Wednesday, September 24, 2008

What Makes You Think You're So Special? Matthew 21:23-32

I grew up in a town where one could know fairly easily if one was "above his station" in life. Those who planned to attend college were told early on, by parents or neighbors, that attending college would not make us smarter in any ways that really mattered. Often, if someone purchased a new car more often than every five or six years, others would caustically remark, "Well, aren't you special?"
In Matthew's account of Jesus' experience with the religious leaders of the day, it appears that he was also getting the third degree about why he was hot news. The placement of this text in Matthew follows on the heels of the so-called "temple tantrum" when Jesus had overturned the tables of the merchants and money changers. The religious folks thought that they were being sly by asking Jesus from whence he got his authority, but he threw it right back at them by asking from whence John's authority had come. Jesus promptly gave the elders and chief priests enough rope with which to hang themselves, and they knew it. So, they answered him not.
By understanding the significance of the question of authority that was first asked of Jesus, and then which Jesus expanded by asking about John's authority, we can have a better understanding of what he was getting at with the parable of the two sons. Is it better to behave like the first son, and readily agree to do the chore requested, only to renege on the promise, than to refuse the request outright, only to relent later and carry out the requested task? If the first son could be compared to religious professionals of the day, and the second son to the tax collectors and prostitutes,and that is what was going on here, then the question of authority seems to have less to do with training and more to do with intent of the heart. If that is true, then it becomes evident as to what makes you so special, when you do the will of God. Prostitutes and tax collectors may not get it right the first time, but, perhaps, they eventually have a change of heart. Religious certitude often prevents otherwise righteous folks from doing the right thing. The authority for doing the will of God comes..from God. Diplomas, heritage or station in life have little to do with it.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

It's Not Fair! Matthew 20:1 - 16

There is a building on the campus where I work that has inscriptions running around all sides and forming a band on the frieze. It is the inscription above the front entrance that seems to garner the most attention. It states, in King James English:"Is it not lawful to do what I will with mine own?" It cites the passage from which that verse is taken, Matthew 20:15. The department contained within that building is Government and Law, so one might try to surmise the connection of the inscription with the goings on within. Campus lore has it that the donor was criticized for building such an extravagant building during the height of the depression. So, the scripture passage was not a word of wisdom to the students who would pass through the portals of the building, but a defense of one man's desire to be generous to his Alma Mater.
This week, the lectionary gives us a choice of the story where God forgives Nineveh, which really ticks off Jonah. After all, the people of Nineveh were among the worst of the worst, and God's forgiving that bunch must mean that God is liable to forgive anyone who turns to God. The parable of the vineyard owner in Matthew irritates many students mightily. They rail against the unfairness of the story, and the way in which the workers who arrived at daybreak were hoodwinked into working a full day for...oops, a full day's wages. OK, so they are angry that the workers who arrived at 5:00 PM were given a full day's wages. The vineyard owner's decision to do what he would with that which was his drives people crazy. It does not fit our economic or justice system.
I recall a chapel service while I was in divinity school. The preacher was a fellow student who was working on a quarter of clinical pastoral education; she worked many hours per week as a chaplain on the wards of the huge medical center that is at the heart of my Alma Mater's campus. She told us that there were days when she could not help but say to God, "This is not fair!" when she came upon a young person with a terminal illness, or an older person who was in constant pain. She told us that it occurred to her one day that it is we who draw a box in the dirt and proclaim that anything that falls inside the perimeter of the box counts as fair, and all that falls outside of the box is unfair. She then realized that she was the one defining what is both fair and unfair, not God. Perhaps therein lies the answer.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Whose Are We? Romans 14:1-12

I don't often preach on the epistles all that much, because I work with college students and find that they have very little knowledge of Jesus' most basic teachings. So, I spend more time on the gospels. I also spend time on the Hebrew Bible, because they don't always make the connection between the first and second covenant. But this week I will preach on Romans 14, because I want to remind others, as well as myself, that God is our caretaker, even when we try to define those with whom we disagree as being outside the realm of that care and love. Or, when things are going badly, we may come to think that God is not as connected to us as we had thought. Case in point: We have experienced the deaths of three student members of our college community since May, with the most recent death occurring last week. With three memorial services looming, I need reminding that God's care has not gone away. In order to encourage the campus community to feel as if they are in the care of a loving God, I have to reassure myself that is still the case. Of course, in my heart of hearts, I know that to be true. But the pressure of the activities of each day during this difficult time can sap the strength of even the most devout person of faith. I have always found enormous strength in the passage where Paul reminds us that, "if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." There are several interpretations that open up an expansive understanding as to what Paul was talking about in this passage. Those can be accessed elsewhere. In this time, in this place, I find his certainly that nothing takes us out of the realm of God's "ownership" to be refreshment for a weary soul. Sometimes, we need the simple reminders as to the efficacy of our faith to carry us through the truly difficult times.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tough Love

Matthew 18:15-20 deals with the ways in which we use authority and dispense forgiveness. One cannot grasp fully the import of vss. 15-20 without first reading the part of chapter 18 that precedes it. Jesus makes use of hyperbole to emphasize the importance of forbearance and love in retrieving those whom had been lost to God. So, I came up with several questions that I think arise within the confines of vss. 18-20 that give me reason to contemplate the deeper issues that spring from these passages.
1.How difficult is it for us to believe that one with whom we strongly disagree belongs to God every bit as much as we do? This is an unsettling question for such a politically divisive time in which we find ourselves here in the US.
2. Is it possible to use these passages as a way to keep other believers from questioning authority? Was that Jesus' intent in these sayings?
3. Does the behavior of individual believers become the business of the church when the behavior serves to divide members of the community? Some religious communities use this as a basis for the practice of shunning.

Chapter 18 begins with the disciples asking Jesus who among them is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The question itself seems to illustrate why Jesus may have been developing gray hairs, even as a young man. He begins his answer be referring to children, who were not really given much attention in their day. From that point, it gets more and more difficult for the disciples to deny that they have really "stepped in it" by asking such a self-centered question. Jesus seems to have really wanted them to think about cleaning their own houses and of reducing the petty conflicts that may have divided them. One would think that the church would get this message without confusion, but the evidence seems to be to the contrary. Those good Christian people who nurse grudges or try to keep others down by making them feel spiritually inferior need to examine these passages very closely. The good news for everyone is that, just as God will go to any length to retrieve a lost one, we people of faith are encouraged to set ourselves free to forgive and forebear one another to an extent not imagined before. There is a freedom in this that outweighs the captivity engendered in holding grudges of in refusing to welcome those whom God has already welcomed.

The Burning Bush

Some thoughts on the burning bush.

The older I get, the more I am fascinated by the whole idea of Moses' encounter with the Divine at the burning bush. All of the elements for a great drama are there: simple shepherd with a spotty past, theophany in a desolate area, and a God who has a total sense of self and who needs not explain that self beyond offering a variation of the infinitive of "to be" as identification.
I may be one of many, or a few, who hates the film "The Ten Commandments." Charlton Heston's hammy performance aside, the film makes God out as unapproachable and vindictive. OK, the text seems to uphold that view at times. But the film fails to capture the simplicity of the event of Moses' first encounter with God. Was it a bush that was actually burning, or was it a relative of the "fire thorn" that grows in my back yard? Who cares? The bush is a prop, the encounter is the real thing. Moses, simple shepherd and un-convicted murderer, experienced the presence of the Almighty. What would each of us give for such an encounter? Yet, the simplicity of the encounter, on a hill above grazing lands, should serve to remind us that such encounters may be closer than we ever dared hope. We must keep eyes wide open, for to miss such simple and fleeting glimpses of the God of Abraham would be a cause for grieving beyond measure!