Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Action Verbs
I was really excited when Jesse gave me the opportunity to speak to you all this Sunday, especially our graduates. We are blessed to have this lectionary text—from the gospel of John we hear of a wonderful vision that Christ shares with us and from First John we learn how our actions can shape that to reality.
There are so many images we have of Jesus as the good shepherd. My uncles church was actually called the Episcopal Church of the Good shepherd, so really that was one of my earliest understandings of who Christ was. We think of the loving God, tending the wayward flock, guiding with the staff, leading to good and wonderful fields of plenty, to streams of good water, protecting us from the robbers and the wolves. The idea of Christ searching us out, no matter the cost, when we are lost. Bringing us back into the fold.
So often though our iconic images can be dead wrong. For instance, this past week I browsed a book a friend of mine is loaning me called “Lies My teachers told Me” which re-evaluates the history lessons that we all learned in school and relates the provable fact. One such truth was that the Native Americans of this nation were revered for a time. Not consistently fought against. In some of the first few battles the Native Americans in Ohio would take in the children and women of the frontier men that they had fought against. In the native towns they were treated so well that Col. Henry Bouquet writes of when he sought their return the children had to be bound and forcibly returned to white society. The Boston tea part revelers dressed as natives to pay a homage to them as to represent themselves as icons of liberty and freedom. Not to pass blame, or something more bigoted. In fact the United States seal which among other symbols has the eagle holding a clutch of 13 arrows. A symbol that was in fact lifted from the Iroquois League. John Hancock quoted Iroquois advice from 1744. Congress at the time wrote, “The [Iroquois League] are a wise people. Let us harken to their council and teach our children to follow it.”
On that same idea let us set aside the iconic images about Christ as the shepherd, not so that I can completely disassemble them, but only so that we can get a better look at the meaning of Jesus’ parable.
The first thing we need to see is Jesus’ emphasis in the very first line. I read it to be that Jesus is the GOOD shepherd. As opposed to... well, the hired hand which he mentions later.
To know a good shepherd we must understand what it was to be a shepherd. It was not a glorious job. Aside from being one of the most common jobs in the ancient times it was dirty, and required much out of the shepherd. It is the shepherd whose hands are bloody with birthing lambs in the spring, the shepherd who goes days and weeks without the comforts of home to insure the sheep have enough to eat and sweet water to drink. When the sheep are in the sheep pen it is the shepherd who lies across the door to the pen during the night.
As Jesus says he is willing to do, shepherds were often required to give their lives for the flock. There is a book relating some of the practices of the ancient world written by Dr. WM Thompson, it tells a story about a native Arab shepherd who was taking a flock to Tiberias. He was set upon by nomadic robbers and fought three of them instead of running away. Overpowered he was actually hacked to pieced by their knives. The True Shepherds never hesitate to lay down their lives for the sheep.
Jesus’ words here are powerful and emotional. I want you to understand the images that it evoked in the people of the first century and the meaning that it immediately held for them when Christ compares himself to a shepherd.
His message here is one of comparison. The good shepherd lays down his life, while the hired hand abandons the sheep. The hired hand is the one who works only for reward. He thinks chiefly of the money. There is no gain in trying to protect the sheep should he loose and die! Where is his gain? So he runs, leaving the sheepfold. The Good Shepherd though, works not for reward, but for love. And thinks chiefly of the master he is trying to serve. What will we focus on when we are called to serve the master and watch the flock? Our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters in Christ? Will we seek reward? Will we serve only with the things of the earth on our minds and hearts, or will we forsake these base desires with God given strength and serve instead thinking only of Love.
Our scripture from First John chapter Three states that since Christ was willing to give his life, so too should we be willing to lay down ours for our brothers and sisters. To be as the Good shepherd was. But how to do this?
Not with words, not with feelings of comfort, but with actions. We are told in this passage NOT to love with the tongue or with words but with actions that come from truth. In other words, actions that are truly in the spirit they are intended, actions backed by sincerity. One of the most horrible things we can do to each other is to serve with anger or hate or malice of any type on our hearts. If we serve one another let it be only in TRUTH.
We have failed surely and promised to do one thing, on favor, only to be in the act of doing it with anger on our hearts. With bitterness. A pastor once quoted to me that “Bitterness is the vile liquid of the heart that can harden the soul of any saint.” As believers, this passage of John COMMANDS us to act only in truth, in sincerity. How we break the heart of God when we approach loving acts with steely hearts.
To whom then are we to show this kindness? This love, this truthful nature? Christ answered this for us. To whom did He show this kindness and love? He came and died for us, for our sins, but who were we when that happened? We can look to Romans for that. In Romans Paul describes for us the state we were in when Christ committed the most precious act of love that changed forever the way we must approach one another.
In chapter 5 of Romans we are describe as being, WITHOUT STRENGTH, we are totally UNable to help ourselves. We were UNgodly, we were certainly sinners and still are. More over though, Paul describes us as ENIMIES of God. We were rebelling, cursing, neglecting, ignoring, denying and rejecting God. Check Romans 5:10. And yet, in this precious story, Christ served as our sacrifice. Took our sin and guilt upon Him. That was His love. And we are called and commanded to act in love following his example. We must love people just as he did. We MUST love them even when they oppose us and do things against us and are our ENIMIES! Just as we were once enemies to God. Now that means that we do not only tolerate them, that does not mean that we pray only for them, it means we love them. Like our own kin, like our own children like our own mothers and fathers. LOVE, in ACTION, and love that comes from TRUTHFUL sincerity.
One of the first missionaries to the Native Americans was Egerton Young in Saskatchewan. To the Native Americans the story of God’s love was an amazing one, and new revelation. After Young had told his story the chief asked him, “Just now you told us about the Great Spirit who created all things, did I hear you say Our Father?” Young replied that he had said that. The chief replied, “That is new and very sweet to me. We never thought of the Great Spirit as father, we saw him in the lightning and the power of His world. Did you say now that He is also your father?” Again Young said yes, that was true. The chief asked further, “and you also said that he was my native people’s father?” Again yes. Then a smile broke on the chiefs face, and in a bark of joy he shouted, “Then you and I are brothers!”
The importance of this is that if we do not, if we cannot, bring ourselves to love those who oppose us then we DO NOT know the love of Christ. We must work against the visceral HUMAN feeling we have to people that oppose us and instead temper that with the divine love.
We are truly the family of God. Brothers and sisters to one another. Not just the ones in this room or on the roles of this church. But every person in this city. In this state and on and on. Christ shared with us this vision, this dream that he prophesied from God, this story that he tells with love. All the sheep in one sheepfold. With him guarding at the gate. We are called to lives of action. Of prayer and worship certainly, but FOREMOST, we must have lives of action to go out and LOVE those who oppose us. Not with tracts or words or even prayers though all those things have their place. We must act. And those actions must reflect the truth that is in our hearts.
Our faith is not in this room. This is our worship, our communal gathering place for strength and fellowship. Our faith is out there. In every action, in ever other brother and sister outside these walls who oppose us, who dares us to love them. We must answer the call; to reply to that defiance with the love and truth that we learn from Christ. Ore truly we cannot claim to know Jesus. Because that was his mission. To keep the flock from being scattered, to lie against the gate of the sheepfold in protection, to seek out the lost sheep and to bring the other sheep that are not of this pen! For one flock and one shepherd.
But it begins with us. It is with us that Christ shared this vision, and it is our action and the sincerity of our hearts that has the power to realize that vision and bring it to pass in this lifetime. Not with concern or words, but with action forged in truth.
There are so many images we have of Jesus as the good shepherd. My uncles church was actually called the Episcopal Church of the Good shepherd, so really that was one of my earliest understandings of who Christ was. We think of the loving God, tending the wayward flock, guiding with the staff, leading to good and wonderful fields of plenty, to streams of good water, protecting us from the robbers and the wolves. The idea of Christ searching us out, no matter the cost, when we are lost. Bringing us back into the fold.
So often though our iconic images can be dead wrong. For instance, this past week I browsed a book a friend of mine is loaning me called “Lies My teachers told Me” which re-evaluates the history lessons that we all learned in school and relates the provable fact. One such truth was that the Native Americans of this nation were revered for a time. Not consistently fought against. In some of the first few battles the Native Americans in Ohio would take in the children and women of the frontier men that they had fought against. In the native towns they were treated so well that Col. Henry Bouquet writes of when he sought their return the children had to be bound and forcibly returned to white society. The Boston tea part revelers dressed as natives to pay a homage to them as to represent themselves as icons of liberty and freedom. Not to pass blame, or something more bigoted. In fact the United States seal which among other symbols has the eagle holding a clutch of 13 arrows. A symbol that was in fact lifted from the Iroquois League. John Hancock quoted Iroquois advice from 1744. Congress at the time wrote, “The [Iroquois League] are a wise people. Let us harken to their council and teach our children to follow it.”
On that same idea let us set aside the iconic images about Christ as the shepherd, not so that I can completely disassemble them, but only so that we can get a better look at the meaning of Jesus’ parable.
The first thing we need to see is Jesus’ emphasis in the very first line. I read it to be that Jesus is the GOOD shepherd. As opposed to... well, the hired hand which he mentions later.
To know a good shepherd we must understand what it was to be a shepherd. It was not a glorious job. Aside from being one of the most common jobs in the ancient times it was dirty, and required much out of the shepherd. It is the shepherd whose hands are bloody with birthing lambs in the spring, the shepherd who goes days and weeks without the comforts of home to insure the sheep have enough to eat and sweet water to drink. When the sheep are in the sheep pen it is the shepherd who lies across the door to the pen during the night.
As Jesus says he is willing to do, shepherds were often required to give their lives for the flock. There is a book relating some of the practices of the ancient world written by Dr. WM Thompson, it tells a story about a native Arab shepherd who was taking a flock to Tiberias. He was set upon by nomadic robbers and fought three of them instead of running away. Overpowered he was actually hacked to pieced by their knives. The True Shepherds never hesitate to lay down their lives for the sheep.
Jesus’ words here are powerful and emotional. I want you to understand the images that it evoked in the people of the first century and the meaning that it immediately held for them when Christ compares himself to a shepherd.
His message here is one of comparison. The good shepherd lays down his life, while the hired hand abandons the sheep. The hired hand is the one who works only for reward. He thinks chiefly of the money. There is no gain in trying to protect the sheep should he loose and die! Where is his gain? So he runs, leaving the sheepfold. The Good Shepherd though, works not for reward, but for love. And thinks chiefly of the master he is trying to serve. What will we focus on when we are called to serve the master and watch the flock? Our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters in Christ? Will we seek reward? Will we serve only with the things of the earth on our minds and hearts, or will we forsake these base desires with God given strength and serve instead thinking only of Love.
Our scripture from First John chapter Three states that since Christ was willing to give his life, so too should we be willing to lay down ours for our brothers and sisters. To be as the Good shepherd was. But how to do this?
Not with words, not with feelings of comfort, but with actions. We are told in this passage NOT to love with the tongue or with words but with actions that come from truth. In other words, actions that are truly in the spirit they are intended, actions backed by sincerity. One of the most horrible things we can do to each other is to serve with anger or hate or malice of any type on our hearts. If we serve one another let it be only in TRUTH.
We have failed surely and promised to do one thing, on favor, only to be in the act of doing it with anger on our hearts. With bitterness. A pastor once quoted to me that “Bitterness is the vile liquid of the heart that can harden the soul of any saint.” As believers, this passage of John COMMANDS us to act only in truth, in sincerity. How we break the heart of God when we approach loving acts with steely hearts.
To whom then are we to show this kindness? This love, this truthful nature? Christ answered this for us. To whom did He show this kindness and love? He came and died for us, for our sins, but who were we when that happened? We can look to Romans for that. In Romans Paul describes for us the state we were in when Christ committed the most precious act of love that changed forever the way we must approach one another.
In chapter 5 of Romans we are describe as being, WITHOUT STRENGTH, we are totally UNable to help ourselves. We were UNgodly, we were certainly sinners and still are. More over though, Paul describes us as ENIMIES of God. We were rebelling, cursing, neglecting, ignoring, denying and rejecting God. Check Romans 5:10. And yet, in this precious story, Christ served as our sacrifice. Took our sin and guilt upon Him. That was His love. And we are called and commanded to act in love following his example. We must love people just as he did. We MUST love them even when they oppose us and do things against us and are our ENIMIES! Just as we were once enemies to God. Now that means that we do not only tolerate them, that does not mean that we pray only for them, it means we love them. Like our own kin, like our own children like our own mothers and fathers. LOVE, in ACTION, and love that comes from TRUTHFUL sincerity.
One of the first missionaries to the Native Americans was Egerton Young in Saskatchewan. To the Native Americans the story of God’s love was an amazing one, and new revelation. After Young had told his story the chief asked him, “Just now you told us about the Great Spirit who created all things, did I hear you say Our Father?” Young replied that he had said that. The chief replied, “That is new and very sweet to me. We never thought of the Great Spirit as father, we saw him in the lightning and the power of His world. Did you say now that He is also your father?” Again Young said yes, that was true. The chief asked further, “and you also said that he was my native people’s father?” Again yes. Then a smile broke on the chiefs face, and in a bark of joy he shouted, “Then you and I are brothers!”
The importance of this is that if we do not, if we cannot, bring ourselves to love those who oppose us then we DO NOT know the love of Christ. We must work against the visceral HUMAN feeling we have to people that oppose us and instead temper that with the divine love.
We are truly the family of God. Brothers and sisters to one another. Not just the ones in this room or on the roles of this church. But every person in this city. In this state and on and on. Christ shared with us this vision, this dream that he prophesied from God, this story that he tells with love. All the sheep in one sheepfold. With him guarding at the gate. We are called to lives of action. Of prayer and worship certainly, but FOREMOST, we must have lives of action to go out and LOVE those who oppose us. Not with tracts or words or even prayers though all those things have their place. We must act. And those actions must reflect the truth that is in our hearts.
Our faith is not in this room. This is our worship, our communal gathering place for strength and fellowship. Our faith is out there. In every action, in ever other brother and sister outside these walls who oppose us, who dares us to love them. We must answer the call; to reply to that defiance with the love and truth that we learn from Christ. Ore truly we cannot claim to know Jesus. Because that was his mission. To keep the flock from being scattered, to lie against the gate of the sheepfold in protection, to seek out the lost sheep and to bring the other sheep that are not of this pen! For one flock and one shepherd.
But it begins with us. It is with us that Christ shared this vision, and it is our action and the sincerity of our hearts that has the power to realize that vision and bring it to pass in this lifetime. Not with concern or words, but with action forged in truth.
Gulf Wars
what part of the human condition dictates the great gulf that exists between what you have, what you want and what you need? Our core spirit just seems to be one that is not one of peace and sastifaction... is that just the Americans? Are other ethnic origins more adapable to being content?
I'm not sure how this coneects but, the other day my wife and i were talking about how the people in genereal in the world are living without healthy fear. or rather the conviction that can come out of that. par instaunce: in the age of cathedrals people assumed if you didn't contribute to the building of the cathedral you would burn in hell. so there is your fear. yet, the conviction that came with that was the absolute assurance of those pepole that their souls were safe. Do we really have that same kind of assurance today? And i mean, people at large, not me personally. We don't fear death the way we used to, or maybe we fear it more now? In the ancient times it seems that there was actually a better grasp on the passage into the next life. These days it seems that the majority of our energies are pointed towards staving off that inevitable time.
We fear the irrational things that we cannot change and do not have enough fear of the things that we CAN change.
I'm not sure how this coneects but, the other day my wife and i were talking about how the people in genereal in the world are living without healthy fear. or rather the conviction that can come out of that. par instaunce: in the age of cathedrals people assumed if you didn't contribute to the building of the cathedral you would burn in hell. so there is your fear. yet, the conviction that came with that was the absolute assurance of those pepole that their souls were safe. Do we really have that same kind of assurance today? And i mean, people at large, not me personally. We don't fear death the way we used to, or maybe we fear it more now? In the ancient times it seems that there was actually a better grasp on the passage into the next life. These days it seems that the majority of our energies are pointed towards staving off that inevitable time.
We fear the irrational things that we cannot change and do not have enough fear of the things that we CAN change.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
This morning
The first thing I heard on the old clock radio are the Zacarias Moussaoui verdicts and how people are outradged at the out come. For some reason it made me want to ask those people to take a long hard look at something.
I guess really my problem isn't that the complainers wanted him to suffer, but it was their definition of suffering. Death isn't suffering. There were so many people I've talked to who have been gross disapointed that he didn't get the death penalty. But really, death isn't a punishment. I think really we should use death for habitual defenders who the stae is tired to catching and feeding for the 12 hundreth time. Death is really just a solution, or population control. I just can't bring myself to see it as a form of punishment I guess.
I mean uless the judge was just going to be like, "We're tired of you, die."
Then boom. I could understand that. But to WANT punishment and DEATH don't add up.
I mean, would you rather some wacko had game over, or the rest of thier life being someone's princess and countless hourse clocked in the shoe? Cause you know this guy is going to rank just below gay child molestor in whatever prison he ends up in.
I guess really my problem isn't that the complainers wanted him to suffer, but it was their definition of suffering. Death isn't suffering. There were so many people I've talked to who have been gross disapointed that he didn't get the death penalty. But really, death isn't a punishment. I think really we should use death for habitual defenders who the stae is tired to catching and feeding for the 12 hundreth time. Death is really just a solution, or population control. I just can't bring myself to see it as a form of punishment I guess.
I mean uless the judge was just going to be like, "We're tired of you, die."
Then boom. I could understand that. But to WANT punishment and DEATH don't add up.
I mean, would you rather some wacko had game over, or the rest of thier life being someone's princess and countless hourse clocked in the shoe? Cause you know this guy is going to rank just below gay child molestor in whatever prison he ends up in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)