Thoughts going in, Sunday June 2nd

Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle--sent not with a human commission nor by human authority, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God's curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let that person be under God's curse! 10 Am I now trying to win human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

            During Ordinary Time (Sundays after Pentecost) of Year C, the lectionary offers us a chance to spend 6 weeks in St. Paul's letter to the Galatians--a geographic area/province in what is now modern Turkey. There are many questions regarding the background to the letter...questions that I cannot fully tackle here. In a nutshell Paul is addressing a situation that has occurred among his converts in Galatia. They had been pagans. Upon hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by Paul, they converted. At some point after Paul left their midst, "missionaries" arrived on the scene with the news that "Paul's Gospel" was incomplete. Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Savior of the world was the starting point, but just as Jesus was Jewish... and just as God's covenant people on earth had always been the Jews, now those who would be saved by faith in Christ must complete their spiritual pilgrimage by becoming Jews as well. They must receive the sign of circumcision; they must keep the Jewish calendar of festivals; they must follow kosher dietary laws, etc. This message is the different gospel that Paul mentions in vs 6.

            One of the most important questions regarding Galatians is the date in which it was written. Every scholar who writes a commentary on the letter struggles with the question of how it relates to Acts 15--the first ecumenical council of the Church.

Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren , you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe (see story of Cornelius in Acts 10). 8 "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear ? 11 "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren , listen to me. 14 "Simon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 19 "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles...

            The point is... did these "missionaries" to Galatia come on the scene before ...or after the Jerusalem council of Acts 15? If it all happened before, then the incident can be passed off as an honest mistake about a question that hadn't been solved yet. If after, however, the "missionaries" had purposely gone against not only the teachings of Paul, but also the expressed opinion of Peter and James and the will of the council from Acts 15.

            The primary issue for us as 21st century believers is to discern how the message of Galatians intersects with our lives in the here and now. Last I checked, no one was upsetting the Church with a message of Jewish legalism as a requirement for salvation. And yet, when it comes to the broader topic/issue of another gospel (vss 8-9)...here it becomes easier to discern the timeless message of Galatians. "Another gospel" happens whenever a religion, or philosophy, or spirituality, or mindset usurps the one true gospel of Jesus Christ. For the Christian fundamentalist, this would include all of the manmade rules imposed upon believers; for some sects this would include the necessity of good works to 'earn' God's grace; for others this is about preaching a generic spirituality as a legitimate pathway to God that completely lacks the cross of Jesus Christ. For still others Galatians is a clarion call away from "evangelical-nationalism" .... the idea that we in America are God's favorites simply because we're the biggest and the best.

            What I'm getting at is that the other gospel (which is really no gospel at all) of Paul's day may not be the issue we're facing, but the cold hard truth is that we have no shortage of other gospels in our own day. We need to boldly proclaim that none of those will save; none of those will square things between us and God; none of those will handle our sin problem against God's holiness. Only ONE GOSPEL can do that... and that's the good news that Jesus death on the cross obliterates our sin and guilt, and that by grace through faith alone God accepts us.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday May 26th

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

            This Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost, a Sunday that is also observed as a principle festival of the Church—TRINITY SUNDAY. I will be out of town this weekend and so will not be preaching Sunday, but I did want to include a couple of brief thoughts on the day in general.

            The doctrine of the Trinity is misunderstood as much today as ever. Rationalists complain that it cannot be understood; literalists complain that the word isn’t found in the Bible. In reality, both are correct. It **is impossible to [fully] understand the Trinity—at least with rational wisdom—and any online search tool will confirm that the word doesn’t appear in the Bible.

            So if both of those observations are true, then why all this fuss about an arcane doctrine that dates back through the mists of time to Church councils held in lands far far away? In short, the point about the doctrine of the Trinity is that it states truth. Some truths—especially biblical truths—defy our ability to rationally comprehend. How can God take on human flesh and become human? How can Christ’s bodily presence be joined to such mundane things as bread & wine? How can humans go on living even though they’ve died? None of these questions have readily understandable rational explanations, yet they must all be true or we make God a liar in His word.

            “Trinity” as a word (not found in the bible) was coined to express truth. It expresses the truth of the ‘Shema’ of the Old Testament: “Hear O Israel, the LORD your God is ONE.” But it also expresses the truth that has been progressively revealed in the New Testament…. This ONE GOD is revealed and KNOWN as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

            As faithful Christians our task is not to fully, cognitively, understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Our task is, rather, to humbly worship and sing: Holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty… God in three persons, BLESSED TRINITY.

Almighty Creator and ever-living God: we worship your glory, eternal Three-in-One, and we praise your power, majestic One-in-Three. Keep us steadfast in this faith, defend us in all adversity, and bring us at last into your presence, where you live in endless joy and love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday May 19th

John 14:8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 "If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

            This week we celebrate the festival of Pentecost. It's an 'inherited' festival--meaning that it began as something on the Jewish liturgical calendar, but was brought into the Church via the experience of the first disciples as detailed in Acts 2. The experience in Acts 2 is the fulfillment of Jesus' promise in the above Gospel reading 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. 26 [the] Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

            Anyone who has ever found themselves in need of a job and has landed an interview has perhaps felt the pang of fear go through them when the prospective employer asks a technical question that is beyond the applicant's expertise. It can happen. The fear is multi-layered. An interview is like an oral examination, so of course every question 'must' be answered. But the fear goes even deeper when one takes into account the enormity of the situation. This is a job interview; if I do well here they may ask me to come to work for them; no more worries, no more unemployment. But now a horrific barrier has been erected; a technical question beyond my expertise has been asked. What do I do? Do I fake it? Do I feign a level of expertise that I really don't possess in the hopes that I can buffalo the interviewer? Do I talk in vague generalities for a few minutes like a politician, deftly attempting to guide the conversation back onto familiar turf? Do I come clean and admit that the question is beyond my level of expertise and risk being perceived as under-qualified?

            As I say, this is probably a scenario that a lot of people can relate to. In our Christian life, however, it's something that we never need worry about. There is never a need to try to 'fake it till we make it.' There is never a need to feign expertise in matters over our pay grade. The reason for that is that the Savior promised that he'd send us the Spirit. We do not need to be our own advocate. We do not need to be our own helper. We do not need to be our own expert teacher. The Lord has covered that for us.

            In conversation I sometimes relate that the seminary experience, limited as it is to 3 academic years, was never intended to teach a prospective pastor EVERYTHING. If that were its goal, the training process would have to be much longer. Rather, the goal is to teach prospective ministers the basic tools so that they can engage in the process of being life-long practical theologians.

            In our baptisms, something wonderful happens. Each of us is given EVERYTHING we need to engage in the process of being life-long disciples of Jesus. The gift of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is all we need in order to will and desire all that Christ wants. Many believers have a poor 'faith-self-image.' They tend to look upon others as being more spiritual, more godly, or more steeped in biblical knowledge than themselves. Sometimes this poor 'faith-self-image' leads to spiritual stagnation or a stunting of spiritual growth. But there is absolutely no need for this. All Christians are given the same Holy Spirit. All can do mighty works in Christ's name. May it never be forgotten that the original disciples--the original ragtag group that received the Spirit that first Pentecost--were simple people whose hearts were lit on fire by God's Holy Spirit.

cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday May 5th

Rev 21:10-14, 22-23

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

            I don’t know if family reunions are big anymore. We live in such a fast-paced, spread-out world compared to yesteryear. When I was a boy, part of the annual summer ritual was to attend the family reunion. It was always held at a state or county park, with sandy beaches and lots of stuff for the kids to do. Some of my earliest memories of this event as a small child, however, had to do with HOW I could know I was in the right place. After all, ours wasn’t the only big group gathered at any given time at that park….and from a distance, one big group of people sort of looked the same as any other big group of people.

What finally did it for me was to look at the old people. Kids are constantly changing and growing. I frequently didn’t recognize my own cousins from year to year (and vice/versa)… but the old aunts and uncles always looked the same. If I could spot one of them then I knew I was in the right pavilion and with the right group.

There’s a neat thing going on in this passage from Revelation when it says of the “new Jerusalem:” 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. One city, but with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on the gates and the names of the 12 apostles on the foundations. Unity and Continuity. Seeing the old people—or at least their names—tells us we’re in the right place.

But we don’t always appreciate unity & continuity. When I was serving as a chaplain I used to eat with the residents of the facility every Wednesday. I could easily tell the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesdays of the month because the menu was ALWAYS “ham bbq or perogies.” Unity & continuity got pretty old.  The teenager who’s growing up and desperately trying to differentiate himself/herself from their family of origin doesn’t appreciate the unity & continuity of the family.  The person who’s grown tired and unfulfilled by a certain job or career field craves radical change as opposed to unity & continuity. And, YES… at times… in our quest to find spiritual fulfillment or ‘enliven’ our relationship with God it’s easy to lose our appreciation for what unifies us to the past and continues with us in our present.

May we come to view unity and continuity as a work of GOD…. and hence as something always done PERFECTLY, and always with us and our deepest needs in mind. The New Jerusalem is picture language for eternity with God. It won’t be eternity ALONE on our own cloud somewhere (Sorry Mick Jagger). And for that matter, it won’t even be the best thing WE can imagine. It will be the best thing GOD can imagine; a never ending family reunion in unity with all of God’s family down through the eons and generations, and a never-ending continuity together.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday April 28th

I don't do this often, but now & then I run across comments online about the week's text that express my own thoughts as well or better than I ever could. What follows is from Dr. William Long's online essay, only slightly modified.

Cheers,

TM

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6 Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."

I. Introduction--Seeing New Realities

The immense imaginative scope of the Book of Revelation reaches its culmination in this passage. A new heaven and earth is not simply proclaimed but seen. Promises of a new and better life are not just made but implemented. The end, which we so often long to see, is now visible. Yet the daily reality for most of us, and for those who are still haunted by the terrible tragedies of Newtown CT, or the recent Boston Marathon bombing, is that, in the words of the hymn, "we feebly struggle, they (the saints) in glory shine." Our reality is one where pain, half-truths or outright lies, disappointment, failed relationships, weak and infirm bodies, and unexpected tragedies seem to dominate.

Indeed, before we hastily reach the new heaven and new earth in this passage, the Book of Revelation presented what we sometimes suspect to be the truth: things get worse before they get better. We "skipped" over so much of the graphic disaster of the Book of Revelation that, in some ways, we are "unworthy" or "unready" to receive such glorious good news as presented in Rev. 21. We have missed the two witnesses and the whore of Babylon, the beast who writes his number on foreheads, and the angels who pour forth the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth. The scene in Rev. 8-18 makes the ecological disaster of Prince William Sound in Alaska or the continual devastation of the Amazonian rain forest look like child's destruction.

Maybe the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary were confused or afraid of the intervening passages in Revelation; possibly they had to "finish" it by the time we arrived at Pentecost. In any case, we here rush ahead to the good news before we have descended fully into the imaginative pit of the bad news.

Nevertheless, for all of us, the language of Rev. 21 is an encouragement to realize the powerful force of unseen realities in shaping our lives. Can we permit ourselves to "see" the unseen, to conceive of the good news of a new heaven and earth, to long for a time of healing when the tears are finally wiped away from our eyes? We are not really ready or worthy to receive Rev. 21 until we have been buffeted by life's pains and have ourselves gaped into the yawning maw of hell.

But for those for whom such have been the realities of life, Rev. 21 speaks with uncommon force. It does so primarily by opening our eyes to new realities "out there." In fact, Rev. 21 reminds me of another biblical passage--II Kings 6. In that text Elisha the prophet is surrounded in a city by the King of Aram's men. They are furious at him because he seems to know the military strategy of Aram against Israel as if he had been in the king's bedchamber. One of Elisha's men wakens in the morning and, in fear, points out to Elisha that they are surrounded by the King of Aram's men. They are in deep trouble. Calmly, Elisha prays to God:

"O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see" (II Kings 6:17).

The result is immediate: "So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire (hence the name of the movie!) all around Elisha (II K. 6:17). In other words, the hidden and saving realities are already there; we just need eyes to see. Do you have eyes to see these new realities today?

II. Wiping Away the Tears

In earlier expositions of Revelation, I have pointed to the sevenfold amen or sevenfold affirmation of divine strength in some of the hymns. For example, 7:12 gives a sevenfold ascription of blessing and praise to God. What isn't clear in those passage only becomes clear in Rev. 21 and 22, and that is that there is also a sevenfold series of things that are done away with by God at the end. Let's list them: the sea (21:1); death, grief, crying, pain (21:4); and all that is under God's curse and night (22:3, 5). If there is the "perfect number" of blessings ascribed to God, there will also be the "perfect number" of things that pass away. Just as in the first creation God said that it was "good," so in the re-creation we see that it is not only good, but that it will be perfect. Two "watery" subpoints need mention: the sea and the tears.

Why does John mention in majestic language, "and the sea was no more" (v. 1)? Primarily because in antiquity, and especially in the consciousness of Israel, the sea was not simply dangerous but also a sort of enemy. Unpredictability reigned on the sea. Fear of depredation, high water, crashing rocks, strange sea creatures, unexpected shipwrecks and drowning filled the heart with anxiety. Indeed, you can't really understand ancient Greek mythology without reckoning with their respect for/fear of the sea. We, with our cruise lines and big vessels, tend to think of the sea as a plaything; not so for the ancients. Yet even in our day we are fascinated by stories of the sea's power. One of the most powerful scenes to me from the movie Titanic is near the end, just before the ship sinks, where the priest is reciting prayers to God and quoting Scripture. He quotes from this very passage, and the combination of grief and hope when he intones the words, "and the sea was no more," is arresting.

But another kind of water--our tears--will also be transformed. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. This was already mentioned earlier in the book (7:17), and is worth noting here. Can we imagine a world without tears? Can we imagine our lives without tears? I confess when I studied this text again, my own tears began to flow! Death, pain, crying, and mourning will pass away? The symphony of anguish, which each day composes a new tune more painful than Mahler could ever have imagined, abolished? This is the truest good news to those who have seen the most devastation. But the majestic language continues.

III. God at the End

All this happens because of God. Finally, God will make the divine dwelling place among us. The theme of God's dwelling with humans (21:3) is one that stretches back to the early days of Israel, to the Wilderness Wanderings. The cloud and pillar of fire was a sign of God's presence. The motile Ark of the Covenant symbolized God's dwelling with the people. The Jerusalem Temple was the seemingly "permanent" illustration of this reality. Finally, in the Gospel of John, we are told, in language very similar to that used here, that God "tabernacled" or "dwelt" among us in Christ (John 1:14). The Holy Spirit, to be celebrated in a few weeks at the Pentecost festival, is the sign of continued divine presence. But Rev. 21 will take it one step further. God, the Creator, will now dwell with mortals. God will be fully with us. And that presence will wipe away all tears.

Once this is said, John finishes with the majestic words of v. 6: "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end..." There will finally be established the truth which has been peeking out at us since the dawn of human history--that God, indeed, stands before, in, and after the creation of the worlds. Pain certainly has the upper hand today, but it shall not always be so. This does not make us flag in our zeal to attack the pain today; indeed, it renews our strength in the midst of the fight. We now know the end, and we can have courage to re-enter the maelstrom. Let that be your charge and courage today.