Preached on February 10, 2008, First Sunday in Lent, at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC
Psalm 32
Matthew 4:1-11
Dedicated to Dave and Audrey; and always to the glory of God.
The story is told of both Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, two legendary blues guitarists of the Mississippi Delta almost a century ago. The story was told that each one went one night to the crossroads to meet the devil. It was the devil who taught them to play like nobody else, and in return each man gave up his soul.
If you want something badly enough, you could sell your soul to the devil. In your life you could have talent, fame, riches, pleasure, but when you die, your soul belongs to the devil, and your fate is sealed.
We just heard how Jesus met the devil, also called the tempter. There are so many different versions of the devil it’s difficult to decide how to interpret this scene. Is this the supreme evil being with horns and a tail, or is it like the little devil who pops up on your shoulder to give dangerous advice? In some cultures, the devil is a trickster, someone likely to pull a good prank, and in Jewish tradition, Satan was anyone who took an opposing opinion, what we would call playing devil’s advocate. This is why Jesus calls Peter a Satan when Peter disagrees with the path Jesus plans to take to the cross. The devil that Jesus meets is probably somewhere in between supreme evil and a devil’s advocate.
I don’t believe in the devil as some actual creature who might show up to swindle you out of your soul. I don’t believe in that kind of devil, but I do think that in life there are times when we risk losing our soul to go after something that seems, somehow, more important. Much of life is like that, and if we want to call it the devil’s temptation, then I won’t disagree.
When we make a devil’s bargain it happens gradually, so that we don’t even realize what we are losing. We go after what seems important but we give up our soul. We go after the promise of a happy life but give up for it a life of meaning. We take the promise of prosperity and give up for it all our time and passion. We take the promise of success and give up for it the relationships of family and friends. We take the promise of security and give up for it our freedom, our character.
Right now in this country there is debate about whether an act has long been called torture may sometimes be justified. I think that when our nation rationalizes torture, we lose our character, our soul.
These decisions are not made all at once but bit by bit. As the Talking Heads used to sing “you may ask yourself ‘well - how did I get here?’” One day, we turn around and realize that we have to get our soul back.
When Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, he is taking that time to get clear about the work that he is about to begin, the ministry for which he has just been anointed in the Jordan river. It’s not a simple question. How do you extend the kingdom of God to all the world?
In the first temptation, the devil plays on his hunger during this wilderness fast. He says: you have God’s power, turn those stones into bread. The temptation of materialism. If we have enough, we can do anything. If I have enough I’ll be able to keep us safe and secure. There is no problem that can’t be helped by a little bread.
Jesus turns him down. He’s not against eating, and he’s certainly not against feeding people. He’ll spent a great deal of time sharing meals with sinners and feeding large crowds, but he says no because he doesn’t want to win people over with free food. The real message is God’s compassion – food is merely a symbol of God’s compassion, just like the bread on the communion table is a symbol of so much more. If he were to win the crowds with food, he’d be no better than the Roman Empire subjugating the masses with bread and gladiator sport. Keep their stomachs full and their minds empty.
At this church we strive to provide for people. We share meals, we serve others, but we must be careful never to think that our primary goal is to make people comfortable and well-fed. If that’s all we are offering, then people might be better off spending Sunday at a restaurant where they can order what they want and leave their money in the tray that is brought out at the end. We’re not just in the comfort business. We’re in the gospel business, which leads us to give people comfort. There’s an important distinction.
Next the devil tells him to go to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem, a place where everyone will see him well, and then jump off, because God will send angels to save him. Wouldn’t that be something? The temptation of sensational entertainment. “Show us, Jesus! Show us once and for all how great you are so that all will come to follow you.” Sometimes we read these stories in the gospel about Jesus walking on water, raising the sick and the dead, feeding thousands with a few loaves of bread, and we think, if only God would show us a miracle like that it would be easier to believe!
But if you read the gospels closely, you will find that there were plenty of people who were there right when it happened who didn’t believe any of it. It turns out that faith in God is not won by great signs. Rather, faith is like a pair of glasses. Once you have them on, you are able to see the signs of God, but without them we see only despair. A faith that blames God for not saving us from injury and illness is a shallow faith. We must offer more than bread and miracles. We must offer something deeper, a deeper love that will hold us close even when we are hungry and hurt. Jesus turns down the devil again.
Finally, the devil says that if Jesus will worship him, he will just give him the world. The final, most obvious temptation to sell his soul, to give up his character, his identity, just to get what he wants.
Jesus went into the wilderness to get clear. He came out of the wilderness with a message of grace, of God’s love for us and our freedom to respond in love, not because we were bribed by things, not because we were impressed or entertained, but because the kind of love that would give even his life was irresistible. This kind of love showed us how to get our souls back.
So when is our time to get clear? When is our time to step back from our lives so that we can examine them by the light that Jesus shines, and thereby discover where and we have lost our soul? Did we give up what is really important for treasures that are forever out of reach?
We may have sold our soul without even realizing what we were doing. I told you already that I don’t believe in a real devil who steals our souls from us. But even if there was, I don’t think it would ultimately work. I believe God’s love is so great, and God’s power so strong, that nothing will keep any of us away from God for eternity. As Paul wrote, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even death. That’s not the issue. The issue is how are we going to live? Do we fill our lives with bread and stunts and power, or do we pass those up, as Jesus did, so that our arms are open to receive the grace of God? In the season of Lent we have 40 days, the same time that Jesus spent in the desert. That’s a gift. It’s time to get clear.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Grapes of Wrath
I recently found a small paperback edition of The Grapes of Wrath on our bookshelves. Inside the front cover is my wife’s name and some notes she took while reading it in college. In the past few weeks I have been captivated by the Joad family, who were forced out of their home in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the great depression. They packed their family and their last possessions onto a beat up truck and fled to California, following the stories they’d heard about fruit trees, vineyards, and plenty of work for hard-working people. John Steinbeck based his novel on his own first hand reporting of the great migration of people to California. They were called Okies, which was originally a derisive and ugly name. But the promise of California was false. There were too many hungry people and not enough work.
There is a scene that takes place in a sort of refugee camp, where many of the displaced families are living while looking for work. A young woman, pregnant with her first child, meets a woman who calls herself a “lamb’s blood Christian” and preaches fire and brimstone at her. She says the camp is crawling with sinners, which it clearly is not - most people are honest and kind to one another. But all this woman can see is the sinful dances on Saturday nights. They aren’t just square dancing, she says, they’re grab and hug dancing. As a warning, she tells the young woman about two other pregnant women in the camp who lost their babies because of this sin of dancing.
A few moments later, the camp manager walks over to comfort the scared young mother. He tells her that it is true about the two women, but it wasn’t any sin of theirs that caused it. They suffered malnutrition. They couldn’t get rest with the demands of travel and finding work. It’s the sin of the situation, he tells her. It’s the sin of poverty and a wider system that puts people at risk.
Centuries ago, the prophet Isaiah made much the same point. He said that God is not so much interested in our religious ceremonies but our attention to the well-being of the poor and marginalized. Let’s be clear: suffering is not God’s punishment on us; it is often the result of the sin in a situation, and we can do something about that.
There is a scene that takes place in a sort of refugee camp, where many of the displaced families are living while looking for work. A young woman, pregnant with her first child, meets a woman who calls herself a “lamb’s blood Christian” and preaches fire and brimstone at her. She says the camp is crawling with sinners, which it clearly is not - most people are honest and kind to one another. But all this woman can see is the sinful dances on Saturday nights. They aren’t just square dancing, she says, they’re grab and hug dancing. As a warning, she tells the young woman about two other pregnant women in the camp who lost their babies because of this sin of dancing.
A few moments later, the camp manager walks over to comfort the scared young mother. He tells her that it is true about the two women, but it wasn’t any sin of theirs that caused it. They suffered malnutrition. They couldn’t get rest with the demands of travel and finding work. It’s the sin of the situation, he tells her. It’s the sin of poverty and a wider system that puts people at risk.
Centuries ago, the prophet Isaiah made much the same point. He said that God is not so much interested in our religious ceremonies but our attention to the well-being of the poor and marginalized. Let’s be clear: suffering is not God’s punishment on us; it is often the result of the sin in a situation, and we can do something about that.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sermon - Chaos Turned to Peace
Preached January 13, 2008 at The First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC.
Psalm 29
Matthew 3:13-17
Dedicated to my uncle Cliff Flick; and always to the glory of God.
There were three friends who met together for lunch. One was a doctor, one an architect, and one an economist. After a bit they began a friendly argument about whose profession was the oldest.
The doctor said “When God made the very first humans, he took a rib from Adam to create Eve, which is clearly a medical procedure.”
“Aha,” said the architect. “If we’re going back to the beginning then it’s no question, because before God made people God designed and created a world for them to live in, just like an architect.”
“I’m afraid I’ve still got you both beat,” said the third. “My profession is still the oldest.”
“How can that be?” his friends objected. “Before the creation of people and the earth there was only chaos.”
“Well,” said the economist. “Who do you think invented that?”
“In the beginning,” says the creation story in the book of Genesis, “when God made the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). I need to tell you that for us in the 21st century to hear this story we need to hear it with ancient ears, and they would have known that the waters represent nothing less than chaos. In the beginning, there was no land, no life, no light, only the swirling waters of chaos. The voice of God brought order to chaos. On the first day: light. On the second day, God created a dome called sky to separate the waters below from the waters above. Remember this is an ancient text from a time when they viewed the world as a surface here with a domed sky holding back the sea above, from which the rains came. On the third day, God gathered the rest of the waters together in once place and made land to appear. When we hear it with ancient ears, the creation story is about God arriving to a formless void of chaos, all water, and putting the chaos in it’s place. This is a story about God turning chaos to order, that we might live in peace.
In the middle east, in that area near the fertile crescent from which our sacred scriptures come, the sea was chaos because what you feared most was the flood. A flood in that flattened land would wipe out all you had grown and stored up for yourself. Too much water coming down from the great sea above, too much water welling up around you – that was chaos. For our experience, we need only to remember the streets of New Orleans, the escape holes in rooftops, the disaster in the Superdome. Chaos.
When we understand that the sea is chaos it changes the way the Bible speaks to us. Throughout the psalms, God is praised for holding back the flood. In the story of Noah we learn that when there was a flood, it was because God chose it and God ended it. People shared the story of Jesus calming the storm not just because it’s a great story, but because it told them that Jesus was Lord if Jesus could silence the sea. In the book of Revelation, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, it says that the sea is no more. If we didn’t know what that meant, then those of us who love the ocean would be very sad about a future with no beaches to walk. It only makes sense when we remember that the sea is chaos. In the new earth that God will make, the sea is no more, because chaos, pain, and tears are no more.
Do you hear the good news of these ancient scriptures? Can you hear them telling us of the good God has done for them? Not just telling us, but calling to us; they want us to continue the song of praise that has long faded from their lips.
In the psalm we heard this morning, the psalmist tells the good news of God’s power over chaos. He says “the voice of the Lord is over the waters.” “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”
Can we join that prayer? Is the Lord still enthroned over the waters, the flood of chaos? What do you think? Does the world seem to have order to you, or are we bobbing along in the chaos, trying to keep our heads above for as long as we can? It is not difficult to make the case that chaos is the rule in this world.
-One person is born to prosperity and another is born into a refugee camp.
-One person discovers by chance a blood clot that is treated in time while another person who was healthy got regular check-ups, dies young of an aggressive tumor no one saw coming.
-One soldier comes home safely from a third tour in Iraq, while another loses her legs in just her first week in country.
-One day everything goes your way, and the next day you can hardly come up to breathe. It feels like it’s raining and it’s never going to stop. Chaos.
All of that is true. But still we proclaim that the Lord is enthroned over the chaos. Hear the words of the psalmist again: “May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”
I believe that God gives us strength, and turns our chaos to peace.
- Someone is born to a refugee camp, but those inspired with the strength of God’s justice are providing relief, are helping to relocate and house those who have fled their homes. In the past six weeks, our denomination the United Church of Christ held a campaign to raise over $100,000 to provide humanitarian assistance to some of the 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced by the war to camps in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, to provide food, water, health care and education.
- Someone is dying, but those who are filled with the strength of God’s compassion are caring for the sick in the way that Mother Teresa would wrap her arms around those who were dying in the streets of Calcutta, pledging that even if she could not prolong their lives, she could make sure that they did not die alone, that they died with the loving embrace of God, just as many of you have done for one whom you loved.
- Someone is caught in the violence of war, but those inspired by the strength of the prince of peace are working for a better way to make our world secure and its people free - working to care for those who suffer the most senseless acts of war, those whose bodies or spirits are broken.
God gives us strength, not to magically bring an end to all the chaos of disease, violence, and injustice, but to have strength in the midst of the storm, bringing order, and making peace.
God’s spirit hovered over the waters of chaos and brought them into order, and then, years later, the spirit of God descended from the heavens over Jesus, who was baptized in the Jordan River. The spirit of God came again in him to turn chaos into peace, and I believe that in the same way, the spirit of God comes again in us. The mysterious grace in baptism tells me that God’s voice says to each of us as God said to Jesus: This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased. With the spirit of God as our strength, we will see the chaos of our lives turned to peace.
Psalm 29
Matthew 3:13-17
Dedicated to my uncle Cliff Flick; and always to the glory of God.
There were three friends who met together for lunch. One was a doctor, one an architect, and one an economist. After a bit they began a friendly argument about whose profession was the oldest.
The doctor said “When God made the very first humans, he took a rib from Adam to create Eve, which is clearly a medical procedure.”
“Aha,” said the architect. “If we’re going back to the beginning then it’s no question, because before God made people God designed and created a world for them to live in, just like an architect.”
“I’m afraid I’ve still got you both beat,” said the third. “My profession is still the oldest.”
“How can that be?” his friends objected. “Before the creation of people and the earth there was only chaos.”
“Well,” said the economist. “Who do you think invented that?”
“In the beginning,” says the creation story in the book of Genesis, “when God made the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). I need to tell you that for us in the 21st century to hear this story we need to hear it with ancient ears, and they would have known that the waters represent nothing less than chaos. In the beginning, there was no land, no life, no light, only the swirling waters of chaos. The voice of God brought order to chaos. On the first day: light. On the second day, God created a dome called sky to separate the waters below from the waters above. Remember this is an ancient text from a time when they viewed the world as a surface here with a domed sky holding back the sea above, from which the rains came. On the third day, God gathered the rest of the waters together in once place and made land to appear. When we hear it with ancient ears, the creation story is about God arriving to a formless void of chaos, all water, and putting the chaos in it’s place. This is a story about God turning chaos to order, that we might live in peace.
In the middle east, in that area near the fertile crescent from which our sacred scriptures come, the sea was chaos because what you feared most was the flood. A flood in that flattened land would wipe out all you had grown and stored up for yourself. Too much water coming down from the great sea above, too much water welling up around you – that was chaos. For our experience, we need only to remember the streets of New Orleans, the escape holes in rooftops, the disaster in the Superdome. Chaos.
When we understand that the sea is chaos it changes the way the Bible speaks to us. Throughout the psalms, God is praised for holding back the flood. In the story of Noah we learn that when there was a flood, it was because God chose it and God ended it. People shared the story of Jesus calming the storm not just because it’s a great story, but because it told them that Jesus was Lord if Jesus could silence the sea. In the book of Revelation, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth, it says that the sea is no more. If we didn’t know what that meant, then those of us who love the ocean would be very sad about a future with no beaches to walk. It only makes sense when we remember that the sea is chaos. In the new earth that God will make, the sea is no more, because chaos, pain, and tears are no more.
Do you hear the good news of these ancient scriptures? Can you hear them telling us of the good God has done for them? Not just telling us, but calling to us; they want us to continue the song of praise that has long faded from their lips.
In the psalm we heard this morning, the psalmist tells the good news of God’s power over chaos. He says “the voice of the Lord is over the waters.” “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”
Can we join that prayer? Is the Lord still enthroned over the waters, the flood of chaos? What do you think? Does the world seem to have order to you, or are we bobbing along in the chaos, trying to keep our heads above for as long as we can? It is not difficult to make the case that chaos is the rule in this world.
-One person is born to prosperity and another is born into a refugee camp.
-One person discovers by chance a blood clot that is treated in time while another person who was healthy got regular check-ups, dies young of an aggressive tumor no one saw coming.
-One soldier comes home safely from a third tour in Iraq, while another loses her legs in just her first week in country.
-One day everything goes your way, and the next day you can hardly come up to breathe. It feels like it’s raining and it’s never going to stop. Chaos.
All of that is true. But still we proclaim that the Lord is enthroned over the chaos. Hear the words of the psalmist again: “May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”
I believe that God gives us strength, and turns our chaos to peace.
- Someone is born to a refugee camp, but those inspired with the strength of God’s justice are providing relief, are helping to relocate and house those who have fled their homes. In the past six weeks, our denomination the United Church of Christ held a campaign to raise over $100,000 to provide humanitarian assistance to some of the 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced by the war to camps in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, to provide food, water, health care and education.
- Someone is dying, but those who are filled with the strength of God’s compassion are caring for the sick in the way that Mother Teresa would wrap her arms around those who were dying in the streets of Calcutta, pledging that even if she could not prolong their lives, she could make sure that they did not die alone, that they died with the loving embrace of God, just as many of you have done for one whom you loved.
- Someone is caught in the violence of war, but those inspired by the strength of the prince of peace are working for a better way to make our world secure and its people free - working to care for those who suffer the most senseless acts of war, those whose bodies or spirits are broken.
God gives us strength, not to magically bring an end to all the chaos of disease, violence, and injustice, but to have strength in the midst of the storm, bringing order, and making peace.
God’s spirit hovered over the waters of chaos and brought them into order, and then, years later, the spirit of God descended from the heavens over Jesus, who was baptized in the Jordan River. The spirit of God came again in him to turn chaos into peace, and I believe that in the same way, the spirit of God comes again in us. The mysterious grace in baptism tells me that God’s voice says to each of us as God said to Jesus: This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased. With the spirit of God as our strength, we will see the chaos of our lives turned to peace.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Scrooge and Marley
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.”
So says Ebenezer Scrooge to the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, and it is Marley’s answer that has stayed with me as the lights of Christmas are stowed away for another year. One of the gifts I received this year is the audiobook of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In the days after Christmas, Betsy and I had the pleasure of listening to this incredible story read aloud to us. Incidentally, the reader is British actor Jim Dale, and there is no one better, I’m sure.
Marley’s ghost is a lamentable character, full of regret and sorrow when he visits Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Marley’s case is so pitiable that even Scrooge, with his emotions well calloused, begins to feel sorry for him. Or perhaps Scrooge begins to feel afraid for himself, since his own life is just like the life of his dead partner. In an effort to steer the conversation back to a positive note, Scrooge says “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.”
“‘Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’”
In some circles, Marley’s skill and success in his trade were well admired, but he later realized that his trade was not really his business. It makes me wonder about how we discern success among people. Our attention and praise is generally given to those who succeed in wealth and fame, while little thought goes toward those who make humankind their business. Let’s you and I tell a different story than that. Let’s celebrate a different kind of business.
So says Ebenezer Scrooge to the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, and it is Marley’s answer that has stayed with me as the lights of Christmas are stowed away for another year. One of the gifts I received this year is the audiobook of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In the days after Christmas, Betsy and I had the pleasure of listening to this incredible story read aloud to us. Incidentally, the reader is British actor Jim Dale, and there is no one better, I’m sure.
Marley’s ghost is a lamentable character, full of regret and sorrow when he visits Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Marley’s case is so pitiable that even Scrooge, with his emotions well calloused, begins to feel sorry for him. Or perhaps Scrooge begins to feel afraid for himself, since his own life is just like the life of his dead partner. In an effort to steer the conversation back to a positive note, Scrooge says “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.”
“‘Business!’ cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’”
In some circles, Marley’s skill and success in his trade were well admired, but he later realized that his trade was not really his business. It makes me wonder about how we discern success among people. Our attention and praise is generally given to those who succeed in wealth and fame, while little thought goes toward those who make humankind their business. Let’s you and I tell a different story than that. Let’s celebrate a different kind of business.
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