Devotion - Thursday, September 4

Like most of you, I have been horrified by the reports of the beheading of the American journalists.  I ask myself, "How can someone be so cruel?"  Like many of you, I have a desire for justice.  And, perhaps like some of you, I have my ideas as to what that "justice" might look like.

Then I come back to my daily reading of scripture.  As fate or luck or divine intervention would have it, I am reading the portion of the Book of Judges where the story of Gideon is being told (Chapter 7).  Gideon has opportunity to lead the people of Israel against the Midianites.  There is a massive army assembled - 22,000.  God helps Gideon turn away and turn away till only 300 remain.  The other 21,700 are told to "return" to their homes and fields.  "If too many are in your army," God tells Gideon, "they will think they won the battler rather than God."  The 300 go to battle and they win.

The people want to make Gideon their king.  He refuses.  "The LORD will rule over you."  he insists.

Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) lead the "Confessing Church" in Germany in the Hitler years.  He plotted against Hitler and died in a concentration camp.  The first Sunday after Hitler's take over, he preached in Trinity, Church, Berlin:

Perhaps Gideon's fighters heard the command to return with shuddering and astonishment.  With this same fear and trembling the church perceives the voice of One who commands her to renounce might and honor, to abandon all of her calculations, and to let God alone do his  work.  With head shaking and with anger we see many a good Gideon among us go his way-but can this confound us who see the Cross in the middle of the church, the sign of powerlessness, of dishonor, of defenselessness, of hopelessness, of senselessness and yet the source of godly strength, honor, protection, hope, meaning, glory, life, victory?  Do we see now the line which leads from Gideon to the Cross?  Do we understand that this line says one thing - "faith"?

Gideon is victorious, the church is victorious, because faith alone is victorious.  But Gideon does not overcome, the church does not overcome, we do not overcome, but God shall overcome.

The danger posed by those who take up the sword is real.  It may kill that which is most precious to us - i.e. our confidence and trust in a Messiah who took up the cross (not a sword) in order that we might know the will of God.

I am very upset by what I read of the events of these past weeks.  My fear is that I will allow the actions of others to detract me from the Way, from the Faith which has carried me thus far and which promises to carry me home to the loving arms of my Heavenly Father.

Devotion - Wednesday, Sept 3

I too often forget and are always grateful for the reminders that church professionals have their own particular vocabulary and collection of references.  When I refer to a concept or person and you don't know the reference I have fallen short in my attempt to illumine the faith traditions of the Church.  

You are invited to call me on such references or words.  If you don't know what I am talking about, chances are pretty good others don't either.  

With this in mind, I read today's appointed Gospel lesson (John 1:29-42) with an eye on what is assumed as we read the story.  The part that struck me the most is baptism itself.

In this story, John baptizes Jesus.  This was the style of ministry John had taken on.  This is why he is often referred to as "John the Baptist," though it would be better to call him "John the Baptizer."  The shorter reference leads some to think that John was the founder of the modern Christian denomination.   

John did not invent baptism.  There were many engaged in this practice.  It was a ritual cleansing, an outward symbol of an inward conversion or re-commitment to following God.

The early Christian Church would pick up the practice of baptism; having been instructed by Jesus to "go into all the world, baptizing and teaching them all that I (Jesus) have commanded."  But this baptism was not one of repentance and re-commitment.  This baptism was into the death and resurrection of our Christ.

There continue to be other faith traditions in which a ritual washing is part of religious life.  Christians are not the only ones who "baptize."  It isn't the water or the act which makes it a sacrament for us.  Our baptism is sacred because it unites us to Jesus and to his invitation to follow.

Devotion - Monday, September 1

Today is Labor Day, and while Clemson and TriCounty are in full operation, much of the rest of our world will be shut down or closed.  The Church Office is closed today, so I will be lying low myself.

Labor Day came about as an attempt to acknowledge the contributions made by those who do the jobs which are all too often overlooked or taken for granted.  Labor Day was intended as an opportunity to acknowledge their contributions.

I was as responsible as any for yesterday's liturgy at UniLu, but I realized too late that we failed to acknowledge this holiday.  In so doing, we may have continued the mistaken notion that what we do the rest of the week is separated from what occurs on a Sunday morning.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

We live out our vocation (as a baptized child of God) in our occupation (the means for making a living and contributing to the needs of our community.)  Our vocational covenant takes on practical expression in the occupational choices we make.  This doesn't simply mean we are "nice" or "considerate" as we design ground water run-off retention pools; it means we approach our work as an opportunity to mold the world to God's desires.  This doesn't mean we are "honest" in our accounting procedures as we manage a local business; it means we see the connections between our business practices and the over-arching goals of a caring society.  We live out our baptismal commitment in the jobs we have accepted.  There is no disconnect.

I visited yesterday with a friend who for decades wore on his lapel a button which simply read "On Mission from God."  It was his way of reminding himself (and announcing to the world) that every interaction he had was an opportunity to act in accordance with God's hope - or to ignore it.   Would that we all realized that we are "On Mission from God."

For most of you, your "job" is that of a student.  This job has its own set of requirements and opportunities.  Being serious about your studies and genuinely applying yourself in mastering the material is where your Godly labor begins.  These years are more than a training ground for what comes after, and they are years in which your commitment to Christ is to be clearly visible.  That commitment is greater than merely a strong code of ethics.  God is very interested in veterinary science and how caring for animals reflects His care for creation.  God loves physics and hopes you will see it in the marvels and mysteries of the beauty of creation.

While you will not have the leisure of resting and reflecting this day on your labors, do make time to think of how you integrate the work that you do with the prayers you offer.  Know that I am offering prayers for that integration, and stand ready to assist you in making even more clear connections between the worlds in which you live.

Sermon - 12th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A

Matthew 16:21-28     

                                                       Jesus “Showed” Them

For our LCM Wednesday Night program this week, the students put on their creative hats and made cards to send to the young adults serving as YAGM volunteers around the world.  It has been two years now since Clemson had an alum among the group of 65 or so young adults serving communities through the ELCA’s Global Mission Office, but this does not mean we are any less engaged or prayerfully supportive of the work being done in the name of Christ by these recent college graduates.

For the benefit of first year students, we arranged for Sarah Delap to talk a bit about YAGM.  Sarah graduated three years ago.  The year after graduation she lived and worked as a YAGM in England.  Sarah has many stories to tell, but the one she shared on Wednesday was her reaction to a conversation she had shortly after arriving in England.  She was speaking with a youth there, who pointed out that in those parts of England, it is not socially expected that you would be connected to the Church.  In fact, it is typically socially unacceptable.  “It isn’t that way where I come from,” Sarah replied.  Then came the questions from her conversation partners about life in such a place.  If it acceptable that Jesus be named and claimed, if it is somewhat expected that Jesus be given a role in our lives, is the community different?  Is there less crime?  Are there fewer folks who go hungry or homeless?  What about racism and bigotry?  I am going to assume you realize the answers she was obliged to give.  She had to be truthful, even if she could not report that our society, in which it is perfectly acceptable to claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, doesn’t necessarily look all that different from them one in which allegiance to Jesus is the last thing one would claim publicly

Should our lives be different, as a result of confessing Jesus as Messiah?  Ought the society in which we live be shown a different way of living?

We are in that section of Matthew’s Gospel where Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah.  Today’s reading asks us if we are prepared to live out that confession.  Is there to come some transformation of our lives when we come to see Jesus not just as some prophet or messenger or powerful leader, but as the very embodiment of God’s presence in our world?

Is it to make any difference at all?

I am not sure which bible you read from, and whether it’s editors have inserted paragraph headings.  The bad thing about such paragraph headings is the way in which they pre-determine what you think you are about to read.  The good thing is it allows you to see the various building blocks as they are stacked one on another.

 

If your bible has paragraph headings, and you look at the paragraphs just before today’s reading, you will see how we got to where we are.  It does help to look all the way back to Matthew 15.  Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Mt 15:32ff).  Then we have an encounter with the religious types of Jesus’ day who seem to want some other indication that Jesus is to be listened to.  Next comes Jesus’ warning to his followers about the false piety of the Pharisees and Scribes.  That is in Mt 16:5ff.  In Matthew 16:13ff we have last week’s reading about the confession of Peter, his acknowledgement that Jesus is Messiah. 

“You got it right!” Jesus congratulates Peter in that reading.  And Jesus shares with Peter, or bestows upon him, the opportunity and/or responsibility of weighing the confessions of all those who are to come after.  “You are Rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”  “Great!”  Jesus seems to be saying, “Now you have set aside are the half-truths of the Pharisees and scribes.  Great!  Finally we have a handle on God’s promise and hope for the world.  Great!  But then not so great.

If you have one of those bibles with paragraph headings you will see that the next building block (the first half of our appointed text for today) is labeled something like “Jesus Foretells his death and Resurrection.”  I am going to come back and take issue with that title in a moment, but for now look at the title given to the second half of our reading.  It is typically referred to as “The Cross and Self-Denial.”  Peter gets it right, and we think we are home free. Jesus seems to think we are, too.  So Jesus begins to lay out what Messiahship looks like.  Not the Messiahship hoped for by those with the false piety dealt with back in the opening verses of Matthew 16, but true piety.  Jesus speaks to those who seemed to have made a confession that they were prepared to embrace him as their Messiah.  He tells them what his Messiahship will look like.  

But they don’t like this part of the picture.  Peter, who spoke for us earlier in confessing Jesus as Messiah now expresses our dissatisfaction that following God’s Anointed One could in any way result in betrayal and suffering and death.  “There is life eternal,” Jesus promises.  “There is an unimaginable glory in store for you,” Jesus says.  “And the way you get there is by setting aside your own selfish ambitions, by giving up on what is best for you and you alone, you get there by exposing the hatred and selfishness of those who are not among my followers.”

And Peter wants no part of it.  What seemed so great in verse 16 has come crashing down by verse 22.

When we studied this text on Tuesday night, we stumbled over the word “show.”  Jesus doesn’t “tell” his disciples what being Messiah means, the text says that he “shows” them.  How would he “show” them this?    ....  (Wait for a few replies……)  We came up with being nice to others, maybe sharing another meal with a hungry person, perhaps accepting the unacceptable.  Surely these things “show” Jesus as loving and caring Messiah.  But how do you “show” that you are going to go to Jerusalem, be rejected, suffer, die, and be resurrected?

Maybe you can’t “show” that, actually.  This is surely something of which Jesus would have to speak.  But the choice of the word creates a stumbling block for any of us who would want to think that following Jesus means saying certain words or believing particular thoughts.  Following Jesus involves something that can be seen, observed, shown.  It means living one’s life quite differently.

I want to say that one more time.  Using the word “show” creates a stumbling block for any of us who would want to think that following Jesus means saying certain words or believing particular thoughts.  Following Jesus involves something that can be seen, observed, shown.  It means living one’s life quite differently.

Let me go back to my criticism of the paragraph titles.  To refer to Matthew 16:21-23 as a “Foretelling” implies that the purpose of these verses is to set up some sort of a test as to whether Jesus has the ability to know the future.  If he does, then we have further evidence that he is Messiah.  How differently we might approach those verses if they were given a title like “Jesus speaks of what Messiahship looks like.”  Then, we wouldn’t skim over them to see whether they reinforced the things that we have made part of our confession of faith, rather we would study them as guide for our own future. 

Jesus isn’t some better-than-average soothsayer. He is the One who came to show us how God desires we live our lives. 

The way God wants us to live our lives is to be concerned less about our own hide and our own prosperity and our own ideology.  Forfeiting our lives means focusing on what is best for the whole of God’s creation.  It means turning our attention from that which allows us to move ahead, giving attention instead to that which will return the dignity and promise due each of God’s children.

It took a lot of courage for Peter to confess Jesus as Lord.  And it is no small thing when we make a similar statement of faith.  But in a culture where such confessions are acceptable (maybe even expected) it is way too easy to assume that what Jesus would do is what everyone around us is already doing.  But such an assumption is built upon a faulty set of rocks.  The rock upon which Jesus’ church is built is the one in which self-denial and service and sacrifice are shown as the way.

Amen.

Devotion - Thursday, August 28

It is helpful, from time to time, to remind all of you that I don't just pick which passages I want to read each morning.  I follow a proscribed list.  It is called "The Daily Lectionary," and over the course of a two year cycle I will be exposed to most of the content of the bible.

The Lectionary is currently directing me to the book of Judges.  Judges has many wonderful stories.  We will come to Gideon and to Samson.  It also has many tales which are disturbing and disagreeable with our modern sensibilities.  There are references to the "people of God" killing every man, woman, child, and animal in the lands of their enemies.  

Throughout the book, the theme which holds is that even when the people of God abandon God, God does not abandon them.  The differing stories of the Judges begin with the reminder that "God rose up (insert name) to judge Israel."  They did not judge by sitting on the bench of a courtroom, they judged by showing how much is possible when one follows God's word.  Typically, they were military leaders rather than political or judicial authorities.

As I read through the book of Judges, I continually wonder who it is that God has "raised up" in our day.  God's faithfulness would not leave us without someone (many someones) to guide us.  Maybe the "Judge" isn't a widely known servant, but someone observed by a tight circle of seekers.  

The stories in Judges remind us that that there are lines of authority and then there is true authority.  The servants of God are in the latter group.  And there will always be those showing us the way, regardless of whether we will observe and listen and follow.

Devotion - Wednesday, August 27

You are likely to hear more about this on Sunday (if you attend worship at UniLu), but a comment at last night's LCM Bible Study so captivated the truth that it bears repeating twice.

We were discussing the call of Moses, in Exodus, Chapter 3.  In that story, Moses is called by God to return to Egypt and lead God's people out of slavery and into freedom.  Most of the conversation had been centered around the words of the commentators, which addressed the change in direction this meant for Moses' life.  He was settled; he had a job; he had a family; he had every reason to be content with his own life and ignore what God was calling him to do.

Then, he encounters the burning bush and suddenly he is on his way to talk to Pharaoh.

"But Moses had already come to the defense of his fellow Israelites," Andrew pointed out.  "And he already knew that their suffering was too much to bear.  It wasn't that Moses is called to do something he had never thought of - rather that he had previously lacked the courage to do what he knew he ought to do."

In most instances, we know what we ought to do.  What is lacking is the confidence, the assurances, the courage to do it.  The choices we are called upon to make would be easier to make, were we able to muster up the courage to do what we know should be done.

May God give you the confidence you need to act as you know you ought.  May God give you the assurance to do the right thing.

Devotion - Monday, August 25

"(Pilate) took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood.'"  Matthew 27:24.

Pilate makes a show of being innocent, but he is not.  

Pilate wants to believe that he is not responsible, but he is.

I wonder about the parallels in our lives.  What do we see, and dismiss as something which does not concern us?  

University Lutheran begins our partnership with Family Promise, a ministry to provide shelter for homeless families.  We want to see ourselves as partners in the effort to attend to their needs, but are we prepared to examine the culturally acceptable behaviors and policies which have resulted in so many becoming homeless?

We watch the news of atrocities in places like Syria and Iraq and ask what is wrong with those people?  It was former President Jimmy Carter who, in commenting on the September 11 attacks encouraged his fellow citizens to set aside the question "Who are these people that hate us?" and ask, "Why do these people hate us?"  Are we capable of believing their might be (as Confucius suggests) "a kernel of truth in the critique of my enemy"?

As the college year begins, most universities have responded to the renewed attention to sexual assault on campus.  The most successful approaches are those which expose presumed underlying assumptions about being a college student.  Can we openly discuss our thoughts on these topics?

Maybe it is our cultural value of presumed innocence which contributes to an attitude of pretend innocence.  

We can wash our hands all we want - the truth of the situation remains.