Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.” He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them. Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”
*****************************************************************************
The story from this week reminds me in a way of the 2010 movie “Alice in Wonderland”. Alice is now a young woman, almost an adult. She’s not happy with her options, but isn’t certain of herself, not sure of what she should do, or what she could do. So when she falls down the rabbit hole into Underland, she is older than when she first visited, and also a very different person: less bold, less confident - so much less herself that the March Hare and the Mad Hatter are sure that she’s The Wrong Alice. “You were so much more, muchier then”, the Hatter says, looking sad. “You’ve lost your muchness.”
In scripture the Hebrew word "me'od" means, literally, "muchness." In Deuteronomy 6:5, when we are told to love God with our strength, the word is actually "me’od” - muchness. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy, and the word is translated variously as "strength" or "might." but it really is “me’od”, muchness. Jesus says to love God with “all your muchness”.
Second, the dictionary tells us that the meaning of the word “prodigal” means rashly or wastefully extravagant - but also giving, or given in abundance, lavish or profuse. A prodigal person is one who is given to wasteful extravagance, but a prodigal is also someone who gives lavishly, profusely, generously without restraint.
The major theme of this Gospel story is one of muchness, extravagance, close moments. At the same time, it is a story about the life of Jesus, and the people around him- and how he lived out the command to “love God with all your ‘muchness’.” It’s a story that surely brought gasps from the religious leaders, and those whose were afraid of his message of equality - as they saw their careful structure of power being assailed by a man who preached and lived equality.
Enemies had accumulated and trouble was brewing for Jesus. The religious authorities had been trailing him just waiting for a misstep. They saw him as an enemy."He mocks our time-honored rules," they must have said amongst themselves. "He knows the rules.”
Never talk to or be seen near a Samaritan woman. Don’t heal on the Sabbath, no matter how ill or distressed the person may be. Human beings are less important than the Sabbath rules. Never raise anyone from the dead.
But Jesus had a few real friends. Lazarus, Martha, and Mary were not among the twelve, but there were more than just the twelve - Luke tells us that there were women who travelled with Jesus and the twelve. Lazarus, Mary and Martha may not have been among them, but even so they were followers and friends. In a rare scene, the Gospel tells us Jesus spends a evening among friends, at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
According to preacher and teacher Barbara Brown Taylor, something else left unsaid heightens this evening with friends. A trade-off had occurred - as long as Jesus stayed on the opposite side of the Jordan, his enemies in Jerusalem would leave him alone; but when he came back to help his friend Lazarus, it was the last straw. Jesus had signed his own death warrant. He had traded his life for the life of his friend.
So when Jesus comes to their home, he knows that his enemies are closing in. Yet, for the moment he has come home to relax with friends one final time.
What Mary does is absolutely taboo for a respectable woman, and for Jesus to allow. She loosens her hair, in a room full of men. Just as unorthodox, she pours this expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. Then she touches him.
In the world of Jesus, the roles of men and women are supposed to be absolutely clear - breaking the rules can get you killed. Mary, Jesus’ mother, knew that. Mary the sister of Lazarus knows it. The fourth rule is that rabbis do not allow single women to touch their feet. Not even among the best of friends. Yet Mary takes the risk of using her hair to wipe the extraneous ointment from his feet.
Only prostitutes do such things. - and Judas pretends to be aghast at the waste of the expensive nard."Well, let me just say that I’ve never in all my life seen such a thing. What a complete misuse of that expensive nard. A whole family of day labourers could live on the price of rthat for a year. It’s just too much. Shame on you, Mary,"
Jesus’ response to Judas is as bizarre as Mary’s actions. Jesus is the friend of the poor; and yet he says something shocking - “Given the way human beings are, you’ll be caring for the poor until the end of time. Let her do as she wishes in these last few days of my time."
Jesus uses Mary’s action as a parable. Everyone there knows that had she poured the nard on his head, she would have been proclaiming him a king. Instead, she got on her knees and began to pour this expensive burial ointment on his feet. Jesus knew that the only man who got his feet anointed was a dead man - he has been given a clear picture of what is coming. So he says, "Leave her alone. Leave her alone." It was a worship of incredible expense, using an ointment purchased for the family’s own burial.
I wonder what costly worship looks like? I wonder if worship for us is sitting around with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary’s table in polite conversation, while a divine encounter is happening under our noses? Someone has said of current worship, "We no longer need ‘fasten your seatbelt’ signs in our pews because we no longer fly in our churches."
Author Annie Dillard yearns for an extraordinary worship that is both extravagant and costly, a worship that approaches Mary’s worship of muchness:
“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we Christians so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may awake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
There is nothing skimpy or frugal about Jesus. In him, God’s extravagant and costly love has been made flesh. In him, the excessiveness, the ‘me’od’, the muchness of God’s mercy is made manifest.
This bottle of costly worship will not be held back to be kept and admired. God calls us to open up, offer, use, pour out to the last drop worship that costs us something, a worship that enters into our world, filling it with life and fragrant hope, an extravagant worship of muchness, despite the critics around us. Mary got the message right, and Jesus recognised that her understanding transcended boundaries, just as he did. The others stood about as worship critics.
The good news is that, even on this road to Jerusalem, God is lavish and extravagant. God is there, waiting with the lavish gift, waiting for us to understand the moment and respond. May it be so. Amen.
____________________________
Sources:
1. Sermon “A Holy Muchness”, by Rev. Susan Leo, Bridgeport United Church of Christ, Portland, Oregon.
2 Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread of Angels (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 1997), page 58.
3. Annie Dillard, "Teaching A Stone To Talk" form Quotes for the Journey, Wisdom for the Way, Gordan S. Jackson, ed. (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000), page 178.
4. Wholly Waste or Holy Waste? based on John 12:1-8 by Rev. Thomas Hall
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
The World of Jesus: Prodigals!!! A sermon based on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Humber United Church March 10, 2013 Fourth Sunday in Lent
By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.
“There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me. So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.
“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’
“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.
“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast - barbecued beef! - because he has him home safe and sound.’
“The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’
“His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”
“What? You want ME to go to a party for that moron? Look, Dad, I’ve really had it up to here, ya know? I’ve worked the farm year in and year out, done everything you asked without ONCE complaining. Meanwhile that little moron takes all the money he can get, runs off and blows the lot on women and drinking. He’s a totally irresponsible idiot. I told you this would happen, didn’t I? And now you want me to welcome him home, act like everything’s OK? It *isn’t* OK. But you and mom always did love him best....”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. The prodigal eldest - giving all his time and energy, the perfectionist, taking no time for himself but always trying to do what he thought would meet the approval of Mom and Dad. Desperately looking for their approval. Slaving away in the fields long after the regular labourers had quit for the day. Assuming more and more of the heavy work as Dad got older.....and feeling like it was all taken for granted, feeling as if he was *expected* to give all his life to his family, at the expense of his own happiness. Prodigal and profligate with his giving and giving and giving without restraint.
Six years between him and the youngest, and in those six years he had all the attention, all the love, all the little extra good tidbits of food at the table. He was an only child for those years, and while it meant he got the attention, he felt like he was expected to perform. By the time the younger son came along, he was on his way to being a perfectionist oldest who was never satisfied with giving anything less than all of himself to everything. Prodigal and profligate in his giving to his parents, he never learned how to love himself for who he was. He passed up chances with some of the prettiest girls around, because he always felt he had to be at the farm, helping his parents. After awhile it felt like life had passed him by, that he would never have a life of his own until it was too late.
He got all the extra attention, until the little moron came along - and then - in his eyes - watching all the attention and the extra tidbits going to this ugly little thing which toddled after him, hanging on to his clothes. The one who could do no wrong as he grew up, the one who never got any discipline no matter what the escapade; the one who couldn’t care less about school, who didn’t worry about Mom and Dad, who just went his own way. ...and for that, Mom and Dad loved him best.
The worst thing he could possibly call his brother, in his culture, was *idiot* and *moron*. His resentment festered.....
“What? You want me to go to a party, for that MORON?”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. The prodigal youngest - the one who came along after the eldest had a grip on Mom and Dad’s love. The one who always had to follow after the older one, do what he was told. The one who was never allowed to do anything without his older brother. The one who wasn’t quite so smart, wouldn’t get out and work the fields, didn’t like to get dirty. The one who always seemed to have girls following him. Prodigal and profligate in his life, he spent all his time drinking in the local pub, or running around with any woman who would have him. Who just assumed everything would always work out. The one who was sick of that perfect older one, who Mom and Dad preferred because he was so responsible all the time. He always felt second-best, always felt like his parents were saying “Why can’t you be more like your brother? He knows what’s important.” He would never have a life at all on this backwater farm, plowing and working the fields, picking more rocks than crops, smelling like the pigs. No point in trying to impress Mom and Dad, they clearly loved the oldest one best, and probably never really wanted him anyway.
Nothing to do but take the money and run. Grab while you can, live in the moment, the future will somehow take care of itself. Get as far away as possible from that wuss who spends all his time sucking up to Mom and Dad, and live a real life. Out where things are interesting, where you never know what’s going to come next.
Living with the best of everything - good wine, excellent food, a comfortable place, lots of parties. Prodigal and profligate, the money slips through his fingers like sand. The more he has, the more he wants, the harder it is to have without becoming a criminal. Famine strikes; the money is gone, there is no more food or wine. He doesn’t feel any better than he did at home, in fact he feels worse. Working in someone else’s fields, even the husks from corn and beans look good to a hungry person. And nothing feeds the hunger of the soul.
“What? You want me to go to a PARTY for that moron?”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. Parents, trying to recognise the individuals, treat each of them fairly - take stock of the needs of each, love them with all they have. Being accused of favouritism, of being boring, having no life, ignoring one and paying attention to the other. “You always loved HIM best!”
Father gradually growing older, finding it harder to move in the mornings with arthritis. Working the fields, tending the animals - growing enough to feed sheep, calves, and chickens to feed a family. Proud of the eldest who will carry on the farm; worried sick about the youngest who seems to have no sense of direction, knowing he needs to learn about the world, even if it’s the hard way.
Mother spending most of the day cooking for field labourers, making clothes, cleaning up - looking tired beyond her years. Trying gently to get her oldest son to ease up, and get the youngest to help more, to grow up.
Father, wisely, giving the young son his money and letting him go off recklessly abroad - hoping he learns, afraid of what could happen to him, wondering if he will ever see this wild child again.
Leaning out the window one day in an upstairs room he can see far down the road. A tiny speck in the distance makes him look harder. His child! His child has come home.....
Prodigal and profligate in his generosity and joy, running into the road, yelling to the labourers to go get the calf he has been fattening for market, the perfect calf which would bring in enough money to last a year. Prepare a celebration, the child has returned. Whatever happened, however it happened, doesn’t matter. Racing faster than he’s run in many a year, arthritis forgotten; arms thrown wide open to hug and hold and cry and rejoice. He looks into the sad and now knowing eyes of this dear child, and hears the words “I am not worthy to be considered your child. “ Hears himself saying “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Of course you are worthy! I love you, you are my child. Welcome home!”
Prodigal and profligate in his generosity, the calf is killed, the best robes in the house brought out, the farm hands given the day off. The table is prepared and everyone is invited to come and eat, to celebrate the return of the one who lost his way and found it again. Prodigal and profligate in his love, shining out of his very pores, coming alive again because of this one lost child.
“What? You want ME to go to a PARTY for that MORON? I’ve worked and slaved here, always done whatever you asked, never took money, never even had a DATE because I was working this farm because I wanted you to LOVE me? Because you always loved him best when *I* was the one who was reliable.” Tears now, and an angry stamping of feet. “I’ve wasted the best years of my life here, and for what? So you can celebrate that the moron came home because he had nothing left? He’s an idiot, taking advantage of you again, and he’ll hurt you again.”
Tears in the eyes of parents. “But we’ve always loved you. Everything we have has always been yours, always. Everything is yours, don’t you know that? Your brother was lost...he didn’t realise what that meant. Now he does and he’s come back to us! His return is what’s important. Come and eat, you are hungry too, I know you are. You are as much a part of this family as he is. Come to the table, come to the celebration.”
“There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me. So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.
“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’
“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.
“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast - barbecued beef! - because he has him home safe and sound.’
“The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’
“His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”
“What? You want ME to go to a party for that moron? Look, Dad, I’ve really had it up to here, ya know? I’ve worked the farm year in and year out, done everything you asked without ONCE complaining. Meanwhile that little moron takes all the money he can get, runs off and blows the lot on women and drinking. He’s a totally irresponsible idiot. I told you this would happen, didn’t I? And now you want me to welcome him home, act like everything’s OK? It *isn’t* OK. But you and mom always did love him best....”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. The prodigal eldest - giving all his time and energy, the perfectionist, taking no time for himself but always trying to do what he thought would meet the approval of Mom and Dad. Desperately looking for their approval. Slaving away in the fields long after the regular labourers had quit for the day. Assuming more and more of the heavy work as Dad got older.....and feeling like it was all taken for granted, feeling as if he was *expected* to give all his life to his family, at the expense of his own happiness. Prodigal and profligate with his giving and giving and giving without restraint.
Six years between him and the youngest, and in those six years he had all the attention, all the love, all the little extra good tidbits of food at the table. He was an only child for those years, and while it meant he got the attention, he felt like he was expected to perform. By the time the younger son came along, he was on his way to being a perfectionist oldest who was never satisfied with giving anything less than all of himself to everything. Prodigal and profligate in his giving to his parents, he never learned how to love himself for who he was. He passed up chances with some of the prettiest girls around, because he always felt he had to be at the farm, helping his parents. After awhile it felt like life had passed him by, that he would never have a life of his own until it was too late.
He got all the extra attention, until the little moron came along - and then - in his eyes - watching all the attention and the extra tidbits going to this ugly little thing which toddled after him, hanging on to his clothes. The one who could do no wrong as he grew up, the one who never got any discipline no matter what the escapade; the one who couldn’t care less about school, who didn’t worry about Mom and Dad, who just went his own way. ...and for that, Mom and Dad loved him best.
The worst thing he could possibly call his brother, in his culture, was *idiot* and *moron*. His resentment festered.....
“What? You want me to go to a party, for that MORON?”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. The prodigal youngest - the one who came along after the eldest had a grip on Mom and Dad’s love. The one who always had to follow after the older one, do what he was told. The one who was never allowed to do anything without his older brother. The one who wasn’t quite so smart, wouldn’t get out and work the fields, didn’t like to get dirty. The one who always seemed to have girls following him. Prodigal and profligate in his life, he spent all his time drinking in the local pub, or running around with any woman who would have him. Who just assumed everything would always work out. The one who was sick of that perfect older one, who Mom and Dad preferred because he was so responsible all the time. He always felt second-best, always felt like his parents were saying “Why can’t you be more like your brother? He knows what’s important.” He would never have a life at all on this backwater farm, plowing and working the fields, picking more rocks than crops, smelling like the pigs. No point in trying to impress Mom and Dad, they clearly loved the oldest one best, and probably never really wanted him anyway.
Nothing to do but take the money and run. Grab while you can, live in the moment, the future will somehow take care of itself. Get as far away as possible from that wuss who spends all his time sucking up to Mom and Dad, and live a real life. Out where things are interesting, where you never know what’s going to come next.
Living with the best of everything - good wine, excellent food, a comfortable place, lots of parties. Prodigal and profligate, the money slips through his fingers like sand. The more he has, the more he wants, the harder it is to have without becoming a criminal. Famine strikes; the money is gone, there is no more food or wine. He doesn’t feel any better than he did at home, in fact he feels worse. Working in someone else’s fields, even the husks from corn and beans look good to a hungry person. And nothing feeds the hunger of the soul.
“What? You want me to go to a PARTY for that moron?”
Brothers....one older, one younger. Siblings, tied by blood and family, but completely unlike each other. Parents, trying to recognise the individuals, treat each of them fairly - take stock of the needs of each, love them with all they have. Being accused of favouritism, of being boring, having no life, ignoring one and paying attention to the other. “You always loved HIM best!”
Father gradually growing older, finding it harder to move in the mornings with arthritis. Working the fields, tending the animals - growing enough to feed sheep, calves, and chickens to feed a family. Proud of the eldest who will carry on the farm; worried sick about the youngest who seems to have no sense of direction, knowing he needs to learn about the world, even if it’s the hard way.
Mother spending most of the day cooking for field labourers, making clothes, cleaning up - looking tired beyond her years. Trying gently to get her oldest son to ease up, and get the youngest to help more, to grow up.
Father, wisely, giving the young son his money and letting him go off recklessly abroad - hoping he learns, afraid of what could happen to him, wondering if he will ever see this wild child again.
Leaning out the window one day in an upstairs room he can see far down the road. A tiny speck in the distance makes him look harder. His child! His child has come home.....
Prodigal and profligate in his generosity and joy, running into the road, yelling to the labourers to go get the calf he has been fattening for market, the perfect calf which would bring in enough money to last a year. Prepare a celebration, the child has returned. Whatever happened, however it happened, doesn’t matter. Racing faster than he’s run in many a year, arthritis forgotten; arms thrown wide open to hug and hold and cry and rejoice. He looks into the sad and now knowing eyes of this dear child, and hears the words “I am not worthy to be considered your child. “ Hears himself saying “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Of course you are worthy! I love you, you are my child. Welcome home!”
Prodigal and profligate in his generosity, the calf is killed, the best robes in the house brought out, the farm hands given the day off. The table is prepared and everyone is invited to come and eat, to celebrate the return of the one who lost his way and found it again. Prodigal and profligate in his love, shining out of his very pores, coming alive again because of this one lost child.
“What? You want ME to go to a PARTY for that MORON? I’ve worked and slaved here, always done whatever you asked, never took money, never even had a DATE because I was working this farm because I wanted you to LOVE me? Because you always loved him best when *I* was the one who was reliable.” Tears now, and an angry stamping of feet. “I’ve wasted the best years of my life here, and for what? So you can celebrate that the moron came home because he had nothing left? He’s an idiot, taking advantage of you again, and he’ll hurt you again.”
Tears in the eyes of parents. “But we’ve always loved you. Everything we have has always been yours, always. Everything is yours, don’t you know that? Your brother was lost...he didn’t realise what that meant. Now he does and he’s come back to us! His return is what’s important. Come and eat, you are hungry too, I know you are. You are as much a part of this family as he is. Come to the table, come to the celebration.”
Saturday, March 2, 2013
“The World of Jesus: A Fig Tree?” Lent 3 Year C Humber United Church Corner Brook, NL.Luke 13:1-9
About this time Jesus was told that Pilate had murdered some Galileans, as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.” Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’ “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”
*****************************************************************************
What do we know about fig trees? Not much, probably because we don’t see them a lot. Fig trees are quite common in areas of the world with a Mediterranean climate, which includes the southern US and parts of southern Japan, for example. They can be picked twice, and even three times in a year. Figs have been an important food crop for thousands of years, and are one of the very first plants cultivated by humans. In Gilgal, in the Jordan Valley just north of Jericho, no fewer than nine sub-fossil figs dating to about 9400–9200 BC - the Neolithic age - have been found. This find predates the domestication of wheat, barley, and legumes.
Scripture commonly refers to Israel using the imagery of significant plants, and a metaphor that was used of Israel is the fig tree. The fig tree held great importance for the Jews in several ways. Figs were eaten commonly as a snack or a meal supplement, dried and saved for the winter, or baked into cakes. Even when the fruit was not yet ripe, the trees produced edible buds that common people consumed. The fig cakes were considered gifts of honor, often given to highly respected people. The figs themselves were used medicinally to cure skin problems such as boils. They gave excellent shade, and so were often places of meeting or rest. Sitting under a fig tree was a common metaphor for living in peace with God’s blessing, as in the story of Micah and his fig tree.
So it was a common metaphor for Israel, symbolising the health of the nation both spiritually and physically. The Scriptures provides a complete analogy of Israel and the fig tree, often in the Minor Prophets, such as Micah. So when Jesus talks about fig trees, as he does in various places in the Gospels, he is using a symbol which has been around as long as the Israelite people remember. He isn’t using some rare esoteric plant that hardly anyone would relate to, he is using literally the most common thing which everyone listening to him would be able to understand.
So here we have a scripture in two parts - first, Jesus saying something totally contrary to the accepted religious belief. It was common cultural belief that people suffered because of sin. Some of the Galileans were murdered by Pilate, and the people who come to Jesus intimate that somehow they were responsible for their own deaths at the hands of Pilate. Jesus says that those people were no worse than any other Galileans. Neither were the eighteen who were crushed by the tower of Siloam. ...and, says Jesus, everyone sins. Everyone is less than perfect, and no one is any better than anyone else. You can almost see the eyebrows of the religious leaders going straight up into their hairlines.
Then he goes on to tell one of his stories about the realm of God, and what it is like. The second part of the scripture, the story of the impatient owner of the tree, who buys something, plants it and then leaves it for someone else to look after. Then there is the tree - the roots which need feeding, before the fruit can come.
In our house in Toronto, I have two orchids which have sat proudly for years, putting out lots of nice green and healthy robust leaves; they were very muscular plants, but not a sign of a bloom. I got mad. I stuck them in the front window, fertilised, and told them if they didn’t bloom they were going out into the trash. Miraculously those two orchids suddenly putting forth spikes and, miracle of miracles, bloomed. However, I as the owner have not been there for almost three years, and my husband doesn’t feed or water them often.
So, Jesus uses as his example one of the most common trees and common food sources for his culture, and something which, in the story of Micah, was a place for people to come, sit in the shade, and be fed. Jesus was a master at using ordinary commonplace everyday things as a vehicle for teaching something really important and profound.
It is a tree which has been around longer than anything else; something which represents everything the children of Israel are to be, and yet it puts out leaves and branches year after year - but no fruit.
So he has dismissed out of hand the idea that tragedy and sin are related. These things were not (and are not) God's doing. They are terrible tragedies, and God weeps at the senselessness of the acts. Translate Jesus’ questions into today’s time...Were the people who died in the bombing of the trains in Spain worse than others? Were those who died when sarin was released in the Tokyo subways somehow worse than other people? Were those who died in the World Trade Centre worse than others? No!! They died because of acts of violence perpetrated on them. None of these calamities was God's doing, none of them was a punishment. Jesus wants people to understand that suffering is often random. But Jesus also is saying that we all have a need to return, to repent, and to do something with our lives before we too are gone.
To repent is to get ourselves back on track, to be in right relationship with God. Sin is anything we do which puts us out of right relations with God. To repent is to reconnect with God, to stop doing the things that hurt us and others. God calls us to repent because if we don't, our souls perish. Just as the fig tree is offered a second chance to produce fruit, God offers us a chance to begin again, to live a life of abundance.
The owner of the fig tree wants to cut it down. It's taking up precious land, soil, and time. The gardener says "Give it one more year. I'll dig around it, put manure around it. Now, this makes sense, doesn’t it? Tree roots, like everything else, need oxygen in the soil, they need to breathe. I don't know about you, but I can identify with the fig tree. Every time I turn around, there is a second chance. But there’s the critical part, too. The roots have to be dug around, the soil loosened so the air can get in, good old stinky manure spread around to give nourishment. So it is with people. We have to dig down to our roots, let some air in, take out what we’ve always believed and give it a good second look, and feed those roots. Is this who we are? We have to remember, we aren’t in it alone. God helps us to grow, helping us garden in our lives and bearing our fruit.
My colleague Anna Murdock, whose reflections always offer plenty of food for thought to scripture discussions, tells a story about an elderly man in her church. His back yard was filled with fig trees. They provided shade and green, and they provided fruit because he tended to them with loving care. He and his wife spent the fruitful seasons making jams and cobblers, and bagging up fresh figs. But they didn’t sell their produce, they would go through the town, knocking on doors and giving away the fruits of their overabundance. He not only understood about looking after trees, he understood about the soul, the roots, and how essential healthy roots are in the gardens of our souls.
Sources:
1. Anna Murdock, story on “Midrash”, online text discussion sponsored by Woodlake Books.
2. From the sermon “One More Year”, by Rev. Cynthia Huling Hummel
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_fig
4. http://expositorswiki.wikispaces.com/Symbolism+of+the+Fig+Tree
*****************************************************************************
What do we know about fig trees? Not much, probably because we don’t see them a lot. Fig trees are quite common in areas of the world with a Mediterranean climate, which includes the southern US and parts of southern Japan, for example. They can be picked twice, and even three times in a year. Figs have been an important food crop for thousands of years, and are one of the very first plants cultivated by humans. In Gilgal, in the Jordan Valley just north of Jericho, no fewer than nine sub-fossil figs dating to about 9400–9200 BC - the Neolithic age - have been found. This find predates the domestication of wheat, barley, and legumes.
Scripture commonly refers to Israel using the imagery of significant plants, and a metaphor that was used of Israel is the fig tree. The fig tree held great importance for the Jews in several ways. Figs were eaten commonly as a snack or a meal supplement, dried and saved for the winter, or baked into cakes. Even when the fruit was not yet ripe, the trees produced edible buds that common people consumed. The fig cakes were considered gifts of honor, often given to highly respected people. The figs themselves were used medicinally to cure skin problems such as boils. They gave excellent shade, and so were often places of meeting or rest. Sitting under a fig tree was a common metaphor for living in peace with God’s blessing, as in the story of Micah and his fig tree.
So it was a common metaphor for Israel, symbolising the health of the nation both spiritually and physically. The Scriptures provides a complete analogy of Israel and the fig tree, often in the Minor Prophets, such as Micah. So when Jesus talks about fig trees, as he does in various places in the Gospels, he is using a symbol which has been around as long as the Israelite people remember. He isn’t using some rare esoteric plant that hardly anyone would relate to, he is using literally the most common thing which everyone listening to him would be able to understand.
So here we have a scripture in two parts - first, Jesus saying something totally contrary to the accepted religious belief. It was common cultural belief that people suffered because of sin. Some of the Galileans were murdered by Pilate, and the people who come to Jesus intimate that somehow they were responsible for their own deaths at the hands of Pilate. Jesus says that those people were no worse than any other Galileans. Neither were the eighteen who were crushed by the tower of Siloam. ...and, says Jesus, everyone sins. Everyone is less than perfect, and no one is any better than anyone else. You can almost see the eyebrows of the religious leaders going straight up into their hairlines.
Then he goes on to tell one of his stories about the realm of God, and what it is like. The second part of the scripture, the story of the impatient owner of the tree, who buys something, plants it and then leaves it for someone else to look after. Then there is the tree - the roots which need feeding, before the fruit can come.
In our house in Toronto, I have two orchids which have sat proudly for years, putting out lots of nice green and healthy robust leaves; they were very muscular plants, but not a sign of a bloom. I got mad. I stuck them in the front window, fertilised, and told them if they didn’t bloom they were going out into the trash. Miraculously those two orchids suddenly putting forth spikes and, miracle of miracles, bloomed. However, I as the owner have not been there for almost three years, and my husband doesn’t feed or water them often.
So, Jesus uses as his example one of the most common trees and common food sources for his culture, and something which, in the story of Micah, was a place for people to come, sit in the shade, and be fed. Jesus was a master at using ordinary commonplace everyday things as a vehicle for teaching something really important and profound.
It is a tree which has been around longer than anything else; something which represents everything the children of Israel are to be, and yet it puts out leaves and branches year after year - but no fruit.
So he has dismissed out of hand the idea that tragedy and sin are related. These things were not (and are not) God's doing. They are terrible tragedies, and God weeps at the senselessness of the acts. Translate Jesus’ questions into today’s time...Were the people who died in the bombing of the trains in Spain worse than others? Were those who died when sarin was released in the Tokyo subways somehow worse than other people? Were those who died in the World Trade Centre worse than others? No!! They died because of acts of violence perpetrated on them. None of these calamities was God's doing, none of them was a punishment. Jesus wants people to understand that suffering is often random. But Jesus also is saying that we all have a need to return, to repent, and to do something with our lives before we too are gone.
To repent is to get ourselves back on track, to be in right relationship with God. Sin is anything we do which puts us out of right relations with God. To repent is to reconnect with God, to stop doing the things that hurt us and others. God calls us to repent because if we don't, our souls perish. Just as the fig tree is offered a second chance to produce fruit, God offers us a chance to begin again, to live a life of abundance.
The owner of the fig tree wants to cut it down. It's taking up precious land, soil, and time. The gardener says "Give it one more year. I'll dig around it, put manure around it. Now, this makes sense, doesn’t it? Tree roots, like everything else, need oxygen in the soil, they need to breathe. I don't know about you, but I can identify with the fig tree. Every time I turn around, there is a second chance. But there’s the critical part, too. The roots have to be dug around, the soil loosened so the air can get in, good old stinky manure spread around to give nourishment. So it is with people. We have to dig down to our roots, let some air in, take out what we’ve always believed and give it a good second look, and feed those roots. Is this who we are? We have to remember, we aren’t in it alone. God helps us to grow, helping us garden in our lives and bearing our fruit.
My colleague Anna Murdock, whose reflections always offer plenty of food for thought to scripture discussions, tells a story about an elderly man in her church. His back yard was filled with fig trees. They provided shade and green, and they provided fruit because he tended to them with loving care. He and his wife spent the fruitful seasons making jams and cobblers, and bagging up fresh figs. But they didn’t sell their produce, they would go through the town, knocking on doors and giving away the fruits of their overabundance. He not only understood about looking after trees, he understood about the soul, the roots, and how essential healthy roots are in the gardens of our souls.
Sources:
1. Anna Murdock, story on “Midrash”, online text discussion sponsored by Woodlake Books.
2. From the sermon “One More Year”, by Rev. Cynthia Huling Hummel
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_fig
4. http://expositorswiki.wikispaces.com/Symbolism+of+the+Fig+Tree
Friday, February 22, 2013
“The Matrix” a sermon based upon Luke 4:1-13 Second Sunday in Lent February 24, 2013
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Adversary. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry. The Adversary, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.” For the second test Jesus was shown all he kingdoms of the earth, spread out on display. The Adversary said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” For a third test the Adversary took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’” That completed the testing. The Adversary retreated temporarily, waiting until another opportunity arose.
*****************************************************************************
Today’s text follows upon Jesus’ transforming experience on the mountain. He has come down full of the Holy Spirit, and goes off into the wilds alone. It’s a significant thing for him to do. He is about to embark on a dangerous path, and I think he knows it goes off alone to work his way through the rationale. It’s a discernment process not only for ministry and for social justice. Note that the tests put before him are one of feeding the hungry, power over empire, and even power over natural law. In effect, the Adversary offers Jesus economic, military and political power. It’s also significant that the actual translation of the text is not “Devil” but “Adversary”, or “Opposer”. Even that is a different power dynamic than “devil”.
So I think it is important to locate the beginnings of the Jesus story in the whole world of Judaism at the time Jesus lived. This is more than “background” (with Jesus set apart in the foreground), and more than just context. It was a complete matrix of cultures, languages and religions in which the Jews of Galilee were just a tiny fraction of a piece within an immense whole.
Most empires, for instance the Persian empire, were “tributary” empires. There was one strong central ruler and military, and smaller weaker states around sent “tribute” or “tithes”.
The Roman Empire, in which Judaism was contained, was in fact the first “territorial” empire. The Romans did something entirely new - sending military far and wide and establishing a perimeter of military around the *outside* borders of the empire. This was the basis of the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. It meant that within the Roman Empire, they held military power, economic power, political power, and theological power. Within this empire, Caesar’s title was “Son of God”. No one else could use that title. Jews were allowed to continue to live as they always had, and worship as they wished, but only if they followed the rule of Caesar, and by extension Herod. Even though Herod was a Jew, he was beholden to the Romans. One wrong step and the Jews would have been wiped out.
So, in this military, political, economic and theological matrix - giving Jesus the title “Son of God” was equivalent to high treason. There could only be one Son of God, and that was Caesar. Caesar was both human AND divine. Individuals who had done extraordinary things were elevated to the level of divinity. In this case and time, that would have been Augustus. The name “Augustus” literally means “the one to be worshipped”.
Into this matrix also comes apocalyptic theology. The Roman view of the world could be summed up in four words: religion-war-victory-peace. It was a justice of retribution, or “retributive justice”.
Over the years we have twisted the meaning of the word “apocalypse”. It literally means “revelation”, and it isn’t about the end of the world. Think about it for a moment - to a Jew in Jesus time, to say “end of the world” would mean essentially God had made a really big goof. What it *did* mean was the end of violence, the end of the perpetration of evil upon the world, and a calling the world back to the balance God intended.
By contrast, the whole basis of Jewish theology would have been one of “distributive” justice. The vision is described in Genesis, a vision of fairness, equality of distribution, and the fair share. The model for God is based on the ideal Jewish patriarchal family structure; the model for God was the father of a well-run household. In the patriarchal system the father was the householder, the wise and fair person who ensures everyone is well looked after, well cared for, and receives a fair share of everything. The apocalyptic vision is one of how the world *should* be in God’s vision, where God has imagined a just world and set that in motion. The difference between retributive, and distributive justice is one of a vision of the best of all possible worlds. Jewish theology, as Jesus understood and taught it, was the absolute antithesis to the basis of the Roman empire.
...and put into this whole context comes the “opposer”, the “adversary’, one could even say Jesus’ conscience. He lives in a matrix where economic, political, military and theological power define everything. He is probably aware that he could create, develop and lead a powerful resistance to the Romans, possibly even gain some that economic and military power. Instead he deliberately chooses to shun that, and continue to preach about a vision of fairness and justice for all people.
What Jesus does demonstrate here is an understanding of scripture and of theology. He already has theological power, and he embodies the vision of God’s justice. This is the vision which sets Jesus on the path he chooses to take; one of non-violent resistance to what is seen as destroying the vision of fairness and justice.
Sources:
1. “The Matrix”, lecture by John Dominic Crossan, January 2013.
2. "In the Wilderness" a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota February 2010
*****************************************************************************
Today’s text follows upon Jesus’ transforming experience on the mountain. He has come down full of the Holy Spirit, and goes off into the wilds alone. It’s a significant thing for him to do. He is about to embark on a dangerous path, and I think he knows it goes off alone to work his way through the rationale. It’s a discernment process not only for ministry and for social justice. Note that the tests put before him are one of feeding the hungry, power over empire, and even power over natural law. In effect, the Adversary offers Jesus economic, military and political power. It’s also significant that the actual translation of the text is not “Devil” but “Adversary”, or “Opposer”. Even that is a different power dynamic than “devil”.
So I think it is important to locate the beginnings of the Jesus story in the whole world of Judaism at the time Jesus lived. This is more than “background” (with Jesus set apart in the foreground), and more than just context. It was a complete matrix of cultures, languages and religions in which the Jews of Galilee were just a tiny fraction of a piece within an immense whole.
Most empires, for instance the Persian empire, were “tributary” empires. There was one strong central ruler and military, and smaller weaker states around sent “tribute” or “tithes”.
The Roman Empire, in which Judaism was contained, was in fact the first “territorial” empire. The Romans did something entirely new - sending military far and wide and establishing a perimeter of military around the *outside* borders of the empire. This was the basis of the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. It meant that within the Roman Empire, they held military power, economic power, political power, and theological power. Within this empire, Caesar’s title was “Son of God”. No one else could use that title. Jews were allowed to continue to live as they always had, and worship as they wished, but only if they followed the rule of Caesar, and by extension Herod. Even though Herod was a Jew, he was beholden to the Romans. One wrong step and the Jews would have been wiped out.
So, in this military, political, economic and theological matrix - giving Jesus the title “Son of God” was equivalent to high treason. There could only be one Son of God, and that was Caesar. Caesar was both human AND divine. Individuals who had done extraordinary things were elevated to the level of divinity. In this case and time, that would have been Augustus. The name “Augustus” literally means “the one to be worshipped”.
Into this matrix also comes apocalyptic theology. The Roman view of the world could be summed up in four words: religion-war-victory-peace. It was a justice of retribution, or “retributive justice”.
Over the years we have twisted the meaning of the word “apocalypse”. It literally means “revelation”, and it isn’t about the end of the world. Think about it for a moment - to a Jew in Jesus time, to say “end of the world” would mean essentially God had made a really big goof. What it *did* mean was the end of violence, the end of the perpetration of evil upon the world, and a calling the world back to the balance God intended.
By contrast, the whole basis of Jewish theology would have been one of “distributive” justice. The vision is described in Genesis, a vision of fairness, equality of distribution, and the fair share. The model for God is based on the ideal Jewish patriarchal family structure; the model for God was the father of a well-run household. In the patriarchal system the father was the householder, the wise and fair person who ensures everyone is well looked after, well cared for, and receives a fair share of everything. The apocalyptic vision is one of how the world *should* be in God’s vision, where God has imagined a just world and set that in motion. The difference between retributive, and distributive justice is one of a vision of the best of all possible worlds. Jewish theology, as Jesus understood and taught it, was the absolute antithesis to the basis of the Roman empire.
...and put into this whole context comes the “opposer”, the “adversary’, one could even say Jesus’ conscience. He lives in a matrix where economic, political, military and theological power define everything. He is probably aware that he could create, develop and lead a powerful resistance to the Romans, possibly even gain some that economic and military power. Instead he deliberately chooses to shun that, and continue to preach about a vision of fairness and justice for all people.
What Jesus does demonstrate here is an understanding of scripture and of theology. He already has theological power, and he embodies the vision of God’s justice. This is the vision which sets Jesus on the path he chooses to take; one of non-violent resistance to what is seen as destroying the vision of fairness and justice.
Sources:
1. “The Matrix”, lecture by John Dominic Crossan, January 2013.
2. "In the Wilderness" a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota February 2010
Saturday, January 26, 2013
“All Our Costliest Treasures” January 27, 2013 1 Corinthians 12, Humber United Church, Corner Brook, NL
Once there was a very famous and wealthy judge, who had to travel to the next town, to hear a court case. It was a long and arduous route through a mountain pass, during the winter, It was cold and snowy, and the roads were often dangerous for violence and thievery. On the return trip, the judge was attacked, and his horse stolen. Nevertheless, he escaped with his life. A violent snowstorm came up, and the road ahead of him disappeared into swirling and blowing drifts of snow. The judge became lost and disoriented. Yet he had to keep going, or he would fall asleep in the snow and never wake up. So, he struggled on, getting colder and more tired with each step. Just when he thought he could no longer go on, he saw a faint light off in the trees. As he got closer, he realised it was a small shack he had passed on his way through to the next town. He reached the door of the shack and knocked, asking “Please let me in, or I will freeze to death.” The door opened, and he was welcomed into a tiny and poor place, with a table, a small place for sleeping, and a small fireplace. As the judge warmed himself by the fire, the old man who opened the door offered him some tea. Carefully, the man brought down a cracked and chipped cup, and an old pot for tea. He apologised to the judge for the poverty of his place, and the condition of the tea cup, but explained that it was all he had. The judge, touched by the man’s honesty, responded “Out of your poverty you have offered me the very best of what you have. You have honoured me with your generosity. I will not forget this.”
Human bodies are amazing. An adult person has somewhere around 60,000 miles of blood vessels, and about 15 million blood cells being produced and destroyed every single second.
There are 640 muscles in your body which account for about half of your weight. There are about 200 in your buttocks and about five in each eyelid, which keep you blinking, even when you are not aware.
Did you know the average adult is covered with twenty square feet of skin, enough to cover a queen-sized bed - and it’s constantly renewing itself. If it were all stretched out flat, it would be enough to blanket a queen-size bed. Seventy percent of the dust in your house is your old skin. Over an average lifetime, a person loses forty pounds of skin—and yet most of us still seem to be gaining weight. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we still have enough fat in our bodies to produce seven bars of soap.
With all the intricacies of the human body, however, a strikingly small change can have drastic results. Just after I turned 30, I got Bell’s Palsy - one of the symptoms of Bell’s Palsy is a loss of motor function on one side of the face, including the eyelid muscles. You can no longer blink - and without blinking, what happens? What happens if a child accidentally takes several iron tablets? Or not enough? The tiniest of things can make such a difference in the body. If you lose your little toe, what happens to balance? If you lose an eye, what happens to vision and depth perception?
In one of today’s lessons, Paul addresses his remarks to the congregation in the Greek city of Corinth. There was a controversy over what kind of role women should be allowed to play in the church. There were arguments about whether or not meat had to be kosher, or whether Gentiles had to be circumcised. There was still a large gap between the rich and the poor. The rich ate their own food before the communal meal because they had better food than the poor people, and didn’t want to share. There was tension and conflict between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Those who were Jews thought new converts should adhere to “the way we do things here”. In other words, it wasn't entirely a lot different than a lot of churches today.
We think we understand this passage, to the point where we may miss some of the deeper connotations of the metaphor. Before Paul talks about the church as a body, he first spends some time discussing the importance of the Spirit. The first verses of the chapter are about the gifts that are given by the Spirit. Paul was writing in Greek, something which is important for this text. In Greek the word for "spirit" is the same as the word for "breath." Today, we've made a distinction between “clinical death” when someone is unable to breathe or maintain a heartbeat on their own and “brain death” when there is complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. In Paul's time, one just checked to see if someone was breathing. The breath, the spirit, gave a body life. Absence of breathm absence of Spirit, meant death. Paul's analogy of the church as the body of Christ must have the Holy Spirit in order to be alive. Without this Spirit, the Breath of God, the body of Christ is dead. The parts of the body, and the abilities the body has are, in Paul’s description, gifts given to the church to be used. Paul says that the church needs to keep itself focused on the Spirit that gives life, and to allow that Spirit to infuse every part of the body of Christ. For if that Spirit is not with us, then none of the parts of the body are able to do what they are meant to do.
Just as that occurred in Corinth in the first century, so it happens all the time in North America in the twenty-first century. Granted, circumcision or kosher meat are not big issues for most of us. Instead we debate homosexuality and abortion. Yet some of the issues do remain the same. We have not reached consensus completely on questions like the role of women in church leadership. We still have a hard time including the poor, and ethnic minorities in an institution that is largely dominated by fairly well off white leaders. In either time - then or now - the division within the body plays itself out in a very similar way: people divide into groups, create labels, and pit themselves against those who don't fit. For Paul it was the Jews versus the Greeks and slave versus free. Today, we have the fundamentalists versus feminists, liberationists versus literalists, the premillenialists versus the postmodernists and so on.
Paul’s advice is to view one another not as opponents, but as members of the same body with different gifts and functions—gifts that are complementary rather than contradictory. And, says Paul, since the gifts are given to us by the Spirit, we are also called to offer those gifts, regardless of how good, or how poor we think they are.
Paul makes it clear that it shouldn't be that way. The church should be a place where all of our divisions are left behind, where political affiliation and income bracket and educational level simply don't matter, a place where the bonds of unity through the Holy Spirit take precedence over divisions of race or age or creed. The goal of the church is not to make everyone look the same and do the same things and think the same ways. Rather the church is a place where all of our different gifts can be affirmed and used for the glory of God through the Body of Christ. There is no gift too small or insignificant that it cannot be offered to God.
The hymn this morning “As with Gladness”, includes the line “All our costliest treasures bring....”. What does that mean? Money? Expensive pianos or pipe organs? What do we have that is most important for the church? The poor man offered the judge all of the very best of what he had. If the situation had been reversed, would the judge have offered the man tea out of his best cups? Not likely. Yet the man gave without restraint from his own meagre resources, in a cracked and chipped cup which was the best of what he had.
So, given that we have been given these wonderful gifts of the Spirit, we are also to give the best of what we have - of time, of talent, or wealth, of our very selves. What is our costliest treasure? Isn’t it this? Our selves?
Sources:
1. All Our Costliest Treasures, based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 by Fran Ota, January 2010.
2. Body and Spirit based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 by Rev. Richard Gehring
Human bodies are amazing. An adult person has somewhere around 60,000 miles of blood vessels, and about 15 million blood cells being produced and destroyed every single second.
There are 640 muscles in your body which account for about half of your weight. There are about 200 in your buttocks and about five in each eyelid, which keep you blinking, even when you are not aware.
Did you know the average adult is covered with twenty square feet of skin, enough to cover a queen-sized bed - and it’s constantly renewing itself. If it were all stretched out flat, it would be enough to blanket a queen-size bed. Seventy percent of the dust in your house is your old skin. Over an average lifetime, a person loses forty pounds of skin—and yet most of us still seem to be gaining weight. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we still have enough fat in our bodies to produce seven bars of soap.
With all the intricacies of the human body, however, a strikingly small change can have drastic results. Just after I turned 30, I got Bell’s Palsy - one of the symptoms of Bell’s Palsy is a loss of motor function on one side of the face, including the eyelid muscles. You can no longer blink - and without blinking, what happens? What happens if a child accidentally takes several iron tablets? Or not enough? The tiniest of things can make such a difference in the body. If you lose your little toe, what happens to balance? If you lose an eye, what happens to vision and depth perception?
In one of today’s lessons, Paul addresses his remarks to the congregation in the Greek city of Corinth. There was a controversy over what kind of role women should be allowed to play in the church. There were arguments about whether or not meat had to be kosher, or whether Gentiles had to be circumcised. There was still a large gap between the rich and the poor. The rich ate their own food before the communal meal because they had better food than the poor people, and didn’t want to share. There was tension and conflict between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Those who were Jews thought new converts should adhere to “the way we do things here”. In other words, it wasn't entirely a lot different than a lot of churches today.
We think we understand this passage, to the point where we may miss some of the deeper connotations of the metaphor. Before Paul talks about the church as a body, he first spends some time discussing the importance of the Spirit. The first verses of the chapter are about the gifts that are given by the Spirit. Paul was writing in Greek, something which is important for this text. In Greek the word for "spirit" is the same as the word for "breath." Today, we've made a distinction between “clinical death” when someone is unable to breathe or maintain a heartbeat on their own and “brain death” when there is complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. In Paul's time, one just checked to see if someone was breathing. The breath, the spirit, gave a body life. Absence of breathm absence of Spirit, meant death. Paul's analogy of the church as the body of Christ must have the Holy Spirit in order to be alive. Without this Spirit, the Breath of God, the body of Christ is dead. The parts of the body, and the abilities the body has are, in Paul’s description, gifts given to the church to be used. Paul says that the church needs to keep itself focused on the Spirit that gives life, and to allow that Spirit to infuse every part of the body of Christ. For if that Spirit is not with us, then none of the parts of the body are able to do what they are meant to do.
Just as that occurred in Corinth in the first century, so it happens all the time in North America in the twenty-first century. Granted, circumcision or kosher meat are not big issues for most of us. Instead we debate homosexuality and abortion. Yet some of the issues do remain the same. We have not reached consensus completely on questions like the role of women in church leadership. We still have a hard time including the poor, and ethnic minorities in an institution that is largely dominated by fairly well off white leaders. In either time - then or now - the division within the body plays itself out in a very similar way: people divide into groups, create labels, and pit themselves against those who don't fit. For Paul it was the Jews versus the Greeks and slave versus free. Today, we have the fundamentalists versus feminists, liberationists versus literalists, the premillenialists versus the postmodernists and so on.
Paul’s advice is to view one another not as opponents, but as members of the same body with different gifts and functions—gifts that are complementary rather than contradictory. And, says Paul, since the gifts are given to us by the Spirit, we are also called to offer those gifts, regardless of how good, or how poor we think they are.
Paul makes it clear that it shouldn't be that way. The church should be a place where all of our divisions are left behind, where political affiliation and income bracket and educational level simply don't matter, a place where the bonds of unity through the Holy Spirit take precedence over divisions of race or age or creed. The goal of the church is not to make everyone look the same and do the same things and think the same ways. Rather the church is a place where all of our different gifts can be affirmed and used for the glory of God through the Body of Christ. There is no gift too small or insignificant that it cannot be offered to God.
The hymn this morning “As with Gladness”, includes the line “All our costliest treasures bring....”. What does that mean? Money? Expensive pianos or pipe organs? What do we have that is most important for the church? The poor man offered the judge all of the very best of what he had. If the situation had been reversed, would the judge have offered the man tea out of his best cups? Not likely. Yet the man gave without restraint from his own meagre resources, in a cracked and chipped cup which was the best of what he had.
So, given that we have been given these wonderful gifts of the Spirit, we are also to give the best of what we have - of time, of talent, or wealth, of our very selves. What is our costliest treasure? Isn’t it this? Our selves?
Sources:
1. All Our Costliest Treasures, based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 by Fran Ota, January 2010.
2. Body and Spirit based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 by Rev. Richard Gehring
Saturday, January 12, 2013
“Living Water” A sermon based on Luke 3: 17 - 23 Humber United Church, January 13, 2013
Luke : People's hopes began to rise, and they began to wonder whether John perhaps might be the Messiah. So John said to all of them, “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. In many different ways John preached the Good News to the people and urged them to change their ways. After all the people had been baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, the clouds parted, and the Holy Spirit came down upon in bodily form like a dove. And he heard a voice, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
****************************************************************************
Far into the imaginary future of this universe, there is a desert planet called Dune. With the exception of giant desert sandworms, it is believed there is nothing else on Dune, except a handful of a small group of people who call themselves Fremen. It is believed there is no water on Dune. The only commodity on this planet is an addictive spice which is mined from the sand. But there is water on Dune - hidden in large underground reservoirs, slowly and painstakingly collected by desert dwellers called Fremen. This dry, desert planet was once green and fertile, till people destroyed it with their desire to use its resources for their own wealth. The Fremen are saving up enough water to begin replanting and re-greening their home. Water and life are one and the same thing.
****************************************************************************
Here on this earth, in this lifetime, water brings both life and death. In the river flowing through the new creation, the water is life itself. In the river flowing through Bangkok, human waste, food waste and industrial garbage flow to the sea, and in the rainy season, cholera, typhoid and parasites are prevalent. In this same water, people bathe and wash their clothes; and do their cooking. They are well aware that the water which gives life for some, gives death to others. There is no choice. The water of life is also the water of death.
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, trees have been so consistently cut down for homes and fuel, that the desert has taken over - water is a rare commodity. For years, rain has barely fallen at all. When the water does come, disease is a very real problem. People die without rain, they die with rain. A child’s life expectancy is about five years, if even that.
Recently, water in all its forms has been the source of much death. A tsunami resulting from a Point 9.5 earthquake killed thousands and destroyed much that was once green. Nuclear power plants depend on water for cooling the core, but once the reaction becomes critical, the very water itself becomes poison. Levees broke in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, killing and washing away most of a city, with the poorest of the poor suffering the most. Those levees threaten to break again, if another such storm comes through.
All around Ontario, there are communities which have no clean water. Early in ministry, a town quite near me suffered several deaths from water which had not been properly monitored and treated. Here in Newfoundland, the water supplies in nearby towns can contain enough bacteria that boil water orders are issued. We are outraged when people die from poor water - shouldn’t happen here, we say. Yet where is our outrage when people in our aboriginal communities have no clean water? Where is our outrage when children die around the world for lack of clean water?
Michigan State University sits on top of one of the four largest dump sites in the United States. The water in student housing is said to be safe and drinkable, yet baby formula will not mix properly, and boiling the water produces an oily slick on the surface, which adheres to the cup. Toronto’s garbage is being shipped to Michigan, because we’d rather pollute someone else’s drinking water than our own.
Water in the Christian faith is used as the symbol of new life. We use water, either in a font, or in immersion, in a river or the ocean - to symbolise the death of the old person - going beneath the water as Jesus did, and rising a new person. In this age of infant baptism, the whole symbolism of dying and rising is lost. Baptism has become about doing something - we get the baby “done”, not because it’s important in a religious way, but because family puts pressure. Part of me wonders how baptising a child can be symbolic of dying with Jesus and rising out of the waters of life a new person.
- and yet baptism is not about what we do, but about what God does. As Jesus rose out of the waters of the river, he heard a voice - “You are my son and I am proud of you.” - and it’s interesting that
up to this point, Jesus hasn’t really done anything for God to be proud. He’s been born to Mary at a really inconvenient time, forcing her to go into labor while spending the night in a pretty awful place. He caused his parents worry when he was twelve by wandering off during a trip to Jerusalem and staying lost for three days. He did what hundreds, if not thousands of people were doing in the Jordan river, a baptism in the river - a mikvah, a cleansing.
In the Isaiah reading God says to the people, “I have called you by name, you are mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and you will not be overwhelmed;” Significant, I think, that water comes in here - Jesus “passes through” the waters, and is called by name.
Baptism is a statement about identity. We are all children of God, whether baptised by water, or by Spirit. - and I think it is really significant took that while Jesus goes down, and is immersed in the Jordan to be baptised, the Spirit is also there. Child of God, you are beloved and I am proud of you. All of God’s children, whether baptised with the water of life, or with the spirit of life.
I think that is why water is so important in this identity: it’s something we encounter every day in one form or another, and is absolutely necessary for maintaining and sustaining our lives. And every time we encounter it, whether we’re brushing our teeth or making our coffee or washing our hands or even shoveling some of this unbelievable Newfoundland snow, we can remember that we are children of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So as you walk through life, remember how important water is - not just for our physical life, but also our spiritual life. Baptism is not something we do once and forget about.....it should be something we carry with us, as close as water - the symbol of our naming and our identity. May it be so.
Sources:
1. “The Water of Life”, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota January 2006.
2. “Dune”, science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, 1965
3. Baptism and Christian Identity, by Rev. Frank Schaefer
****************************************************************************
Far into the imaginary future of this universe, there is a desert planet called Dune. With the exception of giant desert sandworms, it is believed there is nothing else on Dune, except a handful of a small group of people who call themselves Fremen. It is believed there is no water on Dune. The only commodity on this planet is an addictive spice which is mined from the sand. But there is water on Dune - hidden in large underground reservoirs, slowly and painstakingly collected by desert dwellers called Fremen. This dry, desert planet was once green and fertile, till people destroyed it with their desire to use its resources for their own wealth. The Fremen are saving up enough water to begin replanting and re-greening their home. Water and life are one and the same thing.
****************************************************************************
Here on this earth, in this lifetime, water brings both life and death. In the river flowing through the new creation, the water is life itself. In the river flowing through Bangkok, human waste, food waste and industrial garbage flow to the sea, and in the rainy season, cholera, typhoid and parasites are prevalent. In this same water, people bathe and wash their clothes; and do their cooking. They are well aware that the water which gives life for some, gives death to others. There is no choice. The water of life is also the water of death.
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, trees have been so consistently cut down for homes and fuel, that the desert has taken over - water is a rare commodity. For years, rain has barely fallen at all. When the water does come, disease is a very real problem. People die without rain, they die with rain. A child’s life expectancy is about five years, if even that.
Recently, water in all its forms has been the source of much death. A tsunami resulting from a Point 9.5 earthquake killed thousands and destroyed much that was once green. Nuclear power plants depend on water for cooling the core, but once the reaction becomes critical, the very water itself becomes poison. Levees broke in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, killing and washing away most of a city, with the poorest of the poor suffering the most. Those levees threaten to break again, if another such storm comes through.
All around Ontario, there are communities which have no clean water. Early in ministry, a town quite near me suffered several deaths from water which had not been properly monitored and treated. Here in Newfoundland, the water supplies in nearby towns can contain enough bacteria that boil water orders are issued. We are outraged when people die from poor water - shouldn’t happen here, we say. Yet where is our outrage when people in our aboriginal communities have no clean water? Where is our outrage when children die around the world for lack of clean water?
Michigan State University sits on top of one of the four largest dump sites in the United States. The water in student housing is said to be safe and drinkable, yet baby formula will not mix properly, and boiling the water produces an oily slick on the surface, which adheres to the cup. Toronto’s garbage is being shipped to Michigan, because we’d rather pollute someone else’s drinking water than our own.
Water in the Christian faith is used as the symbol of new life. We use water, either in a font, or in immersion, in a river or the ocean - to symbolise the death of the old person - going beneath the water as Jesus did, and rising a new person. In this age of infant baptism, the whole symbolism of dying and rising is lost. Baptism has become about doing something - we get the baby “done”, not because it’s important in a religious way, but because family puts pressure. Part of me wonders how baptising a child can be symbolic of dying with Jesus and rising out of the waters of life a new person.
- and yet baptism is not about what we do, but about what God does. As Jesus rose out of the waters of the river, he heard a voice - “You are my son and I am proud of you.” - and it’s interesting that
up to this point, Jesus hasn’t really done anything for God to be proud. He’s been born to Mary at a really inconvenient time, forcing her to go into labor while spending the night in a pretty awful place. He caused his parents worry when he was twelve by wandering off during a trip to Jerusalem and staying lost for three days. He did what hundreds, if not thousands of people were doing in the Jordan river, a baptism in the river - a mikvah, a cleansing.
In the Isaiah reading God says to the people, “I have called you by name, you are mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and you will not be overwhelmed;” Significant, I think, that water comes in here - Jesus “passes through” the waters, and is called by name.
Baptism is a statement about identity. We are all children of God, whether baptised by water, or by Spirit. - and I think it is really significant took that while Jesus goes down, and is immersed in the Jordan to be baptised, the Spirit is also there. Child of God, you are beloved and I am proud of you. All of God’s children, whether baptised with the water of life, or with the spirit of life.
I think that is why water is so important in this identity: it’s something we encounter every day in one form or another, and is absolutely necessary for maintaining and sustaining our lives. And every time we encounter it, whether we’re brushing our teeth or making our coffee or washing our hands or even shoveling some of this unbelievable Newfoundland snow, we can remember that we are children of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So as you walk through life, remember how important water is - not just for our physical life, but also our spiritual life. Baptism is not something we do once and forget about.....it should be something we carry with us, as close as water - the symbol of our naming and our identity. May it be so.
Sources:
1. “The Water of Life”, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota January 2006.
2. “Dune”, science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, 1965
3. Baptism and Christian Identity, by Rev. Frank Schaefer
Saturday, January 5, 2013
“Aha!!!” Matthew 2:1-12 Epiphany Sunday January 6, 2013
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, in the territory of Judah- during the reign of King Herod - a band of scholars and astrologers arrived in Jerusalem from Persia. They asked , “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.” When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified - and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well. Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religious scholars in the city together and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” They told him, “Bethlehem, in Judah. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land, no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.” Instructed by Herod, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the house where the child lived. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! They entered the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother. Overcome, they bowed before him, then opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country by another way.
*****************************************************************************
A friend of mine, Anna Murdock, is a lay minister in the United Methodist Church. Anna says “My mother and brother are enjoying searching through old church records for pieces of family history. When I walked into Mom's house this evening, she handed me a piece of paper and said, "Sit down and read this. I want to watch your face." So I did. It was a bit of history of Society Baptist Church out in the country near the town where she lives. The church was organized in 1821 and some charter members are Mom's ancestors evidently. It lists some charges made against church members ...
Failing to abide by church's established doctrine; drinking; operating a moonshine still; cursing;
un-Christian conduct; and COMMUNING WITH METHODISTS!
Rev. Jody Seymour at Davidson United Methodist Church in North Carolina, says: “People who journey without being changed are nomads. People who change without going on a journey are chameleons. People who go on a journey and are changed by the journey are pilgrims.”
January 6, today, is Epiphany. Every year, the lectionary brings us the Magi. Every year we take all the elements of three years’ worth of biblical story and scrunch it down into roughly six weeks - four of Advent, one for Christmas, and one for Epiphany. We tend to forget that this was a story played out over several years, and with many layers of meaning.
The Greek historian Herodotus cites the Magi as Medeans living in Persia, which at the time of Jesus’ birth was part of the Parthian Empire. They were scientists, priests, astrologers, and existed for around five thousand years; they were almost certainly Zoroastrians. They were not just 'wise men,' but an entire social class of priests and sages.
“They were the center of spiritual-political authority through the ages of several great empires. They interpreted dreams and were responsible for sacred rituals, including animal sacrifices. The Magi may have even been responsible for crowning any new ruler who came to power. If true, then to be crowned without the favor of the Magi would jeopardize the legitimacy of any king.
The Magi believed that the stars could be used to predict the birth of great rulers. They believed that the next great ruler was about to be born: the "king of the Jews." But even so, why visit the newborn king of a foreign nation? It is not implausible to assume that the main intention of the Magi was diplomatic in origin. If a new king had been born, it would prove useful to pay tribute to him and his family. They may have assumed that Herod, the ruler of Judea and Palestine, had produced a son, an heir to his seat of power, who would exceed his father's legacy by leaps and bounds. Rome and Parthia were the two "superpowers" of the era, and Palestine was a significant part of the political view.”
Well, what did they find in Jerusalem? Herod had syphilis, was paranoid and almost dead. There was a laundry list of people happy to take his place, and help him along to the next world if need be. He had killed his previous wife and several sons out of suspicion that they were trying to kill him. He knew the new king was not one of his offspring. So he consulted with advisors, found out about the prophecy, and determined to find this usurper to his power.
After a journey of about 1300 miles into a foreign country, the Magi found Mary, Joseph and the child who was approximately two. What went through the minds of these aristocrats as they met this peasant couple of a different race and religion? The gifts they brought imply a legitimising of the rule of this king. They were not Jewish. They were foreigners, Gentiles, considered pagan. If you look closely at your Christmas cards, you might see that tradition has one of them African, one Asian, and one Caucasian. Nowhere in the text does it say there were three - there could have been more.
Magi, rich and influential Zoroastrian priests, scholars and astrologers - made a pilgrimage to a town in a country more than a thousand miles from their home. They saw a convergence of celestial phenomena which they believed heralded the birth of a new king, perhaps even a new kind of king. They travelled an incredible distance, even by today’s reckonings, found the one they were seeking, and when they did presented incredibly expensive and significant gifts, and according to Matthew, worshipped the baby. They were not of the same faith as Jesus’ family, yet somehow what they found transcended any individual faith. Even these scholars and priests had an “Aha!” moment - in fact, a couple of them. They took a long journey to an unknown place, which in itself was full of learning; they stretched themselves in coming to find a child of Peace, yet one who was not of their faith at all; they saw through Herod’s schemes, and returned on a different road - another one they likely had not travelled before; they were changed people.
The whole Christmas story is full of “Aha!!” moments. Mary goes on a journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and realises that her pregnancy will change everything; Joseph, in an “Aha!” moment, goes on a journey of self-discovery, willing to fly in the face of religious tradition, and go against his own culture. Joseph and Mary set out on a journey together, as husband and wife - into unknown territory full of danger. They return to Nazareth and for a couple of years life is quiet. Then, unbeknownst to them, Herod meets some foreign priests and scholars looking for a child who they say will be King of the Jews, and he orders slaughter of all male children under two. Word of this edict filters down. Once again, Joseph has an “Aha!!” moment, takes Mary and Jesus - and they move again, this time into a foreign country - Egypt - where they live as immigrants. The Magi find them there.
Something happened to all the players in this story. All of them knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no return to the same life, from the journeys they had taken. They were true pilgrims, because they were willing to set out on a long, long journey without knowing if they would even live. The Magi found what they were seeking, and left changed by their entire experience. Mary and Joseph were changed as well. They did not turn away these “pagans”, or refuse them because they were Gentiles. They welcomed the visitors and accepted the gifts.
Here, in a sense, is where Anna Murdock’s story comes in. We in the church have tended to be divided. When we look back in our history, we’ve discriminated against other branches of Christianity, and other faiths. Yet along the way we have also begun to realise we are all pilgrims, all on a journey of faith; we’ve begun to have “Aha!!!” moments of our own. Light is beginning to dawn, a little bit at a time. The whole church is on a journey into a foreign place, a place we have not existed before, where the Christian church is not the centre of faith, but part of something larger. It is unknown territory for us, and in this unknown territory we as individuals are changed.
So who are we, today? Who are the Magi today, who come seeking? Are we willing to set out on the road with them, looking for something we only think is happening? Are we true pilgrims, or nomads, or chameleons?
If we are pilgrims, then we are on this journey with all peoples of all faiths - and we owe it to those others, and to God, to have respect for the ways God is revealed in the world. Our religion should not be our God, but rather the means by which we find our God revealed in humanity. May it be so.
Sources
1. www.magijourney.com
2. http://nouspique.com/component/content/article/52/248-the-magi-today
3. Dr. Jody Seymour, Davdison United Methodist Church, North Carolina.
4. Anna Murdock, United Methodist lay leader.
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land, no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.” Instructed by Herod, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the house where the child lived. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! They entered the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother. Overcome, they bowed before him, then opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country by another way.
*****************************************************************************
A friend of mine, Anna Murdock, is a lay minister in the United Methodist Church. Anna says “My mother and brother are enjoying searching through old church records for pieces of family history. When I walked into Mom's house this evening, she handed me a piece of paper and said, "Sit down and read this. I want to watch your face." So I did. It was a bit of history of Society Baptist Church out in the country near the town where she lives. The church was organized in 1821 and some charter members are Mom's ancestors evidently. It lists some charges made against church members ...
Failing to abide by church's established doctrine; drinking; operating a moonshine still; cursing;
un-Christian conduct; and COMMUNING WITH METHODISTS!
Rev. Jody Seymour at Davidson United Methodist Church in North Carolina, says: “People who journey without being changed are nomads. People who change without going on a journey are chameleons. People who go on a journey and are changed by the journey are pilgrims.”
January 6, today, is Epiphany. Every year, the lectionary brings us the Magi. Every year we take all the elements of three years’ worth of biblical story and scrunch it down into roughly six weeks - four of Advent, one for Christmas, and one for Epiphany. We tend to forget that this was a story played out over several years, and with many layers of meaning.
The Greek historian Herodotus cites the Magi as Medeans living in Persia, which at the time of Jesus’ birth was part of the Parthian Empire. They were scientists, priests, astrologers, and existed for around five thousand years; they were almost certainly Zoroastrians. They were not just 'wise men,' but an entire social class of priests and sages.
“They were the center of spiritual-political authority through the ages of several great empires. They interpreted dreams and were responsible for sacred rituals, including animal sacrifices. The Magi may have even been responsible for crowning any new ruler who came to power. If true, then to be crowned without the favor of the Magi would jeopardize the legitimacy of any king.
The Magi believed that the stars could be used to predict the birth of great rulers. They believed that the next great ruler was about to be born: the "king of the Jews." But even so, why visit the newborn king of a foreign nation? It is not implausible to assume that the main intention of the Magi was diplomatic in origin. If a new king had been born, it would prove useful to pay tribute to him and his family. They may have assumed that Herod, the ruler of Judea and Palestine, had produced a son, an heir to his seat of power, who would exceed his father's legacy by leaps and bounds. Rome and Parthia were the two "superpowers" of the era, and Palestine was a significant part of the political view.”
Well, what did they find in Jerusalem? Herod had syphilis, was paranoid and almost dead. There was a laundry list of people happy to take his place, and help him along to the next world if need be. He had killed his previous wife and several sons out of suspicion that they were trying to kill him. He knew the new king was not one of his offspring. So he consulted with advisors, found out about the prophecy, and determined to find this usurper to his power.
After a journey of about 1300 miles into a foreign country, the Magi found Mary, Joseph and the child who was approximately two. What went through the minds of these aristocrats as they met this peasant couple of a different race and religion? The gifts they brought imply a legitimising of the rule of this king. They were not Jewish. They were foreigners, Gentiles, considered pagan. If you look closely at your Christmas cards, you might see that tradition has one of them African, one Asian, and one Caucasian. Nowhere in the text does it say there were three - there could have been more.
Magi, rich and influential Zoroastrian priests, scholars and astrologers - made a pilgrimage to a town in a country more than a thousand miles from their home. They saw a convergence of celestial phenomena which they believed heralded the birth of a new king, perhaps even a new kind of king. They travelled an incredible distance, even by today’s reckonings, found the one they were seeking, and when they did presented incredibly expensive and significant gifts, and according to Matthew, worshipped the baby. They were not of the same faith as Jesus’ family, yet somehow what they found transcended any individual faith. Even these scholars and priests had an “Aha!” moment - in fact, a couple of them. They took a long journey to an unknown place, which in itself was full of learning; they stretched themselves in coming to find a child of Peace, yet one who was not of their faith at all; they saw through Herod’s schemes, and returned on a different road - another one they likely had not travelled before; they were changed people.
The whole Christmas story is full of “Aha!!” moments. Mary goes on a journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and realises that her pregnancy will change everything; Joseph, in an “Aha!” moment, goes on a journey of self-discovery, willing to fly in the face of religious tradition, and go against his own culture. Joseph and Mary set out on a journey together, as husband and wife - into unknown territory full of danger. They return to Nazareth and for a couple of years life is quiet. Then, unbeknownst to them, Herod meets some foreign priests and scholars looking for a child who they say will be King of the Jews, and he orders slaughter of all male children under two. Word of this edict filters down. Once again, Joseph has an “Aha!!” moment, takes Mary and Jesus - and they move again, this time into a foreign country - Egypt - where they live as immigrants. The Magi find them there.
Something happened to all the players in this story. All of them knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no return to the same life, from the journeys they had taken. They were true pilgrims, because they were willing to set out on a long, long journey without knowing if they would even live. The Magi found what they were seeking, and left changed by their entire experience. Mary and Joseph were changed as well. They did not turn away these “pagans”, or refuse them because they were Gentiles. They welcomed the visitors and accepted the gifts.
Here, in a sense, is where Anna Murdock’s story comes in. We in the church have tended to be divided. When we look back in our history, we’ve discriminated against other branches of Christianity, and other faiths. Yet along the way we have also begun to realise we are all pilgrims, all on a journey of faith; we’ve begun to have “Aha!!!” moments of our own. Light is beginning to dawn, a little bit at a time. The whole church is on a journey into a foreign place, a place we have not existed before, where the Christian church is not the centre of faith, but part of something larger. It is unknown territory for us, and in this unknown territory we as individuals are changed.
So who are we, today? Who are the Magi today, who come seeking? Are we willing to set out on the road with them, looking for something we only think is happening? Are we true pilgrims, or nomads, or chameleons?
If we are pilgrims, then we are on this journey with all peoples of all faiths - and we owe it to those others, and to God, to have respect for the ways God is revealed in the world. Our religion should not be our God, but rather the means by which we find our God revealed in humanity. May it be so.
Sources
1. www.magijourney.com
2. http://nouspique.com/component/content/article/52/248-the-magi-today
3. Dr. Jody Seymour, Davdison United Methodist Church, North Carolina.
4. Anna Murdock, United Methodist lay leader.
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