tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52756349236621014962024-03-19T04:25:32.903-04:00The Old Religious GuyA baby-boomer Lutheran pastor shares his thoughts on spirituality, ethics, and hanging on in this really funky planet.Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.comBlogger657125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-35917903212169001922024-03-13T13:21:00.000-04:002024-03-13T13:21:00.674-04:00A Death with Meaning (Reflections on Lent 5, Year B 2024)<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikNLeFWjeut4MlU2CTGOD7Bvx3rsEvu9xOEl-YU4E1KClZI9CRezUznvmXjUKEuNoosmbmQxP-EA5BGXWcUb_tYFBv5v-uYDVUiALQBk0llyl_m2AFXiTCs3cVcMBF9n_758Uvho-VH5v3Jk-CeH4_jElHnzFyHrX28s53vLv3b2tgVGL0y4Ze5kAzvCSD" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1487" data-original-width="843" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikNLeFWjeut4MlU2CTGOD7Bvx3rsEvu9xOEl-YU4E1KClZI9CRezUznvmXjUKEuNoosmbmQxP-EA5BGXWcUb_tYFBv5v-uYDVUiALQBk0llyl_m2AFXiTCs3cVcMBF9n_758Uvho-VH5v3Jk-CeH4_jElHnzFyHrX28s53vLv3b2tgVGL0y4Ze5kAzvCSD=w363-h640" width="363" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Crucifixion" F. Zurbaran (Spanish 16th Cent.) </td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(John
12:32-33)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a big chunk of the Gospel lesson for Lent 5, Year B (John
20:20-33) which I can recite by heart. Verses 23 – 26 are found in the Lutheran
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Occasional Service Book</i> for the
burial of the dead. I guess this passage was chosen by the OSB’s editors
because of that particular image of the grain falling into the earth. The
passage is to be read at graveside for an in-ground burial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I think I’ve mentioned, I do a<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
lot</i> of funerals. I consider it an honor to tell the tale of the departed
and to offer the comfort of eternal life to the bereaved. Sometimes, however,
the honor carries an emotional weight. Last week I was called on to say a
service for a young man who took his own life. Quite aside from the fact that
none of us should ever have to face the agony of burying one of our own
children, the sudden loss and the soul-numbing shock of a suicide create a state
of grief which, unless you’ve experienced it yourself, is unfathomably dark.
There was nothing of consequence I felt I could say to the grieving parents,
family members, and friends of this young man other than to implore them not to
allow the manner of his death to define his life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That exhortation came to me a few years ago when I was asked to
memorialize two sister. These women were savagely butchered by a controlling ex-boyfriend.
The killer violated a restraining order, attacked his ex as she visited in her
sister’s home, and knifed both women to death. When I sat with the women’s
parents, I felt as helpless as I’ve ever felt. There was nothing I could do or
say that could possibly lesson their pain. I only knew I did not want the act
of a selfish, violent man to be the last word on the lives of two wonderful,
caring, intelligent, and accomplished women, both of whom left children as well
as parents behind to mourn them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The manner of a death should not define a life—except sometimes it does.
Jesus taught his followers to love one another. He healed the sick, touched the
untouchable, dined with the despised, welcomed the foreigners and the outcasts,
lived in poverty and humility, and taught us all about the Kingdom of God. But
what matters most is that he died on the cross. He was lifted up to draw all of
us to himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is when we see him on the cross that we know the depth of his love.
When we hear him forgive his enemies with a dying breath, when he cares for his
aging mother, and when he comforts a condemned sinner with a word of
love—that’s when Jesus speaks most profoundly to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is the power of Jesus’ sacrificial love. It is knowing that he defied
the powers of this world and accepted the torment of their punishment. This is
what makes everything he did prior to Calvary resonate with unutterable depth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Alexei Navalny may have been dismissed as just another idealist
attempting to expose and reform a hopelessly corrupt government. Even after
being poisoned by Putin’s agents, he returned to Russia—knowing he had been
marked for death. His death in an arctic prison camp has reverberated around
the world, underscoring his courage determination, and honor while further exposing
Putin’s ruthless barbarism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great reformer and theologian. His
stirring speeches about civil rights have inspired generations, and his
activism changed the course of history. Nevertheless, King’s willingness to
confront the powers of oppression and racism at the cost of his own life to an
assassin’s bullet forever enshrines him as a man of overwhelming integrity. The
bullet which took the life of Mohandas Gandhi and the Nazi noose around the
neck of Dietrich Bonhoeffer similarly elevated the righteousness of their
causes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sometimes the manner of death does, indeed, define the life. Every
police officer, firefighter, or warrior who has fallen in the line of duty is a
witness to this. It is their deaths which gave meaning to their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The coming of the Greeks—foreigners who have heard of the wonderful
words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth—is the signal to Jesus that his fame has
grown to the point where his opponents will want him dead. “Now my souls is
troubled,” he confesses, “and what should I say—‘Father, save me from this
hour?’ No, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for this reason</i> that
I have come to this hour.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is the final covenant, God’s last treaty with humankind. No longer
do we need a book of rules. Rather, we are to remember the cross and remember Jesus’
sacrifice, forgiveness, humility, and compassion which shone from that horrible
symbol of death and oppression. That’s the Law which is written, not with
words, but on the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Look to the cross, my friend. Thank you for stopping by. Please come back next week.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-58418571380250954542024-03-05T15:49:00.000-05:002024-03-05T15:49:17.936-05:00This Time It's Going to Cost You (Reflections on Lent 4, Year B 2024)<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiS0LuZcCy3Fsq9ZVRRE2FpUjay-xB32suqSJLPTPZTgRIcDXyfXrPzjwDdVCVK0WTJ7xVxeZPzNdGKyitP9dKrxC-6in4WCEQMtCTi9SFc8tmc-ytJ2T3Jb1cQG4DD_8Lc7s09YVonyghVKqCWc0levFgisSeW0CIdPOCzJeugTlxNV5NsTJ2DbGbNpToH" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiS0LuZcCy3Fsq9ZVRRE2FpUjay-xB32suqSJLPTPZTgRIcDXyfXrPzjwDdVCVK0WTJ7xVxeZPzNdGKyitP9dKrxC-6in4WCEQMtCTi9SFc8tmc-ytJ2T3Jb1cQG4DD_8Lc7s09YVonyghVKqCWc0levFgisSeW0CIdPOCzJeugTlxNV5NsTJ2DbGbNpToH=w300-h400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Brazan Serpent" (Tissot, Fr. 19th Cent.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“And just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in him might have eternal life.”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (John 3:15) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sometimes God can drive a
hard bargain. In the Hebrew Scripture lessons for Lent in Year B of the Revised
Common Lectionary, we’ve had this theme of God making pretty lousy deals.
Lousy, that is for God, but pretty good for the rest of us. There was God’s
non-aggression pact with Noah in which God promised never again to wipe out
humanity and asked no conditions on our part<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Then there was God’s
lopsided deal with Abraham in which God promised a whole freakin’ nation,
eternal fame, and more descendants than stars in the sky in exchange for a
little faith.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That was followed by God’s contract with Moses and the children of Israel in
which God, having already delivered the people safely out of slavery and was in
the process of providing their social safety net in the wilderness, asked in
return for obedience to ten little laws which were in the people’s best interest
to begin with.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Spoiler alert: The
people reneged on that last deal, and we’ve been reneging on it ever since!)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But in the Hebrew
Scripture Lesson for Lent 4 (Numbers 21:4-9), God isn’t fooling around anymore.
Nope. It’s no more Mr. Nice God. God’s coming to the bargaining table with God’s
sleeves rolled up (Metaphorically speaking, of course. God doesn’t actually
have sleeves) and this time God means business. In this story God’s people—whom
God has rescued from slavery and provided for in a nasty, hostile, desert land—are
still whining, moaning, complaining and otherwise kvetching against God, their
leader Moses, and the circumstances they’re actually pretty darn lucky to be in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what does God do? God
makes the punishment fit the crime. Since they’re tearing apart their own
nation with lies and contemptuous speech—with poison from their mouths—God gives
them a taste of some<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> really</i> poisonous
mouths. God sends venomous snakes to bite the people and teach them a lesson.
Suddenly, as they’re all dying from snakebite, they don’t think Moses is such a
bad leader anymore. Now they want to suck up to him so he’ll mediate with God
and save them from these disagreeable reptiles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">God tells Moses to make a
serpent of bronze and put it on a tall stick and make the people look at it. I
think what God wanted was to have the people see themselves. They needed to see
their own sin, their own likeness to poisonous snakes. They had to see it, own
it, and repent of it. God was telling them: “You want to be healed? You want me
to heal you? First you need to acknowledge who you are and what you’ve done. You’re
vicious, self-involved, ungrateful, and low-down. And if you won’t see that you
won’t get well.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I think that’s something
Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus in the accompanying Gospel Lesson (John
3:14-21). We all need to see the Son of Man lifted up. We need to contemplate
what it is to have a human being impaled on a piece of wood and left hanging
there to drown in his own bodily fluid. We need to recognize just how cruel a punishment
this was and how twisted the injustice of it was to put an innocent man through
that kind of torture. And we need to learn gratitude to believe Jesus loved us so
much he was willing to suffer in this grotesque way. We need to look to the
cross and the man who is bleeding and dying upon it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a real
misconception among American Protestants about the absence of the image of the
suffering Christ in our churches. We’ve been told Roman Catholics focus on the crucifix—the
cross with Christ’s image upon it—because their theology emphasizes Jesus’ suffering.
Protestants, we’re told, view the empty cross because our theology emphasizes
Christ’s resurrected victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is not actually
true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve always suspected the
absence of Christ’s image on Protestant crosses was due merely to the early
Protestants’ poverty and inability to pay the craftsmen who so lovingly
depicted our Lord’s dying form. Similarly, the opulence of church art was seen
as symbolic of a decadent, usurious, and oppressive church hierarchy. The
Protestants opted for simplicity, but Martin Luther would doubtless have us
keep our focus on our Lord’s pain and sacrifice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luther would want us to
know that this disgusting and savage form of execution was devised by human
beings just like us. Just as human beings are responsible for the savage
suffering in Gaza and Ukraine. We are responsible for damage to the earth,
climate change, and pollution. We are responsible for gun violence, racial
oppression, and poverty. And if we fail to look at these things, these things
will continue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are in a crucial
moment in history.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
It’s very easy for us, smothered as we are with news and information, to want
simply to ignore it all and turn our attention inward to our own, individual
needs, grievances, or whatever. However, if all we want to do is sing “Victory
in Jesus” and accept simplistic answers to complex moral questions, we are
missing the point of the Gospel. If we ignore our sin, we won’t be free of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The great Lutheran
theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer was asked in 1943 how the German
Church could allow someone like Hitler to seize power. His reply: “It was the
teaching of cheap grace.” According to Bonhoeffer:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">“Cheap grace is the
preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church
discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal
confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross,
grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate</span></i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We run, I think, a
serious risk of bitterness, apathy, and decay of the soul if we do not look to
Christ lifted up on the cross. It is there and only there that we recognize our
sin. It is there that we learn compassion and love. It is there that we are
healed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Genesis 9:8-17<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Genesis 17:1-16<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Exodus 20:1-17<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
No pun intended, but it the word “crucial” does seem to fit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%204,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Bonhoeffer,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Cost of Discipleship</i>, 1937.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-21354379133814420092024-02-27T15:55:00.008-05:002024-03-02T09:14:35.898-05:00Deal or No Deal? (reflections on Lent 3, Year B 2024)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqUQTZ_UedLddSdHLTENqQ2mJock4zQi3HfwLu3jMM7pXjIbmExrzK7dhtqGjjDQKhhn-19rzQgHmMzyofsg2Efss3RwhMQYNe64BlcpxTIFx_Na-yu1vgSEULtGOLVBaV7yl4h7DeezyWKJECwrv4FVDQRmvxyKG1GEQjPNdLowjRURsZ3rMAV7QcLgu_" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="300" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqUQTZ_UedLddSdHLTENqQ2mJock4zQi3HfwLu3jMM7pXjIbmExrzK7dhtqGjjDQKhhn-19rzQgHmMzyofsg2Efss3RwhMQYNe64BlcpxTIFx_Na-yu1vgSEULtGOLVBaV7yl4h7DeezyWKJECwrv4FVDQRmvxyKG1GEQjPNdLowjRURsZ3rMAV7QcLgu_=w400-h283" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Cleansing of the Temple" (Rombouts, Flem. 17th cent)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Then God spoke all these words: I am the <span class="sc"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span> your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have
no other gods before me.” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Exodus 20:1-3)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you never learned
anything else in Sunday school, I’ll bet you got the gist of the First Lesson
for Lent 3, Year B (Genesis 20:1-17): the Ten Commandments. The good folks who
put together the Revised Common Lectionary have given us a theme (or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">motif</i>, if you will) in the lessons from
the Hebrew Scriptures. Each one of the five lessons we get during this season
of Lent deals with a covenant between God and God’s people (that would be<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> us</i>, of course!).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On Lent 1 we got the
covenant with Noah<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
That was a pretty one-sided deal. God promised never again to use violence to
end violence and gave us the rainbow as God’s signature on the dotted line,
assuring us God wouldn’t go out of God’s way to destroy us anymore.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> On Lent 2 we got God’s
covenant with Abraham in which God promised Abe some really groovy stuff like a
whole nation, eternal fame, and more descendants than there are stars in the
sky.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> All Abraham had to do
was keep believing God was going to come across with the goods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you’re Donald Trump,
you might be thinking God is a lousy deal-maker, since all of these bargains seem
really one-sided. God, the Party of the First Part, signs an unconditional
non-aggression pact and asks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i>
in return from the Party of the Second Part. Then, said Party of the First Part
promises the Party of the Second Part an entire country, world-wide
recognition, and an endless line of progeny—and only asks the Party of the
Second Part for a little <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faith.</i> I ask
you: what kind of deal is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that?</i> Trump
would definitely not approve<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But on Lent 3 the terms
of the deal get a bit more complex. Once again, it’s a lousy deal for God. God
has already delivered: God’s kept the people safe, brought them out of the
hands of bondage, took them triumphantly through the Red Sea, and—as if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that’s</i> not enough—has very considerately
destroyed the army of their oppressor as an added bonus. It’s only then that
God asks the Party of the Second Part to remit a little gratitude by following
ten simple rules. But, since the people have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">already received the blessing</i>, they could simply choose to renege
on the deal—which, it seems, they did and we continue to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In Jesus’ time, there
were these guys called Pharisees who must’ve felt bad about how God kept
getting the short end of these bargains. They decided the best way to be fair
was to be in constant dialogue with God’s Law, parsing every jot and tittle of
the Ten Commandments into a gazillion little laws and traditions, and making
sure that everything they or anyone else did fell into line with the rules. To
us who read the New Testament this seems pretty obnoxious, and the Pharisees
always come off as the bad guys in the story. They always seem to be overly
concerned about nit-picky little purity laws, and they miss the big picture
about the generous and forgiving grace of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But let’s be fair. The
Ten Commandments were really given for our benefit. If adherence to them is the
goal of our life and social interactions, we’re going to end up pretty okay.
That won’t be because we’ve earned God’s favor. I mean, let’s face it, we’re
going to screw up some way every day. It’s just the simple fact that the world
runs a whole lot better when we put God in charge and embrace care and respect
for our fellow human beings as the Law requires. Again, God doesn’t get
anything out of this deal. We do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I think the Pharisees get
a pretty bum rap. At the end of the day, all our Jewish forbearers were trying
to do was live righteous lives, just as our Jewish neighbors do today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the Gospel lesson for
Lent 3 (John 2:13-22), Jesus is showing a rather uncharacteristic bit of umbrage
to the often shady practice of buying and selling animals for ritual sacrifice
in the Temple of Jerusalem, a place considered the holiest spot in Israel. The
Synoptic Gospel writers put this story at the end of Jesus’ ministry and can be attributing the Lord’s anger to the usurious practice of ripping off poor
peasants by charging extra for animals or giving an unfair rate of exchange
when changing blasphemous Roman coins for temple money. John, on the other
hand, has Jesus denouncing the lack of piety when the holy place becomes
commercialized. After all, when it’s all about the money, it’s no longer about
a relationship with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We don’t need a
magnificent temple in which to have a relationship with God—even one that took
forty-six years to build. By the time John wrote his Gospel, the magnificent
Temple of Jerusalem had been nothing but a pile of rocks for almost thirty
years. I’m sure there were still many in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas
who were locked in deep mourning because the symbol of their religion, the place
where God and humanity met, was no more. But for the Pharisees, they still had God’s
Law to get them through the heartache and the loss. And they still have it
today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">For others, there was
another temple—the body and blood of Jesus. That temple was also destroyed, but
it was raised in three days, and we have it still. We don’t need any fancy-shmancy
worship space, and we don’t have to keep pining away for the “good ‘ol days”
when our church buildings were full every Sunday. When two or more of us are
together and in dialogue with Jesus, the church<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> is</i> full. Indeed, the church is full every Sunday if the people of
God and the Holy Spirit are there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s a pretty good
deal, don’t you think? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thanks for reading this
week. Do come again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Genesis 9:8-11 in case you forgot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Of course, there was nothing in the agreement about God keeping us from
destroying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ourselves</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Genesis 17:1-16<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Lent%203,%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
But God probably doesn’t approve too much of him, either.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-18341477676273801942024-02-21T13:58:00.000-05:002024-02-21T13:58:02.462-05:00A Shout-Out to Geezer Parents (Reflections on Lent 2, Year B 2024)<p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSbZs2J-eSnQQOmkpJgPE-nIAClNAUNerVkN15q1Lrit7vDu0YJLfH8QJhoSOo4j_1T3hDl3MTmxSb9Zk-wMF5t4QopPeHr-NFsL6YAHJAjs2_iG85aoY9BGJ5weLP_P50e-WwrcHr7jF-OHuej7TYKrtigvpsd3HB-_rnCVCSGOAU5OPxOI4Et5Lo_WSm" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="247" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSbZs2J-eSnQQOmkpJgPE-nIAClNAUNerVkN15q1Lrit7vDu0YJLfH8QJhoSOo4j_1T3hDl3MTmxSb9Zk-wMF5t4QopPeHr-NFsL6YAHJAjs2_iG85aoY9BGJ5weLP_P50e-WwrcHr7jF-OHuej7TYKrtigvpsd3HB-_rnCVCSGOAU5OPxOI4Et5Lo_WSm=w259-h320" width="259" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Abraham" Barbieri (Italian 17th Cent.)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I will establish my
covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you.” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Genesis 17:7) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Boy. Abraham is sure one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">old </i>dude when God reminds him of the
blessing God plans to bestow on him in our First Lesson from the Revised Common
Lectionary for Lent 2, Year B (Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God says Abraham’s going to be a daddy at the
ripe old age of 100 years. His wife Sarah is 90, which makes parenthood for
this couple seem, to say the least, somewhat unlikely. Of course, nothing is
impossible for God (Especially in the Old Testament!). And, to quote the late
Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I can’t say that I’ve
known any centenarian or nonagenarian parents, but I do know that lots of older
folks are finding themselves raising kids these days. I’ve often spoken about
my buddy Rich out in Wisconsin. When we were young we ran around as only two
young idiots—either one of whom could get into enough trouble on his own—would
do. But today, Rich is a very stable and very conscientious father. He’s
64-years-old. His son is 10. I’m the same age but I can’t imagine what it takes
to be keeping tabs on a bright and energetic ten-year-old, helping him with
school work, taking him to his myriad extra-curricular activities, and planning
all the camping and fishing excursions dads like doing with their sons. I’m not
sure I have the energy to do what my erstwhile brother in youthful foolhardy
shenanigans does every day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Rich isn’t the only
elderly parent. Lots of folks who felt pretty sure their child-rearing days
were behind them suddenly find themselves looking after grandchildren because
parents are divorcing or have become homeless or have a problem with drugs or
are in some way incapable or irresponsible. I’ll bet a lot of my fellow geezers
are saying, “I can’t do this. I’ve already done my part. I don’t have the
energy, the stamina, or the wisdom to start raising a child all over again at
my age.” Of course, nothing is impossible for God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Abraham, however,
actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wants</i> to be a dad in his
maturity, but he keeps having to wait for God to come through for him. God
keeps having to reassure Abraham, whom, ironically, Saint Paul praises for his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faith</i> in the Second Lesson for Lent 2
(Romans<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4:13-25). You can understand why
Abraham waits somewhat impatiently on the Lord because his journey of faith wasn’t
exactly a day at Disneyland. Before he even gets to the land of Canaan he has a
family squabble with his nephew, Lot. Then he reaches the land God has promised
him, and—wouldn’t you know it?—there’s a famine. Then he goes down to Egypt
where the Pharaoh almost steals his wife from him. Then he’s got to rescue his
nitwit nephew from brigands. He tries to outthink God and knocks up his wife’s
serving maid which, as you can imagine, causes considerable domestic
unpleasantness. Abraham may have been the Father of Many Nations, but it
must’ve seemed to him at times like he just couldn’t catch a break.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Ever feel that way
yourself?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our lives consist of a
whole lot of waiting—waiting for some blessed event or opportunity or for some
really crappy experience to pass. I think that’s why the early Church gave us
this season of Lent. It’s a time to practice our waiting skills by praying
more, fasting from our distractions, and being a little more sensitive to the
needs of others than we are to our own stuff. In the Gospel lesson (Mark
8:31-38) Jesus tells the disciples they’re going to have to wade through some pretty
ugly issues before everything starts making sense to them and they can proclaim
Jesus as the Messiah the way God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">intended
</i>the Messiah to be proclaimed. Poor old Peter, out of the best of
compassionate intentions I’m sure, scolds Jesus for even suggesting that
rejection and crucifixion are going to be part of the deal. Jesus has to bring
him up short and tell him he’s locked into a false, worldly idea of what God’s
glory is like, and he needs to get over it. It sounds pretty nasty to us when
Jesus calls Peter “Satan.” I think that’s because we associate the name with
some scary red dude with horns who personifies evil. Remember that the name “Satan”
just means “adversary.” An adversary is anyone or anything that stands in the
way of what really ought to happen. We couldn’t know our Savior or know he
knows us if he didn’t suffer as we do. It had to happen, just as Abraham had to
endure his time of trial and testing before God’s promise could be made real to
him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I could never imagine the
raucous pal of my misspent youth being the caring and dedicated father my
friend Rich is today. Now that he’s a retiree he has little to focus on but
creating—along with his wife, of course—the best possible life for his young
son. He seems to be taking better care of his own health, too, and he seems
more content and interested in life than I’ve ever known him to be. I don’t
question that it’s a burden of sorts for other older people to find themselves
suddenly back in the parenting role, but it might also be a precursor to some
blessings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yup, old age has its
indignities. We get stouter, we ache more, we can’t hear, can’t remember where
we put the car keys, and we’re always thinking about having to pee. But I think
we are also more patient, more accepting, and less distracted by the quotidian adiaphora
which clouded our vision and our priorities when we were younger. Perhaps we’ve
learned the secret of how to wait and, with it, the magic that is the ability
to hope. We discover a contentment from believing our hope may not be realized
in our own time, but, because we have been faithful, in God’s time and in God’s
way the ends will be glorious.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So glad you joined me
today. Thanks for reading, and don’t be shy about dropping me a note to tell me
you’ve been here. I’d love to hear from you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh! And P.S. - My reflections
on these passage will be preached on the 99<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the
birth of one of the few surviving charter members of my parish. Happy Birthday,
Miss Flo, and, like Abraham and Sarah, may you have many, many more!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-28095776904529582752024-02-14T14:36:00.006-05:002024-02-14T15:15:22.983-05:00God's in the Forty (Reflections on Lent 1, Year B 2024)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8wZu9368cpc0R9lZLvGoP7Ex7DqjMHLuwf82ZN6YDAfgxvjrYszKdtdE4D87SP17tLnCiZAaRkCifIv3-SpUZ4nQmVfyhjPTdFXkHGks1bKsfRC8QlyDwnK_c-dEYGMVW9TQZ4JhTcNFC1hDtAqN0pWqfXleiIp8jAIhq0r5EVprZ1jkVIrIxZkyPBp9q" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="213" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8wZu9368cpc0R9lZLvGoP7Ex7DqjMHLuwf82ZN6YDAfgxvjrYszKdtdE4D87SP17tLnCiZAaRkCifIv3-SpUZ4nQmVfyhjPTdFXkHGks1bKsfRC8QlyDwnK_c-dEYGMVW9TQZ4JhTcNFC1hDtAqN0pWqfXleiIp8jAIhq0r5EVprZ1jkVIrIxZkyPBp9q" width="217" /></a></div><p></p><p><b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;
repent, and believe in the good news.”</span> </i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
1:15)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay. It’s Lent—forty sacred days (not counting Sundays, of course) of
fasting and prayer and almsgiving. In Hebrew numerology, forty is a pretty
special number. You’ll notice it pops up a lot in the Bible. There’s the forty days
and nights of the great flood in Genesis (relating to the First Lesson in the
Revised Common Lectionary for Lent 1, Year B: Genesis 9:8-17), the forty years
Moses and his crew wandered around in the wilderness, and the forty days Jesus
spent out in the desert being tempted by Satan as referenced in our Gospel
lesson this week (Mark 1:9-15). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So what’s up with forty? I’ve been told in Hebrew numerology four is the
number of earthly completeness (note for points of the compass and four seasons
of the year<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>).
If you stick at zero after four, you've got something that’s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> really </i>complete—more than enough
complete. It may not mean an exact number, but it means a good long time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me start by saying a little something about the First Lesson with
Noah and the rainbow. I have an old buddy from my Lutheran youth group days
(over forty years ago—see how I worked that number in?) who spent some years
doing oceanographic research with the US Merchant Marines. He told me that he’d
spent over a thousand days of his life at sea, and I just tried to imagine what
that would be like. I mean, what’s it like to get up in the morning, look out your
window, and see nothing but sky and water? Imagine being in the middle of a
vast<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> nowhere</i>. There’s nothing but the
position of the sun to give you a clue as to what direction you’re moving in. There’s
nothing on the horizon to aim at. Imagine dealing with that for forty days like
Noah did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Do you ever wonder what Noah might’ve been thinking? “What if the water<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> never</i> goes away? What if it never rains
again, and we have no water to drink? How would we know where the land is—assuming
this big barge is even capable of being steered?” I’ll bet he was scared.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus might’ve had it a little easier spending forty days in the
wilderness, but I don’t think it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much
</i>easier. Many years ago I went camping with a friend in Joshua Tree National
Monument in southern California. It’s a desert. They trained the Marines there
for service in Iraq. Unlike the ocean, there’s plenty to see in the desert, but
it all looks alike. No landmarks. I remember getting a slightly creepy feeling
out there. I thought if the trail washed out or if I should run out of gas I’d
have no way of finding my way back to civilization (and this was in those Dark
Ages before the cell phone!).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s in such deserted places—on the flood waters or in the wilderness—that
temptation lurks. Our evangelist Mark is in too much of a hurry to describe the
battle of wits between Jesus and the devil as Matthew and Luke do, but he does
include the detail that Jesus was with the wild beasts in the wilderness. It
was and is a place of danger. When you’re in a place where you’re all alone (or
you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i> all alone) and completely
uncertain, some pretty weird thoughts might start running through your head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What kind of deserts do we find ourselves in? What times of testing and
transition? Illness? Pandemic lockdowns? Losing a job? Retirement? Death of a
loved one? Needing to move? Changing social norms? Changing times for the
Church? All those times when we can’t seem to anchor ourselves or see to the
end—that’s when the freakiness in our heads starts to run loose. We don’t need
the devil to whisper sweet nothings in our ears. We make up our own temptations
to anger or despair or overeating or boozing or…you get the idea.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps the biggest temptation of all is to forget the presence of God.
Noah got a dove with an olive branch and a rainbow. The olive branch told him
that there was dry land <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">somewhere</i>. He
might have to wait a while before it appears, but it’s out there. The rainbow
was his reminder that God was still in charge. God saw and knew and felt with him,
and God promised never again to confront human violence with more violence of
his own. Whenever the rainbow appeared, Noah could be reminded of the mercy of
God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Mark’s Gospel tells us Jesus wasn’t alone in the wilderness. Satan was
there, but so were angels—God’s messengers. These messengers, depending on how
you translate the Greek word, served Jesus, ministered to Jesus, or waited upon
Jesus. In some way they provided for his needs in that lonely, frightening,
dangerous place. God doesn’t stop being present just because we temporarily fail
to experience that presence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What are your messengers? What brings God’s presence to your mind and
heart when you find yourself alone or adrift? And how are you different once you’ve
come through your own “forty days?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus emerged from the desert and got to work telling everyone that God
was not far away. God had not forgotten or abandoned them. God’s kingdom was
right there where they were. They could forget their despair, self-pity, or
inaction and get to work themselves. All they had to do was believe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Keep believing, my friend. Thanks for stopping by and leave me a note if
you wish.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> If
you want to get really wonky about this—and why wouldn’t you?—four as a number
of earthly completion goes back, according to Biblestudy.org, to the fourth day
of creation when God had the infrastructure of the universe in place. Forty is
usually used as a time of probation, waiting, or transition. It occurs 158
times in the King James Bible.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-90679927006146122742024-02-10T16:03:00.000-05:002024-02-10T16:03:49.453-05:00Between You & God & Everybody Else (Reflections on Ash Wednesday, 2024)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3m3-Sl5-9URQb9SHzsu0DOz-pfCMrIbqcmQMBjBPp030SpsEkpHQ95uKvdE6lgl3pzJ5qx2V6kUNKL1U_A-nqBF5JmrhBO1-bK4jL6kD1Txy2D_ppbE8pRVpir8AlYlSEA_h07jDQscqgYbJBUdncCWwCs0SyEyKOID2pKNYzViuY6UOlU5mqfdqqSpkC" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="215" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3m3-Sl5-9URQb9SHzsu0DOz-pfCMrIbqcmQMBjBPp030SpsEkpHQ95uKvdE6lgl3pzJ5qx2V6kUNKL1U_A-nqBF5JmrhBO1-bK4jL6kD1Txy2D_ppbE8pRVpir8AlYlSEA_h07jDQscqgYbJBUdncCWwCs0SyEyKOID2pKNYzViuY6UOlU5mqfdqqSpkC" width="221" /></a></div><br /><b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Yet even now, says the </span><span class="sc"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: start;">Lord</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; text-align: start;">, return to me with all your heart, with fasting,
with weeping, and with mourning; </span>rend your hearts and not your
clothing. Return to the <span class="sc"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-align: start;">Lord</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; text-align: start;">, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. </span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Joel
2:12-13)</span></b></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Many years ago, I taught in the Theatre Arts
department of a small community college in California. I shared my office with a
lanky, philosophically inclined Brit named David who reminded me for all the
world of a skinny Ringo Starr<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
David had decorated his part of our office with pictures from an old calendar—atmospheric
black and white photographs with poignant sayings. I only remember one of the
pictures. It was the photograph of an old man sitting in shadows on a porch.
The caption read, “I no longer care if anyone truly loves me. I will settle for
being treated well.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Isn’t that the truth? The older we get, the
less concerned we are with the opinions of others. There’s something liberating
about old age. Once we’re retired, we’ve achieved all the status we’re going to
achieve. If our hair gets thin and our flesh sags, we’ve got to decide our
looks don’t matter anymore. We’re not in competition any longer—even though the
gods of this world are constantly trying to tell us we <i>must</i> stand out from
the rest of the pack. At some point we reach the place where we’ve made peace
with our own ordinariness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In her commentary on the Ash Wednesday gospel (Matthew
6:1-6, 16-21) on the <i>Working Preacher</i> website, Pacific Lutheran Seminary
professor Alicia Vargas writes how Jesus is teaching us in these verses to
focus our piety on our relationship with God and not on what the world will
think of us. If we are generous, prayerful, and sacrificial (remember that <i>fasting</i>
was not about going on a diet—it was about denying oneself so as to have
resources to donate to the more needy), we don’t do it to be praised. It’s all
between us and God. Dr. Vargas notes the passage begins with a warning: if we
do what we do to be admired or to show someone up, we get no reward from our
Father.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">But here’s where I see a dichotomy. I agree our
motive should be to do what is right, denying the values of this world, and storing
up our treasure in heaven. At the same time, isn’t doing what is right almost
always about our relationship <i>with</i> others? Aren’t we commanded to love
God and love neighbor? Although this scripture—a passage we read every year on
Ash Wednesday—tells us not to disfigure our faces, we purposely do so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 267.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Why?<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We
do it to be witnesses to one another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
Late Christian writer Rachel Held Evans, in her beautiful book <i>Searching for
Sunday<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></i>,
tells of how a radio interviewer once asked her why, since she had so many
doubts and questions about her faith, she could remain a Christian. Her answer
was, “I’m a Christian because Christianity names and addresses sin. It
acknowledges the reality that the evil we observe in the world is also present
within ourselves. It tells the truth about the human condition—that we’re not
okay.<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
cross of ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday is a witness to the truth that
we are sinners, we hurt and <i>are </i>hurt, and some day we will die. We come
before one another on this sacred day and get these ugly truths out in the
open. And somehow, once the truth of who we are and what we are is out there,
it doesn’t seem quite so shameful anymore. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
liturgical formula for this ancient rite comes from Genesis 3:19<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“By the sweat of your face shall
you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you
are dust, and to dust you shall return.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I
always try to remember that in the story told in Genesis, God had banished the
man and his wife from Paradise and had condemned them to a life of sweat and
toil. Yet God did not make good on the threat God had issued about eating from
the forbidden tree<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“…but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
die.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Instead,
God commuted the death sentence and gave disobedient humanity another chance to
learn obedience and gratitude and love—treasures stored in heaven with no promise
of earthly acclaim or reward.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Let
us all begin this season of Lent in humility, aware of our common vulnerability
and of the graciousness of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Aptos",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Aptos; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
David Herman was a gifted teacher and theatre director. Several years my senior
in age, he was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a “big brother.” He was
always very patient and kind with his young colleague. He passed away in 2006.
I think of him often.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Aptos, sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Evans,
Rachel Held: <i>Searching for Sunday: Loving Leaving, and Finding the Church</i>
(Nashville, TN, Nelson Books, 2015). It’s a good book. You should check it out!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Aptos, sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid. p. 67.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Ash%20Wednesday%202024.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Aptos, sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Genesis 2:17</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-23757540385984653882024-02-07T15:44:00.005-05:002024-02-07T15:48:26.872-05:00Wearing White (Reflections on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 2024)<p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzGSnRIuDZ972PP_qyVEGekNHOoRQLpIWnOIhijLDdGNKWRdzBaiN_HpacQnVpEzS_kU9cbSJRrugwN7T-1p-vyW9nUEsFaYl-0NcMB7wbhZrO4F7b4D8TDTfoo8mr5f8wsqyRafXVOFm6hrUquAFgox_X5sQfFIq835lXovkeVK7Wui1tmMZt5ME5IoaR" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="418" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzGSnRIuDZ972PP_qyVEGekNHOoRQLpIWnOIhijLDdGNKWRdzBaiN_HpacQnVpEzS_kU9cbSJRrugwN7T-1p-vyW9nUEsFaYl-0NcMB7wbhZrO4F7b4D8TDTfoo8mr5f8wsqyRafXVOFm6hrUquAFgox_X5sQfFIq835lXovkeVK7Wui1tmMZt5ME5IoaR=w243-h400" width="243" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Transfiguaration" A. Bouts 1451 Fitzwilliam Museum</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“This is my Son, the
Beloved; listen to him.” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
9:7)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Feast of the
Transfiguration has always been a tricky festival for me. What do you do with
“Shiny Jesus?” I was thinking this year I’d just let my Assisting Minister,
Pastor Natt from the Lutheran Church of Liberia, tackle this one, but Pastor
Natt has to work his secular job this Sunday. So, I guess I’ll have to dig into
this very unusual text (Mark 9:2-9) one more time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If we back this story up
a little, we find Jesus and his posse have been doing their thing around the
village of Bethsaida just north of the Sea of Galilee and were on their way to
Caesarea Philippi on the Mediterranean coast, a journey of some 55 miles or so
as the crow flies. (I suspect their itinerary had less to do with a desire to
go to the beach and more about a need to go around the neighborhood where the
Samaritans lived in order to avoid any possible unpleasantness caused by
religious differences.) On the way, Jesus asks the rather touchy question about
who the disciples think he is. Good old Peter finally blurts out that he thinks
Jesus is the promised Messiah. Jesus affirms this, but warns the boys that
being the Messiah is going to lead to some pretty nasty business—rejection,
abandonment, and crucifixion. He further informs them that no small amount of
sacrifice is going to be required on their part, too. But, he goes on to assure
them it’s all going to be groovy in the end—the Son of Man will be raised, and
those who lose their lives for his sake will actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">find </i>their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Six days later, Jesus
takes Peter, James, and John—his best buddies—on a little prayer retreat on top
of a high mountain. What strikes me about Mark’s telling of this tale this year
is that Jesus’ “clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could
bleach them.” This isn’t some ancient Clorox commercial. The white garment has
special significance. In the book of Daniel God appears on his throne dressed
in dazzling white.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
I guess seeing Jesus similarly turned out might’ve been meant to suggest Jesus’
divinity. In the book of Revelation all the souls before the throne of God are
wearing white robes, some are martyrs who have “washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb,<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>” which seems rather
counter-intuitive to me as a laundry instruction, but there you are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We still use the white
robe on special occasions. Think of baptismal gowns, First Holy Communion
dresses, confirmation gowns, wedding gowns, and the alb worn by pastors. We don
the white as a symbol of God’s purity (given to us by grace, not any purity of
our own), but each of these moments when the white gown is worn is only a
milestone on a journey. It’s never the end, just a new beginning. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mark tells us that Peter
and the other two were “terrified” by the sudden change in Jesus’ appearance
and the mysterious presence of two long-dead Jewish prophets. (I’d be too,
wouldn’t you?) But Peter’s response to all of this divine glory is to suggest
pitching tents and hanging out on the mountaintop. He doesn’t quite get that this
moment isn’t the end—it’s the start of a new chapter in Jesus’ ministry. It’s
the start of the chapter that leads to the cross. Peter likes seeing the glory,
but he’s not too crazy about what must come next.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Both the special guest
stars in this gospel story have “mountaintop” tales of their own. God, through
Moses, led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and through the Red
Sea. In return, the Almighty expected a little more obedience from them. He
called Moses up to Mount Saini and gave him the Ten Commandments. You’ll remember
when Moses first came down from the mountain with the tablets of the Law there
was all that nasty business with the Golden Calf. Moses, in a rather unbecoming
fit of temper, smashed the tablets.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> He then, after a little punitive
slaughtering of the chief idol-worshipers, had to go up the mountain again to
have another chat with God and, presumably, asked the Lord to cut him a
replacement set of tablets. When he came back down, he was glowing like an
all-night taco stand. He was shining so bright the other Israelites had to put
a vail over his face.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> But this isn’t the end of
the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor Moses had to go on for
another 40 years, leading a bunch of recalcitrant cry-babies through the desert.
The glory on the mountain with God was just a promising chapter, but there was
lots of pain to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ditto with Elijah. He’s
the prophet who come along during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. He’s dealing
with a whole nation of God’s people who have driven the bus into the ditch. Ahab
and Jezebel have the folks worshiping foreign gods, and Ahab is as crooked as a
dog’s hind leg. Elijah has the difficult task of bringing a corrupt nation back
to God. He does this by challenging the priests of Baal to a contest on Mount
Carmel<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. His moment of mountaintop
glory comes when God vindicates him by nuking his sacrifice with a bolt from
Heaven while the prophets of Baal stand around with their mouths hanging open. Elijah
is victorious and gets to indulge in a little punitive slaughter of his own. Unfortunately,
Queen Jezebel just can’t get used to the idea that she lost the contest, so she
puts a hit out on him and forces him to flee to the desert in frustration and
despair.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wouldn’t it be great if
the mountaintop, white robe moments lasted forever? Alas, they don’t. You may
find yourself feeling comfortably close to God one minute, and then lost in the
wilderness of this world the next. You may do everything right and still get
treated like a criminal. You may find yourself recognized by some for who you
are and who God wants you to be, but then be misunderstood and rejected by
others. The challenge of faith is to find the glory in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not glory</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It sounds pretty
simplistic, and I guess it is, but it all comes down to listening to Jesus,
doing what he says, and knowing there’s one more garment of dazzling white we’ll
wear someday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve appreciated your
visit this week. Do come again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">See Daniel 7:9<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Rev. 7:14. See also Rev. 3:5, 4:4, and 7:9.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Exodus
32:19<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Exodus 34:29-35.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> 1
Kings 18:20-40.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-36066664371024157362024-02-01T10:09:00.003-05:002024-02-01T10:26:02.115-05:00Using Words When Necessary (Reflections on Epiphany 5, Year B 2024)<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiF_f8mgbsmDVcemCnJYELPkCWPfOz9b4HnqP4e9kfUE8tpk4alhFL19B9dX8MXxPbOoHsYrFt8AvTBS8nWIAF8qV6CghtttCBmM4DCkVilpg_Gt1dq-3tfVWjnjoj2NzBph4TpUwRsmyBQvdDhxuSJg_nCIgijBRd6InmzdRcPcDks0-Scdi1tBHXz7my9" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="949" data-original-width="1024" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiF_f8mgbsmDVcemCnJYELPkCWPfOz9b4HnqP4e9kfUE8tpk4alhFL19B9dX8MXxPbOoHsYrFt8AvTBS8nWIAF8qV6CghtttCBmM4DCkVilpg_Gt1dq-3tfVWjnjoj2NzBph4TpUwRsmyBQvdDhxuSJg_nCIgijBRd6InmzdRcPcDks0-Scdi1tBHXz7my9=w400-h371" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law (Rembrandt c. 1658)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may
proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do. </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
1:38)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My Confirmation students were reading about Saint Paul this past week. I
had them look at Acts chapter 9 where Saul gets converted to faith in Jesus
Christ and starts preaching the gospel. This led to some umbrage being taken by
the Damascene Jews who previously thought Saul was on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their </i>team. Their response to the previously anti-Christian zealot hooking
up with this new fraternity was to put a hit out on him (those Middle Eastern folks
really take their religion seriously!), causing the Christian community to
sneak Saul out of town in a basket lowered through an opening in the walls of
Damascus. This, of course, sparks some moral questions like “Would you be
willing to put your life at risk for your faith?” or “Is it just enough to live
a good life or do others need to hear about Jesus from you?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My students (bright lads, both of them) seemed to be in line with the
thinking of Saint. James who said, “I, by my works, will show you my faith.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>” That
is, they don’t feel it’s necessary for one to go about spouting one’s belief
system all over the place. It’s better just to do the works of love, mercy,
generosity, and compassion and let those things speak for themselves. Preaching
the gospel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without </i>words as Francis
of Assisi would say<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the gospel lesson appointed for Epiphany 5, Year B (Mark 1:29-39) Jesus
is doing more works and less preaching. He’s already given what we have to
believe was a pretty provocative sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum, but when
he gets to Simon and Andrew’s house, there’s a medical situation which requires
him to take some action. Simon’s mother-in-law<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
is in bed with a fever. In the days before NSAID’s or antibiotics, this could
be a pretty serious condition. Jesus responds by working a miracle. He takes
the old gal by the hand and raises her up. The fever leaves her, and she gets
back to serving her family and their guests. The word for “serve” in the Greek
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diekonei</i>, which the old King James
Bible translated as “ministering.” It’s actually the same word Mark uses for
what the angels did for Jesus in 1:13 when Jesus was led into the wilderness to
be tempted by Satan. I like this because it suggests what this lady did was
more of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">calling</i> than a socially
enforced gender role.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Having done this one good work, Jesus is now called upon to play doctor
to just about everybody in the neighborhood. The word gets out, and before Mrs.
Simon’s Mother-In-Law can serve dessert, half of Capernaum shows up on the doorstep
expecting Jesus to heal their diseases or cast out their demons. Jesus—being
Jesus—gets to work and spends the evening doing his thing for the sick and
demon-possessed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The works Jesus did in Capernaum should, you’d think, speak for
themselves. You’d have to think people would be grateful to be healed or have
their loved-ones healed. They’d be impressed by this rabbi’s relationship with
God, and their lives would be powerfully impacted. I don’t doubt some of them
felt this way. But, human nature being what it is, I have to believe some
others were happy to have been healed or to have witnessed a miracle or two,
but they really didn’t get the message. Maybe that’s why Jesus had to sneak off
in the early morning darkness to have a private word with his Dad. He prayed,
and the answer he got was, “Proclaim the message.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus didn’t come just to be a local healer. He came to proclaim God’s
Kingdom. Using words was necessary for his mission—even when his deeds of power
underscored the message. Not everyone is called to be a preacher or an
evangelist. But I believe when we articulate our faith, we strengthen and heal
each other. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, we’ve all known people who don’t seem to be able to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stop</i> proclaiming the message of their
faith. When they begin sentences with, “I was reading in my Bible last night,”
or “I think the Lord is telling me,” you might just feel like slapping them.
But I think our polite, restrained, Northern European Lutheranness often keeps
us from proclaiming the message at all—or even being sure of what the message
is.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My little congregation—on the ropes as she may be these days—is still
doing deeds of power for those in need. But I don’t often hear us using words
of faith outside of Sunday worship. I’m going to propose an interactive
mid-week series for Lent which will ask participants to speak about their faith
experience. I know we’re kind of shy, so I’m not sure how well it will go over;
nevertheless, I’m willing to give it a shot. Sometimes it’s just necessary to
use words.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So let’s talk, okay?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
See James 2:18<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Actually, the famous quote “Preach the gospel at all times and, if necessary,
use words” has never been conclusively proven to have been said by St. Francis.
It sounds good, though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Epiphany%205,%20Year%20B%202024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The term “mother-in-law” is kind of confusing. It was not uncommon in Jesus’
day for many families to live together in a single home or compound. It’s
probable that Simon lived with his wife’s family. It’s also possible that the
term “mother-in-law” is used as the Brits used it and the sick lady is Simon
and Andrew’s step-mother. Of course, this distinction doesn’t really matter
since Simon left her (whoever she was) to follow Jesus. I just thought you
might be interested.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-17075130447834739102024-01-24T14:44:00.001-05:002024-01-24T15:34:52.900-05:00When the Spirit Needs a Bath (Reflections on Epiphany 4, Year B 2024)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgX33FZt71f-wvp_l0JZIz0mSaDjd11LGBoF5dWpzkUeSG-UvDMbJwXVDNnEGTGwuE0Xthb8TRCcovMczjXiwGGR2lzVLkkAUmtvYpkHnCGHPOZjH1mQf1na46hfGjQxn_o8Z-buHvmcyRzq_9vWIcsO_yRpaEVXx8dQ2e9GX697EQIpwOxs35ZLt1ebqFn" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="241" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgX33FZt71f-wvp_l0JZIz0mSaDjd11LGBoF5dWpzkUeSG-UvDMbJwXVDNnEGTGwuE0Xthb8TRCcovMczjXiwGGR2lzVLkkAUmtvYpkHnCGHPOZjH1mQf1na46hfGjQxn_o8Z-buHvmcyRzq_9vWIcsO_yRpaEVXx8dQ2e9GX697EQIpwOxs35ZLt1ebqFn=w320-h277" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">21 </span></sup></i></b></span><span class="text"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath
came, he entered the synagogue and taught. <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">22 </span></sup>They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught
them as one having authority and not as the scribes. <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">23 </span></sup>Just then there was in
their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">24 </span></sup>and he cried out, “What have you to do with us,
Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy
One of God.” <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">25 </span></sup>But
Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">26 </span></sup>And the unclean spirit,
convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">27 </span></sup>They were all amazed,
and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with
authority! He<sup>[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A21-28&version=NRSVUE#fen-NRSVUE-24240a" title="See footnote a"><span style="color: #4a4a4a;">a</span></a>]</sup> commands
even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">28 </span></sup>At once his fame began to spread throughout the
surrounding region of Galilee. </span></i></b></span><span class="text"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
1:21-28) </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Okay, so just how exactly did all of this go
down? Whenever I’ve read the above passage (our gospel lesson for Epiphany 4,
Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary), I imagine Jesus just blithely
preaching his interesting little homily when suddenly—BANG!—the doors of the
synagogue burst open and some drooling, demon-possessed maniac rushes in and
starts ranting at the Lord. This time, however, I’m really paying attention to
that bit about his teaching them “as one having authority and not as their
scribes.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So maybe it happened like this. The good folks of
Capernaum were used to getting their Sabbath lessons from scribes—guys
specially trained to copy sacred texts. The scribes weren’t theologians
themselves. Instead, they parroted the interpretations they heard from other
rabbis and gave the folks the party line. I’m thinking that line was probably
full of a lot of “Thou shalt nots.” There were reminders that Gentiles and
Samaritans were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">icky</i>. Good Jews
should steer clear of them. They probably went on about eating good kosher
diets, making proper sacrifices, and avoiding anybody suspected of being a
sinner or in some way impure. I bet it was some pretty boring stuff week after
week, but it made some folks feel comfortable and smugly superior to sinners,
the infirm, and foreigners.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But, just when going to synagogue was becoming a
lazy, zombie-like routine, along comes this guy Jesus. Jesus isn’t quoting any
long-dead sage. He’s interpreting the scriptures in a new way. He’s preaching a
living message about love, forgiveness, inclusion, and compassion. He’s lifting
up the poor. He’s telling them God desires mercy more than ritual sacrifice. He’s
telling them God is not distant but near them and among them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And it’s pissing some folks off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Some old geezer is sitting in the synagogue just
fuming because he’s not hearing what he expects to hear. He’s getting his Fruit
of the Looms in a bunch because this Nazarene rabbi is assaulting the
conventions he’s always held ever since he was taught them in Hebrew school. He
hears in the teaching of Jesus an attack on his idea of what it means to be a
Jew and a follower of the Scriptures, and he doesn’t like it one little bit.
Finally, he’s heard enough, and that unclean spirit of self-righteousness within
him explodes. He shouts out, “What have you to do with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>, Jesus of Nazareth??!! You’re not even from around here, and
you’re tearing down everything we hold sacred! Have you come to destroy us? Who
do you think you are—the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Holy One of
God??!!” </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Well. As a matter of fact, he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> the Holy One of God. And, as the Holy
One of God, he’s not about to let a heckler throw him off his game. He calls
out the unclean spirit—not condemning the man himself—but calls the spirit of
fear, self-righteousness, arrogance, and complacency for what it is. Such
spirits aren’t anything we ever give up without a struggle because having our
convictions challenged always means a loss of part of our identity. We fear we
won’t know who we are anymore when we’re forced to see things in a new way. Any
attempt to get us to change our minds can be met with a convulsion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When Pope John XXIII told Catholics they should
say the mass in their native language and not in Latin, some folks had a
convulsion. For a lot of folks, this change was just too much, and they reacted
with an unclean spirit of defiance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s Concordia
Seminary started to suggest that not every single word in the Bible should be
taken literally, an unclean spirit of denial and oppression arose among the
denomination’s leadership which ripped that communion apart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When the ELCA’s 2009 Churchwide Assembly declared
LGBTQ+ people could be qualified for ordained ministry, an unclean spirit of rebellion
broke out, and many congregations walked away from the national church body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Whenever our long-held beliefs are challenged,
whenever we sense an existential threat to our identity, we go into convulsions
and our unclean spirits percolate to the surface. Asking some Americans to
confront the injustices of the past or to embraces policies which aid those
they feel are undeserving is causing a massive convulsion in our land. How do
we address this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We must always remember that Jesus rebukes the
spirit, but never the person. It’s the spirit—the outmoded ideas, the
stubbornness, the arrogance—which is unclean, but there are no unclean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">people</i>. We must rely on the authority of
Jesus. We must lean on Christ’s teaching of love of enemies, compassion for the
poor, and repentance leading to absolution and healing. Technology, culture,
and institutions change, but the authority of Christ remains constant. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And let’s try to be aware of our own spirits.
Sometimes they could use a good bath in the words of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-1368493464084619622024-01-17T14:32:00.001-05:002024-01-24T11:14:29.958-05:00God Doesn't Stutter (Reflections on Epiphany 3, Year B 2024)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnuYfaSUL6yZCeNN2nzaiwAxR6gTOtioKf6odpJHff9-3-9CBXJuOcIxbPUJSTQcK8EXW0vKByA9SZyW9PQ54vYhdrdlyyfWoNMBEDCcmhDyt0zUbwMo7OHICRliMQ2J9wMzUznlm--cthKmjlQ6pjT7fjV_xUhC6zEIUi4baXW5eL0tf2jpfIAhfhTYjU" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnuYfaSUL6yZCeNN2nzaiwAxR6gTOtioKf6odpJHff9-3-9CBXJuOcIxbPUJSTQcK8EXW0vKByA9SZyW9PQ54vYhdrdlyyfWoNMBEDCcmhDyt0zUbwMo7OHICRliMQ2J9wMzUznlm--cthKmjlQ6pjT7fjV_xUhC6zEIUi4baXW5eL0tf2jpfIAhfhTYjU=w283-h400" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Calling of Peter & Andrew" J. Tissot (French 19th Cent.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="background: repeat white; color: #777777; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">14</span></sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God, </span></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #777777; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">15</span></sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” </span></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><pp style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">16</pp></span></sup></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As
Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew
casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. <sup><span style="color: #777777;">17</span></sup>And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I
will make you fish for people.” <sup><span style="color: #777777;">18</span></sup>And
immediately they left their nets and followed him. <sup><span style="color: #777777;">19</span></sup>As he went a little farther, he saw James
son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the
nets. <sup><span style="color: #777777;">20</span></sup>Immediately he
called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men,
and followed him. </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
1:14-20) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Don’t you ever, when you
read the above gospel lesson, wonder what Old Man Zebedee was thinking? I see
this old guy sitting alone in his boat, looking up at God and saying, “Have I
offend thee, O Lord, that thou hast given me two schmendricks for sons? Did I
do something wrong that my boys should leave a perfectly good job in the
fishing industry to follow this meshuggeneh rabbi from Nazareth? Please tell me,
God! Oy vey!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I guess when you have to
go, you have to go. This lesson is the second “call story” we get in the
Revised Common Lectionary during the Epiphany season. Unlike last week’s
stories, there’s nothing ambiguous going on here. There’s no questioning or
wrestling with God in either the gospel or the First Lesson (Jonah 3:1-5, 10). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In my last post I
referenced the great C.S. Lewis who turned his back on Christianity as an adolescent
(as many of us do), endured some real lousy times, and found his way back to a
mature and profound faith in Christ later in life. I also mentioned the wonderful
Rachel Held Evans who was raised in a fundamentalist Evangelical tradition,
began to question the church’s teachings, but staggered her way to an
expression of Christianity which seemed authentic and genuinely compassionate
and congruent with the Jesus she experienced in Scripture. Our Epiphany 2
lessons featured a snarky, questioning Nathanael and a very confused Samuel. There’s
none of that groping, questioning, or debating in the lessons for Epiphany 3.
God is calling. It’s time to leave the nets and follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The difference between
these “call” stories is, I think, the difference between our call to faith and
our call to discipleship. The call to faith is—and I think it always should be—a
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">process</i>. Throughout our lives we
should keep questioning, debating with ourselves and others, and seeking a
better understanding of God and our Church’s core beliefs. We can never have too
much knowledge, can we? And we have to expect that our perspectives will—and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i>—change as we get older.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The call to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discipleship</i>, on the other hand, can be
very specific and very immediate. Luke’s version of the call of the first
disciples gives a convenient miracle story about an amazing catch of fish (Luke
5:1-11) to explain the reaction of the fishermen to Jesus’ invitation to be his
followers. Matthew and Mark give us bupkis as to why these guys would bail on their
livelihood and just walk off behind Jesus. Jesus just says, “Follow me,” and
off they go. It makes me wonder if there were some in Galilee who said, “No
thanks, Jesus. I’d rather stay here and fish.” You think? But maybe our heroes
Peter, Andrew, James, and John felt in their hearts the pressing and immediate
need to hear this rabbi and be part of whatever mission he was on. I wonder if
there wasn’t a certain sense of desperation in the land that told them the time
to act is right now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The RCL marries this call
story to the second call of Jonah in that delightful and wickedly funny little
novella tucked in to the canon of the Minor Prophets, Jonah. Jonah, if you remember,
gets called to go to the Assyrian capital of Ninevah—the headquarters of some
real badass folks—to proclaim God’s displeasure and intention to open a giant
can of whoop ‘em on the whole town. Quite naturally, Jonah doesn’t want to heed
God’s very direct call to preach to people who are his enemies and will
probably kill him for his trouble. You know the story: he runs away to sea, get
eaten by a fish, repents, gets barfed out on land, yadda, yadda. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The thing which strikes
me about this story and its RCL juxtaposition with the gospel lesson is that
God doesn’t stutter in either of these tales. Jesus says “follow me.” God tells
Jonah, “Go and do this thing.” The characters in the stories <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> God is calling, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> they must answer in the
affirmative.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They also know there’s going
to be a cost. The fishermen leave a sure thing for something uncertain. James
and John also, I’m sure, upset their old man by abandoning the family business
and leaving him to fish by himself. Jonah goes on a dangerous mission to save
people he really doesn’t like. Sometimes the Holy Spirit tells us to do
something we wish she hadn’t mentioned. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But sometimes the time is
now. It’s time to make a change, confront an issue, or speak a word of
exhortation. It might be about something in your home or here in church or in
your community. It’s time to ask yourself, “What do I really care about?” and “What
do I do about it?” It’s time to say, as Samuel did last week, “Speak, Lord,
your servant is listening,” and be ready to hear the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">May God be with you this
week to grant you wisdom and courage in all you do!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-84222981264885023762024-01-11T12:54:00.002-05:002024-01-11T12:54:41.917-05:00Good Question! (Reflections on Epiphany 2, Year B 2024)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUeIuva2n_p3B453p5qUgi3WZ3laaxfS1iyunqWcll8y6BE9ySLod09jBLRU0OZ3z6XwqEDr8-mTZKTJLlIJhgqzawfAsVgBLMkzETf1XYuPI98OE6IqZH5EF8VwR7RselN60LZqrJE3IBBolRkuaCLt9zcPiSJttl9_act9t4bElJYDGTo9PQw21tt9ey" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="210" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUeIuva2n_p3B453p5qUgi3WZ3laaxfS1iyunqWcll8y6BE9ySLod09jBLRU0OZ3z6XwqEDr8-mTZKTJLlIJhgqzawfAsVgBLMkzETf1XYuPI98OE6IqZH5EF8VwR7RselN60LZqrJE3IBBolRkuaCLt9zcPiSJttl9_act9t4bElJYDGTo9PQw21tt9ey=w123-h640" width="123" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” </span></i></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(John 1:46)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What’s your call story?
Do you ever think about it? I’m not talking about a call to join a monastery or
go off to serve starving children in Swaziland (are they starving in Swaziland?
I wouldn’t know) or to take a new job or adopt a Ukrainian orphan. No. Before
we can be called to any of that stuff we first have to be called to <i>faith</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I guess what I’m asking
is, when was the moment when you first realized you really were a Christian?
Not just someone who went to your parents’ church or adapted to the culture of
Western society, but a real honest-to-Jesus believing Christian. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You don’t know? Me
neither. Sometimes it’s just something that happens to you when you don’t try
to think about it. Martin Luther said in the <i>Small Catechism</i> that he
couldn’t believe in Jesus Christ or come to him through his own logic, but the
Holy Spirit called him—as she calls us all—through the gospel.<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m just now re-reading
the late Rachel Held Evans’ touching and beautifully written memoir of faith
called <i>Searching for Sunday</i><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. I’m on the chapter in
which twenty-year-old Rachel, an English major at Bryan College in Tennessee,
starts to question everything she’s been taught in Sunday school. I’m certainly
glad she became so skeptical of the dogma of her evangelical upbringing,
because, had she not, the world would never have the thoughtful and beautiful
meditations on faith found in her books. Likewise, dear old C.S. Lewis, creator
of the <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i>, considered the rite of Confirmation his
graduation from church and himself an atheist for years before returning,
“kicking and screaming” as he said, to the Christian faith. Some of us, like
Paul said to the Philippians, work out our salvation with fear and trembling<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Of course, not every
faith story requires a detour through apostacy, but I strongly doubt any
authentic faith comes from floating down a smooth stream of thought on a rubber
raft of unquestioning acquiescence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">True adult faith demands
questioning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Both the gospel (John
1:43-51) and the Hebrew Scriptures (1 Samuel 3:1-20) lesson for Epiphany 3,
Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary tell skeptical call stories. In the
gospel, Philip tells his buddy Nathaniel that he’d found the guy Moses and the
prophets had spoken about, and it turns out it’s Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel
isn’t buying it. This guy knows his scriptures, and he knows there’s nothing
written there about a Messiah coming from a hick place like Nazareth. Besides,
Nazareth is kind of the armpit of Galilee—nothing good comes from there. But
Philip says to him, “Come and see,” and Nathaniel is open-minded enough to go
along. Of course, he’s going to question Jesus when Jesus claims to know
something about him. Nobody understands what that fig tree thing was about,
except, apparently, Nathaniel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the story in 1 Samuel,
the writer tells us that disembodied spirit voices and divine visions weren’t
exactly everyday occurrences. When something supernatural happens, both Eli and
Samual misinterpret it. Samuel thinks he’s being called by Eli, and Eli
probably thinks the kid is hearing things in his sleep. The encounter with God
comes only after some doubt and confusion. Understanding may take a while, and
sometimes we have to ask lots of questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Audrey West, Associate
Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, notes
in her essay on the Working Preacher website that John’s gospel contains
several instances of people questioning Jesus. Look at Nicodemus (“What do you
mean by ‘born from above?’”) or the Samaritan woman at the well (“So does God
want us to worship on Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion?”). Both these folks have some
theological issues they want to take up with Jesus but find themselves
dumbfounded by his mind-blowing answers. Even Pontius Pilate has an existential
question to put to the Lord (“What is truth?”), and, of course, there’s “Doubting
Thomas” who, like Nathaniel, isn’t about to swallow something whole on somebody
else’s say-so alone. True belief, it seems, emerges from skepticism, doubt, and
questioning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what kind of questions
should we be asking ourselves? I’d say we might want to go back to some basic
stuff like:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is religion?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why is religion important?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is the point of the stories we tell?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What do these stories mean to me?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How am I different because I embrace these
stories?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What does it mean to the world that I am a
Christian?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is Jesus to me?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How is Jesus revealed through me?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(We can leave the tougher
questions like “How did the Bible come to be written?” “What cultural
expressions shaped early Christian doctrine?” and “If God loves us so much, why
do we suffer?” for a later time.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Americans we are often,
I think, politely silent on matters of faith. I think we need to learn to
question our faith and to have meaningful<i> conversations</i> about the
questions we ask ourselves. We won’t grow or mature by passivity. That will
lead us only to childish superstition, unbelief, or dogmatism—none of which are
particularly attractive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps a reason churchgoing
in America is on the decline is because we haven’t challenged ourselves enough.
We know God loves us just as we are, but if we have the opportunity to dig a little
deeper, shouldn’t we take it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A blessed Epiphany, my
friend. Keep being curious.</span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
That’s Luther’s explanation to Article 3 of the Apostles Creed in case you were
wondering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Evans,
Rachel Held, <i>Searching for Sunday</i> (Thomas Nelson: 2015). Rachel was a
journalist and wonderful Christan writer who passed away tragically from
medical complications in 2019. She was only 38 years old.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Epiphany%202%5eJ%20Year%20B2024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Philippians 2:12</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-70500913105435565202024-01-04T13:19:00.001-05:002024-01-04T13:19:48.930-05:00Welcome to the Family (Reflections on the Baptism of Our Lord, 2024)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtdQXxwcYLM_Pzb3VZ5e00yUlVnicEAKP7w_-VWqouf-IzuSroqRfujw2ZRYBcFqlTmFur8S6I-MiXB5o4eDiO7uMk99Lz57f48qgNdWPVKYdwHE7tlvLRA5Z1PCLZfstjWTvNHd3ZxI63tWCAtERVi-rLwKc-FSknuKC_8pDpZUop0tC5iRrm0oEC_F-W" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="240" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtdQXxwcYLM_Pzb3VZ5e00yUlVnicEAKP7w_-VWqouf-IzuSroqRfujw2ZRYBcFqlTmFur8S6I-MiXB5o4eDiO7uMk99Lz57f48qgNdWPVKYdwHE7tlvLRA5Z1PCLZfstjWTvNHd3ZxI63tWCAtERVi-rLwKc-FSknuKC_8pDpZUop0tC5iRrm0oEC_F-W=w340-h400" width="340" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">And a voice came
from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” </span></i><span style="color: #010000;">(Mark 1:11)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">“Someday, when she’s
old enough to understand, you’ll have to tell Eloise that she’s adopted.” These
are the words with which I plan to begin my homily for the Feast of the Baptism
of Our Lord this year. We at Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia will be kicking off
2024 with a baptism on that most appropriate of liturgical feasts, the First
Sunday of the Epiphany, the Sunday which celebrates Jesus’ baptism. I’m going
to tell Eloise’s mommy and daddy that, just as the heavens were torn apart when
John baptized Jesus and the voice declared Jesus to be Son and Beloved, (See
Mark 1:4-11) so, when the water is poured on baby Eloise’s head, she will be
adopted into God’s family, become a little sister to all of us, and will
forever be an inheritor of God’s forgiving grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">I have to give our
evangelist, St. Mark, props for just giving us the main points of the story.
Compared with the other evangelists, Mark’s version is like the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cliffs Notes</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #010000; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #010000;">John calls people to
a baptism of repentance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #010000; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #010000;">People get baptized
confessing their sins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #010000; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #010000;">John tells people
Jesus is coming and will baptize with the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #010000; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #010000;">Jesus gets baptized.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #010000; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #010000;">The heavens open,
the Spirit descends, and God declares, “Yup! That’s my boy! And he makes me
really happy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">That’s it. You get
washed, and you’re family. I always say that Jesus getting baptized is like
washing in our dirty bath water. He’s totally okay with wading into the sin and
weirdness we’re trying to wash off because he wants us to know that we’re all
in this thing together, and he’s not afraid to be in it with us. He’s willing
to do whatever we do, and to go through whatever we go through. That’s how
God’s family rolls.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, I thought this year I’d
go over some of the stuff that’s important in this adoption<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> ritual</i> we do<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Baptism%20of%20Our%20Lord%5eJ%202024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Before we make a
confession of what we believe and what it means to be a Christian, we first
have to distance ourselves from the stuff we <i>don’t</i> believe and <i>don’t </i>want
to be part of our new life and family. Candidates for baptism—or, more
frequently, their parents and sponsors since the candidate may be just a little
too young to speak for him or herself—are asked to renounce the devil and the
forces which defy God, the powers of this world which rebel against God, and
the ways of sin which draw us away from God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ll admit I don’t talk
or write a whole lot about the devil. What’s more, I don’t think you have to
believe in an anthropomorphic demon figure with horns and a pitchfork to get
what this liturgical statement is saying. You would do well, however, to
acknowledge that there’s some pretty nasty stuff that going on in this
world—stuff you don’t want to be part of and you don’t want your children or
anyone you love to embrace. There are spirits of selfishness, hatred, and anger
that are running loose on this planet. There’s the desire to worship raw power
for its own sake, to make a false god out of victory, to dehumanize others for
the sake of self-aggrandizement, to conquer, acquire, and consume at the
expense of the helpless, to control through cruelty and humiliation, and to
waste the resources of God’s creation. In short, there is <i>sin</i>. And we
need to know it, see it, and reject it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are also called upon
in our baptismal rite to reject the powers of this world. That doesn’t mean
that we renounce the world and live in caves like hermits, which, let’s face
it, would be difficult to do as there are only so many caves to go around. It
also doesn’t mean we blow the raspberry at all forms of secular government.
What it<i> does</i> mean is that we differentiate between what baptism tells us
and what the culture tells us. Baptism tells us we’re God’s kids, we’re
beloved, and God delights in us. We’re adopted because God our daddy loves us
just as we are—sin and all. The world, by contrast, tells us we <i>can</i> be
beloved <i>if</i> we’re thin enough, pretty enough, accomplished enough, rich
enough, wear the right clothes, drive the right car, live in the right
neighborhood, have the right job, etc., etc. You get the idea. God doesn’t have
time for that slop. God just loves us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally, we’re asked to
renounce the ways of sin that draw us personally away from God. We all have to
learn to take our own inventory at times. We’ve got check our supply of
grievance, cynicism, pessimism, arrogance, perfectionism, frustration,
addiction, indifference, intolerance…yeah. Again, you get the idea. And sometimes
you just have to be okay with<i> not</i> being okay. You have to remind
yourself that, however big a screw-up you are, you’re still baptized. You’re
still part of the fam. Because whenever you think you’ve got it all handled on
your own, whenever you think you know better, whenever you’re convinced you’re
right and the rest of the world is wrong, that’s probably when you’re being the
biggest jerk of all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you were a God-fearing
Jewish person back in John the Baptist’s day, you’d take plenty of ritual baths.
You’d get washed if you’d been sick, if you’re girl and you had your period, if
you touched blood, or touched dead things. But the bath we take with Jesus in
our baptism is a one-shot-guaranteed-for-eternal-life deal. It says you’re
adopted and you’re family no matter what. That’s God’s contract with us—a contract
we remember every time we come with the other adoptees as a family to our
Father’s dinner table. Our part of the deal? Just to feel our Father’s love and
respond as our heart tells us to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">God’s blessings to you,
my fellow adopted sibling! May you have a wonderful and meaningful New Year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Baptism%20of%20Our%20Lord%5eJ%202024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> You
can find the liturgy I use for Holy Baptism in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Evangelical Luth</span>eran Worship</i> (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress
Publishers, 2006 pew edition) pages 227-231. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-49388037846677803292023-12-17T14:30:00.006-05:002023-12-25T07:40:46.976-05:00The Gospel According to Scrooge (Reflections on the Nativity of Our Lord, 2023)<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmjcle9gfP1p2ZW4JwBD0688y9pCkriYZRCy5Fgbk9DFDPBJH2oF7M43cBN4QrEwPcKeiuzU054ehyK_vnoP3Jlenn64gJdom9uEArAr9SXoV04AyQhNbrXlJgLHzbxDWVY5wVxjwzQpL1agzTAkqPoLC5FhdPLQjP3Xo_QMw87Hb3RoMr_suV4rTFHUZx" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmjcle9gfP1p2ZW4JwBD0688y9pCkriYZRCy5Fgbk9DFDPBJH2oF7M43cBN4QrEwPcKeiuzU054ehyK_vnoP3Jlenn64gJdom9uEArAr9SXoV04AyQhNbrXlJgLHzbxDWVY5wVxjwzQpL1agzTAkqPoLC5FhdPLQjP3Xo_QMw87Hb3RoMr_suV4rTFHUZx=w245-h400" width="245" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Glory to God in the
highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” </span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Luke 2:14)</span></b></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Bah, humbug!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That phrase is almost as
ubiquitous as “Merry Christmas.” It’s the grouchy epithet spewed out of the
snarled lips of the greatest miser in literary history, Ebenezer Scrooge. With
the singular exception of the story of Our Lord’s nativity, Charles Dickens’
ghostly yarn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Christmas Carol</i>, the
story of the lonely, covetous, ill-tempered capitalist is probably my favorite
Christmas story—and, possibly, one of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my
favorite stories in all English literature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I first encountered <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Christmas Carol</i> in junior high, and I
guess I’ve seen every movie version of it ever made and quite a few stage
adaptations. I played the role of Scrooge myself when I was in high school. I
remembered I had about a half pound of greasepaint<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Christmas%20Eve%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> on my face to create
Scrooges hollows and frown lines, and my hair was sprayed white. Decades later I
played the role again in a charity production for our Lutheran Social Ministry
Organization Feast of Justice. By that time I didn’t need the greasepaint or
the white spray. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dickens wrote his Christmas
novella in 1843just as England was experiencing something of a renaissance in
the observance of Christmas. Hitherto, Christmas was just another Christian
feast day observed in the Anglican Church like Epiphany and Pentecost. Its more
festive aspects were mostly observed in rural communities; however, with the
German influence of Prince Albert on Queen Victoria, it was becoming a “thing”
with the more fashion-conscious Brits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The juxtaposition of
greed and poverty was a pretty big deal for Charles Dickens. As a child he
experienced considerable hardship and degradation. When his father was chucked
in prison for non-payment of debt, twelve-year-old Charles was forced to sell
his library of books and go to work in a factory putting labels on bottles of
shoe polish. It was a penurious and humiliating experience he never forgot.
Even after experiencing some success as a writer, Dickens never lost his concern
for the poor. Earlier in 1843 he toured Cornish tin mines and witnessed the
deplorable condition of child laborers. He also was given a tour of The Ragged
School, a virtual penitentiary masquerading as an educational institution for
London’s street urchins. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">His response was to write
the classic tale of the selfish man who, through supernatural intervention, is
forced to see the error of his ways and opens his heart to the less fortunate.
As a novelist and magazine editor, Dickens would annually produce a Christmas story,
but none of his subsequent works ever had the power over the public imagination
as did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Christmas Carol</i>. Dickens was
not a particularly religious man, but the story of Scrooge’s conversion
resonates deeply with the teachings of our faith. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chiefly, the tale is
about the possibilities of redemption and forgiveness. As Scrooge recognizes
the depth of his own sin, he asks the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, “Are
these the shadows of things that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i>
be, or are they the shadows of things that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">may</i>
be only? Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if they be
persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends
will change.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What always strikes me
about this scene of Scrooge’s self-realization is that he would not have come
to it without intervention—just as we, without the promptings of the Holy
Spirit, would not come back to our own need for repentance. I like to believe
that God’s spirit had something to do with Dickens in inspiring him to write
this tale. After <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Christmas Carol</i>
was published charitable giving in Britain increased dramatically. Many
attributed this to the book’s influence. Indeed, from that time to this,
charity to the poor has become as much a Christmas tradition as mistletoe,
colored lights, and candy canes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Christians know that
the gospel story has always been more about poverty than opulence, and more
about oppression than privilege. In Luke’s gospel it’s a distant and uncaring
government which forces a man and his pregnant fiancé on a dangerous 70-mile
journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The mother of our Lord and Savior is an
unmarried, pregnant teenager. She will give birth in a barn—homeless and left
outside. The birth of the Christ will be announced to a group of peasants. In
Matthew’s gospel, the child and his parents will soon become refugees, forced
to run from their native land and seek refuge in a foreign country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Above all, we know that
the Christmas story is about God coming to us. We are, as the song says, “in
sin and error pining ‘til he appeared and the soul felt its worth.” Not the
worth of our own estimation, but our worth in God’s eyes—in the eyes of the one
who came to us so we could see his power, love, and majesty in a small,
helpless baby.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May we, like dear old
Scrooge, have our hearts continually moved by the homeless infant in the
animal’s feeding trough. May we daily die to sin and rise to newness of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And may God bless us,
every one!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Christmas%20Eve%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Yes, greasepaint. It was still used back then—a particularly nasty
petroleum-based make-up designed over a century ago by Max Factor. It covered
your skin like Sherwin Williams paint and took forever to wash off. Ah, the
things I did for my art!<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-23077209056498300222023-12-16T15:26:00.002-05:002023-12-17T14:19:49.573-05:00Hail, Mary (Reflections on Advent 4, Year B 2023)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyBa8zR99gsL1YnVZTxaAjbGpDs1iujuBtJM_fEZ9TpLLKsZ-zLvesTZYxdX-KL-HBS-JCBVzx1rOqOoCzelta93PnKbDZPzJrZ2JBuE6_xUAyXgkjk0quRAJV7ZOq1PHucUlASHi1gi3HcyLbJ1EGY-CemByMTWCaY1s6ucIZqVuwKIcFxYBw7w_HPhFq" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyBa8zR99gsL1YnVZTxaAjbGpDs1iujuBtJM_fEZ9TpLLKsZ-zLvesTZYxdX-KL-HBS-JCBVzx1rOqOoCzelta93PnKbDZPzJrZ2JBuE6_xUAyXgkjk0quRAJV7ZOq1PHucUlASHi1gi3HcyLbJ1EGY-CemByMTWCaY1s6ucIZqVuwKIcFxYBw7w_HPhFq=w337-h400" width="337" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Annunciation" Koninck (Swedish 1655)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God.” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Luke 1:30)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.” Any Roman Catholic
(or former Roman Catholic) will be familiar with these words. They’re the first
words of the “Hail Mary” prayer, that oft-repeated orison which forms the bulk
of the Catholic Rosary. Praying to Jesus’ mom is an integral part of Catholic
spirituality. A former parish administrator—a good Catholic lady who went to
mass every morning before coming to work at the Lutheran church—once said to
me, “I don’t understand why you people don’t pray to Our Lady. She will help
you.” The theological answer to that questions (as every good Lutheran should
know) is not that venerating Mary is idolatry. Indeed, our confessions teach
that the lives of the saints are always to be held up as examples of
righteousness. We don’t pray to the saints because Luther figured the doctrine
of intercession of saints was unnecessary. God, in God’s boundless love and
grace, values each of us sinners just as much as God values the most pious and
heroic of the departed. In other words, we each have a direct line to the
Almighty, and no intermediaries are necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Of course, if you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to
pray to Mary, it certainly can’t hurt.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Doctrine aside, Luther was always very touched by the story in our
gospel for Advent 4 (Luke 1: 26-38), and wrote very tenderly of Mary. In fact,
he even criticized the angel for accosting the young girl with a salutation
that sounded like the wording on a draft notice. He felt it was no wonder Mary
should be spooked when the serif greeted her with “Hail” or “Greetings.” Being a
dad himself, and having great respect for the mysteries and dangers of
childbirth, Luther had wished Gabriel had taken a softer and gentler approach
with this young lass who was, we assume, just barely starting her teen years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Christian art has always tried to make the birth of our Lord look
pretty. Our Christmas cards depict a glowing Mary beaming over the manger with
a radiance which makes her look like she’s just had a spa treatment—instead of
having just survived the messy, sweaty, bloody, and excruciatingly painful
ordeal of childbirth. There’s no question about Mary being “much perplexed”
(v.29) and probably utterly<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> terrified</i>
by the prospect of having a baby. Back in my middle school teaching days it was
painfully common for me to see thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls get
pregnant. I used to go into emotional convulsions thinking about the awesome
responsibility of a child having a child. The physical dangers of childbirth
notwithstanding, I couldn’t imagine the terror these kids must’ve felt knowing
their whole futures were about to be irrevocably altered. Mary must’ve felt the
same way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the twelfth century abbot and Doctor of the
Church, wrote that three miracles were present in the Annunciation of Our Lord:
1) that God would condescend to become human, 2) that a virgin would conceive,
and 3) that Mary actually agreed to do this. Luther believed the third miracle
was the greatest of all. He reasoned that “nothing will be impossible with
God,” but a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl agreeing to undergo pregnancy,
risk losing her fiancé, and possibly being stoned to death of adultery or, at
the very least, shunned from society was a pretty mind-blowing thing indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So why did Mary agree? What sealed the deal? Gabriel certainly talked up
how cool it would be to have this particular baby. Mary would be the mom of the
Son of the Most High and the Messiah who would reign on David’s throne forever.
That would be pretty sweet. He also assured her she wouldn’t even have to have
sex in order to conceive. I imagine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i>
issue was probably weighing heavily on her young mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But the grabber was the news that her older cousin Elizabeth was also
having a miraculous baby. The only thing scarier than having to face an unknown
event is having to face it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alone</i>.
When Mary learned that a relative, another woman with whom she was comfortable,
was going to experience the same thing, she found the courage to say “yes.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love that later on in Luke’s gospel
(vv.39-56) Mary went to see her cousin and stayed with her until Elizabeth’s
baby, John the Baptist, was born. There must’ve been something very special
that bonded these two women—neither of whom was supposed to be pregnant. There
was the whole astounding mystery and miracle of childbirth which none of my
gender will ever understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When my wife was expecting, she shared a room in the hospital maternity ward
with a lady named Hannah. Both women were having their first child, and they
bonded immediately. Even though Marilyn is a Catholic and Hannah is Jewish, the
expectant moms found they had much in common. Hannah gave birth to a little girl
eleven hours before my stepdaughter was born, but both women cheered and
encouraged each other through the experience. They have each been through
myriad changes in the years since they met, (Hannah lives much of the year in Florida)
but from the day of their daughters’ births to today, they remain the best of
friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Nothing glues us together like a shared experience. That’s the point of
the Incarnation. Jesus has come to share our experience so we will know and
believe that God understands our pain and fear, that our temptations and sins
will be conquered, and that we are never alone. Emmanuel. God is with us, and
there is no place we will go in this life where Jesus hasn’t already been.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We are called in our
lives in Christ to be imitators of our Savior. To be present for one another.
We are called to share our experiences, to encourage, to help, to teach, and to
love each other as Christ did for us. Perhaps we won’t all be heroes in the
courageous sense, but we can all be neighbors. And may we all pray for each other as fellow sinners—now, and at the hour of our death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A blessed Christmas to
you, my friend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-21277427142089264542023-12-11T13:15:00.014-05:002023-12-11T22:53:49.672-05:00Celebrate the Light (Reflections on Advent 3, Year B 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdvKtFS0NGN0ayZ8T4IswmDUM_zD50QN0v7dkMWNYnRShZ4xry_9VlYTIH-wU267Su8LVbMDhcxwB8Wakvolk-5wZv9bHvcClriMArycTWCeuc2RNV3_yaDx9B96mxVQKUJyLQhtuuDSwWyjGZcP5kjMHdatwcxI_NvyMsEg_DYNzvwQkIjmxy7tybwgZq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="284" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdvKtFS0NGN0ayZ8T4IswmDUM_zD50QN0v7dkMWNYnRShZ4xry_9VlYTIH-wU267Su8LVbMDhcxwB8Wakvolk-5wZv9bHvcClriMArycTWCeuc2RNV3_yaDx9B96mxVQKUJyLQhtuuDSwWyjGZcP5kjMHdatwcxI_NvyMsEg_DYNzvwQkIjmxy7tybwgZq=w400-h249" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></sup></i></b><b><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He came as a witness to testify to the light, so
that all might believe through him. </span></i></b><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(John 1:7)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Isn’t that our job at Christmas? To testify to the light? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Can I tell you I freakin’<i> love</i> Christmas lights? Some years ago,
my wife and I had some evergreen trees planted in the space behind our house.
One of them is a Norwegian spruce. It was about five or six feet tall when it
first went in the ground. I thought it looked like a Christmas tree, so I
strung about four or five hundred outdoor Christmas lights on it. It looked
awesome. Unfortunately, as evergreen trees are wont to do, the sucker has now
grown to a height of about ten feet and, with its proportionate circumference,
illuminating it requires a feat of engineering of which I find myself sadly
incapable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So! This year I got the idea to have the trees by our back patio
professionally illuminated. The front of our houses faces a cul de sac, but the
backyard is visible to much of the neighborhood. For a mere $400 the Griffiths
house could boast two gigantic Christmas trees—each blazing with thousands of
colored lights—testifying to Jesus the Light of the World. But, prudence
winning out over enthusiasm, the Bride and I decided it was too frivolous an
expenditure. We settled on spending $12 at Walmart and lighting a row of
boxwoods beneath our front window.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere comes at the winter solstice—the
time when our half of the planet is tipped the furthest from the sun, the days
are the shortest, and the nights are longest. Since Jesus didn’t have a birth
certificate, we don’t really know when his actual birthday was. Subsequently,
our early Christian ancestors appropriated some pagan solstice festivals. One
of these was <i>Sol Invictus, </i>or the feast of the Unconquered Sun. This
involved a lot of bonfire and candle lighting on or around December 25<sup>th</sup>.
Our ancestors liked this festival because we considered Jesus to be the Sun of
Righteousness who was unconquered by death on the cross. Another Roman solstice
festival was <i>Saturnalia</i>. This shindig resonated with our ancestors in
that it called for masters to serve slaves (Jesus said the first will be last,
remember?), and promoted feasting, merry-making, and general silliness. These
customs carried on as Christmas customs well into the Middle Ages and are still
practiced—however unofficially—today. We Christians still light the candles on
the Advent wreath, put lights on our homes, and defy the darkness with joy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the gospel lesson appointed for Advent 3, Year B (John 1:6-8, 19-28)
we’re told that John the Baptist came to testify to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">light</i>. Jesus, the light of the world, shines on us to illuminate
our unworthiness, call us back to his love, and to light our way in the
darkness so we can go forward without fear. I really dig how John the Baptist,
in the Gospel of John, has such a sense of humility about his relationship to
Jesus. He is incredibly self-effacing in this reading, claiming he isn’t even
worthy enough to do the slave’s job of taking off the master’s sandals. By
shining a light on his unworthiness, he highlights the supreme worthiness of
Jesus. We’re all, in our own way, a bunch of unworthy screw-ups. Yet Jesus came
to be with us, to teach us, to heal us, to suffer with us, and to rise for us. Jesus
sees us as worthy, and that’s reason enough for a party. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now the priests and the Levites in our reading could use a little
enlightening. They seem to have been dwelling in the darkness of closed minds.
They had their list of who should be preaching and baptizing, and they couldn’t
reconcile anyone outside their parameters as having a word of divine wisdom.
John even told them that the Messiah is <i>standing among them</i>, yet they do
not know him. I think their darkness came from an unwillingness to see
possibilities. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It's pretty easy to slip into that kind of darkness in our world. We see
so much violence and feel so much loss. It’s easy to despair, and despair is
the brother of apathy. When we feel there is nothing we can do, we simply stop
caring. When we stop caring, we stop being human. We need to believe in the
light.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A few weeks ago I was asked to participate in a service at one of our
local funeral homes. This was a Christmas tree lighting ceremony for families
who had lost loved ones during the past year and were facing the first
Christmas in which a chair would be vacant at their feast. I could certainly
understand their feelings. I lost my dad many years ago on the 12<sup>th</sup>
of December. I had planned to get my Christmas tree that week, but I had to
wonder if it was at all right to celebrate when the family patriarch—the guy
who was the epoxy that held our family together at Christmas—was so recently
deceased. My mom had lost her partner of thirty-five years and, suffering from
severe COPD, was left without her primary care-giver. My siblings had lost
their dad. Would celebrating be in bad taste?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Christians of Bethlehem seem to think so. This year Christian
leaders in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank—Roman Catholic, Orthodox,
Syrian, Coptic, and Lutheran—have all agreed that Christmas cannot be
celebrated while so much violence and death is raging in Gaza. The Christmas
crèche at Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem has been
intentionally covered in rubble and debris as a sign that Jesus is in
solidarity with all the children of Gaza who have been buried beneath the wreckage
caused by Israeli bombardments. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">BUT: for the grieving here in America, I say “Light the lights.” Yes, we
are witnessing war, inflation, declining church attendance, horrific weather
events, bickering politicians, street crime, and any number of discouraging and
dysfunctional things that would make this the wrong time for a party. But we
will celebrate the light of the World all the same. The secular world may use
Christmas as a time to anesthetize themselves from the surrounding darkness,
but Christians use this time to defy the darkness. For as long as Jesus Christ
is in this world, there will be hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(By the way, I decided to get the tree that year. My dad would’ve wanted
me to)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May God bless you with defiant joy this Advent Season!<a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">PS - I encourage you to watch this video from our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Palestine. Click on <a href="https://apnews.com/video/west-bank-christmas-gaza-gaza-strip-hamas-61415e7b858e4116a34110b5338726de" target="_blank">Christmas Lutheran</a>.</p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-73722869289359685942023-12-05T15:34:00.000-05:002023-12-05T15:34:06.612-05:00Clean Up! (Reflections on Advent 2, Year B 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-hAqQH9MguCUiKfBFF8rkVJJwbCAICdOL-OM5PttUHoU1OzO_GW-SfOtC7aO1ms3KL4HCT7wQQoTr3PU5vr718KKqDTAmtQDYd3XDWRbnI93wp3utW8UQQ0whQlA04R2eSkLsqnDR88ZO5RfjA_xVe_36pK2MV48I1KSWk8erEZ6ggi7Diov4N49D6RRy" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="250" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-hAqQH9MguCUiKfBFF8rkVJJwbCAICdOL-OM5PttUHoU1OzO_GW-SfOtC7aO1ms3KL4HCT7wQQoTr3PU5vr718KKqDTAmtQDYd3XDWRbnI93wp3utW8UQQ0whQlA04R2eSkLsqnDR88ZO5RfjA_xVe_36pK2MV48I1KSWk8erEZ6ggi7Diov4N49D6RRy=w267-h400" width="267" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John the baptizer
appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Mark
1:4)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You’ve got to love John
the Baptist, that wacky, bug-eating guy who always shows up in our gospel
lesson on the Second Sunday in Advent (Mark 1:1-8 this year). Sometimes God
uses crazy people to get our attention, and, as Jewish prophets go, John really
isn’t much more bizzaro than Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Hosea. He’s out in the
wilderness, a figure set apart, wearing his camel skins, a no-nonsense, call-‘em-as-I-see-‘em
kind of guy. He might seem a little scary, but he’s come to rattle our
collective cages and shake us out of our torpor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you’ll recall, John
got himself in no small amount of trouble by criticizing Herod Antipas, the
King and ruler of Galilee. It seems old Herod had married his brother Philip’s
ex-wife, Herodias. To us, taking your brother’s cast-off missus doesn’t seem
like too big a deal, but in the world of the text it was definitely a no-no. I
might be a little more liberal in my views of divorce and remarriage, but I have
to agree with John in one aspect: if the leader of the land breaks the law (and
Herod did it pretty flagrantly), what does that say to the people he’s supposed
to be governing? When corruption and indolence become the norm for leaders,
doesn’t that give license to everyone else to slack off in their observance of
God’s laws?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ll bet if John were
with us today he’d really have his work cut out for him. Our American national leadership
has shown so much partisanship and such a disgraceful lack of decency and
civility that it almost makes one want to lose one’s lunch. We’ve been willing
to elect the boorish and the unqualified. Both major parties have seen in
recent years individuals with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no government
experience at all</i> claim they can be the leader of the Free World. It’s
enough to drive you to despair. Indeed, I’ve heard any number of folks claim
they no longer even want to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vote </i>given
the bad behavior of the people from whom they’d have to choose.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s very tempting to
throw up our hands and say, “What can you do?” Yet John wasn’t one to give up.
He was on a mission. The leaders can affect the people, but the people can also
affect the leadership. If the people hunger for and demand righteousness,
justice, and compassion, perhaps the leadership will respond. John calls the
people, who cannot change their leadership, to change <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">themselves</i> in preparation for a new leadership they’ve never
imagined.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The First Sunday of
Advent is always a call to wake up, recognize the impermanence of things, and look
forward to what God is doing. The Second Sunday in Advent is a call—from the
voice of John the Baptist—to get our own act together. We can acknowledge the
world is changing. We need to be ready to make a change in ourselves. It’s time
for us to use the time of waiting and preparation to take a bath and wash off
the things which hold us back from being God’s righteous people. It’s time to
repent—to change our minds—and inventory the issues in our lives that keep us
from being the people God created us to be. Time to wash off anger, resentment,
past grudges, unfair judgment of others, and prejudice. It’s time to be a
little more careful about what we say to each other. It’s time to recognize
where and how we can be better friends, better neighbors, better parents,
better partners, better Christians. We cannot demand more from the world unless
we demand more from ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John tells us the one who
is coming is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">powerful</i>. The coming
Messiah has the ability to set our hearts on fire. John wants us to wake from
our sleep and clean up our lives just as we would clean up or homes for an
expected visitor. He’s asking us to set our expectations higher, to be lights
in the darkness, and be the people who believe and can proclaim with integrity
the hope of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Keep your light shining,
and thanks for looking in on me this week. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-76796374738737184722023-11-20T14:31:00.000-05:002023-11-29T08:36:17.699-05:00Light the Candle and Watch (Reflections on Advent 1, Year B 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibt4FDA2PCRoqQxyxDsuLbwTJu_g6yqKIUV2WefgTw-3w2zgFdBpxVy3QHDlAq9G3sWtm4096-Gy0mxPX6B0_0O0G0dE1o3oScDx_g1gik1Qv51bC3WQtcyYwXC5N63pv-nzstTM4pcl1gMpSoX4HUAJGJXSdybXX-ecwGtIZq0vMwPSr0gFh9dv84N-wI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibt4FDA2PCRoqQxyxDsuLbwTJu_g6yqKIUV2WefgTw-3w2zgFdBpxVy3QHDlAq9G3sWtm4096-Gy0mxPX6B0_0O0G0dE1o3oScDx_g1gik1Qv51bC3WQtcyYwXC5N63pv-nzstTM4pcl1gMpSoX4HUAJGJXSdybXX-ecwGtIZq0vMwPSr0gFh9dv84N-wI=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“O that you would tear
open the heavens and come down…” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Isaiah
64:1a)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Advent One has always
given me a pain. I’ve said it before. I just don’t like all that “sun will be
darkened,” end-of-the-world jawn we find in the appointed gospel lesson (Mark
13:24-37). It reminds me too much of the early 1970’s when all the hippie Jesus
Freaks (including my sister) were reading that monumental piece of steaming
crap <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Late Great Planet Earth</i> and
were expecting to be raptured into the clouds. With the Yom Kippur War of 1973,
the Holy Rollers were certain Hal Lindsey’s “prophesies” were coming true, the
Battle of Armageddon was beginning, and it was just a matter of time before
Jesus swooped down and caught up all the “real” Christians in the clouds—saving
them from the sulfuric tribulation God was about to visit upon the wicked of
the earth. As you’ll recall, it didn’t happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I take some solace from
Jesus’ words to his disciples in verse 32: “But about that day or hour no one
knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So,
okay. If Jesus wasn’t let in on the secret, I don’t think Hal Lindsey was
either. But I’ll bet, given the genuine horror we’re witnessing in Gaza right
now, some preachers somewhere are busy telling their flock to start packing
their spiritual bags because the End is coming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Of course, if it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t</i>, we should be prepared for that,
too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I used to get out of
preaching Advent One sermons by asking guest preachers to cover that Sunday.
This year, I’m going to sneak around it by focusing on the appointed First Lesson,
Isaiah 64:1-9. But first, let me just summarize the points Jesus makes in the
gospel. If you look at a fig tree sprouting leaves, you don’t need a crystal
ball to know the seasons are changing. Stuff is changing all the time, so get
used to it. Second point: stuff happens when you don’t expect it, so be
watchful all the time. I think maybe the Lord is telling us not to get too
stuck on what we lose when things change. Rather, it’s wise to be looking
forward to what our new possibilities might be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So now let’s take a look
at Isaiah. Chapter 64 is right near the end of the book, or in what smart Bible
scholar folks call “Third Isaiah.” Whoever put ink to papyrus and wrote this
part of the book was probably doing so sometime between 538 and 445 BCE. Somewhere
in that give-or-take ninety year period the Jews who were living as captured
exiles in Babylon returned to Israel and started rebuilding the land their
parents had been telling them about. Suffice it to say, things weren’t as
groovy as the old folks had remembered. Jerusalem was in ruins, there was no
temple on Mount Zion, and it looked like half the remaining folks who weren’t
exiled had screwed up the Jewish faith and were worshiping in some weird
semi-Assyrian manner. Everything was chaotic, and this was, as you can imagine,
a pretty big letdown for the returning exiles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I suspect we can identify
with these folks in a small way. We’ve returned from our exile due to COVID,
only to find a severe drop-off in church attendance—an experience which seems
common to just about every congregation everywhere. Stuff isn’t going back to
the way we remembered it. What’s worse, the whole world has been more than
normally insane lately. There’s war in Israel and Gaza, war in Ukraine, and war
in the US House of Representatives. There’s probably been war at your Thanksgiving
dinner table too as we Americans seem to be as polarized as we’ve been since the
Civil War. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a lot with which
we can identify in this poignant and poetic passage from the Hebrew Scriptures.
Don’t you, like the prophet, just want God to rip the sky open, come down, and
straighten out the mess we’re in? Wouldn’t that be cool? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the Jesus Freaks of
the ‘70’s learned, that’s probably not going to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a real poetic desperation
in this passage. Look at verse 5: The prophet looks like he’s saying, “God, you
got mad at us and walked away. So it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i>
fault that we floundered around and made stuff worse! Now everything really
sucks.” He’s articulating a feeling of being abandoned, isolated, and doomed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">BUT: Down in verse 8 he
drops the crumb of blessing: “Yet, O Lord, you are our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Father</i>.” A real, genuine, righteous dad never completely turns his
back on his rotten kids. He can’t. They’re his kids. My graduate school days
were, as I recall, quite penurious. I used to sell my blood plasma twice a week
for grocery money. Still, I knew that if I were ever in a real jam I could always
call my dad and ask for help. He might get mad because I was a lousy, careless,
irresponsible steward of money, but he’d still bail me out. That’s what dads
do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In verse 9 the prophet of
Third Isaiah reminds God—and, by extension, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>—that
we are still God’s people. God is the potter, and we are the clay God has
shaped and formed and loved. The days are growing darker, shorter, and colder.
The world is just getting weirder and scarier. But we are the Advent people. We
light candles in the darkness. We settle in for the long night and winter ahead.
It does no good to mourn the past. We keep our lights lit and stay awake to see
what opportunities lie ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A blessed Advent to you,
my friend!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-30311265853013939082023-11-18T13:16:00.000-05:002023-11-18T13:16:12.841-05:00Some Thoughts on the "Forgotten Holiday," Thanksgiving 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjwTB9vzXhifSG0926a2aeU6bcBYi2DolCjYPUkWNufXsOTAU1XmeGEuNbHa51Z7PFE4cAcT6NaVM1x9RTLBY5H4x-jimoPI0VVy3VpUn0ZqS2toLFsY_MF1imQd6NHyVSdUNXRcwQ1OgMcT_NIPP2qKq0nuIZdaj6WquvVKzzSwf1p2lS3pKlaFzUMxJC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="127" data-original-width="250" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjwTB9vzXhifSG0926a2aeU6bcBYi2DolCjYPUkWNufXsOTAU1XmeGEuNbHa51Z7PFE4cAcT6NaVM1x9RTLBY5H4x-jimoPI0VVy3VpUn0ZqS2toLFsY_MF1imQd6NHyVSdUNXRcwQ1OgMcT_NIPP2qKq0nuIZdaj6WquvVKzzSwf1p2lS3pKlaFzUMxJC=w400-h204" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Take care that you do
not forget the Lord your God…” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Deuteronomy
8:11a)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve often thought that
Thanksgiving is America’s forgotten holiday. It’s wedged between the gaudiness
of Halloween and the ever-increasing lollapalooza that is Christmas. I think we
often consider it the dress rehearsal for Christmas while forgetting its
spiritual significance. In the face of all the insanity this world has been
throwing at us lately, we really need to remember that it’s not all a putrid miasma
of violence, corruption, and high prices. God is still good, and spiritual
wholeness requires that we slow our roll every once in a while and recognize
this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thanksgiving, in spite of
its implied significance as a day to express gratitude to<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> God</i>, isn’t actually a “church” holiday. It’s a one of our national
holidays which began merely as tradition but became official when Abe Lincoln
declared it so in 1863—which was a pretty crappy time in the US. But it’s in the
really crappy times that we most need to recall the blessings of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Strangely, one of the
best anecdotes I’ve learned about the spiritual power of gratitude came from
the arch capitalist, Suze Orman. Many years ago, a faithful congregational
council member suggested I take some church stewardship tips from Suze Orman’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></i>
I don’t have a copy of the book, so I might not have all of the details correct
(please forgive me, Ms. Orman), but I think I have the basic facts down. It
went like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The future personal
finance guru Suze Orman was working for a brokerage firm. I don’t know if she
was wooing investors or selling commodities or whatever, but—as happens—she managed
to hit a slump in her career. She wasn’t selling, and the harder she tried, the
more desperate to make commissions she became, the worse things got for her. She
became depressed—so depressed, in fact, that she just stopped going into the
office. I picture her at home, sitting on the sofa in her pajamas, eating
Haagen-Dazs out of the carton, and watching <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sesame
Street</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sesame
Street</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, of course, is on PBS, and PBS is non-commercial and
survives on corporate and private donations. A PBS pledge appeal caught Suze’s
eye. She might’ve thought, “I’m going <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">broke!</i>
Don’t ask me for money when I’m facing fiscal disaster!” Instead, she
considered that, although she might’ve been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">going</i>
broke, she wasn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actually</i> broke at
that moment. She recognized that she still had resources and she still had
possibilities. What she needed was gratitude and faith. She grabbed the phone
and made a pledge to PBS. She would later say that when one’s fist is closed, nothing
more can come into it. One only receives with an open palm. She went back to
work the next day and began selling again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">None of us knows what
lies ahead of us. American Christianity is changing rapidly, and church just
isn’t going to be like it was in the good ol’ days. But right now in this
moment God is still good. We still worship in a free country. We still have the
comfort of Christian fellowship. We still have the enormous capacity to see
Christ in our midst, to be empathetic, and be witnesses through our generosity,
advocacy, and hope. If every church in America were to close its doors
tomorrow, the gospel would not lose any of its power. God is good—all the time,
and we are still baptized, sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the
cross of Christ forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Jesus we see great
love, inclusion, and forgiveness, but we also see enormous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gratitude</i>. There’s a story in John’s gospel in which Jesus
experiences the death of a friend. He comes to the funeral and begins to weep
just as all those around him are weeping; nevertheless, when he prays to God,
the first thing he says is, “Father, I<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> thank</i>
you.”<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> When Jesus has 5,000
mouths to feed and—so it appears—not enough food, what does he do? He says
grace over what he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has</i>. We even say
in the mass, “In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and gave thanks</i>.” You must admit, the
night in which Jesus was betrayed was not a good night for him. All the same,
the Lord saw in that small frightened gathering of followers a glimpse of the
Kingdom of Heaven—and he was grateful for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the gospel lesson
appointed for Thanksgiving (Luke 17:11-19) Jesus cures ten lepers of a pretty
icky disease that’s made other folks want to keep their distance from them.
Nine run to show themselves to the priests to be re-admitted to society, but
one, a Samaritan, returns to offer his humble, heart-breaking gratitude to the
one who restored him to health. All ten lepers were cured (temporarily at
least. The condition of being human is ultimately incurable), but only the
Samaritan was healed—made whole—because there can be no joy without gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus tells the
Samaritan, “Your faith has made you well.” That’s what it’s about, isn’t it?
Faith and gratitude. They go together. If you lack faith, find your gratitude
and your faith will be restored. If you lack gratitude, lean on your faith and
the goodness of God will drop back into your heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am always grateful that
you chose to read my blog each week. May you have a blessed and meaningful Day
of Thanksgiving. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Orman, Suze The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (Crown Publishers, 2006)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 11:41a<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-75417240019667787192023-11-14T15:29:00.000-05:002023-11-14T15:29:35.945-05:00Investment is Risky (Reflections on Pentecost 25, Year A 2023)<p><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4X0c6SwjzmTG5_SjhSs9m4SO8CfMU8Gnz4rytHHBeEFLp-dX_2cHMYzFrMIL6UdCqeWhSn_iuIWt4pdPWF1gU1gzksrVXwiVA2nXI3twJjFh59TXiXZ0RhTbKYtBAi4NqXBtwn17Kdw1ahnkdneBq3g-NHaneJ9SzRr6TXaxDKgDH-niBQW_hr4-CaaKS" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="220" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4X0c6SwjzmTG5_SjhSs9m4SO8CfMU8Gnz4rytHHBeEFLp-dX_2cHMYzFrMIL6UdCqeWhSn_iuIWt4pdPWF1gU1gzksrVXwiVA2nXI3twJjFh59TXiXZ0RhTbKYtBAi4NqXBtwn17Kdw1ahnkdneBq3g-NHaneJ9SzRr6TXaxDKgDH-niBQW_hr4-CaaKS=w334-h400" width="334" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Parable of the Talents" A. Mironov 2013<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></i></b></p><div style="text-align: left;"></div><p></p><p><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Well
done, good and trustworthy slave!’ (Matthew 25:20)</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Back in my misbegotten Hollywood days I worked for a time for a Wall
Street investors relations firm. The LA office hired a bunch of us unemployed
actors because we did most of our business over the telephone and they liked
that we had nice speaking voices and could sound professional. I didn’t know
much about the stock market when I started to work there, but I learned one
important lesson about the securities business—it’s not at all secure. In fact,
I left that office thinking most folks would have better luck taking their
money to Las Vegas than investing it in the market. I like the disclaimer one
brokerage firm tags their TV spots with: “Investments in securities involves
the risk of loss.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Yup. You can make a fortune trading stock, but you can also lose your
butt. An investment in the gospel is also a risky proposition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The gospel appointed in the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost 25,
Year A (Matthew 25:14-30) tells the tale of a rich guy who has made some pretty
shady deals himself and expects his employees to make him even richer than he
already is. This boss is ready to pass out promotions and bonuses to the
workers who show him they know how to turn a profit. He doesn’t appear to be
the nicest guy to work for, nor the most honest, but he seems to have a keen
idea about the abilities of his workforce, and he doesn’t trust his guys with
more capital than he thinks they can handle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Fun fact: A “talent” was worth about 6,000 denarii—roughly equivalent
to 6,000 times the average daily pay for a laborer. Multiply minimum wage by
an eight-hour day times 6,000 and you’re talking a <i>lot</i> of cash. I think
Jesus is telling us these guys were entrusted—as we are—with something pretty
darn valuable.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We don’t want to get too hung up on the profit and loss thing in this
story. Some nitwit TV preacher might tell you Jesus wants you to live boldly and
think positively so you can become filthy stinking rich just like the nitwit TV
preacher. This is not the point. There are plenty of wealthy people in the
world who are really rotten human beings, right? It’s best we look at this
passage in light of the community for whom Matthew wrote it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew composed his gospel a good four decades after the time of Jesus.
His folks were hoping the Lord was planning a return engagement during their
lifetime, but, like the master in the parable, Jesus seemed to be taking his good,
sweet time about coming back. This was a problem because confessing faith in
Jesus was risky. Both the Jewish community and the Roman authorities were
looking at Christians with a stink eye. It wasn’t all that safe to be a
Christian, so some folks got scared and bailed on the faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I think Jesus’ point in this story—and Matthew’s point to his community—is,
however long it may take, some day the boss will be back. He’s going to call
you into his office and ask what you’ve done with the treasure he’s entrusted
to you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the Greek, the boss calls the slave who buried his cash in the ground<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2025%5eJ%20A.%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i>“okneros.”</i>
This word could mean either lazy or timid. Both interpretations could apply. Unlike
that First Century community, we probably won’t be jailed, exiled, or executed
for being Christian, but our work for the Boss still carries risks. If we do
the work of forgiveness, we risk being played for suckers. If we do the work of
generosity, we risk our own resources. If we do the work of cheerful volunteers
for causes we believe in, we risk being disappointed, being taken for granted,
or being taken advantage of. If we do the work of charity, we risk becoming
enablers. If we do the work of exhortation and witness, we risk alienating the
ones we care about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Investing in Christ involves risk. And there’s no guarantee that you’ll
make a fortune doing it. You will, however, enter into the joy of your master. So keep doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thanks for investing these few minutes in my blog. It is a joy knowing
you did!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2025%5eJ%20A.%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i]</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Burying
your treasure in the ground wasn’t uncommon back in the day. This was the First
Century’s version of the safety deposit box.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-34754680108356488872023-11-07T16:11:00.003-05:002023-11-08T15:13:06.699-05:00Get Some Oil for Your Lamp (Reflections on Pentecost 24, Year A 2023)<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfFXIt_WlmbQC-aHg93aAx-Lo6DzqvD83NB1TKgZ_2OC9EBdv_fcqXVVFezRjJCtqD-ktapYLQmCrqJeUPK9itB1K5Kj0KpiQ3LCcx2p7KEvDP91U7fjNNv7Fnn3eIpTLU4TV_FlkinW-jRXcFwYmjYn6Zh92sgRZCkVHG2v_CyfCPG6B-JU-5nYrj-vCO" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfFXIt_WlmbQC-aHg93aAx-Lo6DzqvD83NB1TKgZ_2OC9EBdv_fcqXVVFezRjJCtqD-ktapYLQmCrqJeUPK9itB1K5Kj0KpiQ3LCcx2p7KEvDP91U7fjNNv7Fnn3eIpTLU4TV_FlkinW-jRXcFwYmjYn6Zh92sgRZCkVHG2v_CyfCPG6B-JU-5nYrj-vCO=w400-h210" width="400" /></a></i></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Keep awake therefore, for you know
neither the day nor the hour.” </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Matthew
25:13)</span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Billy was an idiot. I’m
sorry he died the way he did, but the young man went asking for trouble and had
no difficulty finding it. I’ll spare you the details of how he came to die from
a gunshot wound and just say that his young life was taken too soon. I was
asked to do his funeral—what is it now?—some</span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
twenty</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> years ago..? But of the hundreds of memorials I’ve done in
twenty-five years as pastor in Northeast Philadelphia, his was one which I
always remember. It wasn’t just the fact that his death was a homicide. What
sticks in my mind is the reaction his posse of young mourners had to his
killing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You might think these
kids would be grief-stricken, and you’d be right. They were. But they also
appeared to be zombies, their faces frozen in masks of uncomprehending shock as
if it had never occurred to them that a contemporary of theirs could die. With
no faith tradition on which to rely, they had no clue as to how to frame their
grief.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I thought about Billy and
his bewildered friends when reading the gospel appointed for Pentecost 24, Year
A in the Revised Common Lectionary (Matthew 25:1-13). As a pastor called upon
to lead so many memorial services and as a hospital chaplain I can testify to
the glaring contrast I’ve witnessed between people equipped with faith and
those who are not so equipped when their loved one dies. Our spiritual
disciplines are like the extra flask of oil carried by the wise bridesmaids in
the parable. Praise, prayer, fellowship, generosity, and constant learning and
questioning and seeking and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">doing</i> are
our companions on the long wait that is our lifetime. These are the ways a
Christian prepares for events over which we have no control and of which we
know neither the day nor the hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m certain when Matthew
wrote his gospel his audience was eagerly expecting the imminent return of
Jesus. We think Matthew wrote some four decades after the time of Jesus, so we
can well imagine his community was getting anxious about Christ’s return.
Certainly some of the community had died while waiting. Jesus’ parable says the
Bridegroom is delayed, but wise watchers don’t fall asleep or become
complacent. Like Matthew’s community so long ago, we also know that our life is
made up largely of waiting—we waited for the end of COVID, we’ll wait for the
end of the Israel-Hamas war, we wait for our kids to get married, grandchildren
to be born, our turn to retire and, sometimes if we live long enough, for the
day when we are called home by our Lord. Our life is a constant state of
longing for something or something else.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But we long with Christ,
and our relationship with him needs to be active and growing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The compilers of the
Revised Common Lectionary yoked this parable with a passage in the book of the
prophet Amos. Amos was a farmer from the southern nation of Judah who felt
called by the Lord to go north of the border into Israel and cry out against
the religious and political leaders’ hypocrisy and complacence. The prophet accuses
the Israelites of smugly believing their proper sacrificial rites and holy day
observances are all that is required of them. They view themselves as observant
of God’s law even while letting the poor starve. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I wonder what Amos would
be saying to us today if God brought him back to confront the American church.
I like to imagine he’d rail against the Christian right for their obsession
with pro-life causes and their intolerance of LGBTQ+ individuals while ignoring
issues of injustice and poverty. Yet what would be the message to the ELCA?
Possibly we’d be called out for the same things for which Amos derided the
Israelites. Yes, we are conscientious about our sacraments. We have our
children baptized, see that they make their First Holy Communion, and we encourage
them to study their lessons for Confirmation. But there we stop. We neglect to
teach them that they’ll need an ongoing relationship with Christ and the Church
to see them through the long wait of their lives and to be the extra flask of
oil they carry when their world gets shaken by events of which they know
neither the day nor the hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There are three things
which stand out for me in the lessons appointed for Pentecost 24. First, our
faith is a life-long journey. Our need to pray, grow, and participate in the
things of God never ends. We wait in uncertain times, and we don’t know what’s
ahead, but we carry our faith in the goodness of the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Second, we are called to
an active faith. A recent country music hit by the artist Cody Johnson is
called “’Til You Can’t.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>” The message of the song
is a warning that we don’t have forever to do the things we need to do. The
singer tells us to say our “Sorrys” and “I love yous” while there is still time.
At some point the door will swing closed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thirdly, we may have only
so much oil for our lamps. If the well-prepared bridesmaids split their supply
with the foolish bridesmaids, there would be the chance that all ten lamps
might go out before the Bridegroom arrived. We need to be intentional in our
spiritual lives, and that may mean saying “no” at some point. We cannot give
what we don’t have ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s a phrase I often
share at funeral services, and, perhaps, I might’ve shared it with those
stunned and confused young people at Billy’s funeral. Your spiritual life can
never be about what happens to you because you have no control over that. It
can only be about how you embrace it. Pray that you have enough oil in your
lamp to last you through the night.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">God bless you, and thank
you for checking in on me this week.</span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">i]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">If
you’d like to hear “’Til You Can’t,” click the link <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LixP7n_hM">here.</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-51384060594487767112023-10-31T14:21:00.000-04:002023-10-31T14:21:17.576-04:00Those Who Made it Through (Reflections on All Saints Sunday, 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyZwYdFQask2VftzuI4p9hVVkY7vATvS7q4zih8YuOl9CjOo1CGuH76ktkH1KnZ1yPXSjq3tiMRGPWVFP0hCdrdeDdGDxpn7hsOFZj-NjEkuC29yOyiIIrU2tMvdnAzLNRQfIE-vZEU2r3BA9xVWRwXlvbpJYlRVoHgZv1UaYiUKYEmDY-DWtRXTXtU0kL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="300" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyZwYdFQask2VftzuI4p9hVVkY7vATvS7q4zih8YuOl9CjOo1CGuH76ktkH1KnZ1yPXSjq3tiMRGPWVFP0hCdrdeDdGDxpn7hsOFZj-NjEkuC29yOyiIIrU2tMvdnAzLNRQfIE-vZEU2r3BA9xVWRwXlvbpJYlRVoHgZv1UaYiUKYEmDY-DWtRXTXtU0kL=w400-h269" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“These
are they who have come through the great ordeal; they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”</span></i></b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Revelation 7:14)</span></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As books of the Bible go,
Revelation is a pretty weird piece of literature. It really makes you wonder what
John of Patmos (whoever he was) was smoking when he wrote down some of the bazzako
images we find in this text. I’ll be honest: I can’t even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pretend </i>to understand half of the things he wrote. Neither can
anyone else—even though there’s been a huge cottage industry that’s grown up
around trying to decode Revelation and prognosticate about the cataclysmic end
of the world. So, just for the record, even if some TV evangelist nincompoop
starts saying the horror we’re watching play out in Israel and Gaza right now
is a harbinger of the End Times and Great Ordeal predicted in Revelation, don’t
start selling your belongings and heading for some peak in the Poconos while
you wait to be raptured. The jury’s still out on the end of the world. So
chill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Having said this, I think
we can make an educated guess about those of whom John was referring when he wrote
about making it through the Great Ordeal and washing robes in the blood of the
Lamb (As referenced in our First Lesson for All Saints’ Sunday, Revelation 7:9-17).
I’m pretty sure John was talking about those who had, by his time near the end
of the First Century of the Common Era, been martyred for their faith in Jesus
Christ. Indeed, if you look at a Roman Catholic hagiology, you’re not going to
find a whole bunch of folks designated as saints who didn’t face some kind of
ghastly end. It’s our tendency to canonize those who’ve walked through the
worst crap storms but did so full of faith, hope, and love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After my dad passed away
I discovered in his personal papers an old and yellowed document declaring he
had been awarded the Bronze Star for his service in World War II. He had never
asked to receive the medal. My late father-in-law, who had parachuted into the
Battle of the Bulge, also never asked to receive his Bronze Star. I found out
from an old WWII vet that many of the soldiers who were to be awarded that
decoration refused it, believing their very survival had disqualified them from
being venerable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And yet, in or gospel
lesson appointed for All Saints (Matthew 5:1-12), we hear Jesus nominate the
poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, and the persecuted as being blessed by
God. The Great Ordeal we saints pass through may not always be life-threatening
moments of catastrophe. We don’t need to compare ourselves to those who have
faced off against mortal dangers or soul-crushing evil. The Great Ordeal might
simply be being human—living on this planet and knowing loss, illness, grief,
dissatisfaction, disillusion, or disappointment. We don’t all face the Great Ordeal—just
little ordeals every single day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The culture of our world
teaches us to praise and venerate the Taylor Swifts and Travis Kelces, the Jeff
Bezos’ and the Elon Musks, the Abe Lincolns, FDRs, and Martin Luther Kings. We
look to the talented, the wealthy, the brilliant and accomplished and
courageous and think we ourselves are in no way exceptional.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet we are to Jesus. He
died for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So we look back on the
last year and give thanks to God for the little saints. These are the saints
who weren’t fed to lions, burned at the stake, or given medals for valor. Their
passing didn’t rate a mention on CNN. There are no hospitals or college
buildings named in their honor. But they meant something to Jesus—and they
meant something to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Blessed are the poor in
spirit. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Judy Kiesewetter</b> may have
been poor in spirit when she was diagnosed with cancer. Towards the end of her
days she could barely lift a cup of water to her lips to moisten her dry mouth.
All the same, she made a heroic effort to make those of us who visited her feel
comfortable, never complaining about her pain. She was gracious and
appreciative and ladylike to the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Blessed are those who
mourn. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pat Stout</b> was faithful and
loyal to her congregation. She thought of us as her family. Pat never learned
to drive an automobile so, after the death of her husband, Bob, she was a
virtual shut-in. Still, she faithfully kept in touch with her Faith family,
remembered her offering, and prayed daily for the health of her church. She
also had a plate of cookies ready when her pastor came to visit. I’d ask her
how she was doing, and her reply was always, “Well, Pastor, I’m one day closer to
being with Bob.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Blessed are the meek and
the pure in heart. No one was more selfless, obliging, or deferential than <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marion Dallago</b>. She was simply one of
the sweetest, least self-conscious people any of us will ever know.
Nevertheless, that same sweetness and graciousness carried with it a subtle but
powerful moral authority. Whenever you were around Marion, you wanted to be a
better person for her sake.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness. I don’t know if <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pat Martinez, Jr</b>. hungered and thirsted for righteousness, but he
sure liked things to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i>. Part
of his legend at Faith Lutheran was a stand he took long before I came on the
scene when he said he’d rather see the church close than be without mission. He
could be stubborn, but he was honest and sincere in his beliefs, and he called
us out on our cowardice whenever we became more frightened of spending money
than we were zealous in doing mission.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Blessed are the merciful.
I didn’t know at the time I did <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lillian
Juliff’s</b> memorial how tirelessly she worked for Caring for Friends. Serving
others was a mission with her, and she’d get the other mature ladies in her
senior living apartment complex to donate food items which she’d cook into “heat-and-eat”
meals for elderly homebound. After her husband Neil died at the Delaware Valley
Veterans’ Home, she gave back to that organization by becoming a regular
volunteer, serving the residents in the canteen on Tuesdays. The source of
mercy is compassion, and Lillian had plenty of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our five family members
whom we lost this past year lived good, decent, and full lives. I wish,
however, to draw attention to a name on our list of the departed whose life was
cut short. Billy McWilliams was described as being a good-hearted
sixteen-year-old. He liked to ride his bike and skateboard and help out in his
family sign business on the weekends. He planned to work for the company
full-time when he graduated from high school. Unfortunately, he was killed
while riding his bicycle near Woodhaven and Byberry Roads this past year by a
hit-and-run driver in a stolen car. I didn’t know Billy, but I know his buddy,
Justin Cartledge, and I know that Billy’s death left a hole in the hearts of
all of those who loved him. Every life, even the most obscure stranger we pass
on the street, is precious to someone, and all are precious to God. Far be it
for me to critique our Lord’s sermon, but if I could add to the Beatitudes I would
add the phrase, “Blessed are the innocent victims, for they will be remembered.”
Today our world is full of such victims. As saints made holy by the blood of
Christ, may we continue to pray for them and do what we can to create a world
of greater peace and charity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A canonized Saint, Mother
Teresa, is often quoted as saying, “Not all of us can do great things, but we
can do small things with great love.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May Judy, Patricia,
Marion, Pat 2, Lillian, Billy and all the saints rest in peace. May the peace
of God which passes all our understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-14221278733904517652023-10-25T13:10:00.001-04:002023-10-25T13:10:39.961-04:00A New Reformation (Reflections on Reformation Sunday 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBe3Rj9nJho7llfxsjz4dTvRQwlSLwfU6Bt-1UDDjU1zpjCR9sj_nKRYe9egYXBq-VFbxN0bra5K7KCs2SPsDGGTLy99cv-ifq-AjBkQjtPvdoctH81YYxZabji8YgmPchUsMy62F_-b37HSxvechzccA2QLM-t2gIIlSjLOJjVldasZDhz8_AVjqhUmap" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="322" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgBe3Rj9nJho7llfxsjz4dTvRQwlSLwfU6Bt-1UDDjU1zpjCR9sj_nKRYe9egYXBq-VFbxN0bra5K7KCs2SPsDGGTLy99cv-ifq-AjBkQjtPvdoctH81YYxZabji8YgmPchUsMy62F_-b37HSxvechzccA2QLM-t2gIIlSjLOJjVldasZDhz8_AVjqhUmap=w272-h400" width="272" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No longer shall they
teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all
know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord: for I will
forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Jeremiah 31:34)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was walking in my local
mall last weekend and I suddenly fell victim to one of those curious fits of
melancholia which even afflict elderly clergymen. I looked at all of the empty
stores—stores I remember as not-so-long-ago being thriving commercial enterprises.
What was happening to this suburban bazaar? Why don’t these places stay in
business? And, for that matter, where are the crowds of people who used to shop
here on a Sunday afternoon? The meandering senior citizens? The screaming
toddlers? The roving hordes of obnoxious teenagers? Could it be, I wondered,
that this communal marketplace had fallen victim to the age of cyberspace? Does
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everybody</i> shop online now?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not much into
dystopian sci-fi, but I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was already living
in a dark and grim futuristic age where nothing is like I remembered it in the
good ol’ days. Perhaps we’ve entered the Zombie Apocalypse where we all just
wander around staring glassy-eyed at our cell phones. Our kids, who have been
brought up on the instant gratification of the touch screen, now have the
attention spans of brain-damaged gnats. We’ve been warned that the high-tech
tools of communication we now can’t ween ourselves from haven’t brought us
closer together. Instead, they make us feel more lonely and isolated. And it
seems the only place that’s emptying out faster than the mall is the church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you dwell on this
stuff long enough it’s going to seem pretty dismal. I’ll bet that’s the way
Martin Luther must’ve felt in his day, too. He made a pilgrimage to Rome and
discovered the Eternal City was choking with corruption. There was an
incestuous relationship between religion and politics. Greed and indifference
were rampant, and nobody seemed to know what was in the Bible. He must’ve felt
like the whole world was going to hell on a fast horse. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Brother Martin wasn’t
about to roll over and play dead in the face of the world’s dysfunction. He had
a vision to reform the church and, by extension, the whole society. You see, he
had a working understanding of God’s grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The gospel lesson
assigned for Reformation Sunday (John 8:31-36) comes right after Jesus has done
a radical act of grace—he’s forgiven a woman caught in adultery. Stepping out
on your old man was an offense that got a lady killed back in Jesus’ day, and this
gal wasn’t just accused. No, Sir. They caught her in the act.<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Reformation%20Sunday%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> But Jesus reminds those
who observed this of the truth: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everyone</i>
sins and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everyone</i> can be forgiven.
Jesus reforms the rule of vengeance with the rule of grace by showing mercy and
granting the woman opportunity to amend her life. That is, after all, what God
truly desires—reformation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our Revised Common
Lectionary glues this gospel tale to the preaching of the Old Testament prophet
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Jeremiah and Luther, had they lived in the same
place and century, might’ve been best buddies. They both had some funky ways of
expressing themselves. Jeremiah liked to use weird object lessons while Luther
preferred outright trash talk, but both were willing to get in the faces of religious
and political leaders who just didn’t seem to get the point. In Jeremiah 31 the
prophet is reminding the doomed Judeans that, even though they’ve screwed up
big time, their gracious and merciful God will still be willing to forgive
them, heal them, and <i>reform</i> them into a people worthy of God’s
blessings. The day can come, should they be willing, when they won’t need to be
people of the Law. God’s love will live in their hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Every Reformation Sunday
I try to imagine what Martin Luther might try to tell us today in our 21<sup>st</sup>
Century American context. What would he be nailing to the doors of our
churches—churches which are going down like the <i>Titanic</i>? What would
Jeremiah preach to the ELCA? What prophetic word of reformation do we need to
hear and preach to our cloistered, polarized, and cyber-numbed world?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I won’t claim to be a
prophet, but I’ll offer my own theses for a modern reformation:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">First, let’s get rid of
our 20<sup>th</sup> Century church buildings. We no longer need the expensive
upkeep of dull, uninspiring worship spaces which were intended to seat 400
people but are now mostly empty. They are obsolete. Very few of our congregations
need space for a 30-voice choir, and organ music worship is becoming a thing of
the past. Sell the buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Second, since so many of
our church buildings have become community centers, let’s build actual
community centers—centers which house 12-step programs, day care facilities, food
cupboards, etc. Let’s repurpose abandoned strip malls or storefronts and bring
services to the community. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Third, let’s focus our
gospel proclamation on the healing of neighborhoods, the world, the earth, and
lives rather than on individual salvation. It does us no good to be “in the
garden with Jesus” when the rest of the world is suffering. We need to find the
radical Savior who came to change the hearts of people in the here and now.
People who may distrust organizations still wish to be united with a worthwhile
cause.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Fourth, why don’t we put
small chapels in our community centers? Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Our
New Reformation churches will concentrate on both serving communities and <i>creating
</i>communities. Smaller, more intimate congregations can be places where the
cell phones are silenced, people are known, welcomed, and accepted, and
Christians can speak face-to-face with their worshiping family. The Church must
be a place that serves as an antidote to the estrangement our cyber society has
created.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Fifth, a New Reformation
needs new Christians. Let’s encourage our national church to concentrate on
campus ministries and new mission starts. Let’s acknowledge that this isn’t our
parents’ world, so we mustn’t try to recreate our parents’ church. To this end
we’ll have to train a new generation of entrepreneurial mission developers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sixth, the New
Reformation will explain old things. We’ll have to re-teach the meaning behind
our liturgical traditions and our faith vocabulary and not simply assume
everyone understands them. As always, we’ll have to find ways to get people to
read the Bible, and we’ll have to teach it in a way that is non-threatening,
understandable, and inspiring. Luther’s vernacular Bible changed the world and
got people reading Scripture. We’ll have to figure out why people <i>aren’t</i>
reading the Bible now. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seventh—as much as I hate
to think it—the day of the full-time professional pastor might be over. The New
Reformation communities might have to rely on talented lay volunteers. Clergy
may need to be bi-vocational so that the resources of the community can go to
mission other than salaries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My last thesis is simply
a reminder of God’s amazing grace. Things may look dire, but God is always
merciful and ready to restore us. Hordes of devils may fill the land—cynicism,
secularism, cyber media, economic uncertainty, violence—but our God is a mighty
God. What looks frightening is simply God getting ready to do a new thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We tremble not. Unmoved
we stand. Thank you again for reading my post this week. Have a blessed
Reformation Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Reformation%20Sunday%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Why they’re not ready to throw rocks at the guy she’s cheating <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">with</i> is one of those mysteries the Bible
chooses not to explain.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-72199862877802770722023-10-13T10:17:00.002-04:002023-10-13T15:47:08.401-04:00Can God Use the Government? (Reflections on Pentecost 21, Year A 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqho79JTPLxQ7UjH_YMalZvt6016Fui2-oEn7404vIX54CujNlimhOP4rK5w9cfnJfnrndCVpgje2uVfeD5tdC_djmncBO_Jhy2ae63ODGGaCGCAYmHC8je0qx3UEU8r1irfg0JAI8oxh9M1Hj7H175r0FIikxSrWPWIsrKgB6Yoqog3C_A7qDpfi_kkmO" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="172" data-original-width="219" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqho79JTPLxQ7UjH_YMalZvt6016Fui2-oEn7404vIX54CujNlimhOP4rK5w9cfnJfnrndCVpgje2uVfeD5tdC_djmncBO_Jhy2ae63ODGGaCGCAYmHC8je0qx3UEU8r1irfg0JAI8oxh9M1Hj7H175r0FIikxSrWPWIsrKgB6Yoqog3C_A7qDpfi_kkmO=w400-h314" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isaiah's image of the "Destruction of Babylon: Dore (19th Cent.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“I form light and
create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things. </span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Isaiah
45:7)</span></b></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Give therefore to
the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are
God’s.” </span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Matthew 22:21)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Can God use an ungodly
person or government for a godly purpose? The author of Third Isaiah seemed to
think so. In the First Lesson appointed for Pentecost 21 in the revised Common
Lectionary (Isaiah 45:1-7) the writer refers to Cyrus II of Persia as the
Lord’s “anointed.” This is the same title as the Messiah or the Christ. The weird
thing here is that Cyrus wasn’t even Jewish. He was a foreign warrior and
emperor known for opening huge cans of whoop-ass on less mighty empires and
acquiring their real estate for himself and the good folks of Persia. In Isaiah
45 he’s just about to give a smack-down to the Babylonian empire. Our writer
thinks this is pretty cool because the Babylonians have been holding Jewish
folks hostage for about sixty years.<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Third Isaiah (whoever he
was) is convinced the Almighty, having decided the disobedient Chosen People
have suffered enough (and knowing that most of the original exiles have died of
old age by this time anyway!), has anointed Cyrus II to kick the snot out of
Babylon and free the Jews so they can go back to their ancestral land, rebuild
their temple, and try to do things right this time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the world of Third
Isaiah, it’s obvious Persia’s invasion of Babylon and the defeat of the
once-mighty Babylonians is all part of God’s wild and wacky plan for humanity. The
writer tells us God “makes weal and creates woe,” so if<i> anything</i> goes
down, it’s because God wants it to happen. Bad things happen because that’s
just how God rolls.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Anybody have a problem
with that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I guess if you’re a Jew
living in exile in Babylon and some foreign conqueror comes along, beats up
your captors, and lets you go back to the land your parents kept going on
about, you might be pretty jazzed and inclined to offer God a big prayer of
thanks. <i>But</i>, if you happen to be a Babylonian civilian and these
Persians invade your country in their big chariots and start killing your
soldiers, running over your toddlers in the street, and proclaiming they’re the
one in charge now, you might not think that was so groovy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I find it’s a bad idea to
try to psychoanalyze God. It’s pretty arrogant of us to think we can assign a divine
motive to violence and catastrophe. I’m much more comfortable believing the
leaders of Judah, sixty years before Cyrus came on the scene, neglected their
responsibility to their people, let their country get weak, and were too
arrogant about their military and their “exceptionalism” to listen to God’s
prophets or withstand the ambitions of Babylon. God did not punish them. They
brought it on themselves. I have a hard time swallowing the notion that God
ever <i>wants</i> to see any of God’s children suffer, Our disobedience, however,
will have natural consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re really stepping
into the quicksand whenever we start asking, “Why did God do this?” or “Why did
God let this happen?” If we buy into Third Isaiah’s belief that God anointed a
Persian conqueror to slaughter Babylonians so the Jews could return to their
homeland, we might jump to the absurd conclusion that God anointed Hitler to
slaughter six million Jews so displaced Holocaust victims could also return to
the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. I think we’re better off not
going there. Let’s just acknowledge that weal and woe exist together on this
crazy planet. Sometimes things are going to get very ugly, but the people of
God have a responsibility to seek God’s loving purpose in the midst of the nightmares.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I write these lines in
the aftermath of the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel. I think many
Americans have a stereotypical view of events in the Near East—we see only good,
democratic Jews (who are, a after all, the heroes of two-thirds of the Bible)
and evil Muslim terrorists. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I have tried to be more
sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. My thinking was enlarged by a seminary
buddy of mine, now <i>the Reverend</i> Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian who had
been jailed, beaten, and finally released after two weeks in custody by the IDF
without ever being told why he was arrested. Khader, like many Christian
residents of the West Bank, is a Lutheran. Indeed, we have many fellow
Christians living under occupation in Israel, often denied basic rights such as
the right to vote or to become citizens. Israel’s record on human rights isn’t
the greatest. Nevertheless, <i>nothing</i> can excuse the savage atrocities
recently perpetrated by Hamas. It is certain the Israeli government will do
what is necessary to protect its citizens, and more bloodshed will follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I can’t imagine any of
this is the will of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m guessing the
compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary married the story of the Persian
invasion and deliverance to Jesus’ admonition to “render unto Caesar”<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> in our gospel lesson
(Matthew 22:15-22) as a way of illustrating how God once used temporal powers
to accomplish God’s purpose. Jesus isn’t telling us that all secular authority is
evil or blasphemous or over-taxing or trying to take away our individual liberties.
I think, rather, he’s trying to teach us to give to God what properly belongs
to God—our hearts, souls, and minds. If we as a people can choose to be
obedient to God’s Law and learn mercy and compassion and justice, then the governments
we create and to which we pledge allegiance will be wholesome extensions of God’s
purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Sadly, such governments
may find, as Israel finds now, that difficult decisions need to be made and
unpleasant duties need to be performed in a sinful world. A much smarter fellow
than I, Martin Luther, put it like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Since a true
Christian lives and labors on earth not for himself alone but for his
neighbors, he does by the very nature of his spirit even what he himself has no
need of but is needful and useful to his neighbor. Because the sword is most
beneficial and necessary for the whole world in order to preserve peace, punish
sin, and restrain the wicked, the Chrisitan submits most willingly to the rule
of the sword, pays his taxes, honors those in authority, serves, helps, and
does all he can to assist the governing authority, that it may continue to
function and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be held in honor and fear.
Although he has no need of these things for himself—to him they are not
essential—nevertheless, he concerns himself about what is serviceable and of
benefit to others.”<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There were terrorist acts
in Luther’s day, too<a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
and Luther believed the governing authorities acted as God’s instrument when
they protected the citizenry and restrained the terrorists (however excessively
16<sup>th</sup> century monarchs were inclined to do so!). But Luther also
recognized that God’s work could be done when the same authorities created
infrastructure for farmers, fed the poor, and educated the children.
Governments could, indeed, be godly vessels—but only as godly as the people who
comprise them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a scary world, my
friends. Let’s be intentional about rendering our hearts to God. Keep praying
for an end to violence anywhere, keep alert to what’s going on, and try to be
as responsible a citizen as you can.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thanks for letting me
share my thoughts with you this week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
From 587 BCE to 539 BCE if you’re into history. That’s according to Wikipedia
(What else?)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That’s how verse 21 reads in the old King James version.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> From
Luther’s 1523 treatise “Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should be Obeyed”
quoted in <i>Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings</i> (Timothy Lull,
editor. Augsburg Fortress Press, 1989)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/5ca86847a75df5ee/Documents/Pentecost%2021%5eLJ%20Year%20A.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Think
of the German Peasant’s Revolt of 1524-5 which Luther both inspired and denounced.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-83853130699239454382023-10-04T12:48:00.004-04:002023-10-04T12:50:57.840-04:00Blessings in the Vineyard (Reflections on Pentecost 19, Year A 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPFW5qGY2YVRDJ_8CEwBONMhZmVgxyfkz20l6CS4UNgrEtYad9LOnEuxoArnIAga_sHU6J5eExJwKX-RzeKQb5ucoVrDdkbwA5nHvZj0rELJfWJX1Ec11PRzQN8EXNZ9tOq8VEIoAtkRtAlpgUq4MqgpdknYXBKsoQUfLiogLmlj-wqKq3owedd50ltmAa" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPFW5qGY2YVRDJ_8CEwBONMhZmVgxyfkz20l6CS4UNgrEtYad9LOnEuxoArnIAga_sHU6J5eExJwKX-RzeKQb5ucoVrDdkbwA5nHvZj0rELJfWJX1Ec11PRzQN8EXNZ9tOq8VEIoAtkRtAlpgUq4MqgpdknYXBKsoQUfLiogLmlj-wqKq3owedd50ltmAa=w400-h224" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“What more was there to
do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield
grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Isaiah
5:4)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The pictures on TV are
freaky enough. I can’t even begin to imagine what actually living in some of
the cities of Ukraine must be like now. Think about it: one minute you’re on
the street going to the market, the next there’s a big BOOM and the
neighborhood where you and your neighbors lived is nothing but a pile of
smoking bricks and indistinguishable trash. You have to ask yourself where
you’re going to sleep tonight, where are you going to get food, and where are
your family members and friends—are they still alive?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or, perhaps, you’re
living in a small town in Oklahoma when the sirens go off and everyone heads
for the basement. You hear the rhythmic sound of the ferocious wind screaming
like the wheels of a freight train. You come out from the cellar and find what
was once your house is just a pile of sticks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">These are images which
come to my mind when I read the First Lesson appointed in the RCL for Pentecost
19, Year A (Isaiah 5:1-7). The prophet uses the image of the vineyard to
foretell the destruction of Jerusalem. The people of Judah have abandoned the
Law of God. They’ve neglected to produce the good fruits of justice and
fairness and mercy, but have produced the wild grapes (which, in the Hebrew,
might actually translate as “rotten” or “inedible” grapes) of indifference,
greed, and cruelty. God, in justice, will not protect them from the
consequences of their own shallow disobedience and allows their city and land
to be overrun and destroyed by an enemy army. If we think of images of war
zones or scenes of climate disasters in our own time we might get an idea of
the overwhelming sense of loss those ancient Judeans experienced.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the appointed gospel
lesson (Matthew21:33-46) Jesus borrows from Isaiah’s image of the vineyard, but
he doesn’t blame the grapes—just the people who tend them. Whenever I read this
passage I always feel a certain need to apologize for it—or at least for the
gloss Matthew’s gospel puts on it. Let’s not do the anti-Semitic thing and see
the wicked vineyard tenants as the Jews and the new tenants as the virtuous
Christians. We’d be much wiser to cast ourselves in the role of the tenants and
recognize that a church which cares only about individual salvation and not
about the needs of God’s children is doomed to wither away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It might not be that
apparent, but there’s actually some gospel in both of these readings. In the
Isaiah text, the owner of the vineyard (let’s make that analogous of God) has
really done a first-rate job in providing everything the vineyard needs. God
does not give us a mission without providing the means of accomplishing it. We
have been given stewardship of a beautiful planet, and every day God provides
for our needs. Hunger does not exist because of overpopulation but because of
under distribution. We may not always appreciate what God has done, but God is always
doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In Jesus’ parable, the
vineyard owner is also a bounteous giver, but Jesus enlarges this illustration
to show that the owner’s great patience and forbearance. No matter how evil the
tenants are—and they’re pretty evil!—the owner is ready to give them another
chance to repent. Anyone who has ever made repeated overtures to an obdurate
child or disloyal or distant friend knows both the pain and the love the owner
displays in this story. The prophet Joel sums up the inherent message in a passage
which has become part of our Lenten liturgy:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Return
to the Lord your </span></i></b><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">God</span></b></em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding
in steadfast love.”<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It always
amazes me how many chances God gives us to do the right thing. Our earth faces
a huge challenge from the climate we humans have so disastrously effected, but
God is still granting us time, creativity, and the resources to be better
stewards of our vineyard if we have the faith and obedience to take advantage
of such gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God is
good even in our disobedience. We might consider that the punishment suffered
by the Judeans after the fall of Jerusalem, the terrible time of the Exile, was
a turning point in the history of God’s people. Some of the most poignant
literature of the Hebrew Scriptures was very likely written during this time.
God used this period of mourning and reflection to forge a new identity for God’s
people. Trauma and loss will always change us, but we are given the free will
to decide whether we’ll turn in on ourselves and become bitter and resentful or
whether we’ll course correct and become more grateful, more compassionate, and
more open to God’s will. We can’t go back to being who we were, but we can
rejoice in who we’ve become.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally,
we need to believe the vineyard never goes to waste. God’s will is done either
through us or in spite of us. For the desolate vineyard of Isaiah’s
illustration, the briars and thorns may become home for the sort of creatures
that prefer that habitat. New tenants will replace the disobedient lot who produced
no fruit in Jesus’ parable. Churches which close will yield funding for new
ministries. God’s Word will endure, and we must not lose heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thanks for checking in with me this week. May God bless you and kee</span>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Joel 2:13</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275634923662101496.post-56766298158666699372023-09-27T13:45:00.000-04:002023-09-27T13:45:02.197-04:00Where Do You Get Authority? (Reflections on Pentecost 18, Year A 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7jLR6gM9fUEqjl-dPQQy8GCsAUR-1s9ZYHpIBoNOBDj3eEDV-aQqD9ofx1f1X6pJjed7l_1nRjFXGBhRUMXvR9z1aLJIdRWtuMQMd5PPp7e5iLdQecV_8wOXF4JyNHfqDweYZMGfzEbFJURyBEbXkHU0SEItQ7s2m-YISE64Ud3kxTQ4rDBQDnahFUdRo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="286" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7jLR6gM9fUEqjl-dPQQy8GCsAUR-1s9ZYHpIBoNOBDj3eEDV-aQqD9ofx1f1X6pJjed7l_1nRjFXGBhRUMXvR9z1aLJIdRWtuMQMd5PPp7e5iLdQecV_8wOXF4JyNHfqDweYZMGfzEbFJURyBEbXkHU0SEItQ7s2m-YISE64Ud3kxTQ4rDBQDnahFUdRo=w400-h246" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“When (Jesus) entered the
temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was
teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave
you this authority?’” </span></i></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Matthew
21:23)</span></b></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what’s all this about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">authority ?</i>I have to confess I sometimes
act like the chief priests and elders in the gospel reading assigned for
Pentecost 18, Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary (Matthew 21:23-32) when
the subject of ecclesiastical authority comes up. In a way, I sympathize with
these guys. When some yokel shows up out of nowhere and claims to speak for God
the same way I claim to do, I want to see some credentials. You know what
really gets my Fruit of the Looms in a bunch? Universal Life Church so-called
“ordinations.” Okay. I’m usually a pretty mellow old guy—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">usually</i>—but a sly, sardonic, and somewhat un-Christian smirk may
begin to creep across my face when someone tells me they are an ordained
minister of that specious denomination. The ULC has no official doctrine, no
structure, and no actual congregations. They have, however, popped out
“ordinations” like a Pez dispenser. With a few mouse clicks on the ULC website
any bozo can claim to be an ordained clergyperson. It’s estimated there are
over 18 million ULC “clergy” worldwide since the organization started cranking
out ordinations in 1962.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have to ask by what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">authority</i> are these individuals
ministers? I can tell you by what authority <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i>
can call myself a minister: I hold a Masters of Divinity degree from a state
accredited seminary, I’ve been approved by a national church body affiliated
with a 500-year-old internationally recognized denomination, and I’ve been
called by the good folks of Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia to serve as their
pastor. I guess I could say my authority comes from the Lutheran Church and
from the people of God. But, really, the authority of any Christian only comes
from Jesus Christ.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ve got to be honest
here. I don’t actually have any more ecclesiastical authority than the next guy.
All the baptized in Christ have his authority to forgive, to pray, to love and
welcome, and to offer up their quotidian tasks in service to God. I just get
the fun job of keeping church order and talking about Jesus on Sunday mornings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is a pretty clever
guy. He knows that when his authority is questioned by folks who think only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i> have authority, any answer he gives
is going to get shot in the butt. I mean, you just can’t argue with people who’ve
already decided you’re wrong. What’s he going to say? “My authority comes from
being the only begotten Son of God?” That answer is going to go over like a bad
smell. So will saying, “My authority comes from the fact that I’m right and you
dudes aren’t.” That might be true, but it won’t sit any better with the high
muckety-mucks. Jesus can only prove his authority by showing his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deeds have an effect</i>. He’s the one
healing the sick. He’s the one inviting the lost and the outcast. He’s the one
forgiving the sinners. He’s the one feeding the hungry. He’s the one bringing
hope. Wisely, Jesus throws the question of authority back on his inquisitors
and gives them yet another splendid opportunity to reveal their ignorance and
arrogance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But back to that issue of
authority. If my authority as a pastor comes from the Church, where does the
Church’s authority come from? I’ll bet a lot of young folks would ask that
question today. It isn’t enough to have “sound doctrine.” That doctrine has to
accomplish something. That’s why Jesus follows up his verbal fencing with the
priests and elders by telling them the parable of the two sons and asking which
does the will of the father—the one who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">says</i>
the right thing or the one who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i>
the right thing? The epistle of James puts it very nicely:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">What
good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have
works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily
food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your
fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have
faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works
will show you my faith</span></i></b><span style="color: #010000;">.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="color: #010000; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">Authority
is revealed by its actions. When Matthew wrote his gospel the Church was under some
nasty, violent persecution. To survive, those who trusted in the authority of
Jesus had to put that trust to work. I think we’re in pretty much the same boat
today in America. No one is going to send Christians into the arena or burn us
at the stake, but our churches are bleeding out like a ruptured artery. Once
upon a time we sat at the center of American culture. Not anymore. People will
not respect our authority unless they see it do some good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">Personally,
I think being on the margins might be doing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us
</i>some good. Our new position forces us all into a deeper commitment to
Christ and an excited willingness to act on his authority. I grant not all of us
are about to start new and ground-breaking social ministry organization, nor
will we begin marching in the streets demanding justice for all God’s
creatures. We might, if we’ve reached a “certain age,” consider a life
well-lived in obedience to the gospel has granted us the ability to speak
authoritatively to our grandchildren about matters of spirituality and faith. I
would hope we are able to say in all blessed humility, “I am who I am because
He is who He is.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000;">God’s
peace be with you, my friend. Please stop by again.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I
got his figure from Wikipedia (Where else?). They cite an article by Lauren
Bishop in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cincinnati Inquirer</i>
from April 14, 2007 entitled “Ordained for the Occasion”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> I
guess I shouldn’t be so hard on the ULC, but I have to draw a line somewhere. I’ve
done cooperative worship services and events with many Christian denominations
as well as Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. I’m an ecumenist, but not a
Universalist. If you say you believe in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everything</i>,
you probably don’t practice <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i>.
We all should find our path and walk it with discipline and integrity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Owner/OneDrive/Documents/Pentecost%2018%20Year%20A%202023.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
James 2:14-18</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Pastor Owen Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16578162666139187722noreply@blogger.com0