Why Read the Bible

Yesterday morning I offered my Bible sermon.  It wasnt the first time I had preached the sermon, although this was a reworked, almost brand new sermon.  Every year I change it.  Like next year I'll include the NYTimes Crossword theory.  The great part is that every year new stuff about the Bible comes out, in some ways it rewrites itself.  Hope you like it.  
 
Judson Sermon 20130602 "The Good Book" from Jacqueline Thureson on Vimeo.

The Good Book

text: “I will write them on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33)

Recognition of Graduates and Sunday School Teachers

2.June.2013

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

The Rev’d G. Travis Norvell

            Two things you can always be sure of: death and taxes.  And I would like to add a third: that Americans will always buy bibles.  We are not content with the Good Book we keep on snatching them up.  I own at least 33, of which at least 8 are of the same version, the NRSV.  You can find bibles in all shapes and sizes: large print, thin line, red letter, green letter, water proof, fire proof, camouflage, denim, duct tape, neon green, leather bound, cloth bound, hard back, paperback, name the language and it has a translation of the bible, name languages that aren’t really real and they too have versions of the bible: a Star Wars phrasing of the Bible (Good News for the Warrior Class), and of course a Klingon translation, the Hippie translation, and the Pigdin translation.  There are bibles written in different formats: the 100 minute bible (developed by an Anglican priest, a flattened version of the bible which can be read in 100 minutes), the screenplay bible (lights, camera, action) and so on and so on. 

           

We hold the bible in high esteem in almost talismanic quality with magical powers: we ask our presidents and public officials to place their hand on it during the taking of oaths (which ironically the bible says don’t do), towns spend millions of dollars in court fees to publicly display the ten commandments on stones (which too is a bit ironic since the ten commandments forbids graven images), and we give them to others to mark the milestones of life (my kids love their King James Version white New Testaments, it blows my mind.  And even though I have 30+ bibles I covet the one my grandmother gave my sister when she graduated from high school: KJV, blue colored leather with her name engraved on it – do not covet your neighbor’s possessions, another one of those pesky ten commandments).  In April of 1862 in the battle of Shiloh Confederate solider Sam Houston Jr. was fired upon by Union troops but survived because a copy of the bible, a bullet with a bee line for his heart was stopped by the 70^th Psalm  which reads:

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.
   

O Lord, make haste to help me! 


Let those be put to shame and confusion
   

who seek my life.


            And the paradox remains: we are awash in bibles yet, as a nation, we routinely flunk bible quizzes.  Name the ten commandments, the four gospels, the five books of Moses or the Torah, provide three of the prophets in the Old Testament, where was Jesus born.  16% of Americans think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. 

Suffice to say the book you have in your lap, in your pew, or on your shelf did not fall from the sky.  It has a thick, troublesome, and beautiful history thousands of years old, separated by cultures, languages, customs, seas, and worldviews. 

Cigarettes, alcohol, chewing tobacco and soft drinks in NYC all have surgeon general warnings on them.  But the bible does not, and if anything needs a warning label it is the bible.  So before offering my five reasons why you should read the Good Book allow me to offer five cautionary words.

1. The Bible is really old, from foreign cultures.  We are separated by vast expanses of time and geography. Nevertheless we can identify with the characters of the Bible quite easily. Therefore, we think we can just pick the book up and automatically viola, complete understanding. The Bible always has been, is, and will always be a communal book meant to be read and understood in community. The world has already experienced enough nut cases claiming a direct revelation from God, let us spare the world another. Read and discuss the Bible together, preferably with a person or two with whom you vehemently disagree with on almost every issue.

2. You will never master the Bible, it is bigger than our thoughts, more expansive than our imaginations and greater than the sum of all our learning. This book was cut and pasted, whittled down and added to, elaborated and edited. Despite all of our advancement and progress there are parts of the Bible that are lost to our understanding. We keep those parts but at the end of the day we throw up our hands and say I do not know, and that is okay. The Bible’s contents have stood the test of time again and again as a wellspring for saints and sinners.

3. The Bible is not perfect. It is in many ways still a work in progress as we evolving human beings are still a work in progress. The portrait of God, as a whole, portrayed in the Bible is not neat and tidy but is messy and unfinished. The Bible is a product where the best and worst of human beings and of God are on display, for all the world to see. Always remember the Bible is a fully human product, soiled with prejudices, biases and troubling thoughts of the authors who penned its words.

4. Finally, the Bible is not the end. The Bible is a helpful guide, the one guide that judges all guides and helps along the way for human beings. But it is not the teleological point for human destiny, God is. The Bible is an ambassador that points to God but it is not God. Do not treat the Bible as an idol to be worshiped, the Bible simply points to the One, The Living God, to be worshiped. Owning a bible, swearing on one, putting in a prominent place will bring no special powers (but keeping one close to your chest may be worth it).  The bible is only useful it is used, if it is read, marked, learned, heard, and inwardly digested. 

And the kicker principles.  Prove me wrong. 

5.  No Christian allows the Bible to teach as the authoritative word of God what is known or believed (for whatever reasons) to be either untrue or immoral.  & Every Christian finds what the Bible teaches as the authoritative word of God to be identical or congruent with what is known or believed (for whatever reasons0 to be true and right.  Thanks to Ken Cauthen (one of my theology professor at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, if you want the entire essay it can be found in his book, Towards a New Modernism.   

  

 So why read this ancient, difficult, heavy, and troublesome book?

1. The Tautology Argument. Read the Bible because the Bible says so! Happy are those (whose)…delight is in the torah of God, and on God’s law they meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:1 & 2)

2. The Trust argument. Read the Bible because your parents, grandparents and your ancestors before you read it.  By reading it we are trusting our ancestors and strengthening our bonds of trust.  This book took a thousand years to compile, in the fourth century ce they were still debating what books to include in the canon.  Trust that they weren’t cavalier about what’s in here.    

3. The National Public Radio (NPR) argument. You cannot be an informed American or Global citizen without a basic knowledge of the stories, themes, and contents of the Bible. Read it because it is one of the important links in the chain that is Western culture and society. You cannot properly understand Shakespeare or the Constitution of the United States of America or Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech or Prince’s song Controversy or Bob Dylan’s song Highway 61 or the News from Lake Woebegone without a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible. 

4.  The Mirror argument.  This book pulls no punches about who we are as human beings: beautiful and ugly, nice and mean, crazed sexual beings and calm celibate folks, war mongers and peace warriors, vegetarians and carnivores, sober and drunk, separated and reconciled.  Like the old commercial line, it’s in there.  There’s nothing new under the sun, our problems are human caused and can be human solved. 

5. Finally, the Travis Norvell argument. Read the Bible because through song and story, history and imagination, and poetry and prose the great book of books tells a very particular story of what it means to be a human being, who God is, and how we are to live in a covenantal relationship with the God who created us, the earth that sustains us, and the people whom we call brothers and sisters.

The Bible stands as a vessel vacillating between humanity and God as an aide in our relationship. The Bible informs (builds up), critiques (tears down) and reconstructs our thoughts, experiences, and dreams about the relationship.

In conclusion, Brothers and Sisters, take this book and read it, treasure its contents, find a translation whose rhythms and cadences speak to you, and you will find the stories, songs, poetry and prose a resting place for your troubled minds and great source of strength and comfort for your homesick souls. These words will knock you off your pedestal by reminding who you are and your place in this world. These words will also pick you up and nestle you close to the bosom of God. View this book as a life long wrestling partner. View this book as living words which allow you to nurse from the breast of God as the Bible nourishes your starving body.

The Bible is not God, but reading it, studying it, chewing it and digesting it sure does put you in a place and peace of mind for God to knock on your door and spend time with you.

Take these words and move them from a mantelpiece to part of who you are and how you see the world.

When you open this book pray these words as offered by Thomas Cranmer when the Book of Common Prayer was first composed:

Blessed God, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be 
written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that,
by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace 
and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life, which 
thou hast revealed to us in Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Amen

When I first arrived at the world's greatest church (Judson Memorial Baptist Church) I jumped with the congregation to defeat the amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman in the constitution.  After the amendment was defeated in November the movement caught its breath and then doubled down to push for same sex marriage.  Recently, I have not been able to attend the events at the capitol due to illness, baseball coaching duties, and events at the kids' schools but nothing was going to stop my attendance at the capitol as the House voted on the marriage equality bill yesterday.

I looked up directions (I've not been to the statehouse yet) and headed over to the eastern suburb of Minneapolis, which also serves as the state capitol.  I pulled off the right exit and accidentially turned right rather than left (but I didnt know that at first).  Initially, I was a little worried because there were so many empty parking spots in the visitor lots.  I thought, again my superior parking gene was in high gear and most folk must have parked somewhere else.  Once I parked the car I noticed something very strange, "The statehouse does not have a cross on top of it!"  Then I turned around and noticed my mistake, I parked at the cathedral, not the statehouse.  Oh well, it was just a mile  - walk.  

Upon arrival I checked in as a member of the clergy, was told where to stand and personed my spot along the rotunda balcony on the second floor.  Very quickly I noticed something I had not thought about: inside the capitol building were a few thousand people, packed tightly in together, with little air circulation.  So?  So, it was kinda smelly.  Especially when you add a few granola folk for whom deodorant is not high on their list.  

But it didn't matter the energy in the room was amazing, not to mention the sound - it was extremely loud, even during quiet moments there was still an ongoing drone of human activity.  

For the first couple of hours I stood along the second floor rotunda looking down on the main floor activities.  There were people decked out in orange chanting energizing slogans.  There were monks and kids praying on their knees, there were bible thumpers (literal bible thumpers) stating the Jesus doesnt want gay marriage in Minnesota, and a guy with a large poster board of the ten commandments with a special emphasis on sex.  I want to stay here with this guy for a moment.  On the other side of his sign he had written You Are on Camera.  But after fifteen minutes or so he pulled out a magic marker and wrote over top of You Are on Camera.  Only one problem, no one could read what he wrote!  If only, Mrs. Poe my fourth grade teacher could have been there, she would've told him you never write over your previous writing; you start over, erase it, or live with your previous statement!

Minnesotans for All Families had two signs, one which was the basic I support the Freedom to Marry type.  The other read I Am (fill in the blank) and I support the Freedom to Marry.  What a great idea.  Folk filled in the blank with all kinds of interesting descriptions, I am an Episcopal Priest, I am a Lesbian, I am a Frat Boy, I am a soul experiencing the physical world, I am a human being, and my favorite I am a Licensed Minister - as Jimi said, at least he was law abiding.  

Around 1:00 or so the crowd shifted to the doors of the House chambers.  And every ten minutes or so someone would say, any minute now.  I didn't buy it.  Politicians never hurry to vote, especially when the debate is televised.  Around 3:00pm the vote happened, was announced, and the top of the statehouse nearly exploded with a roar of happiness.  There were high fives, hugs & tears, elations, screams, and shouts of joy (I'm crying as I relive the moment).  As we waited for the legislators to emerge someone started singing Chapel of Love and we all started singing.

The author Philip Roth once wrote that childhood ceases when you see your father cry.  What does it mean when an entire community cries (pastors & mayors {Rybak was weeping and hugging us all}, mothers & fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters, students and teachers, lawyers and construction workers).  I would say in some way we all matured into a new community, a new state.  

Then the legislators emerged and the cheers roared again.  Mayor Rybak started us chanting Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...  And the legislators were visibly moved, they were crying with us, high fiving the crowd, and lifting up their arms in celebration.  

My eyes were teary but mostly I was just smiling, overjoyed, and elated at what had just happened.  Then I gave Jenny a hug and couldn't contain my emotions anymore - the tears flowed in joy, joy, joy.  I am so happy for her and the other beautiful and wonderful families and couples who will shortly be able to be legally "married."   

On Monday I'll take my daughter out of school and take her for the Senate passage so she too can relish this historic moment.  Then after Gov. Dayton signs the bill I'm going to block off the entire month of August (except for the 24th, dont worry Doug and Alyssa) for the marriages of the wonderful GLBT couples at Judson.  

I was so proud to be the pastor & representing the congregation at the statehouse.  Amen & Amen.  

Happy Easter

Here's the best I have to offer this year for Easter.

Judson Sermon 20130331 "Rolling, Rolling, Rolling" from Jacqueline Thureson on Vimeo.

print version.  in the fashion that I read it.  not a complete text, but pretty close to it.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

text: “They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” (Luke 24:2)

Easter Sunday – 31.March.2013

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

The Rev’d G. Travis Norvell

Jesus gave his life to a cause worth dying for, the non-violent transformation of humanity, centered on the ancient teaching of the prophets & poets of ancient Israel. 

He sought to bring to life

  the beloved community

    the flowering of liberation,

      justice,

        peace,

         forgiveness,

          righteousness,

            & to proclaim  -  through his life  -  jubilee. 

        

He died on Good Friday

shamed,

humiliated,

and mocked. 

On Saturday the world waited and rested.

And on Easter morn the women with Jesus who had come from Galilee,

under the shadow of dawn,

stole away,

to give him a proper burial. 

When they arrived at the tomb the body was absent and they discovered, or actually they were discovered,

by two holy messengers in dazzling white clothes. 

Instantly the illuminated tomb was transformed,

it became a liminal place where the separation between heaven and earth is membrane thin,

where righteousness and peace kiss. 

         We have exaggerated up Hallmark images of harps, lullabies, frolicking, and such but those aint biblical images.  To inhabit a liminal moment is to inhabit holy ground, all expectant bets are off.  Rather than soothing, calming, caressing, or tranquil words, the women encountered two messengers with sharp tongues.

         Why seek ye the living among the dead?

          

The provocative question stirred the souls of the women enough for the messengers to deliver one imperative: Remember. 

Remember the words,

the healings,

  the feedings,

    the embraces,

      the teachings,

        the moments of grace,

          the power of forgiveness,

            the experience of life,

              the elation of truth,

remember, remember, remember. 

        

The holy messengers asked the women to remember.  Remember their memories, experiences, and encounters with Jesus. 

They remembered. 

Even thought this morning we are separated by 2,000 years, at least six languages and cultures, yet…even still we can feel the release of fear in this moment when they fully remembered. 

They were instantly transformed - ready then, more than ever, to live. 

When God invades our heart, unexpectedly, we find our selfsame existence ceases. 

Instantly the great fears of the early community vanished when the women remembered and began to tell their idle tale.  When they left the tomb they were prepared to live lives that Jesus called them to live. 

         Last week we celebrated Palm Sunday and the baptism of Ben and Seneca.  It was also the 30^th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.  Father John Dear tells Romero story this way, After his friend Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande was brutally killed for speaking out against injustice on March 12, 1977, Romero (who was a safe, conservative pick for Archbishop) was transformed overnight into one of the world’s great champions for the poor and oppressed. At the local mass the next day, Romero preached a sermon that stunned El Salvador. Romero defended the work of Grande, demanded justice for the poor, and called everyone to take up Grande’s prophetic stand for justice.

  

         Two weeks before Romero was executed he told a reporter, “I have often been threatened with death.  If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people. If the threats come to be fulfilled, from this moment I offer my blood to God for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador. Let my blood be a seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be reality.”

        

For the early church, the memory of Jesus was symbolized in the image of the cross and their propelling vision was the resurrection. 

It was the symbol not of death but of life, a way of life worth living. 

The cross has been largely translated as Jesus dying for our sins,

Jesus did not die for our sins, Jesus lived for our hearts. 

The resurrection has been largely translated solely as an event in the afterlife. 

Easter would be much easier for you and for me if it were just about the afterlife.  

It isn’t about the afterlife, it is about this life, here and now. 

 Taken together

  the cross

&

             the resurrection

were the generative symbol and vision for the way of God in this world,

a prophetic call to non-violence as the way to transform the world. 

Jesus sought to create a way,

based on the ancient teaching of the poets and prophets of Israel,

to stop the spiral of violence in the first century. 

To offer a way towards peace through love,     

  forgiveness,

    healing,

      the rebuilding of communities,

        embracing of the Other,

          the outcasts,

            the expendables,  

              those with their backs against their walls,

through radical hospitality,

through letting the spirit of God permeate every inch of his body,   marrow deep.

On Easter morn God honored Jesus’ life, work, words, embraces, healings, spreading of an infectious truth, and expansive love. 

God resurrected Jesus, an act akin to the Old Testament portrayal of God with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm rescuing Israel. 

A resurrection of the body, not just of spirit or of soul but of body, wounds and all. 

God honored Jesus with a resurrection of Jesus’ entire body of work. 

We are all going to die, so what are we going to do with our lives to make the world a better place? 

How are we going to live our lives with the time we are granted on this earth to heal,

to love,

  make peace,

    to reconcile,

      to establish equality,

        harmony,

      to make the beloved community a reality. 

How are we going to use our time to offer a body of work that God honors? 

Recently Andrew Young, now 81,  was interviewed on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.  He said, “I was really upset that I didn’t get shot, too. I was more afraid of living without him and his leadership than I was afraid of dying.

Death is no problem. We’re all going to die. It’s the one thing we have in common.

(The late civil rights leader) Hosea Williams once told Martin Luther King III: “Your father helped me become a man. He helped me conquer the love of wealth and the fear of death. And when I conquered them, I could become a real man.”

For me, it was the same thing. You have to start living for something that’s worth dying for.”

Young went on to tell the rarely told story of King’s scar.  On September 20, 1958 Martin Luther King, Jr. was in New York City on a book signing tour, Stride Toward Freedom, his account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott had just been published. 

During the signing a woman approached him and stabbed him in the ribs. 

The knife went in at such an angle that the doctors had to open his chest with both a horizontal and vertical cuts. 

Upon the healing of his chest King had a cross scar on his chest.  He said every morning when I brush my teeth I’m reminded that today could be my last.  How am I going to live today to make the world a better place? 

As a congregation we are going to throw all of our love energies at making sure there are full rights and privileges for our LGBT brothers and sisters,

at the helping to change the way we view the environment – it is God’s gift to us that God has entrusted to us,

by offering alternatives to violence as the only way to solve conflict resolution,

helping the friends of God to experience human flourishing through art, prayer, and forgiveness, and doing all we can to live our lives as ambassadors of reconciliation. 

I invite you to join with us in our sojourn as we seek to counter the spiral of violence,

the powers of death,

the three great evils of racism, poverty, & war,

& the ubiquitous temptations of meaninglessness, and apathy. 

They are not the ways of God. 

The ways of God in this world are threaded together through the cross and the resurrection

 spelled out as

peace,

  life,

    the beloved community,

      social equality,

        meaning,

          and passion. 

I invite us to claim

the cross of Jesus

and his resurrection

as the generative symbols

and metaphors

for our lives as Christians. 

On Friday night we read the names and some of the stories of the 54 homicides of 2012 in Hennepin County, they were old and young, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, rich and poor.  They were largely domestic disputes, they were people caught in the crossfire of gang turf war, they were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.  It isn’t enough to tell their stories and mourn their deaths;  we can no longer sit idly by. 

Their names and stories were all reminders that what the world needs most is a few people,

a practicing beloved community,

a cross-centered

&

resurrection-full community

dedicated to ways of non-violence,

  peace,

    reconciliation,

      and forgiveness. 

The resurrection of Jesus of is the clarion call for us to live with our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls open to this world. 

Let us put aside the time we have wasted and live lives full of resurrection. 

Brothers and Sisters may this be the day you greet resurrection with open hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. 

May this day and your life be full of Resurrection. 

Amen & Amen.

New Blog

If you are interested...I have started a new blog to keep track of baseball players who are my age and older.  It is called Milhous baseball, tracking all major league baseball players who were born before or during Nixon presidency.

Christians in Process Sermon for The Fifth Sunday in Lent

If you just read it, you wont get to hear me butcher Chichester.  
  20130317102315 from Jacqueline Thureson on Vimeo.

Christians in Process

Fifth Sunday in Lent 17.March.2013

Passion Sunday and St.Patrick’s Day

Isaiah 43:16-21 & Luke 12:49-53

text: “…until it is completed” (Luke 12:50)

Judson Memorial Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

The Rev’d G. Travis Norvell

            I know some of you scratch your head and wonder where in the world do I get these hymns we sing sometimes on Sunday mornings.  Some are hymns I grew up singing, others are ones I’ve learned along the way, and some are ones I hear on the BBC Choral Evensong program online.  Each week a different cathedral choir is featured.  I’ve never traveled overseas so I enjoy researching the cathedrals, Chichester (one of two cathedrals still visible at sea), Durham Cathedral described as the best cathedral on earth and the site for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, or Truro Cathedral where each year the Queen distributes Maundy Money on Maundy Thursday.  But even more fascinating is to read about the cathedrals architectural history, they are hardly ever finished and the ones that are finished are constantly in need of repair and restoration.  However firm and final we imagine a cathedral they are constantly in flux and in process.  And so are the pilgrims who worship in them, constantly in flux, constantly changing, evolving, unfolding, and in process. 

            Let us pray,

Living God,

as we pause

for sustenance and succor

for strength and solace

for comfort and challenge

for care and courage

be with us as we seek to fill the brokenness of our hearts with Thy light and love.  Amen.

                        We know that there are roughly 18 lost years of Jesus’ life.  We have no idea what he did from the time he was 12 to his appearance in the wilderness to be baptized by John.  We all have ideas but they are only conjectures.  Aint it amazing, 18 lost years…  On the one hand this saddens me but on the other hand this uplifts me in two ways.  For on a playful level maybe the lost years were extremely boring and uninteresting.  And on an exhaling level it shows that even Jesus was in process, evolving into the person we discover in the gospels, a picture which reveals a continual unfolding of how he discerned God’s passion for creation. 

            At first glance the passage about familial division seems harsh, overbearing and yes, extreme.  But that is only if you read it with the grain.  As with most gospel passages I find a truer sensation emerges once we read against the grain. 

           

            When I read the gospels and perhaps you sense it too, the buildup of frustration in Jesus’ voice.  He knows more than anyone how to live the best life, but his words have a heck of a time taking root in the lives of those who hear them.  In our passage this morning Jesus is past being frustrated he has blown a gasket.  Which crescendos with his rhetorical and sarcastic question:

Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? 

No, I tell you, but rather division! 

            Edward Gibbon in the late 18^th century painted in our minds the ultimate picture in our minds for the rule of Rome when he described the period of the first century as the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome. Perhaps it was “peaceful” if you were a ruling elite with a villa on the banks of the Tiber, but if you were a peasant in first century Palestine life was anything but peaceful. Pax Romana it was not; Infernos Romae, the Hell of Rome, it was.

            When Rome invaded, occupied, and governed Palestine all of traditional life was turned upside down and largely erased.  Every day was a struggle and fight for existence and integrity.  Howard Thurman in his 1949 seminal work Jesus and the Disinherited, described the experience of people on the backside of the Pax Romana as people who lived with their backs against the wall. 

            Jesus had enough of the Pax Romana, the world was ready for something new.  The Peace of God, Pax Dei.  And the only way that kind of peace will inhabit this earth is with fire & water & division. 

            Since the beginning of time, humanity has employed the narrative of cleansing violence as the only way forward, a reset of creation.  Think Noah and the flood.  We do not have to stretch our minds very far to see that idea at work in this text – humanity is so corrupt the only way they could reform the first century was by creating divisions, with a kindled fire and a baptism. 

            This idea has been at work in thought of great people ever since.  Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inauguration took approximately seven minutes to deliver.  In the next to last paragraph he laid out the mission ahead for the nation in grand, some would say biblical terms.  He interpreted the Civil War as God’s way of using violence as punishment for our national sin of slavery.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

But is this line of thinking in line with Jesus?  Is redemption through violence the passion and pathos of God? 

Jesus offered his first century audience a choice: you want “peace”, you want the Pax Romana then have it?  For the truth of the matter there was already division, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother.  When we read the stories that Jesus told we can sense the pick up on the division already at hand, the story of the Prodigal son, which was retold and beautifully offered last week by Pam Joern, the dishonest manager, the great banquet, the rich man and Lazarus and so on.  They all reveal a society torn asunder by the “peace of Rome.” 

Jesus knew full well that the peasants of Palestine could not match up to Rome man & woman to man.  Rome would easily crush any kind of military revolt, which they did in the year 70 CE.  Instead he offered a new thing in their midst and many did not perceive it.  But to those who did, life was never the same…

Years ago the fifth Sunday of Lent marked the time when Lent kind of ended.  Although technically it was still Lent the following two weeks were called Passiontide, culminating with Good Friday.  When we think of God’s passion in Jesus we automatically assume or imagine it means Jesus’ suffering and death.  Although I do think it partly means that, what about the rest of Jesus’ life?  Could it be that God’s passion was represented more in Jesus’ life than in his death?

            In 1956 H. Richard Niebuhr wrote The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry.  He concluded that the ultimate purpose of God, or God’s passion, through the church was the increase among men (and women) the love God and the love of neighbor. 

With this ultimate passion and love supreme in our minds, rather than redemptive or cleansing violence we can hear Jesus’ words anew.  If the first century audiences of Jesus were to break the cycle of violence they would have to start anew but not with more violence instead with a return to the ancient ways of life. 

When we take up, live this life and open ourselves to the continual unfolding of God’s passion our lives will be rearranged and there may even be some division at first as we reorient ourselves away from violence to love.  We have entire networks of relationship built on violence that need reoriented and redeemed. 

 Perhaps the greatest religious sham ever offered is the promise of instantaneous redemption.  I wish it were true.  That today, if you follow the ways of Jesus you will be instantly cured of your violent ways, that if you pray this prayer instantly your heart will be healed and expanded.  But we all know full well that change, reorientation takes precious time.  Most of the time we have no idea how are lives are centered around violence.  We are not finished Christians, we are Christians in process constantly learning, constantly failing (not my sister, not my brother but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer).  We are Christians in process still learning the ways of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t die for our sins. 

He lived for our hearts. 

He lived to reveal the divine pathos. 

Today is the festival of the Saint Patrick, and although it is the grand day of the Irish, I view it more as a pan-Celtic holiday.  One of the things I love about Celtic Christianity is the incorporation of their pre-Christian rituals, practices and symbols.  One of those is the circle.  Which was eventually incorporated onto the cross. 

Now I have no desire, as I am sure most of you do not either, to end my life as Jesus did, as a martyr.  But I hold onto the image of the cross and circle as the symbols for God’s pathos for us.  The cross is not a symbol of Jesus’ death it is a symbol of his life and passion. 

Rome crucified him for his life,

his teachings,

his challenge to their authority.

The life Rome ended continues in an unending circle as the continual unfolding of God’s pathos for creation, for our brothers and sisters, and for ourselves. 

We are not looking for Jesus’ death, we are looking for Jesus’ life, for God’s passion and pathos for humanity and creation.  Let us live as Jesus did, with a passion for life,

a life on fire

for justice,

mercy,

forgiveness,

community,

integrity,

authenticity

and love. 

Let God complete the passionate work started in you. 

Amen and Amen. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

[a repost from last year]

I love this time of year.  Spring is in the air, Ireland's finest exports are poured for everyone, the world's greatest music is played, and people seem to appreciate my knack for finding four leaf clovers.  (I've even contemplated putting this skill down onto my resume).

I love this time of year primarily because of the visits by that mischievous leprechaun that sneaks into our house and causes mass confusion on the morning of St. Patrick's Day! We started this tradition about while in RI on a whim.  Now it is a full blown affair at our house.  The kids love, and...Mom and Dad love it.

I'm not sure what mayhem the little dude will gift us this year but I am sure it will be good.  If you have not planned your visit from the leprechaun do not worry there is still time.

Emergency kit details: green dye (put a few drops in your milk and a few drops in the toilet).  Rearrange the furniture in a haphazard fashion, sprinkle gold dust (glitter) here and there and if you have a pint that you do not mind opening go ahead and do that as well.  And remember, you must have window or door slightly ajar for the leprechaun to escape (make sure you put some glitter there as well).  One year we put a teddy bear in the high chair, and hung clothes from the ceiling fan, turned the chairs around you get the picture - the more tom foolery the better!

If your kids are little this may scare them - but once the initial fright passes over they will get a little fired up and will find mischievous acts that you didn't even know the leprechaun did.  And more important they will be determined to catch the little rascal next year!

This year one of #3's homework assignments was to build a leprechaun trap.  He made a fine rendition of the old box and stick trap.  He wrote on the sides "Do not worry, nothing will happen" and "All Leprechauns Welcomed."  He put a gold nugget by the stick - oh yeah, the leprechaun that visits our house always leaves a golden nugget or two - spray paint a rock gold, then dab glue here and there on it then sprinkle gold glitter on it - taped the nugget to the stick so when the leprechaun tries to take back his golden nugget he will be trapped!

I couldn't help but get into the fun of this assignment.  I too made my own trap, but #3 was not allowed to take it to school.

I think Raymond would have loved this.