Devotion - Thursday, August 29

If you listen to my sermons or read these humble offerings, you will soon realize that I have a deep love for the Old Testament.  

Its characters are so much more "real."  They make real mistakes, and the writers of those ancient books tell us about it.

The absence of a clear, central authority means that differences of how one is to speak of God, or serve God, come to the surface.

Some within the Christian community do not share my love for the first 39 books of our Bible.  Some even go as far as to reject those books.  Many more simply harbor the thought, "I don't see how the God of Jesus is the same God being served by all those violent Kings in the Old Testament."

First, let me advise you, one of the first heresies identified by the Church is Marcionism.  As early as the second century, followers of Marcion were speaking of two differing Gods - one of the Old Testament; another of the New Testament.  This was rejected by the members of The Way (the original name for the Christian Church).

This came to mind for me this morning as I was reading Acts 24.  Paul is on trial.  Speaking of his innocence, he says, "I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets."  Paul, clearly, sees no such division between two gods.

I realize too, that Paul had had opportunity to do much study on his own.  He was learned, and he was insightful.  When he refers to the law and the prophets, he isn't as dependent upon what others have said as we might be.  He had the luxury of discovering for himself what the law is about and what the prophets had written.

Before you make comments like, "I am not so sure about the God of the Old Testament," give some thought to the possibility that you simply don't know as much about the Old Testament.  Perhaps, rather than joining the chorus of voices which question the caring nature of the God of Abraham and Issac and Jacob, you could might admit that the style of writing makes it more difficult for you to arrive at the meaning.

I read all of the Bible through the lens of Galatians.  I prefer the story of Jesus to the stories of David and Saul.  But I do not reject the latter; they help me to understand the long history of God's attempts to teach us His way and His truth.

Devotion - Wednesdy, August 28

My devotional guide has me reading from 2 Samuel, chapters 17 and 18.  Here we find the stories about Absalom.  Son of King David, Absalom rises up against his father and attempts to take over the seat of the King.  For a brief period, he is in charge of Israel.  King David is once more placed in the role of leader of a rebel band of soldiers.  

The battles between the two do not result in the death of either.  Rather, Absalom is riding his mule and he gets his head caught in the thick branches of a great oak tree.  He is hanging there; trapped.  Soldiers loyal to King David see him, and forgetting the King's instructions to "Deal gently" with Absalom, they kill him.

Runners are eager to go and tell David the news.  The father of one of the runners warns him that King David will not be pleased with the news.

He is not.  Upon hearing the news, he speaks words which ring true in the heart of parents.  "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!  Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

My children have never plotted to overthrow me and take my place (at least to my knowledge).  But they have made some choices which I found to be less than desirable.  If you ask them, they are likely to remember those times, and they may even say to you that I was too hard on them, or too critical, or something of  the sort.  But I hope they would also remember that in the midst of it all, I never spoke a desire to sever my relationship with them.  They are my children.  And the words of King David ring in my ears and resonate in my heart.  Would that my life suffers hardship; not theirs.

You have only just begun the school year, and you may be grateful to be living on your own and no longer sharing a house with your parents.  And, when writing to a large group of persons, it is way too easy to overlook or seem to ignore that among you are those who have serious issues back home - that it may not be the safe place it is for most.  Keeping that in mind, I would encourage you to read 2 Samuel 17 & 18, and realize that wisdom in the Commandment to "Honor your father and mother."  They are the people most likely to help you experience and understand God's unconditional love.

King David speaks for all of us when he acknowledges the depth of his compassion.  We, like him, see our future and our hope and our joy in those who call us "Mother" or "Father."

Devotion - Tuesday, August 27

In Mark 11, Jesus tells a parable about a man who plants a vineyard and lends it out to tenants.  When the time comes for the harvest, he sends servants to collect his rent.  The tenants treat them shamefully; they do not give them the owner's portion of the harvest.

After several attempts, the owner of the vineyard sends his son.  He thinks they will respect the son.  You probably know what happens next; they kill the son.

Jesus tells this parable as he is in the midst of an unpleasant encounter with the leaders of the synagogue.  These chief priests and scribes were asking him on what authority he was teaching and casting out demons.  Jesus tells the parable as a way of exposing them as the ungrateful tenants.

Whenever I read such parables, I will always here Jim Reneke saying to me, "The Jews get a bum rap!"  He was complaining about all the sermons he had sat through in which the preacher blamed everything on "the Jews," without acknowledging the possibility that other ethnic groups or differing collections of individuals might also "act shamefully."  I am grateful to him for encouraging me to read Mark 11 (and other passages) as instruction for my life rather than simply reading them as condemnation of the life lived by others.

Jesus' parable calls upon us to see ourselves as the tenant to whom a great and luscious vineyard has been entrusted.  His parable asks us how we view that which the garden produces.  Do we recognize the one who planted the garden and placed us in it?  Or do we assume full credit and ignore the opportunities to share?

Those of us in the LCM group are pretty good at not stealing, or killing, or ignoring the Sabbath.  Can it be said that we are equally attentive to God's instructions to return to God a portion of that which has been entrusted to us?  

Look over the past 168 hours of your life - how many were given over to service of others?  How many hours did you spend focused on God's agenda for your life?

Look back over the receipts from your debit card.  Among the charges at Cookout and Walmart, are there any for Feed the Children, or Clemson Community Care?

In Mark 11 Jesus speaks of the ungrateful tenants.  Was he talking about them?  Or might he have been talking to us?  We underestimate the importance of scripture unless we realize he is doing both.

Devotion - Monday, August 26

Yesterday's Gospel Lesson included a confrontation between Jesus and the leader of a synagogue.  Jesus had healed a women, crippled for eighteen years.  The leader was indignant that Jesus would perform such a work on the Sabbath.

In the sermon I preached (my sermons - as well as these devotions - are posted at a blog - chrisheavner.blogspot.com) I made the claim that what started the whole confrontation was a conflict of preferences for how one gathers in God's house; that Jesus was in favor of loosening the tight controls on Sabbath behavior.  I may have overstated the case, and it is possible that some may have left with the thought of "anything goes."

God has a way of aiding us in our blindness, or our shortsightedness.  This morning's reading from the Daily Lectionary returned me to Sabbath and Temple laws.  This time, Jesus is on the side of defending the ancient practices and customs.  

In Mark 11:14 ff, Jesus overturns the tables of those who sold pigeons and exchanged money on the temple grounds.  "You have made my father's house a den of robbers!"

There is much to be learned from these verses in Mark, but for this morning I want to make some general comments about reading our bible and coming to our conclusions about what the bible "says."  

We can always (and rather easily) find an individual verse which reinforces what it is that we want the bible to say.  It is a rather simple task to find biblical support for what we want to believe.  But honestly reading our bibles means that we remember the rest of the verses and that we evaluate the verse we want to reference with other verses.  Martin Luther called this the "canon within the canon."  It is the core or the center which affects (or even directs) the way we see what is along the edges.

Even so, we will not all agree.  There is no uniformity of thought as to which verses will form the core.  That is why we get so many differing denominations or traditions.  

I wanted to acknowledge to any of you who heard or read my sermon from yesterday that I remain fully aware of those other places in scripture where the assumptions of my brief, 12 minute sermon are called into question.  I stand by what I said; but I do so with a great degree of humility.  More to the point, I want you to join me in developing the openness to seeing how it is that God's people can love and follow the same Jesus, but find differing ways to summarize what it is that Jesus says.

14^th  Sunday after Pentecost – Year C(Lectionary 21)

Luke 13:10-17 

                          Abiding by Sabbath

On one of my vacation Sundays this summer, I went to another church for worship.  Going to a different church is a good thing for a preacher to do; especially one who has been under call to a specific congregation and leading Sunday services for 30 years.  Unless you go somewhere else, after a while you tend to forget how differently the people of God worship God.  And the people of God do worship God quite differently. 

Sometimes we like the differences; sometimes we don’t. 

A few years back, when the “new” students came to Clemson and found their way to UniLu, there was among them the son of a pastor friend of mine.  This pastor friend had made sure that I knew the child was coming and that I knew how to get in touch with him.  Trouble was, when that child came to worship for the first time, the report he gave his father was “they sure do things differently up here.” 

I don’t know that the son ever came back.  His father and I are still friends.  We still (occasionally) laugh at how difficult it can be for our children to adjust to something which is different.   

I don’t want to over-simplify the tension which underlies Jesus’ conflict with the leader of synagogue in today’s Gospel lesson, but it is possible to see this whole encounter as conflict between differing ways of worshipping God.  The exchange emerges from preferences in how one spends time with God.  Jesus wants the Sabbath gathering place to be a place where that which ills us is exposed and addressed.  The leader of the synagogue would prefer synagogue time to be dedicated to following the ancient customs which had preserved Judaism through the centuries.   

We do a disservice to the leader of the synagogue if we allow ourselves to think that he was just being an old curmudgeon.   

We over-simplify the situation if we think the only reason the synagogue leader critiqued Jesus’ behavior is because of a dis-interest in the fate of a crippled old lady.   

More importantly, failing to appreciate what is happening between Jesus and this synagogue leader might prevent us from understanding that differences in worship style do not exists simply so we can frustrate others; they arise out of a heart-felt interest in finding the way which we can best relate to God.  The way which is best for me is seldom (if ever) the best for everyone else.  What I prefer is likely to be different from you would find most helpful;  likely to be different for those of us who have chosen to gather here as contrasted with those who are gathering a few blocks down the street, or a few miles down the road. 

Let me go back to my disclaimer, just for a moment:  I don’t want to over-simplify this exchange.  And certainly/clearly Jesus and his immediate followers had many such exchanges with those whose understanding of Sabbath behavior and Sabbath laws needed to be challenged.  The legalism which had crept into Jewish religious life was robing Judaism of its greatest gift and its finest attributes.  But then legalism tends to do that – in every situation. 

There was a simple solution to the problems which Jesus exposes by his challenge to the leader of the synagogue.  The Sabbath is God’s gift to God’s people.  It was given, and continues to be given, as an opportunity to set aside the agenda of the world and to embrace God’s vision.  It is God’s way of caring for those whom God loves so dearly.  The legalist of first century Judaism had turned what was intended to be a day of rest and an opportunity to hear God’s Word into a day of obligation and duty.  The encounter between Jesus and the leader of the synagogue was over something more significant than preferences. 

But preferences, expressed some centuries earlier, where what lay behind what had by Jesus’ time become a rigid rule or law.  The leader of the synagogue didn’t simply decide that he wanted to ignore women with crippling spirits.  He was protecting a way of approaching God which had developed – among the faithful - over the centuries.  He was preserving the place and the style of gathering which had enabled him to experience God and to become a servant of God.   

That style/that set of preferences had worked!  Here he was, the leader of the synagogue, preserving the ancient readings and customs of a people whom God had set apart; a people who had been challenged by invading armies; and whose leaders had been carried off into captivity by the Babylonians.  

He wasn’t being an old curmudgeon; he was passing on what had first been entrusted to him.  

When I went to that other church earlier in the summer, there were moments when I liked what I was experiencing.  I thought a couple of times, “We ought to try that at UniLu.”  But, if I am completely honest, there were more moments when I felt out of place or ill at ease or just plain confused.  And while I did enjoy being on vacation, I was also eager to return to this place, to be with all of you, and to the style of worship which most clearly communicates to me God’s love of me. 

Maybe you have been here long enough or often enough to prefer the style that has developed over years in this place.  You may be among those who are more recent additions to this community – and you may still be trying to decide whether this is the way of being together is a way likely to assist you in advancing your faith.  The customs or practices which are on display here this morning have arisen as a result of years, or decades, or even centuries of prior assemblies.  We defend them with the honor due something that has sustained and cared for God’s people.   

But – and this is a really bit but – we must always be prepared to step outside our style and customs long enough and far enough to ask whether they are continuing to accomplish that which we had intended.  No one sets up a shallow, empty, misdirected custom.  Every preference or practice began as a heartfelt response to God and to God’s goodness.  But over time, it took on a life of its own, and became empty. 

“We have never done it that way,” isn’t the response of a non-caring, protector of the past.  It is the request of a faithful disciple that the surroundings which brought me this far in my journey not be so drastically altered as to make my continuation uncomfortable, or even impossible. 

God wants us to become comfortable, to be at ease, to relax.  Nothing allows that happen better than familiar surroundings and well-worn practices.  But that old pair of tennis shoes which gently hug the contours of our feet will not do the same for anyone else. 

God created the earth; and then God gave us the Sabbath.  It is a time to stop all the activity and hustle of the week; it is a chance to turn our attention to that which matters, to that which is of eternal importance.  How we do that will vary from place to place, from person to person.  We need to find our own way, and stick with what helps us.  But occasionally, we need to take a good look at our way and make sure that we ourselves haven’t turned into some old curmudgeon – that we haven’t started defending some ancient practice or rite, handed down to us but now totally empty of its ability to communicate to others what God is up to or where God is calling us.

It only takes a few decades for century’s worth of insight to become lost in wave of legalism.  And once it gets lost it is a very difficult thing to find it and dig it out. 

Amen.

Friday Devotion - August 23

On Fridays, one of the students involved in LCM prepares our devotion.  This weeks' offering is from Gina Wessinger:

Jesus walked. All the time. Everywhere.

He was walking when he called his disciples to follow him. He walked up the mountain for his sermon on the mount. He walked on water. He walked to different cities throughout his ministry. He was always walking.

Similarly, we walk, too. Not quite as much as Jesus, but we still walk often. We walk to class, we walk to dining halls, we walk to church, we walk to meet friends. Walking is big part of a college student's day.

So, how can we make our walking more like Jesus's walking?

Jesus walked to all different places to teach and share the good news and love of God. We, too, can go to different places and share the good news of God and His love. It doesn't have to be city to city though. It can be class to class.

During his walks, Jesus would be called upon by people in the cities, and he would stop to heal and save and help. We can do that, too! When we see someone who's lost, we can point them in the right direction. When we see someone with their hands full, we can open a door for them or offer our help. Even when we see someone who's looking discouraged or stressed, we can send a friendly smile their way.

By walking like Jesus, we can show God's light and love everywhere we go. We can do that in our classes, various organizations, at the gym, at the store, pretty much anywhere. We can always let God shine through us.

So let's do it!

Devotion - Thursday, August 22

We had a bit of a humorous glitch near then end of last night's Eucharist.  Emily had agreed to lead us in the Dismissal.  Since the various parts had been assigned as we gathered, no one remembered exactly who was supposed to do what, and when.  As the pause occurred for the Post Communion Prayer, Emily jumped in with the Dismissal.  "Wait, wait." we had to tell her.

Would that we were always eager to signal the transition from our inward focused talk of God to our actively carrying what we have received into the world!  It is surely pleasing to God when jump at the chance to apply in the world what it is that we have gained from our time in God's presence.

This morning's Gospel reading is from Mark 10.  Jesus is revealing what will happen to him when he arrives in Jerusalem.  He tells the disciples, "The Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve."  Our "service", our "worship services," are practice events  which send us out into the world to serve.  Following Jesus means serving, as he served.

Like so many of you, I was eager for last night's reunion - life just isn't the same when there are no weekly gatherings of LCM-C.  My eagerness to be active in the world in Christ's name throughout the remainder of the week needs to be equally strong.

Peter Marshall offered this prayer:

Help me to be an instrument of Thine to alleviate the pain, by this day:

returning good for evil,

returning soft answers for sharp criticisms,

being polite when I receive rudeness,

being understanding when I am confronted by ignorance and stupidity.

Devotion - Wednesday, August 21

"It is all about the grace thing," was the way Mary explained why her migration from various communities of faith lead her to LCM.  "Grace" was what met the need in her life; grace is what provided the handle by which she could come to understand God.

Perhaps you are already repeating in your head the words to the hymn "Amazing Grace."  I have a cross-stitched wall hanging of those words near where I say my morning prayers.  It was a gift from another member of our community, someone on the other end of the age spectrum.  I wondered, when she gave it to me, how her arthritic fingers could make the small stitches.  "God's grace," was her reply.

The devotional guide I use included an opening prayer which acknowledged the grace by which God has given his only Son.  It goes on to ask that God would "also give us grace (to) daily follow in his way."

Grace gives us the handle we need come to understand God; grace gives us the ability to listen to Jesus and to follow him.

It is all about the grace.

Welcome back!  I have missed you.  It is much easier for me to see and experience God's grace when given the opportunity to observe it in your lives.

Sermon - August 11, 2013

12^th Sunday in Pentecost – Year C – Lectionary 19      

Genesis 15:1-6; Luke 12:32-40           

 

                                                              Have No Fear – Little Flock 

A few years ago the students and I adopted a Lenten discipline of memorizing a verse of scripture every day.  Let me confess it didn’t go as well as we had hoped it would.  Not their failings; mine.  It isn’t easy to memorize 40 verses within the span of 46 days.  The other mistake was not selecting the verses in advance.  So, when the memorization got behind, we (I) became lapse in picking the verses for the week to come. 

If we were to reintroduce that practice, there are two verses in today’s readings which I would put on that list – one each from our Old Testament and Gospel lessons. 

Let’s start with the last.  Luke 12:32.  If you have your bibles go ahead a mark it.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”   I would really like for the memorization process to begin now.  So repeat it with me - “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”     Say it one more time - “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”   Luke 12:32.

In my sermons I keep referring to these new, upstart theologians with whom I am so impressed.  Practically all of them begin their theological work from the perspective of Luke 12:32.  (Can you repeat that verse?)  They ask why we fail to BEGIN our talk of God with an affirmation of what it is that God intends to do.  God’s intention is to “give us the kingdom”.  His goal is to assure us that we don’t have any reason to be afraid.  We have no reason to fear.

That is a difficult message to get through.  It runs counter to what has been so carefully taught by those who saw the change coming and in preparation started shoring up their defenses.  Latinized Christianity took its stand in 1868, when Pope Pius IX convened Vatican I primarily as a means of instituting Papal Infallibility.  Same mindset when to work in the independent protestant side.  The “Niagara Bible Conferences” got started in 1878 and over the course of a few years the participants developed what came to be known as the “Five Fundamental Principals.”  These were asserted as the five irrefutable truths of Christian faith.  Without the authority figure of a Pope, Protestants wanted to assert the ultimate authority of dogma.   This group of folks wanted their own means by which one could be judged as correct or in error.  

This mindset of fundamental, infallible pronouncements grew and grew and grew from the early 1900’s – grew through the age when “Rapture” and “Spiritual warfare” were added to the historical annals.  It is not a way of thinking which leaves much room for a “Father” whose “good pleasure” it is to “give you the kingdom.”  It gives rise to the image of sinners in the hands of an angry God. 

That mindset reached it pinnacle around the 1960’s which is just about the time that the house of cards came tumbling down and the Church began to fade into the background of cultural significance. 

Many of you, in this room, came to maturity during those years.  And most of you were well schooled in the language of “You had better listen, or else.”  Too few were greeted at the door of their house of worship with the simple, undeniable Truth of Luke 12:32.   

Repeat it with me - “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”    

That is the first verse worth remembering.  The second is the concluding verse of our Old Testament reading.  It is important, as a way of shoring up the first.  But I want to warn you ahead of time that I am going to ask you to keep an open mind about the interpretation of that verse.

It is the last verse – Genesis 15:6.  Look at it in your bibles or on the back cover of the bulletin. 

This verse gives Abraham and Sarah the confidence they needed as they set forth on their journey with God.  And remember it isn’t a smooth journey.  Sodom and Gomorrah are part of the story.  As is the taking of Sarah to be a wife of a dessert King. But they did it.  They made it.  And this verse figures into their ability to do so.

Look at it with me.  I really didn’t ask Donna to do this, but if you notice the bulletin has an asterisk in the last line.  Donna cuts and pastes this from the web, so what you see is the asterisk, but not the footnote to which it refers.  Anyone have their own bible, with the footnote in tack?  If you do, there is an alternative reading for this verse.  It may read as printed here, “And he believed the LORD; and the LORD* reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  Or it might read, “And he believed the LORD; and HE (as in Abraham) reckoned it to him (the LORD) as righteousness.”

This alternative translation suggests that what happens here is that Abraham sees God’s righteousness; that the exchange has less to do with God’s confidence in Abraham and more about Abraham’s ability to trust God.   

Time to practice this verse.  But say it the way the footnote suggests.  “And he believed the LORD; and HE reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  

Abraham had no reason to fear.  He has seen and experienced God’s righteousness.  Abraham had come to understand God’s intentions toward him and those intentions were beyond measure.

I hope there is at least one of you, if not several dozen of you, who are searching your memory (maybe even your bible) for those verses in the New Testament in which Genesis 15:6 is clearly interpreted as a statement of God seeing righteousness in Abraham.  They are in Romans, Chapter 4.  Clearly, in those paragraphs, Paul interprets Genesis 15:6 as God gaining confidence in Abraham.  That is one of the reasons (if not the main reason) that translators of Bibles make the results of years of study a footnote without touching the sacred interpretation of the verse.

When I look at my own attempts at righteousness, I am filled with fear.  I haven’t sold my possessions, given the money to the poor, and followed Jesus.  There are no skeletons in my closet which would result in defrocking, but there are a bunch which would disappoint you and give you reason to shake your heads. 

When I turn my gauze toward God, and God’s righteousness, those self-centered evaluations fall to the wayside.  I see in each new day the opportunity to step forward as if from the baptismal waters for the first time.  I know that regardless of how others might see me or how I might judge myself that when God sees me he sees one to whom it is his good pleasure to give me the kingdom.  And thus, I will have no fear. 

Join me, will you?  Let’s say it one more time: 

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”   

Amen.