Devotions - Monday, March 10

I would like to call your attention this morning to three Bible stories. What I would ask is that you consider the difference between the first two and the third.

First, is the story in I Kings 17:17-24. Elijah has been staying with the the widow of Zarephath. Elijah had encountered her as she was using up the last of her food to fix a meal for her herself and her son. Elijah told her to fix him a meal first, and that the food supply would never be exhausted. This proves to be true. But after he has been with her for a while, the son dies. The woman cries out against Elijah and his God. Elijah goes in to the boy, stretches his body over the body of the boy, and the boy's life returns.

Second is the story in Acts 20:7-12. Paul is about to leave Troas. Wanting as much time as possible to hear his teachings, they are gathered in a room on the top floor. It is late at night. One young man is sitting in the window. He falls asleep, and falls out the window. They are three stories high. They go out to him, and he is dead. Paul comes to the boy and takes him in his arms. The boy comes back to life.

The conclusion of each of the Gospels is my third story. In each, Jesus is dead, but then he lives. He was in the tomb, but he rises.

My teacher at the Seminary insisted that only this last story be referred to as a "Resurrection." That using that term for the earlier stories suggests that they are on the same plan as the latter. Only when Jesus dies and rises is there a change, a permanent change, in the one who was dead but now lives.

We do not participate in what happen to the widow's son nor in the returning to life of the dozing Bible study participant. Nothing about their story transfers to you and me. Only Jesus' death/life experience touches us. Only Jesus' resurrection affects the way we see our future.

Devotions - Thursday, March 6

Some of you know that I lived for six years in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. While there, I took full advantage of the opportunities to be outdoors. That included winter backpacking trips. With snow accumulations of over 200 inches, we hiked the trails on snow shoes. It wasn't the cold that I remember most about those trips, it was the long nights. That far north, the sun goes down around 5 pm. It doesn't come up again till sometime after 8 am. When you are backpacking, you limit your weight. You can't carry enough candles or batteries to keep the lights on for hours and hours.

We would eat our dinner and clean the dishes before it got dark. You can't build a campfire (the heat from a fire melts the snow and your "fire" is soon 3 feet deep in the snow drifts.) We lay in our bags and talk, but the exertion of the day brings sleep sooner than you would like. It was around 3 am that we would wake, and start to look for the morning. Those hours are also the coldest. You long for the sun to rise in order to experience its warmth; you know that you will be more comfortable when you are back in your full gear and moving and generating heat. But the morning is still a long way off. You lie there and you wait.

This morning, I was reading from Psalm 130. Verses 5 & 6 read:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.

Living in homes where electricity lights every hour of the day, we might miss the power of the Psalmist's words. When we go to bed, having stayed up late and watched TV, or read a book, we hope the morning doesn't come. Our nights are too short.

The person who penned these words and those who read them (at least for the first 2300 years) had a different experience. Nights were long and dark and often cold. The morning sun was a wonderful thing to see breaking the horizon.

Maybe this reflects a larger disadvantage in our spiritual quest. We, who have most everything we need in abundance, begin to feel self-sufficient. We experience no want; we are lacking in nothing. (I know that there are emotional wants and needs, and these cannot be overlooked. However, left with only emotional needs unmet, no wonder our experience of God has become relegated to matters of the psyche and seldom of the totality of our existence.)

The season of Lent is a time to reflect on our needs. It is a time to wait for the Lord. If you are having less than optimal success at this, try turning off the lights when the sun goes down and not turning them back on until the sun rises the next morning. Perhaps then we might understand what it is like to long for the arrival of the Light, into the world.

Devotions - Tuesday, March 4

This morning I was reading from Colossians 1:9-14. It is another place in the New Testament where Paul lays before us the "process" by which we become who it is that God hopes we can become.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

God fills us with the wisdom and understanding necessary for us to become this new person. Verse 12 says it is God who has "enabled" us. We enter onto this journey as a result of God's invitation and we persevere as a result of God's having filled us.

These gifts are ours. We are encouraged/invited to make the best possible use of them. It is God's hope that we would lead lives worthy of His calling. That we would bear fruit in every good work. And that we would grow in our knowledge of God.

How appropriate that this passage would come to us, in this 4th week of Lent. These verses remind us again of the Lenten discipline. The hope that God has for us is the mission which occupies these 40 days.

Take a few moments this morning to celebrate the gifts of God. Receive them, into the very core of your being. Know that they are yours, freely given by the same God who would not withhold his own beloved son. After becoming fully confident that God is with you, consider where His presence might lead you. How can you live a life worthy of His grace? Where is the opportunity for you to bear fruit? How will you grow in your knowledge?

Pastor Chris

Devotions - Monday, March 3

South Carolina's moment in the political spotlight has passed, but others of you are still involved in the Presidential Primary race. I have been watching the events with a close eye. If we believe in democracy, then we must be informed voters. That means doing more than hearing the sound bytes. It means reading and research and discussion.

This morning's reading from Isaiah 59 (verses 9-19) motivated me to comment on this.

Verse 14b reads: "truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter."

Isaiah is describing the situation, as revealed to him, as one in need of change. God will not tolerate such a stumble. The prophet tells the people that as a result of their inability to do something about this (as a result of their unwillingness to do something about this) God will take drastic measures. The prophet speaks the words of God, in hopes that the people will act.

Verse 14a reads: "Justice is turned back and righteousness stands at a distance."

This is one more place in scripture where justice is lifted up as the precursor to righteousness. It is God who brings righteousness to us; we prepare the way for it by seeking justice.

There are competing claims as to which candidate will be the best to assume the office of President of the United States. The primary process will select two persons whose names will appear on the ballot in the fall. I want to say that, more importantly, it is a time to define the issues which must be discussed. Justice needs to be lifted up, above self-interest. Justice must be sought, trumping any desire for power.

May it be our prayer that the prophets of our day will find Isaiah's words distasteful in their mouth. Words inappropriate for us and our nation. May our nation be that place where God's justice rolls down like a mighty water.

Pastor Chris

Sermon - March 2, 2007

Fourth Sunday in Lent - Year A

March 2, 2008

John 9:1-41

Incurable Blindness

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ARabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?@

I realized that with the length of the gospel lesson, I ought to remind you how it began. This whole story unfolds as a result of Jesus= encounter with the man born blind. It all happens as a result of the disciples questioning Jesus as to whose sin caused this thing to occur. The opening encounter reminds us that this is not a miracle story - it is a lesson on the nature of sin.

To further illustrate this, Jesus himself sins a few times. He commits three sins. If you are uncomfortable with the suggestion that Jesus sinned, I could rephrase it to say that he committed what would be considered a sin by those who were watching him most closely. Whatever spin you want to put on it, what he does do is transgress the laws of Moses in three ways.

Sin #1 - the clay. Jesus did not simply reach down and scoop up some mud from the river bank - he made it himself. The laws of Moses forbid any work on Sunday. The Rabbinic code lists thirty-nine categories of work explicitly forbidden. Kneading is one of them. Jesus is guilty of transgressing the law. He commits a Asin.@ Exodus 35:2 says anyone who works on the Sabbath is to be put to death.

Sin #2 - the products from which he made the clay. The liquid with which he combined the dirt was his own spit. Leviticus, chapter: 15, verse: 8 (CEV) reads AIf you are spit on by the man, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening.@ These two transgressions were committed, in order to bring about a healing. The healing itself qualifies as Sin #3.

Jesus= third sin is to heal on the Sabbath. The law does allow one to heal on the Sabbath - but only if a life was in danger. This man was inconvenienced - but his life was not being threatened by his blindness. Jesus commits his third transgression by healing one who’s live was not in danger.

Three sins; three transgressions against the book of commandments. This is not a miracle story - it is a lesson on the nature of sin.

In this story, the disciples speak our part. They set the whole thing in motion by trying to figure out what evil action lead to the suffering which they now see. Like too many of us, they believe that bad things happen as a result of some evil deed. AWhat have I done to deserve this?@ is a common cry offered by those who suffer. Other expressions of the same sentiment are found in AWhat goes around comes around.@ or AYou shall reap what you sow.@ Then there is the ever popular AShe got what she had coming.@

When bad things happen, we try to find some preceding cause, some action which lead to the reaction. We believe that bad things don=t just happen, they happen as a result of some other action.

Now, the case of a man who is born blind presents a particularly troublesome case. What can be said to have lead to this suffering? Is it possible that he committed some sin while still in his mother=s womb? Or did some sin on the part of his parents lead to their having to watch their child grow up without sight? The case of a man who is born blind presents a particularly troublesome case. Who do you blame? Who is responsible? What sin had been committed?

I know that I have told many of you this story before, but allow me to recount one of the most horrifying experiences of my professional life. It came while I was serving as the AChaplain for the day@ at the hospital in Salisbury, NC. A thirteen month-old child had been admitted to the pediatrics floor. I was summoned and informed that death would come within a matter of hours. The child had been sick from her birth. She had a liver disorder that was poisoning her whole system. As horrible as it was to see this child suffer, the horror was associated with a story that I slowly coxed out of the mother. She was herself only a child - an unwed teenage mother. Some of her high school classmates had cornered her one day and told her that the child was ill as a result of her promiscuity. They insisted that God=s punishment for her sin would be having to watch as her baby died.

AWho sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?@ I can understand why Jesus broke a few laws. When asked such questions the first commandments I break usually have to do with un-godly utterances. I have cursed at more than one idiot in my lifetime. It is no surprise to me that Jesus found some way to position himself with those who are looked upon as being on the wrong side of the morality code. His verbal restraint is superb. All he says to them, ANeither this man nor his parents sinned.@ He tries to tell his disciples that they should stop thinking in terms of >tit for tat=. God doesn’t interact way. And just to prove it, Jesus goes on and commits a few sins of his own. He whips up a batch of clay; making use of his unclean spit; and heals this man of a non life threatening disorder. AIf sin results in suffering,@ Jesus seems to be saying, Athen where is my punishment?@

There were those around who wanted to see him punished. The Pharisees and the keepers of the book of laws interrogate everyone they can find, trying to assign guilt. First, they try to say that a switch has occurred. That the one who sees is not the same as the one who had been born blind. When that doesn’t work, they try to get the man to find fault with Jesus. They condemn Jesus saying, AThis man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.@ Next, they move to the parents, asking them whether this child of theirs had indeed been born blind. Finally, they bring the man back in and insist that he join them in their condemnation of Jesus.

AHe is a sinner!@ they say. AHow can he be of God?@ It was too much for them to accept. They could not understand how someone could be of God, and yet act in clear violation of the Law of Moses. It is troublesome question, is it not?

Running throughout the story, there is a delightful play on sight and what sight means. Sight - with the eyes - is juxtaposed with spiritual seeing. The man who is born blind cannot see, but in the middle verses, he is the one who does see Jesus for who he really is. In this man=s second encounter with the Pharisees, he becomes the teacher. He says to them, AHere is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he (Jesus) comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.@

The man without sight is the one who sees. The blind man sees what they cannot.

This is not a miracle story - it is a lesson on the nature of sin.

As the story is coming to a close, the Pharisees come to Jesus and ask him, ASurely we are not blind, are we? Jesus said to them, AIf you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, >We see,= your sin remains.@

The first character in the story is born blind. But, his inability to see did not prevent him from recognizing Christ. The other characters in the story have full vision, but their blindness of heart prevents them from accepting God=s Messiah. The man who was born blind is healed; those who refuse to see remain in their sin.

It sometimes seems as if there is an endless barrage of questions regarding this action or that. Folks want to know whether this is a sin or whether that is a transgression. It is easier to follow a religious tradition which asks little of us beyond living up to a moral code. Even when that moral code is extremely rigid and demanding - at least we know exactly what is expected of us. Jesus understood that no code of ethics was ever going to set us free. We can only be the children God hopes we will become when as we set aside the moral codes and enter into a faith-filled relationship with God.

For many, sin consists of breaking the rules or transgressing the law. For Jesus, sin is linked with an unwillingness to accept him and an inability to emulate God=s compassion.

AWho sinned?@ ... Jesus answered, ANeither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God=s works might be revealed in him.@ In him, and through his story, we are encouraged to see that God=s commandment is for us to be made whole; God=s law demands that eyes be opened and that hearts be softened.

Amen.

Devotions - Thursday, Feb 28

I Samuel 15 contains the story of how Saul almost got it right, but didn't get it right at all. Samuel anoints Saul King of Israel. Saul is instructed by God to destroy the enemies of God, and all their possessions. (Ignore with me the harshness of the violence. I don't think that is what the story is encouraging.) Saul goes to war, but he keeps sheep and cattle for himself. When Samuel confronts Saul, he claims that the sheep and cattle are for a sacrifice to the Lord.

During this season of Lent, we devote time and effort to examining ourselves and our sin. One definition of sin is to miss the mark. Saul misses the mark. He is heading in the right direction, he is aimed at the bull's eye, but lands off target.

Sometimes our sin consists not so much of the acts in which we turn directly opposite of God, but of those situations in which we are heading the right way, but don't get there.

Being almost right isn't the same as being right. Being better than others isn't the same as being good. Read the story of Saul for yourself. Consider its lesson for you and the way that you conduct yourself in the days to come.

Devotions - Monday, Feb 25

My plans to be away this morning changed. I am thinking I will leave later this afternoon, for what remains of the conference. The reason for the change is the news no one wants to hear. It is as the result of death.

Last week began with the news that Frieda's father had died, in South Africa. She tried to find a way to get home to be with her family. In the end, she could not. As we hugged her and enveloped her in our prayers, we understood that what she wanted most was to be with her family.

On Wednesday, Leslie shared news of the death of her high school's friend's father, while skiing in CO.

Thursday, our extended community of Alumni experienced the death of Darrell Atlman. Father of Chris, Darrell came to Clemson in the fall of 2006 to cook a pig for our USC Game tailgate.

While Laura and I were away for that funeral, our college-age sons had to deal with the death of our dog, Cleo. She had been with us for eleven years. She was the kind of dog who pushed the borders between human and animal.

There is an old film series titled Begin with Goodbye. It instructs viewers to understand that each new beginning contains the seeds of an eventual good-bye. A favorite pair of jeans wear out; the college years come to an end; friends move away; loved ones die. We prepare for the big losses by careful attention to the little losses.

This year has challenged our campus with way too many losses. We have had deaths from unknown heart conditions, tragic deaths in house fires, and accidental deaths. The Clemson homepage once again as a ribbon of support for a sister institution where a lone gunman brought horror to a classroom of students. We will never (nor should we) become prepared for such losses. But we might learn to deal with them.

The promise of Christ is that nothing will separate us from the love of God. During college years, it sometimes seems as if it is life (living the wild and crazy life of a college student) which will separate us. But it does not. And neither will death. God continues to love, even in the midst of death. That is why we gather for funerals, in our churches. As a witness against any suggestion that such times are void of the presence of God.

I pray that your encounters with death will be few and far into the future. But they will come. When they do come, be prepared to say good-bye. Be prepared to give thanks for all that you have received. Be prepared to call upon the faith which has sustained you throughout your life.