Preaching Notes
Pentecost 6.A.2014
Old Testament Track: Learning about Discipleship from the First Families
Genesis 28:10-19a
A few weeks ago I was following my husband home after meeting him for dinner. He was traveling in his tiny Mazda Miata convertible (which he refers to as his third mid-life crisis car) directly ahead of me as we made our way back to our house in separate vehicles. My husband is notorious for driving very slow, but in addition to his own inclinations, he happened to be behind an old pickup truck that was driving even slower than he normally does. So there we were, puttering along in a line of four cars: the truck, the Miata, my car, and a car behind me, just beginning the climb up the street we live on, where we live at the very top of the hill.
Near the bottom of our hill there is a stoplight. It has a long green light, so as we proceeded forward I could see pretty far ahead that the light was green. As we approached the light the truck went on through, then my husband proceeded through, and I was right behind him. The light was green the whole time.
All of a sudden, just as my husband was passing through the intersection, a car appeared from the right at full speed and smashed into the back of the Miata, right in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and barely avoided hitting the car, which had now come to a full stop with the hood up, the bumper on the ground, and the entire front smashed in. It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye.
The woman driving the car got out and looked quite upset and stunned, but physically unharmed. I jumped out of my car and ran to see if my husband was okay.
Fortunately the woman had only clipped the back left quarter panel of the Miata, which sent it spinning up the road and landed my husband facing the other direction in the grass. He was still in the car, looking shaken, but otherwise unhurt.
It was the hardest thing in the world for me to even look at him in his car. I was so afraid that he was seriously injured or even dead. I had to literally force myself to look at him. If it had been a second earlier he probably would have been, as the car would have “T-boned” his tiny Miata rather than sending it spinning.
All week long I have been having such mixed feelings. I feel incredibly lucky that my husband and the woman in the other car were both able walk away from such a horrible accident. But on the other hand, I feel angry that it even happened. It was a brush with death that hit a little to close to home for me, both literally and figuratively. I can’t drive through that intersection now without feeling paranoid that someone else is going to run the red light. As my unconscious mind tries to deal with it, I keep having nightmares about the people I love being hurt or killed. And yet, I am incredibly grateful to God for watching over him and keeping him safe this time.
The hard fact that we must all face is that these things happen every day. We drive around, trusting that others will obey the traffic signals and drive on their side of the road. But calamities still occur. Drivers get distracted or sleepy, brakes fail; all sorts of potential disasters lurk around every corner and at every intersection we come upon.
From time to time, things happen in our lives that point us to the frightening reality even in the very best of circumstances, life is short. Human life is very brief. As the prophet Isaiah puts it, “A voice says, ‘Cry out!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of theLordblows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40: 6-8).
Centuries ago, when Jacob had conned his brother Esau out of his birthright and Esau had found out, Jacob fled the country in order to save his life. He took refuge with his mother’s kinfolk, who lived across the River Jordan to the northeast. The first day of his journey Jacob headed due north, not crossing the river yet. When nightfall approached, he stopped on a ridge, made camp, and went to sleep, using a smooth stone as a pillow under his neck. That night he dreamed that there was a ladder between heaven and earth, and angels were climbing up and down that ladder. In his dream, God spoke to him and promised to be with him and his descendants. When Jacob awoke from his sleep he said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.”
Jacob was fleeing for his life! He was afraid, and had been forced to deal with the reality, just as I have, that out of nowhere death can come along and snatch a life away with absolutely no warning. Life is very fragile.
When we have a brush with death, it is then that God becomes very real to use. If we happen to live through our brush with death, some of us, like Jacob and my husband and I, are grateful to God. Jacob poured olive oil on the stone that had been the pillow for his head when he had dreamed that he was about to die, and was standing in the very gate of heaven. He set the stone up as a monument, and named the place “Bethel,” which means “Dwelling place of God.”
I keep telling my husband that we should follow Jacob’s lead and go down to that corner and hold a ritual anointing. Perhaps we could pour out some olive oil on the pavement and rename that intersection “Bethel” as a monument to our gratitude. Maybe that would make me less skittish when I pass through each day, if I did something to remind myself that God was there on the day of my husband’s accident.
But then, I have to remind myself also of where God is. With or without a ritual anointing, is God not in every place? Of course God is! God was not just in the place where Jacob, fleeing for his life, laid his neck on a smooth stone and had a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder between heaven and earth. And God was not just in the place where Scot came face to face with his own mortality.
God is in every place.
The problem is not that God is not always there for us. The problem is that we have this sickness. We hear and hear, but we do not understand; and we see and see but do not perceive, because our ears are heavy and our eyes are not open, and our hearts are fat, and all this failure of faith is not a sickness of the body, but a sickness of the soul.
The lesson we learn in discipleship from the first families this week is simply this: Wherever we are, at all times and all places, we must continually come to our senses, over and over, and remind ourselves, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. But how blessed I am because now I DO know! I will turn. I will turn again to God and be healed, perhaps in my body, God willing, although that is only a temporary healing. But always, merciful God, I will turn to be healed in my soul!”
MAN, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O LORD, who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O LORDGODmost holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, LORD, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, LORDmost holy, O GODmost mighty, O holy and merciful SAVIOUR; thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.
From The Book of Common Prayer, 1789, “The Order for the Burial of the Dead” (http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1789Selections/Burial.htm)
Epistle Track: Discipleship 101 with the Romans
Romans 8:12-25
This week, as we continue to look at Discipleship 101 with the Romans, I thought it might be nice to consult the founder of Methodism on the subject.
In Sermon 60, John Wesley deals with a portion of this passage (a link to the sermon can be found below). In the sermon he wrestles with the question of how it can be that scripture says God provides for all creation, and cares for all people, and God’s mercy is over all God’s works; and yet it is clear that there are many in God’s world who suffer, both human and animal.
It is a difficult dilemma posed by our founder. How does Wesley confront this problem?
Ultimately, he chalks it up to original sin. He begins by noting that God created human beings in God’s own image of perfect righteousness and love, and gave humans dominion over all of creation, especially those lesser animals, or “brutes” as Wesley names the non-in humans alone were endowed with the capacity to obey their creator. Thus endowed, God’s original intent was that humans would insure that no beasts under their care suffered: “All the blessings of God in paradise flowed through man to the inferior creatures, as man was the great channel of communication between the Creator and the whole brute creation,’ Wesley writes.
Unfortunately, as we all know, human beings messed up the transmission of those blessings in an irreversible way. This has affected not only all humans, but all of the creatures under humanity’s care. Wesley laments that there is no way to know what suffering has ben incurred upon creation because of original sin. All we know is that “the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; not only creation but we ourselves” (verses 22-23).
Because we are fallen from God’s grace, our only hope for salvation is in Christ. But even thought we are saved from eternal suffering, this does not give us a pass to avoid the suffering of God’s creation; rather, as my colleague has noted in the worship planning helps, we are called to join with Christ in his suffering, just as we will also join in his glory.
What is a disciple, then? He is the one who does not look away from the suffering of the world. She is the one who not only does not look away, but who takes responsibility for her contribution to the state we are all in, and joins in the struggle to expose, confront, and break the power of sin over all of creation.
To continue the twelve steps theme, this is the part where we must take responsibility for our actions. In the words of AA, we must make amends for our past wrongdoings, and proceed from there by continually looking for instances in which we were wrong and “promptly admit it.” We must groan with all of those who are groaning, boldly entering into to their suffering and working beside them to alleviate it.
· Who in your community is groaning?
· How can your congregation draw attention to the sins, both individual and systemic, and apply pressure upon the oppressors to “admit it?”
· Remembering that disciples are called to care for all of God’s creation, including plant and animal life, what are some concrete ways in which your congregation can take responsibility for and help alleviate the suffering in your community?
http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-60-the-general-deliverance/
Gospel Track: Joining with Jesus and the Disciples in the Mission Field
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Continuing, then, in this theme of suffering, the Gospel lesson for today leads us to ask some difficult questions:
· Why is there so much suffering in the world?
· And why does God, who loves us and cares for us and knows the number of hairs on our heads, allow there to be such pain and sorrow?
· Where is God in the midst of disasters?
· Why doesn’t God stop disaster from occurring?
· And why do bad things happen to good people?
Of course our generation is not the first to wonder at the problem of evil in the world. People have been struggling with the problem of sin and injustice since Cain killed his brother and the Lord asked Cain where his brother was, and Cain said, “How should I know? Am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “Oh, Cain. What have you done? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.”
And no doubt the people in Jesus’ time were no different that the people who lived during the time of the Old Testament. Just like all of us, people back in the day wondered why their neighbors had fallen victim to diseases—why their dear friend, the most faithful person you’d ever meet, suddenly was diagnosed with cancer, or why their cousin’s child was born with a crippling disease, or why their aunt seemed to be overtaken by an evil spirit. Just like us, people back in Jesus’ time found themselves surrounded by all manner of sin, evil, and horror.
And in fact, that is the very reason that crowds gathered around whenever Jesus was in town. It was because of his amazing ability to bring healing and hope to the very people who needed it the most.
One of the main ways that Jesus talked about hope was in terms of the kingdom of heaven.
· The kingdom of heaven, where people could finally be set free from sin and evil and suffering.
· The kingdom of heaven, where the goodness and mercy and justice and righteousness of God reigns.
· The kingdom of heaven, which, according to Jesus, is AT HAND.
But where? Where is it? It is sort of like my question about where God is in the above note on the passage from Genesis. Where is the kingdom of heaven when bad things happen, when cancer strikes, or fires rage out of control, or floods take away a person’s home in the blink of an eye, or a group of school girls are kidnapped and held for ransom?
If the kingdom of heaven is at hand, then how do we find it so we can cling to it like a life raft in this stormy sea of suffering and sorrow? How do we find the kingdom of heaven’s light so that it can guide us through the dark times that gather in around us like a terrible fog?