Tuesday, July 23, 2019

What’s Fruit Got to Do with It?


6th Sunday after Pentecost
July 21, 2019
Amos 8:1-12


            One of my favorite things about summer is the fresh fruit and vegetables. Whether you grow it in your own garden or pick it up at the local farm stand, or even what I get at Food Lion, it is all delicious! It’s no wonder Larriland’s pick-you-own is always busy whenever you drive by! Summer fruit is typically high in water content, it’s sweet, and it’s refreshing. What’s not to love? Most English translation of our Amos passage use the phrase “summer fruit.” God shows Amos a basket of summer fruit and then asks an obvious question, “Amos, what do you see?” Amos says, “A basket of summer fruit.” If he were a teenager he would have added a “duh” on the end. And God adds what appears to be a non-sequitur, “The end has come upon my people Israel.” Okay… it’s hard to see the connection there God, but sure, we trust you. However, this is actually a word play in the original Hebrew. “Summer fruit” isn’t the literal translation from Hebrew. It’s actually “ripened fruit.” In Hebrew, the word for “ripened fruit” is a homonym for the word “end,” as in the two words sound the same but have different meanings, like the number eight and I ate a banana. That’s how God then creates the wordplay to make the connection between a basket of ripened fruit and the end for the people of Israel. Here, we read from the NIV translation, which is one of the few English translations that tries to recreate the wordplay in English. God asks Amos, “What do you see?” Amos says, “A basket of ripe fruit.” God replies, “The time is ripe for my people Israel.” There is a sense of humor in the Bible. It doesn’t always translate either to modern times or to our language, but it’s there. What happens to ripe fruit that’s not eaten? It withers, rots, and dies. So, Amos gets to prophesy God’s judgment to God’ s people. Time’s up. The end is here. The time is ripe. God will spare you no longer.
            Amos isn’t someone you often preach on, he’s considered one of the minor prophets in the Bible, so let’s start with a little background about him. Of all the prophetic books in the Bible, both major and minor, his was written first, in the 8th century BC.  Amos was originally a shepherd, taking care of sheep like some of y’all, and he was from Judah, which was in the south. If you remember some of your history of Israel, Saul was the very first king, then David, who wrote the psalms, then David’s son, Solomon. And while Solomon was a great king in many ways, like he was famous for his wisdom and he built God’s temple in Jerusalem, he also led God’s people astray in other ways, with his 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of whom worshiped other gods, and so he strayed from the one, true God. The consequence was that after Solomon died, the country was split in two, Judah in the south and Israel in the north. So, Amos is from the south, and he’s sent to the north, to prophesy in Israel. One commentary I read said that “No other biblical book emphasizes the destructiveness of God as much as Amos.”[1] And there does seem to be a lot of that in Amos. Another vision in Amos is that of a plumb line, so that Israel can see how far they’ve strayed from God. There are a total of five visions in Amos: locusts, fire, the plumb line, the ripe fruit, and, finally, the destruction of the altar. These visions all have to do with coming judgment, with God’s judgment on Israel because they’ve strayed from God and they keep messing up and they don’t realize or care that they’ve strayed. They’re not singing, like we do in the hymn “Come, Thou Found of Every Blessing,” that “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”[2] No, the time is definitely ripe for God to do something different.
The good news I found in my seminary Old Testament notes about Amos was a comment that Amos is a prophet of repentance, not a prophet of doom. There is a theme of life throughout his book which already implies the possibility of repentance.[3] There is still hope for God’s people. They are never without hope.  God never leaves us without hope. In Amos 5:14, God says, “Seek good, and not evil, so that you may live, and the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.” Amos is a call to repentance, to “hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts,” and in the gate.[4] There is hope, but things can’t keep going how they always have been, same ol’, same ol’. The time is ripe for change. It’s the end of business as usual.
            Why is it the end? Because actions have consequences. Look at what’s going on in Israel at this time. People are trampling on the needy. That’s like kicking a dog while he’s down. People are trying to do away with the poor of the land, whereas Jesus says, “you will always have the poor with you,”[5] and he was very concerned with the poor and how we treated them and whether or not we helped them. There were “merchants who could not wait for the religious holiday to end so they could get back to fleecing the poor with their high prices for grain.”[6] I know Thanksgiving isn’t a religious holiday, but that sounds an awful lot like Black Friday shopping creeping into Thanksgiving Day. Some retailers can’t stand having to close on a holiday; some consumers can’t, either. Hello, online shopping! Not only that, these merchants are using weighted, dishonest scales, they’re inflating the prices, and they’re shortchanging their customers. What this means is that “They do not trust God to provide for their well-being and instead take every opportunity to secure more for themselves, even at the expense of others.”[7] Do you trust God, or do you feel like you’ve got to matters into your own hands to make sure you’re looked out for? And, when you take matters into your own hands, does it hurt others? Her in Amos, God’s had enough. You were supposed to take care of the widow and the orphan and the immigrant and the poor and the needy, that instruction is all throughout Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. We are called to take care of those less fortunate than ourselves, not abuse them. There was even an article in the newspaper last week with the title, “Fines, jail, debt: Court policies can punish poor.”[8] It’s about low-income people who are imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine, and then they are charged a fee for being in jail, and so their debt has just kept increasing while they’ve had no way of being able to pay it. And you can say they shouldn’t have incurred the fine in the first place, yet even so, you have to give them a chance to pay it back, not lock them up and keep charging them more fees, which, again, is like kicking a dog while they’re down.
You see, in Amos and elsewhere, there is no separation between ethics and worship.[9]  Worship and faith go hand-in-hand with ethical practice. How you live shows what you actually believe. It’s like that now-dated saying of looking at your checkbook to see where your priorities are. God says there are consequences for disregarding the poor and afflicted. When you engage in unjust practices, it affects your relationship with God. “When we cast our cares on buildings, programs, and social status, we squander and ignore the word of God revealed in the biblical text and freshly revealed to us through Christian discipleship. When we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, when we deny shelter to the refugee, when we judge the oppressed for their oppression, when we disregard the one because we are content with the ninety-nine, we have violated God with our evil. When we are complicit with evil regimes that rend children from their parents, delight in the destruction of others, and use people as a means to build wealth and power, we have violated God with our evil.”[10] As we sang in our middle hymn, which quotes from the prophet Micah, “We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.”[11] That rally that happened in North Carolina last week, that was not just or loving or humble. That was racism and hatred and evil, which we promise in our baptismal vows to resist.  There was nothing just or loving or humble about it. As God’s people, we are called to renounce evil and to work for good, we are called to love God and love our neighbor, whoever our neighbor may be.  
            And so, if you have found yourself complicit with unjust systems, then the time is ripe to do something different. And you’re in good company, because God decided the time was ripe to do a new thing, too. Even “though God established covenant relationship with Israel, their repeated unjust behavior prompted God to end the relationship, compelled to do something new.”[12] And the question is asked, “What are we doing with the word God has given us today?”[13] Are we seeking good and not evil, so that we might live? Are we living into what God requires of us, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”?[14] I don’t know where you are with the personal side of this, if you’re praying, if you’re giving, if you’re speaking up and asking God what else you can do.
Here’s where we are on the communal side of it. At Administrative Board this past week we updated our mission and vision statements, the descriptions of what we’re about, our goals, why we do what we do, and what our vision is for the future. We didn’t get it in this week’s bulletin but it’ll be in next week’s and in the next newsletter. It had been 20 years since it was updated, it was getting a little overripe, so coming from the Great Expectations Team we formed when I started two years ago, and edited by the Administrative Board, here’s what we wrote:
Our mission is to make disciples by gathering for worship, growing in faith and in grace, and serving in love. From our roots in Christ, we nurture our community by welcoming everyone and reaching out to all who are in need. Specifically for 2019-2020, we will focus on ministry to and with children.
Our vision is to become a thriving congregation, rooted in Christ and nourishing our community. This includes becoming financially stable, having a high participation from our congregation, being hands-on, and being noticeably active in our community.
Our values that we identified, that already exist here, I’m just naming them, are Hospitality, Outreach, Community, and Children.
Is that who we are at Lisbon? Does that resonate with you? Do you agree with what your leaders have said about us and who we are called to be? If so, what can we do to continue living into that calling?  If not, what can we do to get there?
The time is ripe. The fruit is ripe. It’s delicious, but it will go bad soon if left out. Y’all know that. I’m preaching in a farming community. So what specifically is the time ripe for you to do? What can you do about the hatred and vitriol you witness? What can you do about the divisions in our society? What can we do to help make our community more just and loving and walking humbly with God? We start with ourselves. We don’t spread hatred. We call it out when we see it. We work to bridge the divide. We keep ourselves humble and close to God. We do the loving thing. At any crossroads, there shouldn’t even be a question of what to do, because the answer is you show love. We said we welcome everyone, no exceptions. And we said we want to help all who are in need, with no conditions. Let us start this morning with prayer.


[2] UMH 400
[3] Class notes, Old Testament 12, Dr. Stephen Chapman, Duke Divinity School, January 22, 2008
[4] Amos 5:15
[5] Matthew 26:11
[6] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 3, p. 246
[7] Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, Year C, p. 324
[8] By Travis Loller, AP, printed in The Baltimore Sun, July 13, 2019
[9] Class notes, Old Testament 12, Dr. Stephen Chapman, Duke Divinity School, January 22, 2008
[11] “We Are Called” by David Haas, in The Faith We Sing, #2172
[13] Ibid.
[14] Micah 6:8

Monday, July 22, 2019

Summer and Winter: A Reflection

"Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love."

Verse 2 of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" by Thomas Chisholm

I prefer summer. I want sunshine and warm weather. I like sundresses and bare feet. Heat doesn't bother me. I don't like being cold.

Now that it is summer, my 4 (almost 5!) year old son has announced that he likes winter better. He even tried to wear sweat pants and long sleeves until I took them all out of his dresser last week. Know why he wants winter? "Because then you could play winter hockey!" Groan. The real ironic thing is that I'm pretty sure last winter he said he couldn't wait for summer, and I had to hide all his shorts so he didn't wear them in 30 degree weather. The cold does not bother him. Oh, to be a 4 year old boy, who's only experienced 5 winters and 5 summers, all of them in Maryland.

Yet Thomas Chisholm wrote that summer and winter join in witness to God's faithfulness, mercy, and love. As tied and connected as I am now to this land, to creation, to the earth; I've lived through 2 winters and am on my 3rd summer here in Lisbon. Summer is different when you witness the spring before it - planting, watering, tilling - when you witness the corn grow from what appears to be an empty field to 6 feet high. And what appears to be an empty, dormant field covered in snow during the winter then becomes covered in crops spring, summer, and fall. It's different to witness all that, to live through it, to see the changes in the land, to see the farmers at work through each season.

I've never taken as many pictures of the sky as I have since moving to Woodbine, MD. Here is one for each season:

Summer
Winter
Spring
Fall

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Spiritual Maturity


3rd Sunday after Pentecost
June 30, 2019
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Galatians 5:13-25; Luke 9:51-62

            This morning we’re going to talk about spiritual maturity. It’s one of those odd topics, like humility, where if you say you’ve got it, then you don’t actually have it. You can’t claim to be humble, because that’s bragging and not being humble. Likewise, only the spiritually immature will claim to have reached maturity. The mature know that we are all still in the process of sanctification and expect to reach it one day. But we know that we still mess up sometimes, that we still fall short, that we are never not in need of grace and forgiveness. We are still learning. We are still growing. We are still going on to perfection.
            Now, just to be clear about what we believe about this as Methodists, prevenient grace is the grace that comes before we know we need God. It’s God at work in our lives before we even recognize it as God. Justification is the saving grace, it’s what Jesus did on the cross, atoning for our sins, making us right with God. Yet the Christian life doesn’t stop there, because then we move into sanctification, the grace that sanctifies us, makes us holy, perfects us, continues to work within us to make us ever more like Jesus. Along that path you become more spiritually mature.
            While there are many descriptions of spiritual maturity, we’re going to look at what our readings today can tell us about it. Last week we read about Elijah receiving help in the form of a mentee, Elisha, someone to train to become a fellow prophet, someone to pass the mantle to, literally. After Elijah is taken up into heaven, Elisha picks up Elijah’s mantle, which is another word for cloak, strikes the water, and asks, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” and God parts the water, just like Moses at the Red Sea. However, before that, Elisha does a very mature thing. When Elijah discovers that he can’t shake Elisha, that Elisha is determined to stay with him til the very end, Elijah says, “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha immediately replies, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”[1] Elisha has his answer ready. He knows what he wants from his mentor. And it’s not a material possession but his faith. Our faith is what we are to pass down to the next generation. Not necessarily our church buildings or property or books or customs, but our faith. Elijah agrees, Elisha can have it, as long as he stays around and watches when Elijah is taken from him.
            What Elisha does that is so mature is that he knows he can learn from his mentor, from those who have gone before us in the faith. He knows he doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel, he doesn’t have to start from scratch. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We read their stories and learn about them and are inspired by their lives, folks like C.S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero, saints whom you’ve known here at Lisbon, saints in your family, our ancestors in the faith. We are not so presumptuous or arrogant to believe that we are so special as to be first to have a relationship with God. We are the next in line and there will be others in line after us. It’s good news that we’re not starting with a blank slate but can learn about what our ancestors did when they were troubled or struggling or sick or even how they celebrated the good times. We don’t have to copy them; you know each generation does things their own way. But we’re inspired by them, we learn from them, and we’re reminded that we’re not doing this on our own. As Hebrews says, “we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” so that we can “run with perseverance the race that is set before us;”[2] not because our ancestors ran an identical race, but because we know they got through their life journey and we can get through ours. Elisha didn’t have an identical ministry to Elijah; they’re two different people. But Elisha was still quite obviously Elijah’s successor as the main prophet in Israel.
            Before we get to our Galatians reading, let’s jump over to our Gospel. This is one of the harder of Jesus’ teachings. There are people who want to follow him, yet Jesus at the beginning lays out the cost. “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” “Let the dead bury the dead.” “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This last one is kind of curious reading it in conjunction with Elijah and Elisha because when Elijah calls Elisha, Elisha also asks to go back to say goodbye to his parents, and Elijah lets him. Yet here, Jesus says no looking back. There are people who don’t follow Jesus because they don’t want to pay the cost. They don’t want to give up their time. They don’t want to give their money. They don’t want to have to recognize that they are dependent on God and not self-sufficient or self-made. They don’t want to make any sacrifices or change how they live or where they live. The spiritually mature know the cost of discipleship and are willing to follow Jesus, anyway. They’re willing to sacrifice, when that’s what Jesus calls them to do. Sometimes we sacrifice when we’re not called to, in order to make ourselves look good. “Look what I gave up, aren’t I such a good Christian?” Mature people don’t draw attention to themselves. They’re content to let their sacrifices go unnoticed because they know Jesus notices and they know they’re following him. And they’re following him because Jesus is calling them, not in order to look good or to meet a suitor or because they don’t know what else to do with their lives. The spiritually mature don’t cheapen grace, to use Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s phrase. He wrote, in his book “The Cost of Discipleship,” that “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” It says “anything goes” because I’m saved. Yet John Wesley believed that you could lose your salvation. He did not believe that “once saved, always saved.” Wesley preached against backsliding, to be on your guard against it, to not take your salvation for granted, which I think some of us do. Instead, we have to be intentional about how we live, to make sure we are ever growing in our faith, going on to perfection, being sanctified, rather than taking our relationship with God for granted.
            Finally, this morning we read that great passage from Galatians that ends with the list of the fruits of the Spirit. The spiritually mature show the fruits of the Spirit. Their lives have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. They recognize Christ has set them free, not to live for themselves and focus on their wants but free to serve and focus on others. They don’t live however they want but live disciplined lives, using the spiritual disciplines to draw them closer to Jesus, not for their own edification but trusting God to be in the process of sanctification. And it is about trust. My daily devotional this past week included this quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest in the early part of last century, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time. Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser.” Sanctification takes time; it’s not immediate. Those fruits of the Spirit take time to develop and mature; y’all know that. I’ve been watching the corn grow for a few months now, and it’s at different heights in different fields. We are all in different places along this journey, and your journey is not the same as someone else’s journey, yet we are all committed to walking together. We bear each other’s burdens. We help each other along the way. That’s what the spiritually mature do. We know we’re in this together. You can’t get through this life on your own. You can’t be sanctified on your own. There’s a proverb in the Bible that says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens the wits of another.”[3] We are here to make each other better. To learn from each other, as Elisha learned from Elijah. To hold each other accountable, so that we don’t cheapen our salvation. And to help each other cultivate those fruits of the Spirit.
            In light of the fact that we’re all in this together, the whole human family, UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, has offered a prayer for today for all the children who are suffering at our border. When we feel frustrated and helpless, one of the things we can always do is pray. Please join me in praying.


A Prayer for Suffering Children
God of All Children Everywhere,
Our hearts are bruised when we see children suffering alone.
Our hearts are torn when we are unable to help.
Our hearts are broken when we have some complicity in the matter.
For all the times we were too busy and shooed a curious child away,
forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we failed to get down on their level and look eye to eye with a child, forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we did not share when we saw a hungry child somewhere in the world, forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we thought about calling elected officials to demand change, but did not, forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we thought that caring for the children of this world was someone else’s responsibility, forgive us, oh God.
With Your grace, heal our hearts.
With Your grace, unite us in action.
With Your grace, repair our government.
With Your grace, help us to find a way to welcome all children everywhere,
That they may know that Jesus loves them,
Not just because “the Bible tells them so,”
But because they have known Your love in real and tangible ways,
And they know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate them from Your love.
Amen.


[1] 2 Kings 2:9
[2] Hebrews 12:1
[3] Proverbs 27:17