Today's post is a sermon I preached for clergy colleagues of mine. Perhaps it speaks to all of us as well.
Today’s Gospel reading is, in a very real sense, a wake up call. “But in those days, after suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” Or put another way, “Wake up! There is going to be a catastrophic advent one day.”
Ever since Jesus ascended, people have been talking about the days they live in as “the last days.” And I don’t know how many times, even in modern history, some charismatic leader has convinced great crowds of people that he had it all figured out, right down to the year and the day. Many have been convinced to give away all they had and gather on a mountain top to wait for the trumpets to sound.
It’s not so hard to understand focusing on Christ’s return when you think about it. After all, in this same reading, Jesus says ominously, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” Early Christians lived with the clear expectation that, literally, at any moment, Christ would return and the redeemed would be caught up into heaven in what has been called the Rapture. It must have been very confusing to them as years passed, then generations, and still Christ hadn’t returned.
In today’s Gospel, the wake up call is clear in Jesus’ words. He says, “watch—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
I read something in preparation for this sermon that struck me and bears directly on what it means for us to “keep awake”. It said, of all the –isms of the world, the worst may be som-nam-bul-ism: sleepwalking-- failure to be awake and paying attention when we should be. If our sleepwalking is spiritual in nature, maybe this is the Advent message: keep awake.
We may sleepwalk through our days and suddenly wake up to notice that evil in the world has the upper hand. It’s hard to hear about another murder/robbery or another act of terrorism, without thinking the world has become truly a bad place. Keep awake, says Jesus.
Sleepwalking can result in slowly allowing our purpose in life to shrink to the mundane without even noticing. Once we may have believed we were called to something noble or that we could make a difference. But over time we may lose our passion, our sense of mission. I know in my own case, the idealism of my twenties has suffered from my nodding off. Like my head slumping over onto my chest and startling me awake, there’s been more than once when I realized my idealism had gone to sleep. Keep awake, says Jesus.
Sleepwalking mists over our eyes, so we never notice that our principles are being eroded. Without even meaning to, we put away our moral compass and do things we know are wrong. One small thing here, one there, one tiny one now, one then. We make these accommodations so slowly, we hardly notice when these exceptional behaviors become our normal behavior. Keep awake, says Jesus.
Sleepwalking can come upon us so slowly, we are never aware we’ve changed. It’s like a frog in hot water. It’s said, if you dump a frog in a pan of hot water, it will immediately jump out. But if you put that same frog in a pan of water and slowly increase the heat, it will stay there until it’s boiled alive. (Not that I ever tried that, but I’ve heard it’s true.)
Human life is fragile. The end of live always seem to occur before we’re ready. We’ve all heard stories about a husband and wife or parent and child who quarreled just before one was tragically killed in an accident. If we were awake, we would always take the time to make up, to say, “I love you.” Or thinking we have plenty of time to phone or write or visit a friend, we learn the friend died of a massive heart attack. If only we were awake to the transience of life we would make time to be compassionate, supportive and involved.
When I was in a college fraternity, at the end of a meeting, after all the usual business was conducted, there was always a time called “For the Good of the Order.” This agenda item was there to allow us to share those things which needed or might need our collective attention so the fraternal atmosphere could be maintained or enhanced. It was a time when significant soul searching went on as we focused our attention on the state of our corporate relational and spiritual health.
I think that’s a kind of watchfulness Jesus might be calling us all to—watching for the good of our soul. Religious orders have practiced a time of examining one’s conscience, of examining one’s actions during the day just past. The purpose was to look at how your life lived that day reflected or neglected the principles on which the Christian life is to be built. The idea behind this time of examination was simple: being a faithful Christian doesn’t just happen like mushrooms or dandelions popping up on the lawn. It requires care, attention and cultivation just as a beautiful garden does. It requires that we stay awake, that we watch, that we live examined lives so we can be constantly renewed for the day ahead.
“Keep awake,” Jesus says. Advent is a good time for checking to see if we’ve slipped into slumber. But, it is even a better time for awakening to the Lord’s constant desire to be present with us. “Keep awake” is our call to experience him today, in this moment, and for all time.
Peace,
Jerry+
Friday, November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Hate Reigns
Back in the mid-70s, I was a campus minister at the University of Tennessee Martin. Through the miracle of technology, a group of the students who were there the same time I was, have stayed in touch with each other and included me on their Yahoo group. There I learned that recently a student art exhibit had created a great deal of furor on campus and beyond. And now, this morning, I read about it in the local newspaper.
It seems that the student created art work from torn pages of the Bible and from torn bits of the Constitution and flag. I can well image the motivation of a college student to do such a thing. And I’m not expressing my opinion about the work. But this morning, the Yahoo users group email included one from the wife, Jenn, of the chair of the Visual Arts Department where the work was done. Jenn was very involved in the ministry when I was there—she was even the choir director the last couple of years.
Jenn reported that her husband had received hate mail and even threats of harm from people who don’t care for the student’s display. Needless to say, Jenn is afraid for her husband—and probably herself as well.
But there was another email from a member of the group, Jerry. Jerry was, back in the day, very outspoken about many issues and had a column in the campus newspaper in which he could express his views. Here’s a little of what he said in his note:
[There were] letters to the editor, suggesting that I should leave town, or that I would burn in hell for what I wrote, or how un-American I was. I remember there were phone calls and letters to the moderator and the Dean of Students, I think even [the Chancellor] got a couple asking that I be removed from the staff. The funny part was most people didn't have a clue what I looked like. I was just a name to them and a symbol, nothing more. Something they didn't understand and were afraid of. One of the reasons I started hanging out at the [the Interfaith Center] was that even after folks there found out my last name, they took me for what I was and respected my right to express myself and choose my own road to the Infinite even though we had many hours of debate, discussion and listening along the way.
I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of such a place and to minister with such a group of students who would love Jerry even as they disagreed with him. But the letters from Jenn and Jerry also brought a wave of sadness over me. I was reminded of too many times that Christians couldn’t love and disagree, but felt they must hate, harm, even kill if they disagreed. Not just throughout history, but it seems even in this time of ours. Tolerance and forgiveness are not commodities in great supply among Christians, it seems.
Do your part today and tomorrow and into the future to reverse this terrible trend. Love as Jesus loved—even his enemies and even those who put him to death.
Peace,
Jerry+
It seems that the student created art work from torn pages of the Bible and from torn bits of the Constitution and flag. I can well image the motivation of a college student to do such a thing. And I’m not expressing my opinion about the work. But this morning, the Yahoo users group email included one from the wife, Jenn, of the chair of the Visual Arts Department where the work was done. Jenn was very involved in the ministry when I was there—she was even the choir director the last couple of years.
Jenn reported that her husband had received hate mail and even threats of harm from people who don’t care for the student’s display. Needless to say, Jenn is afraid for her husband—and probably herself as well.
But there was another email from a member of the group, Jerry. Jerry was, back in the day, very outspoken about many issues and had a column in the campus newspaper in which he could express his views. Here’s a little of what he said in his note:
[There were] letters to the editor, suggesting that I should leave town, or that I would burn in hell for what I wrote, or how un-American I was. I remember there were phone calls and letters to the moderator and the Dean of Students, I think even [the Chancellor] got a couple asking that I be removed from the staff. The funny part was most people didn't have a clue what I looked like. I was just a name to them and a symbol, nothing more. Something they didn't understand and were afraid of. One of the reasons I started hanging out at the [the Interfaith Center] was that even after folks there found out my last name, they took me for what I was and respected my right to express myself and choose my own road to the Infinite even though we had many hours of debate, discussion and listening along the way.
I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of such a place and to minister with such a group of students who would love Jerry even as they disagreed with him. But the letters from Jenn and Jerry also brought a wave of sadness over me. I was reminded of too many times that Christians couldn’t love and disagree, but felt they must hate, harm, even kill if they disagreed. Not just throughout history, but it seems even in this time of ours. Tolerance and forgiveness are not commodities in great supply among Christians, it seems.
Do your part today and tomorrow and into the future to reverse this terrible trend. Love as Jesus loved—even his enemies and even those who put him to death.
Peace,
Jerry+
Friday, November 14, 2008
Restored Souls
A friend recently gave my wife a little book written by Max Lucado, titled Safe in the Shepherd’s Arms. It is a series of short reflections on the 23rd Psalm. In it Max writes,
…Life is a jungle. Not a jungle of trees and beasts. Would that it were that simple. Would that our jungles could be cut with a machete or our adversaries trapped in a cage. But our jungles are comprised of the thicker thickets of failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts. We don’t hear the screeching of birds of the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors and the demands of bosses. Our predators are our creditors, and the brush that surrounds us is the rush that exhausts us. It’s a jungle out there. And for some, even for many, hope is in short supply.
Yep. I think he nailed it. And jungles such as these can be overwhelmingly fearful places to be—places where hope can be in short supply. But, as Max points out, God can restore hope in the same way God can restore souls. He goes on to write,
Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when [the Shepherd] appears. Your loneliness diminishes…your despair decrease because you have vision. Your confusion begins to life because you have direction. Please note: You haven’t left the jungle. The trees still eclipse the sky, and the thorns still cut the skin. Animals lurk and rodents scurry. The jungle is still a jungle. It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have hope.
The Shepherd can appear in many guises. A friend who slips you a little book to bolster your spirit. Another who drops you a card with a warm and loving note. Still another who sends a card that makes you erupt in laughter when laughter seems such a forgotten experience. A hug. A whispered, “It’s going to be OK. Don’t know what it’s going to look like, but it’s going to be OK.” The phone call that concludes with, “I’m praying for you.” These are the urban jungle’s machetes that hack away the strangling vines and help point the way toward a sense of hope.
It’s a jungle out there. But, it’s not one you in which you are alone and lost.
Peace,
Jerry+
…Life is a jungle. Not a jungle of trees and beasts. Would that it were that simple. Would that our jungles could be cut with a machete or our adversaries trapped in a cage. But our jungles are comprised of the thicker thickets of failing health, broken hearts, and empty wallets. Our forests are framed with hospital walls and divorce courts. We don’t hear the screeching of birds of the roaring of lions, but we do hear the complaints of neighbors and the demands of bosses. Our predators are our creditors, and the brush that surrounds us is the rush that exhausts us. It’s a jungle out there. And for some, even for many, hope is in short supply.
Yep. I think he nailed it. And jungles such as these can be overwhelmingly fearful places to be—places where hope can be in short supply. But, as Max points out, God can restore hope in the same way God can restore souls. He goes on to write,
Whether you are a lamb lost on a craggy ledge or a city slicker alone in a deep jungle, everything changes when [the Shepherd] appears. Your loneliness diminishes…your despair decrease because you have vision. Your confusion begins to life because you have direction. Please note: You haven’t left the jungle. The trees still eclipse the sky, and the thorns still cut the skin. Animals lurk and rodents scurry. The jungle is still a jungle. It hasn’t changed, but you have. You have hope.
The Shepherd can appear in many guises. A friend who slips you a little book to bolster your spirit. Another who drops you a card with a warm and loving note. Still another who sends a card that makes you erupt in laughter when laughter seems such a forgotten experience. A hug. A whispered, “It’s going to be OK. Don’t know what it’s going to look like, but it’s going to be OK.” The phone call that concludes with, “I’m praying for you.” These are the urban jungle’s machetes that hack away the strangling vines and help point the way toward a sense of hope.
It’s a jungle out there. But, it’s not one you in which you are alone and lost.
Peace,
Jerry+
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Feast Day
Today is my birthday, but it is also the feast day of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1944.
Temple's admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," "Anglican's most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West.”
Pretty impressive company.
One of his most important accomplishments was his vigorous involvement in movements for Christian co-operation and unity, in missions, in the British Council of Churches, in the World Council of Churches, in the Church of South India (a merger of Anglican, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches into a single church, with provisions for safeguarding what each group thought essential).
Temple was initially refused ordination by his bishop because of his less than orthodox views on the Virgin Mary and Jesus’ resurrection. But the then Archbishop of Canterbury thought he saw something important in Temple and ordained him anyway. I guess he was right. Oh, incidentally, Temple eventually came around to the orthodox view, but clearly his greatest contributions had little or nothing to do with his orthodoxy. Hmmm. Could this be something the Church needs to pay more attention to?
Peace,
Jerry+
Temple's admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," "Anglican's most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West.”
Pretty impressive company.
One of his most important accomplishments was his vigorous involvement in movements for Christian co-operation and unity, in missions, in the British Council of Churches, in the World Council of Churches, in the Church of South India (a merger of Anglican, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches into a single church, with provisions for safeguarding what each group thought essential).
Temple was initially refused ordination by his bishop because of his less than orthodox views on the Virgin Mary and Jesus’ resurrection. But the then Archbishop of Canterbury thought he saw something important in Temple and ordained him anyway. I guess he was right. Oh, incidentally, Temple eventually came around to the orthodox view, but clearly his greatest contributions had little or nothing to do with his orthodoxy. Hmmm. Could this be something the Church needs to pay more attention to?
Peace,
Jerry+
Saturday, November 1, 2008
All Saints
Today is All Saints’ Day in much of Christendom. Most churches that observe it will do so tomorrow since we tend not to do weekday feast days.
Venerating those who have died for the faith began very early in Christianity, almost as soon as the Jesus Movement started. During the Roman persecutions of the late first and throughout the second century, many chose death rather than renounce their faith. Pretty quickly, the places of their birth or their martyrdom began to be venerated along with them and then churches began to be built on or near those spots. After the Peace of the Church in 313, martyrdom virtually disappeared, but the definition of saints changed a bit and the identification of saints continued .
The Gospel for All Saints is the Matthew list of the Beatitudes. And not accidentally. The Sermon on the Mount, of which they are a part, has been called the summary of Jesus’ teaching and the Beatitudes the summary of the summary. They are not prescriptive, however. That is, they are not the new law which all must obey. They are descriptive. They represent the reality for those who live according to these precepts. Not that it would hurt us to consider them prescriptive! But we wouldn’t be any better at living them than in living the Golden Rule, so maybe it’s just as well we don’t set them out as the desired ideal.
One more thing. During the persecutions, very many more people caved in than stood firm. One of the first controversies of the Imperial Church was how to treat the lapsed—and this was not the first time the issue had arisen. The context this time was “if a clergyman lapsed and then returned to the faith, were the sacramental acts, such as baptism, that he had performed or would perform, valid?” The bottom line, which by no means pleased everybody was, “yes.” The grace resides in God not the “actor.” Damn good thing don’t you think.
Peace
Jerry+
Venerating those who have died for the faith began very early in Christianity, almost as soon as the Jesus Movement started. During the Roman persecutions of the late first and throughout the second century, many chose death rather than renounce their faith. Pretty quickly, the places of their birth or their martyrdom began to be venerated along with them and then churches began to be built on or near those spots. After the Peace of the Church in 313, martyrdom virtually disappeared, but the definition of saints changed a bit and the identification of saints continued .
The Gospel for All Saints is the Matthew list of the Beatitudes. And not accidentally. The Sermon on the Mount, of which they are a part, has been called the summary of Jesus’ teaching and the Beatitudes the summary of the summary. They are not prescriptive, however. That is, they are not the new law which all must obey. They are descriptive. They represent the reality for those who live according to these precepts. Not that it would hurt us to consider them prescriptive! But we wouldn’t be any better at living them than in living the Golden Rule, so maybe it’s just as well we don’t set them out as the desired ideal.
One more thing. During the persecutions, very many more people caved in than stood firm. One of the first controversies of the Imperial Church was how to treat the lapsed—and this was not the first time the issue had arisen. The context this time was “if a clergyman lapsed and then returned to the faith, were the sacramental acts, such as baptism, that he had performed or would perform, valid?” The bottom line, which by no means pleased everybody was, “yes.” The grace resides in God not the “actor.” Damn good thing don’t you think.
Peace
Jerry+
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