August 22, 2010
Luke 13:10-17Hebrews 11:32-12:2
What gets you bent out of shape? A couple of hours kneeling in a flower bed waging war on weeds will do it for me most days. But fortunately the effects are still temporary. A little tentative stretching, a few cautious strides and a tube of Rub A 535 and I’m good to go in an hour or so. That’s as far as physical debilitation goes anyway.
But what bends you out of shape emotionally?
A personal injury or insult? Someone
does harm to your person, rear ends you through careless driving or undermines
the character or abilities of one of your family members?
Does that get your blood boiling and your being twisted?
Or what about irresponsible use of economic power that unleashes great
destruction, something like the oil spill in the
This morning’s gospel lesson features three people who were bent out of shape - an anonymous woman, a synagogue official and Jesus. On the surface their distress was centered in the illness of the woman. But that was only the starting point for the men. Their beings were contorted for significantly different reasons. Let’s review each situation.
Today our first impression of the woman’s ailment would be severe osteoporosis; but Luke attributes this affliction to an evil spirit not a severe calcium deficiency. For 18 years this woman has been bent out of shape. 18 years! Hard to imagine such a plight isn’t it. I wonder how the rest of her person was doing? Chronic physical affliction can play havoc on one’s emotional and spiritual health. However it seems that spiritually she was doing well enough. We find her in the synagogue. Odd isn’t it, how affliction seems to strengthen some people’s faith, while in other cases people lose faith? Well this lady is still attending worship. No easy thing when you’re bent and brittle.
It’s not the main lesson of the story but it is an important one. One picked up in the reading from Hebrews. In the grandstands of glory watching us, some even claim watching out for us, are a host of saints who have gone before. Some experienced God’s awesome power deliver them from death and sickness; other did not. All continued to trust in God. This bent woman suffered for 18 years with no hint of relief until unexpectedly Jesus came into her life and she was bent no more.
Enter the synagogue official.
He too is now bent out of shape. Irate!
The Sabbath has been violated! Jesus
is once again disrespecting traditions, history and law.
He knows that one of the first major practices Nehemiah instituted over
500 years ago, when the exiles returned to
And doing it on his watch and on his turf. Well he wasn’t intimidated by such ostentatious displays or such cavalier attitudes. But still maintaining a trace of oriental decorum, he rebukes Jesus by instructing the crowd. Paraphrasing slightly he says, ‘Hey healing is good but there is no need to be doing it on the Sabbath. There are after all 6 other days available, let’s make use of those ordinary times. Let’s show some respect for our traditions and theology.’ Has that rational Presbyterian ring to it doesn’t?!
‘Enthusiasm is fine at parades or Ivor Wynne, but let’s show some decorum when we celebrate God’s presence or power or provision. Remember we are a people of solemn joy!’. ‘Cymbals! Drums! I don’t care that Psalm 150 pairs them with harp and flute! They belong with a Mosh pit not in a sanctuary! Bach, Mozart, Chopin those are composers worthy of God’s house, “You know the old saying, ‘If it’s not Baroque, fix it!’”’. ‘Of course I know that society is changing constantly; but God remains the same. There’s no need to adjust the way we have always done things!’.
Cue our third bent out of shape person in this story - Jesus! No oriental face saving decorum here, “You Hypocrites!”. This is anger beyond irate. This is holy outrage. This is God spewing lukewarm commitment into the toilet bowl. This is very scary. Note while Jesus speaks in direct response to the official he sprays the whole gathering - “Hypocrites!” is plural. Everyone who has either joined in the official’s distress with a visible head nod or an inner heart nod or allowed such a person to rise to prominence in the worshipping community or has become fixated on the minutiae of the Law instead of the intent of the Law is included.
Then Jesus sets out his coup de grace, which is about how gracious behaviour, which lies at the heart of the Commandments, has been perverted. These hypocrites have no qualms showing mercy on the Sabbath to a dumb animal who requires some minor respite - it would not die of thirst if watering was delayed 24 hours; but to one of God’s holy and beloved children, whose distress is beyond imagining, they would not extend a similar mercy. Hearts bent backwards. God’s Law given to promote righteous living turned into a strait jacket that squeezes out mercy, compassion, generosity, kindness and wisdom. Remember that only partially tongue in cheek slogan, ‘Kill a commie for Christ!’? Such twisting of the gospel isn’t just ancient history.
So I wonder if this story were being written today what might receive a similar scathing rebuke from Jesus? If he was being interviewed at our picnic, what societal issues might Jesus address? Would he speak angrily about a health care system that is so bogged down that the blessings too often seem to be filtered to a trickle rather than to flow freely? Would he express dismay that in spite of our incredible abilities and talents, we can’t either find the will or the way to repair what is broken? Would he have words as strong as “hypocrite”, for those in places of power and control?
Or would Jesus comment on economic matters and note with accusing and judging language the reality of the ever widening gap between the very rich and the very poor in this country? Would he comment that the lessons of history teach how destructive that disparity is for any nation or would he just cut to the quick and straight up say that the universe was created with a bias to balance and fairness and if one ignores such clear biblical teaching they imperil they lives -physical and spiritual.
Or might Jesus restrict his comments only to the church? Would he chastise the people of God for excesses of timidity, for our infrequent confrontation of officials or officialdom in the pursuit of truth and justice? How rarely we have, as we attempt to do with our Langford series, how rarely we have risen to the challenge of combining the pursuit of scientific knowledge with living a vibrant and informed life of faith. How rarely we have challenged ourselves about the bottom line priorities of life, when societal pressures have put into competition time for various leisure activities with time for developing spiritual maturity. Do we, do our children know there are solid scientific faith alternatives to the dominant atheistic theories of the origins of the universe? Do we, do our children know, there are life sustaining, life enriching values and principles that we teach that cannot be learned from clubs, teams or groups? Would Jesus give a stern rebuke for our passive capitulation to the forces of secularity?
Or to the increasing dominance of privatized faith? The ‘me and God’ mentality that grounds so much of modern North American Christianity? Would he ask with an edge in his voice, ‘How can you love God whom you have not seen, if you don’t love your brother whom you do see?’ We may come to the garden alone, but we are meant to leave with a basket of vegetables to share with others.
I wonder, as I think about so many June Presbytery meetings when we hear commissioners’ reports and to a large degree they distil the work of General Assembly into a recollection of various experiences of ‘fun’ or convey a sense of humdrum monotony. Rarely are there indications of sacrificing passion or profound strategies to spread the gospel. And if there are, they are usually associated with one of the international guests. Would Jesus rip into us for burying our talents in the ground or ignoring the beggar Lazarus at our gates, while we feasted in our courts buttressed by the book of forms and layers of committees?
As I read that encounter in the synagogue I wonder what might bend Jesus out of shape in our midst today? Maybe none of the above. Or perhaps you have already formed a more insightful list of potential upsets. Perhaps the best way to ascertain what if anything might cause such divine distress is to focus on one of Jesus’ descriptions of his mission. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . . to set free the oppressed . . .”. Jesus did that for the woman. That unbinding was far more essential than the trappings or traditions of worshipful service. Nothing would deflect him from that path. So it would appear, that whatever blocks such Spirit-filled living would provoke a rebuke from Jesus.
In closing note two good results in addition to the woman’s freedom from that incident in the synagogue. One - even the official and his cronies were ashamed. Shame rarely leads to transformation but it at least stymies for a while wrong-headed living. And who knows, maybe one or more them might have begun some serious soul searching asking, ‘How did wanting to serve God turn me into such a hard-hearted creep?’
The second good result was even better - “ . . . the people rejoiced . . .”. I believe that implies, that as you and I live courageously and grace-fully, seeking to bring release to the oppressed - whatever form their bondage, many will experience the light of God’s truth and love and find the deepest longings of their beings nourished and their hearts stirred to joy and thankfulness. May nothing deflect us from such a path of faithful living.
Amen
August 15, 2010
No Grace, No Glory
Isaiah 5:1-7
Luke 13:6-9
Galatians 6:1-10
You hear the most interesting stories at wedding receptions. Some are the kind that give credence to the expression, ‘With friends like this, who needs enemies!’. I remember at one such occasion one of the groom’s brothers recalling the time when their family had a competition in the pool to see who could hold his breathe the longest. Apparently the groom won. He also passed out and was rushed by ambulance to emergency and spent 24 hours of wonderful summer weather lying on a gurney under observation. There’s another expression that may apply here - ‘Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!’.
Perhaps you are familiar with the complicated story of Moby Dick. Captain Ahab had a disastrous encounter with the great white whale called Moby Dick and lost a leg. After he healed and fashioned a prosthetic, he found a crew and a ship and went seeking his revenge intending to harpoon and slay the ‘monster’. Over and over on the long voyage, Ahab receives countless signs and warnings to turn back, but his desire for vengeance is so obsessive, he presses on; and in the end loses his ship, his crew and his life. ‘Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!’.
The story of a vineyard in Isaiah 5 reads, “2 . . . He waited for the grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour. . . . 5 “Here is what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge around it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild animals eat it and trample it down. 6 I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it.” Doesn’t the owner’s response seem to fit the expression, ‘Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!’?
Granted there is no gain from sour grapes. There is even less gain from a vineyard fallen to ruin and disrepair. Destroying the whole operation doesn’t seem to make sense. The vineyard appears healthy, so why not at least put it on the market and get some return on investment? Or if one’s scruples prevents such a sale, why not just cut down the vines and sell the land. Letting it fall into decay does seem like ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face!’. It seems like stubbing your toe on a rock and then kicking the rock hard with your other foot to even the score! It’s not smart.
What seems to be more palatable and more reasonable is the proposed action in the gospel story. The tree is unfruitful. Destroying it is an option. And in the end maybe the only option, but first the gardener intercedes with alternate possibilities. Let’s not give up yet. Let’s do this and that and perhaps this useless tree will become profitable.
I suspect my preference for this second approach has less to do with rationality than personality. I’m inclined to hanging in. Not making quick changes. Holding on. At least that’s how I justify my tendency to be a pack rat! But it is the gardener, the one who is supposed to be learned in things botanical who makes the suggestion, so it must have some basis in wisdom. Emotionally I also find the patient approach in the gospel more attractive, for it has the aura of grace about it. And for many reasons and lots of them personal, I prefer grace to judgement.
Of
course one could counter with a third expression, ‘Don’t send good money
after bad.’ If it hasn’t
produced yet why invest more time, energy and resources? Cut your losses.
Move on. And that is
the background underlying both stories. Both
affirm that the ongoing lack of good fruit will cause the plant to be destroyed.
The only difference is the timing - immediate or delayed.
In both situations the story uses the literary device of personification.
These tales aren’t about orchards and vineyards and grapes and figs.
No! These plants are meant to
represent the people of
The reading in Galatians transfers these themes of Judgement and Grace from the covenant God had established with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the one made with the followers of Jesus. The conclusion of Galatians, a letter which has strongly emphasized this shift to the new covenant of Grace from the old covenant of Law, picks up both themes.
Judgement is clearly still there and in a universal framework. “7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction . . .”. Our society agrees with this wisdom, though God is rarely involved. Stand up in any gathering in our community and say, ‘You reap what you sow’, ‘Live by the sword, die by the sword’ and heads will nod in assent. The Scriptures see this as part of the divine order; society sees it as a universal axiom.
Paul of course takes it beyond societal comprehension which would see judgement in the pragmatic terms of wrongdoers being punished by fine or imprisonment, absentee fathers being excluded from their adult offspring’s lives a la Croce’s ‘Cat’s in the Cradle’ and athletes who abuse drugs and their bodies to achieve fame and fortune dying prematurely. Though, as the Psalmist observes, this natural law doesn’t always seem to be applied. Some seem to reap far better than what they have sown.
Paul’s comments address the Divine order, which is only partly reflected in the universal maxim. Even those who might appear to be gathering grapes, sweet grapes from thistles and enjoying a luxurious life harvested from ill-gotten gains will not escape. Some will, as the Psalmist describes, suddenly plunge into emptiness and woe; others will find themselves in an empty eternal waste so utterly agonizing that even a single drop of water on the tongue seems liberating and bountiful. Focus on self-gratification and sinful desires and as surely as night follows day you will “gather [a] harvest of death”.
The certainty of judgement is an important emphasis to note. Nonetheless it is the theme of judgement delayed or judgement ‘if all else fails’ rather than immediate repercussions. The more pronounced emphasis is on Grace and living grace-fully so that the possibility of such destruction doesn’t gain any traction. Paul underscores three components of such a grace-filled life.
One component has a kind of judgement orientation, though the less harsh sounding word evaluation is the concept used, particularly self-evaluation. “Each one should test his own actions.”. The purpose of this is to avoid two pitfalls - Sloth and Pride, two of the seven deadlies!
Sloth
is not mere laziness or idleness, for instance whiling one’s life away on a
sunny
Pride, at least in this passage, is evaluating others far too harshly or using others’ inadequacies as a measure of one’s superior worth. The five talent person in Jesus’ parable isn’t commended because he did better work than the two talent servant or the one talent servant, but because he used his gifts with diligent dedication. The standard of grace affirms that all we are and all we have is in the end a gift; there is therefore no room for the excess of self-congratulations.
A second component follows directly. The life of grace compassionately and gently corrects the one who has become prideful or slothful or who has slipped off the pathway of abundant living. In the pew Bibles there’s a cute picture of a line of people of all ages and both genders, each one carrying her own load - using her gifts; and at the same time supporting the load of the person in front. That is the image of mutual care typical of the grace-filled life. That also is the way by which correction is perceived not as judgement but as loving concern for the other’s wholeness and health. The cute picture stresses that no one walks alone, even the biggest and strongest depend on the gentle, compassionate care of another. The one most aware of his need and dependency on God’s grace is the one most able to be gracious in assisting the fallen back onto her feet.
The third component expands the service of gentle correction into every avenue of life. “Let us not become weary in doing good . . . Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people”. The grace-filled life is inclined outward. The essence of love is an orientation toward others. Of course this is exactly the source of complaint in both the Gospel and Old Testament lessons - no visibly good fruit. One could say the sour grapes were the results of a person’s gifts used pridefully and slothfully not grace-fully. There is fruit visible but it is of no spiritual value.
Not so with the grace-filled life. A person’s gifts are generously shared to bring good into another’s life. This is the fruit that God desires. This is the kind of abundant living that brings glory to God. This is the way of life that fulfils the one who serves, even as it builds up the one in need. This the life that assures commendation by the Eternal, Sovereign Lord of the universe, for the promise is sure, “the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”.
Amen
August 1, 2010
What do you
Heed? Greed or Creed?
Luke 12:13-23
Colossians 3:1-11
“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’" While it is a bit difficult to imagine a similar request being voiced from the pews as I begin the service of worship with a greeting and announcements, this incident isn’t that unusual for Jesus’ culture. Jesus performed the function of an itinerant Rabbi or teacher. And in his time, the Rabbi was often the community’s ‘de facto’ justice of the peace, the one to whom everyone appealed for judgement in minor legal disputes.
I imagine many of us have either willingly or more likely a trifle unwillingly acted as an arbiter between 2 friends or 2 family members. The wise among us do so with serious trepidation. We know the one in the middle often ends up being perceived as the enemy by both parties on the end! Nonetheless a desire for reconciliation between 2 people for whom we care may cause us to throw caution to the wind and agree to assist finding resolution or at least a solution to the difficulty.
If you have had such an experience, how often have you heard, early on in the process, something like ‘All I do is …’ or ‘All I say is . . .’ or perhaps in the past tense it will be did or said; and then the speaker describes something of more trivial significance. ‘So all I did was ask, “Where’s the remote?” and I get hit with a tirade of anger and accusation and tears and threats!’ Familiar scene? One party being blamed for irrational escalation of hurtful behaviour by the other?
Jesus’ teaching about specks and logs in the eye has some relevance here. If I have in my eye some foreign substance that seems tiny, tiny to you -even trivial; to me it feels as if I have a branch poking me in the eye, it is so distressful. That’s why all good conflict resolution spends time working on perspective - walking in the other person’s shoes.
Anyway there is this disconnect - no doubt the smallness is over-minimized and the outlandish response is over-dramatized, but the mismatch is a clear indicator that the T.V. remote is not the issue. It may be involved but only in a surface way. The root cause is different and far more substantive. And this disconnect between what the petitioner called out to Jesus and the real dispute is no doubt in play in the gospel story. And that certainly is how Jesus treats the request.
Note it is clear the petitioner is not seeking resolution, not looking for Jesus to hear the details of the dispute and weigh them out and render a just and fair verdict. Like a former Clerk of Session I knew who used to say half in jest, ‘Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up!’; or an even more outlandish Elder who, when a facilitator talked about discerning God’s will for a congregation responded, ‘I don’t care what God’s wants, I know what I want!’; like those Elders, this petitioner is seeking not an arbiter but a collaborator. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." He already has the verdict. He just wants an ally, an enforcer.
There is obviously a great deal happening around this short exchange and Jesus, as he is so good at doing, discerns a teachable moment. He perceives as I noted, that the petitioner has little interest in justice and wholeness in relationship, but wants vindication and power. It is usually assumed he is younger of the two and in that culture the elder brother tended to have more status and clout. Or his brother may just have been a lot bigger and meaner. But Jesus goes even deeper. He goes to the heart of the matter, the power of material things over the human heart. The request for vindication not justice is a sign to Jesus that the request is rooted, not in a heart focussed on fairness but in one governed by greed.
Then Jesus tells a parable, one which, if taken seriously, undermines the basic premises of the majority of the world’s economies and dominant philosophies. C.S. Lewis also picked up on this in Book 3, chapter 3 of Mere Christianity when he noted that, ‘There is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages . . . . All these people told us not to lend money at interest: . . .’. So this is a very dangerous and disturbing story if one runs with its implications.
Nonetheless it is told firstly to uncover a major truth about greed. Namely, that things are addictive. The material world has such capacity to enslave, we are under great risk no longer to seek possessions to fulfil basics needs or even to enjoy attendant pleasures, but because we just want or have a craving for more. Few parables demonstrate this destructive, obsessive control of possessions better than the story in Luke 12.
I call the rich man in the story Mr. Freedom 55, Mr F-cubed. Here he is, obviously still young enough to consider relocating into larger and more luxurious quarters a worthwhile venture. You don’t usually acquire that amount of wealth through lack of practical wisdom. So Mr F-cubed has some reasonable expectations that he’ll get to enjoy the cruises and sight seeing tours with his fantastically vivacious looking spouse he’s seen in all those commercials. He’s already tasting the pina coladas and feeling the warm ocean breezes and eyeing the local tanned beauties sashaying by his shaded lounge chair.
It’s an attractive vision or at least I find it enticing. And note Jesus doesn’t take direct issue with this dreamy flirtation with ease and enjoyment. Jesus would be the first to commend the positives of such pleasures. Remember his enemies tended to disparage Jesus by referring to his reputation as the ‘life of the party’. No, Mr. F-cubed’s imagination isn’t the issue - those kind of pleasant pastimes receive no direct censure from Jesus. Mr. F-cubed is in trouble because material things fill his life so full that he has no room or capacity for the more substantive areas of life - the spiritual and the eternal. Like Martha a few weeks ago, he has let the good squeeze out the best and he is in deep waters. The implication of the parable declares a warning - ‘The one who dies with the most toys loses!’.
For some years the equating of greed with idolatry, as found for instance in Colossians 3:5, used to puzzle me. But idolatry is about one’s heart focus and allegiance being given to someone or something other than one’s Creator and Redeemer. And that’s what this craving compulsion for material delight does. It gets our being centered in on one or more of God’s gifts and away from the God who made it and gave it.
Let me take a bit of a jump away from the power of the material in our lives, because there’s often a ying and a yang in the teaching of Jesus - a temptation to avoid and an action to pursue. One needs to do both. This parable of Jesus points out that Mr. F-cubed began to slide into trouble when he neglected to focus on the 3 basic questions of life - “Who am I?’, Why am I here?’ and ‘Where am I going?’. Because he ignored them he became easier prey for ways of greed. And because he made things the focus of his life, it was easier to ignore these essential questions of life’s meaning.
‘Who am I?’. "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Jesus’ introduction to the parable reminds us that our worth, our essential value, our life rests not in things or achievements or abilities possessed but in being embraced by the love of God as a holy and beloved child. Jesus’ “Watch out!” reminds us of the need to stay alert to the sabotaging effect of the material on this most central truth about who we truly are at the core of our being.
‘Why am I here?’. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Had Mr. F-cubed been a good Calvinist he would have known the answer: ‘A man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.’ Our purpose is not just to enjoy things. Somehow in the equation of Mr. F-cubed’s life, God and others had been omitted and what was left was a null set, a life empty of status before God.
‘Where am I going?’ Not to the sunny Caribbean beaches or the Colorado ski chalets! Though they might be a brief sojourn on the way. Not even necessarily to a full fourscore years of life, though one might sail past that marker in good health. Each person is going before the Eternal One who will either offer a warm embrace for a beloved child or a sad rejection for a foolish rebel. If, as Jesus emphasizes, a person’s life or worth doesn’t consist of the things he owns, one’s eternal destiny is certainly even less connected to things possessed.
Let me continue briefly with this counter-balance to the power of possessions and the allure of things. One cure if you perceive some thing is asserting control over you is to give it away. Like surgical amputation it is quick and traumatic but very effective. Paul also expands on a more detailed preventive and proactive prescription for not being possessed by possessions, so such radical correction is not required. It is the life focussed on the well-being of others and submission to God. Each day he encourages us to remember both who we are and whose are, “You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, . . . Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. . . . 4 Your real life is Christ”. Heavenly-minded people are both much earthly good and inoculated against the idolatry of greed.
Then we are encouraged to be essential sharers of what we possess not hoarders. “put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. . . . So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”. Such new lives in Jesus, filled with such Christ-like characteristics will automatically be inclined to be generous distributors of what they possess and thereby freed from the idolatrous allure of greed. Pleasure, enjoyment, advantages will always be experienced with gratitude and will never be selfishly clutched nor idolatrously served.
And instead being greeted at the gates of the next life with the rejection, “Fool”, such ones made new in Jesus will hear the welcoming “Well done, Good and faithful servant; ENTER INTO THE JOY OF YOUR LORD!”.
Amen