Fearless Sowing

Matthew 22:34-46; Deuteronomy 34:1-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

You heard Jesus’ parable of the soils as part of the Prayer for Learning offered before the scripture readings. One interpretation of the seed is that it is the word of scripture. In the end only the good soil produced a harvest. The seed that fell on the hard, shallow, rocky, weedy areas was wasted, producing nothing, but the seed that fell on the good soil produced abundantly. This abundance more than made up for the seed that failed.

The farmer had to be fearless in sowing the seed, not only for the differences in the land—he didn’t deliberately waste seed on non-productive soils, but it was hard to avoid them. And beside the soil issue, the farmer had to contend with the weather. Because seed normally produced many seeds for every seed that grew, farmers were able to save back a portion of a crop to be planted the next season. In lean years, the amount of grain available for home usage might be reduced, and in very lean years, even some of the grain reserved for the next year’s planting might have to be eaten.

Farming has been a game of chance from the very beginning. Farmers’ attitudes range from the very negative (“The crop won’t amount to anything”) to the very positive (“We’re going to have the best crop ever”). The degree of optimism is based it on experience. They remember the great harvests and believe the next one will be like that last great one. They are willing to let go of the reserved seed in the storehouse (which they could be eating right now) believing that if planted it will bring in the great harvest. Farmers fearlessly sowed, even following terrible years. So the psalmist can say in Psalm 126:
Let those who plant with tears 
reap the harvest with joyful shouts. 
Let those who go out, crying and carrying their seed, 
come home with joyful shouts, carrying bales of grain! (Psalm 126:5-6)

Our scripture readings today don’t mention farming or sowing, but they all speak of the same fearless quality that farmers have.

The time is the day after the triumphant palm-strewn, raucous “Hosanna” parade down Mount of Olives Avenue into Jerusalem. Jesus silenced a Sadducee who had raised a theological question. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were rival sects within the Jewish faith community. The Sadducees usually interpreted religious laws narrowly and the Pharisees were generally the progressive group. I can envision them telling jokes at each other’s expense, much in the way Baptists and Presbyterians like to tell jokes about each other’s religious idiosyncracies.

The ego balloon of the Sadducee’s question had been quickly popped by Jesus. A Pharisee picked up the task. “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” This wasn’t a new question. Rabbis had debates about the Law. There were several views: the issue of making portions of the Law into a super canon, or distilling the Law to a handful of precepts, or maintaining that each of the over six hundred pieces of the ceremonial Law had equal value.

We don’t know the Pharisee’s motive in asking. Perhaps he was showing that he too was opposed to Jesus. Perhaps he was showing the Sadducees that the Pharisees weren’t ignorant of the Law and that a Pharisee could succeed where a Sadducee had failed in outwitting Jesus. Maybe he just wanted to prove that Pharisees could ask better questions. Or, maybe, he was genuinely seeking to discern what the Law required of him, and, being impressed with Jesus’ knowledge and understanding, he believed that Jesus could give him a powerful insight into the faith.

The tension is mounting. The opposition of the religious leaders had increased throughout Jesus’ three-year ministry and was at a fevered pitch in the days leading to his execution. Jesus was no longer touring the countryside which was at arm’s length from or even outside the ceremonial reach of the Temple guardians. He was sparring with those very guardians on their own turf and besting them at their own game. Jesus was on a journey to the heart of a people’s faith.

While Jesus had deflected previous questions or avoided them with questions of his own, Jesus paused in the heat of the debate to give a concise and solid answer to a question that went to the very heart of what really matters in life.

I can’t speak for you, but I know that I have participated in discussions by asking flippant, throw-away, off-putting questions. Yet the conversation moved towards a deeper, more honest questioning which stopped abusing the issue and started getting at the real meat. Sometimes we have to wait out the superficial to get to the real. That’s when the deepest, sincerest, most meaningful revelations occur, when minds begin to articulate the yearnings of the Spirit.

Questions are strewn around like the farmer’s seed. The empty ones bounce off the hardened earth. The flippant ones land among the rocks and the weeds. The deepest questions land in the nourishing soil and yield illuminating answers, “aha!” moments, and life-changing revelations.

The question that the legal expert asked was one of the seed-in-the-good-soil questions. And Jesus honored it. He began with the holy words, the “Shema,” that began every synagogue worship service (Deuteronomy 6:5), added the Levitical expansion (Leviticus 19:18), and then capped it off with his own imprint: “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

In this final sentence Jesus asserts his own authority as the one who is privileged to unite these two commandments together as the theme of the whole. It is his final sentence that makes his answer messianic and in its own way becomes a witness to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah now in their presence.(1)

The legal expert’s question bore a hundred-fold answer in the good soil of Jesus’ teaching.

Faith is an enquiring mind. Faith fearlessly sows the daily living questions in the good soil mixture of scripture and personal, prayerful interaction with the Savior. Faith sows the deep questions and knows that through the steady growth cycle of each seed there will come a meaningful harvest of awe and wonder at the breadth and depth of God’s generous grace. The farmer relinquishes the known seed in her hand in order to gain a harvest of seeds for herself and for the world.

Think of all the seeds that we plant as a congregation.

• We are planting the seed of the gospel in soil of the women in the Recovery Council addiction rehab program. Those seeds are growing and producing. One of the joys of some seeds that is they grow and produce seed that then seed themselves to grow more plants and produce more seeds. 
• We are planting the seed of gracious dignity as we give food and money to the Outreach Council through our budgeted giving as well as through our generous Deacons’ Fund gifts.
• We are planting the seeds of God’s love through the One Great Hour, Pentecost, Peacemaking, and Christmas Joy special offerings that we receive during each year.
• We are planting the seeds of a mission-focused community as we develop the possibilities generated by the New Beginnings assessment and cluster group discussions.
• We are planting the seeds of a welcoming, nurturing community as we continue to develop our internet and social media presence. 
• We are planting seeds of extended caring as we hear from, pray for, and support Mark and Jenny Hare’s ministry in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Esther Wakeman and Rob Collins’ ministry at Payap University.
• We are planting seeds of caring as we pray for and work with our deacons and session members to care for and support in times of need our own neighbors and friends
• We are planting seeds of connection as we prayerfully remember sister congregations in Scioto Valley Presbytery and in presbyteries, synods and mission fields around the world.
• We are learning to plant our faith seeds more deeply as we study God’s word in women’s circles and Sunday morning classes and as we sing, listen, pray, and respond in worship.

We are fearlessly sowing the gospel in the way Paul described to the Thessalonian faithful:

We have been examined and approved by God to be trusted with the good news....We aren’t trying to please people, but we are trying to please God, who continues to examine our hearts....We were glad to share not only God’s good news with you but also our very lives because we cared....

All the persecutions and criticisms didn’t deter Paul. Nor should they deter us. Jesus invites us to the work of fearlessly sowing the Good News he brought to the world. As we prepare our time, talent, and financial commitments for next year, let us go and sow fearlessly. Amen.

(1) Earl Palmer, “Matthew 22:34-46 – Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), Year A, vol. 4, pp. 214, 216.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Fearless Living

Matthew 22:1-14; Genesis 1:1-2:3; Philippians 4:1-9

At the midpoint of his correspondence with the Ephesian church, Paul breaks into a exclamation of praise to God:

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21, NRSV)

Paul’s positive affirmation stands in stark contrast to many viewpoints expressed in the current events and business pages of print and electronic media. Reporters, politicians, and business leaders seem to base everything on a foundation of scarcity and negativity and of looking out for self before community. And much of it is fueled by fear. The world around us tells us to live fearfully. Paul, across the generations, across the centuries, calls us to fearless living.

If we were to sit and listen to scripture straight through from Genesis’ “In the beginning” to Revelation’s final “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints” — about 90 hours later — the thing that would strike us about the full sweep of scripture is that God desires God’s people to give up living fearfully and to live fearlessly in the rich abundance generously provided by our God.

Paul wants us to know without any doubt whatsoever, that the sky’s the limit with God. Any dream that we can dream, God can dream it bigger, grander, and more abundant. The Westminster Catechism tells us that God is “infinite...in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”(1) Infinity is always moving. Is there something bigger than infinity? Infinity plus one; ad infinitum. God is always bigger than we imagine. God is always bigger than the containers we try to put God in. God is always more generous than we are willing to imagine for ourselves, more generous than we or others think we deserve, and more generous to others than we think they deserve.

What is even more amazing is that God chooses to work through us to accomplish more than we can imagine. If that isn’t a living example of fearless living, I don’t know what is. God has taken a huge chance for God’s precious creation by deciding to work with us, through us, alongside us in the glorious work of tending all that God spoke into existence. God has entrusted us with it all—every last atom and subatomic particle. It’s like giving a 16 year old the keys to a new Corvette. It’s not going to survive unscathed. There are going to be dents and dings, crashes and mishaps. We human beings have taken the universe for quite a ride and it is battered and scraped up something fierce. But God hasn’t asked for the keys back yet.

Mark Kirchoff writes that

“God was fearless in giving charge of creation over to humanity. Humans could destroy creation outright. They could maintain creation differently from how God intended. Because of free will, humanity has spoiled creation through original sin. The good news is that we don’t have to continue to give in to the dark side.”(2)

But more than that, God has given us an innate desire to leave our mark on the world, to exert an influence on the communities we participate in.

We are in a constant struggle between thinking only of ourselves and of thinking generously towards other members of our community. In the midst of that struggle, we let fear rush in.

When I published the readings for this week several weeks ago, I had intended to use a reading from Exodus 34. In the reading, Moses was on Mt. Sinai getting a reprint of the first set of tablets of the Law. (He had thrown down the first set in a pique of anger at the behavior of the Israelites and the tablets had shattered.) Moses had been on the mountain for a long time and the people were afraid that he had died or left them. So they persuaded Aaron and the other leaders to create an image of their God. Some theological wit has noted that what they wanted was a massive bull, maybe something like the one in New York’s Wall Street financial district. Except that when they donated their gold, there only enough for a calf. Even in their disobedience they lived fearfully and couldn’t even fearlessly live following an idol made with their own hands.

While the people were cowering with their calf, Moses was fearlessly facing God and bargaining for the people and the future generations of God’s people which they represented. Moses, as human as he was, as fallible and moody and difficult as he was, nevertheless had a sense of the enormity of God’s generosity as well as a vision of what all God desired to accomplish through them. The goodness of creation was within them. It had to be brought out.

We see the same kind of struggle between scarcity and generosity, between living fearfully and living fearlessly in many of the events that the gospel writers recorded about Jesus and in the parables he told. The story of the wedding party is really a retelling of the truth expressed in the Genesis creation story we heard earlier and the subsequent story of the first beings choosing their own path of life different from what God had desired them to follow.

The king desired to give a party for the wedding of his son. This was not going to be a party where everyone got one tea sandwich, three mints, and half a cup of punch. The king put everything into the planning and execution of the party plans, just as God had put everything into creation resulting in an acclamation that it was “supremely good.” That’s how the wedding party details were carried out. It was very good. But all the invited guests weren’t interested in the generous party which the king had prepared. They had their own agendas, their own schedules, their own sense of fear that they had to live their way because the world revolved around them. They declined to participate in the king’s joyful generosity and generous joy.

Paul was telling the believers in Philippi something similar:

Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad!...Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4, 6-8)

The peace of God that exceeds all understanding draws our imagination farther and farther toward that infinity of God’s generous love for us. That peace, that “all” that we can’t even imagine is freedom to try, freedom to learn from things that don’t work as expected, freedom to learn from serendipitous accomplishments, freedom to let God use us to do things far beyond our own abilities. In our results-oriented society, we avoid risk. We bury or otherwise abuse the talent, nest-egg, resource entrusted to us, when God invites us to invest ourselves as well as God’s resources for the sake of kingdom. That takes courage. That is fearless living.

The Ephesian letter describes the church as “God’s new humanity, a colony in which the Lord of history has established a foretaste of the renewed unity and dignity of the human race,”(3) that God-imprint from day six of creation.

Jesus concluded the wedding party parables with the note that “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen.” In God’s generous love for us in Christ, we have been chosen. We are the few who are called to live fearlessly.

In The Message Eugene Peterson paraphrased Paul’s Ephesian praise this way:

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Oh, yes, indeed!

(1) Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 4.
(2) Mark Kirchoff, “Fearless Generosity,” Giving, volume 16 (2014), p.4.
(3) Overview of the Book of Ephesians, Third Millennium Ministries, http://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/41361. 

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

All Our Hindering Will Be for Nought

Matthew 21:33-46; Philippians 3:4b-14

We cannot hinder the gospel. The word of God will not be locked within the confines of a context two millennia removed from our time. John Calvin understood this. In his commentary on this parable he identified two points that transcend time and place: (1) we should expect people, and especially religious leaders, to try to hinder the reign of Christ; and (2) whatever contrivances are mounted against the church, God will be victorious. All human hindering will be for nought.

Andrew Purves writes that the parable teaches us to expect rejection, but not just of the gospel. It is more a system of ideas, more than an argument, more than a series of propositions inviting head nodding or verbal assent. The defining point, the focal point of the rejection which we are to expect is very precise: Jesus Christ. Personal rejection – described as the premeditated murder of the landowner’s son – is the heart of the parable.

Let’s step back for just a moment. Matthew describes Jesus standing in the temple, the place of God’s dwelling on earth (a house already destroyed and the Presence departed by the time that Matthew edited his gospel account). Only days before his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus tells a story to the people who have been set apart to keep God’s house in order. We know two things about those within earshot of Jesus’ parable: (1) they do not believe that Jesus has divine authorization to speak to them; and (2) their minds have remained unchanged in response to another messenger, the Baptizer John.

The immediate theological debate between the temple leaders and Jesus moves into round two. Jesus had already bested them in their attempt to discredit his authority when they refused to acknowledge John’s authority. The parable to the two sons, one openly disobedient but later repentant and obedient, the other openly servile but disobedient in the end, had hit its mark. And still the temple leaders refused to give in to Jesus’ truth. So Jesus says, “Listen to another parable.”

The sophisticated temple leaders weren’t going to be swayed by folksy stories from the countryside. Jesus goes to the heart of their theological power base – the Law and the Prophets. Jesus bases his parable on a well-known passage from Isaiah (it’s from chapter 5.)

My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
He dug it,
cleared away its stones,
planted it with excellent vines,
built a tower inside it,
and dug out a wine vat in it.
He expected it to grow good grapes—
but it grew rotten grapes.
So now, you who live in Jerusalem, you people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I haven’t done for it?
When I expected it to grow good grapes,
why did it grow rotten grapes? . . .
The vineyard of the Lord of heavenly forces is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are the plantings in which God delighted.
God expected justice, but there was bloodshed;
righteousness, but there was a cry of distress!

Jesus compounded the force of this image with a quotation from the powerful Psalm 118:

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
The Lord has done this,
and it’s amazing in our eyes.

The issue, then, is the rejection of Jesus and the refusal to acknowledge him as Lord, God’s anointed, through whom God lavishly has given life.

In every fiber of this parable about the rejection of and deadly violence against the landowner’s son is the reminder that the heart of faith is relationship with Jesus. The tenant farmers did not seize and kill an idea, a principle, or a system of doctrine. They seized and killed the landowner’s son. The gospel comes to us as a person.

It is obvious in the Isaiah reference and in Jesus’ parable who was rejecting his authority then. If rejection is part of the continuing legacy of the parable, who is rejecting Jesus today? The vineyard of the early 21st century is vulnerable to destruction. It is being assailed from the outside by virulent new atheisms which are based on a strident and aggressive rationalism which routinely dismisses Christian faith. There is also a growing apathy and indifference that isn’t particularly anti-church but which is certainly not pro-church.

But Jesus wasn’t speaking about the philosophies and theologies of the occupying empire. Jesus was addressing the leaders of the temple, the inner circle of those supposedly closest to God. Jesus’ complaint against them was that they had so narrowly constricted the faith that it had become a strait-jacketed and sedated prisoner locked away from its very source.

Some of God’s people today strait-jacket the faith in ways which exclude the very people whom God seeks to welcome into the community of sinners being sanctified through relationship with Jesus. Another extreme includes people for whom there are no boundaries, no absolutes, no guiding reference points to distinguish holy and sacred from profane and irreverent.

It is this deeper, internal sense that Jesus’ parable strikes at. The parable is less concerned about Jesus being rejected by strangers than it is about his being rejected by members of his own household, especially those in leadership. Calvin refers to church people rising up against their head, tenant farmers against the landowner. Given the architectural image of the foundation stone being rejected, the parable is about Jesus being betrayed by some of those he has called into positions of leadership. So each of us is called to repentance and renewal, not once in a lifetime or yearly, but daily.

Even though the cornerstone may be rejected, it doesn’t cease being the cornerstone. Whoever falls on the stone – that is whoever seeks to break Christ – will be broken by it. Attack on Jesus is pointless and fruitless. Jesus is not diminished by rejection. And in spite of betrayal he keeps the place that God has given to him. As the psalmist said, “The Lord has done this.”

So we come to this table today. It is not my table or the Session’s table. None of you can claim it as solely yours. It is Christ’s table. He invites all who trust in him to come. On this World Communion Sunday, we remember that this table goes around the world uniting the faithful of every language and culture, every tribe and clan. We don’t come here to highlight what separates us from other believers. We don’t come to shut some out because they don’t believe or think in exactly the way we do. We come to celebrate what unites us – the person of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the Word made flesh, the relationship which God created especially to bring grace and salvation, peace and restoration to humanity.

This table goes to the east as far as we can see, It goes to the west far beyond the horizon. It goes so far north that it becomes the south to which it goes in the other direction. This table is the assurance that in spite of rejection and betrayal, in spite of watered down thinking or strait-jacketed narrow thinking, God’s relationship to humanity in Christ will never fail. It is the Lord’s doing. All human hindering will be for nought.

Welcome to the table of Christ. Come joyfully to meet your Savior.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

You Can't Start Unless You Quit

Matthew 21:23-32; Exodus 17:1-7; Philippians 2:1-13

Like me, some of you are old enough to remember that great Green Bay Packer coach, Vince Lombardi. The Packers won the first Super Bowl in 1967 and the Super Bowl trophy is dedicated to him. He was a no nonsense coach and his motivational skills were legendary. He had a saying about giving up: “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

Stirring words, for sure. But, more often than not, wrong.

All through history, winners have quit one thing and moved on to another. Matthew tells us that Jesus “left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea,” where he began his ministry (4:13). Simon Peter and Andrew quit fishing and followed Jesus (4:20). Saul quit “spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” and became an apostle (Acts 9).

And the quitting has continued, right up to the present day. Evan Harris authored a book a decade ago entitled, The Art of Quitting. He says that quitting has always been cool. “Our country was founded by quitters. They left England and said, ‘Forget this. We are so out of here. We are not putting up with this anymore.’ ” The colonists quit paying the tea and stamp taxes and stopped letting the British army commandeer their homes.

Abraham Lincoln quit being an owner of a general store and entered politics. Julia Child quit being a CIA intelligence officer and became a world-famous cook. Harrison Ford quit being a professional carpenter when he was offered a part in a little movie called Star Wars. “Grandma” Moses quit selling potato chips and began to paint ... at age 80.

Clearly, quitting is not always what it is put down as. Quitting may be the best thing that could be done by a person.

I’m sure that you have heard the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again exactly the same way and expecting different results. Someone doesn’t know when to quit.

Jesus told a parable about quitting. The context was a question intended to trap him. It was asked by a group of leading priests and elders intent on catching Jesus in some heretical claim of being God. Not to be outmaneuvered, Jesus offered to answer their question if they would answer one of his own. “Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?”

Even though the religious leaders did not openly speak to the matter of John, their authority went south as soon as they started discussing among themselves the pros and cons of the answers. The question put them in a bad light whether they answered heaven or human about John. Did you notice that their fear of the crowd in the temple had a major impact on their thinking? The most learned people in the land decided to play dumb and feigned ignorance about Jesus’ question – “We don’t know.” Their failure to give Jesus a confident and decisive answer clearly showed that they were backed into a corner. Their credibility was severely eroded.

Jesus pushed the leaders’ discomfiture by telling a parable about man who had two sons whom he expected to go work in the family’s vineyard. The father approached the first son and told him to go work in the vineyard. We don’t know if this was the older son or just the first one he came upon. This young man had a full schedule and didn’t want to have to change his plans, so he said that he couldn’t go. Later he changed his mind, cleared his calendar, and went to the vineyard to work.

The father came to the other son and told him to go work in the vineyard. This son enthusiastically said “Yes,” but he never showed up at the vineyard.

Jesus asked, “Which one of these two did the father’s will?” The religious leaders couldn’t avoid the obvious conclusion. The first son, even though he had at first refused to go and then had a change of heart, was the one who obeyed the  father.

“Well, guess what?” said Jesus tells the religious folk. “Tax collectors and prostitutes, crooks and whores are beating a path to God’s kingdom and will get there long before you will.”

As they all gasped and gaped at him, he said, “Pay attention! John came pointing out the righteous road – the repentance route – and you all thumbed your noses at him. But the sinners believed him. They saw the truth of what John said and they did exactly what they needed to do.” As Jesus saw it, the religious leaders were totally oblivious to the change that took place in the sinners. They thought that the sinners were losers and that they were winners. They saw no need to quit what they were doing, no necessity to change their minds and believe John’s message. And if they didn’t believe John’s message, they certainly were not going to be affected by anything that Jesus would say to them.

So, the quitters, the ones willing to change, will lead the way into the kingdom of God.

What has God been asking, even telling, you to do? That would be a great question to break into twos and threes and discuss. Except that very few of us would be willing to admit publicly, let alone personally come to terms with, a direct request from God. It’s more than a matter of grapes not getting picked. And our refusal, probably doesn’t result in a life-threatening storm like the one that Jonah brought on the unsuspecting sailors of his getaway ship. Nevertheless, God calls us to quit and to start anew.

Most of the time God’s commands are not short and sweet. The father said to the sons, “Go work in the vineyard.” God’s commands are often broader and more general, like “Love your neighbor.” That allows us a lot of wiggle room for finding ways around them, ways of demonizing the other person so that we can hold our righteous heads high by calling them losers and sinners not worth our care, and thinking that God shouldn’t care about them either.

Unfortunately, that was the attitude of the religious leaders who pooh-poohed the Baptizer and were bent on discrediting Jesus’ message.

If we get off our holier-than-thou pedestals, there are ways to discern God’s will for us which faithful sisters and brothers have developed across the centuries since Pentecost.

A 16th-century spiritual director, Ignatius Loyola, asks us first to clarify the goal of our life: To have a loving relationship with God. We can make a number of choices about how we will achieve this goal, and every choice should move us a little closer to God. We might start a business, go back to school, get married, change jobs, even retire. The important thing is to begin with the goal in mind: to follow Christ into an ever deeper and more loving relationship with God.

With a clear goal we can tackle the hard work of decision-making. That includes figuring out how to stop avoiding what God wants us to do, and how to start working in God's vineyard. What are the pros and cons? What do truth-telling friends think? Spend time in prayer, talk to God about your decision, and see if you are given greater clarity about your choice. Ignatius believed that “we can discern the right choice by attending to the inner movements of our spirit.”

It’s not always a quick process. Sometimes, we have to live with a sense of restlessness as God pushes us in a new direction. At other times, we might feel peaceful about a decision but then discover that our serenity is really laziness in disguise. Ignatius wants us to continue examining our decisions and make choices that increase the feelings of faith, hope and love within ourselves.

When we quit doing what holds us back and what keeps us from God, we are in a position to start doing God’s intended work, and to change our lives for the better. If we feel that we're avoiding what God wants us to do, it’s time to stop what we're doing, examine our goals, define anew what it means to have a loving relationship with God, and make changes which will better use our time and talents as workers in God's vineyard.

When we quit keeping God out of our lives, we might become true winners, followers of Jesus and participants in a more loving relationship with God.

But you can’t start unless you quit.

Let us pray.

God of new beginnings, challenge us to examine our lives for the activities and attitudes we need to quit so that we may start the new things which will bring us into a deeper relationship with your Son Jesus, whose call, “Follow me,” is the most worthy goal for us. Infuse us with your Spirit, we humbly pray. Amen.

General Resource: Homiletics, September 2014, pp. 35-39.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Who Are the Weak?

Romans 14:1-12; Exodus 14:19-31; Matthew 18:21-35

Violence. It’s everywhere. We’ve just gone through a week of discussion about the video of Ray Rice punching his fiancee. In the weeks before that it was the violence allegedly begun by the shooting of an unarmed African American by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. A meme going around Facebook says that more American children have died from gun violence than American soldiers died in the Iraqi and Afghan war zones during the last ten years. On the international side of things, we have had two videoed beheadings by ISIS, rocket and mortar assaults on Gaza City and the West Bank, and fighting in eastern Ukraine. And who knows what other violence didn’t make the headlines.

Secretary of State John Kerry is shuttling among capitals trying to resolve international conflicts. Former FBI director Robert Mueller will investigate the NFL’s response to the Ray Rice video. It is not just instantaneous media. People seem to have quicker tempers that they used to. We need ways in which to address conflict between individuals, between social groups, between ideologies,  between cultures, between nations.

The church is not exempt from conflict. Across the centuries Christians have flared up about important things and things hardly important in the larger scope of faith. We Presbyterians are in the season of peacemaking. The original Commitment to Peacemaking began thirty years ago. It sought to address peacemaking skills and needs between individuals, in families, in communities, and in the global arena. A number of years ago, another emphasis was added, peacemaking with the earth.

Jesus said that he came bringing a sword which would divide. He meant that his words of truth would divide those who gratefully receive God’s grace from those who deny God and reject the love which God wishes to lavish on humanity. But Jesus’ sword is not to be used to bludgeon people into faith or destroy those who have not yet figured out that Christ’s glory is beneficial for them.

In today’s reading from the Roman letter, Paul offers spiritual guidance to prevent conflict. He knows that the root of conflict is not only differences of opinion but also differences in power. Paul encouraged the Romans, the people of the empire, not just to tolerate those who were weak in faith, but to show hospitality, to extend an extra measure of patience and to make the weak feel welcomed.

Who are the weak? And how can those who are weak and those who are strong live together in Christ? Who are the weak? Are the weak those who suffer from substance abuse? Are the weak those who suffer from mental illness? Are the weak those who are developmentally disabled? Are the weak those who are blown about by every fad and whim that comes along? Are the weak the vulnerable new immigrants not yet acclimated to our culture? Are the weak those who are educationally disadvantaged? Are the weak the youth who sometimes risk life and limb to scramble into the country, often illegally because the risk is less dangerous than staying home? Are the weak those who make $7.35 an hour (federal minimum wage) and have to pay half of that for substandard housing, and then are expected to pay utilities and put food on the table for and clothes on the backs of themselves and any dependents with what is left?

Who are the weak? Are the weak those who can run up billions of dollars in debts and get off scot-free? Or those who run up a few thousand in debts and get thrown into the poor house? That’s the upshot of the story that Jesus posed to the disciples.

Paul posits that the weak are more than those who are behind the economic eightball. Are the weak those who operate under a very narrow system of belief? Or are the strong those who seem to have a very broad approach to faith. Or is it the other way around?

In the Roman Christian community, there was conflict between Christians with a Jewish heritage and Christians who never were Jews. The Jewish Christians knew exactly how to behave. They followed the Jewish kosher laws and added Christ’s salvation to their faith. But what did it mean to be an observant Gentile Christian? The dietary laws and the rest of the Mosaic legal system was foreign to them. Did they have to give up meat? Could they have a glass of wine? Which day was the Sabbath – Saturday or Sunday?

Christians today have the same kind of differences. Does a Christian wear a cross or not? Must a Christian carry a Bible? And which Bible? Are only certain Bibles okay? Do we have to be born again? Do we only baptize adults or is it all right to baptize children?

We live in a world where these kinds of questions are roiling Christian communities. Similar questions are just as prevalent in Jewish and Islamic faith communities. Do all Jews have to be ultra-Zionists? Or are all Muslims jihadists?

There may be two thousand years of calendar pages intervening, but being a Christian today isn’t all that different from being a Christian in the Roman Empire in Paul’s day. The main difference is trajectory. In Paul’s day, being a Christian was a new thing. It called into question the prevailing beliefs and practices of the day, including the cult of the emperor which pervaded all the civil practices. Jesus Christ offered an alternative loyalty.

Faith in Christ today takes on a similar alternative because the emerging church today realizes that the two millennia of the ascendency of Christianity in the European-North American world has left the faith that Paul transmitted eviscerated and reduced in meaning. A watered-down Christianity is so ubiquitous that almost anyone can claim it. The struggle of the church is to reclaim Christ in the fullness of the gospel. And that causes the same kind of conflict as Paul faced with the Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Instead of arguing over meat and beverages, Christians argue over secondary and tertiary understandings and explanations of what the grace, forgiveness, and lordship of Jesus Christ means. Must Christians eschew anything but the simplest of understandings in reading the ageless texts? Or does God continue to reveal God’s self in new ways to succeeding generations? Or is God to be worshiped only with organs, preferably piped, and never with guitars and drums and tambourines, even though those instruments, not organs, are mentioned in scripture? And must joyful noises be only in four-part harmony rather than one-part unison? The conflicts go on and on. Christians are at each other’s theological throats.

Paul says that there is another way to deal with this. It’s the faith way. Paul acknowledges that people can hold radically different convictions and still be good and faithful people. Paul is helping persons in the early Christian community to resist demonizing each other. He teaches sincere, heart-felt, respectful disagreement.

We don’t live for ourselves and we don’t die for ourselves. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God. This is why Christ died and lived: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 

Just as there is no “I” in team, there is no place for self-centeredness in Christ, because as Christians our entire life is ultimately centered on Christ.

Who are the weak? We are the weak. We are the those who are so deep in debt to God that we have no choice but to bow before our maker, admit our inability to pay up, and receive saving forgiveness. Unlike the mega-bankrupt servant who pitches a fit at the fellow servant who owes him a pittance, God looks at the life-debt which each of us has run  up and forgives us, wipes the slate clean, and gives us a perfect 850 FICO score (not the bank version) but “Faith in Christ Overall.”

Who are the weak? We are. And in Christ there are neither weak nor strong. For all of us are God-imaged sisters and brothers, accountable to God for each other as well as ourselves. “Whether we live or die, we belong to God.” Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Forgiving God, you don’t ignore our debts. In our weakness, you tally them up and pay them off with your forgiving love. Grant us forgiving grace to forsake self-imposed notions of strength so that we may accept each other as you accept us, free and clear, and fully welcomed in your eternal realm. Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Gyroscopic Grace

Matthew 18:12-22; Romans 13:8-14

No matter how you twist and turn your tablet or smartphone, the image manages to move right with you. Thanks to a nifty little thing called a gyroscope, everything stays “right-side up.” Don’t you wish lots of things in life had a gyroscope? Wouldn’t it be nice, if, no matter how turned around things got, there was always a way to get right-side up?

It’s like magic, isn’t it? No matter how many times you flip or turn your smartphone or tablet, the screen turns right along with you, keeping whatever it is you’re looking at right-side-up.

Chances are, the first time this screen flip happened to you, you were a bit unnerved. Now the feature is standard on just about every piece of mobile technology. We’re not used to things righting themselves. Typically, if something’s out of whack in life, we notice it and try to make it right. How many times have we straightened the picture over the sofa? Perhaps that’s what makes the screen on your smartphone so endearing. It does the fixing itself.

It isn’t magic that keeps our little screens in sync with us. It’s science. Inside your favorite device is a gyroscope, which – when coupled with an accelerometer – senses precise motion along six axes: up/down, left/right, forward/backward. It even keeps tabs on the speed with which you move. The result is a phone that not only keeps your pictures facing the right direction, but a phone that can track the number of steps you take while power-walking the indoor track at the Activity Center. The gyroscope also helps in playing some neat video games.

In today’s gospel reading, we hear Jesus urging us to keep our relationships right-side up. The only problem is that, unlike our smartphones and iPads, we don’t have built-in gyroscopes making it automatic and easy. At least that’s the assumption. But God has given us a grace that can be a gyroscope for our lives. This “gyroscopic grace” will unfailingly, and without any merit of our own, get us right-side-up with God.

Normally we do not start today’s reading with the story of the shepherd seeking out the 100th sheep which has wandered off. Yet the story is an exquisite lead-in to the core of the discussion about forgiveness. Verse 14 summarizes the teaching in this section: not a single person should be lost; no one is expendable; each one is worthy of being pursued to the point of risking everything.

Besides passing on the words and actions of Jesus, Matthew was also speaking words of support and admonishment to the community of believers who would be the first to get his gospel account.

Jewish believers in Christ were being barred from the synagogues because the Jewish leaders deemed that they were breaking the covenant. The synagogue leaders where trying to maintain the delicate balance of toleration with which the Roman authorities viewed them. The behavior of the Christ-followers could bring Roman approbation down on them.

Jesus’ teaching set the will of God in opposition to the will of the Emperor. It was the will of God that was to rule the faith community. God’s will is that all are to be saved; no one is to be lost. Christ’s followers don’t forget the believer who goes off by herself. Nor to they ignore the follower who has wandered mistakenly in his application of Jesus’ teaching.

The community of faith is a family. We all know that family members get off-kilter with each other. In the church family sometimes, it’s over trivial things. Snarky comments made at board meetings and people disagree about simple things, like where to put the tables and who will be in charge of the cups. Sometimes we get sideways with one another over truly sinful and downright evil things.

• Lies get told. 
• Money goes missing. 
• Power gets protected or foisted.
• Promises get broken.
• People behave badly and inappropriately.
• Factions form and people take sides.

The picture is turned upside down and, no matter how vigorously we shake the relationship, it doesn’t fix itself. We have to take action.

Only there isn’t a shining knight to come riding into town on a large white horse. Nor does Jesus magically materialize to scold, teach, and reconcile disagreeing parties. All we have is each other, imperfect as we are, hurtful and hurting, arrogant and abashed, adamant and apologetic.

The individual and then the community is charged to go. They must never give up, just as the shepherd never gave up on the 100th sheep. He would either bring it back alive or know that it had been the victim of a predator. If the community’s attitude is reconciliation, and if the community has tried diligently to reconcile the offender, then if the person refuses to be brought back into the fold, their exclusion is their own doing. They have been devoured by sin. They are, to use Matthew’s terms, like a Gentile or a tax collector. Yet Jesus ate with Gentiles, tax collectors and sinners. This was not casual shoulder rubbing. Eating was the most intimate of public relationships. The community must never give up.

South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, was a driving force behind that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As the Afrikaner regime handed power over to leaders elected by all the people, there arose a need for special tribunals to heal the wounds caused by decades of racial discrimination. Tutu later confessed his astonishment at the ability of South Africans to achieve reconciliation. Tutu said this in a 1997 interview:

“I have found breathtaking and, in fact, exhilarating, the magnanimity of people, the incredible nobility of spirit of people who have suffered as much as they have suffered. So many of them are ready to forgive, which sometimes makes you feel as though you should take your shoes off because you are stepping on holy ground.”

In the interview Tutu makes it clear how difficult it is to achieve true reconciliation:

“[People] think that reconciliation is patting each other on the back and saying it’s all right. Reconciliation is costly, and it involves confrontation. Otherwise, Jesus Christ would not have died on the cross. He came and achieved for us reconciliation. But he confronted people and caused division.”(1)

Resolution – reconciliation – can only happen after conflict. If believers are never to give up, then the strongest outcome is expressed in verses 19 and 20:

“I assure you that if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, then my Father who is in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” 

This tradition spoken by Jesus may have originally  come from an earlier Jewish saying which found its way into the Mishnah of the 2nd century CE as a commentary on Psalm 1:1. That saying defined the “seat of the scoffers” (or “disrespectful”) as two Jews together without the words of Torah between them, whereas having the Torah between them, they had the Shekinah of Yahweh’s presence.(2)

We all need Jesus Christ between us. That is how we can forgive seventy-seven times.

Jubal Early, a key Confederate general in the Battles of Bull Run (Manassas), after the war became a very angry, bitter and vindictive man, feeding a hatred for people of the North. Robert E. Lee invested a lot of time in seeking and securing forgiveness for both sides. He once asked General Early, “Do you still hold to that harsh, unforgiving spirit?”

“I certainly do. I will never forgive.”

To which Lee responded, “Then, my friend, I hope you never need forgiveness yourself, for the one who refuses to forgive destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.”(3)

The reading ends up where it began. It doesn’t focus on the offender but on the behavior of the offended community. The community is always called to be the good shepherd, living with Jesus between itself and the offender. Jesus – the Word made flesh – is the gyroscope that sets things right.

May the gyroscopic grace of Christ be with this and every Christ community.

(1) Bishop Desmond Tutu, interview in Commonweal, September 12, 1997.
(2) Shared by John Shearman, “Opening Comments for Sunday September 7 2014 which is the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 18. Year A,” midrash@joinhands.com; Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 10:14 PM.
(3) Shared by Rev. Dan Francis, Latonia Baptist Church, Covington, Kentucky, in the September 2014 issue of Homiletics.
General Resources: 
“Gyroscopic Grace,” Homiletics, September 2014
Ada María Isasi Díaz, “Theological Perspective: Matthew 18:12-22,” Feasting on the Gospels - Matthew (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013) vol 2, pp. 92-96.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Paul's Labor Day Sermon

Paul’s Labor Day Sermon
Romans 12:9-21; Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28

A person does not read Paul once. A person does not read Paul twice. A person does not read Paul three times. However many times a person reads Paul, that person needs to read Paul at least once more, and once more after that, and once more after that. It is not a question of memorizing Paul. That’s not the solution to Paul. Paul’s writing is so compact, so densely written that a reader has to parse every word, every adjoining pair of words, every phrase, every clause, before approaching each sentence, before addressing each paragraph.

Romans chapter 12 is a case in point. Paul has spent eleven chapters assuring the Roman believers that God’s justifying grace is extended to Jews and Gentiles alike. It has been like a proclamation: whereas, whereas, whereas. Chapter begins the great “Therefore....” Now Paul lists the implications of God’s grace for the way we live our lives as individual believers and as Christ communities.

Paul has hitherto been restrained and now he lets loose. Today’s reading is merely thirteen verses, yet those verses contain 23 separate imperatives. And each one, brief as each may be, could unpack into 23 full-length sermons. You no more want to sit through all those sermons than I want to write them.

You don’t need to recall all was said in last week’s sermon on the first eight verses of Romans 12, but let’s begin where the chapter begins:

So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service.
This is the topic sentence for everything that follows. All the injunctions and imperatives that flow in today’s thirteen verse reading find their grounding in that sweeping “therefore” declaration, “This is your appropriate priestly service,” “This is your right and proper worship.” Paul declares that to live in Christ is to worship 24-7.

Today’s reading, with all its imperatives, is Paul’s Labor Day sermon. This sermon was written long before the Knights of Labor were formed in 1869; long before Samuel L. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor in Columbus, Ohio in May 1886; long before John L. Lewis formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1935; long before the two organizations joined in 1955. Paul was not addressing workers’ training, safety, hours, benefits, salaries, or seniority. Paul was speaking to the work of living a life of faith in any circumstance.

Every job posting has a description of the position. Verse nine provides the description for the work of being a Christian: Love should be shown without pretending. Love is to be genuine, a self-sacrificial love, a love that cares for the well-being of others. All the gifts that are exercised by the Christ-believer or in the assembly of believers should be expressed in this love. This love is the most accurate indicator of spiritual health in the body of Christ.

From this follows a list of how this love is to be lived out:

• Hate evil, and hold on to what is good. 
• Love each other like the members of your family. 
• Be the best at showing honor to each other. 
• Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic
• Be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord!
• Be happy in your hope, 
• Stand your ground when you’re in trouble, 
• Devote yourselves to prayer. 
• Contribute to the needs of God’s people, 
• Welcome strangers into your home. 

If some of this sounds familiar, it is because Paul has already offered a similar list in chapter thirteen of the First Corinthian letter.

This job description for the working Christian aims at developing a thriving team member ethos. Believers cannot effectively serve the cause of Christ if they are self-centered, bickering, vindictive, aggressive, spiteful, or apathetic. Believers are to honor each other, recognizing that each one, unique as he or she is, bears the stamp of God’s creative genius.

Most people know how to pretend to love others—how to speak kindly, avoid hurting their feelings, and appear to take an interest in them. We may even be skilled in pretending to feel moved with compassion when we hear of others’ needs, or to become indignant when we learn of injustice. But God calls us to real and sincere love that goes far beyond politeness. Sincere love requires concentration and effort. It means helping others become better people. It demands our time, money, and personal involvement. No individual has the capacity to express love to a whole community, but the community of Christ can.

The next three verses list some special qualifications. Every job has skills which are required as well as skills which are desired:

• Bless people who harass you—bless and don’t curse them. 
• Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying. 
• Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. 
• Associate with people who have no status.
• Don’t think that you’re so smart.

These are special skills which Paul believes are essential for the community of Christ to operate effectively.

Paul focused on both the internal working of the community as well as how the community of Christ was going to fit into the larger community. Christians were few in number. They needed to represent Christ well in order to show themselves as people with whom not-yet-Christians would want to associate and to become acquainted with the power of the message of grace.

By doing this, believers would be obeying Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount, “Love your enemies and pray for those who harass you” (Matthew 5:44) and from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Every job description lists responsibilities and required and desired skills. It also will describe how the job performance will be evaluated. The last five verses describe the criteria which will be used for evaluation:

• Don’t pay back anyone for their evil actions with evil actions
• Show respect for what everyone else believes is good. 
• To the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. 
• Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. 
• If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink, thus you will pile burning coals of fire upon his head. 
• Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good.

It is obvious that the work of being a Christian is difficult, unnerving, potentially confrontational, and counter-cultural. People who haven’t yet welcomed Christ into their lives will be uncomfortable with the ease, the grace, the simple unflappable love with which believers go about their work. Christians don’t live by the dog-eat-dog, eye-for-an-eye rules of the world, but by the rules of God’s realm that spurns power for authenticity and builds charity rather than division. Christian workers opt out of the coercion and violence that are so popular. As Paul said in the chapter’s opening charge:

Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
That is the message which Paul preaches for Labor Day, for any day, for every day.

How does the believer respond to that? Here is one response, offered by Brian McLaren:

“Please de-baptize me,” she said.
The priest’s face crumpled.
“My parents tell me you did it,” she said.
“But I was not consulted. So
Now, undo it.”
The priest’s eyes asked why.
“If it were just about belonging to
This religion and being forgiven,
Then I would stay. If it were just
About believing
This list of doctrines and upholding
This list of rituals,
I’d be OK. But
Your sermon Sunday made
It clear it’s
About more. More
Than I bargained for. So, please,
De-baptize me.”
The priest looked down, said
Nothing. She continued:
“You said baptism sends
Me into the
World to
Love enemies. I don’t. Nor
Do I plan to. You said it means
Being willing to stand
Against the flow. I like the flow.
You described it like rethinking
Everything, like joining a
Movement. But
I’m not rethinking or moving anywhere.
So un-baptize me. Please.”
The priest began to weep. Soon
Great sobs rose from his deepest heart.
He took off his glasses, blew his nose, took
Three tissues to dry his eyes.
“These are tears of joy,” he said.
“I think you
Are the first person who ever
Truly listened or understood.”
“So,” she said,
“Will you? Please?”(1)

(1) Brian D. McLaren, posted on Facebook, August 31, 2014.
General Resources: Christopher R. Hutson, “Romans 12:1-9: Exegetical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 4, pp15-19; Life Application Bible Commentary, Romans 12:9-21.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.