Reconciliation
“So this makes us ambassadors for Christ, since God is making an appeal directly through us. Therefore, we entreat and implore you on behalf of Christ, and in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:20.
I have a bad habit. I read books. I want to briefly mention one I have just read. Today, it is considered a classic and it was written back in 1966. That work, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787, is about how the Constitution of the United States of America came together.
Now, given that there is so much discourse today about the faith practices of politicians and even the faith practices of the founders of this nation, what the author of this book, Catherine Drinker Bowen, had to say about those founders and their faith practices, lo these forty-four years ago, is instructive. It is instructive because it illustrates many of our founders were Christian in name only.
Bowen states (quote): “Deism was in the air.” To be clear and to define that: Deism believes a Supreme Being created the universe and that the Supreme Being can be determined using reason and by observing the natural world, without need for faith of any kind.
As she states, Deism was in the air. It was a common belief in revolutionary times. It embraced the science of Newton and rejected dogma. Deists called it “natural religion.” In short, Deism says God created the world but did not interfere thereafter with its workings.
Among those who claimed Deistic tendencies were Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Paine and many, many more, in fact, a veritable who’s who of those involved with the founding of this nation. To be clear, the record says all these venerable people attended churches we would label as Christian.
But the writings and the public statements made by these folks about religion were decidedly Deist and therefore decidedly not Christian. They proclaimed and applauded this belief in a God who wound up the universe, set it moving and then abandoned it. And Deism is, in many quarters, still a popular belief. [1] (Slight pause.)
Now, this next piece of information might sound like a leap of logic to some. Believe me, it is not.
Have you heard about the flap over the commentator Glenn Beck? He told his audience that if their church or church web site said anything about social justice, they should leave that church because the words social justice are only used by organizations which support Communism and Nazism.
Well, that may be Beck’s opinion. But he has gotten push back from many church quarters, on both the left and the right.
Of course, mainline Protestants, known for social justice positions, took umbrage. But even the Southern Baptists, not exactly a group of liberals, have condemned Beck. Perhaps most prominently, he raised the ire of Roman Catholics.
Writing on the web site of the magazine America the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit, outlines a history of social action positions proclaimed by Popes over the course several centuries. Then Father Martin takes this defense of social action one step further.
One could assume Beck is telling people to leave the Roman Church, he says, since the Roman Church is deeply involved in social action. But Beck is saying something else, insists Martin. Leave Christianity— period.
Martin quotes a Catholic Archbishop of Brazil, the late Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara, who is noted for saying (quote): “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” [2] (Slight pause.)
Is God not a God concerned with social issues, social justice? In many quarters this is still a popular belief. (Slight pause.)
Here’s a question: what is the nature of God? Please notice I did not ask about an explanation of God, such as the classic Christian formula has it: God is Trinity. I asked what is the nature of God? In other words, how does God interact with us? What is the response of God to the human condition? (Slight pause.)
At the Bible Study last Wednesday evening— by the way, you are all invited to attend the Bible study it happens most Wednesday evenings here— at the Bible Study it was pointed out the words of Paul are often dense, often hard to understand. (Quote:) “So this makes us ambassadors for Christ, since God is making an appeal directly through us. Therefore, we entreat and implore you on behalf of Christ, and in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God.”
At the time it was pointed out that Paul’s words can be dense, I agreed. I said they are hard to understand. I was wrong. What the Apostle does is start with an assumption about what the reader knows.
In fact, if the reader does not know or does not realize the assumptions Paul makes about what we know, then Paul is hard to understand. But Paul can be readily understood if we know what those assumptions are.
So, what is Paul assuming we know? (Slight pause.) God loves each of us. God loves humanity. God wants to be in covenant with us. In covenant, God has acted and is acting in history.
God acted in history through the Messiah, who is Jesus. This is an affirmation of the covenant God made with humanity. We are, thereby, instruments of the work of this covenant, the work of the Dominion of God. (Slight pause.)
There are many, many common understandings about God, as Catherine Drinker Bowen puts it (quote), “in the air.” These understandings surround us. They include a god who wound up the universe and set it on its course but does not act in our lives and a god who does not care about social justice.
These gods in the atmosphere which surrounds us include the Santa Claus god, one who is supposed to grant whatever we pray for. There is also the god who can be readily or easily be understood without studying Scripture and without grappling with Scripture.
Another prevalent god is the one who does not invite us to do the work of the Dominion— feeding the hungry, caring for the sick. Another prevalent god is a blatantly prejudicial God who seems to somehow always agree with the stand we take. Another equally prejudicial God insists people cause their own trouble and that trouble is never caused by the pressures of society or the dominant systems found in society. (Slight pause.)
These are all gods. And all these are secular gods. None of these descriptions many people believe to be accurate illustrates the God of Scripture. None of these descriptions many people believe to be accurate illustrates the God of Jewish and Christian history. (Slight pause.)
In one specific sense, the God described by Paul is not as easy to understand as the God described in the Gospels. That is because Gospel descriptions are in story form. Today we heard the three stories of the lost in the Fifteenth Chapter of Luke. [3]
The last one is commonly called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but should be called the Parable of the Loving Parent. And, indeed, in many translations, the parent says to the child who has stayed home (quote): “...you are always— with me...”
Now, the exact same five words in the translation I used today were put this way (quote): “...you are with me— always...” Do you see the difference? “...you are always— with me....” verses “...you are with me— always...”?
For me, “...you are always— with me...” has a sense of a child who is less than willing to be there, a child being dragged along. However, “...you are with me— always...” has a sense that the parent is surrounding the child with an all encompassing love. (Slight pause.)
So, is Paul hard to understand? No. You see, Paul knows the story. Paul is not hard to understand, if you start where Paul starts: with the story.
And this is the story Paul knows: God loves. God surrounds us with love. God loves each of us. God loves humanity. God wants to be in covenant with us. In covenant, God has acted and is acting in history.
God acted in history through the Messiah, who is Jesus. The advent of the Messiah is an affirmation of the covenant God made with humanity. We are, therefore, instruments of the work of this covenant, the work of the Dominion of God.
Now, once we do understand the story, it does present us with a challenge. Are we willing to be (quote): “ambassadors for Christ.” Are we willing to be (quote): “reconciled to God,” this God who invites us to be instruments of justice, instruments of peace, instruments of truth, instruments of hope, instruments of wisdom, instruments of love. Amen.
03/14/2010
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Christianity is not simply a religion or a belief or a faith or a philosophy. Christianity is a way of life, a way of thinking about the world and the relationship of God with the world and with all of humanity. It is, hence, a life long journey, an adventure and an experience in which we constantly learn about ourselves and about God. So, I suppose a question to ask of ourselves is: are we willing to sign up for the life long work of being (quote): ‘ambassadors for Christ,’ and the life long work of being (quote): ‘reconciled to God.’ That may be a little more challenging than courtesy on a golf course. What do you think?” [4]
1] Page 215 and ff. Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787; © 1966 Back Bay Books/ Little Brown and Company; Hachette Book Group USA; New York; Republished 1986.
2] America Magazine ~ Glenn Beck to Jesus: Drop Dead ~ A Blog ~ James Martin, S.J. http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?id=21159420-3048-741E-7761300524585116
3] It should be noted that all of Chapter 15 of Luke was read, as opposed to the Lectionary assignment. The translation used was the Inclusive Language Version by the Priests for Equity.
4] At the Children’s Time the Pastor and another parishioner (with a putter) hit some golf balls toward a target and then the pastor talked about the fact that there was a courtesy on the course which said you did not walk in the line between the ball and the hole of another golfer. The pastor explained this was not just a courtesy but a way of life. Then the pastor related that to the fact that living our life with God was also a “way of life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment