My Friend, Dr. Hal Warlick

There are people who come into your life, stay a few months or even years, and after leaving you rarely think of them again, for the mark they leave is either non-existent or at best, quite small.  Occasionally there are people who come into your life and your life is never, ever the same again.  Such was Hal Warlick to many, many people — and especially to me.  We met in mid 1990 in Seneca, South Carolina when Hal and Diane visited Trinity Baptist Church, where I was then currently and he a former pastor.  Several members of Trinity had said to me in my first few months there, “You need to meet Hal Warlick…you and Hal have a lot in common.”  Were they ever correct!  After a fifteen minute conversation I knew that his journey in life had allowed him to learn and grow in ways that my life in the SBC cocoon had not afforded me.  For the next 31 years we would grow closer, exchanging sermons, ideas, books — and arguing furiously over most of them!!  

Because of Hal my reading took on a much, much broader field than I had ever dreamed.  He would send me books, drop them off, invite me to come up and give them to me, or recommend I buy an occasional one.  I easily read 500 books because of Hal Warlick — and those did not include his!  More than once he said to me what an elderly member of Trinity had said to him, “You go read — and not the stuff we read — and then come back and tell us what you’ve learned.”  He shared that with me as a way to stimulate me to keep reading — and it worked.

Hal was the consummate wordsmith — whether writing a book or a sermon he could communicate incredibly well.  With a Ph.d. in homiletics I have read and heard a few thousand sermons in my life — Hal was at the top of the list.  Week-in and week-out he was as good a preacher as existed.  He had mastered the use of the manuscript — he loved to preach just as he had written — but could preach without seeming to be bound to the copy.  His breadth of memory of events, illustrations and textual interpretations was boundless.  More than once on a Wednesday I would call Hal and say, “I’m reading such and such a text and I’m stuck.  Help.”  Five minutes later he would have opened a new window into the text and I would be off and running.

Hal’s mind was a true wonder to behold; he could go off in so many different directions on issues and all of them were fascinating.  He was, I believe, one of the most complicated persons I have ever known.  No text or subject was simple or easy to Hal.  He also loved to take the opposite side of any issue I might bring up.  Sometimes that was because he saw it differently, but other times it was because he was just pushing me.  Hal taught me that going deep was better than going broad, and if I were to treat a controversial subject from the pulpit then I better do a deep dive.  

After my first year of encounters with Hal I changed my sermon preparation from writing an outline to a full manuscript.  No, I didn’t read it in the pulpit — having a manuscript was much more difficult for me than an outline.  However, the discipline of writing a full manuscript every week sharpened my focus as well as providing a needed discipline for the ever present danger of pulpit wandering.  Thanks to Hal when professors and colleagues called to ask if I had some sermons to share in their books and journals, I could just turn to the files!

Hal was a mentor in helping me make some very important decisions. Twice when much larger churches called and wanted me to talk with them about coming as their pastor, Hal discouraged me.  In some ways he knew me better than I knew myself!  His statement, “There’s only a couple hundred people in any church who will agree  with or even understand what you’re saying…and that will leave a lot of unhappy people in a larger congregation!”  He helped me to see that a church’s value — and consequentially that of the pastor — is not in how many you have in your congregation, but in the power of that congregation to live out the calling of Christ with integrity.  I can honestly say that the two pulpits we shared as pastor, Trinity and Emerywood, were places where we could live out such a calling.  Not only did we shape those congregations during our tenures, they shaped us as well.

Hal and I both shared a passion for sports — especially seeing our sons compete.  I confessed to him one time that I had been ejected from a game where my boys were playing recreational basketball — the referee was killing us, I knew him personally -- and felt he was homing us in favor of his "home" team!!  Anyway, Hal just smiled — then Diane told me about the time he chased after an official at a Furman football game and she had to call after someone to grab him before he got into trouble.  We laughed, conversing about how angry it made us feel when an official was obviously incompetent.  

We never competed against each other in sports other than a few golf fames — we were too old by the time we met to do anything else.  Fortunately Hal’s athletic skill did not extend to golf — foot speed doesn’t help in golf!  I can honestly say that even on my worst day I could handle Hal — but that doesn’t really say much.  On the few occasions we played we did more laughing and arguing than really playing.  

We went through a lot of physical pain together, that’s for sure.  Hal had open heart surgery, carotid artery surgery, knee repair — he could not walk for weeks — and other physical ailments as well.  I’ll never forget after his open heart surgery getting a call from Diane — we were living in Seneca.  “Can you come up here and take him out for a couple of days…if you don’t I think I ‘m going to kill him.”  I assured her it would have been justifiable homicide, but came on up with some other friends we have a great 3 days talking, eating and planning sermons together.

There was only one person who was able to get the best of Hal no matter the situation — and that was Diane.  Hal would walk to the edge of some discussion, etc., and Diane would give him a stare followed by “Fox” — and that’s all it took.  He would just look at me and grin…and I knew we better move on.  They were so good together and so complemented each other in multitudinous and wonderful ways.  

We all change as we move through life — that’s a process we call maturity.  I saw it in Hal and I was able to look back and see it in myself.  The persons we are at 35 and 45 are not the same at 55 and 65.  Having a friend/mentor so close yet 5 years or so ahead of me, enabled me to benefit greatly from his experience and vision.  Hal and I used to talk every so often about the mistakes we made as young ministers and how, no matter how much we wanted to do so, we could not go back and have a “mulligan.”  In life, as in golf, you have to play the ball as it lies, and once you hit it you cannot “undo” a shot.  What we have to do is to learn from every shot, every putt, every round — and keep moving on in the direction of the Kingdom.

Hal, you’ve entered the great mystery and we all will follow. We had a lot of talks about the promised Kingdom of God, eternal life and how the Scriptures portrayed "heaven" in so many, varying and rich ways. At this stage all I can say is that I am sure of God’s love — and that Hal made that love clearer to myself and so many.  I just lean on Paul’s understanding:  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8: 38-39.

Thanks be to God for the good news of Jesus Christ…and for God’s servant Harold C. Warlick who incarnated this love in powerful and unique ways.  

Ordinary People

Mark 1: 1-11

Who are the people God chooses to use?  Most of us would answer:  great people; gifted people; talented people; holy people.  We answer this way because the people in the Bible have been held up to us as icons of virtue—and we know that we are anything but that.  Sometimes we even start thinking that our ministers must be “holy people” who can do no wrong.  (However, if you are ever close to ministers you’ll soon lose that perspective.)  The thought remains that if God uses someone then they must be radically different from the normal person; therefore God cannot use me.  Nothing is further from the truth.  God is in the business of using normal, ordinary people doing normal, ordinary things that become extraordinary in their impact through his love and power.

Look at this scene of our gospel text:  two unnamed disciples are sent to get a donkey from an unnamed owner.  The faces in the crowd are nameless, insignificant people just going about whatever it is they are supposed to be doing.  If they are disciples then they are following Jesus, something they have done for up to three years and other than a few miracles nothing earth shattering has occurred.  The crowd—they are those anonymous souls going about their daily work:  buying and selling, doing whatever their livelihood requires, and a parade starts their way so they stop for a few moments to see what the commotion is about.  The people ask who this is and the reply comes: “Jesus of Nazareth.” 

I can hear their thoughts:  “Oh, the prophet from that backwater town.  I wonder what he will say this trip.”  They were somewhat accustomed to kooks showing up every so often and proclaiming themselves the Messiah, so this is nothing new.  They watch the parade pass by and then return to their work, not really knowing the significance of what has transpired.

Though it may bother us to think that our Lord was perceived as insignificant, is not this how God works?  Has not God always worked through insignificant people at insignificant places in insignificant times doing insignificant things to accomplish the significant?  

• Abram is out minding his own business and God comes and gets him to move to a new country, promising to make him the father of a great nation.  Lest we forget, Abram  is 75 and childless.  
• Moses is a Jew raised as an Egyptian in Pharaoh’s court but is in hiding on the back side of the Negev when God finds him—and a people are set free from slavery.  
• David is a small shepherd boy on whom God lays God’s hand on for reasons known only to God—and a kingdom flourishes.  
• Mary is a young teenage girl in Nazareth to whom an angel appears—and her life is never the same.
• Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John are carrying on their fishing business, Jesus walks by, and their lives are irrevocably changed.  
• Paul is being a proper religious rabbi, i.e., defending God, when Jesus shows up on the Damascus Road. Paul’s life is turned 180 degrees around and so are millions of others for the rest of history.  

God always works through the insignificant and unimportant—and does so in ways that are mysterious and wonderful.

Our lives are like that, are they not?  We are neither the famous nor the important—at least as far the world is concerned—and yet Jesus continues to show up in our lives at the oddest moments to work his miracle of grace.  Day by day, week after week, month after month, year after year, we come to this place and worship, pray, and listen to each other and the Spirit.  Day after day, week after week, etc., we go to work, do our jobs, go to our homes, spend time with our families, take our vacations, and literally spend our lives doing the ordinary.  Every once in a while, every so often, something dramatic happens, but most of the time we live in the ordinary.  I believe, as strange as it may sound, that is a message we need to hear amid the pomp and pageantry of Palm Sunday:  Jesus is most often found among the ordinary, among the normal, among the humdrum existence of life.  The presence of the Spirit of Christ does not mean that lights will be flashing and bells going off—rather, the Spirit is found in the day to day workings of human life.

Look where people found Jesus in the New Testament:  by the Sea of Galilee or walking along a dusty road; at a well at noon-time in Samaria or on a hillside teaching.  We find Jesus most when we look for him in the everyday aspects of life.  Someone has said that “the secret to life is doing the ordinary in an extra-ordinary way.”  I believe that to be not only true, but the essence of the gospel.  When we know the love of God, when we have been touched and transformed at the core of our being, then the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary.  

Do you remember the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus?  Mr. Holland is a would-be composer who turns to teaching in his early years in order to pay the bills.  As happens to many, he winds up teaching for most of his adult life until just before retirement his position is eliminated as surplus due to budget cuts in the school district.  On his final day at work he is summoned to the auditorium where, to his amazement, hundreds of his former students are gathered to express his appreciation and to play his opus, his life-long work which had never been performed in public.  Here he was, an ordinary man doing ordinary things and feeling like he was a failure.  However, through those ordinary things something extra-ordinary was happening:  lives were being touched and people changed as he went about his daily life.  The ordinary became extra-ordinary.

In “As You Like It” Shakespeare said that each of us, in our lives, “play many parts.”  True, but those parts are mostly bit parts, small roles.  For instance, of the 12 apostles of Jesus how many could you name?  How many are known apart from the lists in the gospels?  Other than the big three:  James, John, and Simon Peter, we hear virtually nothing of the others.  Even the apostles were ordinary people playing bit parts, but in so doing they were part of a movement of God that became the watershed of human history.

How could Jesus have accepted those accolades that day all the while knowing that by Friday the “Hallelujahs” would turn to “Crucify him?”  Why did Jesus accept these praises and cheers?  He knew that he was coming to Jerusalem to die; he made no secret of that to his disciples.  Further, Jesus was not one to seek public attention or acclaim.  Could it be that Jesus accepted this because he knew of the “ordinariness” of life?  Could it be that Jesus saw that for these this moment would be one that, after the resurrection, they would look back on and know that God had been with them?  Jesus saw that they would remember that day when the Messiah had come by and they had thrown their cloak or waved a palm branch—and the ordinariness of life would be transformed through memory into an extraordinary occasion of the love and grace of God.

God has a way of showing up in the most unexpected of ways and at the most unexpected times—and in so doing he graces our ordinary lives with the extraordinary.  A wedding ceremony—and how many have I done or you attended—not a usually emotional or moving service save for the families involved—and yet there are moments when the Spirit shows up and the service is graced with love beyond belief.  A funeral service—done everyday—and yet there are moments when the Spirit shows up in ways that are unexpected and grace is bestowed.  

A simple meal with family or friends becomes a special moment as we share together the stuff of our lives—and God is present.  A gesture by a neighbor, a visit to a shut-in friend, a helping hand to one who needs it, and before we know it God has been present and our lives are transformed.  How is it that those disciples on that road to Emmaus put it when they realized that they had been walking with the Risen Christ?  “Did not our hearts burn within us?”  Ordinary moments made extraordinary by the presence of Christ.

Some of you are sitting there and saying, “Wait just a minute.  I’ll agree that my life is ordinary, but don’t give me any of that ‘extraordinary’ stuff.  My life is just plain boring, as boring as vanilla ice cream.  I’ve never had anything extraordinary happen to me.”  That is the problem.  Ordinary and boring are not synonyms.  When we speak of ourselves and our lives as ordinary, we mean that we are just normal human people.  We’re not necessarily any smarter, better looking, more talented, or richer than others.  It does not mean that our lives are ignored by God.  The secret to living an extra-ordinary life as an ordinary person is to look at life and moments in extra-ordinary ways.  When we pause and look at our lives we can see moments pregnant with all sorts of possibilities that we overlooked in the time of their occurrence.  It is in the eyes of the seer that the ordinary becomes the extra-ordinary as we perceive the presence of God. 

There are two inherent dangers in being a person who wants to accomplish something:  one is that we will think that the “big event” is what life is about and so we will ignore all else in trying to achieve that moment.  When that moment has passed, then we will realize how shallow is that approach to life.  The other danger is that we will develop “routine” lives which have no hills or valleys—everything is the same:  flat.  When we ignore the presence of God in the ordinary of life then it will become flat, boring, and routine.  These are the persons who die at forty and are not buried until they are seventy-five.

In December or 1944 the German army launched an unexpected attack.  In what was known as the Battle of the Bulge, a deep wedge was driven into the Allied lines.  James Jones, in World War II, says:  

No one of these little road junctions stands could have had a profound effect on the German drive.  But hundreds of them, impromptu little battles at nameless bridges and unknown crossroads, had an effect of slowing enormously the German impetus ... These little die-hard ‘one-man-stands,’ alone in the snow and fog without communications, would prove enormously effective out of all proportion to their size.  James Jones, World War II, p.205

In the little battles of life lies the secret to success—and to seeing God.  Thomas Carlyle wrote:  “The tragedy of life is not so much what people suffer, but rather what they miss.”  When we fail to see the importance of the ordinary and of what God is doing in the ordinary stuff of our lives, then we are missing the presence of the Almighty and the essence of life is gone, vanished like a vapor on the breeze of the moment.  

Ordinary people—that’s who we are, just ordinary people living faithful lives and in the middle of this ordinary existence God shows up—and we are ordinary no more.

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

The Sea Island Pulpit

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

Mark 12: 38-44; I Kings 17: 8-16

A theologian once advised: "When you hire a housekeeper, do not ask her how she cleans. Rather, ask her about her philosophy of life. If you understand that, then you will know whether or not she can keep a house clean."

This sounds strange at first, but the more we think about it the more we see how true it rings. We each have a philosophy of life, an underlying set of values and beliefs by which we make decisions, evaluate the actions of both ourselves and others, and by which we generally conduct our lives. Some of these philosophies are rather complex, but others are very simple:

• What goes around comes around.
• The early bird gets the worm.
• "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
• Second place is first loser.
• Work hard, keep your nose clean, mind your own business, and life will turn out alright.
• He who dies with the most toys wins.
• Don’t worry, be happy.
• You meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up.
• Shop until you drop.

Many persons follow much more formal codes which are the result of intentional work. Businesses, corporations, churches, institutions, and even families adopt mission statements, summaries of the core values and beliefs which they hold and by which they make decisions. Most of us live by unwritten values and beliefs — usually passed along subconsciously by our family and/or cultural tribe.  These comprise our philosophy of life. We rarely pause to examine what we do or why we do it.

What is our underlying philosophy of life? If we were to examine our core values and beliefs – not by what we say but by our actions – what would we see? Do we live by the Golden Rule of Jesus (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) – or the golden rule of culture? (He who has the gold makes the rules?) I believe here are two foundational approaches/philosophies in life; from these derive all the others.

The first approach is: "This is my life and I can do with it what I want." This understanding envisions one’s life as belonging to oneself and no one else has a right to say or intrude in any way upon one’s life. Subconsciously disregarding any group loyalty this philosophy asserts one’s right to self-determination. When people are  asked whether or not the terminally ill had the right to end their life, overwhelming the answer is: "This is their life and they can do what they want." If the premise is true – its my life – then the conclusion is logical and correct.

We see the results of such a philosophy everyday in our news:

• This is my life – so I’ll use drugs if I desire.
• This is my life – so I’ll be selfish and greedy if I choose.
• This is my life – so I’ll pick the options and make my own decisions without regard for anyone else.
• This is my life – so I’ll do what makes me happy, disregarding all my commitments to family, God, and anything else.
• This is my life – so get out of my way and if anyone gets hurt, then too bad.
• This is my life — I’ll disobey pandemic guidelines or rulings as I please, regardless of the effect upon others.

This philosophy has multitudinous inherent flaws – despite the fact that it is probably the most common of our day — providing the basis for much of the greed and self-centeredness running rampant throughout our world.  If my life is indeed “mine” — then no one can have any manner of say over what I do and where I do it.  

Of course, this belief is nothing new.   When Eve and Adam disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit, they were saying, "This is my life, I’ll do what I want." From that moment until the present humanity has been struggling with the reality born of that approach.

Whose life is it, anyway?

All of this brings us to the second philosophy: “This life is the gift of God; therefore I am responsible to God for what I do with my life." 

• This viewpoint honors God as the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of my life and acknowledges my responsibility to God for what I do with this life I call mine. 
• This perspective acknowledges that I am not born in a vacuum, but to a family in a specific place and time.  In so doing God has purposefully intertwined my life with those of others whom I cannot ignore or write off. 
• Children are God’s gifts to parents to love and nurture to maturity in Christ, but parents are also God’s gift to the child to be loved and respected by the child. 
• We are twice the child of God and therefore must see life as the gift of God to us: once by creation and once by redemption. How does Paul put it: "You are not your own, you are bought with a price."

Seeing life as gift means that I am responsible for all that I am, have, and ever will be to God. Here is a perspective that values the entire stream of life, from young to old, as the gift of God. Seeing life as gift means that whether we are 18 or 80 we are  still called to serve God in all that we do. If life is gift, then my life and life-style are the definitive statement of my gratitude.

Whose life is it, anyway?

In church we see the repercussion “life as gift” as we live in relationship and seek to build community. Christian community (koinonia) is born not out of the cultural commonalities of the world, but out of the sense that all others are the creation of God.  We build community on the foundation of our being inter-related to one another as we share together this journey of life. As an African-American preacher said, "If God is our Father, then we are all brothers and sisters; we’re kin." Life as gift acknowledges our kinship with every person upon the face of this earth.  Every. Last. One.  Even those with whom we have profound religious, ethical and political disagreement are our brothers and sisters. 

How do the two scriptures we have read this morning impact our understanding? Both are stories about women, poor widows, who are struggling with bare existence. They are literally at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid in their society.  The widow of Zarepheth is faced with a challenge: Does she trust Elijah, the prophet of God, and fix a meal with the last of her flour?  Or does she hold onto what she has for herself and her son?

Whose life is it, anyway?

The widow of Mark 12 arrives at the the temple treasury facing a similar dilemma. Jews were required to make regular offerings at the temple. No exceptions given. Does she give her last few pennies, trusting that somehow God will provide for her needs, or does she hold onto them? Which should she do?  Which is the most responsible decision she could make?

I’ll be honest, I have always had some trouble with this text. Who would provide for her needs? Who will buy her food, clothes, etc? Why praise her? As a pastor I was called upon to help feed and clothe people who had given their last dime to some “ministry” that promised them health and wealth. Why should Jesus praise her?  Shouldn’t she be responsible for herself before she goes giving to God?  Then one day the truth hit me: what Jesus saw was a life that was so committed to God that even her last pennies were gifts to be shared rather than possessions to be hoarded.

Whose life is it, anyway?

There are some other persons present in the story from Mark: the scribes. Scribes were lawyers and they do not come out well in confrontations with Jesus. For the most part they were wealthy; Jesus indicates that they had gained this wealth at the expense of widows and their estates. Central to Jesus’ critique is an economic system that allowed the hierarchy to become wealthy at the expense of those on the bottom rung. Regularly these scribes — persons of privilege and wealth — came and dropped large bags of money into the coffers while the bystanders ooh and ah over their contributions. Their philosophy is simple:  "This is my life and I can do with it what I want." They saw life as personal possession: they worked the angles, managed the system, all with one goal: to increase their possessions. After all, as long as they said their prayers and attended to their religious duties, they were fine, weren’t they?

Whose life is it, anyway?

While the poor may flourish in our Covid 19 world, so do the scribes. Rev. Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal priest in Winston Salem told the story of a homemaker in suburban New Jersey who spent $20,000 on designer clothes for her 2 year old daughter. When asked why she replied, "I can afford it, so why not?" ( Exact source unknown.)

Why not?  Good question, is it not?  If this is my life, then I will grab for all I can and in so doing play king of the mountain with all who get in my way. If this is God’s life which has been given to me, then the answers are vastly different.

Whose life is it, anyway?

The “It's my life" mentality is having tragic consequences for our society and our churches. More and more persons are developing their own sense of right and wrong, ethical and unethical, based upon their own personal desires rather than upon the principles of our religious heritage. In conversing with psychologists, counselors, and pastors we see more and more dysfunction and emotional disorders in families and individuals, much of which is traceable back to their fundamental approach to life.

When the “my life" approach dominates, politically we divide into competing camps and conduct battle with one another. So in our society we have the wealthy versus the poor, the Republicans versus the Democrats, the Religious Right versus the Religious Left, the haves versus the have-nots, and the battles are wearing us out.

Central to the struggle is that we hear so much more of the world’s philosophy of life than of the philosophy of Jesus. We are bombarded with advertisements promising us "the good life" if we will just buy more and more and more. The witness of Holy Scripture is that the good life cannot be bought, it is not for sale. The good life does not consist of luxury cars, designer clothes, or sumptuous feasts. God’s blessings upon us cannot be added up in economic terms.  

Whose life is it, anyway?

We are currently dealing with an enemy — Covid 19 pandemic — that few if any of us saw coming.  This enemy has infected millions, killed thousands, and is still working its havoc among us.  We have seen Babel, the prosperity god of our world, brought to its knees. The personal and economic effects of this pandemic are still being written.  

How ought we to respond?  Should we buy and hoard all that we can (including toilet paper)?  Should we go and do what we want to do, when we want to do it?  Who cares if I carry the virus to a vulnerable person?  Do we really have a constitutional right to not practice social distancing and safe health and endanger others?

Quite simply, our answer reveals quite clearly our philosophy of life:

"This is my life and I can do with it what I want.”

“This life is the gift of God; therefore I am responsible to God for how I live." 

Whose life is it, anyway?

Retired Methodist Bishop Will Willimon tells the story of a former member who had been put into a nursing home. Knowing that the man was in excellent physical condition he inquired as to the reason. He learned that "John Smith" had been sent to the nursing home because of his "distressing mental state." When pursuing the reason further the other person told him: "His children became distressed about his mental well-being. John had volunteered, in his retirement, to work a couple of days a week at the church sponsored soup kitchen. The next thing they know, John has gotten so involved over there that one day he sat down and wrote them out a check for $100,00! Just like that. With no discussion, no forethought. $100,000. He handed it over to the soup kitchen. This $100,000 was what was left of most of his life’s savings. Of course, they thought he had gone over the deep end. So, they forced him to go into a nursing home where he would receive supervision." ( Will Willimon. Pulpit Resources. I have lost the exact reference.)

"I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on."

Whose life is it, anyway?

May 10^th, 2020

God, Judgment, and Covid 19

One of the questions raised in Christian circles (and probably other religions as well) is whether or not Covid 19 is the judgment of God upon our world.  I can hear now the coming rants from the pulpits of fundamentalist Christians (chosen because they love to preach on judgment) once we all return to church that this virus is God’s judgment upon us for our sin and our toleration of the sins of others.  (Here you get to pick the favorite sin that others do.  Or, your minister will pick three for you.)

Most of the more liberal pulpits will not say a word about judgment, since as a rule they do not believe that God judges anyone — at least not their God of total love and grace.  H. Richard Niebuhr’s statement re liberal protestantism fits nicely here: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” (The Kingdom of God in America.)  After all, if God is pure love/a doting grandparent then we dare not believe that God would ever say a harsh word about anything we do or believe, much less punish or judge us.

For those of us caught in-between these two cultures of Christianity, this is a challenging time to be sure.  (As far as that goes, being in-between two monoliths is always challenging at best.)  To even suggest that God brings judgment upon our world is to be perceived as ignorant or harboring hatred toward others.  Yet, Holy Scripture — which provides the theological & ethical basis for most Christians — speak of God’s judgment against evil. I know, we just read by those passages and act like they don’t exist.  Yet, they remain ever before us, sprinkled liberally throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.  (Check an online concordance if you need a refresher course.)  A Bible without judgment passages would be significantly thinner.

The challenge is that most of the references to judgment refer to a “Day of Judgment” the at first Jewish and then adopted Christian idea that one day we each and all will stand before God to be judged according to our thoughts and deeds.  Coming out particularly bad in this process are unbelievers, pagans and those with whom I disagree.  I’ve heard more than once from people going through difficult situations brought about by the actions of others: “One day God’s going to hold them accountable — and that keeps me going.”  Hmm…I’m not sure my vengeance is God’s design, but I understand their emotion.

At this stage in my theological/spiritual journey my understanding of divine judgment has evolved from singular event status to one of an ongoing reality.  Judgment does not just happen once; judgment occurs every single day in our world.  God has so structured this world that it operates on principles of justice.  Judgment is inherent in that justice.  Violate the justice of God and we bring upon ourselves the judgment of God…pure and simple.  A quick perusal of a couple of passages from prophetic literature ought to prove to be both illuminating and quite sufficient.  

• Micah 6: 1-8: The judgment of God comes upon Judah for her abandonment of the Yahweh’s justice in exchange for superficial worship as her sign of faith.  In  Micah notes that God requires justice, not sacrifice, of God’s worshippers. 
• Amos 5: 18-24: Probably the first prophetic book (8^th center BCE), Amos speaks loud and clearly not only to Israel, but also to the nations around her.  All are judged for their injustice and called to repentance, i.e., to “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everlasting stream.”  

An interesting take on God’s judgment of nations as found in the Hebrew Scriptures is that these texts share a profound commonality: false pride, i.e., self-righteousness.  The opposite of such self-righteousness is obvious, humility.  When any nation believes operates from an elevated sense of pride rather than a deep sense of humility, forces are set in motion which result in downfall and ultimate destruction.    

Did Covid 19 come from God?  That was my original question so I guess I ought to take a stab at it.  In a nutshell — YES and NO.  I’ll begin with the negative.  

NO:  Covid 19 is not the judgment of God in that it was not sent by God upon the earth to inflict death and suffering upon millions.  At the very least, the God I know through Jesus Christ did not send this. God does not reside outside our universe, just waiting to strike us with virulence and pestilence. God does not amuse God’s self by inflicting pain and suffering upon God’s incredible creation: vegetative, animal and human alike.  God did not send AIDS, Ebola, H1N1, Zika or any other virus as a means of punishment upon any living creature upon this planet, particularly humans whom we understand to be created imago dei.  The God of Jesus Christ is the God who walks with the suffering and dying; God does not stand over against us, but rather God is with us in incredible love and solidarity.

YES:  Covid 19 is the judgment of God in that it is the result of human action and failure.  Newton’s Third Law says that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  My first law of God’s judgment says that “for every human action which harms or violates the “laws/principles” of creation/nature/justice, there is a reaction, i.e., a consequence, which is far beyond what we ever imagine.”  

Judgment can be spelled another way:  c-o-n-s-e-q-u-e-n-c-e-s.  Yes, that is correct — judgment = consequences.  When we violate the basic laws of nature and justice, we create environments in which consequences take place.  Did we really think life could exist otherwise?  Regardless of what we believe about Darwin’s theory of evolution, we must know that embedded in his work is the reality that all of life is inter-connected.  There is no such entity as an isolated act.  Every action has a result and in today’s world we see those results magnified across our planet.  Whereas in earlier centuries plagues were thought to be the result of the demonic (or even God’s judgment), today we know that there were biological reasons for the the 20+ plagues of which we are aware in human history. Covid 19 is just the latest version — there will be more.

As more and more information regarding Covid 19 has come to light, we are seeing a disproportionate number of cases among those toward and at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. The racial disparity noted by the data is really economic inequity.  Persons at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid  tend to either be homeless or living in multi-generational family units in very dense conditions.  What could be a better atmosphere for Covid 19 to flourish than this?  Could part of God’s judgment be that our disregard and even dismissal of the basic principles of social justice has produced conditions in which Covid 19 thrived and spread so quickly?

These judgment/consequences conditions inherent in our world have communal, not just individual, results.  Regardless of the source Covid 19 did not merely infect the person/persons who mishandled it, but went “viral” as there are no immunities present in our human population.  Like the boa constrictors taking over parts of the Everglades, a new virus runs free until it either exhausts the source of victims or a vaccine is developed.  Whether we personally did anything to be infected with this virus is a moot point; viral infection falls upon the innocent and guilty alike.  In any pandemic there are far more of the former than the latter. The drive to discover a source and lay guilt is often far more about our human desire for innocence than it is to prevent a future outbreak. Judgment is inherent in our world; we see it every day, if we have the eyes to look.

Actually, the question before us is not whether Covid 19 is the judgment of God. The question now relates to how we respond to this pandemic which has shattered our world, our economy, our stability and countless lives?  Will we only consider that which benefits us personally as well as our cultural tribe?  Or, will we consider what is most beneficial for all of us going forward, i.e., the long-lost “common good?”  Are we capable of discovering God’s actions in the present?  Can we unite to proleptically anticipate God’s action in our actions?  How ought I/we to act (as followers of Jesus Christ) so as to bring God’s peace and presence — the Kingdom of God — one step closer to reality?  

In Luke 13: 1-5 Jesus is questioned concerning a mass murder of worshipping Galileans by Pilate, as to whether or not this act indicated that they were worse sinners, i.e., was it the judgment of God? He adds to this act a reference to the 18 persons in Siloam killed when a tower fell upon them, says “no” to both regarding them as judgment — but then gives an odd warning: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

What is Jesus doing?  Is Jesus pronouncing judgment upon all of us?  Here he  almost sounds like our caricature of the fundamentalist preacher! Quite simply, this whole matter turns on one word: repent. In Greek it is metanoia — to turn around and go in the opposite direction.  Repentance is not remorse; it is not regret.  These may be emotions associated with repentance, but they are not repentance.  Repentance is an action, not a feeling.  Repentance is not only learning from what has transpired; repentance is literally going/living in a radically different direction with my life.  Jesus is merely stating the obvious: if you keep engaging in war and violence, you will all die.  You are playing a game you cannot win — no matter who keeps score.

For most our lives have changed during these days, some more dramatically than others.  Going forward I have deep and fervent hopes for the church and even, just maybe, our country and our world:  

• I would hope that we would take a step back and evaluate how we are living now versus how we lived them — and see that there was a lot of activity/stuff that we need to let go and live without. 
• I would hope that we have learned that when we ignore the values and principles of life and the Kingdom of God, that we will bring suffering/judgment upon our world.
• I would hope that we even have decided to repent and re-orient our lives by the values of the coming Kingdom.   
• I would hope that we have seen that relationships are more important than stuff; that time to relax, to reflect, and to remember is as important as the time of activity and engagement.  
• I would hope that we have allowed the Spirit to open our ears, our hearts, our arms and our minds to the presence of our Lord in, among, and through us.  
• I would hope…

A Humpty Dumpty Gospel

The Sea Island Pulpit

“A Humpty-Dumpty Gospel for a Covid 19 World”

II Corinthians 5: 16-21

Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall,

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Do we have any idea concerning either the source or subject of this, one of the most commonly known nursery rhymes of all time?  Humpty-Dumpty is not an egg as we commonly think, nor is this a simple nursery rhyme.  Humpty Dumpty is the name given to a powerful cannon during the English Civil War (1642-49), mounted on top of the St Mary’s at the Wall Church in Colchester, defending the city against siege in the summer of 1648.  Colchester, a Parliamentarian stronghold, had been captured and held by the Royalists for 11 weeks. The top of the church tower was blown off by a shot from a Parliamentarian cannon, sending “Humpty” tumbling to the ground. The King’s men tried to put “Humpty” back on top of another wall, but failed. 

This poem has a life of its own, both as a seemingly innocuous nursery rhyme and ever more so as descriptive of our human condition in times of despair.  As humans we know what it is like to sit on the wall in relative security, feeling as if we are impenetrable. Then, wham, a mortar shell of evil comes in and knocks us off the wall.  For most of us life was moving along smoothly in January and February of this year, when we heard about a virus, the Corona virus…was that a beer…and our world was shattered beyond belief. 

What will we do after Covid 19 has diminished in its power and vengeance?  Will we be able to look at the shattered pieces of our lives. pick them up and start anew? Rudyard Kipling put it this way:

(If you can…) watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

Starting anew is rarely easy. To see the life one built destroyed by others or worse, by our own mistakes, is demoralizing and devastating.  How can we start anew when we lose all that we ever desired?  Can we turn ourselves around and start over?

Paul knew the struggle of having to start a new life.  A rabbi passionate about God and life, Saul (pre-calling name) was blindsided on the road to Damascus by our Lord.  For the next three years he studied scripture, reflecting upon the truth that God had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  His fervent belief that Jesus was an “imposter” and his followers “heretics” lay in shambles.  Now Paul must  reassemble his entire life/belief structure in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The key verse of our Corinthian text is verse 17: “So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”  The central tenet of the gospel — and the center of its powerful impact is found in this verse.  The old person, with all their faults, sins, hatreds, prejudices and imperfections, in Christ this person is being transformed.

The person before Christ, as Paul understood the gospel, lived by their own intelligence, their own beliefs, their personal perspective and values. This person is not always an abject failure in the world; often they are an unmitigated success in the ways the world keeps score. This person can be quite intelligent and captivating in mind and personality.  However, if this old person does not die, does not pass away, the new person that is in Christ cannot come to life.  We must “say yes” to the person God wishes to make of us as we “say no” to the person we have been. This personal “death and resurrection” is incredibly difficult. 

The key concept for Paul is found in the words “in Christ.” This phrase appears repeatedly in Paul’s epistles , framing his understanding of a person post-Christ.  Pre-Christ we are “in ourselves;” our identity, desires and lifestyle is the singularly our concern.  Post-Christ we are “in Christ” and our sole concern is no longer our desires, but that of Christ.  

Being “in Christ” is much harder to accomplish than we often believe when first coming to Christ.  After all, we’re “pretty good people” — we do not need a complete makeover — just a little touch up here and there will do; just a little color in the hair, a new wardrobe or accessories and voila, the new me right before my very eyes.  

If we are to come to Christ and be transformed by Christ, then it is imperative that  we envision ourselves in a different light.  We must see ourselves not as needing just a simple touch up, but as needing as entire makeover.  We must see ourselves as Humpty-Dumpty — crashed, lying beside the wall in need of someone putting us back together.  We must admit that we have fallen and cannot fix ourselves.

For we who have been trying to follow Christ for a long time, the greatest danger is that we forget what our life was like pre-Christ.  We develop spiritual amnesia, i.e., forgetting how self-centered and self-consumed we were in our pre-Christ existence, how driven we were to dominate and have our own way.  “In Christ” those drives and desires are hopefully moved to the rear and no longer dominate.  The reality is that we must be ever diligent as to our focus…we can think we are “in Christ” but in reality be “in-self” more than we dream.

Why is Paul so dramatic in his statement that in Christ we are a “new creation?”  To use the other metaphor of this passage, Paul sees us, apart from Christ, not as friends but as enemies of God.  As natural human beings we perceive ourselves to be on God’s side; however, scripture affirms that apart from Christ we are estranged, i.e., separated from God, i.e., in opposition to God.

How can we know if we are living in opposition to God?  The answer to a simple question provides a clue: Who is guiding my life, my values, my desires and my actions?  Am I — or is God?  How do we know?  What evidence is there in our lives that God is leading and we are following?

In Christ we enter into a union of ourselves and God, a union in which God plays the dominant role.  Paul introduces us to “reconciliation” — a key concept representing God’s accomplishment in Christ Jesus.  Richard Hays, professor of New Testament at Duke University, says “…that the interesting thing about the word "reconciliation" in ordinary Greek usage is that it is not typically a religious term…it is a word drawn from the sphere of politics; it refers to dispute resolution. 

How does this image sit with us this morning?  Do we really think of ourselves as at opposite ends with God and in need of reconciliation?  Could it be that the deep unease of our souls is not just the angst of Covid 19 and the disruption of our world, but the angst of separation from God?  Could it be that what we desperately need more than anything else is not just a truce, but a full reconciliation with God through Christ Jesus?

The reality is that, no matter how hard we may try, we cannot reconcile ourselves to God.  We are incapable of overcoming the chasm between us and God. What we can do is to accept the reconciliation that God has offered in Christ Jesus, knowing that as we do the God’s grace flows to us and through us. In this reconciliation we begin that journey of transformation — “the new life in Christ” — which results in us being “in Christ.”  

Seeing ourselves as “ministers of reconciliation” means that not only are we as followers of Christ reconciled to God, but we are to be enabling others to be reconciled to God as well.  Too often we see someone, fairly successful, seemingly happy in their family and home life, active in their larger community — and we mistakenly believe that they are not in need of God;  nothing could be further from the truth.  If one is not “in Christ,”  then that one is estranged from God — and therefore from themselves in the depths of our souls.  I fervently believe that only in and through Christ Jesus are we fully reconciled to God — and therefore enjoy God’s peace living in us.  

Our soul/personal unity depends upon our union with God through Christ.  We may search for God’s peace in religion, rites or ritual.  We can engage in counseling (not a bad thing at times in our lives) of one type or another.  As a general rule counseling is a really good way to deal with the challenges and issues of life.  However, the best counseling, in order to be truly effective and life-changing, must be enable us to either experience a deeper relationship with God, or to grow in that direction.  My experience has been that we say must continually yes to the God we meet “in Christ” in order to experience reconciliation all the way down and all the way through our lives.  Another put it well: “I am redeemed, but there are unredeemed parts of me. There are parts of my person that have never heard the gospel.”  Only as these parts hear and surrender do I move closer to full unity with God in Christ. 

Quite honestly, often I find persons who, even as believers, remain in an adversarial relationship with God — usually due to some aspect or experience of their lives.  Their deepest fears — which surface when “Humpty takes a great fall,” — belie their surface demeanor. I have known person after person, who, while claiming belief in Jesus Christ, harbors anger and bitterness toward God over some event in their life history.  Only in opening up our soul — fully and without reservation — to God, are we “put back together again.”  When we are willing to accept the love and grace of Christ, when we are willing to allow the peace of Christ’s Spirit to flow in and through us, then we will know the wholeness which comes only from Christ Jesus.  

So, on one level the nursery rhyme is correct: we cannot put Humpty back together again.  But, on another level we see that Christ can and does, time and again, in response to our surrender.  And while that is all that matters, it is also incredibly challenging.  

“So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new.”

Amen.

Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.d.

The Sea Island Chapel

173 Marshland Road

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina 27262

April 26^th, 2020