Sermon at North Hill, October 30, 2010.
In John chapter 8, we read a story about Jesus that was so famous in the early church that it was at different times and places included in two different gospels: Luke and John. (No manuscript has the story in both John and Luke. It is in either John or Luke.)
Because of this textual anomaly, scholars have argued about whether the story is authentic. Today, we're going to take the story just as it reads without worrying about the complicated matters of manuscript analysis.
The Story
[After spending the day teaching in the temple in Jerusalem,] Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
"Teacher," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.
The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?"
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, "Where are your accusers? Is there no one left to accuse you?"
"No, Lord," she said.
Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and don't sin again."
Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."
Jesus agreed with the woman's accusers that her sexual liaison was sinful. Note his words, “Go and don't sin again,” clearly implying that what she had been doing was sinful. Jesus disagreed with the woman's accusers that she ought to be condemned. Instead Jesus called her to new life.
Last week, we studied John 9, where Jesus' disciples, facing the tragic life of a man blind from birth, asked whose sinned caused this situation. Jesus answer was that no one had sinned in connection with the situation. In fact, the question, “Who sinned?” was simply the wrong question. It was a question that was impossible to answer with truth. The question itself had to be rejected.
In this story, we push Jesus' rejection of the question, “Who sinned?” or in modern vernacular, “Who goofed?” to its most extreme. When faced with an incontrovertible situation of sin, Jesus rejects the normal Christian impulse to pass moral judgment on what has happened and compels us to ask instead about the way forward.
The woman's accusers asked Jesus how he stood in relation to Moses' prescription for dealing with adulterers. Jesus compelled these questioners to withdraw. They were asking an inappropriate question. Officially, the accusers were demonstrating their zeal for righteousness and rectitude. Surely, an upright and moral community would react with outrage against such flagrant violation of God's law. But their eagerness to condemn the woman blinded them to their own need for moral growth.
Jesus stooped to write on the ground with his finger, a poetic reflection of God's writing the law with his finger. The law properly understood is never owned by any human individual or institution. The law that we cite in our condemnation of others points with cold inflexibility at us as well.
Jesus wrote with his finger as a defender of the law and silenced the accusers who would use the law as a tool of their crooked purposes. Then he addressed the woman who had been “caught” in the double sense of “caught in the act” and “seduced.”
“Are any of your accusers still present to condemn you.”
“No sir.”
“Good. So we don't have to worry about that. Now what are you going to do? You are going to live a new life rejecting the false promises of lust and giving yourself instead to the genuine goodness of love. That's what you're going to do. Now, go do it.”
How does this apply in your life?
How frequently and vigorously do you pass judgment on others who are engagement in behavior that you would never even dream of doing? Does your fascination with their evil blind you to what the law says about your own need for growth and transformation?
Maybe we can turn the question just slightly. Are you both the accuser and the “one caught”? Do you find yourself frequently condemning yourself? You fail to live up to your ideals. You act in ways that are inconsistent with your faith and with the teachings of Jesus. What is your reaction to your failure? Do you stand in the circle of accusers, with a few rocks in your hand, ready to pelt your poor miserable self?
Jesus urges you to drop the rocks. Quit wasting precious energy condemning yourself. Instead, hear the words of Jesus: Neither do I condemn you. Go live. And by the way, quit sinning. Don't do it again.
Jesus' response to human failure is always to call us forward to a new life, to another attempt at goodness.
This week, reject the messages of condemnation that come from others and from your own conscience and give yourself to a renewed pursuit of goodness and love.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Who Goofed?
Sermon at North Hill, October 23, 2010
Life is pretty simple. How do you get cavities? Drink soda. How do you get lung cancer? Smoke cigarettes. How do you get a heart attack? Super-size yourself at McDonalds.
It's all straightforward, cause and effect.
Do stupid stuff. Get miserable consequences.
On the other hand, how do you protect your dental health? Floss and brush daily. How do you build strong muscles? Lift weights. How do you develop a strong heart? Run or swim or walk.
Again, it's simple cause and effect. Do smart stuff. Get happy consequences.
Adventists have emphasized this idea so strongly it permeates our entire church culture. And it has paid off. Adventists who follow the rules live ten years longer than the general population.
With all this emphasis on Follow the rules and enjoy happy consequences. Break the rules and endure miserable consequences, it's a small step to the idea: If you get sick, you must have broken the rules.
Whenever a certain person at our house gets a cold, I have to listen to an intense quest for an explanation. Usually this “quest for understanding” takes the form of self-incriminating statements: “I shouldn't have stayed up reading that book.” “It's probably because I ate desert on Monday night.” “I should've come in from the barn when I started getting cold instead of finishing mucking out the stalls even though my jeans were damp.”
When I protest that maybe she's sick because she interacts with the public and sometimes viruses catch up with you no matter what you do, she will have none of it. If Karin is sick, there has to be a logical, rational explanation. Usually, the explanation is attached to someone's choice, usually hers. Someone goofed. Someone is to blame. It never just happens.
But it does.
In early August of this year, Grace Makato Tam, 11, took an easy two-mile hike with her parents and brother to the ice caves at the base of Big Four Mountain. While they were checking out the caves, a chunk of ice the size of a car broke off the mountain above her and rolled down and struck her.
She died at the scene about two hours later. It was a terrible tragedy.
Who goofed? No one.
The place where this happened was the Big Four Mountain ice caves. There are signs warning people not to go into the caves. This girl and her parents obeyed the signs. They did not go into the caves. They were standing in a place that has always been safe in the past. And will probably be safe for the next hundred years. But for one second on August 2, that spot was in the path of a deadly ice chunk falling down the mountain and Grace was struck. And she died.
Who goofed? If you demand an answer to the question, who goofed, the only possible answer is God.
Turn's out the question, who goofed? Is simply the wrong question. There is no possible right answer to the question.
This is sometimes true when people get sick. We know smoking causes lung cancer. However, a few years ago, I met a couple who were here in this area seeking treatment for their twenty-year old son who had lung cancer. He had never smoked. He was a life-long vegetarian. He died a few months after I met them.
Who goofed?
This question, Who goofed? shows up in the Gospel of John. Jesus and his disciples were walking along and they saw a man who had been born blind. The disciples immediately demanded an explanation. “Who sinned?” They asked. “Whose mistake, whose goof, caused this pitiful situation?”
Who sinned?
“No one.” Jesus answered. “Nobody's sin caused this tragic disability.” Jesus went further, “You guys are asking whose sin, whose mistake, whose wrong-doing caused this. What you should be asking is what good purpose does God have in mind in this situation?” (John9:3).
NO ONE GOOFED! Can you believe that?
Here is a man who was born blind in a society without speech recognition software, without Braille. Someone whose only possible career was begging. And Jesus says about his situation: no one goofed. His mother didn't drink during pregnancy. She didn't clean the cat box. She didn't inhale too much cook fire smoke. The father didn't punch mom in the stomach. He wasn't a wicked man under a curse. Neither the blind man's sins nor his parents' sins had anything to do with his situation.
This man was born blind so that the glory of God could be displayed in his life. In this story, if someone goofed, it was God. God goofed. Or no one goofed.
In recent years, members of North Hill have faced some terrible realities. Children have died in automobile accidents. In both cases, our kids did nothing wrong. They did absolutely nothing unsafe. Still the unspeakable happened.
People have faced cancer, kidney failure, heart trouble, diabetes, malfunction in their knees and shoulders, chronic fatigue, depression.
In all of these situations, it's natural to ask, who goofed? Or how did you goof? What did you do wrong? We get in line with the disciples to ask Jesus, “Whose sin caused this problem?” Sometimes there is a rational answer to this question. Sometimes our difficulties are the natural consequence of our choices. Other times, insisting on an answer to the question, who goofed? or how did the sick person goof? leads us straight into the role of Satan—the accuser.
One of my friends believes that everyone creates their own reality. If you are healthy, you created that reality by your good thoughts and healthy habits. If you are sick, you created that reality by your negative thoughts and unhealthy habits. Of course our thoughts and habits do have some effect on our health. However, I wonder if my friend is still going to insist that we create our own reality when he's 97 years old pushing his walker around. If he makes it to 97.
Jesus was quite explicit. The blind man in John 9, did not end up blind because of his thoughts or mistakes or habits. He did not end up blind because of his parent's thoughts, mistakes or habits. In fact, if you read Jesus' words, you see that he actually dodges the issue of the cause of the man's blindness. Instead, Jesus focuses on the effect of the man's blindness. It was going to result in the glory of God. The reason the blindness was going to bring glory to God is because Jesus was going to step into the situation.
Which points us toward much better questions than who goofed? Questions like: What now? What can I do?
How should we respond to our friends when their life is derailed by tragedy, by illness, by difficulties? The very first thing to do is to deactivate our “Who goofed?” button and just be present with our friends. Do not offer your version of “Why this happened.”
Second, unless you are a doctor, don't offer diagnosis or treatment. Shut up!!!!!! Be quiet!!!!! Don't ignore the person. Don't hide from them because you don't know what to say. Just hang with them. If there is a concrete need you can meet—for money or help with chores or food, do something. But most importantly be there without prescribing, diagnosing, explaining, condemning, directing.
Now I want to really push you.
In John 8, we see Jesus in another situation where the question who goofed? is an obvious one to ask. It is the story of the woman caught in adultery.
She messed up. She was caught. She was dragged before Jesus in a public setting. Her accusers challenged Jesus to pass judgment on her.
Curiously, Jesus did not ask her a single question. He did not ask, what did you do? Why did you do it? What were you thinking? What was he thinking? Who was he?
Jesus asked her nothing.
He silenced and expelled her accusers. Then he asked her one question: "Don't you have anyone accusing you?" She looked around and said, “I don't see anyone sir.” Jesus answered. "I don't condemn you, either. Go and sin no more."
It would have been so easy to ask about her "goof." To give at least a little attention to it, to make sure she understood the gravity of her goof. This was not a little goof. This was a big goof.
Instead Jesus appeared to be utterly uninterested in her goof. He refused to assign blame or responsibility for her past. He was focused on one thing, a bright future.
That is God's call on our lives as well.
Don't waste your time asking yourself, how did I goof? How did they goof? Who goofed?
The next time you're tempted to ask, who goofed? don't. Instead, ask, "What now? What can I do to help? How can I help?" Then listen to what the sick one, the disadvantaged one, the hurt one says and do it.
This is especially true if you are the one who goofed. Don't beat yourself up. Don't waste your energy in analyzing how on earth you got into this situation. If it isn't obvious, don't worry about it. Move forward. Live forward. Go.
Life is pretty simple. How do you get cavities? Drink soda. How do you get lung cancer? Smoke cigarettes. How do you get a heart attack? Super-size yourself at McDonalds.
It's all straightforward, cause and effect.
Do stupid stuff. Get miserable consequences.
On the other hand, how do you protect your dental health? Floss and brush daily. How do you build strong muscles? Lift weights. How do you develop a strong heart? Run or swim or walk.
Again, it's simple cause and effect. Do smart stuff. Get happy consequences.
Adventists have emphasized this idea so strongly it permeates our entire church culture. And it has paid off. Adventists who follow the rules live ten years longer than the general population.
With all this emphasis on Follow the rules and enjoy happy consequences. Break the rules and endure miserable consequences, it's a small step to the idea: If you get sick, you must have broken the rules.
Whenever a certain person at our house gets a cold, I have to listen to an intense quest for an explanation. Usually this “quest for understanding” takes the form of self-incriminating statements: “I shouldn't have stayed up reading that book.” “It's probably because I ate desert on Monday night.” “I should've come in from the barn when I started getting cold instead of finishing mucking out the stalls even though my jeans were damp.”
When I protest that maybe she's sick because she interacts with the public and sometimes viruses catch up with you no matter what you do, she will have none of it. If Karin is sick, there has to be a logical, rational explanation. Usually, the explanation is attached to someone's choice, usually hers. Someone goofed. Someone is to blame. It never just happens.
But it does.
In early August of this year, Grace Makato Tam, 11, took an easy two-mile hike with her parents and brother to the ice caves at the base of Big Four Mountain. While they were checking out the caves, a chunk of ice the size of a car broke off the mountain above her and rolled down and struck her.
She died at the scene about two hours later. It was a terrible tragedy.
Who goofed? No one.
The place where this happened was the Big Four Mountain ice caves. There are signs warning people not to go into the caves. This girl and her parents obeyed the signs. They did not go into the caves. They were standing in a place that has always been safe in the past. And will probably be safe for the next hundred years. But for one second on August 2, that spot was in the path of a deadly ice chunk falling down the mountain and Grace was struck. And she died.
Who goofed? If you demand an answer to the question, who goofed, the only possible answer is God.
Turn's out the question, who goofed? Is simply the wrong question. There is no possible right answer to the question.
This is sometimes true when people get sick. We know smoking causes lung cancer. However, a few years ago, I met a couple who were here in this area seeking treatment for their twenty-year old son who had lung cancer. He had never smoked. He was a life-long vegetarian. He died a few months after I met them.
Who goofed?
This question, Who goofed? shows up in the Gospel of John. Jesus and his disciples were walking along and they saw a man who had been born blind. The disciples immediately demanded an explanation. “Who sinned?” They asked. “Whose mistake, whose goof, caused this pitiful situation?”
Who sinned?
“No one.” Jesus answered. “Nobody's sin caused this tragic disability.” Jesus went further, “You guys are asking whose sin, whose mistake, whose wrong-doing caused this. What you should be asking is what good purpose does God have in mind in this situation?” (John9:3).
NO ONE GOOFED! Can you believe that?
Here is a man who was born blind in a society without speech recognition software, without Braille. Someone whose only possible career was begging. And Jesus says about his situation: no one goofed. His mother didn't drink during pregnancy. She didn't clean the cat box. She didn't inhale too much cook fire smoke. The father didn't punch mom in the stomach. He wasn't a wicked man under a curse. Neither the blind man's sins nor his parents' sins had anything to do with his situation.
This man was born blind so that the glory of God could be displayed in his life. In this story, if someone goofed, it was God. God goofed. Or no one goofed.
In recent years, members of North Hill have faced some terrible realities. Children have died in automobile accidents. In both cases, our kids did nothing wrong. They did absolutely nothing unsafe. Still the unspeakable happened.
People have faced cancer, kidney failure, heart trouble, diabetes, malfunction in their knees and shoulders, chronic fatigue, depression.
In all of these situations, it's natural to ask, who goofed? Or how did you goof? What did you do wrong? We get in line with the disciples to ask Jesus, “Whose sin caused this problem?” Sometimes there is a rational answer to this question. Sometimes our difficulties are the natural consequence of our choices. Other times, insisting on an answer to the question, who goofed? or how did the sick person goof? leads us straight into the role of Satan—the accuser.
One of my friends believes that everyone creates their own reality. If you are healthy, you created that reality by your good thoughts and healthy habits. If you are sick, you created that reality by your negative thoughts and unhealthy habits. Of course our thoughts and habits do have some effect on our health. However, I wonder if my friend is still going to insist that we create our own reality when he's 97 years old pushing his walker around. If he makes it to 97.
Jesus was quite explicit. The blind man in John 9, did not end up blind because of his thoughts or mistakes or habits. He did not end up blind because of his parent's thoughts, mistakes or habits. In fact, if you read Jesus' words, you see that he actually dodges the issue of the cause of the man's blindness. Instead, Jesus focuses on the effect of the man's blindness. It was going to result in the glory of God. The reason the blindness was going to bring glory to God is because Jesus was going to step into the situation.
Which points us toward much better questions than who goofed? Questions like: What now? What can I do?
How should we respond to our friends when their life is derailed by tragedy, by illness, by difficulties? The very first thing to do is to deactivate our “Who goofed?” button and just be present with our friends. Do not offer your version of “Why this happened.”
Second, unless you are a doctor, don't offer diagnosis or treatment. Shut up!!!!!! Be quiet!!!!! Don't ignore the person. Don't hide from them because you don't know what to say. Just hang with them. If there is a concrete need you can meet—for money or help with chores or food, do something. But most importantly be there without prescribing, diagnosing, explaining, condemning, directing.
Now I want to really push you.
In John 8, we see Jesus in another situation where the question who goofed? is an obvious one to ask. It is the story of the woman caught in adultery.
She messed up. She was caught. She was dragged before Jesus in a public setting. Her accusers challenged Jesus to pass judgment on her.
Curiously, Jesus did not ask her a single question. He did not ask, what did you do? Why did you do it? What were you thinking? What was he thinking? Who was he?
Jesus asked her nothing.
He silenced and expelled her accusers. Then he asked her one question: "Don't you have anyone accusing you?" She looked around and said, “I don't see anyone sir.” Jesus answered. "I don't condemn you, either. Go and sin no more."
It would have been so easy to ask about her "goof." To give at least a little attention to it, to make sure she understood the gravity of her goof. This was not a little goof. This was a big goof.
Instead Jesus appeared to be utterly uninterested in her goof. He refused to assign blame or responsibility for her past. He was focused on one thing, a bright future.
That is God's call on our lives as well.
Don't waste your time asking yourself, how did I goof? How did they goof? Who goofed?
The next time you're tempted to ask, who goofed? don't. Instead, ask, "What now? What can I do to help? How can I help?" Then listen to what the sick one, the disadvantaged one, the hurt one says and do it.
This is especially true if you are the one who goofed. Don't beat yourself up. Don't waste your energy in analyzing how on earth you got into this situation. If it isn't obvious, don't worry about it. Move forward. Live forward. Go.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Nicer Than God?
In the email she said she didn't know who else to talk to, so I was elected. She was dealing with massively discombobulating news: her son had recently told her he was gay.
His homosexuality was not a total surprise, but neither had it been obvious before he opened his heart to her. She and her husband loved him. His sexual identity was not going to change that. He was still their son. She was not writing me for help in dealing with her son. Her mother's love gave adequate wisdom for that. She didn't need help persuading her husband—her son's step dad—to be kind. His father's heart was quite up to that. What she wanted to know was what to do about the lock on heaven's door.
Her son was welcome in their home. But according to the Bible and the church, God would not allow her son into heaven. She didn't put it this way, but what I heard was this: Mom and Dad were nicer than God. At least that the way she had been taught to understand the Bible.
So what should we do when it turns out we're nicer than God? Reexamine our faith.
“Who of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:9-11
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Fatehr in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. . . . So you, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:44-48.
When we discover that our hearts are larger than God's heart according to the teaching of the church and even of the Bible, it's time to take another look. Maybe the church is wrong. Maybe the way we've been reading the Bible is wrong. Maybe we have focused on the wrong texts.
If being god-like means loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors, then certainly being god-like means loving people whose sexual identity is different from ours, even different from “normal.”
If one way we “become sons of our Father in heaven” is by loving our enemies just as he loves his enemies, then loving our homosexual children—accepting them as they are—cannot be an affront to God. Instead, it is one more way we act like our father in heaven.
If we, though we are evil, know that it would be evil to “cast out” our homosexual children, how much more certain is it that our Father in heaven—their Father in heaven—will not only refrain from casting them out, but will welcome them joyously into the eternal dwelling?
His homosexuality was not a total surprise, but neither had it been obvious before he opened his heart to her. She and her husband loved him. His sexual identity was not going to change that. He was still their son. She was not writing me for help in dealing with her son. Her mother's love gave adequate wisdom for that. She didn't need help persuading her husband—her son's step dad—to be kind. His father's heart was quite up to that. What she wanted to know was what to do about the lock on heaven's door.
Her son was welcome in their home. But according to the Bible and the church, God would not allow her son into heaven. She didn't put it this way, but what I heard was this: Mom and Dad were nicer than God. At least that the way she had been taught to understand the Bible.
So what should we do when it turns out we're nicer than God? Reexamine our faith.
“Who of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:9-11
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Fatehr in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. . . . So you, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:44-48.
When we discover that our hearts are larger than God's heart according to the teaching of the church and even of the Bible, it's time to take another look. Maybe the church is wrong. Maybe the way we've been reading the Bible is wrong. Maybe we have focused on the wrong texts.
If being god-like means loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors, then certainly being god-like means loving people whose sexual identity is different from ours, even different from “normal.”
If one way we “become sons of our Father in heaven” is by loving our enemies just as he loves his enemies, then loving our homosexual children—accepting them as they are—cannot be an affront to God. Instead, it is one more way we act like our father in heaven.
If we, though we are evil, know that it would be evil to “cast out” our homosexual children, how much more certain is it that our Father in heaven—their Father in heaven—will not only refrain from casting them out, but will welcome them joyously into the eternal dwelling?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Creationism: Loving God's World the Way He Does
(We have a guest speaker at North Hill this Sabbath, October 9: Wally Lyder. So, this manuscript is only for reading here. It will not be preached. Comments are, of course, still welcome.)
The Trinity and angelic host was too meager a community. So God created the universe. All of it. Every last bit of it. Gravity. Planck's constant. Pi. Gluons and neutrinos. Water. Redwoods. Mosquitoes. Triceratops. Nebulae. The strong force. Electromagetism. Galaxies. Goldfish. Great blue herons. Rabbits. Puma concolor. Humans. Chimps. Archeopteryx. Cotton. Barley. All of it came from God's hand. Or mouth. And God was happy. More to love.
It didn't last. God came to regret creation. God's pain and remorse evoked by human wickedness were so intense he decided to wipe it all out—not just people but animals as well—every living thing on the surface of the planet.
Apparently, God had second thoughts when he contemplated wiping out every living thing. He loved the world too much to make an absolute end. One man in particular caught his attention. So God gave Noah instructions for saving himself and his family and a selection of the animals forming the basis for a new start.
The flood was horrifically devastating. When it was over, God regretted what he had done and vowed never to do it again.
One thing that jumps out from this story is the reality and intensity of God's engagement with the world. According to the Bible, we—humans, animals, the earth's biology—are God's world. What we do and what happens to us deeply affect God. We can make him happy. We can make him change his mind. We can drive him to the negative obverses of love (regret, pain, jealousy). We affect God's being. Enormously. Given what we know now of the universe—billions of light years of expanse sprinkled with particles, waves, dark matter, galaxies and billions of years of existence—this is an astonishing assertion.
Still, it is the central meaning of creationism and points to these twin truths: 1. We matter. 2. Others matter. All the others.
Old White men who have never known what poverty means matter. Young Black men whose primary job opportunities are selling drugs or running numbers matter. People with Down's matter. Muslims matter. Homosexuals matter. Truck drivers, professors, nurses, elementary school teachers, cashiers. Skiers and artists, beggars and prostitutes.
What happens to these people profoundly affects the well-being of God.
As children of God, we are called to learn from God how to regard people—ourselves and others.
People are ineffably precious. (So is all the rest of creation.) It is natural for us to get upset when people behave in ways that are wrong, annoying, foolish, selfish, immoral, inconvenient, disappointing, mean, stupid. We may imagine that life would be better if we could just eliminate the irritant. Get rid of the people. In the case of serial killers, execute them. In the case of poor-performing employees, fire them. In the case of ungrateful children, disinherit them. In the case of illegals, deport them. In the case of the mentally ill and decrepit elderly, euthanize them. Annoying spouses—divorce them. Heterodox preachers—defrock them.
If we are contemplating drastic action to eliminate inconvenient people, we have good precedent in Genesis. God did it. Since we are made in his image, we have the right and responsibility eliminate bad people. However, Genesis portrays violence as an ineffective tool for dealing with the pain that arises from love. God loved people and they betrayed him. When the betrayal became intolerable, God annihilated people—almost all of them. Then, in the aftermath, God said, “I'll never do that again.” There was no satisfaction for God in the devastation of his enemies.
In Genesis (and in 2 Samuel 24:16) we see God practicing execution, acting with the fullness of divine knowledge and the sturdy rectitude of divine holiness. In both cases, God deeply regrets his action. Judgment does not lead to satisfaction or happiness for God.
Why would we think it will work for us?
As we move through the Bible, we find mounting testimony in support of a different divine course in response to human failure: Redemption.
In Samuel, we read about the Wise Woman of Tekoa who in a contrived case, argues successfully against the execution of her murderous son because “God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him” (2 Samuel 14:14).
In Isaiah 53, the Lord's servant saves the people by taking on their iniquities.
Ezekiel writes that the Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Then we come to Matthew who says of the Messiah, “He will save his people from their sins.”
And finally to John who writes, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life.”
God would rather die than live without us. The “enemies” of God are also his children. Just as David cried after the justly-deserved death of Absalom, “If only I could have died in your place!” So God is inconsolably bereaved by even richly-deserved annihilation.
John closes the New Testament with a picture of God sharing his throne with people. People! The beings who so infuriated God in Genesis that he regretted making them in the first case. The kind of creatures who drove God to wreak horrific destruction and then to profound regret at the destruction.
God is so enmeshed with people, so in love with creation, that the end of the 1600 page story featuring betrayal, weakness, failure, stupidity, duplicity, infidelity, seduction pictures God sharing his throne with the very beings who tormented him. If an atheist had written the story, we would be appalled at the disrespect shown to God. Surely God could do better than endlessly pursuing those who “are not that into him.” But God has no interest in doing better.
Jesus calls us to love creation the way God loves creation: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
These enemies we are called to love include politicians of all stripes. People with all sorts of sexual function and dysfunction. The mentally healthy and the mentally ill. The theologically correct and the theologically incorrect. Those with money and those without. People on both sides of whatever border matters to us.
Rage and disdain are ill-fitting for creationists—for people committed to loving creation the way their Father in heaven does.
The Trinity and angelic host was too meager a community. So God created the universe. All of it. Every last bit of it. Gravity. Planck's constant. Pi. Gluons and neutrinos. Water. Redwoods. Mosquitoes. Triceratops. Nebulae. The strong force. Electromagetism. Galaxies. Goldfish. Great blue herons. Rabbits. Puma concolor. Humans. Chimps. Archeopteryx. Cotton. Barley. All of it came from God's hand. Or mouth. And God was happy. More to love.
It didn't last. God came to regret creation. God's pain and remorse evoked by human wickedness were so intense he decided to wipe it all out—not just people but animals as well—every living thing on the surface of the planet.
Apparently, God had second thoughts when he contemplated wiping out every living thing. He loved the world too much to make an absolute end. One man in particular caught his attention. So God gave Noah instructions for saving himself and his family and a selection of the animals forming the basis for a new start.
The flood was horrifically devastating. When it was over, God regretted what he had done and vowed never to do it again.
One thing that jumps out from this story is the reality and intensity of God's engagement with the world. According to the Bible, we—humans, animals, the earth's biology—are God's world. What we do and what happens to us deeply affect God. We can make him happy. We can make him change his mind. We can drive him to the negative obverses of love (regret, pain, jealousy). We affect God's being. Enormously. Given what we know now of the universe—billions of light years of expanse sprinkled with particles, waves, dark matter, galaxies and billions of years of existence—this is an astonishing assertion.
Still, it is the central meaning of creationism and points to these twin truths: 1. We matter. 2. Others matter. All the others.
Old White men who have never known what poverty means matter. Young Black men whose primary job opportunities are selling drugs or running numbers matter. People with Down's matter. Muslims matter. Homosexuals matter. Truck drivers, professors, nurses, elementary school teachers, cashiers. Skiers and artists, beggars and prostitutes.
What happens to these people profoundly affects the well-being of God.
As children of God, we are called to learn from God how to regard people—ourselves and others.
People are ineffably precious. (So is all the rest of creation.) It is natural for us to get upset when people behave in ways that are wrong, annoying, foolish, selfish, immoral, inconvenient, disappointing, mean, stupid. We may imagine that life would be better if we could just eliminate the irritant. Get rid of the people. In the case of serial killers, execute them. In the case of poor-performing employees, fire them. In the case of ungrateful children, disinherit them. In the case of illegals, deport them. In the case of the mentally ill and decrepit elderly, euthanize them. Annoying spouses—divorce them. Heterodox preachers—defrock them.
If we are contemplating drastic action to eliminate inconvenient people, we have good precedent in Genesis. God did it. Since we are made in his image, we have the right and responsibility eliminate bad people. However, Genesis portrays violence as an ineffective tool for dealing with the pain that arises from love. God loved people and they betrayed him. When the betrayal became intolerable, God annihilated people—almost all of them. Then, in the aftermath, God said, “I'll never do that again.” There was no satisfaction for God in the devastation of his enemies.
In Genesis (and in 2 Samuel 24:16) we see God practicing execution, acting with the fullness of divine knowledge and the sturdy rectitude of divine holiness. In both cases, God deeply regrets his action. Judgment does not lead to satisfaction or happiness for God.
Why would we think it will work for us?
As we move through the Bible, we find mounting testimony in support of a different divine course in response to human failure: Redemption.
In Samuel, we read about the Wise Woman of Tekoa who in a contrived case, argues successfully against the execution of her murderous son because “God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him” (2 Samuel 14:14).
In Isaiah 53, the Lord's servant saves the people by taking on their iniquities.
Ezekiel writes that the Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Then we come to Matthew who says of the Messiah, “He will save his people from their sins.”
And finally to John who writes, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life.”
God would rather die than live without us. The “enemies” of God are also his children. Just as David cried after the justly-deserved death of Absalom, “If only I could have died in your place!” So God is inconsolably bereaved by even richly-deserved annihilation.
John closes the New Testament with a picture of God sharing his throne with people. People! The beings who so infuriated God in Genesis that he regretted making them in the first case. The kind of creatures who drove God to wreak horrific destruction and then to profound regret at the destruction.
God is so enmeshed with people, so in love with creation, that the end of the 1600 page story featuring betrayal, weakness, failure, stupidity, duplicity, infidelity, seduction pictures God sharing his throne with the very beings who tormented him. If an atheist had written the story, we would be appalled at the disrespect shown to God. Surely God could do better than endlessly pursuing those who “are not that into him.” But God has no interest in doing better.
Jesus calls us to love creation the way God loves creation: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
These enemies we are called to love include politicians of all stripes. People with all sorts of sexual function and dysfunction. The mentally healthy and the mentally ill. The theologically correct and the theologically incorrect. Those with money and those without. People on both sides of whatever border matters to us.
Rage and disdain are ill-fitting for creationists—for people committed to loving creation the way their Father in heaven does.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Intercessory Prayer
Sermon for North Hill
October 2, 2010
Months ago I had dinner with a friend from long ago and far away. We had a fun time catching up on our kids, our spouses, our work. But I left worried. Toni (not her real name, of course) had experienced some scary financial reverses. In the months since our visit, I thought about it occasionally, but what could I could do?
Then a couple of weeks ago her name came to my mind during my morning prayer time. I prayed for her, specifically for her finances.
A week later I sent her an email, saying I had prayed for her and asking how things were going. She replied she had just been offered a dream job. In addition a fantastic business opportunity had just opened up for her. When I checked the dates, it looked like her job offer came the day after I prayed.
And I said to myself, “I should pray for my friends more often.”
Then, there's my friend Jack (not his real name, of course). He faces daunting challenges at work and at home and with his health. His name comes to me in prayer very often. I don't know why. Over the last couple of years, I have prayed for Jack more than for any other individual. When we communicate—and it's nearly always by email. I hardly ever reach him by phone.--he thanks me for my concern. Thanks me for my praying. But the craziness at work never lets up. The challenges at home get no easier. His health is not improved, as far as I can tell.
(I stopped after writing the above paragraph and prayed for him again.)
So let's talk about intercessory prayer.
Jesus did not teach specifically about intercessory prayer. But, of course, he had a lot to say about prayer in general. And his teachings certainly apply to praying for other people.
So let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6, in his famous “Sermon on the Mount.”
Jesus cautioned against two common errors in thinking about prayer.
First, prayer is not for show. We don't pray so that other people can see us pray. Prayer is not to be used like a flag. 'See, I'm a Christian. I pray.'
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to pray in public places to be seen by men.” Matthew 6:5.
One application of this principle is this: Don't try to impress on God how important getting your desired answer is because of the impact it will have on others. I've seen people put prayer requests on line, with the idea that if thousands of people are praying for some particular outcome, then if God grants their prayer, it will be a great witness to God's power.
As far as I can tell, God does not respond to that kind of pressure. When Jesus healed people, he asked them to keep quiet about it. God doesn't need publicity.
A second error Jesus warned against: Getting more petitions filed with heaven will affect God's decision. Not! Jesus put it this way: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them.” Matthew 6:7
Circulating a prayer request on line and getting thousands of people to join in our petition may comfort our hearts and give us encouragement. It will not influence God's action. Prayer is not a political campaign. God doesn't do polls or focus groups before making his decision.
Repeatedly, Jesus summarized the heart of his teaching on prayer with assurance that God knows what we need before we ask and our needs matter to him. So, ask. Jesus invites you to ask. Ask in confidence that God is aware of the situation and is interested in you and the person you are praying for.
Jesus then offered a model prayer.
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours in the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
This prayer highlights a couple of different purposes and effects of prayer.
When we pray “Our Father,” regularly we are training ourselves to trust in God's benevolence and capability. “Father” in Jesus' teachings is always a rich, warm term. By giving us this model, Jesus is teaching us to remodel our vision of God. God is good. God cares about you and the person you are praying for. God is strong. He is able to deal with whatever difficulty you bring to him.
When we pray “Our Father,” we are affirming that the person we are praying for is also part of God's family. God loves that person as much as you do.
(If “father” as a metaphor does not evoke in your mind images of competence, compassion, wisdom and security, then use other metaphors that help you relate to God in the way Jesus meant to teach when he used the word, “Father.” Other biblical metaphors for God include shepherd, mother hen, king, nursing mother, mother eagle, doctor, friend, lover, husband. Metaphors in our culture might include guard dog, fireman, mama bear, lifeguard, coach.)
Praying in the light of Jesus' words, “Our Father” shapes our hearts. It increases my compassion. It raises my awareness of beauty and goodness in the world because I see people through the eyes of a parent. Especially, if I'm praying for someone who annoys me, this kind of praying will change my vision. Instead of seeing the person only as an annoyance, I will also see them as the beloved of God.
If I pray in this way often enough, I will come to see even people I strongly disagree with, people who are truly evil, with affection and compassion instead of with disgust and hatred. My view of the world will be the opposite of all the talk show hosts who specialize in making other people look like idiots, perverts and criminals. Instead I will see people as the treasures of God.
Then our actions actions will be motivated by love instead of hate.
When we pray over and over 'Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,' we begin to see people and situations more and more through the eyes of God. We still see human brokenness, but we see broken people as children of God rather than as children of the devil. We dream of their restoration rather than their elimination.
Jesus invites us to pray, 'Give us today our daily bread,' teaching us that it is appropriate to pray about down-to-earth, nitty gritty stuff. And not just for ourselves.
God, my friend needs money, needs a new job, needs help with their health. We pray about these things because our hearts cry out for help. And we pray because Jesus invited us to.
Note, when we pray like this we are unabashedly asking for God to intervene in our lives. We want God to take action on our behalf. To help us. To bless us. To send good things our way. We are not thinking about changes that need to be made in our lives. We are thinking about changes we hope God will make in the way the world works.
Let's be clear: Jesus invites us to make these requests.
We ask God to do something, to take action, to change on our behalf. To help us with things like paying bills, finding healing for our pain and illness and dealing with the outrageous temptations and provocations of life.
To come back to my two stories.
When I spend time in prayer every morning, I am conditioning myself to see the world as a good place. Instead of overflowing with rage at politicians, Muslims, the French, the crazy people who cut me off on my way to work, the boss, I am suffused with gratitude for the good things in my life. I don't live in south Sudan or Somalia or Darfur. I have friends. I can see beauty. I can hear music. I can taste curried zucchini.
I feel compassion for Toni and Jack. And all the members and friends of North Hill. And the people of Windworks and Gig Harbor Adventist Fellowship. I cultivate appreciation for the holy zeal that motivates clergy whose specific opinions I disagree with.
I do not know what effect my prayer for Jack is having on his world. Would his world be worse than it is if I were not praying? I don't know. I do know that when his name comes to mind during my prayer time, he becomes important to me. My heart is drawn to him and his family.
Truth be told, I don't really know that my prayer had any impact on the life of my friend Toni. I'm sure the people who offered her the job were working on filling the position long before the Thursday morning when I prayed. But the coming of good things into her life at the time I was praying increases my gratitude to God for his compassion.
So, what to do?
Pray. Do it. Take a few minutes every morning. Or if you're a night person, do it at night. Make some time, not necessarily a lot of time, for deliberate, focused prayer for your children, your co-workers, your friends, your spouse. When you're driving and someone cuts you off, pray for that person. Pray for the stress in their life that makes them drive that way. Pray for the immediate crisis they are facing that day that made me have to drive aggressively.
Who knows, it may lead to a change in the world for yourself and for others. Good things. Money. Health. Happier relationships. Less stress at work.
We do know that it will lead to change in you. If you will make time daily to devote some time to prayer as Jesus taught it, you will become more compassionate, less angry, less worried, more confident.
Paul wrote this about prayer: Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:16ff.
If you want to be less angry, more hopeful. Pray for people.
If you know people who could use some divine help. Pray for them.
Do it in the morning. Or at night. While you're driving, while you're waiting for the bus or the train.
Just do it. It will lead to joy.
October 2, 2010
Months ago I had dinner with a friend from long ago and far away. We had a fun time catching up on our kids, our spouses, our work. But I left worried. Toni (not her real name, of course) had experienced some scary financial reverses. In the months since our visit, I thought about it occasionally, but what could I could do?
Then a couple of weeks ago her name came to my mind during my morning prayer time. I prayed for her, specifically for her finances.
A week later I sent her an email, saying I had prayed for her and asking how things were going. She replied she had just been offered a dream job. In addition a fantastic business opportunity had just opened up for her. When I checked the dates, it looked like her job offer came the day after I prayed.
And I said to myself, “I should pray for my friends more often.”
Then, there's my friend Jack (not his real name, of course). He faces daunting challenges at work and at home and with his health. His name comes to me in prayer very often. I don't know why. Over the last couple of years, I have prayed for Jack more than for any other individual. When we communicate—and it's nearly always by email. I hardly ever reach him by phone.--he thanks me for my concern. Thanks me for my praying. But the craziness at work never lets up. The challenges at home get no easier. His health is not improved, as far as I can tell.
(I stopped after writing the above paragraph and prayed for him again.)
So let's talk about intercessory prayer.
Jesus did not teach specifically about intercessory prayer. But, of course, he had a lot to say about prayer in general. And his teachings certainly apply to praying for other people.
So let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6, in his famous “Sermon on the Mount.”
Jesus cautioned against two common errors in thinking about prayer.
First, prayer is not for show. We don't pray so that other people can see us pray. Prayer is not to be used like a flag. 'See, I'm a Christian. I pray.'
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to pray in public places to be seen by men.” Matthew 6:5.
One application of this principle is this: Don't try to impress on God how important getting your desired answer is because of the impact it will have on others. I've seen people put prayer requests on line, with the idea that if thousands of people are praying for some particular outcome, then if God grants their prayer, it will be a great witness to God's power.
As far as I can tell, God does not respond to that kind of pressure. When Jesus healed people, he asked them to keep quiet about it. God doesn't need publicity.
A second error Jesus warned against: Getting more petitions filed with heaven will affect God's decision. Not! Jesus put it this way: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them.” Matthew 6:7
Circulating a prayer request on line and getting thousands of people to join in our petition may comfort our hearts and give us encouragement. It will not influence God's action. Prayer is not a political campaign. God doesn't do polls or focus groups before making his decision.
Repeatedly, Jesus summarized the heart of his teaching on prayer with assurance that God knows what we need before we ask and our needs matter to him. So, ask. Jesus invites you to ask. Ask in confidence that God is aware of the situation and is interested in you and the person you are praying for.
Jesus then offered a model prayer.
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours in the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
This prayer highlights a couple of different purposes and effects of prayer.
When we pray “Our Father,” regularly we are training ourselves to trust in God's benevolence and capability. “Father” in Jesus' teachings is always a rich, warm term. By giving us this model, Jesus is teaching us to remodel our vision of God. God is good. God cares about you and the person you are praying for. God is strong. He is able to deal with whatever difficulty you bring to him.
When we pray “Our Father,” we are affirming that the person we are praying for is also part of God's family. God loves that person as much as you do.
(If “father” as a metaphor does not evoke in your mind images of competence, compassion, wisdom and security, then use other metaphors that help you relate to God in the way Jesus meant to teach when he used the word, “Father.” Other biblical metaphors for God include shepherd, mother hen, king, nursing mother, mother eagle, doctor, friend, lover, husband. Metaphors in our culture might include guard dog, fireman, mama bear, lifeguard, coach.)
Praying in the light of Jesus' words, “Our Father” shapes our hearts. It increases my compassion. It raises my awareness of beauty and goodness in the world because I see people through the eyes of a parent. Especially, if I'm praying for someone who annoys me, this kind of praying will change my vision. Instead of seeing the person only as an annoyance, I will also see them as the beloved of God.
If I pray in this way often enough, I will come to see even people I strongly disagree with, people who are truly evil, with affection and compassion instead of with disgust and hatred. My view of the world will be the opposite of all the talk show hosts who specialize in making other people look like idiots, perverts and criminals. Instead I will see people as the treasures of God.
Then our actions actions will be motivated by love instead of hate.
When we pray over and over 'Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,' we begin to see people and situations more and more through the eyes of God. We still see human brokenness, but we see broken people as children of God rather than as children of the devil. We dream of their restoration rather than their elimination.
Jesus invites us to pray, 'Give us today our daily bread,' teaching us that it is appropriate to pray about down-to-earth, nitty gritty stuff. And not just for ourselves.
God, my friend needs money, needs a new job, needs help with their health. We pray about these things because our hearts cry out for help. And we pray because Jesus invited us to.
Note, when we pray like this we are unabashedly asking for God to intervene in our lives. We want God to take action on our behalf. To help us. To bless us. To send good things our way. We are not thinking about changes that need to be made in our lives. We are thinking about changes we hope God will make in the way the world works.
Let's be clear: Jesus invites us to make these requests.
We ask God to do something, to take action, to change on our behalf. To help us with things like paying bills, finding healing for our pain and illness and dealing with the outrageous temptations and provocations of life.
To come back to my two stories.
When I spend time in prayer every morning, I am conditioning myself to see the world as a good place. Instead of overflowing with rage at politicians, Muslims, the French, the crazy people who cut me off on my way to work, the boss, I am suffused with gratitude for the good things in my life. I don't live in south Sudan or Somalia or Darfur. I have friends. I can see beauty. I can hear music. I can taste curried zucchini.
I feel compassion for Toni and Jack. And all the members and friends of North Hill. And the people of Windworks and Gig Harbor Adventist Fellowship. I cultivate appreciation for the holy zeal that motivates clergy whose specific opinions I disagree with.
I do not know what effect my prayer for Jack is having on his world. Would his world be worse than it is if I were not praying? I don't know. I do know that when his name comes to mind during my prayer time, he becomes important to me. My heart is drawn to him and his family.
Truth be told, I don't really know that my prayer had any impact on the life of my friend Toni. I'm sure the people who offered her the job were working on filling the position long before the Thursday morning when I prayed. But the coming of good things into her life at the time I was praying increases my gratitude to God for his compassion.
So, what to do?
Pray. Do it. Take a few minutes every morning. Or if you're a night person, do it at night. Make some time, not necessarily a lot of time, for deliberate, focused prayer for your children, your co-workers, your friends, your spouse. When you're driving and someone cuts you off, pray for that person. Pray for the stress in their life that makes them drive that way. Pray for the immediate crisis they are facing that day that made me have to drive aggressively.
Who knows, it may lead to a change in the world for yourself and for others. Good things. Money. Health. Happier relationships. Less stress at work.
We do know that it will lead to change in you. If you will make time daily to devote some time to prayer as Jesus taught it, you will become more compassionate, less angry, less worried, more confident.
Paul wrote this about prayer: Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:16ff.
If you want to be less angry, more hopeful. Pray for people.
If you know people who could use some divine help. Pray for them.
Do it in the morning. Or at night. While you're driving, while you're waiting for the bus or the train.
Just do it. It will lead to joy.
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