“When God Shows Up…”
Matthew 17: 1-9
March 2, 2014

The question of God — of whether or not God exists and if so, then what is this being like — this question has haunted the hallways of humanity ever since those first humans stared into the heavens, wondering about life itself.  The question of life itself — where did it come from and where is it going — this question itself is intertwined in the God question as well.  If God is…then by that very definition, all else is understood in relationship to God.  If God is not…then nothing else matters and all bets are off.  If God is…then our life has meaning and purpose, i.e., we were created by someone for something.  If God is not…if we are just a cosmological accident born from the bowels of a universe which came from only God knows where and is going to only God knows where — oh, that’s right, we have no god; if God is not then nothing else really makes any difference.
Part and parcel of the question of God is our question of why God doesn’t show up?   Why doesn’t God do something, show God’s face or act in such a definitive manner that we all know that God exists?  This question leads to the question of our experience of God.  Have we, as humans, experienced the personal presence of God?  Billions and billions of people claim that they have had some experience of God — that they have personally been touched in one way or another by God. 
The claim to have experienced God is audacious and bold, but also noteworthy and mind-boggling — and to my way of thinking one of the chief reasons that we believe in God.  All the arguments for God’s existence pale in the face of one brief but powerful statement:  “I have experienced the hand of God (metaphorically) in my life.”  We can argue with theological proofs, but we cannot argue with one’s personal experience and interpretation of that experience.  If billions claim to have experienced God, then there must be someone there.
This experience resides at the heart and soul of our identity as Christians.  When we claim to have been “born again” or “born anew” or “born from above,” what we are claiming is that God has touched us at the core of our being; that this same God lives in us through God’s Spirit; and is now in the process of transforming us from the inside out.  Christianity differs from many other religions in that we not only claim to have a particular head knowledge of God, we also have claim heart knowledge, i.e., an intimate relationship of love with God.  The old adage “God has no grandchildren” bears out the truth of this relationship.  We believe that each of us must have his/her own, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We believe that being a Christian is not just about affirming a confession of faith or creed, but is about a living, breathing, relationship wherein we have been touched in the center of our soul by the God of the universe.
As humans we yearn to experience God and God’s presence — more and more and more.  The whole idea of worship is that in our rituals and celebrations we will encounter God in us and among us.  We believe that God really does show up, time and again.  To be sure, when we stop and think about it, when we pause and reflect upon what we are saying, we can get a little antsy and nervous. 
How can I be sure that this is God and not some wish projection?
How can I be sure that this experience is of God and not just bad pizza or left-overs that have my stomach doing back-flips?
How can I know for sure that I am experiencing God and not just doing psychological gymnastics?
What are the characteristics of our Christian experience with God that allow us to believe in and affirm their authenticity?
God shows up when we least expect God to do so.
I am sure that Peter, James and John were not that much different from you and me when they ascended that mountain.  That Jesus had chosen them to go apart with him was not that unusual, but what transpired really was.  God showed up — and they were not expecting God in any shape, fashion or form.  They had to think that this was just another trip apart, probably to pray and talk about the rising tide of opposition coming from both Jews and Romans.  However, when Moses and Elijah show up — the representatives of the law and prophets — they are stunned.  When all of a sudden Jesus is standing there with these and glowing with the Shekinah glory of God just as the others, they are stunned into silence.  Just as they had not expected God to show up that day when Jesus called them to follow him, so they really had not picked this day out.  But then, God doesn’t always follow our particular schedules.
Your Ministerial Staff spent several hours this past week discussing worship and how we can make it better and better.  We are pouring over every aspect of our services and asking how they can work together so to better enable a worship experience of God.  Yet, the reality is that plan as we might, God shows up when God chooses to show up.  Despite all our best planning and preparation, we cannot control the Holy Spirit. 
I’ll never forget the Sundays when, as a young preacher I would toil over a sermon and stride into the pulpit on Sunday just knowing that it was the greatest sermon ever preached.  After the service people would file out, give me the old limp handshake or pat on the back, and say something to the effect, “Keep trying; one day you may get there!”  I would go home devastated, believing that God must have made a mistake in calling me to preach. 
On the other hand there would come a week with multitudinous pastoral needs and I would have only minimal time to prepare and no time to write a manuscript.  I would go into the pulpit with the barest of outlines, praying something like “Lord, you better show up today, because this is one weak sermon.”  Invariably, after the service someone would come out and say “That’s the best sermon I ever heard you preach.”  Talk about devastating — I was clueless.  Then I realized something:  God showed up not because I prepared or did not prepare, but because in the earlier case I relied on my abilities and in the latter I was dependent upon the Spirit.  As I have grown older I have tried to strike a balance:  prepare like it depended upon me and pray like it all depends upon God. 
The truth is that none of us can predict when God will show up.  We cannot conjure up the Spirit of God with mantras, praise choruses, monasterial chants or even gospel music.  God shows up when God desires to show up — and we must accept that reality.
God shows up when our need of God is at its highest.
Quickly on the heels of this experience of transfiguration is the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.  Not only did his disciples need this experience that they might survive those dreadful days, Jesus needed this as a reminder that God was with him in a unique and powerful way.  They go from the mountaintop of experiencing God to the valley of rejection and despair, but they remain faithful simply because God has shown up in their lives.
No, God does not always show up in the way we want:  not all the hurting are healed, nor are all the damaged made well, nor are all problems removed.  This is a world with sadness and suffering sewn into its very fabric.  Yet, even in those moments we know that God is with us…holding us and suffering even as we suffer. 
Why does God show up in tough times more than others?  Probably because we are more awake and alert to the presence of God in these times.  When we are vulnerable, when our souls are laid bare and we know not which way to turn, God shows up.
The Holy Scriptures are full of such experiences — from God showing up to rescue Hagar and Ishmael after they have been exiled by Abraham to Moses experiencing the dramatic call with God at the burning bush.  Our scriptures affirm time and again that God shows up in our times of need —- for it is then that we are awake to God’s presence.
Christianity is not a dry as dust, head only religion.  True Christianity engages us in the depths of our souls, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and intellectually.  If we are only engaged in one of these areas, then we are missing out on what God has to offer for us.  The reality is that God shows up more often than many of us realize: often we are too asleep or indifferent to notice.  How was it the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it:
                 Earth is crammed with heaven.
And every common bush afire with God.
And only he who sees, takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.
“The rest sit around and pluck blackberries…” If that doesn’t surmise much of what passes for life then I don’t know what does.
God shows up in our hearts as well as our heads.
I realize that we moderate Protestants are deathly afraid of emotionalism — of manipulating the emotions of others in our worship.  However, we need to ask whether we have come to the place where we ignore our emotions so highly that we are in danger of destroying the very faith we claim.  When we ignore our emotions, we ignore the prime vehicle through which the Spirit of God desires to move.  Why are we so afraid of our emotions?  Why is it that we “moderate, thinking Christians” are so afraid of crying, of laughing — of expressing ourselves?  We will laugh and cry at ball games, birthdays, weddings, the birth of babies and all manner of events.  Yet, if we display emotion in our worship — if we engage our emotions in the least — we feel embarrassed and fear that others perceive us as second class persons.
When was the last time you laughed in church?  I mean, really laughed, hopefully with others or at yourself?  Throughout scripture God shows up in laughter.  Remember Abraham and Sarah laughing when God said they would have a baby — and they were older than dirt.  So what do they do some nine months later when their son is born?  The name him “Isaac” — “he laughs!” 
Can we laugh at ourselves in church?  Sometimes I think we take ourselves so seriously, thinking we are God’s last and greatest hope.  How incredibly snobbish and wrong!  Can we laugh at ourselves and our ways of doing and being?
Think about this for a moment: Christianity is growing all across our planet, especially in Asia, Africa, and South America.  It is growing slower, but still growing, in North America — primarily the USA.  It is stagnant or not growing in Canada and Europe.  I can remember when, back in the 1970’s, we Baptists were going to reach the world for Jesus by the year 2000.  We just knew that we were the best thing God had going.  The reality is that due to our inabilities to get along with each other the Baptist movement, as a rule, and mainline Protestantism, as a whole, has stagnated.  What is growing is the Pentecostal version of Christianity — the place where emotion is primary as opposed to thinking.  It is almost as if God has played a great “joke” on us:  “Yes,” God says, “I will reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, but it will not be through your version of Christianity, but another.”  Laughter can be the voice of God as God calls us to not take ourselves so seriously, all the while taking the gospel with utmost seriousness.
In this passage Simon Peter provides a moment of comic relief.  He sees Moses, Elijah and Jesus and says the dumbest thing:  “Hey, its good we’re here.  Let’s build three temples and just stay here.”  Right!  Like erecting a physical building for spiritual beings is going to do any good!  So what happens next?  God shows up and just blows him away:  “This is my Son…listen to him.”  Translation:  “Close your trap and listen to Jesus.  You might learn something.” 
Life is tough, particularly given our economic desires and constraints.  We want to all live like kings, but we cannot do so.  For the most part, our problems and difficulties are the problems that only “rich” people have.  We have enough to eat, clothes to wear and homes in which we live.  Yet, comparing ourselves to others we often find ourselves feeling down and depressed. 
However, I have found that if we will pause, reflect on our lives — and just start laughing a little — we will be amazed at how God will show up in our lives.  No, I am not advocating ignoring real issues or evading difficult questions.  What I am saying is that we have a propensity to make life so much more difficult than it has to be.  God is trying to show up and enable us to handle what God gives — but we are so tense and wound so tight that we cannot begin to sense God’s Spirit.
One of the greatest speeches/sermons I have ever heard was a very short one by Jim Valvano: If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
My addition:  You’re not only going to have something special — you will experience the presence of God right here in the middle of life.  Isn’t that what life is about, anyway?  Under Christ life is not about how much we can accumulate, but about experiencing the presence of God so that we are transformed and empowered to be the persons Christ has called us to be!  The only permanent aspect of our lives is our character — the person/soul God is forging for eternity.  This character is developed slowly but surely, through the anvil of our experiences and the hammer of God’s Spirit.  The more pliable we are the easier the forging will be. 
God shows up when we least expect; God shows up when we need God the most; and God shows up in our hearts as well as our head.  How has God shown up in your life?  Have you been open to experiencing God’s presence for you?

“The Radical Jesus”
Matthew 5: 21-48
February 23, 2014

With what image of Jesus do we operate?  How do we see Jesus in our mind’s eye? 
Is he the “gentle savior, meek and mild?”
Is he the Good Shepherd who is ever loving and seeking out his lost sheep?
Is he the nice, sweet Rabbi who gladly welcomed children into his presence?
Is he the humble, servant leader who dared to take up the basin and towel and wash the disciples’ feet?
Is he the crucified Lord who allowed the Romans and Jews to put him to death on a cross?
Is he the risen, victorious Lord who will one day rule over all that was, is and ever will be?
Each of us operates with an image of others — both those we see and know in our daily life and those we see and know only through media, television, books or film.  For instance, in my generation we just knew that Rock Hudson was the ultimate ladies man.  Who could have imagined that he was anything but a ladies’ man?
Where do these images of others originate?  Usually from a combination of the other’s actions and our perceptions.  Both are important parts of the process.  Remember the adage: “What you think about me says more about you than it does about me!”  How one sees others depends, to a large extent, on who is doing the “seeing,” does it not.
When it comes to Jesus, our images are usually the result of what we are taught as children in combination with how much we have really read/studied the New Testament as adults.  For instance, Jesus as the Good Shepherd is a common beloved image because that’s the common portrait of Jesus we are taught as little children.  We are introduced to the 23rd Psalm or John 10 as portraits of Jesus caring for his sheep.  Each of these images of the “nice Jesus” is a true image of Jesus — but while they may be popular among us, they are incomplete at best. 
There is an image of Jesus of which we seldom hear in our churches: the strong, courageous, even “radical” Jesus who, following in the footsteps of the prophets, challenged the religious leadership, religious laws and social standards of his day.  (If we are honest, he challenges ours as well.)   Rather than “go along to get along” Jesus confronts those in authority with the illegitimacy of their religious, ethical and moral practices in light of God’s command and will.
What was the point of Jesus’ radicality?  I do not believe that he wanted to abolish them as much as that he wished to reform them that they might serve their original purposes.  Jesus was trying to paint a picture of a stark contrast between what God had intended and what Judaism had become.  The further one goes into the gospels the more one realizes that eventually Jesus reaches that point of no return, the place where his statements and actions have so alarmed the “authorities” that they cannot allow him to exist, much less teach.  Why?  The Jewish leaders are desperately afraid that his “heresy” will bring the condemnation of God upon them — not to mention the boot of the Roman military!  For their part, the Romans are angry that Jesus, whom they perceive as a two-bit, would-be revolutionary, is causing trouble for them in one of their provinces.  They do not fear Jesus — they only wish to be rid of him much as a stallion flicks away the fly which is pestering it.  They knew how to deal with revolutionaries; crucifixion worked quite well — both in removing the problem and discouraging others.
Why is understanding the radical Jesus important?  Why ought we to pause this morning and spend time looking at this radical Jesus? Simply put, if we do not know this Jesus, then our knowledge and understanding of him is at best incomplete and inadequate.  Jesus was not crucified for being nice, gentle, humble and loving.  Jesus was crucified for being radical and courageous in the face of a corrupted institutional religion and secular government, both of which he saw as failing its purpose and calling under God.
The Jesus of Matthew 5: 21-48, who dares to challenge the status quo by re-interpreting the sacred Torah, is just as much our Lord and Savior as the Jesus who died on a cross.  If we do not know and understand this Jesus, we cannot claim to know, understand or love Jesus.  For to follow Jesus is to accept all of Jesus — every aspect of his life and teachings.
How does Jesus confront and challenge the status quo?  In our morning text we find a very interesting pattern of statement and response used by Jesus:
“You have heard it said unto you…” after which Jesus would quote Jewish law or convention.
“But I say unto you…” after which Jesus would give his own interpretation of how we ought to live and behave.
Notice what Jesus is doing:  he takes the law back to its foundation, to the basic “principle” underlying the particular statute.  He then calls upon his disciples to make this the basis of their action.  Jesus sees the “law” as they know it as a development of a particular ethic or way of living.  Unfortunately, the law has become so convoluted that Jesus must strip away all the overlying layers of tradition to return to the primary meaning of the statute.  What is important is the principle — and it is to that principle which Jesus turns time and again.
Look at the text this morning and consider these situations.  In each of them, Jesus takes what they have commonly accepted as God’s law — and moves it a step or two backward to the original principle.  It is that principle, according to Jesus, which is to inform our behavior more than the law.
Jesus says our concern should not be merely with avoiding murder, but going behind murder to see the attitude of anger and family division which results in murder.  People are created in God’s image and to be loved and valued as we live in relationship with one another.
Jesus says not only are we not to commit adultery, but that, going behind that act, we are not to look with lust upon another person.  Why?  Because people are created in God’s image and are not to be objects of our passions; we are to live with love toward others and to use no one for our purposes.
Jesus’ strong words about divorce are directed to a society in which men could casually toss aside one wife after another if so desired.  Jesus says no, you cannot treat women as property…they are full human beings.
Look at these words about swearing: they apply, by the way, not to saying epithets with God in them, but to making vows based upon God or anything else in creation.  Jesus is calling upon us to have personal integrity in both saying what we mean and meaning what we say.
Yet, there come times when Jesus lays not only the law aside, but even principles as well.  This is where Jesus becomes even more radical.  When push comes to shove,  Jesus values people and relationships over law and principle.  For Jesus people are primary; rules and laws are secondary.  Why?  Because God is primary — and God is love.  Created in God’s image, people are created to love and live in love.  Therefore, love and relationship is primary to Jesus, not rules or laws.  “The Sabbath is made for humanity, and not humanity for the Sabbath.”
This presupposition is so foundational to Jesus that is literally can be found in every teaching, every action, and every word of his life.  Jesus is more concerned about people than he is legal or even social convention.  This is why he accepts sinners, hugs and heals lepers, and reaches out to the prostitutes and thieves (tax collectors) of his day.  This is the reason he allows women of the night to anoint him and plain fishermen to be his disciples.  This is ultimately why Jesus goes into the temple and overthrows the tables, driving out the money changers and challenging the entire temple system.  For Jesus, people trump law every time, every last time.
His name was H.S. Sauls — and when I was young he was ancient.  He was the Director of Missions for the Mobile Baptist Association — and I dreaded when he showed up at church.  He would come on Sunday night and my dad would call on him to pray.  Understand, we had been at church for all morning, back again at 4pm and it was now at least 8pm.  I was churched out — what 10-13 year old would not be?  Dr. Sauls could pray with the best of them; 10 minutes was nothing for him.  To make matters worse, it was always the Benediction and the congregation would be standing the entire time.  More than once I staged a small protest by just sitting down.  I have heard sermons shorter than his prayers.  I thought him to be one of the dullest, old-foggiest hardliners I had ever known.
Several years later — at the age of 18 I went back to that R.A. Camp, but this time as a camp counselor.  He was still there — looking just as formidable and foreboding as he had some 7 years earlier. On Thursday night after the last chapel service, before we went home the next day, several of us counselors got the idea to go skinny dipping in the lake after lights out.  Now, how we thought we would do this unnoticed is beyond me — but if you can understand the adolescent male brain you are ahead of most of us.  So, we quietly slipped out and made our way down the path to the lake.  I can still see that light shining from high on a pole across the still lake waters; we stripped down and just jumped in — all males, I might add.  The female workers had refused to join us. Evidently female adolescent brains are more highly developed than male adolescent brains.  Anyway, we are having a good old time when all of a sudden there appear some car lights shining across the water and straight into our eyes.  We are caught bare-naked, so to speak.  Dr. Sauls orders us to come out of the water — which we do while scrambling to maintain our modesty and get dressed.  I’ll never forget one friend who tried to stay under the dock and hold his breath…it didn't work.  He had to come out as well.
Well, we got the lecture you would expect: he was disappointed that we had left our campers in their rooms without supervision.  To be honest that was not entirely true; we had left one wimpy counselor behind but he was the one who told on us after the pillow fight broke out between rooms.  As I walked back up the hill I thought, “Uh-oh…when word of this gets back to Dad I am toast.”  It really had seemed like a good idea at the time.
The next morning went off as usual…nothing was really said about our ill-fated escapade.  I realized that this man really loved us, really cared about us — and when he was our age he would probably have been right there with us.  Here this man I thought to be an old fogey, the one whom I thought would lay down the law was really the one who knew that people mattered more than rules.  He knew, I learned, that those who challenge the laws/mores are often those who have more inside of them than those who are nicely obedient.  He knew, it turned out, more about the gospel than I knew at that age or would know for years to come.  In the end, people are more important than any rules, laws or even principles we may possess.
“You have heard it said unto you…but I say unto you…”  Come to think of it, Jesus really knew something about life, love and law, did he not?  Maybe, just maybe the radical Jesus is really the loving Jesus?

On Being Salt and Light
Matthew 5: 13-16

February 9, 2014

The crowd has been uncommonly still at the teaching of Jesus. Word has spread throughout Galilee of his compassion, of his incredible acceptance of those who come to him, and of his miraculous healing power.  Jesus is no ordinary Rabbi for he teaches plainly and simply enough for all to understand. The words seem to roll off his lips like water from a mountain stream:
    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven…
    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted....
    Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of     evil against you     because of me…
Then Jesus pauses and with a clear ring of his voice utters words that echo in the deepest canyons of the listener’s heart:  “You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world.” 
Can we not see those peasant Jews of Galilee looking at one another in disbelief?  “We are the salt of the earth?  We are the light of the world?  Who is Jesus kidding?  We’re nothing but poor, ordinary peasants who have to fight for every breath we breathe and every morsel we eat.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they are the salt and light.  Not us.  Jesus has it wrong this time.  We are powerless and helpless to change anything in our world.  These are ridiculous words.”
Are these words so ridiculous?  Are they any more ridiculous than God’s call to Israel to be a light unto the nations, to be his priests and take knowledge of him throughout the world?  Israel was small, powerless, and insignificant, but that did not stop God from using her.  These inquirers after Jesus, these early followers, were no less insignificant, but in this text we see Jesus calling them to the same mission.  Here is the vision of God for them, the pronouncement of “who they are” based not upon their own comprehension, but upon God’s. Jesus gave them this incredible promise that is at once fulfillment.  Jesus did not say “will be” or “could be” or even “maybe,” Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” 
Salt and light were essential elements of human civilization in the day of Jesus.  They were also metaphors used by Judaism to speak of the relationship of the law to the life of the Jewish community.  The law was to make a difference in the life of their community.  They were to live differently — and in so doing to have an impact in their world.  Judaism was the salt and light of the world and now Jesus is proclaiming to his followers that this is to be their role, their responsibility. 
Those who are salt and light are those who are “persecuted for righteousness’ sake…” i.e., who live out the ethic as proclaimed in these beatitudes.  Jesus knew that living this ethic would produce discord and persecution in the world — it had for the ancient prophets and it would for the church.  To be salt that was good, salt that had not lost it’s “saltiness” — was to be those who took this calling seriously and never wavered in the face of cultural opposition.  
Jesus was speaking not only to those gathered on that hillside.  He was speaking these words to any and all who would ever call him Lord.  The early church remembered these words and wrote them down because, in spite of their ridiculous character, the early church saw them as God’s pronouncement for eternity as to the character and mission of those who would follow Jesus.  Just as these were to be the salt and light of their culture, so we are in ours.  Just as these were to provide the moral and spiritual leadership in their topsy-turvy world, so we are in ours.  What does Jesus mean when he uses the metaphors of salt and light?  What do these metaphors mean in his world—and therefore in ours?  Let us examine some of the qualities of salt and light to understand what Jesus meant.
Salt, by its very nature, is essential to life as we know it.  In the first century, before the days of antibiotics, salt was used as a purifying agent as it was poured into a wound to cleanse and promote healing.  Salt was a preservative, used to keep meats from spoiling.  In an era long before refrigeration salt was used to cure meat for long trips and for storage.  Without salt taking meat on a journey of several days or longer would have been impossible in the heat of the Middle East.  Salt was essential to the physical survival of these nomadic and desert-dwelling peoples.
As Christians we are essential to the survival of our culture.  Without the witness of Christians to the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ can we imagine how hopeless and helpless our world would be?  Through the sharing of the love of Jesus Christ and our incarnating the values and ethics of the kingdom we make a profound difference in the life of our culture.  When I see “secular” groups that travel the world to help people, i.e., “Doctors without Borders” I am grateful to be a part of a community that helped to foster medical missions around the world.  When I see groups going to underdeveloped areas of our planet and helping provide clean water and better hygiene, working to increase literacy and educational levels, as well as training and enabling people to have a valid skill and way of earning a living, I am grateful for Christianity’s missionary heritage which has been carrying out such ministries for centuries.
Christians are essential to a culture which has split itself apart and lost any sense of the common good, for Christianity promotes fellowship and community across all the barriers of life.  In the early church salt was a metaphor for fellowship, for sharing community with one another.  This sense was derived from its use in the Judaism as a symbol of the covenant which Jews shared with one another and with God.  On some sacrifices salt would be thrown on the altar as a symbol of God’s presence and covenant. In the early church they spoke of “sharing salt” with one another — meaning both table fellowship and their bond in Jesus Christ.
As with Salt, Light was a common metaphor in Jewish life, especially as it spoke of the impact of Torah upon the life of the Jew.  To obey Torah was to follow the light which God had given humankind through Israel. Light functioned to illuminate, to show things as they really are and not as they appear to be.  The menorah, the seven armed candelabra which originally shone in the temple, was a reminder of the light which God had given Israel in the Exodus and then through the Torah.  The priests and lawyers had assumed the responsibility of being the correct interpreters of Torah and therefore were the providers of the light for Israel and the world.
With our modern conveniences it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the depth of this saying of Jesus.  We take light for granted and yet it was crucial to their day.  Care was taken that lamps had both oil and wick.  To be without light would be disastrous.  When Jesus says that we are the light of the world he is using a common metaphor to make the same point: as his followers we are essential in our world and it is through us that the Light of Christ will make a vital impact in our world.  Without the salt and light of the followers of Jesus this world is condemned to war and violence, hatred and retribution.  Without the salt and light that we are to provide this world will be without a moral compass and will wander all over the landscape in search of true north. 
How can we be salt and light?  The best way I know is to “be who we are called to be.”  Jesus has called us to a life of discipleship and in so doing we will be salt and light to the world. 
When we support our church budget and through her the ministries and mission efforts of ourselves and our partners, we are being salt and light.
When we go the extra mile in our every day lives, we are being salt and light.
When we bring sanity, reason, and even love to the discordant discussions which abound in our chaotic society, we are being salt and light.
When we share love and bring hope to someone who has lost their way, we are being salt and light.
“Who we are and how we see ourselves determines what we do.  Every time.”  Our actions come out of our self-image, of who we understand ourselves to be.  If we do not see ourselves as the chosen of God, created by him and loved by him, then we will live out of an image far less than that.  As we live up to our calling in Christ Jesus we fulfill our role as salt and light in a world which needs both.
As the most famous pollster in the world George Gallup, Jr. has made his reputation by telling us what others believe, not what he believes.  So it is very interesting that after completing a poll on American religious beliefs in which he discovered that about 90% believed in God, he issued this rejoinder:  “Never before in the history of America have so many people claimed belief in God and His Word, and yet never before has it made so little difference in their lives.”
Mr. Gallup noted that though most claimed belief in God, in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, and in the Bible as God’s Word, very few could identify the four gospels, the letters of Paul, or other specific questions about the Bible.
The question of salt and light is one that, I believe, can be framed rather succinctly:  Do we in the church desire visibility or impact?  Do we want to be seen or do we wish to make a difference in our world?
How crucial is it that we have an impact in our world?  The states with the highest rate of belief in God and religious affiliation are found primarily in the Southeast and Midwest — the predominantly conservative, Bible Belt states: Mississippi leads the list as having the highest rate of belief.  The lowest rates of belief are in the Northeast: New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts.  However, when we look at some other issues we do not come out so well in the South.  In literacy rates we are among the lowest — we have a greater percentage of our population who cannot read or write.  We also have a greater percentage of our population who subscribe to online or cable pornography.  The states with the lowest rates — the Northeast!  We also rank above average in teenage pregnancy rates — which are overwhelmingly unwed mothers.
Why is this so?  Could it be that we in the Southern Protestant church have spend so much time and energy on studying the Bible and getting people to heaven that we have ignored dealing with real issues that affect every day lives?  Could it be that we need to study the Bible less and actually obey it more?  Certainly our faith calls upon us to help people to learn to read, to grow in their education and to understand the importance of sexual ethics.  Statistics consistently show that if you finish high school before you get married and have children after you are married you have an 80% chance of staying off welfare.  Further, the number one statistic which predicts whether or not a child will become a prisoner at some point in his life (other than being a minority male) is whether that child grows up in a two parent home and whether they can read on grade level when they leave elementary school.  In many states the estimates of future prison population are made on the basis of how many fourth grade males are reading below grade level. 
Could it be that the greatest contribution we as Christians can make to our society is to go to our elementary schools, read with the children who are lagging behind and tutor them so that they can catch up and maintain their grade level? 
 The calling of the Christian life is to cooperate with the calling of God and in so doing to become who we already are in the loving eyes of the Father.  If we would strive to be salt and light, i.e., strive more to live out of the self-identity which Jesus has given to us, then our communities would be vastly different.  In being who we are called to be we will be change agents for Christ in a world which has lost it’s way.
Mahatma Gandhi took this understanding of salt as being a change agent in society quite literally. Gandhi identified Britain's monopoly on salt as a symbolic key to India's freedom. Every villager needed salt — yet they had to buy it from approved companies and persons. By marching to the sea and breaking the imperial law in picking up a pinch of salt, Gandhi chose persecution, redemptive suffering, and freedom. His people followed his example. Millions of them made, bought, and sold salt in defiance of British law.  Hundreds were beaten as they advanced on salt works, tens of thousands including Gandhi were jailed, but Britain's rule over India was in effect ended.  
When we are salt and light, when we live out our calling under Christ, an interesting phenomenon happens in us — we gain a reason and purpose for living outside of our own selves.  In a probing article this week a golf writer analyzed whether Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of all time, would be a great “older golfer,” i.e., Sam Snead or Jack Nicklaus.  A prominent golfer had told him that he did not believe that he would.  When asked why he gave two thoughts: “Great success breeds great boredom.”  It is really hard to keep at it when you have attained lofty goals.  Then he added a second insight which took me back: “You don’t just need talent and work ethic to be great…You need a reason.”
Do you need a reason to be?  Are you bored with life and what it offers?  Could it be that in Christ being salt and light to this world is what God is calling you to be and do?
We live in a world which is dependent on our being salt and light, no matter the cost.  Let’s be who we are called to be…the world needs us and our Lord has called us.
Amen.

Really?
Matthew 5: 1-12

February 2, 2014

I can see the scene in my mind’s eye:  Jesus has walked up the hillside and sits down to teach his disciples.  Others gather around and hear these words “…Blessed are the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the meek…”  Somehow, in the back row of the disciples, I can hear Thomas whispering to another, “Who does the think he is fooling?  Really…does he really believe that will work in a dog eat dog world where the Romans rule?”
Why do I believe this?  Very simply, because I have heard so many people say this in the modern era.  We really have trouble with the Sermon on the Mount in general and the Beatitudes in particular, don’t we?  Do we really think that Jesus intended for us to live by these?  These beatitudes may sound good, but they have nothing to do with the vicissitudes of real life.  They are too simplistic, too naive, and illogical.  The world looks at these and says:  “Poor in spirit?  Mourn? Meek?  Hunger and thirst for what is right?  Merciful?  Purity of heart?  Peacemakers?  Give me a break!  These are great for ministers and monks in monasteries, but not for the real world.  Anyone who follows the Sermon on the Mount today would be crushed at the bottom of the pile.  This is a dog-eat-dog world and one either eats or gets eaten.”
In light of what the world says is the way to live, someone has rewritten the Beatitudes:
Blessed are the rich in contract, for theirs is the kingdom of endorsements.
Blessed are the positive thinkers, for they shall have lots of sales.
Blessed are the haughty, for theirs shall be the kingdom of earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for money, for they shall be wealthy in mammon.
Blessed are the strong, for they shall conquer all.
Blessed are the opportunists without principle, for they shall always finish on top.
Blessed are the warriors with the latest weapons, for God will always seem to be on their side.
Blessed are those whose focus is winning awards, for they shall see their picture in the media.
Blessed are those who praise others in order to be praised, for they shall have multi-paged resumes.       
“Go for it all,” the world says.  “Cut every corner; cheat as long as you do not get caught or the penalty is not too great; go for the jugular whenever you get the chance.”
Is this really wisdom?  It all depends upon our perspective on life.  If life is one big game of “king of the mountain,” then anything goes.  However, if life is about community, character, and relationships, then there is entirely another narrative.  The narrative of Jesus is one that tells us that God is not about rewarding the biggest and the best, but about love and mercy, about hope for the hopeless, power for the powerless, and love for the loveless.  To the world the narrative of Jesus is about a powerless rabbi who got crucified one Friday on Golgotha.  It is a narrative about losing, dying, and being buried.  But to us the narrative of Jesus is about resurrection, about the eternal life of one who teaches us that life is not about king of the mountain, but about the Lord God of the Universe, the Holy One, and how we can know and live in a love-relationship with this God. 
If the narrative of Jesus is the true narrative of the world, then the question which faces us is simple:  What do these Beatitudes have to do with us and the life we live in the here and now? Though they appear to be illogical as they go against the face of common wisdom, I believe that the Beatitudes are quite understandable when perceived as indicators of life in the Kingdom of God.  They are signposts, markers as it were of the process of spiritual growth that occurs in our life as we mature in our relationship with Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”  The word Matthew uses for poor here does not mean to be merely without money.  No, it is much deeper than that.  This word means “totally destitute,” i.e., completely bankrupt and on the bottom rung of any socio-economic ladder.  This is not only jobless, this is homeless, jobless, and hopeless—living from garbage dump to garbage dump in hopes of scrounging enough food to eat. 
There is only one condition that even approaches this spiritually — the experience of coming face to face with our limitations, our fallenness.  The “poor in spirit” are those who know their need for God and realize fully that their only hope comes from God.  This is where we all start on our journey with God: total dependency.  If we do not begin at this point, if we do not start with the understanding that we are sinners in need of the forgiveness which only God can bring — then we will never grow in our relationship with God.  Why?  It is only in our admission of spiritual bankruptcy that we will give up the façade of ability and listen to God.  As long as we think that we can do it on our own—as long as we think that we can be good enough, smart enough, even spiritual enough to please God then we will be full of the pride that keeps us from hearing and seeing God.  As long as we are full of ourselves there will be no room for God. 
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Knowledge of our limitations leads us to mourning.  It is only when we see ourselves as God sees us that we fall to our knees in mourning and repentance.  Most of us are scared of repentance — we cannot tolerate the thought of it.  We think of people overwhelmed with emotion after committing the most heinous sins imaginable.  We need to repent of our way of thinking about repentance.  Repentance is seeing our sin and mourning both its presence and its consequences in our lives.  Repentance is realizing that there are sinful aspects of our lives that we cannot eradicate on our own, no matter how hard we try.  Repentance is saying to God, “Take control of my life and make of me what you will.”  Repentance is metanoia — turning around and going in the opposite direction.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Most of us do not like the idea of meekness, but only because we do not understand it.  Meekness is not about being a Casper Milquetoast, but about true humility.  Realizing our sinfulness and repenting of it should produce in us a life-long humility.  Rather than the braggadocio of a Donald Trump true humility acknowledges that without the providential hand of God in one’s life one would never be or do what one should. 
Humility recognizes the roles that so many play in the process of life and that one’s own role is so limited and finite.  We get all caught up in Who’s Who and What’s What that we fail to look at the bigger picture and realize that even the best and brightest of us are but blips on the radar screen.  In perusing the book, Millennium, which purported to recount the first thousand years after Christ, I realized how few people it mentioned in comparison to the millions upon millions who lived and died. Humility — realizing that life is not about us — also causes us to face the reality that we cannot make this life what it ought to be.  Apart from the power and presence of Jesus Christ we are hopeless, no matter how bright we may be. 
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  After we humble ourselves, realize who is God and who is not, then we desire to structure our world as God sees fit, not as humankind has done so.  Here the desire for justice/righteousness comes to the fore as  we look closely at our world and realize that this is not the way life should be.  People should not go to be hungry at night—not in America or in the world.  People should not be afraid to walk down city streets—or county roads.  We should not have to install burglar alarms, bolt locks, and live in virtual armed fortresses.  Religious groups should not wage war or seek to stomp out others due to their own insecurities and inabilities to admit their limitedness.  Each and every child should be able to grow up without fear or trauma — in a world of love and laughter, not drugs and violence.  If we stay with God long enough we will come to the place where we yearn, even crave, to see God’s way of peace and love prevail in and among us…all.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be given mercy.”  The drive for righteousness—and the reality of seeing it unfulfilled, will move us to mercy, every time.  We become aware that not everyone has an equal chance, no matter what our constitution may say.  We become aware that there are many of us for whom the path to success was a paved four-lane road with guardrails on all sides and an auto-pilot to lead us on.  However, no matter where we came from or how we arrived where we are, if we keep listening to God sooner or later we are overwhelmed with mercy for those whose way was blocked by rugged mountains with no path at all.  Our hearts are filled with compassion and we see these, not as dismal failures, but as those who need the mercy and grace of God.  We long to extend mercy to those caught in the webs of social pressures and stimuli.  We long to give forgiveness to those who stumble home every night, begging for just a chance to make life work.  At this stage we know that if life is to work then mercy must be a part of our social vocabulary.   Rather than “get what we deserve” we pray that we shall receive mercy — and so shall others.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  I have only known a few people in my life of whom I could say that they were totally pure in heart—and I only knew these from a distance.  To be pure in heart is to be of a simple heart, “to will one thing” as the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put it.  This is the final stage of spiritual growth, where one can see God in the other: in the neighbor, in the friend, and even in the enemy.  To be pure in heart is to give up all desire for self, for family, for friends—and to seek only the presence of God and the doing of God’s will.  This is where, finally, once and for all, it is not about us…but about God and the other.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”  This is not so much a stage as a result.  If we move through these stages of growth then we will become a peacemaker in all the arenas of our lives.  Why?  It will take place naturally, for we will be so focused on others that all thoughts of self, of our rights and our privileges, will be foreign to us.  Peacemakers are those who are able to help adversaries see the others’ side and in so doing bring acceptance and accord to a situation.  Most conflict occurs because one or both sides believe that their rights have been abridged in one form or another.  If one is to be a peacemaker then one must give up one’s side and help others to see all the aspects of the problem.  This does not occur normally in life—it takes incredible personal and spiritual growth to come to the place where one can do this.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely on my account.”   Here is the immediate reward for spiritual growth — opposition, slander, and outright persecution.  This manner of living is antithetical to the way of the world.  We cannot tolerate for long those who march to this different drummer.  We never have — we remove them, we call them names, we ostracize them—and yes, it can and will happen to us.  If we get serious about God and God’s way in our life then we will come into conflict with those around us. 
All this calls into question the verb tenses of these beatitudes.  Jesus gives them as present realities— but we know that is not true.  The opposite is true in the present.  This is what as known as the “future present.”  In other words, the reality is yet to come, in the future, but we are to live as if it were so in the present.  And sometimes, just sometimes, our living it in the present results in its coming real, even if just for a moment, in our lives. 
Do you remember the movie/play Brigadoon?  Brigadoon is a mythical town in the highlands of Scotland that only comes to life for one day every one every hundred years or so.  Two men from New York are on a hunting trip when they stumble into Brigadoon and one man falls in love with one of the women in the town.  Suffice it to say, at the end of the day he and his friend leave and go home to New York where his fiancé awaits him.  However, he cannot stand the thought of living without his new love, so he returns to Scotland and to the place where he had experienced the town.  It is no longer there—it has vanished into the mystery of time for another hundred years.  He is overcome with sorrow when suddenly, out of the mists, appears his love and the town.  He queries the town leader how this could be and the answer comes simply: “There are times when love overcomes all.” 
So it is with God’s new world.  We know it will not come in fullness until the eschaton — yet we can see with the eyes of love this future breaking into our world every now and then and giving us a glimpse of life in the kingdom.  What, then, should we do?  Quite simply, we are to live in the present as if the future were already here — as if this were the Kingdom of God already.  That’s what Jesus meant for us to do — and yes, it seems like foolishness…it really does.  Yet, who knows—that Kingdom may show up when we least expect it.  Who will look foolish then?  Really…

The Emerywood Pulpit
“Loving Self…It’s Not What You Think”
Romans 13: 8-10

January 26th, 2014

Do you love yourself?  I’ll bet you never thought you would hear that question in church — and said positively. This concept is not something I ever heard as a young boy growing up in a Southern Baptist Church.  I heard “deny yourself,” “sacrifice yourself,” “surrender to Jesus” and phrases such as these.  Over and over we heard these words of Jesus as if they were the only words he ever said:  “If any would come after me let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.”  Again and again these words came ringing from one pulpit or lectern after another.  The idea we heard was that as humans we already “loved ourselves” too much — and what we needed was to get a focus for our lives that was greater than our “self.”  The primary sin of humans, we were told, was that we were selfish and egotistical — and if we were to know true happiness then we would sacrifice ourselves, our desires and our ambitions on the cross of Jesus Christ.
Then, in the 1970’s a concept started floating around some of the churches and youth gatherings, based on a popular book entitled “I’m O.K., You’re O.K.”  This concept was that a healthy person was one who had a healthy sense of self.  After all, we were created by God and, as one famous slogan went, “God don’t make no junk.”  Grounded in psychology, the understanding was that if we had a good sense of self, then we would be much more likely to make good choices and have good lives.  If we had a negative sense of self then we would be more likely to make negative choices and live out those consequences.
From that point onward, the battle raged — and did it ever.  Depending on the pastor and the church one would hear sermons proclaiming each as the gospel and the other as the embodiment of evil, itself.  The word “confusion” does not even begin to do justice to what happened to lay people as they heard both sides of this issue.  Do I love myself or do I hate myself?  Do you have to be a schizophrenic in order to be a Christian — at one point loving and another hating yourself?
It is my belief that Christ intends for us to love ourselves, but that self-love is not what we usually think.  Self-love is not egotism — thinking that we are better, smarter, or more beautiful than other persons.  Self-love is not self-centeredness — thinking that the universe revolves around us and our wants and desires. Self-love is not self-esteem — feeling good about ourselves.  There are times when, because of our actions, we need to not feel good about ourselves even though we love ourselves. In fact, egotism, self-esteem and self-centeredness are prescriptions for making your life miserable. 
Do you want to know how to make yourself miserable.  It’s easy, really nothing to it:
"Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others…Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered…”
Self-love means that we know, care, respect, and take responsibility for our self. As healthy individuals we only have one self.  If we do not take care of our self, then who will?
Self-love begins with self-knowledge, i.e., an understanding of ourselves, who we are, our likes and dislikes, as well as our strengths and weaknesses.  The ancient Greeks had an adage, “know thyself,” which, while attributed to Socrates long predated him.  Self-knowledge is considered inimitable to a healthy personality and a successful life.  If we do not know ourselves then we will find ourselves time and again responding in wrong and immature ways — and in so doing creating difficulties for ourselves and others.  Lack of self-knowledge could and does often lead us into ventures or areas where we have little or no expertise or talent. 
What does it mean for us to “know our self?”  To begin with, it means knowing our heritage, our family of origin — that home into which we were born and where we were raised.  Nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) are major players in our development and if we are unaware of them then we will be “flying blind” in life, as it were.   Not only is this true physically, it is also true mentally and emotionally.  A great part of our attitude toward life, our personality, and our likes and dislikes is derived from these major players in our development.  Our understanding of and attitude toward God, faith, the church and religion in general is set to a large extent by our family.  Many times this is positive — but it can also be negative, especially in circumstances where the church is continually critiqued by the parents.  I have had more than one conversation through the years with adults who are reluctant to return to the church because of the great criticism they heard from their parents who faithfully attended. 
Are we aware that as humans our personality is basically set by the time we are seven years of age?  By this time our basic attitude toward life and others has been implanted within us: extrovert, introvert, trusting, non-trusting, joyful or sad — we are the way we are before we ever realize any choice in the matter.  Now, to be sure how we develop this personality — what we choose to do with it — that is ours.  The reality, however, is that our personality is set early on.  Have you ever asked yourself why you are the way you are?  How do you see life?  Is the glass half-full or half-empty?    Most of this came out of the environment of your home — you are your parents’ child, whether you like it or not.  Knowing our self is foundational to loving our self.
Once we know ourselves, then we need to respect ourselves as persons worthy of God’s image and love.  Every person — no matter their race, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender, educational level, economic standing or religion — every person is made in the image of God and is loved by God.  For most of us this is not “news,” i.e., we have heard this since we were young.  However, there are many people who, for differing reasons, have never heard this at the levels where it matters — in the depth of the soul and self-image.  In the most recent issue of Time magazine there is an excellent discussion of why persons from certain ethnic groups tend to out perform those of other groups —  particularly in the United States.  Interestingly enough, it is written by a woman whose family immigrated from India in 1977.  She notes that while “Indian Americans” had overwhelmingly succeeded in this country — 38% of all medical doctors are now of Indian origin, India remains one of the most backward and illiterate countries in the world.  Part of her conclusion is that those who come here have the family background and drive to succeed, regardless of their family of origin.
It is imperative that we help all ethnic groups to develop a positive sense of self.  Can you imagine growing up black in a world where the basic metaphor of good/evil is white as good and black as evil? Or, can you imagine growing up in poverty and being told that you are poor because you are lazy or a bad person?  Is it any wonder that many of the successful movements from churches which reach out to minority and poverty groups include self-love as a basic part of their program?  When you are told repeatedly that you are helpless and worthless, then you need someone to counter those statements and rebuild you from the inside out.
To respect ourselves means that we invest time and energy in our own personal growth and development.  Self-respect means that we look at our talents, our strengths and weaknesses — and work to develop our strengths and shore up our weaknesses.  Self-respect means that we treat others as children of God just as we require others to treat us in the same manner.  Whenever I see someone disrespecting another person, I realize that they, at bottom, do not respect themselves. 
Studies of successful executives show that they have a positive sense of self, what we would all “self-love.”  They believe in themselves and their abilities to solve whatever lies before them.  Further, they believe that they can grow and develop the talents necessary for them to be a success in life.  One of the reasons they succeed is that, since they respect themselves, they then respect others.  If we do not have a positive sense of self then we will not have a positive sense of others. 
Self-love also means that we care for ourselves, that we love our selves enough to see to our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.  The reality is that though others will care about us at different levels, rarely will they ever care for us enough to see that our needs are met.  In really good marriages spouses do this for one another — but being fallen humans we never do this completely, even when we try.  As parents we try to provide this for our off-spring, but our children grow up, leave the nest and look to others for these needs.  The healthy person recognizes that they have needs which are important if they are to be a whole and healthy personality.
Corporations started recognizing the importance of these needs decades ago and are afar ahead of the local church in developing programs that address these needs.  For instance, we all have a need for regular periods of exercise — walking is one of the best.  If we do not set aside that time then we will discover that our bodies will deteriorate and we will pay the price.  Too many times I have watched as extremely obese persons have died way too early, all because they refused to practice a good diet and moderate exercise.  Sometimes I wonder if these people love themselves at all — or if they have a death wish?  Physical abuse of our bodies through poor diet, no exercise, smoking, alcohol abuse and failure to have regular check ups, etc., can be a poorly disguised form of self-hate or even slow suicide. 
Emotional and spiritual needs are often harder to pick up on — but are equally important.  In fact, I have discovered that these three: physical, emotional and spiritual are all interrelated.  When we are physically inactive we tend to get emotionally drained and spiritually down, often “beating ourselves up” for not being faithful, loving, obedient, etc.  Likewise, when we are emotionally down, it is hard for us to engage in regular physical activity.  We just do not “feel” like it.  Similarly, when we are in the spiritual doldrums we will fell unloved and uncared for — and think ourselves not worthy of God’s love or anyone else’s.  
Self-love also means taking responsibility for our actions and our lives.  Whenever I hear someone playing the victim card, the blame-game, over and over and over, then I know that they are in a stage of spiritual dis-ease and are neither feeling God’s love or the love of others, nor are they loving themselves.  Only those who properly exercise self-love can take responsibility for themselves and their actions, good and bad.
Self-love is not the same as self-esteem.  The focus in self-esteem is on how we feel about ourselves, not how we understand or take responsibility for ourselves.  High self-esteem persons are all about perfection — being so in love with themselves ands who they conceive themselves to be.  These persons find it impossible to admit failure or guilt, for to do so would be to admit that they were not “not perfect.” 
On the other hand, proper self-love includes an appropriate element of guilt — knowing that there are times when our actions are not what they should be.  If we have a good sense of self then we will be able to admit that we “blew it” and are in need of a “re-do.”  If we do not have a good sense of self, then we will not have the proper ego-strength to admit our failure and, in any objective sense evaluate ourselves and improve.  Taking responsibility for ourselves and our behavior is a key element in loving ourselves.  We are not perfect…we will make mistakes…and the healthy person evaluates and moves on.  The unhealthy person remains stuck in their blindness and unwillingness to see.
Rabbi Albert Freilander tells of how as a young boy in Germany during WWII he was subjected to vicious racial epithets and propaganda.  He would lie awake at night in his bed and remind himself that he was a child of God and that he was not what they claimed.  From the depths of his faith he found the where withal to maintain his personal affirmation in the face of overwhelming odds.
Why is all of this important?  Simply, if we do not properly love ourselves, then we will not be able to properly love others.  The person who is able to “love your neighbor as your self” is the person who loves their own self.  Do you love yourself?  Do you like yourself?  Do you know yourself? 
Think about this:  God loves us so much that ever since creation God has tried to reach out to us that we might live in full relationship together.  God loves us so much that God was willing to come as a full human being, Jesus the Christ, and die upon a cross for us.  If God loves us that much — would it not behoove us to love ourselves and in so doing to walk with Christ in this journey we call life?  If God loves us that much — are we not persons of worth and value to God? 
Most of us have pets…especially dogs.  We treat our dogs very, very well, do we not?  Let me ask you this week to do one thing: treat your self as well as you treat your dog.  You will be amazed at how great you will feel!
The journey with Jesus is a journey of transformation which begins with our loving God, loving our self — and then are we able to love our neighbor.  It is in our response to God’s love that we discover the strength to love ourselves. 
Thanks be to God.

The Emerywood Pulpit
“Loving Neighbor — It’s Never Easy”
Luke 10: 29-37

January 19, 2014

I don’t know about you, but quite frankly, I have a lot of sympathy for the priest and Levite.  Yes, they are portrayed as the “bad guys in this story — and to be sure they fall far short of the Good Samaritan — but think about this with me:  What did they do to deserve their portrayal?  They did not rob the traveler…they did not beat him or put him in the ditch…that just happened and in one way of thinking they came by at the wrong time.  A day earlier or later and no one would have said or expected anything.  Besides, this was dangerous territory — robbers were common on these roads.  Who is to say that there is anything wrong with looking out for one’s self in circumstances such as these?  Do we really have to stop and take care of every last person who winds up in the ditches of life?  Haven’t we really made too much of this Good Samaritan?  Do you really think that our Good Samaritan did this each and every day for each person he saw in need.  I doubt it…he would never get anything else done.
What does it mean to love our neighbor, i.e., particularly another to whom we are not related and with whom we do not have a prior relationship?  Am I really responsible for each and every needy person in the world?  With modern technology we are confronted daily with both still photographs and video of people, needy beyond measure, from around this globe.  What are we to do?  How shall we love them?  Does God really expect us to pick up every person who winds up in the ditch and get them back on their feet?  Does proximity determine love?  Does depth of need?  Do my resources?  What does love, in this context, mean, anyway?
There are four primary words for love in the New Testament:
Philia — friendship
Storge — affection
Eros — sexual love
Agape — divine love
Each of these is a proper manifestation of love in its particular setting.  With friends we have love and care that often runs deep but short of  familial. With family we have deep affection (storge), i.e., familial love that we share with those who know us best.  Eros, sexual love, is that which unites couples far beyond any other human union.  Agape — sacrificial love — is considered the apex of all human loves and the essence of divine love. Used very rarely in ancient times, it is the word that early Christians used to describe their experience of the accepting and forgiving love of God which they encountered in Jesus Christ.
In an interesting move Dr. Lewis claims that we can categorize these “loves” by their internal motivation:  need-love and gift-love.  Need-love comes out of our human frailty and emptiness, born of our insecurity and desire.  It is the most basic and most prevalent form of love which we encounter. Need-love’s best image is a circle — for it always seeks to possess and pull back into itself the object of its love.  When we say to another person, “I love you,” often what we are saying is that I need you and want you in order to complete myself. So often in marriage we see this where one spouse will say, in essence, to the other: “I will love you as long as you love me back and make me feel good about myself.  When you stop doing that…then I will stop loving.” In other words, “I love you not for who you are, but for how you make me feel about myself.”
Or, we see it in parenting where parents confuse love with control, seeking to form their child into their image, i.e., to fulfill their dreams through their child.  What looks like “pure love” is really need-love expressing itself through the lens of parental love.
The reality is that raw need-love is like a sink-hole which, on the surface looks solid, but eventually gives way and sucks all in around it.  All of our human loves, i.e., affection, friendship, and erotic love — all of these can originate in and express need-love.  If we do not recognize this in ourselves, then our loving will always be a struggle.  Unless When we think we are expressing gift-love, we are probably expressing need-love.
Gift-love is the love we ideally share with one another, for this is the love which each and every person needs at the core of their being. Gift-love loves the other person for who they are, desiring to bless and increase the other rather than subtract and lessen them.  Gift-love’s symbol is an arc, not a circle — for it gives and loves regardless of whether it gets anything back.  Gift-love works from an open hand rather than a closed fist, refusing to grasp that which does not hold onto it.  Rather than the sink-hole of need-love, gift-love is like an artesian well, flowing non-stop up from beneath and bestowing love on all, liberally and fully.  Gift-love never ceases giving, never ceases caring, and never stops loving. 
Interestingly enough, C.S. Lewis claims that there is a sense in which all our human love is bound up with need love.  No matter how much we may try, need is at the core of our longing for another — whether at the familial, friendship, sexual or even agape level.  We try and try to approximate gift-love, but we find it most difficult if not virtually impossible.  We are such a mixtures of motives and desires, needs and wants, that for us to ever love another with pure gift-love seems impossible.
At this point I must agree with Dr. Lewis: though we try I do not believe that we ever completely and wholly come to the point of “gift-love.”  For pure gift-love is not disinterest or stepping back from involvement — but is involvement on the sacrificial level all the while ceding to the person one loves the final decision as to how that love will be received and be manifest in their lives. That, my fellow companions, is virtually humanly impossible.  All of us, when we invest that type of energy and emotion in any other person, wish to have our say as to the manifestation and direction of our love, not to mention the other.  Very few of us can or do see ourselves clearly enough to know exactly how we ought to receive that the love of another.  All of us need gift-love; again — it is my experience that very few of us really know what to do with it. 
Let’s be honest this morning and admit that in any and all situations where we love another, we always do so with at least one eye blind to our personal prejudices and perspectives.  Though we may think that we are expressing gift-love, in reality all our love is partial and tainted by self-interest.  Even our loving of God can be need-love — looking for the approval of a divine father-figure who will provide meaning and value in life.  While I do not agree with Sigmund Freud that God is nothing more than the sum of our wish projection of a father-figure, I do agree that for many this is the sum/image of the God they worship.  Do we love God from self-interest, i.e., for what we can get out of our relationship?  Do we only love God for what God can do for us, i.e., get us to heaven when we die?  Doe we ever really love God for God’s sake, i.e., for who God is rather than for what God can do in our lives? 
If we find loving God with gift-love difficult, then how difficult is it to love our family member, our friend, the anonymous neighbor — or even ourselves — with gift-love?  If we cannot even receive gift-love, how are we to ever share it?
The challenge is rooted in how we understand God and love.  We read “God is love” and that is correct.  However, too often we flip this around to mean that “love is God” — which is not so.  C. S. Lewis put it this way: We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance which we owe only to God. Then they become gods: then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, and also destroy themselves. For natural loves that are allowed to become gods do not remain loves. They are still called so, but can become in fact complicated forms of hatred. When we configure love as God then we open the door to any and all distortions of love ruling our lives.  “All You Need Is Love” may have been a hit song of the Beatles, but it is at best a poor and incomplete theology.  Love of family, love of ethnic group, of tribe, of nation — all of these can be put in the place of God-love.  In fact, sadly I believe that much of what passes for “loving God” in many churches is nothing more than tribal love for our group.  Is this not the essence of civil religion — when we equate our country, our race, and our group with being God’s chosen people, with being those whom God loves best?
The agape love of the New Testament — the love of God which we meet fully and completely in Jesus Christ — this is the essence of gift-love.  Gift-love recognizes life itself as gift from God and sees every part and parcel of life as opportunity to know and share this love.  Gift-love knows that love involves pain, suffering, and self-sacrifice if it is to be love.  The struggle of Abraham in Genesis 22 is one that has amazed and challenged scholars, ministers, and ordinary folk for thousands of years.  How could God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son of promise?  The secret to this text is to realize where Isaac came from, anyway.  His birth was a total shock to this older couple who were, as Paul puts it, “as good as dead.”  His very presence was nothing less than gift.  Could Abraham see Isaac as gift and return the gift if God asked?  Did Abraham trust that God would raise up Isaac if he died, accepting that the promise and the gift were from God?
The reality is that real love, even gift-love, hurts and challenges us at our core.  Dr. Lewis put it this way: The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.  If we are to love, then we will be hurt…and hurt deeply.  To love another is to extend ourselves beyond all measure we have ever thought possible — and then to keep going.  If Abraham was to truly love God, then he had to be willing to give up that one who meant the most to him, even Isaac.  For it is only in the giving up that we discover the true gift and the Giver. 
In the classic novel Les Miserables Jean Valjean is nothing more than a common thief who, being paroled from prison spends a few days in the home of a Cardinal.  One night he slips outside and in so doing takes the silverware with him in order to sell it.  Jean Valjean is apprehended and returned to the Cardinal’s home.  The Cardinal, rather than accusing Valjean of stealing the silverware, remarks, “You forgot the candlesticks.  I gave you the silverware and the candlesticks.”  In a tremendous act gift-love the Cardinal transforms Valjean from a petty thief into one who has the strength to handle life.
Discovering the gift and the Giver is another way of expressing one’s coming to faith in God and Jesus Christ.  For it is in that total surrender of ourselves that we discover a love so wonderful — and a Lover (God) so incredible — that nothing else in this universe comes even close.

The Emerywood Pulpit
“Loving God — The Focus of our Lives”
Matthew 22: 34-40
January 12, 2014

What does it take for us to come to the place where we love God?  A couple of weeks ago I asked this question of us in a slightly different form, noting that while we often believe in God, fear God and try to obey God, how many of us “love God?”  I confessed that “loving God” was not something which had crossed my mind in recent weeks.  Interestingly enough, several of you commented or emailed me about this sermon with the indication that it had struck a nerve with you as well.
So, I started to ponder — and when ministers ponder strange things can happen.  Why don’t we feel that we “love God?”  Have we in the church put people under such a strain, religiously and spiritually, that loving God is virtually impossible?  Have we made God so complicated or distant that we can no longer feel God’s love?  Or, is our modern existence so frenetic and fragile that we are all emotionally hanging by a thread, seeking to just hold onto a modicum of sanity in a world of chaos?  Is it possible that in the middle of what seems to be economic and moral instability we feel somehow cheated of the life of simplicity and prosperity our parents knew and are therefore resentful of God?  Have these experiences made “loving God” a rare if not impossible reality in our world?
Yet, the truth remains that both Judaism and Christianity are based in the same command: loving God.  Life, it would seem to me, is no more perilous or challenging for us than for previous generations.  So, over the next year we will be exploring this truth in many different facets — for I have come to believe that if we cannot love God then we are so distanced from God that our life of faith will be weak and ineffective.  It is in loving God that we discover not only God, but also ourselves.  “Loving God…Loving Neighbor” — this will be our theme of 2014.
We begin, however, not with our loving God, but with God loving us.  All of our love, faith and belief is at its core a response to the action of God:  we love in response to God’s loving us.  From the Biblical perspective all love comes from God — and it is only in knowing the love of God that we can understand and demonstrate that love to others.  If it were not for the love of God we have experienced in Jesus Christ, would we really know love?  How did Jesus, the Word become flesh, love and so command us to love?
Augustine has given us a couple of directives to go on:  Jesus, he intoned, loved each person he met as if there were none other in all the world to love.  Jesus never loved in general without loving in particular — the people whom he lived with and encountered in his life.  Jesus looked to each person, to their uniqueness and their particularity. In so doing he loved “them” — in the flesh — as they were and not as they ought to be.  Jesus never let sin or failure get in the way of him loving a person.
Let’s face it: we find that to be incredibly difficult, do we not?  After all, it is easy to love a figment of one’s imagination; the more difficult task is to love a real human being, warts and all.  My premarital counseling focuses not on any one Biblical understanding of marriage for there are several different models therein.  No, I focus more on helping these couples to know the person that they say they love and are marrying.  Far too often couples discover that who they thought they were marrying is not who they are marrying.  In fact there is an old Chinese proverb which says:  “It matters not who you marry for it will be a different person that you thought when you awake the next morning.”
I find this true in all human relationships.  We hire a new person or take a new job — and too often we idolize another person — just imagining that they are virtually faultless in their life. “I’ve got the perfect boss,” someone says.  Or, “I have finally found the perfect salesperson.”  However, for each of us if we look behind the curtain we discover a flawed human being who can be as difficult to love as any other.  This is the core sin of the soft-pornography industry, not to mention the entire modeling industry.  They promote an image of women which is unreal and therefore unattainable.  Studies have shown that men who engage in viewing pornography have a terrible time both with maintaining relationships and with a healthy understanding of intimacy.  Or, consider the way many teenage girls (and older) feel about themselves after looking at the ads in the magazines targeted to them.  The person they idolize in their minds is just that — a figment and not a part of life.  Real people have bodies which sag and droop; real people have hair that falls out and breath that stinks and armpits that…well, you get the picture!  Real people are really hard to love…if you are looking for perfection. 
It matters not who you are, where you came from or where you are going.  Know this morning that Jesus loves you just as you are—warts and all.  Jesus did not lump people into categories or expect them to change in order to be loved: he loved them so that they could be whom God created them to be.
The second clue of Augustine is that Jesus loved all as he loved each.  Jesus never rejected a person based on their race, ethnicity, home, status in life, vocation or relationship with God.  To those rejected by the religious establishment Jesus offered love and grace.  To racial outcasts he offered acceptance and hope.  Jesus may have responded with anger to people, but he never responded with hatred.  Yes, there were times when Jesus challenged the perspectives and actions of others.  Yet, we must remember that indifference, not opposition, is the polar opposite of love.  Jesus loved enough to confront those who pushed others beyond the pale of God’s love.  Jesus confronted us — rabbis and sinners, priests and publicans — all in a desire to touch them with the inclusive and accepting love of God.
Of all the traits of Jesus which amaze me, his inclusive love is primary.  If there were every any evidence for divinity, this would be exhibit “A.”  No one, not even Gandhi or the Buddha or Mother Teresa was able to love as Jesus loved — wholly and without limits.  Think of his love for Judas as he looked at him and in that time before the betrayal expressed not condemnation, but sadness.  Think of Jesus, abandoned by his closest colleagues and hanging on the cross, saying: “Abba, forgive them…they know not what they do.” 
One of my favorite movies is The Bucket List.  At the end the narrator (Morgan Freeman) says this of his companion:  Edward Perryman Cole died in May. It was a Sunday in the afternoon and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He was 81 years old. Even now, I can't claim to understand the measure of a life, but I can tell you this: I know that when he died, his eyes were closed and his heart was open…”
Is that not the goal of each and all of us…to so grow in our lives that when we depart our hearts are fully open to the other?  I hope and pray that when I die someone will say the same about me: “his heart was open.”
Hear me clearly:  God loves each and all as if there were no other — with a love which gives and gives and gives.   It is this love into which he challenges us to grow — and it is how we share that love with one another that we shall look next Sunday.  For today let us rejoice and live out of the love that is ours in Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!
Amen.