August 13, 2017 Birth of Esau and Jacob Genesis 25

If I asked you to bring to mind an image of a good Christian family I suspect your image would include: a mom and a dad (good looking and well-groomed), a couple clean-cut kids, a well-trained dog, and a nice house with a cared-for lawn.  They would be good, happy, content, and enjoying God’s blessings as a reward for their righteous living.

Contrast that image with the people we met in our reading from Genesis 25.  Actually let’s back up to chapters 23 and 24 which we skipped because I was on vacation last week.  Abraham’s wife Sarah dies at age 127.  Abraham buys a burial site for her and their family.  Abraham’s son to Sarah, Isaac, is forty years old, still living with his parents, and not married.  He seems incapable of dating relationships on his own because his still-living father sends a servant off to find Isaac a wife.  Abraham decides that the woman must not come from the local population, but must come from his own kindred.  So the servant goes off and finds Isaac’s first cousin, Bethuel.  Among Bethuel’s children is the young woman Rebekah.  Isaac hasn’t gone along on this trip but Rebekah consents to marry Isaac sight unseen.  So, Isaac marries his first-cousin’s daughter.

With Isaac finally out from under his feet Abraham remarries.  He’s at least 140 years old by now, but he fathers six more children!  Then, finally at age 175 Abraham dies.  You’ll remember that he sent his first-born son, Ishmael, and his mother off in the wilderness with just bread and some water.  Genesis 25:5-6 says, “Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.  But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.”

So, of all these kids only Isaac really gets anything from wealthy Abraham.  And with Abraham’s death Ishmael finally comes back on the scene.  All in all, this is not a happy family that gets together for a family reunion every couple years.

Are they looking like a “good Christian family”?

And it’s worse.  The children promised to Abraham still aren’t coming.  Like Sarah, Rebekah isn’t getting pregnant.  While she is undoubtedly much younger that Isaac, they’re still married for twenty years before she conceives.  To put a good light on all of this we do have Genesis 25:21 saying, “And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”

Yeah!  But not for long.  She has twins, and these are no ordinary twins.  They’re fighting with each other even within the womb!  As the story goes these two twins will be the founders of two nations, Israel and Edom.  The Israelites hated the Edomites.  Psalm 137:7,9 says, “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Raze it, raze it!  Down to its foundations!’  …Happy shall he be who takes your children and dashes them against the rock!” 

Ouch!  This is a sibling rivalry that begins in the womb.  While that may not be technically possible you get the idea.  These two boys will be at each other constantly.  They’re fighting to get out of the womb first too, as if somehow they know that birth order will determine who gets the most inheritance.  But birth order isn’t going to matter is it.

We’re reading the Jewish scriptures here, so we can expect a Jewish point of view of this international rivalry.  Esau, the father of the Edomites, is born first.  He should inherit the bigger portion.  But he sells his portion to his brother for a bowl of beans.  In a few weeks we’ll read about how Jacob swindles his brother out of his father’s blessing too.

            Of course there’s more.  We learn that Esau is the manly man.  He’s big, strong, and hairy.  He’s a hunter and spends time out in the field.  He’s his father’s favorite.  Jacob, by contrast, is a mama’s boy.  He stays inside.  This far in the story you can imagine him as simply dainty.  This will change in time.  And just as Jacob swindles his brother in the weeks to come we’ll see how Jacob himself also gets swindled.

            The point in all of this is this, these are the stories of the fathers of Judaism, and also the fathers of our faith.  Are these families anything at all like “good Christian families”?  No.  Not at all.  These stories are stories of seriously messed up families.  Our faith ancestors had problems.  They struggled.  They made plenty of mistakes.

            As I was doing research for this sermon I read a couple commentaries that sought to smooth over all the problems.  They came up with all sorts of twists and interpretations that said how Jacob’s struggles were godly and righteous while Esau was a short-sighted man driven purely by raw desire.  They said that Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah must have been God’s specific desire and that all the struggles these families faced were good vs. evil.  But I disagree, and most of the commentaries do too.

            This is purely and simply a seriously messed up family.  God did not choose the pure and perfect to work with.

            While I think we’d all love to have the lifestyle of the good Christian family, it is not an end unto itself.  True, if you build your life around the advice of books like Ephesians and Colossians you will be doing many things that will have your family looking ideal.  And there is certainly nothing wrong with seeking to be virtuous.  But when having the perfect family becomes an end unto itself you have a problem.

            Learn from the Bible.  God does not look down on the earth and smile at some people and choose them because they have a perfect life; while God frowns on those whose lives are a mess.  Jesus ran into this mentality when he conversed with the Pharisees.  They were certainly a group that thought God liked good people and rejected bad ones.  That’s why they were so critical of Jesus when he spent so much time with the bad people.  But Jesus said he came not to save the righteous but sinners.

            Now don’t leave today thinking that you’re going to become a manipulate and exploitative slob in society because it doesn’t matter.  No, but don’t think God loves messed up families any less than perfect ones.  All families have problems and make mistakes, and love and wants to work with all.

            Do not make having a perfect life an end unto itself.  It is not God’s will.  It is not winning God’s favor.  It is not making you more effective to do God’s work.  You’ll exhaust yourself with superficial appearances. 

What does God want?  You know the words from Micah 6:8, “… do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

            If you end up with the perfect family, great.  But you probably won’t.  As we’ve read about Abraham and as we continue to read about Isaac and Jacob we’re going to see people’s lives deeply rooted in trusting God.  Ultimately God’s will is done, even when life isn’t simple.    May you live as God would have you live.  And may you enjoy God’s blessings.  And may you know the safety and satisfaction of being God’s people.  

God's Covenant with Abram

July 2, 2017     Covenant with Abram             Genesis 15

            An elderly lady was well known for her faith and her boldness in proclaiming it.  She would stand on her front porch and proclaim, “Praise the Lord!”

            Next door lived an atheist who got angry at her proclamations.  He would shout back, “There is no God!”

            Hard times came upon the elderly lady.  She prayed to God for assistance.  She stood on her front porch and proclaimed, “Praise the Lord.  God I need some food.  I’m having a hard time.  Please Lord, send me some groceries!”

            The next morning the woman walked out on her front porch and noticed a large bag of groceries sitting there.  She proclaimed, “Praise the Lord!  He sent me groceries!”

            The neighbor jumped from behind the porch and said, “Aha!  I told you there was no Lord.  I bought those groceries and put them there myself!”

            The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands in excitement, “Praise the Lord!” she said, “Not only did he send me groceries, he made the devil pay for them!”

            This little joke shows the many twists and turns faith can take.  Our Bible reading from Genesis 15 says of Abram, “And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  From one point of view faith and belief are a very simple straightforward thing.  Simply believe and trust God and that’s all there is to it.

From another point of view it gets very complicated.  Citing this same verse from Genesis we have Paul writing in Romans 4:3, “’Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’  Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.  But to one who without works trusts him how justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.”

And then citing the exact same verse we get the opposite in James, “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works.  Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called the friend of God.  You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

If that didn’t all make sense to you that’s okay, because Romans and James outright contradict each other.  There’s also the blatant contradiction between the disciples when they see the resurrected Jesus in Matthew 28:16, “When they saw [Jesus] the worshipped him but doubted,” and James 1:6, “…for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

What a mess!  And this is the core of our relationship with God and that which we hang our hopes for eternal life! 

Many people think they have wiggled through this miry bog by saying that God loves everyone and invites everyone to have a life of faith.  Each person then has a choice whether to accept God’s love or not.  Those who accept it are then in right relationship with God and are saved.  Those who don’t… well, some say they are damned.  Some say they don’t know.  Some say they just don’t want to think about it.

Whatever the case, this is a very common way to understand faith.  It seems to wiggle through the complications.  It seems to work.  And it does work well; at least it works well for people who are basically prosperous and whose lives are relatively orderly.  This works well for people who have encountered problems in life and then by their own strength or daring or intelligence manage to find a way to work through the problems and come out okay.

But when an uncontrollable crisis happens this understanding of faith starts to crumble.  And for those who are perpetually desperate, needy, hopeless and helpless, this understanding of faith is completely worthless.  James 2:15-26 says, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and if one of you says to them, ‘Good, in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” 

Or a similar twist that is all too common, “If you had enough faith God would help you.”  Try telling that to Syrian Christian refugees fleeing their country who drown in the Mediterranean Sea because in the policies of international politics no one would take them.

No, the idea that God loves you and if you accept it that is faith and God will help you just doesn’t cut it.  Jesus was crucified.  Almost all the disciples were martyred.  St. Paul withstood untold persecutions and hardships and was executed in the end anyway, all for his faithfulness.

Let’s turn back to Abram and look at him again to see what all these other writers are talking about.  Abram’s faith was not a matter of simple belief.  It was an ongoing relationship with God.  Last week we read about the time God called Abram to uproot and move in his old age.  Abram did so.  Along the way there were problems.  Sometimes Abram did things that fit with the will of God.  Sometimes Abram’s fears got the best of him and he messed up. 

We see Abram with questions and doubts in what we read today.  He knows God’s promises of many offspring who will inhabit the Promised Land.  But Abram has no children.  In his doubts of God’s promises he has a plan that Eliezer of Damascus will be his heir.  God says no, he will not be your heir.  Your own biological child will be you heir.  Abram says prove it.  So God tells him to do these strange things with animals, cutting them in two and laying them against each other.  At least it seems strange to us.  But in those days that was the equivalent of sitting down with your lawyer to buy a piece of property, or some other act.  Perhaps it was the equivalent of getting something notarized.  Anyway, Abram has a deep and terrifying sleep.  He has dreams and visions and it’s not entirely clear from the text what actually happened and what was a dream.  Whatever the case, it was an intense encounter with God.

Next week we’re going to look at the birth of Ishmael, the son Abram has to his wife’s slave.  We’ll see there that Abram has taken the matter into his own hands.  While he seems to trust God he’s also going on his own.  The point is that Abram’s faith is not one of simply believing and trusting God with absolute perfection and therefore everything always turns out okay in the end.  No, as we read through the life of Abram we’re going to discover the true nature of his faith, this faith the New Testament authors cite so often. 

Abram wasn’t perfect.  His belief wasn’t perfect either.  But what we see between God and Abram is a relationship building.  God has chosen Abram.  Abram accepts it.  God sends Abram.  Abram goes.  God makes promises to Abram.  They aren’t fulfilled.  Abram makes mistakes.  God forgives him.  Abram takes matters into his own hands, but he is still open to God’s will.  Back and forth it goes.

I think our Lord Jesus gave us the best image to use for faith, and that is of God as Father and us as children.   While not everyone has had a good father or even good parents, you can still get the idea.  Jesus calls his followers his family.  Like in any family there will be celebrations.  There will be sorrows.  There will be successes and failures, broken trust, and relationships restored.  The point is that a healthy family is a robust thing.  It is not fragile.  It is not weak.  That is a relationship of faith.

To be true, God does not come to us in the ways we often want.  The clouds do not spell out messages.  Angels don’t come with proclamations.  Voices don’t boom down from the sky.  But God does come to us in many ways, and we are wise to make use of them, for they are how faith is built.

The Bible is always available to us.  We can read it to receive the word of God anytime.  I know parts of it are confusing and vast sections are boring.  So just focus on the gospels if you want.  Many people have called the Gospel of John the Bible in miniature.

There is prayer, a constantly available and direct way to speak to God.  And while it can take some discipline, a quieted mind can often perceive God’s will.

We do not go through life alone.  We have the community of the church with other believers.  We are wise to keep it strong and healthy.  Plus there are Bible studies and small groups for projects socializing or whatever – community with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It can only give to us as much as we invest in it.

And finally of course are the sacraments – God’s promised ways to be with us.  Baptism and communion are ways we feel and touch and even smell and taste God’s promises.  They are where the relationship of faith is restored and rebuilt.

What is faith?  You’ve heard me say this before.  It is a relationship of trust with God.  Abram had it.  Many of our ancestors had it.  We have it too.  Make we set our live course and make choices that strengthen our faith and the faith of those around us.

The Spirit and Community

June 4, 2017    Day of Pentecost                                 Acts 2:1-21

It’s interesting as we began reading through Genesis a few weeks ago that we’ve found those stories aren’t to be limited to a literal historical level but actually speak at a number of levels.  There are deliberate contrasts and contradictions and structures all over the place.

For Confirmation and the Pentecost holiday we’ve returned to the normal lectionary texts, but we find the same sort of thing here.  We read two different accounts of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples.  In Acts we have the famous scene of the Spirit coming in dramatic form with wind and fire and speaking in tongues.  Then in John’s gospel we have a much quieter scene, the resurrected Jesus simply breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Of course it is easy to synchronize these texts, saying that both happened and one was quieter and more private while the other was noisy and public.  But let’s not rush down that road too fast.

A couple weeks ago when I was with my colleagues as we regularly gather to look over the Bible readings for the coming Sundays my one colleague admitted, “I have a hard time literally believing the Acts text about Pentecost.”  Perhaps you’re shocked to hear this kind of question from among pastors, but it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time.  And it can be good to admit such skepticism.

It is good to admit such skepticism because it is the truth of what is in our hearts.  How often have you heard the rush of a mighty wind combined with speaking in other languages and tongues of fire appearing on people’s heads?  (Actually, don’t answer that because it probably means you should be enrolled in a drug rehab program!)

The truth is, it doesn’t happen.  As for what really happened that day centuries ago when the followers of Jesus were gathered to celebrate the Jewish harvest festival of Pentecost, there is no way to say.  You can neither prove nor disprove the story in Acts.  But what is for certain is that something happened.  Something happened that this bunch of uneducated nobodies began to effectively spread the word of God’s love through Jesus.  Somehow this troubled bunch, all of whom fled at Jesus arrest, began to become more bold and powerful in their faith.  And almost all of them were martyred for it.

People aren’t willing to be martyred for a lie.  Their faith was not a lie, nor was their experience of the risen Jesus.  Many skeptics have suggested that.

No, something very real happened in their lives.  And on this Pentecost Sunday we realize the same things happen in our lives.  Sometimes it feels like God is close and we are powerful and capable.  Anything is possible.  And sometimes it feels like God is distant and we are abandoned.  Sometimes the quiet, almost insignificant, coming of the Holy Spirit as it does in John’s gospel is far more reflective of our lives.

Today we celebrate the Rite of Confirmation.  Several of our youth have completed the educational and experiential requirements of the confirmation program and they are ready to make public affirmation of their baptisms.  I would be lying to them if I said that when I lay my hands on them they will feel a sudden jolt of energy that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.  No, I doubt that will happen.  The Spirit does not work in that way.  God usually works in smaller, quieter ways.

They should not expect their lives of faith to be one great event after another.  And they should not sit around waiting for signs from God in the form of massive sounds or tongues of fire or dramatic events.  Much more like John’s gospel describes it, it will be a gentle nudge, a small decision, a pattern of small choices that set the direction of life that will be the working of the Spirit.

If this were a commencement speech it would be typical to say, “Go out and use your powers to change the world!”  But this is not a commencement speech.  It is a sermon on Pentecost.  And we find ourselves saying take time to listen to the Spirit.  Listen to your heart.  And when there is a choice between what is easy and what is right always choose what is right.  A life of faith is not about dramatic moments.  It is about small daily decisions made in the knowledge of being a child of God.

Our faith faces many challenges every day.  In saying this I think I am getting at the biggest one.  Faith is not seriously troubled by science.  It is not seriously disrupted by bad news or overt evil.  It is challenged by small, subtle things; seemingly insignificant things.

I think the biggest challenge the faith of our confirmands will face today is the same challenge we all face, no matter what age we are.  That challenge can be summed up in the word, “affluenza.” 

Having safety and comforts sounds like a great thing, and of course it is in many ways.  But it also has its downfalls.  Jesus repeatedly warned the wealthy not to trust in their wealth, for their wealth gave them an artificial sense of security.

Today with our affluence we have the option of being in community with each other, or not.  That is not the case for everyone, and certainly not in our past.

I like to use the example of the rural farming area in which I grew up.  When I was a kid I would hear stories from old farmers about how they used to cooperate, because they had too.  No one farmer was big enough or wealthy enough to own his own complete fleet of farm machinery.  No, one farmer would own a bailer.  Another would own a combine.  Yet another would own a corn picker.  My one grandfather used to barter his corn picker in exchange for having his hay bailed and his small grains harvested.

We plant a lot of potatoes in our garden project every year.  We put 150 pounds of seed potatoes in just two weeks ago.  We buy the seed potatoes every year and we have a number of varieties to choose from.  I remember my grandfather talking about how neighbors used to trade seed potatoes with each other.  It kept up genetic diversity and led to a better harvest for all.  They cooperated because they had to.  Community was not an option for them.  They had to get along, or figure out how to get along despite their differences.

Of course we have community today too.  There is community around us in our neighborhoods.  Community at school.  Community at work.  Community among all the parents sitting on the sidelines of their kids sporting events.  But all of this community is voluntary.  It is transitory.  It is not essential.  We can opt in our opt out at we choose.

Christianity is rooted in real and deep community.  It is rooted in a community of people who recognize their need for God’s presence and a desire to share in God’s work.  But affluent people don’t need that.  It is no wonder churches struggle to evangelize today, although many people try to figure it out.  It is simply that we don’t need each other.  We can afford to be separate.  That lack of necessity can be our downfall.

The biggest challenge to faith is that we don’t need it.  We can turn to God and turn to our baptismal vows and think, “I’m good.  I got this God.  I don’t need you.”  And we can fool ourselves into thinking it is true.  But we are not trusting God.  We are trusting in ourselves; ultimately a very shaky thing to trust in.

If you wait until you’re in over your head to turn to God, well then it’s too late.  Plus you’ve missed the joy along the way.
            The often quiet voice of the Spirit is powerful.  It is moving and shaping the world as we speak.  And it is inviting us to be a part of its work.  Let us not lose sight of that, and instead find joy in its presence.  May God give us all the faith to know what we need, and the faith to know where to find it.

Things Get Worse Fast - Cain and Abel

May 28, 2017              7^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 4

            One day Adam was walking along with his sons Cain and Abel.  They came across the ruins of the Garden of Eden.  His sons asked, “Dad, what is that place?”  And Adam replied, “That boys, is where your mother ate us out of house and home.”

            It’s a silly quip but it points to just how fast things fall apart for us humans.  In one scene Adam and Eve get expelled from the garden.  In the very next scene we have the first murder.

            Biblical scholars don’t know what exactly how to interpret the story of Cain and Abel.  What was wrong with Cain’s offering?  Did he have the wrong attitude?  Was his offering given grudgingly while Abel’s was willingly?  If Abel was a herder and Cain was a farmer is this the first instance of battle between farmers and ranchers?

            Most of them realize that these are the wrong questions to ask the text.  It wants us to come at it from a different direction.  But before we get to that, let’s note that this is the first story we’ve encountered in Genesis that is actually just a straightforward story.  As far as I can tell there’s no symmetry, and no patterns, and nothing fancy.  However, interpreting it from the direction the author intended does tell us how to interpret the whole of Genesis.

            If you were here last week you may remember that the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, form a literary structure of nested parallels.  Like those little Russian dolls that fit one inside another and inside another and another until you can barely believe there’s something left in the middle.

            So it is with Genesis through Deuteronomy.  Jews call these books the Torah and they are the heart of Jewish scripture.  The rest of the prophets, the psalms, proverbs and all the other stories are secondary.  And what is the core of the Torah?  Leviticus 16 where God gives Moses instructions for the Day of Atonement.  These were instructions for how people were to be restored to right relationship with God – or returning to at-one-ment with God.

            I suggest you use that as a lens to interpret everything you read in Genesis through Deuteronomy.  I don’t promise that everything will make perfect sense if you do that.  But you will pick up on the overarching theme of how to be in right relationship with God.

            The story of Cain and Abel is not about the two brothers so much as it’s about God.  It is about what God does and how God acts in light of human brokenness.

            You know the story.  As the story goes Cain is the firstborn, the first human to actually come about by birth.  Adam and Eve are crafted by God.  Cain can point to who is father and mother are.  Let your mind dwell on that thought for a moment.  God has instructed Adam and Eve to populate the world.  Their offspring are the height of creativity.  Adam and Eve are the first ones given the power to create beings in the image of God.  From the story’s perspective it is quite an honor.

But is Cain going to live in an honorable way?  The first thing we learn about this man is that he is a farmer.  The second thing we learn about him is that he makes an offering to God from what he has raised.  The third thing we learn is that he is jealous of God’s preference to his younger brother.  And of course the fourth thing is that he kills his brother.  So much for human creativity!  As the story goes Cain is not only a murderer, he brings about the first death ever. 

Now let’s look at it from the point of view of God’s actions.  When Adam and Eve mess up does God kill them – the punishment they are supposed to receive for their disobedience?  No. 

I was never a good sculptor.  In art class I groaned every time the teacher brought out the clay.  Oh, it was fun to squish it around and make shapes, but my talents were at their limits when I made a snake.  That’s about all the more complicated I could get.  Everything I ever tried to do ended up a non-descript lump.  Or a few times I did actually make something it usually collapsed.

Of course the good thing about clay is that when you mess up you can smash it and start over.  But easy as that is, does God do that with Adam and Eve?  Why not just smash these two messed up lumps of clay and start over?  Keep trying until you get it right and have something worthwhile!

But that is not what God does.  God does not kill them.  God is merciful and lets these messed up lumps of clay live.  It is Cain, a human, who exercises the power that causes death first. 

If I was in art class and I finally came up with a clay sculpture that looked like something and didn’t collapse under its own weight and then someone else came along and smashed it, I would not be a happy camper!  I’m not sure what I’d do, but it might involve taking my clay and making a highly accurate impression of the person’s face with it!

Is that what God does?  Does God then smash Cain?  No, God is merciful once again.

We’re going to discover that as we read through Genesis.  God is merciful over and over again.  I know it is easy to look at the Bible and think that the Old Testament is all about God being wrathful and the New Testament is about God being gracious, but not so.  The Old Testament is full of God’s mercy and grace too.

Now, does God say, “It’s alright Cain.  I know you were jealous.  You acted in fear and ignorance.  I forgive you.  Let’s try again.”  No.  There are consequences, there is accountability.  God tells Cain, “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

And there is also mercy.  When Cain says, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!  Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive an a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”

The story goes on to say that God puts a mark on Cain for his safety.  I wouldn’t spend too much time thinking about what this sort of mark would be.  The idea is that God provides protection for Cain.

We find again this story lacks credibility.  For by the story line there are only Adam, Eve and Cain at this point, yet Cain is worried about non-existent people killing him.  But as before, do not take these stories as literal historical accounts.  They never were intended to be.  They are intended to teach you about God and being in relationship with God.

So, what do you learn?  If you mess up, even messing up really big time, like deliberately killing another person who is created in the image of God, God responds.  God responds with both mercy and accountability.  If there weren’t accountability God would be nothing but a big puff ball.  Evil would run rampant.  God brings about accountability but the final word is mercy.  God does not kill Cain for his sins either.  God acts mercifully to him and even provides for his protection.

In your life of faith may you find God’s mercy.  And when accountability comes may you learn from it so as not to repeat mistakes.  Ultimately God does desire to gather us all up into his kingdom where the brokenness and sin and evil will be no more.  When we can be united and fully be as God intended always.

God Creativity - Near and Far

May 14, 2017              5^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 2:14-25

            Last Monday the radio talk show by WXXI, Connections with Evan Dawson, featured a debate over faith and science.  Guests were Dan Courtney, an atheist activist in Rochester and The Rev. Eric Thompson, pastor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Dansville.  Overall I felt the conversation went poorly, and it started off with the question that to have faith, or to believe something without (or in spite of) evidence, do we risk raising kids to be poor reasoners?   Dan Courtney agreed whole heartedly.  Rev. Thompson had a very articulate defense.  He made a number of points that I found myself thinking, “I wish I could come up with stuff like that!”  And yet when all was said and done I felt like Rev. Thompson was apologizing for faith and the Bible in light of the scientific method; essentially conceding that it is a product of the limited world view of ancient people. 

I say use the scientific method in the natural sciences.  And use the scientific method in your faith, especially in Bible study.  The Bible is a tough old book.  It can take anything and everything you want to throw at it.  Please, I beg you, please use the scientific method in your scripture studies, because along the way you’re sure to uncover many profound truths.

In a few weeks we’ll get to the Noah’s Ark story in Genesis.  I think that will be a good point to show a full behind the scenes view of the creation of the book of Genesis.  But for today, let’s use some scientific thought processes to open this writing to something more than its surface depth.

Last week we looked at Genesis 1.  It is the famous creation in six days account that sparks the evolution vs. creation debates.  Why people insist on Genesis 1 giving science is beyond me.  It is written in a poetic form and it lacks internal consistency, but people overlook those facts and insist on literal interpretation.  Then many people with good intentions unknowingly compound those mistakes by thinking Genesis 2, where we meet Adam and Eve, is a detailed continuation of Genesis 1.  But it isn’t.  Genesis 2 is an entirely different account of creation. 

If we open our minds we don’t have to get far into it to pick up that we’re in a different story.  Forget using fancy literary critical methods, the text tells us straight off:  How many days does creation take in Genesis 2?  One day.  Verse 4b reads, “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…”  Then there’s the fact that things are created in a different order.

In Genesis 1 God creates land and seas, then plants, animals, and finally humans.  What is the order of Genesis 2?  God forms man, “Adam”, which means of dust, or of earth.  Perhaps we could call him Earthling or Earth Dweller.  Then God plants a garden in the east, in Eden.  Then God creates animals.  Finally, since this is Mother’s Day I’ll say, “Saving the best for last,” God creates a woman, or Eve.  Eve literally means “womb”.

So, the order of creation in Genesis 1 and its timeframe cannot be synchronized with Genesis 2.  Many people look at this and come to a very logical, but erroneous, conclusion.  Their logical, but erroneous, conclusion is that the author of Genesis is an idiot.

This is where you need to employ your critical thought processes rather than start apologizing for the Bible.  When we get to the Noah’s Ark story we’re going to see clear evidence that Genesis is not the work of one author.  It is a composite work by at least three authors.

When we read Matthew’s gospel I said repeatedly that we were reading the work of someone trained in the teaching techniques of the ancient Hebrews.  We discovered the ancient Hebrews often wrote with complex structures and patterns.  We also discovered that the ancient Hebrews would use contradictions in order to teach a deeper truth.

It goes without saying that Genesis comes from the ancient Hebrews.  We should expect to find the same techniques employed there too.  Next week I’ll show you that the entire Garden of Eden story is not a linear storyline but actually symmetrical; a collection of nested parallels.

Make no mistake.  The creator of Genesis was not an idiot!  He was brilliant.  And I believe God was inspiring him to share God’s actions in creation.  But how to do it?  He’s going to do it the way he knows how.  He clearly and deliberately put Genesis 1 and 2 side by side.  I know full well they contradict each other.  The creator of Genesis knew that too!  But he knew we needed both if we’re going to grasp God’s creative work.

 Take Genesis 1.  You find that God is this majestic and powerful creator.  God speaks.  Things happen on a cosmic scale.  God is big.  God is bigger than big!  Have you ever stared up at the stars on a cloudless night and been in awe of how big it all is?  Does it make you feel tiny and insignificant?  Leave Genesis 1 as the only account of God’s creative activity and we are left with a cold, distant, and impersonal God.  We are left seeing God as imperious and demanding, and we are but a speck of insignificance.

Enter Genesis 2.  Does God speak from a cosmic distance and command?  No.  If you can, vividly picture Genesis 2:7.  “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground…”  I imagine God kneeling down in the dirt and with God’s own hands deliberately and caringly shaping a man from the dirt.  Verse 7 continues, “…and [God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Can you feel how close, personal and intimate this portrayal of God is?  God might be big and vast and cosmic.  But God carefully and deliberately crafted you.  And God crafted the person sitting beside you too.

God does not leave this human in a vast desolate earth.  God plants a garden.  God puts the man in the garden.  God sees that man is lonely and so God seeks to create a community for the man.  In partnership with the man God crafts all the creatures and names them.  None of them suffice for partnership.  So God also crafts another human, a woman.  And God, the man, and the woman share community in the garden.

I love scientific thought and exploring the origins of things.  As I said last week, don’t try to force Genesis to give you science.  You’re asking it to give you nonsense.  But it will give you truth that you need.  Science can’t tell you that you’re worthwhile.  Science can’t tell you that someone cares.

Genesis 1 teaches that God is majestic and powerful.  Genesis 2 teaches that God is careful, personal and loving.

Other biblical authors knew of the contrast between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.  What are the first words of Genesis?  You know them well: “In the beginning…”  What are the first words of the Gospel of John?  “In the beginning…”  And then John goes on to describe the God we discover in Genesis 1:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”

Now let’s swing to John’s account of the resurrection, close to the end of the gospel.  We read it as our gospel reading.  What was the setting?  A garden.  And we meet a man who is mistaken for the gardener.  And we meet a woman, a woman with a dubious past.

You know the story of Adam and Eve.  They mess up and God the gardener chucks them out of the garden.  It is no mistake on John’s part that, as he describes the resurrection, the garden is back.  The gardener is back too.  And this time, the woman with a messed up past is not chucked out.  Did she earn her way back into the garden?  Nope.  The gardener earned the way back for her.

I feel like a broken record as I repeat it, but the biblical authors aren’t idiots.  They’re brilliant.  Our problem is to let them speak on their terms, rather than demanding they speak on our terms.

When left to speak on their terms their voices are clear, powerful, and coherent.  And you are wise to use logic and rational thinking to meet them there.  God is big – Genesis 1.  God is tender and caring – Genesis 2.  God is forgiving – John 20.  Our ancestors messed up.  We mess up too.  But by Christ we are invited back in the garden anyway, only as a foretaste now, the fullness will come in the resurrection.  And along the way God’s Spirit is always with us.  

Creation Accounts on Their Own Terms

May 7, 2017    4^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 1:1-2:4a

            As you may know there are lots of things that happened that didn’t make it into the Bible.  Here’s something about creation that didn’t:

God created the donkey and told him: you will work tireless from sun up to sun down, carrying heavy bags on your back, you'll eat grass, you will not have intelligence and you will live 50 years. You will be a DONKEY!
      
      The donkey answered: I'll be a donkey, but living 50 years is too much, give me only 20 years. And God gave him 20 years.
      
      God created the dog and told him: You will look after the man's house, you will be his best friend, you will eat whatever they give you and you will live 25 years. You will be a DOG!
      
      The dog answered: God, living 25 years is too much, give only 10. God gave him 10 years.
      
      God created the monkey and told him: You will jump from branch to branch, you will do silly things, you will be amusing and you will live 20 years.
      
      The monkey answered: God, living 20 years is too much, give me only 10 years. And God agreed.
      
      Finally, God created man, and told him: You will be Man, the only rational being on this earth, you will use your intelligence to control other animals, you will dominate the world and you will live for 20 years.
      
      The man answered: God, I'll be man, but living 20 years is not enough, why don't you give me the 30 years that the donkey refused, the 20 years that the dog did not want and the 10 years that the monkey refused.
      
      That was what God did, and since then, Men live 20 years like a man, then he enters adulthood and spends 30 years like a donkey, working and carrying the load on his back, then when his children leave home, spends 15 years like a dog, looking after the house and eating whatever is given to him, then he gets into retirement, and spends 10 years like a monkey, jumping from house to house or from children to children, doing silly things to amuse the grandchildren.

Of course the creation account of Genesis 1 is far more serious and significant than that.  If ever a part of the Bible caused Christians serious problems in recent decades it is Genesis 1.  All too often it creates debates of creation vs. evolution.  Some Christians insist that God created the world in 6 days just like Genesis 1 literally says.  At the other extreme are scientifically minded skeptics who say Genesis 1 is a creation myth from the ignorant past, and anyone who believes its truth is laughably stupid.

            Of course there are many in between who attempt to reconcile the extremes.  They point out that Genesis 1 does go from greater chaos to more and more order, just like evolution.  They say that days don’t have to be taken as literal time periods, but they can be any length of time.

            Indeed this approach has its appeals, but as for me I reject both extremes and the middle!  To think it is literally true is to insult your intelligence.  At the other extreme, if you chalk this up as just a creation myth from the ancient world you do so at your own peril.  And if you take the appealing middle of the road approach you rob this story of its profound meaning and what it reveals about God and the world you live in.

            Never try to take a literal approach to Genesis 1.  Don’t do it because the text doesn’t want you to!  Notice it lacks internal logic.  There is light and darkness, days and nights, but the sun and moon aren’t created until Day 4.  I’ve seen footnotes in Bibles trying to wiggle out of this, but their arguments are nonsense.  And then there is the bigger logical problem of Genesis 2.  Genesis 2 is a different creation account which contradicts Genesis 1 in many places.  The biggest one is that in Genesis 1 it takes six days.  In Genesis 2 creation takes one day.

            We’re going to look at Genesis 2 next week, but for today just note that the creator of the book of Genesis was not blind to the fact that he put two contradictory stories side by side!  As we read through Genesis we’re going to discover that it is a finely and expertly crafted piece of literature.  The author wasn’t ignorant and he didn’t make mistakes.

            I say we need to let Genesis 1 speak on its own terms, not someone else’s.  We can’t use it to support our agenda.  It wants to create our agenda.

            What is it then?  It is an ancient Hebrew account of God’s power and activities.  It teaches you about God, about yourself, and about how you are to live in creation.  Learn from it and you will be blessed.  Balk against it and you will suffer.

            It is impossible to know this for sure, but the best a scientific study of the Bible can tell you is that Genesis 1 was probably created by a Jewish priest some 2600 years ago.  Unfortunately we do not have time to look at creation accounts from other middle eastern religions at the same time period.  If we did though, we’d discover the backdrop of thought this text is speaking to.

            Other cultures say there are multiple gods.  Other cultures have good gods and bad gods.  Some gods make mistakes.  Some do stupid and destructive things.  There are all sorts of mythical creatures and tales. 

What is the truth that Genesis 1 points to? 

-There is one God and only one God. 

-When this one God speaks things happen.  You know the phrase, “Talk is cheap”?  Well not with our God.  God’s word delivers results.

-What God creates is deliberate, thoughtful, and good.  Genesis 1 is in poetic form.  That’s why we read it the way we did.  You’ll notice the refrain after each day, “And God saw that it was good.”

-Another truth is that it is God who creates order out of chaos.  If you follow astrophysics and creation sciences you may have heard the phrase, “goldilocks conditions.”  The idea is that in an infinite universe there will be places where it is neither too hot nor too cold – things are just right – and in those places molecules can cluster and energy can become concentrated, and if things get even more perfect there can be complex chemical reactions and maybe even complex enough to be called life.

            I say that is pure nonsense!  I don’t say that from a faith point of view I say that from a scientific point of view.  I’ll never forget my college thermodynamics professor saying, “We let the biologists have their little creation myths, but we know it can’t work.”  In the natural world things always go from forms of higher order and energy to lower forms of energy and order.  Never ever the other way around.

            Where there is order and concentrated energy there is the creative hand of God at work… always.  The author of Genesis 1 recognized that.

-Genesis 1 warns us that if you mess with God’s created order you do so at your own risk.  Even very simply, you know never to mix bleach with ammonia.  It gives off a poisonous gas.  Ruth Halvorson told me that Knute would often come home from working in quarries and excavation sites and his clothes were filthy and stained.  She’d dump bleach and ammonia together in the washing machine to get the dirt out.  She did it because it worked.  When she told me that I looked aghast and said she’s lucky she didn’t kill herself and Knute.  She said when she found out she immediately stopped, but she didn’t know.

            Bleach and ammonia are a simple mix, but it speaks to much larger issues.  I grew up at the edge of anthracite coal mining territory.  Don’t process mine waste properly and you have an environmental disaster on your hands.  Handle radioactive materials wrongly and you’ve got an even bigger mess on your hands.

            God created a certain order to things.  We are smart creatures and can tinker with God’s created order.  That’s okay, but we must use care lest we unleash a disaster of chaos.

            I could go on and on about what Genesis 1 teaches but I want to end with one more thing.

            In Genesis 1 God creates in six days.  Then God rests.  If God rests we need to too.  If we live life working constantly and rushing from place to place we’ll burn out fast.  Rest is important.  It is in the created order of things.

            And along with that.  God creates in six days.  God rests on the seventh.  What does God do on the eighth?  God goes right back to the creative process.  God’s creative work continues even into today.

            Genesis 1 wants you to look at the world around you in awe and wonder.  God is so big that even the forces of nature obey him.  Everywhere you look, from your own body to the farthest of stars, you see the fingerprint of God’s action.

            Reject Genesis 1 and you’re living in a cold heartless universe.  Accept it and discover that God invites you to be a part of his creative enterprise.  Be bold, but be careful.  Genesis 1 tells you to enjoy creation and be in awe of God.

            Unshackle Genesis 1 from the creation vs. evolution debate we humans have bogged it down in and let it make your imagination soar; as it was intended to do.

            The universe is big.  Your God is bigger. 

The Great Commission

April 30, 2017             3rd Sunday of Easter   Matthew 28:16-20

            Here we are, the end of Matthew’s gospel.  We’ve read all the way through.  These five short verses a jam packed with key words.  They pull together just about every major theme in the gospel, and they point us to what we should do now that we’re here.

            Verse 16 starts off with some very basic math.  The eleven disciples…  We know there used to be twelve.  We’re down by one.  In Chapter 27, the climax of the gospel that we read on Good Friday, we learn that Judas kills himself.  His remorse is too great.  He goes to the religious leaders to return the money but they reject him.  It’s impossible to get inside the mind of Judas, but imagine the desperate depression of seeing that a friend is going to be executed wrongly.  You had a hand in it.  You try to undo your mistake but it is too late.  You turn to your faith but the religious leaders reject you.  What Judas does is not defendable, but he was in a situation where it felt like the whole world was crashing in on him.

            Judas wasn’t the only disciple who failed.  In 26:35 all of the eleven other disciples promised they would never desert Jesus.  Peter was the most vehement of them.  Yet every last one of them fled at Jesus arrest.  But before that they all fall asleep while Jesus is praying and greatly agitated.  After they flee Peter does manage to pluck up enough courage to follow at a distance, but you know the story well.  He denies that he even knows Jesus three times over before the rooster crows.

            Put yourself in the situation of Matthew’s original readers.  Times are tough and many are persecuted for their Christian faith.  It’s not at all unusual for someone to renounce their faith in fear or pain.  It is good for them to know that even Jesus’ closest disciples also failed.

            Then look at what the eleven do in contrast to Judas.  Despite their failings they obey Jesus.  He tells them to meet them on a mountain in Galilee and so indeed they do.  Jesus doesn’t condemn them for their failures, but accepts them and we’ll see in a couple minutes that he even empowers them.

            But first, there is what I think is a translation mistake.  That mistake has a huge impact on how we understand Matthew’s entire gospel.  Our English reads, “When they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted.”  There’s no word “some” in the original Greek.  So it should read, “When they saw him they worshipped him but doubted.”  All of them worshipped, and all of them doubted.  The resurrected Lord is there right in front of them: real, solid, tangible; yet they doubt!

            The whole scene with the disciples is shaky.  They’re struggling to understand.  They’re struggling with their forgiveness.  And they’re struggling with their beliefs.  Matthews wants us to know that doubts go hand and hand with faith.  All too often I’ve heard pastors proclaim that if you believe thoroughly enough and have absolutely no doubts then your faith will be stronger.  Then you’ll be able to pray with certainty.  Then you’ll know God better.  But all of this ignores the truth Matthew presents.  While he wants faith to win the day he knows that doubts are going to be part and parcel with it.  Ultimately Matthew teaches that the opposite of faith is fear, not doubt.  And while a certain amount of fear is healthy, fear can lead to paralysis.  That is what Matthew wants to avoid.

            So, despite the disciples numerous shortcomings Jesus gives them what we call the “Great Commission:  “All authority…”  Remember back to the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.  What does the Satan say to Jesus, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (4:9)  But look who really has authority now!  And again, consider Matthew’s original readers in their lives of persecution.  If all authority has been given to Jesus then they need not fear anything else claiming to have authority.

            Anyway, moving on: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

            This shaky bunch of eleven disciples fresh from their failures is commissioned to spread the gospel throughout the world.  How could Jesus entrust something so important to a bunch of so woefully unqualified people?!?  If it were me I’d do a marketing study first – who am I trying to reach, how do they think, what will I have to do to connect with them?  Then I’d form a search committee of industry experts.  They’d scour the land, maybe employ ‘head hunters’, to identify and recruit potential candidates.  Then I’d interview them.  I’d see if I liked them and if they fit with my ideals.  Then I’d offer contracts and we’d negotiate.  They’d need to be relocated too. 

            But that’s not what Jesus does: fishermen, a tax collector, and a bunch of other ordinary tradesmen are the people he trusts.

            There’s no way to prove the authenticity of Christianity, but with this bunch there is no logical reason why Christianity should have survived if it weren’t for the serious support and ongoing nourishment of the Holy Spirit.  Judaism was started with a nation.  Islam was started by a charismatic leader and an army.  Buddhism was begun by a wealthy aristocrat.  Christianity?  One itinerant preacher and eleven first-century nobodies.

            At the end of the Great Commission Jesus promises the key thing, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  More closely translated it is, “Behold, I with you, I Am, to the end of the age.”  Of course “I Am” is the name of God.  So, I Am is with you until the completion is with you.

            This is good news for the first people who read Matthew’s gospel.  In their fearful state of persecution they know that Jesus is with them always.  They need not fear.  They also can be bold to spread the gospel in the uncertain world around them.

This is also good news for us.  The Great Commission has never really been easy to fulfill.  It has always been challenging.  And it is growing harder every day.  Though we aren’t persecuted for our faith, the world around us is certainly uncertain.

At the church council retreat a few weeks ago we talked a lot about the future and direction of this church.  We noted the difficulty of engaging the Millennial Generation in church activities.  This generation often identifies itself as spiritual but not religious.  Some find Christian faith to be an outright turnoff.  Many find Christian faith to be an interesting faith expression, but not something to commit to; certainly not the core commitment to build life around. 

At best we could say that evangelism in America today is trying to present Christian faith in the least offensive light.  There seems to be no interest in its strengths, and no willingness to make a significant long-term commitment.  For those who love the church and want to see it flourish in the future, the future looks bleak.

But let’s take a lesson from our Lord in Matthew’s gospel.  We’re no better equipped to evangelize in this world than the original disciples were.  But we do it anyway.  The Church is God’s; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  God is with us always, until God brings all things to completion.  And so we should not fear the future.  We should not worry about the Church.  God will do what God wants to get done.  Our job is the same as the disciples – to always authentically let the love of God show in our lives.  Sometimes that’s easy.  Sometimes it’s hard.  Our job is to share.  God’s job is to do the rest.

            So, I’ll end with Matthew’s final words from Jesus, “Go therefore to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you to the end of the age.