5th Sunday after Pentecost
I Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 & Luke 9:51-62
That to Which our Heart Clings
I will apologize ahead of time, in case you are not one of those who appreciates sports references. I would agree with you, and make use of a cliché, in noting that sometimes it does seem as if we are caught up in a culture determined to “amuse ourselves to death.” BUT, did you get caught up in the excitement of that tennis match which began last Tuesday and stretched all the way to Thursday? In case you didn’t, and aren’t sure you heard me, the game started on Tuesday and was not completed till Thursday. They did stop at night – no lights on the courts where they were playing – but the match lasted 10 hours. 10 hours. That is a long time to play tennis. The pair involved, knew they were making history. They also knew that they were extremely tired. But what were they going to do? One reporter, a former tennis player, surmised how they might be feeling. “You can’t just stop. Someone, eventually, has to win the match.”
“You can’t just stop.” I am not so sure about that. I think I might have found a way to stop, after the first 125 games or so.
But then again, I probably wouldn’t have, had I been one of the two. I would hope that I would have had the strength and the dedication to remain faithful to that which I had set out to do. The reporter is right, “You can’t just stop.” Not, if that toward which you are striving, is the goal you desire above all else.
Jesus is with his disciples. He is talking to them about things which really matter. He is vetting the group, to see whether they will “just stop;” or whether they have the strength and dedication to continue on. They seem energetic enough. Two of them, James and John, are even ready to bring in the heavy equipment. But Jesus needs to know whether they are indeed in this to the end, or if they would be inclined to “just stop” when the hours get long and the course becomes difficult.
One of the downsides to having our lessons printed on the back of our bulletins, rather than finding them in our individual Bibles, is the difficulty in understanding the context in which these 12 verses occur. Jesus is about to appoint the 70, who will fan out from the tight group of followers, in order to proclaim the good news which Jesus announced in the temple in Nazareth. There will be celebrations associated with their work; there will also be disappointments. It is not the success of the messengers which concerns Jesus; his interest is their dedication to the task. He wants to say something to them which will prevent them from stopping when the task proves to be more exhausting than they had anticipated.
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he tells them. “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” he reminds them of their task. And finally, he states clearly what he expects of them, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
If two guys playing tennis understand how important it is to keep going, shouldn’t it be said of Jesus’ followers that there is no quit in us, either? No quit, even though the going is not always going to be easy or simple.
On most Sundays, there is a gentle suggestion that as Christians we have it easier than our forebears in the faith - our Jewish ancestors. But not on this day. When Elisha is called/when he is invited to follow the way of the Lord he is allowed to return home, cook a ceremonial meal and say his good-byes. That may have been the way it happened to Elisha, but when the prophet of the New Covenant casts his mantle upon potential followers, he gives them no opportunity to place their houses in order. “Let the dead bury their own dead,” Jesus says. “You have other work to do.”
“Foxes have holes...”
Jesus wasn’t looking back. He is so set on getting to Jerusalem and getting down to the serious business that he looks right past the folks he is currently with. We have an image in our minds that as long as Jesus was traveling along, through the countryside, that the crowds kept flocking to him. We have this image of a gentle and caring Jesus moving from one town to another as he preaches, teaches and heals the sick. We carry with us this notion that it was only when he got to Jerusalem were there was political intrigue and power struggles that folks began to reject him. But no, this isn’t the way it happened. Here, only nine chapters into Luke’s Gospel, we already see a shift. A change has happened in Jesus. A transformation (perhaps transfiguration) has altered the way Jesus sees those along the way and the way they experi¬ence him. He set his face to go to Jerusalem. This village of the Samaritans would not accept him. They could tell that he wasn’t really with them, he was looking past them. He had his eyes focused on where he was going and he wasn’t going to look back or even from side to side.¬
When Jesus calls his disciples he invites them to join him in this single-minded mission.
My personal notes on this passage include a comment made in a bible study that at no other point in the gospels does anyone turn down a direct invitation from Jesus to “Come and follow.” The rich young man doesn’t follow Jesus, but the interaction which leads to that invitation was initiated by the young man, not by Jesus. Here, it is Jesus who does the asking and his invitation is rejected. My fellow bible-study participant pointed out that nowhere else in scripture is an invitation initiated and extended by Jesus meet with rejection.
The village could tell that his face was set to go to Jerusalem. When asked to come along, it was obvious that this was serious business.
And it is serious business. Serious for Jesus, serious for them, serious for you and me.
“Our god,” writes Luther, “is that to which our heart clings.” Some will cling to their power and prestige. The hearts of others will cling to their material possessions. Still others will find themselves occupied with family and friends. I often find myself concerned that I have let community service become the central focus of my heart. While all of these things are important - vitally important - none are worthy of the prime devotion of our heart. Only One can occupy that space and in so doing enable us to satisfy all others aspirations. Our hearts must cling to Christ.
This is what Jesus is inviting his hearers to do. He wants to find out whether there are things - any things - which are more central to the lives of his followers. He knows that nothing else can bear the weight and responsibility of being one’s Savior.
When the village of the Samaritans reject Jesus, James and John want to call upon the heavens to rain fire down upon them. Jesus rebukes James and John for suggesting such a thing. Failing to embrace this harsh call to disciple¬ship does not lead to God’s punishment. The inability to make Christ the thing to which our heart clings means that we have missed a wonderful opportunity. Jesus has not desire to further punish those who refused to become his disciples. Their choosing to adhere to something else is tragic enough. The Kingdom of God had come close to them, so very close to them, and they had failed to join in.
When our hearts cling to Christ all of earth and all of the heavens are ours. Nothing stands in our way and nothing will ever overcome us. This is the promise; this is the hope; this is the faith of the Church, the faith in which we baptize.
Amen.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Sermon - June 13, 2010
Pentecost 3 - Year C
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15
Being a “Have,” and wanting more
Few stories in the Bible have a greater potential to upset our lives than today’s reading from 2 Samuel. In this story, the greed of King David is exposed. This story makes clear the destructive nature of our self-indulgence and our tendency to horde. Nathan makes King David, and each of us who reads of the encounter, aware that sexual lust isn’t the temptation to be most feared. It is our coveting which separates us from God and from one another.
This reading is in our regular cycle of appointed texts. I should admit that I look forward to its arrival. I didn’t look ahead, so I could request this as one of my Sundays to preach, but I would have, with the knowledge that this would be the reading. Few texts provide as clear an opportunity to address the misconstrued hierarchy of sin, so often championed in our self-centered and self-serving society. This reading is like a fat fast ball, delivered to the middle of the plate. The only regret I have is that my fixation with 2 Samuel won’t allow me to also speak of Luke 7. That story makes the same point. Here again, it is envy – envy of Jesus’ acceptance of the woman… who was a sinner – which erects a barrier between Simon and his guest of honor. Rather than be grateful for all that Jesus is offering him, Simon wants more. He wants to be the one to whom Jesus gives his full attention. Simon doesn’t want anyone to be more important in Jesus’ life than himself. It is a bit like those who think that being a Christian is all about getting to heaven. Their misplaced focus prevents them from receiving the goodness of God’s grace and mercy and living the life which is its self eternal. Like I said – lots there. But too little time to touch on it all.
Because, I want to take you back to the story of David and Bathsheba and Uriah and Nathan. It is never safe to assume that folks know the story. A bit of what happened is repeated in Nathan’s words to David, but let’s make sure what have the whole picture.
It started with a look. David is on his roof-top and he looks over and sees Bathsheba bathing. He desires her, even though he already has many wives. He also knows that she is married, to Uriah, the Hittite, a soldier in King David’s army. Never-the-less, David insists on having her as his own. When a child is conceived, David tries to hide his transgression by calling Uriah home from the battlefield. Being a devoted soldier, Uriah sleeps on the doorstep of his house, refusing the comforts of his bed while his fellow soldiers are still in the field. David tries to get Uriah drunk, so he will forget his dedication. This doesn’t work either.
Finally, King David sends Uriah, the soldier, back to the battlefield along with the instructions that Uriah is to be placed at the front and when the battle becomes fierce, the rest of the soldiers are to fall back. Uriah does die, at the sword of the Ammonites. But they are merely the vessel in King David’s plan. He is the man - the rich man - who takes from the poor man his one precious little lamb. His coveting lies at the root of his transgression.
We are a culture which has become obsessed with sex. It is used in order to sell products as diverse as wristwatches and low-fat cereals. As a result, the Church has all too often seen sex and sensuality as the core cause of all transgression. We have made sexual sins the most damning, ignoring along the way – perhaps - other sins and transgressions. As a result, when we read the story of David and Bathsheba we think of it as a tale of lust. Nathan’s confrontation with David allows us to see God’s concern with the root problem – David’s desire for more, his addiction to excess.
It has been argued that Augustine is at least in part to blame. It was in the 4th century that the Church fathers began to write of sin as those prime urges which we could not control. They had good reasons for this. The Stoics had for hundreds of years insisted that moving to a higher consciousness involved domination over our more base selves. They attempted to be more in control - in control of one’s thoughts, one’s emotions. Controlling these made it easy, or so it was suggested, to control our actions.
When St. Paul spoke of sin he spoke of desiring what we wanted, but could not have. He suggests that “coveting” is where all sin begins.
We do covet our neighbor’s wife (or husband.) The 9th commandment also speaks of coveting the neighbor’s manservant or maidservant. Perhaps these might be suggestions of sensuality. But I don’t think so. I believe Luther had it right when he says that this commandment is about helping our neighbor remain in loyal relationships with spouse, servants, and even cattle. Transgression occurs when we lure them away.
King David wants what isn’t his. He takes it. He denies his neighbor his one price possession. David didn’t need Bathsheba. He wanted her. He wanted her even though she belonged to another.
How many wives did David need? How many lambs could he place upon the table? How could he be so blind as to think that he was entitled to whatever he saw? Who would be so cruel as to take what little another has?
In the end, what I want to say is that one of the advantages in making sexual sins front and center of our religious zeal is that all the noise can help drown out talk of the sins of which Jesus most often spoke. He does talk about physical stuff, a little. But, you would be hard pressed to read a full page of any of the Gospels and not come across a reference to wealth and riches. Heck, rich and poor are even the framework for Nathan’s story to David. It is much less discomforting to focus on sexual sins, because it is pretty easy to feel okay about ourselves – at least most of the time. But, when we talk about our wealth things are more upsetting. And, it is not as easy to do something about. Not as easy, because it is really difficult for us to admit that we are the ones who need to do anything at all.
I own a house, five cars, four TV’s, three laptop computers – and I have the audacity to act like I am doing a wonderful thing when I spend three hours on a Saturday morning putting shingles on a Habitat house.
American Christians do have a problem. It is our wealth. It is our un-checked belief that we have a right to all this and that it is okay for us to continue to use more and more of the world’s resources in order to feed our out-of-control appetites. When we see what someone else has – we want that, too.
I hope and pray that you will never again be able to read the story of David and Bathsheba and think of it simply as a story about lust. Nathan, the prophet, tells David that his sin is the sin of coveting. Nathan, the prophet, helps David to see that having a lot sometimes blinds us to the realities of life for those who have very little. With a long and cruel finger, Nathan points out to David that he is “the man”. This same finger needs to be pointed at each of us.
Amen.
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15
Being a “Have,” and wanting more
Few stories in the Bible have a greater potential to upset our lives than today’s reading from 2 Samuel. In this story, the greed of King David is exposed. This story makes clear the destructive nature of our self-indulgence and our tendency to horde. Nathan makes King David, and each of us who reads of the encounter, aware that sexual lust isn’t the temptation to be most feared. It is our coveting which separates us from God and from one another.
This reading is in our regular cycle of appointed texts. I should admit that I look forward to its arrival. I didn’t look ahead, so I could request this as one of my Sundays to preach, but I would have, with the knowledge that this would be the reading. Few texts provide as clear an opportunity to address the misconstrued hierarchy of sin, so often championed in our self-centered and self-serving society. This reading is like a fat fast ball, delivered to the middle of the plate. The only regret I have is that my fixation with 2 Samuel won’t allow me to also speak of Luke 7. That story makes the same point. Here again, it is envy – envy of Jesus’ acceptance of the woman… who was a sinner – which erects a barrier between Simon and his guest of honor. Rather than be grateful for all that Jesus is offering him, Simon wants more. He wants to be the one to whom Jesus gives his full attention. Simon doesn’t want anyone to be more important in Jesus’ life than himself. It is a bit like those who think that being a Christian is all about getting to heaven. Their misplaced focus prevents them from receiving the goodness of God’s grace and mercy and living the life which is its self eternal. Like I said – lots there. But too little time to touch on it all.
Because, I want to take you back to the story of David and Bathsheba and Uriah and Nathan. It is never safe to assume that folks know the story. A bit of what happened is repeated in Nathan’s words to David, but let’s make sure what have the whole picture.
It started with a look. David is on his roof-top and he looks over and sees Bathsheba bathing. He desires her, even though he already has many wives. He also knows that she is married, to Uriah, the Hittite, a soldier in King David’s army. Never-the-less, David insists on having her as his own. When a child is conceived, David tries to hide his transgression by calling Uriah home from the battlefield. Being a devoted soldier, Uriah sleeps on the doorstep of his house, refusing the comforts of his bed while his fellow soldiers are still in the field. David tries to get Uriah drunk, so he will forget his dedication. This doesn’t work either.
Finally, King David sends Uriah, the soldier, back to the battlefield along with the instructions that Uriah is to be placed at the front and when the battle becomes fierce, the rest of the soldiers are to fall back. Uriah does die, at the sword of the Ammonites. But they are merely the vessel in King David’s plan. He is the man - the rich man - who takes from the poor man his one precious little lamb. His coveting lies at the root of his transgression.
We are a culture which has become obsessed with sex. It is used in order to sell products as diverse as wristwatches and low-fat cereals. As a result, the Church has all too often seen sex and sensuality as the core cause of all transgression. We have made sexual sins the most damning, ignoring along the way – perhaps - other sins and transgressions. As a result, when we read the story of David and Bathsheba we think of it as a tale of lust. Nathan’s confrontation with David allows us to see God’s concern with the root problem – David’s desire for more, his addiction to excess.
It has been argued that Augustine is at least in part to blame. It was in the 4th century that the Church fathers began to write of sin as those prime urges which we could not control. They had good reasons for this. The Stoics had for hundreds of years insisted that moving to a higher consciousness involved domination over our more base selves. They attempted to be more in control - in control of one’s thoughts, one’s emotions. Controlling these made it easy, or so it was suggested, to control our actions.
When St. Paul spoke of sin he spoke of desiring what we wanted, but could not have. He suggests that “coveting” is where all sin begins.
We do covet our neighbor’s wife (or husband.) The 9th commandment also speaks of coveting the neighbor’s manservant or maidservant. Perhaps these might be suggestions of sensuality. But I don’t think so. I believe Luther had it right when he says that this commandment is about helping our neighbor remain in loyal relationships with spouse, servants, and even cattle. Transgression occurs when we lure them away.
King David wants what isn’t his. He takes it. He denies his neighbor his one price possession. David didn’t need Bathsheba. He wanted her. He wanted her even though she belonged to another.
How many wives did David need? How many lambs could he place upon the table? How could he be so blind as to think that he was entitled to whatever he saw? Who would be so cruel as to take what little another has?
In the end, what I want to say is that one of the advantages in making sexual sins front and center of our religious zeal is that all the noise can help drown out talk of the sins of which Jesus most often spoke. He does talk about physical stuff, a little. But, you would be hard pressed to read a full page of any of the Gospels and not come across a reference to wealth and riches. Heck, rich and poor are even the framework for Nathan’s story to David. It is much less discomforting to focus on sexual sins, because it is pretty easy to feel okay about ourselves – at least most of the time. But, when we talk about our wealth things are more upsetting. And, it is not as easy to do something about. Not as easy, because it is really difficult for us to admit that we are the ones who need to do anything at all.
I own a house, five cars, four TV’s, three laptop computers – and I have the audacity to act like I am doing a wonderful thing when I spend three hours on a Saturday morning putting shingles on a Habitat house.
American Christians do have a problem. It is our wealth. It is our un-checked belief that we have a right to all this and that it is okay for us to continue to use more and more of the world’s resources in order to feed our out-of-control appetites. When we see what someone else has – we want that, too.
I hope and pray that you will never again be able to read the story of David and Bathsheba and think of it simply as a story about lust. Nathan, the prophet, tells David that his sin is the sin of coveting. Nathan, the prophet, helps David to see that having a lot sometimes blinds us to the realities of life for those who have very little. With a long and cruel finger, Nathan points out to David that he is “the man”. This same finger needs to be pointed at each of us.
Amen.
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