Wednesday, September 30, 2015

“If the Lord Hadn’t Been on Our Side” – We Wouldn’t Be Here!

18th Sunday after Pentecost
September 27, 2015
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

(Or watch/listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uBcgc-CdNE)

            How many of us can identify with that opening line from our psalm, “If the Lord hadn’t been on our side?” and know quite certainly that we would not be here otherwise?  If the Lord hadn’t been on our side, we would have died in that car accident.  If not for God, a disease would have gone untreated and killed us.  If God hadn’t been watching out for us, we would have made a really bad decision.  If the Lord hadn’t been on our side, we would not be here.  Can anyone attest to that?  It’s an interesting statement, and certainly an unusual way to start a psalm.  “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when our enemies attacked us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, …then the flood would have swept us away,…then the raging waters would have gone over our heads.”[1]  And then the psalm goes on to say “Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us over to our enemies… Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”[2]  If it had not been for the Lord, we would have drowned in the raging torrent of water. 
            The summer before I went to Nicaragua my family went white-water rafting in the mountains of North Carolina.  We each had our own kayak, following the guide down a river that began in Tennessee and ended back in North Carolina.  As we came to one set of falls, the guide slowed us down, went down first, and had us follow.  Just before my turn, a group of expert kayakers came through, and crossed at a different part of the falls.  I figured they obviously knew what they were doing, so I followed them.  It turned out they had picked a harder part of the falls to navigate through, and I fell out of my kayak into the churning water.  I remember fighting to get my head back above the water, and once I did, I remember the guide yelling at me to swim over to him.  I yelled back, “I can’t!” And he yelled back, “You can!  You remember how to swim!”  Of course, what I meant by “I can’t,” wasn’t that I didn’t know how to swim, but that the white water was so strong where I fell in that it was physically very hard to move against the water and swim.  But the thought I had during that was God.  God had clearly called me and prepared me to serve in Nicaragua.  I was weeks away from leaving.  God wasn’t going to let me drown in this rushing torrent of water, because I knew he had plans for me.  And somehow, I managed to get my way from the eddy of water to reach out to the guide’s paddle, who then pulled me in.  Rushing waters up over your head?  I’ve been there, and I remember struggling against them, being unable to swim.  I don’t remember how I managed to gain any momentum to swim, other than God.  If not for God, then the raging water would have gone over me.  I would guess that each one of us has a similar story, even if not with actual water.  A story where if not for God, then we would have been washed away. 
            This is a statement and a story that can only be told by those who are vulnerable.  It is only when we recognize our own lack of strength that we can then recognize God’s strength.  When we recognize and come to grips with the fact that we can’t save ourselves, then we know we truly rely on God’s power of salvation.  When we accept our lack of ability, then we know it is not us doing anything, but all God.  It’s only from a position of weakness that we can sense that God is on our side.   A position of strength had no need and no room for God.  At the church where my husband and I worshiped when we first got married, the pastor used to pray before his sermon for him to decrease and for the Holy Spirit to increase, that there might be less of him and more of God.  God needs some room to work, and if we are strong and proud and full of ourselves, there isn’t room for him.   To recognize God at work in your life means to also recognize an area of weakness in your life and the only control you have over it is to let go and let God.  If it had not been for the Lord, we wouldn’t be here.
            We only read the climax of the story of Esther in our Old Testament lesson today, and so I encourage you, if you’re not familiar with her story, to go read the rest of it some time.  In a nutshell, Esther is a Jewish orphan, who lives in Persia in the 5th century BC.  She rises to prominence as the nation’s queen and uses her power to protect the minority Jewish population from annihilation, or genocide.[3]  The funny thing about the book of Esther is that God is never directly mentioned, and yet Esther and her Uncle Mordecai are obviously people of faith, which is part of why Haman wanted to get rid of all the Jews!  Esther is in a vulnerable position; she knows the previous queen was deposed for refusing to come when the king called for her.  And yet her people will die if she does nothing.  Mordecai tells her, “Don't think that you are safer than any other Jew just because you are in the royal palace.  If you keep quiet at a time like this, help will come from another place to save the Jews, but you will die and your father's family will come to an end. Yet who knows—maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen!”[4]  Esther is in a vulnerable place, and yet she can’t just stay there and cower in fear and bury her head in the sand.  Mordecai implies that God made Esther the Queen for just this reason and she has to use this vulnerable place to save her people.  If not for God putting Esther as Queen and Esther acting, all would be lost.  If the Lord was not on our side, then we would not be here. 
This is also a statement that is only said by those who have been through some sort of ordeal.  There’s an old saying: there’s no testimony without the test.  And it’s true, when God brings you through the fire, when he doesn’t let you get washed away in the flood, when Satan threatens to break loose and wreak havoc but God keeps you safe, then you have a story to tell about how God was on your side.  You have a testimony about the test that God brought you through.  Isaiah 43 says, “Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”  God will protect you through whatever ordeal you’re enduring.  “If the Lord hadn’t been for us” is something only said by people who are suffering and see no way out of it, except that somehow God acts and they don’t go under.  They can say with the psalmist from Psalm 69, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”  Those who say “If the Lord had not been on our side” know about waters up to the neck, when then God says, “This far shall the water come, and no more.”  Those who say “If the Lord had not been on our side” know about sinking in deep mire, where there is no foothold, and then God makes a way where there appears to be no way.
Our epistle from James this morning says, “Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.”[5]  Are you hurting?  Are you sinking?  Are you overwhelmed?  You should pray.  It sounds really simplistic and the easy answer to give, but it brings you closer to God and he is the one who can lift you up out of the mire, who can tell the cancer this far shall you come and no further, who can tell you that a little water isn’t going to hurt you.  “James's call to prayer tells us that we can and should share with God all our needs, feelings, hopes, and fears. Prayer is not just saying the right words in the right way at the right time. It is sharing honestly, simply talking with God about what is important now.”[6]  And those are the kinds of conversations you should be having with God, anyway.   What’s going on, now.  What you’re feeling, what you’re thinking, what you’re afraid of, what you hope for.  Have you taken the time to share all that with God.  Yeah, he knows, anyway, but it makes a difference coming out of your mouth.  I can look at a mess Isabel created, like when she pulls the stuffing out of the couch and I know what it is, but it’s different when she tells me herself what happened. 
Finally, “if the Lord hadn’t been on our side” is only said by survivors, who are grateful for the Lord’s protection.  This does not say that God is always on our side, or that God always champions our causes or is our special possession.  In fact, trying to put God on their side only is what gets the disciples into trouble in our Gospel reading.  The disciple John says to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t one of us.”  The disciples forgot, what I have seen most recently put by the popular young adult author John Green, that “there is no them, there are only facets of us.”[7]  

We are all in this together.  We sink or swim together.  And competing “for power in God’s name often leads to abuse of the vulnerable, the weak, and the powerless. Better to choose personal loss, as Esther risked, than break the unity of the kingdom of God through our power plays. [A paraphrase of our psalm] puts it this way: If we rely on anything other than God, we are lost. God is on the side of the powerless, calling us to care for and to protect those who are in need.”[8]  Sometimes those who are in need are ourselves, sometimes it’s strangers whom we don’t know.  In claiming God was on our side does not mean that he’s not watching out for and caring for others as well.  That’s why “if the Lord had not been on our side” is not the same thing as “God is always on our side.”  Instead, “If the Lord had not been on our side” shows gratitude for God being on our side and helping us when we were weak.  Not so that when we are strong we can trample on the weak but so that we can say thank you and share the story of how God helped us.
A Time magazine article that came out this week says that the most important question to ask yourself when you’re feeling down is “what am I grateful for?”[9]  This was the result of neuroscience research looking at what makes people happier.  Being thankful is one of the top four.  And I’m sure somewhere in your list of what you’re grateful for is Jesus and how he has saved you when the water was up to your neck.  “If the Lord hadn’t been for us” is a way of telling the story of how thankful we are that God saved us when we couldn’t save ourselves.  Because we all know that if not for God, we wouldn’t be here.  It’s as simple as that.  Thank you, God, that you were for us, and did not let the water drown us or the fire consume us or the mire overwhelm us.  Thank you…

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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Who’s on First?

17th Sunday after Pentecost
September 20, 2015
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37

There’s an old Abbott and Costello baseball joke where they’re presumably naming the players on a baseball team, except the names and nicknames of the players can be interpreted as unhelpful answers to questions instead.  You may have heard it.  For example, the first baseman’s name is Who and so “Who’s on first.”  The second baseman is named What, and you get the question, “What’s on second?” and so forth.  Well, the disciples this morning are playing a similar version of this game, except they are debating amongst themselves who is the greatest, who’s on first. 
This Gospel lesson from Mark is a story about Jesus teaching his disciples while they’re traveling.  Traveling can be a good time to teach something; you have a captive audience and learning is a great way to pass the time while you’re between Point A and Point B.  Unfortunately, the disciples are behaving much like children and are extra whiny and stubborn while Jesus is trying to teach them.  Jesus says the Son of Man will be betrayed and killed, and three days later will rise again.  The disciples don’t understand, and for some reason, they’re afraid to ask him to explain what he means.  Then Jesus asks them what they were arguing about on the trip, as if Jesus didn’t know, and again they don’t say anything, acting a bit like sheepish children with their hand caught in the cookie jar.  They knew better than to be so inwardly focused, arguing about who among them was the greatest.  They’ve been with Jesus long enough to know that we shouldn’t boast and brag on ourselves.  That’s not Jesus’ way.  And so Jesus continues to teach them, saying that whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all.  Then Jesus picks up a child, and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”[1] 
We’ll see next week how the disciples are finally ready to start talking with Jesus and asking him questions and asking him to explain things.  But this week, they’re silent.  They have no direct speaking parts although we know the topic of their conversation.  The disciples this week are very inwardly focused, arguing about which one of them is Jesus’ right-hand man, which one of them is the best, the greatest, the one most deserving to be number two in command.  You have to keep in mind, even though Jesus is teaching them about his upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection, they don’t understand it yet (they actually never get it until after it happens).  And so, in the meantime, they think Jesus is ushering in a new kingdom.  They think this is King Jesus, who will bring about a political, geographic kingdom after he overthrows the current government.  And they’re part of his army, so to speak, this weird, random, ragtag army of fishermen and tax collectors and social nobody’s, hoping to become upwardly mobile by hanging out with Jesus.  He promised them great things!  He promised them a new kingdom, a new government.  And they’ve seen his miracles!  Mark records many, many miraculous healings in his Gospel, plus events like walking on water and feeding thousands of people with just five loaves and two fish.  The disciples know Jesus is capable of delivering; it’s not a matter of faith anymore.  They have seen with their own eyes what Jesus is able to do.  And when he becomes the next king, overthrowing the Roman Empire, they’re going to all drive around in new Lexuses, or whatever the status symbol was in first century Palestine.  You see, this is all about power.  Jesus is powerful, and Jesus is bringing about God’s kingdom.  You hang out with the powerful when they become rulers and it’s assumed that you become part of their Cabinet or Council or whoever it is they gather around them to help rule.  So, the disciples want to know, who’s number two?  Which one of the twelve is second in command?
Obviously, the disciples never read James, who says to show that you are wise by living humbly, to not be jealous or have selfish ambitions, and to not brag.[2]  Bragging and trying to promote themselves are what caused the disciples’ argument in the first place.  Bragging and boasting and putting yourself first and looking out for number one is what the world says to do.  Yet those things lead to jealousy and selfish ambition, and James is clear that where there is envy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil.[3]  The disciples’ argument is one such example of this chaos created by jealousy and selfishness.  “Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.”[4]  Being so concerned with yourself causes division and conflict.  It’s true, the world says, “Look out for number one, because no one else will do it for you. Put yourself first.”  In contrast, God says “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[5]  God says he goes first, not you, and he says that your neighbor is equal to you, not better or worse. 
In contrast to the world’s wisdom, God’s wisdom is “peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine,”[6] and that’s how you love God first and love your neighbor as yourself.  Without partiality, without hypocrisy, “you can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.”[7]  “Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.”[8]  Peaceful actions are what we are to be about, and we’re not doing that if we’re being selfish, or arguing over who’s the greatest, or being jealous that we’re not like others.  We are ourselves, we are becoming who God created us to be since the beginning of time.  We’re not other people, people who are prettier or richer or seem to have their life more together.  And we’re not other churches, bigger churches, richer churches, churches that appear to attract everyone.  There is a place for them, and there is a place for us.  “What causes conflict among you?” asks James?[9] And the answer is wanting to be someone we’re not, wanting something we don’t have, being jealous for something we can’t get.  Instead, those who are at peace, those who make peace, are those who accept who God created them to be, who accept their gifts and their flaws, who work to use their flaws to God’s glory.  James says, “You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it.  And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.”[10]  Do you ask for things for yourself?  Or do you ask for things to use to honor God? 
Lord, make us a healthy, thriving church again.  But don’t do it for us.  Do it for you.  Use us to accomplish your will; use us, not to make us great and so that others might look at us; use us so that others will look at you and see you.  Make us conduits and bridges.  Fill us, not for our own sake, but for your sake, as you draw all people to you.  We are here, Lord, to be used by you, and we don’t ask anything out of it in return.  This is not a favor.  You are not a vending machine, where we can put in a dollar or a request and expect exactly what we pick out in return.  Mold us and shape us, Lord, to become more like you, for the sake of the Gospel. 
This brings us back around to our Gospel reading and those children at the end of it.  You see, welcoming a child is its own reward.  Children can’t give you anything in return for ministering to them.  “[Your] motives cannot be to gain anything that the child can give [you].”[11]  We minister to them knowing they can’t offer us anything in return that we can use.  If we’re lucky, we may get a smile or a hug, but one thing I have learned the past three years is that being a parent is often a thankless job (at least until your children realize it and starting thanking you!).  You wash feet, you clean up after them, there are endless loads of laundry and the house always needs picking up.  It’s not worth it because of any monetary value or authority or power gained by doing it, or any promise of security.  It’s only worth doing because when we welcome a child, we find we are also welcoming Jesus, and not only him, but the One who sent him.  There is no give and take in a relationship with a child.  And the one Jesus pulled on his lap two thousand years ago probably didn’t look like any of the children here among us this morning.  This child would have been grubby, unwashed, slimy, and dirty.  Children in the first century were simply considered replacement adults and the property of their father.  They weren’t of any more value than the cattle, and so they generally ran wild.  This is not a child who is washed and in their Sunday best (or the best that you were willing to settle for, because you have to pick your battles in order to get to church on time!)  That’s who Jesus picked up and invited his disciples to welcome.  The disciples wanted both God’s kingdom to succeed and for their own positions of authority to be guaranteed.  They wanted God to succeed, and a reward for being on God’s team.  But God doesn’t work that way.  We are to pursue God’s ways and God, not God’s ways and ourselves.  You can’t have it both ways.  Welcoming a child guarantees no reward.  Working for God’s kingdom guarantees no reward.  We do it simply because he calls us to put him first, and not ourselves.
           I’d like to close this morning with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that the pastor of the church we went to when I was in high school used as the closing benediction:
“This is another day, O Lord.  We know not what it will bring forth, but make us ready, Lord, for whatever it may be.  If we are to stand up, help us to stand bravely.  If we are to sit still, help us to sit quietly.  If we are to lie low, help us to do it patiently.  And if we are to do nothing, let us do it gallantly.  Make these words more than words, and give us the Spirit of Jesus.  Amen.”[12]


[1] Mark 9:37
[2] James 3:13-14
[3] James 3:16
[4] Ibid., MSG
[5] Matthew 22:37, 39
[6] James 3:17
[7] James 3:18, MSG
[8] Ibid., CEB
[9] James 4:1
[10] James 4:2b-3
[11] Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, Year B, p. 413
[12] BCP, p. 461
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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Words, Words, Everywhere! Nor Any Drop to Drink

16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 13, 2015
Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38

            Upon arriving in Switzerland two weeks ago, my very first impression was that it was very green.  From the airplane window just before we landed, green was the only color I could see.  I commented on this to my seatmate, a Swiss-Italian, and he agreed, Switzerland is a very green country.  The decent amount of rainfall each year, plus the melting of all the snow in the Alps, makes the country look quite green from the air.  From the ground, what I noticed first was the quiet.  It was quiet walking through the airport, and not just because of jetlag on an overnight flight.  The machines were quieter.  Conversations were quieter.  There was no yelling, there was no loud talking on a cell phone.  In general, it was quiet.  Even the trains weren’t noisy.  I think the only loud thing the whole week was a drunk person outside our hotel one night.  It reminded me of an article I read a while back that said something to the effect of how American parents encourage and teach their children to speak more, and are much more talkative in comparison to other countries.  I know I talk so much to my kids that I often get funny looks when I’m out in public with one of them.  I talk them through what we’re doing, why we’re at this particular place, and what we’re going to next.  I think out loud a lot around them, so that they can hear my thought process and how I arrive at a decision.  And I did that even when they were six months old and were mostly only processing the sound of my voice. 
            What we read in the Scriptures this morning is the importance of words, and, trust me, it made it more difficult to write a sermon about words.  I think we can all agree that words matter, that the particular words we choose to use matter, because words can build up, or words can tear down.  A joke I read this week about the power of words was: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will have such a lasting effect that I may have to go see a counselor for the rest of my life, so thanks for that.”[1]  James, in particular, talks about words and how while the tongue is relatively small compared to the rest of the body, it has great power.[2]  He compares it to how a small flame can set a whole forest on fire!  A little rudder can give direction to a big ship.  And so it is with the tongue.  The words we speak have a great effect on our listeners and on ourselves.  Words can bless and be positive and build up.  Or words can curse and cause division and drive people apart.  The words we choose matter.
            I learned this thoroughly in a summer school class I took thirteen years ago called “Language and the Professions.”  In college and grad school, I studied not just about teaching and children and teaching a language, but also about language and the role it plays.  This class was fantastic, it was one of my favorites in the program, although by the end of the summer, I was worn out from analyzing every single word choice on everything I saw.  We looked at billboards and magazines, at the words that are associated with different professions, even at ordinary everyday conversation.  It was mentally exhausting to always be thinking about the words you use and how they determine the impression you want to give to others and how they define you and give you direction, much like that small boat rudder.  It’s important to choose words wisely.
            Speaking of wisdom, we meet her, in person, in Proverbs this morning.  Wisdom cries out in the street, raises her voice in the public square, calls out at the busy street corners, and speaks at the city gates.  It sounds like Wisdom can be found almost everywhere, especially in places where people meet.  It sounds like it’s not that hard to find words of wisdom, when they appear to be just about everywhere.  The problem is in hearing them.  If wisdom has to shout and raise her voice, presumably it’s because there’s a lot of noise that would otherwise drown her out.  Wisdom must be loud in order for us to be able to hear her, and yet even when we hear her, we don’t always heed her.  We don’t always listen to the pearls of wisdom that we’re given.  Some people recognize wisdom when they hear it; others do not.  What we’re told in this passage this morning is that Wisdom is not going to call out forever.  There will come a time when we’ll seek wisdom and it’ll be too late.  We’ll be left to the consequences of our unwise decisions, trouble brought about by our own hands, because we didn’t want to listen to wisdom.  And God does not always spare us from the results of our poor choices.  So, the bottom line is to listen to Wisdom now, while she can be found.  Make wise choices.   Choose your words carefully.  “Whoever listens to wisdom will have security. They will be safe, [and have] no reason to be afraid.”[3]  Listen to the wise words that you hear, regardless of whether they’re what you want to hear, and act on them.
            Our psalm this morning also deals with speech and knowledge in a common place.  “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.”[4]  I remember the first time I really paid attention to these verses and thinking, why isn’t it more obvious?  If the sky declares God’s glory, something everyone can see, then why aren’t more people aware of God’s glory?  If creation proclaims that it was created by God, then why don’t we all realize that?  “Creations speaks and its message is clear: that glory and honor belong to God alone.”[5]  I suppose it’s a bit like Wisdom shouting at the busy street corner.  It’s busy, there are lots of people there who surely must hear her, and it appears there are lots of people who ignore her, just as lots of people ignore creation and the sky declaring that it is God’s handiwork.  The wisdom is there, the knowledge is there, the words are there, right in front of us.  I guess that’s why Jesus says repeatedly, “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen!”[6]  Apparently we’re not very good at listening.  We’re not very good at paying attention.  If the skies declare it, all we have to do is go outside and look up. 
            Unfortunately, our Golden Age of Information is turning into our Golden Age of Anxiety.  There is so much information thrown at us, so many words that we read and hear every day, that it’s stressing us out because it’s hard to figure out which are the right words to listen to and pay attention to.  There’s more chaff to sift through to get to the wheat.  We talked a few weeks ago about how only Jesus has the words of life.  There is nowhere else we can hear these words; only Jesus has the wonderful words of eternal life.  And so he is the plumb line by which we measure all other words and determine which words are words of wisdom and which words are foolishness.  As James writes, we all make mistakes often, and no one can thoroughly tame their tongue.[7]  We all say things we regret, and it seems like, with today’s technology, more of our words are recorded for posterity than ever before.  If we’re paying attention, that only adds to our anxiety.  If we’re not and we speak without thinking, our mistakes are flung back in our faces, also fueling our anxiety. 
            So, take the time to think before you speak.  Choose your words carefully.  And be gentle with each other.  None of us can tame our tongue.  I err on the side of not saying enough, because I’m quiet by nature.  Others of us run off on the mouth and enjoy a good gab.  Taking the time to think before you speak goes hand in hand with taking time to think about what you’re hearing.  In so many conversations these days we’re not listening to understand, we’re listening to respond, and once we have our response back, we generally tune out the other person until they’re done talking because we’re focused on remembering what we want to say.  So many conversations go this way these days and I think it heightens the divisions between us.  If I’m listening in order to be able to respond to you, then I’m focused on what I think about what you’re saying.  If I’m listening in order to understand you, then I’m focused on what you think about what you’re saying.  Focusing on the other person is part of how we deny ourselves, like Jesus calls us to do in our Gospel.
            This is a very familiar passage, where Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake, and for the sake of gospel, will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”[8]  You know it’s important when all four Gospels record Jesus saying this.  What may be helpful is to make it less familiar.  The Message paraphrases this passage this way: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?”[9]  It’s an interesting choice of words that Eugene Peterson picked.  “Self-help is no help at all.”  Self-help books and mantras are often full of words, words designed to help, words designed to build up, words designed to make you better, to save you.  And they are very wordy.  In contrast, “self-sacrifice is the way, [Jesus’] way, to saving your true self.”  I don’t know about you but when I think about self-sacrifice and words, what I think is not a lot of words, and instead more quietness, more listening, more humility and silence. 
            What I wanted to title this sermon was “Words, Words, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink,” but I wasn’t sure if the reference was too obscure.  (I told you I hesitate more on the side of caution and quiet.)  It’s a play off a line from the poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” published in 1798 by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  The original verse says “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink,” since the Ancient Mariner is at sea and surrounded by water, but none of it is water that he can drink.  In a similar way, we are surrounded by words today.  Words are everywhere, except perhaps in creation.  The heavens can tell the glory of God without using words.  Our language, however, is based on words.  So, as you go forth today, think about the words that you use, and think about the words that your conversation partner uses.  Listen to them, so that you can try to understand them, rather than argue with them.  While the tongue cannot be tamed, wouldn’t it be nice to live together in mutual understanding with each other?  Focused more on self-sacrifice than self-help.  Focused on saving our real selves rather than trying to get everything on our wish list.  Take time to think before you speak.  Take time to think about what you’re hearing.  Listen not to respond, but listen to understand.  Even the creation proclaims God’s handiwork, if we’re paying attention.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.



[2] James 3:5
[3] Proverbs 1:33
[4] Psalm 19:1-2
[5] Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, Year B, p. 397
[6] Luke 8:8; 14:35; among others
[7] James 3:2, 8
[8] Mark 8:34-36, NIV
[9] Ibid., MSG
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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Faith and Works

15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 6, 2015
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37

            This morning’s readings remind me of the story about the new pastor who dressed up as a homeless person his first Sunday at his new church.  Have y’all heard this story?  As the congregation files in for worship that morning, most of them ignore him as he’s sitting there, maybe a couple pay attention to him, and something like just one or two people offer to any help to him.  Then, when the new pastor is introduced before the service starts, he rises from the back pew, takes off his homeless disguise, and reveals himself as their new pastor.  The church is shocked and ashamed of themselves and learn a good lesson about paying attention to the poor.  After all, Jesus says the poor will always be with you.[1]  Yet we’re never quite sure what to make of that verse.  Does it mean that poor people will always be poor, no matter what they do?  Does it mean some people will always make poor decisions that will result in or keep them poor?  Or, perhaps, as we hear in our Scriptures this morning, simply that we are always to help the poor, regardless of why or how they are poor.  One proverb this morning tells us that “Happy are generous people, because they gave some of their food to poor”.[2] Generous people are happy when they share, because they get to act on their disposition toward generosity.  Are you happy when you share?  Perhaps you are also a generous person!  James writes that we are not to dishonor the poor; we are to give people what their body needs.
            And yet these passages can really put us on the defensive.  What do you mean, God, that you chose the poor?[3]  What do you mean that we’re to share with them?  We worked hard for what we have; we deserve it, we earned it.  They don’t deserve anything.  And yet God doesn’t work on the basis of what we deserve.  What we all deserve is death and condemnation and judgment for our sins, regardless of which specific sins they are.  And God offers all of us grace and mercy; it is a free gift without price and without doing anything to deserve it.  Martin Luther was the first big theologian to start the Protestant Reformation, and for whom the Lutheran Church is named, and one of the things he was most upset about with the Catholic Church was over the sale of indulgences, which implied that you could buy your way into heaven.  Martin Luther emphasized that salvation is all God’s grace, there is no action, there is nothing we can buy or do or say to get it.  It’s simply faith.  On a related note, Martin Luther really didn’t like the book of James.  He supposedly even ripped it out of his Bible!  Don’t like something the Bible says? Rather than ignore it, just rip it out!  Martin Luther didn’t like James because of this emphasis on works.  He wanted to make sure people knew Jesus was about a faith-based righteousness, not a works-based righteousness.  It is faith in Jesus Christ that saves us, not anything we do.  We are saved by faith alone.
            And so Martin Luther especially didn’t like this line, probably the most famous verse in James, that “Faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity”.[4]  What we have to do, then, is tease out this relationship between faith and works.  We are saved by faith, not by our works.  Yet, if we truly have faith, then it will show itself through our works.  We don’t do good things because we’re trying to earn our way to heaven or because we’re trying to prove just how Christian we are.  If we are Christian, then doing good things is just naturally our way of life.  Because we have faith in Jesus, we do what he says, which means we love our neighbor and we help the needy.  Because of our faith, we do good works.  Being a follower of Jesus should make a difference in your life.  Otherwise, as James says, your faith is dead.  Faith without works is dead, because real faith overflows in love for God, for ourselves, and for our neighbor.  We don’t earn salvation.  Yet if we are saved, then that aspect naturally flows into everything that we do. 
            Even Jesus learns this lesson in our Gospel reading this morning.  He says he came to God’s children, the Jews, and the Syrophoenician woman says that even the dogs eat the crumbs from under the children’s table.  Jesus’s words and salvation in Jesus was not just for the Jews, but for the whole world.  Jesus came that the whole world might be saved, not just part of the world.  It appears, in this story, that Jesus tried to show favoritism, and he gets called out on it.  Favoritism is not a good deed.  Favoritism results in injustice, as we see from the example in James this morning.  If two people were to come and join us this morning, one dressed well and one dressed in rags, would we treat them differently?  Would we roll out the red carpet for the person who appears rich and ignore the person who appears poor?  Or perhaps you’ve experienced favoritism in your family, and, especially if you were not the favored child, you know the injustice it causes.  Instead of favoritism, Jesus came for everyone, as he is reminded in our lesson this morning, and he does not favor one group of people over any other, nor does he favor one person over any other. 
And so when you see a good deed done, like the lady behind me on Campbell Boulevard who offered a bottle of water to the person carrying the walking billboard, don’t feel guilty that it wasn’t you.  Don’t feel jealous that you didn’t think of it first.  Don’t feel selfish that you didn’t want to offer anything.  Simply give thanks to God that one of his creatures was showing care to another creature.  We can thank God for one another’s good works rather than have a spirit of competition or guilt or greed about it.  A couple weeks ago a delivery van pulled into the Cowenton church parking lot, and I kept an eye out so that I could try to keep the dogs from barking.  Except, instead of coming to the front door, the delivery man walked out in the middle of Red Lion Road and picked something up.  It was a baby turtle, and after he looked around at the small church yard and narrow grassy strip across the road, he took the turtle in the van with him, presumably to find a better place to release the turtle.  There are good deeds and good things being done all around us every day, they just don’t get highlighted in the evening news and they don’t get the attention the bad things do.  Whenever you feel overwhelmed by all the bad, start paying attention to the good.  It’s often smaller, it’s often easier to overlook, but it’s there.  Because good people do good things every day.  They just don’t always get their names in the newspaper for it. 
We, as followers of Christ, do good things because we are followers of Christ. We don’t do them to try to earn our way into heaven or to make up for past sins.  We do them because we have faith in Jesus and Jesus asks us to take care of the weak and the poor and the needy.  God honors them because they are never honored.  God remembers them, because they are often forgotten and overlooked.  God favors them, because no one else does.  God’s mercy and love for his creatures looks different for each of us, because we each have different needs, and God treats each of us accordingly.  We are to do the same.  One of the mission projects this church takes on is to provide dinner once a month during the winter at the men’s shelter, Streets of Hope.  It will start again in November.  For the six months this project runs, I’d like to challenge each household in our congregation to somehow participate in it, whether to bake an extra batch of cookies to be taken for dessert, or tell TJ that you’ll cover dinner for one month, or to give her some money to put toward one month’s dinner, or even just going over to hang out with the men for the evening, which is what Isabel and I do.  It doesn’t have to be a lot.  God can do a lot with just a little.  However it works out, I’d like to see a 100% participation rate from each household in our congregation.  It’s one way that we put our faith in action, and are doers of the Word, and not just hearers of it.[5] 
Having faith in Jesus Christ should make a difference in your life.  Faith alone saves, yet faith that does not result in faithful activity is dead.  One activity Jesus calls all of us to do is to care for the needy.  And so we are to be generous with what we’ve been given, whatever it is that we’ve been given; and we are to put our faith into action, whatever those specific actions look like.  We’re not all given the same gifts and we’re not all called to serve the same way in the world.  What we are all called to do is to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.[6]  We do this as an outpouring of our faith in Jesus, and for no other reason.  Thanks be to God. Amen.



[1] Matthew 26:11
[2] Proverbs 22:9
[3] James 2:5
[4] James 2:17
[5] James 1:22
[6] Micah 6:8
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