Consecrated in Truth

Scripture John 17:6-19. The Message 

(This passage is Jesus’ prayer to God for his followers)

I spelled out your character in detail
To the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
Then you gave them to me,
And they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for those you gave me,
For they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
And my life is on display in them.
For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;
They’ll continue in the world
While I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a lookout.
And not one of them got away,
Except for the rebel bent on destruction
(the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

 

Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

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Message Consecrated in Truth

Marv Meyer was a professor of religious studies at Chapman University, a member of the Jesus Seminar, a respected Historical Jesus scholar.  You may have seen him on a National Geographic program on 1st Century Christianity some years back, looking very Indiana Jones-ish.  He was widely acknowledged as an expert in the study of ancient Coptic Christian texts - and by widely acknowledged I mean he had people like the British Museum calling to have him determine whether a particular fragment they received was genuine - and he was an elder in his Presbyterian congregation.  He taught his classes to use historical criticism in their reading of scripture - or any text for that matter.  That is, to carefully investigate the origins of the text in order to understand "the world behind the text.”. When we do that we often discover that what we think a particular passage means may not, in fact, be the actual intended meaning at the time it was written.

Marv was once challenged to a debate by a pastor who was the sponsor of The Refuge, a conservative Christian student group on campus on the topic of Truth - is there one Truth?   This was a greatly anticipated event, as I am sure you can imagine.  On the night of the debate most of the students from the Religious Studies and Philosophy Department gathered, as did the members of The Refuge, to witness what was sure to be an intellectually stimulating discourse.  Marv went first, speaking at some length - Marv was famous for speaking at length - about a number of ancient civilizations, how the development of their origin stories and legal codes had contributed to the creation stories and laws later immortalized in the Hebrew scriptures, and how many religious traditions share a number of basic elements - love for each other, care for the poor and oppressed, and so on.  And that all of these contained Truth. He concluded, therefore, that Truth can be found in many places, not just one.  The fans of Marv applauded enthusiastically when he (finally) finished. (I did say he was famous for speaking at length.) and we settled back to hear what the pastor had to say.  He said, “I am the way, the Truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) and “I, the Lord, speak the Truth; I declare what is right.”. (Isaiah 45:19b).  And that was about it. Oh, there was a bit more to it than that, but his entire and very brief argument was that the Bible said it, the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and therefore, that is the one, absolute and incontrovertible Truth. 

Those of us who were anticipating a well presented scholarly discourse were a bit taken aback.  I mean, yes.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  And yes.  God speaks the Truth and declares what is right.  But, I don’t know about anybody else who was present that day, but I was hoping to hear why we so ardently believe that to be so.  It reminded me of the time in a Wednesday night class at my church when I was in high school when I asked the priest “How do we know there is a God?” Now, I was kind of messing around - I asked this kind of unacceptable question all the time - but I also kind of wanted a way to answer people I knew who weren’t sure about God.  The priest said, “You just have to believe.”. He may have added, “or you will go to Hell.” I’m not sure.  I got home that night and complained to my father, who growled about the priest’s inadequate answer, then took me into the back yard and showed me a tree.  He told me about the root system, and showed me how the nutrients were carried from the soil all the way to the ends of  the little veins in the leaves. I had learned these things in science classes, so it was nothing really new.  But then he told me how impossible it would be for that tree to have just happened.  The tree, all of nature, with all of its intricate systems and details, he said, proved there is a God.  And that’s kind of what I was hoping for all those years later in that debate at Chapman University. I was hoping that pastor would tell us how we know God is Truth.  “You just have to believe” really still doesn’t do it for me.  

Jesus, knowing that his time is very short, gathers his disciples around him and prays over them, speaking to God on their behalf, asking that they be guarded and guided after his time with them is done.  He says “I spelled out your character in detail.”. He said, “They were yours, then you gave them to me.” He said, “the message you gave me, and I gave them, they believe . .  they were convinced that you sent me.”  They didn’t believe because he said they should.  They were convinced by his sincerity, by his words and actions.  They were convinced because he doubled down on the words of the prophets, and the Shema.  He didn’t say, here is new stuff to believe.  He said, this that has been taught to you since forever, these two commandments given to you by your God, this is truth.  He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”.  And from Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone … but love your neighbor as yourself.” They were convinced by the evidence of their own eyes, by the feelings that touched their hearts, by the fact that he put everyone else ahead of himself. 

I have often told you that the God I was taught to believe in as a child is not the God I believe in today.  What I was taught did come from the Bible, but even though it was in the Bible, I don’t think that I was taught Truth, at least, not the entire Truth.  I think I was only told bits and pieces of what we know to be true about God.  It wasn’t until I started seeing people who truly believed in God’s love and God’s goodness and God’s forgiveness, and who tried to live with love for others, even returning good for evil, that I was convinced, even as Jesus’ disciples were convinced, that this was truly God’s character, as Jesus had spelled it out for his disciples.  To know this Truth, I had to learn about Sodom and Gomorrah and punishment for the unrepentant, but also about Ninevah and forgiveness for those who turned from their evil ways.  I had to learn about the rewards given to those who labored in God’s fields all day, but also that those who came at the 11th hour were rewarded equally, that they were all loved equally. I had to learn about the many times the people of Israel “did what was evil in the sight of God” and were nevertheless forgiven and rescued, when they repented.  I had to learn that God gave us not just a second chance, but as many chances as we needed, even 70 times 70 chances. More importantly, I had to learn that these Truths were not just words in a book, but reality as had been seen and experienced by people I knew.

We know the truth of God’s love, in part because of the stories we read in scripture, but more so because we witness it all the time.  We spend a portion of our worship service talking about those moments during the past week where God entered our lives and blessed us.  Jesus asked God to “guard them as they pursue this life . . . so they can be of one heart and mind, as we are one heart and mind. And to “make them holy - consecrated - with the truth . . . so they may be truth consecrated in their mission.” For just as God gave Jesus a mission, so too he has given us a mission, to carry the Good News - the Truth - of God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth, to love one another, and to spread that love throughout all the lands.

We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.  As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.  

We here in this place and watching on YouTube, come from many different religious traditions and backgrounds.  We come together here because we believe in the Truth of God’s love and acceptance, because when we say all are welcome, we mean everyone - because All means ALL.  And all means ALL everywhere, and every when, not just in church on Sunday mornings.  As Disciples of Christ, not just as a denomination or a congregation, but as individual disciples, let us be truth consecrated in our mission to love one another - no matter who the other is, no matter what political party or opinion on vaccines or on masking or who the President is or whatever . . .  Those things, those divisions, are of the world, not of Christ. Our Christ given mission is to reconcile the world with God, to speak and act in such a way that those whom we encounter will know the Truth of God’s character, will see that we are made holy - consecrated - in God’s truth.  When we go from this place, let us go in united in purpose, to carry the Truth of God’s love with us to every person we encounter, no matter who they are. As the hymn says, let us be “a lamp of burnished gold, to bear before the nations your true light as of old.”  Let us carry the light of Truth into the darkness of division and strife, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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Hymn “O Word of God Incarnate” CH 322

O word of God incarnate, O wisdom from on high

O truth unchanged, unchanging, O light of our dark sky

we praise you for the radiance that from the hallowed page

a lantern to our footsteps, shines on from age to age.

The church from you, our Savior, received the gift divine;

and still that light is lifted o’er all the earth to shine.

Your word is chart and compass that, all life’s voyage through, 

mid mists and rocks and quicksands still guides, O Christ, to you.

O make your church, dear Savior, a lamp of burnished gold

to bear before the nations your true light as of old.

O teach your wandering pilgrims by this our path to trace,

till, clouds and darkness ended, we see you face to face.

Watching for wolves

 Scripture John. 10:11-18. CEB 

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. 13 He’s only a hired hand and the sheep don’t matter to him.

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I give up my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that don’t belong to this sheep pen. I must lead them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, with one shepherd.

17 “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I can take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I give it up because I want to. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

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Yesterday I attended the Annual Gathering of the Christian Church in Northern California-Nevada via Zoom. I was pretty excited to see that out of the 115 folks attending, five were from FCC Selma!  I do enjoy attending those events in person because it gives me the opportunity to spend time one on one with friends and colleagues.  It is strange to just see faces on my computer screen instead of seeing people in person. Or doing this (action) instead of applauding.  I miss the hugs, and the time spent over coffee or lunch catching up with each other.  But I also hope that when we can return to in-person events a video option will be available for the people who can’t take the time to drive three or more hours each way to attend the event, but still want to participate.  You know, like we are doing here. 

During the Gathering we heard an original song, “All things in time.”  It spoke to what we are feeling and experiencing these days.  There are so many things we cannot do because of COVID, but things have been changing quickly. I can pretty much guarantee that each week going forward will bring more change. This week we reached Orange Tier in Fresno County, which indicates moderate risk of infection.  This week we learned it’s ok to be outside without a mask unless you are in a crowd.  This week we got to have a piece of paper with the order of worship on it.  (Please do not leave those in the pews.  Take and throw them away with your communion cup on your way out.). In a few weeks, God willing, we will reach Yellow Tier, which indicates a minimal risk of infection.  According to the most recent studies if you are fully vaccinated, it is safe for you to do lots of the things you did in the before times, including singing with other people who are also fully vaccinated . But it’s not kind or loving to do that when your friend in the next pew can’t, yet. We will get there.  All things in time . . .

It makes me crazy to ask you all not to participate in worship - to not sing and not respond when responses would usually happen, to not pray the Lord’s Prayer.  You see, I firmly believe that what we do while we are in worship is important, that it is not a spectator event or entertainment venue, but actual interaction with God.  Worship takes effort.  It should cost everyone some energy and emotion - like when Alfred raises his hands and weeps during a hymn,  and when some of you close your eyes while we pray the Lord’s Prayer together, and when John Terry cries, and when the sound of our singing swells to the top of the dome because we are all so caught up in a favorite hymn  . . . I hate that we are prevented from doing those things, right now.  I hate that we can’t pass the communion trays from one to the other in the pews, actively serving each other as an act of worship. But at this particular time, it is what it is.  

In a science fiction/fantasy book I read recently, a woman rancher in Australia got help fighting off evil vampires from a pack of lupine shape shifters (werewolves).  (Don’t judge.) They defeated the vampires, saved the ranch, and proved they were the good guys!  Since the rancher knew they were looking for a safe place to settle she offered them work and asked if they were any good at herding sheep.  She didn’t understand why they were all laughing so hard they could barely stand up, until one of them finally pointed in the direction of the flock saying, “Sheep” and at himself saying “Wolf.” Good guys they might be, but they were still wolves. The flock was still not safe from them.

There was an article in the April 8th edition of Sojourners magazine by Adam Russell Taylor titled “It’s time to rethink American Churches,” in which he said  (https://sojo.net/articles/it-s-time-rethink-american-churches.) 

“… last week, Gallup caused a stir when it released new research showing Americans’ membership in houses of worship fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 80 years Gallup has been keeping track. According to Gallup’s data, in 2020, only “47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999,” continuing a steady decline that started near the turn of the 21st century.

Gallup identifies several different sources of this decline, most notably an increase in the percentage of Americans who do not identify with a specific organized religion. But the change is also a result of more Americans who do identify with a religion saying they do not belong to a particular house of worship. Much of the change is generational — 66 percent of U.S. adults born before 1946 belong to a house of worship versus only 36 percent of millennials — yet the last 20 years have also seen a doubling in the percentage of older generations (silent generation, baby boomers, and Generation X) with no religious affiliation.”

The number of people who identify as Spiritual but not religious continues to grow.  I identified that way for some 25 years.  Understand that for many of those people, as for me, what they mean is they believe in God, and even Jesus but reject organized religion, reject church, preferring a personal relationship.  Often that rejection stems from childhood experiences, or from their perception of the Church as bigoted, hypocritical, judgmental, rejecting instead of welcoming. Inhospitable.

The wolf shifters in that book I read were good people.  They fought against evil to protect the innocent.  They were willing to stay and work to help the woman rebuild her ranch after the damages that were done to it in the fight. They just weren’t really good at guarding sheep because . . . wolf.   A wolf can’t be trusted with a flock of sheep. That’s just a story, of course, but the threat to the flock that is the church is real.  So who are the wolves?  

The wolves in our lives, in the lives of congregations, are whatever separates us from the flock - whatever draws us away from love, whatever adds to the fragmentation of society.  Some of the wolves that draw us away from church might be good things . . . In the 1960s and 70s people my age left the church in droves because the church - or at least the manifestation of church they knew - would not speak out in favor of civil rights or against the war in Vietnam.  They saw hypocrisy in the call to love one another over against acceptance of racism and colonialism and heterosexism and all those other isms. That view of the church is still driving people away, still separating folks from the flock.  I was devastated not all that long ago when a young woman stopped attending a 12 Step Meeting that I was attending when she learned I was a Christian minister, because she is a lesbian. She thought that I must hate her because of my Christianity, and no longer felt that she could share openly in the meeting without being judged.  I really hate when that happens.  But it’s not all that uncommon.   Not every congregation is willing to stand up and say “All means ALL.”  We know this, because we have members who are here today because we say All means ALL and mean it.

The flock needs a shepherd, and we know our shepherd is Jesus. We know Jesus will watch over us and protect us whether or not we are part of a congregation.  But the flock also needs to be a flock, to be together, to be a community.  The wolves in our lives are whatever separates us from the flock, whatever draws us away from our community of faith.  Some of those wolves are less overtly threatening than others.  Maybe Sunday is our only day off and we really need to rest.  Getting up and going to church just feels too much like work.  We’ll skip just this week…and the longer we skip “just this week” the easier it gets to stay home and before long we’re only showing up at Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day.  Oh, we still get the newsletter and all, but it has been awhile since we got those welcoming smiles and hugs or felt really connected.  

Sometimes the church itself isn’t as hospitable as it might be.  Hospitality is a lot more than a hug or smile, or coffee hour after worship.  Hospitality is about being truly welcoming and making sure everyone knows they are valued.  If I work on Sunday, or have to take my children to soccer on Sunday mornings, or have no one to watch my beloved elderly family member on Sunday, and the only time church stuff happens is Sunday, I might not feel all that valued.  Hospitality is lacking. If the goal is to keep the flock safe and together, connected to the shepherd and to the rest of the flock, those people also need to have a time for worship, for Bible study, for fellowship, for community.  Livestreaming or watching later on YouTube is good, don’t get me wrong.  But additional worship and community opportunities during the week make it clear that every sheep is valued - the 99 and the one.    The ones in this sheepfold and all the others.

We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.  Anything that contributes to that fragmentation pulls us away from the Shepherd, away from the safety of the flock, away from the guidance that helps us remember to love one another.  As Disciples of Christ, our goal is to welcome all to the Lord’s Table, into the community of faith, just as we were made welcome. 

Our challenge then, as Disciples, is to listen, really listen, to the voice of our Savior and Shepherd, to open our ears that we might hear him, and thus discern God’s will for us.  Our challenge is to let the Shepherd lead us, to keep us safe from the wolves of the world, to teach us to love one another as he loves us.

Good for what ails you

 Scripture. Mark 1:29-39. NRSV.  

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

 

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

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When I sit down to write the final version of my message early on whatever day I am going to preach - Sundays when we meet in person, Saturdays when I am recording - the first thing I do is read the passage over again, and pray.  I pray to hear whatever God wants me to say. I pray for my mind to settle so that I CAN hear whatever God wants me to say.  Sometimes it takes a little more to get in the right frame of mind.  This morning, after I lit my candle and set up my document and read the passage again and prayed, I still wasn’t quite there.  So I turned to YouTube and I found a video of operatic sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman singing “There is a Balm in Gilead.”  I got lost in the music, and in the feeling the words inspired.  

Healing has been on my mind for quite a while.  As individuals and as a nation, we are in great need of healing right now.  We have been living through a time like no other in living memory.  We are angry, frustrated, rebellious, depressed, anxious, fearful, and grieving.  We are wounded in spirit.  

In first century Palestine the people were suffering under the yoke of the Roman occupation - the Pax Romana, Roman peace, brought to their nation and maintained at sword point.  They were over taxed.  Rape and forced labor were common.  They were not safe in their own country.  There were frequent rebellions, put down easily by Roman soldiers.  They were wounded in spirit.  They were also hopeful, waiting for the one whom God would send to free them, because God had ALWAYS sent someone to free them.  

John had been preaching repentance and baptizing, and prophesying the Messiah’s coming.  He baptized Jesus, and God spoke, saying you are my beloved son.  Then, we are told, the Spirit forced Jesus into the wilderness for forty days where he was tempted by Satan, after which (and after John’s arrest) he started preaching in Galilee.  He called his first disciples, went into Capernaum to preach in the synagogue there, cast out a demon - who recognized him! but whom Jesus silenced - and then, along with James and John, went home with Simon and Andrew for dinner.  This story takes place at the very beginning of his ministry.  The people who had heard him preach and seen him cast out the demon in the synagogue had begun to spread the story of what they had seen and heard.  And all those who had been waiting began to think that this, this man from Nazareth in Galilee, might be the one they had been waiting for.

Mind you, the people didn’t begin to spread the news of Jesus’ teaching and healing until after the events at the synagogue - and Mark tells us that Jesus and company went to Simon and Andrew’s house immediately, directly from the synagogue that day.  So he wasn’t yet all that famous - his reputation did not precede him to Simon’s mother-in-law.  She didn’t know him as a healer, and yet, when he touched her, when he took her hand and lifted her up, the fever left her.

Meanwhile, the story of what happened in the synagogue spread like wildfire throughout the city.  Those who heard it brought their sick and demon-touched from all over the city for healing - and heal them he did.  And again he silenced the demons, so that they could not tell the people who he was.  

Later on Mark will tell us about the woman who had been hemorrhaging for years, and having  been hearing stories about Jesus’ for quite some time, had so much faith in Jesus’ healing power that she believed if she could just touch the hem of his clothing she could be healed.  And that Jesus would say to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”   

Faith healing.  It’s one of those kind of touchy parts of Christianity.  Like speaking in tongues and casting out demons and prophetic visions. It’s one thing to believe that the ancient prophets and Jesus and some of his disciples and saints can do these things, but now?  When we hear about faith healing we might think about one of those Big Tent revival preachers we see on TV shows and movies touching someone’s head and they fall to the floor, or throw away their crutches and kick up their heels as they dance down the aisle back to their seat, with everyone in the tent calling out Hallelujah!   Of course, on TV shows the preacher is usually a fake, the person who was healed is a plant, and the people who were so desperate for a cure that they would put all their money in the basket, hoping that they, too, could be miraculously healed were invariably disappointed.  They might be told that their faith just wasn’t strong enough.

Way too many people believe that if you ask God for healing, you will be healed IF you have enough faith. When I was in seminary one of my classmates came in, obviously distressed.  When we asked what was wrong he told us his pastor had been fired the night before.  She had been diagnosed with lupus a few months earlier, and it did not go away even after many prayers for healing.  The congregation’s Board told her that she clearly did not have sufficient faith in God, or she would have been healed, and they could not have a pastor who was that lacking in faith.   This was wrong on so many levels . . .

The Hollywood version of faith healing notwithstanding, being healed by faith is definitely a thing. It’s just that asking for a specific type of healing might not be fruitful.  I don’t know whether you have ever been the recipient of prayers for healing, but I have.  When I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1999, facing major surgery I started asking for prayer.  The congregation I belonged to prayed, and all of my friends prayed, and they asked all their friends to pray.  One friend sent a prayer request to a family member in Jerusalem, who stuck the prayer in the Wailing Wall.  I could feel their prayers. I could feel God’s love.  It was like I was being held in giant hands, or like a baby chick safely tucked under the hen’s wings.  The cancer did not miraculously leave, but because of all those prayers I had peace of mind. My anxiety and worries were relieved.  And because we tend to heal better when we aren’t worried, that allowed me to heal from the surgery so quickly it surprised the doctor!  Prayers for healing may not “cure” the body, but they can absolutely heal the soul. 

It is not just individuals who require healing of heart and spirit.  Jeremiah tells us that God lamented over the suffering of his people. 

“For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

    Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people

    not been restored?”  (Jeremiah 8:21-22. NRSV)

I think maybe God is speaking those words again today, for us as individuals and for our nation, indeed for the entire world.  Our spiritual health is in need of healing, of restoration.  We are in need of that balm, that physician.  We are in need of healing touch.  Our souls are tired.  Our hearts are wounded.  Our worries and anger and frustration and all of those things, all of those sins, keep us sick, keep us from being well - they keep us from good spiritual health, from loving as God would have us love.  And God laments, God mourns when we are not well, when we are hurting.   

Is there no balm in Gilead?  Yes!  Yes, there is.

There IS a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
To heal the sin-sick soul

The physician we need is Jesus, who came into the world, who was sent into the world to heal us all, to reconcile us all with each other and with God, in love.  The balm is prayer, which we feel through the touch of the Holy Spirit, who brings us wisdom, who brings us understanding of God’s desires for us.    

There is a balm in Gilead. And it is in our hands.  Our discipleship challenge for this week is to apply that balm to all the peoples of the earth - to pray for the healing of all the wounded hearts and spirits - for an ending to the anger and hatred and division, the worries and anxieties and frustrations.  For wholeness and healing.  For a restoration of good health to all of God’s people.  And all means All. 

Do I have to?

 Scripture Matthew 26:36-46. CEB.  

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He said to the disciples, “Stay here while I go and pray over there.” 37 When he took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, he began to feel sad and anxious. 38 Then he said to them, “I’m very sad. It’s as if I’m dying. Stay here and keep alert with me.” 39 Then he went a short distance farther and fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it’s possible, take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.”

40 He came back to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay alert one hour with me? 41 Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.” 42 A second time he went away and prayed, “My Father, if it’s not possible that this cup be taken away unless I drink it, then let it be what you want.”

43 Again he came and found them sleeping. Their eyes were heavy with sleep. 44 But he left them and again went and prayed the same words for the third time. 45 Then he came to his disciples and said to them, “Will you sleep and rest all night? Look, the time has come for the Human One to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up. Let’s go. Look, here comes my betrayer.”

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Good morning on this 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany.   If my weather app is accurate, it should be a really lovely morning, with rain cleansing the air and nourishing the earth.  All of our prayers for rain are being answered with “yes,” for which we are grateful.  

As we are still focused on prayer for the rest of January, I would ask everyone to pray for healing for our nation this week.  And for all the world, as the entire world deals with the coronavirus pandemic.  May the vaccines be distributed to all, and may effective treatments be found. 

I think most of us are pretty familiar with these words from the Gospel according to Matthew.   We usually hear them on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday.  These are words that lead us directly into Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion.  We also usually hear about the lack of faithfulness by Peter, James and John, who kept falling asleep instead of keeping watch as Jesus asked them to.  Today, however, we are going to look more closely at what Jesus was praying.

Jesus knew from the beginning of his ministry that if whatever he preached and taught went in opposition to the Temple, chances were excellent that he would be arrested, or possibly even killed.  He knew his Scripture and the history of his people.  He knew how prophets, people who spoke unwelcome truth to power, were typically treated.  He knew also that if the leaders of the Temple could find anything indicating insurrection against Rome in his words, that his very life would be on the line.  Rome did not tolerate insurrection.   Just a few chapters earlier, when Peter tried to convince him to stay away from Jerusalem - because by this time ALL of Jesus’ followers knew the dangers - Jesus said “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”. (Matthew  16:23). He knew what was ahead if he continued on the road he was traveling.  He was ready.  He was able at that moment to say, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Jesus was also human and it is important for us to remember that.  As he grew closer to the inevitable end of his earthly ministry and his life, he kinda didn’t want to go.  He did not want to die, yet.  He especially didn’t want to die the kind of horrible death he would suffer at the hands of the Romans.  So he went aside from his disciples to pray by himself.  To speak privately with his Father about what was coming.

And when he prayed he said, “Do I have to?”

Three times he asked, “Do I have to?”

The first time he said: If it is possible, take this cup of suffering away.  However, not what I want, but what you want.

The second time he said: If it is not possible that this cup be taken away unless I drink it, then let it be what you want.

And then we are told . . he left them and again went and prayed the same words for the third time.

I’m pretty sure every one of us, at some point in our lives, has turned to another and said, “Do I have to?”  For example, when children are told to clean their room before they can do the thing, whatever the thing may be, Or worse, when they are told they have to take their little sister along with them to that thing, they might say, “Mooomm.  Do I have to?” Yes.  You do. 

Unlike children, however, Jesus followed up his “Do I have to?”  with “Not what I want, but what you want.” Not my will, but yours.   This is the most perfect prayer.

There are a number of stories in Scripture in which someone is told to do something they do not want to do.  Moses complained to God because he didn’t speak well so he thought someone else should lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.  Jonah ran away rather than speak to the people of Ninevah.  Lot tried to bargain with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Barak refused God’s direction to lead Israel’s army unless Deborah went along with them.  Each of them eventually did the thing God directed.  Each of them paid a price for their initial refusal.  It is painful to try to sidestep God’s will.  

Jesus’ prayer began with “Do I have to?” and ended with “Your will, not mine, be done.”  We are not told whether God spoke to Jesus during this prayer time, but I do know that sometimes no answer is THE answer.  Jesus knew what was ahead on his path, and maybe he hoped that he wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the end, but he knew what he had been called to do. He knew he would pick up the cross that was before him.

In 1517 Martin Luther tacked 95 theses or statements for discussion on the door to the cathedral in Wittenberg.  He had issues with a number of practices and theological understandings in the Roman Catholic Church.  His teachings - like justification by faith - did not go over well.  The pope excommunicated him for heresy.  Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire declared him an outlaw.  At the trial where he was asked to recant his teachings, he said “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.”  God’s will, not his.

Martin Luther King, Jr. really didn’t want to be one of those activist ministers.  The pastor right before him at Ebenezer Baptist Church had been fired for his activism.  But he agreed to help with the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  He got a call one night, threatening his life.  He sat at the kitchen table having coffee and prayed “God, do I have to do this?” And in his heart he heard these words, “Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever."  Three days later his house was bombed.  It did not stop him.  There would more threats, beatings, arrests . . . he knew where his path would inevitably lead.  He continued to choose God’s will, not his own right up to his final day.

I’m pretty sure I’ve told my story here before. . . how I started going to church after being away for 25 years and how after a few months I was sitting in a jail cell telling the women there that they didn’t have to keep coming back to jail if they would just stop using drugs and alcohol, when I heard a voice in my mind say, “You need to be doing this for me.”  I said to God, “Do I have to? I do not want to do this.” A year later I was at Chapman University on my path to the ordained ministry.  My path hasn’t taken me any terrible places like it did for Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., -except maybe student loans - but it wasn’t what I had planned to do with my life. It wasn’t what I wanted.  But God’s will, not mine. . . 

Someone once asked me how I knew whether a certain choice was God’s will.  I responded that as far as I could tell the thing that was harder to do was almost always God’s will.  If one choice was harder than the other AND I didn’t want to do it, it was pretty much a given that it was God’s will.  It would have been easy for Jesus to turn away and return to Galilee.  Martin Luther would have loved to avoid excommunication.  Martin Luther King, Jr. only ever wanted to be a preacher and pastor like his father.  All I ever wanted to be was a secretary.

When we pray “Your will be done, not mine” we are praying the perfect prayer.  It makes no demands.  It does not bargain or make excuses.  We lay out whatever is going on in our lives, whatever choices lie before us, as part of the conversation with God, and even if part of that conversation is “Do I have to?” the end part, the “Your will not mine” part is perfect.  

Do we have to?  Yes.  Yes, we have to.  We have to seek God’s will and follow it.  We can be pretty sure it’s God’s will if it serves God’s people, and not our ego or greed or lust for power. We can be pretty sure it is God’s will if it embodies God’s love of humanity, justice for all persons, compassion for all persons, and mercy.  We can be pretty sure it is God’s will if it is a harder of the choices.  

We have decisions to make all the time - big ones and small ones.  Shall I take on another job? The extra money will be helpful.  Sleep is over rated.  Shall I add another class to my schedule this semester? I’d love to finish up this semester.   Shall I take the job that pays more, or the one that helps people more?  Shall I sleep in, or attend worship on YouTube when it premieres?  Shall I prepare a nice healthy dinner or call for a pizza?  (OK, I’m pretty sure God would prefer that I have pizza.)

Our discipleship challenge this week, then, is to simply pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, in each of our choices.  No demands, no bargaining, no excuses, no running away, no telling God what the “right” answer would be.  When we have a choice to make, and it becomes clear that one choice is almost certainly God’s will, let us then make that choice.  Let us choose to be God’s servants in every way.

Do you know what you are doing?

 

Scripture.  Luke 23:33-34.  The Message

When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.

Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them.

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Good morning!  It is the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany -  the time in between the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Lent.  Ash Wednesday is only one month away - February 17th.  But there is a lot going on in these next weeks. There will be a congregational meeting on Zoom January 31st.  Members of First Christian Church in Selma will be receiving copies of the new slate of officers and the proposed budget for 2021 in the next couple of days, which you should mail (or email) back with your vote no later than January 28th.    

We are still in the grip of the pandemic.  Public Health Officials fear it will get worse over the next month.  Please, stay home if you can, only go out if you must, wash your hands, wear your mask.  And pray for everyone, but especially this week for those who have lost loved ones.

We continue our series on prayer with this very short bit of scripture about praying for others.   We should note that this is not simply about praying that other people who have done wrong might be forgiven, but praying specifically for people who do not know that there is anything wrong with what they are doing or saying - who simply have no idea.

There’s a scene in the movie “Spider-man: Homecoming”  when Spider-man takes some kind of alien weapon away from a bad guy - the Vulture - clearly intending to fire it.  The Vulture says “You are messing with things you don’t understand.”  Even though he did not know what he was doing, Spider-man fires the weapon anyway, cutting the Staten Island Ferry in half and putting hundreds of people at risk.  Luckily this was just a movie.  But it really is not all that unusual for people to act or speak when they haven’t a clue about the consequences.

The Roman soldiers followed their orders to execute Jesus, along with two other criminals, then engaged in what was then perfectly acceptable behavior for executioners by dividing up his belongings.  So far as they knew, they were executing the leader of a potential rebellion against Rome, a high crime.  He wasn’t the first rebel leader to be crucified and he wouldn’t be the last.  They did not know that the man they nailed to the cross that day was more than just another rebel, but the son of God.  They really had no idea what they were doing, what would come about as a result of these events.  So Jesus prayed for them, right at the end, while enduring intense pain, saying, “Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they are doing.” 

Now, there are stories - totally fictitious - about Romans involved with the execution of Jesus later realizing what they have done and living with overwhelming guilt for their actions for the rest of their lives.  This is the premise behind the 1953 classic Christian film “The Robe” which some of you may have seen.  If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it on Amazon Prime or any of several other streaming platforms.  The story is total fiction but it makes an important point about feelings of guilt.   

At some point in our lives we may find ourselves feeling guilty about something that is in no way our fault.  This is fairly common in the children of divorced parents, who frequently believe incorrectly that the divorce is all their fault.  We may experience guilt if we had words with someone who died before we could reconcile.  Sometimes we feel guilty over saying or doing something mean years and years ago, only to find out eventually that the person to whom we were unkind doesn’t even remember the incident - and we wasted all those years feeling terrible. 

People in 12 Step Programs have to deal with guilt and consequences.  We often come into recovery believing “I didn’t hurt anyone but me when I was loaded” but, after some  self examination start saying “OMG. I was a terrible horrible person.  I can never forgive myself for what I did to this person, or what I said to that one.  There is nothing good about me.  Nothing.”  Neither of those things is true.  However, very often we didn’t realize we had done something hurtful until we got to take a sober look back over our lives.  Then comes the guilt. Then comes the self castigation.  Then comes the desire to somehow make up for the wrongs that we have done.   And then we live with that guilt until eventually someone will ask, “Have you forgiven yourself?”

Say what?  

Yeah.  Have you forgiven yourself?  

I can’t possibly.  I am a terrible person.  

Do you believe God has forgiven you?  

Yes.  

Then, if God can forgive you, why won’t you forgive yourself?  Are you better than God?  Well, darn.

Self forgiveness for past wrongs is important, especially in the cases where we didn’t understand that what we were doing was causing pain.  Unlike the Roman executioner in the movie, we are not to wallow in guilt, but allow ourselves to admit our wrong doing - even though we may not have realized we were doing anything wrong - and resolve to go forward armed with this new knowledge.

Or, as Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better.”

At my parents’ dinner table I learned every conceivable name for any group you can think of - Black, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, American Indian, Hispanic, German, French, Protestant, even Irish and Catholic - and we were Irish and Catholic.  My father didn’t limit his use of racist slurs to any particular group.  There are a great number of those words that we don’t use any more.  NOT because of political correctness, but because those words are hurtful.  Their use is intended to make us feel superior to the one we are talking about. They are intended to divide us and anything that leads to division is sinful.  But until we knew better . . . 

This is the weekend we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   His dream was that a day would come when the color of one’s skin would make no difference in how anyone was treated.  His dream was the building of the Beloved Community, a place where there would be no Greek or Jew, no free or slave, no male or female - a time when we believe in our hearts that all persons are created equal.  A time of reconciliation.  Clearly, we are not there yet.

Reconciliation requires justice. You cannot achieve reconciliation by simply ignoring what has gone before.  We cannot work toward justice without knowing what we have done wrong.  Scripture tells us “Before judgment comes, examine yourself; and at the time of scrutiny you will find forgiveness.” (Sirach 18:20 NRSV)  Once we have learned what we did wrong, once we know better, we can do better.  We can no longer claim innocence through ignorance. We can move forward from that sin and make amends by teaching others what we have learned.  By working toward justice in this way, reconciliation can be accomplished. The world can be changed.  

It is hard to ask God to forgive the person who has hurt me even if I am aware that they did not know what they were doing.  Especially if they don’t appear contrite.  But if they truly didn’t know any better - like the Roman soldiers - forgiveness is necessary.  For them, but also for ourselves if we are holding resentments against them for their words or actions.  When we have reached that point we can ask God to forgive them for the  unintended hurt.  The model Jesus holds up for us here is that of a person who holds no bitterness toward those who are causing him injury, who asks that God also recognize their innocence in this matter.  

God forgives all of us, because God loves all of us.  The challenge is for us to forgive others for harm they have done to us, and to forgive ourselves for the harm we have done to others - knowingly or not.  

Forgive us, Father, for we don’t always know what we are doing.  We believe we are doing the right things.  We are doing what we have been told to do, what we have been taught to do, what is right in the eyes of our particular community.  May we examine ourselves, seeking any wrongs we did not recognize before, so that all your children may be reconciled in you, and all divisions healed, through your son Jesus, the Christ.  

Pray for who?

When folks watched our worship service on Sunday they heard me say that I was recording the message two weeks in advance, hoping no big news would occur before January 10th that I would normally address on Sunday.   Because God guides us even when we don’t know we need to be guided, I had selected a passage telling us to pray for those who hurt or harass us.   As it turns out, there was a huge news event, and God had prompted me to choose exactly the right passage for the day. Thanks be to God.

Scripture.  Matthew 5:43-48.   CEB.

You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you 45 so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.

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Good morning!   Today I am doing something very very scary.  I am recording this message two weeks in advance!  Why is this scary, you ask?  Because there have been way too many occasions when things happened in the world that completely changed what I had been planning to preach - often on a Saturday. So I am praying that no big earth shattering news event will happen between today - the day after Christmas - and January 10th when you watch it.  Why am I doing this scary thing, you ask?  Because we are giving Jordan time off after all the incredible amazing work he has done for this whole last nine months but especially during the Christmas Season.  Talk about above and beyond!  In order for him to have this week off we had to record all the parts of today’s worship by December 30 (when I will be enjoying my after-Christmas hibernation).  So here we go.  

This morning we continue our month long focus on prayer.  

Now, I realize that this love your enemy passage generally leads to a message about loving even people you don’t like - feeding them and not killing them and stuff.   But then there is that pesky phrase, “Pray for those who harass you.”  Like, bullies? Internet trolls?  The mean girls at school (or work)? 

Y’know.  Jesus keeps asking us to do all this hard stuff.  Love your enemy.  Pray for those who harass you.  How in the world are we supposed to do these things with any sort of sincerity?  

And there’s another pesky phrase.  “How in the world are we supposed to do that?”  Well, we are not supposed to conform ourselves to the world, so that means that this is one of those places where we must stand aside from what the world tells us is the accepted thing to do.  It is so unusual for us to want good things for our enemy, for those who have hurt or harassed us, that when, for example, a family asks for mercy for the murderer of their child, it makes headlines.  

As Jesus says, if you only love those who love you or only greet your brothers and sisters, how is that different from everyone else?  It is what the Gentiles do. It is what the world does.  The world says “You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Jesus says we need to  be different.  We need to love even our enemy, even the one who wishes us harm.  We need to want the best for everyone, regardless of our relationship with them.  Praying for them is the beginning of love.

Ok, fine.  So we have to pray for them.  A friend of mine was told to pray for a person who had caused him quite a bit of trouble.  “No problem”, he said.  The next day he reported that his prayer for her had been that she might go to heaven.  Tonight.   *sigh*  This is not exactly the intent of “pray for the one who hurt you.”  So he was told to try again, but this time to pray that she receive all the good things he wanted in his life.  Not the muscle car.  But serenity, peace of mind, love, compassion . . . all of those good things.  Even if he had to pray through gritted teeth, he needed to pray for her to get all of these good things.  The time would come when that prayer became easier - he wouldn’t have to force the words out.  He would begin to mean what he was saying.  And eventually he would stop considering her an enemy, having healed himself and learned better how to love.  Having tried this myself, I know that it works.

We can certainly use this practice of praying for those with whom we disagree in our current national situation.  There are disagreements over wearing masks and getting the vaccine and whether or not the pandemic is real.  There are disagreements over the security of our recent elections. Those who hold differing positions on these issues can get very angry, even confrontational.  An important part of this praying for the one who harassed you thing is that we do not get to impose our own desires for that person in our prayers.  So we pray for those with whom we disagree, not that they come over to our way of thinking, and suddenly embrace our own beliefs and positions on these issues, but rather for them to receive the good things we desire, perhaps an open mind and willingness to listen.  We will receive these things, and more often than not that will help us see our opponent in a very different light.  

But what if someone has really hurt us - a stalker, an attacker, an abusive partner?  What then?  How do we pray for that person?   This is difficult - really difficult.  For the longest time, when I thought of my abuser, my rapist there was no willingness to forgive or pray for them to have anything good happen in their lives.  For years, if a male person moved too suddenly or picked up anything they could hit me with, I would duck or move away as quickly as I could to get out of range.  Panic attacks were easily triggered.  Pray for them to receive good things? . . .  I don’t think so.  And yet, once I was able to, once I started praying for them to receive peace of mind and other spiritual gifts I began to heal.  And forgive.  And to truly want good things to happen in their lives.  I began to love, even my abuser, even my rapist.

In his Christmas homily the Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem said:  “Love is the only path to salvation.  We are all connected to and responsible for each other.”  He preached these words at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the city of David. To get to Bethlehem from Jerusalem he had to go through a wall dotted with gun turrets, and guarded by soldiers.  Israel calls the wall a separation barrier against terrorism.  Palestinians call it a racial segregation or apartheid wall.  To preach love in Bethlehem, the Patriarch had to go through that wall, stop at the checkpoints, and show his passport. 

There is little love lost between Israel and Palestine.  They have been at odds, even sometimes at war, with each other since Israel was declared a nation in 1948.  But in Bethlehem, the city of David, a predominantly Muslim town behind that separation barrier, Muslims, Jews and Christians live and work side by side in relative harmony. In Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace was born, peace prevails most of the time.  Acceptance and unity prevail, most of the time.  God’s love prevails, most of the time.

Jesus said, “just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.”  We must let our love and compassion fall upon all persons, and not limit ourselves to loving only those we like, or those who are like us.   Because that is how the world is.  And WE are not to conform to the ways of the world. Just as God “makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous” so too must we pour out our prayers, and shine the light of Christ’s love on even those who have caused us harm.

The practice of praying for the one who has hurt or harassed us leads to love for everyone.  The practice of praying good things for others leads to acceptance of the other, and to unity of purpose.  And that is how God would have us live - loving one another, loving our neighbor, loving our enemy, doing for others as we would like others to do for us - reconciling all God’s children with one another and with God.  That is our purpose in carrying the Good News of God’s forgiveness, love and grace as we have been commanded to do by Jesus, the Christ, our Lord and Savior.

It’s easy enough, as Jesus said, to pray for our friends and neighbors and siblings.  It is harder, much harder, to pray for our enemies, for people we disagree with, and for people who have hurt us.  Let us take that as our discipleship challenge this week - to pray for the people we don’t want to pray for, that they might know all the good that we wish for ourselves.  In this way  let us bring unity and acceptance of the other into our hearts and into God’s world.