Below is the sermon from this morning's worship service. How was it? Hmph, more like a hit off the handle that peaks over the third baseman's head rather than a solidly hit line drive up the middle. Odd how a sermon can seem pretty good on a Thursday but so good on a Sunday.
The Day Together
text: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Col. 3:16)
Second Sunday in Lent -- 8.March.2009
Roughly 27 years after Christ was resurrected the Apostle Paul sent a letter to the churches in the cities of Colossae, Laodicea, and Heirapolis, which were 100 miles inland from the town of Ephesus. The churches were not founded by Paul but by another evangelists: Epaphras. I mention this because Paul never visited the churches of the area or knew the members intimately, the exact opposite of his experience with the churches in Galatia. The conundrum Paul faced with this letter centered on how to write the letter? Place yourself in Paul’s place, how would you write a letter to churches that neither you do know nor do they know you?
On the one hand Paul took a conservative and safe approach with his letter. He took on the questions of the day concerning the nature of Christ and included general ethical adorations. On the other hand Paul took a creative gamble with his epistle we now know as Colossians. He offered an elevated and cosmic vision of Christ that is without parallel in his other letters. After the poetry of Christ’s divinity Paul moved onto our text this morning as he offered ethical exhortations, but the poetry was like ice in his veins that kept the moment alive. As God’s chosen ones…Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Sometimes the language of the bible is a flat as a piano top while other times it is as thick as a Thundering Herd biscuit (a biscuit with sausage, egg, cheese, and fried potato, which the biscuit chain Tudor’s Biscuit World back home makes.) This morning we are in the thick, thick world of Paul’s poetic language. (Despite his specific mission to the Gentiles I doubt Paul the former rabbi appreciates my pork-laden analogy).
We refer to the Bible as the Word of God. The New Testament refers to Jesus as the Word. Christian theology refers to Jesus as the embodied Word of God. The Word, the logos is at one time simultaneously the words of God and the actions of God. In the beginning the Hebrew poets said over the waters God spoke the Word was voiced and creation happened.
-Let this Word, the Apostle Paul issues the imperative, dwell in you richly.
-Let this anima, this life giving, world creating, dwell in you richly. -Let this Word, A Love Supreme, The Magnificent, A Testament of Hope dwell in you richly.
-Let this word come and find a home in you.
Just as the Word came and tabernacled, pitched his tent, and dwelt among us let the word come and dwell in you.
One time in order to illustrate the goal of the word Jesus told this Comparison: “One time a farmer went out to plant. As he did so, some of the seeds fell on the path, and the birds came along and gobbled them up. Others fell on rocky place where the soil was shallow. Because they weren’t planted deep they came up right away, but not having a deep root they withered when the hot sun hit them. Still others fell among the weeds, which grew up and choked them out. But others fell on good dirt and matured, some multiplying a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty. Now please let that soak in.” (Cotton Patch Version Matthew 13)
One time an Appalachian in New England told it this way. One time the word was placed in the heart of a know-it-all but she scoffed at the word saying “in the real world this is how life really happens.’ One time the word was placed in the heart of a wounded person but whose pain was so deep that they could not feel the word. One time the word was placed in a hungry and desperate heart and this person said nothing but thank you for eternity.
Those are true stories made up of composites of my time as a pastor. Now let this soak in, even the know-it-all and the wounded, I saw moments when the word was present. I heard, felt, and experienced the tender mercy of the word dwelling within them. The word may have not been dwelling richly but it was dwelling nonetheless. Here is perhaps the most dangerous part of Christianity: once the Word takes up residence in us, we are changed forever and ever. God does not ask for us to extend our arms wide open exposing our vulnerability; all God needs is a crack, a sliver. Give the Word a crack and just like Leonard Cohen sang: a crack in everything/that’s how the light gets in. From this tiny opening the Word seeps into our hearts and takes the long journey to our heads or as the Hebrews would say it sticks to our guts.
Although I believe the biblical narrative does reveal a God who changes and changes quite often I do not believe God morphs into different beings or takes on multiple personalities. Yes God changes but God does not Change. I mention this for when the word finds an opening in our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls the word does not change, we change. Furthermore I believe it is because of the change the unchanging word causes in our lives most of choose to separate ourselves from letting the word dwell richly in our lives. Who wants to change? Who wants the Word to inform us that we are not doing what God desires for us to do? Who wants hear the call to repent and live a new life? So we choose to distance ourselves from the word hoping that the distance will not affect our lives. We hope a marginal word dwelling in our hearts will be sufficient for us. We hope a marginal word dwelling in our hearts will endorse our current lives, thoughts, and actions. For we know that a word dwelling richly in our hearts will cause deep and radical change of our lives, thoughts, and actions. For the word does not change, we do.
The task for us this season of Lent is to figure out how to cultivate our hearts to give the word some room to dwell in us richly. We need to somehow join in what God is already doing in us by tenderizing and conscientizing our souls a little more.
Last week we centered on the gift of Christian community. For is Christianity cannot offer us wealth, good health, and promised success then what can it offer? It can offer us transformative community a place
-where we can discover who we were made to be,
-where we can discover God’s mark in and on our lives,
-where we can realize God’s presence in our lives.
But how do we sustain such a community? How does the Word dwell richly both in our own hearts and in the heart of this community?
This causes quite a complex problem for us today for we do not live in a closed community, we do not work together, and we rarely eat together. Our lives are scattered, planned, and multi-directional. Yet there is the distinct possibility of praying together, of spending the day together within the bounds of prayer.
I suggest we pray for each other throughout theses days of Lent, pray for the word to dwell in each other richly, pray that we will find the joy, grace, and hope on Easter morn, pray that we will be held up by the tender mercy of God this day. For prayer is a like the pressure of gravity over time, eventually cracks will appear, eventually our hardened hearts implode, eventually our strongest walls turn to dust. By praying for others we create more and more room for the word to dwell richly in us.
Recall, Paul did not gently ask the community of Colosse for the word to dwell in them richly, he commanded them. Research shows that humans do not respond to commands as well as they do to challenges. Can we rise the depth of our community to a level of mutual prayer? Can we broaden the breadth of our community to create new spaces and ways for the word of Christ to dwell in us richly? Can we approach the empty tomb this year in wonder, gratitude, and amazement?
Sisters and Brothers I believe we are up to that challenge. I believe we can join in on what God has already set in motion with us. I believe we can have the word dwell in us richly.
Amen and Amen.
After the service I came home, played with the kids outside and then headed off to the First Baptist Church of East Greenwich for the Rev. Jonathan Malone's installation. It was great to take part in the service, officially welcome Jonathan to RI, and hear the Rev. Darin Collins preach. I know what the man sounds like in practically every other situation but never heard him preach. He did a great job. I hope he posts his sermon!
Showing posts with label Sermons 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sermons 2009. Show all posts
08 March 2009
09 February 2009
Sermon.8.Feb.2009: Three Little Words
Below is the sermon from yesterday. I finished the sermon on Thursday but when I went to proof it on Friday I realized the sermon had to be re-worked. So here it is.
I have placed a few editorial notes in the text to help make sense of a few references.
Three Little Words
text: “Simon, son of Jonas, thou lovest me?” (John 21: KJV)
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
I am sure that you have either sung or heard And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. The 1966 hymn certainly points to the great hope that if followers of Christ would simply love then we could change the world. That was certainly the understanding a few years ago when biblical scholars gathered in Toronto to participate in a conference discussing violence in our world. As the scholars finished their presentation the panelists invited questions from those in attendance. One attendee stood up and rather cynically asked how could the church make any impact in this world when the world seems so averse to our message. For a few moments the panelists shuffled, politely looked back and forth relinquishing time for someone to answer when suddenly one of the scholars spoke up: We shock the world out of its numbness with our love.
We shock the world with our love, they’ll know we are Christians by our love, three little words, eight little letters: I LOVE YOU. The concept sounds so easy, the word rests so well on our tongue, yet we all know how difficult and hard it is to truly love. And we also know how cynical the world is to our ability and capacity to love. Folk can easily turn to historical examples of horrendous act committed in the name of Christianity from the Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of heretics, the Salem witch hunts, the bombing of abortion clinics and shooting of doctors. And we even know our own cynicism to the tired old language of love. Instead of living in a life where the non-violent love of Jesus prevails we choose to fall back on the phrase “here in the real world, might makes right.”
However, we have to be able to look all of the cynicism showered upon us, admit the truth in it, but then be able to move on and say nevertheless. Nevertheless look at how transformative, creative, and life-giving Christian love has been in this world: a source for non-violence, a source for change, the major impetus for the abolition of slavery, equality of genders and sexual orientations, the environmental movement, peace, and education to name & etc. We will not be able to shock anyone with our love if we cannot reach beyond the nevertheless. The three little words we say to the world and the three little words God says to us have some bite to them, let us not tame and tamper it.
Before the gospel of John concluded the author had several major messes to clean up: Jesus’ death, doubting Thomas, and Peter’s denial of Jesus. The first mess John cleaned up the testimony of Jesus’ resurrection, he is not dead but alive. The second mess John cleaned up by including the exchange between Thomas, the twin, and the Resurrected Jesus, go ahead and touch my wounds. Finally, John cleaned up the Peter’s denial of Jesus with an intimate, hurtful, and love-filled conversation between the Resurrected Jesus and Peter, Peter, son of John, do you love me?
We like for our stories to conclude, we like neat and packaged endings. We do not like unfinished or unresolved stories. Therefore, we may be drawn to the pleasant job the gospel writer performed by tidying up the stories in the fashion the author did. Yet we all know that Jesus’ love for us and our love of God is not clean but is very messy. In fact anytime Jesus starts loving us and we start loving Jesus that love makes a mess of everything.
16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. {the opening of A Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.}
Love made a real mess of things in our nation: why couldn’t we just leave good enough alone? Love will not let us leave “just good enough” alone!
The Resurrected Jesus appeared in John’s gospel to clean up some of the messes created before and by his death. Although all of the appearances took place only in the span of two chapters did you notice how long Jesus waited to talk to Peter? After Jesus appeared to Mary, after Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds, after Jesus had breakfast with the disciples then and only then did he talk with Peter. Oh we could fill the rest of this hour with our wondering questions: was Jesus avoiding Peter, was Peter avoiding Jesus, was Jesus mad at Peter, was Peter ashamed, & so on & so on… For reasons we will never fully know on this side of the Jordan Jesus and Peter waited to talk.
During Jesus final appearance before his ascension Jesus talked directly to Peter after breakfast. The text records no small talk, no pleasantries, not even embraces, Jesus cuts to the chase and asks Peter: Do you love me more than these (the disciples)?
Jesus asked Peter a thick question. Jesus looked at Peter and asked do you agape me? Peter responded Yes Lord you know that I phileo you. Jesus asked not only a thick question but an unfair one: Peter do you agape me? Do you love me in the same way that I love you? Peter responds, no I love you like a brother, a close friend, an intimate.
Jesus had spent his life perfecting the art of love, so much so that he elevated and broadened the definition of love. Tucked on the shelf, hiding behind a page, nestled deep in the paragraphs of ancient Greek was a term for love that was seldom used: agape. The early Christians snatched this word from the lexicon of the day and poured meaning into it, transforming it into the word we now use to describe God’s love for creation. This love is more than love of friends, more than the erotic love two lovers experience, this is love, a Love Supreme.
We do not have the sudleties in English to connote differing meanings for love; we employ the word love for a broad range of emotions, experiences, and adoration. We love potato chips, football teams, automobiles, towns, and books. You name it and someone loves it: pickles, beans for breakfast, meatloaf there are actual people who love them, no foolin’. {I have a strong dislike of pickles and meatloaf. Believe it or not, folk in New England eat baked beans for breakfast.} While we could easily say we admire, lust, like or adore an object or person we don’t, instead we use the word love as our verb of choice.
Despite our ubiquitous usage of love, it still packs a wallop of emotion and meaning. When the word is used in an intimate context with someone we care for deeply the three little words can scare the shell right off an egg. Can you recall how nervous you were the first time you uttered those words to you or first heard them directed to you? My palms get sweaty just recalling those moments. There was a great fear that your love may not be reciprocated! Jesus asked Peter do you agape me? Peter replied Lord, I phileo you. Jesus’ love was not reciprocated. At this point I think it is fair to say that Jesus made a wrong assumption about love.
Have you ever listened to John Coltrane play the saxophone? Sometimes I will sit in my chair and listen to the progression of notes and say he is just playing scales. Have you ever watched Bob Ross on PBS paint a picture? I watch him and say he is just slapping paint on a canvas. Have you ever read a Nikki Giovanni poem? I read them and say she is just placing common words in a neat order. Or have you ever felt the rush of air after an Anika Sorenstam swing? I said she is just swinging her club really fast. True but then I tried to replicate all of the events and failed miserably. Sure I can play a scale, paint a picture, write a poem, and swing a golf club but I cannot do them like a professional. Jesus capacity and ability to love was of a professional grade. He asked Peter do you agape me? Peter said I phileo you?
Peter has yet to fully realize what agape love is. But he is about to. Jesus asks a third and hurtful time: Peter do you love (phileo) me and Peter responds Lord you know everything you know that I phileo you. Agape love would not let Peter go, Agape love stayed with Peter.
The gospel of John ends by seeking to clean up the mess of the disciples but the end actually created more of a mess. Imagine that your best friends and family whom you love deeply abandoned and denied even knowing you in your greatest hour of need. How would you react? How would feel? Our feelings and reactions spelled out in narrative prose is how the gospel of John should end. Perhaps that is how phileo love would have the gospel end. But the gospel is good news and the good news aint just phileo love it is agape love. An expected ending would have Jesus saying to Peter I forgive you but I wont forget. Praise God the story does not end that way.
My hunch is that Jesus realized Peter did not understand what he was asking him? Do you agape me? Yes Lord you know that I phileo you. Jesus, therefore, changed the direction of the conversation: do you phileo me, yes Lord I phileo you. If you are like me your mind was caught in the couple of editorial sentences that foretold Jesus’ death. But if you would block those out what two words emerge? Jesus’ imperative, Jesus’ challenge, Jesus’ invitation: Follow me.
Sometime in the 1980s Dr. Gardner Taylor, now pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, NY, was the visiting professor of preaching at CRDS. One of his students at the time is a friend of mine. MY friend reported that Dr. Taylor gave the class two instructions for learning how to preach: first, read the NY Times, particularly the Arts section, for sentence structure and the possibilities of language; two, watch me and do what I do. I’m sure somewhere in Dr. Taylor’s subconscious the 21st chapter of John was percolating as he gave those instructions. Our sentence structure of foundation of agape love is the Bible. Our Love Supreme to imitate is Jesus the Christ.
You and I cannot naturally agape love one another. This was Jesus’ assumption with Peter. Perhaps in the moment Jesus forgot the countless hours his heart was forged, shaped, and carved with agape love. Perhaps he forgot the moments of doubt, temptation, and ridicule he suffered. Perhaps God’s resurrection of him filled him so with agape love all he could think of nothing else… Jesus’ conversation with Peter reminded him, however, of the agape journey. Once Jesus recalls this he invites Peter, likewise you and I too, on the agape journey to learn how to love like he loves.
After Peter and the gang learned how to agape the world has never been the same; after being touched by agape love we are never the same.
Agape love is not tame, safe, or comprehensible. Agape is sloppy. It makes a mess of everything. Agape is so powerful that once we come in contact with it we are never the same, we cannot even go on living as we did previously, in fact we have to be born-anew because of the path agape love calls us on.
Sisters and Brothers the Kingdom of God does not need any part-time lovers. The kingdom needs some sloppy agape lovers. {I pronounced sloppy to rhyme with agape, credit goes to Dr. Werner Lemke - emertius OT prof at CRDS} The world needs some sloppy agape lovers who say the world is not just good enough. We need to hear Jesus say we are not just good enough that God is calling us, drawing us nearer, nearer to a deeper love, a Love Supreme.
We describe our time together as worship, some have described it as a school of charity – a way to learn how to agape love. A way to learn to hear God say to us those three little words, a way for us to say to God those three little words and a way for us to say to creation those three little words. Three little words, eight little letters: I LOVE YOU.
Amen.
Loving God,
maker of heaven and of earth
invite us and show us the way to agape love
love not as the world love but as
you agape.
Amen.
Three Little Words
text: “Simon, son of Jonas, thou lovest me?” (John 21: KJV)
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
I am sure that you have either sung or heard And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. The 1966 hymn certainly points to the great hope that if followers of Christ would simply love then we could change the world. That was certainly the understanding a few years ago when biblical scholars gathered in Toronto to participate in a conference discussing violence in our world. As the scholars finished their presentation the panelists invited questions from those in attendance. One attendee stood up and rather cynically asked how could the church make any impact in this world when the world seems so averse to our message. For a few moments the panelists shuffled, politely looked back and forth relinquishing time for someone to answer when suddenly one of the scholars spoke up: We shock the world out of its numbness with our love.
We shock the world with our love, they’ll know we are Christians by our love, three little words, eight little letters: I LOVE YOU. The concept sounds so easy, the word rests so well on our tongue, yet we all know how difficult and hard it is to truly love. And we also know how cynical the world is to our ability and capacity to love. Folk can easily turn to historical examples of horrendous act committed in the name of Christianity from the Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of heretics, the Salem witch hunts, the bombing of abortion clinics and shooting of doctors. And we even know our own cynicism to the tired old language of love. Instead of living in a life where the non-violent love of Jesus prevails we choose to fall back on the phrase “here in the real world, might makes right.”
However, we have to be able to look all of the cynicism showered upon us, admit the truth in it, but then be able to move on and say nevertheless. Nevertheless look at how transformative, creative, and life-giving Christian love has been in this world: a source for non-violence, a source for change, the major impetus for the abolition of slavery, equality of genders and sexual orientations, the environmental movement, peace, and education to name & etc. We will not be able to shock anyone with our love if we cannot reach beyond the nevertheless. The three little words we say to the world and the three little words God says to us have some bite to them, let us not tame and tamper it.
Before the gospel of John concluded the author had several major messes to clean up: Jesus’ death, doubting Thomas, and Peter’s denial of Jesus. The first mess John cleaned up the testimony of Jesus’ resurrection, he is not dead but alive. The second mess John cleaned up by including the exchange between Thomas, the twin, and the Resurrected Jesus, go ahead and touch my wounds. Finally, John cleaned up the Peter’s denial of Jesus with an intimate, hurtful, and love-filled conversation between the Resurrected Jesus and Peter, Peter, son of John, do you love me?
We like for our stories to conclude, we like neat and packaged endings. We do not like unfinished or unresolved stories. Therefore, we may be drawn to the pleasant job the gospel writer performed by tidying up the stories in the fashion the author did. Yet we all know that Jesus’ love for us and our love of God is not clean but is very messy. In fact anytime Jesus starts loving us and we start loving Jesus that love makes a mess of everything.
16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. {the opening of A Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.}
Love made a real mess of things in our nation: why couldn’t we just leave good enough alone? Love will not let us leave “just good enough” alone!
The Resurrected Jesus appeared in John’s gospel to clean up some of the messes created before and by his death. Although all of the appearances took place only in the span of two chapters did you notice how long Jesus waited to talk to Peter? After Jesus appeared to Mary, after Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds, after Jesus had breakfast with the disciples then and only then did he talk with Peter. Oh we could fill the rest of this hour with our wondering questions: was Jesus avoiding Peter, was Peter avoiding Jesus, was Jesus mad at Peter, was Peter ashamed, & so on & so on… For reasons we will never fully know on this side of the Jordan Jesus and Peter waited to talk.
During Jesus final appearance before his ascension Jesus talked directly to Peter after breakfast. The text records no small talk, no pleasantries, not even embraces, Jesus cuts to the chase and asks Peter: Do you love me more than these (the disciples)?
Jesus asked Peter a thick question. Jesus looked at Peter and asked do you agape me? Peter responded Yes Lord you know that I phileo you. Jesus asked not only a thick question but an unfair one: Peter do you agape me? Do you love me in the same way that I love you? Peter responds, no I love you like a brother, a close friend, an intimate.
Jesus had spent his life perfecting the art of love, so much so that he elevated and broadened the definition of love. Tucked on the shelf, hiding behind a page, nestled deep in the paragraphs of ancient Greek was a term for love that was seldom used: agape. The early Christians snatched this word from the lexicon of the day and poured meaning into it, transforming it into the word we now use to describe God’s love for creation. This love is more than love of friends, more than the erotic love two lovers experience, this is love, a Love Supreme.
We do not have the sudleties in English to connote differing meanings for love; we employ the word love for a broad range of emotions, experiences, and adoration. We love potato chips, football teams, automobiles, towns, and books. You name it and someone loves it: pickles, beans for breakfast, meatloaf there are actual people who love them, no foolin’. {I have a strong dislike of pickles and meatloaf. Believe it or not, folk in New England eat baked beans for breakfast.} While we could easily say we admire, lust, like or adore an object or person we don’t, instead we use the word love as our verb of choice.
Despite our ubiquitous usage of love, it still packs a wallop of emotion and meaning. When the word is used in an intimate context with someone we care for deeply the three little words can scare the shell right off an egg. Can you recall how nervous you were the first time you uttered those words to you or first heard them directed to you? My palms get sweaty just recalling those moments. There was a great fear that your love may not be reciprocated! Jesus asked Peter do you agape me? Peter replied Lord, I phileo you. Jesus’ love was not reciprocated. At this point I think it is fair to say that Jesus made a wrong assumption about love.
Have you ever listened to John Coltrane play the saxophone? Sometimes I will sit in my chair and listen to the progression of notes and say he is just playing scales. Have you ever watched Bob Ross on PBS paint a picture? I watch him and say he is just slapping paint on a canvas. Have you ever read a Nikki Giovanni poem? I read them and say she is just placing common words in a neat order. Or have you ever felt the rush of air after an Anika Sorenstam swing? I said she is just swinging her club really fast. True but then I tried to replicate all of the events and failed miserably. Sure I can play a scale, paint a picture, write a poem, and swing a golf club but I cannot do them like a professional. Jesus capacity and ability to love was of a professional grade. He asked Peter do you agape me? Peter said I phileo you?
Peter has yet to fully realize what agape love is. But he is about to. Jesus asks a third and hurtful time: Peter do you love (phileo) me and Peter responds Lord you know everything you know that I phileo you. Agape love would not let Peter go, Agape love stayed with Peter.
The gospel of John ends by seeking to clean up the mess of the disciples but the end actually created more of a mess. Imagine that your best friends and family whom you love deeply abandoned and denied even knowing you in your greatest hour of need. How would you react? How would feel? Our feelings and reactions spelled out in narrative prose is how the gospel of John should end. Perhaps that is how phileo love would have the gospel end. But the gospel is good news and the good news aint just phileo love it is agape love. An expected ending would have Jesus saying to Peter I forgive you but I wont forget. Praise God the story does not end that way.
My hunch is that Jesus realized Peter did not understand what he was asking him? Do you agape me? Yes Lord you know that I phileo you. Jesus, therefore, changed the direction of the conversation: do you phileo me, yes Lord I phileo you. If you are like me your mind was caught in the couple of editorial sentences that foretold Jesus’ death. But if you would block those out what two words emerge? Jesus’ imperative, Jesus’ challenge, Jesus’ invitation: Follow me.
Sometime in the 1980s Dr. Gardner Taylor, now pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, NY, was the visiting professor of preaching at CRDS. One of his students at the time is a friend of mine. MY friend reported that Dr. Taylor gave the class two instructions for learning how to preach: first, read the NY Times, particularly the Arts section, for sentence structure and the possibilities of language; two, watch me and do what I do. I’m sure somewhere in Dr. Taylor’s subconscious the 21st chapter of John was percolating as he gave those instructions. Our sentence structure of foundation of agape love is the Bible. Our Love Supreme to imitate is Jesus the Christ.
You and I cannot naturally agape love one another. This was Jesus’ assumption with Peter. Perhaps in the moment Jesus forgot the countless hours his heart was forged, shaped, and carved with agape love. Perhaps he forgot the moments of doubt, temptation, and ridicule he suffered. Perhaps God’s resurrection of him filled him so with agape love all he could think of nothing else… Jesus’ conversation with Peter reminded him, however, of the agape journey. Once Jesus recalls this he invites Peter, likewise you and I too, on the agape journey to learn how to love like he loves.
After Peter and the gang learned how to agape the world has never been the same; after being touched by agape love we are never the same.
Agape love is not tame, safe, or comprehensible. Agape is sloppy. It makes a mess of everything. Agape is so powerful that once we come in contact with it we are never the same, we cannot even go on living as we did previously, in fact we have to be born-anew because of the path agape love calls us on.
Sisters and Brothers the Kingdom of God does not need any part-time lovers. The kingdom needs some sloppy agape lovers. {I pronounced sloppy to rhyme with agape, credit goes to Dr. Werner Lemke - emertius OT prof at CRDS} The world needs some sloppy agape lovers who say the world is not just good enough. We need to hear Jesus say we are not just good enough that God is calling us, drawing us nearer, nearer to a deeper love, a Love Supreme.
We describe our time together as worship, some have described it as a school of charity – a way to learn how to agape love. A way to learn to hear God say to us those three little words, a way for us to say to God those three little words and a way for us to say to creation those three little words. Three little words, eight little letters: I LOVE YOU.
Amen.
Loving God,
maker of heaven and of earth
invite us and show us the way to agape love
love not as the world love but as
you agape.
Amen.
01 February 2009
Sermon 01.Feb.2009: Crisscross Applesauce
Below is a copy of the sermon from this morning. It was only the second sermon I have preached this year! Last week's was somewhere between an address and a sermon. I was able to record it with our new Flip camera but a 25 minute sermon exceeds youtubes upload capabilities, but I am still tooling around.
text: “I have a calmed and quieted soul.” (Ps. 131:2)
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – Holy Communion – 1.Feb.2009
Let us begin with this scenario – you are over at the parsonage talking to me in the living room when all of a sudden I excuse myself: perhaps the #s 1, 2, & 3 have the First Lady tied up, perhaps the #s have filled the bathtub full of snow. As I am absent you, being nosy, happen to spy a photo album partially open and say to yourself don’t mind if I do. The photo album in your hands contains the pictures of our wedding 12 years ago. The photo you turn to first is the one of my classmate from seminary dressed in a white jump suit doing his Elvis impression (not the young G.I. Elvis but the older and, er, thicker Elvis). As you admire the picture you hear me returning to the living room and you quickly shut the album and replace it back to its proper place.
From that sole picture you could tell a great deal about our wedding – that is was fun, a little corny, fairly memorable. But you could not fully grasp the wedding if you went solely by that one picture. If you were comfortable in my presence you would ask to see the remaining pictures. Then I would sit next to you and we would peruse the album together. I would show you the last picture of me and my grandmother, one of the few pictures of my father smiling, the unlit, thankfully, blue light behind the cross at Lori’s church, and pictures of friends and family.
This morning we have snuck a peek at Psalm 131, it is one picture out of 150 pictures that make up the Psalter. We cannot fully grasp the breadth and variety of the religious experiences of the prayerbook of the Bible by looking at one psalm. We can, however, get a sense of the religious experience expressed by this one psalm: that it is poetic, difficult, and promising. If we were comfortable with the Bible and with God perhaps we would ask to have the rest of the album shared with us. If so, we would see pictures of terrible hurt, exhilarating joy, genuine surprise, deep longing, serious study, and pure honesty to describe but a portion of the pictures contained in the album.
We would see all of the pictures from the Psalms and the Bible if we were comfortable. But we are not comfortable are we? What is it about God, the Lively Word of the Bible and religious practices that makes us so uncomfortable? Do we not feel worthy? Do we feel too small? Do we think we are bothering God with our small requests? Are we embarrassed? Have you ever been in contact with someone for quite a while and suddenly realized that you do not know their name (not that you forgot someone’s name, but that you never learnt it in the first place). You are too far into the relationship to ask. Could it be with God we feel we have been together too long to ask for a formal introduction to God? We are too embarrassed to ask so we just keep on trucking with the distinct hope that God’s name will come to us.
This morning let us hold this one picture, Psalm 131 and re-introduce ourselves to God. This may be our first introduction, or may be our fiftieth introduction. Just like seeing a photo for the first time all is new and just like seeing a photo for the 50th time you notice new expressions and details you did not before, so too is our relationship with God.
This Psalm, this picture provides us a metaphor an image of a calmed and quieted soul which is like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. When a child is weaned the experience is more than just the end of nursing; there is an emotional component shared also. A weaned child has developed the inner capacity to deal with difficulty, pain, and fear. A weaned child has developed the ability to calm and quiet their self without the need to nurse. A weaned child is emotionally matured to the point that they are comfortable with their surroundings and life. Would the picture of our soul be that of a calmed and quieted soul like a weaned child?
Shortly after arriving here I took #1 to a story time over at the library. All of the kids gathered on a rug and formed a semicircle around the children’s librarian. The librarian asked if all of the kids would sit crisscross applesauce, quickly the kids crossed their legs and listened to the librarian read. I sat on a chair and watched the faces of the children: comfortable, calmed, and quieted. The kids were expectant of an enjoyable experience. It occurred to me this is what our relationship with God should be like, like kids sitting crisscross applesauce totally at ease and comfortable in God’s presence.
We may have broken down Christmas, we may have tucked away We Three Kings until next year but we still in the middle of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season. We are in the thick of a season that directs our hearts, minds, and bodies to the great manifestation of God as a child. God did not march into history as a monster or as a warrior. God snuck into history as a child. This season proclaims that God is not out to “get” us; God is not out to mess up our lives, or to cause us harm. God did not create us in order to make our lives a living hell. God is present to love us, forgive us, heal us, and redeem us. This is a God in whose presence we can be comfortable. This is a God whose presence invites us to let down our guard, to sit like a child who is expectant of God’s grace. We cannot become co-workers building for God’s kingdom if we are uncomfortable with God.
I invite you to put yourself, calmed and quieted in the presence of God. I invite you to put yourself in the picture created from Psalm 131. Regardless of how beautiful or how simple the posture and experience looks we all well know how difficult it is to quiet and calm our souls and to be in the presence of God. By waking up early on a Sunday morning, bypassing Meet the Press, a second cup of coffee, and a nice morning pastry we are all bodily confessing that as easy as it sounds to sit quietly and calmly in the presence of God it is not. There is not just one Psalm but 150 Psalms a vivid reminder of the difficulty of being comfortable in God’s presence.
When we are asked the question if your house was on fire and all of your family and pets were safely outside and you had time to run back and retrieve one item what would it be? Almost every time we choose pictures. Pictures, they hold not only our memories but are able to create new memories and tell new stories to our children and future generations. If you ever are in the Rochester, NY area it would behoove you to drive downtown and find your way to 19 Madison Street the address of the Susan B. Anthony House. I once took the youth group there. As we were finishing the tour we paused at Ms. Anthony’s personal desk. On the desk was a brittle black and white picture of Ms. Anthony at her desk. I examined the picture of the desk and noticed that she surrounded herself with pictures and newspaper clippings all pertaining to women’s rights. For inspiration, challenge, and comfort she surrounded herself with pictures. Pictures, pictures, pictures. We can safely surmise that the pictures time and again deepened her wellspring that enabled her to boldly proclaim: Failure is Impossible. Pictures, pictures, pictures.
This little Psalm, number 131, may seem insignificant but it and its 149 Psalms contained memories of Israel’s experience as a people with the Living God. All 150 were sifted, tested, and formed in the crucible of life. This one little Psalm, number 131, contains a memory and it contains a hope formed by the transforming experience of a calmed and quieted soul. This little Psalm contains a picture which aided Israel in its quest to be a holy nation.
The way you live your life, whether you acknowledge it or not, affects those around you. If you are angry all the time you will make all those around you uncomfortable. If you are happy you will make those around you more comfortable. Right now we are affecting each other; right now all of our heartbeats and our breathing are within a beat or two of each other. A calmed and quieted soul always “wins.” By that I mean when you are in the presence of an anxious or upset person the goal of that person is to get you anxious or upset. But a person who chooses to remain calm always offers a new equilibrium of a non-anxious presence. By remaining calm we will more than likely either drive the anxious or upset person bonkers or we will calm them down.
As the Psalm ends it shifts voice from that of a lone pilgrim to that of a pilgrim among pilgrims: O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore. It is right to ask if the actions of one person can bring change to others. I am willing to stake all I have that each of you here this morning have been deeply touched by another who had a calmed and quieted soul. I am sure calmed and quieted souls enabled this church to proclaim in 1838, We feel it our duty to bear our solemn testimony against slavery. We believe it to be repugnant to be the principles which our government is based, a disgrace to our country and above all, a most heinous sin against God.” We work at obtaining a calmed and quieted soul not for our own sake but for the sake of Love. Our work for a calmed and quieted soul is not for our own benefit but for the healing of the world, for the redemption of the world. Could our world at this time need anything more than calmed and quieted souls in Gaza, in Jerusalem, in Islamabad, in Kiev, in Kabul, on Wall Street, in D.C. in our neighborhoods in and our own homes?
Psalm 131. A picture to remind and inspire us. I invite you to copy in some form this Psalm and carry it with you for this week, keep it in your wallet or coat pocket, pull it out throughout the day and slowly repeat it, live with this picture. We need a reminder of the life we want to live.
God has given us pictures for our lives that are meant to comfort, challenge, and inspire. The more time we spend with the pictures the more comfortable we become with God, the more we come to know God more. This morning in one hand there is Psalm 131 and on the other hand there is the picture of Holy Communion. Both pictures are vivid offerings of a God who seeks to erase the level of discomfort we feel towards our Creator. When we are comfortable in the presence of God, we are comfortable in our own presence, we are comfortable in this world, we are comfortable working for justice, extending mercy, and practicing grace. I know, I know correlation does not equal causation but when we draw nearer, nearer to the Precious Lord history shows we become tenderized and conscientized and more comfortable with God.
The way is not easy the story of Holy Communion tells us that for sure. But along the way we have pictures, pictures of the good life, pictures of a different way of life, pictures of a weaned child with a calmed and quieted soul. May these pictures be our good news. Take these pictures and have them become pictures of a living faith that is comfortable in God’s presence.
Let us pray.
May we continue to strive for just a closer walk with Thee O Lord. May we approach you with hearts lifted up, relaxed bodies, open minds. May we approach you expecting your grace and love present in this world. May you find us O Lord as children, children sitting crisscross applesauce eager to add our own pictures to the album of a living faith. Amen.
30 January 2009
The ACME 40GH Sermonator
The sermon for this week took longer than usual before it arrived but once the ideas started taking shape and were placed together it flowed quicker than usual, go figure.
Currently I am in between the Advent-Xmas-Epiphany series on the poetry of Advent, which then spilled over into a good chunk of January and the Lenten-Easter series on Life Together (based on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book of the same title). The time in-between the series left the Sundays of February to plan. The month is a bit unusual for I will be in WV for one Sunday during the winter break the kids have here in Lil Rhody.
Usually in the midst of reading, listening to music, or talking with folk ideas will come for sermons that are not necessarily part of a series but nice one-time events. With a pile of ideas on 3x5 cards I picked out three for this month that fit an overall theme of pre-Lenten ideas. I have labeled the stack of cards, newspaper articles, scribbles, pictures and what not The ACME 40GH Sermonator.
This week's sermon on being comfortable with God is titled Crisscross Applesauce. I had never heard the titled phrase until one day when I took #1 to story time at the library and the children's librarian asked if all would sit crisscross applesauce. I watched all of the kids fall in line and sit with smiles on their faces. They were all so comfortable, relaxed, and expectant. How come most of us do not feel that way when we are attentive to God's presence?
Sermon two: Three Little Words. This one is still in the works but I imagine it will build off the previous sermon.
Sermon three: A Sunday Kind of Love. I have had this sermon percolating for a good bit but never the time or opportunity to work on it properly.
Then onto Ash Wednesday and Lent...
On a lighter note. This week I talked with several colleagues concerning their Annual Meetings, some were fun some were not (mine by the way was quite enjoyable). After my discussions I think I may rewrite the gospel of Mark using the Robert's Rules of Order.
04 January 2009
The Sunday of the Epiphany Sermon
Below is the posting of this morning's sermon.
Two notes. 1. The poem quoted is The Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot. The sermon the poem was based off is the Christmas Day sermon preached by Lancelot Andrews. Please click for proper hyperlinked information.
The Power and the Glory
text: “members of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:19)
Sunday of the Epiphany
Mom and Dad knew; from the look of the strangers, they too knew. The strangers did not speak with their mouths – what good would it have done them, no one would have understood them – they spoke instead with their actions when they knelt down and opened their chests full of treasure: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The firmament told them about the child. Peculiar they were the only ones to notice when creation rejoiced and birthed a new star.
Let us pray:
O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only- begotten Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know thee now by faith, to thy presence, where we may behold thy glory face to face; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The following paragraph is a rough estimation of what I said this morning for an introduction to the sermon.)
We live our lives as humans east of Eden, expelled from the garden and searching for the way back home, back to perfection. We are like St. Augstine said creatures whose hearts are restless until we find rest in Thee, O Lord. This morning may we take up the journey, the pilgrimage back to the heart of God.
We say and even sing three wise men, but just like the parable that never calls the Samartian contain good, the bible never quantifies how many magi there were. The magi, the wise men, the priests from the Orient took a chance and sojourned East from Persia (modern day Iran). They were not the first to make the journey and the would not be the last the trade route and way were known – nevertheless they (the strangers, the foreigners) went at all is the significance of this day: The Epiphany, the day of Revealings.
The 20th century poet T.S. Eliot, writing shortly after his conversion to Christianity and during one his self described happiest times of his life composed The Journey of the Magi in 1927. He began by reworking a 1622 Christmas Day sermon preached by Lancelot Andrews before King James on the story of the magi:
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year.
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter
Eliot took the story of the ancient journey of the magi and wove it into the tapestry of his own life’s journey. You and I may not write a masterpiece like Thomas Sterns Eliot but we are asked to imitate him as he imitated the magi – that is we too are asked to take a journey, a journey also to Jerusalem, a pilgrimage to the heart of God.
In medieval Europe the idea of pilgrimage became central to the life of the Christian. The stories of the faith were told in painted window glass, the year was observed by a series of fasts and feasts, and pilgrims took journeys to the city of God, not literal journeys to Jerusalem over land and sea but metaphorical journeys over patterned floors by circular, meditative, and intentional walking on a labyrinth.
Walking the labyrinth provided an imaginative portal for a pilgrimage to the Holy City, to the heart of God. (We could easily construct a labyrinth to be incorporated to the outdoor chapel) But for this morning let us hold steady on the idea of pilgrimage, more specifically the one taking the pilgrimage: the pilgrim. For this year I invite you to take up a new/old inscription: I want us to be known as 21st century pilgrims. I do not want to retreat back to medieval Europe, Reformation England, or 1st century Persia. I want us to be real pilgrims right here, right now – people on a journey, people honestly seeking God, people not stopping and never satisfied till we find what we are looking for.
I do not know about you, but I am uncomfortable around know it alls, especially religious know it alls – you know folk so confident of their convictions that they exhale smitteness. However, I am at ease around pilgrims – folk who do not have all the answers but folk who are looking and seeking. You see you can talk to a pilgrim, you are heard by a pilgrim, you are lifted up by a pilgrim because you are twined by the journey. And surely we all can agree that what we and the world needs right now are not more know it alls but more pilgrims.
The magi saw the star and assumed the King of the Jews would be found in Jerusalem, the logical abode of a king. The folk, however, in Jerusalem knew nothing. King Herod quickly called a cabinet meeting of the best minds and inquired: where was the king of the Jews to be born. While the cabinet researched the magi/the surprised pilgrims diligently searched for the child. You and I are like the magi, we believe in God – we have all in someway been touched by the wonders of his love. You and I are like the magi, we assume where to find God. But remember we are pilgrims, not know it alls. Pilgrims leave open the possibility to be surprised. For us, as for the magi, is not is God? that we know. The open question is where is God? The answer is to be found on our journey, on our pilgrimage. For when we are pilgrims we can be and are surprised by God, even perplexed and confused.
When we are pilgrims we may just be a lawyer in Bristol, England one day and the next a Reformed preacher crossing the Seekonk River with a bounty on our head for properly developing the principle of religious liberty. We may just be America’s “spiritual” founding father.
When we are pilgrims we may just be a preacher seeking to escape from our daddy’s shadow by working on our PhD dissertation in a sleepy Alabama town one day and the next leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott, leading the Civil Rights Movement, being America’s prophet of the 21st century.
When we are pilgrims we may just pack up our treasure and follow a star. We may just endure the snickers, stares, and sarcasm as we journey. We journey hoping to be one among millions but when we arrive at our destination we only find a young scared mother, a scared father, animals and a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. We took the journey because we had to. We didn’t know we would be the symbol, the opening up of the gifts of God to the Gentile world. We didn’t know our journey would be the known and celebrated as The Epiphany.
On this first Sunday of the year you may have big plans for 2009 – but I challenge you to have only one resolution: to be a pilgrim – to be a pilgrim on the inward journey – to be a pilgrim surprised by God.
Let us pray:
Revealing God,
who calls us on a journey,
over mountains, across rivers,
of the world and of the soul
Call us once again for just a closer walk with Thee
that we may know you dearer
that we may experience your healing hand and loving arms
not only for our mending but for the healing of your creation
In the precious name of Jesus
we pilgrims pray
to thine be the glory, and the power forever and ever
Amen.
Two notes. 1. The poem quoted is The Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot. The sermon the poem was based off is the Christmas Day sermon preached by Lancelot Andrews. Please click for proper hyperlinked information.
The Power and the Glory
text: “members of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:19)
Sunday of the Epiphany
Mom and Dad knew; from the look of the strangers, they too knew. The strangers did not speak with their mouths – what good would it have done them, no one would have understood them – they spoke instead with their actions when they knelt down and opened their chests full of treasure: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The firmament told them about the child. Peculiar they were the only ones to notice when creation rejoiced and birthed a new star.
Let us pray:
O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only- begotten Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know thee now by faith, to thy presence, where we may behold thy glory face to face; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The following paragraph is a rough estimation of what I said this morning for an introduction to the sermon.)
We live our lives as humans east of Eden, expelled from the garden and searching for the way back home, back to perfection. We are like St. Augstine said creatures whose hearts are restless until we find rest in Thee, O Lord. This morning may we take up the journey, the pilgrimage back to the heart of God.
We say and even sing three wise men, but just like the parable that never calls the Samartian contain good, the bible never quantifies how many magi there were. The magi, the wise men, the priests from the Orient took a chance and sojourned East from Persia (modern day Iran). They were not the first to make the journey and the would not be the last the trade route and way were known – nevertheless they (the strangers, the foreigners) went at all is the significance of this day: The Epiphany, the day of Revealings.
The 20th century poet T.S. Eliot, writing shortly after his conversion to Christianity and during one his self described happiest times of his life composed The Journey of the Magi in 1927. He began by reworking a 1622 Christmas Day sermon preached by Lancelot Andrews before King James on the story of the magi:
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year.
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter
Eliot took the story of the ancient journey of the magi and wove it into the tapestry of his own life’s journey. You and I may not write a masterpiece like Thomas Sterns Eliot but we are asked to imitate him as he imitated the magi – that is we too are asked to take a journey, a journey also to Jerusalem, a pilgrimage to the heart of God.
In medieval Europe the idea of pilgrimage became central to the life of the Christian. The stories of the faith were told in painted window glass, the year was observed by a series of fasts and feasts, and pilgrims took journeys to the city of God, not literal journeys to Jerusalem over land and sea but metaphorical journeys over patterned floors by circular, meditative, and intentional walking on a labyrinth.
Walking the labyrinth provided an imaginative portal for a pilgrimage to the Holy City, to the heart of God. (We could easily construct a labyrinth to be incorporated to the outdoor chapel) But for this morning let us hold steady on the idea of pilgrimage, more specifically the one taking the pilgrimage: the pilgrim. For this year I invite you to take up a new/old inscription: I want us to be known as 21st century pilgrims. I do not want to retreat back to medieval Europe, Reformation England, or 1st century Persia. I want us to be real pilgrims right here, right now – people on a journey, people honestly seeking God, people not stopping and never satisfied till we find what we are looking for.
I do not know about you, but I am uncomfortable around know it alls, especially religious know it alls – you know folk so confident of their convictions that they exhale smitteness. However, I am at ease around pilgrims – folk who do not have all the answers but folk who are looking and seeking. You see you can talk to a pilgrim, you are heard by a pilgrim, you are lifted up by a pilgrim because you are twined by the journey. And surely we all can agree that what we and the world needs right now are not more know it alls but more pilgrims.
The magi saw the star and assumed the King of the Jews would be found in Jerusalem, the logical abode of a king. The folk, however, in Jerusalem knew nothing. King Herod quickly called a cabinet meeting of the best minds and inquired: where was the king of the Jews to be born. While the cabinet researched the magi/the surprised pilgrims diligently searched for the child. You and I are like the magi, we believe in God – we have all in someway been touched by the wonders of his love. You and I are like the magi, we assume where to find God. But remember we are pilgrims, not know it alls. Pilgrims leave open the possibility to be surprised. For us, as for the magi, is not is God? that we know. The open question is where is God? The answer is to be found on our journey, on our pilgrimage. For when we are pilgrims we can be and are surprised by God, even perplexed and confused.
When we are pilgrims we may just be a lawyer in Bristol, England one day and the next a Reformed preacher crossing the Seekonk River with a bounty on our head for properly developing the principle of religious liberty. We may just be America’s “spiritual” founding father.
When we are pilgrims we may just be a preacher seeking to escape from our daddy’s shadow by working on our PhD dissertation in a sleepy Alabama town one day and the next leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott, leading the Civil Rights Movement, being America’s prophet of the 21st century.
When we are pilgrims we may just pack up our treasure and follow a star. We may just endure the snickers, stares, and sarcasm as we journey. We journey hoping to be one among millions but when we arrive at our destination we only find a young scared mother, a scared father, animals and a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. We took the journey because we had to. We didn’t know we would be the symbol, the opening up of the gifts of God to the Gentile world. We didn’t know our journey would be the known and celebrated as The Epiphany.
On this first Sunday of the year you may have big plans for 2009 – but I challenge you to have only one resolution: to be a pilgrim – to be a pilgrim on the inward journey – to be a pilgrim surprised by God.
Let us pray:
Revealing God,
who calls us on a journey,
over mountains, across rivers,
of the world and of the soul
Call us once again for just a closer walk with Thee
that we may know you dearer
that we may experience your healing hand and loving arms
not only for our mending but for the healing of your creation
In the precious name of Jesus
we pilgrims pray
to thine be the glory, and the power forever and ever
Amen.
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