Matthew 21:23-32
Twenty-seven years ago Jack was working in a small farm supply store in rural Iowa when he began to feel as though God was calling him to something more. After a time of prayer and reflection, and after discussing this feeling of being called with his family and then with his pastor, Jack decided to say, “Yes!” to God. He quit his job at the farm supply store and left his family for three days a week so that he could travel to seminary and study to be a pastor.
When Jack arrived on the seminary campus for the first time, he moved into his dorm room where he would be staying for half the week. He unpacked a few meager supplies: a cup, a plate, some silverware, a pillow, a blanket – just the bare essentials. Then Jack did what all new students do: he went to find the bookstore. O.K. maybe he went to find the coffee shop and the pizza place first, but then he did what all new students do: he went to the bookstore. There he loaded up on armfuls of textbooks on history of the church, theology, doctrine, United Methodist beliefs, and Biblical interpretation.
After about three or four weeks of attending class, reading, studying, writing papers and commuting between home and school, the first big round of exams arrived. As Jack sat down in his dorm room to study he felt remarkable pressure, incredible discomfort, persistent self-doubt. Taking tests, studying all night and writing papers wasn’t what he wanted to do; he had already said “yes” to God and now he just wanted to be a pastor. As the night wore on and the studying got more intense, Jack said, “No way! Not me!! I’m not going to do this!!!”
Jack gathered up all of his textbooks, threw open the door of his room and stood at the end of the hallway where he started shouting, “Free books! You want ‘em, come and get ‘em! They’re yours! Free books! I don’t need ‘em! I don’t want ‘em! Free books!! I quit!” As confused and curious classmates – and no doubt a few who wanted some free books – poked their heads out of their dorm rooms, they saw Jack – the guy who had said to God, “I will go to seminary” – with armfuls of laundry and kitchen utensils walking out the door and away from seminary and his calling from God.
In our Scripture reading this morning we see this same type of fleeing – a turning from God that starts with an assent to God and God’s calling but ends up being only words empty of action. It is an agreement to follow God that ends with books strewn in the hallway as we run out the door with our possessions because we think that what is being asked of us is too difficult or uncomfortable.
Jesus as he returns to the Temple to teach encounters one such group of people who have at least in theory said, “Yes,” to God, but who have failed to live out that “Yes” with action. Remember that Jesus has been on a journey to Jerusalem which is the center of religious and political authority in the region. Jesus has not taken the most direct route to Jerusalem; instead, he has been teaching and preaching and healing his way there in an effort to form his followers into a new community of faith. When we get to Matthew chapter 21 Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem. From at least some of the people in Jerusalem he has received a king’s welcome. The first thing Jesus does when we gets to Jerusalem is goes and has a temple tantrum – he overturns the tables of money changers and of those who were selling goods in the temple. He generally just disrupts the flow of religious life that has been going on in the temple. So, if you were in the temple and didn’t know who Jesus was, now you do – he’s the guy who tossed the tables. After a while Jesus comes back to the temple to teach, and that’s where we encounter Jesus today.
As Jesus is teaching the chief priests and elders come to Jesus. Now the chief priest and elders are those who oversee not just the religious life but also the economic and political lives of the people. We’re talking about folks who worked, lived, and spent a lot of time at the temple. These are folks who by all outward signs would appear to have said “yes” to God. They come to Jesus and begin to question him because Jesus has been teaching, healing, and preaching outside of the temple; he has been working outside of the religious structures of his time, and these leaders want to know who gave him the authority to do this.
Jesus turns the tables on them – because really they are just trying to set a trap for him anyway – and he asks them a question in return: “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or humans?” Now these chief priests and elders find themselves in a trap! If they say that John the Baptist’s authority came from heaven, then the next question is, “Why didn’t you believe him and accept that the kingdom of God was near? Why didn’t you repent of your sins? Why didn’t you recognize that the coming one John spoke about was indeed the beloved son of God?” The problem is that if they recognize John, they have to give up their own authority in favor of God’s authority. So they turn tail and run from that option.
Their second option is to say that John the Baptist’s ministry was of human origins. They know that this is not what the people believe, and if they go against the people they will lose their authority over them. Like a political candidate who takes a position the party doesn’t agree with runs the risk of losing favor or authority with the party. So instead of recognizing God’s power and presence, these leaders give the only answer that allows them to maintain power and authority over the people. They say they do not know. In doing so they reveal that while it might look like they have said “yes” to God, they are really fleeing from the demands of divine presence, power and authority in their lives. Things got tough for them, a series of tests came around, and it was too much for them, so they left.
What these leaders are really doing is rejecting Jesus’ authority for them and their lives. Today’s scripture reading asks us whether we will hear God’s call for our lives and whether we will respond with action-filled words. Will we accept God’s authority over our lives?
Now, I know that authority is not usually a comfortable topic for some of us. We have authority figures. We are to submit to authority. We are to obey authority. Accept authority. As a nation we are preparing to decide under whose authority we want to live for the next four years. I read a bumper sticker on a car the other day that said “Question Authority” presumably because there might be a misuse of authority or an abuse of authority.
Authority is something that we struggle with, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to blame the chief priests and elders who reject Jesus’ authority. For all of the negative meanings that authority might have for us, Jesus seems to have a different view of authority. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus teaches with authority (7:29). When Jesus heals a paralytic, he shows that he has authority to forgive sins (9:6). When Jesus sends his disciples out to the world in his name, Jesus gives them authority over evil spirits (10:1). When Jesus sends his followers out to teach and baptize people of all nations, he does so with the authority of the resurrection, the new life, the overcoming of death (28.16-20). For Jesus authority means something different. It is not oppression, domination, or abuse. Jesus’ authority refers to helping, healing, or saving actions rather than any sort of domination.
The good news is that when we say, “Yes!” to Jesus’ authority we are saying yes to this help, healing, and salvation. The challenge is that when we say “yes!” to Jesus authority we are also saying yes to participate in actions that help, heal and save others. Our yes to Jesus is not an empty word; it is a word filled with action. A community of faith is a community filled with action.
So whatever happened to Jack? He went back to rural Iowa got back his old job selling farm supplies. He was a pretty decent salesman for about 20 years. He made a good career of it until that nudging, that prodding, that calling got too loud again to ignore. Twenty years later Jack tried again to say “Yes” to Jesus’ authority. He went back to seminary. The irony is that he was assigned to the exact same dorm room where two decades earlier he had stood and thrown books down the hallway. Six long, difficult years later, Jack graduated and now serves as a pastor in rural Iowa.
At some point we all say “no” to God. We take the books or whatever tools we have been called to take up and we heave them down the hallways of life, and say “no thanks.” We reject Jesus authority because his authority requires us to fill our words of acceptance with action, and like Jack or the chief priests and elders or the son who said “I’ll go” but never did, we are just not ready to take those actions.
The Good News is this: God is still calling. There is still time for us to go out and pick up thrown books. Maybe some of us want to go to seminary. Maybe we are called to prayer ministry, or called to help at the food pantry, or to deliver meals to shut-ins. Maybe we are being called to sing in choirs or teach bible studies. Maybe we are called to coordinate pot lucks or fold bulletins, or design newsletters. Maybe we are called to children’s ministry, youth ministry, or ministries that will strength families in our community. Maybe we are called to some ministry that no one in this church has ever thought of. The Good News is this: even if we have said no to God in the past, God is still calling us to fill our words with action. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Why Watching College Football with My Wife is So Much Fun!
After returning from an morning hike, I plopped down on the couch for a late breakfast and turned on the Michigan State v. Indiana football game.
I don't have a particular affinity for either of the teams, but I watched because I had nothing better to do -- especially something really important like writing oridination papers.
After about five minutes, my wifes asks, "Who are the psi's?"
I had no idea what she was talking about. "I don't know I said," perplexed.
Finally, about 10 minutes later as the teams crossed mid-field it hit me.
Indeed, the Indiana University logo -- the letters "I" and "U" overlapping -- looks exactly like the Greek letter psi.
I don't have a particular affinity for either of the teams, but I watched because I had nothing better to do -- especially something really important like writing oridination papers.
After about five minutes, my wifes asks, "Who are the psi's?"
I had no idea what she was talking about. "I don't know I said," perplexed.
Finally, about 10 minutes later as the teams crossed mid-field it hit me.
Indeed, the Indiana University logo -- the letters "I" and "U" overlapping -- looks exactly like the Greek letter psi.
This launched us into a completely idiotic discussion of why football teams are not named like fraternities and sororities.
At least now I know that watching football really is Greek to my wife. 
It's always interesting to me the ways that what we watch, observe, and participate in is so influenced by what we have learned and been exposed to previously.
I never would have thought of the Indiana logo as a psi, not becuase it doesn't look like a psi, but because I associated it with a school logo from the beginning. It makes we wonder what other mental ruts I live in.
See what I can learn by watching college footbal with my wife!?!
I'm sorry to report the Indiana University Psi's lost 42-29.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Equality: How to Celebrate When Latecomers Get Good Seats
Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
When I was a freshman in college I landed what I thought was the most perfect job in the world. I was hired by a restaurant called The Fort Collins Salad Company to chop lettuce and other assorted vegetables. In my mind it was the most perfect job because during high school I had worked at A&W Restaurant flipping hamburgers and frying French fries and doing other assorted tasks that invariably resulted in splattered grease and burned forearms. So the notion of working in a restaurant where there was neither grease nor fryers was pretty appealing to me.
So I went to work, and I was taught how to chop all the different varieties of lettuce. Now, you might think that chopping lettuce is a pretty straight forward task, but apparently it is not because I got lectures and I went to lettuce chopping training sessions where I learned the appropriate size of each piece of lettuce so that I could chop the lettuce to a size that that was large enough to fit conveniently on customers’ forks without falling off yet small enough to fit in their mouths without smearing salad dressing all over their cheeks. See, you didn’t know that there is a science to chopping lettuce.
The Fort Collins Salad Company employed a team of what are known as “secret shoppers.” These are people who unbeknownst to any of the employees are paid to go and dine at the restaurant and then offer their critiques of everything from how warmly they were greeted at the front door to whether the lettuce was appropriately sliced to fit on their forks and into their mouths without incident or accident. One day the owner was in the restaurant when my shift started at 3 o’clock. It was one of those in between shifts meant to bridge between the lunch and dinner crowds. Around 3:30 p.m. a secret shopper entered the restaurant and apparently she had such a phenomenally positive dining experience that as she was leaving she revealed herself to the employees. When the owner who was in the back heard this, he stopped everything in the restaurant, he went to the cash register, opened it, took out the stack of $10 bills and gave one to each employee who has on the clock at that moment.
Jackpot! Here I was having worked maybe 30 minutes and having had nothing to do with the perfectly-sized lettuce slices that secret shopper had eaten, and yet I was rewarded like someone who had been working since 8 a.m. that morning. Ten bucks was like getting an extra hour and a half’s pay; it was enough to buy 10 gallons of gas, so it wasn’t an earth-shaking amount, but no one was complaining about it. What some of my co-workers were complaining about was that this guy – me – who came in later that day was rewarded equal to them. The owner when passing out $10 bills didn’t stop to look who had been working the longest, she simply looked at the employees who were in the store at that moment, and she treated all of us equally. In doing so the owner of The Fort Collins Salad Company, probably without even knowing it, embodied the parable of the laborers in the vineyard which we heard this morning.
This parable of the laborers in the vineyard is part of Jesus’ teaching about community. Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem which is the center of religious and political power in the region. Jesus has a pretty clear vision of what will happen when he gets to Jerusalem: he will challenge the power holders as acting outside of God’s purposes for the world, and he knows that those who go against the powers of the world are put to death. Jesus knows what will happen; in fact he has warned his disciples about what he is doing and what he expects in return. In fact this morning Jesus is at the doorstep of Jerusalem about to enter the city to live out his final days.
But before Jesus gets to Jerusalem he teaches his followers what it means to live a life of faith that is shaped by God and not the expectations of the world in which they live. So, in chapters 19 and 20 of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is working to redefine notions of what it means to live in a household. In Jesus time households were the most basic building blocks of society; in many ways you were identified by the household in which you lived. Within household there were several relationships at work: husband-wife, father-children, master-slave, man-money. Do you see the structure at work there? … The man was always at the top.
If we read the end of chapter 18.21 through chapter 20 we discover that Jesus is working to redefine all of these household relationships. These teaching culminate in chapter 20 where we get the parable of the laborers in the vineyard right before Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem. Jesus wants the household of faith to be organized differently.
In our Scripture reading this morning we see that some workers are hired in the morning and work 12 hours. Those who are hired at 9 a.m. work nine hours. The labors hired at noon labor for six hours. Those hired at 3 p.m. work three hours, and the workers hired at 5 p.m. work only one hour. At the end of the day when the manager begins to pay the workers, they line up with those who were hired last at the beginning of the line, and the manager gives them a full day’s pay.
Those who are at the other end of the line watch this and they are like, “Jackpot! We worked 12 hours we should get 12 days worth of pay!” When the manager pays them they get only one full-day’s pay – the exact same as those who worked one hour! They begin to complain and grumble, and their complaint is that the landowner (householder) has made them equal. The landowner (householder) has refused to reinforce a system of inequality. The landowner says no to an organization of hierarchy; the landowner refutes a pattern of dominance. The landowner says, “You are all equal.” Jesus by telling this story at this point in the gospel is saying, “This is how to organize your households and your households of faith.”
Jesus is saying that in the church we are all equals. We are all equally loved by God. Because I have been in church 10 years does not mean than God loves me any more or less than the person who walked through the church doors for the first time this morning. Because I have served on more committees, or done more work projects, or sung in more choirs, or preached more sermons, it doesn’t mean that God loves me any more or less than the person who is just learning to understand, or to live out, or to express her or his faith. In the church we are all equals. God loves us equally.
That can be a little unsettling. We want to be the first, the longest, the best, the smartest, the most active. Yet, the Good News is that God loves us equally. The challenge is for us to love one another equally – to set aside our systems of inequality, to say no to our organizations of hierarchy, to reject our patterns of dominance.
In the church that might mean giving up our seats on Sunday morning so that others can comfortably join us in worship. It might mean inviting new people to participate in our ministries. It might mean welcoming new and unexpected people into the congregation. It might mean being open to new ideas, new expressions of faith, new ways of worship.
Maybe this sounds easy in theory, but we know that it easy to make judgments when we perceive that people haven’t paid their dues, when they haven’t worked a full day, or put in their time. It is like a person going on vacation who painstakingly researches travel destination, and gets all the brochures and the travel guides. Then that person goes to a travel agent and sits down and discusses all the options for travel. That person meticulously scrutinizes calendars seeking out the optimum travel dates. Then he books good seats on an airplane flight and begins to create a detailed day-by-day, hour-by-hour travel itinerary. Then this traveler begins to plan for some side trips and sight-seeing excursions.
Then, a week before the trip all of the clothes, the bathing suit, and the toothbrush are laid out on the bed before they are packed neatly in the suitcase. Finally, the day of departure arrives, and a friend comes and picks the traveler up and drives him to the airport, where he pre-checks his bags at the curb, and the traveler gets through security quickly because he’s packed his shampoo and toothpaste in his checked bag and he’s wearing slip on shoes that he can take off and put back on easily. So this traveler makes it to the gate an hour before departure. He pulls out that book which he purchased just to read on this trip. Finally, his row in called for boarding, and this traveler gets on the plane and there is a perfect spot in the overhead bin for his carry on bag. He sits down in this good seat that he reserved long ago.
A few minutes later a woman comes and sits down next to him. Her hair is all in a frenzy. She’s got bags under her eyes because she didn’t sleep last night. She has to cram her carry on beneath the seat in front of her because there’s no room overhead. She’s pawing through the seatback pockets looking for something other than an emergency evacuation plan to read because she didn’t plan far enough in advance to bring something of her own. Then this latecomer plops down in the good seat next to our traveler and says, “Wow! I booked this vacation online last night at one of those last-minute discount travel sites for 50 percent off regular price. Who would have ever thought I’d be on this trip right now!?!”
What’s our traveler do? Start fuming because he’s over paid, over planned, and over worked to go on this trip? Move to another seat far from this disorganized latecomer? Ignore her and pretend she’s not there? … Or does he celebrate when the latecomers get good seats right next to him?
The challenge is to celebrate when the latecomers get good seats. Our opportunity as traveler on this Christian journey is to recognize that God loves us equally wherever we are and however we get there. The good news is this – and this is what we can focus on – however we get on the plane, whenever we get on the plane, we all have the same destination: this trip is carrying us closer to God. If that is not something to celebrate – and not just celebrate but encourage – then I don’t know what is.
This is the question for us today: What will we do to let our friends, our neighbors, the strangers, frenzied outcasts, and the frazzles outsiders in our lives know that God loves them equally? How will you welcome them and celebrate with them when they get those good seats right next to you?
When I was a freshman in college I landed what I thought was the most perfect job in the world. I was hired by a restaurant called The Fort Collins Salad Company to chop lettuce and other assorted vegetables. In my mind it was the most perfect job because during high school I had worked at A&W Restaurant flipping hamburgers and frying French fries and doing other assorted tasks that invariably resulted in splattered grease and burned forearms. So the notion of working in a restaurant where there was neither grease nor fryers was pretty appealing to me.
So I went to work, and I was taught how to chop all the different varieties of lettuce. Now, you might think that chopping lettuce is a pretty straight forward task, but apparently it is not because I got lectures and I went to lettuce chopping training sessions where I learned the appropriate size of each piece of lettuce so that I could chop the lettuce to a size that that was large enough to fit conveniently on customers’ forks without falling off yet small enough to fit in their mouths without smearing salad dressing all over their cheeks. See, you didn’t know that there is a science to chopping lettuce.
The Fort Collins Salad Company employed a team of what are known as “secret shoppers.” These are people who unbeknownst to any of the employees are paid to go and dine at the restaurant and then offer their critiques of everything from how warmly they were greeted at the front door to whether the lettuce was appropriately sliced to fit on their forks and into their mouths without incident or accident. One day the owner was in the restaurant when my shift started at 3 o’clock. It was one of those in between shifts meant to bridge between the lunch and dinner crowds. Around 3:30 p.m. a secret shopper entered the restaurant and apparently she had such a phenomenally positive dining experience that as she was leaving she revealed herself to the employees. When the owner who was in the back heard this, he stopped everything in the restaurant, he went to the cash register, opened it, took out the stack of $10 bills and gave one to each employee who has on the clock at that moment.
Jackpot! Here I was having worked maybe 30 minutes and having had nothing to do with the perfectly-sized lettuce slices that secret shopper had eaten, and yet I was rewarded like someone who had been working since 8 a.m. that morning. Ten bucks was like getting an extra hour and a half’s pay; it was enough to buy 10 gallons of gas, so it wasn’t an earth-shaking amount, but no one was complaining about it. What some of my co-workers were complaining about was that this guy – me – who came in later that day was rewarded equal to them. The owner when passing out $10 bills didn’t stop to look who had been working the longest, she simply looked at the employees who were in the store at that moment, and she treated all of us equally. In doing so the owner of The Fort Collins Salad Company, probably without even knowing it, embodied the parable of the laborers in the vineyard which we heard this morning.
This parable of the laborers in the vineyard is part of Jesus’ teaching about community. Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem which is the center of religious and political power in the region. Jesus has a pretty clear vision of what will happen when he gets to Jerusalem: he will challenge the power holders as acting outside of God’s purposes for the world, and he knows that those who go against the powers of the world are put to death. Jesus knows what will happen; in fact he has warned his disciples about what he is doing and what he expects in return. In fact this morning Jesus is at the doorstep of Jerusalem about to enter the city to live out his final days.
But before Jesus gets to Jerusalem he teaches his followers what it means to live a life of faith that is shaped by God and not the expectations of the world in which they live. So, in chapters 19 and 20 of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is working to redefine notions of what it means to live in a household. In Jesus time households were the most basic building blocks of society; in many ways you were identified by the household in which you lived. Within household there were several relationships at work: husband-wife, father-children, master-slave, man-money. Do you see the structure at work there? … The man was always at the top.
If we read the end of chapter 18.21 through chapter 20 we discover that Jesus is working to redefine all of these household relationships. These teaching culminate in chapter 20 where we get the parable of the laborers in the vineyard right before Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem. Jesus wants the household of faith to be organized differently.
In our Scripture reading this morning we see that some workers are hired in the morning and work 12 hours. Those who are hired at 9 a.m. work nine hours. The labors hired at noon labor for six hours. Those hired at 3 p.m. work three hours, and the workers hired at 5 p.m. work only one hour. At the end of the day when the manager begins to pay the workers, they line up with those who were hired last at the beginning of the line, and the manager gives them a full day’s pay.
Those who are at the other end of the line watch this and they are like, “Jackpot! We worked 12 hours we should get 12 days worth of pay!” When the manager pays them they get only one full-day’s pay – the exact same as those who worked one hour! They begin to complain and grumble, and their complaint is that the landowner (householder) has made them equal. The landowner (householder) has refused to reinforce a system of inequality. The landowner says no to an organization of hierarchy; the landowner refutes a pattern of dominance. The landowner says, “You are all equal.” Jesus by telling this story at this point in the gospel is saying, “This is how to organize your households and your households of faith.”
Jesus is saying that in the church we are all equals. We are all equally loved by God. Because I have been in church 10 years does not mean than God loves me any more or less than the person who walked through the church doors for the first time this morning. Because I have served on more committees, or done more work projects, or sung in more choirs, or preached more sermons, it doesn’t mean that God loves me any more or less than the person who is just learning to understand, or to live out, or to express her or his faith. In the church we are all equals. God loves us equally.
That can be a little unsettling. We want to be the first, the longest, the best, the smartest, the most active. Yet, the Good News is that God loves us equally. The challenge is for us to love one another equally – to set aside our systems of inequality, to say no to our organizations of hierarchy, to reject our patterns of dominance.
In the church that might mean giving up our seats on Sunday morning so that others can comfortably join us in worship. It might mean inviting new people to participate in our ministries. It might mean welcoming new and unexpected people into the congregation. It might mean being open to new ideas, new expressions of faith, new ways of worship.
Maybe this sounds easy in theory, but we know that it easy to make judgments when we perceive that people haven’t paid their dues, when they haven’t worked a full day, or put in their time. It is like a person going on vacation who painstakingly researches travel destination, and gets all the brochures and the travel guides. Then that person goes to a travel agent and sits down and discusses all the options for travel. That person meticulously scrutinizes calendars seeking out the optimum travel dates. Then he books good seats on an airplane flight and begins to create a detailed day-by-day, hour-by-hour travel itinerary. Then this traveler begins to plan for some side trips and sight-seeing excursions.
Then, a week before the trip all of the clothes, the bathing suit, and the toothbrush are laid out on the bed before they are packed neatly in the suitcase. Finally, the day of departure arrives, and a friend comes and picks the traveler up and drives him to the airport, where he pre-checks his bags at the curb, and the traveler gets through security quickly because he’s packed his shampoo and toothpaste in his checked bag and he’s wearing slip on shoes that he can take off and put back on easily. So this traveler makes it to the gate an hour before departure. He pulls out that book which he purchased just to read on this trip. Finally, his row in called for boarding, and this traveler gets on the plane and there is a perfect spot in the overhead bin for his carry on bag. He sits down in this good seat that he reserved long ago.
A few minutes later a woman comes and sits down next to him. Her hair is all in a frenzy. She’s got bags under her eyes because she didn’t sleep last night. She has to cram her carry on beneath the seat in front of her because there’s no room overhead. She’s pawing through the seatback pockets looking for something other than an emergency evacuation plan to read because she didn’t plan far enough in advance to bring something of her own. Then this latecomer plops down in the good seat next to our traveler and says, “Wow! I booked this vacation online last night at one of those last-minute discount travel sites for 50 percent off regular price. Who would have ever thought I’d be on this trip right now!?!”
What’s our traveler do? Start fuming because he’s over paid, over planned, and over worked to go on this trip? Move to another seat far from this disorganized latecomer? Ignore her and pretend she’s not there? … Or does he celebrate when the latecomers get good seats right next to him?
The challenge is to celebrate when the latecomers get good seats. Our opportunity as traveler on this Christian journey is to recognize that God loves us equally wherever we are and however we get there. The good news is this – and this is what we can focus on – however we get on the plane, whenever we get on the plane, we all have the same destination: this trip is carrying us closer to God. If that is not something to celebrate – and not just celebrate but encourage – then I don’t know what is.
This is the question for us today: What will we do to let our friends, our neighbors, the strangers, frenzied outcasts, and the frazzles outsiders in our lives know that God loves them equally? How will you welcome them and celebrate with them when they get those good seats right next to you?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Three things I wish I would have said in my sermon but didn't
Sometimes I do my best thinking after the last "Amen" on Sunday morning.
1. The United Methodist Book of Discipline -- which gives the guidelines for how the church is organized, how it operates, and guides our beliefs -- states the following:
Here are three things that didn't make it into my sermon on accountability that in hindsight I wish I had included:
1. The United Methodist Book of Discipline -- which gives the guidelines for how the church is organized, how it operates, and guides our beliefs -- states the following: "Support without accountability promotes moral weakness; accountability without support is a form of cruelty."
In other words, if we as a church do not hold one another accountable for what we teach about the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, then we lose our relevance in the world.
Another way to describe this might be hypocrisy. Some (perhaps many?) people look at Christianity and ask questions like, "If they believe in love, then why do they seem to hate so much?" or "If the grace of Christ extends to all, then why are churches so unwelcoming?"
Put simply, accountability starts by us practicing what we preach. We can state all sorts of things, proclaim all sorts of beliefs and teach tons of doctrines, but do we live them out in our daily life? If not, then we suffer from moral weakness.
The flip side of this is holding people accountable to unknown standards, practices and doctrines. This can be as simple as the unwritten rule not to bring coffee into the worship space or to keep your kids quite during worship times.
Or this can be as complex as expecting those who join our communities of faith to tithe, serve, study, and grow in faith without ever teaching what these practices are or providing opportunities to put these practices into action.
In other words if we as a community of faith fail to provide opportunities for people to grow into and experience the life that God calls each of us to, we are practicing cruelty.
So, the questions become, "Are we morally weak because we don't seek to live what we proclaim?" and "Are we cruel because we fail to teach and share the life to which God calls us?"
Yes. I feel it, too. This accountability thing can be really uncomfortable ... but discomfort can lead to growth which is the whole point of accountability in the first place.
2. As we pray the Lord's Prayer we begin with the words "Our Father." How often do we just skip over that first word? But there it is; the first word we pray together stands as a reminder that we do not embark on this journey of faith and prayer alone. We travel this path with others. It is right there; we pray it together every week as we worship. Christianity is a communal faith that cannot truly be lived out alone.
3. Accountability reaches it fullest expression when the gospel tells us that Christ is present where two or more are gathered in Christ's name. This is a reminder that we are most effective when we work together. Collaboration is the way of God. Going it alone means we run the risk of going without God.
In this I read a call for us to be inclusive and inviting. If we are not to go it alone, then we are to gather others around us and go it together. I suspect that this is not because we will all have the exact same goal in mind or the same route to get there, but because when we travel together we find ourselves enriched as we traverse new territory that we never would have know existed had we gone our own way by ourselves.
So the questions persist: to whom are you accountable?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Accountability: How to Live with the IRS Agent in the Pew
Scripture: Matthew 18:15-20
On Thursday the National Football League opened its new season. This afternoon, and tonight, and tomorrow night there is a gloriously full schedule of professional football games. Opening weekend of any sport is always a time of hope for sports fans. It’s the one day of the year when every team has a chance to win a championship. But as the season wears on realities set in. Teams begin to realize their shortcomings, and fans begin to find their belief in God. But I’ve come to realize that God pretty much ignores “football prayers.”
Now, I’m not talking about those sometimes-controversial pre-game prayers. I’m not even talking about the prayers offered up amid end zone celebrations. By “football prayers” I mean those prayers that come from the fans seating in stadiums or planted on living room couches in front of the television.
“Good Lord, God of Israel, woudst thou graciously part the defensive line of thine enemies so that thy people may run free? Dear God, Lord Almighty, safely guide thy quarterback’s pass into the hands of our blessed receiver as we say our Hail Marys and pray for another Immaculate Reception?”
It’s absurd! And maybe I exaggerate, but we know the kinds of ridiculous prayers routinely offered up by desperate believers who face “fourth and long” situations. There are actually times when hundreds of good Christians are united in their prayers for the salvation of the home team. Yet big games are still lost despite Jesus’ assurance that heaven and earth are being moved in response to the request of united prayer efforts.
Clearly Jesus was wrong about what he said … or else we have misunderstood Jesus’ point about unity in prayer.
In the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is working at a fevered pitch to explain to his followers what life in the community of disciples will be like. He’s right to do so; his time is limited. He is on the cusp of entering Jerusalem where in a short time he will be crucified. So, Jesus tells the disciples that they will find themselves powerless, rejected by some, welcomed by a few. This new way of life – discipleship – will be demanding. Accountability and mutual support among the community of disciples will be required for survival. In fact accountability will be one of six sign of Christian community.
But Jesus is a realist. He knows that there will be conflict among the disciples, and he knows that how a community handles conflict is crucial to its continued existence. So Jesus gives the disciples a series of steps to follow, and I think most modern-day conflict-resolution consultants would be proud. This is a beautiful and fairly unique passage because it is one of the few places where we actually get step by step instructions for living out our Christian faith.
When someone has done you wrong, when someone has done something to break the relationship between you, then the person who has been wronged is to go to the offender one on one without gossip, without making a big scene and point out the fault. Indeed, Jesus has just told the beloved parable of a shepherd who notices that one sheep is missing, so the shepherd leaves the entire flock and seeks out the one lost sheep. Now Jesus tells the disciples that they are to be like that loving, seeking shepherd. When we have a broken relationship, we are to be like that shepherd seeking out the one who we feel has done us wrong.
Isn’t that interesting? When we are hurt or wronged or offended, we are to respond with continued and committed love for the offender. It is a love that seeks out and a love that seeks to bring back. It’s a counter-intuitive move for our society which seems to love the courtroom more than the sanctuary, the tabloids more than the Scriptures, and gossip more than plain talk that might just mend relationships.
Now, I don’t want to minimize the pain that we feel when someone has hurt us. There are things that people do to us that can cause deep damage. The point is not to gloss over these wounds with an “I’m sorry” bandage. What Christ desires for the disciples is not instant agreement and quick words meant to dispel guilt.
Throughout the process of holding one another accountable our actions that Jesus lays out for his disciples, the goal is never instant agreement. Jesus never says, “If someone doesn’t agree with you gather some witnesses.” Instead, Jesus says, “But if you are not listed to” then take it to the next level.
The goal is not hollow words and quick fixes. What Christ desires is deep and committed accountability to one another. The goal for Christ’s disciples is listening, but listening is not forgiveness. However, listening sets the stage for acknowledgment of fault, and acknowledgement leads to repentance and repentance is the grounds for forgiveness. The value that guides the community of disciples is long-term reconciliation. Our scripture reading this morning tells us to be accountable for our own actions and as a community of faith to hold one another accountable for our actions. As we do this we know that rapid pronouncements of forgiveness are usually incomplete, but lasting forgiveness is embedded in the learning of a whole new way of life in Christ. (WOF)
So what does all of this have to do with prayer? Jesus tells his disciples that one who refuses to listen to efforts at reconciliation should be treated like a Gentile and a tax collector. Treat one who refuses reconciliation, who refuses to listen, who refuses to acknowledge the harm he or she has caused like one of society’s despised outsides. It’s odd advice: treat the one who will not listen like a Gentile and an outsider. It sounds like Jesus is advocating excommunication and permanent exclusion from the congregation of disciples.
Except …Jesus makes it a point throughout his ministry to reach out to and associate with those exact despised outsiders. Jesus speaks with and heals Gentiles. Jesus calls tax collectors to ministry with him. Jesus shares meals with tax collectors. Let those who refuse reconciliation and accountability be to you as a Gentile and tax collector. Let them be to you the goal of Christian mission and outreach. Let them be to you the ones that you reach out to and spend time with. Let them be the ones with whom you eat. Let them be the ones you call to join you. Let them be the ones you with whom you seek reconciliation.
It is the church’s job to discern the presence or absence of repentance and forgiveness and determine whether an offender is within or outside the community of faith. There is no one single person who gets to decide this; it is a community effort. What is bound on earth will be bound in heaven and what is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. It is the church’s communal task to determine appropriate conduct.
Here, Jesus is not talking about praying for anything under the sun – especially football games. Like God, the community of disciples pursues the difficult task of restoration. For this it must pray as it does its reconciling work. To agree in praying for the offender’s restoration expresses the willingness of the community members to forgive and to effect reconciliation. (Carter) Reconciliation is an act of the community of faith carried out through continual listening and prayer. Reconciliation is ultimately an act of holding one another accountable for our actions and our words but not so that we might have power over others and exclude them but so that the members of Christian community might be brought into right relationship with one another and thus with God. Amen.
On Thursday the National Football League opened its new season. This afternoon, and tonight, and tomorrow night there is a gloriously full schedule of professional football games. Opening weekend of any sport is always a time of hope for sports fans. It’s the one day of the year when every team has a chance to win a championship. But as the season wears on realities set in. Teams begin to realize their shortcomings, and fans begin to find their belief in God. But I’ve come to realize that God pretty much ignores “football prayers.”
Now, I’m not talking about those sometimes-controversial pre-game prayers. I’m not even talking about the prayers offered up amid end zone celebrations. By “football prayers” I mean those prayers that come from the fans seating in stadiums or planted on living room couches in front of the television.
“Good Lord, God of Israel, woudst thou graciously part the defensive line of thine enemies so that thy people may run free? Dear God, Lord Almighty, safely guide thy quarterback’s pass into the hands of our blessed receiver as we say our Hail Marys and pray for another Immaculate Reception?”
It’s absurd! And maybe I exaggerate, but we know the kinds of ridiculous prayers routinely offered up by desperate believers who face “fourth and long” situations. There are actually times when hundreds of good Christians are united in their prayers for the salvation of the home team. Yet big games are still lost despite Jesus’ assurance that heaven and earth are being moved in response to the request of united prayer efforts.
Clearly Jesus was wrong about what he said … or else we have misunderstood Jesus’ point about unity in prayer.
In the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is working at a fevered pitch to explain to his followers what life in the community of disciples will be like. He’s right to do so; his time is limited. He is on the cusp of entering Jerusalem where in a short time he will be crucified. So, Jesus tells the disciples that they will find themselves powerless, rejected by some, welcomed by a few. This new way of life – discipleship – will be demanding. Accountability and mutual support among the community of disciples will be required for survival. In fact accountability will be one of six sign of Christian community.
But Jesus is a realist. He knows that there will be conflict among the disciples, and he knows that how a community handles conflict is crucial to its continued existence. So Jesus gives the disciples a series of steps to follow, and I think most modern-day conflict-resolution consultants would be proud. This is a beautiful and fairly unique passage because it is one of the few places where we actually get step by step instructions for living out our Christian faith.
When someone has done you wrong, when someone has done something to break the relationship between you, then the person who has been wronged is to go to the offender one on one without gossip, without making a big scene and point out the fault. Indeed, Jesus has just told the beloved parable of a shepherd who notices that one sheep is missing, so the shepherd leaves the entire flock and seeks out the one lost sheep. Now Jesus tells the disciples that they are to be like that loving, seeking shepherd. When we have a broken relationship, we are to be like that shepherd seeking out the one who we feel has done us wrong.
Isn’t that interesting? When we are hurt or wronged or offended, we are to respond with continued and committed love for the offender. It is a love that seeks out and a love that seeks to bring back. It’s a counter-intuitive move for our society which seems to love the courtroom more than the sanctuary, the tabloids more than the Scriptures, and gossip more than plain talk that might just mend relationships.
Now, I don’t want to minimize the pain that we feel when someone has hurt us. There are things that people do to us that can cause deep damage. The point is not to gloss over these wounds with an “I’m sorry” bandage. What Christ desires for the disciples is not instant agreement and quick words meant to dispel guilt.
Throughout the process of holding one another accountable our actions that Jesus lays out for his disciples, the goal is never instant agreement. Jesus never says, “If someone doesn’t agree with you gather some witnesses.” Instead, Jesus says, “But if you are not listed to” then take it to the next level.
The goal is not hollow words and quick fixes. What Christ desires is deep and committed accountability to one another. The goal for Christ’s disciples is listening, but listening is not forgiveness. However, listening sets the stage for acknowledgment of fault, and acknowledgement leads to repentance and repentance is the grounds for forgiveness. The value that guides the community of disciples is long-term reconciliation. Our scripture reading this morning tells us to be accountable for our own actions and as a community of faith to hold one another accountable for our actions. As we do this we know that rapid pronouncements of forgiveness are usually incomplete, but lasting forgiveness is embedded in the learning of a whole new way of life in Christ. (WOF)
So what does all of this have to do with prayer? Jesus tells his disciples that one who refuses to listen to efforts at reconciliation should be treated like a Gentile and a tax collector. Treat one who refuses reconciliation, who refuses to listen, who refuses to acknowledge the harm he or she has caused like one of society’s despised outsides. It’s odd advice: treat the one who will not listen like a Gentile and an outsider. It sounds like Jesus is advocating excommunication and permanent exclusion from the congregation of disciples.
Except …Jesus makes it a point throughout his ministry to reach out to and associate with those exact despised outsiders. Jesus speaks with and heals Gentiles. Jesus calls tax collectors to ministry with him. Jesus shares meals with tax collectors. Let those who refuse reconciliation and accountability be to you as a Gentile and tax collector. Let them be to you the goal of Christian mission and outreach. Let them be to you the ones that you reach out to and spend time with. Let them be the ones with whom you eat. Let them be the ones you call to join you. Let them be the ones you with whom you seek reconciliation.
It is the church’s job to discern the presence or absence of repentance and forgiveness and determine whether an offender is within or outside the community of faith. There is no one single person who gets to decide this; it is a community effort. What is bound on earth will be bound in heaven and what is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. It is the church’s communal task to determine appropriate conduct.
Here, Jesus is not talking about praying for anything under the sun – especially football games. Like God, the community of disciples pursues the difficult task of restoration. For this it must pray as it does its reconciling work. To agree in praying for the offender’s restoration expresses the willingness of the community members to forgive and to effect reconciliation. (Carter) Reconciliation is an act of the community of faith carried out through continual listening and prayer. Reconciliation is ultimately an act of holding one another accountable for our actions and our words but not so that we might have power over others and exclude them but so that the members of Christian community might be brought into right relationship with one another and thus with God. Amen.
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