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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Pentecost X - Edwin C. Pease, Jr.

The Press

There’s a lot of pressure upon us and upon our children – call it worldly pressure, for lack of a better term.
We see it in the political arena. People relentlessly attacking other people, accusing them of things both true and false. Where I would like to see people in politics sit down and say, “There are things in this country that need fixing; even though you and I disagree, let’s sit down and see if we can work out a reasonable solution.” Instead, there is all-out attack on the character of the opponents.

We see the pressure in business. We know our suppliers, our fellow workers, and our customers. It would be wonderful to see if we could work out mutually beneficial arrangements both for the business and for the people involved in it. But what so often happens is brutal, with people focused completely on winning, completely on making the most money without regard to human dignity. People will say, “It’s business, nothing personal.”

We see the pressure in advertising—the really cool people dress a certain way, eat certain foods, drink certain liquors, invest for retirement with certain firms, take a lot of pills.

We see the pressure in the children’s lives at school. As an example, a counselor working in a school reported that one day a little girl came running into his office crying. He asked her, “What’s the matter?” She said between sobs, “On the playground, Billy called me ‘stupid’”. The counselor said to her, just because somebody calls you stupid doesn’t mean that you are stupid.” “By the way,” the counselor said, “I think you are a giraffe.” She said, “No, silly, I’m not a giraffe”. The counselor handed her a book that was on a table beside him and she took it in her hands. He said to her, “Do you always take everything that somebody hands you?”

St. Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world…”

The Press and the Sign

I call this pressure, “The Press”. How can we get out from under The Press? It seems as if we can’t get out by ourselves. But God who loves us has worked tirelessly for millennia to rescue us. Stories of God’s tactics for getting us out of The Press are recorded in Scripture: the flood, the tower of Babel, the Ten Commandments, the prophets. God finally decided to intervene, not by sending a messenger, but by coming here in person. God broke into our world beginning with the birth of the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, a silent wondrous gift placed reverently into the hands of humanity. God has rescued us from everything that holds us locked into place: not just by the birth of Jesus, but by Jesus’ ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. In church language we say that Jesus in all aspects of his life among us is the Sign that God has broken into our world, and saved us from The deadly Press. 
 
We say of this intervention is that it is final. Beginning with Jesus’ birth and going on from there it is clear that there is a destination, and events are on the move toward it, and that what is most important is to attach ourselves to God and get on that journey.

Why did God do this? God did this because God knows and loves each one of us personally. God can see each one of us growing to maturity, discovering and using for the good of others the gifts and talents that God has given us. God can see us all working together in a ministry of reconciliation with all people and with God.

When through participation in the faith community such as this congregation, and through the study of scripture, we understand how God sees us and what God has done for us, a kind of renewal takes place within ourselves.

St. Paul says, 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.

The Buddy and the Sign

Jesus is a sign well known to us, but not well known outside the church. For those people who know nothing about Jesus Christ, what sign is there that God has broken into this world to rescue the people?

The sign for all people is the Church: not a building, but the living community of people that has been gathered together by God. The Church is living; it is visible; and it is always under construction. Those who participate in the life of the Church, those who commit themselves to it are constantly forming the church, and are constantly being formed by their relationship to God.
 
This morning’s passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans is a great example. It was probably written in the late 50s – not the 1950s, but the 50s, period. It’s a very early document of the church, and yet it has important information in it for us today.

It is the kind of letter that is meant to be read aloud to the assembled congregation. When we listen to the words of scripture, we should be listening primarily as a congregation, rather than as individuals.

Let’s listen together to a few words from this morning’s reading:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1).
What does it mean “to present your bodies”?

The word "present" in this context means to make ourselves visible—not hiding from God and from our fellow human beings.

"Bodies" is used in the sense of words like “somebody”. When we say words like “somebody” or “anybody”, we usually pronounce the b,o,d,y part of the word so that it sounds like “buddy”.

Our “buddies” taken together are a living sign meant to be seen by other people. The “buddy” spelled b,o,d,y, is the whole person, the physical body, the mental part, and the spiritual part all combined into one.

Paul says, “I appeal to you…brothers and sisters…to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”

Our “buddys”, as in the word somebody, are what we are to present together as a congregation so that people can see the sign.

The Living Sign and the Living Sacrifice

When you hear the word sacrifice in the religious context you might think of people who believe that they can influence God by killing animals. Or you might think of sacrifice as giving something up, something that is already scarce to you. Months after the Second World War ended some things were still in short supply. I remember seeing a photograph in a magazine of a British housewife holding a small bar of soap. The caption said that this housewife was sacrificing what was left of her personal bath soap so that the family laundry could be done.

But what sacrifice in the biblical context, in the context of the Church means is “to make something holy”. Our sacrifice is to present our bodies as a congregation to all people and to God. This is not a minus, this is a plus. It enriches our lives far beyond the day to day concerns about The Press. It is exciting, because we get to do the most worthwhile work there is—to bring people together with each other and with God. Being made holy is becoming whom god made us to be. 

We become transformed into the living sign of God’s saving work in the world. We bear witness to the journey we are on. The destination is reconciliation with all people and with God and a life lived by all in a close relationship with God.

Living Stones and the Stone Building, a footnote

Just a footnote about actual church buildings. Often these are made of stone. The congregation is the sign of God’s work in the world. The building is a marker pointing to the sign. When people look at this building, see its lights, see people going in and coming out, they might say, “There is the possibility of transformation for all people from deadly conformity.”
 
The first letter of Peter says (Chapter 2) Come to [Jesus], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Pentecost IX - Edwin C. Pease, Jr.

How many of us have been in a situation in which you have to ask someone for help. As a child having to ask your teacher permission to leave the class to go to the bathroom. Wanting to return something you bought in a store. Asking one of your parents for something you want, or asking your boss for a favor or a raise. Going through customs at the border.

There’s a lot of tension in these moments. You may get brushed off. You may get told “no” before you even get through asking.

People have learned some coping methods for dealing with possible rejection, some more successful than others: the gruff approach, r the persistent whining approach, or when asking your question you imply in the wording that the person would look really bad if they refused you, preparing to stage a tantrum if you are refused.

So many of us come from a place in which we feel that we are further down on the food chain to the person whom we are asking for help. I think this applies not only to our requests to people for help, but also in the ways in which we ask God for help.

For all of those who have difficulty in asking for help, we have this great treasure in the story of the Canaanite woman asking Jesus for help.

A preacher named Todd Weir has listed some of the obstacles faced by the Canaanite woman in asking Jesus for help.[1]
  1. She is used to being overlooked. Even in the gospel lesson she does not get a name.
  2. She has broken several social taboos. She is a Gentile approaching a Jew, and the boundaries between Jew and Gentile in Jesus’s day were enormous.
  3. She was a woman approaching a group of men. Think about the current rigid male and female boundaries that exist in some Middle Eastern states today—women in birkas, constricted to the home, she risked much to talk to Jesus in public.
  4. Jews were wary of the residents of the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon from which the woman came. In that day the poor rural Jewish peasants of Galilee grew food for the rich Gentile cities like Tyre and Sidon. We do not know the social class of this Canaanite woman, but she would have been seen as coming from the culture of people who oppress the Jews.
Everything was working against her as she came to Jesus, shouting, as the text says, with her request for help for her daughter. Weir says, “It must have been quite the spectacle to have her throw herself at the feet of Jesus. Disciples and spectators alike must have been embarrassed to have her there… Maybe now we can better understand [Jesus’] original negative response, when he says, ‘Let the children be fed first (referring to Jews) for it is not fair to give the children’s food to the dogs.’”[2]

Here she is, turned away by God. We can sympathize with her. “How could Jesus compare anyone to a dog or say a thing like that? This story hits us in a place of fear that maybe God finds us to be really annoying. We don’t belong, we don’t deserve the bread, others are more important.”[3]

Her response is immediate: “Yes but even the dogs under the table deserve the crumbs.” And then Jesus gives her the help she needs.

It’s wonderful to read a story like this in which God changes his mind. People are used to thinking of God as one who never changes, but in this case, God does. There are other places in the scriptures in which God changes his mind. There is the story of the person who came in the middle of the night to knock on the door of the person who owned the bakery to get bread for his family. The story ends by saying that God may answer your requests, not because God wanted to but because you were persistent in asking. You showed God that your request was important to you.

The most important thing about this encounter is that the woman believed in God. She had faith. She did not let any feeling of inferiority in herself get in her way. She did not let any concern that others might not approve of her keep her from asking for what she wanted. She may have had these feelings and concerns but if so she was able to override them and make her request plainly known. She was singleminded!

She approaches Jesus not as someone who devalues herself, and of course, not as someone who feels superior. She approaches on a level of equality. This may seem odd. How can a person be on equal footing with God? 

First, it is because of faith. Her faith, to use the words of the scholar Alfred North Whitehead, was the vision of something that stands beyond, behind, and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts.” It is a vision of life in its completeness in the presence of God.[4]

Second, it is God’s acceptance of us flaws and all. God is most forgiving and accepting. God has made us worthy to stand before him. By God’s grace we have a relationship with God, and can make our requests to God, just as the Canaanite woman did. God’s grace makes it possible for us to view life in its completeness in the presence of God.

In her case her daughter was healed. In some cases, requests for healing are not answered in ways that we would like. No doubt many have prayed for healing for Jim Windhorst. But because we have this relationship with God we are better able to receive “no” as an answer to prayers, than we would be if we thought ourselves to be outsiders or inferior. We know that it is impossible to understand everything about God. We know that God was present at the death of Jim, and was the first to shed a tear at his passing. And we know that even when our prayers receive “no” as an answer it is far better to have our living and dynamic relationship with God than it is to live without God.

The Holy Communion which we will receive this morning is a sign of God’s care for us, and especially of the permanent bond between us and God. One that cannot be broken by anything. We know that God listens to our prayers and answers them. May we rest in God’s love and acceptance. And when people come to us with their requests may we listen to them as God listens to us, and give to them as God gives to us, because we embody God’s love and acceptance.
__________
[1] The Rev. Todd Weir: Matthew 15: 21-28 "Overlooked and Under-Considered" for Sunday, August 14, 2005
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] C. Hoffacker, A Matter of Life and Death, p.77

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Pentecost VIII - Lynn Campbell

Matthew 14: 22-33

Risky Business

How many of us are risk takers? Often taking risks is seen in a negative light. It is sometimes seen as irresponsible, as a sign of immaturity, or simply impractical. We don’t want to take risks for fear of what we might lose. We fear losing money, losing face, losing friends. But in this mornings Gospel reading we are reminded that to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ, is to be a risk taker. And I want to be clear- I don’t mean pointless risks like jumping off the roof or out of a boat if you don’t know how to swim. The type of risks I’m talking about here are risks that will bring you closer to God, risks that allow you to participate in the in breaking of God’s kingdom.

Today’s gospel reading of Jesus and Peter walking on water can lead to all kinds of bad theology. I’ve heard it argued that if you simply have enough faith, God won’t let harm come to you. Or, if you believe strongly enough in Jesus, you will never know fear. This simply isn’t true. These false understandings of fear and faith are not of God. No life of faith is completely free of fear or doubt. Even the saints felt them. But, with just a little faith, we can do amazing things with and for God even if it is with some fear. Jesus tells us we can move mountains with faith the size of a mustard seed.

The disciples know fear. They are terrified of the figure they see walking on the water towards them. Can you blame them? Last weekend I was sitting with a friend on the Vineyard staring out at the waves in the ocean. We tried to imagine sitting in a boat in those waves and seeing a man approach. We agreed we would have joined the disciples as they cried out in fear! But Jesus sees their fear and calms them saying, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” It is I.

These are same words God speaks to Moses as he reveals his identity in the burning bush. These words signify the presence of God. These words, spoken in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, identify Jesus with the God of the Hebrew Scriptures. Here the disciples catch a glimpse of the one they are following.

So, with renewed courage, Peter challenges Jesus to command him to walk on the water. Jesus simply replies, “Come.” With these words, Peter steps out of the boat, eyes focused on Jesus, and begins to walk. We know that it isn’t long before Peter loses his focus and beings to sink.
But, as always, Jesus is ready to reach out and to save him.

Why did Peter take this risk? Why did he attempt to walk on water? I don’t know if he was trying to prove his faith in Jesus or to test him. Whatever the reason, he took a great risk in stepping out of the boat. And this risk might, at first glace, seem to have been a failure. But is it? Yes, Peter did take his eyes off Jesus and begin to sink. But this led to Jesus reaching out to save him. Because of Peter’s risk, the disciples and all of us see the saving power of Jesus. We have an illustration of Jesus reaching out to humanity to save us. Once Jesus and Peter were safely in the boat the disciples worship Jesus and pronounce that he truly is “the Son of God.” Peter’s risk leads to a confession of faith by all of the disciples. The disciples were different people after this encounter with Jesus, the Son of God. It is not that they never falter, fail, or fear again, but they know Jesus’ power and presence in their lives.

I am not a very brave person. It is easy for me to let fear get in the way of doing God’s work. The fact that I’ve been able to take any risks in my life is, for me, proof of the presence and power of God. When I was a sophomore in college I decided to travel to Mexico as part of an immersion trip sponsored by the campus ministry office. It was an opportunity to meet people in Mexico, to learn of their joys and their struggles and to gain a better understanding of the poverty and oppression experienced by so many in Latin America. I was scared. I didn’t know any Spanish and I had never really seen poverty. I had no idea what God had in store for me and my companions on this journey. What I experienced changed me.

I won’t forget the women and men I met in Mexico. They are the real risk takers of this story. I met women whose husbands have left them and their children. They had no money for food. No future to provide for them. So dozens of women came together to create a cooperative. They make beautiful handcrafts and sell them to tourists and to partners in the United States. Their risk brought them new life and new opportunities. And they told me that they knew God’s presence in their labors.

And I won’t forget Fernando, the man I met who traveled hours each day from his tiny hilltop village to sell the baskets he and his family weaved. Each morning before he left he prayed to God for protection and guidance. With the money earned he could buy food for his wife and kids. Witnessing God’s presence in the poor and seeing the effects of unjust systems ignited something in me. Stepping on the plane (even with all of my fear and doubt) changed the direction of my life. I experienced God in the love, courage and generosity of the people I encountered in Mexico. Their faithfulness, even as they walk in the troubled waters of this world, encouraged me to call out to Jesus and to seek to follow him more closely.

Sometimes it is only by looking back over our lives that we can see the value of taking a risk. Maybe it was the first time you volunteer at a homeless shelter or traveled to an unknown place. Perhaps it was when you first walked into this church or stepped up as a leader. It doesn’t have to involve leaving the country, but it does involve leaving your comfort zone. One step can lead to another and then another and before you know it God is using you in ways you couldn’t have even imagined. I’m sure many of you have stories to illustrate this. I’d encourage you to share these stories with one another. They are stories of God at work in the world. As you reflect on the risks you have taken, I also invite you to consider what risk God is calling you to make. What step will lead you and others into deeper knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God? What risk will further God’s work in the world?

Being a disciple is risky business. Stepping out of our comfort zones is not easy. Venturing into the troubled waters of the world is sometimes scary. But how else do we proclaim the love and mercy of God and participate in the building of God’s world of justice and peace? To be closer to Jesus, to see and share is his love, we sometimes have to venture out of the safety of the boat whether that boat be our homes, our circle of friends, or the pew you are sitting in right now. There will be times when we feel like we are sinking, but do not fear. Call out to Jesus. Let others help. Hear Jesus’ words to us this morning: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Amen.