"A Dwelling Place for God"
Once upon a time, when David was king, he was talking with Nathan, the man of God, about building a house to replace the tent in which (so it was thought) God was currently residing. Nathan agreed that it was a solid idea.
But it turns out, God was offended by the idea. God never asked for a house, and God certainly didn't need David to build him a house, as if God were one of David's wives. God was not going to be "kept" by David.
David's mistake was thinking that God was somehow limited to the tabernacle (the God-tent), that God's presence could be carried around in the ark of the covenant (the God-box). But it was a common mistake, one that the people in the biblical stories make again and again. It's written that way because that's the way people are-- we constantly need reminding, that God does not live in a box. Or a Tent, or on a Mountain, or in a Temple or in a City... though God can be experienced in any or all of these places.
We forget, that God is not limited to our side of the border. That we cannot claim to have God on our side, because God is not going to put up with that kind of talk. As if we were God's keepers.
Paul, in his letter to the church folk in Ephesus, reminisced about how he used to think of Ephesians as foreigners, aliens, nobodies. But he no longer thought of them that way. "You are no longer strangers," he wrote. Once he would have thought of them as filth, but he wrote to them to remind them that they were "a dwelling place for God." And God's presence is not filth.
We worship in special buildings we call "churches" or "temples" or "congregations" or "sanctuaries." Sometimes people refer to their church as "God's house." I remember my mother scolding me for kicking the pew in front of me when I was particularly bored, she said something about it not being polite to kick the furniture when you are a guest in someone's house. I laughed, derisively as only a 6-year-old can, and said, "but this isn't anybody's house!"
"Yes it is," she replied, solemnly. "This is Gawd's house and that is Gawd's furniture."
I was, naturally, horrified. I haven't kicked a pew since (not on purpose anyway). I can not commend my mother's parenting style, but it did have the desired immediate effect.
We call it "God's house" (and perhaps even "God's furniture") to signify our respect for the place, and for the purpose to which it is dedicated, but, let's make this perfectly clear: God is not kept in any kind of box, not a wood-frame church in the vale, not a cathedral, crystal or otherwise.
In fact, God is so beyond any of our boxes.
God is so beyond the limits of language that anything we say about God is inadequate, and inaccurate. Including this.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
For Sunday, July 12: The Death of the Mentor
Mark 6:14-29
It is a classic theme in biblical literature, and it is a universal theme: The death of the mentor, the master, the teacher, becomes the crucible in which the hero is refined by fire. Moses ascends to the mountaintop and does not return, Joshua leads the Hebrew people to the promised land. Elijah is carried to heaven in the firey chariot, Elisha takes up his mantle. Master Po is killed by the emperor's nephew, Kwai Chang Caine wanders the American West, defending the defenceless. Obi Wan Kenobi is killed by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker saves the princess.
The relationship between John the baptizer and Jesus may have been that of teacher and student, master and apprentice, leader and follower. The gospel accounts concur that John emerged first on the public scene, that people went to John to hear what he had to say, that John's disciples participated in a ritual cleansing in the Jordan river, and that Jesus also participated in this ritual. If Jesus was baptized by John, was Jesus a disciple of John? Probably so, but if we trace how the gospel accounts differ, we can see how the interpretation of this relationship changed as time went on.
Mark, the earliest gospel, begins with a description of John the baptizer, who proclaims "the one who is more powerful than I is coming," but John does not directly identify Jesus as "the one." Mark simply states that Jesus "was baptized by John in the Jordan." The gospel of Luke suggests that John and Jesus recognized each other while they were still babies in their mother's wombs, that the elder (John) leaped for joy at the prenatal presence of the younger. The gospel of Matthew asserts that John realized immediately that he should be subservient to Jesus, and further asserts that Jesus humbly allowed himself to be baptized by John, "to fulfill all righteousness." And yet, in both Matthew and Luke, John's early confidence in Jesus seems to have waned when John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (Matt 11:3, Luke 7:19).
By the time the gospel according to John was assembled, the tradition clearly had elevated Jesus above John (and everyone else), Jesus being pre-existent and omniscient. John is granted a dose of paranormal perception, it seems, when he shouts, "behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" And look carefully at this gospel, is there any mention of Jesus being baptized at all, by anyone? No, there is not. John testifies that he saw the spirit descend upon Jesus, and that is how John knows that Jesus is the Son of God. But any claim to John baptizing Jesus is conspicuously absent. What the author leaves out of the story is as important as what the author adds to the story.
So, though later tradition clearly disagrees, I believe the earliest Jesus traditions indicate that John the baptizer was a mentor to Jesus, that Jesus was a disciple of John. If this is so, then the arrest and later the death of John the baptizer may have been the event that led Jesus to begin his own public ministry. He picked up Elijah's mantle.
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’
It is a classic theme in biblical literature, and it is a universal theme: The death of the mentor, the master, the teacher, becomes the crucible in which the hero is refined by fire. Moses ascends to the mountaintop and does not return, Joshua leads the Hebrew people to the promised land. Elijah is carried to heaven in the firey chariot, Elisha takes up his mantle. Master Po is killed by the emperor's nephew, Kwai Chang Caine wanders the American West, defending the defenceless. Obi Wan Kenobi is killed by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker saves the princess.
The relationship between John the baptizer and Jesus may have been that of teacher and student, master and apprentice, leader and follower. The gospel accounts concur that John emerged first on the public scene, that people went to John to hear what he had to say, that John's disciples participated in a ritual cleansing in the Jordan river, and that Jesus also participated in this ritual. If Jesus was baptized by John, was Jesus a disciple of John? Probably so, but if we trace how the gospel accounts differ, we can see how the interpretation of this relationship changed as time went on.
Mark, the earliest gospel, begins with a description of John the baptizer, who proclaims "the one who is more powerful than I is coming," but John does not directly identify Jesus as "the one." Mark simply states that Jesus "was baptized by John in the Jordan." The gospel of Luke suggests that John and Jesus recognized each other while they were still babies in their mother's wombs, that the elder (John) leaped for joy at the prenatal presence of the younger. The gospel of Matthew asserts that John realized immediately that he should be subservient to Jesus, and further asserts that Jesus humbly allowed himself to be baptized by John, "to fulfill all righteousness." And yet, in both Matthew and Luke, John's early confidence in Jesus seems to have waned when John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (Matt 11:3, Luke 7:19).
By the time the gospel according to John was assembled, the tradition clearly had elevated Jesus above John (and everyone else), Jesus being pre-existent and omniscient. John is granted a dose of paranormal perception, it seems, when he shouts, "behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" And look carefully at this gospel, is there any mention of Jesus being baptized at all, by anyone? No, there is not. John testifies that he saw the spirit descend upon Jesus, and that is how John knows that Jesus is the Son of God. But any claim to John baptizing Jesus is conspicuously absent. What the author leaves out of the story is as important as what the author adds to the story.
So, though later tradition clearly disagrees, I believe the earliest Jesus traditions indicate that John the baptizer was a mentor to Jesus, that Jesus was a disciple of John. If this is so, then the arrest and later the death of John the baptizer may have been the event that led Jesus to begin his own public ministry. He picked up Elijah's mantle.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
For Sunday, July 5, 2009
Scripture:
Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13
Sermon Title: It's the Journey
"Whether they hear or refuse to hear, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them." It was General Synod, meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in 1997. I was a delegate assigned to a committee to consider a resolution calling for the closure of the US military base on Okinawa. We heard testimony from representatives from the civilian community on Okinawa, about the abuses of power and criminal activity of men stationed on the base. They were asking for our support.
One of the arguments against the resolution was that it would not make any difference what the General Synod of the United Church of Christ resolved, there was little or no chance of the US giving up that military base.
The morning before the resolution was presented to the plenary session, I read this scripture from Ezekiel: "Whether they hear, or refuse to hear, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them."
The prophetic church is called to proclaim God's reign of peace. We are called to speak up for the least and last of God's children, and demand justice. Whether the powers that be hear, or refuse to hear, we are called to prophesy.
Outcomes, or likely outcomes, don't matter. God is asking us to be faithful. It's not the destination that counts so much as the journey. If we walk, step by step, in love, showing mercy, loving kindness, then we will know that we have been faithful, and eventually, the world will know that there has been a prophetic church in our nation, in our time.
The resolution passed.
Ezekiel 2:1-5
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD." Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13
"Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house."
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."
So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Sermon Title: It's the Journey
"Whether they hear or refuse to hear, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them." It was General Synod, meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in 1997. I was a delegate assigned to a committee to consider a resolution calling for the closure of the US military base on Okinawa. We heard testimony from representatives from the civilian community on Okinawa, about the abuses of power and criminal activity of men stationed on the base. They were asking for our support.
One of the arguments against the resolution was that it would not make any difference what the General Synod of the United Church of Christ resolved, there was little or no chance of the US giving up that military base.
The morning before the resolution was presented to the plenary session, I read this scripture from Ezekiel: "Whether they hear, or refuse to hear, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them."
The prophetic church is called to proclaim God's reign of peace. We are called to speak up for the least and last of God's children, and demand justice. Whether the powers that be hear, or refuse to hear, we are called to prophesy.
Outcomes, or likely outcomes, don't matter. God is asking us to be faithful. It's not the destination that counts so much as the journey. If we walk, step by step, in love, showing mercy, loving kindness, then we will know that we have been faithful, and eventually, the world will know that there has been a prophetic church in our nation, in our time.
The resolution passed.
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