Sunday, December 4th, 2011 Vineyard Central Church   Norwood, OH

Goal:  Proclaim the authority and full love of God.  Affirm human capacity to live faithfully and beautifully in humility under God’s authority.

Main passages:  Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-13

I think the best place to begin today is with Isaiah 40, to do the best we can to walk into the world of the author, to observe, listen, and consider what we may encounter.    

As obvious as it must sound, the first thing we notice is that this is Isaiah 40.   

If we sat down and read the Book of Isaiah from beginning to end in one sitting, we’d notice there is a distinct difference in tone between chapters 1-39, and chapter 40 on.  The first 39 chapters give a strong message of Israel’s unfaithfulness, unwillingness to follow the way of God.  The prophet reminds them multiple times that this has not gone unnoticed by God.  He uses the voice of God to say piercing things,

“I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.  The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.”

The first 39 chapters read as a testament of the prophet using every literary device, every means of persuasion possible in an attempt to bring Israel to their collective knees, to consider their way of life, to repent, and to live differently.  Along the way, a very clear portrait of God emerges that is uncomfortable and necessary for Israel to hear; and uncomfortable and necessary for us to hear today along with them.

God is not aloof, is not ignorant of what is going on.  God has been patient for a very long time, hoping (desperately so), that the people he redeemed would turn back.  But eventually, because God loves them, because God has called them to be a light to the nations, his anger boils over and he shatters their society, drives them into exile at great loss of life, loss of dignity, great cost.  God does this, and he does this because he loves them.

So this is the immediate context we hear Isaiah 40 in today.  And because the tone is so different and the way the narrator talks about God’s judgment in the past tense, longing for restoration, most biblical scholars believe Isaiah 40-55 were written about a hundred years later than the first 39 chapters.  This was a common practice in the Jewish community, to continue the tradition of a prophet, to write in their name, and the community affirmed the words over time as valid and truthful.

And so, Isaiah 40 gives a message of hope, “Comfort, comfort my people…speak tenderly to Jerusalem, that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.”

The prophet uses strong language here to give his hearers hope.  “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

This is Hebrew apocalyptic language.  It’s used time and time again in the Scriptures, “the heavenly bodies will be shaken, the sun darkened, the moon turned to blood,” one passage says. “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth,” another passage says. “The wolf will live with the lamb,” says another.  The writers don’t actually mean that God hates mountains and valleys and wants everything level, don’t actually mean that the sun will cease to exist, or the moon drip with blood.  And they don’t mean that wolves are going to suddenly cuddle with cute little soft lambs.

All of those passages are the Hebrew way of saying, “God’s going to do something big again. God is going to make things right.  The powerful will recognize their relationship with the weak, and they will live in community again.  God will make things right.”

All people are like grass, and all human faithfulness is like the flowers of the field…the grass withers, the flower fades.  (but the word of our God will stand forever)

These words remind the hearers of their mortality, and are aware of how quickly we forget the restoration of God and return to our old ways that we find more comfortable.  So remember that you are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow, the prophet reminds us, and our faithfulness, while beautiful and full of sweet aroma like the flowers of the field, is not the center of reality.  The strength of human effort is downplayed.  But the intent is NOT to empty the possibility of human faithfulness, to diminish the impact of serving God.  No, the intent is to exalt God, to give glory to the eternal God, which draws us to fall to our knees, adore Him, and confess over and over again, “God, you know better than we do how we were created to live.  We are confused, our minds and hearts are darkened, twisted by selfishness and rebellion.”

With this established, the writer can shift back again to comfort, “Bring good news,” he says. Say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”  See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him…he tends his flock like a shepherd:  he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those who have young.”  God has been wrathful and condemning in his great love, and God will be gentle and compassionate in his restoration.

That is a significant lesson that the Israelite people needed to hear, and we need to hear in our day as well.  It is a reminder of the full love of God, which includes the full spectrum from the most gentle, affirming touch all the way to ripping entire societies apart in their unfaithfulness; death, pain, and the displacement of millions of people.

Our second lectionary passage of the day brings this lesson into full focus.  So if you would turn to Psalm 85 with me. 

I want to say two things here about the lectionary with this being one of the readings for the day.  First, I love the sense of unity felt in the use of the lectionary, knowing that millions of brothers and sisters are reading the same passages and praying together with the same themes.  I love that as the Earth turns and we all experience Sunday over a 24 hour period, we are reading, praying, and thinking together on similar themes.  This is a great gift.  But I feel extremely frustrated at times with the lectionary because those who set it up have a knack for seeking out comforting passages and omitting, avoiding sharper passages.  Sometimes it’s hard to read their intent, and other times, like today with Psalm 85, it is SO OBVIOUS. 

(Make a quick skim read of the Psalm and take a guess at what the Lectionary folks omitted)

When manipulating the passages so obviously like this, one has to ask, what is their purpose?  I had seen this pattern before in the Lectionary and wondered when it was brought together; who shaped the passages for reading?  I wasn’t surprised to find after a bit of research that the Revised Common Lectionary was brought together in 1994.  That date is telling.  I also wasn't surprised to find that the RCL was an ecumenical effort (Catholic and a variety of Protestant communions), and one of the markers of ecumenical works tends to be an appeal to the lowest common denominator that everyone can agree on.

Maybe more important, though, is the wider issue of belief.  One of the most distinct beliefs across our society that’s been in vogue for at least the last 75 years or so is that if God loves you, he would never do anything that brings you pain, would never hurt you.  And if that was the Biblical message, that would be well and good.  But it’s not.  The Biblical message is that God loves us deeply, relentlessly, desperately, and that God will stop at nothing to bring about his kingdom.

It also seems to me that the most comfortable people of the world are the ones who love to read the Jeremiah 29:11s of the Scriptures over and over again.  Yet those in the world without power, being crushed, used by wealthy empires to maintain their way of life; it is those people who cling to passages on God’s judgment on sin.  Why?  Because those passages give them an outlet for their pain, gives them questions they can ask they didn't know they had, channel their frustration to show them how to pray so they don’t become embittered and hopeless.

We need this reminder most here in Advent.  Because the people on the eve of Jesus’ birth were NOT comfortable.  They were occupied by the most powerful military in the world, taxed into the ground, with the system of taxation carried out by wealthy Hebrew persons grinding their fellow citizens into the ground.  The people of Israel were groaning, suffering, longing, and Jesus’ mother Mary (one of those marginalized people) didn’t offer words of consolation to comfortable people:

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

just as he promised our ancestors.”

Luke 1:51-55

So, I want to emphasize how desperately we need to hear the part in Psalm 85 that the Lectionary-shapers omitted.  It is a voice of pleading, of weeping, of desperate humility, of throwing oneself at the feet of God, of looking unseemly, not-together.

“Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.  Will you prolong your anger through all generations?  Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

How does the psalmist, speaking for Israel, plan to respond to God?  “I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants- but let them not turn to folly.”  Another way to say that last sentence is “God promises peace to his people- his faithful servants if they do not turn to folly.”  Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him.

And when his people fear him, value him, cherish his authority and voice above all other voices, obey and act on that voice, and do it together; wonderful things result.

And then comes this beautiful image, “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The LORD will indeed give what is good.”

There's a conversation that often comes to mind for me when thinking of the tensions described above.  It involves one of my heroes, Clarence Jordan, co-founder of Koinonia Farm in Georgia, in conversation with his brother, Robert.  Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to legally represent Koinonia Farm.  Robert responded to Clarence’s request:

“Clarence, I can’t do that.  You know my political aspirations.  Why, if I represented you, I might lost my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”

“We might lose everything too, Bob.”  Clarence said.

“But it’s different for you,” Robert responded.

“Why is it different?” Clarence said.  “I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church the same Sunday, as boys.  I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me about the same question he did you.  He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’  And I said, ‘Yes. What did you say?’

“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”

“Could that point by any chance be- the cross?”

“That’s right.  I follow him to the cross, but not ON the cross.  I’m not getting myself crucified.”

“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple.  You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his.  I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer not a disciple.”

“Well, now,” Robert said defensively, “if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t HAVE a church would we?”

“The question,” Clarence said, “is, Do you have a church?”

So, like Clarence and Robert, we are presented with a couple options in our life.  Do we choose a genteel Christianity that says all the right things, that goes out of our way to read comforting passages that avoid responsibility and reinforce our way of life, that stops short of a willingness to give of ourselves with all of who we are, or a Christianity that follows Jesus and obeys him, willing to be stretched, and willing to be broken, willing to care enough about the brokenness of the world that we are driven to prayer.

This world is very, very sick; but so full of potential for healing and joy.  May we turn our gaze off ourselves and towards our Creator.  May we have the courage to come to terms with and embrace the full spectrum of God’s love.   May we be shaped by this love to pour our lives out in service to God, to play a role in the healing of God’s world.

Sermon July 3, 2011  “What and Who we are For” 

Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-13

So here we are today.  It is Sunday.  We are gathered here out of respect for our Creator, desiring that what we experience today will give honor to God and have an effect on us.  My specific hope today is that each of us present here together acknowledges that we are not a finished product, acknowledge that we each have much to learn, that we have not “arrived” as followers of Jesus.  The apostle Paul is proclaims clearly to the church in Rome, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

The word Paul used here is deeply important.  He said, be “transformed,” which is a very different thing than “be affected” or “be influenced by.”  I was reminded by a wise leader over a year ago that we being “transformed” is a very messy process.  It means being changed from one thing into another completely different thing.  Who here are Calvin and Hobbes fans?  There was a collection of Calvin and Hobbes comics called “Scientific Progress goes Boink,” and the focus of those comics was an “invention” of Calvin.  It was a cardboard box that he made into a “transmogrifier.”  You could enter into the box, have someone set the box to what you wanted to change into, then you would come out of the box as that thing.    It was a fundamental change that took place there.  And this is precisely what Paul is talking about.  What that means, practically, is the willingness at any point to blow the whole project up, to strip our lives down to nothing, in order to build on a more firm foundation again.  This is one of the most essential truths of Christianity. 

Becoming a Christian is not an add-on thing where we get to keep who we are, what we desire, how we spend our time, how we handle relationships, and then add a little Jesus in where he fits.  Following Jesus is a full-time, whole life transformation process that never ends; and it starts with confessing that Jesus knows better than we do what we are created for, and we fall down at his feet, and we say, “I am confused.  Guide me, lead me.  I want to be healthy, I want to be good again.”  And we cling to him.  We pledge our central allegiance to him and to God’s kingdom first and primary.

I say all of this because we are on the eve of a High American holiday that takes place tomorrow, Independence Day.  And wherever we may end up in our perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and the nation, High American holidays give an opportunity to slow down and to reflect on these themes of allegiance, commitment, and awareness of who we are.

You see, we don’t have the luxury like other American citizens of the specific kind of patriotism that tomorrow often brings.  There’s a certain simplicity to always going with the crowd and obediently following what others do, but becoming Christian means entering into a more complex relationship with our society.  Around days like tomorrow, words like patriotism, allegiance, commitment, and freedom often come up.  And these are words that happen to be deeply essential for Christians too.  In a number of ways, however, an assumption is made by many that there is no conflict between allegiance to Jesus and allegiance to America.  My hope this morning is to spend some time stepping back and reflecting on our relationship to our society as Christians.

And an excellent place to start is with the words of John Kline, as close to a superstar as we allow fellow Brethren to get.  This is how Kline described patriotism: 

“My highest conception of patriotism is found in the man who loves the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Out of these affections spring the subordinate love for one’s country; love truly virtuous for one’s companion and children, relatives and friends; and in its most comprehensive sense takes in the whole human family. Were this love universal, the word patriotism, in its specific sense, meaning such a love for one’s country as makes its possessors ready and willing to take up arms in its defense, might be appropriately expunged from every national vocabulary.”

So, according to John Kline, the highest form of patriotism is found in loving the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourself.  With this commitment being properly first, out of these affections springs what Kline calls the “subordinate love for one’s country.”  So Kline identifies love of country as subordinate to love for God and our neighbor, but subordinate certainly does not mean unimportant, does it?  It just means what it means.  Less important, less central.  And Kline very specifically talks about what love of God and neighbor looks like, saying that this love in its most comprehensive sense “takes in the whole human family.”    John takes the teaching of Jesus very seriously that love of neighbor means a deep sacrificial love and care that has no borders, knows no bounds.

So this is the stated ideal in John Kline’s perspective of the relationship of a Christian to our society and world.  If we left it there, however, we could fit Kline maybe very nicely and easily into our worldview without any trouble or discomfort.  We could make John Kline into our own image. 

But there was a larger context to this quote: John Kline’s life, and if we knew his life well, we would be less likely to make Kline into our own image.  You see, if we were to sum up John Kline’s life and relationship with society with two words, we might say; uncomfortable, and complicated.

Kline’s story began in Broadway, VA and was shaped profoundly by Linville Creek Church there, where he lived a life of radical love and discipleship; when you consider the lives of folks who emerged as leaders from there (M.R. Zigler and others), the place was a seedbed in the 19th and early 20th centuries for leaders with a faithful commitment to Jesus that impacted our society.

When the North and South entered into the Civil War, Kline worked to get permission from each side to cross military lines. He did not allow the fighting to prevent him from his work. During his multiple horseback rides across Virginia he participated as moderator in the Brethren's Annual Meetings to discuss life and faith during the War.  He continued to move between the North and South during the Civil War, each time putting more and more of a threat to his own life. On May 29, 1864 at his last annual meeting in Hagerstown, Indiana he spoke, "Possibly you may never see my face or hear my voice again. I am now on my way back to Virginia., not knowing the things that shall befall me there. It may be that bonds and afflictions abide me. But I feel that I have done nothing worthy of bonds or of death; and none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God." 

There in Virginia, Kline was assassinated by a Confederate hit squad several miles from his home.  What can we learn from Kline’s example of this relationship between the central love of God and love of neighbor and the subordinate love for one’s country?

John Kline gave his life and paid the ultimate sacrifice because he believed in a love that was big enough to include both the Union AND the Confederacy; the huge political topic of his day.  John was set free to love in this way because the Lord he followed and the kingdom he was a part of had a deeper grip on him than being accepted by society.  On the major issues of his day, like other Brethren, John was often vilified.  The Brethren took a stand as early as 1797 to call slavery a sin, and John led the movement against slavery in the 18^th century.  For this they were considered liberal.  They refused to pick up arms against Union or Confederacy, and for that they were considered liberal and a most dangerous breed of folk who could not be trusted.  In their views on marriage and sexuality, they were considered deeply conservative.  In their commitment to simplicity in dress and way of life, they were considered deeply conservative.  They didn’t fit the categories of their day; precisely because they had so deeply gazed upon, reflected upon, shared about the ministry of Jesus, who was vilified in his own society by those at the political extremes.  Jesus’ commitment to his Father and the kingdom of God earned him all kinds of labels from those he made uncomfortable; eventually earning the label enemy of the people and false Messiah, for which he was executed.

Kline lived a costly, Jesus-centered kind of love not as a lukewarm fence-sitter kind of guy, mushy moderate kind of guy.  Instead, he chose a “third way” of living with conflict–not fleeing or separating his faith from the realities of his world, and not picking up arms, but courageously choosing to wade into the pain with God’s vulnerable love.  John’s life was beautiful, real, and truthful, and it looked a lot like Jesus.

Just a week ago last Sunday, a Mennonite pastor named Mark Schloneger in a town 20 minutes east of where I great up in Virginia provided an important moment of clarity about what it means to know who and what we are for as Christians.   Mark wrote an opinion editorial that was picked up by CNN.  Mark is a graduate of Goshen College, a Mennonite college in Indiana some of you may be familiar with.  In June, Goshen made national news when its Board of Directors decided the “Star-Spangled Banner” would not be played before athletic events.  Schloneger wrote,

“As could be expected, the decision was met with confusion and contempt. Wasn’t this just another example of our traditional values being trampled by the unrelenting march of political correctness? What sort of ingrates object to our nation’s anthem, anyway? Fluffy-headed campus philosophers? Lazy latte-sipping liberals?”

See the liberal/conservative thing coming up again? Fox News in particular railed against Goshen as unpatriotic liberals.  Yet the media failed to account for the fact that Goshen College only the year before had decided to play the Anthem after 116 years of not playing it.  There was a massive outcry of alumni, supporters, and students, many of whom felt like playing the anthem compromised the college’s Christian values.

Mark led his readers into a short history of the Anabaptist movement, which the Church of the Brethren identifies with, and how a deeply conservative religious commitment can lead to you being called politically liberal and an enemy of the state.

“A living faith in Jesus means faithfully living the way of Jesus. Jesus called his disciples to love their enemies and he loved his enemies all the way to the cross and beyond. Following Jesus and the martyrs before us, we testify with our lives that freedom is not a right that is granted or defended with rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air. True freedom is given by God, and it is indeed not free. It comes with a cost, and it looks like a cross.

It’s a strange tribe to which I belong, and sometimes it’s hard to be strange. We struggle to be inclusive in our welcome yet passionate in our identity. Our desire for acceptance, for approval, is strong, and we don’t always live up to the convictions that we set before us. 

We must repent of that, for the world cannot know of its brokenness and hopelessness without a people who show a holistic way of life. The world cannot know that there is an alternative to violence and war without a people of peace making peace. The world cannot know that the weak and the vulnerable are cared for by God without a people practicing an economy centered on sharing and mutual aid.

The world cannot know the unsurpassable worth of human life without a people who consistently work to protect it - in the fetus, in the convict, in the immigrant, in the soldier, and in the enemy.

These convictions do not reflect ingratitude or hatred for our country. Rather, they reflect a deep love for the church and a passionate desire for the church to be the church… I love my country, but I sing my loyalty and pledge my allegiance to Jesus alone.”

Mark’s column, as of last night’s count, got 4,327 comments, and he was interviewed by CNN on Friday morning.  Many of the commenters and the CNN anchor tried to shove Mark into a corner, but he consistently reminded the anchor that he wasn’t speaking as a American liberal or conservative, but as a Christian.

So wherever we may come out in our perspective of the relationship of the church and our society, John Kline and Mark Schloneger both appeal to us, as followers of Jesus our King, to define our lives by who and what we are for.  We are for the way of Jesus and we are for the kingdom of God.  May we have the courage to stand up and be counted as passionate and faithful people in this cause.

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't always stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon)


“Humble yourselves, Discipline yourselves, Be steadfast."

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11 

The first awareness we carry coming off this passage is that Peter is writing to a group of people who are suffering.  How they are suffering we cannot know specifically.  Whenever authors in the New Testament referred to suffering, we’ve often thought about persecutions carried out by the Roman Empire.  At and around the 60’s A.D. a giant fire swept through Rome and the emperor Nero  scapegoated the early Christian community, doing some awful things to folks associated with the name of Jesus primarily in and around Rome.  But this letter of Peter is addressed to Christians in Asia Minor which is about the area we today call Turkey, far enough away from Rome that Nero’s influence wouldn’t have been as strong.  And in this area if we tried to imagine what Peter meant by “fiery ordeal,” or “sufferings” we could imagine maybe two main specific things. 

First, that the Christian community called Jesus Lord, which was a serious issue for Roman citizens since only Caesar was to be referred to as Lord.  So, if Jesus was Lord, that meant Caesar wasn’t; which meant Christian allegiance belonged to someone other than Caesar, which made them subversive and dangerous to the social order.  A society needs to run like clockwork, and in order to do that, everyone must know who the authority is and obey.  Different authorities and different Lords aren’t tolerated.  Not so coincidentally, this was the same charge directed against the early Anabaptist community in the 16^th century.  Declaring Jesus as Lord was all well and good for a supposedly Christian society as long as Jesus had your soul, but the king and the nation had your life, energy, and allegiance.  So the early Christian community and the Anabaptists both had important choices to make:  submit and obey Jesus and his Way, or submit and obey Caesar or the Prince and his Way. 

A second specific factor would have been at play if we think of “ordeal” or “suffering.” Shame and ridicule.  The average Roman citizen, upon hearing of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus would have pitied the Christian community, if not outright mocked them, accusing them of wasting their time.  Why?  The one they claimed was Lord and Messiah had been crucified; which was the lowest, most vile form of execution the Romans carried out.  In this respect, Jesus was no different than the thousands of other scum the Romans crucified; those who boasted big, promised big, but were exposed as pretenders at the hands of the most powerful empire in history.

The Roman senator Marcus Tullius Cicero, a pagan,  wrote, "Let even the name 'cross' be kept away not only from the bodies of the citizens of Rome but also from their thought, sight and hearing... It is a grave offense even to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to flog him, almost the act of parricide to put him to death: What shall I then call crucifying him? Language worthy of such an enormity -- It is impossible to find!"

I’ve got a couple pictures of an impression found on the wall etched in by a Roman citizen regarding Christians and how he thought about them.  The picture is now known as “Alexamenos worships his God,” which is drawn from the crude Greek inscription underneath the pictoral etching.  The etching itself shows a person standing beside a cross with his hand upraised to signify worship.  On the cross, the representation of Jesus is a man with a donkey’s head.  The offense is clear.  You’re worshiping a failure, a man worthy of nothing more than pity.  And if you devote your life to this worship, what a waste!

Without any further understanding of Jesus, we might agree.  The guy failed.  He claimed to be leading a movement, but he was crushed.  End of story.  Unknowingly though, one may not have known they were playing right into the hands of the Christian community.  At the core of the message of the early Christians was this simple statement:  Jesus taught and exemplified a very unique message of loving and serving others no matter how they treat us.  He taught and exemplified that we are to humble ourselves before God and in vulnerability trust God alone to know how to live.  And we are to be willing to give our lives to the point of death and beyond, to absorb even the most shameful, undeserved treatment.  Why?  Because God loves the world, because God desires all his creation to live healthy, joyful, meaningful lives. 

This is enough reason to love and serve Jesus.  But even more, the same God raised Jesus from the dead, proving he is more powerful than powerful people and death.  So we have no reason to fear what even the most powerful empire in the world can do to us or the most well-placed bullet because we get to bear witness to a powerful love.  It is this awareness, this belief that has led followers of Jesus into the darkest, most violent places on Earth to proclaim and live the transformative message of Jesus and the way of life he redeems us to.  Or, it has led followers of Jesus into parts of our society that aren’t necessarily desirable, has led us to desire healing and hope in places of brokenness.

Believing this message should, I emphasize should lead Christians to look at their society around them, searching for places and relationships of brokenness that we can then move towards, engage with; instead of separating ourselves from, insulating ourselves from brokenness.  Unfortunately, the pattern of response to brokenness in Cincinnati, like many cities, is people abandoning, leaving behind, running away from darkness because we don’t like to feel uncomfortable, insecure, stretched, or frustrated.  People move into an ever-increasing ring of suburbs to find a place of security, leaving behind communities falling apart.  We then build beltways and interstates that keep us from having to see and engage those communities on a daily basis, and they slide into our subconscious; only coming up when we are forced to detour through them.

Precious few churches choose to obey the courageous call of Jesus to seek out places of brokenness and put down roots there.  This community of Cincinnati Church of the Brethren and our community Vineyard Central have attempted to be faithful to the call of God in this way.  But it has been rough going, for us and for you.

For one thing, we’ve found that we don’t have the tools to be able to handle pain and brokenness very well, because we’ve been shaped by a gospel of pain avoidance.  Several weeks ago, I heard a story from a man named Scott Dewey that connects with this truth.  Scott is a follower of Jesus, and Scott caught a vision to move to the slums of Bangkok, Thailand with his wife.  There are any number of preventable diseases there in the slums that primarily result from unclean drinking water.  Scott wanted to solve those problems, and bring hope to the slums.  So they said, “Here I am Lord, send me” and they went.  Three years later Scott rolled over in bed one morning and said to his wife, “Melanie, I can’t do this any more.  There’s too much pain here.”  After three years, they hadn’t solved the unclean water problem and Scott had been crushed by the pain and darkness of life in the ghetto.  Scott, however, chose to reflect on his thinking instead of just abandoning the place, and he came to one crucial awareness.

They had entered that neighborhood to do ministry for people there.  They had come with a gospel they believed provided hope.  And Scott realized as he thought about the pain and darkness crushing him that the people who had lived in that ghetto all their lives had a greater capacity to deal the with the pain and still find little cracks of hope than he did.  Scott found out that the gospel and the community he came from was one that was not familiar with pain, did not seek out pain, struggle, and brokenness and therefore he didn’t have the resources to deal with the pain there in Bangkok.  What Scott learned was that the people he had come to minister to were in fact ministering to him in how to live with pain and suffering.  What Scott learned through them was a fresh understanding of the gospel that does not bring hope through avoiding pain but through embracing it and finding God in the midst of it.

So, in a powerful way, Scott found out through experience the word here in 1 Peter 5, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.”  Scott was led to understand in a deeper way his responsibility as a disciple of the one who “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…humbling himself by being obedient to death.”

Something died in Scott then.  He was able to work again to put to death his own pride, his own Messiah complex.  He also needed to put to death what he believed to be the gospel, so he could embrace a gospel much more profoundly Biblical, one which required much more of himself; a gospel centered on imitating the example of the Jesus he followed, one oriented toward pain and discomfort rather than a commitment to avoid it.  Scott, in a very real way, experienced the salvation of God there in Bangkok, and it has served him well in his life.  I experienced him as a profoundly humble, transparent man familiar with suffering; refined through suffering.

Discipline Yourselves, Be Steadfast

I suspect a number of you may feel the same way Scott did there in Bangkok.  It was a cool idea, in the words of Jeremiah, to “Seek the peace of the city.” You left the relative comfort of Blue Ash to try to put down roots here in Walnut Hills.

“We work to engage with the city and its people, embracing and celebrating the diversity that fills our world. Our engagement sparks conversations about disparate income and educational opportunities, violence, race relations, and gentrification. As we face these tough issues, we strive to follow Christ’s example and look to God’s wisdom for answers. On this journey, we are guided by the belief that Jesus was serious about living a life of love, service, peace, justice, and simplicity.”

That is a beautiful statement, one you need to cling to in times of frustration in ministry.  

You’ve come face to face with problems that Sunday mornings won’t fix.  You’re learning to mentor and care for families and children dealing with chronic homelessness, inadequate nutrition, etc.

And you have opposition to your work.  There are any number of ways evil, chaos, distrust, and hatred are at work here that require people of courage to absorb, or even be crushed, by the pain.  But maybe your biggest enemy is the gospel of pain avoidance.  Our wider culture is not encouraging us to seek out pain.  The deep irony here, though, is that the Christian community surrounding us often functions like the Romans who thought the early Christian community was wasting its time.  We have allowed our culture to shape us more than our Lord Jesus.  

Have you, like Scott, in your own unique way, rolled over in bed thinking, “I don’t have the ability to handle this any more”?

I want to encourage you, like Peter did for the early church in Asia Minor, to

humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you…God…after you have suffered a little while…will make you strong, firm, and steadfast.  So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.  

Or, in the words of Alexander Mack we are about to sing, “Count well the cost, Christ Jesus says, when you lay the foundation.  Are you resolved, though all seem lost, to risk your reputation, your self, your wealth, for Christ the Lord, as you now give your solemn word?”  Let us say “Yes” together with our lives.

Benediction:  May you abandon the gospel of pain avoidance and embrace the life of following Jesus which brings fun times and brings hard times, but always in all things brings joy.  So, humble yourselves, discipline yourselves, and be steadfast in what God will teach you here in Walnut Hills.  What you have chosen is good and worthy and right; worth giving your life to.  Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't always stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon).

"Psalm 23, Wendell Berry, and a sense of place," or 
"The Lord is our Shepherd.  Following our Shepherd in this Place."
Preached at Cincinnati Church of the Brethren
May 15, 2011

Turn with me to Psalm 23

I don’t know about you, but I have the tendency to take for granted the things or people I am around the most.  This is a common human temptation.  I don’t want to project my personal shortcomings onto you, but  I’ll just settle for saying I suspect you struggle with the same tendency.  We can quickly lose the intentionality we carried in the beginning of our relationship with these things or people; the meaning becomes dull because we think we know everything about that thing or person.   In the Christian community, Psalm 23 is one of the things we are around the most.  We often haul it out around funerals, around sicknesses we think have turned toward inevitable death.  We see the Psalm as a psalm of comfort; we think we know everything there is to know about it, and as a result, when we hear it, we have a tendency to switch into autopilot, the meaning becomes dull and flat.

I would like to suggest this morning that Psalm 23 has not reached the fullest extent of its meaning with what we have given it, that it has the capacity to be used beyond funerals, and even that it can be a passage that leads a community like Cincinnati Church of the Brethren or my community Vineyard Central to certain practices, to a certain way of life that has a long-lasting impact on us and on the places (Walnut Hills and Norwood) we find ourselves in.

(Read Psalm 23 using collective terms we, us, our)

The LORD is our shepherd, we lack nothing.

At different times in our life, it is important to emphasize different aspects of our humanity.  Sometimes we need to be reminded that we have been created by God with dignity and supreme worth; that our lives are given great meaning simply by existing as a child of God.  The temptation of that aspect of who we are, though, is that we can begin to think we (and those closest to us) are the most important aspect of God’s creation; that somehow God cares more about our stuff than he does about others.  We may not confess this openly, but we believe it to be true.  This applies to churches too.  In times like this, it’s a great practice to go to Psalm 23 and say, “We are like sheep. We are idiots, we too often follow the crowd blindly, and we don’t know what is best for us.”  To confess “The Lord is our shepherd,” is to confess a deep human need to be led by someone who knows better than us how to live.  To confess “The Lord is our shepherd” is to quit playing God and to let God have complete authority over us.”

The LORD is our shepherd, we lack nothing.

He makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside quiet waters, he refreshes our soul.

I didn’t take the time to look at the original Hebrew here, but I love the phrase “he makes us lie down in green pastures.”  It’s as though lying down in green pastures isn’t normal for us, and we need God to rip us out of our lives and “make us lie down in green pastures and lead us beside quiet waters” so we will finally slow down.  What is David talking about here?  What do “green pastures” and “quiet waters” stand for?

As we engage in these practices, God refreshes our soul.

He guides us along the right paths for his name’s sake. 

This is, again, a confession that God knows the right path, and it’s our responsibility to abandon our own path where we’re in control to be shepherded on God’s.

Even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for you are with us; your rod and your staff, they comfort us.

This is a confession of God’s power that is even stronger than death.  We confess that we trust God’s path and even the darkest valley God takes us through without fear of consequence, because our life is held in God’s hands.

You prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies.  You anoint our heads with oil, our cup overflows.

In the presence of our enemies.  This life of being led by God is not one where we seek to insulate ourselves, separate ourselves from those we do not trust, from those who may do us harm, from those who hate us; it is one where we are led into the presence of our enemies, and God cares for us there in abundance, “our cup overflows.”

Surely your goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

When we confess the Lord as our shepherd, when we embrace the places and practices of “green pasture,” when we walk on God’s paths, not ones determined by ourselves, when we walk through the darkest valleys and choose to live life in the presence of our enemies, not apart from them; all of this adds up to a life marked by God’s goodness and love; and we are reminded that God is far stronger than the power of death and will hold us forever.

This is the general contour of Psalm 23.  There is a certain changing of the tides quality to it; we need the green pasture, we need to be in the presence of our enemies, we need to walk on God’s path which sometimes will be easier, sometimes will lead us to frightening places, but always, always, always is good.  Now I want to apply the general shape of the Psalm to our specific lives together in our specific place.  And this term “place” is deeply significant beyond the chairs you are sitting in and the spot I am standing on.

Increasingly, Americans…are not from anywhere.  And so they have in this “homeland”…no home place that they are strongly moved to know or love or use well or protect.   (Berry, A Citizen’s Response, 6)

For many years, my walks have taken me down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather’s farm.  A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow, and I never go by it without stopping to look inside.  For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of:  it is making earth.  The old bucket has hung there through many autumns, and leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it.  Rain and snow have fallen into it, and the fallen leaves have held the moisture and so have rotted.  Nuts have fallen into it, or been carried into it by squirrels; mice and squirrels have eaten the meat of the nuts and left the shells; they and other animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have scratched in it and left their droppings and perhaps a feather or two.  This slow work of growth and death, gravity and decay, which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black soil…the old bucket started out a far better one than you can buy now.  I think it has been hanging on that post for something like fifty years.  However small a landmark the old bucket is, it is not trivial.  It is one of the signs by which I know my country and myself.  And to me it is irresistibly suggestive in the way it collects leaves and other woodland sheddings as they fall through time.  It collects stories, too, as they fall through time.  It is irresistibly metaphorical.  It is doing in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully.  A human community, too, must collect leaves and stories, and turn them to account.  It must build soil, and build that memory of itself- in lore and story and song- that will be its culture. (Berry, TWOLC, pgs 153-55)

Before we reflect on the meaning of this story, I want to back up and ask, how does Wendell Berry notice this bucket?  What practices in his life lead him first to see this bucket, second to a “deeper seeing” of this bucket, then third to reflect on the meaning of the bucket to life?

The bucket is doing in a passive way what a human community must do actively and thoughtfully.  A human community, too, must collect leaves and stories, and turn them to account.  It must build soil, and build that memory of itself- in lore and story and song- that will be its culture.

When a community loses its memory, its members no longer know one another.  How can they know one another if they have forgotten or have never learned one another’s stories?  If they do not know one another’s stories, how can they know whether or not to trust one another?  People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover they fear one another.”  (Berry, “The Work of Local Culture” WAPF? 157)

What Berry is suggesting, and what I desire to suggest this morning, is that the most important quality of humanity is building memory of our place through learning and knowing one another’s stories, trusting one another, and moving beyond fear to invest in one another.    Since Jesus prayed centrally, “God, may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and Cincinnati Church of the Brethren’s place on earth that you have chosen is Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, with Wendell Berry ringing in our ears, beyond all the sexy ideas about mission and growth; maybe the most important, most essential quality of your work as a congregation is actively and thoughtfully learning the stories of the people here in Walnut Hills, gaining the trust of the people of Walnut Hills, and seeking to follow the Lord as Shepherd for this place.  It’s letting our mission be determined by our place, and committing to a place for an extended period of time, intentionally being present in a way that deeply listens, invests, and prays for God’s will to be done in our place.

Our church family VC in Norwood is struggling through this very issue too.  We have a sexy phrase that we’ve created and put up on our website:  “Practicing resurrection in West Norwood and encouraging it everywhere.”

Now, if we want to move beyond the sexy phrase and listen to the wisdom of Berry, practicing resurrection IN WEST NORWOOD means establishing west Norwood as the focus of our ministry.  We have said West Norwood will be our place.  In order for this to have a practical reality, we must spend a significant amount of time in West Norwood.  This does not necessarily mean we have to live there, but it does mean we need to deeply invest there.  A number of us, because we want a more natural flow to this commitment, have moved into the neighborhood; in theory, because living IN WEST NORWOOD means we will more easily practice resurrection there.  But we find a significant barrier comes up whether we move in or not:  we don’t know the people here, we may not share the same desires as the people here, we don’t know the story of the community, the story of the people, we lack the connection needed.  We don’t know the place where we are.

For those who don’t live in our place, that means they often settle for commuting in when events take place and leaving afterwards.  For those who do live in our place, that means we often settle for establishing a subculture with practices, habits, desires, and relationships centered around our subculture with which we are more comfortable.  So, whether the barrier is expressed by the distance we live away or by still seeing our next door neighbor as “over there,” both barriers are very real.

Wendell reminded us just a couple minutes ago “If we do not know one another’s stories, how can we know whether or not to trust one another?  People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover they fear one another.”

As the Psalmist said, “You make me lie down in green pastures, you lead me by still waters…you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”  Speaking personally, God is pulling me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone, all dramatic, saying, “But God, I. will. die. over there.  I am uncomfortable over there.  I don’t know the people over there.”  And God responds saying, “What do you mean, over there?  This is your place.  And yeah, worst comes to worst, you do die.  What do you have to fear about that?”

Knowing this uncomfortable truth, I now feel less satisfied with what was comfortable for me before.  I identify with the Psalmist saying elsewhere, “You hem me in, behind and before.”   The pathway of God can feel suffocating, like God is the clingy girlfriend I once had who never gave me space for myself, and I want to say, “LET ME BREATHE, LET ME BREATHE!”   I’m complaining, but I know that because God knows better than I do what I was created for, because I am a sheep and God is the shepherd, what feels suffocating today will, I trust, feel like freedom at some point.

So, I have asked myself over and over again, “If West Norwood is our place, what practices, what habits do we need to help us notice others, to know other’s stories, and eventually, through time and practice, they begin to know and trust us?  And isn’t this the most important aspect of our church’s mission?”

Your website says, “In 2008, we moved from a comfortable suburban location to our current urban location, seeking the peace of the city. We work to engage with the city and its people, embracing and celebrating the diversity that fills our world.”  So, I ask you in conclusion, “If Walnut Hills is your place, what practices, what habits do you need to help you notice others, to know other’s stories, and eventually, through time and practice, they begin to know and trust you?”  This is not just a rhetorical question.  I’m interested in hearing your ideas of how you might intentionally, in a time-intensive way, own your neighborhood as your place.

(Walks, Front porches, Gardens)

An uncomfortable thing that I need to share with you this morning is a conclusion I and others are coming to in Vineyard Central.  Our church family has been in West Norwood now for fifteen years, but that fifteen years has not been marked by intentional actions to connect with our neighborhood.  As a result, in some ways we are needing to "start over again," to reassess and recommit to the sense of place and community Berry speaks of here.  You've only been in Walnut Hills three years now.  I encourage you to more thoughtfully consider this and act on it so you don't have to painfully confess it like we do just a couple neighborhoods over.

Closing prayer:

God, you guide us along the right paths for your name’s sake.  Even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for you are with us…surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life together, and we will dwell safely in your arms no matter what may happen to us.  Give us courage, give us patience, do not leave us to our selfish desires but hem us in behind and before, yank us kicking and screaming if need be to the place you desire us to be, as our Shepherd leads us, for we need your tender care, we are yours, you do befriend us, lead us to befriend our neighbors, be the guardian of our way, Lord.  Amen.

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon).

The Difference between Disciples and Admirers Week 3:

Cross bridge from last week into further thoughts here:

Two options of passivity or violence

Two glimpses of Jesus in Gospel of Matthew (from last week) being confronted by this two way kind of thinking…deeper look at these encounters shows Jesus pursuing a third way; one that rejected both passively doing what you can and hoping for the best and the violent revolution option.

Jesus essentially said, “We won’t raise a ruckus just to raise a ruckus, but when we are told to do something or obey someone that is unjust, we simply say to them, “No, I’m sorry, but no. There is a higher law, a better law, than the one you are trying to make me obey, and I simply can’t obey your law.” And we obey the higher law of God rather than the lower law of human beings.

Now, of course this will lead to persons thinking we’re lawbreakers, treasonous, or cowardly (depending on the case), but the thought of not being accepted shouldn’t scare us since Jesus told his disciples this kind of thing would happen.

And not only did Jesus tell his disciples to expect this kind of thing, he faced that struggle himself. Arrested by the temple guard, sent before Herod, then Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor); conspired against by Jewish leaders, executed by the Romans.

“Dragged before kings and governors (in immediate sense (own people; Sanhedrin) and in long-term sense (Romans, Pontius Pilate, Agrippa, Felix)
- Again I raise the question…if Jesus’ teachings only refer to personal relationships, and the way we interact with governments is by obeying what they command us to do, then why in the world would citizens of the Empire, kings, and governors see the disciples of Jesus as a threat to things as they are?

The answer is clear: Jesus wasn’t just concerned with personal relationships.

Persons disagreeing with this interpretation may then ask if we're familiar with the following Scriptural passages:  Romans 12, 1 Peter 2

Romans 13:1-7
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authorities is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

The Apostle Paul was the author of this section of Scripture. We have been taught, most of us in this room, that these Scriptures mean you do what you’re told, because the government is God’s instrument, and you are to obey.

We can test whether this interpretation is wise almost immediately by asking about Paul’s life:

Acts 21 (Jews agitate against Paul, he is arrested by the Romans, “news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.”, commander summoned priests and all Sanhedrin to assemble, men conspire to kill Paul, chief priests and elders collude with them, Paul is taken in chains to Caesarea, to Governor Felix, two years Paul spent in chains as Felix kept him until he died, and Festus took over as governor, King Herod Agrippa, the Roman puppet king (a close friend of the Roman Caesar) comes to interview Paul, finds no fault in him, yet keeps him in chains…Paul’s Scriptural story comes to an end in Rome as he waits in chains to testify to Caesar, but the early church proclaimed that Paul was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero after the great fire)

The record stands that Paul did not blindly obey the governing authorities, nor did he start a violent revolution against them. He simply testified to them about the truth, not worrying about what would happen to him. During this time, people saw how dangerous his teaching was for the governing authorities, because people would see that the human authorities weren’t the final say, so Paul was conspired against, beaten, stoned, flogged, and eventually executed by Emperor Nero.

If his message was about personal relationships only, if his message was that we blindly obey governing authorities, he would not have been seen as a threat.

1 Peter 2:13-17
Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of the foolish. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

In killing Jesus, the Jewish authorities thought they had destroyed his silly movement, yet Peter and John in the book of Acts 4 were brought before the Sanhedrin and were commanded “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” If the gospel was only about personal relationships, if submitting to the authorities meant blindly obeying them, then Peter and John would have obeyed this command. Did they?

Acts 5, Peter and the other apostles are arrested. The Sanhedrin commands them, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."
Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!”

Wait a second, Peter, I thought you said earlier “submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every human authority”? And now you say, “we must obey God rather than men”? These sound contradictory.

Peter was executed in the same terrible period by Emperor Nero, crucified upside-down.

If the message of Peter was that the gospel is only a personal one, that the way we interact with governing authorities is to obey them in everything, why is it that his life stands as a testament against that interpretation?

The lives of Peter and Paul display to us that third way of Jesus; we don’t passively do our jobs, put food on the table, take care of our families, and obey the governing authorities as if they’re the ones in charge. But we also don’t pick up arms against them in violent revolution. It is clear that in following this path, Peter and Paul were considered traitors, dangerous to the governing authorities, and so they were executed.

And this displays the fundamental difference between disciples of Jesus and admirers of Jesus. Admirers of Jesus will be impressed by his miracles, will be impressed by some of his teachings, but admirers of Jesus will see the danger that comes with fully obeying Jesus, so they will find some way to weasel out of doing they were commanded to do.

In our case, there are many Christians who have completely ignored certain sections of Jesus’ teachings, then made Jesus look less challenging to their way of life by saying he was only concerned about personal relationships. They have taught us this way of reading Jesus, and they’ve used passages like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 to make Christians do things that are a direct denial of Jesus’ commands. They are admirers, not disciples, and they have deceived us.

Disciples of Jesus obey Jesus no matter what the cost is. Disciples of Jesus see that Jesus rejected the two options persons demanded he choose between. When they demand that we obey them, when they demand that we swear our allegiance to them, our response is this.

“No, I’m sorry, but no.”

Discipleship has a cost. This is hard teaching, but we can’t highlight the easy parts and neglect the hard parts and claim to be a disciple. If Jesus is our LORD and Savior, then nothing and no one else is.

Now, if you’re STILL not sold on this interpretation of the Scriptures, I’d like to offer a present-day example for you of Christians applying this sort of third-way thinking (whether they’re consciously aware of it or not), and it has to do with the issue of abortion.

Why not obey Roe vs. Wade on abortion? It is the government’s official stance on abortion. If the stance toward government is one of complete obedience, why do Christians, by and large, work to have this governmental position overturned?

Because we believe that there is a higher truth and a higher good than the position of our government presently on this issue. And if we can take lessons from Jesus on how to work for change, we will refuse to stand by and passively obey the government when something is unjust, yet we will also refuse to pick up arms and enforce our position (persons who have bombed abortion clinics in the past)…we pursue the third way, the Jesus way, where when persons suggest abortion is simply a choice, we tell them, “No, I’m sorry, but no.” There is a human life inside your body that deserves respect and commitment from you.

We work together with persons with a common commitment in this area to serve expectant mothers, to give them choices beyond what seems like the easy way out, which is abortion. We work to understand some of the reasons behind why persons have abortions, and we seek to minister to those reasons. We work for God’s justice, whether the law of the land recognizes that justice or not.

Example of Jerry Falwell and the Houses for young expectant mothers

We refuse to be passive, but we refuse to seek violence to make our goal become a reality. And in fact, some choose to disobey the government by peaceful demonstrations at abortion clinics, at political rallies, in town centers, that show other persons in society that we are not silent and we will not blindly obey an unjust law…and Christians are doing this in our society.

So a whole lot of the Christian conversation and action surrounding abortion is showing a healthy perspective on how Christians interact with the law of the land. But the issue of abortion is not the only issue of God’s justice in the world, and we need to apply some of what Christians have learned in civil disobedience regarding abortion to other issues in the world of great injustice. And there are many of those issues.

And as we consider what those issues are, and the issues come into our awareness, and as we consider action with those issues, then we let the example of Jesus guide us as we work for justice.

We will not stand by and be passive and just do our jobs and hope for the best when injustice exists. But we as disciples of Jesus also will not take up arms and believe that violence will solve an issue of injustice.

We will speak truth to power and let our integrity and our courage rule the day; and in speaking up and acting for God’s justice, it very well may be that we will suffer (emotionally and physically), and it very well may be that we will be persecuted, and it very well may be that our commitment to seek that justice may upset members of our family, husbands, wives, parents, children, and our families and friends may disown us, and it very well may be that we may lose our lives…but Christians more than other folks should know that our individual life is not as important as being faithful to God’s work in the world.

King “the universe is bent towards the cause of justice,”

People will hate us, but if they hate us, let’s make sure they hate us for a good reason. If they are frustrated by us, that usually means we’re doing our job well.

(Before you read this sermon transcript, keep in mind that I don't stick to the manuscript when I preach and therefore those who heard the sermon heard something at least a little different than what you're reading...if you really want to be impacted by these sermons, you need to be there with our church family and travel together with us as we submit to the Scriptures together. Christianity is not a path to be walked alone; in fact, unless you're on a deserted island with no way off and no way to be with others, it is unfaithful NOT to be in a worshiping community. But enough of that. The following is the sermon).

Sermon from September 7th, 2008

"The Difference between Disciples and Admirers Week 2"

Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. (own people) On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. (others) But when they arrest you (not if, when), do not worry about what to say or how to say it.

Continue with two ways discussion: passivism and violent agitation

- Persons have used this distinction for thousands of years now as they dealt with life and governments in power over them, saying, "We must either be passive and do our job, try to make ends meet, provide for our families, or we must take up arms in violent revolution." This belief in only two options hasn't ALWAYS been the case, but it has OFTEN been the case in human thinking.

People continued this distinction in considering Jesus as well. He HAD to be one or the other. There's no option other than the two. So which one is he? So they read the gospels and could see very early on that Jesus taught a way of peace, right? So that MUST mean that he wanted everyone to be passive, because he HAD to be either violent or passive. "But being passive means that people will run all over you and never be confronted with their injustice," people would think. "And that doesn't make sense," they thought. So in an underhanded, weaselly way, persons tried to find a way to justify disobeying Jesus, and came up with the conclusion, "Jesus was focused only on personal relationships." You hear that a lot from folks. And if we look into Jesus’ teaching, we can find some sections where that seems to be true; where if someone asks for your cloak, you give them your tunic, or “do not commit adultery,” “do not resist an evil person,” all of these seem to be focused on personal relationships. So Jesus was only talking about personal relationships…


- But Jesus also told his disciples “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” That might sound like a personal relationship thing, but we must keep in mind Jesus was speaking to a people occupied by the Roman Empire, where soldiers of the Empire could demand that the Jews carry their pack for a mile. In essence, here, Jesus is saying, “They think they have power over you because of their position. You show them their power is basically meaningless to you and go two miles to show your freedom.” This would have been shocking to the Roman soldiers if the Jewish people did this, and went above personal relationships to how they interact with the pagan Roman Empire.

- Jesus also told his disciples “Do not swear an oath at all.” And in a Roman Empire where the citizens of the empire swore their obedience to the government and the good of the Empire above other commitments, this would have led to terrible consequences. When his followers came before judges and governors and refused to swear an oath, they would be seen as treasonous, and likely lose their lives. This teaching also goes beyond personal relationships.

There’s two big episodes in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus gets to show the people that he doesn’t fit either of their categories of who the Messiah was, and what he came to accomplish.

In Matthew 17:24 ff, Peter is approached by the collectors of the temple tax. Officials of the Jewish puppet king Herod, trying to pay for the cost of the temple that he had built. They ask Peter, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” Essentially, they’re saying, “Doesn’t Jesus recognize the proper order of society?”

Why would these persons ask Peter this if everyone knew that Jesus was just talking about personal relationships? Of course Jesus would have paid the temple tax, like other obedient people. These officials are thinking, “If common persons don’t pay this tax, then order will fall apart in our society, if they don’t blindly obey us, then our rule is threatened.

Peter answers them, then Jesus challenges him with a mysterious question; “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes- from their own children or from others?” Peter answers, “From others,” and Jesus responds, “Then the children are exempt.” And then he shows his greater power here by saying, essentially, “But these people want their due. Listen, go to the lake, throw out your line, catch a fish, the first fish will have a four drachma coin. Give it to them.” While they are giving them what they’re asking for, Jesus shows the disciples the greater power they are responsible to. Not the officials, but God alone.

Essentially, Jesus is saying here, “Don’t raise a ruckus just to raise a ruckus with the people who govern you. But know where your allegiance lies.” You may not be convinced with my interpretation of this passage, but I’d like to show you how it sketches out some boundaries for the disciples and Jesus colors in the middle later.

Turn with me to Matthew 22, verse 15. Here we have a classic confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. When we think of the Pharisees, we typically think “self-righteous,” and that was true to a point; maybe that’s the personal relationship side of the Pharisees. But, as we’ve talked about in the recent past here, the Pharisees identified very deeply with the Zealots in their society. They were working behind the scenes to undercut the Roman rule through violent acts of terrorism.

So they come to Jesus here and hope to trap him in his words. Now notice in verse 16 that they sent their disciples to him along with who? (the Herodians) If you remember what we’ve explored here in Matthew in the past, who were the Herodians and what did they care about? (Jewish ruling party, get their name from King Herod, who only had the power that the Romans gave him. If they didn’t like him, they would have killed him and put another King in his place. So Herod went out of his way to show the Romans that he would obey them. Those who followed him then were the ones who said, “We can swear an oath before the Romans to survive, but it doesn’t mean anything because we don’t mean it in our hearts.”

The Herodians were anxious about revolutionaries because then they couldn’t continue to be rich and profit off their own people, and the Pharisees loved the Zealots, the violent revolutionaries, because they hated Roman rule. Do you see the pickle they’re trying to get Jesus in? It’s a Catch-22. Jesus are you passive or are you a revolutionary?

And they ask, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity and you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. (buttering him up, but it’s also a sign of respect; Jesus doesn’t bow down for people who claim to be important. He treats everyone the same) “Tell us then,” they say, “what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

Jesus, knowing their evil intent, spoke. But before we look at what he said, let’s consider the situation here. Knowing that the Herodians went out of their way to show the Romans that they weren’t a threat, knowing that they were the rich in the society and they didn’t want to lose their wealth, what would be their answer to this question? (Yes) If Jesus said “No,” then they would see him as a revolutionary, a threat to their wealth and power, and they would need to eliminate him.

Knowing that the Pharisees went out of their way to listen to and collude with the Zealots, knowing that they were agitating for revolution, what would be their answer to this question? (No) If Jesus said “Yes,” then they would see him as a Roman sympathizer, a threat to their desire for violent revolution, and they would need to eliminate him. So if Jesus answers either “Yes” or “No,” people will shove him into a certain category; he’s passive and needs to be killed, or he’s a threat to our wealth and needs to be killed.

Jesus’ response is classic. He said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

In essence, Jesus is saying, “So Caesar’s powerful enough to have some metal with his name on it, huh? Give him back what is he thinks is his. But Caesar doesn’t own our loyalty. That belongs to God alone.”

Now, I want you to understand the importance of what Jesus is saying here. By telling the people to give Caesar what is his, he is disagreeing with the Zealots that they should never ever ever cooperate with the Romans. Don’t create a riot just for the sake of a riot, Jesus is saying.

But at the same time, Jesus is rejecting Caesar’s claim to be King because only the LORD can occupy that place. To the Romans, Jesus would have been considered a threat to their rule, because their rule was based on blind allegiance.

What I’m saying is that Jesus was being presented with two different options, the violent revolution or being passive, and he rejected both of them. The entirety of Jesus’ ministry was about showing a third way, a different way, for God’s people to live.

This third way is one that rejected violent revolution but refused to give their loyalty to the Romans.

Nero At time of early church. The Roman emperor was believed by citizens to be the Son of God, sent to earth to bring peace and prosperity. Had two terms he wanted to be referred to by. These are both Greek words, the language of the empire, and the first is “kurios.” (LORD) This is the central term Nero wanted to be referred to as, and the way you showed your allegiance to the Roman Empire was confessing Nero as LORD.

The second term is “soter.” Anyone want to take a wild guess at what that means? (SAVIOR)

The Roman emperor was referred to by the masses as “our LORD and SAVIOR.” Ever heard those words before? Caesar gives test of loyalty by officials saying, “Caesar is LORD and SAVIOR. Bow down and acknowledge me as LORD and SAVIOR.” And if you didn’t bow down, guess what happened to you? (CRUCIFIED)

Now, we may not have been aware of this before, but, knowing that Caesar demanded that the people call him "LORD and SAVIOR," it now brings to our attention today how deeply subversive and dangerous it was for the early Christians to call Jesus "LORD and SAVIOR." What that means, essentially, is if Jesus is LORD and SAVIOR, then Caesar is not. Or, if Caesar is LORD and SAVIOR, then Jesus is not. I would encourage you to skim through the New Testament this week, keeping your eyes open for the terms "LORD" or "Savior." Each time these words were uttered, they were deeply dangerous for the author or speaker in an empire that didn't tolerate persons who refused to blindly obey.

(this was the end of our time together, and as you might guess...it doesn't wrap up neat and tidy. That's true, for two reasons. First, we ran out of time and I didn't want to keep people too long (we were ten minutes over even ending here). This was the major reason. But second, life isn't a present with a tidy bow making things all clean and easy; and this teaching of Jesus certainly isn't a neat little package. It demands that we go further than easy answers, and it calls for courageous persons willing to do the hard work of thinking and acting in ways very contrary to the persons around them. This will result in tensions within friendships, people ending friendships with them, talking behind their backs, maybe even disowning them, physically hurting them, or even killing them. Heck, I know of persons who have turned their back on me because of a difference in what we believe, but that shouldn't stop the pursuit of truth).

Sunday, March 30th, 2008 1st Sunday of Easter Season

Sermon Title: "Practicing Resurrection Week 2"

First point: I hope last week in the sermon time you did not hear me underselling the resurrection of Jesus as an actual historical event. It was not my intention to do that. It WAS, however, my intention to say that because of the God we serve, people being resurrected from the dead, and even, in the case of Elijah and Enoch, people not dying at all are not foreign to us.

If anything, as Christians, when we are asked if we believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, it shouldn’t be something we need to convince ourselves about. Instead, for us, it might sound like, “Well, yes, of course Jesus rose from the dead. God has done this kind of thing time and again in history. He created everything, and he showed not even death can stand in the way of his purposes. So of course Jesus conquered death. That’s who our God is!” Why can we say this with confidence?

The history of Israel is our history, the ancestors of Israel are our ancestors, to make it more personal, the founding fathers and mothers of Israel are our founding fathers and mothers. (what was true in Genesis 1 and 2 about God’s power was true in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry and remains true to this day, which is how our brother Howard Simpson right here witnessed a woman rising from the dead in Manassas, Virginia just a couple years ago)

Our God is who our God is, and that means he has complete power to do what he wants, whether people or organizations want to stand in his way, which they ultimately can’t, and whether certain powers try to stand in the way, like fear and hatred and death, and they ultimately can’t.

The deeper point I wanted to make was that the way Jesus lived, what he taught, how he faced and treated people conspiring to murder him, his willingness to die rather than to start a violent revolution as everyone around him expected the Messiah to do, and his resurrection, were all ultimately examples for us of how we are to live.

And Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ conquering of death, was meant to make a forceful point to his people that death is not the end, that we don’t have to be afraid of anything, that we can freely follow God in the middle of any situation, whether it be the Shenandoah Valley or and extremely violent SC LA or Ethiopia, where my sister in Christ Selamawit, a fellow student from the seminary, has scars on her body from being beaten for following Christ.

Jesus was and is truth and light, God made flesh, the complete revelation of God to his creation, and when we consider that Jesus is the fullness of truth, that the earthly ministry of Jesus picked up in the story of what God had already been doing with his people for thousands of years and held them to God highest standard of truth.

God had met them where they were at in the midst of a culture that worshiped a multitude of gods, had shown them time and again through signs and wonders who He was, had given them a mission to follow and boundaries to observe so that they would be different from others around them, and Jesus entered onto the scene in the fullness of time to lead his people into a deeper understanding of faithfulness and truth.

And sometimes that truth seemed like common sense, and sometimes it sounded like sheer idiocy, and sometimes it directly contradicted what the Israelites had already know to be true before. And even after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples still

He set us free to work for God’s justice

What works against doubt?
(Doubting Thomas) Proof (See my hands and my side, stop doubting and believe)

We human beings get so locked into what we think is good in this life and we try to force God to work in our categories.
- Problem with that kind of thinking is the God is God and we are not, and when we step into the place where we are defining what our lives look like, where we are telling God he doesn’t really know the truth, the scene shifts for us all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve decided to ignore their Creator’s purpose and did what felt right to them.
- Now, we as Christians often talk about pagans in this way, that they are confused and walking in darkness
- But we can find ourselves in the same predicament either if we are completely ignorant about God’s expectations for our lives, or we know how clearly God has spoken in Jesus and we choose to justify our actions away

But Jesus was and is truth, Jesus was and is the light, Jesus was God made flesh, the complete revelation of God’s truth, and expected us to obey.

Emphasis on self-sacrifice this Sunday to underscore the high accountability we live under to practice God’s resurrection, to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus, to maintain hope for the world when the world doesn’t know what hope is.


How do we prove to the world that Christianity is more than us nodding our heads and saying we believe that this guy Jesus existed 2,000 years ago and he died on the cross for our sins and rose again as conqueror over death?

Karen Ward “Most postmoderns don’t hate Jesus, in fact, the opinion that Jesus is an admirable teacher remains consistently high. What obscures things, then, for postmoderns, is that Christians so consistently stand for things Jesus didn’t stand for, and often so deeply identify with what they are against that they end up hating both the sinner and the sin.”

Integrating what we consider “spiritual” with what we consider “physical” or “routine” to make it all “spiritual”

Mountaintop Removal

I have made a friend in seminary named Robert just a couple months ago. He’s a new student at Eastern Mennonite, and Robert’s an interesting looking dude. He’s got tattoos all over his arms, a nice scruffy mountain man beard, and wears suspenders with jeans from time to time.

Robert lives in northwest North Carolina, but spends most of his weekends and breaks traveling up and down the eastern part of the United States as an intern for a group called Christians for the Mountains. Now, if you heard Robert talk about the things he’s passionate about and his home church communities, you would NOT hear harebrained, crazy ideas coming out of his mouth, he almost sounds like a passionate Baptist pastor when he gets fired up. He’s a Biblically-rooted, solid young man.

And what Robert gets fired up about is something taking place in the mountains of NC, VA, and WV called mountaintop removal, which was something I knew literally nothing about three months ago. Robert has completely changed that for me.

Most of us in this room have known about coal mining as a practice. In fact, Mary Fint’s husband and Livonia’s dad Don worked in a shaft mine in West Va for a little while. Well, shaft mining isn’t the safest job in the world for the common workers, not by a long-shot, and it’s that way for multiple reasons that we won’t get into today.

Mountaintop removal / valley fill coal mining (MTR) has been called strip mining on steroids. One author says the process should be more accurately named: mountain range removal.

1. Forests are clear-cut. Wildlife habitat is destroyed and vegetation loss often leads to floods and landslides. Next, explosives up to 100 times as strong as ones that tore open the Oklahoma City Federal building blast up to 800 feet off mountaintops. Explosions can cause damage to home foundations and wells. “Fly rock,” more aptly named fly boulder, can rain off mountains, endangering resident’s lives and homes.

2. Huge Shovels dig into the soil and trucks haul it away or push it into adjacent valleys.

3. A dragline digs into the rock to expose the coal. These machines can weigh up to 8 million pounds with a base as big as a gymnasium and as tall as a 20-story building. These machines allow coal companies to hire fewer workers. A small crew can tear apart a mountain in less than a year, working night and day.

4. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal, dumping millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating valley fills. Coal companies have forever buried over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial Appalachian headwaters streams. Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but all too often mine sites are left stripped and bare. Even where attempts to replant vegetation have been made, the mountain is never again returned to its healthy state.

5. Community Impacts: Coal washing often results in thousands of gallons of contaminated water that looks like black sludge and contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The sludge, or slurry, is often contained behind earthen dams in huge sludge ponds. While the solid waste becomes valley fills, liquid waste is stored in massive, dangerous coal slurry impoundments, often built in the headwaters of a watershed. The slurry is a witch’s brew of water used to wash the coal for market, carcinogenic chemicals used in the washing process and coal fines (small particles) laden with all the compounds found in coal, including toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury. Frequent blackwater spills from these impoundments choke the life out of streams. One “spill” of 306 million gallons that sent sludge up to fifteen feet thick into resident’s yards and fouled 75 miles of waterways in 2000, has been called the southeast’s worst environmental disaster. The coal company, Massey Energy, based in Richmond, called it “an act of God.”
An Eastern Kentucky University study found that children in Letcher County, Ky., suffer from an alarmingly high rate of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and shortness of breath -- symptoms of something called blue baby syndrome -- that can all be traced back to sedimentation and dissolved minerals that have drained from mine sites into nearby streams. Long-term effects may include liver, kidney, and spleen failure, bone damage, and cancers of the digestive tract.

Larry Gibson's family has lived on Kayford Mountain for 200 years. Forty seams of coal lie beneath his 50 acres. Gibson could be a millionaire many times over, but because he refuses to sell, he has been shot at and run off his own road. One of his dogs was shot and another hanged. A month after my visit, someone sabotaged his solar panels. In 2000, Gibson walked out onto his porch one day to find two men dressed in camouflage, approaching with gas cans. They backed away and drove off, but not before they set fire to an empty cabin that belongs to one of Gibson's cousins. Gibson knows he isn't safe. "This land is worth $450 million," he told me, "so what kind of chances do I have?"

This situation is compounded by federal officials who often appear more loyal to corporations than to citizens. Consider the case of Jack Spadaro, a whistle-blower who was forced out of his job at the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration precisely because he tried to do his job -- protecting the public from mining disasters. when a 300-million-gallon slurry pond collapsed in Martin County, Ky., in 2000, causing one of the worst environmental disasters this side of the Mississippi, Spadaro was again named to the investigating team. What he found was that Massey had known for 10 years that the pond was going to break. Spadaro wanted to charge Massey with criminal negligence. There was only one problem. Elaine Chao, Spadaro's boss at the Department of Labor, is also Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife; and it is McConnell, more than anyone else in the Senate, who advocates that corporations are persons that, as such, can contribute as much money as they want to electoral campaigns. It turns out that Massey had donated $100,000 to a campaign committee headed by McConnell. Not surprisingly, Spadaro got nowhere with his charges. Instead, someone changed the lock on his office door and he was placed on administrative leave.

(My friend Robert’s story)

Allen Johnson interview:
“We believe that God made this planet, that God loves the earth, God loves creation, God loves humanity, and that even though God gives us freedom to spin our destiny, God doesn't want it to be trashed. God can open hearts and change people's minds and attitudes. There's an element of hope, I guess.

We point to Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And everything in it." We say, this is God's property. He's saying, you can use it, and it will feed you and take care of your needs. But I'd like you to take care of it, because I have a covenant with future generations. I made these plants and animals, and they have their space too. You can carve out a space for yourself, but leave some room for the others.

Sending: Isaiah 58:1-10