09/25/2016 ~ Proper 21 ~ Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31.
The Law, the Prophets
“‘Please, I beg you,’ the man who had been rich said. ‘If someone would only come to them from the dead, they would repent.’ ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,’ Abraham and Sarah replied, ‘neither will they be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.’” — Luke 16:30-31.
My guess is the kind of thing I am about to describe has happened to nearly every last one of us. There is something in your home or in your office you see every day or something you pass on the street nearly every day that has always been there or has been there for a very, very long time.
And you just... don’t... pay... any... attention... to... it. It is simply a part of your life, a part of your environment.
Then suddenly you notice it. And you realize that thing has either been there for a very, very long time or has always been there.
That happened to me this week. This [the pastor hold up an old fashioned mercury gage thermometer] has been resting on the wall right outside my office. It’s probably been hanging there since the day I arrived twenty plus years ago. I happened to notice it staring at me from that wall just last Wednesday.
It’s likely I had, at some point before this, actually taken note of it. But taking note of something is not noticing it. They are not the same. For me, noticing something means really recognizing not just its presence but its reality maybe even its function. For whatever reason, on Wednesday I noticed it.
When I did notice it I turned to Cheri Willard, our Parish Coordinator, who was sitting at her desk and said, “I wonder how long this thing has been here.”
She said, “My bet is it was there the day you arrived.”
I said, “I’m not sure I’ve ever paid any attention to it before.”
Our sexton, Eric Burgher, who was also in the office, chimed in. “It’s got to be old. It’s a mercury thermometer. Everything today is digital.”
Joking, I said, “How... old... is... it?” I answered my own question. “It’s so old... it was hanging on the wall in the room where they had the Last Supper. One of the Apostles checked it said, ‘It’s cool enough in that room now. Let’s all go in and chow down.’” (Slight pause.)
Now, my story about this thermometer might seem trivial. And it is. But, using this trivial thing, I want to point to what I think and hope is a larger idea.
In the larger sense, this is the question we need to ask: are we formed by our environment or does our environment form us? Are we shaped by our environment or does our environment shape us?
Do we ignore the environment in which and with which we live and/or are we simply blissfully unaware of that environment. And the key issue— therefore, does our environment both form us and shape us and even though it forms and shapes us, are we totally unaware that our environment has that kind overwhelming influence on us? (Slight pause.)
Let me try another way to look at this. I know I am somewhat overweight so this is a dangerous area for me but this is an example of asking an essential question about the reality around us, the reality in which we live, the reality of our environment and the fact that we simply do not notice that reality. How is it a salad costs $7 and a burger costs $1?
Does it really cost more to grow a head of lettuce than to raise a beef cow to maturity. If the answer is yes, then we are raising both lettuce and cows with amazing inefficiency.
And therefore, until we come to grips with what it really costs for healthy salad and what it really costs for a less than healthy burger, until and unless we can explain that inconvenient difference, we should not consult or tout another article about obesity in America. We might ignore it, but we should know from where and how obesity in American comes— $7 dollar salads and $1 burgers. I’ll bet that was helpful in unpacking that right? (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work known as Luke: “‘Please, I beg you,’ the man who had been rich said. ‘If someone would only come to them from the dead, they would repent.’ ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,’ Abraham and Sarah replied, ‘neither will they be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Slight pause.)
Let me unpack something about this reading. For those who first heard or read these words in the First Century of the Common Era, the phrase “Moses and the prophets” meant something very specific.
“Moses” meant the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pentateuch was and is sometimes referred to as “the Law.” The prophets were considered a commentary on the Law.
But those terms need to be unpacked still a little more. In the First Century of the Common Era the word “Law” did not mean what it means to us. When we hear “Law” we think it’s a set of rules. It was not thought of as a set of rules in Biblical times.
Those who lived in Biblical times thought of the Pentateuch, the “Law,” as instruction, teaching, an opportunity to learn. These were not rules. Therefore, the “Prophets” were simply an elaboration and an interpretation of the instructions, the aforementioned opportunity to learn.
So within the context of instruction, within that context, the Bible gives an amazing amount of instruction about and attention to material possessions. In parables and oracles it warns about the delusions of material possessions.
Scripture directly addresses the way we humans make idols of our possessions, our where-with-all. Scripture repeatedly directs our attention to the poor and the destitute and the need to help.
Indeed, in this story it’s clear the rich person knows about Moses, the Law and the prophets. Further, the story never says rich person mistreated Lazarus.
So, the issue is not about someone being mean or abusive or even arrogant. The rich person simply never noticed Lazarus. On top of that, the rich person clearly never even noticed Moses and the Prophets. They were just there— a part of the environment— unnoticed.
So, as to what this story is about, it is clearly not about any reward in the afterlife and should not be read that way. This story is about what is happening here, now.
The rich person simply does not recognize what’s happening here, now. So perhaps, the key question for us is simple. What is happening here, now? And to be clear, this question primarily applies to what we do not notice but is right in front of us. (Slight pause.)
So, what is right in front of us? Here’s the list I came up with. Racism, sexism, climate change, class oppression, hunger, inequity in food distribution, ruining of he environment, famine and drought caused my humans, poverty, isolationism, inadequate healthcare, personal violence, violence sanctioned by institutions, nationalism, homelessness, verbal abuse, bearing false witness, denigrating others, drug trade, human trafficking— you name the injustice and we humans partake in it and we forward it.
And yes, my bet is each of us does see, does notice some of the aforementioned problems. On the other hand, we also tend to focus on just our own pet peeves. But the world is larger than just our pet peeves. Just like I did not notice a thermometer hanging on the wall, there are a multitude of things we ignore or just do not see.
Any one of these issues could be called more pressing than the next, more urgent than the next, more significant than the next. Further, these problems do not just happen here in this country. These are world wide issues.
Now, having used the word “injustice” I need to take a moment to define injustice for you. Injustice has a simple definition: people violating people. The bad news is we all do it. We all violate other people, often unintentionally, often unknowingly— but it happens. And there’s another truth about injustice is also simple: injustice knows no borders. Injustice knows no boundaries. Injustice knows no race. Injustice knows no creed. (Slight pause.)
All that leads me to the second I think more important item we ignore: “Moses and the Prophets.” I want to suggest the term “Moses and the Prophets”— what it really means is— the Word and the will of God.
And, yes, Scripture is really clear about what the Word and the will of God says: first, love God. Second, love everybody.
So, since we humans continue to commit acts of violence, acts of injustice, what part of love everybody do we not understand? What part of God’s justice— not our justice, God’s justice— do we fail to understand?
Of this I am actually quite sure. Perhaps most the prevalent injustice out there is simply not noticing. Amen.
09/25/2016
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “The late Thomas Merton was Catholic writer, Trappist Monk, mystic. These are his words: ‘Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is love and this love will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.’”
BENEDICTION: There is a cost and there is a joy in discipleship. There is a cost and there is a joy in truly being church, in deeply loving one another. May the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Sunday, September 18, 2016
SERMON ~ 09/18/2016 ~ “Pain”
09/18/2016 ~ Proper 20 ~ Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 ~ Rally Day.
Pain
“Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why, then, has the health of my people / not been attended to, restored? / O that my head were a spring of water; / O that my eyes were a fountain of tears, / so that I might weep day and night / for the slain of my people!” — Jeremiah 8:22-9:1
Many of you know being a pastor is a second career for me. Those who you who know me really, really well know being a pastor is about the seventh career for me.
I was reminded of that career change this week because, among my local church and denominational responsibilities, I am now experiencing my third go-around with our Susquehanna Association Committee on Authorized Ministry. And this week the committee was reviewing the list of requirements to be met for those exploring a call to ministry, ordination or authorized minister status with the denomination— in short, those seeking to be a pastor with the United Church of Christ.
In the United Church of Christ a Committee on Authorized Ministry is the one committee each and every Association both needs to have and is required to have. This Committee in each local Association is the place where the standing of Authorized Ministers is held. It is also the place where the examination for authorized ministry happens. It is also the place where any ministerial misconduct is examined. All these are not easy tasks nor are they taken lightly.
These days we call a person exploring ministry— we call that person a “MID”— a Member in Discernment. Back when I was first exploring a call to ministry we said the person was “In Care”— in care of the local Church and in care of the local Association. I happen to like the term “Member in Discernment” better than “In Care.” The term “In Care” always felt a little paternalistic to me.
I say I like “Member in Discernment” better than “In Care” because this process is not simply a matter of oversight and/or supervision by the local Church and Association. The one seeking authorization needs to be proactive throughout the process.
What I realized as we reviewed the steps toward authorization is some of how this works has not changed since I entered into the process in the Great State of Maine, especially the part about the individual being proactive. Yes, the Local Church needs to form a Discernment Committee to assist the candidate. And yes, the local Association needs to assign a mentor, usually a pastor, to assist the candidate. But the person seeking authorization has a lot to do.
Back when I was first in the process I was from Brunswick, Maine, so I was a member of the Cumberland Association in Southern Maine. But I was attending Bangor Seminary, 100 plus miles north, in what used to be called the Penobscott Piscataquis Association. Say that en times fast, if you like— Penobscott Piscataquis. Being the Eastern-most Association in the United States, hence where the Sun rises first, they now call themselves the Sunrise Association— a wise change of names I think.
In any case, I was assigned a mentor in Cumberland, who I saw when I traveled South and sometimes those trips were intentional, just to see that mentor. Further, I constantly wrote letters to the committee about my progress at Seminary, any supply preaching assignments, any issues I felt arose on my journey.
As I indicated, this needed to be a two way street. I needed to be proactive with them, as much if not more so, then they were with me. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the Scroll of the Prophet Jeremiah: “Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why, then, has the health of my people / not been attended to, restored? / O that my head were a spring of water; / O that my eyes were a fountain of tears, / so that I might weep day and night / for the slain of my people!” (Slight pause.)
When we do the lectionary Bible Study on Wednesdays at 6 here in this church— and yes, everyone is invited, Wednesdays at 6— when we do Bible Study I think I, invariably, find out things about a passage I did not realize before. And it is my hope all those in attendance find that true. I think this was true last Wednesday.
One of the key aspects of this reading, one of the things to which we need to pay close attention, is ‘who says what?’ What does God say? What does Jeremiah say?
The vast majority of the words we hear in this passage— mostly a lament and we get a lot of that here— is venting by the prophet. To be blunt— Jeremiah is an expert at this. Which is not to say anguish on the part of the prophet is unwarranted. The pain we hear about is real. It leads to the famous, poetic plea to God which asks why there is no balm available, asks God about the lack of a physician in the land.
But, given everything which is said in this passage— and this for me was the key of what we discovered at Bible study and you have to read the passage really, really carefully to realize this— Yahweh, God, makes one statement, offers one sentence and only one sentence. “Why do they provoke me to anger / with their graven images, / with their carved images / with their useless foreign gods?” Everything else is Jeremiah. (Slight pause.)
I need to say two things about what God is portrayed as saying. First, this is clearly a compassionate God. Despite what the Prophet intones about there being no balm nor a physician, God is not absent at all. In fact God is grieving over the plight of the people. God is in pain that Israel has broken the sacred covenant relationship with false gods.
In these words we discover God is not an impassive deity. God is not a distant deity. Yahweh is bound up with the anguish of the prophet. Yahweh is bound up with the anguish of the people for whom the prophet speaks. This God, who is not willing to accept or to tolerate the faithlessness of Israel, nevertheless, cannot abandon the chosen community.
There is a second thing to be said about the words of Yahweh, God. God throws the ball back into the court of the chosen community. While questioning why the people are worshiping graven images, carved images, foreign gods, what is clearly left open by God is that the people might repent, might turn toward God, might work with God. (Slight pause.)
Well on a slightly different tact here, most of you know I am a baseball fan. When I was a youngster in New York City, back in 1962, a new team came into existence— the Mets. I might add they were often seen as the hapless Mets. No team in modern Baseball has lost more games in one season. One Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel, their first manager, famously said this about that atrocious team: “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
I hope you won’t find the comparison too blasphemous if I suggest that is exactly what God is saying to the people. “Can’t anyone here do this?” “Can’t anyone here be attentive?” “Can’t anyone here love?” “Can’t anyone here cooperate?” “Can’t anyone here work?” “Can’t anyone heed my will?” “Can’t anyone here keep covenant?” (Slight pause.)
All that brings me back to the Committee on Authorized Ministry and Members in Discernment. Here is a sometimes ignored truth: human civilization was born of cooperation, people working with people.
Even so called hermits in ancient times needed to interact with people once in a while. The “lone ranger” is an interesting concept, but it’s not workable in the real world. Everyone needs to rely on others.
If one is a Member in Discernment that person needs to be proactive. That person cannot presume a paternalistic Committee on Authorized Ministry and a paternalistic local church will get them through the process. The person in discernment need to actively work.
God, you see, needs us to be active also. God needs us to do. God needs us to work. And yes, God loves us. But God is neither paternalistic nor manipulative.
Further, we need to remember how the love of God among us is really displayed. The love of God is displayed through our actions. As I am sure you have heard, God has no voice but ours, no hands but ours.
Yesterday, here, we had a great example of that when a group of people from this church got together to fed lunch to the workers from the Impact Project who put a new roof on someone’s trailer. In short, the lesson here is that talking personal responsibility for communal action is imperative. It’s the way things get done.
So yes, we are the real balm in Gilead. We are the physicians. Please note: I did not say ‘I am the balm.’ I did not say ‘I am the physician.’ We, we together, need to embrace the work of God. We, we together, need to embrace the will of God.
Communal action is the balm. Communal action is the physician. That was true in Gilead. That is true here, now. Amen.
09/18/2016
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I saw this aphorism a couple of days ago: ‘The Gospel is not about how to get into heaven after you die. It is about how you can help heaven be present to everyone with whom you come in contact before you die.’ That sounds like a covenant community to me.”
BENEDICTION: We are commissioned by God to carry God’s peace into the world. Our words and our deeds will be used by God, for we become messengers of God’s Word in our action. Let us recognize that God’s transforming power is forever among us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one and nothing else. Amen.
Pain
“Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why, then, has the health of my people / not been attended to, restored? / O that my head were a spring of water; / O that my eyes were a fountain of tears, / so that I might weep day and night / for the slain of my people!” — Jeremiah 8:22-9:1
Many of you know being a pastor is a second career for me. Those who you who know me really, really well know being a pastor is about the seventh career for me.
I was reminded of that career change this week because, among my local church and denominational responsibilities, I am now experiencing my third go-around with our Susquehanna Association Committee on Authorized Ministry. And this week the committee was reviewing the list of requirements to be met for those exploring a call to ministry, ordination or authorized minister status with the denomination— in short, those seeking to be a pastor with the United Church of Christ.
In the United Church of Christ a Committee on Authorized Ministry is the one committee each and every Association both needs to have and is required to have. This Committee in each local Association is the place where the standing of Authorized Ministers is held. It is also the place where the examination for authorized ministry happens. It is also the place where any ministerial misconduct is examined. All these are not easy tasks nor are they taken lightly.
These days we call a person exploring ministry— we call that person a “MID”— a Member in Discernment. Back when I was first exploring a call to ministry we said the person was “In Care”— in care of the local Church and in care of the local Association. I happen to like the term “Member in Discernment” better than “In Care.” The term “In Care” always felt a little paternalistic to me.
I say I like “Member in Discernment” better than “In Care” because this process is not simply a matter of oversight and/or supervision by the local Church and Association. The one seeking authorization needs to be proactive throughout the process.
What I realized as we reviewed the steps toward authorization is some of how this works has not changed since I entered into the process in the Great State of Maine, especially the part about the individual being proactive. Yes, the Local Church needs to form a Discernment Committee to assist the candidate. And yes, the local Association needs to assign a mentor, usually a pastor, to assist the candidate. But the person seeking authorization has a lot to do.
Back when I was first in the process I was from Brunswick, Maine, so I was a member of the Cumberland Association in Southern Maine. But I was attending Bangor Seminary, 100 plus miles north, in what used to be called the Penobscott Piscataquis Association. Say that en times fast, if you like— Penobscott Piscataquis. Being the Eastern-most Association in the United States, hence where the Sun rises first, they now call themselves the Sunrise Association— a wise change of names I think.
In any case, I was assigned a mentor in Cumberland, who I saw when I traveled South and sometimes those trips were intentional, just to see that mentor. Further, I constantly wrote letters to the committee about my progress at Seminary, any supply preaching assignments, any issues I felt arose on my journey.
As I indicated, this needed to be a two way street. I needed to be proactive with them, as much if not more so, then they were with me. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the Scroll of the Prophet Jeremiah: “Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why, then, has the health of my people / not been attended to, restored? / O that my head were a spring of water; / O that my eyes were a fountain of tears, / so that I might weep day and night / for the slain of my people!” (Slight pause.)
When we do the lectionary Bible Study on Wednesdays at 6 here in this church— and yes, everyone is invited, Wednesdays at 6— when we do Bible Study I think I, invariably, find out things about a passage I did not realize before. And it is my hope all those in attendance find that true. I think this was true last Wednesday.
One of the key aspects of this reading, one of the things to which we need to pay close attention, is ‘who says what?’ What does God say? What does Jeremiah say?
The vast majority of the words we hear in this passage— mostly a lament and we get a lot of that here— is venting by the prophet. To be blunt— Jeremiah is an expert at this. Which is not to say anguish on the part of the prophet is unwarranted. The pain we hear about is real. It leads to the famous, poetic plea to God which asks why there is no balm available, asks God about the lack of a physician in the land.
But, given everything which is said in this passage— and this for me was the key of what we discovered at Bible study and you have to read the passage really, really carefully to realize this— Yahweh, God, makes one statement, offers one sentence and only one sentence. “Why do they provoke me to anger / with their graven images, / with their carved images / with their useless foreign gods?” Everything else is Jeremiah. (Slight pause.)
I need to say two things about what God is portrayed as saying. First, this is clearly a compassionate God. Despite what the Prophet intones about there being no balm nor a physician, God is not absent at all. In fact God is grieving over the plight of the people. God is in pain that Israel has broken the sacred covenant relationship with false gods.
In these words we discover God is not an impassive deity. God is not a distant deity. Yahweh is bound up with the anguish of the prophet. Yahweh is bound up with the anguish of the people for whom the prophet speaks. This God, who is not willing to accept or to tolerate the faithlessness of Israel, nevertheless, cannot abandon the chosen community.
There is a second thing to be said about the words of Yahweh, God. God throws the ball back into the court of the chosen community. While questioning why the people are worshiping graven images, carved images, foreign gods, what is clearly left open by God is that the people might repent, might turn toward God, might work with God. (Slight pause.)
Well on a slightly different tact here, most of you know I am a baseball fan. When I was a youngster in New York City, back in 1962, a new team came into existence— the Mets. I might add they were often seen as the hapless Mets. No team in modern Baseball has lost more games in one season. One Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel, their first manager, famously said this about that atrocious team: “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
I hope you won’t find the comparison too blasphemous if I suggest that is exactly what God is saying to the people. “Can’t anyone here do this?” “Can’t anyone here be attentive?” “Can’t anyone here love?” “Can’t anyone here cooperate?” “Can’t anyone here work?” “Can’t anyone heed my will?” “Can’t anyone here keep covenant?” (Slight pause.)
All that brings me back to the Committee on Authorized Ministry and Members in Discernment. Here is a sometimes ignored truth: human civilization was born of cooperation, people working with people.
Even so called hermits in ancient times needed to interact with people once in a while. The “lone ranger” is an interesting concept, but it’s not workable in the real world. Everyone needs to rely on others.
If one is a Member in Discernment that person needs to be proactive. That person cannot presume a paternalistic Committee on Authorized Ministry and a paternalistic local church will get them through the process. The person in discernment need to actively work.
God, you see, needs us to be active also. God needs us to do. God needs us to work. And yes, God loves us. But God is neither paternalistic nor manipulative.
Further, we need to remember how the love of God among us is really displayed. The love of God is displayed through our actions. As I am sure you have heard, God has no voice but ours, no hands but ours.
Yesterday, here, we had a great example of that when a group of people from this church got together to fed lunch to the workers from the Impact Project who put a new roof on someone’s trailer. In short, the lesson here is that talking personal responsibility for communal action is imperative. It’s the way things get done.
So yes, we are the real balm in Gilead. We are the physicians. Please note: I did not say ‘I am the balm.’ I did not say ‘I am the physician.’ We, we together, need to embrace the work of God. We, we together, need to embrace the will of God.
Communal action is the balm. Communal action is the physician. That was true in Gilead. That is true here, now. Amen.
09/18/2016
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I saw this aphorism a couple of days ago: ‘The Gospel is not about how to get into heaven after you die. It is about how you can help heaven be present to everyone with whom you come in contact before you die.’ That sounds like a covenant community to me.”
BENEDICTION: We are commissioned by God to carry God’s peace into the world. Our words and our deeds will be used by God, for we become messengers of God’s Word in our action. Let us recognize that God’s transforming power is forever among us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one and nothing else. Amen.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
SERMON ~ 09/11/2016 ~ “False Gods”
09/11/2016 ~ Proper 19 ~ Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 51:1-10; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10 ~ Colorscape Weekend.
False Gods
“Yahweh, God, said to Moses, ‘Go down from the mountain now! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, acted perversely; in a very short time they have been quick to turn from the way I have given them; they have made for themselves, cast for themselves an image of a calf. They have worshiped it and made sacrifice to it and said, ‘O Israel! This is your god, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” — Exodus 32:7-8.
Those of you who know my wife, Bonnie, know she has an outstanding sense of humor. It’s one of the reasons I love her and one of the many reasons I asked her to marry me. And the fact that she agreed to marry me proves she has an outstanding sense of humor.
To be clear, it’s not that she says funny things. Rather, she says things funny— much more difficult and, indeed, a trait I treasure.
As a proof of that, back when I first entered Seminary she would be asked ‘Why did Joe decide to go to Seminary?’ but never offered what was, perhaps, the socially acceptable answer— something like, “Joe heard the call to ministry.” Instead Bonnie would respond, “Well, he needed to find some way to justify his collection of Bibles.”
If truth be told, I had an interest in Scripture way before I had a large enough number of Bibles to call it a collection. By the time I was in my early twenties I had read a lot about the Bible and its origins. That gave me a fairly good grasp of what happened in the course of the thousand years plus it took for the collection of writings to come together which form the work we today commonly call the Bible.
So, please note— despite its outward appearance, what it physically looks like— the Bible is not one book, one work. It’s a collection of books, works and, as I indicated, written and edited over the course of a thousand plus years. So, by definition, it was written and edited by multiple authors and editors at different times.
Further, within those books there are many forms of writing— poetry, prose, lyrics, parables, history, ritual, story-telling to name a few. Each of these forms comes with its own stylistic and linguistic parameters and, therefore, its own stylistic and linguistic parameters baggage.
All this comes back to the thought that I knew this information before coming anywhere near a Seminary. So this is not some kind of specialized knowledge which comes only with earning a Master of Divinity Degree.
Indeed, this is common knowledge, accessible to anyone interested in discovering it, willing to do the work to discover it. It’s actually the kind information you might get in an undergraduate course in the Bible as literature.
All that brings me to a story about my time Seminary. I first arrived at Bangor Theological Seminary in January and registered for the Spring semester. Of course, nine months later, in September, a new crop of students arrived for the Fall.
So, when Fall rolled around I was an old timer. I knew the ropes. I took one fellow who was about my age, also a second career person as was I, under my wing.
A short time after the semester started I got an emergency call from him. He had just left his first Hebrew Scriptures class, shocked beyond words. Why? The professor had said what I just said about the Bible— a thousand years, multiple authors.
It was a revelation to him. He said he had never heard it before. (Slight pause.)
I want to suggest he had actually heard all this information before, maybe even in church. But what I said about Scripture— a thousand years, multiple authors, etc.— does not fit our cultural picture of Scripture.
And because that description does not fit the cultural picture, it’s not that we don’t know it or have never heard it. Many people ignore that information or refuse to process it or cannot process it.
Thereby, it’s not the reality of these facts that gets rejected. The facts are not even heard because of our cultural blinders. The facts get replaced by the falsehood of cultural preference.
To be clear, perhaps because it’s simple, easy to grasp for many a cultural picture of Scripture— one book, one writer, inerrant, etc., etc., etc., can be and maybe even is emotionally satisfying— but it’s just not true. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work known as Exodus: “Yahweh, God, said to Moses, ‘Go down from the mountain now! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, acted perversely; in a very short time they have been quick to turn from the way I have given them; they have made for themselves, cast for themselves an image of a calf. They have worshiped it and made sacrifice to it and said, ‘O Israel! This is your god, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Slight pause.)
This episode of the golden calf comes quickly on the heels of the Exodus event. Scholars often name the Exodus event as the central episode of the Hebrew Scriptures. Indeed, as this passage states, the One Who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt is Yahweh, God.
Do note, popular culture would say the central episode of the Hebrew Scriptures is Moses receiving the so called “ten commandments” on Sinai. It is not. To reiterate, God leading the Israelites out of Egypt, the Exodus, is the central event.
In fact, what our culture calls the “ten commandments”— the central event of the Hebrew Scriptures— are known in Hebrew as the ten words. The Hebrew language does not even have a command tense.
Now, the story of the golden calf reflects an image of a god which would have been common in that era and in that part of the world. That’s one reason the Israelites would have readily (quote:) “...worshiped it and made sacrifice to it...” The calf is a cultural god, a familiar god, a common god in that time and place. And it is, of course, a false god.
The problem with false gods, cultural gods, is they do not reflect any kind of true, accurate, deep or spiritual reality. On the other hand, what makes false gods so attractive, tenacious and even emotionally satisfying is they do reflect cultural reality.
So what I’m also suggesting is, from a Biblical perspective, a cultural god is, at best and most of the time, suspect. Why? Cultural gods point toward a “what,”— a calf for instance— not toward Who. Scripture points toward Who. God is Who.
God is, you see, the One with Whom we are in relationship. If we are in relationship with God we, by definition, trust God.
After all, what kind of relationship can we have with a calf, golden or otherwise? How can we trust a calf, golden or otherwise? And since we cannot trust false gods, when we worship false gods— and by the way we do worship false gods— that lack of trust produces one thing and one thing only— fear.
You see, the biggest calf, the most important and sinister calf for the Israelites and for us— the most important and sinister false god for the Israelites and for us and is the calf called fear. Indeed, why were the Israelites worshiping a golden calf? Fear— Moses, you see, had disappeared onto the mountain and they suddenly were worried their leader would not come back.
Thinking of Moses rather than of God as their leader led them down a path toward fear. And to make anyone— in this case Moses— more important than God is in fact to worship of a cultural god. This initial lack of trust in God eventually but always translates into fear. (Slight pause.)
Let me say two things about trust and love and how they intertwine. First, sometimes psychologists say the opposite of love is not hate but apathy— apathy— you don’t even care enough to hate. I want to suggest the opposite of love is neither hate nor is it apathy. The opposite of love is fear.
And if you read the newspapers or listen to media it should be obvious to you we live in a society wracked with fear. Fear is rampant in our culture. I think fear is rampant in our culture because we worship calves, false gods— a lot of them.
Indeed, the list of false gods in our culture is long one. The Bible, itself, is often a false God. Some people worship the Bible rather than God revealed therein.
And it’s easy to add to that list— sports, television, teams, politics, politicians, security— false gods all— I am sure you can each supply your own list of false gods. I don’t need to create one for you.
The second thing I need to say about love and trust is that love and rust are intertwined. You cannot love without trust. You cannot trust without love. (Slight pause.)
In the covenant promises of the wedding ceremony I use the partners promise to one another that they will love in each other what they already know and they will trust what they do not yet know. Love and trust— by definition intertwined.
All of which is to say, the real false god, the most prevalent false god in our world is fear. And there are a lot of people out there sending that message: you need to be afraid. And, of course, the real true God is love. My, what a novel idea— God is love. Amen.
09/11/2016
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch writer, a Christian who, along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Holocaust during World War II. Her most famous book is The Hiding Place. This is a quote from her writings. ‘Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.’”
BENEDICTION: Eternal God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our striving for justice and truth, to confront one another in love, and to work together with mutual patience, acceptance and respect. Send us out, sure in Your grace and Your peace with surpasses understanding, to live faithfully. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.
False Gods
“Yahweh, God, said to Moses, ‘Go down from the mountain now! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, acted perversely; in a very short time they have been quick to turn from the way I have given them; they have made for themselves, cast for themselves an image of a calf. They have worshiped it and made sacrifice to it and said, ‘O Israel! This is your god, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” — Exodus 32:7-8.
Those of you who know my wife, Bonnie, know she has an outstanding sense of humor. It’s one of the reasons I love her and one of the many reasons I asked her to marry me. And the fact that she agreed to marry me proves she has an outstanding sense of humor.
To be clear, it’s not that she says funny things. Rather, she says things funny— much more difficult and, indeed, a trait I treasure.
As a proof of that, back when I first entered Seminary she would be asked ‘Why did Joe decide to go to Seminary?’ but never offered what was, perhaps, the socially acceptable answer— something like, “Joe heard the call to ministry.” Instead Bonnie would respond, “Well, he needed to find some way to justify his collection of Bibles.”
If truth be told, I had an interest in Scripture way before I had a large enough number of Bibles to call it a collection. By the time I was in my early twenties I had read a lot about the Bible and its origins. That gave me a fairly good grasp of what happened in the course of the thousand years plus it took for the collection of writings to come together which form the work we today commonly call the Bible.
So, please note— despite its outward appearance, what it physically looks like— the Bible is not one book, one work. It’s a collection of books, works and, as I indicated, written and edited over the course of a thousand plus years. So, by definition, it was written and edited by multiple authors and editors at different times.
Further, within those books there are many forms of writing— poetry, prose, lyrics, parables, history, ritual, story-telling to name a few. Each of these forms comes with its own stylistic and linguistic parameters and, therefore, its own stylistic and linguistic parameters baggage.
All this comes back to the thought that I knew this information before coming anywhere near a Seminary. So this is not some kind of specialized knowledge which comes only with earning a Master of Divinity Degree.
Indeed, this is common knowledge, accessible to anyone interested in discovering it, willing to do the work to discover it. It’s actually the kind information you might get in an undergraduate course in the Bible as literature.
All that brings me to a story about my time Seminary. I first arrived at Bangor Theological Seminary in January and registered for the Spring semester. Of course, nine months later, in September, a new crop of students arrived for the Fall.
So, when Fall rolled around I was an old timer. I knew the ropes. I took one fellow who was about my age, also a second career person as was I, under my wing.
A short time after the semester started I got an emergency call from him. He had just left his first Hebrew Scriptures class, shocked beyond words. Why? The professor had said what I just said about the Bible— a thousand years, multiple authors.
It was a revelation to him. He said he had never heard it before. (Slight pause.)
I want to suggest he had actually heard all this information before, maybe even in church. But what I said about Scripture— a thousand years, multiple authors, etc.— does not fit our cultural picture of Scripture.
And because that description does not fit the cultural picture, it’s not that we don’t know it or have never heard it. Many people ignore that information or refuse to process it or cannot process it.
Thereby, it’s not the reality of these facts that gets rejected. The facts are not even heard because of our cultural blinders. The facts get replaced by the falsehood of cultural preference.
To be clear, perhaps because it’s simple, easy to grasp for many a cultural picture of Scripture— one book, one writer, inerrant, etc., etc., etc., can be and maybe even is emotionally satisfying— but it’s just not true. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work known as Exodus: “Yahweh, God, said to Moses, ‘Go down from the mountain now! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, acted perversely; in a very short time they have been quick to turn from the way I have given them; they have made for themselves, cast for themselves an image of a calf. They have worshiped it and made sacrifice to it and said, ‘O Israel! This is your god, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Slight pause.)
This episode of the golden calf comes quickly on the heels of the Exodus event. Scholars often name the Exodus event as the central episode of the Hebrew Scriptures. Indeed, as this passage states, the One Who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt is Yahweh, God.
Do note, popular culture would say the central episode of the Hebrew Scriptures is Moses receiving the so called “ten commandments” on Sinai. It is not. To reiterate, God leading the Israelites out of Egypt, the Exodus, is the central event.
In fact, what our culture calls the “ten commandments”— the central event of the Hebrew Scriptures— are known in Hebrew as the ten words. The Hebrew language does not even have a command tense.
Now, the story of the golden calf reflects an image of a god which would have been common in that era and in that part of the world. That’s one reason the Israelites would have readily (quote:) “...worshiped it and made sacrifice to it...” The calf is a cultural god, a familiar god, a common god in that time and place. And it is, of course, a false god.
The problem with false gods, cultural gods, is they do not reflect any kind of true, accurate, deep or spiritual reality. On the other hand, what makes false gods so attractive, tenacious and even emotionally satisfying is they do reflect cultural reality.
So what I’m also suggesting is, from a Biblical perspective, a cultural god is, at best and most of the time, suspect. Why? Cultural gods point toward a “what,”— a calf for instance— not toward Who. Scripture points toward Who. God is Who.
God is, you see, the One with Whom we are in relationship. If we are in relationship with God we, by definition, trust God.
After all, what kind of relationship can we have with a calf, golden or otherwise? How can we trust a calf, golden or otherwise? And since we cannot trust false gods, when we worship false gods— and by the way we do worship false gods— that lack of trust produces one thing and one thing only— fear.
You see, the biggest calf, the most important and sinister calf for the Israelites and for us— the most important and sinister false god for the Israelites and for us and is the calf called fear. Indeed, why were the Israelites worshiping a golden calf? Fear— Moses, you see, had disappeared onto the mountain and they suddenly were worried their leader would not come back.
Thinking of Moses rather than of God as their leader led them down a path toward fear. And to make anyone— in this case Moses— more important than God is in fact to worship of a cultural god. This initial lack of trust in God eventually but always translates into fear. (Slight pause.)
Let me say two things about trust and love and how they intertwine. First, sometimes psychologists say the opposite of love is not hate but apathy— apathy— you don’t even care enough to hate. I want to suggest the opposite of love is neither hate nor is it apathy. The opposite of love is fear.
And if you read the newspapers or listen to media it should be obvious to you we live in a society wracked with fear. Fear is rampant in our culture. I think fear is rampant in our culture because we worship calves, false gods— a lot of them.
Indeed, the list of false gods in our culture is long one. The Bible, itself, is often a false God. Some people worship the Bible rather than God revealed therein.
And it’s easy to add to that list— sports, television, teams, politics, politicians, security— false gods all— I am sure you can each supply your own list of false gods. I don’t need to create one for you.
The second thing I need to say about love and trust is that love and rust are intertwined. You cannot love without trust. You cannot trust without love. (Slight pause.)
In the covenant promises of the wedding ceremony I use the partners promise to one another that they will love in each other what they already know and they will trust what they do not yet know. Love and trust— by definition intertwined.
All of which is to say, the real false god, the most prevalent false god in our world is fear. And there are a lot of people out there sending that message: you need to be afraid. And, of course, the real true God is love. My, what a novel idea— God is love. Amen.
09/11/2016
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch writer, a Christian who, along with her father and other family members, helped many Jews escape the Holocaust during World War II. Her most famous book is The Hiding Place. This is a quote from her writings. ‘Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.’”
BENEDICTION: Eternal God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our striving for justice and truth, to confront one another in love, and to work together with mutual patience, acceptance and respect. Send us out, sure in Your grace and Your peace with surpasses understanding, to live faithfully. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.
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