we affirm our baptisms at various times during our journeys of faith.
And so – here is what I will ask in a few minutes:
“You have made public profession of your faith (because we will have just recited the Apostles’ Creed). Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:
“to live among God’s faithful people,
“to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
“to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
“to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
“and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?”[3]
If those affirming their baptisms are willing to make those audacious, counter-cultural promises, they reply, “I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.”
We ask God to help and guide us in the life of practicing the faith, so God the Holy Spirit can lead us out of fear and into the courage-filled peace that comes when we trust God, in intimacy with God, our Daddy.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Easter and Christmas.
[2] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 228
[3] Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 236.
Where Do We Find Healing?
John 5:1-9 Easter 6 May 9, 2010
It was just inside one of the openings in the city wall. Just inside what was called the “Sheep Gate,” there was a pool called Beth-zatha. The waters in the pool were said to have healing powers.
* * *
Where do you and I find healing powers?
Is that why you meet with your doctors? I once read an amusing comparison between the mystery of what the church does in worship and the mystery of what a physician does. In one case, there are the liturgical vestments; in the other, it’s the white lab coat. In one case, there is the hard-to-understand liturgical language; in the other, it’s the hard-to-understand medical jargon. And on and on … making the point that there is much mystery in healing. It’s not as if our bodies are machines; that when they break we go to the doctor so she can fix them!
So, where do we find healing?
Health insurance companies are seeing that they spend less money if they encourage their clients to prevent illness, to practice “wellness.” My health insurance carrier offers a maximum of $450 that can be reimbursed against the annual deductible if we fill out an on-line health report with blood work numbers, and if we visit the “Embody Health” web site often enough, where we find all kinds of helpful articles and tips. Stress reduction, exercise, nutrition, it’s all there on “Embody Health.” Is that where we find healing?
* * *
From time to time, people would notice something mysterious, in the pool called Beth-zatha, just inside the Sheep Gate opening in the wall protecting the ancient city of Jerusalem. They would see the waters moving! It was said that “an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.”[1]
It’s understandable, then, that many in need of healing would lie near the pool day after day. They would nestle among the five porticoes of the structure alongside the pool, watching for that stirring of the waters. One man was there who had been ill for 38 years! These invalids were blind, or lame, or paralyzed – which means, of course, according to the religious purity laws enforced among God’s chosen people, that they were unclean! A God-fearing Jew, following the teachings of the Pharisees (the religious leaders) would have nothing to do with the place, or with these unclean people.
And right into the midst of them, Jesus descends. Jesus makes himself unclean! Jesus does that over and over in the gospel stories. Have you noticed that? In fact, that’s a primary way that Jesus the Christ brings God’s will for healing. Jesus is all the time horrifying the religious rule-enforcers. He is all the time touching those who are shunned and condemned because they are “unclean.” (Since that is precisely where God-become-human spends his time, could it be that that is where the church is to be?)
Jesus approaches the man who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
I think that’s an interesting exchange. Jesus asks, “Do you want to be made well?” – and the man assumes he knows what’s necessary to be healed. And he can’t do it! So, he’s in despair.
* * *
Is that the same for you? Where do we find healing?
Well, just like the man by the pool of Beth-zatha, you know what you have to do to be made well, right? You have to do the minimum hours of aerobic exercise each week. And you have to spend time stretching, because flexibility is essential for good health. And you have to do weight-bearing exercise, to maintain strength and muscle mass. And you have to eat four servings of fruit each day, and five servings of vegetables (and how many servings of grains? I forget …), and you have to limit your portion sizes and avoid desserts.
You know all that, right? Do you do all that? Does “wellness” become just one more thing to add to the to-do list? Another burden that you despair over? Another reason to feel guilty?
What if “wellness” is, instead, a joyful response to God?
* * *
Think of this, in the story from John. Among those lying in this mass of unclean humanity, there is one who is particularly pathetic because he’s been unclean for 38 years! And he can’t move himself quickly enough to get into the waters when they are stirred up. And so he will never be healed. It’s hopeless.
Is it hopeless? Where do healing powers come from? The man assumes he knows – which means he’s closed off from where the healing comes? Where? From God! I wonder if Jesus asks his question with impatience, with frustration: “Do you want to be made well?”
Then Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath, we read. When I visited the Pool of Beth-zatha this past January, and we read this story while standing there, we remembered what danger Jesus was courting. Not only has he made himself unclean. Not only is this a sabbath. This isn’t in the backwaters of Galilee; this is in Jerusalem, the home of God – where all the religious rule-keepers are watching! And it is during one of the big annual religious festivals for God’s people! Lots of people are watching! The Pharisees just would not be able to let this one go …
God-become-human is such a trouble maker! (I wonder: is the church true to its mission when it’s not making trouble?)
* * *
Where do we find healing?
Well, healing comes from God. That’s the basic answer. Healing comes from God’s initiative! (You notice, in the story from John, that it’s all God’s initiative. The man Jesus heals has done nothing to “earn” healing. He doesn’t even know who Jesus is!)
What form does healing take? There everything becomes more complex.
I remember learning great wisdom from a man whose brother died much too young. We had prayed for his brother’s healing, for months. When his brother died, the man said, “Healing does not necessarily mean a physical cure. The last time I talked with him, I could tell that there had been significant healing.” So, healing can be physical, spiritual, emotional – all that makes for the Biblical concept of “shalom”; all that makes for wholeness.
What is God’s will for healing in this loved one I’m praying for? That’s the focus of the prayer.
I know what I want! (That tends to be what I pray for!) But what does God want? Indeed, since God is working for healing in each person, how is God healing my loved one? How can I cooperate with and assist God in what God is doing? That becomes my prayer.
Because where do we find healing? We find healing in God.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] This is a disputed verse, included in some ancient manuscripts of this morning’s passage. In the New Revised Standard Version (which we read in worship) the verse is included as a footnote, but not included in the text itself.
All Are Welcome In This Place!
Acts 11:1-18 Easter 5 May 2, 2010
Who is clean? Who is unclean?
Some of you may remember when the Mormon temple was built, just outside of Washington, DC. Church leaders opened it up for public tours. Thousands trooped through, for several weeks. Then, Mormon leaders closed the building – and replaced carpets and furnishings that the unclean had touched! Since that time, the structure has been restricted to those who are clean. Would you and I be welcome in that place?
When I was on the “Temple Mount” in Jerusalem, I took some great pictures of the Dome of the Rock – from a distance. Do you think the Muslims guarding that building would have let me get close to it? You and I are not welcome in that place.
I wonder: do Christians consider people to be “clean” or “unclean?”
I’m old enough to remember, four decades ago, when some Christians of a conservative political bent thought “hippies” were unclean. The phrase was, “dirty hippies.” Of course, that wasn’t so much a comment on whether people with long hair and wearing blue jeans were taking frequent showers. It was more a fearful judgmentalism of some moral danger they embodied.
Are some of you old enough to remember the fearful judgmentalism against cancer? People hesitated to even say the word, “cancer.” Instead, there were euphemisms: “The big C,” for instance. People with cancer were feared, as unclean (even if that word wasn’t used), as if cancer was contagious.
I was fearful, myself, the first time I ministered to a young man dying of AIDS. I would visit and bring communion. I would have to consciously tell myself that it was ok to hold onto his hand during prayer; that I would not “catch” the disease. But, deeper, some Christians would have disapproved of me bringing the sacraments of the church to him, considering him unclean in a moral sense. Is that still true, among some traditions of Christians? Indeed, many Christians feel revulsion towards those who are homosexual. Doesn’t that spring from a fearful, emotional judgment that gays and lesbians are morally unclean?
Jesus confronted such moral judgmentalism.
Indeed, one of the reasons why Jesus was crucified is that he regularly made himself unclean, in the eyes of the Jewish leaders, because he violated the religious taboos against touching women who were unclean, and those who were unclean because they suffered from skin diseases and other illnesses. Remember the question Jesus’ followers put towards him concerning a blind man they encountered: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”[1] People in that culture assumed that disease or illness or disability indicated that someone was sinful, morally unclean.
One of the reasons why Jesus was crucified is that he regularly ate food in an unclean way, in the eyes of the Jewish leaders, because he and his followers did not ritually wash themselves before eating. That was an especially important purity practice among God’s people.[2] In addition, God’s people were instructed to only eat clean foods, and to shun unclean foods. (Today, that is called “keeping kosher.”)
At first, the Jesus movement was a sect within Judaism. Can non-Jews be admitted?! But – aren’t they unclean?! This morning, we find in the story from the Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus’ followers are deeply divided over what is clean and what is unclean.
We read, Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” You see what’s happening: the community of Jesus people in Jerusalem are concerned about preserving the traditional boundaries between God’s people and those who were not God’s people; the boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. It’s a purity concern: protecting those who are clean from Gentiles who are unclean – people like you and me! Those in Jerusalem are very upset because Peter has broken through those boundaries. He has preached to people who are not Jews! He has eaten with people who are not Jews! Not of the chosen people!
Peter, though, had received a vision from the Holy Spirit. (The story of this is in chapter 10 of Acts.) In the vision, Peter realized that God was telling him that all foods are clean – and that all people (even Gentiles; even non-Jews; even people like you and me!) are clean. In that story, Peter goes to the town of Caesarea, to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Cornelius’ household would have been a small community of family members and also servants and slaves. Not one of them would have been Jews. And these Gentiles declare themselves “here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”
Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Even Gentiles; even non-Jews; even people like you and me!)
Do you know wherein lies the rub? The rub lies in how to interpret “anyone who fears [God] and does what is right.” There are traditions of Christianity who are just as fierce as traditions of Islam and of Judaism – in judging who “does what is right” and who doesn’t. Isn’t it only a short step from there to judging who is morally clean and who is morally unclean?
It is easy to be simplistic here. The concern for purity among the first generation of Jesus people was a concern for the community’s identity and solidarity – and those are good things! In Acts we read that the tiny community of Jesus people in Jerusalem witnessed to the greater city population by living together with “one heart and one soul.”[3] And, it does matter how we act, morally. The word for that is repentance.
The force of the story from Acts is that the Spirit moves even non-Jews to repent. Peter says this to his interrogators: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” What an enormously important verse to ponder. “Who was I that I could hinder God?” Peter asks. The question must always be asked: When might it be that you, or I, or even an entire tradition of Christianity, is hindering what God the Holy Spirit is trying to do?
Then comes the comedy that concludes this morning’s story: When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” (Even to the Gentiles! Even to people like you and me! What a shock.)
And there’s that word: repentance. It does matter how we act, as followers of Jesus the Christ. The great Lutheran martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote an entire book about the grace of forgiveness and salvation that we receive as pure gift from God, and how we make it cheap, when we do not repent in response to that grace.[4]
What does that mean? What does that repentance look like? Luther describes it in this way, in the Small Catechism, teaching about the significance of baptism: “It signifies that daily the old person in us with all our sins and evil desires is to be drowned through sorrow for sin and repentance, and that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Daily. Each day.
What does it look like, “to live before God in righteousness and purity?” Well, in Paul’s writings, we’re told what that means, in great specificity. Paul gives us lists!
For instance, there’s this: [T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[5]
There’s this: As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.[6]
There’s even this: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. … Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.[7]
So – you live in all those ways, right? Perfectly, right? Your repentance is complete, isn’t it? Uh-huh.
Here’s an understatement: some days, it is difficult for us to return to our baptisms. You know how often it is devilishly difficult to allow “the old person in us with all our sins and evil desires to be drowned through sorrow for sin and repentance.” Aren’t you well aware of how far the Spirit needs to lead us, in daily repentance, before we can say that we “live before God in righteousness and purity?” Will we ever get there, this side of the kingdom?
And so, in that humility, ware that not a single one of us can set ourselves in judgment over others, I declare a great strength of our tradition of Lutheran Christianity: All are welcome in this place.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] John 9:2
[2] See Mark 7:1-5
[3] Acts 4:32
[4] This book is traditionally entitled, The Cost of Discipleship. The most recent edition is entitled simply, Discipleship.
[5] Galatians 5:22-23
[6] Colossians 3:12-15
[7] Romans 12:9-21
“… And We Are Fed”
John 21:1-19 Easter 3 April 18, 2010
We use Evangelical Lutheran Worship each week for our worship. The book is also a wonderful resource for your daily devotions! For instance, it includes Luther’s Small Catechism, which contains a daily morning devotional called “The Morning Blessing.”
“In the morning, as soon as you get out of bed, you are to make the sign of the holy cross and say: ‘God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.’
“Then, kneeling or standing, say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. If you wish, you may in addition recite this little prayer as well:
“’I give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected me through the night from all harm and danger. …’
“After singing a hymn perhaps (for example, one on the Ten Commandments) or whatever else may serve your devotion, you are to go to your work joyfully.”
Joyfully!
I remember calling folks’ attention to this one time before, emphasizing Luther’s teaching to cross ourselves first thing when the alarm goes off, giving thanks for our baptisms and for the gift of a new day! A couple of days later, one in our congregation said something like this: “I’ve been trying. When the alarm goes off, waking me out of a dead sleep, and I come to enough consciousness to realize what that awful noise is; and try to find exactly where the alarm clock is, so I can to turn it off; and grope around to find my glasses; I’ve been saying, ‘Thank you God, for this new day…’”
She was trying her best!
Indeed, let me add some exalted language. She was trying her best to live in the resurrection! Because that’s where we are, fellow followers of our risen Lord, Jesus the Christ. If the resurrection doesn’t matter to us in our day-to-day lives, then it doesn’t matter; then the life of resurrection faith is simply another optional way to live. But, when we live in the resurrection – each day – then we see with new eyes!
Let me illustrate with my favorite line in Luther’s “Evening Blessing” from the Small Catechism. His “order of service” is very similar to “The Morning Blessing,” but notice how he ends this one: “Then you are to go to sleep quickly and cheerfully.”
I love that!
How often do you have trouble going to sleep because of worries, anxieties, burdens? (Or maybe you get to sleep just fine, and it’s at 2:37 AM that you’re wide awake and fretful?)
Luther is describing a simple, every-night practice of the life of resurrection. When we push ourselves so hard that we’re still tired in the morning when the alarm goes off, we have given in to the way of death. When we wake up worried about the burdens we will carry during the new day, that is the way of death. The way of death is to be anxious over how the sky will fall if you and I fail to perform: to finish the report, to meet the deadline, to recruit the new committee members.
But Christ is risen! Alleluia! And so, in the life of resurrection that God gives us, we see with new eyes! We receive the grace to be thankful! Joyful! What gifts from God will we receive on this new day? What will be the blessings on this day? How will God feed us on this day?
Have you ever seen the great movie from a couple of decades ago: “Dead Poets Society?” Robin Williams plays a teacher, and he urges his students, “Carpe Diem!” “Seize the Day!” Some of you are old enough to remember how that phrase was all the rage when the movie was new, on T-shirts and bumper stickers. “Seize the Day!”
Well, of course that would be a popular phrase! That’s what our culture teaches us: that it’s all up to us, to our initiative, to our accomplishment. Nothing gets done unless we do it. Right?
Certainly, God gives us our talents so that we will use them in our ministries, and accomplishments follow from such industry. But here’s what the phrase should be for us who live in the resurrection: “Receive the day!” God is able to feed us when we receive the day! Then we’re thankful for the daily gifts of God. Then we’re joyful. Then we have repented: turning away from the way of death, living in the resurrection.
Do you see the divergence of these two ways of living in this morning’s story, from the gospel of John?
It’s a weird story. It’s full of symbolism and mysticism.
It’s one of four times, in John, that the risen Jesus appears to his followers – even though the passage itself says it’s “the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.” (Maybe the gospel writer isn’t counting the risen Jesus’ appearance to Mary of Magdala.) In any event, the disciples have seen the risen Jesus already. So, don’t you wonder why the resurrection hasn’t changed their lives?[1]
As this story begins, Jesus’ disciples are back home. Seven of them are gathered together, beside the Sea of Galilee. They’ve returned from Jerusalem, where Jesus has been crucified, and has risen from the dead.
Has any of that made any difference? Are they in despair? Simon Peter says to the others, “I am going fishing.” They say, “We will go with you.” (Maybe they’re simply getting back to work. They gotta eat, right?)
In any event, we read, They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Nothing.
Then comes the comedy and mysticism of this story. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” (In other words, “You haven’t caught anything, have you?”) They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” There’s all kinds of symbolism that we could spend all kinds of time talking about, but you know what happens in the story. There’s a miraculous catch of fish; and the disciples recognize the risen Jesus when they receive those results; and Peter is so impetuous that he jumps into the water to swim to shore – even though the boat is only a hundred yards off shore, and he probably would have gotten to shore quicker if he’d simply helped his friends bring the boat in.
When they get to shore, what do they find? Remember? They see a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. There’s already a meal prepared!
So, who’s feeding Simon Peter and Thomas and Nathanael, and the other four? It’s the risen Jesus, right? It is the risen Jesus who has blessed them with results for all their hard work, right? Haven’t they received those results? Now the risen Jesus is hosting them at a meal.
And what kind of a meal is it? Listen to the words: Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. What does that remind you of? Doesn’t that language sounds an awful lot like a Holy Communion liturgical formula? (I must say that it’s a good thing the ancient church did not decide to include fish as part of the Communion meal! How easy do you think it would be to recruit Altar Guild members in that case?!)
Think about what’s happening in this story.
So they cast [the net], and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. They are blessed with results from the risen Jesus. And they are fed.
Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. And they are fed.
And we are fed. We eat and drink. And we are fed!
And we are fed, countless times each day, when we receive the day as a gift from God. Are you aware of that? Are you open to the nourishment that God is offering, each day, through words of love spoken by people God gives us who love us; in what God is creating through the work God gives us to do? In such awareness, each day, each moment, we are fed by the risen Jesus. In such awareness, we have turned away from the way of death. We are living in the resurrection!
And we are fed.
In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] This may indicate how several independent stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances were circulating – and the gospel writer grouped them together with inadequate editing! (Notice, for instance, that John 20 ends with the words, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” That sure sounds like, “The End,” doesn’t it? But then chapter 21 follows, with another appearance story! Another possibility, of course, is that the disciples are just like you and me: we need to be reminded every day (and maybe several times every day) to be alert, to watch for how the resurrection changes our lives!
Coming To Believe
John 20:19-31 Second Sunday of Easter April 11, 2010
It is “evening on that day, the first day of the week.” You know what day that is, right? It’s the day of the resurrection!
That morning, Mary Magdalene had found that Jesus’ tomb to be open! In panic she ran to tell Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Do you remember the story?
We’re reading from the story in John this morning. All four gospels are different in their details of that first Easter. For instance, the gospels locate different followers of Jesus at the empty tomb. (There’s some overlap but, for instance, this mysterious unnamed disciple “whom Jesus loved” is unique to the gospel of John.) In one gospel there are two angels sitting in the empty tomb; in another there’s a “young man.” In Mark, the resurrected Jesus does not appear to his followers at all (except in a few verses that were added later by someone to tidy things up). In Matthew, Jesus appears to the two women who are at the tomb and then, some days later, to all the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, which is several days’ walking distance from Jerusalem. The gospel of Luke contains the famous story of Jesus’ appearance on Easter evening to two disciples walking on the road to a village called Emmaus. The gospel of John is most extensive, with two entire chapters of Jesus appearing to his followers after he has risen from the dead!
It’s fascinating to study all of this, just as we do with the Christmas stories, and to notice the differences in the details. But in all four gospels, there is this in common: the resurrection of Jesus the Christ is a soul-shaking event. When the tomb is found to be empty, Jesus’ followers are deeply traumatized. Then the risen Christ appears, pushing those same followers outward, in a mission that they do not fully understand. (It’s a mission that they’ll be making up as they go, under the power of the Holy Spirit!)
The gospel of John is my favorite of the Easter stories. We read it a week ago Saturday night, at the Easter Vigil. Mary is weeping outside the tomb. She bends down to look again into the tomb, and she sees two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They say to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She says to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” … [S]he turns around and sees Jesus standing there, but she does not know that it is Jesus. Jesus says to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” (I love the risen Jesus’ proper English grammar there!) Supposing him to be the gardener, she says to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus says to her, “Mary!” She turns and says to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus says to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene goes and announces to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she tells them that he has said these things to her. [1]
What’s happened here? Mary, from the tiny town of Magdala, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, has come to believe that Jesus the Christ has risen from the dead!
But Jesus’ “brothers” have not yet come to believe, even with what Mary has told them. Isn’t that interesting? They have heard Mary’s proclamation of the resurrection gospel! But, even so, remember how this morning’s reading begins: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, …
(Now, you know that they’re not afraid of “the Jews.” All of Jesus’ followers in that room are Jews! You may have read the little piece I put together for the web site, and for the Good Friday bulletin: the bad guys in this story are some of the Jewish leaders, chiefly the Chief Priests of the temple in Jerusalem.)
The scene is this: In a house in Jerusalem, on a Sunday evening, there’s a group of Jews who had thought that Jesus might be the messiah. But on the Friday past, they had watched him executed by the Romans. And now they’ve locked the doors to the house – because they’re afraid that they will be the next ones the bad guys will come after!
And Jesus appears to them! Even though the doors are locked! How shocked would you have been, had you been in that house? (It’s no wonder that the first words Jesus speaks to them are, “Peace be with you!”)
How do these disciples come to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead? It’s because of the physical proof of Jesus’ resurrected body. In his resurrected body,[2] Jesus is able to pass through the solid wood of locked doors – but he also has the physical wounds of the crucifixion. Remember? [H]e showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. And Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit and sends them out on that mission I spoke about earlier – the one they’re going to have to make up as they go along (just like you and I have to do, day-to-day).
But one of the disciples, Thomas, is not there on that evening. (I wonder where he is? Is he off hiding by himself?) Sometime during the next few days, the other disciples told [Thomas], “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
What about you? How have you come to believe? More accurately, I should ask: How are you coming to believe?
The use of the word, “believe,” is dangerous, actually. It can lead to the idea that the Christian faith is a checklist of beliefs – Do you believe in the virgin birth? Do you believe that abortion is wrong? Do you believe the Bible is factually true, word-for-word? – and that, unless you score 90% or above, you’re not orthodox. In that case, how is “belief” used? To exclude, and to judge, right?
Instead, according to this morning’s story (and, I dare say, according to the stories we can tell, from our own experiences), the Christian life is a journey of coming to believe that Jesus the Christ has risen from the dead. In my experience, I’ve found its a dynamic process. It’s a life-long journey, often proceeding in fits and starts. (Does this sound familiar to anyone?)
Haven’t you found this to be true: that we come to believe that Jesus the Christ is risen from the dead as we are formed by liturgy: by our prayers for mercy, and our eating and drinking of that forgiveness of the resurrection life?
Don’t we come to believe that Jesus the Christ is risen from the dead as we are formed by daily prayer, as we receive from the Holy Spirit those small insights in prayer that open our eyes a little wider to see the resurrection life?
Don’t we come to believe that Jesus the Christ is risen from the dead as we meet in study groups: in which we share with each other our experiences of the resurrection life; and as we think together about how to understand all of this; and put those thoughts into words that we test out on each other; and try to figure out further what we mean when we question each other; and then we try out those deeper understandings on each other? Isn’t that how we come to believe? That process of faith formation, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is nothing less than exhilarating!
So, what’s happening right here, and in every other place where there’s sharing of the faith as we understand it right now, and as we’re experiencing it these days, is that God the Holy Spirit is using us to bring each other to faith! We’re coming to believe!
And in that process, as it turns out, you and I are more accomplished than Jesus’ first followers were! Yes, indeed. For them, Jesus had to do a “show and tell” of his wounded hands and side (which is pretty gory when you think about it).
Mary Magdalene does not believe the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, when the two angels tell her about it.
The disciples do not believe the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, when Mary Magdalene tells them about it.
Thomas does not believe the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus, when the other disciples tell him about it.
The risen Jesus says this to Thomas (and, by implication, to Mary and to the other disciples): “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Well, who’s Jesus talking about there – those who are blessed? He’s talking about everyone in every generation since: those who haven’t seen the actual fleshly wounds in the resurrected body; but who have heard the witnesses of others; and who have come to believe that Jesus the Christ is risen from the dead.
So he’s talking about you and me, right; as we are coming to believe; as we are figuring it out; as we’re living in the resurrection?
Blessing to you, on the journey!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] John 20:11-18, with the verbs changed to the present tense!
[2] St. Paul tells us that we will have bodies in the resurrection.
“He Is Risen! (So What?)
Luke 24:1-12 Easter April 4, 2010
Have I ever told you I was a grave digger? That was my summer job, for two summers, when I was in college.
A grave is a big hole. It’s not actually “six feet under.” It’s a hole that is about five feet deep, eight feet long and three feet wide. It takes a lot of skill to dig a grave by hand. Have you ever tried to keep an eight-foot long wall of dirt perfectly straight with a curved shovel head? A well-dug grave is a work of art. But it’s an ugly thing. It’s a gaping hole in the ground.
Cemetery workers assume that you would be shocked to see the actual grave, when you arrive for a grave side service. They cover up the hole and the area around it with that fake Astroturf stuff, and they lift up the vault so you can’t see how deep the hole is, and then the coffin is held at the surface by the lowering device. In our culture, we do our best to deny the reality of death. When you read obituaries, you come across phrases like, “he fell asleep”; or, she “passed on” or, “passed away”; or, he “went to join Jesus.” We say things like, “she’s looking down on us” – as if we’re not really separated.
Is it understandable that we would try to soften the reality of death? Of course it is! It’s painful! But here’s my next question: does that trivialize Easter? For instance, we say things like this: that Jesus’ resurrection is like the flowers that bloom in the spring – even though flowers bloom in the spring as a matter of course, every spring; there’s nothing shocking or startling about that. In fact, perennial flowers don’t even die over the winter! Or, we say that Jesus’ resurrection is like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon – even though that happens every spring, and the butterfly is not dead in the cocoon!
But Jesus’ resurrection was shocking and startling!
That’s because Jesus was dead. He hadn’t “passed on.” He hadn’t “gone to join Jesus.” He was dead.
And Jesus’ tomb was even more ugly than a grave that’s dug in the dirt.
The gospel that was written latest, John, tells us that Jesus’ tomb was in a garden.[1] Many of us clutch onto that, because it’s comforting to think of Easter morning as a beautiful morning in a garden, with dogwoods and flowers blooming, birds chirping … But John is alone in that description. Mark, Matthew and Luke are more accurate, with their description of Jesus being buried in a “rock-hewn tomb.”[2] That’s what the archaeological and historical evidence supports. The archaeology reveals that Golgotha (also called the Skull[3]), where the Romans executed criminals, was an elevated area of limestone about as big as the octagonal area around the altar in this worship space. It could be that the Romans chose it to be the place for public executions because it looked like a skull. Around this raised area was a limestone quarry, from which stone had been dug, to build structures in Jerusalem. So, the condemned criminal and his executioners would have had to climb up from the floor of the quarry to the limestone platform for the crucifixions.[4] Onlookers would have been watching from perhaps 20 feet below.
Over time, as it turns out, burial spots had been dug out of the sides of the quarry below – hewn out of the limestone! In all four gospels, we read that a man named Joseph, who came from a Jewish town named Arimathea, and who was in fact a member of the ruling Jewish Council,[5] removed Jesus’ body before it could be eaten by vultures or dogs as usually happened, and put it into one of those burial spots carved into the side of the limestone quarry.
There can be nothing romantic about any of this. It was really ugly. It was death. There was no Astroturf or blooming flowers or singing birds to cover up the reality.
And then the sun went down and the sabbath began. Jesus’ followers were observant Jews, of course, and so the sabbath was a sacred time of holy rest. But imagine the agony of the women for whom this Sabbath was not a gift, as God intends, but a painful period of enforced idleness. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women had not had the chance to wrap Jesus’ body in spices, as was the Jewish custom. They were having to wait for the sabbath to be over, which happened, of course, at the next sundown. But then it was too dark to venture into the quarry. And so, they had to wait some more.
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb!
But when they went in, they did not find the body!
While they were perplexed about this (Perplexed! What an understatement!), suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
Then here’s what we read: Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. How do the men receive this proclamation of the Easter gospel? Remember? But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
“An idle tale.” Well, of course that’s the way it seemed to them! This report is entirely unbelievable! If you and I had been gathered with them, in fear and confusion, hearing this implausible story, you and I would have reacted in exactly the same way. Resurrection does not happen!
In the gospel stories, when does the report of the resurrection become more than “an idle tale?”
It is when Jesus’ followers see Jesus – alive! It’s when the one they had seen dead, they now see alive! (That’s what happens next, as you read on in the gospel of Luke.) When they encounter the risen Jesus, the resurrection becomes real!
Does the story of Jesus’ resurrection seem like an idle tale to you?
He is risen! (So what?) Isn’t it just an idle tale? Doesn’t death win? (I mean, really? All the evidence points to that, doesn’t it? In the funeral home, at the graveside? That’s why they cover up the hole in the ground!)
“He is risen,” we say on this day! And we’re all wearing beautiful clothes, and we’re smelling the fragrance of lilies, and we’re singing to a brass band!
But when we go home from this place, so what?
Well, nothing.
Unless …
Unless the women’s story is true! Unless the resurrection becomes real to you and me, as we encounter the risen Jesus in the bread and the wine, in the body and blood of the holy meal; in the water of the holy bath. He is risen! That becomes real when the Holy Spirit empowers us to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds” as St. Paul writes in Romans 12.
Many of us worked through Romans 12, during our Lenten journey this year; let me use some more language from what Paul writes there. He is risen! And others see the risen Jesus in Christians who are holding fast to what is good; and loving one another with mutual affection; and outdoing one another in showing honor; and rejoicing in hope; and being patient in suffering; and persevering in prayer; and contributing to the needs of the saints; and extending hospitality to strangers; and blessing those who persecute you; and rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep; and living in harmony with one another; and associating with the lowly; and feeding your enemies and giving them something to drink; and not being overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good.
What a description that is, of life in the resurrection!
What a description of our odd and countercultural witness to others.
He is risen!
It is true!
That’s why we’re living this way!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] John 19:41
[2] Luke 23:53. In Matthew 27:60, the Greek is translated, “hewn in the rock.” Mark 15:46 reads, “hewn out of the rock.”
[3] Luke 23:33
[4] Today, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is built over top of Golgotha, visitors have to climb a steep staircase.
[5] Mark, Matthew and Luke report this. John omits this, in his polemic against “the Jews.”
Loving Jesus
John 12:1-8 Fifth Sunday of Lent March 21, 2010
Things are looking real bad for Jesus. That’s where we are in the story, in chapter 12, as the gospel writer of John is telling it. In chapter 11,[1] Jesus healed Lazarus. (Perhaps you remember the story? Lazarus had been dead and buried for three days before Jesus got there. It was dramatic indeed, when Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Then we read: The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
“Unbind him, and let him go.” I would say so! That is why Jesus has come: to bring release, liberation from whatever sin that binds us; from whatever it is that turns us towards death, rather than being turned towards the life which God has created for us. Jesus brings healing: spiritual, emotional and physical. Jesus brings relief from poverty: spiritual and physical. The result? A life of joy, as God created life to be lived! Jesus embodies God’s kingdom, come!
At least, that’s what you and I say, we who live in the amazing grace of the good news of Jesus the Christ. But in the story, in the gospel of John, things are looking real bad for Jesus. Jesus is in danger! You see, for the Pharisees (those whose job it was to maintain the purity of the people of God), and for the temple priests (those whose job was maintain the purity of the peoples’ worship), the resuscitation of Lazarus is the last straw. Here’s what we read: Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” … So from that day on they planned to put [Jesus] to death. Things are looking real bad for Jesus.
The next thing we read in the gospel of John is that it’s too dangerous for Jesus to be seen in public. He and his disciples leave Lazarus’ village of Bethany (which is actually within sight of Jerusalem), and they hide out in a town called Ephraim, in the region near the wilderness. But the Passover is near! Will Jesus miss that? Will he show his face in Jerusalem during the festival? Here is the danger, according to the writer of John: Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
Why is this happening? In the gospel of John, Jesus has healed a paralyzed man in the pool called Beth-zatha.[2] Jesus has healed a man born blind in the pool of Siloam.[3] God is love![4] Shouldn’t this cause rejoicing? (In the gospel of John, Jesus has even turned water into wine, making a wedding celebration more of a party![5])
If Jesus has come to bring release, liberation from whatever sin that binds us; from whatever it is that orients us towards death and away from the life that God has created for us; why do people want to kill him? If Jesus brings healing, spiritual, emotional and physical; and relief from poverty, spiritual and physical; and a life of joy, as God created life to be lived; why do the religious leaders react to Jesus with rage? If Jesus embodies God’s kingdom, come, why do the religious leaders react to Jesus with such fury?
Here is why we need to know the stories, and to read them over and over, and to pray over them, and to talk about them with others on the Christian faith journey: because they are so hard! It is a deep, deep parable of the Jesus story: that the leaders of God’s people are enraged by God’s shalom, as it is embodied[6] in Jesus, who we say is the Christ.
It is a deep parable, as well, of the continuing Jesus story, in our day. We live in a world made small by communication and transportation technologies. People of various religious traditions are well aware of each other in a way that was not true in the past. One result is that our world is full of religious people who are not infrequently enraged at each other, in the name of God.
This will be a sign that the kingdom has come: when we simply love one another. “God is love.” According to centuries of Hebrew teaching before Jesus, which Jesus endorsed in one of the gospel stories, all religious law means this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”; and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[7] This tradition of teaching is in the Qur’an as well. So, it makes me dream: What if every person simply loved every other person? And – what if we loved ourselves as much as God loves us?
In that way, we human beings would be loving God. (That’s according to our holy books!)
This morning’s story from the gospel of John is about loving Jesus. Jesus and his disciples have left their hiding place in the town called Ephraim, in the region near the wilderness. Jesus and his disciples have come back to Bethany, the village which is on the Mount of Olives, which means it is within sight of Jerusalem which is perched on the next hill. Jesus and his disciples have come back to the home of his close friends, Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, in the village of Bethany. (In the gospel stories, there are two houses in which Jesus can retreat and simply be loved among friends. One is the house of Peter’s mother-in-law, in the village of Capernaum, a day or two’s walk north of Jerusalem, right next to the Sea of Galilee.[8] The other is this house, in Bethany, a 30-minute walk from Jerusalem. Here, in this house, Jesus can relax. Here, he can be himself with his friends, Martha and Mary and Lazarus.)
In the story, it’s six days before the Passover. If you know the story, you know that Jesus will indeed show his face in Jerusalem during the Passover. Next week, Holy Week, we will journey through the consequences of that. And so, on this evening, during dinner, Jesus’ dear friend, Mary, took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
This is an act of pure love!
Indeed, the gospel writer of John has entirely changed this scene from how the story is told in the gospel of Luke! Luke puts the story into an entirely different context and setting. There, it is an unnamed “woman in the city, who was a sinner,” who anoints Jesus and washes Jesus’ feet. That provokes Pharisees who are watching to criticize Jesus for letting such a woman touch him so intimately.
To me, John’s version deepens the act of love – because this is a dear friend of Jesus, and not an unnamed stranger. You know how precious deep friendships are, and Jesus is fully human! Mary does this audacious thing, simply because she loves Jesus. It is an act of devotion. And there is great pathos in this act. Because here, in John where the story has been entirely changed, it is Judas the betrayer who objects to the anointing. And what does Jesus say in response? That his dear friend Mary is anointing his body in preparation for its burial. Mary is loving Jesus.
How are you and I love to Jesus?
The gospel writer gives us the answer, in the way he tells the story. We read, Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. The wiping of the feet is an act of pure humility, pure servanthood. And what will we read in the next chapter of John’s gospel? During this version of the Last Supper (again, in John, entirely different from what Matthew, Mark and Luke describe): Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
So, what do we see? Jesus’ follower, Mary, loves Jesus by serving him, in humility. And Jesus loves his followers by serving them, in the same humility!
How are you and I love to Jesus? It seems evident to me. It is in servanthood. When we are serving others, we are serving Jesus. When we are serving others, we are loving others. When we are serving others, we are loving Jesus.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Read all this in John 11.
[2] John 5
[3] John 9
[4] 1 John 4:16 The letters of John were produced by the same community that produced the gospel of John.
[5] John 2:1-11
[6] The doctrinal name for this is “the Incarnation.”
[7] Matthew 22:34-40
[8] See Mark 1:21 – 2:1-12, for instance. In Mark 2:1, Jesus is described as being “at home!”
What Kind of a God Is This?
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Fourth Sunday of Lent March 14, 2010
Have you heard that story before: the one I just read from Luke?
What’s it called?
Some (perhaps many) will call it, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” Of course, if you call it that, then you read the story in a certain way. Are you aware of that? You focus on the younger son. From that perspective, the story will certainly get you thinking! But what if you called this passage, “The Welcome of the Compassionate Father?” That turns it into a different story, doesn’t it? What about looking at the story from the perspective of the older brother: “The Parable of the Jealous and Resentful Son.” That gets you thinking about questions such as, “Is Life Fair?” Or, “Is There Any Advantage to Following the Rules?”
What a story! The three characters in the story have three entirely different points of view! That’s what makes this parable so enduring. As we look at it in different ways, it reveals new truths about us, and about God. (There is no one “truth” to this story that, when we learn it, we’re done with it! You know that about reading and praying everything in the Bible, right?)
There’s another way to enter into the revelation in this passage. That comes, not by focusing not on any of the characters – but by paying attention to the movement in the story. Do you notice that? First, the younger son moves away, into alienation and brokenness. Then, the younger son returns – which causes the older son to distance himself! What a great story! Will the older son return? When the story ends, we do not know if he will.
This time through this familiar story, it is that movement that interests me: that moving away from the father, that distancing; and then the returning.
If you are a parent, have you suffered when a son or daughter has distanced himself or herself from you? Some of you have even lost track of a son, or a daughter. Some of you have also experienced the joy of a child emotionally returning to you!
If those things have happened to you, then you have glimpsed what God experiences, when you and I move away from God, and when we return. You see, it is instructive to see the father in the parable to be God the Father. Then the parable provokes us to consider our lives of faith. When, on my journey, have I turned in on myself, relying on myself, thinking that it is all up to me, becoming angry with myself because I’m not doing enough? When, in other words, have I distanced myself from God? (That’s what sin is.) And then – when have I returned, remembering that God is love, and grace, and forgiveness; remembering that I am precious in God’s eyes? (Can you tell about those experiences, as well?)
What God is like, according to the story?
If the father is God, then God is not coercive. God begins by giving us all we have! But God cannot determine our response. This is a God who allows us to screw up – which we repeatedly do. This is a God who does not control events. Instead, God invites. God waits to see how we might respond. Indeed, God suffers when we do not return!
What kind of a God is this? For some, this is not enough of a God for them! That’s because this God is not powerful enough (according to the standard definition of what a powerful being would do).
A God of compassion and grace, forgiveness and salvation is revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, in what we call the Old Testament: the holy writings that formed Jesus as a Jew, as well as the others who were following Jesus. (They were Jews too!) But this parable! Isn’t this asking the people to stretch too much in their concept of God? A God who suffers? A God who doesn’t lower the boom (when there are so many who deserve that), but who is full of compassion? A God who shows power chiefly in doing mercy? A God who takes the side of the poor?
This is the God who is revealed in the human flesh of Jesus. What kind of God is this? Remember how the apostle Paul was accused of foolishness as he tried to persuade people in the city of Corinth to receive Jesus as the long-anticipated Christ? (You may remember that he responds to that ridicule by writing, “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25)
What kind of a God would be so foolish as to act like the father in the story? Why does God make so little sense, when measured by the ways of the world? Why did God create us with so much ability to screw up? And then why does God welcome us back, without reservation, without hesitation, as many times as we feel drawn to return?
If the parable of the father and his two sons is familiar to you, then you may take it for granted. Then, it may be hard for you and me to realize that, when Jesus finished telling the story, his original listeners would have sat there with expressions of absolute astonishment! Why? Because what the younger son does is despicable. What the father does is inexplicable. What the older son does is entirely understandable.
In that culture, a son had no claim whatsoever on any inheritance until his father died. When the younger son asks for his share of the inheritance, then, he is treating his father as if he is already dead. Jesus’ listeners would have been aghast at this brutal insult. And then, that the father would give the younger son his inheritance? Inconceivable! How can the father respond to such an insult with grace and generosity?
What kind of a God is this?!
This is a God of grace and compassion. This is a God who demands no preconditions. This is a God who waits, when we take ourselves away.
We see that in the story. You know what the younger son does with his money. Finally, he’s reduced to feeding pigs – which would have caused Jesus’ listeners to gasp, audibly: because, of course, pigs were unclean. In other words, the younger son is utterly debased.
Then, we read, “he [comes] to himself.” In AA language, he hits bottom. Can the father cause that to happen? No. What is the father doing? He’s waiting. He’s hoping. He’s praying. He’s suffering. (Some of you have known such helplessness, with a spouse, or a child, or a parent who is an addict or a drunk.)
So does God wait and suffer, when we are turned away. But when we return! “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” What unmitigated joy the father feels!
And how does that make the older son react, in the story?
The older son cannot believe his fathers foolishness! How can he simply welcome back this son? The older son answers his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”
The older son is jealous and resentful. He is turned away from the father. Will he be drawn back to the father, trusting in his father’s love, and in gratitude because his father has given him everything he has? When the parable ends, we do not know.
What kind of a father is this?
Here’s another way to ask the question. What kind of a God is this – God our Father?
What kind of a God is this – who loves you with an unwavering love when you are the younger son, no matter how badly you behave; who never forces himself on you; who waits for your return, because God’s only desire is to bless you?
What kind of a God is this – whose grace is so radical, whose forgiveness is so unconditional, that God offends you when you are the older son, when you think it’s all about following rules?
What a story, huh?
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
What Is God’s Role In Suffering?
1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Third Sunday of Lent March 7, 2010
Years ago, an elderly woman died. Her name was Mary. She was very active in the congregation, but she never thought anything was any good! Everything was bad. She complained about everything.
At the first women’s group meeting after Mary died, the group members discussed a memorial gift to the congregation. The worship space was not air conditioned at that time, and one suggestion was for a gift to be made in Mary’s name towards the air conditioning project. One wag quipped, “Oh no. That wouldn’t be appropriate at all. Mary thought the purpose of coming to church is to suffer!!”
Not so long ago that that’s what many people thought the purpose of Lent to be: that it was a 40-day long season, during which we were to suffer! “How could you make yourself suffer?” That was the Lenten question. What would you “give up” for Lent?
During the Ash Wednesday service, the “Invitation to Lent,” includes these words: “I invite you to the discipline of Lent – self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love – strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament.” Classic Christian practices of discipline and even deprivation are indeed useful for our Lenten journeys. But that is true only if they serve a positive purpose!
For instance, consider the practice of fasting. During Lent I am fasting from sweets, for a positive reason: for the purpose of becoming physically healthier – especially during Lenten days of sickness, or rain and snow, when I haven’t been able to get out on my bicycle. (I have to admit I broke that fast when Patty made some biscotti and baklava for a gathering of friends! But that was only temporary!)
What if you fasted an hour a day from TV or from the computer – and if you devoted that time to praying over short passages of the Bible, or just simply sitting in prayer? That would be a positive Christian practice: the turning back towards God and God’s desires for you. As I quote Frank Honeycutt in the bulletin notes this morning: “It’s important to remember that these disciplines have no inherent saving value, but they are vitally important, principally for giving the Holy Spirit room to work in our lives. In short, the Spirit is given space to get at us.”[1]
The point of Lent is not suffering in itself, as if suffering is good for us! The point is returning to God, so that God the Holy Spirit can immerse us in grace and forgiveness and salvation. What good news there is in that!
Be that as it may, on this third Sunday in Lent, we are given two passages that refer to incidents of great suffering.
What is God’s role in suffering? Isn’t that one of the Big Questions? These two passages give answers that are as different as they could be! Will you look at them with me?
The passage from First Corinthians is a text of terror.[2] It is from the section – of chapters eight, nine, and ten – in which Paul is responding to a question the Corinthian Christians have asked: Is it ok to eat the meat of animals that have been sacrifice to idols? Does that sounds a bit arcane to you? The real issue, though, is as challenging for us as it was for that first century congregation. The real issue is idolatry. It’s the First Commandment: who or what do we devote our best time and energy towards? Is that God? Or do we give our best time and energy to serving something else; something that we put in the place of God?
Paul’s writing in this section of First Corinthians reflects the context: this congregation was embroiled in destructive internal dynamics. The people in this tiny congregation were sniping with each other rather than building each other up. They were taking advantage of each other in power plays. Wealthy members flaunted that over members with few material resources. One man was sleeping with his step-mother. Other members were suing each other. Does it sound to you that the Corinthian Jesus people were giving their best time and energy to serving God? Or were they serving what they had put in the place of God – personal ambition, or sexual lust, or maintaining wealth and status?
Paul speaks to that, in this section of First Corinthians. First, Paul offers himself as a positive model of serving God. (That’s in chapter nine, for your Bible study.) This morning, though, we’re in the text of terror that is chapter 10 – and here, Paul is referring back to the stories of the chosen people wandering in the wilderness, as a negative warning! Paul writes: God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” (Here Paul refers to the golden calf Aaron and the people made, for a god to worship, when Moses was delayed from coming back down Mount Sinai.[3]) Paul writes: We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. (Here Paul is recalling that men of the chosen people were defiling themselves by having sexual relations with Moabite women, for God’s sake![4]) Paul writes: We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.[5] And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.[6] These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
I leave it to you to decide, in your interpretation of the Bible, whether any of these negative warnings which refer to incidents reported in the book of Numbers have any relevance to you and me today. Yes, it’s in the Bible. But here is the question that will guide your interpretation: What is God like? Do you think that God causes suffering?
In fact, listen to what Paul writes next: So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. Well – does God test us? (One of the primary reasons for avoiding the Elizabethan English version of the Lord’s Prayer is the false teaching in the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation” – as if God conducts divine sting operations.)
In saying such a thing, I am not simply giving you my personal opinion. If I may be so bold, I am giving you the perspective of Jesus, in this morning’s story from Luke! Jesus’ point of view could not be more different from Paul’s teaching.
In this story, some people come to Jesus with the headline ripped from that day’s newspaper. They’re asking, What is God’s role in suffering? At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Do you remember what Jesus says in response? He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
With both examples, Jesus is asking, “Do you think God singled out those who died?” He answers his own question, “No, I tell you.” According to this passage, God does not cause suffering! But then, remember what Jesus adds, in both cases? “But unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
To repent is to return. To repent is to turn away from what makes for death, and to turn back to God and God’s desires for you – so that God the Holy Spirit can immerse you and me in grace and forgiveness and salvation.
What good news there is in that! The problem is that it often takes bad news to turn us back towards the good news of God in Jesus the Christ. And that is how Jesus is using the three tragedies that have happened in recent days, there in Galilee. He is teaching from them. Jesus is saying that we do not live forever, and so there is some urgency that we repent; that we turn away from what makes for death; that we turn back to God and what God desires for you and me – so that God the Holy Spirit can immerse you and me in grace and forgiveness and salvation.
That repentance, that turning back to God, is the primary theme of Lent.
Blessings on your Lenten practices. Blessings on your continuing journey through this holy season.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Frank Honeycutt, Marry a Pregnant Virgin (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 2008), page 94.
[2] Phyllis Trible’s phrase, in her book, Texts of Terror.
[3] Exodus 32
[4] Numbers 25:1-9
[5] Numbers 21:5-6
[6] Numbers 16:13-14, 41-49
“God Is Determined To Save Us!”
Luke 13:31-35 Second Sunday of Lent February 28, 2010
There’s lots going on in that story from the gospel of Luke. There are Pharisees, there is King Herod, there is Jesus, there is the entire city of Jerusalem – and all this in just five verses! Are you able to get a handle on all that’s going on in this scene? (That would be like dropping someone from back then into today’s political environment, and expecting him to immediately understand “Tea Party” populism and polarized politics and health care reform!) So, let me offer some orientation.
There is great political intrigue swirling around Jesus in this story. (It amuses me when a contemporary American declares that religion should not be mixed with politics – because Jesus was neck-deep in politics every day of his ministry!) In the story, we read, At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to [Jesus], “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” Here’s what’s happening. We’ve got one party of religious leaders (the Pharisees) trying to triangulate Jesus, by warning him about a political leader (Herod), who claimed that he was motivated by religion!
Got that? In fact, it’s even more complicated than that! The Pharisees were only one of several groups of religious leaders. There were also the Sadducees; and there were the Essenes; and there were the Scribes; and there was the family that produced the hereditary Chief Priest of the Jerusalem Temple. Do you think those parties of religious leaders were on the same page? Nope! They were all the time squabbling, arguing, disagreeing; with entirely different ideas of the future for God’s people. And now, here’s this small town rabbi named Jesus in the mix.
Here’s more. King Herod was only the local king, based in Jerusalem. He was a Jew – but I suspect that he used religion as a justification for his political positions (much as happens today, among some of our politicians who talk about God a lot). But, of course, Herod didn’t have much real power – because the region was under Roman occupation. Garrisons of centurions and soldiers were stationed in Palestine, to enforce military rule. The Romans had installed a regional governor you may have heard of, named Pontius Pilate. He reported to the Caesar in Rome. (So – in everything he did, Herod had to be careful not to make the Romans angry with him. Herod was able to exercise power only as it was convenient for Rome to have a vassal king.)
And so, probably, Herod was worried that Jesus might cause civil disruption out in the hinterland of Galilee. That could make the Romans think that Herod couldn’t even control his own people.
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to [Jesus], “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
What’s motivating the Pharisees, in this scene? In the gospel stories, aren’t the Pharisees painted as the villains? The Pharisees are the ones who police the religious rules: are the people properly obeying those rules? The gospel writers portray the Pharisees to be opposed to Jesus because he’s all the time pointing out how inconsistent they are in enforcing those religious rules.
So, why are they warning Jesus here? Could it be that it’s convenient for them to use Herod as a bogey-man? Maybe they can use Herod to scare Jesus away. If he flees, well then, the Pharisees will find life to be easier without this trouble-maker!
Or, could it be that the Pharisees, as a party of religious rulers, are not as monolithic as we often assume? When the gospel writers cast them as the villains in the Jesus story, it’s as if they all agree about Jesus! But could that be the case? Have you ever known a group of people in which there is total unanimity? Don’t even the closest of friends and family and working partners disagree with each other over many things?
We read that some Pharisees come to warn Jesus. Could it be that some Pharisees were indeed open to the idea that Jesus could be the Christ, the Messiah of God?
Isn’t this fun, peeling apart all the intrigue and the possibilities? For those in the congregation who have been working through the Book of Faith studies, and for William and Mary students taking the “Jesus and the Gospels” course, this is the “Historical Approach.” It’s important to know the history behind a passage such as this one. But even if we spend years studying the history, the passage will remain closed to us as gospel. So — here’s what strikes me, this time through this story. I am struck by how determined Jesus is, to be faithful to the work that God has given him.
Some Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. Remember what Jesus says in response? He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’”
“On the third day.” Did you catch that? There’s one of those numbers that signals something to us; much as when we encounter the number, “40,” in the Bible. It’s right in our faces: this is a God thing the gospel writer is telling us about. God is working here. Jesus cannot stop doing the work God has given him to do. He must continue. He must walk straight into the danger, all the way to Jerusalem, which is where he will be killed – because that is what Jerusalem does to prophets.
But what does Jesus want for the people of Jerusalem? What a poignant image: of Jesus-God as a mother hen, desperately wanting to gather together her chicks. Here’s the sad thing. Unlike chicks in a barnyard, who scramble back under the mother hen’s wings when there is danger, the human beings that God desires to gather together are not willing! Not willing! And so, God can only yearn. God is unable to make them return.
What a stunning Biblical image of God. What pathos!
But still. Jesus is determined to continue the work God has given him to do. God is determined to work salvation.
And that’s where the gospel is in this story. Because – isn’t that the way God still is? God is determined to save you and me! That’s true, even though we are greatly distracted by all that’s going on in the barnyard. We turn away from God, instead acting as if it’s all up to us. But what’s the result of all the time and energy we give to that delusion? It only makes us aware of how far we fall short, of how much we haven’t done, which only makes us feel bad about ourselves – when all God wants to do is to welcome us back, in love and forgiveness and salvation. We measure our worth by what we accomplish, and the bad news is that we can never accomplish enough – when all God wants to do is to enfold us in the good news that the purpose of our lives is to praise and give thanks to God. (Here, chickie, chickie!)
Instead, we turn away from that good news. Again and again, we turn in on ourselves, fearful, self-centered. We react out of that fear. That reaction is often anger, which causes our relationships with others to be broken, and also our relationship with God. That’s what our sin causes: that brokenness.
Does God give up on us? No! God continues to pursue us. Herod cannot scare God away. Our stubborn sinfulness cannot deter God. God’s love is a patient, determined love!
God cannot help it! It’s because of what God did to you and me when God baptized us. In your baptism, God said to you: “You are mine.” And now God says, “I cannot give up on you, or let you go, or turn away.” God is like the mother hen, with her wings spread open…
The season of Lent reminds us of our need to return to God.
How determined God is to save us! What good news!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
Come Along, You Who Are Hungry And Thirsty
Luke 4:1-13 First Sunday in Lent February 21, 2010
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 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.
That wilderness landscape is barren. When I was there, I took some close-up pictures – of the ground! – because I had never seen such terrain. The dirt and the rocks are the same color: a drab tan. There is no water.
There is a strip of green growing things not far away, along the banks of the Jordan river. People live along the river banks, because there’s water! They’ve done some irrigation for their gardens and farms. Also not far away is the 10,000-year old town of Jericho. It is the oldest continually-inhabited town in the world because it is an oasis in the desert wilderness. Springs come up from the ground, so fruit trees flourish and other food can be grown. (I took another picture from a high spot, with the edge of Jericho in the middle of the picture – to show how suddenly the oasis ends and the desert barrenness begins.)
“Wilderness” is what we read in the New Revised Standard Version, in worship. Other versions of the Bible translate the Greek word to be “desert.” That is more literally true. But, keeping in mind that the terrain is the barren dirt and rock of a desert, I do appreciate the metaphorical value of the word, “wilderness.”
Think of that. The wilderness is a place where it’s easy for you to get lost. Right? When you’re lost in the wilderness, you’re trying to find the way out. (Will you even make it out?!) Moses and the people of God wandered in the desert wilderness of the Sinai for 40 years, according to Exodus and Deuteronomy, and it’s easy to see why: that land is either flat or suddenly mountain! Moses and the people wouldn’t have wanted to go in a straight line, because that would have meant climbing up and down those mountains! Instead, they wound around the mountains. And they quickly lost their way! They wandered – for 40 years! For 40 years, they didn’t know where they were going, and they didn’t know when they would get there. They only knew that God would tell them when they had gotten there.
Think about that for a minute. What a metaphor for the spiritual life! (Hopefully your periods of wandering haven’t lasted for 40 years.)
Here’s how this morning’s story in Luke begins: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 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.
Does it startle you to notice that Jesus is led into the wilderness by God the Holy Spirit? (Isn’t Trinitarian theology interesting?) Jesus is led by the Spirit away from the green strip of vegetation along the Jordan; where he was baptized; where there’s irrigation; where there’s food and drink; where life can flourish. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the barren, dry, tan-dirt-and-rocks of the wilderness, where he spends 40 days. (Have you noticed that significant number that we come across in various places of the Bible? Have you noticed that the season of Lent is 40 days long?) At the end of the 40 days, according to the story, Jesus was more than hungry. The Greek is translated, “famished.”
When have you experienced this?
When have you been lost?
When has life been barren; when you’ve known emptiness, or even despair?
When have you suffered deep hunger and thirst?
Jesus is famished! We find this theme, often, as we pray the words of the Psalm writers expressing their experiences, in their journeys with God. Here is what the Psalm writer says in Psalm 42:
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
In Psalm 63, we read this prayer:
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
All hunger is hunger for God. All thirst is thirst for God.
How often do you recognize this? When someone tries to satisfy a feeling of hunger by buying something, for instance, he doesn’t realize that his hunger is for God. When someone who is thirsty for self-esteem compensates by bullying someone, she doesn’t understand that her thirst is for God.
In the story from Luke, Jesus is in extreme danger. The reason why the temptations are so dangerous for Jesus is because he is hungry, literally and metaphorically! He is thirsty, again, in both senses. Suffering from such need, Jesus is in deadly danger of succumbing to the temptation to be self-centered.
Jon Pahl, our Theologian in Residence last week, said that sin, at its heart, is turning in on ourselves. You and I turn in on ourselves, which means that we turn away from God and from other people. It is when we are hungry that we are most in danger of being self-centered, of being sinful in that way; of being deluded to think that the purpose of life is to satisfy our physical needs for comfort (the first temptation for Jesus); or that we are to pursue our own personal power (the second temptation); or that we are to be successful or even sensational in t he world’s eyes, rather than faithful to God and the work God gives us to do. (That’s the third temptation).
Jesus is famished. He is great danger as the devil tempts him.
What about you, as this season of Lent begins? Is this a dangerous time of hunger? (Isn’t it always a dangerous time, depending on how the day is going?!)
God the Holy Spirit feeds us through the practices of Christian faith. For instance, there is the essential practice of reading the short passages from the Bible that are set out in a daily lectionary. (I declare to you that you will remain Biblically illiterate, not even knowing what is in the Bible, unless you use a daily lectionary. This practice is that important!) There are the equally fundamental practices of worship, and prayer, and study, and mutual conversation and consolation, all of which happen in Christian community, such as this congregation. There are countless other practices of the Christian faith. There is, for instance, the practice of exercise and diet control – a Christian practice when you are conscious that you are caring for God’s creation that is your body. There is the practice of giving away money and time to work that advances God’s kingdom.
Through these practices of the faith, God the Holy Spirit feeds us when we are hungry and thirsty
I invite you into a holy Lent of such practices. Choose one or two practices for these 40 days. (Who knows? The practices might turn out to be more than temporary!)
Pay attention to what the Spirit is doing with you, through these practices. Notice: How is the Spirit feeding you? How is the Spirit transforming you, to live as if Jesus has actually risen from the dead.
After such a holy Lent, what a joy-filled Easter it will be!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
The Lenten Journey: From Truth To Transformation
Psalm 51 Ash Wednesday, 2010 February 17, 2010
We begin Lent with some shocking truth-telling, in word and action.
The action will happen in a few minutes. I will dip my thumb into some ashes, make the sign of the cross on your foreheads, and say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Wait a minute! We will die?! That is a shocking truth to tell in our culture! How much money and time is spent in the quest to deny that truth? (How much is spent on age-hiding cosmetics and hair colorings, and plastic surgery, and even most exercise equipment?)
The truth has intruded on you if your health has ever been broken. A pastor friend of mine named George Sims was recently hospitalized for pancreatitis, which can be life-threatening. I called him last week, to ask how he’s getting along. Thank God the doctors caught the pancreatitis early and have treated it effectively. But still, George will be stuck at home for at least several more weeks, while God heals his physical brokenness. George said, “This is the first time I’ve been sick like this. I have an out-of-town trip scheduled in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to have to cancel it!” He is shocked at his brokenness.
Do you know the truth, that we’re going to die? Some of you have experienced health so broken that you thought you were going to die right then!
What does God do with such an experience? Some who recover from such an encounter find that God has transformed them! The result is joy! God the Holy Spirit transforms you to know that each day is a gift! The Spirit transforms you to be more loving. You are transformed – to be more likely to seek the good in a situation. You become more hopeful, more patient. Those are some of the marks of a Christian! And, as the Spirit transforms you and me to live a Christ-like life, others see that. Others are attracted to follow Jesus!
How does that transformation begins? Here’s one way. It’s when God the Holy Spirit breaks into our consciousness with the shocking truth, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The life of Christian faith is the journey from truth to transformation.
Christians who practice Lenten disciplines are especially aware of that.
Let me use some words of Walter Brueggemann. When we begin with truth that shocks us, this is “an act of bold faith, albeit a transformed faith. It is an act of bold faith on the one hand, because it insists that the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended way. On the other hand, it is bold because it insists that all such experiences of disorder are a proper subject for discourse with God. There is nothing out of bounds, nothing precluded or inappropriate. Everything properly belongs in this conversation of the heart. …
“But such a faith is indeed a transformed faith….It is…faith in…God…who is present in, participating in, and attentive to the darkness, weakness, and displacement of life.”[1]
Have you known the darkness, the weakness, the displacement of life? Of course you have! Then why do we work so hard to deny those experiences of life? Do we think we can avoid them next time?
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That’s where you and I begin the journey to transformation.
The Psalm writer sure expresses that truth, in those words we spoke to begin tonight’s worship service.[2] Remember that we prayed this:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
in your great compassion
blot out my offenses. …
For I know my offenses,
and my sin is ever before me.
These words are shocking to us! Why? Well, what’s our cultural mantra? “It’s not my fault!”
The Psalm writer declares this to God:
Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight, …
Certainly, our sins hurt other people. But here the Psalm writer is telling the truth that our sins are ultimately against God, because it is God who created us and every other human being, and it is God who wants us to love each other as God loves us.
When you prayed the words of Psalm 51 to begin tonight’s worship, did you notice the two uses of the word, “broken?” We prayed:
Let me hear joy and gladness;
That the body you have broken may rejoice. …
And then:
For you take no delight in sacrifice,
or I would give it.
You are not be pleased
with burnt offering.
The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;
a troubled and broken heart, O God,
you will not despise.
Brokenness. Sinfulness is, quite simply, brokenness. Because of our sin, our relationships with others are broken. Or love affair with God is broken.
What is your most frequent sin? For me, it’s the sin of pride that most often breaks my relationship with God. In my pride, I think it’s all up to me. I lose sleep worrying about all kinds of things that I have no control over – because I don’t have the faith – to trust – that it’s God who will do what God wants to do. How little I can do! “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That’s the shocking truth. That’s the bad news.
But we need to know that bad news for transformation to be possible! God needs to convince us that that bad news is true before we can even know that we need the grace-filled Good News of Jesus the Christ! Here’s the way it works. That truth, that bad news, the law, drives us to our knees. Then the Spirit can open us to the gospel.
The life of Christian faith is the journey from truth to transformation.
That journey is what Lent is all about. We begin Lent, tonight, with shocking truth-telling, in word and action. When we speak the words of Psalm 51, the truth is in our mouths. When we bear the sign of the cross in ashes, the truth is on our faces. What we say and hear and see tonight makes it difficult to continue the cover up, to keep on denying what is true.
Can you and I save ourselves from what we know is true? Of course not!
It is Jesus the Christ who has died to save us. He is risen! And he invites us to follow in the life of resurrection. Here is what that means: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.[3]
Can you tell how that’s happening with you, on the journey of Christian faith? Do you notice the Spirit marking you more deeply as a Christian; how the Spirit is drawing you into such practices as love, and seeking the good, and hopefulness, and patience? In other words, God the Holy Spirit draws you more deeply into living a Christ-like life! We’ll be looking into those marks of a Christian, on the Wednesday nights of Lent.
I invite you into the Lenten journey that begins this evening, in this congregation. We will share together the practices of Lent – the worship, the prayer, the study and mutual conversation and consolation.
After such a holy Lent, what a joy-filled Easter it will be!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), page 52.
[2] Psalm 51
[3] Romans 12:2, to quote from what the apostle Paul writes in the theme chapter for our Wednesday nights in Lent this year.
Who Gives Results?
Luke 5:1-11 Fifth Sunday of Epiphany February 7, 2010
Have you ever felt like Simon Peter, in this morning’s story from Luke? He’s exhausted. He’s worked long hours. That hard work has yielded no results. What a waste of time and energy!
Have you ever felt like Simon Peter?
Years ago, I found some note cards with this quote: “First give yourself to God. Then do the work God gives you.” I used up those note cards long ago. And I have no idea where the quote came from. But I often think about it. I think it means three things. God calls us to our work. (Once again, you’re hearing a stewardship sermon!) It’s the work that matters. Doing the work has value, regardless of any results, because it is work that God calls us to.
Back to the story in Luke. We’re at the Sea of Galilee. (In the story, it’s called “the lake of Gennesaret.[1] But it’s the same place.) There isn’t much beach! Many people are pressing in upon Jesus, trying to hear what he’s teaching. They have a deep hunger. We read: “the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” (The word of God! It’s what Jesus is speaking. There’s nothing yet written that’s called “the word of God.) To create some space, Jesus asks Simon Peter to actually row him out into the lake a little bit, in one of his boats. Jesus can sit in the boat and teach from there. Then, more people could see and hear him.
Simon is probably willing to do this because he owes Jesus a favor. The day before, Jesus had healed his mother-in-law. Jesus needs Simon’s skill with the oars, to keep the boat in place, so it doesn’t drift. Also, now, Simon has no choice but to listen to what Jesus is teaching the crowd! (Think of this. The healing, yesterday. Now the teaching. Presumably, Simon had also heard Jesus teaching in the tiny town’s synagogue the day before. Simon has not yet committed to following Jesus, but do you see how Jesus is reeling Simon in?)
What Jesus says next would have been absolutely astonishing. When [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
One commentator writes this: “What a preposterous suggestion. Peter was exhausted. He and his partners had fished all night and caught nothing. They worked at night for one simple reason – the fish in the Sea of Galilee (and elsewhere) feed at night. In the daytime they hide under rocks. Furthermore, they congregate around the streams and springs at the edge of the sea where oxygen-rich fresh water flows into the lake.”[2] Further, nets were used for shallow water fishing.
So – now that the sun has risen, Jesus says, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch?” Preposterous!
“Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” Is there exhaustion and exasperation in Simon Peter’s reply to Jesus? Certainly! Is there, perhaps, even jeering sarcasm in Simon’s voice as he says, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
The commentator paraphrases that to be: “Listen Teacher! My boys and I are professionals. We know where the fish feed – it’s along the shore, and the best time to catch them is at night. That’s why we were out on the lake all last night. We’re not stupid! We have just worked the fishing areas and caught nothing. We are now dead tired, and I have stayed awake a few more hours – to serve you. You rabbis think you know everything and now you order me to fish during the day in deep water. Very well! Let’s go out and we’ll see who knows what about fishing!”[3]
Then what happens? When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 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. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Who gives results?
Have you ever worked as hard as you can – and seen no results? Of course! Plenty of times! How about the converse? Haven’t there been times when you really haven’t put in much effort – but there was all kinds of good response?
Who gives results? God does! Isn’t this one thing this preposterous story is telling us?
When you and I know and trust that God gives results, we are transformed! When we receive that grace from God, we’re not so hard on ourselves. Of course we need to work hard! We are called to use the talents and energy that God has given us, to do the work that God gives us to do. But, when you and I know and trust that God gives results, we realize that it is not up to us. It is up to God.
In the story from Luke, God gives results that are unbelievable. They are once-in-a-lifetime results. And Simon Peter and his partners – James and John, sons of Zebedee – are transformed!
Think about this for a moment. For these fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, the size of this catch is like winning the powerball lottery would be today! It’s like going to Las Vegas and hitting the jackpot! These guys are rich! How will they respond?
As the story concludes, we read, When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. Did that happen that simply? Is it possible to imagine that Peter and his partners simply left this once-in-a-lifetime catch on the beach, to rot? Recent archeological evidence suggests that Peter and his brother, Andrew, and his partners owned a fleet of fishing boats.[4] These boats were much larger than simple rowboats: a commercial fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee and was more than 26 feet long and seven feet wide.[5] It even had a sail, for when there was wind! Would these fishermen have left these boats on the beach, to rot?
Here’s what I suggest to you: that the disciples continue their profession of fishing, even as they are following Jesus. But they are transformed. When you read the gospel stories closely, you see that this could easily be true. Is Jesus teaching all day, every day? In nearly every episode we read of Jesus’ teaching and healing, they’re within a day’s walk of their home villages. They fish at night. Some days, they’re spending with Jesus, listening, watching, being transformed.
I say all of this because it’s bad news to think that we have to leave everything to follow Jesus! That causes you and me, who live in the world, to feel guilty! Instead, the good news of Jesus the Christ comes to us in our earthy, material world, in our work, in our everyday lives. When we are fulfilled in our work, that’s a sign that God has called us to do the work! “First give yourself to God. Then do the work God gives you.” We are transformed! We see that it is God who gives us purpose in our work. Are there any results? God gives them, too.
Simon Peter and his partners are transformed. Remember his reaction to the preposterous catch of fish? It’s a reaction of fear, in the presence of the holiness of God! We read, But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; … Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
That is to be the purpose of our work. That is to be the purpose of all that we do in our daily lives, since the good news of Jesus the Christ has come to us in the earthy, material world of work and everyday life. Our actions and our words witness to the good news that has come in Jesus the Christ. People want to know why we are filled with such joy! In that way, we “catch people.”
God gives us our work. God gives us our purpose in our work. God gives us results.
What good news. What grace. What transformation.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Gennesaret was the Greek name for a small, fertile, heavily populated area west of the Sea of Galilee.
[2] Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), page 141.
[3] Ibid., page 142.
[4] According to archeologist and teacher Dr. Lamonte Luker.
[5] The remains of one, miraculously found and preserved in 1986, are on display at Kibbutz Ginosar, at the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
“What Is This Thing Called Love?” 1 Corinthians 13
January 31, 2010 Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
Love is in the air! Can you walk into a drug store without being assaulted by Valentine’s Day displays? (That’s been true since December 26, when the Christmas displays were taken down!)
What is this thing called love? Is it expressed by Valentine’s Day cards and candy? Is love romantic? Is it physical? (More than one person has commented on the fact that our Theologian in Residence will be talking about “Sex and Salvation” on Valentine’s Day weekend!)
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love…” Remember that sappy song?
“Make love, not war,” chanted anti-war demonstrators in the late-60s and early-70s.
“All you need is love,” sang the Beatles.
Is love something sappy? Is it mushy? Is it a magic ingredient, suddenly making every situation of conflict just fine and dandy? I wonder what would happen if someone got together a group of Israeli Zionists and Israeli Arabs and started to sing, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love…”?
What is this thing called love? Here’s what the apostle Paul writes: love is a gift of God the Holy Spirit. This morning we read one of the most familiar passages in all the Bible. One reason for that is how often First Corinthians 13 is read at weddings.
(Did any of you see the movie, “The Wedding Crashers?” Two guys simply show up at weddings, uninvited. They’ve found that receptions are a good way to pick up chicks. And they make the wedding services themselves to be as interesting as they can. Do you remember the scene where they bet each other what the reading will be? “First Corinthians 13,” says one of the guys. When the reading begins, he’s right! The other guy gives him ten bucks.)
When the apostle Paul wrote this chapter in his first letter to the congregation at Corinth, was he even remotely thinking about weddings in 21st century America?
At a wedding, what are you thinking and feeling? If you’re not romantic at a wedding, then you’re a cold hearted soul! At weddings, we’re like this: “Awwwwwww.” “Isn’t she beautiful?” “Isn’t this wonderful?” We hear First Corinthian 13 read, and we dab our eyes at the joy of it all.
Well, this chapter is from a letter Paul wrote to a congregation of Jesus people that he had founded. And here’s what was going on, among the people Paul was writing to. There were power struggles in the congregation, with different leaders battling for influence, and belittling Paul. People were fighting over food laws. People were arguing about what is proper dress. At the Holy Communion meal, where people brought food from home (it was a full meal), the rich were getting drunk and bloated, and the poor were leaving hungry. There was a man sleeping with his step-mother. Members of the congregation were suing each other in pagan courts.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love …” That would solve everything, right?
In First Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul is describing love that only comes as a gift from God. It is love that is tough. It is love that prevails when there is anger and disagreement. It is love that holds community together.
In the Corinthian congregation leadera are engaging in boasting and one-upsmanship, and Paul could compete quite well! Paul has the most to boast about! Instead, Paul writes that any of his abilities or accomplishments are worthless, if he is not motivated by love. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is what God is doing! That’s true – even if we don’t see or know what ultimate fulfillment will look like. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.…For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known….
What will that look like, when love is fulfilled? What is your vision?
God is love! “I have been fully known,” writes Paul. In God’s love, God fully knows us! God loves us – with love that is tough; love that prevails when there is anger and disagreement; love that holds community together. (That love is a necessary gift from God, to hold together the most basic community of a husband and wife – and so it is fine to read this passage at a wedding; hopefully, looking beyond the romance!)
So, now: considering the toughness of that love; love that is impossible for you and me to manufacture on our own; love that can only be received as a gift of God – close your eyes. Think of where your life with others is most difficult.
………………..
Where is there tension?
…………………
Where are you enduring and working your way through conflict?
…………………
Keep that difficulty, that tension, that conflict in mind, and pray over these words:
Love is patient;
love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
What God Has Done In Christ
Ephesians 1:3-14 Second Sunday of Christmas January 3, 2010
Whenever there is a Second Sunday of Christmas, the purpose of the day is teaching. Notice that about the lessons appointed for this day. They are teaching passages. The Jeremiah prophecy proclaims what God will do (and what Jews still wait for), restoring God’s disobedient and scattered people. For Christians, the two New Testament passages teach about what God has done, in becoming flesh in Jesus the Christ.
The gospel passage is a Prologue to the gospel of John.[1] John does not begin with a story of Jesus’ birth, as we find in Matthew and Luke. Instead, what we read this morning is a poetic description of who God is, who the Word is, what God has done.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. … And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. …
What marvelous language, doing what only poetry can do: leading us deeply into mystery that cannot be explained. In this case, the mystery is God – from the beginning; before the beginning; now become flesh, living among us human beings. Wow! What mystery to contemplate – now that the hoopla off Christmas is over; now that we can take the time to consider what Christmas means; what God has done in Christ.
There is not always a Second Sunday of Christmas! It depends upon what day of the week is December 25. How many days are there of Christmas? Twelve! This year, Christmas fell on a Friday. Last Sunday was the Third Day of Christmas. Today is the Tenth Day of Christmas.
Christmas ends with The Epiphany of our Lord. When is The Epiphany? January 6! What does The Epiphany commemorate? The arrival of the Magi (which could also be translated “astrologers” or “wise men”). This is a story that is only in Matthew’s gospel, which is much different from Luke’s version of the events of Jesus’ birth. (In Luke, for instance, there are no Magi, but there are shepherds.) But we like to merge and combine both accounts – and so, we have both shepherds and wise men in the Christmas pageant, as if there is only one story of Jesus’ birth! (But that’s ok, huh? It’s fun!)
I want to call your attention to the reading from Ephesians this morning, for the teaching it contains. I thought to do this weeks ago, while working through the Advent journey book that many of you used, as you prepared yourselves for what God would do in your lives this year, at Christmas. On the 13th day of that Advent journey, we were asked to ponder this: “Jesus is the true Messiah. What difference does this make in your life?”
That’s an important question! It’s important because many claim to be “spiritual,” but not “religious.” Have you ever heard someone say that? Have you ever wondered what that means? Here’s what I think: that it’s a way of staying self-centered (which is highly prized in our culture). To say, “I’m spiritual, but not religious” often means that a person reserves the right to construct his or her own set of beliefs, rather than submitting to formation in a particular faith tradition that is greater than himself or herself.
Does it really matter, anyway, to be formed in a particular faith tradition? “Aren’t all religions the same?” “Don’t we all worship the same God?” “Aren’t we all going to the same place?”
The author of Ephesians (a follower of the apostle Paul), has some definite views about all of this! I want to spend some time with the passage we read this morning. The author is se verses are explicit about what God has done, specifically, in Christ. The author is teaching this to a tiny, first century group of Christians. In fact, their day-to-day experiences of religious pluralism and many competing “philosophies of life” were very similar to what you and I encounter today.
The form of a letter by Paul, or by one of his followers, in the New Testament, includes an opening greeting, and then introductory verses of teaching. The letter to the Christians at Ephesus begins in this way: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, as I read the verses appointed for this morning, underline or circle every reference we come to, of “in Christ,” or “through Jesus Christ,” or “in the Beloved,” or “in him,” or “on Christ”:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
How many circles do you have? Ten? Eleven? See how much God has done — in Christ? The author is very specific.
Now. I am well-aware that, ever since the Emperor, Constantine, proclaimed Christianity to be the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 313, there have been Christians who have used a Scripture passage such as this to exclude and judge. There have been Christians who have said a variation of this: “Either you believe this, or you’ll go to hell.”
Well, here’s what I would propose. Beliefs are important. But beliefs alone are worthless. Instead, beliefs must inform a way of life. The Christian way of life is described by “the fruit of the Spirit” in another Pauline letter: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”[2] (Do you see in that list any ideas for New Year’s Resolutions?!) Another Pauline teaching is this: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. … And be thankful. …”[3]
I see the teaching in Ephesians as an invitation into that way of life, as we are formed by the Spirit to imitate Christ.
Let me go through the phrases in Ephesians teaching us what God has done, in Christ.
- In Christ, God has blessed us.
- In Christ, God chose us before the foundation of the world.
- Through Jesus Christ, God destined us for adoption as his children.
- In the Beloved, we are beloved.
- In him we receive redemption, forgiveness, grace.
- In Christ we see the mystery of God’s will, which is God’s plan for the fullness of time.
- In Christ we receive an inheritance of salvation.
- Our hope is set on Christ.
- In him, we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, as the pledge of our inheritance of salvation.
Sit in prayer with all of that!
What good news!
I pray that, through our words and actions in our day-to-day lives, we will demonstrate that God has, indeed, done all of this in Christ.
I pray that our words and actions will invite others into this grace-filled, joyful way of life!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] John 1:1-18
[2] Galatians 5:22-23
[3] Colossians 3:12-12, 15
What Does Christmas Point Towards?
Titus 2:11-14 Christmas Eve, 2009
Isn’t tonight magical? What a lovely worship space. What beloved music. Don’t you adore that Christmas story from the gospel of Luke?
Christmas touches emotions deep within us.
Why does Christmas make many sad?
Is it because we know that when this magical evening ends, and the sun comes up tomorrow morning, we’ll still be ourselves? In the morning, perhaps, you’ll enjoy the tree, and the gifts, and maybe even something special for breakfast. But by tomorrow afternoon, will anything be different?
Many folks feel a let-down every Christmas.
Indeed, some of us will feel more piercing emotions, of sharp grief. So many of us have suffered loss, and it does no good to try to cover that up at Christmas. A marketing machine has been working on us for the past two months, to spend lots of money and time, to “get ready for Christmas,” to have “the best Christmas ever” – as if that’s the point! But if this is all there is, then we feel loss. We compare this Christmas with celebrations past, and we miss those loved ones who are not with us this year.
Will you feel sadness tonight when we sing “Silent Night” with our lit candles? Tomorrow? When you say “goodbye” to those visiting? When you take down the Christmas decorations? On the Epiphany, when the 12 Days of Christmas are over?
Instead, I would like to point you towards the good news of Jesus’ birth! The Spirit is able to fill us with joy – joy that lasts; joy that is more than temporary – only when Christmas points beyond itself.
What does Christmas point towards? That is in the reading from Titus, of all places.
Titus is a tiny book. It’s a New Testament letter of only 47 verses. It might have been written by the apostle, Paul, but it was probably written by an anonymous church leader continuing the tradition of Paul’s theology (which, of course, Augustine emphasized and then Luther picked up on). A central theme of Pauline theology is that “Salvation and the hope of eternal life are made possible only by the mercy and grace that comes to believers in the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”[1] Now. How do we respond to that mercy and grace? That’s what Titus is about.
In particular, this sentence catches my attention, in the Christmas reading from Titus: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In that sentence, do you hear the past, and the present, and the future?
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,… (There’s the past. That’s what God has done, in the birth of Jesus the Christ!)
Next comes the present. Here’s where we are now: …training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,…
And here is the future, our hope for fulfillment, because there is so much that is unfulfilled: …while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Christmas points towards that hope. Christmas brings joy when it points beyond itself, to “the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” That will be when God will make all things new! That will be when God “will swallow up death forever,” and when “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” (Isaiah 25:7, 
That is what Christmas points towards, because salvation has come to us! Salvation has come into our flesh! God, born a baby, has brought salvation into the joys and sorrows of our day-to-day human lives! What wonderful, joyous news! But the stupendous wonder of what God has done in Jesus has little meaning, if we try to cover up or deny our desperate needs.
So, tonight, we love what we’re doing! The candles, the decorations, the music and songs and story are beautiful. They touch us at a deep place, in our desire for fulfillment.
It is in our hope that the Spirit fills us with joy. We yearn for the completion of what God promises in the birth of this baby, Jesus. That’s what Christmas points towards: what God is doing and will do in all of this.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] From the introduction to Titus in the Lutheran Study Bible – which would make a great Christmas gift! (Oops! Too late …)
The Reversal That is The Christian Life
Advent 4 December 20, 2009 Luke 1:39-55; Micah 5:2-5
It is Advent. The themes of this season remind us to be filled with hope, as we wait and watch for God’s advent, as we watch for how God is coming into the world. We are looking for where the kingdom of God is – the kingdom that Jesus the Christ brought, when he was born a baby, when he lived as a human being. We are waiting for the kingdom to be fulfilled, as God has promised.
Where is this happening? Look for signs of reversal!
Reversal is all through those beloved verses we call “the Magnificat” (from the phrase, “My soul magnifies the Lord…”). These are words of a psalm uttered by Mary, who will be the mother of our Lord. (Another possibility is that the words are spoken by Mary’s kinswoman, Elizabeth, as some Biblical scholars think. Your Bible will have a footnote indicating that, at verse 46. Let’s assume these words are from Mary!)
This morning we read part of the elaborate story, found only in the gospel of Luke, preceding the birth of Jesus. The story includes the angel visiting the priest Zechariah in the temple, while Zechariah is performing his duties in the holy of holies, to tell him that his elderly and barren wife, Elizabeth, will have a child! (I talked about this story last week: it’s the news that John the Baptist will be born. Remember that Zechariah does not believe the angel, and so he’s struck dumb until the baby is born, when he’s given the ability to talk again?) Well, by the time we get to this morning’s verses, the angel has visited a second person important to the story. This one is an impoverished, 12-year old girl living in the backwater village of Nazareth. She’s named Mary, and the angel tells her that she too will become pregnant (this time without benefit of a human male), and that her child will be the messiah!
In today’s portion, Mary visits Elizabeth when the elderly woman is six months pregnant. It’s a joyous meeting! Here’s what we read: In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (You see how Mary “who believed” is contrasted with Zechariah who had not believed the news the angel had brought to him!)
But what difference will any of this make? For that, listen again to the psalm placed on Mary’s lips. In particular, listen for how God has worked reversals! (That’s the verb tense: this is what God has done!)
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
This is strong language! Bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty: God is all about reversing human assumptions of the way the world works.
Indeed, consider how the entire Jesus story is a parable of a God who is reversing human assumptions.
- Who does God choose to be the parents of the messiah; the Christ; the anointed king from God? Does God choose royalty? No! Mary and Joseph, instead! And Mary and Joseph are no account people, from the no account village of Nazareth! (But isn’t the messiah to come from Bethlehem, the home of the great King David. We read that mainstream prophecy this morning, from Micah 5:2-5a.
- How does Jesus himself react whenever his followers push him to be the king they expect? He resists any talk of earthly power. He does not even defend himself when the Roman ruler, Pilate, accuses him of being a king.
- Think of this: in Jesus, God touches the untouchable and loves the unlovable.[1] (What kind of a God is this?! No one would have expected this!)
- Think of the resurrection itself as a stunning parable. This Jesus is seen again, alive – after everyone had seen him dead? But how can that possibly be true? Doesn’t this reverse every bit of the empirical data of our human experience? Doesn’t death win?
In Luke this morning, the psalm spoken by Mary magnifies the Lord for what the Lord has done – bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly; filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty. This is what the Lord has done in sending the messiah, but here is even more of the parable: most do not know that God has accomplished this! But we strange people, citizens of the kingdom of God, know that what Mary proclaims is the truth; that God has done this, that God will fulfill this.
And so, you and I pray, “Your kingdom come.” You and I watch for that kingdom as it comes! Where is that? We see the kingdom come wherever God is reversing the assumed “way of the world” – in which the rich and powerful and strong count for more than those who are poor and marginal and weak. We are partners with God when we encourage those reversals, nurturing the kingdom in which the poor and lowly are blessed, as Mary realizes that they are. The 20th century Catholic lay woman Dorothy Day put it this way: “I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor with whom Christ identified Himself. ‘Inasmuch as you have not fed the hungry, clothed the naked, sheltered the homeless, visited the prisoner, protested against injustice, comforted the afflicted…you have not done it to Me.’”[2] Dorothy Day wrote about being “in the forefront of the struggle for a better social order where there would not be so many poor.”[3] Dorothy Day had meditated on the Magnificat.
I am well aware that this kind of talk is often heard as law rather than gospel, as bad news, rather than good news. Here’s what I mean. It would be bad news if your conclusion is that you can never do enough – which is true! But the good news is that it does not depend upon you and me. The work is given by God. Results are brought by God. Here’s the good news: that you and I have been freed from worldly concerns (if we allow ourselves to be; if we allow ourselves to live in God’s grace). Here’s the good news: that you and I have been freed to serve others. We have been freed to give ourselves away. (How about that? This is a stewardship sermon!)
Mary, mother of our Lord, calls us to the reversal that is the Christian life. “God does not work in the world in ways we expect, because God’s mercy breaks the bounds of our narrow imaginations.”[4] And so, we act in unexpected ways, when our lives are marked by the reversal that is forgiveness. We act in unexpected ways, out of the reversal that is compassion. We reverse the assumptions of those who say, “How can God do this to me?”; and bring each other to see that God is present in our sufferings; that God is suffering with us. (That is a primary witness about God, that Mary’s baby will bring.)
In our own suffering, out of our own desperate need for compassion, we act with compassion.
That is the reversal that is the Christian life.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Mark Ramsey’s phrase in “Belonging,” (Journal for Preachers, Advent, 2009, page 23)
[2] Robert Ellsberg, ed., Dorothy Day: Selected Writings (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992), page 271.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Tom Long, Testimony (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004), cited by Mark Ramsey in Journal for Preachers, Advent, 2009, page 20.
“What Should We Do?”
Luke 3:7-18 Advent 3 December 13, 2009
When I say the word, “should,” what do you hear?
Do you hear obligation? “I should include hand-written notes in the Christmas cards, rather than a photocopied letter.” “I should decorate the house the way Mom used to.” “I should exercise and lose 20 pounds.” “I should pray.” “I should read the Bible every day.” When you hear the word, “should,” do you feel guilt?
The word, “should,” leaps out at me, from this morning’s story in Luke. John the Baptist is proclaiming a startling and unsettling message of coming judgment. “Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” he says. And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” … Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” … Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?”
Do you hear the crowds and the tax collectors and the soldiers asking out obligation? No! Instead, they are feeling compelled, from within themselves, to respond to what John is bringing before them! They’re not hesitating. They aren’t agonizing or calculating. They’re feeling called. They’re wanting to act.
According to the story in Luke, there are crowds of people coming out for John’s baptism. You remember how harsh John is towards some of those in the crowd. You see, some are still thinking the rules for salvation are the same as they always have been. They are assuming that they’re in – because they have inherited salvation. They are descendants of Abraham! But John is declaring that everything is changed. John lashes out at those who don’t get the new reality that God is bringing; the radically different conception of righteousness, of being in a right relationship with God. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
That harsh speech does not deter others who are in the crowds. We can imagine the religious leaders’ horror as some, even tax collectors and soldiers, come forward, asking “What should we do?” Of course, this is shocking and even offensive – because Jews working for the Romans as tax collectors are hated by all other Jews, and Gentile soldiers are despised by all Jews. The occupying Roman empire is cruelly oppressing the people living in the region around the Jordan. The empire is imposing onerous tax burdens. The empire is keeping a lid on civil unrest by military force. (They are calling that “peace.” The famous pax Romana, the “peace” of the Roman Empire was maintained at the point of a spear, and by the frequent use of crucifixion as capital punishment.)
So – it is shocking to see who is responding to John the Baptist’s summons!
It is also shocking to see that God is working this way, through John the Baptist. You see, John is the son of Zechariah. You may remember the story, two chapters earlier in Luke: that Zechariah is a priest “who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah.” Zechariah’s work is to preserve proper ritual; to ensure that worship is done the right way, so that purity is maintained, and salvation is assured. In the first chapter of Luke, Zechariah is serving in the inner sanctum of the great temple in Jerusalem. It is his duty “to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.”[1] It is here, in the holiest of places, in the center of the universe for God’s people, where an angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah, to tell him that his barren wife – well beyond her childbearing years – will have a son. (It’s a great story! Zechariah doesn’t believe the angel; and so the angel strikes Zechariah mute; and it’s not until John is born that Zechariah is able to speak again – you may remember how that story goes.)
What’s important to me, considering where we are this morning, two chapters later – as John appears, fully grown – is how radically unexpectedly God is acting through John. The priesthood was handed down from father to son. Here is what everyone would have expected: that John would grow up to be a Temple priest himself, entering the sanctuary of the Lord and offering incense, maintaining the established order, as his father had done.
Instead: “the word of God [comes] to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”[2] In the wilderness! Far from Jerusalem. Far from the temple in Jerusalem, where the proper worship of God is prescribed and guarded and where purity is maintained, so that salvation will be assured for those who worship properly. What does John call the very religious leaders, like his father, who are guarding the proper worship of God? “You brood of vipers,” he says to them! And who responds to what God is doing through John? Precisely those who are prohibited from even entering the temple, those who are unclean – such as tax collectors extorting their own people to benefit Rome; such as soldiers in the Roman occupying army, who aren’t even Jewish!
Here is what is happening: through John the Baptist, God declares the centuries-old religious rules of worship and purity and salvation to be null and void! John the Baptist declares that the coming Messiah is bringing salvation.
And some in the crowd are transformed! And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” … Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” … Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?”
It’s all about transformation.
That’s what God is all about with you and me, too, isn’t it? Isn’t this why God the Holy Spirit gathers us together as church? God’s advent disrupts our comfort, so that we will look for what God is doing, what God is bringing – so that our lives will be transformed. Last week we read this about John the Baptist: He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.[3] “Repentance” means turning away from what makes for death, and turning to God, who gives forgiveness and salvation.
None of this is otherworldly! All of it shows up in the way we live our daily lives. We see that in the story in Luke, in John’s response to the question: “What should we do?” The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
All of these actions would have been radical transformations, compared to the way most people, tax collectors and soldiers acted. Radical generosity. Ethical behavior governed by justice. In those behaviors, we see the transformation being worked by God. In those behaviors, we see salvation, visible in everyday human life.
My favorite description of the transformed life is Paul’s list in Galatians 5:22-23 – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I have found that, when I am open to God’s advent, when I allow God the Holy Spirit to come into my life; to transform me so that I respond by living in those ways; then I know salvation! And I demonstrate to others what salvation looks like!
What about you? What have you found, in your own journey?
This season of the church year is all about openness. Advent is all about being alert to what God is doing. It is all about the hope and joy that comes through transformation. We eagerly respond to God’s advent when we see it: “What should we do?”
What transformation the Spirit works within us and among us! It shows up in our daily lives! It is for the sake of the world!
What joy!
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Luke 1:9
[2] Luke 3:2
[3] Luke 3:3
The Refiner’s Fire
Malachi 3:1-4 Advent 2 December 6, 2009
Anybody know where to find the book of prophecy named “Malachi?” It’s easy! It’s the last book in the Old Testament!
This morning’s passage from Malachi is strange and even unintelligible to most folks. So, I’d like to get into it, in a non-traditional way, compared to most sermons. First, will you pull out your order of service, and follow as I read the passage again?
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
What thoughts do these words evoke in you? How does it sound to you: to endure? To be refined? To be purified? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. The “descendents of Levi” are the temple priests. The prophet is pronouncing God’s judgment upon them because they are conducting temple sacrifices improperly. “The ‘refiner’s fire’ refers to heating precious metals such as gold and silver to burn away impurities,” according to my Lutheran Study Bible. “Fullers’ soap” is especially harsh stuff.
This is not describing experiences that are pleasant!
But you’ve known such experiences. You could be walking through such fire right now. You and I suffer difficult periods that refine us: periods of grief, of loss, of disappointment and defeat.
So, first: What is an experience that you’ve suffered?
Now: How does God come to us in such experiences?
That’s a question of Advent.
I’m not saying that God causes suffering, which is what Malachi seems to be saying! I think the witness of God in Jesus the Christ contradicts that message of Malachi. But this passage, appointed for Advent worship, raises a question about the spiritual journey that we usually don’t entertain: Where is God’s advent, in experiences of suffering? Because God does indeed enter in – into every experience of our lives.
That’s not only true in our personal lives, but also in a much wider sense – when pain of the world surrounds us. The suffering of the people of Afghanistan, and of Iraq, and of those in the military and those diplomats who are trying to build peace and justice. The suffering of the people of Palestine, and of Israel. The suffering of African families caused by AIDS. The despair of those without work in this country. The anxiety, more severe this Christmas than most years, being suffered by those facing economic challenge.
Does God come to folks in such experiences?
Yes! God comes, born a baby, in circumstances of poverty and homelessness.
We are called to follow that Jesus – “Emanuel, which means, ‘God is with us’”[1] – even when we are being refined by fire.
Even then – where is God breaking in, bringing hope?
Where do you see God’s advent?
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Matthew 1:23
Are You Ready?
Luke 21:20-36 Advent 1 November 29, 2009
Soon, you’ll be hearing the question over and over: “Are you ready for Christmas?”
You’ll hear it all the time because it’s a way folks make conversation during these weeks. And, of course, by “getting ready,” they mean doing all the gift buying, and card writing, and laying in supplies for guests, or getting travel arrangements in place, and such, right?
“Are you ready?”
That question arises, as well, from this morning’s story in the gospel of Luke. But there, the question refers to something much more significant than preparations for a recurring, annual celebration of Christmas. Let’s get into this.
The passage appointed for today does not include the first verses I read. But I think they’re necessary, to give us context. These are words as from Jesus: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Whew!
Now. You need to know something here. All of those things had happened to Jerusalem, and to its residents, by the time the gospel of Luke was put together! What a cataclysm!
Consider something else that’s important for interpreting this passage. Consider how far removed we are from the people who put the Bible together – from their ways of life, from their assumptions, from their world views. In the case of this story from Luke, consider: they didn’t even have cable news services! They didn’t have the Internet! They didn’t even have that nearly extinct communications medium known as “a printed newspaper.” Now think of this. The members of the first century Lukan community lived their entire lives within a radius of 50 or 60 miles. What was beyond that little world? There were ideas, but they weren’t accurate, as we understand geography and cosmology. Here’s my point: it sure would have been easy for that ancient community to think that what’s happening to them is happening to the entire world! And so, it would have been easy for some to think these events that had happened in the city of Jerusalem have cosmic significance and, in fact, that what’s happening is the end of history. (Some of God’s people had been looking for since the apocalyptic prophecy in the book of Daniel; in other words, for nearly 200 years.)
The passage from Luke reflects that view of cosmic cataclysm: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
I like the way Eugene Peterson translates those verses in The Message: “It will seem like all hell has broken loose – sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking.” “It will seem like all hell has broken loose” is appropriately strong language! This is thought to be the final cosmic conflict between heaven and hell!
“Then,” we read, “they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.” “The Son of Man coming in a cloud” – that’s a quote from the apocalyptic prophecy in Daniel. Notice: ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory is good news for the Jews who are Jesus people! Remember that we read this: “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” This would have sounded good to these people in Jerusalem who were experiencing such suffering!
The next thing that happens in the passage is that Jesus uses the fig tree for an object lesson: When you see new leaves sprouting on the tree, you know that summer is near. “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Then, this: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Doesn’t that sound like the expectation that the end would come, that immediately? “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Well, did this happen so dramatically, this final cataclysm? No.
But the end does come for us, all the time. We suffer the death of an old way of life. Or, we suffer literal death. So, the passage does hold meaning for you and me. Even if you and I are not sitting on the edge of our seats, looking for the end of the world, there is an urgency here. That is because our catholic faith includes a sense of anticipation, of being alert for what God is doing, of looking for the future that God is bringing into being.
That describes the themes of Advent. Advent is the four week season that begins today. Advent is a season of hopeful waiting. An advent is a “coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important.”[1]
In one sense, these are weeks of anticipating the arrival of Christmas, so that we will celebrate fully and mindfully. But there is a greater sense, indeed, an ultimate sense, in this morning’s passage from Luke: Advent is a reminder to anticipate the coming or arrival of what God has in mind ultimately; of what God is bringing into being; of the grand and glorious good news that God will fulfill.
Are you ready for that?
The daily practices of the faith – of prayer, of reading the Bible, of conversation with others in the community of believers – are necessary for us to be alert because, otherwise, the busy-ness of these next weeks will simply sweep us along. Waiting in hope requires a spiritual focus – because there is so much distraction. There is so much noise.
I was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago. I was in a suburban Richmond motel lobby, sitting with those who were arriving to meet with the Virginia Synod Candidacy Committee. The Candidacy Committee is the group that approves candidates for professional church leadership to continue for the next year of seminary each year and, ultimately, to be ordained as pastors or commissioned as rostered lay leaders. Obviously, when a candidate arrives early for his or her interview, those moments before the appointment are stressful! My job is to provide some pastoral presence. (My title is “Chaplain to the Candidates.” Impressive, huh?)
So, Tuesday a week ago, I was sitting in the lobby of a Comfort Suites motel in a Richmond suburb. The TV monitor showing an episode of “Cold Case.” The piped-in music system was playing a Paul McCartney song. (I think it was “Silly Love Songs.”) In another part of the lobby, six or seven guys were gathered for a sales meeting. The phone on the check-in desk was ringing, and guests were checking in and out. Down the hall, someone was running a floor cleaning machine. And I was trying to stay focused on what the pre-ministerial candidate in front of me was saying to me!
What is the noise in your life that distracts you from hearing what God is saying to you?
What is the noise in your life that distracts you from staying alert to what God is bringing into being?
Where do you need to clear away space, so you can be waiting hopefully?
What are you waiting for?
How might Jesus fulfill your hopes and expectations?
May I suggest something? That you practice Advent, to answer those questions.
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] According to dictionary.com
